Pass: Library loans ease book costs

The textbook industry is outrageously expensive for students.

Last year, “College students estimate they [spent] $662 annually on required course materials,” according to a July 2013 news release from the National Association of College Stores. The NIU library does a wonderful job of alleviating these prices.

If the NIU library doesn’t have a book I need, I submit a request from surrounding libraries and the book arrives through the Founders Memorial Library’s interlibrary loan program. You get your book by showing your OneCard to the desk’s staff.

All students are eligible to use the program by creating an account on the library’s website with a Z-ID.

Fail: Stay in DeKalb over the weekend

This is the period when the majority of students begin leaving campus during the weekends.

NIU can only do so much to promote involvement; it’s up to students to take the initiative to get outside of their comfort zones. With Chicago and its suburbs so close — making it easy for everyone to catch a ride to home-cooked meals and old friends — students don’t see the effects from their departures and how this unofficially labels NIU as a suitcase campus.

Jobs become difficult to find when a large sum of DeKalb’s population vanish each weekend, decreasing the demand for businesses and services. Every Friday night, DeKalb’s economy is temporarily choked and gasps for air once students return Sunday.

Sometimes it’s difficult to give up comfortable routines, but you’re not learning anything by taking weekly holidays away from your university. This is the time to act and have new experiences. Don’t waste it by going home.