AsianWeek.com: National News: Legislation to Improve Higher Education for APAs

"I need someone who’s ambitious. And so I expect my husband to make a certain amount of money, yeah."

— Katie, APA contestant on Fox reality show Joe Millionaire, in response to a question about what she looks for in a man. She was eliminated in the second round.

POLICY MAKING

Legislation to Improve Higher Education for APAs

Congressman David Wu (D-Ore.), chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), has introduced legislation to improve higher education for APA students.

“A quality education opens doors of opportunity,” said Rep. Wu. “A high school diploma is not enough to make it in today’s economy, and I am proud to have introduced legislation to ensure that America’s colleges and universities meet the educational needs of Asian and Pacific Americans.”

Congressman Mike Honda (D-Cal.), vice chair of CAPAC, is an original co-sponsor of the bill.

“This bill is crucial for APA communities that are often overlooked in the education funding process,” said Rep. Honda. “The APA community is diverse, and contrary to popular belief, many APAs come from low-income households and must overcome great obstacles to succeed in higher education. It is time we respond by providing institutional support for these students.”

The bill, HR 333, authorizes grants for institutions of higher education that serve high numbers of APA students. The grants would be used to help schools improve and expand upon their capacity to serve APA students. Schools with an undergraduate enrollment that is at least 10 percent APA would be eligible to apply for the grants. Schools where a majority of the APA students are low-income would receive preference in grant approval.

The bill would add an APA designation to the Higher Education Act for the first time. There are currently similar provisions for colleges and universities that serve large numbers of African American and Hispanic students.

Passage of the bill would have ramifications well beyond higher education. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Health and Human Services Agency (HHS) both have extensive partnerships and outreach programs in African American, Hispanic and Native American communities. These programs are determined by designations in the Higher Education Act. Amending the Act to include Asian Pacific Americans would result in an incentive and infrastructure for federal agencies to work more effectively with APA communities.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST

Minority Enrollment at Oregon’s Universities Climbs

Minority student enrollment in Oregon’s public universities is growing, but not as fast as the growth rate in the general population. And specific campuses have had trouble attracting minority students and faculty members, while graduation rates for minorities often lag behind those of their white counterparts.

Blacks, Asians, Latinos and Native Americans made up 10,068 of the 78,111 students in the state’s seven public universities this fall, according to numbers kept by the Oregon University System. That’s about 13 percent of the total, up from about 11 percent a decade ago. But minorities are about 15 percent of the Oregon population at large, according to the 2000 Census.

“The numbers and the increases we are seeing are very positive,” said Yvette Webber-Davis, director of diversity planning for the university system. “But we cannot rest on our laurels. It’s a changing world out there, and we need to keep pace with it.”

Growth in minorities at the seven state campuses is uneven, however. Palmer Muntz, admissions director at Oregon Institute of Technology, conceded that it is hard to attract minorities to the Klamath Falls campus, which is far from most minority populations; the biggest share of OIT’s minority students is at its two branch campuses in the Portland area.

And the system of counting minorities on campus is flawed, according to University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer, slighting efforts that his campus and others have made to recruit minority students. The actual number of minorities on campus is higher than the state figures show, he said.

Students of mixed race aren’t counted as minorities under the federal student reporting categories that the state university system follows. Instead, they are lumped into a category called “unknown.”

“America is increasingly a multiethnic society,” Frohnmayer said. “The reporting system doesn’t acknowledge this. We shouldn’t be put in a federal reporting pigeon hole.”

The UO identifies 370 minority students who are of mixed background, but they are not included in the federal reporting system used by the chancellor’s office. Under the federal reporting system, the UO has about 11 percent minority enrollment; by its own, more detailed count, it has nearly 13 percent minority students, said Jim Buch, director of enrollment services.

Oregon Health & Science University, which began the decade as a state campus but finished as an independent, public corporation with some state support, had the biggest increase in minority enrollment — 142 percent. This fall, 14 percent of its students in medicine, nursing and other health fields were minorities.

Oregon State University also has pushed to attract and retain students of color. It created a minority education office five years ago to mentor and give academic advice to students of color. And, besides a staff member assigned to recruit and retain Native Americans, it has added three other minority affairs staff members — for African American, Asian American and Latino students.

Raju Woodward, a 20-year-old Oregon State sophomore who is Indian American, said it feels at times that he is surrounded by a sea of white students.

“Sometimes I feel like that,” he said. “When you are so busy in school, it is hard to find time to research groups that might support you. But I see a lot of other Asian students on campus, and that’s pretty good.”

ILLEGAL EXPORTS

California Man Arrested for Selling Missile Technology

A Cupertino, Calif. man was arrested Jan. 10 on charges he illegally exported “dual use” technology to the People’s Republic of China that could be used in missile guidance systems.

Qing Chang Jiang, also known as Frank Jiang, appeared in a San Jose federal court on charges that he sold technology that has both commercial and military applications to a company in China.

The devices in question are microwave amplifiers, sometimes used in commercial enterprise but also employed in the design of missile guidance systems.

The company where the amplifiers were delivered also has the same address as an entity of the People’s Republic of China known as “The 54th Research Institute.”

Qing was being held without bail based on the prosecutions contention that he poses a danger to his community and is a flight risk. Chief Magistrate Judge Patricia V. Trumbull set a detention hearing for Jan. 16.