College appoints two Asian-American teachers

Students want to see progress continue

Two recent appointments in the history and sociology departments reflect the growing pressure from faculty and staff to include Asian-American issues in the college curriculum.

Students are optimistic about the appointments, but do not want progress to stop with the one-year positions.

"I'm glad [about the appointments], but they are temporary, and there is no guarantee of permanence by the college," Christine Ham, sophomore, said. Ham is on the Asian-American Curricular Issues Task Force as well as the Asian-American Studies Student Committee.

The task force was responsible for appointing Linda Trinh Vo to the sociology department. It was established to integrate Asian-American issues into the existing curricula.

Ham said she felt the task force had fulfilled its agenda by hiring Vo. The Committee, though, will continue to push for long-term commitment.

"There is an interest in establishing continuing positions," said Bill Norris, chair of the task force and professor of sociology, "but that has to go through the procedures. There was no assumption or push [from the Task Force] for an Asian-American Studies Curricular Committee...Our goal was to hire people to teach courses and get them into the curriculum."

Vo will be replacing Assistant Professors of Sociology Veljko Vujacic and Clovis White during their leaves next year. The task force received financial support for the appointment from President Nancy Dye.

Norris described Vo's work as path breaking, noting that it was the first community study of this issue. Norris said he is delighted with Vo.

Vo will teach five courses this fall.

The history department, independent of the task force, has hired Benson Tong as a one-year replacement for the position vacated by the resignation of Camille Guerrin-Gonzalez last year.

"[Tong] is exciting to us because of his rich cultural background, and the diversity of courses that he'll be teaching," Professor of History Clayton Koppes said.

Koppes, who is also on the task force, was optimistic about establishing a permanent position after this year.

"Getting permanent slots is always difficult at the college, but I'm optimistic that the faculty will come to see the intellectual, demographic, and cultural importance of this area," Koppes said.

Tong will teach classes dealing with Asian-American history, Native American history, and gay and lesbian history.

"The point was always to get Asian-American issues into the curriculum," said Norris. "It seemed clear from Asian-American students that this was a very important issue, not only for them, but for everyone."

"I am very excited about having these three people here next year," said Koppes. "I think that it is crucial to the future of this institution to respond to Asian-American issues. Asian-American issues are a vital and growing field of intellectual inquiry."

"One-year positions aren't enough," Ham said. "Some of the faculty are receptive and understand the need for Asian-American Studies, but there are only a few of them."

The Committee has no definite plans for establishing a curriculum.

"It's not our job to strategize for the administration...although in the past we have," said Ham.

"[Hiring Tong and Vo] is a step in the right direction, but it's a very small piece in the development of Asian-American Studies."

The College is making attempts to represent Asian Americans in other areas as well.

Sylvia Watanabe will continue to teach Creative Writing. Watanabe has written about multi-ethnic issues in her native Hawaii.

Also Shilpa Davè was recently chosen as an Assistant Dean/Asian-American Adviser. According to Acting Dean James Helm, Davè is interested in possibly teaching a course in Asian-American Studies at a later date.