Knox in the News

From WGIL radio:

Knox College’s student literary magazine, Catch, has received a Pacemaker Award as one of the top college literary magazines in the nation, selected by the Associated Collegiate Press. The 2008 Pacemaker is the fifth national honor that Catch has won in the past six years. The winning issue of Catch was published in Spring 2008. The editor in chief was Alice Holbrook.

“It’s nice to be recognized. We had an excellent editorial team and great submissions,” Holbrook said. “I was mainly overseeing and organizing the ideas and material brought by the editorial staff. If anything stands out, I have to compliment our layout editor, Kari Lefevre. Her design ideas are really brilliant.”

The faculty advisor for the winning issue was Gina Franco, assistant professor of English. “The design is elegant, understated in a way that makes the book a pleasure to hold and inviting to read,” Franco said.

From the Register Mail:

President-elect Obama has named a former Galesburg resident John Podesta to co-chair his transition team. Podesta lived in Galesburg from 1967 until his graduation from Knox College in 1971. Podesta, who acquired the nickname “Skippy,” was active in Knox campus activities including a protest sit-in at Old Main. He later served as chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. Podesta who still serves on the Knox College Board of Trustees gave the commencement address at Knox in 1998.

Podesta shared a glimpse of life inside the White House and Oval Office during a presentation at the Galesburg Public Library in February 2002. He said that during his time as assistant to President Clinton he attempted to manage the paper flow to and from the president. Podesta said, “I didn’t know a lot about physics, but as chief of staff I learned chaos theory fast.” When leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. he distributed T-shirts to staffers reading, “I survived the Clinton White House.”

From the Register-Mail:

In what can only be characterized as a spontaneous, loud, but peaceful outpouring of joy, Knox College students spilled out of their dorms just minutes after hearing President-elect Barack Obama’s acceptance speech Tuesday night. Starting as a chanting mob near Four Name and Conger-Neil dorms, the group moved to the southern area of the Quads as fire alarms were pulled simultaneously in Sellew-Raub, Elder-Campbell and Sherwin-Neifert halls.

“All in all, the event was respectful, enjoyable and pleasant for the most part,” said John Schlaf, director of campus safety and former Galesburg police chief. “Everybody seemed to be in a good mood, and wanted to just celebrate a real unique event in American history, and wanted to be a part of it and enjoy it, and I think everybody did.”

From the Register Mail:

Many say Division III rivalries, such as the Bronze Turkey game between Knox and Monmouth, are what college football is meant to be. If so, the sons of Steve and Nancy Davis of Elmwood could be the poster boys for what is right about college sports.

With Division I football awash in scandals and arrests, Division III, where schools are not allowed to award athletic scholarships, is a throwback to the earlier days of the sport….

The rivalry between the sons ends at the goal line, though.

“They are best of friends, except for football,” Nancy said.

From the Star Tribune:

JOHN PODESTA:
TRANSITION TEAM

John Podesta served as chief of staff in the Clinton White House and has led transition planning for the Obama campaign. He is said to be under consideration to be co-chairman of Obama’s transition team and possibly for energy secretary.

He has extensive experience at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, and in the world of think tanks whose work often underlies policy initiatives. Under Clinton, he also served as staff secretary and deputy chief of staff, and he was an aide to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. He is president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal research group that he founded in 2003 with help from George Soros and other financiers, and that effectively is a government-in-exile for Democrats.

When he was staff secretary, he was particularly annoyed by intelligence bureaucrats who dressed up routine memorandums with “top secret'’ designations to get the president’s attention. When the CIA or the National Security Council submitted a classified report that Podesta had seen on CNN, he stamped it “EMBARRASSING” before sending it to the president.

He supported Hillary Rodham Clinton in the primaries, but he nevertheless switched over to the Obama campaign smoothly and has earned Obama’s trust with weeks of preparations for building the next administration. Born Jan. 8, 1949, in Chicago, Podesta graduated from Knox College in Illinois and earned a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

From the Register Mail:

The 15 students sat in a semicircle in Room 203 of Knox College’s George Davis Hall on a recent Tuesday, discussing whether a jobless man should steal rice to feed his family, a serious moral dilemma.

Then, they pulled out pencils and began to draw a scene from the Japanese folk tale, sketching curtained windows and stick-figure store owners.

As part of the Knox Junior Great Books program, a select group of “highly able” children in first through fifth grades meets weekly to read a story and discuss questions it raises. Students do not need to prove any sort of academic ability to enter the program, but most read at or above their grade levels.

Jason Helfer, assistant professor of educational studies at Knox, says the local program is an offshoot of a nationwide program to provide additional enrichment for children.