April 28, 2003, Northern Today Abridged

University prepares for summer four-day workweeks

Four-day workweeks - a money-saving strategy scheduled for most of the summer - begin June 2.

NIU's campus will fall mostly quiet Fridays, as an estimated 3,500 employees stay home. Only specific essential service and maintenance functions and those that normally operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, such as Public Safety, will remain in force.

Other employees will complete the required 37.5 hours a week by working from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday with abbreviated lunches from noon to 12:40 p.m.

The new schedule remains in effect through Friday, Aug. 8. One exception is the week of the Fourth of July - it falls on a Friday this summer - when normal 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. hours with 60-minute lunches make a temporary return.

"We get different feedback," said Steve Cunningham, associate vice president for administration and human resources. "It's an initiative very popular with many employees. Others have day care and logistics issues that make the schedule somehwat more difficult to adapt to. A certain number of employees really prefer a five-day schedule. Generally, it's been well accepted."

Cunningham said the decision, stemming from President John Peters' April 9 budget message to NIU employees, was made after extensive consultation with university constituencies including the Operating Staff Council, the Supportive Professional Staff Council, the University Council, the Council of Deans, the Secretarial Advisory Committee and other area representatives.

"Those meetings went quite well," he said, "especially in the context of the current budget crisis and everyone pitching in to help the university do whatever it can do to work with the crisis and, at the same time, maintain our priority of protecting people's jobs."

Commitments were made to the employee councils that behoove university supervisors to allow as much flexibility as possible with respect to employee schedules.

However, individual supervisors also are responsible for ensuring that university offices remain open during the required hours of operation and that the business needs of the university are met. The divisional vice presidents will monitor implementation of summer work schedule options within their respective areas of administration.

Employees can adjust the starting and ending times of their daily schedules within a 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. frame. Those unable to adapt to the four-day week can, with the concurrence of their supervisors, work something less than the 9.4-hour scheduled work day and use accumulated vacation time for the remainder of the day or take the time without pay.

Hourly employees are eligible for overtime pay or compensating time off if the employee works more than 9.4 hours in any one day or more than 37.5 hours in one work week. Overtime schedules are subject to supervisory approval.

Sick leave and vacation days will be earned and used on the basis of 9.4 hours per day. Exempt civil service and supportive professional staff employees will claim 1.25 days while hourly employees will claim 9.4 hours for each sick day used.

With an awareness that employees will lose 30 minutes of rest period time while working a full schedule during four days instead of five days per week, supervisors can adjust rest periods on a daily basis to allow for the additional 30 minutes. The rest period must be preceded and followed by a substantial work period. Rest periods may not be taken as late arrivals, early departures or extended lunch periods.

NIU has implemented four-day workweeks before, a couple times during the 1980s and a couple times during the early 1990s.

Summer construction projects begin

It happens every year: the weather warms, students leave and construction crews converge on campus. This year will be no exception, with 19 projects underway or poised to start within the next few weeks.

This year's projects range from relatively small undertakings to major construction.

They include:

• Expansion of the parking lot at the Human Resources building.
• Cleaning and repair of Davis Hall exterior stonework.
• Construction of a new walkway from Barsema Hall to Parking Lot A-1.
• Replacement of two bridges near the East Lagoon.
• Construction of a new, high-tech mock courtroom in Swen Parson Hall. Renovation of Chick Evans Field House.
• Replacement of the roof over the ballroom at the Holmes Center, and a remodeling of the ballroom itself.
• Reconstruction of the Visitor's Parking Lot.
• Reconstruction of the College Avenue turnaround in front of Altgeld Hall.
• Infrastructure improvements for a new chilled water cooling system on the East Campus.
• Reconstruction of Gilbert Drive.
• The start of construction of a new "clean room" at the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology

Details of all of those projects can be found online at www.niu.edu/improvements. The list will be updated periodically to track progress of the work.

Two University Police officers plan retirement party

University Police Sgts. Albert "Swede" Ekstrom and Dave Wickstrom are leaving the force after a combined 50 years on the job.

A party in their honor is scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m. Friday, May 16, at the old farmhouse grounds on Annie Glidden Road just north of Baker's Square. Presentations are at 2:30 p.m. Please park in lots H and D1 on West Campus near the party location.

National Medical Laboratory Week
recognizes professionals for service

Medical laboratory professionals were recognized for their service last week during National Medical Laboratory Week. This year's theme was "Laboratory Professionals: Exceptional People, Exceptional Work."

Laboratory professionals help to prevent disease by detecting unknown health problems and by aiding in the diagnosis and treatment of existing conditions by giving accurate, timely test results.

"We are proud of the work we do," said Christine Ewald, University Health Service laboratory supervisor. "We have to be painstakingly meticulous in performing our jobs to provide dependable answers for our patients' physicians."

In addition to the 31,000 laboratory tests and procedures the staff performed last year, members also took part in training NIU students in clinical laboratory science programs and performed venipunctures, more commonly known as drawing blood, for NIU Wellness Fair participants who requested cholesterol and thyroid blood tests.

College of Law library announces special hours

Hours for the David C. Shapiro Memorial Law Library from today through Tuesday, May 13, are 7:15 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Thursday; 7:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sundays.

Hours Wednesday, May 14, are 7:15 a.m. to 6 p.m. Hours Thursday, May 15, through Friday, May 23, are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Memorial Day weekend hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 24, and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 25. The library is closed Memorial Day.

For more information, call 753-0505.

Campus Recreation to host
7th annual Poker Walk

In celebration of National Employee Health and Fitness Day, the Office of Campus Recreation will host the 7th annual Poker Walk beginning at 11:15 a.m. Thursday, May 15.

Participants are invited to walk a course, approximately 1 mile, and pick up playing cards along the way. Volunteers will review the cards at the end of the walk to see what hands were dealt. Depending on the poker hand, great prizes will be won. Poker Walk teams are encouraged from each department.

Participants must pre-register by Friday, May 9, and those interested can get more information and obtain registration forms by contacting Anna Shearer at 753-9421 or sheareranna@hotmail.com. Check in at the Student Recreation Center. Participants may begin walking anytime between 11:15 a.m. and 12:45 p.m.

Public invited to screening of NIU student documentaries

The NIU Department of Communication will host the screening of student documentary shorts from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday, May 4, at Diversions Lounge in the Holmes Student Center.

The free event is open to the public. The evening will feature documentaries produced by students of Professor Laura Vazquez, who teaches an advanced field production course (COMS 426) and oversees independent study projects. Each semester Vazquez encourages the students to show their work publicly.

"Students in media production courses work very hard to acquire footage and edit a narrative," she said. "They learn by receiving feedback on their documentaries, but more importantly, these are stories that the public is interested in viewing. We've had very good turnouts at this event in past years.

"Students select their own subject matter," Vazquez added, "so the films carry a great diversity of content."

One of this year's student films is being produced for Easter Seals. The untitled documentary by Lauren Pollock and Casper Rice follows the daily life of Sam Williams, a 19-year-old man with cerebral palsy. A high school senior, Williams is bound for the University of Illinois next fall. He also is a state bocce ball champion.

The Department of Communication contributed production assistance toward the documentary's making. "Easter Seals will own the documentary and hopes to broadcast it if possible," Vazquez said. "So it's a wonderful opportunity for our students to have their work seen by an even larger audience."

NIU, DeKalb Area Women's Center
to host exhibit of Venezuelan art

Two exhibitions of Venezuelan art - impressive displays of contemporary works by Venezuela-born artists - soon will visit DeKalb.

The NIU Latino Center, home to the University Resources for Latinos and the Center for Latino and Latin American Studies, and the DeKalb Area Women's Center (DAWC) are hosting the shows, organized exclusively for the DeKalb sites.

The Venezuelan Consultate has orchestrated the display of this significant cultural exchange on the first anniversary of the group art show held at the DeKalb venue last spring. The work of Carlos Solis, of Colibri Gallery/Studio in Chicago, is on display at the Latino Center on NIU's campus, 515 Garden Road. Solis is a muralist and free-lance artist who studied graphic design at the College of DuPage.

The companion show by Montserrat Alsina is installed at the DAWC, 1021 State Street in DeKalb. Alsina, a printmaker, painter and performance artist, holds a master's degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

DAWC Gallery Director Anna Marie Coveny, Venezuelan Cultural Attache Alexis Leone and Alsina, were instrumental in arranging for the two solo exhibits. "Whisperings/Murmullos II" also will be on display in DeKalb from April 30 to May 30 through the generosity of Ana M. Gonzalez, the general consultate of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The Latino Center is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The DAWC gallery hours are from 7 to 9 p.m. Fridays and by appointment.

The public is invited to a double opening reception to celebrate a "Day of Venezuelan Culture" from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 3, at the Latino Center and from 5 to 7 p.m. at the DAWC. Admission is free. Venezuelan food and beverage will be available at Las Margaritas, 1262 W. Lincoln Hwy., where Balle Folklórico venezolano will perform at 7:30 p.m.

Visitors can arrange their own transportation between venues with parking on campus in the NIU Visitors Lot. The Latino Center has an accessible ramp on the north side of the building.

DAWC parking is available one-half block south of the building off 11th Street and south of the alley, between and parallel to State and Market streets. The accessible lift can be reached from the alley just north of the 1021 State Street building.

For further details on this event or to arrange a group showing, contact Anna Marie Coveny at 758-1351.

4-28-03