In attendance: Wesley Jacobsen (President), Joan Ericson (President-Elect), Naomi McGloin (Past President); Mutsuko Endo Hudson, Kazumi Hatasa, Janet Ikeda, Junko Mori, Yoshiko Mori, Masumi Reade, Paul Warnick, Lindsay Amthor Yotsukura, Eve Zimmerman (Board members); Rebecca Copeland, Sarah Strong, Tim Vance (Journal editors); Kathy Ajisaka, Susan Schmidt (ATJ office); Maki Watanabe Isoyama (Japan Foundation).
The Minutes of the previous meeting were approved as corrected.
President's report. Jacobsen welcomed the new Board members who were attending their first meeting of the Board. He reported that the August ICJLE had been a great success. There were many more attendees than had been expected, and many of those who attended expressed satisfaction. Jacobsen thanked the steering committee members and all those who contributed to the success of the conference.
He reported that the next ICJLE conference (2008) will be in Korea; this seemed to have been decided before the conference in New York. Other potential hosts have problems: scheduling for Australia, lack of resources to hold such a large conference in Europe. Nihongo Kyoiku Gakkai suggested that a standing committee be formed to decide on future ventures, etc. Jacobsen will communicate with NKG about this. ATJ will cooperate and publicize future conferences.
This year marks the start of the Advanced Placement (AP) Japanese Language and Culture program; the first test will be May 10. College-level teachers need to educate themselves. (Reade mentioned that AP Central online has a great deal of information for teachers. Feedback from pilot tests will be posted online.) College and university faculty need to decide how they will evaluate exam results. One suggestion is to ask colleagues in Spanish, French, and German how they use AP results. In some institutions administrators decide the policy; in others the language teachers are consulted. College faculty are invited to participate in pre-test of online delivery and to serve as readers, and also to participate in a "comparability study." How can ATJ publicize AP better? A more prominent link on the website and articles on the website or in the newsletter are some possibilities.
Jacobsen mentioned that at Harvard enrollments in Japanese declined in 1994 and have been lower than Chinese enrollments. This year, however, there has been a 20% increase in first-year enrollments in Japanese over the previous year. Unlike the 1980s and 1990s, when enrollments between Japanese and Chinese appeared to be a "zero sum game," there seems now to be a "coattail effect" from interest in China which has translated into greater interest in Asia overall. (In the Midwest Japanese enrollments in Japan seem to have continued strong over this whole period.)
Jacobsen mentioned the need to think about putting ATJ on a better financial footing for the future. At present, grant funding is necessary to pay staff salaries and benefits: income from membership dues and advertising covers only publications, the Seminar, and other mailings. Everyone should think about possibilities for this: including ATJ in your will, finding potential donors, corporate donors; etc. A capital fund would allow the organization to operate indefinitely. Jacobsen plans to write a letter to the membership about this issue and draw up a plan for fundraising later this year.
The newsletter will be published primarily online beginning in 2007, which will save some printing and mailing costs. The possibility of doing elections online was mentioned, and the staff was asked to check on the feasibility and the technical setup that would be required.
Past President's report: McGloin noted planning and executing ICJLE was the main event and process of her term. She thanked everyone who worked on it. The conference offered much more than the annual seminar, bringing together people from all over the world, not just Japan and the U.S. She noted that one reason for ICJLE's success was that memvership requirements were waived for presenters and suggested that cooperation in waiving membership requirements for presenting at other conferences in the future (for example, Nihongo Kyoiku Gakkai) might be very useful in promoting future international collaboration.
She mentioned the possibility of regional organizations (CATJ, SEATJ) hosting the ATJ Seminar in the future, which would make it possible to hold the conference on a Saturday, rather than Thursday as is the case at present.
President-Elect's report: Joan Ericson said she planned to emphasize several things during her term: 1) Articulation (including AP) will be important as Japanese declines a bit in popularity. 2) Focusing on "study abroad plus"–incorporating internships and other community-based learning opportunities (this will be the focus of ATJ's designated panel at the 2007 AAS conference). 3) Goal-based learning–having a goal will encourage students to develop their language skills.
Discussion of state of the field. The Board discussed the state of the field in general and at their individual institutions. Several members noted that the Security Language Initiative and other economic-based support politically for foreign language education has made the whole pie bigger.
Zimmerman noted that Wellesley had a dip in Japanese enrollments a few years ago, but enrollments have come back up. More students are continuing: 30 in first year, 19 in fourth year. Interest in Korean has added to the cumulative impact. Yoshiko Mori noted that enrollment in advanced-level classes has grown at Georgetown also and has had a striking impact. Reade commented that at AP workshops she has attended, and in Texas in general, there is great interest in Chinese. Endo said that comparing enrollment numbers may be deceptive. At MSU there are 170 students enrolled in first-year Japanese, but there are not enough TAs, so some students who are interested can't be accepted. TA-ships are cut, so not as many sections can be offered. There is about a 50% drop-off from one year to the next at MSU, from 160 (first year) to 80 (second), 40 (third), and 20 (fourth). If more sections could be opened, more students would enroll.
Ericson noted a similar institutional problem: at Colorado College there are three tenured German faculty members but very few students; Japanese has one professor (Ericson) and many more students. When the German faculty members retire, they won't be replaced, but it may take a few years.
Several members mentioned that at state and land-grant colleges, such as MSU and University of Maryland, departments of arts and humanities get fewer resources than departments of arts and sciences. It's important to include and look at community colleges. (One way is to strengthen ATJ's Community College SIG.) Warnick mentioned that at Brigham Young University enrollments are stable in Japanese and higher than Chinese in term of majors, but Chinese is growing.
Hatasa noted that at Purdue Chinese enrollments may be a sort of bubble phenomenon. Students of Japanese have a wide range of motivations, and that's why programs have stayed strong. Chinese pedagogy is way behind Japanese; teacher education has yet to be developed. We should be proud of what our field has done pedagogically.
Yotsukura noted that the Confucius Institute has had an impact on language education in Maryland through private non-credit classes. Confucius, a Beijing-related organization, is well funded. More than 100 institutes are being set up around the world, with 4 or 5 in the U.S. (Portland State and MSU among them). There is no consultation with language departments at universities where they are based.
Membership report. The number of members has remained fairly stable, between 700 and 800, for several years. The ICJLE produced some new memberships but did not have the impact of the Seminar, when membership is required in order to present. The Board discussed whether to require membership in order to submit a proposal to present at the Seminar, and it was agreed to do so, beginning with the 2008 Seminar.
Efforts continue to be made to attract and keep more literature specialists as members of ATJ. Vance noted that although there is a perception that ATJ is slanted more toward language and linguistics, the content of the journal Japanese Language and Literature is about 50% literature-related.
Financial report. At the end of August 2006 ATJ's assets totaled $154,332 in checking and savings accounts. In addition, a deposit was made to the University of Colorado in June that will cover salaries, benefits, and costs paid through the University for postage, telephone and other communications, supplies, and other overhead items for the academic year July 1, 2006–June 30, 2007. Sources of income include membership dues, advertising and list rental revenue, royalties from the JSTOR journal archive, a grant from the Japan–US Friendship Commission for the Bridging Project to promote study abroad in Japan (which covers part-time salaries for two staff positions), and other grants to fund specific projects like the ICJLE (which received grant funding from a number of sources, including the Toshiba Foundation, the Japan Foundation, the Shoyu Club, Toyota Motor Co. of North America, and Columbia University).
The Board discussed possibilities of fundraising for an endowment toward the goal of making ATJ self-supporting. Suggestions included forming a committee of past presidents, approaching potential corporate funders, and looking at possible income streams from services or products in the future.
Newsletter report. As voted by the Board and membership last spring, the Newsletter will be distributed primarily online to individual members beginning with the February 2007 issue. Institutions will continue to receive paper copies, as will members who request them. The Newsletter will be sent as to members as a PDF email attachment; in addition, it will be posted on the website, and members will be notified of the URL so that they can download it. The new format will make it possible to incorporate "live" links to websites and email addresses that are given in the newsletter, making it more useful.
Journal editors' report. Vance reported that an error in the printing of Vol. 40 No. 1 (April 2006) of JLL has made a reprinting necessary. The date is not yet set, but the reprinting will take place before the end of the year. The printer has been very cooperative and will bear the cost of the reprinting. The next issue (Vol. 40 No. 2) contains mostly literature articles, plus dissertation abstracts (150).
Bridging Project report. Schmidt reported on the Bridging Project, which promotes study abroad in Japan and awards about 100 scholarships annually. Almost 600 students apply for the scholarships, which are awarded twice a year. The applications are reviewed by a selection committee of at least 12 people. Board members are encouraged to serve on the selection committee. Funds for the scholarships are raised from companies and other organizations, both in Japan and the U.S. Early fundraising efforts concentrated on U.S. sources, but recently Japanese companies have also been approached. A two-page selection of comments from scholarship recipients was distributed to the Board; more are available on the website.
Alliance report. Schmidt reported on the activities of the Alliance, which is funded by grants for administration and projects that promote professional development for teachers, K-12 teachers in particular so far. Projects have included three institutes in Japan on language and technology: funding came from the U.S. Department of Education's Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad, the Japan Foundation, and other sources. Ideas for new projects are welcome.
Nominating committee report. Three positions are open on the Board. All are at-large positions this year. Three candidates will be nominated for President-elect. Names of possible nominees are being collected until the middle of October.
Seminar committee report. Submissions will be accepted until October 27 in literature, linguistics, pedagogy, and SLA. The Seminar Committee will then send out submissions for review. Keynote speaker candidates will be contacted. SIGs have been asked if they want to have sessions at the Seminar: the heritage and community college SIGs are interested, and others may be (culture, classical, SAFAS). A panel on job interviewing is planned. The organizers of the roundtable on getting published, which was ATJ's designated session at the 2006 AAS conference in San Francisco, will be encouraged to submit it for the 2007 Seminar.
A motion was made to charge a Seminar registration fee for the first time in 2007, to help cover the high cost of AB equipment: $15/$10 (grad students) for members, and $50 for non-members. The motion passed unanimously. Schmidt said that an online registration website would be set up to encourage registration in advance.
It was suggested that the SIG chairs be asked to give reports on their SIGs' activities at the Seminar or the membership meeting in Boston.
The Board agreed that ATJ should have a booth in the exhibit hall at the Boston AAS conference; it was suggested that combining booth space with JP Trading might draw more traffic to the booth than has been the case in the past. A party at the booth was also suggested. The cost of the booth is about $800 for rental, plus shipping of materials. Board members will be asked to volunteer an hour or two of their time at the booth during the open hours (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning).
Reports on conferences. Several Board members reported on conferences that they attended during the past year: AAAL; JNCL-NCLIS; NCOLCTL; Asian Studies Japan; AJLS. Several reports mentioned the tension between "critical" languages (defense-oriented) and humanities-oriented language instruction that came up at national conferences like those of JNCL and NCOLCTL.
Japanese National Honor Society for college students. The Board discussed the possibility of ATJ's sponsoring and administering a Japanese National Honor Society for college students corresponding to the JNHS at the high school level that is administered by NCJLT. Other languages sponsor awards ceremonies for students; having such events could raise the profile of our students. The JNHS could be a source of revenue: in the high school JNHS, students pay fees ($4.50 each), and the teacher who nominates students has to be a member. Students get a cord to wear at graduation, as well as a certificate. High school NHS has a constitution that says students have to have a certain GPA—3.0 overall, 3.6 in Japanese—and to have taken 4 levels of Japanese. We would need to determine our own criteria; the rest is usually left up to the school/liaison teacher.
Reade volunteered to research and report on what would be necessary to conduct this at the college level; she would like to work with someone from the college level to set up the program. A motion to create JNHS at the college level was passed. Reade said she would report at the spring Board meeting.
Meeting adjourned at 3:10 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, Susan Schmidt