Knox in the News

From WGIL radio:

A prominent attorney who is now part of President Barack Obama’s administration told Knox College graduates they are inheriting a nation that’s changing.

Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, Tina Tchen, was the speaker at the college’s commencement Saturday. The ceremony, at the T. Fleming Fieldhouse, was moved inside for only the third time in the past 30 years because of rainy weather.

Knox College awarded 343 diplomas to graduates from 25 different states and 18 different countries. Tchen, an attorney in Chicago and a women’s activist when she was selected to serve in her current role, received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Knox.

Tchen told the graduates they are now in a position to change, and change is not easy - it’s hard on a personal level as she found out when she left her job after three decades in Chicago - a city she loves, for a new challenge that’s been very rewarding.

“Change takes you out of your comfort zone, but that’s the essence of change,” Tchen said. “If you aren’t challenged, if you aren’t nervous, if you aren’t even scared, then you’re not changing enough. And if you aren’t changing, you aren’t growing. W.E.B. DuBois said you must be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become.”

From WGIL radio:

The man who will ultimately be in charge of finding the next president for Knox College says a lot of research has already been done into what will take.

Richard Riddell is Vice President of Duke University, and a Knox College alum and Board of Trustees member, and is charing the college’s presidential search committee. President Roger Taylor is retiring at the end of the next academic year, and Riddell says a new president will be in place by then.

Riddell tells WGIL up until now, the college has been gaining a lot of feedback about what will be needed for a successful search.

“We are just finishing up the initial process of talking to every constituency imaginable: alumni, students, staff, faculty, trustees, Galesburg community members,” Riddell said, “to find out not so much who they want to be president, but what are the qualities, what are the qualifications right now? What does Knox need? What kind of person do they need? What are the challenges…what are the opportunities that Knox has?”

Riddell says so far, there’s consensus that the new president has to love Knox College and care about it, and has to be able to reach out to the community — to say nothing of being able to juggle finances and understand academics.