Rank up at the top in terms of your memorable moments. Um Well, on a
personal level, I would say when I finally did finish my phd, um because
that was a struggle because I was a director of undergraduate admissions
at the time. And I say, you know, it took me longer to write my
dissertation than I wanted. I went through the coursework pretty quickly.
But, um, I, as I always say, life interfered. And so I took, um it took
me a little longer than I wanted, but I was determined to get it done. And
what really, I think about that. So I got, I was very, very close with Jim
Brock who was the, the baseball coach here for 23 years and he passed away
and I had not finished my dissertation. I was close, but I just hadn't
pushed through to finish. And he was always so encouraging to me about
that and I felt so badly about it that he died in July. And I, and I
finished in December, I was determined I would just to get it done. And I
dedicated my dissertation to him because I really was so thankful. But so
that was a highlight, I think, really getting that done. Um, yeah, your
interest in, uh, athletics, uh, really helped. I think overall, in terms
of the alumni association, talking about coaches, a lot of people didn't
realize that Jim Brock had a doctorate degree. Right. He had an ed, he
certainly did. And that's one reason in my career at the issue, I think it
was really having an impact on the profile of the student body. Uh both
flipping the inverted pyramid and really making a strong focus on bringing
underrepresented students into the population was a huge factor for me.
And at the alumni association, I think it was just feeling as though we
were creating pride and, and being alumni was important also, you might
recall, I got this, you know, crazy idea to um everybody wore go to
football games and uh call it solid gold and got some of my friends um
from the three football quarterbacks for three decades, Danny White from
the seventies J and airport from the eighties and Jake Plumer from the
nineties to actually do a photo campaign for me to promote solid gold and
, and the students today, they all were sold to the games. And so I'm, I'm
kind of proud of that, you know, as I remember you had contact with a
former football player that went out for the football team and encouraged
him to come back to school. Actually, it was Danny, that was Danny. So, um
, and, you know, we just became really good friends. Uh, one of those
things where at the first time I met with him, it was like we've known
each other forever. But what happened was he, um, retired from football
and had not quite finished his degree when he left and was nine hours
short and he was talking to Frank Kusha about it. His former coach and
Frank told him he needed to talk to me. He, he had tried a couple of
things and had, and uh at the university had not gotten very far. So Frank
said, you know, you should go talk to Susan. So he did and I helped him
get readmitted and worked with everything. I met him on the first day or
the day before classes, walked him around to all his classes. So he would
, you know, know where he was going and what was going on and, and it just
, it started a really great friendship that um was terrific and he
finished and I am really happy that he did because it would have been
really, really uh sad thing if he was nine hours an hour short and, and
never finished the degree. So, you know, as I remember, you had contact
with a former football player that went out for the football team and
encouraged him to come back to school. Actually, it was Danny, that was
Dan White. So, um and you know, we just became really good friends. Uh,
one of those things where at the first time I met with him, it was like
we've known each other forever. But what happened was he, um, retired from
football and had not quite finished his degree when he left and was nine
hours short and he was talking to Frank Kush about it. His former coach
and Frank told him he needed to talk to me. He, he had tried a couple of
things and had had, uh at the university had not gotten very far. So Frank
said, you know, you should go talk to Susan. So he did and I helped him
get readmitted and worked with everything. I met him on the first day
before or the day before classes, walked him around to all his classes. So
he would, you know, know where he was going and what was going on and, and
it just, it started a really great friendship that um was terrific and he
finished and I am really happy that he did because it would have been
really, really uh sad thing if he was nine hours credit hours short and
never finished the degree. So.