Blue Notes - PC Archives Blog

The College Seal and Motto

Apparently, the earliest classes at PC each had their own colors, flowers, and mottoes. For instance, the class colors for 1911 were green and white; the flower was the white rose; the motto was “Wie die Arbeit, so der Lohn” (“As the work, so the reward”). The class of 1913’s motto was “Nihil nisi optimum” (“Nothing but the best is good enough.”) Eventually classes began to adopt seals which incorporated the motto, and these were then featured in the college yearbook. The first depicted was in the 1915 PacSac. The motto, “Veritas vos Liberabit” translates into “The truth will make you free.”

A version of our current seal, with the torch and scroll and a similar motto, first appeared the next year, in 1916 PacSac. The motto was “Vivimus ut Serviamus” (“We Live to Serve”), which is very close to our current motto “Dum Vivimus Servimus” (“While we Live we Serve”). The following year, however, while the seal retained the same background, the motto had changed again, to “Spectemur Agendo” (“Let us be judged by our acts”).

The seal as we know it today, with the same background and motto, first appeared in the 1918 PacSac. By 1922, it was in common use on commencement programs, and by 1928 it was appearing on the front of the college catalog. Some minor changes occurred over time. The rays of light radiating from the torch were eliminated very early, and around 1980 the shape became less oval and more squarish. The motto has not changed since then, and the seal has only changed slightly as you can see below.