George Fox University - L'Ami Yearbook (Newberg, OR)

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OUR RAISON D ' ETRE Of the nearly twenty-five hundred colleges and universities in our land, some are seriously facing the question of their very existance and contin- uance. A candid appraisal of many institutions reveals grave deficiencies, peripheral offerings, and over-lappings with sister colleges. What, then, are the raisons d ' etre which give our alma mater its life and uniqueness? These cannot be trumped-up, but rather valid conclusions. Not the least is our lovely setting. I question if any part of America is more graciously appealing than the Willamette Valley in Spring. As I have travelled this school year trom coast to coast, I have found no campus more beautiful in its natural environment. This is important. For a college is more than courses and buildings and equipment. There must be surroundings conducive to serenity ana contemplation. Otherwise, a college becomes little more than a diploma mill! I cannot pass by our devoted Christian faculty, for the greatest element in any school is its faculty, and so it is with us. Dedicated as they are to the highest ideals of Christian scholarship, and imbued with a desire to teach and help you, where can one find a more consecrated group? Where can one look to see a great measure of committent to our Christ and His church? But the great reason for our existence is found in our Christian faith and love to the Society which has given birth and sustenance to George Fox College for all of its sixty-five years. We stand, without apology, to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as we prepare select youth for service in all the professions and callings. What we are today casts its long shadow to generations yet to come. What George Fox is today spells the success of evanqelical Quakerdom into all the future. May every student who enters our halls close beside Chehelem ' s Mountain be thrilled with the holy faith of our fathers, and may we prove to all our reason for being. This light cannot die. This must go on and on with greater brilliance to every succeeding generation. For in the words of Woodrow Wilson: The Christian College is the lighthouse of civilization. Pne ident milo 4