In the Community
One of the benefits of attending or working at NIU is the community that surrounds our campus. From small businesses to familiar company names, you’ll find what you’re looking for just outside your door.
While DeKalb can seem like a small town compared to St. Louis or Chicago, it’s home to over 42,500 residents, adding in the number of folks who live in Sycamore and the rest of DeKalb County more than doubles that number. The people are diverse, interesting, creative individuals who together create a fun, caring community who are very proud of where they live. Count in the 20,000+ students, faculty and staff who are on campus, and you’ll never run out of interesting people to talk with and things to do.
This section of Campus Meets Community is designed for students, parents, faculty and staff who are either looking to move to DeKalb for school or work or are new to the area and want to find out the basics of living and getting around in DeKalb. To learn about things to do on NIU’s campus, visit the On Campus section of the site.