Farewell, ASA

Don't let the title mislead you. Despite the good times, I am not here to reminisce about my two years as an ASA officer.

No, this article isn't about me (despite my promise in the my previous post mere hours ago). This article is about Duke's Asian Students Association as an organization, one that has not looked out towards its environment in ages and suddenly finds itself immersed in unfamiliar waters. This article is not a targeted rant at any past leader, since the underlying forces that have led to this current state have creeped stealthily off the radar, and old initiatives that worked in the past still seemed to work, albeit with dropping standards and efficiency every year. Rather, this article identifies how a changing Duke no longer allows the ASA to be what it once was, and it prescribes solutions that may fix the current problem. None of these solutions can involve keeping the ASA in its current form and mission, though; this is why I say farewell today.

What's at issue here? Put simply, the ASA has little power to create a constituency on campus. The idealized ASA wants to focus on four pillars: social, cultural, political, and community. Each pillar has a specific goal, yet the organization is no longer able to adequately acheive these goals. Two forces have been at work here:

1.) The rising Asian population at Duke. Once a school with fewer than 10% able to claim Far Eastern descent, Duke has recently shifted admissions policies and now welcomes freshman classes with over 30% Asians. On the surface, this seems like a good thing for the Asian Students Association - more "constituents!" Many will argue that Asian students have a tendency to self-segregate, and consequently more should self-segregate within the umbrella of the ASA. With a small Asian population, this may be true, as Asian students find a degree of familiarity and empathy with other Asian students they cannot find anywhere else, and having an organization to facilitate making these connections makes sense. A larger Asian population, though, means greater segregation within the race. With so many Asians around, it no longer makes sense to make friends solely because of race. Other factors like ethnicity, active interests, hobbies, or religion play a much larger role in creating communities than race. As an exercise, imagine yourself (if you're Asian!) in a small town with two other Asians - you're much more likely to be friends with these two specific individuals than if the town consisted entirely of Asians. To put it obviously, there's a greater chance that you'll find Asians with interests and personalities more compatible with yours in the second scenario. And of course, with a larger population, theres also a degree of backlash against self-segregation, and you'll find many Asian students who are thoroughly disgusted with the idea of a racially-segregating organization in the first place. This leads to the second force:

2.) The rise of student groups. From 2005-2009, the number of student groups on campus has doubled. Many groups are able to form close, involved communities. IV, for example, thrives on members' religious connections, while groups like the Taiwanese Students Association and the Thai Students Organization can unify members based on their ethnicity and country of origin. These groups are thus much more attractive to different students than the Asian Students Association, which has no unifying power besides race. The recent emergence of groups like the Chinese Students Association only further compounds this competition for membership and involvement.

These forces have profound consequences for the ASA's ability to complete its goals.

A.) Community. In the past few years, ASA execs have found it increasingly difficult to attract interest towards the organization, either through freshman events or through engaging an older population. Start-of-year programs, whether under the guise of FAMLI or big-little siblings, ultimately fail because freshmen have better alternatives than to get involved with an organization that connects little with them. I often hear opposing arguments that there are pockets of success within these programs, that there are instances where dedicated upperclassmen befriend freshmen who ultimately get involved with ASA. This argument is equivalent to saying that GM is a successful company because it sold a car to my uncle. Of course, there are freshmen who may come to ASA meetings at first and seem genuinely interested in ASA. Most of them stop caring once officer elections are over. There are also freshmen who make friends with upperclassmen because of shared hobbies or interests. This means the ASA is irrelevant in the scenario. Yes, the ASA program might have created the friendship, but no, it is neither the purpose of the program nor is it to the benefit of ASA. I've only talked about freshman community in this argument so far because any upperclass community generally consists of execs + which friends they could pull in that day. By that age, most people are already turned off.

B.) Cultural. Outside of LNY, other cultural groups take away some of the ASA's monopoly over cultural events. Some events, like hot pot night, still succeed heartily, while others flop. This is because increased cultural competition forces events to become more interesting and relevant to students' preferences. Simply offering culture, in other words, is not enough; the culture offered must be able to attract students. I know this is common sense, but it hasn't always been used, and I suspect this is because ASA sometimes believes it still owns a cultural monopoly.

C.) Political. Groups like DEAN and Common Ground who specialize in political discourse are able to provide quality events that easily compete with ASA's offerings. Furthermore, with a disparate Asian population as described above, there is little demand for ASA to serve as a "representative" organization. In other words, this is why we don't see a "white students organization" speak up whenever there is reverse discrimination. Yes, the BSA is a counter-example to what I've just argued, but lets face it, African-Americans unify more as a race because of historical factors, factors that do not influence the Asian-American population.

D.) Social. ASA is able to attract a certain population to its social events if the event itself is attractive. Again, this is pretty intuitive. Again, the rise of new student groups and the segmentation of the Asian population means that quality is more important than ever, and that simply being the hot spot for Asians doesn't cut it anymore.

What kind of role, then, fits the ASA in this kind of environment? Many have argued that there is no longer any need for an Asian Students Association. I disagree, there are several advantages an ASA could have that other cultural organizations may lack.

Scale - ASA can produce large-scale events like LNY, major charity drives, and high-profile speakers (ex. Russell Peters) because of its large scale and budget. The task would not be as approchable for individual cultural groups, both due to money and due to the number of acts related to their own culture they could field. It is much more efficient for a central organization like the ASA to oversee the production of these programs. The ASA's scale is also helpful in lobbying for Academic initiatives like an East Asian studies program.

Scope - Although East Asian cultures are unique in themselves, they share close similarities that are missing in other cultures. Therefore, great possibility exists for cross-cultural inquiry or collaboration. For example, a disaster relief project by the VSA may want to expand its reach to other East Asian cultural groups. In these cases, an organization like the ASA can advantageously move to increase communication among cultural groups or facilitate partnerships between them. ASA's inclusive scope also means that it can serve as a conduit of communication between Duke administration, student government bodies, and East Asian cultural groups.

A successful ASA, therefore, depends on its ability to a.) create successful cultural, academic, and social programming, and b.) foster communication and collaboration among ethnic or cultural student groups. Creating an "Asian community" within the general student body is irrelevant in this new environment; there is no market for such a product when there is no demand. In fact, focusing on programming rather than recruitment may help overall involvement in ASA, as the door opens up towards those who have broad interest in Asian cultures, not just those of Asian descent. Likewise, "representation" of the Asian population at Duke does not work when the population does not see itself as part of the ASA.

How to approach this rebuilding is the task of the new executive board. The personnel quality is there, but the temptation of reverting to status quo always remains.