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The Daily Northwestern Friday, October 18 , 2013
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Edge of glory
In Focus
How Phillips brought NU into the athletic elite By JOSH WALFISH
daily senior staffer @JoshWalfish
Four hours before kickoff Oct. 5, thousands of students lined up outside Gate T at Ryan Field in anticipation of Northwestern’s matchup against Ohio State. It’s a scene many people wouldn’t have expected when Jim Phillips became NU’s 21st athletic director on April 14, 2008. But Phillips always believed in his football team’s potential. “To see that come to fruition was really a nice moment,” Phillips said. “It was everything you’d want it to be. That being said, we want to sustain it. We don’t want to be one-hit wonders.” In just five full seasons at the helm of “Chicago’s Big Ten Team,” a marketing brand he helped design, Phillips has watched the 19 squads he oversees find unprecedented success on the field. The football team has gone to a bowl game every year, just one fewer than the program had prior to Phillips’ arrival. Under
Phillips’ guidance, two sports — men’s soccer and women’s golf — have won their first-ever Big Ten titles. Phillips’ achievements at NU do not surprise Jordan Cornette, who played basketball at Notre Dame from 2001 to 2005, overlapping three years with Phillips’ tenure as an associate athletic director there. The basketball analyst at Campus Insiders interacted with Phillips almost daily when he was a student at Notre Dame, and Cornette said he knew then that Phillips would be a great athletic director. “When he got hired to Northwestern, I knew it meant big things,” Cornette said. “I knew he was a mover and a shaker, and I knew he was aggressive, and I knew he would be willing to make the popular or unpopular decision if he thought it would be beneficial to the school.” However, NU’s rise to the top was a long one given its unique circumstances. It is the only Big Ten school in the top 15 of the U.S. News and World Report rankings, and the academic requirements thin out the pool of potential recruits. Other obstacles include funding and limited space
for athletic facilities. “The quality of the school is a huge positive, as is the graduation rates,” said Mark Murphy, NU’s athletic director from 2003 to 2007. “The challenge is, can the coaches get in the players they need to be competitive.” The obstacle course The b a l ance between academics and athletics is an issue many athletic directors, including Phillips, have to deal with. But the situation at NU is different. NU’s position at » See IN FOCUS, page 8
Photo by Brian Lee, photo illustration by Kelsey Ott/ Daily Senior Staffers
Fardon confirmed as U.S. attorney Early Decision app By PATRICK SVITEK
daily senior staffer @PatrickSvitek
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday night confirmed Evanston resident Zachary Fardon as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, filling the position more than 15 months after his predecessor stepped down. Fardon, a Chicago lawyer who helped prosecute former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, replaces acting U.S. attorney Gary Shapiro, another Evanston native. Shapiro took office last summer when Patrick Fitzgerald ended his nearly 11-year tenure, the longest term for a U.S. attorney in Chicago. Fardon will oversee more than 300 employees, including 170 assistant U.S. attorneys, and serve about 9 million people spread across 18 counties. “There is no doubt that Zachary Fardon is the right fit to be Northern Illinois’ next U.S. Attorney,” Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said in a news release Wednesday night. “His unanimous approval by the U.S. Senate today is a bipartisan testament to his integrity, experience, and reputation as a crime fighter.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Kirk expect Fardon to tackle gang and gun violence in Chicago, where the homicide total topped 500 last year. Durbin said he hopes Fardon will “immediately focus” on public safety. President Barack Obama nominated Fardon in May, saying Fardon would be “unwavering in his commitment to justice.” Fardon found another powerful supporter in Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “I look forward to working with him on the important matters facing our city, including our ongoing efforts to reduce violence, combat gangs and gang crimes, and take illegal guns off of our streets,” Emanuel said in a statement at the time. Fardon huddled with Durbin and Kirk in May to talk about his confirmation process and potential goals as U.S. attorney. The lawmakers emerged from the meeting confident Fardon would take on crime in Chicago. “Mr. Fardon knows Chicago and the challenges our city faces,” Durbin said in a news release at the time, “and I’ve advised him to be ready as soon as he is confirmed to tackle the everyday gang and gun violence plaguing the streets of our city.”
! s t a c d l i w Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
deadline extended By JOSEPH DIEBOLD
daily senior staffer @josephdiebold
Source: Main Justice
Zachary Fardon
A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Fardon first came to Chicago in 1997 to serve as the assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. In 2003, Fardon returned to Tennessee to take the No. 2 job in the U.S. attorney’s office in Nashville. Ryan’s corruption trial in 2005 and 2006 brought Fardon back to Chicago, where he most recently was a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins. patricksvitek2014@u.northwestern.edu
As the new online version of the Common Application faces technical problems, Northwestern has extended its early decision deadline by a week. The University announced the change on its website for undergraduate admissions. “With our November 1 early decision deadline approaching, for applicants and school counselors experiencing difficulties with the Common Application, our submission deadline has been extended until November 8,” the announcement says. “The new deadline also applies to applicants participating in the QuestBridge Match Program.” The University of Chicago, which offers an early action application option, announced the same weeklong extension. The rollout for the 2013-14 admissions cycle of the application, which serves more than 500 colleges and universities, has been plagued by glitches. More than a dozen technical issues are listed as “in
progress” on the application website’s support page. “Thank you to all of the colleges that are taking steps to reassure students and parents,” the Common App tweeted Wednesday. Skokie native Carly Tennes, who attended the Medill-Northwestern Journalism Institute over the summer and plans to apply early decision, said she had experienced technical problems with the application, finding that it would not save her personal information several times. “The whole thing’s just been a disaster, and I know a lot of people are getting really frustrated about it because applying to college is a pretty big deal to a lot of kids and the fact that it’s not working is just very frustrating,” Tennes said. She added though her application is now glitch-free, she’s heard from friends who are still having issues and appreciates the extra time to work on it. Last academic year, NU pushed back its early application deadline from Nov. 1 to Nov. 7 due to Superstorm Sandy. The change did not affect the release of admissions decisions. josephdiebold2015@u.northwestern.edu
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Students, Faculty, & Staff on ALL PURCHASES in OCTOBER at Whole Foods Market in Evanston!
*Offer valid October 1–31, 2013 with current WildCARD. Discount not applicable for wine, spirits, or beer. Valid only at Whole Foods Market Evanston locations 1640 Chicago Ave. Evanston, IL 1111 Chicago Ave, Evanston, IL
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