News Bureau

Architecture professor and world traveler extraordinaire James Warfield returned briefly to the Illinois campus in January following the opening of his “Roads Less Traveled” photography exhibition in Shanghai. He stuck around long enough to unpack his suitcase, do laundry and re-pack before embarking on his next journey: a return trip to Rajasthan, India.

Some girl-saving, mentoring programs marginalize the very girls they are intended to empower, and use a cookie-cutter definition of girlhood that excludes black girls' experiences, according to Ruth Nicole Brown, who holds appointments in educational policy studies, gender and women's studies and a zero-time appointment in theater. In her new book, "Black Girlhood Celebration: Toward a Hip-Hop Feminist Pedagogy" (Peter Lang Publishing, 2008), Brown offers "practical insight and empirical evidence about one way to celebrate black girlhood in a contradictory culture that both loves and hates Black girls' and women's bodies, talents and intellect."

University employees may use an hour of release time per week for mentoring in local elementary and secondary schools, as provided by policy in the Campus Administrative Manual.

Mathematician Peter Loeb had a stroke of genius one day 30 years ago while swimming in the pool at the home he and his wife owned at the time in Champaign. The idea, which was the solution to a long-standing problem regarding the use of probability theories and infinitesimals, so surprised Loeb with its strangeness that, "I had to go to the edge and hang on," Loeb said. A colleague later said, "I'm surprised you didn't drown."

When Illinois athletes Adam Davis, Mikel LeShoure, Whitney Mercilus and Troy Pollard signed up to take Kate Kuper's Dance 100 class, they knew they would probably learn to bust a few new moves.

You may not know her face, but you've probably heard Diane Arnold's voice. A communications service specialist III for Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services, Arnold is the voice behind many of the university's telecommunications services, including the university paging system and many of the automated answering services on campus.

Members of the Urbana-Champaign Senate rejected proposed amendments to the senate's constitution and bylaws that would have paved the way for academic professionals to elect representatives to the senate.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Jolette Law, the coach of the women's basketball team at the University of Illinois, will discuss "Students and Community Engagement: Fulfilling Dr. King's Vision" in a keynote speech Jan. 22 at the Illini Union, 1401 W. Green St., Urbana.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Moms and Dads associations at the University of Illinois have granted free tuition to two winners of its annual benefit drawing.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Nearly a half century after it started, a holiday/finals week tradition at a University of Illinois residence hall is still hitting the high notes with the public.

Just like corporations and families across the nation, colleges and universities are faced with some difficult decisions as revenues fall below targets and the economy slips deeper into recession. Some state governments have announced significant reductions in appropriations for higher education, forcing colleges and universities to reallocate funds and stretch each dollar further to support crucial programs and personnel. Provost Linda Katehi discussed the economic forecast for higher education in Illinois and the UI's strategy for weathering adverse conditions.

The charity initiatives mentioned here are just a few of the many charity drives under way this year that reflect the generous spirit of people in the campus community. If you'd like to contribute:

One night last summer Lois "Jeannie" Carter, of the UI Extension office in Macon County, started feeling chest pains. She already had an appointment with her doctor scheduled for the next day, so she waited and reported the pain when she met with the doctor.

A software program that is now being implemented at the three UI campuses is helping automate and expedite the processes of finding and applying for research funding from federal agencies.

UI Committees 2008-09

Between Sept. 1, 2007, and Aug. 31, 2008, 123 faculty members and academic professionals retired from the UI, according to the Office of Academic Human Resources.

Joyce L. Roberts is the business manager for the 17 departments, programs and centers in the School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics. Roberts started at the university in April 1984 as a secretary II in the department of plant biology. In 1987, she moved to the department of mathematics and worked there until she accepted her current position two years ago. Roberts grew up in Assumption, Ill., and later graduated from Monticello High School. She and her husband, Doug, a mechanic in the university's Garage and Car Pool, have two children and three grandsons. They live in the Mahomet area.

In the new book "China Forever: The Shaw Brothers and Diasporic Cinema" (University of Illinois Press), Poshek Fu, professor of history, of cinema studies and of East Asian languages and cultures at the UI, draws together scholars from diverse disciplines such as history, cultural geography and film studies to address the history and cultural politics of the Shaw Brothers' movie empire.

Projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that all 50 states will be feeling the pain of the shortage of nurses by 2015, in part as a result of older nurses retiring and the aging of the Baby Boom generation straining the health-care system.

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor 217-244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu

Chet Zych, associate director and certification officer at the Council on Teacher Education, is a UI "lifer." With the exception of two years in the Army and three years in Chicago, Zych (pronounced Zitch) has worked on campus virtually all of his life. He started as an 8-year-old strawberry picker on the South Farms in 1954, and after working a few more summers there during his teens (his father was a UI professor of horticulture), he spent two summers working for the Illinois Natural History Survey. He also worked in food service at the Illini Union, and then as a records officer first in the Office of Admissions and Records and then in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He managed a bookstore in Chicago before returning to the university in 1981 as a records officer I for the council and has "been here ever since," he says.

At its Nov. 13 meeting in Springfield, the UI Board of Trustees authorized university officials to seek separate accreditation for Global Campus.

At the direction of President B. Joseph White, officials and faculty members at the three campuses are preparing contingency operating plans for the next six- to eight-month period. State revenues are soft, disbursements from the state are slow and “we can’t rule out a rescission,” White said at the Nov. 13 UI Board of Trustees meeting, and added that the policy council would prepare plans in early December and the trustees would be briefed thereafter. Protecting academic quality, ensuring that students get the courses they need to graduate on time and that patients get the health care they rely on are the plans’ guiding principles, White said.

Sohail Hashmi, associate professor of international relations on the Alumnae Foundation, Mount Holyoke College, will give the Annual Fall Lecture in Religion, "When the Far Enemy Became the Near Enemy: The Changing Place of the United States in Jihad Discourse," beginning at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4 on the third floor of the Levis Faculty Center.

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor 217-244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu

After a pilot test involving a dozen colleges and units, the illinois.edu domain was opened to the general campus community Nov. 1 to begin moving Web site addresses from uiuc.edu to illinois.edu.

Brilliant Futures, one of the largest development campaigns in higher education and the largest in the UI's 141-year history, has reached the two-thirds point in gift commitments as of the end of September: $1.478 billion toward its goal of $2.25 billion.

If you've checked out a book, DVD or even a video game at the University Library, chances are it's passed through Beth Trotter's hands. A library operations associate at the main library, Trotter has worked in the acquisitions department of the library for 26 years, starting as a library clerk II in August 1982. A Fisher, Ill., native who grew up on a corn and soybean farm, Trotter has an associate's degree in child development from Parkland College. She now lives in Savoy.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Ruth Watkins, vice provost and a professor in the department of speech and hearing science, has been named the Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, pending approval by the U. of I. Board of Trustees at its Nov. 13 meeting at the U. of I. at Springfield.

With tuition at all colleges and universities rising, middle-class families being squeezed out of the market, and students facing substantial loan debt after graduation, the nation is caught in a higher education “access and affordability crisis” that Illinois can ease by delivering affordable baccalaureate-degree-completion programs through the Global Campus, in accordance with the UI’s Land-Grant mission. That was President B. Joseph White’s message when he met with the Urbana-Champaign Senate on Nov. 3 at Levis Faculty Center to seek support of a plan to reorganize the Global Campus so it can seek separate accreditation. White met with the senate prior to his presenting the plan to the UI Board of Trustees on Nov. 13.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Artistic director, dancer and choreographer Robert Wood will present selected photographs from his repertory works in an exhibition that opens Nov. 11 at the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Keith Williams of Flossmoor, Ill., was crowned King Dad by the University of Illinois Dads Association at its annual banquet Friday (Oct. 31) during Dads Weekend festivities.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - For the fifth consecutive year, November is American Music Month at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A new discussion series sponsored by the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory at the University of Illinois is bringing together authors and U. of I. scholars to discuss recent books. The Author's Roundtable series, which began this semester, gives invited scholars opportunities to discuss their work with a panel of U. of I. faculty members and graduate students in a conversational setting.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Benjamin Bradlee, executive editor of the Washington Post through more than two decades, during which the paper broke the Watergate scandal and won 18 Pulitzer Prizes, has been awarded the Illinois Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Barbara R. O'Connor, the chief of police and director of public safety at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, has been named police chief at the University of Illinois, pending approval by the U. of I. Board of Trustees at its Nov. 13 meeting at the U. of I. at Springfield.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, or A*STAR, a Singapore government agency that oversees 22 research institutes, consortia and centers, are establishing a major research center in Singapore. The Advanced Digital Sciences Center will be focused on breakthrough innovations in information technology that are expected to have a major impact in transforming human beings' utilization of information technology.

Jan Dennis, Business & Law Editor 217-333-0568; jdennis@illinois.edu

In another networking improvement aimed at complementing the ongoing Campus Network Upgrade Project, network engineers at Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services upgraded the network core equipment over the summer to make the campus network more reliable, redundant and future-proof.

The UI and the Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government Fund have mutually agreed, in principle, to discontinue the agreement reached a year ago that would provide funding for teaching and research focusing on the relationship of capitalism and government. Rather than partnering with the university, the fund will become a non-profit foundation, providing grants. "Despite the good intentions of the donors and the university, there were structural incompatibilities between the fund's operational mode and that of the university," Chancellor Richard Herman said. Fund officials decided an independent philanthropic foundation offering grants to support programs and research is "the best way to accommodate all parties," the group's advisory board said in a statement. "This academy will be an independent, off-campus corporation which will undertake its grant activities in the same fashion as the numerous other foundations which already provide support to the University of Illinois," the statement says. A committee appointed by Herman studied the agreement concluding that the fund, as set up, was not consistent with university policy. "The committee recommended a new agreement, and worked with fund officials for nearly a year to strike a deal that addressed the university's concerns," said Thomas Ulen, a law professor who chaired the committee. Those talks led to the fund's decision to offer funding through a separate foundation instead. "We wish them well," Ulen said. "It was a good faith effort on both sides and there were never any hard feelings. I don't doubt there will be interest on this campus in the grants and some of the other activities the academy will sponsor."

Campus screening • noon Oct. 29, Room 223 of Gregory Hall Urbana Public Television • 7 p.m. Oct. 23 • 9 p.m. Oct. 31 • 9:30 p.m. Nov. 2 • 6 p.m. Nov. 5 On the Web The documentary also will be posted sometime this fall on the College of Media's Web site.

Andy Blacker, publicity-promotion specialist at Facilities and Services, has been an employee at the UI since 1991. The Monticello native and self-described farm boy started his career as a dishwasher at the Allerton Park Conference Center, and then ran the front desk for seven years before transferring to campus in 2000. He was the marketing coordinator for Campus Stores, Mail and Receiving before F&S formed in 2003. After graduating from Monticello High School, Blacker earned associate degrees in business and art from Parkland College, and is finishing up his bachelor's degree in general studies through Eastern Illinois University.

Today’s students are tech-savvy, and to capture their attention Illinois uses a variety of electronic media – YouTube, online chats, instant messages and blogs – in addition to print publications, fairs and other traditional vehicles to recruit them.

Faculty and student senators offered many comments and questions regarding provisions of the state of Illinois' ethics policy related to political activities - and potential infringements on free speech and academic freedom - during the Urbana-Champaign Senate's Oct. 6 meeting. The controversy stemmed from an "Ethics Matters" electronic newsletter issued by the Ethics Office on Sept. 18.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Japan House will celebrate its 10th anniversary at its present location, 2000 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana, with a series of special events beginning Oct. 22, highlighted by a performance of "Hidden Beauty: Yugen in Tea, Noh, and Contemporary Washi Art" at 2 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.S. Merwin and three-term U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky will visit the University of Illinois campus on Oct. 28 in conjunction with the conference "Translating the Middle Ages."

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The French ambassador to the United States, Pierre Vimont, will give the keynote address on Oct. 20 for "Celebrating the European Union" Week, Oct. 20-23 on the University of Illinois campus.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The U. of I. School of Art and Design is hosting Designmatters2, the second year of an annual series of campuswide lectures exploring the confluence of design, technology, business and society, beginning today (Oct. 7).

The cable television channel at the Urbana campus, UI-7, is undergoing a rebirth and transforming into a resource for broadcasting original, professional-quality programming produced by the campus community.