By any reasonable standard, the year that just ended at Western Illinois University ranks among the most successful in recent memory. Indeed, more than 85 percent of our most recent graduates report that they would choose Western if they had it all to do over again. This is an extraordinary, and highly gratifying, statistic. Reasons for these results are not difficult to find, because each year Western's academic programs exhibit new evidence of superior achievement.
Programs traditionally recognized for excellence continue to accumulate honors.
In recent months, for example, our College of Education and Human Services became the only school in the nation, to my knowledge, to be designated for a third year in a row as a STAR School for its applications of advanced technology to K-12 education. Meanwhile, other programs have begun to garner levels of recognition that are as well deserved as they are overdue. Of these most recent honors, none, perhaps, is more impressive than that accorded to Professor Thomas P. Drinka's futures program in the Department of Agriculture. Outstanding residential universities provide excellence in co-curricular activities as well. Especially gratifying was the fact that the Leathernecks swept old state rivals Northern, Southern, Eastern, and ISU for what I trust will not be the last time.