By BETHANY SHERROW
Features Editor

(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) — Maybe you’ve noticed him by his long white mustache, his sandals and blue toe nail polish, or his shirt that asks if you are kind. Or, maybe you’ve just heard of Dr. Love, a UCM professor and self-described hippy who spreads love and kindness around campus and the surrounding community.

Steve Ciafullo has been on campus since 1986 and became known as Dr. Love when he was a professor teaching a course on individual and family relationships.

“I used to get invites to go into the residence halls and into the sorority houses to talk about love and sex,” Ciafullo said. “So, the posters they would put up would say, ‘Dr. Love is making a house call.’”

Ciafullo said the name really stuck because of his valuing differences class.

“It’s a course about understanding, it’s a course about kindness,” he said. “So, that’s really why the name stuck. I teach really about the power of kindness, but also of the incredible transformational power of love. For 25 years, in every class I’ve ever taught, the last thing I tell them is I love you all, and you should love each other.”

Ciafullo said he came of age in the ‘60s during the hippy movement, the counter culture movement and the protest movement. Through those experiences, Ciafullo said treating people right and living for love and kindness became a moral center for him. Also, standing up for what you believe, drives him daily.

“I turned 18 in 1968,” he said. “That year transformed me politically. By the end of the year, I was in boot camp. I’m a Vietnam veteran. Even before I was out of uniform, I was involved in anti-war protests. I’ve probably been involved in about 130 rallies, protests and demonstrations. I’ve been arrested for civil disobedience.”

Standing up and making change has been a part of Ciafullo’s life since his teenage years. He calls himself a political junkie.

“I believe you need to be part of the community rather than be passive spectators,” he said. “You need to be movers and shakers. I don’t believe in letting other people shake the kind of neighborhood, community or country I live in.

“You need to shape that for yourself and for you kids. Make a difference wherever you can.”

Ciafullo said he knows the prospect of making change can be scary, but it’s worth the risk.

“You never give in,” he said. “You never give in. If you think something is right, you’ve got to act upon it. I teach, and I played ball like I live, and that’s with passion and fire in my belly.

“I try and transmit that to my students. If you believe it, you’ve got to live it.”

When Ciafullo is not teaching or making political waves, he enjoys concerts and music and spending time with his family.

He often wears a shirt that says, ‘Are you kind?’ on the front. It is a kind of promotional item for his class.

“I’m a Grateful Dead Head,” Ciafullo said. “I’ve seen them over 30 times. Ever since I’ve been teaching valuing differences, on the first day I play a song called Uncle John’s Band. And two lines out of there that are on my syllabus are, ‘Ain’t no time to hate, barely time to wait,’ and, ‘All I wanna know is are you kind?’ And it says it all. That’s the origin of the shirt, and I’ve had them over 22 years.”

He said he has heard stories about students meeting at concerts because of his T-shirts and that the class has a lasting impact.

“My valuing differences class is interactive, and it’s experiential,” he said. “We don’t just talk about concepts. They experience them. So, they’re up on their feet. It’s really about opening dialogue with each other, and it’s trying to promote understanding.

“If you want to understand somebody, you’ve got to humanize the proposition. You need to have a conversation with them, and you need to hear the stories they bring to the table. When we do that, we find out we’ve got more in common than we do different. So, you know there can never be too much love and kindness.”

Ciafullo said after so many years of teaching the class, his motivation is the same, and that is to reach hearts and minds. He wants people to be more aware of how they treat each other and be a little kinder every day.

“I believe in the incredible transformative power of love,” he said. “If we ever harness it, the possibilities are endless. We’ve seen what hate can do in our lifetime. I think the options and alternative are obvious.”

He encourages people to start practicing love and kindness in their life every day. “You know what I tell people? Everyday is Valentine’s Day with Dr. Love.”