The Daily Northwestern — March 4, 2021

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The Daily Northwestern Thursday, March 4, 2021

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A&E

2 CITY

Past aldermen host anti-incumbency call

arts & entertainment

CLASSROOM

High 36 Low 28

Sargent, Elder faced modified quarantine Two residential halls undergo indorm quarantine

By ANUSHUYA THAPA

daily senior staffer @anushyathapa

As District 65 rolls out hybrid learning, community members remain conflicted about implications of a return to in-person instruction

By JACOB FULTON

daily senior staffer @jacobnfulton

Tracy Fulce-Gentle had a decision to make.

The 2nd Ward resident faced the same choice as thousands of families across Evanston/Skokie School District 65: Would she send her children back to school when the district resumed inperson learning?

On Feb. 18, nearly half the students attending

schools across the district, which serves students in pre-K through eighth grade, returned to partial face-to-face instruction after months of uncertainty throughout the community as officials attempted to devise a safe plan to reopen schools.

District 65 initially aimed to return to some in-person instruction on Sept. 29, a month after the school year began. But shifting COVID-19 case numbers in the region repeatedly postponed the launch of the district’s hybrid learning program until the reopening a few weeks ago.

Community tensions grew as the district pushed back the return. Some parents’ calls for in-person instruction became more urgent, and others’ requests to keep children home for safety remained consistent. Meanwhile, district officials struggled to find a path forward as they looked to satisfy the needs of as many residents as possible.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while many cases of COVID-19

» See IN FOCUS, page 6

Residents of two residential halls have undergone an indorm quarantine period following local outbreaks in each building.

Communication freshman Amy Reyes-Gomez said she received an email from residential services declaring a five-day quarantine effective immediately for the entire second floor of Sargent Residential Hall.

First floor residents of Elder Hall were sent a similar email.

The emails said no student should leave their room outside of essential activities such as using the restroom, picking up dining hall meals, and getting tested for COVID-19. It also instructed students to get rapid antigen tests three-to-four times over the course of the modified quarantine period.

“It definitely wasn’t surprising to me,” Reyes-Gomez said.

“There’s definitely a large group of people on the floor that were being irresponsible.”

Reyes-Gomez said around ten students from her floor out of a total of 30-40 went into quarantine housing as part of University contact tracing procedures. To her, this number “made sense” given the close proximity the students shared with others living on their floor.

The restrictions for Sargent were lifted Saturday while the restrictions for Elder were lifted on Wednesday.

The University’s Chief Risk and Compliance Officer Luke Figora told the Daily that modified in-dorm quarantines were not a result of community transmission, but rather because of

» See QUARANTINE, page 10

Recycle Me

INSIDE: Around Town 2 | On Campus 3 | A&E 4 | Classifieds & Puzzles 6 | Sports 12

2

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021

THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

AROUND TOWN

Former leaders organize to combat ‘anti-incumbency’

By ALEX HARRISON

the daily northwestern @alexhairysun

Several former city leaders had plans to hold a Zoom meeting Wednesday to “discuss strategy” in combating “anti-incumbency” efforts they alleged rooted in community organizations like the Organization for Positive Action and Leadership ahead of the April 6 general election.

The meeting was organized by former aldermen Jane Grover (7th) and Delores Holmes (5th), along with former Evanston Chief Equity Officer Patricia Efiom and residents Kelly Marcelle and Dick Peach. An email invite to the meeting that was obtained by the Daily was sent Tuesday evening to over 60 people, including Mayor Steve Hagerty, former Evanston Director of Finance William Stafford, and Northwestern Executive Director of Neighborhood and Community Relations Dave Davis.

“Our community needs a counterpoint to the concerted effort to undermine our local government by a small and determined group of residents, organized under several banners (perhaps OPAL, Community Alliance for Better Government, Reclaim Evanston),” the email read. “They are promoting a slate of candidates to replace virtually the entire City Council.”

The email went on to list several policy positions the writers say “would undermine good government in Evanston,” including returning full Freedom of Information Act powers to the city clerk, allowing residents to place binding referendums on the ballot, and replacing City Manager Erika Storlie.

The email comes one week after the Consolidated Primary Election, where preliminary results suggest incumbent Ald. Don Wilson (4th) and incumbent Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) both failed to advance to the general election in April.

OPAL released a statement in response Wednesday that said the email contained misinformation about its candidate endorsement

Daily file photo by Daniel Tian

Former Ald. Jane Grover (7th). Grover sent an email to dozens of Evanston residents Tuesday inviting them to a Zoom meeting on the upcoming Consolidated General Election.

process.

“OPAL has never called for (Storlie’s) removal, nor any of the other policies suggested by the group seeking to smear OPAL’s name and work,” the statement said.

OPAL board member Alex Morgan also told the Daily he and other members of OPAL were taken aback by the email, particularly since all municipal candidates were offered an opportunity to speak with them ahead of their endorsement.

Morgan said members of OPAL were compelled to release a statement to set the record straight about this endorsement process this election cycle.

“There’s a majority on council that is not forthright, is not transparent, and is not responsive to the needs of Evanston residents,” Morgan said. “And that is ultimately what informed OPAL’s endorsements.”

Community Alliance for Better Government also released a statement to their Facebook

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Wednesday, writing that good government “is not what exists in Evanston today.” The statement confirmed CABG’s solidarity with OPAL and Reclaim Evanston in “urging Evanston residents to vote on April 6th for candidates who stand up for the people in all their diversity.”

After the email began circulating online Wednesday, numerous residents took to social media to voice their outrage and dismay.

A post of the email on the Evanston Fight for Black Lives Facebook group garnered over 50 comments by press time.

“Grover claims that the anti-incumbent movement represents a ‘small and determined group of residents,’” resident Lesley Williams commented. “How then to explain that the staid, mainstream Democratic Party of Evanston was in complete agreement with their endorsements?”

Resident Trisha Connolly commented, “the ol’ power brokers are a bit concerned about potential shifts in building a more equitable Evanston.”

Kevin Brown, 9th Ward resident, said he was disturbed by the level of contempt the email directed toward progressive organizations and candidates.

“It’s shocking, because we have such a progressive community,” Brown said. “It just kind of reminded me of the culture that we’re in now, where people are really against democracy. They’re against participation by disenfranchised groups.”

It is unclear whether the meeting itself actually occurred Wednesday night. The Daily was unable to enter the meeting via the link provided in the email, and some residents commented online that they were similarly blocked.

Grover, Holmes, and Efiom did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication. Ald. Judy Fiske (1st) said in an email to The Daily she “did not receive the email,” and was otherwise unaware of the group sending it.

Other aldermen and Mayor Hagerty also did not respond to requests for comment. alexharrison2023@u.northwestern.edu

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THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021

THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

3

ON CAMPUS

NU religious groups find community

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By KATRINA PHAM

eic@dailynorthwestern.com

the daily northwestern @katrinapham_

As COVID-19 restrictions loosen, some student religious groups are holding in-person events to welcome students to campus.

To recreate feelings of community, Catholic, Muslim and Jewish students on campus have been hosting a mix of religious and social events remotely or in-person.

Rabbi Jessica Lott said Northwestern Hillel has been building community by distributing Shabbat care packages to students. The feeling of community, Lott said, is an important part of Hillel and being Jewish.

Hillel President Tamar Jacobsohn said she appreciates the opportunity to connect with other Jewish students, especially incoming freshmen and sophomores. Jacobsohn said celebrating the High Holidays in September could have been “isolating” and “difficult” for some since many synagogues were closed. The Friday night Shabbat meal pick-ups allow for even the smallest of interactions, which Jacobsohn said makes a difference.

“Even though you’re only seeing a staff member or other students in a mask for five minutes, it still creates some semblance of community,” Jacobsohn said.

As limited in-person masses open up on campus, Weinberg sophomore Peter Ha said he is glad to be able to return to the community and faith he finds in the Catholic Students Association and the church.

CaSA board member Filippo Ferraresi said the Bible emphasizes the importance of sharing as a community. He said he feels the “power” of bringing worship gatherings back to an in-person setting.

“It’s very clear from the Bible and the Catholic teachings that the sacrament and the adventure should be shared as a community,” Ferraresi said.

“It is a powerful element being able to celebrate things in person.”

Although the Muslim-Cultural Students Association has not held in-person programming, they

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The Northwestern Hillel building at 629 Foster St. Hillel and other student religious organizations are adapting their programming to the pandemic.

have continued spiritual and social events over Zoom. They invited four guest speakers to their Discover Islam Week, where students were able to hear about topics relating to Muslim identity and faith.

Members of CaSA and Hillel have also been hosting prayer groups over Zoom. Ferraresi said he appreciates being able to send a message in the group chat to get a group together for prayer, even virtually.

While Hillel’s Zoom meetings are different, Jacobsohn said they are an important part of staying connected to her community. Her fellowship meets for Shabbat prayer every Friday.

“It encourages you to go every week and to keep that connection in the community,” Jacobsohn said. “While it’s not the same as sitting in the Hillel building all the time or hanging out, Hillel is making a lot of intentional effort to

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have community.”

Just as Jewish students were unable to celebrate their High Holidays together in September, McSA President Jihad Esmail said he was unable to celebrate Ramadan in April of last year.

Ramadan is typically celebrated by fasting until sundown, and then eating dinner with your family and friends as well as praying at a mosque. Esmail said being unable to celebrate Ramadan in the traditional manner was disappointing, but gave him time to reflect on his faith.

“Being at home in COVID really makes you more independent in your faith,” Esmail said.

“You realize that your relationship with God is strictly based off of your choices… and not necessarily the fact that it was built into your central schedule.” katrinapham2024@u.northwestern.edu

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THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021

A&E arts & entertainment

Photo courtesy of Lauren Washington

Lauren Washington exhibits documentary in Chicago

By NICK FRANCIS

the daily northwestern @nick24francis

When Communication junior Lauren Washington took “The One-Person Crew Documentarian” last winter, she had no idea the class final project and her documentary “Samuel Johnson Jr: More Than a Barber” would garner substantial internet attention and screen in the Chicago Filmmakers’ Spirit of Chicago 7 exhibition.

Washington said she originally took the documentary class to challenge herself as a one-woman documentarian and sole producer of a film. In joining the class, she said she was searching for ways to subvert the status quo of the industry at large.

“I wanted to step into my power and be in charge of all [film production-related] things,” Washington said. “The film industry is very dominated by White males, so I wanted to be able to undertake all the roles in this class.”

Initially, she said she struggled to find a subject to profile and turned to her peers and fellow artists. However, after her friend took

her along to Evanston’s Church Street Barber Shop, she said she was struck by its sense of history and community, and decided to focus her documentary on its owner, Samuel Johnson Jr. Johnson is a third-generation barber, making his practice inextricably tied to the Evanston locale.

As the filming moved along, Washington said she grew deeply connected with the shop, Johnson and its surrounding community. As a solo-filmmaker, she said entrenching herself in his life meant discovering more about his own story, and coming to terms with the problems she faced herself.

“During that time I was dealing with my own grandfather’s health as well, so I wanted to make sure it was right for Sam’s family since he had just suffered from a stroke,” Washington said. “I was very grateful for my professor, Danielle Beverly. Although I had to do all these roles essentially myself, I wasn’t alone, because I had her.”

Beverly said Washington has “the heart of a documentarian” and persisted through COVID-19 restrictions forcing school closure a week before the documentary was due. She added Washington always worked above and

beyond to find a close understanding between her and her subjects.

Beverly said the way the barber shop welcomed her into their space goes beyond the frame, and speaks volumes about how Washington was “perceived as a filmmaker wishing to tell their story.”

“Most importantly, students should do something that really comes from their heart, and I think that really shows in (her) final work,” Beverly said.

Medill senior Michael del Rosario helped Washington film during a few visits to the barber shop. He said Washington displayed utmost professionalism and dedication to building an inclusive atmosphere when they were filming together.

Moreover, del Rosario added her passion and willingness to connect with the subjects helped cultivate the narrative and form the documentary into what it is today.

“Having not known much about the story before that day I think it emphasized to me the importance of Samuel Johnson ( Jr.) to the Evanston community and people that have been going to his barber shop for generations,” he said. “It’s been a formative place for a lot of

these friends and family members.”

As an outpouring of support came from all angles, Washington said she felt affirmed by the community in the universality of Johnson’s story and the power of storytelling.

Now, Washington continues to see widespread reception and recognition for the film. After being published in Northwestern’s Undergraduate Research Journal and screened at the Spirit of Chicago 7, she is evaluating her next steps as her filmmaking career marches along. While she is keeping her options open — with filmmaking, Project FILO, photography and crypto-art — she said this revelatory moment has inflected her life path for the better.

“It’s definitely divine timing and unfolding for the right reason. I’ve been working a lot on writing scripts and realizing that I want to pursue screenwriting and directing; to have this first film festival under my belt was just really affirming to me,” Washington said. “It was everything I needed and more, hopefully I can keep going on that path into the film industry.” nickfrancis2024@u.northwestern.edu

The start of indie rock band Stage Wombat Collective

By HAILEY KIM

the daily northwestern @haileyykim30

Since Jordan Knitzer (Communication ‘20) and Alec Steinhorn (Communication ‘20) graduated, their careers have veered in an unexpected direction with the start of their band, Stage Wombat Collective.

Knitzer and Steinhorn met their freshman year as songwriters for the Waa-Mu Show. The duo used to focus on writing for musical theatre, which they both wanted to pursue after graduation.

When the pandemic hit, Knitzer and Steinhorn focused on a “lifelong dream” of starting a band, Knitzer said.

Stage Wombat Collective consists of Knitzer on guitar and vocals, alongside vocalist and pianist Steinhorn, and their bandmates Will Finnegan (McCormick ‘19) on the guitar, Jared Decker (Bienen ‘18) on the drums, and Rae Goldman on the bass. The group will release their first 6-song EP next Friday, March 1.

While their music is mainly in the realm of indie rock, the band also tries to incorporate funk and folk sounds. They work with traditional musical theatre elements by writing lyrics that serve a narrative function.

Last month, Stage Wombat Collective released their first single, “Clown Wolf.” “(The song is about) being the entertainment for other people and hoping they’re having a good time at the expense of you taking care of yourself,” Knitzer said. “And how we

love being the entertainers, and we love putting on the show, so there is a bittersweet tone to it.”

Steinborn described the production of “Clown Wolf ” and the band’s other song “Self-Drawn Circle” as a “humongous learning experience.” There were numerous creative decisions to make, some of which Steinhorn and Knitzer said they had never faced before.

These included figuring out which instruments to incorporate, and at what volume.

Despite not being able to practice in-person all together, the band showed strong chemistry and eagerness to work together. Decker said playing in the band is “a combination of trust and mutual respect.”

Decker said he especially enjoys the process of working with his bandmates to turn each member’s ideas into music.

“They either had an idea and we could interpret it, or they trusted us to fill in the gaps,” Decker said. “That is a really rewarding part of playing in the band.”

Knitzer, who is on guitar and vocals, said the band has a very comfortable and relaxed work environment, allowing the space to be a “happy place” for him to create.

The members of Stage Wombat Collective said they hope their future will include new and exciting opportunities, like collaborators and a national tour. They also plan to continue to explore different styles of music.

“Seeing what we can get that is exactly, specifically, and uniquely us, that’s what I’m most excited about going forward,” Steinhorn said. haileykim2023@u.northwestern.edu

THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021

5

‘Still Life with Iris’ production shows children’s power

By RAYNA SONG

the daily northwestern @raynayu_song

Stolen memories, corrupt rulers and family ties — that’s what the audience at Purple Crayon Players’ “Still Life with Iris” has to look forward to.

The live production “Still Life with Iris” revolves around the agency children have in their lives and the value of memory. The show is produced by Purple Crayon Players, a student-run theatre organization that targets young audiences, and will be streamed March 5 – 6 for free. Community members can sign up for tickets through Eventbrite.

Communication senior and director Melissa Lewyn said the hour long performance is a fun and exciting story touching on issues related to family and defiance.

“We’ve been looking to older people to make change, but ‘Still Life with Iris’ completely defies that norm and has the young people making all the change, making all the calls, convincing adults what is right,” Lewyn said.

“Still Life with Iris” takes place in Nocturno, a fictional world where citizens paint flowers and monitor nature when humans sleep. The rulers of Nocturno, the Great Goods, want to have the best of everything and thus take Iris,

Illlustration courtesy of Nathaniel Unger

Purple Crayon Players’ production “Still Life with Iris” is free to the public and airing March 5-6.

the “best daughter,” from her home, erasing her memory. In the end, Iris frees herself from the Great Goods and finds her home and her past.

Lewyn said the production discusses how memories form identities and how people lose part of themselves when they lose memories. She added the story is also about power and courage.

“The message is that you should definitely stand up for what you believe in, even if there’s an institution or a structure that says otherwise,” Lewyn said.

Although this production targets young audiences, viewers of all age groups will enjoy the story, Lewyn said. The play features characters

of different ages, allowing viewers to see a version of themselves in the play.

Communication freshman and stage manager Haley Groth said the play questions the worthiness of remembering pasts that have a mix of painful and joyous moments.

“Even though it’s theatre for young audiences, this production has a lot of themes that apply to everyone,” Groth said. “One of my favorite ones is the idea that things don’t have to be expensive and technically the best to be special to you. Sometimes the worn things and the things you create with other people are the most beautiful.”

Communication freshman Veronica Szafoni, who plays Iris, said she likes the character because of her bravery, intelligence and connection to her family.

Szafoni said many girls are taught to be submissive and quiet, and to go along with what’s happening. Iris, on the other hand, does not sugarcoat her words and expresses exactly what she wants, demonstrating “female tenacity.” “(Iris) has a lot of spunk; she has a lot of fierceness. And as soon as she senses that something’s not going in the right way, she knows how to speak up, which I think is really important for all women and all young girls to learn,” Szafoni said. raynasong2023@u.northwestern.edu

Evanston youth create art project over quarantine

By LAYA NEELAKANDAN

the daily northwestern @laya_neel

The Canal Shores Golf Course has a new sight on display: the art piece entitled “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” designed by a group of Evanston youth.

“Camp Quarantine,” as the group calls themselves, is a group of seven children aged 9-12 who bonded over quarantine by making different arts and crafts. The art piece, part of Evanston Made’s Winter Wonderland event, consists of pieces of birchwood wrapped in yarn to represent a bridge, and blue corks dangling from the birchwood to represent the water in “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. “(This project) was a really nice way for them to get to know each other better and do a lot of artistic crafts,” said local artist Amy Harms, who is a member of Evanston Made and the coordinator of the project. “It was a good way for them to think about how they had bonded over the last year and express that through a group art project.”

Harms said the children were “really excited” to do the project. On each of the corks, they inscribed words representing emotions they have felt throughout the past year. Harms said the bridge represents the friendship that helped the children get through the “troubled times.”

Camp Q member Tatum said her favorite part of the project was wrapping the birchwood in yarn because of its calming nature. She said she was particularly proud of the pattern she created on one of the sticks.

Tatum, 12, wrote the words “panicked,” “annoyed” and “calm” on the corks, which she said represented different periods of quarantine.

For example, Tatum said there was a month early on in the pandemic where she enjoyed being able to sit inside all day, before she realized the full extent of the pandemic’s impact.

“It was nice to get it off my mind and put it down on a cork,” she said. “It was cool to see our art come together.”

Tatum’s friend Ryder, 12, also agreed it “felt good” to get his feelings out onto the corks. Some of the words he wrote were “brave,” “happy,” “sad” and “overwhelmed,” all feelings he felt throughout the past year.

Ryder said despite the negative feelings, it was a fun project to do with his friends, and he enjoyed seeing the final product.

“It looked really good… it was not something I was expecting because it was really well puttogether,” Ryder said.

Lisa Geraldson, who has two children in Camp Q, said the group has provided a safe space for the children during the uncertainty brought by the pandemic.

She said although one of her children is more arts-oriented than the other, they both embraced the project and enjoyed spending time with their friends.

“The kids found each other to be a safe haven — they love being together,” Geraldson said. “(This project) gave them something outside of the ordinary… it’s not only wrapping the sticks in yarn, but it’s understanding what it means and relaying in words what they feel.”

In the future, Harms said the group plans on rotating the art piece around to different places in Evanston, including the library and their own homes.

Ultimately, she said she hopes people who see the installation understand the broader meaning behind the piece.

“I hope that they can see how kids from many different ages and backgrounds can bond, even over a pandemic, and find ways to express themselves,” Harms said. “I want to show to the community that even in the worst of times, art can heal.” laya@u.northwestern.edu

Photo courtesy of Amy Harms

The “Bridge Over Troubled Water” art piece. The piece was created by a group of Evanston youth who call themselves “Camp Quarantine.”

McCormick prof. featured on CBS show

By REBECCA AIZIN

daily senior staffer @rebecca_aizin

When McCormick School of Engineering Prof.

Brenna Argall was in college, it only took one class to change her career trajectory toward the field of autonomous robotics.

Since then, she has worked with her lab to create an autonomous wheelchair that uses external sensors to measure distance and avoid collisions, making it more accessible to people who find it a burden to use a typical wheelchair.

Argall and the autonomous wheelchair were featured on Saturday’s episode of CBS show “Mission Unstoppable” hosted by Miranda Cosgrove and produced by Litton Entertainment and Lyda Hill Philanthropies IF/THEN initiative.

The show tells stories of women from diverse backgrounds in STEM to inspire younger girls to pursue careers in those fields.

“Seeing someone like you, whether it be the same

race or gender or socioeconomic status, doing something that you can see yourself doing is very powerful,” Argall said. “These small instances of exposure can have a transformative effect on your life.”

Argall said she hopes her segment on the show will allow children with motor impairments to see a future for themselves in STEM, knowing there is currently more accessible machinery being built and they could be a part of developing it.

Argall leads argallab at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, aiming to create more autonomous robots to help people with motor impairments operate assistive machinery. Her work has been recognized by “Digital Trends” and NPR’s Morning Edition, and in 2016 she was named one of the 40 under 40 by Crain’s Chicago Business.

Anna Wenger, an executive producer and showrunner, said “Mission Unstoppable” producers wanted to highlight Argall’s work because it lies on the cutting edge of technology.

Wenger said women are often told they are not meant to be in science and technology fields, that it is not “becoming” of a woman to work in these typically

men-dominated fields.

“Despite what society has built up against them, these are women who resist every message society has given them that science isn’t for women,” Wenger said.

“They have completely been able to ignore that societal dictation and become who they are.”

Wenger said the show is the only of its kind in its conscious efforts to provide diverse role models for young girls and to show STEM can be used in aspects of daily life as well.

Matt Crommett is the director of IF/THEN, an initiative to empower women to pursue careers in STEM. He said he hopes the show and Argall’s story keeps young girls interested in science and helps increase representation in related fields.

“How could you not be inspired after seeing the job that (Brenna) has? She spends her whole day thinking about how to improve the lives of others using technology,” Crommett said. “We’re hoping this gives (the audience) energy to consider STEM careers as options.” rebeccaaizin2023@u.northwestern.edu

arts & entertainment

Editor Rebecca Aizin Assistant Editors Laya Neelakandan Nick Francis Designer Jacob Fulton Staff Rayna Song Hailey Kim

6 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

IN FOCUS From page 1

in children result in mild symptoms or are completely asymptomatic, some children have become severely ill. And even those with few or no symptoms can spread the virus to others.

For Fulce-Gentle, the decision about her children’s education has been shaped by the close impacts of COVID-19. In the past six months, she’s witnessed the deaths of three separate family members because of the virus.

One of the deaths was very unexpected, Fulce-Gentle said, as the family member had no pre-existing conditions. This underscored the danger the virus presented to her community.

In her eyes, sending her two sons back to school was akin to gambling with her household’s lives.

“Returning to in-person school, for that reason, was a non-starter — that was absolutely not going to happen under any circumstances,” Fulce-Gentle said. “Every literal physical body that’s in school makes it more dangerous for every other body that’s in school, and I recognize how quickly this horrible scourge could kill someone.”

For other families, the decision isn’t so cutand-dry. Special needs, parents’ jobs and inschool resources make in-person instruction particularly valuable, with parents at home often unequipped to fully match their children’s needs. As schools reopen, many parents have been forced to weigh health risks with their children’s development in order to make a decision that for some feels nearly impossible.

Inter v iews w ith over a dozen parents and community stakeholders demonstrate the complexities of the situation. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for the district, and the choice families have to make about returning is unlike any they’ve ever faced.

A NATIONWIDE STRUGGLE District 65 was one of the last school districts in Illinois to remain entirely remote. As of March 1, less than a tenth of the state’s 851 school districts are still all-remote, with D65 only recently joining the ranks of the over 400 districts implementing some form of hybrid learning.

District 202’s Evanston Township High School announced

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021

plans Monday to implement hybrid learning in early April, after students return from spring break.

When District 65’s initial plans for a late September return fell through due to high positivity rates in the county, the district coordinated some childcare support programs. But those programs ground to a halt as cases spiked in late October, and the reopening delays continued.

In November, a city-wide stay-at-home order extinguished all hopes of a return to in-person learning in 2020.

Winter instruction began remote in January, with students prepared to head back to in-person classes after two weeks. But just two days in, face-to-face learning was again delayed, this time to Feb. 16. With this setback came a district-created formal advisory team, which defined necessary health measures for a return and facilitated the start of hybrid learning.

The hybrid program divides returning pre-K through fifth grade students into morning and afternoon blocks. Middle schoolers return for full days, and all students attend class four days a week, with Mondays remaining entirely remote. Most teachers will instruct a blend of in-person and virtual students. The district plans to remain under the hybrid model unless the seven-day rolling positivity average for Region 10, the Illinois region containing District 65, exceeds 12 percent.

The delays in return to face-to-face instruction reflected public opinion in the state.

According to a survey conducted by researchers at a consortium of universities including Northwestern University, approximately 74 percent of Illinois residents support the prohibition of faceto-face instruction in K-12 schools. The survey also found that two-thirds of parents, in spite of their support of remote learning, remain concerned about the education and achievement of their children during the pandemic.

Jennifer Lin, a firstyear Ph.D. candidate in NU’s Political Science department, helped conduct the research, and said the strength of the parents’ opinions in both cases indicates the conflict apparent in the decision to return.

“I don’t really know the way to reconcile these two,” Lin said. “The data clearly show that parents are concerned about learning losses.

But yet, there’s still that anxiety of whether

or not I would get COVID if my kid goes to school.”

Though the district has finally made the jump to hybrid, many parents still have concerns as their students adjust to a new normal.

And some families say the impact of nearly a year of remote learning will be felt long after the end of the pandemic.

REMOTE LEARNING ISSUES HIT HOME As District 65 attempted to finalize a plan for hybrid learning, emergency room nurse Elie Hale was at her wits’ end contending with remote classes.

Her four-year-old son is a student at Park School, and for months, the attention he received was far below his needed level of instruction.

The pre-schooler has an Individualized Education Program and receives physical and speech therapy through District 65, but the pandemic made the distribution of those services nearly impossible.

For many students, the district has provided technology and other needed school supplies throughout the pandemic. But Hale’s son, just one of the family’s four children, needs a different kind of support — one he couldn’t get through virtual instruction. Instead, the job was left to Hale and her husband. They struggled, Hale said, to provide the expertise their son needed.

“I’m not an occupational therapist, and my husband and I did our best,” Hale said. “But we have three other children, we both have full time jobs, and we’re trying to get through this pandemic. So that doesn’t leave a lot of time for pretending we know how to do therapies that we don’t.”

Hale’s son isn’t progressing at the rate he did pre-pandemic, and Hale said this backsliding is impacting the entire family.

His behavior also completely changed since the start of the pandemic, Hale said. Usually, he’s easygoing, but without in-person therapy, his moods became unpredictable and occasionally violent. This has affected the atmosphere of the household, straining the limited moments that the entire family spends together.

To replace some of the school services her son was missing, Hale and her husband outsourced therapy, but the cost is an additional burden amid a pandemic that’s already hurting the family’s finances. Hale had to pick up extra hospital shifts to make up the difference.

As the district approached nearly a year of completely virtual learning, Hale said she was close to a breaking point. There were days, she said, where she and her husband discussed moving out of the district to alleviate the stress

on their family.

“We have friends in Skokie whose kids have been going to their special ed programs full time since the beginning of September,” Hale said. “So it’s really hard to see that, and then see your own child who’s not getting what they need, and just try to find some strength to keep going.”

Hale wasn’t alone in her experiences. The Daily spoke to several other parents who said before in-person classes resumed, their virtual learning situations weren’t sustainable. Some said their confidence in the district had eroded.

Though Hale got a reprieve when face-to-face instruction began again, she and others said they were still concerned with the long-term implications virtual learning had on their children’s development.

AN EQUITABLE RETURN? To finally make the call to return to in-person learning, District 65 had to juggle a lot of moving parts.

In addition to a changing health landscape, the district had to evaluate the nationwide vaccine rollout and negotiate an agreement with employees. In early February, ahead of the return, District 65 Superintendent Devon Horton told The Daily there were 23 meetings between officials and representatives from the district’s five unions before the return was finalized.

While there wasn’t initially a plan to vaccinate district employees, Horton said AMITA Health reached out prior to the return to notify the district there were COVID-19 vaccines available for staff members. Since then, hundreds of employees have received doses.

School Board President Anya Tanyavutti said district officials have focused on equity in shaping policy around the return for months.

To support high-need students, the district gave priority to students who receive free and reduced-price lunches, Emergent Bilingual and English Learner students, students with special education needs and children experiencing homelessness.

The district welcomed back all children in pre-K through fifth grade whose families opted into in-person learning, and evaluated students in sixth through eighth grade with the priority markers. Horton said all middle schoolers with at least one priority marker were able to return, along with several students without markers.

Overall, the district brought back 90 percent of the students who opted in, according to the superintendent.

Tanyavutti

THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021

said the emphasis on equity is part of the district’s continuing effort to address the existing opportunity gap between Black and Latino students and White students within District 65. The district’s priority markers don’t explicitly mention race, but are intended to address some of the needs of Black and Latino students across the district, she said, such as the district’s English Learner population, which is 63 percent Latino, and its special education students, who are disproportionately Black and Latino.

Historically, Black and Hispanic students across the district have consistently scored lower than their White counterparts — according to a 2019 report, they are significantly less likely to meet necessary college readiness standards. Since the introduction of the district’s equity policies in 2016, Black and brown students have seen some growth in achievement, but still far fall below their White classmates.

Prioritizing students who are already disadvantaged in the return is an attempt to reduce this gap, Tanyavutti said.

“The system as it has been designed, thus far has not been doing what is morally right,” Tanyavutti said. “In order to make some corrections for the harms that those decades of exclusion have created, we’re giving special attention as an institution to learning how to open doors for everyone and to listen to the voices of the folks who have been excluded and silenced.”

However, the rollout didn’t occur without incident. When an article ran in the Evanston RoundTable quoting a deputy superintendent who said the district planned to prioritize Black and brown students, district officials began to receive harassing emails and postcards, some of which included threats and racist and homophobic language. Horton told The Daily in February the people sending the messages interpreted the statement to mean that race would be explicitly included as a priority marker — which was never the plan. Other instances of news coverage of the plan have also prompted rises in hostile emails and harassment.

Evanston resident Heather Sweeney, mitigation specialist for the Sentencing Advocacy Group of Evanston and founder of the White Anti-Racism Affinity Group, said the discussions about reopening in the city are indicative of larger issues within the Evanston community.

Sweeney said some residents who pressure the district to reopen or change its use of priority markers might not be considering the educational factors that have harmed Black and Latino students within the district.

She added that people in Evanston may claim to care about equity, but there are limits, especially when advocating for one family’s child may look different from advocating for all students. As conversations about equity in the district continue, she said these parents require a shift in thinking.

The virus has had a disproportionate impact on the city’s Black and brown residents, and a return to in-person learning might exacerbate that inequality. Some Black and Latino parents said they have felt tension between their students’ educational

needs and the risks associated with a return to in-person education.

Fulce-Gentle, who opted to keep her sons home, said it’s important to consider the longterm effects of the choice. As a Black fifthgeneration Evanston resident, she heavily weighed the potential implications for the city decades in the future. Fulce-Gentle said the virus has touched the community she’s been a part of for decades — and she doesn’t want to potentially contribute to the indelible burden of lives lost to COVID-19, especially because of the effects of the virus on the city’s Black and Latino communities.

“As a person of color, there’s been this realization that it seems to have a more negative impact, particularly on Black people,” FulceGentle said. “For me, it’s not even a question of whether or not I was going to send my kids back.”

Because of the harm COVID-19 has caused to the city’s Black community, Fulce-Gentle said parents should intensely evaluate their children’s needs and only send them back if absolutely necessary. If they’re not intentional about their choice, it could mean putting the lives of people of color at risk, she said.

MAKING THE CHOICE Even before a return date was finalized, parents had to determine the benefits and drawbacks of in-person instruction. For Alejandra Lule-Rivera, the decision warranted a family consensus.

Lule-Rivera and her husband wanted their daughter, Grace, to help choose whether she would return to in-person school. Grace was excited to return to school, but the family worried about potential ramifications, LuleRivera said. They ultimately opted into hybrid instruction.

The only people Lule-Rivera’s household has spent time with in person during the pandemic are Lule-Rivera’s parents. In years past, her parents often helped take care of the second-grader when Lule-Rivera and her husband were at work. Since the start of the pandemic, however, their visits to the grandparents have decreased, and will halt entirely because of Grace’s return to school.

However, as an only child at a young age, Lule-Rivera said Grace hasn’t had the chance to interact with children her age outside of a computer screen for almost a year, and returning to in-person learning is an opportunity for her to develop important social skills.

“It’s weighing out the whole benefit of what the school system can offer — it’s not just about her being in a school setting,” LuleRivera said. “It’s also her interaction with other kids.”

Lule-Rivera’s daughter is in the district’s t wo -way immersion program, which exposes students to both English

and Spanish in everyday classes and increases dual language proficiency.

She said the program didn’t have a huge impact on the family’s choice to send Grace back to school –– Lule-Rivera is fluent in Spanish and English, and speaks both languages at home.

But not ever y language learner in District 65 has that chance. Second language acquisition is impacted, in part, by exposure to the language students are learning. During normal instruction, students talk with teachers and classmates in person, and some programs within the district teach core subjects in other languages.

Victoria Reeves, a private English Language Learning specialist in Evanston, has taught English to children and adults for over a decade.

Since the start of the pandemic, Reeves has taught students virtually and said the online setting has brought new challenges to teaching an already complex subject.

“Second language acquisition is all about immersion into the culture, and having some sort of a connection point where you have a motivation to learn the second language, because it’s very difficult to become fluent,” she said.

This challenge is present in in-person instruction, but Reeves said virtual learning has exacerbated the difficulty. So for families making use of the district’s two-way immersion and English Language Learning programs, the upsides of getting back to in-person school can eclipse the negatives.

AN UNEXPECTED BENEFIT As parents debate their children’s needs, some families who typically lean on in-person support don’t have that option at all.

Yesenia Heir is in that boat. Her 14-yearold daughter is a student at Park School with Aicardi Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder characterized by a disconnect of the left and right halves of the brain that causes seizures and developmental disabilities.

Heir said in a normal year, her daughter wouldn’t attend school during most of flu season because of existing respiratory issues. In that sense, COVID19 is no different — Heir plans to keep her daughter home until the spread of the virus has been significantly mitigated or

7

completely stopped.

However, Heir said remote instruction has a silver lining. Previously, there was a disparity between her daughter’s capabilities at home and in the classroom. But because Heir’s daughter is learning from the environment where she’s most comfortable, she’s made noticeable progress in her schoolwork.

“It’s kind of been a blessing,” Heir said. “I think my main concern is going back and not having that virtual option anymore, or too soon, that virtual option being taken away from some of the kids that are very high risk.”

Though the future is uncertain, Heir said she plans to keep her daughter enrolled in exclusively online learning as long as it remains possible, both because of her progress and safety. And she hopes virtual learning is here to stay.

BACK IN THE CLASSROOM As a return to in-person learning grew closer, District 65 employees had to balance online learning and prepare for the shift caused by hybrid instruction.

The district required employees who wished to continue working from home to apply for an exception back in October. Those who weren’t granted one were mandated to resume in-person work.

Lisa Levine, a speech language pathologist in the district, received approval to work from home due to a family member’s high-risk medical status. She is also a parent of two students in the district. Working from home complicates her job as an educator, as well as her role as the parent of two district students, she said.

In the return, younger students have been divided into morning and afternoon in-person instruction groups. Students are mainly taught core subjects during the hours of in-person learning, Levine said. Some elements of supplementary support for students, including the services Levine provides, remain remote.

Other teachers and employees have frustrations with the current state of hybrid learning as well, Levine said. Teachers in subject areas like the fine arts and physical education still teach classes entirely virtually, despite being required to work on-site. Many of these educators, she said, would prefer to work remotely to mitigate the risks of the virus.

Levine understands the difficulties the district is experiencing as officials attempt to navigate a constantly evolving situation. She’s received a significant amount of communication from the district in both her roles as a parent and an educator — but it remains to be seen if the design of hybrid learning is meeting students’ needs.

“I really appreciate the district’s approach to thinking around some of our more complicated learners,” Levine said. “But I feel like the theory that they’re working under and how it’s coming out in practice, there’s a disconnect in what’s happening.”

MOVING FORWARD With only two weeks of in-person education under their belts, District 65 families and officials have no idea what the future of hybrid instruction will look like.

Though some schools across the country have reopened amid COVID-19 without incidence, there’s no guarantee the situation will be the same in Evanston. Since hybrid learning began, the district has reported seven cases among students, with 28 students and three teachers currently in quarantine due to exposure.

Since the start of the pandemic, knowledge about COVID-19 has progressed dramatically, and the ongoing vaccine rollout leaves many hopeful that a return to normal life may be on its way. But until then, risks still remain.

Fulce-Gentle was concerned about the community impact of reopening, which contributed to her decision to keep her children home.

Though she knows the district is taking preventative measures to reduce the spread in schools, she still fears the worst. That uncertainty is weighing heavily on many parents’ shoulders.

“I hope that my neighbors and friends really think deeply about the choices that they’re making,” Fulce-Gentle said. “I suspect that everyone thinks that they’re right, including me. But I hope I’m wrong. I hope that it doesn’t turn out to be a nightmare.” fulton@u.northwestern.edu

8 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021

ASG, Payne-Kirchmeier talk relocation of GSRC

By ANGELI MITTAL

the daily northwestern @amittal27

Vice President for Student Affairs Julie PayneKirchmeier spoke about the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center relocation and the University’s intended implementation at Wednesday’s Associated Student Government Senate.

Legislation passed at last week’s Senate calls for the center to be relocated to a designated house on Sheridan Rd. near other Multicultural Student Affairs affinity spaces like the Black House.

The relocation of the GSRC aims to expand upon previous initiatives to support the LGBTQ community. The administration has been shifting its approach in addressing the needs of marginalized students on campus. The LGBT Resource Center at Norris University Center opened in 2004 and gender-open restrooms at Norris were added in 2015.

“We really started to look at not just affinity groups but our affinity spaces,” Payne-Kirchmeier said.

While the resolution calls for the relocation process to start in December, Payne-Kirchmeier said there are several steps in the approval path that may hinder the progress. The relocation must pass a feasibility study to ensure ample resources and funding can be allocated in order to properly support the intended functionality of the space.

The house will also need an Evanston permit and Board of Trustees’ approval, which PayneKirchmeier said only meets four times a year.

“There are elements of budget, there are elements of structure, there are elements of design and there are elements of time,” Payne-Kirchmeier said.

Payne-Kirchmeier said the administration has been working on multiple projects at the same time. The addition of another in the same area could potentially create a space availability issue and shut down a major access road.

Rainbow Alliance Senator and Communications sophomore Jo Scaletty asked about the resolution’s written statement of commitment’s request that the administration formally announce the undertaking of the GSRC relocation by the end of Spring Quarter.

Jacob Fulton/Daily Senior Staffer

The old GSRC in Norris University Center. Legislation passed by ASG calls for the center to be moved to a house on Sheridan Road.

Payne-Kirchmeier said she is uncertain when the University can provide an email commitment due to the uncertainty of the relocation timeline.

“There are a lot of systems at play here that have to connect and align for us to move forward on any major facility project, which is what this would be,” Payne-Kirchmeier said. “It takes time and this is (a) part of the process that we need to follow.”

African Student Association Senator and Medill sophomore Adaeze Ogbonna asked about how the administration intends to start and ensure the GSRC house is a safe space given the numerous factors that affect its implementation. She also asked about how the administration expects to reconcile for the lack of attention given to these students since the installment of

gender-open restrooms.

Payne-Kirchmeier said the conversation for the GSRC relocation started when LGBTQ students brought attention to the inadequacy of the one-room space allocated for the LGBT Resource Center in Norris. She said since then, the administration has been paying attention to the needs of affinity groups on campus and allocating resources necessary to support them, but she recognizes that this support may not be enough.

“I think that’s another conversation point we have to have,” Payne-Kirchmeier said. “What would that kind of support look like beyond financial, beyond facility, because what we ultimately want here is a safe and supportive community for our students who identify as

LGBTQIA.” Also discussed at Wednesday’s Senate was the approval of Winter Quarter funding allocations to several student groups including Boomshaka, Happiness Club and Lipstick Theatre.

Parliamentary Debate Union member and Weinberg junior Eric Wang raised concerns about ASG’s funding process, suggesting amendments to allow the Senate to fund student groups not recognized by the Student Activities Finance Committee and add an appeals system if an organization were to be rejected.

SESP junior Andy Grossman said SAFC will take steps to amend the funding process to be as equitable as possible. amittal@u.northwestern.edu

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Evanston residents get access to COVID vaccine

By WENDY KLUNK

the daily northwestern @wklunk

Chioma Nkwocha, who works part-time at The Mather long-term care facility in Evanston, did not hesitate to get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as she was eligible.

“I don’t know about you, but I would like to contribute to society going back to some kind of normalcy,” Nkwocha said, emphasizing the importance of protecting herself and her client.

Residents who are essential workers, have pre-existing conditions or are over the age of 65 are eligible to get the vaccine in Illinois’s stage 1B of rollout, though Mayor Steve Hagerty said those over 65 remain the priority. As of Wednesday, the city has fully vaccinated over 3,300 people with both doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, according to the city’s new vaccine dashboard website.

Those who have been vaccinated say they’ve experienced a variety of symptoms, ranging from slight pain at the injection site to multiple days of feeling ill. Medical experts say people who have received vaccines can expect to feel flu-like symptoms after their inoculation — and that people cannot contract COVID-19 from the vaccine.

Nkwocha said she experienced injection-site pain after her first dose of the Moderna vaccine, but felt worse symptoms, like fatigue, after the second dose.

“I was watching ‘The Bachelor’ and I fell asleep,” she said. “I don’t fall asleep during The Bachelor.”

Dr. Sean Curry, an independently employed chiropractor in Evanston, received his second vaccine dose Feb. 13. Like Nkwocha, Curry’s

Evanston Township High School announces plans for hybrid learning Evanston Township High School will transition to a hybrid learning model in early April after the end of spring break, district officials announced

Illustration by Hank Yang

Evanston residents and essential workers who have been vaccinated experienced symptoms from arm pain to fever, but all said getting vaccinated was worth the side effects.

symptoms were much more prominent the second time — they lasted longer, and were much more severe.

Curry said he woke up the morning after his second shot with a fever, severe nausea and “excruciating pain” in his spine, hands and shoulders. He said it took a few days for his fever to go away, but even then, he experienced a residual headache.

Nevertheless, Curry said he is glad to have

been vaccinated. Now, he said he feels more security because he feels he will not contract the virus from one of the many patients he sees each day.

“I’ll be more than happy … to be sick for just a few hours and not have to deal with the terrible ramifications that can come from having the full-on disease,” he said.

Medical experts recommend residents continue to wear masks and practice social

Monday.

After a year of remote instruction, the district will implement a block schedule-based hybrid learning model in April. The announcement comes less than two weeks after Evanston/Skokie School District 65’s return to in-person instruction on Feb. 18.

Dates for the transition to hybrid learning have not yet been announced. According to the district,

the dates will be finalized and shared with families on March 9.

With an early April return, students who opt into hybrid learning will spend the majority of the fourth quarter of the 2020-21 school year under the system. The school’s third quarter ends on March 12 and fourth quarter begins on March 16; the district’s spring break is March 29-April 2.

The block schedule slated to be implemented by

distancing even after they are vaccinated, until the country reaches herd protection.

Vaccine efficacy varies by provider, meaning those who have been vaccinated could still contract COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additionally, the body needs a few weeks after innoculation to build immunity to the virus, and people who receive vaccines can still transmit the virus asymptomatically.

The CDC also confirmed side effects are more common for people who have received their second shots, and recommends people call their doctors if arm tenderness increases after 24 hours and side effects last longer than a few days.

However, Evanston resident Tamar Selch said she was pleasantly surprised when her experience receiving her second dose went smoothly.

She had the same soreness in her arm as her first shot, as well as a slight headache and some fatigue — but “nothing major.”

“I had heard a lot of horror stories from different people about the second dose,” Selch said. “I was actually expecting it to be much much worse than it was.”

Nkwocha said she hopes possible symptoms will not deter those considering getting vaccinated, and that she encourages those who feel hesitant about getting vaccinated to look to medical experts to better inform their decision.

“I know a lot of people have reservations about getting the vaccine,” she said. “I don’t think that people should just base it off what they see on social media or hearsay. Do your own research.” wendyklunk2024@u.northwestern.edu the district permits students to attend one session of in-person instruction for a course every other week. The district will distribute a learning selection form from March 2-5.

The ETHS Board of Education plans to receive an update on the district’s e-learning progress at its next meeting on March 8.

— Jacob Fulton

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10 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021

QUARANTINE From page 1

a rise in positive cases within particular friend groups or “pods” that have formed within the dorms.

“We’ve set thresholds to say, ‘Let’s pause and make sure that we don’t have some kind of spread within the facility,’” Figora said. “‘Let’s make sure that your bathrooms or in person activity, whatever it might be, might not be contributing to (the spread of COVID-19).’”

Medill freshman Mya Franklin, a third-floor resident living in Elder, said she received an email saying Residential Services is “monitoring a heightened COVID positivity rate in Elder Hall” and that she was no longer allowed to visit her friends living on the first floor, where the outbreak

was happening.

For Franklin, the email came as a “complete shock” and she said she wished the University was more consistent in its communication. Only the first-floor residents received the email with the details of the stay at home order, which led to some confusion, Franklin said.

“There’s been zero contact with us besides that initial email, and it’s confusing whether or not we are in quarantine or not. We’re kind of in a limbo,” Franklin said.

Gaps in communication have been an issue not just for students, but for faculty living in oncampus housing as well. Weinberg Prof. Elizabeth Lenaghan, the faculty-in-residence for Elder Hall, said she would prefer more frequent communication from the University.

Lenaghan, who had been organizing socially

distant walks with students living in Elder, said students didn’t feel they knew what was happening. She, too, was only provided with the emails sent to the students.

Though she acknowledged the University is likely concerned with student privacy, Lenaghan referenced the University’s online COVID-19 dashboard, and said for transparency reasons, differentiating the number of cases on and off campus would be especially helpful.

Reyes-Gomez said it was difficult to not know the exact number of cases on her floor throughout the modified quarantine period.

“The university as a whole could be much more transparent,” Lenaghan said. “I think that the COVID tracker doesn’t get updated frequently enough, and that the information that it provides is less than (what) we see from lots of other peer

institutions.”

Residential Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Despite the restrictions, both Franklin and Reyez-Gomez are worried about a lack of adherence to the University’s guidelines. Franklin said Northwestern tends to rely on community adherence with their COVID-19 rules, and she believes people are still going out even after the email was sent.

“There was nothing holding us to (the guidelines),” Reyes-Gomez said. “It was purely an honor system, nothing was going to stop us from leaving.”

Sneha Dey contributed reporting. anushuyathapa2023@u.northwestern.edu

Indigenous rights activists oppose pipeline expansion

By WILL CLARK

the daily northwestern @willsclark01

Illinois Indigenous rights activists, tribal governments and environmentalist groups are joining a national call for the Biden administration to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline after the Illinois Commerce Commission approved a project to double its capacity last October.

The pipeline currently transports 570,000 barrels of hydrofracked oil per day from the Bakken region of North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois, where it is then often shipped to oil refineries in Illinois and the Gulf Coast. In October 2020, the commission agreed to allow Energy Transfer Partners, the corporation that controls the pipeline, to add pumping stations and equipment that could transport up to 1.1 million barrels of oil per day.

Indigenous rights groups have opposed the pipeline since it was proposed in 2014 because it crosses under Lake Oahe, a reservoir of the Missouri River just north of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation. If it leaked, the pipeline would pollute water supplies, fisheries and sacred sites for the Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Oglala Lakota and Yankton Sioux Tribes.

However, the Trump administration allowed ETP to construct the pipeline without a full environmental review from the Army Corps of Engineers in January 2017, and oil began flowing through it in June 2017.

“For four years we’ve been living every day in a state of suspense, not knowing when the pipeline is going to burst,” Chase Iron Eyes, lead counsel for the Lakota People’s Law Project, said.

Iron Eyes said tribal organizations and governments continued pressuring courts to subject the

pipeline to a full environmental review after oil began flowing in 2017. They received a victory in March 2020 when a federal judge ordered the Corps to conduct one. In the meantime, the judge vacated the pipeline’s right to pass beneath Lake Oahe.

Indigenous groups said the pipeline is operating illegally because of the judge’s decision. But for now, oil continues to flow.

On Jan. 19, leaders of the Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Oglala and Yankton Sioux Tribes sent a letter to President Biden requesting he stop the pipeline from operating until the environmental review is complete.

“It is beyond time for the United States to fulfill the promises that it made in the Treaties and stop the illegal trespass of our lands and waters,” the letter said.

Environmental groups also oppose the pipeline and its expansion.

Richard Stuckey, a board member of Save Our Illinois Land and member of the Sierra Club, said adding pumping stations to the pipeline creates more high-pressure regions vulnerable to spills.

He also said he is concerned about the climate impacts of continuing to burn fossil fuels.

Tara Houska, founder of Giniw Collective, a Minnesota-based Indigenous and environmental justice organization, said climate change mitigation is incompatible with pipeline projects. She said if just the oil that’s already been extracted were burned, the global average temperature would exceed the 1.5 degree Celsius goal set by the Paris Climate Agreement.

“These projects are extensions of cultural genocide... (and) industry that continues to grow despite the climate crisis,” Houska said.

On their website, ETP says they have “a comprehensive pipeline integrity program that enables (them) to monitor… assets 24 hours a

day, 7 days a week,” ensuring their pipelines “operate safely and responsibly.”

However, John Albers, an attorney who represents SOIL, the Sierra Club and a landowner who opposed pipeline expansion, said under the current leakage detection system — which cannot detect leaks amounting to one percent or less of the pipeline’s flow rate — the pipeline “could leak 237 barrels of oil in an hour and (ETP) wouldn’t know.”

Albers said if the pipeline’s capacity doubles, the quantity of those potential undetected leaks could double as well.

The pipeline is operated by Sunoco LP, which, according to a Reuters analysis, “spills crude (oil) more often than any of its competitors.”

On top of environmental concerns, Indigenous activists say the pipeline threatens sovereignty over their land and culture.

Al Eastman, an ecologist and member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, said even small oil leaks have long-lasting consequences for human health, ecosystems and reservations’ tourism economies, which rely on cultural sites and fisheries.

Eastman said sacred and cultural sites were destroyed by ETP during the pipeline’s construction, and peaceful Indigenous protesters were met with a militarized police as well as private security forces and dogs, leading to hundreds of arrests. He added that brutal police responses to Indigenous protesters are rooted in White supremacy.

“It’s just an extension of Manifest Destiny… of taking without asking,” he said.

However, some unions support the pipeline’s expansion in Illinois, saying it would help working people and be safer than building a completely new pipeline.

“A just transition (to green energy) includes workers,” said Randy Harris, community

advisory council representative for the Midwest region of Laborer’s International Union of North America.

Harris said he supports Indigenous sovereignty, but believes the pipeline can be operated in a way that eliminates the risk of leaks and creates jobs for Indigenous workers.

But many Indigenous leaders said they did not consent to pipeline construction in the first place, and the threat of climate change necessitates immediately shutting down fossil fuel projects.

“Extractive economy has been the only option that we’ve been offered for many decades,” Houska, who was raised in rural Minnesota, said.

“The promises of jobs are extremely temporary in nature… It’s just more shortsighted justifications and excuses that can impact our ability to survive.”

For now, Indigenous activists and environmentalists said they are waiting to see if the Biden administration will stop oil from flowing through the pipeline while the Corps finishes its environmental review, a process likely to end in late 2021. Albers said he is working on an appeal to the ICC’s October decision to allow the doubling of the pipeline.

Some activists feel optimistic, given the Biden administration’s recent decision to revoke the Keystone XL Pipeline’s permit, but others are skeptical that the administration will take decisive action. Activists said they plan to engage in intense grassroots pressure to bring about a similar decision for the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“There’s no amount of money that you could pay us to have us agree to put our water at risk,” Iron Eyes said. “So we’ve got to rely on people waking up and feeling… urgency that the climate (is) collapsing.” williamclark2024@u.northwestern.edu

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THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021

THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

11

YWCA shelter to reopen in April with expansions

By MELINA CHALKIA

the daily northwestern @chalkiamelina

Mary Lou’s Place, the only domestic violence shelter in the city, is set to reopen its facilities in April after a significant expansion.

The expanded shelter will fit up to 68 people, according to Hillary Doun, the director of the domestic violence program at the YWCA Evanston/North Shore, where the shelter is located. The expansion will nearly double the amount of available rooms, the Chicago Tribune reported back in 2019.

“We’re just happy to really be able to help more survivors in a meaningful way,” Douin said.

While the YWCA building, 1215 Church St, has been under construction, Douin said the organization is still helping survivors find housing, including providing hotel rooms. Douin said YWCA counselling services, legal advocacy and other types of support has continued to be offered remotely.

The YWCA offers multiple resources for survivors, including long-term housing, a 24-hour crisis line, trauma-informed counselling, workforce training, financial education, legal advocacy, early-intervention therapies for children and health care referrals.

Jennifer Allen, legal advocacy program manager,

Daily file photo by Katie Pach

The Evanston YWCA is set to reopen its facilities in April after undergoing a facility expansion.

said the new facility will allow survivors to have autonomy and privacy in separate rooms, but also for participation in larger community programming.

Beth Enterkin, clinical counselor at Connections Health Collaborative Counselling, said the availability of support services for domestic violence survivors deeply impacts their long-term mental well-being.

Enterkin said exposure to chronic domestic violence can put an individual at high-risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and more.

Enterkin said domestic violence constitutes an experience of complex trauma. Survivors often “walk on eggshells” to ensure that they make no mistakes that

would provoke a violent retaliation from their partner, she said. Over time, she said low-grade trauma can build up and take control of their lives.

According to Enterkin, the legal process of apprehending the perpetrator or ensuring safety through orders of protection can also re-traumatize survivors.

Because of these detrimental psychological effects, Douin and Allen said the available free legal and mental health resources at YWCA are critical.

Interpersonal abuse (survivors) can benefit from therapy, by having a safe place to talk through what’s going on, find out what options they have and come to their own empowered decision about what they want to do,” Enterkin said.

According to a 2019 National Network to End Domestic Violence survey, between 22 and 57 percent of all women experiencing homelessness say domestic violence was the immediate cause of their loss in housing.

Allen and Douin said the expansion of housing space within the shelter is crucial for the organization’s capacity to protect survivors. With more funding, they said YWCA can provide support to a greater number of people.

“Our services do support folks and getting them to the resources they need might make them feel safer,” Allen said. melinachalkia2023@u.northwestern.edu

Student board game start-up to launch flagship game

By ARIANNA CARPATI

daily senior staffer @ariannacarpati1

Communication junior Elam Blackwell grew up playing board games with his family. He continued his love of board games as an underclassman, playing with his friends in the Willard Residential College lounge.

He and his friends have since founded Mark IV Games, a Northwestern student start-up that creates its own board games. The company has been working through The Garage since Winter 2020 and is planning to launch its first game, Factions of Sol, in the coming months. As they develop their own game, Blackwell said their collection is also growing.

“Between me and all of my other roommates here,

we have about 100 games on our shelf right now,” Blackwell said.

Mark IV Games is named after a character in Dungeons and Dragons, a game the group frequently plays.

Blackwell, the CEO and community outreach director of the company, said he feels the name encompasses the way they are often going back to the drawing board and creating original ideas.

The team has been working on Factions of Sol for about a year. In the game, players race to gain the most power and influence as aliens descend upon the solar system. The board mimics the solar system, and as players move between planets they leave behind “energy,” making it more difficult for them and their opponents to progress; after each round, the board resets. Once the team has finished designing and revising the game, they plan on creating prototypes, which

they decided to produce themselves.

Within the next few months, it will be placed on Kickstarter, where they hope to raise approximately $30,000 to fund the initial manufacturing run of the game.

Adam Downing, Weinberg senior and CFO of Mark IV Games, handles the paperwork and finances of the company. He will oversee the implementation of the Kickstarter as well.

“We all wear many hats on the Mark IV team,” Downing said. “We’re game developers at the same time that we’re making financial decisions at the same time that we’re doing massive manufacturing and distribution contracts.”

Downing said there used to be a notion that board games are nerdy or antisocial, but that’s changing. He said during quarantine, people have found that board

games can bring families and friends together.

Mark IV is unique compared to other game companies because they design games in teams, whereas many companies only have one designer, Downing said.

Communication junior Samara Malik said that she never saw herself as a business person before she got involved with the company. As the artistic director and social media manager at Mark IV Games, Malik has helped create designs for Factions of Sol. “I never thought that was something I was capable of doing,” she said. “Now, to be having a front row seat to watching people discover us and fall in love with what we’re doing as much as we love it, has been a beautiful experience.” ariannacarpati2023@u.northwestern.edu

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Cats’ defense stops Maryland Terrapins in upset

By JOHN RIKER

daily senior staffer @john__riker

Ryan Young isn’t one of Northwestern’s top scorers. On Wednesday night, against Maryland, he wasn’t even in the starting lineup. But in the final minutes, Young was unquestionably the star.

With the Wildcats down 55-54 with just over 1:30 left, the sophomore center backed down his mismatched defender for the go-ahead bucket, hit a pair of free throws and corralled rebounds on three consecutive defensive possessions to key a game-ending NU 6-0 run.

The Cats’ 60-55 upset of the Terrapins (15-11, 9-10 Big Ten) was the first home win for NU (8-14, 5-13 Big Ten) since Dec. 26 and ensured that the Cats will not finish the regular season in last place in the Big Ten. “We felt like Ryan could be a weapon in this game just because of (Maryland) being undersized,” coach Chris Collins said. “Even though he didn’t score his presence opened up the three-point shooting in the first half and he was terrific down the stretch.”

Despite shooting just 36 percent from the

field and finishing with 60 points, the Cats’ offense succeeded in dissecting the Maryland defense for important stretches. After the Terrapins raced out to a 9-0 lead and prevented any open looks for NU’s shooters, the Cats found their three-point shooting stroke with eight first half three-pointers.

“After the first four minutes, we settled into three-point shooting in the first half, that was really the equalizer,” Collins said.

“We finally found some things where we could go inside and force double teams.

We did a good job with our decision making and found shooters and made shots.”

NU’s shooting proficiency from deep overshadowed a rough night for junior forward Miller Kopp. He missed all eight of his three-point attempts and was 0-11 from the field.

The Cats switched tactics in the second half as their three-point shooting cooled off by attacking the post. After neither team attempted a free throw in the first half, NU picked up foul calls and made 10 of 11 free throw attempts.

Though the Cats made just two of their 10 three-point attempts in the second half, NU’s offense did just enough to stave off the Terrapins until the final minutes. With 4:50

remaining in the game, a three-pointer by Maryland’s Aaron Wiggins, who finished with a game-high 26 points on the night, gave the Terrapins their first lead of the half.

Collins responded to the challenge by doubling down with his frontcourt, playing both of his big men, Young and junior forward Pete Nance. Nance hit a go-ahead jumper to respond to Maryland’s run, then Young took control of the final two minutes.

Young’s hot streak and Collins’ surprise utilization of NU’s zone defense gave the Cats the edge they needed to seal their fifth Big Ten victory.

“It was awesome,” Nance said. “Ryan works so hard on the court. He subbed in later in the game and was still locked in and made some huge plays down the stretch.”

After starting Big Ten play with three consecutive wins, the Cats will look to end the regular season the same way when they host Nebraska on Sunday.

“There’s such a small margin between winning and losing in this league,” Collins said. “But the emotions you feel from winning versus losing is probably the widest margin on earth.”

Joshua Hoffman/The Daily Northwestern

johnriker2023@u.northwestern.edu

NU alum NU to match up in Big Ten tournament dies at 81 WRESTLING

Irv Cross, trailblazing studio analyst, former NFL player, dies at 81

By GREG SVIRNOVSKIY

daily senior staffer @gsvirnovskiy

After a year disrupted by undisclosed injuries, Senior Ryan Deakin hasn’t been on the floor for long. Deakin’s matchup against No. 6 Brayton Lee in Northwestern’s (2-6, 2-6 Big Ten) last dual of the year against Minnesota (7-2, 7-2) marked only the third time all season he’s taken to the mat against a Big Ten opponent.

The bout was over before it really even started. The nation’s top ranked wrestler at 157, Deakin took a 6-0 lead out of the first period, one that saw all points scored in its last minute, two from a takedown with 20 seconds remaining and four more on a near fall right as the clock expired.

He led 9-0 at the end of the second period and dominated a third period in which Lee barely had any time on attack.

“He goes out there against a topsix opponent and just manhandled the kid. Ryan was just on a different level,” coach Matt Storniolo said. “ He’s seasoned, he doesn’t need to wrestle his way into a season. He’s ready at any time. It’s awesome to have him back, it’s a good jolt of energy for the team.”

Deakin won the Big Ten Tournament last season. Again, he showed why he’s the favorite while going up against Lee. Capitalizing off his forward pressure, riding Lee to the right and left, keeping the opponent’s hands on the mat and under his weight. When it was all over, Deakin led 12-0, securing a major decision and sending four points Northwestern’s way in the dual team score, giving the Cats an early lead over the Golden Gophers.

Now, he and the rest of the wrestling team are getting ready for the Big Ten Championships, set to be held this weekend in State College, Pa. Their workouts are now shorter and fewer, as coaches emphasize rest and recuperation in anticipation of post-season play.

“It’s about getting as much out of workouts as we can, not really trying to pack in more,” Storniolo said. “The idea this time of year is to deload a little bit with your

By PATRICK ANDRES

daily senior staffer @pandres2001

Dryden by fall in the second period of his bout. He’s been a star in his first season in the starting lineup, and has earned bonus points in four of five matches at 133 this season.

“He’s young, he’s a first year kid in the lineup,” Storniolo said. “He’s from a major high school program.

He’s wrestled big competition all his life. This is the stuff he’s been waiting for.”

Irv Cross, a three-year football letterman at Northwestern who went on to play with the Philadelphia Eagles and break barriers as a Black analyst, died Sunday in Roseville, Minnesota. He was 81.

Cross, the eighth of 15 children, was born, raised and educated in Hammond, Indiana, where he played three sports in high school. His skills drew the attention of Wildcats coach Ara Parseghian, who recruited Cross as part of his initial class after being hired away from Miami-Ohio.

At NU, Cross played three years at wide receiver and defensive back as the Cats amassed their first streak of three consecutive winning seasons since 1928-31. On October 24, 1959, he memorably caught a 78-yard touchdown pass from quarterback John Talley in No. 2 NU’s 30-24 win over Notre Dame, helping the Cats snap an eight-game losing streak against the Fighting Irish that dated to 1941.

Cross graduated from the School of Education and Social Policy in 1961, and was drafted by both the NFL’s Eagles and the American Football League’s New York Titans (the future Jets). He signed with the former, and went on to reach the Pro Bowl in 1964 and 1965 as a cornerback and collect 22 interceptions in nine seasons split between Philadelphia and the Los Angeles Rams.

Two years after his playing career ended, in 1971, Cross was hired by CBS Sports.

He became the first Black anchor of a sports show on a major network when he moved over to “The NFL Today” in 1975.

There, he formed an iconic quartet with Phyllis George, a pioneer for women on sports television who died in May 2020, gambling analyst Jimmy “The Greek’’ Snyder and anchor Brent Musburger, a Medill alumnus who Cross had befriended in college. He remained at CBS until 1994, after which he served in several administrative and charitable positions and released a memoir in 2017.

Cross is survived by his wife, Liz, his daughters, Susan, Lisa and Sandra, his son, Matthew, a grandson, five sisters and three brothers.

gregorysvirnovskiy2022@u.northwestern.edu

patrickandres2023@u.northwestern.edu

Daily file photo by Kelsey Carroll

Ryan Deakin in a wrestling match against Wiconsin’s Garrett Model. Deakin is undefeated on the season, and is coming off a dominating performance against Minnesota’s Brayton Lee on his way to the Big Ten Tournament.

workouts, get the guys feeling really good and fresh heading into the Big Ten Tournament..“ They’re watching film, hammering home lessons learned during the Big Ten regular season.

For junior No. 12 Yahya Thomas, some of those lessons are coming from the Minnesota dual. Thomas went up against unranked Michael Blockhus at 149, and lost in shocking 3-2 fashion. Blockhus wrestled conservatively, barely engaging.

Storniolo said Thomas lost his focus in the fray, that he needs to create more opportunities in matches.

“Sometimes it’s not bad to take loss like that right before big competitions,” Storniolo said. “It motivates you, it recenters you.”

Storniolo said he expects the Big Ten Tournament to serve as a coming out party of sorts for freshman Chris Cannon. Against Minnesota, Cannon improved to 5-0 on the season, taking down Gophers’ Boo