Basic Job Search
Click logo for homepage of IMDiversity.com - where careers, opportunities and communities connect
home | search jobs | my account employer profiles | career center | about us | for employers
Featured Employers



 

Featured Jobs

View Featured Jobs

Asian American Village Categories
AAV Jobs Center
AAV Blog
Arts, Culture & Media
Business, Finance & Economics
Careers, Workplace, Employment
Civil, Human & Equal Rights
Education & Academia
Family, Lifestyles, Traditions
History & Heritage
Opinion and Letters
Politics & Law
World Affairs
News & Announcements
Reference
Organizations & Links
Browse Full Index
 
Asian-American Village News
UH Hilo's Hawaiian PhD program ordered to improve
MN officers involved in botched raid get medals
Cheech and Chong reunite as feud goes up in smoke
Ha Jin wants to visit China
Colo concerts set group records for donor signups
Focus: China food, travel, jobs
villages/asian/ AP Headlines Update Pagee
Secret Asian Man

It's S.A.M.!
The NEW Secret Asian Man
Redesigned Weekly Section, and new multistrip theme series

 
Also


What's New @ IMDiversity Career Center?

Graduate School Opportunities

QuickSearch: Jobs preferring Bilingual/ Multilingual Candidates
 

 

Asian American Village News

By The Associated Press


 

UH Hilo's Hawaiian PhD program ordered to improve

Jul 30 22:16

HILO, Hawaii (AP) -- The University of Hawaii at Hilo has been told to improve its new Hawaiian language doctorate program or face sanctions.

The Western Association of Schools & Colleges, which accredits schools across the West, issued the warning in a June 30 letter to Hilo Chancellor Rose Tseng.

The commission plans to return to the campus in fall 2009 to check on the school's progress. Further reviews are scheduled for 2013 and 2015.

The Hawaiian language Ph.D. program was the first doctorate offered at UH-Hilo, the first doctorate in the U.S. in a Native American language, the first doctorate in the world to revitalize an indigenous language.

But the accrediting body said the program lacks a published curriculum and objective oversight.

Further, it has only three permanent faculty and four doctoral students, making stability and oversight a serious issue, the association said.

Four of the five doctoral students at the College of Hawaiian Language also hold ranks as professors in the college, leading to "obvious conflict of interest issues regarding the objectivity in evaluating the work of students who are also colleagues," the association's report said.

The Hawaiian Ph.D. is "an important new subject area" and the highest standards of quality and integrity must be applied, the commission said.

Kalena Silva, director of the College of Hawaiian Language, said the deficiencies are unique to a fledgling program that got its start in 2006 and has faced low staffing while navigating uncharted territory.

He said the school takes the deficiencies seriously and has already taken steps to address some of them.

"It's a new field. There's no Ph.D. program like it in the world," Silva said. "We don't have enough faculty now, but we've hired two Ph.D. with linguistics backgrounds, and a third will be coming from Oahu soon to help with our teacher training program. We're moving forward in this area and I think we will alleviate these concerns of WASC as we take these steps."

Silva said he did not believe there were conflicts of interest and that the commission may not have understood how the college is configured.

As for the commission's criticism the doctorate program had no published curriculum or ways to distinguish requirements from those of a master's degree, Silva said this was not as damning as it sounds.

The curriculum and requirements are in place, they just haven't been published yet. That will be addressed through publications in course catalogs and online in the coming school year, Silva said.

Silva said the doctorate is a much more rigorous degree, and Ph.D. candidates must apply their knowledge in the community, he said.

"The MA focuses on the study of Hawaiian literature, and it's more traditionally academic," Silva said. "The Ph.D. requires a practical component. You do work in the community to bring to life this research you've done."

The commission also found that the same people who write the curriculum also review and approve it, leading to a lack of objective oversight.

"We're not surprised WASC would raise some of these concerns, perhaps not considering that the program is new and the field is new," Silva said.

More broadly, at a university level, the commission said the roles and responsibilities of the school's cabinet, deans, faculty congress and college senates need to be more clearly spelled out.

The commission addressed concerns about decision making in a 2004 action letter. Because the school failed to resolve the matter in the years since, the association this year ordered the school to clarify its governance processes "immediately."

Hilo's university relations director, Gerald De Mello, said the school has been making headway with improvements and it's good to have feedback from the accrediting commission.

"There's really no problem because we're working and addressing those issues," De Mello said.

On the positive side, the commission complimented the university on its new doctoral program at the College of Pharmacy.

The school received additional praise for its pursuit of outside funding, new physical infrastructure like the Student Life Center, and infusing Hawaiian knowledge into course material.

------

Information from: Hawaii Tribune-Herald,

http://www.hilohawaiitribune.com


MN officers involved in botched raid get medals

Jul 30 13:30

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Eight police officers who raided an innocent family's house last year, trading fire with the terrified husband, have received medals -- and that has outraged the immigrant Hmong family.

Three officers involved in the Dec. 16 raid, which stemmed from bad information from an informant, received medals of valor from Police Chief Tim Dolan on Monday. The other five got medals of commendation.

Yee Moua said her family is "a mess right now," and her 9-year-old son, who saw the shooting, "still has nightmares and has needed therapy."

Police entered the home expecting to find a violent gang member. Yee Moua's husband, Vang Khang, thought they were being robbed and shot at the officers through a bedroom door.

The officers, members of the Minneapolis Police Department's police commando unit, were wearing protective gear and were not injured. But they returned fire.

Members of the family also were not physically injured, but the house was left filled with bullet holes and broken glass. Two days later, Dolan apologized and started an internal investigation.

"They were outraged and they were hurt. ... To this day this family continues to suffer," said their attorney, former U.S. attorney Tom Heffelfinger.

The investigation found the team had gone there looking for a gang member's guns after an informant gave investigators bad information. Authorities are still looking into how the case was handled before the raid, but Dolan said the officers themselves have been cleared.

Heffelfinger said the family has notified the city that they plan to file a lawsuit. He questions the timing and motives for the award.

But Dolan said in a statement: "The officers put themselves in harm's way. They were shot at and shot and deserved to be recognized."


Cheech and Chong reunite as feud goes up in smoke

Jul 31 00:13

By EDWIN TAMARA

Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Their feud finally having gone up in smoke, Cheech and Chong say they're eager to get back on the road for their first comedy tour in more than 25 years.

"We had such a legacy, such a history. We couldn't escape it, even if we tried," Tommy Chong told reporters at a news conference Wednesday at the Troubadour, the Los Angeles nightclub where the pair were discovered more than 35 years ago.

The duo said their "Light Up America" tour will kick off Sept. 12 in Philadelphia.

"It's going to be very theatrical," said Cheech Marin.

If Wednesday's news conference was an indication, it won't spare the pothead humor, either.

"We're definitely still smoking," Chong said when asked.

"I get transfusions now," quipped Marin.

"I like the taste," Chong said. "I'm old fashioned."

Marin told AP Radio earlier this month that he and the 70-year-old Chong had recently decided that if ever they were to reunite the time was now because, "You're not getting any younger and neither am I."

They tossed around some ideas and figured a comedy tour would be "the most fun" and "the least hassle," the 62-year-old Marin said.

Marin and Chong, who broke up amid creative differences, have tried to reunite before, but have always fought too much.

"It takes about three minutes for that to happen, Marin said. "There's this veiled hatred." But he added: "We've kind of resolved that."

During their original run, Marin and Chong released nine comedy albums between 1972 and 1985, were nominated for four Grammy Awards and won one. They also starred in eight feature films, almost always portraying a pair of comical stoners.

"We've gotten to the age where we don't feel like fighting anymore," Marin said, "because the end is a lot closer than the beginning."

------

Associated Press writers Michael Weinfeld in Washington and John Rogers in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

------

On the Net: www.cheechandchong.com


Ha Jin wants to visit China

Jul 26 05:18

By MIN LEE

Associated Press Writer

HONG KONG (AP) -- On a trip that's put him the closest to his homeland in 23 years, Chinese-American author Ha Jin says he wants to visit China but expressed frustration with censorship of his books.

The 52-year-old National Book Award winner told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday at the Hong Kong Book Fair that if if he has the chance, he would like to see his homeland again.

"I'd like to. I want to at least go back to take a look," he said.

Ha Jin, whose real name is Jin Xuefei, went to the United States in 1985 to pursue a doctorate in English and decided not to return after the Chinese military's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. He became a U.S. citizen in 1997.

Jin visited Taiwan in 2001 and this is his first trip to Hong Kong, but he hasn't visited the mainland since moving to the U.S.

Jin, who teaches English at Boston University, said Saturday he's interested in visiting China but is discouraged by the difficulty of publishing Chinese translations of his English books in the mainland. He said he also applied to become a visiting professor at the elite Peking University in Beijing in 2004 but never heard back.

Meanwhile, although his 1999 book "Waiting" was published in China in 2002, Jin said a Shanghai publisher's failed plan to publish five of his other books left him disillusioned.

He said the publisher wanted to publish "Under the Red Flag," "The Bridegroom" "Ocean of Words," "In the Pond" and a collection of his poetry but abandoned the plan after "Under the Red Flag," a collection of short stories set in China, failed to pass censorship.

Jin said the publisher wasn't even willing to consider publishing two other works: "War Trash," about a Chinese soldier captured by Americans in the Korean War, and "The Crazed" about a Chinese university student who takes care of a professor with a brain injury during the Tiananmen Square protests.

"I thought about going back in 2004, then the books ran into this situation, so I wasn't in the mood to go back any more," he said.

Jin also said he doubts his latest book "A Free Life" can be published in China. "A Free Life," which mirrors Jin's personal life, is about a Chinese graduate student who stays in the U.S. after the Tiananmen Square crackdown and starts to write English poetry.

"It's impossible in the short run. They won't be able to accept the spirit of the book," he said.

"Waiting" won the National Book Award in 1998 and "War Trash" was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004 and winner of the PEN/Faulkner award.

Jin said he felt great uncertainty when he first started writing in English. "You're not sure how far you can go. Deep down you understand that you could fail. You could become a total mess," he said.

Jin said he has rejected an offer from Chinese-American director Wayne Wang to adapt "A Free Life" into a movie but appreciates the filmmaker's enthusiasm.

"If I work on it, I would have to put two years into it. I don't have the time," he said.

Other Recent Readings of Interest


Colo concerts set group records for donor signups

Jul 25 14:02

By ROBERT WELLER

Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) -- Significant progress has been made in the past two decades finding bone marrow donors for leukemia and other cancer sufferers, but on any given day 6,000 people need donations -- even though 11 million people are on a global donor registry.

The Denver-based Love Hope Strength Foundation, founded by entertainment insurance executive James Chippendale and British musician Mike Peters, formerly of The Alarm, has a way to boost the numbers: Solicit donors at rock concerts. Both Chippendale and Peters are cancer survivors.

Last weekend, the foundation advertised for donors at Denver-area concerts featuring Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Steve Winwood and the Dave Matthews Band. It set a foundation record of 435 newly registered donors for a music event. In the past, getting 50 was a good result for a run-of-the-mill drive.

The foundation, headquartered in Denver with offices in Britain and Australia, plans to work more rock shows.

The National Marrow Donor Program estimates that on any given day, 6,000 people in the United States are looking for a marrow donor. Only one person in 200 who registers for the program will be asked to donate.

Fears of painful injections deter some people from registering. All a donor has to do to register is have a cotton swab run through the mouth,

About 71 percent of marrow donations involve a process where blood-forming cells are removed from the donor's blood stream. The other 29 percent involve the insertion of a needle into the hip bone to remove blood-forming cells. The pain is minor.

Chippendale said he was near death in 2000 when he got a match in Germany.

"When I went in they said I was two weeks from being dead," the Dallas resident said. "There had been several disappointments with near matches. We didn't know what we were going to do."

A German donor who had registered because a friend had cancer turned up.

"Klaus Kaiser was from a small village in Germany," Chippendale said. "After this I said, 'Why me? Why am I so lucky? That is why we started the foundation."

He wants to help others, like Michelle Maykin, 26, of San Francisco, who works in advisory services for the professional services firm KPMG. She also does volunteer work.

Chemotherapy has kept Maykin alive, but she suffered a relapse in May. Her friends, family and strangers have registered 15,000 potential donors. It is more difficult for minorities because the donor pool is smaller to begin with.

Caucasians have an 88 percent change of finding a match, Asians 78 percent, and African-Americans 60 percent. Maykin is of Chinese-Vietnamese ancestry.

"I'm feeling a bit nauseous. But it could be worse. I'm OK," Maykin said in telephone interview hours after chemotherapy.

"I haven't had any false hopes" about getting a match, she said, adding, "You are pretty much kept in the dark." She admitted, though, that "every time the phone rings you get a little anxious, or anytime I get an e-mail."

Maykin said her nurses have told her the transplant process itself is hell on earth. "I'm kind of preparing myself for that," she said.

Chippendale knows finding a match is only the beginning. He spent 90 days in isolation in a hospital because the treatment suppresses the immune system.

The foundation's next concert event is at Machu Picchu, Peru, from Oct. 8-17, and will feature Fastball, The Fixx and others. Love Hope Strength also will team with the German donor registration board, DKMS, for a 17-campus college tour in the U.S. his fall.

----------

On the Net:

Love Hope Strength: www.lovehopestrength.org

National Marrow Donor Program: www.marrow.org

Donor search for Michelle Maykin: www.projectmichelle.org

 


Previous Edition's Headlines

Yahoo CEO Yang upbeat despite lackluster 2Q
Kidnapped daughter of retired US Marine freed, unharmed
Michelle Kwan in US delegation to Olympics
Eight seek mayorship of Hawaii County
All NYC agencies to offer help in 7 languages

Also of Interest

 

[Back to Top]

[Back to Asian-American Village Home]

[Add Asian-American Village to Your IE Favorites]

 

Associated Press

Copyright by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.

IMDiversity.com is committed to presenting diverse points of view. However, the viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at IMD.

 

IMDiversity, Inc.
contact us
© 2008 IMDiversity Inc. All Rights Reserved.
privacy statement
True