The president of Northern Illinois University announced today that the school no longer plans to demolish Cole Hall. In a letter to students, John G. Peters wrote, "In ratios ranging from 3-to-1 to 4-to-1, our campus community asked that Cole Hall remain standing, but that it not be used for instructional purposes in its current configuration." NIU is now conducting a survey of what should be done with the first floor space--renovate both auditoriums......

Last week's announced plan from Governor Blagojevich to tear down Cole Hall has been met with great backlash amongst state lawmakers, NIU staff and students. An email sent yesterday from Northern Illinois University President John Peters to students and faculty put a hold on the Governor’s plan and called for campus-wide discourse regarding the fate of the 40-year-old building. Peters said the future of Cole Hall should “represent a consensus opinion” of the university......

Governor Blagojevich will announce at a news conference this afternoon that NIU is going to demolish Cole Hall, the building where the February 14th deadly shooting spree took place. Cole Hall will be closed for the rest of the semester and will be knocked down this spring, with construction on the new Memorial Hall to be completed by the 2010 school year. [Northern Star, Trib]......

NIU classes resumed today after a vigil last night drew 10,000 people from the university and beyond, including Governor Blagojevich, Senators Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, and secretary of the department of health and human services Michael Leavitt. Eddie Williams, NIU's executive vice president of finance and facilities, said at last night's service, "We will not let darkness alter or extinguish our light. Forward, together forward, our light will shine forever more." "Forward, together forward,"......

Photo by Kapgar More disturbing details are emerging today about Steve Kazmierczak: Police are saying that he tried to cover his tracks before the shooting spree. He removed the hard drive from his computer and took the SIM card out of his phone. And apparently the account his girlfriend gave CNN yesterday doesn't match with what she told the police. [NIU Police Chief] Grady said police still had hundreds of people to interview and......

It was pretty much inevitable that discussions about the NIU shooting would turn to gun control. And turn they have. A group of NIU parents are calling for tighter gun control laws, as is Rep Edward Acevedo (D-Chicago). Mayor Daley asked "Why do we love guns in America?," and Neil Steinberg complains that "the prospect of any kind of meaningful gun control in this country is as impossible a dream as perpetual motion." There's a......

AP Photo The Chicago Blackhawks honored the NIU victims last night with above decal, which they'll wear on their helmets again tomorrow night in St. Louis and Wednesday night here against Minnesota. And Ozzie Guillen and co. were wearing NIU hats at spring training. [Blackhawks, Uniwatch] Jessica Baty, Steve Kazmierczak's girlfriend, gave an interview to CNN in which she describes him as a nice, sweet guy. She says he was on Prozac to treat......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Art Gabriel Mejia was born in the Chicago area and received his undergraduate degree from Northern Illinois University. Gabriel teaches art at Jones College Prep and says of his art, "I am interested in documenting, through painting and drawing, specific moments in time captured through candid photographs of people that I know very well." He'll......

This is the first photo emerging of Stephen (we're also seeing it spelled Steven, but NIU announced it as a ph) Kazmierczak, the gunman in yesterday's shootings at NIU. Reports this morning were that a sixth victim had died, but that apparently was a miscommunication between all the hospitals: five victims and the shooter have died. According to NIU, the victims are Daniel Parmenter, age 20, last of Westchester, Ill. Catalina Garcia, age 20, last......

9:37 Dr. Peters, president of NIU, is thanking everyone for their response to the tragedy. He says he was "renew[ed]" by seeing the university community come together. "We were dealing with a disturbed individual" who was determined to do harm, he says. "We did everything we could." Peters has been visiting wounded students and their families. Counselors from NIU are also getting help from counselors from other schools in the region. "The NIU family is......

CNN is identifying the shooter as 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak. Four of the victims have been IDed so far: Daniel Parmenter, 20, of Westchester; Catalina Garcia, 20, of Cicero; Ryanne Mace, 19, of Carpentersville; and Julianna Gehant, 32, of Meriden. [CNN]......

Another wounded student has died, bringing the number of fatalities from yesterday's shooting at Norther Illinois University to 7. The gunman's identity will be announced at a news conference later this morning, but right now authorities have said he was a 27-year-old graduate student enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. [Trib]......

More reports out of NIU tonight: The shooter killed four women, a man and himself, and wounded another 16, 6 critically. The gunman's identity still hasn't been released, but he was an NIU grad student in sociology last year but was not currently enrolled. Residence halls at NIU are open, but all classes have been canceled. [CNN, Trib, Northern Star, NYTimes, NIU]......

At least two people were shot during a geology class at Northern Illinois University this afternoon. As of 3:50, NIU had posted this on its website: Its has been confirmed that there has been a shooting on campus and several people have been taken away by ambulance. All classses are cancelled on the DeKalb campus. People are urged not to come to campus. More information will be posted as it becomes available. More info to......

Northern Illinois University is closed today after police found racist threats written on a wall in a women's bathroom Saturday night. According to the university's website, Written in black ink on a restroom wall in the Grant Towers D complex were two separate entries claiming that “things will change most hastily” in the final days of the current semester. “Tell those n---ers to go home,” the first entry reads. “ME / OUT … Die......

Chicagoist is old-fashioned. We long for the olden days of class and luxury. We are also a bit of a rail enthusiast. What could be better than being whisked off in a Zephyr to some remote part of the country, with your every want and need attended to, in the most tiptop of accomodations? Thanks to a new venture from a company called Train Chartering, we now have the opportunity to find out. Starting in......

As Chicagoist wrote the last installment of TWIS, a blizzard was taking over most of the Midwest. There weren’t as many stories of snow-related stupidity as we’d hoped for, but we were able to find at least one. As for the others, well, maybe the weather drove them to it. During Friday’s snow storm, two Milwaukee men robbed a man outside a check-cashing store and held up a women less than an hour later. The......

In case you weren't paying attention earlier, the Chicago Humanities Festival begins tomorrow. Really, we’re not kidding. Judging by the long scroll of sold-out shows in the website’s festival updates section, advance ticket sales have been brisk. And at $5 a pop to see the likes of General Wesley Clark, Garry Trudeau, and Paul Krugman, are you honestly surprised? This year’s theme, Peace and War: Facing Human Conflict, speaks to growing apprehension about America's military......

Looking for something different to do this weekend? On Saturday, the Filipinos in Alliance at UIC presents the Battle of the Bamboo, a competitive showcase of Philippine cultural dances performed by university students. A trophy will be awarded to the winning group and they'll be judged by a panel of professional choreographers and artists in the Chicago Filipino community. Last year was the inaugural Battle of the Bamboo and Loyola University emerged as the champion.......