Spring Break
Hopkins looks back at its legacy
Issue date: 2/28/08
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The Hopkins Commemoration Day party in the Glass Pavilion not only celebrated the 132nd anniversary of the University, but it also sought to reconnect current students with the school's past.
"It is easy to feel like Hopkins sprung into existence five minutes ago," Adam Falk, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, said. Falk and other University officials were cutting and serving cakes decorated with the Hopkins seal.
"I think this is a nice community event. It connects people to Hopkins's history," he said.
All around the Glass Pavilion there were tables displaying photographs from the University's past: an English class meeting in McCoy Hall, commencement on the steps of Gilman and a student polishing up a paper on his Smith-Corona.
Black and blue signs on the tabletops told the University's history in trivia. Hopkins and Yale, evidently, played the first intercollegiate hockey game in a rink on North Avenue in 1896.
Shortly after 1 p.m., a popping record of the "Hopkins Ode" began to play.
"We connect to history through song," said John Bader, associate dean for academic programs and advising.
"I thought, why don't we teach these songs?" he said. "It started with my concern students at Hopkins don't understand the feeling of this place. People have been coming here for a long time."
Up until the 1960s, students sang the ode as an unofficial alma mater, but then it died away, Bader explained. Written shortly after the University's founding, the definitive recording of the "Johns Hopkins Ode: Veritas Vos Liberabit" was produced in the 1950s by a group of male singers.
"College songs are fundamentally silly. They make people feel young and joyful, and that is a good thing," Bader said.
During the afternoon, students trickled in to the Glass Pavilion, keeping administrators steadily serving cake.
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