Alumni fund re-creation
of historic mosaic seal
inside Altgeld entryway

by Joe King

Like most longtime alums, Mike and Louise McSweeney were delighted with the newly remodeled Altgeld Hall.

In many respects, the building is much nicer than it was during their days on campus in the late 1950s and early '60s. However, something was missing. Gone from the main entryway was the old mosaic bearing the name of Northern Illinois State Normal School.

“We toured the building shortly before it opened and we were rather disappointed that the seal was gone,” said Louise, who graduated in 1960 with a degree in elementary education.

“The building felt incomplete,” added Mike, who graduated in 1961 with a degree in economics.

The seal in question was part of Altgeld Hall almost from its origins, but its history is a bit vague.

According to the few sketchy records that exist, the mosaic was not in place when the building opened, but it appeared within a few years. And, while it bore the school's acronym, the seal itself was never adopted by NISNS for official use. Nevertheless, it quickly became a prominent icon on campus, and at some point students – particularly those in fraternities and sororities – adopted the tradition of never treading upon the seal.

That tradition was still in place while Mike and Louise McSweeney were students.

For them, the seal had an especially important place in their hearts. Just a few steps away, standing under the portico of the main entrance to Altgeld Hall, they had sealed their engagement.

The couple felt strongly that the emblem should be returned to its rightful place of honor. The only problem, however, was that the seal had been removed in 1968, and installed in the lobby of Founders Library in 1976. With the original in use, the McSweeneys offered to pay for a re-creation to be installed in the Altgeld foyer. While there was some discussion of updating the piece in the image of the university's current official seal, the McSweeneys were adamant that the new piece should remain true to the original.

With that detail worked out, the university began looking for someone willing to take the commission, a search which ultimately led them to Chicago artist Youlia Tkatchouk-Bobel.

Born and educated in Ukraine, she had received training in many classical art forms. Since arriving in Chicago, she had done a number of high-profile pieces around the state, including an installation for NBC affiliate WMAQ in Chicago and a massive 140-square-foot mosaic at a theater in Quincy.

After inspecting the original seal, Tkatchouk-Bobel set about recreating the piece, with a few embellishments.

First, she decided that the old seal, which was 5 feet in diameter, would be lost in the new Altgeld Hall entryway with its soaring ceiling and dual staircases. So, she increased it to 6 feet in diameter.

Second, the first piece was a bit too plain for such a spectacular space. To remedy that, she proposed subtle embellishments such as braiding in the stone work around the outer perimeter, and inlaying a few gold tiles to pick up the color of the brass stair rails. She also suggested softening the piece a bit by incorporating some subtle grays and dark greens to augment the stark black-and-white of the original. All of the suggestions were immediately embraced.

Working in her studio, Tkatchouk-Bobel assembled the mosaic from 6,500 pieces of stone, each about a half-inch square, carefully gluing them to a mesh backing. The process took about a month before the final product could be moved to campus and cemented into place in August.

The McSweeneys, who visited while the piece was being installed, were delighted. “We love the way it turned out, and we're very pleased with the slight changes she made,” Mike said.

For the McSweeneys, the seal is the latest milestone on a long trip back to NIU.

The couple married in 1960 and remained in DeKalb for a year while Mike finished his degree and Louise taught elementary school. From there it was off to Freeport, Ill., as Mike began his job as an industrial engineer for MicroSwitch. His career path eventually led him into production management, and eventually into the arena of direct marketing.

Ultimately, he became president of the mail-order giant Harry and David, which specializes in gourmet foods.

Mike's various jobs took the couple around the country and to Canada, but when their son, Mark, was looking for a college, he chose NIU. He was the third generation of the family to attend NIU, as Mike's mother had also earned a degree here when the school was still a teachers college. A bench at the new Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center will bear the names of all five members of the family (including a nephew) who graduated from NIU.

The couple reconnected with NIU again in 1997, when the Direct Marketing Education Foundation donated a library of resource materials to the NIU College of Business in Mike's name, to honor him for his work in the field. Soon after, he and Louise endowed a scholarship for students studying direct marketing.

Now retired, they split their time between nearby Huntley and Palm Springs, Calif.

As proud as they are of all those contributions, the McSweeneys are most excited at having restored a bit of history to the university.

“It's something that will be here forever,” Mike said. “It will make a nice legacy.”

9-12-05