Syracuse University already offers minors and majors for African-American studies, Middle Eastern studies and Native American studies – among other ethnic studies programs.

And now the largest minority on campus might, finally, receive its program.

‘The missing gap was Asian-American studies,’ said Carina Lui, a graduate architecture student who has pushed for the program since arriving at SU six years ago.

Lui is one of more than 1,200 Asian-American students at Syracuse. She and many of her colleagues have campaigned to faculty for the Transnational Asian Studies Program (TASP). In the last couple years, supporters have gained the momentum, due to rising faculty involvement, to make the program a reality.

And it doesn’t hurt to have the chancellor now onboard.

In November 2007, Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina and The College of Arts and Sciences Dean Cathryn Newton approved the program. They met with Lui, Angela Cho, a senior entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises and magazine journalism major, and Ellee Kim, a 2007 graduate with a degree in biology. The three students presented the TASP proposal, complete with 100-page binders filled with all the information anybody needed to know about the planned program.

But even with the finish line in sight, obstacles remain. The program’s finality is up in the air.

Most importantly, the program still lacks a director – a key potential candidate turned down a job offer at SU last weekend. There’s also not enough personnel to teach all the courses. But as Asian-American students show more dissatisfaction at SU, TASP advocates hope to get the program off the ground in the next two years, if not sooner.

A draft of the program’s curriculum already exists. The courseload would combine Asian studies and new Asian-American studies courses. Asian studies classes would focus on history and culture. Asian-American courses would give perspective on being Asian in the United States – topics such as immigration and integration into American society.

Syracuse has close to enough professors to teach Asian studies courses, Lui and others maintained, but almost nobody who can instruct an Asian-American studies class.

But as interest in the program increases, that’s a hole students and administrators trust can soon be filled. In more than a decade of crusading, the program has never been this close to a realization.

Still, program coordinators know they shouldn’t celebrate yet. Not with the barriers that remain.

‘If there’s anything that I realized it takes forever for this school to do anything,’ Lui said. ‘It takes a lot of administrative bureaucratic B.S.’

***

Susan Wadley, associate dean of curriculum for Arts and Sciences, said the program’s progress took a hit last week when a potential director for TASP rejected a position at Syracuse for personal reasons.

In May 2006, Wadley helped draft TASP’s curriculum. And Lui said the curriculum appears ready to go, although Wadley added the program still lacks an introductory course. Nevertheless, without a program head, it’s hard to expect much more progress with the program to be made.

In the years before meeting with Cantor and Newton, Lui said it’s been difficult to earn even the Arts and Sciences administration’s support, saying the TASP force was constantly pushed aside by mid-level administration.

Wadley, for her part, said there were no roadblocks in her office.

‘Almost a year and a half ago we sat here, we created this (curriculum),’ she said. ‘They went to see (former Vice Chancellor) Debbie (Freund). I never saw them again. I kept wondering where they went.’

However, the TASP coordinators disagree. Lui insisted each time they tried to work with the administration, those in charge would keep sending away the students, asking them to fill out another form or complete another task before anything could be accomplished.

Cathryn Newton, who will be stepping down from her position as dean of Arts and Sciences in June, said it’s her aim to establish the program before her tenure ends. The Office of Multicultural Affairs has organized faculty meetings that have been filled with encouraging professors.

‘I really want to make sure by the end of this semester that it’s crystallized,’ Newton said.

Lui and other students were doubtful about that.

And with the recent setback of losing a possible TASP director, that target date might be impossible without an internal hire, Wadley said.

Tae-Sun Kim, an associate director in the Office of Multicultural Affairs, added the process is complicated by Newton leaving as dean. She said an incoming dean could put the program on the backburner and choose to work on other goals. Interviews for a new Arts and Sciences dean have not begun, Wadley said.

‘The idea that the Asian-American studies initiative gets dropped because somebody else decides ‘I’m too busy’ is very realistic,’ Kim said.

The one internal hire Wadley said can lead the TASP program is Prema Kurien, a sociology professor, with extensive background on Asian-American studies.

But Kurien said a student has approached her only once – more than two years ago – about the program. She’s also heard little from faculty members until a few weeks ago. In addition, when Kurien saw the outlined curriculum, she was assigned to teach a topic that she would not want to instruct.

‘I’m certainly very supportive of (TASP), and when somebody approached me I told them I was very supportive,’ Kurien said. ‘But I have not been contacted after that. So I’ve been left out of the loop.’

Kurien offered an Asian-American studies class this semester on religion, transnationalism and contemporary Asian immigrants (SOC 400). But only four students enrolled in the class. The sociology professor expressed disappointment for the poor turnout – although she noted it may have been a result of a mix-up in SU’s course catalog – saying as a result she won’t be able to offer to teach it again for a few semesters.

Added Wadley: ‘I want to see the enthusiasm show up in the courses.’

That’s the wrong attitude, Kim said, and there’s too much blaming the students. She finds it hard to expect students to schedule Kurien’s class with mistakes in the course catalog. And if faculty like Kurien and Wadley want to be more involved with the program, they need to put their own effort into it as well.

Kim said Arts and Sciences needs to do a better job of keeping OMA and TASP coordinators up to date on the progress being made toward making hires. More student activism – including perhaps some radical action – could be helpful, Kim added, if everyone outside of Arts and Sciences continues to be left in the dark. ‘(I have) zero information about potential deans or chairs,’ she said. ‘I have no information.’

***

When Andrea Wangsanata met Cho and Lui, the freshman was filling out papers to transfer to another college – places Wangsanata considered more diverse, like New York University or the University of Southern California.

After learning other Asian-American students suffered from similar slights – students asking what country she’s from, for example – Wangsanata had already experienced at SU, the international relations major chose to stay in upstate New York. She will now lead the TASP force when Cho and Lui graduate in May.

Statistics show Wangsanata almost joined a trend – 14 percent of Asian students leave Syracuse before graduating as of 2004, the highest rate of any group at SU.

‘The only reason why I don’t want to transfer is because I want this (program) to happen,’ Wangsanata said.

The hands-on involvement of certain faculty members has done much to assuage concerns like the one’s posed by Wangsanata.

The program’s biggest ally among faculty appears to be Kim, who has played a large role in helping students pitch a model program that will satisfy Asian-American students at SU. The main points of interest remain getting a section in the course catalog labeled for Asian courses, creating a TASP minor and building a mentoring program. She and the rest of OMA have organized faculty meetings that have been filled with encouraging professors.

But at this point in the process, it’s the faculty that needs to find who’ll lead the program and enact a curriculum.

‘You need upper administration to buy into the vision because most people don’t give a damn,’ Kim said. ‘But if their leaders, the chairs of their department tells them … ‘Our program is incomplete because we don’t have this. Or wait a minute we don’t have any faculty diversity. That is a problem, and we’re going to fix it.’ If you’re upper person says that then people have to comply.’

George Kallander, a history professor who specializes in East Asian history, attended some of the OMA meetings set up to gauge interest in TASP and said he’s noticed faculty members with an interest in Asia see a reason to be enthused over the program’s growing strength at Syracuse.

‘I’m working in an environment where there are no clear Asian studies or Asian history program,’ Kallander said. ‘So I’ll be very excited for any kind of program with the students to take because there’s such value in studying East Asia. It’s really going to be an Asian century.’

Kim emphasized this point. This program would not just benefit Asian students at SU. With globalization and China’s expanding prominence worldwide, an Asian Studies initiative is a vital ethnic studies program for college students, she said.

The deadline to pass the TASP curriculum would be October. Although Newton hopes to have everything set in place to make that deadline, both Wadley and Lui said that’s not possible. Wadley said it should happen the following October. Lui expressed doubt about that intended date, too.

Still, Lui said she’s optimistic that the momentum the program has created will force whoever replaces Newton to stay supportive for TASP. But she’s less confident a leader will be found within any of the time frames currently set – or even in the next two years. And without that keystone faculty member, it’s difficult to figure out when any other part of the TASP dream can be certain.

‘We need one more catalyst to make it happen,’ Lui said. ‘We need one major hire. If we get this one major hire who will head this, we will have this. Everything is in the bag after that.’

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Box: The Denny’s Incident

The struggle Asian-American students wage at Syracuse – along with faculty members with a keen interest in East Asia and student organizations like Asian Students in America (ASIA) – was stirred by another conflict at Syracuse.

On April 11, 1997, in what’s now known as the ‘Denny’s Incident,’ six Asian-American students were denied access to a Denny’s in Syracuse. After leaving the restaurant, about 15 white patrons followed the students into the parking lot and racially assaulted them, according to reports. All charges against the attackers were dismissed – causing an uproar in the Asian-American community and providing the drive for Asian-American students to convince Syracuse University a program focused on Asian Americans was essential.

More than 10 years later, with the program reaching more support from students and the administration than ever before, the program finally could soon come into fruition.

Published on April 23, 2008 at 12:00 pm