NIU mourns loss of Dean Frederick Kitterle

Frederick L. Kitterle, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a champion of the undergraduate experience at NIU, died Tuesday, May 3, at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago after a six-month battle with cancer. He was 62.

For the past decade, Kitterle, of Sycamore, served as dean of the university’s largest college, one that touches the lives of nearly every student at NIU.

“We’ve lost a great leader at the university,” said NIU President John Peters. “Fred Kitterle always put the interests of our students first. He worked tirelessly, even while battling illness, to enrich the academic experience and bolster academic resources for all students at NIU.”

Kitterle regularly worked 12-hour days, six to seven days a week. His dedication remained much in evidence throughout his illness, as he continued working up until a few weeks ago.

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NIU’s Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center has honored four non-tenure track educators and four graduate teaching assistants for outstanding work in the classroom.

A reception was held April 19 at the Holmes Student Center. Each educator was presented with a plaque by Provost J. Ivan Legg, and each TA received a plaque from Suzanne E. Willis, acting associate dean of the Graduate School.

Faculty Development established the awards for TAs in 2004, and added non-tenure track educators this year. Winners are Ed Brata, Judith Kuczek, Daniel Olson, Cynthia Stecher, LaMetra Curry, Fumiko Kanekawa, Eun-Hee (Maria) Lim and Christopher Whidden.

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NIU is working to “transform the culture” of Rockford Jefferson High School, helping to make it a place where all students want to come and learn.

The goal is noble and lofty for sure, but one the federally funded Project REAL will reach incrementally over five years. It’s a strategy Jefferson reading teacher Chris Buck finds equally useful in transforming the teens in her classroom.

Buck’s students are at least two years behind in their reading abilities, so she purposely sets her expectations low enough that her pupils can and do rise to the challenge and find and enjoy success. Then, of course, Buck raises her expectations.

“NIU students get to see how students react to success,” said Buck, one of several members of the Jefferson faculty who welcome NIU’s “future teachers” into their classrooms.

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A donor who wishes to remain anonymous but has long been impressed with the mission of NIU has made gifts totaling $450,000 to create a permanent endowed scholarship that will benefit undergraduate students for decades to come.

“This is NIU’s second largest endowed scholarship established by a living individual,” said Mallory M. Simpson, president of the NIU Foundation.

“At a time when many donors are focused on capital projects, it is particularly gratifying to receive this gift in support of NIU’s ongoing efforts to significantly increase endowment funds for student and faculty needs,” she said. “During the past several years, more than $3 million has been raised.”

Interest from the latest donation will be used to award scholarships covering tuition, books and/or fees to undergraduate students who already have at least 36 credit hours at NIU and are majoring in psychology, geography or computer science.

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Northern Illinois University’s newest building – the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center – will further one of its oldest commitments.

For generations of DeKalb County residents and neighbors, NIU has gone beyond its educational mission to serve as a cultural and social Mecca in the proverbial backyard.

Concerts, from classical and jazz to rock and rap. Plays, from Shakespeare and Chekhov to the modern and the unknown. Ballets. Musicals. Art exhibitions. Lectures. Football. Basketball. Worship services.

Now the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center, scheduled to open Homecoming Weekend this fall, will offer local families a special and beautiful place to celebrate their milestones. The building can accommodate wedding receptions, anniversary parties, birthday bashes and more, including business meetings, class reunions and company banquets.

And, as the name implies, it will become a gateway to DeKalb County.

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The Center for Southeast Asian Studies at NIU is preparing to host the first-ever International Conference on Lao Studies, a three-day event that will coincide with a night of cultural performances in northwest suburban Elgin, home to one of the state’s largest Lao communities.

The May 20-22 conference is expected to draw more than 300 participants to campus, including more than 100 scholars from across the world.

“Laos is a relatively small country in Southeast Asia in terms of population, but it has a fascinating history and rich ethnic diversity. The Lao diaspora here in the United States is very large,” said Sue Russell, professor of anthropology and director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies. “We hope this conference will stimulate increased intellectual exchanges between Northern Illinois University and the National University of Laos.”

The high interest in the first International Conference on Lao Studies reflects the growing interest in Lao studies among a new generation of scholars, said John Hartmann, professor in the NIU Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and one of the conference organizers.

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Read good news about – and send congratulations to – David Buller.

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ITS blocks Sober.P virus

A new virus discovered this week called Sober.P is proliferating rapidly. It is most commonly spread via .zip file attachments.

At NIU, more than 90,000 bad extensions were blocked from entering the network between Monday, May 2, and Wednesday, May 4.

Although most of the infected files are .zip attachments, all of the following types have been identified and rejected by our CanSpam software: .zip, .pif, .scr, .exe, .com, .cpl, .bat, .cmd. For updated information, watch the ITS Web site.

NIU Huskie Pup Camp
announces registration

Registration has begun for the NIU Huskie Pup Camp, a summer program for children ages 6 to 12.

Held at the NIU Student Recreation Center, at the corner of Annie Glidden Road and Lucinda Avenue, the camp offers arts, crafts, sports, swimming, field trips, outdoor exploration, drama and more. A low counselor-to-camper ratio ensures campers get the attention they need.

Seven one-week session are available, beginning the week of June 13 and ending Aug. 5. Hours are 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and extended care is available for an additional fee.

The cost is $120 a week for Recreation Services members and $150 a week for non-members. Registration continues through Aug. 1.

For more information, contact camp coordinator Galen Mahle at (815) 753-0516 or via e-mail at gmahle@niu.edu. 

International Ramayana Conference
slated for June at HSC

NIU’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies is gearing up to host the Second International Ramayana Conference, expected to draw about 100 scholars to campus to discuss the epic literary work.

The conference will be held Saturday, June 4, and Sunday, June 5, at Holmes Student Center.

Thought to have originated in north India during the tenth to twelfth centuries B.C., the Ramayana is one of the greatest Sanskrit epic poems ever written. The story follows the noble prince Rama, who forfeits his rights to the royal throne on moral grounds and retires to the forest with his wife, the princess Sita, who is later kidnapped.

The Ramayana has been a powerful theme in Indian arts, literature and religion since its inception. It also spread throughout much of Southeast Asia in the first millennium A.D. While there are many versions of the epic, the virtues expressed in the Ramayana provide for the ideals of everyday life.

The conference at NIU will feature presentations and workshops on various themes of the Ramayana. The event is being sponsored in cooperation with the International Ramayana Institute of North America, based in the Chicago metropolitan area. The organization was founded in 2000 to facilitate and promote the exchange of the literary, artistic, cultural and scientific aspects of Ramayana among different countries worldwide.

(See www.ramayanainstitute.org/ for more information.)

The Ramayana Conference will include a workshop for K-16 teachers, focusing on the literary aspects of the story, as well as art and dance forms of the epic. More information about the conference and registration forms for teacher workshops can be found online here,

Performance masks of Southeast Asia
on display at Anthropology Museum

The Anthropology Museum at NIU is featuring a new exhibit of about 80 performance masks from Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and Malaysia.

Made of wood or papier-mâché, brightly colored and sometimes beaded, the masks depict the people, animals, clowns and demons portrayed in traditional dance dramas performed during religious rites or as entertainment.

Titled “Gods and Demons, Monkeys, and Men: Masks of Southeast Asia,” the exhibit is open for viewing weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through mid-September at the Anthropology Museum, located in the north wing of the Stevens Building.

The museum also will be open on the weekends of May 21-22 and June 4-5, while NIU is hosting international conferences on Southeast Asian studies. Visits also can be arranged by appointment by calling (815) 753-0246.

Most of the masks are owned by guest curator Kathy Foley, a professor of theater arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Foley interviewed, viewed and studied performance traditions with major artists in Southeast Asia. The Anthropology Museum has added its own collection of Thai masks, altar furniture and costumes to the exhibit.

“Kathy has put together an amazing variety of beautiful masks, which are truly works of art,” said Ann Wright-Parsons, director of the Anthropology Museum. “These dramas are meant to dazzle the audience with the color of the costumes and action of the characters. In these countries of Southeast Asia, this is a continuing living tradition.”

University Libraries
expands hours for finals

University Libraries has expanded its hours for Finals Week.

Hours are 7:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. from Monday, May 9, through Thursday, May 12. Hours for Saturday, May 7, and Sunday, May 8, are 9 a.m. to 2 a.m.

For more information, call (815) 753-1995.

Law Library announces hours
for reading period, final exams

The David C. Shapiro Memorial Law Library has announced its schedule covering April 30 through May 31, which includes reading period and final exams.

Extended hours through Tuesday, May 17, are from 7:15 a.m. to 2 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays, from 7:15 a.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays, from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturdays and from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sundays. The library is open from 7:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 19.

Hours from Thursday, May 19 through the end of the month are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The exception is Memorial Day Weekend, when the library is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 28, and closed Sunday, May 29, and Monday, May 30.

Call (815) 753-0505 for more information.

Annual steam outage
scheduled for mid-May

To perform maintenance and repairs on high pressure steam lines on campus, the Physical Plant and Heating Plant will conduct its annual steam outage in May.

West Campus: From 8 a.m. Tuesday, May 17, through 4 p.m. Friday, May 20. This will include Neptune and all buildings west of Carroll Avenue, except Stevenson, and various other smaller buildings not served by steam. Domestic and heating hot water will not be available.

East Campus: From 9 p.m. Sunday, May 22, through 4 p.m. Thursday, May 26. This will include all buildings east of Carroll Avenue, except for various other smaller buildings not served by steam. Domestic and heating hot water will not be available.

Address any questions to chief engineer Kevin Vines at (815) 753-6090 or via e-mail at kvines@niu.edu.

Passages

FY05 cut-off dates

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