October 10, 2005, Northern Today Abridged

Century's first decade full
of achievement, promise for NIU

President delivers sixth annual address

NIU in the first decade of the new millennium is a stronger institution with greater promise than ever, according to President John Peters' ‘five years back, five years forward' view of the institution laid out last week in his annual State of the University Address.

Peters described NIU in 2005 as a university that has survived serious financial downturns and has stepped up efforts to become for self-supporting in an era of dwindling state appropriations. He stressed the need to concentrate on student retention and graduation, calling those issues “the heart of national debate on accountability in higher education.”

“Twenty-five years ago, when college was still considered optional and most college students came from more privileged backgrounds, a high ‘flunk-out rate' was considered a mark of institutional academic rigor,” Peters said.

“Today, with 85 percent of new jobs requiring some college education, graduation is a make-or-break imperative. It's not enough to simply provide access: we need to ensure success,” he added.

Peters praised recent efforts to enhance student success rates, including the new undergraduate advising center, an early alert program that identifies struggling students within the first few weeks of school, and stepped-up tutoring programs, including those at the newly opened Grant Towers tutoring center, dedicated last Friday.

The president told a near-capacity crowd in the Altgeld Hall Auditorium that, in spite of the worst financial crisis in NIU's history, his five-year presidency has seen the construction and/or remodeling of nearly 20 facilities – “more than some colleges have in their entire building inventory,” he noted.

More than half of Peter's speech was given over to acknowledgement of various academic achievements. His college-by-college review highlighted dozens of major accomplishments, including multi-million-dollar research grants, innovative new partnerships and numerous examples of strong external validation, such as national rankings and private donations to top programs.

The need to increase and enhance NIU partnerships was a consistent theme throughout Peters' 90-minute address.

The president reminded faculty and staff that emerging standards for accreditation and rankings – including those from the prestigious Carnegie Foundation – emphasize what he called “engagement,” or partnerships between the university and public schools, agencies, businesses, industry, health care and municipalities.

Early in his presidency, Peters said, he created the Division of Administration and Outreach to help identify emerging needs in the region and help the colleges meet those needs. He pointed to the success of NIU's P-20 (pre-school through graduate school) initiative, as well as involvement in Rockford's EigerLab project, the neutron therapy program at Fermilab and Belvidere's Ag Tech Park as examples of ways in which NIU has “picked up the pace” in outreach and engagement over the past five years.

Other issues Peters addressed included:

• NIU's endowment: The NIU Foundation has raised more than $83 million over the past five years, increasing private giving in virtually every category. NIU's endowment has swelled from $3 million to $33 million in less than a decade – but Peters said that amount was still unacceptably low. “Endowments are institutional savings accounts,” Peters explained. “A university endowment is one of the most important indicators of institutional health, both because of what it supports and because of what it says about who supports the university.”
• External funding for research has skyrocketed in recent years, increasing from about $38 million per year when Peters took office in June 2000 to more than $61 million last year. The president gave special attention to a category of funding he called the institution's “federal agenda,” in which excellent programs are identified and given additional support with earmarked federal funds.
• New health-related initiatives offer tremendous growth potential, the president said. NIU has many strong health programs already, and the combination of existing health infrastructure and emerging health needs in the region presents numerous opportunities for the university.
• Efforts to make NIU more of a “green campus” have been successful. Energy-efficient vehicles, cost-cutting natural gas and electricity purchases, and performance contracts that reduce costs for many types of facility operations are saving NIU millions of dollars a year and “setting an example about responsible stewardship of our natural as well as financial resources.”

Peters said his vision for the future included a five-part identity for NIU:

NIU – The Sustainable University will invest in and nurture all its resources, be they human, financial or environmental. It will take a long-term view in all its decision-making, continually developing new sources of funding and fighting for better salaries and benefits for all employees.

NIU – The Engaged University will increase partnerships across the region, including those with community colleges. NIU will work hand-in-hand with organizations and governments throughout Illinois to build better schools, assist with land-use and transportation planning and transfer technology from labs to the marketplace.

NIU – The Global University will further internationalize its curriculum, and will encourage more NIU students to study abroad. Capitalizing on NIU's proximity to Chicago , the university will step up efforts to help the region become a bigger player in the new global economy.

NIU – The Responsive University will pursue new doctoral programs, create more multidisciplinary fields of study and research and continue to develop off-campus and on-line programs for place-bound students. Being responsive to current students means addressing concerns about housing, Peters said, and told the audience NIU is developing a long-range housing plan to be unveiled later this academic year.

NIU – The Accountable University will adopt and embrace “a shared, overarching culture based on student success.” In addition to improving student retention and graduation rates, NIU must continue to diversify faculty and staff and adopt more bilingual practices: “We must speak the language of our students,” Peters said, “and increasingly in our region, that language is Spanish.” Peters said NIU will not back down from its historic commitment to serve students from all backgrounds, including those who are academically under-prepared.

“When I came to NIU five years ago, I said we could be the nation's premier regional public university,” Peters said. “Looking at the last five years, there are many days I think I may have aimed too low. We are certainly the public university this region wants and needs.”

To see the entire text of the 2005 State of the University Address, or to watch an online video of the event, visit http://www.niu.edu/president/sofu2005.shtml.

Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center
to open Saturday during Homecoming

by Joe King

NIU will throw open its new front door to the world Saturday, Oct. 15, when it dedicates the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center during Homecoming festivities.

“This building is nothing short of spectacular,” said NIU President John Peters. “Dennis and Stacey Barsema, Ruth Pollack and the more than 2,000 other donors who so graciously and generously supported this project have created a new gateway to the university, one that makes us all proud. It is a first-class facility befitting of an outstanding institution such as NIU.”

The 40,000-square-foot building, located at the corner of Annie Glidden Road and Stadium Drive, will play host to a donors-only reception Friday, Oct. 14. It will open to the general public at 11 a.m. on Homecoming Saturday, and formal dedication ceremonies will take place at 12:30 p.m.

Visitors at those events will have an opportunity to tour the facility, which includes:

• A faculty library
• A ballroom
• Conference and meeting rooms
• A patio and sculpture garden
• Offices for the NIU Alumni Association and the NIU Office of Alumni Relations

The centerpiece of the new building, however, is the central hall.

Flooded with natural light from the dramatic three-story glass ceiling, the hall is lined with display cases that will highlight the accomplishments of NIU alumni. The hall is also home to a permanent display of plaques honoring faculty who have earned the university's highest honors for teaching and research.

“Our dream, when we began contemplating this project several years ago, was to create a building that would celebrate the accomplishments of our faculty and alumni to introduce our future alumni to that tradition. We hope prospective students walk out of here thinking that this is a university they want to be a part of, and that alumni leave feeling that NIU is an institution worthy of their support,” said Michael P. Malone, NIU vice president for advancement and development and interim executive director for alumni relations.

The BAVC, which cost just more than $6 million to build, was financed entirely through private donations. Ground was broken last fall during Homecoming and proceeded quickly.

“It was a very smooth process, thanks to the support we received from across the entire campus,” said Joe Matty, who oversaw the project for the Alumni Association. Supervising the work for Finance and Facilities was Pat Bell.

The finished product, said Malone, has more than lived up to the hopes of those behind the project. “It's one of those rare occasions when the reality is even more breathtaking than the vision,” he said, “and this was a big vision.”

The center will be closed during Saturday's football game but will re-open immediately afterward, offering snacks, drinks and a chance to view a live broadcast of Coach Joe Novak's post game press conference. The NIU Alumni Association is hoping that the event, billed as “The Fifth Quarter,” will become a new Huskie tradition.

NIU meets enrollment goal for 2005-06

Enrollment inched upward this year with an overall increase of 1.6 percent, NIU President John Peters has announced.

The modest growth is in keeping with the university's goal of limiting total enrollment to a level that can be served adequately by available resources.

“The demand for an NIU education continues to be at an all-time high, but we have to be prudent,” Peters said. “Years of decreased funding from the state have stretched our resources thin. It is only through the extraordinary dedication of our faculty and staff that we have been able to uphold the high standards we set for the university. We owe it to our students to ensure that our enrollment doesn't outstrip our ability to provide a top quality educational experience. This increase achieves that goal.”

According to the university's official 10th-day count, the total enrollment at the university grew to 25,208, up 388 students compared to last fall.

The largest increase was among transfer students, which climbed 11 percent compared to a year ago, while incoming freshmen were up 7.6 percent from fall 2004. The number of law students grew by about 2 percent, while the number of graduate students slipped about 1 percent.

Of particular note this year was an upsurge of 25 percent among freshmen honors students compared to one year ago.

“More and more, the top scholars in the Chicagoland area are choosing NIU, which speaks to the improving reputation of NIU,” Peters said. “It is encouraging that even during difficult fiscal times, the reputation of our programs continues to grow and to draw outstanding students like these to our campus.”

NIU faculty will lend expertise to boost
history lessons in northwest Illinois

NIU Professor J.D. Bowers will play a crucial role as “historian-in-residence” for a new project aiming to enhance students' knowledge of U.S. history in the Woodstock, DeKalb, Harvard, Belvidere and Prairie Grove public school districts.

Officials from the districts recently announced that they will share nearly $1 million in federal funding to launch the “Challenge of Freedom” project. The three-year effort will provide high quality professional development to as many as 160 history teachers, with the objective of improving instruction and raising student achievement at the elementary, middle school and high school levels. The five districts serve more than 23,000 students.

The Woodstock School District is spearheading the collaborative effort, with funding provided through a federal Teaching American History grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Bowers is a professor of history at NIU and previously worked as an American history teacher in Hawaii, Virginia and Uruguay high schools. As historian-in-residence for the Challenge of Freedom project, Bowers said he will work directly with teachers in various schools to help them enhance their content knowledge as they teach.

“The more depth teachers have, the more they can present to their students and improve their students' ability to think critically,” Bowers said. “Critical thinking has been missing in social studies curriculum for a long time, and many students lack an understanding of our nation's past. We need to be familiar with history in order to put current events into proper context.”

NIU's Mary Beth Henning, a professor of elementary social studies education, also has signed on to the project. “My role would be to help the teachers develop innovative instructional methods, so they can translate their new-found knowledge of history into dynamic and meaningful lessons for students,” she said.

The Challenge of Freedom project involves two dozen organizations, including museums, libraries, school districts and institutions of higher education. Teachers will participate in workshops, seminars, online discussions and a summer institute. They also will have the opportunity to take graduate-level courses in American history, including at NIU.

Bowers said he expects to have frequent on-site contact with teachers, serving as a resource for both curriculum content and instructional method.

He has been involved in a similar effort in Rockford Public Schools, which received a Teaching American History grant of nearly $1 million in 2004. In both cases, Bowers played an instrumental role in the design of the proposals. In Rockford, he now serves as the external evaluator, examining grant activities and assessing their effectiveness.

“We're in the first active year in Rockford , and it's making inroads and great gains with the teachers,” he said.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, also known as “the Nation's Report Card,” indicates that less than one-quarter of U.S. students in the fourth, eighth and 12th grades are proficient in American history. The Teaching American History grant program, initially sponsored by U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia now has given more than 500 such grants to various school districts and their partners nationwide.

The funding supports programs that work to raise student achievement by improving teachers' knowledge, understanding and appreciation of American history.

“We fully recognize the importance of a global history and social studies curriculum, but the fact of the matter is that our students – regardless of their ages, locales or backgrounds – need to know all they can about our nation, its past and its shaping influences,” Bowers said. “Our world is complex, and the teaching of our nation's history should reflect that. Only by teaching students in that way, through a variety of content, can we be sure that we are preparing the best possible future citizens and laying the groundwork for the future of the United States.”

Faculty Development wins third RCR grant

An academic paper arrives at a professor's desk with a note requesting a peer review, yet the recipient is unqualified to accurately assess the work and fails to disclose the problem.

Another professor asked to evaluate a proposal for research borrows an idea contained in the pitch. A third is listed as an author on a project to lend it credibility despite no involvement in the work.

Such lapses in good judgment could spiral into disaster, says Murali Krishnamurthi, director of NIU's Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center.

“Ultimately,” he says, “these things impact public welfare and safety if somebody takes these research findings that are reported in the paper and they take it to be truthful and apply it to certain activities that impact public safety and health.”

Krishnamurthi, along with Faculty Development colleagues Dan Cabrera (multimedia coordinator) and Jason Rhode (online technologies coordinator), have earned a third grant of $25,000 from the federal Office of Research Integrity to develop online learning modules that promote responsible conduct in research.

The team will concentrate on responsible authorship and peer review as they develop computer-based tools set for an Internet launch in December of 2006.

Earlier grants from the Office of Research Integrity, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, came in 2003 for an online training module on data management and earlier this year for an online training module on responsible mentoring and collaboration.

Rathindra Bose, vice president for research and dean of the NIU Graduate School, said the work of Faculty Development is critical.

“There are a lot of responsibilities imposed on academic institutions and also on investigators who are involved in research. Unfortunately, in many areas, the education is lagging behind,” Bose said.

“Many researchers do not know what is ethical and what is not ethical, how to approach the human subject, how to take the permission, what constitutes conflict of interest when they are collecting data or presenting the information to the public, how much they are influenced by their own hypotheses rather than the independent judgment to analyze the research results,” he added. “We are so proud that Murali is doing this kind of quality work to educate all researchers and keeping us really informed on what the ethical and moral responsibilities of researchers are.”

Krishnamurthi said the new interactive training module, like the previous tools, will include simulations of situations, games, quizzes and other activities for self-paced learning.

“It's something that requires the user to interact, think and participate, rather than using a passive modality,” Cabrera said. “The sources we use are journal articles, material from textbooks and interviews with faculty here at NIU on specific topics to get their impressions and some examples. We also go online to look at the available information.”

Krishnamurthi visited Seattle last month to demonstrate the module on data management, which the ORI already has published on its Web site.

“This will be made available soon to about 500 or 600 institutions all over the world, to about 200,000 to 300,000 faculty and staff researchers,” Krishnamurthi said. “This is a substantial recognition for NIU.”

Krishnamurthi, Cabrera and Rhode will travel to Milwaukee next week for an Oct. 17 conference where they will roll out the new module on mentoring and collaboration. It will go online in December.

“The new simulation activity requires the user to navigate through a series of events, and we offer the user an opportunity to select one of two different roles: a trainee looking for a mentor and a mentor new to mentoring,” Cabrera said. “It's scored so people can do better, and also as an incentive to engage in the activity of applying content and making good and better decisions.”

Faculty Development's latest project will reach the ORI's Web site in December 2006.

“They value what we do,” Cabrera said. “It's a compliment to NIU.”

Literacy Education outreach ROARs
into schools in DeKalb, Aurora

Chris Carger's students in Literacy Education used to catch a van at dawn so they could tutor English language learners in Chicago 's Pilsen neighborhood.

Now the growing Hispanic population in DeKalb County allows the NIU students to practice in local classrooms while Carger spends more of the program's limited dollars on art supplies rather than gasoline and tolls for rented vans.

Hispanic children now make up 30 percent of the enrollment in some DeKalb schools, she said, up from as little as 2 percent in the last decade.

“Our main goal is to really help English language learners to achieve literacy in English and to also have a really good feeling about their native language,” Carger said. “We no longer have to go to Chicago to get that experience.”

The program currently serves 107 kindergarten through third-grade students at the public Littlejohn and Cheeseboro elementary schools and the private St. Mary's School in DeKalb and Archbishop Romero Catholic School in Aurora.

ROAR (Reaching Out through Art and Reading ) recently gained attention in the newsletter of the Illinois Association for Multilingual and Multicultural Education, which ran a full-page article and several photographs.

It grew out of a program formerly coordinated by the NIU School of Art, which sent its students into Chicago schools that could not afford to teach art. Carger, who had come to NIU from DePaul and missed her connection with Chicago 's Hispanic children, joined in the trips with books to read aloud.

“They were beautiful books,” she said of the illustrations, “and we linked them to the art projects.”

When the program ended, Carger took ownership and amplified the literacy component. She started winning small grants to pay for the art supplies and enlisted her students in “Techniques in Tutoring” (LTCY 231 and LTCY 431) as the front line.

Students spend two hours each week in seminar, which includes selection of books and development of projects, and two hours in the elementary school classrooms.

“My students just love the program. They feel that it's really hands-on experience for them. They say when they go to their clincials, they're just light years ahead of their peers,” she said. “It's a wonderful experience for the college kids as well, in that many of them didn't know what to expect when we say ‘English language learners.' Our program really helps to break down negative stereotypes.”

Some students take Carger's class twice, once at each level, and also opt to stay involved by enrolling in the course as an independent study. Afterward, she said, some choose to work professionally with Hispanic children.

And currently, she added, they are motivated to reach into their own pockets. “Our NIU students are so generous,” she said. “They even end up buying things for the kids themselves.”

Children make butterflies with paper towels and clothes pins, and snowmen with felt. They paint frames and pictures onto square floor tiles Carger buys at Home Depot. They create puppets and put on shows.

For Halloween, they'll color faces onto small pumpkins donated by a student's employer. For Thanksgiving, they'll make turkeys by tracing their hands on construction paper and adding feathers.

Their favorite activity by far, Carger said, involves air-dry clay. When the clay hardens, they use Magic Markers to decorate their pottery or statuettes.

NIU's tutoring also features games, including the traditional flash cards with vocabulary words. Children also cut egg cartons in half, glue small pictures in each oval indention and place one marble inside. They shake the cartons, open them to see where the marble landed and then say in English what they see in the “chosen” pictures.

“It's just little stuff, all simple things, but they absolutely love it,” she said. “The teachers love it, too, because they're so bogged down with everything else.”

Most important, however, are the academic results. Pre- and post-testing of vocabulary words shows “lots of growth,” Carger said, and Hispanic college students who participate provide positive role models for the children.

The young students want to learn English, she said, and clearly appreciate the growing number of children's books in Spanish or English and Spanish. Among Carger's favorites are “The Pot that Juan Built,” by Nancy Andrews-Goebel, “Family Pictures” by Carmen Lomas Garza and “Gracias the Thanksgiving Turkey” by Joy Cowley.

Getting to know the young students helps to shatter stereotypes that Spanish-speaking children are quiet or choose not to participate in class, she said.

“I tell my students, ‘You would be quiet, too, until you felt that you had enough understanding to get a few words out in a new language,' ” she said. “Kids just open up and try to use the English when they have books that are culturally relevant and supportive.”

Meanwhile, “mainstream” English-speaking children in the classrooms are learning Spanish during the process. Carger sometimes initiates “A Trip Around the World Through Books,” which involves looking at maps and reading books from different cultures and fosters early notions of racial equality.

“I like the mainstream kids to see those so that they don't see reflections of themselves in the books,” she said.

ROAR's continued success comes at a crucial time. Many Hispanic parents, like parents from all ethnicities, are too busy to read to their children. Some can't find books written in Spanish.

“Kids aren't being read to like they once were. TV and computers are kind of taking that over,” Carger said. “Research shows that the better readers are those who are read aloud to.”

The main concern is funding.

Books are plentiful or available at libraries, but art supplies are one-use only, and schools usually offer only construction paper, scissors and glue. “We like to do a little more than drawing,” she said. “That's where the money gets swallowed up.”

Carger has received grants from the NIU Foundation (which awarded her a 2004 Venture Grant for $12,357), the College of Education's partnership office, the Altrusa Society of DeKalb-Sycamore and the DeKalb Education Foundation. The departments of Literacy Education and Teaching and Learning both help by funding a graduate assistant.

She also contributes from her own pocket, and sometimes ponders whether to end the program.

“Every time I think of shutting down, and I go out and visit the classrooms … ,” she said, her voice trailing off. “This is such a win-win for the kids and the teachers and our tutors. I hate to think of stopping it. I just always have to look for funds.”

Memorial scholarship will honor
life of NIU Professor Carol Feltz

A memorial scholarship award is being established to honor the memory of Carol J. Feltz, a talented statistician and researcher whose passion for teaching led her to return to NIU, her alma mater.

“What stood out in Carol's professional life was her sense of devotion to teaching and helping students,” said Rama Lingham, director of the Division of Statistics within the NIU Department of Mathematical Sciences.

“The superb art of teaching requires a person with special talents and a spirit of care,” he said. “Carol was one of those people.”

The only full-time female professor in the statistics division, Feltz was a role model to women in a subject area traditionally dominated by men. She taught a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses at NIU during her 16-year career.

Feltz, of St. Charles, carried a full teaching load last spring, vacationed with her family in Switzerland in June, finished writing a scholarly book chapter in July and intended to teach this fall. But the 49-year-old professor succumbed to breast cancer Aug. 11 after a seven-year battle with the disease.

Survivors include her husband, Peter Waterman, who also is a professor in the Department of Mathematics, and their son, 9-year-old James Waterman.

“One of her loves was working with students in the introductory courses to statistics, which she regularly taught,” her husband said. “The students typically weren't math or science majors and were terrified of the subject. Carol helped build and develop the course and provided those students with encouragement and patience. She was dedicated to nursing them through it.”

A native of Crystal Lake, Feltz had been a star student in the NIU mathematics department in the 1970s, earning both her bachelor's and master's degrees. She completed her Ph.D. in 1982 at the University of Missouri and went to work as a member of the technical staff at the AT&T Engineering Research Center in Princeton, N.J., one of the country's premier research facilities.

During the 1980s, she donated a kidney to her older sister, Barbara Feltz-Cass. After the deaths of her sister and father, Carol Feltz returned to Illinois to be closer to remaining family members and began teaching at her alma mater. She also was an active researcher. She served on the editorial board of an international technical journal and specialized in the areas of quality control, goodness-of-fit tests, and applied probability and statistics.

Shortly after arriving at NIU, Feltz met Waterman, a native of England. They were married in 1993. Off campus, Feltz was dedicated to her family. “She loved to play ball in the garden with our son, or to go walking along the bike path near our house. On weekends one of her favorite things to do was to go treasure hunting at estate sales,” Waterman said.

“All around, she was a wonderful person,” he added, “a dedicated teacher and loving mother and wife.”

As both a student and professor at NIU, Feltz was known for her optimism and contagious enthusiasm. “Carol had a quality that you don't often see in students – she elevated the efforts of the people around her,” said Stanley Trail, a retired professor of statistics who taught Feltz and later worked alongside her as a colleague. “She was like that as a faculty member as well.”

Trail said Feltz cared personally about her colleagues, and even encouraged him to take vitamins, exercise and quit smoking, which he did successfully. “She was outgoing, energetic, helpful and a peacemaker. She was always a giver and very rarely a taker. Although Carol's illness was not a secret, she downplayed its significance and did not try to push her pain off onto others. Her courage and strength were remarkable.”

Waterman said details haven't yet been worked out for the memorial scholarship honoring his wife's memory. It likely will be designed to encourage students who are studying statistics, particularly women. The Division of Statistics is soliciting donations as well as ideas.

For more information, and before donating, contact the division's office manager, Donna Lynn, at (815) 753-6778 or donna@niu.edu.

Professorial band makes history sing

A startup band on campus is making history, of sorts, with catchy songs such as “Yuppie Socialists,” “Flags, Guns, and Bibles” and “Goin' Atlantic.”

These aren't your typical student alternative rockers, however. All of the members of Captain Swing, which formed in 2004 and cut its first CD this past summer, are NIU history professors.

“All we've played so far has been history department events,” admits vocalist and percussionist Beatrix Hoffman.

Still, the group's debut effort, appropriately titled “Historiography,” has been a hot commodity among students and faculty. The band is scrambling to produce more CDs after about 85 originals sold out at a modest $5 each. Proceeds benefit the NIU History Club.

In addition to Hoffman, band members on the new CD include Jason Hawke (vocals, bass, percussion), Sean Farrell (keyboard, vocals), Jim Schmidt (guitar, vocals, banjo), Eric Jones (guitar, vocals) and Taylor Atkins (bass, percussion). Captain Swing takes its name from a mythical figure that came to represent the agitation of the working class in 19 th -century England .

“We thought the name has a sort of musical sound to it,” Hawke says, “and being history professors, we love the obscurity of the reference.”

The band plays a wide variety of musical styles, but it doesn't swing.

“Captain Swing's music defies many things: logic, even perhaps good taste, but certainly categorization,” according to the band's Web site, www.captainswing.net. It goes on to describe the group's efforts as inclusive of Mardi Gras-inspired grooves, rollicking country-and-western numbers, emotionally dark folk rock, atmospheric and intelligent pop, southern-fried soul and spooky reggae.

“Eclectic but coherent is the short answer,” Hawke says. “There's a sort of a Captain Swing sound that holds it together.”

The roots of the band can be traced to history department Christmas parties, where Schmidt and Atkins occasionally performed impromptu sessions. Hawke sat in one year, and later Jones. When keyboardist Farrell joined the faculty, the professors realized they had all the components of a band. After hearing a performance, Hoffman says she insisted on joining.

“This sort of grew out of torturing our colleagues,” Schmidt says. “Mostly it's just for fun. We're not going to quit our day jobs.”

As might be expected, a number of Captain Swing songs have to do with history or the life of an academic. The bluegrass inspired title, “Charles Martel,” is a tongue-in-cheek ode to the Frankish ruler and grandfather of Charlemagne. “Goin' Atlantic ” is a similarly facetious look at the study of the early colonization period from the 16 th to 18 th centuries.

The lyrics are set to surfing music.

The CD's title cut, “Historiography,” is a satire on the romantic lives of academics. A sampling of its lyrics: “In a final attempt to win her heart/I quoted desperately from Roland Barthes/I knew it was trouble, she didn't flinch/She said, ‘It's so much better/In the original French …”

“There's a strong ironic sense of humor in the band, but we're definitely not interested in being a novelty act,” Hawke says. “The vast majority of our songs are quite earnest.”

Since cutting the CD, Atkins, who plays in another band, has opted out of Captain Swing. Jones is doing research in Malaysia this semester, and Farrell is a visiting scholar in Montreal . Once they return, Captain Swing hopes to land some live gigs. It won't be surprising if the band evolves into something bigger.

“We're getting a new colleague next fall,” Schmidt says. “He's a drummer.”

Kudos

Paul Culhane, an associate professor in the Division of Public Administration, has joined the Board of Directors of the Alliance for the Great Lakes (formerly the Lake Michigan Federation), the oldest citizens' Great Lakes organization in North America

“Paul's enthusiasm for a healthier Great Lakes environment makes him a leader” said Dale Bryson, president of the Alliance 's board of directors. “We're honored to have Paul join us.”

Culhane has published two books and numerous other works on environmental policy, including a 1974 monograph on the Lake Michigan Federation.

He served on the organization's Executive Committee until his term expired in 2001. As a member of the board, he joins about 20 other dedicated individuals from around the Great Lakes in setting the overall policy direction and overseeing the organization's health.

“I'm honored to rejoin the board of the Alliance this year,” said Culhane, “following the Great-Lakes-wide work the Federation has done for three decades.”

Formed in 1970, the Alliance for the Great Lakes has as its mission to conserve and restore the world's largest freshwater resource using policy, education and local efforts, ensuring a healthy Great Lakes and clean water for generations of people and wildlife.

Jesse Jackson to lecture at NIU
during College of Law series

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, will present the 2005 Marla Dickerson Public Interest Lecture Series at the NIU College of Law, making him the second speaker for the distinguished annual lecture series.

The lecture will be given at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, in Altgeld Hall.

Jackson is one of America 's foremost civil rights, religious and political figures. Over the past 40 years, he has played a pivotal role in virtually every movement for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality and economic and social justice.

His lecture will center on the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. As key provisions in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 are set to expire in 2007, Jackson aims to ensure that such sections are reauthorized to protect voters from discrimination at the ballot box.

Funded by a donation from the Dickerson Family, the Marla Dickerson Public Interest Lecture Series was established to bring distinguished speakers to NIU to discuss current issues relating to public interest and appropriately honor the spirit of Marla Dickerson. Dickerson is a former NIU law student who died in a plane crash in 1994 during her second year of law school. She was determined to use her legal education in public interest.

Please RSVP to Melody Mitchell at (815) 753-1027 or mmitchell@niu.edu. This event is free and open to the public.

Timpanist from New Orleans
to present master class at NIU

Jim Atwood, timpanist with the New Orleans Philharmonic, will be on campus Thursday, Oct. 13, to present a master class on timpani performance and how to repair and maintain the instruments.

Call (815) 753-1551 for more information.

Women's Resource Center
hosts ‘Stress Busters'

Stress Busters, support group for learning how to deal effectively with the stress in your life, meets from 3 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Nov. 15 at the Women's Resource Center, 105 Normal Road .

For more information, call Marianne Tomlinson or Deb Finke at (815) 753-0320.

Paideia Projects to hold
video/DVD presentation

The Paideia Projects Program will hold its third video/DVD presentation Sunday, Oct. 16, at the Fountain Blue Banquets and Conference Center , 2300 South Mannheim Road in Des Plaines .

There will be a full dinner with open bar before and after the dinner, wine on each table and a book exhibit. A dance group will perform traditional Greek dances. Cocktails are served at 5 p.m., and dinner begins at 6 p.m. The donation is $60 per person.

This year the Paideia program will present its second Paideia Award to Greek American Restaurant Association (GARA). The theme of this year's video presentation is “The Influence of Ancient Greece on the American Founding Fathers.”

Campus Child Care Center
hosts children's book fair

The NIU Campus Child Care Center will hold its annual Children's Book Fair during the week of Oct. 24.

The book fair will be open from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at the Campus Child Care Center . Come browse through a wide selection with multiple copies of books, early readers, parent resource materials, calendars and much more. At least 15 tables set up with about 1,800 books and other items will be available for purchase.

The center is located just off Annie Glidden Road west of Gabel Hall. The main entrance can be accessed by the circle drive in front of our white stone building in parking lot 38.

Geology adds to
Fall 2005 Colloquia

The Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences has announced additions to it schedule for its Fall 2005 Colloquia.

All talks are held at 4 p.m. in Davis Hall 308 and are co-sponsored by the Graduate Colloquium Committee of NIU. For more information, call (815) 753-1943 or visit http://jove.geol.niu.edu.

Today: Dr. Rowan, distinguished lecturer for the AAPG, “Collisional Fold-and-Thrust Belts Detached on Salt,” held in Davis 309.

Monday, Oct. 31: Distinguished lecturer for the SEG to be announced

Friday, Nov. 11: Reed Scherer, NIU, “T. Rex and T-bird, dolphin flippers and Cadillac fins.”

Friends of NIU Libraries
sponsors trip to Newberry

The Friends of NIU Libraries will sponsor a trip to the Newberry Library on Saturday, Nov. 5. The Newberry is hosting an exhibition, “Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country,” and will present two free lectures on “Indian Country through Photography and Film.”

Richard Mack, an Evanston-based photographer, will speaking on “The Lewis and Clark Trail: American Landscapes” at 11 a.m. Sally Thompson from the University of Montana, the media curator for the exhibit, will show her short documentary film, “Contemporary Voices Along the Lewis and Clark Trail,” at 1:30 p.m. and then discuss the film project.

For further details about this event, visit http://www.newberry.org/programs/L3pcontinuing.html and click on “Programs.”

The Friends will provide a bus to and from the library, but space is limited. Lunch is not included. The bus trip is free to Friends; non-Friends and guests will be asked to pay $15 ($10 for students) to help defray expenses. Payment (for non-Friends) will be collected when boarding the bus. To reserve a seat, contact Kathy Wright at (815) 753-5201 or kwright@niu.edu by noon Friday, Nov. 4. The bus will leave at 9 a.m. from the Normal Road entrance to the Holmes Student Center , and will return around 5 p.m.

10-10-05