This Year’s Top 10

The College completed a record-setting campaign that will help set its course throughout the rest of the decade. “It is with great pleasure that I announce that the Light This Candle Campaign has raised over $80 million in current and deferred gifts, exceeding our original goal of $75 million by more than 6%,” said William Goldsborough ’65, national Campaign chair, in February.

In April, President Clarence Wyatt announced that he will retire at the end of the 2023-24 school year. Monmouth’s 14th president led the recently completed Light This Candle Campaign, shepherded Monmouth through the COVID-19 pandemic, enhanced campus facilities and added new STEM majors during his 10-year tenure, which began July 1, 2014.

The communication studies department was the recipient of the National Communication Association’s prestigious Rex Mix Award, presented annually to the top small liberal arts college undergraduate program in the United States. Part of the credit went to its “COMMutopia” spirit – the way it offers people a safe space to communicate and a safe space for the College’s diverse students.

Monmouth College received one of its largest commitments in its 170-year history, and it will be used to provide students with more opportunities to become globally engaged citizens. The $4.15 million commitment from Karen Krueger ’72 will help Monmouth students who want to study abroad and support faculty in developing short-term and semester-long study-abroad opportunities. 

The 190 graduates who received their diplomas during the College’s 166th Commencement Exercises joined an exclusive club. In his remarks, former U.S. Congressman Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri told the students they were now in the “7% Club,” as there are only about 500 million people in the world – out of roughly 8 billion – who have a college degree. Another highlight of the weekend was the establishment of two new “clubs,” as the College awarded diplomas to its first engineering and health science/human movement graduates.

The educational studies program received a $750,000 grant, secured by U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois through the federal Community Project Funding program. The grant supports the Monmouth Rural Education Initiatives program, which aims to address rural community teacher shortages, increase representation of teachers of color and encourage student-community engagement.

Several hundred alumni brothers, spouses, national leaders and current undergraduate chapter members from around the country converged on campus May 26-28 as the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity’s Illinois Gamma chapter celebrated its 75th anniversary at the College. Launched on May 22, 1948, nearly 47 years after the fraternity was founded, the chapter has since initiated 1,180 members.

In the latest U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges guide, Monmouth is ranked No. 29 in the social mobility category. “This ranking powerfully affirms the way in which Monmouth College changes for the better the arc of a student’s life,” said President Wyatt. The College was also one of Money magazine’s “2023 Best Colleges,” based upon a school’s affordability, quality and student outcomes.

It all comes back to relationships. During the College’s Homecoming weekend, that was the message shared publicly by award recipients and privately in countless moments across campus as “forever friends” reunited on the campus where their relationships were born. Pictured is Homecoming king Sencere Brent ’24, waving to the masses during the parade down Broadway.

For the second consecutive year, the football team won a bowl game, and for the second time in his career, quarterback Carter Boyer led a late rally to defeat St. Norbert. Four years after keying the Scots’ dramatic Midwest Conference title game win over the Green Knights, Boyer brought Monmouth back from a 14-7 fourth-quarter deficit. The 21-14 victory completed the Scots’ 9-2 season.

To jump start Thanksgiving break on campus, the Fighting Scots played a Tuesday night home game, and Turner Plumer was certainly up for it, slamming down two of his 17 points as Monmouth posted a 79-70 victory over Blackburn.

During a rollercoaster final minute against Lake Forest on Nov. 4, it didn’t look good for the Fighting Scots at one point. But then Tevin Baker blocked the Foresters’ close-range field goal attempt, and the Monmouth sideline jumped for joy. The thrilling 16-14 victory helped the Scots secure a bowl game berth.

More than 100 former Fighting Scots athletes turned out to honor their coach at the inaugural Roger Haynes Invitational, an indoor track and field meet held Feb. 11 at the Huff Athletic Center. Pictured behind Haynes are the four banners his teams earned for top four national finishes.

Many people did. The College’s April production of The Little Mermaid filled Wells Theater for all five of its performances. The lead role of Ariel was played by Emma Romano ’25, who even dyed her hair red for the part.

Troy Hippen ’22 had a blast during his first Scots Day of Giving as a staff member. He’s shown here participating in a new element of the annual philanthropy event, the Cash Cab, aka Troy’s Trivia Trolley. Held on April 13, the seventh annual Scots Day of Giving raised $309,406.

Known as “the face of Monmouth” by her softball teammates due to her presence in several areas of campus life – including leading campus tours – Lillian Hucke ’24 is also the College’s Lincoln Laureate. She’s shown in the state capital, where she received her prestigious honor.

As music faculty member Solee Lee-Clark said about the College’s Ardell Organ, it’s always been a good-looking instrument. It now sounds as good as it looks after a restoration completed this fall by Iowa City-based service and restoration technician Randall E. Karstens.

Jake Rathgeb ’23 was one of the standout students in a rock climbing class offered by the College during the spring semester, and he also reached a summit in his Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, receiving the national Roswell “Buddy” Messing Award as ZBT’s most outstanding individual brother.

Before taking flight in the College’s November production of Peter Pan, high school sophomore Drew Carlson, who played the lead role, and others were taught how to fly on the Wells Theater stage by St. Louis-based On the Fly Productions.

The Rev. Dr. John Huxtable ’04, who’s just completing his first year as Monmouth’s chaplain, conducted a blessing of the pets in October, and chemistry professor Laura Moore’s dog, Opal, wanted to show that she was a very good girl.

The story was written before Ross Clayton ’12 appeared on the popular prime-time NBC show. He ultimately advanced several rounds in the competition, then returned to campus a few months later to perform at Homecoming.

The Reschke brothers – Josh ’07, Luke ’09, Shane ’12, and twins Ethan ’17 and Jordan ’17 – have all made their way from Geneseo High School, to Monmouth College, to Deere and Company.

Those were the words of College painter Dana Poole, who not only presented his four daughters their Monmouth diplomas, but had presented them their high school parchments, too, in his role as board president for the nearby United school district.

A decade ago, five Monmouth science professors commented on what the future had in store, and the question was revisited again this year, with topics including nuclear fusion, climate change, space travel and artificial intelligence.

It was exciting enough for the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity that it was celebrating its 75th anniversary in May. But that excitement was ratcheted up when it was learned that 95-year-old Don “Mac” McKinley, who signed the original charter in 1948, would attend the celebration.