Donation's dividends

UIC's Asian Studies program just recieved a gift from Jaime and James McNulty. Students outside of the research-obsessessed half of our institution, rejoice! Asia's geopolitical and economic significance is at an apex for capitalists; therefore, UIC reasons, expanding its Asian Studies Program will give students the benefit of a crucial piece of social capital : Asia-savviness. But who is the gift to the university really going to benefit?

The program's plan of action to deal with its newly-expanded budget explicitly states its motives: first, UIC plans to hire experienced staff to teach new advanced Chinese and Japanese language courses, as well as new courses in Hindi and Urdu. These courses are structured to go beyond basic language skills to integrate cultural and historical topics related to the language.

If you're confused about the importance of how history and culture influences language study, then take a moment to consider (for example) the bewilderment with which novice students of Mandarin approach having to learn two character writing forms side by side: the debate over the use of simplified or traditional Chinese characters in China has been raging since the 1950s, when the Communist party implemented a more inclusive form of literacy. Simplified characters are the government-guaranteed norm in mainland China, but traditional characters are on the resurgence because of continued interaction with other Chinese-speaking regions. Today, those who wish to watch non-censored Chinese programming with traditional subtitles must do so on a hotwired television set.

From this agenda outline, we can discern the answer to the benefit question: the money will largely go back to scholars with interests alligned with the gift's original donors. James McNulty, a 1973 alumnus of UIC, pursued a graduate education in Ireland at the urging of former professor Patricia McFate (whose concentration was in Anglo-Irish studies), and has achieved outstanding success in his internationalist business career while leading several powerful U.S.-based financial institutions (whose strategic investments in the direction of Europe are, in large part, owed to McNulty's academic interests in Europe).

If we follow this pattern, then the gift to the Asian Studies program structurally reinforces McNulty's successful business model, suggesting that now is the time to invest our intellectual capital in Asia--which may bring us there physically in the form of study abroad. Successful immersion in the culture abroad will result in hiring success, and the better-prepared of us may climb the global career ladder faster--perhaps someday attaining influential positions in institutions which bridge the gap between the U.S. and Asia (to the benefit of both).

Primarily, the gift benefits business majors following the entrepreneurial vogue of investment in Asia. At a close second come UIC's Asian-American students of diverse heritages (a population in which UIC takes great pride). Many Asian-American students at UIC wish to pursue language education courses in order to reclaim their cultural heritage and better understand their identity as well as the historical events which shaped their ancestors' decision to migrate. There is little hope, however, that Asian-American Studies courses will benefit from this gift, which fails to acknowledge the crucial ways in which twentieth-century geopolitics have shaped immigration policy in the United States and elsewhere. Finally, the program's expansion benefit the remaining interdepartmental students who are interested in the historical reasons of Asia's geopolitical significance. Asian Studies courses will continue to be offered to students of all majors; but people like me--I'm a Teaching of History major with an Asian Studies minor, seem to be somewhat left out of the picture, since advanced students already in the Asian Studies program (which is, as of today, still only offered as a minor) will likely not benefit from beginning studies in the new language instruction programs so late in their undergraduate careers. Some of us may be impelled to make the tough financial decision to stay in the UIC community a little longer in hopes of seeing some of the gift's dividends.