In the past three years, enrollment is the Asian Studies Certificate Program has grown from 25 (12/2005) to 44 (2/2007). The number of certificates awarded each semester has remained at about 6 (6 in Spring 2005; 7 in Spring 2006). In total, we have awarded 25 certificates since Fall Semester 2004.

During the past three year, with Howland as coordinator of the certificate program, we have worked at expanding publicity of the certificate through our brochure, periodic updating of which has been coordinated by Andrea Joseph of CIE. We have included the brochure at the annual open house in the autumn semester; Howland has met with L&S advisors so that they now more about the program and can pass on information and brochures to students interested in Asian studies; and we have encouraged faculty both to make the brochure available to student in their classes and to announce in their syllabi the participation of their respective courses in the program. Andrea Joseph at CIE has coordinated the newsletter, "Asian Studies News," published each semester.

What follows are highlights of meetings and special activities of each year:

2004-2005 Academic Year

Andrea Joseph coordinated our updating of the Asian Studies Certificate program brochure and website, which had been neglected for several years. We also established a reflector for faculty (asian-faculty@uwm.edu), and updated a reflector for undergraduates intending to obtain the certificate.

Howland arranged for a student research assistant, Shanna Plewa, to be available for Asian studies faculty to use; one faculty member took advantage of this.

A Spring 2006 meeting of Asian studies faculty raised the following issues: (1) Faculty of social sciences are especially interested in creating an Asian Studies Center and stressed the need to seek external funding for such a center. No one volunteered to undertake the investigation of and writing of grant proposals. (2) Some faculty expressed interest in developing a Chinese Studies major; this does not seem to be a feasible plan, because our strengths at UWM in Chinese studies are primarily within the humanities: art history, comparative literature, foreign languages, and history. Such a program would require additional faculty within the social sciences. (3) Faculty expressed interest in the availability of funding for student foreign study; because this is within the purview of CIE, we are encouraged to send students to CIE, which maintains information on foreign study scholarships.

2005-2006 Academic Year

In conjunction with the Department of History's colloquium series, Howland invited Professor Stefan Tanaka (History, UC-San Diego) to give a talk to the History and Asian Studies faculty on March 10, 2006, titled "a884 Japan: Historical Narratives and New Media." No Asian studies faculty attended.

2006-2007 Academic Year

A spring 2007 meeting of the Asian studies advisory committee reiterated the concern for funding of foreign study for students and again, faculty were urged to refer students to CIE for information regarding scholarships. The committee also took note of the development of minors in Asian languages within the Department of foreign Languages and Linguistics; the first of these, a Minor in Chinese Language, has been approved. It does not conflict with the "Specific Language" Certificate because the two programs overlap with only one course requirement: third-semester Chinese. Because foreign languages is the area of Asian studies most under development at UWM, the committee felt that the presence of foreign language faculty on the advisory committee should be increased.

Current Situation

Howland has expressed his intention to resign from the position of Faculty Coordinator; he has served for three years and will become Chair of the Department of History in 8/2007. No one has volunteered to become Faculty Coordinator.

Recommendations

There are two options before the College of Letters and Science regarding the Asian Studies Certificate Program:

1. Put the program in receivership; if no one volunteers to take over the position of Faculty Coordinator, then the Dean should terminate the program. This is not a popular course of action, because CIE has seen student interest in Asian studies grow during the past three years, and has placed a number of students in foreign study programs.
2. Because two-thirds of the Asian Studies Certificate recipients are "Specific Language" certificates, several faculty have proposed that we house the program in the Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics. Professors Garry Davis and Fred Eckman have been suggested as possible faculty coordinators for the program, but no one has approached either of them. This course of action would satisfy the advisory committee wish that more of the foreign language faculty serve on the advisory committee. Whether the program is housed in FLL or not, a new advisory committee should include the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language faculty.

In either case, there does seem to be student interest in Asian Studies at UWM. To better support Asian studies at UWM, I would strongly urge the Dean to pursue the recruitment of new faculty in Economics and Political Science, with a specialty in East Asia.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Douglas Howland
David D. Buck Professor of Chinese History