‘Disturbed at the lack of progress.’ UC students demand support for Asian-identifying community – The Cincinnati Enquirer

University of Cincinnati's United Asian Advocates student group will meet with university administrators on Thursday to discuss a list of demands to support Asian and Black, Indigenous and people of color who are students, faculty and staff.(Photo: Provided/Aashka Raval)

University of Cincinnati administrators will meet with United Asian Advocates, a student group, this week to discuss growing anti-Asian global and local sentiments and a list of demands the organization submitted to the university in March.

"(I'm) disturbed at the lack of progress there has been in terms of making a campus safe for everyone," said Catharine Baek,a third-year piano performance major atUC's College-Conservatory of Music. She is the director of communicationsfor United Asian Advocates.

Baek is a second-generation Korean American, though shesays her parents immigrated to America at such young ages it basically adds a "half" to her second-generation status.She grew up nearCleveland.

Baek told The Enquirer she has watched professors "talk down" to international students, "as if they are stupid." In those moments, she says, she feels stuck and doesn't know how to insert herself, stand up for her peers or move forward from the incident.

More:UC professor who called COVID-19 'the Chinese virus' not asked to return

She doesn't know how to stand up for herself, either, she said.

It's little things, Baek said. One time she was talking to a peer about activities they participated in high school. Her peer said: "Did you just study a lot?"

It was like a jab, like a paper cut. Baek said it was too smalla thing to process in the moment. But she remembers still feeling hurt days later, unsure of how to express herself or how to address the microaggression.

"It doesn't seem like anything," Baek said, "but it's perpetuating this model minority myth."

Baek's roommate and United Asian Advocates co-president Aashka Raval says the group often discussed issues of racism in years past but decided to address anti-Asian hatehead-on in September after an adjunctinstructor referred to COVID-19 as "the Chinese virus" in an email to a student. UC did not renew its contract with John Ucker for the spring semester after investigating the incident.

According to the university's website, 4.7% of students identify as Asian and 6.4% of students identify as international. There are nearly 36,000 undergraduate students enrolled in the 2020-2021 school year.

Raval, a third-year business analytics major and international student from western India, says United Asian Advocates held student forums and other feedback sessions that would later lead to a list of demands. The process intensified after the group was "Zoom-bombed"during a virtual Asian leadership panel event on Feb. 23.

"We had people unmute themselves and just start spewing hate" about 40-45 minutes into the event, Raval said. "And not just anti-Asian. Anti-Black, anti-semitic, anti-LGBTQ. Just hate."

They were able to remove one of the disruptors, but then another user started to speak up with racist comments, Raval said. They called a member of the United Asians Advocates a "cow" and told her to "go back to India."

"This was just so traumatic," Raval said, especially after putting so much work into an event that was supposed to empower Asian students and professionals. "It's so easy for someone to just jump in and ruin the entire thing that you've been planning for two months."

Later that week, Raval messaged her advisors and United Asian Advocates compiled a list of demands for the university.

UC's United Asian Advocates student group members participated in a downtown Cincinnati vigil and "Stop Asian Hate" rally outside of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center on March 21, 2021.(Photo: Provided/Aashka Raval)

The group ended up with six demands, summarized below:

Further details regarding the demands can be found on United Asian Advocates' website.

University spokesperson M.B. Reilly confirmed administration is reaching out to learn more from United Asian Advocates in response to their demands.

"I am always happy to partner and engage with our students, faculty and staff, whether with our student groups directly, their faculty and staff advisors, or administrative offices," Bleuzette Marshall, UC'svice president for equity, inclusion and community impact, said in a Tuesday statement."It is my consistent practice that when speaking with any individual or group, I do speak with them and never about them."

UC president Neville Pinto, who was born in Mumbai, India,has released two statements since September regarding anti-Asian hate.But both Raval andBaek say they think Pinto and the university could do more to support Asian-identifying students and staff at UC.

"There is no move for action in terms of, like, very concrete steps," Baek said. "If the leadership can't provide the resources for students, then who is, really? It shouldn't be up to a student group to demand something of a university, too. Like, this should already have been in the works."

The students will meet with the president's office Thursday morning, Raval said.

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'Disturbed at the lack of progress.' UC students demand support for Asian-identifying community - The Cincinnati Enquirer