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The Daily Northwestern Tuesday, November 3, 2015
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NU creates new cancer project Northwestern aims to fight the disease in low-income areas By MARK DUANMU
the daily northwestern
Daily file photo by Nathan Richards
CAMPAIGN CONTINUES The “We Will” campaign is almost one-third of the way through its five-year course. As of now, the fundraising effort has raised $2.4 billion out of its $3.75 billion goal.
‘We Will’ ahead of schedule Campaign raised $2.4 billion in 19 months By JULIE FISHBACH
the daily northwestern @Julie_Fishbach
Nearly one-third of the way in, Northwestern’s “We Will” fundraising campaign is ahead of schedule with $2.4 billion raised of its $3.75 billion goal. “The campaign is so far ahead of where we thought we’d be, and I think it’s having a real impact,” University President Morton
Schapiro told The Daily last month. Schapiro added the campaign resulted in this year’s freshman class having fewer loan packages than the previous year’s class. “Our goal especially given our financial wealth and our fundraising capacity is making sure that if you can really afford it, you pay a portion of the cost to educate you, but otherwise you just don’t,” he said. “We’re one of the very few schools that meets full need, but only for domestic
students, and I’d like to change that.” The campaign’s success has been fueled by what Bob McQuinn, vice president for alumni relations and development, said is an unprecedented outpouring of donations. The campaign has now been the beneficiary of four gifts exceeding $100 million in the last 12 months: Roberta Buffett Elliott’s (Weinberg ‘54) donation of more than $100 million, Louis Simpson » See WE WILL, page 6
Northwestern’s Lurie Cancer Center is collaborating with the University of Illinois at Chicago and Northeastern Illinois University to create the Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative, a project that aims to combat cancer in low-income and minority neighborhoods in the Chicago area. The collaborative, which hopes to reduce healthcare inequalities in the city, was made possible by a $17.4 million grant from by the National Cancer Institute. Feinberg Prof. Leonidas Platanias, who directs NU’s Lurie Center, said the grant will allow the University to address a problem prevalent in the Chicago area. “The cancer mortality rate in Chicago, especially in poor African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods, is much higher than the national average,” Platanias said. “The grant will help our work aimed at reducing these disparities.” Feinberg Prof. Melissa Simon, who directs the collaborative, said one requirement for the NCI funding is for a cancer center to pair up with a “federally designated minority-serving institution.” Such partnerships are aimed at reducing
cancer health disparities throughout the country, she said. ChicagoCHEC is one such partnership, with NU’s Lurie Cancer Center being the NCI-designated center and UIC and NEIU being the minority-serving institutions. “What this grant does is creates infrastructure and partnership across three institutions that usually wouldn’t be partnering together,” said Simon, who oversaw the grant application process. “It creates infrastructure to not only promote this partnership but actually catalyze research, education and training.” The collaborative can also be seen as part of NU’s larger mission to build relations with the Chicago area, said Jabbar Bennett, the associate provost for diversity and inclusion. “Cancer disproportionately affects people that are underinsured or uninsured,” Bennett said. “Northwestern has a commitment to support the education of our students and faculty and training them to provide care to such individuals. It’s a way for us to give back to the community.” Simon said the collaborative will draw on a diverse group of researchers that will include undergraduates, postgraduates and faculty. Feinberg students especially, Bennett said, will benefit from the new collaborative. He said the grant will help provide training for medical students doing research on quality of care in Chicago. » See GRANT, page 6
City staff funding uncertain without fuel tax revenue By JULIA JACOBS
daily senior staffer @juliarebeccaj
Evanston officials must find alternative funding to pay Public Works Agency staff for 2016 if Illinois fails to pass its own budget by January. During the state’s four months without a budget, it has not paid Evanston revenue from the motor fuel tax, which is partially used to fund salaries for public works staff, chief financial officer Marty Lyons said. Although the public works salaries this year remain safe, the source of next year’s funding is in question as long as the state remains without a budget, he said. However, even if the state manages to pass a budget, it is possible funds from the motor fuel tax — which is 19 cents per gallon — will continue to be withheld to balance the state’s debt. “We just don’t know,” Lyons said. “(The state) has floated out so many things — from property tax freezes to keeping a part of the shared income tax.” About one-third of the anticipated revenue from the motor fuel tax — amounting to $833,000 — was allocated to fund public work staff salaries, according to the city’s proposed 2016 budget. The rest of the revenue, about 1.5 million, would go to street
maintenance. But if Evanston does not receive the tax revenue in January, City Council will have to amend the 2016 budget to allocate funding for the salaries, Lyons said. The city’s budget is scheduled for adoption on Nov. 23. In other Illinois communities, officials must either find alternative funding for road reconstruction projects or put them on hold entirely, said Mike Walczak, transportation director for the Northwest Municipal Conference. But this specific funding freeze isn’t new: Last March, motor fuel tax revenue was withheld to help balance the state’s 2015 budget, Walczak said. “There are some fears that could happen again,” he said. A bill was introduced to the Illinois House at the end of August to provide communities with motor fuel tax revenue from July to September. The bill, which authorized $146 million in payments, was never brought to a vote. Without a 2016 budget in place, the state has been functioning under a series of alternative means such as court-mandated payments from the state and funds from the state budgeted for a long-term period. As of mid-October, the state had a debt pile of nearly $7 million, Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger announced last month. Since July, the state has also withheld
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federal funding for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, the official regional planning organization for transportation and land use in northeastern Illinois. If CMAP remains without funds, the agency will be forced to close at the end of the month, putting
new capital projects in jeopardy, Walczak said. If CMAP were to shut its doors, Evanston would lose a valuable resource for connecting the city with grants and providing it with information through transportation studies, Lyons said.
“We would have to fend for ourselves,” Lyons said. “We would lose those resources — the people who help us go after grants, tell us which doors to go through.” juliajacobs2018@u.northwestern.edu
Daily file photo by Julia Jacobs
STATE STALEMATE Marty Lyons, Evanston’s chief financial officer, speaks at a City Council meeting. Lyons said the Illinois government has withheld fuel tax revenue from the city since July 1, when the state began its own fiscal year without a budget.
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