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Academic Support

Office of Student Affairs

The Office of Student Affairs (x2262) provides programs and services for the benefit of the university's students in all locations and in all academic programs. These "co-curricular" programs complement the academic programs and are designed to promote student development and learning. They also assist students in addressing special needs or difficulties, and they seek to provide an environment that is positive and conducive to learning. The general goal within the Office of Student Affairs is to promote student satisfaction and, consequently, student persistence by attending to students' co-curricular needs and concerns.

National-Louis University believes that student life, academic work, and professional studies are interrelated parts of the university experience. Students are encouraged to develop their skills and themselves as individuals both through the formal academic programs and through the many co-curricular opportunities.

The Office of Student Affairs is headed by the Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students. Staff members of the Office of Student Affairs will be available to assist students. For information, please contact (847) 475-1100 or (800) 443-5522, extension 2418. The fax number for the Office of Student Affairs is (847) 256-1057. Daytime hours are generally 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Evening and weekend hours are available by appointment. Appointments can be arranged at each of the NLU Chicagoland campus locations.

Services available through the Office of Student Affairs include: counseling, advocacy, career development and placement, health services, services for students with special needs, and special events.

Services for Special Needs

National-Louis University continuously seeks to ensure that its programs and services are fully accessible to students who have special needs. The Office of Student Affairs works with students to help them clarify their needs, and assists them in identifying and utilizing appropriate accommodations. This office also provides guidelines for documentation of a disability that may require academic accommodation.

Students may meet with staff members in the Office of Student Affairs in order to utilize most effectively the following services:

• testing accommodations and other services;
• priority registration;
• tutoring and study skills;
• individual and group counseling and support;
• career counseling and job search assistance;
• referral and liaison to state rehabilitation agencies;
• access assistance for mobility impaired students;
• other services and advocacy as needs are identified.

National-Louis University Library collections and services are offered to thousands of NLU students nationwide. Whether students are enrolled in on-campus or off-campus programs, all National-Louis University students have access to the resources of the university library.

The llinois campuses of NLU (Skokie, Chicago, Elgin, Lisle, and Wheeling) have libraries with collections of more than one million books, periodicals, and microforms that support the undergraduate and graduate curricula. ILLINET Online is the University Library's automated card catalog and circulation system. ILLINET Online provides all NLU students access to the materials in the NLU library collection and the collections of 40 plus academic libraries and more than 800 public libraries throughout the state of Illinois. In addition to having book borrowing privileges through the ILLINET Online system, the NLU library will reimburse out-of-state students up to $100 per year for a guest library card at any library in the area.

CD-ROM (compact disc-read only memory) databases support students' library research and information needs. The database available at the campus libraries in Illinois and the academic centers support the curricula at each location. These databases provide indexing and abstracting of journal articles in the subject areas of education, allied health, science, sociology, psychology, management and business, as well as general periodicals and dissertations.

The librarians and staff at the university's Skokie library, support the academic programs by providing database searches, reference assistance, and book and journal article delivery services. Student reference and library information requests are handled through the university's Skokie library that maintains a seven-day-a-week toll free reference hotline (800) 443-5522, extension 2505.

Computer Labs

Computer labs and National-Louis University serve as a focus for making computing resources and services available to students and faculty. They are used by classes requiring computers, academic computing seminars, students and faculty doing class work and for faculty demonstration. Each lab contains 8 to 20 microcomputers, some of which are connected to printers. Other equipment, such as overhead projector computer displays, oversized or color displays, networks, text and graphic scanners, laser printers, CD-ROM and videodisc players and specialized hardware are available in some labs.

• Skokie Campus labs include: one IBM PC lab, an Apple/Macintosh lab, and an Apple lab in the Baker Demonstration School.
• Chicago Campus labs include: one IBM PC lab, an Apple/Macintosh lab in the fifth floor library and a terminal lab for working on the mainframe.
• Elgin and Lisle Campus labs include: one IBM PC lab, an Apple/Macintosh lab and a networked IBM PC lab.
• Wheeling Campus provides networked labs: both IBM PC and Apple/Macintosh.

Each campus has a software library housed in that campus's library resource center. These programs are available for checkout for use within the computer labs by students, or for general (one-week) checkout by faculty. Some programs in the libraries are duplicated on several campuses, and for those which are not there is a procedure for requesting a program to be transferred to another campus on a temporary basis. Each fall the Academic Computing Advisory Committee solicits recommendations from faculty for further software purchases for the software libraries.

Computer services arranges institution-wide site licenses of software. Current site licenses include MicroSoft Office (IBM and Mac), SPSS (IBM), and the MECC collection (Mac). Copies of these programs for on-campus use by faculty and students can be arranged through the library.

The duplication of copyrighted software is a federal offense. National-Louis University employees and students are enjoined to possess and use only legal copies of all software. Call computer services for further information about "software piracy."