President John and Mrs. Barbara Peters will host their annual Holiday Luncheon at the Holmes Student Center Duke Ellington Ballroom from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1.
All are invited to attend and join their colleagues in celebrating the start of the holiday season at this festive event.
The NIU Philharmonic, under the direction of conductor Lucia Matos, will present its final concert of the fall at 8 p.m. today in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall.
On the program is Schubert’s “Symphony No. 9, in C Major” and Mahler’s “Kindertotenleider.” School of Music faculty member Myron Myers is the guest bass vocalist.
The concert is free and open to the public, and the auditorium is accessible to all. The concert also is scheduled for Webcast with four cameras.
Call (815) 753-1551 for more information.
A new Web site highlights the scientific research and related activities nationwide made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the stimulus.
The purpose of the ScienceWorksForUS site is to ensure that the public is aware of the important work being made possible by the funding for scientific research that was included in the ARRA.
ScienceWorksForUS is an initiative of the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Science Coalition.
Join the NIU Community School of the Arts this December with a variety of music performances.
All recitals are scheduled in the Recital Hall of the Music Building 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 spring semester begins in January. Scholarships are available for those in financial need; the deadline for spring applications is Monday, Jan. 4.
For more information about classes, ensembles and lessons, contact Renee Page at (815) 753-1450 or visit www.niu.edu/extprograms.
President John and Mrs. Barbara Peters will open the Altgeld Hall castle to local families for the annual holiday gala from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4.
This annual celebration of the season is a kid-focused event that is fun for all ages.
Bring your family, friends and neighbors to an evening of activities, entertainment and good things to eat. More details will follow in the Nov. 30 issue of Northern Today.
The DeKalb Festival Chorus, under the direction of Jennifer Whiting, will perform a holiday concert at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 13, in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall of the Music Building.
The chorus again welcomes the Prairie Brass Band from Arlington Heights, directed by Dallas Niermeyer. Also sharing the program is special guest organist Keith McNabb, who holds degrees in organ performance from the University of Michigan and Eastman School of Music.
The program features John Rutter’s “Gloria,” with additional musical works by Pachebel, Dandrieu, Lauridsen, Alice Parker and an American premiere by Herbie Martin.
Tickets are available in advance from chorus members or at the door: $10 for adults and $5 for children, students and seniors. The concert will be recorded, so audience members are asked to plan accordingly.
Founded in 1975, the DeKalb Festival Chorus has striven for a balance between traditional and contemporary vocal works.
Nominations are open for the annual Presidential Commission on the Status of Women awards.
Each year, the commission recognizes a number of women students through the Outstanding Women Student Awards. Students who are eligible are female seniors, graduate students or third-year law students who will graduate in May, August or December 2010. Nominations for these awards are open until Friday, Dec. 18.
The commission also has three staff awards; the Wilma D. Stricklin Award, Outstanding Mentor Award and Women Who Make a Difference Award. Nominations for these awards are open now until Friday, Feb. 19.
The Presidential Commission on the Status of Women encourages continued support of the annual awards through nomination and promotion. Contact mwoiwode1@niu.edu with any questions about the awards.
Visit www.niu.edu/pcsw for more information on PCSW and its awards or to make nominations.
Vendor space is still available for the annual Bridal Expo to be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center.
The show features more than 40 exhibitors, taste testing from the student center’s catering department and a professional fashion show at 2 p.m. Admission is free.
For more information or to register, visit www.niu.edu/hsc or call Karen Villano at (815) 753-6389.
The last remaining data files and jobs will be removed from the mainframe Monday, Nov. 30. Any accounts still active will be disabled.
The permanent shutdown of all mainframe services – CICS, TSO, Wylbur – will take place at the end of the semester. This is the culmination of planning that began more than a year ago, and could not have been done without the work of many all across campus.
While NIU has migrated to new software, it is acknowledged that the legacy system provided the university with many years of reliable service.
For more information, e-mail helpdesk@niu.edu or call (815) 753-8100.
The Office of the Vice Provost is seeking proposals from NIU faculty to create themed learning communities for fall 2010.
In these communities, faculty will offer incoming freshmen a unique opportunity to engage deeply with the course theme, connect learning across the linked course(s) in collaborative and active ways, develop relationships with peers and faculty and ease the transition to college.
The goal is to create between seven and 10 themed learning communities for fall 2010. The full
Request for Proposals and proposal form are online at http://www.niu.edu/provost/tlc/.
All proposals are due by Friday, Dec. 11.
At the request and under the guidance of NIU faculty, ITS has been working throughout the summer and fall to develop a building block for Blackboard that will allow NIU faculty to send course grades from the Blackboard Grade Center directly to course grade rosters in MyNIU.
The grade submission tool was designed and pilot-tested successfully with the help of faculty focus groups and the tool will be available for use in December 2009.
Faculty who use the Blackboard Grade Center to calculate final grades soon will be able to choose to export final grades from Blackboard instead of manually entering grades in MyNIU, saving time and the reducing the opportunity for data entry errors. This tool will especially be helpful to faculty who teach classes with large enrollments.
After submitting grades from Blackboard using this new tool, faculty will have to log in to MyNIU to view the final grades and post them officially.
Features of the new Blackboard Grade Submission Tool include:
The Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center, in conjunction with ITS, will offer several workshops in December to demonstrate the new Blackboard Grade Submission Tool and will provide faculty with step-by-step instructions on submitting their final grades from Blackboard to MyNIU.
For more details or to register, visit http://www.niu.edu/blackboard/workshops.
NIU’s Graduate School has issued its annual call for nominations for honorary doctoral degrees to be awarded from NIU.
This year’s nominations, with the required supporting information, are due Friday, Dec. 18, to James Erman, interim vice president for research and graduate studies.
Awarding an honorary degree is an opportunity for NIU to recognize someone especially outstanding in a field of interest to the university. It is necessary, though not sufficient, for a nominee to be accomplished and renowned in his or her field; an honorary degree recipient should be clearly exceptional among other outstanding persons in that field.
While a connection to NIU or to the State of Illinois is not a requirement for nomination, any such relationship should be noted and will be considered during the selection process.
A nomination must be accompanied by:
Any person affiliated with NIU may submit a nomination, indicating the nominator’s identity and connection with the university. The Honorary Degree Committee encourages nominations by groups as well as by individuals. Nominators should alert all university departments and divisions related to the area of the nominee’s accomplishments and invite those units to provide the committee with input regarding the merits of the nomination.
As the university does not intend to award more than two honorary degrees in a year, the selection process is stringent. Furthermore, as the committee recommendations subsequently pass through several other approval steps, the process is lengthy.
Twenty-seven honorary degrees have been awarded since 1983.
NIU’s Committee for the Improvement of Undergraduate Education is administering four different types of grants to support research in and projects for the improvement of instruction in undergraduate courses.
Copies of the grant forms and guidelines are attached or can be accessed through the Provost’s Office Web site. It is mandatory to use the current forms and not previous forms.
All proposals must be submitted to jganshir@niu.edu by Wednesday, Jan. 20. Projects must be accompanied by approval from the department chair and college dean as outlined in the proposal form.
All expenditures apart from salary must be made by June 1, 2010. Normally salary associated with projects will be paid May 16, 2010, through June 15, 2010, regardless of when the work is actually completed.
Nominees are sought for the awards for excellence in undergraduate teaching and instruction.
The Committee for the Improvement of Undergraduate Education recommends that special attention be paid to the suggested timetable: Suggested deadlines begin Tuesday, Dec. 1, the recommended date for submission of nominations to the departmental chair of student adviser committee.
Student advisory committees are encouraged to make an early start in the selection process to make the best possible presentations for their candidate.
Electronic nomination forms, complete with examples, are available. Nominations must be made using these forms.
As always, significant student participation at all levels of the process is expected, and deans and department chairs are urged to do everything possible to ensure that this occurs.
It is very appropriate for faculty to provide assistance to students with preparing the career profile, eligibility for nomination and nomination procedures. Supporting information must clearly have been prepared by students.
Please note the strict interpretation of the maximum word count listed for the various boxes on the nomination form and the limited number of required letters of recommendation.
For more information, call (815) 753-0494.
NIU’s Art Museum has scheduled a lecture series in conjunction with the School of Art Faculty Exhibition, which opened last week and runs through Saturday, Dec. 5. All are held in Altgeld 315 unless otherwise noted.
The exhibitions and programs of the NIU Art Museum are sponsored in part by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency with additional support from the Friends of the NIU Art Museum and the Arts Fund 21.
For up-to-date information, and additions to the calendar, visit www.niu.edu/artmuseum.
NIU students are invited to participate in a juried art competition with a $1,000 prize for the first place piece, $500 for second place and $250 for third.
The competition is sponsored by NIU’s Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) in preparation of its 40th anniversary celebration. CGS is a public service, applied research and public policy development center with clients throughout the region and beyond.
CGS is hosting a conference of regional leaders Dec. 10 and Dec. 11 focused on how the region can adjust to the new economic realities of the 21st century and how area residents can prosper within these realities.
The art competition reflects the focus of this event and should interpret its theme of “Returning Prosperity to America’s Heartland: Building a Shared Vision for our Region’s Future.”
Art work must be submitted by Tuesday, Dec. 8. Submitted work will be displayed during the conference. The jury panel will include faculty members of NIU’s School of Art and a CGS representative.
Winning pieces will be incorporated into the conference proceedings and provide an important and unique visual component to the event. The winning artists will be invited to a gala dinner and celebration scheduled for Friday, March 5, 2010.
Details on the art competition, including rules, regulations and registration forms, are online.