My, how the times have changed. I was thumbing through some old issues
of The Colonnade recently. In case you are a baby boomer or younger,
The Colonnade was a magazine published by State Teachers College back
in the 1940s.
I'm not sure how long The Colonnade
was published but I can tell you that in March, 1949, the cover story
was about the post-war world and the beginning of the Cold War. In
her editorial message, editor Anne Langbein wrote, "Today we
are living in an atomic world overshadowed by grave doubts and many
misgivings. To many the possibility of a lasting peace has slipped
farther and farther away."
At the time, who could have foreseen
the collapse of communism, the gleeful dismantling of the Berlin Wall,
the EuroDollar, and the Internet which really would shrink our world
into a global marketplace?
In 1949, The Colonnade gladly accepted
advertising from cigarette companies "More doctors smoke Camels
than any other cigarette" and Hollywood heartthrob Tyrone Power,
starring in The Luck of the Irish, stated, "They're milder
that's why I always smoke Chesterfields."
In 1949, our patron saint, Joan of Arc
was also the subject of a hit RKO Technicolor movie starring Ingrid
Bergman. Movie reviewer Janice Slavin, Class of 1950, wrote in The
Colonnade, ". . . the picture is well worth seeing, for Ingrid
Bergman again shines as brightly as the suit of white armor she dons
for battle."
In 1949, we were the State Teachers
College at Farmville and our seal carried the inspirational words,
"Education to All, We Teach to Teach."
That was then, this is now. Today, our
legacy of teacher preparation continues but that little college in
Farmville has become so much more. It's been 50 years since we became
Longwood College. We now have over 3600 full-time students. We have
a record number of 22,000 alumni. We have a new strategic plan and
new leadership with President Patricia P. Cormier. We have a state-of-the-art
business school recently accredited by AACSB the International Association
of Management Education. We were the first college in Virginia to
require laptop computers of all freshmen. And, in the 2000 U.S.News
& World Report Best Colleges survey, we are ranked as one of the "best
regional˛ public colleges in the south.
Now, as we approach the turn of the
century, it is appropriate that we continue Longwood's momentum with
a new magazine, Longwood. This inaugural issue will be the first of
two issues per year plus an annual report. It is our sincere hope
that Longwood will make you even prouder of your alma mater as we
approach the new millennium. Let us know what you think.
Yes, a lot has changed since 1949. But
it's nice to know that some things remain. In that 1949 issue of The
Colonnade, there was a small display ad for Martin the Jeweler in
downtown Farmville at the same location where today, the fifth generation
of Martins continue to serve the college and community.
– Dennis Sercombe,
Editor
