Interview with Ryan Liam

Interview with Ryan Liam

04/17/21

Kehau Gilliland and Anisia Khammala

Creative Commons Attribution—NonCommercial

Zoom

English

2017-2021

Kehau Gilliland and Anisia Khammala

Ryan Liam

Zoom

00:54:02

00:01:45 Start
00:01:47 Introduction
00:02:26 About Ryan Liam (graduation year, current residence, occupation)
00:03:33 How Ryan got involved with creation of CRES
00:04:00 The Walk-Out Sparked an uproar for student activism
00:04:17 3 Steps to institute CRES at Gonzaga
00:05:21 Videotaped during the walk-out to spread the word
00:06:03 Demands of the walkout
00:06:12 Transparency: Faculty/Staff lefts the University
00:06:31 Cutting programs off for budget reasons
00:07:22 Amyrani Chavez-Godinez & Athena Sok contribution to walk-out
00:09:01 Hiring Process for CRES
00:10:57 Campus Climate
00:11:19 Gonzaga didn’t feel like home pre-CRES
00:11:21 CRES gathered a community together, a home
00:14:26 How it felt walking into first CRES class
00:15:20 CRES has surpassed Ryan’s expectations – Sustainability of the Program
00:16:46 Ryan’s process to graduate with a CRES Minor
00:19:15 Support from Faculty
00:22:16 Takeaways from CRES – Race and Media
00:28:03 – 00:29:35 Redacted
00:29:36 Why it was important to institute the CRES department
00:32:04 It should be a collective effort to make Gonzaga a home for BIPOC students
00:33:34 Mutual support between students and professors to increase sustainability
00:35:56 How students can support professors
00:40:05 Influence from Ryan’s peers to get involved with CRES
00:43:18 Hopes for CRES department – reach a larger audience
00:49:03 Who else was involved in the creation of CRES
00:53:00 Wrap-Up
00:53:17 End

Ryan Liam, GU class of 2020 was a journeyman at Gonzaga University. He tried to find a place he could call home at Gonzaga University and finally found one in Communication Studies and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. He is happy and proud to call himself the first graduate with a CRES minor and will take all that knowledge with him when he goes to Grad School soon. Right now, he is working at Costco to take a break from school but plans to apply to Grad School for the Fall 2022 semester. Some of his favorite things to do is travel, eat good food, and just chill and vibe out.

Anisia Khammala and Kehau Gilliland interviewed Ryan Liam the CRES 499 OH project. Ryan is a 2020 graduate and the first ever graduate with a CRES minor. The journey of creating and sustaining the CRES department was covered in this interview. The fight for CRES has been going on for nearly ten years if not more. Ryan talks about an early experience in this fight being the walk-out the occurred-on campus in fall 2018. He describes this department as a home when at Gonzaga and is appreciative of the professors who supported him in so many ways. We cover the topics of his first ever CRES class, sustainability of the department, favorite memory, and so much more. Ryan paid tribute to his peers and predecessors who have inspired him to join the fight. He realized his strengths and put them to use in the hiring process and in the social media side of the walk-out. He continues to apply what he learned from CRES and utilizes his knowledge to create an equitable world. Ryan says that the CRES department has truly passed his expectations. His one hope is to see CRES work closely with other departments like engineering, biology, or business. Ryan says he is happy with who his torch was passed onto, the CRES 499 class of 2021. The CRES department wouldn’t be what it is today without the hard work of Ryan and those that came before him.