NIU students and local residents are invited to a public auction that will provide NIU law students with stipends for their summer interests jobs.

The Public Interest Law Society will hold its eighth-annual public auction Friday.

"We have been working on this event all year, I remember starting on this in early fall," said PILS President Rachel Mcintyre. "I know from being at the auction last year that this is going to be a good time."

Last year's auction provided stipends for eight students who worked for several organizations such as the Cook County Office of the Public Guardian, Journey of Hope and DuPage County Public Defender's Office. Each year, the society receives donations from alumni, local businesses and anyone else willing to donate.

"This year, there are very gracious donations from city business," Mcintyre said. "But, our hottest items so far are cruises on Lake Michigan, one of them valued at $3,000, and a hot air balloon ride for two."

The auction will be held in the Thurgood Marshall Gallery, located on the upper level of Swen Parson Hall. The doors to the event open at 5 p.m. The second table will open 30 minutes later. Once every table is closed, the hot items are placed together for a live auction at the end of the night.

"The live auction is so much fun," said Greg Anderson, director of career opportunities and development. "It brings together alumni, lawyers, judges and law students. It gives everyone a chance to mingle."

The auction is just one of the events the College of Law is having that day.

"The auction is held on the perfect day," Anderson said. "We are also having our Riley lecture and there will also be a board of visitors meeting. So, the auction is just a good end to an overall exciting day."

The Riley lecture is a lecture on professionalism that will be given by Thomas L. Kilbride, Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois. This will be the College of Law's 10th-annual Riley lecture.

The lecture begins at 2 p.m. in the Riley Courtroom, located on the lower level of Swen Parson Hall. There will be a reception immediately following the lecture in the Thurgood Marshall Gallery.

"It is always an honor to have a speaker for the Riley lecture," Anderson said. "This year will be no exception with having Justice Kilbride here."

The board of visitors is a group of people from the community, as well as judges and lawyers who provide a connection between the college and the legal community of Illinois.

"The auction is a wonderful way for students to see the faculty outside of the classroom structure," said LeRoy Pernell, dean and professor of the College of Law. "This is an important event for students to support. The auction is the highlight of the year, and it can begin relationships for students that will benefit them through their entire lives. It is so beneficial for the students and for the community to interact with the board of visitors, the staff and each other in such an informal and comfortable way."

The auction is open to all students and to the general public. For information, call (815) 753-0589.

Although some students may dread a group project, chances are they may learn something.

David Henningsen, an assistant communication professor, said he has taught group communication classes, researched decision making in groups and has published articles on group decision making.

He said group projects are very beneficial for students to partake in.

The learning involves time coordination and preparing students for the advantages and pitfalls of working in a group, he said.

"Better to learn that in school than to learn that in the job where you're blindsided by it," he said.

It seems students also recognize the advantages to working in groups.

Chris Parker, an associate psychology professor, said group projects can help students learn the concepts being taught in the class.

He also said students can talk to each other about what they don't understand. But he said one of the drawbacks is a group member who doesn't carry his or her own weight.

Joanne Castro, a senior health administration major, said she enjoys group projects because she can get other people's input and learn time management skills.

Junior marketing major Joslyn Miller said she thinks group projects are OK, but it depends on how the group members work with each other.

"[The hardest part] is people who don't do their fair share and having a time when everyone can get together."

Mary Kay Meegan, a junior physical therapy major, said she likes group projects, but they do have pitfalls.

"[The pitfalls are] when people don't contribute when one person takes on most of the work and other people take credit for it," she said.

Castro thinks that group projects are a good idea.

"It's gonna help you in the future," she said. "I know a lot of companies do a lot of group work."

When television screens are filled with bombs flying over Iraq, children need to know why their favorite cartoon show isn't on for them to watch.

Linda Derscheid, associate professor in family, consumer and nutrition sciences, said parents need to take the initiative to talk to their children about war. The amount of information they give them should depend on the child's age, as younger children will have more difficulties understanding.

In some cases, preschool-age children may act up based on violence they see on television. At such a young age, they cannot process or make sense of what they see, so parents need to be cautious of what their child views, Derscheid said. As they reach ages 7 to 9, children realize that it is not so much pretend, but it is real and it becomes scary.

"Kids are going to personalize things," Derscheid said. "They will be worried about their own safety and the safety of their family."

Daryl Bettcher, a senior English major and mother of three, said her children are not necessarily worried about their own safety, but they have asked if their uncle, who is overseas with the American troops, is going to die. She said her 8-year-old son asks the most questions about the details of the war.

"I try to be honest with them without giving them too much information," Bettcher said.

Derscheid said parents need to be careful in responding to their child's questions about people being killed in the war.

"I think there is always a caution that we want to have about talking about killing anyone, evil or not," Derscheid said.

Her suggestion is to tell children we are working to put evil people away so they cannot harm other people.

Algonquin resident Connie Ramirez said her three children, ages 5, 7 and 10, have seen some of the war coverage on television, so she and her husband talk with them almost every day about what is going on. Like Bettcher, her 7-year-old son asks the most questions about why everything is happening.

Ramirez said her children had more of a surprising reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks, probably because she has reiterated to them that the war that is happening right now is far away and they knew that the Sept. 11 attacks were in New York.

All three of her children have participated in practice disaster drills at their schools, and while they have wondered why they did that, they all have expressed to their mother they feel safer because they "have a plan" in case something bad were to happen while they were in school.

The Student Association Senate, in one of the quickest meetings of this year, rejected a proposed organization that advocates free speech.

FreeSpeech Spot, which originally had come up for recognition in November, is an organization based solely on opening the free speech bulletin boards to the students.

Anna Schaber, a second-year history graduate student, spoke on behalf of the group. She expressed her concern over the requirements for posting on the board.

Schaber said that University Programming and Activities only allows student organizations to post messages on bulletin boards.

"The individuals are not just there for the organization," Schaber said. "They're self-interested."

Schaber said she thought the students should have the ability to post whatever they wanted, within UP&A guidelines, on the boards.

Some senators expressed concern over potential problems rising from the proposal.

Senator Eric Youngquist said he thought Schaber's group was "opening a Pandora's Box" by allowing students to post whatever they wanted.

The senators failed to pass the motion to recognize the new organization.

A last-minute addition to the senate agenda by Senator Jeff Meyer was the inclusion of SA Supreme Court nominations.

He said that according to the SA constitution, the senate can open the floor to nominations for justices.

During the open nominations, Meyer nominated Senator Andrew Nelms, to which he declined the nomination. Meyer later nominated Joshua Blakemore, a junior political science major and, which Meyer pointed out, his former running mate in the recent SA executive elections.

Senator Phillip Stroud nominated Senator Billy Nickol, to which Meyer seconded. Senator R.J. Gravel nominated Erik Benbennick, a junior political science major, who attended the meeting.

The military still stands behind its "Don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding homosexual activity.

A Department of Defense Official Spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said if you keep your orientation to yourself you're OK, but if not, your sexual preference could be grounds for dismissal.

"Because it's a personal matter, no one can ask you what your sexual preference is," she said. "But at the same time, you're not supposed to announce what your sexual preference is either."

According to the Army Homosexual Conduct Policy, chapter 4, paragraph 19, a basis for discharge from the army exists if the soldier has engaged in a homosexual act, the soldier has said that he or she is homosexual or bisexual, or made some statement that indicates a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts, or the soldier has married or attempted to marry a person of the same sex.

The Department of Defense spokeswoman added that homosexual conduct can pose a risk to morale, good order and discipline

"Congress has stated that homosexual conduct poses a threat to unit cohesion and readiness," she said.

Captain Dale Burbank of the NIU ROTC agreed and said issues like sexual orientation cannot be dealt with in a life or death situation.

"It's just people's natural opinions," he said. "They might not be right, but it's just something that we're not ready to tackle," he said.

But people outside of the military claim that a "don't ask, don't tell" policy isn't adequate

Karen Frost, co-president of PRISM and a senior communication major, said she doesn't think a personal freedom should not be taken away because of sexual orientation.

She added that people have many different prejudices about all sorts of people, like different races for example, and discrimination based on sexual orientation should not be viewed any differently.

"Asking someone to hide themselves is unacceptable," she said.

What will prevent a recruit from claiming to be homosexual in the hopes of dismissal in a time of war?

Frost said she doesn't think many people would claim to be gay in the hopes of discharge because the amount of scrutiny put into a claim like that would be tough to handle.

If a recruit voluntarily admits he or she is homosexual, the statement will be followed by an investigation by someone outside of the unit, said the Department of Defense spokeswoman.

"We pay commanders to know the people, to know the policy, and investigate those situations," she said. "And that's what we'd expect them to do."