Dawn Bonker
Chapman University is throwing a 150
th
anniversary celebration March 4, and all staff, faculty, students and friends of the university are invited to attend the event, designed to be a party for the campus community and a stroll through the university’s history and heritage.
The anniversary celebration begins at 9:30 a.m. at Fish Interfaith Center, timed to coincide with the same hour the early founders began a bold venture in a nation on the cusp of the Civil War – the opening of a college that would accept students regardless of race or gender.
Among the highlights will be a performance by renowned violinist
Jack Liebeck
, who will be in residence that week for the music and science series “Einstein’s Universe,” and a recitation of the Gettysburg Address by President Jim Doti. The program will also include brief reflections on major turning points in the university’s history. Among the presenters will be Chapman University Trustee Scott Chapman sharing his great-grandfather’s reaction to having the college officially named after him in 1934.
The celebration is timed to commemorate the morning of March 4, 1861, the day Hesperian College opened its doors, when the initial class session was purposely scheduled at 10 a.m., the hour of President Abraham Lincoln’s first inauguration.
Light refreshments will be served.
It seems to me worth noting that when Herperian College opened its doors on March 4, 1861, the location was Woodland, California–about 10 miles from what is now the University of California, Davis.