October 31, 2023 • 17 mins
Chancellor May talks with Kayton Carter, executive director of academic advising enrichment, and Stephanie Zarate, global learning advising and outreach coordinator, in this episode of "Face to Face." Kayton was the founding executive director of the Student Affairs Retention Initiatives and the inaugural director of the Center for African Diaspora Student Success (CADSS) at UC Davis. Stephanie is an alumna of UC Davis and worked at CADSS as a student. The two sit down with Chancellor May to discuss the role of the student success centers and how they support communities at UC Davis.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Hi, everyone.
Welcome to “Face to Face,” a UC Davis podcast
featuring students, staff and faculty innovators.
I’m your host, Chancellor Gary May.
Stay tuned for my next guest.
Greetings, I’m Kayton Carter,
currently holding the position
of executive director
(00:23):
of Academic Advising Enrichment
for Undergraduate Education at UC Davis.
I’m also a doctoral candidate
at the UC Davis School of Education,
where my research focuses on evaluating
the impact of our Black
male mentoring program
on its participants.
Prior to my current role,
I was the founding executive director
of the Student Affairs
(00:43):
Retention Initiatives
and the inaugural director
of the Center for African Diaspora
Student Success, also known as CADSS.
In my work at UC Davis,
I’m fortunate to have the opportunity
both to create new systems
of support
for underrepresented populations
and to have personal relationships
with many of them.
(01:03):
Kayton, welcome to “Face to Face.”
Glad to be here.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate you being here with us.
And tell me who you’ve brought with
you today.
Well, can I have her introduce
herself?
Absolutely.
All right.
Hi, Chancellor.
It’s nice to see you.
My name is
Stephanie JaquelineZarate.
I’m one of the advising and outreach
coordinators at the Global Learning
Hub — that falls under Global
Affairs.
(01:24):
My first experience working with
students was actually in 2016
at the Center for African Diaspora
Student Success as a student
assistant. So Kayton is my old
boss.
Stephanie, thank you for being here
as well. It’s great to have you both
to talk about this really important
topic. So let
me just get started with you,
Kayton.
... Yes. ... How did you decide to
(01:45):
take on the
job of being the founding
executive director of our retention
initiatives at UC Davis?
What need did you see
that needed to be fulfilled?
What gap had to be fulfilled?
Wow.
Great question. I appreciate it.
So it really stemmed from my
previous role as a student affairs
officer in African American andAfrican
studies, where part of my
responsibility was kind of keeping
(02:06):
the finger on the pulse of the
African diaspora community.
And I didn’t think I
had the capacity to do that as one
person.
Fortunately, I had a template
in the Office of Minority Student
Affairs at Michigan State that I
could draw from.
And then I had friends that were
still there that I could reach back
and collaborate and communicate
with. And those ideas
(02:27):
are what led to what is now the
Student Affairs Retention
Initiatives. So the idea behind
the initiatives is that we would
dedicate our institution — UC Davis
would commit full
time staff to keeping a finger
on the pulse of our underrepresented
minority communities.
Well, thanks to Michigan State for
the idea and for you.
So, Stephanie, did you benefit from
(02:49):
the student retention initiatives
when you were a student here?
And if so how — how did it affect
you?
Yeah, I originally came from
a really small town in the Central
Valley — Riverbank, California.
And so when I came to Davis, it’s
actually — the student population
is even bigger than the town I come
from. So coming from
such a small space and then being
(03:09):
able to come over to
like such new horizons,
overall, really
built the perspective, a new
perspective for me.
So in general,
my time as a student assistant at
CADSS was the first experience
I ever had with like face-to-face
interaction —
(03:30):
and kind of gaining a perspective on
like how to bring quality care,
how to respect one another,
how to bring positivity and joy in
like everything that you do, whether
it’s just, you know, offering center
materials for students or
whether it’s like planning events.
And my time there
really motivated me to
go into the field of higher
(03:51):
education. So I originally came in
with an idea that
kind of was instilled in my parents
of work as hard as ever but
do something that, you know, may
be what we typically think of
success, whether it’s like a doctor,
a lawyer, etc.
And whenever I started working with
students and working with great
mentors like Kayton and Kawami
(04:11):
and Ken Barnes,
that really brought into perspective
what I really want to do
with my time.
And that’s helping other people, and
that’s through education.
Well, that’s what we want for all of
our students during their time here
to find what gives them fulfillment
and passion, and what they like
to do. So I’m glad it worked out in
your case.
Staying on your time as a student or
(04:32):
as a student assistant,
are there other resources
that you thought could have been
beneficial to the center
that you’re thinking about
implementing now in your new role?
That’s a great question.
So like
I mentioned previously, I work under
Global Affairs, which — its main
mission is to bring
(04:53):
interconnectedness between everyone.
And that really
weaves into my current role now,
because we
in the advising and outreach team,
we promote different
services for students, whether it’s
academic,
experiential opportunities or
co-curricular/extracurricular
opportunities for students.
(05:14):
And we really want to bring
awareness and accessibility to
underrepresented minority students.
And I think that with my current
role and the interactions that,
you know, the retention centers
have, we
are hoping to possibly
stay connected with them and offer
those services at the centers
themselves, whether it’s maybe
drop-in advising or more
(05:35):
student interactions within the
centers.
Sounds like you really have your
finger on what’s needed.
That’s important.
Kayton, I want to turn back to you.
I want to hear about your own
personal journey, your story and how
that impacted or
manifests itself now in what you
do for our students here at Davis.
It was one of the main reasons
— my personal experience — was one
of the main reasons why I entered
into the student affairs profession,
(05:56):
quite frankly.
I was a community college transfer
student at UC Berkeley
in the early 90s.
And I realized — I must clarify
that I attended six community
colleges before transitioning to
Berkeley.
And if I could be very
transparent, I got dismissed after
my first year.
I changed my major three times, and
I thought, I’m not the only one, I
(06:17):
can’t be the only one trying to
figure things out, right.
And it was an advisor/administrator
that turned me on to the
interdisciplinary profession —
interdisciplinary major
at UC Berkeley.
But then I started inquiring about
how can I do what you do, right.
I thought that I wanted to be a
teacher, which I did do
temporarily at Berkeley High
Continuation, after I finished
(06:39):
at UC Berkeley.
And then I wanted to have more
involvement or more impact into the
lives of students beyond subject
matter, right.
And so that’s when I went to —
I did a post-bac program
called the Institute for Recruitment
of Teachers (IRT).
It was on the campus of Phillips
Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.
And that’s how I ended up getting
(07:00):
a scholarship for my master’s degree
at Michigan State.
But understanding the
student affairs,
understanding the impact of student
affairs via some practicums
that I had as a master’s student —
it was required that you work in
certain fields — I landed
a graduate assistantship in the
Office of Minority Student Affairs.
Prior to that, I had no knowledge of
(07:21):
what minority student affairs was,
right.
But therein lies an entity
who, on behalf of the entire
institution, kept that finger
on the pulse of the underrepresented
populations.
And so when I transitioned
back to California,
and more importantly, came here to
UC Davis, I was
looking around for the Office of
(07:42):
Minority Student Affairs, right.
And I realized that
— I think the time was very
important. The time was
— we needed something more than
the student affairs officers.
I must clarify (07:53):
I was one
of five ethnic studies student
affairs officers.
And all of us had the same
responsibility, which was kind of
a 50% appointment of
looking at the populations that we
were responsible for.
And fortunately, I was able
to kind of inquire
with the leadership at that time,
wrote a proposal and it was
embraced.
(08:14):
And my original concept
was a centralized space,
not the individual spaces.
And I can honestly, I really
appreciate the individual spaces,
but my context was not that, right.
And so I want to kind of give credit
to previous leadership for saying,
hey, let’s look at some separate
spaces and separate staff,
(08:34):
because the template that I had at
Michigan State was a centralized
office.
But I say all that, Chancellor May,
to say
there are a lot of — and Stephanie
referred to this earlier —
co-curricular needs that may not be
satisfied in certain
majors, right.
And then there’s the — I like
to refer to it as cross-pollinating,
right.
You have a lot of people that
(08:56):
identify as a specific ethnicity,
but they’re in separate majors.
And so where would there be an
opportunity for them to interact if
not for these retention centers, in
these spaces?
So it allows a chance for students
to build community, which supports
the research. Sense of belonging
is one of the barriers to
underrepresented minority student
success.
And that’s, you know, what the
centers offered along with
(09:17):
curricular and co-curricular
support.
So that was the foundation.
Well, thanks.
Your story is such a testimony to
what can be, right.
So I appreciate all of that and
what you’re doing now.
And I’m curious in that
respect, what you’re doing now —
what’s your vision for advising
at UC Davis going forward?
If I could, I would say
(09:38):
standardizing the practice, right.
UC Davis is a decentralized campus
when it comes to advising, and so
advising looks a little bit
different in engineering than it
does in athletics, which looks
different than how it is in student
affairs.
But there are some common threads
that we can land on.
First and foremost, a holistic
advising philosophy, where we’re
looking at the entire student, not
(09:59):
just course content and schedules
and things of that sort.
And then because our population, our
student population has grown so
much, we can infuse
other best practices
or promising practices like advising
students with disabilities,
trauma-informed advising, right.
And so the standardization
of the practice does not take away
from the authenticity in the
(10:20):
individual spaces.
But that’s one of the main goals,
making sure that at the very least,
all of our advisors are taking a
more holistic approach to supporting
our students.
So I’m hearing consistency ...
Yes, sir. ...
and best practices.
And those are things that I’ve heard
and observed myself.
So I applaud that.
And I’m 100% in support of
that direction.
Thank you.
Now, I got a question for both of
(10:41):
you. What do you find most
fulfilling about your work at
the end of the day?
Oh, my goodness.
I would say, you know, going
through the experience as a student,
having mentors and the
advising community that really
wanted to get to know me, get
to know what my passions were,
you know, wanting to get to know the
(11:01):
other students and wanting
us all to work together.
I think now what
really is a
great enjoyment in my current role
is being able to get to know the
student and know exactly
what their interests are and how I
can help them, you know, find
an opportunity that may be aligning
with their interests — and just
(11:22):
sitting down and having a very
informal conversation sometimes and
being able to just connect and then
let them know that, you know, we’re
here for them.
And if they ever want to chat more,
you know, I’m — it’s an open door
situation.
Kayton?
Wow, I’m actually
two years, two and a half years into
this role as executive director of
(11:42):
academic advising, which means for
the first time in 25-plus
years, I don’t have direct contact
with students.
But I’m a systems guy.
And so what’s appealing to
me is making sure that I — number
one, I understand the different
systems in the academic advising
spaces and that we fine
tune those systems and infuse
best practices and research, right.
(12:03):
As a trained student affairs
practitioner, I always like to rely
or refer to the research
that governs the practice.
And so I’d really like us as an
entire institution to kind of rely
on the research. And some of it is
taking place throughout the campus.
But again, standardizing that
across the campus is a goal for me.
So that we’re evidence-based?
Yes, sir.
(12:23):
So I think we would all agree,
though, the best part of our jobs is
the students.
Oh, without a doubt.
Yeah.
We all concur on that one.
Now there’s a feature in “Face to
Face” that we call “Hot Seat.”
And it’s actually not a hot seat,
but all we do is ask some really
rapid-fire questions where we’re
looking for one-word or
one-sentence answer. ...Oh, my goodness. ...
So are you ready?
Sure. ... Here we go.
(12:44):
All right.
Favorite event on campus?
Davisfest.
Picnic Day.
OK. I agree with both of those.
... OK. ...
Favorite place you’ve traveled to?
Rome.
Guanajuato, Mexico.
Rome, I have been to great, great
(13:05):
location.
Best spot to get lunch on campus?
We were just talking about this, I
would say Spokes.
Spokes.
I’m going to go with Gunrock and the
new menu they have, given I'm just
coming to this space from there.
OK.
I like Gunrock’s new menu.
All right. Good for both places.
Halloween’s coming up.
Give me your favorite Halloween
(13:25):
costume you have worn.
Have worn. Wow.
I have one actually from last
year.
I dressed up as a dog that’s
in flames holding, you know,
the little blurb saying, “This is
fine.” So,
yes, that was my costume.
Honestly, I haven’t done Halloween
(13:45):
in a while, but my last costume was
one of the Jackson 5.
Big afro, bellbottoms.
You were like a generic Jackson 5?
I was a generic Jackson 5 — Jackson 6.
OK.
I ask this question of all the
guests. Tell me what’s at the top of
your playlists right now?
(14:07):
I’m listening to spooky music right
now.
The soundtrack from “They Live.” I
just saw that movie for the first
time, so.
Wow. That is spooky.
I like reggae.
I’m going to — can I pick two?
Sure.
Stephen Marley and
Chronixx.
Chronixx has a song called
(14:27):
“Here Comes Trouble.” And
Stephen Marley actually did a
tribute to his father in a most
recent song where he kind of covers
the progression of his development
and his father, Bob Marley.
I have to check that out. I’m an old
school reggae, I like Steel Pulse.
Oh, Steel Pulse, yes — can’t go
wrong. “True Democracy.” Yes.
OK, now it’s your turn.
You can ask me any question you
would like.
(14:49):
Yeah.
You know, looking at your
entire trajectory as chancellor,
what’s the legacy that you hope to
leave behind for UC Davis students?
That’s a great question, Stephanie.
And I always say in anything I do —
this job or other jobs that I’ve had
— you want to leave
the organization
better than the way you found it.
So I’d like for students,
(15:10):
faculty, staff, community members
at UC Davis to say when Chancellor
May retires or moves on,
that the university is better
because he was here.
Beautiful.
You know, there is a richness that I
find in the student body in
terms of the diversity.
And when I say diversity, I’m not
restricting that statement to
ethnicity, nor gender.
(15:31):
And what do you feel are the
benefits of having a very robust,
diverse student body?
So I always go back to
diversity gives you better outcomes.
And I’ll just give you a simple
example, which is somewhat
oversimplified.
If we didn’t have gender diversity,
it would be like using half of your
brain, because half of the
population would be left out of your
(15:52):
solutions.
So in the same way, I
feel like having all of the
brainpower, all the talents
that we have collectively working on
our issues and problems in our
society just makes things turn
out better. So that’s really been my
guiding principle about diversity.
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Yeah.
Any other questions?
Yeah. One other question that I had
(16:12):
was more in relation to
your personal focus on
like student interaction.
What types of student interactions
are you most proud of during your
time here at UC Davis?
You know, this is going to sound
a little trite, but I enjoy almost
all student interactions.
But the one
that’s the most fun that actually is
kind of unexpected
(16:34):
is when I’m walking across campus
and I get asked for selfies.
... Yeah. ...
Which I have to now factor in selfie
time when I go to a meeting.
Because I do get asked a lot, and
I’m gratified that the students
think enough of me to want to take
pictures with me and engage with me.
And, you know, sometimes
the goal of a scavenger hunt is to
get a selfie with the chancellor and
that sort of thing. So that really
(16:55):
makes my day whenever it happens.
So,
you know, I just want to thank you
both for spending time with us on
“Face to Face.” I think it was a
great interview.
I appreciate your coming, and I
appreciate you for what you’re doing
for our campus, both of you.
Thanks to everyone for listening.
Tune in next time on “Face to Face.”
(17:16):
Go, Ags!
Hi, everyone.
Welcome to “Face to Face,” a UC Davis podcast
featuring students, staff and faculty innovators.
I’m your host, Chancellor Gary May.
Stay tuned for my next guest.
Greetings, I’m Kayton Carter,
currently holding the position
of executive director
(00:23):
of Academic Advising Enrichment
for Undergraduate Education at UC Davis.
I’m also a doctoral candidate
at the UC Davis School of Education,
where my research focuses on evaluating
the impact of our Black
male mentoring program
on its participants.
Prior to my current role,
I was the founding executive director
of the Student Affairs
(00:43):
Retention Initiatives
and the inaugural director
of the Center for African Diaspora
Student Success, also known as CADSS.
In my work at UC Davis,
I’m fortunate to have the opportunity
both to create new systems
of support
for underrepresented populations
and to have personal relationships
with many of them.
(01:03):
Kayton, welcome to “Face to Face.”
Glad to be here.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate you being here with us.
And tell me who you’ve brought with
you today.
Well, can I have her introduce
herself?
Absolutely.
All right.
Hi, Chancellor.
It’s nice to see you.
My name is
Stephanie JaquelineZarate.
I’m one of the advising and outreach
coordinators at the Global Learning
Hub — that falls under Global
Affairs.
(01:24):
My first experience working with
students was actually in 2016
at the Center for African Diaspora
Student Success as a student
assistant. So Kayton is my old
boss.
Stephanie, thank you for being here
as well. It’s great to have you both
to talk about this really important
topic. So let
me just get started with you,
Kayton.
... Yes. ... How did you decide to
(01:45):
take on the
job of being the founding
executive director of our retention
initiatives at UC Davis?
What need did you see
that needed to be fulfilled?
What gap had to be fulfilled?
Wow.
Great question. I appreciate it.
So it really stemmed from my
previous role as a student affairs
officer in African American andAfrican
studies, where part of my
responsibility was kind of keeping
(02:06):
the finger on the pulse of the
African diaspora community.
And I didn’t think I
had the capacity to do that as one
person.
Fortunately, I had a template
in the Office of Minority Student
Affairs at Michigan State that I
could draw from.
And then I had friends that were
still there that I could reach back
and collaborate and communicate
with. And those ideas
(02:27):
are what led to what is now the
Student Affairs Retention
Initiatives. So the idea behind
the initiatives is that we would
dedicate our institution — UC Davis
would commit full
time staff to keeping a finger
on the pulse of our underrepresented
minority communities.
Well, thanks to Michigan State for
the idea and for you.
So, Stephanie, did you benefit from
(02:49):
the student retention initiatives
when you were a student here?
And if so how — how did it affect
you?
Yeah, I originally came from
a really small town in the Central
Valley — Riverbank, California.
And so when I came to Davis, it’s
actually — the student population
is even bigger than the town I come
from. So coming from
such a small space and then being
(03:09):
able to come over to
like such new horizons,
overall, really
built the perspective, a new
perspective for me.
So in general,
my time as a student assistant at
CADSS was the first experience
I ever had with like face-to-face
interaction —
(03:30):
and kind of gaining a perspective on
like how to bring quality care,
how to respect one another,
how to bring positivity and joy in
like everything that you do, whether
it’s just, you know, offering center
materials for students or
whether it’s like planning events.
And my time there
really motivated me to
go into the field of higher
(03:51):
education. So I originally came in
with an idea that
kind of was instilled in my parents
of work as hard as ever but
do something that, you know, may
be what we typically think of
success, whether it’s like a doctor,
a lawyer, etc.
And whenever I started working with
students and working with great
mentors like Kayton and Kawami
(04:11):
and Ken Barnes,
that really brought into perspective
what I really want to do
with my time.
And that’s helping other people, and
that’s through education.
Well, that’s what we want for all of
our students during their time here
to find what gives them fulfillment
and passion, and what they like
to do. So I’m glad it worked out in
your case.
Staying on your time as a student or
(04:32):
as a student assistant,
are there other resources
that you thought could have been
beneficial to the center
that you’re thinking about
implementing now in your new role?
That’s a great question.
So like
I mentioned previously, I work under
Global Affairs, which — its main
mission is to bring
(04:53):
interconnectedness between everyone.
And that really
weaves into my current role now,
because we
in the advising and outreach team,
we promote different
services for students, whether it’s
academic,
experiential opportunities or
co-curricular/extracurricular
opportunities for students.
(05:14):
And we really want to bring
awareness and accessibility to
underrepresented minority students.
And I think that with my current
role and the interactions that,
you know, the retention centers
have, we
are hoping to possibly
stay connected with them and offer
those services at the centers
themselves, whether it’s maybe
drop-in advising or more
(05:35):
student interactions within the
centers.
Sounds like you really have your
finger on what’s needed.
That’s important.
Kayton, I want to turn back to you.
I want to hear about your own
personal journey, your story and how
that impacted or
manifests itself now in what you
do for our students here at Davis.
It was one of the main reasons
— my personal experience — was one
of the main reasons why I entered
into the student affairs profession,
(05:56):
quite frankly.
I was a community college transfer
student at UC Berkeley
in the early 90s.
And I realized — I must clarify
that I attended six community
colleges before transitioning to
Berkeley.
And if I could be very
transparent, I got dismissed after
my first year.
I changed my major three times, and
I thought, I’m not the only one, I
(06:17):
can’t be the only one trying to
figure things out, right.
And it was an advisor/administrator
that turned me on to the
interdisciplinary profession —
interdisciplinary major
at UC Berkeley.
But then I started inquiring about
how can I do what you do, right.
I thought that I wanted to be a
teacher, which I did do
temporarily at Berkeley High
Continuation, after I finished
(06:39):
at UC Berkeley.
And then I wanted to have more
involvement or more impact into the
lives of students beyond subject
matter, right.
And so that’s when I went to —
I did a post-bac program
called the Institute for Recruitment
of Teachers (IRT).
It was on the campus of Phillips
Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.
And that’s how I ended up getting
(07:00):
a scholarship for my master’s degree
at Michigan State.
But understanding the
student affairs,
understanding the impact of student
affairs via some practicums
that I had as a master’s student —
it was required that you work in
certain fields — I landed
a graduate assistantship in the
Office of Minority Student Affairs.
Prior to that, I had no knowledge of
(07:21):
what minority student affairs was,
right.
But therein lies an entity
who, on behalf of the entire
institution, kept that finger
on the pulse of the underrepresented
populations.
And so when I transitioned
back to California,
and more importantly, came here to
UC Davis, I was
looking around for the Office of
(07:42):
Minority Student Affairs, right.
And I realized that
— I think the time was very
important. The time was
— we needed something more than
the student affairs officers.
I must clarify (07:53):
I was one
of five ethnic studies student
affairs officers.
And all of us had the same
responsibility, which was kind of
a 50% appointment of
looking at the populations that we
were responsible for.
And fortunately, I was able
to kind of inquire
with the leadership at that time,
wrote a proposal and it was
embraced.
(08:14):
And my original concept
was a centralized space,
not the individual spaces.
And I can honestly, I really
appreciate the individual spaces,
but my context was not that, right.
And so I want to kind of give credit
to previous leadership for saying,
hey, let’s look at some separate
spaces and separate staff,
(08:34):
because the template that I had at
Michigan State was a centralized
office.
But I say all that, Chancellor May,
to say
there are a lot of — and Stephanie
referred to this earlier —
co-curricular needs that may not be
satisfied in certain
majors, right.
And then there’s the — I like
to refer to it as cross-pollinating,
right.
You have a lot of people that
(08:56):
identify as a specific ethnicity,
but they’re in separate majors.
And so where would there be an
opportunity for them to interact if
not for these retention centers, in
these spaces?
So it allows a chance for students
to build community, which supports
the research. Sense of belonging
is one of the barriers to
underrepresented minority student
success.
And that’s, you know, what the
centers offered along with
(09:17):
curricular and co-curricular
support.
So that was the foundation.
Well, thanks.
Your story is such a testimony to
what can be, right.
So I appreciate all of that and
what you’re doing now.
And I’m curious in that
respect, what you’re doing now —
what’s your vision for advising
at UC Davis going forward?
If I could, I would say
(09:38):
standardizing the practice, right.
UC Davis is a decentralized campus
when it comes to advising, and so
advising looks a little bit
different in engineering than it
does in athletics, which looks
different than how it is in student
affairs.
But there are some common threads
that we can land on.
First and foremost, a holistic
advising philosophy, where we’re
looking at the entire student, not
(09:59):
just course content and schedules
and things of that sort.
And then because our population, our
student population has grown so
much, we can infuse
other best practices
or promising practices like advising
students with disabilities,
trauma-informed advising, right.
And so the standardization
of the practice does not take away
from the authenticity in the
(10:20):
individual spaces.
But that’s one of the main goals,
making sure that at the very least,
all of our advisors are taking a
more holistic approach to supporting
our students.
So I’m hearing consistency ...
Yes, sir. ...
and best practices.
And those are things that I’ve heard
and observed myself.
So I applaud that.
And I’m 100% in support of
that direction.
Thank you.
Now, I got a question for both of
(10:41):
you. What do you find most
fulfilling about your work at
the end of the day?
Oh, my goodness.
I would say, you know, going
through the experience as a student,
having mentors and the
advising community that really
wanted to get to know me, get
to know what my passions were,
you know, wanting to get to know the
(11:01):
other students and wanting
us all to work together.
I think now what
really is a
great enjoyment in my current role
is being able to get to know the
student and know exactly
what their interests are and how I
can help them, you know, find
an opportunity that may be aligning
with their interests — and just
(11:22):
sitting down and having a very
informal conversation sometimes and
being able to just connect and then
let them know that, you know, we’re
here for them.
And if they ever want to chat more,
you know, I’m — it’s an open door
situation.
Kayton?
Wow, I’m actually
two years, two and a half years into
this role as executive director of
(11:42):
academic advising, which means for
the first time in 25-plus
years, I don’t have direct contact
with students.
But I’m a systems guy.
And so what’s appealing to
me is making sure that I — number
one, I understand the different
systems in the academic advising
spaces and that we fine
tune those systems and infuse
best practices and research, right.
(12:03):
As a trained student affairs
practitioner, I always like to rely
or refer to the research
that governs the practice.
And so I’d really like us as an
entire institution to kind of rely
on the research. And some of it is
taking place throughout the campus.
But again, standardizing that
across the campus is a goal for me.
So that we’re evidence-based?
Yes, sir.
(12:23):
So I think we would all agree,
though, the best part of our jobs is
the students.
Oh, without a doubt.
Yeah.
We all concur on that one.
Now there’s a feature in “Face to
Face” that we call “Hot Seat.”
And it’s actually not a hot seat,
but all we do is ask some really
rapid-fire questions where we’re
looking for one-word or
one-sentence answer. ...Oh, my goodness. ...
So are you ready?
Sure. ... Here we go.
(12:44):
All right.
Favorite event on campus?
Davisfest.
Picnic Day.
OK. I agree with both of those.
... OK. ...
Favorite place you’ve traveled to?
Rome.
Guanajuato, Mexico.
Rome, I have been to great, great
(13:05):
location.
Best spot to get lunch on campus?
We were just talking about this, I
would say Spokes.
Spokes.
I’m going to go with Gunrock and the
new menu they have, given I'm just
coming to this space from there.
OK.
I like Gunrock’s new menu.
All right. Good for both places.
Halloween’s coming up.
Give me your favorite Halloween
(13:25):
costume you have worn.
Have worn. Wow.
I have one actually from last
year.
I dressed up as a dog that’s
in flames holding, you know,
the little blurb saying, “This is
fine.” So,
yes, that was my costume.
Honestly, I haven’t done Halloween
(13:45):
in a while, but my last costume was
one of the Jackson 5.
Big afro, bellbottoms.
You were like a generic Jackson 5?
I was a generic Jackson 5 — Jackson 6.
OK.
I ask this question of all the
guests. Tell me what’s at the top of
your playlists right now?
(14:07):
I’m listening to spooky music right
now.
The soundtrack from “They Live.” I
just saw that movie for the first
time, so.
Wow. That is spooky.
I like reggae.
I’m going to — can I pick two?
Sure.
Stephen Marley and
Chronixx.
Chronixx has a song called
(14:27):
“Here Comes Trouble.” And
Stephen Marley actually did a
tribute to his father in a most
recent song where he kind of covers
the progression of his development
and his father, Bob Marley.
I have to check that out. I’m an old
school reggae, I like Steel Pulse.
Oh, Steel Pulse, yes — can’t go
wrong. “True Democracy.” Yes.
OK, now it’s your turn.
You can ask me any question you
would like.
(14:49):
Yeah.
You know, looking at your
entire trajectory as chancellor,
what’s the legacy that you hope to
leave behind for UC Davis students?
That’s a great question, Stephanie.
And I always say in anything I do —
this job or other jobs that I’ve had
— you want to leave
the organization
better than the way you found it.
So I’d like for students,
(15:10):
faculty, staff, community members
at UC Davis to say when Chancellor
May retires or moves on,
that the university is better
because he was here.
Beautiful.
You know, there is a richness that I
find in the student body in
terms of the diversity.
And when I say diversity, I’m not
restricting that statement to
ethnicity, nor gender.
(15:31):
And what do you feel are the
benefits of having a very robust,
diverse student body?
So I always go back to
diversity gives you better outcomes.
And I’ll just give you a simple
example, which is somewhat
oversimplified.
If we didn’t have gender diversity,
it would be like using half of your
brain, because half of the
population would be left out of your
(15:52):
solutions.
So in the same way, I
feel like having all of the
brainpower, all the talents
that we have collectively working on
our issues and problems in our
society just makes things turn
out better. So that’s really been my
guiding principle about diversity.
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Yeah.
Any other questions?
Yeah. One other question that I had
(16:12):
was more in relation to
your personal focus on
like student interaction.
What types of student interactions
are you most proud of during your
time here at UC Davis?
You know, this is going to sound
a little trite, but I enjoy almost
all student interactions.
But the one
that’s the most fun that actually is
kind of unexpected
(16:34):
is when I’m walking across campus
and I get asked for selfies.
... Yeah. ...
Which I have to now factor in selfie
time when I go to a meeting.
Because I do get asked a lot, and
I’m gratified that the students
think enough of me to want to take
pictures with me and engage with me.
And, you know, sometimes
the goal of a scavenger hunt is to
get a selfie with the chancellor and
that sort of thing. So that really
(16:55):
makes my day whenever it happens.
So,
you know, I just want to thank you
both for spending time with us on
“Face to Face.” I think it was a
great interview.
I appreciate your coming, and I
appreciate you for what you’re doing
for our campus, both of you.
Thanks to everyone for listening.
Tune in next time on “Face to Face.”
(17:16):
Go, Ags!
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