Western Illinois University’s (WIU) Initiative for Social Justice Pedagogies (ISJP) will host a virtual spring book study in March for Bettina L. Love’s book, “We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom.” This book study is open to anyone in the WIU community who is interested in educational reform and civic engagement: current and future educators, staff, administration and community members. This book study will meet a total of four times: March 10, 17, 24, 31, from noon-1 p.m. Love is an award-winning author and a professor... Read More

For faculty at Western Illinois University, watching their students excel in and out of the classroom is gratifying. When that academic work crosses over into the University’s core values, and includes unique and ground breaking research, that pride is elevated. As Recreation, Park and Tourism Administration (RPTA) graduate student Taylor Brooks, of Chicago, finishes her degree, she is doing research on the exploring how Black residents’ leisure choices and involvement are impacted by living in a rural part of the country. Her research helped her win the poster presentation division... Read More

The pandemic has suppressed live theater performances and movie theaters alike, but it hasn’t brought down Leslie LaCorte’s spirits. LaCorte, a Language Arts/Theater instructor at North High School in Davenport, IA, is working to keep her students excited about acting by turning it into a virtual experience. Back in early 2020, LaCorte’s theater students were working to stage a production of the musical, Into The Woods. but then the COVID-19 virus began to spread. The resulting national pandemic made it necessary to cancel the production. “We kept up rehearsals online,” she said, “we... Read More

A Western Illinois University Recreation, Park and Tourism Administration professor and a department graduate student have helped create a virtual field trip program through the Regional Office of Education to give young people some fun activities during COVID-19. Winter Wanderings was created through the McDonough County Youth Task Force, with help from RPTA Instructor Jullie Eggleston and RPTA graduate student Rok Locksley, of Takoma Park, MD. The task force is chaired by RPTA Assistant Professor Megan Owens. The collaborative field trip project is designed to engage children from around the... Read More

Think about the person you are now. You are a product of your time. Of your upbringing. Of your environment. Think about the person you were before the pandemic. Just a year ago. Different person? Think about you 10 years ago. Different person? How about 20 years ago or more, around the time of 9/11. Different person? We all evolve, we all change, according to our times, environments and circumstances. The question, as always, is how do we change and how much? Is it for good? Is it for ill? This week, the estate of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, which controls the late author’s books, decided... Read More

The past couple months have been a busy time in the private college presidential search business in the Quad-Cities. In late January, Augustana College president Steven Bahls announced he was delaying his planned retirement one year – from July 2021 to July 1, 2022. In early February, St. Ambrose University concluded its search process for the 14th president of the Davenport institution, naming Amy C. Novak, president of Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, S.D., to take the helm this August, with the retirement of Sister Joan Lescinski. And in late February, Augustana in Rock Island held... Read More

In late October 2020, Quad City Arts’ Visiting Artist Series launched the Educational Resources project with content from 11 professional performing artists. A dozen new artists presenting a broad selection of music, dance, theatre and visual arts are joining the project as of Friday, March 5, for a total of 21 artists and ensembles participating. Quad City Arts has enlisted these performers, including a North Carolina rapper and banjo player, a former NPR “Tiny Desk Concert” contestant, and an emerging Chicago dance studio, to create videos and documents to be shared with Quad City educators... Read More

MACOMB/MOLINE, IL — COVID-19 surveillance testing is underway at Western Illinois University and will continue as the semester progresses. Additional open appointment times may be added periodically for those who would like to be tested,but have not been selected as part of the surveillance test population. In addition, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has added select dates for free test clinics on the WIU-Macomb campus (see below). Each week, approximately 700 students, faculty and staff* will receive an email encouraging them to get a free COVID test provided by Beu Health... Read More

Christina Myatt, drama director at Pleasant Valley High School in Bettendorf, continues to give her students acting options. Live theater has persisted during Covid, and their latest production – the small, intimate “Feiffer’s People” – was performed in front of audiences at PV last weekend, and a filmed version will be shown online at 7 p.m. Friday, March 5 and Saturday, March 6. “It went really well,” Myatt said Monday of the eight-member cast in PV’s huge auditorium, at 25-percent capacity maximum. “It’s a smaller cast, it allows us to work in a way, people aren’t on top... Read More

Less than three months after securing its lease and creating its name, the new Deanery School of Music has chosen its first executive director, Rishi Wagle of Bettendorf. A 2016 Pleasant Valley High School alum and 2020 graduate of Brown University, he will work closely with the board and with Hannah Holman, the school’s artistic director, to address the many initiatives associated with the start of this new and unique cultural organization serving the Quad-Cities. “There are so many moving parts associated with an adventure like this that we feel it needs someone who is a quick learner with... Read More