Asian & Asian American Cabinet to Cabinet Social
and Asian Info Fest
by Maria Ng

The AA E-Zine (Asian American Electronic Magazine) hosts an annual Cabinet to Cabinet Social for all of the Asian and Asian American student clubs and organizations at SBU. This year new rules on BBQ's having to be cooked by Campus Dining or Jasmine (after 40 years students suddenly became incapable) made the Freshmen Welcome BBQ too expensive to have. At the last minute the Zine and Sunita Mukhi, Director of Programming at the Wang Center, realized that having the social earlier than usual and combining it with an Asian Info Fest would be a great alternative way to start the year.

And it was! Especially given how little time there was to notify groups it was happening and freshmen about the Info Fest. (With the strict rules on posting flyers on campus, especially how few can be posted in the dorms and really visible spots, it is amazing any events happen at all!)

So with only one week's notice, the Social was held on Tuesday, September 6, in the Wang Center Chapel, with the Asian Info Fest right after it.

The Cabinet to Cabinet Social is an good way for the Cabinets and E-Boards of the various Asian and Asian American groups and organizations to meet each other. Its casual over dinner - shrimp and pizza this year - and the various leaders introduce their clubs and themselves to the cabinets of the other clubs. Done at the beginning of the year, it is a great way for everyone to meet contacts from other clubs early on. This enables clubs to coordinate events with different clubs or make sure two major events are not taking place at the same time.

There is an assumption outside of the Asian community that the Asian clubs are some sort of monolithic group, but although the KSA people may know the people in KCF and DDKY and Korean Life, they often have no clue who the leaders are in the other Asian groups, and vice versa for everyone else. 

To smooth this process of working together even further, the AA E-Zine has devised an events calendar and private Cabinet contact list. While the contact list may only be viewed by group leaders, the calendar is for public viewing. Each Asian organization is given a personal login name and password so that they can put up their events as soon as they decide to do them. It also makes it easier to see if they will be in conflict with another event. Then when the AA E-Zine’s weekly issue is sent out, all the subscribers (subscriptions are free, subsidized by USG and alumni) are able to see the calendar and view the different events going on that week.

A large goal of the AA E-Zine is to cover and get the word out about the different Asian related events on campus. This is why after the Cabinet to Cabinet social, the AA E-Zine co-hosted the Asian Info Fest in the Sculpture Gallery of the Wang Center, once again with the help of Sunita Mukhi. Posters around campus advertised this event and students attended in hopes of getting information about a new club to join.

The contributing clubs included representatives from Asian Students Association (ASA), Bengalis Unite, Chinese Association at Stony Brook (CASB), Chinese Christian Fellowship (CCF), Chinese Literature Club (CLC), Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), Korean Student Association (KSA), Philippine United Student Organization (PUSO), and Vietnamese Student Association (VSA).

Some of the sororities and fraternities also came. Currently recognized or in the process of being recognized and considered interest groups are alpha Kappa Delta Phi (aKDPhi), Delta Phi Omega (DPO), and Pi Delta Psi (PDP). A new interest group of sisters has also formed and is going up for recognition. (We can't give their name because that might be violating University rules.  ?)

The first Asian interest fraternity, NAP (Nu Alpha Phi), lost its recognition last year for not going to enough meetings of the IFSC and they are appealing that. Getting banned for 5 years for hazing should happen, but alumni are very upset that the organization they worked so hard and for so many years to create can't exist for such a long period of time simply because of not going to meetings when all the more important rules on not hazing were followed.

LPE, Lambda Phi Epsilon, did lose their recognition for violating the hazing rules. The crazy part for LPE is that they were the most studious of fraternities, always winning the highest GPA award at the Student Life Awards. Arthur Chen, their first President, just graduated from Albany Law this year.

The Asian Info Fest brought free publicity for the clubs and happy students who found new groups to join. To end the evening, free Wang Center calendar journals were given out and a fun free raffle was held for various prizes including coupons for free bubble tea from Jasmine, t-shirts, DVDs, and lots more. 

The evening was a success and now that we know it works, next year all the clubs and organizations will know about it in advance and be able to attend. Plan for it - same time next year - Tuesday after Labor Day.

PHOTO GALLERY: http://aa2sbu.aasquared.org/gallery/2005CabinetSocialInfoFest