NIU’s School of Theatre and Dance and the Department of Anthropology attract award-winning scholars and brilliant students from around the world. Some of the alumni rise to the pinnacles of their fields.
Yet their success comes despite the appalling condition of the building that houses those programs, and some administrators say it’s becoming difficult to recruit new faculty and students and to protect those already here from being wooed away by universities with nicer facilities.
The 67,000-square-foot Stevens Building’s critical needs, including mold and a leaky roof, have placed it atop NIU’s list of capital improvement projects for the last decade.
NIU officials and students joined the governor’s office Monday, Oct. 22, in spotlighting the urgency of $20.8 million in state capital improvement project funds that would renovate and repair the Stevens Building.
Jan Grimes, executive director of the Illinois Capital Development Board, represented Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich at the event. Blagojevich has recommended the Stevens Building project to state lawmakers whose approval would release those dollars to NIU.
“We’re encouraged to see the governor recognizes the need for necessary capital improvements at NIU and universities across the state,” NIU President John Peters said. “Renovation of the Stevens Building has long been a priority at NIU, and we’ve worked diligently to make it a top priority in Springfield as well.”
Opened in 1959, the Stevens Building has walls spotted with mold and water stains.
Rain drips from the ceilings. Old heating units are exposed, some occasionally spewing steam and water. Boards replace some missing windows. Students lug laptops to a cramped computer lab situated in an old janitor’s closet, where a few must sit on the floor. Theatre and Dance staff need to run water from an old sink in that “lab” often enough to prevent the pipes from drying out and sewer gas from backing up.
“Anyone who has spent any time in this building realizes how dire the needs are,” NIU Provost Raymond Alden III said. “We are not talking about cosmetic improvements but legitimate health and safety issues. To maintain the strength of our visual and performing arts program and our anthropology program, these problems must be addressed.”
“We’ve been coping to the extent that we can. There are certain things we can’t cope with,” said Harold Kafer, the dean of NIU College of Visual and Performing Arts who declared renovation of the Stevens Building his non-negotiable top priority upon arrival in 1995.
“We can’t cope with an ongoing mold problem, for instance. We remove it when it grows, but that’s an ongoing battle,” Kafer added. “We can’t cope with the fact that the building is not handicapped-accessible. We can’t cope with heating-ventilation-air conditioning systems that don’t work properly and are so noisy they can’t be run during a performance. We can’t cope with the fact that when we have dance performances in the O’Connell that we have to bring in portable heaters for the stage area so the dancers don’t injure themselves.”
Christopher McCord, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said the Stevens Building desperately needs this overhaul to help meet NIU’s enrollment and employment goals.
“We strive to be an institution of first choice for students and faculty, and we must be able to offer them appropriate space and facilities to learn and work in,” McCord said. “Our anthropology department is a very distinguished program and a real asset to the university. The discoveries of its faculty have been featured in the likes of the Chicago Tribune, National Geographic and the New York Times. We need to have an appropriate learning and teaching environment for them.”
The scope of the Stevens Building project would include the addition of 18,000 square feet for a scenery shop and associates space and the addition of 10,500 square feet for the Black Box Theatre.
Renovation of all existing spaces, including the O’Connell Theatre and the Anthropology Museum, would include:
Department chairs who share the Stevens Building eagerly await the dollars that would breathe new life into the dilapidated space. Professors are working in offices with no heat. Heating systems have exploded, spewing hot steam and water across rooms.
“I think it makes it difficult to recruit faculty,” said Judy Ledgerwood, chair of Anthropology and a faculty associate with NIU’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies. “We have excellent faculty. They have external funding, NSF funding, etc., and then they have to work in these conditions. It would be very easy for other universities to look at our best faculty and conclude that the facility issues here make it easier for them to steal our best faculty away.”
“The building is not ADA compliant,” added Alex Gelman, director of the School of Theatre and Dance. “When Theatre and Dance patrons come to see a production, people in wheelchairs have to actually go to the main lobby and pick up their tickets, then exit the building, go up a hill and enter directly into one of our three theaters.”
Repair of the building also is crucial to continued recruitment of top students. Buildings such as the Stevens Building, constructed during a rapid expansion of higher education in the 1950s and 1960s, have reached the stage where they require renovation to extend their life spans.
“The nature of higher education has changed as well,” McCord said. “Student needs are different and expectations for faculty have changed. We need not only to refurbish these buildings but also to modernize them in order to provide a 21st century learning environment.”
“It would mean that not only is the building brought up to modern standards, both in terms of health and safety and in terms of functionality,” Kafer added, “but it also means that many students – especially undergraduates – who choose to go elsewhere because the facility is so bad, even though they’re attracted by the strength our faculty, will make the decision to come to Northern.”
While DeKalb has long been famous for things such as corn and barbed wire, Northern Illinois University’s NIU-Net has put the region on the map in a new way that could pay big dividends to the local economy.
The high-speed fiber optic network has made DeKalb one of the most fiber-accessible cities in the state. That, combined with other factors such as low land prices, a highly educated work force and geographic location, make DeKalb a highly attractive destination for companies looking to build new data centers, or server farms, as they are sometimes known. The facilities are typically large buildings that house a huge number of computer servers to store data for banks, insurance companies and all manner of businesses.
“It used to be that we boasted about grain storage; now digital data storage is a hot commodity,” said Roger Hopkins, executive director of the DeKalb County Development Corp.
Dan Halverson, president of DeKalb Fiber Optics, which has partnered with NIU to create a local fiber optic network in DeKalb and beyond, said DeKalb has a right to brag about the network and its potential to attract business.
“With what we have in place, we’ve got everything a business could be looking for, at prices that are drastically lower than what they are used to paying,” Halverson said.
Data centers traditionally have been located in urban areas near, or in, the buildings that house the companies they serve.
However, the advent of high-speed fiber optic networks such NIU-Net and other commercial equivalent networks means that data can be shipped cross country almost as quickly as it can be moved between floors. Consequently, businesses are looking to locate their data centers (usually backup systems, but sometimes also primary systems) to areas where land is cheaper than in urban settings. Also driving that move are fears over potential terrorist attacks on urban centers as well as worries about natural disasters such as hurricanes or earthquakes in some areas.
Such concerns are heating up the market for new facilities.
“Data center projects are the fastest-growing field in corporate site location,” said John Boyd, president of the Boyd Company (which specializes in advising large companies on where to locate facilities) in a January 2007 interview in the online industry publication Data Center Knowledge.
Much of that growth, Boyd said, will take place in the Midwest.
Earlier this year, his company released a list of the 20 most affordable places to locate a data center. At the top was Sioux Falls, S.D., and the top 10 included other heartland outposts such as Des Moines, Iowa; Ames, Iowa; and Indianapolis.
Towns covet the facilities because data centers generate a substantial number of construction jobs and create well-paying jobs for people in fields such as management, information technology, electrical engineering and technologies. NIU has strong programs in all of those areas, Hopkins said. The facilities also generate substantial property taxes when they are up and running, he added.
Drawing those facilities here might have just become a little easier thanks to DeKalb’s inclusion on a map produced by Educause, which depicts higher education broadband networks around the country. The map highlights DeKalb’s status as home to NIU-Net.
While Educause printed the map to demonstrate how relatively scarce such networks are, it sends a different message to companies looking for potential data center locations.
“Our presence on the Educause map demonstrates that we are among the elite in the state – in fact, the Midwest – when it comes to availability of high speed fiber,” said Wally Czerniak, NIU’s associate vice president for Information Technology Services. “It also signals to interested companies that, if they locate here, they will have access to a highly educated work force by tapping into graduates from NIU’s programs in computer science, information technology and electrical engineering.
“Being on that map also speaks volumes about the fiber capacity available here,” added Czerniak, who has worked to make the creation of NIU-Net a public-private partnership.
“By working with companies like DeKalb Fiber Optic, the university was able to minimize costs,” he said. “It also allowed for the creation of a network that not only serves the needs of higher education, but also allowed for the installation of vast amounts of commercial fiber that is becoming a hot commodity.”
As work on the NIU-Net loop (originally created to link the DeKalb campus with its centers in Rockford, Hoffman Estates and Naperville) nears completion, Hopkins has been ramping up his efforts to begin attracting data centers. The viability of attracting data centers to the region has already has been demonstrated in Rochelle, which recently lured an Allstate Insurance server farm
Such success is encouraging, Hopkins said.
“This is definitely an industry we want to attract,” he said, “and we have the infrastructure to do it.”
For 13 years, NIU faculty and staff have gathered each spring to learn more about making their courses multicultural in nature.
Now they have a way to read about that process and learn what others are doing.
“The Multiculturalist,” a new online publication of the Office of the Provost, made its debut last week. The semiannual publication will contain information on the Multicultural Curriculum Transformation Institute, interviews with faculty, book reviews, helpful resources at NIU and important dates.
In the first issue, Lisa Finkelstein, associate professor in the Department of Psychology, shares a good method for setting the tone for multiculturalism in the classroom. Sherry Fang, associate professor in the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences, speaks about her “powerful” experience with the institute.
“We wanted to have a way to keep that opportunity to participate in the institute before the campus,” said Virginia Cassidy, vice provost for academic planning and development.
“We also wanted to provide a means for communication related to multicultural curriculum transformation issues to the campus, and this is a great forum. We can distribute it electronically, which is very cost-effective in getting information out, and it’s posted on our Web site so people can go back and look at past issues,” Cassidy said. “We’re trying to highlight people on campus who’ve had experience with multicultural curriculum transformation so that the rest of the campus community can know who these people are.”
“Ours is a fast-moving culture,” added Donna Askins, the publication’s editor. “We expect people can browse through it quickly to finds tools they can use or information of interest.”
Internet users around the world also should find links to “The Multiculturalist” when searching online for more information on curriculum transformation topics.
Those who click on the link pointing to NIU will discover a university that takes seriously its commitment to multicultural curriculum transformation.
A September report prepared by Robin D. Moremen, professor of sociology, and Michael J. Gonzales, professor of history and director of the Center for Latino and Latin American Studies, assesses the impact of the annual institute on NIU faculty and students.
Compiled at the request of Provost Ray Alden, the report examines the years 2001 through 2006. The institute did not take place in 2004.
Eighty-six faculty, staff and instructors took part during those years, the greatest percentages from the colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Education. Twelve have left NIU since.
The 74 others, however, have transformed 132 courses. Ninety-three were undergraduate courses, and 11 of those were general education classes.
Seven hundred and seventy sections of these classes were taught since 2001 with a total enrollment of 19,639 students. About 4,000 students per year have taken courses transformed by the institute. One quarter of all undergraduates currently enroll in at least one general education course transformed by the institute.
“One of the things we’ve learned about faculty who’ve come to the institute – they pick a course they’re going to transform as part of the requirements of the institute – is that they also transform other courses they teach. It’s a domino effect, if you will,” Cassidy said.
“Multicultural curriculum transformation is a process. It’s not an overnight switch. It occurs along a spectrum,” Askins said. “People can try something, and then they can take a step, and then they can take another step.”
Cassidy and Askins welcome any input, including multicultural methodology and success stories, regarding “The Multiculturalist.” They’re also eager for questions.
“That can help us. Typically, if one person has a question, then other people have a question,” Cassidy said. “People also can point us in the direction of other people with good ideas.”
For more information about the Multicultural Curriculum Transformation Institute, call (815) 753-8557 or e-mail mcti@niu.edu.
When Ben Gross was 6, he plotted his life path on a piece of paper and showed it to his mom. His career trajectory included stints as a paleontologist, storm chaser and president of the United States.
Although he isn’t searching for dinosaurs or chasing twisters, some things haven’t changed for the 22-year-old NIU senior. His passion for learning remains evident in his amazingly diverse range of interests and talents.
Gross holds a 3.87 grade point average. He will graduate next May with a degree in political science and minors in both mathematics and physics. Last year he was named “junior of the year” in the University Honors Program.
He also serves as a peer instructor to freshmen, is completing his second year-long term as president of the Alpha Phi Omega co-ed service fraternity and has worked three years as a sports reporter for the Northern Star, now assigned to what he calls “the best job on campus,” covering Huskie football.
Oh, yeah, and he’s also an Eagle Scout – one in a long line in his family who have achieved the distinction, including his father and uncles.
For his achievements in and out of the classroom, Gross, of Naperville, has been named NIU’s 2008 Student Lincoln Laureate, an annual honor reserved for the university’s top senior. Each of the state’s four-year public universities selects one Student Lincoln Laureate, recognizing excellence in both curricular and extracurricular activities.
Gross brings curiosity and enthusiasm to just about every aspect of college life, or life in general for that matter.
“I always joke that I could stay in college and learn forever,” he says. “Learning for me is just the most fascinating thing you could do.”
Gross says he jumped in the air when he opened a letter at 11 o’clock at night informing him he had been named Lincoln Laureate. He called his Naperville home and woke up his parents, Wendy and Jeff Gross, who met during their college days at NIU. The family will travel to Springfield for Saturday’s (Oct. 27) ceremony recognizing the state’s Lincoln Laureates in the House of Representatives of the Old State Capitol in Springfield.
A 2004 graduate of Waubonsie Valley High School, Gross initially intended to study astronomy. But his interest in political science was sparked during his first semester freshman year in a course titled “Democracy in America,” taught by NIU veteran political scientist Gary Glenn.
“I thought it would be a blow-off course, but in reality it was one of hardest classes I’ve ever taken,” Gross says. “It was very intense and a huge learning curve for me.”
Gross has since taken five more courses taught by Glenn, studying the likes of Plato, Socrates, John Locke and Alexis de Tocqueville.
“Ben is an exemplary student to teach,” Glenn says. “He has a truly astonishing breadth of intellectual interests that is unparalleled in my 41 years experience teaching at NIU.
“He excels at what he does, from his studies to his service and leadership, out of what appears to be some inner desire to make himself and his environment better,” Glenn adds.
Gross says he likes to stay busy.
“I had a lot of down time my freshman year,” he says. “I didn’t know what to do with myself so I just started taking on more and more. I always want to be involved and doing something. You only have so much time, and you shouldn’t waste any of it.”
Jes Cisneros, assistant director of the University Honors Program, says Gross “challenges himself intellectually above and beyond what most of his peers would be willing to risk.”
Gross has had a substantial influence on other students, particularly as a leader in the area of service. The NIU chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, the longest continually running chapter in the country, actively volunteers at campus events and with homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters and animal welfare agencies.
“When you’re around Ben, you almost can’t help but want to get involved,” Cisneros says. “His level of enthusiasm for anything he does is contagious.”
Gross credits his parents with teaching the importance of volunteerism.
“Giving back to the community is just something I was taught as a child,” he says. “I still remember my dad waking me and my brother on Saturday mornings to go off and help at a food pantry.”
Following his graduation next spring, Gross intends to go to graduate school – although he jokes that the right job offer could sidetrack those plans.
“I still have a dream of one day announcing baseball for the Chicago Cubs,” he says. “That’s the dream, but my goal is to attend graduate school at Northern Illinois because I really enjoy studying political philosophy here.”
Ultimately Gross wants to become a university professor. Or possibly a sportswriter.
No need to settle on one possibility just yet.
In winning NIU’s Lincoln Laureate award, Gross was competing against top NIU seniors in a wide variety of disciplines. Other nominees for the award included first finalist Rachel Baker (Biological Sciences) of DeLand; Rachel Bruno (Communication) of Davenport, Iowa; Timerlee Haas (Clinical Laboratory Sciences) of Stockton; Amber Keyes (English) of Oregon, Ill./Eau Claire, Wis.; Artice Weston (Speech-Language Pathology/Audiology) of DeKalb; and Katherine Young (English) of Clare.
While the snap of fall in the air has many contemplating the winter ahead, planners in the Division of Finance and Facilities already are focusing on next summer, when a major project will shut down a stretch of Normal Road for several weeks and disrupt much of the East Campus.
Scheduled to begin in April and run until August, the project involves the installation of large pipes to carry chilled water around the East Campus that ultimately will allow the university to eliminate the stand-alone chiller units and cooling towers used to cool those buildings. The project also includes construction of a new chilled water plant on what is now the northeast corner of the Campus Life Building parking lot.
Ultimately, the project will save the university about $400,000 a year in energy costs, said Jeffrey Daurer, director of capital budgeting and planning for the Division of Finance and Facilities.
Chilled water cooling is also much more environmentally friendly, and will make the campus a more beautiful, quieter place when the existing chillers are decommissioned and removed. Many of the air conditioning units to be retired are 25 to 40 years old, well beyond their useful life.
But before things get cooler and greener, there will be a few annoyances next summer, said Daurer, who met last week with about 20 department heads and managers from buildings most likely to be affected by the project.
“This is a major project, and there are going to be some headaches, so we are trying to give people as much advance notice as possible so that they can plan ahead and make adjustments,” Daurer said.
Chief among the inconveniences will be the closure of Normal Road between Lincoln Highway and Lucinda for a period of eight to 10 weeks as crews dig through the pavement to install the chilled water pipes beneath the roadway from the north side of Adams Hall to the south end of Davis Hall.
In addition to the work on Normal, the project will require the following (see map for details):
Ultimately, the new pipes will connect to existing pipes (installed in 2003 when Gilbert Drive was rebuilt) completing a loop around most of the East Campus
All of that work will not be done simultaneously but in stages. A schedule for how the project will proceed will be developed after a contractor is selected. Regular project updates will be posted at www.niu.edu/chiller as the project approaches and begins. The first updates should appear in late January or early February.
“We plan to do our best to keep the campus community aware of where we will be digging at any given time to minimize disruptions as much as possible,” Daurer said.
The water lines will be installed by the end of next summer, but the chilled water plant probably will not come online until the spring of 2010.
When it does, the following buildings will be converted to chilled water cooling: Altgeld Hall, Campus Life, Faraday Hall, Faraday West, Founders Library, the Health Service Center (including the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic, University Police and Telecom), the Holmes Student Center, Gilbert Hall, Lowden Hall, Montgomery Hall, the Music Building, the Psychology/Computer Science Building, Swen Parson Hall, the Visual Arts Building, Williston Hall and Wirtz Hall.
Other buildings, such as Still Hall, Still Gym, Adams Hall, Davis Hall and McMurray Hall will require some modifications, but could be converted to chilled water cooling in the future.
Furthermore, the new chiller plant eventually could cool Anderson Hall, the College of Engineering and Barsema Hall with the extension of chilled water lines northward. Adding those buildings to the chilled water system should result in an additional savings of several hundred thousand dollars a year, Daurer estimated.
The project has been on the books for several years, and has received earmarks of $7.7 million and $7.8 million from the state Capital Development Board and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity respectively.
The work has been on hold because the CDC money has been frozen, but that agency recently released the funds on the condition that NIU make up $3.9 million in additional costs now needed to complete the project (due to rising prices since the original approval). Eddie Williams, executive vice president and chief of operations, told the Finance, Facilities and Operations Committee that the long-term benefits of the new plant are important enough that the university will be able to find the money within the Finance and Facilities budget to get the project done. The project won unanimous approval from the NIU Board of Trustees.
NIU’s Department of Mathematical Sciences/Division of Statistics is now offering an emphasis in actuarial science for students who would like to pursue careers as actuaries, consistently rated among the top professional jobs in the nation.
Actuaries are business professionals who analyze the financial consequences of risk in fields ranging from finance to product development. Many work in the insurance industry on such tasks as analyzing insurance rates, estimating the amount of money to be set aside for future claims and forecasting the potential impact of catastrophes such as tornadoes and hurricanes.
In its annual compilations, Jobs Rated Almanac frequently has cited the job of actuary as being among the best in the nation, factoring in such criteria as income, physical demands, stress levels and employment outlook.
The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Statistics, reports that employment of actuaries is expected to rise by 18 percent to 26 percent through 2014. In May 2004, the median annual earnings of professionals in the field were $76,340.
“We developed this program even as NIU President John Peters called for the university to be engaged and responsive to the needs of employers in our region,” said Professor Rama Lingham, director of the NIU Division of Statistics.
“There is an emerging need for more actuaries in northern Illinois. Within a radius of 100 miles of NIU, one can find numerous insurance companies. Students trained in actuarial science are in heavy demand,” Lingham said.
The NIU emphasis in actuarial science is multidisciplinary, combining courses in accountancy, economics, finance, mathematics, statistics and actuarial science.
“The program is rigorous and foundational,” Lingham said. “It is designed to prepare students for the first three examinations sponsored by the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) and the Society of Actuaries (SOA). We’re confident our students will be well-prepared for their careers.”
The NIU Board of Trustees approved the actuarial emphasis last spring, and 15 students already are enrolled in the actuarial science track.
For admission to this emphasis or more information about the exams of SOA/CAS and the actuarial profession, call (815) 753-6714 to schedule an appointment with Professor Lingham. More information is also online at www.math.niu.edu/StatDiv/actuarial/.
Students also can join the NIU Actuarial Clubto meet classmates who share interests and actuarial aspirations by e-mailing the president of the club at president_actuarial@math.niu.edu.
Doug Scott, director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and former mayor of Rockford, will visit campus Wednesday, Nov. 7, to discuss how the state is working to reduce greenhouse gases.
Scott’s NIU presentation, titled “Illinois Initiatives to Reduce Greenhouse Gases and Our Impact on Global Warming,” will begin at 7 p.m. in the Montgomery Hall Auditorium. The event is open to the public.
Sponsored by the Department of Geography, the presentation is a continuation of last spring’s public symposiums on global climate change. The symposiums featured leading NIU researchers who shared their expertise on climate change in a series of seven well-attended public presentations.
“Last spring’s symposiums were very well-received by the public, and as we said during those events, we plan to continue our discussions with a series of speakers this academic year,” said Andrew Krmenec, chair of the Department of Geography.
“There are many dimensions to climate change, including its impact on culture, religion, economics, business, technology, government and, of course, the environment,” he added. “Doug Scott is a statewide authority and will enlighten us on what initiatives are under way in our own back yard.”
Scott served as a state representative for the 67th District from 1995 to 2001, followed by a four-year term as mayor of Rockford. Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed him director of the IEPA, effective July 1, 2005.
Last year the governor announced a new global warming initiative to build on Illinois’ role as a national leader in protecting the environment and public health. The announcement marked the beginning of a long-term strategy by the state to combat global climate change. The strategy builds on the steps the state already has taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as enhancing the use of biofuels and wind power.
Scott chairs the Illinois Climate Change Advisory Group, which is considering a full range of policies and strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and will make recommendations to the governor. The Advisory Group has broad representation that includes leaders in science, business, labor unions, environmental groups and the energy and agricultural industries.
More information on the advisory panel is available online at www.epa.state.il.us/air/climatechange/.
Later this semester, Rebecca Stanfield, state director of Environment Illinois, a citizen-based environmental advocacy organization, will visit campus. Stanfield recently co-authored a report titled, “A Blueprint for Action; Policy Options to Reduce Illinois’ Contribution to Global Warming.” She will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 27, in the Montgomery Hall Auditorium.
The Employee Assistance Program has announced that flu shots will be given as planned from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31.
The location has been changed, however, to the west entrance of the Duke Ellington Ballroom.
The flu clinic planned for 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13, will remain in the Regency Room as planned.
On the menu at Ellington’s this week: Vive la France, scheduled for Tuesday. Autumn Harvest takes over Thursday.
Vive la France features spinach salad with roasted almonds and French onion soup for starters, pork cordon bleu and crepes with roasted vegetables for entrees and thin pear and almond tart and chocolate mousse for dessert. Each table also will be served a loaf of freshly baked French bread.
Autumn Harvest features butternut squash soup and mixed greens with cranberry vinaigrette for starters, broccoli linguine Alfredo and stuffed turkey breast with cranberry glaze for entrees and carrot cake and apple crisp for dessert. Each table also will be served hot apple cider.
Seating is from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. with service until 1 p.m. The cost is $8 per person. Ellington’s is located on the main floor of the Holmes Student Center. Call (815) 753-1763 or visit www.ellingtons.niu.edu to make reservations.
All are invited Saturday, Nov. 3, to the 15th annual NIU NATIONS Pow Wow, the largest university student-sponsored pow wow in the Midwest.
Admission is free to the pow wow, held from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. in the Student Recreation Center. Grand entries are scheduled for 1 and 7 p.m. The event features authentic and traditional Native American dancers, drums, songs, food, vendors and traders.
The pow wow helps to support the NIU Native American Scholarship Fund. Individuals or groups that would like to help as volunteers should contact Michael Seven Eagle Feathers Augsburger, NATIONS faculty adviser, at (815) 753-1406, (815) 758-3604 or via e-mail at niunations@yahoo.com.
All NIU women, including faculty, staff and students, are invited to a networking luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16.
Mira Reisberg, assistant professor in the School of Art, will present “Maya Gonzalez: Portrait of the Artist as an Ecofeminist Children’s Book Illustrator” at noon.
Reisberg’s research and teaching practices involve the study of multicultural children’s picture books as a form of visual culture used to support social justice and environmental stewardship.
For her presentation, she will show a short video article titled “Maya Gonzalez: Portrait of the Artist as a Radical Children’s Book Illustrator.” This documentary as qualitative research explores the work and life of Gonzalez, a Chicana lesbian artist, focusing on race, gender and environmental aspects of her work.
The luncheon is held in the Chandelier Room of Adams Hall and costs $8 per person. To make a reservation before Tuesday, Nov. 6, call (815) 753-0320.
All members of the university community are invited to the Creating Community Fall Reception, sponsored by the Presidential Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender History Month.
The event with dessert reception takes place from noon to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31, in the Gallery Lounge on the main floor of the Holmes Student Center.
Costumes are encouraged. Winners of the “Color It Queer!” coloring contest will be announced at 12:45 p.m.
Call (815) 753-LGBT (5428) for more information.
NIU’s Art Museum will host several faculty lectures in conjunction with the NIU School of Art Faculty Biennial exhibition, which runs from Tuesday, Oct. 30, through Saturday, Dec. 8. The public is invited to an opening reception from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 30.
The speaker series and exhibition gives the public an opportunity to share in the research, ideas and artwork of NIU School of Art faculty. All lectures will be held at 5 p.m. in Altgeld Hall 315 unless otherwise noted.
The NIU Art Museum is 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 free; donations are appreciated. The exhibitions of the NIU Art Museum are funded in part by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, 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.
Two groups play their debut concerts of the year in November. CSJazz Band performs at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4, and CSA Sinfonia performs at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7.
Both ensembles are with the NIU Community School of the Arts and perform in the Concert Hall in the Music Building.
Directing the CSJazz Band for the first time this year is saxophonist Doug Stone. A well-known performer and graduate of the NIU jazz program, he brings his directing and composing skills to the 15-member band.
The band is playing “Stitch in Time” by Sammy Nestico, “It’s Only A Paper Moon” by E.Y. Harburg and Billy Rose, “Never No Lament” by Duke Ellington and a new tune by Stone.
The CSA Sinfonia performs “Concerto Grosso” in D minor by Vivaldi, the prelude to “Die Meistersinger” by Wagner, the finale from Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” as well as pieces by Leroy Anderson and Kansas. The orchestra is directed by cellist Linc Smelser, music director of the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
Both performances are free and open to the public. Parking adjacent to the Music Building is free after 7 p.m.
The Nehring Gallery in downtown DeKalb invites the public to their latest exhibition, “Art & Artifacts of WWII.” The exhibition on display through Nov. 15 showcases the collection of John Wright, owner of Wright’s Jewelry in downtown DeKalb.
The opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4, will include comments from the collector at 5:30 p.m. In conjunction with the exhibition, Nehring Gallery also will host a guest lecture by Dale Cozort, a WWII historian and author, at noon Wednesday, Oct. 31. Cozort’s lecture is titled “World War II: Desperate Struggle, Foregone Conclusion.”
More than 50 WWII propaganda posters and artifacts will be on display during the exhibit. Two rare original prints created for a poster design contest in 1942 at the New York Museum of Modern Art are also part of the exhibition. One of these winning submissions, “America, Step on It,” is a one-of-a-kind original oil painting from which later posters were based. Wright also has generously donated an original 1945 print of “7th Now … All Together” by C.C. Beall to be raffled off. Tickets for the raffle are for sale throughout the exhibition for $1 each or six for $5. All proceeds help support the Nehring Gallery.
“Art & Artifacts of WWII” is open and free to the public during regular gallery hours from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and by appointment.
Nehring Gallery is located on the second floor of the Nehring Center for Culture and Tourism in the historic First National Bank building on the corner of Lincoln Highway and Second Street in downtown DeKalb. The gallery is cooperatively operated by the DeKalb Park District and the NIU College of Visual and Performing Arts Division of Outreach. An entrance accessible to all is located at the 111 S Second Street entrance.
NIU’s Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center and Human Resource Services are offering grants up to $1,000 each to Supportive Professional Staff (SPS) pursuing professional development activities that benefit the individuals as well as their academic units.
Proposal guidelines and other information are available at http://www.niu.edu/facdev/grants/spsdgrant.shtml. Five copies of each proposal, including other relevant documents, must be submitted to the SPS Awards Committee, Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center, 319 Adams Hall, by Friday, Nov. 16, for activities proposed between Jan. 1 and June 2008.
SPS who plan to submit a proposal by the Nov. 16 deadline and need more information are encouraged to register to attend the grant writing seminar from noon to 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2. Register online at http://www.niu.edu/facdev/forms/fsprogreg.shtml or e-mail to facdev@niu.edu.