ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : UCI Needs an Asian-American Program : Diversity: Such studies of a growing group of people are a practical request that fulfills a major societal need.

Some people have been wondering why Asian-American students at UC Irvine have been on a drive to have the university create an Asian-American studies program. When we talk about Asian-American studies, we are talking about experiences here in the United States, not Asia. We are not Asian nationals. We are Asian by ancestry and American by citizenship, therefore we are Asian-Americans.

Today, university graduates need to be informed about the histories and cultures of all people in America to be able to function effectively in society. Asian-Americans play an integral part in American history and Asian-American studies is the interpretation and documentation of Asian- and Pacific-American literature, history, social formation, culture, identity and contributions. American development has multicultural origins and all students need to know more about the ways that racial and ethnic groups, women and different classes contributed to the shaping of America, including its “ugly side.”

If it is true that the “mission” of UCI is to “build a center of learning for all people,” there should be no resistance to implementing an Asian-American studies program. The program could promote greater ethnic and racial sensitivity between students, and the placement of Asian-Americans in positions throughout the university would prove that they have the same opportunities as everyone else to participate as “full citizens” of the university. Currently, Asian- and Pacific-American students at UCI feel ignored.

Asian and Pacific Islanders make up 43.3% of UCI’s undergraduate population and more than 50% of the incoming freshman class--the highest percentage in the continental United States. The Asian- and Pacific-American presence is permanent, growing and diverse. More and more people in America will find themselves working and living side-by-side with Asian- and Pacific-Americans.

Asian-American studies is a practical request that fulfills a major societal need. Asian-American studies courses will help prepare teachers, administrators, journalists, directors, advertisers, social workers, health care professionals, civil servants and others whose responsibilities will include Asian- and Pacific-Americans. The course can provide students an opportunity to learn the reasons behind injustices like racism, poverty and violence and to work together to address the consequences. It also can help make education more equitable, inclusive, relevant and open to alternative perspectives.

As a 20-year-old, second-generation Chinese-American woman who has been a resident and student in Irvine since 1979, my education taught me that I was the model minority personified. I was taught that Asian- and Pacific-Americans were successful, wealthy and had no needs or concerns.

Throughout my schooling in Irvine, all I ever learned about Asian- and Pacific-Americans was that Chinese immigrants worked on the railroads and that the Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II.

I wasn’t taught that 14,000 Chinese immigrants were the primary laborers in connecting the transcontinental railroad, or that on May 10, 1869, the Chinese workers were not invited to the official ceremony at Promontory Point, where the final gold spike was driven into the ground. I was not taught that 120,000 Japanese-American citizens were taken from their homes and put into “internment camps” where the guns were pointed in, toward them.

In my freshman year at UCI, I learned, through my own research prompted by friends at UCLA, that in the United States of America, Asian- and Pacific-Americans have survived 150 years of exclusion laws, Yellow Peril hysteria, scapegoating, concentration camps, lynchings, negative media portrayal and invisibility.

I learned that there are many poverty-stricken Asian- and Pacific-Americans, that none of us are immune to all the problems in America. It is time to stop ignoring Asian- and Pacific-American students.

“The past is in our hearts, but the future is in our minds,” Thomas Hei, who headed the Asian/Pacific Student Assn., said two years ago when the Ethnic Students Coalition Against Prejudicial Education protested and rallied for ethnic studies. Today, the association, with the support of students of all ethnic backgrounds, is holding a 24-hour-a-day educational vigil and fast until June 10 in hopes of encouraging the UCI administration to engage in dialogue with the students that will yield tangible results.

The deprivation of bodily nourishment is nothing compared to the intellectual starvation at UCI.