The Daily Northwestern Friday, May 26, 2017
DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM 16 SPORTS/Year in Review
3 CAMPUS/Greek Life
Looking back on year of Wildcat victories
NU chapter of Theta Chi suspends activities due to lack of new members, interest
Find us online @thedailynu 4 OPINION/Letter to the Editor
Remembering Jason Arkin, call for change
High 66 Low 53
Administrators run into barriers in attempts to diversify faculty By PETER KOTECKI and JONAH DYLAN
daily senior staffers @peterkotecki, @thejonahdylan
When physics and astronomy Prof. Michael Schmitt became chair of his department more than two years ago, only three of the 37 professors were women. The department launched searches for new faculty members that year, Schmitt said. At the end of the hiring process, he said the physics and astronomy department
hired two women. A third person the department wanted to hire, a woman of color, opted instead for an offer at a different institution, Schmitt said. The new faculty members signaled a priority in the hiring process for the department to diversify, but representation remains a challenge in recruiting new faculty across the University. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines generally have few female faculty and faculty of color, but the lack of representation is not unique to STEM. In fall 2016, less than 5 percent of all full-time and tenureline faculty in four of the six undergraduate schools were black, according to the Northwestern Data Book. The same quarter, neither the School of Education and Social Policy nor the Bienen School of Music had any tenure-line or full-time faculty who identified as Hispanic. In the McCormick School of Engineering, women comprised less than 10 percent of tenured faculty in at least six departments
during fall 2016. Over the last year, University administrators have taken new steps to increase representation among professors, offering trainings on implicit bias in the hiring process, implementing equity representatives on search committees and forming groups to promote community building among professors. But changes in the composition of the faculty occur slowly. Provost Dan Linzer said while thousands of new students enroll at NU each year, the faculty may turn over only every 40 years. Each new position counts toward diversifying the faculty, he said, adding it is important to ensure that each person being considered for a position is given a “full shot.” Linzer said having faculty members bring in an array of personal experiences enriches the University. “When you have people who all think the same way or have similar backgrounds, that approach a problem the same way, the research shows that you don’t get as robust a set of answers,” Linzer said.
Efforts for equal opportunity
After Schmitt reached out to administrators, associate provost for faculty Lindsay Chase-Lansdale and her team presented to the physics and astronomy faculty on implicit bias in the hiring process. Soon after, they met with the Weinberg Dean’s Office and the school’s department chairs to discuss improving equity in recruitment. Jabbar Bennett, associate provost and chief diversity officer, said the University created an equity representative, who is a senior faculty member in the school whose responsibility it is to ensure equity in the search process. The concept of an equity representative is not new to universities, Bennett said, but the role has not been widely implemented at Northwestern before. Prior to coming to the University, Bennett worked at Brown University, which includes diversity representatives on its search committees. McCormick Prof. Linda Broadbelt, chair of the chemical » See FACULTY, page 6
Graphic by Jerry Lee
Students honor Manchester victims Activists march
to protest impasse
By ALLY MAUCH
the daily northwestern @allymauch
Jessica Collins, a Weinberg sophomore from London, organized a vigil Thursday to remember those who died as a result of the Manchester, England bombing this week. After an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester on Monday night, 22 people died when a man set off a bomb outside the arena. The bomber was also killed in the attack, and the Islamic State has since claimed responsibility. Collins said when she heard about the attacks, she had a difficult time processing what happened. “I wondered if other people wanted to also have a space where we could process the events together,” Collins told The Daily. “I wanted to get a space together to remember the people who passed away.” About 10 students gathered at The Rock for the vigil, passing around a candle and observing a moment of silence for the victims. Collins and several students spoke during the vigil about why it was important for
Dozens walk to state capital in Springf ield By RISHIKA DUGYALA
daily senior staffer @rdugyala822
Allie Goulding/The Daily Northwestern
Students gather at The Rock Thursday for a vigil commemorating the victims of the terror attack in Manchester, U.K. Those who attended the vigil stressed the importance of fighting terrorism and Islamophobia.
them to come together. Weinberg sophomore Numaya Shahriar, a member of the International Student Association, told The Daily she came to the vigil to honor the victims.
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“It’s important for me to remember people who are affected by any kind of disaster,” Shahriar said. “Coming together gives us a moment to show that we’re all human.” Weinberg junior Adam
Crittenden, who is also in ISA, told The Daily one of his closest friends currently lives in Manchester. Crittenden said he was initially » See MANCHESTER, page 14
The schedule is strict and consistent. Every morning since leaving Chicago on May 15, Joe Padilla and Anna Sekiguchi have woken up, swallowed down breakfast and started marching toward Springfield by 9 a.m. Alongside 10 other activists from Fair Economy Illinois — a coalition of groups who organized the march — the college students have walked until 5 p.m., averaging 13 miles per day and sustaining themselves on three breaks: 15 minutes in the morning, an hour for lunch and another 15 minutes in the afternoon. Padilla, 21, said the group’s goal is to reach Springfield’s new capitol building by May 30 — before the end of the Illinois General Assembly’s
spring session — to draw attention to the two-year budget stalemate. The state has gone without a budget since July 2015, which has forced cuts to many social services and downgraded the state’s credit score. “We’ve been talking about doing this for two years,” said Padilla, a member of The People’s Lobby, a progressive political action group part of FEI. “It was originally a joke by one of our leaders: ‘Oh why don’t we just march to Springfield?’ We sat around and laughed about it.” Last December, however, the idea gained traction as activists grew tired of the lack of cooperation among legislators, Padilla said. By February, FEI leaders began putting together task forces, saving money and lobbying others to support a roughly 200-mile trek from Chicago’s Thompson Center to Springfield. Aside from The People’s Lobby and four other FEI member organizations, there are 13 groups either » See TREK, page 14
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