Interview Assignment
This is a reflection upon my experience conducting an interview for Liberal Studies 200, an interdisciplinary research methods core course for the Bachelor of Arts with a Major in Liberal Studies program at Capilano University. The nature of the interview was exploratory and the topic of exploration was the way that spaces interact with members’ experiences of social life within the Capilano community.
I found my subject by introducing myself to an unknown student on the third floor of the Arbutus building on campus at Capilano University. I began the interview by explaining the purpose and intent of the interview (which was to gain experience conducting interviews and to potentially raise a “number of concerns, issues, or interests that may form the basis for a final writing project” (Ashley and Mahood). I gained their consent to give their thoughts on the aforementioned topic and gave them the option of anonymity. They were comfortable with me sharing their personal details as long as I consulted them again for their permission before publishing their thoughts publicly.
The subject of my interview is enrolled in the IDEA visual design program at Capilano. I wasn’t familiar with this program until I met this individual. The program has its own dedicated space within the Arbutus building on campus. After asking them to introduce themselves and their program of study, I asked the first question related directly to the topic of exploration. I asked the student what their favourite or most used space was on campus and what about this space made it their preferred environment. The student immediately lit up and described the patio outside in between Arbutus and the Library building. They liked that this space is outdoors and allows for a break from all their time spent indoors.
This reminded me of the forest school pedagogy I have been exploring in my Liberal Studies 100 course this semester which explores different approaches to knowledge. It made me curious about how many other Capilano students were finding themselves desiring or needing to to take more breaks in nature or to have more learning take place outdoors and how different the learning is which takes place outside the indoor, formal classroom setting.
I probed the student to find out more about the patio culture by asking what socializing, if any, took place there and if they noticed a diversity of students from different faculties and programs using this space. They described the ability for this outdoor space to allow for both group and semi-private interactions and specifically mentioned the picnic tables as a “great place to have lunch with the cohort” (Ojani). They also mentioned the “covered area that feels more private” (Ojani). They addressed my question about diversity by describing their view from their IDEA classroom, which overlooks the patio, giving them an excellent position to observe students using the space even when they are not in it themselves. What they claimed to have observed was “all sorts of people…not specific to any program or faculty” (Ojani) using the space together in multiple fashions.
At this point, I turned the interview in a more critical direction and asked if there were any spaces on campus that made the student feel unwelcome or that they had feelings of dislike towards and what about the space(s) contributed to those feelings, in their opinion. Their immediate answer was the cafeteria because “it is too loud and overstimulating… The crowd seems younger and I run from anything that reminds me of highschool” (Ojani).
This loud, busy culture in the cafeteria is one that I have observed myself. I have often noticed the way the sound is amplified and echoed in the birch building because of the height of the ceilings. The fact that another student feels so distressed and uncomfortable in the dining area of the school made me wonder how many more students there are looking for comfortable, alternative places to eat and if and where they find those places.
I asked what the student thought Capilano University could do, if anything, to improve the spaces on campus to increase social connection within its community and they found “that most of the spaces on campus cater to a younger crowd [and] it would be nice to have a space that’s inviting to mature students. One that’s quieter, where folks can have conversation and work together.” (Ojani) The student repeatedly expressed a desire for more comfortable spaces for mature students to gather and work quietly and a belief that separate, designated spaces for different activities (and to this student, “maturity” levels) were positive.
This reminded me of the new learning hub that the school is planning which will involve the dissolution of all the current separate resource centres on campus (writing, math, etc.) and the merging of all of these entities into one large resource space. I explained the planned change to the student and asked what their thoughts were on this and they said the following : “Yeah that sounds like a nightmare for me. Though it would be great to have a one-stop shop like that, I need a quieter space to learn. One on one or small groups work best for me. But I understand there are various learning styles, I’m sure the learning hub will work for most people.” (Ojani) They self-described as part of a “sub group of folks that really appreciate small-group learning environments” (Ojani).
From the subject’s perspective, there seemed to be a strong tension between the differing interests of mature and non-mature students. It’s true that there is a large age difference between the youngest and oldest students at Capilano and a significant average age difference between staff and students, but I hesitate to conclude that it is necessary or beneficial to keep the generations or even skill levels separate. What seemed to be conflicting, to me, are the different energy levels and volumes of activity that demand their own spaces, not the individuals engaging in those different energy levels and volumes of activity.
I asked the student if they have any distinct feelings or experiences of safety or unsafety on campus or as part of the Capilano community and they explained that they felt safe in North Vancouver because they didn’t consider it “seedy at all” and had “seen a few security guards [on campus] in the eve” (Ojani) that comforted them. They said they consider both their person and belongings safe on campus, but that they believed this may be “due to [their] status as a cisgender male” (Ojani) and the fact that the IDEA program students leave their belongings in a classroom that has card key access. The fact that the door is “always locked” (Ojani) makes the student “feel okay about it” (Ojani).
Upon reflection and review of the interview recording, I wondered where the student lived and what kinds of experiences contributed to their sense of North Vancouver as “safe” and what kinds of places they considered “seedy” and why. I was reminded, when the student described being able to lock their belongings up, how nice it was, when I rented a locker one semester, to be able to do the same. This raised a question of fairness and accessibility for me when I realized that students who pay a certain fee have the privilege of a space of their own to safely leave their belongings and those students who don’t are denied this space.
I asked how they thought their experience might be different if they did not present as a cisgender male and if any of their friends/fellow students had had negative experiences on campus that they thought stemmed from their appearance/gender/sexual orientation/religious affiliations? If so, what were their thoughts on this.
They said that they had no personal experience with anyone in their group of friends or themselves being made to feel unsafe on campus regarding their sexual orientation or appearance. They explained that they are gay and the child of a Phillipino mother and Iranian father and they described themselves as “brown” (Ojani). They described the campus as being “generally accepting of that sort of thing” (Ojani).
I wondered if this was a feeling that was shared by all other members of minority groups on campus and how one could measure how accepting the Capilano community is. I have read about the social dangers of politeness and have personally observed a high level of social apathy and disengagement on campus and while I was glad that neither the subject nor their friends had ever felt uncomfortable or in any danger, I also felt there was a sense of the student lacking connection to any larger community than their IDEA cohort and I wondered if they felt genuinely “accepted” or “at home” within the Capilano community. This led me to wonder what kinds of factors in spaces would foster feelings of acceptance and a sense of being “at home” in those individuals occupying them.
Finally, I asked what the student thought, if anything, that Capilano university does that is successful in creating community. They mentioned the “number of on-campus events” (Ojani) which they then admitted they had not attended at all. I asked what the reasons were for their lack of attendance in on-campus events and they said they “always seemed geared towards new/young university students” (Ojani).
I had to wrap the interview up because we had surpassed our allotted fifteen minutes. The timing is something I think I could work on improving as an interviewer. I felt I got carried away by my subject’s responses and wanted to discuss other topics, but could have focussed more on the exploratory topic at hand and probed more for the subject’s neutral, qualitative, spatial observations. Upon reflection, I can observe myself trying to quantify their responses (questionnaire-style) to prove a case and this was somewhat antithetical to the aims of the assignment. I would stick more closely to my interview guide in the future and collect the information the subject gives without trying to immediately synthesize and analyze their responses. I do feel that I have strong engaged listening skills and abilities to carry on flexible, dynamic conversations and to quickly visualize connections between ideas. I strive to refine my interview skills while also continuing to deepen and develop these capacities.
Works Cited :
Ashley, Sean. and Mahood, Aurelea. “Module II – Individual Assignment: Interview Assignment”. Liberal Studies Course Outline. Fall 2017,
https://moodle.capilanou.ca/pluginfile.php?file=%2F1067852%2Fmod_resource%2Fcontent%2F1%2FM2%20Interview%20Assignment%20Instructions.pdf. Accessed 10 October 2017
Ojani, Ata. Personal interview. 6 October 2017.