The Daily Northwestern Wednesday, April 12, 2017
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Student’s death ruled accidental By ALLYSON CHIU
daily senior staffer @_allysonchiu
Colin Boyle/Daily Senior Staffer
Cody Keenan (Weinberg ’02) speaks in Harris Hall at an event sponsored by Contemporary Thought Speaker Series. Keenan served as director of speechwriting for former President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017.
Keenan talks role in Obama era
First-year student Mohammed Ramzan’s death was ruled an accidental drowning, according to a Cook County Medical Examiner’s report released Tuesday. Ramzan, 19, went missing Monday morning after falling off a nine-person shell during a Northwestern men’s crew team practice on the North Shore Channel. Authorities recovered Ramzan’s body Monday evening from the channel in Lincolnwood, said vice president for student affairs Patricia TellesIrvin in an email to NU students. Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Jason Bradley said Ramzan was not wearing a life vest at the time of the accident, which is not uncommon in crew. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, federal law “does not require lifejackets
on racing shells, rowing sculls, racing canoes, and racing kayaks.” Other details of the accident, Bradley said, are still under investigation, including whether Ramzan was unconscious when he entered the water. A first-year student from Auburn, Washington, Ramzan was involved with the Freshman Urban Program and the Northwestern Quest Scholars Network in addition to being on the crew team. Community response to Ramzan’s death was immediate. A GoFundMe page was created Monday to ease funeral costs for Ramzan’s family, and it gathered more than $7,800 from nearly 300 people by Tuesday afternoon. Mariana Alfaro contributed reporting. allysonchiu2018@u.northwestern.edu
Former presidential speechwriter visits campus for CTSS talk By KRISTINA KARISCH
the daily northwestern @kristinakarisch
Empathy and curiosity are the two most important qualities for a speechwriter, said Cody Keenan (Weinberg ’02), director of speechwriting for former President Barack Obama. Speaking to an audience of about 100 in Harris Hall on Tuesday, Keenan discussed what it was like to write speeches for the president of the United States. The event, moderated by Medill Prof. Peter Slevin, was sponsored by Contemporary
Thought Speaker Series. Keenan joined the Obama campaign as an intern in 2007 before becoming the deputy director of speechwriting once Obama took office. In 2013, he was promoted to director of speechwriting, a job he remained in through the end of Obama’s second term. As a speechwriter, Keenan was tasked with crafting various addresses in the president’s tone, from stump speeches to State of the Union addresses. He said “getting into” Obama’s head was crucial to his job. At the beginning, when he didn’t know Obama well, Keenan
said he would read and watch Obama’s speeches to pick up on language and mannerisms. Eventually, as he worked more closely with the president, he said he was able to move from mimicry to authentic speeches that Obama might write himself. Still, the president continuously worked with Keenan and his team on drafts by adding in edits and providing feedback — sometimes minutes before the speech was put on the teleprompter, he said. “We were just vessels for him,” he said. “He was a damn good writer before any of us came around.”
Keenan recalled one particular speech — the one Obama delivered after the Charleston church shooting in June 2015 — where the president cut the last two pages of the draft. Though Keenan had planned on reworking the draft with his team, Obama ended up beating him to it and called him into the White House residence at 10:30 p.m. to present him with the finished speech. “He had just crossed out the last two pages of the speech entirely and rewritten them by hand about five hours after I’d just » See KEENAN, page 6
Allie Goulding/The Daily Northwestern
Northwestern student Mohammed Ramzan. The first-year student drowned Monday after falling into the water during a men’s crew team practice on the North Shore Channel in Lincolnwood.
O’Hare protesters demand accountability from United
Organizations representing Asian Americans, immigrants, protest airline for forced passenger removal By BILLY KOBIN
daily senior staffer @Billy_Kobin
Organizations representing Asian Americans and immigrants in Chicago gathered at O’Hare International
Airport on Tuesday to demand accountability from United Airlines after a viral video showed a passenger being forcibly removed from a flight this past weekend. Speakers from numerous organizations — including Asian Americans Advancing
Justice-Chicago, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Chicago and the South Asian Bar Association of Chicago — joined U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) to call on United to make changes after the removal of David Dao, a Vietnamese-American doctor.
Schakowsky said the forced removal of Dao was unnecessary and that she is considering introducing legislation to prevent the involuntary removals of passengers who have already boarded. “ The violent abuse of an Asian American in any
circumstances is unacceptable,” Schakowsky said. “We are not going to stand for that.” Video captured by passengers on the flight quickly spread across social media this week, showing Chicago Aviation Police officers on
Sunday dragging Dao off of a United flight that was scheduled to depart for Louisville. The incident occurred after the airline asked passengers to voluntarily give up their seats for compensation so four » See UNITED, page 6
Gov. Rauner unveils plans to combat hate crimes in Illinois By BILLY KOBIN
daily senior staffer @Billy_Kobin
In light of the recent nationwide attacks on Jewish community centers, synagogues and cemeteries, Gov. Bruce Rauner unveiled new plans last month to combat
hate crimes across the state. Rauner announced in March that Illinois will work to expand education on hate crimes in schools and will consider legislation to better address the issue. He also said he was considering legislation that would ban state contracts with companies that boycott Israel.
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
During a press conference on March 30, Rauner said the state will work with the Simon Wiesenthal Center — an international Jewish human rights organization — to expand anti-hate education in Illinois schools to combat anti-Semitism and other hate crimes. “The Simon Wiesenthal
Center is grateful for Gov. Rauner taking a leadership position … in supporting our ongoing efforts to combat racism, anti-Semitism and extremism, especially on social media,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a news release. Rauner has also introduced
a four-point plan to combat hate crimes and anti-Semitism in the state. The plan involves strengthening the state’s hate crime law and supporting legislation that would increase penalties for acts of vandalism against religious centers and places of worship. Additionally, the plan includes measures to expand
education about hate crimes in Illinois schools, and improving training for state troopers and local law enforcement officers on identifying, investigating and prosecuting hate crimes. The state will work with the Illinois State Police and Anti-Defamation League » See ISRAEL, page 6
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