Knox in the News

From the Register-Mail:

Knox College’s Roger Taylor will begin his ninth year as president when students return to classes Sept. 10. A board member of the Galesburg Regional Economic Development Association, Taylor says his school’s model could help Galesburg climb out of its current local recession. He sat down with The Register-Mail’s education reporter Marco Santana to talk about his recent appointment to the Illinois Humanities Council, the future of the Knox County Courthouse and what he thinks about Knox College’s reputation and relationship with the city of Galesburg….

Q: As you prepare for your ninth year, what is your mindset with the year coming up soon?

Taylor: My thought process is how short the summer is because it seems like commencement was just over and already we are geared up for new students to move in on Sept. 6. Classes will begin on Sept. 10. And today, (July 31) we’re in the process of welcoming about 160 prospective students for the fall of 2010. We’re a year ahead.

Q: The school was recently named to two national college guides. How do you promote that with prospective students?

Taylor: We promote more Loren Pope’s book, “Colleges that Change Lives.” In part because, that’s what we do at Knox, transform students. I’m starting my 9th year. I have never had a question about the Princeton Review, never had a question about the Fiske guide, never had a question about U.S. News. But from time to time I’ll have a parent carrying Loren Pope’s “Colleges that Change Lives.” There are 40 colleges similar to Knox in the book. It’s a good write-up of Knox so that’s the guide.

Q: As president, what do you think when you see your school in those guides?

Taylor: When it’s good, and it mostly is, it’s terrific. Sometimes they say things that are not the greatest, either about the college or the town. One of these books, I think it was Fiske, had kind of a back-handed slap at Galesburg. I didn’t care for that.

From the QC Online (Quad Cities):

The Figge Art Museum has come far in four years, and it’s inviting the public to celebrate its birthday Thursday.

The striking 120,000-square-foot structure at 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport, will offer discounted $4 admission all day as well as kids’ activities, a downtown walking tour, an art talk, food, a cash bar and live music…..

Highlights include exhibits of Michelangelo model replicas, art from Davenport’s own John Bloom, the opening of a renowned University of Iowa Museum of Art (UIMA) collection and an expanded focus on Regionalist art to kick off a new National Center for Midwest Art and Design.

The Figge-based center will be headed by Gregory Gilbert, director of art history at Knox College in Galesburg. The center’s mission to “promote better understanding and appreciation of art and design from the Midwest,” Mr. O’Harrow said.

The crowning work – added to what the Figge has in Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and now the 13,000-piece UIMA collection – is George Rickey’s 20-foot-tall mural “An Offer of Education” (1941), which reflects the history of Galesburg. It’s on loan from Knox.

Mr. Gilbert’s position at the Figge, including the title senior curator, is a new partnership shared with Knox.

“It gives the college access and a relationship with the museum, and its collection, and it gives the museum added academic credibility and a connection with one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the country,” Mr. O’Harrow said.

From the Register-Mail:

A published pediatrician and an award-winning local farmer have been elected to the Knox College Board of Trustees, the school announced.

James Purlee, a Galesburg farmer, and Dr. Clarence Parks, whose work has been published in the Pediatric Acute Care Handbook, will begin their work at the board’s next meeting.

Purlee won the Innovation of Agriculture Award in 2002 with his team profit-sharing approach to farming, in which several farmers work a farm and share in the profits. He has been a member of the school’s Business Advisory Council. He worked for Gunther Construction before he became a farmer. It’s been more than 30 years since he bought his first 11 acres and now, he and his partners work on more than 8,000 acres locally.

Parks is a Chicago pediatrician who graduated from Knox in 1992. He also teaches pediatrics and internal medicine at Rush Medical College in Chicago.

He has practiced in Freeport and is a member of the American Medical Association.

They join a board of 44 trustees.

From the Register-Mail:

Thanks to a large donation from alumni, Knox College will open a new language laboratory in the spring and establish a distinguished chair in the modern languages department.

Dr. Richard Burkhardt and Dorothy Burkhardt, both 1939 graduates of the school, gave Knox two gifts totaling $1.55 million, the school announced on Friday. With the first gift of $1.5 million, Knox will name a professor as the Burkhardt Distinguished Chair at the start of the 2010 school year…..
“The Burkhardts are model alumni,” Taylor said. “Their service and generosity is a great example.”

The couple both taught at Ball State University with Richard serving as acting president at Ball State for a time.

The second gift of $50,000 will upgrade the college’s language facilities. The Dorothy Johnson Burkhardt and Richard Burkhardt Lab for Modern Languages will open in spring 2010.

“This is just the next step in their history of generosity to their alma mater,” Taylor said.

The gift come less than a month after an anonymous donor gave the school $2 million to benefit the religious studies program.

From the Peoria Journal Star:

Knox College has received a $1.5 million gift to establish a distinguished chair in modern languages.

Dr. Richard W. Burkhardt and Dorothy Johnson Burkhardt, 1939 graduates of Knox, provided the gift. A professor is expected to be named to the Burkhardt Distinguished Chair in Modern Languages at the opening of the 2010 academic year.

A separate, $50,000 gift from the Burkhardts will go toward renovation and upgrading of the college’s language laboratory facilities this winter.

“With their most recent gift, Dorothy and Richard Burkhardt continue their history of 70 years of service and generosity to their alma mater,” said Roger Taylor, Knox president.

From the Register-Mail:

A rainy morning gave way to a cool, cloudy afternoon Saturday as residents of West South Street, between Academy and Holton streets, held a Neighborhood Watch block party…..

It was a diverse group Saturday. Knox College students Xiaoyun “Sharon” Zhu from China and Melati Nungsari from Malaysia were tying balloons to a barricade at Academy and South streets, blocking off South Street to vehicles shortly after the event began.

Naynyo Hlaing, a Knox student, from Burma, said he was there to learn more about the neighborhood, which sits adjacent to the college campus.

“We are very close to each  other,” Hlaing said. “It seems like there’s an imaginary boundary between the college and the neighborhood.”….

There were beads to wear and the sweet smell of barbecue cooking filled the air. Knox College President Roger Taylor and former Galesburg Police Chief  John Schlaf, now director of campus security at Knox, mingled with the crowd.