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Disciplines unite to improve East St. Louis neighborhood

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The John Philip Sousa collection at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is marching to the beat of a different drummer, and by all appearances, it is a quick march.

Give ’em an inch and they may try to park in it, especially if that inch is in a congested area of the Urbana campus.

Stephen Kaufman, professor of cell and structural biology, presented at the April 26 Urbana-Champaign Senate meeting a letter he said was sent to North Central Association officials and signed by him, Frederick Hoxie, professor of history and director of Native American House, and Carol Spindel, a lecturer in the department of English, raising objections that individual faculty members had not been scheduled to meet with NCA representatives who were on campus last month.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - There is a future for the College of Communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - and potentially a very bright one, according to its interim dean, Ron Yates.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The 133rd commencement of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will be held in two ceremonies May 16 at the Assembly Hall, 1800 S. First St., Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Fourteen faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, three academic professionals and five teaching assistants will be honored for excellence in teaching and advising Monday (April 26) at the annual Instructional Awards banquet in the Illini Union, 1401 W. Green St., Urbana.

Inside Illinois plans monthly printed issues this summer Because of the excellent response to its new advertising program, Inside Illinois will print monthly issues this summer on the first Thursday of June, July and August, with an online-only version issued on the third Thursday of each summer month. The paper will return to its usual semi-monthly schedule Sept. 2. "We very much appreciate the campus and off-campus advertisers who put their confidence in us and placed ads this past year," said Doris Dahl, editor. "It was the first time in the paper's 25-year history that advertising was sold. We had hoped to pay for the printing of the paper and were pleased that revenue was high enough that we could return to printed issues in the summer. We realize that not all readers have access to the Web, so we're glad that we can provide the paper in printed format once again during the summer." According to Dahl, the past two summers Inside Illinois has published electronic-only issues, sending employees a mass e-mail to alert them that a new issue was available and providing a link to the current index. The paper will continue to sell advertising in its printed issues (no ads appear in the online versions of the publication). "Special summer rates are being offered to advertisers," Dahl said, "with a 20 percent discount to those who reserve space in all three summer printed issues." Inside Illinois premiered on campus as IlliniWeek, a weekly newspaper, in January 1979. The paper moved to semi-monthly as a budgetary strategy in August 1990 and was renamed Inside Illinois. The paper was redesigned in September 1999. Anyone interested in placing an ad in Inside Illinois may get more information from the Web at www.news.uiuc.edu/ii/iiadv.html. The schedules and rates for summer as well as academic year 2004-05 are posted. If you would like a printed brochure with rates and advertising guidelines, call 333-2895 or e-mail dkdahl@illinois.edu.

New initiatives expand, enrich UI's international dimension

Legislator letters make an impact in budgeting process

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UI librarians working to rejuvenate African libraries

Randy Greever is the chief building operation engineer at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

UI graduate programs across a wide range of disciplines fared well in the 2004 rankings released April 1 by U.S.News & World Report. UI units ranked in the top 10 nationally include accounting (4), civil engineering (2), clinical psychology (8), computer engineering (5), elementary education (5), environmental engineering (2), materials science (3) and speech pathology (10).

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Three projects curated by Chicago arts consultant Lela Hersh will be exhibited April 30 through June 12 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign:

Behind the bricks and mortar, behind the stately architecture and inspiring carved inscriptions, enormous pressures, most of them hidden to the casual observer, are mounting in our nation's research libraries -- the UI among them.

Eight staff employees will be honored with the Chancellor’s Distinguished Staff Award at a banquet beginning at 5:30 p.m. April 22 at Peabody Private Dining Room. The award recognizes exceptional performance and service to the UI.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Nancy Cantor, the chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the leaders of a multicultural coalition of students, faculty, alumni, Native leaders and community members against Chief Illiniwek reached an agreement today to bring an end to the coalition's sit-in at the Swanlund Administration Building on the Urbana campus. The agreement was reached in extended discussions between Cantor and coalition representatives.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A leading researcher on violence, particularly as a public health issue, will speak Tuesday night (April 20) at the University of Illinois at

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Health care will be the topic of two talks at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, both sponsored by the Center for Advanced Study.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Robert McChesney and other reformers have been talking for years about media politics, but few were listening.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Representatives from more than 120 school districts will be at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Thursday (April 8) for the annual Teacher Placement Day.

Provost Herman to be named interim chancellor By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor 217-244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu

Gary Ambler is the admissions and records officer for the graduate program in the School of Architecture.

Reports on a proposed parking program and a proposed policy on student use of alcoholic beverages sparked debate at the March 29 meeting of the Urbana-Champaign Senate.

When continuing students at the Urbana campus begin registering for their fall classes on April 5, they may find that the software for registration has taken a technological leap forward. UI-Direct, the registration system that students have used since 1994, is being retired this year and being replaced with UI2 Self-Service, a Web-based system that is part of SCT-Banner’s student module.

A new course numbering system will take effect on the Urbana campus with the fall 2004 semester.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The complex commingling of musical forms among the cultures of Africa and the Americas will be explored during a symposium and workshop April 16-17 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A variety of traditional Japanese arts will be demonstrated and displayed April 17 at the annual spring open house at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Japan House.

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Bruce Hinman is a temperature control mechanic in the Facilities and Services division.

While the agenda for the UI Board of Trustees March 11 meeting included several weighty matters, such as naming the committee members to lead the search for a new president and considering a proposal to revamp the university’s need-based financial aid program, it was a matter not on the agenda that took center stage, drawing a throng of spectators to the Illini Union in Urbana and prompting a plea for action from student trustee Nate Allen.

At their March 11 meeting in Urbana, the UI Board of Trustees appointed a 19-member consultative committee to assist in the selection of a successor for President James J. Stukel, who announced earlier this year that he will retire effective Feb. 1, 2005. 

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Owing to the widespread expansion of casinos, the cost of pathological and problem gambling has soared to nearly half the annual cost of drug abuse in the United States, an expert at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign says in a new book.

CITES readies campus for transfer to Express E-mail, NetFiles

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Improvisation is a common thread that ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl has found to be present in the musical practices and traditions of just about every culture he has examined during the past 40 years - whether among the peoples of Iran/Persia and India or the American Blackfoot Indians.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Area flower lovers are invited to get a close-up look at one of the world's rare true blue flowers, the Meconopsis (mee-koh-NOP-sis), known more widely as the Himalayan blue poppy, Saturday and Sunday (March 20-21) at the Plant Biology Conservatory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has long been known for its pioneering programs and services for students with disabilities. And judging by results of recent studies of employment outcomes for university graduates with severe disabilities, those programs are continuing to make their mark.

Carol Firkins is an academic adviser in the department of community health and coordinator of applied life studies.

The UI Board of Trustees officially began the search for a new university president at its Feb. 19 meeting, establishing an 18-member consultative committee that will recommend finalists to the board. "This will be the most important thing you do during your term on the board," former UI president Stanley Ikenberry told trustees at a board meeting in the Chicago Illini Union.

Students benefit from online distance-learning options

Bruce Litchfield, a professor of engineering and assistant dean in the College of Engineering, and Thomas Schwandt, a professor of educational psychology, can add another honor to their curricula vitae: University Distinguished Teacher/Scholar.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Academics, activists and state officials will meet to consider issues affecting immigrants in the Midwest on March 17-18 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Disability benefits disbursed by the Social Security Administration add up to $100 billion per year, according to Tanya Gallagher, the dean of the College of Applied Life Studies and director of the Disability Research Institute (DRI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Landscapes - with a twist - are the focus of two new, but very different, exhibitions on view March 5 through 27 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A birdhouse design competition for local high school students has been added to the activities at the fourth annual Architecture, Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture Open House at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Renovations planned for Bevier Café, Spice Box restaurant By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor 2 17-244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu Connoisseurs who secretly long for the prestige of having their very own tables in a fine restaurant - or for an establishment that bears their name - have the opportunity to realize those dreams through a project under way in the department of food science and human nutrition. The College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences recently launched a $1 million fund-raising campaign to refurbish Bevier Hall's Quantity Foods Facility, which comprises the Bevier Café, the Spice Box restaurant and the 3,894-square-foot kitchen that they share. The café serves continental breakfasts and lunches daily to 100 patrons when classes are in session. The Spice Box is a reservations-only, cook-to-order restaurant that serves three-course prix fixe dinners or pasta and salad dinners with themes chosen by student managers. The restaurant seats about 100 guests. Teaching associate Beth Reutter manages the café and teaches the lab section of FSHN 240, "Quantity Food Production and Service," also known as boot camp for students in the dietetics and hospitality management programs. Students in the course work 10 hours per week in the café, rotating through positions in management, the bakery, the pantry and hot food preparation so that they can experience all facets of the operation, including advertising, purchasing and daily reporting.

Amanda Cuevas works in admissions and recruiting for the Medical Scholars Program in the UI College of Medicine.

The recently announced resignations of UI President James J. Stukel and Urbana Chancellor Nancy Cantor prompted several resolutions that were passed by the Urbana-Champaign Senate at its Feb. 16 meeting.