In an effort to discuss different global events, members of the NIU community are invited to attend the annual International Women's Day Luncheon to celebrate both the past and present.

The luncheon, sponsored by the University Resources for Latinos, the University Resources for Women and the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, will be held at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Holmes Student Center's Chandelier Room.

"Women's Day is an international celebration that is years and years old," said Sharon Howard, director of the University Resources for Women. "Internationally, Women's Day is celebrated on March 8, but we celebrate it on the first Wednesday of March at NIU."

Howard said International Women's Day began in 1857 by women textile workers in New York who were striking over the working conditions they were forced to work in. In 1909, the first women's day was celebrated in the United States. It wasn't until 1977 when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization declared it an official international holiday.

"There have been three world conferences since 1977," Howard said. "It is usually celebrated mainly at college campuses around the country and it also coincides with March being women's history month."

Sylvia Fuentes, director of University Resources for Latinos, said the luncheon boils down to seeing what else is going on in the world.

"I really hope that we can discuss what's going on globally," Fuentes said. "We need to recognize what the rest of the world is doing."

The luncheon began at NIU about 15 years ago. This year, guest speaker Dr. Josephine Mendez-Negrete from the University of Texas, San Antonio, will speak about "Writing as Healing: Testimoniando Stories of Betrayal," from her latest book. Past speakers have included women from Sri Lanka, Africa and Costa Rica who have spoken about women's development internationally.

Mendez-Negrete also will speak Wednesday night in an intimate book reading at 7:30 p.m. at the Holmes Student Center's Sky Room. A book signing, as well as a question and answer session, will follow. She also will speak Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. in the Heritage Room, along with another book signing and refreshments. Fuentes said both events are free and open to all, including men.

"People have been very excited about the luncheon," Howard said. "As soon as we advertise it, reservations fill up fast. Right now we have 98 people attending."

The fee for the luncheon is $7.50, which includes the lunch and the speakers.

Greek leaders will unite Saturday at the 2003 Fusaro Leadership Institute at the Holmes Student Center's Carl Sandburg Auditorium.

Each executive board member of NIU's Greek chapters is expected to attend this noon conference.

Speakers at the conference will target executive board members such as presidents, recruiting chairs and new member educators, said Darnell Bradley, program coordinator for Greek affairs.

The conference aims at giving students an idea of how to do their jobs better, common mistakes to avoid and how to be a better member of the Greek community.

The first hour of the conference will be a Town Hall panel discussion in which students can ask questions to campus administrators, city officials and Greek affairs professionals.

Educational sessions for the members of the executive boards will follow.

Keynote speaker Heidi Anderson will talk about the future of Greek life and how to improve the Greek image.

"People have the image that all Greeks do is party and drink, and that's absolutely not true," said Bradley. "Being Greek is to live up to their rituals, brotherhood/sisterhood, academic success and serving the community."

In the past, these conferences have gone on for six to seven hours, said Chris Juhl, activities adviser for Greek affairs.

"It will be more relevant if we can condense it and say presidents go to this session and treasurers go to that [session],"Juhl said.

A college student who decided to try drinking and got drunk ended up in jail because she stole a chicken suit from a guy outside a chicken diner.

Years later, a question on her bar exam asked if she had ever been arrested. One night and one question decided the fate of the Harvard law student.

Mike Green, a motivational speaker and a recovering alcoholic of 25 years, recounted this story to an audience of about 600 students at the Holmes Student Center's Carl Sandburg Auditorium Wednesday night.

Green, who was speaking on the topic of substance abuse, focused on the life-long consequences of one night's irresponsibility.

He used jokes, questions to the audience, personal stories and props like shot glasses, liquor bottles and T-shirts to get his message across to the audience.

Green, who was an alcoholic in college and a bartender for almost 10 years, was able to connect with the students using his personal stories. In one such story, he recalled the time when he passed out drunk in the wrong house after running eight blocks from a pseudo police siren.

"He came down to our level and didn't make us seem dumb," said Larkin Harris, a freshman undecided major who attended the discussion. "He didn't lecture."

Green said that he did not expect students to give up drinking and made a distinction between drinking socially and getting drunk.

He held up a shot glass and said that it could be looked at as a sipping glass or as a killer shot.

"This is used to fill oil in your car, not as a social cocktail glass," said Green as he held up a funnel in his hand.

Green gave the audience practical reasons to reconsider their drinking habits.

An average drinker can spend up to $10,000 on beer in his or her four years of college.

Getting back on track as a team never felt so good.

NIU's persistence paid off as it ran away from Toledo down the stretch to claim a home victory 69-57 on Saturday.

With the win, NIU (12-14, 8-7 MAC) clinched a No. 7 or No. 8 seed and a will have a home game on March 8 in the first round of the MAC Tournament.

"Everyone knows we've been struggling this whole entire season," senior guard Kristan Knake said. "[Friday], we just had a good heart to heart as a team ... We came out today ready to play and ready to have fun. We just came out today to play basketball."

Knake finished the game with 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

The Huskies found themselves down nine to the Rockets (18-8, 11-4 MAC) at halftime. They turned the tables in the second half, however, outscoring the Rockets 45-24. For the second half, Toledo shot just 7-of-28 from the field while NIU shot at a 14-of-23 clip.

"In the second half, I thought we were a lot more patient," NIU coach Carol Hammerle said. "All five players on the court were looking for one another. We had some great passes into the post into Jen [Youngblood] and Joi [Scott]."

The inside combo of Youngblood and Scott combined for 24 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks for the game. The duo scored 20 of their 24 points in the second half.

The Huskies' surge was keyed with 10:16 to play on a Monique Davis three-point basket as the shot clock buzzer went off.

The three helped NIU to a 16-2 run and gave the Huskies a lead they would never rescind.

"This is the best I have ever seen Monique operate as our floor general," Hammerle said. "She was incredible; she just took charge, she made good decisions, she worked hard at both ends of the floor and she made some huge three's for us."

For the game, Davis scored 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting and added five assists.

The game also marked the return of Kim Boeding to the lineup. Boeding played for the first time since Jan. 22. (See page 19 for more.)

The loss amounted to a missed opportunity for Toledo. Ball State lost to Eastern Michigan on Sunday keeping both schools with a tie in the loss column for the MAC lead.

The controversial future of Title IX has moved into the hands of U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige after the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics submitted its final report last week.

Paige used Title IX's 30th anniversary to create the commission in 2002 to evaluate the law, address the controversy surrounding it and present recommendations the Department of Education.

"That controversy extended into the commission's debates and continues in the interpretations ascribed to various parts of the final report," said Cary Groth, NIU's athletics director and one of the 15 members of the commission.

Title IX is the part of the 1972 Education Amendments that requires equal opportunity for men and women in education programs. The law has been credited with allowing an increase in women's participation in sports and has been blamed for the cutting of some men's programs.

Four themes were presented in the commission's report -- commitment, clarity, fairness and enforcement.

The commission wants Education to reaffirm its commitment to Title IX's goal of providing gender equality. The report states that during the commission's public hearings there was no testimony suggesting that Title IX should be repealed. However, it heard from people who question the sincerity of the government's commitment to Title IX.

Clarity and consistency about the purpose and enforcement of Title IX is a problem the commission wants Education to resolve. It would like to see a national campaign by Education to educate institutions on the ways to be compliant with the Title IX. One specific area of confusion institutions face when trying to comply with Title IX is the use of private funds to support underfunded teams.

Universities and secondary schools across the country facing tighter budgets are being accused of cutting men's teams to remain compliant with Title IX, according to testimony before the commission. In order for Title IX to be fair to both men and women, the commission is calling upon Education's enforcement branch, the Office of Civil Rights, to make it clear that the cutting of teams for the sole purpose of being Title IX compliant is not an acceptable practice.

The commission recommended Education to encourage institutions to use sound financial practices concerning athletics expenditures. The commission also suggested that Paige recommend to Congress that college athletics receive an antitrust exemption.

Enforcement of Title IX received the most attention in the report with nine of the 23 recommendations addressing how the Office of Civil Rights ensures educational institutions remain compliant.

Besides asking the Office of Civil Rights to consistently enforce Title IX, the commission made several recommendations on the best way to deal with problems athletic programs are facing when using the "proportionality" prong of the "three-part test."

The three-part test refers to the ways in which an institution can demonstrate compliance to Title IX. The institution can show compliance by providing opportunities for women and men in intercollegiate sports that are proportionate to their respective enrollments. Another method is to show a history or continuing practice of providing equal opportunities for men and women in the institution's athletic program. The third method of compliance is to show the program has "fully and effectively" catered to the interests of the members of the under-represented sex. An institution only needs to pass one of these tests to be considered compliant.

Delta Sigma Theta service sorority will dedicate a week's worth of events to AIDS awareness.

The week is full of a variety of activities including a poetry reading, free HIV testing, a speaker and bowling.

"Every year, the national organization makes it mandatory for undergraduate chapters to host a day of AIDS awareness," said Jarquetta Egeston, vice president of Delta Sigma Theta. "We had ideas to do throughout the week, so we decided to make it a full week."

One of the events of the week includes a poetry reading that encourages participants to speak about health issues at Neptune Central by the fireplace.

"We like the setting of Neptune Central," said Meagan Lumpkin, financial secretary of Delta Sigma Theta. "People feel really comfortable and people would rather go somewhere comfortable."

On Tuesday, a representative from the DeKalb County Health Department will speak on more AIDS issues.

"The speaker will talk about contraception," Egeston said. "We are not saying abstinence, what we are saying is protect yourself. It seems like AIDS is a hidden topic and people don't speak about it. We try to bring the campus together and tell people there are ways to prevent the disease."

For information, call Meagan Lumpkin at 753-3495.

Tan bodies, oiled skin and bulging muscles will be abundant at this year's Greek Physique.

The body building competition is from 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday at the Holmes Student Center's Carl Sandburg Auditorium.

Mickey Walker, a sophomore business major and philanthropist for Phi Kappa Sigma, said the event will benefit the Leukemia Society.

The competition is divided into groups. Men will be divided by weight, while women are divided by height, he said.

Mike Evans, a junior political science major and director of Greek affairs for the SA, said the competition is open to all members of the NIU community, not just the Greeks.

Walker said the contestants put in a lot of hard work and preparation for the competition.

"They've trained pretty much their whole lives lifting weights," he said. "Everyone cuts down their diet drastically."

Evans agreed.

"The people that do it and win and are serious about it, they've been body building their whole lives," he said. "It's not something they can whip up in a few weeks or a month."

With its first sweep of Toledo in 20 years, the NIU men's basketball team is assured at least a top four seed in the MAC Tournament in Cleveland, Ohio.

The Huskies topped the Rockets 85-75 Saturday night at the Convocation Center in front of 5,272 fans.

NIU (15-11, 11-5 MAC) had four players in double digit scoring and two with double-doubles.

Toledo (11-15, 5-11 MAC) rocketed out of the gates quickly, getting out to a 21-12 advantage. But with 7:33 left in the first half, the momentum took a drastic change with Toledo up 26-16.

"We weren't getting back and they had a lot of easy transition buckets on us," Toledo guard Nick Moore explained.

Indeed the Huskies hit Toledo with a barrage of transition buckets, but that wasn't all. With an assortment of long-range artistry, layups and rim-rattling slam dunks, NIU went on a 19-0 run and held the Rockets scoreless for seven minutes and 15 seconds from the end of the first half to the beginning of the second.

"We just brought the intensity that we needed," NIU forward Marcus Smallwood said. "We had them down and we just wanted to keep the pressure on them."

The Huskies never let Toledo back in the game after their stretch run, keeping at least a 7-point lead the last 13 in a half minutes of the game. NIU scored a season-high 56 points in the second half.

With the win and only two games left, the Huskies clinched at least a top four spot for the MAC Tournament, which means they'll receive a first-round bye or face last place Buffalo at home. (See sidebar for more.)

Senior Jay Bates had a team-high 18 points, including 10-11 free-throw shooting. Perry Smith and Smallwood complemented Bates with 17 points apiece. Jamel Staten had his first career double-double as a Huskie with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Smallwood also had 11 rebounds.

"Our first key of the game today was to get back on track and win the rebounding battle," said NIU coach Rob Judson, who's team had 14 more rebounds than Toledo. "We accomplished that and that really set the tone for the game."

The Rockets didn't have any double-digit rebounders. They were led by junior guard Keith Triplett with 29 points, including 5-of-8 three-point shooting. Moore had 17 points and Sammy Villegas, one of the MAC Freshman of the Year front-runners, totaled 14 points.

"How we played in the first half, we played the exact opposite in the second half," said seven-year Toledo coach Stan Joplin, who called this season his most disappointing. "We were too casual and the turnovers really hurt us."

Behind some strong pitching and key hitting the NIU baseball team came away from its weekend series in Memphis, Tenn., with a 2-1 record.

The Huskies (2-3) started the weekend with a 4-3 victory over Ball State in 10 innings Friday, giving coach Ed Mathey his first win as NIU's skipper.

Sophomore Greg Larsen drove in the tying and winning runs with a pair of walks.

Senior Max Sulzberger picked up the win by working a perfect 10th inning.

Riding high after their come from behind victory over the Cardinals, the Huskies defeated St. Louis 6-1 Saturday putting them at .500 on the season despite committing five errors.

The NIU bats came alive against the Billikens as they slugged out 13 hits, including three from junior Mike Santoro who also drove in a career-high five runs.

Starting junior pitcher Zach Minor didn't need that much support as he allowed just one unearned run in seven innings while striking out six.

"Our pitching has been very good, we can't complain about that," Mathey said. "They've been taking charge of the ball game and have come out throwing strikes. They're giving us a chance to win ball games and that's what you want from your pitchers."

The two-game winning streak for the Huskies came to an end Sunday with a 8-4 loss to Southern Illinois.

Despite being ahead 3-0 after three innings, poor fielding did the Huskies in this time as they committed four errors.

"Anytime you give up 15 free passes between walks and errors you don't stand much of a chance to win," Mathey said. "That's the reality of it. We didn't play a good game of baseball today."

For the weekend the Huskies punched out 29 hits. Santoro led the way as he went 4-11 with five RBIs. NIU's junior infielder Joe Mazzuca also helped the offensive attack with five hits on the weekend.

"The hits are starting to drop in," Mathey said. "Our approach has been healthy. We're starting to come around. If we can get it figured out on defense we're going to be a pretty solid team."

Just when one team in the MAC seems to take control of the conference, another jumps in and stakes its claim.

This weekend was no different, as conference-leading Miami (Ohio) lost 51-48 at Bowling Green, which had been losers of its last six games. This then pulled Central Michigan ahead of the RedHawks for first overall after they beat Eastern Michigan 106-89.

NIU (15-11, 11-5 MAC), which beat Toledo 85-75 on Saturday, moved into third place after Kent State lost at home to Akron 85-70.

This means that with a week left in the regular season, the Huskies will at worst be the fourth seed in the conference tournament. The top three MAC records earn a first round bye and receive an automatic bid to Cleveland's Gund Arena.

However, if they do earn the fourth seed they will host last place Buffalo at the Convocation Center on Monday, March 10.

"You just never know," NIU guard Jay Bates said, about the MAC standings. "You wait to hear the scores and coach will be like Miami lost, Central [Michigan] won, or whoever it is in the race. The one team you want to lose, they'll win and the team you want to win will lose. It just kinda goes back and forth, but for the most part it's fun as long as we keep winning."

Another instance as to just how wacky the conference has been this year is that Akron, who is 8-8 in the MAC, has only three road wins in the conference, with it coming against NIU 101-100, CMU 70-69, and Kent State. These three teams could end up being the top three seeds.

The top four seeds are all separated by no more than one game, and the next seven teams are all either 8-8 or 7-9.

Calling the conference even seems an understatement as 36 games have been "close," decided by five points or less. CMU and Ball State have each had seven contests come down to the wire.

Beside Buffalo, every other team has had at least five "close" games. The Bulls have only had two, both coming against Miami and Kent State, who are battling for first place in the MAC East division.

While the pieces are starting to fall together, whoever has the best chance at winning the MAC is anyone's call.

"Once you get on a neutral court anything can happen," Toledo coach Stan Joplin said. "There's some teams playing pretty well right now. Obviously Central's playing well with Kaman, because he's an unstoppable force. Northern's playing very good team basketball. Miami's playing well and Kent, as long as Gates is healthy, they'll always have a shot. But then you got other teams; Marshall's pretty talented and you never know what's gonna happen on a neutral floor. If a team gets hot, anything can happen."