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OPINION Quarter
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The Daily Northwestern Tuesday, November 19, 2013
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NU general contractor fined $7,000 By PATRICK SVITEK
daily senior staffer @PatrickSvitek
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined the general contractor for Northwestern’s new Music and Communication Building, citing a violation that may have led to the accidental death of an iron worker in May. Power Construction Company of Schaumburg, Ill., faces a $7,000 penalty for the citation, which says it did not protect its subcontractor employees from falling objects while they worked on the lakefront project. Michael Kerr, 57, was struck and killed by a beam after a crane knocked it off the sixth floor on the morning of May 16. The citation, issued Thursday, claims “no means of protection was provided” for Kerr and his coworkers before his death, despite girders sitting on the edge of a walkway six floors above them. OSHA classified the violation as “serious.” “A violation is noted as serious when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known,” OSHA spokesman Scott Allen wrote in an email to The Daily. The company has 15 business days after it receives the citation to comply,
NU prof dies after fall at Fla. hotel
A Northwestern professor fell to his death early Sunday morning at a Hollywood, Fla., hotel, according to police. Piotr Kulesza, 46, fell shortly before 12:39 a.m. from the 23rd-floor balcony of the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa, said Lt. Osvaldo Perez, a spokesman for the Hollywood Police Department. Perez said foul play is not suspected in Kulesza’s death, and police believe it was accidental. The Broward County medical examiner’s office was not available for comment Monday night. University spokesman Al Cubbage » See PIOTR KULESZA, page 6
Brian Lee/Daily Senior Staffer
FINED Northwestern’s new Music and Communication Building is scheduled to open in 2015. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the building’s general contractor $7,000 for a serious violation that may have led to the death of construction worker Michael Kerr, 57, in May.
meet with OSHA officials or challenge their findings. Four days after Kerr died, his 21-yearold son by the same name filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Power Construction, seeking at least $200,000 in damages. The four-count suit alleges the company could have prevented the death
by properly securing construction materials and inspecting the work environment, among other safety measures. NU spokesman Al Cubbage declined to comment on the citation Monday afternoon, saying the University had not yet seen it. “However, we continue to extend our
condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Kerr,” Cubbage wrote in an email to The Daily. Power Construction and the younger Kerr’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment Monday. patricksvitek2014@u.northwestern.edu
Source: Feinberg School of Medicine
Piotr Kulesza
Mental health initiative launches NU profs fight parole
revocation process
By SOPHIA BOLLAG
daily senior staffer @SophiaBollag
More than a dozen students are featured in Greater Than, a new mental health awareness campaign at Northwestern that launched Monday as part of a collaboration between several different student groups. The campaign represents the latest step in the mental health initiative, Free Your Mind, a collaboration among student organizations including You see their Associated faces. You know Student Government, they’re real NU Active people. They’re Minds, NU Listens and a normal Panhellenic student just like Association. Greater Than me. comprises Naina Desai, photographs NU Active Minds of students co-president holding signs listing traits or accomplishments they are proud of and the statement that they are “greater than” their mental health problems. The photographs are featured on the Free Your Mind website, which also includes links to resources on campus similar to those provided by the University website NUhelp and a calendar of mental health-related events. The photographs from the campaign will be also be posted around campus. ASG spokeswoman Julia Watson, who helped organize the Greater Than campaign and helped design the Free Your Mind website, said she is pleased with the number of submissions the group has received so far. “We’re hoping to get some more, but
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By SCOTT BROWN
the daily northwestern
Composite from Greater Than screenshots
SPEAKING OUT A new mental health campaign, Greater Than, features students holding signs saying they are greater than their mental illnesses. The campaign, which is sponsored by Associated Student Government and several student groups, launched Monday.
the submissions are great so far,” the Weinberg junior said. “I’m really proud of everyone who’s done it.” Representatives from ASG are visiting fraternities and sororities this week to raise awareness for the campaign and the Stigma Panel, an NU Active Minds event scheduled for Wednesday during which student panelists will speak about their experiences with mental illness. Watson said representatives are also planning to visit residential halls, residential colleges and student groups to encourage people to participate in the campaign. NU Active Minds co-president Naina Desai appears in the campaign holding a sign saying “I spent my summer fighting for marriage equality and I am greater than my fear of trusting others.” As one of the organizers of the campaign encouraging people to submit their photos, the Weinberg senior said she would have felt “hypocritical” if she had not been brave
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enough to participate herself. She said she thinks the campaign helps accomplish the campaign’s Fall Quarter theme of “reducing stigma.” “You see their faces. You know they’re real people,” Desai said. “They’re a normal student just like me.” The Free Your Mind initiative will launch a different campaign each quarter. In Winter Quarter the theme will be “getting help” and in Spring Quarter it will be “supporting others,” Watson said. ASG president Ani Ajith said the campaign is intended to foster a better understanding of mental health on campus. “Greater Than is about reducing stigma,” the Weinberg senior and former Daily staffer said. “It’s about showing people they’re not alone.” sophiabollag2016@u.northwestern.edu
A group of attorneys at the Northwestern School of Law are suing to challenge how Illinois revokes parole for thousands of ex-convicts every year. The parole revocation system in the state of Illinois is broken and needs a major overhaul, according to a group of attorneys at the School of Law and the Uptown People’s Law Center. Three class-action lawsuits have been filed in an attempt to generate reform of a system the attorneys say has denied parolees due process and has failed to live up to court orders to remedy its flaws. The three cases focus on the state’s parole violation hearings, which consist of a two-stage process. Preliminary hearings determine whether there is probable cause that the violation was committed and usually occur within a few days of the parolee’s arrest. At that point, if someone is innocent, he or she should be heard and released within a few days. “These people could lose their jobs, their families, if they are kept in for too long,” said Alan Mills, one of the attorneys working on the cases. The lawsuits allege that because defendants often do not have access to an attorney, they do not have the ability to defend themselves in these hearings. “For some people there is strong evidence that they didn’t commit the violation, but they can’t present the evidence because they don’t have a lawyer,” said law Prof. Alexa Van Brunt, another attorney involved in the lawsuits. The same problems arise during the second stage of hearings, in which
members of the state parole board hear evidence to determine if the violation was committed, and if so, what to do about it. Mills, who also serves as legal director of the UPLC, said parolees who do not have access to a private attorney are often left without any defense. “There is such a high volume of cases that there’s no evidence, so the only thing the board is presented with is the original allegation. The decisions are based on minimal evidence,” Mills said. Mills blames many of the problems of the parole system on state budget cuts and overcrowding of prisons in the last few years. “The Illinois prison system over the last two to three years has increased the number of people by 10 percent and has decreased budget by 10 percent,” he said. “You can’t keep stuffing people into the prison system and the parole system and then expecting people to do a good job with this.” The 15-member Prisoner Review Board heard about 9,200 parole revocation cases last year, according to its annual report. Ken Tupy, the board’s chief legal counsel, said it was able to manage this caseload, although he also said he would like to see more information made available in the decisionmaking process. Tupy declined to comment on the pending litigation. “Our role isn’t just to incarcerate people — it’s to try to rehabilitate them,” Tupy said. “I would like to see more information on drug addiction problems and more psychological information brought to board members.” If found guilty of violating their » See PAROLE, page 6
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