UCLA celebrated the creation of the department of Asian American studies and the 35th anniversary of the Asian American Studies Center with a community reception in Chinatown on Oct. 21.

"The creation of a department of Asian American studies marks a significant step forward in the development of an academic discipline devoted to understanding an important segment of American society and culture," said Scott Waugh, dean of social sciences for the UCLA College. "Asian American studies is one of the most vibrant fields of study at UCLA, and indeed across the country, so that it is entirely appropriate to recognize its quality and stature by formally establishing an academic department for this field."

"The departmentalization of the Asian American studies interdepartmental program represents a major development in the history of Asian American studies at UCLA," said Vice Chancellor Claudia Mitchell-Kernan. "In collaboration with the Asian American Studies Center, I expect enhancements in both research and instructional programs to flow from this new organizational arrangement."

UCLA has produced more scholars for the field of Asian American studies than any other university in the nation. It also has developed the largest Asian American studies teaching program in the nation, which annually offers more than 70 courses and enrolls more than 3,000 students.

The department -- the first of UCLA's four ethnic studies programs to become a department -- offers courses for the UCLA undergraduate and graduate students majoring and minoring in Asian American studies. During the 2003–04 academic year, about 160 undergraduate students majored in Asian American studies and 50 students minored in the field.

"The UCLA Asian American studies interdepartmental program, which is now a department, has been recognized as the best of its kind in the country," said Min Zhou, department chairwoman and a UCLA sociology professor. "We are pleased we have attained departmental status to further strengthen our already rigorous academic programs, to continue leading the development of the field of Asian American studies, and to meet the increasing demand of our students and the larger Asian American community."

The Asian American studies interdepartmental degree program was established in the UCLA College in fall 1976, although the center began offering classes in 1969. As an interdepartmental degree program, Asian American studies had to hire faculty jointly with an academic department. Having departmental status will elevate the prestige of the degree for students, Zhou said, and enable the department to hire its own faculty.

"UCLA has experienced such a tremendous growth in Asian American students, and many of these students major and minor in Asian American studies," Zhou said.

The department also includes a Master of Arts program and two concurrent Master's degree programs with the community health sciences and social welfare departments.

The executive board of the academic senate voted in favor of departmentalization in June and the campus administration approved the department of Asian American studies in August.

Leaders in Southern California's Asian American community gathered at Chinatown to acknowledge the milestones of Asian American studies at UCLA.

"The 35th-anniversary celebration of the Asian American Studies Center and the establishment of the department of Asian American studies at UCLA are both watershed events, not just in our Southern California community but the rest of the country as well," said Tritia Toyota, a journalist and doctoral candidate at UCLA.

"The center has been nationally recognized for its leadership at the forefront of scholarly, community-based research. It has always been a strong advocate in promoting the understanding of diversity and in documenting the breathtaking changes these new diversities are bringing to our everyday lives," Toyota said.

UCLA became the first university in the nation to offer a graduate degree in Asian American studies and the first classes on the experiences of Cambodian Americans, Hmong Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Thai Americans, and gay and lesbian Asian Pacific Islanders.

"This is truly a celebratory moment for Asian American studies at UCLA," said Don Nakanishi, director of UCLA's Asian American Studies Center. "Both the center and department will continue to be national leaders in the field of Asian American studies."

The center, founded in 1969, is recognized as the preeminent multidisciplinary research institute focusing on the Asian American population. It will continue its programs in publishing two leading journals and many books, archival collections, ethnocommunications, and community partnerships while working closely with the new department.

Since 1971, the center has produced Amerasia Journal, the leading multidisciplinary scholarly journal in Asian American studies. The journal has published more than 30,000 pages of scholarly and creative writing by notable Asian American studies scholars. The center recently launched AAPI Nexus, which addresses policy, practice and community research.

The center also established the first academic chair in Asian American studies in all of American higher education, which focused on Japanese American studies and is currently occupied by professor Robert Nakamura. In recent years, two additional academic chairs -- the Korea Times-Hankook Ilbo Chair in Korean American studies and the George and Sakaye Aratani Chair on the Japanese American Internment, Redress and Community -- have also been endowed; they also are the first academic chairs of their kind.

The center has released major public policy reports on the most compelling issues facing Asian Pacific Americans.

It also has acquired a number of significant personal and organizational archives including those of the East-West Players, the oldest Asian Pacific American theater company; renowned human rights activist Yuri Kochiyama; civil rights activists Aiko and Jack Herzig; writer Wakako Yamauchi; Fred Korematsu coram nobis lawsuit; Hei Sop Chin collection; anti-martial law movement collection; and Steve Louie Asian American movement collection.