At Illinois Wesleyan University’s final 2013-14 Board of Trustees meeting on May 16, the following current officers were re-elected to serve for the coming 2014-15 academic year.

Those members re-elected include: Richard S. Ames, Thomas C. McKinney, Jr. ’76, Phyllis Barker ’73, Thomas L. Brown ’79, John S. Esch ’79, Robert E. Field ’67, Steven A. Ring ’79, Ronald L. Ruecker ’66, James A. Shirk and Timothy J. Szerlong ’74.

Board of Trustees officers that were re-elected for the 2014-15 academic year include: George A. Vinyard ’71, chair; Herbert A. Getz ’77, vice chair; Willie G. Brown, vice chair; Thomas L. Brown ’79, vice chair; Jean M. Baird ’80, secretary; and Robert E. Field ’67, treasurer.

Congratulations to you all!

Brian shared lessons on life drawing techniques with the Logan County Arts group. 

Click here for the full scoop!

Back in ’72 I graduated from IWU’s School of Music where I got a great education. In fact, my wife and I will be visiting Minnesota, where our son will be graduating from grad school. While there, we will visit Dr. David Gehrenbeck and his wife, Helen. He was my organ teacher at IWU that many years ago! We still keep up, and see each other once or twice a year.

Since graduating from IWU, I have been very active in the “organ world”. I have been the dean of the Fox Valley AGO (American Guild of Organists) Chapter, been the Illinois Chairman of the AGO, been on one national convention planning committee (2200+ organists attended); and quite recently I was elected to the post of Regional Counselor for the Great Lake States for the AGO.

I have given organ lessons to kids at my church for over 30 years and this summer I plan to teach at an AGO summer camp for young students!

The Shirk Center

In September, expansion of Shirk Center will begin.  The expansion is to meet the growing needs of students.

“It’s not just for the athletes. It’s for all the students,” Athletics Director Dennie Bridges said.  “The present fitness center is about half the size we need.”

When Shirk Center opened in 1994, personal fitness wasn’t a huge deal among students, Bridges said, noting that female students almost never went to the old Fred Young Fieldhouse. Now both genders are regular users of the fitness facilities and at times they have to wait a while to use the machines, he said.

In addition, the number of student athletes has grown from 294 to 520 in the past 20 years.  The growth in number of student athletes is due to the addition of men’s and women’s soccer and men’s and women’s lacrosse.

A two-story expansion of the building is planned.  It will extend 75 feet into the parking lot on the east side of the building.  The second floor of the addition will feature a fitness center with two multi-purpose rooms. The first floor will have five new locker rooms, a satellite training room, and space for storage.  The current fitness area is to be converted to weight training.

“It’s been in the dream process for about five years,” Bridges said. “We just got serious about it in the last year.”  Bridges hopes the project can be done with minimal disruption with the new area ready for use in November 2015.

The University’s second “All in for Wesleyan” challenge was held on April 2.  Titans banded together and raised over $838,000 in one day.  It began with a $250,000 challenge gift from long-time supporters, the Egbers family, if the University could raise $250,000 from alumni and friends.

The class of 1976 had 16 of the 2406 donors in the “All In For Wesleyan” program.   $838,000 was raised during the one day drive.