Document Type
Article
Abstract
Indiana State University was established by the Indiana Legislature on December 20, 1865, as the Normal School in Terre Haute, a city in the heart of the Midwest. It opened its doors to receive its first enrollment of 21 students on January 6, 1870. Its purpose as stated in the legislative act was: “There shall be established and maintained, as hereinafter provided, a state normal school, the object of which shall be the preparation of teachers for teaching in the common schools of Indiana.” Remarkably, from its establishment, the School would be open to all regardless of race, creed, or religion. However, despite its progressive relationship with students of African descent which dates back to its inception, ISU’s campus relationship with students of Asian descent only dates back to the late 1940s. Even though this relationship only dates back to the late 1940s, before then the Teachers’ College had an indirect relationship with students of Asian descent through some of its graduates in the late 19th and early 20th centuries venturing to Asian countries to educate their indigenous populations. The Philippines (then a territory of the United States) seemed to be a popular teaching destination for several of the School’s graduates who documented their teaching experiences in the School’s newspaper Normal Advance (a combination newspaper and yearbook). However, the first footprint of a student of Asian descent at Indiana State would not occur until the years immediately following World War II. For purposes of this essay, “Asian” refers to persons who can trace their origins to any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent. It includes people from countries such as China, Japan, Korea, India, and the Philippines. Throughout this essay, the term “student of Asian descent” or “person of Asian descent” will be used to identify students (citizen or noncitizen) from these areas. In this essay, most of the students referred to as “students of Asian descent” are actually Hawaiian natives of Japanese descent. This essay describes the first 100 years of the relationship of the Institution with Asian students and seeks to be only an introduction to this remarkable history which can open further study about this often overlooked ethnic group. While Hawaiian students of Japanese descent were the most populous of the Asian students at Indiana State throughout the decades after World War II, and South Korean students a distant second (i.e., pre-engineering major Kyung Nai Choi), there were representatives of other Asian groups at Indiana State as well. Students from India and Hong Kong, then part of China, were 3 educated at Indiana State in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Sudhir Munshi from Bombay, India was a chemistry major and Samuel Chau, also chemistry major, was from Hong Kong. Japan was represented by Syoichi Kawasaki, a business major attending the School in the mid-1960s; the Philippines was represented with the presence of Teodora De Los Reyes from Manila. However, it would not be until the 1970s that these groups would attend Indiana State in any significant numbers or until other Asiatic groups would enroll at the School.
Publication Date
2014
Recommended Citation
Reynolds, Crystal Mikell, "A History of the Asian American Students Experience at Indiana State University 1865-1965" (2014). Student Diversity Histories. 2.
https://scholars.indianastate.edu/diversity/2