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 Veteran head coach Ricardo Patton has been named the 26th men's basketball head coach in NIU history, Associate Vice President/Director of Athletics Jim Phillips has announced.
Patton, who led Colorado to new heights in 11-plus seasons at the helm of the Buffaloes' men's basketball program, joins the Huskies after averaging nearly 17 wins per season and taking CU to six postseason berths, including a pair of NCAA appearances, between 1995-96 and 2006-07. Colorado advanced to postseason play in three of the last five seasons.
"To be certain, I am absolutely thrilled to introduce Ricardo Patton as our new men's basketball coach," Phillips said. "This is a historic hire for Northern Illinois University basketball, to bring not only someone with his level of coaching success and experience, but someone who will exemplify our core values and provide our student-athletes with a world-class experience."
Patton, who finished his CU tenure as the second-winningest coach in Colorado basketball history, announced in October that the 2006-07 campaign would be his last at the school.
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 Four members of the Supportive Professional Staff (SPS) have been chosen to receive the university’s Presidential Awards for Excellence.
The recipients are Debra R. Hopkins, director of the NIU CPA Review; Julia S. Lamb, outreach coordinator for the NIU Center for Southeast Asian Studies; Steven E. Lux, health educator in Health Enhancement; and Blanche McHugh, associate director for residential administration in Housing and Dining.
They will be honored at a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, in the Clara Sperling Sky Room in the Holmes Student Center. The awards ceremony begins at 2:30 p.m. Each will receive a plaque and $1,500 in appreciation for their outstanding contributions to NIU.
Elizabeth Leake of Information Technology Services will receive the SPS Council Service Award.
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 NIU faculty are acutely aware that visuals provide good learning tools.
Rhonda Robinson, a Distinguished Teaching Professor in the College of Education’s Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment, knows that.
She also knows that visuals are key to the future. Today’s college students have grown up bombarded by hundreds of TV channels, after all, and are among the most-frequent visitors and contributors to user-driven Web sites such as YouTube and myspace.
But “just watching hasn’t been shown to make you more visually literate,” she said. “It’s how you watch, how you look, how you analyze.”
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 NIU’s Blackwell History of Education Museum always has shown its visitors the camera eye’s view of life in rural one-room schoolhouses.
Now it will present those memories from the perspective of modern-day children.
“Country School Memories,” an art exhibition that will feature 35 paintings of one-room schoolhouses created by Batavia elementary school students, will be on display from Saturday, March 31, through Sunday, April 15, in the museum located in the Learning Center of Gable Hall.
“We wanted to get children involved in the museum,” said Connie Hansen, the museum’s education specialist and a longtime friend of art teacher Nancy Legner’s. “I gave Nancy a call – she has students in Batavia – and I wondered if they would be interested in visiting the schoolhouse. She said that maybe an art project would be a good thing for them to do.”
“What a great learning experience this was for them,” NIU alumna Legner said of the third-, fourth- and fifth-graders who participated. “Picasso said every child is an artist, and it’s so true. It’s so true.”
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 Author and scholar Toril Moi will deliver the keynote lecture for the Midwestern Conference on Literature, Language, and Media at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 31, in the Pollock Room of the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center.
The event is free and open to the public. Moi is the James B. Duke Professor of Literature and Romance Studies at Duke University. Her NIU lecture is titled, “‘I am not a Woman Writer’: On Women, Writing, and Feminism.”
Moi is author of several books, including “Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory” (1985), “Simone de Beauvoir: The Making of an Intellectual Woman” (1994) and “What Is a Woman? And Other Essays” (1999).
Moi’s research interests include feminist theory and women’s writing, the interconnections between literature and philosophy, psychoanalytic theory and European literature.
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 Best-selling author and marketing guru Jackie Huba will visit NIU to deliver the annual Albert Walker/Arthur W. Page Society Distinguished Ambassador Lecture.
The lecture will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, April 2, in the Altgeld Hall Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
Huba will lecture on “Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message.” She and Ben McConnell have co-authored a new book with the same title, examining the early history of social media and why it has taken root so quickly.
A solitary citizen today with a broadband connection and a few inexpensive tools has a substantially better chance of influencing the public perceptions of billion-dollar corporations than ever before.
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 Fiscal Year 2007 soon will close, and cut-off dates must be established.
These dates are mainly pertinent to FY2007 orders using General Revenue funds, but the same dating conventions are followed for those orders using other fund sources.
Please keep in mind that the last quarter of the fiscal year is NIU's busiest, with departments simultaneously preparing to close out FY2007 and processing, bidding and issuing orders for FY2008.
State law requires that all FY2007 General Revenue orders be completed, including all payments, by the end of the lapse period. Orders must be issued prior to June 30, 2007, and the goods received, invoiced and all payment paperwork turned in to Accounting not later than Aug. 3, 2007, regardless of dollar amount.
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 NIU School of Theatre and Dance faculty member Patricia Ridge wants everyone to know what it is like to be a combat soldier.
She will direct the school’s theatrical production of John DiFusco’s memory play about the Vietnam War, “Tracers,” in the Players Theatre on the DeKalb campus from March 29 through April 15.
Ridge would especially like college students to see the play in order to put the Iraq war in historical perspective. She believes that there are striking parallels between the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. “We look at the Iraq War and [see] we haven’t learned anything,” Ridge says, “except we need to always support the troops.”
Ridge is particularly sensitive to this aspect of any war’s aftermath, because her brother was spat upon when he returned home from fighting in Vietnam.
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 NIU is seeking families in DeKalb and Sycamore to host Muslim and non-Muslim high school students and adult leaders from the Southern Philippines for two weeks in April.
The visitors will be participating in a training institute led by the university’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies and International Training Office. Funded by the U.S. Department of State, the institute is designed to promote conflict resolution and interethnic and interfaith dialogue. Participants are selected through a competitive application process, have outstanding academic credentials and are fluent in English.
The training institute will introduce participants to American institutions that promote tolerance and will expose them to the religious and ethnic diversity of the United States.
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 Every interaction you have with a student, alumni, co-worker or client affects the image of our university. Are you doing all you can to make this a positive experience?
Disney is coming to town to help NIU faculty and staff learn how to apply a little “Disney magic” to our organization. All NIU faculty and staff are invited to participate in a complimentary Disney seminar, “Service, Disney Style,” on Wednesday, June 6, at Barsema Hall.
Exclusively offered to NIU employees, the seminar will take place in Dennis Barsema Auditorium in Barsema Hall. NIU is sponsoring the free 90-minute sessions.
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Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White’s mobile drivers’ facility will return to the NIU campus for its third consecutive year. Officials will set up a “mini facility” once a month outside Diversions Show Lounge.
The facility allows students, faculty and staff of NIU, along with the public, to get driver’s licenses or state IDs. This would include new, renewals and replacements. In addition, staff will renew license plate stickers, register applicants to vote and sign interested parties up for the new Organ Donor Registry.
The hours of operation are 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Filed for 2007-2008 financial aid yet? See www.fa.niu.edu for information and/or watch your NIU Z-ID e-mail account.
Northern Public Radio, the broadcast service of NIU, hosts its annual spring membership campaign through March 31 at the NIU Broadcast Center, 801 North First Street in DeKalb.
Volunteers are welcome to sign up for just a couple of hours or for multiple shifts throughout the week as their schedules and interests allow. Campaign hours vary by day. Learn more at www.northernpublicradio.org or e-mail ddrake@niu.edu to volunteer. -- MORE
Oya Pancaroðlu, assistant professor in the Department of Archaeology and History of Art at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, will present “Earth, Potter, and Fire: A Short History of Medieval Islamic Ceramics,” at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 27, in Room 100 of the Art Building.
A series of innovations in glazed ceramic technology, introduced in the pottery workshops of the 9th century, often have been described as an artistic revolution with repercussions extending not only into the subsequent centuries of ceramic production in the Islamic world but also into Renaissance Italy and beyond.
This lecture will outline both developments in the ceramic industry between the 9th and 13th centuries and explore the remarkable engagement of ceramics with other forms of art as well as with literary culture.
A secondary area of research is the history of architecture in Anatolia between 1100 and 1500. She has most recently published “Perpetual Glory: Medieval Islamic Ceramics from the Harvey B. Plotnick Collection” (Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press, 2007) to accompany the exhibition of the same title at the Art Institute of Chicago (March 31 to Aug. 12).
More information about the exhibition is available online.
This talk is the second in the Spring 2007 Elizabeth Allen Visiting Lectures in Art History Series, hosted by the Art History Division and funded in part by the NIU Visiting Artists and Scholars Program. For more information about events at the NIU School of Art, visit www.niu.edu/art. -- MORE
The NIU Wellness Fair 2007 will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom and Capitol Room of the Holmes Student Center. Co-sponsored by the Employee Assistance and Wellness Program and Recreation Services, the fair is open to all NIU students, faculty and staff, as well as community members.
The Wellness Fair offers the opportunity to explore resources related to the six dimensions of wellness: physical, social, emotional, intellectual, spiritual and occupational. More than 85 booths will feature campus and non-campus providers offering a variety of free screenings, assessments, massages, educational and awareness activities, as well as free drawings and give-aways.
Call (815) 753-9191 for more information.
NIU’s Lifelong Learning Institute will host Geology Professor Ross Powell from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, in the Holmes Student Center, Room 505. His presentation is titled “Report from the Ends of the Earth: Drilling in the Antarctic.”
Bring a lunch, pick one up at the HSC Blackhawk Cafeteria or just come and listen. The lecture is free and all are welcome. For details, call (815) 753-5200.
Melinda Takeuchi, professor of Japanese art at Stanford University and executive director emerita of the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Study, Yokohama, Japan, will present, “The Apotheosis of the Great Danjûrô the Eighth: Piety or Parody?” at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 29, in Room 100 of the Visual Arts Building.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, it was the practice to issue memorial prints, called shini-e, when a popular individual died. Most shini-e depict kabuki actors.
Takeuchi’s talk focuses on the death prints illustrating the 19th century’s most beloved actor, Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII. Danjûrô’s tragic suicide at the age of 31 spawned an unprecedented number of commemorative pictures, by some counts as many as 200. This welter of images runs the gamut from somber representations to pictures that would seem to cross the line from piety into parody. How the Japanese negotiated this fine line is the central question raised in this lecture.
Takeuchi’s diverse expertise in Japanese paintings and prints has led to a range of accolades. Her book “Taiga’s True Views: The Language of Landscape Painting in Eighteenth-Century Japan” (Stanford, 1992) won the Association for Asian Studies John W. Hall Prize for best book in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Her edited volume “The Artist as Professional in Japan” (Stanford University Press, 2004) received rave reviews.
This talk is the third in the Spring 2007 Elizabeth Allen Visiting Lectures in Art History Series, hosted by the Art History Division and funded in part by the NIU Visiting Artists and Scholars Program. For more information about events at the NIU School of Art, visit www.niu.edu/art. -- MORE
The geography department has organized a series of public presentations and discussions revolving around the recent International Panel on Climate Change report on global climate warming.
Symposiums on climate-change related topics will be held on March 29, April 5, April 12, April 19, April 26 and May 3. All of the events will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Montgomery Hall Auditorium.
Political Science Professor Ramlan Surbakti of Airlangga University in Surabaya, Indonesia, will deliver a lecture on “Elections in Indonesia” at 3 p.m. Friday, March 30, in the Heritage Room of the Holmes Student Center.
Surbakti is chairman of the General Election Institute in the Republic of Indonesia and also is an NIU alumnus (political science, 1991).
The lecture is open to the public. It is sponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies and the Department of Political Science.
Education, activism and entertainment are all part of the calendar of events for April’s celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Awareness Month.
Featured events include training workshops for the Ally Program, comedian Lorne Newman, the National Day of Silence/Night of Noise, a presentation on “Gay Straight Alliances: Education and Queer Curiosity” by Chris Mayo from the University of Illinois and Prism’s 11th annual drag and variety show.
Full details about these and all other events are available by visiting the online calendar of events at www.niu.edu/lgbt, calling (815) 753-5428 or e-mailing lgbt@niu.edu.
The university community is invited to the third annual Ally Awards reception to kick off Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Awareness Month in April.
The reception is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday, April 2, in the Clara Sperling Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center. A recognition ceremony will be held at 3 p.m. to present the awards.
The Ally Awards recognize individuals, departments or groups who have shown their support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) people or the LGBT community during the 2006-2007 school year. All are welcome.
The awards are sponsored by the LGBT Resource Center, LGBT Studies Program and the Presidential Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
For more information about the Ally Awards, visit www.niu.edu/lgbt/allyawards.htm, call (815) 753-5428 or e-mail lgtb@niu.edu.
The Ally Program is a campus-wide program designed to foster a welcoming and supportive campus environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender students, faculty and staff by creating a visible network of allies.
Faculty, staff, graduate assistants, residence hall staff and students who want to visibly show their support for LGBT people are invited to volunteer for the Ally Program.
Ally Program volunteers participate in a training workshop to learn more about how to be an effective ally, and then display the “NIU Ally” symbol on door signs, buttons and magnets to identify themselves as resource persons who can provide support and information. For more information, visit www.niu.edu/lgbt/allyprogram.htm.
Volunteers must attend one three-hour training workshop. Space is limited, and advance registration is required.
Spring 2007 workshops are:
- Thursday, April 5, 1 to 4 p.m.
- Wednesday, April 11, 1 to 4 p.m.
- Monday, April 23, 9 a.m. to noon
- Tuesday, April 24, 9 a.m. to noon
To register, contact the LGBT Resource Center at (815) 753-LGBT or e-mail lgbt@niu.edu.
The NIU Alumni Association invites you to experience the romance that is Paris from May 18 through May 26.
Travelers can choose which days to browse the fashion houses and shops, contemplate art in one of the 90 museums, be amazed at the architecture, relax and people-watch in the sidewalk cafes or venture outside of the city on the optional tours.
Optional side-trips are planned to Giverny and Rouen, two Chateaux in the Loire Valley, and Mont Saint Michel, along with a Parisian cooking class.
The cost is $2,195 per person, double occupancy; single supplement is available. For more information or to place a reservation, call Pat Anderson at (815) 753-1512.
April is National Donate Life Month, a time to remember the 4,700 Illinoisans and 95,000 people nationwide who are awaiting lifesaving transplants. Are you re-registered in Illinois’ new organ/tissue donor registry?
Illinois approved a new law Jan. 1, 2006, creating a new donor registry that eliminates the need for additional consent from family members or loved ones for you to be an organ/tissue donor when you die.
Donate Life Illinois (www.IAmAreYou.org) is a coalition of agencies across the state working toward registering 3.5 million Illinoisans in the state’s new registry by April. The campaign is part of a national effort to increase to 100 million the number of Americans who have taken action to become donors in their states.
It takes 30 seconds to re-register and possibly provide someone with a second chance at life. -- MORE
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