Dr. Hughes: Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the ASCA viewpoints podcast. As always, I'm your host, Dr. Alexandra E. Hughes and well, we have a lot of things that have been changing. I know I've been gone for a while and I promise that's for a good reason. I am officially a part of ASCA, full time, Central Office staff. All of that's kind of been going on, which is why there hasn't been an episode, but I promise we are back. Just taking care of all of that good stuff and it's exciting. It's summer. We have a lot of things that are coming up. I'm so excited to be able to just jump on the microphone and just say hello, because I have definitely missed it. There's a lot of good things coming. I'm just really, really happy. Dr. Hughes: I am actually not the host of this week's episode. I say that because Christine Simone, from The Central Office, actually took the time to interview me. Since I've been hosting this show, I really haven't had the opportunity to speak a lot about me, and the different roles that I'm in, and the different positions I'm in. And then, of course, whatever my full-time role was at the time. In light of me now being the education specialist for ASCA, we thought it would be a good time to, I guess, have me on the show and do an interview. So, If you are ready to hear about that, maybe hear a little bit more about me and what I will be doing for ASCA, stay tuned. I hope that you enjoy the episode and I will catch you on the interwebs. Christine: All right. You've heard of a flipped classroom, but what about a flipped podcast? I'm Christine Simone, ASCA deputy director, and I'm here with Dr. Alexandra Elise Hughes, who typically hosts our podcasts, but I've taken that role on today and we're going to see how she feels about that after we get done with this recording here. Dr. Hughes: I'm scared. Christine: She's in a new role, full time now, with ASCA. It's a good time to reintroduce her in that new role. Hey, how are ya? Dr. Hughes: Hello. It is weird. It's a flipped thing. I don't know how I feel. Now when everyone's on the show and they're like, "Oh, I'm nervous." I'm like, "Oh, I get it now." [crosstalk 00:02:57] Christine: I will try to ask questions in a way that makes you super comfortable, the way that you always make other people feel comfortable on your show. Dr. Hughes: Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I trust you, so it's good. Christine: Okay. That's good. Let's start it off with, just tell us about this new role. It's so exciting. Reintroduce yourself if you will. Dr. Hughes: I guess. Yeah. Normally I'm like, "Hi, I'm the podcast host," but now it's a little different. Well, hello everyone. We're back again for another episode. I am, I guess, full title, Dr. Alexandra E Hughes. I am actually in a new role, I am officially the education specialist for ASCA. I am officially, full-time a part of the team with you, with Jennifer, with Tommy. I mean, amazing, amazing staff of people. I'm excited. Yeah. I'm here. It's a new job. Christine: We're excited too. You've already done so much with ASCA over the years, and so, it just seems like a natural transition. Dr. Hughes: Well, it's been fun. I feel like I haven't actually stopped working because it was like, "Oh, ASCA before, ASCA now." It's just ASCA continuing. You know what? I'm actually really excited, because it's something that I love to do. Yeah, so I'm in this education specialist role. Really just doing a lot of stuff. What am I doing? Everything, right? We all do, but that's kind of what happens in education, and we do that. But really, I'm focused on a few different things. Dr. Hughes: Obviously, the podcast. Obviously, the education pieces that we're putting out with ASCA. Things like reflections, things like the podcast. Looking at the content that we're putting out when it comes to our organization. Obviously, we have our two very big things that we're known for. Whether it's Gehring, whether it's our actual annual conference, and with both of those different things, they're at different times of the year. They're our six month marks, if you will. For both of those, a lot of education is put out as far as what we're doing to make sure our members feel that they have the most up-to-date information, feel that they are just prepared when it comes to the work that we do. Dr. Hughes: I'm really going to be focusing on that, and then of course, throughout the rest of the year, creating stuff that our members can really benefit from. I'm excited. I'm excited to partner with people. There are some amazing, amazing people that I've worked with in ASCA that I will continue to work with, new people that I'm excited to work with. Yeah, that's kind of the short version of what I will be doing in my job. Christine: Awesome. You talked a little bit about some of the things you've done previously, but can you back up a little bit and tell us some of your experiences that you think prepped you professionally for this and not to make it sound like your job interview all over again, but tell us about your journey. Dr. Hughes: Tell us about your journey. Well, I guess that's fair, because I've always interviewed people for the show and I've always said like, "Well, tell us how you got to student conduct and this role and what you did." I think people have heard probably bits and pieces, just because I've talked about it when it comes to just the people on the show, but I don't think I've given a full thing. I guess I'll back up. People know that I'm originally from Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia. I've lived all over different places. I've lived in Las Vegas. I've lived in Alabama. I've lived here, here, enjoyed that, right? But I guess you could say my student affairs career, if you will, actually started off in housing and residence life. Dr. Hughes: I often say I grew up in housing and residence life. So, I completely understand the, oh goodness, the being on call at 3:00 AM, and there's an RA, and they locked you out, and then you got to get up and that's the third time, and the room change. Oh my goodness, and doing a thousand different room change, or room condition form check, whatever they are. RCF's RC whatever. Those, oh my goodness, I remember that. Yeah, housing was the thing, did that. I think like most people you start off in residence life, you realize that you have a knack for it, you kind of continue with that. Dr. Hughes: Actually, while I was in grad school, I started becoming interested in this judicial affairs type area role. It was kind of weird. I remember we made a judicial board of some sort, kind of want to be type thing. We didn't really know what it was, but it gave me that first insight into, I guess, the student conduct, or I guess judicial affairs role. Dr. Hughes: And I remember one of my mentors, I ran into him at a conference one year, a housing conference one a year. He had made a comment about how, "You're going to end up in judicial affairs." Because at the time, that's what it was called. And I was like, "Why would I do that? Like, Oh my goodness, I would never," but he was just always just right about everything. Josh Gazer, that's who it was. Anyone who knows him knows that he's exciting, he's amazing, he's everything, but yeah I ran into him at a conference one year and he was like, "Well, you need to do that or you're going to go that way. I just see you doing it." And I was like, "No, I'm not. I'm never going to be in that area. I'm never going to do that." Dr. Hughes: Well, lo and behold, I had the opportunity one year to get into student conduct and to be a hearing officer, and I did that and never looked back. I jumped over into the dark side, if you will, or I guess you could say, I then finally had an eight to five. Because you know, in housing and residence life, you never sleep. And then to go into like a daytime job, it was great. I'd come in at 8:00 AM, leave at 5:00. Theoretically, it's still higher ed, so that never happens, but it was great. I wasn't getting woken up at three o'clock in the morning and that type of stuff. Dr. Hughes: I jumped over into the dark side and never looked back and I have been student conduct ever since. My most recent position, which is what I think people know me for is of course, I was recently at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, as the assistant director of student conduct. I was actually there for five years. Did a lot of stuff. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Stories for days, of course, as we all have in student conduct. I was one of those housing people that turned student conduct and I've enjoyed it. I've also done some other stuff with Greek life, as well as multicultural affairs and et cetera, et cetera, accessibility services. Those are the main two, my bread and butter, if you will. So yeah, that's how I got here. Christine: So much of our membership can totally relate to that. Not only the transition from housing and residence life, but to the change of lifestyle, and I'm sure you probably also still have the on-call phone PTSD when you walk through Wal-Mart. Dr. Hughes: Oh yeah. Christine: Lots of similarities there to a lot of our members that you were just sharing. Dr. Hughes: It never leaves. Christine: Right. Why ASCA then? Dr. Hughes: Why not ASEA? Christine: Right. Touche. Dr. Hughes: It's a student kind of answer. You know, I have to tell you, I have been fortunate to be a part of a lot of different organizations from the housing side to student affairs, overall, but what I found was in each one of those, and I've been to a lot of different conferences, a part of a lot of different organizations having that membership. But the place I felt at home, was always with ASCA, and it was so interesting because number one, it was a very specialized, or ACSA is, it's a very specialized community, right? We are student conduct officers, if you will, but it felt like home, Christine. It really did, and that's what attracted me to it. Of course, the people in it, the conferences. I had so much fun because student conduct is such a specialized role in which we talk about just so many things that are incredibly hard. I mean, from title nine to the types of cases we deal with. We laugh, and we have a great time, and we talk, and we have that comradery, but other people in student affairs don't really necessarily understand what it is that we go through and how taxing, if you will, how the cases can be. Dr. Hughes: I loved the fact that I could be just surrounded by student conduct people that I didn't have to preface a conversation with and say, "Okay, this is about to be really heavy. You know, we're about to have this conversation," or not being able to truly talk about something because I know that people couldn't handle it, but just being surrounded by people who got it and understood. Then, on top of that, I loved the feel of ASCA that we were a community of people, that we were here to help one another. No matter your position, no matter your role. Dr. Hughes: I mean, even with all of you, with the Central Office, I just felt like a part of the team. Whenever I reached out to get help to about random, I don't know, random things that we were dealing with at the university. I would bother you or somebody, and it was always like, "How can we help make your job better, if you will?" Dr. Hughes: Yeah, so that's kind of where it started. If you want to say, "Why ASCA?" Then I just started getting involved. I started doing things like the podcast. I started doing things like being the chair, or excuse me, the vice chair for our region at the time. I just kept going until finally I got here. I've loved the journey and my journey in ASCA, but I'd have to say the reason why is because it felt like home. Christine: I love that. You're definitely not the first person that I've heard use that phrase, but I love it when people get an opportunity to talk about the comradery that we have among our members. Really, it's the number one thing that people always mention about the association, and we're so excited to have had you as a volunteer in all those roles and even more excited to now have you on our team full time. Dr. Hughes: I guess you could say I came home, if you will. Christine: Awe, that's cute. Dr. Hughes: I know, right? [inaudible 00:14:38]. Christine: Put that on an Instagram post. Dr. Hughes: That needs to be the content thing, the little Instagram Canva, like, "I came home, if you will." Christine: You can make for that yourself. Dr. Hughes: I am. I'm going to make that. Oh man. Christine: In thinking about some of the things you're going to do for ASCA now in this new role, a lot of the stuff you've done before, your dissertation, webinars, presentations have been related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Is that going to still be our main focus, or what other educational content are you thinking? Dr. Hughes: That's a two-part question. To answer your question right off, I'm going to say yes and no, because that's what any good student conduct officer does. We never actually tell you, right? Christine: Right. Dr. Hughes: And what it is. Part of it, I'm going to say yes, because you're right. My dissertation was on microaggressions at a Hispanic serving institution, that is obviously a specialty that I have. But the reason why I'm going to say no, is because I really think that DE and our principals need to really be in everything that we do. That's just, period. That's just something that needs to happen. As the young kids say, period with a T, right? I'm here with it. That's how they do it. That's the first thing that I want to say. Dr. Hughes: Now, the followup is that my focus is not just going to be that. There are a lot of things that our organization does as far as educational content that needs to be put out. Now, like I said, DE and I focus will be in everything. We're going to make sure we're keeping that in as we develop these things, but there's so much stuff. There's policies, there's laws, there's all these different communities of practice that make up what we do at ASCA that all have very different focuses and what they're doing, and the people that they're reaching out to, and the content that they need, and the education that they need. Dr. Hughes: That's really where my focus is going to be. It's going to be just, how can we make sure that ASCA is really helping our members and how can we produce content that's going to make sure that they feel like they are the best equipped to really be successful in such a hard role. One of the great things about all of us is, when you're a practitioner and then you end up in a role like this, you understand the day to day. I get what it's like, I was an upper level administrator, even in that role. I understand what it's like to be at the different levels, to see what that looks like, the support that you need, the type of trainings that people need. That's what we're looking at. Like I said, yes and no. Christine: All right. I like that. Do you have any examples of what kind of content going forward? Dr. Hughes: Okay. So, I have some. Christine: Well, what's in the works? Dr. Hughes: But I don't want to say it, because you know, any good conduct, once you say it, then I have to do it and I don't want... Because then I have to commit it to paper and once you commit it to paper, then people know. Christine: It's not even a paper. We are recording this so I can hold this against you later. Dr. Hughes: Exactly. People are going to come back and be like, "But you did this, you said this." How about this? I'm going to give one. I'll give one thing that we're looking to do. One of the things that's not DE and I related, that we were talking about was that as far as student conduct goes, a lot of times when you come into student conduct, you have someone that's bringing you into it. It's a very weird field. Someone's teaching you how to be a student conduct officer. You might've had a mentor, then you kind of get in it, or you're put into a role where it's like you are the VP, or the assistant Dean, or something. And it's like that student rights and responsibilities, that student conduct, whatever else. We have an amazing thing at Gehring which is our foundations track, which really prepares people for those foundational pieces of what student conduct looks like and everything else. Dr. Hughes: But one of the things we realized was, what happens if you get put into that role the day after the foundation's track ends and you can't get there for another year? One of the things that we were really looking at and that I want to start creating and really working with some people, and we've had some conversations, is even just student conduct 101. That training that you're giving to grad students as they come in new coordinators, new officers, new Dean, whatever that may look like, just to even say, what are the principles of student conduct? How do I have these conversations? How does this work? Because the amount of conversations that I've had, even with people in our field when they were reaching out to me after some of the webinars was like, "How do I start?" Dr. Hughes: And I think we often forget that in our roles, and even going back to that. That's one of the things we're looking at, creating some masterclasses for some other levels as well. Depending on where you are in the student conduct world and how you feel, making sure again, that you can get that educational training and that professional development that you need. Stay tuned. Those are all the secrets that I'm giving up now, right now we're focusing on Gehring, okay? Because Gehring is coming up, that is next month. We're in June right now. Gehring is July. Everyone needs to register. That's what we're going to focus on. Yes. Christine: She's giving me this really intent look that is reminding me that there's a lot in these next couple of months here that we've got to going. The deadline to register for Gehring, shameless plug, is June 30th. Please mark your calendars for that, registration rate will go up after that. There's several different opportunities this year. There's our normal full week tracks, and there's also a number of add on options for just one day. If that's something where you don't have maybe the time or the financial backing to be able to do a full week, that's totally fine. Pick out something that's just one day and kind of refresh some of your professional development with that. Thanks for the opportunity there for the shameless plug. Dr. Hughes: Oh, absolutely. Christine: Now back to your regularly scheduled podcast. Dr. Hughes: Now for the regular schedule. Yeah. If you want to know what I'm focusing on and focusing on, all of those things. The tracks, the mini tracks, the faculty, the chat court, there's so much happening. That's where my focus is. Christine: Yeah. It's an exciting time of year though. Dr. Hughes: I love Gehring. I miss the in-person stuff. You know what I mean? Of course the world does, but I loved it. I loved Gehring last year. Last year it was virtual. It was there. I was fun. I was there virtually, right? Because it was virtual, like it is this year, but I had a great time and I learned so much last year. I had no idea that this year I'd be on this side of the role, or the table, or whatever, but it was great. I definitely encourage people. I was encouraging people before, so definitely encouraging people now. That's what I'll be working on. Christine: Awesome. Dr. Hughes: Yes. Christine: But are you still going to be hosting the podcast? Dr. Hughes: I am, for a little bit. Christine: So, I don't have this job full time now? Dr. Hughes: No, you don't have this job full time. Sorry, not sorry. I don't know if I like this side. Yeah. I like to ask the questions. Not knowing the questions that are coming next is like, "OMG." Yeah, so I'll still be hosting the podcast, but I'm actually super, super excited because I'm going to have a couple things happening. I know there's some people that really wanted to get involved with the podcast, and so, we're going to be doing some special episodes with some co-hosts and some different people. Definitely be on the lookout for some of that stuff, because we want to hear everyone's viewpoint, but yeah, I'll be hosting it for some time. So, you know, in here. Christine: All right, good. That's a relief. Dr. Hughes: You don't have to do it. You don't have to do it, Christine. I won't. I'm not going to not going to make you do this. Christine: Okay. It is nice though, being the one asking the questions. I think, as now former conduct officers, both of us, I've been a guest on the podcast a couple of times. It is kind of fun being on this side. Dr. Hughes: Oh yeah. It's very student conductee, because you're used to asking questions, like, "Where were you? Where were you that night? What were you wearing? What were you doing?" Not that that was the way that I asked questions, but I would think that... Christine: She's been out of conduct for a week y'all, so [crosstalk 00:23:58] she forgot how to ask a question. Dr. Hughes: A whole week, but you want to know something? The problem is we're all used to silence. That's the thing. Whenever you have student conduct officers, we don't have an issue just sitting there in silence because it doesn't make us uncomfortable because we're like, "Okay." Because we know that it makes the students uncomfortable and whatever it is while they sit and think, so that's the problem. Now it's like, we're just silent and then it's like an hour later. It's like, "Oh, okay. So..." yeah. It's great. It's great. That's the thing. Christine: All right. So I'm going to ask you your favorite question that you always ask everyone else. When you're ending your show, you always ask about books that people are reading, things that are just giving them life and joy. What is that for you currently? Dr. Hughes: TikTok. Christine: I should have known. I could have answered that for her. Dr. Hughes: TikTok is giving me joy. You know what, I'm going to say this. We've all talked about it. At the conference, I said it, this has been the craziest decade. Just everything, right? One of the things that I have been attempting, and I say attempting, to be very intentional in and especially as I'm moving into this new position and just different things, is really being intentional with time. I say that because our world moved so fast prior to COVID. We were just go, go, go, go, go, go, go. We were forced to stop, pause and reflect, shameless plug to our conference last year. I had to do that. But in all seriousness, we were constantly just going, and we still are to say the least. But one of the things that I did at the close of my last position at my old institution and before I came into this role was I actually went to the library. Dr. Hughes: I got some fiction books. I couldn't tell you what their titles were, honestly. Literally stuff about, they were murder mysteries and just different stuff. Probably some John Grisham books in there, honestly, but I just read fictional books. I laid out, tried to get to some sun, it lasted all of five minutes because I'm in Texas and it's so incredibly hot and I said, "No, I need to be in the AC." But I was trying to, and I'm currently working on trying to be very intentional in the people I'm interacting with, making sure I'm telling them how much I appreciate them, making sure that I am giving myself. I think the love and grace that I always tell people, you know what I mean, to give to everyone else and really trying to enjoy all these moments. Whether it's food, or coffee, or this, or that. And I know that seems silly, but I think that's what is giving me life right now. Trying to make life a life that you don't need a vacation from. I saw that on TikTok, of course and I was like, "Oh, that's great." Christine: Of course, you did. Dr. Hughes: Of course, and also TikTok gives me life because I literally, every other word out of my mouth is, "Oh, I bought this because I saw it on TikTok." like we were in our staff meeting. "Oh, I saw this on TikTok." And I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. Christine: Does it make you feel hip? Dr. Hughes: Yeah. I mean, the students got me on it when COVID started. Because I was like, "What are y'all talking about?" Because they were doing the dances, like the ugh. okay. I'm dancing. I mean, people can't see, you can see. Christine: I wish y'all could see the dancing. Dr. Hughes: They were doing the tick, and it's bad because when I hear the songs in the car, I'm like, "Oh, I know the dance to this." Like I'm 16, but I'm not. That's what got me on TikTok because the complaints and everything, but man, Oh man. I even send you TikToks. Christine: There's a whole different world out there that I'm slowly finding. Thanks in part to your videos. Dr. Hughes: It's education. I'm the education specialist, it's education that I'm sharing with you. You're welcome. Christine: Thank you so much for that. I feel smarter already. Dr. Hughes: You should. You should, because TikTok tells you, as someone who was like is that peer reviewed? I said, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if dissertation. Someone needs to quote or cite, TikTok. Christine: I'll see what I can do. Dr. Hughes: You should do that. It's just a thing. Anyways, that's really all I have. Christine: All right. Well thank you so, so much. I love that that's the note that we're ending on, is just your love for TikTok and I'm sure that some videos are going to fly back and forth as soon as we hang up from this recording too. So, it's great. Dr. Hughes: Absolutely. Well thank you for having me on my show. You having you, having me, having something like that. Well, we're going to make this work. You did a great job. Christine: Thank you. Dr. Hughes: I'm so proud of you. Okay. Bye everyone. We will [crosstalk 00:29:31] chat on the interwebs. Dr. Hughes: Okay. Bye.