Chinese opera star Liu Jing demonstrates movements during a Jan. 25 workshop in Independence Hall. The Institute for Chinese Studies was instrumental in bringing her to campus.   By Jo McCulty

New institute combines faculty scholarship, outreach and curriculum development in Chinese Studies

$2 million grant funds undergraduate education, distance learning initiatives

The People's Republic of China, with a population of nearly 1.3 billion, accounts for between a fourth and a fifth of the entire world population. Over the past 25 years, that distant land has grown increasingly near, at least figuratively, as U.S. economic ties to China have developed and expanded, and technology has put the whole world within an e-mail message's reach. And according to U.S. Census figures, the United States saw a nearly 50 percent increase in the Asian population from 1990 to 2000. And yet, despite all this, it's not uncommon for students to enter college with only minimal knowledge of Asian history and culture.

Ohio State has launched an initiative to enhance opportunities to learn about China -- not just for students enrolled at the University, but for K-12 students, as well. Such outreach to the community is among the major components of the mission of the Institute for Chinese Studies at Ohio State, officially established late last spring after operating informally for about three years.

Institute members to date have focused many efforts on faculty collaboration, but are turning now to the enhancement of undergraduate education and programming -- with the help of a four-year, $2 million grant from the Freeman Foundation.

The grant, awarded jointly to the institute and the College of Humanities World Media and Culture Center to be housed in Hagerty Hall, results from a targeted competition for funds to enrich undergraduate East Asian studies curriculum.

"A grant of this size, almost $2 million, is a validation of the quality of the programs we plan to offer and the soundness of our vision," said Julia F. Andrews, Bliss and Mildred Wiant Designated Professor in Chinese Literature and Culture in the Department of History of Art and the institute's first director.

Grant-funded activities will include undergraduate honors seminars in Chinese studies, guest lectures and faculty exchanges with institutions in China, improved communication to undergraduates about Chinese studies offerings, and Web-based distance learning opportunities in East Asian humanities courses and Chinese language instruction provided through the World Media and Culture Center.

But the largest component will be a study abroad program in China scheduled to begin in the summer of 2003.

The grant will fund scholarships covering airfare and nontuition expenses for approximately a dozen undergraduates to travel to China for instruction that at least initially will be focused on culture, the humanities and the arts. Credit courses will combine lectures with field trips to cultural sites under the program as it is currently envisioned, Andrews said.

Though Ohio State's graduate programs in Chinese studies are strong and include a recently approved interdisciplinary graduate specialization in Chinese cultural studies, the immersion into the culture made possible by the new study abroad program will mark significant expansion in the undergraduate curriculum, Andrews said.

And as institute faculty see it, such an opportunity factors into Ohio State's land-grant mission.

"High school students are not likely to be very familiar with Asian studies," Andrews said. "People may not see the relevance of China in their neighborhoods, but it's here. Companies are doing business with China, and our graduates will be working at those companies.

"Part of being a land-grant university is preparing citizens of Ohio to function at the highest possible level in what is now a global economy. Without it, students will not be in as strong a position as they should be upon graduation."

Ohio State's own strength in Chinese studies -- spanning six colleges and 14 disciplines -- was difficult to quantify in any way without having an institute to function as a coordinating unit. "Even if an undergraduate knew he or she wanted to study China," Andrews explained, "knowing where to go to do that could be confusing."

And so, faculty with expertise on China collaborated to formally propose the institute, which last year, with the support of the East Asian Studies Center and the Office of International Affairs, traveled through University governance channels before being approved by the University Senate and then by the Board of Trustees in June. The institute, which holds an office on the third floor of Oxley Hall, serves as an intellectual and communication center for scholarly research, general education and public programming for faculty and students who have or wish to develop expertise on China.

"The kinds of faculty collaboration we aim to promote began long before we wrote the proposal, and actually was the impetus for writing it," Andrews said. "We had sporadically done things together over the 1990s, and since 1999 have regularized our annual symposium and co-organized a lecture series. These venues allow us to work out collaborative ideas and function as a place at which we can interact with visitors."

In addition to hosting recent major symposia on U.S.-China relations and burgeoning cultural phenomena, Ohio State is home to the journal Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, the foremost American journal on modern Chinese cultural studies, edited by Kirk A. Denton in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, as well as to the China Economic Review's co-editor, Belton Fleisher in the Department of Economics. In conjunction with the literature and culture journal, Denton maintains the online Modern Chinese Literature and Culture resource center (http://deall.ohio-state.edu/denton.2/biblio.htm) that contains bibliographies and materials related to modern Chinese literature, film, art and culture.

"As large and diverse as Ohio State is, there was no natural place in which we would meet each other before this institute was established," Andrews said of the faculty across the University who specialize in China. "By attending events and hearing about research being done by our colleagues, we know who to send students to for needs they might have, and who are good resource people at the University."

Becoming an important resource in the community is a defining component of Ohio State's institute, which, thanks to the number and varied talents of affiliated faculty, joins major centers such as those at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Washington in competing for national prominence.

"The outreach mission makes us different from some of the well-known centers, which have mostly internalized their Chinese studies missions," Andrews said.

Ohio State's institute has made contact with elementary schools and is finding that there is "huge demand" for services in the schools that will broaden knowledge about China. "We're working on plans to satisfy that demand," Andrews said. Possible programs also are likely to involve relationships with local Chinese American organizations that range from K-12 weekend language schools to groups benefiting scientists and professionals in Columbus, as well as allowing international students to teach in local schools to learn about how American classrooms work.

For more information, visit the institute's Web site at www.osu.edu/ics.

At GLBT faculty/staff luncheon, Kirwan reaffirms commitment to promote diversity, ensure fair treatment & advance excellence

Ideas presented to the University administration last summer by the Association of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Faculty and Staff have resulted in the initiation of a number of new benefits at Ohio State.

President Brit Kirwan told those attending an association luncheon on Jan. 29 that changes in place or in the final stages of readiness include:

• the ability for faculty and staff to purchase dependent life insurance and GlobalCare international travel medical protection for domestic partners;

• financial planning for GLBT faculty and staff;

• access to the Child Care Center for children of domestic partners; and

• the assurance that all employee discount programs cover participation for
• domestic partners.

In addition, GLBT-related issues have been added to the list of topics addressed in the President and Provost's Diversity Lecture Series. Kirwan specifically credited Associate Vice President for Human Resources Larry Lewellen and his staff for the progress made at the University to put the association's ideas into action. Publications to be distributed before the annual April Open Enrollment period will include details about these benefits; those interested in more details may also call Office of Human Resources customer service at 292-1050.

All that said, Kirwan acknowledged that Ohio State lags behind the roughly 4,000 companies, universities, colleges and local/state governments in the United States that now offer health care benefits to their employees' domestic partners.

"Obviously, we've got a long way to go. But these are meaningful steps. It is our hope that these initial changes will be building blocks in the process of education and acceptance of a broader benefit coverage for the GLBT community," Kirwan told the approximately 85 people attending the luncheon. "Establishment of domestic partner benefits at Ohio State has been and will continue to be on my administration's agenda. There has been great progress nationwide, and I am convinced that Ohio State will someday offer domestic partner benefits."

Kirwan also has focused his attention on Ohio House Bill 234, the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act," that proposes to "amend ... the Ohio Revised Code to specifically declare that same-sex marriages are against the strong public policy of the state, to declare that the recognition or extension of the specific statutory benefits of legal marriage to nonmarital relationships is against the public policy of the state, and to make other declarations regarding same-sex marriages," according to the bill's introductory language.

Kirwan strongly opposes both the substance and the symbolism of the bill and has made his objections known to key state legislators. Such a bill -- which many have said includes confusing language about how it might affect the ability to extend health care benefits to domestic partners -- not only threatens any plans to extend those benefits, but also would send a troubling message regionally and nationally that Ohio opposes inclusiveness as a matter of public policy, Kirwan said.

"I want you to rest assured that this bill is very much on my mind," Kirwan said. "This is not a time that we can be complacent. We'll be monitoring it very closely."

The bill's existence does speak to continuing concern that a move at Ohio State to extend health benefits to domestic partners would meet strong objections from members of the General Assembly that could translate into negative budget consequences.

In May 2000, the Board of Trustees explained these very concerns when members opted not to accept a recommendation at the time to extend benefits to domestic partners as part of a student health insurance plan proposal. "My fellow trustees and I are convinced that establishing benefits for domestic partners at this time would put our state support at risk," Trustee Tami Longaberger said on behalf of the board at the time. "Until the state of Ohio signals its acceptance of the provision of benefits for domestic partners, it is unlikely that the board will put the financial security of the University at risk by taking action in this area."

Kirwan cited a number of entities that have recently adopted the change in policy: Congress voted to allow the District of Columbia government to add benefits for domestic partners as an option for city employees; the American Medical Association recently passed a resolution calling for organizations to include domestic partner benefits as an option in their health care insurance; and Gannett Co. and Procter & Gamble recently rolled out benefits plans that include domestic partner coverage. He said the clear move toward inclusiveness nationwide is likely to encourage state of Ohio policymakers to "do the right thing."

In the meantime, University administrators continue to communicate with trustees about the issue of domestic partner benefits, and update board members when other large, public institutions extend the benefits to their employees' partners. About half of the Big Ten schools offer domestic partner benefits; the most recent to do so was Indiana University. And though he personally favors extension of health care benefits to domestic partners, Kirwan said the need for the policy change extends far beyond his, or anyone's, personal views.

"Certainly, this is an ethical issue -- an issue of equality and fairness. But here at Ohio State, it is also an issue of academic excellence," he said. "To support our ambitious Academic Plan, we must be able to recruit and retain the highest quality faculty and staff we can find. And not being able to offer domestic partner benefits is a significant impediment toward that goal."