The Korean Language Task Force in conjunction with the Asian Studies program is stepping up its efforts to encourage the implementation of a full offering of Korean language and culture courses in the future.
"The Korean Language Task Force is recommending these additions to the curriculum because an Asian Studies program is not complete without Korean language or studies," task force member Susie Lee '94 said.
The task force is composed of eight to 10 students, who are all in the Korean American Students Association. KASA was founded with the purpose of implementing Korean language at the College but because it grew into a social organization, the task force was formed.
"Next term we hope to push for action and raise dialogue in the student body," Susie Lee added. "We hope that people who are interested in bringing Korean to the College will be in our organization."
Pamela Crossley, the Asian Studies program chair, said the task force is now working to involve Korean culture in existing classes in the Asian Studies and other departments.
"The department is taking action to offer a more comprehensive offering of courses dealing with Korean culture in the future," Crossley said.
She said she hopes the curriculum will eventually have specialized courses in Korean history, religion, literature translation and language.
Current offerings
The only course offered this year containing a significant amount of material dealing with Korean culture is Anthropology 12: Women in East Asian Societies: China, Japan and Korea. It is an experimental course for the Spring term which is not being offered on a permanent basis.
The only other course in the Sept. 1993 Organization, Regulations and Courses that emphasizes Korean culture is History 74: Imperialism in Modern East Asia, which will not be offered before the 1995 Spring term.
History Professor Steve Ericson, an expert in Asian area studies, is working to create a course that deals more specifically with Korea.
"I hope to have a course on modern Korean history in the curriculum within two years," Ericson said.
Korean courses in the Ivies
But students on the task force and in KASA are concerned that the College is not acting quickly enough.
"We are the only Ivy League school not to have either Korean language or studies program as part of the curriculum," KASA President Sangwoo Lee '94 said. "We have made a proposal to the College, but apparently they don't think it's necessary, even though we have shown there is a large interest among the student population."
While only some of the other Ivies have courses about Korean culture, Dartmouth is the only school which does not offer any Korean language courses.
Sangwoo Lee said KASA is not pushing for Korean studies at Dartmouth solely for the benefit of the Korean-American students, who are the largest group of Asian-Americans on campus.
"It's important that it doesn't come across that it's students in the task force against the administration," Susie Lee said. "I believe that we all want to see Korean courses offered eventually."
New programs
Of the College's 4,256 undergraduates, 376 students identified themselves as Asian-American and 31 students have Korean permanent home addresses or citizenship, according to Associate Registrar Nancy Broadhead.
Crossley said the decision to implement classes in new areas of study is not based on the percent of students at the College with that ethnicity, but on the "intellectual validity" of the offerings.
She said the demand for Korean studies is legitimate because of Korea's expanding role in international affairs. But she said the scope and range of any future Korean studies program will depend on the needs and resources of the College.
She said the Korean language will probably not be offered "in the near future or within this century."
The task force is not currently pursuing College funding in the to assist in the search for a professor qualified to teach Korean courses.
Student interest
Last term, Jo Seuk '96 and Gu Chung '97 taught an extracurricular student-initiated course in Korean language. Seven students attended the classes, Seuk said.
"While the attendance at the actual classes varied, there was a lot of enthusiasm when people heard the class was being offered," Seuk said. "Half of those who had inquiries were non-Asian students."
Seuk planned to teach a Collis Miniversity course in Korean language this term, but he said he canceled the course because he did not have enough students to fulfill the 10-student minimum.
Members of the task force said that students would be more likely to take Korean language courses if the language sequence were offered as a part of the curriculum. They said the cost of the Miniversity course deterred many students from taking the class.
The original student proposal, called "Project Korea," asked the College to introduce Korean language and culture into the curriculum three years ago, but the administration responded that the implementation was not possible at that time.
