Cal State East Bay Professor Appointed Inaugural Director for CSU’s AANHPI Middle Leadership Academy

The CSU's first Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Middle Leadership Academywill be held at Sacramento State this June. This collaboration between the CSU Student Success Network and the CSU Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Student Achievement Program, builds on the network's mission to support CSU students, staff, faculty and administrators as they plan for and implement systems and practices that center equitable student learning, engagement, progression and completion.

Appointed as the program's inaugural director, Arnab Mukherjea, Cal State East Bay professor of public health, will lead CSU teams to work on support services for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students.

"My immediate goal is to recruit, organize and prepare teams from each campus across the CSU system for critical engagement in characterizing structural barriers to equitable student success," said Mukherjea. "Because campuses don't get a chance to collaborate often across the system, it is important to me to bring together a community of stakeholders for common purpose and critical discussions regarding equitable opportunities for AA & NH/PI students to succeed academically and professionally."

According to Mukherjea, one huge issue in the higher education system is that data collection lumps diverse communities, including Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students, into one group. "Without standard data disaggregation, institutions are unable to know which specific groups lack opportunities for equitable success and what unique barriers certain communities face."

Mukherjea says that in California, and especially in the Bay Area, the perception of being a "model minority" is inconsistent with the lived realities of AANHPI students in the CSU, who have to balance work and family obligations with their educational pursuits and professional aspirations.

During the AANHPI Middle Leadership Academy, which runs June 3-6, Mukherjea hopes to explore these barriers and come up with ideas and solutions that facilitate equitable learning conditions.

"These approaches need to be culturally responsive to the lived experiences of and unique social pressures faced by racial/ethnic minority students," said Mukherjea. "Without these institutional supports in place, opportunities for equitable student success become compromised, resulting in equity gaps in rates of retention and graduation, as well as career entry and professional advancement."

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