Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Law [PAGE 14]

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Since the law building was first dedicated, providing career services to students has become an increasingly important function. Over the years the College responded to the increased need for career services by providing additional staff and resources. This process effectively took over what was the student lounge. The new Hong Career Services Center is roughly double the size of the former facility and has convenient access from the building entrance and the pavilion. In the resource area, students may use a reference library that contains lawyer directories, law firm resumes, promotional materials, and educational materials. Three computers are available for students' use in pursuing on-line research of employers. There are large work tables, a pleasant waiting area, bulletin board space for posting job announcements, and a photocopying machine. Interested employers schedule interviews through the office, and have at their disposal a total of eight interview rooms, two of which are located in the career services center. When they are not in use, interview rooms are available for student study.

EDWARD AND MAE H O N G CAREER SERVICES CENTER Edward Hong emigrated to Illinois from Toishan, China, at the age of eight. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1937 with a degree in engineering, and soon discovered that discrimination against ethnic Chinese prevented him from working in that field. He returned to the University to study law at the College, obtaining his law degree in 1941. As long-timefriendJudge Harlan Steely of Danville administered Mr. Hongs oathfor admission to the Illinois Bar Association, he proclaimed: "With this act I have given you a passport to another world. " And Mr. Hong became the first ethnic Chinese lawyer practicing in Illinois. In 1972, Mr. Hong received the Loyalty Award from the University of Illinois. After serving in World War II, Mr. Hong settled in New York City's Chinatown and began advocating for the civil rights and improved conditions of Chinese Americans. In 1948 his testimony and lobbying of Congress succeeded in creating legislation that allowed the spouses and minor children ofChinese Americans to join them in the United States outside of normal immigration quotas. In 1964, again at the urging of Mr. Hong, the law was changed to remove the special treatment of Chinese Americans resultingfromthe Chinese Exclusion Act. Thereafter, the Chinese were treated like immigrants from any other country Mr. Hong married Mae Sien Hong in 1943. Mrs. Hong lived a remarkable and exciting life serving as a press agent with Mills Brothers Circus. She later became the first woman press agentforthe Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, represented the Harlem Globetrotters, and took Broadway shows across America from 1963 until 1978. Mrs. Hong died in 1990.