The Daily Northwestern — November 22, 2019

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The Daily Northwestern Friday, November 22, 2019

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Joe Gaziano looks to cap off remarkable career

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Residents donate to 2020 campaigns Nearly $237,000 in contributions come from city By JACOB FULTON

the daily northwestern @jacobnfulton1

Evan Robinson-Johnson/Daily Senior Staffer

Sekile Nzinga. She has has served as the director of the Women’s Center since Sept. 2017.

Sekile Nzinga receives local award Women’s Center director honored by YMCA Evanston/North Shore By YUNKYO KIM

the daily northwestern @yunkyomoonk

By all accounts, Sekile Nzinga is a ubiquitous presence at Northwestern. Since she entered her role as the director of the Women’s

Center in September 2017, Nzinga has served as a faculty member in the department of Gender and Sexuality Studies and as the co-chair of the Gender-Queer, Non-Binary and Trans Task Force. On the side, she also volunteers for the Chicago Abortion Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance for

people seeking abortions. This September, Nzinga was honored by the YMCA Evanston/North Shore’s YWomen Leadership Awards for her work advancing gender equality at Northwestern. Looking back on her two years at the Women’s Center, Nzinga recalled many memorable

moments. In her first year, the former public school social worker organized a “critical intersections” symposium to celebrate the Center’s 30th anniversary, which engaged campus leaders in communication with Chicago-based feminist activists and alumni in » See NZINGA, page 10

In 2020, Evanston Democrats are spending green to vote blue. According to the Federal Election Commission, Evanston residents have given almost $237,000 in individual donations to presidential candidates for the 2020 election in the first three fundraising quarters of 2019. Approximately 75 percent of those donations have gone to what are widely considered to be the five top-tier candidates for the Democratic primary — former vice president Joe Biden, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). The city has a distinct frontrunner for overall fundraising in Buttigieg, who has received over $84,000 from donors who list an Evanston address. His donations

total almost $50,000 more than Warren’s, who, at $35,000, has raised the second-most from residents. However, in terms of the number of donations, Sanders leads the pack with 508, sitting comfortably over a second-place Warren, who has 394 donors, though his average amount per donation is only $47.10. Biden takes first in average donations with $253.54, despite having only 69 contributions, while Buttigieg and his 387 donors raised an average of $218.02 per donation. Neal Weingarden, the director of communications for the Democratic Party of Evanston, said that Warren and Sanders supporters frequently utilize the DPOE’s space, but Buttigieg supporters often organize their own events. “We’ve really only had the Warren and and Sanders people aggressively wanting to use the office,” Weingarden said. “The Buttigieg people have come by but they haven’t showed up in the same way as the Warren or the Sanders people.” Many Democratic candidates have declared that they are » See DONORS, page 10

Willard House talks SESP dean to continue push for equity Ida B. Wells conflict David Figlio’s made strides in the area in his first two and a half years Museum aims to address, look into contentious history By MOLLY LUBBERS

the daily northwestern

The question of how to not just “display” but “dismantle” the United States’ racist past was key to a new digital exhibit about Frances Willard and Ida B. Wells. Lori Osborne, the director of the Frances Willard House Museum, said during a discussion on Thursday. In a crowded room in the museum, Ella Wagner, the digital curator of the exhibit, spoke about the history between Willard, who was president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and Wells, a journalist and antilynching activist, in the late 19th century. Osborne introduced the

project and its goals. “We believe that the significant work that the (Woman’s Christian Temperance Union) did under (her) leadership and beyond to grow women as leaders is still critical to telling the full story of our nation’s history,” Osborne said. “But we also believe the telling of her failures as a leader is important as well.” In 1890, Willard made racist remarks about African Americans to a newspaper. Four years later, Wells republished the newspaper interview to draw attention to Willard’s statements and pressure her to speak out against lynching. “Willard could not see that her failure to directly express support for the anti-lynching movement and her use of demeaning and incendiary words to describe African Americans was morally wrong, » See WELLS, page 10

By TROY CLOSSON

the daily northwestern @troy_closson

This is the fourth article in a series called “2020 Vision” which walks through the reflections and hopes student groups, administrators and others throughout Northwestern have on the past few years and upcoming new decade. Classrooms and the professors lecturing inside them looked much less socioeconomically and racially diverse when David Figlio first came to Evanston to teach in 2008. Later, as he prepared to take over as dean of the School of Education and Social Policy, Figlio knew that while representation for students and faculty was improving, inclusion still needed to become a higher priority at Northwestern.

In the near two and a half years he has spent in the role, Figlio has worked to close that gap through more intentional faculty hiring and recruitment to attract a wider range of people to NU — like strengthening the SESP Leadership Institute for incoming students. He’s seen the effects of it already. But he’s still not satisfied. “Just because I think we’re doing a good job with this, I don’t think we can rest on our laurels,” Figlio said. “I see it as ‘Yeah we’re here, but we’re probably 40 percent of where I want to be’ as opposed to ‘Maybe we’re ahead of some others at the University and we should be happy about that.” In an interview with The Daily, Figlio reflected on the successes of his past couple years as dean, ranging from strides in diversity and inclusion to incoming curricular changes, while emphasizing

a number of areas of growth for the school. Sixty percent of SESP’s clinical and instructional faculty identify as white, according to NU’s 2018 Diversity and Inclusion Report, while that figure sits over 70 percent in every other undergraduate school. In the School of Communication, for example, 84.1 percent identify as white, and more than 93 percent do in the Bienen School of Music. “We know faculty members of color and female faculty members do disproportionate labor,” Figlio said. “They’re less likely to come to an environment where they’re not going to thrive. I love the fact that now we can hire amazing faculty members of color and amazing female faculty members, because they know that they’re less likely to do disproportionate labor here in SESP.” Still, as SESP’s ranks of

Evan Robinson-Johnson/Daily Senior Staffer

professors have begun to better reflect the rest of the country, Figlio said it’s led to a bigger disparity between junior and senior faculty, as the latter group is whiter and more male than the former. None of the school’s tenure-line faculty in 2018, for example, » See SESP, page 10

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