NEWS Around Town Interactive escape room opens in city » PAGE 2
SPORTS Wrestling Cats fall in Big Ten Opener, place ninth at Midlands » PAGE 8
OPINION Mueller Intro courses shouldn’t mean amateur equipment » PAGE 4
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The Daily Northwestern Wednesday, January 6, 2016
DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM
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Obama steps up gun regulations By ELENA SUCHARETZA
the daily northwestern @elenasucharetza
President Barack Obama took executive action on safety measures concerning firearms Tuesday morning in light of recent mass shootings. In an emotional address, Obama told the country the action would include requiring comprehensive background checks for those purchasing guns through all avenues, mandating licenses for establishments selling guns in any capacity, and hiring more Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents to expedite the background review process. He also emphasized increasing accessibility to mental health services for individuals in need. “We are fed the excuse that … background checks might not have stopped the last massacre,” Obama said. “I reject that thinking. We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world, but maybe we can try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence.” Obama said it was necessary to develop a security apparatus on guns themselves that would allow owners to “lock” their guns from other parties, much like what individuals are able to do with cell phones. “If a child can’t open a bottle of aspirin we should make sure that they can’t pull a trigger on a gun,” he said. Obama said some members of Congress invoke tropes about individuals with severe mental illnesses
committing these acts of gun violence. Obama said the reality of the situation is the majority of gun deaths are related to self-harm, citing nearly two out of three gun deaths as suicides. “We’re going to invest $500 million to expand access to treatment across the country,” Obama said. “And for those in Congress who so often rush to blame mental illness for mass shootings as a way of avoiding action on guns, here’s your chance to support these efforts. Put your money where your mouth is.” Obama’s executive actions will also address mental health issues by requiring that mental health records be submitted to the background check system. Evanston’s policy outlines several provisions of gun ownership, primarily that the weapon is permitted only in the residence of a person with a current, valid Firearm Owner’s Identification card issued by the state. Since there are no gun vendors in the city, however, Obama’s action will not directly affect Evanston. The city has in place some measures to prevent gun violence, most notably a 24/7 gun buyback program through which citizens can turn their weapons into the police for $100. More specific to the Evanston Police Department is the violence reduction initiative, a program that sends officers to “hot spots” where instances of violence have occurred to patrol the area. As part of the EPD initiative, » See ACTION, page 6
Alice Yin/Daily Senior Staffer
WESTWARD BOUND Northwestern’s new San Francisco site, housed in the former headquarters of Wells Fargo bank, will open to students this summer. The San Francisco space will house programs from Medill and McCormick.
New site to foster innovation Medill, McCormick expands to San Francisco By DAVID FISHMAN
the daily northwestern @davidpkfishman
Journalists and engineers hoping for a warmer environment will soon have a sunnier option in San Francisco, where the University will open a new space in June. The new site, housed at the former headquarters of Wells Fargo bank, will host programs for students from both
the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications and the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. “We want this to be a place that provides a nexus, a point of conference, for students and alumni,” said McCormick Dean Julio M. Ottino. “If you excite the imagination of these people who are there doing great things in the Bay Area, then it’s a kind of virtuous cycle. Our students get exposed to that kind of mentorship and
some of these alums may decide to invest in some of our ideas.” Plans for the new space were announced in late 2014, with the goal of transforming Medill into a “coast-tocoast” program. Medill graduate students will be the first to utilize the space when they travel to San Francisco in September as part of the new Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship Specialization program. » See SAN FRANCISCO, page 6
Local scholarship fund grows New group on health, By PETER KOTECKI
daily senior staffer @peterkotecki
The Good Neighbor, Great University initiative awarded 327 students scholarships averaging $8,778 each this year, the highest amount ever given by the program, according to University enrollment data. The scholarships go to students who graduated from Evanston and Chicago
high schools. Only incoming freshmen can apply, but the scholarship is renewable each year for students who maintain satisfactory academic progress. This year’s Good Neighbor, Great University scholarships represent a total of $2,870,300, up from $2,606,887 last academic year, when 302 students received an average of $8,632 each. When the program began in Fall 2011, the scholarship program gave an average of $7,546 to each of 101 students, totaling $762,168 in aid, according to
University enrollment data. “It was conceived as a way to pay tribute to the people and the neighborhoods where Northwestern’s campuses are,” said Michael Mills, associate provost for university enrollment. In addition to demonstrating financial need, students must have a self-help component — which includes a workstudy job, a summer earnings requirement and loans — in their financial aid package to be eligible for the scholarship. The scholarship is intended to replace the self-help component, Mills said. NU has tried to increase its outreach to students in Chicago Public Schools, Mills said. The University’s goal is to enroll more than 100 CPS students in a freshman class, and Mills said this year’s entering class had about 83 CPS students. The number of scholarship recipients has gone up due to better recruitment and more generous financial aid, Mills said. About one third of this year’s Good Neighbor, Great University scholarship recipients are also Federal Pell Grant recipients, which Mills said is the most commonly used measure of low-income students at universities. The University is intentionally trying to lower the out-of-pocket cost for students with financial need, Mills said. Fall
Graphic by Jerry Lee/Daily Senior Staffer
» See NEIGHBOR, page 6
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
drug education forms By ALICE YIN
daily senior staffer @alice__yin
For the past five years, a group of Northwestern students has gone around campus educating others on what to do when their peers have had too much to drink. This quarter, these students are spearheading a new group that will expand upon alcohol safety to encompass all aspects of student health and wellness. The new group, Wildcats Advancing Total Campus Health, will debut this month and oversee Red Watch Band Bystander Intervention Training implemented in 2010, which has trained more than 3,000 students in responding to alcohol toxicity at NU. In addition, WATCH will develop programming to focus on other health topics that arise throughout college, said Kevin Meier, coordinator of alcohol and other drug education and outreach at NU’s Health Promotion and Wellness Center. Both Red Watch Band and the upcoming WATCH group are student-sponsored groups under HPaW. “(These students) are no longer facilitating one program,” he said. “This is a peer health education that will facilitate
a number of different programs.” Meier, who is also the lead adviser for WATCH, said he hopes the new group can implement programming for students to learn about preventing negative outcomes from alcohol and drugs before they occur. Currently, Red Watch Band functions as a bystander intervention program to certify students in knowledge of proper response protocol for intoxication. “Our goal is to provide our students and community with the necessary knowledge in order to reduce harm and make well-informed decisions,” Meier said. “While (Red Watch Band training) is important, it’s more of an after-the-fact approach, versus a proactive prevention type of education.” There are currently 11 students trained as Red Watch Band facilitators who will all return this quarter for the inception of WATCH, Meier said. Eventually, he said he hopes to see the group grow to about 20 members. Meier said WATCH will have a joint two-day training at the end of this month with Sexual Health and Assault Peer Educators and Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault to establish a universal peer education. » See WATCH, page 6
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