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 The ancient Peruvians living on the country’s central coast made regular inland pilgrimages for trade, feasts, religious ceremonies and temple construction, giving rise to the first-known complex civilization in the Americas, suggests a new hypothesis by NIU anthropologist Winifred Creamer.
Creamer and her husband, Jonathan Haas of Chicago’s Field Museum, describe what they believe was a unique path to civilization in the October issue of Current Anthropology.
The cultivation of storable grain, such as corn or rice, was a key ingredient to the growth of ancient civilizations in other areas of the world, but Creamer and Haas believe a different crop spurred the rise of complexity in Peru: cotton.
“The coastal waters were rich in tiny fish, and fishermen needed the cotton grown at inland sites to make their nets,” Creamer said. “It’s not that the people on the coasts couldn’t farm, but they would have had to leave the coast and set up inland. You can’t plant and fish at the same time.”
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 NIU is among the nation’s best campuses for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, according to the recently published Advocate College Guide.
The Advocate, the leading magazine for the LGBT community, calls its book “a comprehensive guide to colleges and universities with the best programs, services and student organizations for LGBT students.”
“I’m very excited,” said Margie Cook, director of NIU’s LGBT Resource Center. “NIU has been on a trajectory since about 1991 of gradually improving its policies, programs and services to ensure that LGBT students, faculty and staff are welcome here, and that this is truly a university for everyone.”
NIU was nominated anonymously for the rankings, Cook said, and survived the first cut after she and some students completed online surveys.
After a second round of more extensive surveys, and a requirement to supply more student voices, NIU scored 16 of a possible 20 points on the book’s “Gay Point Average.”
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 Tracy Nunnally is a bear of a man with a deep, warm voice and a curly reddish beard that skirts the line between well-groomed and unruly.
But when he speaks of his life’s work – making actors fly and sharing that skill with others – his eyes gleam with the sly twinkle of an impish elf.
Or maybe that’s just the sleep deprivation.
“My husband has stamina like no one I’ve seen in my whole life,” says Gabe Nunnally, married to Tracy since 2000. “I’ve tried to keep up with him, but I can’t. Last night, he didn’t come to bed until 5:30 in the morning, and I had to get him back up for work at 7:30. One of my roles is to go to bed early whenever possible.”
“I’ve mastered the art of sleeping on planes,” adds Tracy, associate professor and technical director in the NIU School of Theatre and Dance. “In this business, you just train yourself to get sleep when you can. Sometimes you go three, four, five days without sleep. Sometimes you get three hours of sleep a night for three weeks. You just manage.”
Yet Nunnally, 41, keeps a schedule quite the opposite of what’s usually considered manageable.
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 Cosmologist Rocky Kolb, a well known author, popular speaker and pioneering researcher on the early universe, will visit NIU to lead a colloquium from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3, in Faraday West 200.
The public is invited to attend the event, which also will include a question-and-answer period.
Kolb is a founding head of the NASA/Fermilab Astrophysics Group at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia and a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago. He presently serves as director of Fermilab’s Particle Astrophysics Center.
Kolb’s book for the general public, “Blind Watchers of the Sky,” received the 1996 Emme Award of the American Aeronautical Society. In addition to more than 200 scientific papers, he is a co-author of “The Early Universe,” the standard textbook on particle physics and cosmology. He has appeared in several television productions, as well as the IMAX film “The Cosmic Voyage.”
The field of Kolb’s research is the application of elementary-particle physics to the very early universe.
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 Rathindra Bose, NIU vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School, is issuing a call for nominations for honorary doctoral degrees to be awarded from the university.
“Awarding an honorary degree is an opportunity for the university to recognize someone especially outstanding in a field of interest to the university,” Bose said.
An honorary-degree recipient should be clearly exceptional among other outstanding persons in his or her field.
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 Read good news about – and send congratulations to – Cliff Alexis, Samie Chaudhry and the NIU Refrigeration Department.
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NIU’s School of Music stages its annual Halloween concerts tonight. All are welcome and encouraged to come in costumes. The musicians will wear theirs.
The free concerts, featuring graduate small ensembles (Brett Mitchell, music and stage director) take place at 6 and 8 p.m. Trick-or-treating is from 5:30 to 6 p.m.
A Halloween raffle, face painting and a bake sale also are offered. All are welcome.
The Supportive Professional Staff Council will host its annual SPS networking event Wednesday, Nov. 1. Please RSVP by Tuesday, Oct. 31.
This event provides an opportunity to meet and network with fellow SPS members, learn about SPS resources and benefits and about how to get more involved in shared governance at NIU.
Check-in and refreshments begin at 8 a.m. with the program starting at 8:30 a.m. Spend part or all of the morning. Information packets and door prizes also will be available. A flier with complete information is available at the SPS Web site.
The NIU Community School of the Arts invites instrumentalists and vocalists who are 18 and younger to participate in a concerto competition.
The winner receives a cash prize and performs next February with the CSA Sinfonia at NIU. Applicants must live within a 45-mile radius of DeKalb.
The audition date is Sunday, Dec. 10, and takes place before a panel of judges in the NIU Music Building. The music must be one movement of a standard solo concerto or an appropriate one-movement composition. The piece must be memorized and played for the audition with an accompanist.
The postmark application deadline is Wednesday, Nov. 1. Information and application forms are available from the NIU Community School of the Arts office by calling (815) 753-1450 or online at www.niu.edu/extprograms.
The Jack Olson Memorial Gallery presents “Alphabet: An Exhibition of Hand-Drawn Letting and Experimental Typography,” from Nov. 3 to 21. A reception is scheduled from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2.
“Alphabet” is a design exhibition curated and traveled by Nolen Strals and Bruce Willen from Post Typography. Post Typography was conceived by Strals and Willen as an avant-garde anti-design movement and design sleeper cell located in Baltimore.
The exhibition features 60 alphabets by 48 American, Asian and European artist designers, representing well-known typographers such as Ed Fella and Ken Barber as well as rising stars Andrew Jeffrey Wright, Andrew Byrom and NIU alum Michael McErlean.
The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. Free parking is provided for the reception only in the parking lot south of Jack Arends Hall.
Call Peter Van Ael at (815) 753-4521 for more information.
The NIU-NATIONS Pow-Wow takes place from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, at the Student Recreation Center. Grand Entry is scheduled for 1 and 7 p.m.
The event features Native American dance, food, crafts and music, and is free for all. Invited drums only.
For more information, call (815) 753-1406, (815) 501-7089 or e-mail NiuNations@yahoo.com.
NIU will sponsor its first Minority, Female and Persons with Disabilities-Business Enterprise Program networking fair Wednesday, Nov. 8.
The event is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to noon in the Holmes Student Center Capitol Room and includes a breakfast buffet. The purpose of is to provide an opportunity for business enterprises to exhibit products and services and to network with university personnel.
Contact Wesley Coats at (815) 753-6108 or via e-mail at wcoats@niu.edu for reservations or more information.
An NIU fine arts major is the featured artist Nov. 1 to 26 at the DeKalb Area Women’s Center (DAWC) Galleries in a solo exhibition titled “Entanglement: Solo Exhibition by Michelle Ramirez.”
The artist creates installations using handmade paper made from the yucca leaves that she has collected from the DeKalb area. By removing the dried, dead leaves, the plant is rejuvenated and continues to grow. After collection, leaves are processed through many stages of papermaking – a long and intensive process.
The public is invited to view the exhibit from 7 to 9 p.m. Fridays, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, or by appointment with Anna Marie Coveny, gallery director. An artist’s reception will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16. The reception is free and open to the public.
The DAWC is located at 1021 State Street in DeKalb, one block south of Pleasant Street, between 10th and 11th streets. The handicapped accessible lift can be reached from the alley north of the building. For more information, or to arrange a group showing, call (815) 758-1351.
Saturday, Nov. 11, is a big day for the NIU Community School of the Arts. Many music students are performing from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Borders Store in DeKalb.
The performance is a fundraising event for the program’s scholarship fund, which provides financial aid for arts students in need.
Coupons are available by calling (815) 753-1450 or from community school staff at the store on the day of the event. In addition to giving the user a 10 percent discount on purchases made all weekend, Borders is generously donating a percentage to the program’s scholarship fund.
NIU professors Kay Forest, Moses Mutuku and Susan Russell will sit on the faculty panel during an International week event Monday, Nov. 13.
Mutuku will speak about a literacy project in Kenya. Forest will address “A Modest Contribution of Significance” from Sri Lanka. Russell will talk on inter-ethnic dialogue in the Philippines.
The discussion, sponsored by the Division of International Programs, takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center.
The event is open to all, and refreshments will be served. Contact Rey Ty at (815) 753-1098 or via e-mail at rty@niu.edu for more information.
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