History of Hana

In the late 1960Ís, Minnesota and St. Thomas College were experiencing an increase in International and U.S. minority populations. As the students attending St. Thomas began to represent ethnicities other than European American, the need for new services and minority professional staff increased. This led to the creation of the Minority and Foreign Student Services Department, by Bill Malevich, in 1968. Mr. William Craven, was the first Director of the Office.

Established along side the department was a Minority Student Organization in 1968-69. This student organization was comprised of International Students and U.S. Students of Color. The organization was funded and supported by the department with the director of the department advising the organization. Around 1980, the All College Council (ACC) began having a Minority Student Representative and Foreign Student Representative sit on the Council.

In 1986, the department went through a transformation and split its services. The Minority Student Affairs office served U.S. Students of Color, while Foreign Student Services served International Students. The student organization consequently split as well into U.S. Students of color and International Students.

Around 1989, the students wanted the name of the Minority Student Affairs office changed to Multicultural Student Services (MSS) and the name of the student organization changed to the Multicultural Student Organization (MSO). The director of the department remained the advisor and all funding continued to come from the department.

The MSO began to realize that the needs of the various ethnicities within the group were different. In order to respond to the diversity of needs, the organization changed its name to H.A.N.A. in the fall of 1991. H.A.N.A. was an acronym for the four associations of Hispanic American, Asian American, Native American and African American. Structurally, H.A.N.A. consisted of four Executive Board members that governed the four Associations, which were led by three chairpersons per association. The individual ethnic cultural groups met separately one day a week and H.A.N.A. brought them together to meet one day a week.

The funding for H.A.N.A. remained the responsibility of MSS, until 1996 when H.A.N.A. began submitting budget requests to the All College Council (ACC). It was also at that time when H.A.N.A. wrote its first constitution in order to be recognized as a student club and receive funding from the ACC. However, the director of MSS remained its advisor and MSS continued to monetarily and structurally support HANA.

In 1997, Alice Grider, Director of Multicultural Student Services, created an Assistant Director position to advise H.A.N.A. Onar Primitivo was hired into the position and took over the advising responsibilities. From 1997 to the summer of 2001, Alice Grider managed the budget and Onar advised H.A.N.A. Even though H.A.N.A. received all its money from the ACC, it still remained a departmental organization due to the structural connection of its advisor being the assistant director of MSS and the director of MSS having budget authority.

In the summer of 2001, the Division of Student Affairs restructured its departments and personnel. One component of the restructuring was the relocation of the position of assistant director in MSS and H.A.N.A. advisor to Center for Student Leadership Activities & Living (CSLA&L). As a result, the H.A.N.A. Student Organization was moved from MSS to CSLA&L with the advisor position. When the H.A.N.A. Executive Board returned to school in the fall of 2001, it questioned the move and the status of the organization. It was the boardÍs impression that it was an independent student organization and did not understand how it could be moved and assigned an advisor. This confusion sparked a critical reflection of H.A.N.A. by the board and critical thinking regarding the Institution and the Division of Student Affairs. It also caused H.A.N.A. to re-examine and re-write its constitution so that it would be clear to the University and future H.A.N.A. boards what H.A.N.A.Ís status as a student organization was/is.

In the spring of 2002, Hana, no longer an acronym, completed the re-write of the constitution and submitted it to the ACC. It was also decided by the Administrative Board to produce this historical document for future Hana BoardÍs. The Board felt that a written history of Hana should be an available resource for future boards to operate from and build upon. It is expected of all future boardÍs to add to or correct this document as new or more accurate information comes forward. Future BoardÍs are also expected to add to this document as structural changes occur within Hana and changes within the University directly affect the Hana Student organization. Best of success and luck in your future endeavors, Hana Board and Advisors of 2001-2002

*A special thanks to Sharon Howell, Alice Grider and Onar Primitivo for providing the information above. 


** This document was produced using the recollected information offered by the above individuals and the observations of current Board members and Advisors during the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 academic years. This is not a formal document for public release due to the uncertainty in accuracy of the information. It was produced only for the internal use and benefit of Hana. 


***Written by the Hana Administrative Board and Advisors of 2001-2002 Courtesy of Aaron Macke