NIU Today

Huskies across campus strongly support sustainability and show concern for environmental issues, according to a recent student-led survey. The Behaviors, Attitudes, Resources, and Knowledge of Sustainability survey (BARKS) drew 978 respondents among NIU’s faculty, staff and students. Of those respondents, 80% are concerned or very concerned about environmental issues. The survey also found that nearly...

As an NIU mechanical engineering major set to graduate this spring, Ben Koranda has cracked plenty of books. But his most memorable and significant Huskie chapter is happening now in the nooks and crannies of DuSable Hall. There, along with classmates, he’s immersed in an energy audit of the 56-year-old building. “I’ve always been passionate...

A group of 15 NIU students had a tall order ahead of them this academic year—with nearly $60 million at stake—and many of them celebrated their accomplishments in style this week in Springfield. The students served as supervised grant reviewers for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR). As such, the upperclassmen and graduate students...

Hannah Jenkins would have spent her summer gardening at NIU for free. But, as the first paid intern for the college’s Communiversity Gardens, she was happy to earn a paycheck. Jenkins, a 21-year-old environmental studies major at NIU, earned the position as part of a Tyson Foods Summer Community Internship Program. A partnership between Campus...

Increased energy efficiency, water conservation, expansion of recycling efforts and more are all happening at NIU, and the work of a diverse cross-section of NIU faculty, staff, students and community members are working together to make it happen. Raising awareness of the efforts of the Green Team is what Melissa Burlingame, assistant director of the...

Reed Scherer’s doctoral research set out to test a radical hypothesis put forth in the 1970s that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet “collapsed” during the interglacial period that immediately predated the most recent Ice Age, and could again. Confirming past instability of this ice sheet would contribute to growing concerns regarding future collapse and consequent...

...On the road to Mandalay, Where the flyin’ fishes play, An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China ’crost the Bay! – Rudyard Kipling “Road to Mandalay” (1892) In August, a cohort of NIU professors spent two weeks in Mandalay, Myanmar, working with Yadanabon University to lay the foundations for collaborative research projects. Because...

People are exposed daily to many different types of light. Although many are not consciously aware of the lights that surround them, the color and brightness of these lights affects them physiologically. Take a look around to consider the nearby sources of light. Is natural light filtering through a window? Is it sunny or overcast...

Paula Brkich of the HOPE Fair Housing Center will visit campus Monday, Oct. 5, to talk on “Fair Housing and Environmental Justice: Exploring the Intersection of Housing, Poverty, Activism, and Environmental Justice.” The talk, scheduled from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Capitol Room of the Holmes Student Center, will provide an overview of the...

As a part of Hunger Action Month, NIU will host a fast-paced discussion on the issue of hunger and how it presents itself locally, regionally and globally. Courtney Gallaher, a professor in the Department of Geography, will moderate the conversation.from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, in the Wirtz Hall auditorium (Room 101). Panelists...

NIU’s Art Museum will present “Embarrassment of Riches,” a group exhibition of six Midwest artists curated by Peter Olson, to explore themes of sustainability. The exhibition opens Tuesday, Aug. 25, and runs through Saturday, Oct. 24, at the museum’s Altgeld Hall galleries. A public reception is planned from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10....