Father and son share a love of the BU campus community

Fred Peck '66 and Jordan Peck '05

Fred points to a square made from a T-shirt he donated for the Alumni Association's quilt project. The quilts (one of which is pictured on the back cover of this issue) were on display on the Peace Quad during Homecoming 2003.

Jordan Peck, Binghamton University's Student Association (SA) president, likes to know how things work. "When I look at something and understand its physical properties, what's keeping it in place -- I enjoy that," he said. That's why physics fascinates him. And "in a weird way," he noted, "that connects to one of the things that fascinates me about student government: It's just knowing what's going on."

Peck chose Binghamton over Cornell, where he was also accepted and where his brother was a student, because of the innovative 3-2 physics and engineering program offered by Harpur College of Arts and Sciences and the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science. That program gives him the opportunity to earn his BA in physics in three years and move on to earn his BS in engineering in another two years.

"My friends who took physics in high school said, ÔWe're going to go and be engineers,'" recalled Peck. "I wasn't sure that's what I wanted. This gives me the chance to see both [physics and engineering]. And since the physics degree is a bachelor of arts, it also gives me more of a chance to check out other fields -- English, sociology, anthropology -- that I really enjoy. It's a great chance to taste everything."

"The community feeling of the campus in general is a great thing." -- Jordan

No newcomer to student government -- he was SA rep for Roosevelt Hall as a freshman, president of Hinman College as a sophomore and assistant to the SA president both years -- Peck has also found that to be an outlet for "tasting everything."

"The [SA] president's office is a hub of information," he said. "It's really good for meeting people and getting to know what's going on."

Jordan also likes getting involved and having a say in what goes on across campus. But the most rewarding aspect is the quality and variety of communication he enjoys with other students. "The number of students I've met just this month is exponential compared to other years," he said. "It's ridiculous; it's fantastic! You learn about issues and concerns you've never heard about before. There are so many interesting people out there, and so many interesting issues they bring up. It's a great school, with a lot of very intelligent people, and it's good to meet them."

In fact, the best thing about the Binghamton campus, Jordan said, is community. "It's such a friendly place," he said. The University's community-based residential system promotes close ties, for one thing. "The community system really shrinks it down, makes it feel personal," he said. Jordan, who lives at Hinman, has developed a lot of close ties and friendships there. But he added that "the community feeling of the campus in general is a great thing."

"The campus had a very intellectual atmosphere; it was a self-contained, pocket-sized, classical liberal-arts college." -- Fred

That strong sense of community is exactly what Jordan's father, Fred Peck, loved about the Binghamton campus when he was a student -- which, at the time, consisted of just Harpur College.

"The campus had a very intellectual atmosphere; it was a self-contained, pocket-sized, classical liberal-arts college," said Fred. "Now it's a compendium. Each residential community retains that small-college feel, that community spirit that's so reminiscent of what the entire campus was, in my time. That thrills me."

From banker to educator

Fred, a pre-med undergraduate who majored in biology and minored in math and economics, also chose Binghamton for its innovation. At the time, Harpur had just introduced the trimester system, enabling Fred to attend college year-'round and earn his bachelor's in just two and a half years. "I got involved in athletics and I could never leave, because each trimester I was on a varsity team," quipped Fred, who earned three varsity letters: one each in soccer, swimming and track.

In his economics courses at Binghamton, Fred found his passion; he went on to earn his master's, and then his PhD, in economics. Following that, he spent nearly 20 years as an investment banker on Wall Street, a job he found to be exciting, but draining, too. By 1988 he was a vice president -- and also a cancer patient. When he was offered a lucrative early retirement package, he took it. "I recuperated two years later, and found myself, at 48, retired and happy," he said.

After two years of "hanging around," as Fred put it, his friends -- most of them educators he'd come to know through his wife, Jean, a school psychologist -- urged him to "get up and do something honest," he said. "They thought I should give back to the community after having been a Ôrobber baron' on Wall Street, responsible for half the world's ills," he chuckled.

So he went for it. He got his certificate, began teaching in the public school system and found he loved the work. He went on to earn his master's in special education and his state license in school administration. To date, Fred holds three master's degrees and a PhD and is director of the Robert F. Kennedy Academy High School, one of five special education complexes in Manhattan. The academy's students, ranging in age from 14 to 21, are classified with severe emotional or behavioral disorders. Most of them also have serious learning disabilities. Moreover, most live in group or foster homes, and have had run-ins with the law. Success is measured by how many students Fred is able to refer to less restrictive programs. He's successfully referred 150 students -- an impressive track record for a school with a student body of 100.

"When these kids make it, I take great satisfaction," said Fred. "That is my reward."

Fred's memories of campus life have "just been flooding back" since Jordan became a student here, and he loves to come back to visit. "I didn't pressure Jordan at all to choose Binghamton," he said. "But I'm thrilled that he's going to school here."

Jean Peck, Fred's wife of 33 years and Jordan's mother, is also a SUNY graduate -- she graduated from SUNY Albany in 1971.