News Bureau

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Storytelling, live music, sing-alongs and other activities for children - presented in Spanish - will be featured twice monthly beginning in October as part of a library-based community-outreach program organized by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Curious minds over age 50 will soon find new opportunities to learn and explore, thanks to the establishment of an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Illinois college students preparing to apply to law school are invited to attend Law School Day at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Oct. 17.

Task force studying civic-engagement activities

Annual Meeting of the Faculty

Private gifts to university increase by 22 percent

Margaret Cupps is a secretary with the Campus Honors Programs.

“The time has come to write a next major chapter in the development of the University of Illinois,” President B. Joseph White told the UI Board of Trustees at its Sept. 7 meeting in Urbana. White proposed doing that by implementing an extensive online degree program, tentatively known as the Global Campus. White and Chester Gardner, special assistant to the president for the Global Campus, outlined the initiative, which would offer degree programs primarily over the Web to qualified students.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A year after hurricane Katrina's devastation of the Louisiana and Mississippi gulf coasts, rebuilding efforts are finally moving forward. But it's the remaining, deeper tears in the region's social fabric that will be the main focus of a unique series of dialogues and events at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign designed to build community, connect diverse local and national audiences and ignite real and long-lasting positive change.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been named the recipient of a $5 million grant to establish and support a program to improve achievement in chemical sciences and computational literacy among students in rural Illinois high schools.

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Illinois ranked No. 10 In its Aug. 18, 2006, rankings of undergraduate programs, U.S.News & World Report ranked Illinois No. 10 among public national universities. The undergraduate business program was ranked No. 13; within the business program, the accounting specialty was ranked No. 2 and insurance No. 4.

UI Now offers Web buffet of Illinois news and information

Faculty artwork on display through Sept. 24

Brett Byrd is a security guard supervisor for the University Library. He also is a clergyman and officiates at weddings.

Among the newcomers to the Urbana  campus are more than 6,700 freshmen and about 106 tenure/tenure track faculty members whose appointments began this summer or fall.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - An exhibition-opening and book-signing by local artist Siti Mariah Jackson will be featured as part of an open house Sept. 8 at the Asian American Cultural Center and the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Disasters and biological issues will get special attention this fall among 13 lectures sponsored by the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - along with topics as varied as Mexican politics, Caspian oil, Senegalese art, indigenous rights and the nature of thinking.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Political violence and war are among the themes that will be explored in an exhibition on view Sept. 8 through Oct. 7 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Daniel Crawmer is an associate director in the Office of Real Estate lanning and Services.

As part of the budgetary reductions and administrative streamlining that the UI has undertaken in recent years, procurement has been identified as an area for the university to save money.

Abigail Salyers, a professor of microbiology, spoke about the relationship between humans and the microbial world recently

Project to spotlight campus impact on Chicago

Kelly Collier is a secretary in the Optical Physics and Engineering Laboratory in the department of electrical and computer engineering. She's also a member of the Champaign-Urbana Theater Company.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - An exhibition featuring paintings and sketches of a former Chicago Tribune art director/illustrator - will be on view Aug. 4 through 26 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has received the unusual distinction of having all of its campus international regional studies programs receive designation by the U.S. Department of Education as National Resource Centers.

Music school gift includes instruments, books, art, artifacts, property

Krannert Center receives major grant from Duke Foundation The UI's Krannert Center for the Performing Arts is one of only three university-based performing arts presenters in the nation selected to receive major funding through a new initiative of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The center will receive $1,125,000 over three years from the foundation through its Leading College and University Presenters Program. The program is part of the foundation's new College and University Presenters Program, designed to encourage innovative projects that integrate the performing arts into academic life and the surrounding community. "I could not be more pleased, nor more grateful," said Krannert Center director Mike Ross upon learning that the center had received the funding. "This grant is a powerful endorsement of the pathway Krannert Center has been embarked on in recent years, and will propel us vigorously forward along this pathway in the next set of years ahead," Ross said. "It is also a strong vote of confidence in the quality and vision of leadership at Illinois and in the network of relationships the center enjoys across campus and in the community. "Furthermore, because of the highly competitive nature of the grant program, the recognition that accompanies this award brings the center, the university and Champaign-Urbana into the consciousness of the elite field of national arts funders in a highly focused manner and opens new doors for future support of the center's mission." Also receiving grants from the foundation were the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at Maryland (University of Maryland), and the University Musical Society (University of Michigan). The grant to Krannert Center includes $375,000 for artistic programming and $750,000 for endowment purposes. Award recipients are required to match the foundation's artistic programming support on a one-to-one basis and endowment funds at two to one. Once established, the endowment will generate funding dedicated to supporting artistic programs over the long term. According to a foundation news release, Krannert Center was selected for the award following a nine-month exploration of qualified candidates, which included surveying about 100 college- and university-based performing arts presenters, provosts and academics, as well as stand-alone presenters, artists and other stakeholders. In its grant application, Krannert Center listed three potential funding priorities:

Brenda Stevenson is a registrar at the College of Law.

A one-year pilot program proposed at the UI Board of Trustees meeting July 13 in Chicago would allow employees to voice their opinions of policies and procedures – and suggest ways that they could be changed for the better – through a Web site.

The UI will receive a grant of $3.2 million from the state of Illinois to plan and design the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory at the UI’s Urbana campus.

Five faculty members appointed associate provost fellows

NCSA awards fellowships to 13 UI faculty members The National Center for Supercomputing Applications has named 13 UI faculty members as faculty fellows for the 2006-2007 academic year. The NCSA/UIUC Faculty Fellows program extends opportunities in advanced computing and information technology to UI faculty members. In addition to financial support, faculty fellows have access to NCSA's high-performance computers, visualization- and data-analysis tools, and other advanced information technology, as well as opportunities to collaborate with NCSA staff members. Awards are administered through NCSA's Campus Relations office, directed by Radha Nandkumar. The program is funded by NCSA and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. "The fellows program offers opportunities for faculty and NCSA staff members to collaborate on projects of common interest and to be exposed to the breadth of research on campus. Nandkumar said "This is a truly beneficial win-win situation." The 2006-2007 fellows and their projects:

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Charles Hassell Jr. is assistant superintendent of building services in the Facilities and Services Division.

During recent weeks, tornadoes desolated regions of the Midwest, wildfires roared through the West and people living along the Gulf Coast continued cleaning up from 2005’s devastating hurricanes while bracing themselves for the start of another storm season. Meanwhile, health officials around the world kept a watchful eye on the spread of avian flu, and the arrests of people in Miami and Toronto suspected of plotting terrorist attacks against the U.S. heightened safety concerns.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Five recent graduates of the master of fine arts program in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have created a "Monster."

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The number of aggravated assaults and criminal sexual assaults decreased in the University of Illinois reporting district during the reporting period from Sept. 1, 2005 to May 14, 2006. The number of robberies and other sex offenses (peeping Toms and public indecency) increased during that time, according to statistics released by the University of Illinois Division of Public Safety.

Rose Julius is office manager in the Office of Minority Student Affairs.

UI President B. Joseph White predicted that FY07, which begins July 1, would be a good year for the university in terms of marshaling the $100 million in resources needed to help the UI meet its most urgent needs and objectives. He made his comments about the FY07 preliminary operating budget during a teleconference meeting of the UI Board of Trustees on June 5.

Shelley Siuts said she always has loved gardening, but for some unknown reason all her houseplants seemed to wither away. At the urging of some friends, Siuts joined the UI Master Gardeners program. Siuts, an information technology specialist in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, began the online training course in January and soon solved the mystery about why her houseplants were withering: the water-softener salt in her tap water was toxic to them and she needed to rotate the pots around the house to vary their exposure to sunlight.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A new exhibition that explores how socially diverse neighborhoods in Chicago have emerged and continue to evolve will be on view June 9 through 30 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Housing DVD helps incoming students get fresh start

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Gary Williamson is manager of the Illini Union Computer Center.

It’s springtime in Illinois: Flowers are blooming, crops are sprouting and construction zones are popping up everywhere – including Willard Airport in Savoy.

Intensive English Institute teaches more than English

Gregor Vacketta, a systems administrator, is known in the Division of Public Safety

The UI Board of Trustees approved the first phase of the $116-million renovation of Memorial Stadium at its meeting May 11 in Chicago.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - C. Renee Romano, the vice president for educational and student services at the University of Northern Iowa, has been named vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, pending approval of the U. of I. Board of Trustees during its teleconference meeting June 5.