WELCOME WELCOME to NIU to DeKalb

Welcome, NIU Huskies!

The start of a new academic year is always filled with wonderful new opportunities to connect, learn and grow with one another. Whether you are a longstanding Huskie or new to our family, all of us at NIU are dedicated to helping you have a great experience and achieve your goals.

We have much to look forward to this fall. Our campus and community are united in several initiatives to enhance your time at NIU and in the DeKalb/Sycamore community.

• We have several on-campus and off-campus partnerships designed to help empower you with the skills, networks, experiences and confidence to land strong internships, jobs or entrance into graduate schools. Talk to your advisor and professors about ways you can get involved to enhance your experience.

• This year, we’ll host another memorable Homecoming as we celebrate our 116th anniversary Oct. 8-15, 2023. Planning has been underway for months to deliver exciting events and activities that remind us all why being at NIU and coming home to NIU are reasons for celebration.

• If you’re an entrepreneur or aspire to be one, our NIU College of Law Business Legal Innovation Clinic (BLIC) offers high-quality, transactional legal assistance to entrepreneurs, small business owners and not-for-profit business organizations. The BLIC focuses on providing legal representation and assistance in the key areas of business, especially for underrepresented entrepreneurs. This is one of many examples of high-impact practices offered at NIU that serve to strengthen your student experience as well as our region’s business economic development.

You belong at NIU. NIU and the city of DeKalb have a Belonging Initiative partnership to ensure that everyone in our community feels seen, valued and welcome. This meaningful work is inspiring new collaborations and relationships, sharing important perspectives through exhibits such as Faces of Belonging and strengthening the reasons why people want to live, learn and work here. Our newest exhibit in the Belonging Collaborative will open this fall in Swen Parson Hall – I hope you will check it out!

I’m very proud of NIU and our amazing students, staff and faculty who pursue and share knowledge for society’s benefit. Throughout this year, I encourage you to join us on campus for events and activities to see the breadth and depth of their artistry, expertise and athleticism. Together we will make this academic year one of our very best.

Go Huskies, LISA C. FREEMAN President

Welcome, Huskies! I want to personally welcome every NIU student to DeKalb for the new school year and tell you on behalf of DeKalb how excited we are to have you here.

As a lifelong DeKalb resident and proud NIU alumnus, I can’t wait for you to see some of the cool things that have happened over the summer to make DeKalb even more attractive. When you come downtown, you will find we narrowed the road and widened the sidewalks to make it more pedestrian friendly to navigate and to allow for more outdoor dining and other activities. I encourage you to come downtown to shop, eat, and enjoy a show at our historic Egyptian Theatre.

NIU and the city have also worked on fun things like our Huskie Pride Street Sign program where street signs in the downtown and around campus feature our favorite Huskie. We just finished our Welcome to Huskie Nation murals on Annie Glidden Road, and we will unveil a new Huskie statue in downtown DeKalb during NIU’s Homecoming. Speaking of Homecoming, I am really excited about how together we are planning some pretty incredible homecoming activities this year including the downtown NIU Homecoming Block Party.

This is Huskie country, and it is your town, so come out and explore DeKalb. You’ll find an incredible variety of restaurants providing food from cultures around the globe. You’ll discover unique cultural experiences when attending places like our historic Egyptian Theatre and our Stage Coach Player’s Theatre. You’ll have access to all the major brands for your day-to-day needs, and you’ll be able to attend local festivals like the DeKalb Corn Fest and Music at the Mansion.

I encourage you to spend some time getting to know us. You’ll find a community that welcomes new ideas, embraces innovation and people who are working hard to cocreate an environment where everyone feels that they belong. We’re not perfect, but we’re committed to growing and expanding our understanding and compassion for each other. That is why we value cocreation. It’ll take all of us, working together, to continue to improve DeKalb and this great nation of ours. Forward, together forward.