00;00;00;04 - 00;00;22;18
Chris Judge
Hello and welcome to the Providence College podcast. I'm your host, Chris Judge. This week we want to introduce you to a very important initiative coming out of archives and special collections in Phillips Memorial Library. The name of the project is Dear Future Friars, and the goal is to collect stories of alumni through video and oral history interviews to make them available and save them as part of our campus history.

00;00;23;13 - 00;00;41;14
Chris Judge
The pilot round is focused on capturing the experiences of black alumni and other alumni of color. And joining us today to talk about the origins and importance of this project are Joe Small, class of 1974, and Mal Davis, Class of 1981. Joe, why is the dear Future Friars Project important to you?

00;00;41;27 - 00;01;29;11
Joe Small
I guess it was just a little short of a year ago that I found myself in an interesting kind of conversation with college president Father Shanley. Is that correct about the importance of preserving oral histories and the importance of capturing authentic voices? For many members of my class, as we are just shy of our 50th anniversary of Providence College becoming golden friars, and the fact is, is that through attrition, our numbers are dwindling.

00;01;29;11 - 00;01;54;12
Joe Small
And there are some incredible individuals who came through this fine institution who had such an amazing, amazing experiences that only they could tell. And if there was some way that we could record some of that before they passed on, before they transitioned, then all the better. And that was my thinking at the time. How about you now?

00;01;55;02 - 00;02;18;04
Mal Davis
I concur with that. One of the things that I would just add on is that, you know, this is my alma mater. It's where I got my pigskin from. So I don't deal with all the colleges, but I deal with trying to make the Providence College what it is supposed to be is almost the same as this American experience.

00;02;18;04 - 00;02;47;11
Mal Davis
And so in that case, we need to capture for histories that stories need to be told stories good, not so good and frankly, bad. All those stories need to be told. So that you can get a full spectrum of of what's going on. And I don't know, Joe hits it right on the head. We've we've both been at it a lot of home goings over the last few years.

00;02;48;02 - 00;03;15;27
Mal Davis
A number of guys from his era who didn't even make it to age 60. You know, and unfortunately, this is coming along a bit later where we can't capture Dr. Robert Hamlin or Father Robert Morris, or it would even really be because she is diminished a lot to capture Dr. Will as they come ashore. So somewhere we have to have a starting point.

00;03;16;12 - 00;03;39;18
Mal Davis
You know, even Dr. Ken Walker, who didn't pass that long ago, those are rich pieces that we will be able to have with this plate. But if we start now, that we will have something that's very rich because of it, and that the butter that the butter. But Joe's group was quite a group when I look at what they were able to accomplish during that point in time.

00;03;40;10 - 00;03;45;21
Chris Judge
Mel Why is it important for us to focus on the stories of our black alumni with this initial project?

00;03;46;26 - 00;04;20;05
Mal Davis
I don't have a good way of doing it. When one looks at Providence College, one sees the basketball team and you think that the student population reflects the basketball team and it doesn't. When you start looking at numbers, you know, over the years. And so we need. Again, this is this is important that we just need to do this so that the general everyday student.

00;04;21;25 - 00;04;48;28
Mal Davis
Because in my mind that's what this project is really about, is about the general everyday student and they'll find out I believe, through these stories, even though numbers have increased significantly, that some of the same issues that were going on in the seventies and the early eighties, they've not disappeared. So we need. So in having all of this, they will.

00;04;50;16 - 00;05;22;10
Mal Davis
I think I don't have a. I do have a good way of saying that they'll feel some camaraderie. They won't feel like they're out on an island because sometimes you feel like they're out on an island. I don't know if we'll to get to something, but, you know, it was for me, it was just interesting. Just when I moved into Federal Hall was culture shock because I was the only one on the floor that looked like me.

00;05;22;16 - 00;05;55;12
Joe Small
I would add that it was 52 years ago that I, as a entering freshman, or maybe even longer, because obviously I was still in high school. So maybe it was my senior year at getting the tour of Providence College, and I'm going to tour group where I'm the only person of color and I'm walking the grounds and we're, you know, obviously getting the big sales pitch on how fine this institution was.

00;05;55;12 - 00;06;19;15
Joe Small
And I'm looking for anybody that looked like me. And I found one brother coming out of the library as as we were entering in. And I remember, like it was yesterday that I, I hung back to the back of the line so I could get a chance to get a quick one on one with him. Make I contact and then quickly ask, So what's this place like?

00;06;20;25 - 00;06;48;17
Joe Small
And his answer was short, curt, and to the point he looked left, he looked right. And he looked me right in the eye. And he said, Don't come here. And then off he went. And I was startled by his answer. Now, fast forward. I show up a year later and he sees me on campus and he's like, Damn fool, didn't I tell you not to come here?

00;06;49;06 - 00;07;38;16
Joe Small
And of course, we laughed. Our heads off became the best of friends. Now I'm talking about T.J. and her brother, Ted Jones, and my point is this not everyone gets an opportunity to make contact with another student that might look like them, that perhaps may culturally come from a similar background and with the wonders of modern technology like we have today, which were not available to me 50 to 52 years ago, to be able to sit in the comfort and convenience of their home, get on the Internet and look and listen to 2 minutes, 3 minutes of somebody's personal experience.

00;07;38;17 - 00;07;58;27
Joe Small
Good, bad or indifferent, it's invaluable. And that's where I think hopefully we are able to accomplish with this collection of authentic stories going forward. Let the student make their own decision. But at least it's more than one person that says, don't come here.

00;07;59;29 - 00;08;28;27
Mal Davis
Just one thing. I know you got to move on the show. But one of the other reasons why I would do it is, is that and I have said this with different African-American alumni, is that we need to be in all spaces on this campus. So we have those that are represented inside of administration. And what I would I mean is I can't even come up with the right word there in a board of directors or whatever we call it.

00;08;29;20 - 00;09;02;03
Mal Davis
That is never been my charge from 1983 on when I showed back up in the state. I have worked with student populations there. They've always known that, as I always called myself, Big Brother alumni, that I'm in the area and if I'm Intel then I am available for you because I can deal with the administration in a way that you can't as a student, and I've taken advantage of that over the years and different things.

00;09;02;03 - 00;09;16;09
Mal Davis
And so I just find this a a next phase of that and that we can get more voices, you know, that not just mine and not just Jo.

00;09;17;03 - 00;09;22;02
Chris Judge
Joe, what do you think current and future students will get from having access to these stories?

00;09;22;26 - 00;10;11;19
Joe Small
Well, I'd like to add, you talked about current and future. I'm also going to add in their past students, alumni, it's my hope that for some of our alumni members being able to tell their story, perhaps for the first time to really hear their experience in their own words in some cases can be healing cathartic. Very much so, because we've had some members of our of our community of Providence College, friars of color, go through some traumatic experiences and today still carry those scars.

00;10;12;17 - 00;10;27;25
Joe Small
And if they can be persuaded to lend their voices in such a way that they're able to arrive at some resolution, even if it's just, dammit, I finally got my story out, you know, got the story straight, then all the better.

00;10;28;19 - 00;11;03;05
Mal Davis
I support it all the way. I have watched the angst of folk and I've ever said to some of my alumni of color that if I can love my institution, which I do, and go through what I went through, which no one else went through, I can promise you that. What my senior year was pure hell. There's just no other way to describe it.

00;11;03;23 - 00;11;55;28
Mal Davis
And still be committed. And the commitment is because of today's student, especially I. I like what Jill said though, and that that people need healing, you know, from the past because you you can't keep carrying that stuff. I wouldn't trade my Providence degree for anything else. That's one of the reasons why and I'll probably reiterate this too many times and while we're talking is that I've had conversations with the administration and they start telling me about Villanova or Catholic, you or B.C. But I go to school there I was at the corner of River and St, so now one Cunningham Square.

00;11;57;11 - 00;12;16;18
Mal Davis
That's what I want to talk about. I don't want to talk about the other schools that let let their alumni talk about that school. We want to talk about what we're doing, you know, and what I consider this overused phrase of the beloved community, well, how do we put teeth to that and make it real?

00;12;17;26 - 00;12;40;08
Chris Judge
Gentlemen, thank you for joining us and talking about this wonderful project that will be such an asset to our community. If you'd like to get more information on this project, please call 4018652578 or email PC archives at Providence dot edu. We will also post the link in the show notes where you can learn more and even participate in the oral history project if you are so inclined.

00;12;40;24 - 00;12;56;26
Chris Judge
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Providence College podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast in all the usual places, including your smart speaker. Please leave a rating or review an email podcast at Providence Star EDU with suggestions of future guests. Thanks for listening and go friars.