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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Professor bids farewell to GW in last lecture

When English Professor Jon Quitslund arrived at GW in 1964, the campus was a different and simpler place than today.

Fraternities and sororities dominated the student body, and diversity did not exist, he said.

The period was a time of excitement for many students and faculty members, Quitslund said. He said he finds himself looking back on his time at GW as he prepares to retire at the end of the semester. He gave one of his final lectures of his career at the Last Lecture Series Feb. 2.

There was new life coming into the University, he said. (GW) was conservative, and I saw it as something to struggle with, and sometimes, against.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Quitslund found himself amid great change in Foggy Bottom. He joined student protests against the Vietnam War.

In a time when the University curriculum was a hot-button issue, Quitslund was active in debates and sat on committees to reform education. Efforts by Quitslund and other active professors resulted in a more liberal curriculum, which exists today.

After 37 years teaching literature at GW, Quitslund will retire this year and return to a slower pace of life on an island near Seattle.

Always concerned with the future of GW and looking for ways to facilitate change, Quitslund said change will continue to occur regardless of whether he is on campus to push the process.

There is a momentum built into the University, Quitslund said. GW has a history of multiplying programs and is always reaching for new directions; though I have trouble understanding various initiatives and what they leave.

Quitslund said he knows GW will move ahead into the millennium, but he is concerned with the effect change will have on the surviving remnant of the simpler GW he remembers.

The faculty has become PR and image-oriented because of GW’s need to change with the times, Quitslund said.

Quitsland said he and his wife plan to join his family on the small island. He said he looks forward to moving on with his life and spending time outdoors.

I’ll be working in the woods, and there is land to be taken care of,Quitslund said.

He said he hopes to write accounts that are more personal in nature than the writing he did as a faculty member.

When asked what he hopes is the greatest lesson learned by his students, he refrains from mentioning his course material.

I try to turn students onto doing as much as possible on their initiative, he said. (To learn) for love rather than a practical reason – not for a grade.

Attending a university should be an occasion for growth and discovery for students, he said.

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