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niu-cares-centerpieceNorthern Illinois University has hundreds of helping hands looking for meaningful projects to tackle on NIU Cares Day, Saturday, April 22, 2017, from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. The event is sponsored by Student Involvement and Leadership Development (SILD). This will be the eleventh year of this special NIU and DeKalb tradition!

NIU Cares Day was created in 2007 to allow the university to express its gratitude to the DeKalb-Sycamore community for their continued support of NIU. Since that time, NIU students have provided thousands of hours working on projects for schools, libraries, clubs and even individuals. There is no charge associated with the event for project sites.

Past projects have included: painting rooms and buildings for schools and service organizations, cleaning out basements and attics for the elderly, providing manpower to help local organizations prepare for or staff events, cleaning up vacant lots, performing yard work for homeowners who can no longer do the work themselves, planting gardens and many other jobs around the community. Last spring, there were more than 75 job sites!

The work for these jobs is provided by students from across campus including members of NIU’s Greek community, athletes, clubs and individual students, all looking to give back to their adopted community.

Registration for potential NIU Cares Day project sites has a priority deadline of Friday, Feb. 28although early registration will assist us greatly in this process. Questions should be directed to Liz McKee, assistant program director for Community Service in SILD and coordinator of the event, at 815-753-6511 or niucaresday@niu.edu.

Date posted: December 19, 2016 | Author: | Comments Off on Register project sites for NIU Cares Day 2017

Categories: Centerpiece Community Faculty & Staff Parents Students

The month of December is closing for all financial reporting activity at noon on Monday, Jan. 9, 2017. Journals not posted at that time will go into January business. Final December reports are scheduled to be available on Tuesday, Jan. 10.

January reports are scheduled to be available Tuesday, Jan. 17. These dates and other important dates related to The Controller’s office can be found on the FMS Reports Calendar.

Date posted: December 19, 2016 | Author: | Comments Off on Financial month end close

Categories: Faculty & Staff Homepage

Over three weeks in January, the College of Law will help students prepare for the LSAT with two practice exams and a Pre-Law Workshop in between.

First, take the Practice LSAT from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 7. This simulated LSAT will be under realistic circumstances and time constraints. Participants will receive detailed feedback to focus their study before they return for the Pre-Law Workshop the following week. Breakfast and registration begin at 9 a.m. The exam begins at 10 a.m. To participate in this practice test event, RSVP by Jan. 5.

The Pre-Law Workshop will be on Saturday, Jan. 14, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. In this workshop, LSAT experts will provide insight into preparing effectively for the exam and improving test scores. Current and past members of the faculty admissions committee will discuss personal statements and the admissions process. Breakfast and registration begin at 9 a.m. The workshop begins at 9:30 a.m. RSVP for the Pre-Law Workshop by Jan. 12.

And finally, on Saturday, Jan. 21, a second chance to take the Practice LSAT will be provided. Breakfast and registration begin at 9 a.m. The exam begins at 10 a.m. Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop for the optional review session following the exam. RSVP for this second LSAT test-taking opportunity by Jan. 19

Please note that the Jan. 7 and 21 exams contain the same questions.

All workshops will be held in Swen Parson Hall, Marshall Gallery. Contact the College of Law at 815-753-8595 or law-admit@niu.edu with questions.

Date posted: December 19, 2016 | Author: | Comments Off on Pre-law workshop series preps students for LSAT

Categories: Community Faculty & Staff Homepage Law Parents Prospective Students Students

earlybirdNow through Jan. 22, Nutrition Coaching at Campus Recreation is offering an early bird rate of $29 (regularly $39). This one-time fee offers you up to weekly visits with a Nutrition Coach throughout the spring semester. Payment can be made through your Bursar account or credit card. Coaching begins the week of Jan. 30.

Nutrition Coaches can help you achieve a realistic way of eating that promotes health at all sizes, helps you meet your fitness goals and gives you the energy to get through your busy day. Register early and save!

Date posted: December 16, 2016 | Author: | Comments Off on Get an early-bird discount on nutrition coaching

Categories: Homepage Students

student-health-insurance-top-centerpieceThe end of the fall semester sees students across campus heading home for a much-needed break and a chance to gear up for the spring semester. As many people rush to finish off their holiday shopping, employers and the health insurance industry face a major rush of their own, namely, “Open Enrollment.” This is the time of year when group health insurance, whether employer-sponsored health plans or through the Exchange, permits changes in coverage. It’s also the time when new rates are announced for the coming year.

For Student Health Insurance at NIU, the end of the fall semester is marked by phone calls and questions from students about insurance waivers for spring. 

“This fall has been a bit different. We are seeing quite a number of students who waived the Student Health Insurance in fall 2016, and who now want Student Health Insurance for spring 2017,” said Carole Drennan, Benefits Services supervisor for the Student Health Insurance office at NIU.  

In essence, the Student Health Insurance is going through an “Open Enrollment” of its own.

Employer-sponsored health insurance, which is utilized by many college students through their parents’ coverage or on their own, could be faced with increased premium costs and penalties for 2017.

“Employees may see a very marginal rate increase but will have to ‘trade off’ to a smaller network of providers, plus face stiffer ‘out of network’ costs. Conversely, some employers may be faced with a rate increase and are passing that on entirely to their employees,” said Health Services’ Director Andrew Digate, M.B.A.

Students who declined student health insurance for the entire school year in the fall of 2016, may still get student health insurance for the spring 2017 semester.  This is a quick and easy process which can be done online at www.niu.edu/shi or by calling 815-753-9575.

Date posted: December 16, 2016 | Author: | Comments Off on Students who declined health insurance for fall can get coverage for spring 

Categories: Centerpiece Faculty & Staff Parents Prospective Students Students

womensbballNIU Athletics would like to wish all NIU faculty and staff a very happy holiday season and to remind you all to take advantage of a special invitation available only to you. Join us for an afternoon of NIU Basketball and the best part is, it’s on us. We would like to thank you for your commitment to NIU by inviting you to join us for our Faculty-Staff Appreciation Day on Saturday, Dec. 31, for the NIU Men’s and Women’s Basketball games.

Two complimentary general admission tickets are available to faculty and staff for the Holiday Doubleheader games on New Year’s Eve on Saturday, Dec. 31. The first game will be at 1 p.m., with  NIU Women’s Basketball versus Eastern Michigan. Following that game, at 3:30 p.m., will be NIU Men’s Basketball versus Illinois Springfield. The doubleheader games will both be played at the NIU Convocation Center.

To secure your tickets, print your invitation email and bring your OneCard ID to the NIU Convocation Center Ticket Office – open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The NIU Convocation Center Box Office will be closed during the University Holiday Closure starting Dec. 23.

Should you need more than two, additional tickets may be purchased for just $4 to attend both the men’s and women’s games by calling 815-753-PACK and asking for “Faculty Day” tickets. This offer will be available until tip-off of the men’s basketball game.

Thank you and we hope you will join us at the Convocation Center for NIU Basketball!

Date posted: December 12, 2016 | Author: | Comments Off on Faculty, staff invited to free basketball doubleheader

Categories: Faculty & Staff Homepage

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NIU hosts a number of career-focused events to give students a leg up in the working world.

So why weren’t more students attending?

Chad Glover, director of NIU’s Jobs PLUS set out to discover the reason. He stopped random students across campus to ask if they attended career events he pulled from the NIU calendar, and if not, why not.

“What I heard time after time was, ‘I had to work,’” Glover said. “Many students take jobs to pay the bills – sometimes related to their course of study, sometimes not. They develop important work skills like responsibility, teamwork and time management. But programmatically, the university is usually not involved in these jobs.”

Off campus, Brian Oster was having a different problem. Oster is the president and creative director of OC Creative in DeKalb. In interviewing new interns and newly-graduated job candidates, he noted some surprising skills gaps.

“Sometimes I don’t see enough practical knowledge in new grads,” he said. “They don’t know how to communicate in the workplace, they don’t know that before applying to a creative agency you should have a portfolio. There are decision-making skills – like coming to your boss with solutions instead of problems – that are not there.”

Enter Jobs PLUS.

Jobs PLUS is part of the new NIU PLUS (Progressive Learning in Undergraduate Studies) program. One of its cornerstones is a partnership with local employers who allow working students to attend career development workshops on their paid work time. The benefit to students is that they are no longer forced to choose between work and career prep. The benefit to employers is professional development for their staff that costs nothing more than a few hours of paid time.

When Glover explained the program to Oster at a networking event, the businessman thought it would be a great fit for senior Lydia Ziegler, an NIU student intern working at OC Creative. Over the fall semester, Ziegler attended three Jobs PLUS events.

NIU faculty, staff, administrators and alumni volunteer to lead the events on such workplace topics as communication, leadership and interpersonal skills. Ziegler said the workshops she attended reinforced her ideas about leadership and gave her valuable insights into her own character. As she prepares to graduate, she said, she knows which of her strengths are valued by hiring managers and where she needs to improve.

As an employer of NIU graduates, Oster said he looks forward to benefiting from the program in the long term – letting a student employee attend a workshop is a lot less costly than putting a full-time employee through a professional development seminar, and investing in staff tends to lead to greater employee engagement and less turnover.

“I’ve heard people say, ‘What if I train them and they leave?’ I say, ‘What if you don’t train them and they stay?’” Oster said. “As long as I have interns from NIU, I will continue in this program. The return on investment for OC and for students like Lydia will far exceed the few hours we invested in this.”

Date posted: December 12, 2016 | Author: | Comments Off on Jobs PLUS a win for students and employers

Categories: Centerpiece Faculty & Staff Students

tom-sims-top-centerpieceOne NIU faculty member was conspicuously absent from the Graduate School commencement ceremonies this past weekend.

Thomas Sims, a veteran professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Biological Sciences, was a longtime fixture at graduation. This past spring, friend and colleague Barrie Bode pushed Sims in a wheelchair into the Convocation Center, where Sims later hooded his Ph.D. student.

Sims, 64, of DeKalb, had signed up to attend the December ceremony as well, but he succumbed Nov. 20, to head and neck cancer, a disease he battled for more than two years while continuing to mentor NIU students.

“NIU was everything to Tom,” says Bode, chair of biological sciences. “He took his job very seriously and did it well.”

A native of Madison, WI, Sims spent 24 years at NIU, including more than a decade as director of graduate studies in biology. Easygoing and gregarious, he was dedicated to student success, Bode says, noting that Sims served on an extraordinary number of student thesis and dissertation committees.

“Tom was positive, helpful, sympathetic, and very supportive and patient with students,” Bode says. “He was such a good guy, and he just loved life.”

Sims was fascinated with how life worked at its most fundamental levels, too. He specialized in research into plant genetics, gene regulation, and molecular and developmental biology. He served two six-year stints as director of NIU’s Plant Molecular Biology Center.

In recent years, he worked across institutions to coordinate a team of scientists who decoded the DNA sequence of two parent petunia species—a feat that could spur development of more petunia varieties for consumers and advance research within the plant’s family, which includes tomato, potato and pepper.

The project involved researchers from nearly 30 institutions in 10 countries, with Sims directing the overall sequencing plan. The two parent petunia species were described in the May 27 issue of the prestigious journal Nature Plants and discussed in an accompanying editorial.

More generally, Sims was a vocal advocate for science. He was active in dispelling hysteria related to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), pointing out there was no scientific evidence that GMOs are harmful to people. Sims also wanted it known that the cancer he battled, HPV-positive head/neck squamous cell cancer, is now completely preventable through immunization.

Within his department, Sims was a team player, always willing to step up to meet a challenge, including recently taking the reins for a second time of the Plant Molecular Biology Center to strengthen its research activities. In the classroom, Sims taught the graduate orientation class, which prepared biology students for graduate life and work as teaching assistants, and regularly volunteered to teach the most labor-intensive courses on molecular techniques.

 “Tom cared deeply about science, NIU and its students,” Bode adds. “He had an amazing spirit and kept his sense of humor until the end.”

Outside of NIU, Sims played French horn in the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Kishwaukee Brass Quintet and the DeKalb Municipal Band.  Additionally, he was an avid sailor, frequently vacationing in Croatia with his wife, Pam, to sail the Adriatic Sea.

A memorial service for Sims is being planned for early 2017. 

Date posted: December 12, 2016 | Author: | Comments Off on NIU mourns loss of biology professor Thomas Sims

Categories: Centerpiece Community Faculty & Staff Students

Jerry Blakemore

Jerry Blakemore

A farewell reception will be held for Vice President of Legal Services and General Counsel Jerry Blakemore on Wednesday, Dec. 14, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Room 315 of Altgeld Hall. Join us as we wish Jerry the best in his new endeavor as general counsel at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Date posted: December 9, 2016 | Author: | Comments Off on Farewell reception for Jerry Blakemore Dec. 14

Categories: Faculty & Staff Homepage

niu-cod-centerpieceA new partnership between College of DuPage (COD) and Northern Illinois University provides guaranteed admission for COD students to a broad range of study areas at NIU.

Students will now have an opportunity to earn a wide range of degrees at NIU, including a B.S. in Applied Technology, a B.G.S. in Health and Human Sciences, a B.S. in Applied Management, or a B.A. or B.S. degree from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at NIU.

“This is a far-reaching and significant partnership that provides a guaranteed pathway for our students to earn a bachelor’s degree at Northern Illinois University,” said College of DuPage President Dr. Ann Rondeau. “This type of innovative agreement offers access to affordable, quality education between two of the finest public higher education institutions in Illinois. We will continue to pursue opportunities such as this one to help our students reach their highest potential and prepare them for the 21st century workforce.”

Under the new guaranteed admission agreement, upon completion of their course work at COD, students who maintain a 2.00 grade point average will receive guaranteed admission to NIU, and students with GPAs of 3.20 or higher will receive guaranteed admission into the NIU Honors Program. Completion of general education requirements at COD through this program will be accepted at NIU, and COD students may transfer to NIU after earning a minimum of 24 credits.

“We are committed to providing a pathway to a bachelor’s degree for students who are driven to achieve that goal,” said NIU President Douglas Baker. “This agreement breaks down barriers and provides a seamless process that allows students to attain a degree that will position them for career advancement throughout their lifetime.”

For more information about this initiative, please contact either COD Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Emmanuel Awuah at 630-942-2652 or awuahe@cod.edu or the NIU Office of Registration and Records at 815-753-0681 or regrec@niu.edu.

Date posted: December 9, 2016 | Author: | Comments Off on NIU and COD sign guaranteed admission agreement

Categories: Announcements Centerpiece Community Faculty & Staff Parents Prospective Students Students

gray-hair-dog-portraitIt’s no secret that stressful life events can exert any number of changes on the human body. Most noticeable among these is premature graying of scalp hair—as even a cursory examination of “before-term” and “after-term” photos of past U.S. presidents will attest. Now, a new study authored by NIU alumnus Camille King and NIU professor Thomas Smith, appearing in Applied Animal Behaviour Science, has found that young dogs, too, are susceptible to stress-induced graying.

King and Smith, together with animal behaviorist Peter Borchelt and renowned author/researcher Temple Grandin visited dog parks, dog shows, veterinary clinics, and other venues across the front range of Colorado, examining 400 dogs and administering dog behavior questionnaires to their owners. Additionally, independent raters rated the extent of muzzle grayness based on photos of the dogs taken on-site. Results showed that dogs between 1- 4 years of age exhibiting higher owner-reported signs of anxiety showed a greater extent of premature muzzle graying than their less anxious dog peers. Increased muzzle grayness also was related to owner-reported symptoms of impulsivity in the dogs. Additionally, female dogs showed higher levels of grayness than male dogs, but dog size, spay/neuter status and the presence of medical problems did not significantly predict the extent of muzzle grayness.

“Based on my years of experience observing and working with dogs, I’ve long had a suspicion that dogs with higher levels of anxiety and impulsiveness also show increased muzzle grayness,” said King, who earned her doctorate in NIU’s Adult and Higher Education program in 2011, and now has her own animal behavior practice in the Denver, CO, area.

Smith, who provided methodological and statistical expertise, noted that “At first, I was somewhat skeptical of the hypothesis. However, when we analyzed the data, the results actually were quite striking.”

Grandin, professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, added, “This is an original, unique study that has implications for dog welfare.”

This is the second article examining dog anxiety that King, Smith and Grandin have published. In 2014, the team (together with dog behavior consultant, Laurie Buffington) published research in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior examining the effect of pressure wraps (e.g., “Thundershirts”) on heart rate levels and symptoms of anxiety in dogs. This study found that the use of such pressure wraps can markedly decrease heart rate in anxious dogs and also affect other behavioral measures of stress.

Date posted: December 8, 2016 | Author: | Comments Off on ‘Gray’ hounds: Study finds stress leads to gray hair in dogs

Categories: Community Faculty & Staff Homepage Prospective Students Students

thumbnail-40Still looking for that perfect holiday gift for a young scientist? Check out the diverse spring schedules of STEM Saturdays and STEM Divas, classes that give students seven and older hands-on experience with science, technology, engineering and math.

The popular classes, which cover everything from crime scene analysis to the science of flight, are designed by the STEM Outreach department of NIU’s P-20 Center to get students fired up about learning STEM concepts and problem-solving skills. Depending on the amount of material covered, each class meets on either one Saturday or two consecutive Saturdays in the spring semester.

The full schedule of classes, complete with location and registration information, is available at niu.edu/stem/programs/stem-saturdays.

“STEM Saturdays take the same hands-on approach as our popular STEM Summer Camps,” says STEM Educator Jeremy Benson. “We don’t just put information up on a board for kids to commit to memory. Instead, we give them tools for thinking critically about the world they live in. That’s more useful––and more fun.” 

Star Wars fans excited by the December release of “Rogue One,” the newest addition to the sci-fi movie franchise, will love “STEM from a Galaxy Far, Far Away.” In this class, students learn all about the science of the Star Wars universe by creating their own handheld “hologram projectors,” exploring the science behind The Force and building their own working lightsabers.

No matter the subject or age group, the emphasis is on learning by doing. Kids in “Rocketry and Spaceflight” design and launch their own rockets. Participants in “CSI: NIU” work together to analyze a model crime scene, dusting for fingerprints and using logic to rule out suspects. The “Learning to Fly” class experiences indoor skydiving in the vertical wind tunnel at iFLY in Naperville. (All other classes meet at the NIU DeKalb campus.)

Three different STEM Divas classes will expose young students ages 7-10 to the STEM fields. This popular series, which STEM Outreach began offering two years ago, is designed to make the STEM fields a welcoming place for girls. This spring, STEM Divas participants will program their own wearable electric circuits, build wacky “Rube Goldberg” machines and learn basic chemistry by mixing their own candles and perfumes.

“We create a safe space for them to take risks and explore how STEM relates to their lives and passions,” says Pettee Guerrero, the program’s founder. “Women who are currently majoring in STEM fields at NIU join classes as mentors, which makes for a truly welcoming atmosphere.”

At all STEM Saturday and STEM Divas classes, parents are welcome to stay and participate.

“No matter what your STEM background is, the STEM Saturdays schedule has something to offer you,” says Benson. “You don’t have to have your heart set on being a science major. You just need to be curious. STEM connects to almost everything.”

Classes begin Jan. 28 and run through May 13. For more information, visit niu.edu/stem/programs/stem-saturdays, or contact Jeremy Benson by phone 815-753-0533 or email, stemoutreach@niu.edu.

Date posted: December 8, 2016 | Author: | Comments Off on Star Wars, CSI and more in new season of STEM Saturdays

Categories: Community Faculty & Staff Homepage Parents Students