Lyndon State College - Northern Lights Yearbook (Lyndonville, VT)

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President’s Message No member of the Class of 1967 can have escaped an almost overwhelming feel- ing of change as he compares the College he entered with the College from which he graduates. In this he is no different from the graduates of any College that is alive and growing, nor indeed from Lyndon graduates who have preceded him in recent years or will follow him down through the 60’s and 70’s. Yet for this par- ticular class the change is probably more impressive—and perhaps more poignant— than for others. Since September 1963 a new group of buildings has risen across the road from Vail Hall, and more are under construction. The internal arrangements of the Vail Complex have been altered and more dramatic changes are in prospect. The ladies who in 1963 claimed Vail as home now live in Wheelock, and the less beau- tiful part of the undergraduate body roam freely through what was formerly a no- man’s land. A converted manure-cellar has been reconverted from the college dining hall to science labs and a rudimentary student center replaces what was bookstore, post-office, laundry, and classrooms. A cramped library has moved to spacious quarters, bequeathing its former location to an expanded bookstore. Administrative offices have moved about in an endless succession of apparently meaningless changes. More important, the academic programs which culminate in the 1967 degree are stronger and more adaptable to individual needs than those which produced earlier degrees. New opportunities have become available and new resources have been drawn upon to make possible a richer college experience. The students themselves have changed—in numbers, in quality, in character. Only in teaching and administrative personnel has there been relative stability, and even here there have been added re- freshing new personalities and significant new responsibilities. Change can be a disturbing thing, particularly to seniors who contemplate it through a nostalgic haze. But it is also vital, absolutely necessary to a living institution. While to none of us is given the wisdom which will ensure that all change is good, I am persuaded that the changes the Class of 1967 has seen in its four years here will appear on balance to have been for the good of the College and its graduates, in 1967 or any other year. To the Class of 1967 change should appear especially good, for this class has been an integral and important part of progress. There can be little doubt that you graduate stronger and better prepared. Something is always lost through change. Whatever may have been lost here— intimate size, old dormitory spaces, the ''atmosphere” of a crowded dining hall, drafty classrooms—I trust that pride of institution has not been sacrificed. If you can look about you as you graduate and say I’m glad I went to Lyndon!”—and mean it— then change has not been in vain. The faculty and staff of your College cherish the hope that this may be so and extend the most cordial wishes for your success and happiness.

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20 ROBERT E. LONG President Lyndon State College

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 ROBERT T. RICKERT B.A. University of Minnesota; M.A. University of Miami; Ph.D. University of Birmingham (England) 22