PHOTO: William and Dian Taylor (right) with IVCC Director of Community Relations and Development Fran Brolley (left) and IVCC President Jerry Corcoran at the Taylor’s Winnetka home.

An alumni couple from Winnetka has pledged $100,000 toward Illinois Valley Community College’s capital campaign for enhancement within the Peter Miller Community Technology Center.

As a result of their multi-year pledge, IVCC will name its new counseling and admissions area within the CTC “The William and Dian Taylor Student Development Commons.”

Bill and Dian Taylor, graduates of IVCC predecessor La Salle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College, have been among the IVCC Foundation’s most generous contributors.

“This is another example of Bill and Dian demonstrating remarkable leadership,” said IVCC President Jerry Corcoran. “Once again, they’ve invested their hard earned financial resources to provide opportunity for others.”

Bill Taylor said of the gift, “It is important to us that today’s Illinois Valley students receive individualized career counseling that is integrated with their chosen transfer institution in an effective 21st century environment.”

The Student Development Commons, located on two stories on the west end of the 80,000-square-foot technology center, will be home to counseling, career services and Project Success, as well as admissions, records and registration, financial aid and the cashier.

New to the Commons will be a dedicated resource center providing high-tech resources for students and counselors such as E-Advising, College Scheduler, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), recruitment management software and a portal to allow mobile communication between the college and students.

“The generosity of the Taylors is amazing and will allow us to make significant enhancements to the student experience in the Counseling Center, Career Services and Project Success programs,” said Tracy Morris, Associate Vice President for Student Services.

“We will be able to provide students with the latest technology to assist with career planning, course planning, and communication with transfer institutions to create a smoother transition to the four-year colleges,” Morris added.

Director of Community Relations and Development Fran Brolley said the Taylors have provided significant support to IVCC and its students since Bill retired as a senior partner with Big 4 accounting firm Deloitte in 2005.

“To IVCC, the Taylor’s are once-in-a-generation donors,” said Brolley. “They’re not interested in recognition. What they’re passionate about, what they love to see, is the students they’ve invested in succeeding.”

Each year, the Taylors provide a full-tuition scholarship to an IVCC accounting student transferring to Northern Illinois University to study accounting. The award is worth up to $25,000 to each student.

They also provide $10,000 annually to IVCC for 10 scholarships. This year alone, the Taylors are supporting 15 current and former IVCC students at IVCC and NIU. In addition, they provided seed money to create the alumni coordinator position at IVCC and are charter members of the Foundation’s 21^st Century Scholars Society.