Shelly Vitanza and guests highlight the events, activities, programs, projects and people at Lamar University.

For updates on the latest news and events at Lamar University, visit lamar.edu/news.

Shelly Vitanza and guests discuss research at Lamar University to understand tinnitus. https://www.lamar.edu/blogs/lamar-university/2020/03/lu-moment-tackling-tinnitus.html (Full transcript)

For updates on the latest news and events at Lamar University, visit lamar.edu/news.

Henry Venta and Ginger Gummelt discuss details of LU's first Resiliency and Recovery Research Summit, which will focus on lessons learned from Hurricane Harvey and other catastrophic events.

For updates on the latest news and events at Lamar University, visit lamar.edu/news.

Full Transcript:Shelly Vitanza: Welcome to the LU moment. Thanks for listening. I'm Shelly Vitanza, the Director of Public Affairs at Lamar University. Each week we showcase the great events, activities, programs, projects, and people at Lamar University. Every couple of years, Lamar University hosts the Judge Joe J. Fisher Distinguished Lecture Series. And this year on Monday, March 9th 7:30 PM we are welcoming reporter correspondent and news anchor John Dickerson as the 13th speaker in this series.Shelly Vitanza: Currently a correspondent for 60 minutes, Dickerson joined CBS news in April 2009 as an analyst and contributor. His previous positions include cohost of CBS This Morning, Chief Washington Correspondent, and anchor of Face the Nation and moderator of the two CBS News Presidential Debates during the 2016 presidential campaign. He's also a New York times bestselling author and his latest book, The Hardest Job, is due out June 9th, 2020 by Random House.The Dickersonian WayShelly Vitanza:Mr. Dickerson is joining us by phone. Welcome sir.John Dickerson: Well thank you so much for having me.Shelly Vitanza: Hey, have you ever been to Southeast Texas?John Dickerson: I have. I covered the Nick Lampson race in 1996, which I believe is in that district.Shelly Vitanza: Absolutely.John Dickerson: Yeah, so yeah, so I think that was the Congressman Brooks was retiring and that was the first race to fill his seat if I'm not mistaken.Shelly Vitanza: That's exactly right. Yeah. Two legacies here in Southeast Texas. So you're familiar. Well, we're glad to have you back and I'm excited to welcome you for the day. Reading about you, you're famous for your Dickersonian style, basically embarrassing or catching politicians flat-footed. And so the industry has called it the Dickersonian style. But you've also said that you try to be restrained and mindful of every person's humanity and of the overwhelming challenge of pride. So there are times, I guess that you step back and you don't push hard. Can you give us some examples of that and talk about that?John Dickerson: Well in politics, particularly today, where there is so much questioning of other people's motives, where partisanship and which team a person's person happens to be on in terms of their political party affiliation tends to stop us from listening to what they have to say. And that's really the way a lot of political conversations take place and it's ruining our public discourse. And so nobody has ever had a conversation really that's been of much profit where they prejudged what somebody had to say. And so I try to give people as much of a chance as possible to explain what they have to say and make their case for what they believe. Because my job is to try to put information out there for people. And the best way to do that is to give people a chance to talk.John Dickerson: And now it also means though that you have a responsibility to frame and ask questions in a way that elicits some information. And then the responsibility is on the lawmaker or the person you're interviewing to participate in good faith as well, which is to give you an answer and not just a response to a question they've been asked. And hopefully if we do that, we might stumble on a better sense of what's happening in our world.Shelly Vitanza: And not shut down and really listen to them. And you seem to be able to anticipate the line of talk that it's just interesting to me and watching some of your interviews that you always are kind of ready for the next line of questioning. I don't know how much time you put into preparing, but it just must be an inordinate amount of time.John Dickerson: It does. Yes. There's a lot of time and a lot of effort that goes into thinking through what somebody is likely to say. Thinking through how to ask a question in a way that illuminates what they're going to say. Sometimes, even

For updates on the latest news and events at Lamar University, visit lamar.edu/news.

Lamar University's marching band, the Showcase of Southeast Texas, will be marching in a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade this weekend.

For updates on the latest news and events at Lamar University, visit lamar.edu/news.

Jeff Forret, Lamar University history professor and Distinguished Faculty Research Fellow, will introduce his new book, “Williams’ Gang: A Notorious Slave Trader and His Cargo of Black Convicts” at a lecture and book signing Tues., Feb. 18, 5-7 p.m. in the Event Center of the Wayne A. Reaud Building on the Lamar University campus.

For updates on the latest news and events at Lamar University, visit lamar.edu/news.

IntroductionShelly Vitanza: Welcome to the LU Moment, thanks for listening. I'm Shelly Vitanza, the Director of Public Affairs at Lamar University. Each week we showcase the great events, activities, programs, projects, and people at Lamar University. February is Black History Month and this Friday we'll have a big celebration on campus honoring all African-American students who have had a 3.5 GPA for the last couple of semesters, which continues a long history of success for African-American students at Lamar University. In fact, well before the Civil Rights Bill, LU admitted African-American students. In 1956, 23 students entered LU. They were the first African-Americans. Six of them graduated two years later. Of course, it was Lamar Tech back then. Shelly Vitanza: The list of successful African-American alumni is very lengthy. I requested the list and it's pages and pages long. But let me highlight one today. One that jumped off the page I thought was so great: Levy Dumas. He was the first African-American to graduate from Lamar University, which was Lamar Tech at the time, in 1966 with a Civil Engineering Degree. And in his lifetime, he just turned 80 last year in 2019, Mr. Dumas helped invent the HOV lane in California and the rail system in Atlanta, Georgia. Wow, that's pretty exciting. Had to highlight him. We'll highlight an African-American every show through February.President of SGA on the impact of student government (1:32)Shelly Vitanza: Let's follow that thread of successful students and talk with three I've got in studio today. I have with me Edward Doan, he's a Senior Chemical Engineering major and President of the Student Government Association. Welcome Edward.Edward Doan: Thank you for having me.Shelly Vitanza: I've got Katey McCall, she's a Senior Poli-Sci, Political Science major. Pretty exciting time to be a political science major, I can only imagine. Welcome Katey. Tyler Martin, Junior Mechanical Engineering major. He is a Junior and Class Senator for the Student Government. You guys, I brought you all in because you are making a big difference on the LU campus. Edward, I guess well, any of you can jump in at any time, but Edward, let's start with you.Edward Doan: Go ahead.Shelly Vitanza: You've got a big job as the President of the Student Government Association. What's going on with student government right now, and really what kind of power does the Student Government Association have at Lamar University? Can you really do something Edward?Edward Doan: Yes ma'am. The only way to sum it up in one sentence is to say that SGA, Student Government Association, works with students, try to figure out student problems, student issues, student concerns, and work with administration to draft different policies, action plans, programs to address those concerns. That sounds rather vague, but that's really the only way to say it succinctly.Shelly Vitanza: Do students bring those issues to you, to student government, to you personally? I mean, how does that work?Edward Doan: Any Avenue. Sometimes a student will just see as I'm walking to class, and they'll-Shelly Vitanza: Hey Edward!Edward Doan: Let me know something that's going on. Sometimes it's [crosstalk 00:03:15]Shelly Vitanza: I'm sure you love that. Yeah.Edward Doan: Yeah, it's great. Any way possible. As long as we hear it somehow through email, through our suggestion box, we'll take it to the next meeting and try to draft a plan around that.Shelly Vitanza: Great. What have you been working on? Have you accomplished some things? Have you got some things in the works? What's happening?Edward Doan: Yeah, so there's several types of projects. There's very short term projects and longterm projects. An example of a short term project would be short term, as in, we did what we could.Shelly Vitanza: Right.Edward Doan: For our safety...

For updates on the latest news and events at Lamar University, visit lamar.edu/news.

Shelly Vitanza and guests highlight the events, activities, programs, projects and people at Lamar University.

For updates on the latest news and events at Lamar University, visit lamar.edu/news.

Shelly Vitanza and guests highlight the events, activities, programs, projects and people at Lamar University.

For updates on the latest news and events at Lamar University, visit lamar.edu/news.

Shelly Vitanza and guests highlight the events, activities, programs, projects and people at Lamar University.

For updates on the latest news and events at Lamar University, visit lamar.edu/news.