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zipcarNIU now has three Zipcars available for students who need some wheels to run errands, keep doctor’s appointments or even head out of town on a road trip.

Faculty, staff and community members who join Zipcar also can reserve the vehicles.

The Zipcar service allows members to reserve cars on a short-term basis, at hourly or daily rates. Two cars debuted on campus in February of 2014 and have steadily grown in popularity, with strong utilization since the start of this semester.

Students, faculty, staff and community members can sign up for Zipcar membership by visiting www.zipcar.com/niu and completing a brief application form. There is a $25 application fee, and new members will receive a $35 credit toward driving time during their first month. A valid driver’s license and credit card are required to register. Applicants also must submit to a review of their driving record – a process that 94 percent of applicants successfully pass.

Once registered, members can reserve a car by going online or using the Zipcar mobile app that can be downloaded to their smart phone. When members  arrive at their reservation they scan their Zipcard, which allows access to the reserved vehicle.

Zipcars on NIU campus start at $7.50 per hour and $69 per day. The vehicles can be reserved for as little as an hour or for up to four days, with gas, insurance and 180 miles per day included in the reservation cost. Charges are placed on the credit card used to register. Additional fees for returning a car late or cancelling a reservation will also be automatically charged to the card.

Zipcar members can find cars parked in Lot D, just north of Neptune West along Lucinda Avenue, and in a new location on the northeast side of the Student Recreation Center parking lot, facing Lucinda.

Zipcar has cars on more than 400 college campuses across North America and in 30 major cities around the globe.

For more information contact Sue Bidstrup in NIU Parking Services (815) 753-8541.

Date posted: November 4, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on NIU adds third car to its Zipcar fleet

Categories: On Campus What's Going On

Alex Larson, Kayla Rowling, Ashley Johnson, Ben, Clark and Christian Villalobos took third place at the National Team Selling Competition hosted by Indiana University last week.

Alex Larson, Kayla Rowling, Ashley Johnson, Ben, Clark and Christian Villalobos took third place
at the National Team Selling Competition hosted by Indiana University last week.

A team of five students from the NIU College of Business’ Professional Sales Program took third place in the 2014 National Team Selling Competition, held Oct. 16 and 17 at Indiana University.

“We have been participating in this competition for many years, and I believe that this is the highest finish ever for an NIU team. The students really pulled it together,” said Charles Howlett, assistant director of NIU’s Professional Sales Program and coach of the team.

Members of the team were Ben Clark, of Washington, Ill.;  Ashley Johnson, of Colona, Ill.; Alex Larson, of Louisville, Ky.; Kayla Rowling, of Grafton, Ill.; and Christian Villalobos, of Chicago. All are seniors.

Last week’s competition was based on a case study that the team received in advance. It cast them in the role of a snack food maker, with a new product aimed at Hispanics between the ages of 25 and 34 and looking to place their product with a supermarket chain.

Work began Thursday morning, when the team had its first meeting with its “customer,” a representative from the fictitious supermarket. The team used that meeting as an opportunity to determine the needs of the client and to determine in what direction to proceed.

Charles Howlett

Charles Howlett

Based on that meeting, the NIU students revamped their entire approach, which prompted an all-nighter to prepare for their Friday presentation. The effort paid off.

“As soon as we finished, we knew we had nailed it,” Villalobos said. “We couldn’t imagine anyone doing a better presentation.”

The judges agreed.

The NIU team was named the top competitor in their group and was whisked away to the next round, where the quintet presented to a group of fictitious sales managers to get them excited about selling the product.

As the final votes were tallied, NIU took third place among the 21 teams competing, finishing behind the first place team from the University of Washington, and the second place team from Baylor University. Other teams in the competition included San Diego State, Kansas, St. Xavier and Ball State.

In addition to the competition, which was co-sponsored by 3M and Altria Group, students participated in a job fair with recruiters from 15 different companies and had the opportunity to network with sales professionals from across the country.

The primary take-away from the weekend, Howlett said, was the value of teamwork.

“You need people with strengths in financial analytics, market research, market branding and marketing campaigns – and no one person can do it all. Once they embraced that, it all came together.”

The third-place finish in the competition helps cement the NIU Professional Sales Program’s reputation as one of the best (as well as one of the oldest) in the nation.

Date posted: October 20, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on NIU business students take third at national sales competition

Categories: Business Centerpiece Did You Know? Latest News Students

Photo of a barcode on eggs in a cartonNIU’s campus community will have opportunities to meet the finalists for the position of director of Procurement and Strategic Sourcing Services at a pair of open forums next week.

  • Candidate Michele Danza will participate in an open forum from 4:45 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, in Room 305 of the Holmes Student Center.
  • Candidate Daniel Szanjna will participate in an open forum from 4:45 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10, in the Heritage Room of the Holmes Student Center.

The director of Procurement and Strategic Sourcing Services is responsible for the administration of purchasing activity in compliance with all applicable state and federal laws and regulations and university policies and procedures. The director serves as the final authority in the award of purchase orders and contracts.

For more information, call (815) 753-1508 or email ebrown@niu.edu.

Date posted: September 4, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Open forums set for director of procurement candidates

Categories: Announcements Digital Signage Events On Campus What's Going On

NIU President Doug Baker escorts Illinois gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner at the NIU College of Business Wednesday.

NIU President Doug Baker escorts Illinois gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner at the NIU College of Business Wednesday.

Bruce Rauner took a break from the campaign trail Wednesday to discuss entrepreneurism with a group of NIU business students.

Rauner, the Republican candidate for governor of Illinois, knows a thing or two about the subject, having earned billions of dollars as a partner in the venture capital firm GTCR, helping entrepreneurs bring their businesses to life.

The key to good investments, he said, was to understand the industry that the entrepreneur was entering and to ensure the presence of top-notch leaders in all aspects of the business.

“We weren’t so much an investment firm as we were an industry research firm and an executive recruiting firm,” said Rauner, adding that his success had a lot to do with an approach to the business that did not always emphasize investing. “My favorite people in the world are entrepreneurs.”

Rauner, a Deerfield native, told the 60 students, most of whom are minoring in entrepreneurship, that they should treat every interaction in their life as an opportunity to network and always to guard their most valuable asset – their reputations.

He also extolled the virtues of persistence.

“Never give up,” Rauner said. “Failure is not a bad thing. If you are persistent, and work your tail off, you will be successful.”

Denise Schoenbachler, dean of the NIU College of Business, approved of his message.

“We pride ourselves on exposing our students to leaders from the business world, and this was an amazing opportunity for them. They got to meet one of the top venture capitalists in America, and learn about the importance of hard work, solid research and attention to detail,” Schoenbachler said. “I thought that they asked some great questions.”

Rauner was invited to the class by Eric Wasowicz, who teaches in the entrepreneuriship program at NIU and is a friend of Rauner.

Date posted: September 3, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Bruce Rauner speaks to NIU business students

Categories: Business Faculty & Staff Latest News On Campus Students

What2Do screencapThings just got easier for NIU students looking to answer that age-old question: What is there to do around here?

The Division of Marketing and Communications introduces What2Do.niu.edu, a comprehensive online collection of information about events, clubs, teams, Greek life, volunteer opportunities, the local music scene and more.

The site is part of university efforts to increase student recruitment and retention.

“We know that when students find things to do, and groups to connect with, it dramatically improves the chances that they will stick around, earn degrees and go on to career success. Our goal is to make it easier for them to do so,” says Brad Hoey, director of University Marketing in the Division of Marketing and Communications.

Until now, students had to work hard to find that sort of information.

“If a student didn’t happen to walk down a street where a group had chalked, or see a bulletin board where a flier was posted, they missed out on a lot,” says Jill Zambito, director of the NIU Office of Student Involvement and Leadership Development. “Hopefully, by providing ‘one-stop-shopping’ for information about all there is to do, more students will find that connection that helps transform their time on campus.”

Students play basketball outside New Hall.

Students play basketball outside New Hall.

Editor of the site, Joe King, assistant director of NIU Media and Public Relations, is working with a team of student interns to develop and populate the site.

“A lot of our efforts this summer have been aimed at promoting Welcome Days events, but we are also trying to amass a collection of profiles on clubs, teams, Greeks and other organizations so that students can begin ‘window shopping’ for groups to check out before they even arrive on campus,” he says. “As we get into the fall, the focus will shift more to working with those groups to promote their activities, as well as official campus events.”

In addition to that, the site also will strive to highlight the philanthropic and volunteer activities of students.

“On almost any given day during the school year, there are NIU students volunteering all over DeKalb County, and nobody knows about it. Every year, Greek organizations raise thousands of dollars for charities, but almost nobody realizes that,” King says. “We hope to shine a light on those activities and demonstrate what a positive force our students are in the community.”

Student writers working on the project are optimistic that it will be popular with their classmates.

“I think one reason students don’t stick around on the weekends is that they cannot find anything to do besides school. This should help them find lots of options,” says Samantha Steur, a junior studying journalism. “There are a lot more clubs and organizations than most people realize.”

Steur’s fellow reporter, senior journalism major Erin Kolb, agreed.

“A lot of students just don’t know where to start,” Kolb says. “This will be a great way for them to see everything in one place before they put themselves out there.”

Date posted: August 6, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Students looking to connect with campus? Point them at What2Do@NIU

Categories: Arts Centerpiece Digital Signage Latest News On Campus Students

The Illinois State Supreme Court ruled Thursday that state-subsidized health care premiums for retired state employees are protected under the Illinois Constitution.

The 6-1 decision centers on a 2012 law that allowed the state to charge retired workers for health care insurance premiums. Prior to then, many retirees did not have to pay, depending on how long they worked for the state.

Retired workers sued, arguing that the change violated a provision in the state constitution that declares pension benefits “shall not be diminished or impaired.” The state argued that that clause pertained only to pension benefits, and not health insurance.

In its ruling today, the court sided with the retirees.

“We conclude that the state’s provision of health insurance premium subsidies for retirees is a benefit of membership in a pension or retirement system within the meaning (of the Constitution) and therefore the General Assembly was precluded from diminishing or impairing that benefit,” justices wrote in their opinion.

The action reverses a ruling by a Sangamon County Circuit Court judge and returns the case to the lower court for further action.

The state’s Central Management Services (CMS), which oversees health care insurance for annuitants, issued a statement Thursday saying that it was still studying the ruling and had not commented on its precise impact.

“On the surface, this would appear to be good news for annuitants, but we are awaiting official word from CMS before we comment more broadly,” said Bill Nicklas, vice president for Operations and Community Relations.

Jim Lockard, president of the NIU Annuitants Association, sounded a similar note of cautious optimism.

“I believe that this signals the end of annuitants having to pay toward health care, but the fact that it is going back to a lower court makes things a little unclear. We will eagerly await clarification on the matter,” Lockard said Thursday afternoon.

Date posted: July 3, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Court says annuitants cannot be charged for insurance

Categories: Latest News

CAUSE logoIn between studying and end of semester exams, members of the student organization NIU CAUSE (the Collegiate Association of Unreasonable Social Entrepreneurs) raised and donated $2,500 to four worthy causes.

The funds were used for:

  • A new $1,000 CAUSE scholarship in Social Entrepreneurship. The CAUSE scholarship will be awarded annually to qualified NIU students who pursue a minor or certificate in social entrepreneurship, both of which are housed in the NIU Department of Management.
  • A $500 donation to Human Connections (formerly Investours Mexico).  Human Connections plans to use the funds to launch an English class for its microfinance clients. Additionally, the organization plans to acquire data management software that will help scale its operations.  Both uses were recommended by a team of management students in NIU’s newly launched semester-long social venture consulting course.
  • A $500 donation to Altus Academy, a private, independent, not-for-profit college preparatory middle school serving low-income and underrepresented youth in Chicago’s North / South Lawndale neighborhoods. Founded by NIU alumnus John Heybach, Altus Academy has partnered with NIU to develop a college preparatory middle school for those who may not necessarily be able to afford traditional education in the Chicago area.
  • $500 to Smile Train, a non-profit that provides cleft lip surgeries for children in 87 countries. The $500 donation will support corrective surgeries for two children. To date, Smile Train has provided more than one million cleft lip surgeries for children around the world.

In January 2014, NIU CAUSE members, made up of about 30 students from across the university, unanimously agreed to institute a policy that committed the group to donate 25 percent of whatever funds remained in the CAUSE bank account at the end of each academic year.

Christine Mooney

Christine Mooney

“At our last meeting, each active CAUSE member pitched an organization he or she wanted our group to support. After listening to the presentations, we voted as a group to decide which areas would receive the funds and how much they would receive,” said Zach Fiegel, NIU CAUSE student president who also graduates this May.

To date, profits realized by NIU CAUSE hover around the $10,000 level. Over the past year, the group’s fundraising efforts included weekly sales of their famous “life-changing” homemade pizza, with sales exceeding 2,200 slices.

CAUSE also collected sponsorship fees from 15 corporate or individual sponsors for their student-created, university-wide Social Impact Summit, an all-day seminar and workshop event. Launched in 2013, the annual NIU CAUSE Social Impact Summit has welcomed nearly 400 attendees in its first two years, with participants from the coasts, the Chicago area and across the university.

“This is an amazing group of individuals,” said Christine Mooney, NIU CAUSE faculty adviser, co-director of NIU’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship and the Bill & Paula LeRoy Professor of Social Entrepreneurship.

“It’s such a wonderful group effort: from the launching of the pizza business to the hosting of the Social Impact Summit. It took the time, energy, creativity and dedication of a small group of students to really push these projects forward. Watching the students be inspired and unreasonable about what they could achieve, work through the challenges, remain flexible and never give up – well, that is about the best thing any professor or adviser could want.”

Previous donations made by NIU CAUSE include a $500 gift to a social entrepreneur in Mexico, where the students personally delivered the check when they traveled to Mexico last summer as part of their microfinance studies.

Social Impact SummitAdditionally, NIU CAUSE students donated $500 to the Northern Illinois Food Bank in November 2013, $600 to help build a library in Tanzania and made $250 in Kiva loans. Kiva is a non-profit that allows people to lend money via the internet to low-income, under-served entrepreneurs and students in 70 countries.

“Our group exists so that students can make an impact and help change the world,” Fiegel said. “So many organizations deserve support. The enthusiastic presentations really made it difficult to select the winners, but we came together as a group to make the choices.”

“We’re all really proud of creating an annual scholarship to help other NIU students,” said Liz Peters who championed the idea and who is also a student in NIU CAUSE. “The social entrepreneurship program and amazing faculty advisers have been such a great asset for us. It really means a lot for students to get some financial assistance as well as all the ways they benefit and grow from being involved in such a great program.”

Date posted: May 13, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on NIU students donate $2,500 ‘for the good of the CAUSE’

Categories: Business Communiversity Global Students

SURS: State Universities Retirement System of Illinois logoThe end of the fiscal year is raising many questions for employees at or near retirement age.

Changes made by legislators last year to the State University Retirement System could have dramatic – and expensive impacts for some of those employees.

Especially at risk are those whose SURS annuity calculation is higher under the money purchase formula. Reforms approved last December could significantly reduce the amount of their retirement annuity should they choose to retire on or after July 1, 2014.

To help those employees (and others) sort out how changes in retirement rules might affect them, SURS has provided a variety of resources.

The SURS website provides a comprehensive collection of articles and tools to help state university employees decipher what the law means for them. The page includes a list of frequently asked questions, a fact sheet on the money purchase option and a link to register online for upcoming webinars on the impact of changes in pension law. A recording of a recent webinar, and the accompanying handouts, is also available on the SURS site.

The website also provides a link to a presentation given by SURS at Southern Illinois University to answer questions about this issue. A similar presentation is planned at NIU at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 24, in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium of the Holmes Student Center.

To get an idea of how the changes might affect retirement earnings, employees eligible to retire before the June 30 end of the fiscal year also can use the SURS Benefit Estimator. To see the impact of the new rules, employees should run two sets of calculations, one utilizing an effective date prior to July 1, 2014, and a second utilizing July 1, 2014.

SURS has also created a five-page document that summarizes many of the issues related to pension changes for all university employees.

Photo of gold pocket watch and retirement greeting cardEmployees who are most likely to be impacted by those changes are:

  • Those age 55 or older with eight or more years of service, with applicable age reduction
  • Those age 62 or older with five or more years of service
  • Those employees of any age with 30 or more years of service.

Human Resource Services has outlined a series of steps that employees falling within those groups should take as soon as possible. HRS has also scheduled a series of workshops to help employees complete retirement paperwork, due to the unusually high number retirements expected due to changes in the law.

A schedule for those sessions can be viewed online. For more information, contact Human Resource Services at (815) 753-6000.

Date posted: April 15, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on SURS offers resources to answer pension questions

Categories: Latest News

Giovanni Bennardo, Ana Calvo and Nancy Wingfield

Giovanni Bennardo, Ana Calvo
and Nancy M. Wingfield

A trio of researchers with international reputations in anthropology, biology and history has been designated as this year’s Presidential Research Professors.

They are linguistic anthropologist Giovanni Bennardo, biologist Ana Calvo and historian Nancy M. Wingfield.

“This award is highly competitive and represents excellence at NIU and beyond,” said Interim Vice President for Research Lesley Rigg. “Because recipients are chosen by their peers, including other Presidential Research Professors, the quality of award recipients is of the highest caliber. The three winners this year represent the breadth and depth of NIU in terms of research quality and creative endeavors.”

The Presidential Research Professorship is NIU’s top recognition for outstanding research or artistry. The award has been given out annually since 1982 in recognition and support of NIU’s research and artistic mission.

Award winners receive financial support of their research for four years, during which they are expected to carry out a continuous program of research or creative artistry during the period of their appointments. After four years, they earn the title of Distinguished Research Professors.

The awards will be presented during the Faculty Awards Ceremony and Reception at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 24, in the Altgeld Hall Auditorium.

Click on the names below for closer looks at the 2014 Presidential Research Professors.

NIU: Celebrating ExcellenceCelebrating Excellence at NIU, scheduled from April 12 to May 1, highlights the accomplishments and contributions of NIU students, faculty, staff and alumni to the university’s mission of promoting excellence and engagement in teaching and learning, research and scholarship, creativity and artistry and outreach and service during the academic year.

Date posted: April 15, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on 2014 Presidential Research Professors spread NIU’s reputation worldwide

Categories: Awards Global Humanities Latest News Liberal Arts and Sciences Research Science and Technology

Giovanni Bennardo

Giovanni Bennardo

How people describe the physical world around them can teach you an awful lot about how they think.

That seemingly simple premise has been the foundation upon which linguistic anthropologist Giovanni Bennardo has built more than 15 years of groundbreaking research.

Recruited in 2000 to establish the Cognitive Studies Initiative at NIU, Bennardo’s work focuses on fundamental questions about language, thought and human social relations.

For instance, one of his major studies examined how individuals in Tonga do not prefer to describe the physical world around them the same way as Westerners.

A Westerner might describe a building location as “in front of me” while a Tongan would describe it being “toward the church,” with the church being the most important reference point in the village. That type of thinking, which discourages individuals from putting themselves first, influences a number of mental processes and might help explain why, for instance, the move from monarchy to democracy in the South Pacific’s last island kingdom has been a very slow process.

His latest work is examining the fundamental role played by space in the construction of cultural models of nature across many cultures in populations affected by climate change and in search of sustainable  responses.

Bennardo’s interdisciplinary approach to the relationship between language, culture and cognition, and the innovative methodology he has created and used over the years have helped him develop an international reputation. This spring, he has been invited to lecture in China; next fall, he will be a visiting researcher and professor at the University of Verona in Italy.

The breadth and depth of his work, and in particular his ability to lead cross-disciplinary teams, have made him one of the most respected researchers in his field.

“The shortest and most succinct way to state my evaluation is to say that Professor Bennardo is, in my experience, one of the two best anthropologists of his generation,” said Dwight W. Read, who is himself a Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA.

Date posted: April 15, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Giovanni Bennardo: Exploring what language says about what we think

Categories: Awards Global Humanities Liberal Arts and Sciences Research

Ana Calvo

Ana Calvo

Ana Calvo’s research on fungal genetics could have huge benefits to human health and agriculture.

She is recognized worldwide as a groundbreaking researcher in the field of fungal genetics and biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. These organic compounds are routinely used in medicine to fight infections (penicillin is a secondary metabolite).

However, these natural products are useful in treatments ranging from lowering cholesterol to combating cancer.

While some metabolites are beneficial, others are harmful. Calvo currently focuses on reducing crop contamination by aflatoxin. This metabolite is the most carcinogenic natural compound known. The presence of aflatoxin in food can cause immune system diseases, cancer and organ failure. Economic losses due to crop contamination exceed $1.4 billion annually in the United States alone.

Since coming to NIU, Calvo has developed an international reputation as a leading researcher in the field, collaborating with groups around the world and with a dozen prominent U.S. universities as well. Her work has been awarded with more than $1 million in competitive research grants from entities such as the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Along the way, she also has built an enviable record of publishing in top journals and has built the largest research group in the Department of Biological Sciences at NIU.

Calvo’s biomedical research has also yielded a means to significantly increase the production of beneficial compounds, including penicillin and chemotherapy drugs. She has filed three patents covering these innovations.

“Her work is thoughtful, logical, thorough, systematic and significant. The importance of her work is clearly recognized by the fungal genetics, microbiology, plant pathology and secondary metabolism communities,” said Beryl R. Oakley, the Irving S. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Kansas. “She is clearly a major contributor in her field.”

Date posted: April 15, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Ana Calvo: Reaping benefits from the fungus among us

Categories: Awards Liberal Arts and Sciences Research Science and Technology

Nancy M. Wingfield

Nancy M. Wingfield

Throughout her career studying issues of nationalism as well as gender and sexuality in Habsburg Central Europe, Nancy M. Wingfield has earned a reputation as a researcher who will go to extraordinary lengths to find aspects of history that others have overlook.

Her work often takes her to obscure archives in the far corners of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Italy and Ukraine. There she spends countless hours poring over documents in Czech, French, German, Polish and several other languages.

Her willingness to mine these often-neglected veins for illuminating details make her work stand out in the field.

“Her almost uncanny ability to locate fascinating materials, often culled from small local archives …enable her to develop original analyses of Central European society in the 19th and 20th centuries,” said Pieter M. Judson, professor of 19th and 20th century history at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

Wingfield is considered an innovator in the field of Habsburg Central Europe studies for advancing the use of the methods and achievements of cultural and social history. She has advanced those notions not only through her own textbooks (used in classrooms throughout the world) but also in her role as former editor of the journal, Nationalities Papers.

While best known for her research and writing, Wingfield also has earned a reputation as an outstanding collaborator who is willing to foster the work of other academics – particularly those new to the field – across the globe.

“There is no one else in the field who has contributed more time, care and attention to the work of colleagues, especially younger colleagues,” said Timothy Synder, the Housum Professor of History at Yale. “Nancy is one of the two people most responsible for the maturation of the current and impressive generation of younger scholars of east European history.”

Date posted: April 15, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Nancy M. Wingfield: Sifting through history for illuminating details

Categories: Awards Global Humanities Liberal Arts and Sciences Research