The Daily Northwestern Friday, May 4, 2018
DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM 8 SPORTS/Lacrosse
3 CAMPUS/Events
Wildcats head to Big Ten Tournament
Panelists discuss Bursar’s Office Takeover, black student experience at Northwestern
Find us online @thedailynu 4 OPINION/Letter to the Editor
Student activists slam NU co-opting Bursar’s
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NU gathers for ‘groundbreaking’ Symbolic ceremony precedes Black House renovations By ALAN PEREZ
daily senior staffer @_perezalan_
Colin Boyle/Daily Senior Staffer
Banners urging University action in commemoration of the Bursar’s Office Takeover hang outside the Multicultural Center. On Thursday, students released a list of 47 demands for improvement in black student experiences, departmentalization efforts and the campus dining transition.
Students deliver NU 47 demands List urges action on black experience, ethnic studies, dining change By TROY CLOSSON, RISHIKA DUGYALA, and JONAH DYLAN daily senior staffers @rdugyala822 and @thejonahdylan
Students released a list of 47 demands Thursday — the 50th anniversary of the Bursar’s Office Takeover — urging the University to improve campus culture for black students, departmentalize the Asian American Studies and Latina and Latino Studies programs, and provide a smooth transition for food service workers. The list, organized by Black Lives Matter NU, the Latinx Asian American Collective and
Students Organizing for Labor Rights, said the students want administrators to “clearly and definitively” indicate within two weeks whether they will fulfill the requests. “We hereby condemn the University’s hypocritical cooptation of the Bursar Takeover Commemoration,” the list of demands stated. “We conclude these demands with the promise that failure to comply and take immediate action in enacting them will result in continuous confrontation and direct action.” University spokesman Al Cubbage told The Daily in a statement that administrators will continue to meet with students and alumni
Gala to honor Art Encounter founder Joanna Pinsky helped create nonprofit in 1978
By SAMANTHA HANDLER
the daily northwestern @sn_handler
Most days after dinner, Joanna Pinsky works in her studio until midnight, creating images of the Cuban national hero José Martí and architectural fragments that will eventually float on walls of galleries. Pinsky said being alone in the studio can be isolating and feel self-indulgent. When in 1978 she founded Art Encounter — a nonprofit dedicated to spreading creative thinking to youth and senior citizens — with two other Evanston artists, she found a way to connect more with others. “When you start something,
you just have an idea you want to try out and you don’t think, ‘I’m going (to) try this out and hope that it’s going to go on for 40 years,’” Pinsky said. “Our hope was to keep it going for a year, a couple of years, then five years, then maybe 10 years and then it just (kept going). Now I would like to just see it continue.” Part of her desire to create the organization, Pinsky said, came after some friends told her and her co-owners that they were intimidated by going to art galleries. She said Art Encounter has helped her balance her life as it has grown over the past 40 years. The organization offers programs in Evanston and Chicago, and Pinsky continues helping others — specifically children and senior citizens — see that art can be interpreted like books, » See PINSKY, page 7
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
to further understand their points of view and work together. “We agree on the critical importance of these topics, and we also agree they merit further examination and additional solutions, wherever possible,” Cubbage said. “This discourse is fundamental to the dynamic nature of Northwestern.”
Black Lives Matter NU demands Black Lives Matter NU called for the University to increase representation and resources for students, faculty and staff as well as acknowledge the history of student activism involved in the evolution of black student
experiences at NU. Among the group’s list of 36 demands were ones urging the University to fully acknowledge its oppositional role throughout aspects of the Bursar’s Office Takeover. Many students and alumni said not enough has changed over the years, expressing concern with the parallels between the demands presented to administrators in 1968 and those developed after the disruption of a groundbreaking ceremony for the lakeside athletic complex three years ago. And Thursday’s list brought up many of the same issues as » See DEMANDS, page 6
University officials, students and alumni gathered Thursday at the Black House for a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony on the 50th anniversary of the Bursar’s Office Takeover, though the construction phase of the building’s renovation won’t begin immediately. “Everybody remembers the events of 2015 and the University responding quite favorably to improve the conditions of the Black House,” Jeffrey Sterling (Weinberg ’85), president of the NU Black Alumni Association, said moments before digging a shovel into the ground. “Symbolically and practically, we’re about to engage in a major renovation that has taken a lot of people to put input into.” The renovation process began about two years ago, after students criticized the University’s plans to move administrative offices into the Black House and the Multicultural Center, as the changes would have reduced the space available for students. Administrators held listening sessions, and a committee charged with facilitating the process gathered feedback and conducted a feasibility study, said Lesley-Ann Brown-Henderson, executive director of Campus Inclusion and Community and cochair of the renovation committee. Brown-Henderson said the
committee is now in the schematic design process, in which tentative plans are presented to students and alumni to gather more feedback. The ceremony was just one piece of this week’s events, organized by NUBAA to commemorate students who took over the Bursar’s Office in 1968. Those students, many of whom were in attendance for the day’s events, were protesting the University’s inadequate response to the demands of black students. After 38 hours, students and administrators came to an agreement that included a provision saying the University would create a space that black students could call their own. On Thursday, Sterling stood outside the Black House alongside Kimya Moyo (SESP ’69), For Members Only coordinator Kasey Brown, chief diversity officer Jabbar Bennett, Provost Jonathan Holloway and University President Morton Schapiro. Alumni and other ceremony attendees then followed Sterling inside for a presentation about the upcoming renovations. Sterling also presented a plaque donated by NUBAA that listed the names of those who participated in the 1968 demonstration. He said the piece is meant to honor the participants’“courage, commitment and vision.” “I’m about to cry, so I’m not going to say too much, but I know God has blessed us this day for being able to take this house, our home, back again,” said Alice Palmer, former director of the department of African American Student Affairs. » See CEREMONY, page 7
EDM artist to perform at Dillo Day 2018
EDM artist TOKiMONSTA will perform at Dillo Day, Mayfest announced Thursday. The California native’s third album, Lune Rouge, was released in 2017 and garnered critical acclaim. She has also collaborated with a number of other artists, including Jessie Ware, Anderson .Paak and Kelly Rowland. TOKiMONSTA, whose real name is Jennifer Lee, released Lune Rouge after she was diagnosed with Moyamoya, a rare neurovascular condition, in 2015. She released the album after undergoing two brain surgeries. “During its creation, I faced some of the most difficult and uplifting moments of my life,” she said in a Mayfest news release. “Seeing myself at the edge of my own mortality and how I chose to move past is a story told in this album.” In the release, Mayfest director of concerts Grant Pender said TOKiMONSTA has consistently released interesting albums and
Source: Abel Fermin/Rex Shutterstock/Zuma Press/TNS
TOKiMONSTA performs on the Parlor stage at the Panorama Music Festival on July 23, 2016 in Randalls Island, N.Y. The EDM artist will perform at Dillo Day, Mayfest announced Thursday.
said she would bring energy to the Lakefill. “(TOKiMONSTA is) also interesting because she’s a very versatile electronic act; she doesn’t just fit into the box of ‘EDM,’” Pender said. “Her repertoire contains everything from ambient/ psychedelic tracks, to beats she’s produced with hip hop artists, to more traditional pop/dance
tracks.” The EDM artist is the second act announced for Dillo Day. Last week, Mayfest announced that R&B artist Daniel Caesar will also perform. Mayfest co-director of promotions Sarah Wong said the group is excited to host TOKiMONSTA at Dillo Day. “It’s a rare and fortunate
opportunity to introduce a female EDM artist to Dillo Day, especially because there are so few in this genre,” the McCormick junior said. “TOKiMONSTA’s music offers a different kind of energy to the lineup, which we’re really looking forward to hearing.” Dillo Day is set for June 2. — Jonah Dylan
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