PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 17, March 16, 2006

brief notes

College of Veterinary Medicine
Open house is April 1
The UI College of Veterinary Medicine will host its annual open house from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 1. It is a free, student-run event that provides a behind-the-scenes look at the only veterinary college in the state.

There will be more than 40 exhibits and demonstrations. Hands-on activities include cow and goat milking, the “window” cow and a petting zoo. Visitors can meet and learn about the birds of prey that reside in the college’s Wildlife Medical Clinic and learn more about admission to veterinary school.

Spurlock Museum
A celebration of world cultures is April 1
The Spurlock Museum will host WorldFest, a celebration of culture, from 12:30 to 4 p.m. April 1. Greek myths will be told in the Ancient Mediterranean Gallery; marionettes will perform in the European Gallery; and Japanese taiko drumming will take place in the Knight Auditorium. Crafts will be available for children of all ages. The suggested donation is $5 per person.

College of Law
New TV program highlights law issues
“Illinois Law,” a new 30-minute show on WCIA-Channel 3, highlights legal issues in the news and features UI College of Law faculty members and alumni. The program covers legal topics and issues.

The show, hosted by Amy Gajda, professor of law and of journalism, began March 5 and also will be broadcast at 10 a.m. March 19; April 2, 16 and 30; and May 14. A full schedule of programs will begin during the fall semester, including statewide syndication on the 80-station Illinois Channel.

UI Ethics Office
Economic interests forms due April 24
The Office of the Secretary of State has sent notification letters and forms to UI employees required to file a Statement of Economic Interests under the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act. 

All completed Statements of Economic Interests must be submitted by April 24 to the UI Ethics Office, Human Resources Building, Room 20, One University Plaza, Springfield, IL 62703-5407. The Ethics Officer will review and forward all completed Statements of Economic Interests to the Office of the Secretary of State by May 1.

Employees with questions about the criteria for filing may call the Ethics Help Line at 866-758-2146 or visit the University Ethics Office Web page. Questions about the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act should be directed to the Office of the Secretary of State at 782-7017. Questions about certification of names to the Secretary of State should be directed to the unit’s human resources contact.

Science, engineering and math
Sign up now for summer camps
The College of Engineering is offering science, engineering and math camps to middle- and high-school students with scholarships available. For more information on each camp, visit the camp Web site listed.

“G.A.M.E.S. Summer Camp: Girls’ Adventures in Mathematics, Engineering and Science”  (Aug. 6-12) is a residential program for middle-school girls. The early-acceptance application deadline is April 1, and the regular application deadline is May 27.

“CAMPWS WaterTEC: Exploring Water Purification” (July 16-22) will introduce 10th- and 11th-grade campers to the engineering, science and technology of water purification. Application deadline is March 31.

“Exploring Your Options” (June 11-17 or July 9-15) is a residential camp that provides high-school students interested in math and science a chance to visit and participate in hands-on activities in each of the departments in the College of Engineering.

“Discover Engineering” (July 23-29) is a residential camp for rising sophomores interested in math and science.

“Aerospace Institute” (July 9-15) offers high-school students classroom and hands-on experience in the areas of propulsion systems, theory of flight, aerodynamics, principles of aircraft and spacecraft design. The application deadline is April 30.

WebCT and Blackboard
Illinois Compass unchanged by merger
WebCT, the software provider for Illinois Compass, officially merged with Blackboard on Feb. 28, following approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Illinois Compass service will largely be unchanged over the next couple of years as a result of the merger,” said Lanny Arvan, assistant CIO for CITES Educational Technologies.

Though Illinois Compass software, service and upgrades will not be influenced by the merger in the short term, CITES continues to improve the growing service. New servers, to be installed this month, will more than double the capacity of the system. Operational support of Compass also has been restructured.
Over time, Blackboard will integrate features of both product lines into a “new standards-based product set,” according to its Web site. Units interested in setting up a discussion of the merger should contact EdTech at 333-1078.

Campus Recreation
Opinions on UI Ice Arena needed
Campus Recreation is hosting two focus-group sessions to get feedback about the UI Ice Arena.

Students will meet from 6:30 to 8 p.m. April 9 at the Campus Recreation Center East Building. Non-students (faculty and staff members and community members) will meet from 5:30 to 7 p.m. April 11 at the Strata Building,  2001 S. First St., Champaign.

Participants will be provided dinner during the session and a pass for a free movie. Register online, or fill out a form at the UI Ice Arena by April 5. Selected participants will be contacted by April 7.

UI Library
Gift shop opening is April 3
The Library Friends Gift Shop will open at noon April 3 at the welcome desk of the Main Library. The hours of operation will be 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday during the academic semester. All proceeds will benefit the Library Friends, which supports the library’s collections, programs and services. 

Secretariat
Nominations for award due March 17
The Secretariat is seeking nominations of Secretariat members for its 14th annual Office Professional of the Year Award. Nominations are due March 17. To be eligible, each nominee must have been a dues-paying member of the Secretariat by Jan. 1, 2006, and must have attended two luncheon meetings of the Secretariat between July 2005 and March 2006.

Completed nominations should be submitted to Rob Chappell, 104 Mumford Hall, MC-710. The winner and nominees will be honored at a luncheon on April 19. For nomination forms and guidelines are on the Secretariat Web site.

I space gallery
Three exhibitions on view through April 1
Collaborative paintings, photographs, drawings and installation are part of the mix of work on view in three exhibitions through April 1 at I space gallery, the Chicago gallery of the UI’s Urbana campus.

“Galina Shevchenko: Drawings and Installation” features drawings and animated videos of drawings with an installation and video projection in the gallery’s atrium.

“Team SHaG” is a collaborative exhibition of work by New York artists David Humphrey, Elliott Green and Amy Sillman. Taking their cue from Surrealist artists Andre Breton and Paul Eluard, the artists create “team paintings.” One artist begins the work, then passes it along to the other two to complete.

“Lisa Klapstock: Photography” showcases 24 images from the Toronto-based artist’s “Threshold” series. The photographs depict glimpses of backyard scenes or private spaces framed by boundaries such as fences and walls.

I space gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Champaign County Chamber of Commerce
Business, consumer expo is March 29
The Champaign County Chamber of Commerce will present its annual Business and Consumer Expo from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 29 at Assembly Hall. More than 100 businesses from East Central Illinois will participate. It is open to the public. Admission and parking are free.

The Ultimate Power Lunch will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and include food samples from Chamber member restaurants, caterers and specialty food shops. Tickets for the event are $5 per person for six sample servings. Tickets are available at the door or can be purchased in advance by calling 359-1791.

Wine Tasting After Hours will begin at 5 p.m. and is also open to the public. Many exhibitors will offer door prizes and free giveaways throughout the day. The expo will end with a grand prize drawing. 

Black power movement
Conference to be held March 29-April 1
The legacy of the black power movement will be the subject of a four-day conference, March 29 through April 1, at UI. Titled “Race, Roots, and Resistance: Revisiting the Legacies of Black Power,” the conference will explore the influence of the movement on African-American political, economic and social development.

 “The black power movement was one of the most significant developments in the African-American experience,” said Sundiata Cha-Jua, director of the UI African American Studies and Research Program, which is sponsoring the conference.

More than 100 presentations will deal with topics ranging from blaxploitation films and the roots of hip hop, to perceptions of racism, the media’s influence on the movement and the movement’s influence abroad.

The conference is free and open to the public, and those who plan to attend are asked to register. For more information, contact Christopher Benson or Will Patterson at 333-7781.

University Library
Dissertation workshops offered
The University Library will offer a free dissertation workshop, which focuses on finding dissertations completed on the Urbana campus as well nationally and internationally. The workshop will be offered March 29 and April 5 in Room 291 of the Undergraduate Library. Faculty and staff members, and students may attend and can either walk in or register online at:

Festival is April 3
Celebrate reading with edible books
An upcoming event at the UI gives a whole new meaning to the notion of  “devouring” a book. The First Annual C-U Edible Books Festival is coming to campus April 3.

The event, sponsored by the UI Library and held in conjunction with the International Edible Books Festival, will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in 407 Illini Union. It is free and open to the public, but requires an online RSVP.

Every year in early April, bibliophiles, book artists and food lovers around the world gather to celebrate the book arts and the literal ingestion of culture. Participants create edible books that are exhibited, documented then consumed on the spot.

For Illinois’ event, entries will appear, before being sliced, diced and tossed on the C-U Books2Eat Web site.

To enter a readable-edible to the C-U event or to come to the judging and eating, one must send an RSVP by March 29 to the local Web site. Entries must be delivered to the Illini Union between 9 and 10 a.m. the day of the event. Doyle Moore, chef-in-residence at WILL-AM (580), will judge entries. Prizes will be awarded and there will be live music.

The UI is the second site in Illinois to join in the event; the other is Columbia College in Chicago. The festival has been held every April since 2000, the year after event founder Judith A. Hoffberg and other California book artists were inspired during a Thanksgiving dinner in Pacific Palisades.

A dozen festivals were held the first year of the event, including several abroad. More than 70 edible book events in 16 nations are expected this year.
Other UI sponsors are the School of Art and Design and the Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi Mu, the library and information science honor society. Pages for All Ages is the only local business sponsor so far, but the organizers are soliciting others.

Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival
Single-film tickets on sale April 3
The list of films selected for the eighth annual Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival, coming April 26-30, should be available soon on the festival Web site.

Additional updates on the festival – including the film schedule, guests, panel discussions and other events – also will be posted on the site over the next few weeks, according to festival organizers.

Tickets for individual films will go on sale April 3, at $9 each, through the theater box office; phone 217-356-9063; fax: 217-356-5729.

Ebert is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and co-hosts “Ebert & Roeper and the Movies,” a weekly televised movie-review program. He also is a 1964 Illinois journalism graduate and adjunct professor.

Ebert selects films for the festival that he feels have been overlooked in some way, generally by critics, distributors or audiences. Guests connected with the selected films are invited to attend, and many appear on stage with Ebert for informal discussions after the screenings.

The 1,000 festival passes, covering all 12 screenings, were sold out on Jan. 20, more than a month before passes were sold out last year. It marked the second year in a row that passes were sold out before the films were announced.

All of the featured films will be screened, as usual, in the 1,500-seat Virginia Theater in downtown Champaign, with other events on the UI campus. The festival is presented by the College of Communications.

Transition into adulthood
Education forum is April 1
The transition into adulthood will be the topic at a public forum April 1, the last this school year in an education-related series at the UI.

The Saturday morning forum, titled “Young People, Entrapped, Endangered or on Their Way – The Transition into Adulthood,” will run from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Krannert Art Museum.

“It’s definitely more confusing now for young people moving into adulthood,” says Anne Robertson, coordinator of school-university research relations in the university’s College of Education, and the organizer of the event.

Many young people feel disconnected from their families and communities, and “there are a lot of issues when a young person turns 18 that have potentially serious consequences,” she said. The forum will explore those issues and examine strategies that families, schools and the local community can use to help.
Parents, teachers, administrators, university faculty and students, and anyone with an interest in education are invited to attend.

The event will start with presentations, followed by a town hall-style panel discussion. A continental breakfast will be offered at 8:30 a.m.

Scheduled presenters will be Debra Bragg, a UI professor of education; Linda Moore, dean of students at Parkland College; Kathleen Oertle, a UI doctoral candidate in special education; Linda Page, coordinator of the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) Program for the Champaign School District; Dale Petre, director of community services for Cunningham Children’s Home; Dave Requa, superintendent of Rantoul Township High School, and Peter Thomas, director of Lincoln’s Challenge Academy.

Joining the presenters as panelists for the town hall discussion will be other educators, officials and youth.

The forum series is sponsored by the university’s College of Education and organized by the university’s chapter of Phi Delta Kappa, a professional association for educators. Co-planners include Parkland College and the Champaign and Urbana school districts. Co-sponsors for the forum include local school districts and community organizations.

Teachers and school personnel can earn CEU and CPDU credits by attending.

Petals and Paintings
KAM hosts annual benefit April 6-9
The UI Krannert Art Museum Council will present its annual “Petals and Paintings” benefit April 6-9 at the museum.

The event – which features dramatic floral presentations created by regional floral designers in response to selected works from the museum – kicks off with a gala opening reception from 6-8 p.m. on April 6. The reception will feature music, hors d’oeuvres and wine, a silent auction of work by local artists, and a raffle of an original pastel by Chicago artist Nancie King Mertz. Tickets are $55.

The exhibition, curated by Champaign florist Rick Orr, will be open to the public from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. April 7-8, and from noon-5 p.m. April 9.

“Petals and Paintings” organizer Diane Schumacher said this year’s event will include a new feature – a Plein Air workshop given by Nancie King Mertz from 1-4 p.m.  on April 7 at the Lake House at Crystal Lake Park in Urbana. Tickets are $40. Schumacher said “Plein Air” is the Impressionist-era term for “open air,” and refers to a style of painting done outdoors and popularized in the second  half of the 19th century.

Mertz said the workshop is designed “to bring beginning and serious painters together to work in any media they’re comfortable in.” Attendees are encouraged to bring an easel or small table along with their media of preference.

For more information about the event or for reservations, call 333-1861 or visit .

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