April 14, 2003, Northern Today Abridged

President responds to governor's budget message

Citing "mixed feelings" about a financial plan that spares NIU from the most drastic scenarios but cuts deep into resources for the coming fiscal year, President John Peters last week responded to the governor's budget address with caution.

"I write to you today with very mixed feelings about the news we have just received from Springfield," Peters said in an e-mail to faculty and staff. "Today's budget message from Governor Blagojevich revealed his intent to limit drastic cuts to the FY03 budgets of public universities, but requires even greater sacrifice from all of us in FY04."

The worst-case scenario - in which NIU would have been required to send back more than half of its remaining FY03 state dollars - was averted. That proposal (8 percent of the entire year's budget in the remaining three months of the fiscal year) was trimmed back to 2.9 percent, or $3.2 million. At that level, the president said, summer school could proceed as planned.

Peters said he was relieved to see the smaller reserve requirement for FY03, but reminded staff that even the smaller amount represented "a cut on top of a cut on top of a cut."

"At the beginning of this fiscal year, we initiated measures that anticipated further reductions in state support," Peters said. "Those measures included freezes on new hires, equipment purchases and non-essential travel, and the elimination of 46 positions. Other actions included development of internal reserves and negotiation of extended payments on outstanding utility bills. With an exact reduction number now in hand, we know we must take several additional actions to fully meet the governor's FY03 reserve requirement."

Among the new actions under consideration is the initiation of a four-day summer workweek, as well as temporary summer building closures. Money saved by lowered utility, maintenance and security costs will be applied to both the FY03 and FY04 shortfalls. Peters said the idea was being discussed with campus leadership, with a final decision and specific guidelines to be announced soon.

The president told staff he was more troubled by news about FY04, the fiscal year that starts July 1. The governor's plan calls for base budget cuts of 8.2 percent in that year, leaving NIU to operate on about $9.1 million less than it had at the beginning of the current fiscal year.

"Since the beginning of this budget crisis nearly two years ago, we have endured budget cuts and unavoidable cost increases totaling $13 million," Peters said. (This includes $3.5 million in employee health insurance contributions which the state imposed on universities last year and which has been continued into next year.)

"With today's announcement of an additional $9.1 million cut, NIU's base budget level has been driven back the approximately six years, to a level we have not seen since the 1997-1998 school year," he explained.

In spite of the dour financial news from Springfield, Peters remained optimistic about the university's ability to manage its way through the lean months and years ahead.

"The great thing about NIU is that we pull together in tough times. We're going to make it through this crisis because we're prepared, and because we have continued to stay together and stay focused on our service to students," Peters said.

"While we have been waiting for release of the governor's budget before making
specific statements, I assure you that we have been working diligently to manage these cuts while remaining true to the principles I laid out nearly two years ago," Peters explained. "At every level of this university, we have looked for ways to reduce spending without damaging the integrity of the academic program, without threatening the livelihood of large numbers of employees and without endangering the health or safety of any member of our campus community."

Peters said specific action plans are in the works, and that he would continue his practice of communicating with the campus community as soon as decisions have been made and new information becomes available. For the time being, the president said he has asked the campus leadership to explore several new money-saving strategies:

• Implementation of a four-day workweek beginning in June and continuing through the summer months. This change in schedule would not affect salaries, but would allow the university to recognize significant savings in utilities, contractual services and other expenditures.
• Possible consolidation of classes and operations to allow temporary closure of some buildings over the summer. DuSable Hall is one such facility.
• Closing all campus buildings at 11 p.m. during the summer.
• An extended winter shutdown.
• Reductions in all but health-and-safety-related maintenance and repairs.
• Limiting admissions.

Peters said many other streamlining ideas would be discussed in coming weeks, but emphasized that budget cuts are only part of the picture. Pending legislation that would impose limits on tuition and otherwise constrain university flexibility are of equal concern to NIU administrators and trustees.

"Our work from now until the end of the legislative session this summer will focus on proposed legislation that threatens our flexibility in responding to budget crises, increases in enrollment and other financial issues," Peters said.

"To that end, I want to thank all the faculty, staff, students, alumni, board members and others who have contacted legislators on behalf of NIU," Peters added. "It absolutely does make a difference."

NIU professor's icon discovery pushes back
emergence of Andean religion by a millennium

The god on the gourd has a story to tell.

Searching through a looted, unmarked burial ground on a sandy terrace near the Peruvian coastline last summer, NIU's Winifred Creamer and her fellow archaeologists retrieved a fragment of a gourd bowl, made by drying and hollowing out the fruit's shell. A simple image of a god scratched or burned on the gourd may end up rewriting the archaeological textbooks.

"This god on the gourd is telling us about the history of religion in South America," said Creamer, a professor of anthropology. "This discovery pushes back the emergence of the oldest known Andean religion by more than 1,000 years."

Previously, the earliest depiction of the deity, well-known to archaeologists and dubbed the "staff god," dated to about 1000 B.C. Carbon dating of the gourd determined the fragment was more than 4,000 years old, dating to 2250 B.C.

The discovery made headlines today in the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald and newspapers across the country. Creamer, her husband Jonathan Haas of Chicago's Field Museum and Peruvian archaeologist Alvaro Ruiz also describe their find in the latest edition of Archaeology magazine. Ruiz is co-director of the Norte Chico Archaeological Project, named after the region of four valleys being explored by scientists.

The burial ground where the gourd fragment was discovered is located about 120 miles north of Lima, in the Pativilca River Valley of Norte Chico. A second, undated gourd fragment found at a nearby burial ground depicts a similar image of the staff god.

"This image is pervasive throughout the region's Andean cultures," Creamer said. "What the find demonstrates is that Andean religion shared basic principles for a much longer time than we had known. The staff god was worshipped until the Europeans showed up in 1532."

NIU leads Illinois public universities to unite
in bold new statewide education initiative

Close to 700 Illinois schools languish on the state's academic "early warning" and "watch" lists, scrutinized because their young pupils fail to meet standards.

Fewer than half of the state's schools - 43 percent - have integrated curriculum standards mandated in July of 1997. Lack of communication between schools and the colleges and universities that prepare new teachers has produced a gap between what principals expect and what professors deliver. Higher education receives many students who are not ready for college-level courses and require remediation.

Enter Northern Illinois University and a new, statewide initiative aimed at getting all the players at the table at the same time. NIU's "P-20" (preschool through graduate school) initiative is attracting attention from all corners of the state. Last month, 35 deans from the state's public universities gathered at NIU's Naperville campus to flesh out a five-pronged plan for improving teacher quality and student achievement.

"P-20 is a movement that promotes lifelong learning and aligns all educational programs in a continuum that improves transitions at every level," said Anne Kaplan, NIU's vice president for administration and outreach. "By regarding formal education as broader than the typical K-12 concept - starting earlier than kindergarten and continuing beyond high school through the bachelor's degree and into graduate school - we can break down the barriers that have prevented collaboration."

Wheeler ready to move on

During a post-doctoral year at Louisiana State University, Robert Wheeler applied to 100 colleges and universities for a job teaching mathematics.

Only one was north of the Mason-Dixon line. Only one called to schedule an interview. Only one offered a position.

"It was zero at noon, the wind was blowing handsomely, and I wondered what I was doing here," the interim vice provost recalls as he enters the final 75 days of his 31-year career at NIU. A retirement reception for Wheeler will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, in the Regency Room of the Holmes Student Center.

NIU announces recipients of SPS Presidential Awards for Excellence

Four members of NIU's Supportive Professional Staff (SPS) have been chosen to receive the university's Presidential Awards for Excellence.

The recipients are Robert Burk, director of admissions; Michelle Emmett, associate vice provost for Student Affairs; Jack King, internship coordinator in the Department of Sociology, and Donna Prain, information systems manager in the Department of Biological Sciences.

They will be honored at a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, in the Clara Sperling Sky Room in the Holmes Student Center. Each will receive a plaque and $1,000 in appreciation for their outstanding contributions to NIU.

Annual policy survey reveals support for education funding

In the midst of some very difficult economic times, the Illinois Policy Survey offers a bit of good news for higher education: For what it is worth, the people of Illinois support maintaining or boosting funding for education at all levels.

Nearly 95 percent of 1,206 voters polled in January said funding for education, kindergarten through college, should be protected at current levels or increased. They backed up that assertion when asked hypothetical questions about their willingness to pay $25 more a year in taxes to avoid cuts in specific services. Eighty percent were willing to pay that much to avoid cuts in K-12 education, while 56 percent would pay to prevent cuts in higher education.

Work on Gilbert Drive begins next week

Those who regularly travel on and around Gilbert Drive might want to begin scouting for alternate routes to use this spring and summer.

Beginning April 21, crews will start tearing up roads and sidewalk in that vicinity to install chilled water lines and rebuild Gilbert Drive. Work is scheduled for completion by the start of the fall semester.

Niemi seminar to study 'learning organization'

Outside of academia - in the workplace, mostly - a three-pronged model of learning is used to investigate and solve problems for which there seems no answer. Many heads, drawing on their own experience, work better than one - and can assist the organization on how to work as individuals and teams.

"As we look at change in our world today, there are many situations that have never before been experienced in this global world," said John Niemi, a Distinguished Teaching Professor. "There are no past practices to guide us. The theories that sprang from university-based research over the last 80 years often are not applied to the field of practice."

Niemi will try to bridge that gap when he delivers the spring Distinguished Teaching Professor seminar on the learning organization, scheduled for noon Tuesday, April 15, in Holmes Student Center room 305.

NIU photography teacher exhibits works at House

Barbara Stewart Thomas, an instructor of photography in the NIU School of Art since 1990, is holding an exhibit of her work through May 27 at The House, 263 E. Lincoln Hwy.

These photographs are a selection from work Thomas has done over the last 15 years.

The earliest, the black and white print "Water Tower Place, Chicago, 1988," is from my MFA exhibition Women: Image & Myth. She photographed women in public places, contrasting the images of real women with the fantasy images displayed in store windows. One other early photograph is a self-portrait from the series Take Away the Pictures and What do you See? from 1992.

For more information, contact Thomas at (815) 756-3839 or send e-mail to bstewart@sun.soci.niu.edu. Visit Thomas online at http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~bstewart/.

Anger-related workshops continue through April, May

A series of workshops and brown-bag lunches related to anger - expressing it and dealing with it - continues through April and into May.

Sponsored by University Resources for Women, the "Tongue Fu Tuesdays" workshops take place from 4:45 to 6:15 p.m. at the University Resources for Women building at 105 Normal Road. All are welcome.

Topics include "The Awful Zinger: Who Holds a Laser Beam Directed at Your Hot Button?" (April 15), "Perspective Checking: Intent vs. Impact" (April 22), "Tongue in Check: Responding to Unruly Behavior" (April 29), "Road Rage, Line Rage, Movie Rage, Cell Phone Rage, Cubicle Rage …" (May 6) and "Take Charge of Your Emotions: Get More of What You Want, Need and Deserve" (May 13).

Similarly themed brown bag luncheons about dealing with anger are scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. in either the Blackhawk east or west cafeterias of the Holmes Student Center. All are welcome.

Topics include "Breaking Free from the Bulldozer" (Wednesday, April 16, east), "Values vs. Violations: Making the Distinction" (Wednesday, April 23, east), "What to Say When You Don't Know What to Say" (Wednesday, April 30, east) and "Standing on Your Own Two Feet Without Stepping on Someone Else's Toes" (Tuesday, May 6, west).

For more information, call Diane at 753-7913 or Judy at 753-0320.

MTV's 'Real World' castmates scheduled to speak April 22

Theo, of MTV's "The Real World: Chicago," and Trishelle, of "The Real World: Las Vegas," will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, at NIU.

The sixth and final event of the Campus Activities Board Speakers Series takes place in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium in the Holmes Student Center. It is free and open to the public.

Using their unique experiences in the Chicago and Las Vegas houses, Theo and Trishelle will speak about accepting diversity, resolving conflicts, creating and maintaining relationships, coping with grief, developing confidence and much more.

For more information, please call 753-1580, stop by Campus Life Building room 160 or visit www.niu.edu/cab.

Career Planning and Placement to host first recognition tea

The Career Planning and Placement Center will host its first Volunteer and Service Learning Recognition Tea from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday, April 28.

The purpose of this event is to recognize and reward exemplary participants (faculty and students) for their volunteerism, community service and service learning. The Volunteer Tea also recognizes outstanding agencies and volunteer sites that provide opportunities for civic involvement to the NIU campus.

Awards for this event will be based on hours of service, type of project and student or faculty organizational recommendation. Center staff are seeking award applicants. The deadline for applications is today. Individuals or groups can nominate themselves, or be nominated by others. The application form can be downloaded at www.niu.edu/cppc/volunteer/pdfs/pepsi_grant.pdf.

Students and faculty also are sought to serve on the committee that chooses the winners. Individuals who want to help on the committee will be required to commit only a few hours for a couple of days. The committee deadline also is today. Please contact Karen Castelein at kcastelein@niu.edu, or Mary Krabbenhoeft at Rainbo1145@aol.com.

The Public Relations Student Society of America is the lead voluntary organizer and promoter of the recognition tea. Funding for this event is made possible through the Pepsi Quality of Life Grant.

NIU religious ministers rename group

The religious counselors and ministers at NIU have renamed their organization the Association of Campus Religious Organizations to help point out the range of religious centers on the campus.

ACRO replaces the NIU Campus Ministries Association, a 50-year-old name, because while some campus religious workers are ordained ministers, others are faculty members, graduate students and social workers.

"The new name is more inclusive," explained ACRO president Michael Evans, the adviser of the student Latter Days Saints (Mormons) group.

ACRO's secretary is Father Steve Knox, one of the ordained ministers on campus, who works with Newman Catholic Student Center.

The other ACRO members are the Campus Crusade for Christ, Campus Missions International, Hillel Jewish Student Organization, Impact Christian Fellowship, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, the Judson ABC-USA Baptist Fellowship, Lutheran ELCA Campus Ministry, Westminster Presbyterian Ministry, the Lutheran Missouri Synod Student Fellowship, and the Wesley Foundation (also know as United Campus Ministries).

University Health Service receives national accreditation

The NIU University Health Service recently was awarded three-year re-accreditation by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, Inc.

Accreditation is a voluntary, multi-step evaluation process that involves a self-assessment by the organization and an on-site assessment by a team of AAAHC surveyors. AAAHC accreditation is nationally recognized and is one of the highest honors a health care organization can receive for the quality of care it provides.

"We are pleased and proud to have our efforts recognized with this accreditation," said Linda Herrmann, director of UHS. "Accreditation assures that the UHS is continuing to fulfill our long-standing commitment to providing the highest possible levels of quality care to the NIU community."

UHS provides students with quality outpatient health care and health education and services for persons with disabilities. All students, full- or part-time, are eligible to use the health service.

Services available include an acute care clinic, an allergy clinic, the Center for Access-Ability Resources, a gynecology clinic, Health Enhancement Services, a laboratory, a medical clinic, a nutrition area, a pharmacy, physical therapy, preventive medicine, psychiatry and radiology. Most services are available at no additional charge.

For more information, or to schedule an appointment, call 753-1311.

Correction

The Hillel Jewish Student Organization inadvertently was omitted from the list of members in the newly renamed Association of Campus Religious Organizations, which appears corrected above and originally ran in Monday's Northern Today. Hillel was a founding member of the Campus Ministries Association, and was actually the group requesting the more inclusive new name. Northern Today regrets the error.

4-14-03