Stay Tuned...

Hi all,

There was an A3C Committee meeting on Wednesday, 11/19, after Kent Hubbell returned from his trip to China.

There were only small updates:

• Kent announced the approximate costs of the Center--if it were to stay in Willard Straight Hall, which is still uncertain at this point. There were two estimates, both of which were under $2 million. The numbers include air conditioning installment, the elevator/LULA construction, furniture, and asbestos treatment.
  
• President Skorton wants to meet with the Committee right after Thanksgiving break, in between his two international trips. There is no indication of what kind of discussion might be happening, or whether the entire A3C project would go ahead at all.
  
• If architect plans are approved by December 1st, the project may be completed by August 21, 2009. The plans will not be approved by then because the administration is not providing the Committee with anything solid, whether through finalizing the A3C's location or assigning a fundraiser to the A3C project.
  

We are disappointed with the administration's inaction. Please keep sending your comments to David Skorton, Susan Murphy, and Kent Hubbell. Even one paragraph expressing your desire for the Center makes all the difference.

The Center cannot happen without your support.

Summer Updates

Hi all,

We didn't mean to neglect this place, but summer comes with its tides of non-A3C work days and dog days... heck, I'm procrastinating on studying for my bio final by writing here!

1) A3C Center Updates
2) AAA Welcome Reception on Sept. 6th
3) An Upcoming Article about Asians and Mental Health on College Campuses

__________________________________________________________

1) A3C Center Updates

We have had four A3C Committee meetings in the summer so far, starting in July. Yesterday, we spoke with Dan Forlenza, one of the main architects who is working with us. We are starting to visualize what the center is going to look like with a mere 1,200 sq. ft. in the second floor of Willard Straight Hall.

We will need to finalize the floor plans next week, but we will most likely have

• Two offices (one for the Assistant Dean, one for the A3C Program Director)
• A storage closet
• A 10-person meeting room
• A slightly larger multipurpose room/study lounge - max. capacity: 30 people standing
• A bathroom
• A kitchenette - maybe 2 mini-fridges, a coffee machine, and a microwave
• 3 computer stations that line up against one wall

Here is the "aggressive" (her word) timeline drafted by Roberta Dillon, the Project Manager:

• Prepare Design Proposal, Kick-off Design - July 30, 2008
• Start Design - August 1, 2008
• Design PAR due for Pre-CF&PC - August 6, 2008
• Submission of Architectural Design Development Drawings to the AC3 Committee - August 13, 2008
• *Approval of the Architectural Design Development Drawings - August 22, 2008
• Complete Design - October 1, 2008
• Plot and Conduct Coordinated Review of Drawings and Specs - October 1-8, 2008
• Plot and Sign Mylars (allows 3 business days) - October 8-10, 2008
• 100% Construction Documents Due in Contracts - October 13, 2008
• Bid Period - October 16–November 6, 2008
• Construction PAR due for Pre-CF&PC - November 6, 2008
• Pre-CF&PC - November 11, 2008
• CF&PC - November 19, 2008
• Execution of Construction Contract - November 19-24, 2008
• Start Construction Period - December 1, 2008
• Construction Complete (13 weeks) - March 1, 2009

*If customer approval is not received by this date, it may negatively impact the design completion date.

I can post many more updates, but these are the most recent ones. If you want to view the floor plans, the past A3C Committee meeting minutes, or any other updates, email me at ch455.

2) AAA Welcome Reception on Saturday, Sept. 6th
(Noon - 4pm) RPCC 1st floor

This is basically a clubfest for all Asian-interest groups on campus. There will be free food and performances, as well as a few speakers. The A3C as an organization can table, but we'll need your help!

Sign up with me, please.

3) Upcoming Article about Asians and Mental Health

A reporter from a higher education magazine, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, has interviewed several people from Cornell, including students and staff. I'm not sure how much she is focusing on Cornell in particular, but she will send me a link to her article when she completes it. Again, contact me if you want to receive updates about this.

Take care,
Caroline
ch455@cornell.edu

A3CTF - last monday's meeting

A3CTF = Asian & Asian American Task Force

A3CTF Monday, April 14, 2008

Attendees: Siv, Susan, Clara, Sam, Jonathan, Dean Hubbell, Christine Forrester, Tanni, Peter, Bhavna

Documents that were passed out:

• Selected sections of AAATF from 2002 – Tanni
• Program Definition Suggestions – Prof. Wong
• A3C Committee Meeting Minutes – Christine F
• Proposed Agenda & Proposed Programming – Clara
  

• We’ll be called “A3C Student Committee”
  
• One of us students to be co-chair with Dean Hubbell – we’ll decide by next meeting
• Following the agenda we posed
• Transparency for public circulation - Christine can make the notes available by Tuesday. If everyone approves, we can circulate them by Wednesday.
• Approval by email – set a deadline: “get back to me by certain time & day”
• Implementation of an effective feedback loop – how can people get back to us on what they think? We have an A3C listserv that we can use.
• Use David Harris’ diversity website – post minutes & agenda prior to meeting
• Can students leave comments on the website?
• A3C blog to get student feedback
• Working list of programming ideas
• Proposed Programming – we had a list to jumpstart brainstorming, which Dean Hubbell had no problem with.
  
• Tanni’s job description of Assistant Dean
• Student volunteers working with paid staff – Laura Weiss is paid, but works w/ student volunteers. Support of program assistants as well.
• We should be adding student staff b/c EARS is hard to translate into A3C model
• 2002 Student Proposal for A3C said that CAPSU is hard to sustain w/ student volunteers alone – we still see this happening today
• Worry that Assistant Dean doesn’t know about intricacies that students know. E.g., how the college infrastructure works or the academic questions about profs or classes
• Visions of diff btwn program director and Assistant Dean?
• Desire for grad students to be paid staff
• Model used for frat/sor affairs – something similar can be used for A3C?
• Syracuse also looks to intern grad students to expose them to student affairs
• Can support their grad study financially and facilitate their participation
• Not a lot of Cornell grad students can get involved – Bhavna said that largest grad groups are engineering & CEEPA (sp?)
• Several models that U-Maryland has
• Advising student leaders with workshops & leadership courses
• AA cultural center with grad assistantships
• Mentoring – peer to peer – how to acclimate yourself to Cornell. Not necessarily EAR-type training required.
• Adding to someone’s job description in order to keep the mentorship alive
• Asking for Provost Martin support for AA library
• 3 full-time staff is not an extraordinary demand, considering the high population of A/AAs on campus
• Hubbell said we should have paragraphs describing the staff
• Bhavna said Thu has research on this already
• Thu can send facts about the A3Cs nationwide
• We students can edit the info down for Provost Martin to read
• Succinct comparisons – “Tufts has had a program like this for 25 yrs. [brief summary of resources made available]”
• Peer institutions to compare to, that Hubbell listed: Yale, UPenn (closest in terms of size, proportionality, selectivity), Harvard, Northwestern, Stanford, UChicago
• Making site visits to see how they’re laid out, what’s a friendlier layout to welcome students
• We would do this next semester once we have more details
• Has to be during academic year when you can view student life
• Profs who work in AASP are really overworked trying to apply for tenure as well as raising A/AA community
• Articulating optimal relationship btwn center & AASP? Maybe Shelley or someone else could write about this succinctly.
• Looking at other ethnic studies programs who could integrate social life w/ academic life
• Siv suggested looking at Midwestern univ models like Champaign & UChicago
• Looking at Part IV of Agenda
• We read aloud what Prof. Wong sent us – she was leading us toward creating a program definition
• Going over the goals of our limited proposal from last week
• 1.2 – need to include that we should work with other departments
• 2.2 – need to specifically include alumni?
• Prof. Wong's gonna write up the programming aspect or edit – we’ll decide when she is present at the meeting
• Tanni says A3C’s scope is bigger than CWRC's, which is only directed at students. A3C aims to serve all students, staff, faculty, and alumni.
• Prof. Wong’s document is like mission statement of the center – good draft for now, but it’s better to be more succinct
• Siv said there is an exclusion of the factors that brought about this center? We might want a historical piece on how AAATF & the negative AA student experiences have factored into the mission statement
• This is like the justification of the need for an A3C – simply alluding to key issues that brought about this dialogue would be fine. As an intro or conclusion would be good.
• Approval of minutes from Friday
• WSH is for students by students
• Anything we as A3C committee propose as interim A3C, WSH’s student union board would need to approve that
• Go down to ceramics studio. Used to be Green Room space
• Involves displacing the art club
• ~3,000 sq. ft. of space – we can get a floor plan
• needs diplomatic skill to make it happen
• Previously, the admin had displaced pool/billiards room – 4,000 sq. ft.
• now it’s a “baby Memorial Room” – where people dance
• Good idea to get inventory of what spaces are available – Hubbell would do it
• informal conversation w/ Student Union board
• We would speak with Rockefeller building manager who is very protective of his building. Also speak with univ architect (Gilbert Delgado)
• 2nd floor WSH had a few student orgs previously, but we arranged for them to leave space for renovation. They went peaceably.
• Obligation to look for its “highest and best use” even though it’s for the Student Union
• Elmhurst room downstairs – we’d be fighting with dining for that room
• Maybe we should use the 2 weeks to ID these spaces and see if we could use them.
• East side of WSH is important architecturally. West isn’t that important, plus it’s only a parking lot. The student groups would have a lot more spaces to use as well.
• Next agenda
• We students present what other univs are doing
• We update AAATF to see what services exist now that didn’t exist back then. – not sure who suggested this
• We come up with the student co-chair
• We continue to submit the agenda
• Tanni will dig up historical charge for AAATF
• Christine will send out minutes tomorrow. We’ll have 24 hours to approve and then Wednesday, the minutes will be completely available to rest of campus.
• Hubbell will talk to David Harris about diversity website. Also come up with locations that are possible on campus.
  

the whole deal!!! (from Thu)

In this e-mail:
i] historical review of campaign
ii] minutes from last A3C meeting
iii] To Do's for certain folks

Next meeting time will be announced via A3C listserve. To be added, e-mail Clara or Caroline (csn7, ch255). In the meantime, give us your input about meeting time:
http://doodle.ch/participation.html?pollId=eb5xpr7y2dbs76zv . I apologize for this message's length... -thu


Yes, yes ya’ll… This year has been one for the record book.

Intensively since the 1980s, we the Asian & Asian American (A3) students have been striving for an inclusive campus – one that allows us to explore and to develop our personal identity and critical consciousness. Out of a long overdue task force report in 2004, two recommendations were made: 1) to have an assistant dean to serve the need of A3 students and 2) to have an A3 community center. Both proposals were finally accepted this year! Without going into details, thank you for your hard work, support and love when there was a scarce amount around this place.

Yes, yes ya’ll… But, we’ve got a long way to go still.

“My wife and I have a love affair with Asia… We have been to many of the countries you and your families are from.” David Skorton, Cornell University President, 2008.

“Once I was American, but America made a foreigner out of me -- not a Japanese, but a foreigner -- a foreigner to any country, for I am just as much a foreigner to Japan as to America.” Kazuo Kawai, As Am student at UCLA, 1925.

There are more commonalities than differences to bring us together. Whether we or our families arrived here as diversity visa cardholders from the ‘60s, as refugees from a war-torn country, as hopefuls searching for a new opportunity, or as international students recently -- the goal of this community center is to simply create a beloved community.

Yes, yes ya’ll… And so, let's begin the real work to actualize this idea.


[1] The Central Goals of the A3 Community Center, decided by A3C work committee members:

1) A working budget/endowment
2) A wide range of programming & leadership training
3) At least one full-time staff member, and
4) A centralized location

[2] The Physical Space, a Charette of Ideas
This is a brainstorm of what we want:

~ Staff Positions: Program Director, Assistant Program Coordinator (at least one), work-study student interns (2-4)
~ A Library: The current collection of Asian American books at Rockefeller is weaksauce and smaller than some of our own personal collections.
~ A Professional Kitchen: Because we love to eat & use food as a method to build community.
~ Programming/Multipurpose/Meeting Space: An space open to student clubs to hold meetings, workshops, et. for 30 students or so.
~ Office: Depending on the centrality of the place, an office with computers for student use.
~ Lounge/Chill space: Smaller than the mtg space for students to hang out.

[3] Education
We are determined to use this opportunity to build an Asian American and Asians in America consciousness. To begin, please start using the Blog site that Ding formed. Please share your information/insight. All minutes from meetings will be there so that this process can also be as transparent as possible.

[4] Mission Statement of Our Group
The following is a draft: To serve as a student voice during this process. To uphold the original purposes for this need. To work towards unifying all groups that this community center will primarily serve.

[5] Long Term Goal
To actualize the proposal for an A3 community center.

[6] Should this be a separate building?
Pros: Establishment of an endowment, operating budget, increase in staffing, larger space
Cons: Most likely, cannot be centralized, administrative policy constraints

[7] Timeline of a Proposal
A working draft to be presented to A3C asap. Write out phase process for the end of this year, i one year, three years, etc & a way to evaluate progress.


[8] Short Term Goals (Internal for A3C group]/THE "TO DO" LIST
~ To create timelines (internal & external)
~ To raise an Asian American consciousness/to educate
~ To hold ourselves accountability that all AAA groups are inclusive to the planning process/To reach out and have working committee reflect the diversity of the AAA community on campus
~ To establish & clearly define what our community looks like/the constituency of this center
~ To serve as a student voice for administration & to provide a forum for all AAA to provide input
~ To bridge the outgoing and incoming leadership


[9] For Next Meeting (TBA, sometime by next Friday)
EVERYONE: go to
Thu (me) will make a presentation of other school's current models
Selected 6 A3C representatives: Perhaps meet to discuss timeline & otr short term-goals?


Thu-Huong Nguyen