Oct. 21, 1999 / Volume 19, Number 8
News Bureau | Calendar | II Info | II Archives
- Textbook is first comprehensive guide to horse dentistry
- Gordon Baker, professor of equine medicine and surgery, is co-editor of "Equine Dentistry," the first comprehensive guide on the subject.
- Children's choice of what to draw may affect learning how to draw
- According to art education professor Christine Thompson, the choices children make on what to draw shape early artistic learning.
'Millennium bug' beware: Campus readies for possible Y2K problems
Eighty-six faculty members, academic professionals retire
Retiree profile: Wenzel finds relaxation with family and at the ballpark
Willard firefighters happy their rescue skills not in high demand
Urbana lawyer to speak at Annuitants Association meeting is Oct. 24 ... Arboretum hosts fall festival ... Deadline for travel fund is Nov. 8 ... Harvard scholar to lecture Oct. 27 ... 4-H food drive is Oct. 25-27 ... Half-semester DCR membership is $49 ... Journalists featured Nov. 3 ... NESSIE overview sessions offered ... Bardeen featured in "Transistorized!" ... Campus Charitable Fund Drive pledge cards due ... Latina/o studies conference ... Ballet Folklorico Mexico ... "Critics' Choice" provides local reviews on WILL-Channel 12
A dental exam is more than just parting the lips, looking at incisors and feeling around with a finger. For years, such was the method for horses. Easily missed were developing cases of malaligned incisors, ulceration, deepening pockets and other common periodontal troubles.
Now regular, thorough checkups can become normal operating procedure, says Gordon Baker, professor of equine medicine and surgery at the UI College of Veterinary Medicine. Baker is the co-editor of the just-published textbook "Equine Dentistry," the first comprehensive guide on what he calls an "elegantly designed food-processing unit."
"In recent years, there has been a greater interest in equine veterinarians taking charge and control of dental management in the horse," Baker said. "But the knowledge base has been rather slim. There has been a lot of ignorance from a sheer lack of sound knowledge. This book straightens out a lot of errors, concerns, myths and legends about dental morphology, function and anatomy of the horse."
The hard-bound book -- published by the W.B. Saunders Co. and geared for veterinarians, veterinary students and serious horse owners -- pulls together scientific literature and puts the information in an easy-to-follow 278-page format that includes 365 illustrations.
As the book began shipping in mid-September, Baker was in Great Britain and France talking teeth to the British Equine Veterinary Association and the World Equine Veterinary Association. In January 2000, Baker and co-editor Jack Easley, a veterinarian in Shelbyville, Ky., will conduct a short course at the UI, with plenty of on-hands laboratory work, on equine dentistry for veterinarians.
Baker illustrates a common problem to students using lettuce leaves and peanuts to show the difference between grazing and being grain-fed in stables. Lettuce allows horses to slide their teeth naturally with a healthy motion, whereas peanuts require an up-and-down crunching -- like horses eating grain, "creating the potential for morphological sharpness on the edge of their teeth," Baker said.
Baker and Easley discuss dental exams that should be given to horses soon after birth, during the youthful performance years, as young adults, in maturity and in old age. They cover equipment, techniques, diseases and treatment, as well as the four types of teeth, how they develop and how they have evolved from a small horse-like animal living in South America more than 50 million years ago.
"Nobody has been in a position to get all of the material together and present it in cohesive fashion," Baker said. A textbook on surgery, written more than 80 years ago, addressed equine dentistry, he said, "but there was no discussion of underlying morphology."
"Prevention is better than curing," said Baker, who began documenting equine dental disease as a lecturer in veterinary surgery in 1965 at the Royal Veterinary College in London. "Once a horse presents with dental disease," he said, "it may already be beyond any treatment other than surgical intervention."
When left to his own devices in Saturday art class, 5-year-old Marc is what UI art education professor Christine Thompson calls a "subject matter generalist." His sketchbook is filled with a variety of images: a globe, jelly beans, characters from his favorite video game.
Marc's buddy Simon, on the other hand, draws dinosaurs.
Then there's Alexander. Taking what Thompson calls a "performative" approach to drawing, he "kneels over his sketchbook, crawls around it, stabs it with gory marks indicating incoming missiles all the while humming the theme from 'Star Wars.' "
These vastly different approaches to drawing are among three distinct styles Thompson identified over the course of a 10-year study that focused on images pre-school and kindergarten children choose to create when given the opportunity to work independent of teachers' instructions. Results, published in the most recent edition of the Journal of Art and Design Education, suggest "that the choice of what to draw shapes the process of learning how to draw."
"The interests young children develop and pursue in drawing and in other forms of symbolic play are influenced by gender and by culture, by personality and circumstance," she said. "The choices children make inevitably open certain possibilities and foreclose others, shaping early artistic learning in decisive ways."
For instance, Thompson noticed that gender-based stereotypes still spill quite freely out of young children's minds and onto the pages of their sketchbooks.
"Little boys have very well defined interests in the natural world or the realm of fantasy," she said. "Girls more typically draw important events in their lives. They draw pretty pictures with girls in ball gowns." And while people and animals appear as favorite subjects for boys and girls, "boys are drawing sabertooth tigers and girls are drawing cats and dogs and bunnies."
A particularly compelling difference, however, is that boys often tell more complicated stories through their images, and the stories demand complex settings. Girls more typically create "snapshot" images of real life. "Our challenge," Thompson said, "is to do things to encourage the development of that type of narrative-based thinking in girls."
From a broader perspective, she hopes the study will help art educators understand that "there are lots of ways children in this culture draw and lots of negotiations they make as they spend time directing the process."
"The richer the array of graphic problems they are given, the better off they are," she said. "Our role, recognizing that, is to try to give them at an early age as many opportunities to tell stories in drawings that are complex, engaging and evolving on the page. And that requires change on our part."
If you read this article when it comes out at 11 a.m. Oct. 21, you'll be at Day 71, Hour 13 of the "Countdown to Year 2000," the timeline the UI campus has developed to keep track of the Y2K problem.
While this may sound ominous, unless something important has been overlooked by the experts working toward Y2K readiness, the days after Jan. 1, 2000, should go comparatively smoothly.
"We are on target," said Andrea Ballinger, who heads the Y2K team at the Computing and Communications Services Office (CCSO). "I don't see anything that's a show stopper, though that's not to say that everything will be perfect." Her confidence is based on the lengthy planning done by the campus administration to identify and remediate problems stemming from the so-called "millennium bug."
What exactly is the Y2K problem? In the broadest sense, it is the revenge of 1960s-era computers, specifically the program codes that designated the year as a two-digit rather than four-digit function. As a result, the year 2000 (read as "00") could be interpreted as 1900 by older computers that have not been upgraded. Because nearly all computers track information by date and time, Jan. 1 could bring uncertain results.
The five-person team started working on Y2K preparedness more than 18 months ago. Since then computer upgrades and replacements have been made at all colleges, institutes and administrative offices as well as the campus physical plant that depends heavily on computer technology for heat, light, alarm systems and telecommunications.
Apart from testing hardware and software, the team is examining contingency plans to ensure that potential health and safety issues -- notably food safety, water and sewage, power outages and police security -- are addressed immediately in case a computer system fails or malfunctions.
"Risk assessment is one of our most important functions," Ballinger said. "The goal of the administration is for every department and unit to sign off on a backup plan so that essential services are maintained."
Contingency plans required by each campus unit are being "graded" by the Y2K team. A plan that does not meet minimal standards is returned to the responsible dean or administrator for action. A group of 187 unit coordinators are working with Ballinger's team to ensure compliance. In addition, Charles C. Colbert, vice chancellor for administration and human resources, is heading a campuswide committee that is meeting regularly to finalize the back-up plans.
An important part of the process is keeping students informed. Earlier this week, a Y2K information brochure was issued to all UI students. The brochure recommended that students keep copies of their spring term 2000 class schedules as well as other important personal data (such as bank and credit card statements), but otherwise remain calm.
"Be skeptical of Y2K fear-mongering," the pamphlet warned. "Note that the Y2K issue could provide another opportunity for scams or hoaxes."
The campus has been involved in three other areas of Y2K preparedness in addition to health and safety -- business and financial, research and teaching, and public and community services.
A campuswide holiday on Monday, Jan. 3, will give personnel in the record-keeping and payroll offices some breathing space to test their systems and institute contingency plans in case the systems do not function as planned. "All of this is really amazingly complicated and needs to be coordinated with many outside vendors," Ballinger said.
Addressing faculty research is another complex issue that it being evaluated at all administrative levels. Such research ranges from the care of animals to the maintenance of highly sensitive equipment in laboratories scattered across campus.
A final goal of the university is to be able to provide uninterrupted service for sports, concerts and other public events. These units have been hard at work with outside promoters and vendors to ensure that ticket sales, security and other matters function smoothly during the year 2000 transition.
Patricia Wenzel recently retired after 33 years of service at the UI. She started out as a clerk-typist in the agricultural economics department in 1959, when she and her husband moved to Champaign-Urbana so he could attend graduate school at the UI. She retired as a senior programmer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, for which she began to work in 1985. That was shortly after it opened its doors as one of only five supercomputer centers in the nation.
"At the supercomputer center my career really took," she said. "It gave me some opportunities I hadn't had before."
Wenzel, who designed databases at the center, said she had gained computer experience in some of the other university offices she worked in and during a short stint at a local computer company. She said she enjoys working with computers.
"I love it," she said. "It's both exciting and a real challenge."
Looking back at her career, Wenzel said she especially enjoyed working with bright, energetic people at the center.
"That kind of atmosphere encourages you to grow and to think differently," she said.
But the mother of two grown children and grandmother of two small boys said retirement has its own rewards.
"The first thing I did was break the alarm on my alarm clock," she said. "I don't know how I got anything done at home before."
She recently attended her first professional baseball game with her husband, Joseph Wenzel, a UI professor and associate head of speech communication who also retired this year.
"I grew up in Chicago but I'd never been to Wrigley Field," she said. "I was never really very interested in sports, but I decided that when I retired I'd try some of those things I didn't like."
On her very first visit, she did something most fans are never allowed to do.
"They had a fan's clinic," she recalls, "so we went on the field before the game and they had players and coaches giving demonstrations about what the game is all about. It was fun to be on the field. It was a different way to look at the stadium."
And now she has a good story her grandsons may someday appreciate -- about the time she shared the field with one of the game's superstars.
"We saw Sammy Sosa. He ran across the field. Even I knew who Sammy Sosa was."
But she might see her second game at one of the other great old stadiums, Fenway Park.
"We're going to do some traveling to spend some time with my grandchildren in Boston. We're going to spend more time out there visiting with them, watching them grow up."
The grandkids, Vincent Wenzel, 5, and Joseph Wenzel, 1, are the sons of Kevin Wenzel, who earned bachelor's and doctoral degrees in nuclear science from the UI. He now works for a computer company in Boston. Patricia and Joseph Wenzel's other child is Eileen Dohnalek, who received bachelor's and master's degrees in library science from the UI and now works as a children's librarian in the Chicago Public Library system.
"We'll spend more time with her," Patricia Wenzel said. "It's easier to see her."
The Wenzels recently moved to a new house, so Patricia Wenzel said she and her husband are looking forward to making their new property bloom in the spring.
"We both love to garden, so we'll have more time to focus on it," she said.
The self-proclaimed workaholic said she also is finding time to do something she always wanted to do.
"I'm finally getting involved with some volunteer work," she said, " at the Humane Society and the Champaign Public Library."
She admits that she misses work a little bit, but she is keeping busy enough with her new pastimes. Including her newfound love for baseball.
"It was very relaxing," she said of her first game. "The game was fun. The Cubs were considerate enough to win for me."
Never one to be satisfied with what she has already done, she sees a challenge even in Wrigley's friendly confines.
"I'm surely tempted to sit in the bleachers. It looks like a really exciting place to sit. Those people look like they're having a really good time."
And so is she.
"I love retirement," she said.
Most people go to school or complete specialized training programs with a goal of putting those acquired skills to work on the job. But that's not the case with John Smith, the fire marshal at the UI's Willard Airport, and other members of the airport's fire department.
"We don't want to practice what we're trained to do," Smith said. "Our primary mission is firefighting and rescue pertaining to commercial aircraft, but that's not anything we want to do."
Fortunately, commercial -- and private -- aircraft accidents are rare.
"I like to tell people the most hazardous part of flying is driving to the airport," said Smith, who added that, with the exception of an on-the-ground accident involving an airline employee, "last year there were no fatalities in U.S. commercial aviation.
Still, federal regulations require airports such as Willard to have various levels of emergency disaster plans in place. Each year, Smith meets with airport personnel and representatives from the UI, METCAD, the Champaign County sheriff's office, state police, American Red Cross, ambulance companies and other agencies to conduct "table-top drills." That exercise involves "walking through an event and reviewing the roles each agency plays," Smith said.
"Then, every three years we are required to have a simulated drill. We take an old aircraft fuselage and have it on the ground, get the appropriate number of victims, have them picked up and transported to hospitals and make the proper notifications -- all the things we would do in the first three hours of an incident."
In reality, serious incidents have been few and far between at the UI airport over the years. Only a handful of accidents have resulted in fatalities in the past two decades. The one that sticks with Smith as the incident he's least likely to forget was a multiple-fatality accident in November 1994.
"The plane crashed right after an Illinois football team, and the visiting team charter aircraft had just taken off," Smith said. "There were multiple telephone reports about a plane cash with fire and no confirmation of which aircraft it was." It turned out that the aircraft involved was not the team plane. Still, Smith said he had "lots of adrenaline going" in those initial, uncertain moments, when he and others feared a worst-case scenario.
Most days on the job are calmer, by many orders of magnitude. Still, the unit, which has been in existence at various staffing levels since 1961, doesn't allow any grass to grow under its engines. Firefighters keep busy with a host of daily activities at the fire station and all around the airport. Some, such as maintaining and testing equipment, are routine; others, such as providing emergency medical services to aircraft passengers, keep the crew on its collective set of toes.
Smith said the total number of aircraft emergencies requiring some sort of response from the airport fire department is about 70 per year.
In addition to providing EMS to airline passengers and others at the airport, Mike Kobel, a crash-rescue and security specialist and one of the station's shift supervisors, said state certification requirements for airport firefighters include being prepared "to deal with anything from how the airport is set up to movement on the airfield to knowing about certain fuels and how they burn."
At Willard, Kobel said, firefighters also are responsible for overall airport security. That entails enforcing FAA requirements and providing security training for airport employees. "It also involves everything from identifying possible suspicious parcels to [identifying] terrorists," Kobel said.
Though the firefighters don't have actual policing responsibilities, they act as the eyes and ears of the airport staff and have direct radio contact with university and area police departments and with METCAD.
"So, if a gun goes through the X-ray machine, the airport security employee punches a button, which locks up the machine and sends a distress alarm to the fire department. Then, we're the first on the scene."
Besides overseeing security operations, airport firefighters devote a fair amount of time to education. They provide CPR training to the airport staff, as well as to students enrolled in the UI's Institute of Aviation. The firefighters also instruct aviation students on fire extinguisher use and maintenance. Some of the airport firefighters also have served as instructors for courses offered by the Illinois Fire Service Institute -- including short courses held in conjunction with the annual Fire College and as part of weeklong classes offered throughout the year.
Kobel, along with Smith and Tom Reese, helped initiate an FSI course called "It Crashed in Your Backyard." Kobel described the course as "an awareness program for volunteer and city services," which covers everything from airplane construction and fuel behavior to triage situations. In addition to that course, Smith has taught an aircraft accident awareness program offered jointly by FSI, the Institute of Aviation and the Police Training Institute.
When the airport firefighters aren't responding to emergency situations or teaching others how to do so, they sometimes wear yet another hat -- one that merges education and public relations functions.
"We run a lot of tours through here," said Kobel, who said during peak times of the school year about 60 kids visit the station daily, usually on combined tours of the airport, institute and fire department.
At the end of the day, however, when tallying up all the activities the airport firefighters participate in, it all boils down to a single job description: assisting the public.
"Firefighters are helpers, so this job is beneficial that way," Smith said. "It really satisfies the needs of the firefighter to help the public any way they can -- whether that means helping them find lost baggage or people or assisting people whose cars don't start. When you call the airport on the weekend, you get us answering the phone.
"Customer service ... that's what we provide," Smith said.
For more information about the Willard Fire Department, visit its Web site at www.aviation.uiuc.edu/new/html/fire.htm.
In awarding the inaugural medallion, Chancellor Michael Aiken said the award was in recognition of Ramos' "dedication to the UI at Urbana-Champaign, her dedication to the larger community, her innovation, her outreach to students and staff, her service and her humor."
Ramos, who was presented with the medallion at a dinner in her honor Oct. 2, has won many awards during her tenure on campus. She was the winner of the first UI Affirmative Action Award for developing training programs for people with special needs. She was among the first three winners of the Chancellor's Academic Professional Excellence Awards in 1989, and President Clinton honored her as one of 14 "local heroes" when he visited the Urbana campus in January 1998.
In 1974, Ramos helped open residence-hall dining rooms so students could study there; in 1975, she set up job training and placement services for unemployed women in Champaign County; and the following year, she worked with the Correctional Employment Service of Champaign County to train and place ex-offenders. She also has set up a work-study program in food services for physically handicapped high school students and has served on the boards of the University YWCA and the Eastern Illinois Food Bank.
As director of food services, she has been an innovator, introducing customer-service surveys, sack lunches and dinners as a convenience, setting up programs to allow parents to send special meals to students, and creating nearly 20 specialty restaurants.
The award, announced Oct. 20 in Washington, D.C., is in recognition of extraordinary dedication to teaching, commitment to students and innovative teaching methods.
"Being selected professor of the year is a great honor and Dr. Burton is absolutely deserving of it," UI Chancellor Michael Aiken said. "He is one of the finest teachers in higher education. I am delighted that he has been recognized for his talents in the classroom, and I am equally pleased that his public service efforts are being recognized. As chancellor, I take great pride in the work of our distinguished faculty members; Dr. Burton is an excellent representative of the quality of scholarship and teaching that happens every day on this campus."
Created by CASE in 1981, the professors of the year program is the only national awards program that recognizes college and university professors for their teaching.
"I am deeply honored and humbled by this award," Burton said. "My mother deserves this credit; her life of hard work and devotion to God is what has instilled in me the knowledge that a faith-filled life and caring for others is what is important in this world. I have always believed that students deserved to be challenged and were worthy of the necessary time and effort. I hope awards such as this encourage faculty [members] that teaching is appreciated."
The Carnegie Foundation awards a $5,000 cash prize to each winner.
The Carnegie Foundation convened a panel to select the professors of the year. Earlier, CASE assembled two preliminary panels of judges that selected the national finalists. Judges evaluated nominees in four areas: 1) impact on and involvement with undergraduate students; 2) scholarly approach to teaching and learning; 3) contributions to undergraduate education within the institution, community and profession; and 4) support from colleagues and students.
In addition to the Carnegie Foundation and CASE, more than 25 higher education associations support the professors of the year program with financial contributions and promotional assistance and by providing judges.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was founded in 1905 by Andrew Carnegie, "to do all things necessary to encourage, uphold and dignify the profession of teaching." The Foundation is the only advanced study center for teachers in the world and the third-oldest foundation in the nation. Its non-profit research activities are produced by a small group of distinguished scholars.
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is the largest international association of education institutions, with nearly 2,900 colleges, universities and independent elementary and secondary schools as members. Representing these institutions are more than 19,000 professionals in the disciplines of alumni relations, communications and fund raising.
Using information technology, Burton encourages others in the community to become historians as well. He is working to make library and museum resources available to students everywhere on the World Wide Web. Working with churches and schools, he is training young people to use technology to become "virtual tour guides" by developing customized historical tours of their communities. Having grown up in rural South Carolina without access to a public library, Burton hopes to make accessible to others the information that was inaccessible to him.
Burton has received numerous honors and awards during his teaching career. He has received two campus awards for mentoring minority students and has been recognized by the history department and Panhellenic Council for his teaching. He also meets regularly with students in residence halls to discuss student life.
The UI may soon begin a massive, long-term overhaul and replacement of its administrative computing systems.
The move to an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system will likely take place over five years or longer, cost an estimated $50 to $70 million, and affect everyone on the university's three campuses.
"It will not be a smooth path, it will be a bumpy road," warned UI President James Stukel, in comments following a presentation at the Oct. 15 meeting of the UI Board of Trustees in Urbana.
But it also is necessary, and will bring long-term benefits for the "business side" of the university, said Craig Bazzani, UI vice president for business and finance. "It is exactly the kind of good investment that a business makes for good outcomes," he said.
The problem, Bazzani said, is that information systems in three key areas -- business and finance, human resources, and students -- are old, costly to maintain, and not easily linked together. The university employs more than 120 administrative database systems with a haphazard "spider web" of linkages between them, he said. To further emphasize the lack of organized connections, he said "hair ball" might be the more appropriate term.
The overall system provides insufficient access to management data and an inconsistent quality of data, Bazzani said. To give one example, he noted that he could produce about five different answers to the question of how many employees the university has, depending on which system he used and which buttons he pushed.
The ERP approach, Bazzani said, offers the opportunity to consolidate and integrate those databases and applications, redesign administrative processes for greater efficiency, share common data and practices, and execute transactions and access information in real time.
The alternatives rejected by the management teams dealing with the issue were to stay with the status quo, build an integrated system from scratch, or buy "best-of-class" applications from multiple vendors.
The UI is not alone in dealing with these problems, and many other higher education institutions have moved or are moving toward an ERP type of system, Bazzani said. Based on reports from vendors who offer these systems, more than 1,000 schools are implementing an ERP system in whole or in part, including eight of the 11 Big Ten schools.
Unlike some of those schools, the UI has chosen not to be an early adopter, but to wait for the applications to mature and learn from the experience of others, Bazzani said. The conclusions presented at the board meeting came after several years of study and concentrated efforts over the last eight months, in which teams of administrators and evaluators had narrowed the list of potential vendors to two, he said.
Rich Mendola, director of the Office of Administrative Information Technology Services (AITS), emphasized in responding to a trustee's question that the teams evaluating potential vendors had paid particular attention to their long-term commitment to higher education and to their ability to deliver working applications, rather than just make promises. He also noted that up to 200 people had been involved in the evaluation process and they were "not just a bunch of techies," but included many people who would have to deal with the systems at the front end.
No decision was required by the board at Friday's meeting. Bazzani and other administrators said an extensive evaluation process is continuing with the two vendors under consideration, and a final recommendation will be brought to a meeting in the near future.
Before the university can look at implementing anything new in its computer systems, however, it will have to roll over into the year 2000 with the old, hoping most or all of its Y2K computer concerns have been resolved. And an update on the status of those efforts was the topic of Bazzani's first presentation of the morning.
In the university's preparations for Y2K, "I would characterize our progress at this point as about 80 percent done," Bazzani told trustees. After three years and several million dollars of work spread throughout the university, "now is the finishing stage It's at this point that we take the gloves off" with units that have not done what they need to, he said.
He has yet to find an auditor who is satisfied with the university's preparations, he said, but he believes the administration is doing all it can.
The target for reaching total compliance was Nov. 1, and the university is a little behind in reaching that, he said, but he expressed reserved optimism that the university would be ready. "If I have one area of discomfort it's the university's research labs," Bazzani said. Because of the variety of equipment and software in use, and difficulties in assessing its readiness for Y2K, it's difficult to predict what problems might occur there, he said.
Bazzani said contingency plans are being put in place for the days following the Jan. 1 rollover, which will occur on a Saturday, followed by a Monday holiday. Building-by-building checks are planned for the first hours of that weekend, and command centers will be set up with officials on hand who can make decisions as needed and dispatch technical staff to deal with specific problems, he said.
Preparations also include urging units like the hospital to order extra supplies that might be critical, possibly pre-processing some things like payroll, and getting notices out to students and staff members about precautions they might want to take with financial statements, course registrations and other documents.
Bazzani cautioned that not all of the potential problems may be known in the first hours or days. The university may have to wait several weeks to see what happens not only on campus but in the rest of the world, he said. Much of its operation depends in part on network transactions with outside parties like vendors, government agencies and financial institutions, any of which may have their own problems.
Other Business
In other business, the trustees got their annual early look at projected changes in student tuition, fees and housing charges for the next school year, in this case 2000-2001. Final numbers will be presented for board approval at the November meeting.
2000-2001 Projections for increases in student tuition, fees, housing | |||
UIUC |
UIC |
UIS | |
| Undergraduate tuition | 5% |
3% |
3% |
$3,724 |
$3,232 |
$2,873 | |
| Graduate tuition | 5% |
3% |
3.1% |
$4,242 |
$3,864 |
$2,586 | |
| Student fees | 3.8% |
3.7% |
7.7% |
| Undergraduate housing | 5.1% |
3.4% |
4.6% |
| * Total tuition for an in-state, full-time student for two semesters. | |||
Public comments
During the board's public comment session Oct. 15, Storm Heter, with the Graduate Employees Organization at the Urbana campus, raised a number of issues regarding the treatment of graduate student employees. Heter said the university should subsidize graduate employees' health care costs, and complained about the unwillingness of university officials to meet with the organization. His remarks were accompanied by comments and applause from about 15 supporters in attendance.
Summers, a UI alumnus and Urbana lawyer, will speak on "Elder Law -- Planning for the Future."
All current faculty and staff members, annuitants, retirees, spouses and surviving spouses are welcome.
There will be pumpkins for adults to carve (bring your own carving equipment) and for children to paint, a coloring area for toddlers, a scavenger hunt and lectures on fall-related topics. Visitors can tour the Arboretum complex, including the Miles C Hartley Selections Garden. Hayrides will be available, and motorized carts will be available for senior citizens and guests with disabilities.
Admission is free; pumpkins for carving and painting will be sold at cost to participants. The Arboretum -- dedicated in 1994 as a "living laboratory" for academic programs in the plant sciences and fine and applied arts -- is located just south of the intersection of Lincoln and Florida avenues in Urbana.
Lectures on flower arranging, pumpkins and squashes, fall lawn and tree care will begin at 10 a.m. and be repeated beginning at 1 p.m.
For more information, call 333-7579.
Matching funds, from any institutional source, are required before international travel funds are awarded. A conditional award may be made if the applicant's request for matching funds from other sources is pending or in preparation. The deadlines for the 1999-2000 academic year are Nov. 8 and March 1.
Award guidelines and applications are available by contacting the MUCIA Liaison Office, 325 International Studies Building, 333-1993 or a-ramsey@illinois.edu.
Each year the Iben lectureship brings a noted astronomer to campus to highlight some of the latest developments in astronomy. In addition to giving a public lecture, the invited speaker also will give a technical colloquium and meet informally with faculty members and students.
Kirshner, a professor of astronomy and an associate director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is a pioneer in the use of supernovae as cosmological distance indicators.
College-age 4-H members and United Parcel Service workers will put food-collection stations at more than 30 campus locations; signs will be posted at the entrances of campus buildings beginning Oct. 25 that indicate where the closest drop-off site is located. UPS workers will pick up the donations Oct. 28.
There also will be a food drive prior to the Illinois-Penn State football game Oct. 30. Donations may be dropped off at the 4-H tent west of Memorial Stadium on Oct. 29, or at each stadium entrance Oct. 30. Coca-Cola will provide a coupon for a free 20-ounce Coke product to anyone who brings a box, bag or can of food to the football game.
The donations will be distributed to pantries, shelters and meal programs in the region.
Last year's 4-H day food drive was recognized by the food bank for collecting the largest amount of food collected in a one-day event.
The opening of the Reston papers at the UI Archives will be celebrated by a Nov. 3 symposium featuring speakers who were close to the late, legendary New York Times writer: Max Frankel, a former executive editor of the Times; James Reston Jr., an author and one of Reston's sons; and John Stacks, the executive editor of Time magazine. Louis Liebovich, a UI journalism professor, also will speak. Ronald Yates, the head of the UI journalism department, will moderate the symposium.
The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 3:30 p.m. in 213 Gregory Hall. A reception will follow a 5 p.m. in the Marshall Gallery of the University Library, where an exhibit of items from the Reston papers will be on display through Nov. 10. A companion exhibit on Reston, who died in 1995, will run in the University Library main hall throughout November.
NESSIE (Net-driven Employee Self-Service and Information Environment), located at http://nessie.uihr.uillinois.edu, enables benefit-eligible employees to conduct personnel transactions online.
The one-hour program, produced by award-winning TV and radio journalist Ira Flatow, will air on PBS stations Nov. 8. Locally, it will be shown on WILL-Channel 12 at 9 p.m., and will be repeated at midnight and 4 a.m. Nov. 9.
"Transistorized!" tells the dramatic story of the invention of the transistor. A key figure in that drama is former UI professor John Bardeen, who shared the Nobel Prize for the development of the transistor with William Shockley and Walter Brattain.
Among the UI experts who were interviewed or consulted for the project were Lillian Hoddeson, professor of history and co-author of "Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age"; Charles Stewart, professor of history; and Nick Holonyak, the John Bardeen Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics. Former UI professor Frederick Seitz also is featured.
More information about the documentary and those featured in it can be found at www.pbs.org/transistor/.
The conference, which will be held in 210 Illini Union, represents the culmination of discussions among faculty and graduate students participants in a spring 1999 seminar that explored "Territories and Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Theory, Methodology and Curriculum in Latina/o Studies."
The seminar and conference are initiatives of the UI's Center for Advanced Study's Resident Studies Program. Through the program, the center sponsors a number of interdisciplinary activities, including single-focused discussion sessions, scholarly presentations and long-term, interdisciplinary colloquia.
At the upcoming conference, participants will consider how Latina/o studies programs have reconfigured studies of North American culture, politics and public policy. Through a re-evaluation of the physical, cultural and theoretical boundaries of Latina/o studies, Latin American studies and American/U.S. studies, the conference will encourage participants to rethink the meaning of "America" and to ponder the ways in which scholarship concerning U.S. Latina/os has nuance studies of race, ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality in the United States, the Caribbean and Mexico.
For more information, call 333-6729, or visit the CAS Web site, www.cas.uiuc.edu.
Airing at 7:30 p.m. every Thursday, the program has been reshaped from its cable-access format, with more lively discussion among the hosts and less individual commentary.
The three host-producers of "Critics' Choice," Jeff Nelson, Syd Slobodnik and Pat Matzdorff, think their position as Hollywood outsiders residing in the nation's heartland is the perfect vantage point for reviewing movies and plays.
"Sometimes it's refreshing to hear the common person's point of view," Slobodnik said. "Because we're not part of the system, we can provide a more honest perspective."
The 30-minute show includes movie reviews introduced by a clip from each film, theater announcements and reviews, and occasional interviews with visiting celebrities.
Although none is involved in filmmaking, each brings to the series knowledge of some aspect of film and theater. Nelson, a history teacher at Urbana High School for 28 years, said he's able to put films and theater in a social, historical and cultural context. Slobodnik, a teaching associate in English and film at the UI and Parkland College, presents the academic perspective and international context for films. Matzdorff, who spent 11 years working in the film industry in Los Angeles and two years as Oregon film commissioner, brings to her reviews a practical knowledge of film production. She was production coordinator for the TV series "Knots Landing" and the film "Absence of Malice."
The hosts' different points of view make for animated conversation. Each host compiles a list of the "Best Films of the Year," and they'll continue this tradition as the show moves to WILL.
"We're excited about being able to expand our coverage to include the entire WILL-TV viewing area," Nelson said. "We'll be reviewing theater in Charleston, Bloomington, Decatur, Springfield and other cities as well as Champaign-Urbana. And we think the WILL audience meshes perfectly with the audience for our show."
The trio tries to strike a balance between art films and box-office hits, and also include teen films, family films and films that appeal to ethnic groups. "Our shows about the best films of the year have included foreign films and documentaries," Matzdorff said.
Shots are being provided by McKinley Health Center this year and will be available through Nov. 30. No appointment is necessary. Shots will be given at McKinley's Preventive Medicine department Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and will be available at the following locations on the dates indicated.
- 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Illini Union, Room C
For dates, times and locations of the remaining schedule, please check the Web at: www.uiuc.edu/departments/mckinley/ or call 333-2701 and press 9 for a recorded message of each week's schedule.
Shots are given by needle injection, into either arm. Any woman who is pregnant should check with her physician before receiving the shot.
This is a one-hour approved event for Civil Service employees. Employees may be released from work with pay, operations permitting and with departmental approval, to receive a flu shot.
The Office of Academic Human Resources, Suite 420, 807 S. Wright St., maintains the listings for faculty and academic professional positions. More complete descriptions are available in that office during regular business hours. Job listings are also updated weekly on its Web site at: http://webster.uihr.uiuc.edu/ahr/jobs/index.asp. Any other information may be obtained from the person indicated in the listing.
faculty
Agricultural and Consumer Economics. Assistant professor, financial management and markets. PhD or equivalent in agricultural economics, finance, business or economics. Contact Raymond Leuthold, 333-1815, rmleuth@illinois.edu. Closing date: Jan. 15.
Aviation, Institute of. Assistant professor of aviation/aviation education specialist (one to 10 positions). PhD required for assistant professor position. Must possess bachelor's degree, certified flight instructor certificate with instrument ratings, master's or PhD preferred, for aviation education specialist position. Available: Jan. 6. Contact Rick Weinberg, 244-8606. Closing date: Nov. 30.
Business Administration. Faculty (rank open). PhD or equivalent degree should be completed before starting date. Should have strong theoretical and methodological training in a functional area or social science discipline and a research focus on international business issues. Available: August 2000. Contact Joseph Cheng, 333-2693. Closing date: Dec. 1.
Business Administration. Professor (Hoeft Chair of Information Systems/Information Technology). PhD required. Available: August 2000. Contact Greg R. Oldham, 333-6340, g-oldham@illinois.edu. Closing date: Dec. 30.
Business Administration. Faculty, marketing (rank open/one or more positions). PhD must be completed by starting date. Interested in persons who have achieved prominence or who have the potential to achieve prominence through research and teaching in marketing area. Available: August 2000. Contact Brian Wansink, 244-0208. Closing date: Nov. 15.
Business Administration. Faculty, organizational behavior (rank open/one or more positions). PhD required. Candidate should have an active program of research in OMT/OB/HR and perform well in the classroom. Available August 2000. Contact Mary Waller, 244-3762. Closing date: Dec. 1.
Civil and Environmental Engineering. Faculty, transportation engineering (rank open). PhD required; must have an ability to teach effectively at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Interested in candidates with expertise in railroad engineering, airport engineering, intelligent transportation systems, pavement management, pavement design and transportation systems. Available: Aug. 21. Contact David Daniel, 333-3814. Closing date: Jan. 14.
Civil and Environmental Engineering. Faculty, construction engineering and management (rank open). PhD required; must have an ability to teach effectively at undergraduate and graduate levels. Interested in candidates with expertise in construction procedures, project management, construction management, construction economics and other technical areas related to construction. Available: Aug. 21. Contact David Daniel, 333-3814. Closing date: Jan. 14.
Civil and Environmental Engineering. Faculty, structural engineering (rank open). One of the two positions is for a faculty member to serve as director of the Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratory. PhD required; must have an ability to teach effectively at undergraduate and graduate levels. Interested in candidates with a distinguished record of research and should be experienced in the testing, manufacture and implementation of structural testing systems and have established a record of attracting and successfully completing structural testing programs that have advanced the practice of structural engineering. Available: Aug. 21. Contact David Daniel, 333-3814. Closing date: Jan. 14.
Commerce and Business Administration College of. Dean. PhD. Candidates should have administration experience in a university, business or government setting or have demonstrated potential for administrative leadership. Available: Aug. 21. Contact Kathleen Pecknold, 333-4523. Closing date: Nov. 30.
Computer Science. Faculty (rank open/one or more positions). PhD in computer science or a closely related field, outstanding academic credentials, an ability to teach effectively at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Send vita, statement of career objectives and three letters of reference to Daniel Reed, 3270 Digital Computer Lab, MC-258. Closing date: Dec. 13.
Dance. Assistant professor, modern dance. MFA degree preferred and significant professional experience. Substantial teaching experience at a professional/university level. Additional experience in one or more of the following areas is desired: computer applications for dance, including Lifeforms; introduction to contemporary dance; conditioning; contact improvisation; non-traditional partnering; other dance forms. Available: Aug. 21. Send letter, resume and three references to Patricia Knowles, Department of Dance, 907 1/2 W. Nevada St., MC-039. Closing date: Jan. 15.
East Asian Languages and Cultures. Assistant professor, Japanese literature and comparative literature. PhD and good evidence of strong scholarly potential required; publications and relevant teaching experience preferred. Available: Aug. 21. Send letter, vita and three references to Chair, Japanese Literature Search, EALC, 608 S. Mathews Ave., MC-146, 244-1432. Closing date: Dec. 16.
Education, College of. Dean. PhD required. Should have the ability to represent the college effectively to a broad range of constituencies within and outside the university. Should have a distinguished academic record in teaching and in research. Available: Aug. 21. Contact Karen Carney, 265-0541.
Geography. Assistant professor. PhD required at time of appointment. Ideal candidate is a geographer who addresses human-environmental problems in an international setting and uses GIS in his/her research. Available: August 2000. Contact David Wilson, 333-0877. Closing date: Jan. 31.
Geology. Assistant professor. PhD required. Candidate should be outstanding in microbial geoscience and concerned with the activities and significance of microbes in Earth systems, ancient or modern. Specific areas of interest might include, but are not limited to, environmental microbiology, biomineralogy, biogeochemistry and molecular microbiology. Available: August 2000. Contact Craig Bethke, 333-3369, c-bethke@illinois.edu. Closing date: Jan. 1.
Landscape Architecture. Head. Master's of landscape architecture or related degree, professional experience and an established record of teaching, research, publication and service sufficient to gain appointment as full professor. Available: Aug. 21. Contact Lewis Hopkins, 333-1660, ldhopkin@illinois.edu. Closing date: Jan. 18.
Molecular and Cellular Biology, School of. Faculty, departments of biochemistry, cell and structural biology, microbiology and molecular and integrative physiology (rank open/one or more positions). PhD or MD/PhD, postdoctoral experience, and evidence of outstanding research potential a must. Available: Aug. 21. Send letter, vita, publications list, summary of research, four letters of recommendation to School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, 393 Morrill Hall, 505 S. Goodwin Ave. Closing date: Dec. 6.
Theater. Head. PhD required and substantial artistic or scholarly achievement and a strong record of administrative, budgetary, and development experience. Should demonstrate commitment to professional theater training and affirmative action values. Available: Aug. 21. Contact Bruce Michelson, 333-1660. Closing date: Dec. 15.
Theater. Assistant professor/Asian American theater specialist. PhD required. Must have record of scholarly and creative activity. Available: Aug. 21. Contact Robert Graves, 333-3538, r-graves@illinois.edu. Closing date: Feb. 1.
academic professional
Administrative Information Technology Services (Chicago or Urbana). Specialist, quality assurance. Bachelor's degree and two years' experience in QA testing or related area. Strong interpersonal skills, technical competence/proficiency in Microsoft applications, and experience with the Rational Software Testing Suite are highly desirable. Contact Susan Nelson McLain, 333-8635, aitshr@uillinois.edu. Closing date: Nov. 15.
Admissions and Records, Office of. Technical support specialist. Bachelor's degree required, preferably in computer science or related field. Must also have strong interpersonal skills and be able to communicate effectively with a diverse staff. Desire one to two years' experience in installing hardware and software upgrades and providing general user support; formal training in Windows NT Server and Workstation 4.0; experience with Microsoft Office applications.; MCP certification. Available: Dec. 6. Contact Rodney Kahn, 333-9266, rkahn@illinois.edu. Closing date: Nov. 12.
Computer Science. Research programmer. Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field, two years' experience and one year's relevant systems administration experience. Contact Barb Armstrong, 333-6454, barb@illinois.edu. Closing date: Nov. 24.
Engineering, College of. Assistant/associate director of development. Bachelor's degree and 3-5 years' successful fund-raising experience required; related sales or business experience considered. A background in science, math or engineering a plus. Available immediately. Contact Jeffrey Sands, 244-9918. Closing date: Nov. 18.
Environmental Health and Safety, Division of. Coordinator, special programs. Bachelor's degree in health and safety or related field and three years' experience in occupational safety and health in a multi-faceted occupational safety and health program. Advanced degree in safety and health or related field and/or professional certification such as a certified industrial hygienist or certified safety professional, with five years' experience in a multi-faceted, team oriented, occupational safety and health program preferred. Contact Maureen Banks, 244-0415, m-banks@illinois.edu. Closing date: Nov. 22.
Fine and Applied Arts, College of. Assistant director of development. Bachelor's degree required. Three years' successful development experience in a major arts university or other not-for-profit organization is preferred; related experience will be considered. Should demonstrate a strong affinity for the performing arts and possess excellent communication, organizational and computer skills. Contact Leanne Courson, 333-1660, lcourson@illinois.edu. Closing date: Dec. 3.
Foundation, UI. Network analyst. Bachelor's degree and at least two years' experience in one or more of the following areas is required: NT Server administration, MS Exchange administration, TCP/IP, Ethernet, PC/Mac hardware maintenance. Experience with AIX and/or Open VMS helpful but not required. Contact Ron Hermann, 244-0471, hr@uif.uillinois.edu. Closing date: Nov. 8.
Human Resources, University Office of. Human resources coordinator. Bachelor's degree in human resources or a related field required and three to five years' experience in the design and administration of organizationwide compensation and benefits programs with six years' human resources experience. Contact Susan Grace, 244-4900, sgrace@uillinois.edu. Available immediately.
Human Resources, University Office of. Human resources specialist. Bachelor's degree in human resources or a related field required and seven years' human resources experience, good facilitation and interpersonal skills, strong analytical talents and an ability to deal with broad human resources issues in a complex organization are required. Contact Susan Grace, 244-4900, sgrace@uillinois.edu. Available immediately.
McKinley Health Center. Staff physician, Student Health Center. Valid Illinois medical license, or eligibility for one, required. Experience as a physician in a student health service is preferred. Contact Cecile Steinberg, 333-2711. Closing date: Oct. 29.
Natural History Survey, Illinois State. Data manager/DNR liaison. Bachelor's degree in zoology, botany or a related biological science; one or more years' experience in use of relational databases and experience in handling large databases; one or more years' experience working in a Windows platform. May be asked to travel within the state of Illinois, occasionally overnight. Salary: $30,000 to $32,000. Available: Nov. 16. Contact Sue Key, 244-7790, PFR#614. Extended closing date: Oct. 22.
Speech and Hearing Sciences. Director, Speech and Language Clinic. Master's required, PhD preferred. Previous supervisory experience required; administrative experience desirable. Must be eligible for Illinois licensure. Available: June 1. Contact Ruth Watkins, 333-2230, rwatkins@illinois.edu. Closing date: Jan. 1.
Theater. Assistant to the head (half-time). Bachelor's degree required with college-level work in business-related courses preferred. Work experience with increased administrative responsibilities, preferably in a fine-arts background. Contact Robert Graves, 333-3538, c-hall6@illinois.edu. Closing date: Nov. 15.
staff
Personnel Services Office, 52 E. Gregory Drive, Champaign, conducts open and continuous testing for civil service classifications used on campus. More information is available by calling 333-2137. Or visit its Web site at: www.pso.uiuc.edu to complete an online employment application and for information on the Employment Information Program which provides information sessions for individuals not employed at the university.
JOB: Associate director for marketing and patron services at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. She has been working there since 1992. Her office is tucked away just off the center's large lobby. The former grade-school P.E. teacher's job keeps her running all over what is her playground today: the theaters, shops and services that make up Champaign-Urbana's showplace of the human spirit.
OTHER PASSIONS: Writing and nature. She recently bought seven acres on the Sangamon River to better enjoy the outdoors and work on her novel.
Floyd Castiaux Sr., 59, died Oct. 9 at the Carle Arbours, Savoy. Castiaux worked in building services for the UI for 27 years.
Barbara Jean Harmon, 59, died Sept. 28 at Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana. Harmon had been a bus driver for the UI Rehabilitation Center since 1989. Memorials: Carle Hospice Memorial Fund, 611 W. Park St., Urbana, IL 61801.
Mark Hubert Hindsley, 93, died Oct. 1 at Meadowbrook Health Center, Urbana. Hindsley joined the UI faculty in 1934 as director of the Marching Illini. He returned to the UI after World War II and in 1948 took the position of director of bands and professor of music. After his retirement in 1970, Hindsley continued to serve as guest conductor, adjudicator, clinician and transcriber. Memorials: UI Foundation Mark Hindsley Band Scholarship Fund or the Indiana University Foundation Mark Hindsley Endowment Fund for Symphonic Band.
John W. Melin, 69, died Sept. 28 at Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana. Melin had been a professor of civil engineering at the UI since 1958 and had the title of professor emeritus. Memorials: Habitat for Humanity or Covenant Hospice Care Program.
James L. "Catfish" Osby, 65, died Sept. 29 at his Champaign home. Osby retired in 1996 as a food service worker from the UI Housing Division.
Bert J. Ward, 80, died Oct. 7 at his Sidney home. Ward was a roofer for the UI for 35 years before retiring in 1978. Memorials: Provena Covenant Hospice Care Program or Countryside United Methodist Church.