The academic achievements of Asian Americans cannot be solely attributed to Asian cultural values. Rather, as for other ethnic minority groups, their behavioral patterns, including achievements, are a product of cultural values (i.e., ethnicity) and status in society (minority group standing). Using the notion of relative functionalism, we believe that the educational attainments of Asian Americans are highly influenced by the opportunities present for upward mobility, not only in educational endeavors but also in noneducational areas.

Noneducational areas include career activities such as leadership, entertainment, sports, politics, and so forth, in which education does not directly lead to the position. To the extent that mobility is limited in noneducational avenues, education becomes increasingly salient as a means of mobility. That is, education is increasingly functional as a means for mobility when other avenues are blocked.

By Suein Hwang
©2005 Wall Street Journal
November 19, 2005

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- By most measures, Monta Vista High here and Lynbrook High, in nearby San Jose, are among the nation's top public high schools. Both boast stellar test scores, an array of advanced-placement classes and a track record of sending graduates from the affluent suburbs of Silicon Valley to prestigious colleges.

But locally, they're also known for something else: white flight. Over the past 10 years, the proportion of white students at Lynbrook has fallen by nearly half, to 25% of the student body. At Monta Vista, white students make up less than one-third of the population, down from 45% -- this in a town that's half white. Some white Cupertino parents are instead sending their children to private schools or moving them to other, whiter public schools. More commonly, young white families in Silicon Valley say they are avoiding Cupertino altogether.

As a civil rights activist and Republican Cabinet member, Arthur Fletcher had a long and distinguished career as an advisor to Republican Presidents from Richard Nixon to George H.W Bush.  Fletcher, who died last month at the age of 80, was known as the “Father of Affirmative Action” from his pioneering work as Assistant Secretary of Labor during the late 1960s. 

As executive director of the United Negro College Fund in the mid-1970s, he was credited with coining the slogan, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”  For college-bound Asian-American students, it’s a catchphase that serves as an ironic reminder of his Affirmative Action legacy.

Asian Americans commit half of suicides at Cornell

Cornell Minds Matter, a new student group focusing on mental health issues on campus, organized a lecture by Wai Kwong Wong, Ph.D. of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), to address mental health concerns in the Cornell Asian community yesterday. The lecture, entitled "Breaking the Silence," focused on encouraging members of the Asian community to seek help and talk about mental health concerns.

Laura Alves '07, a member of the Cornell Minds Matter executive board, decided to organize the event, because "the stats [on Asian American mental health issues] we got were daunting, and I thought, we should have a forum to make Asian students aware that these problems exist."

According to Wong, Asian students at Cornell commit 50 percent of completed student suicides, even though they make up only 17 percent of the entire Cornell population. Asian students are also most likely to report problems with stress, sleep, sexually or physically abusive relationships and hopelessness. Asian students are least likely to utilize CAPS, and when they do, they are often very reluctant, referred by a faculty member and visit only a few times.

New organization promotes activism and expression

By Megha Garg
©2005 The Hurricane (University of Miami)
April 26, 2005

A quiet presence on campus has emerged over the past year and a half, slowly raising its voice. It started with the three-day Screaming Monkeys symposium the Fall 2003 semester and continued with a number of events for Asian Pacific American Heritage (APAH) month. It became louder with the Tsunami Open Mic Marathon in February, where the entire UM community came together to raise money for the tragedy. Now, Screaming Monkeys is becoming an official organization on campus to serve as a means for all cultures to express themselves.

"What we want is more than Asian-American involvement," Liz Dy, president of Screaming Monkeys, said. "We want it to be a club for social awareness, social activism and artistic expression."

The University of Virginia has the phrase "we envision a community of understanding, tolerance and respect" emblazoned across its Diversity Web site. But what is this community and who makes it up? As the noted by the lead editorial "Seeing all colors" on April 6 that referenced remarks made at the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM) Opening Ceremonies, the University does not see all colors when dealing with racial diversity, but only two.

The creation of the Asian Pacific American Studies minor is an example of the University's slowly evolving understanding of diversity. The members of the future community will get the opportunity to learn about the significance of Asian Pacific Americans (APA) in academics and the history of America. We now have the minor due to the hard work and intense lobbying of students and professors over the past 10 years.

A week ago, InSight, the only Asian-American women's organization on campus, gathered for a weekly dinner meeting, and the topic of conversation turned to the prevalence of the "Asian fetish" in American culture. We discussed the social significance of this obsessive sexual fixation on Asian women in a larger context, including the stereotyped portrayal of Asian women in the media and its relation to the growing mail-order bride industry.

What we didn't realize at the time of the discussion was the disgusting form that this fetish had taken on a nearby college campus. Recently, Princeton graduate student Michael Lohman admitted to police that he had been silently terrorizing more than 50 Asian women on campus by clipping snippets of their hair, spraying them with his urine and pouring his semen or urine in their drinks at university dining halls when they weren't looking. After three years of these repulsive acts, investigators finally caught up with and arrested Lohman last week. They searched his campus apartment and found stolen underwear and women's hair stuffed into mittens that he had been using for sexual self-gratification.