K. David Harrison’s presentation on “When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World’s Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge” has been canceled. Contact Doris Macdonald for more information at (815) 753-6601 or dmvm@niu.edu.
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.
Users of CICS, TSO, Wylbur or other mainframe services must find other solutions before the end of the semester.
Active users already have been contacted to coordinate discontinuance of these applications. However, users of these services who have not spoken with an ITS representative and are unaware of this initiative, should contact the ITS Helpdesk immediately to obtain assistance.
E-mail helpdesk@niu.edu or call (815) 753-8100.
On the menu at Ellington’s this week: Santa Fe Café is scheduled for Tuesday. La Perla takes over Wednesday. Parthenon concludes the week 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.
Santa Fe Café features Mexican cheese soup or orange and jicama green salad for starters, flame-grilled chicken breast or tempe fajitas for entrees and Mexican hot chocolate mousse or caramel apple burritos for dessert. Each table will be served corn muffins with jalapeños and lime butter.
La Perla features fried shrimp with orange syrup or Peruvian chopped salad for starters, Peruvian-style beef kabobs with grilled vegetables or layered potato bake for entrees and citrus yogurt and mixed berries or caramel pecan bars for dessert.
Parthenon features orange, arugula and cucumber salad or balsamic marinated olives for starters, lemon herb chicken and orzo or orecchiette pasta mixed with white beans, tomatoes, feta and mint for entrees and semolina and ground almond cake or roasted plums with Greek yogurt for dessert. Each table will be served pita wedges and roasted red pepper hummus.
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.
For those who haven’t had an opportunity to participate in the NIU Foundation’s Faculty & Staff Campaign, now is the time. Participation is easy and every gift, no matter its size, will make an immediate impact at NIU.
Here are five simple ways to participate to make your gift count in the 2009-10 campaign:
Give online
Gifts made by Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express can be quickly and safely processed through our secure Web site.
Give offline
One-time credit card or check gifts may be made using the Outright Gift Form. Make checks payable to the NIU Foundation.
Give through payroll deduction
Download the Payroll Deduction Gift Form. Payroll deduction gifts have a minimum of $5 per pay period and can be ongoing or limited to a certain amount.
Give over the phone
Call 1-877-GIV-2-NIU (1-877-448-2648) and a friendly Faculty & Staff Campaign representative will process your credit card gift.
Give in person
Visit the Advancement Services office in Swen Parson Hall 220.
While this year’s campaign focuses on expendable scholarship support for students, your gift can be designated to any area at NIU. Also, no matter which method of giving you prefer, 100 percent of your gift will support your area of choice.
The NIU Foundation is calling for proposals for its annual Venture Grants, to be awarded in late fall of 2009.
Venture Grants back NIU faculty and staff in their commitment to excellence in teaching, learning and affecting positive change in the larger community.
The grant program will focus support toward the university’s strategic planning initiatives. Grantees will be selected based on their potential to advance two of the plan’s major imperatives.
Based on the strength of applications, as determined by the NIU Foundation Grants Committee, more than one proposal can receive funding. The combined budget for FY2010 is $35,000. This is for one-time, short-term (one year maximum) funding.
To be considered for FY2010 grant awards, proposals must be received in the Foundation Office, Altgeld 135, no later than Wednesday, Oct. 14. Applications and forms are available online.
All faculty and staff from units within the Division of Academic and Student Affairs, the Division of Administration and University Outreach and Intercollegiate Athletics are eligible to apply. Awards will be announced in mid-December.
For more information, contact Diane Johnson at (815) 753-9469 or via e-mail at dianejohnson@niu.edu.
NIU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences External Programming is partnering with the DeKalb Public Library for its “Big Read” event effort this month. This event helps promote literary reading in families and in the NIU student population.
The DeKalb Public Library and partners received a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to present “The Big Read” to the citizens of DeKalb County for the third consecutive year.
Members of “The Big Read” committee purchased 5,000 copies of a collection of Edgar Allen Poe writings to give away to the public. Books will be handed out for free to everyone who attends a Big Read event.
More than 500 NIU CHANCE students and freshman English majors also are participating.
Information on all events is available online.
The Women’s Resource Center at NIU will host “LUNAFEST,” a festival of short films, at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16, at Wirtz Hall 101.
Featured films are by, for and about women. These brilliant films have won industry awards and audience accolades. From quirky animation to touching documentaries, the 10 selected films are diverse in style and subject matter, united by a common thread of exceptional storytelling.
Tickets can be purchased at the Women’s Resource Center or at the door. The cost is $2 for students and $5 for community members, faculty and staff. Proceeds will benefit the Breast Cancer Fund and the WRC library.
Break out the platform shoes and bellbottom pants for the NIU Convocation Center’s “A Tribute to the Motown Greats,” an 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, event sure to bring the audience to its feet.
Tickets are $25 for floor and lower bowl seats and $20 for upper bowl seats.
Tickets are available at the Convocation Center box office, all Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.com or charged by phone (800) 745-3000. NIU students receive a $4 discount with a valid NIU OneCard (limit two) when purchasing tickets at the NIU Convocation Center box office.
Special VIP packages also are available, including hotel, dinner and show or just dinner and show. Call (815) 752-6800 for more information on VIP packages.
NIU students, faculty, staff and local residents can renew driver’s licenses and state IDs, purchase their annual vehicle license plate stickers, register to be organ and tissue donors or conduct other transactions at a mobile office coming to campus.
The mobile office will visit campus from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19, in the lower level of the Holmes Student Center. The next fall date is Monday, Nov. 16.
Acceptable forms of payment include personal checks, cash, MasterCard, American Express and Discover credit and debit cards. Other services available include vehicle title registration and parking placards for persons with disabilities.
A complete list of acceptable forms of identification is online at www.CyberDriveIllinois.com.
The NIU Chemistry Club invites the public to celebrate National Chemistry Week with an evening of chemistry demonstrations beginning at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, in Faraday Hall 143. This year’s theme is “Chemistry – It’s Elemental!”
“Since the theme deals with the ‘elemental’ nature of chemistry, we have selected demos that involve reactions of elements,” says Professor David Ballantine, faculty adviser for the Chem Club.
“Some of the more dramatic elemental reactions involve the thermite reaction, the reaction of white phosphorus with air, potassium with water and combustion of magnesium with carbon dioxide.”
The evening will conclude with an always crowd-pleasing demo – the making of liquid nitrogen ice cream.
Some of the experiments planned for the evening might involve loud noises and produce some smoke and/or unpleasant smells and might be inappropriate for small children. To ensure the safety of the audience and the presenters, flash photography will not be permitted. For some experiments, members of the audience might be asked to move away from the demonstration area, again for safety precautions.
Parking will be available in the NIU Parking Deck along the west side of Normal Road. The Parking Deck is open for general parking after 7 p.m., except for reserved and handicapped spaces.
NIU’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language and Literacy has announced a mini-grant program.
Mini-grants are designed to assist CISLL faculty in the development of research or service oriented grant proposals for external funding. Awards may be used to support travel to confer with funding agencies, attendance at workshops for seeking external funding, salary to support proposal development or salary for assistance (typing, etc.).
Faculty are required to apply in multidisciplinary groups with at least two departments represented. Awards only will be given to individuals affiliated with CISLL; however, individuals hired by the awardees need not be affiliate of the center.
Award amounts can vary depending on need, with a maximum amount per award of $1,000 per individual. The deadline for applications is Friday, Oct. 30.
Direct questions to cisll@niu.edu or Anne Darfler at adarfler1@niu.edu. For more information, call (815) 753-5793.
NIU’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language & Literacy will host a November seminar series on Response to Intervention (RtI). These informative and engaging talks will begin at either 4 or 4:30 p.m.
For more information, call (815) 753-5793.
NIU’s Stroke Networking and Activity Program (SNAP), a stroke support group operated by speech-language pathology faculty in the School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders, has announced its fall schedule of activities.
Lilli Bishop, a clinical faculty member, and Jamie Mayer, assistant professor, invite stroke survivors and their loved ones to programs held from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, and Thursday, Dec. 3, in Room 1219 of the NIU Family Health, Wellness and Literacy Center, 3100 Sycamore Road.
The topic for Nov. 5 is “Enhancing Memory: Exercises or Strategies?” and the topic for Dec. 3 is “Learn about Tai Chi!”
SNAP’s programming teaches stroke survivors and their loved ones more about stroke recovery, rehabilitation and prevention while it introduces participants to other individuals in the community who have shared similar experiences.
For more information, or to arrange transportation, call (815) 753-9166 or e-mail jmayer1@niu.edu.
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.
NIU’s Campus Child Care Center will hold its annual Children’s Book Fair during the week of Oct. 12.
The book fair will be open from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday. Checks and credit cards are welcome.
Come browse through a wide selection with multiple copies of books, early readers, parent resource materials, calendars and more. Approximately 1,700 books and other items are available for purchase.
The center is located just off Annie Glidden Road on the west side of Gabel Hall. The main entrance can be accessed by the circle drive in front of the white stone building in parking lot 38/S. For community visitors, parking is available in lot 38/S outside the building (request a visitor’s pass at the front desk).
Call (815) 753-0125 for more information.
NIU’s Christian faculty-staff prayer group will meet from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, in Blackhawk East. For more information, contact Tom Bough at (815) 753-7978 or via e-mail at tbough@niu.edu.
NIU’s Committee on the Undergraduate Academic Environment (CUAE) is seeking proposals from undergraduate students for the 2009-10 USOAR awards. The deadline for students to submit 10 copies of their proposals to the appropriate college office is Wednesday, Dec. 2.
The USOAR program provides funds to students to carry out an independent artistry or research project under the guidance of a NIU faculty or staff member.
All undergraduates in every major are eligible to apply. Students must be available to carry out their USOAR project during part or all of the period March 1, 2010, through Feb. 28, 2011. Students can receive up to $2,500 to fund their independent artistry or research project. Proposal materials can be found online.
Information sessions are scheduled from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14, and Thursday, Oct. 15, in Room 405 of the Holmes Student Center. Current USOAR students will share experiences and projects. For more information, contact Julia Spears at (815) 753-8152 or jspears1@niu.edu.
NIU’s Civic Leadership Academy will launch its 2009-10 series Thursday, Oct. 15, with a workshop titled, “The Game Has Changed: Do the Fundamentals of Economic Development and Land Use Policies Still Apply?”
This workshop will present insights into economic development and the role governments increasingly play in this critical piece of community health in light of the historic economic downturn of 2009. Recent trends and debates in approaches, tools and the relationship between land use decisions, planning, zoning and other regulatory frameworks also will be covered.
Participants will hear key concepts and models of economic development and land use planning which, coupled with realistic expectations and strategies, equip a foundation for supporting their own existing economic development strategies.
Workshops are held at NIU-Naperville from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. A continental breakfast, buffet lunch and afternoon snack are included in the registration fee.
Registration and more information about CLA and its upcoming workshops are available online.
Pittsburgh-based agitator Anne Feeney and David Rovics, the “musical voice of the progressive movement,” will perform at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, in Room 173 of the Music Building.
Feeney has performed at thousands of rallies, picket lines and demonstrations over the years, including the WTO demonstrations in Seattle, the Solidarity Day in Washington, D.C., and for 1.5 million at the April 25, 2004, March for Women’s Lives.
Her “Have You Been to Jail for Justice?” anthem is included on Peter, Paul and Mary’s CD, “In These Times,” and also was featured in “Get Up/Stand Up: The History of Pop and Protest,” a documentary of the greatest protest songs of all time that aired nationally on PBS and worldwide.
Since the mid-1990s, Rovics has spent most of his time on the road, playing hundreds of shows every year throughout North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Japan. He and his songs have been featured on national radio programs in the United States, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and elsewhere.
The event is co-sponsored by the NIU History Department, the UUFD Social Justice Committee and DeKalb Interfaith Network. For more information, call Dan Kenney at (815) 793-0950.
The Northern Illinois University Executive Club will hold its 11th Annual Scholarship Dinner Dance Saturday, Nov. 7, at the Oak Brook Hills Marriot Resort.
The event raises funds for scholarships for students attending the NIU College of Business.
The black-tie optional event begins at 6:30 p.m. with a reception and silent auction, followed by dinner and a live auction at 7:30. Entertainment and dancing will commence at 9 p.m. For more information, or to purchase tickets, contact NIU’s College of Business alumni office (815) 753-1433.
Established in 1996, the NIU Executive Club is an alumni organization specifically designed for business executives. It was formed to bridge the business community and the NIU College of Business, providing opportunities for networking and professional development for alumni and business students alike.
NIU Annuitants Association President Linda Schwarz will hold a meet-and-greet with coffee from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11, at Barnes & Noble, 2439 Sycamore Road in DeKalb. Refreshments are provided by the NIU Credit Union.
LGBT History Month this year will feature several NIU faculty presentations along with the popular "Do Ask, Do Tell" sticker day and annual Creating Community fall reception.
Faculty presentations include:
Full details about these and all other events are available by calling (815) 753-5428, e-mailing lgbt@niu.edu or visiting the LGBT Resource Center Web site.
Learn to design one-of-a-kind eggs, which can be given as gifts, kept as family heirlooms or treasured as holiday decorations.
The NIU Community School of the Arts is offering a workshop, Creating Pysanky Eggs. The class meets from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, in the Visual Arts Building. The workshop is for anyone ages 13 through adult.
Egg decorating is a skill that has been handed down through many generations, usually from mother to daughter. Pysanky are Ukrainian/Polish eggs, decorated using beeswax and dyes that are 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.
The class is ideal for mothers and daughters or for friends; there is a discount when two people register together.
Instructor Billie Giese is an associate professor of drawing in the NIU School of the 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.
Phi Sigma Biology Honors Society, the Pre Professional Association and the Chemistry Club will host a blood drive from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, in the Holmes Student Center Capital Room.
Refreshments will be provided after the donation, and every donor will receive a free pair of flannel pants.
To schedule a time to donate, contact Kate Krise at (815) 821-5688 or by e-mail at katekrise@yahoo.com. Walk-ins also are welcome.
The Division of International Programs will host its Fall 2009 Brown Bag Series from noon to 1 p.m. Thursdays in Faraday West, Room 300.
Attendees are invited to bring lunch and listen to speakers covering a variety of topics such as international perspectives, cultural diversity and study abroad experiences.
Upcoming lunches:
For other details, contact Heesun Majcher, director of the International Student and Faculty Office, at (815) 753-8275 or hmajcher@niu.edu.