All In–Happy Hour Events

Check out the All In Happy Hours taking place around the country. Show your Titan pride by spreading the word about All In for Wesleyan to your personal networks via social media, calls, texts, emails, etc.

You’ll have a great time while encouraging others to make an additional gift on All In and share stories about how IWU Unlocked Opportunities for each of us. Visit our webpage for more information and registration

Ethan Schrum ’99

Ethan Schrum ’99 is the author of The Instrumental University: Education in Service of the National Agenda after World War II, published by Cornell University Press in June. The Instrumental University shows how elite research universities adopted a new technocratic mission of solving social problems and promoting economic growth in the emerging knowledge economy. In so doing, these institutions took on more capitalistic and managerial tendencies and marginalized some of their founding ideals. A chemistry major and physics minor at IWU, Ethan started to write about higher education as editor-in-chief of The Argus. A class with Paul Bushnell, professor emeritus of history, helped inspire Ethan to become a historian. Ethan is an assistant professor of history at Azusa Pacific University near Los Angeles. 

All In For Wesleyan

On April 11, alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, and friends of IWU show your pride and support by being All In for Wesleyan. During this 24-hour giving day, let’s unlock opportunities together – you are key to our success!

Be All In, All Day, make an additional gift at iwu.edu/all-in and spread the word on social media using#AllInforWesleyan. Check out our social media toolkit!

Thank-A-Giver Day

Thank-A-Giver Day (TAG Day) is on Monday, February 11. This day provides the IWU campus community with the opportunity to thank the donors who support Illinois Wesleyan. IWU celebrates each year in mid-February because it marks the symbolic point during the academic year – about 70% of the way through – when tuition dollars run out and support from alumni and friends, our endowment, and external grants kicks in for the remainder of the year.

Thank you to all donors who help make the IWU experience possible!

Gina Wither ’99

Gina (Schopp) Wither ’99 and Brian Smith ’00 have worked at Steamboat Mountain School, a small, independent boarding school, for 19 and 20 years respectively.  Brian is the Dean of Students and teaches Calculus 1 and 2. They just took kids on a 5 day canoeing trip on the Green River through Labyrinth Canyon for their annual Desert Week trip.

Scott Pluff ’99

Scott Pluff ’99 has accepted a new position as Director of Music and Liturgy at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Cottleville, MO. With 5300 families, St. Joseph is the largest Catholic parish in the state of Missouri. He will oversee the parish’s worship ministries, direct three choirs, and serve as the principal organist. This year marks 25 years of Scott’s service as a professional church musician. At IWU he studied organ with Dr. David Gehrenbeck, and he holds an M.A. in Theology from the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, MO. Scott lives in south St. Louis with his wife and three daughters.

Congratulations, Scott!

Professor Elizabeth Balser

We are very sorry to inform you that Professor Elizabeth (Susie) Balser,  faculty member in Biology for more than 20 years, passed away last month following an extended illness. Susie was recognized as an expert on the anatomy of echinoderms. Her passion for invertebrate animals inspired the creation of three new courses at IWU. Both as an instructor and as a research mentor, Susie challenged students to carefully study the natural world and make their own discoveries.

Benjamin Nelson ’99

Benjamin Nelson ’99 co-edited “‘Los cielos se agotaron de prodigios’: Essays in Honor of Frederick A. de Armas” (Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs, 2018), which includes his essay “Pilgrimaging to the Temple of Diana: Jorge de Montemayor, Merida, and the Septizodium.”