On Tuesday, April 22, Auburn’s Student Government Association hosted its annual Final Lecture, featuring Eric Negangard. An associate professor of accountancy, Negangard spoke about his personal experiences with technology and building relationships in a lecture titled, “Trust in Your Tiger Stripes: The Importance of Relationships and Trust.”
Negangard was nominated to be the Final Lecture's speaker by Auburn students who wanted one final opportunity to hear from their favorite professor. This year, over 70 students and staff filled Horton-Hardgrave Hall’s Broadway Room for the event.
Negangard referred to credibility as a key component to building trust and relationships and established his own credibility by introducing himself and his previous experiences. He highlighted studying at Virginia Tech and teaching at the University of Virginia, working in forensic studies and most recently, moving to Auburn with his family in July 2024.
“I know from my life that in my career, the single most important determinant of my success has been my ability to learn and apply technologies,” Negangard said.
As an avid consumer and lover of new technologies, Negangard exposed the two diametrically opposed forces that come into play in the modern world: the necessity to succeed in adapting to technology, versus the difficulties caused from spending life immersed in technology instead of forming real, meaningful relationships.
He refers to Jonathan Haidt’s bestselling book, "The Anxious Generation," as a foundation that reinforces the distraction that screen time can be in the lives of young people and Auburn students today. The key to reducing this anxiety? Finding trust and establishing secure relationships.
“If [students] stare at a screen for nine hours, that’s nine hours that they’re not forming relationships,” Negangard said. “Sacrificing intrapersonal relationships that only come from interacting with others.”
The fundamental trust equation helps to define trust in relationships by breaking it down into its fundamental components: credibility, reliability and intimacy, which are all influenced by the common denominator of self-orientation.
To reinforce the importance of trust as a credible gut feeling, Negangard turned to Artificial Intelligence, creating an intentionally mistake-ridden hype video for the Final Lecture. Presenting the video, Negangard pointed out what Auburn students quickly identified as mistakes: unrealistic offices and buildings, scarily similar blue-and-orange-clad students and an inaccurate rendition of Aubie the Tiger. Negangard’s video illustration proves that relationships and credibility can be tainted by skepticism when technology is involved.
George Petrie’s "The Auburn Creed" was displayed in support of Negangard’s message, since the creed highlights themes of trust and human relationships: “I believe in honesty and truthfulness [...]” and “I believe in the human touch [...]”
Keys to trust involve experience and tinkering because nothing new is easy or learned overnight. To make the most of the current moment, Negangard suggests embracing productive technology that is beneficial for personal and career development instead of addictive social media apps like Instagram or Facebook. After this, the final key to developing trustworthiness is to have mentors and a reliable, inspiring community of people around you.
In the new era of technology, there is a constant war waged on time. Negangard referred to this and encouraged Final Lecture attendees to "think long and hard about that thing that technology is trying to steal from you: technology is trying to steal time between you and others.”
“I really want you to think about how, in what’s left of your time here at Auburn, you can start to really focus on trust and relationships. I personally think it can only come from life’s experiences with others. You’ve got to find ways to do fun things with fun people, and boy, if you can learn some technology at the same time, you’re killing two birds with the same stone,” Negangard said.
At the conclusion of his lecture, Negangard was presented with the Final Lecture Award on behalf of Auburn's SGA by their graduate assistant, Riley Ferguson. Challenged to rethink their perspectives on trust and relationships, students had a chance to speak to Negangard, build their own connections and ask questions.
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