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In April 2002, undergraduate students at Duke collaborated with graduate students, faculty members, and administrators to engage the larger Duke community in the discussion for Asian American Studies (AAS). The effort started from the students in the Asian American Studies Undergraduate Working Group and ultimately stemmed out to a range of people in the Durham community as well as the national community:

April 8, 2002: Asian American Studies Teach-In -- Students in Visiting Professor Seung Hye Suh's "Asian American Literature and Culture" class organize a teach-in. Around 100 people attend.

April 10, 2002: Students and supporting faculty meet with the Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Dean of Trinity College, and Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences to submit a proposal for an AAS department.

A national call for letters of support is made, and over 1,000 petition signatures in support of Asian American Studies at Duke are collected.

April 25, 2002: "Rally for our Education" for AAS and other ethnic studies initiatives is held in front of the Allen building. Students, faculty, and administrators from both Duke and UNC participate.

April 26, 2002: Students meet with the Deans and Provost to hear that they will be granted course development grants for existing faculty members, funding for an Asian American Studies symposium, and an official task force.

Visiting Professor Seung Hye Suh, Duke's only Asian Americanist, leaves for a position at Scripps College.

July 22, 2002: Students receive a list of potential instructors for AAS from the Dean's office, however, many Duke faculty listed are of Asian descent and do not specialize in AAS.

October 1, 2002: First AAS Task Force meeting. Faculty and students on the task force request for two faculty lines and an advisory committee composed of senior scholars in AAS to visit Duke.

The Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences respond with no support for the two faculty lines citing a budget issue but expresses support for the advisory committee.

There are still no faculty members who specialize in Asian American Studies at Duke.

November 11, 2002: "East Meets South: Asian American Issues in Duke, Durham and the South" -- the AAS Undergraduate Working Group hosts a panel of local scholars and activists to talk about Asian American issues in the South.

January 8, 2003: Duke faculty offer four AAS-related classes in the spring semester
     AALL147S: Transnationalism and Asia/America
     DOCST190S: Locating Asian American Voices
     HST195S: Asians in the Americas
     LIT20S: Asian American Literature