UIC For the community of the University of Illinois at Chicago

VOLUME 31 / NUMBER 26

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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Barbara Risman considers gender inequality More on page 2

INSIDE: Profile / Quotable 2 | Campus News 4 | Calendar 8 | Student Voice 9 | Police 10 | Deaths 11 | Sports 12

Donald Hedeker finds happiness in biostatistics and polka More on page 4

Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

Carole Mitchener, associate professor of education, is one of four winners of the Award for Excellence in Teaching. “I’m so passionate about what we’re doing,” she says of the graduate program she directs, which recruits science teachers for high-need middle and high schools. Read about Mitchener and fellow winners Mark Mattaini, social work, Luigi Salerni, theatre, and Michael Scott, engineering, on page 6.

Scholar Robert Remini was the historian in the House More on page 11

Honoring some of UIC’s best teachers

Softball swings series win against Loyola More on page 12

“When I walk into a school, I think, ‘This is why I do this.’” — Carole Mitchener, 2013 winner of the Award for Excellence in Teaching

2 UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu I APRIL 3, 2013

Send profile ideas to Gary Wisby, gwisby@uic.eduprofile

“It will be remembered as one of the negative aspects of the Daley regime, along with a rubber-stamp City Council, (and) failures to get the big projects (done) like a third airport.”

Dick Simpson, professor of political science, on the 10th anniversary of former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley ordering the destruction of Meigs Field, March 31 Chicago Tribune

quotable

“If it heals, it generally is not a long term issue at all. He should do fine.”

Mark Hutchinson, director of sports medicine, on the injury sustained by Kevin Ware during the Louisville/ Duke game, April 1 RedEye

Barbara Risman explores cultural expectations of men, womenBy Gary Wisby

A good name for Barbara Risman’s forthcoming book might be Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Gender (But Were Afraid to Ask).

“I’ve spent my whole career writing a theory of gender inequality,” said Risman, head of sociology.

“The book integrates many of my theoretical papers over the last two decades, with research projects.

“It’s a final statement of the pace of change and the lack of change in how we think about feminist theory — an under-standing of how gender inequality is produced and when it begins to lessen.”

The first time Risman published a theoretical argument was in her 1998 book Gender Vertigo: American Families in Transition.

“The new book pulls together the ideas I’ve been floating for a very long time, illustrated with new research,” she said.

Its working title is Gender as a Social Structure: Toward a Utopian Post-Gender Society. The book is due out in 2014.

“Every society has a gender structure,” she said. “It’s very different than thinking about how men and women are differ-ent — it has to do with what you expect from each other.”

Society creates gender inequality on three levels, she said.The first is the individual level.“We raise boys with guns and girls with dolls,” she said.

“Girls are taught to be empathetic and nurturing; boys are taught to tough it out and be aggressive.”

The second level is interactional.“It involves the expectations of other people,” Risman said.

“Even when men and women are in the same position — par-ent, boss — people expect them to behave differently.

“An opinionated male boss is a strong leader, while a head-strong, opinionated woman is seen as a bitch.”

Women are expected to do emotional work and, at the same time, to be less committed to their work, Risman said.

“Expectations lead to reality sometimes,” she said. “Women think, ‘Maybe I am like that,’ because that’s what the cultural expectation is.”

The third level is institutional.Expectations are built into schools and workplaces that in

a hetero-nuclear family, there will be one person who earns a living and “another who takes care of everything else,” Risman said.

“This occurs even though we no longer live that way.”One chapter in her new book is about how people ages 18

to 25 do or don’t feel constrained by gender.“What’s really interesting is that people as young as 6 are

totally rejecting the sex in which they were born,” she said.Risman is heavily involved with the nonprofit Council on

Contemporary Families. Once housed at UIC, it’s now based at the University of Miami. She was executive director from

2006-2012 and now serves on the board of directors.“Its mission is to bring new research about families to pub-

lic conversation,” she said. “I work with a lot of journalists and find the best scientists for them to interview.

“We also commission white papers when a new study comes out that should be covered.”

After Risman wrote an opinion piece for CNN.com, Huff-ington Post asked her to blog for the online publication.

She blogs about once a month, “when I see an issue that would be informed by sociological research and theory. It’s engaged scholarship, bringing it outside the ivory tower.

“I like to use my academic and research skills for the public good.”

Risman grew up in Lynn, Mass., an industrial town north of Boston.

“My grandparents were immigrants from Poland and Rus-sia,” she said.

She earned a bachelor’s degree at Northwestern University and Ph.D. at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Before joining UIC, Risman spent two decades at North Carolina State University, where she founded the gender and women’s studies program.

UIC hired her in 2007 as head of the sociology depart-ment. She’s served five years in that capacity and agreed to three more.

Risman lives near campus in University Commons with her second husband, Randall Liss, head of an educational consulting firm on finance. She has a daughter, Leah Kane Risman, 27, a social worker in Sacramento, Calif.

Risman chairs a new neighborhood organization called Connecting 4 Communities, online at connecting4communities.wordpress.com

“I blog weekly about something of interest — plays, jazz concerts, famous authors,” she said. “There is not-very-good communication between the university and the people who live around it. I’m telling people what they should come to on campus.”

gwisby@uic.edu

UIC Photo Services

“We raise boys with guns and girls with dolls,” says Barbara Risman, head of sociology, who studies the theory of gender inequality.

“Once you throw it together with something like Grumpy Cat it’s fun. But was this message intended to be fun?”

Steve Jones, distinguished professor of communication, on the widespread social media sharing and altering of the Human Rights Campaign’s red logo in support of gay mar-riage, March 28 Associated Press

3APRIL 3, 2013 I UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu I APRIL 3, 2013

By Christy Levy

For Asian Americans, it’s often taboo to discuss mental health issues, says Rooshey Hasnain.

But a campuswide initiative is breaking through that silence, hosting a series of programs to bring to light the struggles Asian Americans face related to mental health.

“Mental health is not discussed in our communities and we’re trying to normalize it,” said Hasnain, clinical assistant professor of disability and human development and Asian American studies.

“We just don’t talk about it, so there’s this impression that Asian Americans are not really dealing with these issues.”

The Asian American Studies Program Community En-gagement Project brings together campus leaders, student groups and community organizations to raise awareness of mental health issues.

The project is part of UIC’s Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions initiative, a five-year grant funded by the U.S. Department of Educa-tion and led by Asian American studies professor Kevin Kumashiro.

Since last fall, the group has hosted documentary screen-ings and a series of discussions for Asian Americans on mental health, hate crimes, sexuality and more, Hasnain said.

The next campus event, called “The Small, Dark Room,” is a performance by local actors of monologues on mental health. Last semester, students in one of Hasnain’s courses collected stories from Asian Americans on living with men-tal illness and selected six for the performance.

The campus performance takes place at 4:30 p.m. April 25 at the events center in Stukel Towers.

The monologues will also be performed at 7:30 p.m. April 8, 9, 15 and 16 at the Hoover-Leppen Theatre in the Center

on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St. “To have performers share these stories and create a dia-

logue among the audience is an opportunity to advance the ongoing steps that we’re trying to take,” Hasnain said.

The initiative highlights resources for students who are struggling with mental illness, such as the Counseling Center and Wellness Center, Hasnain said.

“We want students to be aware of the fact that these exist, that they’re welcoming and it’s OK to go there,” she said.

Hasnain is collaborating with Jae Jin Pak, chair of the Asian American Suicide Prevention Initiative, to promote wellness resources.

“We want to encourage Asian American students who may be struggling with academics, family or community, that if it’s a real concern for them, there are places where they can go,” Pak said.

Graduate student Priyang Baxi, a member of a student task force that helps organize the initiative’s events, wants students to feel comfortable talking about mental health.

“I’ve had friends and family members who, when they ex-perience a mental health situation, keep it within themselves because they feel like if they tell anyone they will be judged,” said Baxi, president of the Asian American Public Health Stu-dent Organization.

“To prevent any issues like this from occurring in the fu-ture, it’s good to provide the tools of what resources are avail-able on campus.”

Though mental health issues are personal, public dialogues are crucial, Pak said.

“Being in a room where you see members of your own community coming together to acknowledge the issue is a very powerful experience,” he said.

christyb@uic.edu

Shattering the silence on Asian American mental health

By Daniel P. Smith

When Bill Baldyga arrived at the School of Public Health as a research assistant in 1974, he immediately recognized the school’s ambitious spirit.

“It was a young, growing place, but there was universal ex-citement to make a real difference in the world,” says Baldyga, senior research scientist in the Institute for Health Research and Policy and one of the school’s DrPH graduates.

The school’s celebration of its 40th year culminates with a gala at the Field Museum April 13.

The keynote speaker will be 2011 Nobel Peace laureate Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist, social worker and women’s rights advocate who founded the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, based in Monrovia.

For more information, visit http://uicsph40. eventbrite.com

There’s much to celebrate. The school has developed maternal and child pro-grams in Chicago-area hospitals and community centers, sparked the dis-cipline of public health informatics and tackled cross-disciplinary projects on issues ranging from smoking cessation to adoles-cent nutrition.

In 1987 the school

launched the Community Outreach In-tervention Projects to combat HIV/AIDS, pioneering the use of community mem-bers, including former sex workers and drug users, as outreach workers.

Eight years later, Gary Slutkin, profes-sor of epidemiology and international health, identified parallels between the epidemic of inner-city violence and in-fectious diseases. He founded the Cure Violence Project (formerly known as CeaseFire), using former gang members to curb inner-city violence in a similar manner.

Cure Violence “is out of the stream of what many would consider public health, but it’s an example of the bold, courageous thought that characterizes the school,” says current dean Paul Brandt-Rauf.

The school continues to expand its reach beyond Chicago with work on in-fectious diseases in Africa, international fieldwork by students and faculty and an online DrPH program.

The school has prepared more than 4,000 alumni for posi-tions in public health, with graduates working in city, county and state public health offices as well as the Centers for Dis-ease Control and Prevention.

“There’s a ripple effect we’ve created over these 40 years that we can be proud of,” says Sylvia Furner, associate professor emerita, who earned a master’s and Ph.D. from the school, as

Celebrating 40 years of ‘practical work, great thoughts’

Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, a 2011 Nobel Peace laureate, is the keynote speaker at the School of Public Health’s 40th anniversary gala April 13 at the Field Museum.

well as an undergraduate degree from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The school recently launched a bachelor’s degree program in public health.

“This school is committed to not only thinking great thoughts, but in doing practical work with those great thoughts,” Brandt-Rauf says.

“That’s the legacy we’ll work to advance.”— UIC Alumni magazine

“Being in a room where you see members of your own community coming together to acknowledge the issue is a very powerful experience.”

Illustration: Anna Dworzecka

4 UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu I APRIL 3, 2013

Send campus news to Sonya Booth, sobooth@uic.educampus news

Leaving a legacyCivil rights and peace activist Diane Nash will discuss the

legacy of the civil rights movement at 3 p.m. April 10 in 605 Student Center East. A reception follows.

The talk is part of the Civic Engagement and Democracy Lecture Series sponsored by the Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement.

For more information, call 312-355-0088 or email neramos@uic.edu

Film festivalFive films from Spain or Latin America will be presented

this week and next for the Pragda Spanish Film Festival, host-ed by the department of Hispanic and Italian studies.

The films are free and refreshments will be provided. The screenings, held in 1-470 Daley Library, include:

• today, 4 p.m.: “Amerikanuak,” Nach Reif, 2011• Thursday, 4 p.m.: “También la lluvia/Even the Rain,” Iciar

Bollain, 2011• April 9, 3 p.m.: “Post Mortem,” Pablo Larrain, 2012• April 10, 4 p.m.: “La muerte de Pinochet/The Death of

Pinochet,” Osnovikoff and Perut, 2011.The April 9 screening will be followed by a roundtable

discussion on the state of Spanish-language film with Carmelo Esterrich of Columbia College and Salomé Skvirsky and Ste-ven Marsh of UIC.

For more information contact Marsh at marshws@uic.edu

White Sox dayUIC students, employees and alumni can purchase dis-

counted White Sox tickets for UIC White Sox Night April 26. Tickets cost $10 to $12 to watch the White Sox take on the

Tampa Bay Rays at 7:10 p.m. at U.S. Cellular Field. Buy tickets at whitesox.com and use code “uic” for the dis-

count or submit an order form at http://bit.ly/Zy0byD

Take a stand against bullyingUIC hosts events for “Enough is Enough,” a national cam-

paign against bullying, Thursday in 605 Student Center East. The program, 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., includes a screening

of the winning entry in the 2012 Bystander Intervention film contest; “The Many Faces of Bullying,” vignettes performed by UIC students; and a panel of students talking about overcom-ing the effects of bullying.

Participants will receive free pizza and an aluminum water bottle.

The event is sponsored by the Wellness Center and the Gender and Sexuality Center.

Give bloodUIC hosts two blood drives this week for National Donate

Life Month. The Health Oriented Latino Association will sponsor

drives from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. today and Thursday in the Ft. Dearborn Room, Student Center East.

All donors must have an appointment; email eortiz24@uic.edu

Circle reconstruction plansCommuters can share their thoughts today at a public

hearing about improvements to the Circle interchange that would impact traffic flow around campus.

Planners will discuss the preferred alternative for construc-tion along I-90/94 from Roosevelt Road to Lake Street and along I-290/Congress Parkway from Canal Street to Racine Avenue.

The hearing takes place from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Marriott Chicago at Medical District, 625 S. Ashland Ave.

Plans include new ramps over Harrison and Halsted streets, upgrades to the three UIC-Halsted CTA station en-

Resale shops thrive despite online competitionBy Anne Brooks Ranallo

Chicago’s neighborhood secondhand stores thrive, despite competition from eBay and other websites, because their patrons seek “intangible satisfactions,” not just bargains, say two UIC researchers.

“The social and material experience can’t be recaptured when one is alone at home, slouched over the computer, try-ing to discern the quality of a garment on eBay,” said Brenda Parker, assistant pro-fessor of urban planning and policy.

“And ‘I got it on eBay’ does not evoke the same air of mystery and treasure hunt as scoring a find in an obscure junk shop in Chicago.”

Parker and Rachel Weber, associate professor of urban planning and policy, studied the survival strategies of second-hand retailers since the growth of e-commerce. Their findings will be published in an upcoming issue of the academic journal Urban Geography.

They focused on sellers of women’s apparel, finding 187 such stores in Chicago. Most were in census tracts where residents’ incomes are above the city average and shopping districts thrive.

“Thrift stores, vintage boutiques and flea markets are often small, locally owned and idiosyncratic. They add to the unique, vibrant quality of neighborhood retail corridors. Products sold will differ from neighborhood to neighbor-hood,” Parker said.

Like eBay shoppers, patrons of thrift, consignment and vintage shops seek inexpensive, unusual goods and are in-terested in a product’s history, the researchers found.

Such shoppers view secondhand shopping as sustainable because they are recycling goods rather than using new re-sources or exploiting low-wage workers.

Shoppers at brick-and-mortar stores, however, want these advantages in an authentic shopping experience with a neighborhood setting and engaged proprietors.

“The threat of e-commerce is real, particularly in terms of convenience and potentially lower prices,” Weber said.

trances, transformation of the Peoria Street pedestrian bridge and redesign of the north entrance to the campus.

Examining health disparitiesM. Roy Wilson of the National Institute on Minority

Health and Health Disparities will explain “Why Health Dis-parities Matter” 4 p.m. April 10 in the College of Medicine Research Building’s Moss Auditorium for the Chancellor’s Lecture Series.

Wilson is the institute’s deputy director for strategic scien-tific planning and program coordination.

Igniting researchLetters of intent are due April 12 for the Office of the Vice

Chancellor for Research’s Ignite Award. The award will help researchers kick start their planning

process. Eligible sponsored programs include research train-ing, instrumentation and facilities opportunities.

Grants of as much as $20,000 are available for a six-month, nonrenewable award.

For more information, visit http://bit.ly/12cjLEj

Benefit payout UIC employees can defer vacation and compensable sick

leave payouts to their 403(b) and/or 457 retirement ac-counts when they retire or leave the university.

For information on submitting a deferral form, call the Benefits Services office, 312-996-6471, at least 60 days be-fore the last day of employment.

For more information, visit NESSIE at https://nessie.uihr.uillinois.edu

More time to studyStarting this week, the Daley Library will open at 10 a.m.

on Sundays due to student requests. During the last week of instruction and finals week, the

Daley Library will be open around the clock from 10 a.m. April 28 through 7 p.m. May 10.

The Library of the Health Sciences will be open from 8 a.m. to midnight April 19, 9 a.m. to midnight April 20 and continuously from 8 a.m. April 21 until midnight May 6.

For more information on library hours, visit http://bit.ly/Z4B7pO

“But the number of secondhand stores has grown de-spite the growth of websites for secondhand exchange.”

About 25 percent of secondhand store owners address their online competition by selling online, too — sometimes on e-Bay, the researchers found.

Just as online thrifting does not displace neighborhood thrift shops, it does not seem to displace firsthand retail. Parker and Weber found similar sales growth for new and used merchandise over the past decade.

Weber said the popularity of secondhand shopping may even boost firsthand retail, thus undermining some of the positive social and ecological benefits of thrift shopping.

“Secondhand stores and eBay offer perverse incentives for primary consumption. They may encourage consumers to buy more, knowing they can dispose of merchandise re-spectably and even for a profit,” she said.

Parker and Weber gathered data by surveying and inter-viewing retailers, recording their own observations while shopping at stores and online, attending a conference for eBay sellers, and reviewing recent academic literature on retail.

aranallo@uic.edu

Photo: Alex Rauch

“‘I got it on eBay’ doesn’t evoke the same air of mystery and treasure hunt as scoring a find in an obscure junk shop in Chicago,” says UIC researcher Brenda Parker.

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By Jeffron Boynes

Through research and teaching, Mark Mattaini has devoted his career to further-ing the cause of social justice and human rights.

In his latest work, he is using behavioral systems analysis to study the effectiveness of nonviolent social action and civil resistance.

“Very recent research demonstrates that nonviolent struggle is at least twice as effec-tive as violent insurgencies and liberation efforts, but rigorous scholarship underpin-ning effective models of nonviolent action has been extremely limited,” says Mattaini, associate professor of social work.

There are a number of new emphases that he is exploring in his teaching, he says.

“We have a number of doctoral students in our program from the Middle East and Africa who are going to be important to the development of culturally coherent, indigenous models of social work and social work education in their own countries and regions,” Mattaini says.

He is supporting their efforts to chal-lenge the widespread movement to bring methods and values of social work “from the West to the rest,” and nurture emerging local models.

Mattaini is a faculty affiliate of the UIC Interdisciplinary Center for Research on Violence.

His work in social services, which began

in 1971, includes residential treatment, juvenile corrections, addictions, marriage and family counseling, developmental disabilities, mental health and policy de-velopment, with a focus on practice with American Indian and Alaska Native popu-lations.

Since joining the Jane Addams College of Social Work in 1999, he has taught 11 different graduate-level courses.

He is the author or co-editor of 11 books, an e-book and more than 80 articles and chapters. His latest, The Science of Saty-agraha: Strategic Nonviolent Power, is being published by Athabasca University Press.

In addition to this work, Mattaini con-tinues to test and refine Peace Power, a vio-lence prevention strategy he developed for schools and communities.

Students and colleagues call Mattaini “a creative and innovative teacher, incorporat-ing a variety of methods to engage students in the learning process.”

“I feel blessed to have the opportunity in teaching to encourage the next generation to continue crucial work for social justice, human rights, sustainability and liberation,” he says.

jboynes@uic.edu

E X C E L L E N C E I N T E A C H I N G

Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

“Nonviolent struggle is at least twice as effective as violent insurgencies,” says Mark Mattaini.Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

“It’s really about getting a feeling for who learners are as individuals,” says Carole Mitchener.

By Anne Brooks Ranallo

“When I walk into a school, I think, ‘This is why I do this,”’ says Carole Mitch-ener.

Mitchener, associate professor of cur-riculum and instruction in the College of Education, heads Secondary Science, a master’s degree program that recruits sci-ence teachers for middle and high schools in high-need areas of Chicago.

Secondary Science began as a three-year pilot program in 2009, supported by two National Science Foundation grants. By May, it will have graduated 60 teachers of biology, physics, environmental science and earth and space science.

Some students are career-changers with strong backgrounds in STEM fields. Others were science undergraduates.

Ninety-five percent of the program’s graduates are teaching science, most in high-need Chicago schools.

Mitchener has spent a lot of time in Chicago public schools over the last 10 years, “learning from urban youth about their ways of making sense of science,” she says.

She also taught middle and high school for six years in different states.

She found that some teachers of science are not certified as science teachers, have too little knowledge of the content and are prone to high turnover, leading to “concen-

trated inequities” that she emphasizes to teachers in training.

“It’s really about getting a feeling for who learners are as individuals and as members of a learning community, their cohort; and then not only helping them progress in their journeys, but also relate those journeys to the larger picture of social inequality, and challenging those inequi-ties,” she says.

“We do that by teaching our students to connect theory and practice constantly in ways that serve the students in the schools.”

Since she was named associate dean for programs and evaluations last year, Mitch-ener is teaching less and seeking a full-time coordinator for the Secondary Science Pro-gram. But she feels no less committed to it.

AWA R D F O R

Promoting social justice, human rights

Recruiting teachers to high-need areas

“I feel blessed to have the opportunity in teaching to encourage the next generation to continue crucial work for social justice, human rights, sustainability and liberation.”

“I’m so passionate about what we’re doing, working so closely with Chicago Public Schools, and particularly schools that are in great need of good science teaching.”

“I’m so passionate about what we’re doing, working so closely with Chicago Public Schools, and particularly schools that are in great need of good science teaching,” she says.

“Many teachers in these schools are doing wonderful things, so we’re not going in to save them, but working with them to keep making it better.”

aranallo@uic.edu

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E X C E L L E N C E I N T E A C H I N G

By Anne Brooks Ranallo

Luigi Salerni “has dedicated his life to making his students into his peers,” a 2008 graduate recently wrote of Salerni, professor of theatre.

Salerni’s view of his students might explain why he has received four teaching awards in 14 years at UIC, where he teaches directing, playwriting, performance and col-laboration and directs a play each year.

Salerni spent years transforming the performance track into a conservatory-style undergrad program, which he defines as teaching “the craft of implementation, as op-posed to studying the art form in your head.”

“The work needs to be consequential as a dialogue between you and the audience,” he says.

Other universities had graduate pro-grams or better facilities, Salerni says, so his strategy was to build “the best undergrad program in the state” — one that auditions and interviews applicants, and prepares its graduates for theater careers without the need for graduate school.

The process required shelving the gradu-ate program. Salerni says not all faculty members agreed, but they got behind the plan.

The effort paid off not only in numbers — a 65 percent increase in majors between 2007 and 2012, despite the recession’s impact on the arts — but in appreciation from his

students and faculty. “His enthusiasm is contagious; the re-

hearsal room is a joyful place. The students never question whether or not they can do something, because Luigi doesn’t,” writes Tanera Marshall, director of the department of theatre and music.

“When you raise the bar, you get the stu-dents you’ve always dreamed about having,” Salerni says.

He compares teaching to directing, where the director needs a well-researched “sense of the whole” to protect the actors from conflicting viewpoints.

“I think that’s what teachers must have, too, but not in the sense of having the an-swer. It’s knowing the questions.

“It’s not what I know, it’s what the student discovers. I can say the right thing, or I can just as easily say the wrong thing. I’m more successful in opening the window than in closing it.”

A one-time English major, Salerni quotes writers as he discusses learning, teaching and the need to embrace failure.

He says author Vikram Seth defined three kinds of teachers.

Salerni lists them: “The ones you remem-ber and hated, the ones you’ve forgotten, and the third kind — and I hope I’m one of them — the ones you remember and for-give.”

aranallo@uic.edu

Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

“It’s not what I know, it’s what the students discovers,” says Luigi Salerni.

By Gary Wisby

What’s important is not how good a teacher you are, but how much your students learn.

That’s Michael J. Scott’s philosophy of teaching in a nutshell.

“I’m a huge believer that education should be student-centered and project-based,” says Scott, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and bioengineering.

“You learn things by doing them rather than by being told how to do them.”

The courses he teaches most often are Interdisciplinary Product Development, for seniors, and Introduction to Engineering Design and Graphics, for sophomores.

“I structure both around long-term sig-nificant team projects,” he says.

The senior course combines engineering and industrial design students with MBA candidates.

“They have a client they work for who has a problem of interest to them and us,” Scott says.

“For the first half of the year, they identify problems worth solving. For the second half, they develop solutions to the problems.”

As for the sophomores, who are students in engineering or graphic design, “they learn to build devices that perform certain func-tions,” Scott says.

Student teams come up with a design,

build a model and test it. Then they refine the design, build a final version and test it again.

Scott’s undergraduate degree, from Harvard, is in philosophy, a fact many find surprising.

But he believes the philosophers of the 18th and 19th centuries would be engineers today.

“Moving from philosophy to engineering was not as big a step as it sounds,” he says. “I started in math, and Harvard had a rather mathematical philosophy department.”

Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

“I’m a huge believer that education should be student-centered and project-based,” says Michael Scott, center.

Raising the bar to get ‘dream’ students

Taking hands-on approach to learning

“When you raise the bar, you get the students you’ve always dreamed about having.”

“You learn things by doing them rather than by being told how to do them.”

Scott also teaches a completely different discipline — yoga.

His weekly class is attended mostly by faculty and students from the College of Engineering, although it’s open to others.

When he was a student at the California Institute of Technology, where he earned a master’s and Ph.D., Scott’s back wouldn’t allow him to sit comfortably through a lecture.

“I’d sit for five minutes, stand for five minutes,” he says. “I’d lie on the floor if the professor would let me.”

Yoga gave him the relief he needed.“I decided I’d better do it for the rest of

my life, and one way is to teach it.”Scott started his yoga classes at Caltech

and continued after joining UIC in 2000.“So now I teach yoga, and my back is

totally fine, thank you,” he says.gwisby@uic.edu

UIC’s only peer-selected teaching award, with winners chosen by those who received the honor in past years.

8 UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu I APRIL 3, 2013

Send information about campus events to Christy Levy, christyb@uic.educalendar

For more UIC events, visit www.events.uic.edu

HIGHLIGHT APRIL

S M T W T F S

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“Why Health Disparities Matter”

April 10April 3, 1945: Presi-dent Harry S. Truman authorizes the Marshall Plan, meant to stabilize European nations eco-nomically and politically so they would not join be tempted to join com-munist parties.

The plan helped coun-tries recover and rebuild after the devastation of World War II.

AsiAn AmericAn AwAreness month

April 3

“Asian American Awareness Month Kickoff”Hip-hop artist Monotone, Julian on the Radio, and DJ Noyze, along with student performances. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. LC Quad. 312-413-9569

April 8

“ASAM Expo”Academic fair celebrating Asian American undergraduate research projects in the arts and sciences. 4-6 p.m. Cardinal Room, SCE. 312-413-9569

April 9

“Mr. & Mrs. Asian Sensation 2011”Pageant and talent competition. 5:30-9 p.m. UIC Forum, Main Hall C. 312-413-9569

exhibits

Through April 6

“A Strange House in My Voice”Exhibit features the work of master’s of fine arts students Cameron Gibson, Ben Murray and Tina Tahir. Artist talks, 5-7 p.m. April 3. Open-ing reception, 5-8 p.m. April 5. Exhibit hours, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tues.-Fri., noon-6 p.m. Sat. Gallery 400, ADH. 312-996-6114

April 9-13

“A Spectre Is Haunting”Exhibit features the work of master’s of fine arts students Liliana Angulo Cortés, Ian Curry, Dan-iel Shea and Daniel Tucker. Artist talks, 5-7 p.m. April 10. Opening reception, 5-8 p.m. April 12. Exhibit hours, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tues.-Fri., noon-6 p.m. Sat. Gallery 400, ADH. 312-996-6114

LectUres/ seminArs/

conFerences

April 4

“Food Justice: Interdisciplinary Perspectives”Conference sponsored by the UIC Institute for the Humanities and the Chancellor’s Initia-tive in the Humanities. Kickoff event, “Think Global/Garden Local,” by urban agriculturists Laurell Sims and Seneca Kern, noon-1 p.m. SCE. Keynote speaker Eric Schlosser, investiga-tive journalist and author of Fast Food Nation, Chew on This and Reefer Madness, presents “Food Justice and American Injustice.” 5-6 p.m. Illinois Room, SCE

April 11

“The Effects of Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation on the Experience of Hate Crimes in Chicago” Paul Schewe, associate professor of criminology, law and justice, and Alicia Matthews, associate professor of health systems science. Sponsored by the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy. Noon-1 p.m. 330 CUPPA Hall. 312-996-9145

sPeciAL eVents

April 3

Music Master ClassKarl Davies, viola and string chamber music. 3 p.m. L060 EPASW

APRIL 3 IN HISTORY

Truman signs Marshall Plan

M. Roy Wilson, deputy director for strategic scientific planning and program coordination, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Part of the Chancel-lor’s Lecture Series. 4-5 p.m. Moss Audito-rium, CMRB

April 4

“FIT4LIFE Wheelchair Basketball and Health & Fitness Expo”Sponsored by the Kinesiology Club. 4-9 p.m. SRF. http://bit.ly/YthogX

9APRIL 3, 2013 I UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu I APRIL 3, 2013

student voice Want to contribute a story? Email Christy Levy, christyb@uic.edu

By Gina Russell

What’s the best way to describe UIC Radio program-ming? Diverse.

UIC’s official radio station features a wide range of mu-sical genres, talk radio, news and public affairs program-ming.

“As a college radio station, we pride ourselves on diver-sity so we try to reach out to as many genres as possible,” production director Calvin Nichols said.

Like Pandora or Spotify, UIC Radio is strictly streamed online.

“Being an Internet-only radio station really allows us to represent a new generation of students. Students are online all the time and are using the Internet to be a resource of information and entertainment, and that’s really what UIC Radio is all about,” said Rhonda Laylo, general manager of UIC Radio.

The station, which recently celebrated its 13th anni-versary, has 18 volunteer student DJs and eight volunteer student bloggers. DJs are selected at the beginning of each semester and no prior experience is required.

“We just have to see that they are enthusiastic about being on the station or in music,” Laylo said. “They will go through all the technical training if they get chosen.”

Some students who have worked at the station have gone on to find professional success in radio. Gabriel Ramirez, “Producer Gabe” on B96’s morning radio show, for example, was music director at UIC Radio.

“We take a lot of pride in that because he doesn’t have a broadcasting degree, but was able to turn a student volun-teer position into a career,” Laylo said.

UIC Radio reflects diversity of its student audience

Student DJs also have the opportunity to interview local and national musicians. Guests have ranged from rapper Wale to Chicago-based neo-soul/jazz artist Lili K.

UIC Radio encourages students and student musicians to reach out to the station. Having a listening party? Invite UIC Radio. They will bring a camera crew and feature the show on their blog.

“We really want to be a hub for talent at UIC because there

is so much talent at this school,” said Nichols, a senior in communication.

For more information and to stream the station, visit the website at http://uicradio.org.

Find out more about what’s coming up at UIC Radio on Twitter (https://twitter.com/uicradio) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/uicradio).

grusse2@uic.edu

Neo-soul/jazz artist Lili K chats with student DJ Mike Buraglio March 5 during his “Cold Locals Radio” show on UIC Radio.

Professor has passion for polkaBy Alex Rauch

As professor of biostatistics in the School of Public Health, Donald Hedeker has a long list of achievements that fill a CV more than 50 pages long.

But Hedeker has a second career, one where his ac-complishments are tallied on a set list — as Dandy Don Hedeker, lead guitar and vocalist for The Polka-holics.

“I try to keep the two lives distinct,” says Hedeker, a fellow of the American Statistical Association and a 2000-2003 University Scholar.

“I never really talk about it in class or anything like that. I feel if people want to find out about it, they will.”

Hedeker joined UIC in 1989, soon after completing his Ph.D. in quantitative psychology from the Univer-sity of Chicago (he earned a bachelor’s in economics there).

His research in biostatistics focuses primarily “in Photo: Alex Rauch

Biostatistics professor Donald Hedeker is a “polka addict.”

psychiatry or in smoking related studies,” he says.His work includes a long list of articles, books

and studies with colleague Robin Mermelstein, director of the Institute for Health Research and Policy, whose research focuses on smoking and nicotine dependency in young people.

In his life as a musician and self-described “polka addict,” Hedeker has been playing shows for well over a decade, dressed in lederhosen and glit-ter.

For more on The Polkaholics, including upcom-ing shows, visit facebook.com/polkaholics

arauch2@uic.edu

“Polka and the professor” View video at youtube.com/uicmedia

UIC Radio onlineStreaming: http://uicradio.org Twitter: twitter.com/uicradio Facebook: www.facebook.com/uicradio

10 UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu I APRIL 3, 2013

policeUIC Police emergency: 312-355-5555Nonemergency: 312-996-2830

March 25-31

Crimes reported to UIC PoliceTheft: 11Battery: 3DUI: 3Warrant: 1Narcotics: 2Disorderly conduct: 3

Arrests by UIC PoliceMarch 25: Two women were arrested for

battery at 9:10 a.m. at the hospital. March 26: A man was arrested for narcot-

ics at 10:02 p.m. at 731 S. Ashland Ave. A man was arrested for DUI at 2:58 a.m. at

1160 W. Van Buren St. March 28: A man was arrested for battery at

12:09 a.m. at 1350 S. Halsted St. A man was arrested for battery at 12:32 a.m.

at 1336 S. Halsted St. March 29: A man was arrested for DUI at

1059 W. Taylor St. A man was arrested for theft at 5:03 p.m. at

the Physical Education Building. March 30: A man was arrested for narcotics

at 6:36 p.m. at 2430 W. Roosevelt Road. For more information on police activity,

visit the UIC Police crime map, www.uic.edu/depts/police, and the Chicago Police CLEAR Map, http://gis.chicagopolice.org

Published on Wednesdays during the academic year (monthly during summer) by the Office of Public Affairs of the University of Illinois at Chicago. 1320 University Hall (MC 288), 601 S. Morgan St., Chicago, IL 60607-7113.http://www.uicnews.uic.edu

Editorial: ..................................(312) 996-7758Advertising:..............................(312) 996-3456Fax:.............................................(312) 413-7607EditorSonya Booth................................sobooth@uic.eduAssociate editorChristy Levy..................................christyb@uic.eduAssistant editorGary Wisby.....................................gwisby@uic.eduVisual communications and designAnna Dworzecka..........................adworz1@uic.edu

Assistant graphic designerMegan Strand..............................mstran2@uic.eduEditorial associate Alex Rauch...................................arauch2@uic.eduEditorial internsMatt O’Connor...........................moconn31@uic.eduGina Russell...................................grusse2@uic.eduAdvertising coordinatorSamella Wright........................uicnewsads@uic.eduAssociate chancellor for public affairsMark Rosati.......................................rosati@uic.eduNews bureau directorBill Burton........................................burton@uic.edu

PhotographyRoberta Dupuis-Devlin Joshua ClarkUIC Photo Services......................photolab@uic.edu

UIC NEWS

11APRIL 3, 2013 I UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu I APRIL 3, 2013

Robert Remini, 91, professor emeritus of history, an award-winning biographer and former official historian for the U.S. House of Representatives, died March 28 at Evanston Hospital after a stroke.

The New York Times called him “the fore-most Jacksonian scholar of our time.”

His critically acclaimed three-volume Andrew Jackson biography took more than 15 years to complete. The third volume of the series, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy, 1833-1845, won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 1984.

Remini also authored biographies of Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams and Daniel Webster, as well as a dozen other books on Jacksonian America.

“I’m a narrative historian. I tell a story. Biography is a handy way of doing history because the chronology has already been prepared for you — a person is born and then he dies,” he said in a March 1, 2000, UIC News profile.

Fred Beuttler, who collaborated with Remini on projects at UIC and the House of Representatives, said Remini “reestablished a nonpartisan professional office, which helped interpret the institution to members of Con-gress, teachers, scholars, the press and the general public.”

“His passion for American history in-fluenced countless students and colleagues,

and his legacy will live on in his works of scholarship and in the people whose lives he touched,” Beuttler said.

U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., who in-troduced legislation commissioning the his-tory of the House, called Remini “one of the nation’s preeminent political historians.”

“His dedication to the country and to the institution of the House of Representatives will not be forgotten,” Larson said. “I join every member both past and present grateful for his invaluable work to honor and preserve the history of this nation.”

Remini was official historian for the House of Representatives from 2005 to 2010. He was appointed by Dennis Hastert, then speaker of the House.

Before Remini was named House histo-rian, an authorization from Congress in 2002 appointed him distinguished visiting scholar in American history at the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress.

During that time he produced The House: The History of the U.S. House of Representa-tives (2006), the first comprehensive narrative history of the U.S. House of Representatives.

In his research for the single-volume, 625-page book, Remini used the Library of Con-gress collection of manuscripts, congressional records, newspaper accounts, letters, diaries, memoirs and biographies. He also inter-viewed current and former House members.

In 2007, Remini’s book was awarded the Society for History in the Federal Govern-ment’s George Pendleton Prize.

In 2008, at age 87, he was the author of two published books, the 400-page A Short History of the United States, and Andrew Jack-son, which centers on Jackson’s emergence as a military leader, and co-editor of Fellow Citizens: The Penguin Book of U.S. Presidential Inaugural Addresses.

Remini received the 2004 Freedom Award from the United States Capitol Historical Society for his “outstanding contributions to preserving and communicating the history of our nation.”

Other honors included the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation Award, the Carl Sand-burg Award for nonfiction and the American Historical Association’s Award for Scholarly Distinction.

Remini was an active member of the na-tional history community and a long-time review board member for the National En-dowment for the Humanities.

Born in the Bronx and raised in Queens, he received his undergraduate degree from Fordham University and served in the Navy during World War II. He later earned a Ph.D. in history at Columbia University and held teaching appointments at Fordham and Co-lumbia.

In 1965 he joined the faculty of the new Chicago Circle Campus (now UIC), serving as the first chairman of its department of his-tory. In 1983 he became founding director of the UIC Institute for the Humanities. Later in his career he held the position of UIC his-torian.

Donations may be made to the Robert V. Remini Scholarship Fund, University of Il-linois Foundation, 1305 W. Green St., Urbana, IL, 61801.

Photo: Hector Emanuel

Robert Remini, professor emeritus of history.

Historian remembered as ‘foremost Jacksonian scholar of our time’deaths

12 UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu I APRIL 3, 2013

For more Flames sports, visit www.uicflames.comsports

By Robbin Cooley

The softball team won the conference series opener, 2-1, over Loyola last weekend.

The Flames claimed a 2-1 win Friday, before beating the Ramblers, 9-1, in five innings to start off Saturday’s twin bill. Loyola edged UIC, 9-8, during the final game at Flames Field.

Senior Coryn Schmit accounted for five of UIC’s nine runs during the first game against Loyola. The first baseman was 3-for-3, including a grand slam and five RBI.

The Flames grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Schmit collected her first RBI of the day.

Loyola added a run in the top half of the third frame — the only Rambler run recorded in the contest.

In the bottom of the third inning, Courtney Heeley posted the first run of six in the frame, before Schmit stepped in with the grand slam to score Natalie Hernandez, Kara Komp and Melissa Preish and collect four RBI. Heeley earned the final RBI of the inning as she singled to score Jenna Marsalli.

Softball seals series win against Loyola

By Brett McWethy

In a field that featured competitors from the SEC, ACC, Big East, PAC-12 and others, sophomore middle distance special-ist Rebecca Zaiter stole the show in Friday’s first day of events at the Raleigh Relays, outpacing 129 other runners to finish first in the 1,500-meter run.

Zaiter crossed the finish line in a school-record 4:33.23, claiming medalist honors in her section of the race.

Among the other standout performances on the first day of competition were senior Ariel Butzine, who finished the 400-meter in 57.32 seconds (40th of 140), and senior Aimee Schuh, who finished 36th in a field of 63 competitors in the long jump (4.92 meters).

In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, sophomore Tess Ehrhardt took 13th (11:13.60), and senior Jaime Johnson crossed the finish line in 11:16.06, good for sixth place.

By Mike Laninga

Sophomore Tyler Detmer drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning with a single down the left-field line as the baseball team (13-11) completed a sweep against Western Illinois (6-17) Sunday, 6-5.

The Flames beat the Leathernecks, 3-2, Friday and 2-0 Saturday.

On Sunday, the Leathernecks mounted an impres-sive comeback in the top of the ninth, scoring four runs to knot the tally, 5-5. Redshirt senior Alex Grun-enwald was responsible for four UIC runs with a grand slam in the third inning.

“This was a great series for us,” head coach Mike Dee said. “Any-time you win three games in a weekend, you’ve done a good job. I am pleased with the progress we continue to make, but I don’t think we are playing our best baseball yet. There is still some room for improvement.”

The Flames displayed outstanding defense and pitching over the three-game set, holding the Leather-necks scoreless in 26 innings and allowing just seven runs.

After the Flames gave up a single score in the top of the third, Grunenwald countered with a four-RBI blow to center field that was about 420 feet in length.

UIC tacked on an additional run in the sixth as senior Joe Betcher recorded a ground-rule double that drove in junior Alex Jurich.

Jurich reached base on a walk and was pushed over to second on a Connor Philbin groundout. Betcher paced UIC at the plate with three hits on three at-bats.

The Leathernecks had three walks and two hits to send four men across the dish in the ninth.

With score tied at 5-5 in the bottom of the ninth, redshirt senior Ryan Shober started things off with a single to left field.

That’s when Detmer’s hit scored Shober and sealed the Flames’ sixth straight victory.

The Flames head to Northwestern today, then Val-paraiso for matches Friday through Sunday.

Baseball halts Western’s comeback effort in sweep

In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Flames added two more runs when Komp and Preish scored to end the game in five innings.

Laura Swan was the game-changer for UIC in the second game. The freshman earned six RBI in the back-and-forth contest.

Loyola collected three runs in the top of the second in-ning before Swan answered with a two-run home run to score Marsalli.

The Ramblers added another run in the third frame, then Swan battled back with a three-run double to score Komp, Preish and Marsalli and gain a 5-4 edge.

But Loyola regained the lead, 9-5.The Flames put forth a valiant effort in the bottom of the

seventh as Swan earned her sixth RBI off a walk, before junior Jacki Fletcher posted a two-run single.

Despite the seventh-inning spree, Loyola secured the game 9-8.

The team hosts Green Bay today and Thursday, then heads to Detroit for matches Saturday and Sunday.

Photo: Steve Woltmann

Ryan Boss jumps to catch the ball in a weekend win against Western Illinois.

Photo: Steve Woltmann

Freshman Laura Swan scored six RBI in a win against Loyola Saturday. The team hosts Green Bay at Flames Field today and Thursday.

Sophomore Zaiter steals show at competition

Photo: Steve Woltmann

Sophomore Rebecca Zaiter set a school record at the Raleigh Relays.