One year’s photo of gowned Arts and Science graduates can appear like that of any other year—except for the hairstyles, shoes, glasses and of course, the statistics.

In fall 1975, four undergraduates with love for performing and Broadway musicals launched a new campus organization called the Original Cast, a Broadway revue troupe. That first year, they had to find their own funding, run auditions, find places to rehearse and perform, and put on a show. Now 35 years later, the group started [...]

The campus welcomes notable speakers each spring, but none generated more excitement than President John F. Kennedy did on May 18, 1963. Dudley Field was packed as the president commemorated the university’s 90th anniversary.

Students told Susan Ford Wiltshire, professor of classics, that they wanted to know the world beyond campus. Wiltshire suggested that they launch a spring break program of community service to discover different cultures, places and social issues. She had no takers that first year.

Before Deal or No Deal, Who Wants to Be A Millionaire or even Jeopardy, there was the GE College Bowl Quiz program. In 1960, Vanderbilt’s team of “thinking people” became one of only a handful of university teams with a string of four quiz program wins.

In the spring of 1967, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., beat poet Allen Ginsberg, segregation supporter and senator Strom Thurmond, and black power advocate Stokely Carmichael were among the speakers at IMPACT ’67, a student-run symposium.