Jerry Kang is an associate provost and a professor of law and Asian American studies at UCLA.
In present-day higher education, that may not be the case. Thus, UCLA plans to create a system of evidence-based practices to produce a fair environment for all students and faculty. In July 2015, Kang will lead the charge as vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion—as unlikely a candidate as he may seem.
“In some ways I am an unconventional choice, given the fact that I come from a professional school and I wasn’t a professional administrator before,” says Kang, who approaches the opportunity with determination, stating that his “slightly atypical set of motivation, skills and framing” could work in his favor.
An immigrant and first-generation professional, Kang grew up in Illinois, raised by parents who came to the United States to give their children educational opportunity.
Understanding their sacrifice, Kang pushed himself to excel in school.
As an undergraduate student at Harvard, he studied physics. “I thought it asked the most fundamental questions around basic truths about our universe,” Kang says. “I was curious about how things worked at a very fundamental level, such as the birth of the universe and how space and time function—the ultimate principles by which matter and energy worked.”
In college, even though he majored in physics, Kang also cultivated an interest in the liberal arts, from philosophy to creative writing to political theory. After working summers at national laboratories, life as a scientist lost some of its romanticism. Also, he became more politically conscious about what it meant to be a racial minority and an immigrant.
