An Interview with Keith Motley

What kept you at Northeastern?

I stayed at Northeastern because it was always a wonderful place for me. I always had opportunities to grow. Students kept me there ... because of their energy and my commitment to their issues. Every day I would come to work where someone paid me to do something that I would do anyway, which was pave a path for others to a future that I thought was promising for them. ...

You mentioned a lot of changes in titles that you have had at Northeastern. What were some of those changes?

I started in admissions, and I went from admissions to becoming assistant dean. ... After that, I became assistant dean and director of the Office of Minority Affairs, as it was called back then.

Then I became dean of student services at Northeastern, where I had oversight of the African-American Institute, the International Student & Scholar Institute, Off-Campus Resources, Disability Resource Center, Latino/a Student Cultural Center, athletics and the support structures for athletics.

It was a bigger profile, but it still focused in on the things I cared about. I had a passion for each of those groups that I was responsible for. When it came to African-American students, that's a passion. When it came to students who had some type of disability, that was a passion — helping those students do their thing. Latino/a students became a passion for me. ...

For me, athletics has always been in my soul because without athletics I would not be sitting here. I'm not one of those people who sit here with a Ph.D. and say, "I'm a scholar, not an athlete." Athletics is the foundation that allowed me to be the scholar that I am today. It taught me about leadership and team work and all those kinds of things. Also, it gave me the kind of ego that said to me that failure wasn't acceptable. Even when someone tries to let you know that you can't, in their mind, perform at a certain level, you're always out to prove that you can.

Would you say that a lot of your roles, particularly within the Northeastern community, facilitated who you are as a person?

Well, I think you have to bring who you are to the role. You make the role what it should be. If you are into what roles are, then you are acting. If you're acting, you're not living true to yourself. What you see is what you get with me. I think that is what serves me well with my relationships with people. I don't have to act any differently than I normally act with you and anyone else because I feel comfortable with who I am. As a result of that, it allows me to move through my life smiling in a different kind of way because I know that who I am impacts the role and not the other way around. ...

Remember all the values you had growing up, remember the special kind of person that you are, remember the things that you do that make people smile. Those are the things — like saying thank you and having manners and being a gracious person (no matter where you go in your life) — that will be the pieces that hold you together and keep you moving on that success path. When you lose that and you are not true to yourself, you try to play the role of whatever that job is that you have, then you never earn the respect in that job that you really need to have. So I sit here and hear people ask me, "What does it feel like to be vice chancellor now?" Well, it does not feel any different from my job before.

Is that a lifelong process that you have to figure out on your own? Could you attach an age as to when you had that realization?

It's a value system. You don't know how important values are when they first become a part of your life. You just do something because it's who you are. ...

Life is sort of like that. People say, "Well, how do you know when you reach this pinnacle of your career?" You don't know. You just keep going. You shouldn't be satisfied in what you do. You should just continue to grow. What is the secret? There is no secret. You just keep learning and growing. Keep bringing with you the value system that works for you.

I do know that the better you treat people, and the more you pay attention to how you treat yourself, life will evolve in a different kind of way.

Would you say that no one could do it by himself or herself?

No, you can't do it by yourself. My success is hundreds and thousands of students, who over the 30-year period and going forward had a great experience because we had a relationship. I have impacted their lives. When I get the notes and the letters, I see that they have accomplished something in their lives. That's success. It's not tailor-made suits, it's not the cars you drive, it's none of that stuff. It's the people that you've impacted and how their lives have changed and how that's impacted you. That, at the end of the day, is what success is all about.

Which of the organizations that you have co-founded best represents you? Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts? Roxbury Community Preparatory School?

They all represent a piece of me. I was concerned about young men and their development because of the whole idea that at some point, there was the notion that we were an endangered species. I knew that wasn't true because for every percentage of us that they say is in jail instead of in college, there's another percentage of us that are successful. I felt as though there was a need to work with young people and try to do that, not for publicity, but to do it for all of the right reasons.

These young people and their families would not only gain from the experience of working with men in positive roles throughout Boston, but the men would gain from having experience with the families. ... Not only did we work the thing for young men but we did it for young ladies also. ... We were starting to get this national publicity about what we were doing and we always avoided publicity. People would come to us for stories and we wouldn't do them because stories take you away from your work. Stories create ego problems. They create things you just don't need because we're working towards a specific goal, and that's basically it. The rest of it is gravy.

With everything that you're involved in, do you ever feel like you're spreading yourself too thin or taking too much under your belt?

Sometimes everything is in crisis at one time. But if it's all in crisis at one time, then it means that it's not being managed or led correctly. It's sort of how I live my life. When I'm not busy, I feel strange. People say that you're involved in this, this and that. We'll, they're not random acts of interests, they're things that I really care about.

What direction do you see Northeastern and the John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute going in?

I see a lot of promise for the African-American Institute if we take advantage of what the university can offer for us, the chance to go into a new building and the chance for us to continue to build traditions. I think that we can't be so wrapped up in the past that we don't look forward to the future.

... I'm looking forward to the times where we are technologically advanced, where libraries are doing the kind of research that they are supposed to do, where the faculty on campus are using the facilities like they're supposed to, where all students see the benefit of an African-American Institute.

... I think that there is a wonderful future on the campus. John D. O'Bryant gave his life for that place to live. His name on that building is an important part of the future for the building. It says a lot. It is a legacy of all those who struggled before us to give others the opportunity to have the college experience and to have an institute like this.

To make it a thriving place, it will take all of us: alumni, current students, people who are friends of the institute who said that they'd make it happen. I plan to continue to support it from over here at good ol' UMass Boston.