April 9, 2007, Northern Today Abridged

Peters e-mails campus on state budget,
capital campaign, strategic planning group

NIU President John G. Peters sent the following letter to the campus community March 27.

Dear Colleagues,

Spring is a time of renewed optimism and heightened expectations for what lies ahead. With that in mind, I want to bring you up to date on the university's FY08 budget allocation in Springfield, Foundation fund-raising initiatives, Provost Alden's Strategic Planning Process and summer work hours.

This year, the governor presented a budget to the legislature calling for a 1.9 percent increase in general revenue funding for public universities, which represents an increase of approximately $2 million for NIU. If approved, this would be the second straight increase, reversing a period of flat or declining appropriations.

In addition, the governor is proposing a capital budget that includes $19 million in funding for the long-awaited renovation of the Stevens Building, home to our theater, dance and anthropology programs. This has been at the top of our improvement requests for more than a decade, and we are hopeful that it will remain on the state's priority list at the conclusion of the current legislative session.

While the budget will be the topic of much debate in the weeks ahead, and nothing is yet written in stone, this initial proposal gives hope that higher education will continue its slow but steady recovery from the funding cuts of recent years.

Of course, memories of those cuts remind us that in this day and age we must always look for new sources of funding for the university. Along those lines, I am excited and pleased to announce that the NIU Foundation will soon move into the public phase of the first official capital campaign in university history.

In reality, this campaign has been under way for the last five years, raising $106 million in what is commonly referred to as "the quiet phase" of such endeavors. On May 5, the time for being quiet will end, and the Foundation will begin the push toward the ultimate goal of increasing the total of money raised to at least $150 million for the improvement of academic programs, scholarships, endowed professorships and facilities at the university. The Board of Trustees gave its unanimous support to that campaign at its Thursday, March 22, meeting, and we all look forward with great excitement to seeing this venture through to successful conclusion.

The board received more good news from the Foundation at that meeting with the announcement of the largest endowment gift in university history: a $2 million pledge to establish an endowed dean's chair in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The gift came from longtime friends of the university, Ray Smerge and his wife, Patricia. This generous gift makes the ongoing search for a new dean of LA&S even more exciting, and details about both will be forthcoming in the days ahead. We are most grateful to the Smerges for their generosity, and look forward to the many possibilities this gift creates for the college.

In keeping with the theme of optimism and rising expectations, I would be remiss if I did not say a word or two about the ongoing strategic planning process.

Under the leadership of Provost Ray Alden, the Strategic Planning Task Force has been hard at work since November. The task force has been meeting in planning groups and committees working toward a May deadline to produce a blueprint that will guide university academic growth and development for the next decade.

That plan will raise the academic bar for our institution as we move forward. While some might view this prospect as daunting, I choose to see it as an exciting and optimistic statement of our determination to continue meeting the ever-changing needs of the region we serve. I hope all of you share my sentiment.

If all of those things aren't enough to get you excited about the spring and summer months ahead, I also would like to take this opportunity to officially announce an extension of our four-day summer work week for 2007. Since its inception five years ago, that practice has saved NIU more than $3 million. While the funding climate in Springfield appears to be improving, it is only prudent to continue reaping the benefits of such cost-cutting measures.

As always, I am tremendously proud of NIU and its people. I pledge to keep you informed about our budget process as it unfolds, and to keep your interests in mind at all times. Thank you for your time and attention and for the dedication you routinely show in service to our students, our university and our region.

Sincerely,

John G. Peters
President

Backers of higher education to rally in Springfield

Supporters of higher education from across the state will rally Wednesday, April 25, in Springfield to raise awareness of the challenges facing higher education in Illinois.

Gathering under the banner of The Higher Education Legislative Coalition, the group will hold a rally at the Illinois Education building in the morning and then spend the afternoon lobbying lawmakers on issues related to higher education.

“Every other group with a vested interest makes their presence known in Springfield, and organizers of this event felt it was time for higher education to do the same,” said Ken Zehnder, associate director of external affairs for NIU. “The goal is to make sure that higher education is a priority in this year’s budget.”

The 10:15 a.m. rally, at the Illinois Education Association parking lot, is intended as an attention-getter designed to remind lawmakers that higher education is a large and important industry in the state. Featured speakers at the event will include legislative leaders, higher education officials and advocates.

In the afternoon, participants will visit the capitol to discuss issues pertinent to higher education across the state, as well as university-specific projects.

Zehnder expects that high on the list of many participants will be ensuring the future health of the state pension system; restoring university funding to 1999 levels; providing money to repair roads, sidewalks and other infrastructure on university campuses; and addressing capital needs.

“On our own campus, we haven’t received approval for any new capital projects since 1998,” Zehnder said. “The governor is proposing almost $20 million for improvements to the Stevens Building, a project that has been on our list for more than 10 years and hopefully will get funded this cycle. It makes an impression on lawmakers when they hear from the people who are affected by such delays – or by lack of funding, or pension troubles, or whatever the case may be.”

Employees interested in attending the event should use a vacation day if attending means they will miss work.

Individuals interested in more information about the Higher Education Legislative Coalition Lobby Day can contact the following individuals for more information:

• Bobbi Cesarek, President of the Supportive Professional Staff Council
• Sara Clayton, President of the Operating Staff Council
• Paul Stoddard, President of the Faculty Senate
• Irene Rubin, NIU Annuitants Association
• Andrew Nelms, NIU Student Trustee

Kaptian, Shumow, Young selected
Presidential Teaching Professorships

There are many ways to define a great teacher.

Some say great teachers are those who take a very personal interest in their students. Some say it is innovation in the classroom that makes great teachers stand out. Still others define great teachers are those who inspire students to great scholarship.

It is difficult to disagree with any of those definitions. However, few would quibble that teachers who display all of those traits are truly at the top of their field, and that is the case with all three of this year’s Presidential Teaching Professors.

Selected for that honor this year are Tomis Kapitan, from the Department of Philosophy; Lee Shumow, from the Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations; and James Young, from the Department of Accountancy.

All three are held in the highest regard by colleagues, are known for giving generously of their time and talents with students, both in and out of class, and are known not just as master teachers, but also as innovators and experts in their fields.

“As the strategic planning group works to set our course for the future, we have talked at length about the value of maintaining our excellence in undergraduate education,” says Provost Raymond Alden. “This year’s winners of the Presidential Teaching Professorships exemplify the type of excellence we have in mind. All three are skilled academicians who have demonstrated an extraordinary dedication to students. They represent examples for us all.”

Begun in 1990, Presidential Teaching Professorships recognize outstanding teachers among the faculty. Each receives a $2,000 boost in base salary as well as a grant of $5,000 per year for their four-year appointment to help improve their teaching. After four years, they become Distinguished Teaching Professors.

Here is a closer look at this year’s winners.

The philosopher

Tomis Kapitan made it precisely one semester into his college career before his plans to become an historian were derailed.

At the suggestion of an academic adviser, he added an introductory philosophy course to his second semester class load, and it was love at first sight.

“The questions presented in that class took my breath away. What is the purpose of life? Is there a purpose? How do we know anything at all? I was amazed that some people were able to devote their lives to studying and discussing these fundamental matters and I decided to become one of them,” Kapitan says.

He has committed his professional life to helping students explore those same questions, allowing them to tag along on his quest for truth.

“I have spent the last 40 years trying to answer those questions,” he says. “I have my theories, but I have long since given up the illusion of any certainty.”

His fellow philosophers, on the other hand, seem to have settled upon at least one certainty: Kapitan belongs to an elite class of teachers.

“Professor Kapitan is, without doubt, the very best teacher in the Department of Philosophy,” says David Buller, chair of that department, who supports his argument by pointing out that Kapitan has earned the highest merit rating in the department every year but two since he arrived in 1992.

While impressive, such numbers don’t begin to illuminate the extent to which Kapitan engages students, says Buller, who elaborates by telling the story of a lecture on the morality of terrorism delivered by Kapitan shortly after the attacks in 2001.

Buller arrived at the appointed time, late on a Friday afternoon, astounded to find that not only were all 120 seats in the classroom filled, but an additional 24 students sat outside in the hallway straining to hear. They were not disappointed. Just as the room could not contain the crowd, nor could the allotted hour accommodate all that Kapitan had to convey. He ended up holding court into the night at a local watering hole helping students explore the many facets of the complex topic.

Such instances demonstrate Kapitan’s skill at taking the uninitiated by the hand and opening up their minds to philosophical thought.

Indeed, Buller likes to kid Kapitan that he is trying to teach his way through the entire undergraduate catalog (he has taught one-third of the potential offerings, 16 distinct courses). However, Kapitan admits, his true love is working with upper-level students.

Perhaps that is not surprising considering that NIU’s master of arts program in philosophy is ranked second in the nation and attracts outstanding students, the best of whom gravitate to Kapitan’s classes. They are drawn not only by his knowledge of the subject matter but also by something less tangible.

“Professor Kapitan has the uncommon attribute of being a model philosopher to his students, and especially to his graduate students,” explains former student Aaron Holland, now a Ph.D. “He taught us not only the subject matter of philosophy, but also what it means to be a philosopher.”

One can only wonder if history students would have been so deeply moved.

Kapitan’s previous honors include having been named the Distinguished Alumnus Lecturer by the Philosophy Department at Indiana University and being selected the Teacher of the Year by the East Carolina University chapter of Phi Sigma Tau.

The teachers’ teacher

For Lee Shumow, “professor” is more than just a job description or a title. It is her identity.

“It’s essential to what I do, to who I am and what I am trying to do in the world,” Shumow says. “Teaching for me is not a vocation, it’s an avocation. I feel very lucky to have a career I love.”

That deep and abiding enthusiasm for her job is but one of the traits that puts Shumow in an elite class of teachers who not only effectively convey information, but also connect with and inspire their students on a personal level, colleagues say. She is particularly zealous in her mission to create teachers with a keen insight into the importance of the adolescent years.

“She has a tremendous passion for the discipline, for her students and for her students as future teachers,” says Jean Pierce, assistant chair of the Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations. “She is firmly committed to creating the best secondary education professionals possible and she leads by setting a very powerful example.”

That leadership by example is no accident. Shumow is always keenly aware of the fact that she is teaching future (or current) teachers. Whether introducing undergraduates to the basics of adolescent development, or guiding doctoral candidates through the intricacies of high-level research, she tries to model best practices.

For instance, Shumow is a firm believer that she can spot an outstanding teacher by his or her ability to speak about the strengths and weaknesses of individual students.

Not surprisingly, Shumow’s own conversations are sprinkled with biographical tidbits about students, such as who comes from a family of 12 siblings or who has a deep interest in poetry. Such information surfaces naturally, she says, in the course of the free-wheeling conversations that take place in class, from reading the journal entries that students must submit weekly, from guiding students through research or from writing letters of recommendation to help them earn internships and jobs.

She also is very current on the whereabouts of former students who routinely e-mail her with reports of their progress and requests for advice. So frequent are such requests that she formerly hosted a support group one Saturday each month where former-students-turned-teachers talked through the challenges they are facing.

All of that personal attention makes a lasting impression on students.

“She epitomizes the essence of humanity in teaching,” writes Pamela Parker, a veteran educator for whom Shumow served as dissertation chair while she earned her doctoral degree. “She encourages, challenges, stimulates and inspires her students to accomplish great things. I am grateful to have experienced her extraordinary commitment to our profession.”

Letters from colleagues and former students supporting Shumow’s selection for the Presidential Teaching Professor were filled with similar prose, but Wilma Miranda, chair of LEPF, sums it up most succinctly.

“In all she does, Dr. Shumow is dedicated to the improvement of learning and development conditions for all children,” Miranda writes. “This is a teacher’s teacher.”

In addition to her new status as a Presidential Teaching Professor, Shumow has received numerous other honors including the Exceptional Contributions to Teaching Award from the College of Education in 2004 and the NIU Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching award in 2005.

The Innovator

Taxes might be as certain as death, but the topic need not be deathly dull, says Jim Young.

Young, who is chair of the Department of Accountancy and serves as the Crowe Chizek Professor of Accountancy, receives high marks for his work in the classroom.

Whether introducing novices to the U.S. tax code, or instructing veteran accountants pursuing a master’s in taxation, he tries to make his subject come alive with interactive lectures and current case studies. Proof of his success can be found in his ratings from students and peers, both of whom have put him at the top of their rankings since he joined the department in 2000.

“Jim is truly gifted in his ability to break through the rules to the core concepts and then clearly articulate those concepts to others in a manner that is understandable,” says Young’s colleague Pam Smith, who serves as the KPMG Professor of Accountancy.

Yet even more impressive than his ability to motivate and inspire students, say his colleagues, has been his ability to do the same for professors throughout his field.

In 1997, while teaching at George Mason University, Young co-authored a paper along with Patrick Wilkie (who now teaches at the University of Virginia) that questioned the generations-old method of teaching students about taxation working through the computation of taxable income during a semester. That approach, they argued, failed to provide students with the proper context, or framework, required to understand taxation as more than just a set of rules.

As an alternative, Young and Wilkie developed a course that approached topics from the standpoint of how that law applies to different taxpayer groups (individuals or corporations, for examples) and placed those things in perspective by providing students some of the history behind the U.S. tax code.

The approach was a hit with students and earned the duo a nomination for the American Taxation Association’s Teaching Innovation Award. It also put them at the head of a movement that for the last decade has been changing the way introductory tax classes are taught around the nation.

“The paper he developed led others in the academic community to think differently,” says Kate Mantzke, Kieso Professor of Accountancy, who has employed Young’s methods in her own introductory tax courses since she came to NIU six years ago.

Another colleague, Brad Cripe, who joined the department last fall, only recently adopted Young’s method. He admits to being skeptical at the outset, but after just one semester emerged a believer.

“I think that students really respond to it because there are so many rules and exceptions that the traditional method becomes tedious. When we can explain the history behind the code and develop the appropriate contexts, it makes more sense to students – and allows them to see the evolution of the U.S. tax system,” Cripe says.

While the PTP puts Young into an esteemed class of teachers on campus, his opportunities to teach are fewer these days. Named chair of accountancy last year, his administrative duties limit him to a handful of courses a year. However, he cherishes those opportunities to get in front of a class and try out his latest ideas.

“Some things work right out of the box, and that’s great. Some things don’t work, and you go through an iterative process. It’s always a work in progress,” he says.

The Presidential Teaching Professorship is the latest, and the highest, in a string of teaching honors earned by Young, including the Teaching Excellence Award from George Mason University in 1997, the Outstanding Teaching Award from the Seidman School of Business at Grand Valley State University in 1993 and the Excellence-In-Teaching Award from Michigan State University in 1984.

NIU honors Lukaszuk, Montgomery, Robertson
for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

Nursing’s Oldenburg honored for excellence in instruction

Good teachers know it when they see it: the “a-ha moment,” that instant when a student’s eyes light up in recognition of a concept newly understood.

For good teachers, it’s a frequent and favorite reward for their work. They pay attention to their pedagogy to adjust, enhance and improve what they do, spreading the light bulbs across as many minds as possible.

NIU has many good teachers, and Judith Lukaszuk, Carla Montgomery and Julie Robertson stand tall among them. The three are this year’s recipients of the Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Joining them in honor is Nancy Oldenburg, an instructor in the School of Nursing, who has received the university’s second Excellence in Undergraduate Instruction award.

Lukaszuk, from the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences in the College of Health and Human Sciences; Montgomery, from the Department of Geology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; and Robertson, from the School of Nursing in the College of Health and Human Sciences, now enjoy the university’s longest-standing honor.

It stands in a class of its own because the nominations and subsequent words of support originate with the young minds on the other side of the classroom.

“That’s what makes it really special. They’ve been the guinea pigs on the receiving end of the teaching,” Montgomery said. “I was very much flattered when I heard the students wanted to nominate me. It really was a thrill.”

Initiated in 1966, the awards honor excellent undergraduate teaching in the university, encourage improvement of instruction and promote discussion among members of the university community on the subject of teaching.

Nominees must be full-time faculty whose major responsibility is teaching and must have worked at least five full academic years at NIU. Lukaszuk, Montgomery and Robertson each receive a check for $2,000.

Here is a closer look at the four.

Judith Lukaszuk

When a heart attack sent the frightened woman to a hospital bed, it also brought her Judith Lukaszuk and a nutrition plan.

Fearing for her life, the woman embraced Lukaszuk’s healthy recommendations and soon found herself on the road to wellness. Six months later, after her initial zeal had worn off, she resumed a diet of double cheeseburgers and French fries before returning to the hospital with complaints of chest pains.

The moral of the story? Patients can become complacent with their diets once their fear from the initial event wears off.

It’s just one of many stories Lukaszuk uses in her classroom to keep students engaged in the curriculum and aware of the life-preserving consequences of the profession they have chosen.

“My challenge is to address students in different manners because everyone learns in different ways,” Lukaszuk said. “I do a lot of storytelling in class because a lot of students will remember that forever.”

Students agree that her teaching is exceptional.

“Dr. Lukaszuk took our class into the future with cutting-edge research on nutragenomics and complementary medicine. She brought in samples of probiotics for the class to try,” graduate Pam Whitfield Jacobson said. “We were required to do allergy studies on ourselves. Many of us discovered physical sensitivities we did not know we even had. We sat with our eyes closed, listening to an audio tape on stress, trying to relax and learning the impact stress has on health.”

“I have kept all of her notes from FCNS 415 and 416, still utilizing them to this day,” alumna Jacqueline Tobinson Glew said. “She had encouraged us to compile small notebooks of useful information to be utilized when we were in practice as dietetic interns.”

Lukaszuk, who came to NIU in 2000, discovered her love of teaching as a graduate assistant at the University of Pittsburgh. She later honed her skills in the private sector, working for a company that sent her across the United States presenting six-hour lectures on nutrition and dietetics.

She’s kept her practice current as a nutrition and dietetics consultant for various NIU Huskies teams and for athletic trainers at other colleges and universities, including Aurora and Benedictine.

The avid tennis player also has generated headlines for her work with the U.S. Tennis Association.

Lukaszuk presented lectures on nutrition at three U.S. Opens, where coaches learned how to feed their star athletes. Only 60 speakers are invited each year, and most focus on the mechanics of the sport.

But her primary mission has remained “building dietitians of the future.”

She’s a professor who diligently reads student evaluations and makes many of the suggested changes, whether they deal with the duration of the class or her teaching style.

“Some people drag themselves out of bed every morning. I don’t do that. I’m happy to come to work every day,” she says. “I have a passion for what I do. I’m caring. I’m competent. If I don’t know something, I’ll look it up and follow through.”

The university-level teaching award – Lukaszuk already has similar honors at the school and college levels – is an honor and a surprise. “I’m just glad I’m an effective teacher for them,” she said, “because that’s what they’re here for.”

Lukaszuk and her husband, Jack, are parents to Shannon, 4, and Megan, 3.

Carla Montgomery

Carla Montgomery knew all along that her destiny lay in the classroom.

“I was always inclined in that direction,” Montgomery said. “When we played school as kids, I always seemed to be the teacher.”

But it was a dynamic professor of geology she encountered during her freshman year at Wellesley who determined which classroom.

Montgomery intended to major in math, but she needed to pick up a science lab. Diana Chapman Kamilli’s geology course offered an intriguing – and ultimately life-changing – fit.

Kamilli passionately loved teaching, even taking students on weekend hunts for fossils and minerals. “She really threw herself heart and soul into the course,” Montgomery said. “It made me want to be that kind of professor.”

And, since 1978, Montgomery has opened the eyes of many students like herself.

She became a teacher “because it was fun. Because I wanted to share. Because I felt I could make a difference,” she said. “The world needs to have citizens who are better informed about the world they live in and professionals who are trained to understand that world.”

Undergraduates majoring in other disciplines are exposed to the geology all around them – mountains, volcanoes, floods, earthquakes, groundwater, land use, pollution – and gain an understanding of how relevant geology is to their lives. Her classroom is one of personal examples, topical humor and striking visuals.

Meanwhile, Montgomery has avoided the language of the “stuffy scientist,” not only in her teaching but in her writing.

Among her many publications are “Environmental Geology,” now in its seventh edition, and “Physical Geology,” a textbook so fascinating to one non-science student at Brooklyn College in New York City that it inspired her off-Broadway play.

“I never lose sight of how exciting the field can be,” she said. “I try to remember what it was like discovering geology for the first time, and keep that magic alive.”

Former students applaud her efforts to make “even the more-difficult concepts easy to understand” and praise “how much enjoyment Dr. Montgomery gets out of teaching.”

“I did very well in Dr. Montgomery’s ‘Elements of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry’ because I had a great teacher who pushed me to do better, to think harder and to work for my grade,” alumna Leah Mitchell said. “Dr. Montgomery always knew the key questions to ask to make sure that we fully understood the subject matter that she was presenting.”

“The more you teach, the more you begin to appreciate the different background students come to you with – and I don’t mean how much science they’ve had, but the different ways they see things,” Montgomery said.

In non-major classes, students sometimes even earn credit for technically wrong test answers if they have made a logical argument based on their level of knowledge. In such a case, “I’m excited that they’re thinking,” she said. “Geology is not just about memorizing facts and equations.”

Montgomery’s NIU career has included administrative work – most recently as acting associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences – but she’s never left the classroom. She still ponders her subject and her teaching style, and never takes a vacation without camera in hand to capture more geologic examples for her students.

Montgomery and her husband (and sometime field assistant), Warren, a consultant retired from Bell Labs, have been married for 33 years.

Julie Robertson

Teaching never really existed on Julie Robertson’s radar.

Robertson was a nurse, after all, and it was her sister Sharon who had spent years teaching high school business courses. Yet two decades into her career in community health nursing, Robertson felt an unexpected tug toward the classroom.

As a nurse manager for many years, she had conducted a great deal of staff development and found personal rewards in watching nurses grow. Meanwhile, she had returned to school for a master’s degree.

“I loved management but knew I couldn’t do it forever,” Robertson said. “And I had always admired my sister, who was a great teacher, but I didn’t think I could do it.”

But when a job opening in the NIU School of Nursing caught her eye, she applied. When the offer came, she almost declined.

A firm nudge from her husband, Ken, executive director of the Fox River Chapter of the American Red Cross, changed her mind.

“Ann Hart, chair of the program then, said mine was the most tentative acceptance she’d ever had,” Robertson said. “I had never taught before, and on my first day, I was just terrified. But when I started teaching, students wrote down everything I said. I thought, ‘This is a powerful position. I can make a difference in their lives, and in nursing.’ ”

Twenty-one years later, the Rochester, N.Y., native sees her role as a facilitator, guide and mentor.

“My goal is to get students through the class learning a lot and feeling good about themselves,” she said. “I care about my students. I go into class wanting them to succeed, and I’m just thrilled when that happens. I have the responsibility to make that happen.”

It means Robertson prepares diligently for every class, although she loves questions and perspectives she hadn’t foreseen.

“Students today are very thoughtful. They come expecting more from us as teachers,” she said. “They’re more engaged in the learning process. I love classrooms where students are involved and interested.”

Meanwhile, Robertson has high expectations for students: “I have a big thing about image – professionalism – and writing well, caring about what you do and making sure you’re well-prepared,” she said. “Nursing requires lifelong learning.”

Tomorrow’s nurses recognize Robertson’s “obvious passion.”

“For a nursing student such as me, who has no interest in either research or community health, I was dreading these courses. To my great surprise, I ended up loving not only the content but the instructor as well,” student Janelle Megenhardt said.

“She guides you through the information with a soft hand that gives you room to not only learn the information presented but also to grow as a student and to develop an appreciation for the subject and the nurses who work in the field.”

Accordingly, community nursing still holds Robertson’s allegiance.

“Nursing has just exploded in terms of opportunities. The focus of health care is moving more into community health, and I have a responsibility to help students broaden their perspectives about their practice,” she added. “Health care is just too expensive. We have to focus on prevention.”

But as retirement looms in a few years, Robertson is broadening her own perspectives. “I’d like to write novels and children’s books,” she said, “but I will still want to teach part-time.”

Nancy Oldenburg

Although Nancy Oldenburg planned to find and follow a path other than nursing – her mother’s career – she pursued it anyway when her friend declared that major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Oldenburg soon was hooked, although that friend realized that nursing wasn’t in her life’s prescription.

Now, after 25 years as a pediatrics nurse in hospitals, it’s Oldenburg’s job to help mold tomorrow’s nurses – and it’s a responsibility she holds dear.

The career demands intellectuals, she said, and the education doesn’t stop with a degree and nursing licensure exam.

“I love to learn – I’m still in school – and when I can communicate that to students, I think that’s a positive,” she said. “There’s no way to teach all the content they’ll need, so it’s important they know how to learn, and that if they need information, they know where to find it and can judge the validity of what they find.”

Meanwhile, Oldenburg works to ensure that her students learn more than how to start I.V.s and give shots despite their initial excitement about performing such procedures.

“The most important thing is for students to understand why they’re doing something,” she said. “The whole picture of what’s wrong with the patient becomes so much more obvious to them, and it makes them such better nurses.”

A nursing instructor since 2001, Oldenburg currently is working with clinical students at Kishwaukee Community Hospital.

Her Friday group of rookies is “just getting to experience what they learn in the lab (but) with real patients.” Her Wednesday flock of second-semester students is "so much more confident and provide so much more patient care.”

“They really keep me on my toes,” Oldenburg said. “I learn something every single day, from the students and from the others at Kishwaukee.”

In the past, her pathophysiology students studied disease processes and the effects they have on patients. Next semester, she will teach pediatrics in the classroom.

A doctoral candidate in educational technology, Oldenburg also is a frequent teacher of online courses including those in the school’s RN-to-BS program. The working RNs come with wildly varying years on the job – some are in their 20s while others are 50-somethings with three decades under their scrubs – and diverse experiences.

Students laud her caring, her compassion and her pursuit of excellence.

“She truly cared about making sure that her students were learning everything they needed to learn – everything they possibly could learn – from this clinical experience,” student Jody Brown said, “and welcomed suggestions on how she could improve her skills as an educator.”

That transition from active nurse to teacher was made easier, Oldenburg said, by the giving nature of student-focused colleagues who are happy to share teaching materials, syllabi and good advice.

She came to academia because she felt “ready for a change,” she said.

“I love nursing, and I still have the ability to be in the hospital and in patient care,” she said. “I love the interaction with patients. I love seeing the change you can see in patients. One day is never the same as another, and when you don’t feel challenged, there are always other opportunities.”

Oldenburg and her husband, Wayne, an engineer at Hamilton-Sundstrand, are parents to grown sons Tim, Adam and Rob. They have one grandson, Langdon, and a second grandchild on the way.

Operating Staff names Outstanding Service Award winners

Four members of NIU’s Operating Staff have been chosen to receive the Outstanding Service Award for 2007.

The recipients are Margie Foshe from the Office of the Provost, Varsie Geisler from the School of Allied Health Professions, Diana Grace from the College of Law and George Tarbay from Media Services.

About 1,800 employees make up the Civil Service staff. Each year, four are selected by a committee of their peers to receive the award of plaques and $1,500. They will be honored at a Thursday, May 10, banquet.

Here is a closer look at the recipients.

Margie Foshe

NIU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is home to half of the university’s faculty, half of its instructors, three-fourths of its principal investigators with grants and several members of the Operating and Supportive Professional staffs.

Yet only one person processed all this personnel paperwork: Margie Foshe.

“Despite the high volume of work and the aggravating fluidity of our appointments, Margie’s paperwork is always done properly, done accurately and done on time,” said Joseph Grush, acting dean of NIU’s largest college.

A 30-year employee now working in the Provost’s Office, Foshe is known for her efficiency, effectiveness, sense of humor and creative solutions to novel problems.

She created the college’s comprehensive personnel handbook for department chairs and head secretaries, developed training workshops for secretaries and designed spreadsheets to assist with merit-based salary calculations.

“Margie stands head and shoulders above others in her never-ending effort to make everyone else better,” Grush said.

Off campus, Foshe served 10 years on the village board in Lee, where she helped to organize the town’s 125th anniversary celebration and launch “Bingo in Lee,” and where she volunteers for a friend in need.

“An Outstanding Service Award wouldn’t come close to recognizing and rewarding her for all she does for this university,” said David J. Buller, chair of the Department of Philosophy, “but it would be a good start.”

Varsie Geisler

Varsie Geisler is a compassionate, selfless person with a kind, gentle soul.

Ask the members of the Parent-Teacher Association at Jefferson School, where she assisted in organizing classroom gatherings and community outings as well as annual book fairs and fundraisers.

Ask the congregation of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, where she sings in the choir, substitutes as a Sunday School teacher, coordinates processing of orders and distribution of tickets for the annual lobster boil and ministers to people in crisis.

Ask the faculty and staff in the School of Allied Health Professions, where she is secretary to and problem-solver for the Public Health and Health Education programs, home to 500 students.

“Students come to make appointments with an adviser, to find where a moved class is meeting, to determine the office hours of their instructor, to learn how to get into a class, to leave an assignment and a thousand other matters that I cannot begin to fathom,” said Ellen Parham, former interim chair.

“Studies of student retention tell us that students who stick it out are the ones that find someone who pays attention and cares,” Parham added. “For many, that is Varsie.”

An eight-year employee, Geisler was a founding inductee of Phi Beta Delta (an honor society for international scholars) and has received two awards from the Center for Access-Ability Resources.

Diana Grace

The DeKalb Post Office supervisor had a crisis.

A customer used a debit card to purchase a $2,300 money order but left unaware that the clerk had failed to complete the transaction and was now on the hook for $2,300 from her own pocket. The only clue: The customer was an NIU law student.

Enter Diana Grace, secretary in the law school’s Office of Budget and Records and a 20-year NIU employee who is considered the “go to” person when problems occur.

With little information, Grace contacted several offices on the trail of the student who she later found in a classroom.

“I am not nominating Diana for this award based on her duties,” said Robert Snow, assistant to the dean, “but the manner in which she fulfills her responsibilities.”

To many, Grace is the “human face” of the College of Law.

She handles the registration of the college’s more than 300 students, the maintenance and tracking of their enrollment status, the processing of employment and payment authorizations, and other documents unique to the college, such as state bar certifications.

Grace is active in her church’s choir and prayer chain. She also is steeped in fairness: her administration of the lottery for seats in a popular skills training class, and her maintenance of the subsequent waiting lists, yields no criticism from busy law students.

George Tarbay

For 30 years, George Tarbay has enjoyed the camera eye’s view of NIU.

The Media Services photographer is a staple at events, shooting images that will appear in print in university publications, department brochures and local newspapers and in frames throughout campus hallways and offices.

His work has won more than 30 awards, and he recently was the featured photographer in the University Photographers Association of America’s publication, “Contact Sheet.”

“George’s even temperament and cool composure under extremely tight deadlines and in difficult and stressful situations are one of the keys to his high degree of success over his long career,” said Jay Orbik, director of Media Services. “Professors, chairs, deans and presidents have sought out George’s expertise because they know that George Tarbay always produces outstanding results.”

Abigail Dean, assistant director of donor relations for the NIU Foundation, said Tarbay “leaves no detail unfinished.”

“George is very cordial and welcoming to our guests,” Dean said. “He knows that as one who wanders the crowd asking for photographs of guests, he is very much a public face of the university.”

Tarbay teaches T’ai Chi through Kishwaukee College, has served on the DeKalb Cornfest Race committee for 21 years and is a sought-after judge for local photo competitions. He also donates framed photographs for auction on behalf of the DeKalb Family Service Agency.

NIU history professor wins prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship

NIU History Professor Heide Fehrenbach, whose books on the social and cultural effects of World War II on post-war Germany are being taught in advanced courses at leading universities worldwide, has been awarded a highly competitive Guggenheim Fellowship for 2007.

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation ran a full-page ad in Friday’s New York Times announcing fellowship recipients. Fehrenbach is among 189 artists, scholars and scientists selected from nearly 2,800 applicants for awards totaling $7.6 million.

Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. Award decisions are based on recommendations from hundreds of expert advisers.

Fehrenbach has penned two books and co-edited a third, all of which are highly regarded. Her research has further led to invited lectures at such universities as Cornell, Harvard, Michigan and Ohio State, as well as Trinity College in Dublin, the University of Muenster in Germany and the University of Toronto.

“The Guggenheim is a major award, and the history department is absolutely delighted to see Heide Fehrenbach named as a fellow,” chair Kenton Clymer said. “She is certainly one of our very best scholars and her research has been very well received.”

The purpose of the Guggenheim Fellowship program is to help provide fellows with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible. Fellows can spend their grant funds in any manner they deem necessary to their work.

Fehrenbach said the award was unexpected.

“This is wonderful,” she said. “I had applied, but I thought this would be the first of many applications.”

Fehrenbach holds a Ph.D. in modern European history from Rutgers University and is a six-year faculty member at NIU. She teaches courses on the history of modern Germany, Nazi Germany and modern European cultural history. She also has taught courses on World War II, post-1945 Europe and the history of human rights.

The fellowship will provide time off from her teaching responsibilities to work toward the completion of her next book, tentatively titled, “From War Children to Our Children: How World War II Remade the Family and Children’s Rights.” The book delves into the effects of war, military occupation and the rise of international adoption on the notions of family, immigration and citizenship.

Her most recent published book, “Race after Hitler: Black Occupation Children in Postwar Germany and America” (2005), focused on transnational responses to “occupation children” born to German women and African-American soldiers during post-World War II military occupation.

The book looked at the evolution of perceptions and policies regarding race and German-ness after 1945.

“It also explored how American military occupation and American racial practices affected post-war German perceptions of race – especially given the sad irony that the American military that came armed to democratize Germans after 1945 was itself racially segregated well into the 1950s, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the Germans,” Fehrenbach said.

Her first book, “Cinema in Democratizing Germany” (1995), explored the role of film and meanings of movie-going in Germany’s transition from fascism to democracy. Fehrenbach argued that cinema played a significant role in the reformulation of postwar German national and gender ideologies. The book won the 1996 Biennial Book Prize of the Conference Group for Central European History.

She also co-edited a volume of essays, titled “Transactions, Transformations” (2000), examining Americanization in Western Europe and Japan; and is collaborating on the forthcoming book, “After the Racial State: Difference and Democracy in Postfascist Germany.”

Prior to coming to NIU, Fehrenbach held tenured positions in history at Colgate University and Emory University. Research on her prior books has been funded by fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the German Academic Exchange Service.

Since 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation has granted more than $256 million in fellowships to more than 16,250 individuals. Past Guggenheim Fellows include the likes of Ansel Adams, Martha Graham, Joyce Carol Oates, Langston Hughes, Henry Kissinger and Eudora Welty.

Noted composer Kevin Puts to visit School of Music

by Mark McGowan

Composer Kevin Puts, whose works include “Einstein on Mercer Street” and “Symphony No. 2: Island of Innocence,” is coming to campus later this month as a guest of the NIU Philharmonic.

Brett Mitchell, director of the Philharmonic and an assistant professor in the NIU School of Music, arranged the visit that begins Monday, April 23, and concludes Wednesday, April 25.

The three days will include two concerts, an all-school convocation, a composition seminar and the Illinois premiere of “Island of Innocence.” All events are free and open to the public.

“It’s a pretty big coup. Kevin is an internationally recognized composer and someone who’s gaining more and more in prominence,” says Mitchell, who attended the University of Texas at Austin while Puts served on the music faculty there.

“The best adjective to describe Kevin’s music to someone who is unfamiliar with it is ‘contemporary classical.’ His music is written for the same ensemble that Brahms and Mahler used, but in new and innovative ways.”

Hailed by the press as “one of the most promising young composers in America,” Puts has had works commissioned and performed by leading orchestras, ensembles and soloists throughout North America, Europe and the Far East.

Known for his distinctive and richly colored musical voice, he has received many of today’s most prestigious honors and awards for composition.

He is the composer-in-residence for the Fort Worth Symphony. He also has been selected as the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival’s 2007 American Composer-in-Residence and will write a new orchestral piece to be premiered there by the New York Philharmonic.

Puts is the recipient of a Music Alive Residency with the Mobile Symphony, which will premiere a new work in February 2008, and is writing a clarinet concerto for Bil Jackson and the Colorado Symphony.

A native of St. Louis, he received his bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, his master’s from Yale University and a doctor of musical arts at the Eastman School of Music. In the fall of 2006, he joined the composition faculty of the Peabody Institute.

Puts will have a busy time in the NIU Music Building:

Monday, April 23

• 1 to 2:50 p.m., Concert Hall: open dress rehearsal with the NIU Philharmonic for “Symphony No. 2: Island of Innocence.”
• 8 p.m., Concert Hall: Performance of “Symphony No. 2.”

Tuesday, April 24

• 11 a.m., Concert Hall: all-school convocation.
• 1:30 to 4 p.m., Recital Hall: open dress rehearsal with faculty chamber players and guest bass-baritone Timothy Jones for “Einstein on Mercer Street.”

Wednesday, April 25

• 3 p.m., Room 202: composition seminar.
• 8 p.m., Recital Hall: “Kevin Puts: A Composer Portrait,” featuring performances by NIU faculty, students and guest bass-baritone Timothy Jones of Puts’ “Four Airs,” “And Legions Will Rise” and “Einstein on Mercer Street.”

The composer’s visit to NIU will offer mutual benefits, Mitchell says.

For the 35-year-old Puts, it’s the opportunity to hear several concerts of his music (including one devoted to his alone) while new audiences are exposed to his work. For the students, it’s a chance to work with a modern composer.

“There are some composers alive today who just seem to be uninterested in communicating to audiences because they compose such highbrow music that it’s not accessible. Kevin’s music, while having the greatest artistic integrity, is very accessible. It’s written in a language that we can all understand,” Mitchell says. “He’s also just a really cool guy and very articulate about his music. Orchestras love playing it and audiences love hearing it.”

Media critic to speak on media reform

Is the mass media undermining democracy? Scholar and well-known media critic Robert W. McChesney would argue that it is – and that government is complicit in the process.

McChesney will visit NIU for a lecture at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, in the NIU Music Building, Room 173. The lecture will focus on the foundations of the media-reform movement, of which he is a leading member.

The event is free and open to the public.

“We are currently experiencing a time of profound distrust of both the media and political leaders,” says Steven Ralston, chair of the NIU Department of Communication. “Dr. McChesney offers a careful analysis not only of what ails our media, but how this affects the functioning of democracy, and what can be done to reform the current way the media works.”

McChesney is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and author or editor of several award-winning books. His work concentrates on the history and political economy of communication, emphasizing the role media play in democratic and capitalist societies.

He is also co-founder of Free Press, a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media.

McChesney’s visit is co-sponsored by the DeKalb Interfaith Network for Peace and Justice and by NIU’s departments of communication and sociology. For more information, call (815) 895-7026.

Services scheduled for Tara Dirst

Funeral services have been scheduled for Tara Lee Dirst, technical coordinator for digitization projects in the University Libraries. Dirst died Sunday from injuries suffered in a March 7 automobile accident. She was 33.

A wake is scheduled from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, at Anderson Funeral Home, 2011 S. Fourth St.

Her funeral will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 11, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 900 Normal Road. The visitation is scheduled from 6 to 7 p.m. Cookies and coffee will be served after the service.

PCSM luncheon to honor Deacon Davis award winners

The Presidential Commission on the Status of Minorities (PCSM) will host its eighth annual Friendships Abloom Spring Luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 10.

All are invited to attend in the Regency Room of the Holmes Student Center. Brief remarks and award presentations begin at 12:15 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Created in 2004, the Deacon Davis Diversity Award was named in honor of Deacon Davis, founder and former director of the CHANCE (Counseling Help & Assistance Necessary for a College Education) Program. This award recognizes the significant contributions made to the improvement of the status of minorities on campus by members of the university community.

This year’s recipients are Promod Vohra, dean of the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology; professors Luis and Clersida Garcia from the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education; and Minority Science Association Student Officers Nicole Gabriel, Ruth Molokwu and Heema Soni.

Each recipient will be recognized and presented with a plaque.

The commission also will make special presentations to retiring faculty/staff members Walter Owens, a professor from the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, and Linda Peterson, CHANCE counselor.

NIU Art Museum displays ‘Formulation: Articulation’

The NIU Art Museum will host “Josef Albers: Formulation: Articulation” in the North and Rotunda Galleries from Tuesday, April 10, through Saturday, May 12.

The public is invited to an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 10. 

Albers (1888-1976) is remembered chiefly as an abstract painter, printmaker, teacher and theorist. A German native, he was a student and later instructor at the Bauhaus, a pioneering design school that focused on the interdependency of craftsmanship, aesthetics, and technology.

He emigrated to the United States in 1933, and continued to create artworks and teach at several notable institutions here, including the innovative Black Mountain College, Harvard and Yale. His writings, print portfolios and painting series gained him an international reputation for his unending inquiry and meticulous exploration of abstraction and color theory.

The “Josef Albers: Formulation: Articulation” exhibition is curated by graduate students in ART 556, taught by Peter Van Ael, coordinator of the Jack Olson Gallery in the NIU School of Art. Enrolled in the graduate certificate in museum studies program, the students worked in teams to organize, design, install and program the exhibition using a portfolio of serigraphic prints from the NIU Art Museum collection.

The exhibition consists of selected pieces from Alber’s “Formulation: Articulation” portfolio, biographical information on Albers and a timeline of significant events. 

International museum consultant Beverly Serrell is the guest lecturer for “Fireworks for Evaluation: Judging Exhibitions,” scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 18, in the Museum’s Rotunda Gallery. A reception will follow. This public presentation and reception are sponsored by the NIU School of Art Visiting Artist/Scholar Program.

A children’s event organized by the graduate museum studies class will take place from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, April 21. The free event is limited to 20 students in third- through fifth-grade who pre-register. A tour of the museum, a take-home art activity and refreshments will be offered. Contact the NIU Art Museum at (815) 753-1936 by Tuesday, April 17, to register.

The NIU Art Museum’s North and Rotunda Galleries are located on the first floor, west end of Altgeld Hall. The galleries are open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and by appointment for group tours.

Exhibitions are always free. This exhibition was sponsored in part by the Friends of the NIU Art Museum and the Arts Fund 21. For more information, visit www.vpa.niu.edu/museum or call (815) 753-1936.

NIU Jazz Ensemble to perform annual spring concert Thursday

The legendary NIU Jazz Ensemble will perform its annual spring concert at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 12, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center. The concert is free and open to the public.

Director Ron Carter and the ensemble welcome special guest John Clayton, jazz composer, arranger and bassist.

Call (815) 753-1546 for more information.

MAC schools combine for Penny Bowl fundraiser

The 12 schools of the Mid-American Conference are coming together to compete in the MAC Penny Bowl while raising money for a good cause.

The MAC Penny Bowl is a fundraiser that will donate all proceeds to an organization that will be determined by the school that contributes the most money.

Each school will do its part to raise money between April 1 and April 22. At the end of these three weeks, all the MAC schools will contribute half of what they raised to the Penny Bowl.

The school that contributes the most money will pick the organization that will receive the Penny Bowl earnings. The other half of each school’s earnings will go toward the charity it chooses. The money raised at NIU will benefit Relay for Life.

For more information, contact Ajahnae Hinley at (815) 753-8447 or ahinley@niu.edu.

Retirement reception scheduled for Financial Aid’s Linda Dersch

A retirement party for Linda Dersch, senior assistant director of Student Financial Aid, is scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, in the Clara Sperling Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center.

NIU salutes administrative professionals

The 10th annual Administrative Professionals Day seminar will be held from 7:45 to 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 24, in the Altgeld Hall Ballroom.

The event includes a deluxe breakfast and a presentation by Rita Emmett, author of “The Clutter-Busting Handbook” and “The Procrastinator’s Handbook.”

Cost is $44 per person ($54 after April 17). Employees of NIU and other governmental agencies are invited at a special rate of $34 ($44 after April 17). Register online at http://www.niu.edu/clasep/conferences/academic/adminprof.shtml or call (815) 753-0277.

Presentation, reception scheduled for David W. Raymond grant

“Audio-Visual Explanations: Enriching the Classroom through Emerging Technology,” a
presentation by recipients of the 2006 David W. Raymond Grant, is scheduled for noon Thursday, April 26.

Geography professors Mace Bentley, Andrew Krmenec and Phil Young will demonstrate their podcasts, vodcasts and screen-capture movies developed for classroom application.

The event, which also will include Provost Raymond Alden’s announcement of the 2007 grant winner, takes place in the University Suite of the Holmes Student Center. Refreshments will be served.

The event is sponsored by the NIU Foundation, Office of the Provost and the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center.

Retirement reception scheduled for librarian Earl Shumaker

A reception to honor the retirement of Earl Shumkaer, head of government publications and coordinator of branch libraries at NIU, is scheduled for 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 2.

A special recognition from the U.S. Government Printing Office will come at 2 p.m.

The event takes place in Rare Books and Special Collections on the fourth floor of Founders Library. RSVPs are requested by Wednesday, April 25. Contact Kathy Sherman at (815) 753-9802 or ksherman@niu.edu.

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