August 21, 2006, Northern Today Abridged
Q&A with Matthew Streb
NIU political scientist co-edits book to explore
impact of terrorism, cultural wars on academic freedom
A new book by NIU political scientist Matthew Streb is bound to stir debate on campuses across America.
Newly released this month, “Academic Freedom at the Dawn of a New Century”(Stanford University Press) is a collection of original essays exploring the post-9/11 state of academic freedom in the United States and abroad. Leading experts examine the impact of the war on terrorism on free speech, access to information, government funding of the sciences and other cornerstones of freedom of inquiry at American universities.
Streb and co-editor Evan Gerstmann of Loyola Marymount University assembled the essays and also contribute to the collection. What follows is a Q&A with Streb.
What did you hope to accomplish with this book? The terrorist attacks of Sept.11, 2001, rekindled the debate over academic freedom on college campuses. We wanted to look at the status of academic freedom in the United States and around the world as a result of Sept. 11, as well as the reemergence of the so-called “culture wars.” Would universities suffer through a second McCarthy era? Would there be other, more subtle, yet powerful, threats to free inquiry and expression? What would the impact be upon universities outside the United States? How would the tragedy influence the ability for American professors to collaborate with scholars in other countries? These are the questions that we set out to answer.
Who are some of the contributors to this book? We are fortunate to have some of the leading scholars on issues of academic freedom, including Robert O’Neil, the former president of the University of Virginia and the current director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression at UVA; John Akker, the executive director of the Network for Education and Academic Rights, a worldwide watchdog group; and Paul Sniderman, the chair of the Political Science Department at Stanford University. David Rabban, a law professor at the University of Texas and a former general counsel to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), wrote the preface.
Will readers recognize some of the conflicts over academic freedom discussed in the book? Yes. For example, there was a history professor at the University of New Mexico who on the afternoon of Sept. 11 said in class that “anyone who can blow up the Pentagon gets my vote.” Another professor at Columbia said during a “teach-in” that he wished for a million Mogadishus. There was also an outcry after the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, assigned a book on the Koran to all first-year students. And, more recently, there was controversy over Colorado professor Ward Churchill’s comparison in an essay of the victims of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center terrorist attacks to Nazi Adolf Eichmann. All of these incidents, and many more, received substantial national news coverage.
Why is academic freedom important? To many academics, the importance of academic freedom is obvious. It is the cornerstone of the university’s mission to educate students and expand the boundaries of knowledge. For education to be most effective, professors and students must be in environments where they are free to learn about and debate complex and controversial issues. Also, as specialists in certain fields, professors should have the freedom to decide the content of their classes. While concerns over indoctrination may be justified, academic freedom is a principle that must be protected for education to flourish.
Do those who argue that some faculty members use their positions as pedestals to preach their political beliefs have a valid point? Academic freedom is an immensely important concept, but it can be abused. Certainly there are some who use the classroom as their bully pulpit to preach their own views. I don’t think this problem is as widespread as some critics of academic freedom insist, but it is present and problematic. Indoctrination is not education. Professors’ opinions don’t necessarily have to be left out of the classroom as long as students are taught to think critically about a topic from a variety of points of views. That is our job as educators, and if we are simply presenting one side of the issue, then we are not doing our jobs.
How does the state of academic freedom today compare with recent decades? Professors have more academic freedom today than they had during the height of the McCarthy era, where academics were purged because of their political beliefs – or alleged political beliefs. Since 1957, the Supreme Court has recognized academic freedom as a constitutional right. So things are certainly better than they once were. The question is, are they good enough? And that’s what this book set out to discover.
How does academic freedom in the United States compare to that of other nations? This is a major focus of the book, as three chapters are devoted to examining academic freedom around the world. The answer is that academic freedom in the United States, while not perfect, is light years ahead of where it is in many countries. In countries such as Brazil, Ecuador, Haiti and Venezuela, some academics have been attacked because of their political positions. In countries such as Egypt, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, academics have been imprisoned for their beliefs. These situations pale in comparison to Colombia, where hundreds of college professors and students have been killed over a 40-year period. We are dealing with completely different issues in the United States, not unimportant, but drastically different.
What conclusions does the book draw? The overall conclusion of the book can be described as “cautiously optimistic.” While academic freedom in what we might think of as the traditional sense – speech that occurs in the classroom – has been protected since Sept. 11, the real threat to academic freedom today is more covert, less obvious. Issues including self-censorship, corporate and government funding of research projects, barriers to foreign students, mandatory loyalty oaths for faculty and many others all have the potential to limit academic freedom.
College of Education hires assessment coordinator
NIU’s College of Education has a serious commitment to collecting and analyzing assessment-related data.
First, however, the college’s first coordinator of assessment must find it all.
David Walker, who also is as associate professor in the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment, took the job in July.
“We’ve always done assessment. Our College of Education has been very good about doing assessment,” Walker said. But “we have data all over the university. I’m trying to collect the data and get it all into one central spot.”
Walker, who came to NIU in 2003 from Florida Atlantic University, is also busy making long-term plans for the new position he took at Dean Chris Sorensen’s request. Sorensen strives to make correct and well-informed decisions about programs, something good data collection affords.
Walker is setting a priority on creating a consistent flow of data and assembling an implementation team comprised of faculty, staff and administrators to assist in gathering, reviewing and depositing programmatic data.
He also will begin to review and assess the collected data to prompt conversations “as a college” and “as departments.” The data will balance the theoretical ideas of “here’s what we think we’re doing and here’s what we think we can do” with the practical reality of “here’s what we are doing,” he said.
His work also will become a focal point during accreditation by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and program review by the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
“David will help us get better at looking at data and using data to improve our programs,” Sorensen said. “David is a faculty member in research and assessment who clearly understands research … and has a very clear understanding of the assessment needs related to NCATE.”
“The office is a great idea. I’ve know the dean for quite some time, and I respect her leadership tremendously,” Walker said. “Continual improvement is an ongoing process. It shouldn’t come every seven years, but every semester.”
The college’s online data warehouse – LiveText – spurs productivity by allowing users to organize and store data, create portfolios, collaborate online and manage courses. One of its tools supports data-driven decision-making in assignment creation.
Walker said he is organizing direct resources, such as student portfolios, capstone projects, rubrics and standardized tests, along with indirect resources such as opinions from alumni surveys and employment statistics of former students now in the workplace.
He’s also tapping into SHARK, the college’s computer-based “Student History and Record Keeping” program, for data including the scheduling of past courses and the professors who taught them.
NIU’s Institutional Research office is supplying student demographics. The Office of the Provost is providing data from surveys of teachers.
Another goal is to launch a Web site for College of Education staff. It would include necessary forms for data collection and submission as well as a calendar feature that informs department chairs of their last accreditation, the date of their last submitted report and the next report deadline.
It all helps college leaders determine whether students are acquiring the knowledge they need and applying their skills appropriately, he said.
Even old data has purpose.
“A lot of what we’re teaching doesn’t change,” he said. “Students may change, and student demographics may change, but what we teach our students, and what they can apply, shouldn’t be changing too much.”
National Science Foundation boosts research of NIU chemist
The National Science Foundation is showing keen interest in the research of NIU chemist Petr Vanýsek and University of Illinois at Chicago physicist Mark Schlossman. The two scientists are breaking new ground in understanding why liquids, such as oil and water, don’t mix.
NSF has awarded $535,000 over three years to the researchers for their continued study of the molecular boundary between immiscible (unmixable) liquids. NIU’s portion of the grant is about $98,000, Vanýsek said.
Gaining a better understanding of why immiscible liquids won’t mix could lead to numerous applications, from improving oil-spill cleanups to providing superior delivery of drugs through the oil-like human cell membranes.
Scientists have known that two immiscible solvents must somehow communicate to each other that they should not mix. But until recently researchers have never known for sure what goes on at the molecular boundary between two immiscible liquids.
Vanýsek and Schlossman led a team of scientists who demonstrated for the first time a seldom-predicted layering phenomenon at the boundary. The findings were published in January 2006 in the journal Science.
The researchers used the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, the most powerful X-ray facility in the Western Hemisphere, to closely examine the boundary between water and nitrobenzene, an oil-like substance.
“We showed that the molecular boundary is comprised of a layered structure of ions – charged particles at the smallest possible dimension,” said Vanýsek, an NIU electrochemist. “There is some degree of mixing of the two solvents right at the interface.
In addition, the ions near the interface are stacked in a couple of layers rather than just distributing smoothly throughout.”
The new project again will use the Advanced Photon Source for a more in-depth study of the ion distributions and pairings.
NIU students to help promote premier women’s golf event
While the eyes of the golf world were focused on Chicago last week for the PGA Championship, students at NIU are looking further down the road to the 2009 Solheim Cup.
NIU business students have been invited to help promote the tournament, considered the premier team event in women’s professional golf. The event, which matches the best women golfers from the U.S. against the best from Europe, will be played at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove. The private course is owned and operated by NIU alumnus Jerry Rich.
“The Solheim Cup is one of the most prestigious events in golf, and Rich Harvest Farms is one of the most highly regarded private courses in the nation, so it is an honor to be associated with this event,” said Denise Schoenbachler, dean of the NIU College of Business. “This is the first time that the LPGA has allowed a university to help promote a tournament, and we are confident that our students will do a tremendous job, opening the door for others down the road.”
Students who are accepted into the class – there is a competitive application process – will be tasked with increasing awareness of the Solheim Cup. The class will be offered for the first time this fall.
During the first half of the semester, students will work with officials from the Solheim Cup, the LPGA and Rich Harvest Farms to develop the framework for an informational presentation.
In the semester’s second half, students will form six two-person teams, each assigned to create a customized version of the presentation for a different Chicagoland community. Those presentations will be presented before members of the chamber of commerce in each of the assigned towns.
The format for the class borrows from methods used in the college’s nationally recognized Professional Sales program, which is ranked among the best in the nation. Central to both classes is helping students craft and polish presentations, using specially equipped classrooms that allow professors to remotely view, tape and critique the presentations.
“We want the students to emerge from this class with very polished presentation skills – something they can use in any professional position, especially sales,” said NIU marketing professor Kim Judson, who will team-teach the course with fellow marketing professor Tim Aurand. “Many of the students who applied to get into this class hope to pursue careers in event marketing, which is a very competitive field. This will be a wonderful real-world experience for them to put on their resumes.
“We have outstanding, personable students, and I love working on projects like this with our students because they get so excited,” Judson said. “I’m certain that they will do a great job representing NIU, Rich Harvest Farms and the Solheim Cup.”
NIU Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic hosts
week-long pediatric audiology workshop
An estimated three babies per 1,000 births are born with permanent hearing loss.
Meanwhile, there has been a rapid increase over the past five years in the number of newborns being screened for hearing at birth, leading to a need for training to ensure this infant population receives appropriate and timely diagnosis and services.
Audiologists from across the United States participated last week in a five-day pediatric audiology workshop hosted by the NIU Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic, housed in the College of Health and Human Sciences Department of Communicative Disorders. The sessions took place in the Holmes Student Center.
Workshop presenters, recognized internationally as experts in the field of audiology, provided essential knowledge and skills for audiologists to perform diagnostic testing for infants who do not pass the newborn hearing screening, as well as hearing aid selection and fitting strategies, and ongoing testing considerations specific to the pediatric population.
The educational format included readings and weekly online chats prior to coming to the workshop. During the workshop, participants attended didactic lectures and had hands-on practice with testing techniques. Following the workshop, the audiologists participate in a practicum to practice these skills with infants.
This educational opportunity which was sponsored in part by the Illinois Newborn Hearing Program and the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management.
Graduate students from all doctor of audiology programs in Illinois also were invited to attend the workshop. Student participation was supported by Phonak Hearing Systems, Oticon Corporation and Siemens.
School of Art exhibition, symposium
celebrates work, friendship of Cage, Fuller
The names John Cage and Buckminster Fuller are not often heard in the same sentence.
Cage, the experimental composer, made chance the center of his musical practice, reflecting his deeply held Zen Buddhist beliefs. Fuller, the creator of the Geodesic Dome, among many other inventions, and known widely and affectionately as Bucky, was equally convinced of the power of technology to promote social change.
Polymaths in production, the two have more commonly been seen as representative of competing schemes of historical understanding. Yet in life they became fast friends after meeting first in 1948 at the progressive Black Mountain College in Asheville, N.C., and remained so until Fuller’s death in 1983 at the age of 87.
NIU’s School of Art presents “Geodesic Mathematics and Random Chaos: John Cage and Buckminster Fuller,” an exhibition, interdisciplinary symposium and gala concert celebrating the work and friendship of this acclaimed pair of 20th century innovators.
The exhibition, curated by Olson Gallery Coordinator Peter Van Ael from the collection of Cincinnati gallery owner Carl Solway, will open Monday, Aug. 28, at the Jack Olson Gallery of the School of Art and continue through Friday Sept. 29.
The symposium, organized by art history professor Barbara Jaffee, is a daylong event supported in part by the Art History Division’s 2006-2007 Elizabeth Allen Visiting Scholars Series. It will convene in several locations Saturday, Sept. 16, in the NIU Music Building and feature such luminaries as Allegra Fuller Snyder, Fuller’s only child, and a gala evening concert with illustrated remarks by renowned musician and Cage collaborator, Larry Austin.
For more information and to register, visit www.vpa.niu.edu/events/symposium.html.
Collaboration was the watchword of the time and the place at Black Mountain.
Not only was interdisciplinary work encouraged there, but the year 1948 was the height of grassroots movements toward world federalism, coming just prior to the onset of Cold War politics.
Fuller recently had patented his Dymaxion Map, a notably distortion-free world projection with the further advantage of emphasizing continental interconnectedness (the so-called “one-island, one-ocean world”). Cage was moved by his exposure to Fuller’s ideas to write his 1965 epic, “Diary: How to Improve the World: You Will Only Make Matters Worse.”
Concerned that his “Diary” would be perceived as incompatible with Fuller’s vision, Cage even sought his friend’s advice before publishing. Fuller hastened to assure that it was his intent to create a world in which it would be safe for all to put into practice Cage’s philosophy of purposeless play.
NIU’s exhibition and symposium are perhaps the first time that the friendship, its contexts and its effects have been subject to scholarly exploration. Together, they represent a unique opportunity to reconsider the ways mid-20th century modernism is understood. The exhibition will feature prints and kinetic sculpture by Fuller and Cage’s plexigram series, “Not Wanting to Say Anything about Marcel.”
The Jack Olson Gallery is located in Room 200 of the Visual Arts Building and is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. A reception for the exhibition is scheduled for 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14, and will include a talk by Carl Solway of the Cincinnati-based Carl Solway Gallery.
The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.
Additional programming for the Sept. 16 symposium includes talks by historian Mary Emma Harris, director of the Black Mountain College Project, and Richard Kostelanetz, artist, cultural historian and Cage biographer; a performance of Cage’s “Cartridge Music” by IMMArts, a collective of multimedia artists and technology experts including NIU alumni and current students; and a round-table discussion featuring all participants.
Seating for the symposium is limited and requires advance registration.
A fee of $15 for students and $35 for the general public includes all events, plus an exhibition brochure, symposium packet, morning refreshments and lunch. Registrants at the $35 level are invited to attend a special wine-and-cheese reception in the gallery on the day of the symposium and will receive documentation of the symposium proceedings. There is a $5 processing fee for all registrations.
Tickets for the Austin concert will be available separately on site 30 minutes prior to doors opening. Prices are $5 for students/seniors and $10 for general public. Only cash is accepted.
Kudos
The Midwest Association of Colleges and Employers (MwACE) recognized Ellen Anderson, assistant director of Career Services at NIU, by awarding her the J.W. Paquette Superior Leadership Award at its annual conference.
Sheri Papay, president of MwACE, said she had the “sincere privilege of honoring Ellen for her significant and consistent leadership to this organization and her endless dedication to the on-going needs of this association.”
Anderson has been actively involved within MwACE since 1988. During this time, she held several offices on the executive board, was an assembly member, chaired several committees and conferences, presented at a number of conferences, led several task forces and was instrumental in developing the online version of MwACE’s 50-year history.
“Ellen has truly demonstrated significant and consistent leadership within this organization,” Papay said. “I saw first-hand how much dedication she has for this organization. Her knowledge of MwACE and dedication to the future success of this organization is evident in all she does.”
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A 2005 book by NIU alumnus Thomas McCann, NIU English Professor Larry Johannessen and Dominican University Education Professor Bernard Ricca is being honored for its research contribution in English education.
The book, “Supporting Beginning English Teachers: Research and Implications for Teacher Induction,” examined ways to counteract the daunting challenges that oftentimes drive new teachers out of the profession.
The Conference on English Education of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) will present the Richard A. Meade Award to the three co-authors during its Nov. 17 convention in Nashville. The Meade Award recognizes published research that investigates English/Language Arts teacher development at any educational level.
In nominating “Supporting Beginning English Teachers,” scholars from the University of Georgia and Temple University wrote: “We believe that this attention to the full impact of teaching on a young teacher provides this book with a scope that is unparalleled in the literature on teacher education, professional development and mentoring . . . We are sharing the book with our students and colleagues. We think it will become a landmark publication in the field.”
More information on the book can be found online.
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The Pleiades chapter of Mortar Board at NIU was presented with the Silver Torch Award for the 2005-2006 academic year at the organization’s national conference held last month in Columbus, Ohio.
The chapter was one of 40 outstanding chapters to receive the Silver Torch Award, presented to chapters executing timeliness and dedication while exemplifying the ideals of scholarship, leadership and service.
Mortar Board is a national honor society that recognizes college seniors for outstanding achievement in scholarship, leadership and service. Since its founding in 1918, the organization has grown from the four founding chapters to 214 collegiate and 43 alumni
chapters with more than 240,000 initiated members across the nation.
The Pleiades chapter of Mortar Board at NIU was chartered in 1971.
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Promod Vohra, dean of the NIU College of Engineering and Engineering Technology, recently received word that his paper, “An Undergraduate Curriculum with a Global Engineering Emphasis,” was voted the best paper of the 5th Global Congress on Engineering Education.
The congress was sponsored by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Joining Vohra as co-authors on the paper were his daughter, Divya Vohra, a master’s student at CEET, and Romualdas Kasuba, the former dean of the college.
The paper was given as a keynote presentation at a meeting of the UNESCO International Centre for Engineering Education held in Brooklyn, N.Y., in July. It was based upon efforts under way to prepare industrial engineering students at CEET for careers in the global economy.
The paper outlines an undergraduate engineering curriculum that emphasizes the importance of learning a foreign language, includes student projects sponsored by multi-national corporations and envisions online collaboration with engineering students in other parts of the world and exchange programs for faculty and students.
Vohra said the plan presents a densely packed global academic program that can be created with only minor modifications to existing programs.
“Programs like this are important,” Vohra said. “It is in the best interest of the country to graduate engineers who are capable of understanding global issues and functioning in a global economy.”
An expanded version of the paper will be published in an upcoming edition of The Global Journal of Engineering Education.
State humanities council needs ‘Road Scholars’
Looking for a way to help engage Illinois communities in discussions about Illinois history, literature, architecture or any humanities discipline?
If you would enjoy making connections and exercising minds throughout Illinois, the Illinois Humanities Council (IHC) wants to hear from you. The IHC is seeking scholar-applicants for its “Road Scholars” speakers bureau. Humanities scholars affiliated with Illinois colleges and universities and independent scholars are eligible to apply.
This year, the IHC is particularly interested in speakers who might address the topics of the genetics revolution, American roots music and the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln.
The deadline for applications is Friday, Sept. 15. Interested scholars should download an application from prairie.org or call (312) 422-5580 to receive an application.
Faculty, staff invited to academic convocation
NIU faculty and staff are invited to attend Academic Convocation, the official welcome for all incoming students, at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 25, in the Convocation Center.
All NIU faculty and staff with master’s degrees or higher are invited and encouraged to participate in this important retention event as students transition into the NIU community. Faculty/student research and project presentations again will headline this year’s program, and additional interactive pledges and remarks will induct the entering class into the NIU academic community.
The hour-long program will be followed by the annual Friday Fest celebration on the patio of the Convocation Center.
To participate in the procession, please RSVP to Donna Simon as soon as possible at dmsimon@niu.edu. Free parking is reserved for faculty and staff participants at the Convocation Center. Participants meet for robing and assembly at 10:30 a.m. in the lower-level locker rooms.
Community School hosts open house, registration
Classes, lessons, and ensembles in music, theater and art begin in September at the NIU Community School of the Arts.
Programming is designed for children, teens and adults. Private lessons are available on all instruments, as well as in art and theater. Teachers are NIU students and faculty as well as community teachers.
The public is invited to the annual open house at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30, to learn more about the many arts opportunities available in the NIU Community School of the Arts. The event is held in the lobby of the Concert Hall in NIU Music Building.
Parking for the Open House is available in the lot immediately adjacent to the Music Building on the south side.
Information and registration is held from 3 to 5 p.m. Staff and teachers are available to answer questions about music lessons, classes and ensemble scheduled for fall and spring and to take registrations.
Free 15-minute sample lessons also are available from 3 to 5 p.m. To reserve a slot, call the office at (815) 753-1450 no later than Tuesday, Aug. 29. There is a limit of one free sample lesson per person.
Talks and discussions begin at 4 p.m. Topics include “Get the Most from Your Music Lessons,” “Is Suzuki Right for You?” and “Why Ensembles are Great Skill-Builders.”
Students in the community school will perform solos and in small ensembles at 5:05 p.m.
Scholarship aid is available for those in financial need. Application forms are available by calling the office or in the display area outside Room 132 of the Music Building. The deadline for applications for fall scholarships is Monday, Aug. 28.
To receive the fall/spring booklet with information about the NIU Community School of the Arts, contact Renee Page at (815) 753-1450. Visit www.niu.edu/extprograms for more information and a registration form.
Scholarships available for Community School
Students 18 and younger who want to pursue their study of the arts, but who cannot afford the cost, can apply for financial aid. The NIU Community School of the Arts offers classes, lessons and ensembles in art, music and theater beginning in September.
The deadline for financial aid applications is Monday, Aug. 28.
The NIU Community School of the Arts is sponsored by the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Northern Illinois University. About 80 teachers offer lessons on most musical instruments, as well as in art and theater. More than 600 community people from nearly 50 towns and cities travel to DeKalb for lessons and classes.
Application forms are available by calling the office at (815) 753-1450 or online at www.niu.edu/extprograms. The NIU Community School of the Arts is located in Room 132 of the NIU Music Building.
Software Licensing moves, expands services at HelpDesk
Software Licensing (formerly Software Distribution) has moved from Document Services to the ITS HelpDesk in Swen Parson 120.
The ITS HelpDesk is now the primary point of contact for software licensing information. The software licensing phone number will be redirected to the HelpDesk at (815) 753-8100.
Visit Software Licensing online at www.helpdesk.niu.edu and select Software in the left navigation area for a list of available software and for ordering information.
Customers now can pick up and return requested software at the new, conveniently located central campus site. ITS courier services remains an option.
Northern Public Radio offers On the Waterfront buttons
Billed as one of the biggest and best festivals of its kind, the 23rd annual On the Waterfront celebration returns to downtown Rockford this Labor Day weekend.
This family-friendly event from Friday, Sept. 1, through Sunday, Sept. 3, features a variety of food, drink, amusement rides, live music and entertainment on eight stages located throughout 30 city blocks. Once again, WNIJ is a proud sponsor of the Left Bank Stage (near Wyman and Chestnut streets), featuring headliners Ronnie Baker Brooks (Friday), former Stray Cats bassist Lee Rocker (Saturday) and John Lee Hooker Jr. (Sunday).
Be sure to stop by the WNIJ tent alongside the Left Bank Stage to talk with station staff, including various radio announcers hosting the day’s stage events.
As an On the Waterfront stage sponsor, WNIJ is also an official sales outlet for festival admission buttons. Buttons, which are good for all three days of the festival, are $12 each when purchased in advance. Daily wristbands are $14 at the gate. Children 8 and younger are admitted free.
Buttons are on sale from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays through Wednesday, Aug. 30, at WNIJ’s DeKalb office, 801 N. First Street (just south of Hillcrest). Cash or checks payable to On the Waterfront are accepted.
For more information about button sales, show times and other festival events, visit www.wnij.org.
Alumni Association sponsors football pre-game reception
Tickets to the Saturday, Sept. 2, Huskie opener against Ohio State are sold out, but fans still can take part in the action by attending the Alumni Association pre-game reception.
Join the NIU marching band, cheerleaders and Alumni Association in celebrating the Huskies with a private tailgate reception two-and-a-half hours prior to kickoff. The pre-game reception will be held at the Holiday Inn: On the Lane, located one block from the stadium, and will include a seated buffet as well as non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages.
Register at www.myniu.com or call (815) 753-1452.
Community School offers free Art Express classes
NIU staff, faculty and students are invited to send their children to Art Express for free.
This class begins Saturday, Sept. 9, and runs for five weeks from 1 to 3 p.m. This innovative class encourages creative thinking through fun hands-on art projects and is for children ages 4 to 12. Teachers are students in an advanced art education class working under School of Art faculty supervision.
The registration form is available online at www.niu.edu/extprograms or call (815) 753-1450. Indicate at the top of the form that you are a student or employee of NIU. The form and a $15 program registration fee – the class cost $30 for non-NIU children – should be sent to the NIU Community School of the Arts in Room 132 of the Music Building.
Community School offers kids’ music, theater courses
Children’s classes in music and theatre begin at the NIU Community School of the Arts in early September.
Kinetic Energy (Section 1 is for ages 6 to 9 and Section 2 is for ages 10 to 15) is taught Saturday mornings beginning Sept. 16. This six-week class is taught in Stevens Building.
Prelude (ages 1 to 2), Gavotte (ages 3 to 4) and Development (ages 4 to 6) teach the basics in movement, music and rhythm. All are taught Saturday mornings beginning Sept. 9. These 12-week classes are taught in the Music Building.
Piano Players (Section 1 is for ages 5 to 6 and Section 2 is for ages 7 to 8) is a group piano class that teaches piano and much more. Four students is the maximum in each section. This 12-week class meets Monday afternoons beginning Sept. 11.
String Sprites is a string ensemble for beginners. Other classical music ensembles in the community school are CSA Symphonette for intermediate string players and the CSA Sinfonia, a full orchestra open by audition only.
CSA Jazz Combo and Jazz Theory for Kids (ages 12 to 17) and for Adults (ages 13 to adult) are scheduled for Sunday afternoons beginning Sept. 17.
CSJazz Band (ages 14 to 20) begins rehearsals Sept. 17. Auditions for the 2006-2007 year are from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10. Call (815) 753-1450 for a time assignment.
For more information, call Renee Page at (815) 753-1450 or consult the Web site at www.niu.edu/extprograms.
Alumni Association offers New Year’s trip to Italy
NIU’s Alumni Association is offering a New Year’s trip to Sicily and Rome from Dec. 27 through Jan. 5.
Celebrate the New Year in the “Eternal City” of the West and capital of Italy: Rome. With its mighty ruins, superb art and amazing Italian cuisine, Rome has attracted the world’s people for centuries. Visit the Vatican Museums, the Basilica of San Pietro, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, or just relax at one of the many luxurious cafes.
Optional side trips include St. Peter’s Basilica and Vatican Museums, Assisi and Cefalu.
The cost is $2,599 per person, double occupancy; single supplement available. Optional side trips are an additional cost. For more information, or to place your reservation, call Pat Anderson at (815) 753-1512.
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