Introduction to Asian-American Coalition for Education (AACE)

On May 15, 2015, 64 Chinese-American, Indian-American, Korean-American, PakistaniAmerican
and other Asian-American organizations jointly submitted an administrative complaint to the Department of Education and Department of Justice to request that they conduct an investigation into Harvard University’s discriminatory admissions practices against Asian American applicants. As the largest joint action taken by Asian-American communities over the last few decades, after the complaint was filed, it immediately caught enormous media attention and attracted the support from many parts of American society, including bipartisan support from the U.S. House of Representatives. It has been a historic event.

Nevertheless, it was just a great start. Department of Education has chosen to dodge our complaint and most American top universities have not changed their discriminatory practices against Asian-American applicants. On July 20, 2015, in response to call from AACE, an AsianAmerican father filed complaint with OCR against Yale University, Columbia University, Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Dartmouth University, Cornell University, University of Chicago and Amherst College. All nine universities unfairly rejected her and she had to choose to attend college abroad. However, more than 16 her non-Asian classmates with lower grades, test scores and equivalent or less extracurricular accomplishments were accepted into Ivy League or other top colleges. This case underscores the severe and widespread discrimination against Asian-American applicants.

It is imperative for us to continue our endeavor to pursue equal education rights for our children and children of all Americans. In order to build organizational and resource support, the organizing committee of Asian-American Coalition has decided to form “Asian-American Coalition for Education,” as defined as the following:

Type of Organization: AACE is a non-political, non-profit, national organization devoted to Asian-American equal rights on education and other education related activities. 

Mission and Vision: AACE’s mission is to achieve equal education rights for Asian Americans. Our vision is to unite Asian American communities (organizations as well as individuals) and partner with organizations from different communities and representing diverse interests all over the nation to achieve our objectives.

Organizational Structure: AACE will accept both organizational affiliates and members through the affiliates and individual memberships. The Board of Directors will make decisions for major issues, with the power to delegate various duties and responsibilities to an Executive Committee and other Committees. While most work will be performed by volunteers, as organizational needs require and budgetary needs permit, AACE will recruit and retain a staff to coordinate work and events. We are in a process of developing Bylaws that will contain more details about governance.

Registration Status: AACE has been registered in California now. It has obtained IRS approval as a non-profit organization.

Affiliated Organizations: AACE will take Asian-American organizations as its organizational members, which are called affiliated organizations. By joining AACE, the affiliated organization will participate in and support AACE in activities related to education rights. In the areas of education rights, AACE will coordinate with affiliated organizations, take a lead and represent affiliated organizations. In other areas, affiliated organizations will conduct its own independent activities, with no relationship with AACE.

AACE’s Ongoing and Next Step Actions:

  1. Encourage Asian-American students who were unfairly rejected by top American universities to file complaint with Department of Education (if the rejection happened within last 180 days) or Department of Justice (if the rejection happened earlier than last 180 days)
  2. Prepare an Amicus Brief in support of Fisher vs. University of Texas in the upcoming Supreme Court hearing this December.
  3. Plan to file an administrative complaint against other Ivy League Universities regarding their discriminatory admissions practices against Asian-American Applicants.

AACE calls for Asian-American organizations to join, to become an affiliated organization of AACE. For further questions, please contact:

  1. Mr. Ashok Madan: [email protected]
  2. Mr. Ting Dai: [email protected]
  3. Mr. Ted Tian: [email protected]
  4. Mr. Yukong Zhao: [email protected]

Appendixes:

Achievements of AACE in Our Pursuit of Equal Education Rights

  • May 15, 2015, representatives of Asian American Coalition officially submitted the complaint with Office for Civil Rights, Department of Education and Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice; held a news conference in Washington DC and met Congresswomen Grace Meng and Virginia Foxx, and Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who personally spoke in our news conference.
  • May15 – 31, 2015, more than 50 news reports from the U.S., Asia, Europe, Oceania and Middle East
  • May 19 – June 26, more than 20 editorials published in English Newspapers. On June 5, 2015, Wall Street Journal published an interview with Mr. Yukong Zhao, Chair of AACE Organizing Committee. This is the most comprehensive and in-depth interview on this subject in years by America’s #1 newspaper.
  • June 22, 2015, US House Representatives Ed Royce, Dana Rohrabacher, Pete Olson, Glenn Grothman, and Dan Donovan issued a letter to Department of Education and Department of Justice in support of our complaint.
  • June 25, 2015 AACE received a letter from Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Department of Education, dismissing the complaint citing the reason: there is an ongoing lawsuit against Harvard by Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. AACE vows to continue our fight for equal education rights and plans to file complaints against other Ivy League Universities in near future.
  • July 20, 2015, in response to call from AACE, an Asian-American father filed complaint with OCR against Yale University, Columbia University, Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Dartmouth University, Cornell University, University of Chicago and Amherst College. All nine universities unfairly rejected her and she had to choose to attend college abroad. More than 16 her non-Asian classmates with lower grades, test scores and equivalent or less extracurricular accomplishments were accepted into Ivy League or other top colleges. This case underscores the severe and widespread discrimination against Asian-American applicants.
  • August 4, 2015, Members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus-Representatives Judy Chu, Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, Michael Honda, Mark Takano, Grace Meng, Ted Lieu and Mark Takai – issued a letter to Department of Justice in support of our complaint against Harvard.

Leaders of AACE

  1. Alex Chen – Former President of The Orange Club, the first grassroots volunteer-based Chinese American Political Action Committee based in Los Angeles, California.
  2. Lee Cheng – Secretary and founding member of the Board of Directors of the Asian American Legal Foundation based in San Francisco, CA.
  3. Ting Dai – Vice-President, 80-20 Washington DC Chapter.
  4. Qing Jin – President, Chinese Association of Science, Education and Culture of South Florida.
  5. Mr. Kewal Kanda – President, Global Organization of People of Indian Origin, Los Angeles Chapter.
  6. Matloob Khan – Pakistan Policy Institute.
  7. Swann Lee – A civil rights activist, and a Chinese-American author, who has published fiction in literary journals such as Uncivil, 236, Charles River Journal, Writers Talk, etc.
  8. Chunyan Li – A Chinese-American professor and civil rights activist, who was interviewed by CNN
    News during Chinese Americans’ demonstration against Jimmy Kimmel Show of ABC.
  9. Ashok Madan – President, National Federation of Indian American Associations.
  10. Jack Ouyang – A Chinese-American Civil Rights Activist and a key Organizer of Chinese American
    for Equality.
  11. Yingying Sun – President of Houston Chinese Alliance.
  12. Ted Tian – President of Chinese American Equalization Association.
  13. Jeff Wang – A Chinese-American educator whose son, Michael Wang has filed administrative complaint to Department of Education in protest of the discrimination by Ivy League Universities.
  14. Wenxin Xu – the Secretary General of the Federation of Florida Chinese Association，and the Vice President of Shandong Fellowship Association of Florida.
  15. Henry Yang – Board Member of Silicon Valley Chinese Association Foundation.
  16. Guodong Zhang – President of Long Island Chinese American Association.
  17. Yukong Zhao – A Chinese-American author, who has published two books and many columns in Orlando Sentinel, Forbes, The World Journal, Sing Tao Daily on Asian Culture and issues related to Asian Americans, include the first column on English media in support of Chinese Americans’ demonstration against Jimmy Kimmel Show of ABC in November 2013. Mr. Zhao chairs the Organizing Committee.