Knox in the News

From the Register-Mail:

July’s unemployment rate of 10 percent in Galesburg was the first time the city’s jobless rate hit double digits since the 1980s. Knox College economics professor Richard A. Stout said he believes the worst of the economic crisis has been averted but warns not to expect a quick turnaround in the local job market.

Stout said joblessness is affecting more people than the 10 percent figure released by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Contrary to popular belief, people who exhaust their unemployment benefits do not automatically drop from the figures released by the state. But, it is true when someone becomes discouraged and no longer actively seeks employment, that person is no longer included in the unemployment rate.

Stout said the number of underemployed people also perhaps should be taken into consideration.

The professor said when he came to this area in the 1980s, after working as a young economist at the Federal Reserve Bank in Washington, D.C., “the unemployment rate was over 14 percent” in Galesburg.

He said that, nationally, if unemployment is now 10 percent, the number of discouraged workers might translate to a rate of 14 percent.

From the Peoria Journal Star:

Back-to-back 3-7 seasons haven’t dampened the spirits of Knox College football coach Andy Gibbons. In fact, with a solid core of returning players and a 30-man freshman class, the 14-year leader of the Prairie Fire is downright giddy.

“We brought in a big, talented class that has lived up to its potential and our upperclassmen went home and did what they were supposed to do over the summer,” Gibbons said. “We have a very motivated team and we’re very excited about where we’re at right now. It has the makings of a team that’s about to take a step forward.”

After last season ended, Gibbons challenged himself, his staff and his players.

“We really changed how we were doing our strength and conditioning program, recruiting, everything,” Gibbons said. “We put our cards on the table and said, ‘Here’s our record, guys. It’s time to do something different.’ It started with strength and conditioning and our kids have got themselves in the best possible shape. They came into camp feeling good about themselves and have gotten better each day.”

From the Register-Mail:

Twenty-four-year-old Chris Carpenter is the first male nominated for the George Washington Gale Scholars program to graduate Knox College.

“I would not have been able to graduate without my mom (Dorothy Day),” he said. “She always made sure I had everything that I needed.”

The program — a cooperative agreement among Galesburg District 205, Carl Sandburg and Knox colleges — began in 1996.

Every year since, up to 15 eighth-graders from low-income families or whose parents do not have college degrees are nominated for the program.

Upon graduating from Galesburg High School, Gale Scholars are given tuition waivers for two years at CSC and then two years at Knox.

To remain in the program, one must maintain a minimum grade point average of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale and complete 20 hours of community service.

Three years after the program began, Carpenter became a Gale Scholar.

“I was always a gifted student and it was nice to know I had college paid for,” he said. “Mr. (Steve) Cheesman told me Knox was the Harvard of the Midwest and encouraged me to join.”

From the Peoria Journal Star:

A Knox College psychology professor will share a $275,000 grant to study behavioral intervention programs designed to reduce the spread of AIDS.

The grant from the National Institutes of Health has been awarded to Knox professor Heather Hoffmann and Erick Janssen of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University.

The two-year study will examine the role of learning processes in the development of compulsive behavior and alcohol consumption as triggers for sexual risk taking. Hoffmann is professor of psychology and chairman of the neuroscience program at Knox College. Janssen is associate scientist and director of graduate education at the Kinsey Institute and adjunct associate professor of psychology at Indiana University.

From Artdaily.org:

PITTSBURGH, PA.- Portraits are everywhere. They are in our wallets; on our computers, cell phones and desktops; on the walls of corporate offices, banks and schools. But what precisely is a portrait or image of likeness? How do artists’ methods and materials evolve as technology progresses with break-neck speed? And in this age of user-generated content, who exactly is the artist?

LIKENESS is a group exhibition that aims to examine human depiction during a post-Warholian era in which new technology has played an influential role. It includes the work of artists Jim Campbell, Paul DeMartinis, John Herschend, Nikki Lee, Joseph Manino, Greta Pratt and Tony Oursler.

Elaine A. King, who is a freelance critic and curator as well as a professor at Carnegie Mellon University teaching Art History/Theory/Museum Studies, will curate the exhibition…..

…Joseph Mannino was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1950. He received his B.A. degree from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and his M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Mr. Mannino’s solo exhibitions include the Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, Virginia; Montpelier Cultural Art Center, Laurel, MD; BACA/Brooklyn Arts Council, NY, NY; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; the International Sculpture Conference Exhibition, Oakland, CA; and the Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh, PA. He has participated in numerous group shows, including shows at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, TX; Pewabic Pottery, Detroit MI; Southern Alleghenies Museum, PA; Erie Art Museum, PA; Newark Museum, NJ; and Washington Square, Washington, D.C. He has been awarded large-scale commissions by Carnegie Mellon University and the City of Sacramento. Mr. Mannino’s work appears in the permanent collections of, among others, the City of Palo Alto, CA; the City of Sacramento, CA; the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; the University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL; the University of California, Davis, CA; and the Washington State Art Commission, Medical Lake, WA. He has been granted artist residencies at the Bemis Foundation, Omaha, NE; Ex Colonia FF SS Ballabio, Italy; Kunstseminar, Metzingen, Germany; Associazione Promozione Iniziative Sociocultural, Sardegna, Italy; the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center, Laurel, MD; and the Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygen, WI.

From the Register-Mail:

Rob Purlee and Evan Massey are ready to turn basketball into a fall sport in the Galesburg area.

Purlee, the Knox College men’s basketball coach, and Massey, the legendary Galesburg High School girls basketball coach, have joined forces to create the Knox Basketball Shooting School, an offensive-minded clinic that will serve early teens starting next month.

“We had talked different times about it and over the last year, we’ve talked often about it. His schedule and my schedule never worked out but now the fall is a pretty good time,” said Massey, who won the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Girls Basketball Coach of the Year award earlier this summer. “We will be able to do it and get done before our seasons.”

The camp, which starts Sept. 13 and will run Sundays and Wednesdays until Oct. 7, will be led by Purlee, Massey and Knox assistant Bobby Wheat.

The primary focus of the shooting school is to teach boys and girls entering sixth through eighth grades the fundamentals of shooting. Massey believes shooting the ball well at a young age often translates into later success.