Official Alumni Interview

The first episode of the Gremlin Podcast features an interview with Star Bavineau, a former Gremlin alum. Star attended Gremlin in 1999 and received her bachelor's degree in 2020. She dropped out in 2005 but returned to Gremlin in 2018 to complete her degree. Star chose Gremlin because it was a family tradition and she enjoyed the college atmosphere. Her major started as therapeutic preparation but she graduated in general studies with a concentration in early childhood education. Her most memorable class was public speaking. Star enjoyed hanging out on campus, going to the cafeteria, and spending time on the yard. She described the dorms as having strict rules and separate sides for boys and girls. The cafeteria was a popular gathering place for students. Star also pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha and found the Greek life experience enjoyable. Gremlin taught her independence and prepared her for life outside of college. Game days at Gremlin were filled with school spirit, but the focus on at Well hi and welcome to our Gremlin Podcast. It's our first episode where we'll be doing interviews from Gremlin alumni and today we have Star Bavineau, my aunt, who is a former Gremlin alum and she's going to be answering a couple questions for us. So we're going to start with what year did you first begin attending Gremlin? I began in Gremlin in the fall of 1999. Awesome. And when did you receive your bachelor's degree? I didn't receive my bachelor's degree until 2020. Okay, could you explain a little further how you were able to continue and finish with your degree? Yes. I dropped out of school in 2005 and from then I got a regular job and then in 2018 I was told that Gremlin offers classes for people who have not graduated to attend school and graduate within two years. So I went back to school in 2018 and I graduated in the fall of 2009. Wonderful. I mean, sorry, 2020. Right. That makes complete sense. Thank you for that answer. So now we have like more of a more inside question. Why did you choose Gremlin? Well, the main reason I chose Gremlin is because it was in my family. A lot of my aunts had went to Gremlin and cousins had went to Gremlin prior to me going. And I just loved all around college feeling when you are with people of your same color. Right. That's exactly why I chose Gremlin. So what was your major when you were here? My major started off as therapeutic preparation and I ended up graduating in general studies with a concentration in early childhood education. Awesome. Do you remember any of the courses you were taking here? Any of your major classes? Any of your classes that you took here? Any memorable ones? My most memorable class was my public speaking class because being from Louisiana, you know, we can be a little bit country. And my professor at the time let me know that just because we were from Louisiana did not give us the right to be country. We still had to be able to speak and present, you know, legitimate things while speaking correctly, using correct language. So that was probably my most memorable class just because that professor really taught me how to speak to people without sounding as if I'm from the country, how he said. So that would probably be my most memorable class. But as far as it went for my major, I love the basic classes that we learned about the different techniques you can use in therapy when dealing with children with disabilities. And my favorite one was equestrian therapy, which deals with horses. So, yeah, that was probably my favorite class. That's awesome. I love to hear that your classes were you got cool electives. I didn't really get to spend a lot of my time with electives here, but that sounds awesome. So what kind of things did you do for fun, like off campus type thing? Because we do want to know, like, what was life like as a student just in general, because we have a completely and entirely different experience now. And we hear that a lot. So we just kind of want to know what type of things did you all do when you were here? I mean, most of the experience in, you know, 99, 2000, the experience was just like the on campus experience. You know, it was hanging out on the yard and, you know, going to the cafe and hanging out at the football field. Because, you know, now, you know, the kids today now can enjoy half the things that we were able to enjoy because of all of the lockdown issues and everything that's going on with the campus. But when I was in school, you know, we had some of those same issues. It just wasn't as drastic. So we were able to, you know, hang out more and, you know, just be one with college, you know, like on the yard, chillin' till two o'clock in the morning. You know, knowing that you have to go to class at eight o'clock, but you still don't want to leave the yard because everybody's on the yard. So, I mean, the things we used to do is basically, you know, hang outside the dorm, you know, because really in 99, you still had, you had curfews. Like we used to have like a eight o'clock curfew. You know, it was two separate sides to the campus. It was a girl's side and a boy's side. So after eight o'clock, no one could really be on the other side. Like, you know, if you were a girl, you had to be on your side in your dorm. We only had visitation for like three hours in a day. It would be like from five at night till eight. And no one would be allowed to be in your room if it was of the opposite sex. So, you know, that was one of like the downs, but it kept a lot of trouble out of people. You know, it kept a lot of things, a lot of people from doing crazy, stupid things, even though, yes, you still had the people that snuck around and stuff like that. But it kind of kept it uniform to know that, you know, you had to be out of the dorms by eight o'clock and you had to be kind of like on your side. You could hang out on the yard with opposite sex, but, you know, it was mainly like in front of the cafeteria, in front of the swimming pool. You couldn't be in front of a dorm. We actually had dorm mothers, you know, like an older woman that would stay in the dorms. We had, you know, different women that would stay in the dorms that were way older than us that would, you know, would literally watch the cameras to make sure no one was in your dorm. So, I mean, other than that, it wasn't much off campus. Like, you know, it was more fun to hang on campus than it was to hang off campus whenever I was in school. So, yeah. Right. I often forget that you guys did have the fun on campus. Everything was on campus. We started off like that in 2019, but we just slowly developed to a safer campus with less fun things, but safer. So, that actually leads to me asking a question more like, what was the CAF like? I know you talk about how awesome the CAF was, and we really have like a high tech sort of CAF now. So, why was the CAF so fun? What made the CAF so fun? It's just where everybody congregated at, you know. We didn't really go to the CAF to eat. You know, you kind of went to the CAF to meet your friends and, you know, talk about your day or, you know, just hang out, you know. So, you know, it wasn't about the food that was in the CAF. It wasn't about, you know, the service that you got. It wasn't about anything about that. It was just mainly about hanging with your friends and coming together after a long day to just sit in the CAF and chill, you know, like, you know, get something to drink, just sit down. Like, most of the time we didn't eat. Most of the time you went off campus to get the food that you really wanted, but you still went and hung in the CAF with your friends because that's where everybody was. Right. That sounds like freshman year. So, speaking of, we were talking about the dorms and the dorm mothers. We understand, like, the rules, but I understand that the dorms were just built differently. Like, there was more floors or maybe less dorms and more floors, more rooms, and then were they separated by gender? Yes. All dorms were separated by gender whenever I got there. Like, when I got there in 99, they had high rise dorms. Like, I think the tallest dorm was, what, eight floors, eight or nine floors? And so, you know, the rooms were like jail rooms, like, you know, like a jail cell. But it was still, you know, better to me than the dorms that they have, like, today at Grambling because all of these dorms are considered outside dorms. So, it means that my door is to the outside element. Anyone can walk up to my door and knock on the door or try to get in my room because it's just open. But when I was there, it wasn't open. You had to walk into a building, pass a room that had the dorm mother, and she would tell you, yes, you can go or no, you can't go. So, you know, it was just more safe because you just had a barrier between you and the outside element. So, to me, that's what kept Grambling safe is having those dorm mothers and those closed-in dorms where you had to walk in a door there. You know, like, it would even be to where after a certain time, I want to say it was like after 9 o'clock, the doors would be locked completely. All doors to the dorms. No one in, no one out. And if you wanted to get in, you had to buzz the dorm mother and basically give her an excuse of why you're late. So, you know, it wasn't like you come in the dorm at 3, 4 o'clock in the morning and just expect to get in. No, you were locked out after 10 or 11 o'clock at night. You know, like, you better call a friend and hope your friend wakes up to come and open the door for you. Or you knock that in your... Yikes. Yeah. Yeah, it was strict. It was strict. It was tough. But it gave you, you know, rules and just things, certain things that you had to follow. So, it kind of made it like you were grown, but yet you weren't quite grown yet. You know, you still had rules to follow. I mean, it just, it teaches you how to live your day to day life. It teaches you that you think you have it hard with mom and dad. Telling you you got to curfew at 12 o'clock and then you come to Brown and it's like, what? I got to curfew at 8? Like... Yeah. That is a big difference in the gap for the bedtimes. But, do you remember the dorm names? My dorm, well, the second dorm I stayed in was called Bowen. The first dorm I stayed in was... Oh my God. I don't remember. It was a pinch bed. I don't remember the first dorm. I remember it's a high rise. So, at least I can remember the names. But, I probably remember by the time the images come. But, anyways, yeah. But, the main dorm that I stayed in for three years was called Bowen. And it was a two story dorm. It was only two floors. The rooms were really, really big. You know, I thought I was moving up like the Jefferson's because I had a sink in my room and, you know, we didn't have to share, you know, sinks and stuff. Like, me and my roommate had our own sinks and of course we shared bathrooms. So, it was literally one bathroom, one shower, well, one shower room with about five to six showers and the whole floor had to share that one shower. So, the bed was about 24 rooms per floor and there was one bathroom on each end of the floor. So, that's 12 rooms per bathroom that had to share a shower. So, you know, you basically had to count your showers, you know, when you go, you know, when you're trying to use the bathroom. Same thing with, you know, toilets and using the restroom. One bathroom for 12 rooms, you know. So, that was probably the hardest part was, you know, sharing the bathroom with all of these different people and, you know, you have your little shower pad and you're walking down the hall with your robe on trying to go take a shower. So, like, yeah, that was probably the hardest part for me. Yeah, that's a lot of less privacy than we have now. So, now we can go to, we can move towards Greek life because I know that you did pledge a sorority. So, could you tell us about when you crossed or anything really about your experience with Greek life at Grandly? Well, I'll just say this. At first, I was not going to pledge, but seeing that, you know, I had Greek life in my family kind of made me want to pledge even more, you know. And I had a cousin at the time that was a senior and she wanted to pledge. So, I was like, you know, why not just pledge with her? So, you know, I went through the whole thing, filled out paperwork and, you know, basically, unexpectedly got picked. You know, I was like the least expected to, you know, join or even get picked for, you know, Alpha Kappa Alpha, but whenever I did, you know, I mean, I was very excited. The other thing was, was just, you know, you gained friends and you gained, you know, acquaintances that, you know, not many people get to experience that. And to me, it was just like, you know, having these friends that, you know, would have lifelong that you could keep in touch with. Now, me, however, I don't keep in touch with many of them because my line was 72 women. So, you know, it's kind of hard to keep in touch with 72 people. You know, like I still remember the people that were surrounding me in my group, you know, which is like four or five people. But to say that I remember all 72, I can't really say that. So, like, still to this day, you know, we are, what, 22 years later. And I still don't know, like, if I see someone, they're like, hey, I'll still sit there and be like, you was on the line with me? Like, I don't remember you, you know. So, it's kind of tough when you're dealing with, you know, such big numbers, but it was still enjoyable. The whole experience of having, you know, Greek life is just, Greek life is an experience of itself, you know, period. That is just its own experience. And I would tell everyone in college, you know, experience some form of Greek life, even if it's not actual, you know, the nine, you know, the divine nine. Still to experience some part of a community, a club, you know, in college. Absolutely. I think that's really nice. You clearly had a good experience, even though you did have a really large group. I think that that's like a memory test at that point. 70 people is a lot to remember on your own. Yes, yes, it is. I mean, and that was just my line. The line after me, I want to say, was like way more than that. It was like 150. So, you know, that's, to me, too many people, and it takes away from the actual experience of pleasure, because there's so many things you can't do because there's so many girls. Definitely. If you had a little trouble with 70 people, I'm sure the 150 don't even know the past 10 people who crossed with them. Right. So that's pretty difficult. Okay, well, I have some questions outside of Greek life. Do you think that Gremlin did thoroughly prepare you for life outside of college, like outside of class working things? Do you feel like it actually prepared you for life, like we were talking about the curfew? It really taught you how to live outside of your parents' home? Do you think that it really prepared you for life? Yes, I mean, I really do think that Gremlin prepared me for life, because it taught, Gremlin taught you, one thing Gremlin taught you was that nothing in life can't be easy. So, you know, just simple things as far as like registering for school, like, you know, you would think that you go to a college campus and these people are supposed to do, you know, A, B, and C. They're supposed to make sure that, you know, everything is together for you. They're supposed to make sure that, you know, you get in your classes, but then you realize once you get to Gremlin and once you get to college that it's up to you. You know, and so one thing that Gremlin, I could say Gremlin taught was independence. You know, it taught you how to live on your own, be on your own, take care of yourself. So, I think that's something that you wouldn't get necessarily at other colleges because, or other non-HBCUs, because at non-HBCUs you're like, you know, just another number. You're just another person filling a spot, you know, but at an HBCU they let you know that, you know, you're a person and this is how life really is. Absolutely. I definitely think that's the number one takeaway I got from Gremlin, especially since we both had to leave so far from home. Three hours away is a really drastic change and a drastic climate change and it really was a lot not having parents so close by. Right. I mean, like, you think about it all of your childhood. You get so used to your mom taking care of certain things or your dad taking care of certain things or, you know, them telling you, you know, where to go, what to do, how to do it, you know. And then when you get to college, especially at Gremlin, it's like a big culture shock because then they're like, no, this is you. I don't need your mom, I don't need your dad, I need you to do this. So, it's kind of a big culture shock because they feel independence there. That was another reason why I chose Gremlin too is because I was able to see how when people left there, they left with a certain sense of independence about themselves. Like, it wasn't like I'm leaving and I'm going back to stay with my mama. It was like I'm leaving and I'm not going back to stay with my mom. I'm a grown person and I need to be a grown person. That's definitely a pattern that I've seen, especially over the last few years. If anyone, they'd be staying and pursuing their masters at Gremlin and getting an extra year or two in, but everyone seems to be knowing that they're finding their place outside of Louisiana. So, that's really awesome. Right. Okay. Well, I actually have some more memory questions. Do you remember anything like what Gremlin athletics were like? We remember game days and things like that, but what kind of schools were we playing? What were game days like, if anything? Game days at Gremlin were probably 1999, but let's see how I can put it other than just saying awesome. Well, then in 1999, around 1999, 2000, alumni, it just seemed like alumni was more into taking care of the school and, you know, there's more school spirit than it is now. Now it's politics and everything put into colleges that I think is taken away from enjoying college, you know? So, like on game days back then, it was just like everybody would be there, you know? No matter what the game was, people were always still there to support Gremlin. Like, we still see it today. You don't see it as much, but you still, you know, back then, we had Eddie Robb, you know? That was before Eddie Robb died, and he was still, you know, the amazing football coach. So, I was just lucky to be able to attend Gremlin when Eddie Robb was still there to get some of those, you know, values and morals that he instilled in not only his players, but just everybody that attended Gremlin, you know? And so, when he left and retired and Doug Williams came in, it was like, you know, it was a whole culture shift. Like, you know, it was not so much as, you know, where football players take it and who comes first. When Eddie Robb left, it was more so like, you know, it was football. It was all about football. It was all about athletics. It was all about, you know, presenting our football team as, you know, such and such. And so, to me, that took away from Gremlin, you know? The athletics really started to get away from Gremlin's morals and, you know, standards. And so, I think that, you know, that showed in the alumni coming back to the school and, you know, different things happening with the school, school getting money and stuff like that, because it all started to be about, you know, like I said, politics, you know? Which is why we have it like we have it today. You know, you have all of these rich people donating this money to just make a name for themselves instead of actually supporting the school, you know? And so, like, when they said, like, Magic Johnson was taking over the cafeteria, my first question was, what made him want to come to Gremlin? You know, like, out of all the colleges you could have went to that were closer to you, what made you want to come to Gremlin? You know, like, you don't have any family that went here. You don't have any, you know, so that was my question is, you know, when I was at school, people actually had a reason for donating money to Gremlin. You know, they had, you know, they donated such and such, you know, stuff, or they were doing this for the community. Now it's just so much as, you know, I want to clout for my name, so I'm going to take this. Yeah, no, that really does bring up the impact of how when Eddie G. Robinson retired and Doug Williams took over our football, our athletics program really took an entire shift towards just keeping the Gremlin is great light. And we really haven't seen much else outside of it. We haven't really had good seasons. We've just really been making the name. Like, now we have Hugh Jackson, and now we have prime time working in the SWAC. We've really just been seeing a big impact of people putting their names on it to have their name on it and less about the football program being good. Our football players are not getting any better. They're not getting drafted into the NFL. They're not getting picked up immediately because they went to Gremlin. Like, we're having the same effect and less focus on school. If you look at the athletics, and like, even if you go into the Eddie Robb Museum, and you see all of these famous, you know, football juries, and, you know, all of these, you know, different teams and knowing how many people left Gremlin and actually went to the pros under Eddie Robb. And then you look at the statistics now as to how many Gremlin players actually go into the NFL is ridiculously drastic. The difference, you know, or even the caliber of players. You know, it's like now they're just taking a player and just saying, you know, oh, he's playing for Gremlin. It's not about the fact that, you know, we won so many games or lost so many games. It's all about, you know, it's Gremlin. And so, you know, you have all these famous people that, you know, now it's like, oh, this person is wearing this Gremlin T-shirt. Oh, this person is wearing a Gremlin sweater. And it's like, oh, now let me learn about Gremlin. When Gremlin has been here for well over a hundred years, like since 1901, like, let's not get it twisted, you know. So to see that people are now just like, oh, you know, who was, it was one of the, one of the rappers or something, he had on a Gremlin sweater. And they was like, oh, he got on a Gremlin sweater, like Gremlin must be this, this, this. And I'm like, Gremlin was that before he had on a sweater? You know, so I mean, I think that's the thing that makes me mad about most, most people whenever they think about HBCU colleges is that it's not recognized until somebody famous mentions the school. Or, you know, nobody cared about Jackson State until, you know, whoever, primetime, like nobody cared about Jackson. Nobody was ever to their football game, anything. And so, like, even for him, you know, whenever he made that statement about, you know, he is swag, you are not swag, your team does not play in swag. And that's the whole point, you know, it wasn't about a black versus black football team. It was about if you were in swag or if you weren't in swag. So, like, for him to try to make that a big deal, it was like, where has the football gone in football? Right. When will we come back to being about the players and the game and enjoying ourselves and packing the stadium? Right, exactly. Well, we have about 10 minutes left and two, we have a couple more interview questions, but we have about 10 minutes left on the Zoom and I just have a few more questions. Okay. Okay. So, our next question is, do you remember there being any major elections while you were here or political protests? We're kind of looking for things like activism, like if we went back towards Nana's generation, like if she came to Gremlin, you would hit the civil rights movement. But I was just wondering if there was anything like Bush versus Al Gore, something, some type of major petitions or anything while you were here. Well, I went to 9-11. That was the first thing was that 9-11 happened while I was in Gremlin. And so, that day alone was very scary because we were getting threats that day. I remember getting like bomb threats. It was like, you know, they didn't know where the planes were going. And, you know, I remember standing outside and we're in like this big loud like helicopter and like Air Force One was flying over Gremlin because they had to go to Shreveport that day because that's where the fort is, you know, that the president has to go to. So, just knowing that, you know, the president was like 30 minutes away from Gremlin and, you know, it was amazing but scary because we were like, hey, we don't want him to be this close to Gremlin. What if they decide to try to drop a bomb like in Shreveport? Like, you know, so that was a scary day, you know, just seeing it on the news and watching all the people cry around campus, you know, they had students, they had lost family members that were in those towers. And so, it brought the campus together. Like, I remember everybody being on the yard that day and they had called like a vigil on the yard, like right in front of the Student Union and the whole campus was there and we all came together and we prayed and we sung and basically had church, you know. And so, that was the great thing about Gremlin is that I think any HBCU is that church can pop up out of anywhere. So, you know, it was like, you know, we basically just sat down and, you know, got to discuss it as a group, as a college, you know. It was like no one was not there. Like, they canceled all classes, all the professors were on the yard, it was just like one big, you know, support for everybody. So, that was a good thing. Let's see. No, I wasn't there when Obama, well, I mean, I was there the second time when Obama was in presidency. And so, I got to see that part, which was, that was a big thing, you know, when Barack Obama was running for president. Even seeing it on the college campus, it was amazing to see because, you know, you really had all black students coming together. Like, you know, it was, you know, kind of like if we don't vote, what's going to happen, you know. So, to know that, you know, Gremlin really brought a lot of people out, a lot of college students out to vote, you know, was amazing. They made sure that that happened. So, I want to say, Obama was the two biggest things, but 9-11 was like the biggest thing that I had to go through at that moment. Definitely. I would definitely anticipate that being, and I don't know why that didn't really cross my mind at first. But, we just have one more question. And that is, what are three words you would use to describe yourself as a Gremlin student? Just for a lighthearted question, and just to reflect on your time as a Gremlin student. Let's see, three words to describe myself as a Gremlin student. Fun, is number one. Definitely. Adventurous would be number two. And, intelligent. I mean, like, you know, just learning, you know, that's what I would say, just, you know, learning, gaining knowledge. You know, Gremlin is the place where everybody is somebody. And when you do go to Gremlin, you do learn that, that everybody is somebody. No one is different. Everybody is the same. You know, and we're all striving to be better. Yep, and we're all just really making our own place for ourselves here. And Gremlin really does give you the room to do that. It does. It gives you the room to grow and learn to be better. Definitely. Well, that concludes our wonderful Gremlin alumni interview. I'm very happy that you talked to me during your off hour. I wouldn't have had anyone else. I'm very happy we got to do this. So, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, everyone, in advance.