Eye on the Future
It is inspiring to see the magnificent Colonnade being renewed expertly. Here our storied history resides, and also embodies our intention to move forward, with what Ken Ruscio captures so well as “disciplined ambition.”
A 1992 issue of the Alumni Magazine has a fascinating story on the W&L Coat of Arms and the accompanying Latin motto: “Non In Cautus Futuri.” Go to the head of the class if you know that it was adopted from the Lee family coat of arms, based on a quotation from the writings of Horace! We are instructed to be neither greedy nor a spendthrift, and thus ‘not unmindful of the future.’
The W&L Alumni Board Meets during Young Alumni Weekend 2011
More than 100 years after its adoption, the Alumni Association is in step with this motto. It has been almost ten years since the Association conducted a broad survey. Since then, some 4,000 younger alumni have joined our ranks. Increasingly, our students arrive from different places and backgrounds and leave us to become world citizens, still imbued with the bedrock principles on which W&L has been built.
We hope to seek direct input from alumni later this year as a predicate to our 2012-2013 effort to develop a long range plan, loosely termed ‘Alumni 2020.’ Who will our alumni be? How should W&L connect with our increasingly global family? What will they want and expect from us electronically, in their locales, and when they return to campus? How can we more effectively connect alumni with each other and with our students?
This will be a stimulating and important exercise. We welcome your active involvement as we move forward with confidence and discipline, mindful of a W&L future full of challenges and promise.
Beau Dudley, ’74, 79L
Executive Director, Alumni Affairs
