Talk explores origins of Asian American minor

The program's first event looked at the 10-year effort to establish it. In a packed room containing more people than chairs, the University's Program in Asian American Studies presented "Building Asian American Studies at Penn: Contexts and Prospects" Friday. Professor of South Asian Studies and ASAM Director Rosane Rocher hosted the inaugural symposium -- held in Houston Hall's Benjamin Franklin Room -- which was designed to discuss the struggles students and faculty have faced in establishing the Asian American Studies program. "Penn was not attractive to Asian American scholars," she said, adding that the University needed to begin concurrent searches three years ago in order to recruit faculty to the program. ASAM was established in fall 1996 as an inter-disciplinary program offering a minor and a broad range of courses and activities. The audience applauded as Rocher informed them that pages 26 and 102 in the fall 1997 Course Timetable are entirely dedicated to ASAM. Courses include "Topics in Asian American History," "Writing about the Indian American Experience" and "Topics in Literature: Theorizing Identity in Asian American Literature." Rocher said she "struck gold" in finding English and ASAM Professor Mark Chiang and Sociology and ASAM Professor Grace Kao for the program. Chiang and Kao both spoke of entering fields that their Asian American families discouraged. And Chiang emphasized the need for universities to study the Asian American experience. "The most important things I learned were not in the classroom but from other Asian Americans," he said. "Looking back I ask myself, 'Why couldn't I have learned in the classroom'?" Association of Asian American Studies President Gail Nomura discussed the success of the program at the University. She urged students to support ASAM courses and reminded them of the hard work it took to create the program. "This program was not brought to you on a silver platter -- it was brought to you by the struggle of many people" said Nomura, who works in Michigan. Gary Okihiro, director of Asian American Studies at Cornell University, discussed the struggle his external Penn committee faced when speaking with the administration. He said five years ago he never imagined celebrating the inauguration of this program at Penn. But he noted that schools such as Columbia University are now following Penn's model in implementing such programs at their own schools. College senior Linda Min, chairperson of the ASAM Undergraduate Advisory Board, explained how she has formed an individualized major in ASAM because of the lack of such a major at the University. She urged students to continue to fight for the program until a major was offered. "Asian Americans are in need of a strong voice," she said, insisting that students must "continue to struggle until it no longer is one." And Wharton junior Eric Lee, chairperson of the Asian Pacific Student Coalition, emphasized the importance of students' pursuing this major "so our work as Asian Americans may be studied by generations to come."