Hey, hey, hey. This is Lisa A. And you're listening to Who's That Star? On LCC Connect at Lansing Community College. Who's that Star? is a behind the scenes show where I sit down and talk with the employees at the college. This is an inside look at LCC where you have a chance to learn about their passions, projects and what inspires them both in their work and personal lives. I'm your host, Lisa Alexander and I'm so excited to get a chance to talk to all the people who make LCC great. This show is for you to get to know the people that work at Lansa Community College a little bit more and see what makes them tick. Are you ready? Okay. Let's find out Who's That Star. Hey, hey, hey. This is Lisa A. and you're listening to Who's That Star Trustee Edition on LCC Connect Atlanta Community College. Who's at Star Trustee Edition is a special segment where we are showcasing the members of our LCC Board of Trustees. You are getting an inside look where you will learn more about their passions, projects and what inspires them to serve on the board. I'm your host, Lisa Alexander. And on these special editions I will have a special guest host to help us learn more about the board. Are you ready to learn who our special guest co-host is? Drum roll please. My special guest host is Dr. Steve Robinson, president of Lansing Community College. Dr. Robinson, welcome.

Oh, Lisa, thanks for having me back. I'm so glad to be back on your show and I'm really excited about these trustee additions. We're going to have a great conversation today.

I think so too. I'm excited to have you here. So tell everyone who we're talking to today.

Well, Lisa, today our guest is the chair of our board of trust, Ryan Buck. Chair Buck was elected to the board in November of 2016 and since that time he's been an outstanding trustee for our college. He served as vice chair, and he's currently on both our audit committee and the foundation Board of Directors, which means I get to spend a lot of time with Chair Buck. Chair Buck, welcome to Who's That Star Trustee Edition.

Thank you for having me. This is always an epic opportunity to be on campus. So I'm really great to really happy to be here.

Epic opportunity. Do you hear that?

Epic opportunity.

No pressure. I know, right?

Yeah.

Well, this is my first time, I think really getting a chance to talk with you Trustee Buck. So I'm excited about it. I tend to always run away from the trustees normally because I'm Like, I do, because, you know, I'm like, okay, I don't know what to say or whatever, but you guys are friendly and approachable, and so I think this is a good opportunity for us to showcase that.

Trustee Buck, I don't know if you've had a chance to meet Lisa before. She's one of our academic advisors, one of the big rock stars here, helping our students. So we're gonna have a great conversation. It's gonna be a lot of fun.

Awesome. I always love meeting our employees. They make the dream work here at LCC.

Yeah, I have the best job, and I love working with my students. And so this is just icing on top of the cake to get an opportunity to do this. So thank you.

And I wan.

What?

You said something earlier about running away from us. That's on us. That's on the trustees to work on our relationship with our employees from top to bottom. I recognize who I am when I'm on campus, even out in the community and how we interact with our employees. We have to be very careful about what we say, what we do. Cause we don't want to imply this is a directive. And we're your boss's boss's boss's boss, and that's always a trap. But that's something on the trustees that we need to do better about. So you don't want to run away from us?

I don't, no. And I found that I've really had a great conversation with Trustee Vave, and it's just me. I know, Trustee Matthews, but sometimes I'm like, power. I better go.

Well, hopefully that's mostly a joke.

It is.

Well, why don't we get started with the questions? Lisa, you got some great questions, and why don't you start?

So, Chair Buck, tell me a little bit about yourself.

Well, sure. I'm actually a transplant to the Lansing area. Grew up in the up. Born and bred in the up. You can't hear it in my accent anymore, but I had a very thick upper accent when I came down for college. And at this point, I've been down here for, oh, gosh, almost 20 years. And my brother calls me a troll. Now. I think I lost my troll because.

You live below the bridge.

Live below the bridge.

Oh, wow. Okay. I never knew that.

It's both lovingly and maybe not so lovingly said of by youpers of people living below the bridge. We're all trolls.

So where did you go to school?

So I'm a product of the public school system, Ishmael. Public Schools. If you're familiar at all with the UP I would call Ishwaming a suburb of Marquette.

Okay.

Marquette only has about 20,000 people, so that's. I don't know how big of a city that would be comparative, but yep. Born and bred in the U.P. My entire family's still up there. I came down to Lower Michigan to go to college at Central Michigan University.

So you were at CMU and then went to Michigan State University Law School, right?

Yes, I did. Yep. I'm a licensed attorney, and I work for Ingham County Clerk Bar Byram, part of the circuit court system here in Ingham County.

Wow, that's great. Yeah.

You know, one. One piece of upper knowledge that chair Buck imparted to me has to do with the delicacy above the bridge, which. The pasty.

The pasty.

The pasty is an important meat pie that is served up there, but there's a correct way to eat it, and there's a tourist way to eat it. Our listeners might want to hear that.

You know, the more I ask this question of fellow Yoopers, I'm finding that I might not be in the majority. So you have your pasty. It's as Dr. Robinson indicated, it's a meat pie with usually, like, beef. It can be with other meats, carrots or rutabaga potato. And then it's wrapped in this really good flour. It almost looks like a turnip. And in my family and in my school district and in my town, we always ate our pasties with ketchup. It was savory. Meets that, like, acid tang with the ketchup. That's what I thought that was the only way to have it. Moved down to Lower Michigan, living my life, meeting other people. A little bit of culture shock, but started meeting people from the eastern UP and there it's more common to have gravy. Oh, gravy on your pasty. And as expanding my worldview. Oh, what? What? I was so offended at first that they would destroy the deliciousness of a pasty, but.

Yeah, with ketchup.

With ketchup. I always recommend it with ketchup. You can try it with gravy, but I've heard the tourist way is to have it with gravy, but I just. Nope.

Do you have a favorite place?

So I've had so many pasties in my life. Richmond Township Volunteer fire Department, annual pasty fundraiser.

Oh, wow.

With this little scoop, I know little tiny town in the U.P. Which I love. Richmond. Richmond Township. Okay. The town is Palmer. And I just remember Growing up, my mom said, oh, we got some more of the fundraiser pasties. And I was like, yes, we covet them. Yeah. But they freeze well and they unfreeze, and they're just perfect.

So I'm learning so much about the Upper Peninsula. Right?

Yeah.

I never heard a lot of these stories. Never knew of any of these places. So it's great. You're really informing us.

You're welcome.

Well, we didn't know that we were gonna have food travelogue today.

I know.

Trustee Edition.

We're recording this right around lunchtime, too.

I know it's getting to be lunchtime, so. You know, the whole point of this show, Chair Buck, and it is my favorite show, Lisa, is that we get to know people in the LCC orbit. Right. So we have a bunch of questions, and Lisa and I are going to alternate. And so why don't you ask the first question. Question, Lisa, you know, and then we'll get started in our conversation.

Okay. For sure. So, Trustee Buck, what's your favorite part about being a trustee at LCC?

When I joined the board, I tried to think, like, what is my personal mission here? What is something I can do to make the college better? In the first five years, it was listening. It was listening to our students, listening to our employees, listening to our community members. What is best for the college. I might have been elected, and I can vote on the budget. I can direct how the college operated. But I had to learn how the college operated. I'll be completing six years now at the end of this year, and what I've learned is I have to learn more. To your original question, the best part of being a trustee, it is getting to sit on the stage at graduation in May. And it's such a heartwarming, just jubilant time. But what I am always looking for is the students or new graduates looking up into the stands at their family members, their friends, their supporters, and just thinking how. How much it took for them to get there. So I think that's always my first thought. And then I think about the people who might not have that kind of support system, and they might have that support system. Here at LCC, we're building that support system for those people who don't have it maybe elsewhere. And it feels like the middle word of our name, community, all centered down on those graduates. And I always take a moment just to let it. Just let it seep in, just enjoy it, and just know that for these students, they're gonna have a much better life because they started here.

Oh, exactly. For sure.

That's the most rewarding part. I was so sad when we didn't have graduation for a couple years in.

Person at least, and it was nice to have it again. And, Lisa, you do such a great job of great answers and conversations like this, because you should have seen chair buck at commencement. I mean, all of our trustees really enjoy and have a good time. But one of my favorite pictures from this last commencement is there's a student getting recogn, and Ryan has the biggest smile on his face, you know, and they really do celebrate the success. So we have a great time at commencement.

I do, too. I love that part, and I'm glad to see that you do. And you're so. You know, Juvio, you have the great personality, and I think that just. It just makes people feel good. And I think the students, when they get that, it's a good feeling.

I believe if you put positivity out into the world, you'll get it back tenfold. Even if I'm having a bad day, when someone calls me on the phone, either at work or from the college, they'll say, how you doing, Ryan? Oh, I'm living the dream. Looking toward a day of golden opportunity.

That's right.

Just to get a laugh out of them, because they might not be having the best day themselves. And maybe I can leave our interaction with them in a better headspace than when we got together.

For sure.

That's too cool. So I'll ask the next question. Tell us a little bit about your work at LCC. In the intro, I said a little bit about your committee assignments and things that you're doing. But what are your roles here? Maybe a little bit about what it's like to be board chair. You've been board chair for two years?

Yeah. So like I said earlier, my first couple years was listening what is going on at the college to create a framework for positive change. And so for the past two years, I've been serving as the chairperson of the board of trustees. And I don't know if my colleagues would enjoy my commentary on it, but sometimes it's like herding cats. We are all elected at large from a very large district, a very diverse district. And we're a very diverse board, too. And we have a lot of ideas. So it's about coalescing those ideas that align ourselves with the vision that our constituents, our students, our employees, they all have for the college as well. So my first couple years was about listening. Since being vice chair for two years and now completing my Second year as chair. I think my mission now, or my goal is to build authenticity. When I was elected chair, I met with Dr. Robinson for our first one on one. And I said, I want to build a culture of authenticity at the college. We're going to do what we say we do. In 2020, the board approved a resolution to address racial injustice through diversity, equity, inclusion. We could have just stopped there, and a lot of governmental bodies stopped there. A lot of corporations stopped there. We didn't. And through the leadership of Dr. Robinson, Dr. Tanya Bailey, our chief diversity officer, we created an equity action plan to make sure DEI is institutionalized at the college, that we are going to do what we say we did. And the fortunate part of me being the trustee is I get to do the resolution and then just make sure our president follows through and Dr. Robinson has followed through and then some. And this is just one example of building that authenticity, that I'm approachable, I'm responsive, and together we'll find the best solution that moves the college forward into the future.

That's great.

Yeah. And we really appreciate you for that. And in addition, being the chair of the board is extra work. It really is.

It was last night. We had a board meeting last night.

Yeah. Yeah. And it went for a while because we were talking about important stuff, student success data, a lot of the DEI work. But the chair puts in extra work, working with me, setting the agenda, working with our board liaison, Benita Duncan. It's a lot of work. And as we talked about before, Lisa, these are not paid positions.

Right.

These are volunteer positions. And we're really lucky to have chair. Buck's time.

I wanted to ask a follow up because you said when you first came in, you just wanted to listen. When were you provided training on how to be a trustee?

I do have to compliment LCC for our involvement in the association for Community College Trustees. That's the national organization that represents trustees interests nationwide. We also have a state organization, the Michigan mcc, a Michigan Community College Association. Thank you. But as a part of our onboarding process as a trustee, the first conference that we typically go to is a legislative summit in D.C. it's usually in February. Trustees take office in January, so we go to D.C. in February and we take part in an all day training for a new trustee institute.

Okay.

Where we have former board trustees members, former presidents, train us on how to be a trustee. It's not sometimes what we say, it's the refraining from saying anything at all. Because I am very aware that when I walk into a Room. Even though I think I'm just Ryan Buck from Ishbang, Michigan, living in Holt, Michigan. But I know what I say might trigger action at the college that I didn't really intend.

Right. Yeah. Your impact is different than maybe even you perceive it sometimes with just other people. Because you are our board of trustee.

Oh, yeah. And I would say that with our new trustee Institute, we do that, but we also do like a comprehensive onboarding process where the new trustee will meet with the president, his executive leadership team, with the chair. Just so we kind of like set that framework for how we view being a trustee should be carried out, and then we give that trustee six years to help evolve that onboarding. We won't be having a transition in trusteeship with this upcoming election. We'll be a stable board into the next two years. But things always change. We could see.

Yeah, well, thank you for that. I tend to ask questions because I didn't know. And I think it's just good information to know about what your training is.

Absolutely.

Yeah, exactly.

But talking about training, what about your education? What like your bachelor's or do you have a master's? I know you said you are an attorney.

Yep.

So could you talk a little bit about that? Sure.

So I was lucky in having some really great parents who supported me in my higher education journey. They didn't have quite the same support when they were growing up. So my brother and I are first generation college students and I attended Central Michigan University. I was one of two people from a graduating class to go down there. So it was a very different world down there. I realized how small of a bubble I lived in in the up. Fantastic place to grow up. Don't care for the winters. It was a fantastic place to grow up, but I realized that my worldview can expand. When I went to cmu, I spent four years at cmu. I graduated with a bachelor's in science and political science and European studies. And I realized, well, a bunch of things happened at cmu, but I realized I had to chart my path past cmu. So I chose to go to law school. There was one event that happened at CMU that really triggered me down that path. But I was lucky enough to get a scholarship to MSU Law and came down here and bought a house in Lansing and had some friends live with me so I could afford to live down here and pay tuition. Exorbitant tuition. But yeah, three years at MSU Law, graduated with honors, and law school is an experience in learning how to read the law. It's not learning the law. It's how to read the law and understand it.

Wow.

There's a subtle distinction there. Right. And so when you graduate from law school, you take the bar exam. The worst test I've ever taken in my life. Oh, my goodness. The amount of prep work that goes into taking the bar exam is just. And then you have to pass character and fitness, too. If you have questionable issues in your past, you want to be an attorney. We lawyers in Michigan are fortunate that we're self governing our State Bar of Michigan. We are lucky in that regard. So we have to make sure that we're filtering out those who have questionable issues in their past that perhaps would not make for a good attorney to protect the public. Really well.

And you shared with me that one of the reasons you. One of the many reasons you like our commencement, which is at the Breslin center, is it's a happy occasion happening in the room where you took the bar exam.

You know, I forgot about that. I always forget this. But as Dr. Robinson indicated.

Sorry, I brought some trauma. No,.

It's going through my eyes right now. No. Traditionally, the bar exam for Michigan is taken. You take the exam in the. Well, where the court is of the Breslin Center. So my memories of that building are much different than others who have maybe season two to go watch Martin's play. It was just long tables, all these cords. So people are plugged into computer. Their computers are plugged in. It was just an experience.

It sounds like it, but it sounds like you got some good experiences at CMU which led you to MSU and led you here to us.

Yeah. And I would say there's good and bad experiences. I think CMU was a great place to learn because not everything was great. There was some.

That's life lessons.

Life lessons, absolutely.

And that's a great transition to our next question, which is what life lessons have you had to learn the hard way?

Well, since we're kind of on the topic of cmu, the toughest life lesson I ever went through when I attended cmu, it was my coming out. I was allowed to be who I was going to be or to learn who I was going to be. And I got involved in all these different things, especially in our residence halls. And one thing I always wanted to be was a resident assistant, an ra. I would have a floor assigned to me. I would get to work with these students, be like kind of that, for lack of a better phrase, a big brother, and make sure our policies are being followed. Our policies, procedures, and I was like 19 or 20 years old at the time, and I started feeling entitled. I was an RA I was getting free room and board, but I was in one of the older buildings, and I thought, you know, I want to be in a nicer building. I want to be in a nicer building. I want, I need. And so there was this transition of entitlement. And so I was in this mind space, and one day I got called into my supervisor's office and asked me directly, ryan, did you drink alcohol in the dorms over the weekend? And I panicked. How could you know I was underage? Fully acknowledged that. I'm sure I'm one of many who imbibed when they were underage. The irony that that weekend I only had one drink in the dorms with some friends. And I share this because I want to be authentic and transparent. And she asked me to resign. She didn't fire me, but asked me to resign. And I did. And it was a horrible, horrible experience. I had to move out of my dorm, so everyone knew.

Oh, geez.

I had to move into another dorm in the same complex.

Wow.

This wasn't even. The trauma, the stories, the evolution, the proliferation of misinformation about what my transgression was. Just. It just took a life of its own. I was in a building with 2,000.

People, like, so gossip, rumors, gossip, that.

I held a huge party with my residents in my room. Just these really horrible things. And. And I experienced, for the first time in my life, what ostracism. To be ostracized. And that wasn't even the traumatic part. My transgression, I accept that that was the right, correct route to go with my resignation, my forced resignation. But it was watching everyone else do things that were as bad or worse. We talk about creating a culture here at LCC, and the culture at that time, the expectations differed depending on where you worked and who you worked for. But sometimes you had to be made an example of. And I can accept my repercussions. But when you see someone else doing the same thing or worse, it just creates this anger inside me. And it almost felt like an injustice.

Yeah, it's like a dual standard.

A dual standard. And I hope they've addressed that standard now. But it's what made me want to go to law school. I got involved with a pre law fraternity, Phi F A Delta at cmu, Got very involved with it and decided, this is my path. This is what I want to do. I want to fight for justice for others who might not have had the Best experience. And I acknowledge that's a very small experience for me, but that was my experience.

Well, it's an example of taking a personally traumatic experience and turning it into a springboard for something exceedingly positive.

Exactly. I was gonna say, because it could have went the other way. It could have been where you were just so frustrated and you were like, I give up and I'm not gonna. And so that's why I agree with you, Dr. Robinson. That's commendable. Because you took a hardship and saw it in a way that you wanted to help others from that and then help yourself. And look what happened now. You know what I'm saying? So I think that's cool.

Me too.

I think of the story often when I'm working around with students or even the faculty, because in building a culture of authenticity, it is creating equity across our procedures and policies so that if one person performs in a certain path and the person next door performs in the same path, at the end of that path, there's the same result.

Yeah.

And that's what I didn't experience when I was in my formative years.

Right. Well, that's a great story and I'm glad that you took the time to share that. I wanted to ask you another question. What ways do you achieve work life balance?

I love that question because I'm always, at least in the last couple years since the pandemic hit, is trying to find that work life balance. I add work life trustee balance. I think work life balance is one of those buzzwords that you hear when someone's already having a bad experience at work. And for me personally, my work life balance, when I get done at five, I'm a managerial employee, so I will always be on call for my staff, for my supervisor, who I work for. But I will try not to read emails after 5 o' clock unless there's something special happening. When I go on vacation, I will take my emails off my phone. I'll take my LCC emails off my phone so that I can get into a better head space. Because constantly getting those reminders of all those things you need to do or haven't done, even here at LCC, it wears on you. That's one thing that Dr. Robinson and I have talked a lot about with work life Balance. He has encouraged his staff and throughout the college to use your vacation time that you've accrued.

Exactly.

Including him. I encourage him. Get his respite.

It's true.

I believe in that.

Yeah.

Holy.

Well, and if I could just add chair Buck's day job is a very busy job, so he talked about three realms. The work realm, the personal realm. But he's also got what I would call a service realm. He's serving as an LCC trustee, and that takes a ton of time, too. So I'm always appreciative when he's able to talk about an issue quickly during the day because I know he's got a busy day. And that's one of the things we really appreciate, our trustees juggling these three realms because they have to have a personal life, they have a professional life, and then they have this service that they're performing for the whole region. I mean, there are literally thousands and thousands of people who benefit from our trustees volunteering to do this important work. So on the radio, while everybody's listening, Lisa and I, we say thank you to you and all the trustees, for sure. Yeah. And, you know, that's a good way to think about that personal realm chair. Buck, what do you like to do in your personal time? What's an ideal day off for Ryan?

Buck, I am quite the introvert. I did not make up this phrase, but I've heard it said, and I repeat all the time. They'll be like, ryan, do you want to hang out tonight? I'll be like, no, I have to recharge my introvert. That's a good way to put it. Recharge my introvert.

Yeah.

Sometimes when I'm driving home from work, it just. The silence. I won't listen to the radio. I won't listen to the news. And just that silence is beautiful. I don't think in 2022, we enjoy. We appreciate silence the way we do.

You're too connected now.

Yeah.

So it's hard to enjoy that silence. So I do. I like that I'm an only child, and sometimes I have to just time myself out and.

Yep. Yeah, I'm a. I'm a star. I love Star Trek. I'm a Trekkie. I'm a big nerd. Love gaming. Computer games are my favorite. And I have a really good, good core group of friends who we make it our mission that we get together at least once a month, wherever it is. Chicago, Detroit, here. And then at the end of that trip, we always plan our next one.

Oh, good. So you make sure.

Yeah, yeah. Life takes over, and suddenly it's three months later, and we haven't spoken to her.

I was hoping you'd share that, because that is something that's impressed me about you, and you've shared that every Once in a while that you have this friend group that gets together. I think a lot of friend groups have lost track of each other and don't plan events like that. So I think that's a really healthy thing to do to keep that core group together.

I have this. You've seen Golden Girls?

Yeah, sure.

I have this funny notion that someday my core group of eight, plus me, so nine, we all do this Golden Girls experience and we all live together. We have a beautiful home on Lake Michigan in the summers.

This is so fun.

And then in the winters, I mean, with climate change, we'll see where we're at with that. Cause that climate change is real, but somewhere south. Because I love the up they're winters.

Yeah.

You're already calling the up they. You're really a troll now.

I really hope my family isn't listening. Listening to us.

They will. Well, what is some of the best advice that you have learned in your life so far?

The best advice? Listen more than you speak. Live not in the past, but always learn from it.

Okay.

And it takes a lifetime to build a good reputation. It takes one bad moment, whether it's a bad act or bad inact, to ruin that reputation.

Those are some ringers right there.

We got profound.

I know. Right there.

Yeah, right there, Lisa.

Yeah, they are.

And I think, and I would also add, give people the benefit of the doubt. There's so much naysaying over social media, in the news, when I go in to meet a new person, if I can make them laugh once in our first interaction, I know we're like friends for life.

Right.

If I can get there with that person. Oh, I, I'm just, I'm just enamored.

But you like people.

I, you know, I like people. I have my extrovert.

Yeah, you. Yeah.

But that battery goes down and I have to recharge that introvert to get through the day.

Now, I've seen you do that in person. So this notion of giving folks the benefit of the doubt is so important. I have a colleague who's president of another community college in Texas, and he said it this way. He said, I have never regretted assuming the best of intentions in other people.

Absolutely.

I mean, if you learn that they didn't have good intentions later, that's one thing. But if you're going to. If it's up in the air and you're wondering. He says, I've never regretted. Regretted assuming that people had good intentions.

I've heard it as go forward with kindness.

Yeah, exactly.

Live in the dream response to. Instead of saying, yeah, I'm having a good day, that maybe will create a little bit of kindness between you. And that works on your reputation, too.

Yep, I noticed it. I mean, the two phrases. I'm living the dream or I'm living my best life is what you want to say.

Yeah, that's actually when. When we were first doing orientation at CMU, we had some speaker come before us, 1400 students and said, if anyone ever asks you how you're doing, don't say, I'm doing okay, say, I'm living the dream.

I say that, too, though.

Yeah. Sometimes I'm being snarky, but I acknowledge my sarcastic tone. And sometimes if I'm with someone who I'm really vibing with, they'll get it, too. We agree this is. Well, this could be a dream. It also could be a nightmare, but we're doing it together.

Yeah, for sure. I feel like it's a dream. I'm so glad I got an opportunity to meet you today.

I have quite enjoyed our conversation.

Yeah. And I've taken. I'm gonna be more excited to see trustees and gonna talk to them. Cause these last two experiences have been great. And I just really appreciate you coming on, you know.

Thank you. And I'm very proud of the board that we have. Our membership cares, and they dive into the data and they actively participate at our national and state organizations. And every time I travel, we have three conferences we go to every year. Whenever LCC gets brought up, they're like, oh, LCC champions yet again.

Yeah, we are, though.

Everyone knows us. Everyone knows us nationwide and our reputation, which takes a long time to build and a lot of people to build. Our reputation is excellent.

Yes, it is.

Both in D.C. and nationwide.

Wow. That's great.

Absolutely.

Well, thank you, Chair Buck, for joining us. It was great to get a chance to learn more about you and Dr. Robinson. As always, this was fun. Let's do it again.

Oh, we gotta do it again. Lisa, we're a natural team. And I really love that you've opened up this space on your show for us to introduce the trustees. It's the perfect way to do that. And I always have a good time talking with you.

Well, thank you. This has been who's that? Star Trustee Edition with our special guest, LCC Board of Trustee Chair Ryan Buck and my guest host President Steve Robinson. I'm Lisa Alexander. This is LCC Connect. Listen on demand at LCCconnect.org or on the air at 89.7 FM. You've been listening to Who's That Star? I'm Lisa A. And you can listen to this episode of Who's That Star? And other shows from LCC Connect anytime online LCCconnect.org thank you for listening. Catch me next time to find out Who's That Star.