Spotlights
Brent Smith: Reflections at Retirement
May 01, 2024
We bid adieu to a valued colleague this month, associate professor Brent Smith of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies. Brent has been a part of GVSU and Brooks College since 2010. He has taught primarily in the Religious Studies program. He is also a Doctor of Ministry (DMin). His warmth is cherished by our Brooks College community, as he always made time for a chat or stroll, connecting with others on a personal level. At his retirement gathering, Brent delivered a moving and meaningful speech sharing his insights and journey:
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"Thank you so much for the kind words and for all of you giving the gift of your presence here in this location at this time. Location, where a person has been that brings them to where they are, is a central concept in interdisciplinarity, and here, now, with you, I am reminded of the most religiously stupid song ever recorded, “My Way,” sung by Sinatra, lyrics by Paul Anka, because no one ever “did my way,” What we do is through the grace, generosity, criticism, assessment, and care, the gift of others willing to give hard truths with assuring hugs. In this rite of passage location, beginning to separate from an old identity, I am so grateful for you.
And I am grateful for the GVSU Presidents Don Lubbers and Thomas Haas, two completely different GVSU Presidents save for two things. Both embody a passionate devotion to liberal education in the university classroom, and both bear a love for students. Read President Lubbers’ book on Liberal Education, Old Hopes for a New Place. It should be mandatory reading for every GVSU President. And thousands of students received a selfie with President Hass, and they sought him out because they knew he cared about their lives and their future. Every GVSU President should understand why students did this. In this location now you are amidst history with Dean Wenner, Brooks’ pioneering Dean, a visionary to be consulted should GVSU ever, say, move to split a college to create a new one. She knows firsthand the challenges and how to navigate them, and it would be good planning to consult her. My current Dean Mark Schaub, and Assistant Dean, Melanie Shell-Weiss, and my colleagues from the old day, and current colleagues of the present day, I thank you, and Ginele, Mary, Maureen, Noreen, and Lynnette. And my family – Liz and Alejo, and Malakai and Luka; and Josh and Ashley and the hope they bear into the new day. And most of all, Pat, my companion and soulmate and, no disrespect to all of you, the smartest person I’ve known. Thank you.
There has never been such a thing as “doing it my way,” and you the evidence.
Please indulge me, just a few final words, not a sermon, but a reminder of what over the years you so patiently taught me. This location is the student’s home. They live here. We work here. And we fail them when we treat them or this location any other way. You taught me they’re not parishioners, not customers, statistics, or subjects for grand designs. They’re residents in their home, GVSU students here to learn.
And we serve them when we remember what many in this room embodied in their time here, to be emulated in all times, that the central location where the university’s mission is carried out, is the classroom, the student’s living room. Because this isn’t a trade school or an employment agency or a launching pad for the next big thing in higher ed, nor a resume builder for anyone of us. This is the home of the student learner, the hope of the new day. The university is for gathering and giving away knowledge. Gather from the world, give away to students.
My cup overfloweth with gratitude, for you charged me with this in 2010 and loved me into the shape of its noble design, for it is education in the classroom that makes students free. I now return the charge back to your care. Study the old days. People who don’t know history aren’t doomed to repeat as the determinist said. They’re ignorant, and are content with living lacking knowledge. Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity at Grand Valley didn’t begin with executive fiat and administrative structure, but in a classroom, U.S. 201. Religious Studies was planted in a student survey long before it received administrative approval. Study the old day to understand the present day and bring it to the students in their living room, the classroom, the axis mundi of hope bearing the freedom bequeathed by the life of the mind. Study the old day to understand the present day, so all can love the new day.
Oh, and please forgive me. It was a sermon after all!"
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Best Wishes, Brent, and thank you for the words of wisdom!