|
What do we want to do?
We want to foster unity and communication among all the diverse groups that call themselves Asian American and/or non- Asian American groups that meet the needs and interests of the Asian American population on campus. We want to raise awareness of issues facing us, to both our own communities, and the UT campus as a whole. We want to raise our voices and make ourselves heard. APAC wants to be our collective voice. We have power and strength, if we gather together and work toward shared goals. That is our mission, that is our vision.
What is APAC?
APAC is an agency of the UT Multicultural Information Center (MIC), that acts as the unity group for all Asian American (East Asian, Desi/South Asian, Pacific Islander, and West Asian American) organizations on campus (academic, cultural, political, religious, fraternities and sororities). The Asian American community is the largest community of people of color at the University of Texas, and APAC wants to foster unity through better communication and exchange of ideas within groups, promote everyone’s events, be a support system, and encourage a stronger sense of community. In addition to unifying Asian American organizations, we also want to build coalitions with groups that serve the interest of Asian Americans. With this larger coalition, we want to build relationships with the African American, Latino/a and Native American populations on campus.
What events have APAC done?
APAC throws the annual Asian American Welcome Event dubbed “You Bring Out the Asian American in Me”, which features comedic, theatrical, and spoken word performances by the Silk Mangos, national and regional individuals and teams, and is preceded by an Asian American organizational fair. The welcoming event usually draws out several hundreds in attendance, is held every second Thursday of each year, hands out free t-shirts, and is always free to the public.
Our Spring event is the “Building a Better FoundASIAN”, Pan-Asian American conference held on campus featuring various workshops ranging from topics of the arts to topics of hate crimes and political activism. In 2004, we had Slam Poetry champion and HBO’s “Def Poetry Jam” artist Bao Phi (www.baophi.com) help host a workshop with members of the Silk Mangos and offer several performances. Come Spring of 2005, our conference will be statewide.
APAC also hosts the first Asian American Leadership Institute (AALI) which allows selected individuals to receive 16 hours of leadership training from leaders in the community on areas of Publicity, Program Planning, Fundraising, promotion and more. Participants then take their newly acquired skills to help plan for the Spring, Pan-Asian, statewide conference, a historical event at UT. For more information, please go to www.utasiansonline.com/AALI.
How can APAC help?
APAC is here for you, the individual as well the collective community. If there is an issue that you feel needs to be addressed, a need for Asian American resources, or just a place of refuge, stop by and have a talk with us. As a part of the Multicultural Information Center (MIC), we also offer help with event planning, anti-discrimination support, co-sponsorship, button making access, free flyer copies (25 limit each time) as well as a design team that can help with graphical promotion (given ample notice) of your events. In return, we ask that you designate a representative to be the APAC communicator chair of your organization and relay information between your group and APAC at our general body meetings (held a few times a semester) as well as stopping by the MIC and expressing views, issues, and concerns with us, one on one. Please share your calendar of events with us so that we can promote them and use them to plan around event dates. Keep us updated about issues your group is facing and of any officer position changes. We want to build genuine relationships with the individuals that are involved in the organizations and help shape our campus climate.
Interested in signing up?
Simply send an email to ut.apac@gmail.com with 2-3 of the top officer’s names, positions, and email address (as well as the name and email of the person you pick to be your rep at APAC meetings and or one an one sessions if you can) and we will get back with you with more information as well as list serve procedures and opportunity notifications. It’s that simple!
|
