Pacific Islander Student Alliance (PISA) is a recently revamped unity group for Pacific Islander students, created in 2025. 

According to Co-Director of PISA Zachary Villagomez, the Pacific Islander Student Alliance is a unity group that has recently been reintroduced at the University of Oregon. 

PISA was initially founded in 2007 at Portland State University. Since then, there have been several versions of a similar unity group at UO prior to 2025, such as the Asian Pacific American Student Union and UO Hui ‘O Hawai’i. 

“(At) the University of Oregon, it’s to my understanding that over the past 20 years, there have been several iterations of a Pacific Islander club. It is only recently after (COVID-19) where these clubs kind of started to dissolve,” Villagomez said. “We don’t see ourselves as doing anything particularly different as what those clubs did, but rather we’re helping to reinstate it, get our space back for our people, which we deserve.” 

APASU is an organization founded in 1972 with the goal of serving and supporting both Asian and Pacific Islander students and allies. 

HOH Club caters to students who are from, connected to or have an interest in Hawaii and hosts events, including an annual Luau in the spring.  

“We are an identity club meant specifically for Pacific Islanders, those who generally have roots within Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, and they are the people we intend to serve, but part of our ideology as islanders is that we accept anyone with an open heart… we love to love, (and) we love everyone who comes as they are,” PISA Co-Director Evangeline Paulo said.  

Villagomez said that PISA aims to “serve, educate and uplift” Pacific Islander students and also plans to host a variety of events centered around Pacific Islander culture.

According to Paulo, some of the possible events PISA plans to host include but are not limited to a cultural language exchange and educational panels featuring guest speakers, karaoke, folk storytelling nights and cultural food events. 

Paulo also said PISA plans to create club merchandise, including sweatshirts and tote bags.  

“I’m excited to get toward meeting and being able to share these experiences with other (Pacific Islander) students,” Paulo said.  

Villagomez said the long-term goal of PISA is to provide a space for the often “overlooked” Pacific Islander community. 

“When people think about Pacific Islanders, they really think of us as being small. They think of the smallness of our islands, but, really, they should be looking at the vastness of our ocean. You could cramp all the landmass in the world and put it in the Pacific Ocean, and there would still be more space,” Villagomez said. “I think Pacific Islanders have so much to offer.” 

According to Villagomez, PISA’s meeting times have yet to be determined, but Paulo said the club plans to meet biweekly. 

Currently, there are approximately seven members of PISA’s board, according to Villagomez. 

“(We want to) build lateral solidarity across campus. This is part of our ideology, the way that our world works as Pacific Islanders is we are very loving, we reach out and we extend our love to our neighbors… we come from the ocean, but here we are staying on other people’s land, and that’s why it’s imperative that we collaborate and we uplift the voices of our brothers and sisters, our Indigenous brothers and sisters, our black and brown and Asian brothers and sisters here at the University of Oregon,” Villagomez said.