February 12, 2007, Northern Today Abridged

IBHE grant to expand NIU nursing enrollment, labs

The NIU School of Nursing was awarded $450,680 today to increase the number of students it prepares for careers in nursing, a profession in dire need of qualified workers.

Members of the Illinois Board of Higher Education voted this morning in Springfield to approve the grant, part of a $1.5 million allocation established by Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the state legislature to expand and improve nursing programs in the state.

“We are totally delighted, excited and energized,” said Brigid Lusk, chair of the NIU School of Nursing. “The key thing is that we will have 40 more students entering every two years, and at the end of the day, that’s what is really important: forty more people who will have beautiful careers ahead of them and advance health care in Illinois.”

“I’m proud that the board recognizes the excellence of our School of Nursing and has chosen to amplify that excellence with this generous grant,” NIU President John G. Peters said. “Illinois residents look to our colleges and universities to lessen the local impacts of the national nursing shortage, and this grant strengthens NIU’s ability to take a lead role in minting more nurses with a first-class education.”

NIU will use the state’s dollars to inflate the freshman class by almost 60 percent this fall and to put a greater emphasis on the recruitment and retention of racial and ethnic minority students, who will make up 20 percent of each new cohort.

A new cohort of 40 students will gain admission every two years in a program housed at Aurora’s Provena Mercy Medical Center and Elgin’s Provena Saint Joseph Hospital. Students who have completed pre-requisite courses accelerate through 2.5 years of nursing courses in only two years by studying during summers and intersession periods.

NIU’s school typically accepts 70 students each semester, she said, although the pool of applicants is enormous.

“We always advise people to apply by Feb. 15, and we know we have a very healthy pool of applicants already,” Lusk said. “It’s tragic when there are qualified people but not enough money, faculty and facilities.”

One tenure-track professor and two instructors will join the faculty.

NIU’s popular RN-to-BS completion program will grow by 20 percent through a new cohort of up to 30 students at the suburban sites.

Meanwhile, the school will develop a Human Patient Simulation (HPS) Laboratory on the DeKalb campus that imitates clinical experiences to make up for a critical shortage of appropriate education sites. The lab should become operational as soon as possible, but possibly after the fall term begins.

Such a lab also allows faculty to teach more students than in an actual clinical site while saving money by reducing faculty travel and the level of supervision needed. Each HPS unit costs around $50,000, Lusk said, and NIU will purchase three.

NIU’s $450,680 provision comes from one of two state-funded grant programs created in 2006 to recruit, train and retain nurses in Illinois.

Expansion grants, such as the one awarded to NIU, support high-performing nursing schools. Grants are renewable for up to three years based on sustained program progress and evaluation results. Other nursing schools receiving expansion grants equal in value to NIU’s are Loyola University and Harry S. Truman College.

Improvement grants support nursing schools in need of program improvements aimed at raising institutional pass rates on the National Council Licensure Examination.

(The state’s other new initiative, the Nurse Educator Fellowship Program, already named NIU School of Nursing professors Judith Hertz and Donna Plonczynski to its first class.)

Shirley Richmond, dean of the NIU College of Health and Human Sciences, said the IBHE grant offers an exciting opportunity to better serve the area and its students.

“We always regret that we must deny students entrance into our nursing program due to lack of resources and space, and while this expansion will not solve the problem, it will allow us to begin to address this situation,” Richmond said.

“We also are pleased that we can continue our interaction with the Provena hospitals as partners in this endeavor,” she added. “Our school of nursing has excellent administrators and faculty who enjoy working with their colleagues in the region to help solve our regional health issues, and this grant is but one example of that type of interaction.”

Lusk said she believes the NIU School of Nursing’s commitment to taking its training off-campus, and the accompanying recruitment of minority students, lifted its application into the top three.

“I think we were a little ingenious in going out to the community and maybe serving some people who wouldn’t have this opportunity outside our reaching out to them,” she said.

“There is a shortage of space for nursing students throughout the state, and there’s maybe less of a waiting list at the private universities, which of course are very expensive,” she added. “This gives these good students a chance at a reasonably priced, solid education.”

NIU will recruit African-American and Hispanic students from Aurora and Elgin, where their populations are larger and the partnering hospitals are located.

Senior nursing students from the DeKalb campus will travel to the suburban sites on a regular basis to provide peer-tutoring. The grant also will purchase 40 laptop computers to compensate for the lack of computer labs at the hospitals.

“There is absolutely a need for more minorities in health care,” Lusk said. “It’s just a historical fact that minorities haven’t entered the health professions, and that’s beginning to change, but we need it to change more speedily. The numbers don’t equal the patients who need their services.”

Lifesaving defibrillators available across campus

When a student at the Student Recreation Center collapsed from a heart attack Jan. 30, it provided a stark demonstration of the state of campus emergency response capabilities.

And the news was good.

In an instant, all of the components of the system sprang into action and saved a life. From employees at the Rec to campus police to DeKalb paramedics to emergency room personnel, all performed their roles quickly, efficiently and successfully.

“This case provides a perfect example of how our community’s EMS system is supposed to work,” said DeKalb Fire Chief Lanny Russell. “The first responder provided vital immediate care, the paramedics continued that care and initiated advanced life-support measures and the hospital stabilized the patient until he could be transferred to a tertiary care center by helicopter.”

The incident also highlighted the value of efforts started six years ago on campus to equip emergency personnel with portable defibrillators and place the devices in key buildings across campus.

Twenty-eight units are now located across campus. They are in all police patrol cars, the Convocation Center, Huskie Stadium, all exercise facilities (including the Rec and Anderson Hall) and buildings that often draw large crowds, such as the Holmes Student Center.

A defibrillator is used about once a year on campus, and the units are credited with helping to save lives.

They’re prominently displayed in public areas, hanging on walls in protective boxes. Each box also contains a telephone so that emergency personnel can be summoned before treatment even begins.

The defibrillators are designed to be simple enough that just about anyone can use them, said Michele Crase, associate director of Environmental Health and Safety.

“Not only does the device have pictures that clearly explain its use, it also plays a recording that walks you through step-by-step,” she said.

Even so, Crase is careful to point out that the “Good Samaritan” law in Illinois protects people from being sued only in instances in which they are trained to take the life-saving steps they attempt. Consequently, people who expect that they might need to use a defibrillator should receive training.

Environmental Health and Safety offers frequent training sessions that cover not only use of the devices, but also CPR and some other basic first aid. Those who complete the three-hour course, which is taught free of charge, are certified for two years.

Anyone interested in taking such a course, or arranging for members of their department to participate in the course, can call Crase at (815) 753-9251.

“The more people we have trained in the proper use of the defibrillators and CPR,” Crase said, “the more often we will be able to save lives in situations like the one on Jan. 30.”

The physics of politics

NIU's Michael Fortner settles into state House

Particle physics and partisan politics – the two would seem to go together like oil and water.

But the differences are relative to NIU physicist Michael Fortner, who now divides his time between the halls of academia and the floor of the Illinois General Assembly.

Fortner was elected in November as state representative of the 95th District, which includes parts of Geneva, Batavia, West Chicago, Warrenville and Wheaton. The former West Chicago mayor was sworn in to his new state office early last month.

While his physics background might seem an unusual pairing with politics, Fortner says the two complement each other perfectly.

“As a physicist, we do a lot of problem solving,” Fortner says. “Particle physicists work with complex situations. We have to winnow our way through competing data and try to figure out the best way to move forward. That happens in politics, too. Also, as a professor at NIU, I deal with a lot of students, faculty members and researchers. Those people skills transfer over.”

Fortner came to NIU as a postdoctoral student in 1987 and began teaching here in 1993.

He serves as a physics department adviser and regularly teaches introductory and upper-level physics courses, though he is working part-time this semester while the General Assembly is in session.

Fortner also is a prominent researcher, having been involved in the discovery of the top quark, a fundamental particle that was abundantly present at the creation of the universe. It had never before existed on our planet until it was created in an experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

For more than 20 years, Fortner has conducted research at Fermilab as a member of DZero, one of two large collaborative experiments that jointly announced the top-quark discovery in 1995. As part of his work with DZero, Fortner built the level-2 trigger system for detection of muons, a particularly interesting subatomic particle that explains, among other things, the license plates on his Ford Explorer, which read “muon2.”

The car he drives to Springfield speaks to his other passion. Its plates read “112,” his ranking number in the Illinois House of Representatives.

“I’ve always really liked being able to use some of my problem-solving skills to help make a better community,” the DuPage County Republican says.

He made his first foray into the public-service arena in 1990 when he became a historic preservation commissioner. Fortner later served as a West Chicago alderman before being elected as the community’s mayor. His background in physics, which relies on complex mathematics, comes in handy when working with government issues.

“People working in government need to deal with numbers, formulas and budgets on a regular basis,” Fortner says. “That’s an area I have a level of comfort in. We also end up dealing with technical issues quite often, such as energy policy. My background in physics and highly technical research at Fermilab is helpful there as well.”

Not surprisingly, education is among his top areas of concern. Fortner recently signed up to become part of a new bipartisan caucus on education, knowing that some lawmakers and Illinois citizens are calling for an overhaul of the system.

“It deserves careful thinking,” says the freshman lawmaker, who’s quickly learning the ropes of the state legislature.

Judging from history, he’ll be a quick study.

ITS upgrades mean smoother surfing

NIUNet, the high-speed, fiber-optic communication network that eventually will link the DeKalb campus and all university outreach centers, is already making Web surfing a much smoother and faster experience for most NIU students, faculty and staff.

Using the portion of the network that links the university to a high-speed Internet2 hub in Chicago, Information Technology Services struck a deal with the Michigan Education and Research network to provide a high-speed link into an Internet service provider carrier hotel called Equinix.

That connection allowed NIU to contract with Cogent Communications for Internet services, which dramatically increased the amount of bandwidth available while drastically reducing costs. The new service went online in mid-December.

The deal increases the amount of commodity Internet (versus Internet2) bandwidth available to campus computer users, from a modest 80 megabits to a whopping 300 megabits. At the same time, the cost per megabit decreased by 90 percent.

The change has been apparent to NIU computer users in the form of faster downloads and a decrease in the amount of time it takes for Web pages to load on computers.

NIU Chief Network Architect Herb Kuryliw said the network previously had to accommodate twice the capacity of demand during times of peak use. That called for 50 percent more than was available, and created delays as the software facilitated enforced sharing.

Now, that same level of demand does not use even half of the available bandwidth, meaning information flows quickly and with few impediments.

“I’m thrilled with the way it has improved the speed and reliability of the network,” says NIU Staff Meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste. “I have to download some very large files – operating system patches, long-range weather data that can be a half a gigabyte or more in size. What used to take 10 or 15 minutes now downloads in seconds.”

The increased capacity not only means that NIU computers accessing the Web can download information more quickly.

It also means that those visiting NIU Web pages receive their information much faster, dramatically improving the experience for those who view features such as the online campus tour.

Similarly, those accessing online classes offered by NIU Outreach or other e-learning services offered by the university enjoy a much smoother and glitch-free experience, Kuryliw said.

If, or more likely when, the 300-megabit connection becomes congested, the university has the option to increase capacity in 100 megabit increments up to a full gigabyte.

Northern Star designer scores prestigious Poynter fellowship

Not everyone can say a radio changed their life, but not everyone is Billy Kulpa.

Kulpa, a high school graduate without a plan, listened to 12 long hours of sports talk each day while he detailed cars at a Rockford auto dealership. One day, working on his knees, he heard ESPN Radio’s Dan Patrick read an e-mail on air that asked the famous sports broadcaster how to become, well, a famous sports broadcaster.

Patrick’s response: Learn to write.

Intrigued and empowered, Kulpa enrolled at Rock Valley College and took a job with The Valley Forge, the campus newspaper.

Only one semester later, and with more enthusiasm than experience, he became sports editor. Higher jobs followed, including managing editor his second year and editor-in-chief his third. With those positions came a multitude of responsibilities beyond writing, one of which was the paper’s design.

And so began a love affair that has catapulted Kulpa to the top of the nation’s collegians pursuing careers in visual journalism.

Kulpa is one of 32 students nationwide to win a coveted Poynter Summer Fellowship for Young Journalists. He’ll attend the prestigious institute in Florida from June 3 to July 13; three days later, he begins a two-month design internship with the Orlando Sentinel.

“I got into design, and I started getting better. I wanted to be good at it,” says Kulpa, downing a store-bought Rice Krispies treat and a 20-ounce Mountain Dew for breakfast.

“It’s not something everyone knows about – designing newspapers – and I had to learn everything for myself,” he adds. “It’s a job where I excel. I like the creativity. There’s not really one way to do things. Some people equate it to putting together a puzzle, but it’s not. There’s not just one solution.”

Northern Star adviser Jim Killam says Kulpa is independent, driven and passionate.

“He’s really discovered what motivates him, and that’s visual journalism. He’s figured out that he’s very good at it, and we’ve had it confirmed by some national organizations and by people at some pretty important newspapers,” Killam says. “Billy is very good at looking at what’s going on in the world of news design, spotting trends and spotting newspapers the Star can emulate or improve on in some way.”

'Crazy Hard Week'

Kulpa is eager for what Poynter will bring, what he calls “a master’s degree in six weeks.”

“I’m living here in the cornfields, and I’m pretty good at what I do in DeKalb,” he says. “What they offer at Poynter is a perspective from the best journalists in the world. It’s a tremendous privilege. It’s unbelievable.”

He was offered his fellowship while in Flordia competing in “The Intern,” a contest sponsored by the Society for News Design.

Admission to “The Intern” contest was based on a 500-word essay, a 60-second video and a “campaign poster.” Once there, he and nine others were placed on teams and matched up in a competition modeled after reality TV programs.

A first-round challenge involved creating a news page at the Sentinel offices.

Returned to their hotel rooms near midnight, they were awoken only four hours later by contest organizers pounding on the doors. Osama bin Laden is dead, the contestants were told, and all their front pages needed immediate renovation.

Another challenge sent them to Disney World, where they were handed cameras and lists of photos to shoot that visually expressed concepts such as love, happy, frilly or about a dozen other things. Kulpa’s photos later were given to another contestant to use; he received another competitor’s snapshots for his page.

When the pool was cut to five, Kulpa was still alive.

A Thursday session opened with a cryptic instruction: Pay attention. Martin Gee, a designer at the San Jose Mercury News, gave the keynote address.

Afterward, more than two dozen students who had applied that week for Poynter fellowships were given 20 minutes to create graphics – “charticles,” Kulpa calls them – that expressed what they’d learned that morning.

Kulpa’s compared “Where I Am” to “Where I Need to Be.”

“His entry was most successful, based on our specific instructions,” wrote Sara Quinn, a member of the visual journalism faculty at Poynter. “His writing was very witty and concise – consistently so throughout his profile.”

After winning one of the prized fellowships, which would conflict with the scheduling of his internship, he called Killam for advice. “Take the fellowship!” Killam exclaimed.

Editors at the Sentinel still wanted him, fortunately, and pushed back his start date.

“It was a crazy, crazy hard week,” Kulpa says.

'Just do it'

At NIU, Kulpa is best known (or perhaps unknown) as the behind-the-scenes guy partially responsible for last January’s bold new look of the Northern Star.

Red and orange? Kulpa’s favorite colors.

He played that same role again through the summer with new editors Justin Smith and Steve Brown as the unconventional motif was refined and repackaged, returning some elements of traditional newspaper design with the modern concept that the paper should resemble a Web page.

The original decision to overhaul the Star’s design came quickly and began just as quickly, Kulpa says. He and then-editor Derek Wright initiated their work in the middle of December 2005 for a mid-January 2006 launch.

“Our product looked dated,” Kulpa says. “We were stuck with things we didn’t use and things our readers didn’t use.”

The pair planned to take their time. A conversation with Mike Kellams, sports editor at the Chicago Tribune and former designer of the Tribune’s RedEye, changed their minds. With only a few semesters of college left, Kellams asked, why wait?

“He said, ‘Just do it,’ and he was right,” Kulpa says.

So they started from scratch. “For 12 hours a day we yelled at each other – in a good way, a healthy way,” Kulpa says. “I don’t think we realized the magnitude of it at the time.”

The results startled the campus community, which wasn’t sure what to think, and the Star’s alumni, who praised the innovation.

It also won awards, including one from the Student Society for News Design. Kulpa says Matt Mansfield, assistant managing editor of the San Jose Mercury News, told him “it was the best college redesign he’d seen in the last 10 years.”

But Kulpa believes it had one flaw: The complete absence of stories on the front page, which looked radically different each day, sent some readers past Page One without even looking.

“That inspired the current incarnation,” he says of this year’s fronts, which do feature a story with a left-side column of “widgets,” or small bits of interesting information, the weather and an index of what’s inside.

Equally limitless are his ambitions.

He hopes to enroll this fall at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism to pursue a master’s degree in new media studies. “The field is definitely changing,” he says. “Internet is a newspaper’s main product. You write for the Web and update for tomorrow’s print.”

Next? A visual design job in the Chicago media, of course.

“I really like to lead,” Kulpa says. “I want to be the guy who’s determining the visual culture of a major newspaper or magazine.”

And he will, Killam says.

“The look of the Star is as good as it’s ever been, and that’s due to Billy’s efforts along with several other of our students,” Killam says. “He’s helped raise the level of sophistication here about news design. It’s not just creating pretty pages. There’s psychology behind it – getting people to read pages and stories – and he understands that well.”

Kudos

An article written by Steve Estes, an academic adviser in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was selected as the winning entry in an annual Academic Advising Writing Competition.

The contest is sponsored by “The Mentor,” an academic advising journal. Estes will receive a $500 prize for his essay, titled “Potential Minus Interference: The Difference in Academic Advising.”

Estes has worked as an adviser at NIU since 1996. His award-winning article is online at www.psu.edu/dus/mentor. (Click on “current issue in progress.”)

‘Feminist’ stickers available for Women’s History Month

NIU will reveal the diverse faces of feminism by celebrating “This is What a Feminist Looks Like” Sticker Day on Thursday, March 1, the kickoff of Women’s History Month.

The NIU Women’s Studies Program initiated the campaign three years ago.

After it caught the attention of the National Women’s Studies Association last year, a number of other institutions are following NIU’s lead with their own Sticker Day campaigns. Those institutions include the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and Virginia’s George Mason University.

Those who want to participate in this year’s event at NIU can stop by Reavis 103 to pick up a sticker. They will be available after Wednesday, Feb. 14.

Theater school presents ‘Dr. Wiki,’ ‘Suspect’

“Dr. Wiki” and “Suspect,” two one-act Studio Series plays, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Feb. 15, 16 and 17, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 18, in the Corner Theatre of the Stevens Building.

English and theater major Patrick Hellman has written “Dr. Wiki,” a delightful play about a graphic artist who keeps finding new and wondrous ailments by surfing the Internet. Relationship challenged, he is forced to confront his 21st century hypochondria when his roommate brings an abrasive but interesting Starbucks employee to hang out. “Dr. Wiki” is directed by Beth Schrader and includes performances by Erin Edwards, Jacqueline Perez, Jerrod Capiak and Mark Umstattd.

“Suspect,” written by New York City-based actor Al Pagano, is directed by Ben Thomas and stars Mark Lester and Phillip Claudnic.

Tickets are $5 and available only at the door.

NIU’s next theater production presents technical challenge

The technical team responsible for producing the special effects for NIU’s next theatre production faces the challenge of creating a flowing stream in an indoor theatre space.

The School of Theatre and Dance 2006-2007 Subscription Series production, “Yerma,” by Federico Garcia Lorca, which runs Feb. 22 through Feb. 25, and Feb. 28 through March 4, calls for an actual stream to flow for the duration of the play and into a refilling-and-draining pond.

“Water onstage is very difficult to work with if it is not controlled,” says technical director and M.F.A. in technical design candidate, Michael Schafer. “Water can easily get out of control and damage the theater. The water will also be onstage near lights, electricity, and performers.”

Working with water creates a personal challenge for Schafer, since he has never worked with it onstage before. Researching and planning how to use running water onstage took a considerable amount of time.

Yerma, one play of Lorca’s Rural Trilogy, takes place on the Andalusia plains in Spain. The title character is a peasant, who desperately wants a child, but believes she is infertile. Conversations around her about pregnancies and raising children torment her. New evidence brought to her attention causes her to believe her husband is the reason for their childless marriage, which leads her to commit a terrible crime.

Show times are 7:30 p.m. weekdays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $14 for adults, $8 for seniors and $7 for students. For more information and ticket reservations, contact the Stevens Building box office at (815) 753-1600, or visit the Web site at www.niu.edu/theatre.

Application deadline extended for Lillian Cobb Grant program

The proposal deadline for the Lillian (“Pauline”) Cobb Grant Program for Faculty Travel Fellowships for International Teaching and Service has been extended to Friday, Feb. 23.

A total of $8,000 will be available for awards of varying amounts, and applicants will be notified whether they have received awards by Friday, March 23.

More information about this unique grant program is available online at http://www3.niu.edu/intl_prgms/cobb.07-form.htm or by calling Deb at (815) 753-1989 or Sara at (815) 753-9526.

Mid-America Educators’ Job Fair returns to Convocation Center

The 22nd Annual Mid-America Educators’ Job Fair takes place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Feb. 26, at the NIU Convocation Center.

The fair is open to NIU students and alumni, current educators and those from other institutions. There are no fees and no advanced registration for candidates. Simply bring a copy of your resume upon entering.

Lists of schools attending and anticipated positions, as well as directions and useful hints, can be found online at www.niu.edu/careerservices. Click on the Mid-America Educators’ Job Fair button. Information is updated as confirmations are received.

Adobe 6.0 is needed to open the updated list of employers attending.

Contact Barbara Kaufmann at (815) 753-1645 or bkaufmann@niu.edu for more information.

NIU Art Museum hosts ‘Members Only’ event

The NIU Art Museum will host an “After Hours with the Collector” Event at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 28, for museum members only.

People who wish to become members before the presentation by Chris Hubbard, an associate professor of biology at NIU, can apply for membership at the museum or print the online form at http://www.vpa.niu.edu/museum/html/bcmembr.html and mail with payment to the NIU Art Museum, 116 Altgeld Hall, DeKalb, Ill, 60115. Memberships also can be processed by phone at (815) 753-1936.

Members enjoy priority registration and discounted fees on Get-On-The-Bus trips, first-class mailings of exhibition announcements, special members-only previews, receptions and special events, subscriptions to Museum Notes newsletter and 20 percent discounts on NIU Art Museum Catalogues.

Friend-level membership rates are $25 for individual, $45 for dual, $10 for student, $15 for senior and $25 for dual senior. Sponsor- and Patron-level memberships, at $100 and $250 respectively, include an artist print as a premium. Payment may be made by credit card, cash or check. Students must attach a current student ID to their membership application.

Hubbard will speak in the museum’s North Gallery about his residency in Africa and about his collection of African art. Artifacts from Chris and Kathy Hubbard’s collection are currently on view at the NIU Art Museum’s “Heart of Africa: Artistry within Ritual Artifacts and Raffia Textiles” exhibition through March 9.

For more information, visit www.vpa.niu.edu/museum or call (815) 753-1936.

Jack Olson Gallery hosts ‘Membranes’ exhibition

NIU’s Jack Olson Memorial Gallery is hosting “MEMBRANES · MARGINS · DISRUPTIONS” through Thursday, March 1.

The exhibition is a sculptural fiber installation by Chicago based artist Joan Livingstone. Combining felt, epoxy resin, rubber, metal. Wood, pigment, and stain; the artist creates works that investigate female human physicality.

It premiered at Alfred University’s Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, traveled to Bowling Green State University’s Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery and has its final run at NIU. Sharon McConnell, director of the Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, curated the exhibition.

Livingstone brings together works from four significant series she produced over the past eight years: “At capacity,” “Vestigial,” “Migrations” and “Re/Locations.”

Combining these series in a single exhibition affords the viewer a glimpse at the intricate and complex world of a contemporary urban artist interested in chronicling how time manifests change in the body, mind and environment.

For more information, call (815) 753-4521.

Alumni Association plans St. Patrick’s Day celebration

Come celebrate all things Irish at the St. Patrick’s Day party from 7 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, March 10, at the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center.

Enjoy an Irish Buffet, open bar and three types of live entertainment, including City of Chicago Pipe Band, Irish comedy and music by Paul McHugh and two performances by the McNulty School of Irish Dance.

Tickets are $55 per person. Please register online at www.myniu.com or call the Alumni Association at (815) 753-1452.

Izzo-Inge scholarship open to students with disabilities

NIU is proud to offer Izzo-Inge Family Award for Students with Disabilities for the 2007-2008 academic year. This scholarship was made possible by a generous gift from Charmaine Izzo-Inge and David Inge. 

The scholarship is available to students who will be full-time (minimum 12 hours per semester), degree-seeking juniors or seniors at NIU. 

Candidates must possess a grade point average of at least 2.5 and demonstrate a significant disability that affects the cognitive process. Qualified disabilities include learning disability, traumatic brain injury, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), deafness or hard of hearing, visual impairment, or other disabilities that affect the cognitive process.

Preference will be given to students who exhibit financial need (as determined by the Student Financial Aid office) and plan to teach special education. Students who do not exhibit financial need nor plan to teach special education are still encouraged to apply.

The deadline for applications is April 1. For an application and/or more information, please contact: Office of the Dean, College of Health and Human Sciences, Wirtz Hall 227, NIU, DeKalb, Ill., 60115. Call (815) 753-1877 or TTY (815) 753-3000.

2-12-07