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Thank you.

Hello and welcome to Dateline Delta.

I'm Dick Dolinski, former member of the Delta College Foundation Board of Directors.

On today's show, we'll learn about a visiting speaker we'll take a closer look at Delta's construction program and hear how a student is finding their way the Delta Way.

To wrap up the show.

We will revisit the hot topic of AI in our college classrooms and learn about an upcoming fundraiser.

The Delta College Humanities Learning Center, welcomed, Curtis Chin, an award winning author, producer, and activist for reading and discussion of his memoir, Everything I Learned I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant.

Let's listen in on part of his presentation.

Everything I learned, I learned in a Chinese restaurant.

Welcome to Chung's, is this for here to go?

Armed with a smile and a red waiter's jacket with the perpetual plum sauce stain.

That's how my dad greeted any new face who entered the lobby of a popular Chinese restaurant in Detroit.

Interestingly, my great great grandpa Gong Lee had faced the same question in the late 1800s as he stood cold and alone in a rickety dock in Guangzhou, China, trying to decide his future and that of his young, impoverished family.

For here to go, for here to go.

As I got older, it was a question I asked myself, starting in a restaurant's long and open back kitchen, where my family made some of the most popular items, including the tangist this barbecued pork, and best smelling almond cookies.

My mom taught me my first lessons before diving into math, English and geography, she began with a little American history tales of elders and ancestors.

Our family is Prolog, and so the Prolog continues with my family's journey starts off with Gong Lee Chen, who, moved from Canton, China to Canton, Ohio before realizing there weren't actually Chinese people there.

And then moving up to Detroit.

At that point, the auto industry was just starting.

He tried to get a job in the factories.

You know, there was a lot of discrimination that those early Chinese faced.

And so he wasn't able to.

And so he took one of the few opportunities available to him, which was the Han laundry.

And so he worked really, really hard, saved up his money, and eventually opened up his own, laundromat on Charlotte Street in downtown Detroit.

And why that fact is significant is because when the United States enacted this, law called the Chinese Exclusion Act, I think you guys probably heard about it recently in the news.

Right?

It was the first time that the United States had ever banned a certain population from coming to the US, and that was directed at the Chinese.

But there were actually two exceptions to that rule.

The first was that if you were a student, and the second is if you own your own business and because my, great great great grandfather owned his own business, he was able then to bring over his grandson, his son and then his grandson.

And that's why my family does have this long history in this country.

The prolog continues all the way to the 20s, when they opened the first grocery store in the 30s, they opened up their first restaurant.

It takes us to 1940 when they finally opened up Chungs, which is the restaurant that I grew up in.

And the prolog sort of finishes up in the 60s.

At that point, the United States was going through the civil rights struggle.

Which I think we're still kind of going through now, still, and, you know, there was a lot of violence back then.

Right?

And Detroit got hit particularly hard.

Not only were buildings being burned down, but people are being killed in the streets.

And so the National Guard had to be called in, and they basically shut down the city of Detroit for five straight days.

And if you know anything about Chinese restaurants, right, we don't close for five straight days, right.

And so, you know, my parents were stuck with nothing to do, but luckily they did manage to find time to have sex.

And nine months later, I was born as their riot baby.

And so people always ask me, oh, why do you talk about social justice so much?

And I say, well, without that incident, I probably wouldn't be around, so I kind of have to do it.

And that's sort of, you know, what the book is about.

It's about this joyous childhood and this wonderful restaurant in the inner city of Detroit, dealing with all the struggles that the city was going on, but still managing to find joy in life.

Delta College welcomed Curtis Chin, author of Everything I Learned, I Learned in the Chinese Restaurant, which has been chosen as this year's Great Michigan Read.

And groups up and down the state are talking about his book and or having him visit to talk to them.

Curtis talked about his experience growing up in Detroit in the 1980s, as a member of the Chinese community, but also as a young man coming out as gay.

And he gave a vivid insight into what it was like to be, to be growing up in the 80s, especially if you were not part of the mainstream.

It was a great day at Delta College, Curtis spoke to a large and engaged audience, and were very excited to have the Great Michigan Read speaker this year.

Delta College offers more than 140 programs designed to meet the needs of students and area employers.

Today, we'll take a closer look at the residential construction program, which provides hands on learning of the latest techniques in the field.

The construction industry is actually a massive industry.

We don't think about it as such because it's so fragmented.

But, you know, if you consider both residential and commercial construction, it's one of the largest industries in our nation.

And if you don't have people to fill those jobs right, then the local builders can't do the kind of job they want to do.

It's our job to get them to a point where they understand the fundamentals, and then we put them in the lab environment right again in that first year.

Not only do they get the lab experience here, where they get to run the saws and learn about the equipment and learn about safety, but we also go out into the field and do several volunteer projects where they get to do demolition of an old roof on a dug out or pour concrete, and it gives them the opportunity to see what it takes to estimate the job, what it takes to get the material there, what it's like in the weather.

You know, if we meet on Wednesdays and it's raining, what are we going to do?

So it gives some kind of a real world experience, what they can expect out in the field.

I am a very visual person, so seeing what my work is doing, like knowing that I get to see a project from start to finish is the rewarding part to me.

Seeing it being built from scratch.

Being there for the estimating portion of it, all the way up to the completed project and the grand opening of something, is what really drew me to the industry.

Maybe you've never worked at a construction site, and this is going to be the way that you're going to have enough experience, that you're going to gain that confidence, to be able to go and, you know, work at the site the first time.

You know, don't be intimidated.

Here what we try to do is we say we want you to understand how to do things right.

That's big.

That's the lab environment.

But we also want you to understand the why.

You know, why do you do these things?

You know, why are the codes the way they are?

So we give you a lot of understanding on both ends of that, because complying with all those codes and rules can be a little bit tedious at times.

But it's the difference maker.

What it's what makes people successful in our industry.

You definitely get to learn off of each other a lot because everyone's had a different path.

Some of them have already been in hands on like construction jobs, and they know a lot of physical part of it where I know a lot of the business side of it.

So kind of working together on those things really helps.

It's almost stress relieving.

Instead of just sitting in a lecture the whole time.

I feel much better about my future now that I've been going here, because it's given me direction.

Like when I first joined the program, I really didn't know.

You know, I didn't really know about much of the the doors that go into this program can open the middle management positions and all that.

People are inviting you in their home.

They will give us the key, tell us to go to the garage, and we're in their house, and we're treating their biggest investment of their life like it's our own.

So if they think you're questionable, they probably won't hire you.

They'll look for somebody else, even if it's more expensive.

People are willing to pay extra to have people they trust, and at the end of the day, pulling out of the job site and looking back and saying, yeah, I did that.

It's really rewarding.

Next, we'll hear from a European student athlete who came to Delta with the hope of making it big.

I chose this college because, our head coach, Coach Bennett, reached out to me.

I was basically searching for a college in the United States to play in.

We talked for a little bit, and I decided that I want to play in Delta.

That's how I basically got here.

I love this area.

I love the Bay City, Midland, Saginaw.

I like how friendly they are because I believe that's where I belong to.

Because back into Europe, I was always the guy who loved to talk with other people, and other people just didn't give me the same feeling, like the same thing back.

And that's the probably the best part of Michigan, because everyone I can talk with anyone into school, like everyone's going to talk with me and not like just ignore me.

Like most of the people do back in the Eastern Europe.

So my favorite moment was probably when my family, with my family, I finally told them that, I had like an offer from, from the United States and that I'm going to study to the United States that, like, everyone is so happy and cheerful for me.

Since I was 14, I wanted to to play basketball in the States.

I even had like a, like an, invitations from high school to play in the high schools.

But my mom just said that I was too young and she just didn't let me to.

And after, after I finished my high school, she asked me if I if I want to stay in Lafayette and like, get the same degree here or I or do I want to go to the United States.

And I said, no, I'm going to the United States no matter what.

I actually miss a lot of my homemade food.

The one that my mom usually makes.

I haven't had it for, like, I don't know, four months now.

Coach told me that he he tried to cook it for me.

So hopefully, hopefully I can eat it here.

So I'll see where basketball takes me.

Hopefully it's like a big four year school where I can continue achieving my goals in basketball life.

Hopefully I can have a great season this year and can try and reach something like bigger next year well see.

I think I'll go wherever my my basketball journey is going to take me.

In March of 2024, Dateline Delta produced a story about artificial intelligence or AI and how it's being used in the classroom.

Since then, many new and exciting things have developed to continue this discussion.

We welcome back two Delta College professors, Ray Lucina and Trisha O'Connor.

Trish, Ray, welcome back to Dateline Delta.

I'm so, excited to revisit this topic.

So let's get right into it.

You're both English teachers, how has AI, changed your class?

Well, in terms of my classes, I think that, you know, I've made an attempt to incorporate AI into it.

So I'm not one of those teachers who was like, well, let's just ignore her help or go away because it won't go away.

And we also have a responsibility to prepare our students for the future job market.

And AI is a huge part of that.

So as far as my classes, yeah, AI we talk about it, we debate it.

I allow them on some assignments to use AI if they want to.

They always have an opt out option.

Because a lot of students, you know, really object to it for ethical reasons.

But yeah, it certainly is has a place in pedagogy now.

And on the negative side, yeah, it has added tremendous work to our schedule because so much time has to be spent sometimes screening for it or because you never want to be in a situation where, for example, an AI detector flags AI use and it's, you know, somebody with Asperger's who sometimes the writing of OBS or an SL student who's writing will sometimes flag with those detectors.

You don't want to make a false accusation.

So any time you have a concern, time gets sunk trying to make sure you know what you're going for.

You have a conversation with the students, so its... I think both of us design assignments now that teach it.

But also you have to make sure that it's not being used inappropriately, yeah.

So can you say a little bit more about that when you say you design assignments for that.

Can you tell me what that looks like a little bit?

Well, I think both of us have, created assignments that will try to integrate AI use in a part of the writing process that we feel it's appropriate.

And that's kind of changed for both of us.

I think it's evolved from, using AI, for example, to help students brainstorm.

Research has actually indicated a lot of serious concerns about introducing it that early in the writing process.

So it's deciding where it's appropriate and then scaffolding it appropriately for that bit of their writing.

Rey and I co-designed a pilot, actually for one of our assignments.

So we had a common assignment where the students do an ethnography, which is essentially an analysis of a group that they observe or, they can, in my classes, at least do an auto ethnography where they talk about part of their identity as part of, as a, you know, piece of a larger group and, kind of explore that.

So, I'm going to give the credits away.

He designed the writing prompts to say, okay, you know, to get the most out of AI, you have to know how to talk to it, right?

And so even I don't feel that comfortable with that.

Right.

Right now.

So Ray did the prompts and copy paste, put those in, you know, and see what that gives you back.

Do you like that?

Do you not?

And I asked my students to share their chats with me if they're willing to do that and then to talk about, okay, well how did you feel about this process?

Some of them love it, some of them don't.

It didn't help me.

I'm better on my own, you know.

So we see a I think a spectrum, a variety of reactions and responses to AI use.

Do you over the past year, AI has changed so much.

Do you see more of a reliance on it and what does that look like?

And how do you talk to students about that?

Sure, there are some students who do over rely on it.

I think some of them might be intimidated by the whole academic environment.

And my sounding right.

Am I doing this correctly?

College can be, you know, intimidating for a lot of people.

So I never start with the AI assignment.

I really want them to develop their own voice and feel comfortable using their own voice before they bring in, you know, a tool that maybe can help them refine that voice or whatever.

Yeah, that's my feeling about it.

I think it's a combination.

We still have the issue with students trying to cheat.

The discussion forums, both of us teach online quite a bit.

Yes.

So discussion forums, you always have students.

Some students will make the attempt early on to let their, AI do the reading for them and some of them will make really obvious mistakes that will flag that as AI and others are more sophisticated.

So that is that is an ongoing challenge, just trying to suss out what's what.

But what it does is, for those students, they get behind in the course because they're not doing the reading.

And so then they're scrambling to catch up later on when they've been realize that they can't do that.

But also, I think, there's just a concern that students are shortcutting parts of the process they shouldn't.

And especially like the early stages of brainstorming and writing you can't have AI do the thinking for you because AI doesn't know what you know.

And so you are losing.

Not it's not just that you're you're you're not doing the whole process that you're losing the opportunity to really discover what you want to say and say something meaningful by offloading that stuff to AI.

So it's it's a challenge trying to educate them about where it's useful to not just appropriate ethically or, you know, from an academic integrity perspective, but appropriate in terms of what's going to produce the best output.

Right, to use their voice and to use their like writing style.

And.

Yeah, thanks.

Okay.

So, what skills do you think are, going to be more important than ever for English students in an AI driven world?

I think the same stuff we've always been teaching, but with an awareness of how it works with AI.

Because things like critical thinking, editing skills and you mentioned voice, the importance of having you sound like you when you're writing and having some control over that.

One thing I've noticed, AI, students, we use our tools like Grammarly, which draw an AI to edit or suggest edits for their writing.

And that's the flags as AI.

And it does because it's making this sort of generic blah AI voice.

It takes what sounds like them and makes it so.

I think thinking about, you know, what makes a document effective, what they really want to say, and then thinking if they want to use AI to enhance certain bits, like for writing feedback on a draft or something like that, being able to do that in a controlled way, it takes all the skills that we've always taught, I think.

Yeah, the critical thinking especially.

You know, so I think we both use that as a tool to teach critical thinking.

Ask, ask a lot of questions about, you know, what did you feel about your experience with this?

How is it benefiting you or how is it holding you back.

Yeah If you okay.

So you're in charge of the world now.

And you could set what one rule for, students, not just in your classroom about AI.

What would what would you think about saying?

For me, it's not so much a rule, but kind of a philosophy or an outlook.

And what I tell my students is, you matter.

Your experiences matter.

Your opinions matter.

Your life matters.

All right?

I can get all that canned drone information from AI all day long.

But I'm not interested in that.

I'm interested in you and your life and what you think and why you think it, and what your experiences have been, yeah.

I would say use it, critically be conscious of your use of it.

And that comes down to being aware of all of the other things that surround AI, right.

There's a lot of environmental impact.

There's a just a pile of ethical issues.

So when you're using a tool like this, being conscious of the fact that in this moment it's worthwhile using this tool because it's going to help me.

So, you know, getting a picture of myself standing on the moon might be less ethically sound than using it for, critical feedback on my thought process.

So I think using it, in an informed and critical way.

So it's a tool that, carries its weight appropriately in the moments that you use it.

So far, less concise, nutritious.

So is there anything, that you'd like to add that we haven't talked about?

So I would just say this is ever evolving and you get two different English instructors and really, faculty from any discipline, and you're going to hear different things.

So I think we're all wrestling with it.

And we're also just now getting the leading edge of research on the impact of this stuff on learning.

And so that will continue.

If you were to have us back in a year, and I'm not trying to pitch that, but if you were to have a speaker, we'll probably have a whole nother pile of concerns.

It's just moving so quickly, right.

I would just echo what Ray said.

Yeah, it's it's evolving.

Not you know, it's just constantly evolving.

Like not every week but every day.

So we really have to think on our feet, you know, quite a bit.

And then also make sure that we understand that not all the students are in the same place.

But some of my, you know, nontraditional students are like, I don't even know really what this is.

I'm so busy with my life and my kids and my job.

I don't really pay attention to stuff like that.

What is it?

But then there are some of the younger students who either are totally ethically opposed to it or are like, well, I use this in high school all the time and it's cool, so why can't I do that here?

So you get such a variety, and you have to consider that when you're developing assignments.

Well, thank you both so much.

So much for having coming in to chat with us here.

Delta College Public Radio is partnering with the Delta College Planetarium to bring you an exclusive cosmic experience.

Join us on Friday, May 15th, from 6 to 9:30 p.m.

for a never before seen three dimensional celestial showcase.

To tell us more about this cosmic event, we talked to Mark Grzegorczyk, WUCX's Production Coordinator.

I'd like to invite everyone to our cosmic variety show happening on Friday, May 15th at the Downtown Delta College Planetarium.

The event is being billed as a cosmic variety show, and we're putting it that way because it's more of a variety show than a just space specific show.

It's being curated specifically for this audience by our astronomer over there, Mr.

Mike Murray, just for exclusively this one time.

At our event, we're going to have not just the variety show, but you'll be able to meet and greet all of the stars here, as we're saying, at Delta College Public Radio.

Meet all of our hosts here from the station.

And also, you'll be able to enjoy some awesome charcuterie boards from Artisanal Artisan Cheese Shop in downtown Bay City.

So it's gonna be a really great time starting off.

After that, we're going to go and actually see the variety show in the Dome Theater.

The variety show is going to feature more than just space themed, shows.

It's a mixture of ten mini shows we're kind of saying, and it's exclusively put together by astronomer Mike Murray.

It's going to have some things about nature, art, and space inside that one show.

Afterwards, you'll be able to ask Mike Murray all of your burning questions about space, so that'll be really cool as well.

And then after that, we're going to go up to the observation deck, the rooftop observation deck on top of the planetarium, and we'll be able to get a little, view of the Bay City skyline as well as a cool history, lesson from Tim Murray.

So it's going to be a really great evening, not just the variety show.

It's important for people to support this because the dollars that we're raising from this are going right towards supporting the programing, funding the programs here on our station at 90.1 FM and with our federal funding being cut last year, we have to just find more creative ways to build that funding back up.

We lost about a third of it last year with that federal funding cut.

So this is one of the ways that we're coming up with to hopefully, raise some more funds for the programing other than pledge drives, of course.

And it's a really fun way to do it and allow people to meet us and meet them as well.

So once again just want to invite everybody to come on out to our cosmic variety show.

It is Friday, May 15th at the Delta College Planetarium starting at 6 p.m.

You can find more information on our website DeltaPublicMedia.org Tickets are $75 and it's including all that great stuff with the charcuterie boards, the meet and greet, the show itself, and then the awesome visit to the top of the planetarium is going to be a really fun night.

Thank you, Mark and the rest of your crew for your efforts on this wonderful show.

Now let's see what's on the Dateline Delta calendar of events.

The Delta College Planetarium will be hosting a series of shows during the month of May.

For more information about these shows and events happening at the planetarium, visit their website at delta.edu/planetarium.

Join us for financial aid afternoon in our downtown Saginaw Center on Thursday, May 7th from noon till 4:30 p.m.. Staff will be available by appointments or walk ins.

Join us for our financial aid afternoon in our Downtown Midland Center on Thursday, May 14th from noon till 4:30 p.m.. Staff will be available by appointments or walk ins.

For further information on these events or other campus activities, contact the Office of Marketing and Public Information at (989)686-9490, or visit our website at www.delta.edu.

Well, that wraps up our show.

Please join us again on May 31st when we highlight what's happening here at Delta College, one of America's leading community colleges.

Now, I leave you with the sights and sounds of Delta College for Dateline Delta.

I'm Dick Dolinski, and thanks for watching.

Local production scene on Delta College Public Media are made possible with support from viewers like you.

Thank you.