Curriculum panel draws few students

A sparse group of students attended a meeting designed to inform students about the Asian-American Studies program last night. The meeting, held in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, was led by Assistant Dean of the College Joseph Sun. Sun said that "getting the word out" about new Asian-American Studies courses is his main goal this year. "150 students have taken Asian-American Studies so far, but we need a heck of a lot more," he said. "I continually run into problems where students don't even know that we have what we have." Jae Lee, who also spoke at the meeting, is a doctoral candidate currently teaching a course entitled "Asians in America." Lee spoke about the format of his class, which covers a wide variety of topics from early Asian immigrants to labor discrimination and current interracial tension. "It [provides] general backround," Lee said. "It's more like an introductory course which can be applied to other aspects of the Asian-American experience." Tsiwen Law, an attorney and professor who teaches a course entitled "Asian-American Perspectives on Government Policy," discussed the importance of hiring Asian-Americans in more business and political fields across the country. He said often there are Asian-Americans who are either not qualified for these jobs, or who are qualified but not interested. Referring to the "total transition in the government," Law said he hopes to see more Asian faces in appointed government jobs in the new presidential administration. In order to achieve what he called "proper political representation," Law also said that the number of qualified and interested people must increase. "We have to have the people available who are willing to serve," he said, focusing on the nine students who attended the meeting. "At some point the opportunity will arise for you to serve in many . . . government positions." Law said that his course covers such topics as statistics and economics which are pertinent to Asian Americans, and issues involving the census and voting. Professor of American Civilization Murray Murphey spoke about the importance of alerting the University administration to students' concerns over the inclusion of an Asian-American Studies program. "This has to be one of their main priorities," Murphey said. "They have to commit resources to establish something permanent." Murphey added that the addition of the two Asian American Studies courses "is very temporary," and that student enrollment will determine the success or failure of the programs. "The administration is aware that there is a constituency," he added, citing the fact that approximately 25 percent of last year's freshman class was of Asian or Asian-American background. "[But] the administration needs to see that there is a student interest. They can be brought around but they have a lot of other priorities." Students said that while they are in favor of adding classes to the program, they feel that creating a major would not receive the desired response because too many students are looking towards pre-professional studies. "It's too risky, too unknown, too untraveled," Sun said, agreeing with the students. "[People will ask] 'What can I do with an Asian-American Studies major?' " College senior Eun Jung Kim said she was disappointed with the turnout for the meeting. "Meetings like this are good to spread the word, if more people [would] come," she said. "If we don't show interest, these classes will be cancelled."