Two new majors in the Asian and Asian American studies department were proposed and carried, or passed, during Wednesday’s meeting of the Harpur College Council.
The topic of adding Korean and Japanese majors was brought up through new business and was met with questions regarding the amount of faculty available to support both majors.
The council is made up of 55 percent faculty, 32 percent undergraduate students, 8 percent administration staff and 5 percent graduate students.
The motions carried unanimously and will now be sent to the Faculty Senate for approval. If approved, an announcement will be sent out to all State University of New York schools for additional approval, and then will eventually be sent to Albany for state approval.
In each part of the process, viewers will receive a typed packet known as “Appendix B,” which includes different sample curriculum, money needed, professors and anything else one may need to know about the major in order to approve it.
A Chinese major was also proposed last year and still requires Albany’s approval. However, all three are expected to make their debut in fall 2010, according to Michael Pettid, professor of pre-modern Korean studies and chair of the Asian and Asian American studies department.
Currently, students with a strong passion for Asia have the option of choosing a major in Asian and Asian American Studies with specialization concentrations in Korean, Chinese and Japanese.
“The new majors will be more language and cultural intensive instead of being more overarching in trying to understand Asia as a whole,” said Pettid.
There will also be a new language requirement that will require students to complete a third year, instead of the current two.
If approved, Binghamton University will be the only school with a Korean studies major in the northeastern United States.
Pettid expects a good response for all three new majors and hopes to keep expanding the Asian and Asian American studies department in the future.
“Asia is pretty exciting. There is a lot of opportunity for people who want to study things like international law and international business,” Pettid said. “It’s smart for us as SUNY and Binghamton in general to expand what we can give you guys.”
Don Nieman, dean of Harpur College and chair of the Harpur College Council, is also looking forward to the expansion of the Asian and Asian American studies department.
“Asia is absolutely critical with the direction the world is moving. [It] is a place where there is a lot going on in politics, business and creative work … something that is driving the contemporary world. For students to understand the world, they have to understand Asia in a way that, 20 years ago, this University and most others didn’t do.”
Nieman continues to support the expanding language department and stresses its importance in the real world.
“One of things Binghamton is really excellent about is offering students an international experience,” he said. “We have a wonderful range of classes and languages, which helps them to study and learn about the larger world in which they live.”