Pass:

The Student Association has been active in lobbying for a state budget which shows a great deal of leadership.

It was a great action to deliver roughly 20,000 letters and postcards to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office in order to make it clear that the students of NIU and the area of DeKalb will be heard. I would also encourage students to flood the Rauner’s office with phone calls in addition to letters. I am glad NIU has an active Student Association that cares about the issues. I am also proud of my community for writing so many letters and it is inspiring to know that the SA will not give up and plans on delivering more letters soon.

Fail:

High winds blew through DeKalb on Friday and knocked out power at schools in the DeKalb area, including NIU, but the university failed to notify students and delayed in resolving the issue.

NIU remained open though I noticed there were no lights on in Reavis and DuSable Hall which also explains why there were issues with the Wi-Fi in these building as well. The power outages also caused emergency tornado sirens to activate even though there was no real emergency. When the power goes out and sirens begin to sound, it is understandable that students would be concerned or nervous. A way to calm these nerves would have been for the university to send out a communication to students and faculty to let them know the wind had caused all these problems.

No mass communication was sent out by the university about the power outages or sirens. In situations like these, the university should be in communication with the students to let them know they are safe.