By: Darren Christie | Contributing Writer
The time is 1:28; I rush out of McKillop Library and over to the Freshmen haven that is Miley Hall. I head down the hallway and pass through the double glass doors and to the offices of all the deans. Stepping up to the secretary desk, I clear my throat.
“I’m here to see Malcolm for an interview,” I say.
“He should be back soon, he went to lunch, but if he is more than 10, I’ll look for him for you.” She replies before motioning for me to sit down.
I sit down on the comfy chairs that wait beside the desk and casually scroll through my phone. Time passes, it is now 1:40. And I thought I was going to be late. I hear Malcolm’s distinct voice coming down the hallway. He taps the glass of the door and holds up one finger to motion one minute and continues to speak to a person outside. After a couple more minutes he enters the office and shakes my hand apologizing for his tardiness. I brush it off casually because I knew what to expect coming into this interview—Malcolm is a man of the people, and the people want to see Malcolm. He leads me into his office, and I know 100% that it is going to be the best interview I’ve done.
When the opportunity arose to interview someone of our choosing, it was a no-brainer to choose Dean of Students, Malcolm Smith. For one, as a black student, getting the chance to interview the black man of highest merit at Salve is an opportunity I don’t take lightly. I knew I couldn’t think on the fly. All of my questions needed to be calculated, clever, and respectful. I also knew that I’d get all the answers that I wanted.
To begin, it is important to understand his humble beginnings—who was Malcolm Smith before he was Dean Malcolm Smith? He originates from Zanesville, Ohio, where he lived until graduate school (though he did go away to Ohio University for undergrad). He started at Akron University as a Polymer Science major (which I found out is a science where you work with polymers and rubbers). After working with is mom at her factory job for a couple months, he transferred to Ohio University where he got a degree in Elementary Education and Music. While working in his school’s academic center, he found a love for student affairs.
“I tutored around nine different subjects. It got to the point where I was tutoring so many people that we had to develop a supplemental instruction, and I did that for multiple subjects.” He also spent a period of his life practicing Islam, which he converted to after reading the autobiography of his namesake Malcolm X. Thanks to a fellowship he received for research he conducted, Malcolm was able to go back to Ohio for graduate school, and in his words was “doing alright.”
“I always tell people I got into this line of work with a joke. I walked into the assistant dean’s office and said ‘I’m leaving’ and she said ‘stop, work for me in the Summer, and if you don’t like it you can leave then.’” On his first day on the job, he overheard the Director of University Conduct saying they need a more “diverse” selection for assistant director. Malcolm pauses after this part of the story, smiles, and recollects what he says. “I look at him and say, ‘I’ll get you my resume and that’ll increase your diversity!’’ By the end of the day, Malcolm’s resume was in his hands, and a couple of days later he was offered the job. After working at multiple places, including UIC, he found himself at Salve Regina.
As our conversation continues, I also try to pick out unspoken details about Malcolm from both him and his office. For one, he is very well kept; at the time of our interview, he was dressed professionally, yet casually with a blue pull over sweater, a pink tie, grey pants, assorted-colored-polka-dotted-socks, and brown derby shoes. His office is another key to his personality. It is filled with pictures of students; ones you’d see in promotional material for the university. There are also pictures of his two daughters, Bradleigh and Zadie, as well classic child-like artwork done by them. There are other various knick knacks that catch my eye during our chat, like a mug that reads Ohio State, his alma mater. There are cultural trinkets on his table, which I assume is from trips to different countries, or could have been given to him as souvenirs. There is also a stack of books, including A Turbulent Voyage: Readings in African American Studies.
After going over the basics, I decide to get to the deeper topic that I had planned to discuss —race. It doesn’t take a scientist to know that Salve Regina’s staff is predominantly white, and Malcolm is aware that he is one of the few full time minority staff members. “I think about it quite frequently, and part of that goes back to my namesake, I come from an extraordinary pro-black family.” After that he pauses, trying to find the right words. “There are black and brown people on this campus, but if you look at just African Americans, I can count on one hand.” He holds up his hand and lists them off: there’s four. “I also think about how I am the first person of color on the cabinet,” he pauses again, this time wondering if his next statement is controversial or not. “It’s an interesting space for me to be in because I am extraordinarily pro-black, but I also believe that being pro-black doesn’t mean you’re anti-anything, I think people misperceive that because being pro-white does mean that, historically at least.” I offer to keep that out of the profile—he declines.
As I’m scribbling answers down, he looks me in the eye before asking his own question, “You know the 200% rule?” he says. I nod. Of course I do, every black person knows the rule: Every black person must work 200% harder than their counterparts. “We all know that rule, to be seen as well as someone who is sometimes mediocre. I’m mindful of that around the cabinet table, which can be draining. I’m fortunate that we have a president and a cabinet that is also mindful of that.” Since his is the Dean of Students, it is only fair that I ask him about the students, particularly minority ones. He adjusts himself in his seat, “I think about the black and brown students quite a bit, but I’m mindful of what systems do or don’t do for students of color. I’m not looking for handouts but I’m also not looking to allow our systems to be systematically barring to those people,” he adjusts himself again. “I think in some ways Salve does a good job at breaking down those barriers, but in other ways I’d be incredibly critical.” I offer again to keep that off the record—again he declines. “I think the development of the multicultural office is a good move. The fact that we have a Black Lives Matter march on an annual basis is great.” He leans forward, “I think the most important thing we can give students of color is the acknowledgement that they are not a monolith. There’s not one way to Black, there’s not one way to be Latinx. We’re all very different, and the assumption we’re not is a systematic symbol of oppression that doesn’t necessarily come from a malicious place, it comes from ignorance. So I try to inform that.”
After crossing the school related questions off of my list, I glance over at the pictures of his daughters on his desk. I decide to lighten up the mood and ask about his pride and joys—Bradleigh and Zadie. “We knew Bradleigh’s sex before, but with Zadie it was a surprise. I’m not the most religious person but I prayed not to have a little boy.” We go silent for a bit. I look down at my paper and saw the question I had circled: How do you feel about the current state of the world as a black man specifically? “That’s three years ago, it’s really close to Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, all these young men being senselessly murdered. I didn’t want to raise a boy in this current climate, it’s scary to me.” Our conversation goes on, and while Malcolm is no stranger to the oppression his daughters will face as black women, he knows the advantages they will have as well. “You have to think about colorism, my daughters are of a lighter skin tone. You also have to think about because of my job, my daughters will be fortunate enough to go to school, get an education and get a degree. Not everyone is that lucky.”
After getting the gritty questions out of the way, I decided we should take a walking break across campus to O’Hare, where Malcolm says he likes to make his rounds to check in on students. On the way there, our conversation is interrupted a multitude of times by students for whom Malcolm takes the time to say hello. An admirable sight to see.
Finally at O’Hare, we sit in a corner and get comfortable again. I decided to keep the questions a little more light-hearted, in the vein of learning a little more about him (on an interest level). He crosses his legs and ponders for a moment. I remember that there aren’t many people in this world that enjoy being asked that question. “I spend most of my time with my two little girls, and I’m blessed that my wife is my best friend. We spend most of our time laughing and joking and just enjoying each other,” he smiles fondly, a firm reminder that real love is still evident in the world we live in today. “I’m an avid chess player, at any point I could be playing 15 games of chess. I love to cook, I learned everything from my grandmother. I always like to add a little something to the food. People would always tell me ‘you always go the extra mile’ and I would say ‘but isn’t it better?’
We then get into my favorite topic—T.V. and Music. I find out that he likes a couple shows, like Blacklist, Jeopardy, the Masked Singer (which I sadly spoiled an episode for him), and the “Ish” shows except Grown-ish, which we describe as “like a Different World, but without Jasmine Guy.” Next we delve into music, which I am able to find out that his favorite artist of all time is Prince. “There’s not even a close second, the best concert I’ve ever seen.” We go into his genius, and his out of the blue untimely death. “I think that plays into the conspiracy of the music industry, he owned the rights to all of his masters and then a few months later, he dies.” We touch on other celebrities that met ends similar to Prince like Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson. I ask him about his stance on Michael Jackson, due to the recent resurfacing of the child molestation allegations against him. He deeply sighs, “I struggle with this one. He’s a musical genius, an entertainment genius, but to hurt children…” he sighs again and trails off. “I haven’t watched the documentary, I refuse to. If you wait till someone has passed and they can’t defend themselves, I have a hard time believing you’re just.”
As our interview closes I decide to shoot off some rapid-fire questions, just to see his opinions on different topics I’m interested in. I found a good amount. His top MC of all time is Jay-Z (he tries to name his top five, but he can only get to Nas after Jay-Z before giving up because he likes too many.) He believes in climate change, and looks down on people who don’t. He believes (like most of the world) that Beyonce is all that, but Rihanna doesn’t quite do it for him. He, too, wonders what happened between Beyonce, Solange, and Jay-Z in the elevator at the Met Ball in 2014, and believes we got three great albums from it. He believes Kanye to be a musical genius and includes his 2008 album 808s and Heartbreaks in his favorite albums of all time. On the topic of Hip-Hop, I couldn’t end the interview without asking about one of the greatest albums —The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill which I wasn’t surprised that he agreed that it is one of the best albums of all time.
Though this interview could have gone on for at least three or so more hours, I knew that it was time to call it quits. As we walked out of O’Hare and went our separate ways, I didn’t just leave with book and music recommendations, I left with something more important—a mentor.
