The place: the Quad. The time: October 1990, Ryan Gower's freshman year at Illinois.
“I was walking south looking at Foellinger Auditorium in the distance. The sky was blue and the air crisp," says the now-president at Lincoln Trail College in Robinson.
“Then the bells began playing from Altgeld Hall. It was the first time I felt lucky and humble to be a part of such an amazing place.
“To me, that mental picture captures my Illinois experience. Even as a faculty member, walking from Huff Hall to teach on the Quad, every time those bells would play it would remind me if the thousands of alumni whose futures were launched to the same notes of ‘Illinois Loyalty.’”
