Year in Review
MONMOUTH, Ill. – There’s no way around it: the word of the year on Monmouth College’s campus was either pandemic, coronavirus or COVID-19 – take your pick.
And this year’s top 10 stories and photos reflect that – the global pandemic was involved in more than half of them.
It was a strange year at Monmouth, to be sure. Perhaps English professor Marlo Belschner best summarized 2020 on campus when she was interviewed for a story about educating students during a pandemic: “The students seem to be holding up – they’re resilient. We’re all looking forward to the day when this is not our experience.”
Here’s hoping that day arrives in 2021, the sooner the better. Meanwhile, here are some of the top stories and moments from 2020.
Top 10 News Stories
News & Events News
Empty playing fields:
When senior outfielder Lauren Sperry popped out to short on March 13 to end the softball team’s 1-0 loss to Anderson University, everyone knew it officially closed the book on the Fighting Scots’ annual spring break trip to Florida. What no one realized at the time, though, was that is also closed the book on all Scots intercollegiate sports for the rest of 2020, due to COVID-19. With the Midwest Conference’s recent announcement that no fall and winter sports seasons will be held during the 2020-21 academic year, it might be the case that it all comes full circle, and the next Fighting Scots action is a softball game in the spring. Conference officials continue to work diligently toward making a spring athletics season happen.Read More
Senior trio leads Scots women
Becca Gallis and Yvonne Ornelas saw the worst of times and the best of times as Fighting Scots hoopsters. When the California duo were freshmen, the Scots won just four games. But each year, the shooting guard who became one of the program’s top scorers (Gallis) and the point guard who was an indispensable floor leader (Ornelas) got better and better, and their surrounding cast was augmented by more and more talent, including the team’s other senior, transfer Carley Turnbull. The end result was the program’s second-ever NCAA tournament berth and a record 21 victories. Gallis was named the Scots’ first-ever Midwest Conference Player of the Year and was joined by Turnbull as a first team All-MWC pick.Read More
Trubeck Amphitheater:
Monmouth students can look forward to a new space for outdoor classes, fine arts performances and other campus events. Construction will soon begin on the Trubeck Amphitheater, which will be located behind the College’s Center for Science and Business. The Trubeck Amphitheater will expand the existing Trubeck Fountain Plaza, which is also behind the CSB. President Clarence R. Wyatt said the entire project is being paid for by a gift from William Trubeck, a 1968 Monmouth graduate and former vice chair of the Monmouth College Board of Trustees. The Trubeck Amphitheater is a tribute to his late wife, Judy Williams Trubeck, who was a 1969 Monmouth graduate.Read More
Scots Day of Giving
During a time when it was easy to feel separated, the Monmouth College community came together in remarkable fashion for the annual fundraising event, uniting Scots Nation through off-the-charts social media engagement. Planned in detail for months, engagement became the focus of Scots Day in the weeks leading up to the event, due to COVID-19. More than 55,000 constituents were reached through the College’s main Facebook page, with more than 20,000 video views. Another 25,000 people were reached through the Monmouth College Alumni Facebook page. Along the way, 676 gifts were made to the College, totaling $180,965.Read More
Virtual Commencement
Monmouth graduates throughout the years have been told that their contributions to society are needed “now more than ever.” In the midst of a global pandemic, those words have never rung more true. Monmouth’s Class of 2020 heard that sentiment expressed by both featured speakers during a Commencement ceremony that was moved online because of COVID-19. The ceremony replicated the feel of the traditional Commencement as much as possible, including the playing of bagpipes at the beginning and end of the 40-minute event. A make-up ceremony scheduled on campus for Sept. 19 was canceled due to lingering COVID-19 concerns. Above, President Clarence Wyatt and Dean Mark Willhardt sign diplomas for the College’s 194 graduates.Read More
New vice presidents
In mid-February, Hannah Maher was named Monmouth’s vice president for development and college relations. Most recently the College’s interim vice president of that division, Maher has served the College’s development efforts in a number of capacities since 2010. One of her chief duties is oversight of “Light This Candle: The Campaign for Monmouth College,” which aims to raise a minimum of $75 million for the College’s endowment by Dec. 31, 2022. Shortly before the end of the year, the campaign reached the $60 million milestone. In other administrative news, Michelle Merritt and Karen Ogorzalek were promoted to co-deans of students.Read More
The passing of two presidents
Read MoreIn a one-month span, Monmouth lost a pair of former presidents. Bruce Haywood, who helped increase the endowment and lay a foundation for dramatic expansion in the 21st century, died Jan. 7. Haywood came to Monmouth in 1980, when the endowment was $4.4 million. By the time he retired in 1994, the endowment had grown to $24 million. Haywood succeeded DeBow Freed, who died Feb. 8 in Ada, Ohio. Freed successfully guided the institution through challenging economic times in the 1970s. “Dr. Freed was a powerhouse of a man,” said Monmouth Board of Trustees Chairman Mark Kopinski ’79. “He brought military-style rigor to the College administration at a time of great need.”
Homecoming @ Home
Read More“We’re all in this together” was a familiar refrain during 2020. It was also a sentiment shared by recipients of the College’s annual Alumni Impact Awards, one of the highlights of Homecoming weekend in October. The awards ceremony was recorded in advance and shown online on the Friday evening of the big weekend, which had a theme of “Homecoming @ Home” due to the pandemic. Other virtual Homecoming activities included a 5K run; an informative session on Scotch whiskey; an outdoor chapel service; “coffee chats” with current and emeriti faculty; a roundtable discussion about diversity and inclusion; and a “Best of Game Day” program with Fighting Scots football coaches. Homecoming court members included, from left, prince Mason Sanford, queen Abierre Minor and princess Miracle Sims.
In memoriam: Tom Burek
Read MoreIn memoriam: Tom Burek: Fighting Scots coach Tom Burek died Dec. 12 of complications of COVID-19. He was 62. Burek was the second-longest serving head swim coach in Monmouth history, coaching from 2013 through last season. Assistant coach Erin Willhite Lafary ’15, who swam for Burek as a Monmouth student, said her former coach had a profound impact on those with whom he worked. “Coach Burek had a huge heart for all of his swimmers,” she said. “His laugh and smile were contagious and always turned frowns quickly to smiles. You always knew where Coach was on a pool deck full of swimmers, because you could spot his bright yellow Crocs. Better yet, you could hear him say his well-known ‘Goggle up!’ from miles away.”
COVID and its impact
Read MoreWhen the COVID-19 pandemic escalated quickly in early March, Monmouth College was in the midst of spring break. The break was extended a second week, during which time faculty members quickly got up to speed on remote learning, which is how the rest of the spring semester transpired. With an entire summer to adjust to the pandemic – including new safety protocols and the creation of nearly two dozen outdoor classroom spaces – college officials planned a return to in-person classes for the fall. The semester carried on that way through early November, when rising cases in the region prompted a “cooldown” period with a move back to online learning through the end of classes on Nov. 24.
Top 10 Photos
News & Events News
Scots squash
This beautiful pumpkin carving was created by Galesburg artist and Monmouth alumnus Dusty Scott ’03.Read More
Early reaction
Early reaction: This work of art was created by Monmouth graduate and Mendota High School art teacher Brock Sondgeroth ’97 shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring.Read More
Proud Monmouth grad
One of the most popular social media posts of 2020 was this photo of graduating senior Vanessa Caldwell, who still found a way to wear her mortar board on Wallace Hall Plaza during a year in which the Commencement ceremony was moved online.Read More
The show must go on
Last spring, the College canceled its final theatre production of the semester due to COVID-19. “This time, we’re not going to do the hiatus,” said theatre professor Vanessa Campagna of the fall schedule. “We feel like we’ve had enough time to adjust to the realities that we’re living in, so theatre will persist. It’s just going to look a little bit different.” That included this outdoor staging of FusionFest VII, held on the steps of Wallace Hall instead of its usual Fusion Theatre location.Read More
Movie night at the stadium
The College’s Association for Student Activity Programming (ASAP) “worked all summer to come up with fresh ideas to entertain the students while still being safe and socially distant,” said Assistant Director of Campus Events Ryan Doyle. “We decided one of our largest spaces, Zorn Stadium, would be a great spot to do just that. In the fall, it’s still warm and the JumboTron makes for a wonderful movie-watching experience.”Read More
Engagement surprise
The last thing that Fighting Scots senior Aleeka Gentzler expected was that her track coach, Roger Haynes, was in on a secret. That secret turned out to be a marriage proposal from 2017 Monmouth graduate Payton Holmes. Holmes popped the question on Feb. 15 at the end of a home track meet. “We were wrapping up our team meeting that we have at the end of every meet, and Coach Haynes said, ‘I think we just have one more picture to do,’” said Gentzler. “And then it happened.” Holmes dropped to one knee and presented his girlfriend of three years with a diamond engagement ring.Read More
Welcome home, Max
The newest member of the College’s chemistry department knew the liberal arts education he received at Monmouth was going to be tough to beat. Maxwell Holle believed that as a student, and the 2015 graduate says it’s still the case today. “When I was applying to grad school, I told the interviewer on day one that my goal was to come back and teach at a school like Monmouth,” said Holle, who earned his doctorate in food science at the University of Illinois.Read More
Doing what she can
When Fannetta Jones ’11 was asked this summer how she was feeling, she replied, “I am feeling exhausted, truthfully. When you’re told about another life lost, another individual unjustly treated or killed, it takes a toll on the psyche, on the spirit as a whole. But knowing that I’m part of the effort to help people keeps me going. I want to do what’s right and serve in the way I can.” Jones did so through a #FeedThePeople initiative in Chicago and an e-book titled You Do What You Can, which she said chronicles “how our people are feeling right now.”Read More
Heart Hunters
Monmouth College joined the growing “Heart Hunters” movement, doing its part to give families a welcome distraction during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic by creating three College-themed hearts. The social media movement – which grew out of a Facebook post by a woman from nearby Galesburg on March 21 – encouraged people to cut out paper hearts and display them in their windows to allow families to enjoy a virtual scavenger hunt from a safe distance.Read More
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