Editor, The Tiger –

In 2008, the students of Hampden-Sydney College established a scholarship in honor Gerry Pettus, fondly known to all as “Ms. P”.
In 2009, the administration of Hampden-Sydney College handed “Ms. P” a pink slip.

Someone unfamiliar with the campus asked me, who is “Ms. P”? My response was that she is the switchboard operator, the secretary to the Chief of Campus Police, the mother to many legions of Hampden-Sydney boys, and that she is an institution within the institution—a grande dame indeed.

Is the College so out of touch with its own community that it does not realize the value that this woman has brought to this place? Does the College not realize that it is “Ms. P” who is the athletic department’s most ardent supporter… that it is “Ms. P” who holds classes in her home for young men who wish to learn the culinary arts… that it is “Ms. P” who is quick to rap the knuckles of those of her boys who cross the line and engage in ungentlemanly conduct… that it is “Ms. P” whose warm hugs and cheery disposition have consoled many a young man despondent over his love life, grades, or finances… that it is “Ms. P” who, with the likes of “Miss Dottie” and Anita Garland, form the feminist background of this male campus… that it is “Ms. P” who…– and the list never ends.

I am so confounded over this decision that I can only surmise that if the men who made this decision had attended Hampden-Sydney College, maybe they would possess a deeper understanding of the word loyalty, and that this would not have come to pass. Alas, they live in their ivory towers where the air is thin.

The college should also realize that there are many of us who will never forgive it for the way this tragedy has unfolded.
Yours very truly,

John M. Boswell
Class of 1965

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