UIC - The Push for Asian American Studies: 1991-Present

The Push for Asian American Studies at UIC: 1991 - present

Students have been at the helm of leadership in terms of pushing for resources for Asian Americans on campus. Through their efforts, the Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Asian Americans was approved in 1999, Asian American Awareness Month became an annual campus event starting in 2001, and the AARCC was established and opened in 2005.

Throughout the past fifteen years, however, students have been advocating also for the establishment of an Asian American Studies program. In addition to meeting regularly with administration and departments to voice their needs and even assist with inviting a few adjunct and visiting faculty to teach courses, students organized rallies in 1991, 2000, and 2006 to express demand for Asian American Studies at UIC.

Currently, there is still no academic program on campus. There are only two tenure-track faculty who were hired in 2002 to teach Asian American Studies: Mark Chiang (English Dept) and Helen Jun (English and African American Studies Depts). Plans to conduct a search for an additional Asian Americanist faculty member in the History Department were delayed due to a hiring freeze set immediately after their hires in 2002. Though there are a few other faculty at UIC who have expertise in Asian American research, they do not constitute enough faculty and courses on campus to form a Minor in Asian American Studies.

In March of 2005, the Asian American Coalition Committee put together a proposal for Asian American Studies (AACC Proposal). This proposal was submitted to the campus administration at a landmark meeting that brought together students representing a range of Asian American student organizations, the Provost, Vice Provosts, the Deans of the Liberal Arts and Sciences, Education, Architecture and the Arts, and Graduate Colleges, as well as the Department heads from Humanities and Social Sciences in LAS. The response to the students was overwhelmingly positive at that meeting.

Although the Provost charged LAS with moving forward to start Asian American studies at this March 2005 meeting, no further official institutional commitment seemed to follow in fall of 2005. Therefore, AACC organized the Speak Out in March 2006 and again met with the Provost in April to seek a response (read more on the Speak Out). Despite a galvanizing turnout for the Speak Out, by end of the summer, students, staff, faculty, and community members were still waiting for steps to be implemented toward developing Asian American Studies at UIC.

This fall of 2006, the good news is that LAS has announced a search for an assistant professor in a social science field or in history. The job announcement has been approved. This represents one significant step forward toward expanding Asian American studies.