NIU Today

On the road to success, that first step is often the most important. This past week, our campus community did a wonderful job of making sure that every new and returning Huskie got off on the right foot. And people noticed! This email from Alison Wilson, of Joliet, who dropped her daughter off Friday, is...

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...

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...

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...

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...

NIU is far more than a resident of the City of DeKalb – we are an engaged and enthusiastic partner in making the city a great destination. We are woven deeply into the city’s fabric, just as the city is an inseparable part of who we are. Our institution and its hometown are inextricably linked,...

With a relationship spanning 120 years, it is mostly impossible to separate NIU from its home communities of DeKalb and DeKalb County. The university and the municipalities operate not so much as sisters as they are an interrelated social and economic system. Collaborations among organizations and their chief executive officers is teamwork important for the...

Prior to the Fourth of July holiday, I joined NIU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Chris McCord in China to sign a historic agreement with Nankai University. Two years in the making, this accord forms a partnership that creates the NIU-Nankai International College (NNIC), which initially will focus on economics and political science....

Leaders from Northern Illinois University and Nankai University signed a historic agreement between the two institutions in Tianjin, China, NIU announced. The agreement forms Nankai-NIU International College (NNIC) and will provide an opportunity for top students throughout China to earn degrees from both Nankai and NIU. “Our focus is student career success in a global...

NIU President Doug Baker emailed the campus today on the budget impasse in Springfield. Dear NIU faculty and staff, I’m sure you have seen the media coverage of a judge’s ruling against Illinois Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger’s plan to continue to pay state employees while the governor and the legislature attempt to break the budget...

A 1992 memo from cigarette manufacturer Phillip Morris found that smokers working in places that prohibit smoking smoke 11-15 percent less than average and quit at a rate that is 84 percent higher than average. State lawmakers and health officials hope the Illinois Smoke-Free Campus Act, signed into law in 2014, will have a similar effect. On...

Given the continuing debate over the Illinois budget and the concern that we all share about how it will be resolved, I feel it’s an appropriate time to review the state of play in Springfield. At the end of May, the House and Senate delivered a budget to Gov. Rauner that is arguably as much...