“Cross-cultural centers are important in two ways: one to educate the campus and one to provide support for students, but every campus has a different balance of that, depending on what that campus needs.”

“I remember that really struck me when I was there is how kind of racial justice oriented APSA was, because it wasn’t about Asian Americans at all really, it was about affirmative action, and it was about students of color.”

“Dr. Corinne Kodama is a former Research Specialist for the Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) project and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has served in both faculty and administrative roles at UIC, DePaul University, and Loyola University Chicago. As a scholar-practitioner Dr. Kodama has worked both in academic and student affairs, including counseling/higher education faculty, multicultural affairs, undergraduate admissions, career services, and assessment” (University of Illinois Chicago). Previously, she worked at UC San Diego’s Student Affirmative Action and Human Relations program and Muir College.

This interview covers topics including UCSD’s Cross Cultural Center (CCC), student activism regarding racial justice and affirmative action, and Asian American student activism in the 1990s.

The interview was conducted on June 03, 2021 via Zoom by Ada Tong, who was connected with Dr. Kodama through her previous relationship with Dr. Kodama at the University of Illinois Chicago and the AAPI Studies Community Archive Project (now known as GROW). Ada is a recent graduate of the Masters of Public Policy program at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. Currently, she is the Chief of Asian American Services at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.