PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 11, Dec. 1, 2005

brief notes

WILL-TV
Medicare 7, 8 or 9 special broadcast Dec. 4
This month WILL-TV compiles the best music from five specials in a retrospective, “Medicare 7, 8 or 9 Through the Years With Dan Perrino,” broadcast at 7 p.m. Dec. 4, with a repeat at 7 p.m. Dec. 10.

The history of the jazz band Medicare 7, 8 or 9 dates to the fall of 1969, when UI student protesters gathered on the Quad and in the Union South Lounge every day. Music professor Dan Perrino and fellow professor John O’Connor decided that the South Lounge needed a little Dixieland jazz to lighten the atmosphere. Perrino, O’Connor and six other professors and graduate students hauled their instruments to the union and began to play. The room filled with people, and for once, they weren’t yelling at each other.

The group had never rehearsed, and didn’t have a name. A student reporter coined the name “Medicare 7, 8 or 9” after Perrino said he wasn’t sure how many band members showed up and Stan Rahn said that with bald heads and gray hair, they could be part of a Medicare contingent. During the next 30 years, Medicare 7, 8 or 9 played more than 2,000 performances all over Illinois and in more than 35 states.

The first Medicare 7, 8 or 9 special was broadcast on WILL-TV 23 years ago, featuring the popular Champaign-Urbana band playing Dixieland jazz. “A lot of the faces changed, but some, like Dan Perrino’s, remain constant through the years,” said WILL-TV’s Tim Hartin, who is editing the programs into the retrospective. “This program is sort of an aural and visual montage of all the programs,” Hartin said. Included are Medicare hits “Sugar Blues,” “A Closer Walk with Thee,” “12th Street Rag,” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

‘Growing Strong and Successful Youth’
Child development expert to speak Dec. 1
Peter L. Benson will discuss “Growing Strong and Successful Youth: The Power of Families and Communities Working Together” at 7 p.m. Dec 1 in the Beckman Institute Auditorium.

Benson is president and CEO of Search Institute, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit organization dedicated to providing leadership, knowledge and resources to promote healthy children, youth and communities. Benson also is the author or editor of more than a dozen books on child and adolescent development.

The speech is part of The Pampered Chef Family Resiliency Program in the department of human and community development. The focus of the program is to enrich child, individual and family well-being in the context of homes and communities.

Benson also will appear on WILL-AM’s “Focus 580” with host David Inge at 10 a.m. Dec. 2 and will meet with faculty, students and community health professionals during his visit to campus.

WILL-TV
‘Country Music Hall’ classics return Dec. 6
WILL-TV brings back three classic episodes of “Country Music Hall” for its Winterfest fund drive, and will offer a DVD containing all three shows as a gift for anyone who pledges at least $100.

The episodes air back-to-back beginning at 8 p.m. Dec. 6, with repeats beginning at 5 p.m. Dec. 11. The shows feature, in order, Sunny Norman and the Drifting Playboys, Pork and the Havana Ducks, and Jethro Burns (of Homer and Jethro fame) performing with the Iowa-based Warren County String Ticklers.

WILL promoted the “Country Music Hall” as a showcase for the best of home-grown bands who were stopping to perform in Urbana on their rise from grassroots artistry to national fame. The episodes attempted to re-create the intimate, sometimes bawdy atmosphere of a country music hall in its studio after the success of “The Grand Ole Opry” and “Austin City Limits” on PBS, said Mark Kelley, who produced the 13 episodes of “Country Music Hall” at WILL-TV.

“The goal was to make it seem like a hidden place somewhere in the Midwest where you could go on Saturday night and you never knew who might show up,” Kelley said.

Graduate College workshop
Mentoring, advising styles explored
It is estimated that nationwide, only 50 percent of students entering doctoral programs actually obtain their degree after 10 years, and that proactive mentoring is a significant factor in student persistence. The UI Graduate College, in conjunction with the Office of the Provost, will host its first professional development opportunity for graduate faculty members Jan. 11.

This workshop will explore different faculty advising styles and discuss how conflict can arise because of different student and faculty expectations. Faculty members will discuss how to set clear, reasonable expectations for students in order to avoid miscommunication and conflicts. Training will include both lecture and small group discussion. Presenters include Greg Lambeth from the UI Counseling Center and Julie Brockman of Michigan State University.

The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Illini Rooms A, B and C of the Illini Union. This event is free and is open to all UI graduate faculty members. Advanced registration is requested by calling 333-0035; more information about the program and speakers is available at www.grad.uiuc.edu. The event will conclude with a luncheon for all participants.

Cancer prevention
Researcher discusses the truth about tea
If you’re confused about the health benefits of tea, here’s your chance to listen to “arguably the top researcher in this field,” said Keith Singletary, UI professor of food science and human nutrition. Chung S. Yang, professor and chair of chemical biology at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University, will speak on the “Inhibition of Carcinogenesis by Tea: Mechanisms and Human Relevance” at 4 p.m. Dec. 7 in 180 Bevier Hall.

Yang is studying the cancer-preventive activity of tea in animal models for lung, oral, esophageal and colon cancers.

Get your tickets now
UI group to perform at Carnegie Hall
Under the direction of James F. Keene, director of University Bands, the UI Wind Symphony will perform in concert on Feb. 17 in Carnegie Hall.

UI president B. Joseph White and Richard Herman, chancellor of the Urbana campus, plan to attend the event in New York City.

Shelli Drummond Stine, associate director for development and external relations in the UI’s College of Fine and Applied Arts, said she hopes other friends and supporters of the college and the university will make plans to attend as well.

“All are invited to experience the thrill of seeing the nation’s most famous university band in New York City as they perform on the world’s most prestigious stages for the first time in university history.”

Concert tickets may be purchased through the UI Alumni Association Web site. Also on the Web site is information about an Alumni Association-sponsored bus tour, Feb. 15-19, to New York City and Carnegie Hall.

Campus Rec
Lunchtime wellness seminars continue
UI Campus Recreation will host “Lunch & Learn: Blood Pressure and Your Health” from noon to 1 p.m. Dec. 6 in Room 154 IMPE. This seminar will be presented by Jerrad Zimmerman. Lunch & Learn seminars are free to UI students and Campus Rec members and $3 for nonmembers and community members. Register at Member Services, CRCE or e-mail campusrec@uiuc.edu.

In conjunction with the Lunch & Learn, a free blood-pressure screening also will be provided by Health Alliance from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the IMPE lobby.

For more information call 217-333-3806.

Computing in Humanities, Arts, and Social Science
Digital conference to be Dec. 9
The Center for Computing in Humanities, Arts and Social Science is holding a digital conference Dec. 9 at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The event, which also will be broadcast by way of the Access Grid, will be an opportunity for scholars in the humanities, arts, social sciences and computer science to discuss projects that use advanced visualization and/or digital tools.

NCSA representatives Donna Cox, director of Visualization Experimental Technologies, and Michael Welge, director of the Automated Learning Group, will give a presentation on data mining and visualization tools at NCSA. Luc Anselin, Faculty Excellence Professor and director of the Spatial Analysis Laboratory, department of geography, will present the topic “Mapping and Analysis for Spatial Social Science.”

The workshop will feature nationally recognized researchers from other universities who use computing in their work: William G. Thomas III, professor of history and the John and Catherine Angle Chair in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Stephen Plog, Commonwealth Professor of Anthropology, University of Virginia; and Morris Eaves, professor of English, University of Rochester.

A question-and-answer session about opportunities for computing in the humanities, arts and social sciences at the Urbana campus will be led by representatives of NCSA, the computer science department, the University Library, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Seedbed Initiative, the Graduate School of Library and Information Science and the Cultural Computing Program.

The CHASS initiative was announced on Oct. 21 and is led by Distinguished Teacher/Scholar Vernon Burton, professor of history and sociology and leader of NCSA’s Humanities and Social Science Division. The goal of CHASS is to foster innovation by engaging humanists, artists and social scientists in sustained collaboration with colleagues in computer science, engineering, high-performance computing and communications in order to develop tools to accelerate research and education. CHASS continues and extends international collaborative projects begun under the auspices of the Worldwide Universities Network and has access to an extensive network of experts in education, training and outreach through participation in the National Science Foundation-funded Engaging People in Cyberinfrastructure program.

To participate in the workshop, register by Dec. 6 at or e-mail chass@ncsa.uiuc.edu.

Secretary of State
Mobile facility will offer campus services
The Illinois Secretary of State mobile facility will be open for business in Rooms 405 and 406 of the Levis Faculty Center the last Wednesday of each month from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. UI students, faculty and staff members may renew their driver’s license or state ID and purchase their annual vehicle sticker on campus. The mobile unit will operate on the UI campus once a month.

UI collegiate specialty license plates will be available for purchase at the campus mini facility on Nov. 30, as well.
Appropriate identification for a new, lost or stolen license or ID is required. A list of these documents can be found on the Secretary of State’s Web site. Cash, money orders and personal checks are acceptable forms of payment.

The mini facility also will be open for business at the Levis Faculty Center on Jan. 25, Feb. 22, March 29 and April 26.

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