Princeton University

The Princeton University Asian American Students Association (AASA) was organized in 1971 to address the needs of Asian American students at Princeton through social, cultural, political, and educational programs. An original committee member of the Third World Center, AASA emerged on Princeton's campus during a time of student unrest at many American universities and primarily functioned to support current students. After drafting its first constituion in 1978, the organization co-founded and later hosted the first East Coast Asian Students Union (ECASU) Conference.

In the early 1980's, AASA rebounded from a brief period of inactivity to reaffirm its commitment to the student experience of Asian American students at Princeton by publishing The Seedling magazine and the AASA Press. The 1990's ushered in a renewed focus on activism for the organization, reaching its height on April 20, 1995, with a 35-hour sit-in at Nassau Hall led by 17 students who advocated for the establishment of programs and professorships in Asian American Studies and Latino Studies, to which the University responded in part during the fall of 1995 with an announcement of faculty member searches for each discipline as well increased library holdings for each discipline.

With the Program beginning soon thereafter, AASA returned to its focus on the student experience of Asian American students at Princeton by sponsoring programs, hosting lectures, and establishing Unfound: The Princeton Journal of Asian American Studies, whose inaugural issue was published in the fall of 2014.