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The Dartmouth
July 9, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Full Support for AAS

To the Editor:

Daniel Ng '04's arguments about Asian American Studies miss important distinctions about Dartmouth's academic structure (The Dartmouth, Feb. 20, "Redefining the AAS Debate). AAS is being proposed as a program, not as a department. Mr. Ng is mistaken, therefore, in his comparison with the Education department and his statement that "five to seven courses do not a department make." A program is, by definition, interdisciplinary and involves faculty members in various departments. A program in AAS is just as viable and financially feasible as current ethnic studies programs.

The debate about allocating resources to ethnic studies occurred long ago. So long as ethnic studies programs remain, there is little that can justify excluding Dartmouth's largest minority from the curriculum. Dartmouth as an academic institution, however, has already recognized the merit of such programs. The addition of AAS is simply completing the picture.

Secondly, Mr. Ng's suggestion that we collapse our current ethnic studies programs into a single ethnic studies department and then add AAS fundamentally misapprehends the nature of academic programs at Dartmouth. The distinction between a program and a department is an important one. There would be little functionality or academic coherence in collapsing Asian, African and Latin American programs into an international studies department. Ethnic studies are no different. Such programs are not based on courses of shared methodology or discipline (such as history, economics etc.), but courses in different disciplines that cohere because of common subject matter.

I entirely support the AAS initiative and hope to marshal the resources of the Student Assembly for this important advocacy through both my committee and the newly formed Diversity Affairs Committee. Years ago the College recognized the importance of ethnic studies in our curriculum. This recognition now lacks only one element -- the inclusion of AAS.