UIS, Junior League and United Way seek nominations for the annual Good as Gold volunteer awards

The University of Illinois Springfield, Junior League of Springfield, and United Way of Central Illinois are seeking nominations for the eighth annual Good as Gold volunteer awards. The awards ceremony will be held on April 13, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. in the Sangamon Auditorium Lobby at UIS.

The awards recognize volunteers who use their time and talents to help improve the lives of others in the Springfield area. Over 40 awards will be given to Sangamon County community volunteers, organizations, and businesses.

Individuals and organizations can be nominated in several categories including Heart of Gold, Youth Volunteer, Organization Agent of Service, and Distinguished Volunteer of the Year. The ceremony will also recognize UIS and/or Lincoln Land Community College faculty/ staff members and students who have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to service.

Businesses may be nominated for the Business Honor Roll sponsored by the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce. The honor roll will recognize businesses that have given back to our community thought direct service and charitable giving.

Over the past six years, the ceremony has recognized hundreds of volunteers for freely giving their time and talents to make Springfield a better place to live and thrive.

Event details, descriptions of the awards categories, and the online nomination forms can be found at www.uis.edu/volunteer/communitypartners/goodasgold/. The nomination deadline is March 21, 2016.

For questions please contact, Mark Dochterman, director of the UIS Volunteer & Civic Engagement Center at mdoch2@uis.edu or 217/206-8448.

UIS students to hold Dance Marathon to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network

WHAT: Students at the University of Illinois Springfield will hold a Dance Marathon as part of a fundraising campaign for the Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) at HSHS St. John’s Children’s Hospital in Springfield. Members of the public are invited to participate.

WHEN: Friday, March 4, 2016 from 4 p.m. to 12 a.m.

WHERE: The Recreation and Athletic Center (TRAC) on the UIS campus

DETAILS: Participants can sign up for the Dance Marathon as an individual or as part of a team with a fundraising goal. Anyone is welcome to participate and can register online at www.dmuis.org or at the event. Participants pay a $5 registration fee and are asked to fundraise at least $20 by March 4.

The Dance Marathon will feature a DJ, a variety of performances by different organizations and food coordinating with the themes “Around the World”, “Hollywood”, “90s/00s”, and “Rave”.

Six local families who have benefited from the Children’s Miracle Network at HSHS St. John’s Hospital will share their stories starting at 4:30 p.m.

UIS students have been raising money for the campaign throughout the year. Last year, they raised $5,000 for the Children’s Miracle Network.

UIS to host free child safety seat check

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield’s Cox Children’s Center has partnered with Secretary of State Jesse White’s Office and the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Division of Traffic Safety to host a free child safety seat check as part of UIS Campus Safety Week. The event is open to all students, faculty, employees and community members.

WHEN: Friday, March 4, 2016 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

WHERE: Parking Lot I, located south of The Recreation and Athletic Center (TRAC) on the UIS campus.

DETAILS: Certified child passenger safety seat technicians from the Secretary of State’s office, various state agencies and organizations will be educating parents on proper installation procedures and ensuring that child safety seats are properly installed.

According to the Secretary of State, traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for children ages 4 to 14. While child safety seats help prevent death and injury to young children in traffic crashes, statistics show that nearly 80 percent of child safety seats are installed improperly.

Parents and family members living in the Springfield area who are unable to make Friday’s free child safety seat check may call 217/557-5190 to make a future appointment at the Driver Services facility at 316 North Klein Street.

For more information, contact Stacey Gilmore, director of the UIS Cox Children’s Center, at 217/206-6610 or shemb1@uis.edu.

Presidential candidate Jill Stein to speak at UIS about the politics of personal health

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series will discuss “Working for our Political Environment and Personal Health” with Jill Stein, a 2016 candidate for President of the United States seeking the Green Party’s nomination. Stein is a political organizer, physician and environmental-health activist.

WHEN: Thursday, March 3, 2016 at 6:30 p.m.

WHERE: UIS Studio Theatre, located in the Public Affairs Center

DETAILS: According to Stein, the current U.S. political system produces policy priorities that do not match real needs: most people are threatened by heart disease, cancer, and other physical health threats; yet, the total public and private spending seeking cures for and prevention of these threats are dwarfed by military spending. This event will provide a candid discussion of our need to change our political system, while protecting our environmental and personal health. Stein will share her ideas on how we can overcome our system’s dysfunctions and her insights on our environmental and health needs for a safe, sane, and secure future. She will highlight the roles each of us can pursue toward solving societal problems through our professional work, community engagement and activism, and political activity.

Stein was the Green Party’s 2012 presidential candidate. As a national activist, she has led multiple initiatives promoting healthy communities and local green economies and actively organized around critical issues around economic, health, environmental, and racial justice.

She was raised outside Chicago and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1973, and from Harvard Medical School in 1979.

This event is co-sponsored by the UIS College of Public Affairs and Administration. For a list of other upcoming ECCE Speaker Series events and more information, visit www.uis.edu/speakerseries/. All events are free and open to the public.

The views and opinions of the presenter do not necessarily represent or reflect those of the University of Illinois. Allowing the use of this venue shall not be construed as an endorsement by the University of the presenter or any products or services offered by the same. The University of Illinois does not endorse any political candidate or political organization.

UIS Speaker Series presents a screening and discussion of "The Black Power Mixtape"

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series will present a screening and discussion of the 2011 documentary The Black Power Mixtape. As part of the Political Art and the Public Sphere (PAPS) series, a discussion follows the screening and will be hosted by Kamau Kemayo, UIS associate professor of African-American Studies, and Richard Gilman-Opalsky, UIS associate professor of Political Science and PAPS series founder.

WHEN: Monday, March 7, 2016 at 6:00 p.m.

WHERE: UIS Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

DETAILS: The Black Power Mixtape, directed by Göran Olsson, examines the U.S. Black Power Movement, featuring found footage shot by a group of Swedish journalists (discovered some 30 years later in the cellar of Swedish Television) overlaid with commentaries and interviews from contemporary African-American artists, activists, musicians and scholars. The footage includes appearances by Stokely Carmichael, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Emile de Antonio, Angela Davis and commentaries by Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, Harry Belafonte, Kathleen Cleaver, Angela Davis, Robin Kelley and Abiodun Oyewole, amongst others. The contemporary commentary in the film aims to connect problems of racism from over 40 years ago to a present-day analysis, which we will take up in light of the most current issues of racial profiling and black revolt in the U.S. today.

This event is co-sponsored by the Political Art and the Public Sphere series and the UIS African-American Studies Department. For a list of other upcoming ECCE Speaker Series events and more information, visit www.uis.edu/speakerseries/. All events are free and open to the public.

Illinois Innocence Project at UIS to hold a discussion about the Netflix series "Making a Murderer"

WHAT: The Illinois Innocence Project at the University of Illinois Springfield will hold a discussion about the important issues raised in the popular Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer. The presentation and discussion are free and open to the public.

WHEN: Wednesday, February 24, 2016 at Noon

WHERE: UIS Public Affairs Center (PAC), Conference Rooms C/D

DETAILS: Illinois Innocence Project staff attorney Lauren Kaeseberg and UIS Associate Professor of Legal Studies Gwen Jordan will make a short presentation about the Steven Avery murder case featured in the Netflix series. They will discuss some of the key issues raised by the documentary and answer questions from the audience.

Filmed over a 10-year period, Making a Murderer is an unprecedented real-life thriller about Steven Avery, a DNA exoneree who, while in the midst of exposing corruption in local law enforcement, finds himself the prime suspect in a grisly new crime. Set in Wisconsin, the series takes viewers inside a high-stakes criminal case where reputation is everything and things are never as they appear.

Light refreshments will be provided at the event and audience members are welcome to bring a lunch. For more information, contact Gwen Jordan at 217/206-8520 or gjorda2@uis.edu.

UIS Speaker Series explores "Afro-Latinos: Status and Struggle"

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series will explore “Afro-Latinos: Status and Struggle” with Hinda Seif, UIS associate professor of Sociology/Anthropology & Women and Gender Studies, and Dexter Burns, a 2014 UIS graduate now earning his master’s degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

WHEN: Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 4:00 p.m.

WHERE: UIS Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

DETAILS: More Africans were transported as slaves to Latin America and the Caribbean than what is now the United States, yet few depictions of Afro-Latinos appear as representative images in popular culture and media in the U.S. or Latin America. To some observers, this relative absence is the result of a preference for European or multi-racial representations rather than African or indigenous depictions.

This presentation will examine the complex intersections of race, culture, and country through an excerpt of the PBS documentary film "Mirrors of the Heart" that focuses on questions of identity in Hispaniola after Spain and France brought Africans as slaves to this island after wiping out its indigenous peoples. The presentation will also discuss racialization in the Dominican Republic as it relates to Latinos in Haiti and the U.S., including their distancing from African and Black identity in dominant culture, as well as activists' reclaiming of African and Black identity. The status and struggles of Afro-Latinos in Bolivia will also be presented.

 This event is co-sponsored by the UIS Diversity Center, UIS Office of the Associate Chancellor for Access and Equal Opportunity, UIS Sociology and Anthropology Department, UIS Black Student Union, and the UIS Organization of Latin American Students.

For a list of other upcoming ECCE Speaker Series events and more information, visit www.uis.edu/speakerseries/. All events are free and open to the public.

UIS Lunch & Learn Series presents "Coffee and Chocolate"

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield’s Office of Advancement, Alumni SAGE Society, Chancellor’s Office and the Illinois State Historical Society presents “Coffee and Chocolate” as part of the Lunch and Learn Series.

WHEN: Thursday, February 25 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

WHERE: Public Affairs Center (PAC) Conference Room C/D, located on the lower level of the PAC on the UIS campus.

DETAILS: Join culinary instructor and coffee expert Randy Williams of UIS Food Service and chocolatier and entrepreneur Joshua Becker of Cocoa Blue, who will discuss the history, evolving customs, economy, and sourcing of coffee and chocolate delicacies – and take us through a bit of sampling too!

The cost for the hot buffet lunch and program is $23/per person. Reservations are requested, as seating is limited. A discounted series subscription is available for $55/per person.

Other upcoming Lunch & Learn events include “The Past as Prologue: Climate” on March 30 and “The Future of the Past: Museums” on April 19. These lunch-time programs will stimulate thinking as they build upon the university's tradition of open and intelligent dialogue.

Visit www.uis.edu/advancement/alumni/ to register online. For more information, contact the UIS Office of Advancement at 217/206-6058 or email advancement@uis.edu.

UIS lecture to explore "The Unbelievable Truth About Sweatshops" and their economic impact

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield will host Benjamin Powell, professor of economics at the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University and director of the Free Market Institute, to discuss “The Unbelievable Truth About Sweatshops”. The event is free and open to the public.

WHEN: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 at 6:00 p.m.

WHERE: UIS Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

DETAILS: Powell will explain how third world sweatshops provide the best available opportunity to workers and how they play an important role in the process of development that eventually leads to better wages and working conditions.

Using economic theory, he will argue that much of what the anti-sweatshop movement has agitated for would actually harm the very workers they intend to help by creating less desirable alternatives and undermining the process of development. Powell doesn't put "profits" or "economic efficiency" above people. Improving the welfare of citizens of third world countries is the goal, and he explores which methods best achieve that goal.

Powell is the author of Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy (2014) and The Economics of Immigration: Market-Based Approaches, Social Science, and Public Policy (2015) and many other books. A book sale and signing will follow the event.

This lecture is sponsored by the UIS Office of Undergraduate Education and is funded by the Carrol C. Hall Endowment Fund. This fund aims to further educate young Americans on capitalism as an economic system and philosophy.

For more information, contact William Kline, UIS associate professor of business administration, at 217/206-8138 or wklin2@uis.edu.

UIS hosts Career Connections Expo for students, alumni and community members

WHAT: The career centers at the University of Illinois Springfield, Lincoln Land Community College and ITT Technical Institute are excited to announce the 2016 Career Connections Expo. Students and alumni from the three institutions, other colleges and universities, and community members are invited to attend. The event is sponsored by Marucco, Stoddard, Ferenbach & Walsh, Inc., Northwestern Mutual, and NPR Illinois (WUIS).

WHEN: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

WHERE: The Recreation and Athletic Center (TRAC) on the UIS campus.

DETAILS: The expo is designed to help attendees make professional connections, find jobs and internships and explore career paths. For potential employers, it is a chance to disseminate pertinent information and to develop a pool of candidates interested in future opportunities, internships and summer openings as well as permanent employment.

Representatives from more than 100 employers are expected to be on hand. The event has an average attendance of more than 300 students and alumni.

Information for students, alumni and others: Pre-registration is not required, business-casual attire is required (NO jeans), and participants should bring copies of their resumes to the expo.

Information for employers: Advance registration is required. Booth space will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration is available online at www.uis.edu/career.

For more information, or to register, contact the Career Development Center at 217/206-6508.

UIS Speaker Series hosts a showcase symposium on the Black Lives Matter movement

WHAT:       The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE)Speaker Series will host a showcase symposium on the Black Lives Matter movement featuring the work of UIS students.

WHEN:       Monday, February 15, 2016 at 6:00 p.m.

WHERE:      UIS Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

DETAILS:    UIS students will connect the Black Lives Matter movement to the themes of the ECCE Speaker Series. These themes include how participation in this movement helps them to recognize their own social responsibility toward a larger community of people. Students will also read essays they’ve written in order to provide a greater awareness of and respect for the difficult issues facing Black and African-American peoples in the United States.

Student finalists will be selected in advance to present their prewritten essays in creative forms such as rap, lecture, slam poetry, slides, etc. A brief synopsis of the finalist essays will be read to the audience before the presentations. These student essays will be determined by a committee of faculty and local leaders. The winner(s) of the event will be determined by audience vote and will receive a UIS Bookstore gift certificate.

This event is co-sponsored by the UIS Diversity Center. For a list of other upcoming ECCE Speaker Series events and more information, visit www.uis.edu/speakerseries/. All events are free and open to the public.