In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the damage to the Gulf of Mexico, energy prices are estimated to increase about 70 percent this winter.

NIU Housing and Dining budgeted $6.5 million to all utility costs, including heating plant costs, within the residence halls for the fiscal year, said Brien Martin, associate director of business affairs for student life.

If a 70 percent increase does occur, an additional $4.55 million would be needed for utilities.

Since it would have been impossible to predict Hurricane Katrina when the budget was prepared in November and December of last year, this increase was not taken into consideration.

Students don’t need to worry how Housing and Dining will make up for any losses. It is not the policy of Housing and Dining, or the university, to increase room and board rates to make up for unanticipated costs from the previous year, Martin said.

"Housing and Dining will do everything they can to adjust its overall budget during the current year to help pay for any increases in which they did not budget," Martin said. "Housing and Dining makes do with less in some areas, but they are committed to maintaining present levels of service wherever practical."

The increase in energy costs does not apply to only residence halls. Students living off campus also may see an increase in their bills this winter.

Some students are unaware such an increase was predicted.

"I guess I really hadn’t thought about ways to conserve energy, but I didn’t expect such a high increase either," junior English major Dan Hahn said.

Some students already are practicing ways to save on energy costs.

"Within my house, I have all the computers set to automatically shut down for the night. It actually saves a lot," said Kevin Levy, a freshman communication studies major.

There are ways for students to reduce energy usage.

"Turn lights, computers, stereos and other electronics off when not in use. Leave temperature settings at an ‘even’ level and adjust clothing worn if a room is too warm or too cold," Martin said. "Also, keep windows closed so that the effort of heating your living space isn’t simply flowing outside the building."

Students in the residence halls have ways to help cut back costs as well.

"I live in the residence halls so heat doesn’t really affect me, but as far as electric goes, I’m going to turn off lights, televisions and other things when I’m not in my room," junior history major Anthony Elling said.

The River of Life Christian Church will hold a conference for prayer and worship this weekend at the Holmes Student Center.

"Blow the Trumpet in Zion" is a gathering for people interested in praying and listening to speakers talk about faith and healing, conference organizer Mark Wainwright said.

The event will feature prophetic ministry teams offering personal prophecies to those interested.

Prophetic worship involves experiencing church while opening oneself up to God, Wainwright said.

"In the Bible, God had spoken of a time when he would re-establish the Tabernacle of David," he said. "In this conference, we would be coming together in response to what God had spoken and is planning on doing."

Among the speakers is a representative of the Mount Carmel church in northern Israel, located where the prophet Elijah called down fire from the heavens in the Bible, Wainwright said.

A youth rally will be held from 6 to 11 p.m. today at the Holmes Student Center’s Diversions Lounge. The conference will go Friday through Sunday at the student center’s Carl Sandburg Auditorium.

Friday’s conference begins at 7 p.m., while weekend conferences begin at 8:30 a.m. Admission is $15 for those 18 and older; $10 for those ages 13 to 17; and $5 for those 12 and under.

American Indian tribe Prairie Band Potawotomi still plans to bring a casino to Shabbona, tribe spokesman Jim McCarthy said.

The tribe is trying to re-establish what it thinks is its land near the small town in southern DeKalb County.

"They are having dialogue with the [Illinois] governor’s office to move that process forward," McCarthy said.

Brad Hahn, a spokesman from Congressman Dennis Hastert’s office, said the tribe contacted the Department of the Interior with the proposal about three years ago. It has not heard from the tribe since then, he said.

McCarthy said John Leshy of the Department of the Interior sent a letter to Hastert and Gov. Rod Blagojevich stating that the land belonged to the tribe.

A former official in the Department of the Interior originally said the land belonged to the tribe and it was free to build a casino on it. That official did not have the authority to do that, Hahn said.

"There has been no communication since," he said. "There are still a lot of questions."

The tribe first lost its Illinois reservation in the 1840s. While the band was in Kansas, being forced out of its land there, people claimed the tribe abandoned its land in Illinois. The former Office of Indian Affairs didn’t conduct an investigation, and the land then was sold at a public auction.

When the tribe returned to Illinois, it discovered its land was sold illegally and was forced out of the reservation.

Since then, the tribe has tried unsuccessfully to regain its land.

The tribe in Kansas built a casino on its land, and the casino has proved to be a very positive source of income there, McCarthy said. The casino helped bring jobs into the area, and other area businesses also were able to profit.

McCarthy said he doesn’t see a problem with business, even though there is a casino nearby in Aurora.

Shabbona Mayor Claudia Hicks said the tribe is not required to go to the village board to bring the casino to the town.

"We haven’t had any communication with the tribe," she said.

She also said no community members have gotten too upset about the possibility of having a casino nearby.

McCarthy said he has heard a variety of reaction from the community, most being very encouraging.

"It will make more jobs and better infrastructure," he said.

Also, the profits the casino makes will be given back to the community. The tribe does not keep the money, he said.

Karen Eliot, an associate professor of dance at Ohio State University, will give two presentations this week as part of Women’s History Month. They are sponsored by NIU’s Women’s Studies Program and the Graduate Colloquium Committee.

Tuesday’s speech, “Lives and Livelihoods: Six Women Dancers from the 18th Century to the Present,” will examine the lives and careers of several dancers across Europe and the United States. The speech will be given at 7:30 p.m. at Neptune Central’s Northeast and Southeast Meeting Rooms.

“I am interested in what is left out of the history texts since most of the time we hear only about stars or dancers who are notorious in some way,” said Eliot, a former dancer in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

The presentation is meant to remind everyone that history is made by the changes made daily in the dance studio as well as the bigger ones made onstage, Eliot said.

Among the dancers discussed will be Tamara Karsavina, a Russian ballerina who also was a working mother and writer; Moira Shearer, a ballerina who performed in movies during the 1940s and 1950s; and Catherine Kerr, a modern dancer and colleague in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Eliot said.

Eliot, who has a Ph.D. in English, will give a second seminar, “Careers in English and Dance,” at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Reavis Hall, Room 211. She will discuss her experiences with the two careers and advise students who are looking to combine them.

“I think students who have multifaceted, rich lives and who hope to explore a number of different career opportunities may want to hear about my ongoing efforts to pursue both careers and my continual balancing of one lifelong interest with another,” Eliot said.

Even with an additional Class A liquor license, DeKalb still would have fewer bars and liquor stores by population than other Illinois college towns.

Currently, there are 16 liquor licenses held in DeKalb, but one may be added after the city’s special census is completed.

In the 2000 census, DeKalb had a population of just more than 39,000. DeKalb’s liquor ordinance allows for a 17th license if the city tops 40,000 people and an additional license for every 5,000 additional residents.

Signs point to DeKalb surpassing 40,000 once the census is complete next month, DeKalb Mayor Greg Sparrow said, but an additional license is not guaranteed. In 1992, the city surpassed 35,000 people and was in line for a 17th license, but the DeKalb City Council changed the ordinance to 40,000 people for a 17th license.

The desire for additional Class A licenses then was not as great as it is now, Sparrow said.

Dennis Radcliff, owner of Husky’s Bar & Grill, 1205 W. Lincoln Highway, has experienced the demand firsthand.

When he opened his restaurant in the fall, Radcliff said he was hoping to get a Class A license, but he was forced to get an E license because of the limitations.

For better or worse

Even if DeKalb does add a 17th license, it still would have fewer Class A equivalent licenses than other major college towns in Illinois. Class A equivalent licenses include bars and packaged liquor retailers.

In Champaign, a city with a population of just more than 67,500, the city has a limit set at 48 licenses for bars and 25 licenses for package sales or liquor stores. In neighboring Urbana, population 36,400, the city has issued 33 licenses to bars and liquor stores.

Even with more bars, Dustin Wesley, assistant manager at Clybourne in Champaign, said his bar does well.

“[Other bars] don’t really affect our business overall,” Wesley said.

In DeKalb, added licenses and added competition isn’t seen as a good idea by some current bar owners.

Nick Tsiftilis, owner of Starbusters Bar & Grill and Thirsty Liquors, 930 Pappas Drive, said DeKalb doesn’t have the customer base for many more bars or liquor stores.

“There’s not that much of a demand here [as compared to other communities],” Tsiftilis said. “If the bars in town had lines three, four nights a week, I would say ‘why not?’ I would open another one myself.”

One factor allowing more bar business in the other towns is the lower bar-entry age, Tsiftilis said. Both Champaign and Carbondale allow 19-year-olds into bars as long as they don’t drink alcohol.

A provision to allow 19- and 20-year-olds in DeKalb bars failed at the city council three years ago.

At the Pinch Penny Bar, one of the more popular student bars in Carbondale, owner Frank Karayiannis said allowing younger people to enter does bring more people to the bar, but he is doubtful that allowing more licenses in Carbondale would fare well for everyone in town.

Carbondale (population 20,681) has 15 bar licenses and another eight for liquor stores. That’s about as many as Karayiannis said he thinks the town can handle before people begin putting each other out of business.

Putting other bars out of business is something Sparrow said he does not want to see in DeKalb. Additional licenses could do that, he said, especially if someone comes in well-funded and is able to drive down prices to the point with which established bars can’t compete.

For Jeff Dobie, owner of Fatty’s Pub and Grill, 1312 W. Lincoln Highway, the argument for fewer liquor licenses goes beyond competition and into perception.

“You can’t have the town overrun with bars,” Dobie said. “It looks bad.”

Self-serving?

Radcliff argued that Class A bars are just trying to look out for their economic benefit when they say they don’t want more bars in town, Radcliff said.

“I’ve never been through anything like DeKalb,” said Radcliff, who has owned a bar outside of Charleston and lived in Champaign for many years, where many of his friends owned bars.

“They have no problems with business,” said Radcliff, about his friends in Champaign. “There’s no problem with so many of them down there.”

When or if a new license becomes available, Radcliff said he would be interested in it. He added that an additional license might put an end to the talks of licenses in town.

Sparrow agreed with Radcliff, saying that the discussion of liquor licenses is greater than it has been in his 20 years as mayor, Sparrow said. But that’s not necessarily bad, he added.

If bar owners know there is a desire for their license, they will work harder to abide by the rules, so as not to lose the coveted license, Sparrow said.