By Arden Berry | Staff Writer
Christian Clark, social media coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences, embarks on golf cart odysseys across campus in the relaunched series, “Cart Chronicles.”
When Clark arrived at Baylor in 2023, he said the College of Arts and Sciences did not have much of a social media presence.
“We wanted to restart and just start from the ground up,” Clark said. “Before I even came to Baylor, I was kind of ideating different opportunities for us to reach out in the community.”
Clark started with three video series: “Research Roundup,” “Live! On the Line” and “Cart Chronicles.”
“’Cart Chronicles’ was the more goofy, fun one that we had just a great part in,” Clark said.
The first episode was posted to the College of Arts and Sciences YouTube channel and Instagram account that October. The episode featured Clark and Dr. Julie Sweet, professor of history and director of military studies.
“When Christian first came to Baylor to launch the ‘Cart Chronicles,’ he just put out a call across the College of Arts and Sciences,” Sweet said. “It just so happened to be this semester that I was teaching the Boston Tea Party class, for which we did the reenactment — the Brazos Tea Party.”
Sweet in colonial uniform, they drove to Tidwell Bible Building to discuss Sweet’s Boston Tea Party class, which involved an entire semester dedicated to the Boston Tea Party for its 250th anniversary.
“I thought this would be perfect for my unusual class and this unusual social media activity,” Sweet said. “I mean, they just melded together.”
A few more episodes went up in spring 2024 about the eclipse-themed Diadeloso and Model UN, but the next episode was not released until Oct. 14 of this year.
“After a long hiatus, Cart Chronicles, the social media series highlighting stories from the Arts & Sciences community, is back!” the description for the YouTube video read.
The series returned for yet another historical milestone. Next year will be the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence being signed, which Baylor is celebrating with America 250. Clark said he and Sweet had talked over the summer about ways to spread awareness and generate excitement for this initiative.
“Cart Chronicles” returned with an episode called “All-American Cart Ride” in which Clark and Sweet rode around and asked students whether they would want to serve in the Continental Army or the Continental Navy.
“Usually when you say history, that puts people to sleep, but this is a way to make it interesting, exciting and different,” Sweet said.
Though the video is shorter than four minutes, Sweet said they spent two hours riding in the golf cart and meeting students.
“The conversations that we had and the answers that they gave — it seems trivial, it seems silly, but it really got them thinking,” Sweet said. “There were great teaching moments, there were great just personality moments that we got to interact with students. Anytime you can do something outside the classroom, it makes it so much [more] freeing and so much more exciting that way.”
Clark said his “ultimate goal” with the series is to amplify student voices.
“It’s not just departments, it’s also student organizations, too,” Clark said. “That’s something that I’ve been wanting to do. And so there are definitely opportunities for us for growth in that and also to amplify different voices around the community.”
There are currently six episodes of “Cart Chronicles” available on YouTube, with more America 250 episodes planned for this semester. After America 250, Clark said to stay tuned for what comes next.
“We’ve got to keep that under wraps, but we definitely have some big surprises coming for not only ‘Cart Chronicles,’ but the College of Arts and Sciences social media as a whole,” Clark said.
Overall, Sweet said “Cart Chronicles” is an excellent opportunity for all departments to do something outside of the classroom.
“Everybody needs to get on board the ‘Cart Chronicles,’” Sweet said.
