News Bureau

Members of the campus community - and faculty members in particular - are being asked to provide their input about how the campus can meet new and emerging information technology needs through IT@Illinois, a campuswide initiative started by Provost Linda Katehi in December. The goal of IT@Illinois is to rethink the configuration of information technology resources at Illinois so that they can be more efficient, more cost effective and dedicated to higher value activities that more directly support the university's core missions.

The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District is proposing new bus routes for the campus area beginning Aug. 16 that would provide direct access to downtown Urbana and downtown Champaign along with more frequent service and other improvements.

Debbie Kemphues, administrative assistant to the Provost, has worked at the UI for 28 years.

Self-deception occurs because we often see the world the way we would like it to be, rather than the way it is, author Harry C. Triandis, professor emeritus of psychology, writes in his new book, "Fooling Ourselves: Self-Deception in Politics, Religion and Terrorism" (Praeger Publishers).

Beginning this fall, faculty members and graduate students will have a new resource on campus to support their scholarly activities. The Scholarly Commons, a new approach to scholarly support services based upon the collaborative service model of the Undergraduate Library Learning Commons, will provide access to a variety of services related to e-learning, scholarly communications, data curation and digital content creation.

Karen Pruiett's interest in keeping bees began as a hobby more than 30 years ago and now consumes many of her waking hours.

Above, a triptych with the School of Social Work's mission statement decorates the lobby wall outside college dean Wynne Korr's suite at the school's new facilities at 1010 W. Nevada St., Urbana. Each of the 3-foot by 5-foot panels contains images that reflect the school's purpose.

Musicians appear to be performing on the same stage, when in fact they are performing from different campus locations in real time. The April 20 digital performance was hosted at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts during a reception formally announcing the Emerging Digital Research and Arts Media Institute (edream), which coincided with the annual conference of the Humanities Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory. Performing: from left, UI graduate student Ben Smith playing violin on Stage 5 at Krannert Center; John Toenjes, music director for dance at Illinois, on drums, and Mary Pietrowicz, NCSA research programmer, on flute, performing at NCSA's Advanced Visualization Laboratory.

Marlynna "Lynn" Schaefer, administrative assistant II in the Graduate College, has worked at the UI since September 1984. Schaefer started at the Office of Admissions and Records as an extra help employee before becoming a full-time undergraduate application processor. She also worked in the Office of Continuing Education, the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Chancellor and the Office of Public Engagement, before joining the Graduate College in 2004.

The Urbana-Champaign Senate has authorized its University Statutes and Senate Procedures Committee to consider processes for adding academic professionals to the senate electorate. Meeting as a committee of the whole during the April 27 senate meeting, senators concluded debate with a nonbinding straw vote that supported adding a limited number of APs to the senate membership and authorized the USSP to craft an appropriate election process for the senate to consider in the fall.

In a massmail to faculty and staff members and students, Dr. Robert Palinkas, director of McKinley Health Center, stated that public health officials on campus and throughout the world are investigating outbreaks of swine influenza (commonly known as swine flu), which is now being referred to as H1N1.

Staff members have estimated the Urbana campus’s carbon footprint by inventorying the amount of greenhouse gases it produces, and the results “look pretty typical for a very large university,” according to Richard Warner, director of the Office of Sustainability.

Every person has a narrative compass - one or more stories that have guided their lifework.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Explore the mysteries of your brain April 26 at Lincoln Square Village in Urbana, and literally touch the brains of other creatures. "Brains Rock!" is the theme of this year's Brain Day, which will take place from 1-5 p.m. in the south hallway of the mall.

While this year's graduates face one of the toughest job markets in decades, Illinois graduates have a little leverage. A branded, coordinated marketing campaign by the career services offices on campus is helping ensure that the employers who are recruiting hire Illini.

Academic professionals will soon have a new online community to help them enhance their careers and connect with other APs across campus. The new Web site is part of a comprehensive plan for fostering personal and professional development of APs at Illinois.

A software package that will be used universitywide is making online applications mandatory for all types of jobs and reducing paperwork for human resource staff members.

Sherry Miller, administrative aide in the Office of the Registrar, has worked at the UI since April 1987.

Eight staff employees were honored with the Chancellor's Distinguished Staff Award at a banquet April 13. The award recognizes exceptional performance; each recipient receives $2,000 and a plaque. Recipients' names also are inscribed on a plaque displayed in the Staff Human Resources Office.

The fiscal year 2010 budget proposed by Gov. Pat Quinn on March 18 was welcome news for officials at the UI and other public universities. Quinn proposed an increase in funding for higher education next fiscal year rather than the decrease that many people were expecting because of the state's multibillion-dollar deficit.

Six academic professionals received the 2009 Chancellor's Academic Professional Excellence award at an April 1 campus reception. Now in its 21st year, the program honors contributions made by academic professionals on campus. Recipients are chosen for excellence in their work, personal and professional contributions to their fields, and the positive impact they have on colleagues, students and the public. Each award winner receives $2,000 - a $1,000 increase in base salary and a $1,000 one-time budget increase for their department.

Mike Kobel, crash rescue specialist coordinator at Willard Airport, has worked in emergency services for more than 20 years. Born and raised in Champaign, Kobel is a graduate of Central High School. He has a degree in automotive mechanics from Parkland College and became interested in emergency services after working at a farm equipment dealership as a mechanic. After considering what would happen if someone was hurt while working, Kobel was prompted to take a rescue technician and EMT class at Parkland. Since then, Kobel has obtained three other degrees from Parkland in fire service technology and from Eastern Illinois University and Southern Illinois University in fire service administration.

A task force has been assembled to propose an alternative structure for the Global Campus online degree program, one of three possibilities for the future of Global Campus that President B. Joseph White will present to the UI Board of Trustees at its May meeting in Chicago. In addition to reconfiguring Global Campus, White and the trustees will consider the possibilities of forging ahead with Global Campus in its present form or shutting it down.

New criteria for promotion and tenure will take effect with the fiscal year 2009-2010. The changes are detailed in Provost's Communication No. 9, which is posted on Provost Linda Katehi's Web site and recently was revised by the Promotion and Tenure Reform Implementation Committee after an extensive cross-campus review process.

Sue Wilson, an office support associate in the Housing Division, has worked at the UI for more than 20 years. Wilson's mother worked in the psychology department for several years and told her that it was a great place to work. Wilson decided to see if her mother was right and began working at the UI College of Nursing in 1988. After eight years, she moved to her current position with Residential Life and has been there for the last 12 years.

At the March 11 meeting of the UI Board of Trustees in Urbana, President B. Joseph White agreed to work with faculty members from the University Senates Conference in appointing three additional people to the academic policy council that oversees Global Campus. White agreed to amend the constitution for the Global Campus accordingly before the board approved it. Chester Gardner, who has led the online program since its inception, was appointed its chief executive.

Over the course of several centuries, Western masculinity has successfully established itself as the voice of reason, knowledge and sanity - the basis for patriarchal rule - in the face of massive testimony to the contrary. In a new book, "Hysterical Men: The Hidden History of Male Nervous Illness" (Harvard University Press, 2008), Mark S. Micale challenges this vision of the stable and secure male by examining the central role played by modern science and medicine in constructing and sustaining it.

In her book “Charles Ives Reconsidered” (UI Press), musicology professor Gayle Sherwood Magee notes that even before his death in 1954, the composer has always had “an unusual, almost cult-like following.”

University police will focus on protecting students, faculty and staff members, and university property.

In preparation for a visit this fall from the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association, the Urbana campus is preparing a draft of its self-study report. The report, "Access and Excellence," uses the five goals of Chancellor Richard Herman's Strategic Plan for the Urbana campus as the framework for a comprehensive self-analysis of how the campus met or exceeded the HLC/NCA's criteria for accreditation.

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

Faced with declining state support and increasing numbers of graduate students, campus administrators are looking at ways to fund graduate education and to manage enrollment in graduate programs.

Although she has been a UI employee for less than a year, Renaé Strawbridge, program administrative assistant, has worked at the Illinois State Geological Survey on campus for more than 18 years.

Throughout history, in many cultures, menstruation has been fraught with shame, controversy and misinformation, and has been politicized as a debility that served as the basis for denying women equity in education, employment and citizenship.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Attention fans of University of Illinois music makers: Did you miss the "Beyond Cool" performance of Mile Davis' "Bobplicity" at last year's Allerton Music Barn Festival? What about the Opera Program's production of "Cosi fan tutte" last spring at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts? Wishing you could hear - and see - highlights of the Jerry Hadley Memorial Concert one more time?

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Jon Butler, the Howard R. Lamar Professor of American Studies, History and Religious Studies at Yale University, will deliver the 2009 Marjorie Hall Thulin Lecture in Religion at the University of Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Six Urbana campus faculty members have been recognized as University Scholars. The program recognizes excellence while helping to identify and retain the university's most talented teachers, scholars and researchers.

Members of the campus community are urged to verify their contact information online for a new campus emergency text and e-mail messaging system called Illini-Alert.

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

Just step into Robin Allen's Clark Hall office and it is evident that she loves what she does or that she gets really hungry on the job - or both.

Dorlene Clark, administrative assistant with the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, has worked at the UI since August 1995. She started as a customer service representative with what was then called the Division of Environmental Health and Safety, and was promoted to administrative aide at GSLIS in January 1998.

David Park's oil painting "Standing Couple" is just one of more than 150 works highlighted in the Krannert Art Museum's just-published, first-ever collection handbook.

The myth of the open road and the reality of the American driving experience is explored by John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle in their new book, "Motoring: The Highway Experience in America" (The University of Georgia Press/2008).

About 25 students are participating in a pilot program this academic year that the UI is conducting in conjunction with Parkland College to help transfer students make the transition from community college to the university.

In the military campaigns of early modern Europe, there were a great multitude of women – some of whom went under the guise of men to fight, others as prostitutes, seamstresses, cooks and nurses who tended to the many needs of the army. In addition, because armies often lacked adequate state funding, women were integral in the pillaging of defeated foes and plundering to help finance the campaigns.

Faculty and staff members, students, prospective students, and other constituencies will be able to see how the UI's graduate programs stack up against those of peer institutions when the National Research Council releases the results of its most recent assessment of doctoral programs, which is expected to occur in March. The NRC is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

Drivers, start those engines. Millikan and Martynas are ready to roll.

Lori Dick, administrative aide and assistant to the director of graduate studies in the department of mathematics, has worked at the UI for more than 23 years. After graduating from Farmer City-Mansfield High School, Dick worked in an insurance office and at a few other part-time jobs before starting in the math department typing pool in 1985.

The university is preparing for the repercussions of a state budget revenue shortfall by planning for a rescission in the current fiscal year, Walter Knorr, chief financial officer and university vice president, told the UI Board of Trustees on Jan. 15 in Chicago.