On an April day a dozen years ago, 17 students forced their way into a Nassau Hall office and locked themselves inside the room for a day and a half.
The sit-in protest — organized to promote better academic representation of Asian-American and Latino studies at the University — came as other students negotiated with administrators and held rallies on the grounds outside the building.
After eight rounds of discussion between the students' representatives and University administrators, the Nassau Hall protestors emerged from the building to the cheers of a gathered crowd of Princeton students and faculty, having procured a commitment from the University to create four to seven new professorships focused on Asian-American and Latino studies.
Twelve years to the day since the protest began, however, several alumni responsible for the event — in addition to current students involved in ethnic student groups — say they are still concerned about the dearth of ethnic-American courses in Princeton's curriculum.
Spurred to take action
The group of protestors in 1995 consisted of students from the Chicano Caucus, the Asian-American Students Association (AASA) and supportive classmates of various ethnic backgrounds, fighting for a range of University changes including increased course offerings in ethnic studies, more library holdings and permanent faculty members for and Asian-American and Latino studies.
Among the protestors were Ronald Kim '96, April Chou '96, Joshua Rosales '97 and Joe Hernandez-Kolski '96. Kim recalled the state of the University's course offerings in 1995, explaining why it prompted him and others to take action.
"There was really no representation in the curriculum as far as Asian-American studies were concerned," he said. "There was one course and it was called Asian-American history." Kim added that the course, in which several of the sit-in participants were enrolled, was taught by a visiting professor, not a permanent faculty member.
"There was no sort of stable curriculum," he said.
The organizers of the 1995 sit-in engaged in administrative lobbying during the years prior to their protest, but said they concluded more drastic methods were necessary. "I realized that some folks didn't want to pursue the issue, so I found myself going to meetings with the then-dean of student life and other administrators," Kim said. "[Then] a couple of us came to the conclusion that we would have to do something different or a little extra-parliamentary."
An effective effort?
The 36-hour sit-in prompted several commitments from the University, including an agreement to secure greater library holdings on the subjects of ethnic-American studies and to create a search committee tasked with seeking out and hiring faculty in Asian-American and Latino studies. Additionally, the University pledged to raise $6 million to pay these faculty members' salaries.
"We felt that it was important that we had written commitments in terms of a number of different elements like faculty hiring and library holdings," Chou, then the president of AASA, said.
But Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel, one of the administrators present for negotiations between the administration and protestors in 1995, said that none of the terms reached were true concessions on the part of the administration. "We had already made decisions administratively — e.g., about new faculty positions that would be authorized in ethnic studies — that were not publicly known," she said in an email.
"It was, of course, difficult to persuade students that those decisions had been made beforehand," she added, "rather than made as a result of and response to the sit-in."
'Worthy of study'
Regardless of whether the University's reforms resulted from the protest, some current students — as well as alumni of the protest 12 years ago — said they are still dissatisfied with the opportunities for ethnic study on campus.
"I think [the 1995 protesters'] efforts were successful immediately after the sit-in, but now it's been 12 years and there is no established Asian-American studies course," AASA co-president Justine Shum '08 said.
Current Chicano Caucus president Alma Moedano '08 said she also sees a lack of ethnic offerings, adding that she is frustrated by the effort it takes to ensure that the few Latino studies classes the University currently offers remain available. Moedano said she uses the word "Latino" to refer to people of that ethnicity specifically in the United States.
"We do have POL 333 [Latino Politics in the U.S.]," Moedano said. "It used to be taught maybe a decade ago and the two previous [Chicano] Caucus presidents had to work hard to get it back."
Politics major Victoria Laws '08, who is writing her spring term junior paper on the status of Latinos at Princeton, said it is important to distinguish between a program on Latin American studies — which Princeton currently offers — and one in Latino studies, which would focus on Latinos' experience in America.
"The experience of growing up in the U.S. is completely different," she said. "The music, the art, the poetry, the cultural experience is completely different than what happens in Latin America."
Laws, who is also publicity chair for the Chicano Caucus, added that the University "[owes] it to all minorities to be included in the academic discourse which occurs on campus."
"By not including these groups in the discourse," she said, "it is like saying these people aren't worthy of study."
Hernandez-Kolski said that when he participated in the 1995 sit-in protest, he, too, was anxious to emphasize that many minority groups should be considered "worthy of study."
"We have a very reputable African-American studies program, but nothing of the equivalent for Asian-American or Latino studies," he said, "and those are two other very strong, dominant cultures that have contributed just as massively to this country and are in just as much need of educational recognition."
Is Princeton lagging?
Shum and Katherine Chiang '08, current AASA co-presidents, echoed Hernandez-Kolski's concerns. "There's an Asian-American Studies major at [Penn]," Shum said. "They have it at Stanford, Columbia. [At] Princeton, we're just lagging."
Shum and Chiang said they plan to push for more of such classes, perhaps striving to integrate them into the University's current American Studies certificate program.
Meanwhile, the Chicano Caucus hopes to go further in its push for more academic representation. Laws said she hopes to see the establishment of a program in Latino studies at Princeton. "A lot of minorities feel that they don't have institutional representation," she said. "Having a program of Latino studies would give us faculty, staff, administrators, a place to go for funding and also just a place to meet each other."
"Those infrastructures and institutional means of access would really help support the minorities here on campus," she added.
Though Malkiel said she believes the University still needs to hire more faculty and expand its curricular emphasis on cultural and ethnic studies, she emphasized the considerable number of courses in ethnic studies that are already integrated into Princeton classrooms.
"Ethnic studies is a very significant component of our curriculum, expressed both in courses in the various departments and programs and in specific programs like African American Studies," she said in an email.
Sparking dialogue
Despite the 1995 protest's relative shortcomings in effecting longterm institutional change, some sit-in participants voiced an overall positive view of the protest's impact.
"To have people angry was great," Hernandez-Kolski said. "It created dialogue."
"In the end, [the sit-in] is something for me to be proud of," Kim said, "because while I'm not sure how much it did institutionally, you can't put a price tag on making people feel that they belong or that they are part of Princeton."
Read More
Joseph ’25 next Young Alumni Trustee in 21 percent turnout election
Vitus LarrieuGil Joseph ’25 won the Young Alumni Trustee election, which saw 21 percent turnout. Joseph, Stephen Padlo ’25 and Ben Wachspress ’25 competed in the final round of elections after advancing from a notably large primary in April.
Gil Joseph ’25 won the Young Alumni Trustee election, which saw 21 percent turnout. Joseph, Stephen Padlo ’25 and Ben Wachspress ’25 competed in the final round of elections after advancing from a notably large primary in April.
‘A brilliant young contemporary writer and a beautiful human being’: Remembering Lauren Blackburn ’26
Victoria Davies and Caitlyn TabladaBlackburn was found deceased by authorities on April 25, several days after he was reported missing. He was 23 years old at the time of his death and is remembered by friends and mentors as a brilliant writer, voracious learner, and loving friend. A family obituary said he passed away after a “courageous battle with bipolar disorder.”
Blackburn was found deceased by authorities on April 25, several days after he was reported missing. He was 23 years old at the time of his death and is remembered by friends and mentors as a brilliant writer, voracious learner, and loving friend. A family obituary said he passed away after a “courageous battle with bipolar disorder.”
GSG approves audit, delays budget approval after ‘insufferable’ meeting
Nikki HanThe final Graduate Student Government (GSG) meeting for the semester lasted more than an hour and a half when discussions over the proposed budget for the next year and a proposed Student Life Fee of $100 turned controversial.
The final Graduate Student Government (GSG) meeting for the semester lasted more than an hour and a half when discussions over the proposed budget for the next year and a proposed Student Life Fee of $100 turned controversial.