After 55 years in ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ's Department of Psychology, Frank Marchese still walks into the classroom with the same intention he had in September 1971: to meet students where they are and help them find their way.
A course director in the , Marchese has taught generations of York scholars, witnessing both the University and his area of study transform around him.
His introduction to York was, fittingly, a lesson in feeling welcome. When Marchese arrived at Atkinson College to hand in his CV, an administrative assistant named Marilyn Weinperer greeted him warmly and suggested he walk down the hall to meet the department Chair. He knocked, introduced himself, and Graham Reid – then-Chair of the department – responded by inviting him downstairs for tea and cookies.
"In my dealings in the past with college and university officials, it was often much more formal than that," says Marchese. "Overall, I found the Department of Psychology at Atkinson College throughout the 1970s and ’80s to be very welcoming."
What has stayed with Marchese across five decades is York's sense of community – from the college pubs where faculty and students gathered after evening classes in the 1970s, to the classroom conversations he still looks forward to today.
"Faculty and administration have been very helpful, very supportive and available to me," he says. "Although I enter the classroom as a singular individual, all of the support systems put in place for this to happen are a collective endeavour."
The change he values most is one of expansion – in course development, faculty recruitment and interdisciplinary study.
"There is more inclusivity now, with a vigorous pursuit of diversity and equity," he says. Students and faculty from a broader range of backgrounds, cultures and lived experiences have transformed the University into what Marchese describes as "a microcosm of the larger macrocosm of Canadian society."
These days, Marchese teaches PSYC 2230: Psychology of Motivation, though, throughout his career he has covered nearly three-quarters of the undergraduate psychology curriculum, supervising honours students through their fourth-year theses along the way.
PSYC 2230, he is careful to explain, is not a self-help class.
"Some students come in believing the course will teach them how to be motivated," he says.
Instead, the curriculum explores the biological, cognitive and emotional forces that drive human behaviour: why we act, why we sometimes don't, and how thought, feeling and circumstance shape our choices.
Marchese has watched psychology evolve dramatically. In the early years, behaviourism dominated – asserting that only observable actions, not inner thoughts or feelings, could be scientifically studied. Then came the cognitive revolution, putting the inner life of the mind back at the centre of the field.
Today, brain imaging allows researchers to observe the brain in action and understand how biology and thought connect. Perhaps most meaningful to Marchese, is that the field has grown far more attuned to trauma, how that trauma ripples through communities and cultures, and how its weight falls hardest on those who have faced oppression and exploitation.
However, some of Marchese's most memorable moments have happened outside the lecture hall. Former students approach him by happenstance – sometimes a year after his class, sometimes five – to say the experience stayed with them long after graduation.
"I really appreciate it when they come forward," he says. "It takes some courage to approach a former professor and say that they made a contribution to the path you've taken since leaving their class."
When asked what he hopes his legacy will be at York, Marchese doesn't hesitate to answer.
"That I tried to be a responsible and decent individual in helping students achieve their goals – and hopefully, that students would take note of the pride I feel in being a ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ lecturer, engaging students in a subject, psychology, that I find endlessly fascinating," he says.
After more than half a century at York, his advice to those just starting out is equally straightforward.
"Your commitment and your persistence in undertaking university studies are vital and important. Whatever obstacles there are, there are ways of dealing with them. Don't be discouraged by setbacks ... take advantage of the opportunity in realizing your personal and professional goals."
The greeting Marchese received on his first day at Atkinson College – a stranger pointing him toward an open door, a department chair sharing tea with him – shaped the kind of educator he became. Fifty-five years later, Marchese continues to extend that same warm welcome to his students and remembers how, for him, that first day on campus was a defining moment in his career.
With files from Mzwandile Poncana