University of the South - Cap and Gown Yearbook (Sewanee, TN)

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of means different things to dif- ferent people. To the stranger sitting next to you on the air- plane home at break-time or to the inquiring gas-station attendant, even to some of your old friends, it is merely a name. To your parents it is the source of all erudition and a safe place to send you. To the girl you are pinned to it is the best party anywhere. But to us, Sewanee is something entirely differ- ent from what it appears to be to outsiders. In the light of four years ' experi- ence, the Mountain has been depressing at times when your grades did not show a true measure of the sedulous work you put into a course, when a meaningful date for a party-weekend fell through, or when the team of which you were a part lost a ball game even after days of prudent prepara- tion. At other times, the friendships made here and the knowledge gained through hard knocks and honest endeavor could not be measured in any ma- terial form, and more than made up for any regrets. In short, the true worth of our Sewanee education will manifest itself to each individual in the years to come. Chances are that in our later years we will feel that same endear- ment for the Mountain which perhaps somewhat prematurely keeps a high percentage of freshmen from dropping out and, even more significantly, causes such a large number of the transfer students to return each year.

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BISHOP LEONIDAS POLK President William Howard Taft ' s visit to Sewanee. Military training came to during the First World War. the Mountain 1 Sewanee began in 1856 when Leonidas Polk, writing letters to ■h fellow bishops in the Episcopal Church in the South, invited ' g I -them to join in an effort to establish a university. He characterized ■ his dream by saying it would be our common property, under J our joint control, of a clear and distinctly recognized Church • character, upon a scale of such breadth and comprehensiveness, ' I as shall be equal in the liberality of its provisions for intellectual cultivation to those of the highest class at home or abroad. To establish such an insti- tution had been Bishop Polk ' s dream for a number of years. Having studied institutions both in America and in Europe, he thought the time right for his Church to support such a regional project. On July 4, 1857, twenty-two trustees met on Lookout Mountain; and in three days, the principles were set upon which Sewanee was to be developed. The University of the South was the first modern university planned in America. It was to have thirty-two departments whose nature would allow any known subject in general education to be