Aug. 25, 2025

We're excited to welcome Huskies home for our 118th Homecoming celebration happening the week of Sept. 28 - Oct. 5, 2025..

Chelsea McGhee Studios is coming to NIU's Holmes Student Center for a Pizza, Paint and Sip!  All ages are welcome to come paint your choice of canvas and wood sign options at this family friendly event. 

Cost includes all paint & supplies, pizza and sodas!   Alcoholic Beverages will also be available for purchase. Free Parking is will be available for this event at the Holmes Student Center Lot.

To comply with 2026 ADA digital accessibility requirements, we're updating how content is published on the NIU.edu website.

Creative Services will no longer design PDFs for web posting, and the Web Team will no longer post PDFs to the NIU website. Instead, they will work with you to determine the best accessible format for your content needs.

This change only affects content posted on our website — your day-to-day document sharing, individual emails and internal communications remain unchanged. The shift to web-based content and accessible document formats will improve user experience for all audiences, ensure legal compliance and provide better mobile optimization and engagement analytics.

We’ve recently updated our FAQ on digital document accessibility. For more information, on creating accessible documents, see our website.

Questions? Contact webstrategy@niu.edu to discuss the best accessible format for your communication goals.

We’re thrilled to announce that STEM Fest is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025.

This annual community festival takes place on central campus and welcomes thousands of visitors of all ages to try hands-on activities, watch exhibits and experiments, and find their spark in the sensational world of STEM.

Last year we welcomed 5,000 visitors, including 13 buses full of K-12 students and their families, to STEM Fest. We’re looking forward to making this STEM Fest better than ever.

It’s easy to get involved:

Learn more about STEM Fest on our website.

If you have questions, please contact Russ Devereaux at 815-753-6372 or niusteam@niu.edu.

The Office of Research Development is excited to announce the launch of the Faculty Grant Writing Group this fall, meeting at the 71N Partnership Studio Garage from 10 a.m. to noon every Thursday starting Sept. 18.

The Faculty Grant Writing Group is open to all NIU faculty and will provide participants with quiet, dedicated time and space to work on writing for external funding pursuits. ORD research development specialists will be available during sessions to support your grant writing as needed. An adjacent room is available for ORD consultation and faculty collaboration.

Sessions are drop-in friendly. Coffee and tea will be provided. Add the meetings to your calendar by visiting the event page. With any questions, please contact ord@niu.edu.

The Disability Resource Center (DRC) is transitioning to operate as part of the Division of Academic Affairs at NIU.

The DRC will offer the same excellent service to support the success of our students, and none of the existing offerings will change. The DRC mission continues: To create an accessible and inclusive learning environment where disability is recognized as an aspect of diversity in the campus community and society.

Positioning the Disability Resource Center within Academic Affairs creates a single, student-centered ecosystem that links accommodation expertise with our Huskie Academic Success Center’s (HASC) tutoring, writing support, supplemental instruction, academic coaching and Academic Recovery Program, so access and learning are aligned.

A special thank you to Jennifer Salmon, who serves as the director of the DRC, and is also currently serving as the interim director of the Huskie Academic Success Center. Her expanded and elevated role will ensure a smooth transition of the DRC to Academic Affairs.

Sept. 3 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Martin Luther King Commons

Over 75 local businesses and organizations from throughout the DeKalb area will join us for the party in the MLK Commons to welcome NIU students, faculty, and staff to the community. Come learn about area businesses, discover local resources and find out about all the fun activities to do in the community..There will be music, giveaways, a few samples, information about the community, and most importantly – a BIG FRIENDLY DEKALB WELCOME to our Huskies..

The event is free and open to the entire NIU campus.  Don’t miss the chance to meet the community and find out about our great communiversity.

The Office of Research Development (ORD) is pleased to present the NIU internal competition for the Illinois Arts Council Creative Projects Grant. The Illinois Arts Council will only accept one institutional proposal submitted from NIU for this grant opportunity.

The Creative Projects Grant (CPG) supports a single arts project by an artist or organization. Projects must include a public release or presentation, unless the proposal is for professional development by an individual artist. While multiple activities may be part of one project, separate projects cannot be combined into a single proposal.

Eligible disciplines include arts, crafts, design, dance, digital media, film/video, literature, music, performance, photography, theater, visual arts, ethnic/folk/traditional arts and community-based arts.

Full program details, including goals, expectations, eligible projects and out-of-scope activities, are available on the Illinois Arts Council Creative Projects Grant website. Applicants are strongly encouraged to review this information before preparing an internal proposal.

The deadline to submit internal proposals is Sept. 10, 2025. Complete information on the internal competition and the Illinois Arts Council Creative Projects Grant is available on the Office of Research Development Limited Submission Funding Opportunities webpage. Faculty who plan to submit a proposal to the Illinois Arts Council Creative Projects Grant competition must submit an internal proposal via NIU’s InfoReady internal competition portal.

Please contact ord@niu.edu with questions and use "IAC/ CPG internal competition" as the subject line.

The Office of Employee Well-being reminds new and seasoned employees of the services we offer to address your well-being needs. We provide a wide range of services and resources to support you and your family members as you encounter difficult life situations. Our counseling services can assist you with issues such as stress, anxiety, depression, workplace challenges, life transitions, relationship concerns, and can provide a safe place to work through other wellness matters. We continue to provide support in response to crises on campus or in your department/office. We remain focused on your personal and professional success. Our career development offerings include coaching, résumé assistance or review, interviewing skills, mentoring, and helping employees in their campus roles. Mediation services remain available as an option for helping employees work through office conflict.

Our Learning Opportunities (training sessions and other wellness activities) also remain part of our commitment to you. Our learning opportunities can help you achieve personal well-being and provide you with information to assist you in your career. Remember, we may be able to provide your department with customized soft-skills development; please contact our office for more information.

The Office of Employee Well-being is pleased to announce our fall 2025 Learning Opportunities series is now posted and open to registration. We will be offering virtual Teams and a few in-person activities. If you walked with our group over the spring semester, you may be excited to see our walking group is back for this fall. Our book club will be focusing on one book for a discussion in October. Please view the university calendar for more details. We will continue to add additional trainings and events over the course of the semester, so if you are not on our department mailing list and want to receive the copy of the training flyer or information about our other events, please contact our office and ask to be added to our email list.

You will also want to view our website for links to our other campus partners, including offerings from Human Resource Services and Cindy Kozumplik from DoIT, who continues to offer Microsoft training for employees. To learn more about all our learning opportunities for this fall, please visit our website or call us at 753-9191. To register for our events, Go to campus training. We request employees interested in any of our trainings or activities to register with our office in advance of the event to allow our office time to add you to our registration lists, so we can provide you with all necessary session details prior to the scheduled event.

Volunteering at the Huskie Food Pantry is a heartwarming way to support our Huskie students. Your service helps us address food insecurity and foster a caring, supportive community. The pantry is entirely volunteer-run, and without dedicated individuals like you, this effort would not be possible. We are excited to announce our first Huskie Food Pantry Week! Please register using the link provided here. 

Shift details are listed below:

Everyone can experience the arts this semester at NIU — registration at the NIU Community School of the Arts is now open. 

Piano and guitar group classes for adults make learning to play music a more fun and affordable experience. Learn guitar or piano skills and make new friends with weekly classes beginning in September.

Toddlers ages 1-5 sing, dance, play and have fun in CSA Prelude and Development children’s music education classes. Sign up today and bring your kids for their first music classes.

Students of any age can learn to play a musical instrument or brush up skills with private music lessons — sign up today and start learning this semester.

Suzuki music instruction is another popular option for beginning strings students and their parents — the fall Suzuki violin session begins soon.

Our popular Piano Starter class for kids ages 5-7, Symphonette strings for ages 8-16, CSA Steelband and CSA Guitar Ensemble offer fall sessions starting soon.

Please visit the CSA website for schedules and details and to register. Call 815-753-1450 for more information.

Please join us via Zoom at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 19 as Karen E. Samonds, the 2025 David W. Raymond Award recipient, will present “Enhancing Student Learning with Virtual Anatomy Resources.”

Samonds is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at NIU. Her research integrates comparative anatomy, systematics and biogeography with field paleontology to address topics in vertebrate evolution.

A few months ago, the Division of Information Technology announced changes to our password requirements for the university. We were going to increase the required length of passwords as well as remove the mandatory 180-day change requirement. After some new requirements, some work and a few changes in the environment, we decided to hold off making these requirement changes. We will explore this again in the future, but want to let you know the old requirements are still in place and will remain so for the next several months. When we are ready to make this change, we will again make an announcement. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

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:

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 August is closing for all financial reporting activity at noon Tuesday, Sept. 9. Journals not posted at that time will go into September business. Submit August journals before end of business Monday, Sept. 8. Final August reports are scheduled to be available Wednesday Sept. 10. In addition, September reports are scheduled to be available Thursday, Sept. 11. These dates, and other important dates related to the Controller’s Office can be found on the Controller’s Office Calendars and Important Dates webpage.