| The February incident at the UW Law School involving Professor Leonard Kaplan and several Asian American law students acted as a catalyst for Asian Americans on campus and in the community to reflect on their position in American society like no other incident had in recent memory. While there was much ado made about the incident in the local and national press, the public discourse provided little context to understand the climate that Asian American students face on the UW campus. Was the Kaplan incident a blip in an otherwise excellent climate for Asian American students? Or was it an extreme and visible symptom of the conditions that Asian American students face? The Capital City Hues conducted a focus group with six Asian American UW students comprised of five graduate and one undergraduate students in March while the memory of the Kaplan incident was still fresh. While the insights that these students offered should not be viewed as the definitive, scientific view of the conditions that Asian American students face -- none of the students professed to speak for the students as a whole -- their insights do offer some understanding of the context of the lives of Asian American students on campus. In the first part of this three part feature, we looked at some of the stereotypes and situations Asian Americans face. In this installment, we look at efforts to connect with other students and, in particular, other Asian American students and community members. Betty is a first year graduate student from California. She almost immediately went into culture shock after arriving on campus. "There aren't a lot of Asian Americans in my program," Betty observed. " I'm the only Asian American in my cohort. I've been told this is a very progressive city. And I'm like 'Progressive in what way?' When I think of progressive, I also think of diversity. The fact that there is a lack of diversity here; I don' know how progressive they are." Nancy is another out-of-state student who has strong progressive beliefs. But as an Asian American student, she has found it difficult to connect with other like-minded students. "This last semester, specifically, was very difficult trying to find a community, not only a community of people from the same background, but also a community of like-minded people, people who thought the way I thought," Nancy said. "I was looking for people who were more progressive, who questioned notions of diversity." When the law school incident occurred, Nancy saw that there was a level of consciousness emerging among the students. "When we went to undergrad, we became conscious of not only our identity, but we became radicalized," Nancy recalled. "We became conscious of all of these societal issues and how we fit into it. Why isn't this happening? Where is that space on this campus for undergrads to do that? It's interesting and exciting and I'm following the progress of these undergrads who are organizing across organizations and not only among Asian Americans, but with other racial organizations as well. It's exciting. But institutionally, where is that space here for those conversations to happen, for that type of process to be fostered? I don't know." While Nancy has focused on networking with other Asian American students, Marlene has tried to become involved in the greater student community. "We are well-educated people trying to still convince others that we belong and still trying to get an education," Marlene said. "As far as student organizations go, I am really about trying to get involved. But when there is such a small amount of students who may not know about different cultural issues or certain social issues, my question is 'Where do you begin as far as creating that dialogue with other students to move from a social atmosphere into a socially conscious atmosphere.'" There are several factors that make it difficult forAsian American students to connect on the Madison campus. While the number of Asian American students is relatively small, there is a tremendous amount of diversity within the Asian American community. While in thecontext of their worlds, they may be Thai or Japanese or Indian, within the context of America, they are Asian American, similar to the phenomenon of Latinos when they come to the United States. "I think the majority of us can say that each ethnicity is trying to hold onto their own cultures to understand who they are and where they come from and find that among other students who are similar to themselves," Marlene said. "So to create a Pan Asian movement, the question is 'When we are individually trying to understand our own culture, how do we move to a larger picture? We just see that through various interactions from different kinds of traditions and different kinds of cultures. Languages are also something that can be very different to me. As far as communicating that to one another, we still need to create some kind of visibility before we branch out and come together. I think that permeates throughout, not only in the university, but also in the Madison community." Linda echoed what Marlene was saying. "I think what Marlene was saying about how people get mono-ethnic is also quite true," Linda said. "It takes something to bring us all together. There have been a number of us who have voiced that this is actually a wonderful opportunity to do something positive and make some progressive changes just not on campus, but also in this area." Some of the Asian American students have tried to create linkages with the broader Asian American community. "I have gone to community events like the 'Meet the Mayor' event at Taste of Asia and I got to hear testimonials of primarily Hmong and other Asian Americans who are residents of Madison voice their concerns about diversity in the workforce, about housing inclusion, and about maintaining Kajsiab House as a space for seniors to go to," Mai said. "I get the sense that opportunities are there for leadership. They need to be nurtured more. There could be more done to create more of a collective, Pan Asian American voice in Madison. And I think this is a really good time to do it. I think the need is there, definitely, to represent different voices because Asian Americans are 19-30 different ethnic groups from Asia and a lot of us have spent most of our lives here. I was born in Vietnam, but I';ve lived most of my life here. We need to recognize that we're all different but that we have a political reason for organizing together and to make things better for our community and to work together with other communities in order to do that." Nancy also feels a disconnect with the broader Asian American community, although she has made some effort to get connected. "We were the only students from the university," Nancy said about the mayoral forum that Mai attended. "There were two professors from the university. I wouldn't say that there is a cohesive Asian American community in Madison. I interact mostly with the Hmong community that lives in Bayview. I only know about their concerns. I don't know how much the community and the university work together on Pan Asian issues as far as the resources in the community and in the university go. I don't see much work in the Asian American community within the university and outside the university. I don' know how to foster that. I don't know if the university needs to foster that. I wish they would. We don't live in a vacuum and when negative things happen on campus, they negatively affect the communities around us. When we're working hard within the community to change things, we inevitably don't include the voices of leaders in the community because I don't know how to do outreach to them. I don't know who to contact. I just got here, but I wish that was more accessible. I think a lot could be gotten from that." Linda, who has been on campus the longest, also feels there isn't a big connection between campus and the community. "I have recently become involved with the Wisconsin Organization for Asian Americans, which is a community organization," Linda said. "But they have a potluck once per semester that I am aware of so I go. I was the only student and one time I saw Marlene there. But the outreach between the university and the community isn't there. And I don't know why it's not there. The connection between graduate and undergraduate students isn't there either. Although APAC is open for all Asian American students, it is primarily undergraduate driven. I don't think it connects to all Asian American student organizations. As far as I am aware, there are two Asian American graduate student organizations. One is AAAGS and the other is at the law school. Other than that, there isn't anything for graduate students. When we try to plug in with undergraduates, it is also very difficult because there is such a difference in our academic requirements and the way that our classes function." And then, the life of a graduate student can be very isolating, regardless of ethnic background. But being Asian American can heighten the feeling of isolation. "I think being here as an Asian American woman in graduate school is isolating on a lot of different levels," Jackie said. "One is that by going to graduate school separates you from your family and your community in a lot of ways. My parents don't really know what graduate school is really like and what I'm doing here. The first thing they said to me when I got my acceptance letter and I was just coming from Minnesota so it's not that far is 'So you're going to leave us now.' That was their congratulations. That has been a struggle. It's not to say they aren't supportive. They're always asking when I'm going to get done. They are very supportive, but they don't know how to be supportive in ways other than giving me money. That's really isolating and then just being away from home and family and community and everything. But you have to leave home in order to go to graduate school no matter what you did for undergrad. Those who aren't away from family feel a big pull. I know some students who are uncomfortably going home and their studies suffer. Graduate school is so demanding and so constant. It's always with you. You always feel you have to read a paper and bring papers home with you. And when you are at home, your family demands that you be there. They don't understand why you have write and read at home. And so, there's a disconnect there." Next issue: Opinions about UW diversity efforts |
| A look at the campus climate for Asian American students on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus The isolation of being different By Jonathan Gramling Part 2 of 3 |
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