The Daily Northwestern — March 3, 2020 by The Daily Northwestern

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Fossil Freeze

In letter, TGS students demand better treatment By YUNKYO KIM

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Divestment movements call for institutions to eliminate their stocks, bonds or other investments in certain industries. Their roots extend to issues beyond climate change. Many divestment movements have started on college campuses. One prominent campaign that took hold in the 1980s — aiming to end apartheid in South Africa — eventually caused about 150 educational institutions to divest from companies that conducted business in the country. Fossil Free, the overarching international fossil fuel divestment campaign, cites the South Africa movement as a clear example of divestment campaigns’ potential success. The campaign often argues fossil fuel industry divestment is necessary, not just due to the greenhouse gas emissions traceable to fossil fuels, but also because those companies discourage government action on climate change. “The reason why we haven’t seen the type of climate action that we need to see today is because fossil fuel companies basically have a stranglehold on politicians,” said Richard Brooks, a campaign coordinator for 350.org, which launched the international Fossil Free campaign in 2012. “They have too much lobbying power, they have too

An anonymous coalition representing marginalized and underrepresented students of The Graduate School circulated a letter this Monday, petitioning the University to remove and replace dean Teresa Woodruff and increase funding and staff for the TGS Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The letter further calls for the school to financially support conference expenses and organizations serving students of underrepresented identities, extend health insurance and on-campus care services to children of graduate students and support advocacy efforts, among other demands. “TGS has placed greater burden on underrepresented graduate students to navigate inaccessible and inequitable campus environments and has shirked responsibility in perpetuating harm,” the petition stated. “(It) has further marginalized students who are already historically marginalized on campus.” Organizers of the coalition, composed students from a range of backgrounds, told The Daily that a public petition was the last resort. About 200 people signed the petition as of publication. In a Tuesday email to The Daily, Woodruff said she is “happy with progress” TGS has made and with its dedication to diversity and inclusion. “At the same time, I acknowledge and believe there is more work to be done. We will continue to advocate to senior leadership on behalf of the needs of our diverse graduate students and postdoctoral trainees,” Woodruff wrote. “In addition, I am committed to partnering with our graduate student-led Graduate Leadership & Advocacy Council and our graduate student affinity group leaders to address specific needs and concerns.” The dean added that she would be interested in engaging in dialogues on the issue. A student? leading the coalition said this petition is the last resort following

» See DIVEST, page 4

» See LETTER, page 7

Trustees, student activists at impasse after divestment decision By EMMA EDMUND

daily senior staffer @emmaeedmund

It was below freezing. Wind blew flurries of snow everywhere, rendering the coats and gloves students wore relatively useless. But the ugly weather did not stop a group of approximately 50 students from Fossil Free Northwestern from gathering in front of the Technological Institute, unfurling banners with phrases like “Northwestern is complicit in climate injustice.” “Divest or death,” another sign read. “Which side are you on?” The students chanted almost non-stop, including a back-and-forth “Divest now!” and a stark warning to the Northwestern community: “Disclose, divest, or it will be our death!” On Feb. 13 — Fossil Fuel Divestment Day — students at over 50 universities across the country called for their schools to divest their holdings from fossil fuel companies. None of Northwestern’s Fossil Free members knew that a week later, the school’s Board of Trustees would refuse to act on their demands. The board rejected Fossil Free Northwestern’s divestment proposal calling on the University to divest its holdings from any of the top 100 coal and oil and gas companies across the world. The trustees wrote that the proposal did not meet the board’s criteria for divestment as outlined in the Statement on Investment Responsibility. The decision came over a year after students first created and submitted the proposal to the Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility, a 10-member group that advises the board’s Investment Committee on socially and ethically responsible investing. Throughout the entire decision-making process, Fossil Free Northwestern members demanded ACIR and the board take action to remedy trustees’ lack of communication and transparency, as well as the excessive length of

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their deliberations. After over a year of effort yielding no commitments from trustees and ongoing frustrations with contacting them, Fossil Free Northwestern still finds itself left out in the cold.

”It splipped through the cracks”

The Fossil Free movement at Northwestern isn’t new — over the last eight years, its scope has evolved. In November 2012, students formed DivestNU to lobby trustees to immediately divest from the coal industry and eventually the entire fossil fuel industry, which includes oil and natural gas. Upon the group’s formation, members circulated a petition calling on the Board of Trustees to divest from the University’s coal holdings. The group demonstrated widespread support for the petition after a referendum on the 2015 Associated Student Government presidential election ballot asking whether students supported coal divestment passed with 74 percent of the vote. Despite student support, the board voted against coal divestment without ever hearing a proposal or presentation, notifying DivestNU of the decision in 2015. Near the time of that rejection, the organization rebranded, and Fossil Free Northwestern was born the following month. One of Fossil Free Northwestern’s earliest demonstrations came that November, when the group organized a protest outside of a Board of Trustees meeting in response to their vote. “There’s a reason coal is for the naughty,” DivestNU wrote in a Letter to the Editor published on the eve of Fossil Fuel Divestment Day in February 2015. “The NU community can no longer sit back and let the Board disregard its values when it comes to coal divestment,” the organization continued. “We need to see action by the Board of Trustees and be a part of their decisions. Tomorrow, the entire globe will be behind us. We hope you will be too.” T. Bondurant French (Kellogg ‘76), who still serves on the board, told students who protested at the 2015 board meeting that Northwestern had a negligible holding

in coal plants. Students, however, said they could not find a complete list of Northwestern’s direct and indirect investments. Though Fossil Free Northwestern still existed and held occasional demonstrations, operations decreased significantly for nearly four years. Over time, the group has expanded to advocate for environmental and climate justice. “It was a very established club, and then because of the various bureaucratic setbacks, people graduated, it slipped through the cracks,” said Communication senior and director of marketing and media for Fossil Free Northwestern Grace Dolezal-Ng.

The origin of divestment

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Group weighs news ways to file police complaints By JULIA RICHARDSON

the daily northwestern @juliaa_grace

Evanston Police Chief Demitrous Cook and Sergeant Aaron Wernick reported new ways residents may file police complaints to the Human Services Committee on Monday. Cook began the presentation by informing the committee that the Evanston Police Department had completed expansion of the complaint filing process options. “We did that because people felt unsafe coming into a police department,” Cook said. “They felt inhibited.” Although the complaint process remains the same after the complaint is filed, residents are now able to file complaints by dialing 311 or by filing either at the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center or online. Cook also reminded the committee that the department is considering new members for the review board, and the complaints mentioned in Monday’s report would be filed once the board members are selected. He also reassured the committee that the police department would inform Evanston residents about their options for complaints as transparently as possible. Ald. Cicely Fleming (9th) expressed concerns about a few of the complaints included in the report, which were filed in October 2019. The first complaint she brought up pertains to a woman’s claims that the accused detective gave her a citation, rather than a warning, because a passenger in her vehicle refused to identify herself.

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Ald. Cicely Fleming (9th). Fleming expressed concerns pertaining to complaints included in the Human Services Committee police report.

According to the complaint register, the woman alleged that the detective displayed intimidating and discriminatory behavior, and she accused the detective of racial profiling. Although the register reported four rules that the detective had potentially violated, Fleming asserted that there was another violation not

mentioned that pertains to the police officers’ knowledge of the laws. An officer stated that a resident was obligated to show identification by law, which is incorrect. “I think our officers need to know the policies and the law, and this officer stated very clearly in the video that this was not the law,” Fleming said.

news release. The 44-year-old man cut off another driver, a 30-year-old Evanston man, while driving that morning. In response, the 30-year-old man honked at him, which instigated the altercation, Evanston Police Cmdr. Brian Henry said. After he saw the gun, Henry said the 30-year-old man called EPD.

According to the news release, officers located the 44-year-old man during a traffic stop based on his vehicle’s description in the east alley of 820 Foster St. He consented to a vehicular search, and EPD found a handgun and an extended magazine in the car. The man did not have a Concealed Carry License, but did have

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Wernick responded to Fleming by saying that her concern was addressed in the potential violations of other rules, which the woman already reported the detective had allegedly violated. Fleming disagreed. The second concern Fleming expressed pertained to a complaint where a man arrested by EPD claimed his handcuffs were too tight, to which officers responded with, “Stop fussing and we’ll loosen them for you.” However, even when the man complied with these requests, officers failed to loosen the handcuffs, despite the fact that at one point, there were reportedly four to six officers on the scene. “I wish I would’ve seen more de-escalation on the part of our officers, not just the very basic, ‘I need you to calm down,’” Fleming said. “That clearly wasn’t working for this gentleman in this situation. I would have been more pleased to see that we had some more tools we could’ve used to diffuse the situation.” Fleming also questioned why these complaints were just now being addressed when they had been filed in October. Cook said they had been completed months ago, and was not sure why they had not gotten to the committee until now. Fleming suggested that complaints be available to review by City Council, so that the complaints could be addressed in a more timely fashion. “I think it’s imperative that people are going to have trust in our complaint system,” she said. “That they have a thorough investigation, but then they also have us discuss them or know that they’ve been heard in a respectful manner.” juliarichardson2023@u.northwestern.edu

a Firearms Owner Identification card. The man was arrested on counts of aggravated assault with a firearm and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. He has currently been released on bond and has a court date set for March 30. — Jacob Fulton

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Students push for body acceptance By ARIANNA CARPATI

the daily northwestern @ariannacarpati1

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Last week was Northwestern’s Body Acceptance Week, an annual celebration full of events and educational resources about healthy relationships with food and one’s body. As part of that week, students reflected on the importance of body positivity and their experiences with it in college. McCormick freshman Charlotte Oxnam started a blog in December 2019 called Cue the Curves, a forum where plus-size girls can ask questions, share advice and find links to brands that sell stylish plus-size clothing. Oxnam came up with the idea for the blog when she was a senior at her boarding school and heard others in the halls speaking negatively about their bodies. She was also frustrated by the lack of knowledge of where to find plus-size clothing for young women and wanted to create a central location for those resources. In her time thus far at Northwestern, Oxnam has had a range of experiences with body positivity, especially in Greek life. “The first few frat parties are a little uncomfortable,” Oxnam said. “People are sharing clothes, and you’re like, ‘I can’t share clothes, everyone is in crop-tops,’” she said. “The style around party culture can feel really isolating to people who aren’t really comfortable in their bodies.” She added, however, that her friends have been very supportive of her, and she has found a comfortable community in Greek life. Oxnam said she, and others, should do what makes them happy — which sometimes may be choosing not to enter spaces that make them feel uncomfortable. The online platform differs from a physical space like a club because it allows people to ask questions and walk away when they want to. “It’s great when a place is already diverse; it’s hard to be that first person to step into the space and say, ‘I will suck it up and deal with it and push back,’” she said. “This site is like my way of doing

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that remotely.” The online aspect of the blog also allows people to form a community no matter where they are, which was important to Oxnam because there may not always be more than one or two plus-size girls in some communities. SESP freshman Emi Silverstein sees possible signs of pressure to conform to certain beauty standards, but feels people are generally supportive of promoting body acceptance. Silverstein said people who look a certain way are admired by some, but that few people would call someone out for not fitting certain standards. She said there is a strong workout culture at NU, and many people do group fitness classes multiple times a week. Particularly, there is an expectation that girls will work out more and attempt to achieve beauty standards after a break-up. “There’s a lot more to feeling good than working out and eating well,” she said. Communication freshman Clay Lawhead said the general public has made a lot of progress in removing insensitive terminology around body

image and promoting body acceptance, but there is still more to be done. Lawhead said he often sees men who are more fit and muscular than he is in the media, prompting him to feel the need to work to attain that standard rather than accepting his own body. “I can acknowledge people are beautiful no matter what standards they’re held up to, but myself, I don’t feel confident in myself,” he said. Lawhead thinks the NU community could help support body positivity by hanging more posters around campus reminding people they are beautiful no matter what they look like. “I’m not very muscular, and seeing men (in the media) who are more fit and have bigger arms and bigger legs, it makes me think ‘oh, let’s go to the gym, I can achieve that, and be beautiful,’ but it’s not all about the actual working out — it’s about seeing yourself as beautiful,” he said. “It’s not talked about (in) the media, internalizing what makes yourself beautiful.” ariannacarpati2023@u.northwestern.edu

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DIVEST

From page 1 much political power and they have too much money.” Over the past few years, the divestment movement has picked up speed. 350.org estimates that nearly 1,200 institutions worldwide, from universities to faith-based organizations to the entire Irish government, have committed to some form of fossil fuel divestment. Some, however, question the success of divestment movements. Over time, many have pointed to an economic study published in 1999, which found that political pressure exerted by divestment campaigns on South Africa did not actually harm such companies’ economic prospects. Brooks said the real marker of success is policy change that supports climate protection and diminishes the fossil fuel industry’s influence. “It’s not so much about hurting the stock value of fossil fuel companies — that’s not the point of the fossil fuel divestment campaign,” Brooks said. “The point of it is to remove their political power.”

Stop, drop and roll

After four years of relative inaction, Fossil Free Northwestern reemerged in 2019, submitting its most recent divestment proposal to ACIR. The committee recommended the proposal for board consideration in June. Four students authored the proposal,

TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2020 which primarily calls upon the University to divest from any of the top fossil fuel companies. The proposal also demanded a “stop, drop and roll” technique where Northwestern stops future investments in fossil fuel companies, drops existing investments over a five-year period and rolls out a reinvestment plan in non-fossil fuel companies, particularly those with an emphasis on renewable energy. “The specter of climate change is no longer looming; it is upon us,” the proposal read. The authors of the proposal argued that University divestment is necessary because of climate change and its associated human rights costs. They cited $45.4 million in direct investments in oil and gas companies, and an additional $3.9 million in coal companies. The proposal also pointed to the University’s acknowledgement of climate change as a growing threat. A year after the students submitted the proposal to ACIR, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the planet experienced its hottest January in recorded history. Scientists also found the rate of sea level rise is accelerating along the U.S. coasts, with the highest rates of increase along the Gulf Coast. The divestment proposal also linked climate change with disproportionate threats to disadvantaged populations, noting that countries and individuals who use the least amount of fossil fuel are projected to feel the effects

of fossil fuel emissions first. “By investing in fossil fuels, Northwestern is thus investing in environmental injustice,” the proposal stated, “and in an industry which directly poses a threat to the right to life, food, health, education and to an adequate standard of living.” The proposal called on Northwestern to stop discourse with fossil fuel companies and made the case for the economic and symbolic impact divestment would achieve. In addition to the proposal, Fossil Free Northwestern also uploaded a petition to Change.org garnering more than 1,300 alumni, faculty, staff and student signatures urging divestment. The petition demanded a public statement from the board about its deliberations, a timeline regarding the decision-making process, a “yes” vote on the divestment proposal and an effort to involve Fossil Free Northwestern in the implementation and negotiation process.

The Investment Committee’s rejection

On Feb. 20, the Board of Trustees’ Investment Committee formally rejected the divestment proposal, saying it did not meet the criteria set forth in the board’s Statement on Investment Responsibility. However, Fossil Free Northwestern’s proposal was submitted to the board about five months before those criteria were adopted. The board said the endowment should not be a vehicle for furthering social and political agendas, and that divestment is usually an “ineffective” way to exercise investment responsibility. The investment responsibility statement, however, did not completely eliminate divestment as a potential path the University could take in the future — though the board has now rejected fossil fuel divestment twice. “The Trustees recognize that, on very rare occasions, a continued investment may be so morally reprehensible, such as investments that directly support slavery, apartheid or genocide, that such investment would necessitate the University’s divestment,” the statement said. Per the board, fossil fuel divestment does not meet those standards. According to their response to the divestment proposal, excluding entire industries from investment is “detrimental” to the Investment Committee’s stewardship of the endowment. “This ensures intergenerational fairness, whereby financial support for both current and future Northwestern students, professors and staff is preserved,” the response said. The trustees did write in their response that they incorporate “environmental, social and governance” principles into their decision-making, and that they have proactively sought investments in areas such as cleaner technology and sustainability. They also mentioned that they are actively limiting investments in areas such as thermal coal. Audrey DeBruine (Medill ‘19), a co-author of the Fossil Free Northwestern proposal, said she wasn’t particularly surprised the trustees rejected it. Still, she cited current action on fossil fuel divestment from peer institutions and heightened awareness of the effects of climate change as evidence of the issue’s urgency. If there is a time to divest, she said, it is now. She added that she never felt like the board seriously

considered fossil fuel divestment as an issue. “When we’d come previously with proposals, some of the feedback we got was not on the idea of fossil fuels — it was like, ‘you’re not economists,’ essentially,” DeBruine said. “We know we’re not economists. We’re not trying to go in and say, ‘OK, divest this money and do X, Y and Z with it,’ because that’s clearly not something that we’re capable of doing.That was always kind of frustrating and annoying, and it was just sort of belittling.”

”Students’ voices don’t matter”

Throughout the entire proposal process, members of Fossil Free Northwestern have remained frustrated with the trustees’ inaction and transparency about the divestment proposal. “We’re just waiting because we’ve done everything we’re supposed to,” said Weinberg sophomore Olivia Stent, Fossil Free Northwestern’s director of special events, before the trustees released their decision. “We’ve had all this campus support, we’ve had faculty support, we’ve had ACIR support, and we’ve been waiting for months and months.” These frustrations reached a boiling point in November, at ACIR’s first open meeting of the 201920 academic year. Over 100 undergraduate students attended, a significantly higher number than typical meetings. Communication senior and Fossil Free Northwestern member Ross Patten spoke on behalf of NU’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, another student organization calling for divestment that has expressed discontent with the board. “We are deeply concerned with the lack of transparency surrounding ACIR and the Board’s Investment Committee, the lack of proposals put through and the lack of necessary investment knowledge available to us as students,” Patten said at the meeting. These concerns continued into Winter Quarter. While Fossil Free Northwestern listed some of the University’s direct fossil fuel investments in its proposal, Dolezal-Ng said the University makes it extremely difficult to find information on indirect investments. She added the board should hold itself accountable for being transparent with the Northwestern community about the endowment. Dolezal-Ng also said getting in contact with the board is extremely difficult, and Fossil Free Northwestern has neither knowledge of when the board meets nor a direct line of communication with the trustees. “It’s frustrating to feel, as a student who pays a lot of money in tuition and is going to have a degree from this school, that I as a student have no agency in the broader institution that is Northwestern University,” Dolezal-Ng said. She added it can often feel like the burden is on students to demand change at the University, and that doing so comes with a lot of sacrifice. J. Landis Martin, the chair of the board, told The Daily in a February interview that trustees consider the same issues that Fossil Free Northwestern has raised. He said other universities’ moves to divest and the heightened impact of climate change factored into the board’s discussions — though they arrived at a different conclusion than those universities and the student activists. For students, the long process often felt disheartening and indicative of the trustees’ disconnect from the student body. “It’s frustrating to feel that students’ voices don’t

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TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2020 matter,” Dolezal-Ng said. “This is students’ time, students’ labor, that students are doing because they care about it. For that to not only be ignored, but it feels sometimes actively repressed, is really frustrating.”

”We were told we would probably have a response before today”

The vague timeline around the board’s decision heightened students’ frustrations around communication with the trustees. When ACIR held its second open meeting of the year on Feb. 11, Fossil Free Northwestern and other students were there. They demanded a timeline that would outline when they could expect an official decision and asked for more information about the board’s deliberation process. ACIR chair Philip Greenland said he had asked the board five days prior about a possible decision, and their response gave him reason to believe he would have one in time for the meeting. “We were told that we would probably have a response before today,” Greenland said at the Feb. 11 meeting. The decision came nine days later. In response to students’ concerns about communication, Martin said he hoped to see the issue alleviated. “I am sorry that people feel that we’re hard to communicate with,” Martin said. “I hope that we can cure that problem. Not everybody is always going to be happy, so I don’t expect that this will necessarily make everyone happy, by any means, but I’m certainly available and I know that the administration can reach us.” SESP senior Jonathan Sun, one of two undergraduate members of ACIR, said the committee doesn’t take an “active role” in putting pressure on trustees and has a limited ability to influence their decisions. One way students and faculty could try to push for a more open channel of communication, he said, could be writing a proposal to the board asking for clearer expectations to be set. Greenland said ACIR is in some ways still a new committee. Fossil Free Northwestern’s divestment proposal was the first one to be submitted to the committee. “We’re still trying to find our way, to some extent,” Greenland said. “I do not think that future proposals are going to take this long, because I think that the committee will be able to benefit from the fact that we’ve learned how to do this.”

Disrupting the status quo

While Northwestern will keep its holdings in fossil fuel companies, other schools like Georgetown University have announced plans to partially or completely

divest from fossil fuels. The trend is even more stark overseas — slightly over 50 percent of the public universities in the United Kingdom have committed to divest from fossil fuels. In the past few years, fossil fuel divestment movements have picked up in frequency and intensity. During the 2019 Harvard-Yale football game, student organizers from both schools made national news when they occupied the field at halftime in protest. Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard campaign leader Caleb Schwartz said students chose to occupy the football field at halftime to “disrupt that status quo.” “The whole action was grounded in the belief that we are living in a climate crisis right now,” Schwartz said. “It’s very evident, at least to our generation of younger people, and even to older generations our professors represent, that we need to take action. After eight years of campaigning with no movement from the University, it’s clear that the status quo is not working for us as students.” According to Alyssa Lee, who directs a training and strategy hub for campus divestment movements called Divest Ed, having a large support base composed primarily of students is the key to a successful campaign. “Divestment, at least in the U.S., is a really difficult campaign to run,” Lee said. “They’re trying to get the university to change an investment practice that they mostly are resistant to because it requires them to put out a political statement around the use of fossil fuels and the profitability of that industry.” Beyond a large support base, Lee said having a strongly stated goal and a long-term strategy can also aid campaigns’ success. She added that six years is a common amount of time for fossil fuel divestment campaigns to gain traction. Some smaller universities take less time, as do

schools with environmentally oriented leaders. “A lot of campaigns started in 2012, like Northwestern,” she said. “The reason why (divestment) might happen more now is that there’s a lot more backing for divestment in the mainstream.” Fossil Free Northwestern has taken hope from the rise of universities divesting from fossil fuels. “It’s really helpful to know that it isn’t just Northwestern, it’s a movement with a lot of other schools at the same caliber,” Stent, the Fossil Free Northwestern director of special events, said. “It’s especially important because Northwestern’s endowment is larger than some small countries’ GDPs.”

Looking ahead

Weinberg sophomore and Fossil Free Northwestern vice president Sarah Fernandez said at the Feb. 11 ACIR meeting she understands the perspective that the campus movement is just a group of students trying to tackle a multi-faceted issue with people in control of a multi-billion dollar endowment. But, she said, each day Northwestern doesn’t divest, it remains complicit in the destruction of the planet and environmental injustice.To make sure students are aware of the nuanced global effects of climate change, Fossil Free Northwestern also works to educate the Northwestern community. A few hours after their diein, members of Fossil Free Northwestern led a teach-in that focused on the discriminatory impact of fossil fuel investments in marginalized communities. The organization has made it clear that it will not stop fighting for divestment, even though the board rejected the proposal. Dolezal-Ng said they will continue to incorporate alumni and faculty, and also expand student involvement. Fossil Free Northwestern members say they will continue trying to promote awareness about climate change despite the board’s lack of support. “The fact of the matter is, our planet is dying, and I feel stupid having to say that, because everybody knows it,” Fernandez said at the Feb. 11 meeting. “I’m frustrated because they have enough privilege to be able to ignore the fact that the planet is dying, that humans are dying, but other people don’t, and other people are living that reality every day. Us as students are trying to advocate for those people, and it’s incredible how there’s not much more attention to this.” emmaedmund2022@u.northwestern.edu

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Commit to stop invalidating humanities majors LAURISA SASTOQUE

DAILY COLUMNIST

Humanities majors often experience a phenomenon of expected multidimensionality. When a college student reveals that they are majoring in STEM, no further questions are asked. However, the disclosure of a humanities major is often followed by a prolonged silence that can only be broken by the introduction of the line: “oh, and economics” or “and (insert name of a conventionally employable field).” This roots from the overarching assumption that humanities fields only exist as companionates. By this, I do not mean to demean the value of interdisciplinary efforts, but instead to emphasize the recurring idea that the choice to pursue a humanities major exists merely as a source for intellectual satisfaction and not as a life-orienting vocation. Majors like history and philosophy are appreciated for their ability to instill critical

thinking and a conceptual foundation for the practice of other fields, like politics, for example, but they are widely overlooked as standalone disciplines. Their applications are considered limited to the reproduction of their instruction in educational settings. Highly passionate students feel the need to complete a second major in a conventional field because of the constantly reaffirmed narrow-minded scope of the labor market. Few will say that it is invalid to pursue your passion, but many will affirm that expecting to make a living out of it is. I will not venture to state that the gap in starting salaries and employment availability between humanities and STEM majors is a myth, because that would be largely false. Instead, I argue that this phenomenon stems from a shared notion both in general opinion and in the labor force that there are very limited paths towards a useful skill set. Majors with direct career paths or widespread associated industries are the ones regarded as most useful, and they are probably the first to come to mind when the question “what are the best college majors?” arises. Although these majors provide

students with a solid technical preparation for a professional setting, they are by no means the only path to attaining the most important skills associated with successful laboring. Communication skills, analytical thinking and organizational skills are among the most important competencies required for a large percentage of the industry positions in the labor market. A major in the humanities is highly effective in developing these, most likely significantly more than other major categories. The differentiation of humanities majors, therefore, resides in the replacement of technical skills deemed more useful and “difficult” by a conceptual basis specific to the field of concentration. Even though technical skills acquired in career-oriented majors like business or engineering are useful in the labor setting, they shouldn’t exist in contraposition to the scholarly formation that provides humanities majors with skills equally as essential for fulfilment of industry roles. The truth is, no major could ever completely prepare someone for the workforce, because the transition from an academic

setting to a practical setting always comes with a learning curve. But we shouldn’t value a certain background over another, because a college major is not a measure of a person’s ability to learn or general competency. People tend to ignore the versatility of fields, and in doing that, they project a belief that the pursuit of a passion is invalid in its “real-life” applications. But “real life” is much more complex than the department in which you decide to acquire your skills for less than 5% of your lifetime. It is thus necessary to provide a skilloriented approach to professionalism and to encourage students to pursue a major in fields that genuinely interest them, instead of acting in fear of not choosing the most direct path towards an economically-feasible career. Laurisa Sastoque is a Weinberg Freshman. She can be contacted at laurisasastoque2023@u. northwestern.edu. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to opinion@dailynorthwestern.com. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.

On the price of finally reaching peace in Afghanistan TANISHA TEKRIWAL

ASST. OPINION EDITOR

The weekend brought many important developments: two Democratic candidates shockingly dropped their presidential bids, the coronavirus spread, and the Afghanistan Peace Talks held in Doha over a period of 18 months finally concluded. The parties involved — delegations from the United States delegation and the Taliban (the Afghan government and nonTaliban representatives were notably absent from talks) — reached some important agreements. Included among them is the assurance of a complete and phased withdrawal of USNATO troops from Afghanistan within the next 14 months, a Taliban pledge to sever ties with international terror outfits like al-Qaida and the Islamic State group and a prisoner exchange. While seemingly promising, many prominent scholars and politicians are skeptical for a variety of reasons, not least because past settlements have never taken hold for long and ‘lasting peace’ for the region is a phrase often invoked and rarely realized. One of the reservations I have about the situation is that the Taliban, infamous for their ultra-conservative policies on human rights and democratic procedure, have agreed to “grant the right to education and to work” to women so long as some “Islamic values” are upheld and the “hijab” is observed. The most obvious problem with this is the loosely-defined principle of “Islamic values.” Former member of the Afghan Parliament Fawzia Koofi rightly identified in an interview with Al Jazeera that there are different definitions of the term employed by different people. The Taliban’s record of morphing and abusing the name of religion to their

advantage and agenda is long and terrible and inflexible, and so cynicism is all but necessary for any critical examination of the agreements. Moreover, their rhetoric ignores that they do not have the sovereignty and authority to “give” rights, just like the US delegation has no say in negotiating them on behalf of an unrepresented Afghan people. Who gave the Taliban the mandate to give women rights that are inalienably theirs by virtue of existence? And who is the US government to treat women’s rights as chips to be traded for an undefined and indefinite ‘peace’? The overwhelming excitement regarding the possibility of stability doesn’t take away from the fact that it would be a stability at a great cost, and many question whether it is one that political leaders can ask Afghan society to pay. Because a withdrawal of troops would be great for all parties as long as there isn’t a simultaneous reinstatement of the Taliban regime — even a “reformed” one. Leaving non-Taliban Afghan actors out of the talks, especially the Afghan government, was an early mistake that, in my opinion, doomed any agreement from the very start. It normalizes and near-condones the jurisdiction of a UN-designated terrorist group over a vulnerable population already ravaged by decades of war. Even an observer status to representatives of the people would’ve done wonders for the legitimacy of the settlements the Doha talks arrived at. Many supporters of the decisions have argued that the immediate need was the stoppage of carnage and any discussion of political power and rights would come after. While this is a noble and not entirely unfounded argument given the dire situation of Afghanistan, any peace predicated on the disenfranchising of millions is a half-peace. The counterargument here is that rights are an urban problem, a cosmopolitan issue that doesn’t concern the dying swathes in rural Afghanistan as much as an expeditious end to fighting. However, it is quite rich and belittling to assume that the poor

and the rural populations don’t care about freedom of speech, women’s rights and who has administrative power over their provinces. These are the communities that need democratic infrastructures more than anyone else, because there isn’t anyone looking out for their interests in the same manner that the interests of the rich, urban and elite are preserved. Democracy was never meant to be a safeguard for the wealthy politician in an insulated space in Kabul, however many of those are even left, but for the single mother in Herat with no livelihood.

The civil war of the 1990s broke out because the talks with the mujahideen weren’t screened by representatives of Afghan civilians and advocates of women’s rights. The Taliban now cover more territory than they have since 2001. They still don’t officially recognize the Afghan government, and so the next step of intra-Afghan talks seems to be an impossible one. The domestic dichotomies are also exacerbated by the rivalry of Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and president-elect Ashraf Ghani, both of whom wish to undermine each other and both of which are undermined by the Taliban leaders. Moreover, the prisoner exchange comprising 5,000 Taliban fighters to be released by the Afghan and US-NATO forces in exchange for 1,000 Afghan soldiers seems

to be a healthy move on the surface. However, the release of large populations on a technically active battlefield (since no official ceasefire has been negotiated, though “reduced violence” is promised in the coming 135 days) is worrisome to any inquiring eye. A political vacuum that shall allow the Taliban to regain power in the region must be prevented at all costs to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself. For this, a building of political and social infrastructure must be undertaken alongside an effort to give all those who have only ever known war (every Afghan under the age of 30) a taste of a civilian life unmarred by conflict. What we must remember when we examine the Afghan arena is that this is a particular chance to repair the mistakes of the past, one that might not come again for years if mishandled. For the US, this has been an 18-year war, but for Afghanistan, it’s been a 40-year struggle against external and internal actors. Thus, though the moves are welcome to some extent, we must critically analyze how they can be reconciled to the needs of the Afghan community, and how we can avoid overlooking long-term disaster in exchange for narrow and short-sighted political gains for certain parties. United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “Furthering the cause of peace will require serious work and sacrifice by all sides....to maintain the momentum needed to reach a comprehensive, inclusive, and durable peace.” The only needs I’ve seen sacrificed are those of the ones who have always borne the greatest brunt of the region’s conflict and hostilities and are now asked to compromise again: Afghanis. Tanisha Tekriwal is a Weinberg Freshman. She can be contacted at tanishatekriwal2023@u. northwestern.edu. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to opinion@dailynorthwestern.com. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.

The Daily Northwestern Volume 141, Issue 40 Editor in Chief Troy Closson

Managing Editors Gabby Birenbaum Samantha Handler Marissa Martinez Heena Srivastava

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR may be sent to 1999 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, via fax at 847-491-9905, via e-mail to opinion@dailynorthwestern.com or by dropping a letter in the box outside The Daily office. Letters have the following requirements: • Should be typed • Should be double-spaced • Should include the author’s name, signature, school, class and phone number. • Should be fewer than 400 words They will be checked for authenticity and may be edited for length, clarity, style and grammar.

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TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2020

LETTER

From page 1 unsuccessful efforts to collaborate with The Graduate School. The Daily granted anonymity to students due to their professional concerns. “I don’t think anyone wants to be in a position where they have to write this letter,” she said. “And I don’t think a letter like this gets written until people feel like it’s the last option available to them.” This year was the first that The Graduate School did not host events for Black History Month.

Queertopia, a graduate student-organized academic conference in LGBTQ+ research, has also not been financially supported by the school in the last two years. In addition, due to poor support, the staff at the TGS Office of Diversity and Inclusion decreased from about 10 non-intern employees to four conducting the work of a large organization, organizers said. Another student who requested anonymity for the same concerns told The Daily that in addition to these problems, retention efforts have been lacking. The graduate student, who started at Northwestern a few years ago, said she feels community-building

programming is perceived as “extracurricular” rather than essential. “If they want to use our knowledge and use our resources like laborers, I feel like The Graduate School should respect what we want to do when we’re trying to build community,” she said. The student is part of an affinity organization that hosts an annual conference that serves as a recruiting and networking opportunity for students of color. The letter states that the current TGS administration has decreased the funding by 42 percent, prompting its student leaders, already burdened with

responsibilities, to seek funds elsewhere. The student who spearheaded the coalition said other parts of the University community should not ignore graduate students’ contributions. “Graduate students, in many ways, are backbones of this environment,” she said. “They are the folks who are teaching your classes … you go to their office hours, they are the ones you are interacting with. So, you should care about the folks who are teaching you and giving you their labor.” yunkyokim2022@u.northwestern.edu

Committee, Ogbo discuss city’s prep for Coronarivus

Ben-Arieh lectures on reactions to refugees

By SAM HELLER

By ANDREW MYERS

the daily northwestern @samheller5

Director of Health and Human Services Ike Ogbo gave an update on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, and how Evanston is preparing its response during Monday’s Human Services Committee meeting. The possibilty of getting the coronavirus within the United States is still low, and there are zero cases of the virus in Evanston. Despite these low numbers, the Health and Human Services department has put together an internal response team dedicated to coronavirus planning, Ogbo said. “We have been working with our residents, our schools and our local hospitals,” Ogbo said. “This week we’re going to have a meeting with Northwestern to discuss their strategies to prepare as well.” Ogbo said the city has also met with institutions such as organizations that help those experiencing homelessness, Rotary International and the health directors of other nearby neighborhoods. The speech followed a written update posted on the city’s website on Feb. 28 that outlined what the team is doing and what residents should do to stay safe. There is currently no vaccine or any antiviral drugs to combat the virus, so the update mostly recommended people partake in nonpharmaceutical interventions, such as staying home when sick or routinely cleaning frequently touched surfaces. “You should have discussions with your constituents on ways to prevent us from contracting this coronavirus,” Ogbo said to the aldermen. “That is making sure you wash your hands before you eat, after using the toilet rooms, cover your

mouth and noises when you are sneezing and disposing of that tissue — these are things you can tell your constituents to do moving forward.” Some aldermen raised concern with the Health and Human Services response, though, such as Ald. Peter Braithwaite (2nd), who asked Ogbo about whether the city has loaded up yet on hand sanitizers, masks and other similar items. Ogbo said the city has not done so yet. “I suggest you move with a level of urgency, as supplies are running out quickly,” Braithwaite said. While there may be no cases of the coronavirus in Evanston yet, there have been two confirmed cases of the virus in Illinois, although both individuals have fully recovered, Ogbo said. There are two adoptive cases, meaning a public health lab has confirmed them, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet done so. These cases were in Cook County. The department’s major concern is avoiding cases of community spread, during which the virus spreads widely enough that officials cannot trace the source of an individual’s sickness to another specific person. Countries such as Italy, Iran and China have had cases of community spread. Currently, there are more than 100 cases of the virus reported nationwide, according to the CDC, although only about 16 have been confirmed. CNN reports that six people have died of the virus in the United States as of Monday night. Oregon, California and Washington are all states closest to experiencing a community spread. “If there is a wide expansion of this virus in our community, it will disrupt schools, (cancel) gatherings and overwhelm our public health systems and our hospitals.” Ogbo said. “These are things we have to keep in mind if there is a community virus in Evanston.” samuelheller2022@u.northwestern.edu

the daily northwestern

Political science Prof. Galya Ben-Arieh discussed how nations have been actively attempting to restrict citizens and NGOs from rescuing, accepting and aiding refugees during a Monday event. Ben-Arieh gave a lecture at Evanston Public Library titled, “The Criminalization of Kindness: The Politics of Migrant Rescue.” She is a lawyer who founded and directed the Center for Forced Migration Studies, and she also teaches courses on refugee policy and constitutionalism. She recently founded Community Partnerships for Settlement Strategies (COMPASS) in 2018, an organization that works with a small team and network of trusteed community partners to support four refugee families in Evanston. Drawing on this experience, Ben-Arieh used the lecture as an opportunity to shed light on refugee policy and the criminalization of asylum seekers, specifically cases where regular citizens and NGOs have been discouraged in helping to accept refugees. Ben-Arieh referenced her refugee work in Sicily, Italy to demonstrate how NGOs were harassed for helping to take in refugees. “The NGOs that I had come to visit were being attacked,” said Ben-Arieh. “By 2017, widespread threats and intimidation both legal and physical reduced the presence of private rescuers to a single vessel.” In another more specific example of the criminalization of refugee assistance, Ben-Arieh pointed to the story of French citizen Cédric Herrou, who made national headlines after being arrested and later acquitted in 2018 for helping more than 200 African migrants enter France illegally from Italy. According to Ben-Arieh, the crux of the problem centers around the legal ambiguity associated with refugee status and the cycle of misunderstanding surrounding smuggling, a practice that can help

refugees. “(There is) a lot of misunderstanding between trafficking and smuggling,” said Ben-Arieh. “(When nations curtail smuggling) they are saying that we do not want to bring across people that are consenting to being moved.” Instead of using the term “smuggling,” though, Ben-Arieh insists on re-orienting the discussion, centered around a “rescue narrative” where NGOs are required to assist refugees and acknowledge that migration is a part of history that will always exist. This narrative allows for mobility in establishing migrant flows for education and work. Audience member John Adewoye, an immigrant himself who traveled from Nigeria in 1999, had actively been aiding and helping migrants across the world in settling them in Illinois. “I have housed LGBTQ+ refugees that are fleeing in forced migration,” said Adewoye. “I help give these migrants a place to stay when they come here since these refugees have nothing when they come.” Adewoye asked Ben-Arieh whether the U.S. government was aware of what to do to support asylum seekers. She said that the U.S. government is actually putting up more barriers to entry, and even recently created an office at the U.S. Department of Justice to denaturalize certain immigrants, including “war criminals, human rights violators, sex offenders and other fraudsters,” according to a news release. Another audience member, Kevin Langson, decided to come and hear Ben-Arieh speak based on his admiration of her previous research, but said that he had not seen this specific angle of her work. Langson said he came away feeling as though he had learned more about the ambiguities surrounding refugee policy. “I learned things about the specific lulls in refugee policy and the role that lawyers play,” Langson said. andrewmyers2022@u.northwestern.edu

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DAILY CROSSWORD Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

by Rich Norris Edited by Rich Edited Norris and Joyce Lewisand Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Not very spicy 5 Time and again, to a bard 8 Stage surprise 13 More reasonable 14 Give in to jet lag 15 Far from posh 16 Steinway parts 18 Whack, biblically 19 Space-saving abbr. 20 Mayberry kid 21 Bk. before Philippians 22 Cajun crustacean 24 Lowlifes 28 Bell-shaped lily 29 Hobbyist’s blade 31 Laura of “Marriage Story” 33 BMW competitor 34 Merged comm. giant 35 “Are you serious?” 39 Awarenessraising TV ad 42 Lose stamina 43 A whole lot 46 Cartoon character who is five apples tall 50 Chase scene maneuvers, slangily 52 Some bottled waters 53 Most tidy 55 Arcing shot 56 Fleshy facial feature 57 Student advocacy org. 58 Off-the-cushion pool shot 60 Receives a go-ahead ... and a hint to what’s hidden in 16-, 29-, 35- and 46-Across 62 Render weaponless 63 Maiden name lead-in 64 Country rocker Steve 65 Jam-packed 66 FedEx rival 67 React to yeast DOWN 1 Restaurant host 2 Like most pet birds

3/3/20

By Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke

3 Writer Deighton 4 Dickens’ “The Mystery of Edwin __” 5 Upstate New York lake 6 Actress Dunaway 7 Playfully pranks, for short 8 Stubborn equine 9 Cut down to size 10 German city where Wagner was born 11 Crime after a data breach, perhaps 12 “See ya” 13 Architectural details 17 Title planet in a 2001 sci-fi film 23 In need of patching 24 __ finder: carpenter’s tool 25 Wine city near Sacramento 26 Just managing, with “out” 27 Witness 30 Coast Guard Academy student 32 “__ your life!”

Monday’s Puzzle Solved

36 Dee who sang with Elton 37 Spring flower 38 Joint ailment 39 Prof.’s degree 40 Maritime route 41 Concession speech deliverer 44 Paging gadgets 45 Ventricular contraction 47 Hercules’ 12 challenges

3/3/20

48 Low-risk govt. securities 49 Evergreens used for archery bows 51 Buffy’s weapon of choice 54 Make changes to 56 Wrangler maker 58 Bovine chew 59 French Mrs. 60 Oxlike antelope 61 Yokohama yes

SPORTS

ON DECK MAR.

ON THE RECORD

“If we keep doing us, keep playing how we know how to play, there are only good things ahead of us.” — shortstop Maeve Nelson

Baseball NU at UIC, 4:05 p.m. Tuesday

@DailyNU_Sports

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

SOFTBALL

Northwestern takes 3 of 5 in weekend tournament By ANDREW GOLDEN

daily senior staffer @andrewcgolden

The last time Northwestern played in Norman, Oklahoma, the Wildcats watched Oklahoma celebrate as the Sooners dominated en route to the College World Series. With aspirations of making a trip of their own to Oklahoma City this year, NU (8-11) returned to Norman this weekend for the Courtyard Marriott Tournament. And, while they shined against non-Power Five teams, their two weekend losses to No. 5 Oklahoma showed that, despite being close, the Cats have some work to do to be competitive against some of the best in the country. NU is now 1-8 against top-25 teams so far this season, with its lone win coming a few weeks ago against thenNo. 5 Florida State. “We talked a lot about the physicality of the game and building some better habits around the game and taking care of the little things,” coach Kate Drohan said. “I think our team is still working on it and we still have room to grow there.” In the team’s first game against North Texas, sophomore pitcher

Danielle Williams stole the show as both a pitcher and a hitter. On the mound, the sophomore pitched a complete game, giving up one run while striking out 12. At the plate, she helped herself out as well, adding two hits to her line including a two-run homer in the sixth inning as the Cats won their opening game 8-1. But the biggest challenge for NU was the Sooners, who came into the weekend with a 11-3 record. In 26 innings against Oklahoma last year, the Cats didn’t score a single run. But Friday they broke through in the third inning and knotted the game at two after getting down early. However, the Sooners responded for five runs in the bottom of the frame to break the game open. But the 8-3 score doesn’t represent how close the game was. NU outhit Oklahoma and didn’t strike out once, but they couldn’t capitalize with runners in scorer’s position and the Sooners did. But with Saturday’s games against Abilene Christian, it was a completely different story. Led by sophomore shortstop Maeve Nelson, the Cats scored 15 runs in their two games on Saturday. Nelson hit four home runs on the weekend, including three on Saturday to push NU over the top in their

back-to-back 5-1 and 10-1 victories. “I’ve really been emphasizing lately swinging 50 percent, which sounds kinda counterintuitive, but it’s a 50 percent mentality,” Nelson said. “Just so I don’t swing too hard and I’m not trying to do too much because that’s when things kind of go south.” Nelson said going into Sunday, she felt the team had a good chance to beat Oklahoma this time around, given how many times they had faced off in the past year. But, like the first game, the Sooners got the best of NU despite the game being close. The Cats held the lead early off a double from outfielder Morgan Newport. Williams was cruising through Oklahoma’s lineup until the fifth inning, when the Sooners scored five runs and put the game away. With a losing record and conference play looming, the Cats will have one more opportunity to play quality non-conference opponents before Big Ten play begins. However, Nelson is confident the team can turn it around. “There have been a couple times where we’ve been caught not playing Northwestern softball,” Nelson said. “If we keep doing us, keep playing how we know how to play, there are only good things ahead for us.” andrewgolden2021@u.northwestern.edu

Daily File Photo by Brian Meng

Sophomore Danielle Williams prepares for a pitch. Williams pitched a complete game against North Texas.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

BASEBALL

Cats receive All-Big Ten honors NU suffers weekend

sweep to South Florida

By DREW SCHOTT

the daily northwestern @dschott328

Over the last four months, No. 11 Northwestern has put together one of its best seasons in program history. The Wildcats (26-3, 16-2 Big Ten) won their first Big Ten title since the 1989-90 season and set a record for team wins. NU’s stellar campaign also produced the Big Ten’s top coach and some of the best players in the conference. Six Cats received All-Big Ten honors — including all five members of NU’s starting lineup — and coach Joe McKeown was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year for the first time in his career. McKeown, who received his 700th career win in December, is the first Cats coach to receive the honor since Don Perelli in 1990 — when NU last acquired the conference title. Junior guard Lindsey Pulliam was unanimously named to the All-Big Team first team, while sophomore guard Veronica Burton was honored as the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and made the conference’s AllDefensive Team and the All-Big Ten Second Team. Pulliam leads the Cats with 19.1 points per game, the third-highest mark in the Big Ten. The Maryland native is one of the 10 finalists for the Meyers Award — given to the nation’s top shooting guard — and is NU’s first unanimous selection to the All-Big Ten First Team since Nia Coffey in 2017. Burton, in addition to scoring a career-high 11.5 points per game, is averaging 3.3 steals per game — good for first in the Big Ten and ninth in the country — and has the best assistto-turnover ratio in the conference. Burton is the second player in program history to be named Defensive Player of the Year and the third placed on the Big Ten All-Defensive Team. Senior forward Abi Scheid was named to the first team by the conference’s coaches and the second team by the media. Scheid — the Cats’ number two scorer — is the nation’s

By JOHN RIKER

the daily northwestern @thejohnriker

Daily File Photo by Joshua Hoffman

After stealing two extra-inning wins against South Carolina last weekend, Northwestern was unable to parlay their late-game heroics into success against South Florida this past weekend. Despite taking early leads in their first two games of their series, the Wildcats (3-6) were swept by the Bulls (5-7) in Tampa. NU dropped a pair of one-run defeats in the series’ opening games and suffered a 10-5 rout in the series finale. On Friday, the Cats couldn’t capitalize on five scoreless innings from sophomore Mike Dougherty and lost despite holding the Bulls without an earned run. NU’s offense scored just two batters into the game on freshman first baseman Stephen Hrustich’s single, then failed to build on their lead with just three hits and zero runs over the final nine innings. South Florida broke through in the bottom of the sixth off errors on consecutive batters and took the decisive 2-1 lead. The Cats pounced early again on Saturday. NU hit a trio of singles in the third inning and scored the game’s opening run on senior third baseman Leo Kaplan’s RBI hit, but stranded two runners. NU’s inability to score runners was a

common theme for the rest of the night. The Cats found success at the plate and outhit South Florida 9-2, but left five runners on base and couldn’t respond to a two-run sixth inning from the Bulls. Northwestern’s strong pitching didn’t hold for the series’ final game, as South Florida roughed up junior pitcher Quinn Lavelle with four runs over his 2.1 innings. Though the Cats rallied to tie the contest at four, the Bulls pulled away with six runs over the sixth and seventh innings and completed the series sweep with a 10-5 victory. Though the schedule won’t show it, NU held its hosts close for much of their series. Still, the weekend proved that the Cats have work to do before Big Ten competition opens. Over the course of the series, NU had eight errors to South Florida’s one, including two particularly damaging blunders that allowed the Bulls to take a late victory on Friday. Though the Cats’ rotation had two strong outings from its starters, their lineup struggled to drive runners in and support its staff. NU’s next chance to end their skid comes on Tuesday against IllinoisChicago before a weekend stretch against Western Carolina and South Carolina-Upstate. johnriker2023@u.northwestern.edu

Junior guard Lindsey Pulliam shoots a mid-range jumper against Illinois. Pulliam was a unanimous selection to this year’s All-Big Ten First Team.

top 3-point shooter. Averaging 11.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game, the senior was named to her first All-Big Ten team. Another senior — center Abbie Wolf — was selected as an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention. Wolf — coming off a 21-point outing on Senior Day — was also given her first All-Big Ten distinction after scoring 11.6 points and grabbing 6.6 rebounds per game. Sophomore guard Sydney Wood — who averages 5.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game — was named an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention by the media, while senior forward Amber Jamison was chosen as

NU’s Big Ten Sportsmanship Award honoree. On Monday night, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee recognized the Cats’ successful season by ranking the team ninth out of the top 16 seeds in its last prediction before March Madness. NU’s stellar lineup will hope to come out victorious at the Big Ten Tournament this weekend in Indianapolis. NU — the No. 2 seed — will face the winner of Michigan and Nebraska, the No. 7 and No. 10 seeds in the conference tournament, in the quarterfinals on Friday. drewschott2023@u.northwestern.edu

Daily file photo by Evan Robinson-Johnson

Sophomore Michael Trautwein readies on the basepath. The Cats were outscored 14-7 in their series against South Florida and lost all three games.