Medill freshman travels to 8 countries on gap year » PAGE 3
SPORTS Football NU’s downfall stretches one more week » PAGE 8
OPINION Folmsbee An idiot’s guide to passing med school interviews » PAGE 4
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The Daily Northwestern DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM
Monday, November 18, 2013
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Storms, tornadoes sweep across state
Evanston escaped the brunt of a Sunday afternoon storm that brought fatal tornadoes to other parts of Illinois. At one point, the National Weather Service put the Evanston area under several advisories: severe thunderstorm, tornado watch, flash flood and high wind warnings. The first two were called off before 2 p.m. A few storm drains were blocked in Evanston, city officials said. Despite caution that winds could gust to 60 mph, only small tree limbs were found. Street cleaning will start 2 a.m. Monday to remove leaves from major roadways. Although University spokesman Al Cubbage said he wasn’t aware of any storm damage on campus, a leak in Welsh-Ryan Arena affected Northwestern’s volleyball game against Indiana. Facility staff mopped the floor between points from the second set through the rest of the match. “You can’t control that stuff and you just have to play through it,” NU coach Keylor Chan said. Away from Evanston, several tornadoes were spotted in towns in Tazewell and Washington counties. Photos of a double rainbow in Evanston were shared on social media at about 2 p.m., before high winds hissed through the city again two hours later. David Lee contributed reporting.
In Focus
TEACHING TROUBLES NU’s ties to Teach for America tested as organization faces national criticism
— Manuel Rapada
By LAUREN CARUBA
daily senior staffer
Amy Whyte/Daily Senior Staffer
RAINY DAY Severe thunderstorms hit Evanston on Sunday.
NU checks IDs at Fitzerland tailgate
Beginning with Saturday’s game against Michigan, Northwestern has started checking identification to allow entrance to the University-sanctioned tailgating area Fitzerland. Students will need to provide identification and wear a wristband to consume alcohol at Fitzerland, Dean of Students Todd Adams announced Friday. Students entering Fitzerland must also present a valid college ID. Anna Kottenstette, Associated Student Government student life vice president, said the change was prompted when an intoxicated prospective student was transported to the hospital before the Oct. 19 football game against Minnesota. The Communication senior said the transported student drank too much off campus before arriving at Fitzerland. “We’re having to deal with those repercussions,” she said. “It was really unfortunate that it happened at all.” Wildside president Gram Bowsher said the policy change is “not the ideal situation.” He emphasized the most noticeable differences will be at the gate, where students will be asked for their school IDs and proof of age if they are carrying alcohol or planning to drink alcohol inside the tailgate. “We do want students to know it’s not making things different from what they were,” the SESP junior said. “The tailgate should look very similar.
After a frustrating class period trying to help her high school biology class take an exam on dysfunctional laptops — a new technological push by her school district — Emily Gao found herself yelling at one of her best students. “She wasn’t trying to do anything wrong or anything bad — she just needed my attention for a second,” Gao (Weinberg ‘12) said. “I just felt so shitty when I stepped back for second. Like, why are you yelling at this child?” Despite five
weeks of intensive training with Teach for America, which sends recent college graduates to teach in low-income communities, Gao confronted disparities between TFA’s training and her classroom. She was teaching a subject completely unrelated to her political science and human culture majors, in a different geographical location from her training city of Philadelphia, where she taught a small summer class in a high-performing charter school — very different from her Baltimore public school. Gao wanted to be a prepared teacher. She wanted to better her students’ lives, but she had no textbooks, no curriculum and very little experience. “I didn’t want to feel like I was making everything up as I went along,” she said. “Turns out I kind of felt that way anyways.” Now in her second year of TFA, Gao’s challenges highlight the pitfalls of a post-graduate experience many NU students have historically sought out. Although NU has enjoyed a strong relationship with TFA, in 2013 there was a rapid drop in the number of applications and participating graduates. The dip in NU’s participation with TFA coincides with growing national criticism of a » See IN FOCUS, page 6
Photo Illustration by Tanner Maxwell/Daily Senior Staffer
— Cat Zakrzewski
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