Building Capacity at Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI): Transforming the Educational Experiences of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Students

ABSTRACT

This study examines how Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) build capacity for student success. By contrasting a community college on the West Coast and a regional comprehensive university on the East Coast, new pathways are forged to recognize the critical role that federally-funded AANAPISIs play in supporting Asian American and Pacific Islander students. Implications for policy, practice, and research are also offered to advance the operations and understanding of AANAPISIs.

KEYWORDS:

• Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution
• AANAPISI
• Asian American and Pacific Islanders
• AAPI
• Minority-Serving Institutions
• MSI
• capacity building

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and the UCLA Institute of American Cultures for funding this study; and Jason Chan and the anonymous reviewers for their generous and thoughtful feedback. And most importantly, I am indebted to the study’s participants, who work tirelessly to enhance and advance the important work of AANAPISIs.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. It is important to note that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are two distinct and unique communities that are often grouped together. While in some cases, both communities have worked together in pan-racial solidarity, there are many other examples where Pacific Islanders have been subsumed into a larger AAPI framework that ignores and erases their different racialized experiences and politicized histories of colonization (Gogue et al., 2021a; Wright & Spickard, 2008).

2. This requirement is often operationalized as maintaining a significant population of low-income students and low institutional expenditures, among others.