Students petition for Japanese Studies

Asian student activists have started a petition to improve the Japanese Studies program at the University, urging the School of Arts and Sciences to hire additional tenured and assistant professors in the field. In a letter printed in The Daily Pennsylvanian last Wednesday, Students for Asian Affairs members voiced concern about "the grave state of Japanese Studies at Penn." The letter cited the low number of Japanese Studies courses at the University and noted that nine professors and lecturers have left the University's Japanese Studies program, proving that there is a "vacuum" within this academic field. The letter also stated that over half of the undergraduate majors in the Oriental Studies Department are concentrating in Japanese Studies. SAA Co-Director of Academic Affairs Kenny Oh said he hopes the group's petition receives a tangible response from the University in staffing the Japanese Studies program. "We hope that if there's that much interest in the issue on campus that the school would see that there's a need for Japanese Studies, and that they would try to search for an additional tenured professor in the field and an additional assistant professor," Oh said. Oh said he hopes that student advocacy for the program will act as a catalyst for change in spite of the College's current hiring freeze, saying that the hiring of Japanese Studies professors should be a "priority". "It's a dire enough situation that the hiring freeze can be overlooked in this case," Oh said. SAS Dean Rosemary Stevens instituted a two-year hiring freeze in January to offset the effects of budget constraints in the school. Oh said the petition has two goals. "Primarily, we want exposure of the whole problem with the Japanese Studies issue," Wharton and College sophomore Oh said. "Secondarily, we hope to get student support by getting their signatures [on the petition]." SAA Chairperson and Wharton and College sophomore Norbert Hsu said the group expects approximately 1000 people to sign the petition, which has been available on Locust Walk and will continue to be available next week. SAA Vice-Chairperson and College junior Eugene Chay said not only are members of the University community receptive to the petition, but non-University members are supporting the organization as well. "Not only University community members, but people who weren't affiliated with the University thought that it was almost ridiculous that an Ivy League university's Japanese Studies program should be in dire straits," Chay said. Chay added that members of all races and ethnic origins are supporting the petition. "Most people [who signed the petition] were non-Asian," Chay said. "It's an academic issue." "We're trying to make students more aware of the problem that the Japanese Studies program is having, and are trying to bring it to the attention of the administration that there is student support for the program," Hsu said. Ludo Rocher, chairperson of the Oriental Studies department, said while he was not aware of the petition, he thinks that the low number of faculty in the Japanese Studies program is "an issue that needs to be addressed." Currently, Rocher said, there are two faculty members in the Japanese Studies program, Professor William LaFleur and Assistant Professor Linda Chance. Neither LaFleur nor Chance could be reached for comment yesterday. Rocher said that the department had invited a new associate professor in Japanese Studies to join the faculty earlier this year but that the candidate turned down the position for personal reasons. Currently, Rocher said, the solution is to wait out the hiring freeze. He said he does not think that the need for faculty outweighed the freeze. "We have talked with [Stevens] about it, but while I think it's a high priority for her, it's just not possible right now," Rocher said.