Asian-American Statistics Within UC Davis

Response to "UC Davis Facts" (Week 1 Reading)
Post Date: April 4, 2014

This fact sheet reveals the growing number of Asian-Americans within UC Davis. The paper reports that White/Caucasian students make up around 36.6% of undergraduate students, while Asian-Americans make up around 40% of undergraduate students. Other ethnic groups are not nearly as prominent in terms of head count compared to Asian-Americans and Caucasian students. Asian-Americans, as a generalized group, are well-represented within UC Davis, but many ethnicities within the umbrella term “Asia-America” are not well-represented compared to the large number of Chinese, East Indians/Pakistanis, and Filipinos. There are many background and cultural differences within a specific ethnicity that are otherwise generalized under the umbrella term "Asia-America."

The number of Asian-Americans within UC Davis helps me realize how Asian-Americans are becoming more prominent in academia and how Asian-specific issues are extremely important because they affect me and those who I interact with. Two specific issues affecting Asian-Americans are the current controversy on SCA5 and the protests for protection against harassment that occurred over a decade ago. I realize how important it is to maintain relations between other minority ethnic groups, both outside and within the term “Asia-America.”

Questions:

How can we take into account the individuals who consider themselves to be of multiple ethnicities, such as those Hispanic and Caucasian? This infographic does not mention those of mixed heritage, thus the graph potentially does not accurately represent everyone enrolled in UC Davis.

Additionally, why are there more undergraduate Asian-Americans compared to Caucasian undergraduates, but much less Asian-American graduate students compared to Caucasian graduate students?

Posted by: Eric Yu
Section A01

Despite how Asian-Americans make the majority of undergraduate students within UC Davis, the UC system is made up of people from a variety of ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. Whether we consider ourselves to be of Asia-America or not, we must maintain relations with individuals of similar and different ethnic backgrounds. Image from KQED News Blog. [Original Citation: (Photo: University of California at Berkeley)].