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Thursday, February 6, 2020
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Qatar Foundation contradicts NU-Q Customs, not safety cited for Mashrou’ Leila relocation By TROY CLOSSON
daily senior staffer @troy_closson
After Northwestern University in Qatar canceled an event over the weekend featuring a prominent Lebanese band whose lead singer is openly gay, following online backlash to their appearance, the Qatar Foundation contradicted the University’s explanation for the talk’s relocation, according to a Reuters report. Members of the indie rock band Mashrou’ Leila were set to take part in a discussion about “media revolutions in the Middle East” at the campus on Tuesday. The group was scheduled to speak as part of a talk entitled “Language and the Rhythm of the Street” hosted by NU-Q’s Media Majlis, a museum that examines and leads discussions on content of media, journalism and communication. NU spokesperson Jon Yates told The Daily said in a
Monday statement the University and band “mutually agreed” on the decision to cancel the Qatar campus event and relocate to Evanston “out of abundance of caution due to several factors, including safety concerns for the band and our community.” However, Reuters reported Wednesday that the Qatar Foundation cited contradictory reasons for the event’s cancelation. The organization has not returned request for comment from The Daily, but a foundation spokesperson told Reuters that “we place the utmost importance on the safety of our community and currently do not have any safety or security concerns.” “We also place the very highest value on academic freedom and the open exchange of knowledge, ideas and points of view in the context of Qatari laws as well as the country’s cultural and social customs,” the spokesman told the international news organization. “This particular event was cancelled due to the fact that it patently did not correlate with this context.” » See NU-Q, page 6
Emma Edmund/Daily Senior Staffer
Protesters at an evening rally at Fountain Square. Evanston residents gathered to protest Trump’s acquittal after votes were held in the Senate on Wednesday.
Residents rally against acquittal
“No president is above the law:” Trump trial sparks civic action in city By SAMANTHA AGUILAR
the daily northwestern @samanthaguilar7
Chanting “no president is above the law,” Evanston residents
gathered at Fountain Square on Wednesday to protest the Senate’s acquittal of President Donald Trump. The House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump seven weeks ago on abuse of power and
obstruction of Congress charges. Trump’s lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, said the Senate cannot impeach a president acting in the country’s best interest, hoping to drum up acquittal support. He said Trump believed re-election was in the
country’s best interest. More than 200 “Reject the Cover-Up” protests were held nationwide Wednesday following Trump’s acquittal after a quick » See RALLY, page 6
Prof. outlines history of journalism at NU Coronavirus not risk Medill’s Roger Boye spoke for informal 99th anniversary event By SPENCER ALLAN
the daily northwestern @spencerlallan
Medill prof. Roger Boye spoke to students and faculty Wednesday in the McCormick Foundation Center about the history of the journalism school. Boye’s talk, “Medill’s (Almost) 100 Years in 100 Pictures,” was an informal celebration of the journalism school’s 99th anniversary and an analysis of how Northwestern’s journalism program succeeded while others failed to take hold at private universities. “The question was, is journalism a vocational education or is it worthy of a college?” Boye said. “Certainly private universities wouldn’t say so.” When Medill was founded in February 1921, it was one of the only journalism programs offered by a private university. Today, NU is the only school on U.S. News & World Report’s Top 20 Colleges list that has a major undergraduate journalism program, the product of Chicago Tribune reporter Eddie Doherty’s efforts to start a school for reporters in Chicago.
to Evanston: Experts Feinberg Prof. says Chicagoans shouldn’t worry
By GABRIELLE RANCIFER
the daily northwestern
Daily file photo by Jeffery Wang
McCormick Foundation Center. Boye’s talk Wednesday discussed the history of Northwestern’s almost 100-year-old journalism program.
Another part of the talk focused on the evolution of Medill’s program. Boye showed photos taken of the school’s first newsroom in Evanston, located in the
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
attic of NU’s Old Gymnasium building. Over time, the school grew and gained additions such as a television studio and wire room, where Boye said he had a work-study
job maintaining the machines. Boye went on to serve first as a professor and later as an assistant dean at Medill. » See BOYE, page 6
Even though the novel coronavirus has crept into five states — including Illinois — members of the Evanston community remain unfazed. Weeks ago, the coronavirus, a disease also known as 2019nCoV and that has less extreme symptomatic similarities to SARS, remained confined to Wuhan, China. As of Tuesday, the virus had infected 24,607 individuals in more than 20 countries. The majority of the cases came from mainland China, but there are currently 12 documented in the United States, two of which are in the Chicago area — the first person-to-person transmission of the disease in the U.S. Devanee Washington, a food scientist and nutritionist who lives in Chicago, said it was “reassuring” to find out that the cases in Chicago required close personto-person contact to transfer the virus, so she’s more focused on other illnesses that have higher mortality rates. “In the past month, strep and
flu have been more of a concern to me and that they’re commonly spread,” Washington said. “I’m telling my husband...to be careful because he’s a frequent flyer.” Feinberg Prof. Karla Satchell, who teaches microbiology and immunology and receives funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to research 2019-nCoV, said people in the Chicago area should not be afraid of catching the disease. “The case arrived and was caught very quickly,” Satchell said. “The risk is very low of contracting this, and the public should view the risk as low because (officials) were able to very quickly contain the single case and all the surrounding contacts.” Satchell is also the co-director of the Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Disease in Chicago, where she does more research on diseases like the coronavirus. Satchell said that drug development for coronavirus treatment would stem from SARS research and take months rather than years. She said the flu virus currently poses the greatest threat to local residents, and encouraged people to receive vaccinations and to wash their hands. Robert Murphy, the executive » See CORONAVIRUS, page 6
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