Campus Groups Re-evaluate ‘Umbrella Group’ Designation

With the Asian American Alliance’s decision to drop its designation as an umbrella group this year, many similar organizations are taking a closer look at their place on campus.

The AAA was originally conceived as a union of presidents representing different campus Asian-interest groups. By bringing them all together, the presidents could discuss issues relating to their specific groups, including space issues, funding, and intra-group relations, as a coalition. Gradually, though, its focus has shifted, becoming an independent entity with its own board, general body, programming, and political focus.

Tian Xie, SEAS ’08 and last year’s AAA president, said that its distinctly political mission made it difficult for the organization to represent various Asian-interest groups that might not have a similarly activist focus.

“AAA is so active with political issues that other groups might perceive us as self-righteous,” he said. “This perception was compounded by our umbrella status. Now we can achieve what I see as our more important political mission without this label of an arbitrarily assigned position of power.”

Student leaders commented on “umbrella” as a term fraught with the politics of representation.

Natali Segovia, CC ’08, president of the Student Organization of Latinos said that although SOL still functions as a pan-ethnic group uniting its member organizations, it completely avoids the term “umbrella,” citing its problematic implications.

“Literally, an umbrella covers things—it is a static, inactive piece, with only that one function,” Segovia said. “We didn’t think it was descriptive of our organization.” She added that the term implies a top-down hierarchy among organizations—something that SOL does not support.

Xie added that along with the problematic nature of the term, the Asian student population had changed as well, affecting AAA’s ability to truly act as an umbrella to Asian-interest organizations.

“We now have more international students, who are not necessarily Asian Americans at all,” Xie said. “To have their groups under Asian American Alliance doesn’t make sense; they don’t want this identification.”

The change in AAA’s structure was sparked by a Bwog post written by staffer and AAA political committee member Karen Leung, CC ’10, who, in her review of the Chinese Student Club’s 2007 Lunar Gala culture show, called CSC “AAA’s conspicuously apolitical little brother.” This phrase, particularly the words “little brother,” made some of AAA’s member organizations question AAA’s umbrella designation.

“It was easy to understand why CSC and other clubs would ask, ‘Why does AAA have arbitrary power over me?’” Leung said. “The power was never exercised; it was only a nominal thing.”

Christien Tompkins, CC ’08 and executive co-chair of United Students of Color Council said he still felt umbrellas met a critical need, citing USCC’s umbrella structure as a critical unifying force for the groups within it. Tompkins said that being in an umbrella group meant striking a balance between addressing issues as an independent body and serving a larger community.

“USCC serves a dual purpose,” Tompkins said. “We support organizations, fostering communication and collaboration, helping with funding. We also want to bolster what we do as an organization in and of itself for students of color—as a distinct identity that asks what it means to be a student of color.”

Despite AAA’s change in designation, president Calvin Sun, CC ’08, stressed the group’s commitment to unifying the Asian population within the entire campus community.

“Umbrella denotes a bubble,” Sun said. “We care about the entire campus in relation to Asian Americans. If something affects the entire student body, I want AAA to be involved. We want less tunnel vision, less insularity.”