June 26, 2006, Northern Today Abridged

NIU takes teachers to Mexico to inspire Hispanics to sciences

This time it's the teachers who are going on the field trip.

NIU has taken 10 middle school and high school science instructors to the smoking Mt. Popocatépetl volcano, looming more than 17,000 feet over the Mexico City region's 20 million inhabitants.

Top Mexican scientists and NIU faculty will teach the teachers all about volcanoes as well as groundwater and other geologic topics. But the purpose isn't merely to study geology in the volcanic region. Rather, NIU hopes to awaken a population that has been relatively dormant in the university sciences in the United States: Hispanic students.

The geologic field experience is part of a $100,000 pilot program funded by the National Science Foundation and run by NIU to infuse multiculturalism and diversity into the classroom. Most of the participating teachers are from schools that have large Hispanic populations in such communities as Aurora, Streamwood and Hanover Park.

The 19-day pilot program began June 21 with a multicultural workshop at NIU. Participants traveled Sunday to Mexico.

The program aims to address the Hispanic achievement gap. Hispanic students are the largest, fastest-growing and youngest ethnic group in the country. Yet they have been the most underrepresented in science and math courses at the high school and college levels. They are particularly underrepresented in the geosciences.

“It doesn't even occur to some students to enter science professions because they aren't counseled in that direction,” said NIU Professor Kathy Kitts, who is co-director of the diversity project and also coordinates certification of science teachers in the university's Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences.

“To inspire the next generation of scientists, teachers must reach out to young students with culturally relevant lessons,” Kitts said. “We believe this project will provide inspiration and ultimately result in Hispanic students and other minorities viewing the geosciences as a viable career option.

“The 10 teachers we train will reach an exponential number of students,” she added.

The NIU field experience seeks to diversify the professional experiences of science and social studies teachers who play a large role in the academic lives of young Hispanics.

The program is providing the teachers with a first-hand opportunity to absorb and subsequently convey the geologic research findings of leading Hispanic scientists on issues of environmental importance in Mexico, providing the impetus for science lessons that connect curriculums with first- and second-generation Hispanic students.

Participant Amie Thompson, a sixth-grade science and social studies teacher at Simmons Middle School in Aurora, believes the cultural connection is key to learning.

“If I can't relate to my students culturally, I'm not going to relate to them scientifically,” she said prior to leaving for Mexico. About 90 percent of her students are Hispanic. “I teach about volcanoes in science and Mexico in social studies, so this program really works out well for me.

“Nothing gets through to the kids like personal narratives,” she added. “I've traveled to many places in the world, and they always ask, 'Have you been to Mexico?' I thought it would help them make connections if they could see pictures of me near Mt. Popocatépetl.”

The pilot project further makes sense, Kitts said, because local school districts have been searching for ways to help science teachers meet state standards in multicultural training. For their participation in the pilot, the teachers will earn a stipend and three graduate credit hours.

In return, they will be required to produce peer-reviewed, standards-based educational materials addressing issues of diversity, multiculturalism, social context and science content. Over the course of the next year, NIU faculty will conduct follow-up visits to the teachers' schools and serve as mentors to Hispanic students.

The teachers stayed in NIU residence halls for the initial four days of the project, conducting field work at the university's Lorado Taft Field Campus in Oregon, Ill. The group will be in central Mexico for 11 days, meeting up with Rosa Leal-Bautista and Guadalupe Velazquez-Oliman, who both earned their Ph.D.s in geology from NIU. Both are natives of Puebla, Mexico.

In Mexico City, the group will participate in discussions on local water issues and natural disaster risks with faculty from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, among the nation's premier universities. Outside the city at Mt. Popocatépetl, the schoolteachers will conduct geologic work, evaluating the future risk of ash falls, lava flows and mudflows.

The trip also will include visits to Cholula, the largest pyramid in the Americas, the bottom of which is covered by a lahar (mudflow); to Los Humeros, a geothermal field with baths fed by a sulfurous spring; and to Puebla Central School, the equivalent of a U.S. middle school.

“The American teachers will have an opportunity to meet with their Mexican counterparts and compare educational systems,” Kitts said. “Puebla Central has had an influx of Native Americans who do not speak Spanish. So whereas our teachers have students who speak English as a second language, they have students who speak Spanish as a second language. They're facing the same kind of issues.”

NIU geologist Eugene Perry, who is co-director of the diversity project, has been conducting research in Mexico for more than two decades. He was able to provide many of the contacts to Mexican scientists.

“This really is an excellent opportunity to introduce teachers to Mexico,” he said. “We will not only expose teachers to high level scientific research being conducted by Mexican scientists but also give them a better perspective on a country that's of major interest to their students.”

Perry said NIU will submit a grant proposal to run the project with a new round of teachers next year.

Experts unite to examine childhood trauma, education

It's no surprise that many children in foster care experience unthinkable trauma, carry that emotional pain to school and quickly fall far behind in their studies.

What might come as a surprise, though, is that the many professionals devoted to helping these children are often on different pages speaking different languages.

A June 14 symposium on trauma, stress and education sponsored by NIU's Center for Child Welfare and Education, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, aimed to bring all sides together.

Ultimately, the participants want to achieve improved educational outcomes for children who have been traumatized with a special emphasis on those most-vulnerable children – those in the foster care system.

“Together we can change the lot of children who desperately need a better world,” NIU President John Peters, who was the convener, told the group at the day's beginning as he encouraged their collaboration. “Most of the great discoveries are on the cusps of disciplines.”

“All the experts attending have responsibilities to the children, yet no responsibilities for the accountabilities in each other's systems,” said Sharon Freagon, director of the center. “Furthermore, the different professions represented here have information that all of the professions could benefit from. The symposium and its outcomes are a beginning of this dialogue.”

Participants included NIU's president, the director and staff members from DCFS, staff members of the Illinois State Board of Education, university professors, school superintendents, neurobiologists, clinical psychologists, attorneys and even a judge.

Others represented the Illinois Department of Health and Human Services, the Child Trauma Academy of Houston, the Allendale Association, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Massachusetts Advocates for Children, the MILL of Rockford and the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago.

The morning began with four questions:

• What do you know about how trauma and stress affect the education of foster children?
• What do you need to know?
• How can we work together to improve the educational outcomes of foster children who experience(d) trauma and stress?
• What two short-term and two long-term research questions would you like to see the medical community, in concert with the educational and other related professions, address regarding assessments and interventions leading to positive educational outcomes of foster children who experience(d) trauma and stress?

By day's end, after hours of brainstorming and some debate, the 31 participants had created a long list of areas and began prioritizing areas they could tackle.

They want to teach foster parents about trauma. They want to mold a comprehensive child-development curriculum that integrates the unique needs of foster care children to use in Illinois schools and teacher-preparation programs.

They want to develop a research agenda on trauma and education – and they want the voices of children who have been traumatized to drive it.

Bryan Samuels, director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, told the group he liked what he had heard. Samuels and four others from his department came in search of “intersections” among the professionals, he said.

“Today was extremely useful in helping us to see where the intersections are,” Samuels said. “Our instinct here is that we're going to take this information, re-organize it, take a step back and figure out how we can get at these issues. I see a lot of potential here on paper.”

Illinois ' current foster care population numbers about 17,860, the smallest group since 1993 and merely a third of its size in 1997. A focus on “permanency” – moving children into adoptions and guardianships – accounts for the sharp reduction in cases.

Yet, Samuels said, there are “unintended consequences.”

Transferring children out of the system means fewer opportunities for child development services, he said, while it intensifies their adverse childhood experiences and fails to anticipate their needs for a smooth transition into adulthood.

On the other hand, he said, the small population provides “a unique opportunity to redesign the system” by focusing on age-specific well-being and making an investment in positive lifetime outcomes.

A large number of children in the system are affected by trauma (mostly neglect, followed by family violence, grief and physical harm), the incidence of which climb as the children grow older. Sexual abuse accounts for less than 5 percent of the cases.

Several neuroscientists at the symposium noted that trauma causes chemical and physical changes in the brain that lead to what uniformed observers see as “acting out.”

“We've been working on changing the system but we've been thinking about these issues on parallel tracks,” Samuels said. “There are no limits to how far we'll go to figure this out.”

Next steps include developing research questions – DCFS spends $5 million to $6 million annually on research, Samuels said – and development of a Web site that contains helpful insights on trauma and education, tips for teachers on practical intervention and organizational information.

Of equal importance is the development of a common language and frame of reference among the different professions of trauma.

“Stay involved. Keep the conversation going. This is no one institution's issue,” Peters told the group. “The end product is so important. It extends beyond foster care kids into a better understanding of early childhood trauma.”

Board approves tuition increase

NIU's Board of Trustees has approved new tuition rates for students enrolling this fall.

New undergraduate students taking 15 hours or more of classes per semester will pay $185 per credit hour, or $5,550 in tuition for 30 or more hours of classes during the 2006-07 academic year. That is an increase of about 10 percent over last year.

Under the Truth-in-Tuition law, that cost is locked in for incoming freshmen for the next eight consecutive semesters. NIU has added an additional “grace semester” to that period of time, freezing tuition rates for nine semesters.

“These increases put our costs squarely in the middle of the pack of public universities in the state,” NIU President John Peters said. “We have taken great pains to try to ensure that this tuition plan keeps an NIU degree affordable, while maintaining the value of that degree.”

Peters called the increase regrettable, but unavoidable.

“The cost of running the university climbs every year and our funding from the state simply has not kept pace,” the president explained. “For the first time in several years, we received a small increase from the state, but it does not allow us to keep up with inflation, let alone make up for the several years of painful cuts and flat budgets that we have endured this decade.”

The board also approved an increase of 7 percent for graduate and law students.

CAHE chair accepts role as acting associate dean

Lemuel Watson, chair of the Department of Counseling, Adult and Higher Education since 2003, has become the College of Education's acting associate dean.

Watson is stepping in for Diane Jackman, who becomes dean of the Eastern Illinois University College of Education and Professional Studies later this week. A search for a permanent replacement begins this fall, Dean Chris Sorensen said, and a successor should start work for the fall semester of 2007.

The search is on Watson's radar – he's considering throwing his name in the hat – as he considers the importance of the upcoming NCATE assessment and his duty to serve faculty needs. He also plans to continue teaching a class “here and there” and advising his 10 doctoral students, half of whom are in the dissertation stage.

“I'm so excited. There are lots of exciting things going on in the College of Education, and I'm looking forward to seeing the field in a totally different way,” Watson said.

“I have at other institutions been involved in elementary education, reading and literacy, adult education, K-12 administration and principalships and research. I feel like I have a touch of what all the departments do, and I'll be able to at least have a dialogue across departments.”

Sorensen is pleased by Watson's decision.

“Most everyone who's interacted with Lemuel would say he's just a natural leader. One of the things I told him that I've noted about him is that it's rare to find in any person the ability to see the big picture and, at the same time, attend to the details. He's good at both,” Sorensen said.

“He's also very good with people,” she added, “and he'll be a wonderful addition to the team.”

Watson's career in higher education began in the office of the chancellor at Indiana University, where he conducted faculty development, assessment and orientation.

He took his first faculty position at Illinois State University after earning his doctorate, and later expanded his resume as a community college dean and by building graduate programs in educational leadership and higher education and student at Clemson University.

His research interests include examining institutions of higher education and how their structures, practices and policies affect learning, development and educational outcomes of students, especially historically under-represented students.

In his new position, he'll concentrate on learning more about the faculty and extending his “reach and influence” across the entire college.

“I work very well with the dean. I work very well with the faculty,” he said. “I look forward to continuing to find ways to make life better for the faculty in the College of Education in any capacity I can. They're all very hard-working and deserving of whatever services I can provide.”

Watson, who's placing his department in the “capable hands” of acting chair Fran Giordano, said he is likely to apply for the associate dean's job. Sorensen said she hopes to see his name among the applicants.

“I'm open to anything. Life changes so fast,” Watson said. “Unfortunately, I have the disadvantage of really respecting our dean, and she probably could talk me into anything. That's why I'm in this position now. I really love her as a friend and as a colleague.”

Rural 'critical access' hospitals in Illinois grow
stronger with federal assistance, NIU study shows

Program saves lives, breathes economic life into counties

A federal program that guarantees reasonable reimbursement for Medicare patients is saving and improving the participating rural hospitals while invigorating their local economies, an NIU study released last week shows.

The Critical Access Hospital Program translated to a $775 million economic impact in 44 counties throughout Illinois during 2005 alone.

Thirty-four of the state's 51 “critical access hospitals” provided input for the NIU Regional Development Institute report, which was presented today in Springfield at the Illinois Hospital Association's Small and Rural Hospitals 27 th annual meeting in conjunction with the Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network.

“NIU's report really helps us to tell our story and show the tremendous strength of the program,” said Pat Schou, executive director of the Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network. “If you don't tell your story, you don't demonstrate your value and can be taken for granted. We can't be taken for granted. These small hospitals are still fragile.”

“This study documents the value of the federal CAH program to rural Illinois and how vital our 51 small rural hospitals (CAHs) are to their communities,” said ICAHN President Nancy Newby, CEO for Washington County Hospital in Nashville, Ill. “Had it not been for the CAH program, more than half of our 51 CAHs would have closed or been near closing.”

Created by Congress in 1997, the Critical Access Hospital Program essentially means two things: residents of rural areas are assured access to modern and quality health care close to home while the hospitals literally stay in business and experience a cash flow thanks to the Medicare reimbursements and rising demand, use and service charges.

Thus far, 1,279 hospitals throughout the United States have been designated.

By agreeing to limit their number of patient beds and to provide around-the-clock emergency care, the hospitals qualify for federal reimbursements of 101 percent of their reasonable health care costs. This reimbursement rate means an extra margin of revenue that allows these small, financially vulnerable hospitals to keep their doors open.

While not a windfall, the program does allow hospitals to raise staffing levels and salaries, attract better practitioners, enhance and expand services, purchase modern equipment and make much-needed capital improvements to keep pace with changing needs.

Escalating hospital expenditures and employee salaries pump more money into their communities while more jobs are created for local residents, who are hired for capital projects or for permanent positions on the staff.

And for the rural elderly – the least able to afford health care or to travel far for it – the program has an impact beyond measure.

“This program saves lives,” said Harry Wolin, administrator and chief executive officer of Mason District Hospital in Havana , Ill. “There are people who are alive today because of this program. That's how important this is to the people in our rural communities. If they had to travel the extra distance to get to an urban center, they would not make it.”

It's also saved the hospital, Wolin said.

Mason County, along the Illinois River in the rural west-central part of the state, is home to about 18,000 people.

“Whether or not Mason District Hospital would be here today without this program is very much open to question,” Wolin said. “The federal government is spending additional dollars it wouldn't otherwise have spent on rural health care. Those funds make a difference in our communities.”

Among the report's other key findings:

• The CAH Program resulted in immediate and sustained improvements in revenues for almost every hospital that participated in the study and in improved profitability for the majority of hospitals. However, a number of hospitals still struggle financially.
• CAH designation enabled many hospitals to add clinics and needed patient and community services and address deferred capital improvements, including a number of life/safety projects and routine repairs.
• In 2005, CAH facility renovations and expansions resulted in an estimated additional $11.2 million in revenues to the county and short-term employment for about 570 construction workers. Capital improvements planned for 2007 through 2011 will produce an estimated additional $21.7 million in revenues and about 1,100 construction jobs.

The report was funded by the Illinois Department of Public Health Center for Rural Health and the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant Program. Copies of the report are available online at http://icahn.org and http://www.rdiniu.org.

NIU also can provide spreadsheets on specific hospitals and their 2005 financial impact on host counties. For more information, call NIU's Regional Development Institute at (815) 753-1403 or ICAHN at (815) 857-2999.

Cindy Henderson tapped to lead Career Services

Cindy Henderson has been named acting executive director of Career Services, stepping in for Ron Short, who retires Thursday, June 29.

Henderson, who came to work at NIU in 2002, was previously the associate director of the department, responsible for coordinating job fairs, campus recruiting efforts, student outreach activities and marketing.

Prior to coming to NIU Henderson spent most of her career working in customer service for telephone companies. Many of the lessons she learned in that role are also essential to her new job, she said.

“Customer service is a very big part of what we do,” Henderson said. “We have two distinct groups of customers, students and employers, and we want to provide both with the absolute best talent that we can offer.”

Among her goals, she said, is to continue efforts begun by Short to increase awareness of the office, especially getting out the word that the office now can help students find internships as well as jobs.

Micki Emmett, assistant vice president for student services, said NIU is lucky to have a person of Henderson 's skills ready to step into the position.

“Cindy brings a great blend of experience, and leadership to the job, as well as extraordinary energy,” Emmett said. “She is very dedicated to the core values of Student Affairs, and I believe that under her leadership we will see a continuation of the great things we have come to expect from Career Services.”

Henderson, who earned her undergraduate degree from NIU and has a master's degree from National Louis University, lives in Sycamore.

Trustees approve faculty promotions, tenure

NIU's Board of Trustees voted June 15 to approve several recommendations for faculty promotions, tenure and promotions with tenure.

From Associate Professor to Professor

Michael Bishop, Philosophy
Neil Blackstone, Biological Sciences
Paul Carpenter, Kinesiology and Physical Education
Judith Q. Chitwood, Theatre and Dance
Sundiata Djata, History
Charles E. Downing, Operations, Management and Information Systems
Laurie Elish-Piper, Literacy Education
Richard Hahin, Biological Sciences
Jack T. Marchewka, Operations, Management and Information Systems
Keith Millis, Psychology
Allen Ottens, Counseling, Adult and Higher Education
Mark A. Ponzo, Music
Pamela A. Smith, Accountancy
Donald E. Tidrick, Accountancy
Nancy Wingfield Dosanjh, History
James C. Young, Accountancy

Tenure Only

Brian Coller, Mechanical Engineering

Tenure and Promotion From Assistant Professor to Associate Professor

Jeffrey Adams, Art
Gregory M. Barrett, Music
Lisa Baumgartner, Counseling, Adult and Higher Education
Robert C. Beatty, Operations, Management and Information Systems
Mace L. Bentley, Geography
Jana Brubaker, University Libraries
Kerry Burch, Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations
Andrew Byrom, Art
Karen Carrier, Literacy Education
Louise Ciallella, Foreign Languages and Literatures
Therese A. Clarke Arado, Law Library
Kathleen L. Coles, Law
Glenda L. Cosenza, Music
Sharon Coyer, Nursing
Deborah C. De Rosa, English
Sean Farrell, History
Reva Freedman, Computer Science
Carla D. Goar, Sociology
Judith Hertz, Nursing
Oliver Hofstetter, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Sharon Holmes, Counseling, Adult and Higher Education
Frances Jaeger, Foreign Languages and Literatures
Barbara Jaffee, Art
Neelam Jain, Economics
Melissa E. Lenczewski, Geology and Environmental Geosciences
Brian Mackie, Operations, Management and Information Systems
Kimberly Martens, Art
Moses Mutuku, Teaching and Learning
Tracy Nunnally, Theatre and Dance
Holly Orcutt, Psychology
Andrew W. Otieno, Technology
Richard Poole, Theatre and Dance
Victor Ryzhov, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Thomas J. Smith, Educational Technology, Research and Assessment
Francisco Solares-Larrave, Foreign Languages and Literatures
Moira E. Stuart, Kinesiology and Physical Education
Kathleen Valde, Communication
Leanne VandeCreek, University Libraries
Laura Vazquez, Communication
David A. Walker, Educational Technology, Research and Assessment
Gail S. Williams, Allied Health
Karen Williamson, Theatre and Dance

From Assistant Professor to Associate Professor

Omar Ghrayeb, Industrial and Systems Engineering

6-26-06