Alumni

From the President

The past two issues of Spectrum detailed important physical changes to the campus—such as the completion of the Donnelley and Lee Library, the renovation of Farwell Field, and groundbreaking for the new Mohr Student Center and Stuart Commons—which will greatly enhance our students’ experience. This issue includes changes of a different sort, both on campus and in this publication.

You will still find the annual Honor Roll of Donors, which lists each and every person who donated time and money to the College this past year. Your generous donations are vital to Lake Forest; they make possible the continuing improvements described in these pages.

This fall we opened the new Center for Chicago Programs thanks to a $450,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Now our students and faculty have an attractive, comfortable place to learn about what’s happening in Chicago, supported by Director and Associate Dean of Faculty Rami Levin and her staff, who will help them get to where they want to go downtown and bring more Chicago-related programs to campus.

All of our recent graduates have undergone major changes in their lives after they left Lake Forest, whether they searched for a job, went to graduate school, or traveled to distant lands. When we followed up with six students from the Class of 2005, we learned they have not only adjusted to their new lives, they have thrived. All credit their experience at Lake Forest College in helping them to succeed in their chosen direction.

As you’ll read, interesting issues have prompted spirited debate on campus, including whether or not to continue spraying herbicides on our lawns and whether or not to open a pub in the Mohr Student Center. If you have any thoughts on these issues or others that catch your attention, we invite you to send a letter to the editor. Just as the Alumni Association Board is working hard to reach out to our alumni worldwide, as board member and alumna Kay Smith Severns ’59 explains in her first-person account of the process, we hope this issue engages you and inspires you to participate in a dialogue on what is happening in the College community.

Speaking of change, the College welcomed two new staff in the Office of Communica-tions and Marketing who spearheaded some of the differences you will see in this magazine. Director Liz Libby arrived from Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Office of Workforce Development in February, and Spectrum Editor Lindsay Beller started in July after working as a newspaper reporter, joining Assistant Marketing Director Irene Ratliff.

Change signals growth. Let’s keep moving forward.

Stephen D. Schutt
President, Lake Forest College