And others say the department does well in trying to educate its students.

"Sophomore tutorial is a best effort at a very difficult task," says Elissa M. Alben '97. "They use tutorial to form a base...a foundation of all East Asian history which is a challenge, but I think they do a reasonable job meeting the challenge."

While sophomore tutorial establishes a foundation for concentrators, the other tutorials allow students to focus on specific areas of study.

In their junior year, students choose which country they wish to study: China, Japan, Korea or Vietnam. Those who focus on Japan or China specialize even further by choosing a humanities or social sciences track.

The stringent requirement for EAS concentrators leave students with only four additional classes in their concentration.

But students say they are okay with this arrangement.

"Most people end up taking more than four," says Block. "You take what interests you, so for me, my electives ended up being in East Asian Studies."

Changes in the Making

A visiting committee consisting of seven prominent scholars in East Asian Studies gathered at Harvard yesterday to begin their evaluation of the EAS Department, according to Dean for Undergraduate Education Lawrence Buell.

The process is entirely routine as each department is evaluated by its visiting committee every three years.

Sometime next fall the committee will issue a report outlining its recommendations for the department, Buell says.

But changes are already in the making. Leo Lee, who is in his first year as head tutor, says he is currently working on revamping the junior tutorial system.

"I would like to make the junior program more coherent," he says. "As it is now, it is too flexible. [The students] are lost."

EAS and Economics

Many say there is a split in the department between those who study the culture of East Asia and those who approach the area with an economic perspective.