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CAMPUS NEWS
CAMPUS TREES ���
The graceful pecan tree near Irion Hall was planted in honor of the late Rev. Dr. Robert O. Laaser, senior pastor at St. Peter’s United Church of Christ in Elmhurst before his death. In the harsh climate of the Midwest, the tree doesn’t bear fruit most years—so when it does, it’s a special occasion.
BRANCHING OUT The Elmhurst University Arboretum reached a major milestone recently with the planting of its 1,000th tree. Founded in 1966 with the planting of a single Shumard oak, the arboretum now encompasses everything from magnolias and redbuds to maples, hawthorns and American elms. STAFF Q&A
Prospect asked the 1987 alumnus and 41-year University veteran to share some top spots, historical insights and fun facts every visitor should know.
What are your three must-see spots on campus? 1. The Bates Observatory on top of the
Schaible Science Center. People look up and wonder what the telescope is like, and I’m always glad to take them up into the dome and show them how it rotates. 2. The Old Main bell tower, because of all the names people have carved on the walls and ceiling. When visitors find a name from the 1800s carved in a hand railing, it really hits home just how old our campus is and how many people have passed through it. 3. The particle accelerator in the
Barbara A. Kieft Accelerator
ArtSpace. It’s an interesting piece of technology—outdated and deactivated now, of course, but it has great historical significance. It came to us from the University of Chicago, home to the first controlled nuclear reaction in 1942.
Is there one piece of information you share during your tours that always surprises people? It’s when I say that there are no utility poles on campus. No overhead lines anywhere. All of the phone, data, electric, gas, heat and cooling lines run through tunnels under our feet. People have actually spun around to
Elmhurst facilities manager Mark Wakely is the campus tour de force.
look, like they wanted to confirm it for themselves. This is really what makes our arboretum possible, because if we had wires crisscrossing the campus, it would be difficult to plant as many specimens as we have.
Do you have a favorite story about campus life? Sometime in the 1960s, the night before Commencement, students pulling a senior prank got a Volkswagen Beetle up the steps of Hammerschmidt Memorial Chapel and left it there. It blocked the main doors, which the graduates would need to march through. So volunteers had to lift it up and carry it down so that Commencement could proceed. A little farewell gift from the senior class!
What do you like most about giving tours? People see the campus as it is today and don’t necessarily understand its heritage. I enjoy sharing a sense of how rich in history the University really is, and that there’s a lot more going on than just what’s on the surface.
HASHTAG HIGHLIGHTS
From a historical walking tour to special-edition socks and a dedicated website, Elmhurst’s sesquicentennial is in full swing. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to join the celebration.
ELMHURST UNIVERSITY WALKING TOUR
Elmhurst History Museum Here's something new to check out: we've just added a new Elmhurst University Walking Tour to our EHM Mobile App. You can use it this fall to walk the beautiful EU campus and learn about the buildings and history of the school. Download the app today, and get started on your own local history adventure! #exploreelmhurst
elmhurst.university Great things are afoot on campus this year! #Elmhurst150 #ElmhurstU elmhurst.university Homecoming 2021 was a blast! #ElmhurstU #Elmhurst150 #CheersTo150Years
@elmhurst_u Celebrate #Elmhurst150 anywhere and everywhere at elmhurst.edu/150!
ELMHURST WON A 2021 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE from the University & College Designers Association for its website refresh. Among the most prestigious competitions in the industry, these annual awards honor the best design work in education. Elmhurst was one of only 10 institutions nationwide to receive an award of excellence in this category.
BY THE NUMBERS
This fall, Elmhurst welcomed its second-largest class of incoming students ever, including the largest class of new graduate students in the institution’s history. Here are a few numbers that tell the story.
TOTAL NEW STUDENTS
1,217
GROWTH IN NEW-STUDENT ENROLLMENT OVER 2020
10%
NEW FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS
531
NEW TRANSFER STUDENTS
379
NEW GRADUATE STUDENTS
293
FIRST-YEARS WHO ARE FIRSTGENERATION COLLEGE STUDENTS
43%
FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS WHO IDENTIFY AS LATINX
30%
Student interns, jazz studies and studentathletes will benefit from recent donations.
TRANSFORMATIVE GIFTS-
In August, Elmhurst received a record $3.4 million gift from brothers Robert Jans and Tim Jans ’74. The gift, the largest the University has ever received from living donors, will support veteran students and students exploring careers in the military.
Robert and Tim Jans recently retired from the longtime ownership of Cook-DuPage Transportation Company Inc. Their family ties to the University date back to the 1940s when their parents met as students at Elmhurst, and include other relatives as well. Also this summer, Maureen Lamberty Heakin ’72 made a gift commitment of $500,000 to establish an international visiting artists series for the University’s acclaimed jazz studies program. The gift commitment honors Doug Beach, former director of the award-winning Elmhurst University Jazz Band and jazz studies program, who retired in May. (See “On to the Next Chapter” on page 10.)
In addition, a $300,000 gift from physician and entrepreneur Aaron Rossi ’06 will fund a new video scoreboard and benefit the men’s soccer team. Rossi, an original member of the men’s soccer program, made the gift in recognition of Head Coach David Di Tomasso’s impact on his life and career. The new video scoreboard is scheduled to be installed at Langhorst Field in 2022.
Tim (left) and Robert Jans celebrate their record-setting gift with President Troy D. VanAken. Maureen Lamberty Heakin (second from right) recently made a gift commitment in honor of Doug Beach (center). Also pictured (from left) are President Troy D. VanAken, John Heakin and Dr. Annette M. VanAken.
Former Bluejay Aaron Rossi is giving back to the soccer team in recognition of its coach.
NEWS BRIEFS
– PRESIDENT TROY D. VANAKEN
CAMPUS HOLLYWOOD
With three feature-length movies and a commercial shot on campus this year, Elmhurst University has become a go-to destination for film producers looking for a classic American campus.
In August, filming wrapped on The Class, a coming-of-age high school drama starring Anthony Michael Hall and Debbie Gibson. Twelve Elmhurst digital media majors participated in the monthlong shoot, doing production work as interns. (See “Reel Life” on page 27 to read about one student’s experience.) Not long after, a T-Mobile commercial was filmed in front of Goebel Hall.
In June, Thriller Films came to campus to shoot the made-for-TV movie Web of Deceit, a romantic thriller that cast dozens of Elmhurst residents as extras and was filmed largely in and around the Schaible Science Center and Memorial Hall. And earlier this spring, parts of the indie film Rounding, from director Alex Thompson, were shot in a University-owned house on Prospect Avenue. Kristyn Jo Benedyk, associate professor and director of Elmhurst’s digital media program, said she knew the University would make an ideal movie setting the first time she stepped foot on campus.
“It is exactly what you picture in your mind when you think of a perfect college campus,” said Benedyk, a veteran filmmaker whose professional connections helped bring two of the movies to campus. “And I think that when productions go out and location scout, they see that immediately too.”
NEXT-LEVEL NURSING
Elmhurst is taking its graduate offerings to the next level with its first-ever doctoral program. The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program was approved in October by the Higher Learning Commission and will begin in Fall Term 2022.
Designed for working nurses with master’s degrees, the online program takes a practice-based approach and focuses on systems leadership. Students will develop the tools to create change across an entire health care system or population of patients.
The new program builds on Elmhurst’s 50-year legacy as a leader in nursing education. The University’s undergraduate nursing program ranks among the best in the nation, according to the 2022 rankings by U.S. News & World Report, and the graduate nursing program ranks sixth in Illinois.
“We’re thrilled to provide the very first doctoral-level program at the University,” said Diane Salvador, professor of nursing and executive director of the Department of Nursing and Health Sciences. “Nursing is always at the forefront of change and innovation, and this is an example of how nursing at Elmhurst can lead such initiatives.”
NEWS BRIEFS
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR RAFAEL BLANCO won the grand prize at the Fraser Mountain Mural Festival in Colorado for his mural honoring health care workers during the pandemic. Awarded in August, the prize includes a $10,000 mural commission. THE SUELLEN ROCCA GALLERY was dedicated on Oct. 16 to honor the University’s late curator and director of exhibitions. Featuring works on paper, the gallery is located on the second floor of the A.C. Buehler Library.
Learn more about Rocca’s legacy at elmhurst.life/Rocca. PRESIDENT TROY D. VANAKEN is the chair-elect of Educational & Institutional Insurance Administrators (EIIA), an organization that provides insurance and risk management services to more than 150 colleges and universities nationwide.
ON TO THE NEXT CHAPTER
The Elmhurst University community said goodbye to nine cherished faculty and staff members who retired in August. Please join us in congratulating them and wishing them well.
THE MAESTRO
In 43 years at Elmhurst University, DOUG BEACH accumulated some of the institution’s highest teaching honors. As director of jazz studies and the University’s internationally recognized Jazz Band since 1978, Beach has earned the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Dr. Andrew K. Prinz Faculty and Staff Merit Award. He also has an impressive list of music industry and community honors. He’s a Grammy Award winner, a frequent recipient of the ASCAP Plus Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and a member of the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce & Industry Civic Hall of Fame. In retirement, Beach will have more time to play his instruments of choice: trumpet and flügelhorn.
CAREER KICK-STARTER
If a student secured an internship while studying at Elmhurst University, chances are HOLLY COFFIN played a role. As director of employer relations and internships at the Russell G. Weigand Center for Professional Excellence, Coffin raised awareness of the WCPE, facilitated career events and fairs, and connected scores of students with professional opportunities. Founder of the WCPE Career Closet, which provides free professional attire for job-searching students, she also developed strong partnerships and increased government and corporate funding for the WCPE.
PEG COOK considered herself more than the interim director of the A.C. Buehler Library. She felt she was the caretaker of accurate, truthful information. Since 2009, Cook has helped students, staff and faculty members find what they’re looking for, solve problems, and think critically. “The hunt is fun,” she told the library consortium LIBRAS in June 2020. “Even in my first grad program, I was always more interested in finding things than in writing things.”
When local organizations need a cybersecurity consultant, they often call on Associate Professor JAMES DAUER. The inaugural head of the University’s cybersecurity program, Dauer has worked with McDonald’s, USG, Chicago Opera Theater and the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
CARETAKER OF THE TRUTH
DIGITAL DEFENDER
Meanwhile, his research on genetic search algorithms, artificial neural networks, mathematical modeling and rule-based expert systems has been featured at numerous regional, national and international conferences. He joined the faculty in 1982.
Professor LUELLEN DOTY said she will always remember when the first five students completing the Elmhurst Learning and Success Academy graduated in 2009. Doty, the ELSA director who helped launch the program for young adults with developmental disabilities in 2005, said that day is one of her fondest memories of her time at Elmhurst. “A celebration,” she called it. Doty, recipient of the Academic Advisor of the Year Award, joined the faculty in 1989.
A music professor at Elmhurst since 1988, MARK HARBOLD has devoted much of his career to the study and teaching of Indian music. He has visited India 14 times, published materials on Indian music, given talks at many Indian colleges and universities, and provided opportunities for students to study and collaborate with Indian musicians at Elmhurst and in India. In 2017–2018, he spent five months teaching and collaborating with faculty at Madras Christian College in Chennai, India, as part of the Fulbright-Nehru U.S. Scholars program.
TED LERUD has shared his love of early English literature and drama with the Elmhurst University community since joining the English faculty in 1984. As associate dean of the faculty, Lerud oversaw the Elmhurst Integrated Curriculum, graduate studies and other academic areas. During his years at Elmhurst he led study away courses in England, Greece, Vietnam and Thailand, and served as a visiting scholar at the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Oxford, England.
JANIS PETRU has had a wide-ranging impact on students as a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. While teaching, she supervised undergraduate and graduate students at the on-campus clinic and the Elmhurst Learning and Success Academy. Petru, who joined the faculty in 2015, has been equally important to her department colleagues, planning seminars, developing curricula, and problem-solving clinical issues.
PIONEER AND ADVOCATE
INTERNATIONAL SCHOLAR
SHAKESPEARE EXPERT VITAL TEACHER AND COLLEAGUE
A FOCUS ON SERVICE
MICHAEL “MICK” SAVAGE came to Elmhurst in 1998 for a one-year teaching appointment—and stayed for 23 years. A professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Savage also served as the director of the University’s Service-Learning Program. In that role he connected students with national and international study away service opportunities, including tutoring schoolchildren, working in orphanages and helping refugees settle into new homes. “This experience is a forever thing with our students,” he said in 2010. “It stays with them and changes them.”
EQUITY LEADER
In January, the University will welcome Bruce King as its inaugural vice president for equity and inclusion.
King comes to Elmhurst from City Colleges of Chicago, where he was the associate vice chancellor for racial equity. Before that, he worked for 13 years at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, where he served as vice president for equity and inclusion, assistant to the president and chief diversity officer.
“Elmhurst University has really thought about how you connect a traditional liberal arts education to the professional world—to career and vocation,” King said. “The University also understands its relation to Chicago, and the potential of harvesting benefits and opportunities from that relationship. In many ways, this role for me is just ideal.”
