Date: 3/1/00
Contact:
Ann Elkins, Group Leader, (319) 266-4586
Vicki Grimes, Office of Public Relations, (319) 273-2761
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — “The Everyday Injuries of Discrimination,” a playback theatre event, will be presented by students in the “Performance Texts and Contexts” class at the University of Northern Iowa, at 3:30 p.m., Thursday, March 2. The performance will take place in Room 109 of the Communication Arts Center on the UNI campus. It is open to the public free of charge.
Karen Mitchell, associate professor of performance studies, said that the class is divided into three groups. “Each group has a central theme. One group will present the injuries caused by discrimination.”
Ann Elkins, a UNI senior from LeMars, is the leader of this group. She said her group chose this theme because “we think it's a problem that needs to be discussed. There are ways through which people experience discrimination other than racial discrimination, and we want to educate people on that. Playback theatre is a very uplifting and educational experience. In this forum the audience share their stories and experiences.”
The actors accept stories from audience members who are willing to share. They act out that story so that the audience can step back and view the events that the teller lived, Elkins explained.
University of Northern Iowa groups invited to the performance include the faculty and students of: Women's Studies; the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Association (LGBTA); and the Center for Multicultural Education.
For more information, call Ann Elkins at (319) 266-4586.
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Contact:
Howard Barnes, head, Dept. of Design, Family and Consumer Sciences, (319) 273-2814
Gwenne Culpepper, Office of Public Relations, (319) 273-2761
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – The Textile and Apparel Program (TAPP) at the University of Northern Iowa was recently awarded a $260,000 matching grant from the Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement Program of the National Science Foundation. The NSF will provide half of the grant money, and the university will match that amount.
Howard Barnes, head of the Department of Design, Family and Consumer Sciences at UNI, says the grant money will be used to purchase the very latest in fabric and yarn analytical equipment, including a laboratory equipped with an environmentally controlled chamber. Once completed, the lab and chamber will one of the most comprehensive in the upper Midwest. Purchase of the equipment means students in the department will be able to design materials, and then conduct the same kinds of rigorous testing that manufacturers do before putting a product on the market.
The entire field of textiles and manufacturing of merchandise is rapidly changing, according to Barnes. In the past, retailers bought their clothing from manufacturers, but now most retailers have their own in-house lines and want employees who are familiar with every stage of development, including performance analysis through materials testing.
During summer 1999, TAPP received $2.3 million in industry-specific software called U4ia from Lectra Systemes Group in New York. The software is used by leading manufacturers and includes innovative methods for design, marketing, communications and production. This most recent grant, says Barnes, is another gigantic step forward for the TAPP program.
“What this lab will do, combined with the U4ia software, is allow students to express their creativity, develop garments and then test them,” explains Mitchell Strauss, director of the TAPP program. “They'll be able to simulate a variety of conditions under which the garment may be worn, just like retailers do.”
He says students who graduate with this combination of skills are typically offered salaries of at least $40,000 per year. “Having access to state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment like the ones provided through this grant will make our students much more competitive in the job market.”
Several local and national companies served as a consortium in support of the grant and have agreed to link with the department, letting UNI students help solve actual problems experienced during testing of fabrics. Among those companies are Target Stores, Dayton Hudson Corp., Fox River Mills, and Materials Testing Laboratories (MTL).
The grant proposal was written by Mitchell Strauss, associate professor; Annette Lynch, associate professor; and Sharon Mord, assistant professor, all with TAPP.
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Contact:
Sonia Yetter, UNI associate professor of Russian language & literature, (319) 273-6812
Vicki Grimes, Office of Public Relations, (319) 273-2761
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa —“ A Woman of the '60s: The Life and Thought of A.P. Filosofova” will be the topic of a lecture at noon, Monday, March 6, in Baker Hall Room 161 at the University of Northern Iowa.
Sonia Yetter, UNI associate professor of Russian language and literature, will present her lecture at the C.R.O.W. (Current Research on Women) Forum, sponsored by UNI's Graduate Program in Women's Studies. She will speak on the 19th Century Russian feminist, Anna Pavlovna Filosofova (1837-1912), who spearheaded the women's movement in Russia. Yetter's address is open to the public free of charge.
Unlike the majority of Russian women of her day, Anna Pavlovna, who was born into a privileged Russian family, received an excellent liberal education at the urging of her aunt, according to Yetter.
“Filosofova developed an interest in the lives of Russian women in her class, lower classes and the peasantry,” said Yetter. “This was due to her interest in the so-called `woman question' which was discussed in Russian intellectual circles of the day. It questioned the emphasis in Russian society on the domestic sphere, that is marriage, childbearing and rearing, and the often despotic role of the patriarchal family in Russian society.”
Yetter has taught at UNI since 1987. Her research interests include Russian feminists and literature. She has delivered papers and lectures in various places throughout the United States and Russia. She is currently carrying out research on several subjects, including the work of A. Marinina's feminist detective series, “Kenoticism and Russian Perceptions of Punishment and Redemption” and “Women's Detective Fiction in Russia, 1895-1917.”
The next program on the C.R.O.W. Forum series will be April 3, when Greg Bruess, UNI associate professor of history, will present “From Infanticide to Rape: Women and God in the Russia of Catherine the Great.”
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Contact:
Renee Romano, vice president for Educational and Student Services, (319) 273-2331
James O'Connor, Office of Public Relations, (319) 273-2761
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Kathy Gulick, UNI Wellness and Recreation Services director, has been promoted to University Health Services director. Effective March 1, Gulick will replace Lewis (Chico) Harden, M.D. In her new position, Gulick will oversee the university's Student Health Clinic, Counseling Center and Wellness/Recreation Center.
Gulick came to UNI in 1984 as an adjunct instructor in the school of Health, Physical Education and Leisure Services (HPELS). In 1990, she became the Wellness Promotion Program director and assumed her current position as Wellness and Recreation Services director in 1997.
Dr. Harden stepped down to devote his time to being a physician at the Student Health Clinic.
“Under the direction of Dr. Harden, University Health Services has made significant advances in service to students over the past five years,” says Renee Romano, vice president for educational and student services. “Kathy is a strong advocate for counseling, health and wellness services for students. I am confident she will continue to move the department forward, fully utilizing our outstanding staff and facilities.”
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Contact:
Syed Kirmani, UNI professor of mathematics, (319) 273-2940
Vicki Grimes, UNI Office of Public Relations, (319) 273-2761
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa—Syed Kirmani, UNI professor of mathematics, will be the featured speaker at the Millennium Lecture Series at 7 p.m., Monday, March 6, in Schindler Education Center, Room 244/45, on the UNI campus.
Kirmani's presentation, entitled “Statistics and the Search for Truth: The Trinity of Chance, Variability and Risk,” will focus on the growth and development of statistical theory and methods as one of the great scientific achievements of the 20th Century. Consumer marketing, crop research, quality control in industry and decision making in government all rely on advancements of statistical information. He will explain how the science of statistics can put chance to work in the service of humanity.
During the millennial year, selected members of the UNI faculty are presenting Millennium Lectures, five offered in the spring and five more in the fall. Kirmani's address is the third in the spring series. All lectures will include the presentation of a scholarly paper, and some will include artistic performances and exhibits.
“We want to think of the Millennium Lecture Series as a yearlong conversation among those of us who are fortunate enough to experience this historical moment, which comes just once in 20 lifetimes,” said Aaron Podolefsky, UNI provost and vice president for academic affairs. “It is an opportunity to consider our histories, our lives today and our futures as individuals, as members of Iowa families and communities, and as members of the larger human family.”
For more information, contact the UNI Office of Public Relations at (319) 273-2761, or check UNI's Web site at www.uni.edu.
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Contact:
Annette Lynch, director, Undergraduate Program in Women's Studies, (319) 273-7195
Vicki Grimes, Office of Public Relations, (319) 273-2761
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Feminist sociologist Ann Goetting will deliver a lecture based on her new book, “Getting Out: Life Stories of Women Who Left Abusive Men,” at 7 p.m., Monday, March 6. The lecture will be held in the University of Northern Iowa's Great Reading Room in Seerley Hall, and is open to the public free of charge.
Goetting says battering is about “a man using male privilege derived from a patriarchal social structure to coerce a woman, sometimes through fear for her very life, in an exploitive intimate relationship that holds her hostage and in servitude to his personal needs and desires.”
Goetting also will facilitate a discussion, entitled “Battering Takes Two: A Man and a Patriarchy,” at a 1 p.m. luncheon Monday, in the Curris Business Building.
Annette Lynch, director of UNI's Undergraduate Program in Women's Studies, says Goetting's lecture is part of activities planned for Women's History Month. “The Women's Studies Program is sponsoring the Students Against a Violent Environment (SAVE) project this year, and the focus has been on fighting violence. Goetting's expertise on domestic violence and abuse fits in with our focus.”
Goetting, a sociology professor at Western Kentucky University, also is the author of “Homicide in Families and Other Special Populations,” and coeditor, with Sarah Fenstermaker, of “Individual Voices, Collective Visions: Fifty Years of Women in Sociology.”
Her new book presents the lives of 16 people who left abusive relationships. Lynch says the essays “exhibit richness in culture and diversity, as well as inspiration and encouragement to survivors and those who strive to help them.” The book will be on sale at the lecture, and Goetting will be available for signing after the lecture.
Women's History Month will be celebrated throughout the month of March. The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Women's Studies and SAVE are sponsoring the event.
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Contact:
Michelle Mouton, UNI assistant professor of history, (319) 273-6969
Vicki Grimes, Office of Public Relations, (319) 273-2761
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa—“Non-traditional Parenting, Race, and the Nazi State” is the topic for the Phi Alpha Theta/Department of History Lecture Series at the University of Northern Iowa, at 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 8, in Room 115 Seerley Hall.
Michelle Mouton, UNI assistant professor of history, said her paper focuses on Nazi influence on families. “The Nazis made it a central priority to raise the birth rate among `racially pure' Germans. Not all children could be raised in `traditional families,' so the Nazis designed a policy to place `racially pure' children in foster and adoptive homes to inculcate Nazi ideology and values into them.”
Mouton is working on a larger project entitled “From Nurturing the Nation to Purifying the Volk: German Family Policy 1918-1945.” Her presentation is part of the project. Research for the project was conducted in archives and through interviews with German women in Westphalia in 1994 and 1995.
The next history lecture will be April 12, when Robert Martin, UNI professor of history, speaks on “$2 a Soul: Billy Sunday and the Marketing of the Gospel in Progressive America.”
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Contact:
Leah White, UNI Director of Forensics, (319) 273-7200 or leah.white@uni.edu
Vicki Grimes, UNI Office of Public Relations, (319) 273-2761
University of Northern Iowa student qualifies for national tournament; individual events speech team ties for first at the Iowa State Forensic Association State Tournament
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa—Once again, a University of Northern Iowa student will represent the state of Iowa at the Interstate Oratory Tournament to be held April 20-23, in Tallahassee, Fla.
For the second consecutive year, Nicole Tremel, Dunlap, placed first in the oratory competition, also known as “persuasive speaking,” at the annual Iowa State Forensic Association State Tournament, held Feb. 19, at St. Ambrose College
Amy Larsen, a freshman from Ankeny, placed third in persuasive speaking and is the first alternate for the Interstate Oratory Tournament. Lucas Messer, a senior from Danville, placed fourth and is the second alternate.
Tremel, Larsen and Messer were the only students representing UNI at this year's state tournament. However, even with a small entry, the UNI team still tied for first place with St. Ambrose College. In addition to the persuasive speaking awards, Messer and Tremel placed first in duo interpretation, and Tremel also won in the category of informative speaking.
For more information, contact Leah White, UNI assistant professor of communication studies and director of the UNI forensics program, at (319) 273-7200 or leah.white@uni.edu.
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Contact:
Carol Geiger, administrative assistant for the UNI Vice President for Educational and Student Services, (319) 273-2331
Vicki Grimes, Office of Public Relations, (319) 273-2761
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa— The university community is invited to hear Steve Birdine, president of Affirmations in Action, speak on “Moving Your Diversity Dialogue from Talk to Action,” March 8, from 9-10:30 a.m., and repeated from 2-3:30 p.m., in Maucker Union Expansion A at the University of Northern Iowa.
A native of Chicago and a graduate of the University of Illinois, Birdine has held professional positions at Indiana University, the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Illinois. He is the author of a handbook, “A Common Sense Approach to Retaining Students of Color.”
Birdine's presentations are also open to the public. For more information, contact the Office of the Vice President for Educational and Student Services at (319) 273-2331.
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