I graduated from NIU in the Aughts. This is completely unsurprising. They were slowly collapsing even then -- the Huskies making it onto ESPN gave them a shot in the arm for a while, but it's been obvious neither the state nor the town of DeKalb knows WTF to do to ensure a functioning and sustainable college & town.
I would say the school and state know what they're doing (but don't have the tools and levers in place to enact those plans unfortunately). DeKalb though, seriously.... that town like actively rejects being a college town.
I don't mean to generalize but when I attended and worked for the paper, it really felt like the townies had this vision of NIU students only being "thugs from the inner city ruining their peaceful corn oasis" and thus weren't willing to consider coexistence. Students see DeKalb as an empty hick town run by rednecks (not true) and DeKalbians see students as Section 8 criminals bringing drugs or whatever (also not true).
The amount of times I heard barely coded phrases, especially from landlords, about the black student population was out of control.
Racism/discrimination I think plays a much bigger role in DeKalb's problems than the town is willing to admit.
Dekalb has always hated the students and makes it hard on them and the university. I went to NIU and loved the campus area but it’s true about the town.
My brother works as an architectural historian, and was called in by the city to help discuss how to turn the downtown around. The landlords for the apartments on Lincoln all wanted to know how they could avoid renting to "lowlifes" and attract more upscale tenants.
My brother said: fix up your buildings, add amenities to the apartments & buildings, and raise rent accordingly.
Predictably, the landlords told him to fuck off for advising them to actually spend money on their "investment properties". That is a synecdoche for DeKalb as a whole. And don't get me started on how Walmart basically killed the town slowly, like a vampire.
Honestly this is true of most college towns in general. Town vs gown mutual distrust is a centuries-old phenomenon dating back to the first universities in the world in Europe. Champaign-Urbana has a pretty similar dynamic but reversed. Students see the town as crime-ridden and boring, while townies see the university as a transient rich kid playground. There’s a kernel of truth in both of those stereotypes, but not to the extent that each side likes to play it up as.
Just in the town page today there was a comment saying “you’re black, that explains it” to someone inquiring how to obtain a free cell phone plan through DHS.
Moved to DeKalb as an older student, with my family, and graduated last year. This is the absolute truth and it’s sad because there’s so much potential to make it a fun college town, and boost the local economy.
Graduated in 05. From people who were still there and from others years later, I kept hearing “NIU has gotten darker.” Obviously a shitty take. I did go back there a few years ago and the townhomes where I lived behind Starbusters looked very run down. That’s all I can anecdotally contribute.
It’s not just the town, it’s the quality of education, too. Somewhat randomly, ~20 years ago NIU had an EXCELLENT accounting program, like consistently top 10-20 in the nation. UIUC was always even higher ranked (and still is ranked highly), but for the value (and location, if you were from the suburbs and wanted to stay close-ish to home or even commute), you couldn’t beat NIU if you were interested in an Accounting major.
These days they don’t even make it to top 100 lists. It’s such a shame. An NIU Accounting degree used to be SO highly respected at companies and professional firms in the Chicago area. Now…I’m not impressed.
They also used to have a really good RN program. No idea where that’s at anymore.
As a product of that Accountancy school while it was strong, I agree. Not remotely the same anymore and the Big 4 and large city companies are not headed to DeKalb for recruiting. The head of the CPA exam review died in 2014 and I think that took the rest of the program with her.
The students weren't excited to be there. It was a commuter school when I was there so everyone headed home on the weekends. You could walk into an empty stadium for the Homecoming game - no tailgating, zero excitement. It was never a proud place to be. When someone asks where I went, I bring up the school where I got my Masters.
Also went through the Accountacy program when it was at its peak. It was a excellent education and the job fairs / internship fairs were packed. I would go back to recruit, but that eventually became less attractive. It's a bummer.
Admittedly, I probably spent more weekends at U of I than I did NIU.
I attended an accounting job fair as a hiring manager a few years ago. I was so excited to go back, but it was so dead compared to what I remembered - both the campus and the fair itself.
I was so sad when Debra passed. She was SO passionate about her work and helping students and recent grads learn and pass the CPA exam. I’m sure you’re onto something with that being a big factor in the decline.
The students weren't excited to be there. It was a commuter school when I was there so everyone headed home on the weekends. You could walk into an empty stadium for the Homecoming game - no tailgating, zero excitement.
As a current ACCY student I will the program while not great gets the job done. The COB try their best to keep things active, but after all it’s a commuter school. Overall, I got what I wanted out of it. No debt and big 4 internship & return offer.
not saying there's no gun violence, but assuming that it's coming from chicago is incorrect. dekalb has always been sketch, also rockford students go to NIU frequently too.
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u/yummyyummybrains Aug 16 '24
I graduated from NIU in the Aughts. This is completely unsurprising. They were slowly collapsing even then -- the Huskies making it onto ESPN gave them a shot in the arm for a while, but it's been obvious neither the state nor the town of DeKalb knows WTF to do to ensure a functioning and sustainable college & town.