SHU Confers Honorary Doctorate on David Brooks
Brooks encouraged lifting others daily
Sacred Heart University conferred David Brooks with a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, on Sept. 21 at a special academic convocation held in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit.
“It is always meaningful when we confer an honorary degree on someone who embodies the mission and vision of this University,” said John J. Petillo, president of Sacred Heart University, during his welcome.
Among the advice Brooks gave to students in his convocation address: “Gather 10 of your good friends and create a giving circle. Get together once a year with your friends, put money in a pot and decide where you are going to donate the money every year,” he said. “Now, the charity part is nice, but the purpose is to help you keep lifelong friends who you met [at Sacred Heart].”
“Every generation faces a challenge,” Brooks went on to say. “I believe ours is a spiritual and relational and moral challenge all at once.” He quoted statistics: 54% of Americans say nobody knows them well; the number of people who say they have no close friends has quadrupled in the last year; a third more people report being depressed; teen suicide rate is up 58%; 26% of Americans have broken with a member of their immediate family. “There is something going on in the relational stew of our society that is suffering and leading to sadness. And that sadness is leading to people feeling unseen.”
“To me, the problems in our politics flow from a problem in our souls,” he continued. “Somehow this spiritual crisis leads to loneliness and meanness. This shows up most significantly in a drop in social trust.”
Brooks offered students a solution. “The biggest moral challenge we have in front of us are small moral challenges, daily interactions—the small gestures of kindness or coldness,” he said. “In every crowded room, there are diminishers and illuminators. The diminishers make people feel small and unseen. The illuminators shine the brightness of their care on people and make them feel bigger and respected.
“I try to make myself an illuminator,” said Brooks. To do so requires a knowledge of human nature and a mastery of certain social skills such as building friendships, asking for forgiveness and forgiving others and becoming a good conversationalist.
“Each person has a piece of them that has no size, shape, color or weight,” Brooks said. “That piece is their soul, and it gives them infinite value and dignity.”
“By examining many aspects of life in his columns, and in his books and public appearances, Brooks practices the type of curiosity that drives students to succeed here,” said Jeff Palma ’25 in his welcome to Brooks on behalf of the student community. “This promotes the types of change that help to make the world we live in a better and more inclusive place, and the mindset that things can always be improved no matter how dire they might sometimes seem. After today, David Brooks will be a part of the Pioneer community.”
Brooks also gave a talk and answered questions at a public event the Sacred Heart University Community Theatre Wednesday evening.