Vanderbilt first-years put their questions to the dean.
CommonsCast comes from students living in Vanderbilt's first-year Commons, and its recent episodes put them across from Dean Melissa Grisolfi. They ask what new arrivals ask: how to choose among hundreds of clubs, how to handle homesickness, and whether to trade sleep for a night out with the floor.
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CommonsCast covers life in the Commons, the part of Vanderbilt where first-year students live, and those students are the ones holding the microphone. The recent episodes rest on one pairing. Student interviewers, different ones each time, sit down with the Dean of the Commons, Melissa Grisolfi. Elliot Cruz, Kyla Wagstaff, Jacob Silverman and Callie Tuck are among the students who have taken that chair. Their questions are the practical, slightly anxious ones of the first weeks of college. How do you choose clubs when there are more than 450 registered student organizations? What helps once orientation ends and homesickness arrives? If you have slept badly for days and your floor is heading out, do you go? The episodes also refer to each other: one interviewer picks up a thread from an earlier conversation with Jacob about how uncomfortable the transition can be. The dean thinks out loud rather than reciting policy. She points out that college is often the first time students make these choices without another adult setting the rules, and she calls the question of what matters most a lifelong one. She argues that struggle is worth having, since a place with so many resources is a good place to learn how to recover when things go wrong. On workload, she tells new students that the first weeks are lighter than what follows, and that they will look back surprised at how much more efficient they have become. She is candid about her own doubts as well. The Commons Cup, a friendly competition played for bragging rights, sounded like a terrible idea to her until she learned it was about a lot more than athletics. Another conversation turns to identity, and to the gap between the loud version of Vanderbilt culture and the quieter students whose contributions are easier to miss. There is some history too: the Commons opened in 2008, before the dean was at the university. And there is plenty of small talk. She describes her dinners for students, catered and built around an enormous salad she is sometimes alone in eating, and she recommends Dumpling House on Belcourt. Asked about the top of West End tower, she declines and says that secret will die with her. She calls the weekly events the best part of her job and says she loves it when students come back, even for a quick chat. One episode loosens the format into a conversation built on three questions. The sign-offs point to mycommons.life and often close on 'anchor down.'
Made for: Suits a listener who is starting, or about to start, first-year life in Vanderbilt's Commons and wants frank answers on clubs, homesickness, workload and fitting in. It also fits anyone curious how a university's first-year residential program looks from the inside.
What sets it apart: Here the students set the agenda: first-years question the Dean of the Commons directly, and she answers frankly, down to admitting that the Commons Cup once sounded like a terrible idea to her. What comes out is first-year advice that still has its rough edges.
CommonsCast is a weekly podcast and features the Dean's Minute, the Commons Calendar, and a first-year student interviewing interesting "Humans of the Commons"
A stolen umbrella and the dean's favorite lawn: exactly the campus minutiae you came for.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose Commons conversation connects Vanderbilt traditions, Dean's dinners, election guests, and everyday food talk.
CommonsCast frames first-year life at Vanderbilt's Commons as a relaxed conversation about the traditions, meals, and invitations that help a residential community feel lived in.
Melissa Grisolfi links club choice, time management, and sleep to the larger work of building a sustainable student life.
CommonsCast looks at campus life as a set of choices students have to make while still carrying the demands of an academic schedule. Dean of the Commons Melissa Grisolfi starts with the scale of more than 450 registered student organizations, but her real focus is less on…
A grounded conversation on identity, belonging, and the quieter ways students shape campus culture.
Elliot Cruz's conversation with Dean of the Commons Melissa Grisolfi gives identity at Vanderbilt a measured, student-facing frame. It starts with narrative identity, the story people carry about who they are, then shifts toward the daily work of belonging in the Commons.
A grounded guide to finding support, friendship, and belonging during the first year at Vanderbilt.
Commonscast's first 2024 episode frames the first year at Vanderbilt as a search for connection: finding help, making friends, and building a sense of belonging.
A reflective Commons finale links summer plans, campus belonging, and Drew Spiegel's work around gun violence prevention.
CommonsCast ends the year in a warm, reflective register, with Dean Melissa Grisolfi looking toward a summer of family time in Brevard, North Carolina, and focused writing with her doctoral students.
Careful conversations for better college teaching.
Calm, specific college admissions guidance.
Campus radio from the wrong side of reality.
Learning science for real educational practice.
Campus decisions, Northeast news, and Northeast priorities.
CommonsCast host Callie Tuck asks Dean of the Commons Snicker Salty and Madeline Pelletier about Vanderbilt’s freshman experience, housing, student resources, motivation, and campus life.
CommonsCast Ep 164 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi discussing how Vanderbilt students can choose among more than 450 student organizations while building academic and personal routines.
CommonsCast Episode 163 features Elliot Cruz talking with Dean of the Commons Melissa Grisolfi about identity at Vanderbilt, including the difference between narrative identity and participatory identity.
CommonsCast Ep 160-August 21 2024 opens with Vanderbilt Dean Melissa Grisalfi telling first-years that Arts and Science students do not declare a major until sophomore year.
["CommonsCast Episode 159 on April 17, 2024 centers on Dean Melissa Grisolfi telling Vanderbilt first-years to treat summer as rest and exploration, not a deadline to lock in a major.", "She says Arts and Science students do not need to declare a major until spring of sophomore year, and she cites her own ice-cream-store summer before Stanford as proof that non-linear choices still matter.", "The Commons calendar stacks Wellness Wednesday, Caf\u00e9 con Ciencia, Cookies and Crab, and other April 17-22 events across Rand Wall, Buttrick 302, Centennial Park, and Commons South Patio Lawn.", "Drew Spiegel, a Gillette House resident from Deerfield, Illinois, talks about Students Demand Action, the Highland Park Parade shooting, and why campus activism shaped his year at Vanderbilt."]
CommonsCast Episode 158 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi answering first-year questions about finals preparation, Nashville sightseeing, and what students should do before leaving Vanderbilt’s Martha Rivers Ingram Commons.
CommonsCast Episode 157 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi discussing her college involvement in a cappella, musical theater, a sorority, and a psychology honor society at Franklin and Marshall.
CommonsCast Episode 156 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi discussing peanut-butter routines, Fresh Air, Radiolab, More Perfect, Hidden Brain, Pixar’s Up, and Nashville concerts.
CommonsCast Episode 155 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi discussing Vanderbilt's remaining five weeks, including weekly Dean's Dinners, Explore Nashville trips, orientation-leader training, and the Commons Cup block party.
CommonsCast Episode 154 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi discussing spring-break inequality at Vanderbilt and the Alternative Spring Break program funded partly through Opportunity Vanderbilt.
CommonsCast Episode 153 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi discussing her renewed role at Vanderbilt's Martha Rivers Ingram Commons and her emphasis on student identity.
CommonsCast Episode 152 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi discussing Dean’s Dinners, a Vanderbilt Commons tradition funded to connect students with faculty since the Commons opened in 2008.
CommonsCast Episode 150 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi discussing productivity, academic overwork, and her attempt to take an impromptu Chicago trip with her sister and cousins.
CommonsCast Episode 149 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi answering Lauren's questions about broken bones, walking across Vanderbilt's campus, rain pants, and email etiquette.
CommonsCast Episode 148 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi advising Vanderbilt freshmen to explore classes, student organizations, Nashville, and the Career Center during their eight semesters.
CommonsCast Episode 147 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi discussing winter break, campus routines, New Year’s resolutions, and procrastination with Anissa Patel.
CommonsCast Episode 146 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi reflecting on first-year students’ shift from nervous newcomers in August to confident residents by December 2023.
CommonsCast Episode 144 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi explaining how research on children’s math learning and Paul Cobb brought her to Vanderbilt twice, including a 2013 return from Indiana University.
CommonsCast Episode 143 features Dean Melissa Grisolfi discussing her 3-to-17 education at Roper City and Country School in Michigan and Vanderbilt's one-credit Common Seminars.
Dean Melissa Grisolfi gives advice to incoming freshmen about reading syllabi and understanding AI policies in college courses.
Dean Melissa Grisolfi discusses the end of the first-year spring semester with student host Abby.
A first-year student interviews the dean about an upcoming Dean's Dinner on racism and anti-Semitism at Vanderbilt's residential college.
Dean Grisolfi gives advice to a first-year student about pursuing leadership and involvement on campus as a rising sophomore.