ACC promotes deep discussions

International students from more than 125 countries attend IU, but where can they go when they need help, miss home or want to meet people in similar situations?
One place is the IU Asian Culture Center.

Lanita Gregory Campbell, a graduate assistant at the Asian Culture Center, said the main focus for the center is foundation events, programs that are set in stone and occur with a certain frequency.

Campbell coordinated this semester’s ongoing event “Over a Cup of Tea.”

This monthly program is a discussion about issues that Pacific Asian-Americans face, with guest speakers coming in to offer their own input.

The next discussion will take place 7 p.m. today in the center. The talk will cover public health programs that are geared towards Asian Americans.

This semester’s topics for “Over a Cup of Tea” are immigration, public health for Asian-Americans and international adoption.

September’s discussion, “Real Borders, Real Fences, and Real Laws: Immigration Reform,” focused largely on the new immigration law in Arizona with guest speakers Melissa Britton, the City of Bloomington’s Latino outreach coordinator, Gracia Valliant from the Commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs and Christie Popp, an attorney with Indiana Legal Services Immigrants’ and Language Rights Center.

Topics discussed ranged from Stephen Colbert’s work on the “Take Our Jobs” campaign to why people are so worried about illegal immigration.

Valliant said illegal immigrants aren’t coming to take advantage of anyone.

“They’re coming because of the opportunity the U.S. has,” she said.

The talk also included the conditions were for these workers.

“Employers take advantage and pay less,” Britton said.

The jobs discussed were dishwashers and fruit and vegetable pickers. One student said where she lived in California, there was a strike with the fruit pickers.

“The fruit literally rotted in the trees,” she said.

The discussion also brought up both sides of the conflict in Arizona, how conflict is in other states and how different groups have been treated differently throughout America’s history.