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About Me

Reflection on My Days of Student Activism at UCSB

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Image courtesy of Carol Dinh.

Student activism was the topic for this week’s #sachat session on Twitter. This is a weekly chat session for student affairs professionals and students interested in the profession. Coincidentally, the event I am facilitating called “The Roots and Identity of the API Community on Campus,” to be held next week, was also announced on Facebook today. The chat and the event reminded me of my student activism days at UCSB back in the 1990s.

Back then, I was deeply involved within the Asian American student community to challenge/work with the administration to improve student services to better serve the needs of Asian American students and the student body in general. Some of the group’s efforts were directed towards making student services more culturally sensitive and for the counseling services experience more accommodating to Asian American students who may have come from cultures and family upbringings where professional counseling was a foreign concept or frowned upon.

Another major effort the students undertook was establishing a physical space for Asian American students to have a place we can call home. After many years of working with the administration, the effort resulted in having a room identified as the “Asian Resource Center,” which led to a building now called Student Resource Building, wherein several student service departments and resource centers for marginalized student populations are located.

One of the most memorable moments as a student was when I called my mom, letting her know I was involved in a student protest. My mom was furious at me for being part of it. She was also scared of what would happen to me. She yelled at me that I would go to jail. Her reactions were because of what we had seen in the Philippines growing up. When we left the Philippines in 1984, it was about the time of the People Power Revolution that deposed Ferdinand Marcos, the President of the Philippines back then. During that time,  we witnessed protests on the street in Baguio City, where I grew up. My parents were never politically active, so I never participated in the protests. My parents were also adamant about me not getting involved because of the fear of being arrested or other consequences.

Looking back, one of the benefits of getting involved with student activism was developing my identity as a Filipino-American. Coupled with Asian American courses, including a Filipino-American Experience course, my involvement within the Asian American community allowed me to learn about Asian American history and develop my racial and cultural identities. Being aware of Asian-Americans’ struggles throughout history, oppressive laws like anti-miscegenation and racial discrimination and segregation practices, and how Filipino-American leaders like Pablo Manlapit, Philip Vera Cruz, and Larry Itliong led movements to fight injustices led me to explore what it meant to be a Filipino-American. I became keener on the portrayals of Asian-Americans in the popular media. I also became more sensitive to micro-aggressions I faced every day. I noticed how I was followed when I entered stores. I noticed how my White hall mates insisted I only got accepted to UCSB because of affirmative action.

While I didn’t know it back then, I was going through an identity development process during my days as a student activist. As Kim’s Asian American Identity Development Theory suggests, I had gone through the following stages, including ethnic awareness, White identification, awakening to social-political consciousness, redirection, and incorporation.

After graduation, I found a job at UCSB; I’m still at UCSB. As a professional, I became a staff advisor to several organizations, including the Filipino-American student organization Kapatirang Pilipino, Pilipino Graduation, and Pilipino Cultural Night (PCN). It’s been interesting to mentor and observe the student leaders and watch them go through the similar identity development process I went through. I hope their experience as student activists will help them find themselves and in their careers as it had done for me.


Assertiveness: My Leadership Challenge as an Asian American

As of yesterday, I had been in my department’s Acting Executive Director role for one year. I lead an IT organization in a higher education institution. The day before, we held our quarterly department meeting to review our accomplishments and upcoming projects. As a typical practice after events, I asked for feedback on how the meeting went and how well I did. The staff I spoke with had positive comments. One staff shared feedback that made me think about my leadership role as an Asian American and the perceptions of leadership in higher education and even in this country. The comment that made me think about these topics was this “Joe,  you were certainly much more assertive and confident yesterday. You’re a lot different from when you started last year. My initial concern was because you’re so nice, I didn’t know how well you’d be able to deal with other directors and those more senior than you when it came to conflict. You’ve adjusted well, and I see you as more confident and assertive.”

Throughout my career, one personal trait that’s been perceived as negative regarding my leadership style has been my assertiveness or lack of. From the feedback I’ve received, I’ve been seen as not direct and not confrontational when dealing with conflicts. Whether that’s because of my personality or cultural upbringing, I don’t know why I have not been seen as “assertive” as other folks would like me to be. However,  when folks assess my assertiveness, they probably compare it to other leaders from their experience or what they see in popular media.

I grew up in a Filipino household that values harmony, and conflicts are dealt with in not-so-direct ways. When it came to conflict, saving face or preserving the dignity of those involved mattered a lot in my family and the Filipino culture. In my career, these approaches have conflicted with how those I work with expected me to deal with issues. Because I have not always been direct in confronting issues, I have been seen as weak and unsure of myself. Perhaps, others have expected me to be dominant and controlling. I’ve been more inclined to use influence and persuasion to lead. The challenge for me then has been reconciling my personal tendencies with the workplace expectations when it comes to being an assertive leader. The challenge has been determining when to use the style I’m more comfortable with vs. what others may consider assertive.

As I think about this issue of assertiveness, I wonder which opportunities I missed because I was not seen as an assertive leader. Moving forward, I wonder how this perception will shape my career. I also wonder about my prospect of moving up the management hierarchy in higher education where there’s a glaring lack of Asian American leaders who can mentor me, where my qualities may not match the Western qualities associated with leaders, and perhaps bias against me because I don’t fit the prototypical leader that hiring committees are comfortable hiring.

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Being Optimistic About Possibilities

I’ve been in far too many conversations when new ideas are immediately met with “that’s not possible because …” and with those conversations come the quick death of what could just transform organizations beyond imaginable. When thinking about future possibilities, ideas should not be framed in how we see things as they are now. Granted that no one knows what the future holds, I do know that the reality we see today is not how it will be in the future. Given this case, why not think of the future as an optimist and consider all that could be possible instead of limiting our thoughts because of the current constraints? A popular Wayne Gretzky quote goes something like “skate to where the puck is going and not where it has been.” Leadership is about the future and not maintaining the status quo.

When having conversations about ideas, I’ve noticed that folks immediately get into the mindset of scarcity and managing constraints. Often, the mindset is about “we don’t have enough resources to do that” or “how can we do that when we need to give up …” While these constraints need to be considered, there are times and places for that level of conversation. When I hear those feedback, my response is “even more reason why we should be thinking differently. We cannot choose to stay on the same path, or situations may become worse.” I’ve also responded with, “was there ever a time when we had enough resources? We will never have enough resources, but it’s about being resourceful with what we have.”

A colleague who’s proven himself to be able to implement innovative ideas on campus once told me ideas often start with “wouldn’t it be cool if …” and sharing them with other folks who share the same enthusiasm or who may be able to provide support.  Keeping this in mind, when I’ve had conversations about new ideas and I’m met with skepticism,  sometimes, I’ve had to say, “I don’t know how we’ll do it, but wouldn’t it be cool if we could do that?”

I used to think, “it’s not possible here in our organization anyway, so why to bother thinking about an idea.” That mentality stopped me from exploring possibilities, and it frustrated me. But, I’ve come to find that while my ideas may not be implemented at my university, there really is no one stopping me from thinking about possibilities and sharing them with the world. Many of the ideas I’ve shared on my blog will never be implemented at my university (now) for many reasons, but they are fun to think about.

On a personal note, my wife and I commute to work for about 30 minutes every day, and we often use those times to dream about possibilities. We dream about an exciting future ahead of us. It’s not costing us anything, so we don’t limit ourselves when we think about the possibilities ahead of us.  Will they happen? Who knows, but I do believe in the idea of self-fulfilling prophecies. One can continue on the path of “it will never happen because …” and things indeed will never happen, but with an optimistic perspective, there’s the chance that what we think about and pursue may just happen.


Feeling Comfortable About Being Uncomfortable

I committed to pushing myself beyond what I think I’m capable of and comfortable with this year. I will try new things that will result in embarrassment, failure, criticism, and feelings of inadequacy. Why? I’m not doing new things just for the sake of trying new things, but rather, I want to challenge myself to get used to the feeling of being uncomfortable. What I’ve come to realize after some reflection is that I have the tendency to give up too soon when things get hard, or when I encounter criticisms. I tend to personalize criticisms, taking them to heart to the point where they paralyze me. I look back at opportunities missed in my career when if I only persisted more than I did, I could have done more. I look back at how easily I gave up in 2009 when I tried promoting the idea of mobile websites, but I could not quite convince my colleagues that mobile would become more common in the next few years. I gave up too soon. Six years later, some of our most used sites are still not mobile-friendly. What a missed opportunity.

I recently started a group on campus called Innovators Community at UCSB. I started the group because I was craving a place to just chat about new ideas. I feel there’s not enough space to just talk about ideas without getting stuck thinking about why things can’t work. I had invited folks to come to our first social. I even offered to buy food. After some feedback, I chose a date. I had expected quite a few people to come. Two other people besides me came. In the past, I would have beaten myself up and considered the event a failure. This time around, I didn’t see it that way. I was talking with a colleague today, and he said, “that’s a bummer.” My response was, “not really. I thought it was great!” Two folks or fifty, I was going to make the most of the result. I had an awesome time having long conversations with my friends who showed up. It was the type of conversation I had been looking for.

There are goals I had wanted to do, but I was too scared in the past to pursue them. I’ve always wanted to do formal research about student affairs and technology, but I gave myself many reasons why I couldn’t do them. This time around, I will find ways to finally start taking steps towards this goal. I will be attending the NASPA Regional 6 conference Research Institute to gain research skills and connect with others who may be able to help me out.

I will be called the “lone nut” I will probably be called some names I may not appreciate, but I will take them on as a challenge. When I attended a student affairs conference this last weekend at UCLA, I attended a panel session of senior higher education administrators wherein they shared their experiences and challenges. One of the panelists, VP of Student Services at Rio Hondo College, Henry Gee, said something that resonated with me. I’ve heard the advice, but it was different this time. He shared how in his position, not everyone supports everything he does. He shared a story where a board of trustees offered their opinion not to renew his contract while he was in the room. VP Gee’s advice is you can’t take it personally. Guess what? I think that sounds like good advice. As I have learned in my position of one year as the acting Executive Director for my IT department, even with the best intention, everything I’ve done so far has not been met with unanimous approval. At least one person tells me I’m doing things wrong or I’m not doing things well enough. I’ve come to learn I cannot please everyone, and so with that lesson learned and with all my plans to try new things this year beyond what I would have done in the past, I will be learning to be comfortable about being uncomfortable. Onward I go!


Random Thoughts About Identities and Organizational Roles

I once read that identity is an intersection of how others see you and how you see yourself. As much as we want to define how we want others to see us, I think that’s pretty much impossible. We can certainly try to influence others’ perceptions of us but ultimately, what matters is how others see us. I believe that’s called reputation. The concept of identity is a complex one. It’s even more complex when one considers the role of identity in the context of social settings. When we are associated with groups, such as the organization we work for, we assume the organization’s identity and identity are shaped by its members. Actions by individual members reflect the organization and other members, while the organization’s identity impacts how its members are perceived. Have you ever walked into a meeting where you’ve never met anyone before, yet they’ve already formed an impression of you?

Those in leadership positions must sometimes have to negotiate and reconcile their identities and values with that of their organization as they don’t always match. So, how do leaders authentically represent themselves when representing their organization? What does it mean in this context to represent “themselves”? Are they representing their identities independent of the organization, or are they representing identities defined by their role in the organization?

I think about the questions above when I hear from individuals who maintain that they want to be authentic to themselves and the values they represent. Considering the possibility that there probably isn’t an organization anywhere that completely aligns with the values of every single one of its members, how will those individuals deal with this reality?


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