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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. –Visiting Assistant Professor Saloua Zerhouni has joined the faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University this fall as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. Zerhouni comes to Illinois Wesleyan from Mohammed V University Souissi, in Rabat, Morocco, where she is an assistant professor of political science at the School of Juridical, Economic and Social Science.

“It is an honor to be able to work with the students and faculty of Illinois Wesleyan,” said Zerhouni, who is teaching two courses at IWU this semester: Women, Gender and Politics in North Africa, and The History of the Arab World. “I look forward to open and engaging discussions with my students, and hope my time here will work to build bridges in understanding.”

Zerhouni earned a doctorate from The University of Hassan II in Casablanca, Morocco, in 2002 in political science. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The University of Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah in Fez, Morocco. She was an associate researcher for the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin, Germany, and a visiting researcher at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., before taking her position with Mohammed V University Souissi.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Greg Mortenson, the co-author and subject of the No. 1 New York Times bestselling book Three Cups of Tea, and founder and executive director of the Central Asia Institute, will speak at the President’s Convocation at Illinois Wesleyan University at 11 a.m. Wednesday, September 9, in Westbrook Auditorium of Presser Hall.

The annual Convocation ceremony is focused on the campus community as it celebrates the start of the academic year. The general public is invited to view the Convocation via remote from Hansen Student Center (300 E. Beecher St., Bloomington).

Mortenson’s book about his efforts to build schools for children in poverty-stricken areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has sold 3 million copies and been published in 34 countries, was chosen for the 2009 Summer Reading Program for Illinois Wesleyan first-year students. Co-authored by journalist David Oliver Relin, Three Cups of Tea was named a Time Magazine Asia Book of The Year, won the Kiriyama Prize Nonfiction Award, and has spent 120 weeks on the bestseller list since its release in 2007.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – It was a day of beginnings and welcome for Illinois Wesleyan University students of the class of 2013. Celebrating their first day on campus, 526 new students and 31 transfer students gathered in Westbrook Auditorium of Presser Hall on Tuesday for the New Student Convocation, part of the annual “Turning Titan” week on campus.

“This is a very talented and diverse group that comes from across the nation and around the world,” said President Richard F. Wilson at the Convocation. Wilson noted students sitting in Westbrook had come to Illinois Wesleyan from 21 states and from 11 different countries. “You hail from China, Spain, Nepal, Ghana and Israel, just to name a few. The diversity of your background, interests, talents and ideas adds to the vitality of our campus community.”

Wilson led the students in their first recitation of the campus motto, “Scientia et Sapientia” (which translates to “knowledge and wisdom”). “You should do more with your time here than simply acquire facts and information,” Wilson said. “You must learn how to use that knowledge wisely for the benefit of others.”

Keynote speaker Associate Professor of English Wes Chapman said he could envision the excitement and nervousness new students experience on their first day. Still, he encouraged students to “have confidence. Have confidence that it is going to be okay, but try to have the right kind of confidence – a genuine confidence rather than a false one.”

> Hear Chapman’s address (mp3 file)

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Minor Myers, jr. Welcome Center, has been awarded silver certification as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Green Building – the first new construction building in Bloomington to be certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The building, named in honor of Illinois Wesleyan’s 17th president, was designed by CSO Architects, Inc., as part of Illinois Wesleyan’s continuing efforts to create a more ecologically friendly or “sustainable” campus. Sustainable features include a geothermal heating and cooling units, the use of special insulated glass for the windows that reflects heat, called low-emissivity, or low-e, glass; and the installation of a traction elevator versus the usual hydraulic elevator.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – A group of nine faculty and staff from Illinois Wesleyan University recently traveled half way around the world to help establish ties with a university in Morocco. The participants were part of the Morocco Initiative, sent to the North African nation to explore possible collaborative projects, discuss research and meet with counterparts at Al Akhawayn University (AUI) in Ifrane, Morocco.

“We came to Morocco to learn, to experience and to share,” said Associate Dean of Curriculum Zahia Drici, who led the group of five faculty and two staff members along with International Office Director Stacey Shimizu. Those chosen for the Initiative were Academic Outreach Librarian and Associate Professor Lynda Duke, Environmental Studies Director and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and International Studies Abigail Jahiel, Hispanic Studies Chair and Professor Carolyn Nadeau, Associate Professor of Economics Diego Mendez-Carbajo, Associate Professor of Economics Ilaria Ossella-Durbal, University of Communications Staff Writer Rachel Hatch and Career Consultant Robyn Walter.

Before leaving for their weeklong trip to Morocco in June, the group met throughout the spring semester and explored topics of research in a seminar format. Readings and discussions about Morocco included areas such as women’s role in contemporary society, the nation’s environmental challenges, cultural influences of Spain, public higher education and economic relations between the European Union and North Africa.

When in Morocco, the group scheduled several days of talks at AUI, and also set out to experience the people and culture of Morocco, making trips to historic areas of several cities. The group dined with Professor Saloua Zerhouni, who has applied to become a Fulbright scholar at Illinois Wesleyan this fall. A political science professor at Morocco’s largest university, Université Mohammad V – Souissi in the capitol city of Rabat, Zerhouni arranged meetings for the Illinois Wesleyan group with faculty and administrators at Mohammad V.

“This is how we build international bridges,” said Nadeau, who came to Morocco to study the influence that Moroccan Amazigh (or Berber) tribes played on today’s Spanish cuisine. Although she has studied extensively in Spain, Nadeau has never had the chance to cross the eight-mile stretch of water between Spain and Morocco. “I was able to walk through the markets, taste the food, talk with scholars about my research and visit with librarians at both the University of Fez and Al Akhawayn,” said Nadeau. “The physical connection to this part of history was overwhelming, in the good sense of the word.”

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