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Saturday, February 03, 2007

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 06:24:30 GMT

NCSU Asian Students Association presents...

ASIA NIGHT 2007-Making of the Ultimate Boy Band
Join 5 emcees on their journey to learning different Asian traditions and cultures and encompassing them into acts, creating the greatest boy band EVER.

We are pleased to feature hip hop duo, Direct and Theresa Vu of Magnetic North.

Date: Saturday, Feb 3rd
Time: 7:00p-9:30p
Location: NCSU's Stewart Theater in Talley Student Center
Cost: Students- $7, Public- $10

For more information, vist:
http://www.ncsu.edu/stud_orgs/asa/asianight2007.html

Tickets can be purchased from ASA execs or reserved online:
http://www.ncsu.edu/www/ncsu/ncsu/serviceraleigh/2006/phpform/use/test4/asatickets.html

The afterparty will be at Touch Lounge:
Doors open at 11:00pm
$5 for those who attended show
$8 for those who missed out
Directions: Take I-40W. Take Exit 284. Take LEFT onto Airport Blvd. Turn
RIGHT onto Factory Shops Rd. Touch Lounge is on the RIGHT.

If you have any questions, please email Emily, ewhon@ncsu.edu.
Hope to see you there!

The Nasher Museum of Art
and Screen/Society present...

Voices from the Margins:
Contemporary Chinese Documentary Film
-- a Spring 2007 film series

The 1990s saw an explosive growth in Chinese language documentary films on both sides
of the Taiwan Strait. New voices emerged in Beijing, Taipei and other major cities
heralded by young filmmakers whose visions of the Chinese societies were as refreshing
as they continue to be unrelenting. The first of its kind in North Carolina, this film series
bring together six documentary works, spanning from 1990 to the present, that focus on
social subjects on the margins of society in China and Taiwan. With styles ranging from
cinema verite to poetic and autobiographical documentary, these films offer insight into
contemporary Chinese speaking societies in an era when the world's largest nation is well
on its way to attaining Superpower status on the world stage. These films juggle death,
prejudice and hardship with compassion and humor. All films have English subtitles.
Curated by Guo-Juin Hong,
Assistant Professor, Asian & African Languages & Literature (Duke University)

Screenings take place at 7pm on Thursday nights,
and are Free and Open to the Public.

Screening Schedule:
(7pm/Nasher Auditorium)

Thu Jan 25:
Bumming in Beijing (dir. Wu Wenguang, 1990, 90 min, China, Chinese with English subtitles, Color, DVD) The director films the everyday lives of five artists, all jobless and lacking official permits to live in Beijing, chronicling arts and artists' lives before 1989.
-- followed by a Q&A with director Wu Wenguang, appearing in person!

Thu Feb 8:
At Home in the World (dir. Wu Wenguang, 1998, 90 min, China, Chinese with English subtitles, Color, DVD) A year after making Bumming in Beijing, in the wake of the Tiananmen Square tragedy, the director visits the same 5 artists in Austria, France, Italy and the United States to ask “Are you still the people you used to be? What does it mean to be an artist in a foreign country?”

Thu Feb 22:
Out of Phoenix Bridge (dir. Li Hong, 1997, 110 min, China, Chinese with English subtitles, Color, VHS) Li Hong, China’s first independent female documentarian, follows two years in the lives of four young women from the countryside who have come to Beijing for jobs.

Thu March 8:
Urban Sonnets (dir. Huang Si-Jia, 2002, 60 min, Taiwan, Chinese with English subtitles, Color, DVD) A documentary about two young people seeking dream fulfillment and careers in China, traveling across unexpected cultural boundaries in Taipei, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Thu March 22:
No Season (dir. Wan Pei Chi, 2002, 60 min, Taiwan, Chinese with English subtitles, Color, DVD) Three generations of women and one continuous, if disrupted and fractured, route of migration, from China to Taiwan to the United States and back to Taiwan.

Thu April 5:
Scars on Memory (dir. Micky Chen, 2005, 50 min, Taiwan, Chinese with English subtitles, Color, DVD) Two gay men lose their lovers to AIDS and liver cancer in Taipei. Their personal tragedies are an opaque window into prejudice against homosexuality and the struggle for humanity.

Sponsored by
the Nasher Museum of Art and the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute,
with support from
the Dept. of Asian & African Languages & Literature,
the Dept. of Cultural Anthropology,
the Dept. of Art, Art History and Visual Studies,
and the Film/Video/Digital Program.

Film series web page:
http://nasher.duke.edu/events_film.php

EVENTS @ the Nasher Museum of Art related to the exhibition "Between Past and
Future: New Photography and Video from China" (on view through Sunday, February
18, 2007)

GALLERY TALK

Sunday, January 21, 2007 @ 2pm

With Stan Abe, associate professor specializing in Chinese art, theory & criticism in Duke's Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies. Please meet outside the Museum Auditorium.

TEACH-IN

Sunday, January 28, 2007 @ 3pm

Join Ralph Litzinger, director of Duke's Asian/Pacific Studies Institute; Kang Liu, professor of Asian and African languages and literature; and Tianjian Shi, associate professor of political science, for a teach-in to discuss Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China.

LECTURE

Friday, February 9, 2007 @ 6pm

Francesca Dal Lago, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Icons of "China": Reappropriating Tradition in Contemporary Chinese Visual Culture

CHINESE NEW YEAR CELEBRATION

Sunday, February 18, 2007 from 12 - 4pm

Celebrate the Year of the Boar - and the last day of Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China - with live entertainment and make-and-take crafts. Co-sponsored by the Triangle Area Chinese American
Society of North Carolina.

FILM SERIES

Voices from the Margins: Contemporary Chinese Documentary Film

Thursday nights @ 7pm, free

January 25, February 8 & 22, March 8 & 22, April 5

See http://www.nasher.duke.edu/events_film.php for descriptions of the films.

Ethnomusicology Job Talk and Music Lecture-Demonstration by:

Joshua Pilzer
(UC Santa Barbara, visiting assistant professor of music)

Entitled
"Song and the Public Secret Histories of the Korean 'Comfort Women'"

Thursday, January 25, 2007
Talk at 1:15 pm
John Hope Franklin Center, Room 130/132

AND

"Thresholds of the Korean Musical Everyday"
A lecture-demonstration on Korean music.

Friday Jan 26, 2007
3-4pm
Biddle Music Building, Room 086

Hosted by the Dept of African and Asian Languages and Literature.

Hello! I am contacting you in hopes that you might be able to forward information about an important film project to members of the Asian Students Association via email. While a number of Vietnam War movies have made enormous waves in American culture, none have given a remotely Vietnamese perspective. The movie "Journey from the Fall", which is due to be released this spring (by Imaginasian Pictures), is the first Vietnamese-made film to recount the war and its aftermath. It has been critically acclaimed at a number of international film festivals, including Sundance. The movie is incredibly poignant, tracing a divided family's variegated journey through re-education camps, as boat-people (refugees) on the high sea, and as immigrants to the United States.

Please check out and join the film's MySpace site:
www.myspace.com/journeyfromthefall

Any grassroots support you could provide would be really appreciated!

All the best,
Jamie

Hello,

My name is Shannon Connell, and I am contacting your organization on behalf of A Helping Hand, a local non profit organization dedicated to helping senior citizens and adults who face temporary or permanent disabilities by providing them with a companion service.

For the past six years, A Helping Hand has put on Valentine "Delivery and Serenade," which is a day dedicated to delivering hand-crafted cards, roses and serenades to our clients and more than 2000 others who reside in continued care, assisted living communities and nursing homes around the community.

We're currently seeking volunteers to assist with our program by delivering valentines to local senior citizens on Saturday, Feb. 10. You can also help by having your group create valentines for the event,
which you can drop off at our office at 1777 Fordham Blvd, Suite 202-2. Additionally, we welcome any monetary donations to help fund the event that has brought love and support to so many seniors over the years.

If members of your organization are interested in partaking in this wonderful community event, please let me know. You can reach me by e-mail at smconnel@email.unc.edu, or you can contact A Helping Hand at 919-969-7111. We would be more than happy to answer any questions that you may have about the event or our organization. A flyer with more details is attached.

Thank you for your time, and I sincerely hope that you will consider making your organization a part of this great opportunity to give community seniors a Valentine's Day they will never forget!

Sincerely,

Shannon Connell
Membership Vice President
Alpha Phi Omega
A Helping Hand Volunteer Recruiter

1. Saturday Night calling for submissions for edition 4
DEADLINE EXTENDED for submissions: SUNDAY, JAN 28.

Saturday Night: Untold Stories of Sexual Assault at Duke is a publication designed to share both survivor narratives and community commentaries. Since its first release in spring 2003, Saturday Night has been used in various classroom and extracurricular settings to foster honest dialogue to raise awareness and ultimately aid in sexual assault prevention. It was awarded Leading at Duke Award for "Outstanding Contributions to Campus Life" in spring 2006.

Men and women of all races, all sexual orientations and all Duke affiliations (students, faculty, staff, alumni) are encouraged to submit personal narratives, reflective essays, poems or artworks for the fourth edition. Scope of submissions includes, but is not limited to:
-stories of survivors and secondary survivors (families and friends)
-commentaries and reflections by any Duke community members on the issue of sexual assault
-reader responses to past Saturday Night articles.

The publication is meant to honor those who have been affected by sexual assault while offering a measure of healing through the sharing of stories. The issues surrounding sexual assault are not just a survivor's issues. They are our own as well. Help us break the silence.

DEADLINE for submissions: SUNDAY, JAN 28. All submitters are guaranteed confidentiality; all selected submissions are published anonymously. Find out more at www.duke.edu/web/saturdaynight/submissions.html

Submissions/Questions can be sent to saturdaynightduke@gmail.com

2. "What is Sexual Assault" Campaign

Have you heard of Duke's ethical definition of sexual assault? What does it mean to you? How do you make sense of it?

Saturday Night's "What is Sexual Assault Campaign" provides an online forum to share anonymously what sexual assault means to you. www.duke.edu/web/saturdaynight/guestbook.html There is no correct answer. Let us hear what you think. Please see sample responses below.
A. What does sexual assault look like at Duke?

"It looks like two of my best friends- I never anticipated that I would be forced to be so personally affected and confronted by this issue when I first arrived at this school."
"Ugly. Secretive. Widespread."

B. Is there a gray area when it comes to sexual assault at Duke?

"Absolutely not. Despite what some of my peers think, my short skirt, flirty behavior, and high heels are not an invitation"
"Yes, there's a gray area, especially when people fail to communicate with each other… "

C. How can sexual assault be reduced?

"We need to stop having an attitude that sexual assault is a woman's issue..... "
"I think there are two keys: education and communication.... "

The Asia Pacific Leadership Program

NEW FELLOWSHIPS AVAILABLE

Entering its sixth year, the Asia Pacific Leadership Program (APLP) is the center of excellence for leadership education in the Asia Pacific region. The APLP is a graduate certificate program combining the development of regional expertise with the enhancement of individual leadership capacity. Based at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, the program is creating a network of dynamic leaders from around the world who are familiar with the critical issues and cultures of the Asia Pacific region and trained to work collaboratively. The program involves intensive coursework and field studies. All participants receive an APLP Entry Fellowship valued at approximately $10,000.

Participants

The Asia Pacific Leadership Program seeks outstanding individuals with high leadership potential from across the Asia Pacific region, North America and beyond. All participants have at least a Bachelors degree with the majority having graduate degrees as well. At least 20 countries are represented in each cohort. APLP Fellows come together from all walks of life, including areas as diverse as government, business, NGOs, health sciences, media, monastic orders, and the academe.

Participants will gain a broad regional perspective, become knowledgeable about the critical challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region, and be trained to exercise collaborative leadership and promote cooperation toward the well-being of the countries and peoples of the region. The APLP empowers future leaders with the knowledge, skills, experiences and supportive community needed to successfully navigate personal and regional change in the 21^st century.

The program was established through generous funding support from the Freeman Foundation.

For more information about the Asia Pacific Leadership Program, as well as application forms and fellowship opportunities, please visit our website at:

http://www.eastwestcenter.org/aplp

Recruitment for 2007-08 is open. Places are limited. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. The deadline is February 15, 2007.

The East-West Center is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. The Center contributes to a peaceful, prosperous, and just Asia Pacific community by serving as a vigorous hub for cooperative research, education, and dialogue on critical issues of common concern to the Asia Pacific region and the United States. Funding for the Center comes from the U.S. government, with additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations, and the governments of the region

http://www.duke.edu/APSI/index.html

China facing major gender imbalance - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/china_gender_imbalance

Southeast Asian leaders form trade zone - Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070113/ap_on_bi_ge/asean_summit

EDUCATION | January 23, 2007
At Princeton, a Parody Raises Questions of Bias
By KAREN W. ARENSON
An article in broken English in the annual joke issue of the student daily
parodying an Asian-American student who had filed a civil rights complaint
against Princeton has sparked accusations of bias.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/education/23princeton.html?ex=1170219600&en=457685418f446fd1&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Monday, December 04, 2006

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 13:07:14 GMT

ASA Weekly Digest 12.4.06

Dear ASA,

We are starting an ASA BookClub to begin discussing issues concerning Asian Americans in the U.S. If youwould like a free book over winter break and participate in honest, stimulatingdiscussions with other Duke students who have read the same book, please emailPriscilla Baek at epb3@duke.edu by midnight tonight!We will be ordering the books tomorrow afternoon to ensure delivery beforewinter break. If you read this digest on Tuesday, then you go ahead andrespond, but we can’t guarantee you a spot.

Enjoy your last week ofclasses and good luck studying for exams!

Priscilla Baek

Exec VP of ASA

ASA Events

ASA Book Club: Free book over winter break! Asian American Dreams or Asian American X. Join by midnight tonight!

Other Duke Events

House Course for Spring 2007: Lost in Translation: Asians in America
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowships for Sophomores Tonight! 7 pm
Presentation on The Evolution of Asian American Businesses on 9^th Street Dec 7
DUU Major Speakers: Actor, Kal Penn Tonight! 4-5:30 pm

Internships, conferences, and scholarship opportunities

JP Morgan Asia Pacific Summer Internship
"On Common Ground 2007" Conference: Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford (FACES)

In the news

[Taipei Times] The popularity of Chinese studies up in the United States
[Yahoo News] Typhoon Durian kills 198 in Philippines
[The New York Times] Straight A Student? Good Luck Making Partner

***************************************

ASA Book Club: Freebook over winter break! Asian American Dreams

Whatdoes it mean to be Asian American? How do our social, academic and familialexperiences shape our identities? How do we begin to articulate our rich,complex and often forgotten history?

Ifyou want to explore any of these questions and more within a community of Duke students, join our book club and get a free book over winterbreak! Members must agree to participate in at least one book discussion duringthe Spring 2007 semester. We are also inviting theauthors/editors of the book next semester for possibility of an interestingdialogue.

Weare also choosing among two books. The final decision will be a democraticvote. Please send your vote to Priscilla Baek at epb3@duke.eduwith subject line: ASA Book Club by midnight, Monday Dec. 4 to ensure your copybefore winter break!

1.AsianAmerican Dreams by award-winning journalist, Helen Zia

2.AsianAmerican X by a group of college and college-aged Asian Americans

(Clickon the links to see Amazon’s description of these books)

Deadline: TONIGHT @Midnight. Tell all your friends! Email: epb3@duke.edu

***************************************

HOUSECS 79.09 — Lostin Translation: Asians in America

Are you pre-med? Oh,maybe an engineer? Twinkie/Coconut. Youact too black. Oh, you’re one of the cool Asians. Are your eyesopen? Do your parents run a convenience store? I know [Asian-soundingname], do you know him/her? Where are you from? I mean where areyour parents from? You Asians, you all look the same anyway.

Asian/Pacific Islander is thefastest growing racial minority group in the United States. According toDuke University Undergraduate Admissions, 25.4% of the Class of 2010 isclassified as Asian, Asian-American or Pacific Islander. By US standards, aboutone-third of the world population classifies as “Asian”. There have beenseveral waves of Asian immigration in the United States, introducinggenerations of vastly different identities into, and thus constantly reshaping,the Asian Diaspora. It is a population with conflicts from the outsideand within. Many have one foot in the United States and another half-wayacross the world. In this “multicultural” country of ever increasingdiversity, where do Asians fit in?

In this class we will explorethe Asian identity and its role in the United States. What does itmean to be Asian/Asian American? How do we perceive ourselves and how doothers perceive us? Who is our voice and what should they say? Should there even be a voice? We will investigate these questions, andmore, using history, popular culture, the media, politics and our ownexperiences to bring light to these issues. Finally, we will wrap up theclass by bringing it all back home and looking at the Asian presence at Duke.

Instructors (andContact for Permission Numbers in 2nd week of Drop/Add):
Wonjun Lee wjl2@duke.edu
Yibing Li

Eugene Wang

Meeting Time and Place :
Tuesdays 7:00 - 8:30 pm, Keohane 4D 2nd Floor

***************************************
INVITATION TO AN INFORMATION SESSION FOR THE MELLON MAYSUNDERGRADUATE FELLOWSHIP

DATE: MONDAY, DECEMBER 4
TIME: 7:00 P.M.
PLACE: MULTICULTURAL CENTER, THE BRYAN CENTER

The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program, now in its 10th year at Duke,is a two- year fellowship program for students who are thinking seriously aboutgetting their PhDs and becoming professors in a wide variety of disciplines. The program is targeted to underrepresented minority students and otherswith a demonstrated commitment to eradicating racial disparities.

Each year, five sophomore students at Duke are selected as Mellon Mays UndergraduateFellows. They receive stipends for the academic terms and summers for twoyears. During the summers the Fellows, under the direction of a faculty mentor,pursue some form of directed study intended to give them a sense of scholarlyresearch activities. During the academic year they may: (1) continuetheir independent research; or (2) work as a research assistant on aproject which the faculty mentor is currently pursuing; or (3) work oncurricular or teaching projects of interest to their faculty mentor.

A student applying to the Program must have a faculty mentor and adefined initial project. Fellows are awarded an annual stipend of $5,100 ($3300for the summer and $900 per semester), a $750 summer housing allowance, and atravel budget of up to $400. In addition,each Scholar receives a project supplies budget of $350 per year. Mentorsreceive an annnual award of $750.

For more program details, including the "Mellon disciplines," visit our website: *http://www.aas.duke.edu/trinity/mmuf*

If you think you may be interested in applying for this fellowship program,please plan to come to the informal information session on December 4.

********************************************************

Presentation on The Evolution of Asian American Businesses on 9^th Street

What: Final Presentation forProfessor Mazumdar’s History 195: Asians in America course.

When: Thursday, Dec 7,3-4:30 pm

Where: Carr

Refreshments will beprovided!

***************************************

DUU Major Speakers: Actor, Kal Penn
Monday, December 4, 2006, 4-5:30pm

Kal Penn, best known for playing Kumar in Harold andKumar Go to White Castle
and Taj in the upcoming Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, will be speaking at Page
next Monday.
*******************************************************

JP Morgan Asia Pacific Summer Internship
2007 Summer Analystand Associate Program: Internship Application Deadline December 17th, 2006(Sunday)

JPMorgan Asia Pacific offers exciting, challenging and hands-on summerinternship programs for talented individuals graduating in 2008. Ourinternships will give you insight to our business, opportunity to work with ourbanker on deals, live the life of a trader, or be a member of the Asia research team!

Our deadlinefor resume submission is December 17th, 2006 (Sunday)

To submit your resume please apply on line via our recruitingwebsite at: http://asiapaccareers.jpmorgan.com/content/content_75.asp
Please clickon “Apply Now” --> US/UK Universities application.

2007 InternshipPrograms:
BachelorsProgram
- InvestmentBanking Summer Analyst
- Sales &Trading Summer Analyst
- ResearchSummer Analyst
- PrivateBanking Summer Analyst

MastersProgram
- InvestmentBanking Summer Associate
- ResearchSummer Associate
- PrivateBanking Summer Associate

Fluency ofan Asian language is preferred.

Forenquiries please send to jpmorgan_asia_recruiting@jpmorgan.com.
Please donot submit resume via this e-mail. You should apply online to ensure that wecapture your details accurately and can get in touch with you.

Bestregards,
AsiaPacific Recruiting Team
***************************************

“On Common Ground 2007” @Stanford

It is our great pleasure to invite students fromDuke¹s Asian Student
Association to apply to the "On Common Ground 2007" conferencesorganized by the Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford (FACES), whichwill be held at Stanford University from April 8-14, 2007 and in Beijing or Shanghai
in November 2007.

The Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford (FACES) is a student-ledgroup founded at Stanford University and dedicated to fostering personal
relationships and understanding among future leaders in the United States
and China.FACES strives to promote interest and awareness inU.S.-China
relations and to build the foundation for a more constructive bilateral
future.

For "On Common Ground 2007", we will bring together 40 outstandingstudents
for a seven-day program in April at Stanford and then, in November, at a
university in Beijing or Shanghai. Our delegates will attend speechesand
panels with current and past leaders of both countries from academia,
business, and government. In the past, our delegates have had the privilege
to interact with and hear from former President George H.W. Bush, Sr.,
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, General Brent Scowcroft, Former U.K. Prime
Minister John Major, Former Vice Premier Qian Qichen, former National
Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski,former Secretary of Defense William J.
Perry, U.S.-China Business Council President Robert Kapp,and Ambassador
Michael Armacost.

We are contacting you because we believe that the students in your
organization will be a great addition to our conference and we hope that you
can inform them of the 2007 FACES conferences and encourage them to apply.
FACES will pay half the cost of international air travel, in addition to all
food and accommodation, for all delegates. For more information and
applications, please refer to our website at http://faces.stanford.edu.We
also encourage you to explore the attached FACES flyer and pamphlet. Please
feel free to distribute these materials through whichever means you find
most convenient.

Once again, we thank you for your help in spreading the word about FACES.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns. We look
forward to your students¹ participation in and contributions to "On Common
Ground 2007".

Sincerely,

Drew Camarda, Randy Yang and Wynn Tanner
Directors of Recruiting
Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford
http://faces.stanford.eduor http://www.stanford.edu/group/faces

*********************************************

By Winnie Hu
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, SAN FRANCISCO
Monday, Dec 04, 2006, Page 9

With its booming economy and aspirations toexpand its global influence, Chinamay have achieved a victory in US classrooms.

Take the Chinese-AmericanInternational Schoolin San Francisco,which runs from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and offers instruction inall subjects -- from math to music -- half in Mandarin and half in English.

The curriculum also includes Chinese history,culture, and language studies, and in the 25 years since the school wasfounded, it has attracted mainly Asian-American children. But in the past fewyears, it has seen rapid growth in the enrollment of non-Asians.

For example, five years ago, the school was 57percent Asian-American, but this year it is only 49 percent Asian-American,said Sharline Chiang, spokeswoman, adding that morenon-Asian-Americans have been applying in recent years.

Andrew Corcoran, the head of the school, saidthat in the last three to four years, applications from white andIndian-American families have more than doubled, though he declined to giveexact figures.

Chiang also said that this was the first yearin which the pre-kindergarten class had more white children, 36 percent, thanAsian-Americans, 32 percent.

School officials attribute the changes largelyto a growing awareness of Chinaas a global economic force, and to a strong sense among parents that learningChinese could help their children professionally.

As Corcoran said, studying Chinese "islooked at as a long-term benefit."

Public schools

For similar reasons, Chinese language classesare increasingly popular across the country in public schools. Shuhan Wang, executive director of the Asia Society'sChinese Language Initiative, who has written about the growth of Chineselanguage studies in the US, said several states -- including Kentucky,Minnesota, Washington, Ohio, Kansas and West Virginia -- were developingcurriculums for public schools.

Even so-called heritage schools, which havehistorically provided immigrant children with Chinese language and cultureinstruction on weekends and after public school, are gaining non-Asianstudents. For example, until three years ago, all but five or six of theroughly 120 students at the Chinese School of Delawarewere Chinese-Americans who spoke Chinese at home, said Tommy Lu, the school'sprincipal.

This year, nearly 30 students are non-Chinese,he said.

At the Lansing Chinese School in Michigan, alsoa heritage school, officials saw a wave of new interest about five years agofrom US couples adopting babies from China, said DennieHoopingarner, the principal, so the school opened apreschool and created a curriculum for children who do not speak Chinese athome. Today, a third of the students, half of them non-Asian, take thoseclasses, he said.

Hoopingarner said some non-Asian children attended theschool because of "an ambitious feeling on the part of the parents" who are "interested in China'splaying an important role in the world."

Parents are also starting new Mandarin programswhen they cannot find them in their communities. Last year, in Livingston, New Jersey, Sharon Huang, a former marketing executive,founded a Mandarin-immersion preschool, Bilingual Buds, for her twin sons, whoare now 3. Huang, whose husband is not Chinese, started the school in her homewith 10 pupils and has since expanded it to 72 pupils and seven teachers in arented space in a church. The school is considering adding a kindergarten classnext fall, she said.

Judith Carlson, 41, a software consultant wholives in Verona, New Jersey, pays about US$400 a month tosend Victoria, her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, to Bilingual Buds.Carlson's older children, Ryan, 15, and Sarah, 13, have been studying Mandarinat their public school since first grade. The children are now teaching theirparents to count to 10 and speak basic words in Mandarin.

"It's going to be a big advantage forthem," Carlson said. "I think no matter what you do in life, if youhave some kind of specialty that sets you apart from other people, that makesyou more marketable."

Mandarin

When Mandarin was first offered in Chicago public schools in 1999, about 250 studentsenrolled, Bob Davis, director of the Chicagoschool system's Chinese Connections Program, said. Today, nearly 6,000 publicschool students, out of roughly 421,000, study Mandarin, he said, the majorityblack or Hispanic.

"I get calls every day from parents askinghow they can get their students in the program, or how their local schools canoffer such a program," Davissaid, pointing out that "the bulk of our students have no background orexposure to Chinese language and culture."

In Connecticut this year, about 3,000 students,most non-Asian, are studying Mandarin in about 16 public schools, said Mary AnnHansen of the state's Department of Education, a 10-fold increase from 300students in 2004. Another half-dozen schools are considering offering Mandarinfor the first time next fall, she said.

About half the teachers for the program comethrough a partnership with the Chinese government, Hansen added. Their salariesare paid by their own government, but the districts cover living expenses.

"We don't have enough Chinese teacherslocally," she said.

Michael Patterson, a high school chemistryteacher, has four children -- ages 6 to 13 -- at the Chinese-American schoolhere.

He said the academic program attracted him, buthe also noted that "people say Chinese is going to be a pay-off."

Still, having children at this kind of schoolcan be a challenge.

"We can't help with homework,"Patterson said.

Chiang, the school's spokeswoman, said parentslike Patterson gamely participated in celebrations like the Mandarin speechfestival, public speaking contests in which students read in Mandarin.

"The parents sit and patientlylisten," she said, "supporting their children even though they don'tunderstand a word."

*********************************************

Storm,mudslides kill 198 in Philippines

ByBULLIT MARQUEZ, Associated Press Writer

Fri Dec 1, 3:29 PM ET Yahoo News

The ash and boulders had been building upsince an eruption in July, high on the slopes of the Mayonvolcano. Typhoon Durian's blasts of wind and drenching rain raked it all downin a deadly black wall of debris.

For nearly three hours Thursday afternoon,mudslides ripped through Mayon's gullies, uprootingtrees, flattening houses and engulfing people. Entire hamlets were swamped in Mayon, on northern Luzon island.

Some 198 people were killed — most inmudslides on Mayon — and 260 were missing, the nationalOffice of Civil Defense reported. Another 130 were injured.

With power and phone lines down, it tookuntil Friday morning, when the first flights managed to survey the area, forthe scope of the devastation to emerge.

"The disaster covered almost everycorner of this province — rampaging floods, falling trees, damagedhouses," said Fernando Gonzalez, governor of Albayprovince, the site of all but a few of the deaths.

Pope Benedict XVI, saddened by the"tragic loss of life," was praying for the victims, rescue workersand others providing assistance, the Vatican said.

"Our rescue teams are overstretchedrescuing people on rooftops," said Glen Rabonza,the Civil Defense head, after officials briefed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on the disaster and the difficulties ofgetting to survivors stranded by seas of black mud.

Bodies were wrapped in blankets and slung onbamboo poles to be carried to trucks, then covered with coconut leaves andtransferred to makeshift morgues.

"It's terrible. We now call this placea black desert," Noel Rosal, mayor of Legazpi city, Albay province'scapital, said after visiting one stricken village.

Rosal said three of the five communities comprising thevillage of 1,400 people had been "wiped out" with only the roofs ofseveral houses jutting out of the debris. He said people claimed some of theboulders were as big as cars and red hot, suggesting fresh lava from 8,077-footMayon.

His own residence was under water that rose"higher than a person" in a flash flood.

"I was almost a goner. I had toswim," Rosal said.

Mayon, a popular tourist attraction because of its nearlyperfect conical shape, is one of the Philippines' 22 active volcanos. It erupted in July, depositing millions of tonsof rocks and volcanic ash on its slopes, and has continued to rumble sincethen. Rains from succeeding typhoons may have loosened the materials.

Villagers have lived with the threat of a Mayon eruption — the most violent one killed more than1,200 people in 1814 — but say they never heard of debris being washed so fardown or so violently.

Typhoon Durian blasted ashore with gusts ofup to 165 mph, running head-on into Mayon, 210 milessoutheast of Manila on Luzonisland.

"When the water suddenly rose, we ranfor our lives," said Lydia Buevos, 58, whoreturned with her husband and children Friday to see their hut gone. Holding apair of rubber sandals — the only possession she was able to save — she saidshe lost three relatives to the storm.

"It happened very rapidly and manypeople did not expect this because they haven't experienced mud flows in thoseareas before," Gonzalez said. "By the time they wanted to move, therampaging mud flows were upon them."

The typhoon weakened Friday as it movednorthward, with sustained winds of 94 mph and gusts of up to 116 mph as itheaded toward the South China Sea.

Cars zigzagged on the road to the affectedarea to avoid uprooted trees and toppled utility posts Friday. Steel pylons hadbeen bent down by the wind, and power cables lay scattered about like strandsof spaghetti.

With the sky surprisingly blue already,people dug foundations for new homes, hammering tin sheets onto leaking roofsand drying pillows, mattresses and clothes in the sun.

Durian was the fourth "supertyphoon" to hit the Philippinesin as many months. In late September, Typhoon Xangsaneleft 230 people dead and missing in and around Manila. Typhoon Cimaronkilled 19 people and injured 58 others last month, and earlier this month, Chebi sliced through the central Luzonregion, killing one.

About 20 typhoons and tropical storms hitthe Philippineseach year.

___

Associated Press writers Oliver Teves, Teresa Cerojano and JimGomez contributed to this story from Manila.

*******************************************

The New York Times

Straight ‘A’ Student? Good Luck MakingPartner

ByJONATHAN D. GLATER

TO be a partner at a majorlaw firm is a virtual lock on wealth, prestige and influence. To achieve thatlofty goal, young lawyers willingly pore over deadly dull documents, draftamply footnoted briefs of inordinate length, shmoozewith clients no matter how boorish and work around the clock.

But just what, exactly, it takes to makepartner is elusive. A provocative new study of the reasonsbig law firms have so few minority partners claims there is a simpleanswer: grades.

Richard H. Sander, a law professor at the University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles,who prepared the study, wrote that there is a “credentials gap” between whiteand black law school graduates that may explain why black lawyers do not makepartner. He also found smaller gaps affecting Asian-American and Hispanic lawstudents.

The study, which comes as attacks onaffirmative action have gained strength in recent months, focuses on the lownumbers of minority partners at law firms. Of the 60,394 partners at 1,523 lawfirms that provide data to the National Association of Law Placement, nearly 95percent are white.

Partners at elite law firms acknowledge thenumbers are low. But they said grades received years earlier in law school hadlittle to do with promotion. “You don’t want to know about my grades,” saidReid H. Weingarten, a well-known litigator at Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, who iswhite.

Partners at top-tier firms said gradesmattered in hiring first-year associates, who may receive $135,000 a year (notincluding the bonus). But when deciding whom to make a partner, they saidgrades were not a factor. In fact, promotion decisions can be very subjective,dependent on perception as well as output. Research shows that informalnetworks within firms may exclude young minority lawyers.

“We look for people who are good working inteams, people who show the potential to be a builder of a practice, throughenhancing the reputation of the firm, enhancing and developing loyal clientrelationships,” said Keith C. Wetmore, chairman of Morrison & Foerster in New York.

Grades might show willingness to work longhours, but not judgment or people skills, which are harder to evaluateobjectively, many partners said.

Eric A. S. Richards, a partner and member ofthe partner admission committee at O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles, said that partners tried topredict whether rising associates could bring in business. “We look for thepromise,” he said.

When Mr. Sander described a causalconnection between low grades and success at law firms, he cited a separatesurvey of law graduates of the University of Michigan.He said the study found that those who were still at firms 15 years aftergraduation — who were more likely to have made partner — had higher grades.That survey included about 10,000 lawyers, the vast majority of them white, theprofessor said.

But African-American, Latino and Asianlawyers are not the only ones who are underrepresented as partners. Women, whofor years have been close to 50 percent of the law school students and make up44 percent of the associate population, are just under 18 percent of allpartners even though their law school grades are, overall, slightly higher thanthose of white men.

Mr. Sander said that women in recent yearshad been making partner at higher rates, and noted that women may more oftenleave firms to create time for family or for other reasons.

Minority lawyers may also leave voluntarily,said David B. Wilkins, director of the program on the legal profession at Harvard, adding that theyconstantly receive offers from clients seeking to poach them. Mr. Sander hasalso written a study of law school admissions, arguing that because of racialpreferences, law schools admit students who are less prepared and performpoorly — earning the lower grades. The system, as he sees it, is unfair tominority students because it sets them up for failure.

“In both situations, we have preferencesarguably undermining their intended effects,” he said, adding that the solutionwas to reduce preferences and improve training and support for minoritylawyers.

But several senior lawyers said that becauselaw firms are not such strictly objective meritocracies, hiring only minoritylawyers with higher grades would not necessarily mean more minority partners.

Many intangible factors, including luck,play a role. In a lean year, a firm will be reluctant to increase the number ofpartners splitting profits. A firm might promote a mediocre partner who speaksa specific language or has some other skill.

Then there are the all-importantrelationships formed between young lawyers and senior partners, said TheodoreV. Wells Jr., a partner at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton& Garrison, who is black.

“What happens very often is some associatesare embraced more than others and it’s easier to fit in,” Mr. Wells said. “Ifyou’re a minority person in a majority firm there are inherent difficulties.”

Diara M. Holmes, a Washingtonlawyer who last week made partner at Caplin & Drysdale, in Washington,attributed much of her success to mentors.

“A mentor advocates on your behalf,obviously in the final decision but along the way as well,” said Ms. Holmes,who is the firm’s first African-American partner. “A mentor is also a personwho can ensure that when you make mistakes, which isinevitable in an associate’s career, they do not cause you to fall off thetrack. I can’t imagine that my ‘A’ in property got mehere.”

ASA Weekly Digest 11.28.06

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 21:19:34 GMT

I hope everyone had a greatThanksgiving break. There are only two more weeks of class left before exams,so good luck!
If your organization wouldlike to be on our next digest, please send information to priscilla.baek@duke.edu.

ASA Events

None this week

Other Duke Events

Asian American Studies Working Group Sun. Dec. 3, 2 pm
DUU Major Speakers: Actor, Kal Penn (Kumar from Harold & Kumar) Mon. Dec. 4, 4-5:30pm
Diya Event: Pulitzer Prize Winner SUKETU MEHTA Tues. Nov. 28, 4-5:30
Korean Dessert Sampling and Film Screening: A Moment to Remember
Saturday Night: Untold Stories of Sexual Assault at Duke—Sexual Assault Campaign
APSI Fall Speaker Series: Joan Kee Thurs. Nov. 30, 6-7:30pm

Internships, conferences, and scholarship opportunities

JP Morgan Asia Pacific Summer Internship
Crosstown Connections: Asian American Urbanism and Interracial Encounters @ NYC
"On Common Ground 2007" Conference: Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford (FACES)
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowships for Sophomores

In the news

[The Harvard Crimson] Convenient Elitism (Opinion Article)
[The Harvard Crimson] On Asian-American Admissions (Opinion Article)

***************************************

Asian American Studies Working Group

HiEveryone,

Just sending a reminder email that the Asian American Studies Working Group
will meet this Sunday, December 3 at 2pm. I've selected the location tobe
on East Campus, by the couches near the entrance of the Marketplace. Ilook
forward to seeing all of those who came last time, and also new faces!
Remember to invite friends you think might be interested.

This Sunday's meeting, I'm hoping we can brainstorm some more concrete
projects/questions that you'd like to tackle together. We can split upinto
smaller groups too, if there's more than one thing we'd like to look into,
and depending on how many people want to be involved. In the meantime,I'll
also try to create a listserv for us so we can begin to communicate/share
info more easily.

Some initial thoughts (just thoughts to put out there):

1) Planning out an afternoon for us to do a preliminary, face-to-face survey
on campus in order to get a better sense of the experiences of students of
Asian descent at Duke, as part of further research/investigation.
2) Working with me and others to invite some professors/grad students whose
work relates to Asian American studies to give presentations to us, and
engage in a discussion.
3) Maybe planning a group trip to the Nasher museumto view the exhibit
there.
4) Planning a group road trip to the annual Association of Asian American
Studies (AAAS) conference in April, this year to be held in NYC. See their
website (http://www.aaastudies.org/call.tpl),or below, for more
information.

Please do email me if you can't attend this Sunday's meeting, but are still
interested in AASWG, so I make sure to keep you in the loop. Also, feel
free to send out emails as well, about interesting articles/events/ideas you
come across!

All the best,
Vivian

***************************************

SUKETU MEHTA: A Conversation AboutBeing Human in Megacities

November 28, 4-5:30, Social Sciences 139

World famous author Suketu Mehta will discuss hisbook Maximum City, a 2005
Pulitzer Prize finalist. A riveting account of Bombaythat covers every slice
of that city, from its gangsters to its Bollywoodstars, Maximum City has been
an international bestseller since its publication. Mehta's intelligentand
energetic way of examining Bombaygets at the heart of what it means to be
human in any of the world's megacities.
Whether a resident of Bombay or a one-timetourist to New York,come take part
in what will surely be a wonderful and energetic conversation

What: Suketu MehtaConversation
When: November 28th, 4:00 pm- 5:30 pm
Where: Social Science 139

***************************************

The KOREAN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT ORGANIZATION presents...

What: Korean Dessert Sampling and Film Festival
Which: "A Moment to Remember" (2004, Dir.JohnH. Lee)
When: 11/29 Wed 7:30pm (Dessert), 8:00 pm Film
Where: White Lecture Hall, East Campus

Come take a break from work and watch "A Moment to Remember" thisWednesday. The
film will be preceded by a reception with some delicious Korean sweets and a
brief introduction by Prof. Susie Kim of the AALL department at Duke.

A Moment to Remember (Starring Jung Woosung and Son Yejin)
-This movie represents Korean melodrama at its best with two of Korea's hottest
stars. Having won accolades for best screenplay at the Korean equivalent of the
Academy Awards, "A Moment to Remember" shines from beginning to endwith its
tragic, but beautiful love story. Directed by NYUFilm Schoolgraduate John H.
Lee, this movie is the highest grossing domestic film in the romance genre in
Korea.Subsequently released in Japanin 2005, "A Moment to Remember" broke box
office records for all Korean film openings in Japan.

***************************************

:::::::::::::::Participate in"What is Sexual Assault" Campaign:::::::::::::::::::

With a minute of your time, you can help contribute to our campus
understanding of issues surrounding sexual assault. Go to
www.duke.edu/web/saturdaynightand post your anonymous viewpoints to the
following questions (and sample responses).

Be honest, be creative, if it means saying non-PC thing, go ahead. There
you can also find out what other members of Duke communitythink.

*******************************

*1. What does sexual assault look like at Duke?*

"It looks like two of my best friends- I never anticipated that I would
be forced to be so personally affected and confronted by this issue when
I first arrived at this school."

"Ugly. Secretive.Widespread."

"I don't know. I just got here."

*2. Is there a gray area when it comes to sexual assault at Duke?*

"Absolutely not. Despite what some of my peers think, my short skirt,
flirty behavior, and high heels are not an invitation"

"Yes, there's a gray area, especially when people fail to communicate
with each other… "

*3. How can sexual assault be reduced?
*
"We need to stop having an attitude that sexual assault is a woman's
issue..... "

"I think there are two keys: education and communication.... "

Again, www.duke.edu/web/saturdaynightThanks so much!!

Yours sincerely,
Editors of Saturday Night: Untold Stories of Sexual ASsaultat Duke

***************************************

APSIFall Speaker Series: Joan Kee Thurs. Nov. 30, 6-7:30pm

Thenext speaker in the APSI fall speaker series is Joan Kee,who will
speak on Thursday, November 30. Sponsored by Asian/Pacific Studies
Institute, the Nasher Museum of Art, and Departmentof Art, Art History,
and Visual Culture, talk information follows.

Joan Kee
Critic and Scholar

Kee was editor of a special issue of positions (12,3, Winter 2004) on East
Asian contemporary art and has published on film and art from Korea,
Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia in a wide range of journals
including Oxford Art Journal, Third Text, Yishu, andin the upcoming Duke
University Press book Alien Encounters: Asian American Popular Culture.

Joan Kee will speak on:

Thursday, November 30, 2006
6:00-7:30 pm
The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
2001 Campus Drive (at the intersection of Duke University Road and Anderson
Street)

"In and Out of Context: Imagemakingin Hong Kong"

Over the course of the past decade, much of Hong Kong's visual art has
centered on images of people, places, or objects belonging to a specific
Hong Kong, and more recently, a general Chinese context. The energy
invested in producing such images, and in particular, imageslinked to a
specific cultural provenance has been tremendous, thereby raisingquestions
of purpose. What is the purpose of such an enterprise of imagemaking?
Matched against the recent events of Hong Kong'shistory, these images
allude to a stratigraphy of conditions at play.Images act not only as
metaphors of a particular psychological state but as alibis that provide
believability to the work's claims of inhabiting multiple spaces of
reference at once.

Reception with light refreshments and cash bar immediately following talk

For additional information, call 684-2604 or visit www.duke.edu/APSI
*******************************************************

JP Morgan Asia Pacific Summer Internship
2007 SummerAnalyst and Associate Program: Internship Application Deadline December17th, 2006 (Sunday)

JPMorgan Asia Pacific offers exciting, challenging and hands-on summerinternship programs for talented individuals graduating in 2008. Ourinternships will give you insight to our business, opportunity to work with ourbanker on deals, live the life of a trader, or be a member of the Asia research team!

Our deadlinefor resume submission is December 17th, 2006 (Sunday)

To submit your resume please apply on line via our recruitingwebsite at: http://asiapaccareers.jpmorgan.com/content/content_75.asp
Please clickon “Apply Now” --> US/UK Universities application.

2007Internship Programs:
BachelorsProgram
- InvestmentBanking Summer Analyst
- Sales &Trading Summer Analyst
- Research SummerAnalyst
- PrivateBanking Summer Analyst

MastersProgram
- InvestmentBanking Summer Associate
- ResearchSummer Associate
- PrivateBanking Summer Associate

Fluency ofan Asian language is preferred.

Forenquiries please send to jpmorgan_asia_recruiting@jpmorgan.com.
Pleasedo not submit resume via this e-mail. You should apply online to ensure that wecapture your details accurately and can get in touch with you.

Bestregards,
AsiaPacific Recruiting Team
***************************************

CrosstownConnections: Asian American Urbanism and Interracial Encounters
2007Association for Asian American Studies Conference
April 4-8, 2007
New York City, New York, Grand Hyatt

Submissions due by October 31, 2006
Send to: Stephanie Hsu at ssh13@cornell.edu

The theme of the 2007 AAAS Conference is "CrosstownConnections: Asian
American Urbanism and Interracial Encounters". Taking off from the
conference's location in New York City--thelargest city in the United
States and a historic internationalcrossroads for immigrants, visitors, and
commerce--this meeting explores cosmopolitanism in Asian American life, and
the multiple and shifting identities, attachments, and worldviews of Asian
Americans and those with whom they interact. The metropolitan area is home
to approximately 1.5 million people of Asian ancestry, the nation's
second-largest concentration, and Asian American laborers, students,
artists, businessmen, and intellectuals form a durable and central core
group in the city's fabric.

Asthe world's financial center and the hub of the nation's publishing and fashionindustries and artistic scene, New York has drawn both exceptional individualsof Asian ancestry, including writers, scholars, painters, musicians anddancers, and masses of workers. The port of New York serves as acontinuing place of welcome for Asian entrants and a point of transnationalcontact, transit and supply.

Weseek panels, papers, workshops, roundtables and teaching sessions that explorethe presence of Asian Americans in New York City and other urban environments--downtown,boroughs and suburbs alike and their experience within the various places andinstitutions that characterize city life: theaters, prisons, offices, museums,factories, streets, mass transit, schools and universities, restaurants, andtourist sites. In keeping with the theme of interracial
connections, we especially encourage papers that explore the correlations
and interactions between the experiences of Asian Americans and those of
other groups and communities that make up the urban landscape, notably
African Americans (including Caribbean Blacks); Latinos; Jews; Arab/Muslim
Americans; Irish, Slavic, and Italian Americans; Gays/Lesbians; and
evangelical Christians. In using New York as aspringboard, we also
encourage papers that discuss generally the experience of Asian Americans in
the Northeast (Mid Atlantic states and New England).In addition to paper
proposals, we invite panel proposals as well as workshops, roundtables, and
teaching sessions that explore ways of historicizing, contextualizing, and
critiquing the impact of urban life and interactions on the Asian American
experience.

****************************************

“On Common Ground 2007” @Stanford

****************************************
INVITATION TO AN INFORMATION SESSION FOR THE MELLON MAYSUNDERGRADUATE FELLOWSHIP

DATE: MONDAY, DECEMBER 4
TIME: 7:00 P.M.
PLACE: MULTICULTURAL CENTER, THE BRYAN CENTER

The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program, now in its 10th year at Duke,is a two- year fellowship program for students who are thinking seriously aboutgetting their PhDs and becoming professors in a wide variety of disciplines. The program is targeted to underrepresented minority students and otherswith a demonstrated commitment to eradicating racial disparities.

Each year, five sophomore students at Duke are selected as Mellon MaysUndergraduate Fellows. They receive stipends for the academic terms and summersfor two years. During the summers the Fellows, under the direction of a facultymentor, pursue some form of directed study intended to give them a sense ofscholarly research activities. During the academic year they may: (1)continue their independent research; or (2) work as a research assistanton a project which the faculty mentor is currently pursuing; or (3) work oncurricular or teaching projects of interest to their faculty mentor.

A student applying to the Program must have a faculty mentor and adefined initial project. Fellows are awarded an annual stipend of $5,100 ($3300for the summer and $900 per semester), a $750 summer housing allowance, and atravel budget of up to $400. In addition,each Scholar receives a project supplies budget of $350 per year. Mentorsreceive an annnual award of $750.

For more program details, including the "Mellon disciplines," visit our website: *http://www.aas.duke.edu/trinity/mmuf*

If you think you may be interested in applying for this fellowship program,please plan to come to the informal information session on December 4.

*********************************************

ConvenientElitism [The Harvard Crimson] Opinion

Published On 11/27/2006 1:20:36 AM

By DEBORAH Y. HO and SHAYAK SARKAR

Harvard is not a meritocracy. Not only do the costs of thissystem weigh disproportionately upon Asian Americans, the considerationsprioritized above merit also come at the expense of true diversity beyondracial tokenism: a diversity of socioeconomic background and representationfrom within racial groups.

To pretend that applicants’qualifications and life experiences are all that matter in admissions onlyresults in superficial explanations for the discrepancies in admissions ratesamong different groups. College admission is an unavoidably subjective process,and, according to the admissions office, the vast majority of applicants couldbe successful at Harvard. The limited number of places available demands somekind of secondary screening process beyond academic ability, and rightly so:All students are more than just numbers and contribute both inside and outsidethe classroom. That said, the rosy vision of the admissionsprocess as choosing a diverse set of the best of the best is not the wholestory.

Harvard, for better or worse, would not be Harvard without legacies, athletes,and underrepresented minorities, considerations that complicate an alreadynot-so-meritocratic process. Recent discussionsregarding the lower acceptance rate for apparently more qualified AsianAmerican applicants have revealed an ugly bias against Asian Americans at IvyLeague admissions offices. According to Jerome Karabel’sbook “The Chosen,” this bias has been prevalent since the 1980s.

In fact, in response to public pressure about discrimination and quotas in1988, Harvard’s Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67asserted that “while Asian Americans are slightly stronger than whites onacademic criteria, they are slightly less strong on extracurricular criteria.”These comments are eerily reminiscent of the stereotyping of Jews in attemptsto limit their enrollment in the early 20th century.

Daniel Golden reveals in “The Price of Admission” that Harvard admissionsofficers rank “Asian American candidates on average below whites in ‘personalqualities,’” as well as frequently comment that they are “‘quiet/shy” and “hardworkers.” Without evidence to substantiate these generalizations, thesecomments smack of a self-fulfilling stereotype: Admissions officers expectAsian applicants to have such qualities, and therefore see these in them moreso than they would in a non-Asian applicant. Besides the intrinsicallyproblematic nature of such generalizations, since when did shy, quiet, andhardworking somehow become “below average personal qualities?”

We, the students of this university, are not some hand-selected intellectualelite that unquestionably earned our place here. We were chosen to reflectdiverse forms of merit in an arguably arbitrary way. Asian Americans areunderrepresented relative to their academic performance simply because, inlight of other considerations that are prioritized above merit, there are morequalified Asian applicants than will be accepted. Rationalizations based onspeculation about the personal qualities of these students compared to those ofother ethnic groups are based on ill-informed and racist stereotypes.

Arguably, there are benefits that come with preferring legacies and athletes,but these come at the cost of not only rejecting well qualified Asianapplicants but also admitting a more diverse candidate pool. Karabel reports in “The Chosen” that 40 percent of legacieswere admitted in 2002 compared to 11 percent of other applicants. There is abias here that is not simply based on merit: While one might argue that legacyadmits are simply correlated with better qualifications, high-performing AsianAmericans are suffering the opposite of this kind of preferential admission.

Furthermore, former Princeton President William G. Bowen and interim UniversityPresident Derek C. Bok show in their book “The Shapeof the River” that only one percent of white students at the most selectiveinstitutions come from the lowest socioeconomic backgrounds, while over 90percent of students at these selective institutions come from households abovethe median American income ($60,000 per year). This lack in socioeconomicdiversity is also linked to racial diversity, skewing not only students’perceptions of what is normal or average in this country, but also what racialcategories such as “Asian American” really represent.

While race does tend to correlate with socioeconomic status, a broad range ofsocioeconomic backgrounds is represented in the category of Asian Americans.Comprised of all people from Asian descent, the majority of whomare close to the immigrant experience, Asian Americans came to the U.S. aseverything from job-seeking professionals to refugees fleeing oppressiveregimes. A recent post to The Crimson’s blog, TheMagenta, admitted that The Crimson’s editorial on Asian American admissionsused the term “loosely” to denote people of East Asian descent, completelydisregarding entire subpopulations of the term “Asian American.” Sadly, thiscasual use is far from uncommon but does a serious disservice to populationssuch as underrepresented Southeast Asian Americans, who were found in a studyby New York University to have one of the highesthigh school dropout rates.

When considering how much further admissions must progress in order to includethese and other often forgotten communities, there is more to consider thanrace. Our concern is not simply about clarifying the contentions regardingAsians in the college admissions process; it is about acknowledging thatprivileging legacies, athletes, and other groups necessarily precludes ameritocracy.

There is a fine line between subjectivity and systematic exclusivity, and thecomments documented by Golden attest to how easily the former can lead to thelatter when the process loses transparency and accountability. We sacrificemeritocracy because of our belief in the merit of diversity, but it is ourresponsibility to ensure that this diversity is not used to justify aconvenient elitism.

Deborah Y. Ho ’07 is a biochemistryconcentrator in Mather House. She is the co-founderand co-president of the Asian American Women’s Association. ShayakSarkar ’07 is an applied math concentrator in Mather House.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=515995

******************************************

On Asian-American Admissions [The HarvardCrimson] Opinion

Affirmativeaction, despite its shortcomings, is largely effective

Published On 11/20/2006 1:18:20 AM

By THE CRIMSON STAFF

A Nov. 11 Wall Street Journal article by Daniel Golden—a 2004winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his series of articles exposing the hugeadmissions advantages afforded to privileged white students—exposed what mightappear to be another disturbing college admissions trend. Some analyses ofstandardized test scores show that Asian-American applicants, on average, mustattain higher scores to snag admission to some of the nation’s most desirableschools. But these statistics, while initially disturbing, are the result of ajust and well intentioned system of affirmative action in college admissions.That system should not be abandoned in the face of harsh numbers.

Yet the numbers are startling. A studyby the Center for Equal Opportunity found that Asian-American applicants toselective colleges have significantly higher test scores than applicants ofother races. For example, in 2005, the median test score for Asian studentsoffered admission to the University of Michigan was 50 pointshigher than the median score for white students, 140 points higher thanHispanic students, and 240 points higher than black students. (The SAT used a1600-point scale at the time.)

This comparison yields figures worthy of pause. It suggests the existence of animplicit quota on the numbers of Asian-American students at some schools.(Asian-Americans make up about 4.5 percent of the nation’s population, but only10 percent to 30 percent of students at elite U.S. universities.) But there aretwo reasons why the score gap is not as startling as it should seem. First, thenature of affirmative action exaggerates the differences in measures ofacademic success for which it is trying to correct. For instance, students ofcolor, who tend to be poorer, average lower SAT scores than wealthier students.Their lower SAT scores perhaps indicate a lack of opportunity to succeedacademically, because of their financial circumstances, more than they suggestan academic deficiency.

Second, quantifiable academic criteria, especially SAT scores, are not the solecriteria for college admissions. Colleges are first and foremost academicinstitutions, but when a college chooses each new class, it does so with theknowledge that not everybody who graduates will be launched into an academiccareer. A college such as Harvard is searching for students who will be leadersin all spheres of the world, and that search requires picking applicants fromall walks of life. Moreover, colleges seek to balance their classes withstudents of all backgrounds, which is difficult to do if some minorities arenot sufficiently represented.

Colleges, then, are right to forgive some students’ lower scores. Leadershipqualities, extracurricular involvement, achievement outside of the classroom,and raw demographics are factors that are key inevaluating every applicant. When the numbers are tabulated, a few snapshots ofthe data will look extreme, but this is no reason to flee from a worthyprocess.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=515908

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 22:48:24 GMT

ASA Weekly Digest 10.22.06

Dear all,

ASA has changed the format of the weekly digest to HTML sothat it will be easier to access information for various events in thenewsletter. If you have any comments or feedback for the new format, pleasecontact Priscilla Baek at epb3@duke.edu. Wehope to see at ASA’s events this week!

Priscilla Baek

Executive Vice President, ASA

ASA Events

Immigration Law Forum with Mi Gente and Intergreek Council: Tuesday 10/24 @ 7:30pm Multicultural Center Lounge
Women in the Americas Film Series: “Clean” Wednesday 10/25 @ 8pm Griffith Theater
“Asian Students in Greek Life” Panel—Thursday 10/26 7-8pm White Lecture Hall

Other Duke Events

Asian American Studies Working Group—First meeting Wed. Nov. 8 pm Multicultural Center Lounge
Campus Culture Initiative Town Hall Meeting
inSight Student Documentary Festival—submit your photos!
Nourish International—Sustainable development and poverty reduction
Duke International Ambassadors Program
Film and discussions by Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority with Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the Center for Race Relations

Speakers

"The Political Parties and Judicial System of China" by Professor Suli Zhu, Dean of Peking University Law School
"Prudence and Moderation: A Diplomat's View of the U.S.-Taiwan Relations" by Dr. David Lee, Representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S.

Leadership/Business Conferences

Wharton Asia Business Conference
Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association Leadership Retreat

In the news

[Yahoo News] Too Asian? (Guidance counselors refer to racial stereotypes in college recommendations)

1. Immigration Law Forum with Mi Genteand Intergreek Council

When: Tuesday 10/24 @ 7:30pm

Where: Multicultural Center Lounge(Basement of BC)

Areyou curious about what the uproar has been about the immigration laws aroundthe country? Confused as to the effectsof what the immigration protests have? Can't figure out if we should build a wall on the Mexican border? If you have any questions or ideas and wouldlike to talk about the immigration issues facing the United States, come andshare your thoughts in this open forum on Tuesday, October 24th, at theMulticultural Center Lounge.

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2. Women in the AmericasFilm Series: “Clean”

When:Wednesday 10/25 @ 8pm

Where:Griffith Theater (Bryan Center)

Summary: Beginning in Canada, the film follows Emily (MaggieCheung), whose relationship with her rock star boyfriend Lee seems to be heldtogether only by their shared heroin dependence. After he overdoses, and she ishanded a six month prison sentence, custody of Jay, their young son goes toLee's parents, Albrecht and Rosemary (played by Nick Nolte and Martha Henry),with whom the boy has been living with for some time. Released from jail andbarred from seeing her son until she overcomes her addiction, Emily heads to Paris where she tries toput her life back together and relaunch her musicindustry career. Then she receives word from Albrecht that he and his wife arestaying in London,and recent developments have forced him to reconsider what is best for Jay...

Part of Screen/Society's "Women in the Americas"film series. Free and open to the public.

****************************************

3. Asian Students inGreek Life Panel
When: Thursday, October 26, 7pm
Where: White Lecture Hall (EastCampus)

A discrepancy exists between the representation of Asian students in Greek life
compared to the greater undergraduate population. Why? Is it a lackof
knowledge? Is it discrimination? Is it culture clash? All of the above or
nothing at all? ASA presents a panel of Asian students in andleaders of Greek
life at Duke to address this very issue. For more information, contact
asaatduke@gmail.com. We look forward to seeing you there.

****************************************

4. Asian American Studies Working Group
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FIRST MEETING OF THE YEAR!
Wednesday, Nov. 8, 5pm Multicultural Center Lounge

Want to be more active around concerns or ideas youhave? Want to join a
group of people to identify, learn about, and follow-upon problems you'd
like solved! Want to know what in the world that has todo with Asian
American Studies? Come to an Asian American StudiesWorking Group (AASWG)
interest meeting...where "we" will not makeassumptions about who "we"
is/are (if that makes sense!). The "we"must be created! Come create!

Freshmen are especially encouraged to come. No initialcommitment necessary!
Check it out! Email Vivian (vcw@duke.edu)if you are interested but unable
to attend.

About Asian American Studies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Asian American Studies (AAS) was born out of thecommunity-based social
movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Within the largercommunity and
international struggles for basic rights andself-determination, Asian
American, African American, Chicano, Latino, and NativeAmerican students
demanded control over their learning, believing thattheir education should
be relevant and serve their needs. During thosetimes of conflict and
violence, a counterhegemonic³Asian-American² political consciousness
emerged that asserted the value of their histories andknowledge, and their
visions for a more just society.

In the 35 years since the first ethnic studies programwas established, AAS
has grown tremendously, now with 40 full programs acrossthe country. Yet
AAS has and continues an uphill battle to claim its placein our educational
institutions, including at Duke. Moving beyond thereflexive demand for
AAS, the ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES WORKING GROUP at Duke seeksto more
thoroughly understand AAS, its history, present state,and future
possibilities. Drawing on resources including films,books, professors,
campus interviews and focus groups, we seek to analyzehow students of Asian
descent are racialized on campus,how they understand themselves, and how
they can transform their situations.

*********************************************

5. Campus Culture Initiative townhall meeting

As animportant phase in the Campus Culture Initiative's work, we are currentlyhosting a series of town meetings to listen to community concerns about anyaspect of campus culture:

Undergraduate,

Graduate,and Professional Students

Wednesday,October 25th

4:00- 5:30 pm Faculty Commons (2nd Floor West Union Building)

6. inSight Student Documentary Festival

Dear Everyone,

The inSight Student Documentary Festival is coming toDuke for the
first time this Fall and we're looking for outstanding submissions
from students both at Duke and UNC to showcase within it. For all of
you who have have done amazing work, take thisopportunity to exhibit
your work and share it with the rest of Duke University!

Do you have photo essays from abroad? A video you have produced? An
oral history you've worked on all summer? Submit it to the inSight
student documentary festival and share it with other documentarians
and students from Duke and UNC.

We are accepting video, audio, written, and photographic submissions.

The Submission deadline is November 1. Please email your work to
DukeSOW@gmail.comor drop it off in CD form in OSAF.

If you have too much work to email, or feel uncomfortable leaving it
on OSAF, please email kmh24@duke.eduto arrange an alternative method
of evaluation.

This is a great opportunity to have your work stand out and an even
better way to share it with our universities -- don't miss it!

All my best,
Kevin Hwang
inSight Student Documentary Festival Chair

*******************************

7. NourishInternational (NI)

First amazing opportunity…

Nourish International (NI) presents...
HUNGER LUNCH!

What: ALL YOU CAN EAT FOR ONLY 4BUCKS!
Rice, beans, cornbread and hot sauce to spice it up--you will NOT want to miss
out!
Where: BC plaza
When: Thursday October 26^th11A.M - 2P.M.

Come Enjoy FOOD, MUSIC, and FRIENDS!

All proceeds will go towards NI's sustainable summerdevelopment projects in
developing countries.
Interested in getting involved with Nourish International? Contact Kim Cocce
(kimberly.cocce) or Roshen Sethna (roshen.sethna) and join
http://duke.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2211717020
NI website: http://www.nourishinternational.org/

Our next NI meeting will be on Sunday October 22 at 3:30p.m. inOSAF (upper
level of the Bryan Center...first door onthe right after entering from the
plaza). Anybody and everybody is welcome!

Let the REVOLUTION begin...

Second amazing opportunity...

The Millennium Project is an independent advisory body commissioned by UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annanto recommend a global plan for achieving the
Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The Project is directed by Prof. Jeffrey
Sachs of Columbia University and based at the headquarters of theUnited
Nations Development Program (UNDP) in New York.

The Millennium Village Project in North Carolinais a three-school initiative
involving Duke University,UNC, and Bennett College. We have two goals, 1.)
Raise 1.5 million dollars by June of 2007 for a village in Kenya/Uganda, and
2.) In conjunction with Duke's Global Health Initiative and the Columbia Earth
Institute, expand the role of undergraduate students in development projects.

Since July 2006 we have raised 500,000+ dollars and have secured an additional
750,000 dollars of matching funds. Professor Jeffrey Sachs will be coming to
talk to our schools on November 10th, and we are planning a Millennium
Development Goal week leading up to the speech. We are also planning
collaborative efforts with ANY campus group that is interested (send
representatives from your group!) to co-sponsor events that they are already
running. But, we need help! Your Help! If you areinterested in learning more,
come to our meeting on?

SUNDAY OCTOBER 22

2 P.M.

CAMPUS COUNCIL OFFICE in Few Quad (If you are facing the Chapel, take a left
onto the quad, go into the first door on the left, take a left after entering)

More Info at: http://www.ncmvp.org and
http://duke.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204726567

*********************************************
8. Duke InternationalAmbassadors Program

Going home for the winter? Want to take Duke back withyou? International
Council, in conjunction with the Admissions Office, is looking for student
ambassadors who will represent Duke in their respective countries.

The purpose of the program will be to provide students with the opportunity to
be involved in Duke's recruitment process.

As an Ambassador, you will receive quality training and materials in order to
prepare them for this mission the coming winter or summer. We will also work
with you to compile a list of contacts in your respective areas, and help set
up appointments with the various high schools and college fairs for you to
attend.

Still interested? Please fill out the form below and return to Serrie Fung at
sf36@duke.edubefore NOVEMBER 4TH.
_____________________

Name:
Email:
Contact number:
Year:
Home country*:
Home town/city*:
* or the place you will be visiting for the program
Expected dates in visiting country:

Please select one of the training sessions that you can attend (you must attendONE):
Nov. 12th (Sunday),4.00-5.30pm
Nov. 15th(Wednesday), 7.00-8.30pm

*********************************************
9. Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority, Inc. with AlphaKappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the Center for Race Relations present...

"Killing Us Softly III" by Jean Kilbourne

Monday, October 23 at 8pm
McClendon Tower, 2nd Floor Media Room

REFRESHMENTS PROVIDED!

A film about how, why and to what effect corporations and their advertisers
use images of girls and women to sell their products. Kilbourne"sets mass
media images of femininity against social reality, advertising fantasy
against the actual experience of girls and women, and encourages us to
consider the relationship between the stories advertising tells about girls
and women and the actual lives girls and women lead."

Join the Dynamic Women of the Delta Chapter of Theta NuXi Multicultural
Sorority, Inc. and the Pretty Pearls of the Iota MuChapter of Alpha Kappa
Alpha Sorority, Inc. with the Center for Race Relations for a viewing and
discussion on the important issues of feminity andgender in Kilbourne's
film.

*********************************************

10. "ThePolitical Parties and Judicial System of China"Lecture

Who: Professor Suli Zhu,Dean of Peking University Law School, Fifth annual Bernstein Lecturer inInternational and Comparative Law of Duke Law School.

When: 12:00 PM onThursday, November 2, 2006

Where: Law SchoolRoom 3041.

Professor Zhu is an expert in the fields of jurisprudence and legal theory andhas written extensively on the rule of law in China. Professor Zhu has beena faculty member of Peking University School of Law since 1992 and dean since2001. Professor Zhu is He is the author, among many publications, of"Sending Law to the Countryside: Research on China'sBasic-level Judicial System." A comprehensive review ofthis book by Professor Frank K. Upham, "Who WillFind the Defendant If He Stays with His Sheep? Justice in RuralChina" can be found in 114 Yale L.J. 1675 (2005). Professor Zhureceived his LL.B. from Peking University, an LL.M. in American business andtaxation law from McGeorge School of Law, and a Ph.D.in justice and cross-disciplinary studies from Arizona State University.

Formal invitation of the lecture will follow shortly.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Please feel free to give me acall if you have any question.

Best,

Chun Hu
Director of International Career
Development and Special Projects
Duke UniversitySchool of Law
Durham, NC 27708
Tel: 919-613-7144
Fax: 919-613-7231

*********************************************
11. PROGRAMIN ASIAN SECURITY STUDIES

"Prudence and Moderation: ADiplomat's View of the U.S.-Taiwan Relations"
Who: Dr. DavidTawei Lee, Representativeof the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the UnitedStates
When: 3:30 pm,Friday, October 27, 2006
Where: Allen Building Board Room

Dr. David TaweiLee arrived in Washington, D.C.on July 23, 2004 to take up his position as Taiwan's Representative to the United States.A graduate of NationalTaiwan University,Representative Lee received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1987. Dr. Lee is the author of The Making of the Taiwan Relations Act: Twenty Yearsin Retrospect, the Oxford University Press, 2000.

It is free and open to the public.

************************************************
12. Wharton Asia Business Conference

On behalf of the 2006 Wharton Asia Business Conferencecommittee, I would
like to extend an invitation to you and your organization to join us in our
Conference which will be held on *November 10th *at the * Park Hyatt
Hotel*in downtown Philadelphia.

This year's Conference theme is *"Defining Asia in Transition"* andwe have
an excellent line up of speakers who will be sharing their insights on Asia
and the opportunities and challenges the region faces in the future. We have
6 panels this year and they are:

1) Capital Markets in Emerging Asian Markets
2) Hedge Funds and Private Equity in Asia
3) Consumer Marketing in Asia
4) Local versus Global
5) High Growth Industry: Telecommunication, Media and Technology
6) Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital

We are also inviting the following schools to join us in our Conference:
Carnegie MellonUniversity, Georgetown,Harvard, Columbia and New York
University.

A Career Fair will be held in conjunction with the Conference and some of
the companies taking part include: Citigroup, Bain and Company, Goldman
Sachs, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch. There will alsobe an after
Conference dinner and party organized for all interested parties.

Ticket purchase can be made online at
http://www.whartonglobal.com/asia/index.asp starting fromearly October.
*********************************************
13. ITASA LeadershipRetreat

Here's an awesome Taiwanese Americanconference/retreat/networking opportunity: The ITASA Leadership Retreat(Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association). Duke TSA is justpolling for interest-- are any of you interested ingoing to Emory in ATL Nov 10-12? If enough people go, we could drive down (andit'd essentially be $15 for the whole weekend). If
you're ever interested in flying to conferences, there's also a LeadershipConference Travel Fund that can support your conference travel.

Contact Anna Wu at anna.wu@duke.edufor more information.

Dear Southeast TASA Organizations,

We are contacting you regarding an upcoming ITASA Leadership Retreat that isgoing to be hosted by Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. We are planning to hold the Retreat on the weekend of November 10-12,2006. There will be one day of workshops that will be organized by thenational ITASA, and meals and social outings will be included. Pleasenotify your respective organizations to see how much interest there is, and howmany people are willing to come. Please let us know within these next fewdays, and we will hopefully give you all
finalized details in about one week. There will be required registrationfor this event, and a registration fee of around 15-20 dollars. We lookforward to speaking with each of you, and hope that you will help us make thisa successful event! Feel free to ask us any questions.

Emory TASA
Aaron Wu, Co-President Emory TASA
acwu@emory.edu

*********************************************

14. TooAsian? [Yahoo News]

"Rachel, for an Asian, has many friends."

That's the kind of line that apparently is turning up more and more in lettersof recommendation on behalf of Asian American applicants to top colleges,
according to experts on a panel called "Too Asian?" at the annualmeeting of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

When the recommendation line was cited as the kind of bias - even perhaps wellintentioned bias – that pervades the admissions process, many in the audience
at first seemed angry that in 2006 people would reference race in that way. Butwhen it came time for audience comments, one high school counselor said thatcounselors feel they have no choice but to mention students' Asian status andto try to make it seem like
their Asian students are different from other Asian students.

"We make those comparisons because we feel it's the only way we can getthrough and get our students looked at," said the counselor, to knowingnods from others in the audience.

Many Asian students and their families have for years believed that quotas orbias hinder their chances at top Ivy or California universities.But to listen to panelists - and members of a standing room only audience - theintensity of concern has grown, as has mistrust of the system.

In the discussion at the NACAC meeting, participants tried to talk franklyabout Asian students' perceptions and colleges' perception of Asians – withseveral people admitting that they were simultaneously denouncing stereotypesand saying that some of them had at least partial truth that colleges and highschools need to confront.

Admissions officers, while defending the overall integrity of the system,admitted that bias is a real problem. And advocates for Asian students admittedthat they are challenged by the many Asian families who want to consider only asubset of institutions.

Many counselors - during and after the session – said that they have littledoubt that when applying for undergraduate admission to research universities,white applicants are getting admitted with lower test scores and grades thanAsian applicants are. One high
school guidance counselor told the panel of experts that a sign of the distrustof the system is that he is increasingly asked by Asian American students ifthey would be better off applying to college if they declined to check therace/ethnicity box on the
applications.

Jon Reider, a counselor at University High School, inSan Francisco, urged the questioner to encourage students to continue to checkthe box, and he questioned whether leaving the box would do much good. "Ifyour name is Wong....." he said to laughter. But he also noted that one ofthe many ways Asian Americans today don't fit stereotypes is in their
names. The Asian American woman on the panel – and admissions official at Colorado College - was named Rachel Cederberg.

The prompt for the discussion was an article that ran last year in The WallStreet Journal about "the new white flight." The article reportedthat white families were leaving some nice suburbs with great public schools -or sending their children to private schools - as districts became "tooAsian," apparently meaning districts where after-school academic programsare more popular than soccer. While the school districts about which thearticle was written have criticized the piece, many at the NACAC meeting saidthat the attitudes quoted in the article were real - and were playing a bigimpact in college admissions.

Reider said he thought the article and the questionof "Too Asian?" that it posed was "shameful" and said thathe was "embarrassed" as an American that such a piece would appeartoday. He asked whether anyone would think of publishing an article called"Too
Latino?" and compared the bias to the kind of bigotry that for decadeslimited the enrollment of Jewish students at top private universities."This is a racist question," he said.

He also said that the bias is real - and cited his experience in his previousjob as part of the admissions office at Stanford University.There, he said, the office did a study some years ago in which it comparedAsian and white applicants with the same overall academic and leadershiprankings. The study was only of "unhooked kids," meaning those withno extra help for being an alumni child or an athlete. The study found thatcomparably qualified white applicants were "significantly" more likelyto be
admitted than their Asian counterparts.

Stanford's admissions office responded with some serious self-reflection, hesaid, and officials now spend some time each year studying different kinds ofbias - like letters that compare Asian applicants to other Asians - in anattempt to weed out any unfair judgments. With bias removed, he said,"there's no way that a school or college can be considered tooAsian."

At the same time, he and others said that part of the problem in admissionstoday is created by Asian applicants - and especially their parents - who tendto accept only certain colleges as legitimate options.

Colorado College, where Cederbergnow works, has an Asian population under 10 percent - a figure that is quitetypical for liberal arts colleges. Asian students are considered to add todiversity to the college and she has the full support of the college in
recruiting them, she said.

Based on working with institutions where Asian enrollment exceed 25 percent -something that is increasingly common at elite publics in California and topuniversities elsewhere - she said she hears lots of talk about admissionsofficers who complain about
"yet another Asian student who wants to major in math and science and whoplays the violin" or people who say "I don't want another boringAsian."

She said she wishes more Asian students would look at liberal arts colleges. Abroader problem, several speakers said, was an emphasis on just a few kinds ofinstitutions.

Mike White, principal of Lynbrook High School, in one of the districts The Wall StreetJournal wrote about, said that he has a very tough time persuading Asianstudents to look at the California State Universitycampuses, including nearby San Jose State University,
which has many academic programs in areas his students want to study.

If they don't get into the Universityof California campus of choice orStanford, he said, many prefer to enroll at a community college and transfer toa UC campus rather than attending a Cal State campus. White stressedthat he didn't mean to be critical of
community colleges, but that it struck him that his students were ignoringinstitutions that were a good match - just because the institutions didn't havea perceived level of prestige.

Reider described an exercise he does for Asianparents in which he tells them about two institutions. At one, he describeswalking through a beautify campus, meeting a president who knows all thestudents by name, seeing labs that are first rate, and learning that sciencestudents are admitted to top graduate and professional programs, based in parton their original research. At the other institution, he describes how he meetsa smart science student frustrated that he can't get any work done because ofthe loud music down the hall. When Reider walks downthe hall, a student blaring music tells him it's a party school.

After he describes the two campuses, he says he tells the parents "you'dwant your kids at the first school, right?" They agree. Then he tells themthat the first institution was WhitmanCollege (although he quickly adds thatit could have been a few dozen other liberal arts colleges) and the secondinstitution was Harvard University. And then, hesaid, the parents all say that they were wrong when they answered the questionthe first time, and they still want their kids at Harvard.

ASA Weekly Digest 10.15.06

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 19:53:01 GMT

Hope everyone had a great fall break last week. We're back full speed and ASA has some really awesome events coming up, so check them out in this week's digest!

ASA EVENTS
1. Comedy Central comedian ELIOT CHANG come to Duke! THURSDAY October 19th @ 8:00 p.m. in White Lecture Hall.
2. Women in the Americas movie screening: Mississippi Masala.

Other Duke events
3. Recruiting new members for Passport magazine
4. Multicultural Resume Book
5. APSI Community Outreach
6. APSI Fall Speaker Series
7. Documentary exhibition about the Cultural Revolution in China
8. Women in Leadership Development (WILD) conference on Nov. 11. First come, first serve registration!
9. To the Men at Duke: Dating Violence Awareness Week

Job/internship opportunities
10. Journalism: News & Observer Diversity Recruiting fair. Get internship offers on the spot for small, medium, and large newspapers across the nation!
11. McMaster-Carr

_______________________________________________________
1. Free show by comedian Eliot Chang
Date: Thursday, October 19th
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Location: East Campus White Lecture Hall

Eliot Chang is not what you expect. His stand up comedy is honest, never predictable, and doesn't rely on stereotypes. He electrifies the stage with confidence and blows away your expectations with smart funny comedy. Roars of laughter, not mild chuckles, are the trademark of his show.

Eliot is one of the few comics in the history of Comedy Central's Premium Blend, Asian or otherwise, to receive a standing ovation.

Every year, Eliot tours his one man comedy show across America. TV appearances include: Comedy Central's "Premium Blend," Comedy Central's "Contest Searchlight," NBC's "Law & Order: SVU," Spike TV's "Crashtest," MetroChannel's "New Joke City," Galavision's "Que Loco," ABC's "One Life to Live," and national commercials for Lowe's Department Stores, TD Waterhouse, FedEx, and AMC Cable network. He has also been on the cover of Backstage in "Comedy's Best Bets."

His critically acclaimed Q&A workshop "ASIANS IN THE MEDIA" has put him in high demand as a keynote speaker. His reputation as an Asian activist secured him an invitation to hold his workshop at the NY offices of COMEDY CENTRAL as it was simulcast to their LA offices.

Because his humor is more silly than mean spirited, the audience allows this mischievous comic to misbehave in his completely uncensored act. He has performed for every kind of audience; from the wildest and raunchiest crowds America has to offer, to the most conservative ears in the Bible Belt.

Whether the show is requested to be RATED R or RATED G, everyone will enjoy the show, regardless of background.

ELIOT's MOTTO:
"Always remember, you're on this planet for 100 yrs max. Make your mistakes count. BE FEARLESS, RECKLESS, AND LIVE IN COMPLETE EXCESS. LET'S DIE LAUGHING."
****************************************
2. Screen/Society--Women in the Americas film series--"Mississippi Masala"

Date: 10/18/2006
Time: 8pm
Location: Griffith Film Theater, Bryan Center, West Campus
Contact: hokazak@duke.edu
Event URL:www.duke.edu/web/film/screensociety/WIA.html

Summary: "Mississippi Masala" (dir. Mira Nair, 1991, 118 min)
In 1972, an Indian lawyer and his family flee their home in Uganda as Idi Amin seizes power. The lawyer will never forget the pain and indignity he suffered. Nearly 20 years later the family has settled in Mississippi and the lawyer's adult daughter, Mina (Sarita Choudhury) falls in love with a young black business entrepreneur, Demetrius (Denzel Washington). Their affair causes a rift in the community and forces the lovers' families to examine their ideas about racial and class differences.

Part of Screen/Society's "Women in the Americas" film series. Free and open to the public.
****************************************
3. Recruiting new members for Passport Magazine!

Passport magazine is an international magazine created with the intention of sharing ideas, thoughts and information about all manner of things related to the "international realm." We cover topics that range from diplomacy, travel, art, literature, satire, popular culture, human rights, to what it means to be part of the "International Community."

I know that a lot of us Dukies complain about being stuck in a bubble, this is the perfect way to break out of it. By working on the Passport team you have the chance to read up about what's actually going on out in the world, and of course to share all of this with the rest of the greater Duke community. As cheesy as it sounds, Passport magazine is really trying to bring the world to the Duke community.

You don't have to be an international student in order to contribute. You don't have to be an avid traveler. You just have to have a passion for things international.

If this interests you here's the nitty gritty of how you can get involved:

Editor:
Editors work closely with writers to help generate ideas for articles, assist in brainstorming sessions and provide helpful suggestions throughout the writing process. Also, editors correct gramatical errors, spelling mistakes and help polish articles before they are incorporated into the magazine. This position requires a high level of commitment, roughly 5-6 hrs/week but this may fluctuate. Editors really get to know the writers, help them perfect their pieces and they also have opportunities to do writing of their own.

Managing Editor:
The managing editor works closely with writers but also has the opportunity to write their own articles. The managing editor helps the editor-in-chief with administrative details, i.e. setting up meetings, socials, etc. and generally acts a social director for the magazine. This position also requires a high level of commitment, a willingness to keep people on track and on time. Plus, this position offers plenty of opportunities to connect the members of Passport through social gatherings and events.

Graphics Designer:
Graphic Designers work on the layout portion of the magazine and it is up to these individuals to make the final product look fabulous! They have a good degree of freedom with layout and the more creative you are the better.

Producer:
This position is very important because the producer deals with financial matters relating to the magazine. He/She will write grant proposals, secure funding, set up production calendars and ensure that Passport can continue to produce new issues each semester.

AND of course if you don't have that much time to contribute you could always write us a one off article.

If this sounds like something that's your cup of tea, email our managing editor Gretchen Doores at gretchen.doores@duke.edu
******************************************
4. Multicultural Resume Book

Students of color, include your resume in the *Multicultural Resume Book* which will be distributed to employers during Career Week 2007. To attest to the success of this
project, I would like to let you know that in the past students who have included their
resumes in this book have gotten job offers.

What do you need to send?

1. Your resume
2. A Headshot Photo (jpeg format)
3. Concise Bio which includes: Name, Class Year, Name of Student
Group (e.g. Mi Gente), Mayor, Area of Interest

What if you think your resume is not ready?

Come to the Career Center during "Drop-In" hours.
Mon-Thurs: 2pm-5pm
Friday: 2-4pm

Dateline for Submission: October 23rd

E-mail your resume, headshot photo and bio information to Yisel Valdes: yv3@duke.edu
*********************************
5. APSI Community Outreach
Like reading story books? Have something about your heritage or studies that you
would like to share? Duke's Asian/Pacific Studies Institute (APSI) is recruiting
students to be part of a new program that brings stories and cultlural
activities about East Asia to local elementary schools.

This fall become part of a pilot project with Club Boulevard Elementary School
(near NorthGate Mall) during International Education Week from Nov 13-17, 2006.

For more information, contact Cindy Carlson at 919-668-2280 or cindy.carlson@duke.edu or go to
http://www.duke.edu/APSI/events/apsioutreach.html
********************************************
6. APSI Fall Speaker Series
Information on the next speaker in the Fall Speaker Series, Professor Peter Shapinsky, is shown below. Also, please mark your calendar for two additional speakers who have been added to the fall speaker series. Joan Kee, critic and scholar, will speak November 30 at 6:00 pm, in the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, on "Context as Alibi: Imagemaking in Hong Kong." KÃ¤ren Wigen, formerly of Duke University and currently of Stanford University, will speak December 8 on "Seeing Like a Developer: Geographical Surveys and Economic Development in Early 20C Shinano." (Location and time to be announced). Further information on both talks will be sent to you as it becomes available.

Peter Shapinsky
Department of History
University of Illinois at Springfield

Lords of the Sea: Pirates, Violence, and Exchange in Medieval Japan

Friday, October 27, 2006
3:00-4:30 pm
Room 226, Perkins Library
Duke University West Campus

For additional information, call 684-2604 or visit www.duke.edu/APSI
******************************************
7. Documentary Exhibit about the Cultural Revolution in China
Red-Color News Soldier: Li Zhensheng Kreps and Lyndhurst Galleries, Center for Documentary Studies
Through October 29, 2006

The Cultural Revolution in China (1966-76) remains one of the most complicated political movements of the twentieth century. Almost no visual documentation of the period exists, and that which does is influenced by government control over media, arts, and cultural institutions. Li Zhensheng (b.1940), a photojournalist living in the northern Chinese province of Heilongjang during the revolution, managed, at great personal risk, to hide and preserve more than 30,000 negatives during the ten-year period. He made images as a party-approved photographer for the Heilongjang Daily and hid his "negative" negatives under the floorboards of his one-room apartment.
This body of work is the only known existing photographic documentation of the Cultural Revolution.

For more information about the exhibition and book:
http://www.red-colornewssoldier.com/

For directions to CDS: http://cds.aas.duke.edu/about/here.html

GALLERY HOURS: Mon - Thu 9-7, Fri 9-5, Sat 11-4, Sun 1-5

********************************************
8. WILD CONFERENCE

Please attend and/or help get the word out about the 2006 WILD Conference!

Saturday, November 11, 2006 * 8:00am -4:00pm
Meredith College (in Raleigh, about 30 min from Duke by car) *
Belk Dining Hall
Website: http://www.ncsu.edu/csleps/leadership/wild.htm

What is WILD?
* Women in Leadership Development (WILD) allows delegates from Meredith College, Peace College, NCSU, Shaw University, St. Augustine College, Duke, NCCU and UNC to come together and improve leadership skills, broaden horizons, and share experiences.
* The mission of the WILD Conference is to inspire, develop, and empower a diverse community of collegiate women as leaders. We strive to do this by teaching relevant skills, creating networking opportunities, recognizing and challenging structural barriers, and encouraging self-reflection. Some of this yearÂ¹s workshops include feminism and womenÂ¹s leadership, overcoming resistance, exploring differences in personality types, change and personal success strategies for women in the 21st century.

* The cost per delegate is $15.00. Sign up is on a first come-first served basis so donÂ¹t delay. If any delegates are unable to attend, please try to find a substitute for them. Cancellations after October 23 are non-refundable. Scholarships are available through the Office of Student Activities and Facilities. Contact Rachel Brynczka
(Rachel.brynczka@duke.edu, 101 Bryan Center) for more information.

For more information, please contact Claire Robbins,
claire.robbins@duke.edu, 684-3897, or stop by the WomenÂ¹s Center.
***************************************************
9. To the Men at Duke: Dating Violence Awareness Week

To the Men at Duke:

As November approaches, we are reminded that Dating Violence Awareness Week is nearly upon us. This year, Men Acting for Change (a student organization) is asking that you help us by taking a public stand in support of the men and women who have been victims of relationship violence. We are currently collecting the names of men at Duke who believe in our cause and who are willing to say it publicly. Once we have collected the names, we will run a full page ad in The Chronicle for everyone to see. Think about the powerful voice that all of the men at Duke will have when asked to come together behind this important issue. If you agree that violence has no part in a healthy relationship, we hope that you will sign on by following the link below.

If you, or your organization, department, or group would its name displayed in the Chronicle along side the individuals already signed up, please follow this link!

NOTE: Groups, Organizations, and Departments need not be all male to participate, we welcome co-ed or all-female groups to display their name as well. Simply have your group leader email paul@duke.edu stating that you would like your group, department, or organization involved.

Help Make a Stand: http://tinyurl.com/q32n9
***********************************************
10. Hey college students, are you caught in "the catch 22"?

You're trying to land a good journalism job. You're hoping someone will notice how talented you are. But you need the opportunity to show what you can do.

The 2006 News & Observer Diversity Job Fair will provide inexpensive, one-stop shopping:

Interviews with recruiting editors from small, medium and large newspapers across the
nation.

Internship offers made on the spot.

Copy editing testing to gauge journalism fundamentals regardless whether someone is
interested in copy editing or another skill area.
http://jobfair.newsobserver.com/

If you have any questions, please contact Ellen Sung at . She is a reporter at The News & Observer in Raleigh and president of North Carolinaâ€™s chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association.

****************************************
11. Greetings Duke Community!

I am the National Diversity Recruiter for McMaster-Carr, an industrial supply company, headquartered in Chicago. You are probably not very familiar with McMaster-Carr, but we hire several Duke Alumni each year including Dennis Sills & Kristen Jackson Class of 2005. I am conducting a nationwide search for our management development opportunity and will be on campus next week on Monday and Tuesday, October 16th and 17th. I would like to invite you to interview on campus during this time frame.
If you are interested please send me an electronic version of your resume and respond directly to kourtney.cockrell@mcmaster.com.

In the meantime, I provided a brief description of the management development opportunity below. For more information please visit www.mcmaster.com/careers and click paths to managing.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at 630-600-2247. I look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Take care,

Kourtney Cockrell
Management Development Opportunity

McMaster-Carr is an industrial distribution company headquartered in Chicago, with offices in Atlanta, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and New Jersey. We inventory and sell nearly half of a million industrial supplies (think nuts, bolts and everything in between) to major manufacturers, government institutions, research organizations, amusement parks, constructions sites, movie sets, and just about any other enterprise you can imagine (and this merely scratches the surface). The breadth of our business demands that we seek the very best from institutions like Duke University, and thus, we are coming to find students like you who meet that mold. We have successfully recruited other Duke alumni including Dennis Sills & Kristen Jackson, Class of '05, and look forward to welcoming more class of '07 alumni this year!

At McMaster-Carr, diversity is not just a catch-phrase, but rather a corporate asset. Running the gamut from actors and authors to engineers and ex-Marines, our people have backgrounds and interests as varied as the breadth of products in our catalog. We do not recruit any specific major or skill set. Rather, we pride ourselves in assembling a diverse,
multi-talented management team from many different walks of life. While here, you may engage in conversations ranging from Middle Eastern affairs to the latest trends in the stock market to the effects literature on culture. In fact, our collegial yet intellectually-stimulating environment is one of the factors that allow us to attract the top-tier talent we employ.

We are looking to recruit driven, personable, and intellectually-passionate graduates into our Management Development career path, where we will cultivate you into the future leaders of our company. You will learn our business through an initial operational training rotation and, when ready, you will supervise or manage different aspects of the business ranging from market research and finance to product distribution and catalog development. We offer competitive salaries commensurate with top investment banks and consulting firms, as well as a 100% tuition reimbursement program to all
employees.

Questions? Contact Kourtney Cockrell, National Diversity Recruiting
Manager, at 630-600-2247 or kourtney.cockrell@mcmaster.com.

ASA Weekly Digest 09.26.06

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 02:35:22 GMT

ASA Weekly Digest 9.26.06

Hey guys,

We know it's crunch time and you're all stressed about papers and midterms, but take a few minutes and scroll through the weekly digest and come out to our General Body Meeting!

1. General Body Meeting, Social Sciences 136, 7:30 pm
2. ASA Seeking applications for Historian
3. Feedback for ASA Beach Retreat
4. New East Asian Cinema Series (The Wedding Campaign, Kamikaze Girls)
5. NC State ASA Mixer
6. Goldman Sachs, Asia, Deadline: Oct. 1

1. ASAâ€™s 2nd General Body Meeting

We welcome everyone to ASAâ€™s 2nd General Body Meeting of the year. Delicious snacks will be provided. Come with suggestions for activities we could do in October. Everyoneâ€™s opinions count.

*****************************************************

2. ASA Seeking Applications for Historian

The ASA Executive Board is seeking applications for the position of Historian.
We feel that in order to create lasting change, we must preserve our work so that future generations know how to continue improving the organization.

The Historian will serve on the Executive Board and attend its weekly meetings.
He/She will be responsible for centralizing the documents relevant to ASA programming/initiatives and archiving them for use by future Boards.

Interested applicants (can be of any Class) should submit a maximum 200-word statement to asaatduke@gmail.com describing how they envision the position of Historian as well as what they hope to contribute to the Executive Board.

Applications are due by Midnight on Friday, October 6 (beginning of Fall Break). Contact asaatduke@gmail.com with any questions you may have. We look forward to hearing from you.

***************************************

3. To those who attended the ASA Myrtle Beach Retreat: It's been more than a week since the beach retreat and we hope that you've had enough time to process your thoughts about the experience. Please help us out by letting us know your opinions of the beach retreat. We'd appreciate it if you could fill out the following survey. It should take only a few minutes. Thanks.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=907282622824

ASA

***************************************

4. Screen/Society's Cine-East 8: New East Asian Cinema film series presents....

Wed Sept. 27 at 8pm in Richard White
The Wedding Campaign
Description: An unmarried farmer tries his luck at finding a bride in Uzbekistan, but ends up falling for his translator instead in this entertaining, funny, and surprisingly moving debut film from director Hwang Byung-guk.
Sponsored by the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute.

Thu Sept. 28 at 8pm in Richard White
Kamikaze Girls (dir. Tetsuya Nakashima, 2004, 102 min, Japan, Japanese with English subtitles, Color, Video)

*Description:* Momoko is an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life. Ordinary, that is, if
you define ordinary as wearing elaborate lolita dresses from the Rococo period in 18th
Century France. A complete fish out of water in her rural and sleepy Japanese town, where everyone buys their clothes (and everything else) at the same store and no one
understands her, Momoko's life is one of sugared sweets and frilly treats. Desperate to
make some money to pay for her expensive indulgence, Momoko tries selling bootleg Versace and Universal Studios clothes left over from her Dad's yakuza (gangster) days.
However, when punk girl and self-styled 'Yanki' Ichiko comes calling, her days as
'ordinary' are most certainly numbered... Road movie, buddy comedy, deeply insightful and surprisingly touching, the surreal world only further highlights the all too real
friendship that brings these two unlikely girls together.

Sponsored by the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute.

*All Screen/Society events are organized and sponsored by the Film/Video/Digital Program.

For more info about these and other Screen/Society events, see: www.duke.edu/web/film/screensociety/Fall2006Schedule.html

For info about other Cine-East 8 events, see:
www.duke.edu/web/film/screensociety/CineEast8.html

***************************************

5. Changing Seasons Mixer

Get ready to hit up NCSU ASA's first mixer of the year!
Pi Lounge and Bar-Hillsborough Street across from DH Hill Library Friday, Sept 29 11pm-2am Under 21: $8
21 and up: $5

If you have any questions, please email Emily at ewhon@ncsu.edu. We hope to see you there!
http://www.ncsu.edu/stud_orgs/asa

***************************************

6. Goldman Sachs Asia, Deadline: Oct. 1
Goldman Sachs Job Opportunity
Goldman Sachs Asia Welcomes Applications for Full-time Opportunities!
Analyst opportunities are available in the following divisions/locations:
- Corporate Finance (Hong Kong & Beijing)
- Equities (Hong Kong & Beijing)
- Finance (Hong Kong)
- Financing Group (Hong Kong)
- Fixed Income, Currency & Commodities (Hong Kong & Beijing)
- Operations (Hong Kong & Beijing)
- Private Wealth Management (Hong Kong & Singapore)
Please note that the application deadline for Goldman Sachs Asia is Sunday, October 1st.
In order for your application to be considered, please visit our website at www.gs.com/careers and apply through our Global Apply Online system.
Please contact Michelle Ho at michelle.ho@gs.com with any questions.

(c) Goldman, Sachs & Co. 2006. All rights reserved. Goldman Sachs is an equal opportunity employer.

ASA Weekly Digest 09.17.06

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 17:27:19 GMT

It's a new week, which means a new digest. Thanks to all those who went with us to Myrtle Beach. We hope you enjoyed your time there. Pictures will be up on the web soon and we hope to get your feedback about your experience at Myrtle with ASA :)

We also apologize for the postponing of our calligraphy event. To keep up to date with all ASA and ASA-related events on campus, visit our new Google Calendar at

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=asaatduke%40gmail.com .

The account is public, so you can add it to your own Google Calendar if you have one.

1. PRESIDENT OFFICE HOURS
2. SCREEN/SOCIETY PRESENTS "SAVING FACE" (ASA CO-SPONSORED), "OVERSTAY" AND "AGAINST THE GRAIN"
3. WORLD MUSIC NIGHT
4. DUKE CAREER FAIR
5. COMMON GROUND 2006: FREE FALL BREAK RETREAT
6. CAMPUS CULTURE INITIATIVE

JOB OPPORTUNITIES IN ASIA & ELSEWHERE (FOR ALL YOU FUTURE BANKERS & CONSULTERS OUT THERE)
7. CREDIT SUISSE 2007 ANALYST/ASSOCIATE OPPORTUNITIES IN ASIA PACIFIC
8. GOLDMAN SACHS ASIA JOB OPPORTUNITIES
9. BRIDGESPAN NONPROFIT CONSULTING JOB (BAIN & COMPANY)

OTHERS
10. CHI-O BOWLING TO RAISE MONEY FOR MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION

**********

1. President Office Hours

If you have any questions/comments/concerns regarding ASA and would like to sit down with ASA President Kevin Fang to talk about these issues, he will be holding regular office hours every Wednesday from 11:30am-1:00pm inside OSAF (Office of Student Activities and Facilities).

Directions:
From the BC Plaza, enter the Bryan Center. The first door on your right is OSAF. Kevin will be in the area behind the front desk by the windows facing the BC Plaza.

Any other meetings can be made by appointment by contacting Kevin directly (kjf5@duke.edu).

**********

2. Screen/Society Presents "Saving Face", Overstay" and "Against the Grain"

Tues. Sept. 19 at 8pm in Griffith:_
The "Women in the Americas" film series, curated by Prof. Sean Metzger, Depts. of English and Theater Studies, kicks off with /*Saving Face*/ (dir. Alice Wu, 2004, 91 min, USA, English, Mandarin and Shanghainese with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)

A Chinese-American lesbian (Michelle Krusiec) and her traditionalist mother (Joan Chen) are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.

Winner of the Viewer's Choice Award at the Golden Horse Film Festival (Taiwan), and the Breakthrough Director Awards at the Gotham Awards!

Sponsored by the Department of English, the Center for Multicultural Affairs, the Program in Women's Studies, the Center for international Studies, the Office of the Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies, the Asian Students Association, the Center for Canadian Studies, the Duke University Libraries' Lilly Library, and the Film/Video/Digital Program.

Discussion will follow the film in the Multicultural Center in the basement of the Bryan Center (approximately 9:30pm)

***

Wed. Sept 20 at 7pm in Richard White:
Special Event with visiting Artist & Filmmaker Ann Kaneko, presenting her documentary film: */Overstay/* (dir. Ann Kaneko, 1998, 74 min, USA & Japan, in Japanese, Urdu, Spanish, Farsi, Tagalog and English with English subtitles, Color, Video)

Panel discussion to follow with the filmmaker, Ann Kaneko, and Duke faculty and staff:
   * *Tahir Naqvi (Department of Cultural Anthropology)*
   * *Noah Pickus (Kenan Institute for Ethics)*
   * *Simon Partner (Department of History)*

Reception to follow the panel discussion !

About the Film:
An intimate exploration of migrant workers seeking a better life in Japan, /*Overstay*/ is that rare documentary that seamlessly combines personal narrative and social commentary. Four sets of young people from Iran, Pakistan, Peru, and the Philippines tell their unique stories--why they came to Japan and how they have adjusted to an unusually insular and traditional society. The filmmakers had an extraordinary degree of access to the workers' lives: /*Overstay*/ follows migrants at work and at play, trying to make a new life while homesick for a familiar culture. Alive with the colors and sounds of modern-day Japan, /*Overstay*/ is a compelling, vibrant film that captures the human side of a timely, universal issue. A tale of sacrifice, loneliness, and courage, /*Overstay*/ deftly parallels the story of immigrants living in the U.S. while examining a little-seen side of Japan. */Overstay/* probes the legal, cultural, racial, and class biases that these new residents struggle to overcome. Viewers are challeng to question and rethink their preconceptions about the nature of international migration and the social and economic factors that propel young people to move far from home, often leaving spouses and children to seek work in foreign countries. Stylistically /*Overstay*/ combines beautifully composed 16mm imagery with intimate Hi-8 video footage, emphasizing the contrast between the formalized issues and the lived reality. -- Discussion and reception to follow!

Learn more about the film at: www.annkaneko.com/overstay

Sponsored by the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Department of Cultural Anthropology, the Duke Human Rights Initiative, the Department of Asian and African Languages and Literature, and the Film/Video/Digital Program.

***

Thu. Sept 21 at 7pm in Social Psychology 130:
Special Event with visiting Artist & Filmmaker Ann Kaneko, presenting her documentary film: *Against the Grain: An Artist's Survival Guide to Peru* (dir. Ann Kaneko, 2006 (work in progress), 74 min, USA/Peru/Japan, in Spanish, English, Japanese and Quechua,Color, Video)

Discussion with the filmmaker and reception to follow!

About the film:
Is freedom of expression a right or a privilege? /*Against the Grain: An Artist's Survival Guide to Peru*/ highlights the passion and commitment of pioneering artists who have resisted censorship to tell the violent and explosive history of Peru. The four featured artists struggle to express themselves under a repressive political regime. Their stirring artwork documents years of terrorism, corruption and the hard-line government of ex-president Alberto Fujimori. By recounting Peru's past, they contribute to a larger collective memory of Latin America and connect the experiences of this country to our own. The film jumps to the present as artists face the uncertainties under their newly-elected president Alan Garcia, a former president, who governed Peru during some of its darkest years, economically and politically. The artists profiled in the film are Eduardo Tokeshi, a Japanese-Peruvian, who suffers from the backlash against Alberto Fujimori; Natalia Iguiñiz, whose art raises provocative questions about gender and class; Claudio Jiménez Quispe , a noted retablo maker, who was exiled from his Andean home in Ayacucho to Lima because of the violent insurgency during the 1980s; and, Alfredo Márquez, a punk artist who struggles to regain his public voice after being unjustly imprisoned for four years, accused of being a terrorist.

Sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, the Department of Cultural Anthropology, the Duke Human Rights Initiative, the Department of Asian and African Languages and Literature, and the Film/Video/Digital Program.

**********

3. World Music Night

Come be part of World Music Night...
Presented by the International Association!

Can you sing?
Do you play a musical instrument?
Want to share a favorite song or dance move from your home country?

Come be part of the Global party...
Friday, September 22nd at International House
From 7pm and the party don¹t stop...

Please contact Rebekah at rjn5@duke.edu or Nayantara at na22@duke.edu if you want to participate and perform...

Food and FUN are promised!!!
Rebekah, Nayantara & Cloe

**********

4. Duke Career Fair

Wednesday, September 20
10am-3pm
Bryan Center

Come check out the many employers who have come to Duke to recruit YOU!

Also, Rachel Young from the Diversity Liaison of the Career Center will be particularly focusing on helping Asian
students get plugged into career opportunities.

**********

5. Common Ground 2006

Common Ground is a student-led diversity immersion retreat program, taking
place over Fall Break (Saturday, October 7 - Tuesday, October 10), dedicated
to exploring human relations in personal and powerful ways. Common Ground
equips leaders with the tools to actively and thoughtfully promote respect
and understanding of others in their communities. This retreat is free and
is open to all students.

Applications are due THIS FRIDAY, September 22, at 5 PM and are available
online at the Center for Race Relations website:
http://www.duke.edu/web/racerelations/retreats/application/

For more information, please contact co-directors Ben Adams ( dba4@duke.edu)
or Albert Osueke (ano@duke.edu).

**********
6. Over the summer, the Campus Culture Initiative--a group 25 of
administrators, faculty, students (including myself), and alumni--has
sought to answer just that question. Now, it's your turn to take a crack
at it:

What do you want Duke to be?

What (if anything) is wrong with undergraduate culture? Does Duke have a
drinking problem? Is there sufficient intellectual engagement among
undergraduates? What influences gender dynamics at Duke? What role
should athletics play in undergraduate life? Are we still struggling
with racism and prejudice on-campus? What would we like to change about
Duke?

Your voice will be heard--we simply cannot answer all of those questions
in isolation. The conclusions that the CCI comes to will have lasting
influence on everything from undergraduate judicial policy to the
practices of the admissions office to the role of athletics at Duke.
This is how you can get involved:

1) Sign up to attend a small group discussion at
http://www.campuscultureinitiative.duke.edu/
2) Submit a comment to the committee at
http://www.campuscultureinitiative.duke.edu/
3) Send email to campus-culture@duke.edu
4) Contact any of the undergraduate members of the CCI:
----Trisha Bailey (’07)
----Melissa Mang (’09)
----Chauncey Nartey (’07)
----Iman Washington (’07)
----Elliott Wolf (’08)
5) Reply directly to me and I'll pass your comments along to the CCI.

This is your place. What do you want Duke to be?

Elliott Wolf
Member, CCI Steering Committee
President, Duke Student Government

**********

7. Credit Suisse Job Opportunity

2007 ANALYST/ASSOCIATE OPPORTUNITIES IN ASIA PACIFIC

OVERVIEW
As one of the world's leading banks, Credit Suisse provides its clients with investment banking, private banking and asset management services worldwide. Credit Suisse offers advisory services, comprehensive solutions and innovative products to companies, institutional clients and high-net-worth private clients globally, as well as retail clients in Switzerland. Credit Suisse is active in over 50 countries and employs approximately 40,000 people. Credit Suisse's parent company, Credit Suisse Group, is a leading global financial services company headquartered in Zurich. Credit Suisse Group's registered shares (CSGN) are listed in Switzerland and, in the form of American Depositary Shares (CSR), in New York.

OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE
Analyst and Associate opportunities are available in the following departments:

INVESTMENT BANKING offers a broad array of financial advisory, merger and acquisition, and capital raising services to corporations and governments throughout the world. Our professionals are at the forefront of providing advisory services to clients in many industries and countries. Credit Suisse has been involved in landmark M&A, debt and equity transactions that frequently hit the headlines internationally and change the landscape of our clients' industries.

EQUITIES engages in a broad range of activities including sales, trading, financing, prime brokerage and market-making in equity and equity-related derivative securities, convertibles, options, futures, structured products, risk management and hedging products. We also do the same for options and futures ? and all for a broad range of investors worldwide. Our diverse Equities teams are made up of research analysts, structurers, salespeople, sales-traders and traders. Our Equities franchise also includes a strong proprietary trading business.

FIXED INCOME incorporates underwriting, research, sales and trading of government and corporate bonds, money markets, foreign exchange and real estate-related assets, as well as a full range of derivative products. There is a range of desks in Asia, each dealing with a different aspect of Fixed Income. Our product and regional team structure allows us to focus on delivering product-based solutions to address the constantly changing goals of our corporate, sovereign and institutional customers worldwide.

QUALIFICATIONS
Interested candidates must be a final year student and have a strong interest in building a career in Asia. Credit Suisse is noted for the diversity of its employees but seeks candidates with a common set of abilities ? highly motivated, creative individuals who have demonstrated academic achievement and have the ability to work independently while still operating as a member of a team. Strength in verbal and written communication as well as computer literacy is essential. In addition, we look for intelligent, driven and hardworking candidates with consistent leadership skills shown through involvement in school activities. Fluency in an Asian language would be an advantage.

APPLICATION PROCESS
Application/further information: www.credit-suisse.com/standout
Application deadline: September 22, 2006
Other enquiries: campus.recruitment-ap@credit-suisse.com

**********

8. Goldman Sachs Job Opportunity

Goldman Sachs Asia Welcomes Applications for Full-time Opportunities!

Analyst opportunities are available in the following divisions/locations:

- Corporate Finance (Hong Kong & Beijing)
- Equities (Hong Kong & Beijing)
- Finance (Hong Kong)
- Financing Group (Hong Kong)
- Fixed Income, Currency & Commodities (Hong Kong & Beijing)
- Operations (Hong Kong & Beijing)
- Private Wealth Management (Hong Kong & Singapore)

Please note that the application deadline for Goldman Sachs Asia is Sunday, October 1st.

In order for your application to be considered, please visit our website at <outbind://66/www.gs.com/careers> www.gs.com/careers and apply through our Global Apply Online system.

Please contact Michelle Ho at <mailto:michelle.ho@gs.com> michelle.ho@gs.com with any questions.

***********
9. The Bridgespan Group, a non-profit strategy consulting firm is currently recruiting for Associate Consultants (an entry level data analysis position) to begin
Sept. 2007 in either our Boston or San Francisco offices.

Resumes and cover letters are due via the website by October 18, 2006.

Go to http://www.Bridgespan.org/abo_careers.html for more information.

FAQs:

What is Bridgespan and what is strategy consulting?

The Bridgespan Group is a non-profit that consults to other non-profits
and foundations in typically 3 to 6 month engagements. We were founded
in 2000 as an off-shoot of Bain & Company, Inc., one of the world's
premier for-profit strategic management consulting firms, to concentrate
exclusively on the unique needs of the non-profit sector.

In the for-profit sector, strategy consulting services are utilized to
bolster company profitability and competitive position. What we do at
Bridgespan is inherently different due to the nature of the charitable
sector, but grounded in the same value for effective management
practices and reliance on data collection for strategic decision making
and planning. In essence, we help our clients tackle important
questions such as "where will we replicate our programs and how will we
replicate them?", we help them understand the impact they are currently
having, and we help them improve program quality and effectiveness and
maximize the potential impact of the organization as a whole.

A typical engagement at Bridgespan would begin by defining an
organization's "Intended Impact" and "Theory of Change" i.e. the change
they are trying to affect, how that change occurs, and where in the
process and for what outcomes the organization will hold itself
accountable. We do thorough financial and programmatic analyses,
compare our clients to others in the field, and conduct other relevant
investigations. By the conclusion of a case, a strategic option is
chosen and business and implementation plans are generated based off of
that option. The types of analysis, duration of the case, and final
outcomes will depend largely on the purpose of the case and the type of
organization we are working with.

What types of non-profits and foundations do we deal with?

Bridgespan has had close to 100 non-profit and foundation clients, in
fields that range from after-school education, youth development,
environmental protection, and the aging. We have also cultivated and
maintained relationships with a number of foundations including The
Gates Foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies, The Rockefeller
Foundation, The Packard Foundation, The Hewlett Foundation and The Dell
Foundation. A full listing of organizations can be found on our
website.

The four clients I have worked with have all been very different and
most touched on subjects with which I had little experience. They
included a client working on healthcare for the aging, another focusing
on economic security and legal rights for the aging, an intermediary
technology organization for youth advocates, and a community development
initiative in DC.

What would I do as an Associate Consultant?

As an Associate Consultant (AC) you will work with 3 to 5 other case
team members (other consultants, a manager, and a partner) and will be
primarily responsible for a data analysis workstream on a case.

ACs are typically responsible for:

*        Identifying information sources
*        Gathering and interpreting data
*        Presenting the findings to Case Team members
*        Interviewing the client's target beneficiaries, peers, and
experts in the field
*        Identifying and interpreting trends within the nonprofit and
public sectors

The Bridgespan Group invests heavily in the training and development of
each Associate Consultant. While most of the training is on-the-job ACs
attend formalized training throughout their time with The Bridgespan
Group, starting with the expansive in-the-office program. This is
followed by a ten day off-site program with both Bain and Bridgespan
AC's from around the world. Bridgespan helps each Associate Consultant
build the fundamentals of a successful career: cracking tough problems,
communicating solutions with clients and teams, and collaborating with
senior Consultants and Managers.

What is Bridgespan looking for in an AC and would this job be a good fit
for me?

I think overall what Bridgespan is looking for are analytically and
strategically driven people with a passion for the non-profit sector and
social change. This job might be a particularly great fit for people
considering an MBA in non-profit administration or social enterprise or
an MPP/MPA and for those with an interest in applying business skills
for social change.

A general description of qualities desired in an AC include:

*        Strong academic backgrounds
*        Analytical Skills
*        High Motivation Level
*        Strong Commitment to Teamwork
*        Outstanding Interpersonal Skills
*        Preference will be given to those with demonstrated interest in
the nonprofit or social sector

Some caveats and things to consider for Robertson Scholars...I know many
of you have interests in direct service and international work and while
many Bridgespan employees have backgrounds in these areas know that:

** As an intermediary, Bridgespan does not offer direct service
experience, but does teach you a significant amount about non-profit
finance, management, and strategic issues and gives you broad exposure
to many types of non-profits working on some of the most important
issues facing the United States.

** Bridgespan's current focus is almost solely on United States
non-profits, although we are increasingly working on projects with some
sort of international component.

How do I apply and what is the process like?

1. Go to: http://www.bridgespan.org/abo_careers.html
<http://www.bridgespan.org/abo_careers.html>

2. Fill out a profile in the Bridgespan Application System

3. Provide Cover Letter, Resume, GPA, SATs, and office choice (Boston or
San Francisco)

The complete process to a job offer is quite intensive with 3 interview
rounds of case and fit interviews. More information on the process and
the timeline is available at the above site.

Please check out more about the organization and our case work at
www.bridgespan.org <http://www.bridgespan.org/>

And if you have any questions about the application process, the
organization, or consulting in general, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks and good luck!

Samantha

Samantha Fernandez
Associate Consultant
The Bridgespan Group | 535 Boylston St., 10th Floor | Boston, MA 02116
| USA
tel: (617) 572-2319 fax: (617) 880-7319
NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESS: mailto:samantha.fernandez@bridgespan.org | web:
www.bridgespan.org <http://www.bridgespan.org/>

***********

10. CHI-O BOWLING

CHI-O SORORITY is sponsoring a philanthropy event that's coming up pretty soon. Every year we have our annual Chi-O Bowling, a bowling tournament of which all proceeds go to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Details:
Date: Sunday, Nov. 5th
Time: TBA
# Per Team: 4 people
How many can each organization send?: As many as you want
Cost: $50 per team
Benefits: Make-A-Wish

Monday, September 11, 2006

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 04:36:18 GMT

ASA Weekly Digest 09.11.06

Hey ASA-ers!

Thanks to everyone who signed up to be on our listserv at the BC Plaza activities fair. Also, a hand of applause to all those who came out and participated in ASAâ€™s 3-on-3 basketball tournament and our freshman welcome picnic.

If you donâ€™t get to look at anything else, this weekend is the ASA BEACH RETREAT! There is also an important op-ed written by President Brodhead comparing U.S. education to Asian education that we believe ASA students should read and possibly respond to.

1. This weekâ€™s ASA events
2. Freshman elections
3. Common Ground multicultural fall break retreat
4. Admissions Ambassadors programâ€”Diverse representatives for Duke admissions
5. Sex & You @ Duke workshops for all Duke students
6. DUPD (Duke University Police Department) Advisory Committee
7. The Undergraduate Publications Board
8. BARBARA EHRENREICH, author of Nickel and Dimed coming to the Regulator
9. [Washington Post] The U.S. Edge In Education (an opinion article by President Richard H. Brodhead on comparing U.S. education to Asian education)**

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1. This weekâ€™s ASA events

Calligraph Event:
Originally scheduled for Thursday, September 14th, the calligraphy event has been postponed due to scheduling conflicts. We apologize for any inconvenience, but we are looking to put on the best program as possible. We will let you know when we choose a new date.

Beach Retreat!

Freshmen: Tabling for the beach retreat will begin at the Marketplace from 5-8pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Fees: $30 cash/check or $32 on flex. This covers transportation to and from Myrtle Beach, lodging for 3 days and 2 nights at an awesome private beach house, all meals but one dinner, and fun activities such as poker, games, and movies. We will also go have ice breakers, dialogues, study time, and clubbing! Only ASA can succeed with such an eclectic mix of activities.

Upperclassmen: If you are interested in attending, please e-mail us at asaatduke@gmail.com. Preference will be given to those with cars.
Fee: $50 cash/check or $53 on flex.
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2. Freshman elections

Freshman Representative
The Freshman Representative serves as the liaison between the Class of 2010 and the ASA executive board. He/She is the voice of the freshman class and will advise the executive board on ways we can better serve our freshmen members. Duties also include acting as secretary, taking minutes at executive board and general body meetings.

Freshman Publicity Chair
The Freshman Publicity Chair will work alongside the Publicity Chair to create effective marketing strategies for ASA's events. Publicity venues include flyer designing, paper flyering, bridge painting, Internet sites, tabling, and more. The Chair should have experience with or an interest in marketing and design.

Interested individuals must submit a 200-word maximum candidate statement to asaatduke@gmail.com by midnight, Friday 9.15
Elections will occur Wednesday, September 20 at a location and time TBA.

All statements will be posted via email and website for the general body. Candidates are encouraged to publicize their intentions to run for freshman representative up until the evening of the election.

Elections will be held Wednesday, 9.20 at a time and location TBD. Freshman Representative and Freshman Publicity Chair will be elected based on popular vote.

E-mail votes for those who cannot make the Election General Body Meeting must send in their preferred candidate to asaatduke@gmail.com prior to the set start time of the election proceedings.

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3. Common Ground Multicultural Fall break retreat

COMMON GROUND IS BACK!!!

Have nothing to do Fall Break? Looking for a space to discuss the dynamics
of identity at Duke and beyond? Common Ground is the place for you.
Sponsored by the Center for Race Relations, Common Ground is a time of
intense personal reflection, sustained dialogues, community building, and
one of Duke's most promising experiences for undergrads. Do not miss out
on the best opportunity this fall. For more information please contact Ben
Adams at dba4@duke.edu or Albert Osueke at ano@duke.edu .

When: Saturday, October 7 - Tuesday, October 10
Where: Camp Caraway in the mountains of Asheboro, North Carolina
How Much: IT'S FREE!!!!!!
More Info: Center for Race Relations website,
http://www.duke.edu/web/racerelations/

***Applications are due on Friday, September 22, 2006 at 5 PM to Ben, Albert
or the Multicultural Center***

Sincerely,

Ben Adams and Albert Osueke
Common Ground Co-Directors

*********************************

4. Admissions Ambassadors programâ€”Diverse representatives for Duke admissions

The Admissions Ambassadors program is the umbrella program over the tour guides,
student hosting, Blue Devil Days, high school visits, and special admitted
student programs that happen throughout the year. All of these activities need
student volunteers' help to run smoothly. We're looking for students to become
involved on all different levels-- from hosting a student for one night a year
to being on our executive board.

We especially need help getting the word out to students that this program is up
and running and in need of volunteers. We really want the Admissions Ambassadors to be a diverse representation of the student body at Duke, so we need y'all's help.

Please contact Amy Little (amy.little@duke.edu) or Gina Hubbard (gina.hubbard@duke.edu) to learn more about our organization!

*********************************

5. Sex & You @ Duke workshops for all Duke students

Sex & You @ Duke is a series of workshops on sexuality for young adults that is based on the values of self-worth, sexual health, responsibility, justice and inclusivity; provides a safe, nonjudgmental, and supportive forum to explore the spiritual, emotional, and social aspects of your sexuality; and helps you develop the skills to make informed and responsible decisions regarding your sexual values, health, and behavior.

Sex & You @ Duke is free and open to all Duke students regardless of religious affiliation (or lack thereof), gender, or sexual orientation. Students who are interested in participating in this program are invited to attend the orientation session on Tuesday, September 12, 2006, at 7:30 pm, in the Duke Womenâ€™s Center Lounge (Few Quad). For
more information: www.duke.edu/web/uu/sex.html; jsaxon@duke.edu; 919-656-2824.
*********************************

6. DUPD (Duke University Police Department) Advisory Committee

The Duke University Police Department seeks input from students.

You are receiving this e-mail because you were listed as a student leader with OSAF. We are seeking a diverse group of students who can tell us what sorts of information and services would best serve their needs. We are also interested in your ideas about how we can improve our services and increase safety and security on and off campus for students.

If you or someone from your group would be willing to commit to a once per month meeting, please let me know as soon as possible. I will poll the interested parties for the best day and time to meet.

Sara-Jane

Note to ASA students: If you are interested in participating in the DUPD study advisory committee, please email asaatduke@gmail.com to express interest.

*********************************

7. The Undergraduate Publications Board

The Undergraduate Publications Board invites you to attend our 2006 Open House!

Date: September 26, 2006
Time: 5:00-7:00 pm
Location: Upper East Side (above the Market Place)

Network with the editors, staffs, and advisors of over a dozen student publications. Find out how and when to submit your work. Learn about the Independent Publication policy.
Sign up to work on one of our established magazines/journals. Free food!

Email Jennifer Yang (UPB Chair) jy22@duke.edu with questions.

*********************************

8. BARBARA EHRENREICH, author of Nickel and Dimed coming to the Regulator

Date and time: Tuesday, September 12, 2006, 7:00 p.m.
Location: The Regulator Bookshop
720 Ninth Street, Durham, NC 27705
919-286-2700
www.regulatorbookshop.com

The author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America will discuss and sign copies of her new book, now in paperback, Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. In Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich temporarily forsook her middle-class lifestyle and took low-wage jobs in various locations, attempting to see how someone could survive making $6-$7 per hour. In Bait and Switch, Ehrenreich uses similar tactics, this time to see if she can land a mid-level corporate job. Along with her own attempt to make it in corporate America, she portrays stories of others struggling to do the same.

*********************************

9. [Washington Post] The U.S. Edge In Education (an opinion article by President Richard H. Brodhead on comparing U.S. education to Asian education)

ASA members: We are thinking about having a dialogue and inviting President Brodhead to come. If you have any questions or would like to contribute, please email Priscilla Baek (epb3@duke.edu).

The U.S. Edge In Education
By Richard H. Brodhead
Monday, September 4, 2006; Page A19
Even as they welcome students back to campus, our country's colleges and universities are deluded by their own historical excellence, and their many contributions to U.S. strength may be eroding. That, at least, is how a special commission of the U.S. Education Department sees it.
The critique by the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education was issued last month. It said that that while America's colleges and universities have "been the envy of the world for many years," they are no longer training the educated workforce needed to win in a global economy. In its unkindest cut, the report suggested that U.S. higher education may be -- dread phrase! -- a "mature enterprise": risk-averse, self-satisfied, self-indulgently expensive, oblivious to smarter rivals overtaking us.
I don't take such critiques lightly. But because they are often based on a view of Asia as our emerging competitive rival, let me share my own experience traveling to four Asian countries this summer.
What I encountered was not principally pride and rising confidence in Asia's educational systems, though there is much to be proud of. Everywhere I went, I found these systems to be the objects of intense and complex anxieties. When I told my counterparts that Americans were worried about losing ground to Asia in educational accomplishment, they found it impossible to believe.
In Japan and Korea, I heard concern that falling birthrates mean there are now too many college places for the number of qualified applicants, threatening a reduction in student quality. In Taiwan, university leaders worried about how few international students choose to study there.
Everywhere, I ran into concerns that competition for college admission had reached unbearable levels. Americans who think they know the limits of college admission obsessive disorder would have a few things to learn from Asia, where parents plan vacations to be free to drill their children in advance of college entrance exams, and where air traffic is rerouted on exam days to prevent distracting noises.
I also encountered another widespread worry, most loudly voiced in China. This is the fear that Asian higher education is long on discipline but short on creativity and that the very strengths of their system may prevent the fostering of a versatile, innovative style of intelligence that will be the key to future economic advancement.
Here was the paradox: The things that Americans tend to look to as Asia's overwhelming educational strengths -- a deeply ingrained work ethic and disciplined training in the elements of knowledge -- are linked in Asian minds with secret weakness. They, too, look to higher education to create the mysterious ingredient that will guarantee success for their society. But they worry that we, not they, have the secret advantage.
Anxiety about education, I've learned, is an inescapable byproduct of the contemporary aspiration to competitive success. The more countries want to thrive in the opportunity-rich but unstable dynamics of the new world economy, the more they look to higher education to give them the edge.
I don't think that we're wrong to worry about our system. If we want to train smarter people and tap into more talent in our population, we do need to look to the deficiencies in American education and candidly and courageously address them. This will inevitably mean improving in areas where Asia is strong: building stronger foundational skills in early grades, making sure more students persist in so-called STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math), supplying more good math and science teachers, and other steps.
But making ourselves over in the image of an imagined rival won't be the formula for success. Even as we correct real deficiencies, we need to recognize and nurture the strengths that are so evident to others.
In particular, we need to promote everything in our system that breeds initiative, independence, resourcefulness and collaboration. One of these is the liberal arts model of education. The schooling that trains students in many different disciplines makes them more flexible at shifting among a range of challenges and approaches. It also equips them to bring different sets of tools to bear on complex problems, allowing them to improvise new solutions by making new connections.
At an even more basic level, we must build on a system whose founding values are very different from respect for authority. When we touch off real debate on serious, open questions and encourage students to have worthwhile thoughts of their own, we are developing an asset of the highest strategic as well as personal value: the habits of active, independent thought.
There is no shortcut solution for the problem of education. The country that will do the best is not the one that will find the magic fix. Rather, it will be the one that asks, in the deepest way, what education is for and what human traits it is meant to foster.
The writer is president of Duke University.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/03/AR2006090300742.html?referrer=emailarticle

ASA Weekly Digest 09.04.06

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 20:16:58 GMT

ASA Weekly Digest - 09.04.06

Dear ASA Dukies,

My name is Priscilla Baek and I'm this year's Exec VP of ASA. I'm going to be in charge of the ASA Weekly Digest from now on, so if you would like to include any events or news in the newsletter, please email me at epb3@duke.edu.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. ASA SEPTEMBER EVENTS
2. Call for ASA Big Sibs
3. LiNK [Liberty in North Korea] General Interest Meeting (Tuesday, September 5TH, 7:30PM in McClendon Media Room in WEL)
4. Join Team HBV In Fighting Against Silent Epidemic (Saturday, September 9th, at 2PM in OSAF)
5. Triangle Asian/Asian-American Health Fair (Sunday, September 10th 11am-4pm)
6. Triangle Asian-American Music Fest (Saturday, September 9th, 8 pm Broad Street CafÃƒÂ©)
7. aKDPhi: DukeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Asian Sorority Bubble Tea Meet 'n Greet (Sunday, September 10th 3-5pm @ 204 Alexander B)
8. [Yahoo! News] The Violent Underground: The underground tunnels of Cu Chi in North Vietnam
9. [LA Times] Why a Racial "Survivor" Is a Good Thing

1. ASA September Events

ASA First General Body Meeting
Monday, September 4, 8pm
Marketplace, Upper East Side
Snacks Provided. All are welcome!

Activities Fair (Rescheduled)
Friday, September 8, 4-6pm
BC Plaza
Free Freeze Pops

ASA/Lambda Phi Epsilon 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament
Saturday, September 9, 9am Card Gym
Awesome prizes for First Place Team

ASA Welcome Picnic: The Noodle Bowl (Also rescheduled)
Saturday, September 9, 12-4pm
East Campus Gazebo
Free Food, Prizes

Triangle Asian/Asian-American Health Fair
Sunday, September 10, 11am-4pm
Laurel Hills Community Center in Raleigh
www.TriangleAsianHealthFair2006.kitonics.com

ASA Calligraphy Event
Thursday, September 14, 7:30pm
Multicultural Center

ASA Myrtle Beach Retreat
Friday September 15-17
Tickets for sale starting September 11

ASA Freshmen Elections
Wednesday, September 20
Time and Location TBD

Women in the Americas Film Series: "Saving Face"
Tuesday, September 19
Griffith Film Theater

Stay tuned for more.
**********

2. CALL FOR BIG SIBS

Hi everybody,

I hope everybody has had a great, relaxing summer. Another year is about to start, and this year, you will hopefully see some positive changes in ASA. One of the biggest changes that the executive board decided to make this year is a revamping of the Big Sib/Lil Sib Program. In years past, the program started over the summer, matching two upperclassmen to six incoming freshmen. Because of what we saw as the inherent exclusivity in deciding which students get contacted by which organizations and the feedback we had received from past participants, we chose to take a risk and try something new and different. When they arrive on campus, each incoming freshman will receive a letter from ASA welcoming them to campus and introducing the organization. The Program will begin at our annual Welcome Picnic, scheduled for Saturday, September 9 from 12-4pm. In addition to free food and a performance, this Picnic will feature a series of ice breakers and team-building activities that we have billed "The Noodle Bowl." Each team will feature upperclassman Big Sibs who will lead a team of freshman Lil Sibs through this series of events. Our intention is to build bonds that will last beyond the first month of school through friendly competition. If you would like to be a Big Sib, please e-mail Sophia Yang at sy6@duke.edu and please attend this Welcome Picnic/Noodle Bowl to get acquainted with the new freshmen class. See you soon!

Sincerely,

Sophia Yang
VP of Community Relations
sy6@duke.edu

**********

3. LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) General Interest Meeting

Tuesday, September 5th at 7:30 pm in McClendon Media Room (WEL)

LiNK stands for Liberty in North Korea. It is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-ethnic and non-religious group formed in pursuit of the following mission statement:

To educate the world about North Korea.
To advocate for human rights, political and religious freedom, and humanitarian aid for North Korea.
To empower citizens of the world to take effective action and make a difference.
To bring together and support existing NGOs and other organizations working to achieve the same ends.
To tell the world the truth.

LiNK was founded on March 27, 2004, at the Eighteenth Annual Korean American Students Conference, held at Yale University, in New Haven, CT. It was created first to educate Korean American students throughout the nation about the sufferings of the North Korean people and the political context in which they are situated.

Since then, it has grown to encompass much more. It is no longer limited to Korean Americans, or students for that matter. It has in fact grown to include people of all walks in life, of all ethnic and religious backgrounds, and all parts of the globe, all pressing for the same cause- liberty for the North Korean people.

LiNKÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s objectives are two-pronged. First, it is to press for more education and awareness about the North Korean human rights crisis, and itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s causes and consequences. To this end, LiNK has and continues to organize numerous lectures, teach-ins, screenings, forums, conferences and seminars, as well as hold public demonstrations and exhibitions using unconventional forms of education- art, media, music, dance, sport, etc.

Second, it is to take that awareness and use it in action to promote real and meaningful progress and resolution to the crisis. Working closely with governments, NGOs, coalitions and activists on both sides of the Pacific, LiNK today has close working relationships with groups on the frontlines of human rights activism both in North Korea and China.

A major priority is also helping those refugees who have crossed the border from North Korea into China, many of whom remain in hiding, estimates in the hundreds of thousands. LiNK maintains underground orphanages for North Korean children in China, and works closely with partners in supporting shelters for abandoned children and trafficked women in particular.

Please come join our team and help bring Liberty in North Korea!

**********

4. Join Team HBV In Fighting Against Silent Epidemic

ATTENTION pre-meds or anyone interested in global health and health disparities:

Did you know that ONE THIRD of the world's population has been infected by the hepatitis B virus (HBV)? Did you know that one person dies every 30 seconds of HBV, and that there are over 250-300 million Asians who are infected for life? Even though HBV is 100 times more infectious than HIV/AIDS, we do not hear anything about it on the news!

Hepatitis B is not just a problem in the developing world. Over 1 in 10 Asian Americans are infected with chronic HBV, but the minority status of Asians means that this problem is grossly overlooked in the United States.

Because there are usually no symptoms associated with HBV, many people do not even know that they are infected until they develop liver cancer. Even today, the 5-year survival rate for liver cancer is a miserable 9%.

Fortunately, HBV is detectable by a simple blood test and treatable to reduce the damage of liver scarring and liver cancer. Also, the HBV vaccine, known as the world's first anti-cancer vaccine, is almost 100% effective at protecting an individual for life! There is no reason why one person has to die every 30 seconds from this vaccine-preventable disease.

Come join Team HBV in the international fight against hepatitis B and liver cancer this SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9th, at 2PM in OSAF (first door on the right when entering Bryan Center from the Plaza). The goal of Team HBV is (1) to raise awareness of the disproportionately high incidence of HBV and liver cancer in the Asian community through outreach programs; (2) to promote the international Jade Ribbon Campaign to vaccinate and educate Asian communities in the U.S. and China through global advocacy; and (3) to strengthen support for the National HBV Bill in Congress to help eliminate this racial health disparity through political outreach.

We are interviewing for 3 vice presidents and a treasurer/webmaster. No previous knowledge of HBV is required, but passion and enthusiasm is a must.

Please come to the info session on Saturday to learn more about how to be a Team HBV leader.

For more information about Team HBV, please feel free to contact Jian Zheng at jyz4@duke.edu.

Sincerely,

Jian Zheng
President/Founder of Team HBV

**********

5. Triangle Asian/Asian-American Health Fair

A message from the coordinator

It's with great pride that we bring to the Triangle area the first Asian American Health Fair, free and open to the public, on September 10, 2006, from 11 AM to 4 PM.

A dozen physicians and health care professionals will discuss diabetes, cancer, health care access, liver disease and other topics of relevance to Asian Americans, 35 national and local organizations including the American Heart Association, National Kidney Foundation, Philippine Nurses Association, and Interact of Wake County will provide information in English and Asian languages, and other groups will demonstrate Tai Chi and healthful practices.

All this is free at the Laurel Hills Recreation Center, 3808 Edwards Mill Road, Raleigh, NC 27612. This location is on the road that stretches from the RBC Center to Crabtree Valley Mall, one mile from the mall. For details, see www.TriangleAsianHealthFair2006.kitonics.com

Some of the exhibitors that might be of interest to Duke student to be involved in include Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association, the number of local Asian American Society to join and network in the Triangle area with, numerous medical and professional speakers to make contacts with, fun interactive demos to check out. Being part of this Asian American Health fair will be a wonderful and rewarding experience as this is something different than a lot of other Asian student led projects. If interested in being a volunteer, please sign up at this web address: http://naaap-nc.org/Events.do?id=3536 or email me at lieon.kit@duke.edu. Thank you for your interest in helping make this a wonderful event."

**********

6. Triangle Asian American Music Festival

NAAAP North Carolina presents the Triangle Asian American Music Festival for the benefit of The Asia Society's International Education Programs for North Carolina High Schools

The North Carolina Chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) proudly presents a music festival of local Asian American musicians who will perform at Durham's Broad Street Cafe on September 9, Saturday, at 8 PM. Doors open at 7 PM. The concert will host a diverse range of musical styles and genres including classical and contemporary music, rock, jazz, pop, and Asian folk music from India, China and Japan.

Proceeds from this charity fundraiser concert will go to benefit the Asia Society, a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization which provides funding and support for North Carolina high schools that provide an international education focus, greater American understanding of Asia, and opportunities for learning Asian languages. The Asia Society established the first national network of urban secondary schools devoted to international studies and world languages. The model schools within the International Studies Schools Network (ISSN) provides a rigorous, engaging education for low-income and minority students to prepare them for college, the changing workforce, and a lifetime of learning.

Featured performers will include classical pianist Mayron Tsong, classical pianist Alice Tien (with violist Petra Berenyi), sitarist Sudha Iyer (with Nikhil Tikekar), acoustic rocker Sam Go, modern jazz band Pulsar Triyo, Dan Tan, folk/pop musician Lisa Furukawa, and more. The emcee will be TV anchor/reporter Renee Chou. There will also be a silent art auction featuring works by local artists.

The Asian American Music Festival will be held on Sept. 9, Saturday evening, at the Broad Street Cafe on 1116 Broad St, Durham, near the corner of Broad & Club Blvd, across from the School of Science & Math.

Tickets are now available for purchase! To purchase online, please click below.

Online ticket price will be $6.49 each. Tickets will be held at will-call; please present an ID or a copy of your email receipt at the door.

The Music Festival website will be available on www.taamf.com.

For details and sponsorship/volunteer/performance opportunities, please contact the organizers: Lisa Furukawa, Alice Tien, Jessie Chen, Julia Yip, Hector Javier, and David Yang.

NAAAP is showcasing local Asian American talents to celebrate the increasing contributions of Asian Americans to our cultural life, both here and overseas.

Other musicians of Asian descent in the US have included nationally well-known names such as Norah Jones, Yo Yo Ma, Michelle Branch, Enrique Iglesias, Midori Goto, Vienna Teng, and members of Linkin' Park, Van Halen, and Black Eyed Peas.

Asian Americans such as Utada Hikaru, Coco Lee and Jasmine Trias have become music stars in Asia.

The National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) is the largest and fastest growing Asian American professional organization with representation in over 25 cities across the continental U.S. and Canada. Its mission is to develop future leaders through professional development, cultural awareness and community service. For more information about NAAAP and the North Carolina Chapter, go to http://www.naaap-nc.org.

Date: 09/09/06
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Broad Street Cafe
Address: 1116 Broad St, Durham, NC
Landmark:
Directions: near the corner of Broad & Club Blvd, across from the School of Science & Math

For more information, email Lisa Furukawa Ray, Alice Tien, Jessie Chen. To RSVP, simply RSVP Online below or return to the homepage.

**********

7. aKDPhi: DukeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Asian Sorority Bubble Tea Meet 'n Greet (Sunday, September 10th 3-5pm @ 204 Alexander B)

My name is Cindy Zhang, and I'm the Vice President of External Affairs of the Duke Chapter of alpha Kappa Delta Phi National Sorority, Inc., an Asian American interest sorority that was established on campus at the end of last semester. We are having a Bubble Tea Meet 'n Greet on Sunday, September 10, 2006 from 3-5pm at 204 Alexander B. We would like to invite the members of ASA to come meet the sisters of aKDPhi. Thank you very much!

Best Regards,
Cindy Zhang
**********

8. The Violent Underground

The tunnels of Cu Chi played a critical role in North VietnamÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s war effort, and were possibly an inspiration for Hezbollah's bunker system. Today, they are a tourist draw.

By Kevin Sites, Sun Aug 27, 10:34 PM ET

Editor's note: Though Vietnam is not an active conflict, Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone believes it is important to examine the impact of the Vietnam War. In this series, we'll feature the perspective of civilians and soldiers, Vietnamese and Americans, to reflect on Vietnam's past and present.

CU CHI, Vietnam - When U.S. troops first deployed in large numbers to Vietnam in the mid-1960s, one of the first steps of the Army's 25th Division was to build a large base in the Cu Chi District.

They hoped to counter the strength and influence of the Viet Cong or VC (Vietnamese communists allied with the north) in the region, who were in easy striking distance of Saigon only 60 kilometers away.

But it wasn't until many weeks later that the Army realized they had built the camp on top of part of the Viet Cong's underground tunnel network Ã¢â‚¬â€ allowing VC to pop up from camouflaged hatches inside the American perimeter and attack them while they slept. It was if they had set up their tents on the mounds of stinging ants.

At Cu Chi, visitors can explore the Viet Cong tunnels.

Having difficulty finding and fighting the VC in their elaborate tunnel network that spider-webbed through the countryside for 200 kilometers, the U.S. began using chemicals like the infamous herbicide, Agent Orange, to defoliate the area.

When that failed, they began sending soldiers called "tunnel rats" into the underground network to find and destroy the VC, but more often than not, it was the tunnel rats who ended up dead.

Toward the end of the 1960s the U.S. carpet-bombed the region with B-52s, destroying almost everything in the district Ã¢â‚¬â€ including most of the tunnels. By that time it was too late. The tunnels had already done their job, including helping to facilitate the 1968 Tet Offensive, which many historians believe turned the tide of the war.

But the legacy of the tunnels has not just been relegated to the history books. Intelligence analysts familiar with the military tactics of Hezbollah say the guerrilla group studied the VC tunnel network in creating their own bunker system in south Lebanon and used it successfully against the

Israel Defense Forces during the recent conflict.

Today, the tunnels of Cu Chi have become one of the most popular tourist destinations near Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon).

A tourist brochure inviting visitors to the site reads, "in order that you understand how arduous and protracted the struggle was, and to understand our profound aspiration for peace, independence, happiness and living a comfortable life forever."

Guides, clad in the VC's black "pajamas" and traditional conical straw hats, escort more than 400 visitors through the grounds each day, beginning with a viewing of an old black and white propaganda film Ã¢â‚¬â€ a North Vietnamese version of the newsreel, extolling the exploits of the VC fighters who used the tunnels.

In a classroom setting, the guides explain the history of the tunnels and how they were built over a period of 25 years, beginning in the late 1940s by the Viet Minh, the rebel army fighting French colonialism in Vietnam.

The early tunnels were simply bunkers hewn out of the hard red clay, with picks and straw baskets to remove the soil. The VC repaired and expanded the tunnels in an effort to fight a technically superior military force during the "American War."

They are a marvel of engineering, weaving underground for several stories and linking together living, dining and meeting areas, as well as weapons factories and subterranean hospitals, complete with operating rooms.

But perhaps their most significant function was to allow the VC to coordinate their operations in the south, both by utilizing surprise attacks then disappearing underground, while also inserting agents and saboteurs into the south.

Because of their strategic value, the entrances to the tunnels were well-protected both by camouflage and booby traps.

Guides explain the intricacy of the Cu Chi tunnels and some of the Viet Cong's booby traps.

A tour guide nicknamed Jackie (because he looks like Jackie Chan, he says) pulls up the lid of one of the well-concealed wooden hatches to a small hideaway. It fits perfectly flush with a square-framed box, sealing out rain water. Surprisingly, when Jackie kicks dirt and leaves over the top, it disappears.

"When the U.S. soldier opens," he says, "it is very narrow, he cannot enter."

*************

9. Why a Racial "Survivor" Is a Good Thing

Reality show gimmick will force conversation and maybe show that skin color doesn't matter.
By Tony Pierce, TONY PIERCE is the editor of LAist.com.

August 26, 2006
WHO KNEW A stupid game show could launch a race war?

That's what nervous pundits and politicians from coast to coast are saying about the decision by the reality hit "Survivor" to divide this fall season's 20 contestants into four competing groups (or "tribes") Ã¢â‚¬â€ whites, blacks, Latinos and Asians.

"This could get ugly," warned a San Diego Union-Tribune columnist. New York City Council members said they'd launch a boycott. One Arkansas paper ran the headline: "Race wars are coming to a TV near you."

First, unless four white cops get caught on videotape billy-clubbing a black man, and then all get let off the hook, television has little or no power to inspire racial violence. Second, Americans don't rise up for anything nowadays, or else people would be rioting over unleaded being $3 a gallon and the president continuing a war most of us oppose. And third, dividing "Survivor" into ethnic tribes is more likely to keep people off the streets and in their homes watching TV, where they ought to be.

"I can't decide if the producers are completely naive and clueless or completely soulless," Lisa Navarrete, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, told the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram.

Well, am I naive to think that, if everyone actually works well together, it might dispel many of the stereotypes that critics seem so sure will spring up? Do I too have no "soul" because I find it entertaining when some of the widespread ignorance surrounding different cultures (including my own) bubbles to the surface?

One reason for the outrage is that critics don't actually know how "Survivor" works.

Each tribe doesn't literally beat up their competitors Ã¢â‚¬â€ they square off in puzzle-solving games or obstacle courses or tests of endurance, like standing on a beam for the longest amount of time. Unless one desperate dude on a pole drops the N-bomb to distract his opponent, it's difficult to see how race would even come into the game until the second half of the season, when the tribes all merge into one. And even then, the way to win is not by hurling slurs but by getting along with your new tribe and otherwise laying low, as the troublemakers and superstars almost inevitably get voted off.

In "Survivor," if there's going to be any hate going on for the first half of the season, it will be self-hate, as the tribes get to learn all the little irritating things about one another rather than focus on the contestants they don't see very often. It's not the person with the different skin color, it's the guy on your team who eats the last scoop of rice, or that other guy who doesn't seem to ever work around the camp, or the alpha leader who runs around shouting orders.

This stage of the show is where you might see the Japanese American dig at the Korean American (helping people understand that not all "Asians" are the same), or the Mexican American diss the Cuban, who'd probably be put out at being called "Latino" anyway. (Though nine of the 20 contestants are from L.A., so the odds are more likely that they'll all reminisce about which Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf they miss the most.)

What tribal "Survivor" has a real chance of showing us is how much race isn't an issue when it comes to the bare necessities of living on an island for 39 days; how much race is an issue when talk show hosts want to artificially spice up their debates; and that teamwork, communication and trust are the foundation of great teams, not skin color.

The tribal switch is also interesting because it's mass-marketing genius. With specialized narrowcasting geared to ever-smaller pockets of viewers (apparently it's OK to have channels for gays or Cambodians or golfing fanatics, as long as they don't compete on the same show), CBS is trying to create a program appealing to the widest amount of people, especially viewers who have grown weary of the same-ol' same-ol'. They will tune in to root for (or even against) their "race." Take that, World Cup!

Any stupid game show that can get tens of millions of people to talk about serious issues that affect us all (especially if we're uncomfortable bringing it up) should be praised, not scorned. Unless, of course, a white male wins the million bucks, then looks into the camera during the live finale and mumbles something about a master race.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 23:56:02 GMT

ASA Weekly Digest - 08.27.06

Here it goes again...good luck everyone.

1. ASA September Events
2. Call for Big Sibs
3. House Course - Lost in Translation: Asians in America
4. [South End Press] Transracial Adoption
5. [AP] Filipinos Vie for Seat in US House
6. Southeast Regional Conference of Asian American Leaders
7. [BBC] Third of China 'Hit By Acid Rain'

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1. ASA SEPTEMBER EVENTS

Activities Fair
Friday, September 1, 4-6pm
BC Plaza

ASA Welcome Picnic: The Noodle Bowl
Saturday, September 2, 12-4pm
East Campus Gazebo

ASA First General Body Meeting
Monday, September 4, 8pm
Marketplace, Upper East Side

ASA Calligraphy Event
Wednesday, September 6
Location and Time TBD

ASA 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament
Saturday, September 9, 9am
Card Gym

Triangle Asian/Asian-American Health Fair
Sunday, September 10, 11am-4pm
Laurel Hills Community Center in Raleigh
www.TriangleAsianHealthFair2006.kitonics.com

ASA Myrtle Beach Retreat
Friday September 15-17
Tickets for sale starting September 11

Women in the Americas Film Series: "Saving Face"
Tuesday, September 19
Griffith Film Theater

Stay tuned for more.

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2. CALL FOR BIG SIBS

Hi everybody,

I hope everybody has had a great, relaxing summer. Another year is about to start, and this year, you will hopefully see some positive changes in ASA. One of the biggest changes that the executive board decided to make this year is a revamping of the Big Sib/Lil Sib Program. In years past, the program started over the summer, matching two upperclassmen to six incoming freshmen. Because of what we saw as the inherent exclusivity in deciding which students get contacted by which organizations and the feedback we had received from past participants, we chose to take a risk and try something new and different. When they arrive on campus, each incoming freshman will receive a letter from ASA welcoming them to campus and introducing the organization. The Program will begin at our annual Welcome Picnic, scheduled for Saturday, September 2 from 12-4pm. In addition to free food and a performance, this Picnic will feature a series of ice breakers and team-building activities that we have billed "The Noodle Bowl." Each team will feature upperclassman Big Sibs who will lead a team of freshman Lil Sibs through this series of events. Our intention is to build bonds that will last beyond the first month of school through friendly competition. If you would like to be a Big Sib, please e-mail Sophia Yang at sy6@duke.edu and please attend this Welcome Picnic/Noodle Bowl to get acquainted with the new freshmen class. See you soon!

Sincerely,
Sophia Yang
VP of Community Relations
sy6@duke.edu

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3. HOUSE COURSE - LOST IN TRANSLATION: ASIANS IN AMERICA

This house course is currently filled, but the instructors are seeking to make room for 3 more students. Contact Laura at xb7@duke.edu, with any questions.

HOUSECOURSE 79.01â€”** Lost in Translation: Asians in America*

Are you pre-med? Oh, maybe an engineer? Twinkie/Coconut. You act too black. Oh, youâ€™re one of the cool Asians. Are your eyes open? Do your parents run a convenience store? I know [Asian-sounding name], do you know him/her? Where are you from? I mean where are your parents from? You Asians, you all look the same anyway.

Asian/Pacific Islander is the fastest growing racial minority group in the United States. According to Duke University Undergraduate Admissions, 25.4% of the Class of 2010 is classified as Asian, Asian-American or Pacific Islander. By US standards, about one-third of the world population classifies as â€œAsianâ€. There have been several waves of Asian immigration in the United States, introducing generations of vastly different identities into, and thus constantly reshaping, the Asian Diaspora. It is a population with conflicts from the outside and within. Many have one foot in the United States and another half-way across the world. In this â€œmulticulturalâ€ country of ever increasing diversity, where do Asians fit in?

In this class we will explore the Asian identity and its role in the United States. What does it mean to be Asian/Asian American? How do we perceive ourselves and how do others perceive us? Who is our voice and what should they say? Should there even be a voice? We will investigate these questions, and more, using history, popular culture, the media, politics and our own experiences to bring light to these issues. Finally, we will wrap up the class by bringing it all back home and looking at the Asian presence at Duke.

**********

4. [SOUTH END PRESS] TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION

South End Press Announces

Transracial Adoption: It's Not Just About White Parents
Cambridge, MA - Aug 17, 2006

In today's New York Times the frontpage headline "Breaking Through Adoption's Racial Barriers" introduces an in-depth article about white Americans who have--or are looking to--adopt children of color. But in the inches devoted to the "growing number of white couples pushing past longtime cultural resistance to adopt black children," we find a series of unasked questions: Why are the so many children of color available for adoption in the first place, both in the US and abroad? How does transracial adoption affect adopted children of color--and their communities? Here and elsewhere, the voices of transracially adopted individuals fall to the margins, voices that are essential to a genuine understanding of this complex issue.

What's missing?

Jeni Wright paints some of the missing picture with her words: "I lean over the sink so my nose is almost touching the glass and mouth to the ugly girl staring back, you look like an ugly African bush girl, over and over until my breath clouds over my face. I start to write 'jungle bunny' in the steam but I am crying too hard to finish. Why hadn't anyone told me I was so ugly? I don't even look like a real girl" (Outsiders Within, 27).

The difficulties of transracial adoption go far beyond self-esteem, far beyond cultural literacy, infinitely deeper than individual discomfort. As Kim Diehl writes in Outsiders Within, transracial adoption is inextricable from long-standing power imbalances that extend from the personal to the institutional. "I did not have any power in the decision to seal my records; I did not have any power in the decision to take federal money away from social service programs that might have prevented family breakup; I did not have any power in the decision to make it a child placement agency policy to ignore race; I did not have any power to keep from being the physical embodiment of a political process that stamped its approval on transracial adoptions in a country founded on the enslavement and oppression of people of color" (32).

Also entirely overlooked is the harm incurred before each transracial adoption ever took place. As Shannon Gibney, a biracial black adult adoptee, puts it, "Once again, the focus is all on the white adoptive parents, and their pain. Once again, adoptees are presented as objects, as children who apparently never grow up, and therefore do not have the capacity to analyze the geopolitical issues that have shaped their identities. Once again, we don't hear the voices of birth parents or adult adoptees." Gibney goes on, "As this article presents it, the only people who are really affected by adoption are white adoptive parents and agencies."

Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption tells a different story. Where the Times reports "More than 45,000 black children were waiting to be adopted from foster care in 2004," contributor Dorothy Roberts explains that the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, passed to "break through adoption's racial barriers" has resulted in more black children being permanently severed from their families, adding to the growing list of waiting children. Sure, more white families have access to black children. But at what cost? People are led to believe that because more white families can adopt, that means more black children will have families. The opposite is true.

In reality, there are now more black children than ever who will never have a family, stuck permanently in foster care limbo. As the Times reports "in 2004 ... about 4,200 [black children from foster care] were adopted transracially ... up from roughly 14 percent, or 2,200 in 1998." In other words, of the 45,000 black children then needing homes because, under federal mandate, the state permanently severed them from them their families of origin (often including grandparents willing and able to care for them), white people adopted 9 percent. The Times quotes Rita Simons, a leading advocate of white adoption of children of color, as saying that this "is a significant increase," even though what has increased most significantly is the private adoption of black infants placed immediately for adoption, not the adoption of children who have been removed from their former homes for legitimate reasons, let alone the legions removed for the number one reason black, Latino, and Native American children are removed--poverty. Writes Roberts, "the number of white families adopting older children of color, those most 'in need' of adoptive homes, remains very low. These children are most likely to be adopted by single Black women" (Outsiders Within, 53).

Advocates of transracial adoption frame the debate as one that is about the rights of black children to homes, and making it possible for white parents to provide them. As Outsiders Within reveals, the issue is far more complex.

*About Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption

Healthy white infants have become hard to locate and expensive to adopt. So people from around the world turn to interracial and intercountry adoption, often with the idea that while growing their families, they're saving children from destitution. But as Outsiders Within reveals, while transracial adoption is a practice traditionally considered benevolent, it often exacts a heavy emotional, cultural, and even economic toll.

Through compelling essays, fiction, poetry, and art, the contributors to this landmark publication carefully explore this most intimate aspect of globalization. Finally, in the unmediated voices of the adults who have matured within it, we find a rarely-considered view of adoption, an institution that pulls apart old families and identities and grafts new ones.

Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption

Jane Jeong Trenka, Julia Chinyere Oparah, and Sun Yung Shin, editors
(South End Press, 2006)

About South End Press

South End Press is a nonprofit, collectively run book publisher with more than 250 titles in print. Since our founding in 1977, we have tried to meet the needs of readers who are exploring, or are already committed to, the politics of radical social change.

Website:
http://www.southendpress.org

**********

5. [AP] FILIPINOS VIE FOR SEAT IN US HOUSE

Filipinos vie for seat in U.S. House
By MARK NIESSE, Associated Press Writer
Sat Aug 19, 3:16 AM ET

The following is an excerpt. To access the full article, visit http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060819/ap_on_el_ho/filipinos_congress

HONOLULU - Two Filipino-Americans are struggling against long odds and a crowded field of candidates â€” including each other â€” to become the first member of Congress from one of the nation's largest immigrant groups.

Filipino organizations nationwide are pushing for either state Sen. Ron Menor or Honolulu Councilman Nestor Garcia to win the Democratic primary in Hawaii's 2nd District.

In a race with 10 Democrats, both Menor and Garcia are hoping to gain an advantage by pulling votes from Hawaii's 275,000 residents who claim Filipino ancestry. The winner of the Sept. 23 Democratic primary is heavily favored to take the seat.

But both Filipino-American candidates face a difficult road to the House.

While no candidate has emerged as a clear front-runner, four of the Democrats in the race had raised more money than Menor or Garcia as of July 31. The winner in the Nov. 7 general election would replace Rep. Ed Case (news, bio, voting record), who is trying to take the Senate seat of fellow Democrat Daniel Akaka.

More Filipinos immigrated to the United States in 2003 than citizens of any other country except Mexico and India, according to immigration statistics. About 2.4 million Americans identified their ancestry as Filipino in the 2000 Census, more than several other national groups that have been represented in Congress for years, including Hawaiians and Japanese.

Most of the nation's Filipino-Americans live in California, Washington, New York and Hawaii.

"The pulse of the Filipino community is that they're really looking at it now," said Lynne Gutierrez, president of the Oahu Filipino Community Council. "They're really into it."

Several previous Americans who trace their roots to the former U.S. colony in Southeast Asia have sought and failed to win seats in Congress, including California's Gloria Ochoa, West Virginia's Jon Amores and Tennessee's Lupo "Sonny" Carlota.

That could change if Filipinos across the United States are able to unite behind Menor or Garcia, said Jon Melegrito, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based National Federation of Filipino American Associations, which is holding its national convention in Hawaii next month.

On the Net:
National Association of Filipino American Associations: http://www.naffaa.org

The above was an excerpt. To access the full article, visit http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060819/ap_on_el_ho/filipinos_congress

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6. SOUTHEAST REGIONAL CONFERENCE OF ASIAN AMERICAN LEADERS

------ Forwarded Message
From: SERCAAL AASU <sercaal2006@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 19:37:00 -0400
To: <sercaal2006@gmail.com>
Subject: Southeast Regional Conference of Asian American Leaders is Coming!!

Hello Everyone!!

The 3rd annual Southeast Regional Conference of Asian American Leaders will be hosted at the University of Florida on November 9th -11th 2006. We would like to send out an invitation to all Asian American groups in the Southeastern United States to participate in this conference. The SERCAAL conference specifically focuses on a new generation of emerging Asian American leaders who cultivate leadership, advocacy, and education. Our theme this year is to "Ignite the Evolution within," which will be showcased through performances and workshops by artists, peers, and renowned Asian American speakers about activism, leadership, issues, and identity that our communities are currently facing.

Come join us in a unique opportunity to listen to and meet APIA activists from different areas, to build a network of Asian American leaders who share the same interests and passions to be educated and make change. Take a chance to get to know yourself a little betterâ€¹be educated on how to better your life, your campus, and your community. Come with a goal to leave with the ability to make more positive change within your own communities.

For more and updated information about the conference, check out our website at www.sercaal.org . The site is currently under construction and will continue to be updated, so visit regularly!

If you have any other questions, please contact the PR's Yennie Tse, at *yennietse@yahoo.com*<http://us.f524.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=yennietse@yahoo.com>, cell phone (352) 870-4139, or Sasha Muradali, at *sashahalima@gmail.com*<http://us.f524.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=sashahalima@gmail.com>. The contact information for the SERCAAL co-directors are: Kir-Sheng Chen, *kchen086@gmail.com*<http://us.f524.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=kchen086@gmail.com>and Sandy Le, *sandy.le@gmail.com*<http://us.f524.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=sandy.le@gmail.com>. You can also email *SERCAAL2006@gmail.com *. We look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
SERCAAL Committee
SERCAAL 2006
University of Florida
October 9-11, 2006
www.sercaal.org

--
SERCAAL 2006
(Southeast Regional Conference of Asian American Leaders)
"Ignite the Evolution Within"
http://www.sercaal.org

------ End of Forwarded Message

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7. [BBC] THIRD OF CHINA 'HIT BY ACID RAIN'

Third of China 'hit by acid rain'

The following is an excerpt. To access the full article, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/5290236.stm

One third of China is suffering from acid rain caused by rapid industrial growth, an official report quoted by the state media says.

Pollution levels have risen and air quality has deteriorated, the report found. This comes despite a pledge by the authorities to clean up the air.

In the latest incident, a reservoir serving 100,000 people in north-west China was polluted by a chemical spill.

China has some of the world's most polluted cities and rivers.

The pollution inspection report to the standing committee of parliament found that 25.5 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide were spewed out, mainly from the country's coal-burning factories last year - up 27% from 2000.

Emissions of sulphur dioxide - the chemical that causes acid rain - were double the safe level, the report said. In some areas, rainfall was 100% acid rain, it added.

"Increased sulphur dioxide emissions meant that one-third of China's territory was affected by acid rain, posing a major threat to soil and food safety," Sheng Huaren of the standing committee, was quoted by state media as saying.

Caustic soda

Local governments were accused of overlooking environmental regulations in the rush for economic development.

"It is especially worrying that most local governments base economic growth on energy consuming industries, disregarding the environment's capacity to sustain industrial expansion," Mr Sheng said.

The above was an excerpt. To access the full article, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/5290236.stm

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