#hmongstudies

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A visit from a member of the royal family of Laos.

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By: Ngan Nguyen, APIASF/GMS Scholar

Long time no see! This will be a short post from me, but I’m just super excited to share with you a picture that fits repConnection perfectly. I met two wonderful Gates scholars, Lynn and Austin, through my study abroad program this February. CONNECTIONS right?!

We’ve been spending quite a bit of time with each other in the past week, studying for our midterms at Yonsei University in South Korea. We obviously failed at a study session selfie, but they’re still really great! :)

[mengvang31-blog]

How is Academic History Valued and Whose History is Valued in Contemporary America?

In history and from history we are able to find different accounts of how institutions were ran and who had the privilege and power of running these institutions.  Of course it is Institutions of Higher Education that is the focus but take note that the same people also have the influence and power over other institutions in society.  What is the purpose of higher education in America?  

From the very beginning during the Colonial Period institutions of Higher Education served those who were able to afford and attend them.  The curriculum was heavily influenced by religious leaders and thus we find that from the very start education in America was not inclusive for everyone.  Studies were focused around biblical text, mathematics, and learning ancient languages such as Latin (Thelin, 2011, Pg. 19).  Now when we observe what is valuable and useful in today's society it would not make much sense to incorporate Christianity and ancient languages into our contemporary curricula.

To change academic institutions and systems is often difficult and met with much backlash.  In 2012 while attending the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire there was controversy over what language courses that were being offered.  Languages such as Greek and Latin courses were offered year after year even though enrollment in these courses only produced five or six student a semester.  The major issue arose when Hmong language courses were only offered biannually even though they enrolled and overflowed around thirty students.  There were always waiting lists to be enrolled in Hmong language courses and this upset many students who needed to fulfill language requirement or students who wanted to learn about their language, culture, and history.  Note that culture and history are also bundled into Hmong language courses because at this time the institution did not see value in offering separate history and culture courses.  I was involved in student movements which became quite powerful because after petitioning, writing letters to administrators, and meeting countless times with those in charge of the curriculum at UW-Eau Claire we were granted funds for a Hmong Studies Initiative.  These funds would only last for a couple of years as a test trial however.  

Why should there even be a Hmong studies or ethnic studies in institutions of higher education today?  That is the question that was often posed to students and faculty that supported this movement.  The answer was always right in front of the university because the largest ethnic minority group on the UW-Eau Claire campus was Hmong students.  Instead of seeing Hmong culture as a growing and thriving community in the Midwest it would seem that administrators viewed Hmong culture as indigenous and dying off.  There was no value in investing money for a Hmong program if Hmong culture and epistemologies are going be to be lost in the future.  This is where many students drew the line because the University offered ancient languages that had little use in today’s society and offered courses shaped for White students but when asked to support an initiative for Hmong students (the majority minority group) on campus for the past twenty years, the university turned its back.  Note that this was an ongoing struggle since I arrived at UW- Eau Claire in the Fall of 2009.  Today I am a alumni of UW-Eau Claire but I still have high hopes and expectations for that university because it is bringing in more Hmong students than ever and I do not want these students to be cheating out of their language, culture, history, epistemology, and understanding of the world. 

We see that curriculum is often shaped by those in power which from the very start has been White men.  Even today when we observe structures in society we see that the majority of CEOs, company owners, administrators, and people in charge are still very White and very male.  The attempts to diversify institutions of higher education have been attempted since the Colonial period with the example of Native Americans (Thelin, 2011, Pg. 30).  Is the purpose to benefit White society or is it to help propel students of color?  Students of color are not valued like their White peers because they are tokenized, used for research, and in the sense of boarding schools they are being ‘assimilated’ which we can just call whitenized.

We can learn something from the Antebellum period in America because instead of focusing on the wants and needs of a prestigious city and university, there needs to remain a focus on students (Church & Sedlak).  Students should always remain the priority of colleges and universities and even if they are not White students, universities should work on changing to support their student body.  As future student affairs professionals it is important to understand the structure, governance, and history of higher education.  Only then can you better serve your students because today students come from many different identities and we need to see value in different cultures, histories, and epistemologies.  What can we take away from the history of how curriculums have been shaped and valued?  We can avoid the mistakes that UW-Eau Claire made and support students who are in need of certain courses.  Change in higher education is difficult and hard to come by but as future student affairs professionals it is our responsibility to be able to work with student’s needs and societal changes.