Every Ivy League university other than Dartmouth currently has a Korean language or studies program as part of its regular curriculum. This has been the case since the early 1990s. On this matter, the College is literally decades behind its peers.
Over these last two decades, South Korea's importance in the global economic and political system has continued to grow. The country currently has the 12th largest economy in the world, when measured at purchasing power parity. Furthermore, with a vibrant democracy and a liberal economic system, South Korea shares many similarities with America and its European allies. South Korea also plays a crucial role in the United States' negotiations with North Korea and China. If the College wishes to continue to send its graduates to the forefront of global politics and business, then the formal establishment of a Korean studies program, including language courses, would be a key step towards this goal.
The absence of such a program at Dartmouth is not for a lack of effort. The Korean Students Association was founded in 1989 in order to promote a better understanding of Korean heritage, culture and language among the Dartmouth community. Korean and Korean-American students have attempted to fill the absence of Korean studies through their own means since the mid-1990s after some false steps and an enthusiastic response to a student-initiated Korean language course, classes on Korean culture have become staples of the Collis Miniversity program.
However, in 1999, despite the support of the Student Assembly, the push for an official Korean studies program hit an impasse when the department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures refused to support it on the grounds of a lack of available resources ("SA again supports Korean program," Feb. 3, 1999). In 2001, in response to demands from students and government professor David Kang, the Dean of Faculty and the chair of AMELL announced the implementation of a Korean studies program at Dartmouth by hiring two tenure-track faculty members ("College to offer Korean language," May 9, 2001). But the administration reneged on its promises in 2003, announcing, without explanation, that it had postponed its search to fill teaching positions ("College to postpone Korean studies classes," Jan. 28, 2003).
Eventually, AMELL created a single tenure-track position for the advancement of Korean cultural studies, but the College had a difficult time convincing its hires to stay, as the professors were lured away to universities offering greater institutional support for such programs. Even Kang, after 13 years at Dartmouth, left the College as a tenured professor and now serves as the Director of the Korean Studies Institute at the University of Southern California.
Dartmouth's nominal Korean studies program is largely defunct and is revived sporadically by visiting professors from history, art history and film departments. Last year, even its sadly comedic course designation "KORN" short for "Korean" was discreetly removed from the Dartmouth timetable. Ultimately, the College has not fulfilled its past promises. It has failed its students by providing only token support of Korean studies and by allowing potential faculty members to be lured away by more competitive institutions. Moreover, to this day, the College has not offered a single Korean language course as a part of its syllabus.
Ultimately, the most effective method to overcome administrative inertia will be through student initiative. Previous efforts to establish Korean studies have commonly risen from a coalition of the KSA and other members of the Pan-Asian Council. However, many Asian-American professors and administrators who initially supported the formation of Korean studies have since departed campus, and thus the push has never been in a more precarious position than it is now. Students interested in bringing Korean studies to Dartmouth must be able to find new faculty allies in the humanities, gain the new administration's attention and be willing to jump through a rigmarole of administrative bureaucracy. Otherwise, a half-hearted effort will likely be quickly forgotten, like the others.
