posted by Elaine
05-04-08UC Berkeley Students Protest Cuts to East Asian Languages
Korean Cut 66%, Chinese Cut 54%, Japanese Cut 40%
Thousands of UC students are protesting the drastic cuts made to East Asian language education at UC Berkeley. According to the projected budget figures for the next academic year, 66% of Korean language classes, 54% of Chinese language classes, and 40% of Japanese language classes will be eliminated. As a result of the cuts, more than 1500 students currently taking East Asian language classes will no longer be able to continue their studies.
The cuts will have devastating effects on Chinese and Japanese language studies, but they threaten the very existence of Korean language studies, which were in a precarious state even before the announced cuts.
The negative impact of the budget cuts extends well beyond just the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALC). The department has announced that students from other Colleges and Schools will be barred from taking East Asian language classes. As a result, hundreds of students in engineering, economics, law, business, history, and political science will be unable to pursue languages critical to their future careers.
Students at UC Berkeley are using all channels of protest, both traditional and innovative, to oppose the cuts. In addition to meeting with administrators, circulating petitions, and writing letters to campus officials and state politicians, various student groups have turned to blogs and Facebook to organize protest efforts and disseminate information. These sites and groups include savekoreanstudies@blogspot.com, "Save Korean Studies at UC Berkeley," "Object to East Asian Language and Cultures Budget Cuts" and "Support East Asian Language Education."
The cuts to East Asian language education at Berkeley are particularly shocking given UC Berkeley's role as a flagship campus on the Pacific Rim. Nearly 45% of UC Berkeley's students are of Asian descent. For many students, Berkeley is the only place where they can receive formal instruction in their heritage languages. Demand for East Asian languages among both heritage and non-heritage learners has skyrocketed over the past decade, and even before the cuts, hundreds of students were turned away or wait-listed from East Asian language classes.
For Those Interested in Helping Out, Please Check Out...
Press Conference: Next Wednesday, the Committee to Save Korean Studies will hold a press conference concerning the EACL crisis, and the conference will be open to the public.
Date: Wednesday, May 7
Time: 11 a.m.
Place: IEAS conference room (6th floor, 2223 fulton st.)
Student rally to protest the cuts to EALC: next Thursday, May 8, at noon in Sproul plaza.
Next meeting: Also, the (rapidly expanding) core committee will meet tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Cafe Med (upstairs) on Telegraph. It's across the street, roughly, from Moe's. Anyone and everyone: please join us if you can.
For more information, please visit this website. Sign the petition! Visit the press conference and student rally! Get angry. Support the cause.
posted by Elaine
04-14-08
The much anticipated 11.5 issue is now online! Check it out!
posted by Elaine
04-11-08
Although I did not attend the much anticipated torch run for the 2008 Beijing Summer School Olympics in San Francisco yesterday, turns out, I didn't miss much. Watching for a mere ten minutes off the channel seven news sufficed to illustrate the utter LACK of chaos that afternoon. Not that I was totally anticipating some sort of hair-pulling, teeth-punching, prepubescent-boy-like rioting going on in the streets of San Francisco... but I mean, c'mon, is a little too much to ask?? (Just kidding. ...Sorta.)
But really. What was clearly evident from yesterday's run was that, instead of representing a symbol of world unity, the torch run looked like a furtive fleeing from protesters towards secluded safety. Which it was, with the number of times that the route was changed, confusing the thousands of protesters who lined Embarcadero. Although I do not condemn either side for their actions (protesters or SF/Olympic officials), I am pretty disappointed by the very subdued and tense presentation that America displayed to the world. I mean, with all this media hubbub towards playing up a conflict, what DOES the Olympic torch run mean to the world anymore? Does it even have any significance, other than being an opportunity for everyone to lay out their political agendas to the world?
But my heart especially goes out to those torch runners, who had to jog between lines and lines of policeman, get stuffed into a crowded bus with other policemen, and then go through some random warehouse... with more policeman trailing. It seems like, instead of being able to relish the honor of being able to carry the Olympic torch, they had to relish in the feeling of being a criminal, complete with their own private horde of police officers to escort them and watch over their every move!
So what does that mean? Olympic torch run = covert run for your life? I just can't wait to see where it goes from here in Olympic torch runs to come.
posted by Elaine
3-25-08
A new article written by story editor Lina Peng has been added under online content! Here is an excerpt from the article, entitled "Dalai Lama Delusion."
"Anyone who follows the news (myself included) has recently been bombarded with minute by minute updates of the situation in Tibet. A quick summary of events thus far: On March 10th, some Buddhist monks demonstrated in Lhasa (the capital of Tibet). This has sparked off ongoing anti-Chinese rioting in Lhasa and surrounding provinces by ethnic Tibetans. So far, some 20 people have been killed and many more injured. Unkind words have been said by both sides with the Chinese accusing of the Dalai Lama of trying to ruin the Olympic Games, the Dalai Lama saying 'cultural genocide' has occurred. And as always, the West tip toes haphazardly in between."
Read more here!
posted by Elaine
3-20-08America has been in economic turmoil since the 1970s. Yet from the statistics, we would have never known it. All of us have gotten richer (not equally of course) and goods have gotten much cheaper. But as our incomes increased, so did inequality, and with that economic insecurity. Almost silently, our housing and health care expenses have grown to a point where it surpasses our income. Retirement has become a luxury, and we constantly live in fear each day knowing that at any second, the jobs we went to 4 years of college to get could be shipped away to a country that could do it for cheaper. It began with calling centers, but now has moved to x-ray technicians, and even contract lawyers. Who knows what's next?
As we continue to live with these increasing insecurities, we are constantly seeking out the best deals on goods that we can find, never realizing that the more money we save, the less someone else is making. But when the roles are reversed, and we become the wage earners, we constantly complain that people are taking away from profit that was supposed to go toward your mortgage payment or your son's medical bill. As wealth becomes more concentrated to fewer people, we find ourselves shopping at Wal-Mart not because we want to, but because we need to. We all become caught up in a vicious cycle that we cannot escape from.
And so, with that said, there is no surprise that these troubling times have made me cynical about America. Although we here at hardboiled focus on Asian American issues, I want to state for the record, that this issue affects all Americans, not just Asian Americans.
Sen. Barack Obama speaks a lot about bringing "change" to American during his campaign speeches. I hope that for all of our sakes, this is what he means.
posted by Matt
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