Anuj Patel
ASA 002, Section A03, Mondays 7:10-8:00pm
ID: 998882783
Presentation
In the article “The Time To Fight Is Now: When Asian American Women in Academia Go Rogue, by Associate Professor Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde at UC Davis and Associate Professor Wei Ming Dariotis at San Francisco State University, professor Valverde and professor Dariotis mention the importance of maintaining higher education and also emphasize the importance of fighting for a good position in higher education. Currently, they mention on the first page that our community is not sure what higher education will be like in the future. (Valverde and Dariotis 1) Valverde and Dairiotis say that it is the way universities are run which cause them to become problems later on, and does not see possible student underperformance as one of the reasons why the university system does not quite fit within our society. (Valverde and Dariotis 2). For example, they say “Recent events, however, suggest that it is the structural form of the university, rather than the content of its courses, that has caused a high stress environment leading to dysfunction and illness both in the metaphorical sense of the university as a sick corpus and in the literal sense of academics being struck by a myriad of physical and psychological illnesses.” (Valverde and Dariotis 2). This also brings another point of the article, which Valverde and Dariotis discuss, which is that people often get stressed out in the university but not because of their workload, but instead because students feel like they attend college for the wrong reasons at times. (Valverde and Dariotis 2). This is important, because in college, students should be there to learn important skills for the workplace that may be helpful to increasing their potential salary on the job when they go and work in jobs that are related to their field. However, in a perfect society, college should only be recommended or an extra enrichment type activity, and not one that students feel absolutely mandatory to attend. Despite this, students do indeed feel like they need to go to college more and more just to survive, and this is sad but true. Valverde and Dariotis both mention that college today is comparable to “reframing the realm of academia as a workplace teeming with labor and civil rights abuses” (Valverde and Dariotis 2) which means that students can feel overwhelmed quickly when they go to college, just like they would when they are working at a low wage job with long hours, because in effect that is what college feels like to many students who go not because they truly want to learn, but instead who attend because they feel like they have to in order to get any job within our competitive job market.
Valverde and Dariotis also mentions that certain types of groups are in particular danger of losing their jobs if higher education shuts down or if higher education becomes limited to only one or 2 races. (Valverde and Dariotis 2-3). For example, Valverde and Dariotis mention that “Asian American women function as a “phantom peril” in the university; we are both invited in as the model minority, and quickly evicted when we fail to conform to that stereotype; especially when we ‘break the silence’ to which our voices are subjected.” (Valverde and Dariotis 3). Valverde and Dariotis here mention that Asian American women do indeed have the opportunity to go to college and get high paying jobs, but that they have to follow a very rigid and narrow path that people of other ethnicities do not have to follow. (Valverde and Dariotis 4). An example they mention is taking part in extracurricular activities, community events and making protests to events that certain people feel against. (Valverde and Dariotis 4). This relates to one of my personal experiences that I went through when I was in high school. Because I was so far behind in reading comprehension at that point in my life (I had ADHD from when I was young so I always had difficulties concentrating and understanding the community), I felt like I had to attend high school with a very rigid goal in mind, which was to survive, graduate and make it to college. Like many Asian American women that Valverde and Dariotis mention in this article, I did not feel like I had the luxuries that most of my peers had to explore the community and engage in my passions deeply because I felt like I had to be so focused on academics to catch up in my reading comprehension abilities to reach the level where the rest of my high school peers were accomplishing. Also because I was in Advanced Placement classes in high school, which I needed to get in to UC Davis as well as to perform high on the SAT and ACT, the classes I was in had a strong academic culture similar to the culture that the model minority is in. Most of the students in my classes were Asian American, and were also trying to get in to prestigious colleges such as the Ivy Leagues, the top 25 private schools, as well as the UC’s. As I remember from my high school classes, most of the conversations were about academics and trying to be as competitive as possible when attending college, and not succeeding in these advanced placement classes was simply not an option for any of us. Even for most of the people in my advanced placement classes, there was simply not enough time to explore non-academic activities.
Later on in the article, Valverde and Dariotis mention that it is important to keep people of all races in academics and mention the ramifications of not following this idea. (Valverde and Dariotis 4-5). Valverde and Dariotis also mention that it is hard for Asian Americans to stand up for themselves and fight because they already feel like they are targeted and not considered in the community. (Valverde and Dariotis 4-5, 8-9). For example, Valverde and Dariotis mention “However, we already know how vulnerable we are, which both makes us perceived easy targets for larger forces engaged in power plays, and also ignorantly underestimates our abilities and will to fight back against unjust attacks.” (Valverde and Dariotis 4-5). Valverde and Dariotis in this statement say that it is hard for even the best people within Asian culture to have their say in the community because college only cares about itself, and not the people that attend it, and if many professors at college are not tenured, they have less choices and flexibility as professors to determine how their classes are run, and could also be potentially dismissed at any time. (Valverde and Dariotis 4-5).
Valverde mentions her own experience trying to get tenured, and this ended up being extremely stressful for her, and describes her own experience. (Valverde and Dariotis 6). “The genesis of our anthology began when Kieu Linh Valverde was in the midst of a very public tenure battle, during which, under the pressures of that stress, she miscarried at nearly six months pregnant, bled out, went into cardiac arrest requiring ninety minutes of resuscitation, liver failure, emergency surgery, and a coma few thought she would come out of. Those doctors with a glimmer of hope thought that if she recovered she would be at sixty-percent of her previous mental capacity, at best. That she ultimately came out alive and had a full recovery was nothing short of a miracle.” (Valverde and Dariotis 6). This is indeed stressful and sad for a professor to feel so much pain because she feels like she cannot be a part of the community she belongs to or be secure with her job. (Valverde and Dariotis 6). Personal experiences such as Caroline Valverde’s are important for society to understand why equal rights is important, and why inclusion of all races is needed before our society reaches full equality, even after previous acts which limited the ability for Asian’s to immigrate and get education, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 were banned. (Valverde and Dariotis 6, Wan 2005).
Later on, Valverde and Dariotis mention the difficulties black and Asian American women have getting employed or continuing to graduate school even after they complete their college degrees. (Valverde and Dariotis 9-12). Valverde and Dariotis discuss the Fight The Tower movement, which they describe “ “Fight The Tower”, as a movement, and now as this anthology, builds on the foundations laid by Presumed Incompetent’s extensive testimonials, which show how women of color faculty can manage within the system of the academy by leveraging the power of community. Presumed Incompetent is an important text because it allows other faculty of color and women to recognize that their experiences are not unique, but are rather part of a larger pattern.” (Valverde and Dariotis 10). This quote relates to the current event article “China lawyer’s family says US helped them flee”, because this article describes Chen Guiqiu’s experience in jail in Thailand for trying to protest against the government, and how she had to fight and demonstrate her innocence. (Associated Press/Telegraph Media Group 2017). Then, even after showing her innocence, she was still deported to another jail and later on had to fight further for her own human rights and civil liberties that everyone should have. (Associated Press/Telegraph Media Group 2017). This is similar to how Valverde and Dariotis mention that even after Asian American people complete college successfully, they still have to work for many things that come easy to other ethnic groups and this injustice is quite unfair indeed, that problems can occur when people are working mainly for people who are Asian American. (Valverde and Dariotis 9-12).
This also relates to Wei Ming Dariotis and her experience with getting tenured and promoted as an assistant professor at San Francisco State University in 2008. (Valverde and Dariotis 11). She describes that she feels like she was well qualified, but that alone was not enough. (Valverde and Dariotis 11). In fact, she says “The provost quickly disabused this fantasy, saying he would be recommending tenure but not promotion to associate professor becasue, he felt she did not represent “Associate Professor” material. She countered that she had achieved or exceeded all of the benchmarks set by her department, and had been reassured repeatedly that she would not have any problems with either tenure or promotion. It now seemed she was being asked to meet requirements beyond those of her department criteria.” (Valverde and Dariotis 11). Dariotis says here that effectively it was her race and gender which disallowed her to improve her position within the university, and I would indeed agree with her here because if she was over-qualified but still denied, it had to be because the university did not want to take a chance on Asian Americans and instead wanted diversity within the university. (Valverde and Darioitis 11-12). This is similar to how affirmative action works against certain students of Asian American ethnicity when applying to the top private universities in the US where race and color matter because they factor in to the chance that someone will get admitted to a particular place within the university. (Wu 2017). Because diversity is important, many people with stellar academics but who are in over-representative groups will have a hard time getting into the most competitive colleges (Cherry 2015, Wu 2017).
Dariotis also mentions that standards increase significantly over time and that what once was enough is no longer sufficient (Valverde and Dariotis 12). I would agree that this is true, and also applying it to the college admissions process, I do believe that admission to top colleges is getting more competitive each year and that this is due to an increase in the population as well as an increase in the amount of resources we have available to us at our disposal. (Cherry 2015). If standards increase, people may have to make many sacrifices in other areas when they are in college if they want to reach their goals in the end (Cherry 2015, Valverde and Dariotis 11).
Finally, Valverde and Dariotis mention the issue that maybe the structure in university is indeed justified based on the value of trust. (Valverde and Dariotis 19-20). She mentions that “Using global competition and budget crises as a justification, academic administrations have deconstructed the stability - based on the principles of tenure and academic freedom - that to a limited extent characterized late 20th century U.S. colleges and universities. Significantly, this shift away from hard-won academic freedoms really began to take root when large numbers of women and people of color began to make inroads in the academy around the turn between the 20th to the 21st century.” (Valverde and Dariotis 19-20).
Question 1: Should academic freedom be considered in all contexts? (To graduate school, to high school, etc.)
Question 2: How many examinations should be required before a professor becomes tenured?
Bevacqua 2013
(SSIS Official, 2016).
Works Cited/References:
@jvbevacqua, J. Bevacqua. "Figuring It Out." Unpacking Academic Excellence. N.p., 08 May 2013. Web. <http://figuringitouted.blogspot.ca/2013/05/unpacking-academic- excellence.html>.
Cherry, Robert. "University Affirmative-Action Admissions Policies Are Toxic." National Review. N.p., 14 Dec. 2015. Web. <http://www.nationalreview.com/article/428442/university- affirmative-action-admissions-policies-are-toxic>.
Press, Associated. "China lawyer's family says US helped them flee." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 09 May 2017. Web. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/09/china- lawyers-family-says-us-helped-flee/>.
Ssischool. YouTube. YouTube, 05 Aug. 2016. Web. 03 June 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_foWMa2dR98>.
Valverde, C., & Dariotis, W. (2017). "The Time to Fight is Now": When Asian American Women in Academia Go Rogue. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
Wan, Qin. The History of Chinese Immigration to the U.S. N.p., Spring 2005. Web. <http://www2.hawaii.edu/~sford/alternatv/s05/articles/qin_history.html>.
Wu, Frank H. "The Truth About Asian Americans And Affirmative Action." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 31 Jan. 2017. Web. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the -truth-about-asian-americans-and-affirmative-action_us_588fdec1e4b04c35d5835199>.
Anuj Patel
ASA 002, Section A03, Mondays 7:10-8:00pm
ID: 998882783
Presentation
In the article “The Time To Fight Is Now: When Asian American Women in Academia Go Rogue, by Associate Professor Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde at UC Davis and Associate Professor Wei Ming Dariotis at San Francisco State University, professor Valverde and professor Dariotis mention the importance of maintaining higher education and also emphasize the importance of fighting for a good position in higher education. Currently, they mention on the first page that our community is not sure what higher education will be like in the future. (Valverde and Dariotis 1) Valverde and Dairiotis say that it is the way universities are run which cause them to become problems later on, and does not see possible student underperformance as one of the reasons why the university system does not quite fit within our society. (Valverde and Dariotis 2). For example, they say “Recent events, however, suggest that it is the structural form of the university, rather than the content of its courses, that has caused a high stress environment leading to dysfunction and illness both in the metaphorical sense of the university as a sick corpus and in the literal sense of academics being struck by a myriad of physical and psychological illnesses.” (Valverde and Dariotis 2). This also brings another point of the article, which Valverde and Dariotis discuss, which is that people often get stressed out in the university but not because of their workload, but instead because students feel like they attend college for the wrong reasons at times. (Valverde and Dariotis 2). This is important, because in college, students should be there to learn important skills for the workplace that may be helpful to increasing their potential salary on the job when they go and work in jobs that are related to their field. However, in a perfect society, college should only be recommended or an extra enrichment type activity, and not one that students feel absolutely mandatory to attend. Despite this, students do indeed feel like they need to go to college more and more just to survive, and this is sad but true. Valverde and Dariotis both mention that college today is comparable to “reframing the realm of academia as a workplace teeming with labor and civil rights abuses” (Valverde and Dariotis 2) which means that students can feel overwhelmed quickly when they go to college, just like they would when they are working at a low wage job with long hours, because in effect that is what college feels like to many students who go not because they truly want to learn, but instead who attend because they feel like they have to in order to get any job within our competitive job market.
Valverde and Dariotis also mentions that certain types of groups are in particular danger of losing their jobs if higher education shuts down or if higher education becomes limited to only one or 2 races. (Valverde and Dariotis 2-3). For example, Valverde and Dariotis mention that “Asian American women function as a “phantom peril” in the university; we are both invited in as the model minority, and quickly evicted when we fail to conform to that stereotype; especially when we ‘break the silence’ to which our voices are subjected.” (Valverde and Dariotis 3). Valverde and Dariotis here mention that Asian American women do indeed have the opportunity to go to college and get high paying jobs, but that they have to follow a very rigid and narrow path that people of other ethnicities do not have to follow. (Valverde and Dariotis 4). An example they mention is taking part in extracurricular activities, community events and making protests to events that certain people feel against. (Valverde and Dariotis 4). This relates to one of my personal experiences that I went through when I was in high school. Because I was so far behind in reading comprehension at that point in my life (I had ADHD from when I was young so I always had difficulties concentrating and understanding the community), I felt like I had to attend high school with a very rigid goal in mind, which was to survive, graduate and make it to college. Like many Asian American women that Valverde and Dariotis mention in this article, I did not feel like I had the luxuries that most of my peers had to explore the community and engage in my passions deeply because I felt like I had to be so focused on academics to catch up in my reading comprehension abilities to reach the level where the rest of my high school peers were accomplishing. Also because I was in Advanced Placement classes in high school, which I needed to get in to UC Davis as well as to perform high on the SAT and ACT, the classes I was in had a strong academic culture similar to the culture that the model minority is in. Most of the students in my classes were Asian American, and were also trying to get in to prestigious colleges such as the Ivy Leagues, the top 25 private schools, as well as the UC’s. As I remember from my high school classes, most of the conversations were about academics and trying to be as competitive as possible when attending college, and not succeeding in these advanced placement classes was simply not an option for any of us. Even for most of the people in my advanced placement classes, there was simply not enough time to explore non-academic activities.
Later on in the article, Valverde and Dariotis mention that it is important to keep people of all races in academics and mention the ramifications of not following this idea. (Valverde and Dariotis 4-5). Valverde and Dariotis also mention that it is hard for Asian Americans to stand up for themselves and fight because they already feel like they are targeted and not considered in the community. (Valverde and Dariotis 4-5, 8-9). For example, Valverde and Dariotis mention “However, we already know how vulnerable we are, which both makes us perceived easy targets for larger forces engaged in power plays, and also ignorantly underestimates our abilities and will to fight back against unjust attacks.” (Valverde and Dariotis 4-5). Valverde and Dariotis in this statement say that it is hard for even the best people within Asian culture to have their say in the community because college only cares about itself, and not the people that attend it, and if many professors at college are not tenured, they have less choices and flexibility as professors to determine how their classes are run, and could also be potentially dismissed at any time. (Valverde and Dariotis 4-5).
Valverde mentions her own experience trying to get tenured, and this ended up being extremely stressful for her, and describes her own experience. (Valverde and Dariotis 6). “The genesis of our anthology began when Kieu Linh Valverde was in the midst of a very public tenure battle, during which, under the pressures of that stress, she miscarried at nearly six months pregnant, bled out, went into cardiac arrest requiring ninety minutes of resuscitation, liver failure, emergency surgery, and a coma few thought she would come out of. Those doctors with a glimmer of hope thought that if she recovered she would be at sixty-percent of her previous mental capacity, at best. That she ultimately came out alive and had a full recovery was nothing short of a miracle.” (Valverde and Dariotis 6). This is indeed stressful and sad for a professor to feel so much pain because she feels like she cannot be a part of the community she belongs to or be secure with her job. (Valverde and Dariotis 6). Personal experiences such as Caroline Valverde’s are important for society to understand why equal rights is important, and why inclusion of all races is needed before our society reaches full equality, even after previous acts which limited the ability for Asian’s to immigrate and get education, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 were banned. (Valverde and Dariotis 6, Wan 2005).
Later on, Valverde and Dariotis mention the difficulties black and Asian American women have getting employed or continuing to graduate school even after they complete their college degrees. (Valverde and Dariotis 9-12). Valverde and Dariotis discuss the Fight The Tower movement, which they describe “ “Fight The Tower”, as a movement, and now as this anthology, builds on the foundations laid by Presumed Incompetent’s extensive testimonials, which show how women of color faculty can manage within the system of the academy by leveraging the power of community. Presumed Incompetent is an important text because it allows other faculty of color and women to recognize that their experiences are not unique, but are rather part of a larger pattern.” (Valverde and Dariotis 10). This quote relates to the current event article “China lawyer’s family says US helped them flee”, because this article describes Chen Guiqiu’s experience in jail in Thailand for trying to protest against the government, and how she had to fight and demonstrate her innocence. (Associated Press/Telegraph Media Group 2017). Then, even after showing her innocence, she was still deported to another jail and later on had to fight further for her own human rights and civil liberties that everyone should have. (Associated Press/Telegraph Media Group 2017). This is similar to how Valverde and Dariotis mention that even after Asian American people complete college successfully, they still have to work for many things that come easy to other ethnic groups and this injustice is quite unfair indeed, that problems can occur when people are working mainly for people who are Asian American. (Valverde and Dariotis 9-12).
This also relates to Wei Ming Dariotis and her experience with getting tenured and promoted as an assistant professor at San Francisco State University in 2008. (Valverde and Dariotis 11). She describes that she feels like she was well qualified, but that alone was not enough. (Valverde and Dariotis 11). In fact, she says “The provost quickly disabused this fantasy, saying he would be recommending tenure but not promotion to associate professor becasue, he felt she did not represent “Associate Professor” material. She countered that she had achieved or exceeded all of the benchmarks set by her department, and had been reassured repeatedly that she would not have any problems with either tenure or promotion. It now seemed she was being asked to meet requirements beyond those of her department criteria.” (Valverde and Dariotis 11). Dariotis says here that effectively it was her race and gender which disallowed her to improve her position within the university, and I would indeed agree with her here because if she was over-qualified but still denied, it had to be because the university did not want to take a chance on Asian Americans and instead wanted diversity within the university. (Valverde and Darioitis 11-12). This is similar to how affirmative action works against certain students of Asian American ethnicity when applying to the top private universities in the US where race and color matter because they factor in to the chance that someone will get admitted to a particular place within the university. (Wu 2017). Because diversity is important, many people with stellar academics but who are in over-representative groups will have a hard time getting into the most competitive colleges (Cherry 2015, Wu 2017).
Dariotis also mentions that standards increase significantly over time and that what once was enough is no longer sufficient (Valverde and Dariotis 12). I would agree that this is true, and also applying it to the college admissions process, I do believe that admission to top colleges is getting more competitive each year and that this is due to an increase in the population as well as an increase in the amount of resources we have available to us at our disposal. (Cherry 2015). If standards increase, people may have to make many sacrifices in other areas when they are in college if they want to reach their goals in the end (Cherry 2015, Valverde and Dariotis 11).
Finally, Valverde and Dariotis mention the issue that maybe the structure in university is indeed justified based on the value of trust. (Valverde and Dariotis 19-20). She mentions that “Using global competition and budget crises as a justification, academic administrations have deconstructed the stability - based on the principles of tenure and academic freedom - that to a limited extent characterized late 20th century U.S. colleges and universities. Significantly, this shift away from hard-won academic freedoms really began to take root when large numbers of women and people of color began to make inroads in the academy around the turn between the 20th to the 21st century.” (Valverde and Dariotis 19-20).
Question 1: Should academic freedom be considered in all contexts? (To graduate school, to high school, etc.)
Question 2: How many examinations should be required before a professor becomes tenured?
Bevacqua 2013
(SSIS Official, 2016).
Works Cited/References:
@jvbevacqua, J. Bevacqua. "Figuring It Out." Unpacking Academic Excellence. N.p., 08 May 2013. Web. <http://figuringitouted.blogspot.ca/2013/05/unpacking-academic- excellence.html>.
Cherry, Robert. "University Affirmative-Action Admissions Policies Are Toxic." National Review. N.p., 14 Dec. 2015. Web. <http://www.nationalreview.com/article/428442/university- affirmative-action-admissions-policies-are-toxic>.
Press, Associated. "China lawyer's family says US helped them flee." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 09 May 2017. Web. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/09/china- lawyers-family-says-us-helped-flee/>.
Ssischool. YouTube. YouTube, 05 Aug. 2016. Web. 03 June 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_foWMa2dR98>.
Valverde, C., & Dariotis, W. (2017). "The Time to Fight is Now": When Asian American Women in Academia Go Rogue. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
Wan, Qin. The History of Chinese Immigration to the U.S. N.p., Spring 2005. Web. <http://www2.hawaii.edu/~sford/alternatv/s05/articles/qin_history.html>.
Wu, Frank H. "The Truth About Asian Americans And Affirmative Action." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 31 Jan. 2017. Web. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the -truth-about-asian-americans-and-affirmative-action_us_588fdec1e4b04c35d5835199>.
Anuj Patel
ASA 002, Section A03, Mondays 7:10-8:00pm
ID: 998882783
Presentation
In the article “The Time To Fight Is Now: When Asian American Women in Academia Go Rogue, by Associate Professor Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde at UC Davis and Associate Professor Wei Ming Dariotis at San Francisco State University, professor Valverde and professor Dariotis mention the importance of maintaining higher education and also emphasize the importance of fighting for a good position in higher education. Currently, they mention on the first page that our community is not sure what higher education will be like in the future. (Valverde and Dariotis 1) Valverde and Dairiotis say that it is the way universities are run which cause them to become problems later on, and does not see possible student underperformance as one of the reasons why the university system does not quite fit within our society. (Valverde and Dariotis 2). For example, they say “Recent events, however, suggest that it is the structural form of the university, rather than the content of its courses, that has caused a high stress environment leading to dysfunction and illness both in the metaphorical sense of the university as a sick corpus and in the literal sense of academics being struck by a myriad of physical and psychological illnesses.” (Valverde and Dariotis 2). This also brings another point of the article, which Valverde and Dariotis discuss, which is that people often get stressed out in the university but not because of their workload, but instead because students feel like they attend college for the wrong reasons at times. (Valverde and Dariotis 2). This is important, because in college, students should be there to learn important skills for the workplace that may be helpful to increasing their potential salary on the job when they go and work in jobs that are related to their field. However, in a perfect society, college should only be recommended or an extra enrichment type activity, and not one that students feel absolutely mandatory to attend. Despite this, students do indeed feel like they need to go to college more and more just to survive, and this is sad but true. Valverde and Dariotis both mention that college today is comparable to “reframing the realm of academia as a workplace teeming with labor and civil rights abuses” (Valverde and Dariotis 2) which means that students can feel overwhelmed quickly when they go to college, just like they would when they are working at a low wage job with long hours, because in effect that is what college feels like to many students who go not because they truly want to learn, but instead who attend because they feel like they have to in order to get any job within our competitive job market.
Valverde and Dariotis also mentions that certain types of groups are in particular danger of losing their jobs if higher education shuts down or if higher education becomes limited to only one or 2 races. (Valverde and Dariotis 2-3). For example, Valverde and Dariotis mention that “Asian American women function as a “phantom peril” in the university; we are both invited in as the model minority, and quickly evicted when we fail to conform to that stereotype; especially when we ‘break the silence’ to which our voices are subjected.” (Valverde and Dariotis 3). Valverde and Dariotis here mention that Asian American women do indeed have the opportunity to go to college and get high paying jobs, but that they have to follow a very rigid and narrow path that people of other ethnicities do not have to follow. (Valverde and Dariotis 4). An example they mention is taking part in extracurricular activities, community events and making protests to events that certain people feel against. (Valverde and Dariotis 4). This relates to one of my personal experiences that I went through when I was in high school. Because I was so far behind in reading comprehension at that point in my life (I had ADHD from when I was young so I always had difficulties concentrating and understanding the community), I felt like I had to attend high school with a very rigid goal in mind, which was to survive, graduate and make it to college. Like many Asian American women that Valverde and Dariotis mention in this article, I did not feel like I had the luxuries that most of my peers had to explore the community and engage in my passions deeply because I felt like I had to be so focused on academics to catch up in my reading comprehension abilities to reach the level where the rest of my high school peers were accomplishing. Also because I was in Advanced Placement classes in high school, which I needed to get in to UC Davis as well as to perform high on the SAT and ACT, the classes I was in had a strong academic culture similar to the culture that the model minority is in. Most of the students in my classes were Asian American, and were also trying to get in to prestigious colleges such as the Ivy Leagues, the top 25 private schools, as well as the UC’s. As I remember from my high school classes, most of the conversations were about academics and trying to be as competitive as possible when attending college, and not succeeding in these advanced placement classes was simply not an option for any of us. Even for most of the people in my advanced placement classes, there was simply not enough time to explore non-academic activities.
Later on in the article, Valverde and Dariotis mention that it is important to keep people of all races in academics and mention the ramifications of not following this idea. (Valverde and Dariotis 4-5). Valverde and Dariotis also mention that it is hard for Asian Americans to stand up for themselves and fight because they already feel like they are targeted and not considered in the community. (Valverde and Dariotis 4-5, 8-9). For example, Valverde and Dariotis mention “However, we already know how vulnerable we are, which both makes us perceived easy targets for larger forces engaged in power plays, and also ignorantly underestimates our abilities and will to fight back against unjust attacks.” (Valverde and Dariotis 4-5). Valverde and Dariotis in this statement say that it is hard for even the best people within Asian culture to have their say in the community because college only cares about itself, and not the people that attend it, and if many professors at college are not tenured, they have less choices and flexibility as professors to determine how their classes are run, and could also be potentially dismissed at any time. (Valverde and Dariotis 4-5).
Valverde mentions her own experience trying to get tenured, and this ended up being extremely stressful for her, and describes her own experience. (Valverde and Dariotis 6). “The genesis of our anthology began when Kieu Linh Valverde was in the midst of a very public tenure battle, during which, under the pressures of that stress, she miscarried at nearly six months pregnant, bled out, went into cardiac arrest requiring ninety minutes of resuscitation, liver failure, emergency surgery, and a coma few thought she would come out of. Those doctors with a glimmer of hope thought that if she recovered she would be at sixty-percent of her previous mental capacity, at best. That she ultimately came out alive and had a full recovery was nothing short of a miracle.” (Valverde and Dariotis 6). This is indeed stressful and sad for a professor to feel so much pain because she feels like she cannot be a part of the community she belongs to or be secure with her job. (Valverde and Dariotis 6). Personal experiences such as Caroline Valverde’s are important for society to understand why equal rights is important, and why inclusion of all races is needed before our society reaches full equality, even after previous acts which limited the ability for Asian’s to immigrate and get education, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 were banned. (Valverde and Dariotis 6, Wan 2005).
Later on, Valverde and Dariotis mention the difficulties black and Asian American women have getting employed or continuing to graduate school even after they complete their college degrees. (Valverde and Dariotis 9-12). Valverde and Dariotis discuss the Fight The Tower movement, which they describe “ “Fight The Tower”, as a movement, and now as this anthology, builds on the foundations laid by Presumed Incompetent’s extensive testimonials, which show how women of color faculty can manage within the system of the academy by leveraging the power of community. Presumed Incompetent is an important text because it allows other faculty of color and women to recognize that their experiences are not unique, but are rather part of a larger pattern.” (Valverde and Dariotis 10). This quote relates to the current event article “China lawyer’s family says US helped them flee”, because this article describes Chen Guiqiu’s experience in jail in Thailand for trying to protest against the government, and how she had to fight and demonstrate her innocence. (Associated Press/Telegraph Media Group 2017). Then, even after showing her innocence, she was still deported to another jail and later on had to fight further for her own human rights and civil liberties that everyone should have. (Associated Press/Telegraph Media Group 2017). This is similar to how Valverde and Dariotis mention that even after Asian American people complete college successfully, they still have to work for many things that come easy to other ethnic groups and this injustice is quite unfair indeed, that problems can occur when people are working mainly for people who are Asian American. (Valverde and Dariotis 9-12).
This also relates to Wei Ming Dariotis and her experience with getting tenured and promoted as an assistant professor at San Francisco State University in 2008. (Valverde and Dariotis 11). She describes that she feels like she was well qualified, but that alone was not enough. (Valverde and Dariotis 11). In fact, she says “The provost quickly disabused this fantasy, saying he would be recommending tenure but not promotion to associate professor becasue, he felt she did not represent “Associate Professor” material. She countered that she had achieved or exceeded all of the benchmarks set by her department, and had been reassured repeatedly that she would not have any problems with either tenure or promotion. It now seemed she was being asked to meet requirements beyond those of her department criteria.” (Valverde and Dariotis 11). Dariotis says here that effectively it was her race and gender which disallowed her to improve her position within the university, and I would indeed agree with her here because if she was over-qualified but still denied, it had to be because the university did not want to take a chance on Asian Americans and instead wanted diversity within the university. (Valverde and Darioitis 11-12). This is similar to how affirmative action works against certain students of Asian American ethnicity when applying to the top private universities in the US where race and color matter because they factor in to the chance that someone will get admitted to a particular place within the university. (Wu 2017). Because diversity is important, many people with stellar academics but who are in over-representative groups will have a hard time getting into the most competitive colleges (Cherry 2015, Wu 2017).
Dariotis also mentions that standards increase significantly over time and that what once was enough is no longer sufficient (Valverde and Dariotis 12). I would agree that this is true, and also applying it to the college admissions process, I do believe that admission to top colleges is getting more competitive each year and that this is due to an increase in the population as well as an increase in the amount of resources we have available to us at our disposal. (Cherry 2015). If standards increase, people may have to make many sacrifices in other areas when they are in college if they want to reach their goals in the end (Cherry 2015, Valverde and Dariotis 11).
Finally, Valverde and Dariotis mention the issue that maybe the structure in university is indeed justified based on the value of trust. (Valverde and Dariotis 19-20). She mentions that “Using global competition and budget crises as a justification, academic administrations have deconstructed the stability - based on the principles of tenure and academic freedom - that to a limited extent characterized late 20th century U.S. colleges and universities. Significantly, this shift away from hard-won academic freedoms really began to take root when large numbers of women and people of color began to make inroads in the academy around the turn between the 20th to the 21st century.” (Valverde and Dariotis 19-20).
Question 1: Should academic freedom be considered in all contexts? (To graduate school, to high school, etc.)
Question 2: How many examinations should be required before a professor becomes tenured?
Bevacqua 2013
Academic Excellence Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_foWMa2dR98
(SSIS Official 2016)
Works Cited/References:
@jvbevacqua, J. Bevacqua. "Figuring It Out." Unpacking Academic Excellence. N.p., 08 May 2013. Web. <http://figuringitouted.blogspot.ca/2013/05/unpacking-academic-excellence.html>.
Cherry, Robert. "University Affirmative-Action Admissions Policies Are Toxic." National Review. N.p., 14 Dec. 2015. Web. <http://www.nationalreview.com/article/428442/university-affirmative-action-admissions-policies-are-toxic>.
Press, Associated. "China lawyer's family says US helped them flee." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 09 May 2017. Web. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/09/china-lawyers-family-says-us-helped-flee/>.
Ssischool. YouTube. YouTube, 05 Aug. 2016. Web. 03 June 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_foWMa2dR98>.
Valverde, C., & Dariotis, W. (2017). "The Time to Fight is Now": When Asian American Women In Academia Go Rogue. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
Wan, Qin. The History of Chinese Immigration to the U.S. N.p., Spring 2005. Web <http://www2.hawaii.edu/~sford/alternatv/s05/articles/qin_history.html>.
Wu, Frank H. "The Truth About Asian Americans And Affirmative Action." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 31 Jan. 2017. Web. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the -truth-about-asian-americans-and-affirmative action_us_588fdec1e4b04c35d5835199>.
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