NIU Today

One year ago, as I sat on the Convocation Center stage during the Huskie Family Welcome, our insightful master of ceremonies said something that struck me. Alex Gelman, the director of the School of Theatre and Dance, told our new students and their families that they would all return to this building in three years...

Most of the Midwestern tall grass prairie vanished in the 19th century with the rise of the steel plow, but researchers say that prairie restoration is essential for maintaining native plant and animal habitats, improving water and soil quality and reducing erosion. Here in Illinois, NIU professors are fighting to save the prairie ecosystem at...

As part of Welcome Days 2015 activities, NIU President Doug Baker will host the annual President’s Picnic from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 23. The President’s Picnic, held along the west shore of the East Lagoon and the quad area west of Castle Drive, is one of many events scheduled over the weekend and...

NIU’s Program Prioritization Coordinating Team has released the administrative program inventory, providing the list of administrative programs to be evaluated and ranked early next year. Some 251 administrative programs will be assessed by a 21-member administrative task force beginning in January. The inventory is the result of several months’ worth of planning and work, including...

I am approaching the stretch run of my summer with Young People For (People For The American Way) in Washington D.C.

Recruitment and retention took center stage Friday morning when nearly 150 NIU leaders gathered for President Doug Baker’s strategic plan implementation retreat. Participants, who ranged from department chairs and directors to deans and vice presidents, received a bird’s-eye view of NIU’s work to reverse declining enrollment and deal with diminished state funding. The first 60...

Northern Illinois University is proud to welcome a special group of 70 international Fulbright Foreign Students to campus this week for its first-ever Fulbright Gateway Orientation program. This activity is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State as part of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program supported by the people of...

Congressman Adam Kinzinger visited the NIU campus Thursday morning to meet member of the NIU Supermilage Team, see their work and present them with a copy of his congratulatory statement read into Congressional Record. Kinzinger, a Republican from Channahon, praised the team’s success at the 36th annual SAE Supermileage Competition in Marshall, Mich. “Over the...

As many as 150 leaders from across campus will join me Friday for a Strategic Plan Implementation Retreat. My directive for them – our shared mission – could not be clearer: We must control our own destiny. We must mobilize to amplify our recruitment efforts and thereby boost our enrollment. It’s up to us. Our...

All incoming new students – freshmen and transfers – must complete mandatory online education designed to improve their understanding of the critical issues regarding sexual assault, interpersonal violence, stalking and bystander intervention, as well as the prevention of alcohol misuse. With the 2013 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and the 2014 Campus...

NIU Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus David Edward Kyvig, a noted Constitutional historian and specialist on recent America, whose 1996 book “Explicit and Authentic Acts: Amending the U.S. Constitution, 1776-1995” was awarded the Bancroft Prize and the Henry Adams Prize, died on Monday, June 22, at George Washington University Hospital after a lifelong battle with diabetes....

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. With websites playing a critical role in NIU’s initial communication with its many audiences, having a consistent university-wide message has never been more important. “The NIU website is a retention and recruitment tool for the university,” said Webmaster Jeannine East, of NIU’s Office of...