Week of Aug. 19, 2024

The first week of class provides an excellent opportunity to create an environment where students feel comfortable and excited to be a part of your classroom. The Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) offers a Week of Engagement Toolkit to increase your connection with students and promote a sense of belonging.

You’ll find tips on creating a student-centered syllabus, recommended strategies for inclusion and accessibility, activities to build engagement, helpful resources and more when you visit our website. Meanwhile, CITL staff are available at citl@niu.edu to answer your teaching questions.

Have a great semester!

It’s easy, will take just a little of your time and you’ll have an opportunity to interact with future Huskies and their families. You can take part in as few or as many events as you choose.  And, the team will contact you in plenty of time to make it work for your schedule. For these events, you’ll help welcome guests to campus, assist in wayfinding, and share information about resources provided by NIU.

Interested? Send an email with “Volunteer” in the subject line to Alex Torres, Associate Director for Events, Tours & Customer Service, at atorres8@niu.edu.

The Office of the President seeks to identify a member of the Supportive Professional Staff or Operating Staff interested in serving a year-long professional development fellowship. The Office of the President Staff Fellow will be assigned special projects needed to carry out the functions of the Office of the President and will be afforded professional development opportunities. The fellow will be appointed for the 2025 calendar year and will report to the university’s chief strategy officer. Learn more about the President Staff Fellow Program, including how to apply. The deadline for applications is Monday, Sept. 30.

The Division of Information Technology is offering multiple learning opportunities this fall. We have Tuesday Tech Tips, monthly topic-specific workshops and we are now offering custom workshops for your departments.

Tuesday Tech Tips were a hit this past spring semester, so we will continue to offer a variety of short topics. These sessions are 30 minutes with allotted time to practice and ask questions.

Monthly workshops will be offered in multiple formats. Depending on the month, we will offer virtual and in-person workshops. For the fall semester, we will offer the same topics each month so if one month is full, you can sign up for the same session the following month.

New for the fall semester, we are offering custom workshops by department. You can review our custom workshop request form and select from a list of topics we have available to meet your department’s needs. The workshop format will be to your department’s needs. Please allow two to four weeks for custom workshops requests.

Please direct any questions to Cindy Kozumplik, business analyst in the Division of Information Technology.

Applications are now being accepted for NIU Impact, the NIU Foundation's crowdfunding platform where students, faculty, staff members and researchers can raise money to turn their great ideas into reality. Since its inception in 2021, NIU Impact has helped raise nearly $400,000 from over 2,600 total gifts.

Fall campaigns run Oct. 9 through Nov. 4. Please submit your application by midnight, Sept. 17. Submit your crowdfunding application, or register for one of our informational webinars on the NIU Foundation crowdfunding page. Questions? Contact Cody Carter, ccarter1@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.