Headline: Last Lecture professor announced

By Jess Hodge

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After narrowing 119 nominations down, having much discussion and two rounds of voting, Grand Valley State University’s student senate chose Dean of Students Bart Merkle to deliver this year’s Last Lecture.

Last Lecture is meant to give a chosen professor a chance to speak about any topic they want. However, the general theme of the lecture is to emulate how it would feel if this was the last lecture they ever gave.

Maria Beelen, vice president of educational affairs, said it is a great way for students to see faculty members in a different way.

“It really gives an opportunity to faculty members to talk about their personal life and how it intersects with being a faculty member,” she said. “It’s not like your classroom-style lecture.”

Beelen, along with the rest of the educational affairs committee, narrowed down the 119 nominations to 90 faculty members and then to just seven final candidates before the final vote. They took into account not only the number of nominations the faculty members received, but also the value of the nominations and what was written about them.

Merkle was one of the top seven candidates, with four nominations from the original vote. Before the final vote, the senate body entertained discussions to put support behind whomever they thought deserved the award.

Vice President for Campus Affairs, Sean O’Melia, was the first to voice his support for Merkle.

“I’ve heard him speak every day at orientation and every single day it’s fantastic,” he said. “I’d love to hear him talk other than the usual orientation monologue. I think that he doesn’t get a lot of credit that he deserves; he’s obviously been here for a very long time and done so much for the university.”

Senator Jacob Johnston, Executive Vice President Jorden Simmonds and senator Benjamin Soltis also supported nominating Merkle to give the Last Lecture.

“This is his last year in that position – he will be moving to full-time higher education – so I think it would be a really interesting story to have him tell that,” Simmonds said. “He’s really good at telling stories. Every meeting with him turns into him telling some ‘back-in-the-day’ story. He would definitely have some good experience (because) he’s been at Grand Valley for 30 years.”

After two rounds of voting, Merkle came out on top. However, Beelen noted that all of the candidates were great options and that they should all be honored for the work they were doing and how they were influencing students. She said that she goes through and emails all of the faculty members that were nominated, as there were “some intense things” students said about them and it was great to read them.

“This list of 119 nominations was incredibly heart-warming to read,” Beelen said. “It makes me so happy to be at Grand Valley because this list, any faculty member could have done such a great job.

“The other 118 on here may not be giving a Last Lecture, but they will be notified that they are making a difference in student life.”

This year’s Last Lecture will take place on Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Mary Idema Pew Library Multipurpose Room.