chancellor's message
Dear friends,
Each year, thousands of Illinois alumni return to campus to experience the magic of Homecoming. For those couple of days, we are reconnected to memories, to people and to our youth.
Homecoming is so powerful because it speaks to our senses. The cool air, the smell of barbecue and hot cocoa, the cheering fans and blaring marching bands. It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were 19 or 20 years old. Remember reading Shakespeare while the wind blew through the raised windows of the English Building? The professor who made math a delight? Drinking strong coffee and studying until 3 a.m.? That awful day your boyfriend broke up with you on the steps of Gregory Hall? And the very next when you saw your future husband reading in the Union – and you just knew he was the one?
We are older and wiser now, and we know we cannot relive those years. But we can cherish them. I hope this week’s Homecoming will help you to do just that.
While you’re on campus, I invite you to revisit old places as well as take in new ones, to see firsthand where the next generation of outstanding scholars and their students are given the freedom, the facilities and the resources to challenge their imaginations and to reshape our world.
We cannot know what the future holds for these promising young people. We can only prepare them to meet the future with knowledge, creativity and commitment – the core values of the University of Illinois.
Thank you for returning to our beautiful campus. I hope this Homecoming will rekindle your memories and create wonderful new ones.
Sincerely,
Chancellor Richard Herman