Foundation Grants

Foundation grants further NIU mission, enhance learning

The U.S. debut of a French play, a new telescope and a trip to Trinidad seem to have little in common, but all three projects are receiving financial support from the NIU Foundation.

Foundation officials are contributing a combined $43,000 to the projects through the Strategic Initiative Grant and the Opportunity Grants.

"We want to support what is most important to the university. To focus on one priority one theme gives the provost the opportunity to say what is important," Foundation President Mallory M. Simpson said. "There are so many faculty doing terrific things."

Strategic Initiative Grants are designed to support programs that will have significant impact in advancing university priorities. The provost identifies a strategic priority each year this year's theme was supporting diversity and reviews proposals prior to forwarding them to the Foundation's grants committee.

Opportunity Grants are designed to provide the additional resources needed to take advantage of a new and perhaps unexpected opportunity to enhance the learning of NIU students and faculty.

The program began quite a few years ago to help distribute unrestricted gifts for the direct benefit of university faculty and students, Simpson said.

"Through the years, faculty have reported that they may not have been able to carry out their plans without the NIU Foundation grants," she said. "Although some of the grants are relatively small, many of the faculty receive additional support from their departments or colleges. In fact, the Foundation Grants Committee favorably views matching funds since that signals the degree of importance the college or department places on the work proposed by the faculty."

Here is a closer look at this spring's three winners.

School of Theatre and Dance presents humanities festival

Next spring's creation of a humanities festival at NIU including the U.S. premiere of an epic French drama has received the Strategic Initiative Grant.

Work already has begun for the March and April 2001 festival, boosted by $25,000 from the foundation. The play, written by renowned French author and scholar Helene Cixous, is "The Terrible but Unfinished Story of Norodum Sihanouk, King of Cambodia."

"No other art form possesses the theatre's innate potential for building communities and for exploring and contextualizing the full range of human experience in all its diversity," said Alexander Adducci, chair of the School of Theatre and Dance. "Through this project, we seek to break down the walls that separate us, even within the university community walls that are formed by differing cultures, ethnicities and specializations."

Foundation directors believe next year's festival is "especially compelling in the way that it seeks to draw diverse segments of the university together in common understanding through theatre," said Mallory M. Simpson, president of the NIU Foundation.
Cixous' play deals with the events surrounding the political upheaval in Cambodia from 1953 to the early 1980s. It provides a vivid picture of the people and rich cultural traditions of Cambodia, which became known to the world during the Vietnam War as a country on the receiving end of millions of bombs.

The production is the center of several activities which embrace multiple disciplines across the university community, Adducci said, and will enhance audience and classroom enrichment through a mix of historical fact, film, dance, classroom lectures, panels, concerts and exhibits.

Some events could include a poster design competition, concerts performed by students in the School of Music's world music program, a gallery exhibit of Asian or Asian-inspired art and screenings of films with an Asian theme, including some works by Norodum Sihanouk himself, who worked as a composer and filmmaker in addition to his career in politics.

Festival organizers also plan a museum-like display showcasing the life and work of French stage and film director Ariane Mnouchkine, who has been involved closely with Cixous' work as a dramatist and who commissioned her to write "Norodum Sihanouk."

Adducci said he expects Mnouchkine or another member of the Theatre du Soleil in Paris to come to DeKalb for a seminar and panel presentation dealing with the theatre's work and its longtime collaboration with Cixous.

Playwright Cixous, a prominent scholar and author, will be in residence this fall at Northwestern University in Evanston and has provisionally agreed to visit NIU during the semester to speak to and interact with the entire university community and provide assistance in the preparations for the American debut of her play.

Observatory reaches for the stars

For nearly four decades, students and DeKalb-area residents have enjoyed a heavenly view from the domed NIU observatory atop stately Davis Hall.

Soon the sights will get even better.

The Physics Department, which operates the observatory, is preparing to replace its 35-year-old telescope and electronic mount. A new telescopewith a computerized, user-friendly operating systemcould be up and running by as early as next fall.

"The new telescope, although slightly smaller than the existing one, will be much better in terms of its light-collecting ability," said David Hedin, an NIU physicist who teaches astronomy. He and colleague Ralph Benbow proposed the $20,000 upgrade.

"We'll have a better view of the heavens and the ability to get sharper photographic images of planets and galaxies," Hedin said. "Also, tour groups will see more objects and find the telescope easier to use. With the new equipment, you'll hit a button and the telescope will point toward a specific star."

The improvements are being made possible through a $10,000 Opportunity Grant from the NIU Foundation Board of Directors. The physics department and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences together will match the foundation's gift to cover the remaining costs.

"The NIU Foundation recognizes the contribution that the Davis Hall Observatory makes to both our students and the DeKalb community," said Simpson. "The observatory is a shining example of how NIU's science and technology programs provide a service to the community."

The observatory serves as a teaching aid for physics and geology courses. Additionally, public tours are offered at 8:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays during the spring and fall semesters. Private tours can be arranged for school and community groups.

"There are more tour attendees from the general public than from the university itself," said Frederick Kitterle, dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "Both the Department of Physics and the College of LA&S are partners in this project because it fosters and underscores our commitment to university outreach."

The new observatory equipment likely will be installed this summer. It will enable visitors to see such astronomical wonders as nebulae, galaxies outside our own, the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter and even stars at the end of their life cycles.
More serious visitors will be able to take photographic images using either a new digital camera or existing 35 mm cameras. More information about the observatory is available at http://www.physics.niu.edu/.

Steel Band to visit genre's homeland

NIU's famed Steel Band has received an Opportunity Grant worth $8,000 to help pay its way to October's World Steelband Music Festival in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

The money supplements $12,200 provided by other on-campus sources, including the College of Visual and Performing Arts, the School of Music, the Graduate School and the NIU Steel Band itself.

"There is still a considerable amount of funds that need to be raised," said Al O'Connor, who founded the band in 1973 and has directed it since. "But there is no question that if I hadn't received the grant, the trip would not occur. Our chances are far better now."

An invitation to the World Steelband Music Festival is a remarkable honor and a remarkable opportunity, said Paul Bauer, chair of the School of Music.

NIU's band the oldest collegiate steelband in the United States is also the only group invited from the United States, O'Connor said.

"The prestige of participating in such an event validates the opinion of many that our steelband program and the NIU Steel Band are the finest in the country," Bauer said. "Our steelband has been ambassadors for the country and NIU before, but never have we been afforded such an opportunity to do so while interacting with the finest steelbands in the world."

Pan Trinibago, the steelband association of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is centering the world festival around a competition for which steelbands from Europe and North America will participate along with steelbands from Trinidad.
NIU's involvement in the world festival also will allow faculty and students to perform next to the best steelbands in the world and observe and consult with other performers, conductors and arrangers. They also gain exposure to a foreign culture while earning distinction and visibility for NIU, the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the School of Music.

"Trinidad is where the steelpan was invented," O'Connor said. "To have the opportunity to perform in that country ... is like going back to your roots. It'll just be an incredible experience for the students. To hear what those groups sound like is going to blow everybody's mind."

More news...