News Bureau

The department of landscape architecture at Illinois announces the Sesquicentennial Design Competition, an initiative for students.

The Child Development Laboratory, 1105 W. Nevada and 1005 W. Nevada, Urbana, is accepting applications for the 2017-18 school year. Full-day child care programs for children ages 6 weeks to 4 years are in session Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on a year-round basis. 

The European Union ambassador to the U.S. is speaking March 15 at the University of Illinois, part of EU Day 2017.

When waterfowl return to Illinois in early spring on their way north, will they find enough food for a two-week layover? A limited food supply during spring migration and subsequent declines in duck populations can affect Illinois’ multimillion-dollar waterfowl hunting industry, say researchers from the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois.

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.

Warmer winter soils may have an effect on agriculture and crop pest control this spring, according to researchers at the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois.

Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University, will present his lecture “Winter is Coming: The Trump Regime and the American Press” at 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 8, at 1092 Lincoln Hall, 702 S. Wright St., Urbana.

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.

Donna Cox, the director of the Advanced Visualization Laboratory at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the U. of I., will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award this week at the eighth annual IMERSA 2017 Summit in Denver. The event creates an opportunity to explore the converging worlds of virtual reality-themed entertainment and immersive cinema.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s 150th birthday celebration begins Tuesday with festivities at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Steven Weitzman, a professor in the University of Pennsylvania’s department of religious studies, will present a lecture titled “The Double Helix of Jewish History: Genetics and the Search for the Origin of the Jews” on Monday, Feb. 20, at 5 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium at Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana.

The Illini Union will host a celebration of its 75th anniversary on Friday, Feb. 17, from 4 to 6 p.m.  in the Illini Union Art Gallery and Pine Lounge. All are welcome to attend.

Currently the dean of libraries and university librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, John Wilkin will become the interim vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost designate effective Feb. 18.

Helping early career teachers improve their instructional practices while fostering skills and relationships that promote professional development are the foci of the Illinois New Teacher Collaborative’s upcoming Induction and Mentoring Conference.

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 $44 million Multimodal Corridor Enhancement project, designed to improve access for all modes of transportation on campus and neighboring areas including Green Street, Armory Avenue, White Street and Wright Street, will begin work in early March. New streetscape improvements, a transit-boarding island on Green Street, reconfigured Illini Union vehicle entrance and parking, all-way pedestrian crossings and protected bicycle lanes are some of the features designed to improve travel links from Campustown to downtowns in Urbana and Champaign. All businesses will be open and reachable throughout the project.

“Stranded by the State,” a two-part documentary by Illinois Public Media focusing on the long-term toll the Illinois budget crisis has had on everyday people statewide, will begin broadcasting on public television stations Feb. 14, the day before Gov. Bruce Rauner’s state budget address. WILL-TV in Urbana-Champaign and WEIU-TV in Charleston will air the documentary from 7-8 p.m. on that date. Other public television stations statewide will air the documentary at later dates.

The statewide average temperature in January was 31.4 degrees, 5 degrees above normal, and the 14th-warmest January on record, according to Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel of the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois.

The University of Illinois College of Law will host a panel discussion at noon Friday on President Trump’s executive order on immigration. The discussion will be moderated by U. of I. law professor Lesley Wexler.

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.

After 33 years of service, the Scholarship Program Committee for the Civil Service Employee and Dependents Scholarship Program is analyzing the program  to ensure its continuity. 

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. 

University Primary School is now accepting enrollment applications for the 2017-18 academic year. The school is the College of Education at Illinois lab school, serving children preschool through fifth grade in a Reggio Emilia, project-based curriculum.

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.

Edward Feser is leaving the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to become the provost and executive vice president at Oregon State University.

With a theme of “Pursuing the Dream in Challenging Times,” the 2017 communitywide celebration of the life of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. includes a half-dozen events throughout Champaign and Urbana.

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.

The online master’s degree in strategic brand communication, a unique joint program between the College of Business and College of Media, aims to prepare the strategic leaders of tomorrow in an ever-changing global digital-media environment.

The statewide average temperature for December was 28.6, 1.3 degrees below normal, according to Jim Angel, Illinois state climatologist at the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois. 

Nathan Stephens will become the director of the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center effective Jan. 9. The center is named for Bruce D. Nesbitt, who led the U. of I.'s Afro-American Cultural Program for 22 years.

Feng Sheng Hu, the associate dean for biological, chemical, physical and mathematical sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will become the LAS dean Jan. 1 pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

The Animals and Society Institute and Illinois seek applications for the first Human-Animal Studies Summer Institute program for advanced graduate students and early career scholars pursuing research in human-animal studies.

The University of Illinois’ Allerton Park will be holding illuminated Winter Wellness Walks Tuesdays-Saturdays from 5-8 p.m. until Jan. 16. The free walk runs from the mansion parking lot through the Avenue of the Formal Gardens and the Brick Wall Garden to the Visitor Center.

In its first year of commercial operation, the university’s solar farm generated 7,284 megawatt-hours of clean, renewable energy for the campus, successfully meeting expectations. Located at the southwest corner of Windsor Road and First Street, Champaign, the solar farm reduced the campus carbon footprint by more than 6,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Illinois professors Erik McDuffie and Carol Symes have been awarded National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships for 2017.

Children’s reggae artist Aaron Nigel Smith and his band will perform a free family concert at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 4 in the lobby of  Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana.

A Chicago-based architecture firm led by an Illinois alumna has been selected to design the rebuilt Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus.

The YWCA at Illinois is seeking nominations for the 31st annual Women’s Leadership Awards.

Prospective nominees are exceptional women who display leadership, initiative, creativity and dedication, and go the extra mile to get involved in programs and activities that benefit the communities in which they live and work. The awards recognize the achievements and contributions of exceptional individuals, organizations and businesses in the greater Champaign-Urbana community who work to advance the mission of the YWCA.

Dial-A-Carol is a student-run holiday program at Illinois. Each year, the students of Snyder Hall, a University Housing residence hall, host the event. Anyone from anywhere may call 217-332-1882 and request any holiday tune, which will be sung live by students over the telephone.

A new program for worldwide agricultural development kicked off Nov. 30 at Illinois. AgReach was welcomed by a West African drum performance and introduced by professor Alex Winter-Nelson, representing the agricultural and consumer economics department in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.

A worldwide smallholder farming initiative, AgReach closes gaps in agrisystems so that smallholder farmers thrive. Paul McNamara, an economist and a professor at Illinois, leads the initiative and the team of 18 professionals based at Illinois and in some of the poorest countries in the world, including Sierra Leone, Malawi and Bangladesh.

With more than 20 years of experience in agricultural economics and development, McNamara founded AgReach to continue building the $22 million development portfolio composed of projects that have improved the quality of farming in more than 50 countries.

“One thing notable about the AgReach program is the mix of disciplines and the breadth of experience among the team,” said Kim Kidwell, the College of ACES dean. “People are a key ingredient in any well-functioning and impactful extension program, and in a relatively short amount of time, the AgReach team has assembled a world-class group of development professionals and scholars to implement its program of capacity development and action-oriented research.”

Initiated by the Modernizing Agriculture and Extension Services in 2012, AgReach builds upon other programs including the Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services and the Malawi Strengthening Agriculture and Nutrition Extension Services Project, both housed at Illinois.

More information may be found online.

A new documentary film, “Starving the Beast,” will be shown in a free screening Thursday, Dec. 1, at 7:30 p.m. at the Art Theater Co-op, 126 W. Church St., Champaign.

Six University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign faculty members have been elected 2016 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: Jianjun Cheng, Brian T. Cunningham, Kevin T. Pitts, Bruce L. Rhoads, Chad M. Rienstra and Josep Torrellas.

Eight University of Illinois researchers have been named to the Thomson Reuters / Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list for 2016. The list identifies scientists “whose research has had significant global impact within their respective fields of study."

This weekend, Illinois alumni, students and staff will gather to celebrate 20 years of the First Year Campus Acquaintance Rape Education (FYCARE) Program, a nationally renowned mandatory sexual assault prevention workshop for first-year students.

Money in U.S. politics will be the theme of a U. of I. symposium starting Friday, Nov. 11, with the director of the watchdog website OpenSecrets.org giving the keynote.

Passes for the 19th annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, or "Ebertfest," coming April 19-23, 2017, will go on sale Nov. 1. The passes cover all 12 or more screenings during the five-day event at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign.

The Illini Union Office of Volunteer Programs will sponsor the annual Thanksgiving Basket Drive starting Tuesday, Nov. 1. The drive provides families with a basket of nonperishable items and a $25 gift card, which can prepare a Thanksgiving meal. The entire Illinois campus is invited to participate.

In honor of the 96th anniversary of the dedication of the chimes played in the Altgeld Hall Tower, performers will replay the concert first performed in 1920, at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30. The date is also Sue Wood’s 45th anniversary as chimesmaster.

Two special Halloween concerts will be performed on Monday, Oct. 31: a Halloween concert preview at 4:50 p.m. and an extended concert at 8 p.m.

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.

Many know Robert Zuppke (1879-1957) as Illinois’ longest-serving football coach, whose teams won or tied for four national championships and seven conference championships between 1913 and 1941. But he also was an in-demand motivational speaker, a syndicated sports writer, co-author of a popular sports comic strip and an accomplished and prolific artist.