This
report was prepared and reviewed by the Asian American Studies
Interdepartmental Program (IDP) Committee (Committee to supervise
the MA and BA Programs in Asian American Studies), in consultation
with the Director, Faculty Advisory Committee and staff of the
Asian American Studies Center, and representatives of the Asian
American Studies Graduate Students Association and Asian American
Studies undergraduate students (see Appendix A).
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Faculty
2.1. Growth and Recruitment
2.2. Accomplishments
2.3. Challenges and Difficulties
3. The Graduate Program
3.1. Goals and Objectives
3.2. Structure and Nature of the MA Program
3.3. Joint Degree Programs
3.4. The Graduate Students
3.4.1. Recruitment, Admissions, and Enrollment
3.4.2. Financial Aid
3.4.3. Advising
3.4.4. Accomplishments
3.5. Challenges and Difficulties
3.5.1. Financial Aid
3.5.2. Time to Degree
3.5.3. Curriculum
4. The Undergraduate Program
4.1. History, Goals, and Objectives
4.2. Structure and Nature of the Undergraduate Program
4.3. Enrollment
4.4. Expanded Curriculum
4.5. Financial Aid
4.6. Accomplishments of Undergraduate Students
4.7. Challenges and Future Plans
5. Issues and Recommendations for the Future
5.1. Summary of Challenges for the Faculty and
the Graduate and Undergraduate Programs
5.2. Increased Demands on the Program
5.3. Resources
5.4. The IDP-ORU Issue
Appendices
A. Asian American Studies IDP Committee, Faculty Advisory Committee
and staff of the Asian American Studies Center, and graduate and
undergraduate student representatives
B. Actions Taken on 1987-88 Recommendations
C. Letters of Commitment from Departments and Programs at UCLA
D. Short CVs of Faculty in Asian American Studies
E. Instruction Evaluations, Fall 1995 - Winter 1999
F. Program Requirements: MA in Asian American Studies
G. Charts: Summary data of the MA and BA Programs in Asian American
Studies
H. Theses Submitted for the MA in Asian American Studies, 1988-1998
I. Asian American Studies MA Alumni
J. Program Requirements: BA and Minor in Asian American Studies
1. INTRODUCTION
“The Center will hopefully
enrich the experience of the
entire university by contributing to an understanding of
the long neglected history, rich cultural heritage, and
present position of Asian Americans in our society.”
Steering Committee to establish the
UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1969
The Interdepartmental Program (IDP)
in Asian American Studies at UCLA is the largest and most comprehensive
multidisciplinary teaching program of its kind in the nation.
Formally established as an IDP within the College of Letters and
Sciences in Fall 1976 by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center
(an official Organized Research Unit (ORU) of the University of
California, which had offered classes since its founding in 1969),
the program’s goals are to enhance and infuse the UCLA curriculum
with a multidisciplinary understanding of the Asian American experience,
promote scholarly research on Asians and Pacific Islanders in
the United States, provide academic and leadership training to
individuals interested in working in Asian American communities,
and prepare students for advanced and PhD degrees in the humanities,
social sciences, and professional school disciplines. The MA,
BA, and undergraduate minor programs are supervised by an interdepartmental
faculty committee (the IDP Committee) and administered by the
Asian American Studies Center.
Since the last IDP review in 1987-88, the program
has significantly expanded, matured, and diversified. These developments
took place also in relation to the tremendous demographic changes
the nation and in particular Southern California had experienced.
The number of Asian Pacific Americans in the nation grew from
3.5 million in 1980 to more than 7.2 million in 1990, and is projected
to increase to 11 million in 2000 and 20 million by 2020. At the
same time, Southern California has become home to the largest
and most diverse Asian Pacific American population in the nation.
In this context, the program seeks to meet the diverse educational
needs of these communities as well as the growing interest within
the UCLA community and general public to learn more about the
Asian American experience.
UCLA remains the only university in the country
to offer both graduate and undergraduate degree programs exclusively
in Asian American Studies. Of the other major programs across
the country (UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara,
University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Washington, San
Francisco State University, University of Massachusetts at Boston,
University of Hawai'i at Manoa, UC San Diego), none quite offers
the breadth of undergraduate and graduate courses and programs
from multiple disciplinary perspectives and in relation to the
mosaic of ethnic communities that comprise Asian Pacific America.
At the same time, with the possible exception of UC Irvine, no
other program has comparable enrollment rates like those of Asian
American Studies at UCLA. In the past few years, with the successful
completion of its many recent faculty searches, the IDP annually
has offered nearly 70 classes with enrollments exceeding 2,000
students during the regular academic year and summer session.
Two of the most significant developments in the
Asian American Studies program since the last review are the substantial
increase in the number of tenure track faculty in and affiliated
with the IDP, and the establishment of new degree programs, including
a new BA, a minor, and a joint MA program with the School of Public
Health. These achievements have gone hand-in-hand with the extraordinary
growth and development of the Asian American Studies Center during
the past decade, and the increased national and international
prominence and influence which it has gained through its scholarly
and public policy research, creative and new media technology
projects, the publications of the Center Press and Amerasia Journal,
the library and archival acquisitions, endowment and extramural
funding activities, and its extensive array of campus-community
collaborations. A recently completed five-year external review
of the Center concluded that, “The Center has strengthened
its presence as the premier research locus within the field of
Asian American Studies.” Indeed, both the Center and the
IDP have flourished as a result of their unique synergistic relationship.
At the same time, no teaching program in Asian American Studies
in the nation has such an extraordinary infrastructure of resources,
talents, and relationships to support it.
The last IDP review in 1987-88 made eight recommendations--five
dealing with curricular aspects of the program, and others dealing
with student recruitment, faculty, and relationships with a department
in the College of Letters and Science (Appendix B). Specifically,
the evaluators recommended more resources for senior faculty to
administer the program; a thorough appraisal of the program's
goals; establishment of joint degrees with professional schools;
updating electives; streamlining the graduate core courses; expanding
options for the MA requirements; reestablishing contact with the
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALC); and increasing
efforts in student recruitment. These recommendations were addressed
by filling all available institutional faculty positions and successfully
filling additional ones; continued programmatic evaluations by
faculty, staff, and students; establishment of the BA and joint
MA degree programs; constant efforts to build strong collaborative
ties with other departments, including new elective and cross-listed
courses; stabilizing the teaching of graduate core courses; expanding
options beyond the research thesis for the MA requirements; and
actively recruiting quality graduate students from diverse backgrounds.
This report describes the efforts made towards addressing the
recommendations of the 1987-88 review. Appendix B provides additional
details.
The program faces several challenges. First,
the resources (operating funds, staff, space) allocated by the
College of Letters and Science to the IDP are still far less than
what is required by a program of its size. As a result, the IDP
is heavily relying on the financial, staff, and space support
by the Center. Second, an interdepartmental status, which limits
the resources allocated by the College and precludes the possession
of FTEs, is not commensurate with the size, prominence, achievements,
growth, and future expansion of the program. Strategies for upgrading
the program into a department should be explored. Third, the program
needs to increase its financial support of graduate students,
improve the MA's time to degree, and expand the curriculum on
community and TA training. Fourth, the program should develop
more interethnic and comparative ethnic courses. Finally, increasing
the proportion of tenured faculty in the program is critical for
the future development of Asian American Studies at UCLA. Program
faculty have over the past several years worked on resolving these
issues. Some key issues are structural, however, and require responses
involving the College and the Chancellor’s Office. This
report, and in particular section 5, will detail these issues.
The preparation of this self-review report was
an iterative and interactive process. This process involved two
main sets of self-evaluative activities. The first set included
faculty meetings and committee meetings (especially the Graduate
Admissions Committee and the Curriculum Committee) which undergraduate
and graduate student representatives also attended, as well as
meetings and dinners for facilitating discussions involving faculty
and graduate students, which were held during regular school years.
Through these meetings, the program has conducted self-evaluations
on a regular basis. The second set of activities was specifically
designed to obtain input for the self-review. They were coordinated
by a Self-Review Committee, consisting of faculty, staff, and
graduate and undergraduate representatives, who prepared a variety
of background materials and initial drafts of the report. A curriculum
conference held in Spring 1999, attended by 90 undergraduate and
graduate students, faculty and staff, provided an open forum for
input and suggestions that were incorporated into the report.
A draft of the report was discussed at faculty meetings and with
staff and students. Every faculty member received a draft copy
of the report and many have offered specific suggestions for modifications.
The IDP Chair and the Self-Review Committee assumed primary responsibility
for the report.
2.
FACULTY
2.1 Growth and Recruitment
The most significant resource for the success
of an IDP is its faculty (see Appendix A). The Center and the
IDP have worked closely to appoint new faculty to UCLA, and to
encourage existing UCLA faculty to participate in Asian American
Studies. From both perspectives, the Center and the IDP have achieved
unparalleled success in building the largest multidisciplinary
faculty in Asian American Studies in the nation.
As an IDP, the program does not have its own
FTEs. But in the past two decades or so the Center has obtained
or negotiated a total of 16 joint institutional FTEs from the
Chancellor’s Office and the College to develop the research
and teaching programs in Asian American Studies. They include
the institutional FTEs allocated by the Chancellor’s Office
since the mid-1970s to the four ethnic studies centers on campus,
and additional institutional FTEs Professor Nakanishi negotiated
when he became Center Director in 1990 -- eight in the social
sciences, life sciences and humanities from then College Provost
Ray Orbach, and a latter one for a professional school from the
Chancellor’s Office. These tenure-track appointments require
the individuals to teach half of his/her courses in the IDP in
Asian American Studies. By 1987, six FTEs were filled, by Professors
Robert Nakamura (Film and Television), Don Nakanishi (Education),
Paul Ong (Urban Planning), Stanley Sue (Psychology), King-Kok
Cheung (English), and Valerie Matsumoto (History). All of these
professors have gained tenure, four are full professors (Nakamura,
Nakanishi, Ong, Sue), and two will be reviewed for full professorship
within the next year or so (Cheung, Matsumoto). All have assumed
leadership roles in the Center, and Nakanishi and Ong have served
as Chair of the IDP.
One of the most extraordinary developments of
the program since the last review is the success in recruiting
permanent faculty to fill the other 10 joint institutional FTEs:
Anthropology: Kyeyoung Park
East Asian Languages and Cultures/Comparative Literature: Shu-mei
Shih
Economics: Wei-Yin Hu
English: Jinqi Ling, David Wong Louie
History: Henry Yu
Psychology: Cindy Yee-Bradbury
Public Health: Marjorie Kagawa-Singer
Social Welfare: Pauline Agbayani-Siewert
Sociology: Min Zhou
Professors Zhou, Ling, and Yee-Bradbury have received
tenure. Five others are currently being reviewed for tenure, and
two more will be reviewed within the next two years. The Center
and IDP have been keenly interested in the professional development
of individual faculty members, through research grants and other
resources to support faculty from a variety of extramural grants,
endowments and special funds which the Center administers.
Since the last review, the only departure of
faculty who held joint institutional FTEs was Stanley Sue, who
is now head of the Asian American Studies program at UC Davis.
The quality and stability of both our senior and junior faculty
have been important factors of the innovativeness and continuity
of our course offerings and of the program's ability to attract
quality graduate students.
Along with these institutional FTE appointments,
the Center and IDP were actively involved in the search processes
of eight additional new UCLA faculty members who expressed strong
interest in Asian American Studies, but whose full appointment
would be in a UCLA department or professional school. The Center
and IDP participated in the recruitment of Professors Ailee Moon
(Social Welfare), Jerry Kang (Law), Rachel Lee (English and Women's
Studies), Michael Salman (History), Shirley Hune (Urban Planning,
and Associate Dean of Graduate Programs), Justine Su (Education),
Mitchell Maki (Social Welfare), and Julie Roque (Urban Planning).
Along with existing UCLA professors who have interests in Asian
American Studies, including Lucie Cheng (Sociology), Snehendu
Kar (Public Health), Vinay Lal (History), Emil Berkanovic (Public
Health), James Lubben (Social Welfare), Harry Kitano (Social Welfare),
Cindy Fan (Geography), Nancy Harada (Medicine), Clara Chu (Library
and Information Science), Yuji Ichioka (History), Takeshi Makinodan
(Medicine), Kazuo Nihira (Psychiatry), Geraldine Padilla (Nursing),
James Tong (Political Science), and William Ouchi (Management),
they have actively participated in the Center and the IDP. Many
have taught courses, usually cross-listed with their home departments,
for the IDP, and/or assumed major leadership positions in the
IDP (e.g., Kar was former chair and Fan is current chair of the
IDP).
The success in recruitment, and active outreach
efforts to existing UCLA professors interested in Asian American
Studies, have resulted in a program faculty drawn from a diverse
cross-section of disciplines. These individuals are highly committed
to the program and have contributed an extraordinary amount of
time and energy to the administration of the program, which has
been key to its growth and expansion. They have served to fulfill
the mission of “enrich[ing] the experience of the entire
university” by infusing UCLA curricula and scholarly agendas
with Asian American Studies expertise. Recruitment and outreach
have led to critical masses for the development of innovative
teaching and research endeavors in Asian American literature (Cheung,
Ling, Wong, Shih, and Lee), along disciplinary lines (e.g., five
historians), as well as multidisciplinary areas of inquiry (e.g.,
public policy, research on Asian American elderly, etc.). There
is no question that the Asian American Studies faculty represents
one of the most significant and enduring institutional bridges
between the Center and IDP on one hand, and departments and professional
schools of UCLA on the other. Through teaching, research, and
professional and community services, the Asian American Studies
faculty at UCLA have gained wide recognitions nationally and internationally
(see below). Letters of commitment from the departments represented,
and short CVs of the faculty, are attached as Appendices C and
D respectively.
2.2 Accomplishments
Many of the faculty members in the program are
nationally and internationally recognized leaders and pioneers
in Asian American Studies research. The addition of new faculty
has enabled the rapid growth of the program, stabilized the offering
of core courses, and created courses and encouraged student research
representing the ethnic diversity of the Asian American population.
Senior faculty who hold joint institutional FTE appointments are
all authorities and prominent scholars in their respective fields:
King-Kok Cheung and Jinqi Ling on Asian American Literature, Valerie
Matsumoto on the history of Japanese Americans and Asian American
women, Don Nakanishi on Asian American politics and education,
Paul Ong on the labor market status of Asian immigrants, Robert
Nakamura on ethnocommunications, Stanley Sue (now in UC Davis)
on mental health of Asian Americans, Cindy Yee-Bradbury on schizophrenia
and Asian American mental health, and Min Zhou on Asian American
communities, immigration and immigrants’ children. In addition,
junior faculty who hold joint institutional FTE appointments have
also developed new courses and research areas for which they have
already gained wide recognitions. They include Korean American
experience (Kyeyoung Park), Filipino American experience (Pauline
Agbayani-Siewert), Asian American health issues (Marjorie Kagawa-Singer),
immigrant literature (Shu-mei Shih), immigrants and welfare (Wei-Yin
Hu), history of knowledge (Henry Yu), and Asian American creative
writing (David Wong Louie).
Program faculty who do not hold joint institutional
FTE appointments are active researchers on Asian American issues
and teach classes for the graduate and undergraduate programs.
Among their teaching and research specialties are acculturation
of Filipino Americans (Geraldine Padilla), Japanese organization
and management (William Ouchi), US-Philippines relations (Michael
Salman), ethnicity and aging (James Lubben), ethnicity in the
American city (Cindy Fan), Japanese Americans (Harry Kitano),
ethnicity and medical care (Emil Berkanovic), Asian Americans
and the law (Jerry Kang), history of Japanese Americans (Yuji
Ichioka), Korean American women and elderly (Ailee Moon), Chinese
law and government (James Tong), race, gender and public policy
(Shirley Hune), women's study and Asian American literature (Rachel
Lee), Japanese Americans and redress (Mitch Maki), and Asian immigration
(Lucie Cheng).
Many of the program’s faculty have been
nationally, internationally, and professionally recognized for
their achievements in scholarship, teaching, leadership, and community
service. Kyeyoung Park’s book, Korean American Dream, was
selected as the Outstanding Book in the Social Sciences by the
Association of Asian American Studies in 1998. The 1999 Thomas
and Znaniecki Award by the International Migration Section of
the American Sociological Association was given to Min Zhou’s
book, Growing Up American: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life
in the United States (co-authored with Carl Bankston), as the
best book published in the preceding two years. Shirley Hune was
past President of the Association for Asian American Studies,
and is Associate Dean of Graduate Division at UCLA. Valerie Matsumoto
recently received the OAH-JAAS Japan Residency at Tokyo University.
Robert Nakamura, founder and director of the Center for Ethnocommunications,
and director of the National Media Arts Center in the Japanese
American National Museum, was named the Endowed Chair in Japanese
American Studies. Don Nakanishi was appointed by President Clinton
to the Board of Directors of the Civil Liberties Public Education
Commission. The Japanese American Citizen’s League named
Harry Kitano Nisei of the Biennium. Wei-Yin Hu received a Hoover
Institution National Fellowship. William Ouchi was recently named
the Sanford and Betty Sigoloff Professor in Corporate Renewal
at the Anderson School of Management. Two years in a row, Asian
American Studies faculty (Jinqi Ling and Shu-mei Shih) were selected
as the Dean’s Marshal for the Division of Humanities. Jerry
Kang was recently named Outstanding Professor of the Year at the
Law School. Snehendu Kar was past Chair and Associate Dean of
the School of Public Health; Jim Lubben is Chair and Director
of the Department of Social Welfare, and past Dean of the School
of Social Welfare; Paul Ong is Director of the Lewis Center for
Public Policy, Research Director of the UCLA/LEAP (Leadership
Education for Asian Pacifics) Public Policy Institute, and past
Chair of the Department of Urban Planning; Geraldine Padilla is
Associate Dean of the School of Nursing; and King-Kok Cheung is
Director of the GE Cluster on “Interracial Dynamics in American
Culture, Society, and Literature.”
The faculty's other major accomplishment is excellence
in teaching. Both tenure-track faculty and temporary faculty in
the program have been effective and dedicated teachers, and the
quality of the program’s classes has been almost always
consistently high, as indicated by teaching evaluations summarized
in Appendix E. Positive feedback from students reflects not only
the professional skills of the instructors, but also their ability
to integrate research and community service experiences with class
materials. In addition, the faculty have played important roles
in nurturing student interests in Asian American issues in their
host departments, attracting students from traditional disciplines
to take classes or enter the MA program in Asian American Studies,
and facilitating our MA graduates to pursue PhD degrees in related
fields.
2.3 Challenges
and Difficulties
There are two challenges with regards to the
faculty in the program. As mentioned above, all the faculty who
held joint institutional appointments at the time of the last
review have received tenure, and four have been promoted to the
full professor rank. Of the 10 new joint institutional appointments
filled since the last review, three have received tenure. Junior
faculty still represent the majority of the faculty who hold joint
institutional appointments, although the former are all on track
to be reviewed for tenure in the next two or three years. Enlarging
the proportion of senior faculty members is critical for the continued
stability of the program. The program has provided support for
junior faculty in many ways. In the past several years, the IDP
and the Center have taken on more active and independent roles
in the faculty's tenure processes, including ad hoc committees
and full reviews representing the Asian American Studies faculty,
though most IDPs on campus did not usually undertake full personnel
reviews of their faculty. As several assistant professors have
begun or will begin soon their tenure processes, we expect that
in two or three years' time there will be more balanced proportions
of senior and junior faculty members.
The second
challenge is structural and will continue to exist even with more
tenured faculty members in the program. All of our faculty, and
especially those holding joint institutional positions, must assume
double roles. They teach undergraduate and graduate classes, advise
undergraduate and graduate students, serve on various committees,
and assume administrative duties both in Asian American Studies
and in their host departments. Despite the faculty's high level
of dedication to the program, their double roles put a heavy burden
on them, and the amount of time available to the program is less
than desirable because they are not expected to devote more than
half of their time to the program. To maintain the quality of
the program, especially given new developments such as the BA
and existing and future joint degree programs, the IDP would need
a departmental status and its own FTEs so that some of the faculty
can devote more of their time to the program. While a multiple
disciplinary composition will continue to be a major strength
of the program, core faculty holding FTEs with more than 50% of
their commitments to Asian American Studies will enable the program
to continue its growth trajectory and to meet increasing educational,
societal, and administrative demands.
3.
THE GRADUATE PROGRAM
3.1 Goals and Objectives
The first
degree program in Asian American Studies at UCLA was the MA program,
which was established in 1972 to foster two main goals: scholarship
and community service. The program's academic goal is to provide
advanced training to students who have sought a multidisciplinary
graduate level foundation in the “state of the art”
in the field of Asian American Studies in preparation for doctoral
studies in the humanities, social sciences, or professional schools
disciplines. These students have been encouraged to structure
their MA program focusing on coursework and research that will
facilitate their doctoral training. The program also had a commitment
to educating students who intend to work within or in relation
to Asian American communities, in social services agencies, museums,
or media groups, or to teach ethnic studies courses at secondary
and community college levels. The program provides these students,
for whom the MA is the terminal degree, with relevant academic
knowledge and opportunities for acquiring practical skills.
In addition,
the program also attracts students who have subsequently pursued
professional degrees, as well as those from abroad. Upon completing
the MA, foreign students have either begun PhD degree programs
or have returned to their countries as specialists on Asian American
communities.
The curriculum and requirements of the MA program are designed
to meet the above diverse interests. First, all students are provided
with a sound knowledge of the existing research on Asian Americans
and of the critical issues facing Asian American communities.
Second, the curriculum provides options for students to tailor
their program either to support entry into a doctoral or professional
degree program, to develop knowledge and conceptual skills related
to working in community agencies, or to acquire educational theory
that can prepare them for teaching positions in community colleges
as well as four-year institutions.
3.2 Structure
and Nature of the MA Program (see also Appendix F)
The graduate
program in Asian American Studies confers an MA degree upon completion
of (a) eleven courses and (b) a thesis or a written comprehensive
examination. At least seven of the minimum eleven courses must
be graduate level and focus on Asian American Studies topics.
The normative time to degree for the MA is two years.
Course requirements
are organized into three categories. The first category consists
of three core classes, namely, AAS 200A (Asian American History),
200B (Critical Issues in Asian American Communities), and 200C
(Critical Issues in Asian American Studies). The three consecutive
seminars entail a critical review of the literature on Asian Pacific
Americans in the United States, an in-depth examination of community
issues, and the development of alternative frameworks and hypotheses.
All students are required to satisfactorily complete the sequence.
Since the last review, these core courses have been restructured
with a more stable set of faculty teaching the classes, developing
more defined foci for the courses, and devoting a portion of 200C
to papers and research methods as bases for thesis research. During
the past five years, Professors Jinqi Ling (200B), Valerie Matsumoto
(200A), Don Nakanishi (200C), Kyeyoung Park (200B), Min Zhou (200B)
and Henry Yu (200A) have taught these seminars.
The second
category of courses constitutes the program's breadth requirement,
and involves graduate-level seminars (beyond the core 200A-C series)
in Asian American Studies, as well as graduate courses in other
departments taught by program faculty. In recent years, classes
on topics ranging from “Theories of Asian Immigration”
to “Social Policies for Asian American Families and Youths”
have been offered. For a graduate seminar in the faculty member's
home department to be included in this category, the course content
must include Asian Americans. For example, Professor Nakanishi
teaches a research seminar on “Asian Americans and Education”
in the Graduate School of Education, and Professor Jerry Kang
teaches “Asian American Jurisprudence” at the Law
School. Other graduate seminars that are not taught by program
faculty may also be included in this category upon recommendation
of the IDP Committee. For example, the Center/IDP requires that
all recipients of the annual postdoctoral fellowships from the
Institute of American Cultures that the Center administers teach
a graduate seminar in their area of specialization. Former fellows
like Dorrine Kondo of Pomona College (now USC), Dorothy Fujita-Rony
(UC Irvine), Diane Fujino (UCSB) and Dana Takagi (UCSC) have all
taught graduate seminars. Also, in Fall 1998, N.V.M. Gonzalez,
the Philippines' foremost creative writer in English and the recipient
of the prestigious 1998-99 Regents Professorship at UCLA (affiliated
with Asian American Studies and English) taught a graduate seminar
on Filipino American literature.
The third
category of courses comprises classes in the specialty area chosen
by the student and approved by the thesis or examination committee.
Two of these courses may be independent study courses (500 series).
In addition
to coursework, MA students are required to complete a written
comprehensive examination or a thesis (Plan A or B). The written
examination and Plan B options were developed since the last review,
aimed at improving time-to-degree and enhancing the community
studies goal of the program. The written examination is normally
offered during the second quarter of the MA program, and is administered
by a committee of three faculty members. Students choosing to
write a thesis can select Plan A, which entails independent scholarly
research on the historical and contemporary experiences of Asian
Americans; or Plan B, which involves a field research thesis on
practical applications of their knowledge in the community. At
the conclusion of the first year in residence, the student is
responsible for recommending three faculty members to serve on
the thesis committee. The committee supervises the student's work
and conducts an oral examination upon completion and approval
of the thesis. The vast majority of students have pursued Plan
A during the period under review.
3.3 Joint
Degree Programs
The program
has developed and is currently developing joint degree programs
with a select group of professional schools, for the purpose of
providing systematic community service training, in addition to
the training provided by individual classes, and of addressing
the recommendations of the 1987-1988 review. The Concurrent Degree
Program for an MA in Asian American Studies and an MPH in the
Department of Community Health Sciences in the School of Public
Health was approved in Winter 1998. Professor Marjorie Kagawa-Singer
is Director of the joint degree program. One student is now enrolled
in it, and another has been admitted for the 1990-2000 academic
year. The IDP is in the process of submitting a proposal for a
joint degree program in Asian American Studies and Social Welfare,
which is supported with unanimous endorsements from the faculties
in both programs. Three graduate students in the past two years
have been working on articulated degrees in Asian American Studies
and Social Welfare, while another has pursued an articulated degree
in Asian American Studies and Urban Planning. Proposals to establish
joint degree programs with Law, Urban Planning, and Library and
Information Science are currently being developed. All of the
current and proposed joint MA degree programs have tenure-track
faculty members who are part of the IDP faculty.
3.4 The Graduate
Students
3.4.1 Recruitment,
Admissions and Enrollment
Since the
last review, the program has increased efforts in recruiting talented
and diverse cohorts of graduate students, through mailing of brochures
to colleges and universities with large numbers of students potentially
interested in a graduate degree in Asian American Studies, outreach
efforts in annual conferences of the Association of Asian American
Studies and the Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education state-wide
conferences, and most of all active personal contacts by faculty
members with prospective graduate students. These efforts have
generated a tremendous increase in the number of applications,
from 14 in 1987-88 to 52 in 1998-99 (Appendix G1), and recruited
students who seek to do research, teach, or professionally serve
communities and issue-areas of the Asian Pacific American population
that have not been documented, analyzed, or assisted in the past.
During the period under review, graduate students with interests
in Filipino, Pacific Islander, Vietnamese, Cambodian, South Asian
and Hmong Americans have been recruited, trained, and have graduated
from the program. Expansion of the graduate program has also resulted
in a steady increase in enrollment (Appendix G2).
An Admissions
Committee, consisting of two to three faculty members, the graduate
advisor, and one graduate student, reviews applications to the
program and makes recommendations for admission or denial. In
addition to meeting the general requirements of Graduate Division,
applicants are expected to present evidence of a genuine interest
in Asian American Studies, through courses taken at the undergraduate
level, research papers, or previous work in an Asian American
community.
Since the
last review, the program has sought to increase the number of
new registrants to the MA program from approximately 6 to about
12 per year. The program seeks to maintain the present level,
which would translate into about 24 students in residence during
any one academic year on the basis of a normative two-year time-to-degree
(Appendix G3). The IDP Committee believes that this is an appropriate
class size given the joint responsibilities of the IDP faculty,
and the limited funding the program receives from the College
and Graduate Division for graduate students (see below). The program
has been successful in recruiting top candidates, as evidenced
by high ratios of registrants to admissions in recent years (62.5%
and 85.7% for 1997-98 and 1998-99 respectively) (Appendix G1).
Together with declining ratios of admissions to applicants (from
50% in 1987-88 to 26.9% in 1998-99), they show that the graduate
program has improved in selectivity and recruitment success.
3.4.2 Financial
Aid
A majority
of our graduate students have received some type of financial
support. In addition to the university's regular program of financial
aid, students in Asian American Studies are supported through
fellowships and assistantships administered by or endowed in the
Asian American Studies Center, the Institute of American Cultures
fellowships and research grants, workstudy grants, student research
assistantships, and teaching assistantships (TA) positions. Graduate
students are also eligible for the Graduate Opportunity Fellowship
administered by the Graduate Division, and one to two students
usually receive this award annually. Funding is crucial in keeping
the quality of the entering class consistently high and keeping
the graduate program competitive with other masters and doctoral
programs. Though the quality of our program has been the key factor
of our success in recruiting top candidates, some of our best
candidates (two out of six this year) have chosen to enter doctoral
programs that offer higher levels of funding. Limited funding
to continuing students has also negatively affected their time-to-degree
(see 3.5.1 and 3.5.2).
3.4.3 Advising
Academic
advising is provided both by the program's faculty and by the
staff of the Asian American Studies Center. The Admissions Committee
matches each admitted student with a faculty sponsor, based on
mutual interests as determined by the student's statement of purpose
and previous work in Asian American Studies. The faculty sponsor
is responsible for providing supervision and guidance during the
first year. Thereafter, the student is free to select the chair
and two other faculty for the thesis committee. Many have asked
their first-year faculty sponsors to be the chairs of their thesis
committees. Additional support is provided by the IDP's Vice Chair
who is the faculty graduate advisor, the Center's Assistant Director
who serves as the program's graduate advisor, and the Center's
Administrative Assistant for Curriculum who advises on administrative
matters.
Graduate
students in the Asian American Studies program have had a history
of forming close associations with each other and have utilized
such networks for mutual support, information exchange, and providing
advice for new students. The students are formally organized as
the Asian American Studies Graduate Students Association, which
elects the student representatives for the various committees
administering the MA program.
3.4.4 Accomplishments
UCLA has
been one of the two major sites (with UC Berkeley) for the graduate
training of scholars for the field of Asian American Studies during
the past three decades, and annually produces more MA theses and
doctoral dissertations on Asian American Studies topics than any
university. This is due to the quality of the Asian American Studies
program as well as the large number of Asian American Studies
specialists on the UCLA faculty. Between the 1988-89 and 1997-98
academic years, the MA program graduated 56 students. Appendix
H includes a list of the theses completed between 1988 and 1998,
which are available at the Asian American Studies Reading Room
and the Charles E. Young Research Library on campus. The thesis
topics vary widely, reflecting the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary
nature of the faculty and the diverse interests of the students,
and cover history, literature, political science, sociology, anthropology,
planning, education, art, music, film, theater, women's study,
and gender and sexuality. About one-third of the theses deal with
historical subjects, and the rest contemporary issues. Many are
pioneering works in previously unexplored terrain for the field
of Asian American Studies and are subsequently used and cited
by other scholars. A number of theses have served as the foundation
for refereed articles, creative projects and public policy reports,
and several have received academic accolades. For example, Eiichiro
Azuma's article, “Racial Struggle, Immigrant Nationalism,
and Ethnic Identity: Japanese and Filipinos in the California
Delta, 1930-1941,” Pacific Historical Review, 67:2 (May
1998), pp. 163-199, which is based on his MA thesis, was the 1998
recipient of the W. Turrentine Jackson Prize for the outstanding
research article written by a graduate student to appear in the
Pacific Historical Review. At the same time, five of the nine
graduate students from across the country who were selected as
National Fellows of the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund
in 1998 and received $10,000 fellowships to pursue original research
on the World War II imprisonment of 120,000 Japanese Americans
were current or former students in the MA Program. No other university
had more than one recipient.
As shown
in Appendix I, students of the MA program have been actively recruited
by highly ranked PhD programs at many of the nation's finest private
and public institutions, including Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, Chicago,
U Massachusetts at Amherst, Michigan, UC San Diego, MIT, Columbia,
and UCLA. More than half of the program’s graduates have
pursued doctoral training, and many have gained faculty appointments
and are becoming leading scholars in a range of fields, including
Asian American Studies. Professor Masako Notoji, one of the early
graduates of the MA program, is the chair of American Studies
at the University of Tokyo, Japan's leading university. Karen
Umemoto, who pursued a PhD at MIT, is Assistant Professor of Urban
and Regional Planning at University of Hawai’i in Manoa.
Grace Hong, who pursued doctoral studies in English at UC San
Diego, was recently hired to be the first Asian Americanist at
Princeton. Many of the program's graduates have taught at community
and four-year liberal arts institutions, including Professor Susie
Ling, the chair of Asian American Studies at Pasadena City College.
At the same time, graduates of the MA program have become active
and recognized leaders in a number of Asian American community-based
organizations, civil rights groups, and museums (e.g., the Chief
Curator, Registrar, Director of Oral History programs, and other
staff of the Japanese American National Museum are all alumni
of the MA program, as is the External Affairs Director for the
East-West Players Theater group), as well as in labor unions (e.g.,
Nate Santa Maria and John Delorro), media organizations (e.g.,
Jeff Chang of Colorlines), foundations (e.g., Leslie Ito of the
Ford Foundation) and government agencies (e.g., Jennifer Lee Anderson
of the Orange County Human Relations Commission; Gina Inocencio).
Several MA graduates have become prominent in their Asian homelands
like Xiaolin Li, who is the director of the Institute of the Americas
in Beijing, People's Republic of China, and Daekyun Chung, a prolific,
award-winning writer who focuses on the plight of the Korean minority
in Japan. These career paths show that the Asian American Studies
MA Program has been fulfilling its goals of preparing individuals
for further studies in doctoral programs, for teaching ethnic
studies courses at community colleges and universities, and for
providing leadership in the community and public sector.
3.5 Challenges and Difficulties
3.5.1 Financial
Aid
Despite the
increasing demands on the MA program, annual fellowship funding
from Graduate Division has only increased incrementally to keep
up with rising costs, and the number of graduate fellowship awards
the program is able to offer to incoming students remains at four
per year. The typical award is small, averaging about $8,000 per
student, which covers registration fees plus a token stipend,
and is far less than the typical amount of financial need. Together
with Graduate Opportunity Fellowships that are awarded to on average
one to two incoming students a year, the program is only able
to provide partial financial support to about half of the incoming
students. Limited funding and the lack of multi-year packages
may negatively impact the program's competitiveness for top candidates
in the future.
The program
is particularly concerned about the limited funds available for
TAships. They provide valuable teaching experience and financial
support for students. However, the College's allocations have
remained at 1.0 to 1.5 FTE, which supports six to nine students
to TA for only one quarter during the year. Most graduate students,
incoming or continuing, must rely on multiple or other full-time
jobs while working on their degrees. Clearly, the current funding
for TAships is far less than what is required to sustain the rapid
growth of our undergraduate and graduate programs, whose enrollments
have respectively tripled and doubled during the past ten years
(Appendix G2).
At the same
time, many of the MA students have been given opportunities to
be research assistants for our faculty who receive grants from
the Center or other extramural and campus sources, and many have
worked part-time with the Center on research projects, archival
cataloging and library work, or student and community projects.
A number of MA students, for example, have worked as research
assistants in the four highly acclaimed national public policy
studies of the joint UCLA Asian American Studies Center-LEAP (Leadership
Education for Asian Pacifics) public policy research program,
and several have written chapters in those reports (e.g., Suzanne
Hee, Jen Lee, Teresa Cenidoza, Craig Hyun). Many students also
have played a major role in cataloging several major archival
collections which the Center acquired during the period under
review (e.g., Suzanne Hee and the East-West Players Theater Collection;
Ellen Wu and the Yuri Kochiyama Collection). Other MA students
have worked in groups on arts and humanities projects that were
undertaken by three of the Associate Directors of the Center during
the period under review (e.g., Professors King-Kok Cheung, Valerie
Matsumoto, and Robert Nakamura's projects on Asian American writers,
Asian American women's history, and Asian American video documentation,
respectively). Finally, the MA students have been successful during
the period under review in receiving research grants to undertake
their thesis projects from over $25,000 in research funds, which
the Center administers as part of UCLA's Institute of American
Cultures, a funding body composed of the four ethnic studies centers.
To supplement
fellowship funds which are allocated to the IDP by the Graduate
Division, the Center has set a goal of raising $2 million in fellowship
funds as part of its $10 million development campaign. Currently,
there is approximately a million dollars in graduate fellowship
and research funds in the Center's overall endowment, although
students from across the campus can apply. Increased funding for
incoming and continuing students is crucial for maintaining the
quality and competitiveness of the MA program, especially given
the anticipated increase of graduate students in response to new
joint degree programs, and for improving the time-to-degree of
graduate students (see below).
3.5.2 Time
to Degree
While most
students were able to complete the MA in less than three years
(Appendix G4), some took a longer time to finish. But there have
been significant improvements in recent years, e.g., eight of
the twelve students who entered the MA program in 1996 finished
within the normative time to degree. A closer examination of the
time-to-degree data, and feedback from past and present graduate
students, suggest several reasons for possible delays. First,
a number of students have begun their PhD programs or other endeavors
without first completing their MA degrees and theses. Several
students left the program temporarily for personal reasons, e.g.,
raising a family, before returning to finish the thesis. This
accounts for the high median years-to-completion rates for 1995-96
and 1996-97. Second, some students have difficulties formulating
or completing a thesis within two years. Many of our MA students
have worked in previously unexplored terrains in Asian American
Studies, and they have upheld very high standards for quality
and originality for their theses. One student, for example, painstakingly
catalogued 25,000 visual images as part of the thesis research.
While the faculty are keen on encouraging our students to undertake
original research, the program needs to explore ways to help accelerate
the process of thesis formulation and writing. The third difficulty
relates to the lack of funding, which was described above. Most
graduate students in the program must hold off-campus and multiple
jobs while enrolling in the program, which inevitably prolongs
the process of completing the degree. Finally, due to the structure
of the IDP, which does not have its own FTEs or faculty appointments
with more than 50% responsibility, all program faculty must play
double roles in the IDP and in their host departments. A departmental
status, with some core faculty with >50% or full-time teaching
and administrative commitments to Asian American Studies, will
further accelerate the program progress of MA students.
3.5.3 Curriculum
During the
period under review, core graduate classes have been restructured,
and graduate seminars have increased in number and diversity,
reflecting the increase of program faculty. The faculty and graduate
students have identified two areas that need to be strengthened,
both raised and discussed in the Spring 1999 curriculum conference.
One area is the training of graduate students in public policy
and community service. The program is committed to expanding internship
opportunities and placements sites in relation to courses and
independent studies, and to develop project- and field-oriented
courses which not only train students' practical research skills
but also provide service to community agencies. Many of the MA
students, as mentioned previously, have gained invaluable research
and professional experiences in working with Professors Paul Ong,
Don Nakanishi, and others on several major policy studies of the
Asian American Studies Center's joint public policy program with
the LEAP program. At the same time, during the period under review,
MA students had opportunities to work on large-scale classroom
projects in Asian American Studies graduate seminars that resulted
in presentations at professional conferences and community forums,
as well as publications. These included a project on the multifaceted
roles of Asian Americans in Los Angeles' garment industry, which
was undertaken with Visiting Professor Edna Bonacich of UC Riverside;
another on media portrayals of Asian Americans during the 1992
Los Angeles civil unrest with Visiting Professor Edward Chang,
an alumnus of the MA program and now an Associate Professor at
UC Riverside; and a pathbreaking study of poverty among Asian
Pacifics that was conducted with Professor Paul Ong. The new and
proposed joint MA programs will offer increased opportunities
for gaining professionally-oriented, policy-related, and practice-centered
training and experience. In addition, the Asian American Studies
faculty have been encouraging the MA students to write field research
theses (Plan B), and more generally to acquire a full, accurate
and multifaceted understanding of the diverse and dynamic dimensions
of contemporary Asian Pacific American communities.
Another area
that graduate students have expressed need for is TA training.
Currently the program provides a TA orientation, and TA training
through the annual workshop organized by the Office of Instructional
Development (OID). But the limited allocations from the College
provide only one quarter of TAship to six to nine students per
year. For many students, opportunities to gain teaching experience
are simply not available. Nor is there funding for more long-term
and substantial TA training programs (including a TA Consultant
position that is offered to most regular departments). Expanding
opportunities to TA, and increased funding for TA positions and
TA training, are especially important for the MA program, since
a large proportion of the graduates will pursue teaching positions
after obtaining the MA or after doctoral training. As pointed
out earlier, increased TA funding is also necessary for the program
to further increase its ability to recruit top students.
4.
THE UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM
4.1 History,
Goals, and Objectives
The first
class in Asian American Studies at UCLA, entitled “Orientals
in America” and taught by Yuji Ichioka, was offered by the
Asian American Studies Center in 1969. Currently, the undergraduate
program in Asian American Studies administers a major, a minor
and a specialization. The establishment of a BA degree program
in Asian American Studies had been part of the Campus Academic
Plan since 1989. But the actual implementation took place only
after the ladder faculty in Asian American Studies had substantially
increased and diversified, and after there was a sufficient range
and number of courses to sustain the BA program. The proposal
for an undergraduate major in Asian American Studies was submitted
by the Asian American Studies IDP and Asian American Studies Center
in Spring 1993, after a year-long investigation of the feasibility
of and demand for the program conducted by Professor Stanley Sue.
It was approved and the BA program was established during the
1994-95 academic year.
The BA in
Asian American Studies is intended to offer a coherent and comprehensive
undergraduate curriculum, with the primary goal of communicating
the experiences of Asians and Pacific Islanders as an American
ethnic group. There are three specific objectives. First, the
program aims at preparing students for positions of service and
leadership in Asian American communities. Second, it will address
the hitherto neglected aspects of the cultural, historical, political,
and social experiences of Asian Pacific Americans, thereby broadening
the curriculum at UCLA to reflect the conditions of Asians and
other ethnic groups. Third, it will serve to prepare students
for advanced degrees in Asian American Studies, ethnic studies,
or other disciplines.
In addition
to the major, the program administers a minor and a specialization,
both designed for students who are enrolled in another major but
who wish to also gain understanding of and competence in Asian
American Studies. The undergraduate specialization was established
in 1987-88. The new minor, which aims at providing greater recognition
to students who have taken a significant number of classes in
Asian American Studies, was approved and established in Winter
1998. It is intended to replace the specialization, so that after
Winter 2000 the undergraduate program will consist of only the
major and the minor.
4.2 Structure and Nature of the Undergraduate Program (see also
Appendix J)
The BA in
Asian American Studies requires a total of 13 upper division courses
and one lower division course, including the core courses 99 (History
of Asians in America) and 100 (Contemporary Asian American Communities),
one research methods course, two Asian American theme courses,
two courses focusing on an Asian Pacific American ethnic specific
group, two ethnic/race/gender relations courses, two courses on
the history/culture/social or political institutions of Asia,
and three elective courses selected from Asian American Studies
or the approved list of interdepartmental courses. At least seven
of the courses taken for the major must be from the approved list
of interdepartmental courses (available in the program office
each term). Students must also demonstrate proficiency equivalent
to the completion of a one-year course of study in an Asian language
prior to graduation. No more than eight units of course 199 (independent
studies) may be applied toward the major.
Six courses
are required for the specialization in Asian American Studies,
while the minor requires a total of seven courses. For the minor,
the requirement includes the two core courses 99 and 100, one
Asian American theme course, one course focusing on an Asian Pacific
American ethnic specific group, and three elective courses selected
from Asian American Studies or the approved list of interdepartmental
courses. No more than four units in the 199 series may be applied
toward the minor.
4.3 Enrollment
In only four
years since the BA's establishment, the number of majors in Asian
American Studies has quintupled, from 14 in 1994-95 to 75 in Spring
1999 (Appendix G3). Between the 1994-95 and 1997-98 academic years,
a total of 52 BA degrees were awarded. In the first year of the
minor's establishment (1997-98), the number of students has already
reached 54. And although official tallies are not made of students
who pursue specializations at UCLA, it is estimated that over
250 students specialized in Asian American Studies annually.
The program
currently offers 40 to 50 undergraduate classes every year, the
vast majority of which are solely Asian American Studies classes
that are not cross-listed. Since the last review, the enrollment
in Asian American Studies undergraduate classes has increased
from 691 student credit hours (SCH) (3-quarter average) in 1987-88
to 2,146 SCH (3-quarter average) in 1997-98 (Appendix G2). If
total enrollments in cross-listed classes were counted (and not
just those enrolled through Asian American Studies), there would
be over 3,000 SCH. Of the other major institutions with programs
and courses on Asian American Studies, only UC Irvine has a similar
level of undergraduate enrollment. The tremendous increase in
enrollment at UCLA is also due to the success of the program's
classes in attracting students who are neither majors nor minors,
and reflects the continued rise in interest in Asian American
Studies among the student population.
4.4 Expanded
Curriculum
Dramatic
and significant growth of Asian American Studies in the last ten
years has enabled the IDP to expand the range of courses in the
undergraduate program. New and cross-listed courses include Asian
American Literature (English), Asian Pacific Americans and Community
Development, Asian American Diaspora in Cultural Context, Investigative
Journalism (Afro-American Studies), Chinese Immigrant Literature
and Film (EALC, Comparative Literature), Race and Racism, Asian
American Mental Health, and Asian Pacific Islanders Health Issues,
among others.
Since the
BA was implemented in Winter 1995, the curriculum development
activities have been directed in two areas. First, the program
continues to develop new courses and address the need for increasing
the diversity of courses. The IDP has pioneered special courses
on Asian American Gender and Sexuality (to be cross-listed with
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies), Video Ethnography,
Investigative Journalism and Communities of Color, Pacific Islander
experiences, Thai American experiences, Cambodian American experiences
and South Asian American experiences. Second, although the bulk
of classes that the IDP offers are taught by tenure-track faculty,
the program continues to hire leading experts and lecturers to
teach classes on their areas of expertise. For example, Angelo
Oh, who was appointed by President Clinton to the advisory board
of the “Initiative on Race,” taught two classes on
Race in America. Stewart Kwoh, the Executive Director of the Asian
Pacific Legal Center, teaches Asian Americans and the Law. Nobu
McCarthy, former Artistic Director for the East-West Players,
is one of the IDP's most popular teachers, and teaches annually
a class on Asian American theater. Third, the program has streamlined
the core courses, by omitting 21 from the required list, and by
renumbering the core courses to 99 (formerly 100A) and 100 (formerly
100B).
Other developments
since the last review include the offering of approximately five
summer session classes annually (enrollments typically exceeding
50), as well as a joint summer program with the American Studies
Department at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, entitled
“Asian Pacific American Communities of Hawai’i.”
The latter involves both classroom instruction and field studies
and internships in Asian American community organizations in Honolulu.
Approximately 30 students annually have enrolled in the Hawai’i
program. Both summer endeavors have been highly successful. In
addition, the Center's Student and Community Project has enhanced
the internships and field studies programs in the Los Angeles
areas for undergraduate students.
4.5 Financial
Aid
Scholarships
are a fundamental part of the undergraduate program, encouraging
the study of the Asian Pacific American population, and the training
of future scholars, community leaders and professionals. Each
year, new scholarships are made available through generous support
of private individual and association donors that have supported
the Asian American Studies Center's campaign efforts. Currently,
over $1 million in endowment funds at the Center are for undergraduate
scholarships, research funds, and community-oriented internships.
4.6 Accomplishments
of Undergraduate Students
Overall, since
1969, the undergraduate program in Asian American Studies at UCLA
has sought to enrich UCLA's undergraduate curriculum and its overall
undergraduate experience “by contributing to an understanding
of the long neglected history, rich cultural heritage, and present
position of Asian Americans in our society.” Students who
have enrolled in or pursued undergraduate degrees in Asian American
Studies have been highly visible and respected leaders and participants
in a wide range of campus programs and activities from student
government (e.g., several student body presidents have majored
or specialized in Asian American Studies) to student publications
(e.g., writers and editors for the Daily Bruin, Pacific Ties,
etc.). They also have continued to play significant roles in encouraging
the IDP to offer innovative classes, and have worked with faculty
in developing many classes which were the first of their kind
in the nation (e.g., students working with Professor Don Nakanishi
in organizing a class on Pacific Islanders, or with Professor
Snehendu Kar on a class on Indo-Americans). They have also contributed
to the research and publications agenda of the Center. A book
of speeches and writings from the archives of human rights activist
Yuri Kochiyama, who donated her remarkable collection of personal
papers to the Center, was compiled by undergraduate students in
the program. Similarly, undergraduate students have always served
as research assistants for two of the Center's most well-known
and practical publications -- the annual Asian Pacific American
Community Directory, which lists over 900 Asian Pacific American
organizations in Southern California, and the National Asian Pacific
American Political Almanac, which is the most comprehensive guide
to the electoral participation and representation of Asian Pacific
Americans across the nation.
Finally, the
current generation of Asian American Studies undergraduate students
have maintained an extraordinary, three-decade tradition of forging
linkages between the UCLA campus and the rapidly growing and diverse
communities of the Asian Pacific American population of Southern
California. They have done so through field internships, joint
projects, volunteer activities, and publications in both long-established
and recently developed communities in the region. As a result,
we have very high hopes and expectations that our current generation
of students in the undergraduate program will continue to make
meaningful contributions to the Southern California region, American
society, and the world in many different walks of life in the
future. Many of the most significant and influential community-based
organizations like the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and
the Chinatown Service Center were founded by UCLA alumni who were
involved in Asian American Studies while they were undergraduates.
At the same time, a “Who's Who” of local and national
leaders are products of the undergraduate program in Asian American
Studies at UCLA like Judy Chu, Mayor of Monterey Park, California;
Stewart Kwoh, recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius”
award; Angela Oh, Member, President's Advisory Commission on Race;
and Dolly Gee, nominated to the U.S. Federal Court by President
Bill Clinton.
4.7 Challenges
and Future Plans
One of the
issues that was raised in the Spring 1999 curriculum conference
was the need to increase interethnic and comparative ethnic courses
in the undergraduate program. Ethnic/race/gender relations courses
are indeed part of the BA requirements, and the IDP has continued
to offer courses on interethnic and comparative ethnic issues,
such as Investigative Journalism and Communities of Color (cross-listed
with Afro-American Studies), Race and Racism, Leadership Development,
Race in America, and Representing Race: Ethnography and History
in Film and the Visual Arts. The program is committed to expanding
the number of cross-listed courses (e.g., a current initiative
is to cross-list the Asian American Gender and Sexuality course
with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies IDP),
developing more courses on gender, ethnicity, and interethnic
and comparative ethnic issues, and organizing more collaborations
with other ethnic studies programs on teaching these courses.
An example of these efforts is the GE cluster on “Interracial
Dynamics in American Culture, Society, and Literature,”
pioneered and directed by IDP faculty King-Kok Cheung (English
and Asian American Studies) and supported by Henry Yu (History
and Asian American Studies) and faculty in Afro-American Studies
(Professors Richard Yarborough of English and Kimberle Crenshaw
of the Law School).
Other future
plans for the undergraduate program include a proposal for establishing
an honors program, courses on Asian American historiography, oral
history, video ethnography theory, an ethnocommunications cluster
and a public policy cluster.
5.
ISSUES AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE
5.1 Summary
of Challenges for the Faculty and the Graduate and Undergraduate
Programs
As mentioned
previously in this self-review, the two issues that the faculty
face are increasing the proportion of tenured individuals, which
we anticipate will take place shortly, and exploring ways to allow
the faculty to devote more time to the program. The latter is
related to larger structural problems and will be further elaborated
in 5.4. Challenges for the graduate program include increasing
financial support for graduate students, improving the MA's time
to degree, and expanding the curriculum on community and TA training.
The main challenge for the undergraduate program is to develop
more interethnic and comparative ethnic courses.
5.2 Increased
Demands on the Program
The program
faces the challenge of keeping pace with the rapid changes occurring
outside the University. The program was created so that the University
could address both the academic and community needs of the Asian
Pacific American population in Los Angeles and throughout the
state and nation. In the eleven years since the last review, these
needs have escalated with a dramatic increase in the diversity
and size of the Asian American population. Nearly 40% of the 35,000
UCLA students are Asian Pacific Americans. In 1998 there were
more than 10 million Asian Pacific Americans across the country,
with the majority being immigrants. Increased diversity among
them in the past two decades is marked by the growing numbers
of Southeast Asian immigrants and refugees. It is estimated that
today 12% of California's population are Asian Pacific Americans.
Southern California has the largest and most diverse Asian Pacific
American population with more than 1.5 million residents. In the
context of these rapid demographic growth and changes, the role
of the Asian American Studies IDP at UCLA is all the more important,
and on the other hand the additional educational and societal
demands on the program are all the more pressing. The resources
and IDP status issues, detailed below, must be resolved before
the program can continue to grow to meet these increasing demands.
5.3 Resources
Despite the
increasing interest in Asian American Studies at UCLA, the subsequent
expansion in course offerings and the establishment of the undergraduate
major, minor, and joint MA degree programs, the IDP receives only
about $7,000 of permanent funding per year from the College of
Letters and Science. Though in the past two years another $50,000
of temporary funding has been allocated to the program, the total
amount is still far less than what is required to administer the
largest, and rapidly growing, Asian American Studies program in
the nation. In terms of space, only one small room is allocated
by the College for the use by the IDP. The Asian American Studies
Center estimates that between the 1991-92 and 1998-99 academic
years it has devoted $700,000 in staff time, supplies and equipment,
and other expenses, as well as office spaces, to the BA and MA
programs. This issue was identified as one of the most serious
ones facing the Center in its previous three reviews (1985, 1990,
1995).
5.4 The IDP-ORU
Issue
The relations
between the IDP and the ORU is a long-standing concern, which
is a funding issue and is also a structural problem that must
be resolved in order for the Asian American Studies program at
UCLA to reach its full potential. Resolving the structural problem
involves both the Chancellor's Office and the College. Previous
proposals to remove the IDP from the ORU, or to create an umbrella
structure involving all four ethnic studies centers, do not seem
tenable or desirable. In fact, the ad-hoc committee of a recent
five-year review of the ORU that concluded in Spring 1997 did
not favor either proposal.
Over the
past several years the faculty in Asian American Studies have
studied various options proposed for resolving the IDP-ORU issue,
and have expressed a strong sentiment favoring keeping them as
separate administrative units, maintaining the important synergistic
relationships between the IDP and ORU that have been key to the
achievements of Asian American Studies at UCLA, and upgrading
the IDP into a department. Several compelling reasons have convinced
the faculty that departmentalization is the most appropriate strategy
for enhancing Asian American Studies and resolving existing issues
in the program. First, the size of the program, in terms of faculty,
courses, enrollment, and degree programs, is already bigger than
many other departments at UCLA. Second, a departmental structure
would allow some of our faculty to devote more time to the program,
by increasing their percent appointment in Asian American Studies.
Third, a departmental structure would also facilitate future expansion
of the program through recruitment of faculty to fill its FTEs
when they become available. Fourth, the program will continue
to maintain its interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary focus
and connections to other fields, via a structure where a large
proportion of faculty will continue to hold joint appointments.
This is the model that recently established Departments of Statistics
and Comparative Literature have adopted. Fifth, a departmental
structure would facilitate the administering of new and future
joint MA degree programs with professional schools. And finally,
given the department status of several other prominent Asian American
Studies programs (UC Santa Barbara, San Francisco State University,
California State University-Northridge), departmentalization is
necessary for the Asian American Studies program at UCLA to remain
competitive in the field, especially in terms of faculty recruitment
and retention, and of attracting talented graduate students.
