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.

Students who may be called into military action should start planning to leave the university prior to completing the academic term.

The only exception for not withdrawing is if the call to active duty is near the end of the term, since most of the course requirements are completed. In this case, students should see their specific teachers for instructions on what they can do.

All students who are members of military reserve units called into duty are eligible to receive a refund of payments made for tuition and student fees, excluding health insurance fees, materials fees and delivery fees.

Linda Dersch, assistant director for Student Financial Aid, said that students called to military action need to go through a complete withdrawal process, but the amount of reimbursed money they will receive depends on what time during the term they are called to service.

"Aid is based on need, so students called to service won't be affected in applying for financial aid," Dersch said. "Students shouldn't wait until they return to apply for aid though. They should apply early like everyone else if they know they will be back for the next semester so state funds don't run out."

NIU's Inter-Fraternity Council and Pan Hellenic Council met separately Monday night to pick their endorsements for the upcoming Student Association executive elections.

Representatives from fraternities and sororities were given the chance to discuss and vote on who they wanted to endorse in each of the four upcoming elections.

"We are going to go through each candidate and discuss them for three minutes," said Tim Samp, president of the IFC. "Try to make the best educated decision you can make."

Each office's candidates were discussed separately, and candidates who are members of Greek chapters on campus were identified.

Chris Juhl, activities adviser for Greek affairs, spoke briefly concerning rumors he had heard about the candidates.

Several years ago, a number of Greek fraternities hosted afterhours, parties held after the bars were closed. Juhl said these parties were the source of a number of problems, ranging from what he called police brutality to Greeks fighting among themselves.

When the Greek system was almost kicked off campus six years ago, one of the stipulations for keeping them on campus was that afterhours would be eliminated, Juhl said.

The rumor, Juhl told the Greek chapters, is that some candidates were promising some Greek chapters they would remove the ban on the parties.

"I do want to mention that this will never happen," Juhl said. "I guarantee the university will not allow history to repeat itself."

Juhl would not divulge which candidates were rumored to be making the statements.

All of the candidates who were identified as Greeks were endorsed by both organizations. The only split decision came in the student trustee position.