November 27, 2006, Northern Today Abridged
President: Employee salaries to rise in January
NIU President John G. Peters sent this letter to university employees last week.
November 21, 2006
Dear Colleagues,
Last month, I used the occasion of my annual State of the University Address to talk about academic excellence as the overarching theme that must guide all our work going forward in this new century.
The challenges of the workplace, the modern home, and an increasingly complex society put a premium on well-prepared graduates with strong critical-thinking skills. Successful students enjoy strong support in their studies, feel part of a safe and nurturing living-learning community, and expand their knowledge by participating in research, internships, and other hands-on educational opportunities. In short, successful NIU students benefit from the work of all our faculty and staff, regardless of position or function.
Building and maintaining academic excellence at NIU requires a sustained investment in people. To that end, I have made faculty/staff salary enhancement the No. 1 priority of my presidency – and today I’m happy to share the latest manifestation of that commitment.
In addition to the 3 percent increment awarded in July, and following the same general guidelines for eligibility, regularly-appointed employees will receive an additional 1 percent salary hike beginning with the January 2007 payroll period. On top of this 1 percent cost-of-living increase, we have identified sufficient reallocated dollars to also provide supplemental increments to address issues of merit, critical retention, market and equity among a majority of those eligible to receive the mid-year increase.
Supplemental increment allocations will be provided to faculty based on recommendations from their deans and chairs. A wide range of civil service classifications and supportive professional staff positions will also be included in a supplemental market adjustment. In both staff categories, emphasis will be on market and equity issues for our lowest-paid employees, as well as those most closely associated with academic support functions.
This plan has the strong support of our Board of Trustees and the leaders of our shared governance councils. More specific instructions on salary increment distribution will come next week from Human Resources.
As always, I thank you for your commitment to Northern Illinois University, our students, and the region we serve.
Sincerely,
John G. Peters
President
NICADD scientists develop detector technology
for proposed International Linear Collider
Scientists at the Northern Illinois Center for Accelerator and Detector Development (NICADD) are celebrating the successful run of a prototype sub-detector for the proposed International Linear Collider (ILC).
“The brand new technology is extremely sensitive – it can detect single photons of light with high efficiency,” said NIU Presidential Science Adviser Gerald Blazey, who serves as co-director of NICADD.
“Among scientists in the ILC detector community, this is a substantial achievement,” Blazey said. “And for the NIU physics department, the detector work complements the outstanding program in beam physics.”
The proposed linear, or straight-line, collider represents the next generation of particle accelerators, which smash together tiny bits of invisible matter to produce new particles. The experiments help researchers identify and understand the most basic building blocks of nature and the structure of the microscopic universe. The more powerful and efficient the accelerator, the more deeply scientists can probe into the subatomic realm.
The ILC would be an 18-mile-long collider. It would allow physicists to explore energy regions beyond the reach of today’s most powerful circular accelerators, the Tevatron at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the Large Hadron Collider, due to come online over the next two years at the CERN laboratory on the French-Swiss border.
“The ILC will be a precision machine that produces new physics that must be measured precisely and accurately,” said Vishnu Zutshi, a NICADD senior scientist who led the team of researchers on development of the prototype sub-detector. It would be one of many components comprising the overall detector system.
Members of the team included NIU graduate student Kurt Francis, undergraduates John Powell and Mike Smith, NICADD research scientists Alexandre Dychkant and Victor Rykalin and scientists from Fermilab and Germany.
Detectors are highly technical devices that must process millions of particle collisions and identify the most interesting new particles for storage on data tapes and thus further analyses. In large accelerators, detectors are massive devices; Fermilab’s DZero experiment detector is four stories tall.
Because the ILC is in the early planning stages, scientists must rely on simulations for testing of detector prototypes.
“We first determine what performance will be needed,” Zutshi said. “Then we design a detector that will deliver that performance. The detectors for the ILC must be unprecedented in their ability to evaluate the position and energy of the particles coming from the electron-positron collisions.”
The prototype sub-detector built by the NICADD-led team weighs 10 tons, roughly one-fiftieth of what the actual device would weigh. It was shipped by steamer to CERN, where it was tested this fall using various types of particle beams. Scientists determine how well the device measures energy of particles striking the detector and how the energy is distributed throughout the detector.
“The early science is very encouraging,” Zutshi said. “The tests at CERN will achieve details that have not been reached before and will provide crucial input for taking the design of the ILC detector forward.”
The next step is to devise a way to make the device scalable. The prototype had about 320 channels, or independent sensors, whereas the actual detector would have millions of channels.
“Right now, constructing the sub-detector is very labor intensive,” Blazey said. “Now we have to learn how to mass produce it in a way that is both reliable and practical.”
Geography department launches weather Web site
Just in time for the approaching winter, NIU’s Department of Geography has launched a new weather-related Web site that features reams of local historical weather data as well as real-time conditions at locations on campus and in the DeKalb area.
The NIU Cooperative Weather Station Web site can be found at http://climate.niu.edu/.
“We expect that this site will be interesting and useful to numerous audiences, including commuters, campus visitors, farmers, business owners and schools officials who have a need for current weather conditions or historical trends,” said Andrew Krmenec, geography chair.
NIU operates another weather Web site, www.weather.niu.edu, which provides current radar, weather bulletins, forecasts and more. Between the two sites, NIU faculty, staff and students who work to gather and produce the information have the weather virtually blanketed.
The new site features four weather stations that provide up-to-the-second information on temperature, humidity, wind chill, wind gusts and precipitation, along with sunset, sunrise, moonset and moonrise data. The stations are located at Stadium Drive and Annie Glidden Road, near First and Taylor streets, at the DeKalb Airport and at Peace Road and Route 23 in Sycamore.
“Since the Stadium Drive station is close to Huskie Stadium, we think it will be a valuable resource for sports fans trying to decide what to wear on game day,” Krmenec said.
The Web site was created to speed up the dissemination of climate and weather information that already was being collected by university meteorologists and students.
The National Weather Service Cooperative Weather Site permanently moved from Sycamore to NIU in 1966. Since 1993, students have compiled daily weather data and monthly climate information for the National Weather Service and nearly 100 other users in the community.
“Now users and other interested parties can simply log on to the Web site at their convenience to obtain historical records and current weather information,” said NIU Geography Professor Walker Ashley, who is manager of the Web site. “Since we have four weather stations, you can see how weather varies across the DeKalb region. Sometimes it can be quite substantial.”
Nine NIU meteorology students currently volunteer to gather the raw data.
“It’s not only a service for the community but also a learning experience for the students,” Ashley added. “It’s critical for them as meteorology students to learn where weather observations come from and how these raw data are collected.”
NIU Accountancy among best in nation – again
Professors across the nation have once again rated NIU’s public accountancy programs among the elite in the nation.
The Public Accounting Report’s 25th Annual Professor’s Survey ranked NIU’s undergraduate program 11th in the United States and its graduate program 10th. Both rankings are the same as last year.
The recently released survey asked professors in the field what five programs they would recommend to students interested in entering the field. Both the undergraduate and graduate programs have been a fixture on the lists almost since their inception
“We are very proud to once again find ourselves in the upper echelon of programs on this list,” said Jim Young, chair of the Department of Accountancy in the College of Business. “The goal of this program has always been, and continues to be, sustained excellence, so it is very satisfying to be included on this list year after year.”
Inclusion in the rankings places NIU in some highly regarded company, including six Big Ten schools (including Illinois) and Notre Dame. The top two schools for both graduate and undergraduate programs were Texas and Brigham Young, respectively. NIU was among the smallest programs ranked, and one of only five where the highest degree available is a master’s.
“These rankings reflect the outstanding faculty, staff and students that we have at NIU,” Young said. “We are honored to carry on the tradition of excellence established by our colleagues over the past 35 years.”
The NIU Department of Accountancy graduates around 200 undergraduates a year and 100 master’s students. The program is currently ranked 25th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.
Art history comes to life for School of Art grad students
Oh, the tales of adventure their families heard over Thanksgiving turkey.
For Ivy Dally, it was Rome: “It overwhelms the senses in a way looking at a slide or a picture can’t.”
For Mary Katherine Scott, it was Mexico: “Every day, we were meeting with the local Mayan families. They’d invite us into their homes to have lunch with them. We’d make tortillas around the fire with the women.”
For Coral Carlson, it was Florence. For Stephanie Sposito and Carolina Bodner, it was Burma. For David Ouellette, it was Belize.
They’re all graduate students in art history who journeyed overseas during the summer to experience first-hand the art they’ve studied in books.
“I’m just fascinated by how they showed such fearless energy to get themselves into these programs, following their passions. The Rome program is the only of these run by NIU's Study Abroad Office,” said Helen Nagata, assistant professor of art history and chair of the graduate committee. “They came back from their summer adventures filled with this tremendous energy. They were so vitalized. They learned so much.”
“Maps and books truly can’t help you understand,” Dally said. “I’ve had a lot of art history classes, but when you see the originals, the colors are different with how the light hits them.”
The students recently shared their stories during a fall symposium called “Hands on Art History,” presented by Historia Artis, the NIU art history student organization.
“I went looking for inspiration for my thesis,” Dally said, “and I found it. I’m interested in the age of Julius Caesar; the architecture and the art, and the way it was used as propaganda. You can see who was in power at the time. Those in power actually built magnificent public and private architectural buildings meant to awe and inspire the people and gain votes in political elections. In the art, the politics and the culture, there is no separation.”
Dally had visited Rome twice before, but never to study.
She and 11 other students who enrolled in NIU's Rome program had class four days a week, two hours a day, usually in the morning. Some sessions were held in a classroom; many were on site at museums, churches, historic buildings, ancient ruins and even the Roman Coliseum.
NIU art history professor John Senseney allowed the group, which included art education and studio art students, to spend the rest of their time exploring and researching. Students can take the course for three or six credits, depending on whether they add an independent study.
Dally’s thesis focuses on spatial experiences in art history and how virtual modeling might help students in a classroom better understand.
“I experienced these places with all five senses,” Dally said. “But someday I’ll have students staring back at me who will have no idea if my pictures and stories are accurate.”
Scott, who already has a master’s degree in Spanish, went to Mexico to learn more about the wood carvings sold at various archeological sites.
“My graduate research focuses on the handicraft tradition in the Yucatan peninsula,” Scott said. “Wood carvers create reproductions of ancient Mayan carvings. They look at stone carvings, take those images, reproduce them with a different material and then turn around and sell them. It’s really interesting, and visitors might not know the significance of those pieces.”
First, though, she needed to learn more about the language of the artisans. They speak Yucatec-Maya, an indigenous language from pre-Hispanic times.
“I’m hoping to become fluent enough to converse with them in their own language,” she said. “It’s nothing like Spanish at all. It’s still spoken by about 700,000 people in the Yucatan peninsula. It’s still very much a living language, but not many people know about it.”
That knowledge is available through the Consortium for Latin American Studies between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University.
The program begins with two weeks in North Carolina and then sends students to Mexico for four weeks, immersing them in the language. They spend great amounts of time with Mayan families in their homes and villages, places where Spanish often is not spoken.
“It’s very intensive. You cover the equivalent of two semesters,” said Scott, who had a Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship and a generous summer research grant from the NIU Center for Latino and Latin American Studies.
But the intensity pays off.
“It’s like any kind of relationship you build with someone. If someone is not a native speaker in your language, it’s harder for them to open up to you. It’s harder for them to articulate what they want to say,” she said.
“For me to do interviews with these people when I’m more fluent in their own language would make them more comfortable. It shows them I’m serious about what I’m doing and that I want to create a comfortable atmosphere in which to learn about their culture, their beliefs and their artistic motivations.”
Oh barf! Discovery Channel profiles ‘dirty job’ of NIU Ph.D. student
When NIU research associate Kristin Stanford is successful at her job, biting and barfing often ensue.
Her work is so downright dirty and smelly that it will be featured as the lead story in the Nov. 28 season premiere of Discovery Channel’s popular program, “Dirty Jobs,” with host Mike Rowe. Show and viewing information is available online at http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/dirtyjobs/splash.html.
Stanford is known to the locals in Ohio’s Put-in-Bay Harbor as “the Island Snake Lady.” Although working toward her Ph.D. in biology at NIU, she spends most of her time at Put-in-Bay, where she serves as recovery plan coordinator for the endangered Lake Erie Water Snake.
The region encompassing the islands and mainland of Lake Erie between the Ohio and Ontario borders is a paradise for boaters and fishermen. It’s also the only place worldwide where the snakes can be found. Out of necessity, Stanford, a native of Mt. Prospect, has become an expert at catching the creatures, which might be likened to the punk rockers of the Great Lakes’ reptilian world.
“These water snakes are probably the smelliest, dirtiest snakes out there,” Stanford says. “When you pick them up, their defensive response is to thrash around and spray you with feces and musk. On the other end, they bite and bite and bite. It’s not exactly a friendly snake.”
Stanford estimates that she has been bitten thousands of times by the dull gray snakes, which grow as large as 3-1/2 feet in length but are not poisonous.
“After you take a few bites each spring, you get used to it,” she says.
Once the snakes are brought back to the laboratory, they are measured, weighed and tagged with tracking chips. The scientists also induce captured snakes to regurgitate in order to examine their diet.
“I don’t mind getting bit. It’s kind of gross when they poop all over you. But the barfing is definitely the worst part,” Stanford says. “It’s really smelly.”
Stanford has worked in Put-in-Bay for seven years under the tutelage of NIU Biology Professor Rich King, who himself is known as the godfather of the Lake Erie Water Snake.
He and his students have been monitoring the population of the water snakes for 25 years, and King’s research contributed to a decision in 1999 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the snake as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Recovery efforts have been working in recent years. By King’s estimates, the snake population has grown from as few as 1,000 in the early 1980s to 7,000 today.
“The goal is to get the animal off the threatened species list,” King says. “It’s an interesting situation because the snakes, which aren’t exactly warm and fuzzy animals, live in a relatively small area that also happens to be a vacation hot spot where a lot of development is occurring. So there’s a conflict between the snakes and humans, but it looks like this story will have a positive ending.”
Stanford’s job would accurately be described as half scientist, half outreach coordinator.
In addition to monitoring the population of the snakes, she works to improve their nasty image. And she’s getting help from an unlikely suspect – an invasive, bottom-dwelling fish known as the goby. The exotic species threatens the habitat of native fish, including walleye and smallmouth bass, which are prized by locals and tourists alike.
As it turns out, the water snakes have a voracious appetite for the pesky goby, a fact the scientists learned from studying the snakes’ diet.
“We promote the beneficial effects of the snake to fishermen,” Stanford says. “If you don’t get the local people involved and willing to make some sacrifices, nothing is going to protect that water snake. You don’t want to find out what happens to the balance of an ecosystem after a native species is gone.”
The Dirty Jobs program provides a unique platform to educate the public about the Lake Erie Water Snake. And it also fulfills a lifelong dream for Stanford. When in high school, the aspiring biologist would tell friends they would see her someday on Discovery Channel. Earlier this year, Stanford’s fiancée urged her to e-mail the show with a description of her work.
The show’s producers bit the next day.
After months of planning, Mike Rowe and his “Dirty Jobs” crew visited Put-In-Bay in August. And, yes, Rowe learned to catch snakes and “puke a goby.” Stanford isn’t sure if he enjoyed the experience, but she has no desire to trade in her line of work for something less foul.
“I love having a job where you can do both research and outreach,” she says. “And I get to be the Snake Lady. How cool is that?”
Historian Lizabeth Cohen of Harvard will deliver
Nov. 30 W. Bruce Lincoln Endowed Lecture
Award-winning historian Lizabeth Cohen will deliver the third annual installment of the W. Bruce Lincoln Endowed Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, in the auditorium of Altgeld Hall at NIU.
The event is free and open to the public.
Cohen is the Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies at Harvard University. She wrote the 1991 book, “Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939,” which won Columbia University’s prestigious Bancroft Prize for distinguished work in American history and was named as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
She has authored numerous essays on urban, social and political history in the 20th century and written two other books, including “A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America.” It was named one of the Boston Globe’s nine best non-fiction books of 2003.
“Lizabeth Cohen is one of the world’s leading scholars of urban and labor history in America, and she’s doing exciting new work on the urban environment in the post World War II era,” said Kenton Clymer, chair of the NIU Department of History. “We’re thrilled that she is coming to speak on campus and in the Chicago region, where she has conducted extensive research.”
Cohen’s NIU lecture is titled, “Rebuilding American Cities in the Age of Suburbia: A New Look at Postwar Urban Renewal.”
“My lecture will look at the role that department stores played in the redevelopment of American cities during the 1950s and 1960s. I will focus on New Haven, Conn., and Boston, Mass., while looking as well at how Chicago compared,” Cohen said.
“While the power given to retailers varied in the urban renewal of these cities, in all cases department stores were deemed essential to the viability of the central business district,” she added. “That priority ultimately limited the success of downtown revitalization, given the department store’s growing suburban orientation and steady economic concentration from the 1960s on. As locally based urban planners and policy makers struggled to make downtowns appealing, economic decision-making in corporate boardrooms far out of their control was undermining their efforts.”
Cohen’s many distinctions and honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council for Learned Societies, as well as numerous awards for her writings.
She recently accepted an invitation to serve as the Harmsworth Professor of U.S. History at Britain’s Oxford University for 2007-08. The endowed professorship was established in 1922 and is the oldest post in American history at Oxford.
The endowed lecture series at NIU is named in honor of the late W. Bruce Lincoln, a world-renowned historian of Russia who taught on the NIU faculty for more than three decades until his retirement in 1998. In 1982, Lincoln was among the first group of NIU faculty members awarded Presidential Research Professorships, an honor bestowed on the university’s top scholars.
The recipient of many grants and awards, Lincoln possessed a lifelong passion for learning and a gift for writing. Of the 12 books he authored, several gained a wide audience among the general public. He was one of the last authors to work with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in her role as senior editor at Doubleday Books in New York.
Kudos
Pan Trinbago, the world’s governing body for steelpan, has honored NIU’s Cliff Alexis.
Alexis, co-director of the NIU Steel Band, received a trophy “in appreciation of (his) role in advancing the global reach of Pan. As a member of the 1st National Steelband of Trinidad and Tobago.”
The Nov. 10 presentation also included a monetary award.
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Distinguished Research Professor Biswa Datta, a member of the faculty in the NIU Department of Mathematical Sciences, spent two weeks at the National University of Mongolia as a Senior Fulbright Specialist in the area of computational mathematics.
Senior Fulbright Specialists are distinguished scholars and professionals who are recognized leaders in education, politics, culture and other areas. They are selected on a competitive basis by the J. William Foreign Scholarship Board, the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.
During his visit to Mongolia, Professor Datta gave a workshop on “State-of-the-Art Computational Techniques and Softwares for Linear Control Systems Design and Analysis.” He also delivered several lectures on computational methods for active vibration control and finite element model updating.
The lectures and workshop were attended by faculty and graduate students of the National University of Mongolia, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, and several other universities. Several Mongolian news agencies reported on his visit. Datta’s wife, NIU Mathematics Professor Karabi Datta, also delivered a colloquium talk on linear algebra and control theory.
Biswa Datta this year also has lectured at Peking University in Beijing; Xidian University in Xian, China; and three universities in Hong Kong. Additionally, he delivered a plenary address at an international conference there. Earlier this year he was awarded a plaque of honor for leading an invited workshop at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India.
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Christine Sorensen, dean of the College of Education, is the recipient of the Virgil S. Lagomarcino Laureate Award for 2006.
The alumni award is given annually by the College of Human Sciences at Iowa State University, where Sorensen earned her master’s and doctoral degrees. It was established in 1975 to honor graduates who are nationally and internationally recognized for their meritorious service or distinguished achievement in the field of education.
At NIU, Sorensen rose quickly from an assistant professor to dean. She came to DeKalb in 1996 and became dean in 2001, navigating the college through budget cuts and reorganization.
Her duties include management of the $5 million federal Project REAL grant. She also is the co-author of one of the top five textbooks in education research, and remains active at Wright Elementary School, the university’s partnership school with DeKalb School District 428.
The dean also served as chair of the Illinois Association of Deans of Public Colleges of Education, an election rooted in her sharp knowledge of educational policy issues and trends.
“It’s an honor,” Sorensen said of the award. “I’m the third-generation Iowa State grad in my family. My dad, in particular, is excited.”
She is quick to credit her Iowa State professors for much of her success: “They’d say, ‘You’re going to do great things one day,’ and I’d say, ‘Not me.’ They pushed.”
President Peters to host annual holiday luncheon
President John and Barbara Peters invite the NIU community to attend the President's Annual Holiday Luncheon, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center.
Also, don't forget the community holiday event at Altgeld Hall, held from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8.
Call (815) 753-1999 for more information.
WNIJ to offer holiday programs
Northern Public Radio’s WNIJ (89.5) will offer special holiday programming in December.
At 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 3, enjoy “Peter Ostroushko’s Heartland Holiday.” The internationally renowned instrumentalist and “A Prairie Home Companion” regular and his Heartland Ensemble will warm souls with folksy holiday favorites and traditional carols from around the world.
At 6 p.m .Sunday, December 10, tune in for “Hanukkah: A Time for Superheroes.” This special begins with the Hanukkah legend of the Maccabees, the ancient Hebrew band of brothers who overcame oppressors against overwhelming odds. The program traces this influence and other Jewish experiences on artists and writers who created comic book icons Superman, Spiderman, & Wonder Woman.
For more information, visit www.wnij.org.
Retirement reception planned for Publications’ Joe Koch
A retirement reception for Joe Koch, associate director for client services in the Office of Publications, is scheduled from 3 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, in the Pollock Ballroom at the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center.
Koch has worked in the Office of Publications since 1978. He earned a bachelor’s degree from NIU in 1972.
Call (815) 753-1379 for more information.
‘Toolkit’ available online
The Office of Assessment Services is pleased to present the Winter 2006 issue of Toolkit, its quarterly e-newsletter. Toolkit is specifically designed to assist the NIU community with practical assessment issues in a user-friendly format.
This issue, found at http://www.niu.edu/assessment/Toolkit/toolkit.htm, features a look at the challenges of assessing general education, self- and peer-assessment as a way to develop critical thinking skills, and how the Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures is using E-Portfolios. Also featured are a video interview with Meteorology Professor David Changnon, a look at upcoming assessment conferences and an opportunity for faculty to earn a $1,500 stipend by developing a capstone course.
Back issues are posted on the Assessment Services Web site under Toolkit. Contributions to the newsletter are welcome at any time. The deadline for submitting articles for the next issue is Jan. 16.
Group sponsors ‘Angel Tree’ to make holiday merry for kids
Alpha Sigma Omega is sponsoring an “Angel Tree” through Friday, Dec. 8, and accepting gifts for children through Monday, Dec. 11.
Pick up an angel ornament at one of the two locations on campus and help make a child’s holiday a little brighter. Ornaments are available for boys and girls, and a variety of ages, at the Latino Resource Center, 515 Garden Road, or in Suite 150 of the Campus Life Building. Presents for children are accepted at both places.
Call Alejandra Carreno at (815) 375-7253 for more information.
History professor to speak about his book at Borders
Eric Mogren, associate professor of history at NIU, will offer a presentation about his recent book, “Native Soil: A History of the DeKalb County Farm Bureau,” at Borders in DeKalb at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9.
Mogren will be available to sign copies after the presentation.
“Native Soil” details the rich history of the DeKalb County Farm Bureau, one of the oldest, most innovative and most influential agricultural organizations in the United States. Mogren explains how one group of progressive farmers attempted to cope with the problems they faced as agriculture turned to mechanization and productive farming required scientific and technological advances.
The book is of interest to DeKalb County residents, farmers, and those concerned with America’s agricultural past. It features 55 photos ranging in date from the early 1900s to the present.
“NIU Press is delighted to publish a local-interest book which helps strengthen our ties with the community,” said Mary Lincoln, director of NIU Press. “We have had a very positive response to the book so far.”
In addition to publishing on a variety of topics in the humanities, arts and sciences, NIU Press also focuses on the history of Chicago and the Midwest.
NIU art student featured artist at DeKalb Area Women’s Center
The photography work of Northern Illinois University fine arts major Jeni LoDolce of West Dundee, Ill., will be featured in the exhibit, “Cabinets of Curiosity,” at the DeKalb Area Women’s Center (DAWC) Galleries from Dec. 8 through Dec. 29.
LoDolce comments on her work: “Cabinets of curiosity, or wonder rooms, were an early form of museum – literally cabinets filed with mysterious and extraordinary objects created and maintained by individuals of prestige.” She photographs objects in Midwest museums using traditional black and white with a medium-format, twin-lens reflex camera.
The public is invited to view the exhibit from 7 to 9 p.m. Fridays, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12, or by appointment with Anna Marie Coveny, gallery director. An artist’s reception will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 17. The exhibit and reception are free and open to the public.
The DAWC is located at 1021 State Street in DeKalb. Parking is available one-half block south of the building off of Eleventh Street. The handicapped accessible lift can be reached from the alley north of the building. For further information or to arrange a group showing, call (815) 758-1351.
Greater Kishwaukee Band offers Dec. 13 Christmas concert at NIU
The Greater Kishwaukee Area Concert Band will present a Christmas concert at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 13, in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall of NIU’s Music Building.
Sponsored by Creative Therapeutics, the concert offers a delightful hour of holiday music. Jeneane Bejnarowicz is the featured vocalist.
The concert is free and open to the public, and the concert hall is accessible to all.
DeKalb High School presents 19th annual madrigal dinners
The DeKalb High School Music Department presents the 19th annual madrigal dinners Tuesday, Dec. 19, and Wednesday, Dec. 20, at NIU’s Altgeld Hall. Audience seating begins at 6 p.m., with the performance beginning at 6:30 p.m. Dinner is served at 7 p.m.
Madrigal dinners are popular re-enactments of the renaissance tradition combining food, music and entertainment. This year’s dinners are sponsored by Nocturne/Vidicon, a company that salutes rising stars, and Castle Bank.
The dinners showcase the DeKalb High School Chamber Choir, an audition-only vocal ensemble of 26 singers directed by DHS Choral Director Travis Erikson. Vocal and instrumental groups also performing include troubadours, pages, a brass ensemble and a string quartet.
The menu includes spinach salad with strawberries and fresh rolls, apple-glazed chicken breast, sage dressing, whipped potatoes, Prince Edward mixed vegetables and trifle for dessert. Wassail also will be served, and vegetarian and children’s meals are available.
Tickets are $25 for a dinner seating, or $5 for adults and $3 for students for balcony seating. Call (815) 754-2120 for ticket reservations or questions.
11-27-06
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