UCLA Department of Asian Languages and Cultures

ALC: 8-year Self Review
linguistics and the linguistics of a Southeast Asian language and, in the best of all possible worlds,
positions in South Asian and Southeast Asian literature.
Department Office Staffing
The Department office has an administrative staff of six, plus an additional Departmental Technical
Analyst from the Center for Digital Humanities who devotes the bulk of his time to servicing the
Department needs. The office staff has performed admirably in the face of the heavy burdens imposed
upon them by servicing six different divisions, eight different language programs, hundreds of
undergraduate majors and minors and over seventy graduate students. The Department’s complement of
office staff is as follows:
Manager (Management Service Officer)
Administrative Analyst (Personnel and Fund Management)
Student Affairs Officer III (Graduate Counselor)
Administrative Specialist (Scheduling & Lecturer Personnel)
Student Affairs Officer II (Undergraduate Counselor)
Administrative Assistant III (Front Office Manager)
Departmental Technical Analyst (Computer Software & Hardware analyst—funded in
part by the Center for Digital Humanities and the Department)
The Department has suffered heavy turnover in its office staff in recent years, a trend that
parallels the general situation in the University as a whole but has undoubtedly been exacerbated by the
heavy demands imposed a complex and growing program. As of this writing, we have two vacancies.
One is the Manager position, which is currently being handled generously on a part-time, interim basis by
Lauren Na, a former manager for the Department, while we search for a new manager. The other is the
Administrative Assistant III position, a slot that is of particular concern for us. Whereas all the other staff
positions are full-time career slots and fully funded by the University, the Administrative Assistant III
position is only funded by the University at 50%. We have been able to cover the other 50% with
temporary funds provided by the Division of Humanities, but the current fiscal climate makes it highly
uncertain if the 50% temporary funds will continue to be available and we badly need the position to be
completely funded on a permanent basis. The occupant of this position serves as the “face” of the
Department to all the students and others who seek assistance and is the key person to disseminate
information to the faculty, lecturers, staff, and students. Therefore, the Department needs the position to
be completely funded on a permanent basis.
C. UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION
The Department’s large undergraduate program fulfills two major functions. One can be broadly defined
as service to the University in that our language coursework allows large numbers of students to meet
General Education requirements for one year of foreign language instruction in addition to fulfilling the
various language requirements of other departments (English [5 quarters]) and programs (Comparative
Literature, Global Studies, East Asian Studies, Economics, and Southeast Asian Studies [2 years]) &
Linguistics in Asian Languages and Cultures [minimum 3 years]). In addition, significant numbers of
undergraduates take our courses in literature and culture in order to meet requirements for such programs
as Comparative Literature, East Asian or Southeast Asian Studies or as electives. The other major
function is to provide for undergraduate students who have selected one of our several undergraduate
majors and minors. As of spring 2008, we had a total of 293 undergraduates declaring majors or minors
in the Department, a nearly 200% increase over the 149 undergraduate majors and minors we had in
2001-02.
7