The spring issue of “Spectrum” is now online.
“Spectrum” is a newsletter for faculty published every fall and spring by NIU’s Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center. This issue includes stories on microteaching, audio feedback, online tutorials and more.
Beginning Tuesday, March 17, area residents who become members of the Lifelong Learning Institute at NIU could take a number of interesting study group sessions.
The spring term continues through May 7. Members can choose to take part in as many study groups as they wish.
Established in 2001, the LLI is open to those who are 50 and older who want to have engaging learning experiences and create new friendships. The study groups are led by members and some current and retired NIU faculty.
The study groups are held in the Holmes Student Center and include the following topics:
Tuesdays
To be included on a mailing list for upcoming programs or to register for the current spring program, contact the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences External Programming at (815) 753-5200, online at http://www.LLI.niu.edu or in person in Room 152 of the Monat Building, 148 N. Third St.
On the menu at Ellington’s this week: Nuestra Inspiracion is scheduled for today. Athena’s Place takes over Thursday.
Continuing 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.
Nuestra Inspiracion features chorizo a la llama or flatbread with tomato vinaigrette for starters, chicken kabob with remeso sauce or tortilla Espanola for entrees and pineapple ice cream or churros with chocolate sauce for dessert. Both entrees are served with traditional Spanish baked rice.
Athena’s Place features avgolemono soup or Greek salad for starters, chicken oreganata or Mediterranean lasagna for entrees and Greek-style yogurt with honey and walnuts or baklava for dessert. Each table also will be served tzatziki with pita pieces.
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.
NIU’s Xi Delta chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor Society, will host its annual “In Translation” event at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 17, in Reavis Hall 211.
All are invited to join with faculty and students from the departments of English and Foreign Languages and Literatures for an evening of poetry readings. Poems will be read in their original languages and then in English translations. A number of languages will be represented, from Thai to German to Turkish and more.
Refreshments will be served.
WNIJ (89.5 FM) will conduct its Spring Membership Campaign from Friday, March 20, through Friday, March 27.
During this time, listeners are encouraged to become members by making financial pledges of support toward the public radio programming they value. Of special concern this season is the station’s need to replace a storm-damaged antenna, which affects reception in the outlying areas of WNIJ’s broadcast range.
The daily schedule on WNIJ (89.5 FM) features nationally renowned NPR News programs such as “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered,” “The Diane Rehm Show” and “Fresh Air.” Popular weekend programs include “Car Talk,” “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” “A Prairie Home Companion” and “The Saturday Blues.”
Throughout the campaign dates, radio hosts will direct listeners to call a dedicated “Pledge Line” staffed by volunteers. The radio station Web site also is quipped to receive secure pledges online at www.wnij.org.
89.5-WNIJ is a service of Northern Public Radio, the broadcast service of NIU.
NIU’s Holmes Student Center Gallery will be home to the art of the late Steve Thiel the week of March 23 to March 27.
The exhibition will host some of Thiel’s more recent paintings and photographs. At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 26, a group of family and friends will host a reception that will include selected readings of his poetry. The reception and reading are open to the public.
Thiel, who died Jan. 13, first came to NIU as a business student but changed his major to art in order to satisfy his creative bent, philosophical disposition and artistic output. He wrote, painted and photographed, trying to capture the ephemeral qualities of his surroundings. People, places and nature were his favorite subjects in photography; in painting, he delved deeper into physics and philosophy.
As a means of supporting himself as an artist, Thiel worked at NIU’s Information Technology Services. It burgeoned into a career that spanned more than 27 years – all of it with NIU Information at (815) 753-1000. He was the unofficial “voice of NIU,” literally and figuratively as he guided callers around the university.
Call (815) 753-5803 for more information.
NIU’s Civic Leadership Academy will host a workshop Thursday, March 26, titled “Understanding Your Government’s Finances.”
This workshop is designed to give participants a critical understanding of the processes, policies and politics that surround governmental budgeting and finance. 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.
After this introductory survey of public budgeting and financial management, participants will leave with a full appreciation of the ideas, concepts and techniques important to leadership’s understanding of budgets and financial management.
Brian Caputo, director of finance for the City of Aurora, is the presenter.
Registration and more information about CLA and its upcoming workshops is available online.
The Presidential Commission on the Status of Minorities is accepting nominations for the 2009 Deacon Davis Diversity Award.
Created in 2004, the award recognizes NIU students, faculty, staff, academic units, offices, programs or organizations for significant contributions made to the improvement of the status of minorities on campus. Nomination forms and complete information regarding the nomination process are available online at www.niu.edu/pcsm/.
Nominations must be received by Friday, March 27, and should be accompanied by a letter of support from someone other than the nominator. The Deacon Davis Diversity Award is a non-monetary award that will be presented Wednesday, April 15, during the annual PCSM Spring Banquet.
Gregory Schraw, professor of educational psychology at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, is the keynote speaker at the 2009 Graduate Student Research Conference on Education, Learning & Human Development.
Schraw will address “Six Characteristics of Effective Learners” at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 28, in the Capitol Room South of the Holmes Student Center.
A reception for Schraw will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, March 27, at Tapalaluna, 226 E. Lincoln Hwy.
The Graduate Student Research Conference takes place from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and includes three research paper sessions, a poster fair, workshops and other events, including a breakfast discussion with Professor Eduardo Vidal-Abarca of the Universtiy of Valencia (Spain). Pre-registration is required for attendance, but is free for NIU students, faculty and staff.
Register online by Friday, March 20. The event is co-sponsored by the Graduate Colloquium Committee, the College of Education and the Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations. Call (815) 753-4404 for more information.
Volunteers are needed Saturday, April 4, to serve as project judges for the Region V IJAS Science Fair.
The judging of the high school and junior high projects lasts from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. with lunch included. Contact Mark Pietrowski at (815) 753-1456 or via e-mail at pietrowski@niu.edu to obtain a form to become a judge.
NIU is engaged in recertification of its athletics program. A campus-wide committee has undertaken a self-study to ensure the integrity of its athletics operations, and the final draft of the self-study will be posted on or about Wednesday, April 1.
As part of the certification process, three public forums will be held to give members of the campus community the opportunity to comment on the self-study. All students, faculty, staff, alumni and interested parties are welcome to attend the forums. Those who cannot attend the forums but would like to comment are encouraged to submit feedback online.
Forums will be held:
For Thursday’s forums, parking is available in Lot 35 free of charge to the public.
For further details, contact Tom Krepel at (815) 752-8362 or via e-mail at krepel@niu.edu.
Join the Lifelong Learning Institute in a fascinating and picturesque trip Friday, April 24, through regional and national history: A professional tour guide will take participants on a day-long tour of the Illinois-Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor.
The opening of the 100 mile-long canal in 1848, from Chicago to LaSalle-Peru, linked the Gulf of Mexico with the Great Lakes and launched Chicago on its greatest period of growth. While eventually superseded by the Sanitary and Ship Canal, a rediscovery of the old canal and the communities along it has resulted in an impressive array of restored buildings, landscapes and historic sites.
Participants will go to the St. James of the Sag Church in Lemont, the headquarters of the I&M Canal at Lockport. Members will visit the marvelously restored Gaylord Building along with a small museum devoted to the canal as well as the Public Landing Restaurant, where they will have lunch. Afterward, they will continue on a driving tour of Lockport and the Joliet Museum, featuring a replica lock used on the I&M and a Route 66 Experience Exhibit.
The trip will depart from the Normal Road entrance of the Holmes Student Center at 8:15 a.m. and return at approximately 6:30 p.m. Fee includes professional guide, lunch, entrance fees and transportation.
The field trip is open to everyone in the community, while LLI members, NIU Cardinal & Black Alumni members and University Women’s Club members are eligible for a discounted rate.
For more information or to register for the field trip, contact the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences External Programming at (815) 753-5200, online at http://www.LLI.niu.edu or in person in Room 152 of the Monat Building, 148 N. Third St.
A minimum of 25 registrants is needed by Friday, April 10, to offer this trip.
NIU’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center invites members of the campus community to participate in the awards and contests that recognize leadership and achievement related to the LGBT community.
The awards include the Ally Awards, LGBT Essay Contest, Eychaner Award for Outstanding Contributions on behalf of the LGBT Community and recognition of graduating LGBT students.
Information and nomination or submission forms are available online. Deadlines range from Wednesday, March 18, to Tuesday, March 31. Award recipients will be recognized at the annual end of year Award Dinner during LGBT Awareness Month in April.
For more information, contact the LGBT Resource Center at lgbt@niu.edu or (815) 753-5428.
The Macalester African Music Ensemble will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 19, in the NIU Boutell Memorial Concert Hall.
Directed by Sowah Mensah, ethnomusicologist, composer and a master drummer from Ghana, the Macalester African Music Ensemble performs traditional African music primarily from Ghana, but also from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Guinea, Gambia, Kenya and Tanzania.
Founded in 1987, members of the group sing and perform with a variety of African instruments including xylophones, marimbas, flutes, horns and an assortment of drums and gourds. They have been invited to give performances in major cities including New Orleans, Chicago, Seattle, Milwaukee, Madison, Santa Barbara, Ann Arbor, Iowa City, St. Louis and more.
This free performance at NIU is sponsored by the NIU Center for Black Studies, the Division of International Programs and the Department of Anthropology. For more information, contact Jui-Ching Wang at jcwang@niu.edu or (815) 753-7979.
The concert is open to the public and the building is accessible to all.
NIU’s School of Music is training a young singers’ chorus for the spring Opera Workshop production of “Hansel and Gretel.”
Singers from DeKalb, Sycamore, Malta, Somonauk and Rockford have been rehearsing together each Wednesday night to prepare for the March performances at NIU. Bringing together young talent for the university production was the idea of directors Lucia Matos, James Tucker and Mary Lynn Doherty, all NIU School of Music faculty members.
Composed by Engelbert Humperdinck in 1893, “Hansel and Gretel” promises to be a wonderful collaboration involving the NIU Philharmonic, NIU voice students and the children’s chorus.
The opera, a perennial favorite for family audiences, features exquisite music to retell the well-known folk tale by the Brothers Grimm, complete with a magical forest and the Gingerbread Witch.
Performances with full orchestra are scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, March 27, and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 29, in Boutell Memorial Concert Hall. The opera will be conducted by Matos and staged by Tucker, faculty co-directors of the NIU Opera Workshop.
Tickets are available for purchase in advance by calling (815) 753-1551 or can be purchased at the door at both performances. Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for non-NIU students ages 12 and older and $5 for children age 11 and younger. General seating is available for both performances.
Learn to make beautiful eggs, which can be given as gifts, kept as family heirlooms or treasured as springtime decorations.
The NIU Community School of the Arts is offering a two-day workshop to create Pysanky Easter Eggs. The class meets from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 28, and Sunday, March 29, in the Visual Arts Building. The workshop is for anyone ages 15 through adult.
Egg decorating is a skill that has been handed down through many generations, usually from mother to daughter. Pysanky are Ukrainian/Polish Easter eggs, decorated using beeswax and dyes applied in layers.
Students learn to decorate eggs using two different styles of Pysanky: the Polish drop/pull folk style and the Ukrainian method, which uses the delrin kista tool. Both use hot wax applied to the egg surface and color dye baths. The fee includes the cost of materials.
Instructor Billie Giese is an associate professor of drawing in the NIU School of Art.
For registration forms or information about this and other programs of the NIU Community School of the Arts, visit www.niu.edu/extprograms or call (815) 753-1450.
Richard Carwardine, Rhodes Professor of American History at St. Catherine College and incoming president of Corpus Christi College at Oxford University, will speak Monday, April 6, at NIU.
Carwardine is the author of “Abraham Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power” and the winner of the 2004 Lincoln Prize. In 2008, he was elected to the Order of Lincoln by the State of Illinois.
His lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Lincoln Room of the Holmes Student Center.
The event is hosted by the University Honors Program. It is sponsored by a grant from the
Abraham Lincoln Illinois Bicentennial Commission and endorsed by the Illinois Library System Director’s Organization.
For more information, visit http://www.lincolnread2009.org.