In recognition of the role that Chancellor Emeritus William H. “Bill” Danforth, the late Elizabeth “Ibby” Gray Danforth, the Danforth family and the Danforth Foundation have played in the evolution of Washington University, the Hilltop Campus will be renamed the Danforth Campus.
Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton made the announcement Feb. 23.
An official “Dedication of the Danforth Campus” ceremony will be Sept. 17, when the new name takes effect.
The Hilltop Campus is home to six of the University’s seven schools.
All members and friends of the University community are cordially invited to attend several events scheduled for Sept. 17, starting with a 3:30 p.m. program in Graham Chapel (doors will open at 2:45).
The event will feature remarks from Wrighton; David W. Kemper, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Commerce Bancshares Inc. and chairman of the Board of Trustees; Gerald L. Early, Ph.D., the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in the Department of English in Arts & Sciences; Truman and Danforth scholar Laura Kleinman, who will be a senior majoring in philosophy in Arts & Sciences; and Danforth.
The keynote speaker will be Harold T. Shapiro, Ph.D., president emeritus and professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, whose talk is titled “A Larger Sense of Purpose: Higher Education and Society” — the same as his most recent book.
A reception in Holmes Lounge and in Brookings Quadrangle will follow the 90-minute program.
Several other events are scheduled throughout the fall semester in conjunction with the renaming, all along the theme “A Higher Sense of Purpose.”
• Bill Danforth will give a presentation titled “Medicine — A Larger Sense of Purpose” at 4 p.m. Oct. 3 in Graham Chapel, and a reception will follow at a location to be determined.
• On Oct. 16, John “Jack” Danforth, brother of Bill, former U.S. senator from Missouri and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and current chair of the Danforth Foundation, will give a presentation titled “Politics and Morality” at 4 p.m. in Holmes Lounge. A reception, also in Holmes Lounge, will follow.
• P. Roy Vagelos, M.D., chairman of the board of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., founder and past director of the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, and retired chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Merck & Co. Inc., will give a presentation titled “The Social Responsibility of Business” at 4 p.m. Nov. 13 in Graham Chapel. A reception will follow in Holmes Lounge.
“A Higher Sense of Purpose” is the theme of Freshman Orientation. Accordingly, all incoming freshman will be given the book One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All by Mark R. Rank, Ph.D., the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.
Rank will deliver the keynote address at the 2006 Orientation Convocation Aug. 24.