Authentically AU: News and Views from the President

When I was in college, I was fascinated by the stories of those who lived in planned or intentional communities — often set apart from the world with a goal of changing it. Now I am revisiting some of the texts that meant so much to me as an undergraduate to see what I might...

It’s not New Years, but I have a resolution. After taking a long COVID hiatus, I am ready to blog again. Like colleges across the country, Aurora University sent students, faculty, and staff home in March of 2020. Within months, we began the process of reassembling the AU family on campus...

I am thinking about summer today. Memorial Day weekend is only hours away. For many of us, this holiday marks the beginning of summer — at least symbolically. In my small hometown, Memorial Day began with a parade to the cemetery, where the high school band played their final notes of the...

Sadly, though America often is described as a “nation of immigrants,” the real stories are too often painful to recount. For Chinese Americans this has been especially true. In the mid-1850s, natural disasters in China and news of the Gold Rush in California triggered the first major...

Two of our greatest American presidents were born in February. During my rural Illinois childhood, we celebrated Abraham Lincoln and George Washington by making silhouettes of the two leaders. Today I sat for a few moments and tried to remember exactly how this annual art project progressed. To...