The Story So Far: The Continued Push for Change

“History has failed us, but no matter.”

These words that begin Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, a multigenerational story that follows Koreans leaving their home due to the Korean War, echo the very sentiment felt by diasporic Asians around the world—the bittersweetness of marginalization.

In recent years, conversations about the model minority myth and the perpetual foreigner stereotype highlight the absence of Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) communities in education, political platforms and cultural innovation. In fact, these race-based issues, paired with restrictions for self-expression in many aspects of life, can compound into severe depression, leaving APIDA youth at high risk for suicidal and/or self-harming tendencies. As reported by Mental Health America, 8.1 percent—nearly 196,000—of APIDA adults ages 18-25 experienced serious thoughts of suicide in 2018, with this number continuing to rise as the years pass. This gap molded in the shape of our community lingers dangerously wherever we go.

Familiar with the weight of the invisibility constructed from our marginalization, student groups at the University of Central Florida (UCF) have made various efforts to highlight cultural contributions and celebrate our history, despite being one of the most overlooked populations on campus.

For as long as we can remember, there has been no specific programming for APIDA education at UCF.

Even today, we don’t have spaces for students to formally learn about APIDA issues and history—our history, cultures and identities continue to be sidelined in our own classrooms. While there are a handful of professors with interests in Asian American studies at UCF, there continues to be no structured department that funds resources into research of social, civic, or historical contributions of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the United States. Because of this, there is no such opportunity for students to explore their identity and history in an academic setting, nor the support to explore their interests within this under-recognized field of study. There also aren’t many occasions where students who don’t identify as Asian to learn about APIDA communities, American and global history or even languages. This absence and inconsistency of available research and academic spaces for Asian American studies in UCF’s education left the university miles behind other schools in the state, such as the University of Florida and Florida State University which both offer minors in Asian American studies. If a student wanted to learn about the historical contexts and contributions of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Any APIDA programming and education that occurred at the University of Central Florida was supplied only through student-led initiatives.

In 2005, student leaders from Asian and Pacific Islander-interest organizations on campus, including the Vietnamese American Student Association, the Asian Student Association, FM Interest Group (now known as Pi Delta Psi Fraternity, Inc.) and many other organizations decided it was time for a change. Having met with the then Student Government President, Mark White, these students formed a newly registered student organization to voice the prevailing concerns in one unified manner, thus, creating the Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC) at UCF.

This new organization was formed to be the umbrella, and eventual Presidential Council, for the Asian and Pacific Islander-interest student organizations—to be the voice that dared to move mountains.

Though previously advocated for, this issue became highly visible with the University in 2021 when newly elected University President Alexander Cartwright hosted various racial climate forums and invited student speakers to share their thoughts. During these forums, many of our own student leaders within the APIDA community at UCF felt strongly to voice the invisibility of APIDA student communities who did not have any access to alumni or faculty and staff associations as other groups did. Conversations between the Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC) at UCF, the APAC Presidential Council, and Sparks Magazine at UCF with administration further highlighted the disparities among student experiences in UCF’s infrastructure. Issues largely related to APIDA education and student agencies remained at the forefront of these discussions; however, at the time of this publication, the University continues to leave us waiting for an announcement of any sort of action made towards change.

The push for visibility on campus is, clearly, a long, ongoing journey. Recent years have provided strides towards change, but there is still so much more that needs to be done. As UCF continues to minimize our demands to be seen and heard, to be acknowledged and provided a space to grow as student leaders and researchers, the need to stand strong as a community has never been more prevalent.

UCF will continue their attempts to silence us and ignore our pleas—as if to say our voices don’t matter here, or anywhere—but their efforts will not end our efforts.

However, this fight for visibility continues to demand the voices of our community, with our success depending on our numbers. It is true though: the work required for change is exhausting. Yes, we have fallen down, and yes, we are tired. The work involved with student advocacy is not easy—it’s grueling, it’s frustrating and it’s taxing. But we must remember why this work matters, why we even raise our voices for change. In fighting for a place to share our history, in educating ourselves and our peers about APIDA history, we can understand just how the formation of our communities shapes our realities today. We can learn how Asian American students—students like us who craved a space for themselves—protested for change on their campuses nearly 60 years ago and how their steps towards action can inspire our movements today. Education is a tool for change, and for a community that is marginalized and invisible to a nation and to our university, insisting on our history to be taught, shared, studied and acknowledged can pave the path for us to be visible on campus and in society.

It may seem that our voices are dwindling, but there are small movements happening on campus. Student leaders continue to carve space for uniting our voices and invigorating the need for visibility on campus. In hosting the 2021 Moving Mountains Vigil—in which we honored the six Asian women whose lives were tragically taken in the Atlanta shooting and the countless others who suffered as a result of rising anti-Asian hate crimes—student leaders held an open forum to invite students to share their frustrations, their tears, their hopes, and their demands for change. Even as the UCF administration, including the University President and Vice Provost among others, left right before the student community came together to speak for change, our voices echoed through the tearful night. In their hopes to silence us, to tire us, to extinguish our cries, to wait for our demands to be forgotten, we must continue to come together and move mountains—one voice is loud, but a chorus can be deafening. We must continue to fight for this change on our campus until our history, culture, and livelihoods are acknowledged, supported and visible.

There is beauty in our story, and it’s just as worthy of being shared and taught like any other—our history is American history.

Even so, it is undeniable that history has failed us. We continue to be forgotten, ignored and marginalized. Whether that be in our textbooks, or media, our workspaces or our streets, there remains a gap in our shape.

But that doesn’t matter: we are moving mountains.