Daily Titan | January 30, 2023

Virjee will retire at 62

NOLLYANNE DELACRUZ Editor ALEXCIA NEGRETE Deputy Editor

Cal State Fullerton President Framroze Virjee announced last Monday his plan to retire effective July 31 in a school-wide email welcoming students back to campus.

Virjee, who is 62 years old, said in his statement that his plans to retire sprung from the need to spend time with his loved ones.

“This was an incredibly hard decision – I love CSUF and the Titan Family deeply, and as president over the past five years, I have dedicated my entire being to this great institution and the students, faculty, staff, and community we serve,” Virjee said.

CSU Interim Chancellor Jolene Koester said in a public statement released after Virjee’s announcement that an interim president will be appointed to lead CSUF and a nationwide search will be conducted to find a successor.

Koester and Andrew Jones, the general counsel of CSU, did not provide any additional comment on Virjee’s retirement announcement other than the public statement.

Virjee was appointed as CSUF president in December 2017.

Prior to Virjee’s appointment, he served as executive vice chancellor and general counsel for CSU from 2014 to 2018.

He has also served as secretary and chief legal officer to the CSU board of trustees.

Before that, he was a partner for almost three decades at O’Melveny & Myers, a law firm in Los Angeles that specializes in labor and employment law and frequently represented educational institutions.

Vietnamese community celebrates Lunar New Year

The Union of Vietnamese Student Associations participated in the 41st annual Vietnamese New Year celebration in Costa Mesa from Friday to Sunday last week.

The Tet Festival, held at the Orange County Fair and Event Center, is the largest student-run Vietnamese New Year celebration in the nation. This is the 10th year that the event was hosted at the fairgrounds.

The Union of Vietnamese Student Associations is a non-profit organization that connects Vietnamese American students to advocate for social justice and build unity.

This year, the Cal State Fullerton chapter of the Vietnamese Student Association attended the festival.

Vanessa Vuong, the Vietnamese culture night coordinator at CSUF Vietnamese Student Association, said Tet is a time to wish others wealth, luck and prosperity in the new year.

“We have a very large Vietnamese community here and it really

brings people together and get to know di fferent cultures, di fferent perspectives and how we identify as a community,” Vuong said.

With the theme “Road to Our Homeland,” Chau Thuy, a calligrapher who writes people’s names or

University sets deadlines for posting

SINCLAIR ANDRUSKA Editor

The Academic Senate voted to amend Cal State Fullerton’s syllabi policy to improve students' access to accurate course information. The amendment, which passed on Jan. 26, includes syllabus deadlines for instructors and updated disability access requirements.

Course syllabi must be accessible for students with disabilities, according to the amendment. The revised policy will now require instructors to post their syllabi to the university’s online learning management system

Canvas, which features an accessibility tool to help instructors ensure their syllabi and other course content is available to all students.

“If it’s accessible for people with disabilities, it’s also more accessible for everyone else as well,” said Paul Miller, the director of Disability Student Services.

The revised policy will require instructors to have a syllabus available to students by the end of the first full week of classes for spring and fall semesters. In winter and summer semesters, instructors will still be required to have a syllabus ready by the first day of classes.

A previous version of the course

policy stated that course syllabi shall be provided to students within the first full week of classes. With the added revisions, it will now state that in the fall and spring it is preferred that syllabi are available by the first day of classes, but it is not required.

The amendment calling for a firstday syllabi requirement for winter and summer classes was proposed by multiple senate members, including Robert R. Robinson, professor of political science, who said shorter semesters would require the syllabi be available sooner.

“If you’re teaching a summer or winter course that’s five weeks,” Robinson said. “One week is 20% of the

class, that would not be acceptable.”

Isabella Galvan, the Board of Directors chair for Associated Students, said she would prefer to have a syllabus by the first day of classes with general information even if it means needing to adjust the details of the syllabus later on in the semester.

“As long as we have a skeleton based with the basic information, and if it’s with a few adjustments, as long as we have something to guide us the first day, then that’s more than enough,” Galvan said.

Kevin Silvestre, a second-year international business major student, felt that it would not make sense to have syllabi after class has started

and should be ready prior to the first day of classes so students can prepare for the cost of class materials and know what items they will need ahead of time.

“It’s kinda like a contract, and it tells you what to expect with the course, you know, if we need anything to buy because every student has different financial wishes, so sometimes they’re worrying about the materials,” Silvestre said.

The amendment to the university policy will go into effect following a signature from President Framroze Virjee. The Academic Senate will hold their next meeting in Pollak Library on Thursday.

MELANIE NGUYEN Asst. Editor HUY NGUYEN Sta Writer

Tet: Festival highlights Vietnamese culture

CONTINUED FROM 1

any word for good luck in the New Year, said the theme reminds everyone of the Vietnamese traditions.

The celebration included a variety of food vendors, performances and contests to highlight Vietnamese culture. These contests include the annual Miss Vietnam SoCal pageant, a pho eating contest and a fashion show centered around the ao dài , a traditional Vietnamese garment worn for special events and T t.

The festival also included recreations of some famous Vietnamese

landmarks and villages, including the Cultural Village, a replica of a village in Vietnam filled with cultural exhibits and galleries.

The event featured several ceremonies at the village such as an ancestral altar procession and a spring wedding.

This year’s festival comes after a shooting last Saturday night in Monterey Park at a Chinese New Year celebration where eleven people died. Following the incident, the Union of Vietnamese Student Associations released a statement in solidarity with the Asian American community.

“Lunar New Year is a sacred holiday and should be a time of joy and festivities. It should be a time

spent laughing and smiling with those closest to us. However, that is not the case. This tragedy will have a long lasting impact on the AAPI community as a whole,” the statement said.

May Pham, a second-year public relations major at CSUF, volunteered as a marketing and public relations coordinator for the T t festival. Pham said it is scary to know that these incidents could happen to any minority community, but it is important to represent the Asian American community.

“This can be a way for us to honor what happened in Monterey and it sucks that the timing was just right before something we’re supposed to be celebrating and joy. But

at the end of the day, we are all here as a community,” Pham said.

John Kim is the project director for the Asian Language Legal Intake Project at Asian American Advancing Justice, a nonprofit organization that provides free legal services to low-income Asian Americans with limited English skills.

Kim said while the community is mindful of the tragedy from last week, he thinks this festival shows the community’s strength.

Diedre Thu Ha Nguyen, a former mayor pro tem of Garden Grove, said T t is a time for people to come together to celebrate Vietnamese culture and for family reunions.

“It's a time for us to get together

to look back at what we accomplished last year, and what we are going to do for the upcoming year,” Nguyen said. “When multiple generations of family get together and share their story.”

Minh Pham, the marketing advisor for T t festival, said this celebration is to educate other communities about Vietnamese culture. Pham said he thinks about the sacrifices that the volunteers made and their dedication to showcasing Vietnamese culture.

“I want to keep my identity,” Pham said. “I want to keep the culture, the language and hopefully in the future, I can give back and preserve that culture for the next generation.”

Open house promotes resources for CSUF residents

NAVTEJ HUNDAL Asst. Editor

Cal State Fullerton Housing and Residential Engagement and Student Affairs held an open house event for the Academic Resource Center on Monday that highlighted useful student resources including printing access and mentor services.

Tracy Shadowens, associate director of Residential Engagement, said the event aimed to encourage residential students to visit the center, use the available space for group sessions and connect with peer mentors to learn about campus resources. In addition, the center will offer

free printing to residential students in hopes of attracting more students to take advantage of resources available at the center.

This is the first open house event for the center after it opened in spring 2020, two months before the COVID-19 pandemic shifted campus events and resources online.

“And then the pandemic hit, we had to shut it down, so this is really like our big opening,” Shadowens said. “It’s the first time we’ve had an open house.”

Students who visited the event were offered food provided by the center’s sta ff Shadowens said only five to 10 people visit the center per day. In order to appeal to more students, talks of planning outreach events

began in fall 2022.

“I think that this past fall semester we saw very low numbers and a lot of people didn’t know about this space, so we’re re-educating our students that this thing existed,” Shadowens said. “We’re hoping this open house would help encourage people to see that it exists and come out here.”

With the semester underway, Shadowens said they hope students know that their academic success is important to those at the Academic Resource Center.

The Academic Resource Center is located on the first floor of the Pine Hall. For more information regarding ARC services and hours, visit the Housing and Residence website for the Academic Resource Center’s hours.

Students attended the Academic Resource Center open house event last Monday to kick o the spring semester.

NAVTEJ HUNDAL / DAILY TITAN

Norman Phan, Maddy Le and Rita Nguyen, students from Cal State Fullerton, tended the CSUF Vietnamese Student Association booth at the Lunar New Year festival on Jan. 27.

MELANIE NGUYEN / DAILY TITAN

Chau Thuy, a calligrapher at the event, wrote names and words in traditional calligraphy as free souvenirs for guests who attended the Vietnamese New Year festival in Costa Mesa on Jan. 28.

HUY NGUYEN / DAILY TITAN

ASI appoints election committee director

MELANIE NGUYEN

Asst. Editor

At the Associated Students meeting in the Titan Student Union Tuesday afternoon, Kamille Morales, fourth-year political science and public relations student, was appointed as the new Associated Students election committee director.

Morales will now manage the entire student government election process, including encouraging student voter turnout and enforcing the bylaws as the lead of the election judicial committee.

Lydia Kelley, the president of ASI, said Morales has never been a part of ASI before. However, Morales said she always wanted to join ASI.

Kelley said the director's role focuses on informing students about candidates running for ASI within their colleges and informing students how to mobilize their voice in student government.

“She wanted to really take the opportunity to have that student government involvement that she didn’t really get throughout her college experience,” Kelley said.

Morales said she has been involved on campus since her freshman year when she was an orientation leader. Morales also is the president of the Cal State Fullerton chapter of the Young Democrats Club and is involved in the United Nations Association of CSUF.

“I think at the end of the day too everyone wants a community. Students want to feel a part of something and there are communities out there for you,” Morales said.

Morales said she was selected as a CSUF D.C. scholars program, where she was an intern in a congressional office.

As student elections approach in March, Morales said one of her

goals is to increase representation in student government.

“I believe that there are a lot of communities that need representation and what better way to showcase and kind of acknowledge these communities within our own space, with our own university through ASI elections,” Morales said.

Her other goal is to increase voter turnout to amplify student voices in the upcoming ASI board of directors election, Morales said.

Although Morales is the president of the Young Democrats club on campus, Kelley said she has faith in Morales to execute her position with an unbiased opinion.

“With the political climate that we’re in now, it’s super important that you remain unbiased in this position because you’re working with candidates that may have different opinions and di fferent backgrounds,” Kelley said. “At the end of the day, her overall goal is going to be to execute what the student body wants and what the student body votes for.”

Morales said for her position, she is not affiliated with any political party.

Kelley said Morales will now help hire ASI election committee coordinators and plan events for the election. These include the candidate meet-and-greet in February as well as the debate and the Get Out the Vote event in March.

Kelley said the ASI president and vice president run together as a pair. Students can vote for the ASI president and vice president, as well as the ASI representatives in their respective colleges. Each college gets at least one board of director member.

ASI elections will be conducted fully online on Mar. 7 and 8. Students who are interested in running for ASI board of directors can submit an application by Feb. 15 on the ASI website.

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Kamille Morales, the president of the CSUF chapter of Young Democrats club, will be the director of the ASI election committee. She has been involved on campus since her freshman year.

MELANIE NGUYEN / DAILY TITAN

Wedding show highlights local businesses

RACHEL BORCHERS Asst. Editor

The 23rd annual Brea Wedding Show was a one-stop shop open to not only future brides and grooms, but also anyone who is planning a large event such as a Sweet 16, to draw inspiration from.

The wedding show took place at the Brea Community Center yesterday. Community services specialist Rebecca Hart and community services operations supervisor Nicole Andrews helped plan the Brea Wedding show.

Andrews said that pre-planning starts in July and booking exhibitors starts early October. However, finalizing all the finishing touches for the event lasts up until the day of the bridal show.

There were 65 vendors, including business owners Joseph Dilag of Visual Cinematic, Christine Franco of Maravilla Floral Designs, Summer Houser of The Charleston House and Lindsay Fornaca of The Double Knot.

The Charleston House is an upcoming wedding venue set to open in Downtown Fullerton in 2024.

“We will have separate ceremony space, reception space, bride and groom suites to get ready in as well as several lounges,” said Houser.

Houser also said that the Charleston House will have a 1920’s Great Gatsby inspired theme.

The Double Knot is a wedding planning company owned by twins Lindsey Fornanca and Leah Tung. Fornanca, who attended Cal State Fullerton in 2008, credits the school’s entrepreneurship program as a driving force behind the launch of their business.

Visual Cinematic, a photo and video company centered around wedding

and engagement content, specializes in candid photos, which captures subjects in their natural environment in order to take the pressure off clients to worry about angling or posing themselves a certain way.

Maravilla Floral Designs, a florist company owned by Christine Franco, does not limit their services to wedding events, they also cover quinceaneras and other monumental moments.

Franco said she loves bridal shows for how personal and intimate they are as opposed to contacting

someone online.

“I can shake someone’s hand. I get to answer more questions. I feel like verbally, person-to-person, it’s a little more engaging. I get a better perspective of what the client wants,” Franco said. Houser once came to the Brea Wedding show as a bride. Even though she didn’t choose any of the vendors for her wedding, she said the wedding show helps prospective brides and grooms see what’s out there and get ideas for their upcoming weddings. Compared to bigger wedding

shows, Houser appreciates how the Brea wedding show spotlights small businesses.

Typically, the wedding show gets 80 vendors, but they only booked 65 vendors this year. Andrews said food vendors were experiencing staff shortages due to COVID-19, so they didn’t have enough staff to prepare food and manage lines. Despite having fewer vendors, Andrews said it felt like a busier show.

Andrews said vendors are usually happy with the turnout of brides

and grooms. Fornaca said the wedding show is a great opportunity to meet new people and get discounts. Fornaca also said that when prospective newlyweds go to a wedding show, the clients and vendors get to know each other a little bit and see if their personalities match up. For those who missed the Brea Wedding Show, the Fullerton Community Center will be hosting their wedding show on Mar. 11 to assist brides and grooms in planning their perfect day.

Summer Houser, owner of the Charleston, talks to Stephanie Gonzalez and Aaron Laverde, an engaged couple.

RACHEL BORCHERS / DAILY TITAN

Women's basketball defeats Cal Poly SLO, 69-61

ELMIRA DARMANIAN Asst. Editor

Coming off of two straight wins, the Cal State Fullerton women’s basketball team continued their streak against the Cal Poly SLO Mustangs, winning 69-61 on Saturday night at Titan Gym. This brings the Titans’ overall record to 10-10 as they improve to 5-6 in conference play.

CSUF guard Fujika Nimmo led the Titans with 20 points on 7-13 shooting from the field. Nimmo was especially efficient from the three point where she shot 5-7 on the night.

Adding onto Nimmo’s production, guard Una Jovanovic continued her good form contributing 17 points and four assists. Despite a lackluster night from the field where she shot 4-8, Jovanovic made up for it from the free throw line where she shot 9-10.

The emergence of Jovanovic in her second year has been pivotal to the team's recent success and has caught the attention of her teammates.

“I feel like we’re a really good one two punch and she really did such a great job stepping up after her freshman year to grow into the player I knew she could be,” Nimmo said of Jovanovic.

The Mustangs’ offense was led by guard Oumou Toure who scored 19 points from 7-13 shooting from the field. In addition to Toure, the

Mustangs had four of their five starters score at least 10 points.

Although both teams turned the ball over a similar amount of times, the Titans were able to capitalize, scoring 23 points off of 16 turnovers while the Mustangs only scored 11 points off of 17 Titan turnovers.

CSUF forward Aixchel Hernandez and center Ashlee Lewis’ stellar rebounding made up for 16 of the Titans’ 32 total rebounds.

This was a close match that saw the two teams go back and forth well into the second quarter.

This was until Nimmo hit a 3-point jumper to kick off an 8-2 scoring run to give the Titans a 27-21 lead heading into the half.

Coming out of the half, the Mustangs attempted to make a comeback but the Titans were able to hold onto the lead throughout the rest of the game.

“At the end of the game, I think that’s when we started to loosen up a little bit and they started digging their way back but luckily we held on,” Nimmo said.

A major factor for the Titans keeping their offensive momentum throughout the game was guard Demonnie Lagway’s production off the bench. Lagway contributed 10 points and grabbed three rebounds in just 20 minutes in the game.

The Titans are back on the road this week to face Long Beach State Thursday at 7 p.m.

Men's basketball to host rivals Long Beach State

EMILY WILSON Deputy Editor

After a dominant win against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Saturday, Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball team will look to continue their two-game win streak against the Long Beach State Sharks this Thursday at Titan Gym.

The teams faced each other last on Jan. 19, with the Sharks winning closely at Walter Pyramid, 72-67.

However, the Titans hold a 9-1 record at home as opposed to 3-8 record on the road.

Long Beach State currently sits at sixth in the Big West conference standings after a four-game win streak, one spot ahead of CSUF. With a win, the Titans could improve their conference record to 7-5, overtaking the Sharks in the standings.

CSUF will need to focus on slowing down Long Beach State guards Joel Murray and Marcus Tsohonis, who are both ranked top eight in Big West scoring, with point averages of 15.7 and 14.6, respectively.

Particularly, Tsohonis has been on a notable scoring streak, averaging 28 points per game over Long Beach State’s last four games.

The Sharks currently hold the second-best scoring offense in the Big West, currently averaging 76.6 points per game.

However, the Titans match up well against Long Beach State who currently have the worst-scoring defense in the Big West, with an average of 73.4 points per game; CSUF is only the sixth-best scoring offense in the Big West, averaging

69.1 points per game. The Titans are also led by their backcourt, guard Latrell Wrightsell

Jr., who averages 15.9 points per game, and fellow guard Jalen Harris, with 13.7 points per game.

will be a key to victory for the Titans, who only average 32 rebounds per game to the

Titan

Rebounding

Sharks’ 42. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. Thursday at

Gym.

Guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr, playing against UCI on Thursday, is fth in the Big West in points per game, averaging 16 on the season.

NAVTEJ HUNDAL / DAILY

Guard Fujika Nimmo scored a game-high 20 points and two rebounds against Cal Poly SLO on Saturday.

NAVTEJ HUNDAL / DAILY TITAN

Women's tennis sweeps weekend competition

GOTTIE CHAVEZ

Editor

The Cal State Fullerton women’s tennis team started their spring season on a high note with two commanding victories, sweeping the Azusa Pacific University Cougars and Westcliff University Warriors, 4-0 a piece, at the Titan Tennis Courts. Against Westcliff University, CSUF started the pairs of Zoe Olmos and Natalie Duffy, Camila Garcia and

Kaytlin Taylor and Milena Gevorgyan and Mariia Nikitash.

The Titans quickly secured the first point of the match after duos Olmos and Duffy and Garcia and Taylor each took care of their opponents in the first set, 6-2.

Gevorgyan and Nikitash were winning 5-2 before the match was called off

In the singles bracket, CSUF were led by Gevorgyan, Nikitash and Taylor’s individual wins to secure the sweep.

Gevorgyan handily won her match against Westcliff University’s Kanon Sorakubo, winning her first set 6-2 then sweeping the second set, 6-0 to secure the Titans’ second point. Nikitash and Taylor each made quick work of their opponents, each winning their matches by scores of 6-0 and 6-1. With their wins, the Titans secured the third and fourth point of the match and completed the sweep.

Against the Cougars, the Titans quickly found themselves behind in the match after the Olmos and Duffy

pair lost their opening doubles match to Azusa Pacific’s Madison Kane and Eleonora Liga.

Garcia and Taylor then made up for the loss by defeating their opponents 6-1 to bring the set back to even.

Entering the third match, Gevorgyan and Nikitash secured the Titans’ first point with a tough win. Following the first set ending 7-6, Gevorgyan and Nikitash won the point with a 7-5 win in a tiebreaker match.

Entering the singles matches, the Titans were led by Duffy, Gevorgyan

and Taylor. Duffy and Gevorgyan secured the Titans’ second and third point after winning their solo matches. Duffy defeated Azusa Pacific’s Madison Kane in two sets 6-2, 6-4. Following her, Gevorgyan defeated her opponent Vini Bautista 6-4, 6-3.

Finally, Taylor completed the Titans sweep over the Cougars after winning two sets 6-4, 6-4.

Next, the Titans will host Point Loma Feb. 7 at 1:30 p.m. at the Titan Tennis courts.

Women's water polo splits doubleheader at Cal Baptist

GOTTIE CHAVEZ Editor

Cal State Fullerton women’s water polo team split their double header against California Baptist University Lancers and Fresno Pacific University Sunbirds Thursday at Cal Baptist.

Following a loss to Cal Baptist where the Titans were dominated 172, they then responded with a hard fought victory against Fresno Pacific 9-8. The Titans now have an overall season record of 3-4.

In their match against the Sunbirds, Titans captain Mia Solorzano led her team with four goals while CSUF

goalkeeper Haden Skye Bates had a strong defensive performance recording 12 saves and earning the win.

Despite falling to an early 2-0 deficit, the Titans responded with three goals of their own to take the lead entering the second quarter.

Following an early goal by Sunbird Hannah Walker, Solorzano immediately made an impact adding two goals to give CSUF the lead 5-3 entering halftime.

Coming out of the half the two teams traded goals bringing them to a tie 8-8 with 2:43 remaining.

Freshman Delaney Wilder scored the game winning goal with 2:20 remaining to secure the Titans’ win.

This match was a major

improvement for CSUF after their earlier loss — which saw the Lancers control the majority of the match.

The opening match saw both teams create many chances, but only one was able to capitalize. Despite the Titans only having four less shot chances, the Lancers’ defense was able to shut out the Titans’ offense well into the fourth quarter.

The Titans’ only two goals of the match came in the last three minutes when Gabrielle Zaretskiy and Kylie Corwin each scored, well after the game had been decided.

The Titans will host Chapman University Saturday at 1:00 p.m. at the Titan Aquatics Center for their first home game.

Junior Natalie Du y won her singles match, 6-2, 6-4, against Azusa Paci c University's Madison Kane Saturday at Titans Tennis Court.

GOTTIE CHAVEZ / DAILY TITAN

Freshman Mia Solorzano is currently the Big West top scorer in goals, scoring four of her 21 goals over the weekend.

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Careless greetings dismiss Asian traditions

BORLEN CHONG Asst. Editor

Chinese New Year is just one of many new year festivals currently being celebrated. The term “Lunar New Year” is an umbrella term that encompasses all the ceremonies across different cultures and is often used interchangeably with Chinese New Year.

This lack of acknowledgment or simple education of the different cultural celebrations is just one example of the ignorance perpetuating the cycle of hate against Asian Americans.

By introducing better ethnic studies courses in high schools and teaching these differences, students will learn the nuances of different cultures and better learn to respect one another.

The Lunar New Year marks the first day of the lunar calendar and is an important holiday that is celebrated on different days, for different amounts of time and with different traditions across many Asian cultures.

Tu-Uyen Nguyen, an associate professor of Asian American studies at Cal State Fullerton, said she celebrates Vietnam's new year, Tet nguyên đán, also known as Tet. Tet consists of families decorating their houses with kumquat trees to symbolize prosperity or peach blossoms for strength and vitality.

“I think most people still associate the Lunar New Year as a ‘Chinese New Year,’ right? A lot of people don't understand the differences between the different cultures and the different countries. They just see it as a Chinese New Year celebration,” Nguyen said.

Anti-Asian hate has always been

prevalent, but has especially grown since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

One such example is former President Donald Trump’s use of the “China Virus” instead of COVID-19. In 2020, the California Department of Justice reported a 107% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes.

According to the Stop Asian American and Pacific Islander Hate national report from 2020-2021, Chinese Americans reported the most hate incidents across all Asian and Pacific Islander ethnic groups, making up 42.8% of reports. Koreans, Vietnamese, Filipino and Japanese individuals

make up 8% to 16% of reports.

Asian Americans are the second-highest demographic of students at CSUF, making up around 8,700 out of 40,000 students. According to the U.S. census in 2021, people who registered as only Asian made up 22.8% of Orange County’s racial demographics.

Considering the amount of Asian Americans living in Orange County and CSUF’s recent support denouncing prejudice against Asian Americans, being aware of cultural differences pertaining to the start of a calendar year is fundamental to inclusivity.

Using “Chinese New Year'' as a

blanket statement for all Lunar New Years is problematic and indicates our society’s refusal to acknowledge the cultural differences between Asian communities. It lends to the misconception that everything Asian is just a different version of Chinese.

“When you're learning about a culture, the more specific you are, the better because obviously there's so many differences. And it's always better to recognize the details and to really, if you want to dive deeply into a culture, make sure that you're acknowledging the right language and referring to the holidays,” Nguyen said.

While there are some similarities

across cultures, there are still massive differences. For example, in China, they celebrate the seven-day national holiday, Chūnjié, which translates to “Chinese New Year,” with celebrations usually lasting up to 16 days. While in Tibet, families celebrate Losar, or “New Year,” which is a threeday festival.

Mongolia’s Tsagaan Sar, referred to as “White Moon” in English, is a celebration in which families pay respect to the deity Palden Lhamo by putting three pieces of ice on their doorstep for their horse which is believed to visit every household. Celebrations are usually held in February or early March. Acknowledging the Lunar New Year celebrations only during the Chinese New Year dismisses the fact that other cultures have their own celebrations.

Just as we have fought as a society to stop saying “Merry Christmas,” due to its dismissal of other holidays celebrated during the winter, we should also create change with Lunar New Year's. For example, Chinese New Year is not the same as Seollal, which is celebrated by North and South Koreans and is a three-day celebration emphasizing the importance of the youth honoring their elders. Acknowledging the differences between these ceremonies is crucial to giving underrepresented cultures and traditions the recognition they deserve.

Integrating ethnic studies courses into a student’s education is critical to creating a more informed society. While recognizing the differences won’t solve Asian hate immediately, it is a necessary first step that will allow us to better educate and encourage students to learn more about different cultures.

SYDNEY CARROLL / DAILY TITAN