WASHINGTON — One of the best ways for Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander students to move from the margins of higher education to the mainstream is for colleges and universities to institutionalize the programs designed to serve them.
That was one of the major themes to emerge Friday at a gathering meant to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the establishment of Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions — or AANAPISIs.
The federal designation is for degree-granting institutions that have a full-time equivalent undergraduate enrollment of at least 10 percent Asian American students or Native American Pacific Islander students. There are currently 35 such institutions nationwide, and they are eligible to apply for AANAPISI grants meant to strengthen their institutions.
In order for the programs to have the desired effect — namely, the success of AANAPI students — college and university leaders must take the lessons learned from the programs and make them part of their overall operations, said Dr. Kim Geron, principal investigator for Transfer Asian Pacific American Student Services at California State University, East Bay.
“We need to institutionalize these programs,” Geron said, noting that the AANAPISI grants are just seed money that “won’t be around forever.”
“You have to build your institutional support,” Geron said.
But the task can be difficult, according to Dr. Timothy Fong, project director and principal investigator for the Full Circle Project at California State University, Sacramento, because of what he lamented was many college leaders’ lack of familiarity on just what being an AANAPISI entails.
