Education: Challenges & Perspectives – Luncheon

Ching Leou Liu:

Distinguished speakers, friends and colleagues, welcome to the conference. I am Ching Leou Liu, a board member of the Asian American / Asian Research Institute and your presider of the luncheon. I hope you enjoyed our morning session and that you will be staying for the workshops this afternoon.

As you know, the entire conference is being web-casted. All the sessions and the workshops will be available for streaming video on our website. If you missed any part of this conference, you can always visit our website, review and participate in them afterwards at your leisure. This luncheon… no; this conference… no; all of the activities organized by the Asian American Asian Research Institute would not be possible without the leadership, sponsorship and guidance of a very special individual who has been with us since the early days of the Asian American Higher Education Council, more than 10 years ago. An author of three books and many articles, he is a distinguished mathematician and an inspirational leader in higher education. AAARI and AAHEC are just two examples that demonstrate his learning philosophy—that his leadership is about breaking the boundaries that separate the university from the community which it serves.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is an honor for me, on behalf of AAARI and AAHEC, to present this Certificate of Appreciation to our distinguished leader of the most prominent urban public university, Chancellor Matthew Goldstein of The City University of New York.

Thank you, Chancellor Goldstein. Please stay for the Recognition Ceremony.

Matthew Goldstein:

Thank you very much, Professor Ching Leou Liu, and many thanks to everyone for this great honor. It is always a pleasure to be with the founders of AAHEC and the founders of the Asian American Asian Research Institute. I am delighted by the participation of today at this conference. It just indicates, Dr. Tam, that whatever you are doing, you are doing it right, because a lot of people are excited about the great work that goes on here. I am particularly excited to have been part of this at the very early stages and look forward to participate with all of you, as we address the challenges and wonderful opportunities facing the great communities that collectively are referred to as Asian Americans.

Let me mention a few people who are here with us today. In addition to Dr. Tam — who I got to know a dozen or so years ago when he served in such a distinguished way, as a member of the Board of Trustees of the University — we have two other members of our Board of [very distinguished] Trustees. Wellington Chen is there, always great to see you; and a student at Baruch College who represents the student leadership of the University and who also is a very distinguished member of the Trustees, Shamsul Haque.

As we move into the 21st century, the unprecedented migration of people from around the world has brought many newcomers to the American Family. Asians and Asian-Americans have led the way, and in the process have transformed the very face of the United States. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “We must become the change we want to see.” This conference is a timely occasion to examine the challenges and opportunities offered by these changes, and explore the way education can help us capitalize on the ever-increasing diversity of the Asians in America.

According to the most recent 2000 census, there are nearly 12 million Asians nationwide, more than three times the amount nearly two decades ago. They are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the United States, and are expected to reach 10% of the population by the year 2050. That growth is paralleled on the State of New York level, where the number of Asians rose more than 40% to over 1.2 million in the year 2000. New York City is the city in the United States with the largest Asian population. Asian American are one of our largest minority groups, accounting for almost 10% of New York City’s population.

So, it is easy to see how Asian immigrants have transformed the city over the last 20 years. Asian immigrants have played a major role in reversing the city’s population decline, especially in the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. Today, one in six residents in the borough of Queens is an Asian American. The ethnic and cultural landscape of that borough now features Indian American populations in Jackson Heights, Elmhurst and Richmond Hill, home to the City’s largest Sikh temple; Chinese and Korean populations in Douglaston, Murray Hill and Bayside, where Asians now account for over 30% of the population; and a Filipino community in Hillcrest, among others.

Brooklyn, too, has seen remarkable changes. Areas like Bensonhurst, once thoroughly Italian and Italian American, as well as Sunset Park and Sheepshead Bay, are becoming home to established and growing Chinese populations. Churches are even offering masses in Chinese; and Chinese Novelty shops and beauty parlors, alongside many cafes, are sprinkled around the city. Even the City’s long-established Asian communities are being transformed. Flushing, once predominantly Korean, has experienced an influx of Chinese immigration. And Manhattan’s Chinatown, long the exclusive domain of Chinese immigrants from the province of Guangdong, now has a strong community of immigrants from the Fujian province.

Those changes are increasingly reflected in the City’s political landscape as well. In the 2001 City Council election, there were no fewer than a dozen Asian American candidates seeking office, an unprecedented outpouring in the history of this great city.

It is tempting to see the Asian American experience in America as an unqualified success story. As the White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific islanders points out, many statistics seem to bear this out.

According to their data, about 80% of their family households are maintained by married couples, almost half with income above $75,000 a year or more, according to the 2000 Current Population Survey. Some Asian and Pacific Islander groups, have among the highest High School completion rates: 86 % of Asians aged 25 and above had at least a high school diploma in the year 2000, and 44 % had a bachelor’s degree or higher. They are likely to own their homes, participate in the work force, work in higher paying occupations, have larger families and become US citizens if they are foreign-born.

Yet emerging data on Asian and Pacific islanders showed some significant disparities, unmet needs and daunting challenges. AAPIs face tremendous cultural and linguistic barriers. The 1990 census found that 56 % of Asians did not speak English “very well,” and 35% were “linguistically isolated.” The poverty rate of AAPI families remains higher than that of non-Hispanic white families; 30 % of New York City Asians live in overcrowded housing. And though education is highly valued in Asian communities, educational attainment varies widely among different groups. For example, less than 6 % of Tongans, Cambodians, Laotians, Hmongs have completed college.

Part of the problem lies in our reliance on the monolithic term “Asian and Pacific Islanders”, a category that bundles together individuals from many ethnic and racial subgroups: Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Malaysians, Indonesians, Hmongs, Laotians. These peoples can be vastly different [and are very different] in the way that they are brought up, and in their cultural underpinnings.

The 2001 report of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders sums up this diversity forcefully, and I quote: “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders come from nearly 50 different counties and ethnic groups, each with distinct cultures, traditions, and histories. They speak over a 100 different languages and dialects. They can be found at the extreme spectrums of almost every socio-economic indicator: from wealth to poverty, from advanced education to illiteracy, from entrepreneurial success to marginal daily survival.” Treating these diverse people as one homogenous group does a great disservice, I would submit, to their unique importance and dignity, and can serve to reinforce stereotypes. As Jacques Steinberg pointed out in a New York Times article about Asian-Americans, just this past February, [I quote,] “Not all of them are pre-med or play the piano and violin.”

These groups from around the world now find themselves in close proximity right here in the city — with one another — with those who came before — with those who came from elsewhere. As with previous generations of immigrants from Europe, Africa, and Latin America, our challenge today, as Americans and as educators, is to respect this diversity while promoting national unity. The rich native cultures, languages and traditions of these populations make New York City more vibrant and vital, the cultural capital of the world. We need to preserve these cultural treasures, but also to balance that preservation with efforts to help Asians become fully participating members of American society.

CUNY is playing a major role in addressing these needs. CUNY is working to provide educational opportunities and ensure academic success for many thousands of Asian students. So let me just detail for you a few statistics. More than 28,000 Asian students are now pursuing graduate and undergraduate degrees at the City University of New York today. Almost half are the first of their generation attend college. Over the past two decades, the percentage of Asian students at CUNY has tripled. Asians represent 19% of the undergraduate student population at the City University of New York, and 22% of graduate students, their highest level since 1999… I would say since I became Chancellor.

CUNY confers about 3,700 degrees on Asian students each year. Asian students earn about 14% of the Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees across the University every year, and about 11% of the Associate degrees.

CUNY also enjoys a remarkably strong reservoir of Asian expertise among its faculty, including the many distinguished scholars and teachers that are joining us today. And to all of you, I salute you for the very good work that you do. We as a university community, deeply appreciate that you have chosen our great University to study, to teach and to expand the bodies of knowledge. Many of them are advancing the knowledge of Asian cultures through courses and academic programs at our senior colleges, like the Asian studies program at Queens and City Colleges, or the Asian and Asian-American Studies Program right here at Baruch College.

CUNY also prides itself on addressing one of the most serious obstacles of Asian and Asian Americans, and for many immigrants overall: improving their acquisition of English language skills. We have innovative University-wide academic support initiatives designed to foster linguistic and cultural confidence, like the CUNY Language Immersion Program and the University Skills Immersion Program. There are campus-based programs like the Port of Entry program at Queensborough Community College and the English Language Institute at the College of Staten Island, which teach students the language skills they need to succeed in academia and beyond. Our colleges offer a variety of adult and continuing education courses in English as a Second Language, preparation for the Test of English as a Foreign Language, accent refinement and conversational fluency. Language skills help ensure access to the broad range of economic opportunities available for everyone in this great country. In turn Asian Students can increase their participation in not only the economic, cultural and intellectual life of the city but also its government structures.

CUNY has also taken the lead in improving the collection, analysis and dissemination of data on Asian and Asian Americans. As Asians play a larger role in America and as Asia becomes more integrated into the global economy, a better understanding of Asian languages, cultures, and experiences is increasingly critical. The Asian American and Asian Research Institute, which celebrated its first anniversary last November, integrates the institutional resources and the research and activities of many talented faculty members across CUNY. Under the direction of Dr. Tam, the Institute’s timely statistics and analysis stimulate the study and awareness of the diverse Asian peoples, languages, cultures, and countries as well as Asian immigrants and their descendants.

CUNY is also positioned to help our advance or understanding of the Asian cultures in the future, through our expanding partnership with the New York City public schools. As a major institution for training of public school teachers, CUNY can work to initiate curriculum changes that will reflect the needs and aspirations of our multicultural population well into the next century.

These are just a few of the ways, CUNY is addressing some of the issues faced by the new Asian immigrants. This conference offers us an opportunity to reexamine our educational approaches, to dispel outdated perceptions, and to explore new ways to enable Asians to fulfill their destiny as Americans in the 21st century. I look forward to hearing new ideas from you today. I applaud you for taking the time to participate in this conference and wish you all a very productive and enjoyable afternoon. Thank you so much.

Ching Leou Liu:

Thank you, Chancellor Goldstein.

As part of our mission to promote scholarly research on Asian Americans and Asian issue, the boards of the AAARI and the AAHEC decided to fund an annual research award program. We issued the call for proposal and were met with enthusiastic and scholarly proposals from CUNY faculty and staff. After careful review and consideration, six projects have been selected to receive the first AAARI /AAHEC Research Award. Today we are honored to have Chancellor Goldstein to present each of the principal investigators a Certificate of Awards. When your name is called, please come forward to receive the certificate and then wait on my right for a group photo session.

Dais Akiba, Assistant Professor, Department of Education, Queens College, research topic: “Family, School and Community Partnerships: Identifying the Asian American Leadership Roles in Larger Communities.”

Moustafa Bayoumi, Associate Professor, Department of English, Brooklyn College, research topic: “Racing Religion.”

Margaret M. Chin, Assistant Professor; Department of Sociology, Hunter College, research topic: “Chinatown after 9/11: Immigrant Adaptation and Ethnic Enclaves.”

Joyce Gelb, Professor, Department of Political Science, City College,
Research Topic: “New Developments in Gender-related Policy Making in Japan: Exploring Cross-party Advocacy by Diet Women.”

Pyong Gap Min, Professor of Department of Sociology, Queens College,
research Topic: “Religion, Host Hostility and Identity Formation: The Experiences of 1.5 and 2nd Generation South Asian Muslim Students.”

Charles Riley II, Associate Professor, Department of English, Baruch College, research topic: “The Chinese Virtuoso: Celebrating the Aesthetic of Extremes.”

And now, will our Chancellor please come over here for a group photo session.

May I have your attention please? The last part of our Recognition Ceremony is for those whose support has nurtured our growth. Their generous contributions have made it possible for all of us to be here today. We are pleased to offer each of our co-sponsors a Certificate of Appreciation. Again when the name of your institution is called, will the representative please come forward to receive their certificate and wait on my right for a group photo session.

The first co-sponsor is Baruch College, represented by Professor William Eng.

The next co-sponsor is Con Edison represented by Mr. Arthur Morris.

The next co-sponsor is Verizon, represented by Ms. June Jee.

The next award is Hunter College, represented by Dean Laura Shepard.

But our last but not least co-sponsor is TIAA, represented by [Ms. Rose Mary Makowski].

Thank you. Thank you, Chancellor Goldstein. We appreciate your presence at the conference today.

Ladies and gentleman, I hope you enjoyed your luncheon. Now is the time to go to your afternoon workshops. Thank you for attending the conference. And please stay after the afternoon sessions because we will have a reception.

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