Press Release: May 2005 - APA Community Groups meet with WSU
A dozen Asian Pacific American community groups met with Washington State University President Lane V. Rawlins, V-P for Equity and Diversity Michael Tate and three members of the Board of Regents over the controversy surrounding racial harassment incidents and unfair treatment of Asian Pacific Americans at the Pullman campus.
“We had a frank and open discussion over a number of important issues,” said Asian Pacific Islander Chair Diane Narasaki, who chaired the meeting. “We (API groups) were able to express our concerns to WSU, and they explained what they are trying to do make things better.”
WSU representatives acknowledged that racial problems exist at their institutions as elsewhere in society. Each Regent present - Chris Marr, Ken Alhadeff, and Board Chair Rafael Stone - as well as President Rawlins and Vice-President for Equity and Diversity Michael Tate expressed their passion and commitment for civil rights and equity. President Rawlins noted, nevertheless, that diversity issues at WSU are more difficult than those he encountered when he worked at Memphis State because people think there are no racial problems at Pullman. However, he acknowledged the low percentage of Asian American faculty at WSU and said there was no excuse for it being low. He also said that he understood student demonstrations because he was a student at UC Berkeley in the 60s.
The group made it clear that it did not agree with the finding that the two white students did not harass the Asian American female students, that the definition for what constitutes “harassment” needs to revised, and did not like the way WSU administration handled the charges of racial harassment and the student demonstration that followed.
“You (President Rawlins) paid much more attention and concern to the accused than the victim,” said Korean Women's Association Executive Director Lua Pritchard. There was nothing said about the victim, Pritchard and other noted, when Rawlins released a statement after the student demonstration about due process for the accused and admonish the demonstrators for having posters of the accused students before they were found guilty.
State Rep. Sharon Tomiko-Santos told WSU to recognize the “intersection of race and gender,” as well as the potential for “re-victimization.”
Korean American Voters Alliance Chair Shari Song asked about the proposal for a “zero tolerance policy”, which would discipline students for acts of defamation based on race, ethnicity, gender, or national origin. WSU, Tate said, was investigating such a policy and was told that the Seattle Public Schools has had such a policy since the 1980s.
A coalition of community groups had sent a letter to Rawlins earlier expressing its support for the student demands and wanted to get from the meeting WSU's response to those demands.
Near the end of the meeting, the groups asked about three API instructors in the Department of Comparative American Studies whose re-appointments, they were told, are in jeopardy.
To underscore the community angst over the situation at WSU, President Rawlins was read a letter from Mark Okazaki about how he told his daughter not to enroll at WSU, after receiving an acceptance letter, because she may be harassed if she went there. Rawlins was also given a diploma issued to Raymond Lau, who returned it to “protest the racism at WSU.”
Rep. Tomiko-Santos closed the meeting by urging WSU to accept and utilize the offers of assistance from the API community.
“It seems that they are working on making some changes but they have a long ways to go,” said Doug Chin, president of the Organization of Chinese Americans. “They (WSU) asked the community groups to comment on the report being prepared by the Washington State Human Rights Commission task force on the situation of WSU.” The report, which is expected to include recommendations, is due June 15.
The three-hour meeting was held at Asian Counseling and Referral Services in Seattle on May 19.
OCA - GREATER SEATTLE CHAPTER