Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the first Swakuho podcast.
Speaker: I'm your host, JC Stoner.
Speaker: After I rolled off the Swakuho Executive Board in March, I approached President Katie Pelton and past President Maggie Guzman and pitched the idea for a professional development podcast for the Swakuho region.
Speaker: They were both supportive of the idea, and thankfully they were also supportive when I told them I wanted to play it close to the chest in the beginning since I had zero experience with creating and sustaining a podcast.
Speaker: I told them I would put forth four demo episodes for the Executive Board to review to get a sense of how much time and energy it would take.
Speaker: I didn't want to get people excited to only determine it was unsustainable.
Speaker: So this podcast is going to start small and see if there's potential to scale up slowly.
Speaker: In my career, I found that sometimes new ideas are difficult to explain well enough to get legs as a value-added project due to competing resource needs and shifting priorities.
Speaker: So I've always been of the opinion to just do something behind the scenes, then have something small yet tangible to present with the potential to scale it up.
Speaker: I've seen way too many projects never get off the ground or fail to fully materialize due to being too big too fast.
Speaker: So the first four episodes are basically that.
Speaker: Four demos exploring the potential content themes to get my feet wet.
Speaker: The goal of this podcast is to deliver practical and tangible small-scale professional development for our regional members.
Speaker: The different themes will allow for actionable takeaways for members to self-direct their own professional development when it fits within their never-ending action item list.
Speaker: Within the first four episodes, we'll talk about a research article authored by a Swakuho-affiliated practitioner, we'll facilitate a book club, and have a featured topic with a panel of housing staff.
Speaker: Today's episode, though, is an interview with one of Swakuho's past presidents, Kent Sampson.
Speaker: Today, Kent and I start by talking about his career at Oklahoma State University, his experience being an internal candidate in several job interviews, and various opportunities he's had throughout his career.
Speaker: We then talk about Swakuho involvement, various ways he served the region, his pathway to the president role, and platform he ran on.
Speaker: We conclude with some miscellaneous advice and some fun Samson stories.
Speaker: Before retiring in November 2015, Kent Sampson spent 28 years in residence life and then capped off his career with 18 years in leadership and campus life.
Speaker: That's 46 years serving college students.
Speaker: Kent received his Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and sociology at Southwestern State and then completed his grad work at Oklahoma State University.
Speaker: He never left Oklahoma State until the day he retired.
Speaker: Kent says he was blessed to work for decades with the best and brightest students still staying in touch with many, and surely he misses the quality moments with those outstanding folks.
Speaker: Kent, welcome to the inaugural episode of the Swakuho podcast.
Speaker: Thank you, J.C.
Speaker: Stoner.
Speaker: You've been very patient with helping me get this up and going online tonight, so I'm glad to be a part of it.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Well, it's my pleasure.
Speaker: But first things first, and full disclosure to our listeners, we've actually known each other for a long time.
Speaker: We have.
Speaker: You were a mere pup when I remember meeting you at, wasn't it at the Cotton Bowl or something, maybe the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio maybe years ago?
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: I don't remember for sure, but we've definitely known each other.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: We have, yes.
Speaker: Oh, good.
Speaker: So why don't you just give us a real brief rundown of your career at OSU?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Sure, JC.
Speaker: As I came to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to Oklahoma State to start a graduate degree in clinical psych, it was, I happened just by chance into some gentlemen in the student union,
Speaker: where the housing office was, because I was also looking for housing at that time, who said, uh, Hey, you, you've got a background that we think really might be compatible with working in res life here.
Speaker: So they offered me my first job is serving as an assistant head resident in Wilham complex, a complex, by the way, and no longer exists.
Speaker: It's been taken down years ago.
Speaker: So, uh, that's how I began.
Speaker: It was by chance when I was looking for a housing option and, and also a grad assistant opportunity.
Speaker: And, uh,
Speaker: The two came together at that time.
Speaker: So the rest for me is a little bit of history, I guess, in these 46 years.
Speaker: And that is a combination of probably being at the right place at the right time and having the opportunities to continue to move up, if you would, the organizational chart and serve in various ways.
Speaker: That is my first 28 years in res life.
Speaker: And then our former vice president, the
Speaker: Ron Beer approached me about a new position he was creating in campus life, merging several areas together, calling it a campus life, leadership and campus life.
Speaker: And so I did pursue that with his encouragement and support.
Speaker: Essentially, it was kind of a mini dean of students position, really, if you would.
Speaker: So that's what I served in the last 18 years until I retired in 2015.
Speaker: So you've been at OSU your entire career.
Speaker: That's like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird level commitment.
Speaker: You know, you never left.
Speaker: My real question is, did you ever think about leaving?
Speaker: You know, I did take a leave of absence one semester, Sheila and I, and served on Semester at Sea, the floating university that goes around the world, did that.
Speaker: But yes, beyond that, I certainly had some opportunities and some invites.
Speaker: I chuckled when I was thinking about this in preparation.
Speaker: A very good professional friend of mine in the Res Life area, who at the time had been director of housing at Marquette, had moved to New York University.
Speaker: And I'll always remember Vance contacting me and said, hey, I really need a Res Life person with a student life background at New York University.
Speaker: I said, well, I have a lot of respect for you, Vance, and also for your institution.
Speaker: He said, we just got lots of money and it's going to be renovating many housing units, et cetera.
Speaker: So he tried to tempt me into coming there.
Speaker: And I said, I just have a little trouble seeing myself making that transition.
Speaker: So I politely said, no, I've had a few other opportunities like that along the line, I'll admit, but, uh, in each case, um,
Speaker: The grass wasn't necessarily greener on the other side, as sometimes one might think.
Speaker: And I chose to stay with what I was doing where I was.
Speaker: And also because of opportunities here, I guess I'd have to say.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: You don't see yourself as fitting in with the Yankees, huh?
Speaker: No, I just didn't see myself probably residing there and living there.
Speaker: Great differences that might have existed.
Speaker: I didn't think that that was necessarily a promotional opportunity that I should consider any further.
Speaker: And probably, JC, if it goes back to timing, might have been a time where our children were just young enough, too, that there are some elements there in terms of even relocation, considering things like that and public schools that they were involved in here and quality of those.
Speaker: So probably other elements that I don't fully recall right now, but probably some of those other ideas entered into that, too.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Timing is often everything in life.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So when you moved into campus life, how did your 28 years in housing prepare you to oversee other areas that weren't housing?
Speaker: You know, what was the reason that I think they were particularly interested in me, they wanted somebody who knew something about auxiliary services.
Speaker: And that's what, of course, res life falls in on most campuses.
Speaker: In other words, you have to generate your own revenue, room and board and other things like that.
Speaker: You don't get any tax tuition dollars, that sort of thing.
Speaker: So
Speaker: I had a lot of experience in that.
Speaker: So the job, I didn't give you the whole title.
Speaker: It was director of campus life and associate director of the student union because they wanted that auxiliary background working in the student union because of the size and scope of that operation.
Speaker: So whether it was dining services or facilities type of issues, that was part of the reason they were interested in me for that job because, yeah, it's truly 85% student life, if you would.
Speaker: But it was clearly a 15% or more facilities and operational details.
Speaker: So that was part of why they were interested in me, I'm sure.
Speaker: So obviously being auxiliary services, you must have made enough revenue to support your operations.
Speaker: Did you also make enough for the universities to steal some off the top for their own purposes?
Speaker: They were good about wanting a little help here and there for scholarships or whatever it might be.
Speaker: That's really true.
Speaker: You do learn in this business, you kind of have to
Speaker: Protect the bank a little bit here because there's already somebody interested who needs a little more help financially.
Speaker: And yet you're dedicated to trying to be sure that those student dollars that you have earned are put back into that system to keep the system.
Speaker: going and sharp and updated and that sort of thing.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: So as you progressed in your career, did you have to apply for jobs as an internal candidate?
Speaker: I did.
Speaker: Yes, I did.
Speaker: So I've heard often that the benefit of being an internal candidate is everyone knows you.
Speaker: But the problem with being an internal candidate is everyone knows you.
Speaker: So what was your experience being an internal candidate several times?
Speaker: You know, I talked about that with my spouse, Sheila, today.
Speaker: I said, this is an interesting question.
Speaker: What do you think?
Speaker: What do you recall about this?
Speaker: And we both agreed.
Speaker: I'd have to say, JC, in my career and time, it seemed to be more advantageous than disadvantageous.
Speaker: It's true.
Speaker: People around me knew my works then better than others might if I was a new candidate.
Speaker: But it seemed like that always worked out satisfactory for me in terms of pursuit of these opportunities.
Speaker: I'd have to say my experience as an internal candidate worked more for me and were advantageous rather than contrary to that.
Speaker: I was hoping you were going to say it's because you knew where all the bodies were buried or something like that.
Speaker: Yeah, I did know where some of those were.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: So when you ended up retiring, did you miss the big machine in the campus politics?
Speaker: Oh, yes, I certainly did.
Speaker: In fact, even just this last week,
Speaker: Since the last 18 years, I had advised our Student Government Association as an example, part of my component of my job.
Speaker: I got a call from a former SGA president five or six years ago in my last full year, I guess he was, who just finished within the last year.
Speaker: He was a mechanical engineer and then he had just finished law school at the University of Texas because he's going to be a patent lawyer.
Speaker: And he was in town.
Speaker: honoring, I think, 100 years of 4-H in the state or something like that, and called me for lunch.
Speaker: So we got together and chatted, and he and myself and his spouse was with him.
Speaker: So, yeah, yes, those sort of people really helped to ground me and keep me on my toes and sharp over time, I think.
Speaker: So, yes, I missed the presence of
Speaker: those talented young men and women that I got to work with.
Speaker: And it means a lot yet today to hear from them and stay in touch with them like that.
Speaker: So, yeah, I didn't miss that sometime.
Speaker: I've had people ask me, they said, well, why didn't you go for another four and get the full 50?
Speaker: I said, I don't know if they needed me for four more years, but I –
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Do I miss some of that?
Speaker: Sure I do.
Speaker: I always will.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Did you ever consider like joining the homeowners association or running for president just to get back in the game?
Speaker: No, but you'll chuckle at this.
Speaker: I was sitting on our patio, Oh, maybe three months ago.
Speaker: And across my phone came an email from the guy who's the past the Dean of our veterinary sciences program, Mike Lorenz, Dr. Lorenz.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: I started laughing when I read it.
Speaker: I said, Sheila, you're not going to believe this.
Speaker: She says, what is it?
Speaker: She says, I said, well, Sheila, they've asked me, they've nominated me to be president elect of the Emeriti Association.
Speaker: And so I was just laughing about that.
Speaker: So is that not hilarious or not?
Speaker: So I did call Mike back and talk to him about a little bit.
Speaker: And after considering and discussing it, some of the and with my spouse, Sheila did decide to take that on.
Speaker: So believe it or not.
Speaker: As of January 2022, I'll be president of the Ameriton Association.
Speaker: I'm president-elect right now.
Speaker: Good for you.
Speaker: Yeah, I guess I found my niche somehow, maybe.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: Well, that's great.
Speaker: I'm glad you're finding ways to keep yourself entertained and provide leadership.
Speaker: Yeah, I am.
Speaker: I am.
Speaker: So in your career, you mentioned Find Your Niche.
Speaker: Tell us about a small niche skill that you developed that you think had a big long-term impact on your career success.
Speaker: You know, I think twofold, two thoughts come to my mind.
Speaker: One was I think I was maybe a little bit more effective listener than the average person.
Speaker: In fact, one of the things that I have been criticized for at times is
Speaker: Most people know me as never being timely to a meeting historically.
Speaker: Probably why?
Speaker: Usually it's because of the quality of the interaction with the person that I was with previously and the fact that I didn't want to short circuit that.
Speaker: So I'd say listening, though there's a price to pay for that sometime, but being an effective listener.
Speaker: And number two was a sense of humor.
Speaker: I tell you what, I have concluded in my career that one thing that helps disarm people is having a sense of humor.
Speaker: It helps to break the ice.
Speaker: It helps to help with interaction.
Speaker: And that was a separate nature, I guess, of my personality that surely proved beneficial time and time again.
Speaker: So those are two that I'd mention.
Speaker: I think an active listener.
Speaker: and also one with a pretty practical, realistic sense of humor.
Speaker: Did you ever find yourself in a situation where there were some hysterical, really upset parents, and you tried to disarm them with a joke, and it just did not go well?
Speaker: Yes, sure.
Speaker: Yes, we've all run into a few of those parental times like that, and it was definitely not the time for humor.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: Looking back at your career, what is an opportunity you said yes to that afterwards you wish you would have said no to?
Speaker: Oh, I guess in my career, I was one of those who sometimes had trouble saying no.
Speaker: But maybe years ago, when I was asked to coordinate the United Way drive for the university campus, and I already had my plate plenty full, as did my assistant.
Speaker: And so looking back, maybe
Speaker: Though we did raise several hundred thousand dollars and reached our goal, maybe I should have passed on that one and not been pulled away as much as I was to coordinate that drive for a campus this size.
Speaker: Maybe that.
Speaker: It was a good cause for sure, but still, maybe that time could have more been devoted to the student life part that I was focused on.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: What about an opportunity you said no to that you wish you would have said yes?
Speaker: Boy, JC, I can't think of anything right offhand.
Speaker: Nothing comes to mind about that one right now.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: That's fine.
Speaker: Do you have a favorite failure in your career?
Speaker: Something you learned a lot from that later set you up for success?
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: I tell you what.
Speaker: I was nominated for the Akudo presidency and was on the ballot and did not win that election.
Speaker: probably for the good of the organization that I didn't.
Speaker: But from that, I even further developed more contacts with more people in the profession, which later, no doubt, in 83 resulted in me being selected to be the first Southern District representative on the executive board of Ocuho.
Speaker: So that then included Swakuho and Siho in the Southern District.
Speaker: So I think it was a coin toss that led to me being
Speaker: the first Southern District Rep, because it would have been at that time, Dan Hallenbach from Georgia.
Speaker: But Dan subsequently took that role after my two years on the executive board.
Speaker: And then, of course, as many know, later became president of ACUHO as well.
Speaker: So who won president instead of you?
Speaker: Do you remember?
Speaker: I believe it was Gary Johnson at Western Illinois.
Speaker: A good friend and long-term colleague.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Gary was at Western Illinois for a long time, I think, too.
Speaker: He was.
Speaker: Truly.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Another one of those lifers, fully committed to the institution.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: You talked a little bit about meetings or brought up meetings earlier.
Speaker: What is the most ridiculous meeting you ever sat in?
Speaker: Well, it's ridiculous, and it was both looking back, I can say it's ridiculous and humorous, though at the time, ridiculous still might have applied, but humorous wouldn't probably.
Speaker: It had to be when we in ResLife were called in to a vice president of administration's office for the purpose of being told that facilities, the operation of facilities, maintenance and housekeeping,
Speaker: were being transferred from us to the physical plant.
Speaker: And we thought, oh my goodness, they said, I've always been one of those that contends parents and students alike, particularly parents, believe that their son or daughter needs to be taken care of with the basics when they come to campus, as in housing and dining.
Speaker: And by the way, those things that support housing and dining, like facilities, like hot water, like air conditioning that works,
Speaker: like a housekeeping staff that keeps bathrooms clean, et cetera.
Speaker: So that was the most ridiculous meeting I think I've ever sat in because I really believed philosophically that that was the wrong direction.
Speaker: And yet we are told that we would march that direction and had to do it ultimately.
Speaker: And I think at some price,
Speaker: There is some price to pay for that.
Speaker: Not so much personally, as much as within the system over time, for sure.
Speaker: I know that's happened to a lot of schools in the last 20 years where housing and dining really got piecemealed apart in private various aspects.
Speaker: Or, you know, there was some budgetary rationale of efficient use of resources by combining all of our F&O people.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: But that was, looking back, that was a, I thought, what a strange thing.
Speaker: encounter, but we were told in no uncertain terms that we were all marched together that direction, and so we had to do that.
Speaker: Let's talk about your Swakua involvement.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Give us just a brief rundown of what you did.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, you know, I think my first Swakua to attend would have been the early 70s, I think, and I believe what happened was that it was at the University of Arkansas, I believe, and as I recall, JC, I think
Speaker: I went over there because our department head, Lynn Jackson at the time, was the name of the lieutenant.
Speaker: So he headed what was then called the Time and Place Committee.
Speaker: And we already knew we were getting ready to host that conference the next year, this was the little conference.
Speaker: So I think my first involvement would have been representing him and the Time and Place Committee to reaffirm our interest in hosting the group the following year.
Speaker: I think it was just one year out or two years out, 1976, as I recall.
Speaker: So that's where I began.
Speaker: And over time, had a chance to serve on a few different committees.
Speaker: And one year, the Akuho president contacted me, asked me to be parliamentarian for a business meeting and things like that.
Speaker: But at any rate, that's kind of where I began, I guess, since Akuho was on what was called then the Time and Place Committee.
Speaker: But you were then president in 1980 and 1981?
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: 1980 and 1981.
Speaker: It was at the conference in Austin, Texas.
Speaker: I'll always remember it was at the Villa Capri Hotel, which was shortly after we left demolished.
Speaker: We had been told that.
Speaker: It was going to go away.
Speaker: And I think it's now part of either the LBJ complex or else the stadium complex.
Speaker: They're right off Interstate 35, I remember.
Speaker: But anyway, yes, I was president that year.
Speaker: And, you know, JC, you know, one of the questions you kind of posed to me, and this was significant events or happenings maybe during that time.
Speaker: Without question, the number one accomplishment I felt like just almost has to be the fact that we created the Jim Gibson Ward that year in honor of Jim Gibson.
Speaker: A great colleague, a fellow director of res life at the University of Arkansas then.
Speaker: And once a group had decided this at a business meeting and shared that with a group, my task was to call Jim and tell him we were doing it.
Speaker: Jim was still alive then, struggling with leukemia, was in a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the time.
Speaker: And I always remember my phone call to Jim.
Speaker: And in that slow Southern drawl that only Jim had, he said, how kind of you all, thanks so much.
Speaker: And so I always thought that was a big deal because at least in my time in history with Srakuto, that was the kind of the premier award to honor an outstanding professional.
Speaker: And that's what Jim was to all of us.
Speaker: So
Speaker: That was the biggest accomplishment in many ways I felt like that year that I was president.
Speaker: No, that's great.
Speaker: A fun fact is the year you served as president was actually the year I was born.
Speaker: So I don't know if that makes me feel older or you feel older.
Speaker: Oh, my goodness.
Speaker: That's why when you started this up and had a little trouble with me getting online and all.
Speaker: Didn't you refer to me as being in the Toaway Zone of Life?
Speaker: Didn't you say that?
Speaker: Or was that me?
Speaker: But that made some sense.
Speaker: I've been around a few years.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: Something like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Now, since we're talking about the Toaway Zone of Life, I'm really going to test your memory here.
Speaker: Do you have any programs from any SWACUHO conferences that really stuck out to you?
Speaker: Like, this was a winner.
Speaker: I want to say a program that I had a chance to team up with Dan Hallenbeck on.
Speaker: who was, of course, in Siho at that time at the University of Georgia, on accountability.
Speaker: I want to say that that one rang a bell, had a big turnout, and we were asked to do it again later because of that.
Speaker: So that kind of stood out as I was thinking about it.
Speaker: Was it staff accountability, holding students accountable?
Speaker: As I recall, it was all about, it seemed as though it was that notion of accountability within the profession and kind of subscribing to really a code of ethics, if you would,
Speaker: and then living that in your daily operational lives.
Speaker: So that could relate to both students as we teach and serve as examples for them, perhaps, as well as certainly staff, certainly the younger staff as they were coming through the system.
Speaker: So I think it seemed like we spent quite a bit of time on the code of ethics as it relates to accountability.
Speaker: At what point did it click for you that there was value and involvement above and beyond just attending the conference?
Speaker: Probably when I got my first opportunity to present a program, maybe, because I could see that people were contributing their many ideas and their time and talents to share some of these ideas with others.
Speaker: So probably somewhere in there when I had my first opportunity to do that,
Speaker: And for me, that came about, I think, when I actually attended the ACUO conference in Houston in the late 70s and was asked to present a program there.
Speaker: And it was having to do with your freshman, what you were doing, particularly for freshmen in residence.
Speaker: We called it then the Alpha program.
Speaker: So getting to do that both regionally and then nationally helped to drive that point home to me.
Speaker: I always viewed providing programs or like presenting a conferences is just like a little gesture of goodwill because so many people invest so many hours in planning this conference.
Speaker: Like the least I can do is give an hour of my time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It seemed like, yeah, something that we ought to be dedicated enough to give back to others.
Speaker: If people have allowed us to have these opportunities to serve and do our business and share whatever wisdom we've got, seem to be important to expect people to,
Speaker: who are in those roles to be able to be challenged to give back.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Leading up to you becoming president, earlier we talked about, or you talked about being in the right place at the right time in your career.
Speaker: I've often viewed leadership positions and elections as sometimes being at the right place at the right time, but the conditions and timing being right.
Speaker: And you talked about, well, the conditions and timing for the Okuhuae president wasn't right for you at that time.
Speaker: What do you think made it your time to be president in 1980s?
Speaker: I think probably because I had been so active and served in so many ways.
Speaker: I'd chaired the program committee.
Speaker: At that time, I forget if it was called the diversity committee when it was created, but I chaired that.
Speaker: And I think there's just a lot of recognition about my involvement and maybe therefore my leadership in the organization.
Speaker: We had hosted a regional conference as well, and I'd been program chair of that.
Speaker: So I think
Speaker: Probably, JC, the fact that I had quite a bit of visibility because of the years I'd been serving fairly actively in the association.
Speaker: So that's what made the time maybe kind of right or obvious for me was people recognize it.
Speaker: I'd been a presenter, gosh, I don't know how many times.
Speaker: We had the annual skills workshop then going on in Denton, Texas every year, and I'd been a presenter at that with several other people for many years.
Speaker: I mean, three or four at least by then.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so the skills workshop presentation impacted that as well.
Speaker: Well, I think the comment about visibility is particularly important because that's so transferable even into like day-to-day jobs and working in housing that, you know, visibility matters.
Speaker: RAs who are visible are more affordable.
Speaker: Staff that are visible are a little bit more top of mind when opportunities come up or projects that I think there's a really legitimate point there about how do you make yourself visible?
Speaker: It's that old notion of a picture is worth a thousand words almost where if students and others have seen you rather than just have heard about you or heard of you, they begin to see your human characteristics as well.
Speaker: Both those that got you the job maybe, but also where you have shortcomings as well.
Speaker: So you're right.
Speaker: Physical presence is a big deal, I think.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: So did you have an official platform you ran on when you ran for president?
Speaker: You know, the best I can recall it, I mean, I don't think I had a formal platform per se, but I knew for me and knowing my nature, my group was going to be about the idea of serving the profession.
Speaker: Service to the profession was definitely the direction we tried to head.
Speaker: So in that sense, it started with how do you best serve the regional professionals, take a look at what their needs are, and then try to build programs and so forth to support that.
Speaker: So
Speaker: whether it was a skills workshop continuing or some waivers and scholarships being able to be provided and given to grad assistants, that sort of thing.
Speaker: There are different ways that we embarked upon trying to serve the profession in the region.
Speaker: And so that was clearly the theme, I guess you'd say, that I adopted.
Speaker: And do you think you were successful in achieving that platform?
Speaker: I think, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'd score on a scale of one to 10.
Speaker: I'd score a score.
Speaker: Our group, because it's a team of us, the whole SWACU leadership team, I can give us an eight or nine on that.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: I think we worked pretty hard at that.
Speaker: Well, obviously, the organization continued after your tenure, so it couldn't have been that bad.
Speaker: Yeah, in spite of us.
Speaker: Yeah, maybe.
Speaker: There was this one time I always said that people want to be RAs because they either had a really good RA or a really bad RA.
Speaker: At this one time, I was just mouthing this off at an RA training.
Speaker: I was like, who in here was here because they had a good RA and everyone raised their hands?
Speaker: And just not thinking, I was like, who in here was here because they had a bad RA?
Speaker: And then I was like, oh, wait, nobody answered that because your RA who was bad could be in this room.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, you know, maybe Swakuho persists in spite of you, but I don't believe that's what you can do.
Speaker: Yeah, really.
Speaker: So let's just wrap up with some miscellaneous things.
Speaker: What's a book you most frequently share with others?
Speaker: Oh, great question.
Speaker: I'm glad you posed that because you made me think a little bit on that one.
Speaker: I identified three, JC.
Speaker: The first one, I'll tell you, I still swear by this.
Speaker: As a matter of fact, this next Tuesday morning,
Speaker: On the OSU campus, I'm continuing to make a presentation that will use a component of this.
Speaker: Years ago, the HR department asked me to create a program called the Indispensable Employee.
Speaker: So I've worked on that for years.
Speaker: I've been presenting it now for years.
Speaker: And this next Tuesday morning on August 10th, I'm presenting it again.
Speaker: Well, within that, I always use the Ernest Boyer book on community.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: It's called In Search of Community by Ernest Boyer.
Speaker: Boyer is now deceased.
Speaker: Of course, he had been president of the SUNY system.
Speaker: And he, at this time, was employed to do the research for a national organization.
Speaker: And so I always use the Boyer piece because, my goodness, that's 35 to 40 years old.
Speaker: But it's about community.
Speaker: And my contention is, as I share this with university employees in this session next Tuesday, is
Speaker: campuses that are most successful in helping their students grow and mature and be ready to matriculate, graduate, move on, are those who have helped them feel like they're part of a campus community.
Speaker: And there's several things that that makes.
Speaker: So that's one.
Speaker: Boyer is called in search of community and the research project that he conducted.
Speaker: By the way, what's key about that, the reason I still use it, his subjects were all university presidents.
Speaker: So he interviewed some 300 plus university presidents.
Speaker: in looking to the future about what constitutes community.
Speaker: That's why I still use it because these are your brightest men and women, and they had these ideas about community on campuses.
Speaker: So I use that one.
Speaker: Number two, I use Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point.
Speaker: I make reference to that often.
Speaker: I think that's good.
Speaker: And finally, a great story about human character is the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Speaker: It's called Radical Integrity.
Speaker: And there's a great story about a guy who, during the Hitler years, had to make a decision as a German citizen.
Speaker: And as he more and more began to see what was going on, realized, I can't be a part of that.
Speaker: So the fact that he ultimately even wound up being captured, and as the story goes, he was executed, I think, just a couple of months before the end of World War II.
Speaker: So here's a guy who gave his life for what he believed.
Speaker: And so that's a deep, deep book to read about Bonhoeffer.
Speaker: So those would be the three.
Speaker: It's called The Story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Speaker: It's called Radical Integrity or The Tipping Point by Gladwell.
Speaker: And then finally In Search of Community with Boyer.
Speaker: I think those are the three I'd mention primarily.
Speaker: Oh, great.
Speaker: We got some additional reading for our listeners out there.
Speaker: What is one piece of advice commonly given that you would tell a young professional to ignore?
Speaker: I think where I'd land on this one, JC, is that focus on how you can serve the population that you're working with.
Speaker: Don't worry about making a mark or leaving your mark.
Speaker: I think one of the challenges of a lot of young professionals sometimes has been that of
Speaker: I need to leave my mark.
Speaker: I remember Betty Greenleaf, who long ago died.
Speaker: She was at Indiana University.
Speaker: She came here to speak at NACURA once years ago in the late 70s.
Speaker: Her team was changed for the changing times.
Speaker: And she was cautious to say, don't be afraid of change, but do it for the right reason.
Speaker: So I always appreciate Betty's reminder to us and the students across the country
Speaker: We sometimes think we want to leave our mark, our message somehow.
Speaker: Nothing wrong with desiring to do that, but you really do that through your work ethic and your dedication to serve and that sort of thing.
Speaker: So I would tell young professionals, don't worry about leaving your mark.
Speaker: That'll be a natural outcome or byproduct of who you serve and how you work in the business.
Speaker: Yeah, there was that West Wing episode.
Speaker: The president said like all day we've been
Speaker: thinking about rendering the painting and maybe we just need to step back and let the painting render itself or something like that.
Speaker: Yeah, good point.
Speaker: I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker: I think people get caught up too much in like, what's my legacy going to be?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Legacies are defined after the fact.
Speaker: And if we just show up day in and day out and do good work, that there's going to be a legacy there, whether we tried or not.
Speaker: Good point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I understand you are the founding and only president of the National Tri-Beta Society.
Speaker: In my background research, I wasn't able to learn much about this seemingly semi-secret society.
Speaker: Can you tell our listeners about this professional organization?
Speaker: Oh, my goodness.
Speaker: I'll never forget.
Speaker: And I think it was at Lincoln, Nebraska.
Speaker: We were at a conference standing in line for a meal.
Speaker: And I forget who I was talking with in the line.
Speaker: And we were kidding each other about the tri-betas when the young man right in line ahead of us, he said, oh, are you tri-betas too?
Speaker: We didn't know who the guy was.
Speaker: And then it's at that moment we found it was an honorary biological sciences fraternity.
Speaker: We had no idea.
Speaker: Anyway, we just had this, this little ridiculous game plan of at, at various conferences, you would approach somebody and somebody that you knew well,
Speaker: and tell them that we wanted to induct them near the tri-betas.
Speaker: And by the way, we had a bright gold sweatshirt with a BBB on it.
Speaker: I think it was my daughter.
Speaker: And that would always be passed on from one person to another.
Speaker: But we were surprised.
Speaker: It truly is a national honorary for students in biological sciences.
Speaker: So we learned to better be careful where and when you utter those initials because you may pay for that.
Speaker: There's a student organization for everyone out there.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: There sure is.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: Yep, that's so true.
Speaker: So we all know that attending conferences can be a financial challenge.
Speaker: In preparing for this interview, it came to my attention that you would occasionally make plans for you and Sheila to share a room with another couple attending to save money.
Speaker: And I'm quoting a last minute change of plans where Sheila was actually three of your employees from Oklahoma State with the hope the other couple wouldn't mind sharing the accommodation with four guys from Oklahoma State.
Speaker: Is there any truth to this?
Speaker: You would use a personal example on me, wouldn't you?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I think that happened in Tampa, Florida, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker: And that's exactly what happened.
Speaker: Sheila wound up not being able to go.
Speaker: And so I took the guys with me, and there we looked up next door, and there's Ken and Ruth Stoner.
Speaker: They were good souls about it.
Speaker: Certainly Ruth was.
Speaker: Your mother was.
Speaker: It was hilarious.
Speaker: But that's true.
Speaker: That actually happened.
Speaker: I think it was in Tampa.
Speaker: See, I do want to say one other thing, JC, I want to squeeze in here too.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: That is one of my very favorite things to do, and I really respect the fact I got to do this.
Speaker: I'll never forget this call I got one summer on myself from Chuck Waring, who was then working at Kansas State.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Who, as you know, is now deceased.
Speaker: He was director when I was an RA at Kansas State.
Speaker: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Well, his request was, hey, I coordinate the Stars College for Okuho Ai, and we have normally 10 faculty a year on that.
Speaker: And he said, I'm interested in asking you if you'll join, but you've got to commit to doing it at least for two years.
Speaker: And I did it for seven, as it turned out.
Speaker: But he said, the reason I'd like for you to do it is you know the res life side.
Speaker: You've come from that.
Speaker: But you also, a little more broadly, have moved over to a broader area of student affairs, kind of the dean of students type of topic or role.
Speaker: So he said, I'd like for you to do that because I'd like to have a little more balance on that than just ResLife people since of course it is primary for ResLife folks anyway.
Speaker: So I said, gosh, I couldn't turn Chuck down.
Speaker: I did it.
Speaker: And like I said, I went up doing it for seven years and that was a treat because that surely helped me stay in touch with young professionals in the business.
Speaker: Also some other colleagues in the business that some that I knew and some that I didn't who were on the faculty.
Speaker: So I really loved that.
Speaker: I,
Speaker: I taught a couple of years also at the National Housing Training Institute when it was initiated at the University of Florida, by the name of Jim Grimm.
Speaker: So both NHTI, but particularly the Stars College out of Vakuho, I really enjoyed that, particularly with these last 18 years not being in the rest of life, but still having lots of friends in that part of the profession.
Speaker: I so much enjoyed that connection.
Speaker: That's really great.
Speaker: Let me ask you this.
Speaker: Are there any like Samsonisms?
Speaker: Things that you say all the time that people have said, well, that's a Samsonism.
Speaker: There probably are.
Speaker: I thought of that earlier.
Speaker: I asked my spouse that.
Speaker: The only ones that she could think of were the personal ones, whether it's time to go to bed or something else that I have a certain way of making that comment.
Speaker: I guess I don't offer much there, but I'm telling you, probably those people that work for, with, and around me,
Speaker: They would have a few probably for you.
Speaker: I can't think of.
Speaker: Probably.
Speaker: I think that's where people don't realize that apparently I say this a lot because every time they do that, they laugh.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, there we go.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Anything else you want to share with the Swakuho listeners?
Speaker: I would say this to the Swakuho listeners.
Speaker: I say, so whether you're in a leadership capacity or not, it doesn't mean that you'll always be looked out for because –
Speaker: At one of the skills workshops in Denton, Texas, about four carloads of us went out to this Italian restaurant to eat.
Speaker: And those four carloads all went back to the residence hall we were staying in for the next day's session, except myself.
Speaker: They left me behind because they couldn't remember who was in what car.
Speaker: So all of a sudden, and it's not like I was hidden in the bathroom or anything, but all of a sudden, all four vehicles go back to the North Texas campus and, uh,
Speaker: without Samson.
Speaker: So it just shows, regardless of how big you think you are, how important you are, you can be left behind.
Speaker: What a humbling experience.
Speaker: They were nice enough to come back and get me, though.
Speaker: They did come back and get me.
Speaker: The next day?
Speaker: No, that night they did.
Speaker: I think it's a perfect illustration that nobody's bigger than the game, Kent.
Speaker: There we go.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: That's right, for sure.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, that's a wrap for our very first Swakuho podcast episode.
Speaker: A big thanks to past president Kent Sampson for volunteering yet again for the benefit of our region.
Speaker: Kent's story is an experience not only gave us a lot to think about with respect to our own careers and professional involvement, but he also delivered some very practical and actionable advice.
Speaker: Let me know your number one takeaway from this episode by replying on the Swakuho social media podcast posts.
Speaker: I welcome any feedback about the quality and content of the show via Swakuho podcast at gmail.com.
Speaker: I have a small lineup of topics and guests, but I'm always open to suggestions to provide the most service and value to you, the membership.
Speaker: Our next episode is going to be a book club with two of my favorite people, Apefa Cooper and Maddie Reed, who are going to discuss the book, The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath.
Speaker: Specifically, we are going to discuss how to engineer meaningful moments that create elevated experience throughout the college housing landscape.
Speaker: Apetha and Maddie presented on this book at the 2019 Swakuho Annual Conference, which just so happened to have been recognized as a top five program that year.
Speaker: So you definitely don't want to miss it.
Speaker: If you want to read the book before the episode, you have about a month.
Speaker: Link to purchase the book online will be in the show notes.
Speaker: Take it from me, it's a powerful book to read, yet extremely easy to consume.
Speaker: You definitely have time to read the book as long as you make it a priority.
Speaker: I hope you join us for what is sure to be a lively and fun episode.
Speaker: And with that, I say to you, good day.
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