Mohsen Pourahmadi in the Division of Statistics and John Skowronski in the Department of Psychology have been awarded 2008 Presidential Research Professorships, NIU’s top recognition for outstanding research.
“Drs. Pourahmadi and Skowronski are widely regarded as top scholars in their respective fields,” said Rathindra Bose, vice president for research and dean of the NIU Graduate School.
“They are passionate in their quest for knowledge, and their cutting-edge work attracts international attention,” he added. “We’re proud to have them at the head of their respective classrooms in statistics and psychology in transmitting new knowledge to students that they have gathered through research. Ultimately, students, peers in their disciplines and society benefit from their work.”
The Presidential Research Professorships have been awarded annually since 1982 in recognition and support of NIU’s research and artistic mission. Award winners receive special financial support of their research for four years, after which they carry the title of Distinguished Research Professor.
Here’s a look at this year’s award winners.
Life is full of uncertainties, but less so, thanks to Mohsen Pourahmadi.
A professor of statistics, Pourahmadi develops mathematical tools that other researchers can use to predict future events with more certainty – from snowstorms to earthquakes. His elegant theories, statistical analyses and complex algorithms also help researchers mine valuable information from massive data sets, thus providing insights into such areas as genetics, engineering, finance, medicine and climate change.
“Mohsen is a scholar of tremendous accomplishment,” says Presidential Research Professor Nader Ebrahimi, a colleague in the NIU Division of Statistics. “What distinguishes him from most other scholars is his ability to cut across disciplinary boundaries and apply interesting ideas to a variety of subjects.”
Growing up in Iran, Pourahmadi excelled in mathematics in high school. In college, he was drawn to statistics.
“I enjoy the applied aspect of it,” he says. “Statistics can be used to shed light on some of the uncertainties that are prevalent everywhere in life.”
Today, Pourahmadi is known internationally for his research in the areas of prediction theory, time series analysis and longitudinal data analysis. He publishes on average three research articles a year in top scholarly journals and in 2001 authored an influential book bridging his areas of study using basic geometrical and regression-like techniques. His work has revived interest in these fields among scholars worldwide.
More recently, he succeeded in overcoming a previously unresolved mathematical obstacle in longitudinal data analysis. The work is important in such areas as medical and social studies, because it enables researchers to understand and harness the power of correlation in repeated measurements over time.
Based on his accomplishments, Pourahmadi last year was named a fellow of the American Statistical Association, an honor given annually to no more than one-third of 1 percent of ASA members. He also is an elected member of the prestigious International Statistics Institute.
“Mohsen has carried the Northern Illinois statistics banner with distinction,” says Richard A. Davis, Howard Levene Professor of Statistics at Columbia University in New York. “He has developed an international reputation as one of the leading experts in time series analysis. He has made deep and fundamental contributions to statistics.”
His services in high demand, Pourahmadi travels frequently, collaborating with researchers in Asia and Europe. He has served as a visiting scholar at Kuwait University and Hokkaido University in Japan and has presented invited talks at more than 50 conferences and institutions worldwide. His work also has attracted significant funding from the National Science Foundation, National Security Agency and U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
Pourahmadi earned his Ph.D. from Michigan State University and began his career at NIU in 1981. He served as Division of Statistics director from 1994 to 2001 and now teaches undergraduate and graduate courses.
“In my mind, the importance of research to teaching is like that of being fit to good living. Research helps to motivate and bring out the history and vitality of topics discussed in the classroom,” Pourahmadi says.
When he’s not teaching, Pourahmadi is often working with graduate students and collaborators on ideas that could lead to either new or improved theories or statistical methods.
“I work at home or away, and whenever or wherever ideas present themselves,” he says. “At times, such work habits make my family wonder, but I think that’s typical of people who have a passion for what they do. A researcher is like a hunter who does not mind going at it early in the morning or late at night. Usually, the more unpredictable and harder the terrain, the higher the reward.”
In grade school, a priest visiting John Skowronski’s Chicago parish labeled him a hooligan. Today, social psychologists around the world label him as a leading researcher in the arena of social cognition.
The misunderstanding that earned him the first label (Skowronski’s failure to answer the priest was thanks to daydreaming, not belligerence as the priest assumed) helped lead to the second: Much of Skowronski’s research has explored why and how people form their (often faulty) opinions about others.
His early examination of biases in social judgments contributed to a new theoretical perspective on social judgments and influenced many other researchers. More recently, his work has increased understanding of the spontaneous impressions that people generate about others, how those impressions can be measured and the aftereffects of their formation.
Skowronski also explores autobiographical memory, trying to understand why we remember some things and not others; how we place events in time; how our memories make us feel; and the role that communication has in creating our memories. He also is well-regarded for his evolution-based theoretical ideas related to the development of a sense of self in humans and for his work exploring social memory.
“John’s work is elegant, creative, important and meticulous. He is the perfect model of what a good scientist does,” says Steven Sherman, the Chancellor’s Professor of Psychology at Indiana University. “In addition to his wonderful conceptual work, he has developed important new methodologies for studying these social cognitive issues.”
Since earning his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Iowa in 1984, he has authored more than 75 papers, many of which have appeared in top-tier journals. He credits a wide network of collaborators for helping him to maintain that level of research activity. He also has served as an editor and reviewer for major journals, including in his current role as associate editor for the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. For several years he also served on the Social and Developmental Psychology Grant Panel at the National Science Foundation.
His work has attracted about $600,000 in research funding (a sizeable amount in a field where awards are typically small and few) and has earned an international reputation for excellence. He has lectured at universities across the United States and has frequently presented at conferences at home and abroad.
“John is not merely a contributor to his field, but is a leader, someone whose work demands attention and sets the research agenda,” says Jeffrey Sherman, a professor of psychology at the University of California-Davis and editor of the journal Social Cognition.
Skowronski often collaborates with students on research. He speaks with great pride of former undergraduate student collaborators who have earned their Ph.D. degrees and are now on university faculties. He also takes special delight in collaborating with graduate students on projects that they develop for themselves, as well as on projects related to his own research agenda. “There’s nothing better than working with a graduate student and seeing the moment when they really ‘get it,’ moving from being a student to being a collaborator and colleague,” he says.
Despite his heavy research load, Skowronski still enjoys teaching a wide variety of courses from introductory psychology to advanced courses in social cognition. In fact, he believes that teaching and research go hand-in-hand.
“I don’t know how you could be a competent instructor in this area and not be a researcher at the same time,” he says. “Things change so fast that it’s the only way to keep up.”
Four members of NIU’s Operating Staff have been chosen to receive the Outstanding Service Award for 2008.
The recipients are Bonnie Anderson, graduate secretary in the Department of English; Sharon Dowen, director of Internal Audit; Joy Hadley, secretary in the Department of Mechanical Engineering; and Mary Hamell, clerk chief IV in the Department of Accountancy’s CPA Review.
More than 1,700 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 8, banquet.
Here is a closer look at the recipients.
Behind every great administrator is a strong secretary, something that more than one director of graduate studies in the Department of English confirms about Bonnie Anderson.
The former admissions/record officer in the Graduate School knows the school’s policies and procedures by heart – and often by page number.
Only months into her 2005 appointment in English, she helped the new director to revise the graduate student handbook. When Betty J. Birner became director last fall, it was Anderson who explained the what, when, why and to whom.
“She is careful to give me the starring role,” Birner said. “She tells me it is her job to make me look good, and she does so with humor and humility.”
But it is Anderson’s caring that makes her special.
A “tireless advocate” for students, she opened her home the Sunday after Feb. 14 for students to gather, hug and bake cookies. She collects furniture for students’ apartments, accepts deliveries of their packages at her house and offers motherly comfort and advice.
She’s an LGBT Ally, a Relay for Life participant and a local musician. She’s an animal lover who laundered loads of towels and pet bedding for TAILS, sewed catnip toys and cleaned cages. She’s an environmentalist who fills offices with plants, turns off unnecessary lights, recycles and conducts paperless graduate admissions.
“She leads by example,” Birner said, “and, in so doing, brings out the best in others.”
Sharon Dowen is a woman of courage.
Dowen, director of Internal Audit, is an investigator whose duty to “keep the institution out of trouble” occasionally gets university employees into trouble. It is not unusual for the auditing function to meet resistance and suspicion. Hers is a tough and thorny job, one that demands strict confidentiality and careful sensitivity.
Yet through her mental strength, personal integrity, positive attitude and hard-earned credibility, she is widely respected and uniformly well-liked.
“She has been involved in difficult situations where employees have misappropriated funds/assets,” said Abby Chemers, associate director for budget and planning in Finance and Facilities. “I have seen her appeal to managers to implement better procedures and policies to protect the university. In this awkward role, Sharon has earned much respect and developed life-long friendships.”
Dowen is also a strong advocate of raising money and awareness for breast cancer research.
She trained vigorously for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day walk, completed the 60 miles and raised more than $7,000 for research as her friends cheered.
One of NIU’s “25 Amazing Women,” Dowen is also an exemplary supervisor and role model for her staff. She assisted with the implementation of PeopleSoft and helped develop and present workshops on cash handling, managing cash operations and even effective meetings.
She also serves on the Gurler Heritage Association, delivers Meals on Wheels and is active in her church.
When Department of Mechanical Engineering faculty scamper to secretary Joy Hadley’s desk with last-minute typing needs, whether exams for students or papers almost past deadline for conferences, she always has the same response.
“I have never heard her say no,” associate professor Abhijit Gupta said. “With a smiling face, she will accommodate our requests, even though it may mean shortening the time for her lunch or extending her work day.”
Hadley also has near daily contact with the department’s 400 undergraduates, helping them to register for courses, locate faculty and advisers or apply for graduation. Hers is the first face new students encounter at orientation, where she scoops ice cream; they later glimpse her in the audience during Senior Design Day and hug her each fall in the Homecoming tent.
Faculty often seek Hadley’s guidance and knowledge on curriculum and student-related issues. She volunteers as a proctor for the Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering competitions on campus.
Hadley is an ardent fan of Huskie basketball, a season ticket holder for NIU theater events and a School of Music aficionado who attends several concerts.
The 44-year DeKalb resident also is active in the Pleasant Street Neighborhood Association, a chaperone to the Children’s Community Theater and a member of Stagecoach Theater. She serves Westminster Presbyterian Church in leadership, musical and educational capacities, delivers Meals on Wheels and accompanied local youth choirs Dee’s Dreamers and Dee’s Darlings.
A crystal ball might have come in handy this year at NIU’s CPA Review, where Mary Hamell is clerk chief IV.
But Hamell’s thoughtfulness and dedicated performance in times of trouble shone brightly even without a peek into the future: Hamell’s boss, Debra Hopkins, suffered the death of a parent, became sick herself and later broke several bones.
“She kept our 1,000-plus students on an even keel. She delivered work to my home when I was unable to walk, she worked independently and she made decisions that always put the learner’s needs in the forefront,” Hopkins said. “She kept our operation running as if nothing had happened.”
Plenty happens in Hamell’s office even in a normal year.
Hamell trains about 15 site assistants each year, procures handout materials for 22 classes and organizes and delivers materials to DeKalb, Chicago, Hoffman Estates and Naperville. Much of is done on weekends and evenings, when the classes meet.
Her service to the College of Business extends to membership on the facility committee, which works to maintain Barsema Hall for future students.
She is the current president of Beta Sigma Phi sorority. The sorority’s primary focus is to community service projects. She also is a member and past officer of PEO, which is a philanthropic organization where women celebrate the advancement of women through education and scholarships.
Hamell also enjoyed serving two years as commissioner of NIU’s golf league.
The faculty adviser and editor of the Northern Star joined their counterparts from Virginia Tech last week in Oklahoma for “Coping with Crisis,” a daylong series of talks Monday, April 7, about covering tragedies.
Northern Star adviser Jim Killam and editor-in-chief John Puterbaugh and the Virginia Tech representatives (Kelly Furnas and Amie Steele) were invited by the Gaylord Ambassadors of the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Sessions included a morning presentation to about 300 Oklahoma high school journalists, an intimate afternoon chat at the student newspaper offices and an evening all-university forum in the Donald W. Reynolds Performing Arts Center.
“We have gained some knowledge from covering this that we can pass on to the journalism community as a whole,” Killam said. “I feel good about being able to do that.”
Discussions ranged from advice on what the University of Oklahoma could do to prepare for a shooting – “We said, ‘Not a lot, short of turning your campus into a police state,’ ” Killam said – to a debate of conceal-and-carry laws to a picture of the journalistic experience of international news unfolding just outside the newsroom and the classroom.
“Students wanted to know what it was like in the newsroom,” Killam said. “We started out by giving them the timeline – here’s what the student journalists did and when they did it – and then took questions about covering the story while being part of the story.”
Killam, Puterbaugh, Furnas and Steele also had opportunities for private conversation between sessions – conversations that all four found equally as valuable as speaking to audiences that day.
“Those were good talks,” Killam said. “We had a lot of similar experiences after our tragedies, and we’ve talked throughout the past few weeks. So it was just nice to see each other and support each other.”
NIU’s Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic will close its on-campus doors Friday, April 25, to begin its move to the NIU Family Health, Wellness and Literacy Center on Sycamore Road.
Clinic officials will open new doors Monday, May 5, at the old Monsanto building.
The move to Sycamore Road, across from Kishwaukee Community Hospital, ends three years of anticipation for the faculty, students, staff and clients. Meanwhile, it commences an expected doubling of clientele: Close to 3,500 different people from babies to great-grandparents already take advantage of clinic services each year.
“Our students and our clients are very excited,” said Anne D. Davidson, director of the clinic. “The new clinic enables us to expand our clinical education offerings, research and client services in a beautiful facility that is more accessible to the community.”
Mass mailings are being sent to active, regular clients that provide greater details about
the closure, the move and the new facility.
Evy Smith, the clinic’s office manager, already has relocated to the Family Health, Wellness and Literacy Center to assist Davidson and other clinic components coordinate the last phase of the move.
Equipment, patient files, student materials and office supplies all are moving during the brief closure. Workers will install and calibrate old and new equipment while staff attend training and orientation on how to use some of the new equipment.
“This new space is much bigger than we have now,” Davidson said. “NIU is providing a state-of-the-art clinic to our students and to the community. We have an incredible clinic that clearly exceeds capabilities of other academic clinics nationwide.”
Part of the School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders, housed in the College of Health and Human Sciences, the year-round clinic annually tests the hearing of about 900 newborns at Kishwaukee Community Hospital.
Children at St. Mary’s School in Sycamore receive speech and language services, as do the senior citizens of Oak Crest Retirement Center, who also benefit from rehabilitative assistance. Bilingual services are provided in audiology and speech-language pathology.
Opened in 1938, the clinic also provides:
Outreach speech-language and hearing screenings reach thousands living in DeKalb, Boone, DuPage, Kane, Lee, McHenry, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties. Even during the clinic’s earliest days, faculty with the responsibility for clinical instruction and the provision of services began traveling with students to provide diagnostic, screening and therapy services to the area’s public schools.
Outreach services include:
More than 250 graduate and undergraduate students receive clinical education or perform in-service activities at the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic.
For more information, call (815) 753-1481.
Nobel Laureate Gerard ’t Hooft, a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, will visit NIU this month to deliver a lecture on quantum physics.
His lecture, titled “Black Holes in Particle Physics,” will be presented at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, in Altgeld Hall. The room location will be forthcoming.
The 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to ’t Hooft and Martinus Veltman for having placed particle physics theory on a firmer mathematical foundation. They showed how the theory can be used for precise calculations of physical quantities. Experiments at accelerator laboratories in Europe and the United States subsequently confirmed many of the calculated results.
’t Hooft continues to be a highly active researcher in many branches related to particle physics, studying such topics as gauge theories, quantum gravity, black holes and determinism in quantum mechanics.
His NIU presentation will be geared for students and faculty in physics and the hard sciences. He will discuss how the very nature of black holes causes unforeseen difficulties when scientists try to formulate theories consistent with quantum mechanics.
“Having the opportunity to meet and discuss some of the most contemporary issues in physics with such an expert in the field should be a truly exciting experience for all of our students and faculty,” said Timothy Maxwell, a graduate student in physics.
Maxwell and fellow graduate student Jim Younkin arranged for ’t Hooft’s visit. The Physics Graduate Student Committee had pursued the internationally sought-after speaker for more than a year before landing him for this month’s lecture.
The event is sponsored by the Graduate Colloquium Committee.
Work to install chilled water lines on the East Campus will begin this week.
Work will take place along the east/west sidewalk from Faraday Hall to Castle Drive and along the sidewalk on the east side of Faraday Hall from Watson Creek north. Heavy equipment and heavy truck traffic will pose a hazard to pedestrians in these areas. For safety reasons, pedestrians are urged to find alternate routes while work is in progress. Anticipated working hours for this week are from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
NIU Recreation Services will sponsor Huskie Pup Camp, a nine-week summer camp for children ages 6 to12. The camp is designed to help participants become more independent, enhance self-confidence and develop both mind and body in a fun and safe learning environment.
Camp registration begins today. Complete information is available online.
Members of the Illinois Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence will host a public forum tonight at NIU-Naperville that will feature speaker Garrett Evans, a Chicago native and Virginia Tech student wounded in the April 16, 2007, campus shootings.
The forum – “Gun Violence: What Can The Public Do To Prevent It?” – begins at 7 p.m. in Conference Room 101-C at NIU-Naperville, 1120 E. Diehl Road.
Discussion will focus on what role average citizens can play in helping to reduce gun violence as well as state legislation currently addressing the issue. Invited guests include law enforcement, clergy, NIU students and Illinois state legislators.
Visit www.icpgv.org for more information.
On the menu at Ellington’s this week: Café Italiano is scheduled for Tuesday, Amour de Nouritture takes over Wednesday and Asian Flair concludes the week Thursday.
Café Italiano features minestrone soup or Caesar salad for starters, cavatappi pasta or pasta con brio served with tomatoes parmesan for entrees and lemon ice or almond biscotti for dessert. Each table also will be served a basket of bread.
Amour de Nouritture features roasted garlic and shallot potato soup with cheesy croutons or fresh tomato and onion Napoleon with balsamic vinaigrette for starters, coq au vin and leek or roasted pepper quiche for entrees and chocolate covered éclairs or cherry clafoutis with French vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of cherry sauce for dessert. Each table also will be served sparkling apricot-pineapple punch.
Asian Flair features veggie lettuce wraps or baked pork egg rolls for starters, chunks of white meat chicken and vegetables or vegetable lo mein for entrees and Indian chai cheesecake or Chinese five-spice pears for dessert.
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.
Prominent Latino rights leader Dolores Huerta, who with Cesar Chavez co-founded the United Farm Workers union, will visit NIU this week to speak on the labor movement, civic engagement and the importance of the Latino vote in the upcoming election.
Huerta will deliver an address titled, “The Need for Social Change: From the Fight in the Fields to the Halls of Congress,” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium of the Holmes Student Center. The event is open to the public.
Huerta began her career as an elementary schoolteacher but left the profession to join the labor movement. Today she is among the nation’s most powerful labor union leaders, having founded the United Farm Workers with Chavez in 1962. She worked with Chavez for more than 30 years until his death in 1993.
The Diamonds of Alpha Delta Omega National Christian Sorority will sponsor “A Walk to Remember” in honor of those killed or injured Feb. 14. The walk will begin at 3:06 p.m. Thursday, April 17, in Central Park (between Grant Towers South and Stevenson Towers) and end at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commons.
Donations will be accepted with all proceeds benefitting the February 14 Student Scholarship Fund. Student organizations wishing to participate are encouraged to consider a $25 contribution. To make a contribution, visit the tables set up in DuSable Hall from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today and in Wirtz Hall from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 15.
All are welcome to participate. For further information, contact Joy Jeffries at jjeffri2@niu.edu.
The Friends of NIU Libraries invites the public to attend “Emersonian Borrowings: Sufi Poetry in 19th-Century America” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 23.
Jeffrey Einboden, assistant professor in the Department of English, will talk about the evolution of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s translations of Sufi poetry as he introduced it to the American reading public. There will be an opportunity for discussion and light refreshments after the presentation.
The program will be held in the Staff Lounge, located on the lower level of Founders Memorial Library. Free parking is available after 7 p.m. in the Visitor’s Parking Lot located on Carroll Avenue.
Call (815) 753-8091 for more information.
Stephen Kinzer, author of the recently published book “Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq,” will speak Thursday, April 24, at NIU.
The presentation will focus particularly on U.S. intervention in the Middle East and Central America during his 7 p.m. address in Room 173 of the NIU Music Building. The talk is free and open to the public.
Kinzer comes at the invitation of the DeKalb Interfaith Network, the NIU departments of history and communications and the Center for Latino and Latin American Studies.
An award-winning foreign correspondent who has spent 20 years working for the New York Times, Kinzer has covered more than 50 countries on five continents. He has reported on the emergence of post-Communist Europe and spent many years in Central America, including 1983-89 when he was bureau chief in Nicaragua.
Currently, Kinzer teaches journalism and political science at Northwestern University and contributes articles to the New York Review of Booksand other periodicals. He also is writing a book about Rwanda.
For more information, call (815) 793-0950 or visit www.dekalbinterfaithnetwork.org.
The Division of Research and Graduate Studies will hold its Outstanding Graduate Student Reception from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday, April 28, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center.
An awards ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. to honor students who are receiving the following awards: the Carter G. Woodson Fellowship, Jeffrey T. Lunsford Fellowship, Dissertation Completion Award, University Fellowship, Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois Award and the Outstanding Graduate Student Award.
Graduate faculty and advisers are encouraged to attend the event. Refreshments will be served.
NIU’s Division of Student Affairs will bid farewell to Micki Emmett, assistant vice president for Student Services, and wish her good luck in her new adventures as executive director of the DeKalb County Red Cross.
The reception is scheduled for 3 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, in Neptune Central. A program will begin at 3:30 p.m. Friends and guests are invited to bring photos, letters or stories to be included in a memory book; memories also can be sent in advance to cherrmann@niu.edu.
NIU’s Alumni Travel Program is getting ready for some exciting trips over the summer to Alaska and Russia.
Travelers can head to Russia to experience Moscow’s rich history, and then it’s off to Finland to discover the Nordic mystery of Helsinki.
Or, have an Alaskan adventure in July featuring majestic mountains, lush forests and magnificent national parks as well as immense glaciers and icy inlets. Explore it all by foot, rail, sea and motorcoach on this dynamic touring itinerary with a land and sea tour.
More information about these and other NIU Travel Programs is available online.
President John Peters invites nominations of faculty, staff and students for appointment to the four presidential commissions.
The nominations will be for appointments effective in the 2008-09 academic year. The four presidential commissions, and sources where additional detailed information on each commission can be found, are:
President’s Commission on Persons with Disabilities
Greg Long, chair
glong@niu.edu
(815) 753-6508
http://www.niu.edu/pcpd/
http://www.niu.edu/u_council/commbook0708/disabilities.htm
President’s Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Norden Gilbert, chair
norden@niu.edu
(815) 753-8365
http://www.niu.edu/lgbt/pcsogi/index.shtml
http://www.niu.edu/u_council/commbook0708/sexualori.htm
President’s Commission on the Status of Minorities
Ronnie Wooten, chair
rwooten@niu.edu
(815) 753-4739
http://www.niu.edu/pcsm/
http://www.niu.edu/u_council/commbook0708/minorities.htm
President’s Commission on the Status of Women
Rhonda Robinson, chair
rrobinson@niu.edu
(815) 753-9323
http://www.niu.edu/pcsw/
http://www.niu.edu/u_council/commbook0708/women.htm
Self-nominations are welcome. Please forward nominations, including name, address, e-mail and telephone number to krepel@niu.edu.
Nominations should be submitted on or before Friday, April 18.
The Operating Staff Council is accepting candidate applications to fill several vacant positions.
If you are a union or non-union employee in a status position, have your supervisor’s permission and are willing to serve approximately six hours each month for monthly meeting and subcommittee participation, then you are eligible to run to fill a vacancy.
The council’s role is to promote the general welfare of Operating Staff employees through action in a communicative and advisory capacity to the NIU administration as well as any other applicable group, agency or individual. The council meets the second Thursday morning of every month.
More information and candidate data sheets for completion are available online.
NIU students interested in becoming majors and/or involved in student organizations within the College of Health and Human Sciences can learn more about these programs today at the annual “Taste of Health and Human Sciences.”
Current majors also are invited to discover opportunities within student organizations.
Organized by the HHS Student Advisory Committee, the event takes place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Light Court of Wirtz Hall. Refreshments will be served.
“This is the time of year students are registering for the spring semester, and for those looking for a major, this is a good opportunity,” said Sandi Splansky, director of academic advising.
Majors include audiology, child development, clinical laboratory sciences, public health, rehabilitation services, early childhood studies, family and individual development, family social services, health administration, health education, hospitality administration, nursing, nutrition and dietetics, physical therapy, speech pathology, teacher certification in family and consumer sciences, and textiles, apparel and merchandising. There also are several minors, including gerontology and military science.
Participants also will have an opportunity to learn about more student organizations in the college. For more information, call (815) 753-1891.
A public budget is about policy choices: how much money, how to raise it, how to spend it and how to account for it? Because budgets are about choices, they reflect the priorities and values of those who shape them.
Next week’s Civic Leadership Academy workshop, scheduled for Thursday, April 17, will offer participants a critical understanding of the processes, policies and politics that surround governmental budgeting and finance through an introductory survey of public budgeting and financial management.
Participants will leave the course with a full appreciation of the ideas, concepts and techniques important to leadership’s understanding of budgets and financial management. The presenter is Brian Caputo, director of finance for the City of Aurora.
Registration and more information about CLA and its upcoming workshops are available online.
The Northern Illinois University Women’s Rights Alliance will sponsor two upcoming performances of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues.”
The performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 19, and Sunday, April 20, in the Barsema Hall Auditorium.
The events aim to raise awareness of domestic violence issues. Ten percent of ticket sales will benefit Ensler’s anti-violence campaigns, and 90 percent of ticket sales will go to Safe Passage Inc., an organization that provides services to victims of domestic and sexual violence in DeKalb County.
Tickets will be available at the door, and are $5 for students with ID and seniors and $8 for the general public. For more information, contact Rebekah Kohli at (815) 753-1044 or rkohli@niu.edu or visit www.niuwra.com.
Get-on-the-Bus trips hosted by the NIU Art Museum offer opportunities to enjoy regional culture and innovative historical exhibitions and to keep up with what’s happening in the art world without the hassle of traffic, tolls and parking.
The NIU Art Museum schedules the trip and makes the itinerary and arrangements. Travelers need only sign up and prepay by the deadlines posted. All trips depart from the NIU School of Art parking lot.
The bus will head Friday, April 25, to “ARTropolis: Art Chicago and International Antiques Fair,” a citywide celebration of arts, antiques and culture.
The Merchandise Mart will feature two main events: “Art Chicago” and The International Antiques Fair, including more than 100 galleries from around the world and more than 100 top antiques dealers. Also included in the ticket price are two contemporary art expos, NEXT and the Artist Project, as well as the Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art. More details are available online at http://www.artchicago.com/.
The vans depart DeKalb at 10:30 a.m. with return arrival to be mutually determined by the group but certainly by 10 p.m. Lunch and dinner costs are not included. Transportation and ticket costs are $30 for NIU Art Museum members, $33 for students and seniors 65 and older and $35 for others. The registration and repayment deadline is Tuesday, April 22.
To register stop by the museum on the first floor of Altgeld Hall, call (815) 753-1936 or e-mail jrwitte@niu.edu. More information about the museum and its programming is online at www.vpa.niu.edu/museum. Payment may be made with cash, a check made out to NIU or a major credit card. Payment must be made in advance to guarantee a seat on the bus.
Interested in trading a story about nature for a massage?
Just e-mail a nature story with your desired appointment time to artist Gabriel Akagawa at cratespace@gmail.com. As part of the “Unpacked/Offset” exhibition at the NIU Art Museum, artist Gabriel Bizen Akagawa will give “free” massages every Friday (except April 25) in the gallery through May 10.
Akagawa has been giving free massages as part of his artwork for more than five years. He was taught by his family in Japan, who give massages as part of their barbering practice. He extends this into the gallery as an exchange program. He trades free head, neck, arm and hand massages for a story about nature in the DeKalb area. He is looking to create a gallery and online archive of the history of natural events, ecologies and any experiences with nature in this region.
There will be 10-minute sessions each Friday during gallery hours (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) at the museum. He will massage by appointment and limited walk-ins. To ensure a massage, please e-mail him at cratespace@gmail.com with a desired time and a nature story.
Participants also may choose to dictate an audio recorded story on site.
More details about “Unpacked/Offset” and other ways to participate in the project are available online.
To perform maintenance and repairs on high pressure steam lines on campus, the Physical Plant and Heating Plant will conduct the annual steam outage.
West Campus: 9 p.m. Monday, May 19, through noon Friday, May 23. This will include all buildings west of Carroll Avenue, except Stevenson and the Neptune Complex, and various other smaller buildings not served by steam. Domestic and heating hot water will not be available.
East Campus: 9 p.m. Sunday, May 25, or Monday, May 26, through noon Thursday, May 29. This will include all buildings east of Carroll Avenue and the Neptune Complex, except for various other smaller buildings not served by steam. Domestic and heating hot water will not be available.
Address any questions or concerns to Kevin Vines, chief engineer, at (815) 753-6090 or via e-mail at kvines@niu.edu.