Category Archives: Features

Legacy Students Make IWU a Family Affair

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – This year, Illinois Wesleyan University welcomed 587 first-year students to campus. Of those students, 32 have siblings, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and generations farther back who call Illinois Wesleyan their alma mater. Often referred to as legacy students, this year represents the largest class of such distinction in the University’s history.

Craig Rapp, class of 2004, called attending Illinois Wesleyan “a family extravaganza.” With his two older brothers having already attended IWU, and his father Randall Rapp being a member of the class of 1973, he had spent a fair amount of time visiting the University prior to becoming a student. Choosing IWU was an easy decision and a gut instinct, he said. Although his father was happy he had selected IWU, he still encouraged his son to look elsewhere.

“My dad pushed me to look at other schools to make sure this was the right fit for me,” said Rapp. “He was delighted that I was looking at IWU, but he was also very firm that he would be fine with whatever school I chose.”

International Colloquium Bridges Cultures

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – An idea knows no language. A thought does bend to borders or nations. Yet to share ideas, we must work to transcend such human challenges as location and language. This sharing of ideas was the aim of an international colloquium last week on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. A group of scholars journeyed 5,000 miles from the Russian State University for the Humanities (RGGU) in Moscow to Bloomington to work together at a colloquium titled, “Childhood and Globalization.”

“We all share a common goal, to understand and describe both our diverse history and the current realities of the childhood experience in a rapidly changing, global existence,” said Illinois Wesleyan’s Isaac Funk Professor of Russian Studies Marina Balina. “Our colloquium provided those colloquium participants and our audience participating with a unique opportunity for the immediate exchange of ideas on this important subject.”

It was Balina’s works that planted the seed for the colloquium. An academic author of books and articles on childhood in the Soviet Union, her publications are printed in English, German, Italian and Russian. It was while working in Germany that Russian scholar Professor Vitaly Bezrogov became familiar with (discovered) Balina’s book on children’s literature that was published by Routledge Press in English.

“I ‘knew her’ through her publications on life-writing genres many years before I met her,” said Bezrogov, who is studying the nuances of textbooks and readers designed for schoolchildren. “We began to actively correspond in late 2007, but did not have a chance to meet until 2009.” The two met face-to-face when Bezrogov invited Balina to an interdisciplinary conference in Moscow. It was there they decided they wanted to bring scholars to Illinois Wesleyan with the aim of exchanging ideas on childhood.

10th Anniversary of Hispanic Studies is Call for a Fiesta

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – ¿Habla español? For the last 10 years, the Hispanic Studies Program at Illinois Wesleyan University has been helping students learn more than the Spanish language. It has aimed to help students develop an awareness of the Hispanic culture, heritage and history. On Oct. 9, Illinois Wesleyan will celebrate the anniversary of the Hispanic Studies Department during this year’s Homecoming festivities.

Alumni, faculty and friends will gather for a reception from 4:30-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 9, at the Joslin Atrium in the Memorial Center (104 E. University St., Bloomington).

Spanish has long been a major for students at Illinois Wesleyan, but the program began to evolve in the 1990s, reflecting the needs of students. “Our program was growing exponentially with the increased interest in Spanish in the United States,” said Department Chair and Professor of Hispanic Studies Carolyn Nadeau. “Our needs were changing, as were the needs of the other languages.” By 1998, University faculty and officials recognized the need for Hispanic Studies to stand alone, and founded the program, which began in the 1999-2000 academic school year.

Jazz Band Alumni Celebrate 40 Years of Swing

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The 2010 Homecoming at Illinois Wesleyan University is called Homecoming and All That Jazz for a reason. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Illinois Wesleyan School of Music’s Jazz Program, and part of the events will include the kickoff of the 2010-2011 tribute to the program in honor of the man who founded it, Professor Tom Streeter. This year marks a double celebration as Streeter, who founded the Jazz Program at IWU in 1971, plans to retire at the end of the academic year.

Celebrations will begin with a Jazz Bands Reunion concert on Friday, Oct. 8 at 9 p.m. in Hansen Student Center (300 E. Beecher St., Bloomington), led by Professor of Music Tom Streeter. “We’ll have four bands, with former students from each of the four decades performing. Dancing is definitely encouraged,” said Streeter.

Homecoming Highlights Include 40th Anniversary of Observatory

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – At this year’s Illinois Wesleyan University Homecoming alumni will gather to mark the 40th anniversary of students peering toward the heavens from the Mark Evans Observatory. Tours of the observatory will be from 9-11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 9, with a reception at 4:30 p.m. in the Commons of the Center for Natural Science Learning and Research (CNS) (201 E. Beecher St., Bloomington).

When it was completed in 1970, the Mark Evans Observatory – like space exploration itself – offered hope in a turbulent time. Even the building of the observatory brought excitement to campus. In March of 1969, Col. Frank Borman, commander of the Apollo 8 space mission, arrived on campus for Founders’ Day to lay the cornerstone of the observatory and receive an honorary degree.

“He piloted his own jet into Bloomington,” then-University President Robert S. Eckley recalled in his memoir, Pictures at an Exhibition: Illinois Wesleyan University: 1968-1986. “He generated more interest and excitement than any other visitor to the campus during my years at Wesleyan.” Though he was not the main speaker for Founders’ Day, Eckley noted that Borman, “captivated the audience and the campus,” by offering a message of hope during a time when racial tension and war gripped the nation. “For a man who just returned from circling the moon, nothing was impossible,” wrote Eckley.

New Program Engages Diversity at IWU

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. –The class of 2014 at Illinois Wesleyan University is one of the largest classes in recent years for the University. The class, comprised of 620 students, has 24 transfer students, 17 international students, 95 African-American, Latino-American, Asian-American and Native-American (ALANA) students and 76 out-of-state students. While it’s easy to divide the class into subgroups, the IWU Engaging Diversity Program attempted to do just the opposite.

Associate Professor of Psychology Kira Hudson Banks and Assistant Professor of Sociology Meghan Burke co-directed this program, which brought 14 randomly selected first-year Caucasian students to campus three days early to participate in meetings and activities about diversity.

No Impact Man to Speak, Campus to Celebrate with No Impact Week

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – “No Impact Man” is coming to Illinois Wesleyan University, and the University is celebrating with a week of the No Impact Experiment.

Author Colin Beavan, known for his blog and book, No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet and Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process (Picador, 2009), will address the President’s Convocation at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 8, in Westbook Auditorium of Presser Hall (1210 N. Park St., Bloomington). The title of his speech will be “No Impact Man.” The event is free and open to the public.

Beavan gained national attention with his blog, which chronicled a year he and his family attempted to live without negatively impacting the environment. Throughout the year, Beavan, his wife and their daughter, tried to produce no trash, went without electricity, rode in no cars or taxis, ate only locally produced food, and avoided all paper products, including toilet paper. “You have to give Colin Beavan credit,” said The Boston Globe. “The man put his money where his mouth is. A self-proclaimed ‘guilty liberal’ tired of the world’s general ecological decline, he decided to change his life. And in no small way.” A documentary was released in 2009, detailing Beavan’s efforts.

All incoming Illinois Wesleyan students read Beavan’s book for the Summer Reading Program, which is part of “Turning Titan,” the new student orientation program on campus. Students met in discussion groups with faculty and staff to share their impressions of the book and what impact it made on them.

To celebrate Beavan’s visit to campus, the University Wellness Center is encouraging all faculty, staff and students to participate in a “No Impact Experiment” from Sept. 12-19.

Wellness Program Offers Life-Enhancing Activities, Services

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – In 1990, Missy Smock came to Illinois Wesleyan University with a dream and a promise, to create a wellness program that would provide activities and services that would afford life enhancement opportunities for faculty, staff, immediate family members and retirees of the University. Twenty years later, the program has spread to students, alums and employees of collaborating organizations who desire the holistic philosophy offered by the IWU Wellness Program.

“Wellness goes beyond the physical component, “ said Smock, director of the IWU Wellness Program. “Wellness is about finding different ways to create balance in the many aspects that make up one’s life. There will be peaks and valleys accompanied by the emotional rollercoaster that goes with the highs and lows. So, connecting with resources, social connections among other things, to gain this balance is the key to a more holistic approach to achieving life enhancement.”

No Impact Man Comes to Campus

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – What is one person’s impact on the environment? Illinois Wesleyan University students will find out when they celebrate the book No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process by Colin Beavan. The IWU community will hear Beavan speak and have the opportunity to take part in their own environmental experiment.

As part of the celebration, Beavan will address students, faculty, staff and community members at the President’s Convocation Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. in Westbrook Auditorium of Presser Hall (1210 N. Park St., Bloomington). Beavan will discuss his self-reflective book, which originated from his hope to live an environmentally friendly life in the heart of New York City.

The book was selected as part of the IWU Summer Reading Program, which will require all first-year students to read the same book. As part of Turning Titan Orientation, which runs from Tuesday, Aug. 17 to Sunday, Aug. 22, the students will participate in shared intellectual conversations about No Impact Man with the Illinois Wesleyan community.

The weeklong orientation is aimed to help incoming students become acquainted to the campus, allowing them to meet with their first-year advisors, select classes and learn more about life at the University.

No Impact Week

Once students become familiar with the concepts in No Impact Man, they will be challenged to live environmentally friendly for one week. Beginning Sunday, Sept. 12, all students, faculty and staff are invited to participate in the No Impact Experiment hosted by the Wellness Program, the GREENetwork and the Office of Residential Life.

Professors Seek Beauty, Truth in Translated Works

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The great works of literature can be called more than a collection of masterfully crafted words. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is more than a rhythmic story about a dour prince. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is more than the well-written tale of a suicidal woman. Great writing can convey the culture, dreams, norms and challenges of a society, but making sure the message is clear can depend upon the right translation.

How can a reader find a “good” translation of literature? Several Illinois Wesleyan University faculty members recently weighed in on the subject of translations.

“Translation is a work of art,” said Marina Balina, the Isaac Funk Professor of Russian Studies. “It is more than choosing the right words. It’s an art form that definitely requires the soul of the artist.” Balina worked with Professor of English Emeritus James McGowan on the translations of poems by German poet Wolfgang Borchert. “Translation is like a sculpture, basically shaping up the material like it was clay, and then refining it,” agreed McGowan, who is known for his translations of the French poet Charles Baudelaire. “Just because the words are similar from one language to another, it does not mean the meaning is similar.”

The art of translation may begin with finding the English equivalent, but it then requires going a step beyond, said Balina. “You can build from a beautiful sentence that is close to what the writer is saying, but the cultural barrier remains,” she said. “A translator can be blinded by his or her own knowledge of literature and culture.” Balina remembered reading sonnets of Shakespeare in English for the first time. “I thought, ‘This was not the Shakespeare I have read in Russian translation’,” she said. “I read writers in Soviet Russia, who were translating because they could not get their own work published because of the harsh censorship by government. They have used the art of translation to convey their own frustration and ideals through Shakespeare’s works.”

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