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The Daily Northwestern Friday, March 6, 2015
DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM
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Minimum wage talks reach city By STEPHANIE KELLY
daily senior staffer @StephanieKellyM
Source: Feature Photo Service/Creative Commons
WOMAN IN POWER IBM president and CEO Virginia Rometty (McCormick ‘79) speaks at the Mobile World Congress in 2014. Rometty will give the 2015 main commencement address at Northwestern.
IBM exec Virginia Rometty to speak at commencement
Virginia Rometty, president and CEO of IBM, will be the Class of 2015’s main commencement speaker, Northwestern announced Thursday. Rometty (McCormick ’79) was named IBM’s president and CEO
at the beginning of 2012, becoming the first woman to head the company. She will be NU’s first female commencement speaker since Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Communication ’83) spoke in 2007. Rometty, who has topped Fortune’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” list for the last three years, will also receive an honorary degree from the University. She graduated from NU with a degree in computer science and
electrical engineering and now sits on the University’s Board of Trustees. While a student, she served as president of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Actress and singer Audra McDonald, scientist Dan Shechtman and psychologist Margaret Beale Spencer will also receive honorary degrees. Commencement will take place June 19 at Ryan Field. — Shane McKeon
Elliot Zashin, a retired Evanston resident and former job coach at Interfaith Action of Evanston, has been working on gathering information about low-wage employment in Evanston since the fall of 2013. After deciding to tackle low-wage employment, Zashin, along with members of Lake Street Church of Evanston, other congregations, local organizations and IIRON, an organizing network in the Chicago area, petitioned in front of stores, interviewed minimum wage workers and held workshops. Since this past fall, they have been meeting with City Council members to talk about their perspectives on the matter. They have met with all but two aldermen so far. “Our goal is to collect enough information so that the community and members of the council will realize that this is not a trivial or a minor thing in Evanston,” Zashin said. “Evanston does have a lot of low-wage employment and we think that the community ought to address that … We don’t think this is something to
ignore.” Efforts in Illinois municipalities and the state General Assembly this year have raised questions about what will happen to the minimum wage locally and statewide. A referendum on the Illinois ballot in the November midterm elections recommended that Illinois raise the minimum wage from $8.25 to $10 by 2015. The nonbinding advisory was passed by about two-thirds of Illinois voters. Although the Illinois Senate passed a bill in February that would raise the state minimum wage to $11 an hour by 2019, a different minimum wage bill has already stalled in the House of Representatives due to the end of the legislative session this January. In addition, in his first State of the State address on Feb. 4, Gov. Bruce Rauner proposed raising it to $10 over the next seven years. Illinois’ current minimum wage is $8.25. City staff in Evanston have not yet considered how to deal with a potential local increase in the minimum wage. “It’s better for Evanston I think if it’s done statewide or nationwide,” Evanston » See MINIMUM WAGE, page 8
DM 2015 adds gender- Student parents seek support open bathrooms By OLIVIA EXSTRUM
By SHANE MCKEON
the daily northwestern @Shane_McKeon
Almost a year after 27 students signed a letter to the editor calling on Dance Marathon to be more inclusive, the 30-hour culminating event kicks off Friday evening with gender-open changing rooms and students participating through a “financial buddy system.” The letter, which The Daily published in April 2014, accused DM of privileging students “with racial and socio-economic advantages on campus, thereby leaving fewer opportunities for socially, socioeconomically and racially underprivileged students to participate or lead.” “NUDM has not yet earned campuswide support,” the letter stated. “We can say this confidently as leaders of multicultural, service, philanthropy, social justice and other campus organizations who regularly hear of members of our communities feeling marginalized by NUDM’s practices and its unearned reputation as a campus-wide tradition.”
David Ryan, one of DM’s executive cochairs, said the organization has started to address the problems presented in the letter. “We really worked hard this year to evaluate the different areas where we can reduce or eliminate barriers that would prevent any individual student from participating,” Ryan said. One new approach DM has used this year has been its “financial buddy system.” The system pairs older students who have done DM with newer students concerned with meeting DM’s $400 fundraising minimum, Ryan said. “We’ve heard some great individual stories about dancers who have met and become great friends through the financial buddy system,” he said. “It’s a first-year program, so we’re looking forward to building on it.” Ryan said the event will include genderopen bathrooms and changing rooms, a new addition from last year. Ryan also said DM is working, as it does every year, to accommodate dancers’ medical and » See DM, page 10
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
daily senior staffer @olivesocean
Matilda Stubbs faces struggles that many single parents deal with. The 31-year-old juggles caring for her toddler son, working multiple jobs and managing a tight budget. Stubbs and her son qualify for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, which is similar to food stamps, and are currently searching for a good childcare program. But unlike other single parents, Stubbs is also a student in Northwestern’s doctoral program. A seventh-year anthropology student, Stubbs is on track to graduate in 2016. She has a host of jobs: consulting for the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching, mentoring as a graduate fellow in the Brady Scholars Program in Ethics and Civil Life, teaching a class through the School of Professional Studies and, on top of everything else, working on a dissertation. Last quarter, she said, she also taught classes at Loyola University Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
“I’m the only single parent that I’m aware of in my department currently,” she said. “Since I’ve been here I’m the only mother in my department that’s the provider or the breadwinner.” Being a student parent has a specific set of challenges, Stubbs said. Childcare, health insurance and spaces for breast pumping are “key” to providing adequate resources for pregnant or parenting students – all things, Stubbs said, many student parents feel the University does not do enough to change. A change in policy
In its 2011-2012 annual report, NU’s Graduate Leadership Council, a studentcomprised group, surveyed graduate students. Almost 14 percent of the survey’s respondents were parents or are planning to be parents during their time at the University. Starting Jan. 1, University leave benefits expanded to allow staff members whose partners have recently given birth 10 to 12 weeks of paid leave. Before the policy change, only mothers who had just given birth were allowed leave, which totaled only six to eight weeks. The new policy also gives four weeks of paid leave
to staff members who have recently adopted children. The University was recently awarded a Seal of Distinction from the WorldatWork Alliance for Work-Life Progress for improvement in its policy for supporting its employees and their families. “This honor is a ringing endorsement of what many of us already know about Northwestern: It’s a wonderful place to work,” said Pamela Beemer, vice president for human resources, in a news release Wednesday. “When talented individuals are supported in their work-life needs, they are more able to be fully productive and perform at their highest levels.” Currently, The Graduate School policy grants a six-week “academic accommodation period” — but only to graduate student mothers who have recently given birth. For women supported by funding like fellowships or teaching assistantships at the time of childbirth, the leave is paid. Stubbs said it isn’t enough. She referenced public universities that view graduate students as employees and said NU should follow suit.
» See STUDENT PARENTS, page 8
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