Media Advisory: "12 Women Who Changed Springfield"

Public radio WUIS will hold a news conference to announce the subjects of the station's upcoming series "Skirting Convention: 12 Women Who Changed Springfield" at 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 6, at Pasfield House, located at 525 S. Pasfield in Springfield. WUIS received a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council to produce the series. Read more>>

Emiquon Field Station will host symposium on floodplain use

UIS' Emiquon Field Station Project will present "Managing and Making Choices: A Symposium on the Challenge of River Floodplain Land Use" Friday, March 23, at Dickson Mounds Museum in Lewistown.

The symposium features speakers representing diverse perspectives on a range of topics, including management strategy, economics, nutrient farming, and environmentalism. Afternoon discussion sessions will give participants an opportunity to interact with other experts to learn conservation, model systems, or land management options. Advance registration is required. Read more>>

Friday night Star Parties to resume

UIS' popular Star Parties will begin for the spring on Friday, March 23, and continue every Friday night through April 27, weather permitting. Star Parties are from 8 to 10 p.m. in the UIS observatory.

Star Parties host John Martin, assistant professor of Astronomy/Physics, noted that the observatory's three telescopes will be used to view a number of celestial objects, including Saturn, the Great Orion Nebula, Venus, and the moon. Read more>>

UIS to host Guerrilla Girls presentation

A founding member of the social activist art group Guerrilla Girls will present an artist lecture beginning at 7 p.m. Friday, March 23, in Brookens Auditorium.

Guerrilla Girls are known for using facts, humor, and often outrageous visuals to promote gender and racial equity in the arts and society. Assuming the names of dead women artists, they wear gorilla masks in public as a way of focusing on issues rather than personalities. Read more>>

UIS, Iles House Foundation join forces to save historic house

UIS and the Elijah Iles House Foundation have joined forces to save the 1840s-era Strawbridge-Shepherd House located just south of campus on land owned by the university.

Under the arrangement, UIS will lease the house and the two acres on which it sits to the Iles House Foundation for ten years at a cost of $1 per year. In exchange, the Iles House Foundation intends to restore and preserve the house and plan for its use.

UIS Chancellor Richard Ringeisen called the agreement a perfect example of what can happen when the university and the community come together for a common purpose and for the public good. Read more>>

Computer science student receives award for excellence

UIS student Jeffrey Scott Bosch received a Distinctive Excellence award in the 2006 Atmel AVR Design Contest, sponsored by Circuit Cellar magazine, for his design of the ScoreTime system, a digital wall clock that doubles as a scorekeeper for two-player games. This is Bosch's second Distinctive Excellence award from Circuit Cellar; he received one in 2004 for the MeetingMinder, a timer for public speaking events.

Bosch, who will graduate from the online Computer Science program in May, lives near Sacramento, California, and works as a technical writer for ProStores, an eBay company. Read more>>

Student paper wins awards at ICPA convention

Staff members of The Journal, UIS' student newspaper, received four awards at the 25th Annual Illinois College Press Association convention, held February 16 and 17 at the Chicago City Centre.

Professional journalists and advertising professionals from throughout Illinois judged entries from more than 30 college newspapers in the state.

The paper's awards included a first place and honorable mention in the open division, and third place for general excellence and an honorable mention in the non-daily division. Read more>>

UIS will host conference on preparing for cyber defense and pandemics

A conference on "Cyber Defense and Disaster Recovery: Preparing for a Pandemic" will be held Friday, March 9, in conference room C/D. The host is UIS' Computer Science program, in conjunction with InfraGard and the Center for Systems Security & Information Assurance. Advance registration is required.

In the event of a catastrophic emergency, studies project that absenteeism in the workforce could reach as high as 80 percent. Conference chair Janis Rose, instructor of Computer Science, noted, "Everyone needs to be involved in thinking through these issues now."

The keynote speaker will be Leonard Bailey, senior counsel, Computer Crime Section, U.S. Department of Justice. Read more>>

UIS to host lectures on environmental health

The Institute for Legal and Policy Studies at UIS and the Illinois Environmental Health Association will host two public lectures examining issues in environmental health on March 6 and 7 in Brookens Auditorium. Both will begin at 7 p.m.

The first lecture, on Tuesday, March 6, will feature Nelson Fabian, executive director of the National Environmental Health Association, speaking on "Environmental Health: The Invisible Guardians in Every Community."

The lecture on Wednesday, March 7, will examine "Lessons Learned the Hard Way: After 9/11." The speaker will be Francesca Lyman, a freelance environmental reporter and contributor to MSNBC.

The lectures are being presented in conjunction with the two-day professional conference "The Crisis in Environmental Health," March 6 and 7 at UIS. Read more>>

Enrollment sets record for spring semester

Enrollment at UIS has set a record for a spring semester with 4,613 students enrolled, an increase of 220 over last spring. The 5% spring-to-spring increase is primarily due to a larger number of freshmen and graduate students, according to Marya Leatherwood, Associate Vice Chancellor and Director of Enrollment Management.

Degree programs with the largest enrollments this spring are computer science, business administration, educational leadership online, accountancy, and psychology. Read more>>

Program on computer emotions rescheduled

"Computers in Love?" a presentation by Keith Miller, professor of Computer Science, has been rescheduled for Wednesday, February 28, at Maldaner's Upstairs, 222 South Sixth St., Springfield. Miller's presentation focuses on the growing debate over intentions and emotions in artificial agents.

The program is the first in this spring's Taste of UIS series sponsored by the U of I Alumni Association at UIS. Reservations are required. Read more>>

Next PAPS event: "The Battle of Algiers"

UIS' Political Art and the Public Sphere series continues with a screening of the 1966 film "The Battle of Algiers" at 6 p.m. Monday, February 19, in Brookens Auditorium. Series facilitator Richard Gilman-Opalsky noted that the film is "one of the most important political films ever made" and "unquestionably one of the most rousing films of all time." Read more>>

UIS Theatre presents next play

As Bees in Honey Drown, a "dark comic mystery" by Douglas Carter Beane, is the next production by UIS Theatre. Six performances – March 2-4 and 8-10 – are scheduled in the Studio Theatre. All performances will be at 8 p.m. except the one on Sunday, March 4, which will be at 2 p.m. The cast features a number of UIS students; Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson, assistant professor and director of theatre, will direct. Read more>>

Campus Preview Day

UIS will host a Campus Preview Day for prospective students and their families from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, February 24. The program will include an academic fair, campus tours, lunch, and greetings from the chancellor and provost.

Click here for information on making a reservation>>

UIS to host conference on environmental health

UIS' Institute for Legal and Policy Studies and the Illinois Environmental Health Association will present a conference addressing "The Crisis in Environmental Health" on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 6 and 7. ILAPS will also host a pre-conference session on Monday, March 5. Advance registration is required for both programs.

The conference is designed to allow environmental health practitioners and administrators to develop skills essential to the delivery of environmental health services during catastrophic events. Read more>>

Fall semester deans’ list

A total of 464 students were named to the UIS Deans' List for the 2006 fall semester. To qualify for the designation, a student must be an undergraduate who took at least eight graded semester hours and maintained a grade-point average of at least 3.75 for the semester.

Click here for a printable list of students' names, arranged alphabetically by hometown.

Faculty member appointed to civil rights advisory committee

Anthony Sisneros, UIS associate professor of Public Administration, has been appointed to the Illinois Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Committee members serve two-year terms as uncompensated special government employees. Sisneros' appointment became effective last November.

Advisory committees have a number of duties; a major function is to serve as the Commission's "eyes and ears" in their respective states. Read more>>

WUIS series showcases African heritage in classical music

"African Heritage in Classical Music" is the topic of a new four-part series aired Fridays at 11 a.m. and Mondays at 8 p.m. throughout February on WUIS. The series is a collaboration of WUIS Music Director Karl Scroggin and Grammy-nominated conductor/violinist John McLaughlin Williams, and grew out of an e-mail exchange between the two men. Read more>>

UIS to offer Certified Public Manager training

The Certified Public Manager Program of Illinois, a nationally recognized professional development program, will be offered beginning in March through the Institute for Legal and Policy Studies at UIS. Although the program is designed specifically for public-sector managers, enrollment is open to anyone. Advance registration is required.

CPMPI training is presented in a series of daylong classes conducted by experts in public management and administration. Three levels of training address a number of core areas. Read more>>

"On Story" is next at Visual Arts Gallery

"On Story: New Work by Brian Gillis" will be on display from February 22 through March 21 at UIS' Visual Arts Gallery. The gallery will host an artist's presentation at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 22.

Gillis is assistant professor of Visual Art at UIS. His mixed media work explores the possibility that relationships between objects can call forth or imply a story. Read more>>

Annual Collegiate Career Fair to be held

The career planning and placement offices of UIS, Lincoln Land, Robert Morris, and SCI/Benedictine University will host the ninth annual Springfield Collegiate Career Fair from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, February 23, in the PAC. The event is free and the primary audience is current students and alumni of the four participating institutions. Representatives from approximately 100 area employers are expected to be on hand. Read more>>