Dear AAAFSC Members,
Please join us for our Spring 2022 Strategic Planning Meeting on April 20 from 4pm-5pm (virtual), where we will discuss the future of AAAFSC. During our meeting earlier this semester, the Executive Board discussed data around the numbers of Asian and Asian American faculty and staff on campus as provided in this race/ethnicity excel sheet. As a result, the Board identified some key areas of focus for AAAFSC to pursue moving forward:
Promoting Asian American faculty and staff achievements
Promoting and expanding Asian American leadership
Asking for more precision, clarity, and transparency with language around race because of how it is attached to resources. This is particularly unclear in the use of terms such as “underrepresented” or “unevenly represented” which seem to have targeted contexts.
Collecting more student data:
Asian American students broken down by college
Asian American students’s attrition/GPA/success
We welcome any feedback or additional concerns you would like to raise prior to and during the meeting as we continue the important work of supporting our Asian and Asian American community members.
We will send out a meeting reminder and link later in April. Many thanks and hope to see you there!
AAAFSC Executive Board
Dear AAAFSC Members and Allies:
Please join us on Feb 25 from 12-1:30PM, for AAAFSC’s Minor Feelings book club. If you’d like to join but do not have a copy of the book, please email tbhalla@umbc.edu to request an electronic copy.
As a follow up to our book giveaway, at this event we’ll be discussing Cathy Park Hong’s best-selling, groundbreaking, and award winning book, Minor Feelings (2020).
The book club meeting will be an open, free-flowing discussion. We want to explore together what parts of Hong’s memoir speak to us and to use the book as a springboard for reflection on Asian American identity, community, and experience.
Additionally, we are very fortunate to have Hong visit campus this semesteron March 31, 2022 as part of the Humanities Forum lectures. As part of that visit, we as a group solicit questions from book club participants that you might like her to answer.
Please feel free to share your questions here or bring them to the meeting!
We hope to see you there!
Many thanks,
The AAAFSC board: Tamara Bhalla (chair), Emily Yoon Perez (vice chair), Shuyan Sun, (member at large),Christopher Tong (member at large), Fan Yang (secretary), Liang Zhu (member at large)
AAAFSC Minor Feelings Book Club
Hosted by Tamara Bhalla
WEBEX INFO https://umbc.webex.com/umbc/j.php?MTID=m846c576c4a7e6782bec9bf5cceea3185 Friday, Feb 25, 2022 12:00 pm | 1 hour 30 minutes | (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) Meeting number: 2623 750 8714 Password: vbJm2m3tcw3 Join by video system Dial 26237508714@umbc.webex.com You can also dial 173.243.2.68 and enter your meeting number. Join by phone +1-202-860-2110 United States Toll (Washington D.C.) Access code: 262 375 08714
Dear AAAFSC Members:
Please welcome our newest board members:
Emily Yoon Perez, assistant professor in the English department will be serving as our new vice-chair.
Liang Zhu, professor in Mechanical Engineering will be serving as our new member-at-large.
I am so grateful for the new and continuing members of our board; a huge thanks to them for stepping up to the task! I am so very grateful to all who ran and hope very much that folks will keep in mind that we’ll have several open board positions in fall 2022. Please consider running! Thanks also to all of you and especially those of you who voted in the election.
We look forward to our big spring event: the Minor Feelings book club currently scheduled for February 25, from 12-1:30pm.Please save the date! It will most likely be held virtually, but details to follow! If you’d like to participate, we have the book available as PDF and there are still 4 hard copies available in our giveaway.
Have a wonderful and restful break!
The AAAFSC Board:
Tamara Bhalla, Chair (Spring 2020-Spring 2022)
Emily Yoon Perez, Vice Chair (Spring 2022-Fall 2024)
Fan Yang, Secretary (Spring 2020-Spring 2022)
Members-At-Large
Liang Zhu, (Spring 2022-Fall 2024)
Shuyan Sun, (Spring 2020-Spring 2022)
Christopher Tong (Spring 2021-Spring 2023)
Dear AAAFSC members:
Please vote by this Friday, December 17 by 5pm to fill our executive board vacancies for vice chair and member at large by using this google form. This will take you less than five minutes to do!
Candidate bios can be found here [link].
If you would like to review our by-laws to read about the roles and responsibilities for these positions, you can find that here [link].
Many thanks,
The AAAFSC board: Tamara Bhalla (chair), Shuyan Sun, (member at large), Christopher Tong (member at large) Fan Yang (secretary)
Dear All--A few reminders!
Membership meeting in one week: Please attend our online membership meeting on Dec 8, from 12-1pm!
There is no “agenda” or need to prep! Just come to our virtual space, bring your lunch or a beverage and chat! We’ll talk about our future directions for AAAFSC, elections, spring book club, and just catch up!
Meeting link:
https://umbc.webex.com/umbc/j.php?MTID=me43d733a3ce76c825a80e26d8b86ed7f
Meeting number:
2624 651 3474
Password:
x4nSNmgsk39
Minor Feelings Book Club and Book Giveaway
UPDATE: Several copies still available!
In Feb 2022 AAAFSC will be hosting a book club organized around the bestselling work essay collection, Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong. In this short volume, Hong explores Asian American racial consciousness with incisive honesty.
The first 10 AAAFSC members to respond to this email (by writing to tbhalla@umbc.edu) with their Name and Departmental Address will receive a free copy of the book! Books will be sent to you via interdepartmental mail.
A PDF is available as well, if you prefer.
Elections! Please consider running for Vice-Chair OR Member-At Large. Please note, the board currently has no representation from staff nor from CNMS or COEIT.
UPDATE: We have one candidate for Vice-Chair and none for member-at-large! Please consider running!
The Vice-Chair responsibilities include:
Running the election of AAAFSC Executive Board members.
Helping the chair set and draft the agenda for Executive Board meetings and membership meetings.
Assisting chair in drafting, coordinating, and sending communications with Executive Board and membership.
Collating information and data on Asian and Asian American faculty and staff within the university so that it may be shared with the membership with help from the chair.
Assisting the Chair’s other responsibilities as needed.
The Vice-Chair also receives yearly compensation of $1000 for the duration of their term.
At large council members
Aid in the recruitment and outreach of new members across the colleges and among staff.
Assist in AAAFSC programming and coordinating tasks as needed.
The At Large Council Members receive yearly compensation of $450 for the duration of their term.
If you would like to run: please email tbhalla@umbc.edu by Dec 10 with a brief bio we can share with the membership.
The elections will take place in early December 10, with the new incumbents beginning at the start of Spring 2022.
At large council members
Aid in the recruitment and outreach of new members across the colleges and among staff.
Assist in AAAFSC programming and coordinating tasks as needed.
Dear AAAFSC Members:
We hope that your fall semester is going well! We write to tell you about all the news, changes, and opportunities that have arisen in AAAFSC over the past few months. There’s a lot covered in this email, so please read carefully!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Departure of Soonhee Lee:
Our wonderful Vice-President, Soonhee Lee has left UMBC. We are so grateful for her leadership of AAAFSC. She will be sorely missed, but we wish her the very best on her new adventures.
South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), Our Stories Book Club and Publication
The Department of American Studies has sponsored a membership for the Our Stories Book Club with the South Asian American Digital Archive—an excellent resource for Asian American and South Asian American community building and history.
The Our Stories book club, launching on November 7, will meet online monthly and offer behind-the-scenes conversations with our authors and deep dives into the important stories shared in the book. It's the perfect entrypoint to learning about the diversity, vibrancy, and power of the South Asian American community, especially for students. We have a 10% off discount code for all purchases of the book: "OURSTORIES-UMBC"
EVENTS:
Membership Meeting: Dec 8, 12-1pm:
Please attend our online membership meeting on Dec 8, from 12-1pm! We’ll be discussing all the announcements below and our spring book giveaway and book club!
Minor Feelings Book Club and Book Giveaway
In Feb 2022 AAAFSC will be hosting a book club organized around the bestselling work essay collection, Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong. In this short volume, Hong explores Asian American racial consciousness with incisive honesty.
The first 10 AAAFSC members to respond to this email (by writing to tbhalla@umbc.edu) with their Name and Departmental Address will receive a free copy of the book! Books will be sent to you via interdepartmental mail.
A PDF is available as well, if you prefer.
Election of a New Vice-President:
Please consider running for Vice-President. We will be holding elections at the end of November. The vice president receives yearly compensation of $1000 for the duration of their term. We currently have no staff representation on the board with the loss of Soonhee OR representation from CNMS or COEIT.
If you would like to run: please email tbhalla@umbc.edu and adesai1@umbc.edu by November 15 with a brief bio we can share with the membership.
Many thanks to you all and we hope to see you at the December meeting!
Tamara Bhalla, AAAFSC Chair