Northern Illinois University

Steven Kazmierczak wanted infamy. He wanted video-game-style bloodshed. And he wanted to punish Northern Illinois University, the "surrogate family" that had kept his demons at bay but had, he thought, abandoned him, according to a report on the 2008 shooting. In the 18 months leading up to Kazmierczak's lecture hall massacre, his mother died, he lost his job as a corrections officer and he became angry because he thought the university had de-emphasized his graduate program, leading him to transfer to another school, according to the 300-page report released by the university last week.

WE RULE! All together now: Come on you Huskies, Fight you Huskies And win for NIU Or, as fellow Northern Illinois University alumnus Ned Colletti put it Monday morning, "Long overdue. " The Huskies didn't need to change uniform numbers to pull a fast one on the opposition, didn't deflate footballs, or inspire their players by belittling one of the school's sports information directors, as friend Frank Pace pointed out. But here we are in a BCS game, and where are USC and UCLA?

The president of Northern Illinois University, who demoted a faculty adviser to the student newspaper after it published articles critical of him, resigned Thursday. Clyde Wingfield, 55, served 10 months as head of the university. His tenure was marked by the controversal reassigning of faculty adviser Jerry Thompson to the university's public relations office.

Steven Kazmierczak wanted infamy. He wanted video-game-style bloodshed. And he wanted to punish Northern Illinois University, the "surrogate family" that had kept his demons at bay but had, he thought, abandoned him, according to a report on the 2008 shooting. In the 18 months leading up to Kazmierczak's lecture hall massacre, his mother died, he lost his job as a corrections officer and he became angry because he thought the university had de-emphasized his graduate program, leading him to transfer to another school, according to the 300-page report released by the university last week.

Brian Hammel, USC's top assistant basketball coach, is expected to be named coach at Northern Illinois University today. The school has called a news conference. Hammel flew to DeKalb, Ill., on Monday to work out the details of his contract and could not be reached for comment. Hammel will succeed Jim Molinari, who left to become the coach at Bradley University. Molinari, who compiled a 42-17 mark in two seasons, led Northern Illinois to a 25-6 record last season and an NCAA tournament berth.

DeKALB, Ill.--A student trying out for the Northern Illinois University football team died Friday after collapsing during conditioning drills. Jawan Jackson, of the Chicago suburb of Robbins, was running sprints with the football team when he fell to one knee around 6:55 a.m. at the student recreation center. He collapsed while athletic trainers were tending to him and they immediately tried to resuscitate him before calling paramedics.

WE RULE! All together now: Come on you Huskies, Fight you Huskies And win for NIU Or, as fellow Northern Illinois University alumnus Ned Colletti put it Monday morning, "Long overdue. " The Huskies didn't need to change uniform numbers to pull a fast one on the opposition, didn't deflate footballs, or inspire their players by belittling one of the school's sports information directors, as friend Frank Pace pointed out. But here we are in a BCS game, and where are USC and UCLA?

The gunman who killed five students and then himself at Northern Illinois University on Thursday was an award-winning graduate student, described by professors as friendly and respectful. Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, donned a dark coat and black ski cap before he began firing into a crowded lecture hall. But that was an image in sharp contrast to the well-adjusted man who was attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Seeking to bolster its sagging football fortunes, Big West Conference athletic directors Thursday endorsed the addition of four independent schools as associate members. The schools--Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Northern Illinois and Southwestern Louisiana--will compete in football only, beginning in 1993 if the move is approved. Big West athletic directors voted, 6-0, in favor of the move, which will be acted on formally at the conference's annual meetings May 11-15 at Las Vegas.

Brian Hammel, an assistant basketball coach at USC, was named head coach at Northern Illinois.

The recent arrest of a UCLA student in the brutal stabbing of a classmate in a campus chemistry lab has again focused attention on an issue that gripped the nation after the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech: the mental health of troubled college students. The Virginia Tech shootings, which left 32 victims and the gunman dead, raised difficult questions about how a disturbed student could have been allowed to remain at the school despite danger signs. Since then, campuses in California and around the country say they watch their students ever more closely for signs of possible mental illness or other problems.

The gunman who killed five students and then himself at Northern Illinois University on Thursday was an award-winning graduate student, described by professors as friendly and respectful. Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, donned a dark coat and black ski cap before he began firing into a crowded lecture hall. But that was an image in sharp contrast to the well-adjusted man who was attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

DeKALB, Ill.--A student trying out for the Northern Illinois University football team died Friday after collapsing during conditioning drills. Jawan Jackson, of the Chicago suburb of Robbins, was running sprints with the football team when he fell to one knee around 6:55 a.m. at the student recreation center. He collapsed while athletic trainers were tending to him and they immediately tried to resuscitate him before calling paramedics.

Etta Johnson still has the letter, the one written by the baby of her family, little LeShon. He wrote it three years ago, when Etta sometimes couldn't pay the electric bill, or the water bill, or buy enough propane to heat the two-bedroom house in the tiny, no-stoplight town of Haskell, Okla. She was working two jobs at the time, but it never seemed to be enough. "We were like every poor family," she said from her niece's house in Haskell. "We were trying to make ends meet."

Seeking to bolster its sagging football fortunes, Big West Conference athletic directors Thursday endorsed the addition of four independent schools as associate members. The schools--Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Northern Illinois and Southwestern Louisiana--will compete in football only, beginning in 1993 if the move is approved. Big West athletic directors voted, 6-0, in favor of the move, which will be acted on formally at the conference's annual meetings May 11-15 at Las Vegas.

Brian Hammel, an assistant basketball coach at USC, was named head coach at Northern Illinois.

Etta Johnson still has the letter, the one written by the baby of her family, little LeShon. He wrote it three years ago, when Etta sometimes couldn't pay the electric bill, or the water bill, or buy enough propane to heat the two-bedroom house in the tiny, no-stoplight town of Haskell, Okla. She was working two jobs at the time, but it never seemed to be enough. "We were like every poor family," she said from her niece's house in Haskell. "We were trying to make ends meet."

The recent arrest of a UCLA student in the brutal stabbing of a classmate in a campus chemistry lab has again focused attention on an issue that gripped the nation after the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech: the mental health of troubled college students. The Virginia Tech shootings, which left 32 victims and the gunman dead, raised difficult questions about how a disturbed student could have been allowed to remain at the school despite danger signs. Since then, campuses in California and around the country say they watch their students ever more closely for signs of possible mental illness or other problems.

Brian Hammel, USC's top assistant basketball coach, is expected to be named coach at Northern Illinois University today. The school has called a news conference. Hammel flew to DeKalb, Ill., on Monday to work out the details of his contract and could not be reached for comment. Hammel will succeed Jim Molinari, who left to become the coach at Bradley University. Molinari, who compiled a 42-17 mark in two seasons, led Northern Illinois to a 25-6 record last season and an NCAA tournament berth.

The president of Northern Illinois University, who demoted a faculty adviser to the student newspaper after it published articles critical of him, resigned Thursday. Clyde Wingfield, 55, served 10 months as head of the university. His tenure was marked by the controversal reassigning of faculty adviser Jerry Thompson to the university's public relations office.