NIU must reduce FY04 expenditures by $2 million

NIU President John Peters released the following statement last week in response to word from Springfield ordering a late rescission in state university budgets.

Dear Colleagues:

Late yesterday we received word from the governor’s Office of Management and Budget that all public universities are required to return two percent of our entire FY04 general revenue base appropriation by June 30, 2004.

Collectively, that order will cost Illinois higher education more than $40 million. At NIU, this late-stage rescission means that we must reduce FY04 expenditures over $2 million within six weeks.

As you can imagine, I am currently in lengthy discussions with other Illinois public university presidents. We continue to work on a coordinated strategy that informs Illinois’ policy makers of the danger of these cumulative budget reductions to the long-term quality of Illinois’ public universities.

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NIU History Professor David Kyvig has won a fellowship to the prestigious Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., where he will spend the coming academic year conducting research for a book on the modern history of impeachment.

Kyvig is one of only 23 scholars from the United States, Austria, India, New Zealand and Russia named as Wilson Center fellows for 2004-05. He also is receiving a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies.

The Wilson Center is a nonpartisan institute for advanced study. It brings pre-eminent thinkers to Washington for extended periods to interact with policymakers through a large number of programs and projects.

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Ann M. Hart, the first faculty member of the Northern Illinois University School of Nursing and its longtime chair, died Saturday, May 8, in DeKalb. She was 79.

Hart, a school nurse in DeKalb and far-downstate Benton for most of the 1950s, joined the fledgling NIU School of Nursing in 1959. Regarded by some as a visionary with a keen sense of where her profession was heading, she ascended through the school’s ranks and became chair in 1978, a position she held until her retirement in the spring of 1990.

A visitation will take place at a later date at Anderson Funeral Home, 2011 S. Fourth St. in DeKalb.

“She was a great leader of the nursing program and was instrumental in upgrading the program throughout the time she was department chair,” said John E. La Tourette, who retired as NIU’s president four years ago. “She was a wonderful person and very caring, reflecting not only her basic instincts but her professional training as a nurse.”

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Lester Smith traces his interest in art and music to his elementary school days, when he loved to draw and listen to music at school assemblies.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in art (studio arts and interior decoration) from California State University-San Diego in 1949. He worked as an interior decorator in his native San Diego.

Life changed, however, when he was drafted into the Army during the Korean war.

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University Police recently concluded a two-week test of the Segway Human Transporter, evaluating its potential use for patrolling campus.

The two-wheeled electric scooter burst onto the national consciousness in December 2001, when it was unveiled as the next big technological innovation in human transportation.

While the landscape was not immediately cluttered with the vehicles, they quietly have been building a following and are popping up in a number of unique niches, including factories, theme parks and airports.

The vehicles also are being tested and considered by a number of police departments, now including NIU’s.

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Julie Proscia of Human Resource Services has been elected to a leadership position in the DuPage County Bar Association.

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Heating Plant announces
annual steam outages

To perform maintenance and repairs on high pressure steam lines on campus, the Physical Plant and Heating Plant will have its annual steam outage:

West Campus: Began Sunday and continues through noon Friday, May 21. This will include Neptune and all buildings west of Carroll Avenue, except Stevenson and various smaller buildings not served by steam. Domestic and heating hot water will not be available.

East Campus: Beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday, May 27, through noon Friday, June 4. This will include all buildings east of Carroll Avenue, except for various smaller buildings not served by steam. Domestic and heating hot water will not be available.

Any questions or concerns can be addressed to Kevin Vines, chief engineer, at 753-6090 or via e-mail at kvines@niu.edu.

Art Attack festival
committee to meet

Do you like to paint? Do you play an instrument? Do you do ceramics? Are you asking what do those have in common?

All that and more will take place Sept. 18 at Sycamore’s “Paint the Pavement” festival. The Art Attack School of Art will team up with the Annual Downtown Sycamore’s Block Party to create an exciting outdoor art festival.

The next organizing meeting for this event is at 6:30 p.m. today at the Art Attack of Sycamore, located at 215 W. Elm Street. Come and bring your input to make this a great art day.

Call Susan Edwards, executive director of the Art Attack, at (815) 899-9440 to register or get more information, or visit the Art Attack Web page at www.sycamoreartattack.com.

NIU College of Law announces
Topinka as ceremony speaker

The NIU College of Law has announced Illinois State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka as this year’s commencement speaker. Commencement will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 22, in the NIU Convocation Center.

Topinka was elected Nov. 8, 1994, becoming the first woman in Illinois history to hold the post. She also became the first Republican elected state treasurer in 32 years. Topinka made history again in November 1998, as she won a second term as state treasurer and became the first woman re-elected to a statewide office. Winning re-election to a third term in 2002, Topinka became the first state treasurer to win three consecutive terms.

There are 99 candidates for the NIU College of Law JD degree.

Law library announces
hours for summer

The David C. Shapiro Memorial Law Library has announced its summer hours from June 1 through Aug. 20.

Hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. The library is closed Saturdays.

The library also is closed on the Fourth of July and Monday, July 5.

Call 753-0505 for more information.

NIU to co-sponsor
summer reading conference

NIU and the Northern Illinois Reading Council once again will offer a summer reading conference: Effective Reading and Writing Instruction will take place from June 8 through June 11 at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove.

Featured conference speakers include Jill Cole of Wesley College, Delaware; Megan McDonald, noted children’s author of the “Judy Moody” series; Maria Walther of Indian Prairie School District, and Dorothy Leal of Ohio University.

Graduate course credit is available through NIU upon completion.

Contact the NIU College of Education Office of External Programs at 753-6594 or 753-3005 or by e-mail at jklcok@niu.edu or jcrotchett@niu.edu for registration materials. Registration forms also are available online at www.cedu.niu.edu/oep.

FY04 closing

FY04 cut-off dates

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