Who is Dr. Wubah? How would people describe your characteristics as a friend, a President to the students, a co-worker, etc.?
When it comes to the cabinet that I work with, I work with them as a colleague, but, at the same time, I’m their leader. So that is something that comes through in my relationship with them.
If you talk to a friend of mine, depending on how long I’ve known them, I don’t have a lot of friends. I have a few friends, but they are very good friends. I prefer quality over quantity, my role basically requires that I meet with a lot of people, but it doesn’t mean everyone becomes my friend. So out of all the people I meet, a few of them become my very good friends. And I would say, those people would describe me as being a dependable person, who knows that if they call and they need assistance, I would be there for them and I will support them.
With students, I would say that at least based on my interactions with students, a word that will come to mind would be approachable. You know, I stop to talk to students, I really enjoy doing that, because I believe that every student on this campus has a story to tell. And in my role as the leader of the campus, the more I know about the students, the easier it will be for me to provide the services and also help them to achieve their goals. So for students, I try to be approachable. And the other thing with students that I often tend to do, I’ll say, 80 to 90% of students with whom I meet I ask, what’s your major? And then I’ll ask them their class, whether they are freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior, and depending on, you know, which class they are, I often would make suggestions to them. I believe that, you know, suggestions are the best way to get someone to make a decision. We talk about advice, when you advise someone in most cases, you are responsible for the person’s actions. That’s how I work with students. We are always trying to find ways to help them give them suggestions.
Now, when you talk about who is Dr. Wubah to my family. My two daughters, you know, would tell me that I should keep my daytime job, because they think I try to be funny and to them, I’m not funny. But one thing they know is that their mom and I are there for them 100%, that, you know, we have a very close relationship, you know, they call any time and to just give you an example of our relationship every morning when we wake up, we have a group in a family platform. So myself, my wife, my two daughters and my two grandkids. We always say good morning to each other, every morning. So we know how people are doing. And if we don’t hear from someone by a certain time, we know there’s something wrong. You know, we call. And in the evening, before I go to bed, once again, I say night night to all of them. That is for the family, you know, that’s, for them, they know we are a very close knit family, and my grandkids, they call me Pop Pops. I have two grandkids. One is 14, one is 15. And they know that I would always take their sides, you know, except in rare cases, when they have any issue with their mother, because they are my grandkids.
Is there a certain genre of music that you prefer? Do you have any musicians that you love to listen to more often than others?
Well, generally speaking, I like all sorts of music depending on the mood, but the three main ones that I tend to like, you know reggae music? Bob Marley, I grew up on that, you know, back in Ghana when I was growing up, it was a big thing. And then in Ghana, we have a type of local music that is really for dancing. It’s called highlife. It’s a kind of Ghanaian music that is based on the locals, you know, it’s the local language in most cases, and it’s made up of drums, percussions, highlife music is definitely tympanic and for dancing. And then also I like classical music, classical music in the sense that when I’m working in the office or you know, over the weekends and I’m doing something that requires a lot of brainpower, and I want music in the background, I play classical music. Reggae and highlife are during my hobbies.
Bob Marley for sure. Bob Marley’s one of my biggest, you know great person. I like Jimmy Cliff. With highlife, someone called Daddy Lumba. He is a famous Ghanaian highlife artist. I really like his songs. When it comes to, you know, the classics, when I was in high school, we had to take music theory for three years. And so, you know, I like Mozart, and every now and then I like to throw in Beethoven, those are some of my favorite musicians.
What hobbies do you like to spend time on?
I really like to wash my cars. I love it. And the reason is this, because my primary responsibility is either the office, you are making decisions, almost every hour. You are using your brain, I consider doing something that doesn’t involve a lot of brain power, but more physical power. So I really look for any nice weather, I pull out my car and then I clean it. You know, I wash it. I polish it and what I like most is at the end of that physical process, I have something beautiful, something nice to show. And so I’ll play my reggae music while washing the car, you know, by the garage. That’s how I decompress.
In addition to that, I have responsibilities back in Ghana, where, you know, every morning I have to check in, make sure things are going. So any time I get to spend with my family, I really treasure that. And then I make time to wash my cars. Now, when it comes to, I wouldn’t call it a hobby, I consider that more of something that I do specifically for health reasons. I like to work out. I use my elliptical. If I had my way, I would use it every day, but because of my schedule at times, if I have an evening event, you know, I don’t always get to use it, but also, what I do is I don’t go for more than 48 hours without using it. So if I have an evening event, then I try to use the elliptical that morning so that I don’t have to use the evening, but every 48 hour cycle, at least I should use it once or twice. And that is not a necessity, but I really enjoy doing that.
One of your focuses during your tenure is to prepare students to become global citizens. What advice do you have for those who are about to graduate and those preparing to do so in the following years?
Take advantage of any opportunity that you can get to do a study abroad or to travel abroad. And one thing that a lot of Millersville students don’t realize, we have a lot of scholarships for international travel, but most of them are not aware to go to the international office as a freshman, and you decide you want to get a study abroad scholarship. If you don’t get it the first year, you may get it a second or third year. So I really like to encourage students to do that. Those who are about a year out or about to graduate, I encourage them that while they are here, if they haven’t had a chance to travel abroad, they should try to interact with our international students, to learn something outside their own culture. And one of the best ways they can do that, let’s say, if I’m a senior this semester and haven’t traveled abroad because maybe I was working while I was an undergrad. Okay. I would say go to the Warfel Center for International Programs and Services. Tell them you want to know about their programs. They have several programs they run throughout the year that, you know, it’s mainly targeted towards American students working with international students. We have about more than thirty Chinese students who came this fall. You know, if you’re a student and you want to know more about China, who would be the best person to tell you than to go to the International Office and get to know a Chinese student who shared their background with you? And it’s a win-win, because they will also learn from you. So that would be for the graduating students. But if you’re a junior, you can go on to study abroad between your junior year and your senior year. I encourage students who can afford it to do that.
Are you into any distinct sports teams, movies, arts, etc., that you enjoy that most people don’t know about?
So when you go to Ghana, we’ve got the local soccer teams, but we get a lot of TV from the United Kingdom. So, you know, I support Chelsea football club in the U.K. For several reasons, they are a very good team, you know, I enjoy watching them whenever possible. Domestically, over here, I enjoy college football more than the NFL. That’s the truth, because there’s so much, as well as basketball, I really enjoy basketball and, you know, college football.
For me, one of the best movies that my wife and I enjoy watching, we’ve watched several times. It’s The Matrix with Keanu Reeves. After that, there were two others that came. The first one is, you know, we like the second one, but not as much as the first one, because of the premise, the cinematography. It’s very well done. So when it comes to, you know, I like those kind of mind bending movies, and then when it comes to comedies, this is a funny one. Most people would not even expect that I like this movie. Mel Brooks is a comedian and his movies are hilarious, but you know, one of his movies that I really enjoy most is called Men in Tights. It is basically a parody of Robin Hood. That particular movie and our family have this unusual tradition. At Thanksgiving, after we finish the Thanksgiving meal in the afternoon, every family has a tradition. Some people will go out to go shopping and other things, raising our two kids, they like to watch this movie with us after the Thanksgiving meal. We watched, you know, Robin Hood Men in Tights. We watched it at least 50 times with the family.
What is your favorite home-cooked meal?
Red-Red.
Are you more of a Marvel or D.C. type of person?
I would say I do like Black Panther. So I’m a Marvel person.
What would your perfect day be like?
Well, I need to get a mixture and my perfect day often is one in which, this is something I do every day, if I don’t do it, it’s not perfect. When I wake up in the morning, the first thirty minutes is for meditation. You know, that is the key. If I haven’t meditated, I don’t feel centered for the whole day, so I meditate. Then after that, you know, normally on a regular day, I use the elliptical in the evening, but I get ready for the day. If it’s a weekend, if it’s a Sunday, we’re going to church, but if it’s a Saturday, you know, I get myself ready, catch up on the news in the morning, because you know, I need to know what’s going on in the world. Then after that, I really enjoy, my wife doesn’t miss an opportunity. She likes cooking. So we’ll have something for breakfast, and she always likes to surprise me. She doesn’t like giving me what I expect to happen. So she and I attend the house, you know, we will have time together, have breakfast. And then, once again, depends on on the day, if it’s a weekend, Saturday, I will catch up a little bit on ESPN, college football. If it’s on or basketball, and then by, let’s say, around 10 or 11, it’s the perfect time to wash cars. So then I’ll pull it out. So I would wash cars, if my wife wants me to run some errands, you know, that would be a good time after washing my car, I will run errands. And on the weekends, I always check in in the afternoons with what’s going on in Ghana. So if I have meetings, you know, I will do Zoom meetings and then, you know, I call it “I unplug”. You know, I’m trying to unplug on those weekends because Monday through Friday, there’s always something, you know, going on. So that offer would be perfect, but what makes it more perfect is when my two daughters and my grandkids come to visit. Because when that happens in our family, I have two daughters and my wife and a granddaughter. The four women, and I have a grandson. So there’s always an imbalance, you know, the four women and the two guys. And my grandson, you know, he’s 15. So they always bond together and they will be, you know, they make fun of me. That’s what they like to do. So, you know, I really enjoy being, you know, the one that they have to talk about, and they just enjoy doing it. So being with them makes a big difference. And whenever they come to visit, I really enjoy that, but that’s the perfect day for me, getting time with them.
What is something people would never guess by just looking at you? (niche hobbies, skills, past/current roles in other duties, etc.)
If you’ve not been told that I am royalty in Ghana, most people can’t tell, right? And it’s because, typically when people think of royalty, they think of them being maybe snooty, not interacting with people, being higher than others, but growing up, I was raised that as royalty, as a leader, I should be the one who served the people. What you think about royalty is that it’s a pyramid, and you are sitting at the top, but my grandfather always told me to flip that pyramid, and you be at the bottom and carried the people in your community. So in my case, I have two communities. Millersville is on one shoulder and then my people in Ghana on the other shoulder. And that’s not something that people can just see me and guess you know, I have those two. If you serve the people, they will serve you.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
I’ve received a lot of advice. I think the best piece of advice that I’ve received is basically, I should try to put myself in people’s shoes when I interact with them. And the reason why that is simple, I’ve received a lot of advice, I continue receiving new advice, but the reason why I consider that to be the best piece of advice is, that helps me in talking to people, that’s putting myself in their shoes. So seeing them, it validates people with whom I interact. And that is not easy to do. It’s something that I had to work on to be able to do that without thinking about it. So you’re trusting that people realize that you value them. And that, I think, is so important in my daily work as well as in my work back in Ghana. Once again, if it’s a student, try to understand if you were the student, what are you looking for? What would be the best thing that someone can do to help you?
How is your culture/background important to you?
It is part of my identity. That is the importance. For example, you know, some people say I have an accent, right? Yes, I have an accent. I’ve lived in this country longer than I lived in Ghana. I deliberately kept my accent because it’s part of my identity. So it is not something that I want to give away. So that culture and that background is important. On the other hand, when I go to Ghana and I speak, they now say I have an accent, because it is different from the Ghanaian accent when I am there. So that is my cultural background and it’s part of my identity and I really, you know, hold on to it dearly.
Do you play any musical instruments?
The conga.
If you could be fluent in a language you do not know, what would it be?
I would like to learn the Icelandic language. You know Greenland, the language there, and you might say why. I just like how it sounds and I want to basically speak a language that people may not even think I know, you know, I’m fluent in, because if you see me, you wouldn’t think of me speaking Icelandic.
How many languages do you know?
Six. In Ghana we have about 56 major tribes. So I speak Fanti, Twi, Ga, and Akwapim. Of course I speak English, and I understand French.
What is your greatest accomplishment in life?
It will be my family, you know, being able to raise two very, I’d say, they are successful, you know, two wonderful ladies. I think being a parent has been my biggest achievement. My professional achievements are there, but they don’t compare to being able to raise you know, my two daughters. They have professions. My older daughter has their own company and my younger daughter is a physician.
