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

Aftermath of A3C and Evan Mulvihill

Evan's blog entries were featured again at Racialicious and was briefly mentioned at Reappropriate, which is run by a Cornell alum.

To follow up from this and this post on the racist blog entries that Evan Mulvihill wrote, we present to you another apology:

Originally posted here:

No More Jokes

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is a piece I wrote for the 4/16 edition of Bully Pulpit, a political publication on-campus that solicited an explanation of the controversial April Fools’ Day post and its aftermath. It contains an editor’s note (written by Everet Yi) at the bottom, which is reproduced below.

On April 1, I decided to post a Onion-style fake news piece titled “Asian Community Center to be Built Adjacent to Uris Library” on CornellWatch (blogs.kitschmag.com/watch), a blog about current events on campus. I figured it was April Fools’ Day, and that making light of stereotypes might somehow be more acceptable. The center was big news yesterday, and seemed like something that could stand up to some misguided lampooning. In any case, it was “satire,” right?

Wrong. Exactly a week later, some members of the Asian community, specifically those invested in the planning of the community center, found out about the post. Understandably, they didn’t think jokes about their status as the so-called “model minority” were very funny, and my initial response to them was basically: okay, I’m sorry that you’re offended and all, but you’re really reading way too much into this. After all, it was just a joke—a very crass, fell-flat-on-its-face type of joke—and as such, the viewpoints were not ones that I personally hold.

I hastily drew up a new post entitled “An Open Apology for a Bad Joke” and removed the offending April Fools’ post. I explained that I felt their pain and understood that the model minority stereotype is “the reason for the unrealistic academic pressure that Asian and Asian-American students face and likely the reason that they commit a disproportionate amount of Cornell’s suicides.”

Those shards of glass threatening to rip my journalistic credibility to threads were magically swept on the carpet—I was saved, right?

Wrong again. Riding the blogosphere train, commenters swarmed in on and tore apart my poorly constructed and ill-conceived apology. I was described as “a racist, pure and simple,” “some idiot college columnist [trying] to increase his… street cred,” and ultimately “a part of the problem.” Some intrepid internet vigilante even created a blog for me, reposting my initial entry and my “bullshit apology” below an image of two Ku Klux Klan members.

I have to admit that this was a scary situation for me, but that ultimately it is one that I am glad to have experienced. I met with concerned members of the Asian and Asian-American Center (A3C) and was educated as to the specifics of what angered and worried them about my post. I learned that in writing that post, I really was part of the problem—a problem that a 2004 task force reported as the “perceived lack of recognition and awareness of the reality, experience, and impact of racism and stereotyping as they relate to Asians and Asian Americans.”

I also have learned that I should not be one to speak or make assumptions about sensitive issues such as suicide or the model minority stereotype before I had done an appreciable amount of research; that the situation needs to be amended instead of defended; and that a more robust “meta-apology” of sorts should be issued. Hopefully before next Friday, I will be publishing this more comprehensive apology in the Daily Sun.

Once again—this time in light of more knowledge and less ignorance—I apologize for using racist stereotypes in a way that ridiculed the entire Asian and Asian-American community. I am hopeful that I am on the road to opening a dialogue on-campus about this issue, because, unfortunately, the belief and misuse of these stereotypes is altogether common—and fairly socially acceptable—on the Cornell campus. Please send suggestions and questions about the situation to watch@kitschmag.com.

Editor’s Note: We commend D. Evan Mulvilhill for starting an important dialogue across the Cornell campus. We condemn the commenters who have called Evan a cunt, racist, and a bigot.

We appreciate Evan’s use of humor to highlight the various stereotypes facing Asian and Asian American’s today. After all, if we don’t talk about it, nothing is going to get accomplished.

Without humor and dialogue, the world would be a sad place.

So, thank you Evan. Thanks for being brave by putting yourself out there by starting an important discussion regarding stereotypes concerning the APIA community.

P.S. Everyone calling for Evan’s head, CALM DOWN. Sheesh.



I'm not happy with Everett Yi's note. Discussions on stereotypes have always been around. Evan used these stereotypes for "satire" in order to ridicule Asian and Asian American students. We A3Cers called him out on it, as did other bloggers and commentors. How exactly is this "starting an important discussion regarding stereotypes concerning the APIA community"?

In any case, many thanks, Evan, for this apology. We look forward to seeing your piece in the Cornell Daily Sun.


--Clara

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.
  

A3C Wish List: What do YOU want?

At the last A3C meeting on Friday April 11, we discussed the history of other Asian/Asian American centers at comparable universities (thanks to Thu!). Stony Brook's Charles B. Wang Center Celebrating Asian & American Cultures was one that we mentioned. Taken from their website http://www.sunysb.edu/sb/wang/, the mission of the Center follows:

The Charles B. Wang Center initiates and collaborates with academic departments, student groups, community organizations, and individuals in presenting the public with a multifaceted, intellectually sound, and humane understanding of Asian and Asian American cultures, and their relationship to other cultures. The Wang Center is also a presenting venue for events of cultural, professional and intellectual calibre that are initiated by and involve the various components of Stony Brook University, Long Island communities and organizations as well as other regional, national, and international constituencies. The Wang Center is non-partisan and non-sectarian, and upholds the values of pluralism, democracy, and equality.

Their facilities are extensive and include:

• 120,000 square feet of interior spaces and 35,000 square feet of gardens
• 239-seat theater
• two mid-sized lecture halls wired for laptops and the most current audiovisual technology
• interdenominational chapel
• Jasmine Restaurant, featuring Chinese, Indian, Japanese Grill, Sushi, and Thai food, with other Asian cuisines included in the daily food specials

Programming includes a variety of culture shows, workshops, speakers, film screenings, book discussions, and lectures. For full descriptions of this semesters programs, check out http://www.stonybrook.edu/sb/wang/events.shtml

Now, our question as A3C is what do we want to see happen at this Asian and Asian American Center that we are developing at Cornell?

Here are some programming ideas that the six students on the committee developed at our last meeting:

• Cultural
• Cultural celebrations hosted by student organizations
• Musical performances
• Dance performances
• Social Events
• Freshmen Welcome
• Club fair
• Student organization socials
• Community Outreach
• Student leadership retreats
  
• Lectures or talks given by community leaders
• Advocacy and Educational
• Lectures, forums, talks
• Development of Asian-American identity
• Networking between Asian and Asian American students
• Sub-ethnic-historical educational events

Use this post as a WISH LIST of things you personally want to see at the Center, in terms of programming and support. All of your comments and input will be compiled and incorporated into our formal proposal. Thanks in advance!

A3C proposal - demands

The six student members of the Community Center committee (in alphabetical order: Bhavna, Caroline, Clara, Jonathan, Samantha, Susan) met on Monday, 4/7, to discuss the proposal in its current state at the time. Our proposal is still in draft stage, but here are some main points:

Goal #1 – To raise awareness of Asian and Asian American culture and social issues to the larger Cornell community.

Objective #1.1 - To run programs that capture the social, historical, and political diversity within Asian and Asian American cultures for the general public, that unite the Asian and Asian American community, and provide education on the Asian and Asian American culture. See Programming section.

Objective #1.2 - To partner with various departments and programs to foster inclusion of Asian and Asian American students in dialogue on diversity issues.

Objective #1.3 – To disseminate information on Asian and Asian American cultures and backgrounds to the general Cornell community, contributing to a more open and understanding campus climate.

Objective #1.4 – To conduct and publish yearly surveys of Asian and Asian American student satisfaction in order to assess the needs of the community, and to develop initiatives and programs in response to these surveys. *

Objective #1.5 – To publish or sponsor publications that discuss Asian and Asian American culture and socio-political issues.

Objective #1.6 – To organize a biennial conference on Asian and Asian American issues.

Objective #1.7 – To build and maintain a library with literature concerning Asians and Asian Americans that is connected to the Cornell Library system.

Goal #2 – To provide a central hub of resources and a network of support for Asian and Asian American students, faculty, and staff.

Objective #2.1 - To hire full-time staff members and a group of work study undergraduate students as advocates for the center’s mission.

Objective #2.2 - To facilitate communication among Asian and Asian American students, faculty, and staff through various events and programs.

Objective #2.3 - To provide academic, social, career, and cultural resources to students as they progress through the college career and life after Cornell.

Objective #2.4 - To encourage collaboration between over a hundred Asian-related student organizations on campus.

Objective #2.5 – To advocate and raise awareness for Asian and Asian Americans students and socio-political issues they face.

Space

• Office Space - for each of the 3 staff members
• Small computer lab - maximum capacity 10 people
• Conference room - maximum capacity 30 people
• Library (connected to University system, book course reserve. Note Objective 1.7.)
• Storage space
• Study/Social Lounge - maximum capacity 50 people
• Bathroom facilities –gender neutral - capacity of 5
• Kitchenette
• Multi-purpose room – maximum capacity 200 people

Staff/Administration

The Center will employ 3 full-time professional and 6-8 part-time student staff.

• Center Director (full time)
• Center Coordinator (full time)
• Counselor (full time)
• Student Staff (part time) –
  
• Center Coordinator
• Webmaster
• Administrative assistant (2)
• Programming assistant (2)
• Outreach assistant
• Librarian

* = inspired by Stanford U's A3C
red font = additions or edits made to the first draft (sent over a3c-listserve)



The first committee meeting is scheduled for Friday, 4/11, from 2-3pm. Some of us can't make that time, so we'll see how it goes.