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Monmouth College's top 10 stories of 2024

by Barry McNamara

Monmouth, Ill. (12/20/2024) — There were all kinds of good things happening at Monmouth College in 2024, and here are the top 10 news stories.

Note: The entire Best of 2024 at Monmouth College, which also includes the top photos, feature stories and quotes, can be viewed here: https://www.monmouthcollege.edu/this-years-top-10/

(Re-) Introducing President Patricia Draves: After an extensive national search, Dr. Patricia Draves was named the 15th president of Monmouth College. It was a homecoming for Draves, who, along with her husband, 1985 graduate Jeff Draves, taught at Monmouth from 2002-06. After that, she served as dean at the University of Mount Union in Ohio and as president of Graceland University in Iowa.

An A-list Commencement: In May, the college hosted one of its most famous Commencement speakers when actress Sigourney Weaver delivered the address, along with her husband, writer/director Jim Simpson, who is the brother of 1974 Monmouth graduate Gail Simpson Owen. "It was super amazing they were here, and I thought their speech was amazing," said one of the graduates, Madison Walker.

Inauguration begins Homecoming weekend: A special day at a special place kicked off the college's Homecoming festivities. President Patricia Draves was sworn in at her inauguration ceremony on Wallace Hall Plaza by Board of Trustees Vice Chair Ralph Velazquez '79, using a Bible that had been a gift to Monmouth's first president, David Wallace.

New nursing program: President Clarence Wyatt and administrators from OSF HealthCare signed a letter of commitment in May, officially launching an innovative 3+1 nursing program that will combine Monmouth's residential college experience with the Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing's excellent curriculum and regional healthcare facilities. The program will begin in 2025.

The second-largest gift: Monmouth College received a gift valued at nearly $12 million, the second-largest donation in the college's 171-year history. The gift came in the form of a 780-acre farm in Mercer County, Illinois, from the estate of longtime supporter Marilyn Johnston, a 1948 graduate. Valued at $11,929,000, the gift helped Monmouth raise a record amount for the 2023-24 fiscal year, just shy of $19 million.

Stockdale Center rededication: For a student center, Monmouth's Stockdale Center was a pretty lonely place for the better part of the first half of the 2020s. That was due, at first, to the pandemic and then to a fire on Oct. 6, 2022, that caused a great deal of smoke damage. The new-and-improved Stockdale Center is back up and running, and it was formally rededicated in September as part of Family Weekend festivities.

Zorn Stadium renovation: There was no fire at April Zorn Memorial Stadium (unless you count the years when Knox visits), but the Fighting Scots' football field and track also required a makeover. The $1.6 million upgrade included a new playing surface on Bobby Woll Memorial Field - with plenty of flashy red along the sidelines and in the end zones - as well as a new base and surface for the track.

College awarded two NEH grants: Monmouth received a pair of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. One, the brainchild of classics professor Bob Simmons and high school classics teacher Nathalie Roy, helped U.S. teachers instruct their students about everyday life in ancient Greece. The other, titled "Resituating the Humanities in Place-Based Learning," is a three-year history project about west central Illinois.

Yurt alert: It didn't grab quite the amount of headlines as the other facility upgrades on campus, but the addition of a yurt classroom at the Monmouth College Educational Farm is a big deal to area schoolkids and educators. The 40-seat facility provides students with a place to settle in for a while under a roof and apply what they've just observed on the farm through various science and math projects.

Making her point: For the first time in Monmouth's 136-year gridiron history, a female player scored a point. Freshman kicker Mylee Hansen did the honors with an extra point against Lawrence, just a few hours after she also played for the Scots in a women's soccer match against Illinois Wesleyan. The next day, Hansen was a perfect 10-for-10 on extra points in a junior varsity win.

Media Attachments

New president Patricia Draves and her husband, 1985 Monmouth graduate Jeff Draves, are pictured shortly after moving into the college's Quinby House in July.

Actress Sigourney Weaver, along with her husband, Jim Simpson, gave the Commencement address in May.

President Draves is pictured at her inauguration ceremony in October, which kicked off Homecoming weekend.

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