In the movie "Spider-Man," Tobey Maguire’s character is told, "With great power comes great responsibility." The quote has since become a catch phrase for managerial training sessions. It is cliche. It is predictable. It is tired. Above all, it is right....

Well, the totals are in, and the NIU student population should be ashamed of itself. In one day of donations, the Northern Star collected $1,307 in donations for its Hurricane Katrina relief effort. A decent number, but pitiful with respect to our goal...

Terrible disasters such as Hurricane Katrina bring out the best in Americans, but also, sometimes, the worst. As New Orleans lays in ruins, flooded, with thousands of citizens sent to an early grave, the Philadelphia-based Christian group Repent America...

Members of the media take for granted that people not in information-gathering fields understand how decisions regarding "news" are made. Print journalists, as well as television and radio broadcasters, can have an almost arrogant demeanor when asked...

The Fox News Channel should change its slogan to "We report, we decide." Why, you ask? Fox is fair and balanced, you say. This is simply not the case and the Northern Star doesn’t need any liberal media watchdogs to realize it. On Aug. 7, a Fox News...

NIU’s Campus Parking Services Committee has yet again written another chapter in its legacy of cutting parking opportunities across campus with little effort to find alternatives. The committee recently removed 156 metered spots in an effort to ease...

A newspaper staff’s worst nightmare has come true for the Daily Egyptian, Southern Illinois University’s student newspaper. The paper last week acknowledged that it had been the victim of an elaborate hoax. In the Egyptian’s admission of fault,...

It’s great to see NIU taking a step forward with new energy sources and technology. With so much talk recently about how the budget of our beloved academic institution has fallen into the proverbial gutter, it’s a welcomed site to see a huge stride...

Members of NIU’s Greek organizations should be commended for their ingenuity in obtaining new recruits. At a school which already sees a low turnout for Greek houses, self-promotion in the Greek community should be top priority for members if the system...

Journalism is a profession which requires public trust. Without trust, journalists, including those of us at the Northern Star, will quickly become homeless. In America, freedom of the press has allowed journalism to act as the so-called Fourth Estate,...

A newspaper’s job is to reflect the community it covers. But based on some events in DeKalb the last few days, anyone in his or her right mind would deem this an embarrassing community. More than 60 drinking fines were issued in one weekend. Couple...

For all you freshmen and transfer students out there, you’re entering NIU in an exciting, progressive time not just for the university but for the Northern Star. And for the returning scholars, we hope this year’s Star surpasses and obliterates all...