02.11.2021
An exhibition that brings together snippets of oral histories from all across campus, beginning with Davidson College Students and Alumni/ae oral histories and interviews in Digital Davidson.
Listen to the different perspectives about Davidson College.
The titles link to the full interviews.
“Read more” reveals interview snippets and audio text | voices. Note: some the audiotexts may need moment to load.
Leslie Brown ’69, 2009 November 7
Read MoreOral history interview with Leslie Brown ’69. Meikaela Zwieryznski, Davidson College class of 2010, interviewed Leslie Brown, Davidson College class of 1969, on November 7, 2009 in Davidson, North Carolina.
M.Z. 46:32:
And this year is the hundredth year anniversary of the student honor code.And what advice would you give today’s Davidson students?
L.B. 46:58: Be free, be responsible, and take as full advantage of the opportunity that you have here asyou can. The Davidson experience will test you. But push yourself beyond even what the college is—totest yourself. And if you can leave your like I said earlier try to master the communication skills. It’sabsolutely critical that you be able to communicate verbally. Master your writing skills. Hone your socialinteraction skills. Though–and don’t let anyone have any more confidence in you than you have in yourstuff. That’s what you ought to take away from this Davidson experience. And if you do that, it’ll serveyou well for anything that you want to do. It sounds simple, but I will assure you that that’s not. That’s it.
Derry Harper ’76, 2009 November 7
Read MoreOral history interview with Derry Harper ’76. Mordecai Scott, Davidson College class of 2010, interviewed Derry Harper, Davidson College class of 1976, on November 7, 2009 in the Alvarez Student Union on the Davidson College campus.
M.S. 52:14:
What are the–since you’ve been here for a while.What are the biggest changes that you see on campus with students.
D.H. 52:19: Wow. With the students?
M.S. 52:21: Yeah.
D.H. 52:22: Somebody made a good decision in the spring of [19]72 to end what was then a100 year tradition of this being an all male institution and adopt coeducation as the basicfoundation of the school. Can you imagine Davidson in 2009? Being an all male institution? Can you imagine the school without the–the value that the female students bring in terms of their intellect? The student, their energy, and all this other kind of thing–that–that was a good decision. The other change is, and I asked Will Terry this, there was a commitment for a variety of reasons, some pragmatic, I mean, it makes sense to recruit the best students and not worry about what their color is. But remember, now the first black student at Davidson, who’s African American, not an exchange student, was 1964. He’s here, by the way, he graduated in 1968. So I actually scribbled down the numbers Davidson, founded in 1837, that’s 172 years, the tradition of African American students here is only 45 years. So the change here is that there’s been a commitment, reflected now by [President] Tom Ross, and having had the experience of being on the Board of Trustees for, I think, both pragmatic reasons, that is, if you’re going to have the best school, you want the best students–doesn’t it make any sense not to try to recruit students who are diverse is that–is diversity and having that kind of a student body not more attractive to get better students in? And oh, by the way, how do you get people to give? But then there’s also the reformed tradition, the religious aspect, that is still a part of the school, which is a tolerant approach from a religious standpoint, and is inclusive. So, with the students I see, shucks, significant change. The one regret I have in the time I’ve spent being involved over the last few years is I don’t get to sit around and talk to folks like you who are here now. There’s never time, they have us in meetings and all this other kind of thing. But it’s important work when you’re trying to make a difference and be a part of the governance structure which I’ve had the privilege of doing, or just coming back to stay involved and try to help the school get better. So, definitely the women in the–I mean, I don’t know what the male-female breakdown is. And they’ve got some stats that I have, but that’s, that’s been good. And the physical plant somebody has done a great job between [President] Kuykendall and [President] Vagt–raising money and changing the Physical Plant here. I mean, great facilities for a school with this size. And we’re not the richest school in our peer group. But we’ll talk about later, I digress. Let me stick to the questions.
Janet Stovall ’85, 2009 November 7
Read MoreOral history interview with Janet Stovall ’85. Davidson College student Amanda Menjivar interviewed Janet Stovall, class of 1985, on November 7, 2009 on the campus of Davidson College.
A.M. 37:27:
[laugh] What advice would you give to today’sDavidson students?
J.S.H. 37:31: You mean African American or altogether?
A.M. 37:33: Um, I guess altogether? We can start with more specifically African American?
J.S.H. 37:41: No, I think–I think–I think I’d give the same advice. The advice is: recognize that these four years are the most unique experience that not only you will have, that you will probably ever know anybody else to have. I mean, I have friends who’ve come from many different kinds of universities, you know, small schools, big schools, state schools, private schools. Nobody else, in general, has had the experience that I had here. Nobody else has had–has made the connections and formed the bonds that we did here. My friends who are married to their spouses who are not Davidson spouses really don’t understand this. I mean, and we tell them if you didn’t do it, you can’t understand it. I think that’s unique. I mean, everybody thinks their experience is unique. But I’m saying it is unique among everything else I’ve seen. I have never seen it anywhere else. I don’t know if that’s changed. I hope it hasn’t. I hope that for whatever reason that we form those bonds, I hope those things still do it. But you are in school with some of the smartest people you will ever meet in your life. You–it’s easy to take that for granted. But my advice would be: recognize what you’ve got here. And I like–this quote comes in my head every time I come on this campus. This one quote comes back to my head. It’s from the Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky and I’m not gonna quote it exactly–what it says, “still remember how good it once was here, united by a good and kind spirit that made us better perhaps than we are.” And that’s what it is. I mean, this is where I want my children to be. Because I want them to understand what that’s like. And the other thing I will say is that if you’ve chosen this, it’s wonderful because you will–there’s only four years in your life. Only four years in your life, that you can have this experience because your friends go to Chapel Hill. Might be on the five or six year plan. It may have changed but when I was here, you knew the five, six year plan. You knew what your class was and you got out with your class. You know, that was it. And you can never do this at any other point in your life. This is the one four years that you will ever be able to–to be the right age. You have the right, you know, four year period and cherish it, you know, cherish it, because when you get out of here the world is a very, very different place. And you can say that about any university. But [pause] the world is a very different place. People are not as smart. People are not as passionate. People are not as engaged. And people are not as connected. You will not find that anywhere else but here. So I say, cherish this experience, because it is gonna be the–one of the most amazing four years of your life, of my life.
Lenny McAllister ’93, 2009 November 7
Read MoreOral history interview with Derry Harper ’76. Mordecai Scott, Davidson College class of 2010, interviewed Derry Harper, Davidson College class of 1976, on November 7, 2009 in the Alvarez Student Union on the Davidson College campus.
R.M.40:33:
What are the biggest changesyou see in the campus and students today?
L.M.40:39: People get along better, easier,without having to be forced to get along. People respect each other more, easier, faster, more genuinely. There’s a general sense of–there’s a better sense of community.There’s a better sense of genuine inclusion. You can tell me I’m included,but if I feel like I’msegmented, it doesn’t matter what you tell me that I am. There’s more social outlets.Charlotte’s not as far away. There’s more respect for Davidson College minority students as well. We were seen as Uncle Toms.Johnson, C. Smith[University]didn’twantanything to do with us—living,studying,anything to do with us, basically.The dynamic was, you know, those people had parties with us because those guys wanted to sleep with our girls. Those girls didn’t want to have anything to do with us for the most part. So,it was a dynamic where they thought they were pretty much coming up here to scout around and that wasthat.Otherwise they didn’t respect us. They thought we were Toms.They thought we were all rich. And it was the furthest from the truthat that time.There was,generally speaking,even those that went to private schools–they didn’t have money. So they were coming from the same socioeconomic background that the kids may have been coming from–from Smith may have been coming,from–from Livingstone[College]may have been coming from.When they came down the highway from–from [North Carolina] Central[University]or coming up from UNC Charlotte[University],but because we went to Davidson,they had nothing to do with us. Interesting story–I had a friend Morris Turner, Jr. Went to Morehouse. He drove me down after spring break and said, “well, let’s–let’s hang out on Davidson College campus.”Said “you don’t want to do that.”“Yeah, I do.I want to meet who you go to school with.”He actuallymet my wife Lannieat the time and I said,“you know, but you don’t wanna stay.”“Yeah, I do we.”Get there? It looks like there’s nobody here. It was a Sunday. “Well there’s nobody around.”“Where’s everybody?”I said,“they’re in the library.”“Well, what are they doing?”“They’re studying for tomorrow.”“Oh, everybody hangs out at the library at Morehouse. Let’s go I know there gonna be a lot of people there.”We walked up to the library. Nobody was there,everybody was studying. “Well where’s everybodypartying at and–and where’s everybody eating dinner at?Where’s the party on Saturday?”I said,“there is no Sunday night party.Class is on Monday,after spring break. People got exams and papers.”He didn’t believe me. And he was going to spend the night Sunday night to Monday and then go back to Atlanta Monday night. Within an hour and a half,he’sin tears.20 years old,said “I don’t see how you can go to college here. I feel sorry for your college experience. This is not what college is supposed to be about,”and left and drove back down to Atlanta. I don’t think I need to say much more than that, I mean, if you go to this school prior to 2000?That was your experience. But to come back here and see fraternity and sorority and more inclusion and moreleadership and–and you all look lighter. In regards to that burden by spirit the same way. That’s beautiful to see. That’s–those are the differences that I see. And it’s a joy to be able to see them. And in some small way know that people that I love and I went to school with contributed to that.
Rasheedah Hasan ’96, 2009 November 7
Read MoreOral history interview with Rasheedah Hasan, class of 1996. Davidson College student Shirley Akrasih interviewed Rasheedah Hasan, class of 1996, on November 7, 2009 in the Career Services Office on the Davidson College campus.
S.A.48:45:
And so the last question.What are your hopes for the future of Davidson?Could be big, small.
R.H.49:03: My hope for Davidson for the future is for it to continue to live up to its Honor Code because that is one of–probably the most exemplaryjust, principlesthat really I think helps to bring about that bond maybe–that Davidson alum and even Davidson students have because the trust that is there goes far beyond physical property, you know. It–it challenges you mentally so that you don’t cheat yourself and othersand so when you take that and you take that out to the broader world, then I believe that it helps propel you farther because you have this trustworthy ethic about you. And so the Honor Code and its growing–its growing acceptance and need to push for a broader diversity program. And diversity not so much just in terms of numbers, but in terms of outreach and acceptance for–for just different–different styles, different mindsets, and different ways of thinking, you know. It’s come a long way, considering itat one point did not even have women. So you know, to add women, and then some years later add minorities and now taking on the challenge of really expanding that thought process even farther. It’s a–it’s a great feat, you know, to take on, butI honestly believe that with the right support from the faculty, staff, and alumni then it can absolutely happen.