The Movement to Institute an Asian American Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Background Commentary

By Alec MacDonald, IMDiversity Special Contributor

Chicago - March 21, 2006 - Growing up as a second generation Chinese American in homogenous Massachusetts, Karen Su was not a vocal student.  In fact, she never contributed to class discussions – not even once.  Maybe it was related to a sense of being different, but speaking up just wasn’t something she felt comfortable with.  Yet she always had a deep passion for books, and this ended up propelling her all the way through the academic ranks to a doctorate in English literature.

Now employed by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) since 2004, she works hard to provide her students with a supportive learning environment that encourages them to say what’s on their minds.  It’s important to her for them to be able to express their thoughts and opinions without restraint, and not just in the classroom.  For in addition to her teaching duties, she also serves as director for UIC’s Asian American Resource and Cultural Center, where students have a welcoming space to explore and discuss issues that affect them.

The motive force behind what Su has brought to UIC comes from Asian American Studies (AAS), an interdisciplinary academic field that examines the cultural, political, and historical experience of Asians in the United States.  It is a field of great complexity and texture, but what should be highlighted here is its basic ideological premise: Asian Americans, like other minority groups in this country who have been marginalized, deserve the due coverage and consideration they have long been denied within the nation’s education system and at large.  They have stories that should be told and voices that should be heard.

Unfortunately, despite the valiant efforts of Su and a handful of her likeminded colleagues, UIC students are still being shortchanged on this front.  Their school is woefully lagging behind other institutions that have recognized the value of AAS and taken steps to more substantively implement it in their curricula.  A comparison between UIC and its sister to the south, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), starkly illuminates this disparity:

• This semester, UIUC offered sixteen AAS classes, while UIC offered three.
• UIUC has twelve core AAS faculty positions, while UIC has one and a half.
• UIUC has an official AAS program, while UIC does not.
• UIUC students can earn a minor in AAS, while UIC students cannot.

It is worth noting here that 25% of UIC’s undergraduate population is Asian American, whereas that of UIUC’s is 13%.  Although AAS exists for the educational benefit of all students, it obviously generates the most interest from Asian Americans, so given these percentages, UIC’s failure to measure up appears all the more flagrant.

Remarkably enough, the school does have fully-fledged programs in the parallel disciplines of African American Studies and Latin American & Latino Studies.  This is highly commendable and something that UIC students should be grateful for, but the existence of these programs also further accentuates the lack of an Asian American counterpart.  The incongruity seems particularly inexcusable in light of the fact that Asian Americans are by far the biggest minority group on campus.

Given the circumstances, it seems clear that this is a problem which UIC needs to fix.

Related Readings

• UI-Chicago Students Fight for Asian American Studies
  By Caroline Aoyagi-Stom, Executive Editor, Pacific Citizen
  More than 16 years after students demand the establishment of an AA Studies program, UIC students are still waiting
• Building Asian American and Ethnic Studies in the Midwest
  By Sharon S. Lee, U. Illinois-Urbana Champaign AAS
  Challenges, growth prospects, and new opportunities in the Heartland