PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 9, Nov. 3, 2005

brief notes

Know Your University
Chancellor Herman to talk Nov. 8
Chancellor Herman will speak at noon Nov. 8 in Latzer Hall at the University YMCA as part of its Know Your University series. The Chancellor’s remarks, titled “On Our Watch,” invite the campus community to take part in the promising future of the university and its strive for excellence.

Herman will provide a follow-up discussion on initiatives that he spoke about one year ago at the Y and share information about new ventures taking place on campus. He will discuss the goals of the UI’s Urbana campus and what direction the university is taking to remain a premier learning institution. His speech will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

KYU lectures, held Tuesdays at noon, are free and open to the public. Those attending are invited to bring their own lunch or purchase lunch at the Y Eatery, a Thai restaurant at the University YMCA.

Second Sunday concert
UI faculty quartet to perform Nov. 13
The Illinois Quartet, made up of UI faculty members, will perform at 2 p.m. Nov. 13 during WILL-FM’s Second Sunday concert at the Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion. The musicians: Jonathan Keeble, flute; John Dee, oboe; J. David Harris, clarinet; Timothy McGovern, bassoon; Ann Yeung, harp.

On the program for the free concert are Suite for the Woodwind Quartet, by Yuri Levitin; Choros No. 2 for Flute and Clarinet, by H. Villa-Lobos; “Fantasia Andina,” a traditional song; a woodwind quartet, by Jean Francaix; and “O Bien Aimee,” by Marcel Grandjany.

The concert will be broadcast on WILL-FM (90.9/101.1 in Champaign) at 7:06 p.m. on Dec. 4.

Assembly Hall
Chris Cringle Craft Sale is Nov. 11-12
The 26th annual Chris Cringle Crafts Sale will be at Assembly Hall from 4 until 9 p.m. Nov. 11 and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 12.

The sale is one of the Midwest’s largest craft shows, covering all three levels of the Assembly Hall. The show features 150 booths displaying handcrafted items by local and area artists.

The hosts of the event are the Illinois Heartland Decorative Artists, a local chapter of the National Society of Tole and Decorative Painters.

Admission is $4 and includes parking. Children under the age of 6 are admitted free. No strollers or carts will be allowed inside the building.

Tickets are available at the Assembly Hall box office and at Ticket Central at the Illini Union. For more information, call 333-5000.

Natural resources and environmental sciences
Author, wildlife photographer to speak
Renowned birder, author and wildlife photographer Tim Gallagher will speak at the UI College of Law at 4 p.m. Nov. 4 in Room D. Gallagher was one of the first three people to see the fabled Ivory-billed woodpecker, previously thought extinct because of widespread habitat loss.

Gallagher also is editor-in-chief of the Cornell Ornithology Lab’s award-winning quarterly Living Bird, as well as author of the new book, “The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.”

The lecture is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the department of natural resources and environmental sciences and the Environmental Law Society.

International Programs and Studies
International student award announced
International Programs and Studies announces the creation of the Illinois International Undergraduate Achievement Award.

Any undergraduate student in at least the second year of study at the UI meeting the selection criteria is eligible to compete for this award. The award will recognize a significant contribution to an activity as the result of participating in an international course of study sponsored through a UI-sanctioned program. The international contribution can be a single activity or service over a sustained period.

The winner will receive a plaque and a $500 award to be presented at the international awards banquet in spring 2006. This award is sponsored by International Programs and Studies and hosted by the Chancellor’s Office.
Nominations are due by Nov. 11 and can be made by faculty or staff members or students. Nomination forms and eligibility information can be downloaded from the International Engagement, Communications and Protocol Web site: www.ips.uiuc.edu/io/nomination_forms.html.

Mathematics lecture
An evening with Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein, a mathematician who is a UI alumnus and a professional poker player, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 3 in Foellinger Auditorium. He will discuss his experiences in the worlds of business and of professional poker and how he has put his math skills to work. Greenstein is the author of “Ace on the River.” The lecture is free and open to the public.

Student/Staff Directory
Directories coming; how to recycle them
The 2005-2006 Student/Staff Directory will be delivered the week of Nov. 7 and distributed to campus units shortly thereafter. For questions concerning the directory, contact Creative Services (formerly Publications and Marketing) at 333-9200 or e-mail opm@illinois.edu.

A paper mill used by the campus recycling program has agreed to accept old phonebooks this fall with the sorted office-paper mix as long as the phonebooks amount to no more than 5 to 7 percent of the total weight shipped to the mill. Campus departments that are small generators of old phonebooks can place them in their recycling bins. Departments that generate hundreds of old phonebooks are advised to feed the old books into their recycled paper containers over a few weeks.

Questions should be directed to Tim Hoss, 244-7283.

Cotton Club
Auditions announced for local talent
Preparations have begun for the 2006 Cotton Club Show to be held at UI. The event, sponsored by the Central Black Student Union, will showcase local and regional talent.

The Cotton Club Committee is seeking performers for the upcoming show. Artists of all genres are encouraged to audition. Auditions take place every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday through Nov. 17. Interested individuals must sign up for a time slot in Room 300 Clark Hall.

This year the show will incorporate a Motown theme, “Hitsville University.” It is scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 25 at Foellinger Auditorium.

For more information contact Cotton Club directors Latrina Denson, ldenson@illinois.edu, or Kimberly Schaff, schaff2@illinois.edu.

INNER VOICES Social Issues Theatre
Play examines domestic violence
Performances by the INNER VOICES Social Issues Theatre will tell “Stories That Need to Be Told: Domestic Violence and Dating Abuse,” giving voice to different stories that bring a deeper understanding of the dynamics and impact of domestic violence and dating abuse.

Presentations scheduled:

• 8 p.m. Nov. 15 - Daniels Residence Hall (hosted by Daniels and Sherman halls)
• 9 p.m. Nov. 16 - Illini Orange Snackbar (hosted by the Multicultural Advocates and Forbes, Garner, Hopkins and Barton-Lundgren halls)
• 8 p.m. Nov. 17 - Florida Avenue Residence Hall (hosted by Florida and Pennsylvania Avenue Residence halls)
• 8 p.m. Nov. 29 - Lincoln Avenue Residence Hall
• 9 p.m. Nov. 30 - Allen Hall (hosted by Allen Hall, the Feminist Majority and NOW)
• 8 p.m. Dec. 1 - Phi Sigma Sigma Sorority

All performances are free and open to the public. A discussion with the audience follows.
INNER VOICES Social Issues Theatre is sponsored by the Counseling Center, McKinley Health Center and the department of theater. This program is sponsored in part by the Office of Women’s Programs.

Illinois State Geological Survey
Modern-day explorations examined
Two modern-day explorers traced an obscure and mystifying trail of geological clues to one of the world’s greatest mining finds, the Ekati Diamond Mine. Geologists Chuck Fipke and Stew Blusson discovered the mine in the remote Canadian wilderness during the early 1990s. The public can share in this fascinating odyssey through the eyes of Kevin Krajick, a science journalist and author.

Krajick will present “The Secret Search for Diamonds in North America” at 4 p.m. Nov. 3 at Beckman Institute Auditorium. The free public lecture is sponsored by the Illinois State Geological Survey and made possible by private donations.

Krajick’s articles have appeared in National Geographic, The New Yorker, Newsweek, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Science, Discover, Audubon, Smithsonian, and Natural History.

The final lecture in this series, in April 2006, will feature Simon Winchester, geologist and author of “A Crack in the Edge in the World” about the San Francisco earthquake.

The Centennial Lecture Series is part of the survey’s celebration of the 100 years since the Illinois General Assembly established the current Illinois State Geological Survey by legislative act.

For more information contact William W. Shilts, shilts@isgs.uiuc.edu or 333-5111.

Union of Professional Employees
UI retirement benefits forum is Nov. 15
The Union of Professional Employees will hold a public forum discussing UI retirement benefits at noon Nov. 15 in Room 314A of the Illini Union.

On June 1, 2005, new state laws were signed that may affect retirement annuity, annual pay increases and hiring and retention of faculty. These include:

• Reduced state contributions to State Universities Retirement System.
• Shifting calculation of effective interest rates to the state comptroller (rather than the SURS Board).
• Limit of pay increases in the final average period of employment unless funded by employer or employee. This may lead to caps on annual pay increases.
• Eliminate the money-purchase program option under SURS for those hired on or after July 1, 2005.
  

After the discussion there will be opportunity to ask questions. Participants will include Mitch Vogel, chair of the SURS Board; Stephen Rugg, UI vice president of academic affairs; Naomi Jakobsson, Illinois state representative; Janett Weatherall, Illinois Education Association.

Randal Pinkett presentation
How to bridge the ‘innovation divide’
Randall Pinkett will discuss “Bridging the Innovation Divide: Advancing the Diffusion of Technology Innovations in Underserved Communities” from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Nov. 15 in Room 126 of the Library and Information Science Building.

This presentation will highlight and offer strategies for bridging the Innovation Divide, or the lack of infrastructure and support for creating, developing and disseminating information and communications technology innovations in nonprofit organizations and underserved communities. The Hewlett-Packard Microenterprise Acceleration Program, which targets nonprofit microenterprise development agencies that serve clients in low-income communities, will serve as a case study. The goal of the program is to foster innovation both within these agencies as well as across the microenterprise development field at-large. The presentation will conclude by laying out an agenda for practitioners, policymakers and researchers to ensure that nonprofit and community technology innovations are more widely shared and disseminated.

Pinkett has established himself as an entrepreneur, speaker, author, scholar and community servant. He is the co-founder, president and CEO of BCT Partners, a multi-million dollar management, technology and policy-consulting firm based in Newark, N.J. BCT Partners works with corporations, government agencies and nonprofit organizations in the areas of housing and community development, economic development, human services, nonprofit and community technology and education.

UI’s Chicago Art Gallery
Shows focus on recognition and reading
Recognition and reading are the themes of two artist-organized group shows on view through Nov. 26 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the UI.

• “Value” features sculpture, jewelry and tools by UI alumni artists Ian Bally, Frankie Flood and Hye-young Suh. Organized by art and design professor Billie Theide, the show includes Bally’s sterling silver cast from plastic cutlery; Flood’s stylized pizza cutters, inspired by outlaw biker culture; and Suh’s elegant, elaborately crafted necklaces fashioned from junk plastic, bottle caps and fake jewels. According to writer Polly Ullrich, the pieces included in the exhibition “are vehicles not only for everyday use but also for concepts, for analyzing issues and for questioning mainstream culture.”
  
• “Pages,” curated by Buzz Spector, professor and chair of Cornell University’s art department and former UI professor of art and design, includes works by artists who interpret the page as a conceptual armature. The exhibition is the second in an ongoing curatorial project in which Spector invites viewers to consider reading in relation to the gallery gaze.
  
  Artists Ann Hamilton, Jane Lackey, Stefana McLure, Sylvia Ptak, Karen Reimer and Elena del Rivero present page-like fields of text or writing. Khoi Uong’s information-laden broadside becomes visually overwhelming, while Jochem Hendrick’s folded newspaper includes no stories, but rather, serves as a map of the movement of its readers’ eyes.
  
  Marco Maggi, Creighton Michael and Anne Wilson use lines, shadows, cut paper and stitches as substitutes for text in their work.
  
  John Sparagana and Graham McDougal manipulate magazine pages and text, and Peter Stanfield’s short stories rely on a hinged apparatus that contextualizes the story he is telling.
  

The gallery is located at 230 W. Superior St., Chicago, and is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

College of Veterinary Medicine
Translational research explored
Translational biomedical research – interdisciplinary collaborations that “translate” fundamental research discoveries into practical biomedical applications to improve human and animal health and society – is a current priority among the National Institutes of Health and a new initiative on the UI’s Urbana campus.

The College of Veterinary Medicine has organized an ongoing seminar series on this topic. All seminars are held at noon in the Large Animal Clinic Auditorium,

On Nov. 14, Vicki Meyers-Wallen from the Center for Canine Genetics and Reproduction, J.A. Baker Institute, Cornell University, will speak on “Inherited Hermaphroditism: A Canine Model of Human SRY-negative XX Sex Reversal.” Individuals affected with XX sex reversal do not have a Y chromosome; the karyotypes of affected individuals are the same as those of normal females. However, affected individuals develop testicular tissue. Her laboratory is working to isolate the autosomal gene that causes this disorder.

On Nov. 28, Humphrey Yao from the UI department of veterinary biosciences will present “Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms for Embryonic Development of Sex Organs.”

The series will continue next semester with “Skeletal Tissue Regeneration with Stem Cells,” a presentation by Brian Johnstone from the department of orthopaedics and rehabilitation, Oregon Health and Science University, on Jan. 23.

For the full schedule, see www.cvm.uiuc.edu/trbioseries.html.

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