174 years old and Longwood has never looked so good. Founded on March 5, 1839, Longwood celebrated its 174th anniversary with a day filled with fun and activities.
Starting the morning early, hot cocoa and cider were served on Brock Commons from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. Additionally, students were able to celebrate the day with a birthday dinner at Dorrill Dining Hall later that evening. Finally, ending the evening was a presentation at 7 p.m. where students were able to learn about the history of Longwood’s founding from the first day it opened its doors with six students enrolled to the day it opened its doors to men and women alike.
The featured speakers for the event included Interim President Marge Connelly, Professor of Anthropology Dr. James Jordan and Vice- President of the Student Government Association Brian Reid.
At the event, the Women’s Ensemble A sang Longwood University’s Alma Mater, and ending the event was the “Hail to Longwood U” video, featuring various Longwood students, faculty and staff singing the campus fight song.
Opening the event, Connelly said, “I think it really is important though that we pause, and we celebrate the accomplishments of all those who came before us and that we show some appreciation for the impact that they’ve made.”
She said, “Our university has gone through a number of changes. We’ve changed names. We moved to co-education ... In addition to all new kinds of majors and programs, Division I athletics and also just slow and steady growth throughout those years, and through it all, the faculty, staff and students of Longwood University have maintained a strong sense of dedication and loyalty. Challenges have been met with hard work and commitment, and victories, no matter how small, have been celebrated by the Longwood family as a whole.”
Connelly encouraged the Longwood students to think of the legacy they will leave, saying, “Your actions will show future generations that success in your personal and professional lives means even more when you serve as leaders, mentors and role models — what we call citizen leaders.”
Connelly also announced that there are plans already for Longwood’s 175th anniversary. The upcoming year’s celebration will focus on Longwood’s past, present and future, and the celebration will be titled, “Our Honor and Our Past Inspire Our Future.”
Jordan’s presentation, entitled, “You’ve Got Male: The Day Longwood Went Co-Ed and the World Turned Upside Down,” featured photographs from past issues of The Rotunda and Longwood’s yearbook, The Virginian.
Jordan spoke on the history of Longwood University when it started as the Farmville Female Academy on March 5, 1839, an all-female institution founded by the Virginia Legislature. Longwood originally opened its doors with only six students, and 21 years after had a student enrollment of 80. After a financial panic where Longwood closed down for a number of years during the Civil War, the institution began again in 1884 when the Commonwealth of Virginia bought the school and renamed it the Premiere Normal School.
Jordan said, “They were called that because they were originally state teacher’s colleges ... and they learned the norms, the rules, of society so they could pass them on to their students.”
“200 years after the American Revolution, Longwood was facing our own revolution,” chuckled Jordan who spoke of Longwood’s eventual co-education.
Longwood did not officially open its doors to male students until the 1976 to 1977 academic school year. Jordan read the headline of an article printed Aug. 16, 1976 by The Farmville Herald that read, “Longwood Ready for Males.”
Jordan had written a dedication in The Virginian that year, celebrating the new faces, saying, “We have ushered in a new life: co- education. And yet our traditional Joan of Arc guards her domain. This year was unlike any other year. It was unique, and we were the ones who captured it. It was like a great storm, but safe in our rotunda, we saw it through.”
During his speech, Jordan spoke of Longwood’s sixteenth president Dr. Joseph L. Jarman, the longest running president at Longwood, and Longwood’s twenty-first president Dr. Henry I. Willett, Jr., who was the first president at Longwood to oversee male Lancers.
Jordan spoke of many tales that occurred at the school thereafter, including what it was like to be punished back in the day (hint: get out your hymnal) and the tale of the College Bell of East Ruffner that was buried in the basement of Barlow Hall because of the fear of the boys being hurt or killed while in the midst of pranks.
“What did we learn from the tumult of this revolution at Longwood University?” asked Jordan.
“I think we’ve learned a number of things. One thing ... [is] we have stuck to our values ... Longwood as a community of scholars has passed safely through and maintained a historical continuity, and this is a testament to those people and those times,” he said.
Jordan further stated, “Peering into our Alma Mater’s deep and distant past, we can see that we who are here today for our brief time in this long chain of scholars in our community, we can see a measure of great hope for Longwood’s future, every generation of you, and me, and us and them who have ever been on High Street have faced its own tribulations, and no generation has ever failed to do its duty.” “We continue to reflect on our deep past, our commitment to public as opposed to private values, our interest in the value of education as a vocation, an arena and a way of life. These are the goals of those six students on the fifth day of March, 1839 at the Farmville Female Academy, and in the most fundamental way we have never in 174 years wandered away from them,” said Jordan.
Reid, in his speech, said, “In order to build something, you have to know the foundation under it ... but our traditions here cannot be summed up in one story. All of Longwood’s students, present, past and future have and will have countless stories of their first Midnight Breakfast, Color Wars, Spring Weekend, first time accidentally stepping on a rotunda, oozeball game, Dr. Jordan’s ghost stories, Joanie on the Pony and Stonie and the many more that make our university very unique.”
“When every student at Longwood leaves their mark here ... we have made some difference at this university, and this university would be different in some way even if one student of the 29,000 students who have come through Longwood University would have decided not to come here in our 174 years,” said Reid.
He further stated, “That’s why knowing our history is important because we are living it right now.”
Jordan said, “You’re going to come back. I know you are. You’re going to be very busy for a while, and you’ll forget to come back, but remember, there have been lots of people here before you. Without you and your promise for the future, maybe no one would come in the future ... Don’t forget. We’re here waiting for you. You come back like all the spirits of Longwood have always come back.”
