The Michigan State University community began celebrating Asian Pacific Islander Desi American, or APIDA, Heritage Month on March 16 and will continue through April 24.
The monthlong commemoration recognizes the APIDA community at MSU. According to the Diversity at MSU 2019-20 Annual Student and Workforce Diversity Data Report from the Office for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, there were 3,272 students who identified as Asian or Hawaiian/Pacific Islander in fall 2020 making up 7.3% of the student body. For the same semester, there were 1,141 MSU employees who identified as Asian or Hawaiian/Pacific Islander or 8.7% of campus employees. Of those employees, 254 were support staff and 887 were faculty and academic staff.
“The significance of Michigan State University recognizing the APIDA community means I and my brothers and sisters from different regions of the world are represented, seen and heard,” said Haitau Yang, a third-year applied engineering sciences major and president of the Hmong American Student Association and vice president-elect for the Asian Pacific American Student Organization, or APASO.
APIDA Heritage Month is traditionally commemorated nationally and in Michigan every May to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese people to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869, which depended primarily on the labor of Chinese immigrants. However, the heritage month wasn’t always a monthlong celebration and has had various names.
In 1977, U.S. House and Senate bills failed to pass either chamber to dedicate the week of May 7-10, 1978, as Pacific/Asian American Heritage Week. The following year it was passed by both chambers and signed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the first Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week was commemorated during the week of May 4-10, 1979. In 1990, the commemoration was extended to the full month of May and in 1992 it was recognized as an annual event.
Nationally, presidential proclamations have evolved the name from Asian Pacific American Heritage Month to Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, which is what U.S. President Biden has used. MSU has also evolved the name to its current iteration of Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month to intentionally acknowledge the panethnicity of the Asian identify.
The MSU community has been celebrating the heritage month since the early 90s. The celebration originated from conversations with students and Maggie Chen-Hernandez, director of Mosaic Multicultural Unity Center and then APASO adviser. These talks came about following the brutal murder of Vincent Chin in a hate crime in 1982 in Highland Park, Michigan. And, during the 2003-04 founding of the Asian Pacific American Studies Program, or APA Studies, the consciousness of the APIDA community was increasing.
“[Historically] it was this kind of awakening, and it really wasn’t until the early 90s that I really started pushing this whole notion of ‘let’s get a month together’,” Chen-Hernandez said.
The decision was made to host celebrations from mid-March to mid-April at MSU due to the academic calendar and to allow for the full APIDA community of students, staff and faculty to engage with the celebrations and programming. Over the years, the monthlong commemoration has ebbed and flowed, as it leaned on students to sustain it over the years.
The heritage month found reinvigoration under Meaghan Kozar, coordinator of the Office of Cultural and Academic Transition, or OCAT, and interim project manager of the Inclusive Campus Initiative; volunteer student leaders MSU alumnae Anna Lin, student services assistant in OCAT, and Chloe Majzel, a senior majoring in international relations and former APASO president; and continued primary support from APASO, APA Studies and OCAT. MSU celebrates APIDA Heritage Month because of the foundation these individuals built over decades of advocacy and labor.
“APIDA Heritage Month allows those who identify as APIDA to feel confident and comfortable about their identity at MSU,” Yang said. “It serves as an opportunity to educate others about many different heritages and cultures from our diverse community.”
To learn more, visit the MSU APIDA Heritage Month website.