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December 12 , 2005
Founders Week celebrates Emory’s birth

BY Chanmi kim

Next February, Emory will commemorate its birth during Founders Week, a festival of academic, social and cultural events that will “celebrate the role of the University in promoting inquiry and intellectual life,”
Feb. 5–12, 2006.

“Founders Week is intended to celebrate the ‘legacy of heart and mind’ bequeathed to us by Emory’s founders,” said Gary Hauk, vice president and deputy to the president. “The aim is to call attention to Emory’s history, gather the community for scholarly conversation and social conviviality, and look to the future with energy and thoughtfulness.”

Previously known as Charter Week in commemoration of Emory’s chartering as a university in 1915, this year the celebration will be extended to mark Emory’s original founding: Founders Week is framed around the first meeting of the Emory College Board of Trustees, which occurred Feb. 6, 1837. The college itself was founded in 1836 in Oxford.

“To mark this milestone,” said Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education Sally Wolff King, “faculty, students, staff and administrators, drawn from all corners of the University, will have the opportunity to engage in a week replete with thought-provoking, stimulating and festive events.”

Such events include intellectual fare that will not only satisfy the curiosity of many students and faculty but also serve their interests in the community, Hauk said.

Georgia Rep. John Lewis, longtime congressman from Georgia’s 5th District and a veteran of the civil rights movement, will give a lecture titled “Civil Rights and the University Community,” Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. in Glenn Auditorium, and Brown University President Ruth Simmons will give her insight on “The University Between Past and Future” on Feb. 10. Simmons comes from an experienced background in university administration; prior to becoming the first African American president of an Ivy League institution, she served as president of Smith College, vice provost at Princeton University, provost at Spelman College and associate dean of the Graduate School at the University of Southern California.

The week will kick off with “Fanfare for the Gold and Blue,” featuring a commemorative cake-cutting and a performance by the student a capella group No Strings Attached, Feb. 6 at noon in the Dobbs Center. To close the week, the Founders Ball, a black-tie-optional dance with live music by E.J. Hughes and a dessert reception (including another birthday cake), will be held Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. at the Emory Conference Center Hotel. Tickets to Founders Ball will be on sale in January in the Dobbs Center and Schwartz Center ($5 for faculty and staff, $2 students, $10 alumni).

Some established University events have been brought into the Founders Week calendar. For example, Faculty Council agreed to move the 11th annual Distinguished Faculty Lecture to coincide with the celebration; this year’s speaker will be Dennis Liotta, professor of chemistry and one of the faculty members involved in last summer’s landmark AIDS drug sale that brought some $540 million in royalty sales to Emory and the inventors. Liotta’s lecture is titled “New Therapies for Treating Viral Infections and Cancers” and will be held Feb. 6 at 4 p.m. in the Rita Ann Rollins Room, School of Public Health.

Artistic events include a 24-hour arts festival, a film festival, and numerous concerts, including “Bach’s Musical Offering” by the Bach Baroque Ensemble (Feb. 5), the Flora Glenn Candler Concert featuring percussionist Evelyn Glennie (Feb. 7) and the Emory Baroque Orchestra (Feb. 9). The Emory Annual Jazz Festival will host an improvisation class with Wess “Warmdaddy” Anderson (Feb. 9) and give concerts featuring Anderson and the Gary Motley Trio (Feb. 10) and Emory Big Band (Feb. 11). Other scheduled events include a chalk art competition on the Quadrangle and an exhibit of photographs taken by artist Angela West (Feb. 9).

“Founders Week is intended to bring the entire institution and her alumni together to honor and celebrate the 170-year-old tradition of the Gold and Blue,” Wolff King said.

For more information, contact Michael Kloss, director of events and convocations, at 404-727-0674 or via e-mail at mkloss@emory.edu.

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