Asian Association Elects Leaders

After a year of recovery from budget shortfalls, the newly elected leadership of the Asian American Association (AAA) said they plan to become more involved in campus and local issues and to commemorate historical events affecting Asian-Americans.

“We’re trying to restructure the organization to get more people involved and to have a greater presence on campus,” said incoming co-president Sophia Lai ’04.

The organization elected the 15 members of its 2002 Steering Committee Sunday night. The board is larger than last year’s 11-member committee and includes two new positions—the combined secretary-historian and publicity chair.

Lai said she and co-president Roger Hong ’03 hope to organize interethnic activities and to take an active role in publicizing issues important to Asian- American students.

“People see the Black Students Association [as] really active on campus,” she said. “People aren’t as familiar with issues about Asian-Americans in terms of discrimination.”

Although outgoing president Kiri J. Mah ’02 said in the past the AAA has focused more on main-stay events such as weekly discussion groups, the new committee will invite speakers to Harvard to commemorate historical events like the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and race riots in Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict, both of which have anniversaries in 2002.

“The reason I ran was I just wanted to have more events to invite my friends to,” said Rosie Wang ’05, one of two new cultural chairs. “We’re going to plan something for Chinese New Year’s in the middle of February.”

The organization will also try to organize speakers and art presentations for a week of Asian Pacific American month in May, Lai said. Because it is reading period and most students are busy studying and writing papers during that month, the AAA has not celebrated it in the recent past, she said.

In an attempt to derail what Lai said were perceptions of Asian-Americans as predominantly a “wealthy, well-educated group,” the AAA will also focus on public service through Phillips Brooks House Association community service groups such as the Chinatown Committee.

“There are Asian communities that are not as wealthy or educated—we’re looking to draw attention to these communities,” she said.

The other officers elected were vice presidents Candice Chiu ’04 and Albert C.F. Yeung ’04, secretary-historian Jenny X.L. Huang ’03, educational and political chairs Jia Han ’05 and Crystal Hung ’05, cultural chairs Shaw Natsui ’05 and Wang, social chairs Mark S. Chen ’04 and Karin C. Shieh ’05, interethnic liaisons Jay Pendse ’04 and Jenny C. Wong ’05 and publicity chairs Jason L. Douglas ’04 and Mollie H. Chen ’05.

Only the social chair position was contested.

—Staff writer Elisabeth S. Theodore can be reached at theodore@fas.harvard.edu.