PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 24, No. 15, Feb. 17, 2005

Center for Advanced Study
Forum to discuss proposed Social Security changes
Changes to Social Security being proposed by President Bush will be the topic of a forum on Feb. 23 at the UI, featuring a former Clinton administration economist, along with Illinois professors of finance, law and history.

The forum, at 7 p.m. on the third floor of the Levis Faculty Center, is the latest in an occasional series on critical public issues sponsored by the university’s Center for Advanced Studies.

The event is free and open to the public.

Among the panel participants will be William Spriggs, an economist who recently joined the Economic Policy Institute as a senior research fellow. In 1993, he joined the Clinton administration to lead the staff of the National Commission for Employment Policy, then held positions with the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration. In 1998 he left the government to head the National Urban League Institute for Opportunity and Equality.

Other participants:

• Jeffrey Brown, professor of finance, who served from 2001 to 2002 as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, with Social Security and pension reform among his primary areas of focus. During 2001, he also served on the staff of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security.
  
• Richard Kaplan, the Peer and Sarah Pedersen Professor of Law, an expert on taxation, tax policy and elder law. In 2002, he was a delegate to the National Summit on Retirement Savings, organized by the U.S. Department of Labor.
  
• Mark Leff, a professor of history, who specializes in 20th century public policy and has written about the New Deal period and the history of Social Security.
  

The forum will begin with brief remarks from the panelists, followed by audience questions. Topics of discussion may include questions of social rights and intergenerational responsibilities, arguments for and against partial privatization, and how potential changes will impact women, minorities, and the general population.
More information is at www.cas.uiuc.edu/presentations.html#ss.

Insect Fear Film festival
Forensic entomology explored Feb. 19
Looking for a crime-solving career? Catch the buzz about forensic entomology while being entertained Feb. 19 at the 22nd annual Insect Fear Film Festival at the UI’s Foellinger Auditorium.

Every year, May Berenbaum, the head of the entomology department, organizes the Insect Fear Film Festival in an effort to educate people about the world of insects in a fun and interesting setting. This year, however, Berenbaum says, the festival has a bona fide hero: Gil Grissom, the lead character – played by Evanston, Ill., native William L. Peterson – in the popular CBS television drama series “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

A CSI episode will be featured at 7:45 (“Sex, Lies and Larvae” – the ninth episode of the first season) and William Petersen’s work portraying Grissom will receive the Insect Fear Film Festival’s first “Image Award” for positive onscreen depictions of the science of entomology. “Given Hollywood’s track record, this may be the only image award we’ll ever give out,” Berenbaum said

Forensic entomology is an emerging field with opportunities, even though the use of insects to solve crimes is not a new development, Berenbaum said.

The festival will be “family friendly,” Berenbaum said. From 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. there will be activities of all kinds, including some that showcase forensic entomology, a maggot petting zoo, displays of insects important to detectives, and “guess the post-mortem interval” games. Forensically themed festival T-shirts, with proceeds benefiting the Entomology Graduate Student Association, will be available for sale as well.

Films begin at 7:15, with two cartoons featuring crime-solving arthropod superheroes, “Creepy Crawlers” (1985) and “The Tick vs. Arthur” (1994). There also will be two other feature films. “Phenomena,” a Dario Argento film from 1985, features Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly as a student who telepathically communicates with insects and Donald Pleasance as a physically handicapped entomologist who recruits her to solve a series of murders at the school.

The festival will conclude with a segment of “Flicks” (1987) featuring “Philip Alien, Space Detective,” an alien crime-solving cockroach.

Admission to the festival is free. Doors to the Foellinger Auditorium, on the south end of the Quad, open at 6 p.m. Exhibitions and T-shirt sales will be in the foyer. Remarks begin at 7 p.m., with cartoons to beginning at 7:15 p.m.

Books for children of all ages
Annual children’s book sale is Feb. 21-23
The fourth annual book sale for the Center for Children’s Books will run Feb. 21 to 23 in Room 24 of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science.

According to the organizers, thousands of new books for children from birth through high school will be on sale. The selection includes fiction and nonfiction picture books, board books, easy and transitional readers, chapter books, series fiction, young adult novels, activity books and kits, nonfiction series and mass-market paperbacks.

Paperback books that retail for $5 or less will sell for $1; paperbacks that retail for $5.01 or more will sell for $2; and hardcover books will sell for $5. All proceeds will support the center.

The center is affiliated with the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, one of the nation’s leading children’s book-review journals for school and public librarians.

For more information about the book sale, call 244-9331, or e-mail ccb@illinois.edu.

International celebration
Cultural events highlight 10-day event
A 10-day “celebration of all things international” is planned for Feb. 25 through March 6 at the UI. Though billed as International Education Week, the annual program of academic and cultural events is longer this year, with events taking place over two weekends.

“This is our third International Education Week, and our most substantive to date,” said Allison Walter, the chair of the interdisciplinary university committee that organized the series. “I think that this year’s calendar is a great reflection of the increase in international activities across campus. We’ve also involved the Champaign-Urbana community, which we have not done in the past.”

Events revolve around this year’s theme, “Exploring a World of Opportunities Through the Illinois Lens,” and range from informal gatherings, lectures, workshops and conferences to concerts and films, festivals and exhibits. Sponsors include campus and community groups.

Among the highlights: a Global Studies Forum on Feb. 25, sponsored by the International High School Initiative; a conference, “Exploring and Challenging Fronteras in the Midwest and Beyond” on Feb. 25-27, sponsored by Latina/Latino Studies; an international festival at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts on Feb. 26, sponsored by the center’s student association; and an International Careers Workshop featuring speakers from the government and private-business sectors, Feb. 28 through March 4, sponsored by the International Outreach Coordinators Council.

More information, including a complete calendar of events, is available at www.ips.uiuc.edu/int-week05/index.shtml.

‘From China to the World’
Auction to benefit Spurlock Museum
An auction to benefit the Spurlock Museum will begin at 6:30 p.m. March 4 at the museum. All proceeds from the Dragon Auction, sponsored by the Spurlock Museum Guild, will support expansion of the museum’s educational programs. This year’s event has an Asian theme in keeping with the current exhibition, “Following the Paper Trail From China to the World.”

A buffet of hors d’oeuvres, desserts and wine will be served at 7 p.m., followed by the live auction at 8 p.m. There also will be a silent auction. Items up for bid include an Oriental rug, artifacts, original artworks, antiques, jewelry, use of a condominium on the French Riviera, restaurant and merchandise certificates, and many other items.

For more information, call 351-5940 or 359-4270.

Seeking preschool applicants
CDL accepting applications for ’05-06
The Child Development Laboratory and the Early Child Development Lab are accepting applications for the 2005-2006 school year.

CDL offers half-day preschool programs (three hours a day) for 2-, 3-, and 4-year old children Tuesday through Friday during the regular academic year. Full-day child-care programs for 3- and 4-year old children are in session Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. on a year-round basis.

At ECDL, full-day child-care programs for children aged 6 weeks to 3 years are in session Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. on a year-round basis.

Both laboratories will have application screening for the half-day programs on April 1. Full-day classroom application screenings will be May 1.
Contact each lab for more information, an application or to schedule a classroom visit. For CDL, contact Lynn Bell, 244-8063. For ECDL, contact Debbie Trouth or Felicia Gooler, 244-8622. More information about both programs and application forms also are available at cdl.uiuc.edu.

WILL-FM’s ‘Classically Black’
Music of Adolphus Hailstork featured
In Adolphus Hailstork’s music, WILL-FM’s Roger Cooper hears sweet, conventional harmony as well as the bite of strategically inserted dissonance.
In Cooper’s newest “Classically Black” program, he introduces listeners to some of the composer’s music. The program will be broadcast on WILL-FM (90.9/101.1 in Champaign-Urbana) at 4:06 p.m. Feb. 20, and at 4 p.m. Feb. 25.

Hailstork has written works for chorus, solo voice, chamber ensembles, band and orchestra, was open to talking about his work. “His music is lyrical and very singable, which he attributes to his experience singing with his mother around the house,” Cooper said.

Hailstork’s compositions have been described as a crossover hybrid of African-American and European-American music. In the program, Cooper talks with Hailstork about his creative process.

The composer grew up in Albany, N.Y., where he took lessons in singing, violin, piano and organ. He conducted a boys’ choral ensemble in high school, and graduated from Howard University. He studied in Europe, and earned a master’s in composition from the Manhattan School of Music, and a doctorate from Michigan State University. He is now professor of music at Old Dominion University in Virginia.

The program will include the broadcast premiere of Hailstork’s new violin concerto, which premiered Nov. 11 at Williams University in Williamstown, Mass. It is being distributed by Public Radio International and will be broadcast on public radio stations across the country.

Preschool, kindergarten and first grade
UPS Open House is Feb. 24
The University Primary School, which includes preschool, kindergarten and first grade classes, will host an open house Feb. 24.

Visitors interested in observing the preschool classroom can visit from 8:30 a.m. until noon. Those interested in visiting the combined kindergarten and first grade class can come any time between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
Applications for the 2005-06 academic year are due March 18.

For more information, contact the director Nancy Hertzog at 333-3996 or nhertzog@illinois.edu.

College of Law
Annual Elder Law Lecture is March 1
“Individual Decision-Making and Risk in Defined Contribution Pension Plans” is the title of the College of Law’s annual Elder Law Lecture at 12:30 p.m. March 1 in the Max L. Rowe Auditorium of the Law Building. James M. Poterba, the Mitsui Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the featured speaker.

In the past two decades, the structure of pension arrangements has shifted dramatically. In prior years, plans offered benefits defined in terms of an employee’s earnings and years of service. Recently, pension plans have evolved into 401(k)-type plans without any specified benefit level. Instead, the employees manage “defined contribution” accounts and reap the resulting gains and losses of their investment decisions. President Bush has promised some version of this shift for younger workers in Social Security.

This lecture will explore the relative risk of the two types of retirement plans, explaining that labor market shocks create substantial risk in the older so-called “defined benefit” plans, while asset market shocks provide the key source of risk in the newer plans. Current investment decisions of 401(k) plan participants will be considered to formulate ways of reducing the financial market risks for participants in these plans.

Poterba is director of the Public Economics Research Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society. He edits the Journal of Public Economics, the leading international journal for research on taxation and government spending, and is a member of the advisory board of the Journal of Wealth Management.

‘Tracing the Family Tree of Paper’
Chinese papermaking demonstrated
“True” paper was invented in China more than 2,000 years ago. The Spurlock Museum follows the paper trail with a free talk, “Traditional Hand
Papermaking in China Today,” at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22 at the museum.
Nancy Norton Tomasko will explain the settings and equipment used to create handmade paper and show paper samples and traditional Chinese books. The talk is presented in conjunction with the museum’s exhibition “Following the Paper Trail From China to the World,” co-sponsored by the UI Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies and a gift in memoriam of Yuen Tze Lo by his wife, Sarah de Mundo Lo.

For more information, call 333-2360 or visit www.spurlock.uiuc.edu.

Museums at the Crossroads Consortium
‘Museums at the Mall’ Feb. 26 - 27
The Museums at the Crossroads Consortium will host “Museums at the Mall” at Market Place Mall in Champaign. The program will be offered from 10 a.m to 9 p.m Feb. 26 and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 27.

Families and teachers are welcome at the event, which will feature interactive games and crafts. Museum representatives also will be on hand to share information about programs and events offered through local museums.

For more information, contact Kim Sheahan at the Spurlock Museum, 244-3355.

Planning Institute
Designing for healthy lifestyles explored
“Community Design for Healthy Lifestyles” is the theme of the 2005 Planning Institute set for March 3-4 at the UI.

Hosted by the UI’s department of urban and regional planning and organized by its Professional Development and Outreach Program, the annual event takes place this year at the Levis Faculty Center.

“Healthy lifestyles is a topic in the national spotlight – from what children eat, concern about lack of exercise, and graphic charts depicting the national weight gain to whether community design contributes to these observations,” said program coordinator Pattsi Petrie. “This institute builds on last year’s theme, ‘Innovative Community Planning.’ ”

Now in its sixth year, the institute draws participants from the academic, government and public service sectors to call attention to issues of healthy eating, exercise and weight loss. This year’s program also is expected to appeal to health-care professionals as well as to all citizens interested in improving the quality of life in their neighborhoods. Of special interest for the health-care professionals, Petrie said, is a half-day workshop on March 3 on ‘The Spatial and Social Implication of Aging.” The workshop, presented by Bob Scarfo, professor of landscape architecture at Washington State University, is sponsored by Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana.

The two-day event includes lectures, panels and workshops on topics ranging from “walkable” schools and wi-fi (wireless) communities to designing communities for healthy as well as active and multigenerational living, Petrie said.

Also on the program are guest lectures by Richard Killingsworth, Jerome Kaufman and Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn. Other presenters include faculty members from the UI and elsewhere, along with state and municipal officials, citizen planners and professionals.

Kicking off the event will be a “pre-institute” talk by Kaufman at 7 p.m. on March 2 in Plym Auditorium, Temple Buell Hall. Kaufman, a member of the American Planning Association and a fellow in the American Institute of Certified Planners, will deliver the Louis B. Wetmore Planning Practice Lecture “The Role of Planners in the Emerging Field of Community Food System Planning.” The talk is free and open to the public.

Killingsworth will present the School of Architecture’s Max Abramovitz Distinguished Lecture at 7:30 p.m. March 3 in Plym Auditorium at Temple Buell Hall. The talk, free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Lorado Taft Lectureship on Art and the Center for Advanced Study.

Co-sponsors of the institute include UIC, the Illinois chapter of the American Planning Association, and the Illinois chapter of the American Association of Landscape Architects, Carle Foundation Hospital, and Champaign County Development Council Foundation.

A complete program, as well as online registration and a fee schedule, is available on the Web at www.urban.uiuc.edu/ce/05events/Schedule.html, or
by contacting Petrie at 244-7424 or pattsi@illinois.edu.

Sousa Archives and Center for American Music
Events highlight Sousa and Illinois ties
The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at the UI, in collaboration with the University Bands, is celebrating the campus’s rich music legacy with free public events on Feb. 19 and 20.

The events include open houses at the Sousa Archives; a walking tour of the Sousa music collections; a presentation on the evolution of one significant large-bore trombone; and an exhibit of photos and artifacts highlighting John Philip Sousa’s association with A. Austin Harding, Illinois’ first director of University Bands, and the development of the university’s world-class band program.

The Sousa events, times and locations include:

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Feb. 19, Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, located in Room 240 of the Harding Band Building, will have an open house. In addition, from 11 a.m. to noon, Sousa Archives will present, “Why So Many Piccolos, Mr. Sousa? – Saving America’s Music Heritage,” a walking tour of the John Philip Sousa music collections presented by Scott W. Schwartz, who is an archivist for music and fine arts and director of the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music.

From 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 20 there will be a second open house. Then, from 11 a.m. to noon, there will be a presentation titled “The Conn Large-bore Trombone: A Turning Point in American Music History,” by Lloyd Farrar, retired professor of musicology, Montgomery College, Rockville, Md., and a graduate of the UI; and Robert Gray, professor emeritus of trombone at Illinois.

In addition, from noon to 10 p.m. on Feb. 20, the lobby of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts will host an exhibit. “The Heart of America’s Band: The Illini Legacy,” displays rare photos and artifacts from the UI’s extensive music collections.

Under reorganization and new leadership, the archives and center are rapidly becoming a vital repository of three major music collections: wind band material, including Sousa music, artifacts and instruments; electronic and computer music; and an ethnomusicology collection.

The UI is home to nearly 75 percent of the extant Sousa materials, including original scores and parts, published music and manuscripts, personal papers, photographs, programs, news clippings, broadsides and artifacts, such as the baton Sousa used to conduct the University Concert Band in 1930.

The collection has grown to include the music, instruments and artifacts of many former Sousa band members, including first cornetist Herbert L. Clarke and vocal soloist Virginia Root. In addition, the center has a diverse collection of band instruments, uniforms and some more unusual instruments, including the boombass, octavin and ophicleide.

The Sousa events are being held in conjunction with a large campus celebration, including a concert and a reunion, sponsored by the UI’s Alumni Association and the Alumni Band Association.
For more details about the weekend celebration, go to www.uiaa.org/urbana/alumniband.html.

Intensive Foreign Language Instruction Program
Foreign language instruction available
Intensive instruction in a variety of languages will be offered again this year during the three-week period immediately following the close of the spring semester.

The classes are offered through the Intensive Foreign Language Instruction Program, administered by International Programs and Studies’ Office of Institutional and Faculty Collaboration. Classes, which meet for four hours daily, Monday through Friday, are presented in a mostly conversation-oriented format and are geared toward preparing participants for travel and/or research abroad.

This year, instruction will be offered in beginning Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish; intermediate Chinese, French, German, Italian and Spanish; and in advanced French and Spanish.

Each class must have a minimum of 10 paid registrants; enrollment is limited to 25 participants. The program fee for all classes is $50 for current and retired UI employees, and $75 for all others.

More information and online registration is available at www.ips.uiuc.edu/ific/iflip.html.

School of Music
Winning pianist to perform March 3
Pianist and composer David Psenicka, the 2005 winner of the School of Music’s 21st Century Piano Commission Competition, will perform his award-winning composition in concert at 7:30 p.m. March 3 in the Foellinger Great Hall, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Accompanying Psenicka on “Dispersion,” a work for piano, violin and electronics, will be his wife, violinist Katarzyna Psenicka. The program also will include other contemporary works presented by David Psenicka, a graduate student in the UI music school.

He is the sixth winner in the annual competition, open to musician-composers at the graduate level.

The competition was established through a gift to the music school by Richard Anderson and Jana Mason. Anderson is a professor of educational psychology at the UI; Mason is professor emerita of educational psychology and in the Center for the Study of Reading. The couple’s goal in founding the award program was to perpetuate the creation of traditional piano music and encourage patrons of the musical arts to expand their understanding of the art form by listening to new works.

Back to Index