Professor John C. Williams of the Classics Department giving a Horizons Lecture in 1976. Photo Credit: Rich Sager

Beginning in the 1976-1977 academic year, the Horizons Lecture Series was a weekly Tuesday-night lecture on a variety of current topics under the guidance of English Professor J. Bard McNulty '38. The program was endorsed by the Educational Policy Committee in an attempt to expand students' breadth of knowledge beyond the subject of their majors. These lectures were also open to the public.

The lectures required no registration, carried credit, and were given by faculty across 23 disciplines, allowing students to learn beyond the classroom and their particular fields of study. McNulty described this as, “a gargantuan feast in which they can sample dishes never available before.” Faculty as well, was afforded the opportunity to learn about what colleagues were working on in their respective fields.

Though many students attended these lectures, opinions were split. In one Trinity Tripod editorial, the student-writer felt that giving credit for these lectures “corrupted” the program, creating a situation where students would attend but not necessarily pay attention, some even playing cards during a lecture.

The Horizon lectures ran for the intended two full semesters, as well as the 1977-1978 academic year.

Trinity College in the Twentieth Century: a History (2000) by Peter and Anne Knapp, p. 394.

Trinity Tripod, 02/08/1977.

Trinity Tripod, 11/02/1976.

Trinity Reporter, March/April 1976.