Students hear from President Kelly in emails, at family weekend and cheering at Pilots athletics. But who is Kelly outside the office?
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you just called Kelly up? The first weekend of the school year, some first-year honors program students did just that.
What began as a direct message to the president’s Instagram eventually led honors program member Ethan Zettler-Bray to pitch a group dinner to Kelly.
The students’ mission is to host casual food-related events between small groups of students and faculty in order to foster a welcoming community, according to Zettler-Bray.
Zettler-Bray says hearing about events like orientation weekend’s new student barbecue and Pilot parent family social encouraged them to invite Kelly for a homemade meal in their dorm.
“We had heard that Dr. Kelly was inviting people to his place for events, for mixers and that kind of thing, and I was like, ‘I don't want to wait to be invited, I want to get to know him and invite him to my own thing,’” Zettler-Bray said.
When the students found Kelly at the activities fair and invited him over for dinner, he wanted to make it happen.
Greenlit by the president, the group immediately got busy planning an Italian-inspired meal, walking to Fred Meyer for groceries and spending the rest of the day cooking.
Zettler-Bray says the nerves of the group didn’t set in until Kelly arrived, as they thought their idea was too ambitious to succeed.
“He was a minute late, and we were all, ‘Oh guys, he's not coming. We're all gonna have dinner together and have a good time either way,’” Zettler-Bray said.
For Kelly, the gathering felt like a family dinner with natural conversation, which is something he’d love to see more of on campus.
“There was no scripted agenda, no speeches, but certainly was a time for them to get to know me, not only as the president of the university, but as a father of my own children, and for me to get to know them as individuals,” Kelly said.
Towards the end of the meal, Kelly was impressed with the level of conversation and proposed that the students continue this tradition with other administrators and faculty.
“I came up with the idea that they should do this every month and invite different members of the university community. They should get together [and ask], ‘Who do we want to break bread with? Who do we want to be in conversation with?’” Kelly said.
The president’s support inspired the growth of this project to include the directors of the honors program, Cara Hersh and Becca Henley.
Kelly says he is confident the students will receive a “yes” from the various faculty, staff and administrators on UP’s small campus.
“I said to them, ‘Listen, I'm happy to give you a list of people's names [because] I think that students in any of our various communities [on campus] deserve this kind of thing,’” Kelly said. “So I'm willing to help them find the funds to do something small like this on an ongoing basis.”
For Zettler-Bray, the idea began with a group of friends who happened to be in the honors program, but now it aims to include the entire program and a variety of administrators.
“We're trying to expand this to have a bigger impact on the community,” Zettler-Bray said. “We're trying to figure out what's the best way to do that, while keeping this a casual dinner where everyone can be themselves and [for it to be] the kind of event that people look forward to.”
Kalena O’Connell is the Living Section Editor for The Beacon. She can be reached at oconnell27@up.edu
