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BN: Then shall we go to Long Beach?

AN: Well, so after I'd not been accepted for the job at JACL, I was planning... I was enjoying the work. We were creating a K-12 alternative school in Pasadena that was part of the Pasadena school district. So it was a precursor to charter schools that we have now, and magnet schools, so it was an exciting time. And so I enjoyed the experience of kind of creating alternatives within public education. And so our philosophy was to offer alternatives in the way curriculum was taught, but at the same cost per student as other schools, but having a diversity of students that would be representing the district. So we had a good ethnic, gender diversity. And so that was kind of our thing, was to be able to show that you could offer alternatives within public education on how things were taught. And ours was much more kind of small group, participatory approaches, and breaking down rather than having everything by grade level, that you have different experiences and different groupings and mixes of things going on. So I enjoyed it. In fact, after I left, the program continues to exist now and is very well-recognized. So that was fun.

BN: What's the name?

AN: Hmm?

BN: What's the name of it?

AN: It was at that time the Pasadena Alternative School, and now I think it's called the Pasadena Basic School. It's part of the... what high school was that? Marshall High? Anyway, but I know people that graduated from that school. So it's actually a very desirous school to attend, and I believe in alternatives within public education. And obviously, later on, I tried to create a public charter school in Little Tokyo, you know about that. So I was doing that, and I was approached by Jim Matsuoka, who said, "Alan, we have this job opening in Long Beach. We already have someone in mind, his name is Bill Shinto," he was a minister at Evergreen, that was teaching in Asian American Studies there. And he goes, "But we need to have more applicants because we have to submit three names to the administration." But he goes, "We already know who we want. But you we willing to?" And I go, "Sure." I didn't have a problem, so I just turned in my application. And then Jim contacts me and he goes, "Well, you have to come in for an interview." I said, "Well, that wasn't part of the deal. I got to go all the way to Long Beach to be interviewed?" He goes, "Yeah," so I said, "Okay." So I said, "Send me the job description." So I kind of looked at the thing. I drove from Pasadena to Long Beach. I, with very little preparation, showed up about ten minutes late to the interview. I walked into this interview room, and there's like twenty-five people sitting there. I go, what is this? And like half the group were students. So I apologized for being late, but I said the traffic was... and then they started asking me. I was not prepared, but I was just talking as I do. And then after we were done, Jim contacts me, he goes, "Well, Alan, the one that we wanted, the committee didn't like him, so he's out. And there's two other people, but they're awful, so you have to..." and I said, "Jim, this isn't part of the deal." And he goes, "Well, the students really loved you," blah, blah, blah. This was actually, there was a time when they had black, Latino, Asian and American Indian, EOP, and they had some other programs and they were trying to consolidate them together. So I said, well, let me look into it.

I went over there, and then I met with the BSU, the four student organizations, and I told all of them, I said, "I don't need this job, but I think there's some good possibility here. But if any one of your organizations don't want me, let me know now and I will not accept the job. So this is only going to be workable if all the organizations feel that I can do the job." So they were shocked. I said, "I'm employed now, I'm fine, but I see the potential here." So then I asked, "Well, what do you need?" So then this was the Vice President for Academic Affairs, so I contacted him when they offered me the job and I said, well, before I decide, I want to meet with the president. So this guy, he's pretty... I'm like all of twenty-seven, he's going, "What?" And I go, "I'd like to meet with the president before I make a decision." He goes, "Why?" and I go, "To be quite honest, what I've been told is the president makes all the decisions on this campus, and I need to get some commitments from him before I decide to take the job." He was very upset, he goes, "Well, I'll have to get back to you." And I thought, "Well, that's that. I've done my job." So then the next day his assistant called me and he goes, "Okay, the president's agreed to meet with you, so you're going to have lunch." So I had lunch, and we were talking. So I said, "Well, I think this has potential. But before I decide, I need to have a commitment for budgetary authority, I need to know if they have the money, ability to know what my allocation is and handle it directly, I need a new facility, I need an additional position to support my thing," and I can't remember one of the things. And he looked at me and he goes... and I said, "I need to tell you, I think this has potential." And I said, "If I can't deliver what you want in a year, you don't have to fire me, I'll resign. But this is what I think I need in order to be able to make this work." I said, "If you provide these resources and this commitment, then I will work... and if you are not happy with it, then I will... if you want that in writing," 'cause I said, "I have no problem with that." And he basically -- 'cause I got together with him, he became a congressman so we would talk later. He says, "You're a pretty nervy guy to do all that." But he said, "Okay." So I go back to the Vice President for Academic Affairs and said, "Well, we have these commitments." So he was not happy that I kind of did this end run, that I came aboard and pulled all that together.

It was a job that I ended up just loving because it was working with... unlike UCLA, these were students of color, there was much more acceptance there, these were more working class folks, it was kind of meeting my needs because it was like communities they were recruiting from that I felt comfortable with. The challenge of getting the different folks of color to figure out how to work together was challenging, but at the same time I just... but the roots were there at Long Beach. They were never, everyone wasn't divided as you were on other campuses. There was enough interaction. And so we were able to kind of pull that together, and it ended up being a great experience. I was planning on being there for five years, but it just kind of ended up, I just loved the experience. And what I just enjoyed was being able... we had a high school program, middle school program, so being able to identify students and track them and provide support was just, I had a great time.

BN: It sounds almost like they were people, similar to people you grew up with.

AN: Yeah, exactly. And being able to touch their lives in different... and so I just fell in love with some of the students. Like some of the Yellow Brotherhood students, I remember getting them into school and kind of supporting them and getting them, Gary Fujimoto, Iris, that were there, and kind of getting them connected. It was just a great time to be able to have enough access to resources. And so I would always kind of take on a few students every year that I would just work with. And it was a crazy time, but I don't know if you know Mike Yanagita, but Mike is someone who was active. And so he was involved, he moved out to California from Michigan and was working with YB. So I just got together with him and he goes, "Yeah, I'd like to go back to school." He said, "Well, I was at the University of Michigan." I said, "Okay, were you in good standing?" He goes, "Yeah." I said, "Okay, well, give me your application." And so he came in on Monday, school started the following Monday. And so he came in Monday with his transcripts, I mean, with his application, and I said, "Okay, if you can get your transcripts in by a certain date, you're in." So then he got a letter of admission on Tuesday, and those are the kinds of things that I just loved being able to control enough resources to be able to touch lives of folks, and stay in touch with all these various people that have moved on, some successes, some failures, but I just loved the experience of Long Beach. And then as I spent years, we changed, I took on broader responsibilities.

I say this story a lot, but when my retirement came, I said, what I'm most proud about this university is we get the son of a doctor coming from Newport Beach, drives a BMW to campus, we get the daughter of an undocumented immigrant coming from Huntington Park, taking the 90, the blue line of the 90 bus, and they come to the same classes. And if we do it right, they benefit from each other, but it's always a fine balance because the son of the doctor, if we're not providing the educational quality, they're going to leave and go to other opportunities. But that's the level of opportunity and resources that the daughter of an undocumented deserves. And if we do it right, we both learn, and that, to me, was the pinnacle of the vision I had. It was not just providing access and letting people get a second level of education or were not doing well, but providing that with kind of the rigor and other things to make it a worthwhile experience for everyone. So I was just very proud. And Long Beach, to this day, continues, it's in the top ten in the nation in terms of graduation rates for the demographic profile of students that are served. And I like to think that I was a part of helping to create the enrollment environment to do that.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.