NIU’s Sports Information Director, after recent publicity surrounding the issue of access to locker rooms, has clarified NIU’s position.

SID Mike Korcek said NIU’s policy is to have locker rooms open to the media after games. Contrary to some other schools across the country, the NIU sports information office tries to accomodate the media so that they can get the word out on the various Huskie athletic contests.

“The philosophy that we would like to instill here,” Korcek said, “is that we want media to cover Northern Illinois. We want our athletes and our coaches accessible to the media.”

Following the Huskie sporting events, there is a 10-minute cooling off period for the athletes.

For the NIU football team, there is a press conference held in the women’s gymnastics locker room. Prior to the termination of the game, the media is handed a ballot in which they can vote for two players from each team to attend the conference. Both coaches automatically attend.

If a media representative wants to talk to one of the other players on the team, he or she can go into the locker room, provided no player is in the state of undress. If the situation arises where indecency occurs, the player would then be escorted to the media person.

“Our athletes are the best advertising that we have for the program,” Korcek said. “To say that we deny female reporters access to the locker room is inaccurate.”

The only exception to this rule is for the women’s sports. The locker room is not open following the games, yet Korcek emphasized the fact that the athletes are accessible to the media.

“We’ll work it out any way possible,” Korcek said. “It doesn’t matter if they (the reporters) are male, female or martian. They’re going to talk to our athletes.”