[KS] korean studies at the university of california in jeopardy

[Mark Peterson]

	My response is much like Mike's.  Berkeley has taken Korean money for  
years and made nothing but excuses about not being able to hire a  
worthy professor of Korean Studies in any field.  A Korean "Center" --  
called a center so it qualified for Korean money -- without a  
professor and without a major!  It has been one of the worst  
situations in our field.  And in the same time frame, somehow, UCLA,  
in the same state system, has blossomed.  That speaks volumes about  
Berkeley's disingenuousness.

	But the issue runs deeper than the shoddy treatment Korean Studies  
has been given at Berkeley.  What happens there -- Korea gets the cuts  
when the times get hard -- is all too typical of many other  
universities.  "Heavens!, we can't cut our growing Chinese program."   
"Good golly, miss Molly, we can't cut our Japanese program."  "Our  
only choice is to cut the Korean program -- after all, it's the  
smallest of the three and is struggling, dontya know." [or in  
Berkeley's case -- cut Chinese by 58%, Japanese by 40%, but Korean by  
100% -- that's only fair!]

	 As a field, we've made tremendous progress in recent years, but when  
the times get tough, Korean Studies, like Korea itself, is all  
together too often victimized by its neighbors.  Count the votes.  In  
any department, the Koreanists are out-numbered.  So, what can you  
expect.

	So, go ahead, blame Arnold Schwarzenegger.  But the problem runs much  
deeper than one governor and one economic downturn.  Look back at the  
nameless deans, department chairs, and others who have made the anti- 
Korean decisions at Berkeley for years.  And as the economy worsens,  
look for similar hits at other campuses.

	Wow!  That came out dark, didn't it?!

best regards to you all,
Mark




On Apr 23, 2008, at 8:39 AM, michael robinson wrote:

>   With all due respect to Berkeley and its pretensions to being a  
> flagship campus, they have ignored Korean Studies for so long, it is  
> hard for me to work up any pity for the program now in peril.  Other  
> campuses and centers are alive and well, and as far as I’m concerned  
> Berkeley can sit on there Korea money for another ten years.
>
> Mike R.
>
> From: koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws [mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws 
> ] On Behalf Of Christine Hong
> Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 12:18 AM
> To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> Subject: [KS] korean studies at the university of california in  
> jeopardy
>
> those of you who subscribe to this listserv might already be aware  
> of this, but arnold schwarzenegger's education budget cuts are  
> imperiling korean studies not only at uc berkeley but also within  
> the whole university of california system.  there currently is no  
> major in korean in berkeley's east asian languages and cultures  
> (ealc) department; in order for a korean major to exist and for  
> graduate students to be able to pursue an advanced degree in korean  
> at berkeley, the department must have at least two professors who  
> specialize in korean, and berkeley's ealc department does not meet  
> even this minimum requirement.  this is, without question, a  
> travesty, given that berkeley is the flagship campus in the  
> university of california system--a school that both touts itself as  
> the major university in the pacific rim and can boast of a near- 
> majority of ethnic asian students, amongst whom there are many  
> koreans and korean americans.  the problem at hand, however, is less  
> that berkeley's ealc program doesn't have a major program, but that,  
> with the governor's budget cuts, even the korean minor program is  
> threatened.  (i would add that departments like french are far less  
> impacted, despite the statistical evidence pointing to declining  
> undergraduate enrollment in french classes.)  at present, there is  
> just one full-time faculty member in korean--an assistant professor  
> who is currently on leave.  with the exception of this professor,  
> all of the ealc faculty in korean are language instructors; it is  
> important to recognize that their temporary hiring status affords  
> them no longterm job security.  should they be fired as a result of  
> these budget cuts--as currently looks likely--ealc's korean program,  
> which sustains just a minor at present, will be utterly decimated,  
> unlike the chinese and japanese programs, which will be adversely  
> affected but not disabled beyond repair.
>
> professor alan tansman, the chair of berkeley's ealc, has written  
> the following public protest, which i pass along to you:
>
> The Governor’s budget cuts have finally trickled down to the  
> university departments, and it seems that some were hit more than  
> others. East Asian Languages and Cultures received a 28% cut to what  
> is called its TAS budget, out of which 90% of our language teaching  
> budget comes. This means that for next year we will be cutting 40%  
> of our Japanese, 58% of our Chinese, and 66% of our language  
> classes. The most advanced levels will be cut. In Korean, which  
> right now does not have a Major program, even the Minor program is  
> under threat.  Chinese already turns away over 100 a students every  
> year; this will get worse. We will likely have to “dumb down” the  
> Chinese and Japanese majors to accommodate the fewer classes we can  
> offer. Also, we will likely have to exclude from the classes all  
> students not in the College of Letters and Sciences (Engineering,  
> humanities graduate students, law, etc.), and perhaps all non-majors  
> and non-minors. The cut is particularly dire because every student  
> cut from the program is cut not just from one class but from all  
> those that follow in the language sequence. Of course these cuts  
> mean firing qualified teachers, who are difficult to find. Once hurt  
> like this, the program will be hard to rebuild. The level of cuts in  
> other departments, and other language programs, is not clear, but  
> east Asian Languages seems to have been hit far harder.
>
> i'm a postdoc here at berkeley in the english department--my name's  
> christine hong--and i'm hoping to bring attention to and  
> mobilization on this issue.  please feel free to contact me at cjhong at berkeley.edu 
>  with suggestions, advice, feedback.  many thanks.

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