February 27, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — "The most valuable things in Jennifer Pope Baker's office at the Women's Fund of Central Indiana are the pictures of her husband and children. Her computer screen saver scrolls with family pictures," begins a feature in today's Indianapolis Star.  Baker, director of the Women's Fund and 1989 graduate of DePauw University, is profiled in the newspaper's "My Office" column. (photo: Joe Vitti/Indianapolis Star)

Jill Phillips writes, "The mother of two began volunteering for the Women's Fund prior to its official launch in 1996. When the need came for a director, she stepped up."

Baker, who previously served as director of development at St. Francis Healthcare Foundation, tells the Star, "I can only do this because of two things. One is that I know I'm doing something really important for the community, and I can explain that to my children. And two, I have an incredibly supportive husband."

She explains, "The Women's Fund of Central Indiana is an endowment that was created to provide options and opportunities to women and girls in Central Indiana. We do three things: We raise money, give it away and provide education for children and women."

Access the item at IndyStar.com.

In November, Baker was among the Indianapolis Business Journal's "Women of Influence." Read more in this previous story.

February 27, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — "Holly Bailey has become the third generation of her family and the first woman to serve as president of the Associated General Contractors of Illinois," begins a feature in the Journal Gazette of Mattoon, Illinois. A 1992 graduate of DePauw University, "Bailey, president of Howell Asphalt Co. and senior vice president of Howell Paving Inc. in Mattoon, was elected to a one-year term as AGCI president in December during the highway/heavy and utility construction association's annual convention and business meeting in Springfield." (photo: Ken Trevarthan/Mattoon Journal Gazette)

Rob Stroud writes, "The president's position for AGC of Illinois was held in 1969 by Bailey's grandfather Virgil Howell, who founded his Mattoon company 60 years ago, and in 1989-90 by her father, Charles Adams."

"We have been involved in AGC of Illinois for a long time," Bailey tells the newspaper. "They represent their contractors well in Springfield."

Stroud reports, "Bailey, who has been on AGC's board for five years now, has been part of the construction industry since she was in high school, when she worked part-time typing and filing at her family's business. She continued working in the summers for Howell in various capacities while she obtained a bachelor's in economics from DePauw University and a master's in business administration from Texas Christian University. After graduating from Texas Christian, Bailey worked for four years in executive recruiting before returning to the family businesses."

An economics major at DePauw, Holly Adams Bailey states, ""Besides the AGCI, I serve as treasurer for the Mattoon Area Family YMCA and sit on the board of directors of Coles Together. Whatever talents we possess we need to share to benefit the community and our industry. Now it is my turn to do just that."

You'll find the complete article at the Journal Gazette's website.

February 27, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — "Only a few years ago, many of Europe’s far-right politicians were openly anti-Semitic," notes a Newsweek story which cites a DePauw University faculty member. "Now some of the same populist parties are embracing Israel to unite against what they perceive to be a common threat. Over the past few years, Europe’s right-wing political leaders have tapped into rising worries over immigration from Islamic countries to predominantly secular and Christian Europe," writes Stefan Theil.

Of European politicians, the article states, "many find that support for Israel dovetails nicely with an anti-Islam platform. While anti-Muslim sentiments are wide-spread (more than 50 percent of Germans recently polled said they could imagine voting for an anti-Islamic party), anti-Semitism is no longer considered an acceptable part of political discourse, says Cas Mudde, an expert on European populism at DePauw University."

The complete piece -- "Europe's Extreme Righteous" -- appears in the new edition of Newsweek.  Access it at the magazine's website.

Cas Mudde is Nancy Schaenen Visiting Scholar in Ethics and part-time visiting associate professor of political science at DePauw University. Learn more in this previous story.

February 27, 2011, Jackson, Miss. — Five DePauw players scored in double figures led by Katie Mathews and Alex Gasaway with 14 each as the Tigers defeated Hendrix College 80-71 in the championship game of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament.  With the win, DePauw improves to 25-3 and earned the SCAC's automatic qualification into the NCAA Division III Championship.

The SCAC tournament title was DePauw's sixth since the event began in 2003 and the Tigers' 10th SCAC title overall in 13 years of conference play. Hendrix finished its season at 17-11.

In the men's championship game, Centre College was too much for the Tigers, winning 75-63.  With the loss, the Tiger men fall to 19-9 on the season. It's the third consecutive SCAC championship for Centre.

NCAA tournament pairings will be announced tomorrow at 3 p.m.

For comprehensive coverage of today's games and DePauw University athletics, click here.

February 28, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — Technology is everywhere.  Devices have changed the way we communicate, work, find and process information, and entertain ourselves.  But at what cost?  Does the ubiquity of devices and data make our lives better?  Those questions and others will be examined on Wednesday, March 30, in a debate between Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, and Jimmy Wales, founder of the world's fifth most popular website, Wikipedia.  Presented by the Timothy and Sharon Ubben Lecture Series, the program -- "Wired... and Weary?" -- will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium, Green Center for the Performing Arts (605 S. College Avenue).  As with all Ubben Lectures, the event is presented free of admission charge and the public is invited. (top photo: Petr Kratochvil)

The Ubben Lecture will serve as the capstone of a day-long, student-led initiative in which the campus will be encouraged to spend the day of March 30 without using the Internet, mobile devices, or other tools that connect people in electronic ways which do not require vocal communication or face-to-face human interaction.  Seniors Christine Walker (student body president) and David Dietz (executive vice president of DePauw student government) came up with the idea of a "tech-free day"; Ken Owen '82, executive director of media relations and coordinator of the Ubben Lecture Series, created the program that will bring Carr and Wales together at the end of the day.

A former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review, Nicholas Carr (pictured at right) argues in The Shallows that the increasing barrage of information humans are receiving via the Internet is having a negative effect on our abilities to concentrate, contemplate and reflect. "The problem is that skimming is becoming our dominant mode of thought," he writes. "Once a means to an end, a way to identify information for further study, it's becoming an end in itself -- our preferred method of both learning and analysis."

An article in Australia's Sydney Morning Herald reports, "Carr argues that the Internet is actually rewiring our brains, changing our approach to reading, ideas and concentrated work even when we are away from the computer. 'Whether I'm online or not, my mind now expects to take in information the way the net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a jet-ski,' Carr writes."

In The Shallows, Carr declares, "Dazzled by the Net's treasures, we are blind to the damage we may be doing to our intellectual lives and even our culture," and argues that "there needs to be time for efficient data collection and time for inefficient contemplation, time to operate the machine and time to sit idly in the garden." Carr asserts, "The computer screen bulldozes our doubts with its bounties and conveniences. It is so much our servant that it would seem churlish to notice that it is also our master."

Carr also authored 2004's Does IT Matter?: Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage and The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google. He has served as a commentator on TV networks (see him on Comedy Central's Colbert Report) and has been named one of the "100 Most Influential People in IT." Carr holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.A., in English literature, from Harvard University.

Jimmy Donal Wales is the founder of Wikipedia, an international collaborative free content encyclopedia on the Internet, and the Wikimedia Foundation. He is also  co-founder of Wikia, a privately owned free web hosting service.

Ten years ago, Wales had a goal of making Wikipedia one of the top 50 or 100 websites in the world. Today Wikipedia is the globe's #5 most popular Internet destinations and Wales is one of the most sought after visionaries in business and technology.

The origins of Wikipedia trace back to March 2000, when Wales started Nupedia ("the free encyclopedia"), which was characterized by an extensive peer-review process designed to make its articles of a quality comparable to that of professional encyclopedias. With the addition of wikis (a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content), the project was dubbed "Wikipedia." In a 2004 interview Wales stated, "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing." The success of the project has helped popularize a trend in web development (called Web 2.0) that aims to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing among users.

At the World Economic Forum in 2007, Wales was recognized as one of the world's top 250 young leaders for his professional accomplishments, his commitment to society, and his potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world. In May 2008, he co-chaired the annual World Economic Forum on the Middle East, the foremost global gathering of political, business and cultural leaders. 

In 2003, Mr. Wales founded the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. (See Jimmy Wales on The Colbert Report)

Wales was ranked #12 on Forbes' "Web Celeb 25" list. Wikipedia "has led to what may prove to be the most powerful industrial model of the 21st century: peer production," noted TIME when it named him one of 2006's 100 most influential people. "Wikipedia is proof that it works, and Jimmy Wales is its prophet."

Established in 1986 through the generous support of 1958 DePauw graduates Timothy H. and Sharon Williams Ubben, the Ubben Lecture Series was designed to "bring the world to Greencastle."

As recently announced, veteran statesman and 1952 DePauw graduate Lee Hamilton will speak March 15 on "The U.S. Role in the World After Afghanistan and Iraq." Earlier in this academic year, the Ubben Series welcomed Oscar Arias, former president of Costa Rica and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, on December 8, 2010. Rebecca Skloot, author of the bestseller The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, was on campus September 9 as an Ubben Lecturer.

The March 30 event will mark the second-ever Ubben Debate.  The first, held September 11, 2009, brought Howard Dean and Karl Rove to the DePauw campus for a lively exchange which was witnessed by a capacity crowd. (photo, l-r: David Dietz '11, Howard Dean, Ken Owen '82, Karl Rove and Sam Spahn '12)

Other previous Ubben Lecturers have included Tony Blair, Benazir Bhutto, General Colin Powell,  Spike Lee, Margaret Thatcher, Jason Reitman, Naomi Wolf, E.O. Wilson, Mike Krzyzewski, John Major, Jesse Jackson, Eric Schlosser, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, Greg Mortenson, Barbara Bush, Todd Rundgren, Ross Perot, Mitch Albom, ice cream entrepreneurs Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield, General Wesley Clark,  Andrew Young, Bob Woodward, Paul Rusesabagina, David Plouffe, Paul Volcker, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Robert M. Gates, Ralph Nader, Harry Belafonte, Jane Pauley, Julian Bond, Gloria Borger, Steven D. Levitt, Liz Murray, David McCullough, Ken Burns, David Gergen, Sister Helen Prejean, Oliver Sacks, Paul Tsongas, Gwen Ifill, Brian Mulroney, William Bennett, and Mary Frances Berry, among others.  

To view a complete roster of Ubben Lecturers -- which includes links to video clips and news stories -- click here.

February 28, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — An article recalling Indiana University's 1915 hiring of legendary athlete Jim Thorpe to serve as an assistant football coach notes, "Thorpe, however, wouldn't arrive in time to help the Hoosiers for their season opener vs. DePauw. Still, as the campus buzzed over the unveiling of plans for a new gymnasium to be built north of Jordan Field, Childs and his IU squad got off to a fast start to the season, beating DePauw 7-0. A player only identified as McIntosh scored the only touchdown of the game in the second quarter."

Published in Inside Indiana magazine and written by Ken Bikoff, the text adds, "A few days after the DePauw game the (Indiana Daily Student) announced that Thorpe would be arriving in Bloomington Thursday, Oct. 7. ... It’s time to take a step back and recognize the shockwave the announcement of Thorpe's hiring sent through the Bloomington community. Simply put, no real comparison can be made with any modern athlete. The closest might be Bo Jackson, who was a Heisman Trophy winner and NFL star while also becoming an All-Star baseball player. To match Thorpe, Bo would also have needed to win the Tour de France or an Olympic Gold medal. Then, Jackson would had to have come to IU to serve as an assistant coach during the prime of his career. A better comparison might be if Michael Jordan had continued to play basketball throughout the 1990s while also becoming a major league baseball player and winning the 100-meter sprint at the Olympics. It’s mind-boggling. The fact that Thorpe would be coming to little ol' Indiana University to help the foundering football team was staggering."

Read the complete piece by clicking here.

The 1915 DePauw Tigers won five of their remaining seven games that season. View a "Monon Memory" of the 1915 clash between DePauw and Wabash -- which was played November 20 in Indianapolis (and is seen in the action photo above) -- here: [Download Video: "1915 Monon Memory" - 2834kb].

February 28, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — In the 2011 NCAA Division III women's basketball tournament, "Hope (26-2) opens against a familiar foe, DePauw (Ind.)," reports Michigan's Holland Sentinel this afternoon. The first round game is set for Friday evening at Hope. Game time and ticket information will be released later.

"The Flying Dutch are 6-1 all-time against the Tigers, including a second-round in last year’s national tournament en route to a national runner-up finish ... Hope, which received an at-large berth, is 26-2 on the season, while DePauw is 25-3."

Access the item at the newspaper's website. The tournament bracket can be found here.

DePauw earned automatic qualification into the Division III tournament after winning the Southern Collegaite Athletic Conference championship with yesterday's 80-71 win over Hendrix.

The 25-3 Tigers are making their eighth straight NCAA appearance and 12th in the last 16 years. The Tigers have advanced to the national quarterfinals four times, to the semifinals twice and captured the 2007 Division III title.

For comprehensive coverage of DePauw University's women's basketball team, click here.

February 28, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — Television ratings for Sunday's Academy Awards slipped 10% from last year's levels, notes a Los Angeles Times report.  Scott Collins writes, "Sunday's outing would seem to suggest that no matter who the hosts are, their power to shake up viewing patterns remains fairly limited. Jeffrey McCall, a media professor at DePauw University, argued that viewers are wearying of Hollywood self-congratulation and crude moments such as Melissa Leo’s blurting of an obscenity when winning for supporting actress (the language was bleeped out by ABC)."

The network turned to young stars James Franco and Anne Hathaway to host this year's ceremony.  Still, ratings in the key 18-to-49 demographic slipped an even greater 11% year-over-year.

Dr. McCall, professor of communication at DePauw and author of Viewer Discretion Advised: Taking Control of Mass Media Influences, tells the Times, "The hosts last night were not that entertaining, but the show wouldn’t have been saved even by better hosts."

Access the piece at the newspaper's website.

Jeffrey M. McCall is a 1976 graduate of DePauw and is frequently called upon by major media outlets to discuss media matters. The professor offered an analysis of the Obama administration's relationship with Fox News last week in the Indianapolis Star and recently discussed Hillary Clinton's speech on "Internet rights and wrongs" with the Christian Science Monitor.

March 1, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — What happens when a waitress gets caught in a love triangle with the likes of Zeus and Hera? Loosely based the Greek myth of Io, At the Diner places classical influence within a contemporary context in DePauw Theatre's third production of the 2010-11 season. Written for the stage by senior Emily Terrell and directed by professor Steve Timm, At the Diner chronicles one young woman's pursuit of happiness in spite of uncontrollable outside forces. (at left: Jackie Keyes and Jack Simon)

The production opens Thursday, March 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Moore Theatre of the Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts. Performances will continue Friday and Saturday, March 11 and 12, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 13, at 2:30 p.m.

At the Diner tells the story of Io, a waitress in a Midwestern diner who is looking for something more to life. Little does she know that Zeus, king of Mount Olympus, has filled the diner's new janitor's position. Io catches his romantic interest, as well as the jealousy of his wife, Hera. Fed up with her husband's infidelity and bent on revenge, Hera makes a bet with Zeus that challenges the classical conventions of fate and free will. (at right: Ariel Brosman and Ashley Collins)

For playwright Emily Terrell, At the Diner arose out of an interest generated from professor Steve Timm's "Writing for the Stage, Screen and TV" course. Though Terrell's primary love lies in acting, her theatre major required her to "expand in all directions," she says. At the Diner is the result of her exploration.

Terrell first started penning the script last fall, at a time in which Greek influence played a heavy role in her coursework. Having traveled to Athens for Winter Term the previous year, coupled with her studies of classical theatre and involvement in DePauw's production of Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice, Terrell (pictured at left) was inspired to try her own adaptation of Greek myth. She was first exposed to the story of Io while reading Aeschylus' Promethus Bound and wanted to retell it within an imaginative modern context. Her undertaking of the story was also in part a response to the lack of female characters in many contemporary plays.

"The decision came naturally, but I think it also came from a place of frustration at the lack of opportunity for a lot of the wonderfully talented women we have involved in DePauw Theatre," Terrell said. "Roles seem to be more prevalent for males than females, and their roles are often stronger, meatier. I'm happy that the play showcases strong, complex women."

At the Diner's presentation marks the first time in years that a student-written play has been produced as part of the mainstage season. "This type of faculty/student collaboration is intrinsic to President Casey's vision for the University, and is at the essence of what we do in communication and theatre,” says Timm, John Rabb Emison Professor of Creative and Performing Arts and professor and chair of communication and theatre at DePauw.

Tickets for At the Diner are $3 for students and $6 for adults and are available for purchase at the Green Center box office, which is open Monday-through-Friday 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to showtime. Information and reservations are available by calling (765) 658-4827 or e-mailing greencenter@depauw.edu.  (photo at right: Ariel Brosman and Jackie Keyes)

Also available for purchase are DePauw Theatre patron passes.  Purchasers are entitled to five tickets for the price of four. The passes are available at both student and adult price levels.  To purchase or obtain additional information, contact the Green Center box office at the contacts listed above.

Learn more about DePauw Theatre here.

March 1, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — "For 18 days, the people of Cairo massed in Tahrir Square to bring down their pharaoh," notes the Wall Street Journal. "Many carried signs ... Barbara Ibrahim, a veteran professor at the American University in Cairo, wore large photographs of her husband -- Egypt's most famous democratic dissident -- as a makeshift sandwich board. Her husband, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, couldn't be there. After being imprisoned and tortured by the Mubarak regime from 2000 to 2003, he went into a sort of exile, living and teaching abroad. But the day Hosni Mubarak gave up power, Feb. 11, Mr. Ibrahim hopped a plane from JFK International. Landing in his native Cairo, he went directly to the square." (at left: Saad Ibrahim during an April 16, 2003 visit to DePauw)

Barbara Ibrahim is founding director of the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo and 1971 graduate of DePauw University. Saad Ibrahim taught sociology at DePauw from 1967 to 1974. An Egyptian human rights activist and scholar, he was jailed from 2000 to 2003 after speaking out against President Hosni Mubarak.

According to Saad Ibrahim, the uprising in Egypt "started as a series of challenges with individuals. With me, with [liberal opposition leader] Ayman Nour . . . What you saw is the accumulation of all these incremental steps that have taken place in the past 10 years," he tells the Journal. "But to give credit where it is due, the younger generation was more innovative and far more clever than we were by using the technology at their disposal. These guys discovered the tools that could not be combated by the government."

Dr. Ibrahim tells Bari Weiss that the Obama administration should "publicly endorse every democratic movement in the Middle East and offer help." He also recommends that the U.S. withhold "aid and trade and diplomatic endorsement. Because now the people can do the job. America doesn't have to send armies and navies to change the regimes. Let the people do their change."

Access the full piece -- "A Democrat's Triumphal Return to Cairo" -- at the newspaper's website.

In May 2004, Professor Ibrahim received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from DePauw. Learn more about him in this recent story.

Barbara Lethem Ibrahim was the subject of this article.

March 2, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — For the Battle of the Kids' Books Tournament, "Newbery medalists Richard Peck, Karen Cushman, Karen Hesse, Laura Amy Schlitz, and Susan Patron are some of the big names who make up our dream team of judges who will determine the big winner after a grueling three-week decision-making process," announces School Library Journal. 

A 1956 graduate of DePauw University, Richard Peck was the first writer for young readers to receive the National Humanities Medal. He published his debut novel in 1972. Are You In The House Alone? won the 1978 Edgar Allan Poe Award. He won the Newbery Gold Medal in 2001. A Long Way From Chicago was a National Book Award finalist as was his Civil War novel, The River Between Us. USA Today calls Peck's latest work, Three Quarters Dead, "provocative and entertaining."

All told, Peck has authored more than 30 books.

Read more in this recent article.

March 2, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — An Indianapolis Business Journal story examining moves in Congress to potentially eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- which supports PBS and NPR -- notes, "Even if public broadcasting survives this round, it will be the underdog in future budget debates, DePauw University communications professor Jeffrey McCall said. 'The budget hawks in Congress have always questioned whether the government should be funding them,' he said. Now with a massive budget deficit and Republican control of the House, McCall said, 'This is the most serious threat.'"

Kathleen McLaughlin writes, "McCall believes public broadcasting's image is being shaped more by National Public Radio. With the amount of corporate underwriting on NPR's programs, he said, 'It doesn't seem that non-commercial anymore.' NPR's October firing of correspondent Juan Williams over comments he made about Muslims on Fox TV only bolstered conservatives' belief that NPR is pushing a liberal, politically correct agenda, McCall said. 'I think it’s really important for NPR to be more careful about its public image,' he said." Still, McLaughlin adds, "McCall, who supports the federal subsidy, thinks public broadcasting would find a way to make up for it."

The complete article is available at IBJ's website (a subscription is required to access the text). 

Jeffrey M. McCall is a 1976 graduate of DePauw and is frequently called upon by major media outlets to discuss media matters. Earlier this week, the professor discussed the Academy Awards telecast with the Los Angeles Times and offered an analysis of the Obama administration's relationship with Fox News last week in the Indianapolis Star. Dr. McCall authored the book, of Viewer Discretion Advised: Taking Control of Mass Media Influences.

March 3, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — Chris Naylor, Indiana's Securities Commissioner and 1994 gradute of DePauw University, has been elected a trustee of the Investor Protection Trust (IPT), a national nonprofit organization devoted to providing objective information needed by investors to make informed investment decisions.

"IPT is very fortunate that Chris Naylor has accepted the position as a new trustee," says Don Blandin, president and CEO of IPT. "Chris Naylor is an experienced professional with an extensive investor education and protection background. The Trust looks forward to another productive year of work and results in 2011."

An annnouncement notes, "Under the direction of Commissioner Naylor, the Indiana Securities Commission was one of the first states to participate in IPT's Elder Investment Fraud and Financial Exploitation (EIFFE) Prevention Program, an unprecedented effort to educate medical professionals about how to spot seniors who might be vulnerable to investment fraud due to mental impairment and how to refer them to securities regulators and adult protective services professionals."

Naylor states, "I look forward to playing an active role through my work with the Investor Protection Trust to define and deliver quality investor education that can be promoted by and through state securities regulators. Indiana already has been active in working with IPT and I want to build on that relationship. The IPT Elder Investment Fraud and Financial Exploitation Prevention Program is an excellent example of how Indiana and other states have worked together in innovative ways to deliver crucial information to potential securities fraud victims before it is too late."

Read more at Yahoo! News.

Another article on Chris Naylor is available here.

Also: Kernis Photo Gallery

March 3, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — "Award-winning American composer Aaron Jay Kernis is in residence at DePauw University this week, meeting with students and faculty and helping to prepare concerts of his compositions," writes Jay Harvey in today's Indianapolis Star. "Kernis' chamber music will be featured at concerts today and Friday. Works for larger ensembles will be performed Sunday. Participating will be the University Orchestra, the Chamber Singers, the University Chorus and the University Band."

The column, headlined "Weekend's Best: Classical Music", adds, "His music has earned him the Pulitzer Prize and, in 2002, the generously endowed Grawemeyer Award. Guest composers at DePauw in recent years have included Joan Tower, Jake Heggie, George Crumb and Samuel Adler."

Access the item at IndyStar.com.

Learn more about Kernis' residency at the DePauw University School of Music in this article.

March 4, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — Sarah A. McIlroy "grew up loving numbers and science. She immersed herself in mathematics and biology in college, earning degrees in both at DePauw University in Indiana," notes a McClatchy Newspapers story on McIlroy, an engineer for Stantec in Sacramento, California, and 1991 DePauw graduate. The article tells how McIlroy met a group of Brownies as part of international "Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day."

"The roads you drove here on were all engineered," McIlroy told the 8 and 9-year-old girls. "The lights are made by engineers. The water you drink is clean because of engineers." By pursuing careers in engineering, girls "can feel positive about making a change in the world," she stated.

Darrell Smith writes that McIlroy "earned a master's degree in civil engineering in 1997 and quickly landed a job at Stantec's Salt Lake City office. She was one of the only women in the office, but her supervisor was also a woman and an important mentor. McIlroy, whose engineering expertise is in storm water and hydrology, has since climbed the ranks from junior to senior to project engineer to managing other engineering staff at Stantec as a senior managing associate. Today, she talks with girls and young women from elementary school to the University of California, Davis, and California State University, Sacramento, about pursuing engineering careers."

"We need to remember to do this all year long," McIlroy tells the newspaper. "The more we can do this as professionals, the better."

March 4, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — "Three hundred voices from all walks of life will join in song on Sunday at the Newark Museum for an event that Voices of Harmony choral director Jason A. Asbury and New Jersey historian and Rutgers University professor Dr. Clement Price expect to highlight and celebrate the diversity that can be found in the state," reports today's Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey. Asbury, a 1995 graduate of DePauw University, organized the program, "Sing Out: The Essex County Choral Festival," which "will feature eight choirs in widely varied repertoire, with Asbury leading the singers and Price adding narration about the history of the county."

"Because it's one of the most culturally and socioeconomically diverse counties in the country but also one of the most segregated, we wanted to use music as a vehicle to bridge these communities," Asbury tells the newspaper.

Ronni Reich writes, "While planning the event over the course of the past year, Asbury chose the Newark Museum as the venue because it would not be affiliated too closely with any particular group. 'We chose it for its symbolism as a place where people can find common ground, as opposed to having the concert in a church or a synagogue,' he says."

You'll find the full article -- "Voices, united: Choral festival will celebrate diversity" -- at the Star-Ledger's website.

Learn more about Jason Asbury in this previous story.

March 4, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — "A ferocious NCAA tournament opener for the Hope College women's basketball team features a streak of Tigers the Flying Dutch know well," begins a story in today's edition of Michigan's Holland Sentinel. "Tenth-ranked DePauw (Ind.) University is standing in Hope's way for the second consecutive season and the third time since 2006. Tipoff is tonight at DeVos Fieldhouse following the 5:15 p.m. first-round game between defending national champion, No. 15 Washington University in St. Louis, and unbeaten and eighth-ranked Denison (Ohio)."

DePauw, champion of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, enters the game with a 25-3 record; Hope is 26-2.

"We can't afford any lapses this weekend," Hope coach Brian Morehouse tells the newspaper. "This is the best team I've ever played in the first round of an NCAA Tournament. If we do, we probably will lose and go home."

Alan Babbitt's full article, which is accompanied by a photo of DePauw senior Emily Pearson, can be accessed at the Sentinel's website.

Another game preview can be found at the DePauw athletics page.

Today's game can be heard on student radio station WGRE (91.5 FM or via this link). You're also invited to visit the regional tournament's online page.

March 4, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — The Elisa Monte Dance Company is celebrating its "30th anniversary with three programs and three New York premieres at the Joyce Theater," reports today's New York Times. One of the pieces, "Vanishing Languages", is "set to a score by Kevin James, which includes archival and taped field recordings of indigenous languages," writes Gia Kourlas, who adds, "the music is performed live by his [kaj] ensemble -- the work mourns the loss of communication forms."

Access the story at the newspaper's website.

The New York Post calls "Vanishing Languages", "an ambitious piece featuring Kevin James' original score played live by strings and percussion, but it also features recordings of people speaking in indigenous tongues."

A 1983 graduate of DePauw University, Kevin James is a critically acclaimed composer, who has received awards and grants from the American Composers Forum, Jerome Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Learn more in this previous article.

March 4, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — "Carrie Snikkers scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Hope College women’s basketball team to a 77-65 win over DePauw (Ind.) University Friday in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament," reports Michigan's Holland Sentinel. "The performance in front of a DeVos Fieldhouse crowd of 2,022 set up a rematch of last year’s national title game with defending champion Washington University in St. Louis Saturday night."

The Tigers were led by Katie Aldrich and Katie Mathews, who each scored 14 points tonight.  DePauw finishes the season with a 25-4 record.

Access the story at the newspaper's website.

For comprehensive coverage, visit the official online home of DePauw's women's basketball team.

March 5, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — Jennifer Thrasher, a 1989 graduate of DePauw University, has published a collection of poems, Cape of Leaves. Thrasher, who uses the nom de plume Jennifer McBride, offers "a compilation of poems that touch people in many types of life transition," according to a synopsis of the book. "Poems about relationships, spirituality, rebirth, young love, therapy, and even a friend's battle with cancer bring together vivid images of a search for the truth of our human experiences."

Order the title at Amazon.com.

Also available is Touching the Trees, described as "an inspirational memoir."  It was the subject of this recent article.

An English (composition) major at DePauw, Thrasher is a former middle school English teacher and is a member of the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis.

Under the name Jenni Lorsung, Thrasher has also published four non-fiction books, including The Parents’ Guide to Boys’ Lacrosse and Help! My Daughter Wants to Play Lacrosse, as well as an article in Lacrosse magazine and several poems.

She is currently working on Stampede, a novel about mad cow disease, and Basement Daisies, a continuation of Touching the Trees.