Often I write columns about world issues, politics or something else that you might hear about on CNN. While these issues are important, they are very big. What I mean by this is that unless you are a U.S. senator or a CEO of a large corporation, there...

Laugh tracks need to be done away with. They are obnoxious, annoying and if you need to be told where the punchline of a joke was, then it was a bad joke. However, there is a scientific purpose for using them. Those in communication studies refer to it...

While readying myself for my upcoming graduation, I can look back on my four years at NIU as a satisfying experience overall. All of the clubs and opportunities I had wanted were available to me, with maybe the exception of a Beard Appreciation Club.But...

Within the past two years, there have been two high-profile gun incidents in DeKalb involving members of NIU's Greek community. On Feb. 19, 2010, NIU student Zachary Isaacman shot another student, Brian Mulder, outside of Stevenson Towers. At the time,...

At the risk of coming off as a self-indulgent, student newspaper editor suffering from delusions of grandeur, I would like to use my last column to talk about the importance of newspapers in general, as well as the Northern Star in particular. Before...

Over the past four years, NIU and the surrounding DeKalb community has reported six murders, over 30 aggravated assault charges and over 120 reports of burglary, according to the office of postsecondary education. NIU also recently ranked number 10 out...

Everyone says they care; now NIU is proving it. On Saturday, NIU will hold its fifth annual NIU Cares Day, which is a campus-wide day of community service. The goal is to bring students, faculty and staff together to complete service projects in the county...

Living in DeKalb makes you feel like the wimpy kid at school. You try to live your life, go to school and play with your friends, but like clockwork, the bullies find you and take your lunch money. Many people think that the big bully in DeKalb County...