Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series featuring a day in the life of NIU President John Peters. Part Two, which focuses on Peters’ afternoon, will run Friday.

NIU President John Peters is a very busy man. Watching over thousands of students on a constant, 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week basis, Peters said there is very little time for a personal life. Peters, however, said he considers his job to be a “luxury.”

Friday, the Northern Star got a glimpse of what it is like to spend a day in the life of President Peters – from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Peters said he usually starts each morning getting up at 6 a.m. and doing about an hour’s worth of work at home. This includes paperwork, reading, writing and checking e-mail to get ready for the day, he said. He arrives at NIU usually around 8 a.m.

A normal workday, which lasts about 18 hours, is usually very demanding. Peters said he needs to “multi-task and pace [himself].”

On average, Peters has about eight appointments per day, with his schedule constantly changing, said Jo Abbott, executive assistant to the president.

Not only does the president have appointments added daily to his schedule, but there are some conferences set on his schedule for four years from now, Abbott said.

On Friday, first on Peters’ agenda was a meeting with Abbott and Thomas Krepel, the new assistant to the president, to discuss the calendar and mail. This occurs every other day, Peters said. There are usually “pounds of mail to go through,” he said.

“Because people don’t know or understand [where particular items go], literally, they send it to the president and then his job is to make sure it finds the right home,” Krepel said.

There are two folders, one green and one light purple, in which mail is placed into two categories, Abbott said. The purple folder is mail that is news and needs to be looked over as soon as possible; the green folder is informational – things that can wait to be looked over, she said.

“I’m very visual and have used green and purple folders [for awhile] – so we stuck with those colors,” Abbott said.

Peters, Krepel and Abbott discussed the mail and calendar around the coffee table in Peters’ office. Peters, who wore a white dress shirt with pen in pocket, a red, white and blue stripped tie and dress pants, did not drink from his coffee cup placed in front of him until his next meeting. Different organizations, events, meetings, certain scholarships, Homecoming events, Student Leadership requests, many requests for Peters to speak at various on and off campus events and more were discussed on the basis of priority, relevance and importance.

The next meeting was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. with Ellen Anderson, director of special events, along with Krepel and Abbott. As in every meeting, before getting down to business, Peters took a few minutes to ask how each person was doing.

Peters took the first sip from his coffee cup around 9:50 a.m. The next meeting, which was scheduled for 10 a.m., began at 10:15 a.m. The meeting was with Provost Ivan Legg and Paul Stoddard, executive secretary of University Council. A meeting with Legg and Stoddard is held each time before University Council meetings to discuss the upcoming agenda, Abbott said.

The next meeting, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. and occurred about 10:50 a.m., was held with Krepel, Anne Kaplan, vice president for Administration and University Outreach and Kathy Buettner, associate vice president and executive director of External Affairs and Economic Development. A Regional Development Partnership Agreement and different policies were discussed during the meeting.

Abbott reminded Peters about his 11 a.m. appointment with Marilyn McConachie, executive assistant to the vice president for Administration and University Outreach. The meeting, held to discuss the P-20 Initiative Review, did not begin until 11:20 a.m.

During the meeting on P-20, Jimmy John’s delivered a submarine sandwich to the president for lunch, which after the meeting, he ate in his office while checking his long list of e-mails. Because of the delay and restricted time limit, Peters had to reschedule his next appointment. The appointment, originally scheduled with Buettner at 11:30 a.m., was rescheduled to take place during his lunch break, around 12:05 p.m.