Issuu

SPORTS Women’s Basketball Rutgers proves too much for Northwestern » PAGE 12

arts & entertainment

Creator of NU guitar program shines in music series » PAGE 5

OPINION Letter to the Editor Schapiro, Linzer strongly back Eikenberry’s appointment as executive director of Buffett Institute » PAGE 8

High 21 Low 14

The Daily Northwestern Thursday, February 11, 2016

DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM

Obama pushes for bipartisan unity in Ill.

Find us online @thedailynu

DIRECTOR DEBATE

CARE expands prevention education

By ROBIN OPSAHL

By PETER KOTECKI

President Barack Obama called upon Illinois state legislators to escape the “poisonous political climate” of partisan politics and work across party lines in his address to the Illinois General Assembly on Wednesday afternoon. Obama’s speech marks nine years since his presidential campaign announcement in Springfield, a campaign marked by Obama’s expressed desire to promote bipartisanship. The country’s political climate, however, is still highly polarized today, he said, and it is up to legislators in office to make peace and move forward. Although most of his discussion on gridlock was aimed at Washington, the topic was salient to the state assembly, currently on its eighth month without a budget. “If we can’t compromise, by definition we can’t govern ourselves,” Obama said. He also said legislators need to be asking themselves, “What can we do, all of us, together, to try to make our politics better?” The president also talked about changes he wanted to strive for in his last months in office, including ending gerrymandering of congressional districts, making it easier to register to vote and limiting the power of big money on politics. Obama brought up the possibility of a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in his speech. “A handful of families and hidden interests shouldn’t be able to bankroll elections in the greatest democracy on Earth,” Obama said. “I’m not saying the folks with a lot of money should have no voice; I’m saying they shouldn’t be able to drown out everybody else’s.” Rep. Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston) told The Daily the speech was well received by both Republicans and Democrats in the

As part of the Center for Awareness, Response and Education’s focus on prevention education, coordinator of men’s engagement Paul Ang is launching a six week program for dialogue on masculinity within the next two weeks. Ang, whose position was funded by the second of two $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, said the program, “NU Men,” is a collaboration with residence director Dan Amato. “It’s a masculinity dialogue group focused on providing men a space to explore, rethink and challenge their own masculinity and learn about some of the systemic links between masculinity and violence,” Ang said. In addition to funding Ang’s role, the second grant which began in September 2014, focuses on prevention education, said Erin Clark, assistant director of CARE. Money from the first grant was allocated toward response programs, allowing CARE to fund its response and advocacy services between 2011 and 2014, she added. “Prevention (education) is vital to addressing sexual violence on campus,” Clark said. Ang said he is also piloting a program with a few Interfraternity Council chapters. The program, which Ang developed and facilitated at Syracuse University, looks at how masculinity is tied to violence, he said. Ang said he is also working with members of Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault. Although MARS’ presentations for new members in

the daily northwestern @robinlopsahl

daily senior staffer @peterkotecki

Lauren Duquette/Daily Senior Staffer

NEW LEADERSHIP The Buffett Institute, which will be under the leadership of former ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry starting September. Faculty are protesting Eikenberry’s appointment, calling on the University to withdraw the offer for his position.

Faculty contest selection of Eikenberry By DAVID FISHMAN

the daily northwestern @davidpkfishman

Forty-six Northwestern faculty members called on University administrators to withdraw their appointment of Karl Eikenberry as executive director of the Buffett Institute due to his incompatibility with the center’s “core mission of independent research.” In a letter to The Daily, organized by political science and legal studies Prof. Jacqueline Stevens and Spanish and Portuguese Prof. Jorge Coronado, the faculty outlined a number of reasons for why Eikenberry should not have been selected for the position, including what they said was an opaque search process by the University and concern about using the humanities and social sciences to advance U.S. soft power. Undersigned faculty concluded the letter

by requesting a new search process chaired by “an independent faculty member” from the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences or a committee appointed by the president of the Faculty Senate. “All important administrative positions in the University — deans, the provost, the president — these are scholars who are engaged in the primary mission of research and teaching,” Coronado told The Daily. “And so we have deep concerns about what it means for someone who doesn’t come from that background to lead an institute which has been so central to non-qualitative social sciences and humanities research.” University President emeritus Henry Bienen, who chaired the search committee that hired Eikenberry, refuted the faculty’s accusations, and said he couldn’t recall anyone voicing dissatisfaction until the letter. Although he acknowledged Eikenberry’s non-academic background,

Bienen said the appointment was “sensational” and expressed full confidence in the former ambassador’s leadership ability. “I find the letter more than disappointing,” Bienen told The Daily. “I actually find it uninformed, narrowminded and extremely foolish.” University President Morton Schapiro and Provost Daniel Linzer acknowledged the concerns expressed by some faculty, but said they “strongly disagree” in a separate letter to The Daily published Wednesday night. Eikenberry, they wrote, “will broaden access to people and information for faculty and students” and said faculty that met with Eikenberry expressed “quite a different set of comments.” Eikenberry currently works at Stanford University, where he has more departmental associations than any other faculty member. Prior to » See EIKENBERRY, page 10

» See OBAMA, page 10

» See CARE, page 10

City’s fourth quarter economic report shows stability the daily northwestern @elenasucharetza

Evanston’s economic report from the final three months of 2015 was released Tuesday, showing overall economic stability, city officials said. Thirteen new businesses opened in the city and 60 jobs were generated during the economic quarter, which stretched last year from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. Seven of these businesses are located in downtown Evanston, according to the report. Johanna Nyden Leonard, manager of the city’s economic development division, said the continual emergence of new businesses and entrepreneurship is impressive considering Evanston’s size of about 76,000 residents. “Evanston doesn’t have a large shopping mall such as Old Orchard so it’s important

to offer a diversity of things to people in Evanston, such as the startup showcase we had this quarter,” Nyden Leonard said. “We do all these things that aren’t typical for a suburb our size but we have a dynamic composition in our city.” Businesses such as Coffee Lab, which moved from 922 Noyes St. to 910 Noyes St. in October, were considered to be new businesses in the report due to their relocation to larger spaces. Despite the creation of 60 new jobs in the final economic quarter, Nyden-Leonard said Evanston’s unemployment rate has risen by about 0.5 percent to remain under 4.5 percent, as compared to the national rate, which is about 4.9 percent. She said residents should not expect to see any drastic rises in unemployment in the near future due to steady economic growth in the city. Beyond business creation, Nyden Leonard said the most noteworthy aspect

Serving the University and Evanston since 1881

of the report was its information regarding the number of vacant industrial spaces in Evanston. She said there was a sharp drop in industrial vacancies from eight to one between the third quarter and fourth quarter, which was largely due to the opening of a sizeable Autobarn car facility, which took up 128,000 square feet of previously vacant space. Retail and office space vacancies also declined during the quarter, but at a much smaller rate. Nyden Leonard said she was impressed with the city’s decrease in vacancies compared to numbers from other north suburbs. “We had about an 8 or 9 percent vacancy rate for industrial space in previous quarters, and that dropped significantly,” she said. “This shows that a big facility occupying space can have a pretty big impact and we should feel pretty good » See REPORT, page 10

Industrial vacancies

Percent vacant

By ELENA SUCHARETZA

Graphic by Jerry Lee/Daily Senior Staffer