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The Daily Northwestern Tuesday, February 26, 2013
DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM
D65 plans to assess appraisal system By MANUEL RAPADA
daily senior staffer
Evanston/Skokie District 65 will look to a long-standing survey partner to assess the district’s teacher evaluation system. A $73,132-a-year contract with ECRA Group, Inc., passed in a consent agenda vote during Monday night’s board meeting at the Joseph E. Hill Education Center. Later in the meeting, the board approved another agreement with ECRA to survey teachers, parents and administrators to determine strategic planning initiatives. Since a November school board meeting drew more than 180 people, D65’s quest to revise its teacher appraisal system implemented during the 2009-2010 school year has taken several turns. Teachers won a reprieve from a revised evaluation system in December, when superintendent Hardy Murphy announced the district would delay this school year’s planned implementation of the new system. In January, Murphy backtracked on his recommendation to work with union District 65 Educators’ Council to accelerate implementation of the Performance Evaluation Reform Act, a state law mandating changes in teacher and principal evaluations. Murphy originally planned to formally set up a joint committee that would give DEC and D65 180 days to reach a consensus on an evaluation system, with student growth as a major component. Failure to agree would have resulted in adopting an Illinois State Board of Education evaluation model. DEC president Jean Luft said Monday she was disappointed in Murphy’s decision to backtrack because implementing » See D65, page 7
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TIMELINE OF RECENT RACIAL CONTROVERSY January 2012
Latina student heckled in broken English on her way home Students host Caucus Against Racial Prejudice on Campus
February 2012
University administrators host roundtable to discuss diversity at NU
September 2012
University releases initial Diversity Report to student body
Lesley-Ann Brown named to new position of director of campus inclusion and community
Ski Team hosts party where students dressed in racially insensitive costumes
October 2012
Students voice desire for student diversity requirement at ASG diversity forum
November 2012 May 2012
December 2012
Two Asian students egged, verbally insulted on tennis courts
March 2012 April 2012
New University Diversity Council established; Dona Cordero named assistant provost for diversity and inclusion
January 2013
June 2012
February 2013
July 2012
University Diversity Council completes proposal for schoolwide Social Inequalities and Diversities requirement
August 2012
By LAUREN CARUBA
daily senior staffer
Following six months of collaboration between administrators, students and faculty members, Northwestern’s University Diversity Council has formulated a proposal for a universitywide diversity requirement for undergraduate students. The Social Inequalities and Diversities requirement, recommended for implementation in fall 2015, would include an academic curricular component and a discussion-based activity completed
EPD reaches conclusion in the Maddula investigation By CAT ZAKRZEWSKI
the daily northwestern
at NU.” The University also appointed two officials dedicated to improving diversity on campus: Dona Cordero, UDC chair and assistant provost for diversity and inclusion, and Lesley-Ann Brown, director of campus inclusion and community. Cordero said the proposal signifies the council’s ongoing efforts to meet student demands. She stressed the document is still a draft that needs to be reviewed and approved by the president, the provost and the deans within each of the six undergraduate schools. “It’s a work in progress, so we definitely still have some work to do on it, but I think we’ve made some good progress,” she said. According to the document, the curricular portion of the requirement » See DIVERSITY, page 7
» See MADDULA, page 7
NU calls for requirement outside the classroom, according to a draft of the proposal obtained by The Daily on Monday. The two components would be completed during students’ freshman and sophomore years. Initiated last spring, the proposal’s development results from the collaboration of members within the UDC’s Academics/Education working group. If approved, it would represent the first University-wide requirement for undergraduates. The proposal is the culmination of numerous calls by students last year for a cultural competency requirement after a series of racially insensitive incidents on campus. Students voiced the desire for the requirement in open forums and smaller meetings, resulting in the University’s release of the Diversity Report, which highlighted a “serious problem of a lack of diversity
Police close case
Evanston Police told The Daily on Monday they have concluded the death of McCormick sophomore Harsha Maddula was “accidental in nature with ... a contributing factor of alcohol.” Evanston Police Cmdr. Jay Parrott said police made this conclusion after receiving toxicology results from the Cook County medical examiner’s office that indicated Maddula’s blood alcohol level was 1.5 times the legal limit of 0.08 and a consistent urinalysis test. Although the medical examiner officially ruled the case “undetermined,” police determined alcohol played a role based on these test results and witnesses who observed Maddula consuming alcoholic beverages and smoking marijuana at the off-campus party where he was last seen Sept. 22. “All people react to alcohol consumption differently,” Parrott said. “It’s very hard to predict how his reaction occurred.” Maddula’s body was recovered from the Wilmette Harbor on Sept. 27. The next day, a postmortem examination concluded the cause of Maddula’s death was drowning. Parrott said there were no signs of foul play and Maddula was found with all of his possessions. “His body had no indications at all of any type of trauma in terms of blunt trauma or trauma that was forced by
Infographic by Tanner Maxwell/Daily Senior Staffer
Diversity Council proposes new requirement for 2015
Harsha Maddula
NU prof chosen to head economic analysis at DOJ Prof to work with Antitrust Division, evaluate industries By AMY WHYTE
the daily northwestern
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division last week named Northwestern economics Prof. Aviv Nevo the new deputy assistant general for economic analysis. Nevo will assist with the department’s primary work of evaluating proposed business mergers and ensuring that antitrust laws are upheld. He will take leave from the University to begin his term as the deputy assistant general on April 1 of this year. “I think he’s a good choice,” said NU economics Prof. Robert Porter, Nevo’s colleague. “He’s well suited
to the kind of tasks that are going to confront the antitrust division of the Justice Department over the next year or so.” With several big mergers currently in the works, including upcoming mergers within the airline and brewing industries, Porter said it’s “important that the Justice Department do a thorough and careful review.” “Aviv (Nevo) has exactly the right expertise to oversee those efforts,” he said. Nevo said the work he will be doing at his new position will relate closely to the research he has done at NU. He specializes in industrial organization, a category that antitrust work falls under. “It’s basically looking at how industries are organized, what the market structure is, what the pricing structure is, and the implications it has for consumers,” Nevo said. “Antitrust is one particular subfield within all that.”
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
Nevo said this will be his first time working directly with the government. He worked as an economics professor at University of California, Berkley before comHe’s well ing to NU suited to the and works currently as kind of tasks a research that are going associate for the National to confront Bureau of the antitrust Economic division of Research in addition to the Justice his job as a Department ... professor. Bill Baer, Robert Porter, the assistant Economics Prof. attorney general in charge of the Antitrust Division, said in a press release sent out to Justice Department employees Feb.
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19 that Nevo was chosen because he would bring “a wealth of knowledge and insightful analysis” to the staff. “He is widely regarded as an intellectual pioneer in the use of data to analyze consumer preferences, which is fundamental to many of our enforcement matters,” Baer said in the release. “The division is fortunate to have his expertise guiding our economic analysis.” Baer said he would consult with Nevo for advice on handling both merger and civil non-merger investigations. Nevo said he is unsure when he will be returning to NU, because the length of the time he will be working with the antitrust division has not yet been set. “It’s a little bit to be determined, it’s a little open-ended,” Nevo said. “But it’s gonna be for a while.” amywhyte2015@u.northwestern.edu
Photo courtesy of University Relations
TRUST HIM Northwestern Prof. Aviv Nevo has been tapped as the new head of the economic analysis unit at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.
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