The Daily Northwestern — March 2, 2015

Page 1

SPORTS Men’s Basketball Illinois defeats NU to end Cats’ winning streak » PAGE 8

Residential Services updates overnight guest policy » PAGE 3

OPINION Kirkland Budget cuts threaten public universities » PAGE 4

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The Daily Northwestern Monday, March 2, 2015

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City launches open data site By BEN SCHAEFER

the daily northwestern @BSchaefer27

Evanston launched OpenEvanston. org last week, a one-stop data portal for information on the activities of different government departments, in an effort to improve transparency and efficiency. The site launched Feb. 23 after months of development, digital services coordinator Luke Stowe said. The project is part of an open data movement that seeks to increase availability and access of government records and information to the public. Many big cities have implemented similar systems, but Evanston is early in the wave of smaller cities to do so, Stowe said. “This is an extraordinary project,” said Ald. Jane Grover (7th) during a presentation about the portal at City Council on Feb. 23. “It’s valuable information but it’s also public information. We’re way ahead of the trend in open government.” The development team’s primary focus for the project was consolidating and coordinating each department’s existing data presentation method into one open data platform, Stowe said. Before the portal’s creation, each department collected and distributed data sets independently. Methods vary by department and range from different software programs to PDFs, “where data go to die,” said Stowe. With the transfer of all this information to one easily usable hub, government information will become much more in the public domain, said Stowe. “We want to take it to the next step,” Stowe said. “With the portal we’ve made it so that you can search the data, download the data, embed the data on your

own site and build apps with it.” The site allows users to browse through crime reports, parks information, maps, permits, licenses, inspections and city employees’ salaries, as well as regularly updated reports from the parks and utilities departments. Until the launch of the portal, the department of utilities displayed its annual report using PDFs. The department’s hope is that the portal will help give people a better understanding of how its operations run and what its responsibilities entail, superintendent of utilities Lara Biggs said. “I think most people don’t know how to ask for information on what we do since so much is behind the scenes,” said Biggs. “We’re a very technical, datacentric organization, so many people get overwhelmed by the report because there’s not much explanation on there.” In addition, members of city government expect that the system will lead to increased interdepartmental efficiency. In the past, requests for large data sets had to be submitted through the Freedom of Information Act. Now, much of that information can be found on the portal. Although online and operational, the site is not completely finished. Because the information is for the public, the city is seeking to hear feedback from citizens on ways to improve the site. Additional functions based on community input are planned to be implemented on the site, according to Stowe. “We have a long way to go, this is a first step,” Stowe said. “This is a high priority for us; as much as we want data geeks to love it, we want it to be accessible to everyone that visits the site.” benjaminschaefer2017@u.northwestern.edu

Sean Su/Daily Senior Staffer

‘OITNB’ STAR “Orange is the New Black” star Natasha Lyonne speaks about her Jewish identity and acting background Friday as NU Hillel’s winter speaker. The actress plays Nicky Nichols on the Netflix show.

‘Orange’ actress talks career By EMILY CHIN

the daily northwestern

Actress Natasha Lyonne said at 16, her plan was to go to college and make movies about the things she learned. That plan didn’t work out, as she was never able to graduate college. Lyonne, best known for her role as Nicky Nichols in the Netflix series, “Orange is the New Black,” visited Northwestern on Friday as NU Hillel’s winter speaker. She

Activist calls for forgiveness By RACHEL YANG

the daily northwestern @_rachelyang

Activist Rais Bhuiyan emphasized the importance of mercy, compassion and forgiveness to bridge religious and cultural divisions during a discussion co-hosted by the Muslim-cultural Students Association and the South Asian Student Alliance on Friday. About 50 people attended the event at the McCormick Foundation Center Forum. During the event, Bhuiyan shared his personal story. An immigrant to the United States from Bangladesh, Bhuiyan was working at a Texas convenience store a few weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks when a white supremacist Mark Stroman entered the store and shot Bhuiyan in the right side of his face. Tahera Ahmad, the University’s associate chaplain and moderator for the event, asked Bhuiyan how he was able to cope in the aftermath of the attack. Bhuiyan, who said he lost vision in one eye and a tooth which eventually was replaced, fell behind on his medical bills and to this day

spoke to an auditorium of more than 300 people about her Jewish identity and choosing acting over college. “As a young girl in Israel, for some reason we only really had ‘Rocky,’ ‘Scarface,’ ’The Godfather,’ ‘A Fish called Wanda’ and ‘It’s Alive,’” she said. “I watched all those movies on a loop constantly … I really liked those 70s tough guy kind of movies, and that was the kind of acting I wanted to do.” Hillel Rabbi Aaron Potek moderated the event. Potek asked Lyonne questions about her childhood and

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Sean Su/Daily Senior Staffer

has more than 30 pellets lodged in the right side of his face. Instead of resenting his attacker, Bhuiyan said he chose to forgive Stroman and began a campaign to appeal his death sentence. Stroman was a “victim of society,”

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Bhuiyan said. He came from a poor family, wasn’t well-educated and “he thought every foreigner who earned money was taking it out of his pocket.” Bhuiyan said the » See BHUIYAN, page 5

» See ORANGE, page 5

NU a top Peace Corps feeder again By MARIANA ALFARO

TALKING FORGIVENESS Rais Bhuiyan, who was shot in the face by a white supremacist in the wake of Sept. 11, speaks about forgiving his attacker Friday. The event was co-hosted by the Muslim-cultural Students Association and the South Asian Student Alliance.

how her childhood experiences affected her career. Although the two made some jokes, their conversation was serious. Lyonne said the Holocaust impacted her family dynamic growing up because there were Holocaust survivors on her mother’s side of the family. “There’s a whole generation of children of survivors who have this very specific experience of how to live in the world, how their own problems were supposed to be

Northwestern is once again among the top 25 medium-sized schools that enlisted volunteers for the Peace Corps, after failing to rank on the list last year. In 2014, 14 Northwestern students joined the Peace Corps after graduation, earning NU the 19th spot on the 2015 list, next to schools like Duke University and Northern Michigan University. NU wasn’t ranked in in 2014. Jessica Mayle (Medill ’04), a spokeswoman for the Peace Corps in the midwest region and a former volunteer with the organization, said it is common to see application fluctuations throughout the years, but she’s glad that Northwestern is “back on the horse this year.” “Northwestern is one of our consistent schools and we were disappointed last year that it wasn’t on the list,” Mayle told The Daily. “I don’t think there was any specific reason that it wasn’t on last year and it was this year. It was just the number of students who were serving at any

given time was just a few shy last year of making the list.” This year volunteers have more say in the countries to which they are assigned, which Mayle said could have influenced the number of 2014 volunteers. “Right now, you can actually choose the country where you want to serve,” Mayle said. “Maybe you’re really interested in agriculture work or maybe you want to teach English in China … you can go through all of our assignments and pick the assignment that most interests you.” The application was also shortened — it now takes one hour to complete instead of eight, Mayle said. Mayle said the new changes will hopefully inspire more students to apply because applicants can make their Peace Corps experience more applicable to the degree they studied for. Peace Corps volunteer Eric Cooper (Weinberg ’13), who majored in chemistry, currently works in Mozambique teaching chemistry and computers and founded a primary school that exposes » See PEACE CORPS, page 5

INSIDE Around Town 2 | On Campus 3 | Opinion 4 | Classifieds & Puzzles 6 | Sports 8


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