Are we, the friends and Alumnae of Chowan College, awake to the crisis that is grappling at the very throat of our Alma Mater? Or, do we sit idly dreaming while these threatening clouds hang overhead—waiting, yes, waiting until too late the storm shall break upon us and sweep our Godly Heritage far out to sea. How long, oh friends and Alumnae of Chowan College, how long shall our rights to be trampled under foot.
Two years ago when we made our pledges to the Seventy Five Million campaign these were the bill-boards heralded through our land:
Wake Forest College $600,000
Meredity College $600,000
Chowan College $300,000
But, even in this little while, as soon as things are on a sure footing, and everything moving on well; Chowan we are told is to be stricken from the list—why? That Meredith may have funds sufficient to buy larger grounds on the out-skirts of Raleigh, make for themselves a beautiful campus, and grounds sufficient to add new buildings when they shall have need of them.
But what about Chowan College? Are we to be stricken from the list unless—unless what—unless we become a “Junior College.” Now doesn’t that sound mighty good to you? Make the College from which you hold your diploma a “Junior College.” Make the College in which some mother’s daughter, here in these two associations, finds her only opportunity to secure an education, and fit herself for greater life work. A “Junior College,” yes, a “Junior College,” which shall give her only two years of College work; and when she leaves, hand her a diploma (a certificate if you please) by which she shall not be able to command a salary sufficient to enable her to be self sustaining. Away with such plans. The high schools will meet all of these needs.
What will we do about it? Will we continue to pay our pledges that Meredith may increase while Chowan will most surely decrease? NO, NO, a thousand times NO. We would rejoice to see Meredith have all these things (for, surely she needs to get out of the streets of Raleigh) but not at the sacrifice of Chowan College. We will not suffer Chowan to be offered upon the altar of such supreme selfishness. Had we no love for Chowan, our own Alma Mater, if we should forget forever her Christian influence shed abroad in the homes of these two associations, making this the Zion of Carolina, yes, could we forget all of Chowan’s benefits to us; we should, on the other hand, so despise the selfishness of the revised plan that every man, woman and child in these two associations would rise up and unanimously refuse to pay our pledges. We did not pledge to that purpose. It is nothing short of “Taxation without representation.” It is the same spirit of “Prussianism” that devastated Belgium. Is German in the Baptist camp?
O Baptist Democracy where art Thou?
Will we allow this Godly Heritage by which we have been made vastly rich spiritually, through the sacrifices of our forefathers, the educational pioneers not only of Eastern Carolina and Virginia, but of America. Shall we serenely fold our hands and wait, yea sleep while these Godly Heritages of ours are coveted to that degree that we will awake to find them forever gone? Yes, too late, to find ourselves a sadder but a wiser people.
Shall we like the Jewish nation of old, on whom God had lavished so abundantly the glorious opportunities of their age; shall we like they wait ‘till the glories of Zion fade and awakening too late realize our lost opportunities break forth into remorseful song--”By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down. Yes we wept when we remembered Zion.” God forbid. Rather let us the firneds and Alumnae of Chowan College rise up in the strength of our loyalty and remembering the blessings that Chowan has been, is and ever shall be to us, to our homes, our community, our state, ournatin—yes, even to the uttermost parts of the earth, let us with one voice exclaim--”If I forget Thee O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember Thee let my tongue cleave to the roof o my mout.”
We do love Thee, We do love Thee, Dear Chowan, Dear Chowan.
--Mrs. O.P. Snipes, Menola, N.C.
From the Roanoke-Chowan Times, Rich Square, Northampton County, N.C., Thursday, July 7, 1921. Chowan Baptist Female Institute was founded in 1848 as a four-year woman’s college. It was renamed Chowan College in 1910 when it began awarding bachelor’s degrees, and it admitted men in 1931. Unfortunately, the Great Depression forced the college to become a two-year institute six years later, and it remained so until 1992, when it went back to a four-year college. Its name was changed to Chowan University in 2006. The photo, taken by Thomas T. Waterman, shows Chowan College in 1940. Mcdowell at chowan - Chowan University - Wikipedia
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