Remarks of Note from the Former Executive Director
Farewell and Hail
by Jeff Brenzel '75
“Time and change” may not avail “to break the friendships
formed at Yale,” but in certain respects they prevail over everything
else. On October 10th, I closed up shop after eight years as the AYA’s
Executive Director. The good news, for me and I hope for Yale, is that I only
moved a few blocks away from Rose Alumni House, and that I only did so in order
to take up another opportunity for service to the University as the new Dean
of Undergraduate Admissions.
As a friend in manufacturing suggested to me, I seem to have jumped from heading up the bureau of customer service, complaints and repairs to running the division responsible for acquisition of raw materials. He hoped that my extensive experience with the “outputs” would heighten the care that I took with selecting the “inputs.”
I think it will. All of us who have worked or volunteered with the AYA acquire a sense of Yale across the generations that, one hopes, guards us against seeing the University as some sort of static, immovable institution. Change is a constant, and however much each of us treasures “our” Yale, the place simply must evolve and grow in ways that most of us could not have imagined as students and sometimes have difficulty grasping as alumni.
At the same time, I have had a chance to make friends with many hundreds of alumni volunteers, in classes ranging from those of the ’thirties to those of new millennium. A broad acquaintance with the generations will, I hope, keep me attuned to the fact that no single generation – including the present generation – has a lock on what it means to be a member of the Yale community.
What is my outlook for selecting future alumni? Recognizing that a Yale College education is in equal measure a matter of the classroom and one’s companions, I want to keep Yale a place where the other students you meet are guaranteed to disrupt your life. That is, a place where the variety of viewpoints, backgrounds, experiences and talents are so great that no student here will ever be able to settle into a comfort zone. We live in a world that demands extraordinary learning of every kind, as well as an extraordinary understanding of others. I will try to make sure that Yale attracts students who will acquire both.