Oral History Interview with Vicki Karns (SOH-070 video recording and transcript)

Karns, Vicki · 2022

In this interview, Professor Emerita Vicki Karns discusses different aspects of her early career and her time at Suffolk University as a faculty member in the Communications Department. Karns details her extensive involvement in student-focused programs such as the Student Government Association, the Performing Arts Office (PAO), and the Forensic Debate team. She describes the founding and evolution of the PAO, including involvement in running Fall Fest and Spring Fest as well as her roles in preforming arts festivals and theatre productions. She goes on to explain the nuts and bolts of running Suffolk’s forensic debate team and the importance of that kind of experience for undergraduate students. She also discusses how she got into communications and how the field has changed over the course of her career. The interview concludes with a discussion of her role in creating and directing the CAS 101 program for first-year students, plus her experience teaching online courses and at Suffolk’s former campus in Dakar, Senegal.