March 9, 2026

Each year the Presidential Commissions recognize faculty, staff, students and community members who have helped make our campus a welcoming, diverse and inclusive place to live, learn and work. Nominations for these awards are now open and the deadlines for nominations are below:

Learn more about individual awards and submit your nominations by visiting the Presidential Commissions awards webpage.

Join us to learn with and from communities during NIU Community Engagement Week, April 13-17, 2026.

Events include:

Learn more and register for individual sessions online.

Please be advised that OnBase will be unavailable during a scheduled cloud migration. During this window, all OnBase services, including document retrieval, workflow processing and form submissions, will be inaccessible.

Start time: 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 11.

End time: 10 p.m. Wednesday, March 11.

Please ensure all active work is saved and submitted prior to the start of the maintenance window.

As Student Wellness prepares for our upcoming annual Spring Into Wellness Week April 4-10, 2026, we are reaching out to explore opportunities for collaboration and cross-promotion across campus. We would love to partner in ways that highlight the great wellness-focused work already happening in other departments on campus. If your department or office hosting an event related to wellness during this week, please email BeWell@niu.edu by March 20, 2026, if you'd like it to be included in Spring Into Wellness week. Our goal is to create a unified campus-wide effort that supports student well-being and increases awareness of available resources and programming. We truly appreciate any support you’re able to provide. 

The Office of the President seeks nominations for individuals to serve on the Presidential Commissions. The NIU Presidential Commissions serve as advisory groups to the president of the university and were created to help foster an inclusive environment for the NIU campus and community.  Through collaborative efforts and research, the commissions provide advice and/or recommendations to the president that foster a sense of belonging and increase opportunities for all members of the Huskie community to flourish. Accordingly, we seek nominations for individuals with interests, experiences, or expertise related to the commissions’ work to enrich their efforts and ensure that their recommendations reflect the diverse viewpoints of the NIU community. Please note, the commission requires one 1.5-2-hour meeting per month during the academic year, and the ability to volunteer for additional subcommittees.

To nominate someone or self-nominate, please complete the online application which seeks general information and a brief statement of interest by Friday, March 20, 2026 The Commission review panel will evaluate all nominations, and the nominees will receive an email notification of their acceptance by May 15, 2026. If you have any questions, please contact Liz Wright at ewright1@niu.edu.  

NIU Presidential Commission Application

Explore the Presidential Advisory Groups website for more details and insights into the commissions.  

The Digital Accessibility Steering Committee is excited to announce the launch of a new initiative aimed at continuing to develop digital content that is accessible to all individuals. As part of our ongoing commitment to faculty and staff development and student success, we invite you to self-nominate as an Accessibility Ambassador who will provide technical guidance to fellow faculty and staff members.

This new program will run from May 2026 to May 2027, and aims to build a vibrant community of peer support at NIU and offers a unique opportunity to contribute to our university's commitment to digital accessibility, equity and inclusion while gaining professional recognition and development. We anticipate a time commitment of one to three hours per week.  

Please see our website to learn more information. Please submit your self-nomination by Monday, March 16.

We will soon implement a new system, Simple Journal, designed to provide an alternative and more efficient method for submitting journal entries.

Training sessions are now available and are strongly recommended prior to using this new system. These sessions include a comprehensive, step-by-step walkthrough of the entry and submission process, along with time for questions throughout.

Register for training today.

The Office of Research Development invites faculty to Drop-in Writing Time. We will host two weekly sessions through the week of April 20.

Virtual: Wednesdays from 9 to 11 a.m. on Teams.

In person: Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon at 71 North Partnership Studio Garage.

Drop-in Writing Time is open to all NIU faculty and provides participants with dedicated time to work independently on writing for external funding pursuits and/or advancing research, scholarship or artistry. ORD Research Development Specialists will be available during sessions to support grant writing as needed. An adjacent room is available for ORD consultation and faculty collaboration for in-person sessions, and breakout rooms are available for virtual sessions.

Download these events to your calendar using the link for virtual sessions and for in-person sessions. With any questions, or to sign up for communications about these events, please email Sadie Schaus (sschaus@niu.edu).

The NIH Basic Instrumentation Grant (BIG) Program (S10; Clinical Trial Not Allowed), supports the acquisition of state-of-the-art scientific instruments that are essential for advancing modern biomedical research. For full details of this opportunity, please see the NIH BIG NOFO. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) limits the number of proposals an institution can submit to this funding opportunity to one application per institution. The Office of Research Development (ORD) will manage an internal selection process to identify which proposals will be fully developed into proposals to the NIH Basic Instrumentation Grant (BIG) funding opportunity. Information for internal submission is available on the InfoReady/NIH BIG portal.

Applaud a Colleague is a show of appreciation for those coworkers who go above and beyond. These are just a few of the employees throughout the university that go the extra mile:

The month of February is closing for all financial reporting activity at noon Monday, March 9, 2026. Journals not posted at that time will go into March business. Submit February journals before end of business Friday, March 6. Final February reports are scheduled to be available Tuesday March 10, 2026. In addition, March reports are scheduled to be available Wednesday, March 11, 2026. These and other important dates can be found on the Controller's Office website.