<Begin Segment 17>

KU: So can you tell me about the early days of the center? Because you saw the center grow from the ground up.

EO: Oh, yes. I can tell you bits and pieces. In the early months, Philip Huang, Yuji Ichioka, and Morgan Chu, they were a threesome. They did everything together. And so people would say they were poker buddies. And to tell you how close they were. In the first few months of the center, administration took $15,000 away from our budget. So I went to Philip and told him, "They're taking $15,000 away from us," so Philip, what he did, he made an appointment with the vice chancellor, and then he took Morgan and Yuji with him, the three of them went together to meet with the vice chancellor to get the money back, and they got money back. But to include Morgan, I was thinking that's amazing. He was a student. Or maybe it was better, because it was the student center anyway.

KU: Can you tell me about the role of students in setting up the center?

EO: What?

KU: Can you tell me a little bit more about who helped set up the center? You said that it had a budget of $100,000?

EO: Every year.

[Interruption]

EO: I give a lot of credit to Professor Huang. Because, well, our first staff meeting, he announced that the center was only getting $100,000 a (year).

KU: A year.

EO: A year. If we hire regular staff, it'll break us. So we have to hire students, and that's what he planned on doing. And he had a classification for them. So I knew that every student I had going to be having a lab assistant one step three, that was the pay rate. So it was kind of low, but students were happy with that, I think. And besides, a lot of them would have worked for free, I think. So it staffed by students, mainly in the beginning, lot of students.

[Interruption]

EO: As administrative assistant, I was coordinator for the center management unit, and I knew all my assistants would be students, that was great. And I learned from them quite a bit. [Laughs]

[Interruption]

EO: And then, let's see, what happened? After about a month being there, Phil asked Yuji and I to go up to his office in the history department, because he says we still have a proposal to write. So every day... was it every day? It might have been every day after work, we'd go up to his office. And he would pace the floor and recite what should be said. And Yuji would be kind of like the editor to see that everything was correct, I think, and I would be typing. And we did that for about two weeks, and it was ready. I was surprised at how fast it was approved (by the academic senate). It didn't take long. You know, in academic circles, sometimes things take a long time. It was sent in, I think, no more than a month later, it was approved, and we were established as a center.

KU: So I saw the proposal, I saw the proposal, and there was kind of a coordinating committee for the development of the proposal?

EO: Oh, well, they were students. They had notes from the committee, and I asked Stuart Kuo about that, he says, yeah, Philip worked with the students and they developed all these notes, and I guess that's what they're talking about, the notes. So it was, I think the students with Philip, he knew his way around. Because I think he designed other research centers. So I want to make sure his name gets mentioned because I never see his name mentioned. But you know he and Yuji had a big, I don't know what the disagreement was, but they used to be so close, and then they split.

KU: When was that?

EO: Hmm?

KU: When was that? Was that early on in the center?

EO: Early years, first year. I don't know what happened. And what made it even worse, well, something happened between then, and then after that, there was this student reception that was coming up, and Yuji had been in charge. We got the refreshments and everything, the place, nobody came. So that even added more, and so Yuji, after that, he resigned as assistant director. Now he was just doing research. And soon after that, Philip quit. So I don't think they talked to each other or anything. I don't know what happened.

KU: So who came into the directorship after that?

EO: What?

KU: Who became director after Philip? Philip was the first director?

EO: Alan (Nishio) was appointed, I think. He was the next director. Then after that, oh, Lucy. Okay, while Philip was director, he showed me this file, he was looking for a (permanent) director for the center, he said this is nationwide. So all I could tell is he was the only one doing it, 'cause he showed me the file, and then he told me he was going to pick, this is the one he thinks is going to be good. So he sent for her, and she came out, and I guess she met everybody, and I guess they accepted her. She was offered a position in sociology so she could spend one-third time as director of the center. And I think he talked to her a lot about the center because one of the first things she did as a director is she had a meeting of everybody. And that included Asian students from the opportunity programs in the first floor. They were all invited, plus the other activist students. So the students all had a say in how the center should be organized.

KU: This was Lucy?

EO: Hmm?

KU: This was Lucy you're talking about?

EO: What?

KU: This was Lucy Cheng?

EO: Lucy Cheng. Because she came in, I think it was 1972, something like that. But she was our first director, I think.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.