The center itself — as well as other international studies centers and programs at MSU — took a direct hit when the federal government slashed about $50 million in funding for the Department of Education’s international education budget earlier this year.

MSU operates five international education centers funded by Title VI, which focuses on foreign language education and research.

Those cuts were felt at the Asian Studies Center, which lost about $140,000 to $150,000 of its annual per-year appropriations for the next three years, director of the Asian Studies Center Siddharth Chandra said.

Chandra said the center had to reduce student employee hours and cut a number of its programs because of the funding loss.

But Chandra said the federal government shouldn’t be focusing its energies on chopping outreach programs.

“I don’t think they should be cutting in education, especially in Asian studies,” he said during the open house. “As Asia grows economically, an increasing number of young Americans will find job opportunities in, or related to, Asia.”

Hospitality business junior Kevin Tran, who attended the reception, agreed with Chandra.
“It’s an important area to keep funding,” he said.

The Asian Studies Center wasn’t the only university program to feel the burn.

MSU’s Fulbright-Hays program — an initiative that funds doctoral dissertation research abroad — lost all of its funding for this year, said Roger Bresnahan, the Fulbright-Hays coordinator in the Office for International Studies and Programs. Based on years past, that meant a loss of about $140,000 to the program, Bresnahan said.

Those cuts later prevented about 15 MSU researchers from pursuing federally-funded doctoral work abroad, he said.

Through later negotiation efforts with university administrators, Bresnahan said funding from MSU itself was secured for some students to go abroad, but the exact amount of that funding was unclear.

Bresnahan remains optimistic funding for his program and other international education initiatives at MSU eventually will be put back in place. He said paperwork asking for the reinstatement of funding for the Fulbright-Hays program currently is going through the Department of Education and will be reviewed later this year.

“There is hope that it will be restored,” Bresnahan said. “In all previous years … Congress never failed to appropriate the money (after a proposal request).”

At the Tuesday afternoon reception, general management junior Jun Wan talked about the value of hosting a welcome event for the center on campus.

“We have food, drinks and so many nice people,” Wan said.

Students and faculty also heard from Chandra, who spoke about his hopes for the program.
“We are hoping to work with you in the coming year,” Chandra said. “We know a lot of you are engaged in a lot of cultural activities that relate to specific countries in Asia.”