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The Daily Northwestern Thursday, May 19, 2016
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HuffPo editor calls out NU prof
Downtown expansion discussed by city Community members weigh in on northward stretch By NORA SHELLY
the daily northwestern @noracshelly
Journalist tweets criticism, Medill Prof. Alec Klein apologizes
to do in CAESAR that take an extraneous number of steps,” Chen said. “What Will’s extension really does is cut down on that inefficiency in a major way. That’s one thing that I absolutely noticed and really love most about the extension.” Chen said he admires Xiao’s skill and versatility as a coder, and noted his ability to “churn out little projects on the side” that are clever in some way, if not useful. Xiao said it was challenging to create an add-on for CAESAR, an intricate system composed of massive amounts of coding. “CAESAR is a very unique kind of website, and it’s really complicated behind the scenes,” he said. “There’s a lot of code to weave through and try to figure out how to rework, but once I spent a lot of time looking through
Community members talked about the importance of maintaining the neighborhood character and focusing development near public transportation Wednesday night during a discussion about the possible expansion of the city’s downtown area. Plans for the northern sub-area would provide general guidelines for development in the area between Emerson and Foster streets and Sherman and Ridge avenues. According to city documents, the sub-area could function as a transitional area between the more commercial area of the downtown south of Emerson Street and the more residential area north of Emerson. “We haven’t done long-range planning like this in a long time,” said Ald. Judy Fiske (1st), whose ward contains part of the proposed subarea. “What I’m hoping is that this will be the start of a new approach to looking at how we can better plan, especially for our areas around the downtown.” More than 35 people attended the meeting, which included a discussion portion in which groups brainstormed suggestions for the area. Ideas included keeping the zoning guidelines as is, concentrating development around the intersection of Foster Street and Maple Avenue and encouraging “mixed-use” buildings, which combine residential and commercial uses. The previous downtown plan was created in 2009 and defined the northern boundary of the downtown as between Sherman and Ridge avenues near Emerson Street. The initiative was discussed at a Planning and Development Committee meeting earlier this year and was partially inspired by the failed 831 Emerson St. development project, said Damir Latinovic, a planning and zoning administrator for the city. The project, which was rejected at City Council in February, brought the area to the city’s attention along with an upward trend in CTA ridership and an increase in non-car owning, non-family households in the area, Latinovic said. “The households that live here are totally different than what is usually found in the rest of the city,” Latinovic said. Latinovic said according to census data, although households in the area tend to be the same size as those in other parts of the city, traditional family households are “much less present in this area.” He added that the city is also taking into consideration Northwestern’s upcoming two year live-in requirement, which will go into effect in Fall 2017 and have a significant effect on off-campus rentals. Latinovic told The Daily that any
» See CAESAR, page 10
» See DOWNTOWN, page 10
By SHANE MCKEON
daily senior staffer @shane_mckeon
An editor at the Huffington Post says a male Medill professor told her she “probably had issues” with her writing ability because her voice was higher-pitched and sounded like that of an undergraduate on a phone call. Amanda Terkel, a political reporter and editor at the news website, said the professor — who Terkel declined to identify — was a reference on a Medill student’s application for an internship at the Huffington Post. Terkel said she called to ask questions about the student and her writing ability when the professor made the comments. Terkel said she told the professor his words were “incredibly offensive.” “You can’t tell someone’s writing ability from the sound of their voice,” Terkel told The Daily. Terkel, who first mentioned the conversation publicly in a series of tweets Wednesday morning, said she declined to name the professor because she doesn’t want him to face intense online backlash that can sometimes follow incidents like this. In an email to The Daily, Medill Prof. Alec Klein said he was the professor with whom the editor had » See CRITICISM, page 10
Lauren Duquette/Daily Senior Staffer
OPEN GROUPS Brent Turner, executive director of Campus Life, speaks at ASG Senate on Wednesday. Turner said he wants students and administrators to start a dialogue about student group exclusivity.
ASG talks open student groups New resolution disavows potential proposal By SHANE MCKEON
daily senior staffer @shane_mckeon
Associated Student Government Senate will consider next week a resolution disavowing a potential University proposal that would push some exclusive student groups to open their doors to all. The resolution, introduced during Wednesday’s meeting, not only criticizes a potential open group proposal, but also says ASG would continue to fund a student group even if the University ceases to recognize it. The resolution also encourages administrators to work with ASG to find “alternative policies that foster
inclusiveness.” Senators were at times unclear on what a possible change could look like, as the Office of Campus Life has not released any further specifics about potential changes since The Daily initially reported on the possible proposal Sunday. Brent Turner, the executive director of Campus Life who also attended the meeting, said no specific policy or mandate has been drawn up. Turner said the immediate goal is to start a dialogue between administrators and students before “putting some teeth behind that.” “We want to hold a lot of conversations with stakeholders,” Turner said. “We want to have dialogue over the next 13 months.”
Turner said his office will work with ASG to host an open forum or town hall meeting after Dillo Day to discuss potential changes. Senate will debate and vote on the resolution at its meeting next Wednesday. The Daily reported Sunday that Campus Life is considering a new proposal that would prompt most student groups with application processes to open membership to all interested students. Since then, student feedback has been mixed. Some supported the proposed change for trying to alleviate a culture of exclusivity on campus; others raised » See SENATE, page 10
Student makes CAESAR Chrome extension By JULIA DORAN
the daily northwestern @_juliadoran
A McCormick junior created a Google Chrome extension to make searching for courses on CAESAR easier and to improve the website’s overall appearance. Regal, now available for students to download, serves as an add-on to CAESAR that fixes system flaws such as timeouts, inefficient search functionality and disorderly course evaluations, said William Xiao, the creator of the extension. “As Northwestern students, we all have to deal with CAESAR probably more than we’d like, and it’s not the best experience,” he said. A computer science major, Xiao said fixing CAESAR had been a goal of his long before he started working
on Regal late Winter Quarter. He said the extension improves CAESAR’s general look and feel by centering the page content, which usually sits on the left side of the screen. He also eliminated rounded corners on the homepage, increased font size for greater readability and made buttons easier to use. Regal also separates individual CTECs into lines, allowing users to clearly see where each comment starts and ends, Xiao said. Additionally, the system bolds and underlines frequently used words and phrases, such as “great course” or “takes a lot of time.” “Before, all the CTECs were just one massive text blob with a little slash between each,” Xiao said. “Now they’re easier to read, and you can see at a glance what a lot of people are saying about a course.” The extension also incorporates a
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“quick add” function, which allows users to type the name of a class into a textbox and add it to their shopping cart directly, instead of sifting through search results, he said. Regal eliminates CAESAR’s 30-minute timeouts and includes a button that connects course schedules to Google calendars. Xiao said the only personal information Regal reads is the user’s class schedule to enable the calendar syncing function. He added that no personal information is stored in the extension. McCormick sophomore Chris Chen, who met Xiao through Northwestern’s student branch of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, said the extension’s attention to detail combined with its clean simplicity creates a highly effective tool for students. “There are a lot of things you want
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