Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 920/832-6590
For Immediate Release
August 2, 2000

Luce Foundation Establishes Professorship in Asian Studies at Lawrence
University


     APPLETON, WIS. -- The study of East Asia will assume a more
prominent role in the Lawrence University curriculum beginning in the
fall of 2001.
     Lawrence has been named one of 10 select, national liberal arts
colleges awarded a grant by the New York-based Henry Luce
Foundation to establish a new faculty position in political economy for
East and Southeast Asia.
     The grant will provide salary and benefits to a new professor --
the Luce Assistant Professor of the Political Economy of Asia -- for
four years.  It also provides an additional $10,000 annually for program
activities, such as travel opportunities, student internships and a
lecture series featuring business leaders and government specialists
discussing contemporary issues.  At the end of the four-year grant
period, Lawrence will assume funding for the position on a permanent
basis.  Total value of the grant is expected to approach $300,000.
     "The Henry Luce Foundation has consistently been among the most
important and generous supporters of liberal education in America," said
Brian Rosenberg, dean of the faculty at Lawrence, in announcing the
award.  "This grant certainly puts us in excellent company and we're
thrilled to be recognized along with such colleges as
Williams, Carleton and Middlebury as leaders in the development of
undergraduate programs in Asian Studies."
      Lawrence first offered instruction in Chinese language in 1989,
when a full-fledged department of East Asian Languages and Cultures was
established.  Over the past decade, the program has grown from a single
foreign language instructor to a three-person department featuring two
literature specialists and a historian.  As the importance of the
Pacific Rim began emerging globally, the program has shifted focus from
its initial emphasis on literature toward issues of economic and
political development.
     The addition of the Luce Professor will provide Lawrence's East
Asian program  with a specialist in the interrelationships between Asian
political and economic institutions.  In general, political economists
study the ways various sorts of government affect the allocation of
finite resources in society through their laws and policies.  They also
examine the ways in which economic systems and people acting on their
economic interests affect the form of government and the kinds of laws
and policies that get made.
     "This grant will go a long way toward further enhancing an area of
study that has in recent years attracted significant outside attention
and funding," Rosenberg said.  "It also strengthens our ongoing efforts
to diversify and internationalize the Lawrence curriculum."
     The Luce grant is the fifth major award Lawrence has received in
support of its East Asian program.  In 1989, the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation made a grant to support the college's first faculty position
in Chinese language.  That same year, a 3M Vision grant supported an
extensive lecture series that featured representatives from Fox Valley
companies with operations in the Asian Pacific area.  
     In 1993, Lawrence was awarded a $142,000 grant from the Chiang
Ching-kuo Foundation for the introduction of advanced courses in Chinese
language.  Most recently, Lawrence received a $182,000 grant by the
National Security Education Program in 1996 to set up an innovative
three-year program of student internships with American companies doing
business in China.
     The Henry Luce Foundation was established in 1936 by the late Henry
R. Luce, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time Inc.  With assets of $1
billion, the foundation supports programs focusing on American art,
Asia, higher education, public affairs, theology, women and science, and
public policy and the environment.