News and Events
Express your pride in our students and faculty by showing your support ...
- of the success of our students
- the research they do
- and our accomplished and committed faculty who guide them
Express your pride in our students and faculty this Proud to be NEIU Day by showing your support as we launch our $150,000 campaign to support our students on the CUSP of success.
The CAS Undergraduate Scholars Program (CUSP) supports student research opportunities we know prepare our students for success after graduation.
FROM THE DEAN
Greetings, College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) community!
Welcome — or welcome back — to another academic year and another year of our CAS Connections newsletter. We love trying to do our best to keep our alumni, students, staff, faculty and friends up to speed on all that’s going on in the vibrant and active CAS. We can’t keep up, really, because the CAS is a hive of activity, but we hope to give you highlights — and we always welcome your input and ideas on what to feature.
If you don’t know me, I’m Tim Libretti. I serve currently as the Interim Dean alongside my good colleagues, Acting Associate Deans Ken Voglesonger and Amanda Dykema-Engblade. We are happy to be heading up the CAS for another year and anticipate a productive and creative year under the leadership of our new president (former CAS Dean) Katrina Bell-Jordan. Having served at NEIU for more than 28 years, she leads us with a deep understanding and care for our institution.
Ken, Amanda, and I meet this year with optimism, as we had a great summer meeting first-year and transfer students at orientations and sharing with them all the opportunities the CAS makes available to them. We are excited about all that this bright incoming group of students can and will accomplish at NEIU and beyond.
NEIU graduates bring so much to the world, and we know NEIU provides opportunities for students to access college in ways they might not otherwise be able to. It would be a great loss if NEIU and public higher education in general did not make a college education available to them. We all gain when we educate our students, which is why I typically find the question, "Is a college education worth it?" rather puzzling. The impulse behind this question is to doubt whether an individual will benefit financially from a college degree and tends not to wonder about the social benefit of making higher education available to all people.
We as a nation need to make higher education accessible and affordable for all who want it. We can’t afford to neglect developing our collective talents and abilities in the way college allows. As a society, we need people educated in STEM to tackle some of our most pressing problems. We need people learned in the social and behavioral sciences to understand how we function as human beings. We need people educated in the humanities who have a deep understanding of the range of human experiences. We need people learned in the fine arts to develop the aesthetic dimensions of our lives and worlds and to help us develop our creative outlets.
You may be attending Northeastern to develop your skills and abilities to build a better life for yourself, but you are also fulfilling a public good and helping meet a social need. We the people, through our government, invest in public higher education because we need you to learn all that we have to offer here so you can help our world run, do the vital work of the world to meet our collective human needs, and address our social challenges. We depend on each other; we depend on you. But no pressure ...
Our world especially needs the Northeastern student. The insights and experiences of our diverse student body brings a special vision to go along with the knowledge you are learning and producing. So many of our students come from marginalized populations that haven’t had sufficient opportunity to contribute to shaping our world and offering insights to make our world more humane, equitable, and just. You, the Northeastern student, do that. You bring it to the world. And we need you to do that.
All that I’ve written here is part of the reason we’re so excited to welcome our new students and welcome back our returning students. As we say at NEIU, our mission is you. And, really, our mission is all of us — and it starts with you.
So, welcome back to another year of meaningful and hopefully inspiring work to all in our community —students, staff and faculty. And to our alumni, always come back and join us, stay in touch, and let us know how you want to be involved in our mission and, of course, how we can continue to best serve you!
All the best,
Tim Libretti
Interim Dean
College of Arts and Sciences
Argonne Scientists Partner with Chicago Community Organizations to Track Climate Change Impacts
The first CROCUS meteorological station was recently installed on a rooftop at Northeastern Illinois University, where students will be actively working on the project. View the WTTW News story.
Peace Corps Prep Program
Northeastern Illinois University is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Peace Corps to bring the Peace Corps Prep (PC Prep) program to the University.
Beginning in Fall 2023, all undergraduate students will have the opportunity to earn a certificate from the Peace Corps in one of the Peace Corps’ six sectors: education, health, environment, agriculture, community economic development and youth development.
For more information about the program, please visit the PC Prep web page or contact Northeastern’s PC Prep Program Coordinator Dr. Denise Cloonan Cortez de Andersen at peacecorpsprep@neiu.edu.
The Physics of Kayaking: Where Professor Greg Anderson’s Passions Meet
Professor and Chair of Physics Dr. Greg Anderson, in addition to being an accomplished physicist, is also a skilled kayaker. These two passions intersect and feed each other in fascinating ways. Recently Dr. Anderson was featured in Kinute magazine, where you can read about the confluence of physics, kayaking and teaching in his mind and experience, as well as his adventures on the sea confronting meat-eating eating mammals and more.
