Today marks the last time TRIO counselor Jack Simons will close his office door at Simpson College as he embarks on a new journey in his home state, Colorado.
He secured a job weeks ago as a 7th-grade teacher, scheduled to start late in the spring. But because of the decline of his father’s health, his timeline has been rapidly accelerated.
Simons is originally from Colorado Springs, CO, and moved to Iowa approximately 15 years ago. He was an English teacher at Des Moines Lincoln High School for 11 years before accepting a new role at Simpson in 2023.
Simons has done all he can to leave a lasting impact not just on the students who walk through his office door, but on every student on campus.
“The thing I’m known for talking about here is the thing that got me run out of the last place,” Simons said.
That “thing” is Simons’ creation of the Screentime and Campus Culture Task Force, composed of a handful of faculty, staff and students working to end the normalization of the toxic consequences and addictive behavior of screen use.
Simons gathered a handful of research and data indicating that Simpson students wish they could put their phones down, but they don’t know how. So, he’s made it his life’s mission to find a solution to protect future generations.
“I’m most proud of helping you guys address the elephant in the room, and it’s perfect because your mascot is an elephant,” Simons said. “But I’m proud of insisting, being the one to insist that this is the thing we need to talk about because if we avoid this, we’re screwed.”
Unfortunately for Simpson, Simons will no longer be leading this mission on campus but others on the task force will keep the mission moving forward.
His office is now full of boxes, the walls bare and a revolving door for students to say goodbye.
“I’m proud as hell with just the amount of love that I generated among students,” Simons said. “The amount of love I feel for them, and they feel for me, that’s more important than all this other shit. It’s always been the key.”
Simons refuses to give up all he created at Simpson and has left the administration and other members of the task force under pressure to keep making strides toward a less digitally reliant campus.
“I don’t have a specific vision, but I want all of them to feel a healthy sense of pressure to move forward,” Simons said. “I was probably more willing than anybody to just go for it, but now that I’m gone, they’re going to have to figure this out, and I think it’ll be really good for them.”
Simons said he won’t miss much about Iowa itself other than the summer nights. But as for Simpson, he’ll miss everything.
He’ll miss coworkers, working in higher education and the task force. But the thing he said he’ll miss the most is his core group of TRIO students who have been with him since his time at Lincoln.
The move to Colorado may feel abrupt, but Simons is ready for this next step in his life. He plans to take the initiatives he’s developed at Simpson and spark conversations amongst new educational institutions.
“I know it’s easy when you’re in college to feel like you want to break out and go live in a big city or on the beach, and all that’s real, and if you feel that, I think you should try it,” Simons said. “But man, all I want is to be home, and I feel like I was an idiot when I was young, thinking I could go live anywhere and be just fine, because now I just want to be with my folks, so that’s what I’m going to go do.”
But Simons warned, this will not be the last we’ll hear of him.
“I can’t shut up, and I can’t stop,” Simons said. “I’m going to go be a teacher and a dad, but the world will hear from me. I would probably bet on that.”
