Illinois Wesleyan: President's Remarks & Messages

From the President's Desk

This letter appears in the Fall 2009 issue of the Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine

This August we welcomed to campus 555 first-year students from 22 states and 12 countries around the globe. The kick-off for the University's newest students was our traditional Students are here to do more than simply learn facts and information - they are also here to learn how to use that knowledge wisely and for the benefit of others. New Student Convocation, where faculty and administrators greeted the class of 2013 as well as 29 transfer students. This convocation was part of Turning Titan orientation week activities, designed to acclimate incoming first-year students to academic, residential and social aspects of college life.

A key part of Titan Orientation is our Summer Reading Program, in which first-year students join faculty and staff in small-group discussions of a topical book that students are asked to read prior to arriving on campus. The program's goal is to introduce students to academic life at the University through discussion of a literary work that explores important issues related to one of our institutional goals. The reading program culminates in mid-September when the selected book's author comes to campus to deliver a lecture at the President's Convocation.

This year's reading selection was Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time, the New York Times bestseller co-authored by Greg Mortenson and journalist David Oliver Relin.

bullet Continued