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The Daily Northwestern DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Find us online @thedailynu
Suit: NU ignored sexual assault
Harley Clarke Mansion
By Ciara mccarthy and ally mutnick
daily senior staffers @mccarthy_ciara, @allymutnick
Edward Cox/Daily Senior Staffer
FOUR MORE MONTHS Evanston Arts Center patron Robert Fields argues the art center should have two years to prepare for the end of its lease agreement. City Council approved a measure Monday night to extend the lease through the end of January 2015.
Art Center lease extended By Edward Cox
daily senior staffer @EdwardCox16
City Council approved a measure Monday night granting the Evanston Art Center four additional months to leave its current location at the Harley Clarke mansion. Council approved a motion from Ald. Jane Grover (7th) to give the art center until the end of January 2015 to
leave the deteriorating building after art patrons raised concerns that approving the Human Services Committee’s recommendation to terminate the center’s lease agreement in eight would conflict with the center’s fall class schedule. A proposal raised by Ald. Mark Tendam (6th) to make conditions of the lease agreement more flexible was not approved. During the meeting, the center’s faculty and students read quotes from an online petition asking the city to give the center two years to find a new home.
Group tests changes to CTECs, CAESAR By ReBECCA SAVRANSKY
the daily northwestern @beccasavransky
The Course and Teacher Evaluation Council (CTEC) is partnering with other campus groups to pilot changes to course rating forms and the CAESAR layout to provide more comprehensive and beneficial evaluations to students and faculty. The pilot program started about a year and a half ago due to complaints about the outdated system and a lack of clarity in students’ responses, said assistant registrar Alison Phillips, the head of CTEC. Phillips said the committee, along with the Office of the Provost’s Assessment and Accreditation Council and the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching, decided to make changes to the questions posed to students to include more learning-based rather than teacher-based assessments. “The pilot questions are really focused on learning objectives and learning outcomes,” Phillips said. “The pilot questions currently being used are questions trying to align the learning objectives of the instructor and see if those were achieved in the class.” The committee has distributed these pilot questions to differently sized classes in every school over the past few quarters,
Phillips said. Professors teaching classes that were testing the pilot program were requested to clearly lay out class objectives, so students could keep those goals in mind while filling out evaluations. Susanna Calkins, associate director of Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching, said she has been working with CTEC to analyze the data from these past pilot classes and obtain more feedback from students and faculty. Those working on the committee are also attempting to make small changes to the CAESAR interface to encourage students to give more qualitative answers. Changes include refining the layout and adding each class’ objectives to the top of the evaluations so students have the ability to refer to these when answering the questions. “Part of the pilot is improving the current infrastructure of CTEC system,” Phillips said. “So we’re looking at ways of improving the actual format so it looks and feels a little more modern and up to date.” Phillips also said the format of the evaluation forms may change to incorporate open-ended components into questions that ask students to rank the quality of different parts of the class. There is another pilot program » See CTECS, page 6
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Of the more than 30 people who registered for citizen comment, a majority urged the city to provide greater leniency to the center because of its cultural significance. Though the aldermen’s agreement to extend the lease to January 2015 is favorable, the center has struggled with raising funds and spending time searching for a new building, said Norah Diedrich, the art center’s executive director. » See council, page 6
A Medill junior is suing Northwestern, alleging the school failed to act after she filed a sexual assault complaint against a professor two years ago. The lawsuit claims the University handled the allegations with “deliberate indifference and retaliation,” according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by The Daily. The student said philosophy Prof. Peter Ludlow sexually assaulted her following a downtown Chicago art show the two attended together in February 2012. According to the suit, filed Monday, Ludlow bought the student alcohol and ignored her repeated requests to return to Evanston, taking her to his apartment where she lost consciousness. The student said she regained consciousness early the next morning in Ludlow’s bed. The student is suing the University for the payment of all past and future medical bills and education expenses, reparation for emotional distress and appropriate remedial actions, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit demands resolution through trial by jury. The student reported the case to a faculty member, who passed it on to Joan Slavin, director of the Office of Sexual Harassment Prevention. After investigating, the lawsuit says,
Slavin found Ludlow “engaged in unwelcome and inappropriate sexual advances,” including “sleeping with his arms on and around (the student) on the night of February 10-11.” About two days after the assault, the lawsuit says, the student attempted suicide. Since then, according to the lawsuit, she has suffered continued severe health effects. She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and remained in the hospital for about three days. Kristin Case, Ludlow’s attorney, said Monday night the professor “denies all of (the) allegations contained” in the complaint. Ludlow is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. “Out of respect for all parties involved we have no further comment,” Case wrote in an email to The Daily. The suit says the University formed a committee to determine disciplinary action against Ludlow. The committee recommended NU fire him, but the suit alleges NU ignored the committee’s decision. Ludlow remains employed by the University, where he is teaching two 300-level philosophy classes this quarter, according to CAESAR. NU released a statement Monday but declined to comment further. “We don’t comment on pending litigation,” University spokesman » See LaWSUIT, page 6
CAPS debuts walk-in service NU hopes informal consultations will reach at-risk students By tyler pager
the daily northwestern @tylerpager
In an effort to demystify the counseling process and offer more support, specifically to multicultural students, Counseling and Psychological Services has started “Let’s Talk,” a new drop-in consultation program. “Let’s Talk” was started at Cornell University and is offered at 19 universities nationally, CAPS psychologist Monika Gutkowska said. Northwestern is the second Midwest school to offer the free program, after the University of Chicago. “It’s basically a program developed to engage community and students who underutilize counseling but need support and would benefit from it,” Gutkowska said. “It’s different, obviously, from counseling. It’s more an informal consultation for students to talk about particular problems, seek advice and support and referrals.”
Gutkowska said “Let’s Talk” is not an alternative to formal counseling and does not constitute mental health treatment. However, the service offers students an opportunity to experience it on an informal basis. Associated Student Government president Ani Ajith, a former Daily staffer, said “Let’s Talk” is part of a larger effort to broaden CAPS’ services. “We have been, of course, talking with Dr. (John) Dunkle and Monika Gutkowska about (ways) in which to ensure students, no matter what their background is and their familiarity with mental health resources and mental health professionals is, they feel comfortable accessing CAPS’ resources and services,” the Weinberg senior said. The program began in December and consultants have so far seen three students. However, CAPS executive director John Dunkle said the organization just began an advertising campaign. “My hope is that this is sort of like a pilot and we’re seeing how it goes,” he said. “I’m pretty confident that it’s going to be very successful, that hopefully we will maybe be able to offer ‘Let’s Talk’ in other areas on campus and perhaps even in Chicago.”
“Let’s Talk” is offered Wednesdays from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the International Office and Fridays from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Multicultural Center. On Fridays, Spanish-speaking counselors will also be available. While the program is available for all NU undergraduate It’s more an and graduinformal ate stuconsultation dents, there is a spefor students cific focus to talk about on reaching interparticular national problems, seek and muladvice and ticultural students. support and “One of referrals. the things that we Monika noticed Gutkowska, is that for CAPS psychologist students with a multicultural background is that the stigma in relation to mental health tends to be stronger,” said Giovanna Rivano Gomez, a psychology intern at CAPS. “So one of the things that we wanted to do was just create a
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» See CAPS, page 6
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