REVEALED PREFERENCES. Northern Illinois rearranged some of the traffic patterns on the west campus, closing a through street and relocating a bus turnaround. The land scraped up for construction allowed the creation of a hillock, just the right size for hanging out, or, during less trafficked times, tossing a Frisbee.

But that isn't what the landscape architects intended, oh, no. So this morning a fencing company is at work installing decorative fence posts, preparatory to closing off the short cuts that have emerged on the hillock and rendering casual Frisbee-tossing hazardous.

But there are no resources for enrollment-impacted departments.