Thursday, March 31, 2011

Kenneth JansonShelley RussellMary-Jane TremethickDistinguished Faculty Announced

Kenneth Janson (Business), Shelley Russell (CAPS) and Mary Jane Tremethick (HPER) are recipients of the 2011 Distinguished Faculty Awards for their university and professional contributions. They will be honored at a reception and mentioned in the president's remarks at commencement on April 30. Full Story

 

Ferrarini's Japan Workshop, Textbook

Put NMU Center on Global Map

Tawni Ferrarini (Economics, standing center) presented a two-day workshop for K-12 teachers from all over Japan during a recent visit to the country (preceding the earthquake and tsunami). She represented the NMU Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship, which she co-directs, and the national Council for Economic Education. The workshop series was sponsored by CEE-Japan and Daiwa Securities.

The president of Japan Junior Achievement, an economics and personal finance program, participated in a course Ferrarini delivered in New York City.  He requested that she conduct a workshop in his country, with help from two translators. Thirty teachers attended the session and each received U.P. mementos (pictured). Full Story

 

Archives Obtains Stupak, Prusi Papers

The Central Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan University Archives has obtained the papers of former Congressman Bart Stupak and former Michigan State Senator and State Representative Mike Prusi. Another recent acquisition are records of the Bay de Noquet Lumber Company and Oconto Lumber Company, which offer a glimpse of the logging industry and its pivotal role in the formative history of the region.

 

Marcus Robyns (Archives) said the Archives had never collected congressional papers before Stupak agreed to turn over many documents from his 18 years in office. Full Story

 

 

Some Employees Opt for Alternate Transportation                       

Whether it is rising gas prices, concern for the environment, personal health/fitness, simple pleasure or a combination of the above, a number of NMU employees have made a conscious decision not to drive personal vehicles to campus. They rely on other modes of transportation to get to work and, in some cases, around town. Here are just a few employees who have found feasible alternatives in biking, walking or riding free on Marq-Tran buses:

 

Don Faust (Mathematics and Computer Science, right) had grown accustomed to riding a bike when he lived in Hawaii and he checked it with the airline for the flight that brought him to Marquette. He has since been through a few models and adapted to pedaling in a colder climate. The afternoon we met at the bike rack on the academic mall, he was dressed in warm and wind-resistant layers for a trip from campus to the western Marquette Township business district. Full Story

 

High-Flying Peter Pan Coming to NMU

The Forest Roberts Theatre production of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan will create the familiar fantasy of Neverland with pirates, mermaids, the Lost Boys and Tinkerbell. But Director Shelley Russell's (CAPS) unconventional interpretation will also bring the classic play, first performed in 1904, “into the present.”

Audiences should not expect a reworked musical adaptation similar to the ones they may have grown up with—from Disney’s animated treatment to the televised Broadway play starring Mary Martin to the more recent touring productions with former Olympic gymnast Cathy Rigby. This is Barrie’s original play. And unlike the director of its early 20th century debut, Russell never contemplated casting a female in the lead role. Full Story

 

The Lazarus Project by Alesksandar HemonLazarus Project Next One Book, One Community Selection

Aleksandar Hemon's The Lazarus Project, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award, is the 2011 selection for Marquette's One Book, One Community program.

At the heart of the novel is a historical event, according to Hemon's website: On March 2, 1908, 19-year-old Lazarus Averbuch, a recent Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe to Chicago, knocked on the front door of the house of George Shippy, the chief of Chicago police. When Shippy came to the door, Averbuch offered him what he said was an important letter. Instead of taking the letter, Shippy shot Averbuch twice, killing him. When Shippy released a statement casting Averbuch as a would-be anarchist assassin and agent of foreign political operatives, he all but set off a city and a country already simmering with ethnic and political tensions.

Full Story

 

Michael Philip MossmanNMU Jazz Festival April 14-15

The U.S. Marine Corps All-Star Jazz Band and Michael Philip Mossman (pictured), a Latin jazz trumpeter and arranger-composer, will headline the 15th annual NMU Jazz Festival. The Marine Corps ensemble will perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 14, in Kaufman Auditorium. Admission is free, but tickets need to be picked up in advance at any NMU EZ Tickets outlet. This is the first time the group has toured the Midwest.

Mossman is a noted performer and educator. He has been active on the international scene since the age of 17 and has performed and recorded with his own groups and with bands led by Dizzy Gillespie, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Art Blakey and Joe Henderson. He is lead trumpeter with Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and professor and director of jazz studies at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College in New York City. Mossman will perform with the NMU Jazz Band and Jazz Combo at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 15, in Kaufman Auditorium. Tickets are available at NMU EZ Ticket outlets. Prices are $6 for NMU students, $8 for non-NMU students $11 for the general public. Mark Flaherty (Music) is coordinating the festival. For more information, visit NMU Jazz.

 

Holocaust Memorial Lectures Planned

Scholar, journalist and conservative political writer Paul Hollander will deliver two Holocaust memorial lectures. His first, “Personal and Sociological Thoughts on the Holocaust,” will be at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 4, at St. Peter Cathedral. The second will address the totalitarian aspects of Nazism, Communism and Islamic Fundamentalism. It will be held from 3-4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, in 102 Jamrich Hall at Northern Michigan University. Both events are free of charge.

Escaping to the west from his native Hungary in 1956, Hollander earned a bachelor’s degree from the London School of Economics, a master’s in sociology from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and a doctorate in sociology from Princeton University. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and center associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and a social relations professor at Harvard University.

Hollander is the author of several books, including Political Pilgrims and Anti-Americanism, and the editor of Understanding Anti-Americanism: Its Origins and Impact at Home and Abroad.

           

 

Ray Liubakka (Printing Services) passed up his dad’s offer to pay for college because he wanted to start earning money in construction right after high school. The Marquette native kept busy building homes year-round during the ‘70s economic boom, but as the work became more cyclical with winter slowdowns, Liubakka filled the void with a part-time job at a commercial printer. It soon expanded to full time when he quit construction altogether and enrolled in the graphic arts program at NMU. With professional training and a relevant degree, he joined Printing Services 22 years ago. Full Story

 

 

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Updated: March 31, 2011

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