Legg, department chairs, tackling diversity challenges
But the university-wide appraisal of NIU’s faculty and staff diversity – and the ensuing recommendations to make the environment for minority faculty here more welcoming – will take time. “The civil rights movement changed the laws,” Legg said, “but it did not change the hearts. That’s a much, much more difficult challenge. The changing of the souls and the hearts of people is not something you can assess very easily.” NIU archaeologists harvest past from Yorkville cornfield
They found some: nails, glass, chunks of limestone and pieces of dishware, all located in a concentrated area of the soon-to-be-developed farmland. To the untrained eye, the discoveries would seem unremarkable, but Berres knew his team was on to something bigger. Within weeks, Berres and fellow anthropologists from NIU’s Contract Archaeology Program turned a small section of the cornfield along Route 34 east of Yorkville into a dig site. Materials Management director prepares for retirement
The director of Materials Management retires Friday after 35 full-time years at the university. A reception in his honor is planned for 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday, May 29, in the Clara Sperling Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center. Baird has been an NIU employee since his freshman year, when he took a job in Lincoln Hall food service. |
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Office of Campus Recreation Back by popular demand, the Office of Campus Recreation will offer the “Walk This Way” motivational walking class this summer for NIU faculty and staff. The class begins Tuesday, June 17. The class will meet anytime between 11:45 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays through Aug. 7. “Walk This Way” will include different walking routes on and around campus, instruction on walking techniques as well as information on a variety of topics, such as stretching and flexibility, good eating habits, strength training, mind/body fitness and more. There also will be optional Wednesday activities from 12:10 to 12:50 p.m., such as yoga and body toning. Costs for the walking class is $15. Participants completing 13 classes will receive an “I Walked This Way Summer 2003” T-shirt. Sign-up is available at the Rec Center Service Window or via campus mail (checks only) with attention to Walk This Way. For more information, call Megan Ehlers at 753-9421. Intercollegiate Athletics Intercollegiate Athletics again is offering sports camps this summer in athletic training, football, softball, volleyball, wrestling and boys and girls basketball and soccer. All camps offer a 10 percent NIU faculty/staff discount. More information is available at 753-5300, via e-mail at sportscamps@niu.edu, or on the Web at www.niuhuskies.com under camps and clinics. Printable abridged version A printable abridged version of Northern Today is available. | ||
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Northern Star's Web site named best in nation – again
For the second straight year, Editor & Publisher has selected the site as Best College Newspaper Online Service. Earlier this academic year, the Web site also received its second straight Pacemaker award from the Associated Collegiate Press. The Pacemaker is considered the Pulitzer Prize for collegiate newspapers. “It’s great to be viewed as being on the cutting edge,” says Northern Star Adviser Jim Killam. Illinois Reading Council honors NIU professor
But Farris, a Distinguished Teaching Professor in NIU’s Department of Literacy Education, took note of what other adults might miss: The waiting rooms and the examination rooms offered little, if anything, for children to read. “Looking around, it was pretty sparse,” Farris said. “Sometimes the sibling is ill, and the other kids are fine, and they need something to occupy their time.” So Farris began buying children’s books, in English and Spanish, and last fall started to place them in local clinics, health departments and hospitals. Sebenste to receive Mark Trail Award
Now in its seventh year, the Mark Trail Award program honors individuals and organizations that use or provide NOAA Weather Radio receivers and transmitters to save lives and protect property. Sebenste, one of 19 recipients from across the nation this year, will receive his award June 17 at ceremonies in Washington, D.C. DeKalb Area Women’s Center to host art exhibit featuring works of recent NIU School of Art graduate Selected art works by Luis Maldonado are on display at the DeKalb Area Women’s Center. Maldonado recently received his BFA in sculpture from the Northern Illinois University School of Art with additional studies in painting. The works being shown are a broad spectrum of styles and media consisting of painting, sculpture, video and installation. The entire show is displayed in chronological order to demonstrate the progress that was accomplished during his study in DeKalb. | ||||
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Northern Today is published by the Office of Public Affairs electronically | ||||
Reports on the diversity issues facing NIU faculty and their leaders are due this week on Provost Ivan Legg’s desk, containing what he expects are snapshots of current situations in each academic department and plans for improvement.
Early this spring, NIU archaeologist Tom Berres and his assistants trudged through a corn-stubble field near Yorkville, looking for hints of history. 
Chicago native Joe Baird came to NIU in 1964 for a degree in business and marketing, but found something more important in this small college town: His life’s work. 
Winning is getting to be a habit for the editors of the Web site at the Northern Star, the student-run newspaper at Northern Illinois University. 
Like everyone, Pam Farris must make occasional trips to the doctor’s office.
In recognition of his efforts to provide timely weather warnings to the Northern Illinois University community, NIU Staff Meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste has been selected to receive the Mark Trail Award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
