NIU President John Peters has won “The President’s Award” from a Midwest-based regional chapter of NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.
Peters was honored Sunday at the organization’s Region IV-East conference in Indianapolis. Brian Hemphill, vice president for Student Affairs, nominated Peters and accepted the award on his behalf.
“I am honored and humbled to receive the President’s Award from this Midwestern region of NASPA,” Peters said. “I accept this honor on behalf of all the dedicated Student Affairs staff at NIU who work so tirelessly to provide a world-class student life environment for our students.”
“John displayed such leadership and courage in the midst of everything that we experienced during Feb. 14 that it was very much clear to me that there was no one more deserving of this award than President Peters,” Hemphill said.
“It says to so many of our colleagues across the region that we have a president who is extremely student-centered,” Hemphill added, “and committed to doing what is in the best interest of the university community.”
The newest and first-time honor from NASPA IV-East, the President’s Award is a special recognition given to a college or university president in the region who has enhanced the quality of student life on campus by supporting student affairs staff and student programs and services.
Nominees must have a strong record of improving the quality of the student experience on campus, involving students and staff in university decision-making and making valuable contributions to the student affairs profession beyond an individual campus.
In addition to the regional recognition, the recipient is automatically nominated for the national NASPA President’s Award. The winner is named in January.
“We think Dr. Peters is a wonderful recipient who represents the great gifts that a president can give to the students of the institution,” said Peggy Burke, associate vice president for student development at DePaul University and chair of the awards committee.
“His name came to the top in a number of cases. There are a variety of programs and services he has supported that have enhanced the NIU student experience. He has supported Student Affairs. That was there long before Feb. 14,” Burke added. “Then, the awful tragedy really exemplified just how much Dr. Peters keeps students at the heart of his mission and his leadership. We’re proud, for the region, that we get to recognize Dr. Peters.”
Peters’ colleagues at NIU were honored to write letters of support, Hemphill said.
“The response I received from all of the individuals was absolutely phenomenal,” he said. “They were very supportive and excited that Dr. Peters would be considered for such a prestigious award.”
Letters included praise for his participation every August during Welcome Days, especially during the move-in process, as well as his leadership efforts on initiatives that better prepare students for success in higher education and that encourage students to study abroad.
Every letter, of course, touched on Feb. 14, not only the immediate heartbreak but the grieving and recovery process in the following months.
Peters called or visited all the families who lost children, comforted students, attended every funeral and led candlelight vigils and memorial services. He authorized the establishment of the Office of Support and Advocacy. He worked with state executives and lawmakers, as well as campus leaders, to create a plan for Cole Hall and a lasting memorial that would be fiscally acceptable and emotionally sensitive.
Hemphill’s letter detailed how NIU students have named Peters “the students’ president.”
“Dr. Peters cannot take a walk across campus without students stopping him for a conversation or a handshake,” Hemphill wrote. “Sometimes these conversations are about sports or light topics, but often a student will bring a concern to Dr. Peters’ attention. To President Peters it does not matter; he lends his ear to every student, whether the student is engaged in praise for a sports team or concerned about some aspect of our shared governance system.”
“With President Peters, we have found a sincere friend and ally. He personally is always open and accessible to students, and his dedication to shared governance is genuine,” Student Association President Brent Keller wrote. “At Northern, we employ the term ‘Communiversity’ to describe this blend of students and staff, and with John Peters’ administration, it has found actualization.”
Jesse Perez, assistant director of labor relations in Human Resource Services, included information in his letter about his term as student trustee.
“The State of Illinois was experiencing a severe budget crisis in which universities statewide were forecasting major changes to available resources. During this critical time, Dr. Peters hosted regular student leadership sessions in which he personally met with key student leaders to share and gather input,” Perez wrote.
“Dr. Peters responded to the students’ concern with several creative solutions to ensure that, despite a budget crisis, students were on schedule for timely graduation, received competitive tuition rates and continued to receive the resources necessary to have a successful college experience.”
Provost Ray Alden, who served in a similar capacity at the University of Nevada Las Vegas when UNLV President Carol Harter won the national President’s Award in 2004, wrote of Peters’ dedication and courage during Feb. 14.
“President Peters made the difficult decision to shut down the campus for a week to permit students time to go home and deal with their fears, grief and stress,” Alden wrote, “as well as to prepare for the issues associated with their return to campus.”
“Dr. Peters recognized that we would be indelibly marked by this horrific event, but he refused to acknowledge that NIU would be defined by that horror,” Hemphill wrote. “He has set himself as a model of understanding, compassion and hope, and has sought and endorsed multiple healing initiatives to move the entire NIU and local community forward. NIU draws its inspiration and strength from the spirit of this fine leader.”
It’s no secret that students need to brush up on their American history. Nationally, less than one-quarter of fourth, eighth and 12th graders are performing at the proficient level.
Now NIU history professor J.D. Bowers and instructor Kathryn Maley are helping lead local efforts to make poor marks in history a thing of the past.
Bowers and Maley began working this fall with Rockford Public School District 205 and Elgin Public School District U-46. Earlier this year, each district was awarded $1 million Teaching American History grants through the U.S. Department of Education.
The grants provide American history teachers with intensive professional development in both content- and research-based teaching strategies. Institutions receiving grants must partner with organizations that have extensive knowledge of American history, including libraries, museums and universities.
Both districts chose NIU to be among their partners. Bowers, who directs the secondary-teacher certification program in history at NIU, has been named the new “historian in residence” in each district. Maley is serving as an external evaluator for the programs, assessing their impacts on students and teachers.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for NIU and the school districts participating, and most importantly for the students in the districts,” Maley says. “I think it will undoubtedly improve the level and quality of American history education that students are receiving.”
The Rockford and Elgin school districts are among the state’s largest. Combined they serve nearly 70,000 students.
“Teachers who teach history rarely get any professional development, so this is just outstanding,” says Betsy Homewood, project director of the Teaching American History Grant in Rockford.
This is District 205’s second Teaching American History grant. The new program, titled Freedom Project, is providing professional development to social studies and American history teachers from the fifth-grade level through high school.
The grant money is being used for workshops and symposiums, which bring in top historians from across the country to present their research to teachers, who ultimately bring what they’ve learned back to their classrooms. Yale University’s John Butler will speak on “The Colonial Era and the Road to Revolution” at the next symposium, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 22, at NIU-Rockford.
As historian in residence, Bowers spends two days a week in Rockford. He assists with symposium planning, conducts workshops, helps design teacher lessons and serves as a mentor to teachers as they work on curriculum development.
Next June, he will travel with 20 Rockford teachers on a field study trip to Virginia, where they will visit the historic communities of Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. The trip will include a stop at the Werowocomoco archaeological site, once the residence of the Powhatan chiefdom, which represented one of the most complex Native American societies in eastern North America during the early 1600s. It was also the place where Pocahontas grew up.
Bowers knows well the role of historian in residence, having filled similar positions in Woodstock, DeKalb, Harvard, Belvidere, Prairie Grove and Chicago public school districts.
Teachers say it’s valuable to have a “historian in the house.”
“J.D. was very knowledgeable, obviously in American history but also in terms of providing teaching suggestions and ideas,” says Todd Clement, a seventh-grade history and science teacher at Creekside Middle School in Woodstock.
Clement also attended the Genocide and Human Rights Summer Institute organized by Bowers and held at NIU earlier this year. The institute explored how the history of genocidal events and human rights violations is related to contemporary world problems. Participating teachers also traveled to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Clement said his expanded knowledge helped him connect different periods in history for his students. For example, he drew comparisons for his students between the Holocaust and the atrocities that occurred at Andersonville prison in Georgia during the Civil War.
“Even in history, new ideas and information are always coming around, so it’s always a good idea to get the most recent information,” Clement says.
Bowers says history teachers in particular need professional development opportunities. He points out that teachers who are certified to teach social studies don’t necessarily have specialized backgrounds in U.S. history. And teachers who have been teaching for many years often aren’t up to date on the latest scholarship and research. Meanwhile, elementary school teachers only need to take one course to become certified to teach history.
“They recognize it’s not enough,” Bowers says. “The more they know, the better they are in classroom.”
Bowers also conducts research for teachers seeking answers to specific questions. One Rockford teacher recently wanted to know if all Jamestown colonists were English.
“Some of the workers were Poles, although the English settlers made them change their names,” Bowers says. “One of the colonists I traced through research was Stanislaw Sadowski, a lumber production organizer, whose name was changed to Stan Sadow.”
Such facts can easily get lost in history, but they help students make personal connections.
“One of the overarching ideas we’re working with is to globalize American history curriculum,” Bowers says. “We talk about the diverse arrays of people who have contributed to building our history, so that even a student here from another country will be able to feel connected with the past and able to integrate American history into their own understanding.”
Two professors from NIU’s College of Education have gone back to high school.
Jennifer Schmidt and M Cecil Smith, who teach in the Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations, are observing science classes this fall and spring to better understand how girls and boys learn and enjoy science.
What they glean from their research will help high school science teachers to design and deliver lesson plans that best engage and electrify girls as well as boys.
“These are the years where kids really start making decisions about what they’re doing,” Schmidt said, “and doing things because they want to.”
The project is funded by a three-year, $476,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, which supports work that can encourage girls to pursue careers in science. NIU’s researchers plan to write a book and several journal articles about their work during the grant’s third year.
“We just don’t know how students experience instruction in science classes. Nobody’s really done this sort of work,” Smith said.
“There really hasn’t been careful attention to how students respond to how they’re receiving instruction and their feelings about the kinds of instructional activities that are happening to them,” he added, “as well as the kinds of things they as learners are doing in a class, whether it’s lab work, reading out of a textbook or listening to a lecture.”
Schmidt and Smith cannot disclose the name or location of the Chicago-area high school, where they are conducting their “experience sampling method” study in 12 different classes: three each of general science, biology, chemistry and physics.
The school’s enrollment breaks down fairly evenly between white, black and Latino students, Smith said. Two hundred and 40 students, most of them freshmen, are participating. Younger students are preferred, Schmidt said, because their academic and career interests have not yet been solidified.
Teachers participating in the study are male and female and represent a broad variety of experience.
In the experience sampling method, each student has a pager that vibrates when the researcher wants to gauge reactions to the content. Four electronic pages are sent during each class period, although each teen will receive only two of those.
When signaled, the students immediately report what they are doing and thinking. They also must rate their engagement, enjoyment, anxiety and concentration levels on a prescribed scale.
Video cameras are recording every minute of every class and teachers are wearing microphones, which will provide Schmidt and Smith with audio-visual evidence of what actually was occurring at the time of each signal. Accounts sometimes differ between students and researchers, and the researchers also will obtain the teachers’ versions of what was being taught – and its purpose – at those moments.
Students also will complete written surveys where they describe their attitudes about science and their educational and occupational aspirations.
The researchers also are collecting more information on the teachers and their teaching styles and, at the end of the 2008-09 school year, will receive the students’ grades in science.
“We will have the richest set of data on science experiences,” Schmidt said.
Year Two will bring interpretation of the findings.
Using the video recordings for cross-reference, they will look at what instruction most engaged the students. What interested them? What bored them? What made them more or less anxious? What seemed important for their futures? What struck them as unimportant?
Most critically, what differences were seen between boys and girls?
“It may be that certain types of science activity ‘feel’ different for girls than for boys, which might be why they’re not choosing science careers,” Schmidt said. “Boys might get more energized about science and math because they turn them into competition. In science and math, there often are ‘right’ answers. They can race everyone else. Some research suggests that girls may be more cooperative.”
One of these days, Angela Rosc wants to thank the pediatrician who took care of her when she was a child. She also wants the doctor to know just how big an impact he made on her life.
At age 5, Rosc says, she was diagnosed with a heart condition requiring repeated doctor visits and medical tests. She remembers being scared, but her doctor was able to calm Rosc and even make her smile with his silly sense of humor and monkey on his stethoscope.
“My pediatrician was so friendly and really went the extra mile to bond with me and make me comfortable,” Rosc says. “I decided I wanted to be just like him.”
From that time forward, Rosc has had her sights set on becoming a doctor – and she’s well on her way. The 22-year-old Freeport native is majoring in biological sciences at NIU, has maintained a nearly perfect grade-point average and serves as president of the volunteer Student Health Advisory Council. She will graduate with honors in December and plans to enter medical school next fall.
For her achievements, both in and out of the classroom, Rosc has been named the NIU Student Lincoln Laureate, an honor reserved for the university’s top senior.
On an annual basis, each of the state’s four-year public universities selects one Student Lincoln Laureate, recognizing excellence in both curricular and extracurricular activities. Rosc traveled to Springfield recently for the Lincoln Laureate ceremony in the House of Representatives of the Old State Capitol.
“Angela is a very dedicated and articulate member of the NIU student community,” says Director of NIU Health Services Russell Dolce, who nominated Rosc for the Lincoln Laureate and accompanied her to Springfield. “In addition to being a stellar scholar, she is a natural leader.”
In her elected leadership role with the Student Health Advisory Council (SHAC), Rosc has worked closely with Dolce on a number of issues. The group meets weekly and advises Health Services on programs, services, budgeting, patient satisfaction, the student medical insurance plan and selection of physicians and other key personnel.
“Angela is very proactive in promoting SHAC to students and has been largely responsible for the successful recruiting of new members this past year,” Dolce says. “I wish she were looking for a job here at Health Services. She’s a pleasure to work with.”
Rosc says she is proud of the work SHAC has done, particularly in the way of surveying students to determine their needs.
“It’s very important to me that students’ voices are heard,” Rosc says. “We have a significant job to do. Through SHAC, Health Services gets a real idea of what students would like to see done.”
Rosc is a graduate of Freeport High School. She attended the University of Arizona for two years before transferring to NIU to be closer to home. “Because I wanted to pursue medicine, I thought biology was the best track for me,” she says. “I love the biology department. Everyone is so helpful.”
The feeling is mutual. Earlier this year, Rosc won the Alumni Scholarship, presented annually to an outstanding undergraduate student in the Department of Biological Sciences.
“Angela is extremely bright and motivated, always wanting to know more,” says Biological Sciences Professor Bethia King. “She has excellent oral and written communication skills. She is good, not just at remembering lots of information, but also at evaluating the information.”
Between SHAC and academic responsibilities, Rosc also has consistently demonstrated her concern for others through volunteer activities. She has been involved in numerous service organizations and regularly donates her time to charitable events.
If helping others seems to be a way of life for Rosc, it’s also in her genes. Her grandfather completed medical and dental school and worked as dentist; her uncle is an emergency room physician in Freeport. Both have provided input on her career path.
But Rosc says her parents, Anton and Martha Rosc, have been the biggest help.
“No matter what I’m going through,” she says, “my parents are always there to support me.”
In winning NIU’s Student Lincoln Laureate award, Rosc was competing against top NIU seniors in a wide variety of disciplines. Other nominees for the award included first finalist Mohsin Chowdhury (electrical engineering/chemistry) of Naperville; Jennifer Dougherty (broadcast journalism/pre-medicine professional studies) of Schaumburg; Robyn Essendrop (nursing) of Hampshire; Irene Johnson (family social services) of Schaumburg; and Stephanie Krause (political science) of DeKalb.
Members of the Northern Illinois University community can honor veterans Friday, Nov. 7, during the annual Veterans Day ceremony at the flagpole across from Altgeld Hall. All are welcome.
This year’s event also will include a tribute to Julianna Gehant, a member of the NIU Veterans Club who was killed during the Feb. 14 tragedy on campus. The bench near the flagpole is dedicated to Gehant’s memory.
Scheduled for 11 a.m. – ceremonies typically take place at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – the NIU Veterans Club-sponsored event offers a chance to pay tribute to men and women who have served, or are serving, in the military.
This year’s observance is being held early to allow members of area veterans groups such as the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars to attend without missing any other Nov. 11 ceremonies.
Speakers will include two officers from the Illinois National Guard. NIU’s ROTC will provide the color guard and rifle team. Club President John Galan, a clinical laboratory sciences major, will lead the ceremony.
Galan served for seven years in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Iraq in 2003 as a medic with a field artillery unit. He currently is a Reservist and a staff sergeant with the Crestwood, Ill.-based medical detachment of the National Guard.
Veterans Day, he says, “brings to the forefront the need for support” for those who have served. Road names such as “Veterans Memorial Parkway” and monuments are appreciated, he says, but there are greater concerns.
“It’s a whole lot more expensive and difficult to honor veterans who are still around and need our help. They need people legislating and lobbying for them,” Galan says. “There are soldiers and veterans who every day live the reality of making the sacrifices that protect us and our interests abroad. They need to be taken care of. Many of them have injuries, both physical and psychological, that preclude them from continued service.”
Still, Galan calls the ceremonies of Veterans Day “appropriate.” Many of the rights and advantages of U.S. citizenship “don’t exist everywhere in the world as they should,” he says, and that freedom here comes thanks of the military.
“Veterans Day is important to me because there are a lot of great things about our country that are expressly maintained by people who are volunteering to maintain and protect them. They sacrificed their lives and their lifestyles to defend them” he says. “It’s important we recognize them every day and not just Veterans Day.”
For more information, visit www.niuveteransclub.org/.
After the week of Nov. 10, members of the campus community will have no valid excuses about bad eating habits.
Seniors in FCNS 409 – “Nutrition Education for Health Promotion Students” – will offer 16 presentations over four days in celebration of NIU Nutrition Education Week. The events are sponsored by the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences, part of the College of Health and Human Sciences, and NIU Recreation Services.
All presentations are free and open to the public. Only the sessions that involve cooking require advanced registration because of limited space in the food lab.
“The students get to practice developing nutrition education sessions for the target audience of college students. They’re so enthusiastic. They’re excited they know enough about these subjects to talk to other people about them,” said Beverly Henry, an assistant professor of nutrition, dietetics and hospitality administration. “They developed their own topics, researched studies that were done and determined the nutrition needs and knowledge needs of their target audiences.”
Faculty are helping the students prepare, which includes two weeks of “dress rehearsals.” Graduate students enrolled in Henry’s class on strategies for modifying nutrition behaviors are providing critiques.
Meanwhile, Henry has upped the ante for students giving this year’s talks.
“Last year, they did this mainly for students in the residence halls,” Henry said. “This year, we’ve expanded. They need to think outside the box – for parents who have kids at the Campus Child Care Center, for the Latino Center, for brown bag lunches – but still within the security of doing things for the NIU family.”
Malcolm L. Morris, interim dean of the NIU College of Law, announced the July 2008 Illinois State Bar Exam pass rate for the College’s first-time takers was 95 percent.
This exceeds the state average rate for all Illinois first-time test takers; the results placed NIU first among the other public law schools and third overall in the state.
“It is gratifying to see our students succeed on the bar exam,” Morris said.“This achievement speaks to the high quality of our students and the ability of our dedicated faculty to provide a well-rounded legal education. It validates what we always have known: Northern Illinois University College of Law provides an excellent legal education, which results in graduates who pass the bar and are ready to enter the legal profession.”
Morris noted that during the spring semester, College of Law faculty devoted their time and effort to provide students a program of extra class sessions. Offered free and exclusively for its law students, the classes were designed to reinforce legal skills students acquired in their law school courses.
Pleased with the outstanding results, Morris plans to expand the program this year.
“Our top priority is the success of our students,” he said. “The college will do what is necessary to achieve that goal.”
After more than a year of candidate speeches, ads, debates and politicking, it all comes down to one night – and WNIJ (89.5 FM) and National Public Radio will be there with live coverage of the 2008 general election.
Special coverage begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday, hosted by NPR’s Robert Siegel, Michel Norris, Scott Simon and Debbie Elliott. Reporters and producers will be at more than two dozen sites around the country, including key battleground states and major candidate sites. The evening programming also will include analysis from NPR’s Ron Elving, Mara Liasson and others.
Locally, the WNIJ newsroom will follow election results for local and state offices, with particular attention paid to the race for the Illinois 14th congressional seat. WNIJ’s Susan Stephens will be joined by Christopher Hosken, Guy Stephens and Andy Mitchell. NIU political scientist Matt Streb will be live in the studio with analysis of the local results.
WNIJ is part of Northern Public Radio, the broadcast service of NIU.
The Women’s Resource Center will sponsor a Voter Appreciation Day and election-watching party from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4, inside its building at 105 Normal Road.
Stop by throughout the day for food, prizes and fun; watch the election returns in the WRC lounge.
For more information, call (815) 753-0320.
The MyNIU training team has scheduled several training events this week.
Visit the MyNIU training Web site to view job aids and other helpful resources.
On the menu at Ellington’s this week: Autumn Harvest Café is scheduled for Tuesday, L’Amore di Cibo takes over Wednesday and Lady Liberty concludes the week Thursday.
New this semester is the option to enjoy wine with your meal. One red and one white wine choice will be available with meal service. Wine will be selected for the menu based on wine-and-food pairings made by the students. Wine selections will range from $4.50 to $6.50 per glass.
Autumn Harvest Café features butternut squash soup with apple brandy or baby greens, apple and walnut salad with cranberry vinaigrette for starters, pecan encrusted chicken breast or polenta with hearty vegetable casserole for entrees and hazelnut pumpkin spice cake or honey baked apples for dessert. Each table also will be served honey corn bread.
L’Amore di Cibo features marinated shrimp with Mediterranean salad or spanikopia for starters, chicken Mediterranean or eggplant marinara with couscous for entrees and ouzo-scented almond yogurt and olive oil cake or citrus ricotta figs for dessert. Each table also will be served pita bread with sun-dried tomato hummus.
Lady Liberty features capitol hill cornbread crab cakes or monumental sweet potato soup for starters, presidential pork tenderloin with roasted vegetables or Liberty Islands’ gratin with steamed asparagus for entrees and White House white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake or liberty bell apple crisp for dessert. Each table also will be served Charleston cheese garlic biscuits.
Seating is from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. with service until 1 p.m. The cost is $9 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.
The NIU Jazz Ensemble will perform its annual fall concert at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center.
Directed by Ron Carter, the NIU Jazz Ensemble features vocalist Travaulya Wallace. The concert also welcomes guest artist Curtis Fuller, jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.
NIU’s Women’s Resource Center will host “Exposed: Celebrity & Raunch Culture Unveiled” at a discussion scheduled for 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12.
Join others in a conversation that explores the destructive messages, such as drug and alcohol abuse, that exist within the celebrity culture to determine why they are glorified and how they affect young women today.
The discussion at the center at 105 Normal Road, DeKalb. For details, call (815) 753-0320.
Hearing loss is not just a part of old age: It can affect people of any age. Unfortunately, too many people wait years before seeking help.
NIU’s Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic, 3100 Sycamore Road in DeKalb, will host two free hearing screenings and technology demonstrations, scheduled for 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, and 9 a.m. to noon Monday, Dec. 8.
The screenings and demonstrations are by appointment only. Call (815) 753-1481 (voice) or (815) 753-2000 (TTY) for more information or to reserve a time. The clinic is part of the College of Health and Human Sciences.
NIU’s Supportive Professional Staff Council is requesting nominations for the Presidential Supportive Professional Staff Award for Excellence.
This award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the university. All Supportive Professional Staff are eligible. If you have previously nominated an individual, please consider re-nominating them.
Four awards worth $1,500 each will be presented. In addition, each recipient will receive a plaque in recognition of their accomplishments. To be eligible, an employee must be actively employed at the time the award is presented (in March or April 2009).
The nominator is asked to address the following topics in a letter addressed to the SPSC Awards Committee:
A completed application packet consists of the
nomination referral form and four letters: a nomination letter and three letters of support.The support letters must address the above topics. Only these four letters will be considered for each nominee. All nominations must include the nominee’s and nominator’s name, title and department.
Awards will be announced by the president in February 2009, and awards will be presented at a reception hosted by the president in March or April 2009. Nominators are responsible for submitting the complete set of nomination materials. Contact Deborah Haliczer at (815) 753-6039 or via e-mail at dhaliczer@niu.edu for more information.
The nomination referral form, nomination letter and three letters of support should be sent to Deborah Haliczer, co-chair of the SPSC awards committee, and must be received in the office of Human Resource Services (1515 W. Lincoln Hwy.) by 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3. There will be no extensions of the deadline.
Do you wish you could spend money freely and not increase your debt? Do you feel you are spending too much money each month but there is nothing you can do about it?
Is your spouse constantly nagging you about spending too much money? Are other poeple always telling you to cut up your credit cards?
NIU’s School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences and The Family Center of NIU, both part of the College of Health and Human Sciences, are offering two free workshop sessions to explore these challenging issues.
“It’s Your Money” is offered from 7:15 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, and Thursday, Nov. 13, in Room 103A of Wirtz Hall. Call (815) 753-0031 for more information and to register.
The University Women’s Club invites all members, spouses and friends to join the contingent of UWC fans Friday, Nov. 7, to cheer on the NIU women’s volleyball team at the Convocation Center. Game time is 7 p.m.
Funds raised at the UWC garage sales have been used to purchase new jerseys for the team. Everyone is invited to join the UWC group to check out the new uniforms and root for the Huskies.
For more information, contact Sharon Tourville at stourville@comcast.net.
Piano expert David Graham will present a short workshop at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9, on how to purchase a piano. The workshop, titled “Piano Primer: What to Know When Buying a Piano,” takes place in the Recital Hall of the Music Building.
Topics covered include staying within a budget, how to consider the space needed for the instrument, discussion of a realistic budget, what to listen for when trying out instruments in the store, resources (books and Web sites) and rental options.
Graham has been a piano technician for a number of years. His training in piano technology was at the Moody Bible Institute, and he served an apprenticeship with Virgil Smith in 1980. He has been a craftsman member of the Piano Technicians Guild since 1983. He has worked as a piano technician for NIU since 1983 and for the Lyric Opera of Chicago since 1982. He has recently been trained to work on European pianos (including Fazioli) and works for Pianoforte Chicago.
There is a fee of $15 for the workshop; registration is required. For more information, call (815) 753-1450 or visit www.niu.edu/extprograms.
A movie-themed concert to benefit the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall of the NIU Music Building.
Concertgoers will enjoy the red-carpet treatment, complete with “paparazzi,” spotlights, movie characters for photo opportunities and other surprises. The orchestra’s performance features soundtrack pieces from “Star Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Lord of the Rings,” “Harry Potter,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Theme from the Elephant Man” and “Phantom of the Opera.”
A pre-concert champagne and chocolate reception begins at 6 p.m. Admission is $15 per person.
Other fundraisers will include a silent auction and raffle of silver-screen related items, one week in a Florida condominium and much more.
Tickets for the concert are $15 for adults, $12 for senior citizens age 62 and older, $10 for students with valid ID and $5 for children age 12 and younger.
Visit www.kishorchestra.org or call (815) 756-3728 for more information.