The Daily Northwestern Tuesday, September 24, 2019
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3 CAMPUS/Administration
Northwestern falls to rival Illinois
University President Morton Schapiro pens op-ed on academic espionage in The Hill
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Chance’s album a product of maturity
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Student rights to unionize in danger A proposed NLRB rule would roll back grad student rights By AMY LI
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The exterior of the Black House. The renovations are scheduled to be completed next fall.
Students miss old Black House
The Sheridan Rd. location is closed for renovations until fall 2020 By NEYA THANIKACHALAM
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Northwestern’s Black House hosted the Black to School Barbeque on Monday
at the space’s temporary location, 1856 Orrington Ave., to welcome new and returning students before the start of classes. The Black House is currently located in the Sorority Quad, as its previous location,
1914 Sheridan Road, has been closed for renovations since late June. The University selected the current temporary location after hearing input from various sources, including students, faculty and the Black
House Renovation Steering Committee — and after students raised separate concerns during the search process. However, some students felt a difference between the » See BLACK HOUSE, page 6
Student workers at Northwestern and other private universities would lose employee status and unionization rights under a proposed regulation by the National Labor Relations Board. The proposal, announced last Friday, would strip all graduate students working as teaching and research assistants of federally backed rights to unionize and collectively bargain. The rule would only affect private universities, as the jurisdiction of the 1935 National Labor Relations Act is limited to the private sector. The rule is a reversal of the 2016 landmark rule, borne out of a petition filed by a group of graduate students at Columbia University that granted them the ability to hold legally binding union votes. In August 2016, after the NLRB rule in the Columbia case, Northwestern said it did not classify graduate students as employees and did not support student unionization efforts in a University “Frequently Asked Questions” document on student unions. “Northwestern believes that unionization and collective
bargaining are not the appropriate methods to address concerns raised by student assistants,” the document stated. Since then, five private universities have signed student union contracts and 15 have held union votes. Kitty Yang, co-chair of Northwestern Graduate Workers — a graduate student union unrecognized by the University — said the proposal strategically targets a time in which graduate student unions are gaining momentum nationally. “They can see that grad students are unionizing and they’re trying to stop it,” Yang said, “and by ‘they’ I mean Trump, his NLRB, and the University. We don’t see why this rule has to come up unless somebody at the university is pushing it.” The Friday proposal holds a 60-day consultation window. Over the next two months, NUGW will be working on a collective comment with student unions at the University of Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, Princeton University, Yale University and Brown University. “What we’re trying to take advantage of is NLRB as a federal agency has to at least read and respond to significant comments, so what we’re trying to do is at least slow down the process, and hope that there’s a new NLRB,” Yang said. » See NLRB, page 6
D65 employees support teacher
Aldermen delay city manager search
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By SNEHA DEY
For three years, Park School special education teacher Ren Heckathorne has faced continuous abuse and harassment over their gender identity. About 35 community members called for a policy change to better protect LGBTQ+ staff members at the Evanston/ Skokie School District 65 board meeting Monday. “I can’t help but wonder if you really care about me and how I feel,” Heckathorne said at the meeting. “It is truly terrifying to be emotionally vulnerable in a space that has never protected me...as space that has allowed me to get hurt time and time again...a space that has suggested that maybe I am the one people need to be protected from.” Transgender flags in hand, community members
said the current staff policy fails to include LGBTQ+ staff members. D65 educator Jessica Manning recommended the district hire an independent consultant and that all staff undergo adequate training. “There is no way to ensure appropriate action has been taken to prevent such incidents from occurring again,” said Manning. She said the request is in direct alignment with the district equity statement which “recognizes that excellence requires a commitment to equity and to identifying and addressing practices, policies, and institutional barriers.” Heckathorne filed their first formal grievance in Februar y 2017. A D65 employee had been making hateful comments on a daily basis for months, Heckathorne said. The grievance said the » See D65, page 6
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
City manager recruitment firms to be selected at October meeting By CASSIDY WANG
City members on Monday held off on approving a contract with the executive recruitment firm GovHR USA to conduct the search for the next city manager. Aldermen will instead choose three firms to review at the Oct. 7 Rules Committee meeting. The selected firm will conduct a nationwide search for a city manager to replace Wally Bobkiewicz, who attended his last City Council meeting Monday. After serving ten years as Evanston’s city manager, Bobkiewicz will assume the role of city administrator in Issaquah, Washington on Sept. 30. Aldermen voted to appoint assistant city manager Erika Storlie as the interim city manager at the Sept. 9 council meeting. Council did not specify how long the search will take. Ald. Cicely Fleming (9th) said she was concerned with
Alison Albelda/Daily Senior Staffer
Erika Storlie at Monday’s meeting. Storlie will act as the interim city manager until a permanent replacement is hired.
past searches GovHR USA conducted for the city, while Ald. Robin Rue Simmons (5th) said the lack of diversity of the firm’s associates does not reflect a commitment to inclusion in
their representation. The city has used GovHR to hire three employees recently — two African Americans and one LGBTQ person — Bobkiewicz said. He said the search
firm should understand what the city is looking for and involve officials in the hiring process. “ There are very few » See SEARCH, page 6
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