September 26, 2005, Northern Today Abridged
NIU-Burpee expeditions find
tantalizing evidence of more dinosaurs
Burpee Museum of Natural History, which in 2001 discovered the now-famous juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex dubbed Jane, might have more prehistoric giants in the rough.
This past spring and summer, expeditions led by NIU and the Rockford museum surveyed three promising sites in Carter County, Mt., where Jane was discovered, and removed dinosaur fossils from each.
Two of the sites yielded the bones of Triceratops, a large horned dinosaur that grew to about 30 feet in length and weighed up to 5 tons. At a third site, expedition members unearthed some bones from an equally large duck-billed dinosaur known as Edmontosaurus, a plant eater that lived at about the same time as Jane.
“These are important finds. If it turns out that we have enough bones at these sites, we'll be able to display some spectacular new dinosaurs for people here in Rockford,” says Mike Henderson, Burpee curator of earth sciences. “The fact that these discoveries were made by people from our community is a huge shot in the arm for this program that already has the Jane find to its credit.”
Burpee Museum and NIU have long collaborated on paleontology. (NIU Professor Bill Harrison was among the volunteers who discovered the initial Jane fossil.) Congressman Don Manzullo, R-Egan, ramped up the partnership in 2003 when he secured $1 million in federal funding to advance plans for the Burpee Museum campus and research center.
Burpee and adjacent Discovery Center Museum have embarked on a $12.5 million capital campaign that aims to renovate and rejuvenate the museum campus along the Rock River in downtown Rockford. Among the goals: expand both museums, provide a new home for Jane and develop additional programs for research and education.
As part of the proposed expansion, NIU is working with Burpee Museum on the creation of a natural sciences laboratory that would improve prep areas, provide more space for student researchers, enhance environmental education programs and improve collections and storage capabilities.
“The recent finds from Hell Creek provide yet another example of the benefits from the NIU-Burpee partnership,” said Reed Scherer, a professor of geology and environmental geosciences at NIU and member of Burpee Museum Board of Trustees. “We've had quite a few undergraduate and graduate students involved in Burpee-related projects. They're getting hands-on experience in the field and in the laboratory. The partnership enhances the profiles of both the museum and the university.”
Scherer was part of a team of NIU faculty and students that traveled in May to Montana 's Hell Creek region and found bones of Triceratops. The Hell Creek Formation is a sedimentary deposition that runs through four states and is rich in dinosaur fossils. The team's promising fossil finds were followed in July by a Burpee-NIU expedition, led by Henderson and Burpee Collections Manager Scott Williams.
During the second trip, Rockford-area residents Helmuth Redschlag, Velta Pocs and Maureen Mall discovered the second Triceratops site, where a complete femur (thighbone), vertebra, several ribs and skull and hip material were exposed within hours.
The large Triceratops dinosaur is well-known among paleontologists. It had three formidable horns, one on its nose and two above its eyes, as well as a bony frill (head-shield).
The features were useful in defense against a Tyrannosaurus.
“Triceratops is the most common dinosaur found in the Hell Creek deposits, but it's rare to find complete skeletal remains because the animals were scavenged unmercifully by T. rex,” said Lew Crampton, Burpee Museum president.
Burpee plans to obtain an excavation permit from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to further explore and excavate both Triceratops sites. The fossils excavated will be researched and prepared for display by students and staff from NIU and Burpee. While it is still too early to tell, there is a possibility that enough Triceratops material will be uncovered at both sites to display a substantially complete specimen at the museum.
Members of the July expedition also recovered fossils of Edmontosaurus , including toe bones, ribs, vertebra and a scapula (shoulder-blade). The lumbering duck-billed dinosaur had short arms, a long pointed tail and hundreds of teeth for grinding food. Excavations at that site are expected to continue next year as well.
Burpee Museum and NIU will team up on several one-week expeditions to Hell Creek in May and June of 2006. People interested in joining the team for a dinosaur discovery adventure can contact Scott Williams at (815) 965-3433.
Burpee Museum of Natural History is located at 737 N. Main St. in Rockford. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call (815) 965-3433 or visit www.burpee.org.
CHHS course 'Disability in Society'
exposes prejudices, poses challenges
For 90 minutes each week, they are immersed in a world of disabilities, examining lives they might not know or understand, or ones they hide.
They dissect disability from personal, philosophical, sociological, psychological, medical and legal perspectives. They hear of stigmatization and oppression as they read first-person accounts from people who have disabilities.
If they become uncomfortable, good. If they become more aware, even better.
“Disability is so very prevalent. Every one of us, if we live long enough, will have a disability, and people with disabilities are not given the same rights. They're oppressed,” said Greg Long, professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders in the College of Health and Human Sciences.
“I want students to have some issues-sensitivity and awareness. I want to push these students a little beyond their comfort level sometimes,” he added. “Not everyone is mean-spirited, or has bad intentions. They just don't get it or see the big picture.”
Long, a licensed clinical psychologist who came to NIU in 1991, knows the big picture well.
“I have a stepson who is 21 with autism. I have a brother a couple years older who is deaf and mentally retarded. I'm a primary caregiver for both. Contact with disabilities contributes to your comfort,” he said.
When NIU's highly popular “Exceptional Persons in Society” class ended in 2001 – its professor, Elliott Lessen, became dean of education at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville – Long's department leaders thought he was “in a good position” to launch a similar general education class.
Long eagerly agreed. “As a college professor, you've got something that's interesting to you,” he said, “and you've got a chance to share it with students and develop it.”
The course, now in its second semester, is full. College administrators were forced to cap enrollment at 250 amid heavy interest, something that pleases Long. Only 76 students were enrolled in the spring, he said, and a combination of “good press” from those students with announcements and notices to undergraduate advisers ignited a buzz.
He plans to teach the course every semester from now on, and believes every NIU student should have to enroll as a prerequisite for graduation.
“Disability is a fact of life for millions of individuals,” the syllabus states. “One of the major goals in this course is to help you become informed members of society who demonstrate sensitivity toward disability issues and cultural diversity.”
Such compassion could help prevent awkward or hurtful situations on campus and in life, Long said.
“Many among us are not necessarily disclosing their disability. It puts them in a position where others might think less of them, especially with invisible disabilities, such as mental illness, learning disabilities or Crohn's disease,” he said.
Among the topics covered in the course are deafness, blindness, speech-language disorders, mental illness, learning disabilities, segregation, institutionalization, involuntary sterilization, nursing homes, disability legislation, sexuality, special education, employment, women, minorities, media and the arts.
Some issues include mental retardation and the death penalty, the incarceration of youth waiting for mental health services and race cleansing in America. Required readings rely heavily on first-person accounts from people who have disabilities.
Last spring's students would say they left the classroom changed, he added.
“Reviews were very positive. They each had to write a two- to three-page reflective narrative at the end of the semester,” he said. “All of them indicated they became aware of many things they hadn't experienced before and questioned their own viewpoints.”
For more information, contact Long at glong@niu.edu.
ACCESS finds new home in Grant South
For nearly 30 years, the tutoring program run by NIU ACCESS has saved the academic day for thousands of students. Now, at last, they have a home worthy of a hero.
Just opened this fall, the Grant South Tutoring Center provides ACCESS (Access to Courses and Careers through Educational Services) with a spacious, well-lighted and technology-rich facility where students can find drop-in, one-on-one or small group tutoring help for their short-term needs.
An all-campus open house to showcase the new facility will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7, in the lower level of Grant South. The event will include tours, door prizes and refreshments.
ACCESS/Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) also operates two smaller drop-in tutoring centers in Lincoln and Douglas halls.
“The services provided by ACCESS are vital to retention efforts,” said NIU Vice Provost Earl “Gip” Seaver, whose office collaborated with Housing and Dining to create the new center. “So often, when you think of tutoring, you picture somebody working out of a little closet of an office. This state-of-the-art facility sends a message to students, elevating these important services to a more appropriate environment.”
The new center comes at an opportune time, said Hillard Hebda, assistant director of ACCESS for Peer Assisted Learning, who points out that the program has seen record numbers of students in each of the last two years (last fall alone, tutors put in more than 3,600 hours) and is on pace to break that record again this year.
“We have worked hard to get the word out about our services through advisers, UNIV 101 instructors and residence hall staff,” said Shevawn Eaton, director of ACCESS. “We also get a lot of positive word-of-mouth advertising from the students who come to us.”
Along with the drop-in tutoring centers designed to help with homework, quick questions and small-group tutoring sessions for specific courses, there are many other services provided through ACCESS.
Students who would like more regular tutoring can apply for up to three hours of regularly scheduled tutoring per course per week.
In a few select classes, such as CHEM 110 and 210, students also can take advantage of the ACCESS/Supplemental Instruction (SI) program. In SI, students attend regularly scheduled group study sessions led by specially trained tutors called SI Leaders who attend class and take quizzes and tests to make them intimately familiar with the material and the teaching style of a particular instructor.
In all ACCESS programs, along with content-based tutoring, students can get assistance with study skills and test-taking strategies.
All of the services are free to students, and Eaton is eager to see that as many students as possible benefit from them.
“We'd love to have faculty attend the open house at the new Grant South facility so that they can see what we have to offer. Sometimes faculty are unaware that we exist and are frustrated that they don't have someplace to direct students who may need more assistance than they can provide,” Eaton said.
For more information on ACCESS, its tutoring services and its schedules, visit www.tutoring.niu.edu.
LEPF's Musial to reflect on term
as Presidential Teaching Professor
Diann Musial realized early on in her four-year journey as a NIU Presidential Teaching Professor that she wanted a challenge – more specifically, a self-examination.
Never comfortable with courses taught totally online, she decided to immerse herself in one as an adjunct instructor at a certified online graduate university.
“I studied, I read, I participated, and I hated it,” Musial said.
“My strengths as a teacher tend to come from the interaction face-to-face with students. I am a natural in terms of just noticing body language, reacting to tone of voice, listening carefully, both with my ears and my eyes, and then dynamically coming up with brilliant words – that's a joke, but I say things I find I didn't think I knew,” she added. “It's something that brings out a talent from me. Without that context, I'm dull and uninteresting.”
Thoughts of context “catapulted” her in another direction: What context works best to engage students in meaningful learning?
Well, Musial learned, the play's the thing.
Musial, a professor in the NIU College of Education's Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations, will lead a seminar on her PTP experience from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3, in the Capitol Room of the Holmes Student Center.
Vice Provost Earl “Gip” Seaver also will offer a history of the Presidential Teaching Professorships. Refreshments are served at 11:30 a.m. All are invited. Call (815) 753-1085 for more information.
“Rather than try to just speak about my teaching philosophy and who and what I believe in,” she said, “I'm trying to reflect on these four years, on my own development and change, because that's a gift the university gives you with some extra funding and a semester off.”
Musial will focus on her notion – “the theme that captured my imagination” – that teachers should regard their roles in the classroom as playwrights tackle the empty page.
Each lesson is like a play, she said, with three acts: a hook in Act I, finding a means to an end in Act II and presenting a resolution in Act III. The students, of course, are the actors.
“I believe if you place students in a context that is meaningful to them and that has some stakes connected to it that they buy into – real stakes, that this has something to do with life, that maybe at the end of this experience they could actually make a change in the world, or in their profession or in their home – they learn in spite of the teaching,” she said. “It doesn't matter what their level is. It works on all levels of intellectual ability. Human beings are natural thinkers.”
Teachers who find compelling hooks for Act I will gain the attention of their audience, she said. Problems work well, she said, as do calls for dreaming up new inventions or products or imagining ways to do something better or to create something beautiful.
At this point, however, teachers need to rearrange their own thinking.
Educators typically examine mandated learning outcomes and create lesson plans to meet those goals, she said. Teachers in the “playwright” method spend Act II finding and using teaching devices that will advance the hooks.
Act III provides the performance assessment component for teachers as their students solve the problems unveiled in the opening scenes.
Musial, who won a grant to test her theories in Rockford and Elgin schools, discovered a perfect example during her time in the elementary and secondary classrooms: Basketball legend Michael Jordan raised the curtain and effectively yelled “Action!” when he sent letters to students seeking their help in making school cafeteria menus more nutritious.
“As a teacher, this is where you say, ‘In order to get a better nutritional menu, I've got to make sure they see the new food pyramid.' Suddenly, they're reading about nutrition, but now it's in the context of what will help them decide what nutritional changes to make,” she said. “Act II is what I think most teachers know how to do: reading, looking at videos, working in groups, answering problems. The difference is you now cluster these old-fashioned learning tasks for these kids in a way that relates back to the hook.”
Students then were allowed, with permission of the cafeteria staff, to add their more-nutritious selection to the menu for three months. Everyone in the school community then became the audience and the critics as the group's teacher was served a glowing opportunity for assessment.
“It connects all these good practices into a larger context. It's not dependent on brilliant lectures,” she said. “Students given context that really matters to them take it more seriously.”
Alum gives gift of U.S. flag that played
unique role in liberation of Afghanistan
In early 2004, U.S. Army Reserve Lt. Col. Thomas A. Hall sent a gift of an American flag to the NIU Department of Political Science. On Monday, Sept. 12, he visited the campus of his alma mater to tell the flag's story.
A native of Highland Park, Hall graduated from NIU in 1983 with a degree in political science. He enlisted in the U.S. Army a year later and left active duty as a major in 1998. He was reactivated in 2003, served in Afghanistan as an intelligence adviser and executive officer, and later was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
“No one I know who went to Afghanistan and served there left the country thinking that we weren't there for the right reasons,” Hall said during a small flag presentation in the political science office at Zulauf Hall, where his gift is prominently displayed. “Afghans are pretty positive about (the American) presence because they realize we ended the Taliban (rule).
“When I first got to Afghanistan, if you drove around the city of Kabul, you could count on one hand the number of women who were not wearing burkas,” he added. “By the time I left, 10 months later, less than 10 percent of women were wearing them. There were huge social changes in the country during the time I was there.”
The American flag presented to NIU was initially carried on a U.S. Marine Corps Harrier fighter jet during a combat air mission in support of U.S. and coalition troops on the ground in Afghanistan. It then was flown in the Bagram Collection Point, the military confinement facility where captured enemy combatants were detained prior to evacuation to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
All throughout the facility, American flags were flown, each for nine days, 11 hours and one minute, commemorating the survivors and victims of Sept. 11, 2001.
“Every waking moment of the day, (detainees) would have to look at the American flag,” Hall said. “That was so they would never forget why they were there.”
Hall also carried the flag with him during a combat operation in southern Afghanistan while attached to an Italian Alpine parachutist regiment. Finally, the flag was flown above the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan 's capital. With the exception of the combat operation near the Afghan-Pakistani border, certificates authenticate the locations where the American flag was flown.
Hall, who has numerous military awards and decorations, including the Bronze Star Medal and Meritorious Service Medal, said he wanted to give the flag as a gift to NIU because the university laid the foundation for his military and civilian careers. He now lives in Seoul, South Korea, and works in civilian service for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, serving as senior command representative to U.S. forces in Korea.
The DIA is the primary intelligence agency serving the Secretary of Defense.
“A big part of when I was growing up was being an NIU student,” Hall said. “The education I received at Northern was very beneficial, and it did help me considerably when I went into government, both in the military and after as a civil servant.”
Following the flag presentation, Hall met with students in an introductory course on international relations, taught by Daniel Kempton, political science chair.
“It was a very valuable experience for the students,” Kempton said. “Being able to talk to somebody who's involved day to day in foreign policy decisions was a bit of an eye opener. Lt. Col. Hall was very frank with the students, both in terms of the fascinating parts of his job and the daily monotony of it.
“His gift of the American flag is a very meaningful contribution to the department,” Kempton added. “It will allow students to reflect on their predecessors and colleagues at NIU who have gone on to serve their country in the armed forces around the world.”
Van Ael endeavors to raise Jack Olson Gallery's profile
Few campus visitors would guess incorrectly what building the NIU School of Art calls home, given the assorted works in progress typically strewn near the side door along Gilbert Drive.
But Peter Van Ael, new coordinator of the Jack Olson Gallery, said he believes the school's true outward impression is found inside on the Art Building 's main floor.
“Not unlike the theater stage to the theater school, or the concert hall stage the School of Music performs on, the gallery is the public's way to gain a view into the School of Art . It's the school's calling card,” Van Ael said.
“The gallery has to work on different levels. We are a forum for informal education in the arts. Our main constituency is the NIU School of Art,” he added. “Beyond this primary group, we seek to engage the broader NIU community and target the local and regional art scene. In order to reach this broad public in a meaningful way, Olson Gallery needs to schedule exhibitions and programming capable of challenging its diverse audience both visually and intellectually.”
Van Ael comes to NIU from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he was director of the University Art Gallery and assistant professor of art. He previously was director of the Talley Gallery at Bemidji State University in Bemidji, Minn., and also oversaw the university's permanent art collections.
His responsibilities here will expand next year to include teaching in the Museum Studies program.
NIU appealed to him for its proximity to Chicago, he said. Van Ael's spouse, Jessica Gondek, teaches drawing and painting at Loyola University.
His own art career began with printmaking, partially for its rich tradition in his native Belgium and partially for its ability to reach a wider audience through multiple copies, but he eventually took inspiration from countryman Frans Masereel and turned to woodcuts.
“He's one of my heroes,” Van Ael said of Masereel, who died in 1972 and is regarded as “the greatest woodcut artist of our time” by some. “He had this ability, with a black-and-white woodcut, to tell a complete story.”
Van Ael showed his woodcut exhibition “Strata” last year in Texas to explore “process as content by constantly challenging the definition of printmaking, painting and drawing, thus engaging in a dialogue between these traditional two-dimensional media and the shallow physical space of three-dimensional relief.”
Now Van Ael plans to challenge notions of the Jack Olson Gallery's stature in the region through advertising, outreach and hosting ongoing exhibitions, and to maximize use of Gallery 214, a smaller exhibition space down the hall.
He also hopes to add at least one more external exhibition each year.
“The word is not out there that we are a quality venue to see contemporary art,” he said. “We're a gallery incorporated into a school of art, and we need to involve its different dimensions into the life of the gallery.”
Professional exhibitions scheduled this year include “Bushwick Farms Presents … the Traveling Variety Show,” from Sept. 22 to Oct. 12, and “The Art of Al Souza,” from Jan. 1 to Feb. 3. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Other showings include the high school invitational (Oct. 24 to Nov. 6), the Black Box Special Exhibition (Nov. 8 to 11 and April 17 to 21), the BFA show (Nov. 17 to Dec. 7 and April 27 to May 11), the graduate group show (Feb. 13 to March 8) and Ars Nova (March 30 to April 13).
For more information, call (815) 753-4521 or visit www.niu.edu/art/calendar.
Haunted Physics Laboratory hits the road to scare, teach
NIU's popular Haunted Physics Laboratory is hitting the road, accompanied by the ghost of the past century's greatest scientist, Albert Einstein.
The haunted laboratory, which boasts dozens of hands-on demonstrations with a Halloween theme, will be exhibited in the communities of Oglesby, Freeport and Dixon. The exhibit also will again be held in DeKalb this Halloween season.
Geared for families with children in kindergarten through eighth-grade, demonstrations will include laser displays, disappearing test tubes, pumpkin pendulums, oscillating apples, fun-house style mirrors and ghostly images. Visitors will come under the watchful gaze of a likeness of Einstein, whose eyes appear to follow guests around the laboratory.
The event is free and open to the public.
“We think it's downright frightening how much young students will learn about the world of physics from our haunted laboratory, which actually isn't scary so much as it is intriguing,” says Pati Sievert, coordinator of the Frontier Physics outreach program at NIU, which stages the laboratory.
In past years, the spooky laboratory demonstrations were held only on campus in DeKalb. Grants from the American Physical Society and the NIU Foundation have allowed Frontier Physics to expand its outreach this fall to locations in northwest Illinois.
“The haunted laboratory has been a very popular attraction for young students visiting the NIU campus, and we expect the road shows to also be well attended,” Sievert said. “Last year's event in DeKalb drew 750 people in four hours.”
In each haunted-lab community, workshops will be held for teachers, who will get a close-up look at the exhibits and will make additional interactive displays for their classrooms. Educators who attend will receive credit for seven to nine Certified Professional Development Units (CPDUs). The teacher workshops will begin at 9 a.m. on the day of each haunted laboratory exhibit and last through the end of the public portion of the event.
The Northern Illinois Center for Accelerator and Detector Development at NIU provides the majority of funding for Frontier Physics outreach.
The American Physical Society grant coincides with the World Year of Physics 2005, a United Nations-endorsed, international celebration aiming to increase public awareness of the importance of physics. The celebration marks the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein's “miraculous year,” during which he published three now-legendary articles that provide the basis for quantum theory, the theory of relativity and the theory of Brownian motion.
For more information on the Haunted Physics Laboratory, click here or e-mail Pati Sievert at sievert@physics.niu.edu.
Northern Star alums of Eisenhower, Kennedy era
to reunite weekend before NIU Homecoming
Some NIU alums will celebrate a special homecoming a week before the official event.
About two dozen members of the Northern Star staff from the years 1957 to 1963 will return to campus Friday, Oct. 7, and Saturday, Oct. 8, for a reunion. For some in the group, the gathering marks their first return to campus since their graduation four decades ago.
Former “Star-types” are expected from Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin. Their weekend begins with a Friday night reception at Best Western DeKalb Inn & Suites and continues Saturday with campus tours and a closing dinner at Carls Fargo in Sycamore.
“Our people still identify their college experience with the Star more than anything else,” Northern Star Adviser Jim Killam said. “These folks have a strong affinity.”
Chuck Shriver, a 1962 alum, and Al Erisman, class of 1963, organized the get-together.
“It all happened because, very fortunately, I was honored to be inducted into the Northern Star Hall of Fame at a dinner in February,” said Shriver, who is retired and lives in Elk Grove Village. “Jim Killam sent out a general e-mail to all the Northern Star alums inviting them to the dinner, and it mentioned all the inductees, me included.”
Erisman, a retired Boeing executive living in Seattle, saw his old friend's name and found his e-mail address online.
“We started e-mailing back and forth, catching up on things, and thought, ‘Gee, wouldn't it be nice to get together just to shoot the breeze?' We started putting down names of people we remember,” Shriver said. “We managed to run most of them down, and there's going to be 35 or 40 of us, including spouses.”
Hallie Hamilton, a faculty member from that era, will attend. So will Ruby Grubb, widow of Don Grubb, who came to NIU in 1959 to create the journalism department. Hamilton and Grubb, who died in 1992, are members of the Northern Star Hall of Fame.
The group will pose for a photograph, tour campus, including the Convocation Center, and visit the Star's offices in the Campus Life Building.
Killam expects some of his students to show off their workspace and speak with their predecessors from more than four decades earlier.
“It's always fun to see different generations find a common point of connection, and this current generation connects well with their grandparents' generation,” said Killam, who hopes his students see how the Star can lead to successful careers. “A lot of key issues our students are dealing with today are pretty close to what they were dealing with then. Other than technology, reporting the news hasn't changed in a lot of ways.”
However, Shriver said, the Star itself and its campus surroundings have changed plenty.
“The school was a lot smaller. Enrollment was about 5,000 when I graduated, and it had been about 3,100 when I enrolled a few years earlier. The paper was a weekly, 10 to 12 pages,” he said.
“Our offices were in an old Army barracks located where (Anderson Hall) is now. After the Korean war, a lot of G.I.s had come back, and Northern, to get some temporary housing for these returning G.I. guys, bought some old wooden barracks from an Army camp up in Rockford,” he added.
“They had 'em trucked down and sat next to Kishwaukee Creek, across from the old football field. They were used for a few years as housing, and as the school started to grow, they started putting some offices over there, and that's where the Northern Star was. We used to crumple up newspapers to stuff in the cracks in the floor. The wind would blow underneath those barracks and blow up between those planks, and it was pretty cold.”
Although the time of Shriver, Erisman and their colleagues predates the campus turmoil of the Vietnam era, the newspaper wasn't immune to scrapes with then-NIU President Leslie Holmes.
“That was in the days when the administration considered the student newspaper as the P.R. arm of the administration. Of course, we didn't think that way. We had a lot of skirmishes about what should and shouldn't be in the newspaper,” Shriver said. “It's part of the growing-up process. Roy Campbell, our adviser, was always running interference.”
Shriver, ironically, spent much of his career in public relations.
He worked in the front offices for professional sports teams including the Cubs, the White Sox and the Chicago Sting, and returned to campus from 1985 to 1988 as associate director for marketing in Huskie Athletics. His final job before retirement, from 1988 to 2003, was on the copy desk of the Daily Herald.
And, like most Star alums, the newspaper remains dear.
“It was a fun time for us,” he said. “Everyone is looking forward to mostly talking and catching up, and they're curious about what the campus looks like now.”
For more information, e-mail Shriver at cshriver@sbcglobal.net.
Curators will discuss 'The Art of Burma'
at NIU museum gallery in Chicago
Curators of “The Art of Burma,” a stunning display of artworks from two of the top Burmese art collections in the United States, will lead a tour and give a public talk about the exhibition from 4 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, at the NIU Art Museum Gallery in Chicago.
The exhibition runs through Oct. 29 and is free and open to the public.
On display are sculptures, lacquerwares, palm-leaf manuscripts and tapestries dating from the 7th through 19th centuries. The artworks were selected from the vast collections of the Center for Burma Studies at NIU and Denison University in Granville, Ohio.
“The Art of Burma” examines the transmission, protection and sponsorship of Buddhism in Burma, as seen through visual art and artifacts. During their presentation, co-curators Catherine Raymond of NIU and Alexandra Green of Denison also will explore the nature of collecting cultural art and artifacts in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Significant collections of Burmese art have been formed in the United States over the past 150 years. Denison University amassed its collection from alumni who were missionaries to Burma , while NIU accumulated its collection primarily from American scholars and American foreign diplomats posted in Burma .
“Collectors of Burmese art were originally colonials and missionaries, but after independence in 1948, diplomats and scholars predominated,” NIU's Raymond said. “Since the Center for Burma Studies was created in 1986, NIU has received major donations from diplomats and scholars who were interested in the art of Burma. These donors knew their collections well and thankfully were familiar with the history of their donated pieces. Konrad and Sarah Bekker were the first ones who initiated the Burma Art collection at NIU and created the core of our extensive collection.”
Burma (Myanmar) is a country with disparate geographical areas and types, ranging from mountainous regions to flood plains, from heavy forestation to semi-aridity.
Moving down from southwestern China in the 9th century, the Burman people entered the area encompassing present day Burma, displacing and absorbing the previous occupants, the Mon and the Pyu. The country borders India, Bangladesh, China, Laos, Thailand the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea and naturally became a center for routes of exchange. Today the country is ethnically diverse, with a population of 43 million people.
The collection of the Center for Burma Studies at NIU is on exhibit for the first time in Chicago thanks to the generous support provided by the Sally Stevens Fund for Excellence in the Arts. This exhibition is funded in part by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, the Friends of the NIU Art Museum, the Burma Studies Foundation, the Arts Fund 21, the Denison University Art Gallery and the Denison Club of Chicago.
The NIU Art Museum Gallery in Chicago is located at 215 W. Superior, 3rd Floor, and is wheelchair accessible. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
For more information, visit or call (312) 642-6010. For more information on the collections, see www.grad.niu.edu/burma or www.denison.edu/artgallery.
Kudos
Pamela “Pommy” Macfarlane, a professor in the NIU College of Education's Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, has been selected to serve as an at-large delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) being held Dec. 11 to 14 in Washington, D.C.
The White House Conference on Aging occurs once a decade to make aging policy recommendations to the president and Congress, and to assist the public and private sectors in promoting dignity, health, independence and economic security of current and future generations of older persons.
Macfarlane has been a member of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance for more than 20 years. She has served in leadership roles with its Council on Aging & Adult Development (CAAD) for the past four years, and is currently the chair of the committee for Fitness Programs for Older Adults. In January, she represented CAAD at the FallsFree summit in the nation's capitol.
For more information about the 2005 WHCoA, please visit http://www.whcoa.gov.
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Carole W. Minor, a Presidential Teaching Professor in the NIU College of Education's Department of Counseling, Adult and Higher Education, and Mark Pope are the editors of a new book, “Experiential Activities for Teaching Career Counseling Classes and for Facilitating Career Groups - Volume Two.”
The book represents the latest collaboration of these two authors, who between them have more than 50 years of training new career counselors, school counselors, career development facilitators and other career development professionals. Pope is an associate professor at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis and the editor of The Career Development Quarterly.
This second volume of their best-seller has 76 new tried-and-true activities designed to present career development concepts in interesting and exciting ways. Developed by many of the field's leading practitioners for use in both classroom and career group settings, these hands-on activities are organized around eight themes: career development theory, self knowledge and career decisions, standardized career assessments, occupational information, job search and workplace issues, cultural diversity in career development, using technology in career counseling and comprehensive and culminating activities.
It also has expanded sections on technology and cultural diversity, and includes a free CD-ROM with electronic copies of all the activity handouts. Each experiential activity is described in detail so that counseling faculty and group counselors will know instantly how it can meet individual needs and be adapted to specific environments.
President Peters to deliver State of the University Address
NIU President John G. Peters will deliver his annual State of the University Address at 3 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, in the Altgeld Hall auditorium. A reception will follow in the auditorium foyer.
Reception to honor university registrar
The Office of Registration and Records invites the NIU community to a retirement reception for Don Larson, executive director for enrollment services and university registrar.
The event takes place from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, in the Clara Sperling Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center. A short program will be held at 3:30 p.m.
Memorial service set for Van Cromphout
A memorial service for the late English Professor Gustaaf Van Cromphout is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30, in the Clara Sperling Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center.
For more information, contact Jan Vander Meer at (815) 753-0612 or jvander@niu.edu.
NIU Art Museum announces new hours
The NIU Art Museum Altgeld Gallery's new hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Additional hours can be arranged by appointment. The Museum office is closed Mondays.
Currently on exhibit is Helene Smith-Romer's collage imagery “Confessions of a Dadaist …” in the South Galleries and “Bob Emser: Shadow Drawing,” a sculpture exhibition, in the North and Rotunda Galleries. Both exhibitions run through Dec. 11. The NIU Art Museum office and galleries are located on the first floor, west end of Altgeld Hall. Exhibitions are free and open to the public.
For more information, call (815) 753-1936 or visit www.vpa.niu.edu/museum.
Assessment Services offers 'Toolkit' online newsletter
The Office of Assessment Services is pleased to present the September 2005 issue of “Toolkit,” a nuts-and-bolts newsletter designed to assist with practical assessment issues in a user-friendly format.
This issue features articles on a rubric for critical thinking, the 2005 Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, an interview with Lemuel Watson of the College of Education and more. Click here to view “Toolkit” online. http://www.niu.edu/assessment/_resourc/vol4_ish1.pdf
For more information, contact Carolinda Douglass at (815) 753-7120 or cdoug@niu.edu.
Local concert to benefit Hurricane Katrina survivors
The DeKalb Neighborhood Association Council is partnering with the DeKalb Park District, DeKalb Elks, DeKalb Moose and the Sprint Store to present a concert, “Tribute to New Orleans,” to raise funds for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
More partners may be added.
The concert is scheduled for 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 2, at the Hopkins Park Band Shell and Shelter House on Sycamore Road . Performers are the NIU Liberace Jazztet, the Chris Lougeay Quartet (featuring solos by DeKalb's renowned jazz trumpeter Ron Modell), the DeKalb Footstompers and Basically Bluegrass.
The Sprint Store, with an NIU sorority, will host children's games and face-painting along with a clown. Food will be available throughout the afternoon.
Donations will be collected by the Elk Lodge upon entrance to the park. An account is being established at Resource Bank. Those who cannot attend but would like to donate can contact Resource Bank. Proceeds will be used for the families now staying in DeKalb and for the Red Cross.
Nominations sought for outstanding international educator
The Oct. 21 nomination deadline is fast approaching for NIU's 2005 Outstanding International Educator award.
The Division of International Programs bestows the award during the annual International Recognition Reception, which will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, in the Clara Sperling Sky Room of Holmes Student Center.
The award recognizes an NIU faculty or staff member who has contributed significantly toward international education at the university. The award also aims to heighten visibility and awareness of international education.
Last year's winner, Presidential Teaching Professor Gene Roth of the Department of Counseling, Adult and Higher Education, will speak at the 2005 presentation. Other past winners of the Outstanding International Educator award include Anthropology Professor Susan Russell; Marketing Professor Tanuja Singh; Professor Emeritus Kuo-Huang Han, School of Music; and Political Science Professor Ladd Thomas.
The 2005 award recipient will have made sustained contributions to the enhancement of international education at NIU through teaching, research, public service and student-service efforts. Examples of such contributions include:
- influencing the internationalization of the curriculum.
- teaching international courses or courses with substantial international content.
- active involvement with NIU study abroad programs, including teaching courses abroad and advising students about study abroad.
- active support of NIU international students, including advising and mentoring those students, hosting international students, working with international student organizations and/or assisting the International Student and Faculty Office.
- involvement with international exchanges.
- support for international research efforts.
- hosting international visitors and scholars.
- contributions toward multicultural understanding.
- support for and involvement in training and development projects through the International Training Office.
Nominations (including self nominations) are being solicited from the Council of Deans, department chairs and all regular faculty members. Staff members of the Division of International Programs are ineligible for the award.
For application information, click here www3.niu.edu/intl_prgms/IntlEd05.htm or contact Sara Clayton at (815) 753-9526.
Faculty Development seeks grant proposals
NIU's Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center is offering grants of up to $2,500 each annually to regular continuing faculty (tenured and tenure track). The purpose of the grants is to encourage and support faculty development activities that directly benefit the applicants' departments, colleges and/or the university.
Equal matching funds from the applicants' academic units or appropriate external sources are required.
Five copies of each proposal, including the proposal cover sheet, accompanying letters of support and other relevant documents, must be submitted to the Grant Review Subcommittee, Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center , by Friday, Nov. 11, for activities scheduled between January and June of 2006. Complete proposal guidelines and cover sheet are available here http://www.niu.edu/facdev/development/grants.htm.
Tenured or tenure-track faculty who plan to submit proposals by the Nov. 11 deadline and need more information are encouraged to register and attend the grant writing seminar that will be held from noon to 1 pm Friday, Oct. 28. Register online here http://www.niu.edu/facdev/forms/fsprogreg.htm or e-mail facdev@niu.edu.
Convo Center to host alternative rockers 311
After releasing their 10 th album “Don't Tread On Me,” alternative rockers 311 are coming to NIU's Convocation Center at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Ticket prices are $34 for the general public and $29 for NIU students (limit 2). Tickets are available at the Convocation Center box office, all Ticketmaster outlets, via Ticketmaster.com, or charge by phone at (312) 559-1212.
9-26-05
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