: Is Relevance Irrelevant? Ladies and Gentlemen, the Vice-Chancellor: "Why have opening convocations? Are they since Sputnik, the government has been under- necessary?" someone asked last week. No, the standably concerned about the yo-yo phenomenon ceremony is not necessary. It is, rather, a highly in which supply of skills so often is down when the desirable and entirely appropriate experience. This demand is up. I am convinced that the liberal arts occasion celebrates our identification and relation college has an integrity which transcends this utili- as student and teacher. It is a gathering together tarian objective, appropriate as it may be for cer- of our community in which all are engaged in tain kinds of postsecondary education." common purpose. It is, we hope, a time for con- I want to offer another interpretation of templation, a time for assessment of the past and purpose, of what should happen to students dedication to the future. It dramatizes a point of exposed to the Church's ministry in education. departure and it does so in this magnificent House In 1861 William Johnson Cory wrote in Eton of God whose ministry we serve in education and Reform worship. "You go to school ... at the age of twelve or Why are you college students here rather than thirteen; and for the next four or five years you are at some other, more secular place? Why have our not engaged so much in acquiring knowledge as in faculty chosen to teach here, often at financial making mental efforts under criticism ... A certain sacrifices, rather than elsewhere? is the What amount of knowledge you can indeed with average special, perhaps unique, purpose of Sewanee that faculties acquire so as to retain; nor need you re- drew us to this Mountain? To what purpose do we gret the hours that you spent on much that is dedicate ourselves for the semester, second forgotten, for the shadow of lost knowledge at 1975-76? least protects you from many illusions. But you go Let us remind ourselves first that, in spite of to a great school, not for knowledge so much as for continuous clamor for innovation and change the arts and habits; for the habit of attention, for toward assuring "relevance to today's society," the art of expression ... for the art of entering there is an unbroken thread of timelessness in our quickly into another person's thoughts, for the aims, goals, and purposes. We read all sorts of habit of submitting to censure and refutation, for articles and the results of various statistical surveys the art of indicating assent or dissent in graduated urging the necessity for increasing career-oriented terms, for the habit of regarding minute points of courses in undergraduate colleges and more "prac- accuracy ... for taste, for discrimination, for tical" training in seminaries. A recent, highly mental courage and mental soberness. Above all, cue seownee nems publicized national survey has questioned the you go to a great school for self-knowledge." ultimate value of the college preparatory high It is in college that the "habits of attention, the Edith Whitesell, Editor school diploma and the college baccalaureate art of expression, the art of indicating assent or John Bratton, A'47, C'51, Alumni Editor degree, because the survey revealed a declining dissent in graduated terms, the habit for taste, Gale Link, Art Director differential in lifetime earnings between those discrimination, mental courage and mental sober- whose formal education has ended with high ness, and the emergence of self-knowledge" must MARCH 1976 school graduation and those who had finished four have their beginnings. How much more true in the years of college. For part, I find the last VOL. 42, No. 1 my data and quarter of the twentieth century than in the the conclusions worthy of some attention but English society of 1861! Published quarterly by the Office of demonstrating little measure of what we are really Let us then, both teacher and student, dedicate Information Services for the about. As a matter of fact, they may simply meas- ourselves toward these purposes UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH in the second ure an entrance of the skilled worker and semi- semester of the year 1975-76 in Sewanee. including SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY, professional into an COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, economic status of stability to SEWANEE ACADEMY which many of us have been dedicated for years. J. Jefferson Bennett Some time ago President Theodore Lockwood Vice-Chancellor and President Free Distribution 22,000 of Trinity College (Connecticut) was quoted in the The University of the South Second-class postage paid at Chronicle Higher ". of Education: . .The federal Sewanee, Tennessee 37375 and state governments are emphasizing that the Address at Opening Convocation purpose of higher education is to provide trained January 16, 1976 manpower to meet anticipated national needs. Ever NEW HOSPITAL NEARS COMPLETION The new hospital at Sewanee will Tying the hospital in with its be done by precisely April 19. surroundings is a large courtyard That's what George Chapman, job where the trees have been pre- superintendent for the Joe Rodgers served. and Associates contracting firm, The operating and delivery says, and his air of having it all rooms and laboratories all incorpor- together leaves no doubt in the ate the latest medical thinking, mind of observers at the site that hospital superintendent Col. Joseph all will come about as planned. Powell points out. While there is The reaching of such an exact no attempt to duplicate all the target involves mental and physical facilities of large centers, what is juggling to boggle the lay mind. As undertaken here will be done with Practically all the old equip- an instance, Chapman mentioned the finest technical support. ment and furnishings of Emerald- doors that he received word the Appearance has had attention Hodgson Hospital will be left would all arrive April 9, after the too. Each room has been given a behind and disposed of, giving way carpeting would need to be laid different bright, uninstitutional to the optimal new surroundings. Dr.Way Retires and other construction completed color, usually on a single wall. Se- The stout old stone building will be far beyond the time at which doors wanee stone has been brought remodeled into a much-needed should be hung. The builders work- indoors and combined with large college dormitory and called Hodg- —Again ed at it and figured out how it window walls. The overhang, a son Hall, its original name. could be done, and then the sup- prominent architectural feature, What will be transported from plier said he was sending the doors will protect the entering public the old hospital to the new are the Dr. Roger A. Way, C'30, outgoing officer a month earlier. from the weather. Patient entry is memorial plaques honoring persons health and sanitarian for the Stepping over such obstacles as eased by every means and a closed designated by benefactors, and an University, came to Sewanee in a glass pipe coming up from the TV camera will alert the nurses' unbroken tradition of tender loving 1969 to ease off from a very busy floor (metal might corrode) and station to any emergency con- care, individual concern, and high urology practice in Spartanburg, around a massive just-arrived air- ditions. professional expertise. South Carolina. The ten hours a conditioning unit, the visitor sees week of office hours which the ad- shaping up through the ordered ministration projected for him were chaos a handsome, compact struc- soon expanded, by his own ture every detail of which shows decision, to eighteen, and a year careful planning for patient safety Dr. Leonard to Be after his arrival he was made chief and comfort, staff efficiency and of staff of Emerald-Hodgson Hos- administrative economy. Health Officer pital, a position he held for four Since the architects, Gresham years. He has also maintained and Smith, and the builders, the Dr. Russell J. Leonard of Anniston, into general surgical practice in private practice in which he has Joe M. Rodgers firm, both centered Alabama, has been appointed Anniston. His acceptance of the shown a readiness to accommodate in Nashville, have been responsible health officer and sanitarian for the Sewanee appointment is motivated patients at odd hours which has in for dozens of hospitals, the know- University beginning June 30, on by a long-felt desire to be connect- general gone out of fashion. He how so clearly exhibited is not the retirement of Dr. Roger Way. ed with a university and to prac- declares, though, that his life here surprising. The Rodgers company He will also engage in private prac- tice where he is even more needed, has been far more leisurely than operates in twenty states and Saudi tice in Monteagle and will be on as he is sure to be in both Sewanee it was in Spartanburg. Arabia. The corporate size makes the staff of the new hospital at and Monteagle. He received his M.D. degree for economy too, Chapman noted. Sewanee. He was a Navy physician in from the Medical College of South "Instead of buying one or two air Dr. Leonard was born July 8, 1945-46 and again in 1952, when Carolina and served his internship conditioning units we buy a large 1919 in Oklahoma City. He is a he was in Japan with the Third and residency at Hillman Hospital number. This gives us considerable graduate of Phillips Exeter Acad- Marine Division. in Birmingham, Alabama, and his clout." emy, the University of Texas and Dr. Leonard has served as chief urology residency at Pennsylvania The decision to build a new the Northwestern Medical School of the surgery section of the Hospital, Philadelphia.