[This text is machine generated and may contain errors.]

Discussion moderated by Scott Francis, Associated Vice Chancellor for Alumni Affairs and President of the Alumni Association.
Panelists:
Panel Member: Dr. Kenneth Hammond, class of 1973
Panel Member: Dr. Sheila Bunch, class of 1975
Panel Member: Cedric Dickerson, class of 1976
Panel Member: Dorothy Jordan, class of 1982, & 1988
Panel Member: Dr. Geleana Alston, class of 2005.

Dr. Kenneth Hammond 0:00
As activities and so there was a very process where they sent a team in on a Friday, you went through interviews on Friday. You went through interviews on Saturday. And then on Sunday, they made a selection. And so I was one of 10 students chosen for the for that program. The the coordinator for the program at ECU was a business professor by the name of Dr. Albert Connelly. Conley was from Oklahoma. And he was proud of his roots in Oklahoma, but he took me under his wings. And I said the other night that if I if I reflect back over my life in terms of me and my father, a former pastor of mine, and Dr. Connelly probably had the greatest impact on my life. He found out that I enjoyed public speaking and got money through the Fellows Program, to literally buy the equipment so that I could practice speaking, they encouraged me to get involved in campus activities. I got involved with student government association served as secretary of Minority Affairs, Secretary of External Affairs, served in students judiciary, and was elected as president and senior class. And so those were things that were significant. And also add that I was a charter member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the first black Greek organization at ECU. So we were trailblazers in that respect. Coming to East Carolina, I never envisioned considered myself a trailblazer. I think the year that I enrolled, we were told that there were 63 black students at ECU for the shoot that I knew all with that most of them that I never could count more than 45. So you know, we were there, and you had a choice, you can get involved with what's going on in the campus and, and try to make a difference. But I never really saw myself as any kind of Trailblazer. I was there to get a degree and get the hell out of there and go on and start a career. And so that was kind of my game plan. And, you know, I have many positive experiences along the way, that certainly have been pivotal in shaping me into person, and I am.

Scott Francis 2:46
Excellent, thank you so much for sharing that. And well, we'll come circle back. But we want to hear now from Dr. Sheila Bunche.

Dr. Sheila Bunch 2:56
Good morning, everyone. And thank you for the opportunity. I came to ECU in the fall of 1973 from a very small town called Windsor, North Carolina. And when I came to ECU, I'm not sure why I came, I think it was because it was close to home. And I wasn't going to go to Elizabeth City where my father went, and I wasn't going to be a teacher. So that that was part of it. Part of my experience was I went to segregated schools up until the eighth grade. And when I came to ECU so that's part of my educational background. I majored in social work and graduated in 1976. However, in the early 70s, there were some significant things that happened that I think kind of shaped the black experience at ECU. There were a lot of firsts. So I was there when the university made a decision to hire African American faculty, so Ledonia Wright, was hired. My mentor, Laurietta Lewis, who was in Social Work was hired, Dr. Donald Ensley. There are some folks in education hired Dr. Lula Hosey over in what we used to call Home Economics came to campus during that time. There were also some other first Linda Clark, the first black majorette, Glenda Moultrie, the first black I guess we call them Pom Pom dancers. I don't know what they call them now. But Jeri Barnes who was the first black ECU, homecoming queen that represented all of the University. Prior to that, prior to Jeri Barnes, there was this dual system where you had a white homecoming queen and a black homecoming queen, but Jeri Barnes represented the entire university. So there were a lot of firsts. And like Ken said, Dr. Hammond said, I became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha University, I mean, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority in the spring of 1974. So that was the first black sorority on campus. And it was chartered in the fall of 1973. The University had to create some spaces for us to be social. And so though, because sometimes we were not welcomed downtown. So some of us in the 70s, remember, going to parties in the basement of Bill dorm. And and I don't know said it should have mentioned the famous bunch punch during that time. So in a way, that there, there were some really good times, we felt like family, we created informal support systems for each other. And so I graduated in the fall of 1976. We were on the quarter system at that time, and I graduated early, because I didn't want to go back to the thriving metropolis of Windsor during the summers. So I went to summer school. And one other thing I want to mention, post undergraduate graduation, is that in the early 80s, Jackie Hawkins, Rene Duncanfield, and myself, organized the first gathering of Black Alumni at a homecoming. And we did that for a couple of years. And then that became the foundation of ECU Black Alumni. And so I'm very proud of what has happened with that group along the way. In the in January of 1986, I came to ECU to work as a fixed term faculty member in what was then the Department of Social Work, we were over at Allied Health. And I had gone to that other school in Chapel Hill and gotten a master's in social work. And so came to ECU in 1986. And kind of worked my way up the ladder and got on the way up the ladder. I completed a PhD in sociology from that other school in Raleigh, NC State and picked up a clinical license and social work. So those of you in need of mental health counseling, I do have an LCSW and my rates are compatible with Blue Cross and Blue Shield. So I retired after 34 years of service to East Carolina University on July 31 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, so they're, they're proud of my work at ECU school social work. I've been instrumental in launching the careers of several faculty members and launching the careers of of dynamic social work alums who are doing great things out there. So that's kind of who I am, in a nutshell what I've been doing.

Scott Francis 9:34
Thank you. Appreciate it and time for a commercial break. This panel has been brought to you by Dr. Sheila Bunche mental health services. Let's take it on over to Cedric. Oh, you're muted.

Cedric Dickerson 9:52
I need to Okay, I'm unmuted. Okay, thank you for inviting me to be a part of this process. I don't know if I should call it all these people, doctors, You know, Ken and Sheila, that's not who I refer to them as back in the day. So I'm going to take the point of personal privilege and leave off your handle when I refer to you if that's okay. Sheila, you stole about 50% of my story, but I will proceed. Anyway. I came to East Carolina in 1972. I came from Goldsboro, North Carolina. I grew up on a family owned farm. So hard work was something that was part of my daily routine. I was the first person on my mom's side of the family to go to college, which presented some disadvantages. And and some advantages. The advantages were when my grades weren't great. They didn't understand I was looking at goofing off. So because they had not had the experience. They thought it was the big place in Greenville with all the hard work that a student in high school was making seeds now, but with another story, but the way that I made my way to East Carolina, I was the first class in my high school and my county denigrate. And that was 1968. And the school that I attended was Charles B. Aycock High School. And that was quite a tumultuous time. And we spent a lot of time just trying to survive and to get an education. So at some point, I transferred to Eastern Wayne High School where I graduated, and I can I ran into a senior counselor named Miss McLaughhorn. And she saw something in me. And she asked me said, well, Cedric, are you going to college? I'm like, oh, yeah, college. That sounds like a good thing. I said, Okay. So yeah, yeah, I think I want to go to college. He said, Well, you haven't taken any of these tests. You haven't taken the PSAT back then you haven't taken the LSAT. So this lady my senior year, so so we got to take these tests. So she said, You know, we've gone through a lot over these years integration, it's been tough. Do you really feel like that the best course would be for now for you to go to a predominantly black school, we will not be stepping back. So I really never thought about that. Because the people that I knew that were in my circle that I looked up to those people who graduated. Most of them were not class central eagles. So that's pretty much what I my point of reference was. So we entered into a little transaction. She said, Okay, let's look at four schools. We're gonna look at two, historically black schools. And we're going to look at two predominant white schools, and we're going to apply to all four, and we'll look at it and then you know, you make your decision. So of course, the historically black schools knocked on central because my Aunt Sarah, that was her school. And the other one was Winston Salem State, because that's where Monroe played. So you know, so that was my point of reference arrow to Pearl. So the other two schools were East Carolina, and UNC. And at that time, the thing that stands out is that, you know, in those days, the interest LSAT score, I think, was somewhere like 830 for East Carolina, and I remember getting my score back. And I was totally destroyed because I made like a 590. And I took it to the guidance counseling, I walked in as, hey, we're gonna have to do this again, because I made a five nine and she looked at she said, you had the two scores together. That was your math score. You got it. So long story short, I made it over to Home had a pretty good score. And I had choices of going to UNC which is where every kid in eastern North Carolina grew up listening to Tar Heel basketball, or East Carolina, or what? Central or Western Salem. And there was no complex process. There was a guy who went to my high school named Cedric Durham, and I know can probably know Cedric and Sheila. And one afternoon, Cedric said, Hey, I'm going back to East Carolina to pick up some of my stuff. It's the end of the quarter. You want to ride with me? So I rode up to East Carolina, kind of looked around, never visited Carolina and never visited central never visited West Salem State. So it was not a a thorough process. You had a guy who was from Goldsboro, who didn't want to stay in Goldsboro because of tobacco fields, but it didn't really want to go too far away. And my major interest at that time was Business Administration. And East Carolina had a pretty good rep, reputation for the business school. So long story short, that was a process that led me to East Carolina. So upon arriving there, I think we basically at that time, my recollection Sheila, you can you can count, and fact check me. I think our class and 72 was around 350 Black students, which was a largest influx in the history of the school. You know, what the history was very long, but yeah, but it was the largest influx. And we came in as a freshman class. We really didn't we were trying to navigate our way around. We look to other folks. We look to people like Ken and Jackie and people who already their names like Brenda Daniels, my first ECU party was at Brenda Daniel's house. You know, I remember very vividly because the most most memorable thing was Pamela saying with sleep on the couch and his first ECU party. So but we tried to navigate ourselves around and look for places to connect. At that time it was Souls. It was an organization where as Ken said, you knew everyone, we had to be very, very close knit, because that was our mode of survival. We had to cling to each other. So Souls was kind of the lifeblood. And yeah, there were a lot of firsts. And but when I I've been involved with these Carolina a lot, and and I currently serve on the Student Affairs Advisory Council, and we see some of the problems that some of the students now we're experiencing over the last few years, would they have a common issue with the kneeling issue and things of that nature. And when we reflect it back, when we look back at our time, we probably don't remember those, those those things, a major conflict. And I tried to reflect back why. And the reason why was because we weren't very much of a presence. As the presence grew. So did the issues. Probably the first issue that I remember was probably Jeri, because being the first homecoming queen of the university, the thing that stood out first was she was the first one in the history of the school that we could remember that was not invited to Chancellor's box. And those are just some of the little things. But as as, just like, in many cases, as the President became greater, it created issues. When I talked to other people from other generations, like the 80s and 90s. They talked to me about the Buccaneers and some of the outrageous articles that was written and racial things. They looked at me like I would be able to match your story, but we didn't experience a lot of that back then. I mean, but maybe we were in a little small cocoon in our own little family group and, and just trying to survive. But it was a great time for me. You know, many people that I know that African American, they said that when they got in their car for the last time to drive away from East Carolina, the rearview mirror view of it would be the only view that they were able to see. And so the last few years of, of working with Student Affairs and working with different groups, we had to try to break down those barriers, and invite people back to the university. You know, and for whatever reason, I've always been connected. I've always come back. Probably joining the Power Club 2030 years ago and been to tons and tons of event where I looked around the room, nobody looked like me, but kept coming back and kept being involved. So even in some situations that weren't maybe the most ideal. The love is still there. In fact, the love is so blinding. Sometimes reality doesn't click in. Like last night, for example, I got their football schedule, and I saw it was homecoming. And for the first time ever, Homecoming was listed on the schedule. I mainly picked up the phone and called the Hilton and booked four days, Thursday through Sunday and I didn't go wow, I'm smarter than everybody else. And I call one of my friends and he said you do notice a pandemic out there and the reason that Hilton is not full because you don't want to come in. So, but I have a love for the university. I think that I have connected with a business school in Greenville, and Wilmington, there's some splinter groups here. I've been I tried always support the Alumni Association, but the driving force behind that, that that support is that I felt like it was incumbent upon me and other alumni to always maybe provide a A support gap. Because so many new students that we didn't have back in the day, we really, I can't really and this is not intended to be a slide on university, but I can't remember any professor. And I can remember many high school teachers even doing integration. I can remember any professor that I had, that I can say, reached out and supported me or made me feel special, or someone that I would reach out and say, Hey, this was a person. If I had to reach out and say one person that stood out for me, it was a lady named Mary Williams that I worked for in the library. She was a connector for me. And I remember the Queen's you she looked that that first queen that I remember as a young lady named Harriet Candidate was like, was the first black queen. Yeah, and I think she was from rich lands. So there's so many memories, and there was some good and there was some bad, but it just shows that it doesn't have to be perfect. Because we even with some of the experiences we have back there, we still ride we're still here, we're still involved in university, we're volunteering our time. I'm very happy to this year, I'm backing off a little bit from the Black Alumni Association, I'm gonna support. But I realized I hadn't had a homecoming in 10 years. It began with Thursday night with a meet and greet or was shared and do that. Patricia, the career symposia, career symposium and Friday morning golf to alumni golf tournament and in an afternoon, and then Friday night mixer, and then a business meeting at 7am. And then a football game, and then the [Inaudible], and then the [Inaudible] service on Sunday. And then about Sunday afternoon, on about three hours of sleep. I'm drinking Mountain Dew is trying to get to Wilmington. So I was looking forward this year, to having my first old time homecoming where you go and just hang out with your friend and have fun and yours. So hopefully the pandemic will subside, and we will be able to get back in died affected and get back around each other. But my East Carolina story, as you can tell, I would say would be ultimately a positive story. And I am still connected, still committed, and will continue to work to uplift and bring other people forward. And I would always encourage students to attend East Carolina until East Carolina makes that is something that I don't feel comfortable doing. So thank you for letting me have a little time here.

Scott Francis 22:42
Awesome. Thank you for sharing and your ECU story is ongoing.

Dr. Sheila Bunch 22:49
Scott?

Scott Francis 22:49
Yes, ma'am.

Dr. Sheila Bunch 22:49
Before we move on, we talked about faculty and we've talked about other students who, who really helped us along the way. But I would be really remiss if I didn't mention the housekeeping staff. People in the dorms, who worked in those dormitories, looked out for us, and became really informal mentors as well, because they were more, they had their own story. Many of them were ex military, they were leaders in the community. And so other people treated them as if they were invisible, but to us, they were very influential day with nature that Oh, honey, do you know what church you need to go to and me so um, I really wanted to give a shout out to them.

Cedric Dickerson 23:50
I want to mention one more perk that we had at East Carolina is we always have private rooms. So because my roommate usually moved out after a couple of months, so So if we didn't take it as an insult, we're like, Wow, we got a private room. And so

Scott Francis 24:06
Cedric you're probably a lot like me, where about some of my coping mechanisms for stuff is, hey, as a former housing professional, that one cracks me up, mostly because it's still happens. Oh, goodness. Thank you for that. Let's move it on to Dorothy.

Dorothy Jordan 24:32
Oh, good morning. I guess we're going chronologically down the list. Okay, I started ECU in 1978. graduated in 82. With a degree in school and community health education, came back and got a master's later on graduating in Ada. My health ed there GRI was not for naught. I did work In public health for a number of years, my last position was as Director of Health Education at Edgecombe County Health Department. I'm now working at Beaufort County, community college as director of TRiO Student Support Services, where I work with First Gen students and and try to get students to attend East Carolina University who may not want to go far away but need some additional assistance. So that's my steel connection with ECU in a way, in terms of how I got to ECU I grew up in Rich Square, North Carolina, which is not far from Windsor, North Carolina, where you just heard about, and if you know about the history of North Carolina, or where those northern counties are, we were called the Black Belt. I don't know if we still are. But back then we were. So that meant that integration came slowly to our area for various and sundry reasons. So I was the last class class to graduate from what was the all black high school. As I said, integration may have happened, but it was not. When I take that back, desegregation happened, integration didn't. And so, as I was looking at schools to attend, my counselor kept saying, You need to explore some things a little bit different. To have a different perspective on the world. My family members had attended HBCUs my mom graduated from Shaw, U, you know, we've had other family members. And so my generation of cousins, I guess, were the group that explored differently attending predominantly white institutions. And my two first choices were North Carolina, and actually three, UNC Greensboro, North Carolina State, and East Carolina University. I could not figure out a major that I wanted to pursue at North Carolina State. So I just said, Okay, I can be at ECU and be far from home, but not far from home. far enough that I didn't have to say I could go home every weekend. At but close enough that if I needed something I was I could get there. So ECU, I came and there were several people from my hometown who had already come on campus. And one of them I'm some of you may know, Tony Harris, you know, who used to always see me on campus. And it used to bug me because she screamed out, "Hey Homegirl!" But that was what the consists of community was for African American students, even as the 70s ended and the 80s began. In that for him and you were working on campus, I think there were about then maybe almost 1000 of us on campus when I was there, but there was still the expectation that if you saw a person of color on campus, a black person, you better speak. If you didn't speak to them. You were talked about you were talked called all sorts of names. So we knew that that was part of our, our unity. Some of the organizations that have been mentioned were still in place Souls was still there. Dr. Bunch mentioned, the dawn, you're right, having come to campus as an instructor, well, she predated me. But I do remember my freshman year, and I don't know what the cultural center was called before that, but I attended. That was one of the things I remember my freshman year was either the dedication of Ledonia Wright Cultural Center, I don't know if they just named it that year for her. But I remember attending that, that ceremony and I met Dr. Best, Andrew best who was an African American in the community who was all about helping the students at ECU be acclimated and comfortable. Along with with Souls, I'm trying to think of things that happened during my tenure at ECU as an undergrad. There was an organization also called that I participated in called pre professional health society. And our advisor was you've heard her name over and over Jackie Hawkins Morton, who is as an advisor to us. She actually became a mentor. And one of the most memorable things that that I remember Jackie telling us happened after that infamous incident. I had the yearbook that I cannot find any more than that. It may be at my parents house are going to add it or in a storage room. But the yearbook where I'm The fraternity was pictured in blackface happened during that time and and, you know, of course, African American students were all in an uproar. And I remember going to professional health meeting and Jackie saying, you know, be careful what you get involved in, there's gonna be a bonfire and everybody's gonna burn their yearbooks and Jackie said just just choose your choose your fights choose how you fight and she just kind of calmed us down a little bit which which I think was was if you know Jackie that's that's kind of her demeanor the way it out, wear it out and and think about what you what you do, but that was that yearbook was was quite an event and stirred up quite a bit of emotions for us on campus. I remember that. There was the, the ECU started at an NAACP chapter, a student chapter on campus during that time, not sure how long it lasted or, you know, I do remember it may have been near the end of my, maybe my junior senior year because I didn't get to go as often as I would have liked. And it may have been because I was doing internships or whatever. But that was an organization that kind of started during that time. And as Sheila said, you know, I remember Miss Mamie was was the person who took care of our our rooms and took care of us when we were at ECU. So definitely a shout out to those those housekeepers who were there during that time. There was the beginning of of the adult what I guess now is the ECU gospel choir and got to him and you will remember that was the ECU gospel ensemble at one point, and then out of another group called the fellowship, there was ECU choir, and somehow those two came together to become what is now the ECU gospel choir. But those things were as, as she mentioned, we got on the bus and for many of us that the Hammond was our college preacher, because we got on the brown bus. I think it was brown and maybe it was green. I don't know which one and we went to Cedar Grove. And on Sunday morning, that bus came to pick us up because back then, you know, everybody didn't have a car, especially your freshman and sophomore year, you got to go somewhere. We use the buses and I remember the ECU bus system even though those they drive those beautiful buses now the brown bus and the Go bus used to leave us stranded at Pitt Plaza. Many a day. And nobody you guys don't know what to Plaza but that's where what is the mall the mall is now but we would have to figure out how to walk back to campus so many today. During that era, in there were many instructors. I think that there is Lee's name has dimension. He gave us some tidbits about life. And that I think, you know, we carry with us throughout about community organization, providing service to the community being soft skills, we need it for working. And Pat Garden was another instructor of mine who I thought Pat used to bring in Lincoln toys, tinker toys and Lincoln Logs. And the first time she did that I thought What is this woman doing but she was teaching us group dynamics. And we learned a lot. So in terms of my major, even though there were more ECU was a bigger campus than than the school. The high school that I graduated from. Our major was a small group of close knit people where I have to say that toward the end of our tenure at ECU, we just saw each other as healthcare students. It was amazing. Some of the things we were comfortable enough to say to each other, which you know, sometimes when I talk about diversity, and teaching diversity relationship is what I always say, makes a difference. And we had developed that kind of close knit relationship that we could say some things that I probably couldn't say to somebody that I didn't know as well. And we ask questions and learn about each other in that respect. I had a chance to be a UNC Institute government intern and work in state government my junior year at ECU You, which was an experience, because we had a chance to go to the legislator and met many Dan Blue and had meals with the Governor as a result. So there was some things that ECU offered, that I was able to take advantage of. But my years I think I look back and say they were good years. And I've still keep my connection. You know, the 80s. We may not have been just a few of us, but we knew each other on campus. And we had those folks on campus like Dr. Hammond, Don Inslee. I can't even think of some others that that were there that we knew were, Dr. Best in the community who were there to help us and support us if we needed it. And I guess that's my ECU story. I think, in a nutshell, thank you for your time and listening.

Scott Francis 35:59
Awesome. Thank you. And now we will move over to Dr. Alston. And yes, this this is chronologically done in kind of in, in the time that we're in the time machine here to kind of see how, how things have evolved and changed and yet some of the themes are still similar. So Dr. Austin, I think your class of oh five, which in my brain is like yesterday.

Dr. Geleana Alston 36:24
Yes, I'm, you know, I'm 16 If you haven't noticed, right, um, so good morning, everyone, just so that you all know, I am an adult educator by day and night in afternoon. So I am very lively interactive, I talk with my hand. So I hope that doesn't bother anyone. But first, I definitely want to thank Dr. Harris for extending the invitation. Her and I are connected professionally. And that's how we found out that we were both proud ECU alumnus. So alumni and so you know, I just thank her and I thank her for her leadership, I want to publicly say that. And then I also like to thank Scott for you know, organizing this setting this up, it's been great just to hear their stories. And even though my story is a little different, it's still very significant. So I visit East Carolina University for the first time when I was 10 years old. So I was that my my father's daughter who loved football, okay, my father was a proud member of Omega sci fi, my mother's mother's also a wonderful woman of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, such as I and so I grew up knowing about, you know, HBCUs both of them were HBCU grads and, and all that, but I, you know, my dad, we, we hung out, you know, we went to sports events, and he was best friends with the father of Ernest Tennant. And I don't know if you remember, Ernest Tandon was a star quarterback at ECU from Burlington, North Carolina, which is where I'm from, and I currently reside as well. And so I remember going to see, when we call them EP, at the time, I remember going to see EP play. And I just thought this is a beautiful campus, right. And I knew from that day, when I was 10, going to that football game, I don't know if it was the glitz and glamour and the cannon popping and it was just full of excitement. And it was good to see at that time. While there were not many black people in the audience, or you know, of course, there were some, you know, majority of the team were black, when it came to the football team. But I didn't feel that at that time that that would be a place for me where I kind of felt isolated. When it comes to my race my and again, I was 10 years old. So you don't really understand and make sense of things like you do at that age as you grow into adulthood. And so when I decided to apply for college, I only applied to three colleges. One was Xavier, and Louisiana. The other was East Carolina University. And the other one was, I think Chapel Hill, maybe I can't even remember to be honest. But I know there were only three. Because I knew that I wanted to either be at Xavier or ECU. And my reasons for ECU were kind of twofold. And people, my mom, she was like, I don't think you can do that. I think there's going to be too much. So in my mind, right? I just knew I was gonna go to East Carolina, and major in music because I've played the violin since I was four years old. And then I was going to also be pre med because I wanted to go to school and become a dermatologist and create my own cosmetic line for women of color. Right? And people were like, oh, that's gonna be too much. How are you going to practice and perform, but then how are you going to study? And do you know for all those sciences and math and I was very strong in science and math had high scores, you know, AP classes throughout high school. I was like, Yeah, I can do it. Uh, but then I went to college. And while I did not know about the bunch punch, my first year, I had fun, right, I had a lot of fun. I've gotten about some other punches back a bunch, okay. Um, but that was the first time going, being in school and I didn't feel the pressure of having to be a star athlete on top of a star student. And that was the first time I felt like I could just breathe a little bit, let my hair down. Of course, I recovered. But my whole aspirations of med school were like, out the door, right? My GPA suffered. And I said, Okay, I have to figure this thing out. And I remember going to, like, the different anytime I had different organization fairs. And I wasn't really active in the social organizations, I'm gonna kind of kept to myself, I wanted to make sure that I focused on my schoolwork and recover from my first year of fun. And so I remember meeting, Dr. Schulman, right, Kathleen Schulman she was a professor in the clinical laboratory science program. And she was like, you know, Hey, have you ever heard about clinical laboratory science? And I said, Well, no. And in hindsight, I'm thinking, wow, I live in Burlington, right? Everyone knows that the LabCorp headquarters is in Burlington, why did I not know that? And so that also made me think about, hey, I need to talk to my high school, school counselors, because it doesn't make sense that I did not make that connection. And I grew up here in this space, right? And no one said, Hey, look at East Carolina, you know, to pursue clinical laboratory science or even Winston Salem State, right, because those are the only two. And in Chapel Hill, those are the only institutions that have that major. Right. And as we can see now with COVID, in a pandemic, that's in high demand, and those are very, very important professions. Right. So she, you know, talked about the program. And I said, Well, you know, yeah, you know, I'm interested in I applied, and I will never forget this day, I was at home, and my parents, and I found out that I was an alternate into the program. And I said, Dr. Richard Bamberg called me and I said, No, I said, What do I have to do? I need to start this program in August, this was the summer this is like, may or late April. And he said, Well, you know, there are a couple of things that you can do. I say, whatever it takes, I'm going to do it. And that summer, I got a job at LabCorp at the headquarters in the esoteric lab, right. And I was a lab assistant, I did everything from playing and incubators, and microbiology lab. So you can imagine the smell, right. But if that's what I had to do to prove that I really, really wanted to do this. That's what I was going to do. And that was the first time that any faculty member kind of really pushed me and challenged me in a way or at least where I felt like I was seen, right. I had other classes before and to be honest, which I felt like I was just a name and a number. Some of the professors didn't even try to, you know, like, Scott, did I pronounce your name correctly, they didn't care. They didn't care. And so luckily, I did what I needed to do that that summer. And I proved myself and Dr. Lambert call me he said, Okay, you have to be down here, we have all the orientation, you have to you know, make sure that you have this money for your lab equipment, and your PPE and all of this. And from there, it just, that's when things just open up for me. I became very active as a student leader in the clinical laboratory science department in the program. I became active as a student within the professional association at the regional level, easily, you know, was able to obtain a job in my hometown working in the hospital. And as I worked in a hospital, I had a student as a preceptor, right. She was at a community college, working on her, her associates and medical laboratory technology. And she would come and she would just seem so depressed and down, and she was an African American female. And she was older. Right, she wasn't your typical, you know, she was different than her peers. And so, I said, Well, you know, what, what, what's going on? What was what was bothering you? Right? How can I help? And she told me that she felt that her faculty, you know, we're not taking the time to help her and to coach her and to, you know, she felt different and awkward. And she felt other. And I remember calling Dr. Bamberg, and I was like, What do I do? Because I can relate to this student, right? How can I help her and he coached me through it. And he was like, This is what you do, and you need to talk to her faculty. Right? Have a conversation with them. And so just having that relationship with him. Yeah, it, it really changed my life, he passed away.

And I honestly don't know where I would be without his influence. I dedicated my dissertation to him. And just thinking about how this white man, and I used to pick at him, and I said, this white man with red hair. He saw me as a black student. And I was in classes that there were a lot of people who didn't look like me. No one from Burlington, no one cared, right. And if it wasn't for him, I just don't know what what things will look like for me now professionally, personally. So after he passed away, I promised myself that once I got out of finish my doctorate, and I didn't I, it wasn't my intention to return to North Carolina, let me just put that out there. I was trying hard to find a job somewhere else I wanted to explore I want to live. But it brought me back to North Carolina. And I promised myself that once I got back and gotten to a place where I was more stable that I was going to give back to my institution. And I've done that, I've continued to support the clinical laboratory science program, I was able to help them with not just financial scholarships, but also some equipment and donating that. So when Dr. Harris, you know, her not connected, there was no hesitation for me, in giving back, and even today, now that I'm more in adult education, I'm very close to the adult education faculty there we collaborate. Because I do think that it's about you know, healthy relationships, sustainable relationships. And, you know, I just, I hope that students who look like me, as well, as students who don't look like me, I hope that they are fortunate enough to have a doctor bambor right in their life for someone similar to that, because it is very, very impactful. Sorry for getting teary eyed. Yeah, that wasn't a part of my script.

Scott Francis 47:23
Thank you for sharing that. And what a great example of ally ship within faculty for him to tell you to support that student talk to their faculty as as an advocate for for them. And so, I would say you are that for probably a number of students now. And I had somebody wants to tell me be, be the faculty member, be the mentor that you wish you had. And so thank you for for doing that for standing up for your students and supporting ours at ECU continuing to do that. So, and

Dr. Geleana Alston 48:01
Scott, that is one thing, I totally forgot to tell you what I'm doing now. So I am a tenured associate professor at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina. I teach in the Master of Science and outdoor education program. And I also teach a couple of research courses within a PhD and Leadership Studies program. And he was absolutely an inspiration for me to even pursue a tenure track faculty position.

Scott Francis 48:30
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I think that's, that's all of our panelists, introducing one another, and I've got a few follow up questions. And this one is directed for our panelists who were here in the earlier years. But anyone could feel free to chime in here because I we've not tested this question. So I'm, I'm actually interested in what it was like, maybe in the early 70s versus more current. I heard some folks talk a little bit about going off campus and sometimes needing buses or transportation. What was life like off campus? In terms of that? Did you feel safe going off campus was there was the experience going outside of the the term bubble is a little different in the last year but was a different outside of the ECU Greenville bubble into kind of the greater Greenville area

Dr. Sheila Bunch 49:36
I guess I was gonna say inside the bubble was pretty safe. Most of the time outside of the bubble. People looked at you a lot if you were with one of your white friends. If you were not you will follow around in stores. You were are kind of stared at in certain restaurants. So sometimes it felt a little weird, kind of going out. But in on me, I felt really good and African American spaces like church and community centers with Alpha Kappa Alpha, you do a lot of service. So out there in the service community, you know, we did fine. But in some spaces, you knew that you were kind of looked at. And sometimes you had to have these teachable moments with people.

Dr. Kenneth Hammond 50:49
And I think like, she was saying, and my perspective will be different from the standpoint that I was from the area and be the area. And as a student from 69 to 73, those early years having a car you'd have a lot of friends a lot, literally, but you are able to sort of help them navigate. And and when you think about what brainbow was like, it was much different, you didn't have a whole lot of choices. So think about the bubble. The bubble was not that big. And so there was a club downtown, a couple of African American community mall stores, and that was it other than, say, church or going specifically to somebody's house in the community. So I think the the general perception, you really didn't think about, Are we safe? I think no student, I certainly felt safe because I knew the community, there are places that we kind of knew if you went you might have some issues, but whether I was in school or not, those would have been placed, I would have avoided. And I think knowing the area, and then when I when I started working on campus, I could help other students sort of navigate some of those spaces.

Cedric Dickerson 52:23
Well, it's amazing I went I listened at Ken and listen that she looked who would hear at the same time that you can have totally different air sometimes people think that everybody experiences pretty much the same because you have something like racing common. My recollection of on campus would be that I remember the first time that a group of my friends and I were walking across campus, and campus police stopped us and asked us for ID because it was an adjustment for them because they weren't used to necessarily seeing a lot of like, people on campus. So, you know, our response was, you know, you didn't stop the 10 guys that was in front of us. But there was a heightened awareness because and I guess I can understand a little bit because I didn't know if we were trespassing from campus on campus and in a totally different dynamic off campus. Because when our numbers small, we saw social outside of campus and for a guy that meant girls. So when you met young ladies who were from the city you were met with a different through a different lens because the black guys who in the city they automatically thought that you felt like you was superior to them because you were part of this university over here. And I live out here in the city so you thank you better than I am. And on top of you thinking you better than a you over here talking to a girl I want to talk to you. So you can't you constantly found yourself trying to balance both of those worlds. One girl I hear that you're not totally accepting because they feel like that even though you're black you perceive yourself differently than them. And then you in this world inside the bubble where you are different from folks and you you start to watch. Now Shayla and I were good friends and my wife and Sheila were sorority sisters. And she would tell you that Mary is just kind of like straight lace academia sweet person. I remember one of the traumatic moments in her life was when she and Cynthia and I think Louise and a group of young ladies went up to her Cynthia's brother's room, Kurt in Belk dorm, to play space or something like that. And you know you're talking about group the most naive people on the planet. They don't for those girls. They didn't know what the heck anything happened, nothing good in school. And they're coming through Belk lobby, laughing whatever. And I think like 12 or 1 AM, whatever, camps, please stop them. And they say, oh, you know, what are you doing here? So we visited my brother. So let me have the ID, they handed ID and said, Okay, well, you ladies are arrested for trespassing. They were arrested, they were taken downtown and booked. We're talking about, now Cedrick, two six guys, we're talking about 3.5, 3.6 , they all they had to do was look at their academic records and, and understood who they were. But they were actually booked. And they had to call their parents to be bailed. Now, this was an environment inside the campus where back in the day, if most of my friends were white, and a girlfriend spend most time in the dorms I did all night every day left going to class in the morning, never incident. So the bubble was a bubble compared to outside, and we and we appreciate it. But but even inside of the bubble, we didn't feel like that we were totally safe. I mean, not well, safe is not a good word. I didn't feel any, I didn't feel like I wasn't safe. And I felt like that I didn't have the full rights and privileges to move around freely without any inhibition. So

Dr. Geleana Alston 56:30
I'm in for me, as if you all recall, TJ had a lot of fun. And my first years ECU I do remember that there were certain places on 10th Street that we were just told not to, you know, that we wouldn't be welcomed, you know, some of the clubs, as well as some of the boutiques, you know, like the clothing boutiques, we just, you know, we never would go in those spaces. Even some of the restaurants, I remember people saying, you know, don't don't go eat there, you don't know what they're gonna, you know, put in your drink or putting your food. And so, and I can't remember the names of the venues. But I do distinctly remembering that we, we typically supported, you know, very particular restaurants, and we did seek out, you know, restaurants and spaces that were black owned. And there were not a lot of those at the time. But you know, we were intentional. And sometimes we would travel up to little Washington, or Wilson, you know, because there were more black owned businesses and restaurants there. And that we we knew that if we wanted to, you know, have a break from the, the food, which, you know, taught dining hall was not bad. Compared to, you know, some of the other experiences or of my friends who were at other institutions, they would get a little jealous that we would have the prom nights where you can have steak and shrimp and thought that was, you know, a big deal. But you know, sometimes you just wanted to get away, you wanted to have some some home cooked meals or just a different type of food. And I remember there were places that we knew we even if there were a group of us, and that included, you know, our white colleagues as well. We knew that we just would not feel comfortable going to those places.

Cedric Dickerson 58:25
So where was this station? What night was that? I missed?

Dr. Geleana Alston 58:29
Oh, yes. Yeah, when I was a student, that is one thing. I you know, that that whole freshman 15 was real, but I blame it on Tod dining hall, right. I don't know who was in there cooking. But my parents will tell you I never complained about the food. We they we would have prime night I think it was like maybe twice a month, where you know, they would have premium cuisine, and we would have steak and shrimp and we would have sometimes crab legs or you know just something different other than your typical burger and fries. But even the meals throughout the week, you know the I really enjoyed them. And so yeah, I ate pretty well when I lived on the Hill on campus.

Cedric Dickerson 59:18
Well when we come back now, probably alumni, we have brunch, partying, brunch at Todd, and pretty much everybody from seventies is still mad. I mean, like this is how they live. I mean we had Jones in the bottom of Jones dorm. Baby Care. She's talking about pride night and she's a prime night we have our meetings now we when we first we would go off campus to find a restaurant and we found that we couldn't find anything on campus better than where the students ate on campus. So we started to have an AI project. Patricia we I think we probably still will have it at somewhere like Todd and I'm happy for the students I'm sorry. I go into business school, they got latte machines and stuff and I was enrolled. I mean, I'm not a hater, I just you know, but if it's a different world

Dr. Geleana Alston 1:00:13
Scott you make sure you get find out when the next prime night is, you know on campus when what's the safe and you make sure you get Cedric some tickets, he can go or some swipes as they say, now make sure you get him some swipes. So you can go in there and get him a prime meal, and bring him, whomever He wants to bring, okay,

Cedric Dickerson 1:00:30
I got a long list, I'm gonna call all of let's say, hey, that might be the greatest recommend reclamation project for the Black Alumni. Just invite them all back for Prime night. That's a great idea.

Scott Francis 1:00:45
I'm writing it down. So now all of you kind of mentioned giving back and staying involved. Can you talk a little bit about kind of what what your views are, you've all had different experiences. Obviously, the Black Alumni and black students at ECU are not a monolith. If there's 16,000, Black Alumni, there's 16,000 experiences, what what are your views on kind of giving back your time, talent treasure, and what makes you stay involved with ECU? Can

Dr. Kenneth Hammond 1:01:28
I see as it relates to giving back as a as a retired pastor, when I left the university, I went full time ministry. And it's kind of interesting, because three of the panelists I've had the opportunity to shepherd at periods of time. So that's, that's kind of interesting. But but but I found that I have found as a result of pastoral ministry, but in other venues that giving, whether it's time, talent, money, or whatever treasure is relational. You got to forge the relationships with individuals. And you have to forge those relationships and levels that they're comfortable. And what I mean by that is, for example, when I was a pastor, there were things that needed to be done in the church. And I tried to get to know the people. If I were going to get somebody who needed to do something, I was not likely going to ask somebody that I knew would be outside of their comfort zone or their their belief that they were not going to be successful, but tried to cultivate, even if they have the ability to do it. They have not done it before, to try to get them at a level where they felt comfortable. But at the same time was relational. And I think in terms of university is the same thing for me. I'm, I've lived in North Carolina, pretty much all my life. I've traveled all over the world, six continents, but having lived in Greenville, most of my life span a 27 year and a part time residency in Durham County now, I was always close enough that when there was a need on campus, I couldn't respond with being able to come back to campus or give resources when I could. And so I think that the fact that the university has been intentional and maintaining some relationships with me, not just I guess there's always a need for dollars but but around other things. I think that's one of the way ways you cultivate the desire on people's part to invest back in waves.

Cedric Dickerson 1:04:17
Well, I'll go next. Maybe I'm the next oldest bunch slipped in there. Oh, maybe she's younger than I am. But But I guess from my background, I said I grew up on a farm and in those communities is so tight knit. I mean, you help each other. So I came to East Carolina with that mindset. I remember doing service projects with my fraternity but my first venture outside and I don't really know how I got there. But there was some guy who came and he was talking to me about an organization. I don't know if they exist, probably not called Vista. This was like 1974 and I'm I'm a student and I arguably, I'm not the most responsible guy, I'm kind of having fun. And I don't know why this initiative drew my attention. So we were walking Greenville knocking on doors. And I didn't know it at the time, but we were we were initiating a program called supplemental security income. And it was like, we were just trying to identify people who qualify for it. And when I look at it now, like they said, that started in 1975 i was, okay, and it still counted part of that. But that was a mindset. So when I left college, I there was a lot of times where I was not coming back. And I think I'm trying to, I think that one of the first connections was through football. The pirate club, you know, they don't have the problem of reaching out. So I reached out. And I think my first year was $75. And I think there was an entry level and able to use fortunate work for my agent owner with State Farm Insurance, and they have a very aggressive matching funds program. So they allow me to give more than I was able to give, you know, they matched me up to $4,500. So if I, you know, if I had to come up with 2000, it became a $4,000 gift. And an organization that I worked with in this community, I first thing I come out of my mouth is matching funds. Just make sure you match maximize that. And at some point in time, I think at the time was Taffy Clayton, she was someone involved with diversity. And somehow she got my name. And I think we ended up in a room with Taffy and Steve Wright. And we were talking about Ledonia Wright scholarship, and how we were going to revitalize that and then Taffy left and went to Carolina and I think cause I can't remember Miss was all students like first name. But she replaced her. And we kind of talked that and then I ended up getting connected with Dr. Hardy and becoming a part of Student Affairs. And we we came upon an initiative to honor Miss Murrell Erie, Elliot. And I've supported that scholarship is now for full access. And I'm sure the Black Alumni committee will will focus. I had a conversation with Steve Wright the other day, my hope is that and I think Patricia has stated that that that next initiative that we will get for for us is to support a donor, you're right scholarship, because we started there, and we kind of got moved away because we felt urgency to honor Miss Leary earlier before she passed away. So that's full access now. So I hope I next initiative is that and I will continue to support that on an annual basis. And I definitely will continue to, to show up in Greenville, because I get very excited when I I get on at 40 and I'm heading towards the Vegas. You know, I don't know why but I get excited. And my my poor days in Greenville, even if there's no pot is nothing that we might just drive there and check into the hill to just hang out and look out the window. But you know, I have great memories of the town. I mean, I share some experiences. But those were experiences. My affection for the university is shown by the fact that I continue to show up. And I continue to volunteer and I continue to write checks. So thank you, sir.

Dr. Sheila Bunch 1:08:40
I'll go next. I came out of the helping tradition with my family, my church, my sorority, my profession, social work, that's what we do is is help people and so I've kind of given back to the university in terms of special initiatives like the Ledonia Wright scholarship, with money and also reviewing applications for recipients. Also, with the Lord Leary, Eliot scholarship, money and count of hitting an initiative. I think there was a Greek challenge a couple of years ago and so Gloria Fisher Sneed and I kind of mobilize AKA women to games back initiatives around the Greek garden on campus and find bricks and that kind of thing and as an employee in the School of Social Work, I gave monthly to the Social Work priority fun because it was a way to to actually provide resources for things that the state would not pay for, as well as giving back to scholarships and that type of thing. One of the things that that we begin to see recently with students is that many of them work two and three jobs. And so sometimes their academics fall behind. So to me, it's very important for people to give back either time, money, and it doesn't have to be a lot of money. I believe in pooling money. So economic development can be in 510 $25 increments. If you have 1000, people giving me $50, I can do something with it. Not to think small, but people think that they have to have millions of dollars, and they do not, they just need to give up five lattes at Starbucks, and send it to shoot a bunch in school social work. So every year.

Dorothy Jordan 1:11:22
And I guess I can say that, I guess my first large financial support was the Ledonia Wright. Scholarship early in the beginning. For supporting ECU one, Ledonia Wright, taught in school and community health education, which was a connection for me. And of course, I was there, of course, for the dedication of the cultural center, to her honor. So that was a connection. And anytime I remember getting requests for donations, and they could gear it or somehow channel it to health education, that was an easier gift from me, or a more compelling give, because it was going to something that I had a definite connection to, at East Carolina University, and through the years is, is and I support it, not a bunch of some of hers. And it may have been small increments, but they may add up that up is how we see it. But in terms of you know, I have been a parent club member have bought seasons tickets, my husband played football with Ruffin McNeil, so especially during his era before and after. We've had seasons tickets to you know, in that respect, and give back with volunteering on committees I was working with that Larry Hinds and Merrill Flood when they were working with the Black Alumni Association, or as it was called back then. And just giving back time and energy, and of course, always encouraging people to pursue ECU and consider ECU as their choice of institution for higher education. But I think the connection with a lot of people in terms of why they don't is if, if it's about giving to the bigger university, but if we, if they can see that connection to something that they have a relationship with, then that may be an avenue to pursue.

Dr. Geleana Alston 1:13:42
I'm in addition to what was already been mentioned, because I agree and have contributed myself in similar fashion, but I also contribute as just being a mentor. Right. So I know that there is a disproportional representation of African Americans who are clinical laboratory scientists, especially African American females, right and so anytime that there are students there that just you know, may need a self ethnic reflector or someone who, who shares a different commonality with with them as far as their identity, Dr. Anne McConnell she knows to reach out to me, and you know, just even just taking the time to have a conversation with the students. And then I know that this may sound simple, but you know, oftentimes we receive, you know, thank you cards just for a variety of things. And we receive gift cards, you know, $20 Visa gift card, or we win something in a raffle. And you know, I always remember and I'm thankful that I'm blessed, that you know, I'm not in desperate need of that gift card and I will, you know, put it in the mail and say hey, and use it you You know, there may be a student who, for whatever reason is having a difficult month, and they need some groceries, or sponsored pizza, or pizza lunch for the clinical laboratory science students, where I, you know, say hey, and pick a day and you know, have all of their students come to us for fellowship, and it's on me, right, I purchase food. So just that way they know that some someone who who's been where they they are, is a proud alumni of the program. You know, it's proud of what they're doing, and it is encouraging them as well. So those are some of the additional things that while it's not, you know, it's similar to writing a check, but it's just in a different, you're contributing in a different way.

Cedric Dickerson 1:15:50
Absolutely. Scott. This is something that I have voiced so many times is, you know, people often ask why the numbers are not greater with with an African American alumnus, alumni as far as participation, and I've said it, I've never seen any results in the fact that I'll use the power of clubs, as Chris is on level go to advancement. But I constantly say, I've been in the Power club for 30 years, I've had probably 8, 10 reps have yet to see African American rep. So So you reaching out to African American community, all the football use presented football players, African American, a huge percentage of your alumni now is African American. So are you saying that you don't want any of that money? Because you're not making a concerted effort to put someone on the ground to go out and solicit and have conversations. I've said this in your space to Chris, not to you, because I didn't know you. But several Michaels, I don't know Michael Ward and a couple other folks. They come to Wilmington, and we sit down. And I remember I said, Hey, when are you going to hire some African Americans advancement to reach out to the African American community. And I remember he called me excited when when Virginia hired. Zach Hawkins, I think Zach was in my office within like three days of him hiring. And I said, Well, I don't know if you get to get credit for this one. But hey, we got to start here. Because it's just, you know, if you reversed it, and you had an all African American representatives in a community, and and a huge portion of their base that they're looking to communicate with white, would you expect, would you expect the same results. So either, if you're really serious about, we are here on the ground, as alumni are talking to each other, trying to bring people back, but that's not our full time job. So if you want to make a concerted effort to reach out and say, Hey, we really want you to come back. How are you a black, Matt Maloney and put them on the ground, and you probably would have people flooding in. You know, you're my Matt Maloney story. And it's just all about making feel people feel like they are appreciated, and they are included. And people you know, most folks that I don't hear many people, especially for my generation has negative reflection, they may have a negative incident, but they still have an affection for East Carolina. They just need somebody to come out and nurture it and educate them. Because the picture that I see, most people never seen, they don't really have a clue of what 10th Street looked like it looked like it did when we came come up Dickson Avenue make a right on tenth at a stop sign and come downtown and code. They have never seen that exchange. They haven't seen those students center, they haven't seen all these beautiful things. They have no clue what Greenville looks like. And I think that if you ever gotten back in and took them on tours and include them in the process, but you got to you got to make that connection first. So this make my 29th appeal here so.

Scott Francis 1:19:29
that's a smooth segue to as we start to wind down here. My final question that I had written down here was what can ECU do better? And I my sphere of influence, personally, is with the Alumni Association, but just for gathering this information and being able to share what can you do better to engage and serve our Black Alumni.

Cedric Dickerson 1:19:55
I guess I've gone.

Scott Francis 1:19:58
I've gotcha.

Dr. Kenneth Hammond 1:20:01
As I mentioned, I think so much of what can be done to. And I think this principle applies not only to lack of loans, but to various relational aspect. I think you have to be very intentional and trying to connect with folk, immediately when they're leaving. Once you get out of the gate, and it's five years, eight years, 10 years, since you've had a relationship with the school, it becomes more difficult kind of process versus I graduated in May. And by October, somebody is in touch with me, they're checking to see what I'm doing. And they're trying to keep the relationship going, I think that is, can be something that is very significant. And, and I understand the realities of you only have so many positions, and you only have so many people. And the thing is power to everything. And I think people like Cedric and Shayla, we're folk that can be voices in the sphere of influence that we have to encourage continuing connections. And I like to think about more as connections first, because if you can connect, you can get the resources. One, one thing that I used to do in terms of church congregations, as it relates to giving data, particularly financially, is to encourage an individual when you're doing your budget, but 10 bucks, 20 bucks, Sheila approach, in the budget for this calls. And what I've discovered, and I might say, for a year, or for six months, or like, we used to do something during this Lenten season call count me and not ask folks to commit $1 day during the 40 days, and when what I discovered is that if you could connect those folks, and get them to do that, after the calls the event is over, rarely do they go back and take that money back out. They will continue to give if you just encourage that. And so I'd like to see the alumni office, maybe attempt to organize us in some ways that I know you have black lung chapters in different areas. But you know, if you gave me a list of 1015 folk and I know that I get calls all times I know you got phone calling. But some of these folk I don't know, but if you got some folks in that 69 I left campus in 91 I know a lot of those folks to make a call those kinds of things, I think it helps to extend the influence and hopefully I think it would also commit to to give a couple hours a month or whatever it is something like that as a way of trying to generate additional connections for the university hopefully that will lead to support.

Cedric Dickerson 1:23:43
Hey Scott, can I add one quick addendum since I went things wrong, things that I do see that are much better is a collaboration. I mean, the first time that there was a new freshmen event in Wilmington and I saw a member of represented from the pirate club and a member from my advancement there together. I was so proud because if they were to get there together they usually would have machetes a cleavage in a hand saying no no he's mine don't talk to him don't speak but I've seen a collaboration over the years where there's not that is one university and and in the private club person is alumni and they graduated from a school of business or School of Education and you're all in the same boat but that had not been what it was like maybe in the distant past but it's getting much better and I'm very proud to see that.Thank you.

Scott Francis 1:24:46
Sheila

Dr. Sheila Bunch 1:24:49
Did you call my name? I really agree with Ken in a lot of ways To think about connections and relational kinds of things, and and we said, You're in terms of collaboration. And so I kind of look at it from through a different lens, after being a department head for the last 12 years at the university. So I would try to keep Social Work alums engaged, whether it's through our alumni event, where we would give awards and that kind of thing, or just inviting them back to lectures, and all of that. So there has to be some way to keep folks engaged. And one of the things, you know, says it talks about the pirate club and that kind of thing, you know, and that's important. Um, you know, on the academic side, it's difficult sometimes to keep programs afloat, when the university is saying, you know, we don't have the money for you to hire new faculty, or you're gonna have to hire these part time, people, because you don't have any faculty lands. And so it's kind of like, okay, um, students come to ECU, we need to figure out a way to educate them, and to, and to retain them. So I think at the macro level, in terms of what Ken is talking about, and Cedric, but also on the ground at the unit level, units have to be cognizant of how they engage their lungs and keep them invested in the program that they graduated from.

Scott Francis 1:27:02
Thank you. Dorothy.

Dorothy Jordan 1:27:10
I guess I agree with what's been said, in terms of reaching out to get more Black Alumni involved in giving and participating and supporting the university. It helps if your department reaches out to you, it does help. And if there's that connection, and I think the earlier the connection, the easier because they'll recognize those, those folks reaching out to them. And they'll still maybe have fond memories are ours know that these are the people who've helped them to move forward in their careers or to even begin their careers. And that'll be a good connection. So I think the alumni office needs the support and the help of the folks on campus to make those connections.

Scott Francis 1:28:04
Thank you. Dr. Alston

Dr. Geleana Alston 1:28:11
Um, I know that my generation of alumna we are very active in social media. Right. And I know that the ECU black alumni page on Facebook is very active. So that is a really good way. There's always activity there. But then I know that there are I can think of at least 10 people who were at ECU when I was there, that I know that they are not looking at that they are not accessing Facebook, or they're not, you know, it's not it's not a high priority for them. And I don't know why. And so I think that it will take multiple approaches and angles, you know, like Dr. Bunch just mentioned, encouraged the, the programs to make an intention of not just reaching out to all of their alumni. But, you know, really taking the time to, you know, does the ECU alumni Black Alumni Association, do you even know and have the numbers of how many black students have graduated from the programs within the past five years? Do you have that contact information? And I think the easiest way to access that is to just go directly to the programs, right? Because those that database may not, you know, or the information may not be within a database of the registrar or the Alumni Association, because if they've not made contact with the Alumni Association, then how else are they? You know, will you receive the information Um, and then I know what with, you know, everything with COVID is very difficult. But I, I do think that continuing to have the the black students who are alumni or Black Alumni feel welcomed when it comes to homecoming, but not just homecoming, right? Um, I try to visit the football games, you know, throughout the season. And I was actually down there, you know, when we had the real big, bad storm when he was playing a&t. Right. And so, you know, for me that that was an opportunity for you to really engage your Black Alumni. I mean, you know, East Carolina was playing against the largest HBCU in the country. But there was nothing, you know, prepared to say, hey, black people who graduated from ECU. Here's, you know, come check us out, here's a tent, I don't recall seeing, you know, ECU Black Alumni tent, or, you know, a space for them to just come and in, you know, obtain information about what was happening, what are you all doing? What are some of the plans or, you know, gaining information? How, how can the ECU Black Alumni Association, better support you as an alumni? Or what would you like to see, and not just the black ECU, ECU Black Alumni Association, but the ECU Alumni Association, and as a whole to right, I don't think the onus and responsibility is just on the ECU Black Alumni Association. Right. It's bigger than that. And so I would say, you know, tap into that. And continue to, to, like I said, implement continue to, to keep the momentum and the means of engagement, that that's already in place. But you know, just really, like most of us, in a variety of organizations, you know, just continue to be innovative and creative and try to figure out how to reach people how to connect with people, whether it's using using technology, or leaning on geographical connections, regional connections, etc. Like, I can't, I don't recall ever receiving an email about, hey, you know, let's have an ECU Black Alumni meetup in Greensboro. And Greensboro is a pretty big city. And I know, there are plenty of us here that graduated from ECU or that were at ECU at the same time. But, you know, if that takes for us to facilitate it, then you know, what kind of support can we have from this Alumni Association to do those things.
01:33:01 Scott Francis

Thank you.

01:33:04 Scott Francis

And Patricia, I don't know if you can confirm this. I don't know if you were part of those conversations early on when I first got here and I was like, hey, let's have regional BAC get togethers and I'll run the numbers and blah blah blah. And then this thing fell on us and we got to stay in.

01:33:20 Scott Francis

The house but.

01:33:22 Scott Francis

But as we get out of that, I think we've had a couple of conversations here and there about things like that. And I run the Greensboro is, I believe our second largest population of of Black alumni site next to Pitt County and say something like that makes makes sense.

01:33:42 Scott Francis

But yeah, those those are conversations and we are really happy and excited to have Patricia as a as a a partner in continuing these conversations, continuing our efforts.

01:33:55 Scott Francis

And the doors of communication are are open between her and I and our office. And with you all as well, we can consider that door open now, as we've had a couple of conversations and I really appreciate your presence here. Really appreciate hearing your stories.

01:34:16 Scott Francis

I think our our staff are are happy to have heard them. I will.

01:34:21 Scott Francis

Kind of leave some space for another question or two if any of any of the staff attending have a question or or anything they'd like to.

01:34:30 Scott Francis

To ask, feel free to do so here.

01:34:34 Scott Francis

I didn't plant any, so there may not be.

01:34:38 Kelley Brown

Yeah, I actually did. First of all, I want to thank everybody for sharing.

01:34:43 Kelley Brown

Your experiences it it's something that I think we need to have this conversation a whole lot more, not only on the university but in our communities, in, in our spaces where we are because.

01:35:00 Kelley Brown

We don't know unless we hear what it was like. And I guess as somebody who does the social media, I go back and when you were talking about the yearbook and some of the things that happened there and I see and I'm going way back into it. So some of you who have been who are along from those back years.

01:35:21 Kelley Brown

What was it like when, you know we had entertainers that would come?

01:35:27 Kelley Brown

And there were so few of you on the campus at those times, and they would be black entertainers or black speakers. And what did you see? What? What was that experience like as you setting out in that audience in a sea of white people watching an entertainer and and that's all.

01:35:45 Kelley Brown

That's all they took from. I guess I just want to understand that a little bit and how how that felt.

01:35:53 Ken Hammond

I I guess.

01:35:54 Ken Hammond

I can comment on that since from 73 to 91 that's really involved with bringing a lot of these folks.

01:36:03 Ken Hammond

To the campus, but as a student from 69 to 73, I mean, first of all.

01:36:10 Ken Hammond

You were just glad that you could. You felt that your student activity fees was paying for something that you felt invested enough in to participate. So that was the 1st.

01:36:23 Ken Hammond

I mean, as as the numbers increase.

01:36:28 Ken Hammond

We I think.

01:36:30 Ken Hammond

We could.

01:36:30 Ken Hammond

More intentional about trying to find out.

01:36:33 Ken Hammond

What kinds of individuals and two students were interested in seeing come to campus? It's kind of interesting now since I've moved back here one of my.

01:36:49 Ken Hammond

My favorite pastimes when I'm driving now is listening to Beach Boogie and Blues radio station. They got a whole network and so that that's and to me it's just it's our music and it's it's kind of interesting. It's a whole genre that has developed, but that was the.

01:37:09 Ken Hammond

Kind of thing that we were bringing to campus early on that not only because I think very early on.

01:37:16 Ken Hammond

If if you had a black performer or speakers or whatever, it was not so much because you were trying to provide a role model or something with like students. It was somebody that clearly both the students wanted to see him and would feel vested in and so.

01:37:34 Ken Hammond

I certainly understand that and having been involved with that and and you know the course of the years working in in student affairs.

01:37:42 Ken Hammond

Trying to encourage students to get involved so that they could have a voice at the table when these kinds of decisions will be made, think will will things that we have.

01:37:55 Cedric Dickerson

Well, I was. I I think all of us were totally amazed. I mean that we we were less than 500 and you think about we had Stevie Wonder, the temptations, earth, wind and fire and and back then we $3 a night they they they were a bunch of white boys but they they were sold so we we we we.

01:38:15 Cedric Dickerson

Did we have Billy Paul also during that period of time, me and Mrs. Jones, Sheila.

01:38:20 Cedric Dickerson

Before a a campus with eye makeup to have those artists over that period of time was just totally amazing and we appreciated it, but we sure didn't understand it.

01:38:35 Dr. Shelia Bunch

It was always in all, not only of the musicians, but the speakers. You know, the first time Nick and Giovanni came to campus, I was in heaven. First time Maya Angelou came to camp.

01:38:49 Dr. Shelia Bunch

Was I was in heaven and then not too long ago, in recent years when Angela Davis came, I was on the front row, like in all of this, this iconic woman. And so it was great for the students, but it was also a way to.

01:39:09 Dr. Shelia Bunch

For the university to connect with the community where community members came and they brought their children, it was a way to to expose.

01:39:21 Dr. Shelia Bunch

Everybody to these, to these great people that you just saw on TV or you read about. So it was great.

01:39:32 Dr. Shelia Bunch

This is exciting.

01:39:33 Cedric Dickerson

I think one thing that get gets lost in our time and Ken and Sheila can't speak to it. Have you ever been around 400 people that had as many talented people as we did? We used to have our own little talent shows or show.

01:39:48 Cedric Dickerson

Food at the Union I'm talking about. We had eight or ten people who were just music majors. We could put on a a show and I I when I look back in our history and maybe we need to, you know, at some time we'll get together in the black history. Part of it is that when I hear about the.

01:40:09 Cedric Dickerson

That the, the the EU Gospel Choir and I talked to dentist last night to make sure I was clear. I don't think that Marshall gets credit for for starting that first gospel easier gospel. They were touring places like Duke in 74. And when I look at.

01:40:24 Dr. Shelia Bunch

Oh yeah.

01:40:25 Cedric Dickerson

Yeah. So when from Virginia reached out to me and other people about people who were influential in our, in our culture, I, you know, we had a lot of people that were very successful and had a lot of PHD's like you guys have. And when I thought about the person who had as much of an impact on our culture during that period of time.

01:40:45 Cedric Dickerson

Marshall's name came came to came to my mind. The gospel choirs, the plays, the accumulation of those talents and and and he's he's mentioned pretty much nowhere in our history.

01:40:58 Dr. Shelia Bunch

Yeah. And the Ebony? Harold. Our newspaper. Yeah.

01:41:04 Dr. Shelia Bunch

So lots of different things that have gotten lost through the years.

01:41:09 Dorothy Jordan

It was called black expressions in my era.

Dr. Shelia Bunch

Oh, OK, yeah.

Dorothy Jordan

But I don't know that that when the entertainers came, we didn't have as many. Well, my era as it seemed that you all did. I don't even know that we saw ourselves.

01:41:25 Dorothy Jordan

As black students in a sea of white because I remember just seeing the black students, I are either just because we.

01:41:34 Dorothy Jordan

Together that I don't remember being feeling any any oddity about it. We were just excited because we knew that our counterparts, said A&T and North Carolina Central had folk and entertaining them at homecoming. So if brothers Johnson's coming to ECU or or Mother's finest, we just thought.

01:41:54 Dorothy Jordan

Well, finally, somebody knows that we're on campus and there's a need for us to have something to do. So we were excited about that. And you're right, the speakers that came, I can remember walking in Menden Hall.

01:42:09 Dorothy Jordan

Walk almost directly into Esther role and thought, Oh my goodness, that's Florida. But you know it. It was just just amazing. I know I didn't. I should have bumped into. I should have kept going.

01:42:18 Cedric Dickerson

The times.

01:42:29 Dorothy Jordan

But you know it, you know, and and even now because my school is so close and we're required to do cultural things. I'm always looking at ECU for opportunities. And I did bring my students to see Angela Davis and.

01:42:42 Dorothy Jordan

They had no clue and I had to, of course, school them as to who this woman is. But before we left that night, I had students to say we have to take a picture with her. So I waited with them and waited with them, and they stood in line and they did get a picture. So even even reaching as, as Sheila said, into the community, the broader community, it makes a difference.

01:43:03 Dorothy Jordan

We just appreciate it what little bit we got.

01:43:06 Cedric Dickerson

And one thing about Lee and we, we called the Lee, she was a faculty member, but she, like, she's just like one of us, right. Hey, she she family, you know. And and we were devastated. I mean when when we lost her and but she wasn't that person that was in the office somewhere.

01:43:14 Dr. Shelia Bunch

Yes. Yeah.

01:43:26 Cedric Dickerson

She was on the ground and you know, at the student union she was just like one of the family and.

01:43:33 Cedric Dickerson

So but.

01:43:34 Dr. Shelia Bunch

And she never slept. She would call you in the middle of the night if she had an idea. Yeah, like Lee. Do you know what time it is? So.

01:43:47 Cedric Dickerson

But that center, that center is famous through. I know people who went to Fayetteville State and A&T, or people who went to the military talk about the time when they came to East Carolina and potted in the sweat box.

01:44:03 Dorothy Jordan

That's right.

01:44:04 Dorothy Jordan

That's right. It was sad when they tore it down.

01:44:09 Scott Francis

I have heard a lot about this sweatbox.

01:44:14 Cedric Dickerson

A place, a place at the back door. Being firmer now. Now, that's bad logistics. We on a Friday night Saturday night, the music is blasting and the Infirmary is next door. Infirmary between the Infirmary and the library. That's place party, right?

01:44:28 Dorothy Jordan

That's right. But the party spilled out into the parking.

01:44:31 Dorothy Jordan

Lot if you remember.

01:44:32 Cedric Dickerson

Oh yeah, you had to. You had to. You had to be waived cause you go in, you get sweaty when you.

01:44:36 Cedric Dickerson

Come out and do wave go in.

01:44:37 Dorothy Jordan

That's exactly right now.

01:44:41 Kelley Brown

So so are you saying ECU is a party school?

01:44:45 Cedric Dickerson

A little bit, a little bit.

01:44:48 Ken Hammond

And then for you that I started at ECU was ranked by Playboy Magazine as the number one.

01:44:53 Ken Hammond

Party school in central.

01:44:55 Cedric Dickerson

Yep, absolutely. Yep.

01:44:58 Scott Francis

Number one at forming deep student relationships.

01:45:04 Scott Francis

That's that's right. Parties here.

01:45:05 Dr. Shelia Bunch

Look, do you? Do you remember streaking when streaking? Yeah, we had streaking. We had pantie raids. Ohh, yes.

01:45:09 Cedric Dickerson

Oh yeah.

01:45:15 Cedric Dickerson

I remember up on the hill, the streaking began. We were all in our dorms and like this guy came up the hill with a a convertible vet

01:45:23 Cedric Dickerson

And there was a girl sitting on the back like the beauty queen type deal. And when she got up to the hill cause back then, belts had their center with the ECU and you circle around. So when she came up the hill and circled around and and she was nude. And then I guess that stimulated everybody else to pull off the clothes. So I remember the conversation.

01:45:44 Cedric Dickerson

I'm looking out the window.

01:45:45 Cedric Dickerson

I told my guys that like.

01:45:47 Cedric Dickerson

I can assure you one thing you're not gonna see any black people out there naked.

01:45:52 Cedric Dickerson

So I went back to my room. They came knocking on the door saying, hey, they pointed out there was one guy and she, I don't know if you remember him. I didn't know his name, but we called him Harry Hippie. So they said, like, hey, that guy he he don't count.

01:46:11 Cedric Dickerson

But yeah, that was that. That was where I've been fun times. I mean, I I think that.

01:46:17 Cedric Dickerson

People, it seemed like back then that people were were in no way that stressed out and seemed like we had bigger problem, but it didn't weigh everybody down. I mean, people kind of got over where they were and we went back to having a good time because that's what college is supposed to be. And later on in life, we we come back and we have.

01:46:37 Cedric Dickerson

Aycock issues and and flag, kneeling issues and all that thing. Then everybody's polarized and in their corners and that's what our students are. One of the reason that we all are coming back to try to involve because that's what today's, you know students are encountering and we feel like we need to be.

01:46:57 Cedric Dickerson

Support somebody to pick up the phone and if nothing else, but just to call and that's the passion.

01:47:07 Scott Francis

And I I would imagine that some of that is probably a result of all the access to information that we have immediately and in a lot of ways it's a it's a great thing and in a lot of ways it's made things a lot harder, but that's for another. That's for another panel.

01:47:29 Scott Francis

We are right on 12:00. I can't say thank you enough for for all of you being here. And again, this was intended for the staff and in in a lot of ways for for me being new here and being new in this position, I'm claiming a red shirt for my first year because I've been here in the house.

01:47:48 Scott Francis

For it. So this is my red shirt. Freshman year in this role and it it's it's great to to hear these stories and to be able to engage with all of you. And so thank you for sharing this with with me and with our staff and extended staff.

01:48:03 Scott Francis

We'll be in touch going forward and as as things, I'll call it, open up as things open up, we got football scheduled the other day and our, I believe the plan is to to be back to quote UN quote normal in the fall and not keeping your fingers crossed and keeping.

01:48:23 Scott Francis

Your safety measures in place to make sure that happens. We'll. We'll keep doing that.

01:48:28 Vertricia Harris

Scott, I just want to say jump in real quick. I appreciate all the panelists. Of course, I submitted everybody's names. And so I just appreciate you being a part of it. Cedric always support Dorothy, Doctor Bunch and my pastor, my former pastor, technically.

01:48:47 Vertricia Harris

Doctor Hammond, I just appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. Thank you again.

01:48:54 Scott Francis

Thank you, everyone, and thank you Patricia for for the the Intel and there's a story about the original e-mail that was like, hey, what should I? And that the original plan?

01:49:04 Scott Francis

Was to have Somebody historian kind of kind of talk about it, but. So that. Let's have the people who were actually there and lived it kind of talk, talk about what the history was like. So thank you again. So have a wonderful rest of your day. Have a wonderful weekend. Stay dry and warm and we will talk to you all.

01:49:28 Dr. Sheila Bunch

Soon. Thank you. Take care. Thank you.

01:49:31 Dorothy Jordan

Thank you. Be Safe.