September 18, 2006, Northern Today Abridged

Recipe for change
Chandelier Room moves to Pheasant Room

Two familiar ingredients – the Chandelier Room and the Pheasant Room – are being stirred together and spiced with a new concept to offer a unique alternative to campus diners this fall.

Students from the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences will move their operation from Adams Hall to the Holmes Student Center next month, leaving the buffet behind in favor of sit-down table service.

Chandelier Room fans will choose entrees from eight themed menus Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting Tuesday, Oct. 3, in the Pheasant Room.

Lunch service is from to 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and the price of any full meal will not exceed $8. Credit cards are accepted. Regular lunch seating is welcomed on a walk-in basis, although reservations are accepted at (815) 753-1763 and recommended for groups of 10 or more.

The Pheasant Room will remain open Mondays and Wednesdays under Chef Erwin Wittke, who will advise the FCNS students when they’re at the stovetops.

Industry leaders who serve on the school’s hospitality administration board recommended the transformation to a sit-down restaurant, FCNS Chair Laura Smart said.

“All of the executives who are running pretty high-end food operations said to us that we needed to change our Quantity Foods class so it would be more in line with what they want our grads to do,” Smart said. “The industry is out there with jobs, and they need us to produce their future leaders. The students need to learn how to manage this type of restaurant.”

“It’s a benefit to everybody: to the program, to the student center and to our customers,” HSC Director Mitch Kielb said. “It’s a great opportunity for students to learn and get practical experience, and we’re really pleased that we can offer our customers something they don’t normally get. These two dining rooms were very similar, serving the same clientele. It really makes sense not to have two of them.”

The move also solves another problem: space.

FCNS, housed in the College of Health and Human Sciences, enrolls 73 students in its hospitality administration emphasis and 176 in nutrition and dietetics. Just four years ago, those numbers were 20 and 55 respectively.

“We were outgrowing the Chandelier Room, and I was just sleepless over that,” Smart said. “How were we going to have room for all the students flowing into our program – into this little, old-fashioned kitchen that holds only 10 people?”

Enter the Holmes Student Center.

Karen Villano, director of food services for the student center, worked with hospitality administration students last spring during an FCNS-taught workshop on meeting and event planning.

“That was how Karen found out about our program,” Smart said. “In May, Mitch Kielb approached us and asked us if we’d be interested in partnering with them and sharing the Pheasant Room facilities. They’d been impressed with what our students were doing, and they wanted to get more involved on the academic side. It was a perfect match.”

“It’s a great idea. They can get used to working side by side to an actual running operation,” Villano said. “In addition, a lot of the businesses out there, like your Hyatt and Marriott, are looking for people who are trained in this area. They can’t hire enough people who have graduated from this program soon enough for all the positions they have.”

A third ingredient crucial to the recipe arrived during the summer.

Eunha Myung, a new FCNS professor who is teaching the class this semester only, said her curriculum gives students a real-world taste of owning and operating restaurants.

Students will assume different roles, including general manager, executive chef, dining room manager and wait staff. They must make decisions regarding staffing, themes, menus, nutrition, allergies, portion sizes and profit margins, marketing, dining room layout and décor and even silverware placement and napkin folding.

Myung has split her students into eight teams of five; each will present (and repeat) two themes and menus during the semester.

“They are doing great. It’s really exciting,” said Myung, who previously taught a similar course at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. “This is a great opportunity to plan their own businesses – to plan their own restaurants.”

Joan Quinn, longtime quantity foods instructor, will resume control of the program in the spring. Terri Mann-Lamb, food lab assistant, remains with the program in her advisory and support role as sous chef.

Meanwhile, the Chandelier Room will continue to offer catered events and will continue as the site of the dean’s annual holiday party.

“This move is great for the community. They’ll be a little more pampered than they used to be, and we’ll just be able to offer better service,” Smart said. “I’m totally thrilled. This is just the answer to my prayers as a chair.”

“I really enjoy the high energy level the students have. We are the student center, so it’s nice to be working alongside students,” Villano said. “This is good for NIU and should be a lot of fun.”

Newly published theory is making NIU physicists spin with delight

NIU physicists have devised a potentially groundbreaking theory demonstrating how to control the spin of particles without using superconducting magnets, a development that could advance the field of spintronics and bring scientists a step closer to quantum computing.

Spintronics, also known as spin electronics, is an emerging technology that looks to develop devices that exploit the quirky world of quantum physics, or physics at the incredibly small atomic level, particularly the up-or-down spin property of electrons. Conventional electronics utilize the charge of the electron. Spintronic devices would utilize both the spin and charge, achieving new functionality.

Scientists across the globe are racing to develop the spintronics field. It could revolutionize the computing industry with chips that are more versatile and exponentially more powerful than today’s most cutting-edge technology.

NIU physicists Dimitrie Culcer and Roland Winkler, along with Christian Lechner of Regensburg University, Germany, published their theoretical findings in the Sept. 8 issue of Physical Review Letters. Culcer and Winkler also are affiliated with the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.

“Our research illuminates a new pathway for generating and manipulating the spin in semiconductors,” said Winkler, an associate of NIU’s Institute for Nanoscience, Engineering and Technology. “This is important, because the use of bulky superconducting magnets would be impractical in most devices.”

The physicists theorize that spin can be induced and manipulated by running a current through gallium arsenide, a common semiconductor, in what’s known as spin-3/2 hole systems, which previously have been little studied.

Hole systems are “missing electrons,” while the fraction 3/2 refers to the magnitude of the spin. Spin-3/2 hole systems are created in semiconductors by “doping” – introducing impurities that have one less electron compared to the host material.

Geometry also must play a crucial role in spin manipulation, according to the researchers. They propose development of a nano-sized and L-shaped device that allows for the exploitation of the newly discovered effects in spin-3/2 hole systems.

“Spin polarization is achieved as the current flows around the corner,” Winkler said.

“We believe we’ve discovered a much simpler way for inducing spin polarization,” he added. “We don’t need a big magnet. The only requirement in our case is an electrical current in the sample, which is much easier to achieve than putting the sample in a magnetic coil. For an electrical current, you only need two contacts.”

Culcer said the researchers hope the publication will raise awareness of new and exciting physics that can be accomplished in spin-3/2 hole systems.

“We do basic research and do not work directly on information technology,” Culcer said. “But researchers working on quantum computing are primarily interested in spin systems. For the past 50 years, scientists have intensely studied what’s known as spin-1/2 systems.

“One of our primary goals with this paper was to demonstrate what could be accomplished with spin-3/2 systems,” he added. “We hope to point scientists in a direction that offers the possibility of new applications and hopefully ways of manipulating information in the future.”

The abstract at Physical Review Letters is available online.

Fire sprinklers coming to residence halls

Lincoln Hall might soon become the first NIU residence hall to be equipped with automatic fire sprinklers.

The Finance, Facilities and Operations Committee recommended at its Sept. 7 meeting that the full NIU Board of Trustees approve spending $1.6 million for installation of the sprinklers. This will be the first of many such projects as, under a bill signed into law in 2004, all college and university residence halls in the state must be equipped with automatic fire sprinklers by 2013.

“When installed, the sprinklers will add another level of fire safety to our residence halls, which we believe are already well protected,” said Kelly Wesener, executive director of NIU Housing and Dining.

Among the fire safety features already built into NIU residence halls are:

• All halls have smoke detectors in every room, and heat sensors in hallways. Individual student room smoke detectors are hard-wired into the electrical system, not battery-powered.
• All halls are constructed of concrete and cinderblock, materials which are highly effective at halting the spread of flames and containing fires to small areas.
• All halls are equipped with mattresses that have an extremely long smolder time, meaning they should trigger smoke alarms long before a mattress is in flames. Some halls have doors that close automatically in the event of a fire to contain the blaze.

The recommendation to fund the sprinkler project was timely as it coincides with a proclamation by Gov. Rod Blagojevich that makes September “Campus Fire Safety Month.”

Nationwide, nearly 90 people have died as a result of on- and off-campus fires and hundreds more have been injured, according to the Center for Campus Fire Safety, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing campus-related fires.

Eighty percent of those deaths occurred in off-campus apartments and homes, which are often not built to the same stringent safety standards applied to university-owned housing.

HHS child development lab earns
accreditation from national group

Linda Anderson is more than familiar with the constant chatter, laughter and tears inherent with professional child care.

Anderson, associate director of NIU’s Child Development Laboratory, has worked in child care for 30 years and has even owned her own centers. She’s an expert in calming parents with separation anxiety, locating lost socks and shoes and smiling at 4-year-olds who proudly display their latest artwork.

“I think it’s in my blood,” said Anderson, who’s also pursuing a doctorate in curriculum and instruction at NIU.

“I love the realm of growth and development – watching them from 6 weeks old, the first time they roll over or take off crawling or walking, up through preschool, when they write their name or recognize a letter of the alphabet.”

Anderson, along with Director Linda Derscheid and the staff of early childhood professionals, students and parents, are celebrating another milestone: The laboratory has earned its first accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

NAEYC accreditation, good for five years, recognizes high-quality early childhood education.

Programs that meet the organization’s standards provide a safe and healthy environment for children through well-trained teachers, access to excellent teaching materials and a curriculum that is appropriately challenging and developmentally sound.

NIU’s Child Development Laboratory is an operation of the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences, located in the College of Health and Human Sciences.

“We’re very excited,” Anderson said. “We really knew that we were a quality center, but to have this organization come in and take a look at us and validate that was super-exciting.”

“This has been a goal for many years. It is a stellar achievement by the faculty, staff and, of course, the students, who also had to contribute to this effort,” said Laura Smart, chair of the school. “The lab is essential for our child development emphasis within family studies. It’s where students learn about children’s development first-hand, and where they learn how to give guidance to parents regarding their children’s behavior and development.”

“Achieving NAEYC accreditation, and of course maintaining it, assures that the lab will be a high-quality role model for the child development majors,” Derscheid said.

“The child development faculty, including myself, are excited that the lab validates what we have been teaching the child development majors: be family-oriented, and use developmentally appropriate practices when working with young children and their families.”

The Washington, D.C.-based NAEYC sent an evaluator to the lab, located in Gabel Hall 170, in late January. She was greeted with a thick folder of supporting materials the center’s staff had prepared over two years, Anderson said.

Every aspect of the center, from the skills of the teachers to the design of the classrooms and outdoor play areas to the daily schedule, came under scrutiny.

“It was a wonderful process. We strengthened our teamwork with each other, fixed things we had in place and created things we didn’t have in place. I’m really glad we went through this,” Anderson said.

“Parents are becoming more savvy to the idea of accreditation,” she added, “and this shows the greater community that we’re high quality. We provide a very rich environment for young children.”

NIU’s lab is licensed to care for 47 children from ages of 6 weeks to 7 years. Services are offered to NIU employees and students as well as the public; care is available from 7:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. when the university is open.

Six full-time early childhood specialists lead the staff, which also includes several graduate assistants with backgrounds in child development, practicum students who are completing their child development emphasis in FCNS and pre-service teachers from the College of Education.

The lab has three missions, Anderson said: to care for children; to train, and teach practicum skills to, FCNS students; and to provide research opportunities for NIU faculty and students.

Mirrored observation rooms on either side of the facility allow researchers (and parents) to watch and even listen, thanks to microphones installed in the ceiling. One current study involves a survey of typical play, asking parents how they play with their children at home.

Children are getting an education as well.

During the summer, children tended to a garden, studied grass and learned about ducks. Their artwork is displayed outside the lab in a glass case, and they occasionally make their own snacks learning math and science concepts.

“Our basic philosophy is that children learn through play and using all their basic senses,” Anderson said. “We pick up on the interest of the child and then dig a little bit deeper.”

Anderson, who is “always interested in teaching the field to more young adults,” said the state’s new “Preschool for All” initiative will create demand for more early childhood professionals.

The rewards are great: Passing through the preschool classroom, a 4-year-old girl with long blonde hair calls to Anderson with her arms outstretched for an embrace.

“The hugs are what make the day,” Anderson said. “How often can you go to work and have someone come running up and say, ‘I want to give you a hug.’ ”

FCNS master’s program endorsed by committee

NIU’s School of Family Consumer and Nutrition Sciences is one step closer to securing approval for a new master of science degree program after the Academic, Student Affairs and Personnel Committee recommended it for approval.

Under the proposal, which the committee endorsed Sept. 7, students will be able to select from two specializations: one in family consumer sciences, the other in apparel studies.

The specialization in family consumer sciences is expected to be of particular interest to middle school and secondary educators who will be able to complete master’s degrees while meeting a new state law requiring them to earn professional development credits to maintain their certification.

The apparel studies specialization will help meet a growing need in that industry for individuals with advanced degrees, says FCNS Chair Laura Smart, pointing out that some leading apparel companies require high level executives to have Ph.D.s.

If demand for the master’s programs tracks that of FCNS undergraduate programs, they will be in great demand. Enrollment in FCNS programs at NIU has grown 44 percent over the last five years, Smart says. The school is housed in the College of Health and Human Sciences.

If endorsed by the full NIU Board of Trustees this Thursday, the proposal will move to the Illinois Board of Higher Education and, if approved by that body, could be available as early as next fall.

NIU teachers seek ‘clicker’ consensus

Students are accustomed to the pocketbook pinch that comes from buying textbooks and supplies at the dawn of each semester.

NIU faculty who require the purchase and use of student response systems, also known as “clickers” – new devices about the size and shape of a non-flip cell phone that allow students to communicate electronically with professors during class – don’t want to inflate those bills any more than necessary.

Accordingly, a group of professors has been meeting since the spring in the hopes of choosing a standard clicker for NIU.

“This is something that Faculty Development initiated,” said Carol Scheidenhelm, former director of the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center. “We wanted to raise campus awareness about clickers in the hopes that people would think ahead of time and perhaps try to agree on one system before they just went out and bought one. We didn’t want students to have to wear a clicker belt.”

Although talks continue, the clicker system produced by eInstruction is emerging as a favorite at NIU and already is the standard at Purdue University. Others under review include Quizdom, a relatively new company, and Turning Point.

“The more faculty we have using the same system,” Scheidenhelm said, “the more students will understand the system.”

Professors can use clickers for something as simple as taking attendance or for something more involved, such as multiple-choice quizzes that determine how well students are understanding the material.

The latter, physics instructor Lyle Marschand said, promotes active learning – especially for large lecture hall courses.

When students provide instant feedback, professors know immediately whether they need to stop and review or if they can continue. Students, meanwhile, can learn whether they’ve correctly grasped the concept.

Traditional methods of asking open questions can yield blank stares or a set of familiar raised hands, he said. Putting students on the spot in front of all their classmates can cause stress and maybe even absenteeism, he added.

“How do you get students re-energized when they hit the wall? You give them a requirement to respond,” said Marschand, a member of the committee and a fan of the eInstruction clicker. “What the clicker concept does is give everyone the opportunity to give feedback anonymously.”

Frequent quizzes that count toward grades also encourage students to keep up with the assigned reading. “Some instructors give a quiz every lecture using these,” he said.

Meanwhile, professors can immediately transfer scores into their electronic grade book. It saves even more time than tests graded via Scantron.

An eInstruction clicker costs $20, and students can sell them back. The company also charges up to a $15 user fee each semester which covers all courses.

“eInstruction is the most mature of the companies I looked at, and they’ve been big in K-12 schools for years,” Marschand said. “More of the kids coming out of K-12 have had some experience with these, which is why more universities are coming on board.”

Marschand has launched a discussion group on Yahoo; so far, a dozen NIU participants are sharing information and asking questions.

He said the group’s potential consensus on one primary clicker system will please both Faculty Development, which will have to teach only one system, and Information Technology Services, which will have to support only one system.

NIU professor, student hope
to help raise voice of homeless students

NIU Communication Professor Laura Vazquez and one of her star students, senior Becca Berry, are joining forces with a well-known advocate for the homeless in an effort to raise the voice of homeless children nationwide.

Vazquez is producing educational training videos for Diane Nilan, a former Aurora shelter director who led efforts to pass state and later federal legislation protecting the rights of homeless children in public schools.

Last year, Nilan sold her home, took out a mortgage on an RV and embarked on an eight-month, cross-country odyssey, logging more than 20,000 miles in eight months. Along the way, she videotaped interviews with homeless children, teens and their parents in places not typically associated with homelessness: small towns, rural areas and affluent mid-sized cities.

Berry will compile and organize the footage to create brief training videos that will help educators and others nationwide become aware of and more sensitive to challenges facing homeless students. A video trailer on the project, titled “Heard and Seen,” will debut at a benefit dinner next month in Naperville (information at right).

Vazquez is supervising Berry’s work, which is part of an independent study for the 21-year-old media studies major from Kenosha, Wis. Vazquez already has applied for grant funds and a sabbatical next year to work with Nilan on a documentary about homeless students.

“I’ve seen the videotaped interviews collected by Diane, and I think the project has a lot of potential,” said Vazquez, an accomplished video-documentary maker. “Whether it’s a single documentary or multiple pieces will depend on the threads of the narrative. There’s more work to be done, including more interviews that are needed to provide context.”

For Vazquez and Berry, the project is a dramatic departure from their work this past summer. Vazquez took Berry and five other students to California, where they worked for six weeks on a film directed by and starring Anthony Hopkins.

“It definitely is a contrast,” said Berry, an aspiring film producer. “What we did over the summer, working on a movie set, was like being part of a big orchestra. This is much more focused.”

Berry has done volunteer work with homeless people and traveled last spring to Louisiana to aid Hurricane Katrina victims. She said the subject matter drew her to the “Heard and Seen” project.

“It breaks your heart to see some of these kids telling their stories,” Berry said. “I hope I can help in some small way.”

In 2005, Nilan founded the non-profit Hear Us (www.hearus.us), a Naperville-based organization that aims to raise awareness about homelessness. During her cross-country journey, she met students displaced from their homes by hurricanes and other natural disasters, teens who lived with their families in cars, motels and camp grounds and families who were torn apart by methamphetamine, a growing problem in rural areas.

“I was saddened to see the extent of poverty and homelessness in rural communities and resort towns,” Nilan said. “And I was absolutely flabbergasted at the pathetic condition of the housing stock in rural parts of the country.”

In tourist areas, she said, it wasn’t uncommon to see moms who had lost their mates dealing with homelessness, the problem exacerbated by skyrocketing housing costs.

“Seeing the level of homelessness in places like Las Vegas and Reno just shocked me,” she added. “They have so much money going through the state, yet they don’t have any homeless shelters. In Las Vegas, one elementary school had over 200 kids who were homeless, living in motels. The government-funded housing in these communities has pretty much evaporated.”

Nilan originally conceived the idea for the video project while working on a federally funded project to ensure the rights of homeless schoolchildren in Chicago’s collar counties.

“When I was training educators, I used a video from California that had homeless kids talking about their experiences. The video was too long and it was all California. Still, it was the only tool like that out there, so I ended up getting a videotape machine and doing brutal editing.”

Under the McKinney-Vento Act – legislation that Nilan championed – school districts nationwide are required to designate a liaison to assist homeless youth and their families with school enrollment, transportation and other issues surrounding education.

More awareness is needed, however.

“There are some districts that are extraordinarily good, and there are others that are unenlightened,” Nilan said. “Then there are those that need to stay after school and have a detention.”

The initial batch of training videos will debut in November in Arkansas during the annual conference of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth.

Fuel cell-powered bus to visit NIU campuses

The Northern Illinois University College of Engineering and Engineering Technology will showcase one of the most promising forms of alternative energy under development with a series of displays and events at NIU campuses from Friday, Sept. 22, through Wednesday, Sept. 27.

During that week, the college will host representatives from the Advanced Vehicle Development program at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., who will display and demonstrate a fuel cell-powered bus. The event was previously set for last spring but had to be rescheduled because of technical difficulties.

The week will include several opportunities to tour the fuel cell-powered bus and to learn more about this form of alternative energy. Visitors will learn how fuel cells work and about their potential as a pollution-free source of power that can help reduce future dependence upon fossil fuels, which are believed to contribute to environmental problems such as global warming and acid rain.

A seminar on fuel cell technology and the promise of hydrogen as an alternative fuel will be offered from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 22, in the first-floor auditorium of the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. This event is offered free of charge and is open to the public.

Following the seminar, and at various times and locations throughout the week, the bus will be available for tours and demonstrations. Opportunities to view the bus will include:

• Friday, Sept. 22, 11 a.m. to noon, on the east side of the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology, Kishwaukee Drive, DeKalb.
• Saturday, Sept. 23, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Entrance 2 of the NIU Convocation Center, DeKalb
• Sunday, Sept. 24, 12:30 to 2 p.m., west side of the DeKalb County Courthouse, Maple Street, downtown Sycamore.
• Sunday, Sept. 24, 3 to 4:30 p.m., Wal-Mart Super Center, 2300 Sycamore Road, DeKalb.
• Monday, Sept. 25, 9 to 11 a.m., NIU-Naperville, 1120 E. Diehl Road, Naperville.

NIU also is making the bus available for tours to NIU students as well as local high school students during the week.

“This is an exciting opportunity to get a first-hand look at one of the most promising alternative energy technologies under development,” said Promod Vohra, dean of NIU’s College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. “The efforts of NIU researchers, who are working with some of the top people in this field at Argonne National Laboratory, will no doubt make fuel cells a clean and dependable source of energy in the not-so-distant future.”

The visit by the bus is intended to highlight ongoing work at NIU to create stronger, more-durable and less-expensive fuel cells. NIU researchers, who are working cooperatively with the world-class fuel cell research team at Argonne National Laboratories, have received nearly $1 million in federal funding to support their work.

Nearly 100 scholars expected for Irish studies conference at NIU

NIU is preparing for an Irish invasion.

Nearly 100 scholars will visit campus from Thursday, Oct. 12, to Saturday, Oct. 14, for the 30th Annual Midwest Regional Meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS). The scholarly conference will focus on Irish literature, poetry, history, diasporas, politics and other topics.

“We’ll have scholars here from Ireland, France, Britain and Canada, as well as from throughout the United States,” conference organizer Sean Farrell said. “The American Conference is the largest Irish studies organization in the world, and this is the first time NIU has ever hosted one of its major events.

“We don’t have a formal Irish studies program here at NIU,” Farrell added. “But this gives us the opportunity to add to the solid foundation built by Professor Jeff Chown (communication) and Professor Emeritus Bob Self (English), who established a remarkably successful study-abroad program in Ireland.”

Farrell, a professor of history at NIU who specializes in modern British and Irish history, will be among the nearly 60 conference presenters. Keynote speakers include Cheryl Herr, a professor of English at the University of Iowa, and David Gleeson, an assistant professor of history at the College of Charleston, South Carolina.

Other conference highlights will include a staged reading of Gary Mitchell’s play, “The Force of Change,” at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13, in the Diversions Lounge of Holmes Student Center (HSC) and readings by ACIS poets from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 14, in the HSC Lincoln Room.

The conference is geared toward academics, although anyone interested in Irish studies is welcome to register. Registration, cost information and a full schedule of activities can be found online at www.niu.edu/clasep/acis/.

The American Conference for Irish Studies is a multidisciplinary scholarly organization with about 1,500 members in the United States, Ireland, Canada and other countries. Each spring the organization holds a national conference, with a series of regional meetings held during the fall and winter.

Hundreds of school children
to participate in Sept. 22 Parade of Flags

About 550 local fifth graders have their marching orders.

The students, carrying the international flags of more than 100 nations represented at NIU, will be the centerpiece of the seventh annual Parade of Flags.

The parade will step off at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 22, from the east side of Huskie Stadium. The NIU ROTC Color Guard and several members of the Huskie Marching Band also will take part in the parade.

Participants will march along Lucinda Avenue to the Martin Luther King Commons, where NIU Provost Raymond Alden and Paul Beilfuss, superintendent of DeKalb School District 428, will address the audience at noon.

“The event highlights our diversity and celebrates the partnership between Northern Illinois University and DeKalb schools in working toward global understanding,” said Deborah Pierce, executive director of the NIU Division of International Programs.

Sally Stevens, who served as secretary to six university presidents over a span of 32 years before retiring from NIU, has generously sponsored a pre-parade luncheon for students, teachers, chaperones and other parade participants. Also prior to the parade, students from DeKalb-area public and private schools will have an opportunity to meet with NIU international students.

“NIU has sponsored this for many years and our students really look forward to it,” said Sue Orem, literacy coordinator for DeKalb public schools. She said teachers tie the event in with the curriculum.

“All of our fifth-grade students in DeKalb schools participate,” Orem added. “They enjoy meeting international students from NIU and asking them questions about their home countries. A very important part of the mission for DeKalb schools is preparing students for a global society.”

NIU Study Abroad Fair set for Thursday, Sept. 28

Students interested in international study abroad programs and internships can get more information on available opportunities at the 14th annual Study Abroad Fair, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center.

The fair will feature informational booths on study abroad programs in about 65 countries. Students can meet with NIU faculty members who direct short-term study abroad programs worldwide. Students can also meet with representatives from several independent study abroad organizations working with the NIU Study Abroad Office to offer programs for which students may still earn NIU academic credit. 

Information from consulates and tourist offices will also be available. NIU Student Financial Aid Office staff members will be present to answer questions about financial aid and to provide information on federal and state loans. Potential scholarship information will be available as well.

All attending the fair will receive free goodie bags and have a chance to win one of several raffle prizes. Raffle prizes have been donated by several area businesses, as well as by NIU Athletics and the NIU School of Theatre and Dance.

“The fair encourages participants to explore the many study abroad options NIU has to offer,” said Anne Seitzinger, director of the Study Abroad Office. “Study abroad isn’t just for language majors.”

Students can seek programs in their major areas of study or they can explore options where they might earn credit toward NIU general elective requirements. Some students will prefer a semester or academic year program that offers a variety of courses, while others might want to focus on a topic such as English in Oxford or Ireland, art and design in Italy, or business management practices in England, France or Germany. There are many possibilities.

The annual Study Abroad Fair draws more than 500 NIU students seeking study abroad and internship experiences outside the United States. The Study Abroad Office helped more than 300 students to participate in such programs this past year.

“Students who attend the fair will learn about programs and financial aid and loan options that will allow study abroad to become a reality,” Seitzinger said. “Past participants will be present to provide first-hand information and offer guidance and encouragement.”

The fair is for faculty as well as students.

“The annual Study Abroad Fair is an excellent opportunity for faculty members to learn how creating their own study abroad program might benefit them both personally and professionally,” Seitzinger added. “Directing an NIU study abroad program provides faculty-development opportunities as well as the means for internationalizing on-campus courses. We hope more faculty will consider attending this year’s fair.”

The Study Abroad Fair is free and open to the public. For more information, visit http://www.niu.edu/niuabroad, send an email to niuabroad@niu.edu, or call (815) 753-0420 or (815) 753-0700.

Female high school students invited to
NIU conference on college, career options

Female high school students interested in exploring career opportunities and learning more about the academic side of college life are invited to attend the 2006 Conference for Young Women, hosted by NIU from 8:15 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24, at Holmes Student Center.

The 11th annual conference is geared for young women in their sophomore through senior years of high school and aims to introduce the students to a variety of career areas, including professions where women are historically underrepresented. Panel discussions and speakers will focus on career opportunities in fields ranging from systems engineering and graphic design, to athletics and counseling.

“We live in a world where technological and social changes are creating new careers all the time. A woman today can combine physics and music in a career in concert hall acoustics or mix engineering and art designing visuals for cell phones,” said Amy Levin, director of the NIU Women’s Studies Program. “Our conference is intended to introduce girls to some of these new careers and expand their sense of personal possibilities.”

Conference participants also will tour Barsema Hall, home of NIU’s state-of-the-art College of Business, or the university’s unique library system, including the renowned Regional History Center. Campus tours can be arranged for after the conference.

The conference is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the NIU Women’s Studies Program. To register, call 1-800-345-9472. For additional information, call (815) 753-1038 or visit www.clas.niu.edu/wstudies/ywc2006.htm.

The registration fee is $33 before Tuesday, Oct. 17, with a $5 additional late charge. Limited scholarships are available.

Kudos

NIU has received national recognition as one of the 100 Best Campuses for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender students, according to the newly published “Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students.”

NIU earned the distinction based on its record of creating a positive living and learning environment for LGBT students, such as through the programs and services offered by the NIU LGBT Resource Center.

Colleges and universities selected for the book were reviewed for their institutional policies, commitment and support, academic life, housing, student life, counseling and health services, campus safety, and recruitment and retention efforts. NIU was one of 680 campuses nominated for the honor, and was selected after an online interview process that gathered information from nearly 5,000 online interviews nationwide with LGBT students, faculty and staff.

Margie Cook is director of NIU’s LGBT Resource Center.

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Earl Shumaker, head of the government publications department at NIU, has been named the 2006 Illinois Academic Librarian of the Year by the Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries.

This award has been given by IACRL annually since 1985 to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to academic and/or research librarianship at the statewide level, and to library development. Shumaker has been the head of the government publications department since 1978. He also is the coordinator of the NIU Branch Libraries System. In addition to his duties at NIU, he provides reference service and bibliographic instruction on the weekends at Waubonsee Community College.

Shumaker became active in the Illinois Library Association when he arrived at NIU in 1978. 

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Portland State University in Oregon and a master’s of library science from Louisiana State University. He also did postgraduate work at Ohio University and NIU, where he has also served as adjunct faculty in the Geography Department and the Library Science and Information Studies Department, where he taught the first Government Publications course.

Shumaker will receive his award Oct. 5 at a formal presentation during the IACRL Annual Business Meeting at the Illinois Library Association Conference in Chicago, and also will be recognized at the Awards Ceremony.

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The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is highlighting the research of NIU chemist Narayan Hosmane on its Web site.

NIOSH lists Hosmane among its “featured contributors” in its section on nanotechnology and points visitors to a research paper he published last year in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The research discusses the use of carbon nanotubes for the delivery of drugs in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT).

Hosmane has been working for many years to advance BNCT – an experimental, two-step approach to cancer treatment. The treatment employs a boron-containing compound administered intravenously or through injection into a patient’s tumor. A beam of low-energy neutrons is then directed at the tumor. The interaction between the boron and the beam is designed to kill tumor cells that have high concentrations of boron without harming normal cells.

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First the bad news: Ioannis “Yanni” Sideris, a research associate in the NIU Department of Physics, where he is a key member of the Beam Physics and Astrophysics Group, is leaving the university later this month.

Now the good news: Sideris is moving on after winning a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship to the Cosmology and Computational Astrophysics Group in the Theoretical Physics Division of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, where he will serve as the 2006-2008 Tomalla Fellow.

The Zurich group is world famous, particularly for its pioneering work on gravitational research, including galactic dynamics, which is Sideris’ forte.

“We’re going to miss Yanni, but we’re very proud of him,” said physicist Court Bohn, leader of the NIU Beam Physics and Astrophysics Group. “He was my first NIU post-doc, arriving just after I joined NIU. It was starting with him that we built our group and established our reputation for published research. This fellowship reflects highly on his personal accomplishments as well as on NIU.”

Fall issue of Toolkit online

The Office of Assessment Services is pleased to present the Fall 2006 issue of Toolkit, its quarterly “nuts and bolts” e-newsletter. Toolkit is specifically designed to assist the NIU community with practical assessment issues in a user-friendly format.

This issue features graduate alumni survey results; a look at criterion five from the Higher Learning Commission’s new accreditation criteria; and how to increase employer/external feedback. Also featured are excerpts from the Commission on the Future of Higher Education Report, which highlight findings and recommendations on transparency, accountability and assessment in higher education.

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 Oct. 30.

Operating Staff Council seeks employees for committee service

The Operating Staff Council is seeking operating staff members to fill operating staff positions on university committees or commissions:

• Campus Security and Environmental Committee: two openings; a one-year term and a two-year term
• Parking Appeals Committee: three-year term
• Computing Facilities Advisory Committee: two-year term
• Presidential Commission on the Status of Minorities: three-year term

Operating Staff Council Committees:

• Personnel/Staff Development and Benefits Committee
• Elections Committee
• Public Relations Committee
• StaffFest Committee

Contact Sara Clayton sclayton@niu.edu or (815) 753-9526 to obtain the interest sheet form. Applicants will need their supervisors’ signatures (permission) to serve on any of these committees.

NIU Philharmonic to celebrate Shostakovich’s 100th birthday

The NIU Philharmonic will celebrate composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s 100th birthday with an 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 25, concert.

The group will perform Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture” and “Fifth Symphony” as well as Mozart’s 23rd Piano Concerto, featuring Distinguished Teaching Professor William Goldenberg, a member of the piano faculty.

A pre-concert lecture begins at 7 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

Jewish students may miss Oct. 2 classes for holiday

Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, occurs this year on a class day, Monday, Oct. 2.

Jewish students may be absent that day from all classes, including evening classes, in observance, said David Sinason, faculty adviser for the Hillel Jewish Student Organization. www.niuhillel.org.

Academic Advising hosts Exploring Majors Fair

The Academic Advising Center will host the Exploring Majors Fair from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom.

The fair is designed for all students who want to find out more about majors, minors and other academic opportunities. They have the opportunity to speak with faculty members and staff from each of NIU’s academic units in a centralized location. Additionally, the program benefits departments by providing an opportunity to showcase particular majors, minors and programs to a wide variety of NIU students.

Faculty are urged to promote this event in their classes and whenever they speak with students. This event is for all students exploring their academic options and not just for those who are currently without a major.

Contact the Academic Advising Center at (815) 753-2536 for more information.

Community School offers class in portrait drawing

Learn the art of portraiture this fall in a fun new class offered by the NIU Community School of the Arts.

Portrait Drawing in Pencil and Pastel is a six-week class for ages 13 to adult. Students learn basic and advanced techniques of drawing portraits and self-portraits. The class also explores different styles of portraiture from realistic to expressionistic.

The class meets from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturdays beginning Oct. 7. Teacher Victoria Peel has taught many classes for the community school. She received her master’s of fine arts degree in painting from NIU, and has exhibited her work extensively.

Supplies are not included in the price, and a list will be provided at the first class.

The NIU Community School of the Arts offers a wide variety of art, music and theater classes and lessons for adults and children. Sponsored by NIU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, the programs are taught by NIU students, faculty and community artists.

For more information about these or any of the other offerings of the community school, contact Renee Page at (815) 753-1450 visit www.niu.edu/extprograms.

Barsema alumni center hosts Oct. 8 Huskies game party

Join fellow Huskie fans at the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8, to watch NIU take on Miami Ohio University on the big screen.

Enjoy giveaways, snacks, a halftime buffet and cash bar. Children will enjoy balloon animals, face painting and additional entertainment. The event is sponsored by Goose Island Brew Pub. Tickets cost $15; children 12 and younger are free when accompanied by a parent or guardian.

9-18-06