When assistant director of Multicultural Student Affairs Christine Munteanu co-founded the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Staff Affinity Group in 2018, only 10 to 15 people attended each meeting. Now, the group has 170 members.

ASAG is open to all Northwestern staff members who self-identify as part of the APIDA, or Asian Pacific Islander Desi American, community. The group seeks to build a sense of community and support institutional racial and social justice initiatives by representing APIDA perspectives and providing personal and professional development opportunities.

Munteanu said the group began when staff realized that Asian Americans were left out of an initiative meant to support staff of color, because Asian Americans are considered an overrepresented group at NU. 

“ASAG was founded to challenge that invincibility and exclusion of Asian Americans from initiatives for staff of color,” Munteanu said, “as well as to challenge the thinking around being underrepresented and think more about marginalization and experience rather than just numbers.”

For Munteanu, ASAG has provided the opportunity to connect with APIDA staff members from different departments and schools. She describes the group’s events as “a big extended family gathering.”

Center for Awareness, Response, and Education assistant director of Prevention and Masculine Engagement Saed Hill and Kellogg School of Management’s Information Technology project manager lead Faiza Riaz-Faisal are the group’s current co-chairs. The pair said they attribute ASAG’s growth to “word of mouth.”

“We’re just doing outreach, whether it’s staff, students, faculty, whoever — this is open to all,” Riaz-Faisal said. “People are liking the group, and they’re coming to our events, so we’re seeing a lot of news faces there.”

ASAG’s events include human resources and resume workshops, book discussions and “Quali-Tea Time” — an event series which gives APIDA staff the opportunity to catch up and connect with each other over tea. 

As the group has grown in size, Hill said there is more “intentional relationship building,” as members have grown more familiar with each other.

ASAG also hosted healing spaces through Zoom for staff in response to the recent rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. Riaz-Faisal said these spaces allowed staff members to listen to each other and process their own feelings. Depending on how many people showed up to each session, the group sometimes split off into breakout rooms to maintain an intimate setting. 

Hill said the purpose of these spaces was for people to “come together with no agenda” and facilitate healing.

“Part of what we’re realizing in these spaces is the importance of naming what anti-Asian hate and racism has looked like for us as a community,” Hill said. “We talked a lot about acknowledging the importance of anti-Asian history. What’s going on now is not actually new and we’ve been experiencing this for a long time, but now it’s at the forefront.”

Hill and Riaz-Faisal acknowledged the University’s statement that addressed the increase in hate crimes, but said ASAG members were looking for more direct contact with administrators. One such example, they said, could be having NU leadership attend the events and healing spaces.

The co-chairs said they look forward to celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with the group. ASAG is hosting storytelling events throughout May to celebrate and discuss APIDA heritage. 

“You don’t know what you need until it’s provided for you, and I think that’s been really true for me,” Hill said. “I didn’t realize I wasn’t fully breathing into who I am and what my identity is until I came to this group. This has given me a space to unpack and examine that safely in an affirming way.”

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