The Daily Northwestern Thursday, April 25, 2019
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NU-Q dean reflects on first decade Everette Dennis says Qatari laws were challenge By GABBY BIRENBAUM
daily senior staffer @birenbomb
When Everette Dennis was first approached about being the inaugural dean of Northwestern University in Qatar, his inclination was to pass. Now retiring after seeing the school through its first decade, Dennis is glad he took the chance and proud of the progress the campus has made. As NU-Q reaches its tenyear milestone, Dennis said the school has grown from a startup venture to a “maturing” school. Having opened its doors in 2008 in Education City after being approached by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, Dennis, who started in 2011, oversaw the transition from an initial graduating class of 36 students to a cohort of over 100 students in the class of 2022. Dennis said one of the biggest challenges of leading the school was understanding how Qatar’s laws would affect their academic ventures, including their journalism and communications program. Qatari law does not provide for freedom of the press, and freedom of expression is limited and punishable in some cases. “The first challenge is: Can you have freedom of expression and academic freedom?” Dennis
told The Daily. “The answer is yes, but that had to be tested out. That was promised by the Qatar Foundation, it has worked out very well.” “Beyond that, beyond the whole business of academic freedom for students, studentjournalists, student-filmmakers and others, — to be able to work effectively in the local environment,” he said of additional challenges. “That takes some navigation … You find out by trying it out and testing the waters and making sure it works, and that’s been a gratifying experience and continues to be.” In recent years, faculty have also had to contend with a blockade from neighboring nations against Qatar, led by Saudi Arabia, as punishment for allegedly supporting terrorist activity. The struggles that come from trying to define press freedom and from the blockade empowered freshman Al-Reem Al Zaman to study journalism. “(The blockade) has made me curious to learn more about the world of the media, and to be a part of the industry in the long run,” Al Zaman said in an NU-Q news release. Dennis said having a campus in Qatar has strategic advantages. Its proximity to the rest of the the Middle East, as well as India and sub-Saharan Africa, allows the campus to recruit an incredibly diverse student body and make a truly global impact, he said. Among the current » See NU-Q, page 6
Julia Esparza / Daily Senior Staffer
Members of Evanston episcopal churches and Interfaith Action of Evanston stand along Ridge Avenue. The participants created signs to show support for the YWCA’s Stands Against Racism event.
YWCA hosts Stand Against Racism
Evanston residents take action on institutional, structural oppression organizations participated by lining the sidewalks from the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center to the Ridgeville Park District. Tiffany McDowell, the director of the Equity Institute at the YWCA Evanston/North Shore, said she is happy that so many community groups participated in the event in a show of support. “It’s a great way to show solidarity and to show that as a
By JULIA ESPARZA
daily senior staffer @juliaesparza10
Evanston residents stood along Ridge Avenue on Wednesday afternoon to participate in the YWCA’s Stand Against Racism event. The annual event aims to raise awareness about the institutional and structural impacts of racism. About 20 Evanston
community we are against racism and were standing for equity and inclusion and being a welcoming city,” McDowell said. McDowell said she people learn about the support available to them through the YWCA. She said her work at the YWCA involves finding strategies and resources for people and organizations to teach them how to become allies in the fight against racism. As cars drove along Ridge
Avenue, drivers honked their horns and yelled out of their windows in shows of support for the participants. Around 1:45 p.m., community members began reading the stand against racism pledge. “I take this pledge, fully aware that the struggle to eliminate racism will not end by me reciting this pledge,” participants said. “It requires an ongoing » See YWCA, page 6
Holloway lays out academic vision ASG pushes for In interview, provost says he’ll strive for interdisciplinary work By GABBY BIRENBAUM and PRIN BASKAR
student stipends By JOSIAH BONIFANT
the daily northwestern @bonijos_iahfant
daily senior staffers @birenbomb, @pranav_baskar
On April 22, three members of The Daily’s editorial board sat down with Provost Jonathan Holloway. Jeri Ward, the vice president for global marketing and communications, also sat in on the meeting. Holloway talked about his academic vision and diversity and inclusion initiatives. His answers have been edited for clarity and brevity. Small portions of the interview have been excluded from this transcript that have been withheld for future Daily articles. Daily file photo by Katie Pach
The Daily: What academic vision are you promoting?
Jonathan Holloway. The provost laid out his academic vision for the school.
Holloway: The academic vision relates to the fact that when you’re thinking about Northwestern, you need to think about it as a sort of community
of ideas and scholars. It’s an academically rigorous environment with a lot of engaged scholars and their hallmark is a lot of interdisciplinary work
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
— not exclusively though. So, I’m in charge of answering the question: what’s my academic vision? I spoke to all of the deans — because they’re the
ones who set the vision locally — and I asked, what are the things that are most important » See HOLLOWAY, page 6
Associated Student Government president-elect Izzy Dobbel and vice president-elect Adam Davies have recently proposed providing a stipend to support peer educators within groups like Sexual Health And Assault Peer Educators. This idea, Davies said, was one aspect of the platform of “justice” the duo ran on. They both view organizations dedicated to sexual education and violence prevention as underappreciated and distinct from other student organizations. “We’re trying to remove a barrier for low-income students who may need to work other jobs and may not have time to do as many workshops and presentations,” Davies said. “By decreasing those barriers to access, we hope to allow the students who are really passionate about this work to do it and be fairly compensated for the work
they do.” Davies described the idea as a “fee for service,” meaning organizations that request workshops and presentations with a group like SHAPE would pay them directly from their budgets. Davies said ASG was hoping to imitate the precedent that exists with stipends for peer inclusion educators. Davies said their proposed system is a “sliding scale,” since smaller organizations with less resources would pay less thsan larger and more well-endowed groups like Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association, whom SHAPE has traditionally partnered with. “The main thing we do for Greek life is teaching consent, since incorporating that into the culture is really important,” SHAPE executive director Sam Berston said. “Beyond that, we’ve been working with coalition building with student groups that emphasize students of color to » See STIPENDS, page 6
INSIDE: Around Town 2 | Opinion 4 | Classifieds & Puzzles 6 | On Campus 7| Sports 8