The door is always open. The Afro-American and African Studies program at the University also crosses departmental boundaries. There are potential drawbacks in being a small, nondepartmental program, Robinson said. There is no reason to make it into a department. Cognitive sciences is a catch-all term for a field encompassing everything from computer programming to neurobiology.
Financial resources remain scarce for many of the interdisciplinary programs.
Virtually all interdisciplinary program officials envied the budgets major disciplines receive, although they wanted to remain interdepartmental. Cognitive Sciences now receives no budget from the College and a small photocopying budget from the psychology department. Making the African-American studies program part of the Institute has given it greater financial resources than many interdisciplinary programs, Robinson said. At least one interdisciplinary program director, however, wants to see his program eventually become a department. The Asian Studies program already has larger organizational apparatuses at its disposal than many interdepartmental programs, because it can draw on the resources of the South Asia and East Asia Centers, organizations funded by the federal Department of Education and by University and private sources, respectively.