The Daily Northwestern – May 19, 2015

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sports Academics Out of sight, academic and career services define Cats’ experience » PAGE 8

BarLift aims to improve students’ experiences at bars » PAGE 3

opinion Matney NU’s architecture should follow legacy, not latest trends » PAGE 4

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The Daily Northwestern DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Find us online @thedailynu

‘Selma’ director discusses film’s themes By Matthew Choi

the daily northwestern @matthewchoi2018

When the director of the film “Selma” visited campus Monday, she told the crowd of more than 700 there is a tendency to emphasize achievements of marginalized communities, which can distract from the pervasive problems of minority representation and leadership in media. From racism in the United States to film production, director Ava DuVernay discussed a variety of topics Monday night after a showing of her film “Selma” at Alice Millar Chapel on the one-year anniversary of the first day of shooting the film. Many films about the civil rights movement are from perspectives other than those fighting for their own rights, DuVernay said. “Some of the controversy (around “Selma”) was that it was a different way of telling a civil rights story. It was a different way of telling a story about that movement more as liberators, as freedom fighters, as warriors than as beggars,” she said. “We are the center of our story.” “Selma” is based on the 1965 voting rights march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, which was led by civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr. and Hosea Williams. The cast includes award-winning actors including David Oyelowo as King and Oprah Winfrey as Annie Lee Cooper. The film was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy

Nathan Richards/Daily Senior Staffer

feature film Ava DuVernay discusses her film, “Selma,” after it was screened at Alice Millar Chapel on Monday night. “Selma,” directed by DuVernay, depicts the 1965 voting rights protests.

Awards and won Best Original Song at the Golden Globes for the song “Glory.” DuVernay, known for directing TV shows and documentaries including “Venus Vs.” and an episode of “Scandal,”

Harley Clarke proposals presented By Marissa Page

the daily northwestern @marissahpage

More than 100 Evanston residents and city officials gathered Monday evening to discuss five proposals from the public for the future of the Harley Clarke mansion. The proposals included the city renovating the mansion, demolishing the building and selling the property to a third-party owner who would repurpose the building and take care of all costs associated with it. The Harley Clarke Citizens Committee, a group of five Evanston residents and two city officials, organized the workshop at the Civic Center to present the ideas. Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl assembled the committee in January to address the mansion’s fate after the Evanston Art Center, which has occupied the space since the 1960s, announced it would vacate Harley Clarke by the end of May. The committee held seven meetings prior to Monday’s workshop to discuss options for Harley

Clarke’s future, drawing upon public opinion and its own research of the property’s history. Steve Hagerty, the committee’s chair, led the workshop, as people spoke and attendees split into breakout groups to discuss potential downsides to the proposals. Five community members detailed their visions for the different propositions for the mansion, although no one stepped forward to support razing the building. Sheila Sullivan, president of the Southeast Evanston Association, advocated that the city retain ownership of the property by using funds in Northwestern’s $5 million gift to the city to renovate the mansion. “This will benefit the many, from all Evanston walks of life instead of just a few,” Sullivan said. “When you have a precious commodity like Harley Clarke that everyone in the city can use and enjoy, wouldn’t you absolutely want to make that happen?” » See harley clarke, page 6

is the first black female director to have a film nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. After the screening, Medill Prof. Charles Whitaker, who is also a board

University issues new weapons policy

Northwestern issued a new policy Monday explicitly prohibiting the possession, use or storage of firearms regardless of the existence of a concealed carry permit. The policy, in compliance with the Illinois Firearm Concealed Carry

NU to devise global engagement strategy task force

Northwestern announced the formation of a new task force Monday that will help devise a global engagement strategy following the more than $100 million donation from Roberta Buffett Elliott (Weinberg ’54). The committee, which Provost Daniel Linzer created, will evaluate the University’s current offerings and propose recommendations for the next decade. Sally Blount, dean of the Kellogg School of Management,

member at Students Publishing Co., The Daily’s parent organization, moderated a Q&A session with DuVernay. Topics discussed included the changing role of women of color in entertainment,

DuVernay’s personal journey in the film industry and her experience working on “Selma.” Audience members also asked her about the challenges of making a historically-based movie and working as an artist. The film draws important parallels with contemporary events, DuVernay said, including the recent protests in Baltimore and the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. “It feels there’s this echoing between the film in 1965 and (now),” DuVernay said. “It’ll be really interesting to see what art comes out of this time.” The event was hosted by A&O Productions, the Multicultural Filmmakers Collective, Inspire Media and multiple University departments. “Every year, we bring a spring speaker who comes from an underrepresented community and we bring them to talk about their identity and how that has affected their sort of path in the industry,” said Communication sophomore Danielle Harris, president of Multicultural Filmmakers Collective. “We collaborated because we thought we would be able to maximize both events and it worked out really well.” The film was intentionally screened in Alice Millar Chapel for its connection to the content of the film, said Dan Hoffman, A&O’s co-director of films. One of Northwestern’s chaplains was in Selma as an activist for civil rights, Hoffman said. » See duvernay, page 6

Act, aims to set clear expectations and guidelines on the University’s ban on weapons, the University said in an email to the NU community Monday. The ban extends to University property and vehicles and Universitysponsored events on- or off-campus and to any employee conducting University business. The exceptions to the policy include law enforcement personnel and persons whose work requires lethal and non-lethal

weapons. In addition, weapons can be used for educational purposes, university-sanctioned athletic programs, public ceremonies, parades and theatrical performances. Last year, NU placed signs on all University buildings explicitly prohibiting guns to comply with state law. Colleges and universities are one of 23 types of locations where “concealed carry” is not allowed under the law.

and Nim Chinniah, executive vice president, will chair the task force. “Northwestern, like many universities, tries to balance the creative initiative out among individual faculty, departments … within a more coordinated University-wide approach that maximizes the impact of those initiatives,” Linzer said. “Finding that balance point is really important.” The global strategy will focus on integrating NU’s various international initiatives and strengthen its ability to recruit faculty and students from around the world. The task force includes representatives from most of NU’s 12 schools, but only one student representative: SESP junior Sanchita Kanthadai.

Elliott’s gift — the single largest in NU’s history — was designated to expand the University’s international programming, scholarships for international students and the Buffett Institute for Global Studies, which is also named after her. “It’s a particularly important moment for Northwestern to be undertaking this type of thinking because of the establishment of the Buffett Institute and the new resources that we have,” Linzer said. “We want to think collectively now before we make big, long-term commitments on what we’re going to be doing globally.”

— Tyler Pager

— Tyler Pager

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


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