Peters announces P-20 grant competition for faculty

NIU is challenging faculty to reach across departments and colleges to craft grant proposals that would enhance multidisciplinary teaching methods from pre-school through graduate school.

President John Peters announced the competition Jan. 20 during a reception to thank university employees who have worked on behalf of P-20, NIU’s initiative to promote university-wide attention to improving education from pre-school through graduate school.

The P-20 Task Force will fund development of two planning grants in 2005. Two teams will receive awards of $3,500 to $5,000 each to produce proposals ready for submission to federal agencies, foundations or corporations.

Teams must consist of faculty and/or staff from two or more colleges. Their applications should limit their proposal concept to 500 words or fewer and include a schedule for proposal development and potential funding agencies.

All applications are due Feb. 15 to Anne Kaplan, vice president for administration and outreach at NIU.

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University Libraries at NIU aims to capitalize on the popularity of Abraham Lincoln, Illinois’ favorite son, to help high school teachers revitalize coursework in 19th century history.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded University Libraries a grant of $150,000 to provide professional development workshops to high school history teachers this summer. The workshops will be held at Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield and led by some of the nation’s top scholars on Lincoln and the 19th century.

“The idea behind the workshops is to use the life of Abraham Lincoln as a lens through which we can look at 19th century history,” said Drew VandeCreek, director of University Libraries’ Digitization Unit and a principal organizer of the workshops.

VandeCreek’s digitization unit is also creator of Lincoln/Net (http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/), a Web site that focuses on Lincoln’s life before the presidency, relating his experience to life in antebellum Illinois. The Web site attracts 13,000 visitors daily.

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Professor Jim Thomas in the Department of Sociology will address the triumphs and tribulations of teaching during a Presidential Teaching Professor Seminar from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14, in the Heritage Room of the Holmes Student Center.

Refreshments will be served, and the public is welcome.

In 2000, Thomas was named an NIU Presidential Teaching Professor, the university’s highest honor for outstanding teaching. The tongue-in-cheek title of his upcoming lecture is: “Why Teaching Would Be So Much Nicer If Not for Students!”

“Too many students enter college unprepared, fail to invest their best efforts in classes and tend to manipulate instructors for grades,” Thomas says. “Why, then, would any sane person take teaching seriously?”

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The Experiential Learning Center at NIU’s College of Business recently received the Educational Partner of the Year Award from Family Shelter Service.

Family Shelter Service is a not-for-profit organization that supports victims of domestic abuse and their children in DuPage County, handling an average of 600 calls per month.

To help the agency better handle that workload, faculty and students working through the ELC planned and created a new information technology infrastructure for FSS. They also created a new client information management system and a victim advocacy database (using software donated by Microsoft Corporation) to improve the agency’s ability to track and manage domestic violence cases.

One dividend of the ELC’s work has been a dramatic improvement in the ability of FSS to get help to victims of abuse more quickly.

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NIU’s Vegetarian Education Group, in cooperation with the Department of Philosophy, is proud to sponsor a lecture by Professor T. Colin Campbell, an internationally renowned researcher and lecturer.

His lecture, titled “Challenging the Status Quo: The Misunderstood Role of Nutrition in Health, Medicine and Society,” will be delivered at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 5, in the Wirtz Hall Auditorium, Room 101.

The event is free and open to the public.

Campbell is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University and also holds an honorary professorship at the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine. His principal scientific interest has been the effects of nutrition on long-term health, particularly on cancer prevention.

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Read good news about – and send congratulations to – Diane Tyrrell, the NIU Press and the NIU College of Business.

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Visiting art professor
to give lecture

Claudia Swan, an associate professor at Northwestern University, will speak at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2, in Room 100 of the Art Building. Swan will speak on “Realism and Fantasy: The Paradoxes of 17th Century Dutch Art.”

Swan’s talk is sponsored by the division of art history in the NIU School of Art. Call 753-1474 for more information.

Local symphonic band
to resume rehearsals

The Greater Kishwaukee Symphonic Band will resume rehearsals at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2, in the band room at Clinton Rosette Middle School on North First Street.

This is a non-profit, all-volunteer band made up of anyone 18 or older who has played a wind or percussion instrument in the past. No auditions are necessary. Come and join a great group of people having a lot of fun for a very little time commitment.

There will be more rehearsals Feb. 16, Feb. 23, March 2 and March 9. The first concert of the spring session will be held Sunday, March 13, under the direction of John Hansen.

Convo to welcome
Nelly, St. Lunatics

St. Lunatics, starring Nelly, Murphy Lee, Ali & Kyjuan and other featured artists, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 9, at NIU’s Convocation Center.

Tickets are limited to two for students ($32 with an ID) and eight for the general public ($36.50). Tickets are available at the Convocation Center box office and all Ticketmaster outlets and by calling (312) 559-1212 or visiting www.ticketmaster.com online.

For more information, call 752-6800 or visit www.niuconvo.com.

ITS announces
spring workshops

The ITS Customer Support Center has announced spring 2005 workshop topics, including “Managing Spam E-mail,” “SPSS/SAS,” “What Every Webmaster Should Know” and much more.

New this spring are “Ask the Expert” sessions that offer the opportunity to discuss specific software- and technology-related problems with subject matter experts. A brief spotlight presentation also will be held on key topics during this gathering.

Review all ITS workshop offerings here online. Self-study workshops and online tutorials are also available.

To learn more, visit www.helpdesk.niu.edu.

Theatre students stage
two Moliere comedies

NIU’s School of Theatre and Dance will present two plays in repertory by one of the world’s greatest comic dramatists: Moliere. Playwright Ranjit Bolt translations of “Tartuffe” and “The Misanthrope” will be performed on alternating nights, from Feb. 3 through Feb. 13.

Among those who make a study of such things, 16th century playwright Moliere is generally accepted to be second only to the Bard-on-Avon himself in stature, worldly wisdom, sociopolitical insight, and tremendous wit.

“Tartuffe” and “The Misanthrope” run February 3-6 and 10-13 in the Stevens Building O’Connell Theater, with weekday and Saturday performances at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $14 for general admission, $8 for seniors and $7 for students.

For more information and the performance schedule for each production, contact the box office at 753-1600.

The NIU Women’s Resource Center, formerly University Resources for Women, has begun a group experience for women “in transition.”

Women interested in making positive changes in the way they move through transitions can find ideas and support regarding relocation, jobs and careers, school, loss and grief, relationships, illness, the stages of life, day-to-day living and more. The group offers the opportunity to gain greater insight into how one moves through change, experiences personal growth and develops skills for better success in transitions.

For more information, or to participate, call 753-0320.

The NIU Women’s Resource Center, formerly University Resources for Women, has scheduled several workshops focused on finding employment. These workshops will develop career planning and job search skills for women to use throughout their work lives.

Workshops are held from 4:45 to 6:45 p.m. Mondays at the center, 105 Normal Road.

Topics: “Values/Budgeting/Salaries” (Feb. 7), “Skills Assessment” (Feb. 14), “Resume Workshop” (Feb. 21), “Computer Assisted Information” (Feb. 28), “Occupational Interview” (March 7), “Interviewing Skills and Practice Interviewing” (March 21) and “Other Job Search Hints” (March 28).

For more information, contact Rita Reynolds at 753-0722 or via e-mail at rreynolds@niu.edu.

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