Associate professor James Trent dies

By Marcelle Richards
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

James Trent spent the last hours of his life working with a
student. He died of a heart attack Friday morning at age 67.

Trent was to be honored as one of five recipients of the 2001
UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award on May 19.

Instead, mourners gathered to honor the education professor at
his burial yesterday at San Fernando Cemetery.

Doctoral student and former teaching assistant Michael Smith
called it the biggest funeral he had ever seen, citing faces of all
colors and ages.

“There were tons of people, very diverse,” he said.
“I think it really speaks for the type of person he
was.”

Trent spent more than three decades in the department of
education at UCLA, during which he established a loyal following of
admiring students and colleagues.

“He always made time for students, faculty, for anybody
““ he always made time to help people,” said Suellen
Coleman, education student affairs officer.

The education minor that Trent founded and directed is what many
see as his most lasting influence on the university.

“It really stands out for those getting Ph.Ds,”
Smith said. “Graduate students are encouraged to do research
but in a lot of cases we don’t focus on the actual people and
that’s what he was really dedicated to ““ that impressed
us.”

Though Trent only held office hours once a week, his time
remained in high demand, said administrative assistant Eileen
Kavanagh, who recalls the mixbag gathering of people lined against
the walls every week.

The two hours of “visitation” were always used in
full, Kavanagh said.

“Office hours were for undergraduates, graduates, alumni,
anyone who wanted to talk to him,” she said.

Though Trent was technically “Dr. Trent,” he refused
to abide by the name. To anyone who made his acquaintance, it was
simply “Jim.”

While he preceded and outlasted many in his department, he
decided not to climb the rungs to higher professor positions.

“He volunteered to teach more and research less, which
meant he wouldn’t get professor status,” Coleman said.
“He believed highly in the quality of education.”

Trent spent his days working as an associate professor, a career
choice he made to keep the humanity in academics, she
continued.

Time was instead spent on piquing students’ interests in
education.

Many programs were conceived and promoted by this compulsion to
bring students into his realm of interest.

The Peer Advisor Program is an offspring of Trent’s
endeavors that trains undergraduates to advise other students
interested in education. An offshoot of this program arose soon
after as Trent branched out to inner city high school students with
the High School Advising Program.

“He was always a promoter of the underdog,” Coleman
said. “He inspired people to go on to much more than they
though they ever could.”

In 1993, the Educational Leadership program took root as a
doctoral program modeled to train student professionals to mix
technology with education, from elementary through post-secondary
classes.

“Jim’s death is a great loss to us all: to the
nation, UCLA, to his colleagues here and throughout the
world,” said GSE&IS dean Aimee Dorr.

At the request of the Trent family, all contributions should be
made to the James W. Trent Education Minor Undergraduate
Scholarship Fund.