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

[rmo at mail.utexas.edu]

Dear Christine and all,

Without knowing the details as well as many of you do, I certainly take Mike and
Mark's points and accumulated frustration with Berkeley; where I write from (the
University of Texas) can or at least could previously be accused of the same
sort of dithering with Korea money.  And yet I would also like to think that it
remains in all of our interests for struggling programs like Berkeley's to
survive and eventually grow - all the graduate students being produced by the
flourishing programs out there will need someplace to go.  Even if one says
good riddance to Berkeley, having a public conversation on defending Korean
studies in times of budget contraction might not be a bad idea at this
historical juncture, because the problems ARE common - even in Texas, with oil
at $117/bbl, there is pressure to cut the "soft money" budget out of which
language instruction takes place.  So I'd at least like to try to address
Christine's question.

One, yes, you may be in a bad situation to the extent that you need to argue on
a statewide basis - if one is a cost-cutting UC system regent, one may see
Korean studies programs at UCLA, Irvine, UCSB, etc. (forgive me if I missed
you) and ask, why UCB too?

Nonetheless, it seems to me that your EALC chair has done something smart in
saying that the first thing we're going to do is restrict our classes to
majors.  Can someone else on your campus be made to defend the necessity of
Korean?  You seem to be thinking in terms of mobilizing the Korean Students
Association and Korean studies professors, and that's good, but that's not
where the money is.

(A story: the Provost here recently called a meeting to try to bring together
and coordinate the different groups interested in Korea on the UT campus.  I
had never heard of most of these people.  There was a group in the business
school who wants to establish a "technology transfer incubator" [whatever that
is] in Korea, another doing something similar in electrical engineering [with
help from Samsung], etc.  All without talking to one another.  On the one hand,
as business/science types do most of these probably regard language/culture
training as irrelevant, or at best a service function, but on the other the
Korea instructional budget would be a rounding error for any of them.)

So, UCB certainly has forces in business, sciences/engineering, medicine,
policy, etc. who care about Korea because they care about semiconductors or
biotech or whatever.  You won't get any of their money directly, I'm sure, but
they carry weight that we, bluntly, do not.  Can they be made to say that
Korean matters to them in a way that French, or German, or these days maybe
even Japanese do not?

Sorry to hear about the state of thing in California.

Rob Oppenheim
UT Austin


Quoting Mark Peterson <markpeterson at byu.edu>:

>
> 	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.
>
>