Students on campus are fighting for more representation for minority groups.
Associated Students at San Jose State, along with several other student organizations, put forth the SWANA Project, according to the SWANA Project at SJSU Instagram page.
SWANA encompasses South, West Asian and North African global regions. The SWANA Project aims to create a safe all-inclusive space for students who identify within the SWANA community on campus, according to its Instagram page.
Wahhab Salemi, freshman political science major and co-founder of SWANA at SJSU, said that the SWANA Project involves a number of student organizations on campus and aims to develop a SWANA center on campus.
“The project itself is a movement that was initiated by staff and students from the Cesar Chavez Community Action Center, Center for Asian Pacific Islander Student Empowerment, the Mosaic Cross Cultural Center and the Afghan Student Association, to develop a center for students identifying as a part of the SWANA demographic here at SJSU,” Salemi said.
Salemi said that a designated student center, similar to the Center for Asian Pacific Islander Student Empowerment center, will help SWANA students significantly and create the desired safe space for these students to thrive.
“Ultimately, I think we hope to see a SWANA center open at SJSU, we envision the center serving as a safe space and support system for SWANA students,” Salemi said.
He said that the student center could do more to support the SWANA population than just creating a safe space for them to come together.
“The center will be a cultural sanctuary, a space to raise awareness on social justice issues and to provide professional networking opportunities,” Salemi said.
While a student center that offers these opportunities is a goal for SWANA, Christopher Yang, the director of the Mosaic Cross Cultural Center on campus, works with SWANA as a pseudo-advisor.
He says that a center is just one of many end goals that promote representation for SWANA students both on a social and academic level at SJSU.
“Having a SWANA focused minor or program within sociology or ethnic studies, having classes that specifically speak to SWANA experiences, having institutionalized recognition of SWANA things such as recognizing religious holidays, recognizing cultural holidays, cultural food options, those kinds of things,” Yang said. “The representation of SWANA identity and the data that we gather from students, whether that's application data or survey data SWANA focused events and programs, so, there are a lot of different ways in which the campus can commit to supporting the SWANA students.”
Ultimately, Yang said the end goal here is to have more representation on campus.
He also said there are even more ways for the college to show its support.
Junior political science major Dominic Treseler acts as a liaison to the SWANA Project through Associated Students.
He said that this overwhelmingly important emphasis on representation is justified.
“What I understand is that this is a group, which historically has not been given representation, and not even recognized as its own kind of cultural ethnic community,” Treseler said.
Treseler is referring to students who have to pick demographic categories to identify themselves on Cal State Apply.
Cal State Apply is a website that students use to apply to CSU institutions.
Treseler also said that prior to efforts that were brought forth to fight for more representation at CSU Fullerton, SWANA students had to choose to group themselves in with other ethnic groups on Cal State Apply.
“But for me, at least, I saw that there was work being done at CSU Fullerton, to establish a SWANA center, as we have centers for a lot of our other ethnic cultural communities,” Treseler said.
Treseler saw that there was more potential for opportunity for more representation.
“That was a fight that in addition to a center, they fought to have SWANA as a recognized category on CSU apply, they fought to have a sort of minor, SWANA studies,” Treseler said.
Treseler said that after these efforts, SWANA is now recognized on Cal State Apply. SWANA students no longer have to group themselves in with other ethnic groups that don’t represent them.
Yang said the end goal of a student center that provides even more support for SWANA students is still a bit far-fetched and would require the cooperation of the college to help a SWANA center function.
Yang said that this would include hiring a staff, funding and room space for a student center.
“So, there would need to be a chunk of money that could be carved out of the campus budget. The thing that is really difficult to find on campus is also space,” Yang said.
Salemi said SWANA has been working along other student organizations to help make this happen.
“We're working with A.S. and just like we've been working with a whole bunch of other student groups and campus organizations,” Salemi said. “They've been a really great ally and partner in helping us with this movement in terms of giving us a platform and helping spread our message.”
However, Salemi said that SWANA really depends on the college having an open mind in supporting these students.
“The main thing is, I don't think it should be on us students, I wish the administration would kind of show willingness to engage with this work, and I have a hope that they will eventually,” Salemi said. “I think we really need support from SJSU to make this project a reality.”
