Angie Cooksy: 0:12

Welcome back to another episode of the Bradley University Podcast. We are your hosts. I am Angie Cooksy.

Ben Jedd: 0:18

And I am Ben Jedd.

Angie Cooksy: 0:19

And our one of our favorite parts of the work that we get to do is things like this, where we get to tell the stories of Bradley University and bring in people that are doing really great and exciting and cool things every single day, even though a lot of them don't think they're doing really great and exciting and cool things every day. But we we convince them that they are and they come on the show and share, share a little bit about that with us. As always, we are recording live in Hilltop Studios, which is located in the lower level of University Hall. And I don't know about you, Ben, but I think one of the things that's been sort of an unexpected highlight of doing the show is that we get to showcase this place off to more people around campus. It was one of the first things Lee said today is he hasn't been over here.

Ben Jedd: 0:58

It's a very cool area. And did you know that Angie plays bass and she could be?

Angie Cooksy: 1:03

We've got to stop with Angie playing instruments. Uh somebody, somebody listened to one of our last episodes, Ben, and texted me and said, When am I gonna come play piano? And I was like, that is a lie.

Ben Jedd: 1:13

It's a wonderful idea.

Angie Cooksy: 1:15

It's all a lie.

Ben Jedd: 1:15

She she played bass in a band actually when she was a student at Bradley.

Angie Cooksy: 1:19

None of that, none of that is factually true. But we're gonna go, we're gonna go to things that are factually true and introduce our guest today, who is Lee Newton. And I I adore Lee and and am proud to call him a friend uh and a colleague on campus for a number of years. He serves as the director of education abroad and international programs and is a professor in the Department of English. Did I get all of those things right, Lee?

Lee Newton: 1:42

Yeah, I think so.

Angie Cooksy: 1:43

Okay, perfect. It's a it's a very Bradley title, right? All of the things. Um well, let's get started with a little bit about your background, your role at Bradley, and the journey to the seat that you sit in on campus today.

Lee Newton: 1:56

Um first, thank you for that great introduction. Uh so my journey is long and very winding. So a lot of people don't know this. Uh I was a military dependent, so my father was career army, so I grew up bouncing all over the world. I've lived, I've lived all over. That's my love and passion for study abroad and international travel. I was in the Air Force myself, uh, so I'm an Air Force veteran. I when I left the Air Force, I left with a group of friends, and the plan was engineering, right? So we all get out, we we go to school, uh, we're in Texas, we're going to school for engineering, and we're doing all of that. So uh I'm also a science engineering nerd. That's really my my passion and my love. But along the way, I took an honors English course. Uh, an English professor sort of messed up my life and said, Hey, you should try this, right? Uh and and I took this honors course, and I still remember Bill Matthews was the professor, and I walked out of that class thinking this was a very different world, and this is the world that I wanted to be a part of. Uh and so I slowly shifted gears. Uh, I'm a Bradley alum. I transferred to Bradley, uh, and one of my Air Force friends is from Central Illinois. That's how I ended up here. We both came back here. And uh I joined the English department. Uh, the chair at that time, Dr. Peggy Carter, uh, met with me one summer uh on a day like this. We were up in the fourth floor lounge and she talked to me about all things English and took me under her wing, even though I was a non-traditional student at the time. And uh that's that's how I ended up in English. Uh I graduated from Bradley, I met my wife, she's also an alum from the Dietetics Department, she's a dietitian at OSF. Went off to grad school at Cincinnati. Uh after Cincinnati, I went to George Mason out in Fairfax, and then started looking for jobs, like all grad students who who graduate. And and the circle just, you know, as we were looking, I'm willing to move everywhere because I've lived everywhere. But my wife is from Central Ill Illinois, she's from Farmington, and so she wasn't, right? So the circle kept getting smaller and smaller, and fortunately a position opened up here at Bradley, and and that's how I ended up here.

Ben Jedd: 4:05

That's exciting. Um so you have a long history with Bradley. Um you've had kids that have gone to school here. Um can you talk about the process of actually recruiting your students to come your your your own children to come to Bradley and how that has been an experience for you? And and like what does Bradley mean to you and your family?

Lee Newton: 4:34

So first and foremost, Bradley is our our love and passion. It's my you know, outside of my immediate family, it it's the number one thing in my life. Uh and it always has been. Um I I wouldn't say that I really recruited my children. So we have three boys at home right now. One just graduated from Bradley uh from uh interactive media user experience. I have two more uh here now. One of them I knew would come to Bradley just because of his social skills, social being, etc. Uh it was a better fit for him. One I thought for certain uh was going elsewhere.

Angie Cooksy: 5:07

And then he waited- I did think that, I remember that.

Lee Newton: 5:10

And he actually waited until until the very last moment and then broke the news that he was coming to Bradley. So of course we were pleased and and we were happy. Um, so again, I wouldn't say that that I recruited them the way I try to recruit other students uh who come to us. Does that answer your question? Absolutely.

Ben Jedd: 5:27

Um But what was their experience? Or what was your experience as a parent versus you've had this long experience as an alum or also a faculty member?

Lee Newton: 5:37

Um so I will say that the first two things that struck me. So I I came to orientation as if I was a parent. And the two presentations that stood out to me most were one, Chief Josco, when I when he finished, uh even though I know Bradley is an incredibly safe place and we take care of our students, I felt even more at ease hearing him. And then Ann Hollis, who I think is an unsung hero on this campus, her presentation, if you're a nervous parent and you're sending children off to school for the first time, or you're sending them, you know, out of state, what have you, uh, Anne will put you at ease and let you know that everything's gonna be okay. Uh and I just felt I I felt I felt relieved and and I felt pleased that on the non-academic side, which we don't get to see that often, um, everything was in order and everything was just first rate. So I was really happy with that.

Angie Cooksy: 6:31

I love that. Kind of transitioning to the academic side, and uh one of the things that I appreciate most about you, Lee, is that you have a really wide view of the realities of campus life, and I think you are always really fair about kind of what that experience looks like. And I think part of that comes from being in liberal arts and sciences, and part of that comes from your role in study abroad, and so I want to make sure we kind of cover both of those hats that you've worn over the years. You and I have talked a lot about liberal arts and sciences over the years and and why not only is it so foundational to the Bradley experience, but why it's kind of needed more than ever in today's world. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Lee Newton: 7:09

Sure. And I think if you're following our field, uh we'll just say higher education uh at the university college level, you'll see. So in the past couple of years, for instance, the humanities has just taken a beating. Uh every headline, you know, the numbers are dropping, etc. But most recently, what you'll see is a number of schools that are doubling down on their humanities programs. Um I think liberal arts education, and that's not to say that if you're in a professional track, I want to be uh, you know, a nurse or I want to be an engineer or an accountant, uh, there's nothing wrong with that. There's a place for everyone. But one of the great things about the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and I hope my colleagues agree in and the deans, is that we love we just love learning. You know, I I already told you science and engineering are really my background, and those are those are my passions. But I love literature. I I love government, and I think our students do as well. So one of the things we do well in in our college is we find a place for those students who have multiple passions and multiple loves. Within my home department, within English, probably 50% of our students are double majors, uh, depending on what they want to do. And if they're not double majors, they have at least one minor or two minors, and preferably those are away from the field of English. Uh so that they might be in Spanish. Uh, marketing is probably one of our most popular as well. And and the end goal is yes, they have these multiple loves and passions, but we're trying to make them more marketable as well. We know what we're very practical. We know what the marketplace says uh for English majors in general, and the you know, the the more marketable we can make them, the greater their success will be afterwards. And then we also know that once you graduate, there's a very good chance that within five years you're gonna change to a different field or discipline. Ten, you know, five more years, ten years later, you're probably gonna change again. Uh and being marketable and and having a very broad and wide array of skill sets uh is just gonna be beneficial for you. And I think the liberal arts and sciences type education gives that to our students.

Angie Cooksy: 9:13

I did not put this question on here, so I'm just gonna take a left turn, but listening to what you were what you were just talking about, I'm curious. You know, there's so much conversation around AI right now and what you were just talking about about careers changing and and the value of writing and thinking. How do you think that's gonna play a fat uh a part and a factor in our upcoming students' experience and and how they think about education?

Lee Newton: 9:36

Yeah, it it's it's definitely gonna impact it. It already has. Uh it's gonna impact it across many fields in disciplines, but in ours in particular, because we rely on reading and writing because they bring some skill sets. And we know that students are all already using AI to help them write. Some of them are using it, unfortunately, to do all of their writing. But if you are, so for instance, I'm a sports fan. I read uh every day, I read a lot of little short articles about baseball, etc. And I can tell the ones that are written by AI because they're just not very good, right? And so, for instance, that's one of the things I do in my class. I'll have AI generate a piece of writing and we'll talk about what's good about it, but also what's weak and what could be better. So, uh yes, AI is going to impact the field of writing and what people do across many disciplines, advertising, marketing, et cetera, grant writing, but it's still going to take that person, uh, that that great employee who can take that writing because they're the ones who truly know their audience. And audience is the most important thing. AI doesn't know your audience. You can tell it who your audience is, it still can't write to your audience. So, for instance, if you were trying to write a grant to the federal government asking for, you know, $200,000 for a project, AI can give you a template, but it's not going to be able to tailor your grant so that your odds for success are far greater.

Ben Jedd: 10:57

It's not creating a persuasive message necessarily.

Lee Newton: 10:59

That's correct.

Angie Cooksy: 11:00

So that's one of the classes that you always talk about is the grant writing class. I literally want to take Lee's grant writing class because I'm just so interested in like the things that you're talking about. And she wants to take everybody's classes. Every time somebody comes here, I'm like, I would also like to audit that class. Um But you have a lot of non-English majors take that class, right?

Lee Newton: 11:19

Well uh I wouldn't say a lot. Um well, I I guess. I I guess it tends on how you count them, right? So they're usually education majors uh who are still tied to English, yeah. Uh and then English majors as well who are going out into usually uh their plan is to go into the not-for-profit sector or or something of that nature.

Angie Cooksy: 11:38

I had too much of that experience. And I so we said we were gonna talk about both sides of of the all of the hats that you wear. Um you just got back from a study abroad trip.

Lee Newton: 11:47

I did.

Angie Cooksy: 11:48

You were in Rome, correct?

Lee Newton: 11:49

I was in Rome and I was in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Angie Cooksy: 11:52

Oh, what makes study abroad at so every college has study abroad? Like that's everybody talks about it, everybody does it. What makes study abroad experience at Bradley unique and different and valuable to the to the student experience? Because I think we should have more students doing study abroad here. I think it's such so cool.

Lee Newton: 12:09

I I I agree. I wish it was a graduation requirement for everyone.

Angie Cooksy: 12:13

We don't have that much pull, but I I I will share that.

Lee Newton: 12:16

Yes. So, well, um the ones that are the most unique are our short-term programs. So we have these two-week programs uh that occur during our January interim between the semesters and then in the May interim, right after the spring semester ends. Uh those are great because those are Bradley faculty. So you're going abroad with your friends or other Bradley students. Uh, you're taking a course with a Bradley faculty member who you may or may not have had before. Your directors are all gonna be Bradley faculty and staff as well. And it it's a first-rate academic experience. So I don't want to, you know, say that all schools aren't doing this, but we do know that many schools treat study abroad as we're gonna grab a bunch of kids, we're gonna jump on a plane, and we're gonna go somewhere. Uh and and so there's not as much training. The academic focus is not there. And in our programs, it's still 100% academic focus. They have to meet their contact hours. Every faculty member has a great syllabus. The wonderful thing is they use the location wherever they are as part of their course. So they're gonna go out on class excursions, uh, you know, and they're gonna get to do things they would have never done otherwise. John Nielsen, when we were in London, he was teaching a history Western Civic course. Because of his contacts, we all go to the British Museum, like any tourist. But he got them into what I call the bowels of the British Museum, down in the basement in the vaults where all the students are wearing white gloves and they're handling these tablets that haven't the been in front of the public in a very long time. Uh and so you know they they get that kind of an experience. Jessica Nigg just had a course in Rome, uh, her FCS, it's been the first time we've run an FCS in a long time, uh, Food and World Cultures, right? So who doesn't want to go to Rome and take that course and run around the city and add that to my list, too. Have all of these great meals. Uh and and most recently, uh, so I've worked with Dr. Kelly McConaughey in biology twice now in the last year. Uh I was followed her class, a spectacular class in Denmark over spring break. And she was just taking biology majors who were signed up in other courses on campus, and they they ran around in Denmark, they went out to incinerator, they studied sustainability. But most recently in Dubrovnik, uh, I followed her to because I told you I'm a science nerd. So I I followed her, and we went on this excursion along the coastline, and she had me in tidal pools, and we were looking at sea cucumbers, and that's you know, you're not gonna get that in Peoria, right? So these biology students just had a first-rate experience. She got to teach things uh and and show things and showcase things that she just wouldn't be able to do otherwise on campus. So it's a wonderful experience.

Ben Jedd: 14:59

That sounds great. Um so I believe I was probably in one of the first classes that you ever taught. Um and uh I took quite a few classes actually from Lee, and I was not a very good writer. And I would say that I was a much better writer after taking your classes. I still probably wasn't a very good writer, but your classes really drove me to realize that I could go to graduate school and something that I'd really want to do. Um and I I think that your passion for learning is very influential to students. So my question for you is can you tell a student experience that you think is unique to Bradley? Or can you tell a story about a student that is unique to Bradley?

Lee Newton: 15:47

Wow. So um, well, thank you for saying that about my class. Because you one never knows how students feel when they walk out the door, usually, right? They they they you hear from them later and then you realize, you know, this or that. Um after 25 years, I I've got a a lot of student stories. So there's not one in particular. I will say that my philosophy, uh, and some of this just stems from my background. I have an affinity for our students who are veterans. Uh I have an affinity for students who are first gen because I was. Uh, I have an affinity and a love for our transfer students because I was, and my wife was as well. And and this is gonna sound really cheesy. I try to look at all of the students, especially now that I'm older, probably not when I was younger, but I look at all of those students as if they are my children. Uh so there there's sort of this parenting mode, and I know that flies in the face of a lot of you know research and academia, et cetera. Uh, but I think if you push them uh to expand their boundaries, etc., uh that that helps a lot. One of the things I do, every student, and let's just be honest, isn't always at the top or of their A-game. It doesn't mean they don't have an A game. You just have to find that. Uh and it's no different than, you know, when I was in the military, you would have people who just weren't applying themselves. Uh and it and again, this seems counterintuitive, but when you have those students, what I do is I give them more responsibility. I don't take responsibility away from them, I give them more. And and I think more often than not, you will find that those students will rise to the occasion if you show that you trust them and you believe them, and and if you don't write them off as, oh, you're just a struggling student. If you show, hey, you may be struggling, but this is probably why, and we can overcome this, and then you give them more responsibility and they usually step up. So that's that's a teaching philosophy that I just take into any course uh that I teach. I also do it in study abroad, you know, because we always one always worries about behavior in study abroad, etc. Uh and and it's it's the same process there. You give them responsibility, you treat them with respect, uh, and you treat them professionally, and they will almost always rise to the occasion.

Angie Cooksy: 18:01

I feel like that might fly in the the face of academia research as you mentioned, but I I feel like what you just described is so core to the heart of the Bradley experience and why people come here and stay here is because they have people like you that are that see past you the moment. Oh, for sure.

Ben Jedd: 18:19

Yeah.

Angie Cooksy: 18:20

Um Lee, can you share something that people maybe don't know about you or your Bradley experience? I feel like we've learned a lot today.

Lee Newton: 18:27

Um yeah, I I feel like I've already shared.

Angie Cooksy: 18:30

Lee was like, please be nice to me on the podcast.

Lee Newton: 18:33

Shared off an awful lot of that. Um Wow. Uh I don't, you know, like so I proposed to my wife on this campus, as a matter of fact.

Angie Cooksy: 18:42

So that's yeah, I need more details. So the Lydia Moss She'll kill me when we will send this to her for review first.

Lee Newton: 18:50

So so ultimately I am a romantic and I had the I had it all planned out, etc. And you know, I j I just couldn't wait. And so the where the Lydia Moss statue is right now, that wasn't always there. But that but the circle was there, and it was trees and it had a lot of beautiful flowers and stuff, and that's where I proposed to her, right out there in front of well, where Lydia standing. Oh my gosh.

Angie Cooksy: 19:13

I we weirdly have a very similar proposal story, Lee, because my husband also could not wait. We met here at Bradley, and he proposed over the lunch hour of work one day at Laura Bradley Park with some of my sandwiches. Yours is much more romantic in planned, but uh similar.

Lee Newton: 19:28

Well, I didn't provide food, so your husband gets credit for that.

Angie Cooksy: 19:34

But um one of the last questions that we always ask people, and we get pretty much the same response every time we do it, but it's it's one of my favorite questions. You know, we talk a lot and we bring people on the show and want to learn about you, and they often then talk about the Bradley experience and they talk about how great things are here. Um but I love learning more about the individual people, and so one of our questions is what makes you unapologetically exceptional? At what you do and what are you great at?

Lee Newton: 20:03

That's a tough one because you're asking someone who doesn't like to talk to him about himself, right? Um I will say in the classroom, uh, and this comes from, I guess, student evaluations, other people mentioning it said I I ask a lot of questions. I'm good at asking questions, and I'm good at getting students to question themselves because I believe that's what higher education does, regardless of your beliefs or values, et cetera. Uh we all come to education with our own baggage and our our own personal belief systems. But I I'm I believe that every student, and it should be a required course, Andy Kelly's logic course, I believe every student should be able to think logically and deconstruct either text or arguments, et cetera. So that's that's where that Socratic method of questioning oneself and others comes into play. But when a student puts forth an argument, they have to, I will, even if I agree with them 100%, I will try to tear that argument down by asking them questions and getting them to question themselves. Uh so you know, I wouldn't apologize for that. Uh I know some people don't like that Socratic method of just asking questions. They don't see it as teaching, but uh, I would disagree. Uh I think we learn the most by questioning ourselves. Uh it's it's sort of a self-analysis, right? Um I guess that's all I've got for that one. Does that help? That's great.

Ben Jedd: 21:24

You are driving the students to find the answers. Yeah. So was that your experience with LinkedIn? Yeah. I mean, I was a long time ago. I got here.

Angie Cooksy: 21:34

Uh is there anything else you would like to share with uh with our audience?

Lee Newton: 21:38

Uh you know, you have to come check out Bradley. Uh you it sounds corny, I know, but you just have to trust us when we tell you how much our staff and faculty care about our students. Uh and this is not uh one of my colleagues, Tim Kelzo, will tell you this is not a transactional education where you're just gonna pay your money, we're gonna give you a piece of paper, you're gonna walk away. This is a transformational uh education. Uh you're gonna learn a lot about yourselves. And and the people do truly care. Uh I'll give you an example. Brad Eskridge, who teaches in study abroad with me, he still meets some of his classes for lunch periodically. And you know, they may have been on his study abroad trip two years ago, and they still get together. And and he he checks in on them all the time. We have lots of faculty and staff who do things like that.

Angie Cooksy: 22:28

That's really sweet. Uh any closing remarks, man?

Ben Jedd: 22:33

No, I think we're good. This is great.

Angie Cooksy: 22:34

Well, thank you everybody, thank you, Lee, for coming on the show. It is uh everybody everybody's always a little bit nervous, but it's so fun to get to learn about the individuals and really the humans that are here on this campus, and that's the the goal and the hope of the show. So thank you everybody to listening to another episode of the Bradley University Podcast. We will be back uh with another another episode here pretty soon, and as always, go Bradley.

Lee Newton: 22:56

Thank you. Thank you.