PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 23, June 15, 2006

brief notes

Krannert Center ad Allerton Park
Summer jazz concerts, festival announced
Jazz takes center stage in June and July at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and at Allerton Park’s new Music Barn, with the School of Music’s Summer Jazz Festival 2006, June 29-July 1.

Even more jazz is on the bill at Krannert Center, with concerts by the UI Summer Jazz Band scheduled the week before and two weeks after the festival.

All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. in Krannert Center’s Tryon Festival Theater, with the exception of the final performance, set for 8:30 p.m. at Allerton Park, near Monticello.

The jazz fest kicks off June 29 with a performance by the UI Concert Jazz Band and Studio Orchestra, directed by music professor Chip McNeill, and guest vocalist Lisanne Lyons. On the program will be songs by George Gershwin, including Nelson Riddle arrangements recorded between 1957-59 by Ella Fitzgerald, and Harold Arlen tunes arranged by McNeill and others.

On June 30, the program focuses on the big band sounds of one of America’s most beloved bandleaders: Woody Herman and his “Thundering Herd.” The Woody Herman Orchestra performs under the direction of Frank Tiberi.

The festival finale, July 1 at Allerton Park, will feature performances by the UI School of Music jazz faculty members, with guest trombonist Slide Hampton. A $25 ticket includes the concert and hors d’oeuvres. To reserve tickets, call 333-3287 or 762-7011.

Bookending the festival are concerts by the music school’s Summer Jazz Band, led by McNeill.

On June 21, the band will perform works by Sammy Nestico and Thad Jones that focus on arrangements and original compositions featuring flugelhorn, trumpet, saxophone and other instruments.

On July 12, the band will play compositions by UI jazz composers and arrangers who are still writing, including Jim Knapp, professor emeritus Morgan Powell and Kim Richmond.

Tickets for the Krannert Center concerts may be purchased at the center’s ticket office, 333-6280; e-mail kran-tix@uiuc.edu or online at www.krannertcenter.com.

I space exhibition
Chicago neighborhoods evolution explored
A new exhibition that explores how socially diverse neighborhoods in Chicago have emerged and continue to evolve will be on view through June 30 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the UI’s Urbana-Champaign campus.

“The Design of Diversity,” curated by UI urban and regional planning professor Emily Talen, draws attention to recently completed research she and her students conducted in the city as part of a community design workshop.

Talen, the author of “New Urbanism and American Planning: The Conflict of Cultures,” said the exhibition “probes the kinds of places social diversity inhabits, how this diversity can be explained, and what the physical context of diversity means – for residents who live there, for the viability of diverse neighborhoods, and for the planners and designers who want to support them.”

I space is located at 230 W. Superior St., Chicago. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

University YMCA
Register now for Communiversity courses
From dance to martial arts to arts and crafts, the University YMCA’s Communiversity program offers a variety of classes to the local community. Now in its 30th year, the program connects those with a passion to teach with those willing to learn. Classes begin as early as June 19, so early registration is encouraged.

A registration form and additional information is online at www.universityymca.org/communiversity. For questions, contact Becca at 337-1514 or communiversity@universityymca.org.

WILL Radio and Uni High
Students document the life of local Jews
Growing up in Champaign as one of a handful of Jewish children in town, Ruth Kuhn Youngerman enjoyed friendships with people from a variety of faiths. The Jewish community was small and close-knit.

University High School students interviewed Youngerman and 13 other leaders of the Champaign-Urbana Jewish community for a new radio documentary, “The 20th Century Exodus: The Triumphant Life and Journey of the Jewish in Our Community.” It will be broadcast on WILL-AM (580) at 2 p.m. July 4.

Many of those interviewed said that living in Champaign-Urbana enhanced their lives as Jews. The Jewish community of about 2,000 is large enough to be diverse, yet small enough so that all Jews who make the effort can get to know one another.

Students in the Uni High class of 2009 conducted the interviews and produced and narrated the program. AM 580’s Dave Dickey and Uni teacher Jenny Yi Kim directed the project.

In addition to the history of the Jewish community, the documentary includes stories about rituals and daily practices, and the discrimination some people faced before coming to Champaign-Urbana.

UI hosts ‘See Your Soldier’ event
Technology connects soldiers, family
The UI is using advanced videoconferencing technology to connect Illinois families with loved ones who are stationed in Iraq. On July 11 and 12, individuals and entire families can come to one of several sites around the state of Illinois for live, interactive 30-minute videoconferencing sessions in which they can see and talk with their soldiers stationed at either Camp Al Asad (Air Force) or Camp Taji/Cooke (Army) in Iraq. The “See your Soldier” event is being led by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and UI Extension.

The NCSA building is the only campus site for the event. Family members can register and get more information, such as a complete list of videoconference sites, at www.seeyoursoldier.uiuc.edu. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis and will close at the end of the day June 28.

This is the second time NCSA has helped bridge the distance between Illinois and Iraq. In December 2005, area family members spoke with soldiers at Camp Taji and Camp Al-Asad through real-time videoconferencing at the NCSA Building.

Public Safety
Kids learn how to avoid violence
This summer, the UI Division of Public Safety will offer two courses to teach children realistic safety plans and physical skills to help them avoid violence. The radKIDS Personal Empowerment Safety Education course will be offered June 26-30 for boys and girls ages 5 to 7 and July 10-14 for boys and girls ages 8 to 12. Both programs will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. at MAC Gym at CRCE.
Enrollment is limited and pre-registration is required. To enroll, contact Joan Fiesta, 333-1216, or jmfiesta@uiuc.edu. More information is available online at www.dps.uiuc.edu or www.radkids.org.

Illinois Statistics Office
Consulting and short courses offered
The Illinois Statistics Office provides statistical consulting to members of the university community. The first consultation is free. Summer hours are Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 4 p.m.

The consulting office also offers data analysis courses on topics ranging from data management to widely used statistical methods such as linear regression, analysis of variance, logistic regression and mixed models.

For more information, go to www.stat.uiuc.edu/iso or e-mail statconsulting@ad.uiuc.edu.

Non-radioactive tracer techniques
Mass spectrometry facility available
A mass spectrometry facility specializing in quantification of stable isotope enrichments is now available to all UI researchers on the Urbana-Champaign campus who are interested in using tracer techniques.

“Stable isotope tracer techniques are some of the most effective tools in nutrition and biomedical research,” said Peter Garlick, a professor of animal sciences. “Stable isotopes of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen can all be used to trace biological reactions.”

Garlick explained that stable isotope tracers are particularly suited for studies of the kinetics of glucose, protein, cholesterol, and fat metabolism in vivo that might otherwise be expensive and cumbersome, if not impossible.

With the help of analytical methods developed by Liying Zhao, a research specialist with experience in isotope tracer techniques in metabolic and nutrition research, the lab is able to conduct two sequential measurements of muscle protein synthesis rates in the same subject without a long waiting time.

“This protocol is particularly suited for human subjects because it only requires a 10-minute tracer infusion and collects a single, small piece of muscle for a biopsy sample,” she said. “We can obtain very accurate information about how protein synthesis rates alter in response to different nutritional, physiological, and pathological conditions.”

To learn more about the research and the facility, contact Garlick at 244-2870.

Smithsonian Institution
Web series to focus on museum studies
Emerging developments in elite museum studies are now only a click away for UI faculty and staff members and students.

The work and world of the museum, as seen through the lens of one expert at a time, is now available to anyone at Illinois, by means of the Smithsonian Institution’s new G. Brown Goode Smithsonian Education Lecture Series.

The lecture series and a myriad of other services and benefits are available to the people and programs at the UI because the university is a full-fledged affiliate of the institution in Washington, D.C.

Illinois gained affiliate status last September. It is among a handful of institutions of higher education that have been granted affiliate status; most affiliates are individual museums. 

The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies, in collaboration with the science education department of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, launched the Goode Smithsonian lecture series in early June. All lectures will be broadcast live on the Web through a link at http://museumstudies.si.edu. The site also includes lecture schedule updates.

Named after the Smithsonian’s earliest proponent of museums as educational institutions, the series allows S.I. museum staff and S.I. affiliates everywhere the opportunity to keep abreast of emerging developments in education pertaining to many aspects of their work, from exhibit design to outreach in schools.

For more information about the campuswide benefits of the Smithsonian affiliation, contact Scott Schwartz, SACAM archivist and primary contact between the UI and the affiliates’ program.

For more information about the lecture series, contact Bruce C. Craig, Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies at 202-357-3148 or bcraig@si.edu.

Visiting Japanese college students
Summer host families sought
Total immersion in American English is the goal one Illinois summer program sets for its visiting Japanese college students.

But immersion involves more than classroom instruction, says Stan Van Horn, a lecturer in the Intensive English Institute at the UI who is coordinating the institute’s summer language program. To promote fluency, the program also involves student home stays with local families.

Toward that end, Van Horn and the institute are seeking local families and individuals who can host one or more Japanese college students this summer in their homes, and in the process, help them advance their English language skills and introduce them to various aspects of American culture.

Individuals, families and couples, including “empty-nesters,” are welcome to apply as host families, Van Horn said. Home-stay hosts put the students up in their homes and provide meals for them, as well as spend time with them in typical household or leisure-time activities.

The 44 Japanese students who will be on the UI campus in late July and August come from universities in Hiroshima and in Kobe.
Home-stay hosts receive a stipend to help defray the costs of room and board.

The IEI works with OvECS, a private company that specializes in coordinating international student-home stays during the summer and the regular school year. The OvECS coordinator holds orientation sessions for hosts, either in small groups or individually.
The Homestay Program application is available online at http://www.azhomestay.com/hostfamapp.htm.

The institute also runs a Conversation Partners Program in which short- and longer-term international students are matched with members of the local community and with UI students who serve as their “conversation partners,” talking with them and exposing them to the community and to student life and culture. Anyone interested in serving as a conversation partner can apply online at https://webtools.uiuc.edu/formBuilder/Secure?id=6275883.

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