NIU Today

NIU will host its annual International Women’s Day Luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 7, in the Chandelier Room of Adams Hall. This year’s IWD theme is “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures.” Guest speaker Kurt Thurmaier, professor and director of NIU’s Division of Public Administration, will honor that theme in his talk “Kidogo,...

A simple mouse click can help a team of NIU business and engineering students win funding to start a company that they believe can provide safe and affordable electric power to millions of Africans. The team, Light Up Africa, is competing in the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, competing against other college students across the country...

NIU’s Art Museum has announced three Get on the Bus trips for the spring. North Shore Excursion Saturday, March 3 Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe (Mary and Leigh Block Museum at Northwestern University) Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie Bus leaves from the School of Art parking lot at 8:30 a.m....

Murder, witchcraft and deception color the dark yet deeply human tragedy, “Macbeth.” Northern Illinois University’s School of Theatre and Dance will present a new production of the classic drama Thursday, Feb. 16, through Sunday, Feb. 19, in the Stevens Building Corner Theatre. Director Alexander Gelman says the play will challenge the actors and entertain the...

Northern Illinois University invites the public to an open house from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12, at the newly renovated and high-tech Fay-Cooper Cole Hall. Located in the heart of the NIU campus, the 1960s-era building has been transformed into a modern educational setting that university officials believe will be looked to as...

The Committee for Multicultural Curriculum Transformation is collecting unpublished articles from faculty and staff members for a book pertaining to the institute dating back to 1994. Individuals who participated in or presented at NIU’s summer multicultural institute are invited to submit articles or outlines describing transformed courses, institute activities, goals, methods and outcomes. The book...

NIU students who hunger for adventure and accomplishment on an Alternative Spring Break next month have four choices to satisfy their appetites. They can travel to Washington, D.C., and help the hungry or homeless or trek to Newark, N.J., and work with youths in the local Boys and Girls Club. For those service-minded students who...

Thursday marked a homecoming for Wheeler G. Coleman. Thirty-four years removed from his arrival on the campus of Northern Illinois University as a freshman, he stepped to a podium in Altgeld Hall and was sworn in as the university’s newest trustee. “I’m glad to be back home,” Coleman said after taking the oath of office...

Nancy M. Castle has accepted a position as interim director the Center for NGO Leadership and Development (NGOLD) at Northern Illinois University. She fills the role left by the center’s inaugural director, Judith Hermanson. Castle earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at NIU in psychology. She has been a faculty member with NIU since...

Richard E. Beard, who taught in the NIU School of Art from 1966 until his retirement in 1996, died Monday, Jan. 30, in Sarasota, Fla. He was 83. Beard, who specialized in painting and drawing, won a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship award in 1983. Near the end of his NIU career, he created “Academic Animals,” a...

NIU’s Department of Literacy Education will host a workshop Tuesday, Feb. 21, that highlights the 2011 award-winning children and young adult books that were recently announced by the American Library Association. During the event, faculty members Chris Carger and Melanie Koss will discuss the books that have received awards including the Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott...

Michael Manderino, an assistant professor in the Department of Literacy Education in the NIU College of Education, is co-winner of the Student Outstanding Research Award from the Literacy Research Association (LRA). Manderino accepted the award for his scholarly paper titled “Disciplinary Literacy in New Literacies Environments: Expanding the Intersections of Literate Practice for Adolescents.” The...