Category Archives: News

Enrollment Exceeds Target

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— Enrollment at Illinois Wesleyan this fall totals 2,090, significantly above the University’s planning target of 2,050 and making this the 14th consecutive year enrollment has been above the 2,000 mark. Included in the total are 556 new students who were chosen from 3,523 applicants, the second highest number of applications in school history.

“We’re extremely pleased that we exceeded our enrollment target for the year, especially given the difficult national economy,” said President Richard F. Wilson “And, even more important than the numbers is the quality of those students. This year’s class, like those in previous years, is very strong academically with an average ACT of 28 (out of a possible 36) and a high school GPA of 3.8.“

Illinois Wesleyan enrollment includes students from 32 states and 22 foreign countries, including 166 students from McLean County. In addition, over the past seven years the University’s minority and international enrollment has doubled and now totals 20 percent of the student body. Contributing to Wesleyan’s enrollment success is a 97 percent retention rate, which places the University among the nation’s top schools for the proportion of students returning from one year to the next.

University to Mark 10th Anniversary of 9/11

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – On Sunday, Sept. 11, Illinois Wesleyan University will hold a Service of Remembrance, marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11, honoring the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives that day.

The service, which is open to the public, will take place in Evelyn Chapel (1301 N. Park St., Bloomington). At 7:46 a.m., the chapel bell will toll, marking the time the first lives were lost. At 8:03 a.m., a candle lighting and time for personal reflection will begin. The service of remembrance will begin at 8:37 a.m. and conclude at 9:03 a.m. The times coincide with the planes striking each of the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and the crash near Shanksville, Pa.

Members of the University Choir, as well as IWU’s female a cappella group, Touch of Class, will lead the community in song. Instrumental and organ works will also be included. There will be readings and prayers for peace and reconciliation.

“My hope is that this service provides the campus and community an opportunity to remember the thousands of women, men and children who lost their lives on 9/11,” said the Rev. Elyse Nelson Winger. “I also hope it will be an opportunity to renew commitment to ways of peace and compassion in a world where fear and terror too often hold sway.”

Scholar Says Cosmopolitan View Enriches Lives

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Urging students and others in the audience to view a subtitled film each month as one way to better understand global cultural identities, Ghanaian-British-American philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah delivered the featured address at the annual President’s Convocation at Illinois Wesleyan’s Westbrook Auditorium Aug. 31.

Named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the top 100 global thinkers in 2010, Appiah is the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. His speech highlighted the University’s Summer Reading Program, which gives incoming students, faculty and staff an opportunity to participate in a shared intellectual experience through discussions. This year, the new students explored issues related to diversity with the 2011 Summer Reading Program selection, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), Jhumpa Lahiri’s Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of story stories.

In his speech, Appiah related his central theme of cosmopolitanism — the philosophy that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community — to Lahiri’s book, to the teachings of ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes and to his own multicultural heritage.

Class of 2015 Urged to Find ‘Sense of Adventure’

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The 2015 class of Illinois Wesleyan University received words of advice on finding their voice, and preparing themselves for the years ahead on Tuesday (Aug. 16) at the annual New Student Convocation in Westbrook Auditorium.

“The diversity of your backgrounds, interest, talents and ideas will add enormously to the vitality of our campus community and will enrich the broader community in which you will live,” said University President Richard F. Wilson welcoming the students, and bidding them to “bear forth the University’s hopes” for the future.

Keynote speaker, Illinois Wesleyan University Professor of Political Science William Munro, encouraged students to embrace a love of learning as a way of life. “You stand on the cusp of a new phase in your lives,” he said.

As winner of the Kemp Foundation Award – the University’s highest teaching honor – Munro received the privilege of addressing the New Student Convocation. Munro presented the students with a challenge – to step beyond the fears they might have of people’s perceptions, and delve into the questions of the world around them.

Acclaimed Scholar to Speak at President’s Convocation

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University will welcome acclaimed scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah as the speaker for the 2011 President’s Convocation to be held on Aug. 31 at 7 p.m. in Westbrook Auditorium of Presser Hall (1210 N. Park St., Bloomington). The first campus-wide event of the new semester, the convocation is free and open to the public.

Named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the top 100 global thinkers in 2010, Appiah is the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. He has published widely on the topics of ethics, African and black cultural studies, racial identity, political theory and philosophy of the mind. He is currently the president of PEN American Center, the U.S. branch of the world’s oldest international literary and human rights organization.

The author of celebrated books, Appiah’s works include In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture (Oxford University Press, 1993), which won the Annisfield-Wolf Book Award and the Herskovitz Award of the African Studies Association; Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race (Princeton University Press, 1997); Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc., 2007), which was featured on the cover of the New York Times Magazine; and Experiments in Ethics (Harvard University Press, 2010). His newest book, The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen (Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.) is due to be published this fall. Appiah has edited nearly two dozen books and contributed works to publications such as the Journal of Social Philosophy, the New York Review of Books and Global Agenda.

Campus Mourns Lawrence Campbell

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Illinois Wesleyan University campus mourns the death of Dr. C. Lawrence Campbell, the Fern Rosetta Sherff Professor of Piano at Illinois Wesleyan University, who died July 25.

“We are deeply saddened to lose a long-time member of our Illinois Wesleyan community,” said President Richard F. Wilson. “Dr. Campbell was an outstanding pianist and performer, who made many contributions to the University. We mourn his passing.”

A professor of music, piano, piano pedagogy and literature, Dr. Campbell was a member of the Illinois Wesleyan faculty since 1978. He was named to the Fern Rosetta Sherff Professorship in 1998, honoring his distinguished teaching, research and service to the University.

“All of the faculty, staff, and students in the School of Music have lost a dear friend, colleague and teacher,” said Director of the Illinois Wesleyan School of Music Mario Pelusi. “Larry Campbell was a remarkably gifted pianist and a superb teacher of piano, whom we – and the music profession in general – will miss deeply.” Friends and colleagues of Dr. Campbell at the IWU School of Music are planning a memorial concert in his honor to be scheduled later in fall semester.

Illinois Wesleyan Celebrates Connection to Farmers

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University dedicated an evening to honoring those who work the land at the first-ever Agricultural Heritage Dinner on Wednesday in the Young Main Lounge. Officials recognized the operators of more than 6,000 acres of University-owned farmland across 33 farms in Illinois.

“Without the farmland, Illinois Wesleyan would not be the University that it is today,” said President Richard F. Wilson, who noted farm holdings generate around $40 million of the University’s $200 million endowment. “The income from the farms goes directly into our scholarship program and support of the faculty,” as well as building construction and maintenance, said Wilson. “There is no better investment than the rich farmland of this area.”

More than 140 guests were in attendance at the dinner, including operators of IWU farms throughout the state. “If people ask me what I do, President Wilson said to tell them, ‘I put students through college,’” said Rick Heaton, operator of the Dorothy Hoadley Farm in Stark County, just north of Peoria. “I’d never thought of it that way before.”

The first gift of farmland to Illinois Wesleyan came in 1873 from Hiram Buck, who offered the University 640 acres. The Buck Farm, located in Douglas County, began the University’s agricultural endowment. “That farm has helped countless students to receive an Illinois Wesleyan education,” said Board of Trustee Chairman George Vinyard. “Ours is a long and rich history with the farms in Illinois that goes back to our earliest days. We are continually impressed by the agricultural heritage that we are celebrating here tonight.”

Demolition of Sheean Library Under Way

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — In the coming weeks, Illinois Wesleyan’s vacant Sheean Library will be razed to prepare the site for the construction of the University’s new main classroom building.

bullet See photos of the demolition and other campus projects

“I am excited about taking this first step on a project so important to the entire University,” said President Richard F. Wilson. “While we are very close to having the necessary funding for this new building, we are still actively pursuing gifts and will not start construction until full funding has been identified.”

The new classroom building will house state of the art classrooms, resource rooms and study areas, and will be the new home for faculty from the departments of Business Administration and Economics.

Wilder Field Gets Artificial Turf

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan’s Wilder Field is getting a new look with the installation of artificial turf. After 116 years of playing football on grass, the Titan football team will play their first game on the new turf at the season opener on Sept. 3.

New developments in artificial turf fields led University officials to explore the possibility of making the change, said Athletic Director Dennie Bridges. “In the last few years, as artificial turf fields evolved in quality and more schools were installing them, we started to consider turf for Illinois Wesleyan,” said Bridges. “Our first concern was the safety of the athletes, so a good deal of investigation went into that aspect of the changeover. All evidence now is that there is no difference in the safety of an artificial surface as opposed to grass.”

The new field will allow Wilder to become both a game field and a practice field for football, said Bridges. “There are so many more hours of use,” he added.

Football is not the only sport that will be positively affected by the installation of artificial turf at Wilder Field. “Women’s and men’s soccer will practice there often to lessen the stress on the grass soccer field. Softball and baseball will also be able to hold early spring workouts before their fields are ready for use,” said Bridges. “We will also hold intramural activities on the field.” Local groups will also have an opportunity to take advantage of the new field, said Bridges, making it another community resource, much like the Shirk Center and The Ames Library.

Illinois Wesleyan Names Winger New Chaplain

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University has appointed the Rev. Elyse Nelson Winger as the new University chaplain. She will begin her duties Aug. 1.

“The IWU community will be well served by Chaplain Nelson Winger’s strong background and experience, as well as her proven commitment to diversity and social justice,” said Kathy Cavins-Tull, IWU vice president for student affairs and dean of students.

According to Cavins, the Rev. Nelson Winger’s service and work in Africa and the Middle East aligns strongly with Illinois Wesleyan’s mission toward inspiring global connectivity. The Rev. Nelson Winger has worked as an interim director of the Joint Relief Ministry’s English program for refugees and displaced persons from Sudan and the Horn of Africa. She has participated in interfaith and ecumenical ministerial associations for education, fellowship and community development, and led a task force to advocate for peace and justice initiatives in the Middle East. Locally, the Rev. Nelson Winger has been active in the Advocate BroMenn Delegate Church Association and as a member of the governing board of the Community Cancer Center.

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