Van Hecke-Wettach Hall
100 Ridge Road, CB #3380
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3380
Phone: (919) 962-4116
Fax: (919) 962-1277
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UNC School of Law Van Hecke-Wettach Hall 100 Ridge Road, CB #3380 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3380 Phone: (919) 962-4116 Fax: (919) 962-1277 |
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Hi Andrew: Thanks for your inquiry. I am just back in town, so please excuse my slightly delayed response.
We are still struggling along here, but have made some significant progress. Most of the faculty are in place, but we will again be trying to land a distinguished Director. We are at work on a "State of the Center" report that I will be delivering at the Asian and Pacific American in Higher Education Conference(APAHE) at Columbia this coming November. Here is some narrative information that might be of help straight away. I will mail you hard and electronic copies (with the demographic charts and statistics) once the full report is complete.
The number of students electing to major in Asian American Studies is still very small. We are awaiting our Fall 2002 list of majors this week, but I am fairly certain that official CAAS majors and minors still are less than 20 in number. What keeps the program alive and thriving here is the very rapidly changing demographics in Texas and on campus. The Dean and administration have been very supportive of the Center and its growth and development and will continue to be, I believe, for two reasons. One: all of our courses "make" and are fully and enthusiastically enrolled. Some of our CAAS courses now fulfill university wide requirements; for example, Dr. Kimberly Alidio's CAAS-History courses fulfill one of the campus wide legislative requirements. Many of the Center's courses are also Substantial Writing Component (SWC) courses, so that makes the program "relevant" and valuable to a number of departments who are looking for courses their students can take to fulfill their SCW requirements. And by relevant I mean valuable for those who are typically not very enamored of Ethnic Studies courses or curricula. It might be very useful for you folks at UNC to think about the comparable university-wide needs/uses a Asian American Studies program could serve and fulfill on your campus (a university-wide US history requirement or multicultural requirement, etc. The Departments of Social Work and Education at UT are now requiring their students to include a multicultural or ethnic studies course in their course work). I have also attached a list of the CAAS courses for 2001-02 and 2002-02, along with the current Masterlist of courses--which will continue to grow and change, as new courses are developed.
The second reason simply relates to numbers/bodies and the changing face of Texas. Last Fall Asian American students made 19.6 per cent of the incoming freshman class--and that figure does NOT include foreign Asian/Asian national students. The figures for this year's in-coming freshman class have not yet been released, Andrew, but I fully expect the percentage will reach or exceed 20 per cent. Asian Americans are now the largest minority population on campus (the figure for the Latino American/Hispanic incoming student population last academic year was 13.1%; African American, 3.2 percent, Native America .4%. Anglo American students made up 60.9 of the freshman class). Asian American graduate students are also threatening to by-pass the Hispanic population; Last year's (2001) figures: Asian American grad. students 6.0%, Hispanic 6.8%, African American 1.5%, Native American .3%, Anglo American 53.4%. foreign students made up a substantial percentage of the graduate student body: 29.3%).
Asian Americans are also the largest minority for the student body overall: figures for general enrollment (all classes) for 2001: Anglo American 31,047; Native American 203; African American 1,606; Hispanic 6,089; Asian American 6,701. I have cc'd this message to one of the Center's Administrative Associates, Vince Lozano. Vince will be sending you some more extensive information on the racial/ethnic demographics from the Office of Institutional Studies (which we will be using for the aforementioned report).
One of the exciting things about the numbers on campus is that many Asian American students are discovering that numbers can potentially mean political power, influence and social change. This past academic year, for example, the Student Government kids started lobbying for the Asian American vote (not that any solid mass or block currently exists--more on that in a moment). The non-Asian American student leaders started requesting meetings with Asian American student social and fraternal organizations in order to hear about Asian American students' needs and concerns. Some of this was mere posturing and politicking, of course, but it was the first time potential Asian American clout had been widely recognized on campus. The challenging thing about some of this was that there are many divisions in the Asian American community on campus, as you well know. Some of the culturally/socially-oriented Asian American student groups felt very empowered by this sudden attention while some of the activist, progressive Asian American students were more skeptical about the sudden interest from elsewhere and more interested in strengthening the Asian American community on campus than in being wooed (and potentially further divided), or by being construed as a block to be lobbied, made promises to, potentially manipulated or further divided, etc. Some administrators also seem interested in the growing Asian American community as a potentially well-endowed donor pool (and this is not a selling point I am endorsing). I have heard from a couple of well-placed folks (not the Dean) about how the Center should be able raise all it needs because Asian Americans are rich--and therefore they can be/should be contributing to the university. These attitudes play out in all sorts of unhelpful and unpredictable ways and the attitudes ignore all sorts of material and economic realities--like the Asian American working classes. And I simply find these arguments deeply offensive. The underlying message is "we let you in here at UT, now it's time for your to give back." Other communities are not being asked to provide the budget and institutional support for Centers and academic programs.
Social mass is an influential factor. We have been very fortunate that the more helpful ways in which social mass can be recognized have been beneficial for the Center. We are being given time to grow, time to be discovered by some of these incoming freshman and young under class men and women. We have even been allowed to recruit beyond the original number of faculty lines promised to the Center. The university gets good PR for being attentive to the intellectual, social and academic needs of Asian American students and can advertise its investment in more broadly educated undergraduates. The Center has the opportunity to develop its own agenda and build community on and off campus in the ways that matter to the CAAS faculty and highly involved students.
I don't know if any of this information is of help, Andrew; I hope it is. Please let me know what else you might want or need. For example, I could send you a hard copy of the original rationale for the program's existence (it exists in a couple of versions and may or may not be helpful). And if, by some wild chance, you are interested in returning to UT, potentially serving as Director and being a faculty member at the Law School, please apply for one of our senior-level faculty positions this season.
Good luck to you with your UNC AAS plans. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to be of help. Sincerely, Mia.
Hi Mia,
I've recently taken over as faculty sponsor for the Asian Students Association here at UNC and I'm organizing a working group to launch a campaign for Asian American Studies here. I'm hoping to fill in the gaps between my experience in the UT movement at a similar stage and what UT has now.
Has the Center produced any annual reports or other documents that discuss the history of the program and where it stands now? We'd be interested in enrollment numbers, especially as it pertains to the question of what constitutes enough of a critical mass to justify the expansion of offerings, faculty members, degree programs, facilities, etc.
Any information or advice you could offer would be very welcome.
Yours, Andrew