April 25, 2025 • 52 mins
What happens when a first-generation college student from a small Pennsylvania coal mining town becomes a university dean? In this captivating conversation, University of Tennessee's College of Communication and Information Dean Joe Mazer joins host Yvonnca to share his remarkable journey and vision for higher education.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Check us out to hear the latest on life in the
volunteer state.
Yvonca and her guests discusseverything from life, love and
business with a Tennessee flair.
It's a Tennessee thing, alwaysrelatable, always relevant and
always a good time.
This is Talkin' Tennessee, andnow your host, yvonca.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
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Speaker 3 (00:48):
Welcome back to Talking Tennessee with Yvonca.
I am your host and I'm herewith a dear friend that I'm
going to share this week.
His name is Joe Mazur and he isat the University of Tennessee.
He's the Dean of Communicationsand Information.
Welcome to Talking Tennessee.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Thank you, yvonca, great to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
You're welcome.
You're welcome.
Well, let me go ahead and tellyou how we connected.
We're both in LeadershipKnoxville this year and you know
, when you get on a path oftrying to give back to your
community, sometimes you have toget in some spaces that can.
It probably wasn't overwhelmingto him, but it was overwhelming
to me.
(01:27):
When I walked in leadershipKnoxville and I saw all of my
class, I was like what have Idone?
And I have to say you havereally made this last.
What 10 months?
So amazing.
Um, you would think that we'veknown each other our whole life
because we cut up the same way.
So I just want to tell you youreally made me feel at home when
(01:50):
it felt overwhelming that day,that first day.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Ditto, ditto.
That's a big class it is.
And really, really impressivepeople in there, very, very
impressive people, and I thinkthat's the biggest thing is
Leadership.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Knoxville puts some of the best people in a room and
just wants us to grow so we canbuild up our community.
But it can feel overwhelmingthe first day and I just
remember you walking up to meand introducing yourself and it
just like we clicked yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, so we have a good time.
Yes, a totally good time.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
So we meet up once a month and we have a whole day to
spend time together.
So we meet up once a month andwe have a whole day to spend
time together.
But this amazing man, he hasdone so much in his career and
we're going to get into it.
But let me first start.
You were at Clemson.
I was you were at Clemson 11years 11 years at Clemson and
you decided to come toUniversity of Tennessee.
(02:41):
Now we're going to go back justa little bit because I want to
give a shout out to his family.
His wife what is your wife'sname?
Chrissy, Chrissy, Chrissy.
And so you bouncing her around,was she okay with it?
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Well, sure.
So Chrissy's actually a facultymember here at the University
of Tennessee as well.
She was at Clemson, so thisturned out to be a really great
for both of us.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
I have noticed a lot of staff have.
Both of them work for theUniversity of Tennessee and I
just think that's great becauseyou're on the same path and I
think you can help build eachother up into your careers and
into the field that you're in,do you?
Speaker 4 (03:23):
agree with that.
I agree, and we're also on thesame work calendar too.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Because we have two young kids.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
So that makes juggling things a lot easier.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
How old are your kids ?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Our daughter Claire is 11 and our son Owen is 9.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Okay, 11 and 9.
Those are ages that they arefinding their way into
independence.
On certain things they want tobe independent.
They don't want mom and dad todo everything for them.
But then there's other timesthey're like okay, I'm still a
baby and I need you to help me.
So how the big move?
(03:55):
Let's talk about it.
When you were at Clemson, whatmade you even think about a job
change?
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Yeah, about being a dean.
Yes, why here?
My gosh.
So I was at Clemson for 11years and over the course of the
time there, the departmentwhere I was a faculty member,
the Department of Communication,went through a lot of growth.
We grew quite a bit Number offaculty, number of staff, number
of students, new academicprograms, new partnerships with
the community and with theuniversity.
(04:23):
So in 2011 at Clemson, weopened a social media listening
center.
It was a social media lab, aresearch lab, one of the first
of its kind in higher education,probably the first and, I think
, probably maybe the fifth inthe world.
The first four were in Fortune100, fortune 500 companies.
But where does Tennessee come in?
A couple of years after that,there was a group of staff from
(04:51):
the University of Tennessee,from this college, that came to
Clemson 2014.
And they wanted to open asimilar lab here and they came
down to check out our space andeverything.
So they came, showed themaround.
They left.
About a week later I got anemail from a woman named
Courtney Childers.
Courtney is a faculty member inthe Tomper School of
Advertising and Public Relationsand an associate dean in the
college and she said hey.
(05:11):
She said I know you're leadingthis new lab at Clemson.
It's very new.
My dean asked me here atTennessee to direct our lab.
We're going to stand up.
Can I just talk to you?
I want to talk a little bitabout what it was like to stand
(05:32):
this up.
So we had a phone call, wetalked, courtney got a lovely
thank you note in the mail fromher back then and then we
started exchanging faculty andstudents.
So we would send students herefor their PhDs, we would hire,
you know, the students finishingtheir PhDs onto the faculty at
Clemson.
That was it.
That was my engagement, myknowledge with University of
Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
That's what opened the door.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
It opened the door.
Fast forward, december of 2020.
Wake up every morning.
I read, you know, variousthings every morning.
One is the Chronicle of HigherEd.
I get online, I look atscanning through and at the
bottom of the main page theChronicle there's a box that
says top jobs and it said DeanCollege of Communication and
(06:09):
Information, ut.
And I was like, oh, that'sinteresting.
I didn't know the prior deanhad stepped down or was retiring
.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
So I did a quick Google.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
I was like oh, he's stepping down, he's going back
to the faculty.
He served 15 years.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Oh, interesting, ignored it Still didn't know
what to think about it.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
It was the end of the semester I was grading, I was
getting all my papers graded,grades turned in and all those
things.
So that was a Monday.
This was in the middle of thepandemic, Okay.
So at the end of that week,Chrissy and I took the kids
through this drive-throughholiday light display in Easley.
South Carolina Drove themthrough Came home was putting
our youngest to bed.
I was lying in bed next to them, as many parents do now We've
(06:49):
got to scroll a little bitCatching up on emails.
I peek through there the emails,and I have an email from the
recruiter who was working for UTand running the dean search and
they said Joe, you've just beennominated to be dean of the
College of Communication andInformation at UT.
Would you be open for a phoneconversation?
I bet you were in shock.
I was.
I was like, oh my gosh, I justsaw this online earlier this
(07:11):
week and went into Chrissy.
I was like I just got thisemail.
I got nominated for the deanposition at Tennessee.
Should I do the call?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
And she said yeah absolutely, she's like you
better do the call.
We'd been in Knoxville quite abit.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
And she said, yeah, do the call.
So I emailed the recruiter thatnight and we had started just
exchanging emails that night,right before the holidays.
We talked.
One thing led to another.
Here I am, start packing up myoffice at Clemson when I knew I
was moving here.
Okay, and I'm cleaning outdrawers and papers for my desk.
(07:43):
And I'm cleaning out drawersand papers for my desk, and I
look down and I see this UTorange card in the drawer, the
card there and I don't keep alot of stuff like that, but I
look down and I opened up thatcard and I opened it and it was
the thank you note that Courtneysent me about seven years prior
.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I hung on to it for some reason, wow.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
So I packed it First day on the job here at UT
faculty were coming by towelcome me, say hello, courtney
pops in.
She's like hey, it's great tosee you meet you in person for
the first time.
I said absolutely Great to meetyou.
Should I have a present for you?
And I said thanks.
And she gave me a pair of UTsocks.
And I said you know what I havea present for you.
And I reached over and I gotthat card and I said I knew
(08:25):
there was a reason I kept this.
And she opened up and she waslike oh my gosh that is so neat.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
So Courtney is now associate dean of the college.
She started about a year ago.
You know that's the biggestthing I try to tell people.
You never I was saying this theother day you never know what
path you're going to go down.
You never know who you mightmeet At the time.
There may be nothing on thehorizon, but you never know how
(08:57):
someone can open a door for youthat you didn't even know you
wanted a door open because youwasn't even looking for that.
You know that type thing butthe communications between you
two open that door.
And so I always try to tellpeople is you have to broaden
your thoughts, because sometimesyou never know what God may
want for you and if you shutyour mind off to things then you
(09:18):
can really miss a blessing thatreally was for you.
But because you wasn't lookingfor it at that time, you know
you can shut that door and sowe're happy to treat University
of Tennessee.
It's great to be here.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
This is the everything school and I need to
thank you for not making thedifferent colored orange joke.
Clemson and Tennessee becauseeverybody that I meet has always
made that joke for about thefirst four years.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
No, no, no, it's good .
No, but we have the best orangethough, Anyway.
But so when you got here, youknow, tell me what it was like
to be a dean.
You know, okay, here I'm a deanat University of Tennessee.
You know how did you startfinding your way in this
(09:59):
position?
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Yeah.
So I came into the role andthis was a college where I think
faculty staff, students, alumni, were really excited about the
future.
They wanted to roll up theirsleeves and really take the
college forward.
So I started by doing a lot oflistening with our faculty, with
our staff, with our students.
I'm really fortunate as a deanof the college, we have a
(10:20):
35-member alumni advisory boardfor the college.
They're all major supporters ofthe college and I met with them
and listened to them and talkeda little bit about you know
where they thought we were,where we are and where they
think we should go.
And their industry feedbackhelped to inform the faculty's
work and what they were doing tomove us forward.
(10:43):
And it's really interesting whenyou look across the country at
various universities across thecountry, there are very few
universities that bring allareas of communication and
information sciences under onestandalone college at a
university.
I didn't know that.
(11:04):
Yeah, we're unique in thatsense, in that Tennessee we are
the flagship institution of thestate, we're the land-grant
institution of the state, so weexist to serve the communities
in the state.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
And we are a Research I university in the state.
Okay, so flagship land-grantResearch?
I right, three in one, yes.
And when you look across thecountry in some states where,
say, for example, north Carolina?
Okay, in North Carolina greatuniversity, the study of
(11:38):
journalism is in a differentacademic program, a different
school, a different college than, say, communication studies.
Okay, if you look at theUniversity of Georgia, you have
the Grady College of Journalismand Mass Communication and then
you have the Department ofCommunication Studies.
That's in the College of Artsand Sciences clear on another
(12:00):
area of campus.
Right, right, what's cool aboutTennessee is we are the
flagship institution of thestate land grant research one.
We bring all areas ofcommunication information in one
standalone college so thefaculty are able to work
together across thosedisciplines.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Yes, right, everybody is together and truly
collaborate.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
There's only two universities where you have the
flagship institution, the landgrant and the research one that
bring it all under one roof, andthat's Tennessee and Kentucky.
Okay, you look, in some statesthe flagship institution of the
state is not the land grantinstitution of the state.
(12:41):
So in the state of NorthCarolina you have NC State.
They're the land-grantinstitution, but the University
of North Carolina is viewed as aflagship.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
That's what makes it different.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
It makes it different and you can look at those
similar arrangements across thecountry.
Tennessee is unique with aland-grant and with a flagship.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
So on a day-to-day, tell my viewers on a day-to-day,
what does your department, whatdo y'all focus on?
That is just like and it canchange day by day, but if people
want to know, you know whatdoes the communication and
information?
What do they do on a dailybasis to help higher education,
(13:20):
help students, you know, thriveand strive to be the best at
whatever they're doing.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Yeah, so we have about a little over 1,700
undergraduate students.
Okay, that are across severaldegree programs in advertising,
public relations, journalism,communication studies,
information sciences we haveseveral master's programs,
master's programs incommunication and information,
in strategic and digitalcommunication.
In information sciences, wehave a doctoral program for
(13:50):
people that are studying fortheir PhDs to develop advanced
research capabilities to work inindustry or to work in higher
education as faculty.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
And it's so many people right now wanting PhDs.
Yes, it's amazing, it iswanting PhDs?
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Yes, it's amazing.
It is, and we also at UT.
This college teaches theintroductory oral communication
course that's part of Volcor, sogeneral education, so almost
every UT student will take thatintroductory public speaking
course as part of their generaleducation program in their first
or second year.
Why is that important?
Well, that's important becausealmost every UT student will
come through this college atsome point.
So we will serve over probablyabout 6,000 students per year
(14:31):
through our major programs, ourminors and through general
education through those courses.
So we're firing on allcylinders.
And we haven't even talked aboutglobal, our study abroad
programs, how we place studentsin internships.
We have a new onlineundergraduate degree program
that's coming online.
You know, ivanka, in the stateof Tennessee there's around one
(14:53):
million Tennesseans that havehours toward a bachelor's degree
but have not yet had anopportunity to complete it.
So to respond to that, we'restanding up, starting in the
(15:15):
fall fall of 2025.
It was just approved by theBoard of Trustees.
It's getting reviewed by theTennessee Higher Education
Commission as we do this heretoday.
Opportunity for those citizensof the state that have not yet
completed their undergraduatedegree to do it, and to do it
online, asynchronously, in anenvironment that's convenient
for them so let me ask you thisum when I was researching and
(15:38):
reading up about you, your firstgeneration, I am yes, he is
first generation of a collegegraduate.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yes, that right there in itself is so big to so many
families.
There are so many familiesstill to this day that has never
had a college graduate.
So can you, let's go back justa little bit and share that part
of why you wanted to become?
A college graduate.
So can you, let's go back justa little bit and share that part
of why you wanted to become acollege graduate and why did you
(16:10):
go in this direction, intohelping other students become a
college graduate?
Speaker 4 (16:17):
So I'm from a very, very small rural town in
Pennsylvania.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Okay, did I ever tell you, david?
David, my husband is fromPittsburgh.
Yes, I think we talked aboutthat.
And he's from Monroeville, sokeep going, keep going.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
Shout out to my husband From central
Pennsylvania, middle part of thestate about an hour north of
Harrisburg, Very rural community.
Decades ago it was part of theanthracite coal region, so a
coal mining community.
The town now has been known forhaving really good high school
football Okay, Really good highschool football and having the
(16:53):
first high school televisionstation in the country.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Really Okay In 1968, right.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
So, as a first generation, my path to higher
education.
I'm so fortunate that it wentall the way back to high school.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
And did your parents encourage you to?
Yeah, because if you thinkabout it, let me just say this
Some parents don't encouragethat, you know, and if a child
doesn't see value in it or havesomeone mentor or someone in the
church or out in the community,that will show them totally
different.
They could say well, I don'tneed that because my mom and dad
(17:31):
didn't do it.
You know what I'm saying, sospeak on being that first one.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Yeah, absolutely, of course.
Of course they did, theyabsolutely encouraged me, that's
great.
For for to go to undergraduateand to go to college.
I don't think they thought.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
They probably didn't think I was going to make a
career of it at the time,because I think you know coming
out of high school they're likeyou're going to go to college
and then you're going to go geta job.
Yeah, exactly, that was kind ofthe path.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
And I don't think, you know, coming out of high
school, you're not saying toyourself well, I'm going to be a
college professor.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Kids don't even know what they truly want to be when
they first come out of highschool.
I know, when I came out of highschool, I didn't.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
I'm just being honest .
Exactly, keep going.
Yeah, exactly, but in highschool I went to the public high
school.
There was a television station.
1968 was developed by a mannamed George McPhee.
He was an art teacher for theschool district Back in the day
he received offers from WaltDisney himself to draw for the
school district.
Back in the day he receivedoffers from Walt Disney himself
to draw for the Disney company.
But he was happy.
(18:27):
He built this televisionstation back in 1968 and I met
him when I was a freshman andwe're talking 30 minutes of live
news every morning, all thesporting events, community
events on live or tape delay ata high school.
This was and this was not justto the high school, this was a
100 mile radius around the townas well and I know we didn't
(18:49):
have that this was not an AVclub, this was a fully
functioning television station.
And I met him my freshman year,very close to him.
Awesome teacher, awesome mentor, taught you a lot.
Midway through my junior yearhe became ill very suddenly and
he died and I was devastated.
I mean midway through my junioryear.
He became ill very suddenly andhe died, oh wow, and I was
devastated.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
I was about to say it probably affected you.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
And the school district didn't have much of a
succession plan at that time,because you don't have a
succession plan to run atelevision station like that.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
It's run by high school kids.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
So the principal called me and my one of my
friends who worked there with mehis name was Joe as well called
us into the office and hebasically was like you guys got
to keep this going.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
And you're probably like and we said, sure, we were
like, well, we were there, whathappened?
Speaker 4 (19:36):
We were there from six in the morning until
midnight, almost every night.
And whenever we were ondeadline, we'd go to the
principal and we'd say MrBeierschmidt, he has since
passed.
God rest his soul.
We'd say, mr Beierschmidt,we're on deadline for this, we
really need it.
And he would say, boys, don'tworry about it.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
And he'd go on the loudspeaker in the middle of the
school day and what you have todo really yes, and we did that
because he truly believed, yes,that what you were doing is was
greater we did that and um plus,you got to um, basically honor
the person that showed you andmentored you.
We did in that position beforehe died.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
We we did.
His son took over for him.
It's kind of beautiful of atransition.
His son took over for him mysenior year I remember it was
his son, that kind of took overand I was sitting alongside a
freshman that we were traininghim on master control in the
control room.
And after we were done hecalled me the new.
Mr McPhee called me aside and hesaid Joey, he said the way you
(20:45):
were talking to Paul, the wayyou were teaching him.
He said you're my dad.
Do you know that You're my dad?
My dad would do that Really.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Now.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I was in high school, so that message did not sink in
no, as it should, so I went onmy merry way, you know, through
undergraduate and took a littlebit to figure it out.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
But um, now it's about making a difference in the
lives of students here at theuniversity of tennessee,
overseeing all of ourcommunication information
programs and, you know, at auniversity that prioritizes
access.
But a funny story, joe, myfriend who worked in um was from
small town same just like me.
(21:22):
We joke that we're doing okay.
I'm the dean of CCI here atTennessee.
Joe is now vice president overdigital content for Nickelodeon.
Really, really, yeah, and heworks in New York City.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Both of y'all did really well.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
What's beautiful about that is every year this
college takes a group ofstudents to New York on an
industry trip and they touragencies, they tour production
houses, they tour many of thelarge networks based in New York
.
Joe opens up Nickelodeon forour students.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
That's wild, isn't that great?
And y'all still get tobasically work together for
other students.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
So let me say this so you've been here since 2021.
And I looked at a lot of thestats and I know you're so
humble, you're a humble personbut let me just say this From
2021 to 2025, I saw that thegrowth is at 35%.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Student enrollment.
Student enrollment.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
And that's big.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
It's a lot.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Okay, so let's speak on it.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
So how did y'all get it there?
Speaker 4 (22:28):
So we have great faculty, great staff in this
college, absolutely fantasticTeam environment.
Everybody wants to move thecollege forward and I think the
university overall has seenquite a bit of interest.
Yes, you know the number ofapplications to UT has risen
quite a bit over the years.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Especially in the last five years, I would say
Especially so.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
And Dondi Plowman, our chancellor, is fantastic.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
She's amazing, amazing, awesome, very relatable
and very she makes studentsfeel like.
I watch her at different eventsand she's always and to
whoever's speaking with her, youknow, she always connects.
(23:16):
That's what I was looking for.
She always connects with thestudents and I think that right
there, because a lot of timeskids go through life, depending
on what kind of parents you knowupbringing they had, somebody
may not have connected with them, and I think that's what I see
about University of Tennessee.
Holly, y'all try to connectwith that student and bring them
(23:36):
along.
Yeah, so keep going.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
So I think about this college and sometimes I think
about UT, as this is a smallcollege or a small university
with lots and lots of otherstudents.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Yes.
Right A student might be astudent and a big family.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Right and a big family and I think that's
awesome.
So you know, in terms ofgrowing the enrollment, we have
overhauled, I think, some of theway we recruit our first-time,
first-year students.
We do a lot to make sure thatstudents, when they arrive here
as a first-year student, throughgeneral education, through
(24:11):
Volcor, understand the programsthat are available to them here
in the college, becausesometimes a high school student
may not know that, gosh, youcould major in advertising and
y'all truly educate them on whatthey could apply for exactly
and get into exactly.
So I think a lot of that has hasplayed a role.
But you have to have you haveto have great teammates to
enable to do that.
(24:32):
So we have great staff, greatfaculty that are just super
passionate, and the facultyalways remind me.
They say, joe, remember, we'vegrown a lot.
But as we grow, as we've grown,as we've grown and as we
continue to grow, we cannot losesight of our focus on student
success and the relationshipsthat faculty have with their
students.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
So we will always prioritize and I think that's
what sets uh university oftennessee, um, in their own lane
, in their own way of doingthings, because this school
wants to make sure every studenthas the best opportunities to
succeed.
Yeah, and not saying othercolleges don't, but I just think
(25:13):
because I'm around Universityof Tennessee a lot and I go from
department to department andI'm just like, but it's the air
of University of Tennessee.
So let me ask you this how hasthe digital age transformed the
field of communications in youropinion?
Oh, my gosh Is that a hard one,that's a big one.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
That's a whole podcast episode in and of itself
.
You know, I think it has doneincredible things that are very
good, yes, but it's alsopresented quite a bit of
challenges, I agree.
So maintenance and how newrelationships can be formed in
(26:02):
online spaces that are healthyand healthy for individuals and
healthy for families and society.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
I think the biggest thing, especially with social
media, with my kids.
I have a 31-year-old and I havea 15-year-old and one's a girl,
one's a boy and they're beingraised totally different in two
different type worlds and it'slike, okay, the digital part of
it.
Social media, can be very muchuplifting in a lot of ways, but
(26:29):
in other ways it can be very aDebbie Downer, very a Debbie
Downer.
And I think you have to trulywork into finding your way with
the positive and not deal withthe negative.
And I think a lot of youngstudents struggle with that,
because you're in a society thatsays, well, you know, accept
(26:51):
everybody, but then you don'twant negative, you can't accept
the negative.
So I think the digital, thetransformation, can be very
tricky, you know.
So how do y'all deal with?
You know the back and forth ofsocial media in the digital
world.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Yeah, so I think some of the negative sides to social
Please speak on it the negativesides to social.
Please speak on it, you knowvery much, connect to
misinformation, disinformationand how we interpret truth
online.
Yes, right Now we couldidentify that as a problem and
try to deal with it.
Or, as Chancellor Plowman heresays, leadership is the
(27:32):
willingness to act.
You can act to try to addressthe problem.
So in this college, one of thethings we did, we got our
faculty together and across allof our academic programs we said
, well, what really pulls ustogether?
Whether you're in advertisingor journalism or information
science, what pulls us together?
And one of the things that wereally settled on was the notion
(27:53):
of information integrity.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Information integrity .
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Information integrity .
Speaker 3 (27:59):
That's a good one.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Right.
So the truth, the accuracy ofinformation and how that has
both positive and negativeinfluences in society.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
It can truly affect you.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
So we stood up the college's first research
institute, the InformationIntegrity Institute.
It's called iCubed, icubediCubed yes.
Catherine Luther, a facultymember in our journalism school,
is the leader of that institute.
We have faculty fellows fromall four schools that are doing
research around that topic and,the best part as a land-grant
institution, like I said earlier, we serve our communities.
They're not just doing researchtucked away in a lab or
(28:35):
publishing in academic journalsthat few people will read.
They're taking their researchfindings out into the community.
So they go into the Knox Countylibrary system Okay and they
host forums with members of thecommunity about information
integrity, about media literacy,misinformation, disinformation,
helping members of thecommunity understand I was about
(28:56):
to say understand.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Right.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
Members of the community understand their work,
understand the work they'redoing, how it's important, why
it matters, how they're helpingto address a challenge that we
have through technology.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
So what do you see?
The biggest challenge inopportunities facing high
education today?
Speaker 4 (29:15):
So I think there is a waning public confidence in
higher education, waning publicconfidence, public trust in
higher education.
If you look at some nationaldata, you would see that
individuals who have taken outlarge amounts of debt to pursue
(29:37):
a college degree, some have notfinished that degree.
Remember what I said about amillion Tennesseans hours toward
a degree never finished.
They've taken out debt to adegree.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
I didn't know that Never finished.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
So they have lots of questions about the value of
higher education.
Again, what are you doing tohelp the problem right?
We stood up our onlineundergraduate degree program to
help those individuals completetheir degrees right.
I think, being at a land-grantinstitution where we exist to
serve communities of the statethrough our research, our
(30:14):
teaching, our extension and ouroutreach of the state through
our research, our teaching, ourextension and our outreach, that
type of exercise, that type ofmission, I think, is in some
ways an antidote of sorts tothat waning public trust.
Because we're trying to.
At the University of Tennessee,and in this college in
particular, we're focused ondoing work that matters to the
(30:37):
community and matters to thepeople of the state.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Say it one more time.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
We're doing work that matters to the community and
matters to the people of thestate.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
What I keep hearing you say.
You want to better yourcommunity Exactly, and it's like
no matter what.
It takes you back to yourbeginnings.
You started in a smallcommunity.
It took you back to yourbeginnings.
You started in a smallcommunity.
It took you back to okay, theperson of the paper that taught.
I'm at the station.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Television station.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Television station, Not paper.
Sorry that it took you back to.
That is what am I doing for mycommunity.
That's true, took you back to.
That is what am I doing for mycommunity.
And you're sitting here in avery prestigious position that
you can make or break a student.
But you was that studentbecause you never had someone to
(31:34):
show you why a college degreewas so important.
But you turned that that youdidn't have into a positive by
getting a college education andyou can sit and speak on like if
a student says, well, my momdidn't graduate, my dad didn't
graduate.
You know, my family feels likethat I shouldn't go to college.
(31:55):
You can say you know what, Iknow what that feels like.
You know, and that's notagainst the parents or the last
generations, that's just notwhat they did.
But you can be.
You're the one that can say youknow what I'm first generation,
you know and show them thatyour path, other people's path
may not be theirs, but your pathcan be different and can go in
(32:18):
higher education and have a moresuccessful impact in the
community.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
Do you agree with that?
I agree with that 100%.
I think that's a really goodanalysis.
Thank you Very good.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Thank you, and so my thing is is that communication
is key in everything we do.
We have to be able tocommunicate, because if you stay
closed mouth and never speak up, how can you change anything?
So this is a viewer question.
Okay, they said to ask youyou're in communications, how do
(32:58):
you give a voice?
How do you give a voice to astudent that's you know, say
they're an introvert and theydon't know how to speak up?
What would you say?
How do you give that person avoice?
Speaker 4 (33:09):
I think they need to be a student in this college and
we could give them thattraining and we can give them
that voice.
You know, it's reallyinteresting when I mentioned
earlier when we take ourundergraduate students to New
York City every January.
That program has been going onfor over 30 years, started by a
faculty member in our TombersSchool of Advertising and Public
(33:29):
Relations, eric Haley.
He's been at UT for a long timeand when he started here he
said you know, I noticed at thattime that there were many
students that you know theirvision or their long term plan
was to get a job settle down intheir community here in the
(33:50):
state, which is fantastic andwonderful, but we wanted to also
expose them to opportunities inthe industry across the country
.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Right, right For them to find their way.
So they can find their way, nomatter if it's in their state or
a different state, exactly.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Exactly and they designed this program and he
took students and they've beendoing it for 30 years.
Some of the students it's theirfirst time on an airplane?
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Yes, and they go to.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
New.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
York City and people take that so for granted.
I think that's a part of theprivilege of your parents taking
you on a plane.
Everybody didn't get that.
I know I didn't as a child.
Yeah, you know I've exposed itto my children, but I never went
on a plane when I was a kid.
Right, we went on trips, but wewent in the car, we didn't fly.
(34:34):
You know that type thing.
We went on trips, but we wentin the car, we didn't fly.
You know that type thing andthat is something that is a
great thing, but you don't needto take it for granted and make
a student that has never beenexposed to that make them feel
less than because they haven't.
That's right.
Yes.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
So we take them there every January.
And they have 60, 75 studentsgoing around the city in groups
and such, and it's awesome.
They all come together for analumni reception on one of the
nights.
So all of our alumni in thecollege that are living and
working around New York come andthey meet our students.
And every time when I speak atthat alumni reception I ask the
(35:11):
alumni how many of you areliving and working in New York
City today solely because ofyour time on this trip when you
were a student in the college?
That's a good question.
You get about 15, 20, 25 handsgo up around the room.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Real quick.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Really impactful and it's a really quick check on the
impact of that particularprogram and what it does to
change students' lives Right,right and they come back more
confident of who they are Moredriven.
Where they want to be moredriven.
And it's experiences like thatthat contribute to this
(35:46):
college's goal of building thenumber one communication and
information student experiencein the country, and it's
connections like that that wehave with our alumni and
industry partners.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
So here's another viewer question what advice do
you have for a studentinterested in the career like PR
, media or broadcasting?
What advice would you give?
Speaker 4 (36:08):
That's great.
So I think they need to.
I think it's a pretty goodquestion.
That's a good one.
They need to go to a universitylike Tennessee.
That would provide them withthe opportunity to number one
major in those areas but numbertwo, really get applied hands-on
experiences in organizations ineach of those areas.
So in this college we have amedia center and in that media
center we have several mediaproperties, professional and
(36:32):
student.
So East Tennessee's NPR station, wuot, is part of this college.
It's a professional station.
Our students have theopportunity to work in that
station.
I'm very on in their education.
We also have the Daily Beacon,the student newspaper.
We have the volunteer channeland the Daily.
Beacon has always been Ourstudent television group.
(36:53):
So our students need to haveopportunities early on to start
to cut their teeth, get the repsin Okay In those organizations
as they settle into those careeropportunities and sometimes you
get in.
I have many, many students overthe years.
They start working in one ofthose outlets Maybe it's the
Daily Beacon, Maybe it's theVolunteer Channel and they're
(37:14):
like gosh, I really like this.
Like this isn't for me.
I need to pivot to a differentarea of the college and that's
important.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
That means learning happens.
Yes, you have to find your wayand figure out what works for
you and be okay to pivot.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
Yes, exactly, pivoting is okay.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
So how important is hands-on experience, like
internship or student media, indeveloping real-world
communication skills?
How important is hands-onexperience like internship or
student media in developingreal-world communication skills?
How important is that?
Speaker 4 (37:41):
So important, so important that many of the
programs in the college requiresome type of applied hands-on
experience or an internship.
We have a fantastic Center forCareer Development at the
University of Tennessee.
It's a university-wide center,awesome people over there, open
(38:01):
to all majors, everyone acrosscampus.
Go over.
You can get advice on buildinga resume, building a cover
letter, advice for an internship.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
And so many students need to know how to build a
resume.
Students need to know how tobuild a resume and.
I think resumes really haveyoung people fearful.
I've had young people tell melike I don't know how to build a
resume.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
I don't know and I'm like, but you can learn how to
build it Exactly, and the beautyof it is our students have
access, of course, to theuniversity's career center.
But one of the first things wedid in my first year as dean, we
hired a full-time director ofcareer and professional
development in the college.
Her name is Devin Lane, whichis fantastic, has industry
(38:49):
experience.
Shout out to Ms Devin, so ourstudents are able to get
hands-on career professionaldevelopment guidance that's
industry-specific, to CCI, tothe programs here, because you
know, as you apply for jobs inadvertising, the way you put
together a portfolio and aresume a little bit different
than if you're a journalist andyou're applying to, say, work in
(39:11):
local news and you have to putyour reel together to work right
.
So we're able to provide nowthat guidance on the ground in
the college that's specific.
And hands-on Hands-on yes.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
So how can students stand out in such a fast-paced
and competitive communicationsindustry?
I think because it's fast-paced.
It is.
Speaker 4 (39:33):
You know, they have to have the confidence and the
courage to take risks and toreally put themselves out there,
and I think we do a good job inthe college of preparing them
to do that.
I want to give you an example.
So about two years ago we hireda faculty member in the college
that a lot of people at UT knowof.
His name is Peyton Manning.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
Peyton is an alum of the college and gives so much to
our community, so much.
Media industry leader.
Yes, he's so good.
Wonderful human being, top ofhis industry and as a professor
of practice.
Professors of practice bringindustry experience into the
classroom.
He joins us several timesthroughout the academic year.
(40:15):
He joins us several timesthroughout the academic year and
he will team teach with ourcurrent faculty in particular
courses.
Okay, so he was here.
When he was here, this wasearly in the fall semester.
Past fall semester.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
And everybody was so excited for him to be here.
Everybody was excited.
Speaker 4 (40:31):
He was in a.
This was an advertising course,it was a sports promotion and
branding course.
He was in a class about 100students.
He came in.
He, you know, took student,take students questions.
He teaches with the questionand answer type approach right
you know, really great, greatguy sits in front of the room
with the faculty member and theyinterview each other, like
(40:51):
we're doing here.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Yes, except there's a class and the questions are
getting asked and he allows thequestions to come in.
It's great.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
At the end of the class, peyton always says well,
let's take a photo together.
And the class says, oh well,all right, it's going to be a
group photo.
And it's actually no.
Peyton says I'm going to takean individual photo with each of
you.
And the students are justelated and so great, this is a
(41:23):
class of 100 students students.
They all get in line, they allstart getting in line with
Peyton to get their photo, theirpicture taken, and there was
one student that was taking alittle bit of extra time with.
Peyton.
They started talking, they wereexchanging things and what had
happened was the student said toPeyton and she said Mr Manning,
I want to work at OmahaProductions, this production
company.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
Right.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
Here are things I'm able to do.
Here is a copy of my resume anda business card.
I would love to work at OmahaProductions, and we saw.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Peyton.
That's amazing, isn't that?
Speaker 4 (41:47):
great she put herself out there.
Yes, really, it took a lot ofcourage to do that.
Yes, my gosh, peyton took itand said thank you.
He tucked it into his SUCOpocket and Peyton left.
Students left.
This class was in the morning.
Later that day in the afternoonI'm walking in the building and
I see the student Looks like adeer in the headlights and I
(42:09):
said are you okay, is everythingall right?
And she said yeah, I'm okay.
I said no, really you okay?
Everything all right?
She said yeah, I have aninterview in one hour with Omaha
Productions.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
She now works at Omaha Productions.
Viewers, did you hear what hejust said?
Stepping out on faith?
She may never be in a room withhim again.
She took the opportunity and Itell so many people when I go to
speak I'm like everything's notgoing to be perfect timing.
You know, I'm saying in yourmind but it is perfect timing to
(42:46):
me when it comes to you know,step down faith and be like,
okay, I'll even do it, say no,I'm in and she works at his
company.
Speaker 4 (42:54):
yeah, so pe.
So Peyton left there, textedhis leadership back at Omaha and
said let's interview thisperson.
And they did, and they hiredher, and that's why we love
Peyton.
Volunteered through and through.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Awesome, through and through.
You cut his arm.
You're going to see orange?
Most definitely, mostdefinitely so.
You've been so busy in runningthe college you know what makes
(43:26):
Joe.
Who is Joe?
I'm a husband, I'm a dad, I'm acook.
He's my classmate, yourclassmate.
Speaker 4 (43:29):
And friend.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
You like to cook?
Community leader.
Yes, yeah, absolutely.
What do you like to do Italian?
Speaker 3 (43:34):
Italian, so I like to make pasta from scratch.
Speaker 4 (43:36):
Really, it's kind of my thing.
My grandmother on my mom's sideof the family, Italian was an
awesome, awesome cook.
Speaker 3 (43:47):
So I love to cook.
It's like a stress reliever forme.
Is it for you?
Oh, yeah, okay, yeah, it'sgreat, I can work all day long.
And people's like how in theworld do you do all the things
you do and cook five days a week?
I said because cooking to me isa stress reliever.
Plus, I like to create.
I'm a, I'm a creator, yep, liketo create.
So think about food.
You're, you're creating a meal.
(44:09):
And I told this mother that uh,comes on my facebook live and
years ago she told me that shedidn't like to cook for her kids
because her husband was thebetter cook.
And she said she felt less than.
And I said kids don't care, youknow who's the better cook.
I said that's one way to showyour kids how much you love them
(44:31):
, because when you cook, you canmake them chicken nuggets.
Those kids are going toremember that when they grow old
.
So it's not really about youknow making the perfect meal.
It's about the time you put andthe love you put into a meal.
So when I'm cooking for myfamily, that's my way of saying
you know what?
I know our life is chaoticsometimes, but here's a meal to
(44:54):
show you you're the mostimportant thing to me.
And does cooking.
Do that for you.
Speaker 4 (44:59):
It does, it does, and you know.
It's one of those things whereyou don't how do you know you're
successful and made adifference?
I don't.
I don't.
When people are eating any foodthat I cook, I don't need to
hear a thank you.
All I want to hear is Mmm, mmm.
You.
All I want to hear is look, no,speaking right.
You know the silverwareclanking on the plate, exactly.
(45:20):
Yeah, so it's, it's a stressrelief and it's it's, it's, it's
just fun.
I like to do it.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
It's a hobby so here's a viewer question is
there a dish that reminds you ofhome or college, a certain dish
you cook?
Speaker 4 (45:36):
oh my gosh viewers.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
I didn't tell him this question, I had to spring
it on you, so there is.
Speaker 4 (45:42):
So this is not an italian dish, it's a polish dish
.
I just made it.
A couple of weeks ago, mygrandparents, on my my dad's
side of the family would um,would make this um halushki,
which is like it noodles andonions and olive oil and butter
and not really much anythingelse.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
Wait a minute.
Speaker 4 (46:03):
It's called holushki.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
And what's in it.
Speaker 4 (46:05):
Cabbage, uh-huh.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Noodles, noodles.
Speaker 4 (46:09):
Uh-huh Onions.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
Uh-huh.
Butter Really Okay so myviewers know my husband's from
Pittsburgh, yeah.
And so his family makes a meal.
It's pasta.
Now let me just say I'm not acottage cheese person.
Okay, but they make Me neitherhe makes noodles, cottage cheese
(46:30):
butter.
I think that's it.
I'm sorry, but that sounds foulyeah, it does, and I'm just I'm
like is that a pittsburgh thing?
It must, because he will sitand eat that I mean his mom
makes every time he comes home.
Uh, because they live inflorida now and I'm like this
gotta be a pittsburgh thing.
(46:51):
When you said the butter andand the pasta, it made me think
about.
Speaker 4 (46:55):
Is those are just a thing that y'all mix together uh
, if I ever come over your house, please have them not serve me
that please.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
They call it cottage cheese and noodles and I'm just
like, but yes, but so you makethat meal.
So one more question if youhost a dinner for the students,
what would be the meal?
Speaker 4 (47:15):
Well, we do it.
I mean, when I started here myfirst semester, we knew very
quickly that we needed to makesure that I was out in front of
students to build strongrelationships.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
And connection.
Speaker 4 (47:31):
And connection and we keep it very simple here in the
college.
Students like it pretty simplewhen it comes to food.
Speaker 3 (47:39):
Every fall, every spring, we do an event he's
being modest because, let mejust tell you, university of
Tennessee feeds these kids allkinds of things.
Speaker 4 (47:47):
We do.
In the front of the building,on our front lawn, we have an
event called Dogs with the Deanevery fall and into the spring,
and we just have hot dogs, hotdogs, chips and who doesn't like
a hot dog Right?
And we have eight 900 studentsthat will show up.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
Really.
Speaker 4 (48:07):
And we invite all the staff in our neighborhood to
come Dogs with the Dean.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Dogs with the Dean and that's a great way like have
a hot dog, connect with theDean, ask questions and just
bond Right A lot of bondinghappens over food.
Speaker 4 (48:23):
When we were at Clemson, we were faculty in
residence.
We lived on campus for twoyears in a residence hall.
We baked 1,000 chocolate chipcookies for move-in weekend and
that's how we went around thebuilding and welcomed all the
new students and their familiesto campus.
Speaker 3 (48:36):
It was a cookie.
You made a thousand cookies, athousand chocolate chip cookies
and everybody's sweating hungry.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
They're trying to move in, that's not a fun
experience, but we're like hey,I'm Joe.
Speaker 4 (48:49):
And this is my wife, Chrissy.
We're faculty in residence here.
We're here to support, you know, your son, your daughter.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
Here's a homemade cookie.
Speaker 4 (48:56):
Would you like a cookie?
Uh-huh?
Speaker 3 (48:57):
Well, yeah, absolutely Right, but that
cookie is that introduction itis, it is and it's that thing
that will open a door.
It will yes.
Open a door for a conversation.
So, as I end this podcast,first let me say again so, as I
end this podcast, first let mesay again thank you for allowing
me to come into the college and, you know, show people why we
(49:23):
love University of Tennessee andwhat all you can achieve and
build to be successful.
That's my thing.
And then the second thing iswhat's next for the college, for
the college?
So, we are continuing to grow.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
We're working to kind of fine tune what it means to
deliver the number one studentexperience in this college, and
I would love, 10 years from now,that every student in the
college who wanted to go on oneof the, wants to go on one of
those industry trips, can do so.
Every student who wants tostudy abroad, we can provide
(50:04):
them the resources to do it.
Every student who wants tointern, do an internship in
their dream city, they can do itbecause we can provide them
with the resources to be able todo it.
That's where I hope we are inin 10.
It's about access.
It's about lifting up ourcommunities, making a difference
in the lives of students, andthat's where I hope we are.
Speaker 3 (50:23):
So making a difference.
One last question, and I justthought of this question Name
something in the past 10 monthsat Leadership Knoxville you
walked in there, the dean ofcommunications and information.
Name something that you'velearned that you've brought back
to apply.
(50:44):
Is there something that youcould say, yeah, it's something
different.
Is there anything?
Speaker 4 (50:50):
Well, I think it's every day.
I think the power of communityis in that room and the power of
leadership is in that room andthe importance of community
leaders are in that room to ourfaculty, to our staff and help
(51:14):
our whole college understandthat the work that we do in here
is transformational for thecommunities and the state.
We just have to make sure thatwe're actively partnering with
our community and that's why theexample I gave earlier of the
Information Integrity Institutetaking a workout of the library
(51:35):
system, right, yes, leadership.
Knoxville provides thatconstant, constant reminder, yes
, of the importance of communityand the importance of community
leadership.
Speaker 3 (51:45):
Thank you again Tune in this Friday to Talk in
Tennessee.
Bye guys.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Thanks for listening to Talk in Tennessee with Yvonca
.
Watch out for our weeklyepisodes from the First Family
of Real Estate and check us outon the web
wwwyvoncasalesrealestatecom.
See our videos on Yvonca'sYouTube channel or find us on
Facebook under Yvonca Landis,and Twitter at Yvonca Landis and
Twitter at Yvonca Landis.
(52:15):
And don't forget to tell afriend about us.
Until next time.
Yvonca signing off.
Check us out to hear the latest on life in the
volunteer state.
Yvonca and her guests discusseverything from life, love and
business with a Tennessee flair.
It's a Tennessee thing, alwaysrelatable, always relevant and
always a good time.
This is Talkin' Tennessee, andnow your host, yvonca.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
This episode is brought to you by Turning Knox
Rental, your go-to for eventrental services.
We have selfie machines, 360photo machines and food
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Get the TKR experience withTurning Knox Rental.
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Speaker 3 (00:48):
Welcome back to Talking Tennessee with Yvonca.
I am your host and I'm herewith a dear friend that I'm
going to share this week.
His name is Joe Mazur and he isat the University of Tennessee.
He's the Dean of Communicationsand Information.
Welcome to Talking Tennessee.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Thank you, yvonca, great to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
You're welcome.
You're welcome.
Well, let me go ahead and tellyou how we connected.
We're both in LeadershipKnoxville this year and you know
, when you get on a path oftrying to give back to your
community, sometimes you have toget in some spaces that can.
It probably wasn't overwhelmingto him, but it was overwhelming
to me.
(01:27):
When I walked in leadershipKnoxville and I saw all of my
class, I was like what have Idone?
And I have to say you havereally made this last.
What 10 months?
So amazing.
Um, you would think that we'veknown each other our whole life
because we cut up the same way.
So I just want to tell you youreally made me feel at home when
(01:50):
it felt overwhelming that day,that first day.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Ditto, ditto.
That's a big class it is.
And really, really impressivepeople in there, very, very
impressive people, and I thinkthat's the biggest thing is
Leadership.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Knoxville puts some of the best people in a room and
just wants us to grow so we canbuild up our community.
But it can feel overwhelmingthe first day and I just
remember you walking up to meand introducing yourself and it
just like we clicked yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, so we have a good time.
Yes, a totally good time.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
So we meet up once a month and we have a whole day to
spend time together.
So we meet up once a month andwe have a whole day to spend
time together.
But this amazing man, he hasdone so much in his career and
we're going to get into it.
But let me first start.
You were at Clemson.
I was you were at Clemson 11years 11 years at Clemson and
you decided to come toUniversity of Tennessee.
(02:41):
Now we're going to go back justa little bit because I want to
give a shout out to his family.
His wife what is your wife'sname?
Chrissy, Chrissy, Chrissy.
And so you bouncing her around,was she okay with it?
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Well, sure.
So Chrissy's actually a facultymember here at the University
of Tennessee as well.
She was at Clemson, so thisturned out to be a really great
for both of us.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
I have noticed a lot of staff have.
Both of them work for theUniversity of Tennessee and I
just think that's great becauseyou're on the same path and I
think you can help build eachother up into your careers and
into the field that you're in,do you?
Speaker 4 (03:23):
agree with that.
I agree, and we're also on thesame work calendar too.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Because we have two young kids.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
So that makes juggling things a lot easier.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
How old are your kids ?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Our daughter Claire is 11 and our son Owen is 9.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Okay, 11 and 9.
Those are ages that they arefinding their way into
independence.
On certain things they want tobe independent.
They don't want mom and dad todo everything for them.
But then there's other timesthey're like okay, I'm still a
baby and I need you to help me.
So how the big move?
(03:55):
Let's talk about it.
When you were at Clemson, whatmade you even think about a job
change?
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Yeah, about being a dean.
Yes, why here?
My gosh.
So I was at Clemson for 11years and over the course of the
time there, the departmentwhere I was a faculty member,
the Department of Communication,went through a lot of growth.
We grew quite a bit Number offaculty, number of staff, number
of students, new academicprograms, new partnerships with
the community and with theuniversity.
(04:23):
So in 2011 at Clemson, weopened a social media listening
center.
It was a social media lab, aresearch lab, one of the first
of its kind in higher education,probably the first and, I think
, probably maybe the fifth inthe world.
The first four were in Fortune100, fortune 500 companies.
But where does Tennessee come in?
A couple of years after that,there was a group of staff from
(04:51):
the University of Tennessee,from this college, that came to
Clemson 2014.
And they wanted to open asimilar lab here and they came
down to check out our space andeverything.
So they came, showed themaround.
They left.
About a week later I got anemail from a woman named
Courtney Childers.
Courtney is a faculty member inthe Tomper School of
Advertising and Public Relationsand an associate dean in the
college and she said hey.
(05:11):
She said I know you're leadingthis new lab at Clemson.
It's very new.
My dean asked me here atTennessee to direct our lab.
We're going to stand up.
Can I just talk to you?
I want to talk a little bitabout what it was like to stand
(05:32):
this up.
So we had a phone call, wetalked, courtney got a lovely
thank you note in the mail fromher back then and then we
started exchanging faculty andstudents.
So we would send students herefor their PhDs, we would hire,
you know, the students finishingtheir PhDs onto the faculty at
Clemson.
That was it.
That was my engagement, myknowledge with University of
Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
That's what opened the door.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
It opened the door.
Fast forward, december of 2020.
Wake up every morning.
I read, you know, variousthings every morning.
One is the Chronicle of HigherEd.
I get online, I look atscanning through and at the
bottom of the main page theChronicle there's a box that
says top jobs and it said DeanCollege of Communication and
(06:09):
Information, ut.
And I was like, oh, that'sinteresting.
I didn't know the prior deanhad stepped down or was retiring
.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
So I did a quick Google.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
I was like oh, he's stepping down, he's going back
to the faculty.
He served 15 years.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Oh, interesting, ignored it Still didn't know
what to think about it.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
It was the end of the semester I was grading, I was
getting all my papers graded,grades turned in and all those
things.
So that was a Monday.
This was in the middle of thepandemic, Okay.
So at the end of that week,Chrissy and I took the kids
through this drive-throughholiday light display in Easley.
South Carolina Drove themthrough Came home was putting
our youngest to bed.
I was lying in bed next to them, as many parents do now We've
(06:49):
got to scroll a little bitCatching up on emails.
I peek through there the emails,and I have an email from the
recruiter who was working for UTand running the dean search and
they said Joe, you've just beennominated to be dean of the
College of Communication andInformation at UT.
Would you be open for a phoneconversation?
I bet you were in shock.
I was.
I was like, oh my gosh, I justsaw this online earlier this
(07:11):
week and went into Chrissy.
I was like I just got thisemail.
I got nominated for the deanposition at Tennessee.
Should I do the call?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
And she said yeah absolutely, she's like you
better do the call.
We'd been in Knoxville quite abit.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
And she said, yeah, do the call.
So I emailed the recruiter thatnight and we had started just
exchanging emails that night,right before the holidays.
We talked.
One thing led to another.
Here I am, start packing up myoffice at Clemson when I knew I
was moving here.
Okay, and I'm cleaning outdrawers and papers for my desk.
(07:43):
And I'm cleaning out drawersand papers for my desk, and I
look down and I see this UTorange card in the drawer, the
card there and I don't keep alot of stuff like that, but I
look down and I opened up thatcard and I opened it and it was
the thank you note that Courtneysent me about seven years prior
.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I hung on to it for some reason, wow.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
So I packed it First day on the job here at UT
faculty were coming by towelcome me, say hello, courtney
pops in.
She's like hey, it's great tosee you meet you in person for
the first time.
I said absolutely Great to meetyou.
Should I have a present for you?
And I said thanks.
And she gave me a pair of UTsocks.
And I said you know what I havea present for you.
And I reached over and I gotthat card and I said I knew
(08:25):
there was a reason I kept this.
And she opened up and she waslike oh my gosh that is so neat.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
So Courtney is now associate dean of the college.
She started about a year ago.
You know that's the biggestthing I try to tell people.
You never I was saying this theother day you never know what
path you're going to go down.
You never know who you mightmeet At the time.
There may be nothing on thehorizon, but you never know how
(08:57):
someone can open a door for youthat you didn't even know you
wanted a door open because youwasn't even looking for that.
You know that type thing butthe communications between you
two open that door.
And so I always try to tellpeople is you have to broaden
your thoughts, because sometimesyou never know what God may
want for you and if you shutyour mind off to things then you
(09:18):
can really miss a blessing thatreally was for you.
But because you wasn't lookingfor it at that time, you know
you can shut that door and sowe're happy to treat University
of Tennessee.
It's great to be here.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
This is the everything school and I need to
thank you for not making thedifferent colored orange joke.
Clemson and Tennessee becauseeverybody that I meet has always
made that joke for about thefirst four years.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
No, no, no, it's good .
No, but we have the best orangethough, Anyway.
But so when you got here, youknow, tell me what it was like
to be a dean.
You know, okay, here I'm a deanat University of Tennessee.
You know how did you startfinding your way in this
(09:59):
position?
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Yeah.
So I came into the role andthis was a college where I think
faculty staff, students, alumni, were really excited about the
future.
They wanted to roll up theirsleeves and really take the
college forward.
So I started by doing a lot oflistening with our faculty, with
our staff, with our students.
I'm really fortunate as a deanof the college, we have a
(10:20):
35-member alumni advisory boardfor the college.
They're all major supporters ofthe college and I met with them
and listened to them and talkeda little bit about you know
where they thought we were,where we are and where they
think we should go.
And their industry feedbackhelped to inform the faculty's
work and what they were doing tomove us forward.
(10:43):
And it's really interesting whenyou look across the country at
various universities across thecountry, there are very few
universities that bring allareas of communication and
information sciences under onestandalone college at a
university.
I didn't know that.
(11:04):
Yeah, we're unique in thatsense, in that Tennessee we are
the flagship institution of thestate, we're the land-grant
institution of the state, so weexist to serve the communities
in the state.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
And we are a Research I university in the state.
Okay, so flagship land-grantResearch?
I right, three in one, yes.
And when you look across thecountry in some states where,
say, for example, north Carolina?
Okay, in North Carolina greatuniversity, the study of
(11:38):
journalism is in a differentacademic program, a different
school, a different college than, say, communication studies.
Okay, if you look at theUniversity of Georgia, you have
the Grady College of Journalismand Mass Communication and then
you have the Department ofCommunication Studies.
That's in the College of Artsand Sciences clear on another
(12:00):
area of campus.
Right, right, what's cool aboutTennessee is we are the
flagship institution of thestate land grant research one.
We bring all areas ofcommunication information in one
standalone college so thefaculty are able to work
together across thosedisciplines.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Yes, right, everybody is together and truly
collaborate.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
There's only two universities where you have the
flagship institution, the landgrant and the research one that
bring it all under one roof, andthat's Tennessee and Kentucky.
Okay, you look, in some statesthe flagship institution of the
state is not the land grantinstitution of the state.
(12:41):
So in the state of NorthCarolina you have NC State.
They're the land-grantinstitution, but the University
of North Carolina is viewed as aflagship.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
That's what makes it different.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
It makes it different and you can look at those
similar arrangements across thecountry.
Tennessee is unique with aland-grant and with a flagship.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
So on a day-to-day, tell my viewers on a day-to-day,
what does your department, whatdo y'all focus on?
That is just like and it canchange day by day, but if people
want to know, you know whatdoes the communication and
information?
What do they do on a dailybasis to help higher education,
(13:20):
help students, you know, thriveand strive to be the best at
whatever they're doing.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Yeah, so we have about a little over 1,700
undergraduate students.
Okay, that are across severaldegree programs in advertising,
public relations, journalism,communication studies,
information sciences we haveseveral master's programs,
master's programs incommunication and information,
in strategic and digitalcommunication.
In information sciences, wehave a doctoral program for
(13:50):
people that are studying fortheir PhDs to develop advanced
research capabilities to work inindustry or to work in higher
education as faculty.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
And it's so many people right now wanting PhDs.
Yes, it's amazing, it iswanting PhDs?
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Yes, it's amazing.
It is, and we also at UT.
This college teaches theintroductory oral communication
course that's part of Volcor, sogeneral education, so almost
every UT student will take thatintroductory public speaking
course as part of their generaleducation program in their first
or second year.
Why is that important?
Well, that's important becausealmost every UT student will
come through this college atsome point.
So we will serve over probablyabout 6,000 students per year
(14:31):
through our major programs, ourminors and through general
education through those courses.
So we're firing on allcylinders.
And we haven't even talked aboutglobal, our study abroad
programs, how we place studentsin internships.
We have a new onlineundergraduate degree program
that's coming online.
You know, ivanka, in the stateof Tennessee there's around one
(14:53):
million Tennesseans that havehours toward a bachelor's degree
but have not yet had anopportunity to complete it.
So to respond to that, we'restanding up, starting in the
(15:15):
fall fall of 2025.
It was just approved by theBoard of Trustees.
It's getting reviewed by theTennessee Higher Education
Commission as we do this heretoday.
Opportunity for those citizensof the state that have not yet
completed their undergraduatedegree to do it, and to do it
online, asynchronously, in anenvironment that's convenient
for them so let me ask you thisum when I was researching and
(15:38):
reading up about you, your firstgeneration, I am yes, he is
first generation of a collegegraduate.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yes, that right there in itself is so big to so many
families.
There are so many familiesstill to this day that has never
had a college graduate.
So can you, let's go back justa little bit and share that part
of why you wanted to become?
A college graduate.
So can you, let's go back justa little bit and share that part
of why you wanted to become acollege graduate and why did you
(16:10):
go in this direction, intohelping other students become a
college graduate?
Speaker 4 (16:17):
So I'm from a very, very small rural town in
Pennsylvania.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Okay, did I ever tell you, david?
David, my husband is fromPittsburgh.
Yes, I think we talked aboutthat.
And he's from Monroeville, sokeep going, keep going.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
Shout out to my husband From central
Pennsylvania, middle part of thestate about an hour north of
Harrisburg, Very rural community.
Decades ago it was part of theanthracite coal region, so a
coal mining community.
The town now has been known forhaving really good high school
football Okay, Really good highschool football and having the
(16:53):
first high school televisionstation in the country.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Really Okay In 1968, right.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
So, as a first generation, my path to higher
education.
I'm so fortunate that it wentall the way back to high school.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
And did your parents encourage you to?
Yeah, because if you thinkabout it, let me just say this
Some parents don't encouragethat, you know, and if a child
doesn't see value in it or havesomeone mentor or someone in the
church or out in the community,that will show them totally
different.
They could say well, I don'tneed that because my mom and dad
(17:31):
didn't do it.
You know what I'm saying, sospeak on being that first one.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Yeah, absolutely, of course.
Of course they did, theyabsolutely encouraged me, that's
great.
For for to go to undergraduateand to go to college.
I don't think they thought.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
They probably didn't think I was going to make a
career of it at the time,because I think you know coming
out of high school they're likeyou're going to go to college
and then you're going to go geta job.
Yeah, exactly, that was kind ofthe path.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
And I don't think, you know, coming out of high
school, you're not saying toyourself well, I'm going to be a
college professor.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Kids don't even know what they truly want to be when
they first come out of highschool.
I know, when I came out of highschool, I didn't.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
I'm just being honest .
Exactly, keep going.
Yeah, exactly, but in highschool I went to the public high
school.
There was a television station.
1968 was developed by a mannamed George McPhee.
He was an art teacher for theschool district Back in the day
he received offers from WaltDisney himself to draw for the
school district.
Back in the day he receivedoffers from Walt Disney himself
to draw for the Disney company.
But he was happy.
(18:27):
He built this televisionstation back in 1968 and I met
him when I was a freshman andwe're talking 30 minutes of live
news every morning, all thesporting events, community
events on live or tape delay ata high school.
This was and this was not justto the high school, this was a
100 mile radius around the townas well and I know we didn't
(18:49):
have that this was not an AVclub, this was a fully
functioning television station.
And I met him my freshman year,very close to him.
Awesome teacher, awesome mentor, taught you a lot.
Midway through my junior yearhe became ill very suddenly and
he died and I was devastated.
I mean midway through my junioryear.
He became ill very suddenly andhe died, oh wow, and I was
devastated.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
I was about to say it probably affected you.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
And the school district didn't have much of a
succession plan at that time,because you don't have a
succession plan to run atelevision station like that.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
It's run by high school kids.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
So the principal called me and my one of my
friends who worked there with mehis name was Joe as well called
us into the office and hebasically was like you guys got
to keep this going.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
And you're probably like and we said, sure, we were
like, well, we were there, whathappened?
Speaker 4 (19:36):
We were there from six in the morning until
midnight, almost every night.
And whenever we were ondeadline, we'd go to the
principal and we'd say MrBeierschmidt, he has since
passed.
God rest his soul.
We'd say, mr Beierschmidt,we're on deadline for this, we
really need it.
And he would say, boys, don'tworry about it.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
And he'd go on the loudspeaker in the middle of the
school day and what you have todo really yes, and we did that
because he truly believed, yes,that what you were doing is was
greater we did that and um plus,you got to um, basically honor
the person that showed you andmentored you.
We did in that position beforehe died.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
We we did.
His son took over for him.
It's kind of beautiful of atransition.
His son took over for him mysenior year I remember it was
his son, that kind of took overand I was sitting alongside a
freshman that we were traininghim on master control in the
control room.
And after we were done hecalled me the new.
Mr McPhee called me aside and hesaid Joey, he said the way you
(20:45):
were talking to Paul, the wayyou were teaching him.
He said you're my dad.
Do you know that You're my dad?
My dad would do that Really.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Now.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I was in high school, so that message did not sink in
no, as it should, so I went onmy merry way, you know, through
undergraduate and took a littlebit to figure it out.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
But um, now it's about making a difference in the
lives of students here at theuniversity of tennessee,
overseeing all of ourcommunication information
programs and, you know, at auniversity that prioritizes
access.
But a funny story, joe, myfriend who worked in um was from
small town same just like me.
(21:22):
We joke that we're doing okay.
I'm the dean of CCI here atTennessee.
Joe is now vice president overdigital content for Nickelodeon.
Really, really, yeah, and heworks in New York City.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Both of y'all did really well.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
What's beautiful about that is every year this
college takes a group ofstudents to New York on an
industry trip and they touragencies, they tour production
houses, they tour many of thelarge networks based in New York
.
Joe opens up Nickelodeon forour students.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
That's wild, isn't that great?
And y'all still get tobasically work together for
other students.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
So let me say this so you've been here since 2021.
And I looked at a lot of thestats and I know you're so
humble, you're a humble personbut let me just say this From
2021 to 2025, I saw that thegrowth is at 35%.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Student enrollment.
Student enrollment.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
And that's big.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
It's a lot.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Okay, so let's speak on it.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
So how did y'all get it there?
Speaker 4 (22:28):
So we have great faculty, great staff in this
college, absolutely fantasticTeam environment.
Everybody wants to move thecollege forward and I think the
university overall has seenquite a bit of interest.
Yes, you know the number ofapplications to UT has risen
quite a bit over the years.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Especially in the last five years, I would say
Especially so.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
And Dondi Plowman, our chancellor, is fantastic.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
She's amazing, amazing, awesome, very relatable
and very she makes studentsfeel like.
I watch her at different eventsand she's always and to
whoever's speaking with her, youknow, she always connects.
(23:16):
That's what I was looking for.
She always connects with thestudents and I think that right
there, because a lot of timeskids go through life, depending
on what kind of parents you knowupbringing they had, somebody
may not have connected with them, and I think that's what I see
about University of Tennessee.
Holly, y'all try to connectwith that student and bring them
(23:36):
along.
Yeah, so keep going.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
So I think about this college and sometimes I think
about UT, as this is a smallcollege or a small university
with lots and lots of otherstudents.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Yes.
Right A student might be astudent and a big family.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Right and a big family and I think that's
awesome.
So you know, in terms ofgrowing the enrollment, we have
overhauled, I think, some of theway we recruit our first-time,
first-year students.
We do a lot to make sure thatstudents, when they arrive here
as a first-year student, throughgeneral education, through
(24:11):
Volcor, understand the programsthat are available to them here
in the college, becausesometimes a high school student
may not know that, gosh, youcould major in advertising and
y'all truly educate them on whatthey could apply for exactly
and get into exactly.
So I think a lot of that has hasplayed a role.
But you have to have you haveto have great teammates to
enable to do that.
(24:32):
So we have great staff, greatfaculty that are just super
passionate, and the facultyalways remind me.
They say, joe, remember, we'vegrown a lot.
But as we grow, as we've grown,as we've grown and as we
continue to grow, we cannot losesight of our focus on student
success and the relationshipsthat faculty have with their
students.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
So we will always prioritize and I think that's
what sets uh university oftennessee, um, in their own lane
, in their own way of doingthings, because this school
wants to make sure every studenthas the best opportunities to
succeed.
Yeah, and not saying othercolleges don't, but I just think
(25:13):
because I'm around Universityof Tennessee a lot and I go from
department to department andI'm just like, but it's the air
of University of Tennessee.
So let me ask you this how hasthe digital age transformed the
field of communications in youropinion?
Oh, my gosh Is that a hard one,that's a big one.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
That's a whole podcast episode in and of itself
.
You know, I think it has doneincredible things that are very
good, yes, but it's alsopresented quite a bit of
challenges, I agree.
So maintenance and how newrelationships can be formed in
(26:02):
online spaces that are healthyand healthy for individuals and
healthy for families and society.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
I think the biggest thing, especially with social
media, with my kids.
I have a 31-year-old and I havea 15-year-old and one's a girl,
one's a boy and they're beingraised totally different in two
different type worlds and it'slike, okay, the digital part of
it.
Social media, can be very muchuplifting in a lot of ways, but
(26:29):
in other ways it can be very aDebbie Downer, very a Debbie
Downer.
And I think you have to trulywork into finding your way with
the positive and not deal withthe negative.
And I think a lot of youngstudents struggle with that,
because you're in a society thatsays, well, you know, accept
(26:51):
everybody, but then you don'twant negative, you can't accept
the negative.
So I think the digital, thetransformation, can be very
tricky, you know.
So how do y'all deal with?
You know the back and forth ofsocial media in the digital
world.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Yeah, so I think some of the negative sides to social
Please speak on it the negativesides to social.
Please speak on it, you knowvery much, connect to
misinformation, disinformationand how we interpret truth
online.
Yes, right Now we couldidentify that as a problem and
try to deal with it.
Or, as Chancellor Plowman heresays, leadership is the
(27:32):
willingness to act.
You can act to try to addressthe problem.
So in this college, one of thethings we did, we got our
faculty together and across allof our academic programs we said
, well, what really pulls ustogether?
Whether you're in advertisingor journalism or information
science, what pulls us together?
And one of the things that wereally settled on was the notion
(27:53):
of information integrity.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Information integrity .
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Information integrity .
Speaker 3 (27:59):
That's a good one.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Right.
So the truth, the accuracy ofinformation and how that has
both positive and negativeinfluences in society.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
It can truly affect you.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
So we stood up the college's first research
institute, the InformationIntegrity Institute.
It's called iCubed, icubediCubed yes.
Catherine Luther, a facultymember in our journalism school,
is the leader of that institute.
We have faculty fellows fromall four schools that are doing
research around that topic and,the best part as a land-grant
institution, like I said earlier, we serve our communities.
They're not just doing researchtucked away in a lab or
(28:35):
publishing in academic journalsthat few people will read.
They're taking their researchfindings out into the community.
So they go into the Knox Countylibrary system Okay and they
host forums with members of thecommunity about information
integrity, about media literacy,misinformation, disinformation,
helping members of thecommunity understand I was about
(28:56):
to say understand.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Right.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
Members of the community understand their work,
understand the work they'redoing, how it's important, why
it matters, how they're helpingto address a challenge that we
have through technology.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
So what do you see?
The biggest challenge inopportunities facing high
education today?
Speaker 4 (29:15):
So I think there is a waning public confidence in
higher education, waning publicconfidence, public trust in
higher education.
If you look at some nationaldata, you would see that
individuals who have taken outlarge amounts of debt to pursue
(29:37):
a college degree, some have notfinished that degree.
Remember what I said about amillion Tennesseans hours toward
a degree never finished.
They've taken out debt to adegree.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
I didn't know that Never finished.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
So they have lots of questions about the value of
higher education.
Again, what are you doing tohelp the problem right?
We stood up our onlineundergraduate degree program to
help those individuals completetheir degrees right.
I think, being at a land-grantinstitution where we exist to
serve communities of the statethrough our research, our
(30:14):
teaching, our extension and ouroutreach of the state through
our research, our teaching, ourextension and our outreach, that
type of exercise, that type ofmission, I think, is in some
ways an antidote of sorts tothat waning public trust.
Because we're trying to.
At the University of Tennessee,and in this college in
particular, we're focused ondoing work that matters to the
(30:37):
community and matters to thepeople of the state.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Say it one more time.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
We're doing work that matters to the community and
matters to the people of thestate.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
What I keep hearing you say.
You want to better yourcommunity Exactly, and it's like
no matter what.
It takes you back to yourbeginnings.
You started in a smallcommunity.
It took you back to yourbeginnings.
You started in a smallcommunity.
It took you back to okay, theperson of the paper that taught.
I'm at the station.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Television station.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Television station, Not paper.
Sorry that it took you back to.
That is what am I doing for mycommunity.
That's true, took you back to.
That is what am I doing for mycommunity.
And you're sitting here in avery prestigious position that
you can make or break a student.
But you was that studentbecause you never had someone to
(31:34):
show you why a college degreewas so important.
But you turned that that youdidn't have into a positive by
getting a college education andyou can sit and speak on like if
a student says, well, my momdidn't graduate, my dad didn't
graduate.
You know, my family feels likethat I shouldn't go to college.
(31:55):
You can say you know what, Iknow what that feels like.
You know, and that's notagainst the parents or the last
generations, that's just notwhat they did.
But you can be.
You're the one that can say youknow what I'm first generation,
you know and show them thatyour path, other people's path
may not be theirs, but your pathcan be different and can go in
(32:18):
higher education and have a moresuccessful impact in the
community.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
Do you agree with that?
I agree with that 100%.
I think that's a really goodanalysis.
Thank you Very good.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Thank you, and so my thing is is that communication
is key in everything we do.
We have to be able tocommunicate, because if you stay
closed mouth and never speak up, how can you change anything?
So this is a viewer question.
Okay, they said to ask youyou're in communications, how do
(32:58):
you give a voice?
How do you give a voice to astudent that's you know, say
they're an introvert and theydon't know how to speak up?
What would you say?
How do you give that person avoice?
Speaker 4 (33:09):
I think they need to be a student in this college and
we could give them thattraining and we can give them
that voice.
You know, it's reallyinteresting when I mentioned
earlier when we take ourundergraduate students to New
York City every January.
That program has been going onfor over 30 years, started by a
faculty member in our TombersSchool of Advertising and Public
(33:29):
Relations, eric Haley.
He's been at UT for a long timeand when he started here he
said you know, I noticed at thattime that there were many
students that you know theirvision or their long term plan
was to get a job settle down intheir community here in the
(33:50):
state, which is fantastic andwonderful, but we wanted to also
expose them to opportunities inthe industry across the country
.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Right, right For them to find their way.
So they can find their way, nomatter if it's in their state or
a different state, exactly.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Exactly and they designed this program and he
took students and they've beendoing it for 30 years.
Some of the students it's theirfirst time on an airplane?
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Yes, and they go to.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
New.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
York City and people take that so for granted.
I think that's a part of theprivilege of your parents taking
you on a plane.
Everybody didn't get that.
I know I didn't as a child.
Yeah, you know I've exposed itto my children, but I never went
on a plane when I was a kid.
Right, we went on trips, but wewent in the car, we didn't fly.
(34:34):
You know that type thing.
We went on trips, but we wentin the car, we didn't fly.
You know that type thing andthat is something that is a
great thing, but you don't needto take it for granted and make
a student that has never beenexposed to that make them feel
less than because they haven't.
That's right.
Yes.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
So we take them there every January.
And they have 60, 75 studentsgoing around the city in groups
and such, and it's awesome.
They all come together for analumni reception on one of the
nights.
So all of our alumni in thecollege that are living and
working around New York come andthey meet our students.
And every time when I speak atthat alumni reception I ask the
(35:11):
alumni how many of you areliving and working in New York
City today solely because ofyour time on this trip when you
were a student in the college?
That's a good question.
You get about 15, 20, 25 handsgo up around the room.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Real quick.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Really impactful and it's a really quick check on the
impact of that particularprogram and what it does to
change students' lives Right,right and they come back more
confident of who they are Moredriven.
Where they want to be moredriven.
And it's experiences like thatthat contribute to this
(35:46):
college's goal of building thenumber one communication and
information student experiencein the country, and it's
connections like that that wehave with our alumni and
industry partners.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
So here's another viewer question what advice do
you have for a studentinterested in the career like PR
, media or broadcasting?
What advice would you give?
Speaker 4 (36:08):
That's great.
So I think they need to.
I think it's a pretty goodquestion.
That's a good one.
They need to go to a universitylike Tennessee.
That would provide them withthe opportunity to number one
major in those areas but numbertwo, really get applied hands-on
experiences in organizations ineach of those areas.
So in this college we have amedia center and in that media
center we have several mediaproperties, professional and
(36:32):
student.
So East Tennessee's NPR station, wuot, is part of this college.
It's a professional station.
Our students have theopportunity to work in that
station.
I'm very on in their education.
We also have the Daily Beacon,the student newspaper.
We have the volunteer channeland the Daily.
Beacon has always been Ourstudent television group.
(36:53):
So our students need to haveopportunities early on to start
to cut their teeth, get the repsin Okay In those organizations
as they settle into those careeropportunities and sometimes you
get in.
I have many, many students overthe years.
They start working in one ofthose outlets Maybe it's the
Daily Beacon, Maybe it's theVolunteer Channel and they're
(37:14):
like gosh, I really like this.
Like this isn't for me.
I need to pivot to a differentarea of the college and that's
important.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
That means learning happens.
Yes, you have to find your wayand figure out what works for
you and be okay to pivot.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
Yes, exactly, pivoting is okay.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
So how important is hands-on experience, like
internship or student media, indeveloping real-world
communication skills?
How important is hands-onexperience like internship or
student media in developingreal-world communication skills?
How important is that?
Speaker 4 (37:41):
So important, so important that many of the
programs in the college requiresome type of applied hands-on
experience or an internship.
We have a fantastic Center forCareer Development at the
University of Tennessee.
It's a university-wide center,awesome people over there, open
(38:01):
to all majors, everyone acrosscampus.
Go over.
You can get advice on buildinga resume, building a cover
letter, advice for an internship.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
And so many students need to know how to build a
resume.
Students need to know how tobuild a resume and.
I think resumes really haveyoung people fearful.
I've had young people tell melike I don't know how to build a
resume.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
I don't know and I'm like, but you can learn how to
build it Exactly, and the beautyof it is our students have
access, of course, to theuniversity's career center.
But one of the first things wedid in my first year as dean, we
hired a full-time director ofcareer and professional
development in the college.
Her name is Devin Lane, whichis fantastic, has industry
(38:49):
experience.
Shout out to Ms Devin, so ourstudents are able to get
hands-on career professionaldevelopment guidance that's
industry-specific, to CCI, tothe programs here, because you
know, as you apply for jobs inadvertising, the way you put
together a portfolio and aresume a little bit different
than if you're a journalist andyou're applying to, say, work in
(39:11):
local news and you have to putyour reel together to work right
.
So we're able to provide nowthat guidance on the ground in
the college that's specific.
And hands-on Hands-on yes.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
So how can students stand out in such a fast-paced
and competitive communicationsindustry?
I think because it's fast-paced.
It is.
Speaker 4 (39:33):
You know, they have to have the confidence and the
courage to take risks and toreally put themselves out there,
and I think we do a good job inthe college of preparing them
to do that.
I want to give you an example.
So about two years ago we hireda faculty member in the college
that a lot of people at UT knowof.
His name is Peyton Manning.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
Peyton is an alum of the college and gives so much to
our community, so much.
Media industry leader.
Yes, he's so good.
Wonderful human being, top ofhis industry and as a professor
of practice.
Professors of practice bringindustry experience into the
classroom.
He joins us several timesthroughout the academic year.
(40:15):
He joins us several timesthroughout the academic year and
he will team teach with ourcurrent faculty in particular
courses.
Okay, so he was here.
When he was here, this wasearly in the fall semester.
Past fall semester.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
And everybody was so excited for him to be here.
Everybody was excited.
Speaker 4 (40:31):
He was in a.
This was an advertising course,it was a sports promotion and
branding course.
He was in a class about 100students.
He came in.
He, you know, took student,take students questions.
He teaches with the questionand answer type approach right
you know, really great, greatguy sits in front of the room
with the faculty member and theyinterview each other, like
(40:51):
we're doing here.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Yes, except there's a class and the questions are
getting asked and he allows thequestions to come in.
It's great.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
At the end of the class, peyton always says well,
let's take a photo together.
And the class says, oh well,all right, it's going to be a
group photo.
And it's actually no.
Peyton says I'm going to takean individual photo with each of
you.
And the students are justelated and so great, this is a
(41:23):
class of 100 students students.
They all get in line, they allstart getting in line with
Peyton to get their photo, theirpicture taken, and there was
one student that was taking alittle bit of extra time with.
Peyton.
They started talking, they wereexchanging things and what had
happened was the student said toPeyton and she said Mr Manning,
I want to work at OmahaProductions, this production
company.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
Right.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
Here are things I'm able to do.
Here is a copy of my resume anda business card.
I would love to work at OmahaProductions, and we saw.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Peyton.
That's amazing, isn't that?
Speaker 4 (41:47):
great she put herself out there.
Yes, really, it took a lot ofcourage to do that.
Yes, my gosh, peyton took itand said thank you.
He tucked it into his SUCOpocket and Peyton left.
Students left.
This class was in the morning.
Later that day in the afternoonI'm walking in the building and
I see the student Looks like adeer in the headlights and I
(42:09):
said are you okay, is everythingall right?
And she said yeah, I'm okay.
I said no, really you okay?
Everything all right?
She said yeah, I have aninterview in one hour with Omaha
Productions.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
She now works at Omaha Productions.
Viewers, did you hear what hejust said?
Stepping out on faith?
She may never be in a room withhim again.
She took the opportunity and Itell so many people when I go to
speak I'm like everything's notgoing to be perfect timing.
You know, I'm saying in yourmind but it is perfect timing to
(42:46):
me when it comes to you know,step down faith and be like,
okay, I'll even do it, say no,I'm in and she works at his
company.
Speaker 4 (42:54):
yeah, so pe.
So Peyton left there, textedhis leadership back at Omaha and
said let's interview thisperson.
And they did, and they hiredher, and that's why we love
Peyton.
Volunteered through and through.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Awesome, through and through.
You cut his arm.
You're going to see orange?
Most definitely, mostdefinitely so.
You've been so busy in runningthe college you know what makes
(43:26):
Joe.
Who is Joe?
I'm a husband, I'm a dad, I'm acook.
He's my classmate, yourclassmate.
Speaker 4 (43:29):
And friend.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
You like to cook?
Community leader.
Yes, yeah, absolutely.
What do you like to do Italian?
Speaker 3 (43:34):
Italian, so I like to make pasta from scratch.
Speaker 4 (43:36):
Really, it's kind of my thing.
My grandmother on my mom's sideof the family, Italian was an
awesome, awesome cook.
Speaker 3 (43:47):
So I love to cook.
It's like a stress reliever forme.
Is it for you?
Oh, yeah, okay, yeah, it'sgreat, I can work all day long.
And people's like how in theworld do you do all the things
you do and cook five days a week?
I said because cooking to me isa stress reliever.
Plus, I like to create.
I'm a, I'm a creator, yep, liketo create.
So think about food.
You're, you're creating a meal.
(44:09):
And I told this mother that uh,comes on my facebook live and
years ago she told me that shedidn't like to cook for her kids
because her husband was thebetter cook.
And she said she felt less than.
And I said kids don't care, youknow who's the better cook.
I said that's one way to showyour kids how much you love them
(44:31):
, because when you cook, you canmake them chicken nuggets.
Those kids are going toremember that when they grow old
.
So it's not really about youknow making the perfect meal.
It's about the time you put andthe love you put into a meal.
So when I'm cooking for myfamily, that's my way of saying
you know what?
I know our life is chaoticsometimes, but here's a meal to
(44:54):
show you you're the mostimportant thing to me.
And does cooking.
Do that for you.
Speaker 4 (44:59):
It does, it does, and you know.
It's one of those things whereyou don't how do you know you're
successful and made adifference?
I don't.
I don't.
When people are eating any foodthat I cook, I don't need to
hear a thank you.
All I want to hear is Mmm, mmm.
You.
All I want to hear is look, no,speaking right.
You know the silverwareclanking on the plate, exactly.
(45:20):
Yeah, so it's, it's a stressrelief and it's it's, it's, it's
just fun.
I like to do it.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
It's a hobby so here's a viewer question is
there a dish that reminds you ofhome or college, a certain dish
you cook?
Speaker 4 (45:36):
oh my gosh viewers.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
I didn't tell him this question, I had to spring
it on you, so there is.
Speaker 4 (45:42):
So this is not an italian dish, it's a polish dish
.
I just made it.
A couple of weeks ago, mygrandparents, on my my dad's
side of the family would um,would make this um halushki,
which is like it noodles andonions and olive oil and butter
and not really much anythingelse.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
Wait a minute.
Speaker 4 (46:03):
It's called holushki.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
And what's in it.
Speaker 4 (46:05):
Cabbage, uh-huh.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Noodles, noodles.
Speaker 4 (46:09):
Uh-huh Onions.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
Uh-huh.
Butter Really Okay so myviewers know my husband's from
Pittsburgh, yeah.
And so his family makes a meal.
It's pasta.
Now let me just say I'm not acottage cheese person.
Okay, but they make Me neitherhe makes noodles, cottage cheese
(46:30):
butter.
I think that's it.
I'm sorry, but that sounds foulyeah, it does, and I'm just I'm
like is that a pittsburgh thing?
It must, because he will sitand eat that I mean his mom
makes every time he comes home.
Uh, because they live inflorida now and I'm like this
gotta be a pittsburgh thing.
(46:51):
When you said the butter andand the pasta, it made me think
about.
Speaker 4 (46:55):
Is those are just a thing that y'all mix together uh
, if I ever come over your house, please have them not serve me
that please.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
They call it cottage cheese and noodles and I'm just
like, but yes, but so you makethat meal.
So one more question if youhost a dinner for the students,
what would be the meal?
Speaker 4 (47:15):
Well, we do it.
I mean, when I started here myfirst semester, we knew very
quickly that we needed to makesure that I was out in front of
students to build strongrelationships.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
And connection.
Speaker 4 (47:31):
And connection and we keep it very simple here in the
college.
Students like it pretty simplewhen it comes to food.
Speaker 3 (47:39):
Every fall, every spring, we do an event he's
being modest because, let mejust tell you, university of
Tennessee feeds these kids allkinds of things.
Speaker 4 (47:47):
We do.
In the front of the building,on our front lawn, we have an
event called Dogs with the Deanevery fall and into the spring,
and we just have hot dogs, hotdogs, chips and who doesn't like
a hot dog Right?
And we have eight 900 studentsthat will show up.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
Really.
Speaker 4 (48:07):
And we invite all the staff in our neighborhood to
come Dogs with the Dean.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Dogs with the Dean and that's a great way like have
a hot dog, connect with theDean, ask questions and just
bond Right A lot of bondinghappens over food.
Speaker 4 (48:23):
When we were at Clemson, we were faculty in
residence.
We lived on campus for twoyears in a residence hall.
We baked 1,000 chocolate chipcookies for move-in weekend and
that's how we went around thebuilding and welcomed all the
new students and their familiesto campus.
Speaker 3 (48:36):
It was a cookie.
You made a thousand cookies, athousand chocolate chip cookies
and everybody's sweating hungry.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
They're trying to move in, that's not a fun
experience, but we're like hey,I'm Joe.
Speaker 4 (48:49):
And this is my wife, Chrissy.
We're faculty in residence here.
We're here to support, you know, your son, your daughter.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
Here's a homemade cookie.
Speaker 4 (48:56):
Would you like a cookie?
Uh-huh?
Speaker 3 (48:57):
Well, yeah, absolutely Right, but that
cookie is that introduction itis, it is and it's that thing
that will open a door.
It will yes.
Open a door for a conversation.
So, as I end this podcast,first let me say again so, as I
end this podcast, first let mesay again thank you for allowing
me to come into the college and, you know, show people why we
(49:23):
love University of Tennessee andwhat all you can achieve and
build to be successful.
That's my thing.
And then the second thing iswhat's next for the college, for
the college?
So, we are continuing to grow.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
We're working to kind of fine tune what it means to
deliver the number one studentexperience in this college, and
I would love, 10 years from now,that every student in the
college who wanted to go on oneof the, wants to go on one of
those industry trips, can do so.
Every student who wants tostudy abroad, we can provide
(50:04):
them the resources to do it.
Every student who wants tointern, do an internship in
their dream city, they can do itbecause we can provide them
with the resources to be able todo it.
That's where I hope we are inin 10.
It's about access.
It's about lifting up ourcommunities, making a difference
in the lives of students, andthat's where I hope we are.
Speaker 3 (50:23):
So making a difference.
One last question, and I justthought of this question Name
something in the past 10 monthsat Leadership Knoxville you
walked in there, the dean ofcommunications and information.
Name something that you'velearned that you've brought back
to apply.
(50:44):
Is there something that youcould say, yeah, it's something
different.
Is there anything?
Speaker 4 (50:50):
Well, I think it's every day.
I think the power of communityis in that room and the power of
leadership is in that room andthe importance of community
leaders are in that room to ourfaculty, to our staff and help
(51:14):
our whole college understandthat the work that we do in here
is transformational for thecommunities and the state.
We just have to make sure thatwe're actively partnering with
our community and that's why theexample I gave earlier of the
Information Integrity Institutetaking a workout of the library
(51:35):
system, right, yes, leadership.
Knoxville provides thatconstant, constant reminder, yes
, of the importance of communityand the importance of community
leadership.
Speaker 3 (51:45):
Thank you again Tune in this Friday to Talk in
Tennessee.
Bye guys.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Thanks for listening to Talk in Tennessee with Yvonca
.
Watch out for our weeklyepisodes from the First Family
of Real Estate and check us outon the web
wwwyvoncasalesrealestatecom.
See our videos on Yvonca'sYouTube channel or find us on
Facebook under Yvonca Landis,and Twitter at Yvonca Landis and
Twitter at Yvonca Landis.
(52:15):
And don't forget to tell afriend about us.
Until next time.
Yvonca signing off.
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