Parker, Scudder and Sinason win
2003 undergraduate teaching awards

Their inspiration - and their recognition - come from the students.

Jenny Parker, Joseph Scudder and David Sinason, this year's recipients of Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, now enjoy the university's longest-standing honor. It stands in a class of its own because the nominations and subsequent words of support originate with the young minds on the other side of the classroom.

"It's very special because it's student-initiated," said Parker, an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education. "That's the most meaningful input I can get."

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G. Allan O'Connor wanted to form a steel drum band at Northern Illinois University when he arrived as a young professor in 1968, but it would take five more years before he could assemble a set of instruments.

After one of his private students located some during a trip to the Caribbean in 1973, however, the nation's first collegiate steel band sprung to life.

Now 30 years later, the world renowned NIU Steel Band will celebrate its past, present and future during "Thirty Years of Steel," a special concert scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday, April 27, in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall in the Music Building.

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Just try to leave Kuo-Huang Han's office without a handful of Asian candy.

The 32-year professor in the NIU School of Music keeps a generous stash of sweets from the Far East in his top desk drawer, an edible example of his fascination with the culture of foreign countries.

"All these candies are made not only tasty, but their wrappers are different," Han says, examining a plum wine confection in a pink-and-white paper. "I like different kinds of music. Why not different kinds of candy?"

That try-anything philosophy defines Han's career, which will begin to wind down after next Sunday's semi-annual world music concert.

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The surgery was routine. The stroke afterward was not.

Sue Elster, a professor in the NIU School of Nursing, had bilateral replacements of both knees Jan. 9, 2001. While lying in the recovery room, she suffered a moderate stroke that affected the right side of her brain and the area of the brain where speech is located.

"It was just brutal," said Elster, who since has returned to work at the School of Nursing.

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While the arrival of spring makes most people think about April showers and May flowers, it has NIU Staff Meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste thinking about tornado safety.

Of course, as the person charged with ensuring that the campus is prepared for severe weather, that is his job.

His latest effort in that regard was unveiled Friday, when he upgraded service on the campus weather website to include local NOAA weather forecasts and warnings direct from the National Weather Service.

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NIU will mark Asian American Heritage Month with more than 20 events in April, including lectures, foreign films, a fashion show, career workshops and a "Taste of Asia." Festivities kick off with a student, faculty and staff reception Tuesday, April 1.

Throughout the month, activities will highlight Asian and Asian-American cultures, heritage and accomplishments. Asian Americans represent the second largest minority on campus at NIU.

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The month of April will bring five major guest speakers and performers to NIU as part of the university's annual celebration of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Awareness Month. Headlining the month are gender activist Nomy Lamm, author Alice Hom, renowned scholar John D'Emilio, performers About Face Youth Theatre and educator Dan Woog.

The month of events also will include an open house for the new Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Resource Center at NIU, the seventh annual drag and variety show, a poetry night, the ninth annual Eychaner Award Dinner Banquet and an LGBT Formal.

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The language of gestures for infants can increase learning and speech development, reduce communication frustrations between infants and parents, and provide a bridge for infants facing slower speech development.

The development of a special program for parents to use gesture communication with their infants is the objective of a new collaboration between the Kiwanis Club of DeKalb and the NIU Department of Communicative Disorders in the College of Health and Human Sciences. The next pilot session for parents or caregivers and their infants starts Monday, April 7.

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Kudos

Student art exhibit ongoing
ars nova, a juried student gallery exhibit juried by Ed Paschke, is open through Friday, April 11, in the Jack Olson Gallery in the NIU Visual Arts Building. For more information, visit www.sa.niu.edu/arsnova.

Lecturer at NIU to address
'cult of thinness,' body image
Sharlene Hesse-Biber, author and professor of sociology at Boston College, is coming to Northern Illinois University to discuss the factors sustaining "the cult of thinness" that has taken over the lives of so many.

This program at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 2, in the Wirtz Hall auditorium on the NIU campus, will explain how societal factors influence the development of body image and how a distorted body image can lead to disordered eating. In addition, it will challenge the notion that thinness equals contentment.

Hesse-Biber's latest book, "Am I Thin Enough Yet? The Cult of Thinness and the Commercialization of Identity," will provide the basis for this free lecture. All are welcome.

This program is sponsored by the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences (FCNS), and will help mark the beginning of a new FCNS program: the Certificate of Graduate Study in Eating Disorders and Obesity. This lecture also is co-sponsored by Student Housing and Dining Services, the School of Allied Health, the Department of Communicative Disorders, the School of Nursing and Women's Studies.

For more information on this lecture, please call the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences at 753-1543.

Noted new author to
visit campus Wednesday
Author Elizabeth Crane, whose new book has won widespread critical acclaim, will visit NIU for a free public reading and book signing Wednesday, April 2.

Crane will read from her newly published book of short stories, "When the Messenger Is Hot," beginning at 8 p.m. in the Chandelier Room of Adams Hall. She also will field questions from the audience before the book signing.

"I've heard Elizabeth read, and her stories are imaginative, offbeat and whimsical - and at the same time very moving," said NIU English professor Keith Gandal, who arranged the visit. Crane also will visit with students in Gandal's advanced creative writing class Thursday, April 3.

"We're very pleased to have Elizabeth on campus," Gandal said. "Because she's a writer who has just published her first book of stories, I think this event will be particularly interesting and inspiring to students."

The Washington Post calls Crane's new book "a boldly original collection" of short stories, and a January feature on the author in the Chicago Tribune carried the headline, "When the Writer Is Hot."

According to the New York Times Book Review, "Crane has a distinctive and eccentric voice that is consistent and riveting from the first story to the last."

More information about the author is available at her Web site, www.elizabethcrane.com. --PHOTO

Concert to celebrate
life of Donald Walker
The Northern Illinois University School of Music will present a concert celebrating the life and work of Donald Walker, professor of piano at NIU from 1967 through 2002. Walker, a renowned and beloved performer, teacher, colleague and friend to countless members of the NIU community and the international music world, passed away in September of 2002.

The free concert will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 5, in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall in the Music Building located on Lucinda Avenue. It is open to the public.

Performing on the program will be School of Music faculty artists William Goldenberg and the Vermeer Quartet as well as former students of Donald Walker. There will be readings by Alan Chesler and Carolyn Ashley, and recorded excerpts from Donald Walker's solo piano recitals.

For additional information, please call Bill Koehler at 753-8746, Diane Ragains at 753-1865 or the NIU School of Music office at 753-1551.   -- PHOTO

Art lecture, seminar
scheduled for April 9
John Malcolm Steers, of the United Kingdom's National Society for Education in Art and Design, will visit NIU Wednesday, April 9, for a seminar and lecture.

His seminar, "International Trends in Art Schools," begins at 9:30 a.m. in Art Building room 211. Malcolm's lecture - "International Conversations through Art: Is Globalizing a Matter of Choice?" - is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Art Building room 102.

Malcolm's visit is co-sponsored by the School of Art. For more information, call 753-1473.

Distinguished Teaching Professor
seminar to study 'learning organization'
John Niemi, Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Counseling, Adult and Health Education, will deliver the spring Distinguished Teaching Professor seminar on the learning organization.

In this seminar, the learning organization will be explored as a concept designed to enhance individual, team and organizational learning. Niemi has more than 30 years' experience in distance learning technology, human resources development, strategic human resources development, the learning organization, graduate adult education and international adult education. Niemi has received many honors, including the Insignia of the Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland, 2001, Michigan Outstanding Alumnus of the year, 1999, and Honorary Professor, Shanghai Second Institute of Education, 1998. Sponsored by the Office of the Provost. No registration required.

His seminar is scheduled for noon Tuesday, April 15, in Holmes Student Center room 305. Refreshments will be served from 11:30 a.m. to noon. The seminar is sponsored by the Office of the Provost. No registration is required.

Geology and Environmental Geosciences announces spring 2003 colloquia
The Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences has revised the schedule of spring 2003 colloquia.

All talks are held at 4 p.m. in Davis Hall 308. For more information, call Jim Walker at 753-7936 or via e-mail at jim@geol.niu.edu. Updates to the schedule are available online at http://jove.geol.niu.edu.

Monday, April 14: Bernadette Scheller, NIU, "The Volcanic Rocks of Leatherwood Creek Shut-Ins, St. Francois Mountains, Missouri."

Friday, April 18: Neil Humphrey, University of Wyoming, "Glacial Hydrology: the Controlling Role of Water in the Dynamics of the Glacial System."

Monday, April 21: Guadalupe Velazquez-Oliman, NIU, "Geochemical Characterization and Aspects of the Hydrodynamics of the Aquifer System in Puebla Valley, Mexico."

Tuesday, April 22: Mark Evans, University of Pittsburgh, "Paleo Fluid Flow in the Central Appalachian Foreland During the Alleghanian Orogeny."

Monday, April 28: M. Scott Wilkerson, DePauw University, "Geometry and Evolution of Fault-Related Fold Terminations."

Wednesday, April 30: Larry McKay, University of Tennessee, "Controls of Hydraulic Conductivity in Soil and Saprolite Derived from Sedimentary Rock."