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Asian American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions Get More Attention

June 3, 2011, 1:37 pm

Last week, something interesting happened in the world of higher education. Asian American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions were included on the Department of Education’s list of Minority Serving Institutions. The first eight of these institutions are: City College of San Francisco, De Anza Community College, Guam Community College, Santa Monica College, Queens College, South Seattle Community College, University of Hawaii at Hilo, and University of Maryland, College Park. Basically 1 in 10 Asian American or Pacific Islander students attended one of these institutions.

Not only does this designation bring recognition to the growing number of institutions with high percentages of Asian American, Native Alaskan, and Pacific Islander students, it also allows these institutions access to funds that the federal government sets aside to fund minority serving institutions. This is a big step in terms of demolishing the model minority myth, which implies that Asian Americans do not need the support that other minority groups do in order to succeed. Advocacy organizations, such as the Asian American and Pacific Islander Scholarship Fund, have been pushing the federal government to recognize the diversity among Asian Americans and the needs of underrepresented and low-income Asian American students. For example, 47.3 percent of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders attend community colleges (including those noted above). However, “conventional wisdom” tells us that they are only at elite institutions such as UC-Berkeley and MIT. Conventional wisdom is wrong.

On June 27 and 28, there will be an event entitled the College Completion Forum: Strengthening Institutions that Serve Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, held in Washington, D.C. The forum brings together a diverse group of researchers, policy makers, and institutional leaders to discuss the implication of a new report: Federal Policy Priorities and the Asian American and Pacific Islander Community. The aim is to provide more information on the complexities among Asian Americans and the needs of these students.

What is particularly interesting about this gathering, which is open to the public, is the way the planners are going about organizing their work. Instead of starting from scratch and only engaging the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, they are reaching out to those in the Black college and Hispanic Serving Institution community as well. They are building coalitions and drawing upon the rich scholarship and policy work in other minority communities. If you are interested in the degree attainment of students of color, I would recommend attending the forum.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Asian Americans, HBCUs, HSIs. Marybeth Gasman, Minority Serving Institutions, Pacific Islander. Bookmark the permalink.

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22261984

From Roger Clegg, Center for Equal Opportunity: No school should get special funding because of the race or ethnicity of the students attending it. If the idea is to have special funding for schools that have an especially high number of disadvantaged students, or have been underfunded in the past, fine — but don’t use the students’ skin color and national origin as a proxy for disadvantage or for a schools’ past underfunding.
mkt42

“Basically 1 in 10 Asian American or Pacific Islander students attended one of these institutions.”

This is the second time in two days that a Chronicle article has included a statement that, on its face, is very difficult to believe. (The other one was “Chinese students … account for nearly one in five undergraduates in the United States”.) Those eight institutions in Fall 2009 enrolled about 40K AAPI students, based on IPEDS data. IPEDS also reports that there were about 1,200K AAPI students in Fall 2009. Granted, some of those students had previously attended, say Santa Monica College but even so, those eight schools would have to have a revolving door of students quickly passing through with terrifically high transfer rates in order to account for 10% of the AAPI students.

The concept of an AAPI Serving Institution is an interesting one, but the figures (and perhaps the concept) need refinement. The University of Maryland College Park’s student body was 13% AAPI in 2009; there are many universities with much higher AAPI enrollments (San Jose State Univ e.g. is over 30% AAPI; UC Irvine is almost 50%). So what makes UMD an AAPI-Serving Institution? Perhaps its AAPI students tend to come from disadvantaged backgrounds; that’d be a legitimate criterion (ironically, I agree with Roger Clegg on that point), but that sort of criterion requires more detailed data than what we normally get, or were discussed in the article.
rei727887

What determines whether an IHE is Asian-American Pacific Islander serving? Number of students? Percentage of students? The first two paragraphs mention both criteria. UC Berkeley’s undergraduate population is nearly 50% AAPI. Is it excluded because it’s “elite”?

@226194: Amen!
surpassingreach

UCI and UC Berkeley 50% AAPI? I don’t know about that. There is a huge difference between Asian American students and Asian American PACIFIC ISLANDER students. The problem in education is that we lump both populations as one conglomorate when in reality they have their own distinct subcultures and different challenges and history. They are two very different populations. We have to make sure that we’re careful not to make assumptions based on both groups “sharing” the Asian American “identity”.
rei727887

@surpassingreach — I don’t dispute your point that Pacific Islander students are vastly different from “Asian-American” students — as are the many groups lumped under the single term “Asian-American” different from one another.

I mistakenly interpreted this commentary as referring to the union of the two categories (i.e., Asian-American OR Pacific Islander OR both) rather than their intersection (BOTH Asian American AND Pacific Islander ONLY). Your interpretation (i.e., Asian-American/Pacific Islander) makes much more sense. I have to say, though, that the author is not very clear on this point. In the very first paragraph, Ms. Gasman states ”Basically 1 in 10 Asian American OR Pacific Islander students attended one of these institutions.” [emphasis mine]; “…this designation [brings] recognition to the growing number of institutions with high percentages of Asian America, Native Alaskan, and Pacific Islander students…” I can’t imagine an individual student fitting into ALL of these categories; I therefore assumed that the author was considering Asian American and Pacific Islander as two distinct groups. Other phrases are equally unclear: …”implies that Asian Americans do not need the support that other minority groups need…”

For these reasons, it never occurred to me that the author was referring only to students who were both Asian American and Pacific Islander. Clearly, such students would constitute a very small percentage of the UC Berkeley student body. Mea culpa.
ancient

You have to recognize that the reason for the excessive number of rules in the NCAA is because they really do not (cannot?) trust each other to play fairly. There are a ridiculous number of rules dealing with minute issues that really should never be a part of the equation. This only multiplies itself with oversight becoming an impossible job. I have served for 4 decades as an eligiblity faculty outside of the athletic department and have watched reasonableness go out the window as ADs and Coaches have voted for rules that they themselves cannot regulate with any consistency. It is impossible for any coaching staff, no matter how organized to oversee all of the things that 18-22 year old atthletes can do to cause a problem without really thinking about it. There a re a number of programs with that problem right now.

The solution is relatively obvious, but just as impossible..
1. Coaches become faculty with salaries no higher than those of regular faculty members across a campus.
2. No recruiting. Players come to school and have to make the team with their skills and then are awarded scholarships, after matriculating, based upon talent.
3. Professional teams are not allowed to contact any collegiate athletes until 4 calendar years have elapsed from the time of first matriculation.
4. Any funds coming at any time from outside the program go into one general fund to cover the scholarships earned. These scholarships could include room, board, tuition, and a stipend per season as determined by the NCAA. ( At present, athletes are recruited out of some terribly impoverished situations, put side by side with athletes from weathly backgrounds, then expected not to be tempted when someone offers money under the table.) That is very unrealistic.
5. Income from major athletics goes into the academic funds as well in order to lower tuition costs across the campus.
6. Academic eligibility requirements, are, for the most part reasonable as is, and can be enforced outside of the athletic department if necessary.

CAVEAT, putting the accountablility into administrators, while probably necssary, cannot be assumed to solve the problems. Presidents, provosts, and others can be just as inlfuenced by the large money coming from winning teams as anyone in the athletic program.

Another part of the problem would involve getting the TV networks out of the equation as much as possible. They create the “professional” atmosphere which over hypes collegiate athletes.

As I said, probably impossible
wall8305

The idea of requiring athletic compliance departments to report to the academic officers of the university is a good one in principle, but requires that those officers not themselves be infected with the “sports-above-all” bug. This isn’t always the case, as we have seen in the recent Penn State scandal that brought down the university’s president among others.

Frankly, I’m skeptical that presidents and provosts can sufficiently distance themselves from the glory reflected from athletic success. I learned this lesson at commencement in my first year of teaching: students with impeccable academic credentials walked across the stage and received their diplomas from the president without any special recognition; then a football all-American, who had barely been able to pass my freshman-level composition class *as a senior* (!), got a big smile and a hug. Clearly, the president knew who he was; did he know any of the others?

Despite this skepticism, requiring key reports to go to the academic side seems to me a step in the right direction, if only because it will make it impossible for presidents and other authorities to claim ignorance of shenanigans done by the athletic department in the university’s name.
kdl0510

Don’t forget as much as much money football and basketball brings in, they actually pay for the other sports that actually have stellar student athletes…. tennis, volleyball, soccer, baseball, softball, gymnastics, etc. Women’s basketball is finally coming into its own realm without having that dependency but may run into the some of the same problems as men’s basketball.
djweatherford

Well, you know, corporations are people, too, of course.

Think they can get their prescriptions for Viagra and birth control filled?
lynnefox

I’m sure this guy has a great future as a money launderer or mule for organized crime.
cwinton

I might be more sympathetic if it weren’t for the mess bankers visited on our financial system. It’s just too bad their overpaid executives weren’t the ones losing time dealing with this prank. It may be that most bankers didn’t do anything technically illegal, but then neither did Mr. Kenjeev. I hate to think of all the time (not to mention money) so many have lost dealing with questionable banking practices. They at least are deserving of our sympathy.
http://twitter.com/jokrausdu Joe Kraus

But, what did he do with the extra 30 cents received?
Socratease2

Why did it take 3 days for Royal Bank to process and count while it only took Scotiabank employees 2.5 hours to count the loot? I will open an account with Scotiabank after I am forced to leave the country and repatriate to the great white north (which may or may not be strong and free).
elsie

Most likely, they’d be taking care of other customers. It’s not like the bank exists only for one customer at a time. I suspect that his prank slowed down service for many other customers at both banks.
http://twitter.com/jvward John Ward

Those here who think that Mr. Kenjeev’s actions are funny because he targeted those nasty ol’ banks, ask yourselves if you would chuckle as much if he had pulled the same stunt while paying his tuition at your institution. Would you be fine with some employee in the bursar’s office having to take time to count out the money (sounds like he must have paid in small, unbundled bills) and make sure he had paid in full? If you think that it is different because institutions of higher education are held in demonstrably greater esteem than banks are these days, you are simply kidding yourself.

And to be jealous of Mr. Kenjeev because he actually made sure that his advanced degree would lead to a job which compensated him well enough so that he could afford to pay back the loans, well, that kind of attitude lies at the heart of the higher education crisis.
renellin

Having worked in Las Vegas, I am inimately knowledgeable about the task. It used to take a half hour to count $30,000 in and out each day. Lots of people think of money as a symbolic gesture, i.e. pouring money all over a bed and jumping around on it.

As a bank, I wonder why the people that took 3 days (jeepers, how many breaks were in there? Or did they get to 28,564, and mess up and have to restart like 19 times?) didn’t ask what he planned to do with it (he wouldn’t have to tell them, but it would have helped) and they could have enclosed it in plastic and sealed it. Maybe not. But hey, a bank is a bank. Tons of transactions are very short but are costed at more. It’s kind of like a buffet.
renellin

I can’t help but wonder if the reason so many former bankers work in government (especially goldman sachs) is because the government people didn’t understand how it all works and figured they were experts. Instead they seem to have worked the system to benefit themselves in an industry that is difficult to understand (because the paid off congress and the lobbying banks made it this way) so they are trusted with the cookie jar.
renellin

sorry greilly, I am more answering elsie than you, because i agreed with you. I was bothered when the bank started telling people they wouldn’t feed your $200 in change into their change machine and give you a total. Instead, they said “we’ll get back to you.” It is incumbent on banks to provide for the services of their customers in the same way it is incumbent upon me to serve my customers who show up 1 minute before closing time. Be glad you have a job.

The first bank that took 3 days should be closed.
1adam12

Many things come to mind:
1. Why would it take more than 10 minutes for any bank employee to handle this transaction? Did he do the whole transaction in 1 CAD units (What, loonies)? I have exchanged 15,000 USD at the airport dozens of times and the actual transaction takes <5 minutes. You are in line much, much longer than the actual time to finish the cash counting. Why the heck are Canadian Banks so darn poorly managed?

2. Why is it anyone's business how Mr. Kenjeev's pays his loan back. The whole thing seems like a foolish show-off thing to do, but why does anyone care if he pays in cash? Too many people spend too much time worrying about how much money other people have instead of worrying about how they need to live their own lives.

Reed.
greilly

But he wouldn’t have paid in small unbundled bills… the first bank would have given him bundles of new (or relatively new) bills in large denominations. He then went down the street with those bundles and gave them to another bank.
AnnaAnastasia

Most here seems to think that the bank employees’ time is well-spent doing this sort of busywork. What about Mr. Kenjeev’s time? Shouldn’t he have been spending his valuable time making obscene amounts of cash in a far overpaid profession, rather than drawing out more than $100K of cash in small bills for the fun of it, then watching people count it?

Maybe if he spends a little more time working and a little less time creating a scene, he can start his own business and employ all the university and law school grads who are working underpaid hourly jobs at banks, counting cash for no good reason?
lucero

This is to Elsie: Have you been in a bank lately? Maybe it is different in Canada, but every time I go to my bank it is empty! I don’t know why they even bother to keep any tellers or info people in there. And it is a major international bank. I actually started going there and taking my money out from the teller (instead of the ATM) and buying quarters just to give these people some work to do! Hardly anybody goes to the tellers anymore. They just use the ATM–at least in my city.
11182967

John Ward: Our cashier says that occasionally students do pay our (admittedly modest) tuition in cash (in our State some people still bank in mattresses), and our policy is to cheerfully accept payment in whatever legal form it arrives. She said she’d be thrilled to have the opportunity to count $300K in cash as long as it was institutional income.
evansolomon

I suspect that Mr. Kenjeev has always been and will always be the sort of person who would rather prove some point than accomplish a simple task.. People like that are a pain in the butt.
jorieallen

Duh…it’s his money and their job. Good for him for paying his debt.
retiringsoon

Here is the point: HE PAID OFF HIS LOAN, and, for whatever reason, he chose an unconventional payment method. (That being said, I do have compassion for those who owe huge amounts for relatively worthless education and are struggling to pay their own loans. There is no easy fix for bad choices, but the interest rate on education loans should remain very low.)
11182967

And I don’t see anything in the article to indicate that employees at either bank complained, so why should we pontificate about it (other than that’s one of the things we academics are really good at)? My experience is that creditors care more about the fact of payment than the form. I once paid a speeding ticket by addressing the check to the “Speed Trap Division” of a police department in a small town in Ohio (where else!?). It was quickly cashed.
http://www.facebook.com/colette.shaw1 Colette Shaw

Cash? What’s that? Do they even make that stuff anymore?
olmsted

And the type who can earn enough cash to pay back $100k in 3yrs, Evan. ”People like that” would keep the trillion dollar student loan debt a lot lower.
RJR8222

“oblivious law grad” “irritating everyone” “reason to resent”

Good grief and get a grip. Kenjeev carried out a responsible act (paying off his loan) and added a bit a performance art to the mix. This should be an amusing little story, not cause for drama and angst.

Here’s the bottom line: when I want to withdraw cash from my account, I expect the bank to give it to me and when I want to pay off a debt using cash (which is, by the way legal tender, meaning that it MUST be accepted as payment for all debts, public or private) I expect that the cash be accepted.
citizenship

The linked article suggests the first bank may not have had enough cash reserves on hand to meet normal daily needs and immediatley pay out $114,000 to Kenjeev. So I would assume that a request had to go to the closest rerve bank (first day), the reserve bank had to process and count the funds (sencond day) and then transport it to the first bank for transfer, receipt and release to Kanjeev (third day). There would have been at least three times the money would have been counted before Kanjeev took it to the second bank for the final payment.
RJR8222

And I suspect that evansolomon has always been and will always be the sort of person who would rather jump to conclusions and criticize others than take the time to understand what is really going on. People like that are a pain in the butt.
Socratease2

Thanks, that makes sense now that you mention it. Scotiabank merely needed to count.
http://twitter.com/MzYummyDread Ms Eryka

lol… paying back the people who try to keep you in debt is awesome
dank48

I’m not feeling sympathetic to banks or bankers right now, so three cheers from here for Mr. Kenjeev. I made a stupid mistake that resulted in my checking account being four figures south of where I thought it was; having made the mistake, I wrote checks to pay bills and didn’t realize I’d screwed up until the first “Your account needs urgent attention” letter. It got it, from me, but getting anyone at the bank to help correct the error turned out to be a fool’s errand, perfect for me.

The bottom line is that my bank’s “overdraft protection” kicked in, except when it didn’t. Where it did, it charged a fee of about twenty percent of the amount, in effect a short-term loan, since it made the amounts good when the next paycheck arrived. Of course the bank people said I shouldn’t look at it as interest, “just” a fee. I don’t care what they call it: it was interest charged for a short-term loan, over about a week on average. The annual percentage rate for that “service” comes to over one thousand percent. At least they didn’t threaten to break my legs.
katisumas

Response to Renellin, these banks cannot be closed. They are both controlled by regulations from the Canadian govt. Result: NO BAILOUT NEEDED!

Canada has not experienced the Great Recession in which we in the US are still mired (just ask anyone looking for a job –they cant find a job and the govt hands are tied by people who can’t understand that every $ the govt pays for stimulus the same amount or more in taxes by the newly employed comes in).

Same for banks in Europe. They too needed and need bailout and the lack of regulations might mean a double deep recession for all of us, or perhaps even Great Depression II…..

Incidentally, in the US, they don’t let you take all that cash out of your bank without getting checked out by the police, FBI, etc… I believe if you try to take out more than $20,000 of your own money you’re in trouble. I take Canadian regulations any day!
katisumas

This happened in Canada. not the US. Last I heard Canada is an independant country!

Canadian banks did not bring a mess on the Canadian financial system. Unlike our banks that demanded and expected to be bailed out after squandering the wealth of the middle class and putting it in the pocket of billionaires, Canadian banks are regulated. They cannot destroy their country’s economy.

Incidentally, when a tiny financial elite of a country suddenly, in the space of a decade (basically the Bush Jr. years) suddenly find intself immensely more wealthy than they were previously, you know this wealth could only have been syphoned out of the middle class. I mean it’s obvious that they couldn’t have syphoned those billions from the poor who even when working 3 jobs still have trouble keeping a roof over their family and feeding their children properly….
katisumas

The trillion dollar student debt applies to the US not to Canada.
katisumas

Canada has strict immigration laws to keep people south of their borders from flooding their country just because it has a higher standard of living. Pretty soon, you’ll have Canadian politicians advocating building a giant electrified fence around their country…. (and perhaps even a moat with crocodiles?).

But would they build that fence with “illegal” workers as we are happily doing in the US? I taught a few years in Canada and I can vouch that as a whole Canadians seem smarter than Americans…..