Founders Day will commence Thursday, marking the 134th anniversary of Cornelius Vanderbilt's first gift to the university.

Anja Becker, visiting post-doctoral, will address the audience. The addition of a guest lecturer was introduced only last year, said Patricia Sanders, executive assistant to Vice Chancellor Mike Schoenfeld and an active participant in Founder's Day.

"I think it is a great idea to honor the individuals who established the university that is giving us an incredible education and enhancing our individual selves," said sophomore Matt Kearney.

Founder's Day not only celebrates the lives and accomplishments of Cornelius Vanderbilt and Bishop Holland McTyeire, but it also honors the contributions of their respective wives, Frances Armstrong Crawford and Amelia Townsend McTyeire, as the two men would not have without their wives' close friendship, said Lyle Lankford, senior officer of university history and protocol.

"It is imperative to acknowledge [Vanderbilt and McTyeire] and that we would not be here if it weren't for them," said sophomore Katie Bernstein.

Founder's Day has been celebrated since Vanderbilt's first academic year in the spring of 1876. Although the ceremony was initially held on May 27, Cornelius Vanderbilt's birthday, but as the academic year changed, Founder's Day was moved to the day Vanderbilt made his founding gift - March 17, 1873.

"Founder's Day, throughout the 1970s up until the 1990s, was merely an event marked on the university calendar. It was not until 2003, the 130th anniversary, that Founder's Day would be reinstituted," Lankford said.

The Founder's Day events will begin Friday at 10 a.m. at the main campus entrance on West End Avenue. The ceremony will include the laying of the wreaths and a procession to the memorials of Cornelius Vanderbilt and the tombs of Bishop Holland McTyeire and his wife. Lankford said the foliage used to create the ceremonial wreaths is significant.

The magnolia branches are cut from the trees on campus and are intertwined among purple irises, Tennessee's state flower; red roses, the state flower of New York (where Cornelius and his wife met); and camellias, the state flower of Alabama, the home state of Amelia McTyeire and Frances Crawford.

The ceremony will conclude with coffee and birthday cake in the second floor lobby of Kirkland Hall. Both Sanders and Lankford strongly encourage available students to take part in the Founder's Day activities and to honor the individuals who created and established the university we call home.