Missed Opportunities: Supporting Southeast Asian American Students at an Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander–Serving Institution

• In Event: Institutional Leaders, Staff, and Contexts Shaping Southeast Asian American Student Success Along the Education Pathway

Abstract

Research focusing on the role of Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs) in supporting student success has increased over the years (Adrian et al., 2018; Kurland et al., 2019; Mac Fallon, 2020; Nguyen, 2019). This increased focus on AANAPISIs indicates that these institutions are important sites of inquiry to determine how best to serve Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students, and specifically, important sites for understanding the experiences of Southeast Asian American (SEAA) students. SEAAs experience significant disparities in educational attainment; yet, are often not the focus of research. Their experiences are hidden and invisible due to data aggregation practices that subsume their experiences under the umbrella Asian American racial category. AANAPISIs are important sites of inquiry for understanding how SEAA students experience support and ultimately success in their educational journeys.
The purpose of this case study is to comprehensively explore the contexts that shape an AANAPISI’s efforts to support SEAA students and to understand SEAA student experiences holistically. The research questions guiding this study are: How do institutional agents at the institution work to transform the campus to serve SEAA students? What institutional contexts impact efforts to support SEAA students? How do SEAA students describe their experiences at the institution?
A case study was conducted at Arroyo Willow University (AWU), a public four-year AANAPISI in California with a large SEAA student population. AWU is part of the California State University (CSU) system, which launched an AAPI initiative in 2011 in hopes to increase the graduation and retention rates of AAPI students. Faculty and staff at AWU have championed a few campus efforts, such as a college access program, a peer mentoring program, and a student leadership retreat as part of a menu of single and continued initiatives to increase AAPI students’ sense of support and belonging.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior administrators, faculty, staff, and SEAA students to understand how AWU’s institutional context shapes both the students’ experiences and the institutional agents’ efforts to advocate for and support SEAA student needs. Findings report that although the AANAPISI status and funding is an important aspect of fostering such change, unsustained resources and limited support at multiple levels, as well as unrealized disaggregated data structures, have prohibited sustained changes to increased support for SEAA students. Findings also suggest that change agents within the faculty and staff have started multiple localized efforts to organize sustainable change at the infrastructure level to mitigate these contexts.
This study contributes to existing knowledge in a few ways. First, this study examines how AANAPISI staff, faculty, and leadership work to transform their institution to specifically support SEAA students. Further, this study offers important perspectives on institutional-level contexts that shape institutional transformation efforts. And lastly, this study also includes SEAA student narratives as a crucial part of the institutional narrative, which provides meaningful insights regarding their experiences and how such experiences are shaped by attending an AANAPISI. Overall, the study will contribute needed knowledge about the institutional barriers and challenges to supporting SEAA students and further inform policy implementation scholarship.

Authors

• Jacqueline Mac, Northern Illinois University
  Presenting Author

• Varaxy Yi, California State University - Fresno
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ko Yang, California State University - Fresno
  Presenting Author

• Kathy Moua, California State University - Fresno
  Non-Presenting Author