The Daily Northwestern Tuesday, February 25, 2020
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Push for black history revamp gains traction Initiative aims to teach subject in more robust manner By MAIA SPOTO
the daily northwestern @maia_spoto
A bill calling for more robust instruction on black history in Illinois public schools is scheduled to be updated online with new amendments and co-sponsors Tuesday. The proposed legislation gained momentum last Wednesday, the same day as the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Foundation’s Black History Month Soiree. The amendments added to HB 4954 would ensure that the Illinois School Code includes the pre-enslavement period in black history curriculum. The bill would also expand education to cover the entirety of the civil rights movement, emphasize a broader range of African American contributions to United States culture and facilitate accurate conversations about slavery in the country. Meleika Gardner, a board member of Women Empowering Women in Local Legislation, led the pre-slavery education initiative, and state Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) is sponsoring the bill in the
Illinois House of Representatives, where it will soon be assigned to a committee. The bill gained two additional House co-sponsors at the conference and is pending sponsorship by state Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood). Gardner said black history education typically only covers “the cotton gin, slavery, Martin Luther King and hip-hop.” She said this tendency leads Americans to misunderstand the full scope of black identity and undervalue black communities’ contributions. “You need to know that black people, before we were enslaved, we had kingdoms,” Gardner said. “We were conquerors. We contributed medicine, technology, architecture, literature … It’s really important for black children to know where they really came from, and who they are. It will increase their own self-worth and self-value.” The bill would shift curriculums starting at the kindergarten through thirdgrade level because Gardner said she hopes to affect student perspectives at an early age. Growing up, she said she saw cultural programs like Hebrew school and Greek school empowering her friends, and she always wanted » See GARDNER, page 6
Joshua Hoffman/The Daily Northwestern
Ald. Thomas Suffredin (6th) at Monday’s City Council meeting. Suffredin asked if city manager applicant names or information could be disclosed via a FOIA request.
City manager timeline proposed GovHR USA discussed a potential schedule for recruitment with Council By JULIA RICHARDSON
the daily northwestern @juliaa_grace
GovHR USA presented City Council with a potential city manager recruitment schedule
during the Monday council meeting. The city has begun the process of finding a permanent city manager following the resignation of former city manager Wally Bobkiewicz in August 2019. While the city’s
plan regarding his replacement was in development, aldermen appointed Erika Storlie, formerly the assistant city manager, as interim city manager in early September. Heidi Voorhees, the coowner and president of GovHR,
initiated a council discussion about the proposed recruitment schedule, which is set to begin in a few weeks. Voorhees said the process would include both community » See GOVHR, page 6
Council: School can’t alter parking CNET editor talks
Saint Athanasius School not granted special parking benef its By GRANT LI
the daily northwestern @_grantli
Aldermen during Monday’s City Council meeting denied an ordinance that would have granted Saint Athanasius School special use approval to alter off-street parking. Council tied in a 4-4 vote, with Mayor Steve Hagerty abstaining from breaking the tie because his child attends the school. Nearby residents have complained that traffic during peak hours, like school pickup, has caused problems for the neighborhood. The traffic causes blockages along the public alleys near the school, residents said. Ald. Eleanor Revelle (7th), the residents and Saint Athanasius School had been working together to put together a solution to alleviate traffic, which resulted in the parking ordinance. The school submitted a proposal to raise the parking capacity of the 2503 Eastwood Ave. from 14 to 22 spaces. As a
technology, media Guglielmo reflected on how industry’s changed over time
By JORDAN MANGI
the daily northwestern @jordanrose718
Joshua Hoffman/The Daily Northwestern
Ald. Eleanor Revelle (7th). Revelle said residents have been working together to come up with a solution to the problem.
whole, the modifications would have provided12 additional parking spaces, and the north lot would have served as temporary parking in peak periods. The ordinance also said the north lot would be kept empty as a flexible play space with the
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
staff parking moving to the south lot. Kelsey Davis, one of the residents, said she has shared the alley space with the school. “They have blocked access to my garage in the afternoons for about 20 minutes a day,
five days a week, nine months a year, and they tell me it’s not too much of an inconvenience,” Davis said. “I would say it’s a big inconvenience.” Davis said she was against » See PARKING, page 6
As any journalist will tell you, technology has changed the way news and media companies operate. CNET editorin-chief Connie Guglielmo emphasized that in her talk on Monday at the McCormick Foundation Center. Prior to her five-year tenure at CNET, Guglielmo worked as a tech reporter for Bloomberg and Forbes. She spoke to around 15 Medill students and faculty about how she modernized CNET’s newsroom to better reflect the changing landscape of journalism. “In every single newsroom that I have worked (in), I had to learn new tools and new technologies. That is inevitable,” Guglielmo said. “Doctors, pilots, even baristas — everybody has to learn new tech as
tech evolves, and you have to be of the mindset that you’re willing and open to embrace it.” When Guglielmo came to CNET, a consumer tech news site that covers technology news and reviews products, the majority of their audience was men over 45. But in her role as editor-in-chief, she saw an opportunity to expand and diversify the site’s audience. She met with CNET’s editors, reporters and photojournalists, as well as the sales and marketing teams to determine first who their target audience was and then what changes could be made to reach that target audience more effectively. “(CNET) is a business — a for-profit business,” Guglielmo said. “Edit content is a product, and we had to get people thinking about that.” In discussing the steps she took to modernize CNET, Guglielmo emphasized the importance of communicating analytics generated by the » See GUGLIELMO, page 6
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