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CACUSS50 Podcast - Teaser Episode
116 Plays1 year ago
The CACUSS50 Oral History Project is an initiative of the Canadian Association of College and University Student Services in recognition of our organizations 50 years of engaging student affairs professionals in Canada. This episode, we are joined by our on-air host team to talk about what you can expect as a listener of this pod, and also to get a glimpse into what they are most excited for as we role out our first season of the CACUSS50 Podcast!
The series of podcasts is recorded and produced by: Sean Fast, Adam Kuhn, Nicholas Fast, Rachel Barreca, Stephanie Muehlethaler, Noah Arney, Sally Chen, Estefania Toledo, Paula Broderick, Jennifer Brown, Margaret de Leon, and Becca Gray. This podcast is recorded, produced, and published on the traditional territories of hundreds of Indigenous nations from across the northern half of Turtle Island, also known by its settler-colonial name, Canada. We are grateful for the opportunity to live, work, and learn on this land. For more information on the territories you may reside on, visit: https://native-land.ca/
Music: Expanding the Limits | Performed by Audiorezout & Written by Oleksii Striapchyi | Stock Media provided by Audiorezout/Pond5
Podcast Cover Art by: Ravi Gabble (UTM)
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Transcript
Introduction to the Caucus 50th Anniversary Oral History Project
00:00:16
Speaker
All right everyone, welcome to our teaser episode of the Caucus 50th Anniversary Oral History Project. My name is Adam Kuehn and I'm going to be moderating this chat today and I'm joined here with some really
00:00:32
Speaker
good-looking and talented folks from across caucus and I'm going to just go through each of them and invite them to introduce themselves and then we're going to talk a little bit about why we're excited about this project overall and hopefully our colleagues from across Canada will also get excited and start listening to the episodes as we release them. So I'm just going to kind of look at my colleagues here and maybe we'll start.
Team Members Share Their Roles and Excitement
00:00:56
Speaker
Rachel do you want to introduce yourself? Well hello
00:01:00
Speaker
Good looking, but we're on radio. So what does that mean? A face for radio. My name is Rachel Baraka. My pronouns are she and her. And currently I work as the Manager of Strategic Initiatives for the Department of Student Affairs at Toronto Metropolitan University. And I have been a member of this great organization for quite some time. So I'm really excited about what this project will bring forward.
00:01:28
Speaker
Awesome. Thank you, Rachel. Steph, you're next. Hi, my name is Steph Mueller. My pronouns are she, her. I am the principal here at Atonebe College at Trent University in Peterborough. I'm very excited for this initiative. I think it will be a great opportunity to reinvigorate the members of caucus with the organization and create new connections with one another and its history of the organization.
00:01:58
Speaker
Awesome. Thanks, Steph. Noah. Hello, I am Noah Arney. He him. I'm a current experiential learning faculty member at Thompson Rivers University. And I'm also on the caucus board. I'm really looking forward to this today. Awesome. Thanks, Noah. And Sean, are you okay to introduce yourself?
00:02:21
Speaker
Yeah, hi everyone, my name is Sean Fast, I prefer pronouns are he him. I work at Macon Master University as a living learning coordinator. I'm also on the board of directors, just finished my first year going into my second. And yeah, just really excited to be here and happy to be working with all of you on this project. Thanks, Sean. And coincidentally, we have another Fast on the episode today, No Relation, but Nick Fast, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Storytelling and Professional Connections
00:02:52
Speaker
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. My name is Nick Fast, again, unrelated to Sean, but I'm actually been in part of caucus for only a few months now, but as the intern for this project. So I'm excited to really get involved to know people within the university student services community. And I'm really excited to hear about the stories that they have to say and provide in sort of being a crucial member of the post-secondary landscape.
00:03:22
Speaker
Awesome. Thanks, Nick. And for your PhD, you did a lot of kind of podcasting and oral history grabbing too for your research, right? Yeah, I currently do oral history as part of the main source base of my dissertation right now. And I have been sort of working on a podcast of my own on the side, but that's neither here nor there. And so this, for me, getting involved in this project was a really important learning experience in putting some of my skills
00:03:51
Speaker
to use beyond my own dissertation, my own research and sort of my own interests outside of the graduate student world. Awesome. Thanks, Nick. And last but not least, we've got Paula PJ Broderick.
00:04:08
Speaker
Hi, everyone. I'm Paula Jean Broderick, or PJ. I work as the manager of student engagement and leadership at Kwantlen Polytechnic University on the West Coast. And my preferred pronouns are she and her. I'm really excited to connect with everyone. And I am an avid storyteller, so hearing and getting to tell stories from generations of student affairs professionals is really exciting.
00:04:37
Speaker
So that's a good lead into kind of our first question that I'm going to jump to. Paula was telling us a little bit about what was exciting to her about the project. And I'm wondering for other folks who are on this episode, what made you want to be involved with this project? Noah, can I go to you first? You can indeed. So caucus was my professional home for somebody who was one of only two student affairs professionals at my institution when I first started in this field.
00:05:07
Speaker
And it gave me a place to learn and grow and connect. And so I want to support other people learning more about caucus and about how important it has been to so many people over the last 50 years and maybe a bit about what it could be in the next 50 years. That's a really good question or really good point. Any other thoughts about what motivated folks to get involved? What made you answer the call to get involved with the Caucus 50 oral history project, Rachel?
00:05:34
Speaker
Well, I actually have a background in broadcasting. And so honestly, part of this project that excited me because it was an opportunity for me to use those skills, but to use it in my current professional field and help tell stories like Paula. I really love helping people tell their stories. And I don't get to use these muscles nearly as much as I'd like to. So that's why I did.
00:06:04
Speaker
Awesome. We are, I think, a field of storytellers in a lot of ways, or helping others tell their stories or engage in their own stories.
Goals and Storytelling Techniques
00:06:13
Speaker
So I think it makes sense for us to be attracted and excited to a project like this. What kinds of stories are you looking forward to the most?
00:06:23
Speaker
a big production plan for the types of folks we're hoping to interview. We're being really deliberate about making sure we're reflecting stories of lots of different types of members from different regions and institution types and identities and functional areas. But when you're thinking about the plans that we've got, what are some of the things that you're most excited about seeing as we step into this project? Next.
00:06:50
Speaker
I think as a historian, using oral histories is a really great way to reflect on over a long period of time, the development of an organization, institutional practices and other kinds of things that you don't really get to see in the moment or right up close.
00:07:15
Speaker
And doing this kind of project will really allow people the stories that you might not normally hear from if you work in your own institution, in your own department for, you might be familiar with the department's history, but this is a great opportunity is to connect people and ideas and stories and methods and understandings across not only a large geographic space,
00:07:43
Speaker
but also a very large temporal space of things that you might say oh these are these are issues that we have been thinking about 25 years ago and these are topics that have come up and we didn't realize that these were still going to be relevant either you know fortunately or unfortunately or things that really allow people to the stories that allow people to connect across
00:08:09
Speaker
various parts of their degree and time I think are really and geography I think are really important and really exciting for this path. Yeah absolutely I've been doing this project part of the caucus 50 kind of planning stuff digitizing old conference programs and it's interesting to look back on the things folks were talking about and the things we're still talking about today and the things that you kind of look back and you're like oh that
00:08:33
Speaker
Maybe we weren't talking about things in such a sensitive or thoughtful way as we would today. And so I'm looking forward to, for Caucus 100, people to look back at our podcast episodes with that same level of thinking around, oh, maybe we... Anyway, just kind of establishing ourselves where we're at in this moment in the field is kind of exciting. I will not be there just for the record. I will not be at Caucus 100.
00:08:57
Speaker
I'll probably still be here in the same office, in the same job. Who knows? Paula, over to you. Yeah, just building off of what Nick and Rachel said. I think that the other thing that is like the stories of resilience, the unlearning and relearning, those celebrations, some understanding of why we do what we do and how we got to those best practices. 50 years is quite a long time. And so just sharing those
00:09:27
Speaker
intricacies of why and how and what we had to overcome and what we had to understand and unlearn. Those are the kinds of stories I'm really excited about. Awesome. Thank you, Steph. I think to add on to that, and it's, I believe Repugia was going to, I think it's an opportunity to create a vulnerability in sharing our stories.
00:09:52
Speaker
in a way that is unique and maybe not as scary as in front of a crowd at a conference, but to talk about even failures, like where we may be screwed up. And I know that's hard to do sometimes, but there's so much learning in that. And sometimes the spaces don't feel the safest to share those stories, but this way we're able to digest and learn from them in a really vulnerable space. So I'm looking forward
00:10:19
Speaker
to folks being able to share, yes, what they learned and had to unlearn, but where some of those really tough moments came and how they grew from that, I think that would be quite special.
00:10:34
Speaker
I love that actually, and I love that idea of the vulnerability. I also been thinking about how great it can, we have an opportunity to tell intergenerational stories that we are now at a stage of development of student affairs in this country.
00:10:51
Speaker
where we truly can say there is intergenerational learning that's happening and intergenerational work and I think that that's an area that's really ripe for exploring and actually is quite frankly desperately needed right now that you know we've just come out of this really isolated time and we're all getting used to being communal and collaborative again
00:11:14
Speaker
And for anyone, especially that started their career in the last couple of years, they have not had necessarily modeled for them what the rest of us have experienced in our careers. And I don't want to be like, well, back in my day, we did it this way and we should keep doing it, but there is wisdom there. So how do we have the wisdom of the elders mixing with the wisdom of the youth?
00:11:37
Speaker
and those fresh perspectives who really, really directly understand what the reality is right now for young professionals, for our students, you know, on the front line so that it's the intergenerational storytelling and intergenerational learning that I'm really excited about. Awesome, thanks.
00:11:57
Speaker
So we've talked a little bit about what made us want to join the project. We've talked a little bit about the types of stories that we're excited to hear. Before we get into kind of my kind of last question about, you know, potential guests, I'm wondering for members of caucus, what can they expect to hear if they were to tune into future episodes of the caucus 50 podcast? What are the types of things that they can expect from us?
Notable Episodes and Diverse Voices
00:12:25
Speaker
Noah.
00:12:26
Speaker
So something I'm really excited about is we've got one episode already planned out that has four researchers who have been instrumental in my own understanding of student affairs research. And I had absolutely nothing to do with putting that episode together. So the fact that someone else took these four researchers and was like, we need them to talk about the future of student affairs research in Canada is just so fantastic to see. And I'm
00:12:55
Speaker
really, really excited about that episode because they have separately and together been a huge part of my own learning and my own path within student affairs and within research and student affairs. So that's something that I'm really excited about and seeing that other people had similar ideas around that without me at all touching that part. It's just so cool to see. Awesome. Thanks, Steph.
00:13:23
Speaker
I'm not sure if it's planned yet, but I think we could plan this and to kind of go off what Rachel has said. You know, we've gone through this really interesting time the last few years, and especially in the South, people are struggling in this field. I think they're burnt out.
00:13:43
Speaker
They don't know where to go. And I think this is an opportunity for our membership hopefully to be rejuvenated by the passion to find some best practices and maybe for an opportunity for us as we build trust amongst one another and our panelists to have some uncomfortable conversations and to invite folks into that space because I think we are as a field, not going through an identity crisis, but I think there's an opportunity to
00:14:12
Speaker
re-engage in what brings us joy because I think some folks as professionals are struggling and it's not just our students. So I hope that this podcast and these conversations can bring light and love for those of you that know me know that this is my way to our days again and to rejuvenate us.
00:14:33
Speaker
on our walks and our car rides home and whatnot with the work that we do, because it's important and transformational. And I think we've all just, at least for myself, gotten a little bit lost along the way. So I think this could be the beginning of something really beautiful. Such a good point. And I think birthdays are a big chance to do that reflection and kind of chart that path forward. And I think 50th is a big birthday. So this is a chance for us to check in with ourselves and chart a way forward together. PJ.
00:15:03
Speaker
Steph put it so much more eloquently than I could have, but I think, like the thing that I think of most about is like as a planning team, we really want to have those honest conversations, like question, but find out, but honest and vulnerability and really stripped down to that passion and why we do the work we do. I think you're right, Steph, people are feeling
00:15:31
Speaker
spread too thin at the moment and they're looking for how do I continue doing this awesome work that we're really really really enthusiastic about how do I keep going so those are the kind of conversations that I'm really excited and hopefully that the membership can get out of this. And PJ I think we have something special here I know we're getting bigger as a field and I know many folks are involved
00:15:56
Speaker
with NASP or ACPA or Nakata or whatnot, but we're still smaller, you know, and we know one another and we have tight relationships across the country. And so I think there's this familial theme that we can pull from that we can really help each other in a way that's authentic and not just these random folks talking to us. I think with the six or seven of us and our panelists,
00:16:25
Speaker
we would probably know hundreds of people in caucus. And so I think there's something special that we're doing here that can really connect with folks' hearts and souls and those things that we're talking about in a different way that you might not get at a NASPA with thousands and thousands of people. Really good point. Really good point.
00:16:46
Speaker
So we're still in our production planning phase. We've got some interviews and some episodes kind of set up and ready to go, but we're still kind of pulling it together. And we're hoping to draw from colleagues from across, like, as I said, from lots of different types of positions. We're not just looking for established professionals. If you're a new professional or a young professional, we're looking to involve lots of different folks in this. But our kind of last question is, what could potential guests get out of telling their stories and being a guest on one of our episodes? Rachel?
00:17:16
Speaker
Well I think first and foremost what comes to my mind is it's so important to have a variety of voices heard and so this can be a space in which your voice can be heard, your perspective can be heard and it doesn't have to be all of the usual suspects.
00:17:36
Speaker
you know, we definitely want to hear from the usual suspects, but we also want to hear from the unexpected stories and unexpected folks. We want to hear from a wide variety of experiences in student affairs in this country and in our organization. So I think it's an opportunity to have your voice and your stories heard. Absolutely. And I would say,
00:18:00
Speaker
you can reach out to any one of us and say, I would like to be on an episode and we will make it happen. I feel like that is, we are keen and curious to involve as many people. And if you're interested, we're interested. So we will be doing some broad outreach and we've been trying to do that through our caucus social media channels, but you know, knowing that folks might engage with that in different ways. So we just welcome everyone. All right, Noah and then Nick. Yeah.
00:18:26
Speaker
Something I really love about stories is that the act of telling stories is a way of building. And it's building community with others, of bringing other people into a community by sharing those stories with those who haven't heard them before or maybe who haven't heard them in a certain way or are now hearing them with different context. And it's a way of building ourselves as we use stories to frame our ideas of ourself,
00:18:53
Speaker
and of ourselves in our position within community. And so it's an act of building. And I think that's a really important thing for anybody who is thinking that they might be interested in joining us for this, because even if they are considered themselves new, or if they are considered themselves to have been part of this community for a long time, you are
00:19:19
Speaker
building something new and unique by sharing your story and by working with others to build a story together. Absolutely. Thanks, Noah. Nick. I think Noah and Rachel took the words right out of my mouth before I could answer, but I think to add to those
00:19:39
Speaker
the really important ideas of building community and adding perspective to a much larger and very diverse picture. In my experience with people who might, the first thing they might say is, well, I don't really have anything to contribute or I'm not going to be unique or I'm not going to be a, you know, I'm not going to be the right subject or I don't
00:20:02
Speaker
You know, any number of reasons why they might not want to participate in an oral history project are usually the ones that actually have the most interesting stories and actually are the ones that provide incredibly valuable insight that had they decided to just walk away would, um, absolutely, um,
00:20:24
Speaker
those perspectives and stories would not have been heard. And so what I encourage those who are even sitting on the fence about it, who are wanting to either to reach out to us or have been reached out to already and are still sitting on the fence about it, is go ahead and share your story. It is incredibly important and it makes up this massive mosaic of perspectives and ideas that
00:20:47
Speaker
make up caucus and that is equally important as any other story. So I highly encourage you to feel comfortable and confident that your story and your perspective and your ideas are valuable.
00:21:02
Speaker
Yeah, and I think there's that saying about you can't know where you're going until you know where you've been. So this 50th birthday is giving us that opportunity for reflection and this project is giving us an opportunity to tell the stories of our history.
Archiving and Reflecting on the Project
00:21:17
Speaker
And I'm actually really curious to see how this 50 years from now, wait, I won't be here, but I am very curious to know how this project will become an archive of stories that will be a foundation
00:21:32
Speaker
for the future of caucus and the future of this field. And I hope that we will tell good stories. I hope that we will tell the stories of the ancestors of the future of student affairs. Awesome. Thanks, Rachel. And I can think, even as we're setting our goals for this project, as we were thinking about telling stories, the good, the bad, everything in between, and being really honest about where we've been, where we'd like to go,
00:22:02
Speaker
So anyways, just as we're kind of wrapping up, we're hoping that the folks who are listening right now are feeling teased. We feel like you're feeling excited about listening to the episodes that we're pulling together for you. And in wrap up, I'm just going to ask our esteemed group today, if you could think of maybe one word to describe your feelings about this project, what would that one word be?
00:22:28
Speaker
Maybe we'll start in the reverse order that we did our intros. So I think Nick, you went last. Nick, do you wanna? Oh, it's so hard to pick just one word. And I've been sitting and thinking about this for the five minutes before you pose this question. But I think the first word that comes to mind is reflection. And perhaps it's because I'm a historian and because this is a term as an oral history project. But I'm gonna start with reflection and let others
00:22:58
Speaker
sort of develop the ideas from there. Awesome. Sean, I'm going to ask you, do you have a word? Yeah, it's actually a word that Nick said, and it's mosaic. I really resonated with that when you shared that and kind of explained it. And I don't need to explain it anymore because he's already done it. Perfect. PJ.
00:23:21
Speaker
I think my word is curiosity. I'm just really interested in hearing from everyone and just exploring, so curiosity. Noah? I think to nobody's surprise after my last comment, my word is going to be story because I'm really excited about not only the sharing of stories, but of creating a place where people after now can come back and hear those stories as well.
00:23:52
Speaker
Awesome. Stephanie. So I'm going to borrow a word from a dear friend, Dr. Robin Hanley Defoe, who folks know maybe. I'm hope-filled for what is to come and what will be developed as a result of this. So very hope-filled. And Rachel?
00:24:13
Speaker
The word that's in my head is circle. We tell stories around campfires. We've been doing that for thousands of years. And we do that in circles. And I really love the idea of inviting people into this circle to listen to these stories.
00:24:33
Speaker
What a beautiful way to wrap up our discussion today. We look forward to circling up and gathering some folks together and making some good episodes for folks to listen to as we celebrate caucus, caucuses 50th anniversary. Thanks for joining us today. And we look forward to seeing you in the future.
00:25:09
Speaker
The Caucus 50 Oral History Project is an initiative of the Canadian Association of College and University Student Services in recognition of our organization's 50 years of engaging student affairs professionals in Canada. The series of podcasts is recorded and produced by Sean Fast, Adam Kuehn, Nicholas Fast, Rachel Barreca, Stephanie Mulettoller, Noah Arney, Sally Chen, Estefania Toledo, Paula Jean Broderick, Jennifer Brown,
00:25:39
Speaker
Margaret de Leon, and Becca Gray. Intro and outro music is courtesy of Alexei Stryabchi. This podcast is recorded, produced, and published on the traditional territories of hundreds of Indigenous nations from across the northern half of Turtle Island, also known by its settler-colonial name Canada. We are grateful for the opportunity to live, work, and learn on this land. Miigwetch.