We, the members of CRAASH, the Coalition for the Revitalization of Asian American Studies at Hunter College, demand Hunter College:

• implement an Asian American Studies Major/Department

• create hiring lines for five full-time Asian American Studies faculty

• increase funding for the the newly created Asian American Studies Major & Department

• disaggregate data on Asian/Asian American Hunter students to properly assess different needs

• provide financial scholarships for Asian/Asian American students in critical needs, especially low-income/undocumented/LGBTQ students

The Asian American Studies Program (AASP) has remained a thriving academic asset of Hunter College for over two decades. Ever since its inception in 1993, the AASP, with steady enrollment and dedicated faculty, has grown into an interdisciplinary program that offers more Asian American Studies courses than any other university in New York City. However, the AASP remains unsustainable in its current state due to a lack of a tenure-track director, full-time faculty, and other resources, severely limiting the program's ability to support students.

Our campaign, which launched in 2016, coincides with the tenth anniversary of CRAASH, an Asian American student group at Hunter College, which was founded in 2006 to organize against the Hunter College administration’s attempt to defund and eliminate the AASP. After a decade of successful programming and enrollment by the AASP and consistent organizing by CRAASH, we, the students, remain dissatisfied with the continued lack of administrative support and recognition for the Program.

With a student body comprised of 30% Asians and located in New York City, which currently has the largest urban Asian population in the U.S., Hunter College has an obligation to engage with issues relevant to Asian Americans. In addition, Hunter College, a public university, is housed within the City University of New York (CUNY) system, which serves largely commuter, working-class students. Six out of the twenty-four CUNY campuses also contain student bodies with over 25% Asians/Asian Americans. We believe the time has now come for Hunter College to set a historical precedent by establishing the first Asian American Studies Major and Department in CUNY.

The demand for an AAS Major and Department has been demonstrated by the increasing number of students who have chosen to minor in Asian American Studies. In the last year alone, approximately 50 students chose to minor in Asian American Studies, and the program continues to be bolstered by widespread support from impassioned students, faculty, and community organizations throughout New York City.

Our urgent need to expand the program into a major comes at a time where there is a strong climate for student change. From the protests at the University of Missouri, to the successful campaign for an AAS Major at Northwestern University, to the demands for a more anti-racist institution from the students at the Silberman School of Social Work within Hunter College/CUNY, the current landscape of student movements inform our need to work in conjunction with students at universities across the country.

In a time of heightened xenophobia, Islamophobia and racism, we demand that Hunter College provides the adequate resources and academic spaces to combat against this surge in violence and promote a culture of collaboration and awareness. In addition to serving Asian American students, Asian American Studies is one of the few spaces on campus where encouraging free thought, opinion, and critical thinking around issues of race, migration, gender, and intersectionality occurs.

Hunter Alumni, who have graduated either as AAS minors or have taken AAS courses, provide ample testimonies on how the AASP was an indispensable part of their academic life at Hunter. They also testified on how the lack of an AAS Major/Department, including the lack of tenured full-time faculty, has negatively impacted their current range of professional and academic opportunities.

Since the launch of our campaign, the following events have taken place:

• President Raab announced that the AASP would be moved out of the School of the Arts and Sciences into the Office of the Provost as an "Asian American Studies Center" without any notice or consultation from AASP faculty or students

• The current director of the AASP was not reappointed two days after securing a $1.7M DoE grant for high-need Asian Pacific American students

• President Raab held an "Asian American breakfast" to discuss the creation of the new center without inviting AASP students, the current AASP director, or any faculty who currently teach in the AASP

• In response to pushback from students, administration informed students that they would move forward with the new center, with or without student support

The administration's approach to create this center demonstrates disregard for:

• the academic integrity of Asian American Studies

• faculty governance

• student engagement

• institutional transparency and communication

We object the abuse of administrative power and process by which the program is being restructured. We stand by our demands for an Asian American Studies Major/Department. The reasons for growth are clear, ranging from student demand to additional critical scholarship to changing demographics and consequent needs for an increasingly diverse student body. Student demands and needs for an Asian American Studies Department/Major and consequent provisions to ensure a purposeful and enriching department are long overdue. We organize for our educational rights as students and members of the CUNY community! We demand that the administration fulfills its responsibility to provide a holistic and diverse curriculum for its equally diverse CUNY student body! CRAASH has been here for ten years and is here to stay until the Hunter College administration meets our demands and implements a sustainable and prominent Asian American Studies Department.