 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
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