Between the time that I was hired by PSU’s Board of Trustees and when I actually started the job, I visited PSU’s campus last year in May to meet with different groups across the university to prepare for a smooth transition.
One of the highlights of that visit was the 20th Annual Portland State Lū’au at Viking Pavilion. It was at that event, amid the dancers, the fire, the poi and the shave ice, that I first got to know PSU’s vibrant Pacific Islander and Asian American communities.
This fall, PSU celebrated our official federal designation as Asian American, Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI), the result of many months of hard work among faculty, staff and students. That designation came with a $2 million grant that is helping PSU develop services and academic programs to assist in attracting, retaining and supporting Asian American and Pacific Islander students.
I am proud that PSU is the first public university in Oregon to become an AANAPISI and I greatly value our diverse communities from across the Pacific.
The diversity of those groups led the PSU Pacific Islanders Club to rename their annual celebration this year to Pacfest, short for Pasifika Festival, to signify that participants aren’t just from Hawai’i, but include communities from Samoa, Tonga, Micronesia and many other countries.
Pacfest took place on May 11 at Viking Pavilion and several hundred people attended, no doubt as impressed as I was by the dances, the food and all the other vestiges of Pacific Island heritage. Sadly, protests on our campus overshadowed the event somewhat, prompting some vendors to pull out and perhaps keeping some would-be attendees at home.
PSU’s multicultural student body is one of the university’s superpowers and while I admire the activist persistence that drives protest movements, I want to do everything I can to ensure we can still celebrate the accomplishments and talents of our diverse student body, especially as commencement draws near.
Today the Pacific Islander, Asian & Asian American Student Center kicks off Pacific Islander Week with events for students all week long. Special thanks to everyone who has had a hand in planning them and best wishes to all of the AAPI members of our community.