APA Movements on Campus in Chicago

After some unsatisfying negotiations with the administration, University of Chicago students have decided to get more public with their efforts to increase the number of Asian American faculty in the Humanities and Social Sciences divisions. In an open letter to the school's president published in today's issue of the campus newspaper, the PanAsian Solidarity Coalition outlined its grievances, called for a new hiring policy, and requested a response by April 30. You can read the full letter on page 10 of the Chicago Maroon (while you're visiting, check out the page 1 article about social protest in Japan).

The letter mentions that with the departure of history professor Mae Ngai, "the situation has become dire." As a former student of hers, I'll attest that her moving on certainly does leave an even more gaping void in APA faculty representation. She's an excellent teacher whose class inspired the topic of my thesis. At that time, she was too overloaded to take me on as an advisee, and wasn't in the right department anyway, so I ended up having to seek out my advisor at an entirely different school--which speaks loud and clear to the problem PASC wants to see fixed.

And on a related note, tomorrow, over at the University of Illinois at Chicago (for our readers on the coasts, that's an entirely different school) the push for Asian American Studies continues. For anyone who can make it, there's a workshop on why AAS is necessary and what you can do to help. It's at Taft Hall (room 204) from 4 - 5pm; contact Joyce Yin via email at jyin4(AT)uic(DOT)edu for more details.

And just for the hell of it, I'll throw in this.