It’s inauguration week at Northern Illinois University. Doug Baker will be welcomed as NIU’s 12th president in ceremonies throughout the week…even though he’s held the position for more than four months now.
President Baker says his inauguration is about celebrating everything that’s been going on at the university since he started in July: he says it all feeds into his true focus, career success for students.
We’ve made a number of structural reorganizations, trying to make the organization more efficient and transparent, creating a chief financial officer position so we can have clear and transparent budgets allocated to our highest needs.
NIU’s first lady Dana Stover is also celebrating her first four months. She says she considered re-starting her academic career in the school of business, but is glad she didn’t: she’s spending all of her time working with students, including developing a special initiative:
I have a special affinity for the sophomore class. It’s sometimes the forgotten middle child in the four year sequence of undergraduate years.
Inauguration festivities get underway tonight with an NIU Percussion Ensemble concert. The inaugural ceremony takes place Wednesday afternoon at 3:00, leading up to a rare Wednesday night Huskies football game at 7.
