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The Daily Northwestern Thursday, January 11, 2024
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3 CAMPUS/Dining Halls
4 OPINION/Saturdays
8 SPORTS/Penn State
NU dining staff dish on meal planning in halls
Columnist Scott Hwang discusses his New Year’s resolution never to do work on Saturday
Northwestern bests Penn State on Wednesday
High 34 Low 28
Dance team returns to city Juneteenth group celebrates Black culture, history By MISHA OBEROI
the daily northwestern
After lying dormant for two years, nonprofit Evanston Present and Future’s Juneteenth Creative Dance Team Program is back in full force, with auditions beginning in February for Black and Brown residents in Evanston, according to the nonprofit’s Facebook page. K e m o n e He n d r i c k s founded Evanston Present and Future and its Juneteenth Creative Dance Team Program in partnership with the Dance Center Evanston in 2020 — the same year she organized the first ever annual Evanston Juneteenth Parade and Celebrations. Noticing the lack of education in schools regarding Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States, Hendricks created the program to fill in those gaps through artistic means. “They weren’t taught about what ( Juneteenth)
means to the Black community,” Hendricks said. “And I thought of including dance as a form of art to talk about Juneteenth.” In 2020, Dance Center Evanston trained dancers for the program on Zoom and pre-recorded dance performances that were aired during the virtual Juneteenth Parade. Evanston has held in-person parades annually since 2021. Some residents have asked Hendricks to open up auditions to children who are not Black or Brown, she said. However, she said the program remains available only to Black and Brown children. “We really wanted to create something that was just for Black children to learn about their heritage and to learn what their past means,” she said. After its first year running, the dance program went inactive for two years due to logistics, according to program director Julia Ferguson. But, last year, Ferguson said she stepped up and asked Hendricks to restart the program. Ferguson is
» See JUNETEENTH, page 6
Carlotta Angiolillo/The Daily Northwestern
Faculty voiced concerns over their lack of input in budget discussions at Wednesday’s senate meeting.
NU increases spending on hiring
Provost presents at Faculty Senate meeting on school’s financial position By ISABEL SU
the daily northwestern @isabelsu_
Heading into the 2024 fiscal year, Northwestern Provost Kathleen Hagerty told the Faculty
Senate that the University’s financial position remained “strong overall” in a budget update Wednesday. In 2023, the University had $8.6 million left over from an operating budget of over $3 billion, compared to a positive margin of $138.7 million in 2022.
“The goal of the University is not to have a lot of money left over,” Hagerty said. “But we absolutely do not want to go into a deficit.” A University spokesperson told The Daily that they considered the $8.6 million positive operating performance to be a “good outcome.”
This surplus follows the multimillion-dollar budget deficit NU faced in 2018, which it resolved by drawing $100 million from its endowment in the following two years.
» See FACULTY SENATE, page 6
Paws and Claws expands programs A Medill alumnus Shelter sees best year in history, expands outreach and builds new facility By MAYA WONG
the daily northwestern
Seventy-five cats received a holiday present during Paws and Claws Cat Rescue’s third annual Hope for the Holidays program last month. Paws and Claws, a local cat shelter that rescues cats at risk of euthanization, launched the fundraising program in December, and it will run until mid-January. The program allows individuals to sponsor a cat by funding that cat’s food and care during the holiday season. The cost of sponsoring each cat varies based on their needs, including specific diets and procedures. The organization’s campaign attracted about 50 donors. A shly nn Boyce, the founder and executive director of Paws and Claws, said she is “really proud” of the program’s success, but finds the initiative somewhat bittersweet. “A lot of the cats are spending their first holiday in safety. A lot of them have never had a
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holiday season where they are cared for and loved,” she said. “That element is really lovely, but the other side is that they are not in their forever home.” Several of Paws and Claws’ other initiatives focus on raising money to keep cats healthy until they can find a “forever home,” she said. One of those initiatives is the Paw Print Club, a monthly membership that gives donors access to perks such as merchandise, sneak peeks into events, and even naming a cat. There are currently 170 Club members with varying monthly donation amounts, starting at $10, Boyce said. Additionally, Paws and Claws hosts children’s birthday parties, allows space rentals and runs kitten yoga classes. Boyce said she is proud of how the organization’s community programming has grown. She also has upcoming plans for movie nights at the shelter, she said. Paws and Claws opened its first facility in May 2023. Prior to that, the organization was completely foster-based. — though fostering is critical
talks covering Swift Bryan West works for Gannett covering the pop superstar By JACOB WENDLER
daily senior staffer @jacob_wendler
Photo Courtesy of Olivia Sotos
A cat fostered through Paws and Claws by a Northwestern student. Last year, Paws and Claws rescued 514 cats and aims to rescue 1,000 in 2024.
to the shelter’s operation, Boyce said. There are currently around 100 cats in foster care, for which the shelter provides all food, supplies
and medical care. Many Northwestern undergraduate and graduate students are
» See PAWS, page 6
After working for Northwestern News Network as an undergraduate at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications Bryan West (Medill ’11) took the leap into broadcast news, moving to Phoenix upon graduation to work as an investigative producer at the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, his previous Journalism Residency site. Eight years and two Emmys later, though, West made the decision to leave television news to focus on his mental health and sobriety, joking to a friend at the time that the only thing that might bring him back would be an opportunity to report on Taylor Swift in his daily job. In September, that dream came true: Gannett — the biggest newspaper chain in the
country — listed an opening for a reporter who would cover Swift’s life, career and music full-time. West applied quickly, attaching a video submission that listed 13 reasons why he should get the job, including his journalism bona fide’s and his intimate knowledge of Swift’s career. In November, he landed the job and relocated to Nashville to be based at The Tennessean as a part of the USA Today network. He’s since written articles on college courses dissecting Swift’s music, her relationship with Travis Kelce and a fan’s all-out Swift-themed Christmas decorations. Two months into the job, West sat down with The Daily to share what he’s learned as the media’s first full-time Taylor Swift reporter. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity. The Daily: How have your skills from Medill helped prepare you for your current gig at Gannett?
» See SWIFT, page 6
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