The Daily Northwestern Wednesday, May 1, 2019
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Grant backlog frustrates faculty With SQBRC set to open, proposals are slow to process By GABBY BIRENBAUM
daily senior staffer @birenbomb
After seven years of planning, four years of construction worth $455 million and a planned investment totaling $1 billion, Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center is set to open in June. The new research center — a modern-looking, glass-paneled structure located downtown on the Chicago campus — will be the crown jewel for Northwestern’s treasured research enterprise. SQBRC is expected to create 2,000 permanent jobs and generate $1.5 billion in federal funding. With sponsored research awards already totaling a record $702.1 million in the 2017-18 fiscal year, the new building is poised to push Northwestern’s Office for Research past the billion-dollar threshold. SQBRC “provides us with a tremendous opportunity to pull together a number of talented researchers into one cohesive group,” William Kath, the center’s co-director, said in a University release in May. “This will create a whole new set of interactions that will accelerate
research tremendously.” University president Morton Schapiro expressed excitement about the building’s impending opening as well. He boasted about Northwestern’s research prowess at both of his Conversations with the President events, citing the increase in federal funding to the University as research on the Evanston and Chicago campuses has expanded in the last two decades. For Schapiro, SQBRC will cement that legacy. “Just think about what’s gonna come out of that building,” he told The Daily in April. “It’s just amazing.” By pushing Northwestern into billion-dollar figures for research earnings, SQBRC will force the Office for Sponsored Research — which reviews grant applications for Northwestern faculty and submits them to federal organizations — to take on additional work sorting through grant proposals from the new and expanded labs taking residence in the center. But a month away from the grand opening, OSR is already struggling to process the existing levels of grant application activity. A significant backlog has taken root, causing research faculty to experience frustration. With pressure mounting from senior administrators for » See SQBRC, page 6
Evan Robinson-Johnson/Daily Senior Staffer
The Technological Institute, where many STEM classes are taught. Many international students have chosen to pursue economics because of the major’s reclassification to STEM, despite preferences for other departments.
In hopes of visa, many study econ
International students feel pressure to transfer to economics department By CADENCE QUARANTA
the daily northwestern
As work visas grow increasingly hard to acquire, many international students feel pressure to join the economics department, forced to sacrifice passions for job opportunities. The stress arises after NU’s decision to reclassify economics as a science, technology, engineering and mathematics major was authorized by the Department of
Homeland Security in May 2018. The reclassification will increase opportunities in the U.S. for international students who pursue a major in economics. After graduation, students majoring in STEM fields are allowed to remain in the country two years longer than those studying other subjects. Ravi Shankar, director of the International Office, said the regulation exists because of increased workforce shortages within STEM fields. “There is a great deal of need in
STEM fields, as not as many U.S. workers want to go into STEM,” Shankar said. “There is a shortage of specialists in this area.” He said the extended period also gives employers more opportunities to acquire work visas for desired candidates, rather than losing the chance to hire an employee at all. Although the reclassification benefits international students already studying economics, students outside the field feel an obligation to sacrifice other interests in order to remain in the U.S. after
college. Communication freshman Emily Yan is double-majoring in radio, television and film and economics. An international student from China, she said the visa extension period influenced her decision to choose economics as a second area of study. “I don’t hate econ, but I also don’t love it,” Yan said. “If it weren’t for the job opportunities, I wouldn’t take on (this) major.” » See ECON, page 6
ETHS students react to summits NU to evaluate School’s ‘Social Consciousness Series’ centered discussions on identities By ANDRES CORREA
the daily northwestern @aocorrea1
Evanston Township High School senior Karina Rodriguez organized the workshop “Not Latino Enough” for ETHS’s annual affinity summits in part because she wanted to learn more about how the identity reflects on herself. Last week, ETHS hosted a Latinx summit, which marked the final affinity summit of the Social Consciousness Series. Each summit centered on different identities: there were ones focusing on Latinx, Black, Asian, Middle Eastern and LGBTQ+ experiences. While the summits are available to all students, students from these marginalized identities were given priority to attend the day-long event. The summits included guest speakers like Michael Reyes, a Chicano poet, who engaged the crowd of students in spoken word poetry at the Latinx summit. Since moving to Evanston in 2016, Rodriguez has either attended, organized or helped
facilitate nearly all the affinity summits hosted at ETHS. The high school senior, who is Asian, Latina and queer, said the summits have allowed her to understand how she wants to define herself. Rodriguez, who grew up in Connecticut, said she never really saw people who looked like her in her old school, which is predominately white. Through the summits, she said she has been able to learn about herself and others. As a way to give back to the summit, Rodriguez created her own workshop, which she prepared over the course of a year. She said she researched the history of indigenous people in the Americas, Latinx communities in Chicago and Chicanx social movements. She said that through her research, she was able to learn about how these factors fit into the Latinx identity. “Because I am mixed, I don’t fit into the stereotypical image of, this is what an Asian, this is what a Latino person is or this is what a queer person is,” she said. “Getting to know that I can define myself in my own terms has been really interesting.They’re really is no one
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deans’ performance New review process to determine reappointment By WILSON CHAPMAN
daily senior staffer
Source: Trinity Collins
Michael Reyes of Reyes Poetry spoke to students during ETHS Latinx Summit
definition of what it means to be Latino, Asian or queer.” Litzy Segura, an ETHS junior, attended Rodriguez’s workshop and said it allowed her to talk to different people, after which she came to realize she is not the only one who questions her Latina identity. She said the workshop brought up important questions that are not often discussed in Latinx households.
“I really don’t talk to my mom about how I can be a better Latino, or how can I improve the Latino community,” she said. In addition to Rodriguez’s workshop, Segura said she liked the workshop centered on mental health in the Latinx community, a topic she said is rarely discussed. She said his year’s summit has motivated her to get more involved » See SUMMITS, page 6
Northwestern will implement a new review process for deans, the school announced last week. In an email to the Northwestern community, Provost Jonathan Holloway said this review will evaluate a dean’s performance to help him determine whether or not to reappoint said dean for a new term. The process will take place during the fourth year of a dean’s five-year term. The first dean to go through the process will be Adrian Randolph, the dean of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, whose review will be completed by the end of this academic quarter. Holloway said that the review will be assisted by a four-person ad hoc group consisting of faculty members. The chair of the ad hoc group is neurobiology Prof. Ravi Allada, who will
lead history Prof. Laura Hein, anthropology Prof. Matthew Johnson, and English Prof. Wendy Wall. The ad hoc group will be in charge of leading community engagement, as well as interviewing the dean’s staff, representative student leaders, department chairs and program directors. They will also distribute a survey developed by the Provost’s Office to gather perspectives from other members of the Weinberg community. Holloway said that information about participating in the survey and interviews will be announced later in the quarter. Holloway said that the purpose of this process is to make sure that the strategies and initiatives of the academic schools are aligned with the priorities of the University as a whole. In addition, he said that the process will look to see if the school’s initiatives are being implemented effectively and are positively affecting Northwestern’s reputation and influence. wilsonchapman2021@u.northwestern.edu
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