NIU is proud of its work to augment, enhance and celebrate diversity on campus, clearly evidenced by a new Web page that posts a comprehensive list of the university’s initiatives.
Created by the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center, the page includes information on NIU’s efforts regarding diversity as well as links to policies, scholarship prospects, support programs, professional development opportunities and more.
For prospective students and employees from diverse backgrounds, the site provides an easily accessible glimpse into life at NIU.
“Diversity was the single most-recurring theme in our strategic imperatives. It cuts across every one of the imperatives,” Provost Ray Alden said. “This just shows we put our money where our mouth is. The Web page demonstrates the long-term commitment our campus has to diversity as a core value.”
“The Diversity Initiatives Web site really speaks to the commitment to diversity from our institution,” added Brian Hemphill, vice president for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management. “We are very much an inclusive community that appreciates the vast diversity of this region.”
“Because diversity initiatives are so well distributed throughout the university organization, and because there is such a wide range of diversity initiatives, we knew this would be a very beneficial project,” Cunningham said.
“This site will provide a convenient option for prospective and current employees to obtain this information, and at the least learn where to call, who to talk to and where to go for follow-up on the specific interests they might have. This project especially complements the initiatives of Affirmative Action and Diversity Resources (AADR), and provides a supplemental option for quick access to AADR’s policies and procedures.”
Main topics covered:
Alden, Hemphill and Steve Cunningham, associate vice president for Administration and Human Resources, conducted a survey last year that asked all departments and units to provide an accounting of their diversity initiatives and resources for students, faculty and staff.
The compiled information then went to Murali Krishnamurthi, director of Faculty Development, whose staff built the site and launched it during the summer.
“This is a one-stop location for diversity on campus, be they scholarships, policies, curricular activities or staff and faculty support. We hope that this site will be evolving and, as more things develop, they will be added,” Krishnamurthi said. “People outside the university, and sometimes even people inside, don’t know about all these things.”
Of course, those “inside people” will find the site a great advantage.
“I’m hoping that once we’re more aware of our full array of programs, we all can help to coordinate, enhance and promote the existing programs,” Alden said. “Those who are involved want to see what others are doing. This is a campus that values and celebrates diversity.”
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded NIU Physicist Zhili Xiao a three-year grant totaling $486,000 to continue his investigations of superconductivity at the nanoscale.
Using high tech equipment at Argonne National Laboratory, Xiao’s group is developing methods to synthesize a new class of free-standing superconducting nanowires and nanoribbons that are stable in atmosphere.
“This would enable the exploration of superconducting properties and potential applications of individual nanostructures,” Xiao said. Other members of his current research team include postdoctoral associate Jiong Hua and Ph.D. candidates Sevda Avci, Qiong Luo, Xiaoqiao Zeng and Sriharsha Panuganti.
Superconductivity is a fascinating phenomenon that has drawn intense interest in the scientific and technological communities.
Many materials, including pure metals, alloys and compounds, behave as superconductors when cooled to below certain temperatures. Superconductors conduct electricity with no resistance, or no energy dissipation, and superconducting electromagnets are used in such devices as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines, particle accelerators and magnetically-levitated trains.
Nanotechnology aims to develop tiny devices made of components no bigger than 100 nanometers. By comparison, the thickness of a single human hair equals about 100,000 nanometers. It will be advantageous to use superconducting nanowires to connect these devices.
“In electrically activated nanodevices of the future, the use of superconducting interconnects will be highly desirable, because they would circumvent the damaging heat produced by energy dissipation,” Xiao says.
Argonne boasts world-class research facilities that allow scientists to study the universe at the nanolevel, which can’t be observed with traditional high powered optic microscopes. The U.S. Department of Energy had previously provided Xiao’s team with $220,500 for the development and study of superconducting nanowires.
“The objective of this renewal proposal is to continue our successful efforts,” Xiao said.
Xiao holds a joint appointment as a professor in the Department of Physics at NIU and a physicist in the Materials Science Division at Argonne. He also is an associate of the Institute for NanoScience, Engineering and Technology at NIU.
In addition to this DOE funded project, Xiao’s group is pursuing new phenomena in shape-controlled mesoscopic superconducting crystals. That project is funded by the National Science Foundation ($300,000).
Xiao and his co-workers also have been developing sensors based on nanotechnology. R&D Magazine named an ultra-fast hydrogen sensor developed by the team as one of the world’s top 100 scientific and technological innovations of 2005.
Despite the word “Woman” in the title, the story is told from the perspective of a man.
Well, the original story bore that viewpoint, at least.
But the tale of a man who escapes his bland existence only to find himself trapped by the alternative will enjoy a decidedly female outlook when it’s reinterpreted at 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20, and Monday, Sept. 21, on the stage of the NIU Music Building’s Recital Hall.
Four artists, including Greg Beyer, assistant professor of percussion studies in the School of Music, will present “Woman of the Dunes” as the culmination of a week-long guest artist series and artistic collaboration that revolves around Japanese composer Akemi Naito’s new – and musical – look at the 1960s novel and movie from her homeland.
Midori Kanazawa, a celebrated Japanese actress active in television and film, will play the role of the woman in the dunes. Kristine Marx, a New York City-based video artist, has created a series of video montages that coincide “perfectly” with the music and acting.
Free tickets are required for the two performances; call (815) 753-1546 to reserve seats. The production contains mature themes.
“The opportunity to do this project came to me through the composer, Akemi Naito,” Beyer said. “I met her in New York as a freelance performer some 10 years ago, and last summer, playing a concert in New York City at the Juilliard School, she approached me afterward and said, ‘Hey, I have a project I think you’d be perfect for.’ ”
Beyer agreed.
“It turned out to be an incredible opportunity to work with a talented composer – that’s something I’m used to doing as a new music musician – but to also work with a really fantastic actress from Japan, to work in a theater context and to work with a video artist,” he said. “It’s truly a multimedia event.”
Kobo Abe’s novel tells of a man from Tokyo who tires of his humdrum life in the big city and decides to find escape on the coast.
A side trip to a nearby village becomes his unexpected and unwanted final destination; the villagers keep him there against his will by lowering him into the deep pit of sand where the titular woman lives.
Through the story, Abe examines the endless tensions between men and women and between individuals and societies as well as questions of happiness and how it is achieved.
“What the sand turns out to represent has various existential overtones to it. The sand, as it keeps pouring in daily and threatens the existence of this community, represents the banality of everyday life. All of the things we do in daily routine can become heavy,” Beyer said. “The composer and I were looking for instruments that would evoke sand and the sound world of the Japanese seaside.”
Beyer plays the role of the man, but because the story is turned on its head, he is vocally mute. His communication with the woman is through “musical gestures” and “subtle but meaningful ways of holding the body.”
Meanwhile, Kanazawa spends much of the performance in a mask – a nod to the ancient Noh form of Japanese theater. Traditionally, men wore masks to conceal their faces as they played female parts. In Naito’s modern take, where the woman faces difficult decisions, the mask helps to explore an ugly situation in her life and to level a powerful statement about individuality.
The four artists participated in intense collaborations and rehearsals during the months leading up to the production’s May 4, 2009, debut at the Flea Theater in New York City.
Now the “Woman in the Dunes” comes to NIU during a year of examining concepts of globalism and cultural identity through the arts.
Related events include:
“People are going to walk away having experienced a really beautiful production,” Beyer said. “The music is gorgeous, the videoscapes are incredible and the acting is professional. It’s an amazing combination of the arts.”
For more information, contact Beyer at (815) 753-7981 or via e-mail at gbeyer@niu.edu.
It can be difficult for curricula to keep up with fast-breaking world events such as war, but courses taught in recent years by Presidential Teaching Professor Jeffrey Chown provide a shining example of how faculty can tie in current events in ways that are deeply meaningful to students.
Chown, a professor of communication and documentary filmmaker, has been teaching advanced courses that explore the war in Iraq and its implications for documentary film theory. He will lead a Presidential Teaching Professor Seminar discussing the courses from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, in the Capitol Room Holmes Student Center.
The seminar will include clips from a new student-produced documentary on NIU war veterans that originated in one of Chown’s courses. The event is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center. Refreshments will be served at 11:30 a.m., and all are invited.
“Winners of the Presidential Teaching Professorships are among the very best teachers that we have on campus, and we hold these seminars so they can share their teaching experiences with others,” Vice Provost Earl “Gip” Seaver says.
“Over the years, Professor Chown has inspired thousands of students, many of whom have gone on to work in the film industry and at universities nationwide,” he adds. “The course on the war in Iraq demonstrates how he is able to adapt and connect his coursework to the world around us, so that students are not only learning about current events but also are contributing to the body of knowledge.”
Chown, who holds a Ph.D. in American Studies, says he first got interested in how war and militarism play out in pop culture when he wrote about “Apocalypse Now” in his 1988 book about Francis Coppola, “Hollywood Auteur”(Praeger). In subsequent years, his attention shifted from fiction film to making documentaries, but his latest film, “Lincoln and Black Hawk,” again returned to examining how violence and war figured in the shaping of Illinois history.
The historical material gained relevance with the events of 2003.
“As the war in Iraq progressed, I decided I wanted to focus my teaching on giving students an understanding of what was happening in the Mideast,” Chown says. “I organized the courses around documentaries coming out of war, such as ‘Gunners’ Palace,’ ‘The War Tapes’ and ‘Baghdad ER.’
“The challenge in interpreting these films was that most students came to the classes ill-informed about the Iraq war. I was fortunate in the first class because I had a Jordanian student and a couple of American veterans who could speak with authority about what we were viewing.”
Chown quickly developed readings that helped students understand issues such as the division between Kurds, Sunni and Shia in Iraq. “When you need to develop expertise on a subject quickly, your training as an academic researcher is essential,” he says.
Chown’s Presidential Teaching Professor Seminar will pay special attention to the 35-minute documentary created by his students. They interviewed about 20 NIU veterans of the war in Iraq. An entire class contributed to the project, and Andy Brennand and Maureen Brunell, who have since graduated, spent hours editing the film.
“They did a terrific job assembling the footage,” Chown says. “It’s a very interesting film. The veterans are quite different from their classmates in terms of what they’ve seen and experienced at this point in their lives. Not only did my students learn how to do better interviewing, but they learned some unforgettable things about this growing population of veterans who have seen a lot more of the world than DeKalb, Illinois.”
NIU’s Avalon Quartet will open its third season as the university’s string quartet in residence with a pair of concerts featuring renowned violinist Rachel Barton Pine.
Pine, a Chicago native who has appeared as a soloist with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, also will lead an all-school convocation and conduct a master class in violin when she comes to campus Thursday, Sept. 17.
Her visit culminates with a 8 p.m. performance in Boutell Memorial Concert Hall, where she will join the Avalon and pianist Matthew Hagle for Ernest Chausson’s “Concerto for Piano, Violin, and String Quartet, Op. 21.” Chausson’s piece boasts an “unusual” scoring that places it “in between a concerto and chamber music.”
The Avalon – violinists Blaise Magniere and Marie Wang, violist Anthony Devroye and cellist Cheng-Hou Lee – and their guests will reprise their program Friday, Sept. 18, at the Anne and Howard Gottlieb Hall of the Merit School of Music, 38 S. Peoria St. in Chicago. Visit www.brownpapertickets.com or call (800) 838-3006 to order tickets.
Classical music lovers in DeKalb and Chicago are in for a treat beyond the opportunity for NIU audiences to witness Pine’s talents free of charge. The concert on campus is open to the public, and the building is accessible to all.
“Playing with Rachel is something we have wanted to do. She can reach out to diverse audiences, and she’s such a recognizable presence around here,” Devroye says.
“I approached her with the repertoire we wanted to perform. She knew the piece, she loved the piece and said she’d be happy to do it. We’re also lucky to get her involved in some educational activities. The students are going to get a lot out of her time on campus.”
The first half of the evening includes Beethoven’s “String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6,” and Debussy’s “String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10.”
Beethoven will play a starring role all year for the Avalon, Devroye says. Quartet members hope to program a Beethoven work on each of the season’s concerts.
“There is no one more central to our literature,” he says. “He wrote more string quartets than any almost any composer – 16 in all – and he is the one for whom every work can honestly be considered a masterpiece. He took the genre from its earliest roots, from Haydn to the much more modern conception of the four voices playing an equal role and having equal dialogue.”
Meanwhile, the four members of the Avalon continue to strike a harmonious balance between their performing and teaching.
The quartet is on the road “on and off” these days, still playing upward of three dozen concerts a year. Upcoming performances are booked in New York City and Massachusetts, but most gigs are closer to DeKalb.
“We find ourselves trying to do more and more not too far away from school. We try to not be gone for more than a week at a time, and we’re doing a fair amount in the greater Chicago area,” Devroye says.
“The string studio is back to healthy numbers and high quality; we have a full complement of strings for the philharmonic. Each of us is engaged in diverse teaching activities, including studio master classes and having our students perform solo recitals.”
Final touches are being made to the group’s first CD as NIU’s string quartet in residence. Devroye expects the quartet will release the disc in October.
“It’s a recording of four American quartet pieces by living composers,” he says. “Each piece was either commissioned by, or premiered by, us in the last five years.”
Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú, an activist for indigenous Guatemalans whose personal story of triumph brought their plight to the world’s attention, will visit NIU this month for a public lecture.
Menchú was awarded the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to protect the rights of indigenous peoples during the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996). Only 12 women have received the Nobel Peace Prize in its more than 100-year history.
The Nobel Laureate will deliver an hour-long talk on her life experiences and field questions from the audience beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22, in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium of the Holmes Student Center.
Sponsored by NIU’s Latino Resource Center and Women’s Resource Center, Menchú’s visit coincides with the celebration of Latino Heritage Month on the NIU campus.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for NIU students, faculty and staff to hear from one of the most influential and dynamic Latina leaders of our time,” said Emily Prieto, Latino Resource Center director. “Rigoberta has touched many with her words and has turned her struggles into an inspiration for others worldwide.”
Prieto, who has been working for a year to bring Menchú to campus, counts herself among the inspired.
“I saw her speak when I was a graduate student at the University of California-Davis, and it was a moving and unforgettable experience,” Prieto said. “I wanted the Latino youth I work with to have the opportunity to hear and meet a Latina Nobel Laureate. It is powerful for them to see a woman from an underrepresented group and humble beginnings who has accomplished so much in her life.”
Menchú, 50, was born to a peasant family in Guatemala and raised in the Quiche branch of the Mayan culture, according to her biography on the Nobel Prize Web site. She participated in social reform activities through the Catholic Church, became prominent in the women’s rights movement while still a teenager and joined the Committee of the Peasant Union (CUC).
In 1979, her brother was arrested, tortured and killed by the army. The following year, her father was killed when security forces in the capital stormed the Spanish Embassy. Later, her mother died after having been arrested, tortured and raped.
Menchú figured prominently in a strike the CUC organized for better conditions for farm workers on the Pacific coast, and she was active in large demonstrations in the capital. But she went into hiding during the early 1980s and fled to Mexico. She continued to work from abroad as an organizer of resistance to oppression in Guatemala.
In 1983, she told her life story to Elisabeth Burgos Debray. The resulting book, “I, Rigoberta Menchú,” drew international attention to the Guatemalan Civil War.
In 2007, Menchú became the first female candidate for president of Guatemala. Though she was defeated, she remains a vocal advocate for the oppressed in her native country and worldwide. Just weeks ago, she joined 13 other Nobel Laureates in calling upon the United Nations Security Council to take action to support fellow Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar.
Menchú also is a founding member of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, established in 2006 with five other Nobel Peace Laureates working together on issues of peace with justice and equality.
The last time John N. Gardner visited the NIU campus in 1987, he came on a mission.
Gardner introduced faculty, staff and administrators to the emerging concept of the “first-year experience,” a reform movement designed to support the success of first-year students, which began in the 1970s under his leadership as a faculty member at the University of South Carolina.
That movement now is international in scope, with Gardner, president of the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education based in North Carolina, still leading the way.
Gardner returns to NIU Friday, Sept. 25, to offer the keynote address at the second Midwest drive-in first-year experience conference, “Strengthening the First College Year: Embracing Collaborative Partnerships.”
Betsy O. Barefoot, vice president of the Gardner Institute and co-director of the Policy Center on the First Year of College, will provide the opening plenary address.
All who work with first-year students – in classrooms, residence halls, advising offices and support services – are encouraged to attend. Registration information can be found at www.fyconference.niu.edu. The “early bird” conference fee expires after Thursday, Sept. 10, although online registrations will be accepted until Monday, Sept. 21.
“John Gardner and Betsy Barefoot are the ‘gold standard’ in terms of their advocacy for the first-year experience,” said Denise Rode, NIU’s director of Orientation and First-Year Experience. “Many of us in this field owe our understanding of first-year students and knowledge of best practices in the first year to Drs. Gardner and Barefoot. They have helped to transform the institutional culture for first-year students on hundreds of college campuses internationally.”
More than 200 conference participants are expected for the day-long event, which also features concurrent sessions focused on topics such as academic advising for first-year students, early intervention initiatives for at-risk students, first-year curriculum and health issues for first-year students.
The conference is a collaborative partnership between NIU, Rock Valley College, Elgin Community College, College of Lake County, Aurora University and Indiana Wesleyan University.
Gardner is an educator, university professor and administrator, author, editor, public speaker, consultant, change agent, student retention specialist, first-year students’ advocate and initiator and scholar of the American first-year and senior-year reform movements.
His many publications include a series of best-selling first-year seminar textbooks, and his accolades and honors come from sources as diverse as the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE), the New York Times and Change magazine.
Barefoot is a distinguished scholar of the first-year experience in her own right. In her work at the institute, she is directly involved in the development of instruments and strategies to evaluate and improve the first college year.
A prolific author and editor, Barefoot has written or co-written the 2005 Jossey-Bass books, “Achieving and Sustaining Institutional Excellence for the First Year of College,” and “Challenging and Supporting the First-Year Student: A Handbook for the First Year of College.” She also has edited “The First Year and Beyond: Rethinking the Challenge of Collegiate Transition,” a 2008 publication of New Directions for Higher Education.
When Gardner returns to NIU this fall, he will find a campus that has taken his 1987 message to heart.
Among the NIU first-year initiatives that have evolved in the past 20 years is UNIV 101/201. These courses help students make a successful academic transition, learn about university resources and become involved in the NIU community.
This fall, 1,762 first-year students – representing 58% of the freshman class – and 124 transfer students are enrolled in 91 sections taught by 83 instructors who are assisted in the classroom by 73 Peer Instructors (upperclass student volunteers).
The conference coincides with NIU’s participation in Foundations of Excellence in the First College Year. NIU is one of more than 150 higher education institutions to engage in Foundations of Excellence, the signature work of the Policy Center.
Under the auspices of Gardner and staff of the Policy Center on the First Year of College, more than 100 members of the NIU community are involved in this self-study and improvement process which will result in recommendations to develop a comprehensive, cohesive first-year experience.
Recommendations for improvement and an action plan are expected in 2010.
An article written by NIU Presidential Teaching Professor David Gunkel was featured on the cover of the Sept. 3 issue of Times Higher Education, the United Kingdom’s equivalent of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The article is paired with another one written by Paul Taylor of Leeds University. The two articles compare and contrast working in academia on both sides of the Atlantic.
Gunkel, a professor of communication, collaborates with Taylor on the International Journal of Zizek Studies, which Gunkel co-founded and edits.
“Paul pitched the idea to Times Higher Education, and he roped me into providing the view from the other side,” Gunkel says.
President John G. Peters will present his annual State of the University Address at 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009, in the auditorium of Altgeld Hall.
Members of the NIU community should make plans to attend this informative presentation. The president’s address also is streamed live on the Internet at live.media.niu.edu.
Direct questions or concerns to the Office of Special Events at (815) 753-1999 or via e-mail at ellena@niu.edu.
Faculty and staff with Recreation Services memberships can participate in new faculty/staff-only group fitness classes and cardio/strength and nutrition sessions for free. Classes begin today.
To purchase memberships, sign up for classes or view the schedule, visit the Recreation Services Web site.
The Office of Assessment Services is pleased to present the Fall 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 reviews resources available through the Office of Assessment Services. The “Tool of the Month” demonstrates a way to assess knowledge, skills and dispositions. Also included are a video featuring Carrie Zack, information about NIU’s participation in the Voluntary System of Accountability and more.
Back issues are posted on the Assessment Services Web site under “Toolkit.” Contributions to the newsletter are welcome at any time.
Self-checkout of books is now available at Founders Memorial Library.
A self-checkout machine is located near the reference desk and is available during all the open hours of the library. The machine is easy to use with instructions on the accompanying monitor. It works with an NIU ID card and a laser light reading of the library’s barcode on the item being borrowed.
Self-checkout will work with most, but not all, of the circulating items in the library. It will not work with the VHS video collection and a number of old books that lack the library barcode. These items will need to be checked out at the circulation desk.
The NIU Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences has announced dates for its Fall 2009 Colloquia, co-sponsored by NIU’s Graduate Colloquium Committee.
All talks will be held at 4 p.m. Fridays in Davis Hall 308. For directions and updates to the schedule, visit http://www.niu.edu/geology. Call (815) 753-1943 for more information.
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.
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 an organ and tissue donor 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, Sept. 21, in the lower level of the Holmes Student Center. Other fall dates include Monday, Oct. 19, and 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.
The deadline is approaching for 2010-11 Student Fulbright Program applications.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers fellowships on a competitive basis for graduating college seniors, graduate students and artists to study abroad for one academic year.
NIU students seeking more information should contact Deborah Pierce, Fulbright Program adviser and associate provost of International Programs, at (815) 753-1989 or dpierce@niu.edu. General information on the program also is available online at www.us.fulbrightonline.org.
Applications must be submitted both electronically and in hard copy to Pierce (Williston Hall 406) by Friday, Sept. 25. For the national deadline, applications must be received at the Institute of International Education (IIE) electronically by Oct. 19, and in hard copy by Oct. 21. The IIE administers and coordinates the Fulbright U.S. Student Program on behalf of the U.S. Department of State.
For more than 60 years, the federal government-sponsored Fulbright U.S. Student Program has provided future American leaders with an unparalleled opportunity to study, conduct research and teach in other countries. Fulbright student grants aim to increase mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchange while serving as a catalyst for long-term leadership development.
About 1,500 grants are awarded annually. The program currently operates in more than 150 countries worldwide. Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships are now available to more than 40 countries. Fulbright full grants generally provide funding for round-trip travel, maintenance for one academic year, health and accident coverage and full or partial tuition.
Applicants must be U.S. citizens at the time of application and hold a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent by the beginning of the grant.
In the creative and performing arts, four years of professional training and/or experience meets this basic eligibility requirement. Professional applicants lacking a degree but with extensive professional study and/or experience in the field in which they wish to pursue a project may also be considered.
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.
Introduce your child to the wonderful world of art this fall in the popular Art Express class, offered by the NIU Community School of the Arts.
Children create original works of art in this fun and intensive class taught by NIU School of Art education students. This class is offered for children ages 4 to 12 and meets from 1 to 3 p.m. for five Saturdays beginning Sept. 12. All materials are supplied. The classes are free to children of NIU employees and students.
Teachers are students in the art education program at NIU; they are supervised by faculty. The curriculum changes every semester.
Contact the office (Room 132 of the Music Building) for an application form. For more information, call (815) 753-1450 or visit www.niu.edu/extprograms.
Administrators, faculty and staff are invited to nominate an outstanding NIU student for the Lincoln Academy Student Laureate Award. The NIU Student Laureate will represent the university at a special ceremony in the Illinois State Capitol this fall.
The deadline for nominations is Monday, Sept. 14.
To be considered, a student must be an undergraduate who will graduate during the 2009-10 academic year (December 2009, May 2010 or August 2010). The NIU Student Laureate should have an NIU grade point average of 3.5 or higher and should have demonstrated leadership in extracurricular activities.
Visit http://www.scholarships.niu.edu/scholarships/ for more information about this prestigious honor and to access the nomination form.
NIU’s Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education will offer an early-childhood motor development program.
The eight-week program for children ages 3 to 5 runs from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays from Monday, Sept. 14, through Wednesday, Nov. 4. The program costs $100 and is held in Anderson Hall.
The program curriculum includes learning movement concepts, developing fundamental motor skills, coordination, swimming and rhythmical abilities as well as games and fitness, program director Clersida Garcia said.
For more information, call Garcia at (815) 753-1400 or e-mail cgarcia@niu.edu.
Fulfill your lifelong desire to learn to play an instrument while getting to know other like-minded adults at the NIU Community School of the Arts this fall.
All classes take place in the Music Building.
“Group Piano for Adults” is a group class for beginning piano students ages 18 and older. The class meets from 6:15 to 7:10 p.m. for 12 Mondays beginning Sept. 14. Teacher Susan Breitner Hurm is a longtime piano teacher who has experience teaching children and adults. She teaches Suzuki and traditional piano lessons for the community school.
“Guitar Basics” teaches the fundamentals of guitar for adults and teens ages 13 and older. Beginning Sept. 16, the class meets from 6 to 6:55 p.m. for 12 Wednesdays. Teacher Quentin Dover is a graduate of NIU and has taught children and adults for many years. A second section of this class also is available for children ages 9 to 12 from 5 to 5:55 p.m.
“Electric Guitar for Beginners” is a new class offered this fall for those ages 14 and older who want to transition to or learn the electric guitar. The class meets for six Mondays, beginning Oct. 5. Teacher Lisa Baker is a graduate student at NIU where she studies with Fareed Haque. She has taught and performed for many years in Nashville.
These and many other classes and ensembles are offered at the NIU Community School of the Arts this fall. The office is located on campus in Room 132 of the Music Building. For more information, call (815) 753-1450 or visit www.niu.edu/extprograms.
All letters of nomination for the 2010 Presidential Teaching Professorships should be submitted to Vice Provost Earl “Gip” Seaver, Office of the Provost, Altgeld Hall 220, no later than Monday, Sept. 28.
Following receipt of a letter of nomination, the selection committee will invite each nominated faculty member to prepare materials in accordance with the published procedure. Only full professors with tenure and at least six years of service at NIU are eligible for the award. The Presidential Teaching Professorships were established in 1990 to recognize those outstanding teachers who have demonstrated over time that they:
The procedure calls for a rigorous and thorough portfolio review including contacting former students. The 2010 recipients will be announced next spring.
Paul Zientarski, chair of the Department of Physical Education at Naperville Central High School, will speak Wednesday, Sept. 30, on “Understanding the Science Behind the Impact of Exercise on Literacy and Learning.”
Zeintarski’s lecture is scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in Faraday West, Room 200.
The speech is sponsored by NIU’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language and Literacy (CISLL). For more information, e-mail cwickens@niu.edu.
Provost Ray Alden has called for nominations for the 2009-10 NIU Board of Trustees Professorships. Nominations are due Friday, Sept. 25.
The professorships were established in 2007 by President John Peters and the Board of Trustees to recognize those tenured professors who:
In considering the qualifications of nominees, special emphasis will be placed upon those who are renowned scholars or artists and have engaged students in their research and/or other professional activities.
Up to three professorships can be awarded each academic year; the 2009-2010 awards will be made at the Faculty Awards Recognition Ceremony in April 2010. The recipients will receive a stipend of $10,000 per year that will be renewed annually during the five-year period term of appointment as Board of Trustee Professors.
The responsibilities of the professorship include delivering the Board of Trustees Professorship Lecture; participating in workshops for the professional development of junior faculty and in activities that advance the university’s reputation and mission; maintaining an active program of teaching, scholarship or artistry, and service; and submitting a report detailing activities and accomplishments during the award period.
Additional information about the nomination process and the professorships is available online. Application portfolios should be submitted electronically to the Office of the Provost, Kathleen Carey (kjahns@niu.edu).
The University Women’s Club of NIU will hold its annual fall open house from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23, at the home of President and Mrs. Peters, 901 Woodlawn Ave. in DeKalb.
The University Women’s Club invites every woman associated with the university, whether she is a current or retired faculty or staff member, or the wife of a current, retired or deceased faculty or staff member, to join this long-standing organization of NIU women.
Meet people with a common interest in NIU, participate in distinct interest groups, enjoy social events and support the club’s philanthropic endeavor of providing scholarships to deserving NIU women students.
The Northern Illinois University Art Museum will open three exhibitions Tuesday, Aug. 25. All run through Saturday, Oct. 10. An opening reception is scheduled for 4:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept 10, with an artists’ talk planned at 6 p.m. in Altgeld Hall Room 315.
Elona Van Gent will present an artist talk at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, in Jack Arends Hall/Visual Arts
Building Room 111. Jessica Gondek will present a curator’s talk at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, in the gallery.
Located on the west-end first floor of Altgeld Hall, the galleries are open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and by appointment for group tours. Exhibitions and lectures are free; donations are appreciated.
The exhibitions of the NIU Art Museum are funded in part by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, the Friends of the NIU Art Museum, and the Arts Fund 21. For more information, visit www.niu.edu/artmuseum or call (815) 753-1936.