Asian Pacific Student Union: Into the 80's

from East Wind Magazine Vol. 2 No. 2 (1983)

Subheadings were added to the original publication to make this more readable

by Hope Nakamura and Paul Lee

"My own involvement in the Asian student movement was based on my desire to find out what being Sansei meant. Being involved in APSU not only helped me learn about my people, it also gave me a clearer purpose for my education. I now seem myself as part of the Asian Pacific communities and the struggle for equality that all Third World people are involved with. "
- Hope Nakamura

'I emigrated from Hong Kong eight years ago. Within the short time I got involved in APSU, I learned the struggles I went through as an 'F.O.B.' are struggles shared by other Asian students. Seeing and talking to these students helped me to realize that American-born Asians share those struggles. APSU can help us develop our common Asian identity and the role we play in society."
- Paul Lee

New students often ask us about the purpose of the Asian Pacific Student Union (APSU). Our usual reply is that we are a communications network made up of over 20 Asian Pacific student groups in California. APSU promotes the sharing of ideas, resources and experiences so we can support and learn from each other's activities and struggles.

We trace APSU's roots back to the turbulent 60's and early 70's. It is not easy for young people like ourselves to remember or understand that period. It was a time when Asian Pacific students joined other Third World students nationwide demanding access to higher education, rather than access to the front lines of the Viet Nam War. Students brought the growing awareness of our people's ongoing struggle for equality and justice from communities onto the campuses to form Asian student organizations. Much of what APSU stands for today is a legacy from that early period.

APSU itself was founded in 1978, out of a period when the issue of the day was the Bakke Decision -which threatened affirmative action, special admissions, and many of the gains students had won in the 60's. Thousands of students, joining with Third World communities were organizing between campuses, across the state, and across the country against the Bakke Decision. Out of the excitement and ties that developed between Asian student groups came the birth of APSU.

A Long Way
Since then, we've come a long way. APSU has put on major annual conferences drawing hundreds of Asian students together to discuss and act upon important issues and interests. In the regionals -Southern Cal, Sacramento, Bay Area, South Bay - a wide range of social, cultural and educational activities have involved many more. Community activism has been a big part of APSU all along.

We've found strength in numbers, whether in brainstorming on activities or figuring out problems, calling out racism in a school newspaper, supporting issues like Chol Soo Lee or the fight for Japanese American redress and reparations.

We've learned that even with the diversity in the interests and priorities of our various member organizations, we have a solid basis of unity. Concerns around building our identity, our education, building pride in our culture, and promoting equality for our people are shared among us all. Sharing different ideas and experiences have helped many of us to build better student organizations.

In the process of working together, we have all come to affirm and reaffirm the importance of an ongoing network like APSU that can unite and build a strong Asian student movement. It has helped us understand that struggles on our individual campuses are struggles Asian students face statewide. Communications between the East Coast Asian Student Union and APSU show us the movement is not in California alone. Tuition increases and the dismantling of Ethnic Studies, for example, are part of the inequities that all Asian students face. In fact, they are part of the inequities all our people face, in the communities and on campus.

United Front
Currently, we're seeing a pressing need to work with other progressive student groups in building a united front in the student movement against attacks on our educational rights. We formed an educational rights task force out of last February's APSU Conference to investigate the issues. We've participated in the formation of STERN (Statewide Educational Rights Network). Learning from the struggles of Chicano students in MECK and understanding the concerns of various progressive student groups have strengthened APSU's commitment to build up this united front.

APSU starts off as an adventure through the Asian American experience. In the process of trying to understand ourselves better, we learn that many struggles must be waged among ourselves and within society. And as we struggle, our commitment grows.

APSU is a tool we can use to fight the inequities our people face. With the unity we build in APSU, we know we can make change to better our condition.

Hope Nakamura was a 1982-83 Coordinating Committee member. She graduated from Stanford and is now attending UCLA Law School.
Paul Lee is currently a Coordinating Committee member. He is a senior majoring in industrial technology at San lose State.