Walking onto campus may be scary and challenging for any student, but NIU has implemented many residence hall programs to help with the transition.

Residential academic floors and residential academic houses link students with numerous resources inside and outside of campus.

Junior meteorology major Mark Gottlieb is a member of the honors house.

“What I like best about the honors program is it provides opportunities to network with other departmental contacts,” Gottlieb said.

Community advisers also see the academic residential programs as important to a student’s campus life.

Ryan Ams, a junior meteorology major and a community adviser for the honors house, commented on how help is everywhere.

“If you have a hard time with a subject there is someone on the floor that specializes in that subject,” he said.

Freshmen Interest Groups, geared toward integrating freshmen into the college experience, combine two core classes, the University 101 class and living together on the same floor.

Freshman Kiki Holt enjoys the program.

“The teachers are great. Especially Mr. Ian Borton, who disguised himself as a student the first day of classes,” Holt said.

President of the Residence Hall Association, Alex Underwood, sees the academic floors as a “great thing because it ties classes to where you’re living while getting to know different types of people.”

One of the newest houses in the residential program is the Fine Arts House. The program began last year and includes two all male and four all female floors. Community advisers were chosen from a wide range of people for this “awesome job,” senior art education major Colleen Kerrigan explained.

Kerrigan added that the importance of this program is demonstrated in the ability “to get a lot of contacts which is important in getting a job.”

Other programs include the tech house, the health, family and service house, business floors, hearing impaired floors and the international house.

Jason Robinson, a senior computer science major and community advisor, summed up the goals of the program: “More than anything it gives you a first hand glimpse of what you are getting into.”