These quantitative findings beg the question, if AAPI students make up one-third of the total undergraduate population, why do they feel like they do not belong on campus compared to White students at UCLA?
institutional resources to be successful. These sentiments are also manifested in research, as studies often group AAPI and White students together, comparing their satisfaction and success against Black and Latino students. The research at UCLA stands in contrast to that assumption. Among the findings of the report, while all students express a relatively high level of satisfaction with their experiences at UCLA, the views of Asian American and Pacific Islander students more closely parallel those of other racial and ethnic minorities, rather than those of White students to whom they are most often compared. Asian American and Pacific Islander students are also more likely to report hearing students, staff or faculty express negative/stereotypical views about racial and ethnic groups than their White counterparts, and at rates that exceed Latino students and are similar to those of Black students. These findings indicate race impacts the experiences of Asian American and Pacific Islander students. The report also disaggregates the data to document differing views among Asian ethic groups. For example, Southeast Asian students report higher levels of dissatisfaction with their academic and social experiences, and lower levels of a sense of belonging than do
their East Asian counterparts. Southeast Asian and Filipino students are also more likely to report hearing negative/stereotypical views about racial and ethnic groups. “The findings make clear that different ethnic groups are having different and potentially negative experiences on campus,” says Bach-Mai Dolly Nguyen, a research associate for the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE) and Ph.D. Candidate in Social Science and Comparative Education at UCLA. “In doing so, the findings also underscore the value of use of disaggregated data in understanding the experiences of various Asian ethnic groups and highlighting areas that may be a priority for improving the racial climate on the UCLA campus.” In addition to interpersonal inter actions, students’ sense of belonging on campus emerged as an important theme when considering AAPI student experiences with campus climate. Although AAPIs are the largest racial group on campus, their sense of belonging contrasts starkly from White students—the group to whom they are most often labeled similar with regard to their academic experiences. When asked to rate their level of agreement with the feeling UCLA Ed&IS FALL 2017 19