Dec. 9, 2024

The Holmes Student Center will be open during the following times through the end of the semester and beyond.

Huskies United registration is open! Please fill out the form to ensure we capture your interest along with choosing a training session to attend early January. Registration will be closed January 10th.

Huskies United kicks off at 4:25 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2 and continue through April 3, for an adrenaline-charged 1,895 minutes of giving that will reach across our campuses and beyond. Together, we can move NIU forward.

The Payroll office will process and mail calendar year 2024 W-2s by the Internal Revenue Service’s deadline of January 31, 2025. These tax forms are required to be mailed to an employee’s home address unless the employee elects and consents to receiving the form electronically.  When you opt to receive your W-2 form electronically, you will have convenient, secure access to your tax information as soon as it has been produced instead of waiting for the forms to arrive in the mail.

The deadline to elect and consent to receiving your 2024 W-2 electronically is Friday, January 3, 2025.

To elect and consent to receiving your 2024 W-2 electronically, please follow the steps below:

If you have previously consented to only receive your W-2 form in electronic format through MyNIU, and you have not had any break in service in the last year, you do not need to take any action.

Questions regarding this information can be directed to payroll@niu.edu.

Over the coming year, the Office of Information Security and Division of Information Technology will make changes to align with best practices, be compliant with regulatory and insurance policies, and ensure a more secure environment. The first change in the coming year is to remove the exemption from multifactor authentication (MFA) on campus.

Currently, we enforce MFA for all connections that do not initiate on campus. The lack of MFA for all connections has been identified by our cyber insurance provider, our outside auditors and our security consultants as a severe weakness and does not meet best practices or standards/regulations.

To fix this gap in our security, we will begin enforcing MFA for off- and on-campus-initiated connections after winter break. All the requirements we have currently will be the same (30-day “remember me” cycle, use of our MFA solution, etc.) and things will not look different from anything you do now.  You will not have to answer an MFA request more often than you do now but you will be asked to answer a request regardless of location.

If you have any questions, please contact the Division of Information Technology.

NIU football is Bowl Bound! As the Huskies compete in their 15th bowl game, you can celebrate and win with savings too. Purchase your annual NIU Recreation membership anytime throughout the month of December and get 15% off! Use myrec.niu.edu with promo code: BOWL15. Go Huskies!

Nominations are now open for this year’s Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (EUTA) and Excellence in Undergraduate Instruction (EUIA) awards. These longstanding annual awards recognize outstanding individuals who positively impact NIU’s student learning experience. The EUTA is available to tenured and tenure-track faculty. The EUIA is available to non-tenure track instructors.

Nominations are due to departments Friday, Dec. 13. Departments will select nominees and send materials to colleges for review and, ultimately, submission to the Committee for the Improvement of the Undergraduate Academic Experience by Friday, Jan. 31, 2025 for final selections. Nominees may not participate in the selection process.

Nominate someone for EUTA recognition.
Nominate someone for EUIA recognition.

Do you want to improve your physical strength and reduce menopausal symptoms in 2025? The Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KNPE) is starting our second exercise research cohort in late January. We are recruiting for a voluntary study involving supervised strength training hosted here on campus. This study aims to increase strength and bone mineral density, while improving menopausal symptoms in middle-aged females 45-60. If you work out two or fewer times a week, want to become more active and learn to perform strength training exercises correctly, you may be considered for inclusion. Contact Rachel Kowal at rkowal1@niu.edu for more information.

Looking for a way to support Founders Memorial Library while giving a unique gift to give this holiday season?Consider purchasing our 2025 Nickels and Dimes or 2025 Michael Day Campus Wildlife calendars that are for sale on the University Libraries website.

Effective Jan. 1, 2025, the minimum wage in Illinois will increase to $15.00 as authorized by Public Act 101-1. As a result, Human Resource Services (HRS) will run a program that will convert the pay rates for any hourly employees who are paid less than $15.00 an hour to the new minimum of $15.00 effective January 1.  Accordingly, units will need to adjust resource allocations in cost centers to support the new minimum wage. No additional resources will be provided to fund the increases. Please note that this change occurs in the middle of our fiscal year, so it will be necessary to account for future changes in the budgeting process that may occur in the spring at NIU. While it is not necessary to submit requests to change pay rates for those employees to be raised to the new minimum, if your department has adjustments that need to be made outside of this process for students and extra-help employees, HRS would appreciate receiving the paperwork by Dec. 13, 2024.

Human Resource Services (HRS) reminds the campus to be mindful of the winter holiday closures and how those dates might impact recruitment. Hiring Officials are encouraged to be vigilant when setting close dates, and are recommended to schedule them at least two weeks before and one week after the New Year’s holiday closure to accommodate the schedules of search committees and the Talent Acquisition team’s assessment/referral process. HRS recommends closing dates after Jan. 2, 2025 for all searches posted after on or after December 13, 2024. If you have any questions, please reach out to TalentAcquisitionHRS@niu.edu. 

Tip: Submit your event, lecture, training session or deadline to the NIU calendar to help inform Huskies about everything that is happening on campus. 

The month of November is closing for all financial reporting activity at noon Monday, Dec. 9. Journals not posted at that time will go into December business. Submit November journals before end of business Friday, Dec. 6.  Final November reports are scheduled to be available Tuesday, Dec. 10. In addition, December reports are scheduled to be available Wednesday, Dec. 11. These dates and other important dates related to the Controller’s Office can be found on the NIU Controller’s Office Calendars and Important Dates webpage.

Mark your calendars—Huskies United 2025 is this April 2-3, 2025.

The day will kick off at 4:25 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2 and continuing through April 3, for an exhilarating 1,895 minutes of giving that will sweep across our campuses and beyond. Together, we’re about to create a wave of lasting impact.

To join the excitement and create a dedicated giving page for your department, complete the 2025 Participation Form by January 10, 2025.