Athletics, Academics, and Getting the Most out of Your Time at College

Welcome back to another episode of MU Talks. So excited today in the studios of Multnomah University. And man, we have a very, very, very. And I'll add another very special guest for you today.

That's right. Today, mutalks welcomes Multnomah University Associate VP of Admissions and Athletics, Mike Anderson. Mike is a fabulous guy who is devoted to all students at Multnomah University. He also has a particular passion for university athletics and a long career himself as an athlete. Mike, welcome. Thanks for being here.

Thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm excited.

Well, so excited. We have somebody at multimillion university that wears many hats. That is the common thing at any university, especially Christian University. But, but Mike, you wear two of the most significant hats that I've seen you oversee. You're the coach of coaches, right? You oversee the athletic department, and you also oversee enrollment and dealing with that challenge. But today I do want us to spend a little bit of time talking about your experience with coaching, with athletics, the role of athletics at the university, at a university, and what you've learned so far. So can we start with your story? Where are you from? Just tell us a little bit about you.

Yeah. Long journey. Actually, I'm, I'm an orphan. I was born in South Korea and got adopted over to the United States and hence the Mike Anderson name. And then I show up and it shocks people. It's always fun. It's fun for me. You know, I don't know if it's fun for everybody else, but. But yeah, so got adopted over the United States. My dad was military, Air Force, and so we moved around a lot. And then when he pinned on colonel, we got multiple, he got multiple assignments in San Antonio because there's a bunch of military bases in San Antonio and stuff. And so, so did most of my teen years in San Antonio. Graduated high school there. Ended up running track at the University of Vermont. Had a connection there. My dad went to Norwich, which is in Vermont. My mom went to Trinity University, which is now owned by the University of Vermont. That's why they have the Trinity campus. And so got a scholarship there and ran Division I track and field. Had some success doing that and then had a bunch of injuries and ended up actually getting into powerlifting. Had a lot of success in that. I had a good thing with power lifting because I was like a skinny guy that was actually, most power lifters.

Are like, okay, so what, what's power like? Okay, so I'm so sorry.

Yeah, yeah, let's slow that one down. Powerlifting a little bit different than Olympic lifting. Olympic lifting is the, the clean and jerk and the snatch. Right.

Okay.

Just two lifts. You see the Olympics, that sort of thing. Powerlifting is the squat, the bench and the deadlift. You get three attempts at each. They take your best when you get a total. And then there's a formula they use to see who it's a pound for pound. Strongest. Right. Okay. I'm not as strong as a 300 pound guy, but relatively speaking, am I to your weight.

You can lift that much. Exactly. And how much, how much did you. Did you. Were you.

Yeah. So my best was actually when I was like super ski, like many, many, many, many years ago. Many, many, many pounds ago. So I did. I did 660 on the squad at 133 pounds.

660 pounds?

Yeah. And I weighed 133 when I did 133. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So I had a good market for people because like most of the time, most people look at these guys are in powerlifting, they're like, they're either on roids or, or I'm just never going to be that big. I don't have the genetics for it. Right. I was like a normal looking dude. So. So it made it like a pretty good marketing for people to be able to look at and that sort of thing. And so I came up through that. I actually dropped out of college to do that. And so that was a lot of fun. Got to travel around a lot and be able to do that. And ended up moving back home to Texas to train at a gym with a coach named Matt Brown. Really awesome guy. He really took me to that next level in that. And then I had several injuries there and basically got forced into retirement. Injury, retirement. And my wife, who is, you know, currently my wife is. We were newlyweds and she was like, I'm sick of you sulking around. Get a job. Well, then I made the realization too, that I'm not getting a job without a college education. So I had to go back to school, finish out and that sort of thing. And then finally I decided, you know what, when I was, when I was in Vermont, I actually started coaching high school track. And I loved it. I loved it. Would never want to teach high school, but I loved coaching. Right. And so that was a lot of fun. So I was like, you know, I really want to try coaching college. So I had a connection with a guy in Waterville, Maine, Thomas College. Probably the better known college in that area is Colby College. And the little Ivies as They call them up there. And so I started out Thomas College and was head track and field coach there. That program was just started. So we built it from zero to something. And then from there I moved on to Central Christian College of Kansas in McPherson, Kansas, which is.

It's.

It looks like McPherson, but it's actually pronounced McPherson. And the old saying is, there's no fear in McPherson. So.

So, yeah, we're already getting a lot of wisdom. There's no fear.

So. So, yeah, so that was a lot of fun. And we were able to build that program up. We had 100 kids in that program. The school was only like 200 total kids, so we were about half the institution. We didn't have a track. That was the crazy thing is we had a track and field team with no track. We were. And we were actually third in the country that year. We had 18 all Americans. Yeah, it was. It was. It was. It was wild. It was a good time. And so. So I was able to really make my mark there. And. And, you know, small Christian higher education is. You had to figure things out. Right. Like, that was a big thing my first year there. I remember kids would run, and then they. This is so gross. But they would actually take the. Run their event, then take their uniform off, give it to somebody else, and then run their event. Because we didn't have enough uniforms. What? Yeah, we didn't have a few force. We had 100 kids and not enough uniforms. We had, like 25 uniforms. So, like, it was constant. Like, it was just disgusting.

Wow.

And so. So we had a lot of success there. And. And a lot of those. All those athletes that. I still have relationships with them, and they're. They're fantastic young people now. Now they're. I feel older because now they're all graduating. They're getting jobs and getting married and having kids and stuff like that. And I'm like, you know, you're. I remember you. You're like 18, you know, so that was. That. That was a lot of fun. And then from there, I went to Northwest Tech, which is in Goodland, Kansas, like, middle of nowhere Kansas. It was a state school. It had two different realms to it. So it was a junior college. And it had, like, the technical programs, like your carpentry, your electricians, that sort of thing. And then they had, like, the regular programs just like any other kind of junior college like you would see up here and stuff like that. Had a lot of success there as well. Had several. Had a national champion there. A bunch of all Americans. Well, and so actually, one of my kids that ran for me at Central Christian is now the head coach there. So. So kind of keep it in the family. Keeping. Okay. And while discipleship, raising leaders.

That's very nice.

So the president there, Ben Shears, he's an awesome guy. Took. Took some. Took a chance on me. He was a younger president, too, so his whole philosophy was is I want to put people in positions to go be successful because people took chances on me. So he. He was able to put me into an associate athletic director position. And from there, we kind of. I kind of was able to build up my administrative side of things. And I kind of knew, getting into it, I wanted to be in administration at some point in time. Like, my wife and I were wanting to have kids. My son was born in Kansas. And so we knew that, like, the recruiting and all that stuff, it just wasn't going to be feasible for us and what our desires were as a family. And so I got into administration and then actually, my old athletic director at Central, Twigs Reed. Shout out to Twigs. Great guy. Was. At the time, he was the athletic director in Corbin. This was back in, like, 2017, 2018, something like that. So I came up here to visit him. I actually came to a volleyball game here at Multnomah, and I remember walking away from here being like, man, I would work here. This place is amazing. The campus is beautiful. It feels like I like projects because it feels like something that we can build up. It felt like it had a good foundation. It just needed to be built up a little bit. And. And then we looked and, you know, Ms. Lois Voss, who is, you know, a legend around here, had been here for, like, 30 years. And of course, usually when they're ingrained, they're ingrained. And so we were like, it's probably isn't going to happen. But then Twigs tipped me off and said, hey, man, this job's going to come open. And so here I am. So the Lord leads you where you're supposed to go. And so when the job came open, actually, I applied for it and went through the whole process, and Joe Slavins was leading the process. And so, you know, it was a process of Joe Slavins was leading it. And so. So it was. It was. It was rigorous, but it was great. And it came the other end. We were able to get the job. And I started here as the athletic director and then kind of worked my way through to where now I do admissions, financial aid, and athletics, so. Wow.

And just for the record, Mike is not 140 years old. He.

I'm not that old.

He just, he just told us in three minutes the richest experience I've seen in this, in this space. So here's, here's a few questions for you. I, I worked as a youth in the youth ministry coming from Europe to America and one of the great shocks that I've experienced in youth ministry is so I was in California and a bunch of, bunch of the kids in the ministry were in, into athletics, you know, high school football, all these. And all without exception, had knee replacements and all kinds of things going on. Like it was just so demanding and it was, it was a shocker coming from Europe, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So if you're looking at this, what is in your perspective the role of athletics and what do you see is the benefit of athletics in a university and just lessons you've learned, seeing kids go through this and putting all this time and all this, it's formation. Is it something else? What, what is the value that you see in that?

Yeah, I think it's several things. I think the first thing is, is what the university is doing for that student athlete when they're coming through. And one of the big things I always say to, to parents and student athletes is I'm like, I've at this point in my life I've probably coached over a thousand people. Oh wow. Over a thousand kids. Oh wow. I've had one person go pro in my entire time and he was a absolute stud. He now runs. His name is Zuhair Talby. Now runs for Oklahoma City Olympic qualifier, World Championship qualifiers 1 back to back national championships in any. I. He was a, he's a rock star. Right. Those are rare.

Can I just say something right here? Because I love it. I love how you know this person's record. I love how you connect it to their story. I love that. And, and maybe we'll talk about, you know, what does that do to you as a coach?

And I'm a memory guy too. Like one of the things that a lot of people don't know, like I don't save numbers in my phone.

Uhhuh.

Like I just, I actually memorize every phone number in my phone.

What?

Yeah, every phone. Yeah, I just memorize numbers and stuff like that. I can memorize like books and stuff. I can speed read that sort of thing. So. Wow.

That's the next episode.

That's the next episode. Talks about. Well, I, I don't think I've seen a modern phone, a smartphone that doesn't have names on that, that's a new thing.

Okay. Yeah. So the memory thing kind of comes good to me. But, um. But yeah.

So a thousand kids, one went pro.

Yeah. I mean, it's just. It. What, what's plan that's plan 1A. That's great. I don't want to ruin your dreams. Great. It's plan 1A. I'm going to coach you as hard as I can coach you and try to put you on a platform and a pedestal to go achieve that. So what's plan 1B? I always play this joke with kids when I was recruiting, right? They'd always be like, I'm like, what's your goal, man? What's your goal? And they'd be like, I want to be a millionaire. I'm like, okay, that's great. I said, so you can go be a millionaire being a professional athlete, right? That sort of thing. You make a million and a half dollars more over the course of your life with a bachelor's degree. So if I told you I could help you on the pathway to being a millionaire, four years, three to five, depending on who you are, would you take it? Yeah, I would. They start thinking a little bit differently, right? Like, that's the thing. That's the thing with it. You know, it's the same thing. If I said, you know, you gotta be relentless towards that. If I said there's a million dollars under a rock here at Multnomah University, both you walk out there, pick up the first rock, if there's not a million dollars there, you're gonna spend the entire afternoon picking up rocks on the campus. You know what I mean? Like, you gotta be a little bit relentless. You know, I always tell kids, I'm like, look, you just be relentless towards what that goal is, right? But know that the path isn't exactly what you think it is. And so I think athletics, it's that. And it's got to be bigger than a degree. And that's one of the things that attracted me to Multnomah here is, you know anybody. There's a bunch of great schools out there. I couldn't even name them all, if I'm being honest with you. There's a bunch of great schools out there, but if things aren't going well at 2:30 in the morning, is there going to be somebody there to support you? Like, if it was my son, I'd want that. You know, it's what are you gonna do for my kid? Like, And I always tell parents this. I said, if you're not Asking me that question. I'm gonna help you out here. I want you to ask me that question and every place else that recruits you. You need to ask that same question. What are you doing for my kid? I'm gonna help your kid get a degree. Well, my kids are 4 over the 30 act. I'm gonna be honest. You probably don't need to motivate them that much.

You know what I mean?

Like, what are you, what are you doing for my kid? You know, are you setting them up with shadow opportunities? Are you setting up with internships? Is the curriculum that they're learning in the classroom going to actually make a difference in what they're doing or professor up there? They're just talking to talk kind of thing. Because we see those too, particularly in big state schools and stuff, because they get paid to research and you know that it's. I get it. Right. And that's what we do here at Multnomah though, is that everybody here has a practical piece to what they're actually trying to do to get them to where they want to go. And I think that that's, that's the most important thing is what are you going to do for my kid? And what does that mean beyond just a degree? And we actually do that here. I can't say that about a lot of places. I've worked in other places. I can't say that about a lot of places. Right. And this is. It actually holds true here with every person that I've met. Everything that we do, people care. I think that that matters. Every school says I care. You're gonna be like family here. Every school says that's on the marketing, that's brochure. It always happens. And I'm just like. And I've been there before. And I'm just like, it doesn't even feel like family to me. How's it gonna feel like family to the 18 year old that's sitting over there in the dorms? Right. And it actually matters here. You know, we try to go out of our way to actually do that and take it there. So, you know, I think athletics is just a platform that it's not the tell all end all. It is not. And most kids think it's going to be the tell end all because they think they're going pro in something. And again, it's great. I'm not trying to ruin your dreams. Plan 1A, let's go. But what's plan 1B, you know, and how is our platform helping you get there? And I Think our platform does a really good job doing that.

And I have two more questions for you. This is, this is, this is exciting and, and I love getting the coach going. The mic is imparting wisdom with us today from, from everything you've done, what is, what was the hardest thing to coach for you? Like out of all the sports that you've, you've done.

Oh man.

And why. I'm just curious. When you look at athletics, what, what is really something that is difficult to coach from your perspective?

You know, I say this and everyone thinks I'm joking, but it's just a hundred percent. Fact is, particularly in college athletics is I was like, I'm not a great coach, but I can recruit. That's one thing I can do. I can recruit and I can build a culture and I can get people to buy into that culture because at the end of the day, donkeys don't win. Kentucky derbies. And I'm talking track, right? You know, I could find people that have a bit better genetics than anybody else and I just put them out there. And honestly, the more I say stuff, the more I'm probably gonna mess it up. So I just used to sit back, I would sit back and eat my popcorn in the stands and cheer them on, you know, indoor, they have the 60 meter dash, right? And I've had K run six and a half seconds in six meter dash. That's blazing. And, and it's a big crowd fan favorite, whatever. I was like, what am I gonna tell you in six and a half seconds that's really gonna change your life? Nothing. And you're not gonna hear me anyways, right? Like, so good luck, man. Like go out there and do what you do. Let, let, let your God given talent take over and be great, you know, so, so when we talk about coaching, like what was actually hard, I always found it to be really easy because I really wasn't doing a lot of coaching. I've had great assistants that do a lot of the coaching. So if we're talking about coaching, I would say, you know, making great hires and coaching them up to be great has been probably the biggest challenge because you have so many different people that have so many different. We're talking about people's lives now, you know, like the student athletes are, they're getting ready to be set up for that. But when we're talking about coaches, we're talking about people who, you know, this is their livelihood, this is how they feed their family, you know, and winning and losing does play a role into that. Right. And so it's like, what does that success level look like? And what are their goals and dreams and aspirations? Everybody has to benefit from this. Usually the head coach is the only one benefiting from it. But my philosophy is everybody has to benefit from it. So what am I doing to put you in positions to be successful? And I really think that that's why we've been really good, is because we've had great coaches that have worked with our programs and being able to coach people up and stuff like that. Because again, I'm okay, I know what I'm doing. I know that you have to run really hard and turn left. If you don't get the track joke, you can only turn left on a track. So that's a.

Well, thank you for explaining the joke. We're like, yeah, I think that's how that works.

But beyond that, I don't. It's culture and recruiting is really what it comes down to. You know, it's not the, the old saying. It's not the X's and the O's, it's the Jimmy's and the Joes. So.

Wow. So I'm curious, for someone who has enjoyed athletics your whole life, you as a student and as an adult, and now you work in athletics. I'm curious if there's, if there's a story, either positive or negative, that really influenced you as you were growing up, that that's made you want to dedicate your life to students and student athletes.

Yeah. You learn pretty quickly that it's not about the money and that it's about what are you passionate about. And I tell people this all the time, Right? Like, don't chase the money. Passion trumps everything. Like, if you're passionate about it, you can work real hard at it. You're gonna make money at some point. I remember one of my jobs, the first day on the job, I got a $600 raise because the actual full time salary was below what the federal poverty line was. So I had to get a 600 raise just to meet it. So that's why when people are like, you know, you hear people all the time in places they're at, they're just like, oh, you know, where I work, it's so hard and that sort of thing. I'm just like, yeah, you don't, you know, man, you don't even know. So you learn very quickly that, you know, you're dealing with people's lives and when you're talking about, like kids and stuff like that, I always a Lot of coaches don't involve the parents. I do. And one of the reasons I do that is because this is your baby. And we're talking about the moms here, right? Like, you know, we know mom's got going on, right? So, you know, we. We're talking about your baby. You know, like, I'm soft with my kids, you know, and my kids are super tiny right now, right? And I'm soft with my kids. I can't imagine. And I'm pretty. I feel like I'm pretty hardcore guy, right? Like, that's not who I am, like, naturally as a person. And. But. But I look at it, I'm like, this is your baby, right? And like, I take that very personally when you entrust me with your baby. Right. And that makes a big difference. And so when I look at just my overall experience, I've learned very quickly that the Lord has given me a responsibility to take people's. To take people's children. And I say children, they're young adults at that point, but. And take that next step in helping them develop. And people are entrusting me to do that over a course of time. And not like a short course of time either. We're talking four years, you know, and very formative years too. And that matters. That has to matter. And when you think about it from that lens, it is a huge responsibility. It is a heavy responsibility, right? And so if people don't think about it from that lens, it doesn't feel as heavy. Feels more transactional, probably. And I've never wanted it to be that. And so those are the big lessons that I've learned to be able to take away from it, just from a 30,000 foot view, is that that responsibility of looking a parent in the eye and telling them, I got you, it's gonna be okay. I will take care of your baby, I promise. Right, That's. That's been super important. So, you know, my wife and I are in this together and, you know, she's my better half. And so, you know, we've made it our mission to be able to make sure that parents know that we take that responsibility very personally.

I was a. I was a senior leader at a Christian television center, had people report to me and my mom came to visit and she asked me in front of everybody if I had my lunch. So trust me, when, you know, when a mama asks you, doesn't matter how old you are in that moment, you realize like, nah. So they never played it down. They never played it down. And I was like, mom, come on. Made it to this position here. Like, let's talk about lunch outside.

Yeah, your mom is always your mom.

Your mom is going to be there. And, and, and I think it's a great approach to actually have that humane approach to these people, their destinies, who they are not numbers on. On a jersey or something. Right, right. Here's one. We actually, I think I have time for one more question, but here's my question for you. You. You said you've had tremendous experience and experiences in life and I'm thankful that you got to share a very small fraction of that with us. Looking in the future of athletics, just curious what you see. What do you see in the future of. Of how the athletic, you know, departments and all these in universities are going to develop or, you know, evolve or involve. So, so, you know, what do you see?

Man, that's a big question because there's so many different levels to it as well. And now we have like name, image and likeness and stuff. So it is becoming very business oriented.

With the loss that we just passed that people can actually, and particularly at.

The top end with like. And I get it from that perspective too, right. If you're the, if you're the starting quarterback for Oregon and you're not able to, you know, someone can't buy you a cheeseburger, right. Just to say thanks for, you know, showing my kids a good time and stuff like that on a weekend. Right. But the kid that, you know is the, you know, fantastic piano player, can do piano lessons for a hundred dollars an hour. I get it. Right. It's not fair. Do I think there needs to be some guidance there? I don't want to say regulation guidance. Sure, absolutely. Because we all know too that there are people out there that want to take advantage of young people. And so at those top levels, that's far beyond my reach, I think of what's going to end up happening because there's just so much money flowing through those top ends of college athletics. When we're talking about small college athletics and what we do here, I think the big thing that we really need to focus on in a society is the, the overall experience and what the pecking order is on that overall experience. Right. So what I mean by that is, is when a student comes to Multnomah as us as the example, right. Are you winning games? Is that the tell end all know. But it's fun, right? If you want a good experience, it's fun. So, you know, we want to try to win games. We Want to try to be competitive. I'm not saying that we're going to win championships or whatever case may be. It's really hard to do. I've been there before and I can tell you it's really hard. But are we trying and are we making strides to be able to do that? Cause that creates a good student athlete experience. It creates a good culture. It creates all those kind of things. It keeps the coaches happy, you know, so. Cause again, this is their livelihood too. This is how they feed, you know, people take that, don't realize that part too is I'm like, I got coaches that got kids. This is how they feed their family, you know, so that's very important to me. On top of that, it's that when you talk about student athlete experience, it's what is that academic experience doing for them? Right. How much emphasis are we putting on that? Because they're only going to be practicing so much. They're only going to be doing stuff in athletics so much. Right. Most of what they're doing is not athletically based. So what does that end up looking like? I think that that has to really be a focus on what we're doing because that is a huge portion of what they're going to be doing. And not enough places do that. They don't resource it. They don't put people in positions to be able to do that. A lot of times there's not a. There's silos between athletics, you know, the academic realm and stuff like that. I try very hard not to have those silos here, you know, and I think a lot of our faculty, very successful. Yeah. You know, I go out of my way to do that and develop relationships over there because that matters. I try to be very supportive of what the academic side is doing. Certainly there's things like we have to go play conference games, so I can't avoid that kind of stuff.

Right.

But when it comes to like students, you know, I don't give kids a whole lot of passes. I'm like kind of a two strike kind of guy, you know, like if you're going to skip class once, it's like, all right, maybe you made a mistake, you're 18, but if you do it again, I'm like, now you're doing it on purpose. Right. So, you know, I try to be very supportive of the academic side of things because again, that's what's going to help them get there. 99% of the time it's not going to be athletics and I'm not Trying to kill people's dreams again. But it's tough. It's. It's really, really tough to go and make it and stuff like that. And so are we setting you up for success there? And then really beyond that, it's all the other intangibles. Right. Like, are you developing good relationships and a good network of people while you're here? You know, can every student here at Multnomah University say that they've had a personal relationship with one of their faculty? I don't know. Right. They should. Because guess what?

I can say yes to that.

You know, hopefully. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Because, I mean, at the end of the day, when you have no job experience, guess who's writing your reference letters? Yep. Your faculty. Who has been training you to be able to do that. So I would say if it's not, yes, it better be. Right. Like, we need to make, we need to make moves towards that. So that's got to be really, really important. And so that student experience has to be important. Right. And, you know, just the relationships and the friendships that they're going to develop, you know, we all kind of know that college is that formative time and they, they, they're living with other people probably for the first time. If they're living in the dorms and stuff, and you develop some really tight friendships, they're probably going to last you a lifetime. And, and that's going to matter. You know, those relationships are going to matter at the end of the day. So, you know, I think, I think small college athletics needs to go more towards that realm rather than just saying, hey, you're, you're just a number to us. You're just, like you said, a number on a jersey. And it's transactional. And when we're done with you, we're done with you type of thing. Again, it's got to be bigger and deeper than that. And I can tell you from my own experience that's not the case. And it needs to be, because it's a shame if it's not. I think we're doing people a disservice.

And I love how in your story, you've, you've already set the stage for that, where you've, you've pursued your dreams in athletics. You pursued actually, like athletic endeavors, but then you went back to college and said this, this has a purpose. This has a role for me. So you've, you've modeled that in your life, too. You can actually tell a story or two to students that are thinking, well, I'm just gonna drop everything. I'm gonna do this and be like, yeah, but you know, leave some room there.

Yeah, that, that one's tough. I remember I was like, I'm not gonna do it. I told my wife that's what I'm not gonna do. I was just applying for job. Man. You couldn't even, I couldn't even get hired at like a McDonald's because they're like, oh, you're, you're too qualified to do what we're wanting you to do, but you're not qualified enough to be a manager. So I was like, in that no man's land. And I was like, like, that's, that's, that's actually serious. Like, I couldn't even do get hired at McDonald's. Yeah. Oh, wow.

Things have changed a little bit. But we're not going to timestamp this, this, this podcast episode here. With some circumstantial things happening in our generation. I cannot be more thankful for your coming to our podcast. And we're going to spend some time getting to know even deeper. Even though you shared some really cool stories and I'm than you actually shared some personal stories from your life, we're going to get some really interesting, like, really random questions. Renee, you want to go first?

Go for it.

Sure. Do you love or hate roller coasters?

Love them.

What is the strangest thing you've ever eaten?

Oh, man, I've eaten some strange stuff. I've had guinea pig before. Guinea pig? Yeah, it was in Peru. They're everywhere.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

It's a good thing you said.

No, not in the pet store here. I didn't go to the Petco.

I was waiting for this.

They're like everywhere in Peru and so people eat them. Oh, wow. What? Bad.

What does it taste like?

I don't want to say it tastes like chicken, but it really didn't taste like chicken. It was kind of. It was a little bit tougher and you had like little like herbs with it and stuff like that. And they like fire roasted and it was, it was, it was a. I.

Still see the shape of it.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Father. God help us. It was, Help us on this.

It was a good time. Oh, wow. I'm a very adventurous eater.

Oh, that. I actually wanted to ask you this because I think this fits right here. If you could actually, if you would. What was that? If you were the ruler of the world, who would be your top advisor?

Who? My wife. It's probably some nepotism rule on that, right? But it would be my wife.

Hey, you're the ruler of the world.

What rules? I'm like. I'm like, you know, my wife is just incredible. Like, I tell her all the time, I'm like, I couldn't be a functional adult without you, because there are things that I just don't know how to do that you do so well.

Oh, man.

Like, I'm really good at what I do. I don't have a whole lot of talents outside of that, though, she's, like, multifaceted. So, yeah, it would have. It would pretty much by default have to be her. Otherwise, the world would. The world would end. I'm just being honest.

So, ladies and gentlemen, student athletes listening to the podcast. Did you hear the wisdom that this man had right here? No hesitation, didn't take a break. Breath. He just went for his wife. Can we just stop? Whenever we ask this person this question, if people answer anything but this. This was brilliant. Brilliant.

Sorry. Which is the best ice cream flavor?

You hit him hard.

You hit him hard, man. And, you know in Portland tv, you got, like, salt and straw, where they have, like, the weird flavors. And I'm like, one of those people, you know, they have the monthly flavor now.

They have to support us with money. Money.

Because you told her, shout out to salt and shot. But I. I'm. I'm. I'm just an ice cream kind of guy, you know? So I guess. I guess vanilla, because you can turn it into other stuff, right?

Really?

Like, you could put strawberries in it, turn the strawberry. You put chocolate in it. Turn chocolate. Like.

So you're a Sunday man.

Yeah. Like, you know, recently, like, I've been doing, like, honey and cinnamon on my vanilla ice cream at home.

Culinary.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. I'm sure we touched some hearts with this. People are very passionate about their ice cream. If you could have a lifetime supply of anything, what would it be? Lifetime supply. It would just never end.

A lifetime supply of love. Yeah. I'd want to be like. Like, as much as I like my alone time, I'd want, like. Like my. I better die before my wife dies. Otherwise I'm probably gonna be. I'm not long after that. Yeah.

All right, well, we're gonna bring this back around to education again, because everyone who comes in this room with us has this in common, is that we all highly value education. It's become a significant part of our lives to get here. And now. And now we're here supporting other people's education at Multnomah University. And so we, like to wrap it up with these three questions for you about your education.

Great.

So tell us a time. A story about a time during your educational journey. Could be childhood or to present that was memorable or formative for you.

Yeah, so this one's kind of funny, actually. So when I was a freshman in college, and this is good for all the people that were coming into college or interested in going to college or whatever, I was like, I want to be a doctor. Really? It's because of money, right? It wasn't because I was passionate about being a doctor. That was like, it was money. So I, I, I get accepted University of Vermont. I'm in the life sciences college. And. And they're like, you got to do. I'm biochemistry pre med major. And they're like, you got to do basic chemistry in your first semester. And it was so boring. I fell asleep, and I woke up the next day. Like, as the new class was coming in. They just left me. I woke up the next day, and I realized very quickly, I'm like, this isn't for me, right? So what I learned is I'm like, this is why I remember earlier I said, passion trumps everything, right? I was like, man, what am I actually passionate about? Because I'm clearly not passionate about being a doctor, you know, so, so far.

He left you in there?

They left me in there the whole night.

That's incredible.

Oh, it was fantastic. And I didn't even wake up. I didn't even wake up.

How boring was that class?

It was, it was, it was, it was bad. And shout out to, you know, Dr. Gall and Dr. Stuckey in our science department, but there's no way I could do what you do. No way.

No way.

Wow. Not for me.

Okay, well, if you could change one thing about education, what would it be? Hmm.

You know, a little bit of a soapbox for me, but I think I would change how we pay teachers in less affluent areas at the high school, junior high type of level. I've been recruiting too much to see because, you know, like, a lot of times, like, the public schools, they're funding those, those high schools based on how they do in certain metrics and tests and that sort of thing. And, you know, these are less affluent areas where they, they don't have a whole lot of, you know, those, those students don't have as much motivation. They don't have heroes. They don't have a lot of different things. And it's the system that they're in, and so because of that, they're not paying the teachers better. So of course they're not then getting people that are. There's people that are obviously going to be passionate in there, but there's some people that may not be. And so I think that you should really fund that and so that you can really get the. Particularly in the black communities and Latino communities is being able to go in there and really take care of them and help our first generation college students or students of color really go achieve something. Very passionate about that. And I've seen that too many times in the recruiting process and I'm just like, it's sad. It really is, because it's not because they don't want to, it's because they just don't know. So you get into college and it's like, man, this is probably the first time you've had a mentor or a hero in a faculty member that's not athletically based, like not a coach or not your parent taking you to sports stuff. It's like somebody that's like not involved in athletics at all, that actually cares about you. It might be the first time that it's ever happened to you. You. And it's really uncomfortable for them because they've just never experienced it. And, and I think that if they've had that experience, it makes their college experience so much more robust. And so, yeah, I would say that's a little soapbox for me again. Yeah, that's really cool, but I would do that. Yeah.

Love it. All right, well, what is something that you are currently learning?

Yeah, so actually I just read this book and I have it. It's the one thing I actually do have on my phone and it's by Dr. James Dean. He's the president at the University of New Hampshire. It's called the Insider's Guide. Working with Universities. And what it is, is it's his experience. So he was a provost at North Carolina. And it's a really basic book. It's not really super far in depth. But what it tells you is just the, I don't call it the politics, but the ins and outs of a university. So how do faculty interact with staff? How do staff interact with faculty? How do faculty interact. Interact with the board? How does the board interact with staff? How do, how does the board interact with outside businesses? How does. It's just those connections.

Yeah.

In his experience, and let's call what it is, you were the provost at North Carolina and then you are the president of a land grant institution in the United States. Like you know your stuff. Right. And, and it was so interesting. It was so good. I was like, I'm my staff down in missions to tell you. I'm one of those people where I'm like, I'll spend a lot of money to do like, crazy stuff stuff. So I'm like, I was like thinking. I was like, man, I should literally buy a copy for every person at this university and just drop in the mailbox and. Gift from Mike Anderson and. Because it's really good. It's really good and it teaches you a lot of stuff about how to make these things work. Like it defines certain things. Like a faculty centric university. What that actually looks like and what that actually. Because people throw that term around all the time. Shared governance. We've heard that term a lot. People throw that term around. What does it actually mean? Right. What does it functionally mean? I think that that's a really important piece too, and it explains all of that that, you know. And so it was super educational. I'd recommend it to anybody.

Great.

Mike, thank you for being with us today on MU Talks. Very excited about what you do here. Multi university. And Renee, thank you for, for really hosting this conversation. Great conversation. We look forward to having you again. We have other topics, actually, that even in this, this discussion alone we came up with, you know, and we do need to have a conversation about enrollment. I think it's a great field where we have to get some, Learn a little more. More from you. And having somebody that has this hat of, of, you know, enrollment, overseeing enrollment and a coach, oh, I think it's a, it's a brilliant idea. We don't want to give all the best ideas to all, all the other universities, but I think all the coaches should actually work in admissions. Well, thank you again for being with us. Blessings to you and to your ministry. And we look forward to having you back.

Awesome. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.

And you might have heard this once or twice, but the views and opinions expressed here on MU talks do not belong to Mono University, but to the people that actually come and join us as guests and to the hosts.