Students working to develop Korean language and culture studies programs at the College met Friday with several deans to discuss bringing a Korean studies specialist to Dartmouth as a visiting professor.
The deans offered the students an opportunity to discuss additional options for Korean Studies after the Humanities Division Council voted down a proposal to offer Korean classes and a Korean Language Study Abroad Program in October of last year.
One of the issues is the lack of resources in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literature. According to James Yu '99, the president of the Korean American Student Association, there is no question of support from the administration, but a question of support from the faculty in DAMELL.
Dean of the Faculty Edward Berger said although he felt the discussion was moving towards support in the humanities and social sciences area for classes focused upon Korean issues, "the response from the DAMELL department was less than enthusiastic."
If established, the new classes would be under the jurisdiction of DAMELL, but they would be listed under other social science and humanities departments.
Students are still pressing the administration to pursue a Korean language program. Yu said, "The language is core to the study and we don't feel the Korean studies would be complete without the language."
The DAMELL department stated its support for a Korean language study program in the future, but Yu said the department was concerned over the lack of resources.
Both Berger and Yu said the lack of support by the DAMELL faculty has put the language program proposal on the back-burner. The possibility of a language program will be decided after Korean studies classes have been established and its success can be examined.
Although no concrete decisions were made in the meeting, Berger said, "We're moving from theoretical to actual. It's just a matter of getting everybody to agree [at this point]."
