On Thursday, February 7, hundreds of basketball fans will gather to see match-ups between the Kansas Wesleyan University and Sterling College basketball teams. However, rather than purple and gold on one side, this year there will be red. Kansas Wesleyan continues its heart disease awareness mission with a Red Out. During the game, fans will wear red to honor loved ones while helping to fight heart disease and stroke.

Kansas Wesleyan is pleased to announce the selection of Dr. Matthew R. Thompson as the 19^th president of the University.

Dr. Thompson comes to Kansas Wesleyan from Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida where he has served most recently as the Vice President for Advancement and previously as the Vice President and Dean of Student Development. He also served as the Special Assistant to the President/Director of Special Projects at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.

This week KWU commemorates the life and achievements of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with several events and displays. Today at 3pm in room 203 of the Student Activities Center, we will be screening "The Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr". This 60 minute video is a collection of several of his most important speeches. In addition to a few of the shorter speeches, it also contains in their entirely his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and his 1968 "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech delivered the day before his assassination.

Three Kansas Wesleyan University band members were recently selected to perform with the Kansas Intercollegiate Band. Chiton Brinson of Lyons, Kan. was selected on the trumpet; Shelby Westfahl, Hutchinson, Kan., will play the oboe; Landon Livingston was selected as a percussion alternate. Livingston is from Mahaska, Kan.

Peggy Medina, a lifelong Salina resident, will have her work up in the Gallery at Kansas Wesleyan University starting Tuesday, January 22.         

“I have wanted to be an artist since I was a small child,” said Medina. “Over the years, I have always had my hands in some kind of art of craft.”

Salina, Kan. – Allen Casey, assistant manager and soil conservationist at the Plant Materials Center of the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service in Elsberry, Missouri, will give a presentation on Thursday, January 17, at Kansas Wesleyan University. The presentation is part of a partnership with the Smoky HIlls Audubon Society.

Casey, an authority on pollinators, will give a presentation entitled, “Help for Declining Native Pollinators – Bees, Bats and Butterflies – Among Others”.

Kansas Wesleyan University is proud to announce the second annual symposium entitled Media (Re)flections: Hate Crimes, Serial Killers, and Mass Communications, to be held during the last week of January 2013 on the KWU campus.

On behalf of the Kansas Wesleyan University Presidential Search Committee, I am excited to report to you that three outstanding candidates have been selected as finalists in the search process, after interviews with our eight semi-finalists this past weekend.

* Dr. Brian McGee and his wife Deborah will be on campus this week (January 9-11). Dr. McGee is currently the Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the President at the College of Charleston.