Founders Month Activities: Knox Marks 175th Anniversary

Knox College will celebrate its 175th anniversary in February with a wide range of events on and off campus.

The college was officially established on February 15, 1837, when the Illinois General Assembly granted a charter to the Knox Manual Labor College. A group of social reformers led by the Rev. George Washington Gale earlier had left upstate New York to found a college and a town on the prairies of Western Illinois.

More details about 175th anniversary-related events are available on the events calendar on the Knox College website, www.knox.edu. Additional information about Knox's 175-year history is available on the college's specially created anniversary website: 175.knox.edu.

Here is a brief schedule of Knox College's 175th anniversary events:

• KnoxReads Blog, February 1 -- To engage the Knox community in a discussion of Stellyes Distinguished Lecturer Robin Wright's most recent book, Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World, the college will host a KnoxReads blog, where alumni and friends can interact with Knox's faculty experts on topics related to Ms. Wright's scholarship. Faculty will begin posting to the blog on February 1 and encourage all Knox community members to respond. Be sure to order a copy of the book at the Knox Bookstore.


• Knox College Department of Educational Studies Lecture, February 9 -- Carol Ann Tomlinson, the William Clay Parrish Jr. Professor at the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education, presents "Teaching Today's Students: A Case for Differentiated Instruction" in Kresge Recital Hall, Center for the Fine Arts, at 7 p.m.


• Purple and Gold Day: Show Your Knox Pride, February 15 -- Whether you are on campus, in Galesburg, or anywhere else in the world, celebrate Knox's 175th anniversary by showing your Knox pride. Wear a Knox t-shirt, sweatshirt, or hat. Don purple and gold. Dig out your old athletic uniform (and see if it still fits). Do whatever you can to wish Knox a happy birthday. Then take a photo and e-mail it to gizmogram@knox.edu or share it with the Knox community on Facebook!


• 175th Anniversary Pub Nights, February 15 -- Celebrate Knox past, present, and future at a Pub Night near you. Events are currently planned in more than a dozen locations around the globe, including Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, New York, Portland, London, and many more. Find a pub night in your neighborhood!


• 74th Alumni Achievement Awards, February 17 -- Knox will honor 2012 Alumni Achievement Award winners Mary Lu Aft '60, Lynn Wright '63, Peter Leibig '73, James Solomon '74, and Norman Golar '02, at the annual Founders Day Convocation in Kresge Recital Hall. In honor of the 175th anniversary, current winners also will be joined by more than a dozen past award winners. Mark your calendars -- Knox will Livestream the presentation, starting at 5 p.m. Friday, February 17.


• Founders Flashback, February 17 -- Knox College students, faculty, and staff gather in the T. Fleming Fieldhouse for a 175th anniversary party.


• Joint Worship Service, February 19 -- In observance of Knox and Galesburg's joint founding, a worship service coordinated by Galesburg's founding churches, First Presbyterian and Central Congregational churches, will be held in Kresge Recital Hall, Center for the Fine Arts, at 4 p.m.


• Stellyes Distinguished Lecture in Global Affairs, February 28 -- Robin Wright, acclaimed foreign correspondent and television commentator, has witnessed the birth, rise, and globalization of Islamic militancy for almost four decades. Her lecture at 7:30 p.m. in Kresge Recital Hall, Ford Center for the Fine Arts, will look at the struggle within the Muslim world, where a growing movement defies and challenges extremism. The lecture will be broadcast live via Livestream.