From:
Anita Ahmed <anitaahmed@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 12, 2005 10:04 PM
Subject: Todays Article
To:
zacharyw@mail.utexas.edu
Hello Zack,
There are a few things in today's article that I am concerned about:
1. I am not a pre-med major. I am Asian American Studies and Government major.
2. The report was NOT written soley by the members of APAC. I have told you
repeatedly that this report is a compilation, some of us compiled certain
sections, but MOST of us didn't. Majority of what is in the report are NOT the
experiences of APAC members. Do you think all of us experienced all of those
hate crimes? Sarika and Henna have chosen to reveal their names in the report,
but they aren't even part of APAC. I think this statement is very important and
needs to be clarified because people think that the report is just about a few
individuals who are complaining when these issues go beyond the students who are
courageous enough to hold admins accountable.
3. You also did not clarify in the report that the role of APAC is a safe place
that has always been housed in the MIC. It is not merely a student organization,
but an agency that is paid for and part of the Office of Vice President of
Student Affairs.
4. You present viewpoints of people that are against the report, but not any
view points of students who are for the report even though it appears that you
planned to. If you need some, contact Sehjong Hamjong or the other individual
who wrote a firing line about Yiheng's firing line.
5. When you quote me as saying "We're not trying to represent everyone", you cut
my quote short because I stated that it would be impossible to represent such a
diverse group. We still want to represent the Asian American students who have
come to us seeking help, and putting a statement saying that make it seem like
we may be exclusionary with who we want to represent and will sway people from
seeking help from us if they don't feel like they fit mainstream Asian American
standards. Our report represents the experiences of a diverse group of Asian
American students (who are not a part of APAC) and have to do with Student
Affairs and the Admins, hence the title of our report.
6. The search for new APA counselors did not take place last spring, it started
this fall and maybe in the late summer. The CMHC's budget didn't even get
decided on till June 20th, so they couldn't have done that in the spring.
7. You also made it seem like David Drum called the second meeting to discuss
treatment. He didn't even want to meet the second time, it was Clinton and I
that called that meeting. Even now, we have never been rude or even openly angry
with the staff and have always been cheerful. Maybe he thought our letter was
disrespectful, but we were never hostile with anyone from the CMHC staff.
8. We sent the letter to CMHC a few days before it was talked about in the
Texan. Maybe Jane Bost didn't receive it or go thru her mail quick enough, but
we sent it way before. How else would the Texan have been able to interview and
write about it if we didn't do this? And we never asked the Daily Texan to write
an article for us, it was not a tactic of ours to get attention. It was
something that we cc-ed to other admins and to Ben Heath, which is a common
practice at the MIC anyway.
9. You don't explain why Mamta criticized the Mental Health center "harshly".
That meeting was about Asian American Hate crimes on campus, and the CMHC at
that point still did not have a counselor with Asian American experience. Even
worse, they didn't know about the Asian American hate crimes even though other
admins (like Dr. Fong, who called the meeting) did. THAT says something about
the CMHC and their knowledge about our community.
10. You did not explain that Voices Against Violence and psychiatric care is not
available to students who come in for general counseling, so it still appears
that the CMHC staff had people who met Asian American needs when that is not the
case.
I know you cannot do anything about the issues regarding the CMHC, but I feel
that it is really important that you clarify my first few points about APAC and
it's role as well as how the report was put together in your next installment.
The false picture you are creating of APAC is not coherent with what it is that
we do and this will confuse people.
Thanks!
--
Anita A. Ahmed
"We Are Change!"
The University of Texas at Austin
The Multicultural Information Center
http://www.utexas.edu/student
Have comments? Email ut.apac@gmail.com