President John Peters sent this letter Wednesday, May 7, to the campus.
Dear Students and Colleagues,
Over the past several weeks we have been engaged in a comprehensive review of your thoughts, opinions and advice concerning the future of Cole Hall. Today I write to report back on our findings and to share with you how we are proceeding.
For nearly two months, we have sought your opinions and ideas through a variety of mechanisms: a confidential email box, open forums, small-group meetings, an online survey and many one-on-one conversations with students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and families of those most affected by the events of February 14. Two major themes emerged from this study, and those themes were consistent across all groups: First, you said you did not want to see Cole Hall demolished. Many of you invoked the memories of those whom we lost, and asked that any renovation include a link to whatever permanent memorial is established nearby. Second, a substantial number of you said you did not want to teach, work or attend classes in the auditorium where the shooting took place, and that efforts to make the building look different – both inside and out – would be much appreciated.
With those two themes firmly established, we probed further with an online survey that presented three possible options. More than 5,000 of you responded to that survey, with the majority favoring option #2, in which Cole Hall room 101 would be converted into non-classroom space. Option #2 also calls for Cole Hall room 100 to be updated in function and appearance, and for other interior areas to likewise be given a different look and feel. Finally, the preferred option includes plans to change the building façade to update and substantially change the exterior appearance of the building.
Taking one 500-seat auditorium out of service requires us to replace that classroom space elsewhere on campus. More than 12,000 students had classes in Cole Hall this academic year, so the need to replace lost instructional space is very real. Option #2 includes plans to construct a new 400-seat auditorium in the center campus area, either connected to an existing building or as a freestanding structure. Preliminary cost estimates for both the remodeling and renovation of Cole Hall and the construction of a new 7,800-square-foot auditorium/lecture hall to replace Cole Hall room 101 total about $7.7 million – substantially less than what we were anticipating with the complete demolition of Cole Hall and construction of a new classroom facility.
The task before us now involves garnering support from state officials for an emergency appropriation to fund this much-needed recovery effort. From the earliest days following our tragedy, Governor Blagojevich and other top officials responded to our requests for help with immediate expressions of support, and we are grateful for their unwavering advocacy in this difficult time. While support for NIU remains strong in Springfield and across the State, our elected representatives are dealing with many competing priorities and a fragile state budget. That our request represents a strong consensus opinion from our campus community will be an important factor in legislative deliberations. My thanks to all of our shared governance leaders for facilitating dialogue, and to all who participated in open forums and online surveys or who sent emails and letters for our consideration. Your voices have been heard, and I pledge to represent those wishes in the weeks and months ahead as we strive to make NIU’s critical classroom space needs a top priority across our State.
As we come to the end of a difficult semester, I wish all of you the very best. Let us continue to draw strength from each other, and to show the world our proud and resilient Huskie spirit.
Forward, together forward,
John G. Peters
President
NIU development staff member Jacob Waddle found something quite out of the ordinary while processing a recent batch of gifts to the university.
He found a note from a long-time donor explaining that there was “a little something extra” included in the envelope this year. That “something extra” was another “0” on the check, turning the donor’s annual gift of $1,000 to $10,000.
It’s that kind of generosity and spirit that’s moving True North, NIU’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign, forward.
Having entered its final, public phase last May, the campaign is on target to reach its goal of $150 million by June 2010. Donors have committed $119 million to date, and momentum is building.
The final phase of the campaign is focused on increasing university endowment.
“It’s easy to see how much this campus has changed over the years,” says President John Peters. “But the heart and soul of NIU will never change. Everything we do is for our students. They are why we’re here, and building our endowment will help us support them.”
For a growing number of students every year, endowment is providing the difference between a good education and a life-transforming academic experience. For some students, that experience comes from an inspiring and supportive professor, for others it’s the opportunity to study abroad and, for some, an endowed scholarship is the only thing that makes an education a reality in the first place.
“Endowment provides the scholarships that bring students to NIU and keep them here, says Mallory M. Simpson, president of the NIU Foundation. “Thanks to donor generosity, we were able to make 940 scholarship awards during the fall of 2007 and spring of 2008.”
In addition to student scholarships, endowment funds support faculty, academic programs, athletics and the university libraries.
The commitment to NIU students has never been stronger. The foundation has received endowments to support students in the Huskie marching band, aspiring teachers and students in law, English, medieval studies, engineering and more.
Donors already have created 23 new endowment funds since the True North campaign kickoff last May.
“There are as many reasons for giving as there are people who give,” Simpson says. “We have donors who are honoring a mentor, a family member or other loved one by creating named funds. Our donors have many reasons, but they share one goal: to support our students as they pursue their dreams. Our endowment donors are making sure that support is here now and for generations to come.”
A professor in NIU’s Department of Counseling, Adult and Higher Education has received a national award from a division of the American Counseling Association.
Debra Pender won the Group Practice Award from the Association for Specialists in Group Work this spring in recognition of her more than 20 years of facilitating crisis intervention groups. The honor also celebrates Pender’s statewide leadership in the field and her research into group process factors associated with critical incident stress debriefing.
She received her award during the ACA’s annual conference in Hawaii.
“My husband, who is a firefighter and paramedic was with me, as was my daughter, who’s a counseling student,” Pender said. “It was particularly touching given the level of dedication I’ve seen on this campus in our personnel.”
To Pender, however, her true reward is the opportunity to work with critical incident responders.
“Emergency responders are normal people with normal coping skills who get exposed to the worst moments any of us can imagine. When it’s bad for them, it’s beyond-belief bad for us,” she said.
“I can’t even begin to describe what an honor it is to serve that population. They’re incredibly courageous,” she added. “Considering the graphic nature of what they see, they dust themselves off, put themselves back together and go back to the work the next day, knowing that sometimes your best effort is all that you can do. It’s an honor to be part of their world.”
Pender, who came to the NIU College of Education in 2005 as a visiting professor and was hired in 2006, became involved with emergency responders when she was working as a counselor at a community agency in southern Illinois.
“A local fire department came to our agency and asked for assistance in developing a team to do critical incident stress debriefing,” she said. “I started meeting with them, and ended up doing my thesis research on fire, police and EMS stress in that region. We developed the team that became a part of the statewide network.”
Meanwhile, Pender built strong relationships with emergency responders as she learned about their lives and their jobs.
Pender spent a “pretty cool but terrifying” day in fire school, learning how to wear the gear and how to breathe with the self-contained breathing apparatus. She shadowed police officers on duty and rode along with paramedics.
She also became an official trainer for the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation to teach others how to conduct debriefings, serves on the Illinois Terrorism Task Force Committee on Volunteerism and teaches crisis counseling as part of NIU’s homeland security education initiatives.
“It’s an undergraduate- and graduate-level course for anyone in the helping professions – teachers, school administrators, human resources professionals, nurses, social workers, family therapists, counselors,” Pender said. “That format will be shared with eight of the 12 public universities in Illinois.”
Her current research focuses on variables of group process, including whether the leaders conduct quality meetings, by asking emergency responders in attendance about themes that emerged from their debriefings.
“An important one is acceptance – that their reaction to stress was accepted by the peers they work with and that it was a normal, and not abnormal, reaction,” she said. “Others are the camaraderie of everyone getting through an event together and the realization that you have to let go.”
Two NIU students will travel abroad for the coming academic year on fellowships through the highly competitive Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
Matt Konfirst, 31, of West Chicago, a geology student working on his Ph.D., will travel to Germany to work with scientists on climate change research. Shari Meggs, 21, of Skokie, a graduating senior majoring in communication, will work as an English language teaching assistant in Hong Kong.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers fellowships for U.S. graduating college seniors, graduate students and artists to study abroad for one academic year.
“Receiving a Student Fulbright award is very prestigious,” said Deborah Pierce, associate provost of International Programs at NIU.
“It’s the culmination of a rigorous application and competition process and represents a significant achievement for both the student and the home institution,” she added. “All of us at NIU can be very proud of these two outstanding students, who will each be spending next year in the life-changing experience of a Fulbright fellowship.”
Pierce noted that the competition for 2009-2010 fellowship awards opened May 1. “I look forward to working with more great NIU students starting this month,” she said.
Both Konfirst and Meggs have participated in past study abroad programs to Austria. Konfirst also has traveled to Utah, Maryland and West Virginia with the NIU Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences. Additionally, he spent three months in the Antarctic last fall working on the international Antarctic Geological Drilling (ANDRILL) Program, whose lead scientists include NIU faculty members.
Over the past two years, scientists have conducted the drilling project in the Antarctic in order to retrieve long cores of sedimentary rocks that hold clues to the continent’s climate history. Studies of the cores could provide scientists with glimpses into the planet’s future if predictions of global temperature increases are accurate.
Beginning in mid-September, Konfirst will work with scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany. They will study fossil diatoms recovered from the ANDRILL core. The diatoms are temperature sensitive, microscopic single-celled algae that once lived in surface or shallow waters and provide information for scientists on past temperatures of the seawater.
“I’m really excited about (the Fulbright fellowship),” said Konfirst, who earned his bachelor’s degree in geology from NIU in 2006.
“In addition to working on my doctorate in geology, I’m finishing up a bachelor’s degree in German this semester,” Konfirst said. “This is a great way for me to combine both of the things I’ve been studying during the past few years.”
Konfirst hopes to teach and continue climate research once he receives his Ph.D. He also holds a degree from the Berklee College of Music in Boston and is an accomplished heavy metal guitarist, having put out several CDs (see www.mattkonfirst.com).
“I’m not pursuing music as much as before,” he said. “My new hobbies – the climate change research and paleontology – have taken over.”
Meggs, an honors student at NIU, will begin her 11-month Fulbright fellowship to Hong Kong in early August. She’ll work 20 hours a week as a teaching assistant at the Hong Kong Institute of Education and will also tutor students. Her study abroad experience in Austria helped give her the confidence to apply for the Fulbright program.
The Fulbright application process was rigorous, Meggs said. It took three months to complete and included two essays and interviews with NIU faculty who are Fulbright scholars.
“Faculty and staff were very helpful,” Meggs said, adding that she received assistance from professors in music and law, as well as from International Programs’ Pierce and Michael Martin, director of the honors program.
“I think their critiques of my application really pushed me over the edge in terms of helping me to get this Fulbright,” Meggs said.
She speaks three languages, including Spanish and German, but doesn’t speak Cantonese, the spoken language in Hong Kong.
“They don’t necessarily recommend that you speak the language. That way the students are forced to speak English to you,” Meggs said. “I want to one day work for the United Nations, and I felt that this would be a good opportunity to get international experience as well as pick up a new language.”
Construction of the new underground chilled water piping on campus will continue around the north side of Faraday West and Faraday East halls this week.
Work will continue along the east/west sidewalk on the north side of both Faraday Halls, extending east to Castle Drive and west to Normal Road.
Heavy equipment and heavy truck traffic will pose a hazard to pedestrians in this area. Trucks will enter and leave off Normal Road near Davis Hall to access the east/west sidewalk between Faraday West and Davis Hall. Trucks also will enter and leave off Castle Drive north of Watson Creek.
For safety reasons, pedestrians are urged to find alternate routes while work is in progress. Anticipated working hours this week are from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Lot 10 will remain closed, as it is being used as a construction materials staging area.
NIU President John Peters will host a Community Thank You and Appreciation Reception to be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, at the NIU Convocation Center.
When tragedy struck Feb. 14, the greater DeKalb/Sycamore community united with NIU to provide excellent emergency and medical response, generous contributions to healing and recovery efforts, numerous expressions of compassion and countless acts of kindness. Today, NIU’s recovery is under way and continues to be sustained by the collective spirit of the unified community and university – the “communiversity.”
Please join us as we acknowledge the many people who contributed and continue to offer a helping hand as we move forward, together forward.
A brief presentation will begin at 3:45 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. RSVP at (815) 753-0835 or apetta@niu.edu.
Michael Martin, director of the University Honors Program for the past six years, will retire at the end of June. Martin previously taught in the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences.
A reception will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday, May 15, in the Honors Program Office, Campus Life 110. Presentations will be made at 3:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served.
Contact Joanne Ganshirt at (815) 753-9398 for more information.
Huskie Pup Camp, a summer camp for children ages 6 to 12, is being offered again by Recreation Services.
The nine-week camp is designed to help campers become more independent, enhance self-confidence and develop both mind and body in a fun and safe learning environment. Camp registration is on-going. For complete information, a copy of the brochure can be obtained at www.rs.niu.edu.
NIU’s Civic Leadership Academy will present a workshop Thursday, May 22, to explore the influence of globalization on leadership roles in local communities. Participants also will hear different strategies for coping with the challenges and maximizing the opportunities of increased competition and interconnectivity in the global economy.
The purpose of the workshop is to better understand economic development and workforce development theories which maximize the competitive advantage of local places in an increasingly global world. Case studies from other cities and regions will be used to demonstrate emerging best practices, and an interactive dialogue process will be used to help participants understand new techniques that can be used to more effectively lead their communities in this era of globalization.
The presenter is Rebecca Steffenson, a senior research associate for NIU’s Center for Governmental Studies
Registration and more information about CLA and its upcoming workshops are available online.
If you’re a current or retired NIU faculty or SPS staff member who wants to extend the spirit of “NIU Cares” to new freshmen next fall, First-Year Connections (FYC) is looking for you: Join a team of volunteers interested in mentoring new students during their transition to NIU.
The Student-Faculty Links mentoring program is a component of Orientation & First-Year Experience. Mentors are asked to fill out a short survey to match them with new students who express similar interests or are in a related academic department.
Mentors and protégées are contacted in early August with each other’s contact information, and are invited to an informal reception hosted by the FYC staff Friday, Aug. 22. All meetings after the reception are to be determined by the mentor and the student.
Student-Faculty Links gives NIU faculty and SPS staff a unique opportunity to reach out and make a difference in the lives of new students. Your involvement is highly beneficial to new students seeking support and encouragement to make their college experience successful and enjoyable.
If you are interested in mentoring a new student for fall 2008 or would like to learn more, contact First-Year Connections by phone at (815) 753-0028 or e-mail firstconn@niu.edu.
NIU’s Fall 2008 Teaching Effectiveness Institute is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 14, and Friday, Aug. 15, in the Capitol Room of the Holmes Student Center.
Hosted by the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center, the workshop is open only to NIU faculty and staff. Registered participants will receive workshop materials, lunch and refreshments and certificates of participation.
Advanced registration for both days is required by Friday, July 25. Register early at http://www.facdev.niu.edu or via e-mail at facdev@niu.edu. Those who register and later are unable to attend should inform the center by Monday, Aug. 11, so others on the waiting list can enjoy the opportunity.
Day One – “Fundamental Principles of Effective Instruction” – will introduce faculty to basic principles of teaching, offer information about support resources related to teaching and discuss how faculty deal with students’ needs. Participants will have opportunities to network with new and experienced faculty at NIU.
Day Two features speaker Robert Noyd, a professor of biology and former director of faculty development at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he teaches botany, general biology and senior seminar courses. Noyd is known for his innovations in faculty and curriculum development, including work with classroom observations, microteaching and course design.
Noyd will cover “Overteaching: When is Less Really More?” and offer his expertise on selection of effective instructional methods and simple ways to drive content, promote thinking and assess learning.
Join the NIU Community School of the Arts this spring at one of many music performances.
Students of all ages perform solos or in ensembles. All recitals are scheduled in the Music Building Recital Hall unless otherwise noted, and many end with a gala reception. The recitals are free and open to the public.
Lessons, classes and ensembles in music, art and theater are offered for children and adults throughout the year. The summer semester begins Monday, June 16. For more information, contact Renee Page at (815) 753-1450 or visit http://www.niu.edu/extprograms.
The summer semester is right around the corner, and the NIU Community School of the Arts has great classes and ensembles to offer people of all ages. Registration is open. Look at the summer’s offerings on the updated Web site: www.niu.edu/extprograms.
Are you looking for a fun, exciting summer camp for your children or grandchildren? Look no further than your own back yard.
NIU offers summer sports camps for all sports with a fun and challenging atmosphere for all skill levels. NIU employees receive a discounted rate on all camps.
Campers receive Division 1 college coaching as well as interaction with collegiate athletes combined with the college campus experience. For more information, call (815) 753-5300, e-mail sportscamps@niu.edu or visit- www.niuhuskies.com.
Founders Memorial Library has extended hours for spring finals weeks:
Interim session hours begin Saturday, May 17.
Faculty and staff are invited to join President John G. Peters at the Fall 2008 Academic Convocation to be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 22, in the NIU Convocation Center.
Academic Convocation is the formal ceremony to officially welcome and celebrate incoming NIU students. Students will learn about the many academic opportunities and cultural traditions of NIU.
RSVP by Thursday, May 15, to Mary Spring, Office of Student Affairs, at mspring@niu.edu or (815) 753-1573. For more information and to order regalia, visit www.stuaff.niu.edu. Regalia and assembly at 10:30 a.m.
Diane Schlosser is retiring after 32 years of service at University Bookstore.
A celebration in her honor is planned for 2 to 4 p.m. Friday, May 23, in the University Suite.
A book drive is being held in the Founders Memorial Library lobby through Thursday, May 15.
Textbooks, picture books, law books, medical literature and general literature (good reads) are being collected. Donations will become part of the new library for Restore Academy in Gulu, Uganda.
For more information on the academy’s sponsor, Restore International, visit http://restoreinternational.org/. For information on the book drive specifically, contact NIU student Jessica Goodrum at goodrum.jessica@gmail.com.
Eligible faculty and staff now can obtain their new NIU OneCards.
To get new IDs, members of the faculty and staff should bring their current NIU OneCards to the OneCard Office, located on the lower level of the Holmes Student Center across from the University Bookstore, from 8:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Lost ID charges will apply for failure to return current cards. Call (815) 753-9569 for more information.
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.