December 2, 2023 • 47 mins
Dr. Melvin Stith is a transformative leader in and out of the military. He joined the Army as a commissioned officer after earning his bachelor's degree in sociology at Norfolk State in 1968, serving with the Military Intelligence Corps. He served in Vietnam until 1972 and retired as a Captain.
After returning from the war, Dr. Stith pursued further education, obtaining his MBA and PhD from Syracuse University. He would dedicate the following decades in the academe, holding prestigious positions as the chairman of the marketing department at Florida State University, dean of Florida State’s business school, and Jim Moran Professor of Business Administration, among others.
Dr. Stith is also notable as a founding member of the PhD Project, a national program that advocates for diversity in the business world. Dr. Stith talks about the importance of improving recruitment in the military and highlighting the benefits of making a career from serving the country.
Learn more about the PhD Project: https://phdproject.org/
Join the SOFREP Book Club here: https://sofrep.com/book-club
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Loot force. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough.
You're listening to Software Radio, special operations, military emails and
straight talk with the guys in the community.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hi, and welcome back to soft Rep Radio. I am
your host, Rad and I have a wonderful guest today.
But before I introduce my guest, I want to remind
you to keep supporting us by going to our merch shop.
That's right. You go in there and you buy these
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Radio program and it really helps keep the fireplace lit
behind me. I also want to say go check out
(00:55):
our book club, which is soft rep dot com, Forward
Slash Book, High Life and Club, and just en roll
in our book club. Check it out. Read a book,
you know, brain food, man, a book is brain food. Okay,
read a book, especially a band book. Now, without further ado,
I have doctor Melvin Stith, former US officer Vietnam Military Intelligence,
(01:19):
Syracuse University PhD Project dot Org on the show.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Welcome, Thank you, it's great to be with you today.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Oh you know, there's a whole story that I want
to read about you right now, and I know that
we started going through you know, getting everything all squared away.
So let me pull that up real quick. And it
tells a little bit about doctor Stith's background. So let
me pull that up real quick. Here I had it, okay,
So here's what we're going to read. Doctor Stith served
in Vietnam as a commissioned officer in the US Army's
(01:48):
Military Intelligence Corps after graduating from college. When he returned home,
he enrolled in Syracuse University and earned his MBA and
PhD in marketing from the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.
He eventually served as dean of the school and in
fall of twenty twenty two received Syracuse University's Military and
Veteran Award, the university's highest honor given to alumni who
(02:10):
have served or are currently serving in the US to
Armed Forces. Approximately two hundred thousand service members transition from
the military service to civilian life each year, according to
the Department Offense, Some veterans may experience difficulty finding civilian
employment after leaving the service. Under doctor Stitt's leadership, Syracuse
University became one of the premier campuses for veterans with
(02:31):
its Office of Veterans and Military Affairs. So I was
totally interested to have you on the show, you know,
and I would love to talk more about how you know,
how old were you when you joined the military?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Well, I was twenty one.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I was an OMNIORTC scholarship student at Novia Sate University
c back commissions through the Advanced OURTC program, and that
was in nineteen sixty eight, and I was commissioned as
a second lieutenant then actually in armor. I was at
Fort Knox and got a call that said that Lieutenant Stiff,
you've been selected to help integrate the Military Intelligence.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Command and uh, pack your bags.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
You have to get out of here and go to
Fort Hollibary, Maryland to the primary Intelligence School. So after
a short stay I think waiting for the next class,
I was reassigned to for God and George of the
Civil Affair School and.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Then on the Ford Holiberry for the Military Intelligence program.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Can you tell my listener real quick, we'll even explain,
you know, educate myself intelligence right. We hear that some
people say doesn't really exist, but here you are in military.
So like what style of stuff was?
Speaker 4 (03:42):
We were doing a lot of an intelligent intellipart. We
were doing a lot of just basic security work on
preparing documents for people who needed different type of security clearances.
So whether it was you know, military security or a
top secret, we would do the background check on those
individuals to make sure that they should I get, you know,
(04:06):
the appropriate designation in terms of the security that they
were having based on their position in the military.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
That's a very important role, you know. I mean there's
a lot of sensitive information that guys do need to see.
But what if that guy can't see it? Right? Yes,
you know, so if you're on the team.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I actually worked in civilian clothes.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
We were not in military uniforms because we were calling
on people, you know, trying to get information about depression
that was being considered usually a top secret, crypto, top secret,
our clearance.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
You know. That makes I've had people call me as
an employer asking about people who have enlisted, saying, hey,
got some question. Guy walks in with an envelope and
I'm looking into this guy's background. That was us Okay,
so I do know what you do. Well, lucky for them.
I always tell my guys, I'm like, you know, you
got to be nice to me. You don't understand because
(05:01):
so it's going to come looking into.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
You, and we take it very because you know, again
it's the security of the country at stake, depending on
where you eventure to find yourself and what do you
eventure to find yourself doing as some military command or
at some post or some agency.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah. Really, I mean it's a serious thing. You got
to know. You know, you gotta have guys who have
the heart of the oath of classified information and women.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
You know, we were in terms of I have an
access to what we were doing, and we treated you know,
regardless of of sexual gender. You know, the people the
same way in terms of finding the appropriate information for
the appropriate job.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
You know, in the sixties when you were going to school, right,
there was a lot happening in America changing around, you know,
and you lived through that. And first of all, you know, wow, okay,
and congratulations on living through everything that you know, I
didn't live. I was born in seventy seven.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Yeah, well it was more interesting than that because in
the sixes and I grew up in the South. You know,
there was segregation. There was segregated K through twelve schools,
vice schools. K through twelve was totally segregated. There were
any Caucasians or anyone else in my little hometown, but
African American kids, and my k through not k actually
(06:21):
we had no kindergarten because it was a farming community.
Fresh grade through through high school and then I went
to his Tuggle Black College, Norfilx State University. Very few
Concasion students at that time was enrolled at Norfolk State University.
So that's an all black campus was basically at that time. Yes,
you maybe one one or two football players, the kicker
(06:42):
or somebody might have been away, but basically it was yeah,
you know, not a nine nine percent African American.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, you know, I don't know what that's like today.
And I'm glad because you.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Know, well, the campus is now much go integrate of course,
you know when even though they're still call his Truckle
Black colleges because that's what they are. But the campus
is a you know, a much more reflection of the
of a global society because now you have in the
national students come from all over the world, you know,
Concasius students, African Americans and African American students now, you know,
and my Jorge institutions as we see especially every day
(07:16):
on Saturday afternoon, if you look at the football game.
So you know the world is very different now in
terms of higher education and where people go to school
and choose to go to universities.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And acceptance of one another, one another as a peer
on that campus.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yes it just as a peer, just as a straight individual.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Like exactly, Yeah, dude.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I want to curse right now, but I'm not going
to keep it real. I just want to say, like,
look a the hell where we're thinking? Man, you know,
what the hell you know? And everybody who volunteers and
fights for our country all the way through slavery to
just you know, fight for USA and you know, and they,
you know, willing to die for it. And we came
in and took the land from natives in the first place,
you know, and then just said this is our place.
(07:57):
And you know, I'm appalled at that.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Pa.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I can't do. I can only be a good steward
of who I am today moving forward of what I had.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
But I think that's the really important point.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
You can't redo the past, but you wanted to make
sure the past does not reoccur, because those who have
know history will have history to repeat itself. So our
job done is to be good stewards of the land,
to be good stewards of what we do. And when
we put on the military uniform, I think that's what
people try to do.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
It that was their call to arms.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yes, now, once you put that uniform on, right, you
go through college, all right, you put your head into
the books, graduate, and here you are. You're in the
United States Military boom right back in. Now you're integrated
with everybody correctly.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
And it actually was by really first major experience in
an integrated community, and it was it was fine. I
don't remember any specific situations so much. That only one
was when I actually got moved to Fort Garden to
go to the Military Civil Defense School. While we waited
(09:02):
to get the Nate's class for the Military Intelligence School,
African Americans really weren't accepted because it was in uh
where the Master Tournament is, Gusta, Georgia.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
That's where for Gordon was.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
I don't know if it's still a viable post, but
African Americans really weren't invited to go to the Master Tournament.
And we went to the post and said, you know,
the white officers are going and we can't go. That
can't happen, and they and to their credit, they shut
it down until all officers are invited regardless of.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Color of skin. Then not how folks could come.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
And they changed it, you know, but we had to
go get that, you know, get that done because.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
It was wrong, right so and it was it is.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
But but agatting kudos to the commanders and for Gordon,
they understood the spear of that issue.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
You know, It's true. They have to, like, you know,
make a big move because there's a lot of like
old schoolness that's still hanging over their head and there
like you know what, this is the new, this is
the way, and they're willing to put themselves out there.
You know how I feel I would be that's that
same way. It's like, you know, I mean everybody you know,
all the way from the all black you know air Force,
(10:14):
uh you know redtails that fighting for the same flag man.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
And and and those guys were being told what they
couldn't do it wasn't capable of though, which is totally incorrect.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Believe it. In the movie, it depicts like the white
bomber looking over like all these guys are gonna last
look at the end results, you know, look at the
end results. The Tuskegee airmen. Let's just say that I
said the redtails because their airplanes have redtails.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
But yeah, but that that wholes operates, the whole squadron.
And they took so much pride in what they were doing.
But then when they came back to the US, feedback
like they didn't care what they did because they weren't
treated the.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Same way, and they weren't there.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
They weren't Yeah, and they weren't there.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
They didn't see that they had to go through hell
and back to even get home, to step back onto
American soil, right, and then with all the hate Riboro
that was going along with or whatever.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Yes, and sometimes even whether the uniform then saved them
from certain unfortunate situations.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I was hoping that's what would be the difference, is
that once you put that on. I've talked to other
people like yourself who have always said, it's always the
US in front of the army or the Marines or
the Coastguard that makes us one, you know, right, you know,
it's about the person next to you, man or woman.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
That's right, when you're in the heat of a bat
of if you're we used to say you're in a
fox cell whoever you were. You just wanted to make
sure that press is next to you was competent. You
didn't care about the color of their skin, no, because
it was survival.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Time, right and Almo, brotherhood, I love you, I love you.
Oh wow, holy cow, we just like made a moment. Yeah,
you know, we just lived through something traumatic.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Life changing and minutes exactly.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Even when you practiced to do that, you understood how
significant of what you were doing, because it's the call
to all actually came. You had to be ready to
respond to that.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
So you stayed in the military for how many years?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
I stayed it for four years.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Well, because see, I had a four year commitment, so
fortunate when I went to Advance RTC, I received an
Army RTC scholarship, so they paid for all of my
college expenses the last two years. But it meant I
had a four year commitment. So I stayed in for
the four years. And I was married by that time,
and then I decided either I was going to stay
in the military or making a career, or.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
I was going to get out and go back to
graduate school. And I got admitted to the University of Virginia.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Virginia Tech and Syracuse University and decided to go to Syracuse.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
And that's when I decided to, uh, you know, lead
the military.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Right and just pursue the education and bring you know,
I call at war college. You go to the military,
you do your two four six year stint. If you
go for life, cool doctor it all the way in
the military, you know, you come out of that knowledge, power, discipline.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yeah, I would have say then if I had not
gotten my wife did a lot of the work because
I was actually in Vietnam when we were making that decision.
She and another friend of mine. Uh, they did a
lot of the leg work for me in terms of
applying to graduate schools and you know, doing those kinds
of things for me because I was in Vietnam. But yeah,
if I hadn't done that, I would have made the
(13:28):
mill a flair career.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Did you miss her so much over there? Oh?
Speaker 4 (13:33):
You miss everybody because you're you're isolated and you're living
behind basically you know, wire fences until you spose to
go out on patrol, a goog whatever you have to do.
So you miss everybody. And you know, remember then we
didn't have the zoom, We didn't have the technologies that
we had. Now, we had the APO letters that you know,
you would you would get once.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Or twice longed to hold you in my arms PO
San Francisco.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
You never forget that as long as you live, you know.
And when we tell people this story now, the young people,
they kind of look at it like a huh. No,
we didn't have the one for technology that you can
be in touch regardless of where you are in the world,
like exactly it was.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It was writing letters.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Like back in two thousand and nine, I was talking
to my friends in Afghanistan.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Yeah, three in the morning exactly. Yeah, unfortunately they were there,
but you can still have that. You could hear their bosses.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Them right then.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
Yeah, everyone, you could get on the line, you know,
the old lines and and and he's but that was
so difficult to do.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
You had to get I Core on the phone and
get me radar and send me a line out to
my wife. Yeah, they're like, oh, yeah, he's going home.
They're going to have a kid. And then so uh
it was so you come home and you start your family, uh,
you know, civilian style, and you're pursuing what kind of
(14:59):
a agree is it a marketing?
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Yeah? So I was married and actually we had a
son already, and uh so I came to Syracuse University
to get an NBA, my master's a Business Administration, and
then to go to work at in marketing, to go
to work with you know, some of the big consumer
good firms, from Procting, Gamma to leave It, to the
Automobile and to the beer and it's that all of
those folks were going to recruit me. But the professor
(15:22):
stopped me one day saying, I think that you would
make a great university professor, why don't you stay here
and get your PhD.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
I'm not doing that.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
I'm going out and make me some money with my
NBA and and talk to my wife.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
She said, well we're doing okay, let's let's try it.
And I did. And it was really the best.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Decision that I made to stay at Syracuse to get
my MB, my NBA, then the then the PhD.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
It's kind of a moment of like why not me,
why not try it and then see if I can
do it or not? And now you did it and
your successful.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
And actually then once we made the decision, like a
week later, my wife would like, I s something to
tell you I'm pregnant with our second child. Said, oh no,
I just decided to be a student. How did that happen?
She said, I have to have a long talk with you.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
How did that happen?
Speaker 4 (16:11):
But you know, again, things work out in life. You know,
it didn't. My daughter is just delightful to this day.
She has our grandson, so I mean, yeah, hell yeah,
she's all right with me. Yeah right, the only grandchild.
So uh yeah. But it was just, you know, the timing.
And I tell studs time, you can't only determine how
things happen in life. Would just roll with what you
(16:33):
want to do. Things will work out, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
So was there a time in school when you were like, man,
I'm just tired of school?
Speaker 4 (16:40):
And uh, you know, I loved it. I loved every day.
I loved every day being in school. I love the
interaction with people. Syracuse was just a welcome and community, Pete.
The professors were great. I never felt overwhelm. I never
felt that didn't belong. I never felt that I had
made the wrong decision that I should be all out
and take.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
My MBA and go you know where for Corporate America.
And then one of my assistantships.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
My assistanship was to work in the NBA office and
help with students because I was older, being in the
military expense at all. And then the director left and
then I was writing my dissertation and the dean came
and said, malm, you worked in that office. I need
somebody to do this. Run the graduate program for me
for a year while we search for someone. You would
(17:26):
be the pressure pressure. You can take it. Much time
you need to write a dissertation, but you can do that.
And it was the most wonderful thing when I think
of things. An opportunity happened to be in life that
goes through the top of the list because that set
me on the course. I wanted to be an academic
administrator and that led to me getting jobs and deans
(17:46):
and things. But it started right back because the dean
had enough confidence that I could run a graduate office
while I finished my PhD, and you know, allowed the
university of time to search for the appropriate presson to
take the job permanently.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
So let's talk about that, right So you're so, let's
say there's a veteran out there right now who's got
a GI bill, and maybe they guy schooling underneath their belt, right, So,
and they should just hit up Syracuse University.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Syracuse University is one of the lead university now for veterans.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
We have we have committed. We can get into that
just the university, and I'm so proud of them. But
they have continued to do And Syracuse has always had
a history of being a vout with the military because
in World War Two, many of the young men who
came to Syracuse were veterans, and so Syracuse built this
huge veterans network many years ago. And and and actually
(18:39):
if you if you read the history of Syracuse, it
was a veteran that made Syracuse at National University because
they came back and number the fact, the chancellors tell it,
admitted so many veterans that some of the fact that
I had to vote of no confidence in and that
he was changing the nature of the campus. And he
survived that and actually built housing. So when I came
to Syracuse as a veteran, I went to the top
(19:01):
of the lift of marriage to the housing, had a
two bedroom apartment and I only paid fifty dollars a
month and paid for land telephone. They really took care
of veterans, and for years, even to this day, Syracuse
were the place where a military officers came to get
their NBA and finance to go back to be finance
officers in the military. That program is still in the
(19:22):
business in the Quindment School to this day. It's probably
been there fifty to sixty years. So Syracuse has always
had a way, And in fact, that's how I got
to Syracuse because Syracuse knew how to get the information
to me in Vietnam. In addition to my wife that
the universe of Virginia Virginia Tech didn't know what to.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Do and Syracuse already had kind of like the way
to do it.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
They had had the way to do it. The military
knew how to do it because those officers there were
officers and it's a change of do the station just
like they could have been anywhere else, and they said,
we know how to do this, and they did it.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
And that's how I got to Syracuse. And not like
the University of Virginia.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Just because they were able to fall they were through.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Where's Virginia Tech probably would like to have done it,
but they didn't have a follow through process.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Exactly they didn't understand.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Yeah, and by the time I got there information I
had already accepted Syracuse.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Of course, Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you go to Syracuse,
you've been an administrator, You've received the prestigious award that
you know. That's got to make you feel good.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
It was really great. But what happened? I just leave
it to this.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
I was in my office one day I was back,
came back to Syracuse as dean, and a young fact A
member came in and said, you know, you a veteran.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I'm a veteran. We have this wonderful entrepreneurship program. We're
getting so many young men and women with disabilities coming back.
We need to do something special for them. Because many
of them can work nine to five jobs. We should
create a special program to help them become entrepreneurs. That's right,
And I said that is and I said, Mike, we
got to do it. And then he laught.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
He said, and I wanted to be free for them.
And we ran out and raised the money to bring
those young men and women to Syracuse University for two
weeks period of time and then start a relationship with
them so that they could go back and start their
career as entrepreneurs and that program has been overwhelming succession.
That's what led to the whole idea of the Institute
(21:19):
of Veterans and Families on campus that's grown into a
multimillion dollar operation with the wonderful.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Building that one about alone.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Dan Denello and his wife Gail made a huge donation
of build a building just for veterans on our campus.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
It is a world class building.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
And it was well, that's nice that their philanthropy was
able to be available.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
It's huge, yes, and it's all about halving people with
disabilities to have a reason to want to get up
every day and to work and to know that there
were people that cared about them. And that had just
led to just this wonderful programmers at Syracuse University.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And what a legacy they leave too by donating, you know,
to the housing and to the cause and to this whole.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Built Yes, yeah, establishing and the building is built so
much with people with disabilities in mind in terms of
making the building very easy to access, you know throughout
the building.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
That's really cool.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Yeah, it's really very few stairs, more ramps and stuff,
you know for people in wheelchairs or other kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
It's just it's it's it's an amazing program. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
And it started just with one person coming to me
saying we ought to do this, and I listened and
I said, let's roll, let's roll.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yes, yeah like it.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I mean I'm happy that that's what happened exactly.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
And the same thing happened with the pH d project.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
We we didn't think that there were it wasn't designed
so much for veterans, but veterans are now taking advantage.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
We didn't think there were enough people of color.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Teaching in business schools, right, so we said, look, let's
go out and tell people. Because most people think that
they get that NBA, they can go out and live happily.
Ever after make a lot of money. They never thought
about getting the PhD. And we started said, let's try
to change this model. Some of these people might not
want to be in corporate America working for a big nonprofit.
(23:10):
They might want to come back to get a PhD
and stand in front of the classroom and teach business
instead of you know, being a manager every day. And
that happened too, and that led to a huge success.
We are more than called drouble. The number of people
of color now teaching and business schools across this country.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Oh yeah, I chuge. You have you know a Hispanic
African American Native American.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Yes, And a lot of people had never even thought
about that they should do this before the PhD project.
And when they come to the conference, we explain all
the information how you can do it, when you can
do it. And it had just been overwhelmed and successful,
much more successful than I think that all of us,
Bernie and Terror and all of us who were there
from the beginning thought that it would be.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
And here it is.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
People like that.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Yes, how old are you today?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
I am seventy seven years old?
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Seventy seven So you've seen it and grow?
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Yes, yes, wow, like a child like we birthd it,
you know, we breathed it from a meeting and my
clan New Jersey Brendan Malano at KPMG myday in New
Jersey and the first night of the meeting and we're going.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Home that night.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
We were the last plan to get out of New
Jersey because it was snowing, so but we all got home.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
We always laugh.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
About that, you know, but it is growing and it
continues to grow to this day and have an impact
to this day.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Well, we're going to try to give it a shout
out right now on this show. And just make sure
that you know PhD project dot org.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
I think it's pad project dot org.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
If you just google PhD project, everything gonna come up
all the information and the thing about that again to
if you're selected to come to the conferences, the conference
is free and then the universities come and have a
like a job fan. So most of the leading and
PhD programs are there so you can talk to schools.
If you in California want to talk to the schools
in California, there there if you're in Florida, in New
(25:05):
York the difference, or if you want just to talk
to school and other parts of the country to have
a different experience. Most of the major PhD programs are
there for job fare that you meet key people that
you can start, you know, contacting when you want to
apply to those programs.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Who's your ideal candidate right now? If they're listening, what
are you looking for?
Speaker 4 (25:23):
The idea candidate is someone who wants to get a
PhD and they're willing to put in the time and
effort to do that. You can be as young as
are reaching college graduate, or you can be funny as though.
So one person at the meeting, I'll tell you this
said and I was at the mic. He said, I
am as funny years of I get a PhD, I'm
could be forty five, I said, Way in five years,
you could be forty five, whether you have a PhD
(25:43):
or not. So if you want the PhD, do it.
So there's no idea of candidate. The idea candidates the
person is willing to commit before or five years to
study in their writing, to get the PhD and then
go out on their own and build their own brand
and their own career. And I think that's the beauty
of it. You know, you don't you don't have to
fit a certain mold to say I can be part
(26:05):
of this. You bring the mold and what you want
to do it. And that's the beauty of being in
the academy and being a college professor a university professor.
You build your own mode, you build your own own
own kingdom, what on the teaching you want to do,
the research you want to do, and then you move
forward on your own and you're going to have mentors.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I mean, we now have all types of mentors because
we've been in the business I think forver twenty five years.
The PE project has been around for twenty five years,
so there are mentors everywhere. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yeah, everybody can give you some help and some advice.
Yeah yeah. And with all of the knowledge combined, it's
hundreds of years of experience.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Hundreds of years. And it's an annual conference, so you
have people. And it's also now segment about discipline. So
there's a marketing group, there's a finance group, there's accounting group.
So if you're in accounting, you know that there are
people you can just send an email or message and
say hey, I need to talk with you, and and
and people respond.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
So the bond is just tremendous.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
So let's let me ask you this. You would probably
be in your best justice at least have a bachelor's
degree to apply for this.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Oh, you do have to have at least a bachelor's degree.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Yes, you know, so you've had got to have some school.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Yeah, okay, that that's a good point. Yes, you have
to have at least a bachelor degree. But one of
the miss was you don't have to have an NBA
or master's degree.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
To apply.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
That's what I's picking up because you said about a
five or six year commitment.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
You could be as youngest you want to be, as
old as you want to be, depending on how you
want to spend. Then they say maybe four or five
years of your of your life. That's more the key
than how.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Old you are.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Would you write your dissertation on?
Speaker 4 (27:41):
It was about consumer behavior and consumer spending patterns, how
people decided to use that discretionary money. And we did
a compare to study on what African Americans would buy
versus what other people would buy.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
And you know, so it was a big difference.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Now you know everybody's toilet paper.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Yeah, but people do have preferences. Sure, that's what we
talked about, Uh, preferences. Yeah. Right.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
So my father, former Green Beret, he had a master's
degree in business and human resource management, and so I
feel like this would have been right up his kind of alley.
He was studying for his doctorate before he passed to
by the way, So you know, a consistency. That's why
I was excited to have you on. Plus, there's that
non love dad quote unquote. You know, now when you
(28:30):
were in the army, did you wear like the E. R.
D L uniform. Do you remember what is it? No,
I don't know this pattern? And we we will in
the in the military, uh, we will.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Greens and then we had the green khaki uniforms, the
khaki uniforms where the green kaki uniform was basically the
dress of the day. And then you could dress up
in greens. And then we used to call them then
the dress blues. They were for special case but now
they're more of an every day where the military has
really changed, you know they Yeah, but we we will,
(29:06):
you know, we will. We had the traditional military khakis,
you know, cotton kakis, and then in the winter you
had the wool kind of heavier.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Coats camouflage just yet No.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
We weren't now, we didn't. We didn't get to really
into any any any camouflage kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah that's what I was.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
No PhD project.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yeah, it's it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, it's just really grown people and just making them
to be PhDs.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
And and what we started with the conference that people
come to because that gives you a sense of belonging,
but it also tells you whether you want to do
it or not. Because we don't sugar coated. We tell
you what to expect and and we tell people if
you walk away saying it's not for me, then you
have made a life decision on what you want to
do and what you want to be. And you take
(29:56):
then getting a pad off your plate and you go
back to work for you, you know, for corporation or
nonprofit or what you want to do. But then it's
for you. You said, Okay, you know, I want to
fill my plate by becoming a PhD.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Right, And you'll probably want them to stay within the
maybe the university too. It's like, hey, there's gonna probably
you know there.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
And that is another thing that's I think that's a
really good point is that we are really trying to
prepare people to become university professors. We're not trying to
and you can't always tell people what to do, but
we're not just trying to get people to get a
pH d because they want to be a consultant and
have a pH d behind In the end, our primary
goal and primary mission is to continue to integrate the
(30:39):
head of the classroom with people of color.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yes, so so that's the goal.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
And we tell people up front if if you're in
this too, become just a consultant with a PhD. We
we really don't want you to take a slot, but
you can do it on your own, you know, but.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Of course chase that, but you would like to try
to keep that pool, uh, you know full for the program.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Yeah, because there's never enough people to fill these positions
across the United States and now and some people even
maybe even I should say globally if they choose to
do that, that we need that pressing in front of
the classroom.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You really made a big, cool program happen.
Speaker 5 (31:17):
Yes, Yes, that's it's been.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
It was wonderful from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
I bet people are looking at me like you're talking
to a rockstar. Rad recognize it, you know, like, and
I'm like, you know no, And I'm just like, you're
a father, you know, at a PhD, at a professor.
I get it.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
I'm just a gotcha boy trying to make it.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
That's all because every boy who's made it right. I
think that if you were to leave today this earth,
you could leave with a smile in your soul knowing
that you've left such an awesome, badass legacy and helped
helped you just help.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Well that's that is true.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
I mean I have to admit that because I've gotten
certain recognitions and things that make know that you've had
a tremendous impact on a number of people, and that
is very rewarding.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
It's a mentor, yeah, it is. Yeah, and you have
mentors so many. I mean right now, I'm just I'm like,
what do I say to him? He's a rock star,
you know, he's It's like, you want to talk about
marketing and business strategies. It's like, you know, I want
to know what you wrote on I love marketing. I've
worked in radio television. You know that kind of marketing.
(32:23):
You know, if you have been on radio, you need
to be And here we are still.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
On radio on radio, which is wonderful.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Yes, right, but the days have changed. Right, let's talk
about that marketing. Right. The days have changed where you
used to find the static dial and set it on
your jams, and then the same advertiser would always be
able to repeat to you.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
Today we have, Yeah, because the listenership now is much
more diverse. And because one other thing that's fascinating to
me is because you have so much at your fingertip,
you don't have to listen to the commercials if you
don't want to anymore.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Exactly do you even pay for commercial free?
Speaker 4 (32:58):
You could be commercial free, And that's what I More
and more, you know, people are trying to pace stuff.
When you open up a site, the first thing you
see the commercial or something you know, before you can
get to get to you and get to to other people,
because they have to respond to the change of the environment.
Because I mean, if I could, I could take your
show and just blast you if you had commercials and
(33:19):
not ever listen to one.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Man, I'm like, okay, back to the show. You know,
I don't mean that.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
With you advertising, but but they understand that my.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Heads are in the trenches here man, I'm I'm I'm
bringing the talent.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
But they understand.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
They find numerous ways to get you to hear about
their products, to hear about their services.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
So well, like on some of these big streaming services.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
They stream it, they do different things now, so they
have they have a justin well you can tell them
about the cost of what people pay down to be
on a streaming service or you know, all such shows,
high power shows like yours.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
So well, now they have like digital billboards all over
the place where you can just pay like eight cents
yeah for a ten second blip, you know, and then
and the average person drive on the f takes like
seven to thirteen seconds to read a billboard. So if
you have something like.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
A word, yeah, but then you're going to go back
to what was that? What was that about?
Speaker 4 (34:21):
So in the West, appetite to say, okay, I missed
it this time, what were they really talking about? And
so the next time you say, you might pay attention
sy And that's part of the way to get people
to to actually there at some point, pay some attention.
And that's why they're so quick now, because they wanted
just to plan a ceed for you to come back
(34:44):
to say, well, what.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Were they really about? What were they really about? What
were the product? What would the service?
Speaker 2 (34:48):
We call that keyword spamming?
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Yeah exactly, Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
It makes sense. So my my business here, I just
have one word and it says Airsoft.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
See yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Every time somebody drives by it, they see a thousand cars, right,
and then google is then I know what it is, right,
and then they come in. I always ask everybody, how
come you're here? Yes, I ask everybody that because I'm
so I'm like and they're like, oh, I just saw
your sign about forty times and I finally came in
from work, like there we go. Yeah, you know on
the internet or you know, saw YouTube video I love.
(35:21):
I love to dive down and dive deep on how
did you get into my store? Right? Yes, that's correct. Yeah,
it's the marketing in me because I'm guerrilla marketing. Yes,
exactly at its finest, Like right now I'm talking about
my airsoft shop. See it's just gorilla marketing.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Get it the word out, and that's right, exactly right.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Because if you want to play war games in Utah,
I'm your huckleberry. You can find me and then I
take care of you, or anywhere. I got friends all
over the place. You want to play in Nevada, Look
these guys up. But you know, it's that kind of
marketing that you know that.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Bring people in.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
The recruiters need to do that with the military.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
Yeah, not so bold. Yeah, you know, you know speaking
or goodness is really having a tough time.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Yeah. Do you think it's branding? Do you think it's marketing?
What do you think is a military person?
Speaker 4 (36:17):
I just think the demographics are there, you know, and
uh remember and for instance, when I was back in
college the first two years of alr TC was manager
at the Latin Grand Institution.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
That doesn't happen anymore.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
And the largest age in terms of demography has passed
through the system. We don't have the big democracy groups
coming at seventeen eighteen's anymore. You know, it's a smaller,
smaller pool to to try to recruit people to join us.
John serious, And I'm not sure, And again I don't
(36:54):
I don't know, so I'm probably speaking out of terror.
I don't know how well the militaries are really marketing
the skills set in changing to what they really need
to suit what they need to do, and how innovative
they are in terms of so what they'll say to
a kid is, look, okay, you take the test.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
You failed it, so you can't get in. Well maybe,
and I've.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
Seen a couple of these they're beginning to do this,
just say, some of the kids, but we're going to
put you in kind of a boot camp to have
you improve some of the skills that you need to
be in the military for what we need. And we're
going to invest in you and if you and if
you you do this, then you'll move into a military
you know, opposition. So the militant is going to have
to invest the money up front to recruit people to
(37:43):
to come to be part of that military community. Whether
they said either you're in or you're out, you know right,
you know, yeah, you know, just say okay, you pass
the tests and you're in. Well, and as I and
I told some people, especially with the young African American
kids in the steam areas with the military when I
(38:04):
was the ancient president of Norfolk State and the coast
count trying to have these kids in the Navy was
trying to get these kids Anna invest David Progress said, look,
you're competing against some of the world cooperations that's paying
these kids six figures right out of undergraduate school.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
And you wanted to be in a ship under water
for six pus. There you have it.
Speaker 4 (38:21):
You know, unless you change what you're doing, how you
how you're going to go about and what you're gonna
invest in these these you might get one or two,
but you're not going to get a big quarter because
you can't compete with the microns and and you know
the other big now with all the its AI stuff
coming and all these exciting new careers coming with these
(38:41):
kids from the same area. Yeah, who are recruiting already,
and they recruit. So what when I remember I talking
about investment, So what do they do? They take these
kids as sophomores or junius and they give them what
they call internships. But that's just a pre recruiting deal
that if you do well when you finish your undergrad degree,
(39:02):
they're gonna hire you.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
The military doesn't do anything like that.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
You take the test and either you fail it and
you go on your way, or you are you passing,
then we might talk to you.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
But they have an advancement thing up front.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
They have that presson pass the test and exactly or
stuff like that, right, so they have to be a
lot more proactive up front. They're just waiting for somebody
to walk through a recruiting door to say I wanted
John the Army of that force, David Marines or Coast Guard.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
You ain't gonna get the numbers.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
Oh right, you know, yes, Yeah, it's not so much
it's like, how are you competing in the career field exactly?
Speaker 3 (39:40):
And who is really your competition?
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Yes, because you do have competition, because it is a
career field. You could be twenty thirty years and you
can go all the way to sixty five years old
in the military if you have a great.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Career, if that's what you choose to do.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Exactly. Yeah, So the military needs to kind of groom
maybe this seventeen year old who they say hey, your
mask or suck you're out, and say hey, you know
what we have like an army math program.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
And try to show them some Korea paths, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Extending olive branch to them exactly, say hey, we are
here for you.
Speaker 5 (40:13):
We're not going to sweep you out, and you can
have a good career path that's correct, and tell the
person how they envisioned certain things happen. You're playing out
for you to become, you know, East sixty seven or
a clonel or maybe even a flag officer.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Right, you know. And so I mean, if that kid's
out there thinking, well, hey, I can either go work
over here for thirty dollars an hour or work in
the military for ten bucks an hour plus clothing, housing,
and maybe little and then.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
The importus of those survival things that you need like food,
shelter and health benefits. Right, And because young people don't
calculate that into what they think they need to be
to live.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Initially, know, they just want to go out and buy
the flash and get it and have it, and then
they're like, oh, I oh on it. Six years later you.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
Have access to finances and access to cats.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Right, And I'm not saying it has to be you know,
it doesn't have to be like a general salary for
a private, but it has to be competing.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
It's somewhat competing because you're competing against other people.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
And it's also the freedom of fectibility that you have
because the military, you know, you're gonna have some rules
and regulations that you have to follow. But if I'm
not in the military, I have a little more freedom,
personal freedoms because you do give up some personal freedom
to be part of a team in the military.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Because the patriot, let's talk about the patriot out there,
they're going to join, You're not going to make them
enough money to do with that job. It's the guy
that's like, I need to go to a career and
I want to work sonar or air traffic controller. You know,
you may have a civilian air traffic controller who could
go military air traffic controller. What are you gonna do?
And to entice that guy at least be National Guard
(41:57):
in the system to help out. I mean, you know
air traffic controllers. If you're out there, you want to
be an air traffic controller? Hit him up, tell him
RAT sent you.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
Best place to start to get the training and experiences
in the military plans.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
All over the world.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Here I have nineteen year olds coming into my airsoft
shop wanting to play war games, and I'm like, what
are you gonna do with yourself? He's like, I want
to fly a commercial. I was like, I was like,
as he said commercial, I said, you need to go
to the military. He's like, no, I'm just doing a
civilian program to learn how to fly commercial. But you
could commit to the military and get through all of
that and still get that experience and.
Speaker 4 (42:33):
You don't have to pay for it that yes training program.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
He is in the private market player. I don't know
what something that costs.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
I bet you someone in his school that's teaching him
is former military. A funny feeling, I have a hutch exactly.
Someone tells me he's flown some rubber dog dude out
of Hong Kong or something. You know that guy some
top gun quote two guys. Now you're gonna go round
(43:02):
the school.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Yes, give that good military training.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Exactly and shoulder shoulderness. You know, there's nothing like that.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
And it also has talked how to be part of
a te how to deal with people again from diverse environment,
because we're doing the military. People come from all walks
of life, which is wonderful.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Well, as a manager yourself, you know, it's about surrounding
yourself with good people to make you look like a
good manager.
Speaker 3 (43:26):
That's what happens. Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, so you do
as they do. People work for you that's smarter than
you because they're gonna make you smarter.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
That's right, Like I just got smarter off this interview.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
No, you're very kind.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Oh stop, you're very kind.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Really interest Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
You know I've had you for a good forty five
minutes talking about you know, the PhD project dot org,
talking about how you grew the Syracuse University, you know,
diversity program for PhD me e PhD project dot org.
I love your picture is on your wall and yes,
I just want to let you know that and I
hold you in the highest regards of that.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
Oh, well, I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
Yes, Actually, uh, the lady was Actually my wife worked
and then actually I was here in graduate school. They
look the lady. Actually that was paid by a prisoner,
is that right? Martin Luther King picture. My wife was
in the audience and he was on the stage. This
is an amazing picture if you can.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
See this, and he's so young and he's just showing.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
Well, the guy sitting next to my wife said, I'm
gonna take this picture of Martin Luther King because I
think he was waiting to speak, and when it comes out,
I want to give you one. That's the way that
picture came out. Amazing. It's just like it's so it's like,
is there every things he stood for?
Speaker 2 (44:47):
Right?
Speaker 4 (44:48):
And and so the uh, it's the pictures that my
wife has one the guy kept one as the one
is that the King Center in Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Those are only three of that pictures.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Yeah, oh wow that so it's even on display. Yeah,
I just wanted to mention that to you in the background. So, yeah,
you're very welcome. We see it works. Yeah, no, no, no,
this works. This is great. You know.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
Yeah, it's one of my favorite rooms. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Well, I'm glad you brought the show to the room
here where we could display those wonderful pieces of art. Okay,
of huge the computer will it will Yes, it has,
and you've been wonderful, Doctor Melvin Stiff of the United
States Army Officer Military Intelligence. Now you're a dad and
(45:40):
a grandpa. Let's go army. Let's go army. That's right.
My dad agrees with me, right, but he hadn't right
exact that's right. So with that said, I'm gonna say,
go support our merch Go check the book store out
for any of my listeners. Do that on behalf of
(46:01):
doctor Stiff and myself and Syracuse University.
Speaker 4 (46:05):
Program for the young men and women getting out and
look at Syracuse. It's a great place to continue your education.
You're going to find one of the most supportive environments,
and if not, I'll say the most supportive in the
US academy.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
And they broke him down in the bottom of the
website for people and click on it. Just go straight
to the website exactly. Okay, okay, so we'll have that
all set up.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Oh great, we appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
And thanks to William for coming to Hell.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
Yeah, William bailed me out, yes, but he made it quicker.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
Yes, And I'm going to give a shut out. I
think to pat I heard you say.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
Yeah, Patricians my wife in fifty three years.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
I think we should give her a shot one more time.
Speaker 4 (46:45):
Yes, she did all the hard work for me to
get to Syracuse University. I told her the press day
I saw her, I'm going to marry you one day.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
Yeah, what's up? And it worked out. You're a determined individual.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
I know what I want. That's what's up. That's what
I love it exactly.
Speaker 4 (47:01):
You've been a very well You're a wonderful host, and
in the future, reach out to me if you think
I could be helpful and all. It was really been
and it's always a pleasure for us to talk about
the PD project.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
It means so much to me and as well as
Syracuse universe. And it's specially the Veterans program.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
I can I already know and same here. I'm so
excited to have you on and thank you for making
me fit on your schedule on this beautiful Sunday right
after Veterans Day. So happy Veterans Day too.
Speaker 4 (47:27):
It was great, yes, but we had a great ter
Day series of activities here in town.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
I'm sure, I'm sure if you were there, it was
a it was a rock star show.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
Okay, well you take care of yourself.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
Back you too, Dean, Thank you so much. And on
the behalf of all of us, here a soft rep
and the Dean. I'm saying peace.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
You've been listening to self reparata.
Loot force. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough.
You're listening to Software Radio, special operations, military emails and
straight talk with the guys in the community.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hi, and welcome back to soft Rep Radio. I am
your host, Rad and I have a wonderful guest today.
But before I introduce my guest, I want to remind
you to keep supporting us by going to our merch shop.
That's right. You go in there and you buy these
cool branded items from softwap dot com for the Software
Radio program and it really helps keep the fireplace lit
behind me. I also want to say go check out
(00:55):
our book club, which is soft rep dot com, Forward
Slash Book, High Life and Club, and just en roll
in our book club. Check it out. Read a book,
you know, brain food, man, a book is brain food. Okay,
read a book, especially a band book. Now, without further ado,
I have doctor Melvin Stith, former US officer Vietnam Military Intelligence,
(01:19):
Syracuse University PhD Project dot Org on the show.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Welcome, Thank you, it's great to be with you today.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Oh you know, there's a whole story that I want
to read about you right now, and I know that
we started going through you know, getting everything all squared away.
So let me pull that up real quick. And it
tells a little bit about doctor Stith's background. So let
me pull that up real quick. Here I had it, okay,
So here's what we're going to read. Doctor Stith served
in Vietnam as a commissioned officer in the US Army's
(01:48):
Military Intelligence Corps after graduating from college. When he returned home,
he enrolled in Syracuse University and earned his MBA and
PhD in marketing from the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.
He eventually served as dean of the school and in
fall of twenty twenty two received Syracuse University's Military and
Veteran Award, the university's highest honor given to alumni who
(02:10):
have served or are currently serving in the US to
Armed Forces. Approximately two hundred thousand service members transition from
the military service to civilian life each year, according to
the Department Offense, Some veterans may experience difficulty finding civilian
employment after leaving the service. Under doctor Stitt's leadership, Syracuse
University became one of the premier campuses for veterans with
(02:31):
its Office of Veterans and Military Affairs. So I was
totally interested to have you on the show, you know,
and I would love to talk more about how you know,
how old were you when you joined the military?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Well, I was twenty one.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I was an OMNIORTC scholarship student at Novia Sate University
c back commissions through the Advanced OURTC program, and that
was in nineteen sixty eight, and I was commissioned as
a second lieutenant then actually in armor. I was at
Fort Knox and got a call that said that Lieutenant Stiff,
you've been selected to help integrate the Military Intelligence.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Command and uh, pack your bags.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
You have to get out of here and go to
Fort Hollibary, Maryland to the primary Intelligence School. So after
a short stay I think waiting for the next class,
I was reassigned to for God and George of the
Civil Affair School and.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Then on the Ford Holiberry for the Military Intelligence program.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Can you tell my listener real quick, we'll even explain,
you know, educate myself intelligence right. We hear that some
people say doesn't really exist, but here you are in military.
So like what style of stuff was?
Speaker 4 (03:42):
We were doing a lot of an intelligent intellipart. We
were doing a lot of just basic security work on
preparing documents for people who needed different type of security clearances.
So whether it was you know, military security or a
top secret, we would do the background check on those
individuals to make sure that they should I get, you know,
(04:06):
the appropriate designation in terms of the security that they
were having based on their position in the military.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
That's a very important role, you know. I mean there's
a lot of sensitive information that guys do need to see.
But what if that guy can't see it? Right? Yes,
you know, so if you're on the team.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I actually worked in civilian clothes.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
We were not in military uniforms because we were calling
on people, you know, trying to get information about depression
that was being considered usually a top secret, crypto, top secret,
our clearance.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
You know. That makes I've had people call me as
an employer asking about people who have enlisted, saying, hey,
got some question. Guy walks in with an envelope and
I'm looking into this guy's background. That was us Okay,
so I do know what you do. Well, lucky for them.
I always tell my guys, I'm like, you know, you
got to be nice to me. You don't understand because
(05:01):
so it's going to come looking into.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
You, and we take it very because you know, again
it's the security of the country at stake, depending on
where you eventure to find yourself and what do you
eventure to find yourself doing as some military command or
at some post or some agency.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah. Really, I mean it's a serious thing. You got
to know. You know, you gotta have guys who have
the heart of the oath of classified information and women.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
You know, we were in terms of I have an
access to what we were doing, and we treated you know,
regardless of of sexual gender. You know, the people the
same way in terms of finding the appropriate information for
the appropriate job.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
You know, in the sixties when you were going to school, right,
there was a lot happening in America changing around, you know,
and you lived through that. And first of all, you know, wow, okay,
and congratulations on living through everything that you know, I
didn't live. I was born in seventy seven.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Yeah, well it was more interesting than that because in
the sixes and I grew up in the South. You know,
there was segregation. There was segregated K through twelve schools,
vice schools. K through twelve was totally segregated. There were
any Caucasians or anyone else in my little hometown, but
African American kids, and my k through not k actually
(06:21):
we had no kindergarten because it was a farming community.
Fresh grade through through high school and then I went
to his Tuggle Black College, Norfilx State University. Very few
Concasion students at that time was enrolled at Norfolk State University.
So that's an all black campus was basically at that time. Yes,
you maybe one one or two football players, the kicker
(06:42):
or somebody might have been away, but basically it was yeah,
you know, not a nine nine percent African American.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, you know, I don't know what that's like today.
And I'm glad because you.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Know, well, the campus is now much go integrate of course,
you know when even though they're still call his Truckle
Black colleges because that's what they are. But the campus
is a you know, a much more reflection of the
of a global society because now you have in the
national students come from all over the world, you know,
Concasius students, African Americans and African American students now, you know,
and my Jorge institutions as we see especially every day
(07:16):
on Saturday afternoon, if you look at the football game.
So you know the world is very different now in
terms of higher education and where people go to school
and choose to go to universities.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And acceptance of one another, one another as a peer
on that campus.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yes it just as a peer, just as a straight individual.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Like exactly, Yeah, dude.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I want to curse right now, but I'm not going
to keep it real. I just want to say, like,
look a the hell where we're thinking? Man, you know,
what the hell you know? And everybody who volunteers and
fights for our country all the way through slavery to
just you know, fight for USA and you know, and they,
you know, willing to die for it. And we came
in and took the land from natives in the first place,
you know, and then just said this is our place.
(07:57):
And you know, I'm appalled at that.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Pa.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I can't do. I can only be a good steward
of who I am today moving forward of what I had.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
But I think that's the really important point.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
You can't redo the past, but you wanted to make
sure the past does not reoccur, because those who have
know history will have history to repeat itself. So our
job done is to be good stewards of the land,
to be good stewards of what we do. And when
we put on the military uniform, I think that's what
people try to do.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
It that was their call to arms.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yes, now, once you put that uniform on, right, you
go through college, all right, you put your head into
the books, graduate, and here you are. You're in the
United States Military boom right back in. Now you're integrated
with everybody correctly.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
And it actually was by really first major experience in
an integrated community, and it was it was fine. I
don't remember any specific situations so much. That only one
was when I actually got moved to Fort Garden to
go to the Military Civil Defense School. While we waited
(09:02):
to get the Nate's class for the Military Intelligence School,
African Americans really weren't accepted because it was in uh
where the Master Tournament is, Gusta, Georgia.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
That's where for Gordon was.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
I don't know if it's still a viable post, but
African Americans really weren't invited to go to the Master Tournament.
And we went to the post and said, you know,
the white officers are going and we can't go. That
can't happen, and they and to their credit, they shut
it down until all officers are invited regardless of.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Color of skin. Then not how folks could come.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
And they changed it, you know, but we had to
go get that, you know, get that done because.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
It was wrong, right so and it was it is.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
But but agatting kudos to the commanders and for Gordon,
they understood the spear of that issue.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
You know, It's true. They have to, like, you know,
make a big move because there's a lot of like
old schoolness that's still hanging over their head and there
like you know what, this is the new, this is
the way, and they're willing to put themselves out there.
You know how I feel I would be that's that
same way. It's like, you know, I mean everybody you know,
all the way from the all black you know air Force,
(10:14):
uh you know redtails that fighting for the same flag man.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
And and and those guys were being told what they
couldn't do it wasn't capable of though, which is totally incorrect.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Believe it. In the movie, it depicts like the white
bomber looking over like all these guys are gonna last
look at the end results, you know, look at the
end results. The Tuskegee airmen. Let's just say that I
said the redtails because their airplanes have redtails.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
But yeah, but that that wholes operates, the whole squadron.
And they took so much pride in what they were doing.
But then when they came back to the US, feedback
like they didn't care what they did because they weren't
treated the.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Same way, and they weren't there.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
They weren't Yeah, and they weren't there.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
They didn't see that they had to go through hell
and back to even get home, to step back onto
American soil, right, and then with all the hate Riboro
that was going along with or whatever.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Yes, and sometimes even whether the uniform then saved them
from certain unfortunate situations.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I was hoping that's what would be the difference, is
that once you put that on. I've talked to other
people like yourself who have always said, it's always the
US in front of the army or the Marines or
the Coastguard that makes us one, you know, right, you know,
it's about the person next to you, man or woman.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
That's right, when you're in the heat of a bat
of if you're we used to say you're in a
fox cell whoever you were. You just wanted to make
sure that press is next to you was competent. You
didn't care about the color of their skin, no, because
it was survival.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Time, right and Almo, brotherhood, I love you, I love you.
Oh wow, holy cow, we just like made a moment. Yeah,
you know, we just lived through something traumatic.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Life changing and minutes exactly.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Even when you practiced to do that, you understood how
significant of what you were doing, because it's the call
to all actually came. You had to be ready to
respond to that.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
So you stayed in the military for how many years?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
I stayed it for four years.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Well, because see, I had a four year commitment, so
fortunate when I went to Advance RTC, I received an
Army RTC scholarship, so they paid for all of my
college expenses the last two years. But it meant I
had a four year commitment. So I stayed in for
the four years. And I was married by that time,
and then I decided either I was going to stay
in the military or making a career, or.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
I was going to get out and go back to
graduate school. And I got admitted to the University of Virginia.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Virginia Tech and Syracuse University and decided to go to Syracuse.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
And that's when I decided to, uh, you know, lead
the military.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Right and just pursue the education and bring you know,
I call at war college. You go to the military,
you do your two four six year stint. If you
go for life, cool doctor it all the way in
the military, you know, you come out of that knowledge, power, discipline.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yeah, I would have say then if I had not
gotten my wife did a lot of the work because
I was actually in Vietnam when we were making that decision.
She and another friend of mine. Uh, they did a
lot of the leg work for me in terms of
applying to graduate schools and you know, doing those kinds
of things for me because I was in Vietnam. But yeah,
if I hadn't done that, I would have made the
(13:28):
mill a flair career.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Did you miss her so much over there? Oh?
Speaker 4 (13:33):
You miss everybody because you're you're isolated and you're living
behind basically you know, wire fences until you spose to
go out on patrol, a goog whatever you have to do.
So you miss everybody. And you know, remember then we
didn't have the zoom, We didn't have the technologies that
we had. Now, we had the APO letters that you know,
you would you would get once.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Or twice longed to hold you in my arms PO
San Francisco.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
You never forget that as long as you live, you know.
And when we tell people this story now, the young people,
they kind of look at it like a huh. No,
we didn't have the one for technology that you can
be in touch regardless of where you are in the world,
like exactly it was.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It was writing letters.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Like back in two thousand and nine, I was talking
to my friends in Afghanistan.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Yeah, three in the morning exactly. Yeah, unfortunately they were there,
but you can still have that. You could hear their bosses.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Them right then.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
Yeah, everyone, you could get on the line, you know,
the old lines and and and he's but that was
so difficult to do.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
You had to get I Core on the phone and
get me radar and send me a line out to
my wife. Yeah, they're like, oh, yeah, he's going home.
They're going to have a kid. And then so uh
it was so you come home and you start your family, uh,
you know, civilian style, and you're pursuing what kind of
(14:59):
a agree is it a marketing?
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Yeah? So I was married and actually we had a
son already, and uh so I came to Syracuse University
to get an NBA, my master's a Business Administration, and
then to go to work at in marketing, to go
to work with you know, some of the big consumer
good firms, from Procting, Gamma to leave It, to the
Automobile and to the beer and it's that all of
those folks were going to recruit me. But the professor
(15:22):
stopped me one day saying, I think that you would
make a great university professor, why don't you stay here
and get your PhD.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
I'm not doing that.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
I'm going out and make me some money with my
NBA and and talk to my wife.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
She said, well we're doing okay, let's let's try it.
And I did. And it was really the best.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Decision that I made to stay at Syracuse to get
my MB, my NBA, then the then the PhD.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
It's kind of a moment of like why not me,
why not try it and then see if I can
do it or not? And now you did it and
your successful.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
And actually then once we made the decision, like a
week later, my wife would like, I s something to
tell you I'm pregnant with our second child. Said, oh no,
I just decided to be a student. How did that happen?
She said, I have to have a long talk with you.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
How did that happen?
Speaker 4 (16:11):
But you know, again, things work out in life. You know,
it didn't. My daughter is just delightful to this day.
She has our grandson, so I mean, yeah, hell yeah,
she's all right with me. Yeah right, the only grandchild.
So uh yeah. But it was just, you know, the timing.
And I tell studs time, you can't only determine how
things happen in life. Would just roll with what you
(16:33):
want to do. Things will work out, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
So was there a time in school when you were like, man,
I'm just tired of school?
Speaker 4 (16:40):
And uh, you know, I loved it. I loved every day.
I loved every day being in school. I love the
interaction with people. Syracuse was just a welcome and community, Pete.
The professors were great. I never felt overwhelm. I never
felt that didn't belong. I never felt that I had
made the wrong decision that I should be all out
and take.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
My MBA and go you know where for Corporate America.
And then one of my assistantships.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
My assistanship was to work in the NBA office and
help with students because I was older, being in the
military expense at all. And then the director left and
then I was writing my dissertation and the dean came
and said, malm, you worked in that office. I need
somebody to do this. Run the graduate program for me
for a year while we search for someone. You would
(17:26):
be the pressure pressure. You can take it. Much time
you need to write a dissertation, but you can do that.
And it was the most wonderful thing when I think
of things. An opportunity happened to be in life that
goes through the top of the list because that set
me on the course. I wanted to be an academic
administrator and that led to me getting jobs and deans
(17:46):
and things. But it started right back because the dean
had enough confidence that I could run a graduate office
while I finished my PhD, and you know, allowed the
university of time to search for the appropriate presson to
take the job permanently.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
So let's talk about that, right So you're so, let's
say there's a veteran out there right now who's got
a GI bill, and maybe they guy schooling underneath their belt, right, So,
and they should just hit up Syracuse University.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Syracuse University is one of the lead university now for veterans.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
We have we have committed. We can get into that
just the university, and I'm so proud of them. But
they have continued to do And Syracuse has always had
a history of being a vout with the military because
in World War Two, many of the young men who
came to Syracuse were veterans, and so Syracuse built this
huge veterans network many years ago. And and and actually
(18:39):
if you if you read the history of Syracuse, it
was a veteran that made Syracuse at National University because
they came back and number the fact, the chancellors tell it,
admitted so many veterans that some of the fact that
I had to vote of no confidence in and that
he was changing the nature of the campus. And he
survived that and actually built housing. So when I came
to Syracuse as a veteran, I went to the top
(19:01):
of the lift of marriage to the housing, had a
two bedroom apartment and I only paid fifty dollars a
month and paid for land telephone. They really took care
of veterans, and for years, even to this day, Syracuse
were the place where a military officers came to get
their NBA and finance to go back to be finance
officers in the military. That program is still in the
(19:22):
business in the Quindment School to this day. It's probably
been there fifty to sixty years. So Syracuse has always
had a way, And in fact, that's how I got
to Syracuse because Syracuse knew how to get the information
to me in Vietnam. In addition to my wife that
the universe of Virginia Virginia Tech didn't know what to.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Do and Syracuse already had kind of like the way
to do it.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
They had had the way to do it. The military
knew how to do it because those officers there were
officers and it's a change of do the station just
like they could have been anywhere else, and they said,
we know how to do this, and they did it.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
And that's how I got to Syracuse. And not like
the University of Virginia.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Just because they were able to fall they were through.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Where's Virginia Tech probably would like to have done it,
but they didn't have a follow through process.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Exactly they didn't understand.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Yeah, and by the time I got there information I
had already accepted Syracuse.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Of course, Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you go to Syracuse,
you've been an administrator, You've received the prestigious award that
you know. That's got to make you feel good.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
It was really great. But what happened? I just leave
it to this.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
I was in my office one day I was back,
came back to Syracuse as dean, and a young fact A
member came in and said, you know, you a veteran.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I'm a veteran. We have this wonderful entrepreneurship program. We're
getting so many young men and women with disabilities coming back.
We need to do something special for them. Because many
of them can work nine to five jobs. We should
create a special program to help them become entrepreneurs. That's right,
And I said that is and I said, Mike, we
got to do it. And then he laught.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
He said, and I wanted to be free for them.
And we ran out and raised the money to bring
those young men and women to Syracuse University for two
weeks period of time and then start a relationship with
them so that they could go back and start their
career as entrepreneurs and that program has been overwhelming succession.
That's what led to the whole idea of the Institute
(21:19):
of Veterans and Families on campus that's grown into a
multimillion dollar operation with the wonderful.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Building that one about alone.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Dan Denello and his wife Gail made a huge donation
of build a building just for veterans on our campus.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
It is a world class building.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
And it was well, that's nice that their philanthropy was
able to be available.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
It's huge, yes, and it's all about halving people with
disabilities to have a reason to want to get up
every day and to work and to know that there
were people that cared about them. And that had just
led to just this wonderful programmers at Syracuse University.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And what a legacy they leave too by donating, you know,
to the housing and to the cause and to this whole.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Built Yes, yeah, establishing and the building is built so
much with people with disabilities in mind in terms of
making the building very easy to access, you know throughout
the building.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
That's really cool.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Yeah, it's really very few stairs, more ramps and stuff,
you know for people in wheelchairs or other kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
It's just it's it's it's an amazing program. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
And it started just with one person coming to me
saying we ought to do this, and I listened and
I said, let's roll, let's roll.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yes, yeah like it.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I mean I'm happy that that's what happened exactly.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
And the same thing happened with the pH d project.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
We we didn't think that there were it wasn't designed
so much for veterans, but veterans are now taking advantage.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
We didn't think there were enough people of color.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Teaching in business schools, right, so we said, look, let's
go out and tell people. Because most people think that
they get that NBA, they can go out and live happily.
Ever after make a lot of money. They never thought
about getting the PhD. And we started said, let's try
to change this model. Some of these people might not
want to be in corporate America working for a big nonprofit.
(23:10):
They might want to come back to get a PhD
and stand in front of the classroom and teach business
instead of you know, being a manager every day. And
that happened too, and that led to a huge success.
We are more than called drouble. The number of people
of color now teaching and business schools across this country.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Oh yeah, I chuge. You have you know a Hispanic
African American Native American.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Yes, And a lot of people had never even thought
about that they should do this before the PhD project.
And when they come to the conference, we explain all
the information how you can do it, when you can
do it. And it had just been overwhelmed and successful,
much more successful than I think that all of us,
Bernie and Terror and all of us who were there
from the beginning thought that it would be.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
And here it is.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
People like that.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Yes, how old are you today?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
I am seventy seven years old?
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Seventy seven So you've seen it and grow?
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Yes, yes, wow, like a child like we birthd it,
you know, we breathed it from a meeting and my
clan New Jersey Brendan Malano at KPMG myday in New
Jersey and the first night of the meeting and we're going.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Home that night.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
We were the last plan to get out of New
Jersey because it was snowing, so but we all got home.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
We always laugh.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
About that, you know, but it is growing and it
continues to grow to this day and have an impact
to this day.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Well, we're going to try to give it a shout
out right now on this show. And just make sure
that you know PhD project dot org.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
I think it's pad project dot org.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
If you just google PhD project, everything gonna come up
all the information and the thing about that again to
if you're selected to come to the conferences, the conference
is free and then the universities come and have a
like a job fan. So most of the leading and
PhD programs are there so you can talk to schools.
If you in California want to talk to the schools
in California, there there if you're in Florida, in New
(25:05):
York the difference, or if you want just to talk
to school and other parts of the country to have
a different experience. Most of the major PhD programs are
there for job fare that you meet key people that
you can start, you know, contacting when you want to
apply to those programs.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Who's your ideal candidate right now? If they're listening, what
are you looking for?
Speaker 4 (25:23):
The idea candidate is someone who wants to get a
PhD and they're willing to put in the time and
effort to do that. You can be as young as
are reaching college graduate, or you can be funny as though.
So one person at the meeting, I'll tell you this
said and I was at the mic. He said, I
am as funny years of I get a PhD, I'm
could be forty five, I said, Way in five years,
you could be forty five, whether you have a PhD
(25:43):
or not. So if you want the PhD, do it.
So there's no idea of candidate. The idea candidates the
person is willing to commit before or five years to
study in their writing, to get the PhD and then
go out on their own and build their own brand
and their own career. And I think that's the beauty
of it. You know, you don't you don't have to
fit a certain mold to say I can be part
(26:05):
of this. You bring the mold and what you want
to do it. And that's the beauty of being in
the academy and being a college professor a university professor.
You build your own mode, you build your own own
own kingdom, what on the teaching you want to do,
the research you want to do, and then you move
forward on your own and you're going to have mentors.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I mean, we now have all types of mentors because
we've been in the business I think forver twenty five years.
The PE project has been around for twenty five years,
so there are mentors everywhere. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yeah, everybody can give you some help and some advice.
Yeah yeah. And with all of the knowledge combined, it's
hundreds of years of experience.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Hundreds of years. And it's an annual conference, so you
have people. And it's also now segment about discipline. So
there's a marketing group, there's a finance group, there's accounting group.
So if you're in accounting, you know that there are
people you can just send an email or message and
say hey, I need to talk with you, and and
and people respond.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
So the bond is just tremendous.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
So let's let me ask you this. You would probably
be in your best justice at least have a bachelor's
degree to apply for this.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Oh, you do have to have at least a bachelor's degree.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Yes, you know, so you've had got to have some school.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Yeah, okay, that that's a good point. Yes, you have
to have at least a bachelor degree. But one of
the miss was you don't have to have an NBA
or master's degree.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
To apply.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
That's what I's picking up because you said about a
five or six year commitment.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
You could be as youngest you want to be, as
old as you want to be, depending on how you
want to spend. Then they say maybe four or five
years of your of your life. That's more the key
than how.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Old you are.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Would you write your dissertation on?
Speaker 4 (27:41):
It was about consumer behavior and consumer spending patterns, how
people decided to use that discretionary money. And we did
a compare to study on what African Americans would buy
versus what other people would buy.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
And you know, so it was a big difference.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Now you know everybody's toilet paper.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Yeah, but people do have preferences. Sure, that's what we
talked about, Uh, preferences. Yeah. Right.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
So my father, former Green Beret, he had a master's
degree in business and human resource management, and so I
feel like this would have been right up his kind of alley.
He was studying for his doctorate before he passed to
by the way, So you know, a consistency. That's why
I was excited to have you on. Plus, there's that
non love dad quote unquote. You know, now when you
(28:30):
were in the army, did you wear like the E. R.
D L uniform. Do you remember what is it? No,
I don't know this pattern? And we we will in
the in the military, uh, we will.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Greens and then we had the green khaki uniforms, the
khaki uniforms where the green kaki uniform was basically the
dress of the day. And then you could dress up
in greens. And then we used to call them then
the dress blues. They were for special case but now
they're more of an every day where the military has
really changed, you know they Yeah, but we we will,
(29:06):
you know, we will. We had the traditional military khakis,
you know, cotton kakis, and then in the winter you
had the wool kind of heavier.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Coats camouflage just yet No.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
We weren't now, we didn't. We didn't get to really
into any any any camouflage kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah that's what I was.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
No PhD project.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yeah, it's it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, it's just really grown people and just making them
to be PhDs.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
And and what we started with the conference that people
come to because that gives you a sense of belonging,
but it also tells you whether you want to do
it or not. Because we don't sugar coated. We tell
you what to expect and and we tell people if
you walk away saying it's not for me, then you
have made a life decision on what you want to
do and what you want to be. And you take
(29:56):
then getting a pad off your plate and you go
back to work for you, you know, for corporation or
nonprofit or what you want to do. But then it's
for you. You said, Okay, you know, I want to
fill my plate by becoming a PhD.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Right, And you'll probably want them to stay within the
maybe the university too. It's like, hey, there's gonna probably
you know there.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
And that is another thing that's I think that's a
really good point is that we are really trying to
prepare people to become university professors. We're not trying to
and you can't always tell people what to do, but
we're not just trying to get people to get a
pH d because they want to be a consultant and
have a pH d behind In the end, our primary
goal and primary mission is to continue to integrate the
(30:39):
head of the classroom with people of color.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yes, so so that's the goal.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
And we tell people up front if if you're in
this too, become just a consultant with a PhD. We
we really don't want you to take a slot, but
you can do it on your own, you know, but.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Of course chase that, but you would like to try
to keep that pool, uh, you know full for the program.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Yeah, because there's never enough people to fill these positions
across the United States and now and some people even
maybe even I should say globally if they choose to
do that, that we need that pressing in front of
the classroom.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You really made a big, cool program happen.
Speaker 5 (31:17):
Yes, Yes, that's it's been.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
It was wonderful from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
I bet people are looking at me like you're talking
to a rockstar. Rad recognize it, you know, like, and
I'm like, you know no, And I'm just like, you're
a father, you know, at a PhD, at a professor.
I get it.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
I'm just a gotcha boy trying to make it.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
That's all because every boy who's made it right. I
think that if you were to leave today this earth,
you could leave with a smile in your soul knowing
that you've left such an awesome, badass legacy and helped
helped you just help.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Well that's that is true.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
I mean I have to admit that because I've gotten
certain recognitions and things that make know that you've had
a tremendous impact on a number of people, and that
is very rewarding.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
It's a mentor, yeah, it is. Yeah, and you have
mentors so many. I mean right now, I'm just I'm like,
what do I say to him? He's a rock star,
you know, he's It's like, you want to talk about
marketing and business strategies. It's like, you know, I want
to know what you wrote on I love marketing. I've
worked in radio television. You know that kind of marketing.
(32:23):
You know, if you have been on radio, you need
to be And here we are still.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
On radio on radio, which is wonderful.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Yes, right, but the days have changed. Right, let's talk
about that marketing. Right. The days have changed where you
used to find the static dial and set it on
your jams, and then the same advertiser would always be
able to repeat to you.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
Today we have, Yeah, because the listenership now is much
more diverse. And because one other thing that's fascinating to
me is because you have so much at your fingertip,
you don't have to listen to the commercials if you
don't want to anymore.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Exactly do you even pay for commercial free?
Speaker 4 (32:58):
You could be commercial free, And that's what I More
and more, you know, people are trying to pace stuff.
When you open up a site, the first thing you
see the commercial or something you know, before you can
get to get to you and get to to other people,
because they have to respond to the change of the environment.
Because I mean, if I could, I could take your
show and just blast you if you had commercials and
(33:19):
not ever listen to one.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Man, I'm like, okay, back to the show. You know,
I don't mean that.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
With you advertising, but but they understand that my.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Heads are in the trenches here man, I'm I'm I'm
bringing the talent.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
But they understand.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
They find numerous ways to get you to hear about
their products, to hear about their services.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
So well, like on some of these big streaming services.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
They stream it, they do different things now, so they
have they have a justin well you can tell them
about the cost of what people pay down to be
on a streaming service or you know, all such shows,
high power shows like yours.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
So well, now they have like digital billboards all over
the place where you can just pay like eight cents
yeah for a ten second blip, you know, and then
and the average person drive on the f takes like
seven to thirteen seconds to read a billboard. So if
you have something like.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
A word, yeah, but then you're going to go back
to what was that? What was that about?
Speaker 4 (34:21):
So in the West, appetite to say, okay, I missed
it this time, what were they really talking about? And
so the next time you say, you might pay attention
sy And that's part of the way to get people
to to actually there at some point, pay some attention.
And that's why they're so quick now, because they wanted
just to plan a ceed for you to come back
(34:44):
to say, well, what.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Were they really about? What were they really about? What
were the product? What would the service?
Speaker 2 (34:48):
We call that keyword spamming?
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Yeah exactly, Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
It makes sense. So my my business here, I just
have one word and it says Airsoft.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
See yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Every time somebody drives by it, they see a thousand cars, right,
and then google is then I know what it is, right,
and then they come in. I always ask everybody, how
come you're here? Yes, I ask everybody that because I'm
so I'm like and they're like, oh, I just saw
your sign about forty times and I finally came in
from work, like there we go. Yeah, you know on
the internet or you know, saw YouTube video I love.
(35:21):
I love to dive down and dive deep on how
did you get into my store? Right? Yes, that's correct. Yeah,
it's the marketing in me because I'm guerrilla marketing. Yes,
exactly at its finest, Like right now I'm talking about
my airsoft shop. See it's just gorilla marketing.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Get it the word out, and that's right, exactly right.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Because if you want to play war games in Utah,
I'm your huckleberry. You can find me and then I
take care of you, or anywhere. I got friends all
over the place. You want to play in Nevada, Look
these guys up. But you know, it's that kind of
marketing that you know that.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Bring people in.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
The recruiters need to do that with the military.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
Yeah, not so bold. Yeah, you know, you know speaking
or goodness is really having a tough time.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Yeah. Do you think it's branding? Do you think it's marketing?
What do you think is a military person?
Speaker 4 (36:17):
I just think the demographics are there, you know, and
uh remember and for instance, when I was back in
college the first two years of alr TC was manager
at the Latin Grand Institution.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
That doesn't happen anymore.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
And the largest age in terms of demography has passed
through the system. We don't have the big democracy groups
coming at seventeen eighteen's anymore. You know, it's a smaller,
smaller pool to to try to recruit people to join us.
John serious, And I'm not sure, And again I don't
(36:54):
I don't know, so I'm probably speaking out of terror.
I don't know how well the militaries are really marketing
the skills set in changing to what they really need
to suit what they need to do, and how innovative
they are in terms of so what they'll say to
a kid is, look, okay, you take the test.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
You failed it, so you can't get in. Well maybe,
and I've.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
Seen a couple of these they're beginning to do this,
just say, some of the kids, but we're going to
put you in kind of a boot camp to have
you improve some of the skills that you need to
be in the military for what we need. And we're
going to invest in you and if you and if
you you do this, then you'll move into a military
you know, opposition. So the militant is going to have
to invest the money up front to recruit people to
(37:43):
to come to be part of that military community. Whether
they said either you're in or you're out, you know right,
you know, yeah, you know, just say okay, you pass
the tests and you're in. Well, and as I and
I told some people, especially with the young African American
kids in the steam areas with the military when I
(38:04):
was the ancient president of Norfolk State and the coast
count trying to have these kids in the Navy was
trying to get these kids Anna invest David Progress said, look,
you're competing against some of the world cooperations that's paying
these kids six figures right out of undergraduate school.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
And you wanted to be in a ship under water
for six pus. There you have it.
Speaker 4 (38:21):
You know, unless you change what you're doing, how you
how you're going to go about and what you're gonna
invest in these these you might get one or two,
but you're not going to get a big quarter because
you can't compete with the microns and and you know
the other big now with all the its AI stuff
coming and all these exciting new careers coming with these
(38:41):
kids from the same area. Yeah, who are recruiting already,
and they recruit. So what when I remember I talking
about investment, So what do they do? They take these
kids as sophomores or junius and they give them what
they call internships. But that's just a pre recruiting deal
that if you do well when you finish your undergrad degree,
(39:02):
they're gonna hire you.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
The military doesn't do anything like that.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
You take the test and either you fail it and
you go on your way, or you are you passing,
then we might talk to you.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
But they have an advancement thing up front.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
They have that presson pass the test and exactly or
stuff like that, right, so they have to be a
lot more proactive up front. They're just waiting for somebody
to walk through a recruiting door to say I wanted
John the Army of that force, David Marines or Coast Guard.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
You ain't gonna get the numbers.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
Oh right, you know, yes, Yeah, it's not so much
it's like, how are you competing in the career field exactly?
Speaker 3 (39:40):
And who is really your competition?
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Yes, because you do have competition, because it is a
career field. You could be twenty thirty years and you
can go all the way to sixty five years old
in the military if you have a great.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Career, if that's what you choose to do.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Exactly. Yeah, So the military needs to kind of groom
maybe this seventeen year old who they say hey, your
mask or suck you're out, and say hey, you know
what we have like an army math program.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
And try to show them some Korea paths, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Extending olive branch to them exactly, say hey, we are
here for you.
Speaker 5 (40:13):
We're not going to sweep you out, and you can
have a good career path that's correct, and tell the
person how they envisioned certain things happen. You're playing out
for you to become, you know, East sixty seven or
a clonel or maybe even a flag officer.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Right, you know. And so I mean, if that kid's
out there thinking, well, hey, I can either go work
over here for thirty dollars an hour or work in
the military for ten bucks an hour plus clothing, housing,
and maybe little and then.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
The importus of those survival things that you need like food,
shelter and health benefits. Right, And because young people don't
calculate that into what they think they need to be
to live.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Initially, know, they just want to go out and buy
the flash and get it and have it, and then
they're like, oh, I oh on it. Six years later you.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
Have access to finances and access to cats.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Right, And I'm not saying it has to be you know,
it doesn't have to be like a general salary for
a private, but it has to be competing.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
It's somewhat competing because you're competing against other people.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
And it's also the freedom of fectibility that you have
because the military, you know, you're gonna have some rules
and regulations that you have to follow. But if I'm
not in the military, I have a little more freedom,
personal freedoms because you do give up some personal freedom
to be part of a team in the military.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Because the patriot, let's talk about the patriot out there,
they're going to join, You're not going to make them
enough money to do with that job. It's the guy
that's like, I need to go to a career and
I want to work sonar or air traffic controller. You know,
you may have a civilian air traffic controller who could
go military air traffic controller. What are you gonna do?
And to entice that guy at least be National Guard
(41:57):
in the system to help out. I mean, you know
air traffic controllers. If you're out there, you want to
be an air traffic controller? Hit him up, tell him
RAT sent you.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
Best place to start to get the training and experiences
in the military plans.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
All over the world.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Here I have nineteen year olds coming into my airsoft
shop wanting to play war games, and I'm like, what
are you gonna do with yourself? He's like, I want
to fly a commercial. I was like, I was like,
as he said commercial, I said, you need to go
to the military. He's like, no, I'm just doing a
civilian program to learn how to fly commercial. But you
could commit to the military and get through all of
that and still get that experience and.
Speaker 4 (42:33):
You don't have to pay for it that yes training program.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
He is in the private market player. I don't know
what something that costs.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
I bet you someone in his school that's teaching him
is former military. A funny feeling, I have a hutch exactly.
Someone tells me he's flown some rubber dog dude out
of Hong Kong or something. You know that guy some
top gun quote two guys. Now you're gonna go round
(43:02):
the school.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Yes, give that good military training.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Exactly and shoulder shoulderness. You know, there's nothing like that.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
And it also has talked how to be part of
a te how to deal with people again from diverse environment,
because we're doing the military. People come from all walks
of life, which is wonderful.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Well, as a manager yourself, you know, it's about surrounding
yourself with good people to make you look like a
good manager.
Speaker 3 (43:26):
That's what happens. Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, so you do
as they do. People work for you that's smarter than
you because they're gonna make you smarter.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
That's right, Like I just got smarter off this interview.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
No, you're very kind.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Oh stop, you're very kind.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Really interest Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
You know I've had you for a good forty five
minutes talking about you know, the PhD project dot org,
talking about how you grew the Syracuse University, you know,
diversity program for PhD me e PhD project dot org.
I love your picture is on your wall and yes,
I just want to let you know that and I
hold you in the highest regards of that.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
Oh, well, I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
Yes, Actually, uh, the lady was Actually my wife worked
and then actually I was here in graduate school. They
look the lady. Actually that was paid by a prisoner,
is that right? Martin Luther King picture. My wife was
in the audience and he was on the stage. This
is an amazing picture if you can.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
See this, and he's so young and he's just showing.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
Well, the guy sitting next to my wife said, I'm
gonna take this picture of Martin Luther King because I
think he was waiting to speak, and when it comes out,
I want to give you one. That's the way that
picture came out. Amazing. It's just like it's so it's like,
is there every things he stood for?
Speaker 2 (44:47):
Right?
Speaker 4 (44:48):
And and so the uh, it's the pictures that my
wife has one the guy kept one as the one
is that the King Center in Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Those are only three of that pictures.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Yeah, oh wow that so it's even on display. Yeah,
I just wanted to mention that to you in the background. So, yeah,
you're very welcome. We see it works. Yeah, no, no, no,
this works. This is great. You know.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
Yeah, it's one of my favorite rooms. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Well, I'm glad you brought the show to the room
here where we could display those wonderful pieces of art. Okay,
of huge the computer will it will Yes, it has,
and you've been wonderful, Doctor Melvin Stiff of the United
States Army Officer Military Intelligence. Now you're a dad and
(45:40):
a grandpa. Let's go army. Let's go army. That's right.
My dad agrees with me, right, but he hadn't right
exact that's right. So with that said, I'm gonna say,
go support our merch Go check the book store out
for any of my listeners. Do that on behalf of
(46:01):
doctor Stiff and myself and Syracuse University.
Speaker 4 (46:05):
Program for the young men and women getting out and
look at Syracuse. It's a great place to continue your education.
You're going to find one of the most supportive environments,
and if not, I'll say the most supportive in the
US academy.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
And they broke him down in the bottom of the
website for people and click on it. Just go straight
to the website exactly. Okay, okay, so we'll have that
all set up.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Oh great, we appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
And thanks to William for coming to Hell.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
Yeah, William bailed me out, yes, but he made it quicker.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
Yes, And I'm going to give a shut out. I
think to pat I heard you say.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
Yeah, Patricians my wife in fifty three years.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
I think we should give her a shot one more time.
Speaker 4 (46:45):
Yes, she did all the hard work for me to
get to Syracuse University. I told her the press day
I saw her, I'm going to marry you one day.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
Yeah, what's up? And it worked out. You're a determined individual.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
I know what I want. That's what's up. That's what
I love it exactly.
Speaker 4 (47:01):
You've been a very well You're a wonderful host, and
in the future, reach out to me if you think
I could be helpful and all. It was really been
and it's always a pleasure for us to talk about
the PD project.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
It means so much to me and as well as
Syracuse universe. And it's specially the Veterans program.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
I can I already know and same here. I'm so
excited to have you on and thank you for making
me fit on your schedule on this beautiful Sunday right
after Veterans Day. So happy Veterans Day too.
Speaker 4 (47:27):
It was great, yes, but we had a great ter
Day series of activities here in town.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
I'm sure, I'm sure if you were there, it was
a it was a rock star show.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
Okay, well you take care of yourself.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
Back you too, Dean, Thank you so much. And on
the behalf of all of us, here a soft rep
and the Dean. I'm saying peace.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
You've been listening to self reparata.
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