Student Life Archives

Scott Bressler

Exhorting students to step up to the environmental issues facing the current generation, Professor Richard Smith delivered his final lecture Friday afternoon to an overflowing lecture hall.

Speaking for just over 50 minutes to the final session of his Introduction to Human Evolution course, Smith discussed the future of human life on Earth, human impact on the environment and the moral imperative to change the environmental status quo.

“This is a special moment in time,” said Smith. “This is the first generation where we know we are destroying the habitat and that in 100 years the world will be very different from today.”

Next fall, Smith, who is currently the chair of the Department of Anthropology, will begin new duties as the dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

“After 30 years in the classroom, this Friday may be my last lecture,” said Smith in his class on Wednesday. “I’m more emotional than I thought I would be.”

Since Smith began teaching the course in the Fall of 1992, which offers students an introduction to physical anthropology, over 4,300 students have enrolled in his class. Many of those students, some of them now alumni and graduate students, returned to hear Smith’s final lecture, filling the aisles and overflowing into the hallway. Upon finishing, Smith received a standing ovation.

“I really hope that he changes his mind and chooses to teach again,” said sophomore Nikki Spencer. “[Human evolution] wasn’t a topic that was particularly interesting to me beforehand, but my suitemates and I have constantly been talking about it now.”

Smith’s last lecture examined the human influence upon the environment in a scientific context and suggested that life on earth will be radically different from that today unless people undertake serious change now.

Citing the rate of extinction, the growing problem of deforestation and a series of other ecological changes that have developed within the last century, Smith laid out a grim chain of events that could potentially befall the earth due to human causes.

“You are a witness to the end of the Cenozoic Era,” said Smith. “But this time its not happening because of an asteroid, its not happening because of a volcano, it’s happening because of human alteration to the environment.”

In his final remarks, Smith called upon University students-and all students at universities across the world-to take on the challenge of enacting change because of their unique position within society.

“Not only is it up to you, it’s up to you now and it’s up to you because you’re here,” said Smith. “The first thing you have to do is believe-and not the usual, self-deceptive ‘Yeah, I believe.’ I mean real believing. And when that happens you’ll get angry and no one will need to tell you what to do.”

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 12:00 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.