Born in the aftermath of the 1960s civil rights movement, the East Coast Asian Student Union has been the foremost advocate for the concerns of Asian Pacific American students for twenty years. Beginning with a small meeting at Yale University in 1977, ECASU has grown into an influential, national organization. Throughout the 1980s, ECASU helped organize APA students all over the country to protest quotas that limited APA enrollment and also government attempts to roll back affirmative action.

The need for continued action and vigilance remains. Reactionary and nativist movements to limit civil rights, the use of immigrants as scapegoats, and the rise of anti-Asian violence, have made it increasingly crucial to organize and educate Asian Pacific American students about the issues that will greatly affect their present and future. ECASU will continue to promote and advocate the concerns of APA students into the new century and beyond.