President Roger Taylor

I have said the first part of what I am about to say before, during Memorial Day observances here at Wiley, but I hope you agree that it bears repeating.

We gather here this morning to continue a 140 year old American tradition, a tradition of pausing to honor those who died in our nation’s service.

History of Memorial Day
Memorial Day first was officially observed on May 30, 1868 in response to General Order No. 11 — issued by the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, General John Logan.

Southern Origins
There is evidence that organized women’s groups in the south had started decorating graves before the end of the Civil War. There is also evidence that prior to 1868 various towns around our country had observed a day of memorial by decorating the graves of dead soldiers and sailors.

At least 25 places have been suggested as the place where Memorial Day originated. In 1966 President Johnson and Congress declared that Waterloo, New York was the birth place of Memorial Day. It was there that on May 5, 1866 a ceremony was held to honor local veterans who had fought in the Civil War.

May 30 Memorial Day
By the end of the 19th century Memorial Day ceremonies were held throughout the nation. On May 30 in 1971 Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by Congress and the last Monday in May was designated Memorial Day.

Old Wiley Ceremony
There are a few of us here this morning who are old enough to remember that after World War II — we observed what was then called “Decoration Day” here at Wiley.

My Uncle Wayne Mahr, and Uncle Bobbie Bowen, and Fred Powell, and others — I cannot remember who all — these veterans of World War II from around here put on their service uniforms.

Wiley Sunday School Decorated Graves
The children of the Wiley Sunday School placed flowers on the graves of the veterans in the Wiley Cemetery across the hard road, graves that were marked with little American flags.

We Thought Wars Were Over
I have the sense that in those days, right after World War II, most people thought that we were through with wars, that young men and women from this community and others would not have to put on uniforms again, and bear arms, and give their lives for our country, but then along came Korea, and then Vietnam, and the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, and then Iraqi Freedom, and Afghanistan, and we woke up this morning to news reports that North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon.

Wars Continue
And now there does not seem to be any end soon for the need for young Americans to serve in uniform, and die for our country, and be entitled for the rest of us — for our entire nation — to pause on Memorial Day to honor their sacrifices.

Observances of Memorial Day Have Diminished
But an odd thing happened along the way, in my opinion. Despite the continued sacrifices by our fellow Americans, and despite the absolute appropriateness of our honoring those who have sacrificed for our country, observances of Memorial Day have diminished.

There are fewer people here this morning than I remember being here for Decoration Day in the late 40’s. The population has changed. There aren’t as many people in this community as there used to be, I know. But even in the more populated areas there are fewer people at Memorial Day ceremonies than there were 50 years ago.

National Day of Remembrance
Maybe that was part of what prompted Congress in 2000, to pass the National Moment of Remembrance Act. The Act asks Americans wherever they are on Memorial Day, to pause for one minute at 3 p.m. local time, for a moment of national unity. One minute, sixty seconds.

We Can Do Better Than One Minute
But given how much time each and every one of us fritters away each day, sleeping a little late, watching something stupid on television, arguing with our spouse about something silly, we ought to be able to do better than one minute.

We Can Be Proud
That’s why I am so proud of all of you who were willing to come out this morning to spend more than one minute honoring those who have served our country.

I am so proud and thankful to the members of the Honor Guard from the Roy Miller Post of the American Legion who set aside time to join us in honoring those who have sacrificed. And I am proud that I was asked to participate in this ceremony this morning.

We can all stop this afternoon at 3 and spend a minute of remembrance, but we can do so knowing that we spent more than a minute together this morning in remembrance, and in honoring those who served and in remembering the true meaning of our national holiday. Memorial Day, may we always remember.

February 14, 2009

This week Knox College celebrates Founders Day. The College began the celebration this past Tuesday, with luncheon on campus in honor of those faculty and staff who have served Knox for 25 or more years. The celebration continued yesterday afternoon with the Alumni Achievement Awards Convocation. It continues now with this Founders Day Board meeting.

During this Bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln—during this economic recession—it seems particularly apt to look back on Knox’s founding, to its storied history, its persistent adherence to the principles of its founding.

Its persistence.

And its future.

We often use the term “storied history” when we speak of Knox College. But perhaps we do not pause often enough to reflect on that history, and what it means for today.

The storied history began with the Original Circular and Plan. The Circular and Plan that hangs on the wall in Old Main. The Circular and Plan drafted by the Reverend George Washington Gale—and the others who joined him to travel from New York. To travel to the frontier prairies of western Illinois. Using this little map. [1831 pocket map of Illinois] Which is preserved in the Archives in the Seymour Library.

The Original Circular and Plan contemplated a college that would be open to men and women regardless of their race—and regardless of their financial means. The founders were strongly anti-slavery.

The founders meant what they said about race. By the 1840s, a black student attended Knox, Varville Florville, from Springfield. His dad was a barber. One of his dad’s customers was Abraham Lincoln. We know this from the good work of Knox graduate Matt Norman ’93.

We all have long known that one of the first blacks to be graduated from an Illinois college, probably the second, was Barnabas Root. Class of 1870.

We all know that the first African American to serve in the United States Senate—Hiram Revels—attended Knox.

And Knox continues that commitment to access regardless of race today. Right now 33% of the applicants for next fall’s entering class are students of color.

The commitment of the founders to access regardless of financial means also continues until today. Every fall I ask the Director of Financial Aid to prepare a 3×5 card for me that shows the number of first generation students in the entering class, and the number of students altogether who qualify for need-based financial aid.

This fall 25% of the new students were first generation to go to college. Sixty-seven percent of the current student body qualifies for need based financial aid.

Given the anti-slavery roots of the founding of Knox College. It was so fitting that it was on the east wall of Old Main that Abraham Lincoln—in his fifth debate with Stephen Douglas denounced slavery for the first time on moral grounds.

As you know—Professors Doug Wilson and Rod Davis—have just published the Knox College Lincoln Studies Center edition of those great debates. During Christmas I read them. I can now say with authority that our claim is correct, that Lincoln denounced slavery for the first time at Knox—not simply as a nettlesome Constitutional and political issue—but as a moral wrong.

A couple of years later, Knox gave Lincoln an honorary degree, the first Lincoln received, and the first honorary doctorate that Knox awarded.

147 years later. Knox awarded another Illinois politician an honorary degree—then Senator Barack Obama, when he gave the Commencement address on June 4, 2005.

A month later, July 4, in a piece in Time Magazine, Senator Obama reflected:

A few weeks ago, I spoke at the commencement at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. I stood in view of the spot where Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held one of their famous debates during their race for the U.S. Senate. The only way for Lincoln to get onto the podium was to squeeze his lanky frame through a window, whereupon he reportedly remarked, “At last I have finally gone through college.” Waiting for the soon-to-be graduates to assemble, I thought that even as Lincoln lost that Senate race, his arguments that day would result, centuries later, in my occupying the same seat that he coveted.

To which we can now add that those arguments that Lincoln advanced—arguments advanced by the founders of Knox College in the Circular and Plan—resulted last November, in citizens across the demographics judging Senator Obama, not by the color of his skin, but in Dr. King’s words, “by the content of his character.”

***

As some of you know, Anne and I were in Springfield Thursday evening (February 12, 2009) for the State’s celebration of the Bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth. At 7:30, in the Rosewood Ballroom of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, an ensemble played “Hail to the Chief.” An announcer then said, “Ladies and Gentlemen. The President of the United States.”

And in walked a black guy from the south side of Chicago.

It was a moment I will never forget.

Given our College’s storied history, our founders’ principles—principles our College has lived by—given Lincoln’s arguments—made on the east side of Old Main—I think that it is fair for us—no matter our politics—to take pride in our College’s place in a part of the history that led to President Obama’s historic election.

***

By remarkable coincidence, Charles Darwin was born on exactly the same day as Lincoln. And then in 1920, George Hunter joined the Knox faculty as a biology professor. He was the first Jew to join the faculty at Knox College. Professor Hunter wrote a textbook, which a biology teacher in Tennessee named John Scopes used that led to his trial for violating state law that prohibited teaching evolution.

Professor Hunter also established the Hunter Trophy at Knox. Awarded to the junior male athlete at Knox who letters in at least two sports and has the highest academic record. The Hunter Trophy was first won in 1920 by the late Adoph Hamblin, Class of 1920. Hamblin is Knox’s only 16 letter winner. He went on to a distinguished career in higher education.

Professor Hamblin’s daughter, Caroline Hamblin Tucker, Class of 1953, was the first African American to serve as a trustee of Knox College.

I say all this, not just to make the case that when we say that Knox has a storied history, we can say it with conviction. I say it as a prelude to reminding myself—and all of us—that while this storied history was being developed—and while Knox College has persisted in its founding principles—Knox College has endured.

Since Knox’s founding in 1837, our country has seen economic cycles—what we now call recessions—including the Great Depression, and two World Wars. And through all this, Knox College has endured. Knox has endured because of the determination and service of its trustees.

Trustees such as Janet Grieg Post, Knox Class of 1894, the first female trustee who, as Jan mentioned yesterday in her Chair’s Report, saved Old Main, when the male trustees wanted to tear it down during the Depression. Trustees, such as those of you who sit in this room today.

I told the new trustees during our orientation meeting yesterday. That as they serve Knox, they will come to see that by their service, they not only change the lives of our students, they change our society.

Ralph and Tom will give you more financial detail during this meeting, but I am confident that—with your continued support—Knox will endure, indeed continue to flourish, during this current economic uncertainty.

Knox College President Roger Taylor speaks to the Martin Luther King Day Convocation, January 19, 2009, in Harbach Theatre on the Knox campus.

Good morning. My name is Roger Taylor, and I was graduated from this terrific college in 1963.

This morning, it is my privilege to welcome you to Knox’s celebration of the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.

It is appropriate for Knox College to celebrate the ideas, accomplishments, and memory of Dr. King, about whom we will hear more from Professor Hamilton.

And — I submit — it is appropriate for Knox to celebrate Dr. King’s life today, with a bit of pride, because here at Knox, these words have been uttered:

“It is time to wake up the spirit of our fathers to reassert the principles of liberty, and with trumpet lung proclaim them through the land til every tyrant trembles upon his seat, and every minion in his train flies terror stricken to the ground, and the walls and ramparts of slavery, like those of Jericho fall to the ground.”

Those words were uttered by the Reverend George Washington Gale, the founder of Knox College and Galesburg and a leader of the Underground railroad in western Illinois. Those words were spoken on July 4, 1838. Given the ideals of this College’s founder, it is especially appropriate that we at Knox celebrate Dr. King’s life.

And twenty years later these words were uttered, and today they stand on the north wall of Knox College’s Old Main:

“He is blowing out the moral lights around us, when he contends that whoever wants slaves has the right to hold them.”

These are the words of Abraham Lincoln. They were spoken on October 7, 1858, when he debated Stephen Douglas before the east wall of Old Main. In that debate, Lincoln unequivocally and publicly for the first time declared slavery a moral wrong. Not merely a nagging Constitutional and political question — a moral wrong.

Two years later, Knox awarded Lincoln an honorary degree. Knox’s first honorary doctorate, and Lincoln’s first academic degree.

And then nearly 150 years later, these words were uttered:

“So let’s dream… Let’s imagine together what we could do to give every American a fighting chance in the 21st century.”

These were the words of Senator Barack Obama — then the junior Senator from Illinois — when he stood before the south wall of Old Main, and spoke those words on June 4, 2005, during his commencement address to the Class of 2005, when — like Lincoln — Senator Obama received an honorary Knox degree.

And one month later. These words were written:

“A few weeks ago, I spoke at the Commencement at Knox College… I stood in view of the spot where Lincoln and Douglas held one of their famous debates for the U. S. Senate… Waiting for the soon-to-be graduates to assemble, I thought that even as Lincoln lost that Senate race his arguments that day would result centuries later in my occupying the seat that he coveted.”

Those words were written on July 4, 2005 in Time Magazine, by now President-Elect Barack Obama.

The principles followed by Knox’s founders, restated and advanced in arguments at Knox by Abraham Lincoln, now have contributed to a Presidential election. That surely advances the quest to realize Dr. King’s dream, when a majority of Americans, from all ages and backgrounds, decided to judge Senator Obama not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character.

I echo the thoughts of many of my generation when I say that I am grateful that I have lived long enough to see this day come. And while there is work to do, to realize fully Dr. King’s dream, I submit that we at Knox can celebrate his life with some pride, that our college has been the site of aspirations, arguments, and actions that have made tomorrow’s inauguration possible.

Thank you Dean Romano, let me add my welcome to family weekend. Knox College is off to an exciting fall.

Excitement from new students. Against the enrollment goal of 400 new students, we started the year with 400 new students, a diverse group from 36 states and 23 countries. A group of new students that reflected Knox’s historic commitment to access, 25% first generation to go to College, 25% low income, and 10% international. Of the domestic U.S. students, about one in four are students of color, 9% Latino, 7% African American, and 7% Asian.

Excitement from Returning Students. There is excitement from returning students, with a total enrollment of close to 1,400.

Knox is at Capacity. Last June, the College moved its enrollment goal to 1,350 degree-seeking students. We really are at capacity, and I do not foresee any increase in enrollment in the future.

Excitement from new academic programs. There was excitement from new academic programs. This fall an interdisciplinary course, Election 2008, will be offered by the Political Science and International Relations Programs.
Japan Term has courses in language, history, and Buddhism, followed by study in Japan during winter break.

In Educational Studies there is a new course in teaching English to speakers of other languages, whose students will travel to Anhui University in China during winter break to serve as teaching assistants.

Independent research was done by Sarah West, a senior from Boulder, Colorado. Linda and Tom West, please raise your hand.

Sarah has been admitted to Rush University Medical School under the Knox-Rush Early Admission Program. Sarah has developed a protocol and methods of data collection to study forces on knee cartilage of athletes, when moving on different surfaces. Sod versus artificial turf, for example.

Sarah actually figured out how to write computer code to use Wii Fit Balance Boards and Wii Remote gaming systems to measure the impacts. Sarah is working with Professors Chuck Schulz in physics, and Judy Thorn in biology. But like so many independent research projects at Knox, the student, Sarah West, conceived of this project herself.
Sarah is on the Knox swim team and has played the harp for the Knox-Galesburg Symphony Orchestra.

Excitement from Bricks & Mortar. There is excitement about the construction projects that were completed this summer: 

• The renovation of Borzello Hall on the northeast corner of the campus, which houses the journalism program, faculty offices, and the college public relations office.
• Over in the Umbeck Science & Mathematics Center are new laboratory facilities for earth sciences. Geology, in the environmental science program, a new, state-of-the-art, geographic information systems lab.
• Memorial Gymnasium, the venue for Prairie Fire basketball, volleyball, and intramural sports has been completely renovated — restored actually — keeping its vintage 1950s look.
• The new Knosher Bowl just south of here, with artificial surface, which makes it a 365-day-a-year venue, for football games and practices, and for practice for men and women’s soccer, softball, baseball, and cross country, as well as club sports.
  One of the reasons that we built a new bowl was to increase the usage. The old Knox Bowl was used 17 times each year: five home football games, ten light practices on Friday afternoons, and two scrimmages. It could not be used more because it would tear up the field.

As of now the Knosher Bowl has been used more than 50 times for football practices and games. Men’s soccer has practiced there because the field is true, balls don’t hit clods of dirt and bounce sideways. Women’s soccer has practiced there, cross country has worked out in the Knosher Bowl, and the Galesburg Junior Football League used the Knosher Bowl for its championships!

Excitement in the Year of Lincoln. We are excited to be celebrating the 150th anniversary this year of the Fifth Lincoln-Douglas Debate on the east wall of Old Main.
As a part of that celebration, the University of Illinois Press has published the authoritative edition of the Lincoln Douglas Debates, which were prepared by the co-directors of the Knox College Lincoln Studies Center, Rod Davis and Doug Wilson, and are on sale at the Knox Bookstore.

There were no transcripts of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Newspaper reporters took down what was said, but newspapers in those days were even more biased than today. The pro-Douglas newspapers would try to make Lincoln look foolish in their transcriptions, and vice versa for the pro-Lincoln papers. What Rod and Doug did was sit down and go through all the transcripts and try to figure out what more likely was said by each.

Sustainability. There is excitement about Knox’s continuing commitment to sustainability; you can see details about what Knox already has done to promote sustainability on the Web site.

Ranging from close to $5 million in energy conservation projects to reduce the College’s use of fossil fuel generated energy, to reduce Knox’s carbon footprint, to eliminating trays in the cafeteria. This was the students’ idea to conserve water, detergent, and maybe conserve some food.

A college sustainability handbook was written by Abby Pardick, a junior from Gibson City, who is chair of the Student Senate Sustainability Committee. That work continues under a Presidential Task Force on Sustainability, a majority of whose members are students.
One thing that we are exploring is how we educate Knox students to contribute to a culture of sustainability after they graduate. How do we show students the interconnectedness of the ecosystem? How do we help them realize that the use of atrazine to control weeds may raise the risk of breast cancer?

The Economy. On the subject of interconnectedness, earlier this month, Dr. Sandra Steingraber who has researched, written, and lectured extensively on issues of sustainability, pointed out during a lecture in this recital hall the parallels between the interconnectedness of the elements of the ecosystem and the interconnectedness of the elements of the economy.

She asked, “Who would have thought even six weeks ago that faulty pricing of credit default swaps on Wall Street, might contribute to the potential bankruptcy of Iceland, because of the interconnectedness of the world economy.”

Which is a way to get to my last issue. Against this backdrop of excitement, Knox College, like the rest of the world, faces a world economy that is on the road to a recession.

Knox is positioned to deal with economic uncertainty. I do not want to belittle the concern, but I have confidence in Knox’s ability to deal with the economic downturn. We have well-seasoned, stable leadership at the College. Over the years we have had experience dealing with good times and lean times. We have developed some procedures to manage costs and set priorities, if need be, always making sure that we are putting the experiences of our students first.

Knox will consider the economy in setting price. One thing that we will be factoring into our work is that families who have students here are facing financial uncertainties also. We will take that into account as we set tuition, room and board in future years.
As many of you realize, Knox has worked hard to have only modest, responsible increases in price. Over the past seven years the College’s annual comprehensive fee increases have ranged from just 3.3% to 4.9%, well below the increases of most colleges. We are going to work to keep in that way.

Unlike the news in the stock markets — as parents, as students — you can have confidence that the value of a Knox degree will continue to rise, that your sons and daughters will continue to receive the quality education you came here for, an education that changes lives.
Have a great weekend!

May we have a moment of silence in remembrance of 9/11.

Good morning. My name is Roger Taylor and I was graduated from this terrific college in 1963. It is my privilege to declare the beginning of the 2008-2009 academic year.

Would the new Knox students please stand up, and would the rest of you join me in welcoming the newest members of the Knox Community?

This is the eighth time that I have had the privilege of declaring the opening of the academic year at this convocation. When I began my service to Knox I stated three goals: To Nurture Academic Excellence, To Strengthen Institutional Self-Confidence, and To Chart a Course Toward Financial Impregnability.

To Nurture Academic Excellence. That is the easiest goal. Knox had academic excellence long before I got here. Knox has had academic excellence all the time I have been here. Knox will have academic excellence long after I am gone.

Knox has had, and continues to have, and will continue to have, academic excellence because as Harold Kolenbrander, former president of Mt. Union College said, “Colleges can be better than their buildings and other facilities. Colleges can be better than the administrative team that leads them. But colleges can never be better than the faculty who teach there.”

Knox has had, and continues to have, a gifted faculty. Will the faculty of Knox College please rise and face the audience so that we can recognize and thank you?

To Chart a Course Toward Financial Impregnability. I imagine that everyone in this theater realizes the costs of running this college. The costs of its facilities are not totally paid for from tuition. It takes money every year from donors to enable Knox to provide an education to its students. It takes money every year from earnings from the endowment which came from donors.

Charting a course toward financial impregnability means helping every Knox student understand her or his responsibility to give back after graduation.

One alumnus who understands that responsibility is Chuck Smith, vice chair of the Board. Of the over 15,000 living Knox alumni, Chuck and his wife Melissa, are among the top 25 most generous in lifetime giving. Please join me in thanking them.

To Strengthen Institutional Self-Confidence. Now the fact is Knox College had institutional self-confidence long before I arrived. The founders of Knox College had the self-confidence to oppose slavery-not an entirely accepted position on the frontier prairies of Illinois in 1837.

The leaders of Knox had the institutional self-confidence to host a debate between Abraham Lincoln and Senator Stephen Douglas, 150 years ago, on October 7, 1858, and the institutional self-confidence to award Lincoln his first honorary degree two years later. Perhaps it was Knox’s sense of institutional self-confidence that gave Lincoln the self-confidence to denounce slavery for the first time on moral terms during the debate at Knox in words that are now on the plaque at the front entrance of Old Main.

It was institutional self-confidence that prompted Professor Rod Davis and Professor Doug Wilson to establish the Knox Lincoln Studies Center in 1997 and:

• Prepare scholarly annotations of Lincoln’s correspondence for the Library of Congress.
• And to publish in 1998, Herndon’s Informants, the authoritative version of recollections of Lincoln collected by his former law partner.
• To publish in 1998 Professor Wilson’s prize winning biography of Lincoln  Honor’s Voice.
• In 1999, with Davis’s introduction, The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Lamon.
• 2006, Wilson’s prize winning Lincoln’s Sword
• 2007, the authoritative edition of Herndon’s Lincoln
• And — tomorrow as we begin to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s debate with Douglas at Knox, and begin to celebrate the Bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth next year — tomorrow, in Old Main, the director of the University of Illinois Press will announce the publication of the Knox College Lincoln Studies Center edition of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.

Professor Davis and Professor Wilson, will you please rise?

It was the Knox College Class of 2005 who had the institutional self-confidence to invite another son of Illinois to deliver their commencement address and receive an honorary degree. So it seems fitting that as the nation celebrates Abraham Lincoln, the 2005 Knox commencement speaker is the first African American to be nominated for President by a major political party.

Sustainability. Slavery was the great moral issue that Lincoln confronted at Knox. And as we continue to learn to understand and overcome the challenges of race, another challenging moral issue has emerged — sustainability, reversing the degradation to which we have subjected our planet.

That is why I am so proud of the Knox students who have had the institutional self-confidence to promote efforts here at Knox to develop a culture of sustainability — especially KARES, The Community Garden, the members of the Student Senate Sustainability Committee, and the students who worked with me last year on the Sustainability Task Force.

The sustainability pages are on the Knox Web site to show what has been done, and what is already planned for this year. And while the College has taken steps in heating, and lighting, and so on, the important and hardest part in creating a culture of sustainability is for each of us to be conscious of how our behavior contributes to sustainability. From walking across campus to the Andrew Fitness Center to work out instead of driving our cars, to recycling, to not wasting food, to turning off the lights, and generally focusing on what we can do as individuals.

Knox long has had well grounded institutional self-confidence. I think that I am within my rights to say that when I arrived seven years ago folks were a bit bashful. I went around and reminded them of the storied history of our college, of the excellence of the faculty, the dedication of the staff, the achievements of our students, and the accomplishments of Knox alumni.

And we have gotten over that bashfulness — at least I think we have.

Let me ask the members of the Knox College Choir a couple questions.

Choir members, when you go home for winter break, and someone asks you where you go to college are you going to look down at your shoes, and say, “Oh, a small school you’ve probably never heard of?”

Well, what are you going to say?

The rest of the students, faculty, and staff, when someone asks you where you go to college, teach, work — are you going to look down at your shoes, and say, “Oh, a small school, you’ve probably never heard of?”

What are you going to say?

Let teaching, learning, and mutual respect flourish on our prairie campus in this, its 171st year!

Introduction of Chris Welna
Chris Welna received his undergraduate degree from another ACM college, Carleton, a master’s from Princeton, and his Ph.D. in political science from Duke University.

Chris has served higher education, focusing on international study, including program officer for the Ford Foundation in Latin America, and Director of the Kellogg Institute for international studies at the University of Norte Dame.

Two years ago he was called to lead the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, of which Knox is a founding member.

He has brought energy and innovation to the consortium! Please give Chris a warm Knox welcome.