By Phillip Stone ’94
What’s something that every person who has attended Wofford since 1854 has in common? We’ve all studied on the same campus. Not many American colleges or universities as old as we are can claim that they are on their original grounds and have original buildings in daily use. Those of us who walk the grounds today are sharing this campus with Wofford students from multiple generations. Each of those individuals and groups lived in a very different time than we do today. Our society has evolved quite a lot over the past 170 years, as has the college. We have opportunities today that the first generations of students could not have imagined. And yet, despite those differences, we have this college and this campus, where people still gather to learn and to grow, in common.
As the college’s archivist, I regularly receive requests to give campus history tours to friends, alumni and new colleagues. When I walk around the campus with a group, I talk about the layers of history that surround us. I can point to buildings and landmarks that a student 50 or 100 years ago would have seen or studied in every day. I can show my tour group how each generation has affected the way the campus looks today and how the contributions of people from long ago are still having an impact on current students. Not only has each generation of students, faculty and staff lived and worked in this space, they also played a role in shaping the college’s history, its landmarks and its reputation.
That gets to some deeper questions about history and what it means. To me, Wofford’s history is about its people and the stories that these people share. It’s more than the date that a building was constructed, or the date that this person became president, it’s the stories that Wofford people share when they gather. I know that each generation experiences Wofford in different ways, but common themes emerge from those stories, no matter the age of the person sharing their memories. At All Saints Day each year, we toll the bell for each member of our community who has died in the past year. As I hear those names read aloud, I think about what Wofford was like for them and the value they must have placed on the relationships they built here.
Just as we share this space with people who lived in a time that is different from our own, I remind people on campus tours that we also are sharing this space with people in the future, who will live in a time that might be hard to imagine. Teaching will evolve, technology will change and some landmarks will pass into history. What I hope will never change are the connections that people build while they are here. Those of us who are here every day and those of us who support the college, do this with the belief that there will always be a Wofford College, no matter what it looks like.