NIU strategic plan to address teaching methods,
research emphases, regional impact, campus culture

Six months into a comprehensive study of NIU’s mission, strengths, challenges and opportunities for growth, the university’s Strategic Planning Task Force is rolling out four reports on “overarching themes” that will guide the planning process as it moves into colleges and departments next fall.

The 45-member task force concentrated its efforts on issues related to strengthening the teaching and learning environment, identifying and strengthening clusters of research excellence, identifying and enhancing NIU’s impact on the Chicagoland region and building campus community. 

Four workgroups tackled each of the major themes. Their reports, along with a confidential response mechanism, can be found on the Strategic Planning Task Force Web site on the NIU Faculty/Staff Web page at http://www.niu.edu/strategicplan/index.shtml.

“When the task force finishes its work in May, the action on these priorities will take place in the colleges and departments,” explained NIU Provost Ray Alden. “What we’re doing now is building the framework for all those efforts going forward.”

More than 100 faculty, staff and students have participated in meetings and interviews about NIU’s future. According to Alden, the four “umbrella” themes emerged fairly quickly and have generated what he terms “some very excited and enthusiastic discussions about what NIU can and should be known for.”

“Task force members have made it clear that the success of this effort depends on how well we are able to define what we mean in ways that speak clearly and persuasively to all our constituencies,” Alden said. “Our challenge going forward is to identify what it will take to make these things happen, and how we will measure success in each area.”

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A new documentary on a labor leader once known as “America’s most dangerous woman” will be screened at noon Monday, April 23, in Room 280 of DuSable Hall. 

“Mother Jones: America’s Most Dangerous Woman” focuses on the life of labor heroine, Mary Harris Jones, also known as Mother Jones. The documentary, co-produced by NIU History Professor Rosemary Feurer and Communication Professor Laura Vazquez, examines the ways that Jones’ organizing career influenced early 20th century American history.

Featuring historian Elliott Gorn, a leading biographer of Mother Jones, the documentary also demonstrates how the labor leader used class and gender boundaries to shape an identity that allowed her to become an effective labor organizer in the early 20th century.

The documentary evokes the terrible conditions and labor oppression that motivated her to traverse the country, mobilizing thousands to fight back.

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