Campus News

For immediate release – 8/08/14
Director of Communications Rita Elliott, 815-226-3374

Rockford, Ill. — Rockford University is pleased to announce its fall 2014 Forum Series schedule. The University will host nine events this fall that span a wide variety of topics and interests. The public is invited and encouraged to attend all events. With the exception of the theatre production, forum events are offered at no charge. All lectures and performances take place on the Rockford University campus, 5050 East State Street, Rockford. Tickets are required for all events. Please contact the Rockford University Box Office at 815-226-4100 or boxoffice@rockford.edu to reserve your tickets or for more information.

12 p.m., Maddox Theatre, Clark Arts Center
President’s Opening Convocation

The 2014-2014 Rockford University academic year begins with a traditional convocation and remarks from President Robert L. Head, Ph.D. The formal opening convocation event has been held annually since 1851. Opening Convocation includes a faculty procession in full academic regalia.

Wednesday, September 17
4 p.m., Fisher Memorial Chapel
Constitution Day Lecture by Ron Lee, Adjunct Professor at Rockford University

Constitution Day recognizes the adoption of the United States Constitution. The U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the constitution on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia. This year’s guest speaker is Rockford University Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Ron Lee.

Wednesday, September 17
6 p.m., Maddox Theatre, Clark Arts Center
Celebration of Peace: Interview with Rajmohan Gandhi, Ph.D., by Rockford University President Robert L. Head, Ph.D.

Dr. Rajmohan Gandhi is a research professor at the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Associated from 1956 with Initiatives of Change (formerly known as Moral Re-Armament), Dr. Gandhi has been engaged for half a century in efforts for trust-building, reconciliation and democracy and in battles against corruption and inequalities.

Formerly a member (1990-92) of the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Indian Parliament), Dr. Gandhi led the Indian delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva in 1990. In 2004 he received the International Humanitarian Award (Human Rights) from the City of Champaign, and in 1997 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of law from the University of Calgary (Canada) and an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Obirin University, Tokyo. He currently also serves as a Jury Member, Nuremberg International Human Rights Award, and Co-chair, Centre for Dialogue & Reconciliation, Gurgaon, India.

Monday, September 22
7 p.m., Fisher Memorial Chapel
Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Reverse It)
Robert Lupton, Ph.D.

Dr. Bob Lupton has invested over 40 years of his life in inner-city Atlanta. In response to a call that he first felt while serving in Vietnam, he left a budding business career to work with delinquent urban youth. Bob and his family sold their suburban home and moved into the inner-city where they have lived and served as neighbors among those in need. As an entrepreneur and Christian community developer he brings together communities of resource with communities of need. Since founding the non-profit organization FCS Urban Ministries he has developed two mixed income subdivisions, organized a multi-racial congregation, started a number of businesses, created housing for hundreds of families and initiated a wide range of human services in his community. Bob is the author of five books and a monthly circulation. He will be speaking about his newest book, Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Reverse It).

Tuesday, October 21
7 p.m., Maddox Theatre, Clark Arts Center
Tales that the Dead Can’t Tell
Gary Telgenhoff, D.O.

Dr. Gary Telgenhoff sees dead people — and often in the most gruesome ways imaginable. A real life CSI consultant in Las Vegas, Nev., “Dr. T” is a forensic pathologist and Deputy Medical Examiner who uses science and his own macabre sense of humor to bring audiences of hit television shows “Bones” and CSI” the tales that the dead can’t tell.

Monday, October 27
7 p.m., Fisher Memorial Chapel
Tres Vidas

Tres Vidas (Three Lives) is a live music theatre work for a singing actress and instrument trio (cello, piano and percussion), based on the lives of three legendary Latin American Women: Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, Salvadoran peasant activist Rufina Amaya and Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni. The music ranges from traditional Mexican folk and Argentine tango songs sung in Spanish to instrumental works by composers such as Astor Piazzolla and Osvaldo Golijov.

Wednesday, October 29
7 p.m., Maddox Theatre, Clark Arts Center
The Special Consensus Bluegrass Band

The Special Consensus is a four person acoustic bluegrass band that began performing in the Midwest in the spring of 1975. The first band album was released in 1979 when the band began touring on a national basis; they have recorded fifteen albums since then. In 1984, The Special Consensus initiated the Traditional American Music (TAM) Program in schools across the country and began appearing on cable television and National Public Radio shows. In 2003 they performed on the Grand Ole Opry at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. The band’s sixteenth recording, “Scratch Gravel Road,” was released by Compass Records in March 2012 and was nominated for the Best Bluegrass Album GRAMMY Award. The song “Monroe’s Doctrine” from that recording was nominated for the IBMA Recorded Event of the Year award in 2012. “Country Boy – A Bluegrass Tribute to John Denver”, the band’s seventeenth album, was released in March 2014 to instant critical acclaim.

Tuesday, November 4
7 p.m., Fisher Memorial Chapel
Motivational Speaker Bill Breakey

Throughout his career as a school administrator, business consultant and professional speaker, Bill Breakey has helped organizations find solutions for the long run. He is a motivational speaker, corporate trainer and educator who believes that two of the most important days in our lives are: the day we’re born and the day we discover why we were born.

Thursday, November 20 – Saturday, November 22; 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 23; 2:00 p.m.
Maddox Theatre, Clark Arts Center
Babes in Arms

The quintessential “Hey kids, let’s put on a show!” musical boasts one of the greatest scores ever written. Set in a summer stock theatre, the plot concerns a group of young apprentices and their conviction to mount the original revue they have created while dodging the underhanded attempts of the surly theatre owner to squash their attempts at every turn. Further complications are provided by the overbearing stage mother of an ex-child star and the inflated ego of a hack Southern playwright. But of course the show must go on, and so it does in a resolution of comeuppance, reconciliation and romance.

About the Rockford University Forum Series:
Each semester, the Rockford University Forum Series presents speakers from a variety of disciplines and performers of stature in the arts. The series is designed to deepen and broaden students’ education at Rockford University. All full-time undergraduate students are required to attend a minimum of two Forum Series events each semester. The series has hosted many notable presenters like Oscar Arias, the Tibetan Lamas of Drepung Loseling monastery, Benazir Bhutto, the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra, Naomi Tutu, and Twyla Tharpe.