NIU Today

Applications are now available for the 2012-12 Forward, Together Forward Scholarship. Up to five students will be selected to receive the prestigious honor of being named a Forward, Together Forward Scholar, along with a $4,000 scholarship for the 2012-2013 academic year. The Forward, Together Forward Scholarship endowment was created through the generosity of more than...

The Institute of International Education has selected Northern Illinois University to participate in a program that aims to increase higher education connections between U.S. and Indian institutions. NIU was one of only 11 U.S. colleges and universities selected for the 2012 India initiative of the International Academic Partnership Program (IAPP). The university has long had...

A farewell reception is planned from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, for Michael Spires. Spires, a research development specialist in the Office of Sponsored Projects, is taking a new job at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Northern Illinois University with a $2 million grant to ramp up efforts to encourage more students to choose career paths in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The funding, to be dispersed over five years through NSF’s Science Talent Expansion Program (STEP), is being used...

Jonathan Kite, a senior communications major at Northern Illinois University, has been elected executive chair of the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s Student Advisory Committee for the 2011-12 academic year. Nora Lindvall, also an NIU student, was elected to serve as SAC’s executive secretary. Lindvall is a senior pursuing a double major in English and...

Five years ago, two women met on the campus of Northern Illinois University and agreed to join forces — one an accomplished documentary filmmaker, the other a prominent activist on the issue of homelessness. Their plan: to film and produce a documentary on the little-known issue of homeless women and children. Their path would later...

Kathy Kelly, a Chicago-based peace activist, will visit NIU this month to address recent experiences in Afghanistan. She also will talk about her travels to Pakistan and Gaza. She will speak at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, in the Lincoln Room of the Holmes Student Center. Kelly is the co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Non-Violence,...

Northern Illinois University is launching two new bachelor degree programs, both of which will appeal to students who seek careers that will make a difference in the world around them. The Illinois Board of Higher Education earlier this month approved the new interdisciplinary majors—one in environmental studies and the other in community leadership and civic engagement....

NIU senior sociology major Mack H. Lewis II attended this July’s Campus Pride’s fifth annual Campus Pride Summer Leadership Camp, aptly called “Camp Pride.” The five-day long leadership institute, the only national program of its kind, is geared toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and ally student leaders from colleges and universities across the United States....

Executive Vice President and Provost Ray Alden has issued the 2011-2012 call for nominations for the Northern Illinois University Board of Trustees Professorships. The professorships were established in 2007 by President John G. Peters and the Board of Trustees to recognize those tenured professors who: have achieved a consistent record of excellence in teaching, scholarship...

NIU’s Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences has announced the schedule of its fall 2011 colloquia. The series begins at 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2, with Adrian Lenardic, of Rice University, who will present “Plate tectonics in time and space.” All presentations take place in Davis Hall 308. Also scheduled: Wednesday, Sept. 14: Craig Fulthorpe,...

Northern Illinois University has named Bill Nicklas as the university’s new associate vice president for institutional planning and sustainability, President John G. Peters announced today. Nicklas, who currently serves as city manager for the City of Sycamore, will guide the university’s institutional planning efforts and oversee community-based strategic and economic development initiatives in his new...