After addressing the issues affecting college admissions and Asian American students, we turned our attention to an event occurring at Amherst College where an article about a movement called “Amherst Doesn’t Teach Me” was published concerning how the college does not address Asian Americans in its teaching.
We began by considering whether Middlebury is similar with regard to its curriculum. In considering this question, one member noted that they had heard about classes which discussed Asian Americans but only emphasized their struggles, not their successes which they viewed as problematic. Another student said that they are taking a class on Asian American history which has been a very positive influence on their time at Middlebury, but still feels that more can be done in teaching from Asian American authors themselves. The question of Asian professors also emerged, and many students said that they had not had an Asian professor who was not a language teacher. One student said that they felt that this can be very positive in creating a more comfortable environment in class and in office hours for Asian American students. We then turned to asking Amherst’s same question to consider what Middlebury does not teach us. Here are some of the responses: -Migration patterns of Asian Americans throughout history -Asian American involvement in activism and political activity today -Ethnic Studies -Asian Studies beyond East Asia -Challenging assumptions about Asian Americans -Courses in Southeast Asian culture This is the Amherst article: http://amherststudent.amherst.edu/?q=article/2018/04/15/amherst-doesn’t-teach-me”-speaks-asian-american-identities
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On April 9 during our weekly meeting, we discussed affirmative action, its impact on Asian Americans, and mismatch theory. Many of us expressed our concerns in competing statistically with other Asian Americans based on what we had heard about affirmative action. Despite this, the consensus at the end of the meeting seemed to be one favoring the practice. We were especially convinced by one opinion piece written by Marie Myung-Ok Lee for NBC news which argued that we should reframe our thinking about affirmative action. They argue that elite admissions systems should not be seen as not attempting to keep elite Asian students out of competitive universities, but rather attempting to preserve space for mediocre white students. Many of us noted that we were especially convinced with their analysis of sports recruiting and legacy admissions (which are more likely to be taken advantage of by white students).
We then touched on “mismatch theory” which posits that affirmative action is harmful insofar as it results in underqualified students being placed in competitive environments for which they are not prepared. This was brought to our attention by the invitation of Richard Sander, one of the most prominent scholars on this issue, to speak at Middlebury. The first question was whether this theory represented a kind of racist thought on the part of its proponents. Early in the discussion, one member noted that the pool of qualified applicants is larger than those admitted, obviously leaving many qualified applicants on the table. Another member applied this to mismatch theory. It seemed to them that when applying affirmative action, colleges are not pulling up academically inferior students, but rather students who were qualified but may have been left on the table. If this is the case, mismatches would not occur. That this was not taken into account seems to suggest some assumptions about minority groups who benefit from affirmative action. We did not have time to delve into why and how Sander’s statistics differed from this theory, nor Sander’s comments on legacy students. This is the reading from the discussion including the op-ed referenced in the first paragraph. If you missed us this week we hope you can come join us soon! https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/asian-americans-rejected-harvard-need-resist-anti-affirmative-action-narrative-ncna863496 https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/06/politics/harvard-admissions-lawsuit/index.html https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/the-needlessly-polarized-mismatch-theory-debate/420321/ https://middleburycampus.com/38111/news/mismatch-theory-creator-to-speak/ |
Kenzo OkazakiI am the secretary of ASIA and run our weekly discussion. Every week I write a summary of what we talked about here in case you couldn't make it. Please feel free to add your thoughts in writing! Suggest your ideas here:https://goo.gl/forms/ByzS0nlYoFyPz1W43
Suggest snacks herehttps://goo.gl/forms/GW7nZSGtmVnEpIBD2
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