NIU is building a world-class cancer treatment and research center in Chicago’s western suburbs that will provide state-of-the-art proton therapy to patients across the Midwest. The university broke ground this year on the $159 million center at the DuPage National Technology Park in West Chicago. Proton therapy is an advanced, highly effective form of radiation treatment, utilizing proton beams to treat cancer. Although the noninvasive therapy is a preferred treatment in many adult and pediatric cancers, it is currently unavailable in Illinois. The center will eventually treat as many as 1,500 patients annually.
NIU’s student newspaper, The Northern Star, has twice won “Best Online Newspaper” in the nation for the Web version of its daily paper. The Star also holds two “Pacemaker Awards,” considered the Pulitzer Prize for college newspapers nationwide.
In 2005, the NIU Library celebrated the acquisition of its 2 millionth book, placing it in the top 3 percent of academic libraries nationwide.
NIU is the alma mater of:
Students in the NIU College of Business gain real-world experience working as “consultants” on projects for corporations like John Deere, Caterpillar, McDonald’s, Wal-Mart and many others. Students are assigned a specific business problem and they spend the semester researching and collaborating with corporate executives to develop a solution which they present to the company at the end of the semester.
The NIU College of Business is considered one of the leading institutions in the country when it comes to incorporating ethics into coursework. The college’s BELIEF Initiative is being studied and adapted by universities across the country.
Mary E. Gardner, a reading specialist in the Oregon School District and an instructor in NIU’s Department of Literacy Education, has been elected president of the Northern Illinois Reading Council. The 1997 master’s degree graduate from NIU has taught courses at her alma mater for seven years.
Pam Nelson, who retired in the spring of 2008 from the Department of Literacy Education, capped her career with one of five International Reading Association Maryann Manning Outstanding Volunteer Service Awards.
NIU engineering students kept some fast company at the May, 2007 SAE Formula competition. The car hand-crafted by students for the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology took 19th out of a field of cars from 108 of the best engineering programs in the world.
Students from the NIU College of Engineering and Engineering Technology took first place in the Spring 2007 Basic Utility Vehicle Competition hosted by the Institute for Affordable Transportation in Indianapolis. The Institute challenges teams to design and build simple, durable and affordable transportation that can be manufactured cheaply in third world countries.
Brigid Lusk, chair of the School of Nursing and Health Studies, was among the nine-member Illinois delegation at a national summit held in June 2008 to examine the nursing shortage and to explore ways to expand nursing education.
Judith Hertz, an associate professor in the School of Nursing and Health Studies, is the president of the National Gerontological Nursing Association. She will serve a two-year term as president of the Pensacola, Fla.-based group, which boasts 1,700 members and strives to improve the quality of nursing care for older adults.
Alan Robinson, director of outreach in the College of Health and Human Sciences, won a 2007 Certificate of Achievement from the DeKalb County Partnership for a Safe, Active and Family Environment. The award recognizes Robinson’s work with the college’s Mobile Health Assessment Unit that serves “vulnerable populations” such as children, the elderly and Hispanics, many of whom lack transportation.
The Child Development Laboratory in the College of Health and Human Sciences has earned its first accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children. NAEYC accreditation recognizes high-quality early childhood education. Programs that meet the organization’s standards provide a safe and healthy environment for children through well-trained teachers, access to excellent teaching materials and a curriculum that is appropriately challenging and developmentally sound.
Part of the legendary collection of the museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City has come to NIU to take permanent residence in the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences.
The percentage of NIU interns at Kohl’s who then enter the retailer’s executive training program is above the national average. So is the job acceptance and retention rate of NIU students who interview with the company. Julie Hillery is the Kohl’s Professor of Retailing and Merchandising, the Wisconsin-based company’s first funded professorship.
NIU’s undergraduate program in meteorology is the oldest undergraduate program of its kind in Illinois and one of the largest undergraduate-only meteorology programs in North America. Alumni inform you about today’s weather and tomorrow’s forecast both regionally and nationally.
NIU History Professor Heide Fehrenbach, whose books on the social and cultural effects of World War II on post-war Germany are being taught in advanced courses at leading universities worldwide, was awarded a highly competitive Guggenheim Fellowship. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. Fehrenbach has penned two books and co-edited a third, all of which are highly regarded. Her work has led to invited lectures at such universities as Cornell, Harvard, Michigan and Ohio State, as well as Trinity College in Dublin, the University of Muenster in Germany and the University of Toronto.
History Professor J.D. Bowers and Teacher Certification Adviser Kate Maley were awarded the “Freedom Project,” a $1 million grant from the Department of Education under the Teaching American History grant program, in partnership with Rockford Public Schools. Under the same Department of Education program, Bowers and Maley also were awarded the “American History Partnership,” a $1 million grant for a project that will be conducted with the Elgin School District.
NIU’s Jazz Lab Band, under the direction of Rodrigo Villanueva, won the top prize at the 2008 University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Jazz Festival. The prestigious festival celebrated its 41st year in March.
The Chicago Festival Association again invited art students from NIU to paint the official logo of the 2007 McDonald’s Thanksgiving Parade onto State Street between Madison and Washington. The project that began in 2006 is NIU’s for the foreseeable future.
NIU’s Chamber Choir held a week’s residency in 2007 at the historic Worcester Cathedral in Worcester, England, where 18 students performed Evensong services nightly and the Sunday morning service. The choir so impressed its hosts that an open invitation to return was offered at the week’s end. In November, the group performed as one of only eight choirs in the United States selected to sing at the National Collegiate Choral Organization’s national conference in San Antonio, Texas.
NIU’s School of Art is the largest producer of art teachers in Illinois and, overall, NIU is one of the 10 largest teacher preparation programs in the nation.
The NIU Liberace Jazztet will swing for a eighth consecutive year thanks to renewed funding from the Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts. Founded at the School of Music in 2001 with a generous donation of $10,000 from the Liberace Foundation, the group has risen quickly to an international stature through performances at conferences and festivals around the globe. The annual award has risen to $13,000.