News Bureau

Despite record cold air temperatures, soil temperatures averaged slightly warmer than normal in Illinois this winter. Consequently, the arctic conditions are expected to have little effect on overwintering field crop insect pest populations.

A wide range of air temperatures occurred in Illinois this winter with periods of warmer temperatures in the 60s and 70s and extreme cold with lows in the -30s. Overall, temperatures averaged 29.9 degrees, 0.8 degrees above normal for the season.

The Audiology Clinic at Illinois is offering free adult hearing screenings June 1 through July 28. Screening appointments may be scheduled by calling 217-333-2230. No appointments are accepted via email.

To increase awareness of domestic violence and its consequences, the University of Illinois’ Women’s Resources Center and Courage Connection, along with other campus and community organizations, will host activities and events throughout October. 

February was particularly cold and stormy in Illinois, with an almost constant succession of storms resulting in moderate snow accumulations for the northern counties and persistent rain events and widespread flooding for the far southern counties.

The preliminary average statewide precipitation was 3.33 inches, which is 1.27 inches above the long-term average, according to Brian Kerschner, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Climatologist Office at the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois. 

Performance artist Autumn Knight will be on campus this month for two performances.

Krannert Art Museum is hosting the first solo museum presentation – “Autumn Knight: In Rehearsal” – by Knight this semester. Knight incorporates elements of theater, dance, psychology and religious studies into her work, which examines with perceptions of race, gender and authority.

University departments can improve campus energy efficiency through the Revolving Loan Fund. This semester, more than $800,000 will be available for utility conservation projects with short-term payback periods.

News media attending the April 17 Chancellor’s Critical Conversations event will be allowed to record content from the session.

Krannert Art Museum at the U. of I. has published a multiauthored catalogue in conjunction with the exhibition “World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean.”

On view at the museum, located at Sixth Street and Peabody Drive in Champaign, until March 24, “World on the Horizon” will travel to the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., in May and then to Fowler Museum at UCLA in October.

Several faculty musicians from the School of Music will perform a concert this weekend with donations going to help victims of natural disasters in Mexico and Puerto Rico. The concert is 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign, 309 W. Green St., Urbana.

Members of the news media may pick up stadium passes and parking passes for commencement at the Office of Public Affairs, 507 E. Green St., Champaign. Commencement is Saturday, May 11, at 9:30 a.m.

The department of mathematics at Illinois will hold a family winter math carnival called The Gathering for Gardner 2017 on Saturday, Jan. 28, from 2-5 p.m. at Altgeld Hall, 1409 W. Green St., Urbana. The day is filled with hands-on activities, demonstrations, games, puzzles, refreshments and mathematical prizes for participants.

U. of I. Chancellor Robert J. Jones and Krannert Art Museum Director Kathleen Harleman welcomed visitors to “World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean” on the exhibition’s opening night at the museum Thursday, including Robinson Njeru Githae, the Kenyan ambassador to the United States, and Mzalendo Kibunjia, the director general of the National Museums of Kenya.

“It is fitting that ‘World on the Horizon’ is organized by Krannert Art Museum, that it begins here but will travel across the country,” Jones said. “This exhibition and its underlying research reflect the vital and important work we do at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and demonstrate how far the impact of our scholarship can reach.”

Jones and Harleman acknowledged the significance of the exhibition, which includes many works of art from Kenya and Oman that are being exhibited in the U.S. for the first time. “World on the Horizon” will be on view at the museum through March 24 in the East Gallery.

“We hope this exhibition of Swahili art will begin an era of partnership between Kenya and the United States,” Githae said. “As the exhibition travels to other museums, we invite all to get to know and understand this art and culture.” There are more than 30 works of art from the National Museums of Kenya in the exhibition.

The exhibition “reflects years of research and tremendous cooperation among institutions, including the National Museums of Kenya and dozens of other museums and private collectors who have lent their work to this endeavor,” said Allyson Purpura, the senior curator and curator of Global African Art at the museum. She and Prita Meier, a professor of art history at New York University, co-curated the exhibition.

“World on the Horizon” will later travel to the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., and to Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles. The exhibit enriches understanding of the Swahili coast of Africa by emphasizing its global connections, deepening discourse and advancing knowledge in important ways, Purpura said.

“It asks visitors to ponder how artistic practice and human creativity can lead people to remap their relationship to seemingly distant places and societies,” she said. “It will encourage visitors to make connections between artworks and to question their own expectations of what African, Asian, Islamic or Western culture looks like.”

Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion are part of the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Illinois.

Illinois Newsroom – the statewide, seven-station journalism collaborative, spearheaded by Illinois Public Media and funded through a $715,000 grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as well as support from the public media partner newsrooms – launches with the appointment of a new leader.

On Friday, Oct. 23, several campus-area streets and intersections will be closed between 5:30 and 7 p.m. for the Homecoming parade.
 MTD routes through the parade area will be modified and delays may occur. Streets and intersections that are affected are listed below.


Spurlock Museum of World Cultures and the Illinois Alumni Association will present “Music at Illinois,” a special program on popular music written especially for or about the university. The free program will be presented by retired Alumni Association Vice President Joe Rank at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, at Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory Drive, Urbana.

The Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana announces its 20th anniversary season. When holding its first concert, the group had no idea it would still be bringing baroque music to central Illinois in 2015.

The Office of the State Fire Marshal will host the Illinois Fire Service Institute Training Showcase on May 15 outside the Illinois state Capitol in Springfield. The event will provide state legislators with an in-depth look at the training efforts for firefighters taking place throughout the state.

The Ice Arena at Illinois is getting a new refrigeration system and ice mat.

The new system will be more efficient than the one currently in use and will have  a life expectancy of eight to 10 years. The new ice mat could be moved if a new facility or larger renovation are planned.

Soil temperatures have been rising throughout the first half of June, according to Jennie Atkins, Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring program manager at the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois.

The Audiology Clinic at Illinois is offering free hearing screenings through Nov. 18. Screenings appointments may be scheduled by calling 217-333-2230. The clinic does not schedule appointments via email.

Colder weather led to cooler than normal soil temperatures during the first half of April in Illinois, according to Jennie Atkins, Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring Program manager at the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois.

Soil moisture levels improved throughout the state during the first half of October, said Jennie Atkins, Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring program manager at the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at the U. of I.

Bernard Hammes, a professor of medicine, will speak on advance care planning from noon-1 p.m. Oct. 14 at the Presence Covenant Medical Center auditorium, 1400 W. Park St., Urbana. The event is free and open to the public.

“The STEM of Innovation” is the theme for the 96th annual Engineering Open House at the U. of I. In addition to more than 200 exhibits, the open house this year offers several new attractions, with exhibits ranging from student startup exhibits to non-Newtonian fluid demonstrations.

Visiting scholar to present 'Can You Trust Your Local News' lecturePenny Muse Abernathy, a Knight Chair of journalism and digital media economics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will present her lecture “Can You Trust Your Local News?” Saturday, April 6, at 12:20 p.m. in Room 300 of Levis Faculty Center, 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana.

All faculty and staff are asked to register campus automated external defibrillators (AEDs) by 5 p.m. Friday, July 8. The information will better equip the Illinois Fire Service Institute to maintain and provide access to this life-saving equipment.

 Please coordinate reporting within your unit to avoid multiple submissions. Questions should be addressed to IEMS-AED@illinois.edu.

The theme for the YMCA Spring 2017 Friday Forum Lecture Series is the “State of the State.” With many challenges facing the state of Illinois, the lecture series seeks to address state-level issues including the budget impasse’s effects on social services, funding for education, incarceration and more.

Local residents will join faculty and staff members and students of the University of Illinois on April 9 for the 2016 Community and Campus Day of Service.

Illinois Public Media announces the launch of “Reel Midwest,” a new independent film series that aims to find the best in features, documentaries and short films in Illinois and across the Midwest. “Reel Midwest” showcases the region’s brightest talents through a selection of thought-provoking documentaries, narrative dramas and short films.

Crisis knows no season. For as little as $5 per month, faculty and staff members can make a difference in the life of a co-worker in crisis by donating to the Faculty and Staff Emergency Fundat Illinois.

Over the past year, the fund provided about $30,000 in grants to employees experiencing temporary financial hardship. Since the fund’s inception in 1992, more than 1,000 academic professionals, faculty and staff members have been helped.

Campus Recreation at Illinois will hold a grand reopening of the newly renovated Ice Arena on Friday, Sept. 15 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Remarks from Marcus Jackson, the director of Campus Recreation, will be at 7:30 p.m.

Northern Illinois experienced heavy rain and widespread flooding in July. Meanwhile, parts of central and southern Illinois experienced dry weather that caused crop damage, according to Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel of the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois.

On average, however, the statewide precipitation was 4.81 inches, which is 0.73 inches above normal.

The University YMCA seeks volunteers to collect, sort and pack donations for its annual Dump and Run recycling sale in August. The program has been a completely volunteer-run program since its inception 15 years ago.

The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology will sponsor two upcoming Chambana Science Café events.

The city of Urbana and the U. of I. will host an inaugural stormwater public meeting Wednesday, Feb. 15 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Urbana Civic Center, 108 Water St., Urbana. 

The New Americans Initiative of the University YMCA is hosting three free U.S. citizenship information sessions in June. The final meeting will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 14, at the University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright St., Champaign. Free child care is available. Topics include the process of naturalization and how to prepare for the citizenship exam. For additional event details and program fliers, visit http://www.universityymca.org/welcome/#nai.

The University YMCA announces the Friday Forum lecture series “Art + Activism: Transforming Silence into Action.” The series begins Feb. 16 with Ricardo Levins Morales’   discussion of how art can be used to address personal and historical trauma, challenge common beliefs, assist in building alliances and contribute to culture change.

The School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics at the University of Illinois is offering a unique learning opportunity in the form of the Intensive Foreign Language Instruction Program for spring 2016.

The Audiology Clinic at Illinois is offering free adult hearing screenings Jan. 25 through April 22. Screening appointments may be scheduled by calling 217-333-2230. No appointments are accepted via email. 

Soil temperatures have fallen significantly throughout the state in November, according to Jennie Atkins, the Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring Program manager at the Illinois State Water Survey at the U. of I.

KoFusion will open its doors in the Illini Union food court in late January, following the return of students from winter break. It will occupy the space next to Sbarro. This will be KoFusion’s third Champaign-Urbana location.

The 2019 Emerging Contaminants in the Environment Conference is May 21-22 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign. This year the conference will expand beyond the aquatic environment to include air and soil studies, along with the effects of contaminants on human and animal health.

The Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities will hold its annual award reception honoring the faculty, graduate student and undergraduate student recipients of this year's IPRH Prizes for Research in the Humanities at 4 p.m. May 1 at IPRH Lecture Hall, Levis Faculty Center, fourth floor, 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Richard L. Kaplan, the Peer and Sarah Pedersen Professor of Law at Illinois, is an internationally recognized expert on U.S. tax policy and retirement issues who is available for media interviews on issues surrounding the efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature health care law.

Kaplan has lectured on taxation and retirement issues on three continents and has testified before the U.S. Congress on several occasions, and has developed one of the first law school courses on elder law, an emerging specialty dealing with the legal implications of extended life.

According to Kaplan, the proposed American Health Care Act would further complicate an already complicated health insurance system.

“The most layered and complex health insurance system in the developed world would become even more incomprehensible if the new health reform legislation gets enacted, because it authorizes each state to isolate persons with pre-existing conditions so others can enjoy lower insurance premiums until they develop medical conditions themselves,” he said.

To contact Kaplan, call 217-333-2499; email rkaplan@illinois.edu.

Inner Voices at Illinois will present “Manifesto,” a performance of intersectional feminist voices of inspiration and intervention, at two locations in March. The performances are free and open to the public, and are in honor of Women’s History Month.

The department of atmospheric sciences will host two upcoming events featuring the Doppler on Wheels truck-mounted research weather radar, providing an opportunity to learn about severe weather preparedness in honor of National Severe Weather Week.

The Goodrich Savoy 16 IMAX Theater will show "A Beautiful Planet" daily at 11:30 a.m. April 29-May 5 and host members of the Advanced Visualization Laboratory to introduce the film at a special screening at 11 a.m. May 1. Tickets are on sale now online.

 The Illini Union Bookstore at Illinois announces the second installment of its Sesquicentennial Reading Series on Tuesday, March 14 at 4:30 p.m. in the Authors Corner on the second floor of the bookstore, located at 809 S. Wright St., Champaign.

University Primary School, the Reggio Emilia-inspired laboratory school of the College of Education at Illinois, is hosting an annual fall community open house Wednesday, Nov. 7.

Award-winning poet, author and musician Joy Harjo, a U. of I. professor of creative writing and of English, who also is affiliated with American Indian Studies, will give a reading Sept. 16 as part of the Creative Writers Showcase of the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities. Her reading will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium at Spurlock Museum. U. of I. music professor Gabriel Solis will join her for a discussion of her work. The event is free and open to the public.