There seems to be a reoccurring theme… Haverford ASA had the same problem too (HASA was recently revived this year). (Swarthmore SAO is probably the most consistent in institutional memory among the Tri-Co ASA groups.)
Cycles of motivated college students who eventually end up graduating take with them their progress and memories.
It doesn’t help that technology keeps on changing as well.
That is why the 2014-2015 Board declares this year to be a change! We are in the process of revamping this website and preserving the history of A/ASA (previously ASA). There appears to be a break in activity from the end of 2010 to 2012. Because of our constantly updated Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, and at one point, Tumblr, the 2013-2014 Board felt it unnecessary to update this website. Gee were we wrong.
Recent incidents of racism on campus and other significant events that should not be forgotten as students pass through Bryn Mawr and move on with life sparked our renewed interest in keeping the institutional memory alive. The student body has been pressuring the Bryn Mawr administration to implement mandatory diversity training for faculty, staff, and students since forever, and nothing has happened so far. Asian Americans have a stereotyped reputation of being complacent and quiet. How can we counteract this if we are not properly informed? That is why it is up to us, the current students, to reflect on these non-isolated events, and confront and document them now so future students do not repeat the same mistakes.
At the beginning of Fall 2014, I finally went to the Help Desk in Canaday to get access to this blog. I have not had a chance to update it until now. I had just returned to school after my internship with Asian Cinevision’s AAIFF and had recently joined the Re:Humanities Working Group (organizing the Tri-Co Digital Humanities Symposium). Over the summer I upgraded and sharpened my social media skills and returned to school ready to use them for something bigger than myself. Re:Humanities taught me the importance of digital archiving in institutional memory (how fitting that the #ReHum15 theme is “Save, Share, Self-Destruct”), which only fueled my hunger to update this blog even more.
The process started with changing the theme of the blog from Twenty Eleven to Oxygen. I’m no expert at WordPress or html, but thanks to the internet I’ve been able to make do with this outdated system of WordPress (2010) the school provides to clubs. I then installed the slideshow features and menus and tabs and social media feeds. My main resources for filling in these holes of what I knew of ASA come from the former ASA Facebook Group (active before ASA switched over to a Facebook page), the Board Google Drive, and a handful of articles on previous culture shows written in the BiCo News. I have been able to access the Facebook Group’s past events to copy and paste into this website and documents dating from 2009 in the Google Drive. I have also been googling the term “Bryn Mawr Asian Students Association” to see if I could fill in more holes in the timeline. Other than one guest visitor who presented to ASA in 2000, I am having trouble finding information prior to 2007. When was ASA officially started? How were race relations when the first Asians attended Bryn Mawr? Are there any prominent Bryn Mawr alums of Asian descent?
While the Facebook Group is currently inactive, many Bryn Mawr College ASA graduates as still part of it. My hopes are that the 2014-2015 Board can contact those in the group and establish an Asian/Asian American Alumnae/i Group. We know this has been a dream of many past ASA Boards and we feel like this is the year! If you have any information about ASA’s history, please feel free to contact us at brynmawr.asa@gmail.com!
-Miranda
Photo creds to The Getty Iris
