José Dela Cruz

For many Student Affairs teams, ensuring student success requires a personalized approach. With an effort to understand students on an individual basis, programs and initiatives can be tailored to distinctive identities, experiences, and challenges, ultimately creating positive campus communities that nurture growth.

Dr. Jose Dela Cruz, Vice President (VP) of Student Affairs at Portland Community College, sat down with Co-Host of The Interview, Max Webber, to discuss why his team works holistically, and how they involve faculty members and student organizations in their approach.  

Jose's Journey

Max: Let’s start with a brief introduction to yourself and your institution…

I’m Dr. Jose Dela Cruz, and I serve as the VP of Student Affairs at Portland Community College. I took on the role in June 2023, and since then I’ve learned a lot about the institution, and the Pacific Northwest as a whole. Portland Community College is the largest community college in Oregon, and we serve around 50,000 credit and non-credit students.

Max: What drew you to a career in Student Affairs? 

I’m an extrovert, so I knew I wanted a profession that allowed me to connect with people and communities. After my undergraduate degree, I became a substance abuse counselor for the state of Oklahoma, and though I really enjoyed that kind of work, I quickly learned that it wasn't what I wanted to do long-term. I had the opportunity to serve as an Academic Advisor for the University of Oklahoma, which nurtured my belief in the importance of education. As I moved up, I learned more about Student Affairs, and decided to pursue a Master’s and PhD in HE. I’ve stayed in Student Affairs because of the impact the work has on the lives of students and the wider community. 

Max: How do you create a safe and positive campus environment?

First, we have to make sure that our students feel safe on a mental and emotional level because that’s necessary for them to thrive in our community. The political climate of the Pacific Northwest works in our favor, as our students have the freedom to demonstrate their identities. Having said that, we also serve students from a variety of racial and economic backgrounds who face unique challenges, so we need to ensure that our faculty and staff treat students as individuals. Very often, students can feel like they’re just a number rather than a whole person, so our front-line professionals must have the training and career development needed to get to the root causes of individual issues. We also have to make sure that our messaging, be it spoken, written, or visual, is in alignment with the positive and safe climate that we want students to experience on our campus. 

Max: How do you facilitate conversations across difference among students? 

Some students will shut down when conversations become uncomfortable, but silence is not productive, so we always stress the importance of engaging in difficult conversations. We also make it clear to our students that, while disagreeing with their peers is normal, the resulting conversations need to be constructive, and cannot affect the well-being and safety of those around us. Helping students understand the balance between free speech and hate speech is vital for critical discourse because it enables them to engage in conversations across difference without demonstrating threatening behaviors. To do that, we leverage the expertise of our faculty members, giving them the academic freedom to model challenging conversations in the classroom. As educators, we have to be mindful that students will take these skills into their communities and the workforce, so if they can’t engage in meaningful dialogue across difference, we haven’t done our jobs. 

Max: How do you ensure students are engaged in these critical conversations?

We’re fortunate to have several student clubs and organizations, and a very active student government at Portland Community College. We collaborate with those groups, give them the skillset to engage with their peers and colleagues, and allow them to take charge of important communication. We also provide students with space to bring knowledgeable community members onto campus, which allows them to serve as leaders within our campus, and the external community. When we support students in their efforts to curate conversations around critical behaviors, it empowers them to engage with important topics and use their unique voices. Every student will need something different to feel that they can take part in these conversations, and those complexities inform our holistic approach to engagement. 

Max: Post-pandemic, how has the focus of your Student Affairs work changed? 

Basic needs support for students has always been a focus for Student Affairs teams, but we’ve had to think critically about how we provide that support following the pandemic. Instead of facing only housing insecurity, food insecurity, financial insecurity, or issues with emotional and mental well-being, our students are much more likely to face several issues at once. That’s created a need for Student Affairs practitioners to think holistically about student journeys, and how we can meet each student’s basic needs. Another thing that’s been impacted by the political and ideological shift that took place during the pandemic is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). DEI is vital to the positive impact that Student Affairs teams make, and it’s now facing challenges at the state and national level. To figure out how to navigate that landscape, I’ve been in consistent dialogue with my counterparts across the country, discussing how we maintain and protect our critical race programming. We often share resources, best practices, and common pitfalls because it’s clear that these challenges will be ongoing, and will shape Student Affairs work for the next five to ten years. 

Max: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received during your career? 

The best advice I’ve received comes from my father rather than a career mentor. As an immigrant from Mexico, he was very determined, and I grew up working on his farm in rural Texas. I would often complain that I had to work all summer while my friends could enjoy their summer vacations, and my dad told me, ‘When you get older, you will recognize just how important this hard work is.’ He wanted me to aspire to something more than inheriting the farm, and figure out how I could better my life and the lives of those around me. It wasn’t necessarily advice, but when I’m feeling down or figuring out what to do next, I often reflect on those conversations because they push me forward.