Asbury Park Press, N.J., At Your Job Column

By Asbury Park Press, N.J.

Mar. 26–Name: Brian Garvey

–Age: 56

–Education: I took my bachelor’s degree in English from Sacred Heart University in Bridgeport, Conn. I took my Ph.D. at the University of Bradford in England.

–Hometown: West Long Branch

–Employer: I’m the dean of the Honors School at Monmouth University, West Long Branch.

–Job description: The school deans have different duties, but what we have in common is we participate in the academic planning. This helps give direction and a vision. We cover everything from the logistics of delivering an education to curricular changes to innovative approaches to education, including technology in the classroom.

The Honors School draws its student population from every major. They fulfill all the requirements of their majors, but they also do it for an honors degree. They have to take 25 credits of honors courses across the four years.

The courses are thematically linked in the Honors School. So, instead of having separate English, anthropology and history classes, we create a connecting theme, and the same students move as a group from history to English to a social science, based on a theme like leadership and social responsibility or science, society and values.

QUESTION: How did you get your job?

ANSWER: I wanted to be a teacher since, I think, even before I went to school. When I got to school, I was always interested in the process of the classroom, and how some students could understand the information and some could not. So, I naturally pursued that avenue. It’s not a job so much as a vocation, a calling.

I was living in England, where I had done my graduate work. My father, who had moved from Belfast to New Jersey in 1922, settled in Neptune with my mother. I got a call that my father was deathly ill with cancer. I have four siblings, but they were established in homes. My mother had congestive heart disease, so she couldn’t take care of him. So, I volunteered to move in and take care of him. He lasted four years instead of the month predicted. It was wonderful, because I was getting lessons on how to face the end with dignity and courage and humor.

So, I was living locally, and I took a job at the university, which at the time was Monmouth College. I loved teaching here from the start. I was in the English department, and my specialty was in utopian literature.

I was interested in interdisciplinary education. Complex problems in the real world are not often addressed by a single field of study. War is one of those; you have to look at everything from economics, politics, history, etc.

So, in 1995, I chaired the department of interdisciplinary studies, where students could create their own curriculum charts by combing majors. So, if you had a student who was interested in art but was going to go into commercial graphic design, the student might take a block of courses from the art/graphic design major and combine them with the marketing department in business.

I was also the director of the honors program since 1992, and as those programs grew, it was too much to handle the sheer numbers. So, I chose to stay with honors.

Q: What is a typical day like?

A: We became an honors school in 2005 and I continued to teach. This is the first semester I haven’t been teaching because the number of students who have been doing their honors proposals and theses went from 23 last year to 52 this year. That’s a lot of 30-, 40- or 50-page papers to supervise.

I’m not the chief adviser; I’m the honors leg of a three-person committee. I meet with them at the beginning and discuss what the thesis should be, and I read drafts of their work and make recommendations and suggest research possibilities.

You have to be able to multitask in a big way. I get to think creatively about short-, medium- and long-range plans. I’m always asking how can we make things better. That’s what makes this, for me, a vocation.

The phone rings constantly, and the e-mail is voluminous, but I like solving problems. Working with my faculty colleagues to develop themes for first-semester freshman, to get them to the point that, by the end of the semester, they can give Power Point presentations on a topic of their choice, is very satisfying.

Q: What do you like about your job?

A: One of the most gratifying things about my job is working closely with students, supervising theses, helping them with registration issues and talking with them about the larger questions — not just what courses they’re going to take this semester, but their life plans and career philosophy. I think it’s important you do something you believe in and enjoy.

Q: What do you dislike about your job?

A: I’ve always liked to work hard, and I don’t mind working long hours, but I think it’s universally true of anyone who works for a large institution that there’s a lot of paperwork. Getting a seemingly simple task accomplished can take many layers of complex approaches and creative thinking. That can become frustrating.

Q: Suggestions for other people considering this type of work?

A: It’s got to be something you believe in as a valuable life’s work. That vocation sense is important.

Deans have to be creative in thinking about always moving their schools forward. You have to be ready to multitask and deal with surprises.

Edited for space and clarity from an interview with Assistant Business Editor Dennis P. Carmody. If you are interested in participating in this feature, please write to him at the Asbury Park Press, Business News, 3601 Highway 66, Box 1550, Neptune, NJ 07754-1551 or e-mail dcarmody@app.com

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