[MUSIC PLAYING] IVAN ALLEN JR: No one of us in any business that seeks the public patronage justify a position that it can refuse service to any portion of the public on the basis of race. The challenge to complete the elimination of discrimination from all public accommodation furnishes us with a great opportunity to present an inspiring Atlanta image to all of the world. 

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NARRATOR: When Ivan Allen Jr. was born in Atlanta in 1911, automation was the advanced technology of the day, with higher technology just beyond the horizon. But his decision to major in commerce at Georgia Tech made sense, because the family office products business was awaiting his graduation. Before he was handed that sheepskin, Ivan Allen Jr. became skilled not only in business, but in campus politics as well. 

President of the student council and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, he elected to membership in honorary fraternities like Phi Kappa Phi, Anak, Omicron Delta Kappa, and he graduated among the top five in his class. Yet, his achievements in college were merely a preview of an extraordinary life to come. A successful businessman, politician and civil rights champion, Ivan Allen Jr. brought his vision of a thriving, influential Atlanta to the people of his hometown. The rest, as they say, is history. 

So when Georgia Tech established the College for Liberal Arts in 1990, there was a clear inspiration for the kind of graduates it would strive to produce, Ivan Allen Jr., and the college would bear his name. Beyond their education, graduates of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts would carry with them the ideals, qualities, and aspirations embodied in one great man. And they will know how to serve the future. 

SUE ROSSER: The world can't be compartmentalized into this part is technology, this part is science, this part is dealing with human beings, this part is working with the environment. It's all together. We have to understand how to get along, first of all, in a global environment. So that's where international relations and modern languages are extremely important. We have to understand the complexities of public policy and how government intertwines with the rest of the mix in terms of the academy and the private sector in order to make technology work. So our graduates are really very well prepared to do that because of their background from the Ivan Allen College. 

NARRATOR: Ivan Allen Jr.'s savvy business practices grew the business his father had started, but his sphere of influence moved far beyond his office walls. He knew Atlanta could be a driving force in the country, and he knew what that would take. Before any significant change could take place, the community would have to come together on some tough economic, cultural, and social issues. His business and civic skills made Ivan Allen the ideal person to lead Atlanta in the right direction. Today's technology-based society requires that same understanding of the bigger picture. 

WHITNEY MORTON: Because technology is not created in a vacuum, we have to realize all the different factors that come into play with technology. We have to realize all of the biases that the people who create the technology bring. We have to realize the audience that we're making the technology for. We have to be really aware of the history of the piece of technology and what the future of that piece of technology is going to be. We need to realize that it's something that can impact everybody. 

NARRATOR: In 1962, Ivan Allen Jr. found an extraordinary way to create responsible change. He was elected mayor of Atlanta, and the city has never been the same. His organizational skills, solid business approach, strong leadership, and enthusiasm, shook the city to its core. 

Ivan Allen set into motion an unstoppable chain of events and expansion that launched Atlanta into new and exciting territory. His 6-point plan for developing the city included urban renewal, school construction, modernized public transportation, the building of an auditorium and a stadium. The Forward Atlantic campaign he created would promote the city to the rest of the country, but there was still work to be done at home. 

GEORGIA PERSONS: Ivan Allen was a bridge between the old and the new. He was one to reach out. He was not to be deterred by what other people might have seen as barriers. And I think we see that in our student body in the Ivan Allen College, students who are very inquisitive, who are very bright, who are courageous, who are open to new opportunities and new adventures, willing to embrace the future in a way which will afford them an opportunity to help, indeed, to define their future. 

NARRATOR: With the Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum during his stint as mayor, the term "public good" had staggering implications. He might have been part of Southern society, but he knew full well that moving Atlanta forward meant moving all its citizens forward. Desegregation, racial equality, it wasn't a matter of if, but when. 

ANDREW YOUNG: It was Ivan Allen's plan of improvement that called for the expansion of these expressways, the creation of MARTA, and he actually built a new airport in 1961. All of those things created a climate of growth and opportunity in which the Black community was determined to share. And as a result of that, we began to see new Black businesses. We began to see growth in housing. And we just saw a revolutionary change in the city. 

NARRATOR: His dialogues with Martin Luther King Jr. showed the Black community that barriers were falling, and a long overdue transformation was close enough to touch. That same commitment to meaningful communication has become a cornerstone of the Ivan Allen College. 

JAY BOLTER: Communications are a key aspect of our society today. And what we try to do is train our students, not only in the technical aspects of communicating, both in words and in images, but also, in the cultural meaning and significance of those words and images. 

WAYNE CLOUGH: The danger of not connecting technology to humanities is that we could produce a generation of bright leaders in this country who don't understand the impact of their technology on their fellow human beings or on this planet. They are going to have an impact. And so we want to educate people who understand that and think through the implications of what would happen if this technology goes in place, what are the downsides of this technology, because every technology is a two-edged sword, and we want people to understand that. To not have that linking would be a dangerous thing. And that's why we made the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Study at Georgia Tech. 

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