Pitching is key in baseball and NIU's opponent, Illinois, has been throwing the ball exceptionally well.

At 3:05 p.m. today the Huskies (6-7) will travel to Champaign to take on an Illini team that has an earned run average of 2.21 and has allowed only two runs in their last four games.

NIU will send staff ace Mark Skrukrud to the mound looking for his first win of the year (0-1). Voted to have the best control in the conference, the senior lefty has walked just five batters in 28 innings, while striking out 30.

"Mark's been outstanding," NIU coach Ed Mathey said. "He's earned the right to be our No. 1 pitcher. We just haven't been able to get a win for him yet. The thing about being the No. 1 is that you're going to face their best, or the best teams."

Illinois (6-1) is coming off two straight shutouts against Texas-Pan American 4-0 and Prairie View 13-0.

The Huskies are also on a two-game winning streak, but have won their games in slugfests beating Michigan 12-8 and Winthrop 11-10.

"Our pitching has been the most consistent part of our game, but our defense has struggled," Mathey said. "Pitching is going to need to continue to be there for us to have a shot."

As for offense, junior transfer Joe Mazzuca is leading the team in home runs (three) and RBI's (12), while hitting .283.

The game is the first of the season at Illinois Field for the Illini who are 101-18-1 all time in home openers. They have won their last three home openers.

"From our standpoint we treat the game as close to a conference game as you can," Mathey said. "They feel they have a pretty good club and it should be a great test for our guys."

Candidates for the Residence Hall Association's upcoming executive board elections for 2003-'04 will be facing the fire this Sunday.

RHA is holding a forum in the Stevenson Towers North's Multipurpose Room at 9 p.m. Sunday to enable the residents of the halls to question the candidates.

"[The candidates] have to love RHA, really want to do their positions specifically and not just be on the e-board and really love NIU too," said Sarah Cooper, RHA public relations officer.

Cooper will be present at the forum and plans to ask questions toward the end if something needs to be answered.

She said she would like to see students ask questions like "what is the purpose of RHA and the role of the Believing In Culture [Committee] in RHA?"

This is the first time such a forum is being held, RHA President Alex Underwood said.

Underwood said it was important for students to ask specific questions about qualities they would like to see in the candidates and ask about their strengths and weaknesses.

"Last year, everything happened at the election night and the meeting went for nine hours to elect the current board," Underwood said.

The candidates will have two minutes to introduce themselves at each hall council.

Two representatives from each floor of the residence halls will cast votes for each of the seven positions at Hall Council on March 25th.

Residence halls are required to have at least one representative at the forum and will receive Hall of the Year points for attending. Failure of representation can result in a suspension of voting rights, freezing the budget and probation for the halls, Underwood said.

With 10 nominees contesting for seven positions, the positions of programming vice president, treasurer, national/Illinois communications coordinator and secretary are uncontested.

However, the residents have an option of voting no-confidence in a candidate.

At elections, write-in candidates who have not been nominated are allowed to run for the positions. Underwood advised that students who plan on being written in also attend the forum.

"They have to get their name out there to be known by all the floor representatives," Underwood said.

Three new faces will be on the sidelines of Huskie Stadium next fall.

Coach Joe Novak announced Bill Bleil, Denny Doornbos and Sam Pittman as new full-time assistants.

"All three know this level of football extremely well," Novak said. "Collectively, these gentlemen bring over 60 years of coaching experience - ranging from the Big Ten, Big 12, Conference-USA, Western Athletic Conference and the Big West Conference - to our program. I like this group."

Bleil brings 21 years of coaching experience to DeKalb including five seasons as head coach at Western Carolina from 1997-'01.

Bleil most recently served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at South Dakota. The Remsen (Iowa) native will succeed Darrell Funk as tight ends coach.

Funk returned to his alma matter Colorado State in February to take an assistant coach job.

Doornbos, a graduate of Western Michigan, will succeed Pat Narduzzi as linebackers coach.

Narduzzi was named defensive coordinator at Miami (Ohio) after three years with the Huskies.

The 43-year-old Doornbos served 15 seasons on the Army football sidelines and in 1982 worked under Bo Schembechler on Michigan's 8-4 Rose Bowl team.

The final coach added to the NIU football staff was Sam Pittman.

Pittman starts his second tour of duty with the Huskies as offensive line coach. Pittman worked under Charlie Sadler in 1994-'95 and will replace Dan Roushar who headed south for the University of Illinois earlier this spring.

Pittman most recently served under Gary Darnell at Western Michigan in 1999, at the University of Missouri under Larry Smith in 2000 and under Terry Allen at the University of Kansas in 2001.

Next week, the Indian Student Association will make NIU history. The ISA will be holding its annual cultural show at the Convocation Center. It will be the first student organization to host an event there.

The show, which features traditional Indian dance, fashion and music, is usually held in either the Carl Sandburg Auditorium or at the Egyptian Theatre. However, this year the ISA decided to hold it in the Convo Center in hopes of attracting more people.

"We want the show to attract not only the NIU community, but people outside of it as well," said coordinator of the cultural show, Theresa Mathew.

The usage of a large venue such as the Convo Center can get costly. According to the Convocation Center's Student Organization Guide, the cost can reach into thousands of dollars.

However, the ISA will not foot the bill on its own. It has numerous sponsors to help with the expenses of the show.

Dr. Promod Vohra, faculty adviser to the ISA, said the show is designed to increase Indian cultural awareness by projecting positive Indian images to NIU and to the world.

One of the highlights of the cultural show will be the performance of Bharat Maryan, a traditional Indian dance that takes eight to 10 years to learn.

The show will also feature a fashion show.

Sophomore biology major Beena Joseph is modeling for the fashion show. She said she is excited about the show.

"It's a way for Indian students to embrace their heritage and culture," Joseph said.H Who: Indian Student Association

NIU's Holmes Student Center, the Sears Tower and the Empire State Building all have something in common - they don't have a 13th floor.

Why the number 13? Why not six, or 14 or some other obscure number?

The Otis elevator company said that 90 percent of all skyscrapers and big hotels have no 13th floor according to www.brownielocks.com.

For all you triskaidekaphobics - people who are afraid of the number 13 - the student center is safe.

It is considered bad luck for a building to have a 13th floor, said Scott Morris, supervisor of the audio visual department. A lot of the buildings as of the late '60s started to omit the 13th floor from their plans, Morris said.

"If there is a 13th floor in the student center, it is well hidden because I have never seen it," Morris said.

Most buildings won't have them, but some new ones are starting to add them, said Chris Riddle, assistant manager of the student center hotel. The 13th floor, which is actually the 14th floor, is used for guest rooms in the hotel.

"It makes the building seem bigger," Riddle said. "I know if I was staying at a hotel, I would not want to stay on the 13th floor."

There are eight other buildings on campus that have a 13th floor. Stevenson and Grant Towers all have 13, but the elevator only goes to 12. To get to the 13th floor, you have to go to the 12th and walk up two flights of stairs to the 13th floor penthouse, said Mike Saari, associate director of the physical plant .

The reason that the elevator does not go up that high is because there is a lot of high voltage equipment as well as the elevator equipment on the 13th floor, so students really do not have a reason to go up there, Saari said.H Italians omit the number 13 from their national lottery.

Most NIU fraternities and sororities have to pre-register their parties and events, but that could change.

University policy governs chapters of the Intra-Fraternity Council and the National Pan-Hellenic Council, which include about two-thirds of NIU's Greek groups.

The policy says if a chapter wants to hold an event - such as an invite party or dance - it has to register with the office of University Programming and Activities by the Tuesday before the event.

Ever since I've been here, I've toyed with the idea of having them not register events," said Chris Juhl, NIU's activities adviser for Greek affairs. "It's an idea the office has been kicking around. I don't know if it'll happen or not."

Three of NIU's Greek chapters already have been caught violating the policy this semester.

"It's upsetting to me because it's such an easy process," Juhl said. "On a regular basis, I have somebody come in who says the ‘XYZ chapter' went to Lake Geneva, and we had no idea."

The usual punishment is suspension of event-holding privileges for a designated amount of time. An unregistered Greek event is very low on the list of illegal activities, Juhl said, so a chapter's judicial board usually handles its cases.

To cease the registration process, the idea would have to be proposed to and approved by the Greek Life Standards Board. If the board approved the idea, the IFC and PHC also would need to agree. Finally, each IFC and PHC chapter would have to vote on the idea.

The change would leave NIU less liable for the happenings at Greek events and would centralize chapter management to national organizations.

IFC President Tim Samp, a junior corporate communication major, said he's heard many stories in which a chapter was shut down because of poor risk-management guidelines, which can include event registration.

"National organizations don't tolerate as much as universities," Samp said. "When something goes wrong, it comes down to the fact that the chapter is to blame. The national organization will cut their costs and say they won't take responsibility because it's not their fault."

PHC President Shanda Scharff, a senior sociology major, said she likes the current policy because it keeps leaders informed and holds chapters accountable for their actions. However, she acknowledged that students would favor abandoning the registration process.

A chapter fails to pre-register an event "every so often," Scharff said. "They don't usually get caught beforehand. We usually find out after the event, then go to the judicial board and have sanctions put on them."

Samp said it's "pretty seldom" that a chapter doesn't register an event. He said he likes the process, and that chapters would face more costs if pre-registration is scrapped.

"It's a good way to govern ourselves, and I like student governing," Samp said. "If we didn't have registration, it would cost a lot more because we would need outside security."

Events held on a chapter's property are the only registered events that are monitored, Juhl said. Greek Affairs will send a patrol group - made of students - who will visit the event two or three times. They are supplied with a checklist used to "make sure everything's going all right," Juhl said.

The average Greek chapter at NIU holds between five and eight major events each year, Samp and Scharff said. Those include philanthropic events, dances, invite parties, mixers and trips.

"They think people are out to get them," Samp said. "It just hurts them because we're just gonna help them out anyway and make sure everything goes smoothly."