Espresso Shot 23 with Dwight Roblyer

00;00;00;07 - 00;00;34;16
Unknown
All right. Welcome to espresso shot. Our guest today is Dr. Dwight Roblyer. Dr. Roblyer is a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science and has taught over 17,000 young Aggies since 2013. Oh, my goodness. Working for their success here at Texas A&M University and in their future professions and communities. He served for 26 years as a U.S. Air Force officer in various assignments, including satellite operations and political military wargaming, as well as earning his TAMU, Ph.D. in international relations.

00;00;34;27 - 00;01;00;17
Unknown
After his military retirement, he joined the faculty here. Rediscovering his fondness for college undergraduates and his passion for teaching. Dr. Roblyer Single focus is on his students, seeing them always as individuals with infinite worth and potential. His pedagogic style has been characterized as pastoral, as he invites and equips his students to contribute to the promise of our democracy while meeting them as often as he can at their points of need.

00;01;01;07 - 00;01;28;22
Unknown
Aggie students have named him as campus muster speaker and as a namesake for both Fish Camp and t-camp He has also received the University Distinguished Achievement Award for teaching from the Former Student Association and the University Honors Directors Award, the Partners in Learning Award of Excellence for Accountability, Climate and Equity and the Resident Life Honoring Excellence Award. Wow.

00;01;28;23 - 00;01;50;02
Unknown
Yeah. That's exciting. Welcome. Thank you. I swear, every time we have someone come, I feel less and less fulfilled. Oh, honestly. Like, what am I doing? I'm scared by nobody. You know, the amazing thing about coming back here at the same place where I felt so insecure for four years as my undergrad is to walk the same. Well, basically the same sidewalks.

00;01;50;02 - 00;02;04;29
Unknown
Occasionally it's the same sidewalks, and occasionally it's the same tree that you're walking under. But but, you know, it's just thinking about that huge difference where you're here at the underground, you just have no idea whether you'll fit in or whether you'll make it. You know, you have no idea what the future is going to be like, whether you made the right decision.

00;02;05;18 - 00;02;33;12
Unknown
And then, you know, when you're 60 something, you can sort of look back and sort of go, I survived, you know, and it's been and it's been fun. So, yeah, that's awesome. That is I don't even know. What about what is t-camp? transition camp. So it's held once in the summer and once over winter break for the transfer students primarily although older Aggies that didn't transfer in but they didn't get to go to fish camp can go then as well.

00;02;33;24 - 00;03;00;05
Unknown
Oh sure. Yeah. So I mean, yeah, Fish Camp was my first chance to actually go because I didn't get to go as a fish in the summer of 1980. So so I heard a lot about it. My, my, both of my sons were involved in, in fish camp when they came through here, and it was really cool. But yeah, to actually get to go, my wife and I got to go and become the godparents of about 120 Aggies.

00;03;00;05 - 00;03;18;23
Unknown
So that was pretty good. That's fun. That is awesome. I do like the idea. didn't know that was a thing. What do you t-camp. Yeah, well, let's. What? I wondered, but I couldn't remember because I mean, I knew they had something for students that were transitioning or transferring. And so, I mean, they can't they're not going to do that.

00;03;18;23 - 00;03;37;01
Unknown
They're going to always do something to include the students. Well, of course, I just there's a there's an official name for it. Yeah. They're just not like a part of Fish camp. Yeah. And they they went to a they go to a different campground and fish camp traditionally goes to and, you know, but it's about about the same just just smaller, a little bit sort of like a subset of fish camp.

00;03;37;24 - 00;03;54;27
Unknown
Can you opt to do the t-camp instead of fish camp if you're already a freshman or coming in? Freshman. That's that's what I read because I was reading up on t-camp as well. I'd heard about it and but that's all. And then of course, when they pick you as a namesake, then you sort of feel like you need to learn something about it.

00;03;55;07 - 00;04;17;27
Unknown
And so and so getting to know the, you know, their, their chairs and counselors and all the same kinds of things as with with fish camp and so you get to learn from them as well. But I remember reading on the website that it said that it's sort of open to all. It's not just transfer students. So if somebody for whatever reason didn't get to go earlier and they want to go, then evidently you kind of, you know, you can apply.

00;04;17;28 - 00;04;41;22
Unknown
So I would definitely enjoy that more than fish camp. Fish camp seems like a lot overwhelming. Well, we have a couple of student workers that do it. Yes, they do. Very, very stressful as well. From the from the delivery standpoint. I mean, I don't understand how anybody can work in fish camp and take classes for credit during the spring semester, especially the the chairs, you know, for each camp.

00;04;41;23 - 00;05;01;29
Unknown
It just boggles my mind. They spent so many hours the chairs themselves spent so many hours going through hundreds, if not thousands of applications to pick out their counselors. You know, and I'm just at the same time as they're taken tests and doing everything else. And I'm just going, oh, not me. I couldn't have done that. Dubey said she had 96 that she had to go through.

00;05;03;02 - 00;05;32;00
Unknown
Yeah, it's so there's a lot. Okay. But they don't sleep much, so. No. Yeah. That seems to be the case. Lots of caffeine. Yeah. So you're bio says senior lecturer or is that your official position? It is. So that official the the the sort of the nomenclature is that students don't address me as professor, just like they could a graduate student that's graduate, you know, that is teaching them as well.

00;05;33;01 - 00;06;05;06
Unknown
And so the university has two tracks for faculty members. There's the research tenure track, which is the more traditional one that everybody, you know, sort of thinks about. And then there's also what's called APT tract or academic, professional tract. And the old way of thinking about it was the lecturer and the senior lecturer. Now they have they have transition just about everybody that they're bringing in and they're bringing in as academic, instructional assistant professors, instructional associate professors and instructional for professors.

00;06;05;06 - 00;06;25;18
Unknown
So they've got new terminology. So a senior lecturer is about equivalent to a instructional associate professor, whatever that means, because we don't get tenure. Okay. As, as professional track. You know, we don't have we don't have the security of tenure. We're contract year to year. They're supposed to give us a one year notice before they turn us loose.

00;06;25;18 - 00;06;40;16
Unknown
But there's nothing that says that they have to. So but the good the good news about being professional track is I don't have to worry about publishing or perish. Mm hmm. That's what I was just thinking. I would much so have that. Yeah. And when I got my Ph.D. here, I was. I mean, I was up in years.

00;06;40;16 - 00;06;58;16
Unknown
I was in my forties, and the Air Force had only given me three years to get through. And so and the, you know, the university the department accepted me. And I'm so thankful because I was a very nontraditional student. But normally what they do is in this program, they really train people. They work really hard to to produce top researchers.

00;06;59;03 - 00;07;22;20
Unknown
I wasn't going to be able to do that in three years. I wasn't able to get the degree, but not become the kind of graduate that could go out and get a, you know, a job at the University of Michigan or, you know, or George Washington or some other, you know, big school like some other folks could, because I didn't have the research experience that they give in the, you know, normal time for people to get out of a program years, about six years.

00;07;23;11 - 00;07;40;04
Unknown
So that's 2 to 3 years of classroom and then lots and lots of research. So, you know, but that's that's fine. What I really wanted to do was teach. That's what the Air Force wanted me to do. They sent me here because they have a school out in Montgomery, Alabama, Maxwell Air Force Base called the Air War College.

00;07;40;17 - 00;08;03;26
Unknown
Okay. So each one of the services has a senior professional military education school like that. Naval War College, Army War College. And so they send their their upper level officers who are not U.S. generals to to get them sort of schooled up in international affairs, leadership, you know, all kinds of different things that they're going to need. And they also extend to them a master's degree.

00;08;03;26 - 00;08;25;04
Unknown
So since that is an accredited institution, just like, A&M is an accredited institution, then they have to have so many faculty members that have PhDs and they can get the civilians, they can hire those in, but they want to have military faculty and military faculty or military officers don't have PhDs. So we don't grow on trees. So they intentionally go and plant a seed.

00;08;25;04 - 00;08;46;13
Unknown
They take they take a, you know, somebody who's been picked up for colonel and they say, would you like to go to school? Yes. Then we will send you. You have three years, you know, good luck. And then when you come out, you're going to teach for us for five years. So that's sort of the deal some in the current class are on that probably you're talking there's there's of the Bush School two or three.

00;08;46;19 - 00;09;17;15
Unknown
Well, there's actually yeah, there's actually two Army Army defense fellows and I don't think that they're they're not here to get P.H.D.’s because actually Bush called before they got the pols department doesn't offer P.H.D. Right. Right. But but I know that program because I did the Air Force equivalent. So instead of going to Air War College and these probably these officers, instead of going to Army War College, they've been picked up to go and study at an institution that offers a defense policy kind of unit.

00;09;18;03 - 00;09;37;29
Unknown
Okay. So for me, it was the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was arms control, disarmament, international security. It was a multi-discipline area unit at the at the at the university there. And I was their policy fellow. And my job was to get to know them, get to know the campus, try and be a resource for the campus, but also produce a policy paper.

00;09;38;24 - 00;09;58;29
Unknown
And it was that policy paper that I worked on there that actually planted the seeds for me to say yes. When the Air Force asked if I wanted a Ph.D.. So it sounds stressful. There's a lot of opportunities in the military for furthering education. I actually spent a lot of time in school. I was in the military my 26 years because they they sent me for my master's.

00;09;58;29 - 00;10;20;15
Unknown
So that was a year and a half. And then I had the defense fellowship and then the Ph.D. and yeah, I had a lot of opportunities. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. My brother, I think even to this day, was like, I know talking to him, he's in the Coast Guard, but he finished and got his bachelor's. But now looking back, I mean, yes, when he got in it put him a little bit of a leg up as far as education and ranking.

00;10;20;15 - 00;10;46;08
Unknown
But he says they offer so many options that he wishes he would have done it right out of high school. In his mind, obviously would have saved him $75,000. But, you know, good reason. Yes, 75,000 good reasons. Yeah. But they definitely they do offer a lot of education, from what I've seen. And obviously, you know, the dean likes to talk about you and, you know, most of the faculty and staff here, there's a lot of former military.

00;10;47;24 - 00;11;26;01
Unknown
So you've worked in the Department of Political Science. Yes. Since 2013. Yes. Only ever done a Political Science. Yes. That's when I was I graduated in 2009. From here and then was immediately sent off to Alabama to start my train up for Air War College, the faculty there. But then at the same time, the Air Force was the bean counters, the personnel folks were scratching their heads, looking at the budget, going, gee, there's an awful lot of old colonels here that we if we if we could push some of them into retirement earlier than they planned, that we could save a whole bunch of money.

00;11;26;14 - 00;11;45;08
Unknown
And I wasn't worried about it because I thought, they're spending all this money on me for a Ph.D. I'm good. That summer. So about a half a year after I graduated, I realized that I wasn't good. But I actually had a great big target on my chest because I wasn't close to the fight. So there's, you know, education is important in the military.

00;11;45;08 - 00;12;08;14
Unknown
We're just talking about all those opportunities. But the the the thing was, was that when you're deciding who to cut, you're going to look at who's closest to the fight for this from the fight. And educators are pretty far from the fight. It's a very strategic mission. And so, indeed, the take rate was about 30, 30%, 33%. That's 300 colonels.

00;12;08;14 - 00;12;32;15
Unknown
But the board had to go and it's across the Air Force. And there were 14 brand new PhDs at Maxwell because it's an education base and we all got tapped. Our take rate was almost 75% at that base. So, you know, as a member of the board, I can sort of think about maybe what they were thinking, which was, hey, these guys have PhDs, they're going to be fine, you know?

00;12;33;03 - 00;12;51;25
Unknown
And so it was not what I wanted at all, but it ended up solving more problems than I even knew that I had. So my mom had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. And thanks to a wonderful commandant who said, Guys, this isn't my decision, but you only have three months until you have to retire. You need time to go figure out how you're going to be a civilian.

00;12;51;25 - 00;13;09;21
Unknown
So I'm relieving you of all of your duties. And so I was able to drop leave papers, go spend the last two weeks with my mom. At that point, we had our youngest, our first grandchild that we that we had, and we were in the process of adopting. And my wife and I had she'd always been the stay at home parent.

00;13;10;04 - 00;13;27;12
Unknown
She'd homeschooled our kids for much of the time. And but now she's in the work. She's in the marketplace, you know, working. She's a psychiatric nurse practitioner. And so we both have 60, 50 to 60 hour a week jobs. So we're trying to figure out how we're going raise kids. So we were using, you know, child care for the first time ever.

00;13;27;22 - 00;13;56;01
Unknown
And when I got retired, I became Mr. Mom. So it's a blessing in disguise. Yeah. So did that from 2011 or early 2011 until wife looked at the the financials for the family and said, baby, you've got to go back to work. So that's fair. Yeah. Yeah. Well, do you want to reword this third one? Yeah, I didn't really get drawn.

00;13;56;01 - 00;14;18;29
Unknown
He got roped in. He got pulled in. The word you got. The question is, what was the main draw to the Bush school? Obviously, it's the main draw to the university. Right. The university. Well, we were living back in College Station, so we'd actually moved back into the same house that we lived in while we were here getting the PhD we bought.

00;14;18;29 - 00;14;35;27
Unknown
That's what the pattern we used all through the military and of course, the Great Recession of 2008 meant that, you know, it was really hard to sell. So that house basically sent empty for about a year and a half while we were away. And so we just moved right back into it because Kathy took a job with a local employer here.

00;14;36;20 - 00;14;53;16
Unknown
And and so we were back in the local area. We like college towns. We just sort of discovered that the year that we were at the University of Illinois, it's a smaller, slightly smaller school, slightly smaller town. But, you know, you can get across town in 15 minutes. The culture comes to you. Lots of very interesting people, you know.

00;14;54;02 - 00;15;19;07
Unknown
And so and we and we like college students. So they're okay. Yeah. No, no, actually, it's why we are all here. It is a it is a fascinating time of life for them. It is. And we also stress but lots of potential. Yeah. You know, so but yeah. Yeah. And so I knew in fact, Cathy already my wife already had picked out where I was going to go back to work.

00;15;19;07 - 00;15;34;29
Unknown
She said, Honey, you have to go back to work. You need to go back to the department and see if they will hire you she had it all planned out. And and I knew I knew that they wouldn't hire me as tenure track because I don't have the I don't have the chops, you know, I don't have the publications. I don't have the research experience.

00;15;34;29 - 00;15;56;22
Unknown
But they do hire lecturers at that point in time for the core courses. The American government, state, local government, primarily those two, ive branched out there, teach some other courses now too. But yeah, so, you know, 300, 300 people now, 600 people in a classroom, you know, going through taking, you know, that's how I get up to 17,000. I was like, I was sitting here trying to figure that out.

00;15;56;23 - 00;16;32;06
Unknown
Yeah. That's how a lot, you know, 300 to 600 in a classroom. And now I do regularly do 1200 well, 15, you know, 14 or 1500 a semester because I teach two sections in the 600 seat large arena in the ICB or you're in the middle six aren't people around you when they're all there, which is never and show up to class students in up to 300 and it's sort of traditional fan shaped classroom and I teach intro to world politics there so yeah so it's you know, it racks up when it when I have two full semesters like that there's 3000 more students right there.

00;16;32;06 - 00;16;49;09
Unknown
Boom. So but it's potential it's a lot of work, but it's a lot of potential to have influence. So I'm not one to shy away from public speaking. Ah, you know, and I and I can thank the Air Force for that. I mean that's one of the things that I think back to my undergrad years because there were there was Toastmasters back then.

00;16;49;10 - 00;17;05;25
Unknown
I think they're still around, but it's probably not as nearly as big of a deal if you wanted to learn public speaking than use Toastmasters quite often to be able to do that. So business folks, all kinds of folks did that. I didn't have time for that. I was just married with my physics degree and in between those two I was completely maxed out.

00;17;06;14 - 00;17;24;27
Unknown
And and so I'm going in the Air Force going, okay, you know, I'm I'm pretty smart. I can figure this I can figure this stuff out. But the public speaking, you know, something I just never had a chance to do? I knew how to write. I was I was a journalism student in high school. And so I had lots of lots of experience writing.

00;17;24;27 - 00;17;45;16
Unknown
And so that that's a real boon coming here and then going into the Air Force. I just don't know what Chat GBT is going to do to that that tool, that that important education that happens through learning how to write. I'm afraid I'm just afraid for what students and individuals are going to lose in the future for leaning on a tool like that.

00;17;45;16 - 00;18;07;12
Unknown
But yeah, another thing. Another time. But but yeah. And so through the years, you know, getting more experience and becoming more responsible and different parts of the Air Force, you know, you get you have more time to be able to more opportunities to explain, have to explain yourself, justify your position present to a room of generals, you know.

00;18;08;08 - 00;18;34;01
Unknown
And so yeah, it just sort of came organically through that process and I'm very thankful I didn't do a double back because I have no clue what. Toastmasters Yeah, I just can't really sit here looking at Wikipedia. Yeah. So it was nice. Yeah. Well, you know, and maybe they aren't around anymore, but back then it was a, it was a club and it was sort of on the same level, like Kiwanis or Rotary or, you know, something like that.

00;18;34;01 - 00;19;01;02
Unknown
But it wasn't service oriented. The whole idea was to for everybody to present things to each other in that club and to get critiqued and to improve your speaking. Gotcha. So that it better make toast that. Yeah, that too. As in. As in here. Here. Kinds of toasts. Yes. Not the eggs and toast. Yeah. The picture was of a British guy in uniform, like, not actual like like the military.

00;19;01;03 - 00;19;21;00
Unknown
Okay, then I'm just dating myself. I am 61. So this guy looks this, he looks younger. But yeah, that's the picture that comes up on Wikipedia. Oh, there you go. Oh, my goodness. Fancy Looks like he's ready for a Fox hunt right? That's what I was thinking. Well, but yes, that is very cool. I didn't even know that was a thing, but I also don't like public speaking.

00;19;21;00 - 00;19;43;04
Unknown
So yeah, me neither. She makes me do it hardly ever that one time. Oh, my God. What time was that? I had to do a presentation for a Rotary Club. Oh, yeah. These are your people. Those are the VFW. No, it was that I. The Navy. Either way, you should be good food. I did. I did get good food.

00;19;43;19 - 00;20;12;13
Unknown
That is right. I forgot about that. Yeah, that was a long time ago. Terrible. Yeah, I eat. Probably skips number five. What's your favorite part about your position? The students? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. The students. And, and it's sort of in that little bio piece that you read to me, this idea that our our government at every level is riddled with problems, you know, as is our as is our society.

00;20;12;29 - 00;20;36;19
Unknown
And in fact, I just was sorting some articles that I had printed out, and it ran across one that talked about how, you know, one way of looking at our history is never going to be out of vogue. And that's fatalism, you know, sort of this idea that we are doomed to to a certain in certain directions. And so but in addition to all those problems, you guys also had to keep your eye on the fact that there's tons of promise as well.

00;20;37;16 - 00;21;00;23
Unknown
And so what I tell my students from the beginning is I want you to learn. I don't I don't want to make you a political scientist unless that's what you want to become. Very few people, you know, go through my courses since everybody's required to take the course pretty much who are actually going to be polls, majors and even those folks who want to be probably attorneys or maybe going to the military or something else, they don't want to become a researcher in political science.

00;21;01;08 - 00;21;22;15
Unknown
So when I tell them what I want to do is I want to equip you with things that you need to know and ways to think so that you can help us sort of accentuate the promise and not the problem. So we talk about the pitfalls of politics. We talk about, you know, the the differences between facts and beliefs.

00;21;22;15 - 00;21;43;22
Unknown
That's where we start every semester. It's just understanding the difference and me communicating to them then as well as through the rest of the semester, how politicians will continually take their beliefs and pass them off as facts and expect us to just sort of fall in line. And we need to learn to ask hard questions, to look at the things that they're not telling us, you know, etc..

00;21;43;22 - 00;22;06;12
Unknown
So, so yeah, it's my little mission can I come sit in on a class? I was just gonna say just please anytime. I always love people to come through. Some students will bring their parents, you know, occasionally. And so, yeah, I don't want to get in debate with my mom. She can stay home. That sounds like a class I need to like better equipped myself for arguing with people.

00;22;06;18 - 00;22;28;22
Unknown
Yeah, I mean, please. Well, yeah. Well, one of the things we talk about is how important it is to learn is to learn to ask why somebody else believes something different than what you believe. Absolutely. You know, and because you can you can better you can better work with them, you know, cooperate with them or at least coexist with them.

00;22;29;04 - 00;22;49;14
Unknown
You know, you know, if you if you're not just labeling them so often in politics today, the idea is just if somebody disagrees with you, you just label them and you label them in such a strong way. As to that, you have no reason that you should listen to them, okay? Because they're idiots or they're stupid or they're or they're traitors or they're you know what?

00;22;49;14 - 00;23;09;08
Unknown
If there are some really strong words that are used today. Yeah. And, and, you know, what that does is that gives us an excuse for not for not hearing them out, you know. And so instead this approach that realized, okay, that person is a thinking, walking human being. They may not be rational, but I'm not rational either. Okay.

00;23;09;21 - 00;23;34;29
Unknown
And and, you know, and so there's something that making them tick and there's making them feel this way, it must be different experiences, different perspectives. What is it? So I don't have to adopt their viewpoint, but I'm going to be stronger and better able to contribute to my own mission if I understand what you know. And along the way, I may find some facts that I didn't realize that maybe cause me to sort of moderate some things, you know?

00;23;34;29 - 00;23;57;07
Unknown
And I'll be thankful for that because if I really want to believe something that is going to achieve a certain goal, and when I find out that actually I'm working against that goal, okay, because of some of the things I'm doing, then, you know, I probably do want to do want to make some changes. So so yeah, I mean, just learning to be civil, we can just start with that.

00;23;57;15 - 00;24;22;19
Unknown
All of our politicians need to go through your class. Yeah, well, you're required in the state of Texas. All the problems baked in, though. Yeah, right. The problem is baked in and we won't get into that. But yes. So you can't you know, elections don't work the way that you expect them to work for so many reasons. And it's an if representation isn't working the way it's supposed to work, that our democracy is not working the way it's supposed to work.

00;24;22;19 - 00;24;53;16
Unknown
And so we just sort of walk walk through this broken. Yep, yep. But, but there's still hope. And so that's where we try and end up at the end of the semester. You want to break them down too hard, like you want to hold open their eyes. And I want to teach them that it's important to think. My early on I was asked by the College of Liberal Arts at the time to teach a small seminar on critical thinking to students who were on academic probation in the College of Liberal Arts.

00;24;53;16 - 00;25;12;13
Unknown
So it wasn't teaching them academic skills, it was teaching them critical thinking, which I thought was a very sort of interesting, nuanced kind of approach. And I remember talking to my students and sort of first day saying, okay, well, of course, a lot of y'all have already heard about critical thinking. Oh, I'm just going. Really? No, never heard of the term before it all.

00;25;12;24 - 00;25;43;10
Unknown
There was 20, 26 students in that. So get that far in life. No kidding. I mean, we even taught that when I was in high school. Yeah, well, that's what I expect it. That's what I expect. Well, maybe they were taught and they just didn't listen. Yeah. Or didn't remember. Okay. But yeah, I mean that's and that's really at the core that, that, that is the way we contribute more to our promise and not our problems is to learn to think on our own and not form out our thinking, to talk show host or to a particular politician or to a particular pastor or to, you know, anybody.

00;25;44;14 - 00;26;16;29
Unknown
Podcast Host Yeah. Podcasters. There you go. How do you teach critical thinking? Like, how do you teach that? It's like I get like when they're children, you teach them, you know, think and be independent and things like that. But as they get older and they start baking. Mm hmm. How do you teach that? Yeah, well, I mean, a lot of things we talked to up to this point all fall into line with that, which is learning to think on your own, being able to tell the difference between beliefs and facts, being willing to check your own facts and realize that, oh, gee, I was wrong.

00;26;17;06 - 00;26;38;13
Unknown
I actually did that. And I always have used I, I should say I often have used through life the example of the lemmings running off the edge, you know, so don't don't get into groupthink, right? Because you don't want to be like the lemmings. And this is reinforced by comics. You know, I go into Comics.com and search for lemmings and there's like 125 hits.

00;26;40;05 - 00;26;58;13
Unknown
And and so but one day after telling my students about, Hey, you need to be willing to check your own knowledge base, you know, to see if you had some things in there that really shouldn't belong. And and I had referenced that story and I thought, gee, I need to check that. And so I type it in and I find out it's not true.

00;26;59;15 - 00;27;22;02
Unknown
Right? It's not true. And and who bears the responsibility? Walt Disney. Walt Disney created back in the fifties a documentary which was an Academy Award winning documentary, where the producers and the crew used turntables to fling lemmings off of cliffs and then use camera tricks and other things in order to make it look like whole crowds were going off.

00;27;22;14 - 00;27;35;24
Unknown
And I was just going, you know, wow. But I use this on my students, you know? So when I'm talking about telling the truth between facts and belief, I have a little section with slides in it that they're supposed to do on their own. It says, It happened to me, you know, and I just walk them through here.

00;27;36;07 - 00;27;54;07
Unknown
So so yeah, that's that's part of it. I mean, part of it is just trying to be transparent and say, yeah, you know, this is not something that I want you to do. That's something we all need to do. And yeah, there's and there are steps, you know, being able to we talk about how plots are used to deceive.

00;27;54;20 - 00;28;13;04
Unknown
Okay. So, you know, if it's math, it must be scientific. And if it's scientific, it must be true. And, you know, to follow on to, you know, that famous book about how you can lie with statistics from decades ago, you know, it's very easy to lie with informational graphics today, you know, because the way you can play it, you can leave an access off.

00;28;13;13 - 00;28;35;00
Unknown
You know, you can change the scale. You can do all kinds of other things that make it appear to support the point that you are making. And if somebody doesn't know to dig harder and to look a little more closely, then you've just become a sheep, right? You do it every day with our students, whether you think it or not.

00;28;35;01 - 00;28;51;03
Unknown
You're teaching them critical thinking. How many times have you learned it from Jamie? Have you used your resources? Yeah, well, that's she learned that from me. So we'll start at the very top here. Work our way down. I learned it from Jamie. No, but you. But you. That to me all the time. Yes, but you do it to this now.

00;28;51;03 - 00;29;04;10
Unknown
I'm not talking just with that. I just mean even in their personal lives because, you know, you take an invested interest in them, you listen to what they're saying, you know, you talk them through certain things and you help get them to where maybe they need to be as far as like, okay, have you thought about this lately?

00;29;04;10 - 00;29;30;18
Unknown
Playing Devil's advocate, right? Yeah. Checking out alternative perspectives. Okay. You know, things like Fact Procon.org is a great website that takes that takes politically flammable topics. Okay. And puts the conservative and the liberal, you know, perspectives right there. You know, here's the facts that are you know, and here's what both sides tend to argue. And they'll bring in, you know, a op ed from one side and a speech from the other.

00;29;30;18 - 00;29;53;03
Unknown
And they'll put, you know, put text, pertinent text in there. And that's the overlap. Yeah, and that's right. But that's a great place to, you know, to send them to say, okay, you know, and source fact checking websites help as well. Everything on Wikipedia is true. Know that picture was though. Oh I'm sure are fox hunting. He had medals on, it looked legit.

00;29;53;03 - 00;30;20;17
Unknown
I don't. There you go. Well, Toastmasters were very much into metal, so that's awesome. So what direction do you hope to see the school go in in the future, especially now that we're all part of one? I you know, just thinking about how many PhD student candidates are there right now in the pols department. Oh, gee, I don't teach I don't teach grad students.

00;30;20;17 - 00;30;45;20
Unknown
But I would guess that there is I would say 40 ish, maybe I knew it wasn't very many, you know, because each cohort or Brant come in right now, it'll come in with about this seven, 6 to 8. So there's multiple cohorts, you know, still here. So maybe 40 is high or maybe it's low, but your statistical average right there.

00;30;45;22 - 00;31;05;10
Unknown
Yeah. So right. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. And that's another thing we talk about is the danger of averages, because averages don't tell you a lot of things. They don't tell you that. They don't tell you the data distribution. They don't tell you the low they dont tell you the high, you know. So I tell my students, if you go home and you for Thanksgiving and you told your folks here, I drove an average of 65 miles an hour on the way home.

00;31;05;10 - 00;31;28;19
Unknown
Then you really should ask more questions. Well, I get anywhere between 50 and 80. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. So I'm sorry, but yeah. So now that you're, I mean, you're still in pols but now you're part of the bush school, what do you what do you see in the future? What do you hope for the future? You know, I mean, I understand the grad student mission, and I've really appreciated what I mean.

00;31;28;19 - 00;31;43;25
Unknown
If the bush school had been around when I was here, if and if I'd known what I know now, which I didn't, then, you know, I would have been really arguing with the Air Force to let me stay and get, you know, at least a certificate. It's not it's not a master's degree here. That would have been phenomenal.

00;31;43;25 - 00;32;04;26
Unknown
Of course, when I came in, it was before President Bush. You know, it was one of my commanders in chief. You know, a few years after I commissioned. But, you know, I look at the kinds of courses and the kinds of things that the students here do out of the traditional bush school. You know, before before it's been, you know, the new the new enhanced version.

00;32;04;27 - 00;32;35;27
Unknown
Right. And and it's it's really amazing. And that's really where my heart is. My heart is not so much what political science research. I think that that's important. And I'm glad that a lot of people want to do that. But I'm much more practical oriented and and so I love that that part of the bush school and so how the bush that that practical you know service oriented how that combines with this sort of academic research.

00;32;35;27 - 00;32;59;04
Unknown
Lots and lots of really heavy statistics, emphasis on the math, you know, and large in data research that doesn't necessarily have practical, you know, practical implications. You know, I think there's some there's probably going to be some growing pains. I I'm not worried as long as Dean Walsh is here, because I think he's going to be able he's going to be able to navigate those waters.

00;32;59;04 - 00;33;23;15
Unknown
My concern is when it's time to replace him, who the person will be, we're all worried for that day. Yeah, I am very especially worried. And so, you know, because I mean, I asked dean Welsh when the MGT report came out because I intentionally I was teaching downstairs and I intentionally came up to the second floor hoping to sort of run into him.

00;33;23;15 - 00;33;46;29
Unknown
And I did, because we used to live on the second floor in the Allen building right before they moved us out. And so that's where he and I got to know each other and just passing in the hallway and so I can get up there. I said, So General Welsh did you want us? And he said, No, yeah, he's not going to beat around the bush, you know.

00;33;47;08 - 00;34;07;03
Unknown
And so we talked about that a little bit. And, you know, but he says, you know, if they send you to us, you know, it'll be fine. It'll be great. Well, you know, but you know, I mean, this was not a match made in heaven. It was a match made by some consultants, you know, who probably went in and interviewed the the stakeholders.

00;34;07;03 - 00;34;27;09
Unknown
The leadership in the university figured out what they wanted and then came back and gave them a report that that's what they did, what it was they wanted. And that's the way these kinds of consultants tend to sort of work, I think. And so, you know, there's there are some places where where this makes obvious sense, politics, politics.

00;34;27;09 - 00;34;51;19
Unknown
I mean, you know, you can sort of put this all together. I, I also asked General Welsh at the Christmas gathering, I said, so what's it like having us and he said, Well, Dwight, let me tell you, he said on the first two days of this semester, we had more student issues that we had to work than the entire history of the Bush school because of all the undergrads.

00;34;51;27 - 00;35;13;13
Unknown
And undergrads are sometimes clueless. Right. And sometimes they just have legitimate, legitimate problems. But there's a lot more parents that come with undergrads as well, you know, and all the rest of those things. And so, you know, so it's a learning curve on both sides. And I don't you know, because I'm not a research professor. I'm not I don't play politics.

00;35;13;13 - 00;35;31;17
Unknown
I'm not in the political realm, you know, the political class and my department and so we're sort of bottom feeders and I like it that way. I'm done with climbing ladders and I'm here. I want to be here for my students. I want to, you know, I want to to do things that matter. And I'll let the rest of the folks figure out the politics.

00;35;32;12 - 00;35;51;04
Unknown
So politics shouldn't be important. It should be the students. Well, right. But, you know, I mean, you know, it's the power structure, the whole change in mind, you know? Yeah. It's like I tell my students from the beginning, they say politics is not just about government. There's politics in your church, in your family, in your dorm room, you know, in your student organization.

00;35;51;04 - 00;36;17;29
Unknown
It's everywhere. It's all about when you have groups of people and you have issues of power and decisions. You know, that is politics. And so, you know, it's it's everywhere. Yeah. Way everywhere. Yeah. You just don't deal with it as much. Nope, I don't envy your job. Yeah, well, it's fine. It is what it is. It's fine. It's fine.

00;36;18;00 - 00;36;33;01
Unknown
T.J. wie'll be bottom feeders together. Yes. Okay. I'm here for that. I like to be in a bottom feel way more fun down here at the bottom, it's going on. It's not as bad as it had been in the past. Being under the bush school and being underneath the dean has been helpful. Good. I'm glad to hear that.

00;36;33;22 - 00;36;50;12
Unknown
But where were you before I saw that that move it just so we were here. But we were before we moved underneath the bush school, we were part of the Division of Finance and Operations. So I reported to Dr. Strasser at the time, which he was great, but he had so much other stuff he had to deal with.

00;36;50;15 - 00;37;10;18
Unknown
Yeah, you are. You are beyond a stepchild. Yeah. Yeah. For many, many, many years. And then, yeah. Being part of the bush school has been has been extremely beneficial for us. I mean, majority of our events are with the college because they perfect sense in so many ways. So yeah, I'm not sure why they didn't do it from the beginning other than the school wasn't quite established right away.

00;37;11;05 - 00;37;33;18
Unknown
Well, I'll just be glad that it happened because I just read today that they're taking academic innovation and they are splitting it apart and sending in all different directions. And I'm very worried. Academic innovation has been sort of our hub for for, of course, design, for teaching us how to design better courses, for teaching us how to use the LMS for helping us solve problems with canvas.

00;37;33;18 - 00;37;53;13
Unknown
And, you know, before that ecampus, you know, we could go and I mean, it's just I've worked very extensively with them at multiple times through through the time that I've been here. And I'm really very sad to sort of see it getting cut up and moved around. Some of the things make sense, but I'm not sure that they all do know.

00;37;53;24 - 00;38;13;29
Unknown
They all definitely do not. Yeah, well, above my pay grade level. Above your pay grade. Above my pay grade. There you go. I feel right at home now. That's. I hear that. Yeah, I know exactly what we we all make a decision to have an influence. We have a voice that you use a lot. Well, just to you.

00;38;14;07 - 00;38;45;04
Unknown
Yeah. Is there anything you'd like to share for anyone considering the school department of Political Science, faculty, staff or students? I think it's a really I think the the political science department is has been I think it's I think it's a stronger and a nicer place to be than when I was here as a as a student. And and but at the same time, you know, the halls are emptier than they have been before the pandemic.

00;38;45;04 - 00;39;12;06
Unknown
You know, we still aren't through the sort of the aftermath of that. I mean, I'm in my back in my office semi full time for the first time in three years, you know, and and but at any rate, I think there's a whole lot of reasons why students might want to come and be part of our department and therefore part of the Bush school.

00;39;12;12 - 00;39;34;13
Unknown
And I'll talk about them sort of separately just because I think about the undergrads when I think about pols. And it's hard for me to sort of put that with the bush school yet. I still do. I'm still making that. Yeah, that transition in the gears are sort of grinding. But, you know, I have students regularly come up to me and say, Dr. Roblyer. I was, you know, I was a major in this or this or that.

00;39;34;13 - 00;40;00;09
Unknown
But after we've talked about, you know, what we've talked about in your class, I really now want to, you know, be a pols major. And and that's encouraging to me because it tells me that we have I mean, there there's something that we teach that matters. Right. And it's not the same as the kinds of very influential things that the traditional masters and certificate programs in the Bush School teach, which matters as well.

00;40;00;09 - 00;40;25;01
Unknown
You know, and and you all are much closer to the to the pointy end of the spear, you know, because these folks are going to launch directly into their profession, you know, where as an undergrad, they're sort of finding their way. And then, you know, they may go into work, they may go graduate, you know, whatever. But at the same time, I also heartily write many letters of recommendation for my students to get into the bush school, you know?

00;40;25;01 - 00;40;54;05
Unknown
And so I'm very glad to be able to do that. And that's when I pull the colonel out and all the rest of that stuff to throw that on to that letter, you know, and because, you know, maybe that carries a little more weight, especially when I can say if I know somebody and I can say, hey, if I was back at the Pentagon running a policy group, a policy analysis group, I would want this person on my team, you know, and because of the way they think, not because they're an expert and, you know, this, that or another.

00;40;54;28 - 00;41;19;22
Unknown
And so so yeah, I love seeing my students get accepted to bush school and then, you know, seeing them go off and do great things and then someday they'll be 61 and they'll be able to look back and, you know, sort of go, wow, it's been quite a ride. So I feel like I would like to have that impact, but we're still the redheaded stepchild. I still don't know where we fit.

00;41;19;22 - 00;41;40;23
Unknown
It's something I've been trying to figure out since we've been in. I mean, he does a really good job of including us and stuff in the fact that we do so much with the college. But it's just it's still like we're still the odd duck out, like word of it facility we don't do, you know, other than supporting the academic lectures or the events or whatever the case may be, it's still hard to figure out how we fit into all of that other than the service aspect.

00;41;41;26 - 00;42;06;18
Unknown
Well, separately, I mean, I feel like you do a good job, you know, helping our student workers and our interns find where they want to be, you know, like Megan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the mentoring aspect is really important, but that's very true. We try so, you know, and when you don't, you know, you know, when the job is just sort of more of a job than you would want it to be.

00;42;06;29 - 00;42;28;05
Unknown
You know, it just sort of, you know, come and punch the clock. Maybe then you go and you find other ways that you're investing, you know? And in that little win over there is a huge investment. And so, yeah, I would I remember there are multiple times in my career where I was sort of going, okay, what does this mean?

00;42;28;09 - 00;42;54;14
Unknown
You know, how, how am I making a difference? Because some of the things that I did, you know, along the way weren't cool and they weren't the kinds of things that go on a resume. You know, it was just sort of in that corner somewhere, you know, doing some things that have been given to me to do. And but yet I look back now and I see where each one of those things was a piece of the preparation for where I am now, you know, and my wife was the same way.

00;42;54;14 - 00;43;17;08
Unknown
I mean, she's she was a nurse when I met her. She was also a minister. She had four degrees at that point in time. She got a fifth one. You know, well, after we got married. And and then she became a stay at home mom is her choice. And she raised all these kids, including ones with lots of trauma, lots of adopting kids from overseas, you know, with psychological issues and physical disabilities.

00;43;17;21 - 00;43;40;14
Unknown
And all of that has come together to make her one crackerjack nurse practitioner, psychiatric nurse practitioner, because she brings all of those pieces of who she is, you know, to that job. And so, you know, I same thing with students. You know, I just tell them if it doesn't feel quite right right now, that's okay. It's not the time for it to necessarily feel right.

00;43;40;14 - 00;44;07;10
Unknown
But that doesn't mean that this time not important, you know. So my grandma saying, bloom where you're planted, right? You do the best she can, wherever you're at, let excellence be your standard and let the rest sort of sort it out. And it does it tends to do that. I like that feeling. Even if come live at his house or just sit in on a class, you get him.

00;44;07;21 - 00;44;28;24
Unknown
We should get him to start writing our Monday motivational stuff. Get me through the week. All I was thinking, I mean, I feel like there's so many great books. Yeah, no, we have I have I have two more questions. Oh, no. Well, who's your favorite? The Dean or Dr. Ashley? Actually, it's Sarah's favorite question she likes to ask. Nobody ever answers that, though.

00;44;28;24 - 00;44;50;16
Unknown
Oh, well, they both are. Both or neither one. I'm sorry. I'm I'm I'm biased. You know, the dean was was the chief of staff of my service. So, I mean, there's just no competition now at the same thing. At the same time, Doctor Ashley always came across as an extremely friendly individual. I never knew him. I never didn't even know that he was the assistant dean for the longest time.

00;44;50;16 - 00;45;07;03
Unknown
You know? I mean I mean, I remember this is when we were a part of the liberal arts, but we were part of the part of the building here. Okay. You know, and we're squatters, right? And and so, you know, I would see him and, you know, he seemed extremely capable and very friendly. And I just never knew how he fit in.

00;45;07;03 - 00;45;27;28
Unknown
So and of course, since then, I've read up on him and he's even more impressive. But and I know that he's moving on so and sad to see that I wish him well, but I'm glad that the dean is still with us. And I hope that that, you know, I don't know what the that the average tenure is in that position.

00;45;27;28 - 00;45;40;26
Unknown
But I'm I'm getting concerned. I think a lot of people are. I think originally it was one term and we're getting close to the end of the second one. And so I'm I think a lot of people are wondering that same question if he's going to sign on for another one or two. But we're not here to start rumors, so we don't know.

00;45;40;27 - 00;46;02;17
Unknown
I am starting rumors. I need the Dean to make his decision. Well, you know, I mean, one of the things one of the things I told Dean Welsh in the hall, another one of those hallway conversations was I said, you know, it's really interesting. I had just gotten back from an awards ceremony for one of one of those awards, and I'd sat at a table with several other military prior military members of the seven that I have.

00;46;03;15 - 00;46;20;21
Unknown
And they, you know, and I just was fascinated by the fact that they all had military experience and Air Force and with that respect as well. And I came back I mentioned that to General Welsh and he said, well, of course, Dwight, in the Air Force, you learn how to treat people, you know. And you're right, sir, you know.

00;46;20;21 - 00;46;46;20
Unknown
Absolutely. So I know that is I know that his heart is in the right place. And he's definitely, you know, a man who knows what service is all about. And by the way, I loved his Muster address. That's the one that I point everybody to and but but at the same time you know you some you've got other priorities family and you know health and everything else.

00;46;46;20 - 00;47;04;10
Unknown
So I'm sure he'll make a good decision, even if it's not one that we're happy with. Well, we know where he lives and just going knock on his front door a their protest squat in the yard. Tell Betty get him out the door. Yeah. Dr. Ashley thinks he's going to go watch a bunch of tennis when he retires.

00;47;04;27 - 00;47;27;24
Unknown
Mm. Right. His wife enjoys watching tonight. I know. I also feel like at some point, Janice might just leave behind. Maybe. Well, he came back. He didn't have a house. That's true. That's true. Ouch. She sold it while he was gone. So that was funny. He tells it. Well, he told a story on her podcast recently, actually. Yeah.

00;47;28;27 - 00;47;49;26
Unknown
Well, ask the other question. We're off the air. Okay. Oh, okay. Okay. I'm just going to throw my $0.02 in. I wish you were my political science professor when I was at A&M because my first class, they came in with leg, basically came in as a sophomore, didn't know what I was doing. My and my political science class don't remember.

00;47;49;26 - 00;48;14;05
Unknown
It was just remember how awful it was, you know, class of 300. The first test was in my first time class. I made a 32, the class average was a 37. So, you know, I didn't quite feel okay. Teresa, there's a follow up question. What was the high what was the low time that the average? But literally what I was thinking was 42 and 28, anything but let's see.

00;48;14;11 - 00;48;32;10
Unknown
Like, I feel like it's different. Like you actually like I feel like you you don't care. That's the pastoral part. Yeah, yeah. The caring. I'm not. No, I do not know what my professors name was. I probably didn't know at the time either. Like, I mean, I mean yeah. I mean you can, you can feel about that that doesn't matter.

00;48;32;10 - 00;48;52;01
Unknown
I passed students who say I had you last semester doctor. Dr. Die. Yeah. Have you. I was just saying but I mean but like I don't, I mean there. Yeah, I could have done better, but also like there was no I mean, there was no like we literally read from it, like he read from a book and some slides.

00;48;52;01 - 00;49;09;04
Unknown
Like there was no real life application, there was no, no nothing anyways. Yeah, yeah. When I was like, Oh, he comes in a class. But I was like, Maybe I could learn something. Well, I didn't. I was a student here, and how I teach is a compilation of the best teachers that I've sat under, you know, and that that's what I, that's what I want to do.

00;49;09;16 - 00;49;34;29
Unknown
And I want to try and shy away from the ones who, you know, I remember less fondly. Right. And but yeah, I mean, that that problem of showing up in college, whether a freshman or a sophomore or a junior and not knowing how to actually learn as a college student is huge, you know. Yeah. So, so we walk that, I mean, we look at resources out there, we talk that, we walk that regularly and it doesn't mean that people do as I encourage them to do it.

00;49;34;29 - 00;49;56;21
Unknown
So I got a whole boatload of private appointments set up this week that students have, you know, because we just had exam three out of exam for their exams. Oh was okay. And you know, and the question is going to be, what do I do to be able to pass this class, you know? And so I'm going to refer them back to the same resources and we're going to have the same conversation.

00;49;56;21 - 00;50;15;19
Unknown
Show up, will be present. Well, and, you know, but there are other things as well. One of the things is, is practicing recall. Recall practice is really important. Okay. Neuroscientists are telling us a lot about learning is that practicing recall is extremely important in their particular ways to do this. So a website for you to look at is

00;50;15;19 - 00;50;35;22
Unknown
learningscientists and there's not much on the website, but take a look at their slides and their posters. And it talks about these these learning techniques which are really very, very powerful, but that nobody learns when they're in high. The high school learning is is reread the reread the slides go over the works, the review sheet that the teacher gave you.

00;50;35;29 - 00;50;51;12
Unknown
And then they're going to ask you who, what, when and where, questions Here with the wrong answers being pretty silly. And you're going to come out and feel like you are, you know, genius. And so I tell students, when you come here, you are an expert at passing a high school exam, but you don't know how to learn as an adult quite often.

00;50;51;17 - 00;51;17;18
Unknown
Yes. Right. And so our goal, you know, our goal your goal needs to be to learn how to learn as an adult, because that's what you're going to have to do as a professional. So, you know, everything you do here needs to be with that eye on who you want to become. And so so yeah. Yes. And I have students, you know, who who have never gotten a 56 on an exam, get a 56 on my first, you know, you know or a 40 something or whatever.

00;51;17;18 - 00;51;36;24
Unknown
Right. Because they, you know, I say, okay, this is different. And I tell them how I write my questions differently. It's all there. No secret recipes, you know. But you know, they want it. They want to stick with the worst that brung them. And yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it was well, I would love to sit in on the class Monday.

00;51;36;24 - 00;51;43;22
Unknown
Wednesday Friday, eight and nine, eight and nine, ten, two shows a day, maybe not. Maybe not going to school.

00;51;46;00 - 00;52;05;14
Unknown
That's excellent. I LCB 113 the big arena. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure. And same here. It's been a lot of fun. Come visit our hot mess of a staff and yeah. Building every once in a while and we'll come see you Monday, Wednesday, Friday. That's probably a Friday.

00;52;05;14 - 00;52;13;19
Unknown
So we can just leave after that they'll leave. There'll be plenty of empty seats on Friday. Excellent. All right, bye.