March 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Anne Marquette, a sophomore psychology major with an English minor, has been selected to study at Pembroke College in Oxford, England. As part of the Pembroke College Visiting Students Programme, Marquette will spend the 2008-2009 academic school year at the university.

Marquette, a native of Naperville, Ill., says she is ” really grateful for this opportunity and is looking forward to the chance to study psychology and English literature at this prestigious university.”

Founded in 1624, Pembroke College admits less than 100 undergraduate students each year from schools throughout Great Britain and a small number of students from other countries with a total enrollment of approximately 400 students. Pembroke is one of 32 colleges that make up Oxford University, which has a relationship with 13 U.S. colleges and universities: Brown, Bryn Mawr, Boston College, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, George Washington, Hamilton, Haverford, Illinois Wesleyan, Swarthmore, Tufts and the University of Pennsylvania. Illinois Wesleyan students have studied at Pembroke College since 1997.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University is opening international doors.

The University ranked in the top 40 of the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) most recent Open Doors report, which looks at the number of total students studying abroad and international students and scholars coming to the United States. Illinois Wesleyan ranked 37 in the nation among baccalaureate institutions for the total number of students studying abroad during the 2005-2006 academic year.Open Doors is an apt title of the report because of the opportunities students receive, said Stacey Shimizu, interm director of the International Office at Illinois Wesleyan. “We’re preparing students for global citizenship, and studying abroad is a key tool for that,” Shimizu said of students who take part in study programs and faculty-led coursework abroad. This semester, there are 56 students spending semesters studying abroad, and 52 students from other countries studying at Illinois Wesleyan.

Studying abroad can come in the guise of a year-long exchange, a semester in foreign halls through the multitude of programs with the International Office, or an intensive few weeks with a May Term travel course. “They have access to so many programs here, that students can fill almost any need,” said Shimizu. During their travels, students find themselves immersed in new cultures and ancient histories. From the mountains of the Middle East to the wetlands of Australia, many students discover their future in traveling abroad, or simply discover something about themselves.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— As the proportion of older adults rises in the United States, a growing number of patients must learn to juggle multiple medications with potentially complex dosage schedules, while also facing age-related changes that may hamper their ability to manage medication.

Millions of people in the United States gamble with their health each day by not taking prescribed medications correctly. The World Health Organization predicts only 50 percent of patients typically take medicine as prescribed.

A study by Illinois Wesleyan University nursing faculty suggests health care professionals can look at an older patient’s lifestyle to understand whether they may be successful in managing their prescriptions and needed medications.

The IWU study results, which will be published in April in Advancing in Nursing Science Quarterly, present characteristics of patients who successfully manage their medicine. “There are certain features that seem to influence whether or not someone will manage their medicine well, which we call ‘living orderly’ or ‘aging well,’” said associate professor of nursing Kathy Scherck.

Scherck along with Susan Swanlund, assistant professor of nursing, and Sharie Metcalfe and Shelia Jesek-Hale, both associate professors of nursing, studied a group of older adults in order to assess what problems they might be having managing medicine on their own. “What we found surprised us,” said Swanlund. “We found a group of people who were all successful at self-management. This presented a possible guideline for healthcare providers to note who might do well, and conversely, who might need more assistance, with medication.”

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – At 5 a.m. on Saturday, March 15, 50 Illinois Wesleyan University students and 10 faculty and staff members will board a charter bus headed for their spring break destination: a work site in a New Orleans district heavily hit by hurricane Katrina. They will volunteer with Operation Nehemiah through Friday, March 21.

Upon arrival, participants in the program known as Alternative Spring Break (ASB) will explore the Ninth Ward and French Quarter regions of New Orleans in which they will work, said ASB sponsor Kevin Clark, assistant dean of students.

Most of the volunteers will perform a variety of tasks that will change daily, but special arrangements have been made for a group of nursing students and Associate Professor of Nursing Kathy Scherck. “They are going to work specifically with healthcare issues,” said Clark. “They will be able to go into the community and use the skills they have from classroom training and clinical experience.”

“We don’t know exactly what we will be doing while we are there so I am keeping a really open mind to everything,” said Sara Baldocchi, a senior psychology major from Glen Ellyn, Ill.

The trip was arranged through Break Away, a service trip organization company that provides a list of sites across the country and the world that want to work with or have worked with colleges or universities. ASB programs have been available at schools across the United States for a number of years, but the program was inaugurated at Illinois Wesleyan last year when Clark, Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Danielle Kuglin, and a student organized an ASB trip to Pascagoula, Miss.

ASB publicity began at first-year orientation and during the first week of classes last August. “I think catching students right away made a difference in the number of volunteers,” said Clark, who expects that the program will continue to grow in future years.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Beware! March 15 is right around the bend, and with it the infamous Ides of March. We all have heard the phrase “Beware the Ides of March,” but is the date really that threatening?

“Historically, the Ides of March was a day to settle accounts, a day when bills were due,” said Jason Moralee, assistant professor of history at Illinois Wesleyan University, who noted we usually associate the day with a settling of another kind of account – the assassination of Roman emperor Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.

According to Moralee, whose focus is ancient Rome, Caesar was the last in a line of generals who ruled the late Roman republic. “These men had used their glorious victories to carve out political power, and many thought Caesar went too far.” After squelching a civil war, Caesar had been declared Dictator Perpetuus, or perpetual dictator, and renamed monuments in honor of himself, said Moralee. “This was just too much, and those who conspired against him took up the motto libertas! or liberty.”

The fact that the assassination took place on the 15th of March could have been a symbolic “settling” of Caesar’s acts of tyranny, or it could have simply been a matter of timing. Caesar was planning on leaving for a military campaign shortly after the Ides. Moralee thinks both explanations are right – the day had symbolic and practical significance. “I always like the really practical explanations. Even historical figures generally thought in practical ways,” he said.

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