The Daily Northwestern - February 13, 2023

Weinberg adjusts required courses

“Literature and Fine Arts” requirement will broaden to “Literature and Arts,” allowing students to count classes from the Art Theory and Practice department.

By JESSICA MA daily senior staffer @jessicama2025

By MAIA PANDEY daily senior staffer @maiapandey

After more than seven years of research and review, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences is set to adjust its undergraduate degree requirements beginning Fall Quarter 2023.

Incoming undergraduates will be required to complete classes across a set of “foundational disciplines,” as opposed to the current “distribution requirements.” Though the subject areas remain largely the same, each requirement will include a specific set of learning goals.

In a key change, the current

New students will also be required to complete two “overlay” courses, which they can simultaneously apply to other degree requirements: the first is “U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice and Equity” and the second, “Global Perspectives on Power, Justice and Equity.”

Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs Mary Finn said the changes reflect Weinberg’s overarching goal to equip each student to “observe, critique, express, reflect.”

“I think that our students will have a clearer sense of how their degree is about much more than their major,” Finn said. “They

Day in and day out, trucks carry trash past Church Street Village townhouses and trundle up a long driveway to the Church Street Waste Transfer Station.

For 29 years, Evanston resident Cindy Levitt never paid much attention to the station, which is located between the 2nd and 5th Wards. That changed when she moved into Church Street Village in 2008.

On her first night, Levitt woke up to quaking vibrations she likened to an earthquake. But she realized the vibrations actually came from her next-door neighbor: the waste transfer station.

“(When I moved in), I was pretty naive about what was next door,” Levitt said. “There’s the issue of the vibrations. There’s

issue of the noise. There’s the issue of what we’re breathing.” For more than

have raised concerns about safety,

Community celebrates new commissioner’s office

By WILLIAM TONG the daily northwestern @william2tong

Residents and local leaders celebrated the opening of Cook County’s new 13th District commissioner’s office Sunday afternoon.

Located next to the corner of Sherman Avenue and Main Street, the office will be first-term Cook County Commissioner Josina Morita’s main outreach center to people in the county’s 13th District, which stretches from Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood to Evanston. Morita was elected in November.

At the new location, office staff can help residents with tax appeals and navigating Cook County courts, Morita said. Residents will also be able to pick up free tickets to the Brookfield Zoo and Chicago Botanic Garden. Small business owners can access grant and tax relief programs as well.

The opening ceremony kicked off with children lion dancers from the Chinese Mutual Aid Association, a Chicago community organization. Morita, who is Chinese and Japanese American and the first Asian American Cook County commissioner, invited them to perform as a way to celebrate Asian culture, she said.

“It’s really important for me to bring my culture and my story to the office and introduce the district to the Asian American community,” Morita said.

Several local politicians, including Ald. Krissie Harris (2nd), Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th), Ald. Juan Geracaris (9th) and Lincolnwood, Illinois Trustee Jean Ikezoe-Halevi attended the opening ceremony. The new office sits in Evanston’s 4th Ward, which Nieuwsma said will foster effective collaboration between him and Morita.

“We’ve got a meeting on the calendar,” Nieuwsma said. “I know that affordable housing is going to be on the agenda.”

Nieuwsma also hopes to talk about revitalizing downtown Evanston with county investment, he added. Harris said the new office represents possibilities for collaboration between City Council and the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

“I believe in what people call ‘warm hand-offs’ — when my residents come to me and they need something, helping make sure they can get here the services they need,” Harris said.

She also said it is important the office sits at “the heart of the community” for residents’ easy access, because elected officials often expect constituents to proactively look for public services without conducting enough outreach.

The Sherman Avenue location replaces former Commissioner Larry Suffredin’s Green Bay Road office. Morita said this southward shift reflects changes in Cook County’s district boundaries based on 2020 census results. The district’s northern boundary used to be in Glencoe, Illinois but shifted to Evanston’s northmost border after Suffredin’s last term.

“Having an office on Central and Green Bay

didn’t make sense anymore,” Morita said. “Our office is going to be … more accessible to those in the city. And also off the CTA and Metra.”

In addition to outreach initiatives at the office, Morita said she hopes to implement other policies to improve inclusion across Cook County.

Specifically, she said the county needs to collect more precise data on different ethnic groups within the Asian American community. She also said the county should create a category for residents of Middle Eastern and North African descent instead of counting them as white.

Dennis Mondero, executive director at the Chinese Mutual Aid Association, said he is excited about Morita’s ability to incorporate diversity into her public service.

“As an Asian American leader, that’s also going to have a special place in her heart,” Mondero

said. “To make sure her office is a place that’s inclusive to everyone in Cook County, whether it’s immigrants or people born and raised here for multiple generations.”

Additionally, Morita said she will prioritize environmental justice policy based on issues she saw while serving on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago Board.

An overarching challenge Morita said she aims to address as commissioner is making her constituents more familiar with government services, functions and responsibilities.

“It’s important for us to go to them,” Morita said. “To reach out to them and let them know… ‘You have a place in government and a voice in government.’”

williamtong2026@u.northwestern.edu

Madison Bratley/Daily Senior Staffer

Cook County Commissioner Josina Morita cut the ribbon in front of her new office Sunday afternoon. Afterward, residents and local politicians who attended the opening ceremony celebrated inside with food and music.

BadHacks codes dating apps with a twist

By ASHLEY LEE daily senior staffer @ashley_yw_lee

Northwestern’s Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers chapter hosted BadHacks on Saturday — its first since 2019 — giving students nine hours to bring their worst ideas to life with a Valentine’s Daythemed twist.

While the proximity of the event to Feb. 14 contributed to the theme topic, IEEE Technical Director and Weinberg junior Kelly Mei said the event addresses a need for further connection within the NU community.

“I recounted that the marriage pact started in 2020,” Mei said. “So there was a need after the pandemic for a lot of students to connect with others, and given the success of the marriage pact, we wanted to launch something with our own little technical twist on it.”

Mei said IEEE is a space where those interested in technology can hone their skills and find a supportive community.

Co-president and McCormick junior Sengdao Inthavong said he wanted the event to reflect IEEE activities before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — which the current IEEE leadership did not get to experience.

“This really is an organization that’s not only for fun, but also for collaborative building,” Inthavong said. “BadHacks is one of those events where you work on a project but also have a fun and casual time.”

McCormick junior Julian Baldwin said the hackathon offered students a chance to test their skills extracurricularly, since they have more flexibility outside a classroom environment. He added that hackathons give him the chance to view others’ ideas and methods.

“It was fun, seeing all the collective energy that people put in and the different takes people had on the prompts of (an) intentionally bad Valentine’s Day,” Baldwin said.

As part of BadHacks, IEEE also hosted a mini contest to test which participant could type paragraphs the fastest while blindfolded. McCormick sophomore Steve Ewald won the contest.

Near the end of Saturday’s event, the different groups pitched their projects, received student feedback and voted on the winners.

Baldwin, McCormick and Bienen junior Andrew Pulver and McCormick junior Ryan Newkirk worked on an unconventional dating app for BadHacks. Pulver said the trio tried to create an app that would increasingly reveal more personally identifiable information as couples decide to take their relationship to the next level.

Pulver said the app aimed to incorporate both risk and reward. There is always the risk the person you are talking to will use that information against you, he said.

“We liked it because it’s both completely absurd, and it’s easy to pitch something that’s funny and just make it,” Baldwin said.

The trio’s project won an award for “Most Extra.”

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Weinberg sophomore Ella Cutler and Ewald’s web project looked to match people based on their bad habits, such as snoring or procrastination.

Other groups worked on other versions of dating apps and websites to provide relationship advice. One group created a customizable chatbot to mimic a real-life partner over text.

Mei said exploring ideas that may seem bad could create new, inventive solutions.

“A lot of times we make projects because we think it’s going to serve a greater good,” Mei said. “Sometimes you don’t experiment often enough with what might be wrong. I think it’s good to have an open mind to tackle those ideas that may seem out of the ordinary, and you might find something that’s really extraordinary.” ashleylee2025@u.northwestern.edu

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Ashley Lee/Daily Senior Staffer Students competed in a typing contest, requiring contestants to cover their eyes during the BadHacks event Saturday.

A&E

‘You’ flirts with mystery, obsession in newest season

By JULIA BENKENDORF the daily northwestern @jrbenkendorf

This piece contains mild spoilers

Romantic comedies are obsessed with the idea that chasing after someone is the epitome of love. From “Sleepless in Seattle” to “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” the idea is simple: No matter what has gone catastrophically wrong, just one grand gesture can solve everything quicker than the credits can roll.

Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), the protagonist of the Netflix original series “You,” sees himself as the leading man in such a film. Following last season’s murder of ex-wife Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), Joe flees across the pond searching desperately for Marienne (Tati Gabrielle), the complicated librarian he became infatuated with while living in Madre

Linda. When he finally finds her at a Paris art gallery, Joe expects a warm, climactic embrace. However, when the music swells and the tension builds, Marianne runs away in horror, bringing heartbroken Joe back to square one.

Season four’s first part makes one thing explicitly clear. This is not a love story.

As newly-christened English professor Jonathan Moore, Joe tries to begin a new life. He ironically assigns “The Tell-Tale Heart” to his students, galivants around lush cafes and begins to rendezvous with some of London’s social elite. After one drunken night, though, he finds his neighbor, Malcolm (Stephen Hagan), dead in his flat. At first, we assume that this is simply yet another one of Joe’s impulsive kills. But after he begins receiving anonymous messages from someone claiming to know his true identity, it becomes clear that he is being framed.

As Joe attempts to identify the killer, aptly dubbed the “Eat-the-Rich Killer,” he becomes intertwined in

the messy, degenerate and cold-hearted environment of his new peers. He amasses a constantly-changing list of suspects, doubting himself with every turn.

In a refreshing break from the series’ usual structure, we now see Joe channeling his obsessive nature toward solving the murder mystery. If the first three seasons of “You” were romantic thrillers, season four is a whodunnit with elements of class commentary sprinkled throughout.

“You” is at its best when it leans into its own absurdity. While occasionally predictable, season four part one still manages to take the viewer on a whirlwind ride in just five episodes.

Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman), one of Joe’s precocious young students, nails the essence of the season in an off-handed remark about the mystery genre.

“It is a formula, but the formula is fun,” she tells him. “It draws you in, it hides a social commentary.”

Badgley’s performance as Joe stands out as one of the most memorable in recent television. His snarky

internal monologue and wide range of emotions give an otherwise unsympathetic villain a sense of complexity.

One of the show’s strengths has always been its ensemble cast. Season four’s new additions truly shine as the stark foils to Joe’s reserved, pseudo-intellectual persona. Clueless nepotism baby Adam (Lukas Gage) and posh heiress Lady Phoebe (Tilly Keeper) stand out as much-needed comic relief among the darkness of the story, and Rhys Montrose (Ed Speleers) is the perfect addition as the outsider-politician who we eventually realize is Joe’s blackmailer.

While it’s not entirely clear whether or not Joe has finally changed for the better, “You” presents a gripping insight into the pitfalls of obsession and an antihero’s attempt to save himself from his own demise.

“You” season four part two will be released March 9 on Netflix.

juliabenkendorf2026@u.northwestern.edu

‘Four Virtues’ exhibit highlights loving Black fathers

By JACK AUSTIN daily senior staffer @jackaustinnews

Southside photographer Eli Williamson documents loving fathers with their children in everyday settings. William said the mission of his exhibit is to highlight and change the “negative stereotypical perception of Black fathers.”

“As a Black father myself, we’re not seen as virtuous,” Williamson said. “There’s no conversation about the virtuous Black man as a father in society. It’s ludicrous, actually. And it’s really, really poisonous.”

“The Four Virtues,” Williamson’s first exhibit, is running in Evanston Art Center through March 10. It is displayed in the lobby gallery, which is reserved for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ artists.

Evanston Art Center’s Manager of Exhibitions Audrey Avril said the images are rich in color and thematically compelling. Avril said Williamson shows many Black men as fathers expressing compassion, tenderness, gentleness and honorable virtues. Evanston artist and curator Fran Joy said when she thinks of fatherhood, she imagines direction and protection. She said there is a false sense that such traits are absent in the Black community.

“There’s a lot of really loving (Black) fathers who spend a lot of time with their kids and who are very close and very attached,” Joy said. “That is not really projected that much in general society.”

Paula Danoff (Kellogg ‘82), president and CEO of the Evanston Art Center, said several Black fathers attended the gallery opening and

took photos of themselves next to the displayed photographs.

Danoff said many visitors had an emotional response to the intimate images.

“It just gives you such a wonderful feeling of hope and inspiration,” Danoff said. “When you see them all together in the way he’s done it, it’s such a positive view of life.”

Daniel Rogers, a Black father who saw the exhibit, said that while he does not consider himself an “art person,” he appreciates Williamson for telling stories that give dignity to Black fathers. Specifically, Rogers said that photos of fathers walking kids to school, on the bus or in the park resonated with him.

Rogers said he had a difficult relationship with his own father, which he said was due to the unique problems and struggles that come with being a Black man. As a father himself, he said he tries to overcome such obstacles. “I’m proud, I strive to be there,” Rogers said. “I aspire to be present.”

Williamson said he decided to seriously pursue photography three years ago and has been shooting every day since. He said he finds an abundance of examples of virtuous fathers to shoot.

The damage caused by the negative stereotypes inspires Williamson to capture Black fathers in a positive light.

“I’ve taken some pretty good images of people that have shown them in the best of light,” Williamson said. “And when I say that it’s not because they’re perfect. It’s because they exist. And they’re doing their best.”

Changing the aperture of a camera allows more light in. Similarly, Williamson said if people change

their perception, they will see a multitude of examples of loving Black fathers at the movies, at car shows and elsewhere.

The quantity of photos in his displays and photo essays is just as important as their quality, Williamson said, because it demonstrates how common loving Black fathers are. Williamson often gives his subjects the photos he’s taken of them because they have often never had a professional photo taken of them with their kids.

Willard Williamson, Eli’s father and a

photographer for over 50 years, said he was proud to see his son depict Black men in a positive light.

“It’s a dimension that we normally don’t see on television and hear about on radio,” Willard Williamson said. “(Black) fathers have to go through (a lot) to raise their kids and to be present for what their needs are. It brings up the challenges of being a Black father. I’m very proud that he put himself out there.”

Illustration by Lily Shen

Photo courtesy of Eli Williamson

ETHS disproportionately suspends Black students

By DIVYA BHARDWAJ and SONYA DYMOVA the daily northwestern @sonyawanders

When students enter Evanston Township High School, a sign reading “All Are Welcome Here” greets them in more than 25 languages.

However, some students say they’ve been less welcomed than others when walking through the halls.

“Personally, I see more students of color being called out and being told, ‘Where’s your pass?’ or ‘Where are you going?’ by safety officers in our school more often than white people are being called out,” said ETHS senior Amira Grace.

That observation is backed by Illinois State Board of Education disciplinary data on expulsions, suspensions and truancy. According to records from the past 10 years, Black students have consistently faced disciplinary actions at higher rates than white students. The ETHS director of communications did not respond to requests for comment on demographic trends in disciplinary actions.

During the 2021-2022 academic year, 24.8% of ETHS students were Black or African American and 45.1% of ETHS students were white, according to ISBE data.

During that academic year, 45.6% of students disciplined with an in-school suspension and 67.8% of students disciplined with an outof-school suspension were Black or African

American. White students made up just 18.9% of students disciplined with an in-school suspension and 8% of students with an out-of-school suspension.

Grace said she’s often heard students talking about the differences in how students of color are treated compared to white students. Sometimes, she said bias seemed “extreme” and punishments against students of color struck her as “extreme and unwarranted.”

“The administration says a lot of things, like ‘We want to make this change,’ but it doesn’t ever happen,” Grace said. “I haven’t seen any policies or activism … when it’s in regards to implicit racism and implicit bias.”

The disproportionate suspension rates have remained consistent over the past decade. In the 2013-2014 academic year, 73.3% of incidents resulting in out-of-school suspensions involved Black or African American students, while 4.9% of incidents involved white students.

Shelley Gates, a former ETHS teacher and department chair, suggested the disparity is rooted in racially biased perception of students’ behavior.

“Adults, whether they’re conscious of it or not, may perceive actions by students of color differently than they would perceive those actions by white kids,” Gates said. “A white kid might do something that was probably against the rules, and then they get a pass for it. And then a student of color does the same thing, and is sent to the dean’s office.”

The disparity may be explained by the combination of systemic racism, people’s stereotyping of certain behaviors and the complexity of teenagers, according to Gates.

In an email statement to The Daily, Luca Guacci, managing attorney of the Education Advocacy Program at the Moran Center, said systemic racism is embedded in the school’s suspensions.

“The disciplinary policies active at ETHS … unwittingly serve to undergird the historically racist and intentional disinvestment in, and the punitive policing of children from Black and Brown communities, resulting in the exclusion of Black and Brown students from opportunities toward economic mobility, civic engagement, conflict resolution, and justice,” they wrote.

The damage incurred by such practices comes with no effectiveness, according to Christina LiCalsi (SESP ’11,’14), a principal researcher at the American Institutes for Research.

Source: Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois Report Card — Evanston Township High School 2022 demographic data of overall student body and disciplinary cases.

Demographic data for Pacific Islander students and incident demographic data for American Indian and Pacific Islander students has been redacted for 2022. Incident counts are redacted for all groups with fewer than 10 students enrolled. Disciplinary cases are counted by incident, not by student.

In a 2021 study, LiCalsi and her research team found that exclusionary practices fail to reduce future misbehavior of the disciplined students or their peers.

“All you’re doing really is weakening the bond

that they have with the school environment, weakening the trust that they have in the school and the adults, which is linked to poor outcomes moving forward,” LiCalsi said. “I think restorative practices is really one of the most important alternatives, and I think that trauma-informed care within schools is critical.”

Grace, who is a member of the ETHS Student Union, said she feels administration has shown “apathy” when communicating with her and her peers instead of building trust. She said students have told her they feel “demeaned,” “condescended to” and “emotionally hurt” after speaking with administrators.

To improve the disproportionate targeting of students of color, Grace said administration should start by being attentive to students’ perspectives and increasing student involvement in creating school policy.

“Even though a lot of people want to dismiss anecdotes, anecdotes can be really powerful,” Grace said. “I think it starts off with listening to students — not only listening to them, but collaborating with them.”

divyabhardwaj2025@u.northwestern.edu sofiadymova2026@u.northwestern.edu

Committee vacancies prompt calls for transparency

By CASEY

HE the daily northwestern

@caseeey_he

Evanston Public Library board members ostensibly serve three-year terms. But, after four members’ terms expired in the past few years, Board President Tracy Fulce said City Council has yet to fill their positions.

So the members continued showing up to work, in some cases for more than a year after the end of their terms, Fulce said.

“Because our board continues to function, essentially, without issue, members just continue to serve beyond their term,” she said.

The library board oversees Evanston Public Library and supervises the levy of library tax. Fulce said the board is currently in the process of searching for an executive director, an important task that requires the full board

— though only five people are currently officially appointed.

The problem of vacancies is not limited to the library board, though. Eleven of the city’s 24 boards, committees and commissions are currently unfilled. The number of vacancies ranges from one to two — or six, in the case of the Commission on Aging and Disabilities, which has a total of nine seats.

Mary Rosinski, a realtor and Evanston resident for more than 30 years, serves on the Parks and Recreation Board. The board currently has two unfilled vacancies.

“I think (the vacancies) have an impact on conversations,” Rosinski said. “It’s better if we have more input because parks are all over the town and ideally, you want people from all over the town.”

Rosinski said she applied for the board at the end of 2021, but the city never contacted her after she applied. Instead, she learned of

her appointment to the board several months later from a resident who attended the City Council meeting where the mayor made the appointment.

The city should reform the application and appointment process to make it more transparent, Rosinski said.

“I think it’s a disservice to the people who apply to be on a board or commission and donate their time that there is not even a ‘we will consider it at this date’ and there’s no followup,” Rosinski said.

Karla Thomas, chair of the Equity and Empowerment Commission, said she expects City Council to appoint new members to fill the commission’s two vacancies soon.

However, she said the commission’s volunteer nature and limited power restrain it from making substantive progress.

“The commission can’t vote on anything, doesn’t control anything, can’t do anything,”

Thomas said. “It’s just a bunch of volunteers sitting at the side, who can come up with good ideas until they’re blue in the face, but we have zero power to actually implement them.”

For Evanston to fulfill its promise to eradicate inequities in its services and operation, Thomas said the city should hire full-time employees — instead of relying on volunteer commissioners — to make changes from within the system. Looking forward, Fulce said the city should be doing more to promote opportunities like the library board openings. She said she is pleased to see a new section highlighting openings on boards, committees and commissions in the city newsletter.

“We, as community volunteers, really want to make sure that there’s (an) opportunity for everyone who wants to participate to engage in the important work,” she said.

caseyhe2026@u.northwestern.edu

City considers natural gas connections ban in new buildings

By SAMANTHA STEVENS

daily senior staffer @its_samstevens

Evanston is considering a ban on natural gas connections in new building construction.

The ban, if enacted, would follow similar policies implemented in cities like Seattle and New York City. It would also help Evanston reach its goal of carbon neutrality for municipal operations by 2035, under the city’s Zero Emissions Strategy.

According to the city website, Mayor Daniel Biss made a referral for the ban to the Environment Board in January.

Evanston Sustainability and Resilience Coordinator Cara Pratt said the Environment Board plans to discuss it in its March meeting.

She added that the city hopes to bring a draft of the ban to the board within the next year.

“We really want to hear people’s opinions about this, so we’re bringing it to the Environment Board first to have a plan for community engagement, whether that’s public meetings or a

survey,” Pratt said. Evanston’s consideration to ban new natural gas connections sits in the backdrop of a national conversation around the harmful health effects of burning natural gas.

While many residential appliances — like gas-powered furnaces and water heaters — vent pollution outside, gas-burning stoves emit pollutants into the home, which can cause or worsen respiratory illnesses. A study published in December 2022 estimated that gas-burning stoves are responsible for 12.7% of childhood asthma cases in the U.S.

Nathan Kipnis, principal at Kipnis Architecture + Planning, said banning natural gas connections is a step in the right direction to improving both indoor and outdoor air quality.

“(The move away from natural gas) has been coming for years,” Kipnis said. “It’s a benefit all the way around. It’s better for the occupants of the building, and it’s lower energy.”

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, almost eight in 10 Illinois households use natural gas for heating.

Pratt said a potential ban would not impact previously-installed appliances.

“I feel like it’s important to distinguish between what we’re trying to do — which is to have a conversation about the potential of banning new natural gas connections in new construction — versus the social media conversation about banning gas stoves,” Pratt said. “It’s two very different things.”

At the same time, many existing structures are shifting from gas to electric appliances. Will Gutierrez, a partner at HVAC business The Rayes Group, said his company installed three times as many hybrid HVAC systems in 2022 than in 2021 because of rising customer demand.

While there are environmental and health benefits to using electricity over natural gas, initial costs can be a barrier for residents looking to install new appliances like HVAC, especially if they are electric.

Gutierrez said he estimates that the cost of installing an electric heat pump is roughly double that of a gas-powered AC unit.

“You’re paying more for better technology,”

Gutierrez said.

But not all appliances have significant price point differences between the natural gas option and the electrical alternative. For instance, gas stoves and electric stoves are similarly priced, although operational costs depend on natural gas and electricity prices.

Gutierrez said solutions like a hybrid HVAC system can be a halfway point for residents who are seeking to upgrade their appliances but may not be able to switch to an entirely electrically powered residence.

A hybrid HVAC system relies primarily on an electrical heat pump. If the temperature outside is too cold for the pump to properly function, the system reverts to a traditional “backup” furnace.

Kipnis said although switching to electric appliances may add costs to the residents, it is the right thing to do.

“Either we have a world that continues to use the cheapest solution and gets destroyed, or we pay a little bit more and we do it correctly,” he said.

samanthastevens2024@u.northwestern.edu

Illustration by Ziye Wang

In the 2021-22 school year, 67.8% of out-of-school suspensions at ETHS involved Black or African American students, while only 24.8% of students overall were Black or African American.

Graphic by Annie Xia

station sorts and compacts the waste, which is then taken by larger vehicles to a final disposal site elsewhere, like a landfill.

By putting smaller, compacted loads onto larger vehicles, companies reduce hauling costs, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And because the station is a private business, it operates independently from the city, according to Cara Pratt, Evanston’s sustainability and resilience coordinator.

“The station has no affiliation whatsoever with the city,” Pratt said.

Getting around zoning laws

Illinois state law requires waste transfer stations be located at least 1,000 feet away from the nearest residential area, creating a buffer zone. But that law, which went into effect in the ’90s, included a grandfather clause exempting older stations, like the one on Church Street.

Waste transfer stations are sources of air pollution and present dangers to public health, including excessive noise, smells and increased traffic from trucks, according to the Community & Environmental Defense Services, a national networking group that helps citizens with zoning issues in cases with environmental or land use concerns.

Citizens’ Greener Evanston committee member Janet Alexander Davis, a lifelong Evanston resident, said she’s frustrated by the station’s exemption from newer zoning regulations.

“What I’ve learned over the years is that garbage is big business,” Davis said. “Today, it would even be illegal to (have the station). But yet, people have to live with something (like that).”

If a company asked to build an industrial property near a residential area now, Pratt said the city’s answer would be no.

Historical activism around the station

The station began as a small, family-owned garbage dump that handled mostly Evanston-generated solid waste. Then in 1984, the Illinois EPA established the site as a waste transfer station.

Davis said the station originally held strong connections with the community because the business used to employ more people from the neighborhood.

“It was family-owned, and the people were really nice,” Davis said. “They made good money. It was a business, and we left it alone.”

Since then, several international companies have managed the station: Onyx Waste Services, which became Veolia Environmental Services in 2006; and Advanced Disposal and WM, which acquired Advanced Disposal in 2020.

Under WM, Levitt said she doesn’t know anyone the station currently employs. Davis said she doesn’t think these international companies share the same commitment to the community.

“All over the world, they make a ton of money,” Davis said. “I doubt it will ever change — if it will ever move.”

Lisa Disbrow, WM’s director of government and public affairs for the Illinois-Missouri Valley area, said the station’s staff does not live in Evanston but in nearby communities in an email statement to The Daily.

Davis said activism surrounding the station increased when more white people moved into the 5th Ward near the waste transfer station.

When she began learning about the transfer station, Levitt said she spoke to locals who questioned her intentions as a white person moving into the neighborhood. Some wanted to keep the station because of its historical ties to the community, Levitt said.

Connecting to the community helped her understand the historical context, she said.

In about 2011, community group Evanston Neighbors United began picketing outside the station, Davis said.

“It was a small group of Black and white people who got together,” Davis said. “We went out. We met and talked about getting rid of the station.”

But legal battles between the station’s then-managing company Veolia and the city made activism efforts difficult, Levitt said.

Between June and September 2010, the city issued five citations against the station for strong garbage smells, only two of which Veolia had paid by 2012. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, fewer than half of all air pollution citations against Chicago businesses end up getting paid.

In 2011, Veolia filed a complaint against Evanston, alleging the city enacted illegal fees and conducted unreasonable inspections.

In more recent years, activism surrounding the station decreased due to these legal disputes, Levitt said.

“We were told we couldn’t block (the waste transfer station) from conducting business or we could be accused of tortious interference, which is recklessly interfering with business operations,” Levitt said. “They pulled out some of their corporate lawyers.”

Concerns about health risks persist

In 2019, the city conducted a six-month study to assess the air quality around the waste transfer station. The city partnered with U.S. EPA Region 5 — which serves Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin and 35 Indigenous tribes — and hired environmental consulting firm RHP Risk Management to run the study.

RHP Risk Management looked at 12 pollutants. As a preliminary study, the examination did not reach any conclusions but did note formaldehyde and nitric oxide was of greatest interest for follow-ups.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer classified formaldehyde as carcinogenic to humans in 2004. Nitric oxide is a respiratory irritant, according to the RHP Risk Management report.

In a 2021 follow-up email to the city, U.S. EPA

Region 5 recommended the city focus resources on assuring the implementation of best practices at the station.

But if the city wanted to evaluate concentrations of formaldehyde, the EPA recommended further sampling, which would cost $300 a sample, Pratt said.

Since the study, the city has not been able to implement any new policies, Pratt said.

“(The city doesn’t) have funding for this,” Pratt said. “We don’t have authority to change the practices of the waste transfer station in a tangible way because it’s the state that regulates an entity like that.”

Jo Ann Flores-Deter, who lives in a house behind the station, said the preliminary study wasn’t enough. The state and city need to conduct further investigation, Flores-Deter said, because the station is in a neighborhood — not on the outskirts of town.

Davis said the city needs to better explain the results of the study to residents and do further monitoring.

“Unless you have people who really understand that report and know what to do going forward, the report is just there,” Davis said.

Ald. Bobby Burns (5th) said industrial zones should be more distanced from residential neighborhoods as they are legally required now. That way, the business activity would have a less disruptive effect, he said.

On a semi-regular basis, Burns meets with community members to find solutions regarding the station, he said. Because of that, Davis said she is hopeful for the future.

“It’s always better to go together and organize likeminded people with similar concerns and issues,” Burns said. “Then, work collectively with the community to come up with solutions.”

jessicama2025@u.northwestern.edu

should graduate with advanced skills in writing and communication, and they should have had two serious engagements with … curriculum that focuses on issues of justice, power and equity.”

Eight years ago, students petitioned for a U.S.focused social inequalities and diversity curriculum in Weinberg, such as the new overlay. Finn said the committee added the complementing global course at the suggestion of faculty who had lived, studied and taught abroad.

The process of revising Weinberg requirements began in Winter Quarter 2016, when Weinberg Dean Adrian Randolph assembled an Ad Hoc Committee on Degree Requirements to review the current policies and survey faculty on potential changes. After more than a year of regular meetings, the committee submitted its final report in September 2017, proposing the foundational disciplines, overlays and a revisited writing requirement.

As part of the revised writing requirement, Fall Quarter first-year seminars will no longer require instructors to formally assess students’ writing skills at the end of the course.

Instead, students will take a first-year seminar of their choice, followed by a more writing-intensive seminar in the winter or spring quarters of their freshman year. This change aims to reduce the number of learning goals hinging on the Fall Quarter first-year seminar, according to the committee’s final report.

Faculty in the Cook Family Writing Program will spearhead developing and teaching these courses, according to the report. The seminars may also allow English Department graduate students to gain additional teaching experience.

“A noteworthy reaction to this proposal was that the proposed first-year seminar structure shifts primary responsibility for the writing-intensive first-year seminars from departments and programs to the Writing Program,” the report stated. “This was viewed by some as ceding intellectual ownership and potentially treating writing as an isolated form of competence.”

Comparative literature Prof. Peter Fenves said while the subject areas seem largely the same among the foundational disciplines, he was initially concerned by the reframing of distribution requirements as “foundational.”

Fenves added that separating the subject areas into distinct disciplines seemed to contradict Weinberg’s interdisciplinary nature.

“Foundational … doesn’t seem to me to be a chord with a lot of the ways in which professors here understand what they’re doing with students, even in the classes basically oriented towards verybeginning students in that field,” Fenves said. “In studying something like literature or art, if you are competent in the language, anyone can step into the most advanced writing or art.”

maiapandey@u.northwestern.edu

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Scan this QR code to watch ‘The business of garbage: The price of profit to residents dealing with the Church Street Waste Transfer Station,’ the complementary video by Daily Senior Staffer Katrina Pham.

Lakefill ice level indicates local climate change

By SERENA BROWN the daily northwestern @serenabrownn0

Though some may enjoy the warmer weather, Northwestern professors and students worry last month’s increase in temperature — rising about 8.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1981 on average — presents the impact of global climate change.

Biology Prof. Joseph Walsh has identified various mechanisms, such as rising carbon levels and minimum temperatures, that align Evanston’s shifting weather patterns with the changing climate.

According to Walsh, increasing carbon emissions in the atmosphere contribute to rising global temperatures. He said while carbon is a necessary part of the atmosphere, the current measure surpasses the safe amount of 300 parts per million.

“Unfortunately, now we are at 400 parts per million,” he said. “We need to stop putting (carbon) in the air and figure out how to deal with the extra heat we are trapping.”

Earth and planetary sciences Prof. Rosemary Bush identified the decreasing amount of ice in Lake Michigan as an indicator of local climate change. In 1977, 90% of the lake was covered in ice — in 2022, total coverage amounted to 13%.

“You can see massive amounts of variation (in weather patterns),” Bush said. “Next year, we (may) have a period where we have a lot of ice, but the general trend is less and less ice over the last decades.”

Bush said modern scientists look to the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum as a historical period that could predict the modern effects of global warming.

Occurring about 55 to 56 million years ago, the PTM was characterized by rapid environmental warming in which global temperatures rose by 5 to 8 degrees Celsius.

“(The warming) was probably caused by a release of carbon … probably an amount of carbon that was in the range of what we have in fossil fuel reserves in the ground today,” Bush said. “So if we burn all the coal, all the oil — which we are on track to do — we will release roughly the same amount as what was naturally released into the atmosphere during the PTM.”

While the PTM is the best example of a rapid climate change, Bush said today’s warming is occurring at an unprecedented speed.

Source: Weather Underground — Average temperatures in January in 1993 and 2023 in Evanston.

Walsh said he is disappointed with the U.S. government’s lack of reform regarding fossil fuels and energy use. He said improving battery and solar power production could limit stark environmental change.

“We need to shift what the bulk of energy use is,” Walsh said. “Through collecting energy from the sun and storing it, we will be less reliant on fossil fuels, which will help slow the effects of climate change.”

Fossil Free Northwestern, a student group that advocates for better environmental practices at

NU, also supports the shift toward cleaner energy. Weinberg senior and Fossil Free treasurer Jamie Gray said reducing the effects of climate change requires “a rethinking of social institutions.”

“If nothing else, it requires a mobilization of green technologies to move away from the entrenched fossil fuel structures,” Gray said. “On the immediate level, there is a lot that can be done to control carbon emissions, but on the long term level, it requires a re-evaluation of the way society works.”

Fossil Free accomplished its initial goal of having the University agree to divest in fossil fuels in 2022.

The organization has since moved to ensure the NU divests and has continued to push the University to take more environmentally-friendly steps.

Communication junior and Fossil Free member Jordan Muhammad said institutions need to increase their investment in sustainable solutions in addition to divesting from fossil fuels.

“Yes — it is great we are divesting, but we also need to be actively helping the (planet) because of how dire the situation is,” Muhammad said. serenabrown2026@u.northwestern.edu

First Mega Shabbat event since 2020 makes big comeback

By VIRGINIA HUNT

the daily northwestern

Hundreds of NU community members gathered in the Norris University Center Friday night to eat food and enjoy a musical performance at Northwestern’s first Mega Shabbat event since 2020.

Hillel invited students of all faiths and cultural backgrounds to the event, which featured optional Reform, Conservative and Orthodox services followed by mocktails, a performance by Jewish a capella group ShireiNU and a catered kosher dinner including chicken and challah, as well as vegan options.

Hillel has hosted Mega Shabbat at NU since 2012. The event organizers wanted this year’s event to be “better than ever” following a COVID-19 pandemic hiatus, said Mega Shabbat Logistics Chair and Weinberg senior Sloane Warner.

Shabbat is a traditional day of rest for those who practice Judaism. It begins at sundown every Friday and ends at sunset the following evening. The day of rest is frequently celebrated with a communal dinner, which Hillel hosts weekly.

For Warner, Shabbat is a time to refresh from the past week and prepare for the next, she said.

“It’s a time to be together and celebrate the community,” Warner said. “It is an opportunity for everyone to have a conversation with a new person.”

Hillel Executive Director Michael Simon said NU community members are constantly busy, which makes Shabbat a special time to take a pause.

Mega Shabbat started at NU as an opportunity for gathering and bringing joy to the Jewish community during a time of year between traditional Jewish holidays, Simon said.

Warner said she was initially unsure if the event would draw enough attendees to fill the second floor of Norris.

However, the event exceeded expectations and required a waitlist, she said.

Warner attributed the event’s success to the organization’s welcoming atmosphere and the desire of Hillel members to connect with friends through culture.

Bienen and Communication junior Allison Brook, who attended Friday’s event, said it can often be difficult to immerse herself on campus because she lives off-campus. But, Mega Shabbat and other Hillel events offer opportunities to be involved with the Jewish

community on campus, she said.

“I see so many people that I see around but that I don’t really know, as well as immediate friends,” Brook said. “It’s nice to destress after a rigorous academic time.”

Next year, Simon and the other event organizers hope to grow Mega Shabbat attendance and make it a place for all students to share an evening together,

he said.

Until then, Hillel will continue to host a weekly Shabbat open to all students.

“Anyone is welcome at Hillel, tonight and every other night,” Simon said.

virginiahunt2026@u.northwestern.edu

New political consulting club takes on local clients

By SEREN PARK the daily northwestern

Strategies by Students Consulting, a political consulting student organization at Northwestern, was founded in fall 2022 by Medill sophomore Sammy Dubin and Weinberg sophomore Oliver Goldman to create opportunities for students to build experience in political consulting.

“The central mission of the organization is to fill capacity and resource gaps for local campaigns while offering our members the opportunity to gain handson experience in political consulting,” Dubin said.

Dubin and Goldman noticed a lack of on-campus student groups that focused specifically on political consulting. They saw starting SBSC as a way to bridge the gap between consulting and political advocacy groups, Goldman said.

Although SBSC is not yet officially a student

organization, it hopes to apply and receive recognition by Spring Quarter to recruit more students with an interest in politics, according to its founders.

Members collaborate to offer pro bono services to political candidates and create individualized partnerships with local campaigns in Evanston and the greater Chicago area, including races for aldermanships, mayorships, city council seats and school board seats.

“We want to help meet the needs of campaigns, whatever they are, and elevate the campaign to the community,” Goldman said.

SBSC also helps students without political consulting experience by facilitating educational conversations and skill-oriented workshops with professionals across the political landscape.

Currently, the organization is working with two Chicago City Council candidates to help broaden their public presences: the first is Angela Clay, running in the 46th Ward, and the second is Oscar Sanchez, running in the 10th Ward.

SBSC’s work with the campaigns focuses on strategic communications consisting of digital fundraising campaigns, graphic design for social media and email campaigns.

Members of SBSC hold regular meetings with Clay’s campaign team and have organized two digital fundraising campaigns. According to Goldman, it has raised a total of $24,000, including a matching pledge of $10,000. They have also managed social media and email communications for Clay.

“I’ve always been a fan of watching good speeches, and being able to write a speech and then have a candidate present it has been really cool for me,” said Medill sophomore Gideon Pardo, vice president of client development. “Working with candidates and seeing how a campaign is run has been my biggest takeaway from SBSC, and collaborating with people on a team to build experience has also been very valuable.”

SBSC hopes that both clients will move on from

the municipal elections Feb. 28 to the runoff elections April 4.

Goldman said that after seeing its initial partnerships through and recruiting more members, the group will assess its work. The leadership team plans to deliver a structured educational programming sequence, including a series where professional political consultants will describe their past projects.

Eventually, SBSC aims to get involved with a higher volume of candidates and increase the potential of its impact on behalf of those campaigns, according to Goldman.

“As a student organization, we want to build skills and create a growing community of students at Northwestern who not only have an interest in the political consulting space but also have hard skills they can take into internship opportunities or even into their careers,” Goldman said.

serenpark2025@u.northwestern.edu

Graphic by Zoey Soh

Virginia Hunt/The Daily Northwestern Northwestern a capella group ShireiNU performed prior to dinner at Mega Shabbat on Friday.

NU topples No.1 Purdue in epic comeback victory

By ALEX CERVANTES

daily senior staffer @cervantespalex

It’s been 10 years since Northwestern played a game against the nation’s No. 1 team. The Wildcats (18-7, 9-5 Big Ten) entered Sunday’s contest 0-19 all-time in meetings against the country’s top dog.

But NU is winless against a No. 1 team no more. Propelled by a furious 17-3 comeback in the game’s final four minutes, the Cats secured the program’s first win over an AP No. 1 team, beating the Boilermakers (23-3, 12-3 Big Ten) 64-58.

“One of the reasons I wanted to come here was you have the opportunity to create historical things,” coach Chris Collins said. “How often in your life do you have an opportunity to create history?”

The Boilermakers boast the prospective National Player of the Year in junior center Zach Edey. They sit alone atop the Big Ten standings and are seemingly poised for a deep run in the NCAA Tournament — though nothing is a given in March.

Similar to Carmody, Collins entered the season in the hot seat. However, unlike his predecessor, Collins has the Cats in the thick of a contested Big Ten race.

Sunday’s clash between NU and Purdue had all the makings of a game which could mirror the result 10 years prior.

It didn’t.

“(The pregame message) was like, ‘Guys, we can do it,’” Collins said. “‘We’re gonna have to rebound the ball. We’re gonna have to fight. We’re gonna have to swarm Edey.’”

The X’s and O’s battle between the two teams was evident early, with the Cats throwing the kitchen sink at Edey, choosing to sacrifice perimeter defense in exchange for keeping the 7-foot-4-inch giant at relative bay.

Collins has opted to double opposing bigs in the post all season, and Sunday was no different. Initially guarded by one of NU’s two frontcourt mainstays — junior center Matthew Nicholson or graduate student forward Tydus Verhoeven — another defender was sent to wall up Edey. The plan was largely successful: Edey didn’t convert his first field goal attempt until the first half’s 7:29 mark.

Still, the Cats’ defense was conceding open looks for Purdue guards and wings, who took full advantage. By the undereight media timeout, the Boilermakers were 5-of-9 from distance.

During the final seven minutes of the half, Purdue’s offensive success tilted back in favor of its talisman. Edey rattled off nine points, five of which came from the free throw line, to carry the Boilermakers into halftime with a 37-30 advantage.

In many respects, NU was lucky the deficit wasn’t greater at the intermission.

Purdue missed all five of its three-point attempts to close the half, while offensively NU was struggling to get anything resembling scoring from players outside of Buie, who had 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting at halftime.

“My whole mentality— every game — is just to go win,” Buie said. “Play as hard as I can to support my teammates, try to make the right play.”

Upon returning to the court, the Cats put on an admirable defensive stand to limit the Boilermakers, but it long proved futile due to the lack of offensive production.

NU was plagued by severe shooting woes for nearly the entire second frame. There seemed to be a lid on the basket affecting Audige in particular.

“We need him to be aggressive,” Collins said of Audige’s early shooting struggles. “I’m okay with him and Boo (taking) 36 shots combined, that’s great. … Take good shots and take them with confidence, that’s the whole thing.”

With the offense so reliant on his and Buie’s production, Audige’s marked struggles from the field throughout the first 35 minutes seemed to be dooming NU’s upset bid. His pull-up jumpers and catchand-shoot triples seemed to catch every part of the rim, but never fell through.

Collins said Audige may be “a little wacky” at times, yet he remains confident in the selection of shots his lead guards were getting — they, Audige especially, just needed to see the ball go through the net.

“Shots were feeling good, but it just wasn’t going in,” Audige said. “Even though I had that stretch at the end, Boo kept us in it the whole time. He was really the man.”

Nevertheless, Buie’s Herculean effort kept the Cats within striking distance. When the mountain seemed too tall to climb — including the one in white, gold and black towering over everyone — it took just one shot from Audige to kickstart one of the most important closes in NU men’s basketball history.

Coming out of the final media timeout,

Purdue held a 55-47 lead and Audige was 2-of-11 from the field. Audige said he “couldn’t throw a rock into the ocean” up until that point. It didn’t matter.

Although junior guard Ty Berry’s three-point attempt careened off the rim, Buie corralled the rebound and found Audige open in the left corner. Audige buried the ensuing triple, then followed up that shot with a steal and dunk in transition. Welsh-Ryan Arena ignited in a cacophony of cheers as Boilermaker coach Matt Painter called timeout to calm his troops.

Audige’s five-point spurt was briefly broken by a pair of free throws from Purdue freshman guard Braden Smith. From then on, though, it was all Cats.

Receiving a handoff from Nicholson, Audige nailed the pull-up mid-range jumper to make it 57-54. Soon after, sophomore guard Brooks Barnhizer, whose playing time was mired by foul trouble for much of the game, canned two crucial free throws to trim the deficit to just one point with 2:33 to play. He then forced a turnover on Edey, the most pivotal of the big man’s six cough-ups.

Barnhizer’s impactful 60-second stretch closed with an assist to rival few

others in magnitude.

With the shot clock winding down, the Indiana native caught a baseline bounce pass from Audige. He paused for a brief moment before turning and shoveling a pass to Audige for a three-pointer. Bang.

In two minutes, Audige had poured in 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting. He went from ice cold to scorching hot, from the scapegoat to the hero.

Meanwhile, Buie filled up the stat sheet, finishing with a game-high 26 points, four rebounds, three assists, three blocks and three steals. NU’s defense was equally stellar, holding a top-10 offense to 58 points, 36.2% shooting from the field and 22.7% shooting from beyond the arc. It all coalesced into one of the greatest performances in program history.

“There’s always been a lot of talk about how we can’t close,” Collins said. “This is a different year, a different team and a great testament to our guys.”

History was made Sunday. And it was done on the backs of a team reinvigorated, a team inspired and just maybe, a team of destiny.

Alyce Brown/Daily Senior Staffer

Alyce Brown/Daily Senior Staffer

Alyce Brown/Daily Senior Staffer