Northern News

Got MLK? UNC Students Use Day Off to March On for Equality
From Greeley’s old train depot to the Greeley Recreation Center, more than 120 people braved the bitter cold on January 21 to march in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Voices of all ages called from the crowd for compassion and an end to discrimination. Handmade signs of King’s own words made perhaps the most compelling cries for help and hope. “The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what’s important,” one read. University of Northern Colorado student Shane White said he was marching because there’s still work to do for civil rights for all people, including blacks, Hispanics and those in the gay community across America. “It’s very personal for me,” White said. “I feel inspired knowing things can get better, but there’s still a long way to go.” At the end of the route, in collaboration with the Human Relations Commission of Greeley, UNC invited marchers to gather for poetry readings and a performance by the Vision of Unity Gospel Choir celebrating King’s life and legacy. Glen Ochoa, master of ceremonies and a teacher in Brighton, said he was pleased to see so many young people taking up the cause of equality. Keynote speaker Rev. Alfred Davies, a Presbyterian minister, attended King’s famous “I have a dream” speech in 1963. Davies said the fight for equality didn’t end with King’s assassination in 1968. “It’s up to everyone to carry on King’s dream,” Davies said. Tobias Guzmán, executive director of UNC Auxiliary Services, said he was proud of students’ involvement in activities leading up to the march—creating banners and participating in the university’s No Hate pledge drive. Guzmán said he was also impressed by the passion today’s youth show for the issue of civil rights. “It was a truly memorable event,” said Guzmán. “It’s safe to say it was not just a day off, but a day on.”

Bears Welcome UNC Alumnus as Head of Alumni Association
Jerry DeWitt has come home —quite literally. An ardent supporter and alumnus of the University of Northern Colorado, DeWitt was named vice president of alumni and donor relations in January. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science from UNC in 1977. While a student, DeWitt served as vice president of the UNC student government (Associated Students), president of the UNC Student Exchange Program and associate president of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. After graduating from UNC, DeWitt worked with ad agencies McCann-Erickson and D’Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, and as vice president of marketing for First Data Corp. and General Electric. “UNC transformed my life and gave me the education, character and drive to build a successful career, and help transform the lives of others,” said DeWitt. “I am very proud and excited about becoming part of the alumni association team at the UNC Foundation. Many of my best friendships were forged at UNC. I look forward to making many more.”

UNC Director Receives Native American Museum Award
Solomon Little Owl, director of UNC’s Native American Center and Native American Student Services, received the 2008 Denver Museum of Nature and Science Native American Student Award on March 18. The award was presented during the 13th Annual Buffalo Feast and Honoring Ceremony held at the museum.

College of Performing and Visual Arts Chosen for Excellence in Educator Training
The University of Northern Colorado College of Performing and Visual Arts is one of only 24 university arts programs across the country profiled by the Dana Foundation, a private philanthropic organization focused on training artists to teach in public schools. A select committee chose UNC for publication in Transforming Arts Teaching: The Role of Higher Education for its exemplary training of arts educators. The Dana Foundation looked for higher education institutions that can better prepare students to teach the arts to young people, especially at a time when schools focus more on math and reading so students show improvement on standardized tests. The CPVA centers on student development in the study of music, theater, dance or the visual arts. In coordination with preservice teacher licensure programs in the arts, the college established the Center for Integrated Arts Education, which provides professional- and curriculum-development services for school districts and schools in Colorado. This allows CPVA students to relate personally to the issues facing arts educators at K–12 public schools. Data are currently being collected to study the potentially positive impact arts programs have on behavior, achievement and attendance. Andrew Jay Svedlow, dean of the College of Performing and Visual Arts, said training outstanding arts teachers has always been one of the college’s primary purposes. “Our students have a passion for the arts, but we are also able to instill a passion to teach those arts. Our goal is to get more and more parents, principals and politicians back on the arts bandwagon. The research today is overwhelmingly in our favor. It’s apparent now that cutting arts programs in public schools has actually led to lower test scores and more apathetic students.”

Northern Vision Wins Gold Award at CASE® Annual Conference
The UNC Foundation and John Hall Design Award from the Council for Advancement during its annual District VI conference in The Northern Vision Fall 2007 cover, which recognized for Excellence in Graphic Design-Colors. CASE advances and supports educational the world by enhancing the effectiveness relations, communications, marketing, and fundraising. competition includes Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

UNC Education Dean Named to Literacy Council
Commissioner of Education Dwight D. Jones has named University of Northern Colorado College of Education and Behavioral Sciences Dean Eugene Sheehan to the Colorado Literacy Council. The council, which takes the place of the Reading Directorate, will advise the Colorado Department of Education on literacy initiatives, including systems for reviewing literacy content in teacher preparation programs, revision of the Program for Licensing Assessment for Colorado Educators (PLACE) exams, and topics for research forums and professional development with higher education. The 11-member council includes representatives from the Colorado Department of Education, the Colorado Council International Reading Association, K-12 rural literacy programs, colleges of education and community colleges, as well as a nationally recognized literacy expert.

Cessna Donates $75,000 to Monfort College of Business
Cesna Aircraf t Co. has committed $75,000 to UNC’s Monfort College of Business to sponsor a classroom in Kepner Hall. “It’s my pleasure to be part of this gift,” said Mike Shonka ’69, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Cessna. “I attribute a lot of my success to the time I spent sitting in the college’s classrooms.” Shonka is a member of the Dean’s Leadership Council, a group of alumni and business leaders who recommend strategies to accomplish the college’s mission of delivering an excellent undergraduate business program.

Academic Excellence Awards Presented
Northern Colorado faculty, administrators and colleges were presented with Academic Excellence Awards by the Provost’s Office on March 24. The following 2007–08 recipients were nominated by their peers based on having a thorough knowledge of their field, creating a positive learning environment, and showing a genuine respect and concern for their students:

• Teaching Excellence in Undergraduate Education: (2 awardees) Gayle Johnson Bohrer, School of Nursing, and Lorie Sauble-Otto, School of Modern Language & Cultural Studies
• Teaching Excellence in Graduate Education: Katrina Rodriguez, School of Educational Research, Leadership and Technology
• Excellence in Faculty Service: Paul Nutter, School of Chemistry, Earth Science & Physics
• Excellence in Faculty Advisement: Jennifer Clarke, School of Biological Sciences
• School/Program Excellence in Service: School of Psychological Sciences, College of Education and Behavioral Sciences
• Excellence Through Performance Assessment: K-12 Physical Education area of Sport and Exercise Science, School of Sport and Exercise Science
• Academic Leadership Excellence: Allen McConnell, School of Accounting and CIS

West Campus Housing Project Construction Underway
If you build it . . . The most ambitious building project in UNC’s history is well underway along 11th Avenue. Once complete, the West Campus Residence Hall Complex will accommodate 721 students in a state-of-the-art facility with improved natural light, suite-style rooms, private baths and 24-hour security. The complex will also feature multimedia meeting rooms and 40 new study areas. Funded entirely through bond money, the first phase of the project will open this fall, while the second phase will replace McCowen Hall and is scheduled to open in fall 2009. For many alumni, seeing McCowen Hall razed has been an emotional experience. Over the past 45 years, more than 30,000 students have called McCowen Hall home. Tobias Guzmán, executive director of UNC Auxiliary Services, understands the attachment to the old building by so many former UNC students. “Whenever you replace a landmark like McCowen Hall there’s going to be people who feel like a piece of them is being torn down with it,” said Guzmán. “But we’re confident this brand new facility will help attract the best and brightest to UNC. In time, the new residence hall will become yet another recognized UNC landmark. It will provide lasting memories for new UNC students, and memories you can never take away.” To view real-time construction progress, visit www.unco.edu/housing/ConstructionCam.html.

UNC Social Science Faculty Receive $160,000 Grant
A team of faculty led by Social Science Professor Matthew Downey received $160,000 in funding from the Colorado Department of Higher Education. The 2007–08 No Child Left Behind Grant will support the first year of the group’s project, “Reading in the Social Studies Project: Teaching Reading in Civics, Economics, Geography and History.” The project was one of seven across the state selected for funding by CDHE. It will create a partnership with elementary schools in Denver Public Schools to teach reading in the core social studies disciplines in grades 3–5. DPS and UNC content specialists will collaborate to review DPS social studies curriculum for how adequately it includes civics, economics, geography and history. The group will also identify and select grade-appropriate reading material for the subjects. Instruction on content-area reading will be provided for teachers from 13 DPS pilot schools. Downey coordinates the social science major at UNC, directs the interdisciplinary studies liberal arts major and is also director of the William E. Hewit Institute for History and Social Science Education. Downey, the lead principal investigator, is joined on the project by co-principal investigators Robert Brunswig, director of the School of Social Sciences, and Alexander Sidorkin, director of the School for Teacher Education. “This grant is vital to our work with Colorado’s elementary school children,” said Downey. Other UNC faculty involved in the project include Christiane Olivo, assistant professor of political science and director of the Center for Civic Education; David Aske, associate professor of economics and director of the Center for Economics Education; Phil Klein, associate professor of geography and co-coordinator of the Colorado Geographic Alliance; and Susan Thompson, coordinator, Early Childhood Education.

Management Guru Peter Senge Brings Message of ‘Sustainability’ on Valentine’s Day
Regarded by many as one of the most influential business strategists of the past 100 years, Peter Senge addressed a Business Plus Valentine’s Day audience of more than 700 at the University Center to discuss, “Collective Wisdom for Profound Innovation and Change.” Senge, a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of the best-selling book, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization, attracted business leaders from across the region focused on the difficult decisions that must be made to manage world resources. Senge said how these resources are managed will determine global fate and that we are essentially at a cultural fork in the road, with a collective choice to take either the high or low road. “The first step is for people to admit the truth about the predicament and then to work together for change. When all is said and done, we dig holes in the ground, and we burn stuff,” Senge said. He said America’s youth are well aware of the problems and cited a new national poll that concluded 80 percent of American high school students feel very or quite negative about the future. “Even the kids see the problems. The global industrialization process has no future and the next generation can see that,” he said. “Well, we kind of figured, you drank your juice and then you drank ours.” He stated taking the low road for so long has produced an American population that requires “one ton of raw materials per person, per day to support our lifestyle. If we want to take the high road instead we must all embrace fair trade, green building and waste reductions.” Senge said some U.S. corporations are paying more attention to fair-trade values that pay farmers livable wages and have reduced-waste production practices. Senge ended by saying leadership has to come from everyone. Senge himself is founding chair of the Society of Organizational Learning, a global community of corporations, researchers and consultants dedicated to the “interdependent development of people and their institutions.” “The key to all of this is you’ve got to eliminate waste in the whole system,” Senge said. “Time will tell, but I think people really do care.”

Essig Earns Culinary Award
Chef Aran Essig, UNC executive chef for Dining Services/Catering, was recently honored with the Culinarians’ Code Award from the American Culinary Federation Colorado Chefs Association. The award is one of the most prestigious given by the American Culinary Federation. “Chef Aran has an outstanding combination of talent and professionalism,” said Joan Brewster, executive director of the Colorado association. “He generously gives of his time and energy to promote others in the pursuit of culinary excellence through education.”

UNC Professor Receives Fulbright Specialist Award
Mary Sean O’Haloran , professor of counseling psychology and director of the Psychology Services Clinic at UNC, has been selected for a Fulbright Senior Specialist project in Thailand by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. At Burapha University near Bangkok, O’Halloran will provide workshops on psychological trauma to counselors and health care professionals, and consult on developing a psychological services clinic at the university along with developing graduate programs in counseling and psychology. O’Halloran is one of more than 400 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad this year through the Fulbright Senior Specialists Program. The program, created in 2000 to complement the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program, provides two-to-six-week academic opportunities to prominent U.S. faculty and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at colleges and universities worldwide. O’Halloran has worked at UNC since 1990. She holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Illinois, a master’s degree in counseling from the University of California, and a PhD in psychology from UC Santa Barbara, and is also a licensed psychologist. UNC’s College of Education and Behavioral Sciences plans to develop a student exchange program in Teacher Education with Burapha University as part of a continuing partnership. For more information about the Fulbright Senior Specialists Program, visit www.cies.org.

Let the Games Begin!
From jazz to orchestra, trombones to timpani, visual artists to actors, the Gala has become the University of Northern Colorado’s grand showcase. In its 26th year of inspired performances, the UNC showcase in February featured the incredible talent of more than 500 students from the UNC College of Performing and Visual Arts. This year’s pageantry paid homage to the upcoming 2008 Summer Games in Beijing with a Gala-style look at the Olympics. Gold-medal-caliber actors, dancers and music ensembles filled the Monfort Concert Hall at Greeley’s Union Colony Civic Center, while top-rated visual artists covered the walls of the Tointon Gallery. Andrew Jay Svedlow, PhD, dean of the College of Performing and Visual Arts, said the Gala performance has evolved its own unique style over the years. “It’s fun, it’s funny, and there are moments that will move you,” said Svedlow. “It is always immensely entertaining and a thrill to see our students shine each and every year.” UNC President Kay Norton praised the performances as the best I’ve seen yet, but also applauded the Community Advisory Board for the Performing and Visual Arts and its enthusiastic group of volunteers, who work 12 months a year to ensure the Gala’s success.

UNC Chemistry Professor Honored
The Colorado section of the American Chemical Society presented UNC Chemistry Professor Loretta Jones with the Local Section Award on January 23 during her presentation of “Different Visions: What Chemistry Students and Instructors Find in the Same Molecular Visualizations.” Jones earned a bachelor’s degree in honors chemistry at Loyola University and a master’s degree in chemistry at the University of Chicago. For nine years, she worked at Argonne National Laboratory and in industry. She earned her PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Illinois at Chicago. At the same time, she earned a DA in chemistry, a preparation for teaching and educational research and development at the college level. She taught general chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for 13 years and has been at UNC since 1992. Jones’ research area is chemical education. She is currently conducting research on how students learn from animations. She was co-principal investigator of the Rocky Mountain Teacher Education Collaborative, a coalition of six Colorado schools involved in improving the education of mathematics and science teachers. She was also the principal investigator of ChemDiscovery: Chemistry for the Information Age, a National Science Foundation funded project for the development of a web/CD-ROM hybrid learning environment for high school chemistry.

Professor Awarded NEH Summer Stipend
UNC HISTORY Professor Joan Clinefelter has been awarded a 2008 Summer Stipend by the National Endowment for the Humanities under We the People, an initiative established on Constitution Day 2002 to explore significant events and themes in our nation’s history, and to share these lessons with all Americans. The $6,000 award will fund Clinefelter’s research, “Radio in the American Sector (RIAS), 1946–1963: A German- American Partnership in the Cold War.” Clinefelter will work on the project over the summer at the George C. Marshall Research Library in Lexington, Va., and at the National Archives in College Park, Md. Clinefelter, who has been at UNC since 1995, specializes in modern Germany, teaches German history and has published a book about Nazi Germany, Artists for the Reich: Culture and Race from Weimar to Nazi Germany.