THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 30, 1995 TAG: 9501300153
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
With spritzes of snow and an icy wind outside the Hampton University Convocation Center, the image of winter's barreness was used Sunday to call the university community to social and civic action.
``Hold fast to dreams . . . When dreams go, life is a barren field covered with snow,'' said a Hampton student in a dramatic reading from the poetry of Langston Hughes, prelude to a choral work that incorporated Hughes' verse.
The occasion was Hampton University's 102nd annual Founder's Day, a commemoration of the Jan. 30 birthday of the school's Civil War-era creator, Gen. Samuel Chapman Armstrong. It brought together several thousand students, faculty and friends of the university.
Keynote speaker Martha E. Dawson, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Virginia State University, challenged the audience to respond to the nation's many ills with the same dedicated, inspired leadership demonstrated by Armstrong and the university's dozen presidents.
``Today, more than any other time in our history, Americans need visionary leadership,'' Dawson said. ``We are once again enslaved.''
Dawson said society in general and African-Americans in particular, are enslaved today black-on-black crime, teenage pregnancy, violence in schools and the drug culture.
``We all need to follow the words of that traditional hymn: `Brighten the corner where you are,' '' Dawson insisted. ``Do you have the vision to find a cure for cancer and other incurable diseases? . . . Do you have the vision to even save yourself?''
Visionary leaders, Dawson said, are those who persevere despite the odds and in spite of the naysayers - individuals such as talk-show host Arsenio Hall, musician Ray Charles and writer Toni Morrison. She cited Nelson Mandela as the greatest visionary leader of the 20th century, saying he held onto his vision for the 27 years he spent in a prison in South Africa.
``Do not let others become your eyes,'' Dawson implored. ``Set your eyes on the prize and go for it, regardless of others.''
As part of the ceremony, Hampton University President William R. Harvey presented presidential citizenship awards to Dr. Annie L. Williams, a Norfolk obstetrician and gynecologist, and Hermann A. Grunder , director of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility, a nuclear physics research center in Newport News.
Near the close of the proceedings, small groups of students began to rise from their seats and scurry for the exits. Their impromptu leavetakings brought a sharp response from Harvey.
``I want the ushers to stop those students from leaving!'' Harvey said angrily. ``The program is not over. Get the names of the ones leaving!''
Later, Harvey explained that he wanted to make a public point about the values the university holds and insists that its students abide by: integrity, honor, decency and dignity. As a matter of respect, students should have waited until the event was over before they left, he said.
Whatever irritation Harvey may have been feeling vanished shortly before the end of the program. The university chorus, which was on stage, sang a rousing rendition of ``Happy Birthday'' to a startled Harvey, who turned 54 on Sunday. The Hampton president beamed as the audience joined in the singing. ILLUSTRATION: RICHARD L. DUNSTON/Staff
Martha E. Dawson, provost and vice president for academic affairs at
Virginia State University, was the keynote speaker Sunday at Hampton
University's 102nd Founder's Day.
by CNB