The coherent program in South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan is of recent origin, but the academic and institutional interest and activity in this region goes back to 1898 when Dean Worcester became a member of the first Philippine Commission under William Howard Taft. Worcester had conducted research in the Philippines in 1886 and in 1890-93, and served as a member of the Philippines Commission until 1913. His library on the Philippines was given to the University to become the base of a specialized collection. Professor Harley Bartlett worked in Sumatra and the Philippines for many years, and Professor Joseph Hayden, twice an exchange professor at the University of the Philippines, served as Vice-Governor of the Philippines from 1933-35. Immediately after World War II, the University of Michigan became the sister institution of the University of the Philippines, and played an important role in the growth of its Joseph Hayden Library and other facilities. Faculty of the University of Michigan, under the direction of Professor Ferrel Heady established the highly successful Institute of Public Administration in the Philippines, and a number of Michigan faculty received important field experience in its early years of operation.
This early relationship with the Philippines was followed by other service programs in South and Southeast Asia. Almost from the beginning of the Teacher Exchange Program of the U.S. Office of Education, the English Language Institute of the University has provided special training programs for Asian teachers of English. More than 400 of these teachers, over the years, have come from South and Southeast Asia. Special training programs for Peace Corps groups assigned to Thailand were established in 1961-62, and the Michigan program was noted as one of the most effective in intensive language training.
In South Asia the University has been equally active. It was a member of the Indo-American program to develop an Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur. Other projects in South Asia included work with the Indian Institute of