Alumni

FROM THE PRESIDENT

The growth and success of women's sports at Lake Forest College has been thrilling to watch over the years. As this issue of Spectrum makes clear, women students have participated in athletics since the early years of the College, but substantial expansion and enhancement of women's sports has taken place since Title IX passed in 1972. Over the intervening 35 years, the College has celebrated an impressive 31 women's conference championships, numerous all-American players, and countless victories.

Lake Forest's Athletic Director since 1992, Jackie Slaats has also coached our record-breaking women's basketball team for 22 years. Happily for the College, after she decided to stop coaching at the end of this season, Jackie agreed to assume important new responsibilities as Senior Advisor to the President, in addition to her continuing duties as Athletic Director. Focusing on key special projects such as the exciting expansion of our recreation and athletic facilities, Jackie will continue to carry on the tradition of excellence that she has made ever-present in Halas Hall.

You can read more about the evolution of women's sports on page 18, along with the plans for our expanded sports and recreation center on South Campus.  This is a key project and a central focus of our recently launched $100 million 150th Anniversary Campaign.  Its completion - in time for the 2009 fall semester - will dramatically enhance student life on campus.

The continuing evolution of the Lake Forest student experience is wonderful to behold, and it can take as many different forms as we have students. A great illustration is the novel experience of sophomore Margaret Golembiewski '10. As a Richter Scholar last summer, Margaret had the unique opportunity to compose an original score for the Alfred Hitchcock silent film The Lodger, in collaboration with music faculty Don Meyer and David Amrein. Their score was first performed by the College's Chamber Orchestra in the Mohr Student Center last October, and 800 people heard a live encore performance in February under the auspices of the Silent Film Society of Chicago at the Portage Theater. To read more, turn to page 7.

As a final note, I want to take this opportunity to express my personal grief - and that of the College community as a whole - over the recent tragedy at Northern Illinois University. The deadly shooting there touched all of us deeply. NIU is little more than an hour from Lake Forest, and many of our students, faculty, and staff have friends and family members there. In the days after the shooting, a number of Lake Forest resident assistants (RAs) and members of our professional counseling services staff traveled to the NIU campus in DeKalb, Illinois to lend a hand to overworked RAs and grieving students and faculty there. Here in Lake Forest, we work continuously on the improvement and refinement of our own campus security plans, as our hearts continue to go out to the Northern Illinois community.

For those who haven't been back to campus or otherwise passed through the Chicago region over the past several months, this winter has been one for the record books.  There has been snow on the ground since November, and as it finally begins to melt, I wish you very well as we start to move (I hope!) into spring.

Stephen D. Schutt
President