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NEWS
| October 7, 2003
Student Life
UTA to celebrate 1st Founders Day
Speakers will address the history
and traditions of the 108-year-old university.
By Chris
Baggott
The Shorthorn staff
The university will celebrate its 108th birthday with its first
Founders Day on Wednesday.
Student Congress, EX.C.E.L. Campus Activities, the Alumni Association,
UTA Ambassadors and the Office of the President will put on the
celebration. Organizers said the event will honor the people who
inspired the university’s creation.
Founders Day is a major event at many universities, SC President
Josh Warren said.
“With the sheer number of universities that do a Founders
Day, it seemed like a good idea,” he said.
The university also wants students to know UTA’s history,
said Seth Ressl, Student Activities program coordinator.
The UTA band will begin the celebration at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday.
Military science students plan to present some of the university’s
military history, Ressl said.
“It’s a presentation that they do sort of a rehashing
of the university and some of the military conflicts that have gone
on,” he said.
Interim President Charles Sorber will also say a few words about
where the university stands, said Amy Schultz, director of special
events for the Office of the President.
“He’s going to talk about some cool events that are
going on,” she said. “There’s going to be an emphasis
on UTA: past, present and future.”
Gary Spurr, Libraries special collections archivist, will give a
historical presentation on how the university became what it is
today, Ressl said.
Ambassadors will give tours of the campus, focusing on how buildings
were originally used and where historical events took place, he
said.
“We’re doing it so people can find out that UTA has
a pretty significant tradition and history that not a lot of people
realize,” he said.
One person who knows how much history the university has is Gerald
Saxon, Libraries associate director. He wrote a book called Transitions
that chronicles UTA’s history.
Saxon said Edward Emmett Rankin, Arlington’s first justice
of the peace, was devoted to the idea of bringing quality education
to the community and wanted to build a college in the city in 1895.
“There’s no building here that honors what he did,”
Saxon said. “He didn’t have a role to play at the college.”
The university was first named Arlington College. Rankin didn’t
teach or administrate — he was the man behind the scenes who
“pulled the pieces together.” Saxon said Rankin collaborated
with community members to fund and build the fledgling college.
“He certainly was the mover and the shaker,” Saxon said.
Unfortunately, nothing that would have told why Rankin decided to
start the college has survived, he said.
“His personal papers are nonexistent, as far as I was able
to tell,” he said.
What is known, mostly from bills of sale and building records, is
that Rankin approached Lee Morgan Hammond and William M. Trimble
for help getting the college started. At the time, Hammond and Trimble
where the principals of the Arlington Public School.
When Arlington College opened its doors, it was different than it
is now. In those days, the definition of a college was a little
different, Saxon said.
“It was essentially a school that offered elementary, junior
high and high school education to students,” he said.
The college only lasted seven years as Arlington College, but cemented
the presence of higher education in Arlington. Founders Day will
honor the people who made that happen.
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founders
day today
The Founders Day celebration will begin at 11:45 a.m.
on the University Center mall. The rain site is in the
University Center Palo Duro Lounge. The UTA band will
perform. Interim President Charles Sorber, Arlington
Mayor Robert Cluck, special collections archivist Gary
Spurr and Student Congress President Josh Warren will
speak. After the presentations, alumni and the UTA Ambassadors
will give campus tours.
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| Edward
Rankin is credited as the “mover and
shaker” for the university, then Arlington College.
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