"I've heard about it. But I wasn't going to join," Jason E. Bressner '99 said. "I really don't believe in joining ethnic groups. I just don't believe in labelling anybody."
Eli D. Chan '97 said he was concerned that this organization wouldn't be any less exclusive than other ethnic groups.
"I think the general trend at Harvard and most other universities is towards more and more specific cultural and ethnic groups," Chan said. "It only really trends to separate people from other kinds of people."
Millett said she is currently working to get HAPA recognized as an official student group by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She doesn't yet have plans to have the group recognized by the College.
She said she chose the name HAPA because it is a Hawaiian word which means "half Japanese."
"It's a very familiar term among Asians or half Asians," she said