News
Monday, February 1, 2016
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Applicants wanted for SA student task force
Local high schools raise $70K during First National Challenge
Alexander Chettiath News Editor
Atlee Hargis | Northern Star
DeKalb Barbs Forward A’Jah Davis wins the tip-off to signal the beginning of the 2016 First National Challenge between DeKalb and Sycamore high schools Friday at the Convocation Center. The First National Challenge, formerly known as the Castle Challenge, drew in a crowd of more than 4,000. The event has been raising money for the two high schools for the last 16 years. Tim Struthers, First National Bank Illinois Market president, presented the schools with a check for $70,000 during the event. The girl’s varsity basketball teams played first with the Sycamore Spartans coming out on top in a 41-32 win over the DeKalb Barbs. The DeKalb boy’s varsity team evened the score with a 51-33 win over Sycamore.
DeKalb | The Student Association is currently accepting applications for positions on a program prioritization student task force. Program prioritization, which began in 2014 after a recommendation from the Higher Learning Commission, uses task forces to create reports that review 223 academic programs and 236 administrative programs to influence the allocation of university funds, according to the program prioritization website. Program reports were completed on Dec. 11, and the task forces are currently meeting, privately, every Friday to grade the programs. The program reports must be graded by April 30, according to a Jan. 18 Northern Star article. Once the reports are graded by the academic and administrative task forces, the program prioritization student task force will review them with the potential to make changes, said SA Senate Speaker Dillon Domke at a SA Senate meeting Sunday.
DeKalb falls short of projected $1M from IHSA championships “ IHSA Football Championships
Alexander Chettiath News Editor
DeKalb | By hosting the Illinois High School Association football state championships, $800,000 has been pumped into DeKalb County’s economy, $200,000 less than what was projected. The IHSA football championships, played on Nov. 27 and 28, consisted of the top 16 teams in the state battling for eight class championships on the turf of Huskie Stadium. The event was hosted by the DeKalb County Convention and Visitors Bureau, according to the IHSA Destination DeKalb website.
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An event like this is an amazing recruitment opportunity for [NIU], because we have so many generations there ... .” Debbie Armstrong DeKalb County Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director
“We feel confident that the economic impact from the weekend was at least $800,000 based on the data we gathered and estimates that the Illinois Office of Tourism has provided to help gauge the economic impact of sporting events,” said Debbie Armstrong, executive director of the DeKalb County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “That includes indirect and direct spending on hotels, food, gas, facility rental, tent suppliers, catering and other services provided by people taking part in or attending the event.” Ticket sales, for the weekend,
515
30,000 30,000
14 14
$1,000,000 $1,000,000
14 14
IHSA Football Championships $800,000 $800,000
22,319 22,319
1,000,000 800,000 475 475
30,000 22,319
Tickets Sold
Revenue TicketsRevenue Sold Revenue
475 515
14 14
Hotel Rooms Booked Rooms Booked Hotels Private Booked Caterings
Private Caterings Nick Bosshart | Northern Star
The IHSA football championships’ economic impact on 2013 DeKalb 2015 was $800,000, which is $200,000 less than what was projected. The money came from indirect and direct spending on hotels, food, gas, facility rental, tent suppliers, catering and other services provided by people attending the event, said Debbie Armstrong, executive director of the DeKalb County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
were down to 22,319 from the record breaking 30,000 in 2013, most likely due to the weather on Nov. 28, said NIU spokesperson Brad Hoey. Also contributing to the decrease in ticket sales from 2013, was the decrease in the participation of schools near DeKalb including Batavia High School, who lost in the 7A quarterfinals, Armstrong said. “When Batavia came in and when they came out we had traffic jams not only on the streets, but we had people jams throughout the Spirit Zone because they brought a lot of people,” Armstrong said. The Spirit Zone featured a tent for each individual school to host tailgate parties before and after the game, according to the IHSA Destination DeKalb website. Although ticket sales were down,
revenue remains consistent with 2013 because of increased promotions in restaurants and grocery stores, and hotels seeing a boost in room bookings with a total of 515 in the DeKalb County area compared to 475 in 2013, Armstrong said. DeKalb also saw increased exposure with 262 million media impressions and Sports Illustrated coverage due to the first Chicago school playing in a state championship, Armstrong said. “We did a lot of the same things because they worked, we went out and spoke to service clubs, we spoke to booster clubs, we have the IHSA Destination Dekalb website and a Facebook page, we promoted at all sorts of events leading up,” Armstrong said. “We did a lot of the same things and just branched out
and started earlier.” DeKalb County Convention and Visitors Bureau has started looking to 2017, when DeKalb will host next, and hopes to improve by beginning promoting sooner, improving transportation, relocating the tailgating area closer to the stadium and investing in straw for wet weather, Armstrong said. “An event like this is an amazing recruitment opportunity for [NIU], because we have so many generations there,” Armstrong said. “We have everybody from 16 different high schools from all across Illinois and we have grandmas and grandpas, aunt and uncles, mom and dads, who get to see out first class facilities. It’s an excellent opportunity for [NIU] to showcase what we have here.”
This is one of the most important processes that the university has gone through in near past. This isn’t something that will be one meeting and done. It’s going to be intense but very valuable.” Dillon Domke SA Senate Speaker
“We can actually say that we think this program or this department should be ranked here, so were going to have pretty good power with this,” Domke said. The amount of members on the task force has yet to be determined but SA hopes to have younger senators on this task force to see it through next year, Domke said. “This is one of the most important processes that the university has gone through in near past,” Domke said. “This isn’t something that will be one meeting and done. It’s going to be intense but very valuable.” There is no deadline for the applications but SA hopes to start reviewing applications within the next two weeks, Domke said. Senator at large Moriah Tyler, junior political science major, was voted into the position of senator at large during the SA Senate meeting Sunday. Tyler is a member of the Prelaw Honors Society. “I know you all represent the students and I also want to represent the students,” Tyler said. “What I want to accomplish as a senator is making sure that the student body at NIU gets heard.” Tyler said she would like to address student parking.