April 11, 2005, Northern Today Abridged

Chown, Koehler, Payvar named
Presidential Teaching Professors

Good teaching opens minds, inspires thought and molds leaders.

Proof of success can come through following where students go, what they achieve and how they make their own differences. Yet proof also can come from listening to what former students say about their former professors.

Such is the case with NIU’s annual Presidential Teaching Professors, chosen with particular emphasis on the words of those they took under their wing.

This year’s Presidential Teaching Professors – Jeffrey Chown, from the Department of Communication; William Koehler, from the School of Music; and Parviz Payvar, from the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology – are popular educators.

“We have, as always, picked some of our leading educators on campus to recognize their contribution to our major mission of teaching our students,” NIU Provost J. Ivan Legg said. “I wish we had more Presidential Teaching Professorships to give because we have so many good faculty on campus.”

Begun in 1990, Presidential Teaching Professorships recognize outstanding teachers among the faculty. Each receives a $2,000 boost in base salary as well as a grant of $5,000 per year for their four-year appointment to help improve their teaching. After four years, they become Distinguished Teaching Professors.

Here is a closer look at this year’s three.

The producer

In the summer of 1994, Lori Liggett made a decision that would dramatically alter the course of her life: She took her first Jeff Chown course, a study-abroad program in Irish culture and film.

“It changed my life,” says Liggett, who had been working as a marketing professional in Washington, D.C.

“Dr. Chown convinced me that I had what it took to get a master’s degree and that NIU was the place to do it,” she says. Within six months, Liggett had moved to DeKalb and enrolled at NIU. Today she is working full-time as an instructor at Bowling Green State University and nearing completion of her doctorate.

“I model Dr. Chown’s teaching style,” Liggett adds. “He is comfortable in the classroom, accessible, pro-student and passionate about the subject matter, yet he’s also very rigorous.”

As a professor of communication and director of the department’s graduate studies, Chown has touched the lives of thousands of students. He specializes in film studies, teaching courses that range from large undergraduate lecture halls to small graduate seminars, and serves on as many as a dozen graduate committees each year. His students have gone on to work in Hollywood, at CNN and at universities across the country.

On campus and beyond, however, Chown is perhaps best known for producing award-winning, Ken Burns-style documentaries with his students, including “Barbed Wire Pioneers,” “DeKalb Stories” and “John Peter Altgeld: The Eagle Remembered.” The developing tradition of documentary filmmaking has served to recruit students in media studies to NIU.

“Jeff is one of the hardest-working people I’ve ever known, and one of the most selfless,” says colleague Gary Burns, who has taught alongside Chown. “He makes each course a work of art. Students come here because of Jeff, they study film because of him, and they stay here and finish because of him. I’ve seen this happen many times.”

Chown began teaching at NIU in 1982, the same year he earned his doctorate in American studies from the University of Michigan. In 1988, he won the university-wide Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. The following year he was named a Fulbright Scholar to Ireland with an appointment at Dublin City University. That experience led him to initiate the Media and Culture in Ireland program, which is entering its 14th year.

Students flock to Chown’s courses even though the work is challenging.

Upper-level classes typically begin with 15-minute quizzes on assigned readings, followed by lectures during which Chown asks students to respond to pointed questions. He is a proponent of problem-based learning, which demands that students acquire critical knowledge and use it to solve problems.

Chown’s own willingness to take on new courses and constantly change old ones, despite increased workloads, speaks to his teaching philosophy. “Don’t bore yourself,” he says. “There is nothing more deadening in a classroom than a teacher who has lost interest in the subject.”

Chown’s latest documentary, “Lincoln and the Black Hawk War,” will premiere at 8 p.m. April 28, in the Visual Arts Building auditorium. He has two other documentaries currently in the works.

The piano man

During William Koehler’s younger and occasionally stubborn days, he sometimes rejected the guidance of his teachers.

But as years came and went, Koehler often would discover those lessons lingering in far corners of his mind, each concept glimmering with logic and eager for application.

Now the professor in the School of Music wonders whether some of his teachings will become long-lasting pieces of advice that poke through and blossom for different compositions on different days in different places.

“It’s so hard to predict what the long-term result of our teaching is,” says Koehler, who four years ago won the university’s highest honor in the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching award. “It’s interesting and frustrating to me at the same time. Teaching is so long-range in some ways, indefinite in its outcomes.”

The humble Koehler, who came to NIU in 1985, wears many hats.

He gives weekly private lessons to seven students, is an accompanist for the Opera Workshop as well as student and faculty soloists and coordinates undergraduate advising for music majors. In the past decade he has taught piano majors, piano ensemble, group piano classes and piano literature survey courses.

On Sunday mornings, Koehler shares his talent at First United Methodist Church of DeKalb, where he has served as pianist for 11 years. The “spiritual and emotional” benefits of the job “makes me a better pianist and, hopefully, a better teacher.”

Former students would believe so.

“Professor Koehler guided me through my studies while I was undergoing extensive chemotherapy treatment for large cell lymphoma,” says Jeffrey J. Peller, K-5 music educator and music technology chair in Naperville Community Unit School District 203. “He was able to encourage and guide me when my right arm was badly damaged and useless from the chemotherapy through a successful senior piano recital playing piano literature for the left hand only.”

Koehler is careful to consider his words when speaking about himself, declaring it impossible – or perhaps impolite – to ponder why his teaching leaves such an impression.

He describes his approach as “a constant level of energy, of sincerity to teaching, of consistency to the teaching.” Lessons in his office, with its two Steinway & Sons grand pianos side by side, are like a “laboratory” that offers “a sense of the unexpected.”

“The fascination of sharing musical ideas with students is a two-way street. I’m learning from their musical ideas as well,” he says. “This will give me the chance to learn more about how others teach and to learn more about the aspects of the music I teach in ways that so far I can’t define. I have a challenge to continue to investigate specific ways to make my teaching more efficient.”

Winning a Presidential Teaching Professorship surprised him.

“I can sincerely say that I had a feeling of gratitude,” he says, “but I’m also very aware that I’m surrounded here by so many first-rate teachers who are equally worthy of this award.”

The engineer

Parviz Payvar attributes much of his success in teaching to simply following the Golden Rule.

“When I started out, I was teaching students just five or six years younger than myself, so I tried to give them what I wished I had experienced,” says Payvar, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

For Payvar, that meant – and still means – making himself extraordinarily available to meet with students at any time of day, always looking for ways to make difficult material more accessible and finding ways to pull the best possible performance out of each student.

That formula seems to have worked quite well.

Over the last five years alone, Payvar’s students, his departmental peers and his colleagues throughout the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology have presented him with six awards for outstanding teaching and service, including Faculty of the Year for both teaching and service to students. Added to that list now is recognition from the university as a whole as a Presidential Teaching Professor.

Payvar came to NIU in 1988, hired as chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department, a post he held until 2000. Prior to that, he spent eight years as a researcher for Borg Warner, and eight years teaching at universities in his native Iran.

Colleagues and students universally praise Payvar as an instructor who has an authoritative grasp of the material he teaches, presenting it in a manner that helps ensure not just success on tests, but also in careers.

“He doesn’t just roll through the material he teaches, he wants students to understand it and be able to apply the knowledge he passes on,” engineering student David Guetschow says. “He wants us to become professionals when we graduate, and he seems to really want us to succeed.”

While his classroom performance is much admired, most say that what truly sets Payvar apart is his willingness to put forth extra effort to work with students outside of the classroom. Whether they want help with class work (from classes he teaches, or even those of colleagues), career advice or personal development, Payvar’s door is always open.

“He is always willing to help students and provide them the benefit of his knowledge, experience and mentorship,” says CEET Acting Dean Promod Vohra.

Such generosity often leads to lines outside of Payvar’s door, but students don’t seem to mind.

“He is the only professor that I will wait for more than 20 minutes to ask him a question, because I know that my time will be well spent,” student Louise Schalasky says.

Payvar, who is described as an always cheerful and energetic presence in the hallways of the CEET building, says that such dedication is a two-way street.

“Students sometimes say they are motivated or inspired by my class. What they don’t realize is that I am also inspired by them. I am equally motivated to do my best when I see the efforts made by an adult student with children to make it to my 9 a.m. class,” Payvar says. “I don’t feel that the students owe me anything. They have given me the honor of teaching them. I enjoy this job, so it works out fine for both of us.”

WNIJ’s Susan Stephens happiest telling stories

There were inklings of what was coming March 14, on Page 64 of The New Yorker, but neither Susan Stephens nor her colleagues at Northern Public Radio realized exactly what.

Someone had fielded a call seeking a tape of a piece of Sue’s – she’s only called Susan on the air – about Brian Slavenas, the helicopter pilot from DeKalb whose death in Iraq deeply tore his family amid great publicity. Another caller, a fact-checker for the magazine, wanted to confirm her job title and the radio station’s affiliation with NIU.

Yet when Calvin Trillin’s story appeared under the headline “Lost Son,” his long and thoughtful article began with Stephens, who, it turned out, had inspired his interest. “This happened on Interstate 78, in New Jersey, in November of 2003,” Trillin had written. “While listening to a story on NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’ about a National Guardsman who’d been killed in Iraq, I found myself in tears.”

“Some stories obviously lend themselves more to a poignant telling than others. This was a great story to tell, and Sue told it exceptionally well,” says Tim Emmons, director and general manager of Northern Public Radio. “She recognized it as a terrific story. All the elements were there to kind of tell the whole story of the war, and people’s feelings about the war, in the story of this one young man.”

For Stephens, whose last few months have brought many trials, Trillin’s nod is the “one golden thing” and the source of odd joy and welcome confirmation.

“I always wanted to make someone cry,” says Stephens, sitting in the compact newsroom just outside the WNIJ studio in the basement of Northern Public Radio’s First Street headquarters. “I find myself crying over other people’s stories all the time.”

Her three-and-a-half-minute story on Brian Slavenas, ironically, is not one she wanted to pursue. National Public Radio asked her to produce the piece, which she “tip-toed” through as she “learned about him and the people who were important to him.”

“It was the hardest story because it was the saddest story. (Interviewing survivors) is something I don’t like to do, but in talking with people, they really wanted to talk about him. I didn’t feel like a vulture,” she says. “I was trying to do it reverently, to honor him, to give people a sense of what he was like, to bring him alive by letting them feel how he affected other people. In talking with his family and friends, it ended up not being sad. They would end up telling funny stories and laughing – and feeling happy they’d known him.”

Stephens is chatting after a one-hour shift on the air handling the seven local “breaks” during NPR’s “Day to Day” program. Only a few hours have passed since Terri Schiavo’s death, which tops the news.

This noontime gig isn’t what Stephens usually does, but WNIJ has been short one reporter since January. She’s still fighting a cold, coughing each time before she turns on the mic and slipping out once to take care of a runny nose. It’s put her behind on writing her scripts, although it doesn’t sound that way.

Despite the Schiavo story, much of the hour isn’t nearly as serious.

There’s an uneasy piece on the fingertip found in a bowl of Wendy’s chili, and another on killer bees in California that the national anchor had touted as “chilling.” It features creepy audio of a spooked beekeeper wandering into the swarm as the bees buzz around his veiled hat, sounding like something from an old-time radio play.

Stephens giddily turns up the studio volume twice as the buzzing crescendos, and then grabs her headphones for a closer listen. “It was cool,” she says afterward, “but not chilling.”

No one is likely to challenge her news judgment. “Sue is more than a journalist for us,” Emmons says.

“She’s our news director, which means she not only does her own reporting, but she’s supervising everyone else’s reporting, the editing, the story assignments. That really speaks to her ability to not just see a story for what it is but to help others see stories,” he adds. “Boy, she works hard. She works harder than just about anyone else in the building. She puts in a lot of time and effort to get stories to be right, and for radio, that means more than just ‘accurate.’ It means telling it in a way that kind of breaks through the speakers and gives people a real audio picture of the story.”

“Susan is an excellent journalist. She researches her stories very well and she does a very good job in choosing what she wants to cover,” program director Bill Drake agrees.

“There are two things that stand out for me: One, she always finds a way to put an interesting angle on an otherwise common story. The second thing is that she’s probably the best writer in the building. She can take a story that got a lot of coverage, like the Slavenas issue, and make it seem relevant to people’s lives, rather than just a headline you’d find in a lot of other local media.”

Stephens, 38, grew up in Oxford, Mich., as the sixth of seven children born to Francis, a General Motors foreman, and Betty, a homemaker who also worked with the federal Women, Infants and Children nutrition program. She has three brothers and three sisters, one of whom – Debby – was living in Rockford when Sue earned a degree in communications from Oakland University, in Rochester, Mich.

She moved to Illinois to help Debby with the children, and to seek a job in radio.

“I thought I would be a TV producer or a DJ, but I found I got bored with those pretty quickly, and I decided I really liked doing news, telling stories, getting out and talking to people and letting them talk for themselves,” she says.

The disc jockey opportunity arose first – “overnights,” she groans – but Stephens soon began reporting news for WKKN radio, now known as WNTA. She then jumped to WROK, where she spent one year before coming to DeKalb a decade ago as news director at WNIJ. In that time, she has made good on her interest in film, producing a documentary on the Rockford Peaches baseball team.

NPR attracted her with “the time you’re allowed for a story. The style of journalism in public radio is like a magazine compared to a newspaper,” she says. “And public radio has been really supportive of my career enhancement, my education. They send me to conferences and workshops, and I get better at what I do.”

Her work long has enjoyed recognition, and it’s not the first time she’s commanded the national airwaves. Stephens was among a group of WNIJ reporters on the scene in Utica, Ill., to describe for the country the aftermath of the fatal tornadoes of April 20, 2004. One of her stories on the tornado took second place in the Illinois Associated Press’ “Best Breaking News Story” competition.

Fifteen people have sent e-mails or cards since The New Yorker article appeared. Some she knows, including a member of the League of Women Voters in Rockford and a public radio colleague in Macomb. Others are strangers who know her voice.

“Obviously, I was very proud of the fact that one of our people had that kind of impact. On the other hand, the fact that it was noticed on a national level came from the fact that it was broadcast on the national version of NPR’s ‘Morning Edition,’ ” Emmons says. “We do stories like this locally all the time. Obviously, not every story has as much meaning, or such a poignant nature as this one, but there are many, many stories that have this kind of effect on local listeners that are never heard beyond our own signal area. This one was, and that’s terrific.”

Stephens – the journalist – also appreciated Trillin’s work.

“His story was one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve read. He did it perfectly. He told it so well, in ways that honor the families involved and honor Brian Slavenas himself,” she says. “It totally reminds me of why I’m doing this. Sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down in the paperwork of being a news director, the day-to-day drudgery, but when it comes down to it, it all comes back to being a reporter who tells stories, and I feel really, really lucky to be able to do that.”

But for Stephens – the human being – the article carries different meanings. Some are funny (“Now I can die. I’ve been in The New Yorker,” she jokes) but some will stay with her forever, the way certain events cling to the memories they surrounded.

She has missed numerous days of work since December, when she and her new Pontiac Vibe began the first of several trips home to visit her seriously ill parents. The odometer already has passed 12,000 miles. Advance word of the article, even without realization of the role she would play in it, brought joy to her father.

“I was able to tell my dad about it,” she says. “He was still in pretty good shape then, and excited for me.”

Francis Stephens died March 7, exactly a week before the publication. Betty, Sue’s mom, remains hospitalized.

Back in DeKalb, near the end of her hour of local breaks, she uses her fingers to erase a question mark written after her name on the studio marker-board that lists the schedule of hosts. There is work to do here, where life goes on.

“I’ve got to get the newsroom back to full strength, to make this region a better place by exposing problems and injustices, to find people who have hit their lowest point and to make them right,” Stephens says, “and to just let as many people as possible tell their stories, so we can relate better and understand our neighbors better.”

Operating Staff announces Outstanding Service Award recipients

Four members of Northern Illinois University’s Operating Staff have been chosen to receive the Outstanding Service Award for 2005.

The recipients are Sandra J. Little of Development Office, Joan M. Metzger from the Regional History Center, Tris Ottolino of the Program for Hearing Impaired in the Department of Communicative Disorders and Kay Shelton from University Libraries.

About 1,800 employees make up the Civil Service staff. Each year, four are selected by a committee of their peers to receive the award of plaques and $1,500. They will be honored at a Friday, May 6, banquet.

Here is a closer look at the recipients.

Sandra J. Little

The man was seeking an extra ticket for the president’s section in Huskie Stadium so both of his grandchildren could sit with him.

What he found was an angel: Sandra J. Little.

Little, administrative assistant in the Development Office’s gift planning department, provided the man with a ticket and an invitation for his group to attend the president’s reception. Impressed by her kindness, the man later told President Peters that “at least one person is going to give some money who might not have except for (Little’s) generosity.”

“Her people skills are second-to-none, and in fundraising, those skills can be literally worth their weight in gold,” added Mike Malone, vice president for University Advancement. “She makes our donors and prospects feel like they have a real friend in the organization.”

Little joined NIU in 1997.

Her work includes the creation, coordination and implementation of the “College Assistants for Development” program, which educates, trains and fosters communication with the various operating staff members involved with development efforts.

She also was the key administrator of the “Skybox/Chairback” program during the football season, last year reaching out to 1,000 alumni and friends of NIU. And, when the Huskies went to the Silicon Valley Classic bowl game, Little played an important role reserving guests for the charter flight to California.

Over the years, her community involvement has included the Northwestern Area Educational Foundation, the DeKalb County Community Foundation, the Kishwaukee Community College Foundation, the Waterman Community Chest and the Waterman Presbyterian Church.

Joan M. Metzger

Books are an important chapter in Joan Metzger’s life.

The assistant university archivist in the Regional History Center for more than a decade comes to work early each morning to support the Friends of NIU Libraries. She stocks and operates the group’s book sale truck in the main lobby, collecting the money and preparing the next day’s transactions – an effort that has pumped more than $25,000 into an NIU Foundation account in the last three years.

Metzger also authored a book that makes a significant contribution to sources available on the Civil War. In 2004, Heritage Books published “The Griffith Letters: the Story of Frank Griffith and the 116th New York Volunteers in the Civil War.”

Her responsibilities include logging new inventory, updating electronic records and helping the more than 3,000 annual researchers and others, including reporters, who access archived documents and photographs.

“She is old school,” said Glen A. Gildemeister, director of the Regional History Center. “Rarely misses a day, always comes in early, works hard every day, does her work with enthusiasm and a smile, learns new skills often, is not discouraged by difficult people and works well as a part of a team.”

Metzger, who holds an NIU master’s degree in library science, also is involved in Habitat for Humanity, St. Mary Church and the Huskie Hoop Troop in support of NIU women’s basketball. She also helps to judge a yearly history competition for area high schools.

Tris Ottolino

Allan R. Vest is not Alex Trebek, but the director of NIU’s Program for Hearing Impaired in the Department of Communicative Disorders offers this answer: Tris Ottolino.

“When I need someone to say late to help proof read, type and compile a grant, contract or report, who volunteers to stay?” Vest asks, referring to Ottolino, a PHI teacher for the last 17 years. “If a staff member needs an emergency babysitter at 2:00 in the morning, who receives the call and comes immediately? If you need a ride because your car is in the shop, who will give you a ride to and from work?”

Ottolino’s work in PHI challenges and encourages students who are deaf and hard of hearing in their studies and nurtures them in their personal lives as they transition from high school into the university and public life. Meanwhile, the adjunct instructor in the departments of Literacy Education and Education Technology, Research and Assessment, was the driving force in bringing technology to PHI classrooms.

To her colleagues, she is known for her long hours that include weekends and holidays. “If Tris held to the 37.5 hours,” Vest said, “she would be finished working for the week by the time Wednesday rolled around.”

Ottolino is involved with the board of the Illinois Teachers of Hard-of-Hearing/Deaf Individuals (where she has served as president), the board of the Children’s Learning Center and the Conference Planning Committee for the 2005 International Visual Literacy Conference.

Kay Shelton

For Kay Shelton – researcher, author, editor, adviser, teacher, student – there is no separation between work and life itself.

The program administrative assistant at University Libraries spent much of 2003 and 2004 at work on the book “Daw May Kyi Win and the Burmese Bibliographical Collection at Northern Illinois University: Homage to a Southeast Asian Librarian,” created in memory of May Kyi Win, a Burmese librarian at Founders Memorial Library.

Shelton worked countless hours of voluntary unpaid overtime to research articles on the collection and compile and edit the thoughts of May Kyi Win’s colleagues. She arranged for imported, authentic handmade paper from Burma and Thailand to be used for the book’s cover. Illness could not stop her.

Nor could problems with the press job – including a delay in processing the paperwork to pay the printers and a overrun in costs. Shelton wrote a check from her personal account to meet the deadline.

“The word ‘no’ is not her vocabulary,” said Ging Smith, senior gift and estate planning officer at NIU Libraries.

Shelton also volunteers for the Illinois chapter of the Lincoln Highway Association, editing a quarterly newsletter and helping to develop a map book by visiting long-term members to collect old photos and stories.

Her volunteerism extends to NATIONS, where she advises the Native American student group, and to Creston-Dement Public Library. A doctoral student at NIU in the College of Education, she also teaches geography, anthropology and archaeology at Kishwaukee Community College.

KNPE professor working with panel
to reduce risk of falls for U.S. elderly

Pamela “Pommy” Macfarlane, a professor in NIU’s Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, is among the national panel of experts behind a new action plan to prevent falls for older adults.

“We have to get the word out that falls are preventable and not a natural consequence of getting older,” Macfarlane said. “Activity and mobility programs have a very clear association with lowering the risk of falls, even in frail people.”

Released in March, the “Falls Free: Promoting A National Falls Prevention Action Plan” initiative addresses the challenges and barriers related to a national falls prevention project.

It also outlines key strategies and action steps to help reduce fall dangers. Among them: developing a public policy agenda to promote falls prevention in the United States, conducting a strategically placed consumer education campaign to boost awareness of falls risks associated with medication use and increasing the number of adults who have an annual medication review.

“This is really something we need to start implementing and working on as a country,” Macfarlane said. “One-third of older adults are falling each year, and the cost is humongous. The dollar cost to the individual and society is large, but the biggest cost, as I see it, is to the quality of life for the person who falls or is scared of falling.”

About 12,800 people age 65 and older died from falls in 2002, causing about 38 percent of all unintentional injury deaths among the elderly. About 1.64 million senior citizens were treated in U.S. hospitals emergency departments for non-fatal falls. Those numbers translate to one death and 183 injuries each hour.

By 2020, according to a study cited by the National Council on the Aging, the cost of fall injuries for people 65 and older would reach $43.8 billion (in current dollars).

Macfarlane participated in a two-day conference in December where she and a few dozen others drafted the plan. Macfarlane was the national representative for the American Association for Active Lifestyles and Fitness.

The summit was sponsored by the National Council on the Aging, the Archstone Foundation and the Home Safety Council. The Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control has provided additional funding support for the publication of the action plan.

More information is available online at www.healthyagingprograms.org.

Macfarlane was a natural fit for the summit. She has operated an exercise program at Oak Crest Retirement Center for the last six of its 17 years, modeling it after observing a balance clinic in California and after implementing an 18-week program in her native South Africa.

Its focus includes balance challenges, walking skills and strength.

Mobility is emphasized because older adults lose strength and balance, putting them at risk for all activities. Mobility training can restore some loss and stop further deterioration, allowing an active and safe lifestyle. Heart-healthy and flexibility activities also are included but are secondary because mobility is necessary for such exercise.

Oak Crest funds a graduate assistantship and provides the facility while Macfarlane’s department provides the program administration, equipment and supervision of the students who are earning academic credit for their three hours of weekly participation.

Many of the students are working on bachelor’s degrees in kinesiology and exercise physiology and are destined for careers in prevention and rehabilitation as well as athletic training. The program also welcomes NIU gerontology students, who learn the ropes from kinesiology majors before starting individual work with the seniors.

The program won the 2003 Excellence in Programming Award from the Council on Aging and Adult Development of the American Association for Active Lifestyles and Fitness in recognition of programs promoting, advocating and encouraging physical fitness, wellness and the importance of seniors remaining active throughout their lives.

“We need to do a better job teaching people,” Macfarlane said of the national action plan. “Agility, balance and strength are all designed to help prevent older adults from going to the ground.”

NIU 'probably most prepared' university for severe weather

In front of about 100 weather spotters gathered for an on-campus spotter training session Thursday, April 7, NIU Staff Meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste accepted the National Weather Service’s “StormReady” re-certification on behalf of the university during a brief ceremony.

The certification lasts for three years, and is valid through May 2008. The National Weather Service designates communities, counties, schools and businesses “StormReady” when they meet a high level of weather preparedness.

Among the stringent requirements for large schools: a 24-hour emergency operations center, which is located at the NIU Public Safety/Police department, and at least five ways of receiving emergency and current weather information, with four methods to disseminate it in real time.

Currently, NIU Weather distributes severe weather bulletins affecting the DeKalb campus via the NIU Weather Web site, http://weather.niu.edu; via e-mail, pagers, cell phones, and through 168 NOAA All-Hazard radios placed strategically throughout the campus.

“I'm very honored to receive this award, but it is ultimately up to the university community to make it a success. Thanks to cooperation with many departments across the campus, it is great and getting better all the time,” Sebenste said.

“Most areas of the campus receive a tornado warning for DeKalb seconds after issuance. Then, the warning is broadly distributed to the residence halls, Founders Library, Holmes Student Center and other high-traffic areas,” he added. “In small administrative departments, each weather radio and e-mail lets them know just as quickly that the storm is coming. No other university in the country does this.”

Jim Allsopp, warning coordination meteorologist at the local National Weather Service office in Romeoville, agrees.

“NIU is probably the most prepared of any university in the country to deal with severe weather,” Allsopp said.

In addition to alerting the campus of severe weather, the All-Hazards radios, e-mails and NIU Weather Web site also will alert readers of man-made disasters, including terrorist attacks.

“I admit, part of my job includes dreaming up some terrifying ‘what if’ scenarios,” WHO said. “Unintentionally, the severe weather alerting system also works well for relaying evacuation information due to man-made disasters. If a hazardous material spill or other hazard required evacuation of the university, this system now integrates with the Department of Homeland Security and the State of Illinois to send these alerts through in near-real time.”

In addition to receiving and sending information locally, NIU Weather also has a weather station that sends out data in real-time to the university, the general public and, when needed, federal, state and local governments during severe weather and disasters. For that effort, NIU Weather and the university were recognized by the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

Sebenste said there is still more to be done.

“We’re going to add more NOAA All-Hazards radios in the future, and increase our product quality to better serve the university. NIU was the prototype ‘Storm Ready’ school, and currently one of only nine universities in the country to achieve this milestone,” he said. “We will continue to lead the way in providing the highest quality warning system possible for our staff, students and guests.”

NIU Weather is a division of the Environmental Health and Safety department and the Physical Plant, both of which support the NIU “StormReady” program.

Gerontology Student Organization hosts ‘Careers in Aging’ week

Baby boomers – those Americans between the ages of 40 and 60 – are accustomed to playing the scapegoat as they collectively move through life and take the blame for straining this system and that.

And now, as their generation hurdles toward retirement and its older members approach “the golden years,” their children and grandchildren are preparing to care for a vast population of elderly people.

Yet a shortage of workers is expected – and the NIU Gerontology Student Organization is hoping to shore up the troops through “Careers in Aging” week.

Scheduled for the week of April 11, the events include a discussion of careers and internships in fields serving older adults, a role-playing activity that puts participants in the shoes of elderly adults, a trivia game designed to keep aging minds sharp and a movie.

All events are open to the public. Call (815) 753-0853 for more information.

“We’re trying to get the word out that people have to be better prepared for dealing with the baby boomers as they age and dealing with the various needs they’re going to have,” said Carolinda Douglass, a professor in the School of Allied Health Professions and adviser to the GSO.

“We’re hoping to provide students with ideas as far as internships and jobs and what types of jobs they could have working with older adults, which just doesn’t mean working in a nursing home, which is what a lot of people think,” said Irene Kostiwa, president of the organization and an undergraduate student in psychology. “.”

Speakers at the panel, scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday, April 11, in Room 103A of Wirtz Hall, include public health officials, nursing home administrators, marketing and business development specialists, geriatric social workers, gerontological researchers, speech-language pathologists and nutritionists.

Each will speak for 10 minutes and later take questions, Kostiwa said.

Two rounds of “The Aging Game Workshop” will work to improve the sensitivity of those students planning careers in the aging field. The role-playing activity takes place at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, and 9:30 a.m. Thursday, April 14, in Room 132 of McMurray Hall.

Participants wear glasses smeared in Vaseline to blur their vision and earplugs to diminish their hearing, Douglass said, and are treated as though they’re cognitively impaired. Medical students at the University of Minnesota Medical School play the game extensively to improve their appreciation of the special needs of geriatric patients.

“We want students to experience both more-sensitive and less-sensitive caregivers,” she said. “We’re trying to create a more person-centered focus on caregiving by offering a more empathetic feel of what it’s like to be older.”

Students and senior citizens from the community will play Acuity, a Web-based trivia game similar to “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and “Trivial Pursuit,” at noon Wednesday, April 13, in Wirtz 103A.

One squad in the tourney will include at least two participants in NIU’s Lifelong Learning Institute teamed with students for an intergenerational experience.

Alan Robinson, director of outreach for the College of Health and Human Sciences, developed the game and officiates tournaments every other Saturday morning at three senior centers in DeKalb and Scyamore.

The game has 3,600 questions in 43 categories. Players choose four of their five categories from a randomly generated selection while the computer picks the fifth. Points are weighted based on difficulty, and wrong answers cost half their point value.

“It’s just kind of fun,” said Robinson, who is showing the game to people in Naperville and Rockford and exhibiting it at health fairs. “We’re getting quite a bit of attention with it, and it continues to grow. We keep tweaking the game a little bit based on the feedback we get.”

Robinson presides over a group of a dozen Alzheimer’s patients at Arden Courts in Geneva who play Acuity – and are sending a team to DeKalb for the April 13 tournament. (Oak Crest Retirement Center also will dispatch a team.)

The Alzheimer’s patients perform “really, really well,” Robinson said, prompting him and Douglass to pursue funding for summertime research on how the game affects their mental abilities and their social well-being.

“They like the simulation of it, but it’s quite remarkable that they keep their attention on it,” Robinson said. “There are 4.5 million people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in this country already, and the incidence will increase. This is a tool that could have a direct impact if played on a regular basis, so we’re excited.”

Anyone can play a sample game of Acuity at www.acuity.ws.

Nick Cassavetes’ 2004 movie “The Notebook,” starring James Garner and Gena Rowlands, will close the week with a free 5 p.m. screening Thursday, April 14, in Wirtz 216. Free popcorn and beverages will be provided while supplies last.

The week of activities also strives to shine a favorable light on the elderly.

“Society looks at aging in a negative way. It’s just not a really glamorous type of thing,” Kostiwa said. “I’ve noticed from being in psychology that most students are interested in working with children, or they look at aging in a negative way, which is unfortunate because most people age in a healthy way.”

One event – a speech on the pending privatization of Social Security – will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 28, in Room 216 of Wirtz Hall to accommodate the speaker’s schedule. University of California-Los Angeles Professor Fernando Torres-Gill is director of the Center for Policy Research on Aging, associate dean of the School of Social Welfare and Public Policy and associate director of the UCLA Center on Aging.

NIU’s gerontology program, housed in the College of Health and Human Sciences for a decade, began in 1986. It offers either a minor to undergraduates (between 30 to 35 usually are enrolled) or a graduate certificate to graduate students (between eight and 12).

Students come from a wide variety of majors, from the expected, such as nursing, communicative disorders, physical therapy and psychology, to the innovative, such as business, education or public administration.

Careers in education, employment, finance, housing, legal aid, medical service, mental health, nutrition, recreation and more await graduates.

For more information, call (815) 753-0031.

Parking Services announces new fees

Campus Parking Services has announced it will hike the price of parking permits for the 2005-2006 academic year.

The cost of all non-reserved parking permits for students will rise 4 percent ($1 or $2 more per year, depending on the type of permit purchased) while the cost of non-reserved blue permits for faculty and staff will climb 8 percent ($6).

Those purchasing reserved parking spaces, however, will see much more substantial increases.

Yellow or orange reserved permits for students will jump about 26 percent to $382 starting this summer.

Red/blue permits reserving parking spaces for faculty and staff on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. will increase about 29 percent to $561. Red/blue permits reserving spaces at all times for faculty and staff will increase about 26 percent to $642.

A survey of universities across Illinois and the Mid-American Conference found that more than half of those schools do not allow – or severely restrict – the purchase of reserved parking spaces. Among the rest, the new price at NIU for a reserved blue spot is slightly more than the average of $498.

All of the increases were unanimously recommended by the Campus Parking Committee (which includes faculty, staff and students) and approved by Bob Albanese, associate vice president for Finance and Facilities, in consultation with Eddie Williams, executive vice president and chief operating officer.

“We haven’t raised parking fees since the 1999-2000 academic year, and our costs have been increasing every year. We had simply reached a point where the committee felt it
appropriate to review the fees and concluded that an increase was necessary,” said Norm Jenkins, chair of the campus parking committee.

The additional revenue generated by the increases can be used in several ways, Jenkins said. Some of the money could improve parking enforcement efforts, an area where Campus Parking Services has been chronically short-handed for some time.

“Better enforcement will improve service for all permit holders,” he said.

The new revenue also can improve the upkeep of existing parking lots and support the paving of others, Albanese said.

“In the not-too-distant future, we would like to pave Lots X and W, which are located just north of Annie Glidden Road. We would also like to improve the lighting in those two lots, which provide parking for various student, faculty and staff permit holders,” Albanese said. “With projects like those on the horizon, it seemed an appropriate time for a small increase.”

While examining the price structure for parking permits, the committee also looked closely at the issue of reserved parking on campus and its effect on efficiency, concluding that adjustments had to be made.

“When you have a large number of reserved spots, it makes your entire inventory less efficient. For instance, currently, better than one in five blue permit spaces (22 percent) is reserved, and that is just too many,” Jenkins said. “When we studied similar universities in the state and across the Mid-American Conference, we didn’t find any other schools close to that amount. Several didn’t offer reserved parking of any kind.”

To address that situation, the committee recommended a moratorium on the sale of reserved parking spaces in blue lots until only 15 percent of the total pool is reserved. That will free up 184 parking spaces.

“All those who currently have reserved parking will be allowed to retain those parking spaces for as long as they wish to pay the going rate,” Jenkins said. “We suspect, however, that some people will choose not to pay the additional cost, which will help us get closer to our goal of 15 percent. The remainder will be recouped as people retire or leave the university. As that happens, the increased number of spaces in the general parking pool should benefit everyone.”

To lessen the impact of the increases, the committee also recommended that employees now be allowed to stretch payment for parking permits over 10 pay periods rather than the current six.

Kudos

Presidential Research Professor Biswa Datta recently was awarded a plaque of honor from the local chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India. The plaque was in appreciation for a workshop delivered by Datta, who is an elected IEEE Fellow and Distinguished Lecturer.

While in India, the NIU mathematics professor also visited the Indian National Centre for Development of Advanced Computing. He was invited by the center’s director to discuss the possibility of developing an Indo-American research collaboration on supercomputing and its applications to control and vibration engineering.

Datta also delivered colloquium talks at the center on his interdisciplinary research blending scientific computing with engineering.

NATIONS to present Native American film series

NATIONS, NIU’s Native American Student Organization, in conjunction with the Campus Activities Board and the Student Administration are proud to present three nights of Native American Films at Diversions Lounge in the Holmes Student Center.

The purpose of this event is to raise awareness of Native American issues and artistic achievements amongst the community, and provide a chance for students and members of the community to find out more about NATIONS and Native American culture.

The daily events will begin at 6:30 p.m with a brief lecture by a member of NATIONS and the film will begin at approximately 7 p.m., followed by a question-and-answer session.

The films are:

Monday, April 11, “Smoke Signals.” Winner of the Sundance Film Festival, and critically acclaimed, this interpretation of Sherman Alexie’s short stories follows two Couer D’alene men on their journey to retrieve the remains of one’s father. Both dramatic and comedic this film is a seminal work in American Indian Film. The lecture will be on the importance of oral history amongst Native cultures.

Monday, April 18, “The Education of Little Tree.” This touching story of a young boy brought to live with his Cherokee grandparents in the Appalachian Mountains during the 1920s and then being taken away to an Indian Boarding School. The lecture will be on
Eastern Cherokee Culture in the early 20th century.

All events are free and open to the public. Diversions Lounge is on the lower level of the Holmes Student Center. Parking is available at the Visitor Parking Lot off Carroll Avenue or at metered spaces around campus, although there is a charge to park before 7 p.m. After 7 p.m., parking is free at any unreserved space.

U.S. Court of Appeals holds oral arguments at NIU

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit will convene and hold oral arguments at the NIU College of Law at 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 13, in the Francis X. Riley Courtroom. Arguments begin promptly.

A reception will follow in the Marshall Gallery.

PCSM announces annual spring luncheon

The Presidential Commission on the Status of Minorities (PCSM) will host its sixth annual Friendships Abloom Spring Luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, April 14, in the Regency Room of the Holmes Student Center.

Brief remarks and award presentations begin at 12:15 p.m.

Created in 2004, the Deacon Davis Diversity Award, named in honor of Deacon Davis, founder and former Director of the CHANCE (Counseling Help & Assistance Necessary for a College Education) Program, recognizes the significant contributions made to the improvement of the status of minorities on campus by members of the university community.

The Commission is proud to announce the 2005 recipients: James Brunson, assistant director of Housing; the entire Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center; and doctoral student LaMetra Curry. Each recipient will be presented with a plaque during the luncheon.

There also will be a special tribute to the late Richard Flournory. Flournory served NIU in Human Resource Services for 25 years before retiring in 1994. He died in January. A special presentation will be made to his wife, Icilda.

Friends of NIU Libraries hosts program on memory

The Friends of the NIU Libraries invite the public to attend the fourth program of the 2004-2005 academic year at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 14.

Anis Contractor, assistant professor of physiology at Northwestern University, will present “Synaptic Plasticity: A Cellular Correlate for Learning and Memory?” The program will be held in the Staff Lounge located on the lower level of Founders Memorial Library. Free parking might be available after 7 p.m. in the Visitor’s Parking Lot, located on Carroll Avenue.

There will be an opportunity for discussion and light refreshments following the presentation. For more information, call 753-9394 or e-mail cditzler@niu.edu.

Geoglogy schedules four more colloquia

The Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences and the graduate colloquium committee of NIU have announced four more colloquia. All talks will be held at 4 p.m. in Davis Hall 308. For more information, call (815) 753-1943.

Friday, April 15: Terry J. Wilson, Ohio State University, “Kinematics and dynamics of rifting: Victoria Land Basin and Transantarctic Mountains Rift Flank, Antarctica.”

Friday, April 22: Kathleen Bryant, NIU, “Effects of long-term exposure to halogenated compounds on the chemistry and matrix structure of clays in northern Illinois,” and Amy Schwarz, NIU, “Site characterization or a southeast Rockford site contaminated by chlorinated solvents and heavy metals.”

Friday, April 29: John Sexton, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, “Georadar and seismic reflection studies in the New Madrid and Wabash Valley seismic zones.”

American Indian Interest Group forms

Gashkiton, which means “Success” in Anishinaabemowin, is the name of the new
American Indian Interest Group (AIIG) forming for faculty, staff and friends in the NIU community and surrounding areas who are interested in Native American cultures, topics and issues.

The group has several goals and purposes.

AIIG will act as a separate entity yet can work in close collaboration with the already established Native American student group, NATIONS. Possible activities in conjunction with NATIONS could include helping oversee a scholarship fund and volunteering to assist with the annual powwow hosted at NIU in early November. In addition, those joining AIIG can help shape the focus of the group and explore their own interests in Native American issues.

Additionally, Native American students sometimes face unique challenges. They may have difficulty fitting in with college life. In other instances, because of negative stigmas and stereotypes attached to Native Americans, all too often family members may have kept ethnic and cultural heritages hidden and when students come to college, they often want to explore their own identities.

Those members of AIIG interested can help form a pool of mentors to whom students can turn to help them adjust to college life, to assist in improving student retention, to help assist them in their exploration of their self identity and to achieve their own Gashkiton.

With everyone on campus and in the community having busy schedules, the bulk of the activities of AIIG can be virtual through a listserv, without regular, scheduled meetings. Anyone interested in joining can subscribe to the electronic group linked from the AIIG Web site at: http://dev.niu.edu/~AIIG/.

Allied Health Professions co-hosts seminar on women's wellness

NIU's School of Allied Health Professions and Edward Hospital are sponsoring a seminar that explores new ideas in women's wellness.

Dr. Karen Wolfe will present wellness as a practical approach to optimal health through the integration of mind, body and spirit and as a way of life designed to achieve optimal well-being and an awareness and appreciation that everything we do, think, feel and believe has an impact on our state of health.

The seminar is scheduled from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday, April 22, at the NIU-Naperville auditorium. A continental breakfast is served from 8 to 9 a.m. Space is limited and registration is required. The $20 registration fee includes breakfast. To reserve a space, call (630) 527-6363.

NIU Golf League ready for new season

Want to kick back after work and enjoy the outdoors? Why not join the NIU Golf League as we begin to tee off the new season?

All skill levels are welcome, with individual weekly events planned to make it a fun time for all. Tee times have been reserved at Buena Vista Golf Course from 5 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Play begins the week of May 9 and concludes with the annual banquet held Thursday, Sept. 8, at Indian Oaks Country Club in Shabbona.

E-mail niugolf@niu.edu or call Gail Taylor at (815) 753-8064 for more information.

NIU Alumni Association to travel to Venice, Italy

Fall in love with one of Europe’s most enchanting destinations on a romantic getaway to Venice, Italy, hosted by the NIU Alumni Association from Sept. 16 through 24, 2005.

To ensure a dynamic travel experience, NIU foreign languages professor Christopher Nissen will serve as the trip’s faculty host and lend his expertise in the region’s culture and heritage.

From their room in the first-class Hotel Sant’ Elena in eastern Castello, travelers will be within an easy vaporetto ride to Venice’s greatest sites, including St. Mark’s Square, Basilica San Marco and the Piazza San Marco. Additional tours include visits to the islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello, where locals will demonstrate their crafts in creating the world’s finest glass and lace.

For Shakespeare fans, a trip to the city of Verona will bring them to the infamous House of Juliet. The Venetian Cooking Class also might pose particular interest to travelers, who will spend a morning at the Rialto fish and vegetable market picking fresh ingredients for a culinary creation they will prepare under the guidance of a professional chef.

The total cost is $2,299 per person, based on double occupancy (single supplement available) and includes round-trip airfare from Chicago, accommodations, daily European breakfast and an introductory tour of Venice. Optional side trips are available at additional costs. The NIU Alumni Association Travel Program is ideal for both novice and seasoned travelers.

For more information, or to place your reservation, contact the NIU Alumni Association at (815) 753-1512.

4-11-05