Students in Northern Illinois University's nature writing class sit in a circle in a bright clearing just beyond the forest.
“We're just looking for something that stands out to you," said English instructor Molly McNett. "You can explain it before you read it, or you can just read.”
One of the students is reluctant to share but does anyway.
“If I lie long enough," they recite, "I can see the ripples of wind waving beyond the canopy of leaves, calling me home."
The students -- some of whom are English majors and some who study environmental science -- just hiked out from a classroom at Lorado Taft, exploring the woods, writing a short piece, and listening.
“I think it's a class in paying attention more than anything else," said McNett. "We also study writing, and we study particular things that are in the books we're reading too, but a lot of it is about paying attention to the natural world.”
This may be the last NIU class to study at the field campus before it closes at the end of the year. Nature Writing is the only for-credit course that has been held at the outdoor campus in nearly two decades. It’s only been offered since 2022, and it’s a special topics course, so it doesn’t run every semester either.
But for the students who have come to Oregon and experienced Lorado Taft, the woods and the views of the Rock River, it leaves its mark on them.
“Just being in nature," said Nicholas Regelbrugge, an English major in the class, "unlocks a part of your writing muse that you just don't know you have until you do it."
The field campus was originally an artist colony back in the early 20th Century, after an artist group discovered it at the Chicago World’s Fair.
Regelbrugge says he feels that creative spirit alive and well in the forest surrounding the campus. He’s only been to Taft a few times, but he says he was devastated when he found out it was closing.
“Honestly, it’s a travesty," he said. "This is a valuable class and, if I could, I would have it offered every semester of every year.”
In the statement announcing its decision, NIU’s Rena Cotsones described Taft as a picturesque facility in dire need of maintenance and repairs too costly to take on.
For the past 25 years, it’s mainly housed camps for kids, which she said has “minimal alignment with NIU’s current mission and goals.”
Shannon Forney is the special events facilitator at Lorado Taft. She says, aside from the camps, they also host many NIU groups -- and there’s another academic program that uses it.
“The PE majors, they come for a weekend in February and they learn how to do all of our classes. Then, a few weeks later, they come back and they actually teach our classes to a couple of schools," said Forney.
NIU’s statement said a majority of Lorado Taft staff will be able to stay on with the university. Forney’s not sure if she wants to stay.
“This is home," she said. "This is home for a lot of people.”
She says not all of the staff received offers they were happy with.
“The thing that got me is the transfers weren't necessarily equitable, but the ones that really, our education staff really got the short end of the stick," said Forney. "There was nothing for them, especially the ones that have been here for 10 years. There was no offer or it was, ‘Oh, by the way, I guess we can put you here.’”
A statement from NIU said the university has worked hard to identify and offer opportunities to eligible staff.
In the final weeks, Forney’s hosting family reunions for old staff and students to come back one more time. They’re also hosting some of their last camps.
“We do a goodbye song for when the kids have their last meal with us," she said, "and I don't know how we made it through that song. It was hard. It was really hard."
There’s an online petition to save the site by handing operations over to the state Department of Natural Resources.
Back at Taft, a small group of McNett’s students makes a whistle out of an acorn cap, while others scribble down notes as they head towards a fallen log.
“You can't do this in a classroom," said McNett. "We're in the subject matter. We're in the field.”
NIU is closing the campus at the end of the year but, for now, the nature writing students are still walking the woods, learning, and paying attention.
