NIU Today

In Springfield … The Illinois primary elections were held Tuesday, March 20. The elections results can be found on the Illinois Board of Elections website. The Illinois General Assembly was in session Wednesday through Friday of last week. Members of the House of Representatives approved HB 3810 (vote: 95 yes, 25 no, 2 present), introduced by...

Just like the early onset of summer-like weather and temperatures, the suspension of 2012-13 MAP Grant processing has arrived sooner than anyone expected. Administrators in NIU’s Student Financial Aid Office alerted all undergraduates via email Wednesday, March 14, that the prospect of a suspension was imminent. The email urged students who had not filed the...

NIU’s Student Financial Aid Office anticipates the production of award notifications within the next week. Illinois colleges and universities have received an announcement from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission regarding an early suspension of Monetary Award Program (MAP) awards. Last year’s suspension date occurred toward the end of March;  an even earlier date is anticipated...

In Springfield … Friday, March 9, was the deadline to get substantive bills reported out of committees in the chamber of origin, so it was a very busy week. On March 6, House Bill 5745, sponsored by Rep. Brandon Phelps, passed out of the House Agriculture & Conservation Committee. This bill would allow for concealed-carry in...

In Springfield … This will be a very busy week in Springfield. Gov. Pat Quinn will give his Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Message at noon Wednesday, Feb. 22. You will recall that in his Feb. 1 State of the State message, he talked about his desire to eliminate a tax on natural cost (at an...

In Springfield … On January 30, 2012, the Institute for Illinois’ Financial Sustainability at the Civic Federation issued a report, “State of Illinois FY2013 Budget Roadmap: State of Illinois Budget Overview, Projections and Recommendations for the Governor and General Assembly.” The report states that, “given rising Medicaid and pension costs and the scheduled partial sunset of...

February marks Financial Aid Awareness Month at Northern Illinois University, with free public events planned throughout the month designed to help students who plan to attend college receive financial aid for the 2012-2013 school year. The highlight of the month is the “FAFSA Fun Fest,” hosted by the NIU Office of Student Financial Aid in...

Last year, 8,101 NIU undergraduate students received need-based financial aid in the form of state, federal and institutional grants. However, hundreds of thousands of eligible Illinois college students missed out on state financial aid by not completing the required Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) soon enough. For this new year, the NIU Office...

In Springfield … The Illinois General Assembly finished its second week of the scheduled fall veto session Thursday, Nov. 10. However, the House of Representatives has been called back Tuesday, Nov. 29, to deal with some large, outstanding issues. We are uncertain at this time if the Senate also will be called back. Senate Bill 512,...

In Springfield … The Illinois General Assembly convened for the first week of the fall veto session, which began Oct. 25. It was a tough week for Gov. Pat Quinn, with the General Assembly taking the following actions: Collective bargaining House Speaker Michael Madigan introduced HJR 45, which seeks to involve the General Assembly in...

[stream provider=rtmp flv=MAP.f4v embed=false share=false width=480 height=360 dock=false controlbar=bottom skin=five.zip bandwidth=high autostart=false streamer=rtmp://live.media.niu.edu/HD/MAP.f4v /]   Sixty-five NIU students rolled into Springfield on two buses Wednesday morning to protest potential cuts to the state’s Monetary Award Program (MAP) and address other issues impacting higher education. For many of the students, the MAP grant is a matter...

Nora Lindvall, recently named as NIU’s Student Lincoln Laureate, has had a spectacular college career, to be sure. She is a stellar student with two majors, who speaks five languages and interned this past summer with the vice president of the European Parliament. But Lindvall says her impressive college career would not have been possible...