Holmes to present lecture series

David L. Holmes The Walter G. Mason Professor of Religious Studies will present to the William & Mary community a talk entitled, "College in the 1950s Compared with College Today." Photo by Stephen Salpukas

by Ginger Ambler, Vice President for Student Affairs | October 14, 2009

David L. Holmes, Walter G. Mason Professor of Religious Studies, will present to the William & Mary community a talk entitled, "College in the 1950s Compared with College Today." The talk is a repeat of one which he gave last March. The first of a series of lectures Holmes will deliver in his final year of teaching before retirement, the talk will occur on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 8 p.m. in Washington 201.

Holmes will compare how college has changed in fifty years in such areas as student life, classroom instruction, professors, GPAs, student life, fraternities and sororities, drinking, curfews, and intercollegiate athletics. He will also reflect on what he would do differently if he were in college today.

Sponsored by Omnicron Delta Kappa and the Office of Student Affairs, the event will conclude with a question and answer period.

Self-described as "18 going on 11" when he entered college, Holmes majored in English at Michigan State University. Serving two years of military service made him a more serious student. He took his graduate study at Columbia, Duke, and Princeton universities. After teaching three years in William & Mary's English Department, he was one of the original members when religious studies was founded in 1968.

A student has described Holmes' lectures as "always serious, but always laced with humor." Over the years, he has received many of the teaching awards given at William & Mary. In 2008, the College gave him the Thomas Jefferson Award, its highest faculty award.