Trinity Magazine by Mary Denny
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. | ....The subject of this enthusiasm is John R. Brazil, a lanky, 6'4" native Californian and former president of Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. ....Although Dr. Brazil officially assumed the presidency of Trinity University on June 1, Trinity faculty and staff got their first glimpse of the new president last December, when an obviously delighted search committee introduced their unanimous choice at an open forum in Chapman Auditorium. The standing room only audience listened attentively as Trustee Robert McClane '61, chair of the search committee, recounted Dr. Brazil's credentials. |
....Indeed, Dr. Brazil has the right stuff. His A.B. in history from Stanford, M.Phil. and Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale, Fulbright scholarship, and membership in Phi Beta Kappa, and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies, and numerous scholarly publications attest to his intellectual vigor. A hugely successful capital campaign at Bradley - he exceeded the $100 million goal by $27 million - proves his prowess as a fundraiser. And a 23 -year academic career that includes positions with San Jose State University in California, University of Massachusetts/Dartmouth, as well as Bradley, speaks to his experience as an administrator and commitment to higher education.
....Impressive as his resume is, there were additional qualities that wowed the search committee. Says Gary Kates, acting dean of Humanities and Arts and a member of the committee, "All of us felt his love of teaching and knew it would be infectious. We knew he would lead by example. We also discovered that behind a certain soft-spoken and thoughtful character lies a very competitive person who is not satisfied unless he and everyone around him are performing at their best." Sarah Burke, professor of modern languages and literature, also served on the committee and was attracted by "his discussion of building community."
| ....The match appears to have been one of mutual admiration Dr. Brazil was happy at Bradley and not looking for a change. Initially, he agreed to meet with the search committee as a favor to a headhunter. However, "every time I met people from the Trinity community, I was impressed with them," he says, "and in a short time - two or three weeks - we became more and more attracted to them." |
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....From day one it was obvious that Dr. Brazil had caught and was exhibiting signs of Trinity spirit. One of his first acts was to visit the Art Department seeking student work to adorn his office walls. He also requested four enlarged photographs of campus scenes. They complement a large original painting of a tiger, the Trinity mascot, that dominates the west wall of the office. Demonstrating his respect for and willingness to encourage tradition, Dr. Brazil revived the opening convocation for first year and transfer students and was the first to climb the Trinity tower during the annual party prior to the opening of the academic year. From that vantage point, he was able personally to meet and welcome the incoming class.
....A round of meetings with Trustees, administrators, and student leaders also dominated the early agenda. Again Dr. Brazil earned high marks.
....Charles B. "Chuck" White, interim vice president for academic affairs, finds Dr. Brazil "reflective, thoughtful, and very responsive. He has a high regard for this faculty and a very firm sense of Trinity and its role in higher education," says White. Vice President for Student Affairs Coleen Grissom describes Dr. Brazil as "reserved, dignified, extremely intelligent, and focused." She is especially pleased by his eagerness to meet students and participate in new student orientation. On a more personal level, Grissom, the English professor and noted wit, was delighted to hear Dr. Brazil "quote both James Thurber and Woody Allen during our first private meeting."
....Junior Charlie Manzanares, president of the Association of Student Representatives, was among the first students to meet with Dr. Brazil. He and a small committee wanted to present the results of a student survey they had taken last spring related to student life. Manzanares terms the encounter "a thoughtful dialogue, formal yet laid back." He says the president was "very concerned, pleased to see a representative survey, very down to earth, and easy to talk to." Among the many issues they discussed were the role of the Greek system, faculty-student interaction, and the spiritual component of campus life.
....As Dr. Brazil methodically continues meeting various campus constituents, he tends to listen more than he speaks. In fact, he lists his number one priority this year as "doing everything I can to absorb [Trinity's] culture and practices, to meet its people, and to understand it from the inside out and the inside in."
His second priority will be "participating in and contributing where I can" to the faculty-initiated discussion that will be led by the Curriculum Council on the shape and context of the common curriculum. Ultimately the common curriculum will be determined by the outcome of discussion centered on What should a Trinity student know? What skills should they have? "This is a critically important faculty initiative that will mean a great deal to Trinity University," says Dr. Brazil.
....A third priority that will occupy much of this inaugural year is the search for three administrative positions to fill the vacancies left by Vice President for Academic Affairs Ed Roy, who stepped down this year, and Vice President of Student Affairs Coleen Grissom and Director of Admissions George Boyd, both of whom will retire next May.
....Even as Dr. Brazil immerses himself in Trinity culture, contributes to the discussion of common curriculum and oversees the "absolutely key" searches, he will also deal with a variety of issues that are challenging most institutions of higher learning. For example, he points out that in some ways higher education is in danger of becoming a commodity. "People seem to be more and more concerned about the degree instead of the learning it should represent" - a situation he finds personally distasteful because it forces schools to sell the value of a certificate. Factors such as price resistance, concerns about quality, and powerful third party payers that have dramatically changed many sectors of the economy--banking, transportation, and health care, for example - will ultimately begin to affect education. Although Dr. Brazil feels those forces will not have a dramatic impact on schools like Trinity, "we will certainly feel this." And, of course, "there are the more substantive intellectual issues about how you prepare people for the 21st century."
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. | ....While most educators are grappling with such issues, there are others on which Dr. Brazil is perfectly clear. Diversity is one. "A heterogeneous student population - not just domestic diversity, but international diversity - is as important as any other single factor in the personal development and intellectual growth of students" he states emphatically. The Hopwood decision, which struck down many efforts at affirmative action, will not have much effect on Trinity because "we are committed to that kind of diversity and we have the ability to generate it without running afoul of the law." |
....Technology is another area which Dr. Brazil views as a very expensive proposition but an "integral, absolutely unavoidable element" of higher education. "Technology will have, and continue to have even more than it has today, an impact on the way we learn, the way we teach, what we learn and what we teach." He sees the potential as overwhelmingly positive, but cautions, "We must master it, not have it master us. And I mean that in both the financial and intellectual sense."
....Student recruitment and retention will also receive renewed attention as Dr. Brazil anticipates increasing competition for a relatively unchanging pool of highly qualified students and for the resources to support them. Demographics will figure prominently in the recruitment effort as Dr. Brazil notes most demographic growth is going to be among populations that traditionally do not send their children to college. He also says Trinity is not for everybody. "It's a highly competitive environment. We want to avoid promising all things to all people."
....Although the priorities and tasks Dr. Brazil has set for himself leave little spare time, he and his wife, Janice Hosking Brazil, enjoy active sports and try to make time for golf, tennis, and skiing. Additionally, the Brazils share an interest in history, literature, and writing. He is a voracious reader and writer with two scholarly books in progress. Murder and Twenties America deals with the social phenomenon of murder and how the emphasis in both literature and popular culture has evolved from the intellectual approach to solving the crime to the current model where the physical act and its consequences take precedence over the solution. The Twenties on Trial deals with the era's most famous - or infamous - trials, such as Sacco and Vanzetti, Scopes, and Gen. Billy Mitchell, and the reactions and responses to them from virtually all academic disciplines.
| ....Janice Brazil, a native Kentuckian, met her husband in 1969 when he was leading and she was participating in an Experiment in International Living program. A published poet, she is especially fond of Robert Frost and Trinity's own Naomi Shihab Nye, whom she met several years ago when Nye spoke at Bradley. Most recently she has devoted much of her spare time to genealogy which allows her to combine her love of history and writing. Friendly, open, and down to earth, she shares her husband's interest in traditions and has already initiated what she hopes will become a special one for Trinity students: a contest for Trinity students to design the University's annual holiday card. The guidelines ask that it reflect the Trinity spirit. |
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....In addition to plenty of school spirit, Trinity's new first lady also possesses a sense of community spirit. One of the nicest things about being the wife of a college president, she says, is the opportunity it affords her to meet people and quickly become involved in civic and charitable affairs of the city.
....Interestingly, the Brazils are not strangers to San Antonio. They were stationed at Fort Sam Houston for three months in 1972 and celebrated their first anniversary on the San Antonio River Walk. They visited again in March 1998 when they came to cheer his alma mater, Stanford, in the Final Four.
....Although the Brazils moved into their new home on Oakmont without their two children—son Adrian is a Bradley graduate working in Peoria, daughter Morgan is a first year law student at the University of Texas, Austin - they are not exactly empty nesters. Making the move from Peoria with them were Niko, a canine of the rare American Eskimo breed, and Muffin, a cat of indeterminate lineage.
....Now comfortably settled, John and Janice Brazil, in their quiet, understated manner, are quickly assimilating the culture of Trinity and San Antonio - and winning many friends in the process. As Dr. Brazil sets out to make Trinity "the very best school of its kind in the United States," he is mindful of Trinity's rich traditions and respectful of its extraordinary strides over the last twenty years. He simply cautions: "We must not let our sense of accomplishment obscure our sense of potential."
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