Students met in the Union Council room yesterday to begin planning for a celebration of Asian American culture.
The Asian American Cultural Celebration is being sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Kelly Kromer, a graduate assistant, said she is excited about the upcoming event and would like to see enthusiasm for the celebration spread among University students.
“We are trying to create a spark of interest for Asian American programming on campus,” Kromer said.
The Asian American Cultural Celebration will be held Thursday, April 22 at the International Cultural Center from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Rosemary Tran, a biological sciences sophomore, said Asian American History Month is actually in February.
Kromer said the amount of programming for Black History Month in February, and Women’s History Month in March drains many resources, so many universities move the Asian celebration to April.
Kromer said the reason planning is beginning six weeks in advance is because April’s Asian American Celebration is a new event for the University.
“Last semester we had a smaller event where we served food and taught origami,” she said. “We had a good turnout at that event and are hoping to have an even larger turnout at April’s event.”
Kromer said she hoped to make the celebration both informative and interactive.
“So far we have planned a workshop on making Spring Rolls and a martial arts demo,” she said. “But, we encourage other student organizations who would like to do a presentation to become involved.”
Carrie Wilson, a psychology freshman, said there is a lack of Asian American awareness on campus.
“A lot of things in society are based primarily on whether a person is black or white,” she said. “For example, we celebrate Black History Month, but what about Asian history?”
Kromer said she has had some trouble contacting the leaders of student organizations who may be interested in lending their support to the celebration.
“There are groups out there who may be interested in helping with the celebration, and their input would make it even better,” she said.
“One of the main objectives of this program is to build a base for Asian American students across campus,” Kromer said. “So, we want support from all students, and for this event to happen we need that support.”
She said if any student organization was interested in helping out, they would not be turned away.
“Sometimes people have a tendency to lump all Asian Americans into one group,” she said. “There are distinctions among each group and presentations from each student organization involved would highlight those differences.”