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Prof pulls from Last Lecture By Madeline Fox
the daily northwestern @MadelineFox14
African American Studies Prof. Barnor Hesse withdrew himself Thursday morning from consideration to give the Last Lecture to the class of 2015, calling his biography on the ballot “demeaning and insulting.” In an email to administrators, faculty and the assistant director at the Center for Student Involvement, Hesse said he found the description problematic and indicative of a wider problem with how the university handles diversity. The Last Lecture is a speech given by a student-picked professor to members of the senior class at a Chicago bar the week before graduation. Hesse, a black man, was nominated alongside three other professors. He said the difference between his biography and those of the three white female professors also nominated “could not have been starker.” While each of the other professors’ biographies described their work in their respective fields, Hesse said his focused on his personality, talking about his “engaging and comical nature,” which he said reduced him to “the joker in the pack.” “Two of the most popular undergraduate courses I teach at NU are ‘Racism in Western Modernity’ and ‘Unsettling Whiteness,’” Hesse said in the email. “These are hardly laughing matters. Among other things they are courses where students are encouraged to develop analyses that expose and critique the kinds of racist tropes (in the biography).” The Senior Year Experience committee, a group of nine students who organize the senior week events, including the Last Lecture, sent an email to the senior class apologizing for the “distinctly different tones” of the professors’ biographies, which they said were drawn directly from student nominations. “It has always been a goal of our committee to amplify voices in the senior class that are often silenced,” the committee said in the email. “We regret that there was such a stark contrast in the descriptions for each professor. This resulted from our lack of oversight.” In accordance with Hesse’s request that his reasons for withdrawing be distributed to the students voting for the » See Lecture, page 11
Friday, May 29, 2015
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Admins talk diversity, inclusion efforts By Peter Kotecki
the daily northwestern @peterkotecki
Students and administration discussed Thursday the state of diversity and inclusion efforts on campus, including the search for a new diversity and inclusion administrator, the Native American Outreach and Inclusion Task Force and undergraduate admission at Northwestern. The search for the new Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion is “going well,” Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, associate provost for faculty, said during the town hall hosted by the Department of Campus Inclusion and Community and other Northwestern groups. “I can’t go into lots and lots of details since it is a confidential process, but we have attracted very exciting candidates,” she said to a crowd of about 50 people at Annie May Swift Hall. Cathy Grimsted, assistant provost for faculty, spoke to the audience about the University’s Native American inclusion efforts. “The task force reviewed University enrollment data at the graduate and undergraduate level, benchmark » See diversity, page 11
Nathan Richards/Daily Senior Staffer
inclusion initiatives Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christopher Watson talks about diversity in admissions at Annie May Swift Hall. Watson was one of several speakers at Thursday night’s Diversity and Inclusion Town Hall.
Bill responds to sexual assault By Julia Jacobs
the daily northwestern @juliarebeccaj
A bill aiming to improve institutional response to campus sexual assault passed the Illinois Senate last week. The bill includes requirements that colleges and universities notify victims of their rights and provide them with a confidential adviser. The Senate unanimously approved the sexual assault prevention bill May 21, which applies to public institutions and private institutions like Northwestern. The bill, which now awaits Gov. Bruce Rauner’s signature, establishes a framework for Illinois schools to adhere to existing federal regulations, said Karyn Bass Ehler, chief of the state attorney general’s civil rights bureau. “Incidents of sexual violence on college campuses far too often go unreported in part because schools’ responses are inadequate and inconsistent,” said Lisa Madigan, state attorney general, in a news release. “This measure will ensure colleges and universities institute clear policies that enchourage survivors to come forward and help them access
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crucial services to enable them to recover from these horrific crimes.” Bass Ehler’s bureau drafted the bill after several months of consultation with college students, administrators, advocacy organizations and law enforcement. The bill requires universities establish a clear procedure for handling sexual assaults, as well as a strategy for informing students on the policy so they are not left directionless in the event that they are assaulted, Bass Ehler said. “Some schools have very fancy, beautiful, gold-plated documents regarding their policies but they’re 14 pages long,” Bass Ehler said. “How is one supposed to synthesize all that information when you’re going through trauma?” The bill also requires institutions develop either a regional or campuswide task force comprising students, administrators, police and rape crisis center advocates to formalize community collaboration in response to allegations of sexual assault. Institutions of higher education often form policies without the full input of students, trained rape victim advocates and the larger community, said Polly Poskin, executive director of the Illinois Coalition
Against Sexual Assault, an alliance of not-for-profit rape crisis centers in the state. “Consequently, their policies and standards serve the university more than they serve the rape victim,” Poskin said. Victims of sexual assault must be informed of their right to either prosecute the assault outside the university or adjudicate the crime within it, she added. The bill requires institutions adopt a “fair, balanced” process for adjudicating sexual assault allegations, Madigan said. In September, NU eliminated the Sexual Assault Hearing and Appeals System in favor of a new University Hearing and Appeals System. Now, all cases of alleged student misconduct are adjudicated under UHAS. Previously, cases of sexual assault went through SAHAS and other conduct cases were heard under UHAS. Another key piece of the legislation says institutions must report to the state on the progress of their policies, providing information about their procedures and awareness training, as well as data such as » See sexual assault, page 11
Weinberg junior Avantika Khatri’s death ruled suicide
Weinberg junior Avantika Khatri’s death has been ruled a suicide, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Khatri was found dead April 27 in her apartment in the 2000 block of Maple Avenue, Evanston police Cmdr. Joseph Dugan told The Daily in April. He said she was discovered in her bedroom by her roommate. A Columbia, Missouri, native, Khatri had recently transferred from Medill. She was involved in Students for Education Reform and worked as a copy editor at The Daily during Fall Quarter 2012 and as an advertising production staffer at Students Publishing Co., The Daily’s parent organization, from fall 2012 through fall 2013. At a memorial service for her earlier this month, Naresh Khatri spoke about his daughter’s idealism and passion for social justice issues. “We need more people who are idealistic, who have the courage to do the right things,” he said. “I will carry those things with me. I am really now determined to keep her alive. I would want to do something awesome in her memory.” — Tyler Pager
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