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The Daily Northwestern Friday, January 21, 2022
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Local therapists address high demand Many therapists are continuing to offer teletherapy By AVIVA BECHKY
the daily northwestern @avivabechky
Photo and graphic by Jonah Elkowitz
Students living in Quarantine and Isolation housing adjust to getting roommates and struggle to get in contact with the COVID-19 Response Team.
Checking into Hotel Hinman
Students in Quarantine and Isolation housing share experiences By CAROLINE BREW
daily senior staffer
Communication sophomore Kalan Hauser tested positive for COVID-19 immediately after returning to campus for Winter Quarter.
City sees drop in positive COVID cases Evanston saw an almost two percentage point decrease in its seven-day moving average positivity rate this week compared to last. The average seven-day positivity rate among residents decreased to 4.16% compared to last week’s 6.02%, a declining trend for the last month. The seven-day average test positivity rate this week in Illinois has also declined to 14.8% this week — a 1.4 percentage point decrease from last week. In Cook County, the test positivity is 13.4% this week. Evanston now experiences a one-day delay in reporting COVID-19 case data after contact tracing efforts shifted from the city level to the state level on Thursday. Taking this into account, the reported number of positive cases over the last seven days includes 273 cases reported Jan. 13 — a record high in positive case numbers for the city. This figure was also reported in the seven-day cases count last week. When looking only at the last six days, excluding the doublecounted Jan. 13, this week had a 250 positive case reduction compared to the six days prior. The double-counting made Evanston’s
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Thirty minutes later, he moved into Quarantine and Isolation housing in 1835 Hinman — which he said was “not a fun stay at all.” “I felt malnourished. I felt alone. I felt not listened to (or) heard,” Hauser said. “I was just counting the days until I could positive case count appear higher than they are. Continuing to examine positive cases in a six day period, the average number of positive cases reported per day this week was about 78 compared to last week’s six-day average of approximately 119. As of Thursday, 95.4% of Evanston residents ages 5 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, which represents a 0.8 percentage point increase from last week — the same increase as the previous week. 85.3% of residents in that age group are fully vaccinated. In Illinois, 79.2% of individuals ages 5 and older have received at least one dose — an almost 1% increase from last week — and 69.6% are fully vaccinated. In Cook County, these percentages are 76.3% and 68.3%, respectively. Individuals 12 years and older who completed their Pfizer primary series vaccination at least five months ago are eligible for a booster shot. Those ages 18 and older who received the Moderna primary series vaccination at least five months ago are also eligible. Residents ages 18 and older can “mix-and-match” their booster shot, allowing them to receive a different vaccine type as authorized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. — Angeli Mittal
get out.” Students living in Quarantine and Isolation housing have reported facing a number of challenges, including some forced to live with assigned roommates, not receiving meals and unable to contact NU’s COVID-19 Response Team.
Northwestern announced it would assign roommates to students in isolation — those who tested positive for COVID19 — as cases increase. While Hauser did not receive an assigned roommate, he said the
» See Q&I, page 6
Content warning: This article contains mentions of abuse, depression and anxiety. Danielle Shannon started their own Chicago therapy practice with colleague Eva Ball during the pandemic. Many therapists did the same, Shannon said, finding new clients with an ease she’s never seen before. “It’s weird when your profession can expand more quickly and easily because of a societal crisis,” Shannon said. “That feels very strange for a lot of therapists who went into this field because they care about helping people.” As the pandemic continues, some therapists say they’re seeing increasing demand for services and rising amounts of anxiety, depression and isolation among their clients. They’re also responding to new challenges posed by telehealth therapy and changing relationships between therapists and patients. Increasing demand
In a December New York Times survey of 1,320 therapists, nine out of 10 said they experienced a rise in demand for their services. Among those seeing greater interest is Sadie Baker, a therapist at Chicago Therapy & Wellness. “Isolation is one of the biggest risk factors for depression and mental illness more broadly,” Baker said. “It’s sort of forced a lot of people to look at things that maybe they wouldn’t have.” Baker said isolation commonly causes worsening mental health. She added that many of her clients live with HIV and are dealing with the trauma of having already survived a pandemic. As pandemic restrictions change, psychotherapist Max Beshers said people’s worries do, too. Small losses of connection make an impact. “One of my patients was telling me today in his session that he noticed that he doesn’t smile when he’s out in public anymore because it’s covered by a mask,” Beshers said. “It takes a toll.” Eric Cho, a psychotherapist and owner of IMPROVing Life Counseling Inc., said most therapists at his practice have full caseloads. They’ve been referring interested patients elsewhere, he said, but many of the locations they refer to
» See THERAPY, page6
ASG, admin to discuss protest policy The revisions come after ASG meetings with student activists By JOANNA HOU
daily senior staffer @joannah_11
Members of Associated Student Government plan to meet with Northwestern administrators Monday to discuss potential revisions to the University’s demonstration policy. NU’s policy on response to student protests has sparked concerns among activists. Some worry about the vague outlining of potential consequences for violating the policy, while others believe the policy fails to protect protestors. Weinberg senior Margot Bartol, ASG’s executive officer of accountability, said the University’s protest policy is reviewed on a three-year cycle, with its latest review completed Aug. 20, 2020. During the review, Bartol said the policy itself remained untouched. After students protested at the Iowa-NU football game this fall, Bartol said some ASG leaders considered reviewing and revising the protest policy before the three-year cycle ends. Bartol and Weinberg senior Karina KarboWright, ASG’s executive officer of justice and inclusion, spent the
last month and a half meeting with student activists to get a sense of activists’ opinions and demands. They will introduce these points to the administration at Monday’s meeting. According to Bartol, the policy is unclear about the repercussions student protesters face, so administrators can decide on the consequences on a case-by-case basis. She added that this makes it difficult for student activists to conduct risk assessments for protestor safety. Numerous concerns and debates surrounded this section of the demonstration policy last fall. “What me and Margot really wanted to do is try to craft this new demonstration policy as much on the side of the students as we can,” Karbo-Wright said. Activists like Students for Justice in Palestine organizer and Weinberg sophomore Assem Belhadj said the consequences outlined have hurt many students, especially students of color. “(The policy) is contradictory to the needs of activists,” Belhadj said. “We think that it’s designed to prevent activism and prevent meaningful change at the University.”
Illustration by Olivia Abeyda
Over the last month and a half, NU activists have met with ASG officers to discuss the University’s demonstration policy. Now, ASG officials plan to take those concerns to administrators on Monday.
Fundamental contradictions and unclear boundaries In a Nov. 30 interview with The Daily, Vice President for Student Affairs Julie Payne-Kirchmeier said if student protestors were identified following the Nov. 6 Iowa-NU football game protest, the University would “follow up” with them. In a Nov. 9 email to students outlining the demonstration policy, possible ramifications for “disruptive” protest included “suspension,
expulsion or legal consequences as appropriate.” A SESP sophomore and member of NU Dissenters, who chose to remain anonymous because of safety concerns, said this section of the demonstration policy makes little sense to her. “There’s a complete and total misunderstanding of what it means to protest and (NU’s) definition of protest is not meaningful,” she
» See PROTEST POLICY, page 6
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