"The Visit of Professor Garvin Davenport"

Sandra Epperson Wolf (Sewolf@mail.utexas.edu),  participant in the Washington Semester Program in the spring of 1963, shares this anecdote, about her off-campus experience through Monmouth College.

In 1963, the Washington Semester involved a total of 50 men and an equal number of women from 50 colleges.  At Monmouth, the participants were chosen by the faculty to study government and political science the spring semester at American University, Washington, D.C., live on the university campus, and participate in two major courses – one involving a series of seminars taking place all over Washington, for example, a meeting with the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives and the Chair of the Democratic Party; and the second, a major paper. 

For some reason, in 1963, Monmouth sent three students.  Barb Bolon and I took the train together to D.C., arriving at Union Station first thing on a chilly January morning and taking a taxi to American University. Airplane travel was rare and so were taxi rides for two girls who had grown up in Monmouth and Galesburg (my home town).  Barb and I roomed together, with a third student from Hanover College in Indiana.

By way of what to expect, we had learned from Karen Harr, who had learned from Jim Hornaday (her future husband), that Dr. Garvin Davenport visited each group of students in Washington every semester, year after year, unannounced.  In order to gain advanced warning of his visit, I (who worked in the English office) asked my student counterpart in history, to let us know when Dr. Davenport boarded the train in Monmouth, so we could expect his visit and not experience the anxiety that Karen and other students said resulted when he “just appeared in class.” 

Barb, John Alexander, and I proceeded with our studies, and no phone call from Monmouth ever came.  We forgot about Dr. Davenport until one day there he was – in our government seminar – heavy tweed topcoat, hat in hand!  He said only one thing to me, “How’s it going?”  “Fine,” I mumbled.  “ I am told you three are doing very well.  Keep it up!”  That was it.  I never saw Dr. Davenport again.  I was majoring in English and Latin, so no more government courses for me!

What Davenport’s visit cemented was this:  During my years at Monmouth (1960-1964), our professors had an enormous impact on our lives.  They not only were very personally involved in our studies with them, they knew about our social lives and approved (or not) of who were dating.  They could secure us a spot in graduate school (with a scholarship), and the relationship between us was at times intense.  This personal attention served me very well, and I have tried to duplicate it with my own students, even in the very large schools where I have taught.

Ah, yes.  We women also had “hours” at Monmouth – in our dorm rooms by 7:30 p.m. week nights and 10:00 p.m. weekends, with 20 10:00 o’clocks our spring semester, freshman year, if we had earned a B average.  The men had no hours.  None of us had any hours at American U.  We had a key and could enter and exit at any time.  Did Barb and I stay out at night?  Certainly not.  The courses were demanding.  We both worked on Capitol Hill, so many nights, 7:30 was just fine!

Almost forty years after my Washington Semester, I relished reading the accounts from MC students Molly Keefe, Daniela Cocheva, and Brandi McCoy, expressing their considerable enthusiasm for their time in the program and the city, which is the way I still feel. The experience was a highlight of my life.  I met my husband Tom there, who was a student at Georgetown. He and I visit the city often for his business; many of our friends from the 1960s still live there. In the 1980s, I organized a trip to D.C. for our son’s 5^th grade class, including their teacher and some 40 parents, who traveled from Idaho to Washington to spend 10 days, seeing as much as we could.  And as a direct result of my semester in D.C. way back in 1963, I have maintained a lifelong interest in government and have worked to see intelligent and honest people elected to public offices.  I surmise that Barb and John have the same fond memories of their Washington Semester experience