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In this Issue

WIU Continues Investigation of Shooting Threat | Fifty Years Later, Still a Season to Remember | Search for New Head Men's Basketball Coach | WIU Rolls Through the Windy City | Fraternity and Sorority Community Sets Plan

WIU Continues Investigation of March 26 Shooting Threat

The Office of Public Safety (OPS) at Western Illinois University and Macomb Police are continuing their investigation of a threat that was received sometime March 26 regarding a shooting on campus. The note alluding to a shooting on campus was left in an off-campus apartment complex's payment drop-box.

WIU responded to the threat by issuing an alert via the WIU Emergency Alert System; posting information and continual updates on the WIU homepage; securing residence halls so the buildings were accessible only by residents with keys; increasing campus police patrols, with additional assistance from the Illinois State Police, Macomb Police Department and the McDonough County Sheriff's Office; and making class attendance optional March 26.

Click here to read the full story.

Photo: Courtesy of KHQA.com

Fifty Years Later, Still a Season to Remember

A perfect season is typically defined as a team going undefeated. Close games, nail biters and buzzer-beaters often become the norm when in pursuit of perfection. This was what the 1957-58 Western Illinois men's basketball team faced as it pursued the NAIA National Title. While a single loss on a record can prevent a season from being “perfect”, sometimes it can't prevent a team from being remembered.

Fifty years ago, Leroy “Stix” Morley entered his 11th season as head coach of the Fighting Leathernecks. Expectations were high as Western was coming off a 22-3 campaign in which it fell by just two points to eventual national champion Tennessee A&I in the quarterfinals of the 1957 NAIA National Tournament. Coach Morley had built the Leatherneck program into a respected national contender.

Click here to read the full story.

Western Illinois Searches for New Head Men's Basketball Coach

After five seasons as Head Men's Basketball Coach, Derek Thomas stepped down last month. Director of Athletics Tim Van Alstine hopes to have a new coach named by mid-April.

In the first two weeks of the search for a head men's basketball coach Western Illinois University received approximately 60 applications, which will now be narrowed down to a list of eight to 12 by a screening committee comprised of University administrators.

Click here to read the full story.

WIU Rolls Through the Windy City

If you are in the Chicago area, be on the look out for WIU on CTA. Through this month, WIU posters will be on the backs of 25 Chicago Transit Authority buses traveling throughout the Loop and the North Lake Shore Drive areas of the city. In addition, two buses have their back ends completely wrapped in purple displaying our logo and a WIU student.

Building on the success of Western's first outdoor Chicago advertising campaign last spring which contributed to a 3.5% increase in applications at WIU this past fall, University Marketing, the Office of Admissions and the Division of Student Services are partnering for Western's second Chicago spring outdoor advertising campaign.

Click here to read the full story.

Fraternity and Sorority Community Sets Strategic Plan for the Future

To coincide with Western Illinois University's strategic plan initiatives, Western's fraternity and sorority community has created the strategic plan "A Return to Higher Values in the Fraternity and Sorority Community" at WIU to enhance its future on the WIU-Macomb campus.

According to Assistant Director of Student Activities Will Foran, three years ago Western was one of 27 schools to participate in the Association of Fraternity Advisors (AFA)/Educational Benchmarking (EBI) Greek Life assessment, which is a tool that measures the perceptions that members have of their fraternity or sorority experience. Foran said Western's participation in the study showed that Greek life at WIU was doing well in several areas, but also highlighted the need for improvement in several key areas related to the fraternity and sorority experience.

Click here to read the full story.

**Congratulations to the April winner--Lisa Cross Bathe '91. She found Rocky in the 1957-58 Basketball Season full story. Watch for your chance to win in May!

Can you find this exact Rocky (in black and white) some where else in the eNewsletter? If you find him, email us at A-Association@wiu.edu and let us know where he was placed. If you're the first one to email us, you'll win a WIU Prize Pack! Good luck.

Congratulations to the March winner--Debra Aimers Loehrke '75. She found Rocky at the bottom of the College of Education & Human Services webpage.

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