Freshman living is as basic as it gets. Located near the Front Campus row and built in the same red-brick colonial model, freshmen are divided up into small, spare single and double rooms from four first-year only halls: Baker, Davis, Gilliam, and Graham-Lees Hall. A lucky few score bigger rooms in Gaines Hall, but the apartment-style suites there are primarily reserved for upperclassmen. Older students also have the option to move into Woods Creek Apartments in a quiet central location, as well as any of the limited spaces in W&L’s International House, John Chavis House, Outing Club House, or Spanish House. After surviving the barracks-like accommodations of their first year, students have to live on-campus as sophomores but then are allowed to move to off-campus Lexington housing (popular for parties because of the distance from administrators) or a frat or sorority house.
Kenneth Ruscio, the 27th president of Washington and Lee, knows his school pretty well—-and he should, considering he went there as an undergraduate, taught there as a professor in the politics department, and has served as Dean of Freshmen. After going through five presidents in five years for a multitude of reasons, W&L sought someone with Ruscio’s stability and close community ties to help the university plan and execute long-term goals. He’s only been on the job since March 2006, but he’s already seen progress towards his vision of raising W&L’s academic reputation (by attracting quality faculty and research money) as well as student diversity and increasing the school’s endowment.
So far, Ruscio has managed to increase the number of lower-income students, aided by the Shepherd Poverty Program and university non-discrimination policies. And an anonymous donation of $100 million to the school in 2007 will be used to fund even more need-based financial aid and further some of Ruscio’s other plans for the student body. He has stated publicly that distancing the W&L name from its Confederate past is critical to attracting more minorities, and he even turned down an offer to house a Confederacy history museum. For a campus so steeped in its Southern heritage, it’s a big step for a new president.
Tom Wolfe (1951) spearheaded “New Journalism” and authored several nonfiction and fiction books.
Pat Robertson (1950) was a televangelist and founder of several Christian television networks.
Roger Mudd (1950) was a CBS and PBS correspondent and anchor and now hosts for the History Channel.
Alex Jones (1968)is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, formerly of The New York Times.
Meriwether Lewis (1790s) was Thomas Jefferson’s private secretary and, with William Clark, an intrepid explorer who charted and chronicled the Louisiana Purchase.
Lewis Franklin Powell (1929) served as a Supreme Court justice.
John W. Davis (1892) was the 1924 Democratic nominee for President and former Solicitor General. He holds the distinction of having argued more cases before the Supreme Court than anyone else during the 20th century.
