WEBVTT

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 Rank up at the top in terms of your memorable moments. Um Well, on a

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personal level, I would say when I
finally did finish my phd, um because

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that was a struggle because I was a
director of undergraduate admissions

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at the time. And I say, you know, it
took me longer to write my

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dissertation than I wanted. I went
through the coursework pretty quickly.

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But, um, I, as I always say, life
interfered. And so I took, um it took

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me a little longer than I wanted, but
I was determined to get it done. And

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what really, I think about that. So I
got, I was very, very close with Jim

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Brock who was the, the baseball coach
here for 23 years and he passed away

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and I had not finished my
dissertation. I was close, but I just hadn't

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pushed through to finish. And he was
always so encouraging to me about

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that and I felt so badly about it that
he died in July. And I, and I

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finished in December, I was determined
I would just to get it done. And I

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dedicated my dissertation to him
because I really was so thankful. But so

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that was a highlight, I think, really
getting that done. Um, yeah, your

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interest in, uh, athletics, uh, really
helped. I think overall, in terms

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of the alumni association, talking
about coaches, a lot of people didn't

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realize that Jim Brock had a doctorate
degree. Right. He had an ed, he

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certainly did. And that's one reason
in my career at the issue, I think it

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was really having an impact on the
profile of the student body. Uh both

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flipping the inverted pyramid and
really making a strong focus on bringing

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underrepresented students into the
population was a huge factor for me.

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And at the alumni association, I think
it was just feeling as though we

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were creating pride and, and being
alumni was important also, you might

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recall, I got this, you know, crazy
idea to um everybody wore go to

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football games and uh call it solid
gold and got some of my friends um

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from the three football quarterbacks
for three decades, Danny White from

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the seventies J and airport from the
eighties and Jake Plumer from the

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nineties to actually do a photo
campaign for me to promote solid gold and

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, and the students today, they all
were sold to the games. And so I'm, I'm

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kind of proud of that, you know, as I
remember you had contact with a

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former football player that went out
for the football team and encouraged

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him to come back to school. Actually,
it was Danny, that was Danny. So, um

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, and, you know, we just became really
good friends. Uh, one of those

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things where at the first time I met
with him, it was like we've known

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each other forever. But what happened
was he, um, retired from football

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and had not quite finished his degree
when he left and was nine hours

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short and he was talking to Frank
Kusha about it. His former coach and

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Frank told him he needed to talk to
me. He, he had tried a couple of

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things and had, and uh at the
university had not gotten very far. So Frank

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said, you know, you should go talk to
Susan. So he did and I helped him

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get readmitted and worked with
everything. I met him on the first day or

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the day before classes, walked him
around to all his classes. So he would

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, you know, know where he was going
and what was going on and, and it just

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, it started a really great friendship
that um was terrific and he

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finished and I am really happy that he
did because it would have been

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really, really uh sad thing if he was
nine hours an hour short and, and

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never finished the degree. So, you
know, as I remember, you had contact

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with a former football player that
went out for the football team and

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encouraged him to come back to school.
Actually, it was Danny, that was

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Dan White. So, um and you know, we
just became really good friends. Uh,

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one of those things where at the first
time I met with him, it was like

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we've known each other forever. But
what happened was he, um, retired from

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football and had not quite finished
his degree when he left and was nine

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hours short and he was talking to
Frank Kush about it. His former coach

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and Frank told him he needed to talk
to me. He, he had tried a couple of

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things and had had, uh at the
university had not gotten very far. So Frank

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said, you know, you should go talk to
Susan. So he did and I helped him

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get readmitted and worked with
everything. I met him on the first day

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before or the day before classes,
walked him around to all his classes. So

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he would, you know, know where he was
going and what was going on and, and

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it just, it started a really great
friendship that um was terrific and he

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finished and I am really happy that he
did because it would have been

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really, really uh sad thing if he was
nine hours credit hours short and

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never finished the degree. So.