Press Release: October 14, 2002

Asiantation 2002 - A Unified Vision for Asian Americans at UIC

contact: Jeniann Yi, jyi6@uic.edu

Over 30 student groups, campus departments, and outside organizations participated in the Asiantation 2002 club fair. (Photo by Jeniann Yi)

After enduring a summer filled with anticipation and questions of "So what exactly is Asiantation?", students were finally given their answers on Tuesday, September 17th, when UIC students experienced the first ever Asiantation, a day-long orientation for Asian American students at UIC. Sponsored by the Asian American Coalition Committee (AACC), Student Activities Funding Committee, and many other Asian American student organizations and campus units, this year's Asiantation marked yet another historical first for the students and for UIC.

The day began with an outdoor club fair in the Lecture Center Plaza, including over 30 student groups, campus offices, and outside organizations, a blood drive, and various games and activities, drawing a large audience of students throughout the day. One of the most popular games of the fair was a reproduction of the well-known "alllooksame.com" test online, incorporating pictures of a mixed group of Asian Americans and testing UIC students to try and identify their ethnicities for a prize. While a fun and engaging activity on the surface, the game served a deeper purpose: to demonstrate the diversity of Asian Americans and dispel the common myth that "all Asians look alike." Other attractions throughout the day ranged from a basketball shootout sponsored by Campus Recreation, to a meditation demonstration by the Falun Dafa Association, to interactive cultural dance lessons taught by members of Filipinos In Alliance.

"I think it was a very successful start for the new school year," says Asiantation day fair coordinator Elaine Aguinaldo, a sophomore at UIC and the programming chair of AACC. "I hope this event encouraged more people to support the Asian American population on campus and to show their enthusiasm for the steps being made to become an even more integrated part of UIC."

Following the daytime events was the evening program "Night Vision," held in the Illinois Room, showcasing the many Asian American student organizations on campus through a wide variety of performances, including cultural and hip hop dances from Filipinos in Alliance (FIA) and Asian American Students in Alliance (AASIA), step shows from alpha Kappa Delta Phi and Chi Sigma Tau, and a martial arts demonstration by the Japan Karate Association. Also featured was the night's special guest Mango Tribe, a renowned Asian/Pacific Islander American (APIA) women's performance collective comprised of 22 APIA women from across the nation, including UIC student senior Jill Aguado. Mango Tribe performed vignettes from their recently released production "Sisters in the Smoke," a "collaborative fusion of theater, music, and dance," that touched on topics ranging from Asian American issues to women's rights and more personal struggles of the performers as well.

Attended by an estimated 300 students, "Night Vision" even attracted members from outside UIC. "I loved the performances, especially the cultural ones," stated Anupama Topgi, a second-year student from the Illinois Institute of Technology, "I think it was great the way they promoted cultural as well as social awareness." Asiantation co-coordinator and AACC interim Vice-President Jim Vasavanont moved the crowd with a stirring speech addressing the need for awareness of the history and culture of the Asian American heritage, the need for UIC to invest in an Asian American studies program and the need for an Asian American Resource and Cultural Center. Though Asiantation was an event open to the general public, it was developed to target the incoming freshman class in particular. "Overall, I was really inspired by the night as a whole," says freshman Madhan Krishnaraj.

Although already a well-established event at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, this year was the first time Asian American students had attempted to have Asiantation at UIC. Students organized this event to address the lack of an institutionally implemented summer orientation targeting Asian American students, in contrast to the programs already in place for other minority students at UIC. In addition, as made clear by the day program, though many general campus units like Career Services, the Wellness Center, and Special Scholarships were brought out in order to encourage students to seek out this assistance, there is a distinct absence of Asian American-specific resources, despite the fact that this population comprises almost 30% of the UIC student body.

Asiantation aimed to bring together the Asian American students at UIC in a fun and welcoming atmosphere, but the program's greater goal was to "better acquaint Asian American students to the resources available to them at UIC and also to further the awareness of this growing minority population's needs in students, faculty, and the general population," explains Vasavanont. These goals were firmly kept in mind while planning the program. True to the slogan for the event, Asiantation 2002 was indeed a "unified vision for Asian Americans at UIC."