During the Great Depression and World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt held a number of “Fireside Chats.” These were conversations specifically designed to build a connection with the American public, and used to explain complex issues facing the nation. By speaking directly to the people, Roosevelt offered transparency and trust, and his vision for recovery and stability became something the everyday American both understood and could buy into. In a similar spirit, The Point is excited to introduce a new series, “Fireside Chats with President Hodge,” where we’ll talk everything from campus issues, key administrative decisions, and give students a window into Fitchburg State’s future.
From this point beyond all Italicized text will be questions or statements from the interviewer, all no-italicized text will be from Dr.Hodge.
Friday, November 8, 1:30 PM
Charlie
“Alright let’s get started with some hard hitting questions, How are you President Hodge?” ”Well, I am doing pretty well.”
“How is Charlie? How was the trip for him and how has he taken to Massachusetts?”
“Charlie has done remarkably. He’s a rescue dog of indeterminate age and breed and we did one of those DNA tests, as good dog parents sometimes do when they’re not spending money on children, I guess. But Yeah, he’s done really well. When we rescued him he was estimated to be somewhere between five or seven. So that was six years ago this past week. And so I think considering he’s probably 10 or 11 at least he’s done really well. Picking up and moving across the country. He’s got a great kennel that we love and does his walks with Dustin multiple times a day and he seems pretty, pretty content, but thanks for asking.”
Campus Culture
“I’m glad to hear that. I’d like to talk a bit more about campus culture. I want to tell you about a non-traditional student who really stood out to me. This student, over 50 years old, graduated last year and was active in the History Honor Society. Currently working as a genealogist, they’re one of the most hardworking students I’ve ever met. I remember seeing them walk to class from the parking lot in a cast with a broken foot, carrying a huge binder, through a foot of snow. Everything was meticulously organized, and they even set up study groups for the class of ungrateful 19 or 20 year old history students. They showed up every day, deeply invested in their education and grateful for the opportunity to learn. I haven’t met many students, especially non-traditional students, who meet that level of commitment and involvement. Students who are truly involved in every part of campus life, from academics to events like Rock the Block, knowing their classmates by name and embracing all aspects of student life.
My real question is, how can we attract more students like this in general? And once we have students with this level of engagement, how do we ensure they feel valued and connected? How do we make sure they have a true home here at Fitchburg State?
“I Went off to school as a traditional student myself and did three and a half years at school and then dropped out. You know, it’s a whole complicated personal story and losing my dad right after that and I didn’t go back to school for a while. So I went back to school as an adult learner . . . I think I struggled with feeling like the oldest person in the room sometimes, and this is my own personal story, so I’m not putting this on anyone else but I felt ashamed. Because I felt like I should have finished that thing. When I started I was first in my family to go to college. I was not the first in my family to graduate. That’s a big deal. Because I know my experience getting there is what got my brothers there right after, and then I didn’t model the rest of it for them, which is actually finishing. You know, it took me a long time. So I think about that every day. That’s heavy. I I think that campuses like Fitchburg State have always done a great job serving non-traditional students. But adult Learners; that is a rapidly growing demographic. Our students, our citizens over age 50 are rapidly entering the workforce Anew. That is they’re either just now joining the workforce for various reasons or they are completely changing careers, which means that it’s not a shock that they might be thinking about education as part of that, So going to school for the first time or going back to school to finish something, you started happens sometimes when you’re 32 or 56 or 72, right? On campuses like Fitchburg State have to be open to all those students. The problem is that most higher education institutions Regional comprehensives were designed for that traditional, I hate this phrase, but the traditional student that is the 18 year old post high school senior.”
”August to whenever they leave for winter or summer break?”
“Exactly. And students who are looking for their movie moment, you know, what college looks like when you’re 18 and you get to reimagine yourself in college or you get to be the best version of yourself in college, or the things that you didn’t get to do in high school. Now you’re ready for. You’re an adult, you can vote, you know, it’s just a whole different, It’s a whole different world. It’s not as clear when you’re 32 and coming back to school. Space for adult Learners is really important so that happens alot in the classroom. Our faculty and Librarians spend a lot of time thinking about how they deliver academic quality, how they deliver instruction to meet students where they are and still hold such academic rigor. I know they think a lot about the experiences that students, the very diverse experiences that students bring into the classroom. What does that mean for the rest of Campus? Because that’s another place. And so you bring up a good point about this student, right? So they stood out to you because they were actively engaged in places outside of the classroom. So no matter how great a job, our faculty, our Librarians, do to open those spaces to students, who are not the 18-year-old just graduated high school. The rest of campus has to be ready for them too. So how do we make sure they feel welcome being a part of SGA as an example. How do we make sure that we are opening our clubs and organizations to those students? And at the same time, do whatever we need to to preserve the very meaningful, 18 year old experience, where having that opportunity to make friends your own age and to experience things for the first time. There’s something really special about experiencing things for the first time with a group of people who are, you know, coming at the world in a way, similar to yourself, right? So it’s a difficult question. Maybe I want to come or feel like I could come to an art opening or I want to feel like I could come to a karaoke night, but, you know, I’m, I’m worried, maybe there is a little bit of fear of being the the dorky person and I worry about this, you know, like I don’t want to be stuck at the door, I want to go to karaoke night. I don’t want to be the dorky, you know, 50 year old singing karaoke. So how do we make sure that we are creating fun opportunities? But actually asking our students what they want, I think we get good ideas, and I think there’s a lot of opportunity to do that.”
“A lot of the reasons why we’re bringing those students, that 18 year old students, are the specific job training opportunities that we have. So myself included, you know, I wanted to be a teacher, I came to Fitchburg State to get my licensure and my education was going to help me in the field, I want to be a nurse, I’m going to come to Fitchburg State then I’m going to be a nurse and I’m going to work in Leominster Hospital afterwards. I want to be a police officer. I’m going to go to the four plus one program at Fitchburg State. That is a major driver on campus. So how do we continue to evolve those spaces to meet what the community needs and how do we know what the community needs?“
“There are really specific and data-driven ways we can start to ask ourselves. What does the community need? We have Chambers of Commerce for those reasons, we have governmental entities that can tell us some of that, we have downtown management organizations that know some of that. But I think there’s sort of an understanding, a feel that has to go along with this. And for me, it’s been spending a lot of time in the community, it’s getting to know the Mayors. The meeting that I had just before you came in here was actually with an economic development, specialist from Leominster. We were talking about what does it mean to plug into Leominster? What does Leominster need? Well, you know who knows, people who are running economic Development for the city of Leominster, you know, they’re hearing firsthand from business owners, the same is true for Fitchburg. There are people doing that work for Massachusetts and for New England. So making sure that we’re in front of them and hearing first hand so that we get a feel for it. Those are things we’ve always done here and so I think we stay Informed and ready to adapt and change as the needs of our community changes. It’s gotten more complicated in the last few years, because of the pressure to prepare students for work that’s not necessarily the traditional, I go to the police academy and I become a police officer, I go to nursing school, I become a nurse. We’re prepping people today for jobs that you and I can’t even imagine right this minute; half of the jobs that people are working in today did not exist, 10 years ago; 10 years ago, much less, you know, 30 years ago. So, I think it’s getting really creative and having the ability to adapt quickly is really important. I think that’s a wonderful thing about Fitchburg State. We are the right size to move quickly when we see opportunities that we are able to meet. I think that’s very, very special and I think that’s part of the answer to a much more complicated question, for sure.
President’s Pavilion
”you’ve made it a point to be at as many home games as possible. What have you experienced from that? What have you gained from that you might not necessarily thought you would have?”
“So first, I have to say, I had never been to a field hockey game before I moved to Massachusetts. You know, lacrosse is sort of the big thing in Colorado. I just never never been to a field hockey game. And so, I still don’t know the rules. I’m just gonna tell you the whistles blow and I’m very, very confused. I sort of know the red line is the one I should pay attention to for out of bounds. But other than that, I mostly just watch and utter awe and fascination. What these amazing athletes are doing on the field. But they lost last night after fighting really hard and it was such a big deal to get to those semifinals and to face a competitor like Bridgewater state, right? So much bigger than Fitchburg State. I was on the field, and I felt it. Going to walk the field and talk to the girls. After the game was over, it was important to me because I was so so proud and I felt that loss with them, you know, as much as you can as a fan, and so I think understanding a resilience about our students that I didn’t quite know firsthand. I believe it. You know, you can read, you can look at the data and you can see the ways, our students are able to adapt and change majors and the way we retain students, and the way we graduate them and that tells one story. But actually watching students, you know, in this case, literally on a field, fighting, for something is a very different sort of feeling and knowing that these are Stellar students, great Fitchburg State students, who are getting this amazing education but are also throwing their all into a team because it’s really not about the competition. I mean it is right, but there’s so much more to it. It’s the team. One of the young women said, she’s one of our newer players and she’s, you know, distraught and she’s telling her coach and I’m standing there. We’re all telling her you’re young, she’s like, but it’s the seniors. We told her, Well, the seniors are going to come back. They’re going to be alums and they’re going to cheer you on. She said, I don’t want to cheer with them, I want to play with them, you know, because this was her team. And man, that’s special. The friendships and the bonding doesn’t mean everybody always gets along, but it means you’re fighting for the common good. And in my mind, that’s Fitchburg State. It’s not just about field hockey, it’s about this campus. We’re all very, very different. We don’t always agree, but we’re fighting for common good, there’s a sort of an inherent competition to this. That we want to be the best and deliver the best experience for our students, for this community. So how do we do that? And that we all come together to try to figure that out is a big deal. That was a surprise, feeling that.
“I think it’s made a significant difference. I know it means a lot to people to see that the administration, the people that are there, they care and they’re there and they’re they’re watching. That and they’re really feeling those emotions with you, and they’re not here from nine to five and then they’ll see you next Monday kind of people; that they’re human. It humanizes you in a way it humanizes the administration and the University in a way that might not have been the initial intent. To be there to support is felt, but I feel like it has the inadvertent effect of really allowing student-athletes to buy into the university in a way that a lot of them haven’t felt previously if that makes sense. So, you know, it almost feels sometimes like I’m here as a student, and I’m also here as an athlete. Now, I’m here as someone who’s kind of proud to represent my school, in a way that wasn’t happening before. It’s going to happen slowly over time. And it’s a feeling it’s not a data point. it’s something that you feel. It’s an emotion. It’s a passion that comes from within and I mean that’s been cultivated so much more so than I’ve felt in previous years. So that’s a testament to you. That’s a testament to your passion for your care.”
“I appreciate that. You say that, It’s also a testament to my spouse because you know, That’s part of it, that matters to him too to be present and to understand all of Fitchburg. To understand the whole student experience. I think you said it so well that I’m not just a student, I’m not just an athlete, I get to be a student athlete. I get to have this sort of equal footing pride in both these parts of myself. I want you to feel proud of your academic successes. Whatever it is you want to be and I want you to feel pride in that and so if it means I got to show up to those spaces where you get to show off that part of yourself. If you’re an artist or a singer or you just have an affinity group that you’re a part of, it means I gotta show up to those spaces if I really want to know the whole student, right? So, I think that’s pretty neat too but it means you know planning ahead and being at things and it means I’m gonna miss things that I’d love to be at too but you know, in these early days I think it’s a great way to get to know students and to get a feel for campus and if it encourages other people to come and show spirit and support for students, whether it’s an art opening or, you know, our last home, football game tomorrow, I’m there for it.”
Pop-Quiz
“So getting to know students was something that you pointed out. I’m gonna give you a little pop quiz”
”Oh no”
“Is it Holmes dining common or is it Daka?”
“Well, I suppose that depends on who you ask. I believe there is a sign on the building that says Holmes dining common. However, just last night as I greeted a group of students at the field hockey game, I asked them, would you like a snack? Are you hungry? And they said no, I was just at Daka. I think students would tell you it’s called Daka. So I will yield to the people.”
Downtown Fitchburg
”Do you have any updates for the downtown project? I know there’s some construction going on with the roof. I saw some new signage up, which is always exciting. Are there any updates you can give us on that space? To further that I know there’s something going on with renting space to Fitchburg Public Schools for a dollar, Could you just explain that further?”
“Well, Fitchburg State University owns a full city block downtown. So you probably know, and most of your readers will know where the idea lab is. In fact, I’ve had a chance, I’ve met with students in that space, and gotten to see what they’re doing. Some of our gaming students. There’s a whole different fantastic space. It’s amazing. We host some Partners on that site. We’ve got a couple of centers here at the University that actually keeps office space down there. And I think the possibilities in that space if It’s fully renovated and right across from City Hall. It’s wonderful and way predates me. But it’s a great space. I think in our very solidly postcovid world. There are whole new things we can talk about for that space. And this is the long term you’re talking about. Then the rest of that block includes Five retail, small retail storefronts, and just keep in mind, all of these are a little bit connected, that entire block was connected by an opening where you could literally go from one building to the next at one point. So they’re very connected and have been for a long time, but as separate sort of Standalone things, there are five retail shops in that space. So one of those we leased to a group that was called finicky Fork, it was a catering company. They had a desire to open a storefront to actually have a restaurant, a sit down restaurant.
They had been a successful catering business and they wanted to have a permanent home. So we leased that space to them. We were able to help them get it, outfitted in the way that they want it. And that is now Poppers Pantry. It looks great, beautiful inside. We’re very, very proud of that space and not just the space and that we own it. But we’re so proud of the business partner who gets to be in that space and provide a great service that downtown Fitchburg needs. So that’s wonderful.
There is an art gallery in the space, right next to that, you’ll see some upgrades coming to that soon. The faculty have just rotated and put a new exhibit in that space in the heart of downtown. So we’ve done some very little things since I got here. We just attached to the exterior wall a big open sign, so that we could really signal when that Gallery is open and active and ready for business. So that’s great. We want to encourage people to go down there and to know that it’s there. We have added some signage to the top of that entire block because though I can’t tell you everything that’s going to happen with the main building in that block, which is the theater; we are starting a multi-million dollar renovation primarily state funded, and a lot of donor support related to that. That is a roof renovation and an envelope renovation. So it just means it’ll secure the exterior of that space. That’s important because that space has been empty for a long, long time. It was empty way before the University bought it in 2016, but it’s important that we close it up and protect it now because we need to spend some time reimagining what it can be. So the roof and envelope project is starting now. So getting some good signage up to make it very clear, this is the block the university owns and to be able to signal to our community, to our students, to our partners. We own this space because we do, and though we may not know everything that is possible down there. We take responsibility for it and we’re working on it.
There was a former Fidelity Bank building, when Fidelity Bank closed that location and moved to a new location. They gifted our institution with that building, it completed the block for us. So once they did that, we owned the full block, it meant that we had more opportunities for what we could do and what we could decide, And I think over the years, since all of that happened, it’s become clear that we have a lot to work with on that block, we have a lot of work that needs to be done. The renovation just of the roof and the envelope is 10 million dollars. So keep in mind that’s just for the theater, just for that one middle building in that block. When we bought that building it was imagined at $20 million, today, just the roof in the envelope is $10 million. So that’s going to be a heavier lift than we imagined when we first bought it. So while we figure that out because that’s a big conversation and one that I’ll be working on for the next few years, making sure we keep that block as vibrant and active and safe and clean and beautiful as possible is really important.
But the Fidelity Bank building has been down there. We didn’t really know what we were going to do with that space. John Thompson, the superintendent of Fitchburg Public Schools and I had a chance to meet early on, and I think we’re both facing very similar challenges, you know, rapidly changing student demographic, a need to serve A community that’s changing faster than we can, you know, in this moment, keep up with. So, how do we ensure that we’re delivering quality? K-12 education, how do we ensure we’re delivering quality teachers back to that K-12 education? How do we ensure that we are truly student ready at Fitchburg State? So that as John Thompson and his students at Fitchburg Public Schools are graduating, they know they can come to Fitchburg that we are a First Choice for Fitchburg Graduates. He and I talked a lot about how we could plug into our local high school graduates, and at the same time we have this need to serve adult Learners. They want to go think about Fitchburg State too, so that means meeting them where they are. So I had talked to John about what it would take. What if we wanted to have a real physical presence in Fitchburg High School? Because if you ask me, how do I make sure high school students know we’re here? I better go where the high school students are and although I might guess lots of places high school students, could be I know for sure they’re at the high school, right? So, he and I had that conversation. What would it mean if we opened an admissions Center at Fitchburg High School? So we came to that conclusion that well, it would mean, we’d give you some space and you would open up an admission Center at Fitchburg High School. So we came to that decision pretty fast and so that led to bigger conversations, all of this is still the agreement is still, you know, in process right now.
But the next thing we talked about was, what does it mean? What could it mean for him as he’s thinking about Outreach and enrollment for Fitchburg Public Schools Proper? Right now the district has a space on the far end of South Street. It’s not as accessible for their parents for their families and he shared with me, I’m telling him my dream, He’s telling me his and he says, he’d love to be on Main Street and I kind of laughed and I was like, well, I know someone, and I might have some property on on Main Street. And so, we started talking about, What does that really mean? Is it a space and the idea lab? What are his real needs? And, it led to the Fidelity Bank building. It’s a pretty significant space. I think it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 30, 000 square feet or so. And so his thinking was, if we’re going to move the Outreach and enrollment Center, I need a space that’s big enough to not just accommodate what we have now, but to think about how we can grow spend expand, and for me, I’m thinking about, now we have this block, there’s lots of movement that’s going to happen, but I’ve got another empty building, and it is a key space, right across the street from City Hall. So I’m thinking that as the city I’d want to make sure there’s activity there too. It’s Prime real estate. So John and I began a conversation. What if Fitchburg Public Schools move their Outreach Center to the Fidelity Bank building. That was a gift to the university, from a great partner in Fidelity Bank. How do we make sure that we honor the intent of that gift by serving Fitchburg? I can’t think of a better way to do it than offer it to Fitchburg Public Schools for a dollar lease for the next 25 years so that they can open their Outreach Center.
But what we’ve agreed to is it’s going to be co-branded Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg Public Schools, and so as John is working, and his teams are working with families and others on Outreach ways that they can serve their existing student population, but also to enroll future students in Fitchburg Public Schools that those same students are going to see lots of branding and get lots of information about Fitchburg State University from the first moment they stepped foot in Fitchburg to start thinking about becoming a Fitchburg public school student. We think that’s a wonderful partnership and exactly the kind of thing that we need to do. It gets activity in a space, That is a critical one for downtown Fitchburg. And in my mind it’s a wonderful way to use an existing resource to serve the greater good.”
“Yeah. I mean I don’t think I could describe a better opportunity for the both Fitchburg Public Schools and Fitchburg State to just collaborate. So that’s awesome. I’m glad to kind of get a more detailed view of what that will look like. Being conscious of our time. I do have one final question for you. Is there anything you’d like to update the students about in regards to Herlihy hall?”
Herlihy Hall
“When I was hired, one of the things that the board charged me with was looking really closely at housing and thinking about what our housing inventory was, and what a needs assessment would actually tell us what, what did our students really need?
And so, the very first question you asked me about about adult learning and about adult learners, we got to thinking about housing too, right, the state of Massachusetts in general, has a little bit of a housing crunch right now, and their Fitchburg is stepping up in just amazing ways to start to, to find some creative solutions, and I really mean that, creative solutions. So the new housing that’s going in across from Fitchburg Art Museum that’s really designed for artists and creators is the kind of way we’re solving big things for Massachusetts, right here in Fitchburg. We have the same kind of opportunity here. So we have a very traditional mix of housing at Fitchburg State University and a few years ago we made a decision, the previous administration, so I can’t speak to all the reasons behind this, but we made a decision to take what was and had been a very popular residence hall offline. And rather than doing what a lot of schools would have done. What In fact, I can admit, I might have done, had I been here, and that was to to truly mothball it and take it offline. What we did instead was we moved some offices there, so this meant we were still paying full utilities. The lights are on and every sense of the word, And we moved several groups of people, teams, employee groups, service units to that space, and the reality is those are empty rooms and empty beds. So one of the things that I’m exploring actively, right? This minute this is not top secret, what could be done with Herlihy Hall, and what I mean by that is that it has to come back online as some kind of residence hall, what that looks like is still to be determined, but we think that we can make Hurley Hall a premium preferred option for our student population that is rapidly changing. That is students who might expect or want more amenities, more access to things, a more updated space. So what we have begun right now, what is happening as we speak literally and I know because some of the noise outside that wall actually, are some of the folks who are working on this, just trying to bring back online. One Wing, 10 rooms. And to see what it would take to upgrade a laundry space, a common shared space, a living space, a kitchen space, and then those rooms. What could it look like if we all get really creative about what is possible. Would students want to live there again and better yet with students who are choosing to live, other places, would they want to live there again? So that’s where we are right now. It’s just an exploration. But the future of Herlihy is as a residence hall, what exactly that’s going to look like I don’t know yet, but you’ll be the first, it’s exciting, it’s very exciting.”