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Monday, July 25, 2016
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NIU crochets for homeless Leah Nicolini Staff writer
DeKalb | Stacy Morse knows how it feels to live without a home. She was forced to experience homelessness in 2007 when her house caught on fire and she had to live in a hotel. Nine years later, Morse, administrative assistant for the College of Health and Human Sciences and crochet instructor, began to crochet mats for the homeless to give back to the community.
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Stacy Morse Administrative Assistant College of Health and Human Sciences
Leah Nicolini | Northern Star
NIU Police Dispatchers Lisa Nelson (left) and Cindy Carlson bag up their mat before heading into their 2 to 10 p.m. shift in the Department of Police and Public Safety, at noon on Thursday in the Holmes Student Center, Room 506. Each mat takes about 35 hours to make and is composed of approximately 1,000 plastic bags crocheted together, Stacy Morse, administrative assistant for the College of Health and Human Sciences and crochet instructor said.
The impasse resulted from state lawmakers’ lack of agreement with Gov. Bruce Rauner on a budget for Fiscal Year 2016. Until the budget was passed, state budget appropriations could not be disbursed, including funding for higher education and MAP grants. Baker said most public universities credited students for MAP grants in fall 2015. Funding for fall 2015 MAP grants was not allocated until stop-gap appropriations were made in April. The commission estimates how much can be awarded in MAP grants based on the prior year’s
DeKalb | Lisa Freeman, executive vice-president and provost, is drafting a roughly 400-page unified action plan to address themes in action plans like more interdisciplinary opportunities for students. The review and unification of these action plans are steps in the program prioritization process, which began in 2014, and uses task forces to create reports that review 223 academic programs and 236 administrative programs to influence the allocation of university funds. The reports were based on narratives submitted by program leaders in November. “Students want to be able to tackle important problems with information that they would get from different disciplines,” Freeman said. Freeman said a significant number of submitted action plans did not require additional funding, but rather utilized existing resources. Those that did require additional funding will be worked into the multi-year budget plan.
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Students want to be able to tackle important problems with information that they would get from different disciplines.” Lisa Freeman Provost
Leah Nicolini | Northern Star
Leah Nicolini | Northern Star
NIU Police Dispatcher Cindy Carlson laughs as she poses with “Scarfcrow” at noon on Thursday in the Holmes Student Center, Room 506.
The “Scarfcrow” is located in the lobby of the Department of Police and Public Safety. Carlson and Nelson set a goal of making one mat per week.
Stacy Morse, administrative assistant for the College of Health and Human Sciences and crochet instructor, holds up a strand of plastic used to make the mats for homeless people at noon on Thursday in the Holmes Student Center, Room 506. Four sessions and 30 crafters later, the group has made four mats.
Morse said the group has made four mats so far. The mats will go to the NIU Police Department, DeKalb Police Department, Hope Haven and any
other organization that expresses interest in the mats. Email Roesner at proesner@niu. edu to inquire about the mats or upcoming events.
NIU will credit MAP without state budget MAP | From Page 1
Freeman to fulfill requests Madison Kacer News Editor
You see these plastic bags at Walmart, and it’s cool to see what could happen to them.”
Eight more NIU community members joined Morse at noon on Thursday to crochet these mats among other items for the homeless in the Holmes Student Center, Room 506. The mats are about six feet long and are made of cut up strands of approximately 1,000 plastic bags crocheted together. One mat take about 35 hours to make, Morse said. Morse first implemented the crafting of these mats in summer camps. This summer, she hosted four sessions on campus where more than 30 community members came to crochet or knit items for donation. Pam Roesner, Human Resource Services administrative aid, helped organize the event. “You see these plastic bags at Walmart and it’s cool to see what could happen to them,” Morse said. NIU Police Dispatchers Lisa Nelson and Cindy Carlson collaborated with Morse, bringing with them “Scarfcrow”. The idea behind “Scarfcrow” was started in December by the two dispatchers when they began to knit winter accessories for anyone in need of them during their “quiet” night shift. About ten students were able to keep warm due to these free items, so Carlson and Nelson decided to keep knitting and crocheting their leftover yarn.
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state appropriations. This is because state appropriations have not typically been made at the time students receive the grants.
Commission’s website. “We try to estimate conservatively because we want to make sure that the appropriations will cover all of the awards that we make,” Baker said. Certainly we have heard Phillips said this month that elected officials discuss he also predicts sufficient fundhow they do want to ing of MAP grants will be allosupport MAP, but as of cated for the upcoming school right now, there is no MAP year. However, in the case that funding.” funding for MAP grants is seDoug Baker verely cut for fiscal year 2017, NIU President NIU has not yet established a plan regarding the students’ Students are notified grant credited accounts, Phillips said amounts are subject to change this month. based on the amounts allo“Were that the case, that would cated by the state, according to be something that we would deal the Illinois Student Assistance with next spring and determine
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Financial Aid
The Student Financial Aid Office assists students with types of financial aid like: • Grants • Scholarships/Waivers • Loans • Federal Work-Study To make an appointment with the Financial Aid Office, call 815-7531395 or email finaid@niu.edu. Go to studentaid.ed.gov/ for information on federal financial aid programs. how we would really handle that,” Phillips said this month.
Some action plans proposed opportunities to raise funds for academic initiatives. Freeman organized these suggestions, along with other information, into a number of tables within the unified plan. The action plan will affect the priorities for hiring faculty and staff positions due to a number of personnel requests that were submitted during the program prioritization process. Freeman said routine actions, such as the phase out or introduction of a course, already commonly occur at the university, so these actions will likely require less planning. “We add programs and delete programs all of the time,” Freeman said. “Something like that can move forward, in most cases, without a lot of additional discussion.” Significant actions will require more planning. Planning may include the creation of a timeline, research about necessary resources and a higher volume of meetings, Freeman said. Freeman, along with the other members of President Doug Baker’s cabinet, are now focusing on discussing the unified action plan during their regularly scheduled cabinet meetings. The first meeting focused on this was held last Wednesday. “It’s been so exciting because everybody took the responsibility of responding not only to the task force recommendations, but to the feedback received from the students and community,” Freeman said. “The quality of what was submitted to me was wonderful.” Go to bit.ly/1KNCElV for more information about the process.