Eta Sigma Phi goes to Austin! 

Seven members of the Dickinson chapter of Eta Sigma Phi attended the national convention in Austin, TX this year – and had a fabulous time! 

We did all sorts of things:  fielded a couple of teams in the certamen – a battle of Latin and Greek wits – and saw the Sanguis Tigris team advance as far as the semi-finals; walked blocks and blocks to find an Austin landmark burger-joint, Dirty Martins Kum-Bak Place; heard what other chapters are up to on other campuses around the country; listened to three excellent papers – on Sicily, Augustine, and Horace’s friendship with Vergil; and even heard a rivetting rock opera on the Peloponnesian War by Athens v. Sparta.  The weather was perfect, idyllic, gorgeous … Austin immediately drew us all in with its abundant, student-friendly exuberance … no-one really wanted to leave … but here we are, back in Carlisle, and inspired to do new and fantastic things! 

 Professor Philip N. Lockhart was a beloved teacher and mentor to generations of Dickinsonians. A member of the Department of Classical Studies from 1963 to his retirement in 1990, “Uncle Phil” was voted most inspiring teacher by vote of the senior class four times, a record not since equaled. He died on February 20, 2011, and the Department has launched a web site to collect images, stories, and recollections of Phil here. If you have a story or reminiscence you would like to share on the site, please email it to Prof. Chris Francese (francese@dickinson.edu). If you are a Dickinson alumnus or alumna, please include your class year and maiden name, if applicable.

 "The neglect of the classics in our educational curriculum has been a loss for our civilization," writes Daniel Walker Howe in the latest issue of Wilson Quarterly. Howe, an emeritus professor of American History at Oxford University, charts the one time dominance and progressive decline of the centrality of Latin and Greek classics in American college curricula. Speaking of the period before the Civil War, he writes that "Dickinson College in Pennsylvania was typical: Freshmen studied Sallust, Horace, and Xenophon. Sophomores absorbed themselves in Cicero, Horace, Xenophon, and Euripides. Juniors took Sophocles, Euripides, Cicero, Juvenal, and Persius. And seniors finished off with Aeschylus, Tacitus, and Terence." the article is illustrated with a picture of Dickinson Classics Professor Herbet Wing, Jr. with students ca. 1945, reproduced below. 

In 1946, Dickinson stopped requiring bachelor of arts candidates to take Latin or Greek.

Despite the narrowness of the old style of classical training, and the many momentous changes in American education, Howe argues, the ideals of classical education "transcend the limits of time and space." "While we accord them less authority than Americans did a century and half ago, we still hold the conviction that the ancient classics have enduring worth as sources of instruction and inspiration."