Campus Celebrates 125th
By: Tanner Ward
News-features/ co-editor
What do several contemporary Christian artists, the governor of Arkansas and a Fox
News television personality have in common?
All of them will be visiting Ouachita over the next year to join the 125th anniversary
celebration.
Charlie Hall, Point of Grace, Gov. Mike Beebe and former Gov. Mike Huckabee are just
a few of the guests who are scheduled to make appearances on campus throughout 2011.
“We’re going to try and have 125 people on campus this year,” said Ian Cosh, vice
president for community and international engagement and chair of the 125th anniver-
sary steering committee. “I think it will be an impressive list [of people] by the end of
the year.”
Tuesday’s chapel began the celebration events with “The World of 1886,” a look at
some of the major events that occurred the same year Ouachita was founded.
Dr. Ray Granade, director of library services, and Dr. Jeff Root, dean of the School of
Humanities, compiled the information for the chapel service.
“Dr. Granade and I tried to paint a picture of what America was like in 1886,” Root
said. “He did the initial research, and I formed it into a presentation.”
Root said he and Granade began researching in January.
“We’ve been really pleased with the students’ response [to the service],” Root said.
“And we also had some faculty and staff who were good sports, with the guys singing
the songs and Glenn Good, [professor of physics and pre-medical studies], doing the
scientific part. We thought it would be more fun to involve more people.”
Though several special events are planned, a main focus is on incorporating a 125th
anniversary theme into traditional campus happenings.
While a main focus of the steering committee was incorporating a 125th anniversary
steering committee. “So our goal was to host a few key cam-
pus celebrations and then mesh those with the ongoing campus events
that will have a 125th focus.”
According to Cosh, Ouachita President Dr. Rex Horne, Jr., appointed
the steering committee in the spring of 2010.
“Dr. Horne, knowing this was going to be an important time for
the university, charged the committee to brainstorm and plan a great
celebration for Ouachita,” Cosh said.
The committee’s goal was to make the anniversary important with-
out overpowering other important milestones such as the 100th and
150th anniversaries.
“A centennial is a very important milestone in the history of an orga-
nization, and so is the 150th anniversary, so we were trying to balance
the celebration of our 125th without making it too big of an event,” he
said. “For example, President [Jimmy] Carter was the keynote speaker
at the centennial event, so I think we’ve been able to kind of keep that
balanced.”
125th Anniversary
Events
Feb. 7-11 — Christian Focus
Week
Feb. 8 — Charlie Hall Concert,
part of Christian Focus Week
Feb. 15 — International Food
Festival
