Action Items to Keep A3C Momentum Going!

A3C stands for "Asian/Asian American Center." It is a space for programming, mentorship, advising, cultural celebration, and education--not a living center. For a brief history of the movement for the A3C, visit the October 4th entry.

Please help out with any one of these projects or make your own suggestions! We (students on the A3C Committee and Cornell at large) can't establish the Center without your help!

• Form letters for students, parents, and alumni to send to administrators
• Info sessions to all people of color organizations to (1) get them informed and (2) get their support in the A3C effort
• News story in Daily Sun
• Op-ed in Daily Sun by (1) Committee member and/or (2) concerned student and/or (3) concerned alum
• Contact faculty and administrators who support our cause
• Contact alumni who support our cause
• Publicize during Trustee/Council Weekend
• Publicize during Family Weekend
• Forum about what has been accomplished for the A3C so far. Administrators invited to speak and be asked questions by community members.

a brief history about A3C

Hi all,

Some of you are new to the Asian/Asian American Center effort, and some of you might want reminding. Feel free to read an article Ri Turner and I wrote during the summer for the Asian American Studies Program.

http://www.aasp.cornell.edu/connections_2008.pdf - Go to pages 4 and 5.

I am also reposting it here.

The 2007-2008 academic year was a milestone year for the Cornell Asian and Asian American (AAA) community.

First, in February 2008, Cornell hosted the East Coast Asian American Student Union (ECAASU) conference for the third time in ECAASU’s thirty-one year history. It was a record-breaking gathering, with over 1,500 AAA students from across the country in attendance. There were performances with open and free admission that Cornell students and local residents could attend. In addition to the cross-campus collaboration that the conference facilitated, ECAASU helped foster Cornell’s own AAA student community. Students who had not previously been involved in AAA campus organizing energetically participated in the organizing effort for ECAASU, and veteran leaders were happy to see that some of them continued their involvement throughout the semester in other AAA student efforts.

The second major AAA campus effort of the year was the launch of the A3C, which is the Asian and Asian American Center planning organization. Thanks to the efforts of the A3C, the Cornell administration has convened a committee to create the Center. The committee consists of undergraduates, graduates, faculty, and staff, and it is co-chaired by Dean of Students Kent Hubbell and Human Ecology undergraduate Caroline Hugh ‘10. The committee aims to create an AAA center on campus, a hub that would offer space for community-building, cultural celebration, and the development of an AAA consciousness—similar to what spaces such as the Africana Studies and Research Center, the Latino Studies Program, and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Resource Center currently do for other marginalized populations on campus.

The Center has been a long time coming. The most recent developments began in 2004 with the publication of the Asian and Asian American Task Force Report. The report examined the recruitment, retention, and satisfaction of AAA students and concluded that the AAA community was being underserved at Cornell*. Specifically, the report placed high priorities on two recommendations: first, that an assistant dean position be created in the Office of Student Support to oversee institutional efforts to meet the unique needs of the AAA population; and second, that a community center space be established on campus for the AAA community. The Assistant Dean position was created last October, and Associate Dean of Students Tanni Hall is currently coordinating the search for candidates to fill that position. However, in response to the slow-footed progress on the community center space, a coalition of students created the A3C organization to encourage institutional compliance with the second Task Force Report priority recommendation.

Student efforts for the A3C began during the fall semester of 2007, when leaders asked the undergraduate Student Assembly to support Resolution 8. The resolution cited findings in the 2004 Task Force Report as the main justification for an AAA center and declared that it was time the university followed up on this initiative. After a thoughtful discussion, the Student Assembly passed Resolution 8 on November 8, 2007, officially lending student government support to the creation of the Center. During the spring semester, A3C focused on encouraging upper levels of administration to comply with the Student Assembly resolution. On March 31, 2008, a panel of administrators including President David Skorton, Vice President Susan Murphy, Deputy Provost David Harris, and Dean of Students Kent Hubbell expressed to a packed audience their commitment to make the proposed center a reality.

President Skorton and Vice President Murphy then called together a committee specifically for the development of the A3C. The committee met weekly for the remainder of the spring semester. Most of the meetings focused on revising A3C’s program definition, objectives, and programming ideas. The discussions built on the rough proposal that student committee members had drafted for the Center. The last two meetings focused especially on prospective spaces for the center. Currently, Dean Hubbell favors a space in one of the lower levels of Willard Straight Hall. The committee recognizes that such a space would be useful temporarily in establishing an interim center, but in the long term, the committee agrees that it is essential for the Center to have its own building.

Now that the 2007-2008 academic year is over, AAA campus community organizers look back with mixed feelings: we have seen a marked increase in the closeness, consciousness, and empowerment of the AAA community and its allies. However, we have also faced significant delays from the administration in acknowledging our unique needs and strengths as a community. As always, we end the year pushing forward—there is always more work to do.

* For the full version of the AAATF report, visit http://www.gannett.cornell.edu/downloads/campusIniatives/mentalhealth/AAATFreport2004.pdf .

A3C is a coalition of students, faculty, staff, and alumni. We welcome feedback and involvement from all walks of Cornell life.

Caroline Hugh is a junior in the college of Human Ecology. She can be reached at ch455@cornell.edu.

Ri Turner is a senior in the college of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at rjt23@cornell.edu.

Get the Administration to Address Asian/Asian American Issues!

Please circulate widely among your listservs. Please write a letter to the email addresses below about your concerns.

PROBLEMS

• Asian/Asian American students—nearly 20%of Cornell’s population—feel more disconnected from the Cornell community than any other demographic.
• Students and researchers have made formal recommendations for over six years—but the administration has dragged its feet, providing little assistance.
• Most recently the administration has suggested an inaccessible storage space in Willard Straight Hall and rescinded a promise of financial support.
  

SOLUTIONS

• Hiring an Assistant Dean for Asian/Asian American Student Support.
• Providing students with a fully staffed program center large enough to serve the huge Asian/Asian American population.
• Making these a reality within the next year.
  

Improving Cornell is only possible through your vocal and financial support.

Please write letters to David Skorton, Susan Murphy, David Harris, and Kent Hubbell (president@cornell.edu, djs98@cornell.edu, shm1@cornell.edu, drh36@cornell.edu, klh4@cornell.edu) about the lack of university services. Encourage students, parents, and alumni to do the same!

Contact Caroline Hugh (ch455@cornell.edu) for further information.

meeting with other activists

Hi A3C members (old, new, and interested),

You may have heard of the racist and Islamophobic Cornell Review articles that were published at the start of the school year. This video would give you more information about it if you haven't heard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBUo2JObT3U. Or you could email back with more questions.

Anyhow, a unifying response is developing from this. At first I thought it was just a short-term coalition about responding to these absurd articles, but the meeting on Saturday consisted of members from LAL, BSU, Watermargin, APAA, MOSAIC, CAN, PAC, Bully Pulpit, and others who seek to address all forms of discrimination on campus. Members are also more than willing to support us in our effort to establish the Asian/Asian American Center (A3C).

For this, I would highly encourage all of you to join the next meeting and contribute in strategizing to turn the discrimination around on campus. We can work to forward the progress of A3C and be the change!

Next meeting: Saturday, 9/13
Time: 4pm
Location: Latino Living Center, Main Lounge

In Solidarity,
Caroline

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

A3C Committee Meeting This Monday

Hi A3C and all who are concerned about Cornell's project,

You are all invited to attend A3C's last committee meeting of the semester. It will be happening...

Monday, May 12, 2008
4:30pm - 6pm
WSH Art Gallery

You can feel free to sit and watch or contribute to the discussion. You should come even if you plan on leaving early. I won't hate you, I promise!

If you plan to participate in the discussion, shoot me an email (ch455). I can send you our most updated proposal to show you what the students on the committee have been working on for the past month & a half.

D. Evan Mulvihill's article on the Cornell Daily Sun's blog

Originally posted here.

Racism and the Asian Community at Cornell
Blog Post
May 2, 2008 - 12:18am
By D. Evan Mulvihill

On April Fools’ Day, I published a fake news piece (in the style of The Onion) titled “Asian Community Center to be Built Adjacent to Uris Library” on my blog CornellWatch. The post envisioned the Center as the cartoonish embodiment of the full spectrum of Asian and Asian American (A3) stereotypes, replete with a Pokémon Card Trading Arena, a Mi-So Slipi Lounge, and a Chinese restaurant selling cat for consumption.

After members of the Asian and Asian American Center (A3C) Student Committee read the post, they were understandably offended and enraged. As damage control, I issued an apology, which attempted to pass the piece off as a “bad joke.” I wanted people to just let it go, because I really didn’t see it as that big of a deal. In essence, I rehashed tired old stereotypes—guilty as charged—but I didn’t really mean them.

I will not attempt to defend my piece anymore or try to assert that calling me racist is a misinterpretation of my work—that it was “satire.” In all honesty, I am unsure as to why I wrote the post in the first place. But I think that original intent is unimportant compared to what I have learned in the wake of the situation.

In speaking with a wide variety of people I encountered a number of attitudes toward the post. To speak generally, there were two major categories of responses: one from the multicultural crowd and another from the “who cares?” crowd.

Multiculturalists are on an unending crusade for diversity. They bandy about the lexicon of Oppression, Marginalization and Gentrification (what I term “OMG”) with stunning precision. They gather in meetings about racism on campus and discuss how white privilege, among other forms of “power,” has created a new breed of latent racism that is harder to fight but perhaps more dire than ever.

The apathetic crowd, on the other hand, sees diversity as something that’s good and all, but just “not really their thing.” When presented with the OMG lexicon, apathetics sometimes recoil and say, “Oh my god.” As much as the apathetic crowd hears about racism, most seem to think that racism is only embodied in clearly racist actions. Apathetics believe it’s okay to use stereotypes in jokes—as long as you don’t really mean them.

I realize that in characterizing the different “crowds” I have begun another round of stereotyping. But this time, it serves to underscore how desperately the Cornell community needs to find a middle ground on issues of race, racism, and power and to engage in some sort of dialogue.

Personally, I find myself somewhere between the two crowds. I realize that the multiculturalists present many compelling arguments about the existence of white privilege and the pervasiveness of racism in America. On the other hand, I didn’t ask for my white privilege, and what, honestly, can I (or anyone, for that matter) do to prevent racism if it’s so ingrained that it can’t even be detected?

In the end, I’ve learned to remember that race is a very emotional and sensitive issue. No, seriously, I know. But sometimes it’s easy to forget that, living in these ten square miles surrounded by reality. What’s most important at this juncture, however, is to try to find some middle ground that both crowds can agree on. The middle ground realizes that issues of race and racism are important, and that respectful dialogue and willful education are needed in order to address these issues as well as to bridge the gap between the apathetic and the radical.

As such, it is important that the Cornell community be informed about the planning of the Asian and Asian American Center, because its existence solves only half of the problem of racism; the other half requires education about the issues facing the A3 community. A major part of the problem, as identified by a 2004 task force (A3TF) investigating A3 issues at Cornell, is “lack of recognition and awareness of the reality, experience, and impact of racism and stereotyping as they relate to Asians and Asian Americans.” This task force recommended the implementation of a cultural center for the A3 community, which eventually became known as the A3C.

Most Cornellians conceive of Asians as the “model minority,” a belief epitomized in the 2005 Antman controversy. On the same day that the Sun ran an article on A3 mental health, including findings from the A3TF, the “Adventures of Antman” cartoonist depicted them as “over-achieving, curve-busting” villains who, along with the precipitous hills and frigid weather, embodied Cornell’s “terrible things.”

Although there is no doubt that family pressures can play a role in unrealistic ideas of academic achievement, pushing the model minority stereotype off onto pushy parents fails to take into account the entire story. In the A3TF report, researchers found that professors and classmates often held A3 students up to higher academic standards, sometimes causing A3 students to choke under the pressure.

In the world of Antman, the majority of the Cornell community remains at odds with robotic, dehumanized Asians who are incapable of socialization. This stereotype blinds many people from seeing A3 students as anything other than soulless study hogs. Instead of bemoaning the supposed “curve-buster,” try to befriend him or her—you will find that, deep down inside, their hearts are not made of gears and chains.

One of the severe issues facing A3 individuals at Cornell is the alarmingly disproportionate suicide rate among students of Asian descent, in comparison with other ethnicities. Though the factors that influence this issue are complex, we, the Cornell community, should try to support the A3 community in this issue in every way imaginable while still realizing that, at its heart, this is a problem that will need to be solved within the community itself. On the surface, jokes such as my post may not seem to be a major cause for depression or mental health issues, but they are symptomatic of a general disinterest in working together. In addition, as one blogger pointed out to me, isolation is often a major factor in suicide, and jokes such as mine can further alienate at-risk individuals.

Although the suicide issue is, in all honesty, likely to be the most salient reason for the greater community to pay attention to the center, a view of the center as an antidote to A3 suicide is myopic. Another major problem the A3TF identified was that the A3 community lacked a real sense of actual community. The center will create a place where A3 students feel they can build a community and a so-called “safe space” from the stereotypes that are likely to exist throughout the foreseeable future.

The A3C is one of the first steps in finding a middle ground between apathy and radicalism, and, in my opinion, it is a very important first step. Jokes like the one I made are a step backwards. These types of jokes are not the biggest threat to the A3 community, but they affirm a system that does nothing to support them.

Most people are tactful enough to make these jokes behind closed doors, but it doesn’t change the fact that they exist on a large scale. I used to tell myself that there was nothing behind such comments, but once they are mentally unwrapped, such jokes are not as harmless as they may first appear.


Discuss this article here. Thoughts? Opinions? Happy or unhappy? What do you think about how he labels us as so-called "multiculturalists"?


--Clara