Remarks of Welcome – Baccalaureate 2006
President Daniel F. Sullivan

It is with a special pleasure that I welcome all of you to this Baccalaureate service—especially the members of the Great Class of 2006 and their families. 

As you sit here this morning, look around this beautiful chapel—built in 1926 of stone from a quarry the University owned in nearby Morley, and named for Almon Gunnison, Class of 1868, St. Lawrence’s 7th president.  Look especially at the stained glass windows.  The large clerestory windows are each dedicated to a dimension of a liberal arts education, and the small nave windows, based on the Beatitudes, speak to how one should live.  It is here in this place that one can see best the Universalist values at the core of the University’s history and traditions.

Dr. Stuart A. Winning, Class of 1922 and long-time University trustee, wrote a wonderful essay about these windows in which he drew the connections the designers meant for us to see.   In the clerestory, he said, we have:
“Speak to the Earth and It Shall Teach Thee,” for the study of science.
“And to Others the Gift of Healing,” for the study of man.
“All Art is the Expression of Man’s Delight in God’s Work,” legitimating the study of art because it is man’s delight in God’s work.
“Lord Teach Us to Pray,” for religious studies.
“Run with Patience the Race That is Set Before Us,” for athletics and recreation.
“God said ‘Replenish the Earth and Subdue It,’” for study of the environment.
“In the Beginning was the Word,” for language and communication
“Who Loveth Instruction Loveth Knowledge,” for the study of education.
And “Equal Justice Under Law,” for the study of law (until 1965, you may not know, the Brooklyn College of Law was a part of St. Lawrence University).

We wouldn’t, of course, describe the aims and objectives of the University in those ways today, but that may very well have been where we were in 1926.

In the windows themselves you will see many symbols and many world and St. Lawrence figures represented, including Olympia Brown, who in 1866 came to St. Lawrence as its first woman student and was the first woman in America ordained in the ministry.

The nave windows repeat the Beatitudes:
“Blessed are the Poor in Sprit.”
“Blessed are the Meek.”
“Blessed are they that Mourn.”
“Blessed are they that Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness.”
“Blessed are the Persecuted.”
“Blessed are the Pure in Heart.”
“Blessed are the Merciful.”
“Blessed are the Peacemakers.”
And “Rejoice and be Exceeding Glad.”

As Dr. Winning said:  “Do [these windows] not speak to us of humility, integrity, courage, charity, sympathy and understanding, of the peacemakers and purity and lastly of the joy of living?  Rejoice and be exceeding glad.”

You graduates will hear many messages on this day.  Know that these messages are here in this wonderful chapel where you can always find them in this, your second home.

Once again, a warm welcome to you all on this day of commencement, 2006!

Stuart A. Winning, “A Story About Stained Glass Windows,” The Windows of Gunnison Memorial Chapel (St. Lawrence University, 1988), 9,