Founders Day 2012 will mark the 125th anniversary of Pomona College’s incorporation. Like all such milestones, this will be a moment for both celebration and reflection. The observance of Pomona College’s Quasquicentennial—the awkward but proper term I feel obliged to use just once before returning to the more agreeable 125th—will be focused around Founders Day in October. There will be a variety of events and activities on campus—performances, open houses, a campus-wide party—involving not only Pomona students, faculty, staff, alumni and parents, but also the College’s extended community in Claremont and beyond. But while the October event will be the focal point, other initiatives, beginning in coming months and extending into 2013, will commemorate our history, celebrate our present, and project our future. That the 125th falls during the College’s Campaign Pomona: Daring Minds is auspicious, allowing us to set our future goals in their proper context, as a continuation of the long trajectory of our history.
The celebration of anniversaries is a near-universal human activity, one that answers a deeply felt need to mark the rhythms of our collective lives. For institutions, as for families, anniversaries remind us of the commonality of past and future. This anniversary offers us an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to the principles upon which this institution was founded; to recognize the progress made over the past 125 years; and to think about our future—about how to build on the College’s extraordinary accomplishments in the most productive ways for the benefit of future generations of Pomona students and the wider communities they will serve.
You will hear more about this subject both from me and from others in the months to come as planning continues for celebrating this milestone in Pomona College history.