Asian-Americans told common identity needed

A graduate of the Law School told Asian-American students at a conference on Saturday that they must forge a common identity. The Asian-American community is under represented at all levels of policy making, local attorney Tsiwen Law said in the opening address of the Students for Asian Affairs Leadership Conference . "We need to see more Asian faces in city councils, courts and Congress," he said. He reminded students that although Asians comprise three percent of the U.S. population, they make up nearly 20 percent at the university level. And the only way to shape the policy making on the academic or political level, he said, is to unite. He urged students to be aware of the discrimination that surrounds them and together develop a common agenda. They should know Asian-American history and realize they have "a stake in the future of this United States," he said. The leadership conference was the closing event of Asian Pacific American Heritage week. Students attended a series of six lectures dealing with Asian-American issues as part of the conference. Prominent professionals, among them a female judge and a high school principal, discussed various topics facing Asian-Americans today. Topics included the role of Asian-American women, educational issues, job discrimination, networking, relations between different Asian ethnicities and learning to cope with life in the United States. Students had an opportunity to talk about these issues during round-table discussions after each session. "Asian awareness on this campus needs to be increased and this is a good way," College freshman James Wang said . Students for Asian Affairs organized the leadership conference in order to foster Asian-American unity on campus. "There are a number of Asian-American ethnic organizations at the University, but the SAA is the only politically-oriented one," College and Wharton sophomore Kevin Chang said. Conference organizers, who collaborated with the Greenfield Intercultural Center, said they expected it to create an atmosphere of unity. Almost 100 students from the University, Swarthmore College, Bryn Mawr College, Drexel University, Rutgers University, Pennsylvania State University and Haverford College attended the conference. "It was a great way to get students from various campuses together about common issues and meet other people," Swarthmore senior Jennifer Li said.