Student Senators unanimously passed a bill urging UF to establish an Asian American studies minor at their last meeting of the semester Tuesday.
Faculty members teaching Asian American studies courses submitted a proposed minor to the curriculum committee Nov. 9, according to the bill.
The minor would require courses that are already being taught and serve as classes for majors in English, religion, political science and women’s studies.
After the meeting, a former senator who helped with the bill, Nhi Tran, said the Asian American Student Union and the Asian Pacific Islander American Affairs started mobilizing in 2004 to get faculty support for Asian American Studies.
That year, UF created a 12-credit certificate in Asian American Studies. Three additional credits, for a total of 15 credits, would be needed to change the certificate to a minor, according to UF standards.
Tran, a 21-year-old biochemistry junior and the campus affairs chairwoman for AASU, said the minor would be under the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She also said the classes that would be required for the minor continue to have high enrollment.
According to the bill, UF already has an African-American studies minor, a Latin American Studies minor and a Native American Indian and indigenous studies minor.
The push for the minor was sparked by the blackface incident in October when two Beta Theta Pi brothers painted their bodies black at an off-campus social, Tran said after the meeting.
“Our community is looking forward to educating other students as well as our own,” she said.
Contact Samantha Shavell at sshavell@alligator.org.
Allocations Committee Chairman Elliot Grasso speaks Tuesday at the Student Senate’s tacky sweater-themed meeting.
