Ep. 31 - A "Just Us" Episode

Summer may look quiet on campus, but higher ed folks know better. In this episode of The Pickup Meeting, Kevin and Brody dig into the myth of the “easy summer,” swap thoughts on orientation season, and reflect on the impact of the Adventures in Advising podcast as it heads toward its final episodes. They also tackle a timely question from higher ed: are students being asked to read less, and what does that mean for learning, engagement, and life after graduation? Toss in a few laughs, some classic Brody stories, and a top three list of the weirdest things left behind during residence hall move-out, and you’ve got an episode that is equal parts thoughtful and entertaining. 

*The Pickup Meeting is a spinoff of the Adventures in Advising podcast!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

And away we go. Welcome to the pickup meeting. If we finish early, we all get the gift of silence. Don't be the person that ruins it. I'm Kevin Thomas, joined always by the man who knows more about student success than a hundred predictive AI algorithms, Brody Brochier. That was pretty good, Kevin. Yeah, you're welcome. I you know, I gotta switch things up every once in a while. This is kind of becoming a thing.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Yeah, the cold open. I love it. I don't know what you're gonna say, and then I get to and then I get to respond to it.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

That's right. And sometimes you're gonna say, that was fun, and sometimes you're gonna say, You're stupid.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Yes, that's accurate. But not today. Today you did okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

That's good. Hey, we're uh officially in May, yeah, and depending on your campus, uh, the caps have been tossed, the gowns are at the dry cleaner, the world thinks that we're going on vacation, but we know that the work is just starting and it's really busy on a college campus during summer. For us, uh here at UCA, commencement was last Thursday and Friday.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Yeah, I think ours is coming up here this weekend.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

And I know your feelings on this. We've done that conversation. Yeah, it's a just us episode. So let's dive in on the fact that everyone thinks we do nothing during the summer.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Yes, we're not high school teachers, we work most years most of the year round, right? If you're an administrator, for sure you do. Faculty sometimes have those nine-month contracts, but not us. Yeah, and it's this time frame important work, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Yeah, it's this time frame right now as we talk over each other here. Where I'm sorry, I'm so distracted today. Uh, for our uh audio audience that's not seeing this. Brody is filming from the set of the antique Rojo. And so it looks like in the corner of his screen there's a thimble collection, and then behind that, there looks like there's antiques that he could be taking to get appraised, and none of them would be worth anything.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

I mean, I love look, we we have never talked about this. You and I are both big thrifters and antique kind of fans for sure. And I love the antique road show. I got this from a dumpster behind my house when somebody moved, and the appraiser's like, that's worth 2.5 million dollars. And I'm like, why doesn't that happen to me?

SPEAKER_01 2:36

It can't happen to you because you don't go to digging through dumpsters.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

That's accurate, probably.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

And you should not do that. Let's not start that trend.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

No, I'm at my mom's house this weekend and I'm staying with her because I'm a little under the weather, so I'm I'm by myself. My mom's still working, she's 80. So we talk about the work never ending. Like my mom's almost 80 years old, and she still goes into work three days a week because she likes it so much.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

The other takeaway for people that don't understand that when you're not in Bloomington and you're in Evansville, that you don't really have a place to live in Evansville is this assumption that when you're sick, you still go to your mom's house.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

I mean, that's pretty nice, isn't it? That is pretty nice. Does she take care of you when she's not working? No, she doesn't. Yeah, she says, suck it up, sonno, let's go. Yeah, yeah. You're old enough to take care of yourself. Yeah. But back to May, this really strange period of time where I think that the campus is as quiet as it's going to be. Sure. Um, because we're leading up to orientation, we're leading up to maybe larger summer class enrollments that are happening uh on my campus. We have what is affectionately termed as May Mester. Not a big fan, but like that's what they call it. Um yeah, it's catchy, and and it's a few weeks of class. And and but like, you know, it's this time when the students are gone, the staff's still here, faculty are maybe around a little bit here and there, finishing up, getting grades turned in and doing that. Do you actually take a breath, or is May just April with better weather and more meetings?

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Yeah, I mean, there is a little bit of a quiet time. We do a big advice. So, I mean, whenever you move to a new campus, you have to kind of sort it out. We have a spring advisor day that usually happens after the semester's over. And I I'm I'm really uh generally committed to being at that. It's it's a good event. We honor some folks every year, and then we we've done some really, I think, important things on those days here recently. But it's that week that kind of runs into Memorial Day when uh the the last couple years we've taken our vacation. So there is some time to get out and do some vacation things, but you know, the preview season here is pretty long. We go five straight weeks, six straight weeks every day. Uh, because you know, our our incoming class is about 4,200, and we only have about 200 a day. They stay overnight. And so, I mean, I speak Monday through Thursday for six straight weeks. Now it's just an hour, but you put that on your calendar. I mean, you pretty much are gonna be there. And we're doing preview a little bit differently this year. So, you know, I think there's a little bit of stress about we're advising students prior to their arrival to preview, which is, I think, some of uh kind of what we're seeing nationwide is that advising is happening before you get here. And so we're we're gonna kind of evaluate and assess that as it's happening and sort out any problems we run into. But it's an exciting time, I think. How about I mean, what about your campus? What do you get some time off? Like, how does it work?

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Yeah, our first uh orientation is a couple weeks away, and and we do it a little differently. Um, and I'm curious of your thoughts here because I I think I have mixed feelings on this. Um, but we have uh somewhere between 10 to 12 registration dates. We'll bring in a class of around 2,000, and and I feel pretty good about the class that's coming in. Yeah, uh, but we don't do the orientation for five weeks type time frame. You know, we'll have two or three in May, yeah, four or five in June, maybe one in late July that catches students here and there. And and so it's a little bit easier on the just intensity of advisors and support staff and student success folks and orientation teams and student volunteers, yeah. Um, you know, within our orientation to not have to just be here and ingrained in that way. Um, and we do a mixture of two-day orientations, which is we bring in about 100 for those, and then one-day orientations, which we bring in about 200 students for those, which I'm intrigued by learning.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

I'd like to learn more about that, Kevin.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Well, you know, I think that on our campus it was always a two-day orientation, um, and that overnight connection was a big part of that, but really it got to be where you know, priority of getting students into a funnel, and we and I'll say we've only done orientation for all on this campus for about six years. Wow. Right before that, I would have said it was orientation for honors, and maybe for your your more type A student that signed up for it. And so, really, about 500 students were going through, and then everybody else was just coming to campus and seeing an advisor, and that's not orientation, and so we really we worked hard to switch that to be an orientation for all. And so I'm I'm I'm really happy that that's something that we have now. Um, but the two-day one day is still holding on to the remnants of the old system that was two days, and you grow and meet students and connect with the campus in a different way versus 200 students and on the one days and they're here from nine to four.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Yeah, I mean, I really like our two-day system. I do think giving students a chance to kind of live in the residence halls and see what that's gonna be like is really a great part of our preview program. And I I think if you were to ask me, I really wouldn't want to lose that. And then on the advising side, you know, our campus really strives, you know, and is kind of very proud of the individualized attention that we provide. And I uh students always say advising is either the best part or the most important part of their experience. And in our old format, we were giving students about 10 minutes individually and maybe 12 minutes, right? Like, I mean, it was really to the minute on that day one, and then they'd go into a registration room on day two, and they had a lot longer time, but they weren't getting that kind of individualized attention. And I think this shift now to these 45-minute individual appointments prior to them coming to preview really honors, I think, our commitment to individualized attention. So I'm hopeful it's it goes well. I'll be interested to see how our advisors think this has worked, how our departments think this has worked as we move through the summer. But it's not totally new. I mean, ISU did this in 2021 during COVID. So I mean, we can make it work for sure. And so I'll just be interested to see the impact it has on campus, the impact it has on student experience and preview. But I think it's a good shift.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Yeah, I think my what my struggle continues to be on the two-day, and this is where I get to is orientation isn't a student event, it's a family event, and and it's a family connecting with campus. And so if you're a Monday through Thursday event, you're having parents need to take two days off of work, you're having parents need to travel to a town, get hotels for multiple nights, and all of a sudden a very strong financial commitment has to be made to orientation. Yeah, and I that's my great struggle in this. And that's not to say that you know you're not bringing in a lot of people from your surrounding area that don't have to have that happen, but you know, I I'm I'm uh let's knock down as many barriers as possible because two days of being away is two days of real commitment to a family and also not getting paid and depending on jobs, that's tough.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Yeah, we've had that discussion. There's definitely an equity argument to be made for a one day for sure, but does it outweigh helping students really feel connected? I guess that's the other question that you have to ask yourself. So uh it is not an easy decision, and you know, our program's kind of uh we're very proud of preview here at ISU, and so that program has been in existence. And in fact, we had their 60th preview guide reunion last week, and the president comes. I introduced the president on a Saturday. We had we had a preview guide from the 60s come to this reunion. We had preview guides fly from California, from London, and so this program's been really important to the institution, and so it'll it'll be as as we continue to transition and make decisions about preview and orientation, thinking about all those things. I think the one thing that I'm pretty confident of is we want this program to be as top-notch as it's been. And it the these are tough, these are tough topics for sure. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

But we're not just talking about orientation today. That's not even our lead topic. I think it was good though. It was good, but before we move to that lead topic, um, we're recording uh on a Friday. Um, or as you would say, for sure. God, I know, right? And again, I'm never going to do that. Yep, still applies. I know. Listen, folks, we have sounders now, and so this is a whole new thing. So, really, folks, when Brody says something totally terrible, just get ready.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

You're you're using them all at once, Kevin. We've given you production capabilities, and you're gonna use every sound effect today. Come on. You're the worst.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Um, I am, but we well, I gotta make it stop and just keep going. You weren't that funny. I thought I was pretty funny. Yeah, we're recording on a Friday, and as we are about to record, uh, Matt, our producer, is not with us, so I guess I'm producer Kevin today. Yeah. Uh and and you're already not loving it. I know.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

I gotta be a part of this. I have to learn how to be the producer too. We're gonna have to make sure we have a couple of points of failure here.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

You're absolutely correct. Uh there's just so much to mess with. Matt announced today that the Adventures and Advising podcast that has been around, and I think this upcoming week will have its 175th episode. Wow. Uh, is going to conclude in in January with the 200th episode. And so I think we'd be remiss if we didn't talk a little bit about that podcast's influence on where we're at and that podcast's impact in uh the advising realm.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Yeah, Matt's not just a great person, he's been a just such a staunch advocate for getting the word out about the impact of academic advising through a different lens, right? The podcast was, I mean, he started what five years ago? Six years ago, right before the pandemic hit. And you know, six years ago, not everybody was doing a podcast. Like now everybody's doing a podcast. That's how we have a podcast, right? Like everybody's doing one. But six years ago, not everybody was doing one. And I think this was pretty innovative at the time, particularly within the advising realm, right, to kind of share scholarship and discussions about advising through that medium. And the advising community owes him a great debt of gratitude. He's been amazing. I know we had a chance to, I've been on the podcast a couple of different times. You and I have hosted, guest hosted. I mean, what an impact he's had on the advising community.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Doggone it. I I think about the stories, and one of the great things about our show is that you know, that interaction with folks, hearing about what they're doing, like engaging with uh an audience in a different way than I think Adventures in Advising was. And and and and and we were purposeful in that because we didn't want to just replicate what was there. And but I I will say I think back to that pandemic time frame, and one of the things that I remember is I started walking a lot at that point. I was probably doing five miles a day at least, and and really just that was the focus of a five-mile walk every day during the pandemic because it was just it's all you could do, right? It was all you really could get into, and uh listening to that podcast and connecting with a world uh that was advising and student success that felt so far away because uh I mean I was on the board at that time and we didn't get to go to meet, right? Like as part of the Nakata board and and hearing friends and hearing those people I'd heard about before and being able to just talk to them in a time frame in which you know we weren't communicating in the same ways. And so it was just nice to hear those things. And I'll say the early part of the podcast when Column was a part of it, uh, it was interesting to hear the global perspective of a pandemic and how Europe was handling it versus how we were handling it in the house, you know, those were very powerful conversations, um, and those have continued for six years. And uh and the amount of folks that have had a chance to pick up the microphone and share their journey and share their story, you know, every single time you're listening to to a podcast like this, your story resonates with somebody differently. And we hear about this in our uh feedback that we get. Um, you know, uh Maureen Bell Warner sent us an email to uh the pickup meeting at gmail.com just today talking about yeah, talking about how appreciative she is that we've had folks from the registrar world on recently. Yeah because it's a world that's typically forgotten, like it resonated with her. Yeah, that's that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

I I think the other thing that we should acknowledge, I mean, we've done what 25 of these. Oh maybe like 30.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Yeah, 30. This this might be our 30th, it's in a range of 30.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

And I and I know you and I make this look really, really easy, like it's not work, but guess what, gang? It's work, right? There's a lot of prep. I mean, we don't look this good and sound this good without practice and working. I mean, look at you, Kevin Thomas.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

I know I have a I have a real, real just aura about me today.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

You're well, you're a you're a handsome devil, and we don't get to look and sound this good without working hard and preparing, and then the production piece that kind of comes along with this, right? Putting it together, it's a lot of effort. And Matt's been doing Matt's been doing that for six years, getting guests and getting the schedules and doing the recording. I mean, it's a massive commitment.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

And it's a massive commitment for something that he believes in so much and has loved so much. And my thing is I I love higher education, I love the real diversity of scope that I get to work in. Matt loves academic advising, and he loves academic advising in a way that I would only say that Charlie Nutt loves academic advising. Like those two people are on the pantheon of like academic advising lovers. Yeah, that's probably a bad phrasing. Loving of academic advising.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

You're looking at my Gusterus for Lovers sticker on the back of my car, Kevin. That's the problem. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

I mean, so bravo to Matt Market. I mean, come on.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Yeah, kudos to Matt, kudos to Colum for starting that journey. Um, you know, I know that it's an evolved of Ryan Shekel um joining recently as a co-host. You know, kudos to those. And for folks that have said yes um to being guests on Adventures and Devising over the year, we do one guest at a time. Uh, to me, that is plenty uh as far as scheduling and getting those things down. Uh, Matt has four, five, six on at a time, and uh, and so thank you all for saying yes because you've made the conversations real. And and Matt didn't know we were gonna do this today. So as he's editing um our our nonsense um later on to make sure that we do this. I hope he keeps this in because uh Matt, you've been a champion of advising, and we appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

And such a dear friend, too, and colleague, and through all of this for sure. And look, the great the great thing about this is you can always go back and listen to those episodes, and he and he's still doing episodes till about January. So dig in, like, let's go.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Yeah, catch up. You got 175 that you've missed. That's right. Listen, hey, these are only 30-minute episodes, and we haven't hit our main topic yet. I'm a little concerned about that. You shouldn't be concerned. I know. We always we always find a way. I'm just gonna mute you if you keep going. But earlier this week we were talking about this. I have the power. Um I have the power. Is that He Man? I think so. And the movie's coming out this summer. You should check it out. Um about that, but yeah, I don't think you're gonna go see that one either. We were talking about reading, and uh, you're a big reader.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

I am, and I I saw this article in Inside Higher Ed last week, and I thought, gosh, this this feels like a pretty decent topic. You know, uh students are reading a lot less, uh, faculty are assigning a lot less reading, and I'm not sure that's actually good. I think it's actually detrimental to our development of college graduates and uh for folks moving into the workforce, right? We need good readers. I mean it really, really matters. And so, you know, if we're seeing less assigned reading and if we're seeing less reading in general from our college students and from our uh and assignments from our faculty, I I think it's bad for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Yeah, I think that just to kind of talk about what we're seeing, and and you and I were having this conversation, and then uh this morning before we recorded, um, I was talking with the provost about this on our campus and and said, Hey, is this something you're hearing? And he said, Yeah, he said more and more uh from from students. And this is essentially that students are reporting less reading assignments, yeah, and faculty sometimes reduce it with hopes of approve improving uh course evaluations and or reducing pushback. Um, and when reading does get assigned, students often can't articulate why it matters to the class, um, which is then a disconnect of design, not necessarily that students aren't interested in it, they just don't necessarily understand the purpose of it. Um, and so that I think brings this question of um are we confusing less friction and more with more learning?

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Yeah, I we I think we definitely are, for sure. And and look, I mean, I've told maybe I've told this story before on the podcast, but you know, I had George Jurgen's fantastic history professor, and and I had a presidents in the press class and The Powers That Be by David Halberstam is a thousand page book. You have a 10% quiz of your Grade, 10% of your grade was a quiz on this a thousand page book. And I just remember people going, I'm not reading a thousand pages and just giving that 10% away. And I read the entire thousand pages, the first two questions on the quiz. I don't remember. I have to turn the page over and I'm like, oh, thank God. But he said basically, if you've read the book, you'll you'll ace the quiz. And and uh, but we're not doing that anymore. I mean, and look, reading builds capacity to make complex arguments, it helps us uh in the workplace, right? We got to read dense workplace documents, policy briefs, technical materials. Reading's such a crucial skill post-graduation, right? It's really important. And and we've seen employers citing critical reading as a gap in new graduates, not just, you know, you know, so I mean, we've got to get back on the horse, right? And connecting it, connecting it to assessment and evaluation, I think is really important. Having discussions about reading in class is really important. Those are ways I think faculty and instructors can help. You said you saw the your provost, and I've talked to a couple of students here recently about reading it. Once I saw this article, and they're like, Yeah, look, we don't we don't have to do much reading. It's never we're never tested on the stuff that we're asked to read, so I don't read it. Like I might throw it into Chat GPT and get an uh you know a preview of it, but I'm not reading it. That's dangerous in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Yeah, I I I really think that um we get to this point where the students are struggling with read this and that's it. And I and I really think that anytime a reading assignment is done, and and I don't I've taught class, you've taught class, and and and I probably could be better at this in my own efforts of that, but like read this and come ready to talk about this. Yes, right, and then all of a sudden you're reading for purpose. I I think that helps a lot because you know, first year students need to have this as something that's modeled and not just assigned. Like, here's how I would read it, because they've never done it before in this way. Um, you know, like I'm super proud, my son's ACT for score came back, and in the reading subsection, he got 27, and I'm not a massive reader, and I'm like, man, way to be killing it. You got that from your mom, that's great, right? Yeah, yeah. But like it's it's just taking that and be understanding that the students thrive better in purpose.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Yeah, there's no doubt about that, right? And if if reading that is assigned never gets discussed in class, right, it definitely just teaches students this is optional, right? Even if it isn't optional, right? And it needs to not duplicate lecture, you know, because you can just skip one or the other. And it it, I mean, and when I I think when you connect the reading to the content, to the assessment, people do better. That's my general take. I think that's what the research suggests too, is you know, let's connect the reading, let's curate the reading, make sure that it's meaningful, make sure that it's assessed, make sure that we're talking about it, right? That idea of purpose. I love that, right? Reading with purpose is really important in the classroom. And I think students rise to the expectations. If you tell them this is going to be covered, even if you give them more, I think they're gonna get there.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Yeah, and I like the idea of reading mattering whether we are a part of the classroom experience or not. Um, and uh I think as higher education professionals, um, we can normalize reading as part of the college experience or the experience that our students are having by saying, What are you reading this semester that's challenging you? Yeah. That's not necessarily in the classroom. Maybe they picked up something else they like, and that's something that they can talk about. Um, you know, it can be uh if they're not reading, it's like, how do we reframe it? If if they're, you know, I don't read a lot, like I can't pick up the material. Well, that sounds difficult. Like, let's talk about how to approach it rather than validating I also hate reading. You know, like there's ways to do that that build onto that. Um uh as advisors, when you know you're working with students, um, one of the things that is one of these training and development things was you see the students' previous success or failures. And as advisors, we typically go, Oh, you really struggled in math last year, with while ignoring the four A's that they got. This is the same thing in the reading environment. Like when students say, I'm not a big reader, I'm really struggling in the amount of reading that's there, or well, you say you struggle in reading, let's avoid this high-reading class. Not, hey, did you know our student success folks offer a reading strategy seminar? Yeah, you know, like there are things that are there that can be helpful in that conversation because, as you said, employers are saying, right? Employers are saying, and I think this is a really good point, that they constantly cite critical reading as a gap in new college graduates, not writing, not technology, critical reading skills.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Yeah, it's it's really, you know, I think when we think about advisors or tutors or success coaches, right? Even asking that simple question, tell me about the reading in your courses as a kind of a quick engagement check. I think we can learn a lot if we ask those kinds of questions. You know, I've talked to students here recently. I was at the Impact Awards and saw a couple of students that know me from uh walking up and down the halls in the universe in university college. And I'm shocked at how students have perked up when I've asked this question, like what have you really enjoyed learning this semester in your classes? And I think if we if we can be more engaging in our questioning about what's happening in the classroom, like I think that's a really it's kind of a jarring question, right? Students don't get people asking them those kinds of questions. And I think you can do the same thing about that with reading, but the answers I've gotten from those questions when I've asked those questions of students are really fun. And that's what I think engagement with students when when you're an administrator or an advisor or success coach or a tutor, that's where the good stuff happens when you have those meaningful conversations.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

And those questions are so critical because you know, Brody, I'm 45 years old. Yeah, it has now been 23 years since I sat in an undergraduate class. You are 55 years old. 55 years old, right? It has been much longer since you've been in an undergraduate class. It's true, and so for us, asking those questions and getting that perspective is so important because the student experience today is not the student experience of 20 and 30 years ago. That's accurate. And if we're going to be good administrators, if advisors are gonna be good advisors, if our support teams that do these wraparound services are gonna be great at their job, you've got to know what's happening in those classes. And so if you're not gonna go sit in them every once in a while, which I do encourage people to try to go do, I this is a good way, asking questions that tell you an actual story of what's happening in the class so that you can start to get better.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Yeah, and I think too, when you ask these questions as an advisor or as a tutor or success coach, you know, students might say something like, I just don't see the point of reading the assigned materials. Like to me, that's a trigger for broader disengagement, right? Like, if a student's not doing the reading, what else are they not doing? Yeah, and and I think those are those are nice markers, and so that's really important. It is. You know what else is really important?

SPEAKER_01 29:56

What wrapping this thing up? Oh, I guess that's true. With a top three that is seasonal, which is it's that time of the year where our students are leaving campus. Um, and uh for you, right? Like from a terminology standpoint, you're gonna have to tell me if this is this is accurate. Um weirdest thing found in a dorm. Now I would say residence hall, but I think your generation might be dormant, uh during move out. Oh man, I know. And listen, I probably am gonna keep this a little cleaner. And so I went with three that stand out to me. Okay, so the first one that is weird to me is people leaving TVs. And I will say, generationally, when I was a hall director in the early 2000s, TV still weighed a bit, and so maybe it was like, uh, it's too heavy, I'm not messing with it. Yeah, leave TVs, they would set them out in the hall or put them out by the dumpster, and this is our second dumpster reference, and that feels like a lot. Um, but they would do that. Uh, the second one that it stands out to me is like I got to a room and we're checking it, and there's a fridge there. And I thought, oh well, like fridge isn't unusual. And I opened up the fridge and it was just stocked with beer and liquor. I mean, just to the brim. And I'm like, how did this happen? Not not like why did they have it? I understand that that was occurring, but like, when did you say, I give up? I'm just gonna right, like, I don't I don't understand that one.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

And then at least it wasn't something worse in the refrigerator, right? We've all seen those movies.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

Yeah, there's yeah, and it didn't stink of the way that some fridges can stink in a in a in a residence hall, right? And then the last one, and this made me feel like sad, I guess, a little bit, but I walked in, and there are like just the closet is full of clothes, and the dresser is full of clothes, and I'm like, oh my gosh, this person just left everything. And then I look and there's a note that says, I gained the freshman 35. Please just donate my clothes to Goodwill. Oh no, like that. That was unusual. That was unique, that was weird. I gained the freshman 25.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

I'm you told us you ate all the pizza. No, it was the double cheeseburgers, yeah. Freshman year. Oh, double bacon cheeseburgers, so bad. You know, Kevin, your question, like I read this question this morning. I'm not prepped very well today, but your question brings back one of my favorite memories of all times. And I could say three things like we haven't talked about luggage, and my neighbor is a faculty member, and at the end of a school year, one year he put luggage out in the trash, and it's still the piece of luggage that I use when I travel, and he was just gonna give it away. But that's not the story.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

Um, if you're looking for a gift for Rony Brooks, I can use some new luggage. Sweet G.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

How old is your luggage? It's old, but it still works. I mean, it's like this Samsungide, it's it's uh like a hard plastic cover. The plastic cover is kind of cracked. I mean, it's stood the test of time. I've used that thing for almost, you know, it's gotta be close to 15 years. That's amazing. But my story, so this so I don't have a third thing. I'll only say a second thing. In between my junior and senior year, before I did like summer RA work, uh, I worked as kind of building service worker, right? So you're like a you know, you're like a person that goes through the rooms and clears out all the rooms and then cleans and makes sure, you know, charges students if they haven't done things. You you just make all the notations. But uh Pizza Express, which was one of my favorite pizza places, they mistyped, uh they misprinted a coupon. And instead of two orders of breadsticks and two Cokes for 444, they did it for two for 222. And I remember just cutting out every single coupon from every phone book that I saw as I cleared out. And Catherine and I ate Pizza Express breadsticks and drank Coke all summer long, at least once a day. And it was the greatest summer of all times.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

That's where the pounds came from. Listen, yes, for our we talked about this before we hit record, and I forgot that we hadn't hit record yet. Oh, so great! And I mean, they hated us so much.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

The guy kept saying, You know, this is a misprint. We shouldn't honor this. Then you shouldn't have had it misprinted. I said, Well, that's too bad because I've got a coupon here that says this, and you're gonna honor it.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

And eventually they knew our names and they just gave up. And you ate all summer for ten dollars. Yes, it was so amazing. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

That was the same summer they had Slurpees at 7-Eleven, and underneath they had these holographic baseball cards, and I still have those.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

Man, you ate super healthy that summer. We should take them to Antique Roadshow, they're probably worth 10 cents. Absolutely. Hey, uh, send us home today, man.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Yeah, so uh that's it for this edition of the pickup meeting. We hope all your pickup meetings, whether informal or formal, are as meaningful as fun as this one. Until the next time, let's just do good and be nice. How about that? Sounds great.

SPEAKER_01 35:19

Be nice.