The debate surrounding the possible creation of an Asian American Studies program continued on Thursday during a discussion aimed at promoting Asian-American issues in an organized forum.
The discussion, which was attended by approximately 40 people, began with prepared remarks from both the proponents, represented by Asian-American Task Force chairs Morna Ha '04 and Derrick Chu '04, and opponents, represented by Chien Wen Kung '04.
Ha gave two reasons for the need for a cohesive program at Dartmouth to study Asian-American issues. AAS deserves representation because, she said, it is one of the "newest and most powerful" academic fields.
She described the AAS initiative as "looking to encompass a wider picture" at a school which already boasts numerous ethnic studies programs.
In order to bring about AAS, Chu said, the task force has set four goals: to disseminate information, to initiate research on AAS at comparable colleges and universities, to get feedback from the faculty and to generate a working proposal for a program by the end of the Winter term.
Kung followed Chu by raising the question, "Once you start, where do you stop?"
For Kung, the practical implications of AAS are too great to justify its formation. Dartmouth's resources are not unlimited, and Kung said that they would best be spent by "pursuing a more integrationist approach."
Kung favors the examination of ethnic studies within existing departments but sees no need for the creation of new ones. He believes that the decision not to create new departments ensures that Dartmouth does not unfairly promote one ethnicity at the expense of others.
History Professor Douglas Haynes disagreed with Kung's contention that the creation of an AAS program would necessitate the allocation of an undue portion of Dartmouth's resources.
He pointed out that the creation of a new program does not usually involve diverting a large portion of resources from one area to another and therefore has little significant effect on the majority of students.
"I see this as a very modest proposal," Haynes said.
For now, the Asian-American Task Force is looking only to create an AAS program, not a department. A program draws on courses from multiple departments but generally cannot hire faculty the same way that a department can.
The plan is to "start in certain areas and expand," Chu said.Beyond the practical implications of an AAS program, Kung argued against a program reinforcing the intellectual practice of seeing the world in terms of racial and thnic groups.
Although "the lens of ethnicity is one of the critical lenses through which we look at society," it should not be the only one, Kung said.
Because they look at issues in ethnic terms, ethnic studies programs limit the openness of the Western tradition, Kung claimed, saying, "Only in the West can we find an intellectual tradition capable of questioning itself."
This point raised the issue of institutionalized racism and the role that it has played in the move for an AAS program and touched off a debate on the issues of race facing Asian-Americans.
Along with several other participants, Belinda Chiu, an assistant director of admissions, denied the claim that the desire to see an AAS program at Dartmouth is based on the problem of racism in America.
"To me, Asian American Studies is the study of the Asian-American experience," she said, "It's not founded on the fact that, because we believe that there is institutionalized racism, we need Asian American Studies."
Currently about 40 universities in the United States -- including Brown, Columbia, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania -- have AAS programs.
The creation of an AAS program here is necessary, Chiu said, "for Dartmouth to keep up with its peers in this day and age."
Nora Yasumura, the College advisor to Asian and Asian-American students, worried that even the creation of a full program would be unable to fill the gaps in Dartmouth's curriculum.
"My concern is that we will only touch the surface," she said.
