The Daily Northwestern Thursday, May 18, 2017
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Students react to Rasmea Odeh visit By ALLYSON CHIU
daily senior staffer @_allysonchiu
Reactions to Rasmea Odeh, who spoke at Northwestern on Monday, varied across campus as some said they felt uncomfortable by the presence of someone who was convicted for terrorism, and others welcomed her as a human rights activist who they say was wrongfully convicted. More than 120 people dressed in all black lined both sides of the entrance to Technological Institute on Monday half an hour before Odeh was scheduled to speak at an event hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine. Holding white candles, photos and memorial posters, attendees –– including University President Morton Schapiro –– participated in a silent vigil to mourn Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner, two students who were killed in a 1969 bombing attack in Israel. Odeh was convicted by the Israeli government for participating in these bombings. The vigil was organized by students from Fiedler Hillel, Wildcats for Israel and J Street U. The purpose was to provide an “alternative space” for those who felt uncomfortable by Odeh’s presence on campus, Hillel president Samantha Max said. The vigil was not meant to prevent anyone from attending SJP’s
NU plans three black experience committees
The University announced three steering committees to enhance the black student experience on campus in an email sent to students by administrators on Wednesday. The email was sent by vice president for student affairs
event or shut down the event, the Medill junior said. “We just felt that it was incredibly important to respect freedom of speech and to really respect SJP’s right to bring this speaker to campus,” Max said. “We just wanted to offer this alternative space because we knew that some students and members of the community would be really uncomfortable by the fact that a woman with this history was coming to campus.” Wildcats for Israel president Jake Stein, who helped organize the vigil, said he was contacted by students who were “genuinely scared.”The SESP freshman said it was “incredibly powerful” to see so many different people from a variety of organizations come together for the event. “We were able to bring together groups that a lot of the times don’t host programming together because we all recognized the humanity of the victims of Rasmea Odeh,” Stein said. “We all recognize how disturbing it is to have a convicted terrorist on our campus.” SJP invited Odeh as part of its Israeli Apartheid Week. According to an article in The Jerusalem Post, an Israeli newspaper, Odeh was convicted after being physically and sexually tortured to make a false confession. Odeh’s experience with torture is not » See ODEH, page 8 Patricia Telles-Irvin, University Provost Daniel Linzer and associate provost and chief diversity officer Jabbar Bennett. The three steering committees were created to address three priorities outlined by University leaders from the 2016 report on the black student experience at Northwestern, the email said. The priorities — which include increasing the number of black students, faculty and staff; creating an “academic support hub”
Allie Goulding/The Daily Northwestern
A man speaks at Evanston Public Library’s board meeting Wednesday. Members of the library’s board defended their commitment to diversity and inclusion at the meeting.
Library board promises diversity
Members reiterate commitment to equity, decline to discuss Williams Members of Evanston Public Library’s Board of Trustees reiterated their commitment to diversity while declining to address the cause of the recent suspension of popular librarian Lesley Williams at a public meeting Wednesday. At the regularly scheduled meeting, several Evanston
residents asked the board to consider an independent equity audit of the library’s services, collections and policies. However, EPL board president Michael Tannen said equity audits are “almost exclusively” used for public schools and rarely used for libraries. Instead, Tannen said he hopes EPL director Karen Danczak Lyons will look into other libraries’ actions to ensure equity. Tannen said he sees a disparity between the library’s outreach
efforts and the way the community sees equity at EPL. “Our board and our staff is absolutely committed to equity and diversity — it’s embedded in our DNA,” he said. Tannen said library leadership met Friday with former Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl and current Mayor Steve Hagerty — as well as equity and empowerment coordinator Rev. Dr. Patricia Efiom — about EPL’s role in creating diverse environments within the
community. Representatives from the NAACP and the Organization for Positive Action and Leadership were also present. Multiple residents at the meeting Wednesday brought up Williams’ suspension. Last month, the librarian was suspended without pay from EPL for unknown reasons. She has been active in local advocacy on behalf of marginalized communities.
on campus and listening to black students — will each have its own steering committee, the email said. “Northwestern is committed to improving the experience of our Black students and all marginalized student communities at the University,” the email said. Bennett chairs the committee that aims to increase the number of black students, faculty and staff, while assistant vice president for student engagement Kelly Schaefer chairs the committee that aims
to listen to black students, according to the email. The committee to create an academic hub will work with an original group of faculty and staff who are tasked with the creation of a University-wide academic resource center, the email said. This committee will be liaised by associate provost for undergraduate education Ron Braeutigam. Each committee will include student representatives. Associated Student Government chief
of staff Lars Benson said ASG will likely create an application in Fall Quarter to find the representatives. The Weinberg junior added that the representatives do not have to be involved in ASG to be chosen for a steering committee. He said by students having “facetime” with administrators, they can more effectively make their demands known. “What ASG really is trying to be about is elevating voices that
have spoken and who have not been listened to,” Benson said. “We definitely want to look for people who feel as if the administration has not listened to them in the past and then would understand the frustration and the anger that I think a lot of this committee is structured to kind of ease.”
By SYD STONE
the daily northwestern @sydstone16
» See LIBRARY, page 8
Jonah Dylan contributed reporting. — Erica Snow and Catherine Kim
Religious leaders organize community protection group By RYAN WANGMAN
the daily northwestern @ryanwangman
Daily file photo by Jeffrey Wang
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 1004 Greenwood St. Religious leaders recently created a group to protect marginalized people.
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
Members of Evanston’s religious community are spearheading an effort to protect marginalized groups by standing together to resist acts of hatred and violence. The effort, dubbed “Evanston4All,” is led by Evanston’s interfaith clergy and was formed to handle a variety of issues that affect the community’s safety and well being, the Rev. Michael Kirby of Northminster Presbyterian Church said. He said the group saw a need for a unified response from local faith communities to events that took
place after the 2016 presidential election. “(It’s) important that this not be a few people who are welltrained at responding to acts of hate,” Kirby said. “But rather, that’s only one piece of the puzzle about creating a stronger sense of community across many of the divisions that exist in Evanston.” There are three different teams that make up the group: the solidarity response team, the faith resources team and the uniting voices team, the Rev. Betty Landis of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church said. Each team fulfills a different purpose in the organization, and has members from “all walks of life,” not just faith communities, she said. Landis said the subgroup with
the most response — the solidarity response team — has close to 300 members and is responsible for a variety of tasks. Those tasks include providing support during potentially dangerous situations and peacefully responding to conflict, according to an organizational document. Landis said the solidarity response team was also trained to respond to potential hate crimes, which she noticed being committed across the country over the past few months. “We’re trying to be prepared to what does it mean to live out our values and to be a safe place for everyone to live and to thrive,” Landis said. A study from the Southern Poverty Law Center found that
in the 34 days immediately following the election, there were 1,094 reported incidents of bias — with a third of reported incidents either directly or indirectly referencing President Donald Trump. The study also found 32 hate groups in Illinois, and 917 nationwide as of 2016. On an edition of 60 Minutes in December, Trump said he was “so saddened” to hear about the hate crimes and told perpetrators to “stop it.” Kirby said that moving forward, it will be important for the group to remain flexible to handle different potential issues that could face the Evanston community. He said he hopes » See PROTECT, page 8
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