This summer marks the end of a remarkable academic year at Longwood — arguably one of the most eventful in our 178-year history. During 2016-17 we hosted the Vice Presidential Debate and approved a bold new core curriculum. We welcomed alumni back for the first Mega Reunion (see Page 10). Our graduates and other supporters contributed more than $10 million in a year for the first time, including the largest gift in our history from Joan ’64 and Macon Brock to support transformative learning experiences for our students.
Old traditions flourished, and new ones bloomed. Our student artists, performers and researchers reached new heights, and student-athletes excelled in the classroom and on the field. Particularly joyful were softball’s wins over Liberty for another Big South Tournament Championship and shortly thereafter over Big Ten powerhouse Ohio State en route to the NCAA regional finals.
This coming year will be memorable as well. A record freshman class soon arrives, as does an extraordinary cohort of faculty eager to begin teaching and building their careers here. The new core curriculum will take shape, as will our first Brock Experiences for students, and a number of campus construction projects are nearing completion. In Farmville, a new boutique hotel, loft apartments, several restaurants and a new Main Street location for the Longwood bookstore are all set to open.
Thinking to the farther future—say 2039, when Longwood will begin its third century— I am optimistic as well. There is much we cannot anticipate, good and bad. Perhaps drones and driverless cars will render campus parking challenges a thing of the past. Certainly new obstacles will emerge. But I am confident that, in broad strokes, Longwood then will be recognizable to you—the same, but better.
We will be roughly similar in terms of size. The habits of democracy must be taught anew to each generation, so our mission of creating citizen leaders will endure. So, too, I believe, will our commitment to a tightknit residential learning community, with the liberal arts and sciences running through the heart of our curriculum (indeed, as the economy changes, it is precisely these skills that will enable our graduates to grow and adapt in their professions). And, finally, I hope and expect Longwood will maintain
its commitment to remaining affordable by offering more scholarships and continuing to keep tuition increases as low as possible.
To preserve and strengthen what is great about Longwood, we will need help from you, our alumni. Philanthropic support will, of course, be essential. But we will also need your engagement, energy and enthusiasm. Annual giving, volunteering, mentoring through Career Services, serving on advisory boards, even returning to visit campus— all of these things send a powerful signal to the outside world about the impact Longwood has. Our alumni are our best cheerleaders and most effective recruiters. So thank you for sporting your Lancer gear and proudly talking up your own Longwood experience, and for encouraging young people to consider coming here.
Above all, thank you for your loyalty and affection for Longwood, which inspire us every day to make this place even better in the years to come.
W. Taylor Reveley IV
Trey Nichols ’03 remembers the day he fully committed to vegetarianism. He drove past a chicken truck in Chesterfield County and was appalled at the conditions the birds were living in.
On spring and summer mornings, Terry Hudgins ’84 wakes up before the sun, getting outside before the dew burns off the knee-high sea of fescue in the side field of his Buckingham County farm.
Longwood’s Board of Visitors approved tuition and fee rates for 2017-18 that will continue the university’s four-year trend of holding annual cost increases well below recent statewide averages.
Marianne Radcliff ’92, a six-year veteran of Longwood’s Board of Visitors who previously served a two-year term as rector, has been elected to a second term as rector.
Longwood’s newest graduates moving to Virginia’s three largest metro areas can fast-track their way to new friends in the alumni family this August.
Longwood Family Night at the Richmond Kickers game Saturday, Aug. 26, will include skyboxes with catered food and the chance to see a former Lancer in action.
Call your friends, grab your Longwood gear, reach out to those Lancers still in Farmville and make plans to head back to town if you graduated in the last four years.
If you are you a hiring manager at your organization and know how to connect students and other alumni to your recruitment team or key decision makers, then University Career Services wants your help.
It was early April, and the members of the Longwood softball team found themselves in unfamiliar territory.
The Longwood athletics department announced its 2016-17 award winners in April at the annual Student-Athlete Awards Banquet.