2008 Woodie Awards
Let the birthday begin
Founders Day official start of anniversary
Catherine Klene
Issue date: 9/25/07 Section: News
Red and white flowers surrounded the small stage set up in the Vadalabene Center Monday as spotlights lit a podium and a shovel held up by a microphone stand.
The shovel held more than just dirt at one time; it also held a world of memories and history, the theme of SIUE's Founders Day convocation in commemoration of the university's 50th anniversary.
The shovel belongs to Dolores Rohrkaste, president of the Edwardsville Chamber of Commerce in 1953.
Rohrkaste said 55 years ago, the city was looking for a way to bring some extra income to Edwardsville. They met in a local restaurant, where a central question was raised.
"Why can't we have a university?" Rohrkaste said.
With that ambitious idea, fundraising and petitioning to state governments began, and in 1963, Rohrkaste used that same spotlit shovel to break ground on the Edwardsville campus.
Fifty years after the university's founding, SIUE chancellor emeritus David Werner, shovel in hand, donned Rohrkaste's gold hardhat while he delivered the convocation address as a slideshow of images from the university's past and present was projected onto two large screens.
"What treasures they are," Werner said of the hat and shovel.
Werner spoke about the history of the university and recognized several founders in attendance.
"They remember when Carbondale was a parent and Edwardsville was the child," Werner said.
Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard also spoke at the convocation and at a morning reception for university administration.
Calling SIUE a "crown jewel" in the SIU system, Poshard acknowledged the effort of the administration, faculty, staff and students to make SIUE what it is today.
"Dreams and visions alone do not build a university," Poshard said. "Hard work does."
Poshard commended SIUE on its intellectual, academic and creative growth, and said the overall atmosphere of the university is what will always stay with him.
The shovel held more than just dirt at one time; it also held a world of memories and history, the theme of SIUE's Founders Day convocation in commemoration of the university's 50th anniversary.
The shovel belongs to Dolores Rohrkaste, president of the Edwardsville Chamber of Commerce in 1953.
Rohrkaste said 55 years ago, the city was looking for a way to bring some extra income to Edwardsville. They met in a local restaurant, where a central question was raised.
"Why can't we have a university?" Rohrkaste said.
With that ambitious idea, fundraising and petitioning to state governments began, and in 1963, Rohrkaste used that same spotlit shovel to break ground on the Edwardsville campus.
Fifty years after the university's founding, SIUE chancellor emeritus David Werner, shovel in hand, donned Rohrkaste's gold hardhat while he delivered the convocation address as a slideshow of images from the university's past and present was projected onto two large screens.
"What treasures they are," Werner said of the hat and shovel.
Werner spoke about the history of the university and recognized several founders in attendance.
"They remember when Carbondale was a parent and Edwardsville was the child," Werner said.
Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard also spoke at the convocation and at a morning reception for university administration.
Calling SIUE a "crown jewel" in the SIU system, Poshard acknowledged the effort of the administration, faculty, staff and students to make SIUE what it is today.
"Dreams and visions alone do not build a university," Poshard said. "Hard work does."
Poshard commended SIUE on its intellectual, academic and creative growth, and said the overall atmosphere of the university is what will always stay with him.
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