The Bentley Buzz

It’s with bittersweet sentiment that I share that this will be my last issue of the Bentley Buzz as I explore a new opportunity in higher education. Getting to know the Bentley community through the scope of the Buzz has been exceptionally rewarding, and I will miss sharing the great work that faculty and staff are doing on and off campus. Keep an eye out for future issues of the Buzz, which will continue to tell the stories of the people who make Bentley such a special community.

Thanks for reading over the years, and remember to check through the Buzz archives to read previous stories. I look forward to keeping up with all the great things to come for Bentley University from afar!

Kevin Wong
Associate Director of Internal Communications and Bentley Buzz Editor

For University Archivist Adam Schutzman, the process of preserving the past has been far more than just a rewarding career. For more than a decade, Adam has created accessible and inclusive historical accounts for organizations ranging in scale from local theaters and museums to the Smithsonian Institution.

Adam unearthed his passion for archivist work by chance while performing and playing music with a theater company in Vermont. “The first time that I really got into archives was when I was working with Bread and Puppet Theater in Vermont,” explained Adam. “I found out they had this incredible archive collection of films, videos and audio documenting the theater going back 60 years.”

The intrigue of vintage media was nothing new to Adam, whose first job was as a film projectionist for his local movie theater. “I had been collecting old media since I was a kid, so I knew how to work with old film and audio recordings,” said Adam. He put his knowledge of historic media formats to good use and took on the monumental task of archiving and preserving the outdated recordings, laying the early groundwork to turn his hobby into a fulfilling career.

“It was sad to me,” said Adam. “A lot of these things were endangered of being lost forever. The formats were very obsolete, and some of the materials were degrading at a quick rate, so there was a certain amount of preservation and reformatting that needed to happen to help preserve these really important historic documents. I took it on as a type of labor of love project.”

That labor of love happened to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the theater company, culminating in Adam curating an archival film screening in New York City at the Anthology Film Archives. “That was just an amazing, really fun experience,” explained Adam. “Then there was this moment of realization where I said, ‘Oh yeah, I like doing this,’ so I started to pursue archiving history for work.”

Adam’s newfound career would take him to a number of roles, where he grew as an important resource for a variety of organizations. From Harvard and most recently Lasell to the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress, Adam developed extensive experience building on the passion he uncovered while archiving theater footage in Vermont.

In his first year at Bentley, he’s relished the opportunity to take a deep dive into the university’s archives. He’s actively worked with staff and faculty to support important research for projects related to Bentley Magazine and alumni engagement initiatives. It’s here that his passion for telling the stories of historically underserved populations has shined.

“One thing that I'm very passionate about in archives is uplifting and highlighting underrepresented and marginalized voices and histories,” said Adam. “So a big focus of the projects that I've worked on so far has been focusing on some early milestones for Bentley, like learning more about the first person of color to graduate or serve as a faculty member, or researching some of the earliest women graduates, bringing them to light to really uplift these sort of community histories and voices.”

His passion for scouring archives to help tell the stories of underrepresented groups contributed to the latest compelling issue of Bentley Magazine, which spotlighted alumnae who paved the way for women in the classroom at Bentley.

Other major campus projects have included researching and curating an exhibit about the history of students of color at Bentley ahead of the opening of the Claudette Blot Multicultural Center Lounge, exploring the origins of the Black United Body’s Fashion Show, and unearthing photos and memorabilia for the Class of 1973’s 50th reunion.

His extensive work so far has prompted many community members to seek out his expert eye. “I’ve gotten a lot of messages from students and student organizations wanting to learn about their history and to see if we had photos from their past,” said Adam. But for Adam, it’s important that faculty and staff, too, know that he’s eager to serve as a helpful resource.

From short classroom presentations to meeting with departments across campus to learn more about upcoming initiatives and explore how he can help, he’s eager to bring Bentley’s extensive collection of historical materials found within the university archives to the broader community.

In addition to the impact he’s had on organizations throughout his career, Adam has brought his expertise as an archivist to communities across Boston through his work XFR Boston, a nonprofit collective he co-created. With XFR Boston, Adam has worked with volunteers to partner with local activists and artists to make equipment and technical knowledge about the preservation of at-risk media more accessible to the public, with a special focus on supporting the documentation of unseen histories and artistic works.

XFR Boston, which was inspired by a similar collective in New York City, has provided support to historically marginalized communities to ensure their archived materials are converted to digital formats to ensure their preservation.

“The content on these tapes is highly in danger of being lost forever if they're not reformatted to a more preservation-focused format,” explained Adam. “It became very clear that there was all this incredible community history that was trapped on these old audio-visual materials, but it’s very expensive to digitize these kinds of materials.”

Thanks to the collective’s work and donations of video equipment, Adam and XFR’s co-founder have saved local community organizations many hundreds of dollars, all while helping to preserve their important histories. While XFR Boston’s important work took a pause during the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s looking forward to continuing the project soon.

On campus, Adam is eager to continue to meet members of the community and support their initiatives that explore Bentley’s rich history. You can reach out to Adam to learn more about the university’s archives and how he can partner with your class or department by emailing archives@bentley.edu, visiting bentley.edu/archives or by following the archive’s new Instagram account or Facebook account.

After all, for Adam, archival work has always been about building relationships and supporting people.

“I tend to really focus on the people-facing side of archives more than I do on the back end,” explained Adam. “I definitely enjoy the behind-the-scenes work and processing of collections, which are both super important to the work or archives, but if there's not outreach or reference support happening for archives and collections are not being actively used or even known about in the community, then it's like, ‘Why are they here?’ I think it's so important for archives to not just be fulfilling a stereotype of being in dusty old rooms that are hidden away somewhere, but to actually be living and breathing places that are being actively utilized and are out and about in the community.”

Registration is now open for the Fifth Annual Bentley Community Learning Conference! Join colleagues for over 20 live learning sessions that focus on Positive Culture, Inclusive Excellence and Best Self. In addition to learning, enjoy lunch and refreshments, trivia and games and the return of the Cookie Monstah ice cream truck. Be sure to register for the conference before the July 20 deadline! 

Register for the Conference

Evolution, currently on display at the RSM Gallery in the Library, features a selection of paintings and drawings inspired by Boston-based artist John Guthrie’s background in aerospace engineering. Guthrie’s work has revolved around an expansive view of abstraction that embodies principles of queerness and challenges visual conventions. Throughout the exhibition, his images continuously activate new perspectives, pushing viewers to recognize the fallibility of pre-existing structures and binaries.

Guthrie recently joined co-curators Danielle Krcmar and Stace Brandt for a panel discussion about his pivotal solo exhibition Evolution. The discussion explored the lineage of Guthrie’s work and artistic practice and personal evolution through the lens of the Queer Abstraction movement and concluded with a interactive conversation with the audience.

Assistant Director of Gender and Sexuality Student Programs Nana Adu was selected as the recipient of the 2023 NASPA Gender and Sexuality Knowledge Community Intersectional Inclusion Award. This award is presented each year to a campus leader who has demonstrated a commitment to intersectionality within the gender and sexuality community.

In addition to the NASPA award, Nana was also presented with the 2023 Promising New Professional Award from the Consortium of Higher Education LGBTQ Resource Professionals. This award recognizes a new professional who is doing outstanding service, demonstrates innovative or creative effort within the profession and shows significant promise for leadership on the field.

Congrats, Nana!

The Massachusetts Association of Financial Aid Administrators (MASFAA) recently recognized two community members with awards for their exceptional work during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Assistant Director of Financial Assistance Sarah Barker received the Charles E. Jones Achievement Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement by a new financial aid administrator who demonstrates leadership abilities, communication skills and exceptional service to students. 

Associate Director of Financial Assistance James McGehee received the Presidential Award, which recognizes outstanding service and time dedicated to the MASFAA. James has served as a chair for the MASFAA Professional Development and Training committee, which provides programming for financial aid administrators throughout the state, for the past three years.

Congratulations, Sarah and James!