The Daily Northwestern — May 9, 2018 by The Daily Northwestern

The Daily Northwestern Wednesday, May 9, 2018

DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM 8 SPORTS/Baseball

3 CAMPUS/Student Groups

How Wellman once made a winner of NU

NU startup Litterbox aims to provide students affordable summer storage option

Find us online @thedailynu 4 OPINION/Martinez

Do not call Donald Glover a genius yet

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Inaugural Renberg chair to join Medill Steven Thrasher to lead programming on LGBTQ issues

Cameron Cook/The Daily Northwestern

Student panelists speak at an event about inequality on campus. The discussion, held by psychology department faculty, was funded by the Provost Awards for Faculty Excellence in Diversity and Equity.

Panel addresses inequality at NU Psychology department hosts talk to improve campus inclusion By CATHERINE KIM

daily senior staffer @ck_525

During a Tuesday discussion with psychology department faculty, student panelists shared their experiences of inequality on campus and institutional solutions to the issue.

The talk, which attracted approximately 120 people at the McCormick Foundation Center Forum, is the first installment in a series of events held by the psychology department to focus on the psychology of inequality. The series is funded by the Provost Awards for Faculty Excellence in Diversity and Equity, which are provided to faculty members

who work to improve inclusion on campus. First-year graduate student Ivan Hernandez said he first became interested in inequality after being admitted into Northwestern. Until his admission, he said he never realized his struggles –– both social and financial –– as the child of Mexican immigrants were not widely

shared experiences. “When both of my parents worked, I cared for my siblings, and there’s five of us,” he said. “I started working just after I turned 12. But I just thought this was normal, right? It wasn’t until college where I found out that that definitely wasn’t the case.” » See INEQUALITY, page 6

believes it is the first major journalism professorship to focus on the topic. Foster said the position was established through an endowment provided by the husband of By WILSON CHAPMAN the late Renberg (Medill ’52). The the daily northwestern committee worked to narrow a @wilsonchapman10 field of 60 applicants to five finalists, who were invited to Medill to Steven Thrasher, a 2012 recipi- host lectures about LGBTQ topent of the National Lesbian and ics. After reviewing the lectures, Gay Journalists Association’s Jour- the committee decided to offer nalist of the Year Award, will join Thrasher the position. 4x4lecheight the Medill School of Journalism “Thrasher gave a terrific in 2019. ture, and we ultimately decided Thrasher, who has written that he was the best man for the about LGBTQ issues for pub- job,” Foster said. lications including The New Thrasher said he is excited Half page York Times, The Guardian and to join the Medill faculty and Buzzfeed, will join the Univer- already established goals for the sity as the inaugural Daniel H. new position. One of his primary Syllabus Yearbook Renberg chair, a newly created focuses as the chair, he said, will be position in which he will lead to establish programs and classes programming on LGBTQ issues that examine media coverage of and teach classes on similar sub- sexual and gender minorities. jects. Associate dean of Medill Though he won’t join NU until Charles Whitaker said Thrasher’s next year, Thrasher said he has combined experience in journal- already started developing ideas ism and academia makes him a for classes that can help fulfill good fit for Medill. those goals. These tentative plans “Thrasher is both an accom- include classes on 21st-century plished journalist and an social movements and journalistic accomplished academic, and his narrative framing. strengths in both fields will make He also said while his position him a great addition Medill’s the is through Medill, he willfolder work Plsto check classifieds faculty,” Whitaker said. with other departments such as dailynorthwestern .camPusave . Medill Prof. and Douglas Foster, the American studies program, chair of a faculty search committee com every day :> looking to fill the position, said he » See THRASHER, page 6

ETHS graduate Prairie Moon to open in new space wins Pulitzer Prize Restaurant will take over old Dave’s location on Chicago Avenue

FREE ROOM + BOARD for babysitting. Summer move-in, NW Evanston. Email for info: momhelpevanston@gmail.com

Journalist Megan Twohey reflects on career’s success By JULIA ESPARZA

daily senior staffer @juliaesparza10

Megan Twohey learned how to swim at the McGaw YMCA, took a journalism class at Evanston Township High School and would catch up with friends at Tommy Nevin’s Pub. Now, Twohey is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of the New York Times article that exposed years of sexual abuse allegedly committed by Harvey Weinstein. In April, Twohey won a Pulitzer Prize for public service and was also named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in 2018. “ Their hard work and impeccable journalism have changed attitudes, behavior, conversations, norms, laws and policies, yielding enormous personal and public good,” actress Ashley Judd wrote in a Time Magazine piece about Twohey, Jodi Kantor and

Ronan Farrow, the reporting team that received the title. Twohey told The Daily the article had been months in the making. “(We) were just staggered to see our coverage become part of this broader world-wide reckoning on sexual harassment and abuse,” she said. Twohey grew up in a “journalism family.” She said her father was an editor at the Chicago Tribune and her mother was a television news producer. She said she was raised to question “the establishment.” “Coming up in an economically and racially diverse school system was significant for me,” Twohey said. “The Evanston public school system forced me to examine issues of economic, social and racial justice.” She said when she was a teen, Medill Prof. Alex Kotlowitz’s reporting on public housing in Chicago “stuck with her.” She cited his work as one of the pieces that inspired her to become a journalist because it demonstrated the power reporters have to “pull back the curtain” on instances of injustice. » See TWOHEY, page 6

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By RYAN WANGMAN

daily senior staffer @ryanwangman

More than two years after Evanston staple Dave’s Italian Kitchen closed its doors at the popular Chicago Avenue location, the newly displaced owner of Prairie Moon will try his hand at revitalizing the space. Robert Strom, Prairie Moon’s owner, saw his restaurant at 1502 Sherman Ave. close — 16 years to the day after it opened — in preparation for the construction of Albion Residential’s planned 15-story apartment tower. Strom said the move to the spot at 1635 Chicago Ave. will provide an opportunity for the business to take advantage of the space’s new features as well as generate a more steady stream of foot traffic. “It had a lot of the amenities that we needed to keep going forward,” Strom said. “Prairie Moon has always been a congregational place. People tend to meet there, larger groups and so on, and so we really wanted to attain the ability to have that meeting place vibe.” Barring any setbacks, Strom

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SUDOKU: Drag file with (publication date) sud-p.tif Frick-Alofs/Daily Senior Staffer into Noah larger box, Prairie Moon’s new location, 1635 Chicago Ave. Owner Robert Strom said he hopes to reopen the fit proportionally restaurant’s doors in the next three to four weeks. hopes to open the restaurant within the next three to four weeks. He said the feeling of the place may be a little different and more “bar-centric,” with the bar located at the front of the restaurant and an update to the joint’s cocktail

menu in the works. relatively quick move, which file with The space is similarly sizedsolution, ruled outDrag a construction-based to the previous location —(previous relocation, and there day’s date)weren’t sud-s.tif without the outdoor area —into many options for large enough small box, fit proportionwhich was one of the reasons spaces that had previously ally Strom decided to move the housed a restaurant. business there. He said the restaurant needed to make a » See PRAIRIE MOON, page 6

Put in CORRECT DATE and&level boxes INSIDE: Around Town 2 | On Campus 3 | Opinion 4 | Classifieds Puzzles 6 | Sports 8

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2 NEWS | THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2018

AROUND TOWN Harley Clarke supporters fear mansion’s future By SAMANTHA HANDLER

the daily northwestern @sn_handler

If there’s one thing for certain about the Harley Clarke mansion, it is that its future remains uncertain. After aldermen denied a proposed 40-year lease agreement in April, Ald. Eleanor Revelle (7th) said it seemed like the agreement was “truly at the end” for Evanston Lakehouse and Gardens, and no other organizations have expressed interest in taking on the renovation project. Tom Hodgman, president of the nonprofit organization, said the prospect that the mansion might be demolished has made it harder to recruit donors. Some residents have expressed concerns that the mansion may be headed for demolition, prompting Mayor Steve Hagerty and Evanston Lakehouse and Gardens to issue statements on the matter “This group may have been the city’s last ditch effort to save the mansion,” Mayor Steve Hagerty said in a statement on Facebook. “I suspect we will now enter the final phase of the Harley Clarke saga and discuss whether the mansion should be salvaged, demolished, and have the space restored to parkland. Like all the other options, the answer to Harley Clarke

POLICE BLOTTER Skokie woman charged with unlawful use of weapon A 20-year-old Skokie woman was charged with unlawful use of a weapon in west Evanston. The woman disobeyed a stop sign at Dempster Street and Fowler Avenue at 5:55 p.m. on Saturday, Evanston police Cmdr. Ryan Glew said. An officer conducting traffic enforcement in the area stopped her vehicle, which had an expired license plate. The officer smelled cannabis when he approached the vehicle and asked the woman for her license and insurance, but she did not produce a license. Police then told the woman to turn off the car. She hesitated, but did not comply, Glew said.

remains uncertain.” The mansion — located in north Evanston at 2603 Sheridan Rd. — has been vacant since the Evanston Art Center moved out of the building in 2015, and the city has been searching for a buyer for the building for the past several years. Evanston Lakehouse and Gardens, founded in 2015 with the goal of renovating the mansion, had proposed plans to restore Harley Clarke in two phases, including fixing the structure as well as featuring community meeting spaces and an environmental education center. “(The mansion) is going to sit there for awhile while everyone moans and groans because nobody knows what to do with it,” Revelle told The Daily at the April 9 council meeting. In November, aldermen authorized the city to draft a contract with Evanston Lakehouse and Gardens, though in April they cited concerns about fundraising benchmarks and the potential financial risk for the city. There was a motion for the council to table the vote until the April 23 council meeting, which failed 4-5. Hodgman told The Daily on Tuesday he had heard some aldermen had reservations before the council vote, but wished they had sent the lease back to city staff for more negotiations. “It was almost like they just threw the baby out

with the bath water and they didn’t even vote to hold it,” Hodgman said. “They could have easily held it and could have fixed a few things, and we would have been up and running.” He added that the nonprofit has since sent a revised lease to City Council and has also further discussed the proposal during the public comment section at council meetings. City manager Wally Bobkiewicz said he knows that members of the organization have been talking with aldermen about a new plan, but he has not seen a revised lease. “At this point there’s nothing pending on the mansion,” Bobkiewicz said. “The discussions with the (Evanston) Lakehouse (and) Gardens have ended and there’s no issues pending.” Hodgman said Evanston Lakehouse and Gardens still wants to negotiate the lease with the city, saying they are ready to engage whenever the city is. He said Harley Clarke is a site of “importance” and their plan is not only about saving the structure, but also about “saving the structure to become something.” He said restoring the mansion will “inject energy” into the community, adding that it’s “disappointing” that demolition may be an option. “This is like our own little Millennium Park here,” Hodgman said. “This is one of the most amazing

When other officers arrived to search the vehicle, the woman stepped out of the car to call her mother. Glew said officers found a stun gun taser under the driver’s seat and what they suspected was cannabis in the center console. The woman was charged with a misdemeanor for the stun gun and cited for disobeying a stop sign and an expired registration.

11 p.m., Glew said. The driver was rolling a cigarette with a “green leafy substance” and the car smelled like cannabis. Officers asked the man to step out of the vehicle so they could conduct a search, Glew said. The man yelled at the officers, who then asked him to put his hands on the trunk of the car so they could perform a pat down. Glew said when the man refused to comply, officers said they would handcuff him. The man attempted to resist them as he was handcuffed. Police then searched the vehicle, in which they found 10 grams of cannabis. He was charged with a city ordinance of disobeying the police and possession of cannabis.

Evanston man charged with disobedience to police

A 20-year-old Evanston man was arrested Saturday in connection with disobedience to police and cannabis possession in south Evanston. Officers saw a running vehicle with expired registration in the 2100 block of Dobson Street around

— Nikki Baim

Colin Boyle/Daily Senior Staffer

Harley Clarke mansion, 2603 Sheridan Rd. After aldermen denied a lease agreement in April, the future of the mansion is uncertain.

places in Evanston and we have this building of significance and we think we can put it to use in a way that is going to really benefit the community.” samanthahandler2021@u.northwestern.edu

Setting the record straight

An article published in Monday’s paper titled “D65 Board talks education reform” misstated a position at Joseph E. Hill Early Childhood Education Center. The director of early childhood programs position is not new, and Evanston/Skokie School District 65 is hiring a new director. An article published in Tuesday’s paper titled “Live-in requirement sparks concern” misidentified the buildings in the caption. The buildings are 560 Lincoln and Kemper Hall. The Daily regrets the errors.

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2018

ON CAMPUS Students reinvent summer storage By JONAH DYLAN

daily senior staffer @thejonahdylan

After his freshman year ended, Communication sophomore Sanfeng Wang was met with a dilemma: He had items he couldn’t bring home with him, but he didn’t want to pay upwards of $150 for storage. This experience led Wang to found Litterbox, a summer storage company for students. The company works out of The Garage and is planning to offer its services this summer. McCormick sophomore Nico Finkelstein, another member of the Litterbox team, said he didn’t want to pay to store his things at the end of his freshman year, so he ended up hiding his belongings in his dorm’s basement. “Basically because I didn’t want to spend $150, I had to go with something that had a lot less security, and that’s because there’s just no middle-ground option of a cheap, alternative storage solution,” he said. “So that’s why I hopped in on this idea.” Litterbox’s motto is “Where Wildcats store

their sh*t.” Wang said he’d originally planned the company to be an in-between for students who need to store items and those who have extra storage space in off-campus apartments, but concerns with insurance and security led Litterbox to develop into a more standard storage service. The company has positioned itself as a cheaper option to University and Student Services, and its website compares its prices to USS’s, which are much higher. McCormick freshman Peter Dorward said the company recently started advertising and received its first order Monday. Weinberg freshman Yash Agrawal, another member of the Litterbox team, said the company sets itself apart from USS because it’s entirely run by students. “The main fundamental difference between USS and us is that we’re a student-run business, whereas USS is some external company that works with several universities,” he said. “Just inherently, being a student-run business, when you’re giving us business you’re supporting Northwestern students.” Along with a few other members, Wang pitched the idea for Litterbox during a program called Launch during Fall Quarter. The

five members continued to develop Litterbox throughout the academic year and recently made the change from a peer-to-peer service to a standard storage service. Dorward said they decided to make the change after realizing that costs might be too high with their old system. “People don’t care where their items are being stored, it’s not like an Airbnb,” he said. “What they care about is that they’re secure, and by having them in a storage unit, they’re more secure and we’re able to offer cheaper prices as well which just equates to a better value overall.” Dorward added that Litterbox’s business model is sustainable because they don’t have to pay for storage units year-round. But Finkelstein said moving forward, the company hopes to expand further to help students with storage year-round. “We plan on, if everything goes well, to extend to the study abroad seasons. So then maybe continue the services during the fall, during winter and spring study abroads if the demand is there,” Finkelstein said. jonahdylan2020@u.northwestern.edu

All-day Northwestern University graduate conference on

“Generations in History: Youth, Age and Metrics of Cultural Change” Convened by Breen Fellow Emily Curtis Walters Friday, May 11, 2018 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Harris Hall 108 (Leopold Room) 1881 Sheridan Road, Evanston

Keynote: The Ends of Innocence and the Problem of Generations in History 1: 30 to 3 p.m. Sabine FRÜHSTÜCK (East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies, UC Santa Barbara), author of Playing War: Children and the Paradoxes of Modern Militarism in Japan

Full program can be found at http://www.historicalstudies. northwestern.edu/events/ conferences

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Design for America honored with national award for achievement

Design for America, a national network of students, mentors and community leaders co-founded by McCormick Prof. Liz Gerber, has been honored with the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s National Design Award for corporate and institutional achievement. The National Design Awards recognize public impact for American design. Previous winners include Apple, Etsy and TED. In a news release, Gerber said it was an honor to win the award. “This is an incredible honor recognizing the value of DFA’s innovative approach to creating societal impact,” she said. “Students learn best through experimentation, and that is what DFA provides.” Gerber founded DFA in 2009 along with three of her undergraduate students, according to the release. The organization now comprises 36 universities and has more than 1,200 members. Some DFA students went on to found their own entrepreneurial businesses after learning from the organization. Hannah Chung (McCormick ’12) cofounded Sproutel, which collaborates with companies to develop products. In the release, Chung said she liked the fact that all students could participate in DFA, regardless of background. “Participants in DFA can come from any background, and we learn human-centered design together,” she said. “We learn design by doing, and we encourage students to fail and iterate because that’s how you grow.” — Jonah Dylan

Source: Northwestern

Hannah Chung (McCormick ’12) (left) stands with former President Barack Obama and Aaron Horowitz (McCormick ’12).

OPINION

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Wednesday, May 9, 2018

After music video, don’t call Gambino a genius yet MARISSA MARTINEZ

DAILY COLUMNIST

“Gripping.” “Masterful.” “Beautiful.” “Genius.” These are just a few of the descriptors that have been applied to Childish Gambino’s new music video accompanying his song, “This Is America.” None have been as pervasive as the word “genius.” And it’s easy to see why this adjective has been applied more than any other. The camerawork is crisp and stunning, showcasing interesting and bold symbols. The choreography is intricate and calls upon a variety of both African and American viral dance moves — as well as the lasting Jim Crow symbol that has been seared into every viewer’s consciousness. Overall, there are many aspects to unpack and discuss. Twitter certainly had a lot to say. A tweetstorm emerged within the 48 hours after the video’s release. Posts claimed viewers were missing its primary messages, indignantly posting GIFs and screenshots to prove no one noticed this symbol or that one. Others said the video bravely spoke out about topics no one else was mentioning: gun violence, race, commercialism. Still others posted memes. There are some general consensuses the Internet has reached: This video is high-art. This video means something. This video is the wake-up call America didn’t know it wanted but desperately needed. Gambino — real name Donald Glover — is a genius. But we should hesitate to just uplift this

video (and its creators) as arbitrary saviors and leave it at that. Yes, “This Is America” is beautiful, but it should not be immune to the criticism that it merits. At first glance, many of the articles and think pieces written about the video herald it for “waking up America” and being the black art our country desperately needs (even though this definitely already exists in multiple forms). This in part speaks to a desire for distinct, big-budget works that appeal to the masses. Black art can be consumed, but only if it’s deadpan, socially conscious and completely clear and easy to digest. But why should these pieces have to be universally accepted, understood and uplifted by non-black people in order to be considered high-art? When I first saw the video, I expected to be forced into a new way of thinking, but by the end, I only sighed at how predictable it all was. Interesting, but nothing particularly new — a reaction held by none of my friends. Alone, the song is not exceptional. When I saw Gambino’s Saturday Night Live performance, it was stripped down and eerie, with school children dancers moving feverishly to his left. While it could be considered catchy or part of a new stage of Gambino’s music, the number did not seem particularly special. Yet, despite the song’s repetitive nature, its lyrics’ page on genius.com set a record for the fastest song to reach 1 million views, according to the company’s Twitter. Upon hearing it without the visuals, the song is ultimately stratified phrases laid over a basic beat. Thus, the video’s shock value — unwavering pessimism distributed using overt violence and symbolism — is supposed to carry the work’s full weight. Viewers are shuttled

from trauma to dance to trauma to dance, all without a chance to breathe and process. The beautiful production both diverts the viewer’s attention from the background rioting and chaos — as many viewers have pointed out — and distracts from the somewhat purposeful lack of a deep, fluent message. In the past few days, the video has been heralded as a prime example of Glover’s genius. Many profiles have painted him lately as part of a class of intelligent black artists — he is both edgier than the “clean-cut” Drake and more moving than rappers with “bad-boy swagger” like Travis Scott, said one particularly cringey New York Times column. To me, his punchiness and ability to emulate a “nerdy but talented rapper” personality means that, as Spin.com put it, Glover “could be as coarse, misogynistic and offensive as the rap he distanced himself from, but at least he could make literary references.” Assigning the label “genius” to people who create works like Glover’s is not necessarily a reflection on the individual pieces, but on the larger system of rap and America’s view of black artists. It’s a clear sign of our expectations of the art and artists: According to mainstream America, rap nowadays is only about partying, drugs and sex. When it dares to leave these newly constructed confines to discuss politics or social issues, it’s considered shocking and, more importantly, genius. It feels ironic that Glover — who tweeted in 2014 that Twitter activism is “wack” and “only half of activism” — seems to be leaning into an easily hashtaggable and shareable aesthetic. This latest work comes from an artist who has been repeatedly criticized for pandering to white audiences, especially in his earlier years. With this video, Gambino seems to be doing the same exact thing.

Black viewers are already very familiar with many of the depicted tropes — gun violence, a disinterested public, the virality of black suffering. Therefore, any value that can be gained from the gunning down of 11 black people is almost solely for the entertainment, consumption and education of white audiences. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but media that has this purpose should be recognized as such. “This Is America,” in part, did do its job. There are hundreds of discussions, articles, analyses: The energy on the internet as critics and fans alike try to decipher the art is almost electric. I just fear that the dialogue will stay at surface-level. Gambino dropped a thought-provoking piece that resembles the viral phenomena the video tries to emulate and dismantle. Just as actors in the video quickly disregard the numerous atrocities committed, audiences will quickly grow tired of the hype — and move on, leaving us right back where we started. This is why we should not be so quick to assign “genius” to works like these, pieces that may fade more quickly than they appeared. Artists can challenge the status quo, be intelligent and innovative — characteristics often associated with the word — without us slapping this facile label on them. Ascribing genius to simple creativity removes the necessity of hustle, of hard work, of the ability to make mistakes and bad decisions.

of the Holocaust during World War II, but looking at the country now, with things going on in Syria, we have an opportunity to change our actions.” Goldstein’s point is well taken. Unfortunately, it seems that some members of the Holocaust Museum’s own staff disagree. In response to the recent U.S. missile strike on Syrian chemical weapons factories, museum official Rebecca Erbelding, a co-curator of the exhibit along with Prof. Greene, tweeted: “There are viable ways that the US can aid those being persecuted under an evil regime. Bombing isn’t one of them.”

Erbelding is mistaken. Recent history shows that using military force to interrupt mass murder is a very viable way to aid the persecuted. President Bill Clinton used bombing in 1999 to put an end to atrocities in the Balkans. In 2011, President Barack Obama used it to preempt Muammar al-Qaddafi’s plan to carry out what Obama called “a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.” And in 2014, President Obama also successfully took military action to end the ISIS siege of thousands of Yazidi civilians in Iraq. Allied military officials have said that the recent missile strikes in Syria have set back

Syrian chemical weapons capabilities “for years.” Destroying weapons used by an evil regime to persecute people sounds like a pretty good way to aid those who are being persecuted. It’s a shame that some of the Holocaust Museum’s own representatives don’t seem to understand that obvious lesson from the Holocaust. But it’s encouraging to see students like Goldstein recognizing that our generation has a responsibility to do everything possible to impede the mass murder of civilians, wherever it takes place.

Marissa Martinez is a Medill freshman. She can be contacted at marissamartinez2021@u.northwestern.edu. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to opinion@ dailynorthwestern.com. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

On Syrian airstrikes, learn from Americans’ inaction in Holocaust

April 25’s paper described the new exhibit, Americans and the Holocaust, at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., for which history Prof. Daniel Greene was the chief curator. One visitor to the exhibit, Avi Goldstein, was quoted saying the lesson to take away from the exhibit was that, “We failed to protect the victims

Martinez: Dolezal documentary more damaging than helpful May 2, 2018

"Rachel was persecuted and mistreated as a child. She sought an escape into a tangent world that she was already steeped in (black culture) and I think that I would welcome her into my community if it were mine in which she sought refuge. I can understand if many would feel slighted, but cannot fathom the deep rage that this woman has encountered.” Commenter: Maureen McCarthy Rasmusson Posted on 5/2

What commenters are saying

Letter to the Editor: Student activists denounce university’s co-optation of Bursar’s Office Takeover, demand action May 3, 2018

“I was surprised when I drove down Sheridan Rd. the other day and saw the banner commemorating the bursar's office takeover hanging over Weber Arch. Co-opting is exactly what this is. Don't let the administration seize control of the narrative.” Commenter: Kevin Jones Posted on 5/4

— Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies

The Daily Northwestern Volume 138, Issue 117 Editor in Chief Peter Kotecki

Opinion Editor Alex Schwartz

Managing Editors Maddie Burakoff Troy Closson Rishika Dugyala

Assistant Opinion Editors Marissa Martinez Ruby Phillips

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR may be sent to 1999 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, via fax at 847-491-9905, via e-mail to opinion@ dailynorthwestern.com or by dropping a letter in the box outside The Daily office. Letters have the following requirements: • Should be typed and double-spaced • Should include the author’s name, signature, school, class and phone number. • Should be fewer than 300 words They will be checked for authenticity and may be edited for length, clarity, style and grammar. Letters, columns and cartoons contain the opinion of the authors, not Students Publishing Co. Inc. Submissions signed by more than three people must include at least one and no more than three names designated to represent the group. Editorials reflect the majority opinion of The Daily’s student editorial board and not the opinions of either Northwestern University or Students Publishing Co. Inc.

THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN | NEWS 5

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2018

New assistant director joins staff at Searle Center By ALAN PEREZ

daily senior staffer @_perezalan_

Source: Omari Keeles

Omari Keeles, the inaugural assistant director for diversity and inclusion at the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching. Keeles said he will focus on fostering inclusive learning environments and listening to students.

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Years after Omari Keeles left the University of Miami, students still told educational and psychological studies Prof. Laura Kohn-Wood how much they enjoyed his class on black psychology. Keeles would meet with them individually, review their work extensively and devote hours to creating his syllabus, Kohn-Wood said. “As a long-time professor, I’m kind of like, ‘What are you doing? That’s taking too much time,’” said Kohn-Wood, who is a member of Keeles’ doctoral dissertation committee. “It really just came from his passion related to his intellectual interest, but also his desire to make sure that students were able to engage in material about diversity in a way that hadn’t existed before. He just wanted to ensure that they had a high quality experience.” Keeles will bring that passion for education when he joins Northwestern next week as the inaugural assistant director for diversity and inclusion at the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching. The Oakland, California, native comes from a background of extensive experience in education, psychology and equity. Bennett Goldberg, director of Searle and assistant provost for learning and teaching, said Keeles’ expertise and experience will make him an effective leader in fostering inclusive classrooms at NU. Searle created the position after recognizing the importance of creating learning environments that serve the needs of students from marginalized backgrounds, Goldberg said. Professors and teaching assistants, he added, were also requesting assistance in that effort. “Faculty seek out and don’t have access to professional training and how to do things like have difficult conversations that end up with deep learning around tricky issues having to do with race, gender and sexual orientation and citizenship,” he said. “It’s a commitment that the institution is making to creating inclusive learning environments.” Students from marginalized and non-affluent backgrounds are more likely to face barriers and problems with their sense of belonging — sometimes even moving to a different academic field — said Keeles, whose research focuses on how students adjust to the environments of predominantly white institutions. Especially at time when demographics are shifting across both the University and the nation, Keeles said

it’s important to understand that all students benefit from inclusive classrooms. “We definitely are living in a very changed society,” he said. “We need to prepare our students to enter a society that is going to be extremely diverse — in terms of background and where people are coming from — and able to move society forward in a way that’s going to be progressive for all.” Keeles is adequately prepared for his new role, one that seems “tailor-made” for him, Kohn-Wood said. He is passionate about issues related to race, access and equity, she said, and was interested in the combined workings of identities before “intersectionality became a buzzword.” In Miami, Keeles worked with Kohn-Wood’s research team to host the national Black Graduate Conference in Psychology and coordinate an afterschool program in a nearby neighborhood. At the University of Michigan, where he will soon receive a doctoral degree in education and psychology, he served as a graduate student mentor and scholarship adviser for students from underrepresented backgrounds. At NU, Keeles will spearhead efforts to foster inclusive learning and teaching, including hosting workshops and discussions with faculty. Keeles will also conduct original research on inclusive learning and teaching initiatives, such as diversifying the University’s curricula and developing relationships with the University’s diversity and inclusion administrators, as well as those in the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion. Keeles said he plans to listen to students’ concerns and needs to gain an understanding of how Northwestern students’ identities can affect their experience. He said he hopes to support students so that everyone who went through the rigorous admissions process to get to NU has the chance to succeed once on campus. This won’t be Keeles’ first time in Chicago. As a student in Michigan, he frequently made trips to the city, which he enjoyed for its diversity and large number of professionals of color. As for his time outside of class, Keeles said he’ll visit some restaurants, and try to understand how the University fits in to the climate of the city. “I’m a big foodie, I love food, so experiencing all the great restaurants in a larger city than Ann Arbor is something that I definitely look forward to,” he said. “Also with all the great universities in the city of Chicago, the kind of intellectual stimulation that’s here on a social level … is something I was really looking forward to moving to a more diverse city.” aperez@u.northwestern.edu

OR E ive

6 NEWS | THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2018

INEQUALITY

THRASHER

Weinberg sophomore Alexis Barber said the struggle of having to balance work, academics and a social life is an example of inequality on campus. Students who come from low-income backgrounds may have to choose between spending on books or food, which affects the overall quality of their lives. Weinberg senior Rafael Alejo added that inequality pervades on campus because experiences are gated by money. Northwestern University Dance Marathon, Ski Trip, Greek life and even $5 student production tickets are all examples of experiences that may exclude students who don’t have the financial means, he said. “(Greek life is) the most obvious manifestation of high net worth individuals making sure their high net worth son or daughter remains around high net worth sons or daughters,” he said. As a way to address some inequalities, Weinberg junior Tess Brieva said the University should be more transparent about course costs. Books can be expensive, and students should be able to seek the financial help needed for the courses they want to take, she said. Hernandez added that efforts have to be made in not only recruiting low-income students but also retaining them. Many students feel that once they’re admitted, they are “abandoned” and left to navigate their identity as lowincome students at an affluent university, he said. He said the University should help students in this transition process, especially by making pre-orientation programs more accessible and free. “It’s easy to feel like you don’t belong or this university is not meant for you,” he said. “Oftentimes the students ourselves have to create spaces so that we can support each other because they’re nonexistent. Whereas other groups may come in to the university that seems to be catered for them, and the transition is easy.” Weinberg junior Abby Hodonicky, who attended the event, told The Daily that equality efforts on campus can be inconsistent because opportunities for support are often competitive and further divide students. Scholarships and internship funding only goes to a few people and alienates the rest of the applicants, she said. She said the event, however, was a positive step toward raising awareness that students with different socioeconomic backgrounds exist on campus. “Just talking about awareness of it can at least make it so that people can at least assume that not everyone can go out to dinner,” Hodonicky said. “It was encouraging to see the professors listening.”

the African American studies department and the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing, to develop LGBTQ programs across campus. In addition, Thrasher said he also intends to incorporate his background in American studies into his work at Medill. For example, he said he hopes to start classes that look at HIV/AIDS history or gay rights before and after the Stonewall Riots — a series of 1969 demonstrations against police raids that sparked the gay liberation movement of the following decades — with a journalistic perspective. Thrasher said he hopes the study of queer media history can help facilitate conversation among students about LGBTQ representation in media and help teach them how to be responsible and inquisitive reporters. “Queer and trans people have such a long history of biased media coverage,” Thrasher said. “Studying this history can be a rewarding learning experience even for straight people and those who do not fall within these demographics.”

From page 1

catherinekim2020@u.northwestern.edu

Source: Steven Thrasher

Steven Thrasher. The accomplished journalist will join the Medill faculty next year as the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg chair.

TWOHEY From page 1

Twohey graduated from ETHS in 1994, and later majored in American Studies at Georgetown University. She graduated in 1998, and returned in 2007 to Chicago, where she reported for the Chicago Tribune for four years. Much of Twohey’s investigative work has resulted in policy change, criminal convictions and the creation of laws that protect women’s and children’s rights. Twohey said one of her first pieces that sparked change was on a woman who was shot and killed by her boyfriend in a Chicago suburb parking lot. She said the case drew a lot of attention because the woman had taken all the available steps to protect herself, but her boyfriend was still able to “hunt her down.” She said the story triggered a broader investigation into the failures of the court system to protect victims of domestic violence. It also prompted Illinois

PRAIRIE MOON From page 1

Discussions over the lease for the space were a few months in the making but were not finalized until Prairie Moon’s final week of operations on Sherman, the restaurant’s marketing manager Scott Anderson said. He added that the people who work at the establishment don’t want to be out of business for too long. “The restaurant closed on a Sunday evening, and

to become the first state to require the testing of all rape kits. “From there, moving forward, I did additional reporting on ways which the criminal justice system and state regulations and other government bodies were failing to protect female victims of crime,” Twohey said. This work, she said, translated into her reporting of sexual assault allegations against Weinstein. In a speech by Kantor and Twohey reflecting on their work, Kantor said she and Twohey were motivated to keep digging by having young daughters of their own. “We want our daughters to understand that this work is not about celebrity, or even individual predators,” Kantor said, “but about our team’s discovery of what now seems like an entire system of silencing women and erasing their experiences.” Twohey — who is working on a book addressing the Weinstein allegations — will speak about her coverage of the #MeToo movement at a Contemporary

Thoughts Speaker Series event Thursday. She said she is excited to hear what students have to say about the results of her reporting. CTSS vice president Amanda Gordon said the group has been following Twohey’s work for a while because it has been so influential. Gordon added that Twohey’s parents will attend the event. “When we were putting together this panel, we wanted someone who really represented this #MeToo movement,” Gordon said. “We think she is a really valuable journalist for our time.” Twohey said she is proud of the work she has been able to do while reporting in Chicago and New York City. But she makes sure to visit her parents and the home she grew up in near Green Bay Road and Central Street. “I loved growing up in Evanston and I think it really helped shape not just the person I’ve become, but the journalist I’ve become,” Twohey said.

on Monday morning they were in there and moving all their stuff out and into Dave’s Italian Kitchen’s space,” Anderson said. In the new space, Anderson said, the majority of the staff will stay onboard through the move. He added that the restaurant will have a lot of the same food and maintain its same relaxed, welcoming “vibe.” Paul Zalmezak, the city’s economic development manager, said the move helps occupy a space that would otherwise be difficult to fill due to its lowerlevel, basement configuration, which obstructs some

of the visibility into the spot. He said Prairie Moon will likely serve a greater portion of the Northwestern community in the new location and serve as an anchor for the north end of the block. “I do think that they’ll benefit from the visibility of the foot and auto traffic, and I think they’ll do well there,” Zalmezak said. “They really spent some time thinking about where to relocate … and they ended up going with this.”

juliainesesparza2020@u.northwestern.edu

ryanw@u.northwestern.edu

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WELLMAN From page 8

The players have apparently since forgotten how many minutes it was — Ariola estimated 20, reliever Chris Nichting (Weinberg ’88) said 24 — but the memories of its effects on their psyche remain in vivid color. “I didn’t know it was humanly possible for me to run three miles in under 20 minutes, but he made me,” Ariola said. “You just learned how to push yourself (beyond) what maybe before you didn’t think was possible, and that transferred over to when I was on the mound. In the fifth or sixth inning, I would have this confidence that I was not tired and could do this for another 21 innings.” After taking two of three games in a Spring Break series at No. 4-ranked North Carolina, the Cats surged into the national conversation. They eventually rolled to a sparkling 44-18-1 record, setting the program’s all-time wins record that hasn’t even been threatened since, and tallied a 9-6-1 mark in the conference that was enough to qualify for the then-four-team Big Ten Tournament (it has since expanded to eight teams). After a loss to a dynastic Michigan team in the opening round of the double-elimination tournament, NU knocked off Michigan State and Minnesota to earn a final-day rematch against the Wolverines, needing to win twice to take the conference title. They won just once: After a 6-2 Cats victory in the first game, Michigan prevailed 8-3 in the deciding second game to claim the Big Ten’s one automatic NCAA Tournament bid. The team expected to receive an at-large bid — Wellman told The Daily’s beat reporter at the time that “if we don’t make the regionals, someone should investigate the NCAA” — but they were snubbed. It remains the closest the program has come since 1957 to making the tournament. By the following spring, NU had finally reached the plateau that Wellman had sought for years. It was ranked 21st in Baseball America’s national rankings at the start of April and the coach said at the time that he “didn’t really annihilate this team” like those of years past. “By ’85, and really probably the last (part) of ’84, I didn’t have to play that role anymore,” Wellman said. “They were challenging each other and the leadership came from within the team, rather than from me.” The 1985 team went 40-18 overall but inexplicably stumbled to a losing record in conference play and missed out on the tournament. Then, early the following year, Wellman stunned the squad with

news: After the season’s conclusion, he would be leaving Evanston to become the athletic director at Minnesota State-Mankato. Wellman’s upcoming departure and Girardi’s inevitable graduation set up the 1986 season as the culmination of a relatively brief but nonetheless instantly legendary era. There was no time, however, for a grand parade — the team, despite its exponential winning percentage, had yet to bring home a trophy to Evanston. And at last, all the pieces were in place to break that postseason hex. “At that time, people were saying, ‘Who is this purple and white team out of Chicago and are they really that sound at playing the game?’” Nichting said. “I really think we were. I think we could’ve gone very far.”

The end

As Illinois’ game-tying hit bounced down the left field line, simultaneously trampling blades of grass and the lofty goals that Wellman had brought to and nearly achieved at NU, Nichting looked toward the dugout — the dugout Wellman had basically built himself five years prior — looking for something, anything, to save him. He said he saw two seniors, Girardi and Hall, standing on the top step. He saw the face of Wellman himself farther within. He found no solace. “They didn’t look like they’d lost something very close to them, but it looked like something had come out of the sails,” said Nichting, who had entered the game with a nearly unhittable 0.79 ERA. “I felt like I’d let down all that those guys had done for Northwestern baseball with that one hit.” All that they’d done was a list short on trophies but long on victories: 155 wins and just 70 losses over four straight dominant seasons, but not a single Big Ten championship or NCAA Tournament appearance. A win that spring Sunday — one which began with anticipation and ended with dismay and flipped from one to the other when visiting Illinois tagged Nichting for four game-tying runs in the 7th inning and later handed him the loss in the 12th — could have changed the latter part. After winning both ends of a Saturday doubleheader against the Fighting Illini, NU entered the day 39-12 overall, 9-5 in the conference, and just one win away from clinching a tournament bid. Instead, a pair of losses agonizingly ended NU’s 1986 season and the five-year Wellman era, an era in which the program was resurrected in glorious but ever-so-fleeting fashion. Girardi had broken his ankle the day before and

Source: Northwestern Archives

wasn’t able to catch, but still served as a designated hitter; “I was going to do whatever it took,” he said. In the nightcap of the doubleheader, the emotionally exhausted Cats were blown out, 11-1, in what officially became Wellman’s last game at the school. Nichting — then a sophomore, today going on 52 — now knows it wasn’t all his fault. Success is a matter of three things, he said: preparation, knowledge and timing. Those Cats had a surfeit of the first two, with a handful of future major-leaguers and a coach notorious for his intense practices. They spent half a decade clawing desperately, painstakingly, for the third, but never quite reached it. “Some days, that’s baseball,” Ariola said. “Sometimes the game is cruel.”

The legacy

Girardi went on to play 1,277 games for the Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals, then manage 1,782 more for the Yankees and Miami Marlins. He’s now an analyst for MLB Network. And yet when he reflects upon his favorite moment in the whole journey, his mind pulls him back a little further, back a few years and a few miles up the Lake Michigan shoreline, to Evanston. “I look back at all the experiences I’ve had in baseball, and I can’t say there was anything more

enjoyable to me than my college baseball at Northwestern,” Girardi said. “We grew up together. We came in as teenagers and Ron Wellman made us men.” Wellman has since helped many, many thousands of college athletes follow similar journeys. He’s served as Wake Forest’s athletic director for the past 26 years, making him the longest-tenured AD at any major-conference university in the country. His former players, though, remember him not for his great contributions as an athletic director but for his strict but passionate coaching, for his aura of earnesty and relentlessness, for his unprecedented legacy of success at NU and for his tremendous impact on each of their lives. “We were a team that didn’t back down, and in our history, we did back down. You have to attribute that change to a person, and that person is Ron Wellman,” Magentale said. “That guy singlehandedly changed the program, and he changed my life, too. If you’re a young person and you see someone come in and … change everything and then you start to win together, that changes your perspective. You want yourself to become that agent of change in life.” benjaminpope2019@u.northwestern.edu

The Daily Northwestern Spring 2018 | An independent voice since 1923 | Evanston, Illinois

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“I look back at all the experiences I’ve had in baseball, and I can’t say there was anything more enjoyable to me than my college baseball at Northwestern.” — Joe Girardi

@DailyNU_Sports

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

For 5 years in over a century of desolation, Ron Wellman and his players made a winner of Northwestern baseball By BEN POPE

daily senior staffer @benpope111

The story of the Ron Wellman era of Northwestern baseball, of the five years in a century and a half of history when the program didn’t just scrape by in the Big Ten basement but rather clawed for unprecedented heights and came painfully close to achieving them, began and ended with a storm. It started — not literally, but realistically — in the basement of McGaw Hall, now Welsh-Ryan Arena, on a blizzard-ravaged night in the winter of 1982. It finished on the soggy field of Miller Park after two emotional losses to Illinois in May 1986, just before a downpour swept away the successes of that half-decade as quickly as they had come. But between, the story is one of sweat and sunshine, of a coach who knew his players could do more and the players who proved him right, of pushing past great disappointments, and of carving out the most unlikely of success stories at a university that has seen decades upon decades of bad baseball both before and after.

The beginning

The weather forecast was growing increasingly ominous for the upcoming weekend when Wellman, then a young coach fresh out of his first gig at local Elmhurst College, gave his newly inherited players unusual instructions for their Friday night practice: bring a pillow. “It was going to be a blizzard and it was going to be very difficult to get them back safely on Saturday morning,” Wellman said. “I just notified the players that we’ll have a camp-out in the locker room so we’re certain to have everyone be able to make the practice. I actually slept in the coaches’ locker room, so nobody went home.” Wellman had shown up just the fall before and implemented a twice-aday practice routine, which stunned a team accustomed to the lackadaisical schedule that previous 20-year skipper George McKinnon had followed. The 180-degree turn in styles was a shock to the team’s system, Eric

Mogentale (McCormick ’84) recalled. Many players quit; only three out of McKinnon’s entire 1980 recruiting class lasted all four years on the team. But a few embraced the on-the-field rewards they knew the hard work would bring. “(McKinnon) used to say often, ‘College baseball is the last fun Division I sport left,’ that basketball and football had become businesses,” Mogentale said. “George didn’t realize that not winning isn’t that fun.” Wellman, for one, knew how to win. He’d won 210 games and lost just 134 in 10 years at Elmhurst; NU, meanwhile, had gone 17-33 the previous season alone. He also knew how to find others who were willing to commit everything to winning. One time, he drove to Springfield, watched a high school playoff game and stood in line for an hour afterward behind six other interested college coaches to talk to one catcher. He was, of course, unaware that player would go on to bat in the majors for 15 years and manage for another 11. That man’s name was Joe Girardi (McCormick ’86). “I was probably going to go play at the University of New Orleans … and Ron saw me play one game and asked me, ‘Please don’t sign until I have a chance to meet with you,’” Girardi said. “When Ron Wellman made his offer, my mom’s eyes lit up … and I knew that was the place for me.” Girardi would become the backbone of the team from 1983 to 1986, earning first team All-Big Ten honors both of his upperclassman years and serving as the team’s leader. But Wellman used his “presence, professionalism and intensity,” as described by pitcher Tony Ariola (SESP ’88), to surround Girardi with plenty of more talent. Headlining the class of 1985, Wellman’s first recruiting class, were the likes of Dan Grunhard (batted .451 with 53 RBIs in 1984), Mike Huff (went on to a seven-year MLB career) and Tom Hildebrand (batted .389 with 58 RBIs in 1985). Stars of the class of 1986, in addition to Girardi, included John Stewart (the Cats’ versatile onesize-fits-all outfielder), Ed Tompa (a three-year starter at first base), Al Quintana (batted .342 in 1986) and pitcher Grady Hall (11-1 with a 2.31

ERA in 1986). Wellman also pressured the University to improve the dilapidated Miller Park. Previously, the dugout was not dug but definitely out — it was a plywood shack that blew

over once dur ing a game in McKinnon’s final season, Magentale said. Wellman made sure that was fixed, and that a new scoreboard was added as well.

The middle

As Wellman’s intensity became the norm, success slowly followed. The Cats went 25-27-1 in his first season, marking still a massive improvement over the prior campaign. They took another step forward to 32-20-2 in his second season, but won just six of 15 Big Ten games. Entering the 1984 season, the time had come for NU to break through, and Wellman was determined to get the team ready for it. “I thought going into Northwestern I was an intense baseball player, and I was wrong,” Ariola said. “Ron had a whole new definition of intensity for me. And through this hard work, he really taught us how to remove some of the self-imposed limitations that we put on ourselves.” An annual favorite was the track run, when Wellman made the entire team run three miles in a specific maximum length of time. » See WELLMAN, page 7

Source: Northwestern Archives

Coach Ron Wellman (far left) and other Northwestern assistant coaches and players look out from the Miller Park dugout.

NU can attain success again, Wellman says By BEN POPE

daily senior staffer @benpope111

One has to look closely to find much tribute to legendary 1980s coach Ron Wellman at Northwestern today. Only a small sign along the Miller Park third base-side walkway — opposite the Ashland Avenue main entrance — that reads “Wellman Way” truly visibly does so. But it is hardly surprising that the program has done little to commemorate its history: Since 1892, the Cats have only 34 winning seasons to their name. Their most recent one was 18 years ago, in 2000. Still relatively new coach Spencer Allen nearly steered the team to its first NCAA Tournament since 1957 last spring, guiding a torrid finish to the regular season and dramatic run through the Big Ten Tournament that fell just one game shy of a title. But this year’s team (14-28, 4-17 Big Ten) has regressed back to the depths of the conference. Nevertheless, numerous alumni of the dominant Wellman teams, including Wellman himself, said they feel the most optimistic they ever have that NU can return to its brief former heights. “(Allen is) energetic and recruits very well, he’s organized in his practices and has a very high level of expectation of his players, so he has all of the characteristics that would lead one to believe that he is going to be successful,” Wellman said. Under former head coach Paul Stevens, who left following the 2015 season after 28 years at the

helm, the Cats suffered from the poor condition of Miller Park and what Eric Mogentale (McCormick ’84) described as a lack of commitment from the athletic department to baseball program — “Paul had one arm and one leg tied behind his back,” Mogentale said. Those days are clearly gone now, particularly because of 2014 and 2015 renovations to the stadium. NU is now just waiting on the wins. “Spencer did a tremendous job last year; he got the most out of his team,” former New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi (McCormick ’86) said. “Improvement in the facilities will help, and I think they will get back to a very high level, I really do.” But the Cats’ program is still challenged by the inescapable realities of the university’s tough academic admission standards and high tuition, Wellman said, relating it to his current situation as athletic director at Wake Forest. Baseball teams are limited by the NCAA to the equivalent of just 11.7 total scholarships to divide among as many as 27 partial scholarshipreceiving players. That makes attending a school like NU much more expensive than a state school — a recruiting hurdle not faced by the football or basketball teams, which can award universal full scholarships. “I tell our coaches here … that you’ve got to invest in the stars to win the recruiting game, but we recognize too that we’re not going to have much depth on the bench when we do that,” Wellman said. “It takes time to build a program at a Northwestern (type of school).” benjaminpope2019@u.northwestern.edu