Students looking to schmooze with potential employers were greeted by a protest Wednesday when they tried to enter the NIU's Job Fair held at the Convocation Center.

Members of the student body, faculty, community and the pro-union group Unite! gathered on the paved area near the arena's east-side entrance.

The group distributed fliers to protest the labor practices of Cintas Corp. - America's largest uniform producer - which recruited students at Wednesday's fair.

"I can't believe NIU would support a company such as this," said senior history major Gema Gaete-Tapia. "We demand that students have no relationship with a company that abuses its employees ... Today is just the beginning."

Protesters cited the more than 40 lawsuits that have been filed against Cintas for racial, sexual, age and/or disability discrimination.

Joan Zelinski, human resources manager for Cintas, did not think the protests affected the company's recruiting presence.

"They have the right to present their information to students, and they can decide for themselves," she said. "We wouldn't be attracting so many students if we didn't offer so many benefits."

The day's events unfolded peacefully, but not without conflict. Protesters initially went inside the arena, but were stopped by security personnel who said they couldn't enter as a group.

"When it was brought to our attention, they were already standing outside," Convocation Center Director John Gordon said. "At that point, we handed it over to our legal department, and [NIU General Counsel] Ken Davidson."

Davidson focused on trying to address the complaints of protesters and recruiting employers, as well as implementing university policy relevant to the situation.

"They didn't have permission to do what they were doing when they were doing it," Davidson said. "There aren't any designated areas at any of the athletic areas or the Convocation Center for this type of expression."

Davidson said at all public universities, there are "time, place and manner restrictions" that govern the flow of ideas.

At NIU, the office of University Programming and Activities requires people to register if they want to express ideas at the King Memorial Commons, "so they don't get groups on top of each other."

The designated space is the "free speech zone" located at the northwest corner of the MLK Commons, which is the cement-paved area bordering the Holmes Student Center. Registration is not required for this area.

The protest, which was part of a two-month-old campaign to organize Cintas, focused on the company's treatment of employees.

"We want to put pressure on Cintas through various means," said Chad Gray, a Unite! union organizer from Chicago. "We go to areas where Cintas recruits to let potential employees know Cintas' history of discrimination. We also want to let Cintas know that people in the community don't want a company with such anti-labor practices."

There are 82 pending federal labor-law charges against Cintas, according to information distributed by protesters. Cintas employees began organizing with Unite! in January, and the company responded by hiring anti-union attorneys, industrial psychologists and "a regiment of security guards to record union activity and intimidate employees."

Zelinski said Cintas has been recruiting at NIU job fairs for more than four years, and he was not sure whether people had previously protested the company's presence. She said the company offers its full-time employees a "comprehensive benefits package" that "is a good program."

Jean Callary, an assistant director at NIU's Career Planning and Placement Center, said the protest did not cause negative effects on the job fair. She said Cintas has employed many NIU graduates over the years.

Student Association Senator Ryan Billedo informed the senate that fliers from University Plaza addressed to students were publicly available at Stevenson Towers at Sunday's meeting.

Billedo said he came about the information from an unidentified person who is a member of the residence hall operations personnel.

"They keep them at the front desk instead of putting them in the mail boxes," Billedo said. Billedo said they were stacked in alphabetical order and were placed on the front desk of Stevenson Tower, apparently available for all to take.

Billedo added he had contacted the Post Master General and is looking at the possibility of a federal offense.

"Our intention for them was to be put in the mail boxes," said Michele Sotak, senior staff at University Plaza. "I don't think it is our fault."

Both Sotak and Dave Pasquale, a sales associate with University Plaza, said they did not know Stevenson's policy when it came to mail.

"They were out on the table for a period of time," said Anthony Williams, an RHOP supervisor at Stevenson. He confirmed the fliers were placed in a public location, where they could have been taken by anyone.

Williams said that once he found out about them, he had placed them in the appropriate mail boxes.

During the meeting, the Student Association Senate approved the suspension of its own rules in order to change the resolution to a bill.

During discussion of a resolution to amend the SA election policy, the point was raised that the senate cannot amend the bylaws with a resolution.

A bill is required to change the senate bylaws.

"The best thing to do ... is suspend the rules and parliamentary procedure," Senator Kevin Rumbaugh said.

Senators Andrew Nelms, R.J. Gravel and Jeff Meyer and Kevin O'Kelly, SA chief of staff, debated whether or not it was legal to suspend the rules.

"We've broken our own rules 30 times," Senator Andrew Nelms said in a raised voice to the assembled senators. "We are going about this entirely wrong. I move to send this to IAC [Internal Affairs Committee]."

The senate also moved a petition to call for the extension of parking hours in the Greek Row area to the Internal Affairs Committee.

"I believe we should be in full support of the bill," Senator Philip Stroud said.

Stroud's comment echoed the words of many other senators.

"I don't understand why parking ever was suspended," Meyer said.

The petition calls for the elimination of the current restriction of parking in Greek Row. Currently, parking is restricted from 2 to 7 a.m. This area includes Hillcrest Drive between Greenbrier Road and Normal Road, and Normal Road between Hillcrest Drive and Ridge Drive.

The senate failed to approve the petition and moved it to the Internal Affairs Committee for further review.

The senate also approved graduate law student Bob Morgan to the SA Supreme Court, and recognized March 20 as Meet the Senate night.

Meet the Senate will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at Stevenson North's New Orleans Room.

Open forums were held the past few weeks to give candidates for the Vice Provost position a chance to be heard.

The candidates are Paul Bauer, director of the NIU School of Music; Earl Seaver, chair of the Department of Communicative Disorders; and George Bishop, professor of English and dean of faculty at D'Youville College in Buffalo, N.Y.

The forums, which were open to all faculty and students, were held on Feb. 14 and 18, and on Wednesday.

The candidates were narrowed down to three by the Search Committee for the Vice Provost.

According to the Office of the Provost Web site, the position description for the vice provost includes overseeing undergraduate curriculum, teacher certification and enrollment services.

Provost Ivan Legg said the search for the candidates involved a very detailed screening process by the Search Committee for the Vice Provost.

The search for the candidates was very broad and was advertised nationally in higher education journals and publications, he said.

Candidate Bauer said he heard about the position because of this reason.

The process involved an application letter explaining his interest in the position, his involvement in different academic activities and a curriculum vitae, which basically is really long resume, he said.

Bauer said he has worked with the people in his 13 years at NIU that the vice provost comes into contact with and he has enjoyed his experiences with them.

"I really look forward to working with the big picture issues on campus," he said.

Seaver and Bishop were not available for comment.

Legg said the vice provost position requires someone who has worked with undergrads, because the position involves this kind of interaction.

Heather Hardy, faculty chair of the search committee and chair of the department of English, also said the position involves undergraduate involvement.

"This is the position in the university that is most responsible for the undergraduate experience," she said.

Legg added that although he makes the final decision as to who gets the position, he does it with a lot of advice.

If Bauer doesn't get the position, he said he'll have no hard feelings.

"If it doesn't work out, I still get to be director of a great school of music," Bauer said. "So, I'll be happy either way."

Legg said he likes the candidate selection.

"I think we've got a good group of candidates," he said.

Huskie junior Jennifer Youngblood broke out of a four-game slump without a double-double to register 18 points and 11 rebounds Wednesday night at Central Michigan.

But it wasn't enough for the NIU women's basketball team, falling 70-62 for its third loss in four games and fourth in six tries.

Youngblood, known for her ability to do damage in the scoring and rebounding column was credited with her 27th career double-double.

"We did some good things inside, especially in the first half," NIU coach Carol Hammerle said. "Our perimeter didn't come through tonight, though."

A power forward, Youngblood had help in the post from freshman center Joi Scott (18 points), the only other Huskie in double figures.

Senior guard Kristan Knake fouled out with five points and seven turnovers for NIU (11-14, 7-7 MAC), which fell to eighth place in conference.

Breaking a three-game losing streak, the Chippewas got a large contribution from freshman forward Lindsay Mecoli, who dropped 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc.

"Mecoli had several threes and that deflated us," Hammerle said.

Youngblood gave the Huskies their first lead of the night with 17:42 left in the game. She scored again on NIU's next possession, but went scoreless the rest of the way. NIU built the lead to 41-37 before CMU got 14 of the next 16 points to take the game in hand.