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Oglethorpe Inaugurates 15th President -
University Celebrates the Liberal Arts with "Making a Life and
Making a Living"
Atlanta – Oglethorpe University celebrated its 165-year
history and the impact it has had on liberal arts education as the
university inaugurated Dr. Larry Denton Large as 15th president on
Thursday, January 13, 2000. The ceremony began at 2:15 p.m. in the
Dorough Field House on the Peachtree Road Campus.
The ceremony included a colorful academic procession with nearly 200
faculty and staff members and representatives from other colleges,
universities, learned societies and higher education organizations;
a reading from the works of former Oglethorpe University President Thornwell Jacobs; a musical selection from Ten Songs on Poems of
Sidney Lanier, an Oglethorpe University alumnus; and an inaugural
address by Large.
Large, former executive vice president of Reed College in
Portland, Ore., was elected 15th president of Oglethorpe University
in November 1998. He assumed office April 1, 1999 following the
retirement of Dr. Donald S. Stanton as president.
Among other issues, Large addressed the ongoing relevance of the
liberal arts model in the changing educational environment of the
21st Century and unveiled specific goals about Oglethorpe’s
endowment and enrollment and committed publicly to achieving those
goals by 2005.
“Today I want to declare two specific goals,” said Large. “I
intend to see to it that Oglethorpe increases its enrollment of
full-time traditional undergraduates by 200 in order to move our
enrollment of traditional students to approximately 1,000 and to do
so by the year 2005…. Second, and of equal importance, I intend to
see to it that the university will have an endowment that is
approximately $100 million by the year 2005. This goal is merited by
the virtue of Oglethorpe’s history, its academic vitality, the
strength of its students, faculty and staff, and is achievable by
virtue of the commitment and loyalty of its alumni and friends.”
The ceremony was preceded by an inaugural symposium, Celebrating
the Liberal Arts: Making a Life and Making a Living,” on Wednesday,
January 12, 2000. The symposium began at 12:30 p.m. in the Conant
Performing Arts Center on campus and featured a plenary address
titled “The ‘Phoney’ War: Rote Learning vs. Critical Thinking” by
Roger Shattuck, professor emeritus at Boston University. Shattuck
has served as president of the Association of Literary Scholars and
Critics, taught for many years at Boston University, and now resides
in Vermont. He is the author of The Banquet Years, Marcel Proust
(National Book Award, 1974), The Innocent Eye, Forbidden Knowledge:
From Prometheus to Pornography, and Candor and Perversion:
Literature, Education, and the Arts.
The plenary address was followed by responses from Dr. Robert
Skotheim, director of The Huntington Library; Dr. Steven Koblik,
president of Reed College; and Dr. Nora Kizer Bell, president of
Wesleyan College in Macon.
Oglethorpe also celebrated the successful conclusion of its $35
million capital campaign, The Oglethorpe Opportunity, on January 13
with a campaign and inaugural celebration party at the Conant
Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. The campaign, the largest in
Oglethorpe’s history, raised $35,492,888.
From 1972 to 1982, Large served as vice president for student
affairs, vice president for administration, acting president and
vice president for university relations at Willamette University in
Salem, Ore. Large was vice president for development and college
relations at Reed College from 1982 to 1987.
Large was vice chancellor of the Oregon University System and
vice president for public affairs and development for the University
of Oregon between 1987 and 1995. In this capacity, Large worked
effectively with the university presidents and state legislature on
a wide range of higher education-related issues, including health
care, faculty productivity, tuition policy, and state-wide work
force issues. He also taught a course on financing higher education
at the University of Oregon, where he served as an adjunct
professor.
Large served as Reed College’s executive vice president from
February 1995 to March 1999. In this role, Large was chief advisor
to the president on institutional matters, chief administrative
liaison with the board of trustees, and had direct oversight for
government relations, financial development, news and publications,
and alumni relations. Throughout his career, Large has directed
capital campaign efforts totaling more than $220 million.
Oglethorpe University is an independent, highly-selective,
coeducational liberal arts university dedicated to preparing
graduates who are broadly educated in the fundamental fields of
knowledge and the basic concepts and principles of their
disciplines.
Chartered by the State of Georgia in 1835, Oglethorpe University
commenced operations in 1838 with four faculty members and about 25
students at Midway, a small community near Milledgeville, then
capital of Georgia. The university closed in 1862 due to the Civil
War and briefly relocated to Atlanta in 1870. At that time,
Oglethorpe produced several educational innovations, expanding its
curriculum to business and law courses and offering the first
evening college classes in Georgia. However Oglethorpe closed its
doors again in 1872.
Oglethorpe University was rechartered in 1913, and the
cornerstone to the new campus was laid at its present location on
Peachtree Road in Atlanta in 1915. Dr. Thornwell Jacobs became the
president for nearly three decades. He launched several projects
that brought national and even international repute to Oglethorpe
University including finding the tomb of James and Elizabeth
Oglethorpe in England; conferring honorary doctorates to recognize
superior civic and scientific achievement to such notables as
Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart; beginning the
first college or university radio station in the U.S.—Oglethorpe’s
WJTL; and developing the Crypt of Civilization, the first modern
time capsule which is located on the campus and is not to be opened
until the year 8113 A.D.
In 1944, Oglethorpe began a new era under noted attorney and
educator Dr. Philip Weltner. With a group of faculty associates,
Weltner initiated an exciting approach to undergraduate education
called the “Oglethorpe Idea.” It involved one of the earliest
efforts to develop a core curriculum, with the twin aims to “make a
life and make a living.” The Oglethorpe core, which was applauded by
The New York Times, aimed at a common learning experience for
students. The core curriculum remains an integral part of an
Oglethorpe education today. The core curriculum received one of only
ten challenge grants awarded nationwide by the National Endowment
for the Humanities in 1996.
Oglethorpe University’s students come from more than 35 states
and more than 40 countries. They represent the best of their
graduating classes, with an average GPA above 3.6, and average SAT
above 1200, and an average ACT above 26. For those reporting class
ranks, 75% rank in the top quarter, 50% rank in the top 10%, and 33%
rank in the top 5% of their high school graduating class. A typical
freshman class includes numerous student government class presidents
and representatives, valedictorians and salutatorians, yearbook and
newspaper editors, National Merit Award winners, and a wealth of
young artists, poets, athletes and volunteers who have been honored
extensively for their secondary school accomplishments.
While at Oglethorpe, students take advantage of the wide array of
opportunities Oglethorpe’s location in Atlanta offers to enhance the
college experience including historical, cultural, entertainment,
educational, athletic and social venues. In addition, Oglethorpe
University students broaden their education through internships with
numerous Atlanta companies and organizations. Following graduation,
Oglethorpe students often go on to the best graduate schools in the
nation.
For more information, please contact the Oglethorpe University
Office of Public Relations at (404) 364-8446.
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