An Alum’s Observations on Commencement, 2025
(Newly-graduated members of the Class of 2025 throw their caps in celebration. Source: Washington and Lee University)
Hundreds of parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends descended this week on Lexington for Washington & Lee’s commencement ceremonies. As a proud grandfather and a W&L graduate (Class of 1969), I was happy to be among them. The two days on campus brought on a rush of memories and observations: some comforting, some alarming.
First, the aesthetics: the W&L campus in May is unsurpassed in its beauty. On every side, the lush green foliage, flowering dogwoods, budding boxwood, and carpets of luxuriant grass encasing the college’s classic structures bring back waves of nostalgia to an old alum like me. It’s a timeless beauty that bespeaks of W&L’s traditions and is guaranteed to stir the heart of any alum – old or young.
Fortunately, some things seem not to have changed. During the two days, I passed countless strangers on the campus walkways. Without a single exception, every passerby spoke to me – proof that the W&L Speaking Tradition is alive and well. In general, there was that same sense of friendliness and warmth that I remembered treasuring as a student long ago.
I even noticed some real improvements. Although rain drove the baccalaureate service under cover in VMI’s basketball arena (decidedly not an improvement), the weather allowed for an outdoor commencement ceremony the following day.
My commencement in 1969 and my daughter’s in 2003 were held on the lawn in front of Lee House. The ceremony is now staged between Lee Chapel and Washington Hall, providing a much more impressive setting.
Another marked improvement is the lush front lawn. Back in “my day,” the university had no sprinkler system, and the photos of my commencement reveal a barren, parched turf.
The VMI-sheltered baccalaureate service provoked some recollections and observations.
By definition, a baccalaureate service is religious in nature. I well recall my baccalaureate service in Evans Hall. Seating was limited to graduates and parents only, but the setting was inspiring. The address was delivered by Dr. David Sprunt, the University Chaplain and Professor of Religion.
Alas, W&L has now seen fit to dispense with a chaplain altogether, and the sad secularization of this weekend’s event was very evident. There was no prayer, and no mention of the Almighty. Instead Dr. Ansel Sanders delivered an eloquent address in which he exalted graduates to formulate their own list of principles and priorities, with the assurance that “your truth” does not have to be “my truth.” There was clearly no evidence of the Judeo- Christian principles that undergirded the W&L I knew.
The commencement ceremony itself, however, was reassuringly familiar.
Again, there was no invocation or any religious reference, but the long-held W&L tradition of having the university president deliver the commencement address was in place. I recall having been told somewhere along the way that this tradition stemmed from Dr. Francis Pendleton Gaines’ long tenure as president. The trustees of that day decided there was no outside speaker who could ever equal Dr. Gaines’ oratory, so he delivered the commencement address annually. The tradition has survived, although I remember thinking subsequent presidents didn’t quite measure up to Gaines.
President Dudley began his address with some gracious remarks of thanks and welcome, although I was saddened by a reference to the University (instead of Lee) Chapel. He then moved into an articulate, well delivered discussion of W&L’s mission statement, which commits the university to developing students who “think freely, critically, and humanely,” to live lives with “honor, integrity, and civility.” This seemed straight out of the traditional W&L playbook, and from here he moved into a review of how W&L’s history was greatly influenced by lives of honor, integrity and civility.
The starting point here was George Washington; but, sadly, rather than stressing Washington’s personal character, Dudley focused on his monetary gift that endowed what became Washington College. From Washington, he leapt to several modern benefactors and their financial contributions.
While these financial bequests have all played an important part in W&L’s history, they in no way capture the university’s unique history or its ability to accomplish its mission statement. To reduce Washington’s contribution to a financial bequest and to omit entirely any mention of Robert E. Lee is to sadly miss the mark.
This speech reinforced the impression that one of President Dudley’s overriding objectives is to ignore — and thereby remove — the defining influence of Lee on this institution. What a sadly missed opportunity to remind the 2025 graduates that W&L is above all committed to integrity, honor and civility as represented by George Washington and Robert E. Lee.
As I left the commencement ceremonies disheartened by President Dudley’s address, I took a detour through the nearby Williams School: my old stomping ground as a student.
There I immediately ran head on into a lingering reminder of the DEI craze that has so infected American higher education in recent years. In the entrance to Huntley Hall was the C-School’s current mission statement to develop “inclusive” business leaders. How is inclusiveness a defining mark of a great business leader? Somehow that was not covered in my C-School days.
As I drove out of Lexington savoring the happy memories of W&L life past and present, but concerned about the continuing trajectory of wokeness, I was very grateful to pass The Generals Redoubt billboard (pictured below) calling for ridding W&L of DEI. Keep up the good fight! W&L is worth fighting for!
Garland S. Tucker III graduated B.S., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Washington & Lee University (1969) and M.B.A. Harvard Business School (1972). He is retired Chairman/CEO Triangle Capital Corporation, author of Conservative Heroes: Fourteen Leaders Who Shaped America- Jefferson to Reagan (ISI Books) and The High Tide of American Conservatism: Davis, Coolidge and the 1924 Election (Emerald Books).
(TGR billboard erected on the highway entering Lexington. Source: The Generals Redoubt)