Transcript

 

Derek Smith:

Hello, and welcome to Baylor connections, a conversation series with the people shaping our future. Each week, we go in depth with Baylor leaders, professors, and more discussing important topics in higher education, research and student life. I'm Derek Smith and our guest today is Matt Burchett. Dr. Matt Burchett serves as director of Baylor student activities in the department of student life. Student activities' motto, you are created to connect, captures broadly the ways they help students find a home at Baylor. Their involvement in organizations and activities that enhance their Baylor experience. During the COVID-19 public health crisis, student activities moved many of their programs online to continue to engage students during a time of physical separation that will continue to the end of the semester and through senior week. And we'll continue to go on as we engage students adjusting to these strange times together. Well, Dr. Matt Burchett, it's so great to have you on the program today. Thanks so much for joining us.

Matt Burchett:

Derek, it's great to be here.

Derek Smith:

Well, obviously you and your staff and colleagues throughout the department of student life of which student activities is a part have had a lot of adjustments. It's been a semester like none other. As you take a little bit of a breath hopefully now that the semester is over, what does the end of this semester feel like and what are some of the topics, question, ideas that may be most on your mind as you head into the summer?

Matt Burchett:

Derek, that's a great question. It's been an intense six to 10 weeks like it has for everyone else as we had a pretty dramatic pivot. We rely so heavily on physical spaces and being together in environments on the beautiful Baylor campus. To move all that virtually with very short notice, just like we did our classes and all the other services the university had to offer, it took a lot of work, a lot of innovation, and a lot of partnerships to be able to try to bring the Baylor experience literally into people's living rooms. And so I think our team is collectively taking a deep breath, but I know we're getting back to work really quickly as we think about our summer school students and how they will want and need to stay active and engaged on our campus community. And certainly start preparing for the fall and all the various scenarios that we can encounter as an institution, because the same commitment we had this spring with Dia del Oso and Bearathon, it's made of some major campus events, we want to make sure we're delivering our fall experiences in a dynamic and innovative way to ensure that no student misses out on what being a Baylor bear feels like on our campus.

Derek Smith:

I briefly highlighted what student activities is about, but could you dive a little bit further into the mission, maybe for people who aren't as familiar and how student activities goes about accomplishing that mission?

Matt Burchett:

Certainly. Student activities, it encompasses nine areas of campus life. Greek life, student organizations, our student union, our spirit traditions, which is a unique area. It's our partnership with athletics and overseeing programs like the bear pit and the bear line. That also includes the bear chamber of commerce, which oversees the major campus events, homecoming, family weekend, Dia del Oso. And then one of my favorite things about my job overseeing joint lady are two American black bears that are housed in the Bill and Evan Williams bear habitat. And this also includes student productions, seeing in pig skin, after dark, stomps fest, our campus programs, which are major campus partnerships like fed races or chili cook off for Christmas on fifth street. And then our unique spaces like the student union and student foundation are all part of that student activities umbrella. But really our core essence, what we are we're attempting to do day in and day out is quite simple. You mentioned the intro, we believe that all students are created to connect by our Lord and savior to find a place where they belong, where their passions and their interests are able to be materialized, where they as people can be all of who God's designed them to be, where they can thrive. And so our mission is simply that, is to find a way for our students to connect. Now, it could be a space, it could be a place where they feel at home and relax like the Sub, or Waco hall. It could be an organization where they get involved and connected that really ties their interest or passion into a way to activate that interest or passion. Or it could just be going to a campus event where they just enjoy being in the presence of the activity itself of other people. And so no matter what that may be, and we have a very diverse portfolio of ways in which we try to accomplish that because we have a very diverse student body, our core mission is to help every single student find that pathway to connection. Because we know if they are able to find that pathway to connection, that leads to all of these beautiful outcomes of feeling like they're a part of something bigger than themselves, becoming who God designed them to be and believing and knowing and feeling that Baylor university is a place they can call home.

Derek Smith:

Talking with Matt Burchett, director of student activities at Baylor. And let's start, we're going to talk about some of those ways that you adjusted during COVID-19, but let's start with a most recent. Over the weekend, another group, another class of Baylor students officially became alumni. And obviously the end of their senior year, commencement Saturday looked nothing like they might have expected, but I know Baylor really went into overdrive looking for some ways to honor them and make that weekend special. But what did that look like? Trying to just figure out the best ways within the parameters you face to do something special for seniors?

Matt Burchett:

Senior week, like most things certainly during this season, it really is a manifestation of the Baylor community, the Baylor culture as a whole. It's just a dynamic partnership between marketing and communications, student life, the alumni office, our friends in academic affairs and the provost office. And what we were able to accomplish with a series of events that each one of us had a role in to ensure our seniors felt celebrated and honored, but also that we recognize that the challenge and the uniqueness of their specific graduation week. The list of events were anything from traditional things like Dr. Pepper hour, which Dr. Blair Browning was able to host that for us, where he surprised a couple of students who had particularly unique stories of their senior year, one student who's from Seattle, but got stuck in New York. So two hotbeds of the COVID-19 crisis, but just had this incredibly positive outlook on life was surprised by Derek Hass, she's a film and digital media major, so Derek Hass of Chicago Fire Fame surprised her and gave her a word of encouragement. Another student who took a picture with Dr. Livingstone at lion camp during her freshman year was surprised by Dr. Livingstone herself there in this live Zoom call just to kind of close out her senior year the way it began her freshman year. And so we had all these unique storylines during Dr. Pepper hour. So taking a cherished tradition and making it a momentous way for our seniors to wrap up. Our alumni relations team solicited alumni to give encouraging notes, our academic affairs team equipped them with career service opportunities to be a resume building and networking and encouragements and faculty. We had a live concert on Thursday night for our seniors, and all embedded throughout the week we were hosting a senior week gift campaign where they can buy a senior class 2020 t-shirt. One of our partners here locally holding the roof. And a pretty substantive amount of that purchase was going to the senior class project, which we have successfully accomplished. We were able to reach our fundraising goal of right around $30,000. And that project will be a legacy walkway in Traditions Plaza. Traditions Plaza is where the moral tent right outside the Sub, in between the Sub and [inaudible 00:08:14], and in that plaza there is a crushed granite walkway right now. We're going to convert that into a paved walkway with the scripture of Hebrews 12-1 embedded in the middle. Which as you know, speaks to the themes of perseverance and community and connectedness, and which I think really embodies this year senior class. And so that'll be their legacy gift to campus because they were not able to walk the stage this becomes a walkway for them to be remembered by, but also as an encouragement to future generations of Baylor bears, that they would have the opportunity to also find that community, to run the race with perseverance and really pursue the Lord in all those efforts.

Derek Smith:

Well, that's great. And certainly very appropriate with that scripture, with what they've demonstrated here over these last few months. We're visiting on Baylor connections today with Dr. Matt Burchett director of student activities in the department of student life. And Matt let's zoom out now more broadly as we look back, we think back, it feels like a long time ago in a lot of ways when during spring break it became apparent that we were going to be apart for some time. And of course it eventually became the duration of the semester. And we had Dr. Kevin Jackson, vice president for student life of which student activities is a part on the show several weeks ago. And he was talking about the rapid adjustment to serve students remotely throughout his division, throughout your division. But more specifically from a student activities standpoint, what did that look like in terms of having to in real time, find ways as you talked about to maintain those important connections at a time when really students needed them more than ever.

Matt Burchett:

Our team, and I think this is what we love to do day in and day out is to help every student find a place to connect, but also kind of the nature of our work does manifest itself or lends itself to being flexible and to adjust. Homecoming is homecoming certainly, but homecoming always has variables, whether it be a weather variable or highway 35 construction, or whatever that may be. We're always having to think creatively and on our toes with how we make sure those events continue to serve our students and our alumni community overall. So whenever COVID-19 it became really apparent that we're going to have to do things differently. I think our team adjusted pretty quickly under this kind of common mantra, it's like how do we bring the familiar into an unfamiliar space? And so that we had a deep commitment first and foremost to say, we do not want to compromise those things that make the Baylor experience beautiful. And so the question is not, do we do it? It's how we do it. And how do we do it in a way that would create the highest level of engagement and enthusiasm amongst our community. And so we really knew we'd hit on something right out of the gate whenever we hosted our first Dr. Pepper hour post COVID. And we hosted it in the living room or technically in the kitchen of the Livingstone's. It was Shelby and Brad and Dr. Livingstone. And they had a stand mixer and Dr. Pepper and Bluebell ice cream and live on Facebook, they hosted our first virtual Dr. Pepper hour. And 31,000 views later, we realized that people longed for the familiar and we wanted to still host Dr. Pepper hour, we wanted to do the Bearathon and have Dia del Oso still happen. And as we started planning these programs and really innovating and I'll give credit here where it's most appropriate. Our students planners and our student events have been incredible being able to offer creativity and innovation in the midst of their disappointment. A lot of these students, when you're hosting a Bearathon or hosting a Dia del Oso, you plan for those programs for up to a year. And they were in the final weeks of preparation and we look at our students and say, we cannot do the event you just planned for the last 11 months. You're going to have to reconsider how we do this. And their ability to mourn, to feel the loss, but then to really quickly turn their attention to being thoughtful and innovative, helped all these events to be successful. And we're just incredibly grateful to the staff and the students who did all the work in a very, again, very short amount of time. But also I'm just grateful for our alumni and our students who joined us in this effort. The best laid programs are only as effective as the people who are able to enjoy them. And so we had droves of students and families sit in on live concerts, Phil Wickham over at Dia del Oso had over 4,000 viewers. We sold 3,000 units of apparel for Dia del Oso, the social distancing edition apparel line, which was really, really popular. We had 2,000 runners for Bearathon and they ran in all 50 States, seven different countries, raising over $12,000 for student scholarships. And so we saw all of these moments of success and realized that the Baylor family, our traditions, really do transcend our campus. Although we would always prefer, and we will someday return to doing Dia del Oso on Fountain Mall or doing Dr. Pepper hour in Barfield dry room, having Bearathon run through the great city of Waco, those traditions are more than the physical spaces. They are a part of our ethos, our culture, and our community. And this spring semester has proven to us that they're pretty transcendent, which we love. And that just gives us even more commitment and even more longing for them to return, knowing how deeply embedded some of these programs and experiences are for our students and alumni.

Derek Smith:

We can just talked there, Matt, about some of the positives. And I know in this we're all looking for silver linings and I saw you mentioned 2,000 people running Bearathon. I saw a lot of people on social media posting their times or a picture of their family member as they run by. And what has social media, is social media a silver living? It feels like a lot of people throughout the Baylor family might even be spreading some of these ideas, some of these messages, some of that enthusiasm even further than we might in normal times.

Matt Burchett:

Yeah, Derek, you know this already, but we have an incredible social media team at Baylor, just really talented professionals that provide a lot of guidance to us and to our teams in helping us to frame how we do these programs, how we offer live content, recorded content out to our broader community. And so social media has been a big driver. And we also had a really incredible partnership with a local vendor and developing a virtual live stream platform that we've used a handful of times for our concerts. We did a documentary, a first run documentary movie called Jumpshot a few weeks ago. That was really well received. 300 people joined us live to watch a documentary. I mean, we do these every Monday. And so we're really accustomed to doing documentary, independent films, but they're normally, great attendance is a hundred to 150 people to watch the documentary. To have nearly 300 join us live with a panel that included Dr. Livingstone to coach Drew and coach Mulkey and Nita Davis, and the two filmmakers afterwards, we have a live Zoom call. It was just a really neat experience overall. And so social media or virtual delivery platforms have served us really beautifully. I want to probably highlight and as far as social media is concerned is a few months ago, but well before COVID-19, we started a Instagram and Facebook page for Joy and Lady our two mascots on campus. And it's from their own voice, which is a really unique way in which to deliver that content. But that has been one of the most incredible outreach tools that our office has been able to utilize. Early on in the crisis. We sent a note out on Instagram to say, if you're feeling discouraged or if you need a little word of hope, we'd love to help. We'll send you a note, we'll send you a video message or whatever that may be. We're here to support our Baylor family in the middle of some challenging times. And unbeknownst to us and what we were doing at the time, we received over 4,000 requests.

Derek Smith:

Wow.

Matt Burchett:

And so our students worked for nearly two weeks delivering live Facebook calls, recording videos of hope and encouragement. They wrote thousands of postcards to encourage those in our community. And it was just an incredible outpouring, not only people needing hope, but then our students and particularly our bear program students and chamber, delivering that hope in such meaningful and thoughtful ways. And then they followed that up during senior week, I think one of the cooler things that they did or we did as a group was the chamber asked and again, in Joy and Lady's voice, if they could deliver another message of hope to the seniors. And so they painted three full sized banners. They painted each graduate's name on the banner individually

Derek Smith:

Wow.

Matt Burchett:

Hung it in the bear habitat and then put an offer out to say we will cut your name off this banner and send it to you if you want it. So you could have a memento of your senior week. And so again, I don't know if we knew what we were getting into at the time, but thousands of requests have come in. I think we'll end up sending nearly every graduate their name from that banner. But just an incredibly thoughtful, sacred way to care for our community. And this is students loving students. These are our undergraduates within our community saying, how do we care for the students sitting next to us in our classrooms? Even though we can't be there together now, how do we do that? And it just takes a tremendous amount of work and effort, but it's what I'm seeing, at least what I'm getting a chance to witness firsthand is the level of dedication, the work ethic and effort they will put into something if it means that we get a chance to be the caring community that our mission calls us to be. And it's just been, I have seen so much beauty in the middle of a lot of tragedy. And a lot of it's coming from our students. And so that's one in the social media world that we have just been blown away by the number of views and impressions and engagements that Joy and Lady are getting from the Baylor bear habitat Instagram and Facebook pages, has just been overwhelmingly positive and such an enriching part of these last two months.

Derek Smith:

Talking to Matt Burchett and Matt, as we head into the final moment of the program, I was going to ask you what you've learned. I think you've really described that when you talk about Baylor traditions and even better, I think it's the way you just talked about students and the way they've stepped up.

Matt Burchett:

Their Derek, thank you so much for having us. Again, we're just so grateful for the Baylor family. For students first and foremost and certainly for all those who have supported us and engaged and been a part of the journey. You talk about final lessons learned, and I think one of the things that has been really evident to us is that this is not how we do programs during COVID-19, and then we'll go back to doing programs the way we've always them when COVID-19 is over. I think what this has helped us to really see is we're going to do programs differently from this point forward. And there's an opportunity to really engage the broader Baylor family well beyond our physical spaces. And so this will be from my seat, a positive, enriching shift for us to do that and both. And in that and both, I think we'll be able to bring all of the beauty of Baylor University to such a broader audience. And we already had a big one, but I am thrilled, I am pumped to see that audience grow in the next couple of years as we continue to innovate and bring those things that make us us to our constituents.

Derek Smith:

Well, there's a lot to look forward to and a lot to be excited about. Matt Burchett, director of student activities at Baylor, our guest today. Matt again, thanks so much, it's been great to have you on the program today.

Matt Burchett:

Thank you, Derek.

Derek Smith:

This is Baylor connections. Again, our guest today, Matt Burchett. I'm Derek Smith, and a reminder you can hear this and other programs online, baylor.edu/connections. Thanks for joining us here on Baylor connections.