By Tucker Paquette
@tpaquette17
Jeffrey Monseau is the Archivist at Springfield College, a role that puts him in charge of collecting, organizing and maintaining the sources and documents that paint the picture of history on Alden Street. The Student caught up with Monseau to discuss several topics, ranging from his favorite parts about campus to what he enjoys most about his work.
Student: What do you enjoy most about working at Springfield College?
Monseau: “It would have to be the students. I like interacting with the students, helping them figure things out, seeing how they figure out things for me. It always allows me to learn more. I [also] enjoy working with the faculty and working on projects.”
Student: What is your favorite part about your job?
Monseau: “For an archivist, mostly I enjoy learning about things. The most enjoyable thing for me is that I continually learn new things, and am exposed to different ways of thinking [and] different thoughts. I get to learn interesting stories about how people lived, and it’s still fresh after 15 years.”
Student: What is your favorite underrated part of campus?
Monseau: “Since everything is tied into history, one of the things I always find surprising is most people do not realize that the Basketball Hall of Fame was actually on campus and what building it was. That Allied Health building that everybody goes into, that was originally the Basketball Hall of Fame, and it was until 1985. It sat right on our campus for all those years. It always amazes me that this [is] really important history, and not a lot of people actually know where it is. There might be a time capsule inside the building itself that still has original, old basketball memorabilia that was put in there by the Basketball Hall of Fame.”
Student: What is the number one thing on your bucket list?
Monseau: “I would like to go to Greece. Before I was an archivist, I was a classicist. I studied Greek culture and I’ve just never been there. I’d love to see Athens and Olympia and [other places in Greece].”
Student: What would you tell your younger self and why?
Monseau: “Don’t be afraid. At least when I was younger, I always felt like I had to do things perfectly, and I was afraid that I wasn’t able to do it perfectly. Therefore, [that ended up keeping] me away from things. So, I would tell myself it doesn’t matter, no matter if you do it well or you don’t do it, you should just do it, and that will open up a whole [lot of] doors for you.”
Student: If you could have dinner with one person from history, who would it be?
Monseau: “A question like that always depends on the day. Just because I taught classes this morning and I’ve been thinking about it, of all the people I’d like to talk to it would be James Naismith. There are questions that still exist about the creation of basketball that I would just love to have answered and put to rest. The big question about, ‘was it really one night that the game came to your head and you wrote the rules down?’ [stands out to me as one I wonder about]. I would like to know [if] that’s actually the answer, or is that just a nice story that gets told and makes everybody believe that’s the way it happened.”
Photo courtesy of: Springfield College