Knox Welcomes 350 New Students

Knox College welcomed 350 new students on September 1, as residence halls open for first-year students. As he has for the past several years, Knox College President Roger Taylor greeted students and parents as he helped students move into their residence halls on Saturday morning.

Knox expects to enroll more than 1,350 students this fall.

Taylor and Lawrence Breitborde, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, addressed new students at an afternoon welcome session on the east lawn of Knox's Old Main -- the students and their families seated in the same location as the crowds who thronged to the Lincoln-Douglas debate held at Knox 149 years earlier.

"Knox is a 170-year-old institution whose present and future are informed very strongly by its past," Breitborde said. "This is a place where greatness began... Here, in the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, Abraham Lincoln began to make an issue with Douglas on the morality of slavery." Lincoln's argument against slavery "has never stopped resonating with our nation and our world."

Other first-day activities included a reception for parents of first-year students at the Ingersoll House -- the president's residence at 640 N. Prairie. The reception featured a mini-Taste of Galesburg theme, with food provided by several local restaurants, while the Galesburg Business Association distributed informational packets at orientation.

The 350 new students join some 200 members of fall sports teams who returned to campus in August. Upperclass residence halls open on Tuesday, September 4 -- including students living in the newly refurbished Hamblin Hall. The $6.2-million expansion and renovation was completed over the summer, increasing the building's capacity from 72 to 101. Knox has nearly 1,200 students living on campus this fall, with residence halls at 99% of capacity.

The college holds its century-old "Pumphandle" -- a campus-wide greeting line -- on Wednesday, September 5, with the opening convocation and first day of class on Thursday, September 6. The convocation will feature an address by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

2007 entering class profile:

• More than 200 have participated in volunteer community service
• More than 100 National Honor Society members
• 23 National Merit Commended Scholars, seven National Merit Semi-Finalists, and four National Merit Scholars
• One National Achievement Scholar; two National Hispanic Honorable Mentions
• Nine Eagle Scouts or Gold Award Winners
• 95 athletic letter winners, including 39 team captains
• 41 edited their high school newspaper or literary journal
• 46 served as a student club president, 13 as class or student body president
• 24 studied outside the U.S.
• 35 had a lead role in a high school theatre production
• 39-percent of new students rank in the top ten-percent of their high school class, 74-percent in the top quarter
• 33 states and 18 countries represented
• 11-percent come from outside the U.S.
• More than one-fifth of the entering class are students of color
• The top academic interests, where noted on a student's application -- creative writing, pre-medicine, biology, psychology, English, English literature, history, international relations and political science

New Student Orientation 2007 local partners:

• Galesburg Business Association -- community information and hospitality materials for students and families
• Restaurants participating in the President's Reception for Families -- Cornucopia/Uncle Billy's Bakery, Rooster's, Packinghouse, Cooks & Co., Chez Willy's, Landmark, Innkeeper's Coffee.

Resident advisors helped new students move in, above, and chatted with parents, below.

One parent told the move-in crews: "You guys are just awesome." Another: "This [help with moving] is so much better than ______ [another college]."

Above, Vice President Lawrence Breitborde addresses students and families at the welcome convocation; below, Anne and Roger Taylor at the welcome convocation.