Faculty interested in helping first-year students to learn how to succeed at NIU can become UNIV 101/201 instructors this fall.
UNIV 101 is a one-credit, 12-week course focused on helping freshmen develop the essential academic and social skills needed to make an enjoyable and successful transition to NIU. UNIV 201 is a similar course designed specifically for transfer students.
NIU offered 84 sections of UNIV 101/201 last fall; more than 1,600 first-year NIU students enrolled. UNIV 101/201 instructors can impact the experiences of these new students and provide them with resources to help them adjust to life at NIU.
Instructors must:
Candidates who do not meet the last two criteria can be paired with teaching coaches.
UNIV 101/201 instructors typically receive a stipend of $1,000 for teaching an individual section or $500 for co-instructing. Once hired, all instructors are required to attend training workshops and department meetings and participate in course feedback through e-mail correspondence and surveys.
Instructor overview sessions are being offered from 3 to 4:30 p.m. today and Thursday, April 2, to share more information about teaching these courses. Today’s session takes place in HSC Room 406; the April session is in HSC Room 306. RSVP to firstconn@niu.edu.
More information and application materials are available online or via e-mail at firstconn@niu.edu.
On the menu at Ellington’s this week: Bella’s is scheduled for Tuesday. Touch of Thai 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.
Bella’s features artichoke heart vinaigrette or bruschetta Romana piccante for starters, egg plant parmesan or orrechiette carbonara for entrees and kiwi fruit gelato or tiramisu for dessert.
Touch of Thai features tom yum soup or spicy cucumber salad with peanuts for starters, vegetarian pad Thai or Thai-style stir-fried chicken for entrees and coconut milk sticky rice with mangoes or green tea cheesecake with raspberries and raspberry-mint tisane for dessert. Each table also will be served Thai iced tea.
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.
Faculty of the NIU School of Music will come together at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 3, for an evening of compositions from Spain, South America and Brazil.
Diane Ragains, soprano; Mathias Tacke, violin; William Koehler, piano; Peter Middleton, flute; Greg Barrett, clarinet; Lucia Matos, conductor; and guest artist Racheli Galay-Altman, cello, will present works of the early 20th century through the present.
The composers include Joaquin Rodrigo, Manuel deFalla, Isaac Albeniz, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Mario Davidovsky.
The concert will be held in the Recital Hall of the Music Building. It is free and open to the public, and the hall is accessible to all.
For more information, contact Lynn Slater at lslater@niu.edu or (815) 753-1546.
Join the NIU Alumni Association and the NIU Women’s Studies Program for a presentation and reception featuring Jolene Skinner, 2006 Ph.D. in psychology. Skinner will speak about Dell’s award-winning, work-life flexibility strategy.
The event will be held at the Hilton Chicago, 720 S. Michigan Ave., from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, March 19. A reception will follow the presentation, providing the opportunity to network with prominent women from the NIU and Chicago communities.
Visit myniu.com or call (815) 753-1452 for more information and to register for the event.
Northern Public Radio’s spring membership campaign is scheduled from Friday, March 20, through Friday, March 27.
Reliable volunteers are sought to help answer incoming pledge calls from radio listeners. Hours vary during the campaign week, with some shifts beginning as early as 6 a.m. and others ending around sunset. Weekend hours also are available.
Scheduled volunteers will report to the NIU Broadcast Center, 801 N. First St. in DeKalb.
To learn more or to book shifts, contact Diane Drake at (815) 753-0061 or via e-mail at ddrake@niu.edu.
NIU’s Task Force for Campus Sustainability will offer free recycling of personal “e-waste” – environmentally preferable electronic waste disposal – for all student, faculty and staff participants in the NIU Wellness Fair.
Scheduled for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center, participants can bring items from the “A” list:
Fair participants also can sign up to bring “B” list items Wednesday, April 8, at times and locations to be announced. The “B” list includes:
University-owned property – anything with a university inventory tag – is not eligible for this recycling effort. Secure and personal information should be removed from all devices and media prior to drop-off.
Call (815) 753-9191 for more information.
Alan Rosenbaum, Department of Psychology, is completing his third year of service as the faculty and SPS personnel adviser. Members of the Faculty Senate commend him for his excellent work and professional effect.
The Faculty Senate invites letters of recommendation and nomination for the position of faculty and SPS personnel adviser for the 2009-2011 academic years.
The adviser must be a full-time, tenured faculty member who has had experience with the personnel process at various levels and who is familiar with the administrative structure and operations of the university.
The adviser shall receive compensation equal to one month of the median salary of all tenured professors each semester and summer session funded through the budget of the University Council. The adviser may not concurrently hold membership on any committee dealing with the personnel process.
The initial appointment is a two-year term of 11 months each year and is renewable for an additional 11 months. The adviser is ineligible for a successive term.
Please address all correspondence to Paul Stoddard, president, Faculty Senate. Recommendations and nominations should be received by Friday, March 27.
The David W. Raymond Grant is an annual grant to faculty who are working on ways to use new technologies in their teaching. The $2,500 grant is awarded to the faculty member with the best proposal for incorporating new technologies into his or her teaching.
Tenured and tenure-track faculty are eligible to apply for the grant. Applicants must describe a project that incorporates instructional technologies in the teaching of a course or the preparation of supporting materials for a course according to the proposal format.
The proposal must include a budget for the project and a letter of support from the chair of the applicant’s department, school or division. Five copies of each proposal should be submitted to the Grant Review Committee, Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center, Adams Hall 319, by March 27, 2009.
For proposal format and more information about the grant, e-mail facdev@niu.edu or call (815) 753-0595.
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 a location to be announced.
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. 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.
NIU’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies, along with the Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies at the University of Chicago, are co-sponsors of a colloquium called “Islam at the Edges: Southeast Europe and Southeast Asia.”
The event takes place at 8:30 a.m. Monday, March 30, in the Heritage Room of the Holmes Student Center.
“Islam at the Edges” is a colloquium aimed at exploring European-Asian continuity from a salient and innovative perspective: Europe and Asia as parts of the Islamic world.
This colloquium will bring together diverse scholars, including anthropologists, historians, linguists and specialists working on religious studies as well as popular culture and art to explore the links between Europe and Asia through their participation in the Islamic world, as its peripheral geographic members.
By focusing on the “edges” of the Islamic world, namely Southeast Europe and Southeast Asia, organizers expect to find a new vantage point for locating the present and past unities of Eurasia, as well as the inherent fragility of such peripheral areas of confrontation and conceptualization.
With the cooperation of various institutions in the United States, Europe and Asia, a series of colloquia is being planned for the next five years, as well as appropriate publications flowing from these colloquia and future research and teaching collaborations.
In conjunction with the March 30 event, a parallel afternoon session is being offered from 2 to 5 p.m. for registered K-16 educators on resources for teaching about Islam in Southeast Asia and Southeast Europe. CPDUs are available for the full day or half day for current K-12 Illinois educators.
Registration information is available online. For more information, call (815) 753-1771.
NIU will host “How Green Really Works,” a one-day conference designed for meeting and event planners, Wednesday, July 29, in the Holmes Student Center.
Deborah Popley, president of Green Events Source, a full-service resource for green meeting planning, products, education and consulting, will provide the keynote presentation. Chicago caterer Greg Christian, who specializes in green, local, sustainable and organic cuisine, will discuss and demonstrate green menu planning.
The event also will include a green vendor show and an opportunity to tour the Hoka Turkey Farm, Heritage Prairie Market or Waterman Winery & Vineyards.
Registration fee is $25 (before June 1) or $40 thereafter. Cost includes a continental breakfast, buffet lunch, transportation to tours, as well as coffee and desserts.
Registration and more information is available online or at (815) 753-6389.
NIU’s Strategic Planning Initiative identified general education reform as a priority for the institution. The first phase of this reform is a review of the university’s baccalaureate degree goals: What skills, knowledge and abilities should NIU graduates achieve? What values and ideals should be promoted?
To promote this activity, the Baccalaureate Review Task Force will hold three open forums. These forums are designed to give the NIU community additional opportunities to provide input regarding NIU’s baccalaureate goals.
The open forums will last 60 minutes and will be held:
Those unable to attend an open forum who still want to share ideas can read and respond to the Baccalaureate Review Online Survey.
Heesun Majcher, director of the International Student and Faculty Office, will deliver a presentation on Korean language and culture at NIU's International Women’s Day luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, in the Chandelier Room of Adams Hall.
Reservations are required by Wednesday, Feb. 25, at (815) 753-9530. Cost for the luncheon is $15 per person, and seating is limited. Guests are welcome to attend the talk only, which will begin at 12:15 p.m.
The luncheon is co-sponsored by the Division of International Programs and Women’s Studies Program.
NIU’s Presidential Commission on the Status of Minorities will host an interactive presentation from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, in the Holmes Student Center, Blackhawk Annex.
The presentation, led by LaMetra Curry-Chapman, coordinator of Recruitment Services in NIU’s College of Education, will focus on diversity and higher education, exploring the expectations and experiences of students of color in higher education and investigating the attitudes, beliefs and behaviors held by professors and administrators in supporting these students.
The presentation is free and open to the public. For details, contact Angeline Stuckey at (815) 753-9406.
NIUs’ University Bookstore will closed for inventory from Monday, March 9, through the Wednesday, March 11. Regular store hours will resume Thursday, March 12.
Call (815) 753-1081 for more information.