Piedmont College - Yonahian Yearbook (Demorest, GA)

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Dr. Jessie Pierce, Asst. to President Dr. Jodie L. Burton, Dean Dr. John B. Ayers, Registrar 10 Mrs. Linda Roach, Sec. to Registrar

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The President ' s Message by James E. Walter My warmhearted congratulations to the Class of 1977! You are graduating in one of the greatest academic years of the entire 80 years of Piedmont College ' s history. Student enrollment in the Fall Quarter of the academic year 1976-77 reached a historic high of 440. Even more importantly, the excellent quality of the entering students enabled our faculty to hold fast to the traditionally high levels of collegiate learning, cultural advantages, and religious standards. The Fall term also began with the gratifying assurance that the Georgia State Board of Education Programs at Piedmont College for another five years, the longest period of approval granted to any college or un- iversity program of teacher education in our state. Coupled with this good academic news is the remembrance of our qualifying in December 1975 for the reaffirmation of accreditation of Piedmont College by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools for another ten years. Each June as I award, on behalf of the Trustees and Faculty of Piedmont College your well-earned diplomas, inscribed with the degrees of Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science, it is profoundly inspiring to realize that every Piedmont College degree is equivalent in value and importance to every baccalaureate degree in the nation. It is a degree of which you can be justly proud. Among the high points of 1977 was the reinstitution of women ' s in- terscholastic basketball after an interim period of 26 years! The Lady Lions ' ' promptly won their first game in November against a much taller team from Georgia Tech in Atlanta, and continued the season with flying colors. During your undergraduate days at Piedmont College, also, for the first time a national honorary society was inaugurated at Piedmont College, the Alpha Chi National Scholarship Honor Society. This society grants charte rs to institutions of higher learning whose work is primarily academic in nature, which are fully accredited by regional accrediting associations, and which meet other Alpha Chi requirements. Piedmont College holds the proud distinction of being the fifth institution of higher learning in the State of Georgia to be granted a chapter in this national honor society. Under the leadership of Dr. Mary L. Griggs, the society has already become a vital part of Piedmont College life. Finally, our academic progress, our scholarship program, and our work- aid opportunities for every industrious young person who desires and can profit from a college education will be continued in the future. The campaign goals of the past three years for Piedmont College Endown- ment Funds were successfully reached during the Christmas Season of 1976. The Spring Piedmont College Bulletin carried the following message of gratitude and joy to supporting friends everywhere. Eureka! The Christmas mail put our Endownment Fund Cam- paign over the top of the $1,500,000 goal, thereby matching on a two-for-one basis the generous gift of $750,000.00 from our Anonymous Friend. I am deeply grateful to God and to every donor who had a part in this beautiful miracle for our College. Together we have achieved a new strong vote of confidence in our work of Christian education. These permanent endowment funds will produce essential income throughout the future for the enrichment of young people who seek to know the truth, the truth that shall make them free. I am especially grateful to our Anonymous Friend who volunteered this thrilling gift with a challenge opportunity for all of us. His gracious and generous spirit made it a joy to invite trustees, faculty members, alumni, students, churches, and friends everywhere to share in the present and future of Pied- mont College with a gift, pledge, annuity, or a statement in a legal Will. Women and men throughout the land have carried this important project on their hearts and in their daily prayers. They themselves have given from their own tithes and benevolences, talked with their neighbors and relatives, and re- joiced with us in our achievements along the way. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow. Some friends made direct gifts from their savings or capital stocks for scholarship and work-aid trusts in the name of a loved one. Others gave Book-of-the-Year units of $150 to provide new volumes annually in memory of a friend or family. Others wrote me of their plans for Piedmont College, as stated in their Will. Together we made it to the top of a new challenge. We press on to more mountain peaks of excellence in faith and gratitude to God. Blessed be the name of the LORD. ' '

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V Mrs. Flois Duckett, Treasurer Mr. Charles T. Davis, Asst. to Treasurer Mr. Bob Gregory, Financial Aid Mr. Dan Tomlin. Alumni Director 11