Chatham College - Cornerstone Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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A spirit pervades the Chatham community — one which almost eludes defi- nition, but which is essentially that of change. The trend toward increasing liberality, through questioning, re-evaluation, and in ' ol ement, is respectfullv tempered by a consciousness of traditional values. This spirit has led to recon- sideration of the academic curriculum and re-evaluation of student go ernment. It has shown itself in the re-examination of religious life at Chatham, resulting in a series of intellectual discussions centering upon Religious Pcrspecti es on the Problems of Man. It has manifested itself in the re-assessment of public occa- sions presentations and the initiation of a concentrated program to orient students toward a knowledge and appreciation of the Non- Vestern world. Yet, underlying the flexibility and liberality of the new administration which has now consolidated its policies and gained the enthusiastic support of the entire college community, there seems to be an awareness that the pri ilege of pioneering has its roots in the past history of the college. There is an abiding awareness that Chatham is more than an aggregation of the indi ' iduals who are presently spending a four-year lapse of time on its campus; in short, the college is more than those who have gone before, are present now, or will come afterward. And there is also the recognition that the four-year transients grad- uate from Chatham College, having been imbued with the spirit of enlightened liberality for which the college stands and which will ultimately transcend the college community itself. We dedicate ourselves and the 1962 Cornerstone, not to the spirit of liberality for its own sake, nor to the preservation of tradition alone, but to the spirit of change which balances the two; which keeps us always in front of the hands of the clock, yet trodding firmly on the time-tested foundations of the past. For, as John Li ' ingston Lowes said of Swarthmore College: Now if there is anything today that we need it is that the balance between the steadying power of tradition and the open-minded respon- siveness to new conditions which both this college and its President represent. Tradition without flexibility is mortmain — the dead hand of the past upon the aspirations and ideals of the living present. Liberality untempered by tradition degenerates into the a id acceptance of all the yeasty collection of fads and vagaries that boil and bubble in eager but untrained minds.