NIU students, faculty, staff and local residents can renew driver’s licenses or state IDs, purchase annual vehicle license plate stickers, register as organ and tissue donors or conduct other transactions with the Secretary of State’s Office on campus today.
The office will provide certain driver and vehicle services until 3 p.m. on the lower level of the Holmes Student Center. Acceptable forms of payment include personal checks, cash, MasterCard, American Express and Discover credit and debit cards.
Customers can purchase vehicle registration renewal stickers for license plates as well as passenger vehicle license plates, motorcycle license plates and B-Truck plates. Other services available include vehicle title registration and parking placards for persons with disabilities. A complete list of acceptable forms of identification is available at www.CyberDriveIllinois.com.
Staff will return March 16 and April 20.
NIUs’ Office of Assessment Services presents the Spring 2009 issue of Toolkit, its quarterly “nuts and bolts” e-newsletter. Toolkit is specifically designed to assist the NIU community with practical assessment issues in a user-friendly format.
This issue is devoted to highlighting the 10 outstanding assessment practices that will be featured Friday, Feb. 20, at NIU’s second annual Assessment Expo. Colleagues from around campus will share their assessment practices through posters and roundtable discussions. Details and registration for this event can be located at www.niu.edu/assessment.
Back issues are posted on the Assessment Services Web site under Toolkit. Contributions to the newsletter are welcome at any time.
The Civic Leadership Academy at NIU will hold a workshop Thursday, Feb. 12, called “Managing Personnel and the Human Capital of Your Organization: Part II.”
It will press into matters concerning wages, benefits, job content, classifications and labor relations: Do governments compete in the market place for employees? Do wages matter? Is internal equity an important issue? Is interest-based bargaining a myth or realistic option?
These are some of the common policy themes that come up year after year in organizations but often are ignored until a crisis emerges. Other topics to be covered are the benefits of “designed” HR management systems?
Greg Kuhn, assistant director and senior research associate for the NIU Center for Governmental Studies, is the presenter.
Registration and more information about CLA and its upcoming workshops is available online.
Esera Tuaolo was an NFL player for nine years, a defensive lineman in the trenches who faced 300-pound opponents in hand-to-hand combat. His biggest fear was that someone would find out he is gay.
He will speak in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium of the Holmes Student Center at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, about his life as a gay man in the NFL.
Tuaolo played defensive tackle for several NFL teams, reaching the Super Bowl in 1998 while playing with the Atlanta Falcons. In 2002, he came out publicly as a gay man on the HBO show “Real Sports.” He is only the third former NFL player to come out publicly.
His NIU appearance is sponsored by Intercollegiate Athletics; Prism of NIU; the Division of Student Affairs; the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center; and the Presidential Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
Copies of his book, “Alone In The Trenches: My Life As A Gay Man In The NFL,” are available at the University Bookstore. A book signing will follow the presentation.
NIU’s Avalon String Quartet will continue its 2008-09 season at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall.
On the program: Beethoven’s “String Quartet in G Major, op. 18, No. 2,” “String Quartet No. 1” by Charles Ives and Leoš Janáček’s “String Quartet No. 2.”
The concert is free and open to the public. The building is accessible to all. For more information, contact Lynn Slater at (815) 753-1546 or via e-mail at lslater@niu.edu.
The Center for Access-Ability Resources (CAAR) is undergoing an internal review to assess its performance in providing access and accommodations for NIU students with disabilities.
Faculty and staff are encouraged to complete the CAAR: External Audience Survey, which is critical to the internal review and report. The survey will help communicate your awareness of the CAAR office, the services you use, your satisfaction concerning interaction with the CAAR office and its effectiveness in assisting you to provide accommodations for students with disabilities in your classroom.
Please take 10 minutes to complete the survey. It is confidential, and no personal information is associated with it. The survey will close Monday, Feb. 16.
NIU’s Civic Leadership Academy will host a seminar called “What Local Government Executives Need to Know When Disaster Strikes: Intergovernmental Dependence and Technical Frameworks of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response in the U.S.”
The seminar will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18, at NIU-Naperville, 1120 East Diehl Road.
Seminar presenters are:
Register online at http://www.niucgs.org under CLA. Contact Janiece Bollie at jbollie@niu.edu or Greg Kuhn at gkuhn@niu.edu for further information.
NIU’s second annual Assessment Expo is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 20, in the Clara Sperling Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center.
The Assessment Expo is designed to highlight successful assessment practices on campus. A poster session and roundtable discussions will feature representatives from academic programs and Student Affairs units across campus which have been recognized by the University Assessment Panel for their outstanding assessment practices in the previous year.
Topics presented include using rubrics to assess student learning outcomes, using multiple assessment methods, using innovative technology and “closing the loop” in the assessment process.
Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., with a poster session scheduled for 9:15 a.m. and roundtable discussions for 10 a.m. For more information, or to register, visit www.niu.edu/assessment/ or call (815) 753-8659.
Do you know or work with a Civil Service employee at NIU who deserves to be recognized for his or her outstanding contributions to the university?
Nominations for the Outstanding Service Award are now being accepted.
Presented each year to as many as four NIU Civil Service employees, the objective of the award program is to recognize individual Civil Service employees who have demonstrated outstanding service and have made significant contributions to the university community.
A $1,500 award, which is considered taxable wages and subject to payroll deductions, and a plaque will be presented to each recipient of the award at the Annual Operating Staff Service Awards Banquet in the spring.
Nomination packets must be received in Human Resource Services no later than 4:30 p.m. Feb. 27.
For more information and nomination forms, see http://www.niu.edu/osc/serviceaward.
The NIU Division of International Programs has extended the application deadline for Lillian Cobb Faculty Travel Fellowships, supporting faculty members who seek international teaching and public service experiences.
The new deadline is Friday, Feb. 27 for proposals for travel through Aug. 15. Proposals must be submitted to the Division of International Programs.
All tenured or tenure-track faculty members at NIU are eligible to apply.
Each year the specific priorities of the Cobb Faculty Travel Fellowship program may be adjusted to support particular aspects of the strategic plan and mission.
Priority funding consideration this year will be given to proposals that support the creation of new faculty-led study abroad programs by providing travel funds for faculty to visit potential new venues. Grantees will be expected to explore logistic needs and requirements and to firm up any arrangements with local providers, colleagues and/or institutions.
A total of $7,000 is available to be awarded in this cycle. International Programs expects to award four or more grants from the Cobb endowment, with the maximum award to be $2,000. Except for extraordinary circumstances, a match of 20 percent is expected from the faculty member’s department and/or college.
The travel fellowship was established with an endowment from the estate of Lillian Cobb, the first chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.
Beginning Monday, March 2, NIU Parking Services will add hours to better accommodate customer needs.
Weekday office hours will be 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. The office currently opens at 7:45 a.m.; many days, the number of customers who need temporary permits or to pay fines creates lines that make students and employees late for class and work.
For more information, call (815) 753-1045.
Through the student-centered leadership and strong support of NIU President John Peters, the university has established a new summer congressional internship program in Washington, D.C.
This highly competitive program will provide students with the opportunity to live, learn and work in the heart of our nation’s capital. Three students will intern on the Hill for a member of the Illinois congressional delegation.
Each student will receive a $5,000 scholarship to cover the cost of housing and some living expenses. Additionally, students will receive a tuition waiver for six credit hours of political science courses.
All applications must be received by 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 2. Applications can be obtained from the Department of Political Science Web site or from Matt Streb at mstreb@niu.edu.
The Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences has announced the schedule for its Spring 2009 Colloquia.
All talks are held at 4 p.m. Fridays in Davis Hall 308 and are co-sponsored by the Graduate Colloquium Committee of NIU. Call (815) 753-1943 for more information.
NIU will offer an ACT test prep course in February and March.
The four-week course meets from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Feb. 21, Feb. 28, March 14 and March 21, in Room 201 of Reavis Hall.
The program will cover English, math, reading and science reasoning. The final session will cover a sample testing of an actual retired ACT test and scoring.
The fee includes instruction, textbook, CD-ROM and retired ACT tests, but does not include registration to take the actual ACT test.
Registration for this test prep course is available online. For more information, contact Mark Pietrowski at (815) 753-1456 or via e-mail at pietrowski@niu.edu.
High school jazz players are invited to audition for Jazz Combo Day, a memorable day of non-stop jazz at NIU.
Jazz Combo Day brings the best area high school jazz players together for an intensive jazz experience. The Friday, March 20, event culminates in a performance of all combos.
Students are formed into combos and work with some of the best NIU jazz faculty in the region, including Ron Carter, Willie Pickens, Kelly Sill, Art Davis, Steve Duke, Fareed Haque, Rodrigo Villanueva and Robert Chappell. This year’s guest artist is famed saxophonist Wes “Warmdaddy” Anderson.
Audition recordings (CD, video or tape) must be postmarked Friday, Feb. 27. The audition is limited to 12 minutes and must feature three contrasting styles, head and improvisation. Send auditions to Ron Carter, NIU School of Music, DeKalb, IL, 60115.
More information is available at www.niu.edu/extprograms or by calling (815) 753-1450.
Nomination criteria for the Howard Johnston Award for Graduate Student Travel have changed in two areas.
Each department is limited to a maximum of two nominations, and nominations must be ranked. A criteria for nomination of a group of students for travel (when group travel is appropriate) also has been added. The group nomination will be considered a single nomination.
The next nomination deadline is Saturday, Feb. 28.
To encourage excellence in research and scholarly activity, the Howard Johnston Award for Graduate Student Travel will provide travel grants for outstanding NIU students to present their research projects at national or international conferences in their discipline or to participate in other scholarly activities.
Travel grants of up to $1,500 will be awarded on a competitive basis. It is anticipated that about $8,000 in total funding will be available each year.
Visit some of the world’s most exotic places with the NIU Alumni Association.
One of the top archaeological sites on the planet awaits visitors at Machu Picchu, Peru. In South Africa, travelers will experience one of Africa's top safari destinations in Kruger National Park. This tour also includes visits to Cape Town, Knysna, Oudtshoorn, Hazy View and more.
For more information about these trips, visit myniu.com.
The Department of Geography has announced the schedule for its Spring 2009 Colloquia.
All talks are held at 3 p.m. Fridays in Davis Hall 121 and are co-sponsored by the Graduate Colloquium Committee of NIU. Call (815) 753-0631 for more information.