The Daily Northwestern — April 26, 2021

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The Daily Northwestern Monday, April 26, 2021 4 CAMPUS/ASG

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Wade-Ogbonna and MayedTroy face off in ASG elections

3 CAMPUS/Access

Mutual aid group centers refugee voices

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Search committee for president STEM-heavy Most members lack humanities background

By MAIA PANDEY the daily northwestern @maiapandey

Of the 36 members tasked with helping search for the next University president, none are affiliated with the School of Education and Social Policy, the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, the Bienen School of Music and the School of Communication.

In fact, only two of the nine faculty and students on the committee come from non-STEM backgrounds, and the remaining are current or former Board of Trustees members, alumni leadership or staff. And for some students and faculty, this breakdown is a point of concern.

The Presidential Search Committee, announced earlier this month, will help advise the Board on candidate elections and solicit community input and nominations for the next president. While Northwestern community members nominated people to the committee, Board chair J. Landis Martin

» See COMMITTEE, page 7

Olivia Alexander/The Daily Northwestern

People gather at Oakton Community Center Park in Skokie during a rally Saturday afternoon. Speakers included educators, city officials, pastors and community organizers.

Local groups rally against police brutality Abolition Coalition of Skokie, Evanston/Northshore NAACP rally after nationwide Black loss

By OLIVIA ALEXANDER the daily northwestern @oliviagalex

Content warning: This story contains mentions of police violence.

Around 100 people joined the Abolition Coalition of Skokie and the NAACP Evanston/Northshore Branch in rallying against police brutality at a rally Saturday.

The rally, held at Oakton Community Center Park, came less

than a week following the conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for seconddegree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and seconddegree manslaughter. The event invited community members to “stand together” in solidarity with those across the country mourning loss and violence against Black, brown and BIPOC people.

The Abolition Coalition of Skokie is a group of five BIPOC mothers with the mission of abolishing “the anti-Blackness and

white supremacy” that perpetuate system racism in housing, healthcare, education, economics, policing and government policies. The group began organizing after sharing experiences of discrimination in several districts and in January held a press conference addressing racism in Niles Township High Schools District 219.

“Yes, we are moms, but this is serious work and we don’t take that lightly,” coalition member Monique Cooley-Hicks said. “Just this event today — we spent a lot

of time organizing and putting it together, making sure that our people we invited to speak share our mission, our goal, what we want to do for our community.”

Keith Robinson, local educator and Skokie’s first Black trustee, spoke about both his personal experiences with police profiling as well as the impact George Floyd’s murder had on his own activism, which he said left him with the desire to do something more.

Robinson said the community

must seek out ways to heal and acknowledged it will take a collective effort to do so. He encouraged attendees to stay engaged and continue to vote and hold elected officials like himself accountable.

“Policing as we know it must change,” Robinson said. “Systems of accountability must be mandated — racial equity implicit bias training (and) trauma informed release models can help transform and regain the trust in this

» See RALLY, page 7

Course focuses on disabled users in technology EFBL In “Inclusive Learning” course, students look to increase accesibility in design spaces

By RUSSELL LEUNG the daily northwestern @rjleung7

When McCormick Prof. Marcelo Worsley started teaching “Inclusive Making” in 2017, he wanted to increase technology access to the disability community.

LRN SCI 309 educates students on the historical exclusivity of creative design spaces and challenges them to construct final projects that facilitate greater access. Worsley said his past interactions with maker communities that excluded people with disabilities inspired him to create the course.

Worsley added that “making” entails combining digital and physical methods to produce a tangible object.

“Making is also about the power of big ideas, the power of letting people imagine, letting people create and bringing that together with the opportunities to actually instantiate those ideas,” Worsley said.

Recycle Me

The class incorporates perspectives of disabled individuals into the curriculum through guest speakers and conversations with members of local organizations.

When Mez Perez (McCormick ‘19) walked into the class in 2017, she said she was skeptical of whether the instruction would actually focus on disabled product users instead of designers.

But after a quarter of applying a critical disability studies lens to design, she said she has reconsidered how society frames accessibility. She said she realized society typically places blame on disabled people rather than acknowledging the inaccessibility present in certain spaces.

“This class totally blew me away,” Perez said. “It’s like a real partnership and it takes down some of those binaries of who has knowledge about what.”

After Perez took the class, she joined Worsley’s lab to work on a project that helped kids learn about making. Perez then went on to

pursue postgraduate studies in computer science education, an interest she solidified after enjoying the class and working alongside Worsley.

But this year, because of the pandemic, the class looked a little different. Students were unable to meet in-person, and Meg Butler (SESP ‘21) said the distance made students feel uneasy to assert themselves in disablity spaces for the purpose of completing an assignment.

Butler, who is disabled, said although there were times when she identified ableism during the course, she was glad that Worsley and the teaching assistant encouraged her to speak up on her own terms.

“There were times when I’d be like, ‘I don’t want to be annoying. I don’t want to be that person.’ And they’d be like, ‘No, you be that person. Push back on people,’” Butler said. “But also knowing that I never felt like I had to… because that can also be exhausting.”

Mmachi Obiorah (McCormick ‘15, ‘20) said she appreciated that the hands-on nature of the class enabled

Photo courtesy of Marcelo Worsley

“Inclusive Making” students present their work at a class expo. McCormick Prof. Marcelo Worsley teaches a class on technology accessibility.

students to work in groups and try new things. Her final project, she said, was a tactile version of blockbased programming intended for children with visual impairments.

“We created physical blocks, and each block had a meaning so when you touch it, you understand that this is the block that carries out a particular function,” Obiorah said.

Worsley and Ph.D. candidate David Bar-El, the class’ former teaching assistant, published a paper on

March 24 reflecting on the course’s evolving impact.

The report found that engaging with stakeholders in later iterations of the curriculum helped students better understand their needs and design products accordingly.

Worsley said he is working on several other projects that tie into inclusive making, such as designing a multimodal interface for Minecraft.

» See MAKING, page 7

shares plans for garden Local group looks to create community garden

By WILLIAM CLARK the daily northwestern @willsclark01

Members of Evanston Fight for Black Lives and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago discussed plans to create a sustainable community garden and freshwater conservation in the Great Lakes region at a virtual panel Friday.

» See ENVIRONMENT, page 7

INSIDE: Around Town 2 | On Campus 3 | Opinion 6 | Sports 8

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MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021

THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

AROUND TOWN

ETHS students reflect on switch to hybrid learning

By MOLLY LUBBERS daily senior staffer @mollylubbers

After more than a year of online classes, Evanston Township High School senior Chloe Haack said she wanted to spend at least some time in the building before her high school career ended. But she said that her first day back at ETHS definitely didn’t feel like things were back to normal.

“Walking in, there were maybe 10 kids in the hallway at the same time, which, if you go to (ETHS), you know that having 3,000+ kids in the same hallway can be very overwhelming,” she said. “Only seeing 10 other kids in the hallway was a very weird and honestly apocalyptic type of experience.”

Haack was one of the 1,720 students who opted into ETHS’s optional hybrid instruction, which started last week. In this model, students attend one in-person session for each of their classes every other week. About 2,000 students have continued to learn remote-only.

Haack said there was only one other student in the room in both classes she’s attended inperson. Though she sits in front of her teacher, she logs into a Zoom meeting most of her classmates access remotely, she said, which means her teachers tailor instruction to the virtual classroom.

“It’s good that they’ve made both experiences very consistent, because you don’t want to have the kids at home lack that in-person experience when they didn’t opt in,” she said.

“But I do feel like I opted in for a reason, and I don’t think that it’s that different (from only learning remotely).”

Like Haack, ETHS senior Sophia Osilaja wanted to return for her final year of high school, but she said the number of people attending in person varies depending on the class.

Sometimes, she’s the only student in the classroom, she said.

“When there’s more people in the class, my

Sneha Dey/The Daily Northwestern

Evanston Township High School. Some students returned part-time to classrooms as ETHS switched to hybrid instruction mid-April.

teachers try to engage both sides — the online and the in-person,” she said. “When it’s just me in the class, I’m just kind of in there, listening while they teach to the Zoom.”

Osilaja said she likes getting to leave her house to be in a different environment, but said it still feels weird. She likes the social aspect of school, she said, which is more difficult in a hybrid model — in part because students’ schedules don’t necessarily match up with their friends’.

ETHS divided students into four cohorts,

with in-person days consisting of morning and afternoon cohorts. Students attend in-person every other week, with cohorts A and B switching off with cohorts C and D. Junior Damascus Wheeler opted out of hybrid learning in part because the in-person classroom would look so different from a normal school year.

“I didn’t feel like it would do justice to the previous years of being in school,” he said. “I feel like it would take away from the experience

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that I’ve had (in) the previous years.”

Wheeler said he took some time to weigh the pros and cons of hybrid instruction and talked with his friends to gage who was planning to return. Wheeler, who is Black, said he noticed that most of his Black friends opted out, while most of his White friends opted in.

While White students make up 46 percent of the total student population at ETHS, according to most recent data from Illinois Report Card, they comprise 66 percent of the students who opted into hybrid instruction, according to the ETHS website.

Wheeler said he’s noticed students seem to have similar experiences whether they attended online or in-person. But he also said he sees some benefits to in-person instruction.

“They probably have the advantage because they get to be in front of the teacher, so they have a reason to stay focused,” he said. “You can (drift off ) sometimes when you’re at home, and a lecture is going on.”

Wheeler said he hopes the next year will be in-person. He said that it’s easier to be motivated when he’s seeing his teachers and fellow classmates face-to-face.

“That environment or just being in the hallways and just walking around — it’s very uplifting and it really helps a lot,” he said. “Going through the day and having to deal with your classes and the workload, I feel like that makes it easier.”

While Wheeler looks to the future of his final year of high school, Haack is reflecting on the end of her own.

By the time she graduates, Haack said she’ll only have been in the ETHS building for a total of 12 days during her senior year. While she said she’s feeling a little disappointed, she also felt like COVID-19 made her grow up faster. Now, she’s looking forward to what comes next.

“I definitely feel ready, like I feel like I’ve done everything I can at ETHS and now it’s my time to move on,” she said. “(On) my last day, I’ll definitely feel how bittersweet it really is.” mollylubbers2023@u.northwestern.edu

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MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021

THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

3

ON CAMPUS

Axis Lab centers immigrant, refugee voices

Editor in Chief Sneha Dey

eic@dailynorthwestern.com

By YUNKYO KIM daily senior staffer @yunkyomoonk

When Asian American studies Prof. Patricia Nguyen co-founded Axis Lab in 2015, she felt as though she inherited the organization.

Even though the Argyle-based mutual aid and arts group is less than a decade old, Nguyen said she drew a lot of knowledge from her father, who has organized in the district for more than 40 years. “(The nonprofit) that I co-founded is actually one that wouldn’t have been possible without my father,” Nguyen said. “Even though it’s run by a lot of us millennials, it’s actually an intergenerational project.”

Axis Lab was formed by a group of creatives — many first- and second-generation Asian Americans — to serve the predominantly Southeast Asian district of Argyle.

Through arts, design and food, she said the group seeks to center immigrant and refugee voices and address inherited trauma, anti-Blackness, gentrification and other issues within the Asian American community.

John Lee, Axis Lab co-founder and director of design, said even though he grew up in southern California, he is able to see how the group’s work attempts to branch the experiences of Asian Americans across the nation.

Lee said Axis Lab seeks to be “hyperlocal” to the needs of the Argyle district, but said he is able to see connections between Asian American communities in their histories of U.S. intervention and imperialism.

“Argyle is so unique to everything else,” Lee said.

“There’s an opportunity for us to not only tell specific stories of our communities here, but things that also tie into the larger, broader struggles many people are probably faced with.”

Axis Lab addressed this proximity and intersectionality through artistic lens. In 2019, the group highlighted neighborhood history through “In Search of Old Dreams: Stories of Argyle,” in partnership with Chicago Architecture Biennial.

To prepare the installation, Axis Lab members looked up old articles on the neighborhood and found

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Arts and mutual aid organization Axis Lab seeks to center immigrant and refugee voices and address issues within the Asian American community.

coverage of anti-Asian racism, housing discrimination and police brutality as well as those that covered Vietnamese families moving into the neighborhood, Lee said. Axis Lab members then converted these old newspaper articles into a canvas form.

However, Axis Lab’s activity shifted to “rapid response” last summer, Caroline Olsen (Medill ‘17) said.

Olsen, who collaborates as documentarian and community archivist at Axis Lab, said that organizers set up a mutual aid booth under a Red Line stop every week after Chicago school food programs shut down, distributing food, personal protective equipment and COVID-19 informational packets.

Then, organizers got the idea to create a “story booth” within the mutual aid booth, Olsen said.

“I would talk with people and take portraits for them on the street if they were interested,” Olsen said. “(We would) just hear the story of how them or their family ended up in the neighborhood, and

how they’ve seen it change over the years, and sort of get these personal narratives of the history of the neighborhood.”

At the end of the summer, Axis Lab printed out quotes and portraits of local residents and exhibited them outside a closed grocery store, and gave the photos to people who were in them, Olsen said.

The project felt like it was building a community, she added.

Nguyen said she also sees the work of her organization as having educational and healing capacities. By incorporating ethnic studies with the arts she said she wants to prioritize access to education on top of rapid-response initiatives.

“How do we provide healing and educational workshops that are more accessible to the community?” Nguyen said. “We want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to participate.” yunkyokim2022@u.northwestern.edu

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MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021

By JACQUELYNE GERMAIN the daily northwestern @jacquygermain

SESP junior Christian Wade said he had wanted to enter Associated Student Government’s presidential race since he came to Northwestern, but felt deterred by wanting to take a break during his senior year.

However, the idea of making meaningful change at NU kept eating away at him, Wade said. So when Medill sophomore Adaeze Ogbonna suggested he run, he agreed without hesitation.

“I knew that if I didn’t run I was always going to regret it,” Wade said.

After ASG’s sole presidential slate dropped out of the race on Monday, Wade and

Ogbonna officially

Photo courtesy of Adaeze Ogbonna

By EMMA ROSENBAUM the daily northwestern @emmacrosenbaum

Associated Student Government presidential slate Sahibzada Mayed and McKenna Troy have never been in Northwestern’s student government, but they hope to use their outsider perspectives as an advantage to their leadership.

Mayed, a McCormick and Communication sophomore, and Troy, a Bienen and Communication sophomore, said they share frustration toward the University because of its response to police abolition, mental health and other issues. This combination pushed Mayed to run for ASG president, he said.

“What is the best way for students to advocate their concerns to administration?” Mayed said. “I feel like that’s where we have ASG. But ASG, in my opinion, has not been able to do that in the past.”

However, Mayed and Troy’s paths crossed when they met this quarter in Design 395: Visionary Design: What will it Look Like?, where students are tasked with combining methods of art and engineering to come up with world solutions.

Mayed is a math teaching assistant and an academic coach for NU Academy Evanston and Troy directed the Northwestern Undergraduate Opera last fall. But the two share a commonality — both founded startups in The Garage.

announced their candidacy to run for president and vice president, respectively. Later this week, the pair will release their campaign platform and participate in a Tuesday town hall co-hosted by For Members Only, Northwestern’s Black Student Alliance.

Wade and Ogbonna will face off against McCormick and Communication sophomore Sahibzada Mayed and Bienen and Communication sophomore McKenna Troy in this year’s election, with voting scheduled to begin on Thursday at 7 p.m. and end on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Wade is currently ASG’s Campus Life Chair and Ogbonna is the African Students Association Senator, and both have been part of ASG since their freshman year. Last year they worked together on ImproveNU, a competition run by ASG that allows student teams to pitch ideas to better NU and compete for University funding. Wade said last year’s competition was the most successful ImproveNU project in history, seeing the most applicants, teams and funding for the event.

Ogbonna said she and Wade are committed to having an inclusive platform that every student has a stake in. Their platform focuses on making ASG more accessible to the student body, supporting marginalized students and holding administrators accountable. She added that their platform centers justice, equity and advocacy as broader values.

A holistic approach

They share backgrounds in community-based design — designing solutions through actively working with people. Troy said this gives the pair experience to incorporate constituent input into platforms.

“Our entire approach to making policy is going to be firmly rooted in community-based design, which means solving problems comes directly from the people who the problems are affecting,” Troy said.

McCormick sophomore Jazmyn Lu said in an email to The Daily that Mayed is passionate about humancentered design.

Mayed and Lu co-founded a design startup, Design & Elevate, which connects students passionate about design to community partners in need of designers.

Mayed shows he is concerned with ethical and inclusive design methods, she said.

“Because he is an engineer and has that engineering training, he is able to approach problems with solutions that have the actual people in mind,” Lu said. “I think when it comes to ASG, fresh blood, passion, perseverance and this human-centered design thinking make him a great out-of-the-box candidate.”

said he does not think the police should handle mental health cases. The Depart of Safety and Security’s role in mental health cases is already being considered.

Troy said she envisions ASG’s executive members acting as a “bridge” between the NUCNC, administrators and the rest of the student body in creating a new system. “(With) the history of how (University Police) has operated and the harm that they’ve done to our marginalized communities, it does not make sense for us to continue (with UP),” Mayed said.

The slate also seeks to change the way the University handles sexual assault cases, because Troy said they believe NU does not take enough disciplinary action.

The candidates said they want to target the administration and the investigation process.

Specifically, they said they hope to work with the board in charge of making disciplinary decisions and change the investigation so survivors do not have to repeat their stories multiple times.

Mayed and Troy added that they want to advocate for more resources for non-binary and transgender students. They cited problems such as most buildings lacking gender neutral bathrooms and forms that do not allow gender-affirming names or genders.

Mayed said they hope to redefine Counseling and Psychological Services and Northwestern University Health

Student advocacy to administration

Mayed and Troy’s platform includes advocating for police abolition, increasing gender resources and addressing sexual assault and mental health.

Mayed and Troy said they support NU Community Not Cops’ calls for police abolition and they want to establish an alternative system. In a new system, Mayed

Wade said the slate is focused on ways to better advocate for marginalized students on campus. He said he hopes to make campus an equitable space for students to ensure that everyone has the resources they need to thrive.

“It’s really important that our platform is something that not only has a lot of initiatives and a lot of opinions and desires, but is also something that is feasible and it’s not just a bunch of empty promises,” he said.

To ensure their platform is as inclusive as possible, Wade and Ogbonna said they have met with Rainbow Alliance , Alianza and FMO, among other student groups.

Wade also said he hopes to hold administrators as well as those involved with ASG accountable to the student body. The University should take student demands to heart and listen to students who are actually impacted by certain policies on campus, he added.

Opening ASG to students

Wade said he wants to make ASG more of community-oriented and student-oriented space. He added that once people enter ASG, they become insulated in a “bubble” that excludes the larger student community.

“For too long ASG has been for the people that have been a part of ASG, and ASG is supposed to represent the student body and what you need to do when you’re creating a platform is talk to the student body,” Ogbonna added.

Weinberg junior Margot Bartol, ASG’s Policy

Research Chair, said she’s spoken in-depth with Wade and Ogbonna about making the organization more accessible to all students.

ASG’s foundational structure has not changed in decades in a way that shuts out students from participating, Bartol said.

“A lot of the ASG reform based (initiatives) are looking to tighten the relationship between ASG and students and making sure it’s a lot more linear,” she said.

To encourage more interaction and engagement between ASG and the student body, Wade said the slate plans to institute office hour requirements for senators. They will also urge executive board members to meet with student groups and host roundtable discussions before crafting their term initiatives for the year, he added.

Ogbonna said she wants to facilitate a comfortable environment where students would feel comfortable seeing her around campus and bringing up issues that ASG should evaluate.

At the end of their term, Wade said he hopes people can look back and say that he and Ogbonna improved Northwestern and made a positive impact on campus.

“We’re both here because we want to serve the student body, we want to help uplift people and give students voices who have otherwise been ignored by administration, by ASG,” Wade said. “I think our goal to really just make an impact and help to get everyone engaged with ASG as a whole.” jacquelynegermain2023@u.northwestern.edu

Service, both of which he had a bad experience with.

According to Mayed, there are long wait times and students feel like their needs are not being met. While ASG has a mental health committee, he said he never knew it existed.

“Why we want to run is really because we’ve been through these things,” he said. “We’ve seen these (things) happen to friends of friends and there’s no student representation. ASG feels very disconnected from students.” emmarosenbaum2024@u. northwestern.edu

Photo courtesy of Sahibzada Mayed

MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021

THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

5

Fossil Free NU marches for divestment, abolition

By MAIA PANDEY the daily northwestern @maiapandey

In an Earth Day march, Fossil Free Northwestern called on the University to divest from fossil fuels, reinvest in Black, brown and Indigenous communities and abolish University Police.

About 60 protesters gathered at Oldberg Park on Clark St., where organizers delivered a land acknowledgement and distributed snacks. Participants knelt on the ground and touched the land in appreciation. They then marched onto Chicago Ave. before stopping at the Donald P. Jacobs Center for closing remarks.

The group chanted slogans along the way, including, “Disclose, divest, or this will be our death,” and “What do we want? Climate justice. When do we want it? Now.” At least eight Evanston Police Department cars were stationed around the intersection of Foster St. and Sheridan Road.

Fossil Free NU member Lucy London said the march’s theme, “Beyond Earth Day,” seeks to highlight how climate justice should extend beyond a single day of the year.

“Our goals as Fossil Free are not just divestment,”

Maia Pandey/The Daily Northwestern

A banner that protesters hung in front of Deering Library after Thursday’s march. Over 60 people attended Fossil Free Northwestern’s in-person action on Earth Day.

they said. “We want to see and uplift the lived experience, support Indigenous sovereignty and do broader environmental justice work because divestment itself is just a false solution.”

The group’s goals are rooted in abolitionist demands, London said, and it plans to continue to push for divestment from UP and fossil fuels in favor of reinvesting in communities. Fossil Free NU’s last in-person event was a joint protest with NU Community Not Cops last October.

Divestment is a step toward decolonizing the Indigenous land Northwestern sits on, said a student speaker

at the march, who asked to stay anonymous for safety reasons.

“Divestment is just the first step,” the speaker said.

“It’s still working in the capitalist structure. Why does our University have $11 billion (in endowment money) to hoard when it should be investing in Evanston and Northwestern communities?”

London, who also spoke at the march, called on Chief Investment Officer Amy Falls to recognize Fossil Free NU’s demands and commit to working toward climate justice. The group sent Falls an email last week requesting a meeting and have yet to receive a response,

London said.

Fossil Free NU also demanded Falls disclose the University’s investment portfolio. In Feb. 2020, the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees rejected Fossil Free NU’s proposal calling for divestment from any of the top 100 coal, oil and gas companies.

“We’re serious about our demands,” London said.

“By doing nothing to stop the money pipeline fueling the genocidal fossil fuel industry, she is already causing immense violence to Black, brown, Indigenous and poor frontline communities.”

Steven Du, a member of the Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance, said the climate justice movement is intertwined with the push for Indigenous sovereignty and abolition and the fight against settler colonialism and White supremacy, he said.

The University unfairly puts the impetus on students to push for these causes and does not meaningfully address student demands, the Weinberg senior added.

“Do something, instead of trying to place all the burden on the students and saying, ‘Oh, we’re listening,’” he said. “It’s very frustrating because it’s students and graduate students and the community that really does the work, and the institution tries to take credit.” maiapandey@u.northwestern.edu

Evanston community leaders talk environmental justice

By WILLIAM CLARK the daily northwestern @willsclark01

Evanston community members and environmental leaders discussed the Church Street Waste Transfer Station, the city’s environmental policies and other local concerns at a virtual panel Thursday.

The event was part of Citizens’ Greener Evanston’s “Earth Week for Everyone” series, which is taking place Thursday through Saturday in honor of Earth month.

Kumar Jensen, Evanston’s chief sustainability and resilience officer, said there has been increased collaboration between environmentalist and racial justice groups in recent years.

In September 2020, the Evanston City Council adopted the Environmental Justice Resolution, which

aims to ensure that residents have equal access to environmental assets and protection from environmental harms.

The resolution has yet to be translated into any city ordinances. During his campaign, Mayor-elect Daniel Biss told The Daily that leaving the resolution as a concept on the shelf would be a “disservice” to communities affected by environmental injustice. He said he plans to create a citywide map identifying regions that have experienced disproportionate environmental harms, a project the city’s Office of Sustainability has been developing.

“We expect this to take a little while, but we hope that in the near future — so hopefully the summer — we’ll be able to start publicizing what that process will look like and how people can be involved in it,” Jensen told The Daily earlier this week.

Evanston resident Dorothy Headd — whom the

city recently honored with a street name for her environmental justice advocacy and other community work — discussed the Church Street Waste Transfer Station.

The facility, which is located in the 5th Ward, is a site where trucks dump trash to be stored until larger trucks pick it up and transport it to a landfill.

Headd and other 5th Ward residents have been involved in activism surrounding the waste transfer station for several years. Although research into the site’s impact on human health is ongoing, a six-month airquality study conducted in 2019 recommended further inquiry into the potential effects of formaldehyde and nitric oxide on human health.

“These waste transfer stations are normally located in low-income, minority neighborhoods,” Headd said.

“I don’t think it’s getting worse, but I certainly don’t see any real change… in my neighborhood.”

Jensen said there are limitations on how the city can

address the waste transfer station since it’s permitted by the state. However, he said he’s optimistic that the city can use other tools to reduce the station’s environmental impact while working toward its eventual closure.

During the mayoral campaign, all three candidates told The Daily they thought the waste transfer station may be in violation of the Environmental Justice Resolution.

Resident and panelist Lorraine Williams said air and soil pollution pose threats at the waste transfer station, as well as in the neighborhoods near the Tapecoat factory and a concrete manufacturing facility on Oakton Street.

“We need a sweeping approach to (addressing environmental justice),” Williams said. “In the long run, everyone is affected by each other’s troubles and struggles, and we raise each other up by working together.”

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williamclark2024@u.northwestern.edu

6 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021

OPINION

Join the online conversation at www.dailynorthwestern.com LETTER TO THE EDITOR

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We know you as brave and brilliant researchers, scholars, writers and artists, and as sage voices committed to furthering all of our understandings about your areas of expertise. You provide an invaluable perspective on what it is like to be a minority in an elite environment where change is welcome, difficult, and at times uncomfortable. We are

blessed to have you as colleagues; you enrich Northwestern and our world, and we want to support you in every way we can.

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— Karen J. Alter, Jason Brickner, Susan Mango Curtis, Jennifer Chan, Shannon Millikin, Adam Goodman, Jeannie Herrick, Sumit Dhar, Regina Lopata Logan, Alex Birdwell, Yumi Shiojima, Michael A. Deas, Scott Garton, John Franklin, Ava Thompson Greenwell, Kimberly S. Scott, Beth Bennett, Sarah B. Rodriguez, and Michelle Rogers

Make a city to last a century starting with housing STERLING ORTIZ

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

To Daniel Biss & The Evanston City Council, Daniel Biss — my mom and I jointly congratulate you on becoming the next mayor of Evanston. I like you because you pushed a progressive income tax and a $15 minimum wage. You also pledged to fight for all the working-class Illinoisans who don’t live in multiple mansions. My mom likes you because your middle name is Kálmán, one of the great Eastern European names.

But what direction will you lead Evanston, Mayor-elect Biss? That choice is up to you and your council. As a Northwestern student, I request that you shape an Evanston where everyone has a beautiful place to live.

Effective housing policy saved my life.

When I was born in New York City, my mother and I went from the hospital to the homeless shelter to public housing in

Harlem. Those experiences imprinted the importance of housing policy on my psyche.

This is why I ask you to endorse and make calls for House Bill 116, which would give every city in Illinois the option to enforce rent control on their housing. If and when that bill passes, I encourage you to hold a vote on rent control in Evanston and campaign hard for a “Yes.” Last summer, I lived in a bedroom on Garnett Place that cost $800 a month, while taking virtual classes. The experience wasn’t bad, per se — it helps when your roommates know how to season their food — but I saw first-hand how high Evanston rents are. Rent control would keep students and families in their homes, giving them a real chance to live in Evanston for decades. While any application may come too late for my Northwestern tenure, I believe enacting rent control would benefit future students and existing residents.

Also, I believe that you and your council should take a sharp razor to the current zoning law for two reasons.

First, multi-family homes are banned in a significant portion of Evanston, making rent much more expensive.

Second, the entire city is bound by a

prehistoric law that says only three “unrelated persons” can live together. A college town and future great city like Evanston should not restrict greatness with these outdated laws. They should seek to encourage a boom of housing by opening every acre of housing to allow multiple families and to strike out the “unrelated persons” law. Whether they are Israeli immigrants like your family, immigrants from any other country, or Americans seeking a new start, every new Evanstonian is a blessing to all of us. Current Evanston residents will also see a benefit, since they would have more choices within the city.

The people of Evanston clearly have an affinity with you, Mayor-elect Biss. In the primary election, almost 8,000 voters thought you were the right choice, as you cruised to a first-round victory — and that grants you an incredible mandate to shape this city. And not only do you have that mandate, but the whole council does as well.

The voters were clear with these municipal elections — Evanston wants a different direction. Down the ballot, the voters elected Clare Kelly over Judy Fiske — who tried to ban our beer pong — along with three other new aldermen and a new city clerk.

The young Sebastian Nalls, a man close to my age, got 9 percent of the vote on his first campaign supporting proposals like one that would shift Evanston Police Department’s funds toward public programs. That percentage means there was a group of people who so thoroughly believed in a just city that they chose to vote for a college student with no traditional experience, which is remarkable.

Rent control and abundant housing both fulfill worthy goals and sharpen each other like iron sharpens iron. You can’t cap the rent and ensure current residents keep living in Evanston if current residents don’t have a quality place to live. Now that the City Council is done cosplaying as prohibitionists, debating the morality of drinking games, Evanston can enact this great combination of housing policies. These actions will make this city a beacon on the North Shore.

Sterling Ortiz is from the School of Education and Social Policy, Class of 2023. He can be contacted at sterlingortiz2022@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.

What’s gender preformance when you’re not perceived?

VENUS

COLUMNIST

Dear Daily readers, If you haven’t had a crisis about your gender or sexuality during the pandemic, what are you doing? “(Gender) is an identity tenuously constituted in time — an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts,” said gender theorist Judith Butler.

Without that constant repetition, the structures of gender begin to collapse. The pandemic is the perfect environment to take a break from constant performance.

I have had space to question what societal norms I prescribe to — without the expectations that are typically imposed upon me by the outside world. Being alone in my room all day can be depressing, but one bright side to that

pandemic-based predicament is that I found the freedom to present myself in any way I wanted, knowing that I didn’t have to concern myself with what others think.

Presentation, pronouns, and labels are important! They don’t say everything about a person, and if you want to reject them altogether, more power to you. But in a society where normative gender and sexualities are thrust upon us without a second thought, I appreciated taking the time to sit back and consider the following: How do I want to be perceived? What pronouns feel comfortable? How do I want to dress?

Who do I find attractive? Are any of these things different from what they were pre-pandemic?

If you answered yes to the last question, welcome to your journey of questioning! It might feel scary, but it’s a fun place to be. I wholeheartedly believe that everyone should sit down and reflect upon what labels feel good to them. It’s not enough to simply accept what society has prescribed to you based on your anatomy. All of our identities require thought and care.

While I was stuck inside at home, I realized I didn’t need to perform anymore. At first, that

started by staying in pajamas all day (which I would have never done before). But that evolved into playing with fashion and waking up each day thinking about how I want to be perceived.

Before the pandemic, I understood that binary gender categories were arbitrary, ridiculous and even violent. However, I still blindly accepted labels like female, woman and she/her pronouns.

Through the pandemic, I used androgyny as a tool to discover what feels good to me. Now I use they/them pronouns in addition to she/her pronouns and understand that I’m non-binary. I hope that everyone has the opportunity to reflect and reassess the labels we use.

It’s important to note that having androgynous style is not the same as being non-binary or gender fluid. Androgyny is often an external rebellion against cultural gender norms. Being non-binary or gender fluid are labels we use to describe our gender when we don’t identify as a man or a woman.

Like all things, gender is not black and white.

It’s important to note that being non-binary is not a third gender category — it is whatever each person defines it to be.

In the end, everything we do is performance.

So, even if you’re not radically updating your identities, it’s still important to curate your image, and I hope that the pandemic has created an opportunity to do so. Maybe this pandemic was the first time you considered drastically changing your hair. Or maybe you wore makeup for the first time. Or maybe you stopped wearing makeup all together.

Whatever it is, do what feels affirming to you.

And, obviously, always make sure to be respectful of other people’s gender categories by using the right pronouns and treating them with love and care!

That’s all for this week, folks. If you have any questions, comments or need advice please fill out this Google form and check The Daily’s opinion section each Friday to read my response.

Venus can be contacted at venus@dailynorthwestern. com. 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 144, Issue 06

Editor in Chief Sneha Dey

Managing Editors Jacob Fulton Isabelle Sarraf Sophia Scanlan Haley Fuller

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• Should be fewer than 300 words They will be checked for authenticity and may be edited for length, clarity, style and grammar.

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Letters, columns and cartoons contain the opinion of the authors, not Students Publishing Co. Inc. Submissions signed by more than three people must include at least one and no more than three names designated to represent the group.

Editorials reflect the majority opinion of The Daily’s student editorial board and not the opinions of either Northwestern University or Students Publishing Co. Inc.

MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021

THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN

COMMITTEE From page 1 selected the final group, according to this month’s announcement.

History and Asian American Studies Prof. Ji Yeon Yuh said the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences is also “severely underrepresented.”

Only one Weinberg faculty member sits on the committee, despite almost every major requiring undergraduates to take some Weinberg classes, Yuh said.

“The point of a Northwestern degree is not to get graduates a six-figure job upon graduation,” she said.

“The point of a Northwestern education is to prepare students to be upstanding and outstanding citizens... and that requires a humanities education, requires

RALLY From page 1 community.”

Patricia Savage-Willams, president of the Evanston Township High School/School District 202 school board and equity liaison at New Trier High School, cautioned attendees against “being too celebratory” of the Chauvin verdict.

“I agree with the President when he said that the verdict is a step toward addressing systemic racism and police misconduct, but it’s not enough,” SavageWilliams said.

Savage-Williams also spoke out against conservative legislation aimed at reducing voting access to marginalized communities.

She reminded attendees that this is not only

ENVIRONMENT From page 1 The event was part of Citizens’ Greener Evanston’s “Earth Week for Everyone” series, which took place Thursday through Saturday in honor of Earth month. EFBL organizer Emma Barreto said she wants sustainable living to be a community project rather than an individual one.

For EFBL, sustainability means building a community garden in a vacant lot in the Fifth Ward. Barreto, along with fellow EFBL organizer Maia Robinson, said they would use the garden to grow food and flowers and create a space for community engagement.

“Historically, the environment has been used as a tool to oppress us,” Robinson said, referencing racial injustices like slavery and sharecropping. “Now, we’re looking at a way that we can understand that history while also relearning the ways that we can use the

an understanding of issues of racial equity and social justice.”

Ideally, the new president would recognize the necessity of humanities in an NU education, Yuh said. Administrators, including the president, could better promote and fund these programs on campus, she added.

Yuh said the evolution of the Buffett Institute of Global Studies toward more policy- and economicsoriented projects in past years is indicative of a need for more humanities support on campus.

“Right now, in our society, the balance is such that the humanities are neglected,” Yuh said “It’s unfortunate that that kind of imbalance is reflected in the composition of the Presidential Search Committee.”

Yu said she recognizes the search committee will primarily play an advisory role and the Board will make the happening in Republican states, but that it’s also happening close to home, and local elections matter.

“So what’s next?” Savage-Williams asked. “We must protect our right to vote. And we must always vote, just as aggressively as we voted in that last election. You have to do that every single election.”

Organizer Angela Sangha-Gadsden said the five women leading the coalition work tirelessly. Outside of leading community events like the rally, the group meets with elected officials, campaigns for local candidates and spends hours doing research.

They hold community meetings the first Saturday of every month.

Sangha-Gadsden said she often considers her work’s impact on her children. She said it’s difficult to take time away from them to write or research before a meeting, but she always remembers that the time environment to our own benefit.”

Barreto said a community garden could provide food, jobs and community for Black residents while also addressing climate change. However, EFBL has struggled to locate a vacant lot for the garden.

According to Project Drawdown, a nonprofit organization researching climate solutions, sustainable food production is an important path to climate change mitigation.

This is sometimes called “regenerative agriculture,” farming techniques that reverse climate change by reducing reliance on carbon-intensive equipment and improving soil health.

Debra Shore, commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, said local agriculture could also be important for conservation, because regions like California often import water from water-rich regions in order to irrigate crops.

While California doesn’t currently irrigate with water from the Great Lakes, Shore said transporting

final selection. Still, she hopes the committee members adopt a “transformative vision” for the University’s future.

Beinen and Weinberg freshman Thomas Filipiuk said while he does not feel a president impacts his dayto-day experience as a piano performance major, he hopes the next president would value the importance of arts to campus culture.

“I’ve met so many people who are doing dual degrees in music or film or theater or whatever,” Filipiuk said. “It is something that’s really valued on campus — we’re not just a STEM school.”

Medill Prof. Ava Greenwell, who was a faculty member when Henry Bienen was appointed president and when Morton Schapiro assumed the role, said there was very little community involvement in both searches.

One of the key ways a president affects the day-to-day is spent for them and other children who look like her own. Sangha-Gadsden said the group couldn’t “sit by” and keep watching children continuing to be mistreated in their community.

Organizer and coalition member Jasmine Sebaggala also said she often thinks about the time she misses with her kids because of this work, but she does think community members are rallying behind the organization’s efforts more so than before.

She said Niles Township High Schools District 219 board members, staff and Skokie trustees were present at the rally on Saturday, something Sebaggala sees as indicative of increased support for the group’s goals.

“I feel like they’re listening to us,” Sebaggala said.

“They’re just starting to understand what we’re saying.”

University operations is by appointing deans of various schools, Greenwell said. While putting people of color in leadership roles is not the solution to eradicating structural issues, it is an important step, she said.

Similarly, Greenwell is less concerned about a new president’s academic background than their understanding of how to create a more inclusive campus, she added.

“We really need someone who understands what it means to have a history of marginalization for your identity,” Greenwell said. “When I was an undergraduate, there was almost no conversation about race, and as an African American woman, gender for that matter. I would love to see a woman of color president at Northwestern.” maiapandey@u.northwestern.edu

MAKING From page 1 He plans to work with Park School in Evanston to introduce more maker technology to students with disabilities.

The University, Worsley said, also has significant work to do to support students with disabilities. He suggested initiatives such as the redesign of physical spaces on campus, more comprehensive training for faculty and an internal audit of NU policies.

“What can we, as an institution, do better to make sure that we are welcoming to everyone?” Worsley said.

“And not just welcoming, that we’re really celebrating the various identities, the various facets of people’s identities that they have.”

oliviaalexander2024@u.northwestern.edu water requires energy that could be conserved if waterrich regions produced those crops themselves.

“It doesn’t make sense to export things like tomatoes from the central valley of California, where it’s water scarce… to water-rich places like Chicago,” she said.

Shore said as climate change, pollution and population growth make freshwater more scarce, the Great Lakes region will need to find ways to conserve water — including expanding local agriculture.

Robinson said a community garden could address problems like food insecurity and joblessness on top of climate change. She said the garden would freely distribute produce to those in need while also selling to residents with the means to pay.

According to the USDA, one in four households experienced food insecurity amid the pandemic, and according to the National Institutes of Health, food insecurity is more prevalent among Black, Latine and

7

rjleung7@u.northwestern.edu Indigenous communities, especially when it comes to accessing healthy food options.

These types of barriers exist on the local level as well.

Evanston’s 5th Ward lacks a local supermarket, leaving residents to shop at convenience stores which often lack healthy food options. This, in turn, can perpetuate patterns that lead to significantly disparate health outcomes across the country.

Ajiah Gilbert, a member of Greenest Region Corps, an organization that partners with Chicago-area governments to implement sustainability projects, moderated the event. Gilbert said she was excited by the lively discussion portion where attendees exchanged ideas with Barreto and Robinson.

“There’s so many great ideas but there’s so many hills to go over,” she said.

ORDER YOUR 2021 NU SYLLABUS

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williamclark2024@u.northwestern.edu

Monday, April 26, 2021

SPORTS

@DailyNU_Sports

SOFTBALL

Wildcats fall short in series against No. 1 Michigan

By SKYE SWANN the daily northwestern @sswann301

At the top of the third with the score tied 1-1 on Saturday, Northwestern needed a run. Luckily, junior catcher Jordyn Rudd was up at bat.

She stepped up to the plate and smashed a home run in the second game of the day’s doubleheader. The junior gave Michigan senior Meghan Beaubien — the third best pitcher in the Big Ten — a run for her money in the series this weekend.

But even with the jaw dropping hit, No. 3 Wildcats (22-10, 22-10 Big Ten) lost three games in Ann Arbor. Rudd led the team with 5 RBIs and a homerun over the weekend.

“Michigan was a good pitching team so I knew I had to get things going (for the team),” Rudd said.

The No.1 Wolverines’ (24-5, 24-5 Big Ten) pitching rotation gave NU trouble over the weekend, and junior pitcher Alex Storako was a main threat. Leading the Big Ten in pitching, Storako pitched fourteen innings and totaled 17 strikeouts in the series.

The Cats started out the weekend strong with a 4-1 win Friday at Alumni Field, showing a strong offense against Beaubian. Rudd earned 2 RBIs and 2 hits, causing Michigan pitcher Sarah Schaefer to enter the game for relief in the sixth inning.

“We learned a lot from (this weekend),”

Rudd said. “For us, seeing great pitchers like (Beaubian and Storako) and competing against a great team helps us in the future.”

But the Wolverines took control for the rest of the weekend, capitalizing on NU pitching struggles. Despite junior pitcher Danielle Williams’ six strikeouts Friday, Michigan batters decoded the rest of the Cats’ pitching rotation. Wolverines’ junior center fielder Lexie Blair alone racked up four runs in the doubleheader.

Her runs caused the freshman pitcher Lauren Boyd (3-2) — who opened up Saturday’s rainy doubleheader in her twelfth game of the season — great difficulties.

Boyd allowed seven Wolverine runs and had only three strikeouts.

Williams started the second game of the doubleheader well, and NU held a 3-1 lead for two innings until Michigan sophomore pinch hitter Chandler Dennis doubled down the right field line and earned two RBIs to tie the score 3-3. She suffered another blow at the bottom of the seventh inning when Wolverine senior first baseman Lou Allan blasted a home run to secure the win.

This is the second time this season NU got swept in a doubleheader — the first time was to No. 2 Minnesota. Aside from the Cats’ offensive challenges, Storako was a main reason for Michigan’s wins.

The Frankfort, Ill. native allowed only two runs and struck out seven Saturday.

She continued giving NU trouble in Saturday’s game, fanning ten players and giving

up no runs.

At the plate, the Cats could not get into gear for three of the four games — the team scored only nine runs all weekend, while the Wolverines tallied 16. Rudd felt the team had difficulty against Michigan’s dynamic pitching, but it was good preparation for the postseason.

Junior centerfielder Skyler Shellmyer agreed with the sentiment, saying Beaubian and Storako were great pitchers who could help “gear the (team) up” for a future NCAA tournament run.

Shellmyer moved from the bottom of the lineup to the top of the batting rotation this weekend. The Iowa native was poised for the task, earning two runs in the series.

“I feel confident at the leadoff spot,” Shellmyer said. “It shows the confidence my coaches have within me.”

With only three series left in the regular season before the NCAA tournament, Drohan said the series against the Wolverines was a “glimpse at postseason play.”

Drohan said the squad has some offensive kinks to work out before the Illinois series this weekend. She said it was tough watching NU drop two leads on Saturday to Michigan, but she’s optimistic for the Cats’ games against the Fighting Illini.

“We’ve seen a lot of the higher level pitching in the league,” Drohan said. “Our goal (for Illinois) is to be tougher mentally to finish those games and come up with those timely hits.”

Daily file by Joshua Hoffman

skyeswann2024@u.northwestern.edu

FOOTBALL

FIELD HOCKEY

After practices, NU confident about offense

NU clinches berth in 2021 NCAA tournament

By DREW SCHOTT daily senior staffer @dschott328

Heading into the 2021 season, Northwestern will be without its top four pass catchers.

Wide receivers Ramaud ChiaokhiaoBowman and Riley Lees declared for the NFL Draft with tight end John Raine, while receiver Kyric McGowan transferred to Georgia Tech.The wideouts combined for 1,321 of the Wildcats’ 1,781 receiving yards during the 2020 season.

But offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian is not concerned about offensive drop-off. Rather, he said he’s thrilled about the future of NU’s passing attack following the Cats’ spring practices.

“Those guys had a lot of production on the field,” Bajakian said. “But that’s the beauty of a place like this. The guys we have waiting in the wings are highly intelligent, highly competitive.”

Receivers returning to Evanston include redshirt sophomores Bryce Kirtz and Wayne Dennis and junior Malik Washington. Each player notched at least two receptions last season and caught at least one pass of 20 or more yards, demonstrating an ability to make plays downfield.

Seniors Berkeley Holman and JJ Jefferson and redshirt sophomore Genson Hooper-Price will also be members of the receiver room in 2021. Holman caught two passes for 27 yards last season before suffering an injury against Michigan State and Jefferson — who did not play in 2020 — caught 12 passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns in 2019. Like Jefferson, Hooper-Price did not play last season.

“All of them bring a good skill set that I don’t think will necessarily miss a beat when it comes to replacing all that production that left,” Bajakian said.

NU’s second-year offensive coordinator also praised the Cats’ tight ends, a group that includes senior Charlie Mangieri, redshirt sophomore Thomas Gordon and junior Jason Whittaker.

According to Bajakian, Mangieri — who caught two touchdowns last season — had a strong spring practice and

is poised for success in the offense. The Peoria native has thrived as a blocker and was complemented by his offensive coordinator for his “great catch radius.” Even though Mangieri has only caught 74 yards over three seasons — Raine caught 233 during his one year in Evanston — he showed promise by setting career-highs in catches (7) and yardage (53) in 2020.

Despite Gordon, Whittaker and sophomore Marshall Lang having yet to register a catch for NU, Bajakian is optimistic about the unit’s depth. Lang played in five games last season and Whittaker, who previously played quarterback and superback, returns to Evanston after opting out of the 2020 season. Additionally, Bajakian believes Gordon can have a breakout season similar to Mangieri, saying he is “playing the best football since I’ve been here.”

While the starting lineup will be set in stone until the fall, Bajakian is looking forward to seeing the growth of NU’s pass catchers when camp resumes this summer.

“The philosophy is always get your playmakers the ball,” Bajakian said. “You have to identify who those playmakers are and figure out what they do best.”

Bajakian provides insight on quarterback competition

Following Peyton Ramsey’s decision to declare for the 2021 NFL Draft, four quarterbacks remained on the Cats’ roster: seniors Hunter Johnson and Andrew Marty, redshirt sophomore Zac Krause and sophomore Carl Richardson. Freshman Brendan Sullivan then early-enrolled at NU in the spring and sophomore Ryan Hilinski transferred in from South Carolina.

Following the conclusion of spring practice, Bajakian complemented the work of the six signal-callers.

“The guys are doing a great job,” Bajakian said. “They have a capacity to learn quickly and to absorb a lot of information.

We threw a lot at them this spring and they handled it really well.”

Only three of NU’s current quarterbacks have seen playing time, and most of it came during the 2019 season. Johnson played in six games during the Cats’ 3-9

Daily file photo by Joshua Hoffman

Northwestern players celebrate a touchdown. On Saturday, offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian spoke about the Wildcats’ pass catchers, including tight end Charlie Mangieri (89).

campaign, while Marty saw the field in five. In 2019, Hilinski played in 11 games and threw for 11 touchdowns for the Gamecocks, but only tossed six passes the following season.

Bajakian added the quarterback competition is far from over.

“We didn’t anticipate leaving spring ball with a starter named,” Bajakian said. “It’s a competition that started on the first day of spring ball and will continue through the end of training camp.”

O’Neil concludes first spring practices as defensive coordinator

After the retirement of longtime defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz, veteran NFL assistant coach Jim O’Neil took the reins of NU’s defense — a unit that allowed less than 350 yards per game and only 15.89 points per game in 2020.

Following his first spring practices with the Cats, O’Neil shared how his defense is making strides ahead of the 2021 season.

“I thought we took some big steps,” O’Neil said. “As far as spring ball, I’m happy with how it ended today. The players have exceeded my expectations. I tried to break them down mentally with all the install that we threw at them and they didn’t let me do it.”

With players such as linebackers Blake Gallagher and Paddy Fisher, cornerback Greg Newsome II and safety JR Pace departing for the NFL Draft, O’Neil has been impressed by various players this spring vying for an increased role.

He said redshirt sophomore Bryce Gallagher — Blake’s younger brother — sophomore Cullen Coleman and junior Khalid Jones are improving members of a linebacking corps led by graduate Chris Bergin.

Regarding the secondary, O’Neil has been impressed by the performance of sophomore defensive backs Garnett Hollis Jr. and Jaheem Joseph and redshirt sophomore defensive back Rod Heard.

A unit that returns players such as sophomore All-American safety Brandon Joseph and junior cornerback AJ Hampton, NU’s defensive coordinator has high expectations for the defensive backs.

“It’s going to be one of our most competitive position groups,” O’Neil said.

“In the game of football, you gotta earn it every year. Just because you were an All-American or just because you were a starter last year, that doesn’t mean anything. You gotta earn every single day at practice, you got to earn it every game.” drewschott2023@u.northwestern.edu

Northwestern is going dancing.

On Saturday, the Wildcats (11-5, 5-3 Big Ten) clinched a berth in the 2021 NCAA Tournament. NU earned one of the tournament’s three at-large bids and will face Delaware on April 30 for a spot in the quarterfinals against No. 4 Iowa.

The Cats’ appearance in the NCAA Tournament is the 16th in program history and the fourth under coach Tracey Fuchs. Most recently, NU appeared in the Big Dance in 2019 and lost to Boston College 2-1.

After a 10-4 regular season that saw two victories over the Hawkeyes and one against Michigan — a No. 2 seed in the tournament — the Cats fell in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals to Ohio State. Now, the team will have a chance to win the first national title in program history.

NU is led by Kayla Blas, Maddie Zimmer and Bente Baekers. A junior defenseman, Blas earned First Team AllBig Ten Honors. Zimmer also attained First Team All-Big Ten Honors, as well as Big Ten Freshman of the Year, after notching three goals and one assist.

Baekers, a redshirt sophomore forward and the Cats’ leading scorer with 12 goals, received Second Team All-Big Ten Honors.

— Drew Schott

Photo courtesy of Northwestern Athletics

Sophomore midfielder Alia Marshall jumps in celebration. Northwestern clinched a berth in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.