Asian American Center Records

The Asian American Center supports Tufts’s Asian/Asian American communities and seeks to create a positive environment for their academic and personal development. It was founded in 1983, in response to a racial incident in which members of a Tufts fraternity had pledges yell racial slurs in front of the Asian American House, also known as Start House. For decades, Start House functioned as both residential Asian American student housing and as the Asian American Center, but the arrangement made accessing the space both difficult and intimidating for non-residents. In 2018, the Asian American House was relocated to Hillside Apartments, and Start House was fully designated for Asian American Center programming and opened to the Tufts community.

The Asian American Center recognizes and advocates for East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, and multi-racial Asian peoples, cultures, and identities at Tufts. In addition to providing educational programs about the Asian experience in America, the Asian American Center offers resources to help Asian students successfully transition to college, learn about and participate in campus events and opportunities, and engage with their peers through social activities. The Center offers a wide variety of resources and events, including the Asian American Peer Leader program, tutoring sessions, guest speakers, and casual social gatherings.

The Asian American Center is one of six official identity-based centers at Tufts. Other such groups include the Africana, FIRST Resource, Tufts Latino, LGBT, and Women’s Centers.