Tell us about your background (ethnic, professional, activist).
My great grandfather and grandfather emigrated to San Francisco from the
Guangdong Province in southern China in the 1870's and settled in the area
which was the edge of Chinatown and is now Montgomery Street & the financial
district. I have a background in Social Work Education obtaining my masters
degree from San Francisco State University and BA's in Sociology and Asian
American Studies from UC Berkeley. I worked with recent arrivals and
refugee youths and adults as an Employment and Training Manager for a
non-profit organization as well as academic counselor with the EOPS Program
at City College of San Francisco. I co-founded and was a charter member of
many organizations including the National Coalition for Redress &
Reparations, the Asian Pacific Democratic Club, Bay Area Asians for Nuclear
Disarmament and the Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education.
Currently, I am Assistant Dean of Students and Director of the Asian
American Activities Center at Stanford University. I also advise the
Freshman Class Council and have held various positions including that of
Judicial Affairs Officer at Stanford since I began my tenure in 1989.
What is the Asian American population/statistic at Stanford?
Asian American students comprise 24% of the undergraduates; 13% of the
graduate students; (and international students from Asia constitute another
12% of the total graduate student population of 7,700. Faculty of Asian
descent are 10% of a total population of 1,671. Staff and administration of
Asian decent are approximately 10% of 6,000.
Tell us about Asian American resources at Stanford
The Asian American Activities Center (A3C) is the hub of student community
activity on campus. It houses over thirty-five Asian and Asian American student
organizations and provides a variety of programs and resources for students,
faculty, staff and alumni. In its seventh year, the Asian American PhD
Forum is a quarterly gathering of doctoral students and faculty from the
humanities & social sciences, education and business. There are relatively
few Asian American doctoral students in the humanities disciplines and the
PhD Forum fosters exchange of doctoral dissertation presentations as well as
important networking for individuals.
The center sponsors the weekly A3C speaker series which hosts counselors &
therapists, career counselors, scholarship/grant providers and faculty in an
informal living room setting with undergraduate students. We host peer
health education programs focused on student interest with recent topics
including breast cancer awareness and yoga therapy.
The A3C publishes a quarterly magazine, "CommunicAsians" (an Asian interest
magazine written and edited by students) and the bi-annual Asian American
Sourcebook which highlights Asian resources on and off campus.
Can you give us a brief history of Asian American Studies & Resources on
your campus?
The first Asian American Studies course at Stanford was taught in 1971.
Through the next two decades, courses were sponsored by students and grants
for innovative courses known as SWOPSI (Stanford Workshops on Political and
Social Issues). It wasn't until many years later that the university in
1994 heard student testimony on the merits of Asian American Studies at a
faculty senate meeting. In 1995, the Dean of Humanities and Sciences agreed
to a proposal for the development of Asian American Studies which would
become a part of an emerging Interdisciplinary Program on Race and
Ethnicity. Beginning in 1997 students are now able to major in Asian
American Studies.
The AAS program currently has three direct faculty who hold appointments in
their departments including history, comparative literature and political
science as well as comprise the AAS program. There are another 12-15
affiliated faculty who teach in the area of Asian American Studies or who
directly incorporate such material in their research and teaching.
How do you incorporate film and video into the Academics and Activities?
Each year, I invite our Asian American Studies faculty, university library
curator for multicultural film/videos and a representative of NAATA to come
and screen the newest releases of Asian and Asian American film/videos at
our center. The faculty drafts proposals for purchase of these films/videos
and the curator immediately orders these for our permanent collection. I
believe this process has been extremely successful in building a rich
collection of Asian American media resources for students and researchers.
Films and videos have and will continue to play an invaluable teaching role
in the classroom and in our residences and community centers on campus.
Where were you on 9/11? Was college in session?
On 9/10, I had just returned from a trip to the northeastern and
southern parts of China at the invitation of the Liaoning Province
Educational Bureau. I was representing the university president on this
trip. China continues to have interest in collaborations with western
universities especially Stanford. They also desire to send more students
abroad for both undergraduate and graduate studies. I spoke in 4 major
cities including Dalian, Shenyang, Nanjing and Shanghai to an audience of
more than 3,500 faculty and students. I met with college faculty and
administrators, students and provincial educational bureaus. All were eager
to learn more about Stanford and our university system in America. I was
excited about the possibilities of increasing exchange between Stanford and
the Chinese universities.
Programming since 9/11.
Since the tragedies of 9/11 the university has supported many programs to
increase cultural and religious understanding including a public outdoor
Islamic prayer session to increase awareness of Islam. There have been
various other important events as well in observance of Ramadan.
I spoke at several programs and conferences this past quarter including a
program sponsored by a diverse consortium of student groups including
Sanskriti, Stanford India Association, Pakistanis at Stanford and the Muslim
Student Association in the aftermath of 9/11 on the topic of hate crimes
against South Asian and Muslim students. I also served as the opening
speaker for the Asian American Students Association's annual Listen to the
Silence: Asian American Issues Conference. I introduced a number of
critical topics including continuing the fight for civil rights, civil
liberties and forging understanding and equality within our diverse
community to build a stronger America.
Several academic presentations were sponsored by the university which have
ranged in topics as a result of 9/11 including issues of national security
and civil liberties.
"CommunicAsians," the A3C quarterly campus magazine, featured a cover article
on the Aftermath of September 11th: Its Impact on Race Relations in
America. Students contributed articles on how racial profiling has
personally haunted them as well as the need to maintain strong support for
international students and international education for the university.
Most fulfilling aspect of your job.
The aspect that I enjoy most about my job is the ability to help students
succeed in college. I encourage students to build relations with faculty
and get the most out of university resources. Academic excellence, civic
responsibility, equity and justice are foremost in my message to students.
This generation of students, now more than ever, have the opportunity to
help shape a future of world peace.
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