January 26, 2004, Northern Today Abridged

Presidential Public Policy Lecture Series
debuts next week with Australian ambassador

The Australian ambassador to the United States, the Honorable Michael Thawley, will kick off a new NIU lecture series next week.

The Presidential Public Policy Lecture Series was established earlier this year by NIU President John Peters as a public forum for discussion of major public policy issues. It will feature well-known experts on a wide range of topics affecting the social, political, cultural and economic life of our nation and world.

Ambassador Thawley, a much-sought-after speaker in Washington diplomatic circles, will discuss the U.S.–Australian relationship during an hour-long address beginning at 10 a.m. in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium of the Holmes Student Center. Thawley is expected to speak for about 30 minutes and to take questions for about a half an hour.

“We’re honored to have the ambassador present our inaugural lecture for this series,” Peters said.

“Given the current free-trade negotiations between our countries and Australia’s ongoing support of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, I’m sure that Mr. Thawley’s address will engage our campus community in a dialogue on many of the key issues involved in our relationship.”

A number of NIU faculty already have made attendance at Thawley’s address an extra-credit assignment, and others intend to incorporate the ambassador’s remarks into classroom discussions.

While U.S.–Australian free trade talks have generated some controversy in affected market segments on both sides of the ocean, America’s overall relationship with the “democracy down under” has been one of longstanding mutual support.

Like the United States, Australia has been a democracy since its inception. It is the only nation to cover an entire continent, and is the sixth-largest country in the world in terms of land area.

More than half of Australia’s workforce has university or trade school credentials, and its public education system is considered one of the best in the world. Australia was the first country to allow women to vote, and the first to employ the use of the secret ballot.

All members of the campus community are invited to attend. Those with questions should contact the Office of Special Events at 753-1999.

Senate President Emil Jones to help
rededicate NIU CHANCE Program

Since its inception at NIU, the Counseling, Help and Assistance Necessary for a College Education (CHANCE) Program has been synonymous with the name of its founder, McKinley “Deacon” Davis.

The university will make that link official in ceremonies Tuesday, Jan. 27, when it will formally re-name the program the Deacon Davis CHANCE Program in honor of its late creator, who died last March.

Ceremonies will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium in the Holmes Student Center.

The evening will feature a keynote address by Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, an ardent supporter of public education at all levels. Since being elected to the State House in 1983, Jones has championed a number of key proposals that have increased per-pupil spending at schools throughout the state and has helped direct millions of state dollars to meet the needs of disadvantaged public school students.

Many of those students likely went on to benefit from the Deacon Davis CHANCE Program at NIU.

Created in 1968, its goal from the start has been to recruit, retain and graduate educationally disadvantaged students. In its first year, the program enrolled 50 inner-city participants. Today, that number is about 2,100 students per year. Those enrolled in the program receive academic assistance, financial aid counseling, academic skills training and other services to help them adjust to college.

During its 35-year history, CHANCE has opened the doors of campus to more than 15,000 students, thousands of whom graduated and have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, educators, engineers and other professionals making contributions to society.

The ceremony formalizing the re-naming of the program (which was first announced last spring) will be incorporated into the annual Student Achievement Awards Program, where all freshman CHANCE students who earned a 2.5 grade point average or higher in their first semester on campus will be recognized.

A reception will follow in the Regency Room.

Russian theater director to spend fortnight at NIU

Adolf Shapiro, among Russia’s leading directors of the legitimate theater and most-esteemed teachers of actors, will unveil this summer his production of Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.”

The play – Chekhov’s last – debuted 100 years ago on the stage of the legendary Moscow Art Theater, where it will live again for its centennial celebration. Shapiro’s selection to helm the play confirms the depth of his abilities and his regard.

Yet rehearsals for “The Cherry Orchard” will halt for two weeks next month. Shapiro has another group of actors with whom he’d like to work: Students in the NIU School of Theatre and Dance.

Shapiro will visit NIU from Feb. 17 through March 4, when he will lead a graduate colloquium, deliver a school-wide address, observe classes and, most importantly, spend considerable time with the 15 or so students he and his colleagues will take under their wings in Russia this summer.

Alexander Gelman, director of the NIU School of Theatre and Dance and a native of St. Petersburg, will serve as translator.

“What he and I thought when we were there last June was that it would be useful to get a little head start this year, and he was curious about the training our students receive here,” Gelman said. “It will enhance the Moscow experience for those going. As Adolf gets to know more about what we do here, he will have a better knowledge of the students.”

Gelman said much of the first two weeks of last year’s month-long trip – the first step in NIU’s relationship with the Moscow Art Theater School, founded a century ago by Stanislavsky – was consumed in the familiarization process. This year’s group, only one of whom made the journey last year, will enjoy that preparation months before they leave the United States.

They will bring a still-to-be-determined play to Moscow to perform at least twice on the school’s student stage. The actors will speak in English: Many in the audience understand the language, Gelman said, and a translator will help the rest.

NIU’s students also will attend “The Cherry Orchard,” he added.

Last summer’s Russian experience immersed 15 NIU students in the teachings of Stanislavsky, considered the father of actor training in the Western world. Stanislavsky spent several weeks in 1925 working with American actress Stella Adler, his only American student, who later would impart his teachings to such screen legends as Marlon Brando, James Coburn and Robert DeNiro.

Stanislavsky’s work also deeply influenced Sanford Meisner, whose technique for training actors is used at NIU. It’s no coincidence that the month in Russia offered an affirmation to the U.S. students, who could see reflections of the Moscow Art curriculum in their theater classes back home.

Shapiro, meanwhile, has stirred actors for decades.

For 30 years, he was the director of the Riga Youth Theatre in the Republic of Latvia. When the collapse of the Soviet Union turned Latvia into a country, however, state leaders closed the theater in a move to separate themselves from anything Russian. Shapiro moved to Russia and became the country’s preeminent freelance director.

He also is a former president of the international association of theater for youth – the organization’s official name is not in English – which has chapters in almost every country in the world.

“He is a major, major figure,” Gelman said. “Our students all fell in love with Adolf, and they all wanted him here.”

NIU School of Nursing receives endowed gift

Second chances appear far more often than storytellers would like us to believe, but their true gift comes in knowing what to make of the opportunity.

Ruth Hall knew.

Born in 1908 on her family’s DeKalb County homestead between Genoa and Sycamore, Hall dreamed of becoming a nurse.

Even after learning clerical skills and working for several years as a secretary, she never lost sight of her true calling. And when she finally attended nursing school at Grant and Washington Hospital and donned the white cap, committing herself to providing health care in her native state and across the globe, it became apparent that the profession had chosen her as much as she had chosen it.

Now, after her death April 16, 2003, at the age of 95, generations of nurses to come will find the chance to fulfill their life’s aspirations thanks to Hall’s generosity.

Hall bequeathed her estate to nursing scholarships and programs at NIU and Kishwaukee College. The NIU School of Nursing so far has received $500,000 to endow a scholarship and, her descendants say, more is forthcoming.

“We’re so very proud,” said Marilyn Frank Stromborg, chair of the School of Nursing in the NIU College of Health and Human Sciences. “This will help a group of students usually not reached by scholarships. We have so many students in need of financial help.”

Although not her alma mater, Hall grew up in the university’s shadow and touched the lives of many of its nursing graduates when they took jobs in the Chicago area.

She wrote in her journal every day, and kept a scrapbook that contained an undated photo clipped from the DeKalb Daily Chronicle. The photo shows Hall supervising three of 24 senior nursing students from NIU receiving clinical experience at Sherman Hospital in Elgin, where Hall worked as a medical-surgical nurse after a 20-year career in the Army Nurse Corps.

Hall joined the corps in 1942 as a 2nd lieutenant.

During World War II, she served in the harsh areas of India and Burma, where she tended the wounded soldiers of the Burma campaign. After the war ended, she was stationed in Japan as part of the occupying American forces. Still in Japan when the Korean War began, she again cared for the wounded soldiers from that conflict.

Her Army career ended at Ft. Sheridan in Illinois, where she retired with the rank of major.

Many of her military mementos, including her uniform, medals and scrapbook, are being sent to the archives of The Women’s Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, where all the women who have served in the U.S. armed forces – or who have served in direct support of the forces, particularly during times of war or conflict – are individually and collectively honored.

After many years at Sherman, Hall retired to take care of her brother back on the family homestead. Her death claimed the last surviving member of her generation of Halls.

“Ruth loved people,” said Betty Hall of Sycamore, whose husband, Richard, is Hall’s nephew, “and she wasn’t any happier than when one of her nieces or grandnieces said, “I’m going to be a nurse.’ She’d say, ‘Oh! Another generation!’ ”

“She was my inspiration, ever since I was a little girl,” confirmed Diane White of Sheridan, Hall’s grandniece and a 30-year nurse working at a family practice in Yorkville. “She enjoyed working with children.”

Hall also was a generous supporter of many other organizations, including the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and missionary groups.

Chinese business group visits NIU

Looking to learn more about operating in the global marketplace, a group of executives from PetroChina International recently spent about two weeks on campus learning about mergers and acquisitions from Finance Professor Robert Miller.

By familiarizing themselves with how the United States and other countries handle such matters, the company hopes to more successfully pursue its goal of expansion by acquiring foreign owned companies. As PetroChina already controls 90 percent of the market in the People’s Republic of China, there are few opportunities for growth in their own homeland.

The company has sent executives through similar programs at the University of Texas, but when the U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce went looking for a university to assist PetroChina International, they looked closer to their Chicago base this time. The organization has strong ties with many universities including Notre Dame, DePaul and IIT, but chose NIU for this program after coming into contact with the office of Business Outreach in the College of Business.

“We were very impressed with how aggressive they were in pursuing this contract and how excited they were to work with us,” said Siva Yam, president of the Chamber of Commerce.

As they concluded the program in mid-January, the students were pleased with the choice of NIU.

“It has been very helpful to us,” said Zheng Jiong, who works in planning and development for PetroChina International, the subsidiary of PetroChina for which all five attendees work. “We learned different methodologies for valuations, taking more of a financial perspective. It will be very useful to us.”

The students also enjoyed Miller’s teaching style, built largely around case studies and class discussions.

“It is very different than in China,” said Zhang Pinxian, director of planning and development for PetroChina International. “There the teachers stick very close to the textbook, and classes are mostly lecture. This is much more enjoyable.”

Miller too enjoyed the course, calling the students quick learners who readily absorbed the material. “I tried to open their eyes to a variety of ways of looking at things and teach them some of the specifics of how Americans do business. They were an absolutely wonderful group to work with.”

KNPE chair pedals to work – from Batavia

Perhaps no one at NIU is more grateful than Paul Carpenter for this winter’s tiny helping of snow and its subsequent smooth commutes.

Carpenter, chair of the College of Education’s Department of Kiniesiology and Physical Education, rides his Klein bikes to work the 30 miles from suburban Batavia.

Only snowy and slippery roadways or the threat of a “major” storm – and not frigid air – persuade him to leave his bike at home.

“Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor,” admits Carpenter, who dutifully pedals the streets of Batavia or on the stationary bike in his garage those few unacceptable mornings before reluctantly driving to DeKalb.

“If the roads are dry, or dry-ish, I’ll ride. I wear Neoprene booties and diver’s gloves, which are windproof and waterproof. My coldest day was about 0 degrees Fahrenheit.”

He leaves his home around 6:30 a.m. most mornings (earlier in the summer and later in the winter) and tries to arrive home by 7 p.m. most evenings. Because his wife also works at the university, he can hitch a ride home in her car if cycling conditions change for the worse during the day.

The commute by bike typically takes one hour and 45 minutes “without pushing too hard,” he says. “With a good tailwind, it’s an hour and 20 minutes. With a good headwind, it can take up to two and a quarter.”

Carpenter’s pedaling passion began years ago as a graduate student at the University of California at Los Angeles. He rode his brother-in-law’s motorcycle to work at first – until he wrecked it in an accident and couldn’t afford to replace it.

“I got out my old trusty bike,” he says. “I took the shortest route, eight miles each way. I got to like it, and in California, it’s always good weather. I progressively got to further and further distances. The bike just sort of filled my need for exercise.”

He also began riding his bike on weekends, cruising up and down California’s Pacific Coast Highway and through its mountains, and soon discovered non-competitive, high-mileage events organized especially for long-distance cyclists. His move in July of 2002 to the Midwest, and its not-so-consistent weather, didn’t temper his enthusiasm for commuting on two wheels.

“Part of it’s just pure habit. Part of it’s addiction. I just don’t feel right if I don’t get out on my bike,” he says.

“For me, the car is dead time. At best, I can listen to NPR and catch up on the news. I’d rather be out in the open, getting some brisk air, looking at the world. Every day, the road looks different. The skies are big, winter and summer, with each season bringing different vistas,” he adds. “The extra time it takes would be spent working out, anyway, going to the gym, changing, fighting others for the machines.”

For Carpenter, it also offers year-round training for the long-distance events he loves.

He participated in his first ultra cycling event, the Death Valley Double, a 200-mile bike ride through Death Valley, as a unique way to celebrate his 40th birthday. This March, the trek will help him note his 45 years of many happy returns. He also is a fan of 24-hour events, when cyclists gather to see how many miles each can pedal in one day.

Life in the Midwest has helped him find The Big Dogs, a group of bicycle enthusiasts who share his passion. The group’s Web site (www.big-dogs.org) includes a feature where members input their daily mileage. A few already have notched as many as four 100-mile-or-more trips in the first two weeks of the new year.

The native of the United Kingdom figures his black Quantum’s hand-made aluminum frame has carried him 135,000 miles through sun, rain, snow and deserts since he bought it in 1990, now serving as his iffy-weather ride.

Kudos

Jan Bach, professor emeritus from the NIU School of Music, is among the nine 2004 inductees into the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame.

A St. Charles resident who came to NIU in 1966, Jan was a distinguished composition professor and recognized internationally as a composer in virtually every acoustic medium. Jan also was one of the first Distinguished Research Professors, selected in 1982.

The mission of the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame is to remember the famous artists of the past, celebrate the outstanding artists of the present and inspire future artists who might one day themselves become icons of the arts in the Fox Valley. Inductees are honored with plaques mounted in the exciting landmark Paramount Arts Centre in Aurora. An Events Series presents, from time to time, inductees or other accomplished artists in performance or through exhibitions.

The induction ceremony takes place Thursday, April 22, at Walter Payton’s Roundhouse in Aurora.

Northern Today ready to add ‘Passages’

Members of the NIU campus community now have a formal mechanism for submitting information on the passing of former colleagues. “Passages” will briefly note deaths of current and formers members of our campus community.

Each item will receive a one-line treatment – “John Public, who worked in the University Libraries from 1947 to 1982, died March 16 in Miami, Fla. He was 78” – and will only be accepted via e-mail.

Those employees who hear of deaths of former colleagues and wish to report them must include the name of a newspaper that printed an obituary or the name of the funeral home for confirmation.

Please contact us at northerntoday@niu.edu. Type “Passages” in the subject line.

Biennial women’s conference open to NIU women

“The Biennial Conference for Women - Women in Progress” is scheduled for April 8 and April 9 in Urbana. Many employees of NIU have attended this conference in previous years and have found it to be professionally and personally rewarding.

Speakers at this year’s conference include Suze Orman, Star Jones, Soledad O’Brien and David Baldacci. For conference and registration information, visit www.theconferenceforwomen.com.

Employees who choose to reserve bus transportation space to the conference should contact either Barb Rice or Rose Miller in Human Resource Services at 753-0458 or 753-6033 on or before March 19.

NIU Theatre’s ‘Pentecost’ explores value of life, art

NIU’s School of Theatre and Dance launches the spring segment of its 2003-04 season with a timely clash of religion, culture, art and politics in the Tony Award-winning playwright David Edgar’s “Pentecost.”

The play, which received the Evening Standard Award for Best Play of 1995, “confronts the big public issues of our time.”

In “Pentecost,” Edgar uses art as both a symbol of region and history and an arena for nationalist, religious and global debate. In the first act, a painting that anticipates by almost a century the techniques of Giotto, considered by many to be the father of Western art, has been discovered in a small church in a nameless Eastern European country. When international art historians arrive to examine the piece, Edgar asks us to consider where and to whom great works of art belong.

In the second act, a motley group of terrorists seeking asylum, takes hostage both the church and the art therein. The Eastern and Western worlds collide in close quarters, prompting Michael Billington, in his 1994 Guardian review, to call the play “an epic play in a tiny space.”

Production dates are Jan. 29 through Feb. 1 and Feb. 5 to 8 in NIU’s O’Connell Theatre in the Stevens Building. Show times are 7:30 p.m. weekdays, with 2 p.m. matinees Sundays. Tickets are $14 for the general public, $8 for seniors and $7 for students. For tickets or more information, call 753-1600 or visit the Box Office in the Stevens Building.

Nominations sought for Wilma D. Stricklin Award

The Presidential Commission on the Status of Women is seeking nominations for the Wilma D. Stricklin Award for the Enhancement of the Climate for Women on Campus. This award is given annually to an NIU-affiliated individual who has made university wide, consistent and lasting changes in the university campus climate or university processes.

Finalists for the Stricklin Award will have met all of the following criteria:

• Demonstrated exemplary leadership/service resulting in a more favorable campus climate for women;
• Provided continual leadership/service over an extended period of time;
• Expended efforts beyond expectations and work responsibilities;
• Achieved results and effected lasting change making NIU a better campus for
  women.

An awards committee appointed by the commission will review nominations and select a recipient. The award will be presented at the Outstanding Women Student Awards Ceremony on Honors Day, April 18. A member of the operating staff, supportive professional staff, faculty, student body or alumni must make nominations for this award.

A complete nomination must include the nomination form and accompanying statement and two additional letters of support.

Complete and return your nomination and letters of support marked CONFIDENTIAL to University Resources for Women, 105 Normal Road. All nominations and letters must be received no later than noon March 19. The fax number is 753-0337.

For additional information, please contact University Resources for Women at 753-9614 or http://www.niu.edu/women/pcsw/wds.shtml.

Nominations sought for women’s writing awards

The Presidential Commission on the Status of Women announces the eighth annual award for outstanding writing on women’s issues at NIU. The purpose of the award is to recognize journalistic effort contributing to greater awareness of women’s issues on campus.

The contest is open to all NIU students and alumni who have written and published about women’s issues at NIU from March 1, 2003, to the present. Eligible entries include news coverage and/or commentary, individual articles or a series of articles on a topic(s) related to NIU women. Entries may have been published in campus publications such as Northern Star and Lifeline, or in other newspapers such as Daily Chronicle, MidWeek, and Chicago Tribune. Entries will be judged by the quality of writing, originality of content, and the significance of coverage.

Applications and criteria are available at the following campus offices: the Northern Star, the Department of Communication, University Resources for Women and Women’s Studies.

The recipient will be presented with $100 and a plaque at the Journalism Awards Banquet in April. In addition, the award winner’s name will be inscribed on the PCSW Journalism Award plaque on permanent display at the Northern Star.

Submission deadline is 4:30 p.m. March 19. Submit entries to James Killam, adviser, Northern Star, Campus Life Building 130 (753-4239), or to University Resources for Women, 105 Normal Road (753-0320).

NIUAA membership protects future retirement benefits

Current NIU employees are invited to join the NIU Annuitants Association.

Joining the NIUAA – it has a membership of more than 1,000 current (including President and Mrs. Peters) and retired colleagues and their spouses – includes membership in the umbrella organization, the State University Annuitants Association, (SUAA), which speaks and lobbies for more than 10,000 members.

It is important to note that three critical areas of retirement benefits are not guaranteed in the state constitution: the annual cost of living adjustment of 3 percent compounded, the exception from state income tax on annuity payouts (another 3 percent benefit) and the invaluable free health insurance.

Dues are $24 per year. Current employees can this year, for the first time, pay through payroll deduction (see below). Twenty-one dollars of each member's dues are transferred to SUAA to support its intensive lobbying activities, and $3 are retained locally for mailing, printing and other incidental expenses. Local activities are self-supporting, with an invaluable subsidy from the NIU Foundation. Also, officers and board members are volunteers. Local activities include the distribution of a newsletter three times a year (the NIU Annuitant), a holiday luncheon in the early part of December and a business meeting and picnic in June (hosted by President Peters).

Two payment options are available, and forms for executing each are available as follows: To print out forms for joining NIUAA, please visit this Web site: www3.niu.edu/annuitants and click on “2003-2004 dues payment information,” or call Darla Brantley in the Provost’s Office at 753-8380 to receive the forms directly. These options include the convenient payroll deduction plan of $4 over each of six consecutive pay periods (beginning as soon as possible after receipt of the form) or the lump-sum payment option.

For further information, please contact Brantley of the Provost’s Office at 753-8380; Alan Voelker, president, at 756-7447; Larry Sallberg, treasurer, at 753-6061, or Don Buckner, membership chair, at 756-4044.

Heartland encourages donors to ‘turn a negative into a positive’

Heartland Blood Centers officials urge all eligible donors – particularly those individuals with “Rh-Negative” blood – to donate at one of their 10 area centers or at a community blood drive. The blood bank is currently experiencing a shortage in all negative blood types, including O-, A-, B- and AB-.

Donors with O- blood are especially in demand, as people with this blood type are potential universal red blood cell donors. This means that their red blood cells can be transfused to patients with all types of blood. About seven percent of the population has O- blood.

If you are at least 17 (16 with written parental consent), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in good health, you may be eligible to donate blood. If you have traveled outside the United States in the last 12 months, call Heartland Blood Centers at 1-800-7TO-GIVE so that they can verify your eligibility. All blood donors must present a photo ID.

Since 1943, Heartland Blood Centers has provided blood and blood products to 34 area hospitals across 13 counties of northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana.

The following blood drives in DeKalb are open to the public during the month of February:

• Monday, Feb. 2, Grant North Complex, 2 to 7 p.m.
• Tuesday, Feb 3, Immanuel Lutheran Church, 820 N. 7th St; 2 to 7 p.m.
• Thursday, Feb. 12, Kishwaukee Community Hospital, 626 Bethany Road; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Wednesday, Feb. 18, Douglas Hall, 3 to 7 p.m.
• Wednesday, Feb. 25, Knights of Columbus, 1336 E. Lincoln Hwy., 3 to 7 p.m.

1-26-04