The Daily Northwestern Friday, May 11, 2018
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MGC pushes for designated space Council gaining momentum in visibility efforts By TROY CLOSSON
daily senior staffer
Members of Multicultural Greek Council chapters say tangible progress has been made in their continued efforts to receive University-recognized space on campus. The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life is considering establishing the Commuter Lounge, located on the ground floor of Norris University Center, as a designated MGC site, said OFSL director Travis Martin. The office has recently partnered with both councils to advocate for a greater oncampus presence, Martin said, adding that while the Commuter Lounge location hasn’t been finalized, conversations continue to move forward. “What we’re trying to do is figure out alternative ways to create visibility for these groups on campus,” he said. “A lot of students, when they come to Northwestern (and) think of fraternity and sorority life, think primarily, I would argue, of IFC and PHA — the groups that have prominent structures on campus.”
Students in MGC and National Pan-Hellenic Council have previously raised concerns about the lack of Universitydesignated space for students of color. Angelica Miranda, president of MGC sorority Lambda Theta Alpha, called the potential for established space and increased visibility “really exciting.” While her chapter uses locations like the Multicultural Center to hold meetings and come together, it would be “very different” to have a space just for MGC, the Communication junior said. And securing that space is vital, she said, as it can often feel like MGC chapters “don’t exist” to the greater campus community. “Everybody seems to know about the rest of the councils, or just two out of the four,” Miranda said. “So just even having this space for us will be great because that way incoming students next year — even current students who may not know about us — will get to see us more.” McCormick junior Fabian Gomez, president of Omega Delta Phi fraternity, an MGC chapter, said the current lack of visibility can “delegitimize” chapters not in IFC or PHA when they seek new members. » See MGC, page 6
David Lee/The Daily Northwestern
Journalists Erika Allen (second from left), Lauren Duca (second from right) and Megan Twohey (far right) talk at a CTSS event Thursday. The panelists addressed the role of social media in the #MeToo movement.
Panelists talk #MeToo movement Journalists discuss experiences reporting on sexual assault allegations By AMY LI
the daily northwestern
As Megan Twohey, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, was preparing to publish allegations of President Donald Trump’s sexual misconduct, she said Trump told her she was a “disgusting human being.” She said the incident made her wonder what it meant when someone like him is elected president. Twohey, an Evanston native,
joined Lauren Duca, a freelance journalist and columnist for Teen Vogue, and Erika Allen, managing editor of The Outline, in speaking to a crowd of about 50 about the success and repercussions of the #MeToo movement. The Thursday event, hosted by the Contemporary Thought Speaker Series and co-sponsored by the Medill School of Journalism, was moderated by Medill Prof. MeiLing Hopgood. Twohey received a Pulitzer Prize this year with journalist
Jodi Kantor for a report covering decades of sexual abuse allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein. Twohey said she did not know her story was going to “unleash (a) worldwide reckoning over sexual harassment and assault.” “My reporting partner and I were sharing a taxi on the way back from our umpteenth night of being at the office until 3 o’clock in the morning,” Twohey said. “We were bleary-eyed and preparing to publish (the
Weinstein story) the next day, and I turned to her and asked, ‘Do you think anybody is going to read this story?’” After public revelation of Weinstein’s past, actress Alyssa Milano popularized the hashtag #MeToo, which was first used by activist Tarana Burke. The use of #MeToo triggered a surge of responses from other women — among them celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow and » See ME TOO, page 6
Okorafor reflects on ‘Black Panther’ D65 social workers Comics writer speaks about Afrofuturism term, representation
Access gaps in mental health services ‘startling’
By ALAN PEREZ
daily senior staffer @_perezalan_
Nnedi Okorafor has some issues with Wakanda. “One of my issues with Wakanda is Wakandans — I don’t feel like we see enough of them,” she said Thursday at the Kellogg School of Management Global Hub. “The storyline is always focusing on royalty, or people involved higher up.” The award-winning author had this concern, among others, when Marvel approached her to co-write the “Black Panther” comic series. After two weeks of consideration, she said she reluctantly accepted the offer, hoping to address the issues as an insider. Speaking during a moderated interview with English Prof. Chris Abani, Okorafor discussed her work in Afrofuturism, which she describes as African-based science fiction. Okorafor said when people first called her work Afrofuturism, she rejected the term because she understood it as having roots in the U.S., whereas her stories focus on
point out inequity By SAMANTHA HANDLER
the daily northwestern @sn_handler
Alan Perez/Daily Senior Staffer
Nnedi Okorafor, co-author of the “Black Panther” comics, discusses Afrofuturism on Thursday at an event hosted by the Africa Business Club. Okorafor spoke as part of the Northwestern group’s Africa Week.
the experiences of people in Africa. Since then, though, she has redefined the term to apply to her own writing. That amendment is “problematic” and hasn’t gone without controversy, she admitted — some have said it excludes work centered on African
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American experiences — but she said her definition connects the African diaspora through the past, present and future. Thursday’s event, hosted by the Africa Business Club, aimed to educate the Kellogg community about African culture and economics, part of the overall
goal of the group’s Africa Week. First-year Kellogg student Ehis Akhetuamhen, co-president of the group, said they invited Okorafor to discuss a topic that focuses on the future of Africa. “This year we wanted to » See OKORAFOR, page 6
Margaret Rothe, a social worker in Evanston/Skokie District 65, said she has never seen the rate of mental health-related hospitalization among middle school students as high as it is now. This year, she said she has had around 20 students hospitalized, all around 12 to 14 years old, and some of them multiple times. Rothe predominantly works at Nichols Middle School, which she said has a population of bilingual and refugee students. She added that the inequity in mental health services she sees between the students who live on the North Shore and those who are nonEnglish speaking or low-income is “startling.” “I’ve been doing this in the district 25 years now, (in) pretty much every elementary school, pretty much every middle school, and I’m on second- and sometimes third-generation families,” Rothe
said. “I get the same people over and over. We’re not doing a good job of breaking the cycle.” Rothe spoke on a panel with two other district social workers at a Mental Health Board meeting Thursday at the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center. She discussed the inequality of mental health services along with Paola Flores, who mainly works at Chute Middle School, and Jennifer Bergner from Oakton Elementary School. Board chair Karin Ruetzel told The Daily that Patricia Efiom, the city’s equity and empowerment coordinator, gave a mandate to a number of agencies to look at the issue of equity in Evanston more closely. Bergner said many of the students she works with are homeless or do not have a stable home. She said the quality of services for families on public assistance is “frightening,” adding that it is difficult for many to navigate the system of finding and paying for mental health services. “When I came to Evanston after working in the South Side of Chicago, I was like, ‘This place is like the lottery,’” Bergner said. “We have so much here. But we have » See HEALTH, page 6
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