HISTORY
By the Numbers
In 1977, the Intercollegiate Liaison Committee was founded at Yale University as the nation’s first intercollegiate Asian American student conference. In 1978, the conference was moved to Princeton University and renamed as the East Coast Asian Student Union. Finally in 2004 after 27 conferences at 20 different college campuses, the annual conference would again be renamed to its current designation as the East Coast Asian American Student Union. As of 2018 after 41 conferences and 40 consecutive years of uninterrupted growth, ECAASU remains as the oldest and largest Asian American student conference in the nation.
2008 - Year of Change
Prior to 2008, ECAASU existed as a number of unincorporated and disjointed collegiate organizations. The 2007 conference organizers at Yale University thus envisioned that by incorporating nonprofit status, the existence of an ECAASU national board would benefit the public at large including all ethnicities and genders.
In January of 2008, Articles of Incorporation were filed with the state of Connecticut and soon thereafter the ECAASU Bylaws were passed by the board of directors at the organization’s first report meeting. The first fully recognized National Board was elected soon afterwards in March of 2008.
ECAASU National was born.
VALUES
ADVOCACY STANCES
The East Coast Asian American Student Union (ECAASU) strives to advocate on behalf of Asian American young adults through a series of innovative, engaging campaigns that tackle some of the most pressing issues facing Asian and Asian American youth. These student campaigns are completely student-run, and feature partnerships with outstanding Asian American nonprofit organizations that seek to foster Asian American youth empowerment in a number of different fields.
