This Year’s Top 10

More than eight months ahead of its Dec. 31, 2022, conclusion, the College passed the $75 million goal of its Light This Candle Campaign, which was launched in March 2019. With just a few days now left in the campaign, its total has soared to $79 million. President Clarence Wyatt called the campaign’s success “an extraordinary achievement and worthy of celebration.” ... The College also had another successful Scots Day of Giving on April 6 (pictured), with more than 800 donors from all 50 states combining to contribute more than $232,000 to support students and student programming.

On what was called “an incredibly historic day for our campus community” on April 29, Monmouth College dedicated the Champion Miller Center for Student Equity, Inclusion and Community, its first building named after a person of color. The building at 727 East Broadway was most recently known as the Center for Intercultural Life. The Champion Miller Center was founded to provide an array of academic and support services, fellowship, and inspiration to students of all ethnicities and backgrounds, particularly disadvantaged, marginalized and first-generation college students.

The students who made up the headline-grabbing number of twin siblings in Monmouth’s incoming Class of 2022 racked up a considerable number of accomplishments during their time on campus. A remarkable total of 12 of the 16 siblings graduated with departmental honors. “I feel honored to be a part of this group,” said Emma Poole, who received her diploma along with her sister, Nicole. “I think it’s really cool.” Morningstar CEO Kunal Kapoor ’97 delivered the Commencement address, while the Rev. Dr. Teri McDowell Ott, editor of Presbyterian Outlook and the College’s former chaplain, spoke at Baccalaureate.

Thanks to rapid response by local firefighters, fire damage from an Oct. 6 blaze in Stockdale Center was contained to a dry goods storage room in the food service area. However, smoke damage forced the building to be closed to the public for the remainder of the fall semester. On Feb. 1, food service will return to the dining hall which, along with the kitchen, will be sealed off from the rest of the building. The Monmouth Fire Department determined that the cause was not intentional, and no one was injured in the incident.

While one building on campus had a rough year, there was plenty of progress in terms of facilities, including the formal dedication of the Trubeck Amphitheater and Memorial Fountain, which was held during Homecoming weekend and is the gift of former vice chair of the Board of Trustees Bill Trubeck ’68. The College’s six-court tennis facility received a new playing surface, and another alum, Jerri Picha ’75, gifted the new Tartan Terrace on the south side of Hewes Library. Two existing spaces on campus now house the Highlander Hub for non-perishable food items and the Rainbow Room for the school’s LGBTQ+ community.

Monmouth College celebrated Family Weekend in mid-September. The Homecoming celebration that followed on Sept. 30-Oct. 1 could very well have been dubbed “Family Weekend II.” The theme of family was a thread that ran throughout Homecoming, which was held on two glorious autumn days. Joining the slate of traditional activities was the inaugural Fighting Scots Champions Club ceremony, where members of Monmouth’s undefeated 1972 football team were honored. “These are very special men who became part of our family,” said the team’s coach, Bill Reichow, of the 30 players who attended the ceremony.

In December, Monmouth College announced that it has received a major national grant to help make higher education more inclusive. The $470,666 grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute will be used to help create a seamless transfer pathway for students from underrepresented backgrounds at Illinois Central College in East Peoria, Illinois, who want to earn a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and science at Monmouth. “A Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant is, in the higher education world, equivalent to an Oscar or Grammy,” said President Wyatt.

For the past three years, members of the Monmouth community were hard at work behind the scenes, preparing a new core curriculum. The work was funded by a $200,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York. The new curriculum, which allows students to take more electives, began with the current 2022-23 academic year. Language in the student handbook reads: “The Core Curriculum is at the heart of the transformational educational experience that Monmouth College offers and provides the foundation for students to explore their passions and understand the world and their place in it.”

The screening of a new documentary produced by the United States Naval Academy was part of the College’s observance of Veterans Day. Presented in partnership with the Academy’s Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership, the documentary was filmed to celebrate the upcoming 50th anniversary of the homecoming of U.S. military personnel who were Vietnam prisoners of war. Those POWs included Vice Adm. James Stockdale (pictured with his wife, Sybil), a member of the College’s Class of 1946, who was shot down in 1965 over North Vietnam and was held captive nearly eight years.

At the Region 3 event of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, Gabriela Madu ’23 placed second in the musical theater competition and was a semifinalist in the prestigious Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Auditions. No student had ever reached either of those heights since the College began participating in the festival in 1995. Shortly afterward, Madu was invited to participate in one of the Open Jar Institute’s week-long summer “Broadway Intensives” in New York City, along with Monmouth classmate Drew Cliffel. She’s pictured playing a leading role in the College’s production of Romeo and Juliet.

Alumni John Carlson ’74 and Deeks Carroll ’62 are pictured on the opening night of the College’s Golden Scots Celebration. The June event was the first in-person meeting for the Golden Scots since 2019, after the pandemic canceled the gatherings planned for 2020 and 2021.

The pandemic also limited study-abroad opportunities for Monmouth students for two years, but 20 of them were able to leave the country in May through the course “Cross-Cultural Psychology in Italy.” Part of the group is pictured bearing the Monmouth flag at the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

For the first time, the Fighting Scots football team experienced both ends of that headline as bookends to their season. Monmouth played its first night home game to kick off the 2022 campaign, which ended with a 45-20 victory over Concordia (Wis.) in the inaugural Cousins Subs Lakefront Bowl.

Mathew Underwood ’04, who studied classics at Monmouth and now teaches Latin at Cherokee High School in New Jersey, is pictured with one of his star pupils, Kailyn Gore, who matriculated at Monmouth this fall after being named one of the College’s four Trustees’ Scholars. The other classic photo is behind them on the wall – the iconic poster of now-emeritus professor Tom Sienkewicz in a toga, putting out the call for more Latin teachers.

The author of two books and a YouTube sensation, renowned primitive hunter Tim Wells ’87 gave the College’s annual Whiteman Lecture in April. Wells has won the prestigious Golden Moose Award for Best Outdoor Host six years running. His documentaries and shows are viewed more than half a billion times annually.

Building up to the 50th anniversary of the passing of Title IX on June 23, 1972 – which greatly expanded opportunities for women in athletics – Monmouth College held several events, including a panel discussion featuring alumna Raven Robinson ’14 and administrators from the NCAA. One of the sporting highlights of the year for Scots women was Josie Morgan (pictured) being named the Midwest Conference’s Player of the Year in basketball.

Wife-and-husband accounting professors Judy Peterson and Frank Gersich retired at the end of the spring semester, as did statistics professor Marjorie Bond. In December, Chris Johnston, the College’s director of student support initiatives and global engagement, announced her retirement. Members of the Fighting Scots family who passed away in 2022 included Board of Trustees member Nancy Speer Engquist ’74 and longtime baseball coach and equipment manager Roger Sander ’78.

College photographer Kent Kriegshauser captured this creative shot at the Homecoming weekend Spirit Shout, one of countless stunning images he took throughout the year (including the next one).

A tradition during the College’s big week in the fall is the cardboard boat regatta. Students Anna Caster and Noelle Faulk appear to have a shipshape vessel as they navigate the choppy Pepper Natatorium water.

As part of an effort to recruit more student musicians to campus, new band director John Eckstine invited the Colts Drum and Bugle Corps to Monmouth for its month-long summer training. The group from Dubuque, Iowa, went on to place in the top 12 at the DCI World Championship Finals Aug. 11-13 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.