"Alex [Cho] and Jen [Ching] have a really tough role," Tiwari says. "Working to keep an organization that in the past has had a lot of political power and to revolutionize that role is really tough for any student leader."

The problem with Cho's vision, some students say, is that no single political stance can ever represent the entire Asian-American population of Harvard.

"Asian-Americans are just too broad a group to say this is what Asian-Americans believe," Kim says.

Choi agrees.

"I think it's a far greater offense to be lumped together for what I think," he says. "There are many Asians like me who don't agree with their views. It's frustrating when they purport to be an association for all Asian students at Harvard. It's true that we're perceived as a group, but there's a big cleavage among Asian concerns."

There is not necessarily a common Asian-American identity at all, Choi says, beyond that imposed by members of outside groups who lump different Asian ethnicities together into one "race."

"Most Asian-Americans have only been here for 20 years, came here as babies or our parents came here," Choi says. "We're from all different social and economic backgrounds, some came over as professionals, some as political refugees."

"Yes, there's a white misperception that lumps us all together," he says, "but is that enough to create a common bond? I don't think so."

A Common Voice?

But AAA leaders say there are issues that all Asian-American students can come together on.

"Being Asian-American, there's definitely some sort of link, because people have trouble figuring out where they fit in culturally, being American or Asian-American," says SAA Co-president Rheena R. Lawande '96.

Several Asian-American group leaders say there is, in fact, a political role for AAA.

"There are definitely still issues that need to be addressed as a minority, and it's a lot harder for CSA or KSA to do that on its own," Ou says.

Cho says even if a common Asian-American identity is imposed from outside, it still exists.

"We're treated very much as a group," he says. "In terms of the experience of Asians in America, there are a lot of important commonalities."