Surgam
The Philolexian Foundation
In service to the Philolexian Society of Columbia University · Founded MDCCCII
In service to the Philolexian Society of Columbia University · Founded MDCCCII
Support the Foundation · II.
Once a year, every Philolexian (Geezer and student alike) gathers in black tie to confer the Philolexian Award for Distinguished Literary Achievement and Improvement of Public Discourse, hold a debate, and prove that two centuries of literary society have not yet exhausted themselves.
If the Foundation has one unambiguous job, it is this dinner. Once a year, the Society's Geezers (the alumni) return to Morningside Heights and sit down in black tie alongside the current undergraduate Society. There is a dais, a printed program, a great deal of red wine, the conferral of the Philolexian Award for Distinguished Literary Achievement and Improvement of Public Discourse, and a debate. By the end of the evening, somebody has proposed a resolution, somebody has invoked Hamilton, and at least one person has wept.
Once a year, the Society gets everyone in the same room. It is what keeps a 224-year-old Society from going the way of every defunct nineteenth-century literary brotherhood: namely, by making sure that, every twelve months, the institution is reconstituted in a single room. Geezers see the students; the students see what they will become; the Society sees itself across generations. The Foundation, whose principal mandate is the continuity of Philolexian, treats the Dinner as the most important night on its calendar.
The evening's high ceremony is the conferral of the Philolexian Award for Distinguished Literary Achievement and Improvement of Public Discourse, the Society's most senior honor. It is presented by the Foundation board to a philolexian (small p intentional) whose body of work has, in the Society's estimation, defined a literary life. Recent recipients include Jacques Barzun (CC '27), Carol Guess (CC '90), Greta Gerwig (BC '06), and John McWhorter (Lifetime Honorary Philolexian by unanimous acclaim); the prize is hearing one's name read aloud to the room and being kept in the company of one's predecessors.
After dinner, the Society does what the Society has done since May 17, 1802: it debates a resolution. The Moderator reads the resolution aloud, two sides are appointed (or volunteer, or are conscripted), and the room argues. Resolutions skew toward the absurd in the Philolexian manner: Resolved: Replace Congress with a Ouija Board; Resolved: Tell your wife I love her, but the form is the same as it was when Philos across the generations sat down to argue. By tradition, a vote is taken; by tradition, the Censor's report is more meaningful.
The Dinner is held on a Saturday evening each spring at Riverside Church or occasionally Low Library. Save-the-dates are circulated to Geezers and the active Society in late winter; tickets and the program follow when the speaker and the resolution have been confirmed. To be added to the Dinner mailing list, please write to the Foundation through the contact page.
The Foundation underwrites the cost of student attendance so that no member of the active Society is priced out of the most important night of the Philolexian year. Sustaining the Dinner (the venue, the program, the printing, and the student subsidy) is one of the things your gift to the Foundation makes possible.
The Annual Dinner is the Foundation's largest annual expense, and the one we are happiest to pay. A gift in any amount sustains the venue, the program, and the student subsidy that lets every active Philolexian be in the room. Every gift is tax-deductible.
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