Founder’s Day program celebrates SU history

Southern University held its annual Founder’s Day Convocation yesterday at 10:30 a.m. in the F. G. Clark Activity Center.
The program’s keynote speaker was Kerney Laday, a 1965 Southern graduate and president of the Laday Company, a firm specializing in management consulting and business development.
During his speech Laday credited Southern for making him the man he is today.
“I am proud to say that I am a product of Southern,” said Laday.
Laday started the Leday Co. following his retirement from Xerox Corporation after 26 years of service.
Laday discussed various topics during his speech, including the importance of HBCUs.
“All the studies and statistics that I’m reading support the need for historically black colleges,” said Laday.
Laday also used his speech as a method of encouraging students to take advantage of current opportunities.
“Today the world is your stage; when I graduated, the options were few,” said Laday.
At the closing of his speech, Laday focused on “currencies” to success. These included communication skills, the ability to work as a team, recognizing others’ opinions, the ability to “leverage technology,” understanding “the world we live in is a capitalistic one” and using critical thinking skills.
“I didn’t attend the program this year, but I enjoy learning about my university’s history,” Natalie Wetherspoon, junior Criminal Justice major, from Arlington, Texas.
Like Wetherspoon, some students were unable to attend the program because of scheduled classes; however, the program was mandatory for freshman students.
Freshman Genetta Robinson, an apparel merchandising major from Opelousas, said the program was “interesting; it gave a lot of information about the university.”
Laday ended his speech with the message: “It’s not where you come from, it’s where you’re going.”
According to the convocation program, Legislative Act 118 of 1912 authorized the closing of the New Orleans campus and in 1914 Southern relocated to Scotlandville.
Founder Joseph Samuel Clark was selected to be the first president of the “new” Southern University.
Octavia Head Clark, John Sebastian Jones, Emma Nesbitt Mayberry and James Blaine Moore were also highlighted in the program booklet for their influences in the history of Southern.