Letter from the Head of School
On June 5th at the one hundred and eleventh Commencement exercises at Mercersburg, I spoke to the graduates about the many changes that would be inevitable in their lives and in the world and how they should respond to those changes if they were to live full, happy, productive lives. Edith Wharton describes such a response well when she writes, “one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid to change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.” I guaranteed them that the changes which lay ahead would be both challenging and exciting and expressed every confidence that their time at Mercersburg had prepared them to meet those changes in smart, confident, hopeful ways. Simultaneously, I urged them to hold fast to those things that are higher and permanent and unchanging; the values and friendships and memories that they take away from Mercersburg are, perhaps, the best examples of those lasting things which should not be subject to the forces of time and change.
Any Mercersburg alumnus who returns, having not been on the campus for just the past 15 years, would surely marvel at changes that have occurred at the school; new buildings have been built and others completely done over; courses have been added to the curriculum, different extracurricular programs are in existence, and the proliferation of technology in the life of the school is startling. Of course, Mercersburg has been strengthened by those investments, and, undoubtedly, additional changes will occur as time passes and the school adapts and responds to the different requirements of different times; carefully considered change is, in fact, a sign of institutional health and vitality and should be greeted happily.
This summer, new signs of substantial physical change are evident on the campus. The Davenport Squash Center is well underway and will be ready for competition this coming winter season; student athletes will now have regulation sized, state-of-the- art courts for practice and competition. The school barn no longer houses hay or livestock; however, it is being retrofitted as a staging and operations center for the school’s exciting new Outdoor Education program, all of which is made possible by the generosity and vision of Margery and Edgar M. Masinter ’48 (additional information about this new program is included on page 13). The grass on a recently completed new playing field is taking root to meet the needs of a growing number of students who are participating in athletics. And with funding now at a sufficient level, during its Spring meetings, the Board of Regents gave the go-ahead for construction of the new Center for the Arts, with Boone Hall scheduled to come down late this summer to make way for the construction of the new Center. This important building will be nearly two years in its completion, and we have been busily making the adjustments necessary to be without this space for that time frame.
Certainly these are exciting times at Mercersburg, and I invite every alumnus, and particularly those who have not been on campus for a while, to come for a visit and witness firsthand these remarkable developments. You will be both amazed at and proud of your alma mater, I believe. A visit would also enable you to see firsthand how many things here have stayed the same: great teachers at work in the classrooms and dorms and on the playing fields; talented and motivated students studying and playing together as hard as ever; a campus that remains breathtakingly harmonious and beautiful; values and ideals still being inculcated that are in keeping with the vision of the school’s founder and wise leaders. Those are the lasting and permanent things about which I spoke to this year’s graduates. And when those graduates step onto this campus in 20 years or so with their own children in hand, I’m sure they will discover still other things have changed, but they will also discover that those things which matter the most to them are, indeed, permanent and have not changed at all.
Douglas Hale
Head of School
