Category Archives: Speakers

Author and Activist Calls for Fire and Passion

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – “It’s all about catching on fire,” said activist and author Sister Helen Prejean during her address at Illinois Wesleyan University Founders’ Day Convocation on Wednesday. “Our life is flow, our life is a river. Different currents fit it – we’re going to the sea. Life is about fire, the passion.”

In 1982, when Prejean began visiting convicted murderer Patrick Sonnier in prison, she started to discover the fire within her for social justice. However, she noted, it took awhile for this awakening to occur.

The daughter of a successful lawyer, Prejean said she grew up in privilege, although she was not keenly aware of it at the time. It wasn’t until she immersed herself with the poor of New Orleans and moved into the St. Thomas housing projects that she was awakened to the need for social justice in her own city. She learned that there were more complaints to the justice department about police brutality in New Orleans than any other city. “I was living out in the lakefront by the suburbs and it could have been going on in India. I didn’t know anyone had been beaten by the police,” said Prejean, who recalls how her firsthand experiences in the housing projects ignited a fire in her heart.

It was this awareness of injustice, as well as an inside look at the death penalty in New Orleans that caused Prejean to take a stand. “You can’t see the suffering, the system in place that’s killing people and say, ‘Well, I’m neutral.’ Catching on fire for justice means somehow we have an experience where we see the suffering,” she said.

Activist Who Inspired “Dead Man Walking” to Speak

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Pulitzer Prize-nominated author and activist Sister Helen Prejean will address the Illinois Wesleyan University Founders’ Day Convocation at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 8, in Westbrook Auditorium of Presser Hall (1210 Park St., Bloomington). The event is free and open to the public. Founders’ Day honors the 30 founders who signed the charter for the University in 1850.

In celebration of the University’s 162nd anniversary, additional activities will include The Ames Library’s annual exhibit highlighting the documents from the University’s founding, including Illinois Wesleyan’s “birth certificate.” A screening of Dead Man Walking will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. in the Hansen Student Center (300 Beecher St., Bloomington). On Wednesday, Feb. 8, free cake will also be available at all food service sites on campus in celebration.

Prior to the Founders’ Day Convocation, First Wednesday Chapel hour will feature “Voices of Nonviolence from King to Prejean,” on Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 11 a.m. in Evelyn Chapel (1301 N. Park St., Bloomington). The event is free and open to the public. Excerpts from King and Prejean’s writings will be offered. Film clips will be shown from Just Vision, an Israeli-Palestinian organization dedicated to nonviolence, and music spirituals will be performed by the new Evelyn Ensemble and Professor of Music Carren Moham.

Teach-In to Honor Martin Luther King, Jr.

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University’s Action Research Center (ARC) and political science honor society Pi Sigma Alpha (PSA) will host a “teach-in” comprising of three, one-hour panel discussions on Monday Jan. 16 from 1- 4 p.m. in Hansen Student Center (300 Beecher St., Bloomington).

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the teach-in will focus on three topics relating to food and social justice. While he is most known for his impact on the Civil Rights Movement, King’s teachings also addressed a wider scope of social justice.

The Teach-In schedule is as follows:

• 1 p.m. – National Efforts to Create Local Food: keynote speaker and alumnus Danny Burke ’09 will present, “Meaningfully Engaging Diversity,” along with community voice Lindsey Record of Illinois Stewardship Alliance.

• 2 p.m. – Sustainable Agriculture in Bloomington and IWU: keynote speaker Danny Kenny ’13 will present “Community Gardens in Higher Education,” along with community voice Elaine Sebald of Heartland Local Food Network.

• 3 p.m. – Insecurity: International, National, and Local Perspectives: keynote speaker Professor of Political Science William Munro will present “Food Aid, Philanthropy, and the Farm Bill: How Should We Tackle Hunger in the Global Food Economy?” along with community voice Emily Carroll of Food and Water Watch.

Chair of Political Science and Associate Professor of Political Science James Simeone notes that the teach-in is held in the spirit of King’s creation of the International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment (IAACM), which strove to constantly challenge societal norms. As an activist, King never wanted to become well-adjusted to society, explained Simeone, because there was always more work to be done. “He was the gadfly on the horse, like Socrates,” said the political science professor.

Jesse White to Speak at Fellowship Dinner

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White will be the keynote speaker at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Fellowship Dinner on Sunday, Jan. 22 at 5 p.m. The Jesse White Tumbling Team will be featured, as well.

Co-sponsored by Illinois Wesleyan University and the United Community Gospel Singers of Bloomington and Normal, the event will be held in the Young Main Lounge of the Memorial Center (104 University St., Bloomington).

White was first elected to the office in 1998 as Illinois’ 37th Secretary of State and is the first African-American to hold the position. Before he was in office, White founded the internationally known Jesse White Tumbling Team in 1959. The group serves as a positive alternative for children residing in and around the Chicago area. Over 13,000 young men and women have benefited from the program since its inception. Making over 1,500 nation-wide appearances each year, the team has been featured during half-time shows for the National Basketball Association, and tapings of Late Night with David Letterman and Good Morning America, as well as a number of other programs.

Guest Scholar to Speak on Music and Culture in Contemporary Taiwan

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.—Illinois Wesleyan University will welcome Department of Education (DoE) Guest Scholar and Professor Tracy Kwei-Liang Ho to campus for a 10-day program beginning Tuesday, Sept. 6 and ending Friday, Sept. 16.

During the event, Ho, from the Department of Music at Taipei Municipal University of Education in Taiwan, Republic of China (R.O.C.), is scheduled to speak at a School of Music convocation on Sept. 8 from 4-5 p.m. in Westbrook Auditorium of Presser Hall (1210 Park St., Bloomington). Ho will also deliver a public presentation on Sept. 13 from 7-8 p.m. in Stevenson Hall (203 Beecher St., Bloomington), room 103 with adjunct professor Kelly Huo’s class. Ho will speak on Music and Culture in Contemporary Taiwan.

The event is supported by a Title V DoE grant, which was awarded to IWU as a result of the concerted efforts of Teodora Amoloza, professor of sociology, Thomas Lutze, professor of history and Sonja Fritzsche, associate professor of German and Eastern European Studies.

A United States citizen since 2002, Ho received a doctor of music education degree from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, a master of music from Brooklyn College, The City University of New York and a bachelor of music degree from National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan.

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.

Summer Reading Program to Highlight Diversity at IWU

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – “Still there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.”

In this passage from the final installment of her 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of short stories Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri suggests knowing where you’ve been is just as important as knowing where you’re going. With the selection of Maladies as the centerpiece of this year’s summer reading program, Illinois Wesleyan students and staff hope to instill in the campus community a similar dedication to embracing your roots.

“The reading program book selection speaks to our values as a university,” said Roshaunda Ross, director of multicultural student affairs. “Here at Illinois Wesleyan, we’re committed to striving for diversity.”

Based on the idea that reading and critical reflection are central to the mission of a liberal arts college, IWU’s annual summer reading program provides an opportunity for new students to participate in a shared intellectual conversation with the campus community by expressing ideas about a common text. With past titles including Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man, Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, the reading program helps ease the transition from high school to college by preparing new students for the discussion-oriented courses characteristic of Illinois Wesleyan.

Caterpillar CFO Describes How Company Survived Financial Crisis

Caterpillar’s CFO Edward Rapp Addresses Associates

May 19, 2011

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Illinois Wesleyan Associates heard the story of how one global company survived its toughest year as they gathered for their annual luncheon on Thursday, May 19, at the IWU Shirk Center.

At the luncheon, Caterpillar, Inc. Group President and CFO Edward J. Rapp shared the journey of the company through the rough year of 2009 with a speech titled “Stay Strong: Managing Health through the Global Financial Crisis.” Rapp said Caterpillar, Inc. navigated the rough financial climate with a model he compared to the Boy Scouts: always be prepared, have calm and effective leadership, and have the courage to lead.

Be Prepared. Business is going to have fluctuations, said Rapp, who noted Caterpillar’s economists foresaw possible financial challenges coming several years before the 2008 collapse. “So we spent from 2005 to 2007 in what I like to call ‘trough management,’ or asking ourselves ‘What if the market comes apart?’” The fall of 2008 showed just what could happen to the market, exceeding everyone’s fears. “Between 2008 and 2009, we had the largest year-to-year decline in sales in company history,” said Rapp. “But because we had a plan, it changed the debate. We were not talking about what to do, but which trigger to pull at what time.”

Remain calm. “In a crisis, do not stand up in the canoe,” Rapp said, noting business leaders find out who they during tougher times. “It was important for us to communicate to our employees that this was not the first group of Caterpillar leaders to face difficult times,” said Rapp, noting the company had survived the Great Depression and World War II. “We also tried to emphasize to our leaders that, when things work against you, you are not a victim. You are a leader, and it is your job to lead others through this time.”

Have the courage to lead. Rapp relayed a favorite saying within the global company of Caterpillar. “The road to progress begins with a road, period,” he said. Operating in countries all over the globe, Rapp said Caterpillar continued throughout the crisis to provide equipment that helped build infrastructure in growing nations such as China, Brazil and India. “When you make tough decisions in tough times, make sure you always keep an eye on the future,” he said, adding, “and we did have to make tough calls.” The year 2009 still meant billions of dollars less in revenue for the corporate giant, and the company faced workforce cuts, which Rapp called “by far the hardest thing you have to do as a leader. But you have to always remember the long-term vitality of the enterprise, or else you put the entire workforce at risk.”

IWU News Blog

Headlines From Illinois Wesleyan University