The Rev. Sandra Olewin, a Methodist missionary, came to DeKalb last Thursday as an emissary from a New Jersey-sized country that has seen 4,000 killings over the last three years.

Her stop was part of a six-month, 22-state lecture tour, “Living Under Military Occupation - What Americans Need to Know About the Israeli Occupation.” The tour’s purpose is to educate Americans and to help bring resolution to the turmoil in Israel.

The lecture began with Olewin sharing her experiences of living in Israel for the last seven years and working across the lines of religious denominations. She explained how she lived with and ministered to Palestinians over the last three years, sharing in their joys, discomforts and pain.

With her she brought a call for help from the community she lived with and a commission to greet the people of America by saying: “It is our common faith in God and in the love of Jesus Christ that binds us together to find a way across many oceans to work for a [peaceful] world where God’s reign is on earth as it is in heaven.”

Olewin said her community had been disappointed in the past when millions of Christian tourists would come to Israel, not knowing Palestinian Christians existed, or that they were under occupation, or what that really meant.

Since then, Olewin has made it her purpose to spread the stories of these people that are not being covered by traditional media. She believes if she can provide an understanding of life in Israel, it can aid the peace process.

“Very seldom do you see the daily reality the Palestinians are under and the pressure and violence they are living with on a daily basis,” Olewin said. “One of my big goals is to help these stories get out and to give life and voice to that.”

Olewin said the overriding reality for Israelis is a sense of fear of terrorist attacks surrounding every aspect of daily life. For the Palestinians, there also is fear, and an existence in which no aspect of daily life has gone unaffected due to military presence, curfews, roadblocks and the destruction of private property in cities surrounded by barbed wire. She said she believes both groups feel they are stuck and have no hope for peace.

“A good sign is people are starting to come together to meet and talk,” Olewin said.

A video was presented to illustrate the daily tragedy along with a seed of hope. The video documented a Palestinian family that was removed from its home with virtually no notice. The home was demolished by the Israelis. It was the fifth home lost by that family to demolition.

The video showed the cruelty and the loss experienced by the family. It also showed a small group of Israeli citizens who came to defend the family and, in the end, helped them rebuild their home.

The video informed the audience of the pressure and violence of daily life in Palestine and to show the possibilities for cooperation.

“If you put a video like this on ‘60 Minutes,’” said Craig Greenman, NIU philosophy professor, “it would change the entire U.S. foreign policy. People do not know the realities and the history of what is going on. If you give people the facts, they will make the right choice.”

NIU’s Information Technology Services is changing the logon process for the university’s network systems.

“In an effort to improve security of systems at NIU, ITS will begin to enforce the use of eight-character alphanumeric passwords across all platforms beginning [today],” said Elizabeth Leake, associate director of ITS customer support services.

The decision to enforce the eight-character password resulted from a State of Illinois audit recommendation.

“NIU is audited because we are operated by the State of Illinois and must show proof of compliance with best practices and audit requirements on behalf of the taxpayers,” Leake said. “It isn’t being done as a result of an increased risk or occurrence. The risk always has been there. By enforcing a standard across all platforms, we hope to further improve the security and privacy of our patrons’ personal information.”

For those whose passwords do not follow the new standards, there is no need to rush out and get a new password just yet, Leake said.

“If you are currently using a password that doesn’t follow these guidelines, the next time your password is due to be changed, you will need to create an eight-character alphanumeric combination,” Leake said. “It doesn’t magically take place [today], but thereafter as new passwords are created.”

Enforcing the new passwords seems to have had little effect on students thus far.

“I haven’t heard anything about it,” sophomore management major Brian Kazmierski said. “It doesn’t seem like a big deal though. I’ll change it when I have to.”

When choosing a new password, Leake suggests avoiding common words, names, birthdays, addresses or other information that could be available to the public.

For those interested in changing their password, visit www.webfoyer.niu.edu. You must know your current password to get a new one. If you do not know your current password, call 752-7738.

A Shabbona man has been charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse stemming from an alleged incident that occurred several years ago.

DeKalb County Sheriff’s police arrested Ron Panttila, 40, of Shabbona on Friday afternoon. The victim told police the incident occurred several years ago.

Panttila is being held in DeKalb County Jail with bond set at $50,000.

Fred Anderson, a Delta Omicron Sigma fraternity member, uses the holiday season as an opportunity to help others through charity.

Toys for Tots is a U.S. Marine Corps program designed to help disadvantaged children during the holidays.

Delta Omicron Sigma, a national veterans fraternity, will be involved this year to help raise money and collect toys.

“We wanted to do some kind of community service,” Anderson said. “We figured that this would be a good fit for us.”

The fraternity thought supporting Toys for Tots would be a great idea because many of the brothers are Marine Corps veterans.

Toys for Tots campaigns are conducted in more than 450 communities in all 50 states each year. The campaigning usually lasts from October to Dec. 22. After Dec. 22, the organization prepares the toys for delivery.

Collections already began at NIU, and will be accepted until Dec. 20.

The Holmes Student Center’s south bus turnaround and the Campus Life Building have boxes where new toys can be dropped off.

There is no preference as to the types of toys donated, just as long as they are new and unwrapped, Anderson said.

The primary goal is to collect new, unwrapped toys and distribute them to children by Christmas. The organization also accepts monetary donations.

The community plays a big role in the process. Dan Gallagher, a community coordinator of Toys for Tots in DeKalb County, said almost $5,000 was collected last year.

Social service agencies call the community coordinators to advise them which and how many children are in need of help. Police and teachers also may be aware of children in need of assistance.

Sycamore, Genoa, Somonauk and Sandwich also are pulling together to help the organization in DeKalb County.

The organization urges the community to get involved to bring happiness to many children this year.

“Anybody who wants to be involved can,” Gallagher said.

For more information, or to make a donation, call Dan Gallagher at 815-784-2606 or Fred Anderson at 847-668-9858.

The increased number of police on patrol during Homecoming weekend wasn’t just a coincidence - it was the result of “Operation Campus.”

“Operation Campus” is a cooperative effort between local police departments and the Illinois State Police, used when extra patrols are needed in campus towns.

It is a random program that takes place when “there is something going on,” said DeKalb police Lt. Jim Kayes. Usually, DeKalb police ask for the assistance of the state police during events that bring increased amounts of people into the area, such as Corn Fest, NIU’s Homecoming and graduation.

“The extra police presence was especially needed this year,” Kayes said. “This was the worst it has been in years when it came to parking.”

During Homecoming, businesses on the west side of DeKalb were hit especially hard with the increased amount of cars. Traffic brought the west side to a stop on the Friday night of Homecoming weekend. To alleviate the congestion in the area, police had to shut down some businesses for the night.

The main focus of “Operation Campus” is “to keep alcohol out of the hands that it doesn’t belong,” said Master Sgt. Lincoln Hampton of the Illinois State Police.

The operation is performed randomly on campuses around Illinois to deter the sale and consumption of alcohol to minors, driving under the influence and the violation of other traffic laws.

During Homecoming weekend, there were 36 arrests for illegal possession or consumption of alcohol by minors, 28 arrests for failure to wear seatbelts, seven arrests for operation of an uninsured motor vehicles and three arrests for drug violations.

Student Association President Shaun Crisler unveiled proposed budgets for the SA magazine and improvements for organization offices at the inaugural meeting of the SA Media Board.

Crisler will request $19,247, which is subject to the approval of the SA Senate, from the general reserve fund to pay for the magazine for the rest of the academic year.

“It can’t be supplemental funding, so the only place it can come from is the general reserve,” Crisler said.

When combined with the $17,436.35 already spent on the magazine from Crisler’s Sept. 21 executive allocations budget, the total cost of the magazine will grow to $36,683.35.

The magazine is called Huskie Highlights, and its purpose is to highlight the accomplishments of student organizations.

“The goal is to keep it positive,” Crisler said.

Although there is an editor, Crisler will retain some creative control over the magazine to make sure it has “taste” and appropriate focus. He said he will review the magazine before it is printed so he understands the reasoning behind what will be published.

“It’s as independent as a magazine can be [that is] funded by student fees,” Crisler said.

Six thousand copies of the magazine will be published monthly. Crisler said he thinks it doesn’t make sense to print more copies until a readership is built.

“With any small grassroots effort, you definitely want to try small,” Crisler said. “I don’t want to print 25,000 copies just to have 25,000 copies. It doesn’t make sense for this to be the first time and print 25,000.”

Crisler said he will explore increasing the amount of copies published each month if the magazine is received well by students.

“I definitely want to build a readership,” Crisler said. “I want to get them in the residence halls [and] get them in the different complexes and make sure people are reading them. I hope 6,000 copies is way short.”

The first issue of the magazine is almost finished, said Allison Thompson, SA director of public affairs. The first issue should be published before the end of the month.

“With this being the first issue and not many people outside of the SA knowing about the Huskie Highlights, it’s been a little bit of a matter of filling space, too,” Thompson said. “I think that this first issue is probably going to be a lot SA-orientated, and then with the goal in the future to obviously have it just be ‘organizationally focused.’”

Crisler also presented the board with a $12,341.15 budget for improvements to the organization offices at Campus Life Building, Suite 190. Of the proposed budget, $12,129.50 is for new computers; the rest will go to office supplies.

This funding is in addition to the $4,830 spent on providing the offices with Internet access and phones. If the senate approves the additional expenditures, the SA will have spent $17,171.15 on improving these offices.

“Those offices are not user-friendly, which is probably why they are not being used,” Thompson said.

SA Vice President Andrew Becerra and Crisler will meet with the organizations that currently have offices to explain the updates to the offices. Becerra and Crisler also will explain that these groups will be expected to begin holding regular office hours.

“We don’t want to make an investment this large and have people not utilize their offices,” Crisler said.

The senate created the media board Oct. 20 to oversee areas within the SA pertaining to technical services, organizational Web sites and any other major media outlets.

In 1986, NIU left the MAC in what now is viewed as a bad move. It doesn’t look like the Huskies will leave the MAC again anytime soon.

NIU President John Peters said there could be as many as 24 teams to change conferences this season, but he doesn’t expect NIU to be one of them.

“All the changing of conferences started with the ACC and Big East, and then there is a domino effect,” Peters said. “NIU is really centered in the MAC and we are really pleased to be in here.”

One current member of the MAC, Marshall, already has announced it will join Conference USA next year. Rumors have said NIU may not be far behind.

“We always listen, but I see no reason to go to Conference USA,” Peters said. “They’ve lost so many teams, there’s no definition to them. We left the MAC a while back; that was a mistake.”

The MAC has seven teams in the East and West divisions this year. With the loss of Marshall, the MAC East will have six teams. MAC Commissioner Rick Chryst said the Big East is looking for a ninth member for football and possibly could be looking at Central Florida, which is a member of the MAC for football only.

An invitation, however, has been extended to Central Florida to join the MAC for all sports. They have until the end of this week to respond, NIU Athletics Director Cary Groth said.

“My own opinion is that you have 12 or 14 teams,” Groth said. “Northern Illinois, as far as I’m concerned, we don’t want 13 teams for scheduling purposes.”

The MAC would need to add a new team to make an even number if Central Florida did accept its invitation to the MAC.

“When all is said, there could be almost 20 percent of Division I-A switching conferences,” said Chryst, who was at the NIU-Ball State football game on Saturday. “I think everyone is still waiting on the Big East to see how it might sort out. Certainly when things are going well, you want to stick together. Having said that, the competitive core of our conference - who we are, what our values are - are all still here.”

The MAC has two bowl tie-ins, with the GMAC Bowl and the Motor City Bowl. Conference USA has five bowls it is affiliated with. Groth doesn’t feel that will be the case in the near future.

“If you look at the differences in the football programs in the Conference-USA and the MAC, the Mid-American Conference has done a much better job,” Groth said. “Yes, the Conference-USA has more bowl tie-ins, but those bowl contracts are coming up. I think what Rick Chryst is doing is giving us the opportunities to have more bowl opportunities. I emphasize, Northern Illinois is very happy in the Mid-American Conference.”

NIU football coach Joe Novak said the Huskies are in the best league for them as a program.

“I think our football’s better than Conference USA,” Novak said. “We got out of this league 20 years ago and made a mistake. We’re in a great league for us and I hope we stay right where we are.”

Laughter and screams could be heard from the Stevens Building’s Players Theatre on Thursday and Friday as theater students presented “Children of the Corn II.”

“Children of the Corn II” contained parodies of 14 different movies including “Alien,” “The Blair Witch Project” and “The Ring.”

“I thought it was awesome,” said senior dance major Andrea Rodriguez, whose favorite skit was the parody of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” “They all did a great job.”

In addition to the skits, students dressed as monsters also roamed the audience.

Some students thought a background in horror movies was necessary to fully enjoy the show.

“I think you have to have a knowledge of a lot of scary movies to get stuff,” said junior art education major Bjana Lunde.

“Children of the Corn II” also featured an original piece titled “The Drifter.” The piece featured Alex Gunn, a senior theater major, dressed as a monster and had various scenes throughout the evening. In two scenes, Gunn “killed” disruptive audience members who were part of the show.

“It turned into an actor’s revenge,” said Alice Pacyga, senior theater major and member of the production’s coordinating committee.

The purpose of the piece also was to make the audience uncomfortable.

“We liked the idea of freaking out the audience a little,” said Gunn, who drank blood out of a fake severed hand.

Some aspects of the piece were improvised during the performance.

“I just started and kind of played with it,” Gunn said.

Peers from the theater department said they enjoyed “Children of the Corn II” overall.

“They did a good job becoming the characters,” sophomore theater major Colleen Boag said.

A new study states that taller people have higher salaries in the workplace. Timothy Judge, a management professor at the University of Florida, and Dan Cable, a management professor in the Kenan Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill, conducted the study.

“We discussed the ‘common’ belief that tall people somehow ‘get ahead’ and the ‘Napoleon complex’ idea and we decided to take a look at the linkage between height and work performance/income,” Cable said.

Cable said he and Judge conducted a meta-analysis of all the studies they could find on height and career success since the 1900s, which amounted to about 45 studies.

He said they conducted four new investigations linking height and income. Cable said 8,590 people participated in the study, which also controlled for sex, weight and age.

The results of the study revealed height does matter in terms of workplace success, Cable said.

The findings suggest a person who is 6 feet tall is predicted to earn $166,000 more over a 30-year period compared to a person who is 5 feet 5 inches.

He also said according to their study, height matters over the course of a person’s career, not just at the start of it. Results also showed height is somewhat more import for men in terms of career success, but it still affects women.

Cable and Judge found there is a stronger link between height and salary in jobs where the skills of persuasion are more important (such as sales and management), but it still is a factor in jobs that are not as socially-oriented, such as engineering, accounting and clerical work.

Cable said he and Judge did not focus on why height affects salary, but they did develop a model that would help explain it.

The model sows height affects self-esteem and job performance. These factors relate to salaries and career success.

Not everyone is buying into the study.

“It sounds kind of crazy,” said Ashley Castro, a sophomore journalism major.

“I’m 5-foot-2 and more self-confident than most people, I think. From personal experience and the jobs that I’ve had, I don’t feel like that rings true.”

Illinois policy makers’ attitudes toward wildlife conservation do not reflect the views of residents, according to a study by the Illinois Natural History Survey.

East-central Illinois residents and their local government officials answered a series of questions relating to protection of the environment and water resources.

The responses may indicate the general population wants more government protection for the wildlife habitat than officials want to give.

“We found there are significant differences,” primary author Craig Miller said. “I think it has to do with the values, beliefs and perspectives on water use.”

Of the general public, 66 percent agreed with a statement that stronger protection is needed for wildlife habitats along rivers and streams. Fewer than half - 46 percent - of the officials agreed.

“A lot of [policy makers] are agriculturalists,” said Jean Flemma, executive director of Prairie Rivers Network.

Flemma said the agribusiness community is making decisions based on their own needs rather than the wishes of the public.

“It’s an interesting finding; we have a job to do in educating policy makers on the wishes of the public,” Flemma said.

While 52 percent of policy makers felt too much attention is given to wildlife in deciding how land is to be used, only 20 percent of the public felt this way.

“It’s too broad [a study] to make any specific conclusions on whether or not individual units do or do not respect environmental issues,” said Paul Miller, of the DeKalb County Regional Planning Commission.

Miller said DeKalb County includes a comprehensive environmental plan in its growth plan.

“We identify those areas that are environmentally important, and those will be conserved,” Miller said.

“They’re definitely coming from a different perspective,” researcher Craig Miller said.

“Perceptions are important for policy,” Craig said. “They shouldn’t be discounted just because they’re thoughts. If the public is concerned, the public will act on those concerns.”

Questions concerning water quality show further differences between policy makers and the public.

Chemical contamination in drinking water was a concern for 70 percent of the public. Slightly more than half of policy makers said they were concerned.

More than two-thirds of policy makers said water contamination is not a problem in their community.

The survey was completed by 1,263 members of the public and 158 policy makers in spring 2003 in primarily rural east-central Illinois.

The report was issued in August by the Illinois Natural History Survey, a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson, isn’t the only NIU alumnus to succeed in Hollywood. Jason Matthew Smith has found success on ESPN’s “Playmakers.”

Smith plays the role of Eric Olczyk, the ill-tempered linebacker on ESPN’s first dramatic series. Smith received his master’s degree in theater from NIU and was in DeKalb from 1996 to ’99. He also taught and assisted Theater 101 and 110 courses during his time on campus.

Followers of the show on campus were surprised when told the 6-foot-1, 248-pound Smith got his master’s from NIU.

“Wait, the linebacker went here?” senior communication major Rob Stern said. “I’m shocked.”

Residing in Los Angeles, Smith said the thing he remembers most about his time in DeKalb is the cold winters.

“DeKalb was like Siberia,” Smith said. “The winters were brutal. They were so cold. I spent most of my time inside of Eduardo’s, Lord Stanley’s and Otto’s.”

Smith doesn’t miss the cold temperatures, but does crave food from one of his favorite restaurants.

“I love Burritoville,” Smith said. “I miss those burritos, man.”

The “Playmakers” actor played football from seventh grade until his senior year in high school as an offensive and defensive lineman, but didn’t play in college despite being recruited by Michigan, Ohio State and Tennessee.

“I wanted to follow my heart instead of my brawn,” Smith said. “I didn’t want to go through all the punishment those guys go through.”

When Smith was on campus, the football team was in the midst of a 23-game losing streak. Smith remembers being at the game when NIU defeated Central Michigan to break the streak in 1998.

Today, the NIU football team is ranked No. 12, which shocked Smith.

“They’re No. 12!” Smith said. “I knew they beat Alabama and Maryland, but No. 12, wow.”

Coming to DeKalb to see the Huskies play is something Smith would like to do, but, he said, now is too busy of a time. However, if the Huskies were to make a bowl game, he said he and some of his NIU buddies definitely will be there.

“I’ve heard of the show, but I’ve never watched it,” NIU football coach Joe Novak said. “But is that so? Wow, how’d that happen?”

In episode one of “Playmakers,” Smith’s character reveals he is mentally and emotionally stressed by events that have taken place in his life.

Viewers find out that Olczyk’s brother died on the field from overexertion in the heat.

“I like his character, he’s the one I’m most intrigued about,” Stern said. “I like the actual emotion he displays, that often times as the public, we don’t think they (athletes) have.”

NIU receiver P.J. Fleck, like Stern, also likes Smith’s character and certain aspects of the show.

“I like his toughness,” Fleck said. “It also shows that he’s got problems off the field. He’s got some things that he’s thought about in the past, and that’s with all of us too. Football is just like life, you’ve got problems, you deal with it and you move on. He makes sure he separates football from life, and that’s what you have to do.”

A few months ago, Smith was out of shape after breaking up with a long-time girlfriend. He said he wanted and needed to do something about his appearance and began working out.

“I lost 45 pounds in three months. I went to an audition for “Playmakers” and they told me I was too skinny,” Smith said. “So I told them to give me a week and I kept working out and taking protein drinks. I gained 15 pounds in a week-and-a-half and I was working out nine hours a day. I went back in, shaved my head, grew a goatee and they liked it.”

Smith said he and Olczyk have a lot of similarities. He said they both are the strong, silent type. But Smith wouldn’t take his temper as far as Olczyk does because of lawsuits and jail time.

“Playmakers” has received good ratings this season, Smith said, but with the Cubs’ playoff games, ratings recently have been down a little.

The first season of “Playmakers” finished shooting Oct. 7. Another season of “Playmakers” has been discussed, but isn’t definite as of now, Smith said.

“If I were guessing, I’d say we’d have a season two,” Smith said. “I’d be back. I have a lot of fun doing it, and I think we all do.”