Students don’t have to attend NIU’s main DeKalb campus in order to graduate. NIU offers opportunities to take classes at three outreach centers in Rockford, Naperville and Hoffman Estates.

More than 400 courses were offered at the centers last year, said Kathleen Gilmer, director of NIU outreach centers at Hoffman Estates.

While Gilmer did not know the exact number of students enrolled, she said there were almost 8,000 course enrollments at the three locations combined.

The major difference between the outreach centers and NIU’s main campus is that there are no residence halls, said John Lewis, the associate vice president of the university outreach centers. Unlike the DeKalb campus, the centers are just stand-alone educational facilities where classes are offered, he said.

While the outreach centers do not offer as many courses as the DeKalb campus, they can be more convenient for some students.

“Finding the hour and a half or so to drive to classes in DeKalb is asking a lot, so the part-time evening classes make it easier to earn graduate degrees,” Lewis said.

The courses the outreach centers offer are mainly evening classes for working adults, so it’s a different audience, said Linda Traff, director of NIU-Rockford.

“These centers increase NIU enrollment and provide classes for people that would otherwise not be able to attend classes in DeKalb,” Traff said.

The outreach centers do have a few drawbacks. Gilmer said many of the offices that provide services to students, such as the bursar and financial aid offices, are only at NIU’s DeKalb campus.

However, she said the outreach centers do provide some academic advising.

Although the outreach centers are different from the DeKalb campus in some ways, there are some similarities between the main campus and the outreach centers.

“The quality of the courses and the professors are the same wherever you decide to attend NIU,” Gilmer said.

She said students graduate with a diploma from NIU no matter where they attend.

Lewis said the centers are looking to grow and reach more students.

“The College of Business recently started offering daytime classes [at the centers],” Traff said.

In the summer, they are also starting to have educational classes to accommodate teachers who have more free time in those months, Traff said.