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The Daily Northwestern Thursday, April 7, 2022
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8 SPORTS/Men’s Soccer
AUDIO/First Generation
2 CITY/Tutoring
Tactical changes help NU see early success
First- and second-gen students talk their college experience
District 65 sees growth with focused tutoring
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Philz hosts local art school’s student work Shop collaborates with One River to display student art By AVIVA BECHKY
the daily northwestern @avivabechky
Joanne Haner/Daily Senior Staffer
The Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. Student Affairs has identified the first floor of house five in Foster-Walker Complex as a new space.
‘Mid-term’ GSRC shift identified Center to relocate to first floor of Foster-Walker Complex house five By ELLA JEFFRIES
the daily northwestern @ellajeffriess
After over a year of student advocacy to expand the Gender
and Sexuality Resource Center to a house on Sheridan Road, Student Affairs has identified the first floor of house five in Foster-Walker Complex as a “mid-term solution” for the relocation, University
spokesperson Erin Karter told The Daily Wednesday. While the University plans to work on a longer-term solution, Karter said finding a space for the near future was a priority.
“Northwestern understands that while adjustments have been made to the current GSRC over time, the current space is far too small and needs
» See CENTER, page 6
Almost every day, Lily Sadataki observed the art lining the walls of the school across the street from the Philz Coffee where they worked on Davis Street. As store lead, Sadataki wanted to work on community outreach. So they reached out to Heather Kipper, a Philz regular and the art school’s director, and asked if they could team up. “I thought a really perfect way to build community and get more in touch with the people on our corner is to start a partnership with the art school,” Sadataki said. “They definitely display their students’ work, but we had so many empty walls in here.” At the beginning of March, Philz Coffee began displaying student work from One River School of Art + Design. Now on its second display, the coffee shop plans to swap out the art once a month, varying between the works of single artists and whole classes.
Philz wasn’t the only business looking for connections. Kipper said One River missed out on opportunities to engage with Evanston in person during the pandemic, so she was excited to connect with the coffee shop. “This was a really great, exciting opportunity to finally start to rebuild some of these community connections that we had prior to the pandemic,” she said. For One River student Patrick Perry, the March exhibit offered an opportunity to display his work publicly for the first time. Perry works mostly with acrylic and oil paint, creating portraits of people against bright backgrounds. Instead of shading, he uses dots of blue, green and red paint that smooth together when viewers take a step back. “When you look at my work, from a distance you get one experience. But from up close, my hope is that it’s a different experience,” he said. “Because you see some of the brushstrokes and the different colors that your eye blends together naturally from a distance.” Perry said reactions to the show were great, with old friends he hadn’t talked to in a while taking the time to check out his work and send him messages.
» See PHILZ X ONE RIVER, page 6
Leaders discuss SEYN works to decolonize yoga finances, vaccines Group promotes accessibility, diversity, social change in practice NU to prioritize employee pay for next two years By NICOLE MARKUS
the daily northwestern @nicolejmarkus
Senior administrators discussed faculty retention, the University’s financial state and vaccination rates in a Wednesday panel — part of an event series called “Conversations with Senior Leaders,” which hosts conversations with Northwestern leadership. Despite reporting a budget surplus of $87.8 million last fiscal year, Amanda Distel, senior associate vice president for finance and treasurer, said NU has operated under a “constrained financial state” since before the pandemic. “We have weathered the storm during these last two years, but it is due to the hard work of our staff and faculty,” Distel said. “Senior leadership has developed priorities … and those priorities will guide our resource
Recycle Me
allocation, even if those resources are limited.” Lorraine Goffe, vice president for human resources and chief human resource officer, said senior leadership plans to prioritize employee compensation in the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years. NU has a merit-based system for annual pay increases, she said. Along with prioritizing compensation, Goffee said the University plans to increase flexibility for hybrid or remote work and have individual conversations with employees to improve faculty retention. Despite these efforts, Milan Mrksich, vice president for research, said it is “realistically impossible” to come up with policies that suit all of NU’s diverse faculty. In June 2021, the University instituted the Diverse Candidate Slates policy as one of several social justice initiatives. The policy addressed concerns that NU was not representative of the broader American population and included steps to identify and present diverse candidates
» See CONVERSATIONS, page 6
By KELLY CLOONAN
the daily northwestern @kelly_cloonan
“I need you healed, I need you whole,” Yoga instructor DuShaun Branch Pollard repeated to a group of Chicago-area community organizers and activists at a Zoom yoga practice last year. This event was one of many organized by the Socially Engaged Yoga Network – an initiative that seeks to promote accessibility, diversity and social change within Chicago’s yoga community. Since its founding in 2013, SEYN has hosted free quarterly events centered around core topics like accessibility and antiracism. It is committed to uplifting nonwhite voices, as yoga practices have become whitewashed throughout modern history. Many critics say American audiences have oversimplified the traditionally Hindu practice. Before SEYN’s founding, Coleader Yoli Maya Yeh said yoga studios were concentrated within the northeast area of the city. She felt like Chicago lacked a space for yoga enthusiasts from marginalized communities to find each
other on their own, she said. SEYN is a space for people to meet others and share tips, and Yeh said it emerged fromdiscussions about the lack of networking opportunities in the yoga community. Each of the group’s events includes a yoga practice session, a panel presentation and a Q&A, which SEYN’s other Co-leader Marcelyn Cole described as a “web” of information powered by both participants and event organizers. “We use the metaphor of mycelium —- the fungal networks that feed the forest and feed each other,” Cole said. “It’s a back and forth of information and connection.” Social justice themes are implemented in SEYN’s yoga practices in a variety of ways, including how each pose is demonstrated, Cole said. She remembered one of SEYN’s events where an instructor asked participants to do a twist on one side, and pause and notice the uncomfortable imbalance. Then the instructor asked students to compare elements of their experience to the systemic discomfort created by racial injustice. SEYN’s yoga sessions are often
Photo Courtesy of Marcelyn Cole
SEYN’s Autumn 2018 gathering Harvest in the City at Patchwork Farms focused on urban agriculture and yoga.
led by those who have personal connections to the day’s theme through their identity or community. The group has focused on using yoga to engage with themes like reproductive justice and antiracist practices. “It’s a privilege every time because whoever’s leading the practice takes us into a very personal place,” Yeh said. “It’s very vulnerable and unique.” Since March 2020, all of
SEYN’s events have been virtual in response to the pandemic, which Yeh said has limited the group’s capacity to host in-person community building events like potluck dinners. However, that hasn’t stopped the group from moving forward with its mission to decolonize yoga, spark social change and facilitate networking, she said.
» See YOGA, page 6
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