University of Virginia Library

Convocation

The convocation October 19-21
will be the largest event of the
University's 150th year, which
began last January with a series of
events in Charlottesville and New
York.

The speaker at the convocation
will be Philip Handler, recently
elected president of the National
Academy of Sciences and former
chairman of the biochemistry
department at Duke University. He
will speak the morning of October
21 following an academic procession
down the University's famed
lawn.

The convocation will be coupled
with Commonwealth Day Week
End, October 17-18, when the
University is host to the Governor,
Mills E. Godwin, the Virginia
General Assembly and other state
leaders.

The sesquicentennial celebration,
whose theme is the "Illimitable
Freedom of the human mind"
began last January 15 when President
Edgar F. Shannon Jr. discussed
aspects of the 150th year
and the future of the University
before a group of student leaders
gathered in the Rotunda.

On January 19, a Charter Day
dinner honored descendants of the
families in this area who had
supported establishment of the
University, and four days later the
University was feted at a dinner in
New York City by the Newcomer
Society of North America.

As the 1969-70 academic year
opens, the University will continue
its anniversary program of bringing
leading scholars from throughout
the world to Charlottesville.