SF Unscripted
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SF Unscripted
SF Unscripted - Laurel Woolsey
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Meet Santa Fe College's Senate President Laurel Woolsey in this episode of SF Unscripted.
Welcome to Santa Fe Unscripted, the podcast that brings you the behind-the-scenes
stories of Santa Fe College.
00:00:11 Mark Barley
I'm your host, Mark Barley.
00:00:13 Mark Barley
Let's dive in.
00:00:15 Mark Barley
All right, please be joined by current Santa Fe College Senate President and current
00:00:22 Mark Barley
English professor, Laura Woolsey.
00:00:25 Mark Barley
Laura, welcome to Santa Fe Unscripted.
00:00:28 Laurel Woolsey
Thank you.
00:00:29 Laurel Woolsey
It's good to be here.
00:00:30 Mark Barley
All right.
00:00:31 Mark Barley
So we'll dive right in.
00:00:32 Mark Barley
Tell us a little bit about yourself, your journey to Santa Fe, how long you've been here, kind
of everything that brought you to where you're at currently.00:00:42 Laurel Woolsey
So I am from Michigan.
00:00:45 Laurel Woolsey
I'm not from Florida originally.
00:00:48 Laurel Woolsey
And when I graduated from high school,
00:00:52 Laurel Woolsey
I was going to be a pastoral counselor.
00:00:55 Laurel Woolsey
And I got a half-ride scholarship to go to Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.
00:01:02 Laurel Woolsey
And my mother got remarried.
00:01:06 Laurel Woolsey
And I didn't qualify for any financial aid, even though parents gave zip.
00:01:13 Laurel Woolsey
Not a paperclip, not a pencil, not a backpack, none of it.
00:01:17 Laurel Woolsey
And back then, if you were on your own income tax form for two consecutive years, and
right, you could qualify as independent.
00:01:26 Laurel Woolsey
And so for two, about 2 1/2 years, I went part-time to a community college in Monroe
County, Michigan, and then in Oakland County, Michigan, and realized that if I was going to
have to take out loans to go to school, which I would,
00:01:47 Laurel Woolsey
I might as well pick wherever I want to go if I'm going to pay on those suckers for the rest of
my life.
00:01:52 Laurel WoolseySo my family is very interesting, and I wanted to go as far away from Michigan as I could
possibly get.
00:02:03 Laurel Woolsey
So I applied to US Virgin Islands, to UC Berkeley, and to UF.
00:02:14 Laurel Woolsey
And
00:02:16 Laurel Woolsey
Virgin Islands, it didn't occur to me that I would have to pay for a plane ticket to get there.
00:02:23 Laurel Woolsey
I didn't have the money to buy a plane ticket.
00:02:25 Laurel Woolsey
So that was off.
00:02:27 Laurel Woolsey
Berkeley said, oh, yeah, right, you want to come here.
00:02:30 Laurel Woolsey
Good luck with that.
00:02:32 Laurel Woolsey
And UF at the time was a party school.
00:02:35 Laurel Woolsey
And they said, come on down.
00:02:38 Laurel Woolsey
And I said, okay, I'm in.
00:02:39 Laurel Woolsey
So I did the rest of my bachelor's degree at UF.
00:02:46 Laurel Woolsey
But I had to choose a major.00:02:50 Laurel Woolsey
Who knows what they want to do at 17, 18, 19?
00:02:53 Laurel Woolsey
I thought it was going to be pastoral counseling.
00:02:55 Laurel Woolsey
Ha, right.
00:02:58 Laurel Woolsey
I can't do anything in math because...
00:03:02 Mark Barley
Math's hard.
00:03:02 Laurel Woolsey
Math, right?
00:03:03 Laurel Woolsey
You have to be a genius.
00:03:06 Laurel Woolsey
That lets out anything where you're going to make money.
00:03:08 Laurel Woolsey
So if you're not good in math, you can't do sciences, you can't do medicine, you can't do...
00:03:14 Laurel Woolsey
I'm too fat to be in politics.
00:03:17 Laurel Woolsey
So there was no way I was going to do anything in that area.
00:03:21 Laurel Woolsey
What's left?
00:03:23 Laurel Woolsey
History.00:03:24 Laurel Woolsey
Boring.
00:03:26 Laurel Woolsey
I understand.
00:03:27 Laurel Woolsey
History teachers like to tell you need to take history classes because we have got to learn
from our mistakes.
00:03:36 Laurel Woolsey
Really?
00:03:37 Laurel Woolsey
How's that working out?
00:03:38 Laurel Woolsey
Apparently not very well because we keep doing the same stuff over and over again.
00:03:42 Laurel Woolsey
So
00:03:44 Laurel Woolsey
I thought, well, I'm going to major in English because I'm really good at reading books.
00:03:51 Mark Barley
I feel like, listen.
00:03:54 Laurel Woolsey
Awesome.
00:03:54 Mark Barley
That's a heck of a reason to dive into something, right?
00:03:58 Laurel Woolsey
Yeah, well, the problem is that as I was walking across the stage to get my diploma, it
occurred to me that I need to get a job.00:04:09 Laurel Woolsey
I'm going to have to go apply for it.
00:04:10 Laurel Woolsey
As I'm walking across the stage,
00:04:14 Laurel Woolsey
Everyone else probably has already found employment.
00:04:17 Laurel Woolsey
Laurel just says, oh, now's the time to look.
00:04:20 Laurel Woolsey
Well, at the time I was working in US financial aid as a student and they had a full-time
position open.
00:04:28 Laurel Woolsey
And I said, absolutely not going to grad school.
00:04:32 Laurel Woolsey
So I'm just going to slide right in here.
00:04:35 Laurel Woolsey
Made $13,000 a year.
00:04:40 Laurel Woolsey
$13,000 a year.
00:04:41 Laurel Woolsey
I couldn't even afford a bicycle.
00:04:43 Laurel Woolsey
to ride to work.
00:04:46 Laurel Woolsey
And I thought something's got to change.
00:04:48 Laurel WoolseySo I went through all of the worst plans that I could possibly have for my future, because
that apparently is where I go for ideas.
00:04:57 Laurel Woolsey
And so I chose the worst option for myself, which was go back to grad school and get a
degree in education.
00:05:08 Laurel Woolsey
Why?
00:05:09 Laurel Woolsey
Because I want to be a teacher?
00:05:11 Laurel Woolsey
No.
00:05:13 Laurel Woolsey
I don't want to be a teacher.
00:05:15 Laurel Woolsey
Why would anyone want to do that?
00:05:17 Laurel Woolsey
But that's what I did.
00:05:18 Laurel Woolsey
I went and got my master's degree in secondary English education.
00:05:21 Laurel Woolsey
Why?
00:05:22 Laurel Woolsey
Because I like to read books.
00:05:24 Laurel Woolsey
So everybody else was on the I'm going to go teach train.
00:05:29 Laurel WoolseyI got an offer to teach English in Japan, but to get the visa, I had to have employment
already and I had to have a sponsor here and I just didn't know how to handle all that stuff.
00:05:44 Laurel Woolsey
So I ended up applying for jobs all over the county or all over the state.
00:05:49 Laurel Woolsey
And again, I'm not from Florida, right?
00:05:53 Laurel Woolsey
So I'm very into multicultural stuff and
00:05:58 Laurel Woolsey
And one of my job interviews was in Dixie County, and they asked me about my philosophy
of teaching, and I'm going on and on and on about multicultural this and multicultural that.
00:06:10 Laurel Woolsey
Didn't get the job?
00:06:11 Mark Barley
For those who don't know, Dixie County, Florida, very rural, very conservative.
00:06:16 Mark Barley
Okay.
00:06:18 Laurel Woolsey
And so I
00:06:20 Laurel Woolsey
got an interview in Marion County, and the high school principal that was interviewing me
fell asleep during my interview.
00:06:28 Laurel Woolsey
He did.
00:06:29 Laurel Woolsey
He was a DJ at night, and I guess he was really tired.
00:06:34 Laurel WoolseyCan we get him on the podcast?
00:06:35 Laurel Woolsey
Because that's amazing.
00:06:37 Laurel Woolsey
I know.
00:06:38 Laurel Woolsey
So ended up getting a job in Winter Haven, Florida.
00:06:42 Laurel Woolsey
Taught 8th grade for two years, and my social life was zip.
00:06:49 Laurel Woolsey
None.
00:06:50 Laurel Woolsey
Because everyone in Winter Haven is either in middle school or they're 187 years old.
00:06:57 Laurel Woolsey
There's no in between.
00:06:58 Laurel Woolsey
So I had no social life.
00:07:00 Laurel Woolsey
I don't have any family in Florida at all.
00:07:03 Laurel Woolsey
So I thought, I got to go back to Alachua County.
00:07:06 Laurel Woolsey
Well, you can't get a job teaching in Alachua County unless you are related to somebody or
you're related to somebody.
00:07:16 Laurel Woolsey
And I didn't have any of that.00:07:18 Laurel Woolsey
So I applied to Marion County again and got a job teaching in Fort McCoy.
00:07:28 Laurel Woolsey
And the people, the students, the facility, amazing, beautiful.
00:07:35 Laurel Woolsey
But the principal, when I was interviewed, gave me the job before the interview.
00:07:43 Laurel Woolsey
And I thought, damn, I'm good.
00:07:47 Laurel Woolsey
I am spectacular.
00:07:50 Mark Barley
Were you the only one that applied?
00:07:51 Laurel Woolsey
No, I don't think, I mean, I don't know, but I just really felt like my reputation preceded me.
00:08:00 Laurel Woolsey
And he must have known through word of mouth how fantastic I am and gave me the job.
00:08:10 Laurel Woolsey
And as he was touring me around, he said, you know,
00:08:16 Laurel Woolsey
one quick question about your approach to work.
00:08:19 Laurel Woolsey
He said, do you work after hours and on the weekends?
00:08:25 Laurel Woolsey
Now, we all know the answer we're supposed to come up with, right?
00:08:28 Laurel Woolsey
I mean, I worked at McDonald's when I was in high school.00:08:32 Laurel Woolsey
If they ask you, why are you leaving your last job?
00:08:35 Laurel Woolsey
You say, because I didn't get enough hours.
00:08:38 Laurel Woolsey
I wanted to work more, right?
00:08:40 Laurel Woolsey
So I told them, oh yeah,
00:08:43 Laurel Woolsey
I stay until it's dark.
00:08:46 Laurel Woolsey
I'm here on the weekends.
00:08:48 Laurel Woolsey
I can't get enough of work, which was kind of true in Winter Haven because I didn't have a
life anyway.
00:08:53 Laurel Woolsey
He said, oh no.
00:08:56 Laurel Woolsey
Well, I'm sorry to tell you, can't do that here.
00:09:00 Laurel Woolsey
I said, excuse me?
00:09:01 Laurel Woolsey
He said, we don't allow that.
00:09:03 Laurel Woolsey
I said, what heavenly information have you just imparted to me?
00:09:08 Laurel WoolseyHe said, you have to leave our campus when we lock the gates at, I think it was like 4
o'clock, and you're not allowed on campus on the weekends.
00:09:19 Laurel Woolsey
And I said, well, I can make that work.
00:09:22 Laurel Woolsey
I'm, you know, I can sacrifice.
00:09:24 Laurel Woolsey
I thought it was because of the Bears.
00:09:27 Laurel Woolsey
because Fort McCoy's in the middle of the Ocala National Forest, right?
00:09:30 Laurel Woolsey
I'm thinking this is prudent.
00:09:32 Laurel Woolsey
They're protecting me, right?
00:09:34 Laurel Woolsey
My body, the bears, the alligators, the wildlife will come and consume me.
00:09:40 Laurel Woolsey
I mean, I'm fat, right?
00:09:43 Laurel Woolsey
The flavor is in the fat.
00:09:44 Laurel Woolsey
And I'm thinking these animals are going to see me licking their lips going, heck yeah.
00:09:49 Laurel Woolsey
So I, this is what I really did believe this.
00:09:54 Laurel Woolsey
So00:09:55 Laurel Woolsey
I go to work the first couple weeks and all of the faculty are saying, hey, Laurel, you ready
for open house?
00:10:04 Laurel Woolsey
Yeah?
00:10:05 Laurel Woolsey
No.
00:10:06 Laurel Woolsey
Are you ready for open house?
00:10:10 Laurel Woolsey
I'm thinking, yeah, I'm ready for, I mean, what does, what's open house?
00:10:14 Laurel Woolsey
No one wants to be there.
00:10:16 Laurel Woolsey
The students don't want to be there.
00:10:17 Laurel Woolsey
The parents don't want to be there.
00:10:19 Laurel Woolsey
The teachers don't want, nobody want, but we all pretend we want to be there because we
have to.
00:10:25 Mark Barley
It is.
00:10:28 Laurel Woolsey
And so I'm thinking, am I supposed to have like a PowerPoint presentation, like handout?
00:10:33 Laurel Woolsey
I was just going to get up there and hand out some candy and say, hey, I'm Laurel, nice to
meet you.00:10:38 Laurel Woolsey
And then let them go.
00:10:40 Laurel Woolsey
And they said, oh, you got to be ready.
00:10:42 Laurel Woolsey
You got to be.
00:10:43 Laurel Woolsey
OK, I'm ready.
00:10:45 Laurel Woolsey
Well, the first parent walked in.
00:10:51 Laurel Woolsey
dressed in her full KKK regalia.
00:10:57 Laurel Woolsey
I was stunned.
00:11:01 Laurel Woolsey
Could not believe it.
00:11:06 Laurel Woolsey
That year, I had a student who brought bullets to a gun.
00:11:10 Laurel Woolsey
His best friend had brought the gun to school.
00:11:12 Laurel Woolsey
I had a student who brought a blackjack to school.
00:11:15 Laurel Woolsey
I caught two students having
00:11:19 Laurel Woolsey
How can we put this nicely?00:11:21 Mark Barley
Relations.
00:11:22 Laurel Woolsey
Relations in my classroom during class was silent reading time.
00:11:29 Laurel Woolsey
They were not reading.
00:11:30 Laurel Woolsey
Silent reading.
00:11:32 Laurel Woolsey
They were not reading.
00:11:34 Laurel Woolsey
I was the ****.
00:11:34 Mark Barley
What a time to do it.
00:11:36 Laurel Woolsey
Apparently that was the choice.
00:11:41 Laurel Woolsey
I was the **** of so many jokes about, oh, hands-on learning, blah, blah, blah.
00:11:47 Laurel Woolsey
And I, that second year there, I quit.
00:11:53 Laurel Woolsey
I had a parent who said that I had labeled her child a murderer because he brought bullets
to a gun and then said that he was going to imitate the Columbine guys.
00:12:02 Laurel Woolsey
Yeah.
00:12:03 Laurel WoolseyAnd I said, I'm done.
00:12:05 Laurel Woolsey
Thanks.
00:12:06 Laurel Woolsey
Thank you.
00:12:07 Laurel Woolsey
I am going to go get married and have a child.
00:12:11 Laurel Woolsey
So I quit teaching forever.
00:12:13 Laurel Woolsey
I was done.
00:12:15 Laurel Woolsey
Got married, had my first child, and whoa.
00:12:23 Laurel Woolsey
I had no idea how hard it is to raise kids.
00:12:30 Laurel Woolsey
She was a very high maintenance child, very smart.
00:12:36 Laurel Woolsey
And
00:12:38 Laurel Woolsey
I was one of those parents who said, you shouldn't put your kid in front of the TV as a
babysitter.
00:12:44 Laurel Woolsey
I quickly changed that philosophy.
00:12:46 Laurel Woolsey
We watched Elmo at 3 o'clock in the morning.00:12:50 Laurel Woolsey
We watched Dora over and over.
00:12:52 Laurel Woolsey
I hate Dora.
00:12:53 Laurel Woolsey
I really, I hate her, backpack, and her stupid monkey.
00:12:58 Laurel Woolsey
Because they're all playing in my head.
00:13:01 Laurel Woolsey
I hear her backpack, backpack.
00:13:05 Laurel Woolsey
And so again, back to the Laurel looks at all the worst plans for her life to decide what she's
going to do next, I said to myself, I will never have another child.
00:13:16 Laurel Woolsey
So I got pregnant with our second child and that child was a male child.
00:13:22 Laurel Woolsey
Apparently, no one bothered to tell me that you should never teach your girl children to
speak and you should never teach your boy children to walk or crawl.
00:13:34 Laurel Woolsey
Those were the fatal flaws in my plans.
00:13:37 Laurel Woolsey
So Emily never stopped talking.
00:13:40 Laurel Woolsey
Sam never stopped climbing.
00:13:42 Laurel Woolsey
He would climb inside two, less than two years old.00:13:45 Laurel Woolsey
He's climbing up in these pantries.
00:13:47 Laurel Woolsey
He's climbing into toilets.
00:13:49 Laurel Woolsey
He flooded our brand new garage twice after we had just purchased it.
00:13:56 Laurel Woolsey
So I said to myself, I probably need to go get a real job.
00:14:00 Laurel Woolsey
I
00:14:01 Laurel Woolsey
I can't do this.
00:14:02 Laurel Woolsey
And I couldn't even speak in complete sentences anymore.
00:14:06 Laurel Woolsey
So I said, I am going to go find a job.
00:14:12 Laurel Woolsey
Probably McDonald's is not the place for me because I'm already too fat.
00:14:15 Laurel Woolsey
And they give you free food on your breaks.
00:14:19 Laurel Woolsey
So enough said.
00:14:22 Laurel Woolsey
So I heard that there was a part-time and adjunct position
00:14:28 Laurel Woolsey
in what used to be academic foundations, teaching dev ed reading.00:14:33 Laurel Woolsey
And I like to read.
00:14:35 Laurel Woolsey
Hello.
00:14:36 Laurel Woolsey
So I said, okay, I'll apply.
00:14:40 Laurel Woolsey
I'll do it.
00:14:40 Laurel Woolsey
It's just a 16-week commitment.
00:14:43 Laurel Woolsey
It was a night class.
00:14:45 Laurel Woolsey
And if I don't like it, I can walk away.
00:14:48 Laurel Woolsey
It's cool.
00:14:50 Laurel Woolsey
I always wanted to be one of those people who knew what I was supposed to do for the rest
of my life.
00:14:58 Laurel Woolsey
you hear these kids are like, I'm going to be a doctor.
00:15:01 Laurel Woolsey
And they're like 3rd grade and they grow up and they're a doctor.
00:15:06 Laurel Woolsey
And this is the fulfillment of their destiny.
00:15:10 Laurel WoolseyI never had a sense of that destiny ever.
00:15:14 Laurel Woolsey
But the night that I went into that class, it was like
00:15:20 Laurel Woolsey
God hit me on the side of the head with a sledgehammer, a heavenly sledgehammer, but a
sledgehammer nonetheless, and said, watch this.
00:15:31 Laurel Woolsey
These students took out their notebooks, bless their hearts, and they wrote things down
that I said.
00:15:38 Laurel Woolsey
I couldn't believe it.
00:15:40 Laurel Woolsey
I said, oh my gosh, what I say matters?
00:15:44 Laurel Woolsey
Oh my gosh, I couldn't believe it.
00:15:47 Laurel Woolsey
And suddenly I had all of these
00:15:49 Laurel Woolsey
things to teach and to say and to explain.
00:15:53 Laurel Woolsey
And I listened to them, and they had all of the same difficulties that I had when I went to
community college, because I had to work three jobs to get through community college.
00:16:04 Laurel Woolsey
And these were the students at night who were working two jobs, who had little kids, right?
00:16:09 Laurel Woolsey
And they understood me, and I understood them.
00:16:13 Laurel WoolseyAnd
00:16:15 Laurel Woolsey
it opened up this side of myself that I didn't even know was there.
00:16:21 Laurel Woolsey
And I was addicted.
00:16:23 Laurel Woolsey
I mean, it was like the crack pipe for me, but it was good and it was healthy and it was
amazing.
00:16:31 Laurel Woolsey
And so that was in 2001, nope, 2002.
00:16:39 Laurel Woolsey
And I went back and I got 18 graduate hours in reading so that I could apply for the full-time
job that I just lucked out that two people were retiring at the time.
00:16:52 Laurel Woolsey
So there was an, I mean, I don't know if you know about applying for faculty positions, but
for some of us,
00:16:58 Laurel Woolsey
you have to wait until someone dies or retires to get a spot.
00:17:04 Laurel Woolsey
And there were two.
00:17:05 Laurel Woolsey
I said, oh my gosh.
00:17:06 Laurel Woolsey
So I took as fast as I could.
00:17:09 Laurel Woolsey
I took those classes, got in there, got the job.
00:17:12 Laurel WoolseyAnd I clearly remember sitting down with Lila and Beverly Polk when they offered the job to
me and I cried.
00:17:21 Laurel Woolsey
And I was so happy.
00:17:25 Laurel Woolsey
I was so
00:17:28 Laurel Woolsey
thrilled, and this is going to sound so cheesy, but honored that you picked me, really, me,
from Michigan?
00:17:40 Laurel Woolsey
This little person who schlepped her way down here, just, you know?
00:17:47 Laurel Woolsey
And so I've been full-time since pregnant with Mia, and that would be 04.
00:17:54 Laurel Woolsey
So I've been here since 04.
00:17:56 Laurel Woolsey
academic foundations with, kind of dissolved.
00:17:59 Laurel Woolsey
I did a lot of work with the state, helped write the PERT, sorry.
00:18:05 Mark Barley
So that's a state test that they.
00:18:08 Laurel Woolsey
That all of the, yeah, incoming students have to.
00:18:13 Laurel Woolsey
But fascinating work with them.
00:18:17 Laurel WoolseyDid a little bit on the teacher certification exam.
00:18:22 Laurel Woolsey
which was really, it's so interesting working with people at the state level.
00:18:28 Laurel Woolsey
Wow, really smart people, so organized.
00:18:34 Laurel Woolsey
I learned a lot from how they think and operate.
00:18:40 Laurel Woolsey
And then sort of fell into Senate.
00:18:43 Laurel Woolsey
And it was simply because we needed a rep in English and nobody else wanted to do it.
00:18:50 Laurel Woolsey
And I thought, why not?
00:18:52 Laurel Woolsey
I can help out.
00:18:53 Laurel Woolsey
So I went in there and I just sat and listened and learned for the first couple years.
00:19:00 Laurel Woolsey
And Kathy Russell came to me one year and said, hey, we need a secretary.
00:19:06 Laurel Woolsey
Will you do it?
00:19:07 Laurel Woolsey
Another, no one else wants to do this, Laurel.
00:19:11 Laurel Woolsey
You're not being honored.
00:19:12 Laurel WoolseyWe just need a warm body.
00:19:14 Laurel Woolsey
So I did it.
00:19:15 Laurel Woolsey
And again, listening and learning
00:19:19 Laurel Woolsey
There's so many people on this campus with such rich backstories and perspectives.
00:19:30 Laurel Woolsey
And every time I talk to somebody, it makes me better at my job, makes me a better
person.
00:19:39 Laurel Woolsey
And I see so many flaws in myself.
00:19:43 Laurel Woolsey
But because I've made these connections, it's almost like they
00:19:48 Laurel Woolsey
they help me fix that flaw.
00:19:51 Laurel Woolsey
I don't know if that makes any sense, but I really love my job.
00:19:59 Mark Barley
So we're gonna, we'll dive into what College Senate is.
00:20:03 Laurel Woolsey
Yes.
00:20:04 Mark Barley
It's because, you know, across the campus, anybody listening to this podcast hears you
say, you know, oh, they needed a secretary.
00:20:11 Laurel WoolseyYeah.
00:20:12 Mark Barley
Well, so kind of explain what College Senate is.
00:20:15 Laurel Woolsey
Okay.
00:20:17 Mark Barley
The body of employees that make up these positions, and then go into kind of explain
shared governance.
00:20:28 Laurel Woolsey
Okay, so let's start with shared governance.
00:20:29 Laurel Woolsey
So, and this is a little bit of a touchy subject, but I'm from Michigan, right?
00:20:39 Mark Barley
That's not the touchy subject, is it?
00:20:41 Laurel Woolsey
It leads into the touchy subject.
00:20:44 Laurel Woolsey
we're Union County up there.
00:20:45 Laurel Woolsey
We have unions.
00:20:47 Laurel Woolsey
We've got the UAW.
00:20:48 Laurel Woolsey
We've got the teachers union is really strong up there.
00:20:53 Laurel Woolsey
And I am from a family who is half UAW and half teachers union.00:21:10 Laurel Woolsey
Rather than unions in Florida at Santa Fe, we have shared governance.
00:21:20 Laurel Woolsey
governance.
00:21:20 Laurel Woolsey
It's not like a union, but some of the functions are similar.
00:21:28 Laurel Woolsey
Part of what a union does is shares in the decision-making that affect the people who work
at the organization, right?
00:21:39 Laurel Woolsey
That's what Senate does.
00:21:41 Laurel Woolsey
We share in the decision-making.
00:21:43 Laurel Woolsey
We don't make the decisions, but we influence the decisions.
00:21:48 Laurel Woolsey
and often we instigate some of the decision-making processes.
00:21:55 Laurel Woolsey
I see Senate as, I don't see it as a go-between.
00:22:00 Laurel Woolsey
It's almost like a place of connection for all of the different areas of the college, whether a
person is a Senate member or not.
00:22:11 Laurel Woolsey
So membership of Senate.
00:22:15 Laurel Woolsey
Shared governance here, we have 3 branches, sort of like our actual government.00:22:21 Laurel Woolsey
We have student government, we have Senate, College Senate, and then we have career
service.
00:22:31 Laurel Woolsey
The people that we represent, Senate represents, these are technical, professional,
executive, managerial, faculty, right?
00:22:42 Laurel Woolsey
But anyone can come to our meetings.
00:22:44 Laurel Woolsey
Anyone can join the conversation.
00:22:47 Laurel Woolsey
You just can't vote.
00:22:51 Laurel Woolsey
But that's, in a nutshell, that's what shared governance is.
00:22:56 Laurel Woolsey
And what is really interesting is part of the reason that unions are successful up north is
that they've got clout.
00:23:06 Laurel Woolsey
If you don't like it, we're not going to do our jobs.
00:23:11 Laurel Woolsey
So you can like it or lump it, but you're going to do what we want, when we want, and how
we want.
00:23:16 Laurel Woolsey
I realize that's a little simplistic.
00:23:19 Laurel Woolsey
What we have here at Santa Fe is different because it is a willing relationship.
00:23:28 Laurel WoolseyIt isn't forced on anyone.
00:23:32 Laurel Woolsey
Dr.
00:23:32 Laurel Woolsey
Brody is not forced to talk to me or anyone else on this college campus, but he does.
00:23:40 Laurel Woolsey
because he and the provost, vice provost, the vice presidents, they all want to do their jobs
to the very best of their abilities.
00:23:51 Laurel Woolsey
And what they understand is they can't do their jobs as well as they might if they don't talk
to the people that they work with.
00:24:01 Laurel Woolsey
Hence Senate, career service, and student government.
00:24:04 Laurel Woolsey
That's how it works.
00:24:07 Mark Barley
Yeah, that's
00:24:09 Mark Barley
You're a good storyteller.
00:24:11 Mark Barley
Well, thank you.
00:24:11 Mark Barley
I don't know if that's good.
00:24:13 Laurel Woolsey
That's for being a professor in English.
00:24:15 Mark BarleyYeah, right.
00:24:15 Mark Barley
I like the books.
00:24:16 Mark Barley
Likes to read.
00:24:18 Mark Barley
So you're newly elected Senate president.
00:24:24 Mark Barley
What made you decide to do that?
00:24:27 Mark Barley
Because that's a big deal.
00:24:28 Mark Barley
Senate, I mean, the election process comes around however often it does, every year.
00:24:38 Mark Barley
but you're the first new Senate president in quite a while.
00:24:43 Mark Barley
So tell us about the process for why you decided to run and kind of what are, where is
Senate at currently as a body of employees, right?
00:24:55 Mark Barley
What are the, what are the goals?
00:24:58 Mark Barley
Like I'm sure you've set some goals for yourself and for where you want Senate to go in this
year, this year that you're gonna hold this position.
00:25:06 Mark Barley
Tell us about that.
00:25:08 Laurel WoolseySo I decided to run for Senate pretty close to the cutoff date to run.
00:25:19 Laurel Woolsey
I'd been thinking about it for a few months.
00:25:22 Laurel Woolsey
And one of the things that I worry about for Santa Fe is that we don't have a clear
succession plan.
00:25:34 Laurel Woolsey
We tend to be a little incestuous.
00:25:37 Laurel Woolsey
We tap the same people for the same committees and the same jobs and the same
everything over.
00:25:46 Laurel Woolsey
And sometimes that's just because somebody, right?
00:25:50 Laurel Woolsey
Or you've worked with them before or which is nice, but the problem is that when that
person leaves, all of that goes away if you don't have someone already, at least one other
person in the wings, right?
00:26:06 Laurel Woolsey
So
00:26:08 Laurel Woolsey
I remember listening to Dave for many years and thinking, this guy knows everything.
00:26:15 Mark Barley
I'm talking about David Price, former.
00:26:18 Laurel Woolsey
Many times former.
00:26:20 Laurel WoolseyAnd he and I don't always see it eye to eye, our personalities are different, but he is a
wealth of information
00:26:32 Laurel Woolsey
historical information.
00:26:34 Laurel Woolsey
He knows people.
00:26:35 Laurel Woolsey
He knows institutions.
00:26:38 Laurel Woolsey
He, as a political science instructor, he's got the whole right.
00:26:43 Laurel Woolsey
So I was worried that if something at any point happened to somebody like Dave, we've got
to have other people ready to take over.
00:26:55 Laurel Woolsey
And I am a lot younger than David.
00:27:00 Laurel Woolsey
I
00:27:02 Laurel Woolsey
am basically an infant compared to David Price.
00:27:06 Mark Barley
David will never listen to this podcast, so we can say whatever we want.
00:27:10 Laurel Woolsey
We really can.
00:27:12 Laurel Woolsey
I blame him for the no hair and makeup budget at Senate.
00:27:17 Laurel WoolseyHe doesn't use hair or makeup.
00:27:20 Laurel Woolsey
And he doesn't use hair.
00:27:22 Laurel Woolsey
He doesn't use hair or makeup.
00:27:25 Laurel Woolsey
Yeah.
00:27:26 Laurel Woolsey
So
00:27:28 Laurel Woolsey
That was one of the reasons I did it.
00:27:31 Laurel Woolsey
Another big reason was that Senate has earned A reputation of being a difficult group of
people to visit.
00:27:47 Laurel Woolsey
And that people were either intimidated to go, felt that
00:27:55 Laurel Woolsey
whatever they said in Senate was going to be twisted or used against them somehow.
00:28:04 Laurel Woolsey
And we had a fairly new president, Dr.
00:28:07 Laurel Woolsey
Brody, fairly new provost, Nate.
00:28:12 Laurel Woolsey
And I thought, we can't let this go on.
00:28:17 Laurel Woolsey
We just can't because we have a good thing.00:28:23 Laurel Woolsey
and we can make it even better if we can just for once stop infighting and attacking each
other and instead look at ourselves as a team.
00:28:38 Laurel Woolsey
We really are a team.
00:28:40 Laurel Woolsey
I know that sounds cheesy, but I can't do my job well if my students don't receive their
financial aid in a timely manner.
00:28:51 Laurel Woolsey
The students can't get their financial aid in a timely manner if financial aid doesn't have all
the regulations and the IT support to put those regulations in place.
00:29:04 Laurel Woolsey
It doesn't even matter getting financial aid if admissions, registrars, and transcripts don't,
right?
00:29:11 Laurel Woolsey
We all are interdependent.
00:29:14 Laurel Woolsey
We're not against each other.
00:29:16 Laurel Woolsey
And
00:29:18 Laurel Woolsey
That is probably the biggest goal that I have.
00:29:22 Laurel Woolsey
And one way that I'm trying to make that happen is by going out and talking to people.
00:29:29 Laurel Woolsey
I'm going to, it doesn't matter if you belong to Senate or your career service or your, it
doesn't make any difference to me.00:29:36 Laurel Woolsey
We are all on the same campus.
00:29:39 Laurel Woolsey
And that includes Watson, Andrews, Perry, all of them.
00:29:43 Laurel Woolsey
I went to Andrews this week.
00:29:47 Laurel Woolsey
and getting perspectives from different people.
00:29:50 Laurel Woolsey
So many people feel isolated at our campuses.
00:29:53 Laurel Woolsey
They feel like it doesn't matter what I do.
00:29:56 Laurel Woolsey
Nobody knows what I do.
00:29:58 Laurel Woolsey
That shouldn't happen.
00:30:00 Laurel Woolsey
That should never be the case.
00:30:03 Laurel Woolsey
I'm grateful for Brittany who comes every night and empties my trash can.
00:30:11 Laurel Woolsey
I, she's fantastic.
00:30:13 Laurel Woolsey
She's got a little boy.
00:30:16 Laurel Woolsey
that has some difficulties, but she smiles and we talk and she makes it through.00:30:24 Laurel Woolsey
And I appreciate that.
00:30:26 Laurel Woolsey
I appreciate, how do I do my job if I have ants crawling all over?
00:30:32 Laurel Woolsey
Dave Price has ants all over his office.
00:30:35 Laurel Woolsey
How's he do his job properly, right?
00:30:39 Laurel Woolsey
Does that mean the person who comes in and sprays from the pest control is any less
important than Dr.
00:30:46 Laurel Woolsey
Brody or me?
00:30:49 Laurel Woolsey
Maybe me.
00:30:50 Laurel Woolsey
But yeah, so that's probably the biggest goal or vision that I have for Senate right now.
00:31:01 Mark Barley
Yeah.
00:31:02 Mark Barley
I mean, it's a great point.
00:31:04 Mark Barley
because part of the decision making to start this podcast was to bridge the information
gap, right?
00:31:12 Mark Barley
Is because I've heard a lot of the same things that you have.00:31:15 Mark Barley
I get around Santa Fe A lot.
00:31:19 Mark Barley
And it's important to really make other people that work for the same goal.
00:31:28 Mark Barley
We all have the same goal.
00:31:29 Mark Barley
We're all here to support the students and their educational endeavors.
00:31:34 Mark Barley
police department, custodial, English department, doesn't matter.
00:31:39 Mark Barley
So why can't we all share in the same collective, right?
00:31:44 Mark Barley
I've heard the same things about College Senate from College Senate members.
00:31:48 Mark Barley
I've heard, I've heard the same things about, you know, and it's not just College Senate.
00:31:53 Mark Barley
Let's, whoever's listening to this podcast, don't get it twisted.
00:31:57 Mark Barley
It's not just College Senate that has issues with sharing of information and all that.
00:32:01 Mark Barley
It's, it is a, it is a,
00:32:05 Mark Barley
a goal of all these bodies of shared governance to work together, right?
00:32:12 Mark Barley
So how does somebody get involved in College Senate?00:32:17 Laurel Woolsey
Anyone can be involved, just to the extent to which our constitution and bylaws allow you
to participate.
00:32:26 Laurel Woolsey
So anyone can come to our meetings.
00:32:29 Laurel Woolsey
They are public, open access,
00:32:32 Laurel Woolsey
We have a Canvas page and a website where people can access our documents, they can
access our minutes, fully open, transparent.
00:32:44 Laurel Woolsey
The people who represent our constituencies have to be non-career service employees.
00:32:53 Laurel Woolsey
So these are the technical professional, faculty, executive managerial.
00:33:00 Laurel Woolsey
And
00:33:01 Laurel Woolsey
Each position reports to a director, chair, vice president, and the constituencies are
organized under those umbrellas.
00:33:13 Laurel Woolsey
And so if you're interested in Senate, you would need to find out what constituency you fall
under.
00:33:22 Laurel Woolsey
And there's a list on our Senate website, but if you
00:33:25 Laurel Woolsey
want to know, you can always contact Diana Matthews, who's our presiding officer.
00:33:30 Laurel WoolseyShe would be the best person to talk to.
00:33:32 Laurel Woolsey
This is sort of one of her jobs, is to watch out for the constituency, the numbers, et cetera.
00:33:40 Laurel Woolsey
And run for the position of rep.
00:33:44 Laurel Woolsey
And I think everyone should at least attend
00:33:50 Laurel Woolsey
a Senate meeting once in their lives while they work here.
00:33:54 Mark Barley
Might be the only one you attend.
00:33:56 Laurel Woolsey
It might be, I hope not.
00:33:59 Laurel Woolsey
But we do them on Zoom, so you can observe, you can be in your pajamas, you can be, you
know, however you want to show up, no one will ever know.
00:34:12 Laurel Woolsey
You don't have to talk.
00:34:15 Laurel Woolsey
But I think to be the best
00:34:18 Laurel Woolsey
employee the best support to our students, the more that you understand about the
campus and the decision-making process, the better, because it cuts down on the
mythology that bogs us down.
00:34:35 Mark Barley
That's an excellent way to put that, the mythology of College Center.
00:34:39 Mark BarleyMan, you must be an English professor.
00:34:45 Mark Barley
I must be.
00:34:45 Mark Barley
So, but somebody that is career service, they could be a friend of College Senate, correct?
00:34:50 Mark Barley
Explain that.
00:34:52 Laurel Woolsey
Yeah.
00:34:52 Laurel Woolsey
So Friends of College Senate actually is a fund that we have to benefit employees in certain
circumstances.
00:35:02 Laurel Woolsey
So we have an occasion where maybe an adjunct is struggling and financially and
00:35:13 Laurel Woolsey
we might use the funds to help that person out.
00:35:17 Laurel Woolsey
But in terms of, if I'm a career service employee, you can come to our meetings.
00:35:24 Laurel Woolsey
I actually have opened up a long-standing invitation, as long as I'm president, to career
service and their president or vice president, whichever is available, will always be invited
to
00:35:40 Laurel Woolsey
inform Senate of what's going on in career service.
00:35:43 Laurel Woolsey
Because there shouldn't be a division.
00:35:45 Laurel WoolseyThere should be shared governance.
00:35:48 Laurel Woolsey
How do you do that if you're not actually sharing?
00:35:51 Laurel Woolsey
Right.
00:35:51 Laurel Woolsey
Yeah.
00:35:52 Mark Barley
Okay.
00:35:54 Mark Barley
So where can people, take that back.
00:36:00 Mark Barley
How often do you meet?
00:36:01 Mark Barley
Where do you meet and the time you can meet?
00:36:04 Laurel Woolsey
So currently we are off until September.
00:36:09 Laurel Woolsey
We meet on Tuesdays, every other Tuesday.
00:36:12 Laurel Woolsey
So on the Tuesday that the Board of Trustees meets, we do not.
00:36:18 Laurel Woolsey
The opposite week, we meet.
00:36:21 Laurel Woolsey
We meet in P140 from 3 to 445 and on Zoom.
00:36:30 Laurel WoolseyI believe the Zoom link is posted on our website.
00:36:35 Laurel Woolsey
If not, I'm sure someone will e-mail me and let me know.
00:36:42 Laurel Woolsey
We meet 12 months of the year, although sometimes our calendar is a little wonky where
December just doesn't really fit very well and we often give ourselves August off, which
we've done this year.
00:36:56 Mark Barley
Okay, so real quick, what's the website?
00:36:59 Mark Barley
What's the website address where people could go find all this information?
00:37:03 Laurel Woolsey
That's a really good question.
00:37:05 Mark Barley
I'm assuming it's like sfcollege.edu/senate.
00:37:09 Laurel Woolsey
Yeah, or you could just go to the Santa Fe homepage and in the little search bar put Senate,
College Senate.
00:37:17 Mark Barley
Okay, so
00:37:20 Mark Barley
We like to end all of our episodes with five quick questions, and Steve is still working on the
game show music as we are talking.
00:37:27 Laurel Woolsey
You know, that's not acceptable that he's still working on that.
00:37:31 Mark Barley
He's hard at work.00:37:32 Mark Barley
He's hard at work.
00:37:35 Mark Barley
So 5 quick questions, and these are questions that have nothing to do with really anything
else.
00:37:42 Mark Barley
Just I want a quick answer.
00:37:44 Mark Barley
I don't want you to think about it too long.
00:37:45 Mark Barley
All right.
00:37:46 Mark Barley
Quick answer.
00:37:46 Mark Barley
Are you ready?
00:37:47 Mark Barley
All right.
00:37:49 Mark Barley
In person or online?
00:37:54 Laurel Woolsey
And I'm not allowed to think about it.
00:37:56 Laurel Woolsey
I'm one of, let me just do a timeout.
00:38:00 Laurel Woolsey
You can't ask a professor a question and expect a professor to come up with a black and
white answer.00:38:07 Laurel Woolsey
Well, what if it's this and what we overanalyze?
00:38:11 Mark Barley
That's true.
00:38:12 Mark Barley
James Albury sat in that chair and I asked him what's his favorite consolation.
00:38:15 Mark Barley
He asked me what season of the year.
00:38:16 Laurel Woolsey
Correct.
00:38:17 Laurel Woolsey
Correct.
00:38:18 Laurel Woolsey
Because see, if you ask me that question, I'm like, well, are you talking about classes and
meetings?
00:38:23 Laurel Woolsey
That would be online so that I can just close my screen, go to the bathroom, and come
back when it's all done.
00:38:31 Mark Barley
Okay.
00:38:32 Mark Barley
All right.
00:38:32 Laurel Woolsey
But people,
00:38:35 Laurel Woolsey
I got to do in person people meetings.00:38:37 Laurel Woolsey
I don't like phones.
00:38:39 Laurel Woolsey
I don't like emails.
00:38:41 Laurel Woolsey
There's so many nuances that get lost.
00:38:43 Laurel Woolsey
So there's my quick answer.
00:38:45 Mark Barley
Okay.
00:38:47 Mark Barley
All right.
00:38:48 Mark Barley
Favorite genre of book?
00:38:49 Laurel Woolsey
Oh my gosh.
00:38:51 Laurel Woolsey
Are you kidding me?
00:38:52 Laurel Woolsey
Oh.
00:38:56 Mark Barley
Now this is a question I didn't have.
00:38:57 Mark Barley
I wrote that down as you said it.
00:38:59 Laurel Woolsey
Did you really?00:39:00 Mark Barley
Because you like to read.
00:39:02 Laurel Woolsey
I do.
00:39:03 Laurel Woolsey
Okay.
00:39:06 Laurel Woolsey
I'm really into the retelling of myths right now.
00:39:10 Laurel Woolsey
So like the retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche is my favorite book.
00:39:16 Laurel Woolsey
It's C.S.
00:39:17 Laurel Woolsey
Lewis and it's called Till We Have Faces.
00:39:21 Mark Barley
Okay.
00:39:21 Laurel Woolsey
Obsessed with it.
00:39:22 Mark Barley
So favorite author would be C.S.
00:39:24 Mark Barley
Lewis.
00:39:24 Laurel Woolsey
No.
00:39:25 Laurel Woolsey
Okay.00:39:26 Laurel Woolsey
Favorite author?
00:39:28 Laurel Woolsey
I don't really have one.
00:39:29 Mark Barley
Okay.
00:39:30 Laurel Woolsey
I really don't.
00:39:30 Mark Barley
That's fine.
00:39:31 Mark Barley
All right.
00:39:32 Mark Barley
Favorite place to go in Gainesville?
00:39:35 Laurel Woolsey
Home.
00:39:36 Laurel Woolsey
No, I don't live in Gainesville.
00:39:38 Laurel Woolsey
So favorite place to go in Gainesville?
00:39:41 Laurel Woolsey
This is going to sound so lame, but it's Santa Fe College.
00:39:46 Laurel Woolsey
I love going to my home.
00:39:47 Laurel Woolsey
We didn't pay her to say this.00:39:48 Laurel Woolsey
No, you really didn't.
00:39:50 Laurel Woolsey
I love coming to work.
00:39:53 Mark Barley
Okay, that's fine.
00:39:54 Mark Barley
All right, what's your favorite movie?
00:39:55 Laurel Woolsey
Oh my gosh, I can't believe this.
00:39:59 Laurel Woolsey
I was thinking about this morning.
00:40:01 Laurel Woolsey
I love old movies.
00:40:03 Laurel Woolsey
So like the thin man or gosh.
00:40:13 Mark Barley
Dial them for murder.
00:40:15 Laurel Woolsey
Hitchcock I'm not crazy about.
00:40:18 Mark Barley
What?
00:40:18 Laurel Woolsey
I really, yeah, no, I, Myrna Lloyd is.
00:40:25 Mark Barley
Is it really?00:40:27 Mark Barley
Yeah.
00:40:27 Mark Barley
It was so far, it was so ahead of its time.
00:40:29 Mark Barley
I mean, it's such a great story.
00:40:30 Mark Barley
You watch it today and it's still one of the best movies you'll ever see.
00:40:33 Laurel Woolsey
You think that, I do?
00:40:35 Mark Barley
100%.
00:40:36 Laurel Woolsey
Wow.
00:40:36 Laurel Woolsey
You know, I hear that a lot.
00:40:37 Laurel Woolsey
Like African Queen.
00:40:38 Laurel Woolsey
Oh, so good.
00:40:40 Laurel Woolsey
Hated it.
00:40:41 Laurel Woolsey
Hated it.
00:40:42 Laurel Woolsey
I didn't like none of the, I love Myrna Loy.00:40:46 Laurel Woolsey
Like you can't, she is just
00:40:49 Laurel Woolsey
Yeah.
00:40:50 Laurel Woolsey
No, probably some of those really old noir.
00:40:55 Laurel Woolsey
Yeah.
00:40:55 Laurel Woolsey
Okay.
00:40:55 Mark Barley
All right.
00:40:56 Mark Barley
That's fine.
00:40:56 Mark Barley
All right.
00:40:57 Mark Barley
Best thing about Santa Fe?
00:41:00 Laurel Woolsey
One, the best thing about Santa Fe is that it exists.
00:41:05 Mark Barley
Okay.
00:41:06 Laurel Woolsey
It is here.
00:41:07 Mark Barley
That's, hey, that's a great answer.00:41:11 Mark Barley
It's because we would not be sitting here if it didn't.
00:41:13 Laurel Woolsey
It's very existential.
00:41:15 Laurel Woolsey
Sorry.
00:41:17 Mark Barley
All right.
00:41:18 Mark Barley
Laurel, thank you so much.
00:41:20 Mark Barley
Is there anything that you want anybody to know about as it pertains to College Senate that
we didn't touch on quickly?
00:41:27 Laurel Woolsey
Quickly, if you have a question, a problem,
00:41:33 Laurel Woolsey
just a thing to talk about, please let me know.
00:41:36 Laurel Woolsey
If you hear a rumor, some confusion, please let me know.
00:41:42 Laurel Woolsey
That's all I need.
00:41:43 Laurel Woolsey
Just some communication.
00:41:44 Laurel Woolsey
Let me dig around and see what I can find out.
00:41:47 Mark BarleyThat's laurel.woolsey at sfcollege.edu.
00:41:52 Mark Barley
Laurel, thank you for taking the time to join us today.
00:41:55 Mark Barley
I wish you many successes as College Center President.
00:41:59 Laurel Woolsey
Thanks, Mark.
00:42:05 Mark Barley
If you found this podcast informative, there's more to discover on our website,
sfcollege.edu.
00:42:11 Mark Barley
You can also follow Santa Fe on all your favorite social media platforms, X, Facebook,
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00:42:17 Mark Barley
We're there at Santa Fe College.
00:42:19 Mark Barley
Give us a like, follow, and a subscribe.
00:42:21 Mark Barley
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00:42:26 Mark Barley
Send us an e-mail at communications at sfcollege.edu.
00:42:30 Mark Barley
Thanks for listening, and Go Saints!