CASE: Colorado Asian Higher Education Network Conference
By John Chin

For about a year, an ad hoc group of students, community leaders and higher ed professionals have been meeting to discuss a broad range of issues centered on ways to enhance or improve the success of Asian Pacific American students in higher education. From these meetings came the idea to hold a statewide conference that would bring together all of the key constituent groups to identify key issues and prioritize action steps.

On Saturday, November 16, 2003, the Colorado Asian Higher Education (CASE) Network Conference was held at College Hill library on the Front Range Community College campus. Attendees came from throughout Colorado and ranged from high school students to experienced university administrators. There were also a number of APA conference participants who had heard of the conference and had no previous experience with APA issues.

The conference started with a panel discussion by three local APAs engaged in education. This panel provided an excellent overview of the spectrum of issues, concerns and problems facing APA students, faculty and staff. Gwen Bock, a University Counselor with Asian Pacific American Services in Ethnic Student Services at the Cultural Unity Center, spoke to her experiences with APA students at CU Boulder. Krystal Cummings addressed personal issues as a business major at a major university as well as being an adoptee. Ba Vovan, a 25-year Denver Public Schools veteran, characterized the different concerns he saw as an Asian school administrator

The participants then divided into three discussion groups. Facilitators –Gwen Bock, Krystal Cummings, George Kuwamura, Sophie Low and Mas Torito –led the discussions.

Several key themes emerged from the discussion groups. One of the most significant concerns that emerged from the discussion of mostly young college and high school students was intergenerational communications. Students shared that they had a difficult time understanding their parents and their parents understanding them. In another group, one of the key issues was adequate APA representation in faculty and administrative ranks. It was noted that CU Boulder has recently seen a major turnover of particularly APA faculty. The third group addressed the lack of adequate resources for student support, staff training and other important needs. This group also identified a comprehensive directory of APAs in higher education would be very useful.

Conference evaluations were generally positive. Comments included: "We need more conferences that address Asian American issues." "This is a really good conference and it does cover many topics." "I would like to see more structure on the panel. And more time with discussion groups—more time for talking.

In a recent followup meeting of the CASE Network Conference planning group, the group decided to focus on the intergenerational communications issue. The group plans to work with community resources like the Asian Pacific Development Center to develop support materials such as handbooks and training materials that can be broadly used to help parents and students communicate. The group also decided to investigate the parity issue for APA faculty and staff, particularly at CU Boulder. A meeting with Betsy Hoffman, CU president, is currently being considered.

A number of community sponsors made the conference possible. These sponsors include: Asian Pacific Development Center, Asian Roundtable of Colorado, Boulder Asian Pacific Alliance, Colorado Asian Pacific Student Association, Front Range Community College, Governor’s Asian Pacific American Advisory Council, Education Committee, Multi-cultural Business Student Association, Organization of Chinese Americans, Denver Chapter

Philippine/Asian American Times, University of Colorado at Boulder, Cultural Unity Center and the University of Colorado at Denver, Asian American Student Services.

The CASE Network Conference planning group included Gwen Bock; John Chin, Sheryl Cummings, Nancy Kawasaki, Frank Kim, Sophie Low, Giselle Rushford, Eric Sung and Mandy Yick.

For more information on CASE, you can contact John Chin at Front Range Community College at (303) 404-5466 or john.chin@wc.frcc.cccoes.edu.

About the Author: John Chin is the Chief Academic Officer at Front Range Community College, the largest community college in Colorado He is the 2003 Chair of the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival. For more information on Front Range Community College, go to http://www.frontrange.rightchoice.org. For more information on the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, go to http://coloradodragonboat.org. John can be reached at (303) 809-0766 or johnchin@att.net.