Despite an earlier announcement which raised fears that the College had indefinitely postponed its search for a tenure-track professor in Korean studies, administrators say that they remain committed to filling the position in time for Fall term 2004.
Though the search process has been called off for the remainder of the year, Dean of the Faculty Michael Gazzaniga said it will resume during Fall term 2003 and that the College has never wavered in its commitment to establishing a long-term professorship in Korean studies.
"The process is going forward," Gazzaniga said. "When the search is postponed we are trying to get it done in a better way " it's not just evaporating in front of people's eyes."
Thus far, however, Gazzaniga explained that the candidates examined by the search committee "didn't quite fit" with overall objectives for the program.
David Kang, search committee chair and professor in the government department, said that such delays in finding a good candidate are fairly common.
"We have had a search in the government department that may enter its third year," Kang said, explaining that delays in the current process are due to the complexity inherent in hiring a tenure-track professor for a new program who will teach courses under both Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and another, as-yet undetermined subject.
Kang, who called tenure-track positions "the heart of the College," said that the need to insure that the new professor would have a "fair hearing" for tenure after an initial six years also played a role in the postponement of the search.
Faculty and administrators including Kang and Gazzaniga met last Friday and agreed to extend the visiting professor position in Korean studies, which Kang said would serve as a "bridge" until a tenure-track professor is hired. Outcry from student groups reacting to news of the postponement, including the Korean-American Students Association --itself founded to advocate for the creation of Korean studies classes -- was heard "loud and clear" by those at the meeting, Kang said, though he explained that the faculty interactions can be "very hard" to understand from an outside perspective.
"There was more concern among those on the outside than among us on the search committee," Kang said. "We've worked for this program a long time and it's always been two steps forward and one step back."
Though the vision of a Korean studies department has changed since the College initially agreed to its creation in Spring term 2001, current plans call for a single, tenure-track professor who will teach four classes, two under Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and two under a second subject, which would be "something like literature, film or art," according to Kang.
Language courses in Korean would not immediately enter the picture, Kang said, but would likely come in following years, along with the possibility of a Korean Language Studies Abroad program.
Despite the College's commitment to the creation of the program, questions still remain as to how the search process -- never before undertaken by Asian and Middle Eastern Studies -- will proceed next fall.
"We're still trying to figure out exactly how this will go through next year," Kang said."