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The Daily Northwestern Monday, January 28, 2013
DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM
Innocence project wins big for Wrice
Median Home Prices 2010
$308,000
2011
$285,000
2012
$275,000
Find us online @thedailynu
By JILLIAN SANDLER
daily senior staffer
Evanston House Inventories 623
490
284
2010
2011
2012
Declining median home prices and a decrease in home inventories are the contributing factors for increased demand for housing. Photo by Susan Du/The Daily Northwestern Infographic by Susie Jang/The Daily Northwestern
Home sales on the rise Dropping prices, availability lead to increased demand By EDWARD COX
the daily northwestern
Longtime Evanston resident Dorothy King had lived in her spacious fourbedroom home for about 20 years and
was ready to move to smaller living quarters. King’s home was snapped up in six days last spring, and buyers wanted to move in quickly, giving King only a few months to find a condominium. “The building went out so fast that I thought, ‘There can’t be much trouble in the real estate industry,’” King said. Real estate brokers serving Evanston and the Cook County region atlarge agree that the housing market is starting to recover from the fallout of
New dean, assistants to prioritize health By LAUREN CARUBA
daily senior staffer
Several new faculty members will join the Dean of Students Office within the next few weeks, revamping the department to bring increased focus to crisis management, mental health issues and student conduct policies. Todd Adams, former senior associate dean at Duke University, will assume his position as Northwestern’s new dean of students in early February. Joining him are two new assistant deans: Katrina Reynolds, from Indiana University, and Mona Dugo, from Loyola University Chicago, who started at NU in late December. Current Assistant Dean Betsi Burns will leave NU next month for a position at Loyola.
Patricia Telles-Irvin, vice president for student affairs, announced Adams’ appointment in mid-December. At Duke since 2000, Adams oversaw the residential life, co-advised multicultural programs, worked with mental health services and established the school’s Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life. “He has a wide range of experiences within student affairs and that’s what made him such a strong candidate,” Telles-Irvin said. At NU, Adams will coordinate emergency response, medical withdrawal and student conflict resolution. He will also chair the Hazing Prevention Task Force and the Community Alcohol Coalition and serve on the Undergraduate Council. » See DEANS, page 7
the housing bubble’s late-2007 burst. Since 2008, the median home price in the region has declined by nearly a fourth, according to Midwest Real Estate Data. The data aggregator reports that the combination of a decrease in home inventories and falling median prices have sparked demand for homes from investors and first-time buyers. “We’re so hot right now everything » See HOUSING, page 7
Medill Innocence Project founder David Protess secured what he called a “stunning victory for justice” Friday when his and his students’ investigative work helped spur a judge’s decision to grant an evidentiary hearing for the innocence of a man imprisoned for more than 30 years. Stanley Wrice was granted an evidentiary hearing by Cook County Judge Evelyn B. Clay. In addition to a hearing for the claim of his innocence, he was also granted hearings on the claims he was tortured into falsely confessing by former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge’s “midnight crew,” and that prosecutors withheld evidence of his innocence, Protess said. Burge, who escaped torture prosecution because of limitation statutes, was convicted in 2010 of lying about the abuses during a civil trial. Based on the history of past cases and the desire of prosecutors to avoid tarnishing their reputations, Protess said he believes Wrice will ultimately be released. “If history is any guide, when an Illinois Supreme Court orders a hearing, generally prosecutors drop the charges,” he said. According to an article written by Protess and published in The Huffington Post on Friday, Wrice was convicted for involvement in a gang rape in 1982 after
allegedly being tortured into confession by police. Protess, who now serves as president of the Chicago Innocence Project, an organization founded in 2011 to investigate cases of wrongful convictions, said in an email evidence for Wrice’s innocence was “developed” by the first group of students who worked for the program. All of them were enrolled in his 2011 Investigative Journalism class at Medill, he wrote. As part of the investigation, the students contacted two of the perpetrators involved in the case, Michael Fowler and Rodney Benson. They also tracked down Bobby Joe Williams, the case’s only independent witness, on the south side of Chicago, said Quinn Thacker (Medill ’11) and Kira Lerner (Medill ’11), who both worked on the investigation and traveled to Williams’ residence. Fowler, Benson and Williams all signed affidavits for students in ChIP saying Wrice was not involved, Protess said. According to Protess’ Huffington Post story, Williams said in his affidavit that Burge and his crew tortured him into falsely implicating Wrice. Despite this evidence for Wrice’s innocence, the case faced several judiciary roadblocks. The Illinois Supreme Court, for example, was set to hear the evidence in 2012, but turned the case back to Clay, who granted several continuances until finally hearing the evidence Friday, » See INNOCENCE, page 7
Construction starts on Norris stairwell
Construction on the stairwell leading to the ground floor of Norris University Center began Wednesday in an effort to repurpose the space. Previously home to dozens of advertisements and fliers, the stairwell will soon feature pictures of Northwestern students and other images that “reflect campus community in the student center,” Norris executive director Kelly Schaefer said. “There’s a push to really do something that represents Northwestern students in the building,” she said. Workers began installing drywall panels Wednesday, whichwill continue over the next week. The project should be completed before Spring Quarter. Schaefer said the area was not very effective for publicizing student events. Before, the stairwell was so cluttered with fliers that much of the information got “lost in the shuffle,” she said. Julie Payne-Kirchmeier, assistant vice president for student auxiliary services, said fallen papers and thumbtacks made
Susan Du/Daily Senior Staffer
TRANSFORMATION The walls of the stairwell leading to Norris’ ground floor are being renovated to include images of students and other members of the community. The project is expected to be completed by the spring.
the stairwell hazardous at times. The stairwell makeover is one of several changes coming to Norris this quarter. Last quarter administrators approved plans to install cell phone charging stations, and this quarter the Dell computer lounge was relocated to the ground floor and hooked up to printers. Payne-Kirchmeier wrote in an email to The Daily on Thursday the project
aims to make Norris “a more welcoming space.” “We want to represent our NU community at Norris and make it a welcoming and supportive space,” PayneKirchmeier wrote. “Our students and community deserve it.” Jillian Sandler contributed reporting. — Lauren Caruba
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