Author Archives: Ann Aubry

Bradley ’10 Fights for Women’s Rights in Nicaragua

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – In Nicaragua, 28 percent of all female adolescents are either pregnant or have already given birth—a statistic earning the nation the highest adolescent birth rate in all of Latin America, according to a recent study by the University of Costa Rica School of Public Health.

By providing health information and counseling to the women of Nicaragua through the University of Chicago’s Human Rights Internship Program, Erin Bradley, class of 2010, hopes to help change those statistics.

“It’s really important for social workers to have a human rights lens in the work they do, and it’s also important for human rights activists to include social workers and other ‘ground-level’ personnel in their activism,” said Bradley, a Normal native who double majored in history and Hispanic studies during her time at Illinois Wesleyan and is currently working toward her master’s degree in Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. “This internship was the perfect opportunity to blend my career development as a social worker with my growing interest in international human rights causes.”

Campus Mourns Lawrence Campbell

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Illinois Wesleyan University campus mourns the death of Dr. C. Lawrence Campbell, the Fern Rosetta Sherff Professor of Piano at Illinois Wesleyan University, who died July 25.

“We are deeply saddened to lose a long-time member of our Illinois Wesleyan community,” said President Richard F. Wilson. “Dr. Campbell was an outstanding pianist and performer, who made many contributions to the University. We mourn his passing.”

A professor of music, piano, piano pedagogy and literature, Dr. Campbell was a member of the Illinois Wesleyan faculty since 1978. He was named to the Fern Rosetta Sherff Professorship in 1998, honoring his distinguished teaching, research and service to the University.

“All of the faculty, staff, and students in the School of Music have lost a dear friend, colleague and teacher,” said Director of the Illinois Wesleyan School of Music Mario Pelusi. “Larry Campbell was a remarkably gifted pianist and a superb teacher of piano, whom we – and the music profession in general – will miss deeply.” Friends and colleagues of Dr. Campbell at the IWU School of Music are planning a memorial concert in his honor to be scheduled later in fall semester.

Summer Internship Provides Perfect Fit for Patel’s Dual Interests

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Sameehan Patel ’12 is all too accustomed to the reaction when he tells people he is studying both fine arts and biology at Illinois Wesleyan University: “Theatre and science? Why put yourself through all that pain?”

But for Patel, a theatre major working towards completing Illinois Wesleyan’s pre-dentistry program, combining the two seemingly contrasting disciplines isn’t about pain—it’s about passion.

“Ultimately I think of every class as a series of questions,” explained the Niles, Ill. native. “When I’m in a theatre class understanding a play, I’m exploring why we exist and how we relate to one another. When I’m in a biology class understanding a natural phenomenon, I’m exploring how we exist and why we relate to each other. While they’re extremely different in their methods, fundamentally I see both theatre and science as parts of a human investigation.”

The perception of theatre and science as complementary pieces of a larger whole is one Patel shares with Delta Dental Health Theatre (DDHT) in St. Louis, Mo., where he is spending his summer as an intern acting, organizing, writing and developing science and theatre programs. At DDHT, staff members strive to promote good oral health and overall healthy life habits by designing interactive presentations, exhibits and performances with the goal of raising awareness and combating two of the most common diseases affecting American children today: tooth decay and obesity.

Illinois Wesleyan Celebrates Connection to Farmers

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University dedicated an evening to honoring those who work the land at the first-ever Agricultural Heritage Dinner on Wednesday in the Young Main Lounge. Officials recognized the operators of more than 6,000 acres of University-owned farmland across 33 farms in Illinois.

“Without the farmland, Illinois Wesleyan would not be the University that it is today,” said President Richard F. Wilson, who noted farm holdings generate around $40 million of the University’s $200 million endowment. “The income from the farms goes directly into our scholarship program and support of the faculty,” as well as building construction and maintenance, said Wilson. “There is no better investment than the rich farmland of this area.”

More than 140 guests were in attendance at the dinner, including operators of IWU farms throughout the state. “If people ask me what I do, President Wilson said to tell them, ‘I put students through college,’” said Rick Heaton, operator of the Dorothy Hoadley Farm in Stark County, just north of Peoria. “I’d never thought of it that way before.”

The first gift of farmland to Illinois Wesleyan came in 1873 from Hiram Buck, who offered the University 640 acres. The Buck Farm, located in Douglas County, began the University’s agricultural endowment. “That farm has helped countless students to receive an Illinois Wesleyan education,” said Board of Trustee Chairman George Vinyard. “Ours is a long and rich history with the farms in Illinois that goes back to our earliest days. We are continually impressed by the agricultural heritage that we are celebrating here tonight.”

Recent Grad, Fulbright Recipient Wins Anthropology Award

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University graduate Geoffrey Grimm ’11 has been awarded the honor of best undergraduate paper at the Central States Anthropology Society (CSAS) conference, held in April at the University of Iowa’s Memorial Union in Iowa City, Iowa.

At the conference, Grimm presented a version of his senior honors thesis, “Masturbation Play and Word Games.” According to Professor of Anthropology Charles Springwood, Grimm’s advisor for both the senior honors and the conference paper, this is the first time an Illinois Wesleyan student has won a national or regional award in anthropology.

Founded in 1921, CSAS is a professional society that holds a meeting each spring welcoming cultural, physical and applied anthropologists, archaeologists, linguists and other interested scholars to present and discuss current ideas and research in the field. The CSAS Executive Board awards graduate and undergraduate paper prizes for papers presented at the conference.

Demolition of Sheean Library Under Way

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — In the coming weeks, Illinois Wesleyan’s vacant Sheean Library will be razed to prepare the site for the construction of the University’s new main classroom building.

bullet See photos of the demolition and other campus projects

“I am excited about taking this first step on a project so important to the entire University,” said President Richard F. Wilson. “While we are very close to having the necessary funding for this new building, we are still actively pursuing gifts and will not start construction until full funding has been identified.”

The new classroom building will house state of the art classrooms, resource rooms and study areas, and will be the new home for faculty from the departments of Business Administration and Economics.

Action Research Center Links Students to Community

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Students at Illinois Wesleyan are highly accustomed to enjoying an active-learning, discussion-based atmosphere in the classroom environment. The experience doesn’t end there, however, for many who choose to take advantage of one of the University’s resources for unique undergraduate internship opportunities.

For nearly 10 years, Illinois Wesleyan’s Action Research Center (ARC) has taken hands-on learning to a whole new level by connecting students with not-for-profit service, citizen groups and private-sector firms in the Bloomington-Normal area. Through internships and research projects with various local organizations, ARC allows Illinois Wesleyan students to take the initiative in making lasting community improvements.

ARC accomplishes its role as bridge-builder between the University and the community by “getting students out of their comfort zones,” said Professor of Sociology Jim Sikora, who co-founded the program with Chair of Political Science Jim Simeone in 2003. “I tell my students it’s not good enough to look at a problem and think, ‘someone should do something about that,’” added ARC Program Coordinator Deborah Halperin. “I want them to realize they are that someone.”

Supreme Court Case Highlights Challenges of Copyright

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Understanding the ins and outs of copyright laws can be as confusing as navigating a continually shifting maze. With the U.S. Supreme Court debating legislation on copyright issues this summer, Illinois Wesleyan librarians shed light on the challenges of upholding copyright in a digital world.

“We live in a copy-and-paste society,” said University Librarian Karen Schmidt, who oversees copyright compliance at the University. “The inclination in the public is to say, ‘I found it on the Internet, so it must be okay.’ There are an incredible number of resources on the web, but that amazing access also makes it foggy to understand what the obligations are for the ethical use of information.”

Copyrights can cover anything from the text of the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to a painting by Kandinsky or a song from a Broadway musical. Use or reproduction of a copyrighted item without permission of the owner is illegal. Copyrights generally lapse 70 years after death of the creator, according to the U.S. Copyright Office. Once the copyright expires, the work enters what is called “public domain,” meaning anyone can reproduce the work without seeking permission.

Wilder Field Gets Artificial Turf

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan’s Wilder Field is getting a new look with the installation of artificial turf. After 116 years of playing football on grass, the Titan football team will play their first game on the new turf at the season opener on Sept. 3.

New developments in artificial turf fields led University officials to explore the possibility of making the change, said Athletic Director Dennie Bridges. “In the last few years, as artificial turf fields evolved in quality and more schools were installing them, we started to consider turf for Illinois Wesleyan,” said Bridges. “Our first concern was the safety of the athletes, so a good deal of investigation went into that aspect of the changeover. All evidence now is that there is no difference in the safety of an artificial surface as opposed to grass.”

The new field will allow Wilder to become both a game field and a practice field for football, said Bridges. “There are so many more hours of use,” he added.

Football is not the only sport that will be positively affected by the installation of artificial turf at Wilder Field. “Women’s and men’s soccer will practice there often to lessen the stress on the grass soccer field. Softball and baseball will also be able to hold early spring workouts before their fields are ready for use,” said Bridges. “We will also hold intramural activities on the field.” Local groups will also have an opportunity to take advantage of the new field, said Bridges, making it another community resource, much like the Shirk Center and The Ames Library.

Improv Group Alumni Find Their Way in Hollywood

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – For more than a decade, Illinois Wesleyan students have been able to duck into the Underground – down the steps from the DugOut in the Memorial Center – for a weekly laugh with the student improvisational group Jm7*. When it started, the group was a sounding board, an outlet and a bonding experience for the early members. It also gave several of them the confidence to take on Hollywood after graduation.

Three of the first members of Jm7* shared their stories of what the group meant to them, and how the lessons of those early days helped them traverse the wilds of LA as a young actor.

The beginning

Jm7* started as a sketch group in 1997 with Scott Powers ’00, Mike Rich ’00 and Sam Kenny ’99. “Mike and Sam were roommates and brought me in,” said Powers, a theater and history double major. The trio performed all over campus before settling into the black-box theater, known as the Phoenix, just off of the Underground. Weekly performances included sketches written by the trio, who gave themselves the name Joker McGee and the 7 Lousy Good for Nothings, or Jm7*. The summer of 1998, Powers and Kenny attended the Improv Olympics in Chicago. When they returned to IWU in the fall, they incorporated improvisation into the performances. “As I began to write and direct more plays, the sketches took a back seat to improv, which takes less prep work. Eventually the sketches fell away altogether in favor of improv,” said Powers.

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