(Campus Round Up is a new feature on AsAmNews about the news and concerns of Asian American students on campuses nationwide. If you have an item of interest from your campus, email it to us at info at asamnews.com or use the hashtag #AsAmNewCampus.)
A hapa student at Yale has launched a movement to establish a multi-racial peer counseling program on campus, reports the Yale Daily News.
Third year student Gregory Gregoire is half white, one-quarter Asian and one-quarter Black.
Gregoire along with other multiracial students founded the Racial and Ethnic Openness Club two years ago and he sees this as the next step.
There are currently four cultural centers on campus geared toward Asian American, African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans.
“I didn’t know what my place was in these [cultural] centers, and I struggled with feeling a lack of authority to speak to what life was like as an Asian American or an African American, because I was neither while simultaneously being both,” Gregoire said. “Multiracial peer liaisons can help fix this problem, and in their creation the University will acknowledge that multiracial students have a unique experience at Yale and need support and resources as well.”
Applications for peer liaisons are being taken through February 12.
For more information, you can read the Yale Daily News
At Dartmouth, a petition has been started by alumni for the establishment of an Asian American Studies program, reports The Dartmouth.
“The absence of an Asian American Studies program exposes the false promise of Dartmouth’s commitment to diversity,” the organizers wrote in the petition. “Community values on diversity state, “At Dartmouth, differences are embraced and ideas are challenged. Our diverse community of students, faculty, and staff come together to share perspectives, learn, and grow” (1). But, how can we as a community seriously promote a rigorous understanding of diversity without offering diverse academic disciplines?”
Organizer Alice Liou expressed the frustration at the many false starts on campus for such a program.
“It’s baffling to me why there has been resistance to establishing an institution-wide presence in Asian American studies,” history professor Annelise Orleck said.
For more on the efforts to establish an Asian American Studies program, you can read The Dartmouth.
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