Historical Highlight | A Century of Convocation
Sponsored by Students for Historical Preservation (SHP)
President Henry Louis Smith (1912-1929) opened the 174th year of Washington and Lee University in Lee Chapel on Thursday, September 14, 1922. He delivered a speech titled “Putting First Things First,” which was summarized by the Ring-tum Phi the following week. That summary is included below:
“In his speech President Smith emphasized first the fact that the present age is an age of mind and that mind rules the world today. The day of brute muscle has gone by and the mind does the work of the world for which it reaps the rewards of the world. This is the age of the expert, the specialist, and the engineer.
“Second, that a young man’s dominant business and his deepest obligation during his college course is to bring his individual mind abreast of the times. The man who invests his precious time and energies in becoming an expert dancer and professional lady-killer is stuffing a fool’s gold. Campus activities are subsidiary and his dominant business is to bring his untrained, ignorant mind abreast of this amazing age.
“The third lesson is that of all possible college occupations and activities[,] concentrated and persistent study is at once the most difficult and by far the wisest. Athletes on the gridiron know that a few weeks of steady training will make their bodies smooth running machines ready for the supreme effort, and the same rule holds true on the intellectual gridiron.
“The fourth momentous fact is in contesibly true and proven by a score of dependent and impartial investigations. It is this: The higher a man’s scholastic average during his college course, the better his chance for reaching a distinguished place among his fellow men.
“In conclusion Dr. Smith proposed these four great truths to stiffen the backbone and nerve the purpose of each student to become a veritable star of the intellectual gridiron, ready to achieve leadership and win success in this age of mind.”
[Special Collections and Archives, Washington and Lee University Record Group #47, University Publications, Ring-tum Phi, Volume 26, Number 1, “University opens for 174th time,” September 20, 1922, http://hdl.handle.net/11021/28779.]
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One hundred years later, Provost Lena Hill (2021-) opened the 274th year of Washington and Lee University in Holekamp Gymnasium on Wednesday, September 7, 2022. Sections of her speech, titled “The Paths We Choose,” are included below:
“As we prepare for a new term of classes at the ninth oldest university in the United States, I want to contemplate two Virginians who very intentionally chose paths in relation to higher education that dramatically influence our nation and the world. In focusing on these leaders I am interested in their dedication to education in the US South.
“The South has a particular history in this county, and I would argue that we at W&L are uniquely positioned to lead the nation and the world in studying it…
“With this in mind let us explore what we might call a tale of two Washingtons from Virginia by considering two journeys, one taken by George Washington and the other traveled by Booker T. Washington and to study these to bring into focus decisions about the paths we will all choose at W&L this year…
“So why, you might be thinking, should we at W&L at this moment ponder the journeys of these two Virginia Washingtons and examine their impact on education in this county. Neither were perfect men; their lives don’t live up to the mythic ideals others have woven around them but their aspiration were admirable and went far beyond themselves.
“The path George Washington followed on his Southern tour led him to believe in the importance of expanding higher education in the US and make his 1796 gift of stock to Liberty College unsurprising. Washington believed deeply in the work colleges contributed to the nation and W&L is a direct beneficiary.
“Booker T. Washington never forgot his difficult journey to Hampton and he worked tirelessly to ensure Tuskegee and other schools would answer the call to educate diverse students. He understood that our nation’s greatness depended on expanded access and a will to support excellence no matter the race, gender, or identity of the student. His early efforts are connected directly to our current mission at W&L.
“These Washingtons represent our inheritance.”
[For the full speech, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqccsmvnxig]