The Office of the Illinois Secretary of State has gone mobile.

A new mobile unit for driver’s license and license sticker registration and renewal will make two monthly visits – one during the summer session – to NIU through December, said Secretary of State Jesse White during a visit to the campus Monday.

White took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the mobile unit at the Diversions Show Lounge in the Holmes Student Center.

The facility is a partnership with NIU and will provide driver and vehicle services to the campus. People will be able to renew driver’s licenses and state IDs, as well as purchase annual vehicle stickers.

The unit will be unique to NIU, White said.

“Right now, we’re concentrating on this campus,” White said. The program may be expanded to other campuses in the future, he said. Norm Jenkins, assistant director of the Holmes Student Center, is heading NIU’s end of the partnership.

White’s office chose NIU because it has the second-largest enrollment in the state and a bigger population than 52 of the 102 Illinois counties.

White said the unit will be a convenience for NIU faculty and staff members, as well as students who do not have a car.

“It’s easier for you to do it here than go across [the city] to the DeKalb facility,” White said.

White mentioned the success of the Illinois Organ Donor Program and then his own experiences with donation.

“When you can give someone else a second chance in life … you’ve put yourself in a position to become a hero,” White said.

White spoke about his brother, who died after an aneurysm several years ago. Doctors approached his family about organ donation, but he and other members decided to bury him intact.

“I said ‘Don’t bother us,’” White told the audience.

Years later, his sister was in need of a kidney transplant and received one thanks to an organ donor.

“Now she’s alive because of the generosity of someone else,” White said. “We want life to go on.”