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The Daily Northwestern Monday, January 26, 2015
DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM
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College plan draws response By JULIA JACOBS
the daily northwestern @juliarebeccaj
Sean Su/Daily Senior Staffer
PRESENTING PALESTINE Weinberg senior Serene Darwish speaks Friday during “Palestine 101,” hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine. During the presentation, Darwish and Weinberg senior Dalia Fuleihan discussed the history and occupation of the area.
Students host Palestine talk By OLIVIA EXSTRUM
daily senior staffer @olivesocean
Students for Justice in Palestine hosted “Palestine 101” on Friday, a teach-in for students and Northwestern community members to learn more about Palestine’s history, common misconceptions and its current state. The event packed Harris 107 and those in attendance were required to present a WildCARD or another student ID. “We’re here to give you a breakdown of tools of resistance and
oppression,” Weinberg senior Serene Darwish said. The presentation began with Darwish and her co-facilitator, Weinberg senior Dalia Fuleihan, discussing different vocabulary pertinent to the conversation. They explained the meanings of a few Arabic words and defined others. For example, “nakba” means catastrophe, and refers to the establishment of the state of Israel and the exile of Christian and Muslim Palestinians in 1948, Darwish said. Darwish and Fuleihan then showed different maps of Palestine and Israel that depicted an increasing occupation of Palestine by Israel
throughout time. Fuleihan drew the distinction between the two. For the purposes of the presentation, Fuleihan said, when referring to Palestine one is referring to the land of historic Palestine; Israel is the state of Israel. Noor Ali, assistant director of Multicultural Student Affairs, recounted her story of being a high school student during the second intifada of the early 2000s. “I was there for two years,” Ali said. “The first year, we often called it the year to ‘get to know your land’ because there were so many » See PALESTINE, page 6
In the aftermath of President Barack Obama’s announcement to make community college free, critics are assessing the quality and feasibility of the proposal, including the president of Oakton Community College in Skokie and Des Plaines. Obama spotlighted Chicago while delivering the idea in his State of the Union, referring to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s own plan to make scholarships available to Chicago Public School graduates. “I want to spread that idea all across America, so that two years of college becomes as free and universal in America as high school is today,” Obama said in his State of the Union. Margaret Lee, president of Oakton Community College, said community colleges have a unique role in providing invaluable degrees and specialized attention from faculty at a fraction of the cost — Oakton is priced at $6,000 for two years — compared with public and private four-year institutions. Oakton serves about 46,000 credit and non-credit students in Chicago’s north suburban area, including Evanston. SESP Prof. James Rosenbaum, who has a research concentration in community colleges, said Obama was right that the labor market has an increased demand for skills and credentials that community colleges offer at a low cost. In many cases, employee shortages are not in jobs that require bachelor’s degrees but sub-baccalaureate degrees such as certificates and associate degrees,
Rosenbaum said. For the 2014-2015 school year, the average annual cost of tuition and fees at public two-year institutions in Illinois is $3,526, according to the College Board. Illinois trails 27 other states in affordability at two-year colleges on average. However, Lee said she is doubtful that the initiative will pass in the Republican-dominated Congress but more optimistic that the public attention will increase recognition of the value of community colleges. In an interview on “60 Minutes,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) dismissed the idea as unaffordable. Despite usual right-wing opposition to similar initiatives, the conservative business community should support the proposal because it would help fill their own job shortages, said Dan Allen, associate dean for development at Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and SESP instructor. “There’s no reason Republicans couldn’t support it,” Allen said. “Whether they will there’s a reason to doubt.” For Lee, affordability is no excuse for Congress not passing the proposal. The cost to the government, $60 billion over 10 years, would be a small fraction of the total education budget, Lee said. But with 25 percent of the cost of the proposal shouldered by the state, Lee worries Illinois would be unable to deliver considering it already pays community colleges much less than what it’s supposed to, she said. At both a state and federal level, politicians tend to emphasize the importance of education but fail to deliver with funding, Lee said. “Everything comes before it in the » See COMMUNITY, page 6
Less than half of city State Dept honors NU admin students low income By EMILY CHIN
the daily northwestern
By MARISSA PAGE
the daily northwestern @marissahpage
The percentage of Evanston students who qualify for free or reduced lunches is slightly below the national average, which for the first time is more than half of all public school students. A study released by the Southern Education Foundation this month showed that 51 percent of public school children nationally qualify for lunch price reductions. Twentyone states, including Illinois, had 50 percent or more public school attendees qualifying in 2013. Data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics, which was cited in the study, shows a steady growth in the percentage of lowincome children in public schools during the past several decades. According to Evanston/Skokie School District 65’s Opening of Schools Report, 38 percent of the district’s students were low-income in the 2013-14 academic year. Of the 7,667 total students enrolled in District 65 schools that year, 2,323
qualified for free lunches and an additional 374 were eligible for lunches at a reduced cost. District 65 Superintendent Paul Goren estimated that this year around 40 percent of students in his district qualified for free or reduced lunches. A free lunch is
“
We make sure those kids get free or reduced lunch. Marcus Campbell, ETHS principal, superintendent
provided if a student is at a certain level below the poverty rate and a reduced price lunch is provided if a student is within a certain range of the poverty rate, he said. Evanston Township High School remains relatively consistent with the state and national averages for reduced and free lunch eligible children, said Marcus Campbell, the school’s principal and assistant superintendent. This year, the » See FREE LUNCH, page 6
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
When Julie Friend found out about the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris earlier this month, the first thing she thought was to make sure the four Northwestern students studying abroad there were safe. Friend, NU’s director of global safety and security, was in November awarded the Technical Advisor Achievement Award from the U.S. State Department’s Overseas Security Advisory Council for her work in addressing safety issues for students studying abroad, the University announced this month. Friend serves as one of 34 members of the OSAC leadership board, part of the security department within the State Department. OSAC draws members from academia, corporations, religious groups and non-governmental organizations. “I think what’s most important is it’s the first time a member of academia has been recognized in this role,” Friend said, “and what’s exciting about that is it demonstrates that the State Department, as well as my colleagues who work in other sectors, recognize the impact that academia is having on the international community.”
Source: Alexis E. Stanti/Northwestern News
Julie Friend
Rich Davis, managing director of corporate security at United Airlines, presented Friend with the award. He works with OSAC to make sure pilots and flight attendants are safe when they fly internationally. “We’re both very proud to be on that council and working very closely with the State Department,” he said. As a technical adviser on OSAC, Friend’s role is to advise the council on security interests for the academic
sector. She also recruits other colleges and universities to become members of OSAC. “I’m just not somebody who’s going to sit and be really passive,” she said. “They wanted me to tell them things and help develop products and resources, so I did it.” Friend first got involved with OSAC when she was working as » See FRIEND, page 6
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