As students are registering for classes for next semester, a student may think what other classes, besides requirements, one needs to take for the upcoming semester. These classes, like electives in Arts & Sciences, are going to be the last few chances where you have a choice in what you want to learn.

Late yesterday afternoon, Dr. Derek Chang, director of the Asian American Studies Program, spoke in front of a crowd of over fifty Syracuse community members concerning the history of Asian American Studies. Although the Daily Orange put a brief mention in the upper-left corner of page two in yesterday’s edition, I wanted to personally tell you, the reader, the gist of the speech and its implications towards this university.

As Syracuse University is currently developing an Asian and Asian American Studies Program, many will have to wonder what contributions it will make as an addition to other ethnic studies such as African-American Studies, Latino-American Studies and Native American Studies. In fact, the start of all ethnic studies root back to the late 1960s, when students of multiple backgrounds at San Francisco State University and University of California-Berkeley, linked the situations occurring around the world and stated that there is a need for ethnic American studies. San Francisco State University, a three-minute drive from my home in San Francisco, Calif., would create the nation’s first-ever ethnic studies. Then the creation of other ethnic studies programs popped up all over colleges throughout the United States. Syracuse University has been able to have many ethnic studies, but not Asian American Studies. By having an Asian and Asian American Studies Program, which will hopefully be approved by the University Senate in the spring, it would be a hopeful approach to transnationalize both studies.

As the External Vice President of Asian Students in America (ASIA), the oldest Asian and Asian-American interest group on campus, I ask all the diverse leaders, whether it is administration, faculty or students of our campus, to someday engage in dialogue of how ‘Diversity in Action,’ ‘Scholarship in Action,’ and ‘Insights Incite Changes,’ can affect everyone as a whole and how we can do this.

As much as the University Senate decision depends on the enrollment of two courses, the two courses in Asian and Asian American Studies that will be offered next semester are:

1. SOC 300: Contemporary Asian Americans taught by Dr. Prema Kurien on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:15-3:35

2. ETS 182: Race and Literary Texts taught by Dr. Nancy Kang, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-4:50

In addition, this week is Syracuse’s Asian Awareness Week. We invite the university to come out Saturday night for Elements of Hip Hop, featuring who Newsweek has called ‘the pioneer of Cambodian Rap,’ praCh Ly. Ly’s content addressed the lifestyle of Cambodian-Americans and educates members about the Cambodian Genocide. We hope that the university community can come out and learn about prevailing issues in a globalized setting.

As we are a campus committed to diversity and are a part of a globalizing generation, see what a course in Asian American Studies or any ethnic studies program can do in order to enhance and receive the quality-education that you desire! As a proud Syracuse University student, I challenge all of you to think what you need to do to understand the world you live in today.

Jonathan Chan

Junior advertising, marketing, finance major

Published on November 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm