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| News On Campus
High Marks In Unison New Careers Interim Med School Dean Don't Bank on It NU Mourns Slain Coach Body Buildings |
Cooler by the Lake When Northwestern's newest residence hall, Kemper Hall, opened this fall, it immediately filled to capacity. Even before the four-story, $10.5 million facility opened, Northwestern students were lining up to live in the most sought-after address on campus. With room for 184 students, Kemper offers apartment-style living and contains two kinds of suites. All rooms are air-conditioned and carpeted. And then there's the location. Kemper is only about 400 feet away from Northwestern's beach and the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion and Dellora A. and Lester J. Norris Aquatic Center, with its Olympic-size swimming pool, exercise equipment and jogging track. The rooms offer views of Lake Michigan that stretch for miles, beyond the campus to the south and the Grosse Point lighthouse to the north. Room rates for Kemper work out to just under $500 a month for a double and about $576 a month for a single. By contrast, one-bedroom apartments with a lake view on Chicago's North Side rent for about $750 to $1,000 a month. The ground floor of the building includes a classroom, as well as a lounge, kitchen, laundry room and storage areas. The entire building is fully handicapped-accessible. "It's really a state-of-the-art facility for students," says Margaret J. Barr, vice president for student affairs. "I wouldn't mind living in it myself." The building was funded in part by a $3 million gift from the Kemper Educational and Charitable Fund, a private family foundation established by the late James S. Kemper. He was the founder of the Kemper Group of insurance and financial service companies and U.S. ambassador to Brazil under President Eisenhower. Although mainly for sophomores, juniors and seniors, Kemper does include some rooms for freshmen. But they had better hope for a good number in this year's room lottery, or they're not likely to have quite such nice digs next year. |
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| Sesquicentennial News Staying Current Sesqui-style Deaths George Cohen Franklin F. Offner Gerald L. Smith Lab Notes News About Breast Cancer Mean Gene Pep Squad Loopy Liquid Campaign Northwestern Fuels New, Needed Initiatives Gifts and Grants Doctors Net Prostate Grant Doing It Like the Big Guys |
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Bradley Deibel (SESP03) of Roselle, Ill., sets up his Internet connection with his parents, Paul and Peggy. |
High Marks All schools post healthy enrollment figures. A record freshman class entered Northwestern this fall, while the numbers in the professional and graduate programs remained exceptionally strong. A total of 1,954 freshmen enrolled this academic year, well above the 1,900 that the University had targeted and 37 more than last year. Northwestern attempts to maintain an entering class of about the same size every year, but a higher-than-expected number of students who were admitted chose the University this year, says Rebecca Dixon, associate provost of University enrollment. Northwestern received 15,460 applications for admission for this fall, which was the second-highest in University history. Just as at many colleges and universities these days, more than half the entering class is female -- 53 percent, the same as last year. Because an increasing number of women are attending college, enrollment has become predominantly female in the past decade. Enrollment by African American students reached its highest level in years, accounting for 7.2 percent of the entering class, while Hispanic enrollment remained unchanged from last year at just under 5 percent. Asian American students accounted for 16.4 percent of freshmen, down about 1 percentage point from last year. "Northwestern continues to be committed to increasing the diversity of its student body, and our outreach efforts reflect that," Dixon says. The academic quality of all of the University's new students remains extremely strong. Verbal Scholastic Aptitude Test scores of the middle 50 percent of students range from 630 to 720; the math SAT scores of the middle 50 percent of students range from 650 to 740. The mean high school class rank was at the 94th percentile. In the law school, applications for this year's class reached 4,103, with a total entering class of 206. For the third year in a row, the median LSAT rose, this year to 167. About half of the incoming students are women, and about 31 percent are minorities. More than 70 percent of the class has some work experience, and over one-third have more than two years' work experience. For the past three years, Northwestern's law school has been the only one in the nation to strongly encourage prospective students to interview in person either at the school or with alumni. "We developed the interviewing program so we could assess the judgment, maturity and interpersonal skills of our applicants, as well as send a positive message to applicants about the Northwestern community," says dean David Van Zandt. "As a result, our student body is stronger and more diverse than ever." In the Medical School, 170 students will make up this year's entering class -- about 46 percent female -- from an applicant pool totaling 8,640. Average MCAT scores for the entering class are 11 out of 15, and total undergraduate grade point average is 3.7/4.0. A total of 620 students enrolled in the Kellogg Graduate School of Management this fall out of 6,070 applicants. Forty percent of the entering class had GMAT scores of 700 or above, and another 38 percent scored between 650 and 700. A varied group of Midwesterners in the biotechnology field met on the Chicago campus to take the first steps toward creating a regional biotechnology "cluster." The group convened for the sixth annual summer institute of the University's Center for Biotechnology. "A cluster would facilitate interactions between organizations, industry and education in the biotechnology field," says Alicia Löffler, director of the center, who was profiled in the Jan./Feb. 1999 issue of Northwestern. "It would create an infrastructure where all services could be provided immediately." Scientists and bureaucrats from most of the major Midwestern biotechnology organizations attended, along with service providers, representatives from the state of Illinois and interested parties from the community. "Biotechnology will be propelling society in new directions in the coming years," she says. "It's been moving so fast that there is a feeling in the general public they they are paralyzed. We believe people must know all the facts so that they are able to make their own educated decisions about biotechnological advances." |
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Former lawyer and social worker Leon Schrauben has started another career in the classroom as a result of a new teaching certification program. (Photo by Jim Ziv) |
New Careers in
Teaching The School of Education and Social Policy, the Golden Apple Foundation and the Inner-City Teaching Corps of Chicago are offering an alternative to conventional graduate school: a new certification program for people who want to change their career paths and pursue a teaching career. "There always seemed to be too much bureaucracy and too many hurdles to get past in order to teach," says Gary Sircus (L85), a "recovering lawyer" in the alternative certification program. Started in the summer of 1998, when it attracted 40 teacher hopefuls, the training program provides a quick and needed influx of instructors to the Chicago Public School system. After completing a summer of preliminary coursework, participants are assigned to a paid apprenticeship at a Chicago school. At the end of the school year, students work on an independent project with their adviser and are awarded a certificate allowing them to teach in the city. "This is a program for people, maybe in other careers, who want to teach but don't want to go the typical graduate school route," says John Lyons, manager of teacher certification and academic adviser for the SESP. "If not for this program, I would have had to go to grad school and probably do years of substitute teaching before landing a regular, full-time position with salary and benefits," says Stephen Farr, a former electronics salesman in the program. For Sircus, who has a mortgage to pay and a family to look after, any other route was impossible: "This program not only makes teaching do-able, it gives you the support to make it happen," he says. Former colleagues may think Sircus is "destined for the psycho ward," as he puts it, but he is committed to taking on new challenges. Ditto for Farr. "I really enjoy doing things with kids," he says. "You can definitely tell you are having a positive effect on them." |
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Interim dean Lewis Landsberg |
Interim Med School
Dean Following the resignation of Harvey Colten, Northwestern officials named Lewis Landsberg as interim dean of the Medical School. Landsberg, Irving S. Cutter Professor of Medicine and chair of the department of medicine, joined Northwestern in 1990 after 18 years at Harvard Medical School, where he was a professor of medicine and senior physician at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. Colten will stay on as a professor of pediatrics and microbiology-immunology. "I look forward to contributing to the continuing progress of the Medical School," Landsberg says. |
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World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C. |
Don't Bank on It,
Friend Since the immediate postwar period, the World Bank has acted as a global economic police officer of sorts, but many policy makers, international economists and other scholars question the organization's viability, especially after the Asian economic crisis that started in 1997. Many of these experts gathered recently at Northwestern for a groundbreaking conference, "Reinventing the World Bank: Challenges and Opportunities for the 21st Century." "Participants from 10 countries representing a broad range of views on the bank and its future gathered for some of the most in-depth discussions of the World Bank's past and future ever held," says Jeffrey Winters, associate professor of political science, who organized the event with Jonathan Pincus, an economics professor from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. Winters, an expert on the politics and economy of Southeast Asia -- especially Indonesia -- has long been sharply critical of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (see "Analyzing Asia," Jan./Feb. 1999). The conference contributed to the debates about what the World Bank has been and what it should become, and even sparked another conference -- on debt and the World Bank -- held a few months later in Jakarta, Indonesia. |
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Ricky Byrdsong during his tenure as Northwestern men's basketball coach (Einstein Photo)© |
NU Mourns Slain
Coach All Northwestern was shocked and saddened by the news that a white supremacist killed Ricky Byrdsong, former coach of the men's basketball team, on Friday night, July 2. Mr. Byrdsong, 43, was shot dead on the street in Skokie, Ill., by Benjamin Nathaniel Smith in what police believe was a hate-crime shooting spree. The coach had been out walking with his children, who witnessed their father's death. "Our hearts and thoughts are with the members of the family, and we extend the sympathies of the entire Northwestern community to them," said University President Henry Bienen. "Ricky was a gracious and friendly man who cared deeply about the student-athletes who were members of his teams. He will be missed." Mr. Byrdsong's four-year coaching stint at the University ended in 1997. At his funeral, many of the eulogists pointed out that his 33-72 record was in no way a measure of the man. Patrick Ryan, chairman of the Northwestern board of trustees, hired Mr. Byrdsong at Aon Corp. following his coaching career. Ryan told the overflow crowd that the coach had recommended hiring a homeless man who often sat outside Aon's doors. "Thousands of people walked by that man every day," Ryan said. "Some noticed him, but one reached out. That man is a reflection of Ricky Byrdsong -- the ultimate Good Samaritan." Smith, the killer, singled Mr. Byrdsong out minutes after shooting at
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Reaching for the top around the turn of the century |
Times Past Body Buildings A capacity crowd of 5,500 watched history being made when the first NCAA men's basketball tournament final was played 60 years ago this year at Northwestern's original Patten Gymnasium, on the site of today's Technological Institute. Despite their numbers, the fans were housed quite comfortably in the building. Designed by architect George Maher in 1908 and regarded in its day as one of the best in the United States, Patten was the first large, well-appointed gym built in the Big Ten. In fact, the facility was cavernous and could accommodate track meets and music festivals as well as basketball games. Before 1890, most sporting events were played informally on the site of the present-day Deering Meadow. After a petition for a real facility from that era's athletic association, the outdoor Sheppard Field, located in what is now North Campus, opened in 1892. Its first student players were the Northwestern baseball team. "Sheppard received its name after Robert Dickinson Sheppard made a donation to build a fence around the field," said University archivist Patrick Quinn. "With the fence, you could start charging admission, so this was the beginning of athletics bringing in revenue." As for the original Patten, progress could not be denied despite its advantages, and the NCAA final of 1939 was the last varsity-level basketball game played there. In 1940, it gave way to the Technological Institute. A replacement gym with the same name was erected that same year at Lincoln Street and Sheridan Road, where it still stands. The facility boasted top-of-the-line features, including a 75-foot swimming pool, exercise rooms, a gymnastics area and rifle range for varsity and intramural use (this year, an indoor golf facility was added, thanks to a gift from WCAS63 graduate Eric Gleacher). "The University has not overlooked its responsibilities for the physical activities of the main student body as proven by its outstanding intramural athletic program and the building of the new gymnasium," said Evanston mayor Henry D. Penfield at the Nov. 2, 1940, dedication of the new Patten Gym. In 1974, Patten's ranks were joined by Blomquist Memorial Recreation Building and, in 1987, by the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion and Dellora A. and Lester J. Norris Aquatics Center. On the varsity level, basketball lost a permanent home for a decade after the old Patten Gym was torn down. Plans for a new fieldhouse were delayed by World War II, among other things, relegating the Wildcat hoopsters to practices and games at Evanston Township High School and the Chicago Stadium on the city's Near West Side. Finally, after large donations from Foster G. McGaw (H73) and others, McGaw Memorial Hall opened in 1952 adjacent to what is now the football field on Central Street. Since then, the arena within McGaw has hosted thousands of men's and women's basketball games as well as dances, pep rallies, student political rallies and, in 1954, a meeting of the World Council of Churches. The fieldhouse was renovated in 1982, renamed Welsh-Ryan Arena and now seats 8,000. As for football, the team started playing at Northwestern Field on Central Street in 1905. The current facility, which was remodeled from 1996 to 1997, opened in 1926, with its architects predicting it would last a millennium. So far, so good. Over the years, the look of the athletic facilities has changed considerably, but one idea remains constant. "Sound physical bodies are as important as sound minds," as Mayor Penfield put it so well at the 1940 Patten dedication. Oh, yes. In the '39 NCAA final at Patten, the University of Oregon Ducks used their height advantage -- a few were taller than 6-4 -- to dominate the Ohio State Buckeyes 46-33. --Nicole Sutcliffe |
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Sesquicentennial
News Staying Current Sesqui-Style Just as the Latin-based word sesquicentennial refers to half again as much as a century, or 150 years, Northwestern's 150th anniversary will be a "Sesqui-year" -- a year-and-a-half celebration -- so keep an eye on this space, or on the Web site at www.NU150 .northwestern.edu, for "Sesqui-happenings" starting in mid-2000 and running through 2001. As for the "Sesqui-update," a book on Northwestern's history is progressing well and is expected to be published by the fall of 2000. A video history also is anticipated to be completed by next fall. Meanwhile, the Sesquicentennial Web site is shaping up. On the site either now or soon:
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| Deaths George Cohen, Franklin F. Offner, and Gerald L. Smith George Cohen, 79, professor emeritus of art, died April 18 in Evanston. Mr. Cohen was a nationally known painter whose works were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the San Francisco Museum of Art and the Hirschhorn Collection in Washington, D.C. He retired eight years ago and gave up painting but resumed shortly before his death. Mr. Cohen, who built his career in the 1950s and 1960s, challenged the policy of the Art Institute of Chicago that prohibited student participation in exhibitions. He was also known as a champion of women artists. Mr. Cohen was preceded in death by his wife, Constance, also a noted painter. Survivors include a son, two daughters and three grandchildren. Franklin F. Offner, 88, professor emeritus of biomedical engineering and biophysics, died May 1 in Deerfield, Ill. Mr. Offner joined the Technological Institute faculty in 1963 as professor of biophysics, biomedical engineering and electronics after a successful career in business. He founded Offner Electronics in 1939, around the time he produced prototypes for the modern electrocardiograph and the electroencephalograph. Mr. Offner worked for the U.S. Department of Defense during World War II and developed electronic controls for jet engines used on the B-52 bomber and an electronic synchronizer for propellers. Mr. Offner was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He is survived by his wife, Janine; two daughters; and two sons. Gerald L. Smith, 78, associate professor emeritus of music, voice and opera, died July 10 in Evanston. Mr. Smith, who retired in 1991, taught voice for more than 40 years at Northwestern. Although he could have focused exclusively on performance, he chose instead to emphasize teaching because it was more conducive to a good family life. Mr. Smith often gave solo performances on WGN-TV's Theater of the Air and WTTW-TV's Sunday Evening Club, and he performed locally in musical reviews with his wife. He also sang with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Municipal Opera. At Northwestern, Mr. Smith helped establish the musical program at Garrett Theological Seminary. He was preceded in death by his wife, Dorothy, and is survived by three sons, a sister and six grandchildren. |
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Lab Notes
News About Breast Cancer Hormone replacement therapy during menopause increases a woman's risk for developing some types of rarely occurring but more treatable breast cancers, but not the more common ductal carcinoma that remains confined to the site of origin, according to Susan Gapstur, Northwestern assistant professor of preventive medicine; Monica Morrow, professor of surgery; and a Mayo Clinic investigator. They noted that if HRT increases the risk for less commonly occurring tumors with a good prognosis, the overall risks and benefits of hormone use in the population should be re-examined. The researchers reported that the risk for the rarer breast cancers for women who ever used HRT for five years or less was 1.8 times greater than for women who never used HRT. Women who used HRT for more than five years had 2.6 times the risk. Findings of the team's research, which appeared in the Journal of
the American Medical Association, were based on a study of 37,100
postmenopausal women. |
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| Mean
Gene
Unraveling the complexities of gene regulation and protein expression is crucial to scientists' understanding a variety of medical disorders. In a recent issue of Nature, Elizabeth Goodwin, assistant professor of cell and molecular biology, and colleagues described a new role for TRA-1, one of a family of proteins that regulates gene expression by binding directly to DNA. The human members of this protein family have been implicated in a number of diseases, including basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of cancer in humans. |
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Syamal Datta, center, surrounded by his peptide researchers |
Pep Squad
Medical School scientists have identified key peptides -- small bits of proteins -- that halt kidney disease in lupus-prone mice. Lupus is an auto-immune disease that attacks the body's own DNA, the carrier of genetic material. Syamal Datta, Solovy Arthritis Research Society Professor and a professor of microbiology, and Arunan Kaliyaperumal, assistant professor of medicine, reported that therapy with the peptides markedly delayed the onset of severe, lupus-related kidney disease. Long-term peptide therapy in adult mice with existing kidney disease prolonged survival and even stopped progression of the condition. |
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| Loopy Liquid
William Halperin and James Sauls, professors of physics and astronomy, have shown that a liquid can behave like a solid in its ability to conduct sound waves. It's the first demonstration in a liquid of the acoustic Faraday effect, a response of sound waves to a magnetic field that is analogous to the response of light waves to a magnetic field first observed in 1845 by British scientist Michael Faraday. Experiments were conducted using super-fluid helium-3, a liquid with no internal friction. "Whether we can use [the finding] to some advantage other than understanding the structure of these quantum fluids remains to be seen," Halperin says. "In 1845, Michael Faraday would not have been able to foresee the practical application of his magneto-optic effect." |
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| Campaign
Northwestern Campaign Northwestern Fuels New, Needed Initiatives Such needed and appreciated capital improvements as the new Kemper Hall, an expansion of Andersen Hall and a nanofabrication facility are remaking the face of the University's campus. And Campaign Northwestern encompasses many equally significant gifts beyond the realm of capital development. So far, about $39.1 million has been raised in end owed research funds for faculty and students, and $41.3 million has been raised to date for undergraduate financial aid, a continuing priority. At the same time, graduate studies have hardly been overlooked. The University has committed more than $1 million in unrestricted campaign gifts to support graduate student fellowships in the Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and new policies have been implemented to create more competitive, multiyear support for graduate fellows. The campaign currently stands at $776 million. Other campaign statistics of interest: More than $319 million has been raised in just 19 months since the public announcement in May 1998; 446 alumni and non-alumni friends of Northwestern have become active on at least one of the volunteer committees of the campaign; 68,847 donations have been made; and eight regional events across the country have drawn 1,486 alumni, parents and friends to meet President Henry Bienen and hear firsthand about Northwestern's future. At the School of Law, in a dedication ceremony that was a surprise to its honoree, the lawyers of Bartlit, Beck, Herman, Palenchar & Scott donated $2 million for a new center, named after Fred Bartlit and dedicated to innovative and technologically advanced trial strategies. The center will conduct high-quality academic research on the litigation process, support teaching skills in the School of Law's program and hold an annual national conference to teach trial strategies. The Northwestern trial advocacy program is ranked second nationally by U.S. News & World Report. |
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| Gifts &
Grants Doctors Net Prostate Grant Northwestern is one of six academic medical centers in the United States to be designated by the National Institutes of Health as an investigative site for a five-year, $5.5 million study to gather well-defined clinical information on chronic prostatitis, or inflammation of the prostate gland. Anthony J. Schaeffer, Herman L. Kretschmer Professor and chair of urology at Northwestern, is the national principal investigator for the study, and Robert B. Nadler, assistant professor of urology, is the co-principal investigator. Prostatitis occurs in men of all ages and races and accounts for an estimated 2 million physician visits each year. |
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| Doing It
Like the Big Guys
National Instruments, a leader in computer-based measurement software and hardware, has donated 1,500 copies of its HiQ program to Northwestern. HiQ allows for the creation of professional reports with two- and three-dimensional graphics, tables, charts, data analysis, images and text. "HiQ provides the opportunity for our students to use a sophisticated engineering analysis package as a part of their educational experience," says Jerome B. Cohen, Frank C. Engelhart Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and former dean of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. The contribution is part of the National Instruments HiQ in Education initiative. "Today's engineering students need to learn how to use the basic tools of the engineering industry to become tomorrow's valuable employees," says Ravi Marawar, academic development manager for the Austin, Texas-based company. |
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