The Lion's Roundtable (Guest: SLU Provost Dr. Eric Skipper)
Download MP3Good day. This is Amber Narro on KSLU's ninety point nine FM. I am here with my friend, my brand new friend, Dr. Eric Skipper. He is here to talk to me today about some things that are happening in the provost's office here at Southeastern. He's new to Louisiana, sort of, been here about six months, about to claim him as a resident, but we're glad to have you on the Lions roundtable.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Appreciate you having me, and happy holidays to you as well.
Dr. Amber Narro:Thank you. Today, I'll be Amber. You'll be Eric. Is that okay?
Dr. Eric Skipper:Sounds good.
Dr. Amber Narro:Does that work?
Dr. Eric Skipper:Yeah.
Dr. Amber Narro:Very good. Yep. Very good. Okay. So first of all, we're talking to general public here, what the heck is a provost?
Dr. Eric Skipper:That's a good question. In medieval days, a provost used to be a jailer and so
Dr. Amber Narro:I did not know. Jobs
Dr. Eric Skipper:not changed a whole lot, well actually changed a lot. But the provost is typically the chief academic officer of a university and also the stand in for the president when the president's not available. Typically appended to the word provost is vice president of academic affairs or something of that nature, which means that you have oversight of the academic enterprise and all its various parts at at a university.
Dr. Amber Narro:Believe it or not, I've been doing this show for about eight years and this is the first time I've interviewed the provost.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Oh, wow.
Dr. Amber Narro:So that's why I'm asking you these questions. I'm alright?
Dr. Eric Skipper:I'm delighted to be that person.
Dr. Amber Narro:So let's talk a little controversy on campus. Right? Uh-oh. There's always the push pull between student affairs and Mhmm. Academic affairs.
Dr. Amber Narro:Mhmm. Alright? Let's talk about first the difference between the two of those, if you don't mind. What what differentiates you on this the academic affairs side from doctor Eric Summers on that student affairs side? What what's the difference between a student affair and academic
Dr. Eric Skipper:Well there's great differences and the confusion also comes from the fact that we're both Eric S, Doctor. Eric Skipberg
Dr. Amber Narro:Oh bloody mercy, I didn't even think about that until just this Yeah, sometimes
Dr. Eric Skipper:it happens, we receive each other's mail. But the academics is obviously, in the, VPAA, Vice President of Academic Affairs, realm which is typically academic programs, the library, the research components, all these honors programs, every, you know, possible college and department and academic program you could think of and on the student affairs, it's so much of the well-being, career placement, counseling, here we have transportation, I love that here, the UPD Police Department actually is part of that organization so, so much, that benefits students and has to do with the welfare of students. And we do that as well on the academic side but in a different way.
Dr. Amber Narro:Very good. So I talk about the push pull, and it's because we all love each other and we want the best for students, So, and some of those some of those things absolutely collide in the best of ways. Right? Organizations kinda fall on that student affairs side. Mhmm.
Dr. Amber Narro:And we all know in the research that if students are engaged and and very involved on campus that they do better on the academic side. Right? So when we talk about colliding and that push pull, it's always with the benefit of students in mind, yes?
Dr. Eric Skipper:Yeah, absolutely. And so the student organizations, student government association, all the different clubs and so forth, That's one way that students are engaged outside of the classroom and part of the university environment and what makes it so dynamic. On the academic side, we also offer a lot of outside of classroom engagement in, clubs and activities but mainly in the realm of undergraduate research and study abroad and internships, community based learning. So both both parts in our very both both in our very best way incorporate a lot of outside of classroom learning activities.
Dr. Amber Narro:Very good. You got here in the summer. Correct. And welcome to Southeast Louisiana in the middle of flipping summer time.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Yeah.
Dr. Amber Narro:Yikes.
Dr. Eric Skipper:It was freezing last night.
Dr. Amber Narro:Yep. Yes, indeed. Alright. So, tell me about where you come from when you got here. What's your, let's just talk about the shock to the system, the weather system first.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Yeah, so shock to the weather system, has been not so great as what you might think, coming from the South Carolina Lowcountry, I look, you look at a map and we're almost on the same latitude and so, weather is kind of similar. I came here and saw and observed to others that so so many parts of or so many elements here are true there in the South Carolina Lowcountry as well. So I walked around this campus for my interview and I saw lots of live oak trees draped in Spanish moss, very typical over there as well. Lots of humidity, hurricanes, all these things are very similar. The, the, you know, there's shock to the system, not, not a whole lot of shock to the system but really learning the institution, I would say, workflow, systems, processes, those are all things that, that require the most, adjustment.
Dr. Eric Skipper:And then, you know, sort of pulling it back and looking at at the culture, we're we're also, in South Carolina, I was at University of South Carolina, Beaufort prior to here, located on the coast and this has, many features that are very similar. You're located next to two huge estuaries which are actually called Lakes, and Pontchartrain and and the,
Dr. Amber Narro:Marpaw, yeah.
Dr. Eric Skipper:And then, you have crawfish, which is something that we don't enjoy much of there.
Dr. Amber Narro:Sorry to hear that.
Dr. Eric Skipper:You call your counties parishes here, goes back to the Spanish, rule and the, yeah, the Catholic tradition. So lots of things are different, some things are similar. We're still on higher education. I noticed lots about institutions are are, different and lots about, respective institutions are the same.
Dr. Amber Narro:Okay. So you talk a little bit about kind of the Spanish influence. You asked me about my last name when you got here. Yeah. And I bet that has to do a little bit about your academic background.
Dr. Amber Narro:Tell me about Yeah. You a little
Dr. Eric Skipper:I'm a Spanish professor by trade. Thanks for bringing that up and it's very important. That's that that is how I grew up in academia is is teaching a lot of Spanish classes and and eventually moved into into administration. Actually did my undergraduate degree in business, in management at Georgia Tech and so took a huge, you know, it was it was not a natural, the next natural evolution of of one's career to go to go from, being a management major to a Spanish, PhD, but it was something that at around that time I was very interested in and in, Downtown Atlanta in that time I was getting a lot of chance to speak, the language, while I was also studying it, took, tons of credits at Georgia Tech, probably had a good, 30 to 40 undergraduate credits that after I graduated in language. It's something totally different from my major.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Some of it, counted but a lot of it I just took on my own. And, really loved the language, got into literature, decided that's what I wanted to do and did that at Florida State and then after that began my academic career. Most of it in Georgia, in the University System of Georgia and then in 2016 went to University of South Carolina Beaufort where I was nine years as provost there prior to coming here in this in this same job.
Dr. Amber Narro:Well, it's interesting you say that Mhmm. Because I'm a little selfish in this question. You also have some background in honors programming as well. Yep. Yes?
Dr. Amber Narro:Absolutely. And tell me about your honors program, Where you're where you're coming from.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Yeah. Yeah. So every every honors program is is different which is which is good. It's it's one of those things where there's there there is a national collegiate honor society but the, there there's no accrediting body that sorta sorta lays down the law about this is what you have to do and you have to fit these things in this way. And so the honors programs across universities I have found are quite different and, you have honors programs all the way to honors colleges and and there are some parameters, that that are suggested for defining each each of those.
Dr. Eric Skipper:But but they're they're very different.
Dr. Amber Narro:I'm learning that for sure.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Yeah, absolutely. But it's a wonderful thing and and some some programs are going to have a unique identity in in some some certain area like international or leadership or sort of anchor themselves on an identity of scene. I think one of the wonderful things that you get to have is almost a student advisory body that can help you and your leadership to determine the direction or activities and projects and so forth. My experience in Honors was I got to be, we had all these consolidations that happen in the university system of Georgia around, 2012 and '20, going into 2013, January 2013, you had eight institutions there that became four institutions and so you had, in in our case, I was at the former Gainesville State College and it, it merged with North Georgia College and State University to become University of North Georgia. And so that means you're merging everything.
Dr. Amber Narro:At the
Dr. Eric Skipper:end of the day, you have one financial aid, you know, director. At the end of the day, you have one president. You have one police department. All the all these things come together. So same with, honors program.
Dr. Amber Narro:I gotta imagine that was a little stressful as somebody not really,
Dr. Eric Skipper:you
Dr. Amber Narro:know, not knowing how that's gonna work.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Yeah, lot of people very, obviously very nervous about their At the end of the day, a lot of people, did not lose their jobs but a lot of people came out on the other side of the consolidation with a different job. Yeah. And I was one of them. I was an interim dean for at the time, what at the time was humanities and fine arts and became the dean of honors and graduate studies. So I had two sort of Oh wow.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Of But with regards to honors, was, merging two very different cultures across two very different institutions, with similar but not identical missions and and you know, obviously cultures amongst the the faculty and and, expectations and identity of the program, all these things to, create a single unified honors program across multiple campuses. That Oh, was that was was it was a challenge. It was a lot of fun too. You know, we had we had, many meetings, many, points of agreement. I guess.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Some points of disagreement and and so being the dean, you, I had reporting to me the directors from each of the, three campuses across two institutions that were involved at that time and and hammering out what this new honors program's going to be. But it gave us a lot of, we we had a we had a great chance, to to, anchor off of one of the one of the programs was was going through their twentieth year anniversary celebration and so we we did a, giving, outreach called twenty for twenty and the idea was we were trying to get everybody everybody that we could possibly reach out to give $20 to the honors program and we were we raised, we had never had fundraising in honors and and it can be something that that is, that people want to give to. Typically want to give to the university's best and brightest and so through that in a very short amount of time we raised around 12 or $14,000 and all of a sudden had this money to do things with. And in addition to what the university was affording and operating funds for the Honors Program.
Dr. Eric Skipper:And that's another, that's another topic is universities are very different in the way they see and treat honors. Yeah. So, I'm pleased that you're in that position, I see great things that are happening and I see the very fast growth of the honors program, it's a lot to be proud of.
Dr. Amber Narro:It is, it is and, you know, I mean one of the things that I just wanna make sure that our listeners hear is that we are rapid growing as an honors program, and we definitely have have experienced some growing delights. I'm not gonna call them pains because it really has been fun to watch. Mhmm. And, one of the things that I have noticed is that here at Southeastern, the culture stands
Dr. Eric Skipper:Mhmm.
Dr. Amber Narro:Really strong. And I try to promise well, I do promise to all incoming honors students that we're gonna have an individual experience, but we're also gonna be surrounded by honors students who are gonna push you to be the best you can be. And I'm hoping that we're continuing that on. And as we're surveying students, we're getting that feedback. We do like to involve our students in those conversations.
Dr. Amber Narro:So if you have a student who's going here to Southeastern who's an honor student or who is already here, then please make sure you send them to us and and tell us what they want their experience to be like, and we're gonna tailor that to them. And and that is a promise that I'm I am aiming to keep as the directors, that we continue those individual experiences, but also surround them with people who push them. And I think that's what any honors program can do.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Absolutely, absolutely, you mentioned the individual and the broader experience, it's really the best of both worlds, you get to have this sort of boutique experience over here but you're also connected with the larger university and perhaps where you live, the type of clubs you're in, certainly the classes you take. So, really it's a best of both worlds scenario. And the other thing too and I'm so glad that we have a really strong program here is it elevates, the university for some of our high ability students that may have been considering going to Lane or Ole Miss or LSU, perhaps when they have an invite to be in the honors program here that changes the way they think about their opportunities here.
Dr. Amber Narro:Indeed, I didn't know there were other schools around here besides Southeastern. Thanks.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Yeah. There are a few other ones.
Dr. Amber Narro:Thank you. I've heard. Thank you for telling me. I appreciate that. Alright.
Dr. Amber Narro:You obviously are bringing in this wealth of experience from different areas and are able to look at South Eastern with fresh eyes, but you're seeing some of those similarities. You talked about some of the same issues or some of the same opportunities from from university to university. Tell me about some of the things that it's just a breath of fresh air to just see is here as well as some of those that you've also been previously. Yeah. Besides the Honors Program?
Dr. Amber Narro:Yeah, absolutely. You know I'm gonna get selfish about that. I wanna keep our smart kids here in Tangeboat Parish for sure.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Absolutely. Things that you know walking in and seeing things from you know not not having been here.
Dr. Amber Narro:Mhmm.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Was I think any anybody that comes new to a university no matter what what job you're doing. You're gonna have some of that observation of things that are different, things that are evolved, things that, you know, from my perspective always, you know, looking at, how can we do things better and to to see all of that.
Dr. Amber Narro:Yeah.
Dr. Eric Skipper:And, I I value that that perspective coming here as an outsider. I also, in the future for every person we bring on board, I ask them, okay, what are you seeing? Because when we're here long enough, we sometimes become myopic or blind. Sure. Some of the things are right in front of us.
Dr. Eric Skipper:So I appreciate that question. The things that that I observe that are are refreshing or novel are, for instance, I I thought that we served in South Carolina at my my previous institution a large number of South Carolina South Carolinians proportionate to the whole student body. Were around 85%. Here it's like 95% of Louisianans are among the student body here.
Dr. Amber Narro:Woo
Dr. Eric Skipper:hoo! That was amazing and also we retained them at a very high level and that's great. At the same time, that doesn't mean that, you've given away anythings in terms of outreach to our international students. We have, here a strong, contingent of of, international students and what they bring to the university in terms of innovation, the desire to succeed, freshness of perspectives, intercultural differences, those are all eventually to benefit our current student body. I believe strongly in international education that being that our students go elsewhere and that we bring students here.
Dr. Amber Narro:And then they go home and talk about us.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Go home and talk about because we were good too. People wanna come here, absolutely it's important. So, the student body certainly, was, was something. The, I come from a much smaller institution so the breadth and scope of programs, really, really encouraged by that and I get, a lot of excitement by watching our faculty do amazing things across a number of different areas. The research profile, is very strong.
Dr. Eric Skipper:You know, prior to coming here last year, the institution was named one of the Carnegie Commission's college's, research colleges and universities category. So not research one designation, very high research, not research two designation, high research, but research colleges and universities which is a way to recognize this tier of primarily teaching institutions that are also doing robust research. And so finding, coming here and learning that that that is part of the profile of the university is also encouraging and something that we can really build off of.
Dr. Amber Narro:I gotta imagine that as provosting, you're you're at a teaching university, that's gotta be especially gratifying. Mhmm. Because you see those students just grow from that level as well. And, you know, to have that designation, it's almost it almost makes me more proud to have that one that we really are student focused and we really care about our students. And it's not just something that, that we say.
Dr. Amber Narro:Mhmm. It's something that we do.
Dr. Eric Skipper:It's something that we do. It's something that we live. It's something that we embody. I'm proud also of that that mission of being a teaching university first.
Dr. Amber Narro:Absolutely. Speaking of which. Mhmm. You have brought through our research council here at the university, you have brought this idea of Pecha Kucha. Mhmm.
Dr. Amber Narro:Right. What is a Pecha Kucha?
Dr. Eric Skipper:Yeah.
Dr. Amber Narro:What is that?
Dr. Eric Skipper:Pecha Kucha. Yeah. So, and thank thank you for bringing that up and thank you for bringing the research council up and you are part of that research council I And appreciate your participation on so the Pecha Kucha is a format. Petracucha means chit chat in Japanese and it is a presentation format that is very regimented, sort of like haiku if you're writing poetry. Petracucha is for presentations and again it's very structured.
Dr. Eric Skipper:It is, six minutes and forty seconds long and what that amounts to is you have 20 PowerPoint slides of a duration of twenty seconds each and that that adds to six minutes and forty seconds. And so ideally, they're not going to be laden with words and text and so forth, but rather be more image driven. So the the experience is ideally one for those who are observing, for for the lay person who is not in your field of expertise, is not in your field of research.
Dr. Amber Narro:So this is going public then.
Dr. Eric Skipper:This is going public, yeah. So thank you, for, so that's the outward facing part of this. So on, March 26, we're going to do this event. It will be roughly, starting at 05:00 in the afternoon. It will be at Black and Brew, they have a side room which lends itself well to this type of activity.
Dr. Eric Skipper:And we have a call for proposals out to our faculty that went out a couple of weeks ago and in late January they will, they will have a deadline and then in February we'll make those determinations and get the word out to those faculty who will be presenting. But at that evening, we'll have several faculty members who will have applied and who will present their research, their projects to the public and, in in in again very lay person's terms so that, the casual observer can understand. But it is really a moment for the university to share with the public and inside the university. Many of us don't know the research and projects that our colleagues are doing. The nature of the research they're doing, much of this research is, is region focused, community focused, much of the research as it should be is, use inspired research that has some practical application and, and hopefully this leads us to being even more interdisciplinary as a university as we understand, what our peers are working on and how we can collaborate more effectively.
Dr. Eric Skipper:But certainly an outward facing, function of the university is to to take these projects, present them to the public and the the Pecha Kucha format is a way of doing that that does not hopefully saddle the public with lengthy presentations in esoteric terms but rather, pithy distilled ones in common lay person's terms so we can all understand the benefit and the ways that research is benefiting our region.
Dr. Amber Narro:Right, and from a selfish standpoint for us at Southeastern, this is a way that we can share this information so that people can also talk about us, Absolutely. So if you bog it down with those big words and big terms and big things that you know, you're doing in the lab and whatnot and you can't relay it to the public, they can't go talk about you. That's right. Right? And we need them to be able to talk about how great we are.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Yeah. Some people will be right there with you but you'll lose a lot of people depending on, know, topic to topic. We got a whole range of of research happening, at this university, you know, especially around the water, a lot of water quality monitoring, restoration projects, fish species identification, and, you know, the preservation of our history in Southeast Louisiana is a big project that we do here. But our faculty are engaged in drug discovery and artificial intelligence research and, you know, every possible every possible thing in in pretty much every possible discipline.
Dr. Amber Narro:Very good. Alright. So as we're closing out the show, I just definitely wanna chat with you a little bit about you.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Okay.
Dr. Amber Narro:The person. So Okay. I'll ask a couple of questions for you. You can fire them back at me and explain if you want to or you just answer them if you'd like to. Sure.
Dr. Amber Narro:Okay. So what's a hobby?
Dr. Eric Skipper:A hobby? I read read a lot. And, after COVID, I picked up my guitar. I had I had been
Dr. Amber Narro:You're a musician.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Well, you know, not really, but I do I I I do it's like working a puzzle for me that that, learning how to play things. Now, everything's on YouTube nowadays, by the way, so you can learn a lot that way. A lot more faster than when I used to be a kid and and you know, listening and playing back on a cassette tape, multiple times to figure out what the chord or the finger positioning. But that that's part of it too and and I I read, about a lot of stuff, everything from medicine to economics to history. I enjoy, you know, trying to piece things together and also it helps me to, have better conversations with my faculty colleagues who are in many different areas where I need them to tell me in a very pecha kucha kind of way so that I can understand them.
Dr. Amber Narro:Indeed. Alright. Favorite movie?
Dr. Eric Skipper:Oh, favorite movie? Oh my gosh. Can I list about, three or four of them? I'll say
Dr. Amber Narro:I'll allow it.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Yeah. Yeah. I'll say, focus features, Pride and Prejudice. Let's see, oh Monstrous Ball, goodness gracious, there's so many of them. If can go over to, I would say, in terms of streaming, Marvelous Mrs.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Maisel and, Succession, have been, probably my two favorites.
Dr. Amber Narro:Very good. I don't get control of the remote at home. My husband, sweet man, love him to death but he has absolute control over that thing and his and we're we're big Star Wars.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Okay.
Dr. Amber Narro:Yeah. I like Pirates of the Caribbean as well. Okay. I think I think I like a little bit of Hobbit kind of stuff and. Yeah.
Dr. Amber Narro:And and maybe, you know, a little from time to time some Harry Potter. Yeah. That's what I like. Yeah. Or I've been told I like.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Wonderful. Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah. The, Lord of the Rings, I don't know if you, you know, something about the sort of fantastical and and Mhmm.
Dr. Eric Skipper:You like a lot of science fiction.
Dr. Amber Narro:Oh, no. He does. I just do that by default. Tolerate it. I I can't I can't sit for a movie very long.
Dr. Amber Narro:I'm, you know, the the biggest gripe that my husband has about me is that can't go to a movie. There's no way. I wouldn't sit through it at all. I'd have to go find something else to do. Yeah.
Dr. Amber Narro:So, he's he gets control over what I like.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Right.
Dr. Amber Narro:For movies. Yep. There you go. Alright. So, favorite topic to study that can't be in your major?
Dr. Eric Skipper:Oh favorite topic is economics. Okay. And the reason I say that is because it's, nobody can figure it out, even economists. I've read enough of it to understand that there's a saying that economists have predicted 30 of the last six recessions, right, which
Dr. Amber Narro:is kind of a joke. Like weather people? Exactly.
Dr. Eric Skipper:And the thing is is from situation situation and geopolitics and international economics, the variables are so different in every situation that you can't pick up and apply any single one to another one and so it sort of leaves you to a place where you're, grappling. Nobody can predict the stock market, right? I mean if they could, we would all be millionaires and so it's part art, part science and extremely fascinating. Best trip you ever took? Best trip, oh my gosh, Yes, best trip.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Say international, would probably be, I've been to a lot of places but really enjoyed Veracruz, Mexico, in in ways that I wasn't expecting. It's sort of off the beaten tourist path and that it's not one of the most touristy places but really enjoyed that. Here in The US, Perhaps I'll throw San Diego out there. Great great city.
Dr. Amber Narro:I just got back from San Diego the National Collegiate Honors Conference. Yeah.
Dr. Eric Skipper:I have to pick somewhere far away from the East Coast, right?
Dr. Amber Narro:We're all
Dr. Eric Skipper:used to this here. New York City is a lot of fun too.
Dr. Amber Narro:Love New York. Love New York. Mhmm. I would I would have to say that New York is probably one of my but I took my my daughters at that time. They were like 18, 21.
Dr. Amber Narro:Mhmm. So they had a ball. It was super fun.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Yep.
Dr. Amber Narro:Absolutely enjoyed that.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Yeah, New York City's wonderful. I took my mom Nice. Once and she walked around the whole time saying, well I wouldn't wanna live here. I think a lot of people have that same, they love to go there, the exhilaration, excitement is palpable. You can really feel it but it's, yeah, it takes some getting used to.
Dr. Amber Narro:London has that feel at a different level for me. Like London is the walk around New York for me because I feel like I can walk around in London and I feel pretty pretty safe and, like, I know where I can I'm I'm getting around, which is odd because it's a it's a foreign country. Right? Still a foreign country. But New York is a place where it just there's so many blinking lights.
Dr. Amber Narro:You know, I think London is almost like the little subdued. Mhmm. New York. Mhmm. And that's it's my favorite place to be on Earth.
Dr. Amber Narro:Oh, for sure.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Love it. Never been. Oh. Maybe go there.
Dr. Amber Narro:Yeah. I'll I'll write you the to do list. Okay. No problem. Anytime anybody goes, I have just a standard thing that I just, you have to go to these things.
Dr. Amber Narro:Borough Market is the the littlest known, awesomest place ever. It's like food from all over the world. Every day, street market type thing, groceries to cook meals you can just pick up and bring to your whole family is unbelievable.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Is it like Notting Hill? Yes.
Dr. Amber Narro:Okay, it's a rom com, that's my favorite rom com. I like Notting Hill.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Your husband will let you watch it
Dr. Amber Narro:at some point. So I did like Notting Hill. A lot of my movies get take place on a plane though because I can't go anywhere. You know? You're like in jail.
Dr. Amber Narro:So I I think I watched Naughty Hill on plane. Yep. Ain't that terrible? Alright. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Dr. Amber Narro:I really appreciate it. This has been awesome. You are actually here by demand from our our listeners. They saw you in the paper and and started asking some questions. They wanted to hear from you on the radio.
Dr. Amber Narro:So GM contacted me, Damon Sundee, and said, hey. You need to interview this guy. I said, well, of course I do. Absolutely. So I've been here talking to Doctor.
Dr. Amber Narro:Eric Skipper. He is our brand new provost here at Southeastern doing some awesome things. And right before I let you go, because I promise this at the top, what do you see for our spring
Dr. Eric Skipper:here at For spring, we're gonna continue to push ahead. We have made great advancements in new academic programming, academic program planning, the advising interface with our students, transfer making that easier. Next big push, there are 640,000 individuals in Louisiana with some college and no degree, we gotta make a great push to our online learners to help them you know, advance, have more socioeconomic ceiling and hopefully change lives and circumstances for them and their families.
Dr. Amber Narro:Wonderful. I get the beautiful opportunity to talk to the folks at, NTCC here once a month at least and we definitely need to get you on a rotation of some sort so we can, talk about the current state of the university. But when they're talk they talk about 16,000 students in The United in, Louisiana alone who have not finished their high school degree yet. Mhmm. And we often talk about the awesome the awesome opportunity that we have Mhmm.
Dr. Amber Narro:To get those degrees started at that level for very little cash, like $75. Very very little bit of money to really change somebody's life Mhmm. And then get them enrolled at NTCC. They can actually start taking some of those classes as well while they're there. Turn around, come to Southeastern and complete a doctoral level type of education if they want to and really change the path of their of their family tree.
Dr. Eric Skipper:Absolutely. We're
Dr. Amber Narro:we're doing that here. Yep. And as a regional, we get the benefit of working with those smaller institutions, welcoming them here through our Transfer Success Center. Mhmm. And and and changing how people live and and what they do here in Louisiana to make us all better.
Dr. Eric Skipper:So important. It's the most important work.
Dr. Amber Narro:Indeed. Indeed. Love it. Doctor Eric Skipper, thank you for joining us today. I appreciate you very much.
Dr. Amber Narro:And thank you for listening here on Thursdays and Fridays on nine point nine FM, the Lion. We are at the Lion's Roundtable. I'm Amber Narro. Y'all have a great day.
