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The Daily Northwestern DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM
Friday, November 2, 2012
Find us online @thedailynu
Prentice
Panel denies landmark status By susan du
daily senior staffer
CHICAGO — The Commission on Chicago Landmarks voted 8-1 on Thursday to reject landmark status for the old Prentice Women’s Hospital. Northwestern owns the site and can now move forward with multi-million dollar plans to build a biomedical research facility there. Commissioners arrived at this decision after staff recommended landmarking Prentice based on a set of specific architectural criteria. However, a report from the Department of Housing and Economic Development recommended against landmark status based on economic and humanitarian factors. Commissioner Christopher Reed dissented. In his closing statement, commission chair Rafael Leon recognized the difficulty of making a decision that ultimately consigns Prentice to demolition. “We recognize the importance of preserving Chicago’s buildings, and at the same time we also have an obligation to consider the consequences of landmarks designation,” Leon said. “To the preservation groups, I say yes, preserving
Susan Du/Daily Senior Staffer
demolition dispute Members of the Commission of Chicago Landmarks debate Thursday night whether to recommend landmark standing for the old Prentice Women’s hospital on Northwestern’s Chicago Campus. The committee ultimately voted 8-1 to reject landmark status.
buildings is of most importance to the commission and to the city, but remember that just because a building meets the designation criteria, it does not warrant automatic designation as
a landmark.” The ruling in favor of NU deals a debilitating blow to preservationists who hoped to protect the Bertrand Goldberg-designed building. NU officials,
NU ranked fourth smartest college in the United States
however, are thrilled with the results. “It’s a very serious process, a very participatory process,” said Eugene Sunshine, NU vice president for business and finance. “It’s what we expected. And we hoped at the end of the day that they would vote the way they voted, and we’re very, very pleased and excited.” Most people at the meeting opposed NU’s plans and spoke about how Prentice meets four of the seven architectural criteria for landmarking when the status only calls for two. They also emphasized NU’s unwillingness to seriously entertain the possibility of re-appropriating the existing building for other uses. In their presentation to the commission, Sunshine and Ron Nayler, NU vice president of facilities management, said Prentice stands in the way of NU’s vision to connect its campus buildings on a floor-by-floor basis to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration. Sunshine conclusively said the University’s desired research center cannot be constructed on any other site. Christina Morris of the National Trust for Historic Preservation spoke of disheartenment after the vote.
Northwestern has been recognized in the past month for the high quality of both its students and faculty members. A study released Thursday by the cognitive training site Luminosity ranked NU as the fourth smartest university in the country. The research tested the abilities of 60,000 college students in five areas: memory, attention, problem solving, speed and flexibility. NU was ranked below Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Stanford University. The study’s results come less than a month after seven NU faculty members were inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious honors societies. The faculty members comprise a group of nine NU fellows elected for the society in April. They represent nine of 220 new fellows and 17 foreign honorary members leading the charge in research, scholarship, business, the arts and public affairs, according to a University press release issued in October. Members of the elite group conduct studies in science and technology policy and global security.
» See PRENTICE, page 7
— Tal Axelrod and Lauren Caruba
ASG: Need to clarify Innocence Project film screened NU alcohol policy By Sophia Bollag
the daily northwestern
By Cat Zakrzewski
the daily northwestern
An Associated Student Government working group presented its recommendations for improving Northwestern’s alcohol policy and culture at Wednesday’s Senate meeting. The working group was formed Spring Quarter to research alcohol policy and consumption in the context of peer institutions. The group found several areas where Northwestern’s alcohol policy could be improved, particularly in risk management and clarifying policy. “These recommendations are dynamic,” said Alex Van Atta, ASG student life vice president. “They’re still a work in progress.” The McCormick junior said the group’s most effective recommendation involves implementing a third-party risk management group for social gatherings. Trained by the University, the proposed organization would police campus parties but would only be “internally accountable” and wouldn’t report back to NU, so its members could form trusting relationships with students hosting parties. “That one seemed to be the most effective at other schools,” Van Atta said. “With that option, there doesn’t seem to be any negatives.” In the presentation, the group referenced programs already in action at Haverford College and Dartmouth College. At Haverford, student risk managers called “Quaker Bouncers” care for intoxicated individuals and watch for reckless behavior for work-study pay. Since the program’s implementation, no students were transported to the hospital at parties where Quaker Bouncers
were present, according to the ASG report. Dartmouth’s “Green Team” had similar effects, with no hospitalizations or reports of sexual abuse, according to the report. Monika Buska, Panhellenic Association vice president for risk management and a member of the working group, said she was surprised to find how little students actually knew about NU’s alcohol policy, particularly the Responsible Action Protocol. “We need to be better about working with student leaders so they know the policy,” the Weinberg junior said. The Responsible Action Protocol states that in the event of a high-risk drinking situation, if a student calls the authorities, stays with the affected student until emergency officials arrive and cooperates with the University following the incident, NU will consider the “positive impact of taking responsible action” when determining disciplinary action for policy violations the student may have committed. “It’s really to keep everyone in this community healthy and safe,” said Susan Cushman, the University’s coordinator for alcohol and other drug prevention. However, Buska said the statement’s wording makes it very confusing for some students. Also, many upperclassmen do not remember the policy because it is only explained to students early freshman year during Wildcat Welcome, she said. “For many people, the policy doesn’t actually become relevant until they are an upperclassmen in the position deciding whether or not to make the call,” Buska said. Cushman said there is always room for improving dialogue with students » See ALcohol, page 7
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
The Medill Innocence Project screened a rough-cut of its first documentary Thursday, showcasing the work students have done since a new director took over the project in 2011. The 30-minute documentary, “In Pursuit of the Truth: Lifting the Veil at the Medill Innocence Project,” contained I just want to video footage, photounderscore graphs and that this is a audio that rough cut. We’ll students the class certainly spend in collected some more time while invesworking on it. tigating the c as es of Alec Klein, inmates Medill professor who may have been wrongfully convicted. About 50 people attended the screening and reception at the McCormick Tribune Center Forum. “They’re doing basic shoe-leather investigative reporting,” said Medill Prof. Alec Klein, the project’s director. “I think it’s a good thing to showcase the great work that the students do, so this was an opportunity to do that. But the documentary’s also about raising awareness about potentially wrongful convictions.” The Medill Innocence Project was founded in 1999 by former Medill Prof. David Protess to investigate potentially wrongful convictions of inmates on death row. Protess resigned in 2011 after an ethical controversy surrounding the project:
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Students were accused of acquiring information under false pretenses and working too closely with prisoners’ defense teams. Protess went on to start the autonomous Chicago Innocence Project. The documentary showed the new direction the project has taken since Klein took over, including the first time the class published findings refuting a defendant’s claim to innocence. The film also featured research students in the class are doing on cases related to shaken baby syndrome. “I didn’t realize the variety of different cases that they explored,” said Medill freshman Miranda Cawley, who attended the screening. Although the documentary focused on the work students have done in the class since Klein became director, it also addressed Protess’ resignation. “I felt that we needed to address the controversy before I took over because it is a part of the history of the Medill Innocence Project,” Klein said. “We learn from that history, and I think we’re a better organization because of what we’ve learned.” Klein also said he wanted to show “all sides” of the project. “I think that’s actually what we’re doing in our investigations so I think we have an obligation to do it in our own documentary,” Klein said. In his introduction to the screening, Klein pointed out that the documentary is not a finished product. Klein said he saw “a lot of things” that could be improved, particularly the audio, which he described as “uneven” in places. “I just want to underscore that this is a rough cut,” he said. “We’ll certainly spend some more time working on it.” Although a concrete deadline has not been established, Klein said he
Meghan White/Daily Senior Staffer
NEW FACE, NEW VISION Prof. Alec Klein, director of the Medill Innocence Project, chats with students after a showing of a rough-cut documentary about the project Thursday evening.
hopes the full documentary will be complete within the next couple of months. Medill senior Dan Tham, who took the class last spring and helped film part of the documentary, said he was pleased with the showing. “I’m excited to see where it goes next,” he said. “Obviously it’s a rough cut, so we have to excuse some of the little quirks and stuff.” Despite the documentary’s unfinished nature, Cawley said she found it engaging. “I thought it was really interesting,” she said. “It made me really want to take the class.” sophiabollag2016@u.northwestern.edu
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