“Star Trek” has popularized the idea that space is the “final frontier” for human expansion, and people like Elon Musk aim to make this a reality. Yet human colonists on other planets will still need to learn, and we already have the means for...

On All Hallows’ Eve, the goblins come to play! The Northern Star is excited to announce it is holding a Halloween costume contest to celebrate the finale of spooky season on campus.  The contest opens for submissions Oct. 23 and closes Oct. 29...

When I first moved to Illinois my first year at NIU, I struggled painfully with homesickness. And like the tiny, acrobatic superheroes they are, campus squirrels helped me cope. I’m hoping they’ll help me face a different challenge this semester.  As...

My parents owned two cats before I was born. Their names were Baby and Jeong. They lived long enough for me to remember them, but not long enough to love them. Love for my cats would be learned later in life. I remember little of Baby, but Jeong, our...

El Mes de la Herencia Hispana es más que un recordatorio de la contribución que la inmigración hispana le ha dado a Estados Unidos desde el siglo XX. Es una forma de conmemorar los sacrificios que muchas personas han tenido que hacer por el bienestar...

The Northern Star wants to thank the Baustert Family Foundation for their recent historic $40 million donation for the Health and Technology Center.  This generous gift not only shows the Foundation’s commitment to advancing healthcare technology...

In the late night of Sept. 26, Hurricane Helene made landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast, devastating the region with damages ranging in the hundreds of millions of dollars and fatalities reaching upwards of 227.  Only two weeks later, just as recovery...

Violence is a spectacle. From the ages of gladiatorial combat to the days of schoolyard brawls, the human mind has been fascinated with displays of raw physicality, unleashed in unpleasant ways. It’s a sick part of ourselves we’d rather not own up...

North Dakota is experiencing devastating wildfires which have already caused the evacuations of more than 100 people and two fatalities. It should be painfully obvious how necessary strong climate policy will be in the upcoming presidential election.  Powerful...

As the cold weather settles in, it's hard to ignore the increasing number of sniffles emerging in the classroom. For students living in residence halls and attending crowded classes, the close environment at NIU can make it all too easy for a common cold...

TRIGGER WARNING: This story and its sources include some graphic discussion of sexual assault. Juvenile detention centers across the state are facing lawsuits for decades of sexual abuse. We need to talk about it. Illinois is one of multiple states...

LIFE IN SPACE IS NOT PROBABLE  By: Santiago Montañez Bertoletti, Opinion Columnist While it is undeniable that life in space is a fact that we will find out about sooner or later, because of the nature of the universe, this discovery is far from...