From the President

_{Jim Lehrer’s debate-themed cap evokes a smile from President Reveley at Convocation.}

Visiting media, the campaigns and the Commission on Presidential Debates were unanimous in their verdict: With our campus, our team and our hospitality, Longwood hit it out of the park.

It was tremendous fun, of course, to watch the wall-to-wall international news coverage broadcast live from around Longwood. That coverage shared not just our name but also our story—our stunning campus, our wonderfully proud and energetic students and our distinctive focus on citizen leadership. Tens of millions encountered Longwood for the first time via pieces in national media such as PBS NewsHour, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker that dove deeply into our mission and its connection to democracy, as well as the entire Farmville community’s efforts to draw strength from our history. Preliminary calculations of the media and marketing value alone run in excess of $80 million, though, of course, there is no price tag on the pride and energy the event has inspired.

Best of all—as captured in many of the photos you’ll see in this issue of the magazine—our students had an experience they will never forget. More than 1,000 took a class that somehow incorporated the debate. More than 700 served as volunteers, and we were able to get more than 150 students in as part of the small live audience of several hundred in Willett Hall.

To my mind, Longwood rewrote the book on how a campus can make the most of hosting a debate. And we did so without compromising the other things that make Longwood special, including our autumn traditions. Thanks to incredibly hard work by our staff, Rock the Block went off as normal just a few days before the event, as did a Chi Walk, Color Wars and Oktoberfest a few days later. And just 10 days after the debate, the third annual Virginia Children’s Book Festival drew more than 6,000 schoolchildren to campus.

What excites me most is that we hosted the debate in a fashion that ensures it will be more than just a great memory. It has given us powerful momentum and a newfound sense of potential for the future.

The genuine pride and confidence of the staff and faculty who led this effort are now a reservoir of energy for our work across the university. As we prepared for the event, we focused on campus improvements, like a new gateway to Brock Commons on High Street, that will live on as a permanent legacy. Similarly, the remarkable array of academic programming Longwood introduced around the debate will help jumpstart a new general education curriculum, which will begin in earnest over the coming years. With its distinctive focus on citizen leadership, that curriculum will strengthen our mission and further set us apart.

This has been an inspiring time in Longwood’s 178-year history, and it is exhilarating to begin building on our momentum.

Thank you and my best,

W. Taylor Reveley IV

President