Dave Filiberti

RIT's Provost Dr. Stan McKenzie

After over four decades of service to RIT, Dr. Stan McKenzie is retiring from his position as Provost. McKenzie began his career in 1967 as an instructor and after rising through the ranks, was appointed provost in 1994. President Destler has called the man an “RIT institution” who has played “a major role in the advancement of the university into the ranks of the nation’s largest and finest private universities.” In recognition of his years of service, McKenzie will be speaking at Commencement this year. Reporter sat down with Dr. McKenzie to talk about his tenure at RIT, post-retirement plans, and appointment as Commencement speaker this year.

Reporter After over four decades of service, what do you consider your greatest accomplishment throughout the years?

Stan McKenzie I really made Shakespeare a subject of conversation on campus... that was my first 30 years. People knew about Shakespeare, knew about my classes, they were trying to get into the classes, I was known as The Shakespeare Man. There’s a whole new generation of students now. I’m hoping in the next two or three years, that’ll come back again.

R I’ve heard that as a professor, you used to throw parties in your hot tub during finals. Is this true?

SM I have a Jacuzzi. My final exams were very informal... Back when we had an 18 year old drinking age, people would bring wine, beer, whiskey, whatever to the exams... There were occasions where people wrote their exams in the Jacuzzi... Sometimes we ended up, at 4 in the morning, going to Jay’s diner... But then I got older, I can’t stay up that late anymore, and the drinking age went up... Looking back now, I was probably not as responsible as I should’ve been.

R If you ask just about anyone on this campus what they know about Stan McKenzie, one comment you’re sure to get is that you’re always in a good mood. How do you maintain that after all these years?

SM Every day, driving into work, I’m smiling, I’m laughing, I’m thinking of people I’m going to see that day... I’ve seen people where something happened to them when they were in their thirties, and they just held a grudge and were angry at the Institute for the next 30 years... It’s just not worth it if you don’t like what you’re doing... I’ve said all along, particularly when I got into administration, ‘You can’t take yourself too seriously.’ I’m not the President of the United States, I’m not a US Senator... those people have real problems... this is pretty low on the totem pole.

R In what capacity do you expect to be involved at RIT post-retirement?

SM This fall, I’ll be doing Shakespeare Comedies, and then next year, I will probably do three different things: Shakespeare Tragedies, I could do Mark Twain, or I could do J.R.R. Tolkien. I’ll probably do two out of those three... If they want me to serve on some committee or head something up, [I will], but I’m not going to be here during winter and spring quarter.

R If there were one thing you could change at RIT, what would it be?

SM The only thing I would change, because it affects morale and student attitudes, would be the weather. The Rochester winters are just miserable, and spring is so late getting here... There really isn’t very much else that I would change at all, given where we’ve come from, the growth that we’ve had, the quality of the student body keeps going up... It would be nice if we had a multi-billion dollar endowment, that we could cap enrollment growth, have higher quality students, and have more financial aid. That would all be terrific, but I think we’re on a great path.

R What do you consider your greatest failure while at RIT or as provost?

SM I can answer that one of two ways. I never established a scholarship record myself. I’ve got two or three publ ished ar t icles, and they’ve been printed a lot... I would have liked to do more scholarship... but I don’t regret the things I did instead... I still have a book that I want to write, in my mind, on Shakespeare. I don’t know if I will, but I want to. There are always individual decisions that you wonder about... you can’t help but second guess decisions, but you move on... I lost a dean that I wished I hadn’t lost.

Dave Filiberti

R When you were asked to be commencement speaker, what was your reaction?

SM I was tremendously honored... I know I’m like number 42 [on the list]. We had some good people we were trying to get, and different things happened... Somebody said to President Destler, “Why do we have to bring in an outsider? Why don’t we ask Stan to be the commencement speaker? He’s been here forever.” The response that I got from faculty and staff, those next three days, was just unbelievable. Everybody would say, “That’s fantastic, it’ll be the best commencement speech we’ve had.” I still have to write the damn thing, I don’t know if it’s going to be any good or not.

R How did you respond to the recent criticism regarding your being asked?

SM I read Casey [Dehlinger]’s article first [“They Can’t All Be Clintons, April 18 issue of Reporter], and he was trying to say it’s not about Dr. McKenzie, it’s about having the retiring provost... Clearly, it wasn’t personal. The article was really pretty well written... but it was hurtful... I had a hard day on Friday. On Saturday, I told Bill I should probably just gracefully step aside and turn the time over to the college delegates... By Sunday, I had enough laugh lines that I’ll get back during the talk.

R When President Simone retired, he and his wife got the administrative circle outside dedicated in their honor. After 41 years, do you have a spot on campus you’re eyeing?

SM No, no, no... Phi Kappa Tau fraternity... [already] has a patio they call the Stan McKenzie Patio. I’ve made arrangements for my pension plan to revert to RIT after my son dies, and that will fund some scholarships, and there’s a McKenzie Writing Prize that we just gave last week... I’m not looking to have any buildings or spots of grass named after me, or anything like that.

R Is there anything else you’d like to say to RIT?

SM I’m really looking forward to commencement, and I’m particularly looking forward to teaching in the next few years. So if you have any interest in Shakespeare, sign up!