 Alright, would you like to introduce yourself first to us? I'm Oscar Fernandez, and I taught here for 15 years, and I was the program coordinator for the graphic or communication design program for 10 years, and presently I live in Columbus, but have very many, many fond memories as I was driving down here for this interview. So what questions you have for me? Where do you want me to begin? Maybe start out with like when did you come to UC and like what brought you here to the campus? Well I was thinking I know how did I discover or how did I learn about UC, it's kind of funny. I'd have to go back all the way to 1974. I was this, just started my graduate, first-year graduate program at Yale University for graphic design, and my first-year class there were 15 students for that first year, and each one came from a different institution, a very reputable one, some a very small school. I was the only art major in the group because Yale had this desire to have a very diversified educational background. So for graphic design there was someone from physics, someone English major, someone who was a geologist, it was amazing. So I was the only art one, and they all came from different schools, except for two students, both came from the University of Cincinnati, and I remember I was all that impressed me. Wow, two, not one, but two came from the University of Cincinnati, and these two, Mark Eberhardt and Paula Hoffman, I started learning about UC from them, through wonderful stories they'd tell me about their professors and the school and the city, and I recalled often how enamored I was at the kind of design solutions they would develop. They were good, both of them, and the reputation of that design program, and of course it extends out to the whole University, always stayed with me. So it started becoming like this, you know, somewhere they're in that top 10. I don't know a document that supports it, but I know they've got to be in that top 10 somewhere, so that always would continue in my early career like that. And in a way maybe I remember Mark would draw some sketches in his book, sketchbook, some caricatures of his teachers, and they were really well done because, you know, it was just amazing that when I finally did come here, I encountered them. I said, wow, you look just like your caricature back 20 years ago, 25 years. So yeah, the University of Cincinnati was always on my radar as a good school and a good, excellent design program, and it became the kind of, not so much a goal that I wanted to be there, but it was like the beacon. It was like the place that set standards and really rigorous education took place there. And then in, I would, when I moved back or moved to Columbus, I was living in Texas at the time, but when I moved to Columbus, eventually I started teaching at Ohio State and I would frequently come down and visit because they would have wonderful lectures and I started knowing these people that I'd always seen in the little caricature sketchbooks live, got to know them, one in particular Gordon Salko, who in a way founded the graphic design program in the late 60s, 67, 68. And I got to teach as an adjunct for a full year to replace someone who was on sabbatical, a woman named Ann Gory Goodman, and they're, lo and behold, they're part of the faculty of the UC graphic design program. And that whole year got me to be introduced, learn more, that it's not just the graphic design program, it's the whole University of Cincinnati. The black and red I would start seeing often. And what about the school? But anyway, it just gave me an inside look as to how the, not only the program operated, but the whole university, the culture. There was always that energy that seemed to exist to pursue excellence, but have fun at the same time. It was a very, very diversified collection of people, not only in the faculty, but in the students. And I enjoyed that. And but yeah, so the expectations of walking in or seeing a house for sale on the web nowadays, and you go, wow, that's really nice. And then when you do go and visit, all the expectations are met. And that's what it was for me. Just as I, when did I first start knowing about UC? That's cool. So next, what did you hope like your students took away from your classes in Utah here? What was that? What did you hope your students took away from your classes? Took away from my classes? Well, one thing about me in teaching, I have both a good many years professional practice as well as teaching. But I wanted to teach always because I'm one of those to give it back. Because I had some incredible teachers and mentors that really it's about developing yourself and finding your skill sets, your knowledge, your expertise and using it to make a difference in the world. And to give that commitment, hopefully it will be adopted by your students. One thing about me that you need to know that because it does relate to your question about students take away is how much your your life will impact your early life, your things unexpected will really shape not only who you are, but it will also direct you to what you become and how events that occurred in your life early, you won't realize that how they'll reemerge and really make an important impact on what you do with the everything that you work on every project to back up all the way. I'm from Cuba. I came to America. I was in hot political buttons today, an immigrant. But I remember the difficulty of not being accepted at first. I remember my mother dressing me up for the first day of grade school, first grade. And this is in Hoboken, New Jersey, kind of rough neighborhoods and all that. And my mom didn't realize Americans are very informal. But if I have this old picture somewhere, but I can describe it, I was wearing a suit, a tie coat, and even an attaché little bag for a kid. And here I'm going to this whole rough school, the Catholic school, St. Peter's and Falls. And it was a place where a lot of longshoremen worked in their families, they worked in the docks. And so here comes this kid doesn't speak English coming up with this little satchel in his bag and suit and all that. Anyway, it started to set in motion my desire to always communicate, always be understood, that people comprehend me. Communication became very important for me. And so from there on, I didn't realize that many years later, when I was trying to decide what exactly I was going to do with my design, was to create communications for other people to understand data, to understand abstract concepts, how to communicate in bilingual trilingual ways. And but for the students to realize my students in my field, that we're communicators, that we have this incredible privilege. I just wrote an essay on it, I called it the quiet conservator, that that's what we are as graphic designers, quiet conservators, conservators of the probably the greatest invention human kind ever came up with was writing, you know, all that that's on your paper. We take it for so much for granted. But when you think about it, it is an amazing invention, that those little marks that are on that page, convey sound, phonetic sounds, and it's incredible flexibility and resilient. But so that's what I tell my students when they walk away with, do you realize how what an honor you guys have that you get to handle this invention, this greatest invention of mankind, human kind. And, and that you can do something with your abilities, you when you know how it's working, how it operates, how it functions, and that you can make a difference in someone's life, not in masses, but in very incremental ways, just someone able to read instructions on how to put together a device or how to find their way on a map or whatever. But they have a lot of amazing power for good. So that's what I like to get my students to walk away with. That's amazing. So next, you said that when you came here, you like heard of, you see through those two students, and then through them, it just kind of like open your eyes. And then can you talk about like your hiring process, and like what they did to hire you here? Uh, so this would have been in 2003. Well, the hiring process would go as usual, you generate a number of candidates, this I know real well, because I was in a way an administrator, and I know all the workings. But you make sure what you need, what expertise you need for the curriculum. You have to post it on a number of publications and nowadays on the internet, it was still in its infancy then. And you first have, you know, people review the documentation, the resumes, a portfolio, your publishing work, and then they will narrow it down to people they're going to have a phone interview about seeing the person whether he's got didn't shave correctly or nothing. That's unknown. But just to hear this person and how they respond to a whole set of questions, like you're doing right now. And even though I knew the people that were here, I'd always admired them and was very excited and nervous. It was a tough interview. You know, they asked good questions, but they were very challenging ones, ones that intellectually, you really had to go to quite a depth to answer correctly. And, you know, so they would have these mysterious people. I mean, I know who they were, some of them I did, but then you hear these voices coming on the other end of the phone, asking you this question and then asking that question. And what would you do if this happened in the classroom? What are your feelings about this article that was written by so and so? And so a little sweating there that took place. And, and then they said, you know, after about an hour or so, that ends. And they said, well, we'll call you back. Let you know. Thank you for your time. And then you get that call from the search committee chair. Her name was McChrystal Wood at the time. And to inform you that you've now made the next round to come on campus to interview. And now you have to get to prepare a whole presentation, a presentation given to an audience of students, faculty, and it's open to the public. And boy, how do I prepare? What do they want to hear? You want to make sure you can speak to that audience. But yet you have students who just entered the program, and they don't have any idea what design is. And yet you have faculty and professional practitioners from the city, who are going to be there. So how do you with these extreme levels, how do you make a presentation? And you have many meetings. First with the dean and you have one with the school director. Then you have one with the faculty of that program, usually a lunch. And then you have one with the students. So it's a long marathon day of just questions and the same questions are asking, you have to come up and write answers. And, and then you finish it with the search committee, usually in this room. In fact, it probably took place in this room. Yeah. And it's called the exit interview. So the presentations, you walk it through. You have about an hour. How do you meet up an hour? Time, how do you address things? You go back to the job description, where they exactly looking for? How do you give some facts about yourself? Some little nuggets, I call them that they can help remember you more in a positive way. I remember the theme I was using, I still think of myself as a foreigner, even though I don't have an accent anymore or whatever, but I still think I'm not in a very detrimental way that I'm an outsider, but I just know that difference, but I'm still have that. But I use it to my advantage, because as a designer, we design for other people. We design for people that might not think like us, don't have our education level, don't have our skill sets. But I always try to bear that in mind on any new problem I have to solve. How does it experience for the first time? Like a good designer will tell you if they're designing for the web or an interaction device or for a map or whatever, you always design for the novice, the first timer. You don't design for the full expert because the expert will obstacles forget it, they just plow through it. But we always design for the novice or the intermediary person. And so having that memory I had when I couldn't speak English or whatever, that sense of inability of not being involved, I always keep that in mind. And that's always helped, I think, make me a better designer. So you said that you, you're in administration? Well, I was, I think when you're a program coordinator, it is an administrative, you know, you have to involve in hiring, involved in scheduling. So even though technically they don't have it as administrator, but I wearing many several hats. So just go on that question, like how did you feel about and interact with the administration? Well, for the, I can't speak for every, you know, all the departments throughout the campus, all the units. But I know with us, it was a very one of always mutual respect. Always very accessible, the administration was always willing to be supportive. Because many time I had already known them years before, as professional colleagues, or as fellow educators. And then as they advanced and became more senior and finally, full administrative roles as director and dean. One thing I always remember was the on a consistent basis with support for any ideas that you have any proposals. They might not happen because of budgetary limitations, but there was always 100% support for any new idea you were proposing something, you know, your new course content you were proposing, a new teaching methodology you wanted to introduce, you wanted to create an event. I never ever heard the word no, you know, but that's not of course, that's a stupid idea. 100%. Okay, let's figure out how we're going to do it. And I think it's because they were themselves at that, you know, at some time, a junior faculty senior faculty member, who also wanted to make a difference, not only with the students, but with society and the university community as a whole. Yeah. So it was very congenial. It was very amiable. All of them were and very receptive doors always open type thing. Yeah, I never saw any barriers. So you were here 15 years? Yes, almost 15 years. Did you like what changes did you like witness at UC? Well, the biggest one was the going to semesters. Oh, really? I remember at the time when Oh, my God, people who see before I had taught already at other schools, Carnegie Mellon, I taught at Ohio State, they had orders to Montana State. I was used to semesters. And and then when I came here to UC, and everything was 10 week quarters, my God, I felt they were so fast. They I mean, either. Before you know the course is done, you know, you got to get people to submit work and get work done. But I remember the UC community, Bearcat Nation was concerned about, Oh, my God, it's going to be the end of the world. No more quarters were switching to semesters. What's going to happen? And I remember all these meetings took place brainstorm sessions, transition meetings. How are we going to take all these courses? Some had to be combined. Others had to stay. But then we had to add five more weeks. How are we going to do that? Teachers were scratching their heads. I'm not going to add more course content. But sun came up. We were now semesters. That course content you had, I remember towards the end, they even say, Oh, my God, I don't have enough time in these 15 weeks. I need more. But that was huge. That was a big event. And I was here for part of that history to switch from quarters to semesters. Do you know why quarters existed? No. In fact, it started at Ohio State. If quarters were in were, I don't know the actual workings of it. But as it was told to me, quarters were created the short academic terms of 10 weeks was after the Second World War, as the America as GI started coming back, they wanted to get these people back in the workforce to get their degrees. So it was seen as an accelerated way to get all these former GI's and all that men and women back into the workforce with degree programs and with proper training. So that was the 10 week quarters that was created. But yeah, I remember, Oh, there were people just scared to death, people who were students and then taught here at UC. I mean, quarters was like, that's so set in stone. It was like an architecture, but no. Other changes, the technology changes, of course, were dramatic. I mean, just in that short amount of time, 15 years, something a long time, but there were a lot of developments. And sizes grew, but not the caliber of the students. That's one thing, you know, I could compare Ohio State friends, I don't mean anything by, but I could tell the caliber of the students at UC were just a little bit higher. The admission standards were just a little bit higher. And I always noticed that. From the first days I was here, you know, the type of questions I would ask the inquiries from students. Incredible work ethics always. I would have I was always hoping for a class that I'd call my Nike class, because they were students that just did it. You know, no complaints, they just did it. And they reminded me a lot because I did mention Montana State. I taught in that's where I started teaching in 7980. And this is in Bozeman, Montana. And I had students that came from towns of no more than 200 populations. Some had never even seen a big city. And but they had incredible work ethic because a lot of them came from farms and they knew to get to a certain goal we had to put in a lot of work. So they reminded me, in fact, I remember you kidding some of the UC students, I said, you must be from a farm. They said, why are you saying that? But yeah, I saw a lot of changes in how different academic programs had to adjust curriculums as new knowledge was being added and expanded, not only new technical skills, but just the body of knowledge was growing. And so how do you accommodate that? I saw a lot of curriculums like even within the one here, courses that used to be so foundational, finally, have become too specialized. Curriculums were becoming more of a generalist approach, especially in the undergraduate levels. And that's something that's going on now been going on for quite some time. What other changes? The diversification never changed. In fact, we used to, our director at the time, Robert Probst, who would eventually become our Dean, he'd always call us the UN College, because we always were real rich with different perspectives. And that's something I've always enjoyed and I needed always to thrive in with my kind of work design work. It mirrored real well the outside in the professional community. Because I always liked working with teams of people from different specialties, different areas, work on a project with a child psychologist and engineer, a IT person, a writer. I mean, I just love those different perspectives. So have you seen like UC's priority, like shift? That's like a whole campus since you've been here. So much prior orities, but I've always seen it very welcoming, very eagerly wanting to accommodate the new technologies and trying to find often synergy between different disciplines, you know, really mirroring the interdisciplinary nature of the field, the professional field, the community, because the type of problems that exist today in society are so complex, one discipline alone can't solve it all. And I think UC was always very strong advocate for that that was always encouraged. I mean, their research grant programs they would provide undergraduates always stipulated an interdisciplinary grant, forcing, I don't want to say forcing, but really encouraging faculty to, you know, walk our golfs campus, go to the medical school, go to the business school, go to the marketing, going to, you know, see if there's some possible collaboration. And that's something that I remember from when I first arrived 2003, the university was always a strong advocate for that. So going on to kind of similar. Where do you like see UC going in the future? Where do I see them going? I don't have an answer. It's just a big question. Yeah, because it's so many things could happen. I think the universe, I mean, one spirit or quality or attribute, whatever you want to call it was this incredible high sense of optimism. That's always existed. I never seeing that ever being on decline. I think we're the university will start because of this encouragement of interdisciplinary education that there's going to be creations of new disciplines that don't even have names yet that I think they're going to be born right here on this campus. Some mergers are going to take place, some evolution, some morphing of different knowledge bases are going to start taking place. I think they already have. I think the, it's an excitement, but I'm trying to think about how best to put it. I think the university has always seen attuned to social issues that have gone on. They do, you know, art and supporters for a community of humankind, with all its tapestry, rich tapestry that it has, and it wants to continue that. It doesn't want to ever exclude. It's always been inclusive since the day one. That's something that my former classmates Paula and Mark way back at Yale would share that with me, because it came from different diverse backgrounds. Whatever it is, I'll just say it, I won't be surprised. It's never been, I mean, you hear the University of Cincinnati, you know, technically as it started used to be a city university. But I don't think it's ever seen themselves as ever been locked into just within a city. It just goes by name. I mean, it's really the University of the world. It's what it is. I mean, there's barricades all over the world. Even in Antarctica, you know, I probably need a coat. And I think that's what the university has always proposed is, I mean, you know, we have amazing dynamic problem solvers that we produce. And we try to create exchanges to better understand each other. And we want to do it with the most capable people we have would inspire me. And I think they'll always be there. I mean, I'm using him always as an example of my consulting work. You notice my name that consulting is called bridge. I do that in honor of I forgot his first name, but Strauss who designed engineer help engineer the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, UC alumni. Because I use it as an analogy for what I believe I create bridges, I'm a bridge builder, I bridge communication. And he created this beautiful bridge that a step from an aesthetic point of view. It's intriguing. It's attractive. And yet hundreds of thousands of people cross that bridge every day going to work, going to meet have lunch with their loved one, going to teach some students at an elementary school on the other side of the bridge. And they might take just a hundredth of a second glance to look up at the bridge and see that beautiful red color. And that's how I like to see my designs that. Sure, I'm going to make it look attractive. But it's what it does. And what it can do how it performs. And, and that's one thing that, you know, the university gave me role models like that. And how to explain what I want to do in design. So that we take care of the big question. So talking about like that bridge, talking about, like, what would you say would be your most proud accomplishment like at UC. There's so many. And that's something the university made it possible. But I think one of the largest ones that I touched on in 2010, we completed myself and four other teachers from four other schools. We were involved in this National Design Initiative, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. And they are strong supporters of medical improving medical literacy. And myself and that the three other teachers at other schools were part of the school consortium to work on this National Design Initiative to help people who are LEP stands for limited English proficiency. Because a growing problem and it still exists today that there are thousands approaching the millions of people who English is their second language. Some they still can't speak English. And yet, health care facilities around the country have these huge issues. How do they communicate? How do we help way find someone to get to their radiology test and they don't speak English? They can't create eight different signs and eight different languages is just not feasible. So it's always been known through research and studies that have been done that symbols universal symbols as the term can break through those barriers. So this was part of a project National Design Initiative to develop a set standard of symbols that would be placed in hospitals to help people that are in these different language groups. And it was a project that had been ongoing. But this was the second phase of students from these. And maybe after the interview, I can show you a reference and I can send you a PDF later. You can see we develop 50 universal symbols for students to be used in public domain hospitals. The children's here uses them right now. These were all user tested in a very scientific method ways. We were using a research method by this Austrian fellow and how to have data enough and a enough of a percentage of results that this is working to qualify it. And then at the end of these two years, 50 standardized symbols were produced and created is now in the public domain. And of those 50 17 came from UC students. The basis of the came from there. And so it's very relevant to me because at the beginning I said I didn't know any English at all. And that here I came to this university and the university through my association with it. We got introduced to this program, this proposal. We applied for it. We became part of this consortium was on NPR radio this work that we did. So here I was not only giving back to students, but also giving back to people that are at this moment right now are trying to find their way for dialysis session and their daughter dropped them off but he can't speak English and get their way. And the students themselves when we were going through that process. I remember the many iterations we created the many testings we had graduate students from here, who came from different parts of the world, you know, and they provided a great perspective saying no, for you guys you understand the states but for us this means this real quick example like the symbol for alternate health care. It was a symbol of acupuncture and all that. And I remember the Asian students with the graduates were saying, well, for us, that's not alternate health care. You know, that's a very integral part of their medical treatments in Asia acupuncture. So we got a lot of other students to think twice while they never would have thought of that. You know, how do you connect? How do you create these bridges? And but yeah, that, along with many others, I was very proud of doing that. And, and I still get emails from the some of those student participants, how much they enjoyed that project, how it made them a better designer, even though they're not working on more symbols, but it made them think have some empathy for people that they're working for. But yeah, it's called hablamos juntos in Spanish means we speak together. That was the name of the program. If you I can send you a link later, I'll send it to you in the email. And you can look at up. There's all this documentation done. But hablamos juntos we speak together. It started by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, but they funded the one of the California Medical Schools is where they started because in California, of course, that's a big issue. And but yeah, that's one of the proudest projects. And even though I didn't design each the symbol, but I helped advise and guide many of the students and we together as a team. I mean, I went out to Mason, we conducted these surveys with there's a large Chinese community up there. And you can see them having to figure out these symbols. And do they mean this? It's a very intriguing method. They they the display like you come up with five candidate symbols for mental health. Okay, and you put one here in this part, they're there all five. And then they're asked a basic question of these five symbols, which percentage of the population US population you think would understand that symbol, this mental health? Oh, I only think 20% would get this or only 5% or zero. But then someone puts 82%. It had a rise medium of anything above 80%, meaning it's pretty effective. And so we've gathered the data and then we see why this one's very weak, why this one doesn't work. And then we do it again and test these people. So and that's something I love because in my area graphic design, it's usually not ever tested. Or, you know, how do you know that thing is going to work? Here's the data, here's the test we've done. And so yeah, that was a proud moment. The Oblomos Huntos project. Okay, yeah. I've looked into that. Yeah. Sure. So I guess, kind of talking about like, you went out and did surveys in Mason about that. One of the questions is, have you seen used or how have you seen UC connect to Cincinnati? You mean with the city itself? I think it I've seen it a lot in the ground roots of it, maybe not on a high profile, political and platform, but in the grassroots, by that of having students do field trips out to a technical facility, like in my area, printing facility, or working on these symbols, we would go visit the airport and make observations, see how people look, you know, do kind of ethnographic studies, you know, like an anthropologist and watch how people interact with signs and symbols. Some of the senior capstone projects we do someone would do a wayfinding app for the different neighborhoods in Cincinnati. And here they go when they start conducting field trips, the students themselves, they would tell citizens in the different neighborhoods, we're working on what we're trying to do. So they get, you know, you know, they learn about the university, but here's students trying to attempt better connections, better ways to document the heritage of each of these neighborhoods, these communities, these historic communities, how to give them an identity, how to get people to start talking about their neighborhoods and all that. We did that several times in their communication, the graphic design programs, whether doing a brand identity for Oakley or Mount Adams or whatever. I remember many team of students would take one neighborhood and then try to create and understand the history of that community, how they get started. Oh, there were all these famous characters at one time, they'd hook up with the amateur historian and all this and that. And I think that's something how the I've always enjoyed and felt a lot of gratification that the students in a way are helping create these quick works, you know, with all the neighborhoods within the city. What other things that have done? Yeah, because the city acts as the their backyard. I mean, it's their their scenery. It's like their landscape. It's like their national park. They discover and they learn the qualities of a place. I know some of those teams when I before they would go out and they don't know anything about these neighborhoods, I'd always remark that famous Hawthorne book, the Scarlet Leather, because at the very beginning, if you ever read that high school, the beginning there was the the customs house is a little kind of intro. And if you remember, he Hawthorne mate, which was a good point, and I told the student teams this, remembering the native will sometimes take for granted the qualities of a place that attributes, it takes the outsider to start recognizing them and resurrecting them and making them aware again, of those wonderful characteristics and qualities of a place. And I think that's what the students did as they created and form these relationships with different people. So that's the way I think the university connects with the city. So maybe moving on to one of the last questions, I guess, was there at a time that university like you felt could have done some better or disappointed you? Oh, my goodness. I don't think it even needs a university, any organization you work with there always could be cases, you know, you wish there would have done a little bit more. I think when you're not in the administration, you don't know all the workings that go on behind the scenes and sometimes something can be possible. But I can never recollect a wall, you know, not a wall of lack of vocal support, or attempts to help make that a reality. There was always maybe some financial limitations, some event occur that just impacted that ever happening. But I don't remember I don't for me anyway, I don't ever recall a resistance of that kind. I think the universe I think it's really was always up to you. You can make it possible. There was never any shackles or anything holding you back. You could go as far as you wanted to see how far the endurance would take you. But I never recall it being a any resistance. Okay. So I think we've gone through basically all the questions. Is there anything else that you'd like to tell me that we haven't talked about? Just the that the highlights in my career, both teaching and professionally that wouldn't have been possible. Had I not been here and had not the university and and I'm saying that sincerely. I mean, you know, my mom used to say believe in fate. I used to think that I used to disagree with her. But maybe she's right. But some good opportunities came along. It was here. The Ablamo Suntos project, I would have never had access to that. I would have never, you know, encountered it. And yet there's that wonderful opportunity that I got to experience and and and make a difference. And it's something that's still ongoing for those students that were involved. And those people, as I said, that are right now in some medical facility. I'll never meet them. My students will never meet them. But you know, it made a difference incrementally, you know, but yeah, I mean, that would not have happened had I not come here to the university. All right. Well, I think that's all the questions that we have. Okay. Thank you for your time. I appreciate the answers. Okay. All right, so we're good. You're all good.