The Main-Dempster Mile came alive with the sound of
drums, cymbals and cheers as hundreds of Evanston residents gathered to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
The Main-Dempster Mile, Kitchen Table Stories Project, Kids Create Change and
impact on air quality levels in the surrounding neighborhoods, which are predominantly Black.
Evanston Pride co-hosted the celebration. This is the second year these groups have hosted a Lunar New Year celebration together.
Melissa Raman Molitor, the founder of both Evanston
7 CITY/Tripledemic COVID-19, RSV, Flu
Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law announced in November it would no longer participate in the U.S. News and World Report Rankings.
In 2022, the law school ranked 13th from 192 schools. NU cited multiple reasons for withdrawing from the annual report, including the system of self-reporting statistics and NU’s focus on interdisciplinary study.
“Our decision not to participate in the rankings does not change the high-quality legal education that we provide, the longstanding innovative leadership of our law school or the very strong employment and bar passage outcomes that our graduates have,” Pritzker Dean Hari Osofsky said.
Osofsky said NU’s decision was independent of the other schools’ decisions.
Though these law schools will no longer self-report statistics, U.S. News has already announced that it will continue to rank the programs. The publication also announced its greater emphasis on bar passage outcomes and employment rates in their rankings, rather than outsourced assessment surveys. Some have argued that these assessment surveys do not add to the rankings, as those that participate in them do not attend the schools.
“I don’t think we have any idea whether this will affect schools’ placement in the rankings (or) whether refusing to cooperate will hurt a school,” Pritzker Prof. Michael Kang said.
Sociology Prof. David Schieber said that NU’s decision is not surprising.
By LILY CAREY daily senior staffer @lilylcarey
Janet Alexander Davis, an Evanston resident of 80 years, lived much of her life wondering why her neighborhood always seemed to smell.
A few years ago, she discovered the source: the Church Street waste transfer station, a garbage dump in the 5th Ward.
“I finally realized that there was no reason for this garbage dump to be in a neighborhood, in walking distance of businesses, of homes, of the high school,” Davis said. “I started, with a lot of other people, to start picketing and trying to get rid of it.”
But the waste transfer station is still there. Run by garbage disposal company Advanced Disposal, the station has a proven negative
This waste station isn’t the only health injustice Evanston residents are facing. From questions of water contamination to proven disparities in life expectancy, residents of historically redlined neighborhoods such as the 5th Ward have faced disproportionate disadvantages for decades.
In the coming year, city officials hope to address these issues, in part by launching an environmental justice investigation. First proposed in 2020, Mayor Daniel Biss announced in an October press release that the project was coming to fruition after nearly two and a half years of delay.
Though it’s still in the planning phases, Biss said he hopes the data collected from the project will point the city to concrete steps for equitably combating climate change.
“It’s not enough to just do the investigation,” Biss said.
Student workers gathered at The Rock on Friday to advocate for increased resident assistant input in Residential Life decisions and mental health support for RAs.
Residential Life announced during a Wednesday Zoom meeting that RAs will work an additional 15 to 25 hours each quarter without a raise, effective immediately, according to Communication junior and RA Jay Gokhale. He said the increase in work hours was not stipulated in their contracts for this academic year and that RAs were not consulted prior to the announcement.
Currently, RAs have the rooming cost removed from their quarterly Caesar bills and receive $1,500 or $3,000 in additional stipend, depending on whether they are a senior RA.
Weinberg sophomore and RA Aidan Lichamer said Residential Life treats RAs as if they are the “least informed”
ASPA and Kitchen Table Stories Project, said the celebration is a part of a larger effort to increase the visibility and representation of local
NU’s decision came after other highly-ranked law schools also announced they would no longer participate in the ranking, including Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Georgetown University Law Center and Stanford Law School. However,
people to make decisions about themselves.
“The RA role is one of the roles that has the most direct contact with students, yet for some reason, faceless departments throughout the University pass down decisions on how our life and our work is going to be, without ever consulting us,” Lichamer said in a speech during the event.
The demonstrators presented a preliminary list of demands to the people assembled, calling for anti-harassment policies, third-party arbitration and RA representation in Residential Services.
Lichamer said while the demands have not been given to the University yet, many RAs have already spoken with their supervisors to express their frustrations. According to him, the RAs felt these concerns were “not taken seriously.”
“As student workers in general, I think it’s important to acknowledge that we are some of the most vulnerable members of this campus,” Lichamer said. “We’re in this position because this is the only option we have if we want to be able
to attend school.”
He also said the University is capitalizing on student workers’ vulnerability by increasing their workload.
Assistant Vice President of Communications Jon Yates wrote in an email to The Daily that the University “appreciates and values” RAs and added that student input is sought after and factored into its decisions. He said the University offers RAs “both training and support.”
According to Schieber, U.S. News has created a “monopoly” over the ranking system. Its high burden of self-reporting for ranking limits a law school’s ability for upward mobility, he said.
“Rankings affect everyone,” Schieber said. “If you’re ranked number one, you want to stay at number one. If you’re ranked number 75, you want to move
Yates also said the Residential Experience team is planning to host more team meetings this quarter to collect feedback from RAs.
Gokhale said he wants to collaborate with Residential Services to create “positive change” and “bridge” the connection between residents and the University.
Speakers at the event also called for improved mental
Evanston’s infrastructure includes more than 7,000 public lead pipes, which can cause cancer and other illnesses.
Like many Chicago area suburbs, Evanston is full of lead service lines. Many of Evanston’s pipes were built in the 20th century, before the 1986 Safe Drinking Water Act strengthened federal regulations. The pipes have yet to be replaced. The city is looking to address the lead piping problem, but Ald. Devon Reid (8th) said the process could still take decades.
Reid asked state Sen. Mike Simmons (D-Chicago) to help replace pipes in south Evanston. Simmons sponsored legislation to secure $1 million in state funding for the 8th Ward, according to his office.
“The state of Illinois has put a mandate on municipalities to replace all of their lead service lines over the next couple decades, but it’s an
unfunded mandate,” Reid said. “Because of that, we’re certainly going to need additional funding from the state or federal government.”
Following the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, Illinois passed an unfunded state mandate requiring municipalities in place to replace lead pipes.
While lead pipes remain across the city, Simmons said he wanted to prioritize funding for the 8th Ward, which includes a majority of residents of color and faces health inequities compared to other parts of Evanston. The Evanston Project for the Local Assessment of Needs, a report on health inequity released in the fall, found economic and health disadvantages in historically redlined parts of the city.
“For too long, lead in our drinking water has exposed our neighbors to adverse health effects,” Simmons said in a statement to The Daily. “This funding provides long overdue resources to address a problem that is systemic in nature, is decades in the making and often does the most damage to Black and Brown communities like those who call South Evanston home.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, lead contamination can damage the central nervous system, lead to learning or behavioral problems and in rare cases, cause seizures, comas or death. Pregnant people and children are at higher risk.
But Reid said addressing 8th Ward lead piping will take time. About 11,000 locations in the ward have lead service lines, according to Reid. He said the city is currently identifying where to begin the replacement project.
Public pipelines run from Evanston’s water plant and split off into various private lines for homes and buildings. Historically, the city replaced only its main lines, leaving lead pipes next to individual households.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, homes with partially replaced lead pipes pose a higher risk for lead poisoning than homes without lead pipes.
“You’d think you’d be making the water safer by at least changing out a portion, but what actually happens is you’re making the water a lot more dangerous,” Reid said.
Reid said more money is likely needed to help
Evanston replace all its lead pipes. Paul Moyano of the city’s Public Works Agency said homes in “lowto moderate-income areas of the City” need leadfree service lines, often supported by city programs.
Evanston has about 30,000 housing units, an overwhelming majority of which were built before the Safe Drinking Water Act. Dick Lanyon, the former executive director of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and former chair of the Evanston Utilities Commission, said the danger of lead pipes was not public knowledge when many of those homes were built.
“We knew there was an issue with water leaching lead ions out of the pipe (by the 1980s),” Lanyon said.
But to this day, Lanyon, 85, lives in an Evanston home with lead pipes.
Replacing lead pipes with newer materials — like copper, cast iron and plastic, according to Lanyon — will reduce the risk of negative health effects.
“This is really important,” Reid said. “Water anywhere where there’s lead service lines is not ideal or safe, and that’s why we’re changing this.”
jeremyfredricks2026@u.northwestern.edu
By KARA PEELER daily senior staffer @karapeeler
After becoming friends last academic year, Weinberg sophomores Seela Hinrichs and Finola Summerville realized that NU students lack mental health resources at an institution with a culture of perfectionism.
“I feel like everyone in our classroom is always struggling with something,” Hinrichs said.
To address mental health stigmas, Hinrichs and Summerville co-founded a NU chapter of “If You’re Reading This,” a national organization founded by students at the University of Virginia aiming to connect shared struggles and experiences.
Each chapter accepts submissions from students, faculty and alumni about their mental health experiences. Readers can reach out to those who write letters on the “If You’re Reading This” website to connect about shared struggles and experiences.
Whether in relation to family issues, imposter syndrome or transitioning to a new academic setting, the NU chapter is meant to help struggling students feel less alone, Hinrichs said.
“Whatever your struggle is like, there’s someone else that has it too,” Hinrichs said.
The NU chapter has already published two letters and plans to release one per week online and on Instagram, according to Summerville.
She said she hopes the chapter receives submissions from all across campus so online visitors are more likely to read about experiences they can relate to.
“Particularly being Northwestern students, I would say the majority of the student body here is used to excelling,” Summerville said. “To be at Northwestern, it takes so much hard work, and I think that it can kind of be a shock in college when things aren’t going as well as they used to be”
Weinberg senior Kade Kelley said he mentioned his first-year mental health experiences as a peer adviser. He was the first NU student to submit a letter for “If You’re Reading This NU” and wrote about introversion and difficulties regarding fitting in.
Kelley said he felt vulnerable sharing his story and questioned how much information he should
make public.
But, after the letter was posted, Kelley said some of his peers reached out to say they similarly wished for further normalization of mental health struggles. Kelley said he hopes more NU students connect with each other in discussing mental health moving forward.
Normalizing mental health struggles could help reduce stigmas and encourage individuals to seek support when needed, he said.
“We just help people on college campuses understand that they’re not alone, creating a network of people who are also going through the same things that we’re all going through,” said Medill sophomore and former Daily staffer Julia Nichols, the NU chapter’s photographer.
Social media can present a false idea of people’s experiences, Nichols said, which the “If You’re Reading This NU” Instagram account aims to counteract.
Hinrichs and Summerville said the chapter has received significant public support on Instagram so far, including many positive comments and letter reposting.
Nichols also said there is a lack of mental health resources or real support at NU — which is where
some student organizations step in.
Kelley said students have an understanding of what resources they need but that it is hard for the University to actually acquire those resources.
“We have a lot of mental health resources that students have had really negative experiences with,” Kelley said. “(If You’re Reading This) is very studentcentric, as far as understanding the types of problems that people go through here at Northwestern and the struggles that people have here.”
Summerville said the NU chapter is not officially recognized by Student Organizations and Activities yet, but the team is working on expanding its presence on campus.
“If You’re Reading This NU” hopes to eventually host meetings and events, according to Summerville.
“I hope it just creates an open communication for people to feel like there’s a space where they can talk about mental health and just life and feel like vulnerability isn’t weakness,” Nichols said, “where they can just come as they are, knowing that who they are is welcome here.”
karapeeler2025@u.northwestern.edu
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In a packed Shanley Pavilion, Vibrant Colors Collective finished its three-show run of Pa’ Lante on Saturday to roaring applause.
VC2, Northwestern’s only multicultural student theatre board, debuted its inaugural winter cabaret Friday with 7 and 10 p.m. performances. Pa’ Lante wrapped up with a 7 p.m finale Saturday.
Pa’ Lante’s 15-song setlist featured hits from musical theatre favorites such as Hamilton, Encanto and Tangled. Communication sophomore Ella Gatlin said she was especially blown away by a rousing trio performance of “I Know Where I’ve Been” from Hairspray.
“I think just the entire audience felt how strong that song was,” Gatlin said. “It got a standing
ovation, even though it was in the middle of the show.”
VC2 launched last April to form a space for students of color in theatre and focus on the stories of marginalized groups.
After performing at VC2’s inaugural open mic Fall Quarter, McCormick freshman Creed Bellamy sang as a part of the trio performing “I Know Where I’ve Been.” Bellamy said the three of them were enjoying themselves on stage during the Saturday night performance.
“A lot of the runs and the belts and stuff — that was just us having fun,” Bellamy said.
Pa’ Lante’s multilingual range of songs included a soulful Hindi and English mashup of “Terebina” and “Stand by Me,” a joyful performance of “Color Esperanza” and an uplifting rendition of “Dos Oruguitas.”
Communication junior and Pa’ Lante cast member Mako Yamamoto said she enjoyed being
involved with VC2 and the larger group rehearsals.
“I’m super excited to see what they’re planning to do — I think great things will be coming,” Yamamoto said. “These last few weeks where we’ve been putting everything together — it’s been great to get to know everybody.”
Weinberg sophomore Nick Vela performed “Color Esperanza.” He said that during callback auditions, cast members were asked to come in and perform songs they believed fit Pa’ Lantes’ theme.
Though Vela didn’t audition with “Color Esperanza,” they said nearly half the songs in the cabaret were ones selected by cast members.
“A lot of it was collaborative,” Vela said. “(The director) would ask us what we did want to do, what we didn’t want to do, stuff like that.”
Communication sophomore Agustin Maglione had his directorial debut with Pa’ Lante.
Pa’ Lante held general auditions for the winter show in late October and assembled its cast list by
early November. Maglione says VC2 gave him the opportunity to get his foot in the door with a very supportive community.
“I don’t think I’ve done anything as fulfilling as directing a show,” Maglione said. “It sounds cheesy, but I’m really proud of the work that we’ve done.”
Communication junior and Pa’ Lante producer Ryan Nguyen said he produced a show last school year with WAVE Productions, but Pa’ Lante was his first time working with VC2. Nguyen said he is excited to see what VC2 does next.
VC2 will be hosting its spring production of Fairview next quarter.
“It was really exciting to work with brand new people who have never been on a board before and with such an exciting mission that I hold so close to my heart,” Nguyen said.
tunjiosho-williams2025@u.northwestern.edu
Weinberg sophomore and musician Ava Earl is a proud self-proclaimed romantic.
Earl said her romanticization of the people and places of her life, from the great outdoors surrounding her hometown of Girdwood, Alaska to Chicago’s bustling city lights, is a key piece of her songwriting process. For her upcoming fifth studio album, which she hopes to release this spring, Earl said she is taking a more selfreflective direction as she pulls inspiration from her own coming-of-age story — which includes losing hearing in her right ear and her journey of self-discovery.
As the first artist to be featured on Notes from the Newsroom, Earl sat down for a chat about her upcoming jam session at The Daily’s newsroom and what’s next for her.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
The Daily: You’re the first artist performing for The Daily’s concert series, Notes from the Newsroom — how are you feeling?
Earl: I’m a little nervous because it’s a venue I’m less comfortable with. When I do sit-down concerts, it’s usually for my family or roommates and friends, but I’m really excited. I’ve been telling everyone about it. It feels very busy and
bustling in there, which I like.
The Daily: Can you tell me about your set list?
Earl: I chose “Ears Bleed,” which is a song about my deafness. It’s going to be on the new album, and I think it’s one of the best songs that I’ve written because I don’t think anyone else could have written that song, which I don’t always feel. This is a very unique perspective. I still think it’s relatable in certain ways, but I feel like people can feel that it’s very raw. I like to play it because it’s best done live, and I’m planning to close with it.
The Daily: How did you grow into the Americana genre?
Earl: The term Americana came to me when I released “The Roses,” produced by JT Nero of the band Birds of Chicago, and the music he makes is the epitome of Americana music. Americana is whatever you make of it, but when I think of Americana, I think of JT and his sound. I realized that this term can be very flexible and it takes all of these inspirations that I have and kind of marries them.
The Daily: If Americana is what you make of it, what does it mean to you?
Earl: When I think of the “ideal” of America, it’s the melting pot, cultural discoveries and we’re all learning about each other and we all
come from different places. That is the reality, but we don’t all appreciate it the way that we maybe should. There’s also a history of oppression. I think Americana acknowledges that different cultures have brought about different genres of music, and it has mixed into this very fluid genre.
The Daily: How has your personal journey of learning about your queerness shaped you as a musician?
Earl: I was very much in denial about my sexuality, and it’s so ridiculous because I look back now and I’m like, I wrote all the songs about women! So it’s just been very interesting to recognize that it wasn’t just one person — this is actually a real feeling that I had that I dismissed. And I was able to not only express that through music but also track it back to my first expressions of it, which were through songs that I wrote just for myself. I think that’s what’s at the core of music.
The Daily: And the most important question of all: If your music were food, what would it be?
Earl: I feel like my music would be a variety of fruit — that’s very funny to answer right after the queerness question! But I feel like there’s a lot of range of flavor, but there’s the same vibe. It all tends to be relatively gentle. Care-free, in a way.
estherlim2025@u.northwestern.edu
Sapphire Man, a quartet composed of undergraduate students, started off as a piecemeal endeavor and currently continues influencing the local punk rock and house show scene.
The band is an eclectic mix of friends from a variety of majors who share a love of music.
Weinberg junior Zeki Hirsch and Communication sophomore Sam Marshall play guitar and perform vocals, McCormick junior Liam Warlick plays bass and Weinberg sophomore Leo McKenna drums.
The four slowly met each other and started composing music. Hirsch and Marshall were the first to meet and initially started playing music on their own.
“Zeki and I first bonded over our similar music tastes and decided we wanted to be in a band that writes our own songs,” Marshall said. “From there, it was just a matter of finding people. And we did.”
Hirsch and Marshall first played together at Hillel’s annual Latkepalooza during Fall Quarter
2021, after which they recruited Warlick and McKenna to kickstart the band.
The four held their first practice in early January 2022 in the Foster-Walker Complex basement, Hirsch said.
McKenna said each member brought their own music tastes and inspiration to their practices. He said while all members shared an appreciation of Joy Division and The Velvet Underground, among other bands, each musician draws from their own respective inspiration to fuel their music.
After a few practices, the four said they realized that they were missing an essential element -- a band name. Marshall, McKenna and Warlick accepted Hirsch’s proposition to name the band Sapphire Man, drawing inspiration from a portrait he saw in art history Prof. Christina Normore’s Introduction to Medieval Art class during Fall Quarter 2021.
The painting is by Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th century German mystic who had holy visions and wrote music. One of her portfolios, “The Man in Sapphire Blue,” depicts Christ as a light blue figure. Hirsch found the painting intriguing and favored the ambiguity of the name “Sapphire Man.”
“It doesn’t really mean anything. It means whatever you make of it,” Hirsch said.
Marshall said although it draws inspiration from a variety of sources, the band is ultimately “song-oriented,” focusing on how each person and instrument contributes to the music, rather than aiming to make one person stand out.
On drums, McKenna said he attempts to avoid flashy drumming and follows a more constant rhythm. He prides himself on helping the band maintain its flow during sets.
“Drumming (is) about keeping everybody in check and making sure the band doesn’t sound bad,” McKenna said. “That’s what I try to do.”
Sapphire Man played its first show at a house on Simpson Street last April.
Though the band has played at a few other gigs, the four agreed their favorite shows were the house shows they played last Halloween. The band played in two different houses — once in a friend’s basement and once with another band — while wearing Halloween costumes. Hirsch said there were more than 100 people present at each performance, which contributed to great energy both times.
While Sapphire Man has been practicing together for more than a year, it still faces some
logistical challenges. Marshall said finding a practice space and carving out time to practice together following academic breaks is difficult.
While balancing school and extracurriculars at NU can be challenging, the band members said they enjoy practicing together as a way to decompress from the demands of the university.
“For all of us, it’s a flow state kind of thing,” Warlick said. “You’re only thinking about what you’re playing, you don’t really have time to think about anything else, and you just feel completely reset afterwards.”
Hirsch said the band finally has enough material to record an entire album. Ultimately, he said the band sees its music as a positive contribution to the current rock music scene and a beacon of hope for a deteriorating genre. Hirsch said he hopes bands like Sapphire Man can inspire an awakening.
“It’s really sad to see (the current state of rock music) because it feels like a very neutered, very corporate, bland brand (of music),” Hirsch said. “But it’s also really hopeful when a tiny basement is jam packed with groups of random kids. I truly think that is the future of rock music.”
carylshepard2026@u.northwestern.edu
Before the last academic year, the Block Museum Student Associates, then known as student docents, had few responsibilities and roles at the museum.
Now, the associates lead tours, facilitate public conversations, act as student advisors to museum staff and participate in a year-long acquisition project.
Erin Northington, the Susan and Stephen Wilson associate director of campus and community education and engagement at the Block, helped revamp the role of student associates. She said the current cohort of 20 students is the largest the museum has ever had.
“When I arrived at the Block in 2020, I had the great fortune of having such a strong foundation to build on,” Northington said. “I wanted to think about how we could take the strengths of the current docents program and build on that.”
In 2020, the docents’ main tasks were to facilitate museum learning experiences and lead tours. Northington said the program has had about a 75% increase in applications since expanding the responsibilities.
Weinberg senior Katy Kim was one of these new applicants, joining the program last year.
Kim now serves as the program and tour coordinator at the Block, scheduling all tours for outside groups and acting as a peer leader for the student associates.
“I love the study of art,” Kim said. “I also am a practicing artist, and art has always been the biggest part of my life. I know professionally I want to continue to work in the art world, so that’s why it seemed like a natural progression of things.”
She said the group now undertakes personal and professional development related to learning about museum careers and also supports public tours, programs and events.
Although Kim herself is an art history major, she said most students come from different majors that might not be related to art at all.
Weinberg junior and student associate Bobby Yalam is studying comparative literary studies and economics.
He said he applied to the associate program on a whim his freshman year after seeing it was a humanitiesrelated opportunity.
“I went in with not many expectations,” Yalam said. “But it has been a great experience that’s kept me going.”
Yalam said his favorite memory at the Block was
when he and the 2021-2022 student associate cohort became the subjects of Chicago-based photographer Leonard Suryajaya’s artwork.
Even though it was cold, he said he fondly remembers the day they shot the photo — even in cold weather.
“We were out there for maybe 5 hours on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon,” Yalam said. “It was good bonding time.”
The artwork, a large-scale photograph titled “Perennial Blossom,” showcases 13 student associates, one Block staff member and Suryajaya’s sister and mother — who are all covered in flowers. The art is now part of the Block’s permanent collection. Northington said the student associates formed a connection with Suryajaya after choosing his photograph “Quarantine Blues” as their yearly student acquisition project.
“Our students follow exactly the same process (for acquiring an artwork) that our curators do,” Northington said.
The acquisition begins with a team of student associates who first research artists and narrow them down to one. The associates then select a piece from the chosen artist and write an acquisition justification — a written formal report discussing the chosen
artwork and its potential impact.
They present the justification to an acquisition committee of Block staff members, which then must approve the work. The artwork that the cohort decides on is then displayed at Block beginning the following fall.
“As an academic art museum, really core to all of our acquisitions is thinking about how it would support Northwestern teaching and learning,” Northington said.
Each year, the student associates focus on a different theme for their acquisition. Last year’s cohort chose a work by artist Michael Koerner to support the Earth theme.
This year, Yalam, Kim and the other student associates are working to acquire a work with a theme of gender. Northington said she is excited to watch the associates take on this new acquisition and is confident in their collaborative abilities.
“The students are a community that cares deeply about each other, that can engage respectfully and meaningfully across lines of difference,” Northington said.
cassandraratkevich2026@u.northwestern.edu
Communication freshman Verónica Silvosa said she knew about the “white guy in film” stereotypes through memes — but at Northwestern, she sees the trope in full form.
“They’re real, and they’re out there,” Silvosa said. “Pretentious, think they know everything. Men who explain movies to you even though
you might know more than them.”
Despite this, Silvosa said she was surprised by the amount of diversity within the Radio, Television and Film major — both in the curriculum and related extracurriculars.
She added that three of the four student-run sets she signed up for had female directors, with the fourth run by a Latine director.
“I really liked the amount of women and gender non-conforming people taking up the space,” she said.
Last quarter, Silvosa took RTVF 220:
Analyzing Media Texts, a core class for the RTVF major typically taken in the first year of studies. The course is a requirement for the film and media studies minor and a prerequisite for upper level courses in the RTVF department.
Silvosa’s professor assigned the Japanese animated film “Princess Mononoke” and the Chinese American film “The Farewell.”
“It’s so important to just have different lenses of life (in film) because if not, you’re going to be stuck watching the same movies over and over,” she said.
Communication Prof. Kalisha Cornett said efforts to emphasize diversity in RTVF classes included a new anti-racism curriculum for faculty created in the summer of 2020.
Cornett, who helped build the syllabus for the faculty curriculum, said its goal is to mobilize an anti-racist method of teaching not just momentarily, but as an ongoing system of inquiry.
“If you are going to have an anti-racist pedagogy… it’s not just about adding an extra Spike Lee film,” Cornett said. “It’s not about showing another Barry Jenkins film.”
Like Silvosa, Communication freshman Sofia Migaly said she did not expect to be exposed to many films that represented marginalized communities. Migaly also took the Analyzing Media Texts course last quarter.
She said that her experience with the RTVF curriculum so far has been more diverse than she thought it would be. Some professors tend to focus on what they deem “classic films,” she said, which tend to overrepresent white voices.
“I appreciate it when professors put diversity into their curriculum, especially in arts classes, because sometimes there’s a danger of falling into the trap of white men films,” Migaly said.
According to Cornett, teaching students about diversity in film is not about making students learn new concepts, but rather allowing them to unlearn their own preconceptions.
She said she hopes students of color studying RTVF will advocate for themselves, especially at
a predominantly white institution. She also encourages students of color to be unafraid of asking for resources that might make their experience more equitable, like changes to curriculum.
“I’m hoping that more students will understand the value of that work and also the value of collective action,” Cornett added.
Although students may find progress within the faculty slow, Cornett said change is still ongoing, and that she believes incremental change is the best way forward.
She referenced a diversity, equity and inclusion symposium as an example of how the Communication faculty continues to strive towards improvement.
“Everyone now is in that unlearning moment of trying to figure out how they can break things down in order to build them back up — rather than putting a Band-Aid on things and just trying to throw (representation) on the end of the syllabus,” Cornett said. beatricevillaflor2026@u.northwestern.edu
up to 70, you don’t want to drop down … No law school really wants to play this game.”
The U.S. News rankings place a heavy emphasis on employment after graduation, which Osofsky said disincentivizes support for interdisciplinary programs.
She said Pritzker will continue to support interdisciplinary knowledge by offering joint degree programs and other educational opportunities.
Osofsky added that U.S. News does not account for students who choose to engage in public interest fellowships and other similar programs, but that Pritzker is committed to supporting these students.
“The decision by U.S. News to devalue employment that is funded by public interest fellowships and to exclude loan forgiveness programs in its
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According to Biss, the goal of the environmental justice investigation is to map data on environmental inequities using a Geographic Information System mapping tool. The map will help outline where environmental disadvantages in Evanston are located in a way that’s easy for anyone to understand, he said.
While planning the investigation, city government worked closely with Environmental Justice Evanston, a branch of local environmental advocacy group Citizens’ Greener Evanston.
In the fall, the city’s Health and Human Services Department released its latest report on the Evanston Project for the Local Assessment of Needs, which aims to create a solid plan for combating health inequities in the city.
The 2022 EPLAN report combined data and resident input, showing that Evanston residents in the 5th Ward face far more adverse health effects than residents in most other parts of the city.
Jerri Garl, who co-chairs EJE along with Davis, said the upcoming investigation could help expose environmental causes behind many trends revealed by EPLAN.
Like with the EPLAN report, EJE also wants community engagement incorporated into the investigation. Incorporating residents’ lived experiences is also essential to getting the full picture of environmental injustices throughout the city and building trust in the community, Garl emphasized.
“The whole goal here was to uncover some of those decision-making processes… that lead to
debt calculations does not support these efforts by our law school and other law schools to support our students,” Osofsky said.
It’s not yet clear whether undergraduate schools and other graduate programs will follow suit, according to Schieber, though Harvard Medical School already announced Wednesday its withdrawal from the U.S. News medical school rankings.
Schieber said alternative ranking systems could prompt this transition for more schools.
“Dissatisfaction with the methodology (of rankings) is not limited to law schools,” Kang said. “If it’s successful in changing in a constructive way how the U.S. News does its rankings, then I think it’s very likely to spread.”
nicolemarkus2025@u.northwestern.edu
these kinds of environmental injustices, whether they’re intentional or not,” Garl said.
According to EJE member Robyn Hurtig, the organization already started conducting listening sessions with small numbers of residents from the 2nd and 5th Wards.
Listening sessions will also help combat a broader lack of public engagement, which Davis said was a longstanding issue among her neighbors in the 5th Ward.
“A lot of times people don’t know that we have rights that we don’t really use, or we have a way that we can solve things within our own community, if we just understood what was going on,” she said.
After facing resident criticism for inactivity on its Climate Action and Resilience Plan, city government pledged to make sustainability a higher priority going forward. In its 2023 fiscal year budget, the city allocated $100,000 specifically to the investigation, Biss and Garl said.
EJE members said the city will use that money to hire facilitators for additional listening sessions. According to Davis, limited staff prevented the organization from diving further into listening sessions and data collection last year.
While EJE is “the entity that stayed the course” through years of environmental advocacy, Davis said, it has limited resources. The city has the resources to fully conduct the investigation, but Biss said COVID-19 has caused major delays in the investigation’s launch.
However, Garl said the time is now for the city to focus specifically on environmental justice.
“The mayor said in his press release, ‘We will continue with the listening sessions, we’re going to continue to work together on the mapping tool and we’ll continue to work together to help shape this investigation,’” Garl said. “But the burden is on the city to take action.”
lilycarey2025@u.northwestern.edu
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health resources for student workers. Gokhale said RAs often have to deal with traumatic events regarding residents, and he believes a third-party mental health program would be beneficial.
“We want to help at the end of the day, but we’re not licensed therapists, we’re not counselors, we’re not licensed in first aid or emergency response,” he said.
Lichamer said he and Gokhale were avoiding speaking on behalf of all RAs at the demonstration until they’ve talked to more people about common struggles and ideas since they were in the “early phases right now.”
Members of Northwestern University Graduate Workers also attended the protest. NUGW voted to unionize with United Electric, Radio and Machine Workers of America earlier this month.
Emilie Lozier, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in chemistry and NUGW co-chair, spoke at
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Asian, South Asian, Pacific Islander American communities.
“It is a way to bring the community together,” Molitor said. “It’s an opportunity for people to learn about Lunar New Year, which is celebrated by many different Asian cultures.”
The centerpiece of the celebration, the lion dance, featured two dancers dressed in a vibrant costume from the Chicago-based Seven Star Lion Dance Group. The red, golden and white lion jumped up and down to a traditional Chinese rhythm and playfully grabbed fruits, vegetables and red envelopes from the hands of people watching.
Daron Lee, the group’s drummer, said lion dancing is a family tradition he learned by watching his father perform. Now, he’s teaching it to his son, who performed with the group Sunday.
“We want (people) to learn about the lion dance and about the Chinese culture,” Lee said. “We do this to bring good luck and fortune and ward off evil spirits.”
In Pink & Tan, a Main-Dempster decor shop, children chatted and laughed around a long table filled with red papers, stickers and other art supplies for a lantern-making workshop. Many participants made creative designs with personal touches, like unique patterns and Chinese characters.
Maggie Peng, the owner of Pink & Tan, said the lanterns are an important part of the Chinese New Year celebration because they light the way for the new year.
Peng, who moved to Evanston in 2020, said
the event and encouraged undergraduate student workers to continue their efforts to self-advocate.
“You all are integral. Your work is so important,” Lozier said. “We see you, we see what you’re doing, we want to be in solidarity with you.”
RAs have already begun working with Students Organizing for Labor Rights, Lichamer said.
Lichamer added that undergraduate student collectives at institutions like Columbia University have recently made large strides with their demands and treatment, such as a $1,000 yearly raise for RAs.
“It’s time in general for us as RAs and workers to join other peer institutions that have been able to organize and unionize and work together to achieve their goals and demands,” Lichamer said. “If workers are better and doing better, and residents are doing better, I think that the whole university will get better as a whole.”
kaavyabutaney2026@u.northwestern.edu fionaroach2025@u.northwestern.edu
the celebration helps her connect with the broader ASPA community. She said she is glad to be able to host a part of the celebration and teach people about the many cultures that celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Mayor Daniel Biss and State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview) gave remarks at the celebration to highlight the importance of ASPA representation and recognizing its cultures.
“This is a community that needs to be lifted up,” Biss said. “Not just when it comes to a single annual celebration, but when it comes to representation, when it comes to political power, when it comes to language access, when it comes to culturally appropriate access to all the broad diversity of public services that we’re so proud to provide here.”
Biss and Gong-Gershowitz also addressed the Monterey, California shooting at a Lunar New Year festival Saturday, saying they stood in solidarity with grieving families.
Evanston resident Efia Peng saw the event advertised on the Downtown Evanston Instagram page and decided to go see the lion dance.
Efia Peng, who grew up in China, said the Lunar New Year in China is one of the few occasions each year when family members come together. For her, it is a very special memory.
She said she wants to see more Chinese cultural events — but also events celebrating festivals from other cultures, like Diwali.
“I know that there are a lot of diverse groups of people living in Evanston, so (we should) not just have a New Year but other major festivals,” Efia Peng said. “I think we have the resources. People are definitely supportive. Why not?”
caseyhe2026@u.northwestern.edu
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“You have to mitigate the issues so that we can actually begin to do away with the inequities in air quality, inequities in access to tree canopy and parklands and so forth, that underlie the challenge we’re talking about.”
By WILLIAM TONG the daily northwestern @william2tong
COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus and the flu are heavily impacting Evanston medical systems this winter.
COVID-19 hospitalizations at the NorthShore University HealthSystem’s Evanston Hospital approximately doubled in the months leading up to Jan. 10, according to Chief of Emergency Medicine Dr. Ernest Wang.
“Our ability to take care of anyone who comes through the door has been challenged by not just flu, RSV and COVID, but in general,” Wang said. “If you’re going to be admitted to the hospital, you need to be in an isolation room, and so that can take more time.”
Monthly Evanston resident emergency room visits for COVID-19 peaked between November and December at more than 100, according to data shared with The Daily on Jan. 20 by Evanston Director of Health & Human Services Ike Ogbo. Monthly visits to the ER for the flu peaked between December and January, at about 100, while visits for RSV peaked between September and October, at about 30 during the month.
Monthly ER visits for COVID-19 totaled about 50 cases two months before they spiked.
For the flu, monthly visits totaled fewer than 30 cases two months before its peak this winter. For RSV, monthly visits were fewer than 10 prior to its fall peak.
Wang also said RSV hospital visits to Evanston Hospital spiked in October. Flu visits spiked from November to December, he said.
“All three (illnesses) together at once was additive,” Wang said. “A number of people got sick from all three.”
Masking and social distancing over the past three years helped decrease RSV and flu transmission, Wang said. But as measures blocking respiratory
disease transmission have eased, RSV and flu made a comeback.
The symptoms of these two illnesses became more severe because of immunity gaps, which describe how a pathogen can more severely harm someone’s body if they haven’t been exposed to it in a long time, Wang added.
The immunity gap for RSV, which more heavily affects children and older people, has created particular challenges for local and state medical systems in recent months.
“The kids that got RSV this year were sicker than kids that historically get the virus,” Wang said. “That really taxed our system and created a lot of capacity issues. We actually had to transfer patients out of state at times because there were no pediatric beds in the entire state.”
But as people’s immune systems become accustomed to these viruses again, Wang said the immunity gap will likely shrink.
For Dr. Steven Fox, who works at Northwestern Medicine’s Sherman Avenue facility, this year’s wave of flu was particularly surprising because of how early it began. Usually, the flu affects the Chicago area in February, March and April, he said.
Fox added that flu cases could peak again, following patterns in parts of the southern hemisphere. The travel season has also left him “inundated with patients testing at home that have COVID,” he added.
As an internal medicine specialist, Fox usually sees patients for chronic diseases like diabetes. However, he hasn’t seen many severe COVID-19, RSV or flu cases in his patients with preexisting conditions, he said.
“Patients have been fairly well-protected because of the vaccine and the availability of Paxlovid,” Fox said. Paxlovid is a drug that treats COVID-19.
Outside of the medical community, locals like Wilmette resident Lauren Merchant have noticed
said he was thrilled about the victory.
“It offers a sense of community, like (with) collective bargaining,” Luna said. “I’ve had complaints since I started working, and none of them were addressed.”
Organizer and shift supervisor Tino Luna
Luna said he’s hoping to bargain for higher wages for workers, especially baristas. Organizers began to discuss unionizing in October and officially filed their petition in December, according to Luna.
these diseases’ heightened transmission. Merchant’s oldest son came down with cold symptoms in early October. She said she struggled to find a local urgent care with the capacity to see him.
“I was driving around on a Saturday afternoon, and all the urgent cares were full in the area to the point where they stopped picking up the phone,” Merchant said. “We kind of had to wait it out.” Her son recovered, and the rest of her family hasn’t contracted any serious respiratory diseases since. However, Merchant said she keeps hearing about friends who have sick children at home for
In the lead-up to the election, however, Luna said Starbucks managers worked to dissuade unionization, such as by telling workers they wouldn’t be promoted if they voted to unionize. Starbucks has taken an aggressive approach to union-busting nationwide, according to reporting by Slate and NPR, among other outlets.
Now, Luna said he’s following efforts to unionize other nearby Starbucks locations
weeks on end.
Merchant said she’s seen discussions around COVID-19, RSV and flu reflect how the pandemic changed the way people see sickness.
“Now, people have a strange threshold for how sick you can be,” she said. “People are confused about how to really think… Could it be RSV? Is it flu? Do you quarantine? Do you mask? Is this going to get worse, or is this just two kids with random colds or stomach bugs?”
williamtong2026@u.northwestern.edu
— including the store on Evanston’s Main Street, where workers also filed a petition to unionize last month.
In the past year, Starbucks workers across the Chicago area have voted to unionize. In October, however, the company closed the Edgewater location, which had been one of the first in the area to unionize.
Aviva BechkyOld Orchard Starbucks workers vote to unionize despite heavy pressures
Just a couple weeks removed from a tight, six-point defeat at the hands of in-state rival Illinois, the Wildcats had a chance at redemption Sunday.
Up by one at halftime, Northwestern (6-13, 0-9 Big Ten) was in a prime position to get revenge and pick up its first conference win of the season. But turnovers and defensive mishaps prevented the Cats from maintaining their lead, allowing the Fighting Illini (16-4, 6-3 Big Ten) to take control and hold on for the narrow 67-64 victory.
“(I’m) just really disappointed, to be honest,” coach Joe McKeown said. “We had a great game plan. Our players executed. In the fourth quarter, even though we outscored them, we just had tough turnovers at the wrong time and they made some big shots.”
No. 21 Illinois entered Sunday as the nation’s third-best three-point shooting team, shooting at a 40.7% clip. As a result, NU’s game plan centered on preventing Illinois from relying on the three-ball. And it worked.
The Fighting Illini went only 28.6% from beyond the arc, making only four three-pointers the whole match despite averaging almost eight makes per game. On the other hand,
the Cats — who rank last in the Big Ten in three-point shooting — shot a season-best of 47.1%.
“We’ve been struggling a little from the three-point line, but we have a lot of people who can really shoot the ball,” graduate student guard Sydney Wood said. “Everybody shot the ball really confidently tonight, and hopefully that’s something we can carry on to the rest of this season.”
After holding Illinois to only 12 points in the second quarter, NU carried a one-point lead going into the half. This was the first time in conference play this season that the Cats have found themselves leading at halftime.
However, it was only a matter of time before the nationally-ranked Fighting Illini began hitting their shots, outscoring NU by seven in the third quarter.
Facing an eight-point deficit with one and a half minutes left in the game, the Cats narrowed that gap to two points after two back-to-back three-pointers from sophomore guard Jillian Brown and sophomore forward Caileigh Walsh. But an Illinois stepback three and a few free throw points put the game out of reach.
For the second game in a row, junior forward Paige Mott led the team in scoring — this time with 13 points along with four rebounds.
Mott, who scored a career-high 16 points against No. 2 Ohio State on Thursday, is shooting a team-high 54.1% from the field.
“I really credit my teammates for putting me in great positions, passing the ball in great places where it’s just easy for me to score,” Mott said.
Wood added another all-around performance, putting up 12 points, five assists, four rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Brown and graduate student forward Courtney Shaw contributed 10 points each.
With half of its Big Ten schedule left to go, NU still has yet to win a conference game, extending its losing streak to eight consecutive games.
Despite the close loss, McKeown still sees hope for the transitioning team.
“We looked like Northwestern over the last couple years today, and I was really proud of that,” McKeown said. “We’ve been up and down. When they made their runs, we came right back. I feel like we can beat anybody.”
The Cats will look to get back on track Wednesday against Chicago State in its last non-conference match of the season. The game was originally scheduled for Dec. 22 but was postponed due to inclement weather.
lucaskim2025@u.northwestern.edu
Northwestern returned home to Welsh-Ryan Arena on a snowy Sunday afternoon and looked to split the season-series with its in-state rival No. 21 Illinois. Although the Wildcats (6-13, 0-9 Big Ten) went toeto-toe with the Fighting Illini (16-4, 6-3 Big Ten) for all 40 minutes, coach Joe McKeown’s squad ultimately fell short of a ranked-victory and dropped its eighth straight contest.
While NU tends to start games slow and work its way back into matchups, junior forward Paige Mott made her first three shots from the field, and her six early points helped the Cats keep kicking back after each Illinois advance. The Pennsylvania native, who scored a career-high 16 points against Ohio State last Thursday, tallied a team-high 13 points on a 6-of-10 shooting clip Sunday.
“I really just think it’s my teammates putting me in great positions, passing the ball in great places where it’s just easy for me to score,” Mott said. “As you can see from the game, I’m not really making moves — I’m just going straight up to the basket.”
The Fighting Illini entered Sunday’s contest as the nation’s third best three-point shooting team.
Coach Shauna Green’s squad made 12-of-28 shots from deep in its home matchup against NU, including four threes apiece in the game’s first and second quarters. The Cats effectively adjusted their perimeter defense, playing more man-to-man schemes and held Illinois silent from beyond the arc in the first frame.
Entering the second quarter, NU trailed by a slim 18-16 margin and turned its defensive pressure up a notch. Graduate student guard Sydney Wood, who helped lead the charge defensively, ran the offense to near perfection. The two-way veteran leader tallied five-first half assists — including a dish to freshman guard Caroline Lau — which
put the Cats in the driver’s seat until the half’s close.
“Sydney is back to being an allconference player like she was two and three years ago,” McKeown said. “(She’s had) this incredible career at Northwestern, and all she knows how to do is win.”
After 12 consecutive contests without a halftime lead, NU held a 31-30 advantage after 20 minutes. With the deep-shooting Fighting Illini converting just 1-of-6 first half threes, the Cats needed to give it their all in the second half.
The third period proved to be one to forget for NU, as the team managed just 10 points and turned the ball over seven times. Despite trailing 47-41 following the third frame, Illinois had yet to discover its range, and a first conference win for the Cats remained up for grabs.
“Something that we preach a lot in practice (is) keeping the ball in front of us,” Wood said. “(We were) keying in on shooters a lot better, which we did a good job of in the game.”
The Cats entered the final quarter looking to chip away at the deficit. NU converted a game-high 8-of-12 field goals in the final frame and held the Illini to a 20% clip from deep on its first five threes.
Sophomore guard Jillian Brown gave a gasp of late hope with a three-pointer off Lau’s career-high fifth assist to bring the game within two points. However, Fighting Illini guard Genesis Bryant hit a dagger off a step-back to put the game to bed, and Illinois escaped Evanston with a 67-64 victory.
“I felt like we had a great game plan, and the players executed,” coach McKeown said. “Even though we outscored them (in the fourth quarter), we had tough turnovers at the wrong time, and they made some big shots.”
Next up for NU is a non-conference home tilt with Chicago State. The lowly Cougars (1-19) provide an opportunity for the Cats to finally add another notch to the win column.
