The Asian American and Pacific Islander communities at IUB have a long history of activism and of speaking out on issues affecting their communities. Before the university had any academic unit on teaching and research about Asian American studies or student support offices, students of Asian heritage built community and mobilized within groups like the Asian American Association and Indiana University Student Association.
Starting in 1988, those students started advocating for the establishment of the Asian Culture Center. After 10 long years, the center first opened its doors in 1998. Now celebrating 20 years, the ACC has and always will promote and advance the needs and interests of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Today, the center has evolved into an important resource for IU and the Bloomington community.
Change does not occur overnight
Go more in-depth into the student activism of the decade before the ACC was founded.
Voices of the activists
Hear the story of how the Asian Culture Center was founded directly from the student activists who established the center. For a transcript of the podcast, click here.
Grand Opening of the ACC
After 10 years of student activism, the Asian Culture Center finally opened its doors on Saturday, October 3, 1998. The celebration featured lion dance, student organizations, and great food.
Read more about the grand opening below.
The First Four Years
Take a walk down memory lane with these photos from the very beginning of the ACC. This is the first time these images have been published online!
Beyond Sample Gates: Community outreach
Won-Joon Yoon
On the Fourth of July in 1999, Won-Joon Yoon, a first-year Korean international student, was about to enter the Korean United Methodist Church when a white supremacist fatally shot him. The Bloomington community as a whole, both on-campus and off-campus, was shocked. Led by Bloomington United and in collaboration with other organizations such as the ACC, the town held a rally in response to the tragedy.
Learn more:- 7/6/1999: CNN coverage
- 7/3/2009: Reflections on the 10th anniversary
- 4/8/2018: Bloomington United is back
- The Won-Joon Yoon Scholarship created in his memory
Asian Alumni Association
Creating the IU Asian Alumni Association first began with a February 2000 meeting among Asian American alumni, student leaders, ACC staff, and John Hobson of the IU Alumni Association. The group's early goals were to engage alumni and support current students of Asian heritage.
Learn more:- IUAAA's website
Asian Pacific American Faculty and Staff Council
Faculty and staff came together to establish the Asian Pacific American Faculty and Staff Council in 2004. The formation of this council helped to provide a sense of community among AAPI faculty and staff and visibility in academic, professional, and university leadership. The council works to present a collective voice and improve the lives and careers of all Asian Pacific Americans on all the IU campuses.
Learn more:- APAFSC's website
Felix Chen Memorial Fund
The Felix Chen Memorial Fund was established to honor the life of Felix Chen, a special needs child who died in 2004 at only six years old. Through the love and commitment of his mother, this fund supports educational programs that encourage greater awareness of the broad cultural and ethnic diversity of the world in which we live. The fund’s Teaching Diversity Award supports educational initiatives for area schoolchildren.
Learn more:- 4/17/2004: Indianapolis local news coverage
- 7/13/2006: Lawsuit settlement
- The Teaching Diversity Award
Rice Paper Archives
Rice Paper is the ACC's semiannual newsletter. Here are several early issues that were scanned and are now available for digital viewing for the first time. Flip through for highlights of the ACC's first ten years.
ACC 10th Anniversary
The ACC celebrated its tenth birthday throughout the 2008-2009 year, kicked off by the anniversary banquet on Friday, October 3, 2008. Over a formal dinner at the IMU Alumni Hall, guest speakers and special performances gave tribute to the ACC's work. In addition to celebrating the ACC, the banquet awarded the Distinguished Asian Alumni Award to Judge G. Michael Witte, and it announced the establishment of the Asian American Studies Program.
See the university's official news release.
Asian American Studies Program
The ACC's 10th Anniversary Celebration also officially commemorated the creation of the Asian American Studies Program. Much like the founding of the ACC, the establishment of IU's Asian American Studies Program took years of hard work and activism from students, faculty, and staff.
Read Higher Education Ph.D. Stephanie Nguyen's historical case study of Asian American Studies in the Midwest.
"East of California"Rice Paper from 2008-2018
Catch up on what the ACC has been up to in the last ten years with more Rice Paper.
Global community outreach
Many Asian Americans here at IU have family and friends living in different Asian countries. When disaster strikes abroad, the ACC bands together with students, faculty, staff, and Bloomington residents to send aid and support communities on the other side of the world.
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
When the ACC was just five years old, the center was part of the massive campus-wide collaboration that aided communities in South and Southeast Asia and East Africa
2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami
East Asian Studies and the ACC cosponsored a teach-in and benefit event
2013 Typhoon Haiyan, Tacloban, Philippines
The ACC, Filipino Student Association, and Filipino Bloomington residents hosted awareness and fundraising events
2015 Nepal earthquake
Students, faculty, and staff formed IU4Nepal and raised more than $20,
000
Highlights!
If a picture's worth a thousand words, videos must be more...? Click through and reminisce on more recent times at the ACC.
ACC Alumni
The ACC is what it is today because of many individuals who bring vitality, creativity, and energy with them when they work or volunteer. The center is shaped and powered by incredible talents, including students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members. Some work in the forefront of affairs, while others work behind the scenes.
Here are some of the people who have been an integral part of the ACC throughout the years. This is NOT a complete list, so we urge you to help us remember our volunteers and staff whom we missed by emailing us their names and contact info at acc@indiana.edu.
Director
- Melanie Castillo-Cullather
Program & Admin Assistants
- Mi-Young Kim
- Molly Jeon
- Eunhee (Jenny) Kim
- Froozan Amir
- Babita Lamsal Upadhyay
- Haesook Park
Program Associate
- Sarah Moon Stamey
Graduate Assistants
- Shawn Chen
- Maysee Yang Herr
- Theresa Chen
- Cheng-yi Liu
- Wendy Ho
- Lori Kido Lopez
- Mai-Lin Poon
- Lanita Campbell
- Sarah Moon Stamey
- Taylor Killough
- Kayleigh Burgess
- Dillon Tautunu Smith
- Keiko McCullough
