Chuck: Hello Jerry, it’s nice of you to come out and I appreciate you giving us your time. Can you give us a little background on yourself, what you do, who you are?
Jerry: Sure. I grew up in Reading, PA and went to college in West Virginia. I moved back to work at Kutztown University in 2008. I did live in Reading at first but moved to Kutztown in 2017. My dad and grandmother grew up here, so Kutztown is home to me. I am currently the Senior Associate Dean of Students and Chief Diversity Officer at the university.
Chuck: Diversity. I don’t want to have too much of a sidebar here, but you must be feeling some pressure right now.
Jerry (chuckles): I think we’re lucky that Pennsylvania is a state that so far has a slight majority support as far as legislation goes. A lot of my colleagues in other states are definitely feeling the pressure and are even out of their jobs that are involved with diversity and inclusion. So far in Pennsylvania and Kutztown, we are kind of keeping the course for now.
Chuck: That’s good news. How did you find out about the St. Barnabas Center?
Jerry: Doreen somehow got in contact with me. I knew Doreen a little bit from here (work). She had left Kutztown University just before I got there. I knew of her because she’s a legend. Our paths had crossed once or twice, and I guess at the time they were exploring what to do at St. Barnabas. There was an exploratory committee, and they wanted some representatives from Kutztown University. A colleague and I decided that we would represent KU on this exploratory committee.
Chuck: Now, representing the university, one thing I know for sure because I’ve been trying for years to get students to come to events. Even before when we were a church, before the Center, it’s a difficult undertaking. What do you think we could do to increase our visibility at the college?
Jerry: Well, that goal of getting students to do anything beyond their rooms is a challenge for everyone, whether we’re on campus or in town. I also spent many years involved in Kutztown Community Partnership and was president of KCP for a while and we had the same struggles getting students to come to an event or activities that are away from campus or downtown. There will always be a few who are into community stuff, but for most students, if they have to leave their room or residence hall or the campus, it’s a problem.
Chuck (interjects): Or leave their phone-
Jerry (chuckles): Yeah, leave their phone or their gaming, or whatever they’re doing, because they have endless opportunities for entertainment on their phone or on their TV. So, it is tough to get students to explore. Even on campus events, we’re always looking for new ways to get students to come out to events–which has changed a lot. We used to have events and they would come out because it was the only thing to do. And now it’s a struggle to come out even for comedians or game shows or stuff like that. I don’t think St. Barnabas should feel bad in that. Neither should you, or anybody else. It’s tough even for us on campus. Even though St. Barnabas is walkable, some students don’t like to walk that far, so transportation could be an issue. Word of mouth is always a big help. I think that where we’ve been successful is where we’ve had our interns or students helping with an event and they at least bring their friends down. I don’t think there is a secret silver bullet for getting students here; we just keep trying through word of mouth, getting one or two students to invite their friends down and working together. Anything Leah and I can do to get students here; we’ll do as well.
Chuck: With their lives wrapped around social media, gameplaying or talking online, I’m sure they’re going to become different kinds of adults when they enter the world. I’m wondering, is it going to affect their ability to socialize? It seems like there’s a whole lot less socialization going on. It seems like it starts when they’re really young. When I grew up, there weren’t planned play dates, you didn’t have to have your parents get together with other parents to say “ok, you can play with her on Wednesday at 4:00.”
Jerry: Yeah, we just went outside and played.
Chuck: How will that affect them as individuals and society at large when they get older?
Jerry: I think the pendulum might be swinging the other way. Am I totally worried about that happening, people becoming so isolated? No, I think some students are getting to a parental age and seeing the negative effects of that and are pushing their children to not be that way. I think the pendulum swing will even out, and it will be ok. I heard something on NPR the other day that parents are reinstalling landlines so that their kids–you know their excuse that I won’t be able to talk to my friends and that’s why I need a cell phone. They’re actually going back to landlines, saying, “Here, use this phone to talk to your friends.” That way, they’re not being pressured to get a cell phone, at least too early. I think that’s a way that the pendulum might be swinging back to help with some of that.
Chuck: I used to be a teacher for a few years, and I can’t imagine walking into a class where all the kids had cellphones. I’m wondering, is there going to be a trend where you must keep it off until after school?
Jerry: There are some school districts that are doing that, or they have a safe envelope for each child so when you come into the classroom you put it there. The way that society is, shootings and what not, parents want their students to have access. So, it’s in the classroom if they need it, but it’s not distracting at your desk. I teach at Reading Area Community College, so I see that at least one or two in every class seem to be on their phones the entire class. I’ve learned to better ignore it than I used to. Once in awhile I’ll call someone out, but not everyone. It’s usually one or two people who seem addicted to their phones.
Chuck: I’m very interested in the students. I didn’t know you oversaw diversity there. Can you tell me, what is the general student’s attitude towards diversity? I know you can’t generalize for everybody, but is there a majority that are pro-diversity?
Jerry: I think so. I think the generation that is growing up is almost expecting it now. Of course, it kind of depends on what family they came from and what their school was like growing up. The majority is ok with diversity and inclusion and are actually advocates for their fellow students in that realm. There are some students who maybe do agree with the anti “DIE” stuff that is happening. That’s fine, they’re allowed their opinion. Your question was the majority; I think the majority of students are (in favor of diversity).
Chuck: As far as the St. Barnabas Center goes, you’ve been sitting on the board about two years now.
Jerry: Yeah, a year and a half.
Chuck: And you see our growth has been of a trial-and-error sort. We try things that either work or don’t work. I’m wondering do you have ideas of doing things we are not doing, or conversely do you have ideas of things we should knock off what we are doing?
Jerry (laughs): A lot of it is trial and error, developing something like this in the community. I mean every non-profit is a little bit different. We are a little bit different in that we’re not service oriented like the Lions. We’re not strictly religious like some of the churches. We’re not strictly about large community events. We have our niche being a small venue, but also people can propose things and we’ll try it. I’m thinking that actually gives us an advantage. We’re not sure what our identity totally is yet. We know we’re a venue people can rent, a venue for small events. What are we going to be known for. What do people think about when they think about St. Barnabas. We have some following–like with the senior lunches. We’ve established that. The other stuff we are doing, if people continue to come out for, we should continue to have them. We try something once if it doesn’t work, we adjust, twice and it doesn’t work, we don’t do it anymore. People aren’t quite sure of what we are, so we have to figure out how to get the word out of what we could be. The disadvantage is when we say St. Barnabas Center we have to explain things. The other side is we are wide open to wherever we want to go.
Chuck: We once had a student intern here at a time when I was trying to get a chess club off the ground, because at that time the college didn’t have one and I thought some students should be interested. She tried to help us by putting it in the school newspaper and hanging flyers. I asked her what the problem was and she responded that the students thought it was a thinly veiled trap to try to get them to come to church. A lot of them are not religious people and they don’t want to be. What do you think about that?
Jerry: There are students who might be wary of that. Allies (LGBTQ+ student group) on campus has an annual Lavender Graduation party at the park, but because of bad weather we had to move the event to the Center at the last minute for the past two years. That was a positive, because the students were like “hey, this is a good thing, it’s a church and we’re welcome here.” They saw they were welcome, there was no hesitation, such as “I don’t know if we want you here.”
Chuck: So, you think we should just keep plugging away and the more people get exposed, the more they will know that its not a trap.
Jerry: Right. We don’t (try to trap people). When they left here, they weren’t given a pamphlet or anything other than a newsletter. “If you see anything you’re interested in inside the newsletter, you’re welcome to come back” People are leery of that. Even I, a person of faith is wary of that approach where they say, “Do you believe in God?” I do, but if I keep talking to you, you’re going to trap me into something.
Chuck: Like the foot in the door?
Jerry: Right, right. So that intern had a good insight, I think. Just keep plugging away and try to have more events. I don’t know what the silver bullet is.
Chuck: Put your soothsayer hat on now and tell me what would you like to see five years from now going on in this building?
Jerry: Think of a mall. You have all these little stores, but you usually have 3 or 4 anchor stores. Those things that are going to be there all the time. We need to find our anchor stuff, things that happen and are well received by everyone. We already have some, senior luncheon is one. What else can we make our 3 or 4 anchor things that happen every month? And then be able have flexibility to add or subtract things in between. Part of what I would like to see is finding those other anchors, whatever they may be. Part of that also, I’m on the fund-raising committee. You can have a bunch of small fundraisers, but that’s not what we need. We need to find some fundraisers that are ours and people know what they’re for and they would make a good chunk of money. Two or three big fundraisers a year, not 10 small ones, so that we’re not running ourselves ragged. So, I think we need to find our anchors not only for events, but also for fundraising.
Chuck: I know nothing about marketing, but I have the sense that we’re not doing front line marketing at this point yet. I don’t know what we could do or what we could afford to do, other than get on the calendars and free newspaper listings, pay more attention to the website.
Jerry: On the website, it should be easier to navigate. Things should be up to date. I think also, like student word of mouth, we need community word of mouth. Finding key people at different churches–do they know about St. Barnabas Center so they can help spread the word. “Oh, you’re looking for a place to have an event. Why don’t you try the St. Barnabas Center” The more champions we have out there, the better.
Chuck: Ok, last question. I was talking to Pat the other day and I said, “You know, we’re always looking for volunteers and we get a few. Wouldn’t it be better to ask for specific volunteers for specific jobs? I know I wouldn’t volunteer to rake leaves. I wonder if we could make a list of our needs and say “We need a volunteer for this. We need a volunteer who likes talking to people; we need a volunteer to walk down Main Street and hang flyers in windows”
Jerry: Yeah, that is Non-profit 101. As far as volunteer recruiting is having something specific for folks to do or a list of things. Here’s ten things’ volunteers can do for us. Like someone says, “ I don’t want to do that, but I’ll do this” If there is someone who really enjoys fundraising and that’s what they like to do, lets get them on the fundraising committee. Someone might say “I don’t like committee work, but I’ll work in the yard once a month” You’re exactly on point there, we did the same thing at KCP (Kutztown Community Partnership) when we recruited volunteers. We looked at what we needed. Some people might say “I like the block party or the Dinner on Main” for example. If that’s the only thing they want to do, that’s great.
Chuck: And they all have friends. The more people we can get involved with the better. Well ok, I really appreciate your time, Jerry.