PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 24, No. 13, Jan. 20, 2005

brief notes

Faculty Retreat on Active Learning is Jan. 31
The 11th annual Faculty Retreat on Active Learning will take place Jan. 31 at the Illini Union Rooms A and B. The focus for this year’s retreat: “Knowing What Expert Learners Do: Making the Learning Process Visible and Usable in the Classroom.” “Visible” refers to being able to see and understand – through new technologies and pedagogies – the thinking processes of our students and the teaching of our faculty members.

Randall Bass from Georgetown University will be the keynote speaker. Bass has focused much of his work on exploring the impact of technology on learning. In particular, his Visible Knowledge Project examines how technology-enhanced environments help novice student learners achieve deeper understanding and engage in more meaningful learning, and how to help faculty members become better innovators and investigators of their own practice. In his morning session, Bass will look at what we have learned thus far about students’ thinking and learning processes.

The event allows faculty members from across campus to learn about and discuss best practices in teaching at the college level. Following the keynote there will be concurrent sessions featuring UI faculty members sharing practices from their own classrooms. Following lunch, Bass will present a session on “Continuing Conversations About Making Teaching and Learning Visible.”
The retreat will begin with a welcome by Acting Provost Jesse Delia, who will present the 2004-05 Distinguished Teacher/Scholars: Paul Kelter, professor of chemistry, and Lenny Pitt, professor of computer science.

Faculty members can register on the Web, or by calling 333-7369.

WILL-TV and WILL-AM (580)
UI president featured in ‘Conversation’
A day after his first day on the job, the 16th UI president, B. Joseph White, will sit down with WILL-TV’s John Paul for a televised discussion about White’s plans and goals.

“A Conversation With the President” will be broadcast at 9 p.m. Feb. 1. Joining Paul and White for the discussion will be Jodi Heckel of the News-Gazette and UI journalism student Amara Enyia, editor of the Daily Illini. Viewers will be invited to call in with questions and comments.

The program will be video-streamed live on the WILL Web site, as well as broadcast live on WILL-AM 580.

White, 57, spent nearly three decades affiliated with the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he received his doctorate in business administration in 1975. He served as interim president, dean of the business school and faculty member. He took a leave of absence to help the Fred Alger Management Co., an asset management firm in New York City, recover from major personnel losses it suffered on Sept. 11, 2001. White is a native of Detroit and was raised in Kalamazoo.

Local stories featured on WILL-TV
‘Prairie Fire’ new season begins Feb. 2
The new season of WILL-TV’s popular locally produced series “Prairie Fire” begins at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 2, with a look at three small-town Illinois museums: a sea history museum in Sadorus with ship models used in filming movies; the Popeye Museum in Chester where the comic strip’s creator grew up; and the B-R-S museum in Nokomis honoring three native sons who wound up in baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Alison Davis Wood, who returns as host of the series, said the season premiere offers viewers an introduction to the museums that offer charm and personal attention not always found at museums with more extensive holdings.

Wood said she’s excited about bringing “Prairie Fire” back for its 10th season on WILL-TV. “I am grateful to the viewers who really enjoy the program,” she said. “Whenever I’m out people tell me how much they look forward to seeing the show and they appreciate the quality of the production. ‘Prairie Fire’ continues to give people new places to visit and celebrate our shared experience of life here in Central Illinois.”

The Feb. 9 episode takes a look at Fort Massac in Metropolis; a mural painted by Vietnam veterans at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Chicago; the history of Allerton Park; and the tragic life of Mary Todd Lincoln.

Other stories about Illinois people, places and history featured in the six new “Prairie Fire” episodes, Wednesday nights at 7:30 p.m., include stories about artist Louise Woodroofe, the World Free Fall convention, the Upper Limits climbing gym, the Crystal Lake Park labyrinth, and explorer George Rogers Clark

Campus Recreation
Renovation continues; memberships on sale
Campus Recreation is nearing completion of Phase One of its renovation project. IMPE’s East Wing was scheduled to open Jan. 19 and will remain open throughout Phase Two of the project. The East Wing will contain a fitness area, four-court gymnasium, locker and shower facilities. The fitness area will house all of the strength and conditioning equipment (cardio, free weight and selectorized weights) that is currently distributed throughout IMPE.

On the east side of campus, CRCE (Campus Rec Center East) is slated to open later this semester. All of IMPE (existing portion and the newly renovated East Wing) will remain open at least until CRCE opens; with the East Wing remaining open throughout the main IMPE construction.

Campus Recreation spring memberships are on sale now in Member Services, 140 IMPE. Memberships are available to UI faculty and staff members and their spouses/partners, recent UI graduates, UI retirees, allied organization employees, adult dependents and children of UI students and faculty/staff members, UI Alumni Association members, and associates. Spring memberships are valid through May 15. Fall memberships will remain valid until Jan. 31 and fall locker rentals until IMPE closes.

For more information on membership opportunities, contact Campus Rec Member Services at 333.3806.

Gourmet wine dinner
Meal to benefit student-run restaurant
Under the culinary guidance of Chef Jean-Louis Ledent and with wine expertise from Sunsinger Wine and Spirits, UI hospitality management students will offer a five-course gourmet meal Jan. 28 as a fund-raiser to help pay for renovations to the Spice Box restaurant in Bevier Hall.

“We’re calling the event, ‘Winter Carnival.’ It will be a night of fine wine and delectable French food,” said Jill North, Spice Box manager and instructor for the Fine Dining Management course in the UI College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.

“When guests call to make a reservation, they will be asked to choose from two, five-course meals, one of which is vegetarian, but both are gourmet,” said North. “Each course will be paired with a wine that best compliments it and a discussion of the wine will be presented by a wine expert.”

The cost is $95 per person or $85 per person for a vegetarian selection. More details about each menu are on the Web.

Dinner will begin at 7 p.m. Reservations, menu selection and advanced payment are required. For more information and to make reservations, contact North at 333-6520.

Local schools to benefit
Drive seeks to collect school supplies
The Bureau of Educational Research and the International Programs Office are sponsoring a school-supply drive through Feb. 1. Donated items will be given to local schools to help replenish supplies. Items also will be sent to several overseas schools. Donations of cash will be used to purchase supplies, or to support packaging and shipping for the international schools.

Suggested items include: #2 pencils, colored pencils, colored markers, ball point pens, hand-held sharpeners, crayons, paper (plain, art, primary ruled, college ruled), two-pocket folders, composition books, spiral notebooks, zippered pencil bags, back packs, jigsaw puzzles and games.

Donations may be left at the bureau office (Room 236 Education Building) or the Student Academic Affairs Office (Room 110 Education Building). Questions should be directed to Anne Robertson or Fiona Griswold.

University Primary School
Enrollment beginning for 2005-2006
University Primary School, an early childhood gifted education program, is accepting enrollment applications through March 18 for the 2005-2006 academic year. The school serves preschool, kindergarten and first-grade children in a project-based curriculum.

An informational meeting about the program will take place from 7 to 8 p.m. Feb. 10 in Room 26 of the Children’s Research Center, 51 Gerty Drive, Champaign. Child care will be provided.

Children must be 3 years old on or before July 1 for the pre-school classroom and 5 before Sept. 1 to be considered for kindergarten enrollment.

For more information, call Nancy B. Hertzog, director, at 333-3996, or pick up an information packet in Room 98 of the Children’s Research Center.

School of Art and Design
Saturday art classes for kids and teens
The School of Art and Design is offering Saturday art classes that will offer students the opportunity to engage in individual and collaborative art learning activities. A range of traditional art media and current technological media will be used for learning, as well as resources in Krannert Art Museum.

Classes are available for students from pre-school/kindergarten (minimum age 4 1/2) through high school. Registration ends Jan. 28 and classes begin Jan. 29.

For more information or to enroll, contact Carole Smith, 333-1652.

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Tastings resume under new name
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts resumes its weekly “tasting” events, most Thursdays at 5 p.m. in the lobby, under a new name: Krannert Uncorked. The event provides an opportunity to learn more about the activities of the center in an informal atmosphere and to showcase the best in beverages, music and food. Different kinds of wine, beer and food introduced during the event will be available at a discount during the tasting. When music is added to the mix, it’s free.

Spring semester dates are: Jan. 27; Feb. 3, 10, 17 and 24; March 3, 10, 17 and 31; April 7, 14, 21 and 28; and May 5.

‘Media and Society …’
Turkish studies symposium is Jan. 26
“Media and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Republican Turkey” is the theme of a Turkish studies symposium scheduled from 1-5 p.m. on Jan. 26 in Room 209 Illini Union.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Program in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; Russian, East European and Eurasian Center; and the Institute of Turkish Studies, Washington, D.C.

Participating scholars will discuss topics related to print culture, music and theater.

Center for Advanced Study/MillerComm
Spring lecture series begins Jan. 31
“Think globally” could be the theme for a series of six early spring lectures and one panel presentation at the UI, all sponsored by the university’s Center for Advanced Study.

Among the topics – two of which will be addressed by officials from the United Nations – will be global food security; global capitalism and race relations; changes in the Islamic faith over recent centuries; and democracy in India. Also covered will be the history of the Internet and the networked world, as well as the influence of American-born art on a group of European surrealists.

The lectures are part of the CAS/MillerComm series, begun in 1973 and supported with funds from the George A. Miller Endowment and several co-sponsoring campus units. The CAS/MillerComm lectures provide a forum for discourse on topics spanning the university’s many disciplines.

All CAS events are free and open to the public.

The first lecture of the spring semester is Jan. 31, with “Other-Worldly and This-Worldly Piety and the Islamic Revival,” presented by Francis Robinson, professor of the history of South Asia at Royal Holloway, University of London. Robinson will discuss the shift in Islamic thinking that began four centuries ago, bringing it from an other-worldly faith associated with mysticism to a this-worldly faith that emphasized God’s transcendence and the need to create a righteous society on Earth. His talk begins at 4 p.m. on the third floor of the Levis Faculty Center.

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