PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 19, April 20, 2006

brief notes

Wildlife Medical Clinic
‘Doodle for Wildlife’ benefit is April 29
The fifth annual “Doodle for Wildlife” benefit will be from 6 to 10 p.m. April 29 in the South Lounge and Rooms A, B and C of the Illini Union. The event will combine celebrity drawings, local music and a dinner to benefit the non-profit Wildlife Medical Clinic, which cares for nearly 2,000 sick or injured animals every year. The clinic also helps train veterinary students and educates the public about Illinois wildlife. 

Signed, original drawings by Jay Leno, Jackie Chan, Jim Carrey, Phil Collins, Neil Young, Matthew McConaughey, Martina McBride, the late Richard Pryor (pictured above), and many more will be auctioned. Special adventure packages, including behind-the-scenes tours of animal attractions and a trip to Paris, also will be up for bid.

Reservations are suggested by April 21. To make reservations, call 333-2762.

Interactive educational event
‘Petstravaganza’ is April 29
“Petstravaganza,” an event that gives children an opportunity to learn about their pets and other animals, will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 29 at the UI Stock Pavilion.

Exhibits will include pet first aid, dog-bite prevention, animal-behavior modification, careers with animals, pet overpopulation, horse rescue, and humane education resources for teachers.

“Petstravaganza will feature interactive exhibits that appeal to kids aged 7 to 11, although there will be something for all ages,” said Amy Fischer, UI Extension companion animal biology and humane education specialist.

The event is free and open to the public. Since some of the exhibits will feature live animals, visitors should not bring pets. For additional information, contact Fischer at 333-6462.

Staff Advisory Council
Nominations sought for representatives
The Staff Advisory Council is seeking nominations for one representative each from the Skilled Crafts/Trades Group and the Service/Maintenance Group to serve a four-year term beginning July 1. The council acts in an advisory role and meets regularly with the assistant vice president for human resources on the Urbana campus.

To be considered for the positions, prospective candidates must pick up petitions in Room 141 of the Personnel Services Office beginning April 21. Deadline for returning petitions is April 28. Ballots will be mailed to eligible staff members by May 12 and winners will be announced May 25. For more information, contact Jaclyn Slater at 333-3105 or jslater1@uillinois.edu.

WILL-TV and Staerkel Planetarium
Families invited to ‘Zoom Into Space’
WILL-TV and the William M. Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland College present “Zoom Into Space With Zula” from 6 to 8 p.m. April 27 at the planetarium, 2400 W. Bradley Ave., Champaign. The event offers family activities to learn about the solar system, stars, planets, weather patterns and more.

The event is based on “The Zula Patrol,” a PBS Kids series about a group of aliens who travel the galaxies helping others and saving the universe from intergalactic danger. The series teaches kids about space science while reinforcing themes of non-violence and tolerance.

Planetarium director Dave Leake will present an interactive, child-centered planetarium show. Some activities also include learning to spin like planets with the Space Dance, testing knowledge with Zula Bingo and meeting WILL meteorologist Ed Kieser.
For more information, contact WILL-TV’s Molly Delaney at 333-1070 or delaney1@illinois.edu. For directions, go to www.parkland.edu/coned/pla/dir.html or call 351-2568.

UI Employees Credit Union
Identity theft seminar is April 27
The UI Employees Credit Union will host a seminar to help members of the UI community avoid becoming victims of identify theft. The seminar will begin at 7 p.m. April 27 in the credit union’s main office, 2201 S. First St., Champaign.

Participants will take an assessment to determine their potential vulnerability to identity theft, learn how to minimize their risks and what to do if they have been victimized. The workshop will cover the various types of scams commonly used to steal personal information and teach participants how to determine when requests for personal information are legitimate and when they may be potential scams.

To register for the seminar, call 278-7721.

‘The Bible, Public Schools and American Identity’
Bible education controversies discussed
A symposium on “The Bible, Public Schools and American Identity” will begin at 6:30 p.m. April 24 in the Reading Room of the Levis Faculty Center. It will explore “some of the many issues – implied and explicit, legal, practical and philosophical – swirling around current public Bible education controversies,” said Jonathan Ebel, professor of religious studies and organizer of the symposium.

Three scholars of religion will make presentations at the symposium.

Mark A. Chancey of Southern Methodist University will present “Another Notch in the Bible Belt? The Fight Over Bible Curricula in Odessa, Texas.”

Eric C. Owens of the Center on Religion and Democracy at the University of Virginia will present “Good Citizens and the Good Book: Should the Bible Be Taught in America’s Public Schools?”

Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, visiting scholar at the American Bar Foundation and senior fellow at the Martin Marty Center of the University of Chicago Divinity School, will present “Litigating the Bible: Remembering the Cincinnati Bible Wars.” 

 The new Illinois Forum on Religion in America, a sub-unit of Illinois’ Program for the Study of Religion, is a symposium sponsor. The forum is sponsoring a series of free public conversations in addition to the symposium. The next conversation will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. April 20 in Room 4080 of the Foreign Languages Building. It will center on such questions as: What are the primary obstacles to good teaching of the Bible and what would be required to overcome them?

Several units are co-sponsoring Illinois Forum events, including the College of Education, the Foreign Languages Building Fund and the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities.

Society for French Historical Studies
Scholars of France to gather April 20-22
The 52nd annual meeting of the Society for French Historical Studies will be April 20-22 at the UI. The event requires registration and will be held primarily in the Illini Union.

“The society is the largest professional organization of French historians in the English-speaking world and the largest non-French organization of its kind,” said Mark Micale, professor of history and co-organizer of the event with UI historian Clare Crowston.

The society’s annual meeting “allows practitioners of the craft to share ideas and scholarship, and younger scholars the chance to debut their scholarly work,” he said.

The society “was attracted to us because of our outstanding group of French historians and by the world-class reputation of the university,” Crowston said.

Illinois has seven historians of France: Crowston, early modern period; John Lynn, military history; Tamara Matheson, post-1945; Micale, science and medicine; David Prochaska, French colonialism in North Africa; Charles Stewart, French equatorial Africa; and Carol Symes, medieval period.

Nearly 150 papers will be presented on a range of topics, including immigrants and slums; new perspectives on France in World War II; war and gender; disasters and ruins in modern France; the occult; and France’s contribution to the Allied victory in 1918. It is the first time the university is hosting the meeting, which is expected to attract 200 scholars of France, many from abroad. Several of the events are free and open to the public, including an art exhibition, lectures and film.

Meeting sponsors include the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Office of the Chancellor and several other organizations and universities. For more information on the conference or for a schedule, contact sfhs-2006@illinois.edu.

WILL-FM
Four-part series explores Vivaldi
A new four-part locally produced  series, “Vivaldi for All Seasons,” will  feature some of the finest Vivaldi performers in the world. The series will be broadcast on WILL-FM (90.9/101.1 in Champaign-Urbana) at 7:06 p.m. May 1-4 and will be repeated Sundays at 11 a.m. May 7-28. WILL FM’s Vic Di Geronimo picked selections from among Vivaldi’s some 500 concertos and 90 sonatas. Di Geronimo spent more than three years creating the mix of full-length concertos, sonatas, overtures and some selected movements.

“This is not an academic treatment or a documentary,” Di Geronimo said. “It’s an excuse to enjoy four hours of Vivaldi’s music. I am sharing stories and tidbits of information, but in a fun way.”

The series includes a tribute to Vivaldi’s composition of great melodies; Vivaldi the dramatist; Vivaldi’s music as highlights from the career of an all-time “champion” among composers, including a play-by-play of the Autumn Concerto; and Vivaldi concertos, sinfonias and sonatas.

All of the music in the series is performed by early music groups on period instruments. A playlist for the series will be available at will.uiuc.edu after the programs are broadcast.

University YMCA
Instructors needed for community classes
The University YMCA’s Communiversity program seeks instructors for its classes. The program offers a variety of classes to the local community, ranging from martial arts to ballroom dancing and car repair, and relies upon local residents to design and teach all the courses. Some instructors have worked with the YMCA for the life of the program – more than 20 years – but the YMCA is always interested in new class topics that community members develop.

An application and more information can be found online. Applications are due May 19. For questions, contact Paul or Becca at 337-1514.

Public hearing
Possible new school to be discussed
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Committee on Educational Policy has organized a public hearing to discuss the formation of the School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics from 3 to 5 p.m. May 1 in Room 196 of Lincoln Hall.

The new school would comprise the departments of classics, East Asian languages and cultures, French, Germanic languages and literatures, linguistics, Slavic languages and literatures, and Spanish, Italian and Portuguese; the programs in Comparative and World Literature and for the Study of Religion; the Division of English as an International Language; and the unit for cinema studies.

For those wanting to make public comments during the hearing, preference will be given to representatives of a recognized organization and individuals who have requested to speak in advance. Time limits for these speakers will be five minutes for the representative of an organization and three minutes for an individual. Following these speakers, the floor will be open to others, with a two-minute time limit per individual.

Those who wish to speak at the hearing should contact Ann Mester at mester@illinois.edu by 5 p.m. April 28. Those who wish to send confidential comments for review by the Educational Policy Committee should forward them to the hearing chairperson, Abbas Aminmansour, aamin@illinois.edu. If you want your comments to remain confidential and/or anonymous you should indicate so.

Copies of the document “Creation of the School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics” may be obtained at www.las.uiuc.edu or by contacting the Office of the Senate or the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Congress of Qualitative Inquiry
Delegates to gather May 3-6
The UI campus will be the site May 3-6 for the Second International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, with the theme of “Ethics, Politics and Human Subject Research.”

More than 850 delegates from about 50 nations attended the first congress last May, also on the UI campus. Norman Denzin, a professor in the Institute of Communications Research, served as the congress director.

The congress was organized, Denzin said, prior to last year’s meeting, in opposition to the trend by many governments toward enforcing a quantitative, “evidence-based,” biomedical model of research, to the detriment of funding and support for qualitative research.

Delegates at last year’s meeting approved the founding of the International Association of Qualitative Inquiry, the first international association for qualitative researchers. The new association, as well as the new International Center for Qualitative Inquiry, are both led by Denzin and based in the Institute of Communications Research, within the College of Communications.

More information about the conference mandate, program and registration can be found at the conference Web site.

Improving Boneyard Creek
Motorists should watch for volunteers
On April 22 (Earth Day), hundreds of volunteers from Champaign, Urbana and the UI will be clad in orange T-shirts and deployed from Scott Park in Champaign to initiate the restoration and clean-up of the Boneyard Creek. The event, called  “Boneyard Creek Community Day,” will offer a variety of volunteer opportunities. Motorists are cautioned to watch for volunteers who may be in the streets around the Boneyard.

  Volunteer groups will help remove invasive, non-native plants from sections of the stream’s corridor and replace them with native plants. Other groups will be cleaning up streamside trash and marking storm drains with medallions that say “Dump No Waste – Drains to Creek,” informing Champaign-Urbana residents that all trash, soil, and yard waste that enters the storm drains does not get treated, but runs directly to Boneyard Creek.

A variety of organizers, including the UI, Champaign-Urbana-area Rotary clubs, staff members from the cities of Champaign and Urbana, and their respective park districts, have joined for the event with organizational assistance from the Prairie Rivers Network.

Anyone wishing to volunteer for the event should be at Scott Park at 9 a.m. April 22.

Sculptor and magazine editor featured
Art and Design lecture series continues
Two talks remain in this semester’s School of Art and Design lecture series, which take place in Room 62, Krannert Art Museum.
• “Joe Scanlon: Critical Practices,” 5 p.m., April 20. Scanlon is a sculptor who has exhibited his work throughout the United States, Germany and Australia. His artistic motivations include the exploration of relationships among art, design and commerce.

• Sina Najafi: Critical Practices,” 5 p.m., April 27. Najafi is editor-in chief of Cabinet magazine, a quarterly nonprofit publication that reflects a diverse range of subject matter of interest to contemporary artists.

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