UNLV administrator chosen to become next provost
 Raymond W. Alden III, executive vice president and provost at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has been chosen to fill the same position at NIU beginning July 1.
Alden's appointment, which is subject to approval by the NIU Board of Trustees, concludes a nearly eight-month national search for NIU's next chief academic officer.
NIU President John Peters said Alden's extensive experience and success in leading a fast-growing regional university to national prominence made him a “natural choice” for the NIU provost's position.
“In Ray Alden we have attracted ‘the best of the best,' ” Peters said. “He is a national figure in higher education with strong credentials in strategic planning, and he understands both how far we've come and how much further we can go to serve the needs of our state and region.”
 J.D. Bowers will get to know “the land of the midnight sun” quite well over the course of the next year: The NIU history professor has won a prestigious Fulbright Scholar grant to teach in Norway.
Beginning in late August, Bowers will serve for nine months as the Fulbright Roving Scholar in American Studies for Norway, where he'll present lectures and workshops to high school teachers and students throughout the Scandinavian country.
For Susan Vogel, it was her years of work in support for students with learning disabilities that earned the Fulbright award. A Distinguished Research Professor Emerita, Vogel is already at Tel Hai College in Israel for a 21-day project to adapt and expand her “College Students with Learning Disabilities” handbook.
Kathy Taylor Schlieper, who graduated Saturday with a master's degree specializing in English as a Second Language, will put her new degree to good use this fall with an eight-month Fulbright appointment to Comenius University in the Slovak Republic.
J.D. BOWERS
SUSAN VOGEL
KATHY TAYLOR SCHLIEPER
 Susan L'Allier and Laurie Elish-Piper, faculty members in the Department of Literacy Education, are the recipients of a 2006 Elva Knight Research Grant from the International Reading Association.
The prestigious honor – no more than four are awarded each year – was funded for $9,980. The maximum funding possible was $10,000.
“We're very excited because we really believe in this project,” said Elish-Piper, director of the NIU Reading Clinic. “It's critical information for us to have access to in the field.”
“Because the current responsibilities of learning coaches are so widely varied and encompass such a myriad of activities,” L'Allier added, “our hope is that this study will narrow down or help us pinpoint the critical tasks literacy coaches can use to promote student achievement.”
FULL STORY
 Summer “break” means three things to Tracy Nunnally's students of technical theater: work, work and more work.
Most of his young accomplices are primed to scatter across the United States and even the world to perform backstage internships in professional and community theaters.
Matt Massoth will serve as a co-technical director at the Timberlake Playhouse in nearby Mt. Carroll. Melissa Cozza is headed for the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Sarah Fijalkiewicz, Anna Goller and John Moore will spend their summer at the Glimmerglass Opera House in New York.
Others are bound for California, Florida, Wisconsin and perhaps even Liverpool, England.
“They go all over,” says Nunnally, assistant professor and technical director in the NIU School of Theatre and Dance, part of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. “Most of our people are invited, usually by March. It's like the draft picks in the NFL or the NBA. Most of ours are gone in the first round, and all by the second.”
FULL STORY
 When Chicago artist Gustaf Dalstrom discovered the mural he'd painted for DeKalb's Haish Memorial Library was too tall for its intended space, he took pen to paper to propose a solution that would make everything right.
Seventy-one years later, with the old Works Progress Administration-commissioned canvas that hangs above the DeKalb Public Library's fireplace showing signs of dirt and rips, graduate students in the NIU Department of Communicative Disorders wrote a grant proposal that would make everything right again.
They were confident of success – “It's a public work of art, and I think that people care about that and want it to stay in good shape,” said Dan Franks, one of the students in Professor Nancy Castle's class on writing grants last fall – and they were correct.
Leaders of the DeKalb County Community Foundation announced Wednesday, May 3, they have awarded a $5,000 challenge grant to the DeKalb Public Library to pay for a restoration of the mural.
FULL STORY
 Soccer moms, or Hillary Duff wannabes?
A supervised play area offering while-you-shop child care, or a hip lounge with egg-shell-shaped chairs, plasma TVs and copies of Seventeen magazine?
Six executives from Kohl's faced those competing recommendations for targeted customer bases during a visit last week to Barsema Hall, where they heard marketing advice on a variety of topics from 32 students in Julie Hillery's retailing class.
“I introduce the project the first week of class and tell them to look at any current trend in the retail market today and to examine Kohl's in that trend,” said Hillery, who in 2005 won an Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching award. “They definitely have to look at the real world. This is not textbook stuff.”
FULL STORY
 Jane Elliott has spent nearly four decades helping people to feel – and exert – prejudice.
In her internationally known “Brown Eye/Blue Eye” anti-discrimination activity, participants are labeled inferior or superior based solely on the color of their eyes.
Now Elliott has come to NIU as today's keynote speaker for the 13th Multicultural Curriculum Transformation Institute, which began Monday.
“Jane has developed quite a lot of expertise in the area of diversity training,” said Amy Levin, director of Women's Studies and chair of the MCTI task force. “We're hoping she can bring some of her experiences to us and work with our participants in expanding awareness of multicultural activities.”
FULL STORY
 The NIU Liberace Jazztet will swing for a sixth consecutive year thanks to renewed funding from the Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts.
Founded at the NIU School of Music in 2001 with a generous donation of $10,000 from the Liberace Foundation, its annual provision climbed to $12,000 in 2003.
“The continuing hard work of students, faculty and staff has paid off again,” said Paul Bauer, director of the School of Music. “Successful renewal of funding is also due in part to the detailed work of staff member Lynn Slater, who completes and submits several required reports and packets of information throughout the year to the funding foundation.”
“The students we recruit to join this program are working real hard to keep the group really visible. The things we've done have been international,” said Ronald Carter, director of the Liberace Jazztet and of the jazz studies program in the NIU School of Music.
FULL STORY |
|
NIU's Rare Books and Special Collections department has unveiled an exhibition titled "Martin Kallich: A Life in Scholarship – January 19, 1918-March 30, 2006."
The exhibition honors, an NIU professor emeritus of English who died March 30. Materials featured either were donated by Kallich or purchased using the Martin Kallich Endowment Fund.
The Rare Books and Special Collections department is located on the forth floor of Founders Memorial Library. The exhibition continues through Tuesday, Aug. 15.
Call (815) 753-8091 or e-mail aschroeder@niu.edu for more informaiton.
Information Technology Services has reached an agreement to extend the Microsoft Campus Agreement subscription period to Friday, May 19.
Partnership in the Microsoft Campus Agreement costs $53 per full-time employee and includes many standard and professional software for Windows and Macintosh. Lab, office and qualified home use are available.
For sign-up details and more information, contact ITS at (815) 753-8100 or via e-mail at helpdesk@niu.edu.
The annual MFA exhibition is open from Friday, May 19, through Saturday, June 17, at the NIU Art Museum in Chicago, 215 W. Superior.
An opening reception takes place from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, May 19, with an award presentation at 6:30 p.m. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays.
Call (312) 642-6010 or visit the museum online for more information.
NIU Huskie Athletics is offering summer camps focusing on a variety of sports, including athletic training, baseball, basketball, football, golf, soccer, softball, volleyball, and wrestling. The camps are designed for youth of various ages from 6 to 18. NIU employees receive a discount on registrations.
For more detailed information and registration, visit http://www.niuhuskies.com and click on Camps, call (815) 753-5300 or e-mail sportscamps@niu.edu.
The Clara Sperling Memorial Scholarship has made it possible for the NIU Study Abroad Office to award three $500 scholarships to NIU students of junior or senior standing who have been accepted into summer 2006 study abroad programs. The application deadline is June 1.
Students from all academic disciplines who have been approved by the NIU Study Abroad Office for an NIU-administered or NIU-co-sponsored study abroad program are eligible to apply.
Eligibility and application requirements specific to each scholarship can be obtained from the NIU Study Abroad Office. Interested students are encouraged to pick up an application packet from the NIU Study Abroad Office as soon as possible.
For more information, call (815) 753-0700 or (815) 753-0420 or e-mail niuabroad@niu.edu.
NIU Fine Arts student Carrie Boop is the featured artist at the DeKalb Area Women's Center Great Hall Exhibit Space during May.
Titled “Garden of Delight,” the exhibition is a body of work in pencil, oils, acrylic, graphite, pastels, ink and mixed media which reflects the artist's fascination with the plant kingdom.
The DAWC is open for public viewing from 7 to 9 p.m. Fridays, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. the first and third Saturdays and by appointment at (815) 758-1351. Attendees also are invited to walk through the Meditation Garden on the west side of the building, and get a “sneak preview” of the sesquicentennial mural by Randy Halverson which is in progress in the OnStage Gallery.
The DAWC Galleries are located at 1021 State Street in DeKalb, with the accessible lift entrance from the alley north of the building. Parking is provided one-half block south of the corner at State and 11th Streets.
A retirement party for 31-year NIU employee Keith Lowman is scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 30, in Media Services, Still Hall 110.
Junior and senior high school brass players are invited to an intensive three-day camp this summer to work with some of the best brass teachers in the region at Brass Boot Camp. The camp is scheduled for Sunday, June 25, through Tuesday, June 27.
Players of tuba, French horn, trumpet, trombone, and euphonium (baritone) receive personal attention on improvement of technique, increased lip flexibility and endurance, production of a professional tone, solutions to intonation problems, the acquisition of fluency in all key signatures and expansion of playing range.
Camp director Thomas Bough is the director of the Huskie Marching Band and the University Band at NIU. Camp instructors include NIU School of Music faculty Paul Bauer, John Fairfield and Mark Ponzo.
Campers stay in NIU residence halls and enjoy the music facilities in the Music Building. The camp is open to those who have completed grades 8 to 12.
In addition to Brass Boot Camp, NIU's College of Visual and Performing Arts offers summer camps in July in jazz, theatre and visual arts. More summer camp information is available online or by calling (815) 753-1450.
High school artists are invited to participate in exciting, diverse and creative art experiences this summer at the Visual Arts Experience. The camp is scheduled for the week of July 16.
Campers enjoy two daily in-depth studio sessions. Studio teachers encourage campers to be innovative as they experiment with new materials, techniques and ideas. Campers stay in NIU residence halls and use studio facilities in the Art Building.
Lynn Stockton returns as camp director. An award-winning art teacher at Jefferson High School in Rockford, Stockton has been involved with the camp for many years. An alumna of NIU's School of Art, she brings a wealth of teaching and artistic experience to the program.
In addition to studio work during the day, campers enjoy workshops conducted by artists. Evening activities include a night of performance art, open studio time and recreation. The camp is open to those who have completed grades 8 to 12.
More summer camp information is available online at or by calling (815) 753-1450. An early bird registration fee is available until June 1.
NIU's Alumni Association is offering a private viewing Friday, Aug. 11, of “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” at the Field Museum in Chicago.
“Tutmania” is returning to the Field Museum for the first time in almost three decades. The 1977 Tutankhamun exhibit attracted crowds of 10,000 to 12,000 a day, with more than 1.35 million visitors overall.
According to the Chicago Tribune “Though the new Tut show will run two months longer here than the first one, the museum said far fewer people will get to see the new one because of more rigorous security and conservation measures taken to protect the artifacts. Those measures mean the exhibit will be shown in a space just one-fifth the size the 1977 show was presented in, limiting the number of people who can move through it.”
The Alumni Association has secured a limited number of tickets for this private viewing. The ticket price of $150 includes a reception and dinner, an exclusive viewing for NIU guests and complimentary valet parking.
Register online at www.myniu.com or call (815) 753-1452.
Limited seats are available for the NIU Alumni Association's “The Wonders of China,” a trip scheduled for Sept. 8 to 19. The cost is $3,599.
This land-and-river tour will visit the cities of Beijing, Xian and Shanghai and include stops at Tiananmen Square, the Imperial Palace in the Forbidden City , the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs and the Tomb of Emperor Qun Shi Huangdi. The three-night Yangtze River cruise includes visits to Shibaozhai, Wushan and the Three Gorges Dam site.
For more information, visit www.myniu.com or call (815) 753-1512.
A printable abridged version of Northern Today is available. --CLICK HERE |
