January 2012
As the Fall semester is coming to a close, SBU Provost Dennis Assanis is sitting in his office talking in high gear about SUNY Korea and its future role for undergraduates, his words far outpacing his PowerPoint presentation...
"So why are we doing it? ... We're doing it for the reputation. It's going to enhance our excellence. We're doing it because globalization is important. We're doing it because all of our students need to have significant experiences studying abroad, working abroad, so we're going to have a campus in Asia, so our students can be in that campus... and from there visit other places in Asia."
"Right now about 4% of our students study abroad. My goal is to have 20% in five years. Students need to know how to operate abroad, how to live abroad, study abroad, or they're not going to be able to operate as global citizens. So for us it is extremely important to have a hub in Asia. Korea makes a lot of sense for us. It has good logistics, good transportation, lots of people who can help us with process. We have strong alumni... So that's obviously the reasons we go there, and I think we can attract students not only from Korea but from many of the other countries in Asia and that again will build our reputation of excellence, our rankings, so these are the reasons. It's our global strategy that's driving it..."
"Bachelor's programs are on the horizon but it's more complicated, as you can imagine, given the options that you have to give the undergraduate students. It's not going to be just a shoebox curriculum. So it's moving, it's moving fast."
But not fast enough for some students. Writing a series on SUNY Korea for AA E-Zine and AAJ, we assumed students like sophomore Journalism major Noah Kim, AAJ's Managing Editor, who plans to do study abroad in Korea next spring, would wish SUNY Korea was open for undergraduates now. Much easier than dealing with transfer credits from another university that may or may not be accepted for his major. Stony Brook here, Stony Brook there, wildly different cultures to live in but identical courses - best of both worlds.
We weren't expecting his level of excitement. Noah is a Korean American who had planned to study in Korea to really be immersed in the culture. But he's a typical ABK (American born Korean) - he can speak Korean but reading and writing it is a different ball game.
Speaking of SUNY Korea VP Hongshik Ahn, whom the AA E-Zine was interviewing, Noah was fired up. "Let me talk to him, please let me tell him, they should start this now if they want SUNY Korea to be a success. Lots of undergraduates will want to go if it means all the classes are the same as here. What are they waiting for! If I hold off until I'm a senior, do you think it will be open by then?"
OK, Noah's Korean American. He was planning to go to Korea anyway, with or without SUNY Korea. We weren't expecting the same enthusiasm from anyone else. Wrong. Many Chinese international students, it turns out, are in high gear about it too. "I want to go, it's not fair," said Computer Science freshman Hao Wang from Qingdao. "Why is it only for graduate students?" Junior Qilin Wang, a pre-law Philosophy major from Beijing said the same. "I would go right now if it was open."
It turns out that in Asia, Korea is the "in" place. It's the Asian fashion world, not NY or Paris. Even one of SBU President Stanley's daughters is a K-pop fan and she's an ABC. And Korean dramas - Chinese all watch Korean dramas, subtitled in Chinese. Korean drama puts more emphasis on romantic, emotional issues and the best Korean actors and actresses are in them. As Chenjun Feng, a transfer Business major from Shanghai said, "It's not just college students. Even my Mom watches Korean dramas."
Chenjun would have done SUNY Korea if he was a freshmen but felt it would be too difficult as a transfer student to transfer again to a third country and a fourth language. (His native language is Shanghainese. For most Chinese students, English is their third language too. Provinces have their own dialect that is incomprehensible to outsiders. China is what the European Union will be someday when English is its common language but Italians still speak Italian and Germans German.)
Mengxing He, a junior Electrical Engineering major from Hunan, wasn't enthusiastic. "The reason to come to the Stony Brook campus in New York is to experience American culture, to experience New York City," she said. But her roommate May Wang viewed it differently. It was the possibility of a 2 plus 2 or a 3 plus 1 that made her excited. She could spend time in Songdo and time in Stony Brook. That would still give her the opportunity to get a job in the US after graduation before returning to China. Again - best of both worlds. "Please tell them to do this before I graduate so I can go," she said.
The current SUNY Korea tuition for Asians, even Koreans, is still out-of-state tuition since technically it's still SUNY, but it would end up costing them a lot less. While tuition would be the same, dorms at SUNY Korea are $1200 - $1800 per semester depending on the room. In New York, they are $800 - $1000 per month! And Korean priced food rather than an American meal plan! Plus the airfare would be far cheaper. Qingdao, China is a 45 minute shuttle flight away; Beijing, Tokyo and Shanghai two hours versus 13 to NY; Bangalore and New Delhi 6 hours versus 15 to New York. That's even less than NY to LA or San Francisco. It's no wonder why international students think SUNY Korea is a great deal.
 | It seems that Korean students are also just as enthusiastic. SUNY Korea held an Open House in December and 300 students showed up, mostly high school students interested in getting an undergraduate degree when that starts. In Korea over 80% of high school graduates go on to college, one of the highest rates of any country. |
NYS students will pay in-state tuition. That means for residential students here, going to SUNY Korea will be cheaper than going to SUNY Stony Brook! No meal plan. Food prices are a third of what they are here. No expensive dorms. What they save in living expenses each semester will be more than what airfare will cost.
Asian Americans were divided on whether they would go to the country of their heritage or SUNY Korea, but even that gets confusing. Melani Tiongson, for example, is Filipino American but she studies Japanese at Stony Brook and is in Taiko Tides, the Japanese drumming group.
"Unfortunately, I haven't been to the Philippines enough and would go there if I had the means and availability to," Melani said. "Personally, even though I do want to go to Japan to study abroad so that I can gain proficiency in the language, if such a thing existed for the Philippines, I would definitely do it."
"I think that students should explore cultures outside of the ones that they were raised in and to seize the opportunity to pursue things they enjoy, at least in college. We can't necessarily do things like explore Japanese culture or learn more about our own heritage once we enter the post-graduate and/or working world. So I completely support SUNY Korea, because it will provide students options that are otherwise unavailable in their present and/or future lives."
So lots of different things will go into the decision for Asian Americans. It's not as simple as "I'm Vietnamese American, I want to go to Vietnam." And in fact, of the first two PhD students accepted to SUNY Korea, one was native Vietnamese.
While language majors would prefer to go to the country of their major, which at SBU for Asia would be China, India, Japan or Korea, Japan, Korea's proximity to both China and Japan make it good for all three. Alex Freytag, for example, is a white American majoring in Asian and Asian American Studies (AAS) with a double minor in Japanese and Korean. She thought SUNY Korea would be a great option. She could do classes there and on breaks take a short flight to Tokyo. She saw it as another best of both worlds scenario.
Non-Asian Americans who aren't language majors felt the same as Noah Kim. Unlike any other study abroad program SBU has, this one would be completely hassle free.
And for all Engineering majors it would be a first! Now they are unable to study abroad without adding an extra semester because the requirements for their degrees are more difficult than for other students. It's impossible to maintain their tracking to graduate in four years if they leave for even a semester. But with the same courses at SBU being offered at SUNY Korea, they will actually be better off going to Korea for a year.
Bottom line for all students - if they choose to go to SUNY Korea for just a semester or for their full four years, the degree they will hang on their wall would be a degree from Stony Brook University. In the meantime, their resumes would show a global education. Classes would be in English so GPA's could remain intact for Americans while language and culture are learned outside of class. For Asians they would still be learning in the language of the modern business world.
Professors at SUNY Korea would primarily be SBU professors and the plan is to have an international mix just as there is now at the New York campus. This inaugural semester of graduate programs in Computer Science and Tech and Society is a perfect example. It will be taught by professors like Hongshik Ahn from Applied Math and Statistics, Klaus Mueller from Computer Science, and Mark Phillips and Ted Tian-lih Teng from Tech and Society.
SUNY Korea has tremendous advantages for undergraduates and there are a fair number of students who would like the opportunity to go. As we enter what is commonly referred to as the "Pacific Century", named for the clout that Asian countries will wield in the world economy - to be able to list SUNY Korea on a resume as part of getting a SBU degree will be a definite plus in the job market of tomorrow's graduates.
by Ja Young
Alumni Editor
Special Series: SUNY Korea www.aaezine.org/SUNYKorea/
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