Warning to students considering Northern Illinois University

parrol
Sat, 10 Nov 2012 10:51:36 +0000

I am a recent alumnus of Northern Illinois University, NIU, and would like to warn people about how I am being treated by faculty members now that I have graduated. I am a graduate of NIU and earned a both a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering and a bachelor’s degree in Steelpan Construction and Production. My steelpan degree was a contract degree, which means that this program is not generally offered but I proved there to be sufficient coursework to support the program. I spent six years at that school and was involved with the steelpan program for all six years. I started in their beginner band, moved into the large band, and finally became a steelpan major. During this time I also studied building and tuning, which eventually became my primary focus for my last two years at NIU.

Before graduating I approached the head faculty member of the steelpan program at NIU about pursuing graduate degree in steelpan at NIU. He said I was more than welcome to do so, but that there would be no financial assistance given to me because of my ethnicity. This was enough reason for me to stop considering pursuing further education at NIU.

Since I have graduated, I have started up multiple community music groups for the steelpan along with an international store specializing in the instrument. For over a year now, I have been receiving calls and messages from customers, colleagues, and friends saying that a “teacher” at NIU talked to them and said that I am a bad person and to not work with me. This person developed a hatred towards me before I even left NIU and, although he was my main “teacher,” he stopped instructing me for the the majority of the last year that I was a student. Apparently, he has since made it his goal to denigrate my accomplishments to anybody that will listen. I am currently planning one of the world’s largest education-based steelpan festivals and this NIU faculty member has gone so far as to personally call people to slander my name in an attempt to ruin my reputation. Luckily, there have been a few people that have dealt with me directly and realize what they are trying to do. Unfortunately, for every 1 person that realizes these accusations are false, there are probably 5 that don’t. I have brought this to the attention of the Dean of the college multiple times for over a year and nothing has been done to remedy this. Instead, I was given a cease and desist letter stating that I cannot tell people what I did while at NIU. Apparently, if you go to NIU, you can’t tell anybody you went to NIU.

Although I wouldn’t recommend my worst enemy attend NIU for their music program, I cannot say anything bad about the engineering department. They have always been very helpful and supportive.

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