Demands may have been issued anew to the College's administration by student protesters last week, but it was not the first time students have complained about academic programs and policies to the residents of Parkhurst.
Lack of both a Korean language studies program and a Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Studies program at the College were among the complaints lodged by a group of megaphone-wielding students outside Parkhurst Hall Friday.
Protesters also urged the administration to cease their "crusade to destroy the Education Department."
Student campaigns against the College regarding all three of these areas haven't blossomed this week simply in order to honor the coming of the spring season; they are, in some cases, more than a decade old.
Korean LanguageProgram history
Dartmouth is the only Ivy League college without a Korean language program, the protesters' list of demands points out, highlighting a 12-year struggle by the College's Asian-American community to implement such a curriculum.
Ten years ago, a Korean Language Task Force was created to encourage Dartmouth to extend full offerings of Korean language and culture courses.
After dozens of meetings with College deans, opinion-editorials to The Dartmouth and resolutions passed by the Student Assembly to back the inception of a Korean language program, no such curriculum exists today.
The Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literature (DAMELL) does exist, albeit without an official Korean language program.
Students note there is a marked lack of resources in the department and it does not encompass the needs of students.
There is a lack of support for Korean language studies from DAMELL itself, administrators have pointed out.
In an interview with The Dartmouth in 1998, Dean of the Faculty Ed Berger explained the lack of an administrative response to students' requests, saying "the response from the DAMELL department was less than enthusiastic."
DAMELL then cited a lack of departmental resources in its reluctance to get on board the Korean language studies train.
Both lobbying students and administrators themselves noted in 1998 that administrative support for the proposed language program, in contrast, has been complete.
Korean-American students, numbering 300 on campus, make up the largest ethnic minority at Dartmouth.
Education not a priority
Students also demanded Friday that the administration cease what are perceived by many students as attacks on the validity of the education department.
The department has been under fire for several years now. The College's administration has recommended, in reports written in both 1993 and 1996, to eliminate the program.
When the second report was issued, the department was saved when more than 300 students gathered at Dartmouth Hall in protest of the decision.
The department is arguably one of the most popular on campus, eliciting strong student reactions in its defense. The protesters' list of demands mentioned, for example, that the department is "currently one of the few in which men and women of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds come together to discuss personal issues and grow intellectually."
Last year, a panel of external experts in education evaluated the department, praising it and calling for it to be strengthened.
This year, the administration noted its support for the department and recently hired two tenure-track professors in the cognitive sciences to work in the education department.
Members of the department applaud the new contracts -- the department previously had only one tenure-track faculty member -- but object to their expertise in "cognitive science."
Education, they say, is not a science, but a discipline. Students defending the department charge the College with trying to discourage students from following the teaching profession.
The department will be significantly changed, they say, by the College's insistence that it concentrate on the cognitive science of education.
Controversial and outspoken assistant lecturer Randy Testa's one-year contract has not been renewed, causing even more furor among department defenders.
Testa has been one of the most candid critics of many College policies and practices, including its handling of the education department.
Also on the list of demands was a request that more consideration be given to the prospect of having "permanent and well-developed" programs in Queer Studies, Women's Studies, African-American studies and Native-American studies.
