Notable

WSIU-TV 8 and WUSI-TV 16 received a national award in late January from the National Educational Telecommunications Association. WSIU’s SciGirls was named the best small-market campaign based on a national project.

WSIU was among 23 public television licensees to receive an award during a celebratory luncheon on Jan. 26 in Norfolk, Va. More than 300 young women and educators have participated in SciGirls, which received high marks from judges for its well-executed organization and promotion. The judges commented that SciGirls " made science come alive" and that their efforts were something that stations throughout the country could emulate.

The SciGirls Project was created through a partnership between WSIU Public Broadcasting, Carterville Intermediate School, the Science Center, the Girl Scouts of Shagbark Council, and SIUC. The project supports collaborative, tactile learning, and is designed is designed to encourage girls in grades five-eight to pursue careers in science and math. SciGirls activities are based on the PBS KIDS series DragonflyTV, which airs on the WSIU television stations on Saturdays at 9 a.m.

Beth Spezia, WSIU outreach coordinator, and Monica Tichenor, WSIU promotions coordinator, accepted the award on behalf of the stations. Spezia was re-elected as a member of the executive committee for the NETA Outreach Council. Tichenor is in her first year as a member of the executive committee for NETA’s Communications Council. Both Spezia and Tichenor produced sessions for this year’s national conference.

David A. Rush, associate professor of theater and head of the playwriting program, is the first-place winner in this year’s Firehouse Theater New Play Contest. Rush won for "One Fine Day," about a professor who finds himself defending his career and his ideals about academic freedom when a student accuses him of anti-Semitism.

The Firehouse Theatre Project promotes work by emerging playwrights. Every year, hundreds of applicants from across the country submit plays for the New Play Contest.

The play will run at SIUC April 10 through April 15 in the Christian H. Moe Laboratory Theater, located in the SIUC Communications Building. Performance times are 7:30 p.m. for the Tuesday through Saturday shows and 2 p.m. for the Sunday show.

The Stage Left Theater in Chicago will also produce the play. "One Fine Day" will run from Feb. 27 through April 7.

Rush credits his SIUC colleagues for giving him stimulation and insight. "Being surrounded by, and interfacing with a large community of intelligent, perceptive and creative people is always inspiring," he said.

Criminal justice experts at SIUC will use a $150,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Corrections to study the effects of long-term prison sentences.

Martha L. Henderson, assistant professor in SIUC's Center for the Study of Crime, Delinquency and Corrections, will lead "The Illinois Long-Term Prisoner Study," which will examine the impact of indeterminate sentencing on inmates. Specifically, Henderson and her team of researchers will assess health care services and rehabilitative programs for long-term offenders, and conduct cost-benefit analyses of those services.

The project is the result of Illinois House Joint Resolution 80, which established a Long-Term Prisoners Study Committee of state legislators and corrections officials. The committee wants to review correctional practices with regard to long-term offenders.

"It is my fundamental belief that bridging the gap between research and practice ultimately leads to better policy and greater cost-savings for the public," said Henderson. "Illinois has taken a step in the right direction by asking for a review of the evidence and an assessment of current organizational functioning prior to attempting to change correctional practice."