The last few months have seen a flurry of student activity among Asian Americans across the Claremont Colleges concerning the establishment of resources and student services that many students feel have long been overdue. Students have clearly demonstrated a need for increased services, fighting marginalization by forming new mentor groups and student centers. The push has also led to a reevaluation of the future of the Asian American community at the Claremont Colleges.

Since the late 1980s, the idea of a six-college resource center for Asian Americans has been kicked around, ignored, rediscussed, and pushed underneath. Students are once again asking, "Why don’t we have a resource center that would serve the needs of Asian American students across the Claremont Colleges?"

This semester, Asian Americans have politically and socially asserted their place on campus at CMC, Pitzer and Harvey Mudd. CMC’s new group, Asian Pacific American Mentors (APAM), has seen overwhelming support which few people expected, while years of student struggle have resulted in the opening of Pitzer’s new Center for Asian Pacific American Students (CAPAS). At Harvey Mudd, students have begun discussions about forming their own mentor groups at a school where such issues have long been pushed to the margins.

Across the campuses, Asian American students feel the need for greater institutional support. The programs at CMC and Pitzer have been supported by individual administrators, which is very heartening, but combined administrative support could provide a stronger foundation lacking under the current situation. The Asian American Student Union (AASU) at Scripps College, which has historically been funded by Scripps Dean of Students, provides a clear example of how individual support can falter. AASU members saw their resource center systematically cut down by the administration in a push to lump all minority organizations into one entity. Their reaction was the creation of a broad based coalition of women of color to protest against the unfair disenfranchisement by the Dean of Students. A six-college Asian American Student Center could have prevented such an incident by providing some of the institutional support so clearly lacking and needed across the colleges.

In 1969, the Office of Black Student Affairs and Chicano/Latino Student Affairs were established as six-college resources . I support the strides these centers have made, but question why no such support has been shown for Asian Americans.

The existence of a six-college resource center would allow for greater collaboration with the Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies (IDAAS), providing a similar broad based support network. Administrators have used the "model minority" myth to justify the lack of resources available to Asian Americans. A dean at CMC even went so far as to say that Asian American students have no need for services because they get good grades and have high GPAs.

Asian American issues have been neglected for too long by the administration. This has been reflected in the loss of faculty positions in IDAAS, the loss of staff positions and attempted dismemberment of AASU, and the lax treatment of discriminatory acts, as we saw after Men’s Blue and White released a series of racially derogatory fliers in 1999.

When schools have separate organizations , it is easier for their concerns to be run over by mainstream interests. Having a six-college resource center could provide the needed support to hold individual administrations accountable for their actions. We need institutional support to help facilitate a six-college coalition of students who are willing to stand up for the rights of Asian American students and all marginalized groups.

Some people might argue that a six-college Asian American student center is unnecessary. Asian Americans supposedly have good grades and high graduation rates, so why should additional services be provided to them?

This viewpoint neglects a key aspect of being in an academic community. Education involves more than what we learn in the classroom. It is a combination of academic and individual development. As individuals, we need to understand the role we play in the larger society that we are preparing to enter. We need more institutional services where we can educate ourselves about certain social issues and understand how they affect all of our lives.

Others might say that a six-college Asian American student center would be just another way for Asian Americans to exclude themselves from the community. But in fact, a six-college resource center would help to educate the whole college community about issues faced by Asian American students

The 5-C’s are years behind many other schools in terms of support services for Asian American students. As long as Asian American students continue to be marginalized in different aspects of campus life, efforts to push for student services have to go on. There is no way to build a cohesive college community if the needs of different portions of the college community are ignored. As we plan for the future, we must keep in mind that everyone has unique concerns to be addressed, and unequal treatment towards certain groups stifles progression of the whole community.