“Black at Stan” is a student-run podcast that began in fall 2017 and was created by Micah Robinson (senior, Sociology) and the Black Student Union (BSU).

“Black at Stan” began when Robinson thought that it would be nice for members of BSU to be able to voice their opinions on topics that matter and have something to add to their resume.

“I created this podcast to try and boost their [BSU members] resume because I know some of them have hopes of making it into the entertainment business like TV hosting, radio hosting. So, I figured this would be a good way to start,” Robinson said.

“Black at Stan” not only covers several issues that happen locally, but also things that happen nationally.

“We basically talk about anything happening in the news. We talk a lot about things that happen on campus that we think may affect the black community on campus. We also conduct interviews,” Robinson explained.

In addition to this, “Black at Stan” covers what happens at the BSU meetings. “Not all the black students on campus can make it to the BSU meetings and this makes the dialogue that happens within the BSU meetings accessible to everyone who cannot make the meetings and it’s accessible to anyone who is simply curious about what we talk about and what events we’re having,” he added.

Maya Coston (freshmen, Computer Science) is also a co-host for “Black at Stan” and in addition to this, is the Marketing Coordinator. Coston deals with making flyers for the show and makes posts on social media to advertise new episodes.

The podcast is important to Coston because “It gives us a platform to voice our opinions on issues going on not only on our campus, but around the world as well,” Coston said.

Ashton Holmes (junior, Art) is another co-host for the show, and also designed the “Black at Stan” logo.

For Holmes, “Black at Stan” is important because “The podcast is a great outlet for us considering the black population is one of the smallest demographics on campus. It’s nice to have our voices be heard concerning issues within and outside of the campus community.”

So far, according to Holmes, “The responses that I’ve gotten have all been positive, which is great. A lot of people seem to enjoy the different personalities and varying opinions that we have on the show.”

In terms of production, “Black at Stan” podcasts episodes are recorded at the KCSS Radio Station.

“We have a sound engineer, his name is Chase, shoutout to Chase, and basically I hit him up whenever we want to record, usually Thursdays at six, and when we record what we do, I send him an email of what I want the description of the episode to be. I’ll send him an mp3 of the theme song that we’re using. It’s a process, definitely a process, and it’s a lot harder than it appears,” Robinson said.
Interview with President Ellen Junn
“Black at Stan” was actually the first organization that was able to interview President Ellen Junn.

One of the topics that were covered was hiring more black faculty. When asked by Holmes if there would be any initiatives to bring more black faculty to Stan State, President Junn said that it is competitive but she is determined to work on hiring more black faculty.

“It’s kind of a double-edged sword because what that means is we need more people to get their doctorates. So part of it is a pipeline issue. Because there aren’t as many African American doctoral candidates that are out there, that when they do go out on the job market, they get snapped up by everybody else, so they might get snapped up by another institution or campus, so we compete with other campuses. So again, that’s something we can absolutely work on.”

President Junn added some solutions, such as putting together “packages that faculty find attractive” to bring in a more diverse faculty.

Holmes followed up by asking if President Junn had “any initiatives to kind of retain them [black faculty] instead of moving to other jobs?”

President Junn said that one of the initiatives that began since she arrived was the Untenured Faculty Organization (UFO), which is geared to new faculty that are not tenured. “It’s a support organization, they have elected positions and they put on many different workshops and seminars on everything on teaching to help how to promote research, all the things you need to demonstrate in order to get tenure,” she added.

When asked how often she attends events held by ethnic groups or organizations here on campus, President Junn said, “Usually the events that students organize, I’m not always invited. So that’s the other thing, we just have to let students know, let me know when you’re having events, if I’m in town and I’m available of course I would love to attend.”

To listen to the full interview, check out the “Black at Stan” Instagram page where they post updates on new episodes, as well as their Twitter.