The Daily Northwestern Monday, October 9, 2017
DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM 8 SPORTS/Football
3 CAMPUS/Administration
Cats’ offense struggles in Homecoming loss
University revises policy on non-retaliation to broaden audience, further clarify definitions
Learning to love the United States
Staff layoffs, fees would help close $6 million deficit
Lisa Currie steps down after helping shape department
By RISHIKA DUGYALA
daily senior staffer @rdugyala822
By ALLY MAUCH
daily senior staffer @allymauch
» See CURRIE, page 5
4 OPINION/Alfaro
High 77 Low 61
City proposes cuts, new taxes in budget
HPaW director moves on from post
When Lisa Currie joined Northwestern as the director of Health Promotion and Wellness in 2009, she was one of two people working in the department. Currie has since grown HPaW — helping found the Center for Awareness, Response and Education — and quadrupled its staff. Currie stepped down from her position Oct. 5 to continue pursuing a doctorate in human sexuality studies from Widener University. “I’ve learned so much here at Northwestern about myself and about my abilities in terms of leading the department and about students,” Currie said. Carrie Wachter, assistant director of sexual violence response services and advocacy for CARE, said Currie was instrumental in creating and maintaining CARE. The office was formed in 2011 after Currie helped secure a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. Wachter said the way Currie grew HPaW is evidence of her “strong-willed” character. “When I think of pivotal moments in Lisa’s … career here, to me that was a defining moment,” Wachter said. “Only a certain amount of people could do that.” CARE, previously a part of HPaW, became its own office last month. Currie said it was exciting to see CARE “burst” out of HPaW during her time as director. When she first started at NU, she said there weren’t enough resources to support survivors of sexual assault. In addition to helping create CARE, Currie also brought Red Watch Band training to campus to educate students about bystander intervention in emergencies related to alcohol and drug use. Student group Wildcats Advancing Total Campus Health facilitates the training upon request to promote healthy behavior. Currie said she is proudest of her efforts to expand peer health education efforts at NU. She said about 4,000 students have received Red Watch Band training since 2010, creating a “safety net” of trained community members for alcohol- and drug-related emergencies. Angela Mitchell, assistant director of HPaW, said Currie is passionate about promoting peer education and working with students. She said while the director
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Kristina Karisch/Daily Senior Staffer
State Sen. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) speaks at a panel Sunday. Biss and six other Democratic gubernatorial candidates advocated for free college tuition and a single-payer health care system.
Candidates talk tuition
Democrats discuss free college, health care reform By KRISTINA KARISCH
daily senior staffer @kristinakarisch
CHICAGO — Seven Democratic gubernatorial candidates advocated for free college tuition and a single-payer health care system at a Sunday panel event in Chicago. More than 500 people attended the event, which was hosted by the Chicago Teachers Union and Our Revolution, an advocacy group that supports progressive candidates. The panel was co-sponsored by more than 50 progressive organizations across the state. State Sen. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston), regional superintendent Bob Daiber, community organizer Tio Hardiman, Skokie business owner Alex Paterakis, Chicago Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), businessman J.B. Pritzker and businessman Chris Kennedy participated in the discussion. Candidates expressed their support for free college tuition in Illinois, but disagreed on its implementation and cutoffs for eligibility. Pawar said free tuition
is the only gateway to the middle class for people from poorer backgrounds. “I’m the son of immigrants,” Pawar said. “For me, the American dream didn’t mean that my parents were able to pay for my college or graduate school. … The idea that college has put us in a place where we ask young people to do the right thing and go to the best schools and then they are encumbered for the rest of their lives is insane.” Pawar and Biss both said they oppose income cutoffs for free tuition, which they said would hinder equal access to college. To fund the tuition initiative, Biss suggested applying a progressive income tax, which would effectively tax higher-income earners more heavily than lowincome individuals. “When we create programs that only apply to some, eventually those get eroded,” Biss said. “The powers that be that don’t want to pay their share chip away and chip away.” Other candidates expressed more cautious support, with some saying Illinois should first make community college free
and eventually cover tuition for all public four-year universities. Kennedy (Kellogg ’94) said he supports free tuition — especially for community colleges — but believes there should be an income cap between $120,000 and $150,000 a year. He said he wants to standardize the cap across the state’s public colleges. Illinois currently funds community college tuition partly through property taxes, which Kennedy said is not the best method. The state won’t raise property taxes anytime soon, even to help fund tuition legislation. The Illinois State Senate announced in May a two-year property tax freeze, a compromise on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s call for a permanent freeze. “If you make money in the property tax business, you want to preserve a property-tax funded system,” Kennedy said. “If we took the dirty money out of politics, we’d take out the dirty politicians.” In addition to tuition, the candidates touched on health care
City staff proposed staff layoffs, new taxes and higher parking fees to fill this year’s budget deficit, a $6 million hole they said is double initial estimates. City manager Wally Bobkiewicz said the loss in revenue stems primarily from a $5 million decrease in building permits as construction slows down around town, as well as changes in the state’s taxation due to the new Illinois budget. The city’s proposed budget, published Friday evening, is about $338 million, up more than $30 million from last year’s. The initial proposal plans to lower payments for employees’ health insurance, has a 3 percent pay hike for city employees and includes funding for renovations at the Robert Crown Center and Evanston Public Library. “The plan that we have come up with is responsible,” Bobkiewicz said. “(It)
provides needed services to the residents of Evanston without increasing the tax burden so horrifically that it really has a continued impact.” But to solve the deficit, Bobkiewicz said staff suggests decreasing expenditures by an additional $4.4 million and increasing revenue by $2.4 million. The $4.4 million decrease Assistant city manager and chief financial officer Marty Lyons said staff is proposing to rearrange departments and salaries to cut down on expenses. At the same time, the city is also looking to eliminate about 28 fulltime positions across seven departments. Lyons said because the city has about 820 full-time equivalent positions, the adjustments are not “large percentages.” According to the budget proposal, some department positions would be consolidated into new roles, and the city proposes to create a video records clerk position to monitor footage from body and dashboard cameras. These » See BUDGET, page 5
Graphic by Ruiqi Chen
» See CANDIDATES, page 5
Cook County Board likely to repeal soda tax By SYD STONE
daily senior staffer @sydstone16
The Cook County Board of Commissioners will likely repeal a controversial soda tax now that enough commissioners have signed on to override a veto by Board President Toni Preckwinkle. The soda tax — which went into effect Aug. 2 — levied an additional one penny per ounce on sugary drinks. It has garnered criticism from local business owners
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
and the beverage industry, which began a “Can the Tax” campaign advocating for a repeal. Sean Morrison, 17th District commissioner, said in a Friday news release he submitted an amendment to the repeal ordinance that would eliminate Cook County’s sweetened beverage tax effective Dec. 1, the beginning of the county’s fiscal year. “I would like to thank my colleagues for working together so diligently to come to an agreement on such an important issue,” Morrison said. “It has not been (an) easy task but in the end, we
have reached an agreement that will address the concerns of our residents and businesses.” Preckwinkle supported the tax to avoid cuts to criminal justice and public health in the county, according to the Chicago Tribune. However, some Evanston business owners like Hecky Powell of Hecky’s Barbecue told The Daily in August that they have unfairly borne the brunt of the tax. He said having to pay the soda tax on top of Evanston’s minimum wage increase has forced him to lay off some employees. “I’m doing my best not to do
that — I gotta raise my prices, I’m trying to hold on to see if people are going to pay this increase,” Powell told The Daily in August. “This is a domino effect. It’s going to affect my suppliers too, and they’re going to have to raise their prices.” Megan Marshall, a graduate intern for the Office of New Student and Family Programs, said the office purchased lemonade for fewer Wildcat Welcome events this year due to the new tax. “We had a few events where in the past we had done catering with lemonade and soda, and in
one of the events this year we just got rid of both and just had water,” Marshall said. “If we had included lemonade in the event it would have been an additional $160, which was crazy.” The commission will meet to vote on the matter Tuesday, and 11 votes are required for a veto. Twelve out of 17 commissioners have said they oppose the tax. Rishika Dugyala and Kristina Karisch contributed reporting. sydneystone2020@u.northwestern.edu
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