On Founders’ Day, Friday, Sept. 26, the decision was made, in light of an all-day rain which showed no signs of stopping, to forego the ritual procession to Monument Hill in favor of a drier option.

Each year after the Founders’ Day Convocation, a mile-long trek is made to Monument Hill, the final resting place of Sweet Briar College founder Indiana Fletcher Williams and her family.

Led by a tartan-clad bagpiper, students, faculty, staff and alumnae march to the cemetery, where they pile daisies on the grave of Williams’ daughter, Daisy, and pay homage to the College’s founders.

This year, however, the procession took a different route. As usual, the students were dressed in the traditional black and white and a bagpiper led the way, but instead of heading up to Monument Hill the Sweet Briar community — some huddled under umbrellas — walked to Memorial Chapel.

Students, alumnae, faculty and staff walk to Memorial Chapel on Founders’ Day.Once inside, Chaplain Adam White thanked God for the rain “welcome or unwelcome,” and speeches were read, thanking the founders for establishing the College. At the end of the ceremony, “Amazing Grace” rang out from the bagpipes and the pews, and lavender and white daisies were placed on an altar at the front of the chapel.

Earlier in the afternoon, the Alumnae Association presented its Distinguished Alumna Award to Virginia state Sen. Patsy Ticer, a Democrat who represents the 30th District and is a 1955 Sweet Briar graduate.

The honor was given during the Founders’ Day Convocation, a school tradition since 1909 that also has become the official start of the Homecoming weekend. It’s also an occasion when Sweet Briar’s most generous donors are recognized.

Before Ticer was introduced, Sweet Briar President Elisabeth Muhlenfeld gave her final Founders’ Day address. Muhlenfeld, who will retire next summer after 13 years at the helm, talked about the College’s early days, particularly the rules about riding in cars with boys and the dress code.

Amid much laughter and some knowing comments from older alumnae in attendance, Muhlenfeld detailed regulations from the 1930s through 1960s that might seem inane by today’s standards.

“Our alumnae from the thirties may recall that when they were students, strict chaperonage was still required for weekend absences,” she said. “Sophomores, juniors and seniors had only recently won the right to ride with men in automobiles, unchaparoned [and] only before dark and only within a ten-mile radius. Freshmen were out of luck.”

Her remarks about the dress code — particularly the scandalous practice of wearing pajamas to breakfast and the decade-long battle over Bermuda shorts — also drew hearty laughs.

“One can get a sense of how hard students were pushing against the dress code from this 1951 rule,” she said. “Pajamas may be worn to the nine o’clock to ten o’clock breakfast on Sunday morning only. When crossing campus for this late breakfast, pajamas must be completely covered by a full-length coat and regular shoes must be worn.”

According to Muhlenfeld, raincoats were a must in the 1950s for covering up shorts, gym suits, slacks, blue jeans, pedal pushers and other inappropriate attire. Loafers, saddle shoes and socks also were discouraged, especially off campus, she said, and students were admonished to always appear “ladylike.”

In her speech, Ticer recalled having to “buy a raincoat to cover my Bermuda shorts,” adding that they were “just so racy.”

While a student at Sweet Briar, Ticer said she wrote a column for the student newspaper and worked on Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidential campaign, “just for fun.” A “staunch Democrat” since the 1960s, she joked, “I have to pretend that didn’t happen.”

On a serious note, however, Ticer said Sweet Briar helped her “find the self confidence to succeed.” She also talked about her political career — about becoming the city of Alexandria’s first woman mayor and being elected a Virginia state senator in 1995, where she represents much of Alexandria, and parts of Fairfax and Arlington Counties.

– By Suzanne Ramsey, SBC staff writer