March 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.– Effective March 15, Trey Short will become Assistant Provost and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Short, who currently serves as Interim Associate Vice President of Information Technology (IT), will report directly to Provost and Dean of the Faculty Beth Cunningham.

Cunningham noted in her announcement of the new appointment that Short has strong support from everyone across campus and his calm demeanor and enthusiastic attitude will serve him well in the role of CTO.

“The campus network electronic implementation has benefited from Trey’s direction, first in wiring the entire campus and now in working with the Network Services team on the current network electronics upgrade project. He has collaborated on a daily basis with faculty, students, staff, and administrators on a variety of issues such as web services, telecommunications, IT help desk policies and campus cable television,” said Cunningham.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – When 1969 Illinois Wesleyan University alumnus Richard Jenkins discovered that he was a best actor nominee for is role in The Visitor, he said he was “surprised, thrilled and a little humbled.” When he attended the 81st Academy Awards as an honored guest on Feb. 22, he said he was amazed.

“It’s a little surreal, the whole thing,” Jenkins said of the Oscar production.

In The Visitor, Jenkins plays the leading role of college professor Walter Vale, who finds that he is sharing his New York apartment with two illegal immigrants. According to 2003 best actor winner Adrien Brody, who introduced Jenkins and was one of five former category winners to present the award for best actor, Jenkins’ performance in the film is a display of “effortless and compelling simplicity.” Brody went on to commend Jenkins for his involvement in over 80 projects since the 1970s.

“I don’t quite remember what he said,” Jenkins admitted. “It’s hard to focus at that moment, but it was very nice. I loved that whole idea of actors talking about actors—I think that’s really a nice way to do it.”

Jenkins’ role in The Visitor has received five nominations from ceremonies like the Screen Actors Guild Awards and four wins in ceremonies such as the Moscow International Film Festival. Though he does not claim a “favorite” project, Jenkins was pleased to be recognized for his performance in The Visitor, which he considers an outstanding professional accomplishment.

“It’s the kind of project I waited for most of my professional life, so this was really special,” he said. “It was a movie I loved, so I didn’t mind talking about it.”

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Wendy M. Nehring, a Distinguished Alumna for Nursing Excellence and former instructor of nursing at Illinois Wesleyan University, has been named dean of nursing at East Tennessee State University (ETSU).

Nehring, who graduated from Illinois Wesleyan in 1979, most recently served as associate dean for graduate education and director of graduate programs at Rutgers University, N.J. She has also held appointments at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Rush University, and the University of Illinois.

“The university is very fortunate to have recruited Dr. Nehring, who is well respected across the nation for her contributions in nursing education and research,” said Wilsie S. Bishop, ETSU vice president for health affairs and university chief operating officer.

With more than 170 publications to her credit, Nehring has dedicated significant time to studying Down Syndrome, the experiences of children with HIV/AIDS, neural tube defects, mental retardation and the use of simulations in nursing education.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Students from a marketing class at Illinois Wesleyan University looked down upon their research subjects during a recent market survey – but that’s only because they were much shorter.

Nearly 30 Illinois Wesleyan students from Karen Bussone’s course on “Principles of Marketing” visited third graders at Grove Elementary School in Normal, hoping to gain insights on a topic generally loved by children – pizza.

“The goal of incorporating The Pizza Hut Challenge project into the classroom curriculum is to provide students an opportunity to conduct primary research with a given subject in a real world situation. “ said Bussone, a visiting assistant professor of business administration. Bussone asked Illinois Wesleyan students to create marketing concepts that target grade-school children and are geared to make a local pizza company more profitable. To assist them in their research, the students of Julie Swango’s third-grade class offered to take part in group surveys.

The children answered questions ranging from “Who is your favorite cartoon character?” to “If you could put anything on pizza, what would it be?”

“German chocolate on pizza? Yum!” said Kyle Borkowski after one third-grader’s response. Borkowski’s group posed more questions for the children, writing each answer. A junior business major from Crete, Ill., Borkowski said the interaction with the children offers a unique perspective. “We’re not just assuming what the kids like, or saying what we liked when we were kids.”

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University students are used to tackling controversial issues in the classroom, and in Professor of Art Sherry McElroy’s Graphic Design I course they’re doing it through the power of advertising.

Archived at the Student Graphic Arts Collection Web site, the advertisements feature research subjects that illustrate current social, political and economic conditions.

“The objective of the project is to explore visual solutions that best serve to educate, inform or call the audience to action,” said McElroy.

Many students in the class, which welcomes non-majors looking to fulfill a general education credit, chose the theme of gender inequality. “Earning Power,” an ad by senior accounting major Jennifer Daniels that demonstrates the pay inequality between men and women in Illinois, stood out to McElroy as particularly effective.

Underneath a one thousand dollar bill with a his-and-her-style piece cut out in the shape of the state, Daniels writes: “In Illinois, women earn 75 cents to every dollar earned by an Illinois male. … It may seem like just a few cents, but the wage gap between men and women adds up to enormous sums over the course of a working lifetime. Women working fulltime earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. For a female college graduate, that’s on average $1.2 million lost. … For the same work.”

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