History of the C.W. Post Alma Mater

As the C.W. Post community established campus traditions in the early 1960s, two professors put the thoughts of many into song when they created "When Evening Falls," the school alma mater. Dr. Julian Mates can still recall in vivid detail his collaboration with celebrated composer Stefan Wolpe.

Wolpe, then chairman of the C.W. Post Music Department, wrote the melody. Mates, then an English professor and later dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts, wrote the words. Wolpe taught the song to the college chorus, whose exuberant performances earned the composition a warm reception from the campus community.

One of the verses refers to College Hall, an historic mansion on campus. "We wanted a certain amount of sentiment," recalls Mates. "The building that's now Admissions used to be called College Hall, and that's where all of the classes were conducted. So there was a sentimental feeling about College Hall."

"When Evening Falls" made its first appearance in the Student Handbook in the fall of 1961. It was called the college song, "Under the Green and Gold." By 1963, when it was first sung in a commencement exercise, the composition had earned its current title.

The years passed quickly by, as the song proclaims. College Hall became the Admissions Building and classes were relocated to the various buildings that cropped up across the bucolic campus. To this day, however, "When Evening
Falls" retains the power to move the hearts of students, faculty and alumni.

"The purpose of our song was not just to be sentimental, but to come up with an idea that made some sense," says Mates. "The idea that even time can die, but nothing will [diminish] our recollections of the school made sense."