South Asian report now complete

The task force assigned to evaluate South Asian studies at Penn has completed its work and is ready to report on its findings, which include a recommendation to increase faculty and resources. A six-member faculty committee was charged last fall with recommending plans for future research and teaching programs focusing on South Asia. School of Arts and Sciences Associate Dean and task force member Walter Licht said the committee will officially present the report to SAS Dean Samuel Preston after spring break. "South Asian studies certainly will not disappear," Licht said. "There's going to be a very strong recommendation for additional faculty." Although Licht declined to comment on exactly what structural changes the committee will recommend, he said that there will be a much-needed increase in resources. "In some sense, the resources and opportunities will certainly be expanded," Licht said. In September, the task force was asked to make recommendations regarding faculty appointments, the structure of undergraduate and graduate education and the curriculum. The task force was also evaluating whether the South Asian Regional Studies Department would remain a department or be transformed into a program without its own central hub. No faculty members have been directly appointed to the department since 1974. The SARS Department has been beset by faculty departures, retirements and deaths, leaving it understaffed and in need of resources. Some of the structural options for South Asian studies include maintaining the SARS Department, transforming it into a program or focusing it strictly on either undergraduate or graduate education. In addition, Licht said the task force will make suggestions about potential core courses, but not the curriculum as a whole. He said the committee has discussed incorporating South Asian studies into the Pilot Curriculum. Licht said that although he has shown the report to Preston already, he is awaiting comments from people not on the task force before the official presentation is made. But despite the recommended increase in faculty and resources, some task force members are still not fully satisfied. SARS Department Chairwoman and committee member Rosane Rocher said she has mixed feelings about the suggestions made by the task force. "I'm happy with some parts of it, and I'm not happy with other parts," Rocher said. Although Rocher would not specify what items disappointed her, College sophomore and Save SARS coalition member Shaun Gonzales said he believes Rocher is upset by the focus of the committee's recommendations. "There is currently a desire on some of the task force members' part in social science and modern studies rather than classical studies," Gonzales said. "In terms of getting it going in the right direction, the department is in need of appointments in classical studies." Licht said that the committee will recommend additional positions both in SARS itself and in other departments. But Gonzales, who met with Preston and Licht regarding the task force last month, said that although the administration has been supportive, it never should have come to this point. "The situation with SARS became somewhat of an emergency," Gonzales said. "It shows a little administrative neglect toward SARS. "You wouldn't see a task force applied to the political science department," he added. "If they needed faculty, they would get faculty."