Here is the link to the Interest Survey for the Longhorns for a Culturally Competent Campus (LC3) program<\/a> that Dr. Jones references in the episode. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Jones talks with Dr. Marilyn Tyus, Assistant Vice President of Housing and Dining at UT Austin, about the importance of setting expectations, being okay with changing your mind, and being limitless in the pursuit of your passions. Here is the link to the Interest Survey for the Longhorns for a Culturally Competent Campus (LC3) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/01\/2021-01-27_L-I-V-E_Marilyn-Tyus_mastered.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"53.25M","filesize_raw":"55832204","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":""},"tags":[35,604,601],"series":[2],"class_list":{"0":"post-196","1":"podcast","2":"type-podcast","3":"status-publish","5":"tag-career","6":"tag-happiness","7":"tag-inspiration","8":"series-live","9":"entry"},"acf":{"related_episodes":"","hosts":[{"ID":68,"post_author":"39","post_date":"2020-07-20 20:29:28","post_date_gmt":"2020-07-20 20:29:28","post_content":"","post_title":"Dr. Brandon Jones","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"dr-brandon-jones","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-07-20 20:33:17","post_modified_gmt":"2020-07-20 20:33:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/?post_type=speaker&p=68","menu_order":0,"post_type":"speaker","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"guests":[{"ID":199,"post_author":"10","post_date":"2021-01-28 19:04:00","post_date_gmt":"2021-01-28 19:04:00","post_content":"\n
With 28 years of experience in student affairs, Marilyn is an established leader in construction, facility management, contract negotiations, housing and dining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before UT, Marilyn previously served as senior director of housing and auxiliary services at the University of Michigan, where she has provided visionary and strategic leadership for a department that includes approximately 12,000 beds in 18 residence halls and 1,500 graduate and family apartments, with an operating budget of $140 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She received her doctorate in higher education management from the University of Georgia, and a master of science in college student personnel at Illinois State University. She also earned a master of arts in psychological counseling from Southeast Missouri State University, and a bachelor of science in home economics from the University of Missouri.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Dr. Marilyn Tyus","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"dr-marilyn-tyus","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2021-01-28 19:04:00","post_modified_gmt":"2021-01-28 19:04:00","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/?post_type=speaker&p=199","menu_order":0,"post_type":"speaker","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"Transcript":"
[0:00:00 Speaker 0] Longhorns for a culturally competent campus also known as L C three is a free that’s right free 10 week workshop for the University of Texas at Austin undergraduate students that’s designed to help assess and develop their cross cultural awareness and communication skills. Participants also learn how to interact with those who are different from them. If you’re interested, look in the liner notes from this episode of Live to Sign Up and fill out the interest Survey link. But hurry. The interest survey closes on Friday, February the fifth at 12 PM For more information, please email me Dr Brandon W. Jones at B Jones at austin dot utexas dot e d u oh,<\/p>\n
[0:00:57 Speaker 1] Mhm!<\/p>\n
[0:01:01 Speaker 0] Welcome to live leadership, Innovation, Ventures and Entrepreneurship, a podcast that showcases the talents, skills and abilities of UT faculty, staff and students. I’m your host, Brandon Jones, associate director for student learning and development in housing and dining, and we’re excited to have you listening to us. All right, Welcome, everybody to Episode 13 of the live Podcast. As always, I’m your host. Dr Brandon Jones, associate director for student learning and development in housing and dining at the University of Texas at Austin. I am so excited because today we have a very, very, very, very, very special guest with us. And it’s none other than Dr Maryland tires, the assistant vice president for housing and dining here at UT, which means she’s my boss’s boss. Which means she is responsible for making sure that we have everything that we need to do. The live podcast. And so I thought it would be great to start the semester off Talking to Dr Tires. Dr. Thomas, how are you doing today?<\/p>\n
[0:02:09 Speaker 1] I am doing awesome. I’m awesome. Doctor Jones.<\/p>\n
[0:02:13 Speaker 0] Oh, my goodness. I’m so excited to have you here on the show. We’ve been wanting to have you for a long time, but we wanted to get the show up and running. And with this being Episode 13, that means we are just a little bit over a year old with this show. And so we’re excited. And I think that right now, given that school just started back last week here at UT Austin, we thought it would be a great time to have you on the show to kind of talk about what you do. Your journey to getting to where you are now. And what are some things that the students could be doing or should be doing with this new semester And with, you know, with the new year with new beginnings, what are some opportunities, uh, that are presenting themselves from where you sit? Uh, as the assistant vice president. But before we dive into all of that, before we get into that stuff, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself? Where are you from? Your education and background. And then we’ll dive into all the other good stuff.<\/p>\n
[0:03:12 Speaker 1] All right. That’s a long story, Dr Jones. I’ve been out here<\/p>\n
[0:03:16 Speaker 0] a little bit of time. We have a little bit<\/p>\n
[0:03:18 Speaker 1] of time. It’s been a while. I, uh uh, where I’m from. If I go all the way back, um, for 60 years. Uh, wow. Why don’t we start where I started going to college when I would do<\/p>\n
[0:03:33 Speaker 0] that, Do that? That’s okay. We can do that.<\/p>\n
[0:03:36 Speaker 1] But I will say that one of the things that pushed me to be a student was my father. My father was, uh, an individual who did not finish the eighth grade because of a lot of the racial tensions around that was going on when he was coming up as a child, and my grandmother was like, I’d rather have you alive and uneducated, then not be here where I can teach you what I can teach you. So my father’s, uh, he said all his life as he grew up. Of course, life was hard because you you didn’t have the education and he would say, When I have Children, I will do whatever it takes to make sure that my kids have the opportunity to go to college. Uh, and, you know, and him and my mother made a pact that when we were growing up, that they would never talk about finishing high school was the end of education, and my father always said, When you finish college and when you get your second degree and so we grew up with the expectation that college was not an option, it was an expectation. And so when you say where I came from, so I you know I did. I love school. I’m a learner. So I finished my undergraduate degree at the University of Missouri Columbia. Um, and I went into what I thought that I wanted to do. I was into Well, I first started in journalism<\/p>\n
[0:05:17 Speaker 0] because I started in journalism.<\/p>\n
[0:05:19 Speaker 1] Yeah, I started off in journalism, and, you know, my father would always say, Do something that’s going to get you through Well, you know, University of Missouri, Columbia. Known for the journalism school. Yeah, and I didn’t like it, and I found myself doing something that I didn’t want to do. So I Eventually, after I got up the nerve to tell him that I wasn’t in journalism anymore. I went into fashion merchandising business because I but that was part of my skill set. That’s what I knew growing up and being around a grandmother and a mother who are excellent seamstress. And I enjoyed it. Um, but then So I finished that degree there, and then I went on, And, um um, I started my first masters, so I received my first masters in psychological counseling at Southeast Missouri State University. So I finished that, um, and then I went to, uh, Illinois State. So my job started. I fell over into housing at Southeast Missouri State University, you know, and it was happenstance. It wasn’t that I wanted to go into housing. I wanted to be an all right. It was that the dean said. We’re short on staff tires because I was working in the Office of Multicultural Affairs for the dean at that time, he said, So you’re going to go in the house and I was like, I don’t want to go into housing. And so of course, you know, I was a broke college student, uh, started naming all of the amenities that came with that job, and I was like, I’m going in the housing So that forgot me enough housing way back when 1980 something. And, um, you know, it’s just something when you get directed and you get porn and in different things and you can push again against it. But then it’s really a part of who God had designed you to be. You didn’t know. So I got in the housing and I loved it. I loved interacting with the students. I my first job as a hall director. I had a hall of 400 women. It was all women’s hall and just to interact, um, with them, I just fell in love with working with students and making sure that they had a path to succeed. Because when I look back over my own journey, even all the way back to where I can remember when I was age five and, uh, the people in my community was starting things for young black Children, uh, I was exposed to that early, and these are my mother’s friends. And when I look back now, I was like, Wow, you had a mentor before you even knew how to spell the word. Um And, you know, so that once I fell over into housing at Southeast Missouri State, it was just a continual climb from there. Then I went to Illinois State University, got recruited their, uh uh, there I finished another master’s degree and student personnel, you know, I’m loving what I do, so I needed to be educated in what I did. I need to have the knowledge. So I finished a master’s there, started, uh, Ph. D there, uh, didn’t complete it. I’m one of those people that I’m going to keep going till I do it. I you know, let me confess now. I attempted my PhD three times before I succeeded. Life happened for the first time. Uh, at Illinois State University, There were some issues in the department. A lot of it was around race. Um, and this is why I actually ended up getting a second Masters degree. Then I went over to University of Illinois and started all over again. I mind you. I finished all the coursework and everything at Illinois State University, but I couldn’t lay in the plane. So then I started again at, uh, University of Illinois or Vanna. And life started to happen. Parents start to deteriorate. I’m trying to go to school full time. I’m working a full time job. I’m trying to be a caregiver. Uh, and so again completed everything. All the coursework, uh, and then I stopped out for a while, but then when I came back, the teachers like we don’t know you. Um, So anyway, long story short, I just I said, you know, I’m done by then. I’m caregiving for my father, elderly father. And his last wish was he said, Marilyn, I pray that I get to see you get this degree. He said, I’ve asked, God allowed me to live, but unfortunately, he didn’t. He passed away before I finished, but I was determined to finish. So by now, I I’m in Georgia State University. I’m down there as the director of housing at Georgia State. I was the director of housing at, uh, Illinois State, and then I took the nose. Associate director, Illinois State. Then I took the director’s position at Georgia State University. Um, and so, you know, it just wouldn’t go away. It wouldn’t go away. I wanted to finish. I burned my books after the noise. Stupid thing. Don’t ever burn your bugs. You’re gonna need them again.<\/p>\n
[0:10:30 Speaker 0] I<\/p>\n
[0:10:32 Speaker 1] had to buy all those books, and so I it wouldn’t go away. And I tried to tell myself that it wasn’t important, but it was because there’s something I wanted to do for me. But it was also I wanted to honor my father. Yeah, he You know, he jumped hoops. It was four of us that went through college. He jumped hoops to make sure we succeeded. So I was at Georgia State. I said, You know what? I’m gonna give it another shot. Um, and I started all over again. So this is gonna be the third time I’m completing all of these courses and the higher education program. Uh, but I can say this time I did. I graduated from the University of Georgia, Uh, with my my doctorate degree, Um, and after Georgia, where did I end up? I got recruited up to the University of Michigan, so I served as their executive director for housing for three years before coming here to, uh, Texas. But that that journey that education journey for me is something that just goes on because I also had the opportunity while I was studying at the University of Georgia the opportunity to go over and study in the Netherlands. So we went over to write curriculum over in Europe and also in Australia, uh, for students at in those school systems. And it was an eye opener because what our students struggle through, you can multiply that by three or four times because those students don’t have the support and they take chances on Well, I know I got to take this class and I’m and I’m caring for a parent or I’m doing this, so I’m just gonna go in and take the final and pray I pass, you know, so you may not be in attendance. So again, that thing that’s just innate with me, how do you make it better for students to survive and thrive on a campus? So thus, I continued, I’ve also, um, completed certification at Harvard, uh, one of the Higher Education Administration programs there. So it tends to go over there and just kind of really study the administrations of higher education institutions. Uh, so every area area that I’ve worked in and I probably have held every position, uh, in a housing program that’s there except for an r a. I was never in our never in our area and so I can<\/p>\n
[0:13:02 Speaker 0] never, never, never were in our A<\/p>\n
[0:13:06 Speaker 1] Yeah, and so never in our A. But I know they are the hardest working group of people there. There is. And so that’s kind of my educational journey. Um, it’s it’s more than just a passion for me. Um, I didn’t want I always say, one of the things that continue to drive me to do all that we can do to help our students thrive is my own experience as an undergraduate student and at the University of Missouri. Uh, when I started in 78 Uh, you didn’t see people like you, you know, you didn’t I didn’t see me. Um, and I always say that I survived. I didn’t learn. I learned how to survive. Also, all of the tension. Uh, at that time, I think it was like 23,000 students or 24,000 students, and there are only less. It was around 500 African Americans. And so you didn’t see anybody when you saw someone that looked like you, Uh, you clung to them. And so when I look back over my journey, I didn’t engage. We know that you had to Don’t walk home by yourself at night. You know those things. So I didn’t understand what engagement was. I didn’t really start to learn and enjoy the learning process until I started working on my master’s degree where I could get in and engage in conversations where I can engage with a faculty person and have those discussions and walk away having learned something. And so I always say, I always look back. And so my journey at the University of Missouri, um, just put me in a position that I don’t want students to go through. Just surviving. I ended up, I I earned that degree, but I was a survivor, as opposed to an avid learner. You know, Uh, so that’s one of the things that drives me and why I do what I do. I spent a lot of time, uh, mentoring. I’ve been mentored all my life. I can now put a name to And, you know, after all these years and you look back and people who were teaching you principles and value in protecting and supporting you from the age of five, I can, you know, think back. And I’m the type of person that I do believe nobody pulls themselves up by their bootstraps. There’s always some there, somebody there that’s helping you to lace your shoes. And we just have to recognize that, you know, we have to recognize that you didn’t make it. And when I look at where I am, I am thankful. Uh, I think it’s a blessing. And so my goal is to How do I empty out before I leave this earth? And what I want to do is pour my experiences onto the students that I engage with. I want to leave here empty. I want to leave here empty. So it’s a little bit about me. I can be on myself, you know,<\/p>\n
[0:16:15 Speaker 0] And I And the thing is, I’ve been over here taking notes and you’ve you’ve you’ve really You’ve gone in so many good directions here, and I want to make sure that we honor that because we have a We have a very diverse audience. We have students that listen to the show. We’ve got faculty and staff, and not just at the University of Texas. And so and I believe that all of this and you being first Gen uh, as on top as layers on top of that. And so I want to unpack a couple of things. I think the first thing I want to talk about is just that importance of expectation. You talked about how your father said that, Um, I expect it was it was an expectation that you not only went to college, but you’ve got more than one degree, and it’s not surprising that you got that many degrees. And then it was also that expectation that ultimately served as a catalyst to help you finish. Can you talk to our audience? And I’m talking to the faculty, the staff and the students that are listening to this about the importance of having expectations and what expectations can do, uh, in a positive and a negative, because we can have negative expectations, too.<\/p>\n
[0:17:28 Speaker 1] You know, uh, I’m a believer and a person who has grown up with expectations. Uh, students will reach the bar that you set. If you set up our high, they will reach it. They have the capacity, and some of us may be challenged in different ways. But if we set the bar, provide the support systems, these students will thrive. And I’ll say two students don’t be mediocre, be all you can be. All of us have in grain. That’s what I like to talk about is gifts. We have natural talents, and I think one of the things that, uh, we have to as administrators as educators learn to do, is to lean into the students strength, as opposed to focusing on the weakness. Lean into their strength. Where are their strong porn’s? But my parents set bars. Hi, and I didn’t know you’re setting bars. You know what I’m saying? You know, you’re going to college and you’re gonna get another degree. So my father was already talking about you can get a master’s degree. And so it’s like when we established a vision and then support our students in seeing it, they will reach those bars and, you know, so you come into a school like UT Austin. They’ve already reached some bars. Everybody don’t get into u T. Austin. I didn’t. They see. So when we’re talking about the caliber of students that we bring and are accepted at U. T. Austin, they are top students, so they are already equipped to reach bars. We have to determine where are we going to set the height. And so, you know, I I you know, as you know, I always talk about, uh, unlimited ng, uh, yourself. We we grow around boxes, you know, we grew around boxes and you hear the saying, uh, you know, I think outside the<\/p>\n
[0:19:42 Speaker 0] box. And<\/p>\n
[0:19:44 Speaker 1] so what I say blow the damn box up. Who needs a box?<\/p>\n
[0:19:47 Speaker 0] That’s right. Where<\/p>\n
[0:19:49 Speaker 1] is the unlimited thinking? And so we talked about setting bars. I want to set it So hi that they don’t gauge themselves around a bar or engage themselves around a box I could get outside the box, But if it’s still in my peripheral vision, I’m still measuring myself by that, you know? So blow the dog on thing up and, you know, soar to higher heights, then the<\/p>\n
[0:20:16 Speaker 0] limit. I love what you said there and because and I don’t want to miss it because it ties right into what my next question is going to be. It’s funny listening to you talk. I can tell that you mentored my supervisor, Dr Kirksey, and we’re going to have him on the show, Uh, here in a couple of weeks. And one of the reasons why I know it is because he always is like something as simple as a survey, right? If I come to him and I’m like, All right, well, we’re going to shoot for a statistical significance. He’s like, That’s mediocre, like, why would you do that? And so I remember the first time I came to him and said, Alright, we’re shooting for 30% completion, and he was like shoot 400 I said, You want me to stand up in front of the staff and say that we’re aiming for 100% completion and he was like, Is that a problem? And I was like, Nope, he said, because think about it like this. If you shoot for the stars, but you land on the moon, you still in space, right? And I’m like, This is true. So now I get to be that person standing up there believing in that. So hearing you say that just just shows me like the influence of your mentoring, because that’s exactly what he pours into us as residents life staff. So the question that I have when you talk about those expectations, I’m trying. I want to pivot here just a quick second when you talk about expectations, Um, students come to college all the time with expectations their parents expect them to go. As a former academic advisor, I knew students who were majoring in engineering just because it’s what their parents expected. But somewhere in there they started to operate in their gifting, is a little bit or started to notice that their gifts were going in a different direction than what was expected. Somebody listening to this right now is wondering. Is it okay to change your mind? Because we’re teaching them as advisors sometimes and sometimes as institutions and leadership were showing that when you change your mind, there’s consequences. Uh, you got to pay penalties and you’re gonna graduate later. You may not get the quote unquote dream job. Can we help us unpack whether or not it’s okay to change your<\/p>\n
[0:22:22 Speaker 1] mind? Oh, absolutely. Because I think when our parents sent us off to school, they sent us off with the best intentions. And you have to understand that they’re they are talking to us or we’re talking to our students based on our lived experiences. And so they would say, Well, we know from experience is that if you get uh, if you become a doctor, uh, doctors are known to make a lot of money. Or if you become a lawyer, you know, those are the top two things or<\/p>\n
[0:22:53 Speaker 0] an engineer<\/p>\n
[0:22:54 Speaker 1] that you’re going to be wealthy. Then you’re going to make a living because they want to see us survive. And everybody wants to see the fruit of their laborer succeed. So let me just say you know the caveat that when our parents are pushing us or when is, uh, mentors are saying you have to do this, they do it with good intentions because they want to see you survive. They all want to see you do better than where they are. But can we change our mind? And that’s the thing that I would encourage parents, whoever supporting a student come. It’s to give direction, but give latitude because without latitude they may not really be able to tap into what their purpose is. What is their real life purpose? And you’ll start to know my parents, my faculty when the students start talking to you about I really like this, this is an idea that just won’t go away. These are the things or the, uh, where they start to identify with that innate spirit of who they are. And so when you have that colliding with an expectation of a parent, the students stresses out. Now I want to please my parents. I was you know, I wanted to make my father happy. I want him to be pleased. And so I stressed out because I like journalism. I didn’t want the microphone and chasing news. I didn’t like it. I was good at it. I didn’t like it. And so when I got up the nerve to switch into something that I liked, I went, you know, I went home. You know, I have to go home on those brakes helping power school this semester. What did you do when I was like, uh, Dad? I got something to tell you. And so I was pumping him up, you know, you know, I’m a good student and, you know, give him all this stuff. So I my expectation was he was going to be angry, But I talked to my father and he said, Baby, I’ll never forget this. It’s not. What you do is that you do something well and finish it. Oh, my well and finished. But it’s your choice, he said. I said that because that’s the little that I had. I knew he read about the school and he was known for journalism and all that, he said. So I in my head I wanted the best for my daughter, he said. But the best is when you realize what you want and I want to support you in that it was the best conversation I had ever had with my father when I learned that his intentions was not necessarily to control, but the guide me along, a path that will help me to be successful and, as he say, to survive after I’m gone.<\/p>\n
[0:26:02 Speaker 0] Wow, that’s a That’s a beautiful story, and I think that that also speaks to the power of setting expectations as guides. But I love what you said about giving direction but also giving latitude. And so, as a parent myself, I’m also receiving that and thinking about Okay, what is that going to look like for me with my kids as they’re starting to come into their own and forming their personalities? Because that’s the thing that students deal with every semester because they’re changing their evolving, Uh, they come to college, and sometimes their political ideations or their political, uh, affiliations change or their philosophical approach to life is altered. And, um, a lot of times that conversation around the dinner table, especially during covid. Now, some of those students weren’t ready to go back home because there are certain parts of who they were or were significant are significantly different now that they’ve been to college and seeing the world quote unquote or been in an environment with all these different people. And so I really appreciate the guidance that you shared there. What about the power of community in all of that? Because I think that community is something that’s important. That I heard you say that was important because you talked about mentors you talked about. Once you change your major, I’m sure that there was some experiences or with some people that helped you come to that conclusion. What role does community play in the college experience or in the learning experience or the life experience? If you want to put that out there for the, uh, folks that aren’t students<\/p>\n
[0:27:35 Speaker 1] anymore, You know, I would say it this way. Uh, it’s important. Uh, if I could use the analogy of being in a field of wildflowers, uh, multiple different kind of flowers are growing. Um, I want to be there because now I can share in what each flower offers, and I have a choice of whether I would pick that again, make it in a bouquet, or just let it be what it is so in in a community, we all come. We bring something different to the learning experience to the lived experience of Let’s just say, living in a residence hall and it also we have a latitude to pick up what I learned ingested, live with it, live by it, also have an attitude to the latitude to pick it up, explore that’s not me and let it grow but still let it grow there. But it’s the intermingling of all the differences where we get our strength. We identify our weaknesses. We have. We are expanded our mind. Our thinking is expanded and you can’t do that. If you were the lone flower in the field.<\/p>\n
[0:29:00 Speaker 0] Oh my c One thing I wish you would have said at the beginning of all of this was that you left out that you’re a certified life coach. I don’t know why you didn’t drop that in there because because Because if you’re listening to this folks, one of the reasons I love working in housing and dining is because I get this somewhat for free. Now I got to come with some work, obviously, but we are students. Our our race our professional staff members are facility staff. I don’t care who you are. You get this. This is what she gives to us, uh, as a department. And I’m not just saying that because she’s the big boss, as I like to call her in secret. But still, this is what you get. And what I love about this is the fact that you’re speaking to parents. You’re speaking to students. Right now you’re speaking to faculty staff. You’re speaking to all of us because those things are so important. And so that’s a little life coaching tidbit that we just got y’all like, Hit, rewind, hit replay. Go, go! Replay that section of this podcast. I want to shift gears a little bit because you opened up a door there that talks about your role a lot as the assistant vice president for housing and dining. What role do you play in the nurturing and the development, or the surviving and thriving? Um, of college students at a university like the University of Texas at Austin?<\/p>\n
[0:30:24 Speaker 1] Who? That’s many hats. That’s many hats, uh, one roll. The roles that I enjoy most is engaging with students. And you you mentioned that I am a life culture and I am and one of the benefits that our students have is as long as I work for you. T If a student want to come in and do sessions with me, it’s free. So any student, any<\/p>\n
[0:30:55 Speaker 0] facts, people<\/p>\n
[0:30:56 Speaker 1] is all pro bono now external, you know, as a life<\/p>\n
[0:31:01 Speaker 0] coach. But<\/p>\n
[0:31:04 Speaker 1] I I if they can get on my calendar if you you work with my admin, she knows that, uh, one of the rules for my calendar is students get first priority. Now, of course, I have set meetings as an administrator that I have to go to, but I do have blocks of time. And if a student call and say, Can I get in to see Dr Tires? She’s her only answer is yes. She doesn’t have an option to say no. We may have to wiggle it in for the week, but if I can get a student in front of me, this is my own thing. If a student is dealing with challenges and just want to ask questions, I pride myself that if I can get that student in front of me, I could help him change directions and go in the direction that he wants to go or she wants to go in. My role as an administrator is to make sure that the, uh, we operate a and operate we We deal with an operation so that students can come here live here, thrive here, uh, succeed here, Uh, engage here and then I’ll I I look at all the physical things. I need to have buildings that are safe. Uh, for me personally, I need to have buildings that look good that students can say, This is the second home. As you all know, we talk about the five star mentality. It cannot be mediocre under me. It can’t be mediocre. It has to be the home away from home. It has to be the home. Away from home is their second home. If I had my druthers, they would not see a difference in how we engage. And and And I know some homes are different. Uh, we all have different challenges, but I like to create the ideal home in a residence hall. I would like to have what you need to survive, and then I like to hear what you want. What was your ideal come into college? And why did you have that expectation? You know, once we find it out? Didn’t we gear our operations around that? Because the thing is, people say Why? Why Why do we take jobs in back in the day? We took jobs for the monetary benefit, right? Today we take jobs because we want to grow. We want to be developed back in the day. Students, We went to college and you better get your books and all of that. And I don’t know if engagement was as strong as it is now. The purpose for engagement. But just like now we take jobs because I like what I do. I want to expand. I want to be developed. Students come to college not only for the books, the classrooms, they come for the outer classroom experiences. And so that’s what we need to create. I love when we’re creating things that give them an aha moment, those life changing things that happen or experiences that they have. We were talking the other day that we need to create experiences that are unforgettable. Mm hmm. We need to create opportunities for them to meet others who are unforgettable. They become life friends. I’m still best friends with people I went to college with over 45 years ago. We still connect, and that’s what we’re about in housing is just not a but in the bed. Mine in the field is the more than the one lone flower out there, you know? So that’s what. And, you know, and I talked about earlier you talked about being, you know, the the tension and all of that. And, you know, you know, I always talk about failure is not an option. And, um, my acronym for, uh, failed his false evidence of peeling, uh, fear is false evidence appearing real? It’s just false evidence. Appearing real and and teaching our students to lean into it, lean into it. Uh, and that’s that’s the joy I get.<\/p>\n
[0:35:27 Speaker 0] Why is it so important to lean into that, though? Because Dr Kirksey says that same thing to students all the time about leaning into the discomfort. And that’s countercultural to the narrative that we put out there because the narrative that’s out there is when it gets uncomfortable, walk away because that’s not for you. But every time Dr Kirksey gets a chance to talk to students, it’s like, No, no, no, no, no. Let’s lean into that discomfort so we can learn more about that. Talk to us about why it’s important to do that,<\/p>\n
[0:35:55 Speaker 1] because it’s a growth opportunity and and the other part of it, it helps us to just to uh oh, how do you say it? Uh, leading into it helps you to alleviate the fear, because most of the times what we fear never happens anyway.<\/p>\n
[0:36:14 Speaker 0] But<\/p>\n
[0:36:16 Speaker 1] lean into it. I think you will go in. You’ll find out that maybe the fear was around an illusion, Uh, and so and then it helps you to grow. So when you when you encounter that that stone again, or that block again, you can say, Hey, it’s nothing, guys, I’ve done it. I’m worried I’m at<\/p>\n
[0:36:39 Speaker 0] my sounding the same right now. I want you to know that this is affirmation confirmation for me on a couple of things.<\/p>\n
[0:36:47 Speaker 1] Just lean into it. Lean into it. A lot of times when I think we when we’re feeling like I I better not do that. I better not do and and for me. Let me just I have to put the cabby out there. I just My faith is what gets me through. You know, I I personally strong belief in God, and I think that sometimes when we come up on these blocks, we have to figure out where is the block coming from. And why is there something within me that don’t want me to cross over? And so many, you know, I’m bullheaded. Now, you know, I’m crossing over because on the other side of that is something waiting every experience, every, uh, area that we fear. I say take it as a growth opportunity, and then I tell people, Hey, go for it. And if it’s really big, it’s okay to fail, because even in failure, there’s learning I can fall seven times. But if I get up, I got up eight. So I got up more times than I laid down and failed.<\/p>\n
[0:37:54 Speaker 0] We’ll see you’re saying something else there too, because it’s, you know, uh, Dr Moore, I was in, uh, Dr Leonard Morris class a couple of semesters ago, visiting with some students of his and one of the things that he brought up to the class was, he said. He said, I think in education, specifically higher education, he said, We’ve done you all a great disservice because some of some students have just bought into I gotta be right and failing is not an option. And so they won’t raise their hands. They won’t take the They won’t attempt to answer questions for fear of being wrong. But in the academy, isn’t that the goal? To experiment, to learn and test things out? And if it’s wrong, go back, learn why it was wrong and then come back better. But somewhere along the lines, we’ve pushed that out of the way, and we just like No, no, no, you got to get it right And with high stakes testing and, uh, these super high and difficult admission standards, I think that at schools like ours and others that I’ve had the privilege of working that I’ve seen that, and it’s always concerned me that it’s creating a culture where our students are afraid to try because or change their major for that matter, or go into where their strengths actually are, for fear of quote unquote getting it wrong and what your coaching us to do is lean into that and be okay if it didn’t turn out okay. And you’re living proof also, that not only is it okay to change your mind, it’s okay to have to stop and start again and stop and start again.<\/p>\n
[0:39:27 Speaker 1] I would, I would I would encourage people to digest this failures are the building blocks to success. Mhm failures are the building blocks to success, So sex success is a growth process. When you fail, you grow, so you might as well use failures, building blocks to get where you want to get to Now, I would say Don’t make the same mistake over and over and over again because now you’re tearing it down. But every time I failed, I learned every time I felt I learned every time I felt I learned. So I was building up on that. As I got ready to go to the next level was it was go to another position or higher position. I didn’t repeat my failures because I learned that those things didn’t work<\/p>\n
[0:40:23 Speaker 0] right.<\/p>\n
[0:40:23 Speaker 1] And that’s why I say failures are just building blocks to success. It’s not a negative thing I I often say dream so big that failure is inevitable is going to happen. Mm. And that’s what I want to see our students do is dream so big that they use their failures as they’re building blocks to succeed.<\/p>\n
[0:40:52 Speaker 0] So, Dr t you you’re dropping so much wisdom here and now I’m recognizing. I’m like, Okay, we’re just gonna have to have you back at the beginning of every semester to get up started. I got one last question for you because and I think this is gonna be a good one to take us home on. Since you’ve been here, you have helped lead us. Um, through you’ve helped us fight food insecurity on campus, you’ve helped lead us through. Um, we had a little bit of a water issue at one point. Uh, you helped us overcome that. And then covid and out of all of those things, the one thing that I can say just from being on the inside watching it is that you somehow managed to stay anchored and consistent. What is it that guided your thoughts? Uh, in each of those areas, especially the food insecurity one, because that’s a major one on a college campus that very few leaders. I wouldn’t say very few, but I would say a lot of people struggled to address you. Took it head on like you came through the door making it clear that you would not let a student go hungry on your watch. Um, and you and you have fought diligently and consistently for that. And I know that there are a lot of students who have graduated and are still here, uh, that have appreciated the steps you’ve taken what made you so determined and will to just endure and wrestle and be persistent in all of that. Okay,<\/p>\n
[0:42:25 Speaker 1] uh, I think I set bars for myself as well. When? When I know that my actions will impact students and staff, I don’t have the option of setting a low bar. Mm. And so when I set bars for myself, I’m also showing students or my mentees that you can lean into it and you can conquer. You can rise to the occasion. When I came here, one of the directors I had was fixed The food program. We don’t want to see our students experiencing food insecurity. So that was a bar. You know, all through life bars are being set. You’re either setting them yourself or somebody setting them for you. And my intent is to always lean into it. So, like they said, if you shoot for the stars, shoot for the moon, you’re gonna fall amongst the stars. If it’s not exactly if you don’t hit the moon if I have a whole bunch of stars around me, right,<\/p>\n
[0:43:32 Speaker 0] it’s<\/p>\n
[0:43:33 Speaker 1] a matter of, uh, Dr Jones is once I have something in my head, or if there’s a goal that can help me help somebody else, it is not an option for me not to achieve. You know it’s not an option. And, you know, as they say, when you trying to think of the book that I read and I remember this book, uh, the first sentence was, Life ain’t about you. Mm.<\/p>\n
[0:44:03 Speaker 0] Life<\/p>\n
[0:44:05 Speaker 1] ain’t about Maryland. Life isn’t about Dr Taya’s life is about those people that God allowed to cross my path, that which I can help. That’s what life is about me giving. That’s why I say the goal is to pour out because so many people poured into me. So many people poured into me, and I’m only where I am is because people reached out and help me. So that’s why I’m probably gonna be one of those individuals that still working at 18. And like, there she goes,<\/p>\n
[0:44:38 Speaker 0] there<\/p>\n
[0:44:38 Speaker 1] she goes, Because what I do, I love who I do it for. And I’m thankful for the preparation that I had to be able to do this as an administrator on a college campus and to engage with these students. Uh, you know, my joy is when they come back 10 years later and say, I remember you said this this and that. I followed that. This is where I am. That’s what I live for, is for them because life isn’t about me.<\/p>\n
[0:45:15 Speaker 0] Mm. Well, that’s if that’s the mic drop moment right there, Dr Tires. Thank you so very much for coming and spending time to talk to the live audience. Thank you for creating the environment where a show like this can exist in allowing me the opportunity. Uh, you know, you and Dr Kirksey give me to be able to talk to people through this medium and engage with the campus community. This wouldn’t exist without us. leadership. And so I just wanna say thank you on behalf of, uh, the live audience and all the students and faculty and staff who engage all over the country and the parents because parents do listen to this too. We really appreciate your leadership and direction.<\/p>\n
[0:46:00 Speaker 1] Thank you for having me and hopefully we’ll get to come back and then we can talk about my favorite foods.<\/p>\n
[0:46:06 Speaker 0] Oh, yes, we’ll definitely do that. We’ll definitely<\/p>\n
[0:46:09 Speaker 1] thank you, Dr Jones.<\/p>\n
[0:46:11 Speaker 0] We hope you enjoyed today’s episode to catch the next installment. Be sure to follow us on Spotify apple podcasts, Google podcasts and stitcher. We’ll see you next time. Mhm, mhm<\/p>\n"},"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2022\/03\/LIVE-logo-TPN.png","download_link":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/podcast-download\/196\/episode-13-more-than-a-passion.mp3","player_link":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/podcast-player\/196\/episode-13-more-than-a-passion.mp3","audio_player":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/podcast-player\/196\/episode-13-more-than-a-passion.mp3<\/a><\/audio>","episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":[],"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/feed\/podcast\/live","embedCode":"Episode 13 – More Than A Passion<\/a><\/blockquote>