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Student-run survey collects disaggregate data, highlights diverse needs of Asian American community at U.Va.

The survey will close March 6

Jacquelyn Kim | Staff Writer

An ongoing survey spearheaded by two students aims to collect disaggregate data about the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American population of the University and to provide an updated portrait of the community since the last survey was conducted in 2005. The survey is part of an ongoing national movement pushing for data-disaggregation for APIDA communities, and it will close Friday, March 6.

Records of previous surveys of the Asian American population conducted at the University were unearthed in Spring 2019 by Valerie Young, third-year College student and president of the Asian Student Union, while exploring ASU’s archives. Young found that the last survey of the Asian American community at the University was conducted in Spring 2005 by the Office of the Dean of Students and that, before then, similar surveys had also been conducted in 1993 and 1988.

Unsure of who might have knowledge regarding the surveys that had been found, Young and Kirtana Pathak, fourth-year College student and ASU vice president, turned to University professors and faculty. However, of those they consulted, only Professor Sylvia Chong was aware that these surveys of the University’s Asian American community had been conducted. Chong serves as an associate professor of English, associate director of American Studies and director of the Asian Pacific American Studies minor.

Young and Pathak discovered that, in fact, Chong had also been searching for the aforementioned results and reports. Chong had arrived at the University in 2004 and was thus present for the 2005 survey, but the results and report produced from that survey, along with

those previously conducted, were somehow lost in the transition after former Asian Pacific American Dean Daisy Rodriguez left the University in 2006. The position of Asian Pacific American dean no longer exists. Instead, Multicultural Student Services now has general program coordinators.

In Fall 2019, Young and Pathak began a year-long independent study with Chong to design a new survey of the Asian American population at the University based upon the previously conducted surveys that had been found.

Together, they researched survey design and surveys done at other educational institutions and discussed extensively the importance of data disaggregation for communities, particularly Asian American ones.

“What we’re trying to do is capture that there are needs in the [Asian American] community,”

Chong said. “Ethnic disaggregation is one of the simplest levels that we can do [data disaggregation] because we know historically that people from different national origins are immigrating under different circumstances.”

According to the University’s Diversity Dashboard — whose data is compiled from the self-identified race/ethnicity of students on their admissions applications to the University — Asian Americans have been the largest minority group among undergraduate students at the University since at least 2009, representing 11.18 percent of the undergraduate student population in 2009 and 15.33 percent in 2019.

However, the Dashboard shows only broad racial and ethnic categories, along with a category for “non-resident aliens,” under which most international students fall.

“There’s no disaggregation,” Young said. “It says there’s a bunch of Asian Americans — it has the numbers — but there’s [nothing showing] how many of these people are international or how many of these people identify as Vietnamese or are from [Northern Virginia].”

The 2020 survey designed by Young, Pathak and Chong is open to all Asian/Asian American-identifying students, including graduate, international and multiracial students.

To design this new survey, Young and Pathak analyzed the past surveys and added new questions and sections to collect responses for areas in which they found the past surveys to be lacking. However, they kept many of the questions asked on the past surveys to enable the comparison of results across years. Most of the survey’s questions are geared toward gauging the attitudes, feelings and experiences of Asian American students at the University.

To make the survey more relevant to contemporary Asian American students at the University, Young and Pathak modified some of the previously asked questions. They consulted staff at the LGBTQ Center to guide the expansion of options for gender identification, and they also updated the list of organizations in which students may indicate they are involved to reflect the creation of new organizations and dissolution of other organizations since the previous surveys. Additionally, the survey now includes added sections with questions tailored for international and graduate students and a new question that asks the respondent to indicate their household income.

“[The question about] income level will also give some weight to what we call the bimodality of the Asian American population — that there are certain groups who immigrated … [that] tend to have higher income levels, and then there are also groups that … have tended to have lower socioeconomic status,” Chong said.

The previous surveys of the Asian/Asian American population at the University were officially conducted by ODOS in collaboration with ASU, but ODOS was unable to find any relevant records when Young and Pathak inquired about the surveys.

The new survey created by Young, Pathak and Chong is not officially affiliated with either the University or ASU, and they received funding from the Jefferson Trust, Multicultural Student Services and the American Studies Program. The funds will be used for professional anonymization and organization of the data collected from the survey, and the final report will be made public and shared with the University community.

Young, Pathak and Chong have been conducting outreach through social media and contacting student organizations to spread the survey since it first opened in early February. They each expressed hopes that many students will choose to participate in the survey and that the results will reflect the diversity of the Asian/Asian American community at the University.

“I know the national trends, but I don’t know who’s at U.Va.,” Chong said. “I know for a fact that there are working class, first generation Asian American students, and I just want to make sure that our data captures that they exist.”

LIFE

The best restaurants to get your Korean fix A beginner’s guide to the Korean restaurants in Charlottesville

Nayeon Kim | Food Writer

It’s only been a few weeks since my last escapade to northern Virginia, but it feels like it’s been forever since I’ve had a steaming spoonful of my mom’s delicious Korean cooking. For those who may not be familiar with the wonders of Korean cuisine, or if you’re craving something savory to awaken your taste buds after eating microwavable macaroni and cheese for a week straight, you’re in luck. Charlottesville happens to have just what you need — three popular Korean restaurants that are sure to suit your particular cravings.

The Big Three MARU (마루), Doma (도마) and Kuma (쿠마) are well-known, not only for being the main Korean restaurants in Charlottesville but because people constantly confuse their similar, two-syllable names. Since I have obsessively visited all three, I want to emphasize the differences between each of them in terms of taste, ambiance and location to highlight some key distinguishing features — and why it’s worth it to visit all three.

MARU(마루) Located on the Downtown Mall, MARU Korean Restaurant and Bar is the furthest of the three Korean restaurants from Grounds. Despite its distance, the easily accessible Charlottesville Area Transit route seven bus or trolley can take you to the Downtown Mall where MARU is located. MARU is wheelchair accessible and meal prices can range from $11 to $30 per person, including tip and a drink.

The inside is one of the most rustic and cozy of any Korean restaurant I have set foot in. Your first impression of MARU is the reddish-white timber accents in the wood-paneled walls and floors — sure signs that this is a restaurant that has put effort and time to make the customers feel at ease while enjoying the warm Korean meals they’ve ordered.

MARU's Korean cuisine leans toward the sweeter side with a kick of a non-traditional spice. I frequently order the dolsot bibimbap (돌 솥 비빔밥) — a traditional Korean rice bowl, mixed with vegetables such as soybean sprouts and carrots, a choice of a sweet marinated beef or chicken and an optional spicy red pepper paste — and the soondubu jjigae (순두부찌개) — a peppery, tofu soup served with a choice of a seafood, beef or chicken. Both give ELISE KIM | THE CAVALIER DAILY

Bibimbap is a popular Korean dish that includes rice, a variety of mixed vegetables and a meat of choice. It varies from restaurant to restaurant, home to home.

a mix of sweet and refreshing with a spicy kick in a taste palette that is unique to MARU — and hard to forget.

Doma (도마) Found on Main Street, Doma is located a little past the Corner and Kung Fu Tea, where you could get your boba tea fix after finishing your meal. Doma is about a 10-minute walk from the hustle of the ever-crowded Corner, but the CAT route seven bus or the trolley can drop you off right at its doorstep. Doma is wheelchair-accessible, and prices range from $11 to $30 per person, including tip and a drink.

Doma’s interior is a bold concept that pops with color, with its trendy factory-turned-restaurant layout — perfect for those foodie-worthy Instagram pictures. The food is an added bonus for this beautifully decorated restaurant. Bright red walls cover the inside, setting it apart from the other Korean restaurants in Charlottesville. With contrasting wood and industrial black steel, Doma is worth checking out even if you may not be craving that hot Korean meal and just want to eat a matcha dessert with a friend.

Sharing similarities with MARU, Doma builds its flavor palette with a much sweeter base, but unlike MARU, sticks to the more traditional, red-hot spice as opposed to MARU’s refreshing one. The Doma bokum udon (도마 볶 음우동) — a thick noodle stir fry with a sweet sauce — and the tteokkochi (떡꼬치 ) — rice cakes covered in a spicy red pepper sauce (고추장) — are my personal go-to orders and a must the next time you go.

across from the Biltmore. The most accessible to students and those living near Grounds, walking or taking any UTS bus that stops at the chapel or outside of Lemongrass on 14th Street can put you just five minutes away from this hidden gem. With a ramp that allows wheelchair accessibility and a price that ranges from $11 to $30, including drink and tip, Kuma is open to all foodies.

Kuma’s decor differs from the wooden and Instagrammable interiors of MARU and Doma, but it still gives you the experience of what an authentic matjip (맛집 ), or delicious place, in Korea would look like. This Japanese-Korean fusion restaurant embodies a popular notion among Koreans — the older the restaurant looks, the better it tastes! Its food highlights a Korean homemade-style and bases its flavor around a more salted, traditional red-hot spice that has grown on me, pulling me back in for its menu at least once a month. My personal favorite choices have been its spicy seafood udon (짬뽕우동) — a dish with thick noodles submerged in a broth of spicy pepper paste and mollusks — and its crunchy tonkatsu ( 돈까스) — pork covered in breadcrumbs and fried. Both dishes have what has made Kuma my personal favorite Korean restaurant in Charlottesville — a flavor that resembles my mom’s homemade Korean food. Sometimes it’s hard to choose where to have your first experience with Korean food or where to find a restaurant that suits the particular taste preferences from your childhood. With these three Korean restaurants providing their own unique combinations of taste, spice and decor, I hope you’ll be able to find the perfect salty — or sweet — bibimbap for you.