UC Irvine Asian-American Studies Demanded : Education: Frustrated students occupy administration building to urge new program at campus where 43% are Asian-Americans.

Frustrated over the lack of an Asian-American studies program after years of pleading, more than 200 protesting students occupied UC Irvine’s administration building Thursday and marched on the chancellor’s office to demand an audience.

Demonstrators said that Asian-American students will no longer be ignored, particularly at UC Irvine, where they make up 43% of the school’s 17,000-member student body.

“We are no longer the sleeping giant,” said Vu Pham, a history major and co-editor of Rice Paper, the campus newspaper for Asians and Pacific Islanders.

“We want programs now that will educate anyone who is interested in the accomplishments of Asian-Americans, in the discrimination we have suffered and in our experiences in general,” said Pham, 20, a junior from Huntington Beach whose family emigrated from Saigon in 1975.

Acting Chancellor L. Dennis Smith was not present when students marched into his office and lined the hallways outside, pounding on walls, shouting and demanding an audience. Reached by telephone, he later agreed to meet with them at the campus student center.

But when Smith took the stage to speak to the increasingly angry crowd, he was booed repeatedly.

Thursday’s demonstration--the second major demonstration at the school in two months--began shortly after 12:30 p.m. to the persistent beat of Japanese taiko drummers performing for Asian Heritage Week.

The throng of mostly Asian-American students waved banners and chanted, “We have the right, we gotta fight, Asian-American studies now!”

They wore yellow armbands to symbolize Asian unity as they marched into the administration building and took turns at megaphones demanding that Smith make good on his 2-year-old promise to create an Asian-American studies program.

They demanded the hiring this year of at least two faculty members whose research focuses on the Asian-American experience. They also demanded that more such professors be recruited in the next few years.

It is unconscionable, say members of the university’s Asian-Pacific Students Assn., that the university with the largest percentage of Asian students in the continental United States lacks such a program. They note that an African-American studies program began this year and that a Latino studies program is soon to follow.

“How can (this) university call itself a ‘world class university?’ ” asked Charles Lee, co-chairman of the Asian-Pacific Students Assn., which won a commitment from Smith for an Asian studies program after a similar demonstration two years ago.

Even parents and members of the Asian-American business community joined protesters, and spoke of the need for immediate action.

“The pity of it is that there are so many Asian-American students at UCI,” Betty O. Yamashiro, a Newport Beach attorney and member of the Asian-American business community group, Community for Academic Relevance, said in an interview. “I have a son who is a junior this year at UC Irvine and he has to go to take Asian-American studies classes at UCLA, which does have an established program.”

In fact, the school does have two Asian-American faculty who teach such classes. But one is a half-time counselor and the other, assistant professor John Liu, is in the department of comparative cultures with other responsibilities as well.

Community supporter David A. Buxbaum encouraged the students to stage more protests to achieve their goals.

“The only way to change things,” said Buxbaum, a Newport Beach attorney, “is for this group to put on a demonstration like this every week--until this administration gets tired of it and puts into place the program it promised two years ago.”