The Daily Northwestern Wednesday, April 24, 2019
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Witness says NU football player paid Bribery witness allegedly paid multiple athletes By ELLA BROCKWAY
daily senior staffer @ellabrockway
Brian Meng/Daily Senior Staffer
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at 1922 Sheridan Rd. Weinberg is poised to change its degree requirements for the first time in decades.
Weinberg may change curriculum What you need to know about the potential changes to requirements By CAMERON COOK
daily senior staffer @cam_e_cook
After decades of the current curriculum, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences is poised to update its degree requirements.
The new set of requirements, proposed in December by the school’s ad hoc Committee on Degree Requirements, would not go into effect for two to three years, said legal studies Prof. Laura Beth Nielsen, chair of the Curriculum Policy Committee. Students who enter
Northwestern prior to the onset of the new requirements will not have to complete them. The changes will also likely be implemented incrementally, said Ann Bradlow, the associate dean for academic initiatives. Here, The Daily breaks down the biggest changes and what they
mean for students. These overarching imperatives “express some guidelines,” Nielsen said, but how they’ll actually affect the changes is yet to be determined. The goal, she said, is to set requirements for each department » See REQUIREMENTS, page 6
A former financial advisor testified in a college basketball bribery trial Tuesday that he paid football players from several colleges, including Northwestern. Louis Martin Blazer, a witness for federal prosecutors, said he gave anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars to associates or family members of football players from Alabama, Michigan, North Carolina, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Pitt and Penn State between 2010 and 2014. The payments were made in the hope that the players would choose Blazer as their financial advisor upon turning professional, said Adam Zagoria, who is reporting on the trial for the Arizona Daily Star. Blazer also said he had never paid a college football coach. While other schools were mentioned in further testimony — Blazer gave examples of interactions and relationships with players at Penn State and North Carolina — Northwestern was not named other than on Blazer’s initial list. “Northwestern University is
not aware of any misconduct related to this report, however we take any allegation seriously and actively investigate,” a University spokesperson said in a statement. In 2017, Blazer pleaded guilty to wire fraud, securities fraud, lying to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and aggravated identity theft. He faces up to 67 years in prison for those charges, and as part of a plea agreement, is cooperating as a witness in the federal government’s investigation into bribery in college basketball. The FBI’s investigation into bribery and corruption in college basketball became public in September 2017, when the Justice Department announced it had indicted and arrested 10 people, ranging from business managers and Adidas employees to assistant coaches. The trial that began Tuesday in New York is that of former agent Christian Dawkins and former Adidas consultant Merl Code, both of whom were sentenced to six months in prison in the investigation’s first trial in March for bribing and paying players’ families to steer them toward certain schools. This trial is set to focus on bribes made to college basketball coaches. Blazer will continue his testimony Wednesday. ellabrockway@u.northwestern.edu
Advocacy org says Separate admission process for some NU should reform President Schapiro says he looks at some legacy, donor applications Nonprof it urges stop to legacy, donor admissions By GABBY BIRENBAUM
daily senior staffer @birenbomb
In recent years, Northwestern has made low-income admissions a priority, creating and achieving its “20 by 2020” Pell-eligible initiative to have a minimum of 20 percent of incoming classes be made up of Pell-eligible students. Education Reform Now, a national education advocacy organization, believes that while Northwestern has certainly made strides, more can be done to make the University more fair and affordable for low-income and working-class students. “The rise of Pell grant student enrollment at Northwestern is something to be celebrated,” Michael Dannenberg, the organization’s director of strategic initiatives for policy, told The Daily. “But we also have to recognize that a meaningful
commitment to diversity, with respect to the student body, involves not just enrolling more Pell grant-eligible students, but also doing away with a lot of policies that may not make admissions to the University as fair as it could be for middleclass, working-class, low-income students.” Education Reform Now suggests highly-selective private schools like Northwestern reform its admissions. Dannenberg said he would advocate for the University to reform its early decision process and end legacy preference in admissions. Northwestern admits approximately half of its incoming classes through early decision, which leaves middle-class and working-class students and families “overwhelmingly disadvantaged,” Dannenberg said. Early decisions creates a paradox for those students — applying early vastly improves one’s chance of acceptance while also forcing students to commit to the financial aid package they receive instead of being able to » See REFORM, page 6
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
By GABBY BIRENBAUM and ALAN PEREZ
daily senior staffers @birenbomb, @ _perezalan_
Of the over 40,000 applications Northwestern receives for undergraduate admissions, the vast majority are read by Christopher Watson, the dean of undergraduate admissions, and his staff. This year, a select pool of about 550 applicants had their files read and their admissions decisions made by University President Morton Schapiro. Schapiro said in an interview with The Daily last week that he is not entirely sure how the application files that arrive at his desk are chosen, but the breakdown among applicants is not random. The group includes legacy students, children whose family members have donated to NU and connections of his who ask him to read their child’s or relative’s application. “They’re suggested by all
Evan Robinson-Johnson/Daily senior staffer
Segal Visitors Center. A select pool of about 550 applicants had their files read and their admissions decisions made by President Morton Schapiro.
sorts of people,” Schapiro said. “Politicians to famous alums to trustee members. Many, many people.” The revelation comes as
the admission practices of elite schools across the country — which are often kept highly confidential — are being placed under intense
scrutiny. The college admissions scandal exposed the bribing of college officials » See ADMISSIONS, page 6
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