The Daily Northwestern Friday, February 17, 2017
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Wildcats continue skid, fall to Hawkeyes
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Cilento calls for application waiver ASG president signs statement to cut applicant cost By MATTHEW CHOI
daily senior staffer @matthewchoi2018
Jeffrey Wang/Daily Senior Staffer
Dawes Elementary, 440 Dodge Avenue, is one of 10 elementary schools in Evanston/Skokie School District 65. A report released last month showed some progress, but consistent racial disparities, in the district.
D65 report shows racial disparity By RYAN WANGMAN
the daily northwestern @ryanwangman
A report released by Evanston/Skokie School District 65 last month cited overall progress in academic performance but persistent racial disparities in student achievement. The “achievement and accountability” report analyzed student achievement in the 2015-16 school year, which marked the first year of implementation of District 65’s
five-year Strategic Plan. The plan emphasizes a focus on high quality teaching and learning, financial sustainability and family and community engagement. The report highlighted that more District 65 students are meeting annual academic growth targets. In just two years, the percentage of students whose academic progress meets or exceeds national averages is up 8 percent in math and 9 percent in reading, the report said. District 65 Superintendent Paul Goren said students making expected gains signals that what
Prof dies after 40 years at NU
Friends remember McCormick Prof Edwin Rossow By CATHERINE KIM
the daily northwestern @ck_525
Civil and environmental engineering Prof. emeritus Edwin Rossow died earlier this month at the age of 80. He had taught at the McCormick School of Engineering since 1965. Rossow died unexpectedly Feb. 5 after more than 40 years at Northwestern. Throughout his career, he was known for his personal dedication to his students, said Prof. Raymond Krizek, who worked with Rossow in the civil and environmental engineering department. Though he was a successful researcher, Rossow’s true passion was in teaching, Krizek said. Much of Rossow’s support
for his students came from outside of the classroom, he said. Students would often come to Rossow with personal problems, and he was always willing to listen and give advice, Krizek said. “There’s more to student interactions than just the classrooms and homework,” he said. “Sometimes students need somebody to talk to. He was always there for that kind of stuff as well, beyond just school and classes.” His teaching and research specialized in computer methods for analyzing and designing structures, which are used in designing steel and assessing the behavior of reinforced concrete. Prof. Karen Chou, who was one of Rossow’s students for her graduate and doctoral studies before becoming one of his fellow professors, described Rossow as a friend, mentor and father figure. Having lost her father when she was 14, Chou said » See ROSSOW, page 6
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the district is doing is bringing some success. He said he believes tests give the district a transparent measure of how well students are doing, as well as what specific areas the district can look at to make improvements. “I’m not going to shy away from setting the standard at the high bar that we want all our children to achieve, especially our kids of color,” Goren said. “(We need to be) using the types of tools that are out there to be able to give us some sense of where we are and where we’re going.”
The report assesses achievement of students across five racial groups. According to the report, the district “has more work to do” to promote equity, citing a goal to increase the percentage of all student subgroups in meeting college readiness benchmarks. Over the past year, only black and white students made increases in reading, and none of the five groups made increases in math, according to the report. To eliminate the achievement » See REPORT, page 6
Associated Student Government President Christina Cilento signed on to a statement published Wednesday calling for colleges and universities to remove application fees for firstgeneration and low-income students. The statement, titled “No Apologies Initiative,” was written by Viet Nguyen — student body president at Brown University and director of 1vyG, an organization dedicated to first-generation students in the Ivy League — and urges the elimination of application fees for first-generation and low-income students for the 2017-18 academic year. Student body presidents of all eight Ivy League schools, in addition to those of Stanford and University of Chicago, signed the statement. The statement describes Nguyen’s personal experiences applying to schools while unable to pay for application fees. Though Nguyen appealed to the schools he applied to and got the fees waived, the process was “humiliating” and “unnecessary,”
the statement said. “Even with the availability of waivers, it takes a certain level of self-advocacy and knowledge of the educational system to know to even ask for them, knowledge that is inherently less accessible for those who are the first in their families to go to college,” it said. According to a White House study cited in the statement, application fees are one of the main deterrents for low-income students from applying to certain schools. Schools such as Bowdoin College already waive application fees automatically for all first-generation students and students on financial aid, according to the statement. Cilento said Nguyen reached out to ask her to sign on to the statement. The letter’s mission of making college more financially accessible mirrored much of Cilento’s work at Northwestern, she said. Cilento met with Patricia Telles-Irvin, vice president for student affairs, and University President Morton Schapiro in January to discuss ways to increase socioeconomic diversity on campus and support for low-income students. The University’s work to increase socioeconomic diversity on campus has resulted in the percentage of students who are eligible for Pell Grants, a federal » See STATEMENT, page 6
NU acquisition raises questions in city By NORA SHELLY
daily senior staffer @noracshelly
Northwestern is in the process of acquiring a building at 1840 Oak Ave., raising questions over whether the building should be subject to property taxes. NU doesn’t pay taxes for its buildings, but in a letter sent to Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl and City Council members, Executive Vice President Nim Chinniah said the University would make an annual voluntary payment of $350,000 to the city instead. Cook County Assessor records indicate that the yearly property tax payable at 1840 Oak for 2015 was $275,860, according to council documents. Bobkiewicz said there are often questions when NU acquires buildings in the city. “There’s concern that a building previously on the property tax rolls and then is no longer on the property tax rolls, that is … no longer income for the city of Evanston through tax dollars,” he said.
The building is located in a “Research Park” location established by the University and the city in the 1980s. The city created a for-profit corporation with the University to perform functions in the area in an effort to keep universityrelated businesses in Evanston. According to council documents, the building is in a
special zoning area near downtown. It is bounded to the south by Davis Street, to the north by Emerson Street, by CTA tracks to the east and by Chicago Avenue to the west. The land in the area was to remain on the tax rolls, according to the council documents. It is unclear whether the agreement is still in effect,
and city and University officials are working to figure out the issue, Bobkiewicz said. Ald. Judy Fiske (1st) — who originally asked staff to look at the issue — said she would prefer to keep the property on the tax roll. “Paying the property tax is » See BUILDING, page 6
Jeffrey Wang/Daily Senior Staffer
Northwestern is in the process of buying a building at 1840 Oak Avenue. The acquisition is raising some questions on whether the building should be kept on the tax roll.
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