DeKALB | James Baratta didn’t know he was being watched every time he walked through King Memorial Commons.

When the senior Spanish and English major found out about the webcam set up by the Office of Registration and Records, Baratta was surprised but didn’t feel violated in any way.

“I didn’t know that NIU had a webcam. I didn’t know I’m being filmed everyday when I walk through campus,” Baratta said, adding that because the camera is on the third floor of Williston Hall, the camera is not really invasive.

“It’s there, and I don’t really do anything inappropriate, so I don’t really care,” Baratta said.

The camera was set up about five years ago when Don Larson, former executive director of enrollment services/registrar, noticed that a number of registration offices at other universities offered a webcam, said Sheri Kallembach, the acting director of the registration office.

“[He] wanted to do the same for Northern Illinois University,” Kallembach said.

“The term ‘webcam’ was searched approximately 2,160 times according to the web camera statistics tool,” Kallembach said. “This indicates that a number of people are looking to see if NIU has a webcam.”

As far as how useful the webcam is, Kallembach, Baratta and James Bollenbach, the head of Media Services all said there are many benefits to the camera.

“People use it to see what the weather in DeKalb is like, to catch a glimpse of what our campus looks like and to communicate with their friends,” Kallembach said. “We had an international grad assistant that had left for a visit back to his home country. At his request, a number of us stood on the [MLK] Commons at a particular time to say ‘hi’ and wave at him and his family.”

Kallembach also noted that the webcam serves potential students by providing them a live-action view of campus.

“Knowing that students and their parents have approximately 3,000 colleges and universities to choose from in their quest for a school to attend, any type of media we can provide them to assist in their decision is a good thing,” Kallembach said.

Bollenbach sees the webcam as a view of DeKalb when one can’t be there in person.

“It seems to me it’s a weather window… anywhere in the world, including my windowless basement office, I have one-click access to the webcam to see if it’s the usual gray Illinois winter day, or [I can] perk up if it’s actually sunny out there,” Bollenbach said.