Welcome to Monmouth monthly, a peek into the heart of the Willamette Valley. Each month we will bring you updates of the things happening in and around town, brought to you by the people who help make it happen. I am your host, Sabra Jewell.
And welcome back to another episode of Monmouth monthly. It is October. It is fall. Our students have returned, and because of that, it is always exciting to have somebody from Western Oregon University join us, and today, that person is my good friend, Dave Beasley. Dave and I have gotten a chance to know each other overall. God, almost a year now, he joined the Western Oregon University Foundation team about eight months ago after being at Western Oregon for a while, and he is here today to tell us about all things fall that are happening at Western he's got his hands and a lot of cool things regarding Smith Fine Arts, our Western Oregon University Athletics. He's going to talk about some homecoming activities. So I am super excited to welcome them, to hear more about things going on. Welcome Dave to Monmouth monthly.
Thanks so much, Sabra. It's a privilege and an honor to be here, and it's even more of a privilege and honor to be here, representing Western Oregon University, with the chance to tell everybody listening about all the exciting things we have coming up. Yeah, and it is exciting. This is a great time of year. What's it like to have the students coming back now we're recording this about what two weeks out from the students coming back. Tell me what the buzz is. Are you pumped? You ready? We're really excited to have all the students back. We are also really excited that all the construction is going to be done soon and and we're expecting all of that to be done before the students move in. I know when folks will be listening to this. The students will already be here. The streets will be a little more crowded, the stores will be a little bit more crowded, the campus will be a lot more crowded. I come from the academic side of things originally, and in fact, I still do a little teaching, so lots of preparation happening all across campus, getting the dorms ready. Professors are working on syllabi. I'll let you know when mine's done. And and the students, of course, are right now, probably as we speak, trying to determine what they need to pack, what they need to bring with them, and we are so excited to be welcoming them. I can say, since I've been here over the each term, there has been a few more students on campus, and we're doing even more in person classes this term, so we expect a lot more people around.
That's great news, those in person classes to have more of those, because I tell you what it I have lived in college town since 1996 and I don't know if I could ever live anywhere where there wasn't a university presence. And I miss them so much in the summertime, and I know the businesses do as well. So it is just so great to have everybody back.
We're really excited about it. It's it's a little lonely on campus in the summers. You know, it feels like tumber Weeds are blowing through sometimes, and I enjoy my colleagues, and I hope they enjoy me, but it's nice to mix it up with some students every once in a while, and to have to kind of step aside out of the way as students are coming through on the sidewalks on their way to class,
and when you're talking about construction, Monmouth avenue through campus has been shut down for the better part of my goodness. How long now is, I think about six months now, yeah, and that's been when I say shut down. It's all traffic. It's been shut down to get some major repair work done. That was when you're at the the state's oldest public university, you're gonna have to do some major construction work, right?
Absolutely you are. And we have to do it in a way that makes sure that we don't damage any of the old buildings, any of the old trees. We want to make sure that we're doing in a really intentional way. But I think, and we're gonna, we're gonna put a good thought out into the universe for this, I think this is gonna be it for a little while. That's good. And so that is good news to have that.
Wow, that's great news to hear that it's going to be done in the next couple of weeks. So congratulations to the campus community. That's a big deal. And I know folks are ready to be able to walk through campus again, because I don't know if our listeners have never walked through Western Oregon's campus during the fall. It is so beautiful and the trees are so vibrant. So that's great news. Dave, absolutely.
So hopefully, if you're if you're like me, and you listen to podcasts while you walk in the evening or the afternoon, maybe you're walking through Western Oregon University's beautiful campus right now and you're noticing that there's no holes in the street.
That's great. So you have been with Western you got hired on in education, working in our education department. Tell us more about that.
Absolutely. So I moved here two years ago. A little more than that now came up from Las Vegas, so it was a very welcome shift. There are things that Monmouth has that Las Vegas doesn't, such as rain, cool weather. Love being in Monmouth. So happy to be here. So I've got a long career of working in higher ed. Yeah, the very first time I ever came to Monmouth, we walked around the campus of Western it was pretty quiet. Then it was during the pandemic, and I remember thinking, what a wonderful university, what a great place to work. Maybe I could work here someday. So when we decided to move up here, the very first place I went to was the Western Oregon University Jobs page, and so I started as an advisor in the College of Education, and I did a lot of recruiting as well. But my love is really fundraising, and I really enjoy that, and I had a background in that as well. So when this position came open at the Western Oregon University Foundation, it just felt like the the perfect fit for me. And I can't be happier, yeah,
and I would have to agree, I have seen Dave in action since he's been a part of the team, and he is fantastic. He's very active in the community, but he is, he is perfect in this role. You bring a lot of fun to the office. You bring a lot of color and vibrancy, and it's because you have such a big passion for music, and so your office is wall to wall, concert posters, yes, and these are all posters that you have gotten at the shows that you've gone to.
Yes, all but one. All but one. So there's one, there's a Jerry Garcia band poster from 1993 and I'd love to tell you that I was cool enough in 1993 to have seen the Jerry Garcia band, but I was 12 years old, and I definitely wasn't that cool. I'm the son of an accountant, so I was a little late to the Jerry Garcia party, and honestly, as the son of accountant, we're lucky I got here at all. Right, what did you listen to growing up? You know, I listened to a lot of country music growing up. That's those were some of the 90s country.
Oh yeah, that was the good stuff. We're talking like Randy Travis.
I've seen Randy Travis. I've seen Alan Jackson,
Reba McEntire.
I have been as close to Reba McIntyre as I am to you right now.
Alan Jackson,
I saw him.
Know what I'm saying. I mean, the 90s country was like a time to be had.
Oh,
Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I'll tell you. My very first concert was Garth Brooks, which was quite a way to break into the concert.
So good. What year was that?
That was February of 1997
Oh, my God, that's so good the country. That's a good way to grow up. But now you're you have jam bands, wall to wall, yes. Okay, goose.
Goose is a big one for me. In fact, in and by the time you all are listening to this, I will have returned from a five night goose run in Montana, Washington and Oregon, other other bands that are up there. Got some little feet up there? Yes, that's true. The wood brothers, Dave Matthews is up there. Dave Matthews is absolutely up there. I've seen Dave more than anybody else. I've seen Dave 28 times.
That's a lot of times to see somebody
Well, you know, I have a friend in Virginia who's been to 60 something.
That's true when you got to remember folks, when he says he's from Virginia, Dave Matthews in the 90s in Virginia, that's just like the you know, that's the origin story, right? It was Charlottesville.
It was Charlottesville, and it was my hometown of Richmond. So it used to be that Dave would play a small club in Charlottesville, and then he would go and on Tuesday nights, and on Wednesday nights, he would play the flood zone in downtown Richmond. So I have a buddy that's been to over 200 Dave shows, because he used to go to the flood zone every Wednesday night, right? It hurts my heart to say this the flood zone at last check was a laser tag place.
Oh, it happens like that sometimes. Well, I think it's perfect that this is the role that you're in, because you just you really love a good live music act, and you've seen an array of music. I mean, you've told me about Joan Osborne, and just like there was somebody else you mentioned, who was it recently that you saw?
Well, I saw T bone Burnett recently, I saw otil and friends recently, I saw yonder mountain String Band earlier this year.
Yeah, okay, so this is a variety of stuff. And I think you, I don't know if you realize when you joined the foundation how much you were going to be doing with Smith fine arts, but I know that since they've been in between some leadership and roles there, you've kind of gotten into the helm because you work at the foundation, you've gotten working on the fundraising and getting the series going. That's a lot to take on, but it seems like a really good fit for you,
absolutely. I mean, there's nothing better than than a live show in my mind, right? That's, that's what I really, really enjoy. In fact, I like to tell people sometimes that what a lot of people experience at church is what I experience at a concert. And I think Smith Fine Arts is so great to have something like right here in our backyard, because I'm going to tell you, Sabra, I drive to shows all over the place. I drove to Colorado earlier this year. I'm driving to Montana next week. I drive up into Washington State. I drive to Portland and Eugene all the time. How great is it with Smith fine arts that I don't have to get in my car Sabra, I can walk to campus and catch world class performances from Grammy nominated entertainers that bring the widest array of music and all kinds of technical excellence here. One of the great things about the series too is a lot of the artists take time out of their day to work with our students, to work with local community members in these outreach efforts. So it's not just they're kind of pulling into town playing their Show getting on the bus and getting out. They're here for a full day. They are working with our students. They are excited to share their craft and our and they are providing enriching educational experience for Western students and for community members. Broadly. A lot of these outreach sessions are open to the public, and it's cool Western Oregon students, just to remind you, you can get your tickets at no cost, just for being a student, right student ID, and that's done so just what a bonus for that.
Especially, I mean these having, like you say, having it in your backyard under the city of Monmouth, that's something that we take a lot of pride in, is supporting these efforts, because we know how many artists and incredibly talented people, talented people, not only live in our western community, but our Central High School community, just the community at large, right? We've just got some really art focused folks
Absolutely. And I'll tell you about the quality of performer we bring too. And I want to give a kudos to music in the park here as well. So I was out at a fundraising concert this past weekend at big stock out in hoodoo ski and sisters and bon bon vivant, who has played music in the park, was the opening act. And they hit it out of the park. They were great. Earlier this year, I was at I was up at revolution Hall in Portland, seeing yonder mountain String Band, and never come down, who had played Smith Fine Arts, just the month before, was the opening act. They were out on tour with yonder mountain String Band. And if you're in that kind of jam grass world, there's nothing better than yonder mountain String Band. At the end of the show, they invited never come down to come out with them, and they ended the show with the old faces song and acoustic cover of Ula LA and never come down. Was right out there with yonder mountain String Band, and they went toe to toe with them. They were not getting blown off that stage one bit. They were fantastic. And that's the level of performer that regularly comes through Monmouth and that we're really proud to present at the Smith Fine Arts Series, right? And at Western Oregon.
I mean, okay, so let's back it up a little bit. Smith Fine Arts is really just, not just, but it's typically like a six show concert series from October to June, and concerts, or musical performances, typically ranging from symphonic to vocal to vocal and dance. Am I kind of hitting the notes there
absolutely and I think too, one of the things is sometimes I feel like people feel like, Oh, fine arts. It must be something really stuffy, right? Look, friends, I don't, I don't own a tux. I'm going to be there, okay, I'm probably going to be wearing a ridiculous hat. But I will say that we have such a great lineup of performers coming through. And look, if you've got a tux and an evening gown and you want to put those things on and come down to Rice auditorium Be our guest, we'd love to have you. But I tell you what, if you got a pair of jeans and some flip flops and an old Black Sabbath shirt, that works too.
I always describe Oregon formal as anything goes. Because I've seen that at even at our event, people like, well, what is it like? It's Oregon formal, meaning you wear, you can wear a formal dress, a prom dress, and a suit, a pant suit, you would wear whatever you want in Oregon. I love so much about that
absolutely. And that's really the vibe at the Smith Fine Arts show. Everybody's welcome. We're always excited to have you come as you are. It's a great opportunity for you to see some world class artists. And so in addition to not only Smith Fine Arts, we do have our Western Oregon theater students who will put on performances throughout the year, our music students will put on performances throughout the year.
So we have talent that we bring in, and then the talent that we have on the university. Is that fair to say?
Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And again, with these outreach sessions, our students get the chance to learn from these performers and to be in these collaborative, creative environments. And one of the great things about, I think musical performance especially, is, I think musicians are some of the most generous artists in the world. Sometimes I'm a writer. We're not always the most generous people on earth when it comes to sharing spotlights, when it comes to sharing text, when it comes to Oh, have you thought of, could you try this? We're not always open to that. We try to be, but we're not always great. Musicians love it. They love the idea of collaboration and and so our performers are so generous with their time, with our students. And our students really benefit from that. And we have some amazing music and theater students at Western Oregon University. And tickets for folks we've already mentioned that they are at no cost to students.
What I'm super excited to tell the community is that, you know, we were talking about this earlier, for a season pass for six shows, it's only $150
right now, it's $150 for all six shows. So it's $30 if you just want to go to one show, it's $30 at two. It. So if you did that, if you did that with all six shows, that would be $180 over the course of the year. So if you do the season subscription, you really get one show for free and friends. As somebody who goes to a lot of concerts, I'm here to tell you, $30 for a concert is a deal. Okay?
So that's that's just a good reminder to folks to know that this is a really reasonably priced concert series for the quality that you get. Now, you can buy your tickets like Dave said, single shows, and you can buy them at the box office. If you're a gambler and you want to risk things not selling out. Me, personally, I don't take that risk the minute things go on sale. I'm one of those people that snags tickets. Now, if I want to buy tickets the way that I would do that, and if I want to buy them early online is obviously an option, right? Good. I think it's Smith Fine arts.org
you can do that, or you can go to woo.edu/smith
Okay, that's really easy too. And so just even maybe probably in a Google search looking for that Smith Fine Arts tickets would probably
absolutely you can just, just pull out your phone Google Smith Fine Arts. And this is the great thing about living in the age of phones, right? You can do the whole thing on your phone. So you can, like, pause the podcast right now, pull your phone out, find the Smith Fine Arts Series, buy your tickets.
You can even do seat selection, because I've done seat selection from my phone, absolutely. It's one of those where you get to see the diagram. You don't have to just guess what you know. L3 is you get to actually see where that seat is absolutely yeah, you can see all of that right there. You can pick your seat.
And the other nice thing about doing a season subscription is, if you get that perfect seat and you really like it, we're gonna hold it for you for next year. Yeah? So take a minute while you're listening, stop your walk, pause your treadmill. Okay, all over the car. Yeah, if you're driving, don't, don't pull your phone out right now. Okay, if you're driving, we'll give you a pass. You can wait until you get to your destination, but if you're walking or working out, take a break for a second. Google Smith Fine Art series, find it. Buy your tickets. Buy that season subscription, get that free show. Okay,we'll wait. It's okay, we'll wait.
That is exciting, though. So thank you for talking about that, and we look forward to I mean, the first show that we have coming up for our listeners is october 11, and that's Lucia and Leo. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
I would love to tell you about them. So they are so incredibly talented. Lucia is a brilliant violinist and singer. Leo is is a guitarist. And I want to, I want to read to you, Sabra, some of the people that they have worked with. Okay, just to give you a sense of the caliber of artists that we're bringing right here to Monmouth. So Lucia micarelli has worked with Josh Groban, Barbra Streisand and Jethro Tull. That's pretty good. That's a very diverse group of musicians right there. One, one does wonder how one gets from Barbra Streisand to Jethro Tull. I don't feel like Josh Groban is the step between those two. He's a wonderful artist, but I just don't quite see how you get there. And then, of course, Leo A mueto is a Grammy nominated guitarist, and he has worked with Stevie Wonder, Chris body and the legendary Brazilian singer Ivan lens. So think about the caliber of artists that we're bringing here to Monmouth. We've got a Grammy nominated person who has worked with some amazing artists and then a beautiful and wonderful singer and violinist and actress who's going to come in, and they are going to absolutely enchant audiences. So that's october 11. Tickets are still available. I'm here to tell you, there's some mailings that have gone out. There's some emails that are going out. Things are going kind of quickly, so make sure that you get your tickets.
And
And if by the time you hear this, and they have sold out and you weren't able to get tickets for this particular performance. It looks like the next performance, it's going to be December 7, and that's Grupo Bella. Looks like they are in Mexican folk bands. That sounds like that's going to be pretty fun.
It's going to be amazing. And that's going to be such a fun weekend here in town, the night before, we're going to have the tree lighting on campus. There's the Making spirits bright piece here in Monmouth. So you can really, like, make a whole weekend out of this. So come to the tree lighting. Do Making spirits bright around town? All right, you got a lot going on, and then come to Grupo Bella that night. That sounds amazing. And when we do have fun weekends like that, it's always just because we do live in such a great walkable community, and to get over to independence, you just can get on the trolleys.
So taking advantage of these kind of things that are at no cost to you and your families, or the things that are at a low cost, and I know that sometimes for folks a hindrance to come to campus, from what I hear from a lot of people is that they cannot find parking, or they're concerned about parking. And I do want to say that, you know, after I believe 5pm or 6pm parking zone parking is not much of an issue. You can find parking at Smith Fine Arts, right at the rice auditorium. You can find parking there. There's a ton of street parking. I just want to encourage people to not let that be a hindrance, because there are. There are tons of ways to access if you need to drop somebody off, park the car and come back. There's just plenty of ways to access this. And we want to make sure that everyone knows that there's a way to get there safely and comfortably.
And I'll also say this trolley stop on campus.
There you go. You can always ride the trolley.
All shows are at 7:30pm we try to start pretty close to on time. That's another difference between Smith Fine Arts in the Jam Band World. You know, there's probably a very big difference. Yeah, if you're at a dead show and it says it's going to start at eight, if you see them before nine, you're doing pretty good here at Smith Fine Arts Series. When we say 730 we mean 730
Okay, so that's great information, everybody. And we've got a little bit more to cover with Dave. Are you good to talk about some athletic stuff?
My goodness, I would love to talk about wolves athletics. Let's do it. Let's kind of wrap up because, okay, you have the 25th and 26th is homecoming weekend. We also are going to have the wolves on the green golf tournament. And then there's going to be footballs rolled into this and other fall things happening start at the beginning, my friend, let's talk about Western Oregon University Athletics. First of all, I want to kind of paint a picture, because I'm not sure that everybody is aware that. You know, Western is the only NCAA Division Two teams in Oregon. We have 14 teams between our women men's and women's sports. We have over 440 student athletes, and their average GPA is well north of 3.0 so we graduate athletes at a very high rate at Western we're really excited about that. We're really proud of it right now, getting football is has already kicked off. By the time you all hear this, we will have had our first home game on September 28 so that's really exciting. That's against West Texas A and M. We have four home games this year with wills football. Also getting ready to start is volleyball, and then, of course, later this this term will be men's basketball, women's basketball, and men's and women's soccer ball. Really excited about all of that. So gene act play will be in action very soon. But let's talk about Homecoming. So we are planning the biggest homecoming in Western Oregon University history this year. It absolutely kicks off with wolves on the green on Friday, October 25 that's going to be at illahee Hills Country Club. There are still some foursomes available to play golf. If you'd like to play golf, we'd love to have you now.
Let me say real quick, wolves on the green was traditionally to support the women's athletics programs, but now you all have kind of made it a hybrid, where it's going to support all athletics. Is that true?
Absolutely, it's true. Yeah, that's what we've decided to do. We're really proud to say that our women's sports programs are at a place where we don't necessarily have to have a special event for them because there's so much community support for them. So right now, our women's soccer team, in just the last, oh, I don't know, 10 days or so, has raised practically $10,000 so wolves on the green is going to support all athletics here at Western Oregon University. We're really, really excited about the tournament this year, and that's really just the beginning in terms of Homecoming. So our Director of Alumni Engagement Raeanne, is planning a blowout weekend all over campus, all kinds of affinity groups coming back to campus. We're going to have the Earth Science grads are going to get together, some of the education grads are going to get together. Some of the student veterans are going to get together. Lots of groups coming together. We're also going to have a market on campus that will feature a lot of alumni businesses, and we'd love to have some local businesses involved in that too, just to kind of get a sense of everything that's available that'll be on campus. And of course, we got to have a football game for homecoming, right? So we're going to have also a football reunion at that game. So we're gonna welcome back a lot of former wolves football players as you know, Sabra Wolf's football has produced some amazing players over the years and has had some really strong teams. There are three alumni of Western Oregon University football that have Super Bowl rings on their fingers right now. \
What's cool about our football games is the parking lot opens around 11am and the way that we've always done it is where folks can purchase parking spots ahead of time in the season. Those are their spots to be able to tailgate as of right now. Are there any spots available if people show up for game day to tailgate, or all of those purchased right now, I think by the time this airs, we're hoping that all of them will be purchased.
I think there's about seven left right now that people can park anywhere else around the street and walk into the tailgate area and come enjoy the alumni tent the games and their friends and family can just hang out, right absolutely, and it's a real festive atmosphere. So the parking lot is going to open at 915 this year. Heck yeah. Gates will open at 11. All kickoffs are at 105 and homecoming weekend, we are playing Texas A and M University, Kingsville, so we're really excited about that. Okay? And tickets, I think are they were at 1.5 dollars. I don't remember now what they are for Single game tickets,
regardless, it's a pretty great day at a low cost for the entire. Family, because you can bring your kids. There's plenty to do. People are hanging out in the parking lot. If you're from the area, you're certain to see people that you know, and everybody's super friendly about sharing. Come on over and have a hot dog. Come on over and have a soda. And the alumni 10 is a lot of fun too. There's going to be, I think I saw a cornhole board in the Foundation office earlier. So there is no there's always something to do that day. Don't let it deter you. If you don't already have a prepaid spot, just come down park near the stadium. Walk on up at 11 and enjoy. I know Arena in the past has done the beer tent. Are they doing that again this year?
Absolutely. Our beer garden is going to be sponsored by arenas and rookies, and really excited to have both of them on board. Yeah, that's such a great addition too, because it's a really easy place that's right offside of the one of the end zones, and you can just kind of go over there and hang out for a minute and enjoy a beverage and get some concessions on your way back out if you need something. Absolutely. I can't say too much here. Okay, I do want to mention that if you're in the beer garden on homecoming, you're gonna see something pretty exciting that we're, we're we're brewing up a partnership, and we'll have more to say on that at homecoming weekend, but we're really excited, so come on out and and enjoy a frosty cold beverage.
Saturday. Saturday the 26th October. 26 Okay, so please come on out, folks and enjoy it's one of the benefits of having a university in your backyard is the kind of excitement that a homecoming week brings. It's just something really special about that, and I know that rayanne and the alumni office and everybody on the Foundation team is doing a lot of hard work to bring all sorts of people back to campus who maybe haven't had a touch to say, we really want you guys to come back and be a part of it. Because what I find so special about Western Oregon is is they make everybody who's there feel like their family. So we definitely want to welcome all of our family back that weekend wolves on the green.
If you want to participate in that, you can go to the website at the where would you recommend people go to check out wolves on the green information? So probably the best place to get information about tickets for homecoming, really, for all of this, for wolves in the green as well, is just woo wolves.com W, o, u, wolves.com and you can also follow all of this on social media channels. And I know sometimes it's complicated, because the university will have social media handles, but also your favorite athletic sports probably have them as well. So please check that out. Follow along on the school social media so that you can stay up to date on all these things happening. And if you missed the first game, don't worry, there's a few more home games, and we will make sure there's all sorts of other sports too. He mentioned volleyball and men and women's women's soccer, and then there's also club teams like rugby. I mean, there's a lot going on on campus at all times, so stay tuned to those channels so that you can not miss anything you can like you said, it's very walkable, especially now that we have Monmouth Avenue back open
absolutely and I want to give a shout out to our rugby teams as well our club sport rugby teams, both our men's and women's sevens teams, last Year qualified for the National Championship tournament in Washington, DC. So we have won the award. I'm not sure if one is the right word, but we have. We are the school that has traveled the farthest the last couple of years to be there so and we are on a stage with some of the biggest schools in the country. And here, here we are Western Oregon University competing for national championship.
And I mentioned before about the parking spots, that you have an opportunity to get a lot of time. That's a part of getting connected to the wolves club. And the wolves club, like you know every university has to support their student athletes, is a club that you can join to be able to give back to the athletic community, but also receive benefits, like season tickets at a lower order, free cost the parking spots I mentioned. What are some other things about wolves club that y'all are doing this year that make it a good thing to be a part of?
Dave, I have pretty clever listeners here at Monmouth monthly. You said plenty. I just, I will say that you said enough. Got that guys, so just be sure you're there and the date of that homecoming game is going to be the 26th Correct?
Well, so with wolves, for the first time ever, with the wolves club, all sports pass. We're including football general admission tickets if you want that reserved seat, kind of underneath the overhang. So for the first time ever, though, we are including the football general admission tickets. If you want to get your reserve seats, you still can the wolves Club is a great way to show your support for Western athletics. One of the great things about the wolves club, and we kind of talked about this a little bit with wolves on the green too, Sabra, is like, which programs are you supporting? So generally speaking, wolves club goes into the general athletics fund. But if there's a specific sport that you'd like to support when you join the wolves club, then you have the opportunity to direct those funds to that specific sport. And it doesn't have to be football, it certainly can be. We're grateful for. Any support that you want to offer us. The general athletics fund lets us be a little more flexible and get money where it needs to go. But if you are a die hard wolves women's soccer fan, and I should mention, they just tied the number six team in the country, so we've got a pretty strong squad this year. If you're a die hard women's soccer fan and you want to join the wolves club, you can do that, and when you do that, you can direct your gift to women's soccer or to men's soccer or basketball or football or volleyball, softball, baseball, wherever you choose for it to go. The other thing I'll mention is that part of the wolves club gets you all sports passes. And so in doing those all sports passes, that gets you into every single Western Oregon University Athletics event all year long.
So it's cool that when this airs, it's going to be day two of classes for our students back at Western Oregon. Tell us how you're feeling.
Well, I'd feel a lot better if I had my syllabus ready for the Brit Lit class.
Yeah. Okay, so that's the other thing. You're teaching a class this term as well. You're putting that PhD to work and tell me about what you're teaching, because you've already told me that I'm gonna try not to fall asleep, and you're gonna make it really exciting for the audience.
So I'm teaching a survey of British literature that is basically 1000 the year, 1000 until about five minutes ago. So we're going to try to do that in 11 weeks. We are going to be sprinting, but we're really excited about it. There is so much great British literature. We're just going to sort of hope to kind of skim the surface and then hope that students find their area that they really want to take a deep dive into. And hopefully that's the 18th century, because that's the best century. Everyone knows that.
Well, okay, tell me why everybody knows that. So at a dinner party, I sound smart.
Well, it's because that's what my doctorate is in.
Okay, why did you choose it?
I chose the 18th century because I'm fascinated by the enlightenment. I'm fascinated by the idea that people thought that the world is a knowable place, and that we can make order out of chaos. And some days I feel like the world is a knowable place, and we can make order out of chaos. And other days I say to myself, relax, because nothing's under control. It kind of must offer peace in strange times when you have that outlook that this is just part of the machine, right? This is just the way that it goes. Yeah, I definitely think so. And I think part of it is, I think ultimately, the 18th century and the Enlightenment is an optimistic century. Yeah, it's the idea that we can figure this out, we can sit down together, we can reason with one another, and we can figure this out. And I think that's one of the great things that we do at Western with our students. That's the kind of education we want to instill in people, right? Is the ability to solve problems, and that's what our graduates do, right? Our graduates are teachers, they're firefighters, they're police officers, they're business leaders, they're civic leaders. That's what Western does, right? Western Oregon University graduates bring people together to reason with each other and to figure out how we can live in a community, in a society, together. So what I'll say is, if you're a brand new Western student and you're listening to this, welcome to the family. We're so glad to have you. If you're a returning student, welcome back. We're so glad to have you.
And I'm going to echo some things too, and just kind of go with that. Is that the city of Monmouth is run by so many folks who graduated from Western like he mentioned, it's our chief of police, our lieutenant many of our sergeants, our detectives, our public works director, our city recorder, our city plan. I mean, there city planner. I could go on, because I'm not even scratching the surface of any anybody else that's outside of just kind of the people that I see every day. And so I just, I just think it's so impressive that we want our students to know that if you ever want to connect and get mentorship, I know My door is always open, and the door of many of the folks that I work with. So just make sure you're connecting with your advisor.
Connecting with the folks at the Center for Professional pathways is a great place to do it, but advisors are really important. The other thing I'll say, friends. If you're a student and you're listening to this, and no matter where you go to school, this is true, your professors hold office hours for a reason. We would like to talk to you. You're not bothering us when you come in. In fact, it's quite the opposite. People who this is especially true at Western. Your professors at Western have devoted their lives to teaching. They love it. It is what they do. It is who they are. Go see them. If you need help, raise your hand and ask for help. It's totally fine to do that.
Yeah, that's that's very true, and that was something I learned a little bit too late, and probably could have benefited from the first time around in my Bachelor's program, and not the second time around when I was a lot older and wiser. 18th Century. It's a long span of time, can you I don't want to ask you to pick a favorite, but when I say what's one of your favorites of the 18th century? That you would love to teach, or that you'd love to read, or that means the most to you. What pops in your head, \
I think the most fun to teach. And if you're in lit, 240 we're going to read this. This term is Eliza haywood's phantomina. It's quick. You can find it online. Great thing about 18th century literature. None of it's under copyright, so it's all available. I think my my favorite novel that I really worked with a lot is Anne Radcliffe's the romance of the forest. It's a gothic novel, and it's a lot of fun, but I have to say that the piece of 18th century literature that I come back to the most is Thomas Gray is the bard. It's a beautiful, beautiful poem, and I love it, and it has everything to do with the sublime and the beautiful and the power of language, the power of literature, and what it means to us as a people and a culture. Yeah.
And I think I speak for many folks when I say that there was a lot of things that I didn't understand or wouldn't have read if it weren't for the classes that I took and the teachers who kind of taught me to read what those lines really meant. So here's to professors who do that, because you do change the way that we see the world. If you were not signed up for for Dr David Beasley's course, you should consider, hopefully this will not be the last term that he teaches. I hope this will be just the beginning of your the beginning of your time here at Western Well, I think it's great. It's not the first class I've taught. I can tell you I won't be teaching in the winter, because we're going to be getting ready for giving day, sure. And actually, we're going to have Dave back. I hope nobody, I hope, boo hoo, nobody minds that we're going to have Dave back for our podcast that's going to air probably in in February, to talk about the Giving Day that happens in March. Because I want folks to know about the things that they have planned and the ways that people can connect. Because not just our listening audience here in Monmouth and independence, but our Salem listening audience there's we just have so many graduates of the University and so many people doing great things. Superintend, like you said, superintendents, chief police and folks in the education system are just, man, they're just doing great work. So I want to celebrate that with you, if you will do me the honor
I'd
I'd love I'd love it Sabra. And I'll also extend an invitation to you, which is, you're welcome to come to class any day.
Oh, I would love to audit,
but you got to do the reading.
I will do the reading. I would never come to your class unprepared. That would be so embarrassing. Are you kidding me? I'm going to wrap it up today because, man, that we talked about so many cool things that are happening. So just a reminder that the tickets for these things we try to keep is no cost or low cost for our families. And if you're a student at either Central High School or anywhere in the Central School District, anywhere where you have a student ID, Western Oregon, you can get the student rate on participation at these events, which is absolutely so.
If you're a student at any of the local high schools or at like Chemeketa Community College or Willamette, or any place that's not Western Oregon University, you're welcome to you should just reach out to our office. Or you can email Smith Fine arts@woo.edu and we can help you get hooked up with with a student pass, but please do email from your student email,
yeah, that would help, right, to legitimize the whole procedure. All right, gang, so that this month we've got so much going on for our podcast audience, you will know now that it's history and mystery time, and that is on October 4, which is a Friday that is at 7pm you can start in Main Street Park in Monmouth. Get a map. Go to my marriage guest house and see some extra pictures. Get a booklet, if you would like, just kind of look over the extra stories. We're gonna have storytellers out all that evening, dressed in historic garb, telling stories about the area and some spooky stuff and more. Of course, there's stuff going on on the 31st of October, we're going to be having our my town Halloween celebration. I mean, we're gonna have Wolfie out there the fire trucks from Polk County Fire District One will be be out on the streets, photo booths. The mama Business Association is driving this event. So stay tuned to their social media, because you can hear more about some of the things that are going on. I know they're going to have some pop ups at some of the brick and mortars, and because we know sometimes the weather is tricky, also, there's going to be something at our mama Senior Community Center, they always have a really cool thing set up where our seniors have set up food and treats and art projects for kids. So no matter the weather, all of these events are rain or shine on October 31 and just a reminder, wolves on the green is the 25th that's going to be illahee this year. You may not be able to get it in on that golf tournament. Don't, but don't fret, because it is homecoming weekend and there will be a seat available for you at the football game, you might want to get those tickets in advance by visiting woo wolves.com. october 11 is that first Smith Fine Arts performance. Please try to get your tickets. Season tickets will secure you for all future for performances, but you can. Always get single seat tickets for individual events or gamble and try to get them at the box office. That is not my style. Homecoming weekend is the 25th and 26th a lot of activities. Please stay tuned to not only the website for homecoming, at woo wolves, but go and check out social media. A lot of folks are using either Instagram or Facebook to keep track of the things happening, and I know that. I believe it Western Oregon has a Tiktok presence as well. So stay tuned to those channels. Don't miss out on the things happening. Be a part of the fun happening in and around town this fall. Please stay safe, Monmouth, we are so glad again to have our students back and everybody back in school, we will see you again for our November episode. Thank you for listening. Don't forget to rate review. Subscribe. Tell everybody you've ever met. Bye.
you. Thank you for joining us for Monmouth monthly. My name is Sabra Jewell. Our music is catching up by chill study and we recorded indie comments, which is a co working community in Independence, Oregon. Please find us wherever you find podcasts, rate review, tell the friend, and we will see you next month. You.
