Name: Tyler Wu
Year: Senior
Hometown: Olympia, WA
Major: Psychology, Minor in Education
Tyler Wu, 2015-2016 ASUW President (image via The Daily)
So graduation is coming up in just a couple weeks now; if we flash back four years, what would you tell your freshman self?
Four years ago, I was all about a plan. All about what I was going to do next. Even when it came to UW, I had a plan about how to get a job, an internship, great grades… I think now, I realize that you kind of just have to embrace everything as it comes. It sounds so cliche, but back when I was an orientation leader, we would always tell our students that your major does not always equal your future. I never really believed that. But now I’m a psychology major and I’ve gotten a bunch of jobs in the business fields, and I think that’s where the presidency role really comes in. It really just throws you where students want you to be or administrators want you to be.
The presidency answers to both the administration and the student body. As the Daily put it, you’re the “official spokesman for the entire student body,” responsible for honoring thousands of voices on campus. As a representative, how do you balance authenticity and listening to the people?
In the last few weeks especially, what I’ve learned is that what separates my role from the role of thousands of other students on campus is I have a connection with administration. So when I advocate on behalf of students, when I voice their opinions, when I voice what I think is right, I also have to keep in mind that this relationship with the administration is the strongest it’s been in a really long time. It’s a relationship with the administration that no other student on this campus has, so I can’t be offensive or push the envelope too much because you can’t burn those bridges. If you burn bridges, you can’t get any progress.
My personal philosophy to change is that you need to take steps to get there. So sure, there were a lot of things this year that frustrated me and things that things students wanted me to advocate for, but it all goes in steps and is practical.
Speaking of balance, how do you navigate being this very public persona while staying grounded? Being Tyler Wu, ASUW president while also being just Tyler Wu?
That’s still something I don’t really think I’m good at. What I really try to do is separate my personal life from my professional life. At the end of the day, I go home and hang out with all of my friends who aren’t involved in ASUW, and that’s honestly what has kept me grounded – realizing that this position doesn’t define me.
It’s so hard with social media. I vet my social media all the time, and I always make sure that I’m being professional but also a little personable. It’s still something I’m trying to work on just because this role is a very professional role, but at the same time I want to make it very transparent and appealing to students. As president you can still have fun and you still have friends and community outside of ASUW.
Making the government accessible – which I think is something you’re really trying to do – is something so important. Making students feel like they can speak up, feel like they’re being heard…
That’s one of the big things I’ve wanted to do this year, like Coffee With The President. Making my job not seem daunting and scary. ASUW isn’t all about politics and government; all you really need to be in student government is the passion to make another student’s life better. The best thing about our board is that we’re not just one big friend group, we all have those relationships and homies and right hand people outside this organization. That’s not always how it is, but it helps us right now balance work and personal life.
The first time I ever ‘met’ you, first week of school, you were talking at commencement about “getting comfortable being uncomfortable.” How did you decide that was The One Thing you wanted to share with the new incoming class?
I actually never wanted to be ASUW president. The position I had last year, Director of Community Relations, that was like my dream position and what I hoped I’d be someday. And so when someone asked me to run for president, I immediately shut that idea out. It gets connoted with government and politics and all this stuff I wasn’t interested in, but I sat down with my mentor and he said that the best advice he’d ever heard was that if something scares you, you should do it because it’ll challenge you. I hung on to that quote forever.
I didn’t want to run for president because it scared me. I realized that that was the reason I should run. The reason I’m here. So I felt it was important to tell the freshmen that, because you’ll all be going up against a lot of obstacles here during your time at UW. You have to embrace that change and keep moving forward. So yeah, I think that bit of advice that I shared with the freshmen was the bit of advice that pushed me to be president and I think that if it’s something that pushed me to be president, it’s something that could push someone else to be president too.
You’ve had almost a full presidential term now – what are you proudest of?
I don’t know! That’s hard. Professionally or personally?
Let’s do both, one of each.
Okay, so professionally, I feel like the student engagement this year has gone up so much. I think that’s really reflected in the five full tickets running for office this year, which is the most there’s ever been. While they may not have liked what we were doing, they saw what we were doing, and that was because we were open and transparent. We were intentional about reaching out to students, and that might not be the reason at all that they’re running, but hopefully this year’s board played a little bit of a role.
Personally, I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life before the presidency, and now I think I do. So this presidency has made me go through a lot of growth.
You’re a psych major minoring in education. Not Poli Sci, not international relations – how did you end up in Student Government?
Wow, that’s throwback. Actually, the first interaction I ever had with ASUW was at orientation – I went to this workshop and the president sat down with all of us, talked about what he did. I gave that same presentation over the summer, and it was just weird. I was like “oh, I’m that president I saw four years ago.” It was just a really good moment.
I joined UW Leaders, took a break for a year, got involved in other things, then became Director of Community Relations last year.
You started the IFC (Interfraternity Council) your sophomore year, didn’t you?
Yeah, and I feel like it really set me up for this position. We haven’t had a Greek president in a long time, and I don’t really talk about being in a fraternity a lot, but that’s something that I’ve been a part of for the last four years and the Greek community is something that I care a lot about. So it’s cool to be able to represent a community that hasn’t been represented for a long time and in hopefully a good light.
What does leadership mean to you?
[laughs] I should open up an application essay and see what I wrote for that. Like, in one word?
Anything! Maybe what you’ve learned, or misconceptions about leadership you think people have…
Okay, so on my foot I have this tattoo, “agápē.” It means unconditional love. And I learned that word in leadership camp when I was in high school, then I was an idiot and got it tattooed on me. But it’s something I look at all the time because it’s something I’ve really embraced recently, and it falls under something I call ‘The Servant Leadership Model.’ Essentially, it comes down to loving people unconditionally. Let’s say person X doesn’t like me at all, hates me as president. But as a good leader, and as president, I still love them anyway and I will still serve them to the best of my ability. I think that’s what a leader is: in the face of adversity, they’re continually seeking to serve others.
In the office of ASUW President, you work with so many people…I used to be a person who was a people-pleaser, and I hated it when someone said they didn’t like me. Now I’ve just embraced the fact that you may not like me, but my job is to still serve you and love you unconditionally no matter what you may think about me. So I’ve learned to embrace being person that not everyone likes.
So speaking of leadership and making possibly unpopular decisions, we have a really competitive election season for ASUW heating up right now with five full tickets running for Board of Directors. Can we talk about voting and why it’s important?
Honestly, when it comes down to it, voting is a reflection of your values. Whomever you vote for, you’re voting for that person because you think they reflect your values the best. If someone is in an important role making important decisions, you want someone you think could look out for you. Voting is so important, especially this year. Just because it really will reflect the values of this year’s student body and it’ll send a huge message to administration about what students want from this next year.
Do you have any advice for people about how to approach learning about candidates or choosing a ticket?
If someone is genuinely interested in figuring out who they’re going to vote for, go to the tables and talk to the candidates about what they see next year and what they want to do for the university. That in person interaction is going to give you a better sense of who that person is and what they value. Everyone can look good on social media, but you can tell if someone has passion in person.
ASUW has obviously been a huge part of your college experience; what kind of effects has that had?
So when I came in as a freshman, I really didn’t like ASUW at all.
That’s so funny.
I know! That’s why I took a year off, actually. So when I ran again, part of the reason I did that was to get in the system and start changing the system. Then I think that’s what really pushed me to be president, to see that push through. So if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there’s an opportunity to change something by getting involved and changing it from the inside. It sounds really radical, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s just to say that I love the association now and I didn’t four years ago, and that’s a huge thing for me. I also think my public speaking has gotten a lot better, and hopefully I’ll be using that a lot in the next ten, twenty years.
In those next ten, twenty years, what’s coming up for you?
In August I’ll actually be moving to D.C. and going to George Washington University, for Higher Ed policy work in Student Affairs. So hopefully in two years I’m going to come back to UW, work for UW, get involved with student affairs or administration. The end goal is to do either Higher Ed policy work or Higher Ed consulting, really looking at the access or education and getting into college for underrepresented students.
Everyone always asks if I’m going into politics, and I’ll say not right now, but I’ve learned if I say anything definitive, it’ll probably change.
That’s so full circle, coming back to UW.
That’s why I’m leaving. I knew if I didn’t leave now, I would never leave.
Okay, so a couple fun questions. Do you have senioritis yet?
Oh, absolutely. Senioritis is real.
Best restaurant on The Ave?
Ahhhh, it depends! There are so many places. If we’re talking Korean Food, I love Korean Tofu House. Thai food, Thai Tom. Teriyaki, Teriyaki First. I always tweet about it and no one brings me food.
Favorite color?
Orange. Not burnt orange, like…this. [holds up highlighter] It’s very reflective of my personality.
And last but not least, best UW memory.
[long pause] So I’ll throw it back to freshman year, my winter quarter. I stood up in front of my fraternity brothers, all of them, and came out of the closet. I read a speech that I wrote. Whenever anyone asks me best memory, that’s always the first thing I think of, just because that’s the point when I realized that my life really, like…kicked off. My heart was beating out of my chest, I’d written like fifty speeches before that one, but the support around me was so much more than I’d thought it was. It was the reason I ended up doing so many more things. You can hold as many leadership positions as you want, but until you’re comfortable with who you are and confident in the person that you are, it’s really hard to lead people. That was the only thing I was uncomfortable about, and it was something I wanted to tell everyone.
It’s kind of what started everything.
Yeah, honestly. It’s so weird to think about, but that was the beginning of all of this.