Support to strengthen the East Asian studies program and the economics department has surfaced after Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe rescinded his current curricular proposals Thursday afternoon during a faculty meeting in the Olin-Sang auditorium. Both areas of study stood to gain full-time faculty under Jaffe's plan.

East Asian studies head Ralph Thaxton (POL) and economics chair Gary Jefferson-who also served on the Faculty Review Committee-said while they appreciate Jaffe's understanding that their respective areas of study require strengthening, this should not occur at the expense of eliminating and reducing other departments and programs.

But Thaxton said adding faculty to his program would allow for instruction in East Asian economics, literature and language and Korean.

"I think that Dean Jaffe's proposal steers the university in the right direction," Thaxton said. "There is not enough interdisciplinary teaching among faculty and students and one of the reasons for this is we have an entrenched departmentalism. This has been going on for decades and, in that sense, we are behind major research universities."

Under Jaffe's plan, economics would have gained five junior faculty members, who Jefferson said are needed to instruct core requirements in place of adjunct faculty. He also said this would have allowed tenured faculty the opportunity to teach new offerings, like Latin American and East Asian economics.

"We feel we have a responsibility to expand our resources to improve the experience of economics majors," Jefferson said, adding some areas of his department are seriously understaffed.

Jefferson said new appointments would improve the department's enrollment to full-time equivalent faculty ratio from 220-to-one to 150-to-one. He said economics experiences the densest enrollments of any department in the University.

If additional appointments are not made, Jefferson said his department would likely undergo structural changes, like assigning more rigorous requirements and raising grading standards to lower enrollment figures for undergraduates.

"I thought that [Jaffe's] plan added some important information and perspective with regard to improvement of the programs and departments," Jefferson said. "I think the planning process encouraged some of the departments to think in a more focused way to maintain quality with fewer resources."

Jefferson, who also serves on the faculty senate budget and finance committee, said since the Faculty Review Committee did not consider larger budgetary implications of integrated planning, the report was incomplete and not representative of the financial constraints under which the dean was operating like a $22 million building initiative after associated operating expenditures.

"They were not able to focus on the whole picture," Jefferson said, referring to the committee.

According to Jefferson, the committee was asked to focus on a set of initiatives that involved around $2.7 million and it was not clear why this constraint existed. Krauss told the Justice she wanted the committee to focus on the academic portion of the integrated planning initiative.

The long-term goal of Jaffe's proposals, Jefferson said, was to attract students to the University. He said the administration assessmed that the University needs to compete more intensely to attract the best students and he "very much appreciates" the dean's efforts to argue for priorities.

According to Dan Galinko '06, undergraduate departmental representative for East Asian Studies, the program's current offerings are "insufficient for a respectable study."

"I feel like the University is going to continue to neglect East Asian studies," he said. "I don't think they'll come up with the funds to offer Korean language. I don't see us offering a fluency program anytime soon.