Members of the Emory & Henry College Board of Trustees and current students in the School of Business gathered at Carriger Hall to celebrate the naming of its new boardroom in honor of the 21st President, Jake B. Schrum. This was the first public preview of the building since renovations started in the fall of 2021. The building was used as a men’s dormitory and built in two phases in 1904 and 1908. A grand opening ceremony will be held in August 2023, when students return to campus and construction is completed. A feature in the new Jake B. Schrum Boardroom is a wooden boardroom table designed and handcrafted by Schrum’s oldest daughter and artist, Libby Schrum (second from right) of Camden, Maine.
On May 6, 2023, Emory & Henry celebrated its 175th commencement ceremony and the Class of 2023. Squire Miller Henry, a former porter and furnace stoker for the College, was among those celebrated, but with an honorary posthumous Doctorate of Divinity.
Throughout April, the College celebrated National Poetry Month by hosting the Catherine Burns Larmore Visiting Poet Series with ecopoet Sherwin Bitsui and the Daniel Leidig Lectureship in Poetry with Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Phillips. Both Bitsui and Phillips are nationally renowned and award-winning poets. Each poet visited an English class taught by Professor Matthew Kelley, gave a poetry reading and signed broadside poems for attendees.