In a year that has already brought so much pain and suffering to the American people due to COVID-19, the last thing the country needs is another crisis taking the lives of innocent people. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the U.S. has on its hands....

NIU notified its students on June 23 that vaccines for COVID-19 are mandatory for students to attend in-person classes. However, university employees are not required but are “strongly encouraged” to get vaccinated against COVID-19. While it may initially...

The Northern Star Editorial Board sat down with NIU President Lisa Freeman April 19 to discuss a variety of topics, including what the future looked like for Freeman and NIU in her new contract.  The job of the university is to provide a positive...

Criminal justice reform continues to be a contested issue in the wake of officer Derek Chauvin’s trial following Daunte Wright’s fatal shooting in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Despite these repeated calls for reform, only 46% of Americans think the...

News media continues to move their content online, a place where information is readily available regardless of whether it’s true. In the wake of a digital news era, disbelief and trust in the news have fluctuated. The Northern Star Editorial Board...

The termination of spring break, in exchange for two days off, was not an entire student body decision and has driven students to a new level of burnout out this semester. The Northern Star Editorial Board believes the university needs to incorporate...

 Election Day of the DeKalb consolidated election is April 6, and this year DeKalb has two candidates running for Mayor: Carolyn Morris and Cohen Barnes. With the election less than two weeks away, the Northern Star Editorial Board would like to offer...

On March 8, DeKalb named Illinois State Police Col. David Byrd DeKalb’s police chief, making him the first Black man to ever hold the position in DeKalb’s 135 year-long history.  The Northern Star Editorial Board is excited to see a needed change...

On March 9, 2020, the world as we knew it stopped. This was the date that some say was the official start of the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine. As college students, we have a very unique perspective that no other age group has. We are coming into our...

Once classes resume in-person, the Northern Star Editorial Board thinks students should still be able to attend class virtually if they are unable to attend class in person. We suggest a Zoom or virtual class being set up alongside the regular in-class...

Thursday marked the first of two administrative closure days, but the “break” did not do what the university intended it to do.  The administrative closures were decided at an Oct. 7 University Council meeting.  These dates were Thursday and...

As COVID-19 vaccines roll out in Phase 1B in Illinois, college students wait eagerly for their distribution in Phase 2 to go back to social events and a proper classroom setting. However, speculation continues to interject, and vaccines remain optional,...