WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.991
At the same time I was working with Jay Dawkins on graduation gowns.

2
00:00:05.991 --> 00:00:10.200
It was something that had started when I was in student government. We went to-.

3
00:00:10.200 --> 00:00:13.586
I loved going to the CALS agrilife council meetings

4
00:00:13.586 --> 00:00:17.357
because you got a free dinner and there was always people there with ideas and everything else,

5
00:00:17.357 --> 00:00:20.999
But one person was like: Why don't we wear red when we graduate?

6
00:00:20.999 --> 00:00:24.443
And it kind of just put a light bulb off in my head.

7
00:00:24.443 --> 00:00:29.786
It was something that-. I wasn't sure how to make the moves happen yet,

8
00:00:29.786 --> 00:00:33.912
so as senior class president I was like, that's one thing I want to work on.

9
00:00:33.912 --> 00:00:39.684
I went to my brother's graduation when he graduated from Carolina and they graduate in a sea of Carolina Blue.

10
00:00:39.684 --> 00:00:47.732
Then everything kind of started happening with the administration changes, with the Easley issues and everything else,

11
00:00:47.732 --> 00:00:52.239
so it was-because it kind of was on the chancellor's side,

12
00:00:52.239 --> 00:00:57.424
and with Oblinger leaving and all the other mess it just wasn't a priority and shouldn't have been a priority for the university.

13
00:00:57.424 --> 00:01:05.237
So once Chancellor Woodward got in at the time I sat down with Jay Dawkins, who was now the senior class president at that time,

14
00:01:05.237 --> 00:01:10.601
and Jim Ceresnak, the new student body president, who was also Jay's roommate,

15
00:01:10.601 --> 00:01:17.447
and we started talking about it and I said, guys, this is something we need to make happen.

16
00:01:17.447 --> 00:01:21.379
All of us wear red every day.

17
00:01:21.379 --> 00:01:26.968
Our whites are stained pink from washing so many different red t-shirts in with our whites.

18
00:01:26.968 --> 00:01:31.042
It's a passion that we bleed red.

19
00:01:31.042 --> 00:01:35.306
We brought it up at chancellor's liaison and he was like,

20
00:01:35.306 --> 00:01:39.882
What do you mean you don't do this? Why not?

21
00:01:39.882 --> 00:01:46.197
He was like of course we're going to make this happen. There's no question; this is going to happen.

22
00:01:46.197 --> 00:01:53.802
One of the coolest moments, because he was just like, yeah, that's silly that you're not already graduating in red.

23
00:01:53.802 --> 00:01:59.042
Then he goes, it's going to start at the May graduation,

24
00:01:59.042 --> 00:02:03.435
and Dr. Stafford's looking at me, and Dr. Stafford knows I'm graduating in December

25
00:02:03.435 --> 00:02:10.181
and Dr. Stafford, after the meeting, says, "Yeah, it doesn't sound like you're going to get to graduate in red. You'll be the last one to graduate in black."

26
00:02:10.181 --> 00:02:15.777
I said, "Yeah, but I'm just glad that it's happening."

27
00:02:15.777 --> 00:02:22.717
Dr. Stafford calls me in a couple of weeks later and says, "Hey-." No, I actually go to meet with the chancellor a couple of weeks later,

28
00:02:22.717 --> 00:02:29.389
and the chancellor goes, "Dr. Stafford told me that you were kind of upset that you weren't going to get to graduate in red."

29
00:02:29.389 --> 00:02:38.053
He goes, "I'll make you a deal. If you help me get these red robes in place, you get student feedback,

30
00:02:38.053 --> 00:02:42.502
you know, do we want the little things here, whatever.

31
00:02:42.502 --> 00:02:46.142
You deal with that stuff and you get this to happen by May,

32
00:02:46.142 --> 00:02:50.263
I'll let you wear a red robe at your December graduation."

33
00:02:50.263 --> 00:02:54.493
I was like, sold. Done deal. There's no doubt about it.

34
00:02:54.493 --> 00:03:00.109
So I was on the committee and I took the robes and showed them to students and got the feedback

35
00:03:00.109 --> 00:03:04.567
and everything and we picked what we wanted and worked with the committee to develop it,

36
00:03:04.567 --> 00:03:11.922
and I was able to graduate in red and be the first student to graduate in red, which was one of the coolest things, I think, of my college career.