The heartening journey of the Asian Student Union at SOU
The Asian Student Union (ASU) at Southern Oregon University is a young club, but has made a massive impact on campus just this year.
Southern Oregon University is a prominently white campus, so providing ethnic and cultural clubs on campus is important because they make students feel included and safe. This idea prompted the upbringing of ASU.
When ASU first started about two years ago, it struggled to get on its feet to make an impact on campus. The club was easily lost between bigger organizations available on campus like the Outdoor Program, intramural sports clubs, and Black Student Union.
One of the biggest struggles for ASU was differentiating itself from the International Students Associaton because most of the international students were Asian and the need for ASU wasn’t communicated greatly among SOU students. The purpose of ASU was to provide a social network for Asian students at SOU and to enrich and promote Asian cultures on campus, but this message got lost in the crowd.
When I first joined ASU last year (2018), I came into the club with the intent to socialize with other Asian students because I didn’t see any other people of my ethnicity on campus. I felt the need to keep my existing Asian culture active because being surrounded by those with different cultures makes it easy to forget your own.
After being a part of ASU for a year now, I’ve seen how the club has grown. Seeing how Asian Student Union came from being a small club with some campus events sprinkled throughout the year, with little commitment to those who ‘joined’ the club (including myself) to it becoming a well-known club on campus that does exactly what it aims to do is gratifying. Over the past year, ASU has developed into a unique and diverse club that has hosted several events, and it’s only the first term of 2019–2020!
My involvement with ASU now is a lot closer than when I first joined the club. I am now the Media Officer and I took this position because I wanted ASU to be successful in terms of its impact on campus. The other officers in ASU felt the same way, so we worked hard and are still working hard to make sure ASU keeps improving.
The first event Asian Student Union held this school year was a game night on October 11, 2019. This event was meant for existing members and new members of ASU to collectively meet each other and enjoy playing games together. The turn out was fantastic and it was a great start for the club.
Other events held by ASU this year include karaoke night, a trip to Medford to go to the Asian store and go to Noonie’s Boba Tea, a boba tea fundraiser, and a Ghibli fest.
A big hit was the boba tea fundraiser that helped raise money for the Chinese new year dinner ASU will hold in winter term. The boba sale had milk tea of different flavors such as original (black tea and a condensed milk/almond milk mixture), peach, blueberry, strawberry, kiwi, and mango that came with tapioca pearls. The fundraiser was held during two days of week six and both days were packed by SOU students. The overwhelming support from students who bought boba tea was such a nice surprise for ASU that they decided to do this fundraiser every term!
Another very successful event held by ASU was the Ghibli fest. Studio Ghibli Inc. is a Japanese animation film studio that is known for its anime feature films such as “Spirited Away”. ASU’s Ghibli fest was held for two weeks that showed “Spirited Away” one week and “Ponyo” the other week. The turn out was great and Danielle Weston from The Siskiyou, a student-led newsletter at SOU, interviewed the President of the Asian Student Union, Alexander Gao, about the event.
Alex said holding a Ghibli Fest was a good way for SOU students to get to know the Asian population on campus because a lot of Asian students grew up watching Ghibli films.
Weston also interviewed me, the Media Officer of ASU, and I said, “At the beginning of the year we were all trying to come up with ideas for what kind of events ASU wants to hold so we came up with Ghibli Fest because a lot of us has seen the Ghibli movies. We just wanted more involvement and for students to know what ASU is all about it.”
Overall, the Ghibli fest was a success and ASU is currently speculating a return of the film fest in winter term with different Ghibli films to show.
These are just a few highlights of all the events ASU has held so far this year and it’s been an uphill path for this club. The dedication and hard work from the Asian Student Union are what makes this club different from other ones.
As mentioned earlier, this club is very new compared to other organizations on campus, but the desire to become and maintain a strong club is just as strong as the will of older clubs.
