February 5, 1998/ Volume 17, Number 14
News Bureau | Calendar | II Info | II Archives
Moms know better than dads how much parenting men do
- Dads say they're doing more parenting and they buy into the notion of doing so, but they're overstating their commitment. New research by Brent McBride, a professor of human development and director of the UI Child Development Lad, and graduate student Thomas R. Rane shows that men don't have an accurate perception of their actual involvment with their children.
Technique gives new look at genetic activity in living cells
- A new, non-invasive method for tagging chromosomes is making genetic activity in living cells easier to see, and likely will lead to insights into chromosome movements, folding and unfolding during natural events such as cell division, DNA replication and transcription.
Judges must be wary of witness-preparation
- Judges who preside over hight-stakes class-action suits are well advised to read Judge John D. Voelker's famous novel, "Anatomy of a Murder," says a UI law professor. The book describes how a defense lawyer coaches a murder defendant and plants the right words in his mouth.
Clinton had it easy: He only had to give a speech
UI welcomes Clinton and Gore
Japanese art of paper sculpture featured in dance festival
Krannert Art Museum features Japanese art exhibition, film series
UI home to one of world's largest collections of pop-up books
Help available for International students affected by Asian financial crisis
Journalist Novak to speak at spring commencment
Eight UI professors named Fulbright scholars
NCSA opens Office of Campus Relations, hosts Alliance '98
Board reviews image survey and acts on other issues
New sick leave policy approved
Provost search committee named
Board approves 1998 honorary degree recipiants
Climate for federal funding of research improves
Fellowships and scholarships give UI a competitive edge
GradeBook and library workshops offered...MillerComm speakers announced...Gratton Award deadline...WILL-FM spolights Paul Robeson...Second Sunday features...International fellowships available...MUCIA grant deadline...Swim lessons offered...Secretariat seeks nominations...Spring Timetable corrections.
benefits
By Jim Barlow
Dads say they're doing more parenting and they buy into the notion of doing so, but they're overstating their commitment. Just ask moms, who apparently have a better grasp on their husbands' perceived commitment and the reality of what they do, according to new research.
"We're doing all right, but men still have a long way to go," said Brent McBride, a UI family educator who studies men's roles as parents.
With increasing numbers of women working outside the home and media portrayals of children-oriented fathers, there has been a growing expectation that men should be more than financially oriented providers, McBride said. "It is no longer ethical for us as a society to expect women to do one shift outside the home and a second shift inside the home," he said.
For 10 years, McBride has conducted parenting programs just for men to help them "overcome the restraints and barriers to becoming more involved as parents." But his study in the fall issue of the Early Childhood Research Quarterly made it clear that in order to help dads, he needs moms, too.
The study by McBride, a professor of human development and director of the UI Child Development Lab, and graduate student Thomas R. Rane measured the perceptions of psychological and emotional commitments to parenting roles made by fathers of 3- to 5-year-old children in 89 Midwest families and their actual performance. Moms also gave their views of dads' actions.
Beyond the standard time-use studies, McBride and Rane provided a detailed look at fathers' actual involvement. They considered dads' interaction with kids, their physical and psychological accessibility to the kids and how well they handled indirect responsibilities such as arranging baby sitters, making doctor's appointments and planning for school or the weather.
Both mothers and fathers were given 15 pennies and told to distribute them according to their perceived psychological investments of dads in five adult roles: worker, parent, spouse, social and other. Next the parents were tested with a parental responsibility scale codeveloped by McBride in 1993 to measure participation in 14 common child-care tasks.
When the data were combined and analyzed, the researchers concluded that dads' performances didn't stack up to their perceptions, but the mothers' read on the dads was on target.
The findings suggest that identity theory doesn't work for men in explaining what they do as parents, said McBride, noting that the dads' ranking of investments in each role didn't, as expected, say a lot about their parenting behaviors.
"We need to get fathers to be more realistic about their parenting roles, about what active involvement actually means. It's more than playing for 15 minutes after
supper," he said. "This data tells us that we need to give mechanisms to men to be able to start communicating with their partners about the investments in the parenting role and how they can support each other better."
By Jim Barlow
A new, non-invasive method for tagging chromosomes is making genetic activity in living cells easier to see, and likely will lead to insights into chromosome movements, folding and unfolding during natural events such as cell division, DNA replication and transcription.
Since the method was announced by UI researchers in December 1996, it has been applied by several laboratories in live cells taken from bacteria, yeast and mammals, as well as from Drosophila (fruit flies) and C. elegans (worms).
In an upcoming issue of Trends in Cell Biology, the use of the technique will be detailed by Andrew S. Belmont, a professor of cell and structural biology at the UI, and Aaron F. Straight, a physiologist in the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.
"This method is opening a clearer window into the working mechanics in cells," Belmont said. "It gives us a way to look at the dynamics that hasn't been possible before. Down the road, we would like to learn what happens to the structure of a chromosome when a gene is turned on or off."
The method uses a specific protein-DNA interaction in which a protein binds to a specific target in DNA without altering chromosomal structure. The traditional DNA hybridization technique for localizing a particular chromosome region cannot be done on living cells, and it causes some damage, a problem that has seriously limited structural and mechanical research on chromosomes.
Belmont created a roughly 10,000-base pair DNA fragment containing 256 copies of the lac-operator sequence to which the lac-repressor protein binds. The interaction between the operator and repressor, found normally in bacteria, is well-described by previous work. By detecting the lac-repressor protein, the location of the DNA fragment containing the lac-operator repeats is revealed.
The fragment is put into chromosomes by genetic engineering. To sharpen visibility, the lac repressor protein is fused with a naturally occurring green fluorescent protein, recently discovered in jellyfish, allowing for viewing the area in living cells by light microscopy. With immunogold staining, yet clearer views have been seen under electron microscopes.
Combining this with gene amplification, a process in cancer cells that duplicates chromosomal regions, has allowed scientists to see entire chromosome arms. The results have provided pictures and proof of theorized chromosomal fibers 100 nanometers in diameter in live cells as folding and unfolding occurs.
Belmont's group has seen specific bending and motion of chromosomal fibers. UCSF biologists have seen motion during mitosis in living yeast cells. They hope to understand the natural functions of proteins required for normal chromosome separation in both yeast and human cells. Harvard researchers, using the method on bacterial cells, are questioning the theories on chromosome segregation. They now suggest an active, mechanical system for the separation. Such a mechanism had been thought to exist only in eukaryotic organisms such as plants and animals.
By Mark Reutter
Judges who preside over high-stakes class-action suits are well advised to read Judge John D. Voelker's famous novel, "Anatomy of a Murder," says a UI law professor.
The 1958 book, written under the pseudonym of Robert Traver, describes how a defense lawyer coaches a murder defendant and plants the right words in his mouth. "The defendant then supplies the requisite 'facts' to the jury after having been told in advance by counsel what types of facts would constitute a successful defense of homicide," says Ronald D. Rotunda, who teaches legal ethics at the UI College of Law.
Evidence of aggressive "witness coaching" has appeared in two proceedings under litigation, according to Rotunda, the Albert E. Jenner professor of law. One involves the Texas law firm of Baron & Budd, which represents thousands of clients suing former asbestos manufacturers. In a document called "Preparing for Your Deposition," the firm tells plaintiffs exactly what they will need to say to make the defendant "want to offer you a settlement," including detailed information on product names and descriptions, which the document suggests that the plaintiffs memorize.
"The document doesn't say a plaintiff should lie, but simply that if he remembers A rather than D he can make a lot more money," Rotunda said. The document, which was accidentally released, also offers many examples of how witnesses can testify that they are short of breath. The document repeatedly advises plaintiffs to "try to remember how close you were" to the products in question, noting that "the more often you were around them, the better for your case."
Another lawsuit that disturbs Rotunda is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's filing against Mitsubishi Motors for alleged sexual harassment of female workers. The EEOC sent a mailing to "Dear Class Member" that offers what it calls "memory joggers," a list of more than 25 buzz words and phrases that the letter indicates would be very profitable for the women to recall.
Rotunda, who is an expert consultant on behalf of Mitsubishi, said the EEOC letter was the subject of review by a U.S. district court judge, who rejected the claim that the letter was improper.
In general, Rotunda said, judges and other court officers should be vigilant about reviewing witness-preparation techniques and "not simply let these contacts go undetected" under the umbrella of attorney-client privilege.
"So long as you have lawsuits that dangle out the possibility of hundreds of millions of dollars of damages to plaintiffs and their lawyers, there is a real risk that the proceedings will become anything but the search for the truth," said Rotunda, who favors tort reform that would limit the monetary rewards of class-action suits.
By Doris K. Dahl
If you listened carefully when Air Force One -- you know, the original Air Force One that had been stuck in the mud -- took off from Willard Airport in the wee hours of Jan. 29, you may have heard not only the roar of the jet engines but also the collective sigh from the UI campus. Many faculty and staff members finally were able to catch their breath and get some sleep after a whirlwind visit from President Clinton and Vice President Gore.
For those involved in planning the president's visit, in the 10 days prior to the event there seemed to be little time for anything other than planning meetings, many early in the morning or at night, and frenetic, nearly nonstop work. There were decisions to make involving such issues as communications, food, banners, seating, lighting, music, transportation and security all with the purpose of making the occasion a memorable, successful one, both for the White House and the UI campus.
The work began in earnest Jan. 22, after the Assembly Hall was selected as the site and the White House advance team arrived on campus. The advance team, whose visit always precedes a public appearance by the president or vice president, is made up of key White House staffers who assist in the planning of the event.
"We [the planning team] had planned the Gore visit [last April], so all of us had some idea what needed to happen and thought we knew what it meant to work with the White House advance team and the Secret Service," said Steve Schomberg, associate chancellor and the overall coordinator for the event. "We knew we needed to put the two teams together to make things happen."
Key UI coordinators worked alongside members of the White House advance team, and staff members from offices across campus contributed to the efforts in preparing for and staffing the event.
"We have a wonderful group here who are tremendously skilled," Schomberg said. "When asked to take on a very complex assignment with very little notice, they said 'OK' and did it with a superb level of quality."
The event could have been considered complex merely for the size of it more than 20,000 people saw the president and vice president at the Assembly Hall and at the Intramural-Physical Education Building, where the overflow crowd assembled before a wide-screen television for the speech. But consider the special security concerns and the six-day planning window from the arrival of the advance team and it's easy to see the immensity of the task.
Workers at the Assembly Hall had their own obstacles to deal with. With a nationally televised basketball game Jan. 25, a team practice the next day and reduced storage space because of construction, crews at the Assembly Hall dismantled the basketball floor at 5 p.m. on Jan. 26 to begin preparations for the president. The floor then had to be moved to a storage site at the stadium.
Jim Abel, associate director for operations at the Assembly Hall, was elated with the results of their efforts. "We met every challenge and need that was requested. We made it happen and I think it was an outstanding event," Abel said. Not only had crews at the Assembly Hall set up the stage and seating for the event, but two meeting rooms were turned into the press filing room with an additional 100 phone lines in place, an office was set up for White House staff members and Assembly Hall crews provided a transmission room for CBS crews to feed a signal to stations across the country.
"It was a tremendous team effort by a large number of people," said Babette Hiles, director of special events, who was the site coordinator at the Assembly Hall. "A lot of people gave 150 percent to make this happen. The most exhilarating part was working with my colleagues. And of course, afterward, meeting the president."
That seemed to be the order of the day. No matter what anyone thought about Clinton's personal life or his politics, he was the guest of honor and the UI campus welcomed him with open arms.
Kris Fitzpatrick, a captain with the University Police and one of the coordinators of security for the visit, compared it to FarmAID. "We've refined our process so many times from special details from Gerald Ford's visit in '76 and FarmAID," Fitzpatrick said, "that everybody has a clear idea what the objective is and how to achieve it."
More than 200 uniformed officers were on duty the day of the speech, many attending briefings as early as 5 a.m. From crowd control to directing traffic to security posts, uniformed officers from across Central Illinois assisted in the effort.
Dining services personnel worked on their early morning meal preparations even as the Secret Service and bomb-sniffing dogs were doing a final sweep of the building. Meals were prepared for the national press corps that traveled with the president as well as brunch and lunch for the president, vice president and staff members from each office.
Dave Johnson, associate director of communications for the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics, and many other DIA staff members worked behind the scenes on a variety of issues, such as seating, communications and crowd control.
The influx of media for such a visit provided other challenges. An estimated 400 members of the news media attended the event, including 100 journalists who regularly cover the White House and arrived by plane shortly before the president. Staff members from the campus Office of Public Affairs and from the News Bureau worked with journalists that day, handing out credentials and press packets and assisting the media whenever possible. The "press pen" was located at the back of the main floor in the Assembly Hall, and the "filing room" offered a bay of work stations for members of the national press to write and file stories or photos. Mike McCurry, White House press secretary, also briefed reporters in that room.
There were so many UI staff members involved in the event that it would be virtually impossible, to compile a comprehensive list of workers. "Hosting the president of the United States is an enormous undertaking," said Chancellor Michael Aiken. "Our staff [members] certainly rose to the occasion. Literally hundreds of people offered their time and creativity to make this a memorable occasion, and their colleagues played the vital role of keeping the university in business during the preparations."
There has been a lot of speculation on why the UI and Champaign-Urbana were chosen for the visit. (By White House staffers' own admission, a visit by the president and vice president is a rarity.) Many believed it was to reinforce the president's State of the Union address in which he stressed the importance of education. Paul Bunting, supervisor of public functions at the Division of Operation and Maintenance, who supervised preparations at IMPE, has another theory.
Bunting met Clinton and Gore after they addressed the nearly 8,500 people gathered at two gymnasiums at IMPE.
"When I met President Clinton I told him that I also helped with the setup when his wife visited and when Vice President Gore was here," Bunting said. "He told me that both had told him what a great campus this was and how much they enjoyed their visit here. And the president said to me, 'That's why we're here now.' "
Others played key roles in event planning: Gene Barton, associate vice chancellor for student affairs; Willard Broom, associate dean of students; Robin Kaler, editorial associate with the Office of Public Affairs; Pam Hohn, assistant to the chancellor; Dannel McCollum, mayor of Champaign; Bill Murphy, associate chancellor for public affairs; Jon Rector, coordinator of marketing and promotion at Willard Airport; Todd Satterthwaite, mayor of Urbana; Rick Schoell, director for federal relations.
Seven photos of the Clinton/Gore visit appeared with the story. Here is the text that accompanied those photos.
By Melissa Mitchell
Audiences attending Illinois Dance Theater's "Festival '98" performances Feb. 5, 6 and 7 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts are in for a treat the cultural equivalent of a double scoop of ice cream.
That's because the program, which begins at 8 p.m. all three nights, piggybacks two areas of fine arts: dance and sculpture. Most of the dances are home-grown, featuring the talents of UI faculty choreographers and student dancers, while the sculpture is the work of one of the world's most innovative paper artists, Kyoko Ibe.
A Japanese artist rooted in Kyoto, Ibe is internationally known for pioneering the use of traditional Japanese paper, or washi, as a medium for making art. Washi, which is made from the thin skin found between the core and bark of the mulberry tree, has for centuries played an important role in Japanese culture. Papermaking considered an art form in and of itself has customarily been viewed as an honorable profession; secrets of the trade are carefully guarded and passed down only to subsequent generations of Japan's 400 paper-making families. Though it has served many functions, washi is perhaps best-known for its use as a writing or painting medium, and as the translucent material found in traditional Japanese shoji screens.
When Ibe began working with the soft, highly fibrous material back in the 1960s, the artist said, "No one at the time had thought washi could be a good material for art." Ibe said she has come to appreciate it as "a very special" material, adding that she is particularly drawn to it because it is "light and strong, and there are many techniques you can use to adapt it with other materials."
Ibe's first washi works were small pieces mostly toys, lamps and furniture she made for her own use and enjoyment. It wasn't until she brought students from the Kyoto Institute of Technology to her residence to view the pieces that she realized her art might have a wider appeal.
"I was teaching crafts and found students just were not interested," she said. "To get students interested, I brought them home to show them that washi could be a good material to work with. They suddenly were very interested. Seeing their enthusiasm their bright, shining eyes changed my mind about what I should be doing."
The art world's discovery of Ibe's talents during the mid-'60s a period that she characterized as "a high time in design" happened more by accident than anything else, she said. "I had a friend who was a newspaper writer, and he wanted to write about the new movement that was happening internationally in design. He wanted to feature five designers. He found four easily, but the last one he couldn't find. Finally, after trying to help him discover the fifth person, he said, 'You know, what you're doing with washi is more interesting than all the others. You are my fifth designer.' "
The article that followed changed the course of Ibe's life.
"I got so much interest from people asking, 'Where can I buy these things?' 'Where was I having a show?' After that, the doors opened continuously." In fact, they opened so wide that Ibe abandoned her plans to teach aesthetics at the university and concentrated exclusively on her new career as a "suitcase artist."
Ibe said she earned that title because much of her art can actually be folded down, flattened and fit in a suitcase for easy transport from one exhibition space to another. Though many of her works are still easily transportable, over time, Ibe's installations grew in scope and scale. Typically, they have consisted of countless bits of paper, folded, twisted or glued together and suspended from ceilings of atriums, lobbies, museums and similar open, airy spaces. Designed to interact with air and light, some appear to be flocks of origami-style cranes, while others resemble colorful curtains of rain.
In addition to making her washi works, Ibe has been director of Japan Paper Academy since 1988 and president of Shion Paper Co. Ltd. and Shion International since 1982. She became involved in the paper-making business after a young member of one of Japan's paper-making families visited her first solo gallery show and told her he was interested in creating washi for her art.
In 1986, Ibe received her first commission to create stage art for a dance troupe the San Francisco-based Tandy Beal Company. That collaboration which presented Ibe with the opportunity to add human movement to the list of variables that shaped her living sculpture led to more such collaborations with dance and theater groups, including designing the stage set for a modern Noh production that toured in Scandinavia.
Ibe's designs for the Krannert Center performances include four different pieces, which will serve as backdrops for dances by department head Patricia Knowles and faculty choreographers Rebecca Nettl and Renée Wadleigh. A fourth design was created for a solo dance performed by guest artist Eddie Taketa, who choreographed it with Janis Brenner, director of Janis Brenner and Dancers. Other works on the Festival program include a premiere by San Francisco-based choreographer Joe Good and a reprise of dance professor emerita Beverly Blossom's "Brides," which features her collection of antique wedding gowns.
The collaboration involving Ibe and the choreographers was quite challenging, considering Ibe's location in Japan, Knowles said. "There was a lot of cross-cultural, transcontinental communication lots of faxes, lots of correspondence." While some of the other choreographers looked through a catalog of Ibe's work and selected existing designs as models for their sets, Knowles required a completely original design. To start the creative dialogue, she sent Ibe a couple of images that "grabbed me."
"One of them was a postcard from Monument National Park, which had on it these huge orange boulders with slits of lights coming out of them. I also sent a Newsweek cover with coppers and golds, depicting galaxies exploding."
As the collaborative process continued, Knowles said Ibe "even sent bits of paper to see if I liked the color and texture." One of the final steps in the design process occurred when Ibe visited the campus in December to watch run-throughs of the dances that would incorporate her stage sets.
For the overall collaboration, Ibe worked not only with choreographers and dancers, but with artists from throughout the UI's College of Fine and Applied Arts.
Krannert Center scenic designer Michael Franklin-White, who also is the scenic designer for the UI theater department, volunteered his services to act as scenic design coordinator for the collaboration. Franklin-White has been hard at work the past few weeks "doing the choreography of the sculpture with the dancers determining what's going to move up and down when and fly where,"Knowles said.
Franklin-White and the entire Krannert Center staff deserves kudos all around for pulling off such an elaborate production, she said.
"We've never before done a collaboration of this scale. And with the incredible resources we have here at the Krannert Center, I don't believe there's another university in this country that could do so this. All involved have given 200 percent. It's been a very positive and exciting collaboration."
At the very heart and soul of the collaboration is art and design professor Kimiko Gunji, a long-time teacher and advocate of Japanese arts and culture at the UI. If not for Gunji's sharp, critical eye not to mention her dogged persistence Illinois audiences would probably still be unfamiliar with Ibe's work.
Gunji first became aware of the artist in a rather roundabout way nearly a decade ago.
"A former ceramics student in art and design sent me an article about his work that appeared in a Japanese art magazine. On the other side of the page was an article about Ibe. The next time I went to Japan, I visited with her and saw her studio. I was just fascinated by her work."
Gunji's fascination led her on a mission, in which she worked for several years toward the goal of bringing Ibe to the United States to exhibit her art. Everything fell in place in 1997 when Ibe was awarded the Japan Foundation's top award given to an artist. The grant allowed her to travel to the United States, where Gunji helped arrange her first U.S. exhibition of her work at I-space, the UI's Chicago gallery.
Pieces from the I-space exhibition, which include a free-standing screen and large-scale, two-dimensional sculptures, will be on view in the foyer of the Festival Theater Feb. 5, 6 and 7.
For those interested in learning more about about the collaborations,
Ibe and the choreographers will answer questions from the stage following
the Feb. 6 performance. Additionally, they will present a pre-performance
talk at 7 p.m. Feb. 7 in the Festival Theater foyer.
Seventy Japanese theater posters from two seminal decades in the development of modern Japanese culture will be featured in a new exhibition organized by Krannert Art Museum. The show, which will travel to New York, Berlin and Tokyo, opens Feb. 6 and runs through April 5 at the UI museum.
"Concerned Theatre Japan: The Graphic Art of Japanese Theatre, 1960-1980" documents the underlying preoccupations of the Japanese people in the post-World War II period and examines how Japanese artists of that era were part of an international avant-garde movement that addressed universal concerns derived from their own culture.
According to David G. Goodman, UI professor of Japanese literature and guest curator of the exhibition, the 1960s was a decade marked by tremendous creativity in many art forms a cultural efflorescence that extended into the '70s. Among artistic genres, none was more characteristic of the period than the theater, he said. There, taboos were broken and conventions challenged. New styles of acting, production and playwriting were developed.
The posters featured in the Krannert exhibition some collected from the designers themselves; others are from Tokyo's Musashino Art University are graphic expressions of the intensely creative, iconoclastic spirit of the times, which the Japanese shared in many ways with youthful innovators around the world.
The creative movement in Japanese theater arose, in part, Goodman said, from the post-war generation's fears of nuclear war. Playwrights, actors and artists found that the orthodox modern theater, which was modeled after Western realism and represented a break from traditional Japanese forms such as kabuki, didn't provide them with a means of dealing with problems associated with the atomic bomb and other such intractable issues. As a response, they sought to recapture the pre-modern imagination of kabuki to overcome what they regarded as the severe limitations of modern, Western-style drama.
"That imagination was anarchic, erotic, violent and religious," Goodman said. "The eroticism, anarchic violence and mysticism of the imagery found in the posters we have chosen is characteristic of the theater of this time and its attempts to use the pre-modern imagination to transcend the modern.
"The posters in this exhibition are not commercial art," he added. "They were produced gratis by the artists who felt themselves to be an integral part of the enterprise of the theater. The theater obviously influenced the design of the posters, but the posters also influenced the theater of this time, helping it to define itself. Designers were very much part of the theatrical enterprise, which also sets these works apart as unique."
Goodman has been involved with Japanese contemporary theater since 1968, when he became a founding member of Theatre Center 68/71. As editor and publisher of "Concerned Theatre Japan," an English-language theater magazine published in Tokyo between 1969 and 1973, he witnessed, translated and chronicled the contemporary Japanese theater movement during its most innovative years.
In June, the exhibition will travel to the American Institute of Graphic Arts in New York City, sponsored by the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. Later, it will travel to the Japanese Cultural Center in Berlin and conclude in Tokyo at the ggg Gallery.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Krannert is hosting a film series Feb. 11, 18, 22 and 25. The series is organized by David Desser, chair of the Unit for Cinema Studies, and co-sponsored by cinema studies and the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies (see Inside Illinois calendar for show times and titles).
Also as part of the exhibition, the museum is producing its first interactive CD-ROM. The multimedia production includes film clips of actual theater productions, historical and critical essays by Japanese and American experts. The CD-ROM and companion brochure for the exhibition were designed by art and design professor John Clarke.
The exhibition is sponsored in part by the UI Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies and the department of East Asian languages and cultures.
An opening reception for the exhibition will held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Feb. 6, and an open forum will be held on Feb. 7 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the museum. Both events are open to the public.
By Andrea Lynn
UI librarians recently were reminded of the adage about there being nothing new under the sun.
In preparing an exhibition of children's pop-up books, Nancy O'Brien and Nancy Romero, both professors of library administration, discovered that the popular contemporary genre isn't a modern invention and it wasn't created for children. Rather, pop-up books seem to have popped up in the Middle Ages, the brain-child of European scholars looking for catchy, efficient ways to communicate astronomical and mathematical data. Books with images that pop, flip, spring and slide for the amusement of youngsters wouldn't pop onto the scene until the mid-19th century.
In the UI exhibition, which is scheduled to close Feb. 6 in the Rare Book Room and Special Collections Library, 16 glass cases attempt to contain some five dozen animated images, critters mainly, both real and imaginative everything from a creepy scorpion to a lovable love bug. There also are cases devoted to dinosaurs, whodunits and even religion.
In the earth and space case, a pop-up cantina from "Star Wars" comes alive three-dimensionally, and then goes ballistic when a button is pressed, which fires the bounty hunters' laser guns. Other cases show off a pop-up Victorian day in the zoo, a pop-up Hanukkah, a pop-up life of Christ, and a pop-up mummy a four-foot-long explorable and 3-D specimen, packed with information under its many lift-up flaps. One window tells us that the tomb of the boy-king Tutankhamen, who died more than 3,300 years ago, held more than 3,000 objects. The books on display were drawn from the UI's own children's literature collection.
"It's a wonderful collection," said O'Brien, who, as education and social science librarian, is the keeper of the children's books, pop-up and otherwise. O'Brien estimates that her Education and Social Science Library owns about 2,000 modern children's pop-up sometimes called "mechanical" books, which makes it one of the largest collections of the fragile form in the world. Its children's literature holding is about 100,000 titles and growing, making it second only to that of the Library of Congress.
Using Ann Montanaro's brief history of the genre in "Pop-Up and Movable Books," O'Brien and Romero, special collections librarian, learned that Ramon Llull, a 13th-century Catalan poet and mystic, produced some of the earliest books with movable parts; he was particularly fond of rotating wheels to illustrate his many astronomical and philosophical theories. Copies of several of his masterpieces housed in the UI Rare Books and Special Collections Library sport gilded edges with intricate embossed designs and three-color diagrams of concentric turning wheels.
Petrus Apianus was a later major aficionado of mechanical book elements, his 1540 "Astronomicum caesareum" being a princely example of such a work. The book was "the most spectacular contribution of the book-maker's art to 16th century science," its pages filled with "ingeniously contrived mechanisms arranged to give planetary positions plus a variety of calendarial and astrological data," wrote Owen Gingerich in the Journal for the History of Astronomy.
"Its pages were large, brilliantly hand-coloured, and filled with ingeniously contrived mechanisms, sometimes with five or even six layers of paper disks, arranged to give planetary positions plus a variety of calendarial and astrological data," Gingerich wrote.
Designed for Charles V and his brother Ferdinand, the book graphically displays Ptolemaic astronomy fit for a monarch's eyes. Apianus' movable planisphere is one of the earliest printed star maps and owes much to the earlier wood blocks of Albrecht Dürer.
Not to be outdone was Humphry Repton, a landscape architect, who published a lavish tome for his king in London in 1802. With the help of lift-flaps, Repton's "Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening," with a plethora of "fixed principles," includes some dozen before-and-after scenes of estates and the English countryside, improved with strategic planting or removal of trees and shrubs. The UI Library also holds copies of Apianus' and Repton's books.
In about 1860, the British firm of Dean & Son claimed to be the originator of children's movable books, according to Montanaro. The firm adopted the peep-show principle and introduced the use of transformational plates, which were based on the movement of jalousie or Venetian blinds. Much later, and in an effort to jump-start book-buying in the 1930s, Blue Ribbon Publishing of New York used pop-ups to animate Disney characters, and Montanaro writes, was the first company to use the term "pop-up" to describe movable illustrations. In 1942, Random House published Disney's "Victory March," which sold 50,000 copies, and allowed children to see elephants in this case, Dumbo fly. By then, the genre, too, was well off the ground.
Today, movable illustrations include the standard pop-up, double-page pop-up, fanfolded pop-up, lift-the-flap, peep show, rotating wheel, tab-operated mechanical and transformations. Most of the pop-up books published in the last 30 years have been produced in Colombia, Mexico and Singapore, Montanaro writes.
The Asian financial crisis is hitting home for many students at the UI who are from Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The sharp devaluation on currencies in their homelands may cause serious financial difficulties for some students. To avoid having students interrupt their education, the Office of International Student Affairs is offering the following types of assistance.
* UIUC long-term loan. The terms and conditions of this loan require a U.S. citizen or permanent resident co-sign the loan guaranteeing the loan is repaid. The loan becomes due when the student completes his or her studies (or leaves the UI) and must be repaid within 12 months of that date. Information about this low-interest-rate loan is available through an adviser at OISA.
* On-campus employment. Information about on-campus work opportunities is available from the Student Employment Office, located on the fourth floor of the Student Services Building. The student must obtain an employment eligibility form (I-9) from OISA before applying for on-campus work. Immigration regulations allow a student to work no more than 20 hours per week.
* Off-campus work permission due to economic necessity. Off-campus work is approved by the Immigration and Naturalization Services on a case-by-case basis. The student must have been in F-1 status for nine months before applying. An OISA adviser can provide the instructions for applying for off-campus work permission.
* Graduate assistantships. For graduate students there is an Assistantship Clearinghouse Web site a site at http://www.grad.uiuc.edu/gsac/index.html.
* Credit Union loans. Students currently employed as graduate assistants may be able to obtain a loan at the UI Employees Credit Union, 2201 S. First St., Champaign. Information about terms and conditions is available from the Credit Union at 244-3682.
* Scholarship opportunities. Information about scholarship opportunities may be obtained through financial aid books available at the OISA front desk. More information also is at: http://finaid.org/finaid/focus/itl-stud.html.
* OISA scholarships. Undergraduates may be eligible for an OISA undergraduate scholarship. Students may set up an appointment with an OISA adviser to discuss the terms and conditions of the scholarship.
Some students might need more than a financial hand because severe financial problems can cause depression or anxiety. Faculty and staff members are urged to be alert to signs of potential problems among students. Those who suspect a student is experiencing such difficulties should make a referral to or consult with professional staff members at the Counseling Center, 333-3704, or at OISA, 333-1303.
By Shannon Vicic
Robert D. Novak, a newspaper columnist and TV commentator, will deliver the spring commencement address at the UI. He will speak May 17 at the 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. ceremonies at the Assembly Hall.
Novak is a commentator for CNN, for which he co-hosts the interview program, "Evans and Novak," serves as co-executive producer and appears on the network's political roundtable, "Capital Gang," and regularly co-hosts or appears on "Crossfire."
Novak earned his bachelor's from the UI and received the university's distinguished alumnus award in 1997. One of his first newspaper jobs was as a reporter for the Champaign-Urbana Courier. A Joliet native, he also worked for the Joliet Herald-News.
After serving in the Army during the Korean War, Novak joined the staff of The Associated Press, working at bureaus in Omaha and Lincoln, Neb., as well as Indianapolis. In 1957, he was transferred to Washington, D.C., where he began covering Congress.
He joined the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal in 1958 as its Senate correspondent and political reporter. He became the paper's chief congressional correspondent in 1961.
In 1963, Novak teamed with Rowland Evans Jr. to write "Inside Report," a column carried by more than 150 papers. Evans retired from column writing in 1993; Novak now writes the column three times a week.
Novak's first book was "Agony of the GOP: 1964." He and Evans
co-wrote "Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power," "Nixon
in the White House" and "The Reagan Revolution."
By Shannon Vicic
Eight UI professors are among the more than 700 American scholars selected to conduct research or lecture abroad as 1997-98 Fulbright award winners.
The UI winners were named in a recently released year-end tally of Fulbright scholars issued by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars in Washington, D.C. Some of the UI grant recipients are abroad; others are planning trips for the 1998 calendar year.
The UI faculty awardees:
The Fulbright Program is sponsored and funded by the United States Information Agency. Funding support also is provided by participating governments and host institutions in the United States and abroad.
Fulbright scholars are selected through a rigorous peer review of applications
administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars. The
J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, appointed by the U.S. president,
formulates policy guidelines and makes the final selection of all grantees.
A new office at the National Center for Superc-omputing Applications (NCSA) will strengthen ties with the UI community and help UI faculty and staff members take advantage of opportunities to work with NCSA.
"The Office of Campus Relations will promote the many opportunities there are for campus members to utilize NCSA and its resources," said Allison Clark, coordinator of the new office, that officially opened Jan. 5 with Clark at its helm.
Clark will work with the NCSA Campus Advisory Committee chaired by David Campbell, head of the physics department. Clark will act as an advocate for UI faculty members and graduate students, assisting them in capitalizing on opportunities at NCSA, such as faculty sabbaticals, collaboration in software development and other joint projects. She will help develop new partnerships among NCSA and campus units. She also will support existing partnerships, provide follow-through and support to campus units working to develop strategic relationships with NCSA, and coordinate NCSA participation in campuswide events.
"NCSA has been part of this campus since 1985," said Clark. "A lot of people still aren't sure just what we do, how we fit in with the campus community or how they can benefit from having a highly respected national supercomputing center right here at home. It's important that we build awareness within our campus, especially now that NCSA is the leading-edge site for the National Computational Science Alliance."
Launched on Oct. 1, the National Computational Science Alliance is a nationwide partnership of more than 50 research institutions anchored by NCSA. The alliance is one of two partnerships of the National Science Foundation's Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure program.
One of the office's initial outreach efforts is Alliance '98, a conference open to faculty members of all three campuses. Scheduled for April 27-30 at Assembly Hall, the conference will bring together all of NCSA's partners, including the research partners of the Alliance, NCSA Industrial Partners, members of the Federal Consortium and Department of Defense partners. UI faculty members should have received information about the conference in their mail.
On May 7, Clark will coordinate NCSA Campus Day, a follow-up to the Alliance '98 conference that will feature roundtable discussions and offer more informaton about collaborative opportunities with NCSA.
To find out more about the NCSA Office of Campus Relations, visit its
Web site at http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/campusrelations/
or call 244-0768. To learn more about Alliance '98 or to register
for the conference, go to http://alliance.ncsa.uiuc.edu/alliance98/.
By Laurent Pernot, UIC News Bureau
In the eyes of the people of Illinois, the UI lacks a little flavor.
"People know we exist, but we don't stand out," said trustee William Engelbrecht at the UI Board of Trustees meeting Jan. 16 in Chicago. "In some respects, we're sort of like plain vanilla." Engelbrecht's comment came as he briefed his fellow trustees on a statewide study on the public's views of the UI, conducted by two consulting firms.
"Though the UI generally is regarded favorably, it does not earn the kind of rave reviews that would indicate that its standing among the public is superior, solid and secure," said the study, conducted last November by Peter D. Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies. (See sidebar below.)
Among opinion leaders, the university was more firmly ranked as one of the premier institutions in the state, with 59 percent ranking it in the top three. In the first phase of the project, the consultants held discussions with focus groups prospective college students in Oak Park; adults in Chicago and Oak Park; parents of college or college-bound students; and opinion leaders from the media, government, business, secondary education and community advocacy in Chicago.
Pollsters then carried out statewide phone surveys of the general public and opinion leaders.
"The average citizen's knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the university's strengths and contributions tend to be vague and unformed," the survey concluded.
When asked which institution - the UI, Northwestern University or Illinois State - conducts the most important research or plays the most major role in the state, respondents selected the UI. But Northwestern edged the UI when the questions were "Who provides the best quality of education overall?" and "Who attracts the most talented students?"
Only about half of respondents thought the statement "high academic standards" described the UI "very accurately." But that figure jumped to more than 80 percent when "pretty closely" was added. Good, but not good enough in the eyes of some trustees. "Too many people are not aware of the quality of our students, research and service," Engelbrecht said. "Most everyone associated with the study was disappointed with what we found."
When the three campuses were taken separately, the Urbana-Champaign campus fared better than its two counterparts.
"There's a reservoir of good will toward the institution," said trustee Roger Plummer. "There is very little negative attitude toward the university."
One in five members of the general public surveyed said they didn't know enough about either UIC or UIUC to make a judgment. While awareness of UIS remained constant about 7 percent throughout the state, the other two campuses fared best near their home base. UIC's efforts to boost its image seem to be paying off. Adults who said UIC comes to mind when the UI is mentioned were more likely to say the university has been getting better (48 percent) than those who think of UIUC first (31 percent).
Trustee Judith Reese voiced concerns over the groups chosen for the survey. The study used a geographic quota sample - 300 interviews in Chicago, 150 in Cook County, 200 in the collar counties and 200 in the rest of the state.
"Before we turn ourselves inside out [over the study's findings], I need to raise my own comfort level with how the sample was conducted," Reese said. University President James Stukel said the consultants "assure me it was a good sample and would provide a superb base on which to evaluate changes in the future."
Although the board did not discuss specific actions to take, Engelbrecht said that "the general feeling is that this situation should not be allowed to continue."
In other business the board:
When compared to all Illinois universities:
Campus by campus:
Chicago respondents:
Cook County suburbs:
Downstate respondents:
*conducted November 1997 by Peter D. Hart Research Associates and Public
Opinion Strategies
As part of legislation to improve retirement benefits for university employees, compensable sick leave will no longer accrue. The UI Board of Trustees approved the changes at its Jan. 16 meeting, and the policy revisions became effective in January.
Since 1984, sick leave has been compensable, meaning that an employee will be paid for half of the balance when leaving the university. The new legislation reverses the policy. Employees will still accumulate sick leave but they will no longer earn compensable sick leave. However, employees will retain any compensable sick leave they have accumulated between Jan. 1, 1984, and the effective date of the new policy.
Civil service staff
The new sick leave policy is effective for the pay period that began Jan. 11 for civil service employees. Under the new policy, employees must use all non-compensable leave earned before Jan. 1, 1984, and after Jan. 11, 1998 before using any accrued compensable sick leave. The sick leave policy can be viewed at http://www.uihr.uillinois.edu/policy/rules.html. Questions concerning the revised policy for staff employees should be referred to Sue McCreery, records manager, Personnel Services at 333-0782 or mmccreer@ uillinois.edu.
Academic employees
The policy for academic staff members will be implemented as a transition
policy for the appointment year 1997-98. Since the change in policy occurs
mid-year, compensatory balances will be prorated when they are reported
centrally next fall or when an employee leaves the university after Jan.
1, 1998. According to the new policy, after using sick leave balances available
from the current academic year, employees will use any non-compensable cumulative
leave (sick leave earned before Jan. 1, 1984) in full before using compensable
sick leave (earned between Jan. 1, 1984 and Dec. 31, 1997). At the end of
this academic year, each academic employee's 12 cumulative days will be
divided into compensable and non-compensable portions, and sick days used
in 1997-98 will be deducted from the non-compensable cumulative portion
first. Also in the revised policy, the cap of 240 accruable days has been
eliminated. Questions about the new sick leave policy for academic employees
may be directed to the Office of Academic Human Resources at 333-6747 or
ahr@illinois.edu.
By Shannon Vicic
A search committee has been appointed to find a successor to Larry Faulkner, who is the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the UI. He is leaving the UI to become president of the University of Texas at Austin.
The committee comprises 11 members: eight faculty members, an academic professional and two students. The UI Senate elected the committee's two students and five of its faculty members. Chancellor Michael Aiken appointed three faculty members and an academic professional to the committee.
The members of the search committee: Paul Bohn, chemistry professor and department head; Ilesanmi Adesida, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Laura Appenzeller, junior in communications; Sharon Bryan, director of budget and resource planning in engineering administration; Richard Burkhardt, professor of history; Kathleen Conlin, dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts and theater professor; Lizanne DeStefano, associate dean for research in the Bureau of Educational Research; Timothy Eatman, a graduate teaching assistant in educational policy studies; William Greenough, professor of psychology and of cell and structural biology; Michael Grossman, professor of genetics and of biometrics; and Dianne Pinderhughes, political science professor and director of the Afro-American Studies and Research Program.
Aiken has appointed Bohn chair of the committee. Faulkner will remain
on campus through April 13. An interim provost is expected to be named shortly.
By Shannon Vicic
The UI Board of Trustees has selected Myron E. Essex, an AIDS researcher and chairman of the Harvard AIDS Institute, and Clyde W. Summers, one of the most widely respected labor law scholars in the nation, as honorary degree recipients.
The recommendations by the Urbana-Champaign Senate were approved Jan. 15 by the UI Board of Trustees at its meeting in Chicago.
Essex and Summers will receive their honorary degrees at commencement exercises May 17. Essex will receive an honorary doctor of science degree; Summers will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree.
Essex is the Mary Woodard Professor of Health Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health. Early in his career, he was responsible for the definitive work that explained the relationship between feline leukemia virus and the diseases of leukemia and lymphoma in cats. His work not only demonstrated the virus's mode of transmission but also the mechanism by which it survives in spite of the immune defenses of the host.
As his work expanded to include other host-virus relationships, he became one of the primary investigators of immunodeficiency viruses in the world. He is credited with making clear the differences between the two types of simian immunodeficiency virus as well as determining the relationships between simian and human immunodeficiency viruses.
He has published more than 400 research articles, reviews and book chapters. In addition, he has co-written seven books on topics ranging from AIDS in Africa to feline leukemia virus. Among his nine patents are designs for diagnostics, vaccines and gene therapies.
Summers' body of scholarly articles, book chapters and reviews has made a significant contribution to the field of law in the areas of unions and collective bargaining in the private sector, internal labor affairs and the operations of labor unions, rights of individuals in the context of collective bargaining, unionization and bargaining by public employees, foreign and comparative labor and employment law, and the workplace rights of nonunion workers.
Before taking a position at the University of Pennsylvania, Summers taught at the University of Toledo, the University of Buffalo, and the Yale Law School. He has held visiting professor positions at the University of Puerto Rico and the University of Minnesota.
Summers has earned Guggenheim, National Endowment of Humanities and Fulbright fellowships. In 1991, he was named Employee Advocate of the Year by the National Employment Lawyers Association. He has served as editor of the Comparative Labor Law Journal for the past 12 years.
In addition to his academic duties, Summers has served as a consultant to the Department of Labor, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission and the National Science Foundation.
He earned his bachelor's and law degrees from the UI. He now is a professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1995-96, a dark cloud hovered over discussions of federal funding of research. The expectation of flat or decreasing budgets posed a threat to research. But a growing economy and emerging bipartisan support for research has turned the situation around, providing a much sunnier forecast.
"It was a very good year," said Rick Schoell, director for federal relations for the UI. "National Science Foundation research funding was up nearly 5 percent over last year, and funding for the National Institutes of Health was up more than 7 percent." Federal funds awarded to the UI for fiscal year 1997 totaled approximately $195.1 million, Schoell said. (See table.)
"There were modest increases in agricultural research support and a new plant and animal genome initiative in addition to support for the competitive research grants and the National Research Initiative at the USDA," he said.
Funds that were expected to be cut from several Agriculture Research Service (ARS) programs including research in herbicide use, improving water quality and in soybean diseases were restored.
And the National Endowment for the Humanities, which supports many UI programs was funded at $11 million, a modest increase over the previous year, he said.
The UI also garnered major research awards in the past year that include the Department of Energy's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative award and the National Science Foundation's funding for a Midwest earthquake center. The UI's National Center for Supercomputing Applications will lead the National Computational Science Alliance, a partnership of more than 50 research partners across the country, through a new NSF program called Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure.
There was a downside, Schoell said. "We had hoped for better support from the Department of Defense, and we received flat funding. That was a bit of a disappointment."
Schoell is now keeping an eye on potential federal research initiatives in the pending transportation authorization legislation, "that could support some of our engineering programs as well as projects at Willard Airport."
Schoell said "the message is getting through for basic research, and there are good prospects for fiscal year 1999."
But, he warns, if the economy softens and there is restriction on growth, "we could see some of these gains evaporate. So we have to maintain our efforts."
He urges faculty members to keep up with new initiatives in federal agencies and keep an eye out for new Requests for Proposals and Notices of Funds Available, so they are fully prepared to take advantage of them.
Schoell and others from the UI also are working toward improving the future of federal funding through their involvement in the Association of American Universities, the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, and the Science Coalition, an organization of about 400 representatives from major universities, associations and industry. The coalition promotes the public value of research to Congress and the administration. In addition, Schoell said people from the UI also will be working with Rep. Tom Ewing, R-Ill., and Rep. Vern Ehlers, R-Mich, on a Science Policy Study, to be chaired by Ehlers.
"This is something that will help shape national science policy.
It's a key thing going on in 1998," Schoell said.
By Nancy Koeneman
The impact of Campaign Illinois already is being felt campuswide as professorships and programs are established, and buildings and equipment are put in place. But the Campaign is providing more than teaching tools by giving top-notch students an opportunity to learn here through scholarships and fellowships.
"Excellence in teaching and research depends on outstanding graduate students," said Wes Seitz, associate dean in graduate administration. "Outstanding graduate students inspire the undergraduate students they teach, are creative and productive members of research teams, and enliven the educational experience of their fellow graduate students."
Jim Schroeder, associate dean in the office of development in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, agrees that attracting the best and brightest graduate and undergraduate students, through fellowships and scholarships, benefits not only students, but the UI.
"By having the reputation for the best students, we can have the best faculty [members] coming to the UI to work with our graduate and undergraduate students. The long-term implication of that is that well-qualified students come in and leave as well-qualified alumni. They are successful and spread the reputation of the UI. They place a high value on the education they received here and support the university as they are able," Schroeder said.
A number of scholarships and fellowships have been created through Campaign Illinois. Endowments and individual donor support have created programs that give students small and large amounts of financial help. Some scholarships and fellowships are based on need, others are based on merit. All are competitive.
The newest scholarship program, Generation to Generation, will begin providing awards next year to students who have demonstrated financial need, but also have high academic achievement. An initial endowment has started the program, and individual donors are also sponsoring students.
"What we're trying to do with this program is show the unifying spirit across the Illinois family; people from one generation helping the next generation," said Patricia Askew, vice chancellor for student affairs. "We want it to be a feeling of continuity and ongoing support." The hopes are that these high achievers will complete their education at the UI, go out into the world and achieve their successes, then in return, contribute to the Generation to Generation program themselves. The $1,000 annual scholarships will be given each of a student's four years, if a B-average grade point is maintained.
In its second year, the James Newton Mathews Scholars program helps attract outstanding students to the UI, recognizing their achievements, and offering them an incentive, through an annual $1,500 scholarship, to maintain academic excellence [a 3.3 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale]. The scholarships are named after the first student to enroll at the UI. The funds for the scholarships are provided through private donors who want to invest in the future of these young people, Askew said. They are chosen from students already accepted at the UI, rather than through an application program. The students have an opportunity to meet their donors in a fall recognition program.
"These scholarships help the university to compete to bring the most talented students here," Askew said. "I can't tell you what it means to these students to have this kind of recognition. It's as important as the financial help. It allows them to focus more strongly on their academic pursuits, or become involved in programs, rather than working. Donors are giving them the gift of time to develop their whole self while they are here. We have students from various majors, in state, out of state, small towns, suburban communities the full gamut of students receiving scholarships."
A more established program in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, the John Baldwin Turner Agricultural Scholarships and its corresponding Graduate Fellowship Program were initially conceived in 1979 by John Campbell, who was then associate dean for resident instruction. He was committed to establishing a merit-based scholarship program after having personal experience with students who were very well-qualified academically, but couldn't get need-based funds, said Lynette Marshall, associate dean in the office of development, alumni and corporate relations in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.
Turner was a pioneer in agricultural education in Illinois and the United States. He was influential in the passage of the Morrill Act, which established the framework for the land-grant system of agricultural institutions, such as the UI.
The program is now in its 19th year and awards 60 scholarships each year of $4,000 for four years. The scholarship program is funded by individual donors. The fellowship program was established later, with the same premise of providing support for masters and doctoral students in the College of ACES.
"These programs have made a fabulous impact on our college in the quality of students we attract and maintain," Marshall said.
Thanks to Campaign Illinois, the College of Education received an endowment that supports a fellowship, but goes much further in providing support to minority students at the master's level.
The Wanda Taeschner Babcock Fellowship is named after the wife of the benefactor, Russell Babcock. At age 92, this donor has developed supportive friendships with many of the recipients, said Judy Algozin, assistant dean for development in the College of Education. "Almost all the students get to meet him," she said. Used as a recruitment tool, this fellowship allows the UI to bring in the best and brightest minority students.
"We contact minority students who have applied to the UI and let them know the fellowship is available," Algozin said. "We are competing with the top universities, such as Harvard, so this fellowship is attractive. We have a lunch for the winners to introduce them to each other. It also allows them to help build a support system for minority students."
The William Chandler Bagley Scholarship is based on grade-point average, recommendations and a student's community involvement.
"Out of our student population, we are able to offer scholarships and fellowships to about 10 percent. Ten years ago there was nothing, so we are pretty proud of that."
The Bagley scholarships are sponsored and given annually by individual donors. Some of the donors are from Champaign-Urbana, others are former students who contribute small amounts that are compiled into one scholarship.
"We are so proud of how these two programs have blossomed," Algozin said.
Graduate student assistantships are also helpful to the UI, as well as the students who get them. There are two named assistantships in the library system, said Joan Hood, director of development and public affairs for library administration.
"They really help the infrastructure of the library and can impact faculty members and researchers across the country [through the work done by the students in these positions]," Hood said.
The first in the library is called the Lawrence Stanford King graduate assistantship. King was a UI graduate and a successful New York lawyer. He had amassed a huge opera collection and left it to the UI. King's parents endowed the assistantship in his memory that will provide a student who will catalog and process the collection. Once that task is completed, students receiving that assistantship will go on to other projects in the music library.
The newest assistantship is the Lucille and Charles Wert Library Educational Fund. Charles Wert is the retired chair of the UI's department of metallurgy in the College of Engineering. His wife, Lucille, was head of the chemistry library from 1975 to 1986. Charles Wert established the fund to develop a formal program of computer training for the users of the chemistry library.
"As we move into more and more electronic resources, it's important
to have people trained to help the faculty, students and other users of
the library," Hood said.
GradeBook workshop offered
Free workshops are being offered for faculty members interested in learning to use GradeBook, a networked grading program that also permits students to see their course grades. Workshops will be offered from 12 to
1:30 p.m. Feb. 11 or from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at 1203 1/2 W. Nevada St. Participants should make reservations by calling Jackie McCoy at 333-3490, or by e-mail to jrmccoy@illinois.edu.
MillerComm speakers announced
Julia Alvarez and W. Boyd Rayward will be featured in two separate lectures presented by the MillerComm98 series. Alvarez, poet and author of three highly acclaimed novels, will be speaking on "Language as Homeland: The Writings of Julia Alvarez," at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16. Her fiction and poetry address important questions of culture, identity and creativity. Alvarez was a faculty member in the UI department of English from 1985-1988.
Rayward of the University of New South Wales, Australia, will speak on "Madness, Hype or Vision of Hope: The World Brain and the Organization of All of the Knowledge in All of the World" at 4 p.m. Feb. 10. Rayward will examine H.G. Wells' argument that it is only by creating "a permanent organization of knowledge, systematically assembled, continuously extended and made freely and easily accessible to every one, that there is the slightest hope of our species meeting the serried challenges of destiny that are advancing upon it." Rayward also has been designated a George A. Miller Endowment Visiting Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science for the academic year 1997-1998.
Both lectures will take place in the Levis Faculty Center. All MillerComm events are free and open to the public. For background information on these presentations, consult www.cas.uiuc.edu or the Miller Events Line, 333-1118.
Library workshops announced
The UI Library will offer workshops on the use of article databases Feb. 22 through March 4, and March 30 through April 8. More information or registration is available at http://magni.grainger.uiuc.edu/libauth/workshop.asp or choose "Library Workshops" on the library home page at www.library.uiuc.edu. Interested people also may call Lynne Rudasill at 333-2290.
Gratton Award deadline is March 20
The Office of International Student Affairs is soliciting assistance in finding qualified female students to apply for the Maria Pia Gratton International Award. The award, which includes tuition, fees and a $5,000 stipend, is intended to enable a female student from outside the United States to have an academic and cultural experience at the UI. The applicant may be residing in Urbana-Champaign at the time of application but her normal place of residence should be outside of the United States. Applicants should be eligible for admission to undergraduate- or graduate-level course work at UI, but need not enroll in a degree program. There is no age limit and mothers are encouraged to apply. Eligible applicants include currently enrolled students as well as students who have been admitted for the coming fall semester. A completed application form, including a personal statement, and two letters of reference must be received no later than March 20. Applications can be requested from the Office of International Student Affairs.
WILL-FM spotlights Paul Robeson
WILL-FM (90.9) observes Black History Month by honoring singer Paul Robeson in "Classically Black: Robeson!" airing at noon Feb. 8 and at 7 p.m. Feb. 27. WILL-AM (580) will air the program at 1 p.m. Feb. 14. Robeson's deep bass voice was perfectly suited for the "Showboat" tune "Ol' Man River," and it became a signature song of the singer and stage actor. But Robeson wasn't content just to sing the original lyrics. He changed them where he thought it appropriate, and turned "Ol' Man River" into a kind of protest song. Thus "I'm tired of living and scared of dying" became "I'll keep on fighting until I'm dying."
It is a testament to Robeson's legacy that the current revival of "Showboat" uses his revised lyrics, says WILL announcer Roger Cooper, who produced the program as part of his Classically Black series. "Classically Black: Robeson!" highlights the career and life of Robeson. "When I began researching Robeson's life, I had no idea he was such a great leader," said Cooper. "Other people have done great things in music, but he was involved in film, drama, the labor movement and in championing the causes of oppressed people around the world. Because he was a public figure, people listened to what he said. I'd compare him with Dr. Martin Luther King."
Cooper said he selected Robeson for this year's "Classically Black" in part because 1998 marks the 100th anniversary of Robeson's birth. The program features an interview with William Warfield about Robeson, and recordings made by Robeson including "Ballad for Americans" by John LaTouche, "Ol' Man River," and several spirituals. The station also will feature other programs in conjunction with Black History Month.
Second Sunday features the Hobsons
WILL-FM (90.9) will feature pianists Ian and Claude Hobson at its Second Sunday Concert at 2 p.m. Feb. 8. The Hobsons will perform a program of music for four hands at one piano. The free concert, presented at the Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, also will be broadcast live on WILL-FM with host Vic DiGeronimo. The husband-and-wife duo will play Mozart's Sonata in D, Franz Schubert's Fantasy in F minor, Claude Debussy's "Petite Suite," and Georges Bizet's "Jeux d' Enfants."
Ian Hobson, who performs as a soloist with orchestras in the United States, Europe and Israel, is a UI music professor as well as a professor in the Center for Advanced Study. He also is the music director of Sinfonia da Camera. Claude Hobson coaches chamber music at the UI, and appears in recitals and with orchestras as a soloist and as a duo-pianist with her husband.
Second Sunday concerts are part of WILL-FM's Prairie Performance series.
International fellowship available
International Programs and Studies will award two Nelle M. Signor Fellowships in International Relations. Each award consists of $2,000 for travel and in-country expenses for dissertation field research in any international field. Deadline for application is March 2. To be eligible, applicants must be unmarried doctoral candidates who have completed all preliminary course work and exams by the date of travel. Candidates from any discipline are eligible. Guidelines and applications are available by contacting the Development Office, 324 International Studies Building, MC-480 or by calling 333-1993. More information is available from Devora Grynspan, associate director, International Programs and Studies.
MUCIA travel grant deadline is March 2
Travel grant awards of up to $1,000 are being offered by the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities Inc. (MUCIA), the Ul Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, and International Programs and Studies. Faculty and staff members must apply by March 2 to be eligible. The award is designed to encourage faculty and staff members to work abroad on projects that are likely to result in the development or enhancement of international programs, and that ultimately benefit students and faculty and staff members at the UI. Guidelines and application forms are available from the MUCIA office. Call 333-1993 or stop by 321 International Studies Building.
Saturday swim lessons offered for kids
The department of kinesiology is offering swimming lessons in conjunction with its Saturday Morning Sports Instruction program.
Classes will be Saturdays from 10 to 10:45 a.m. and from 11 to 11:45 a.m. in the Freer Hall Pool. The co-educational classes began Jan. 31 and end April 25 (except for March 21, 28 and April 11). Although classes are under way, interested people should call Kathy McGreal, 333-6508, or the department of kinesiology, 333-2461, to see if classes are still open.
Enrollment is limited to participants ages 6 through 15. Non-swimmers, regardless of age, will be admitted to the swim program if they're 3 feet 6 inches or taller. Beginning, intermediate and advanced instruction will be offered both hours. Fees for swimming instruction will be $40 for each class, per participant, per semester.
Secretariat seeks nominations
The Secretariat is seeking nominations for its sixth annual Office Professional of the Year award. Secretariat members, except those in elected offices and OPY committee members, may be nominated by their boss or supervisor by submitting a nomination form using the following guidelines. Nominees should exhibit outstanding professionalism, routinely show consideration and support of other staff members, colleagues, students and visitors to office and campus, and be an enthusiastic supporter of UI and its programs. To be eligible for nomination, each nominee must have been a dues-paying member of Secretariat by Jan. 1, 1998, and must have attended two Secretariat luncheons from July 1, 1997, to March 1, 1998. Forms will be sent to supervisors of eligible Secretariat members. Completed nomination forms should be sent to Janet Davis, 3092 FLB, MC-170, and must be received by
3 p.m., March 20. The winner will be announced at the April 15 luncheon.
Corrections for Spring 1998 Timetable
The Office of Publications has announced the following corrections to the calendars that appeared on page 4 of the Spring 1998 Timetable.
Current and future academic calendars may be found at: http://www.uiuc.edu/providers/senate/calendar.html.
The Office of Academic Human Resources, Suite 420, 807 S. Wright St., maintains the listings for faculty and academic professional positions. More complete descriptions are available in that office during regular business hours. Job listings are also updated weekly on its Web site at: http://www.oc.uiuc.edu/ahr/ahrjobrg.htm. Any other information may be obtained from the person indicated in the listing.
faculty
Crop Sciences and Plant Biology. Professor. PhD and professorial rank or equivalent required. Ability to provide focus for new and important research initiatives within the plant biology, crop sciences and ecology communities of scholars on campus. Available January 1999. Donald Ort, 333-2093. Closing date: March 15.
Human and Community Development. Assistant or associate professor of agricultural education. PhD in agricultural education with minimum three years' teaching experience at the U.S. secondary-school level required. Strong potential for scholarly research, publication and attracting external funding required. Available Aug. 21. HCD Search #5783, A. Sofranko, 333-0725, asofrank@illinois.edu. Extended closing date: March 31.
Sociology. Visiting assistant professor. PhD in sociology required. Excellence in scholarship and teaching required. Available August. John Lie, 333-1950. Closing date: March 31.
Veterinary Biosciences. Assistant/associate professor, veterinary gross anatomy. PhD or equivalent required. DVM degree or equivalent preferred. Fluency in English and ability to develop research program and participate in graduate instruction required. Available July 21. K.R. Holmes, 333-2506, krholmes@illinois.edu. Closing date: April 30.
academic professional
Academic Human Resources, Office of. Assistant director. MA/MS with minimum two years' administrative experience preferred or BA/BS with minimum five years' relevant professional experience required, preferably in higher education academic personnel. Excellent communication skills required, familiarity with academic personnel policies and procedures preferred. Job sharing will be considered. Available immediately. Debra Hicks, 333-6747, ahr@uillinois.edu. Closing date: Feb. 10.
Alumni Association (Chicago). Associate director. BA/BS with minimum three years' experience in event planning, marketing and administration required. Knowledge of Urbana-Champaign campus a plus. Available immediately. R.H. Heldman, 333-1472, rheldman@illinois.edu. Closing date: Feb. 10.
Alumni Association. President and chief executive officer. BA/BS required, MA/MS preferred, strong sense of vision and direction as well as accomplished and experienced manager abilities. Available June 1. For applications, Susan Sindelar, 333-3070. For information, Jean Dowdall, (703) 739-4761, jean_dowdall@atkearney.com. Closing date: Feb. 24.
Animal Science. Research specialist in agriculture. BS required, MS preferred in basic science field with course work and/or experience in chemistry or biochemistry. Laboratory experience required. Available Feb. 16. Jimmy Clark, 333-0123. Closing date: Feb. 6.
Applied Life Studies, College of. Manager, systems services. BA/BS required, MA/MS preferred. Minimum two years' professional experience in networked administration, including NT experience and minimum three years' experience in computer-support activities required. Minimum $33,000. Available March 1. Jerry Burnam, 333-2131. Closing date: Feb. 15.
Cell and Structural Biology. Research specialist in life sciences. BS in molecular biology, biochemistry, biology or related field and practical knowledge of molecular biological research required. Computer literacy preferred. Available immediately. Christine Smith, 333-6118. Closing date: Feb. 13.
Computing and Communications Services Office. Research programmer or senior research programmer, UNIX system and e-mail administration. Both positions require BA/BS and minimum two years' experience, managing UNIX systems and familiarity with Windows NT servers. Senior research programmer requires minimum five years' relevant experience with experience managing several types of UNIX operating systems and Windows NT servers. Available immediately. Randy Cetin, 244-3224, r-cetin@illinois.edu. Closing date: Feb. 9.
Engineering, College. Assistant/associate director of development. BA/BS with minimum three years' successful fund-raising experience required. Science, math or engineering background a plus. Available immediately. Chair, Search and Screen Committee, 244-1376. Closing date: Feb. 10.
Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Computer-assisted instruction specialist. BA/BS and minimum two years' experience in development and implementation of computer instruction required. Available immediately. Margarita Ham, 244-8265, mham@illinois.edu. Closing date: Feb. 12.
Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Manager of instructional services. MA/MS in library and information science or related field and minimum two years' relevant experience required. Doctoral degree preferred. Available immediately. Linda Smith, 333-3281, lcsmith@illinois.edu. Closing date: Feb. 12.
Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Coordinator of research programs, community network initiative. BA/BS and minimum three years' experience in grants and project management required. MA/MS preferred. Margarita Ham, 244-8265, mham@illinois.edu. Closing date: Feb. 12.
Human and Community Development. Assistant director, child development lab. MA/MS in special education and expertise in teaching and administration of child-care programs required. Proficiency in use of sign language and trained validator with National Academy of Early Childhood Programs required. Available immediately. Human and Community Development, 333-0971. Closing date: Feb. 13.
Human Resources, University Office of (Chicago). Training coordinator. BA/BS in education, training, information systems/science or related field required. Minimum three years' training or teaching computer skills and computer utilization procedures required. Experience in client/server and Internet-based technology preferred. Available immediately. Nancy Barker, 244-4900, nbarker@uillinois.edu. Closing date: Feb. 27.
Illini Union. Program director. MA/MS and minimum three years' full-time professional experience in student activities required. Experience in college/university union or center preferred. Available May 1. Minimum $32,000. Cecile Steinberg, 244-8332. Extended closing date: Feb. 20.
Publications, Office of. Media/communications specialist (editorial). BA/BS in English or journalism with minimum two years' experience as publications professional, or advanced degree with minimum one year's experience required. Minimum $29,000. Available April 6. Patricia McCaskill, 333-9200. Extended closing date: Feb. 23.
Social Work. Visiting coordinator of research program, Children and Family Research Center. Four and one half positions available (2 1/2 Urbana, two Chicago). BA/BS in social work or related area and minimum three years' professional research experience required. Graduate research training preferred. Available immediately. Marsha Hatchel, 333-5837. Extended closing date: Feb. 13.
Willard Airport. Airport manager and assistant director for airport operations. BA/BS in management, finance, business administration, public administration or aviation management required. MA/MS in related field preferred. Minimum 10 years' progressively responsible experience in management of air-carrier airport and an Accredited Airport Executive designation or ability to obtain within three years' of hire required. Experience improving air-carrier service and preparing requests for federal grants under the ADAP and/or AIP program required. Available April 21. Sharon Allen, 244-8601. Closing date: March 15.
staff
Personnel Services Office, 52 E. Gregory Drive, Champaign, conducts
open and continuous testing for civil service classifications used on campus.
More information is available by calling 333-2137. Or visit its Web site
at: http://www.uiuc.edu/providers/pso/pso.html.
What is your job at the UI?
I'm a grounds sub-foreman and I've been at the UI 22 years. I started as a grounds worker.
During the winter, do your crews handle snow removal?
When it snows, our first priority is snow removal. The grounds crews are in charge of removing snow from sidewalks, bicycle lanes, the handicap accessible ramps at the street corners, and approaches to the buildings. My supervisor, Terry Stonestreet, says we clear about 80 miles. I have a winter crew of six people two gardeners and four grounds workers. There are four other subforeman with the same number of workers in their crews. The campus is broken down into zones, and each crew has a zone they are responsible for.
If your crews do the sidewalks and bike lanes, who handles the rest of the snow removal?
The building service workers do the steps into buildings and [the Division of Campus Parking and] Transportation takes care of the streets and parking lots.
How does your crew clear all the snow?
We have larger tractors for the bigger sidewalks and smaller tractors for the smaller sidewalks and the ramps. We use shovels for the smaller areas. We also spread ice melter and sand.
When do you start clearing?
It depends on when it starts snowing. If it starts snowing in the evening, we call the crew to come in at 4 or 5 a.m. before most students and office people get in so they have paths to walk on. It usually takes most of the day to clean up and for two or three days we still come back and work on ice patches. If we have a big snowfall, we just keep going around and around [the paths] to keep them cleared. We clear, even when it's snowing. In the evenings, we stay until the offices close to clear snow after people leave.
We've had very little snow this year. What does your crew do when there isn't much snow to clear?
Actually, it's good for us. We can do some of the business we don't get to when it snows a lot. It also saves wear and tear on the equipment. Snow removal is hard on it. We handle clearing leaves, sanitation and pruning shrubbery and other grounds work. There's always a lot to do.
During the other seasons, what kinds of tasks does the grounds crew have?
We have people who come in the spring and then temporaries who come in during the summer months to help with mowing. We do complete landscape work, plant flowers and general grounds maintenance. We have people who spray chemicals for weed control and fertilizing. They need special training and licensing. We also have two tree surgeons who are licensed by the state and take care of the trees on campus.
Outside of work, do you enjoy doing landscaping and other yard work at home?
I mow the lawn, that kind of thing. But my hobbies are racing modified
midget [cars] on Friday and Saturday nights. There's a track in Charleston
and a track in Decatur. We race 1/8 mile and 1/4 mile dirt track and they
[the cars] can reach speeds of 100 miles per hour on the straightaways.
I've been racing three years. I also coach a Pony League baseball team in
Monticello.
Information about these and other benefits is available by contacting the Beneftis Center, 807 S. Wright St., Suite 480, 333-3111.
After completing a comprehensive review, the UI will add Metropolitan Life to the Tax-Deferred Retirement Plan (403b plan). Conducted by an independent consultant, the review evaluated performance, service and administration indices of current and potential insurance and investment companies. Metropolitan joins Aetna, American Century, Fidelity and TIAA-CREF in offering a variety of investment options through salary-reduction contributions in the 403(b) plan.
Three companies Prudential, T. Rowe Price and VALIC have been removed as participating providers and are no longer investment options. T. Rowe Price chose not to continue participation in the UI's 403(b) program. If you are a current participant in one of these companies, salary-reduction contributions to these companies no longer will be available after March 1. Final payroll contributions to these companies will be taken on the Feb. 18 non-academic pay date and on the Feb. 20 academic pay date. While you will be unable to continue payroll contributions to Prudential, T. Rowe Price and VALIC, you may choose a new company for future contributions at any time.
For more information about investment options, to enroll with a new company, or if you have any questions, contact a benefits counselor.
Memorial set for Hilton Johnson
A memorial service for William Hilton Johnson, professor emeritus of geology at the UI, will be at 7 p.m. Feb. 12 on the third floor of the Levis Faculty Center.
Johnson died Nov. 30 at his home in Las Cruces, N.M. He was 62. Johnson retired from the UI as a professor and associate head of the geology department in 1996 after 33 years as a faculty member.
Survivors include his wife, Joyce; two sons; a daughter and three grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to sarcoma research in care of S. Patel and Peter Pisters, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Melanoma and Sarcoma, Box 77, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX 77030.
Lindsay MacLeod Black
Lindsay MacLeod Black, a former UI professor, died Dec. 23 in the John T. Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson, NY. He was 90.
Black was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was professor of virology from 1952-1975 in the department of plant biology at the UI. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1936, and held positions at Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden before coming to the UI.
His achievements included research in plant virus tumors, virus double-stranded RNA, insect transmission of plant viruses, mycoplasmas and Rickettsia-like organisms.
Survivors include his wife, Helen; a son; a daughter; and two grandchildren.
Guy M. Duker
Guy M. Duker, former associate director of bands and a professor of music emeritus at the UI, died Jan. 25 at his Champaign home. He was 81.
Duker received bachelor's and master's degrees from the UI. He was a Bronze Tablet Scholar and was a member of several honorary societies.
He was the supervisor of music and the director of bands in the Highland and Alton public schools for 15 years before he joined the UI faculty in 1953. He was the associate director of bands and a professor of music at the UI when he retired in 1978.
He published many music transcriptions for bands, which have been performed throughout the world. He continued transcribing orchestral music for bands until his death. The words he wrote for the march, "Illinois," by Goldman, are sung by the Marching Illini at every home football game as the band marches from Harding Band Building to Memorial Stadium.
Survivors include his wife, Ernestyn; two sons; two stepdaughters; two grandchildren and three step-grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to the UI Foundation for the Guy M. Duker Award Fund.
Stephen A. Goss
Stephen A. Goss, an assistant vice chancellor for research at the UI, died Jan. 19 after suffering a heart attack. He was 48.
Goss served as technology manager of electrical devices and telecommunications/engineering for the UI Research and Technology Management Office (RTMO). He was involved in the technical assessment and commercial licensing of intellectual property and the management of industry-sponsored research for engineering technologies.
Prior to serving in the RTMO, Goss was director of research and development at URI-Therm-X Inc., later renamed Labthermics Technologies Inc., in Champaign, where he had a key role in the development of ultrasound therapy delivery systems for hyperthermia, noninvasive ablation and associated instrumentation.
Goss also held positions as an adjunct assistant professor of radiology at the Indiana University School of Medicine and as a research scientist at the Indianapolis Center for Advanced Research.
Goss wrote more than 38 articles dealing with the medical applications of ultrasound, and served as the principal investigator on a number of federally and industrially sponsored research programs.
He was a member of the IEEE Ultrasonics Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control Society, the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, the Association of University Technology Managers, as well as several other professional societies.
Goss received his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the UI.
Survivors include his wife, Sandra; a daughter; and a son.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society or the American Heart Association.
Lowell E. Gwinn
Lowell E. "Jinks" Gwinn, a former UI employee, died Jan. 8. He was 79.
Gwinn attended Eastern Illinois University for two years. He was an Army veteran of World War II.
He was employed as a principal mechanic by the UI Abbott Power Plant from 1956 to 1980.
Survivors include his wife, Ethel, and a sister.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Gwinn Cemetery, in care of Ethel Mae Gwinn, 603 S. Westlawn, Champaign, 61821.
Paul Handler
Paul Handler, a UI professor emeritus of physics, died Jan. 24 at Provena Covenant Medical Center, Urbana. He was 68.
During his career, Handler made contributions toward the physics of semi-conductors. He developed a computer-based model for demonstrating demographic forecasts and became the director of the Populations Dynamics Group at the UI. Most recently, he pioneered research into how volcanic activity affects global climates.
In 1960, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and spent a year at the French Atomic Energy Laboratory at Saclay. He was listed in "Who's Who in America," "Who's Who in the Midwest," "Who's Who in Science" and "American Men and Women of Science."
He received a master of science degree in 1950 and a doctor of philosophy degree in chemical physics in 1954 from the University of Chicago. He came to the UI as a research associate to John Bardeen and worked with him for many years. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1956, to associate professor in 1960 and to full professor in 1964.
He is survived by his wife, Ellen; two sons; a daughter; eight grandchildren; a brother; and a sister.
Memorial contributions may be made to Sinai Temple, Champaign, or to Planned Parenthood of East Central Illinois, Champaign.
Pauline W. Pettinga
Pauline Wagar Pettinga, a former professor of music, died Jan. 22 at her Urbana home. She was 88.
Pettinga attended Ohio Wesleyan University before she transferred to the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, Ohio. She completed a bachelor of music degree there in 1932. She also studied under Nadia Boulanger at the Ecole Normal of Paris for a year.
She was an instructor of cello and theory at Meredith College, Raleigh, N.C., before she joined the UI School of Music faculty in 1939. While her husband was in the U.S. Army Air Force in World War II, she lived with her parents in Oberlin, Ohio. The family then spent 1 1/2 years in Houston before returning to the UI in the fall of 1947.
She was a member of the Tuesday Morning Musical Society, the Mozart Club and the Champaign-Urbana Score Club. She was a charter member and cellist of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra and performed in string ensembles.
She is survived by her husband, Paul; three daughters; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Frank M. Quinn
Frank M. Quinn of Monticello, a professor at UI's College of Medicine and a local physician, died Jan. 17 at Loyola University Medical Center, Chicago. He was 61.
Quinn received his bachelor's degree from the University of Scranton and his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He completed his internship at Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown, Pa. He served in the Army Medical Corps from 1963 to 1971 and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. He completed his ophthalmology residency at Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, D.C., and served as chief of ophthalmology at the U.S. Army Hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. He received the Army Commendation Medal for his services.
In 1971, he joined Carle Clinic where he served as head of the department of ophthalmology from 1977 to 1981 and was a member of the Carle Clinic Board of Governors from 1981 to 1986.
Quinn was a clinical assistant professor at the UI College of Medicine. He taught surgical procedures at the UI College of Veterinary Medicine in the comparative ophthalmology residency program.
He was named a diplomat of the American Board of Ophthalmology in 1970 and was elected a fellow of both the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and the American College of Surgeons. In addition, he served for three years on the board of governors of the Society for Physicians in Administration and as its president in 1986. He also served six years as a director of the Illinois Association of Ophthalmology.
Survivors include his wife, Frances; two daughters; a son; and a sister.
Memorial donations may be made to the Regional Organ Bank of Illinois.
Wilma Spomer
Wilma "Billie" Spomer, a former biochemist at the UI, died Jan. 23 at Provena Covenant Medical Center, Urbana. She was 57.
Spomer graduated from Colorado State University with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., with a doctorate in biochemistry. She received a master's degree in tax accounting from the UI. She was a biochemist for the UI for 20 years and a tax preparer for H & R Block for five years.
Survivors include her husband, Louis "Art," a professor of plant physiology in the department of natural resources and environmental sciences; her mother; three sons; a brother; and a sister.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society or
Covenant Hospice.
In his fiery speech at the Assembly Hall Jan. 28, Vice President Al Gore cheered on the home team when he described the UI as "the central cloverleaf for the information superhighway." Meanwhile, at virtually the very same moment, the vice president's message was brought home to more than 2,500 members of the "away team" listening to and watching the speech from their desktop computers around the globe.
Just mark it down as another "first" in the UI's long history of accomplishments in the development of computer and networking technology. The real-time Webcast of the vice president's and president's speeches at the UI represented the campus's first attempt to broadcast live video of a major event on the World Wide Web. And like all first-attempts, this one was filled with thrills and chills not to mention a little sweat for all involved.
"At 9:30 in the morning the day of the event, we still didn't have things working," said Ross Veach, a senior programmer at the UI's Office of Computing and Communications Services who provided technical support for the Webcast. One of the biggest last-minute problems occurred just before midnight Tuesday when the crew's encoding machine a powerful computer that converts standard video to network video broke. When that happened, CCSO staff member Mark Notarus was dispatched from home to the work site at CCSO's videoconference room in 14 Illini Hall.
"Mark rebuilt the system in the middle of the night, and the next day it all came across without a hitch," said CCSO Assistant Director Ed Krol, who had an apt analogy for the events leading up to the Webcast.
"If you've ever worked on a high school play, this is how it works; something is always falling over" just before the curtain rises.
Krol didn't manage to get a seat in the Assembly Hall, so he went home to watch the show on his computer. "The audio was quite good," he said, adding that the picture was "a bit small and jerky," though that's not unusual given the current state of the technology.
The whole Webcasting enterprise was just one of many examples of the kind of teamwork taking place behind the scenes across campus in relatively short order in preparation for the Clinton/Gore visit. Krol said the idea to do a Webcast surfaced about a week before the event as a suggestion by UI Webmaster Steve Miller. Pulling it off required support from additional CCSO staff members, including G. David Frye, Allan Tuchman, Notarus and Veach, as well as from WILL-TV engineers Larry Inman and Ed West.
Miller said that he has been Webcasting Illini basketball games live for the past couple of months, attracting listeners from around the world. "Webcasting is just another step in the evolution of human communication and this campus continues to help set the pace," he said, adding that "CCSO has built the capability to allow faculty members to reach students and researchers across the globe, and encourages them to take advantage of the technology."
With respect to the Jan. 28 broadcast from the Assembly Hall, Krol said, "We had been talking about doing more Webcasts, and this seemed the obvious thing to do. If we're going to be this big Internet-savvy school, we ought to be doing this," Krol said. "So I bounced the idea off Bill Murphy, associate chancellor for public affairs; he thought it was a good idea and asked the White House if they would mind, and they were all for it. So we proceeded down that path."
That path led in lots of directions including a few dead-ends for CCSO staff members who worked all hours of the day and night on the project, from 8 a.m. Monday up until the time the speakers took to the Assembly Hall stage Wednesday morning. Over the course of about 48 hours, they worked out the logistics, lined up and set up the necessary equipment and trouble-shot problems associated with the task.
Veach said one of the toughest parts of the assignment was that there were any number of ways the crew could achieve its ultimate goal each of which was fraught with its own set of obstacles and challenges.
"When I got involved Monday morning, I set a bunch of things in motion to prepare for disparate possibilities," he said. His role throughout the exercise was being "the one who threw all those balls up in the air and tried to put things together, then put new balls in motion when other things weren't coming together."
In the end, the path of least resistance was securing a video feed from WCIA-TV CBS was designated to provide the "pool" feed used by all the major television media and transmitting the video stream to a RealNetworks server in Seattle. RealNetworks then broadcast the stream across the Internet.
Though the UI recently acquired its own software and server that can accommodate 200 to 1,000 simultaneous streams and will be used for videoconferencing and distance-learning initiatives, Krol said, "We were worried that if 1,000 people accessed it over the UI's network, it could bring our Internet connection to its knees."
Krol said 1,309 connections were made from RealNetworks' video server by users worldwide. Another 1,207 connections were made using Vosaic, another type of video networking software developed at the UI. In addition, 100 audio-only streams were accessed from a campus server. All three options were listed as links on the UI's home page prior to the event.
Though no encore live video Webcasts are currently in the works, Veach said CCSO staff members did an audio-only test run of a C-U Symphony performance last fall at the UI's Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and plan to engineer two more audio Webcasts of Krannert performances later this semester.
The Vosaic version of the president's address is archived at http://www.vosaic.com/live.. For more information on how to broadcast live and archived video and audio, contact Steve Miller at shmiller@illinois.edu.