NIU Today

The 27-year-old roof at Reavis Hall will undergo a complete replacement as construction begins Friday, Sept. 28. The roof, originally installed in 1985 with an expected life span of around 20 years, is approximately 18,400 square feet and consists of a single-ply, EPDM-ballasted rubber membrane. According to the university’s Division of Finance and Facilities, roof...

NIU President John G. Peters this morning updated the Board of Trustees on the university’s Vision 2020 Initiative. Intended to secure NIU as the most student-centered public research university in the Midwest by 2020 and beyond, the blueprint represents an extensive benchmarking effort with input from across campus on academic excellence, campus improvements and fiscal...

The start of every academic year brings new changes. This year was no different with the implementation of student printing quotas in campus computer labs maintained by Information Technology Services (ITS) as part of its Green Up Initiative. This academic year, each student receives 300 free prints (one side of one sheet of paper). Any...

NIU’s College of Engineering & Engineering Technology (CEET) and the University Honors Program teamed up to implement a new, customized honors program for engineering students. CEET faculty member Nick Pohlman set the idea in motion by securing a University Honors Summer Improvement Grant. “I originally applied for the grant because I was an honors student as...

The NIU Foundation recently partnered with Lisa Freeman, vice president for Research and Graduate Studies, and the Office of the Provost to restructure the NIU Foundation Venture Grants program. A team of NIU students from the College of Law helped to create a concept and plan for this unique program. The move to update the...

For the first time in nearly a half-century, NIU students, university leaders and their partners in the construction industry gathered to cut the ribbon on a new residence hall. NIU President John Peters led the afternoon ceremony to dedicate the new buildings, which will welcome 1,000 students next week. “This is truly a momentous occasion....

Chances are good that passersby who walked near Davis Hall or the NIU Transportation Center during the week of June 11 did a double take. After all, it’s not every day that 21 NIU students in Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) and Tyvek® suits, practicing the proper handling of hazardous materials and simulating work on...

An initiative designed to provide additional opportunity for local students to attend Northern Illinois University is paying dividends.  Based on incoming freshman confirmations for the fall 2012 semester, the number of students from DeKalb County public schools is up 37 percent from a year ago. “The DeKalb County Scholarship, along with a number of other...

The journey Northern Illinois University undertook during the past six months to revise its institutional mission and vision is over, as the Board of Trustees approved the university’s new vision and mission statements during its regular business meeting on May 10. “This is an extremely challenging task – putting a university as diverse and large...

Northern Illinois University announced plans to implement a second-year residency requirement beginning with the Fall 2015 entering class. Plans were unveiled during a presentation at the May 10 Board of Trustees meeting. Student academic success and matriculation are key to the university’s Vision 2020 goals, and factors impacting sophomore success have been shown to directly...

Derryl Block is the new dean of the NIU College of Health and Human Sciences, approved this morning by a vote of the university’s Board of Trustees. Since 2009, Block has been chair of the Professional Program in Nursing and director of BSN-LINC, an online RN-to-BSN program at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She joined...

As students prepare to leave campus for the summer, work crews of all description are waiting in the wings to tackle a long list of maintenance and improvement projects. From putting the finishing touches on the first new undergraduate residence hall in nearly 50 years to caulking the parking deck, nearly 85 projects will be...