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."

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.