in the third stanza, "all who gather at thy knee, castes and classes, creeds and races, mother, are as one to thee" references the long history of diversity in the university's student body as the first african-american student attended the school in 1829 and the first women in 1895. "gold and blue" refer to the school's colors, which were chosen sometime prior to the twentieth century when the university was known as the western university of pennsylvania.