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 NIU quietly crossed into a new frontier of Internet communication earlier this year.
With the “lighting” of the first leg of its NIUNet fiber optic communication network in January, NIU for the first time obtained a connection to Internet2 creating the potential for students, faculty and staff to use the Internet in previously unimaginable ways.
Researchers can download enormous databases they previously had to travel to use. For instance, a four terabyte file (one terabyte equals 1,024 gigabytes) that would take 23 days to download over the regular Internet could be downloaded in about one hour.
Musicians might play along with colleagues at universities across the globe as if they were in the same room.
Virtual classes and conferences could be offered in an online environment that all but duplicates face-to-face interaction with high definition picture and sound.
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 The National Science Foundation is providing a major boost to the research of NIU Professor Narayan Hosmane, whose work in the area of boron chemistry ranges from developing new cancer treatment drugs to finding ways to make better plastics.
NSF is awarding a grant of $396,000 over three years to the chemistry professor's research program. Since arriving at NIU in 1998 after 16 years at Southern Methodist University, Hosmane now has secured three NSF grants totaling more than $1 million.
The continued funding success is good news for Hosmane and his students. During Hosmane's tenure at NIU, 17 post-doctoral students, 6 Ph.D. candidates, four master's-level students and 18 undergraduates have worked as members of his research team, often publishing academic papers with their professor.
“I consider working with undergraduates my strength and take great pleasure in seeing them succeed,” Hosmane said.
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 Four members of the Supportive Professional Staff (SPS) have been chosen to receive the university's Presidential Awards for Excellence.
The recipients are Sandi Carlisle, associate director for residential facilities; Glen A. Gildemeister, director of the Regional History Center and university archivist; Bradley Hoey, producer and director in Media Services; and Derrick Smith, academic counselor in the Center for Black Studies.
They will be honored at a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 28, in the Clara Sperling Sky Room in the Holmes Student Center. The awards ceremony begins at 2:30 p.m. Each will receive a plaque and $1,500 in appreciation for their outstanding contributions to NIU.
SPS President Shey Lowman will receive the SPS Council Service Award.
Refreshments will be served, and the reception is open to all.
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 NTC News Tonight, a full-length 10 p.m. news broadcast created by NIU journalism students, has made its debut on Comcast Channel 74.
The commercial-free, 20-minute newscast airs Monday through Thursday with next-day repeats at noon Tuesday through Friday. Cable subscribers in the Rochelle area can view the newscast on Comcast Channel 20.
Monday's official launch marked not only a return of the long-missing 10 p.m. newscast but also solved a mystery: whether NIU broadcast journalism students would ever return to the local “airwaves.”
“When this started,” said Allen May, the general broadcast manager, “we thought it was the end of the world.”
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 Brett Mitchell, a first-year assistant professor of conducting in the NIU School of Music, will this year experience Paris in June.
And August. And December. And maybe May.
Mitchell has been selected as the assistant conductor of the Orchestre National de France. He will make at least half a dozen trips a year to Paris to assist and cover for Maestro Kurt Masur in a role that eventually could expand to conducting the orchestra during educational and outreach performances.
The Seattle native learned of his success immediately after his audition, which took place in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. The concert hall was the site of the world premiere of Stravinsky's “The Rite of Spring,” a work so avant-garde it caused riots in the audience.
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 Carla Montgomery just couldn't pass up what might have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Montgomery traveled to New York City two weeks ago to catch the final performances of a successful off-Broadway production. It was inspired by a geology textbook that Montgomery originally wrote in 1987.
The dance and acrobatics performance, titled “(w)HOLE,” an acronym for the (Whole) History Of Life on Earth, had a seven-week run at the Flea Theater. It was staged by LAVA, an award-winning Brooklyn-based troupe headed by founder and artistic director Sarah East Johnson.
Johnson invited Montgomery to a performance after informing her last semester that the geology book was the source of inspiration. Montgomery was thrilled, but she didn't think her schedule would permit a visit to the Big Apple.
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 Membership in the Northern Star Hall of Fame grew to 53 last month with the induction of six new alums, including two with connections to Hollywood.
Gerald DiPego, a reporter and columnist for the campus newspaper who graduated in 1963, is a screenwriter who includes “Phenomenon” and “The Forgotten” on his resumé. Diane Mermigas, the Northern Star's arts editor in 1972, is a contributing editor and columnist for The Hollywood Reporter and editor of her own “Mermigas on Media” subscription newsletter.
DiPego and Mermigas are among a class that includes the first graduate of NIU's journalism program, a former nationally syndicated sports columnist, a writer of plays, poems and short stories and the managing editor of a daily newspaper in a fiercely competitive suburban market.
The ceremony was held Saturday, Feb. 25, in Altgeld Hall.
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 A new exhibition opening soon at the NIU Anthropology Museum will explore the different expressions of Islam in Southeast Asian cultures.
“In light of the events unfolding around the world, there are a lot of stereotypes about the Islamic religion,” said Nagasura Madale, guest curator of the exhibition. “Our hope is people will leave the museum with a better understanding and appreciation of the rich tradition of Islam and of the cultural diversity among Muslims in Southeast Asia.”
“Islam in Southeast Asia: Common Themes, Diverse Expressions” will open Monday, March 20, and run through the summer at the Anthropology Museum, located in the Stevens Building on campus. Artifacts featured in the new exhibit will include religious or ceremonial clothing, brassware, banners, woodcarvings, paintings and Arabic writings.
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 NIU alumnus Matthew Van Eck ('02) recently was reminded of the widespread influence of his alma mater during a visit to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Van Eck, who holds a degree in geography, naturally stopped by the new “Maps of our Lives” exhibition, where he spotted two maps produced by the NIU Cartography Lab. One satellite-image map depicts landscapes of northern Illinois, while the other map shows the Rockford mass transit system.
Van Eck said NIU is the only university to have two of its cartographic products featured in the exhibit, which will run through Jan. 7, 2007.
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 Read good news about – and send congratulations to – Ross Powell and Kendall Thu.
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“Women's History Month: Re-imagining Sisterhood” is the lobby exhibition for March in Founders Memorial Library. For more information, contact Leanne Vandecreek at (815) 753-4025 or via e-mail at lvandecreek@niu.edu.
NIU's Health Professions House and College of Health and Human Sciences will host a hair donation drive Tuesday, March 7, to benefit the Locks of Love Organization.
Members of the NIU and DeKalb County communities are invited to participate in the drive from 12:30 to 5:30 pm in the Diversions Lounge of the Holmes Student Center.
Area stylists from such salons as Amanda's Spa and Beauty, Serenity Salon and New Style Hair Salon have donated their afternoons to provide haircuts free of charge for individuals willing to donate 10 inches (or more) of hair. For persons who cannot donate this amount but still would like to participate, regular haircuts will be given for $5 each with all proceeds donated to Locks of Love.
Contrary to popular belief, individuals with colored (dyed) hair in good condition still can donate their locks. Only completely bleached hair or recently permed hair cannot be donated.
Locks of Love is a not-for-profit organization that provides recipients with a custom, vacuum-fitted hairpiece made entirely from donated human hair. The vacuum-fit is designed for children who have experienced a total loss of scalp hair and does not require the use of tape or glue.
For more information about the donation drive, call (815) 753-1891.
NIU's Presidential Commission on the Status of Minorities (PCSM) invites nominations for the 2006 Deacon Davis Diversity Award. Created in 2004, this award recognizes the significant contributions made to the improvement of the status of minorities on campus by members of the university community.
The PCSM encourages nominations from the university community including current NIU undergraduate, graduate or professional students; faculty, SPS or civil service staff; academic units, offices, programs or organizations. Nominations and an additional letter of support must be in writing and received by Wednesday, March 15.
The Deacon Davis Award is named in honor of the late founder and former director of the CHANCE (College Help & Assistance Necessary for College Education) Program. Davis died March 20, 2003.
Past award recipients include LeRoy Mitchell, director of the CHANCE Program; Monique Bernoudy, associate athletics director; Michael Kirkwood, recent law school alumnus; Dr. James Brunson, assistant vice-president of Diversity & Equity; LaMetra Curry, doctoral student; and the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center.
The Deacon Davis Award is a non-monetary award. Awards will be bestowed upon the selected recipients during the Annual PCSM Spring Banquet held Wednesday, April 5.
Nomination forms and guidelines can be found at www.niu.edu/pcsm/, or contact Melody Mitchell at (815) 753-1027 or via e-mail at mmitchell@niu.edu.
The NIU Art Gallery in Chicago announces “Strange Fictions,” a group exhibition organized by guest curator Chris Kahler. The exhibition runs Wednesday, March 15, through Saturday, April 29, with a public reception for the artists from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, March 24.
The 10 participating artists use the visual language of science fiction to create works of art that play both to our fascination and fear of the possibilities of the future.
Hours at the gallery, 215 W. Superior, 3 rd Floor, are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. All gallery events are free and open to the public. Call (312) 642-6010 or click here for more information.
Ashlee Simpson will bring her “ I Am Me” tour to the NIU Convocation Center at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 29.
Tickets are $29 for students (limit two) and $34 for the general public. Tickets are available at the NIU Convocation Center box office, all Ticketmaster outlets, by calling (312) 559-1212, or visiting www.ticketmaster.com.
For more information call (815) 752-6800 or visit www.niuconvo.com.
NIU is seeking families in DeKalb, Sycamore and the surrounding area to host Muslim and non-Muslim youth and adult community leaders from the southern Philippines for two weeks this spring.
The visitors will be participating in a training institute led by the university's Center for Southeast Asian Studies and International Training Office. Funded by the U.S. Department of State, the institute is designed to promote conflict resolution and interethnic and interfaith dialogue. Participants are selected through a competitive application process, have outstanding academic credentials and are fluent in English.
The training institute will introduce participants to American institutions that promote tolerance and will expose them to the religious and ethnic diversity of the United States. NIU hopes to place the high school students with local families who have students of about the same age, if possible. Host families also are needed for adult leaders who will be working with the young people.
The Filipino students and adults will stay with their host families from April 23 to May 7. Host families will provide the visitors with transportation to and from campus, where workshops will be held daily. Students will join their host families for breakfasts and most dinners. They will have at least one free day each week.
Host families will be required to attend a March 30 orientation session, where past host families will share their experiences from a similar program held in 2004 and 2005.
Interested families should contact Julie Lamb, outreach coordinator for the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, at (815) 753-1595, (815) 753-1771 or jlamb@niu.edu. More information is available here.
The NIU community is invited to participate in the first annual “A Walk 4 Wisdom” on Sunday, May 7, at DeKalb's Hopkins Park to raise awareness and funding for pediatric brain tumor research.
The event will feature a 5K run, 3K family walk and a kids walk. Check-in begins at 12:30 p.m.
Proceeds will benefit pediatric brain tumor research at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago . The event is organized by Caps4Sam, a local organization started by ITS employee Dan Ihm and his family. For more information, or to download a registration form, visit http://www.caps4sam.com.
NIU's Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences has announced the schedule for its Spring 2006 Colloquia.
All talks will be held at 4 p.m. in Davis Hall 308 and are co-sponsored by NIU's Graduate Colloquium Committee. Call (815) 753-1943 or click here for schedule updates and more information. -- MORE
The Summer 2006 and Fall 2006 Course Offerings will be online on the NIU Course Finder (www.courselistings.niu.edu) beginning Monday, March 13.
A printable Schedule of Classes in Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) and a printable PDF file of the Registration Information pages will be available online at www.reg.niu.edu. Click on “Schedule of Classes & Registration Information.”
Registration for Summer 2006 and Fall 2006 begins the week of April 3, 2006. -- MORE
The University Bookstore in Holmes Student Center will close for inventory from Monday, March 13, through Wednesday, March 15. Regular store hours resume Thursday, March 16.
Call (815) 753-1081 for more information.
NIU's Presidential Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity has limited travel funds available to help support faculty, staff and students who wish to attend conferences, workshops or seminars for the purpose of learning about or presenting scholarship on lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender topics.
All travel must take place in the current fiscal year (July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2006). The travel support form is available online here and should be submitted via e-mail.
To apply for funds or for more information, contact Patricia Liberty Baczek at (815) 753-5428 or e-mail plb@niu.edu.
First-Year Connections is looking for prospective UNIV 101/201 instructors for fall 2006.
UNIV 101 is a one-credit, 12-week course designed to assist freshmen in developing the necessary academic and social skills to make the most of their experience at NIU.
Click here for to apply. -- MORE
A printable abridged version of Northern Today is available.
--CLICK HERE |
