The Daily Northwestern — February 19, 2025

Owners seek council outreach

Responsiveness of council members paramount for upcoming election

By DESIREE LUO the daily northwestern

Before YoFresh Cafe’s scheduled opening in August 2014, the city inspector delayed the license by a month, co-owner Jean Murphy said. She contacted Ald. Melissa Wynne (3rd) for help.

Wynne did not respond. Murphy said she went to the Civic

Center for the license.

“I had to go down there and act crazy to ensure we could open our doors,” Murphy said.

Since then, Murphy said she stopped depending on Wynne for help. She and her husband, co-owner Larry Murphy, have sustained the cafe for the past decade by allowing residents to host events there.

Wynne, who has served on

Feinberg consulted on gun dashboard

By MISHA MAJURAN OBEROI

senior staffer

Te Illinois Department of Public Health launched a new dashboard, which methodically presents statewide data about violent deaths and frearm injury rates, last month. Te violent deaths data was sourced from the Illinois Violent Death Reporting System, which is operated by Northwestern University’s Feinberg

School of Medicine. IDPH syndromic surveillance, defned on their website as health related data received when illness begins, provided emergency department visit data about firearm injuries. Tis data collection system was partly funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advancing Violence Epidemiology in Real-Time grant.

Te dashboard was designed by Understory Consulting, a research and policy consulting frm. It was funded by the Joyce Foundation, a nonproft

City Council since 1998, will not seek reelection this year. Te 3rd Ward candidates are environmentalist Gennifer Geer, shelter director Shawn Iles and businessperson John Kennedy.

Murphy said all she wants from the next alderperson is “an acknowledgment that (YoFresh Cafe is) here.”

Ahead of the Evanston election on April 1, some business owners

said elected ofcials vary in their responses to feedback.

Dave’s Italian Kitchen owner Dave Glat said he has maintained contact with Ald. Clare Kelly (1st). Kelly introduced herself to Glat at the restaurant afer winning the 2021 election, he said.

“A lot of things are mundane,” Glat said. “If my garbage doesn’t

Summer aid policy updated

NU tightens grant eligibility as policy lessens aid given

By ALEXIA SEXTOU the daily northwestern

Northwestern updated its fnancial assistance policy for Summer 2025 on student grant eligibility, just four months before the quarter will begin on June 23 Te new policies from the Ofce of Undergraduate Financial Aid require students seeking need-based institutional grant funding to provide “additional context for their enrollment plans.”

Funding will not be available to students who have previously received summer aid without special circumstances, according to the ofce’s website. Additionally, the University will not fund students who have received aid for a summer study abroad program before, or those pursuing “additional credentials,” such as extra majors, minors or graduate coursework.

However, students with special circumstances — such as needing aid to complete primary degree requirements through summer classes — may request an exception by providing course details for review.

In a statement sent to Te Daily, the Ofce of Financial Aid said these circumstances could also include

students who have taken a medical leave during the standard academic year or need to retake courses required for degree progression.

To qualify for fnancial aid in the summer, current NU students must be enrolled in at least two credit units.

Additionally, students who graduate in June are not eligible for summer aid, and first-year and transfer students will only be eligible for summer aid after their fall enrollment. Sources of funding will include federal sources of aid, such as Pell Grants or loans, and internal NU grant assistance. However, the Ofce of Financial Aid stated the NU Loan — a fnancing option available to parents of undergraduate students — is not available during summer terms.

“Summer institutional grant assistance has always been prioritized to help support Evanston undergraduates who need additional enrollment to complete their primary degree program on time. Tis policy helps the University to beter prioritize resources for progress to degree,” the Ofce of Financial Aid said in a statement to Te Daily.

The website stated that NU will continue reviewing these policies and will announce any changes for Summer 2026 on the fnancial aid website this fall.

alexiasextou2028@u.northwestern.edu

Moran Center supports city youth

By LAURA HORNE thr daily northwestern

Since 1972 , the James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy has provided legal and social work services free of charge to those in need in the Evanston community.

Originally, the Moran Center was founded to provide representation for youth involved in the criminal justice system. Since then, it has expanded to services related to education advocacy, legal guardianship and immigration. It continues to adapt in the wake of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration.

Te Moran Center’s website highlights four main avenues in which it works: justice in the classroom, public policy and community education, access to the courtroom and restoration in the community.

“All of our services are integrated to really holistically help the young people and families that we’re serving,” said Rachel Solomon, the Moran Center’s director of development and communications.

The Moran Center operates one of the largest criminal record relief practices in Illinois, said Patrick Keenan-Devlin (Bienen ’06), the center’s executive director and youth defense atorney. Te center’s Criminal

Record Relief team provides free services to those who want to expunge or seal their Illinois criminal history, reducing barriers to employment and education.

Solomon said the center prevents youth from entering the carceral system, which can afect future opportunities. Since its launch in 2019, the center’s Roger Pascal Restorative Justice Initiative has kept 102 youth out of the carceral system.

“I ofen refer to our restorative justice initiative as our get out of business plan, because if we know each other, if we are in relationship with each other, we become less reliant on systems with a capital ‘S,’” Keenan-Devlin

said. “ Te ultimate vision plan for the Moran Center is that we are building a community that’s in relationship with each other, that doesn’t need us at the end of the day.”

Keenan-Devlin said the Moran Center defnes “youth” as someone under the age of 26 because research indicates that a young person’s frontal lobe is not fully developed until that age. Te center sometimes interacts with these youth directly, such as helping children seek emancipation or representing children in disputes with their school district. It most ofen assists children’s

Shun Graves/The Daily Northwestern

Dave’s Italian Kitchen owner Dave Glatt said he has maintained contact with Ald. Clare Kelly (1st).

Ryan Field crews could soon get gourmet lunch f x

By CLARA MARTINEZ the daily northwestern @claramart1nez7

Construction crews for Northwestern’s $850 million Ryan Field redevelopment could soon have the chance to chow down on gourmet lunches from Evanston restaurants.

Te budding collaboration among Evanston eateries, the city’s economic development ofce and Turner Construction Company seeks to provide lunches and boost the restaurants’ botom lines.

Economic Development Manager Paul Zalmezak said he was interested in creating an initiative to benefit local businesses and support the massive undertaking of rebuilding Ryan Field. With the stadium seeing approximately 400 workers on-site daily, he said Turner Construction reached out to the city to create a convenient way for workers to eat in a 30 -minute window.

“(Ryan Field) is a massive investment, and that construction window is relatively short,” he said. “So to the extent that we can get as many restaurants involved during that short period of time, it helps them.”

Zalmezak said the city had received 56 respondents when the form closed Feb. 17, from the French-Moroccan cuisine of LeTour to the Mexican-inspired food of downtown brunch spot Frida’s.

Workers will be able to buy lunch from restaurants that opt into the program, but the partnership is not a catering opportunity with guaranteed purchases.

LeTour owner Amy Morton said she wanted her restaurant to participate in the initiative as a way to o f er its service with the stadium construction.

“We are huge supporters of Northwestern, and we love what’s happening with Ryan Field,” she said.

Morton said LeTour pitched a lunch menu to the city that would deviate from its typical fork-and-knife dishes. She said the upscale

eatery aimed for meals that would be quick and easy to munch on, like a chicken Caesar wrap.

“To really have the stadium work and all that they want with it, everybody wants it to be a joint project,” Morton said. “It can’t just be the socalled city and Northwestern, but it’s really the community, the businesses.”

For the hot dog and burger joint Mustard’s Last Stand, located right next to Ryan Field, serving workers quick lunches isn’t anything new.

Owner Lonnie Starkman said the joint already sees fve to 15 Ryan Field workers coming in daily. He signed up for the initiative as a lucrative business opportunity.

“We’re so close, we’re like next door,” Starkman said. “Anything we need, we can bring over with us or prepare on-site.”

Te initiative would feed crews working on one of Evanston’s most controversial construction projects. Neighbors have long scorned NU’s plans to commercialize the rebuilt arena.

Still, the project has also created new local

partnerships. Zalmezak said the lunch service initiative serves as another strategy to bolster the downtown economy as the district recovers from the blow of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Frankly, it helps the city generate sales tax — that way we can continue our community service, all the things that we continually maintain in a really difcult environment,” Zalmezak said. “It’s important. Restaurants are a big part of our economy.”

claramartinez2028@u.northwestern.edu

Shun Graves/The Daily Northwestern

The budding collaboration among Evanston eateries, the city’s economic development ofice and Turner Construction Company seeks to provide lunches and boost the restaurants’ bottom lines.

Lit le risk of human bird fu, experts say

By LEXI NEWSOM

Tere have been 68 human cases of bird fu — fu strain H5N1 — in the U.S. since the beginning of 2024, mostly arising from contact with infected catle and poultry.

Infectious disease experts at Northwestern said there is currently litle risk of bird fu to the human population, but this could change if the virus mutates to allow for human-to-human transmission.

“We just don’t know if that’s going to happen or not,” Dr. Egon Ozer, director of the Center for Pathogen Genomics and Microbial Evolution at the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health, said. “It’s always a concern, especially with infuenza, that it can easily recombine with viruses that are more transmissible among humans.”

Tough unlikely, some experts are concerned with the possibility of human-to-human transmission. Tis is in part because of the high infection rates among poultry farms, catle farms and local waterfowl, Feinberg Prof. Judd Hultquist, who studies infectious diseases, said.

Executive Director of the Havey Institute for Global Health Dr. Robert Murphy said these concerns are heightened by the fact that experts know “very litle” about the virus.

“(We have to) watch these mutations and identify very early when this thing mutates to the point where humans can infect each other,” Murphy said. “Tat’s a big jump, and (recording it) takes some hardcore science and preventive measures.”

One of these measures is surveillance and research. Te CDC has already started monitoring populations that work closely with animals who have been known to contract the virus. Namely, these are workers at cow and poultry farms, as well as large animal veterinarians.

Te CDC released a new report Feb. 13 that found cows had transmited an undetected bird fu infection to three veterinarians. Although this is a small percentage of the individuals included in the study, asymptomatic cases raise “alarm bells” because it suggests there may be more infections

than originally thought, Hultquist said.

“Is it expected that we would see some cases in that population? Yes,” Hultquist said. “But is it something that we should keep our eye on? Absolutely.”

Northwestern Memorial Hospital is participating in this surveillance by sending data on fu cases to the Chicago Department of Public Health to “doublecheck” that fu diagnoses are normal strains and not H5N1 Te idea behind monitoring bird fu is to be able to catch an example of human-to-human transmission early on — if it happens.

At this point, all 68 cases have been traced back to an infected animal, Hultquist said. If human-tohuman transmission were to occur, Hultquist added that one of the frst signs would be a sudden increase in the number of avian fu diagnoses.

Murphy said vaccines would be key to mitigating potential risks of an outbreak, especially among farm workers at high risk of contracting bird fu.

Te Food and Drug Administration has already approved three vaccines that could be used to

prevent H5N1

However, Murphy said he is worried about the federal response afer Robert F. Kennedy was confrmed as health secretary and the U.S. was pulled out of the World Health Organization.

“What happens if this thing occurs somewhere else in the world?” Murphy said. “We’re not there anymore. We’re not part of that network. We’ll ultimately fnd out about it. But we have become infectious disease isolationists.”

For now, bird fu will impact people indirectly through rising egg prices and potentially, if infections on poultry farms increase, chicken prices.

If someone sees a potentially infected bird in the wild, the CDC suggests reporting it to the state government or federal USDA and avoiding exposure.

“We don’t want people accidentally coming into contact with birds that were infected and risk geting infected themselves,” Hultquist said.

lexinewsom2028@u.northwestern.edu

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arts & entertainment

Reflections Repertory Company performs first show

By BARBARA BOMFIM

the daily northwestern @barbarabom0203

Student dance group Reflections Repertory Company showcased the leaps and pirouettes of 17 dancers with its debut ballet show “Sparks Fly” on Friday and Saturday at The Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts.

Reflections celebrated its inaugural year at NU as the only student dance group dedicated solely to ballet. The group was founded in response to a lack of rigorous ballet training on campus that many dancers missed, Reflections Executive Director and SESP sophomore Morgan Dreher said.

Dancers performed to an audience of around 150 people across three shows, according to Reflections Artistic Director and Communication sophomore Yitong Zhang.

The ballerinas performed a total of 13 pieces, dancing to songs such as “everything i wanted” by Billie Eilish and “This Night Has Opened

My Eyes” by The Smiths. The show opened with a full company number to a classical ballet piece titled “Petrichor.”

“The energy is so high,” Dreher said. “It’s just such a great way to kick off the show.”

Showcasing many styles of ballet like classical, contemporary and en pointe, the show kept the audience on the “edge of (their) seat,” Weinberg sophomore Grace Xie, the company manager for Reflections, said.

Xie said one of her favorite pointe pieces was “Esmeralda Pas de Quatre,” which featured a quartet of ballerinas dancing with tambourines. The piece was adapted from the classical ballet show “La Esmeralda.”

The show featured pieces choreographed by students. Dreher said it was “special” to create her contemporary ballet piece, “Uncharted,” which spotlighted the Reflections executive board members.

The show also featured guest performances from Typhoon Dance Troupe on Friday and Steam Heat Dance Company on Saturday. Typhoon performed a traditional Mongolian dance titled “Dao La,” and Steam

Heat performed a musical theatre style piece to the song “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from the soundtrack of the film “Dirty Dancing.”

Steam Heat Artistic Director and Weinberg junior Emily Thompson said Steam Heat was originally planning on attending the show to support Reflections’ debut but was excited to receive the offer to perform.

“The dance community as a whole is just so interconnected, and we all love to just do guest performances and joint shows,” Thompson said. “We all just love to show up and support each other.”

The Friday show also welcomed a guest duet piece from Weinberg sophomores Emma de Verteuil and Lorenzo Pantano, showing off impressive partner lifts and tricks.

Pantano is a contracted dancer at the Champaign Urbana Ballet. Reflections dancer de Verteuil invited him to perform with her, and he said he was “glad there was finally a student space” for ballet on campus.

As one of two male dancers in the Friday show, Pantano said he is committed to

Carnival Dillo announced as

By DALTON HANNA

Buzz on campus hit a high as Mayfest Productions dropped this year’s first major Dillo Day announcement: the 2025 Dillo Day theme.

Carnival Dillo is the official theme for the Dillo Day festival set on May 17. While the musical performers have yet to be announced, on Monday, the Dillo Day Instagram page posted the awaited theme after teasing it through posts last week.

“Carnival opens many possibilities for us as Mayfest,” Co-Director of Promotions for Mayfest and McCormick junior Felipe Reis Maccari said. “I’m personally really excited to see the outfits that people will come up with.” Dillo Day is the largest student-run music

festival in the country. An important component of each year’s festival is the unique theme.

Recent themes include Camp Dillo in 2024 and Planet Dillo in 2023

The club began planning for the theme and announcement early Fall Quarter, and Maccari said that Carnival Dillo instantly stood out.

The entire promotions team collaborated to make the final decision regarding the theme, he added.

“We did spend a really good amount of time with the theme, thinking about all the concerns and having a good discussion,” Maccari said.

“That was something that I prioritized this year as co-director.”

Mayfest Productions also teamed up with Northwestern Dining for the announcement.

Special carnival-themed food — such as funnel cakes and Italian ice — was offered at dining halls across campus during lunchtime on

challenging negative stereotypes about men in ballet.

Dreher also praised his performance with de Verteuil.

“It’s so beautiful and very inspirational,” Dreher said. “It’s great to bring in male dancers because (it challenges) people’s notions of who ballet is for and what ballet is.”

The company consists of an audition-based performance division that rehearses weekly. Reflections also has an open division that offers student-led, open ballet classes for students of all dance experience levels.

Dreher said “it feels completely surreal” to see the show come to life after months of preparation.

“We’ve worked so hard to put the show together,” Dreher said. “This whole process has really been such a dream come true.”

Clarification: This story has been updated to better represent Dreher’s thoughts on Pantano and de Verteuil’s performance.

barbarabomfim 2028 @u.northwestern.edu

theme of 53rd Dillo Day

Monday, aligning with the Dillo Day theme drop. Reactions from the NU community toward the 2025 Dillo Day theme varied. Weinberg freshman Lance Lesser expressed disappointment over the carnival theme choice for his first Dillo Day.

“I’m not a fan,” Lesser said. “I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to show up in carnival theme, and I feel like there’s better themes that you could have.”

Mayfest Productions took into account students’ uncertainty over outfits. For the first time, the official Dillo Day merch was released on the same day as the theme, according to Maccari.

After the theme had been out for a few hours, the Dillo Day Instagram page announced that their merchandise was live. Sweatshirts, hats and T-shirts customized to the carnival theme are currently available for purchase.

“I know that people really care a lot about how they’re gonna dress up,” Maccari said. “We take that into consideration when choosing the theme.”

Lesser believes that there could be positive aspects of the Carnival Dillo theme. He suggested carnival foods and attractions on the Lakefill in addition to the musical performances of the day.

Communication junior Ella Waffner said she was satisfied with the Dillo Day theme choice. She said she preferred Carnival Dillo to Camp Dillo because this year’s theme allows for more versatile outfits.

“I feel like carnival gives you a little more room to play,” Waffner said. “I think it’s more fun, and it gives you more flexibility in what you can do.”

daltonhanna 2028 @u.northwestern.edu

Barbara Bomfim/The Daily Northwestern

Open Tab: Find authentic Thai food in Evanston

By KUNJAL BASTOLA and RACHEL SCHLUETER

da&l(

-e)&*r -ta::er@kunjal_bastola/@rschlueter/6

Samila Thai Fusion Cuisine, running out of the Coffee Lab & Roasters kitchen on the weekends, offers tasty Thai bites this winter.

Owner Eric San Juan said he started serving food out of Coffee Lab, located at 9.0 Noyes St., last month. The menu is available on Fridays from 4 - 9 p.m., Saturdays from .. a.m.- 9 p.m. and Sundays from .. a.m.- 9 p.m., with a 50% happy hour deal from 7 - 9 p.m.

But this is not the first time the Chicagoland area had the opportunity to taste the flavors of Samila Thai Fusion Cuisine. In Oct. /0/4 , San Juan and his husband Sing Pukitpipat opened its first location in the River West neighborhood of Chicago.

San Juan started operating his restaurant out of Coffee Lab in January. He said it was an adjustment at first to work in a smaller kitchen without his usual equipment, like a large wok. San Juan said he is excited to experiment at

Coffee Lab with his weekly menu and seasonal items, including boba in the summer.

“We have so much more tricks up our sleeves that nobody has seen yet,” San Juan said.

San Juan said he started work as a cosmetologist before becoming a baker for Jennivee’s Bakery, while Pukitpipat said he used to work in another Thai restaurant and has been in kitchens all over Chicago’s food scene.

San Juan and Pukitpipat cited their desire to offer a fusion of Thai dishes and honor their home and family in Thailand as the inspiration for the restaurant’s weekly rotating menu.

“My mom used to have a Thai restaurant in Bangkok, so I want to honor her and her food,” Pukitpipat said. “I’ve adapted her recipes with an American twist, and all the authenticity is still there.”

***

Now, on to the menu. You can’t go wrong with the Panang Curry, a classic Thai dish. The menu lists chicken and shrimp as the two options for protein, but we substituted the meat for tofu. The coconut milk-based curry, packed with aromatic spices like chili, garlic,

red onion and basil, came out piping hot and full of flavor. The dish also comes with a side of soft jasmine rice, the perfect accompaniment to the spicy curry.

If you’re unsure about what you’re craving, take the do-it-yourself route and order the make-your-own rice paper rolls. Each order comes with three rolls with your choice of protein, grains, pickle vegetables and a crispy topping. You can also make your rolls into a rice bowl.

We ordered a rice bowl with satay chicken, rice noodles, pickled daikon and carrot, roasted peanuts, fried garlic and crispy wonton. The satay chicken was tender and perfectly salted, while the pickled daikon and carrot added a hint of acidity. The peanuts and wontons brought a satisfying crunch. The bowl also came with a side of peanut sauce, which added a sweet, nutty taste that tied the flavors together.

Make sure to save room for dessert, because Samila Thai Fusion Cuisine offers an array of fruity desserts that are impossible to resist. We tried the ube coconut mousse cake. Ube

is a sweet potato-like vegetable with hints of vanilla and almond. This dessert had layers of ube coconut cake and fluffy ube cream, of which we licked every last bit.

Another delectable dessert we tried was the mango coconut tres leches cake. Layered with a light mango cream, the tres leches was dense, moist and absolutely delightful. The mango paired perfectly with the sweetness of tres leches cake, as we savored each and every bite.

A visit to a Thai restaurant isn’t complete without Thai iced tea, so we tried the so-Thai iced tea Samila offers, and we were not disappointed. The drink has just the right balance of sweetness with a crisp tea taste. Each sip was refreshing and cool after the hot spicy flavors of the entrees.

Whether you’re in need of a study break pick-me-up or a taste of home cooking, Samila Thai Fusion Cuisine is sure to satisfy your craving.

kunjalbastola 2026 @u.northwestern.edu rachelschlueter 2026 @u.northwestern.edu

Dittmar Gallery explores evolution with ‘Metamorphosis’

By CLARE KIRWAN the da&l(

@clarekirwan3.

With works ranging from decomposing sculptures to lenticular prints and origami, Di mar Memorial Gallery opened its doors to its community show “Metamorphosis: e Art of Transformation” ursday.

Each year, Di mar invites community members to submit their artwork to the community show under a speci c theme. e /0/5 theme is metamorphosis, encouraging artists to create pieces using varied media to tell stories of change, evolution and transformation.

“ e laws of physics state that ma er cannot be created or destroyed. erefore, all artistic media — paints, fabrics, papers — have gone through a process of metamorphosis to unite as a nished work of art,” Di mar Gallery said in a statement about the exhibit.

Weinberg sophomore Elyse Malamud and Communication sophomore Gabby Gutierrez curated “Metamorphosis.” As they cra ed the exhibition, the two said they explored the question of how the evolution of art can re ect the world and humanity.

According to Malamud, the show features 3/ di erent works by 33 di erent community and student artists.

Kellogg MBA candidate Emma Shi is exhibiting her work “Essence,” a series of pen-on-paper drawings Shi said she created during the pandemic, as a part of the show. When she took walks to stay calm, Shi said she would create drawings based

on what she saw.

“I think that by capturing these (scenes) down on paper, it’s kind of transforming them into a way that they stay longer,” Shi said. “We can remember the scenes. at’s the art of transformation.”

Evanston resident Anne Hughes is also showcasing her work in the show, a large pastel piece “Inextricably Bound.”

Hughes said the piece itself was a metamorphosis because it changed as she progressed through the creation process. Even a er she thought it was done and framed, Hughes saw new places to rework the piece, she said.

“I never have an idea of exactly what something’s going to look like. My art is always a journey. e process, it’s almost like meditation,” Hughes said. “Sometimes I might start with an image or just put color down and then I will turn my paper in di erent directions and keep working until something is starting to grab me.”

School of the Art Institute of Chicago alum Richard Gessert took a di erent angle on the “Metamorphosis” theme. He created three lenticular prints based on photographs he took of an Oxalis plant that he said looked like a bu er y. e plant opens in the morning and closes at night, which he felt mimicked the natural u er of bu er y wings. His work “leippya lepidoptera papilionacea (bu er y-soul-bu er y-bu er y)” explores the idea of one thing looking like another, he said.

“ ere were some ideas there about something transient, transformative or incriminating about the bu er y and its fragility,” Gessert said.

“Because the plant usually responds to stimuli,

these prints shi as the viewer walks past them, so the viewer becomes the stimulus that causes the shi .”

Living four blocks from the gallery, Virginia O. Roeder has participated in the community show at Di mar for the past four years.

On top of loving the community aspect of the exhibition, Roeder said she enjoys working with student curators and creating art for each theme.

“I like the challenge. Last year, the theme was

to do an artwork which was based on some kind of poetry poem, and that was an interesting challenge for me,” Roeder said. “A er going through that process, it’s fun then to look at the display and to see how other people interpret that theme.”

“Metamorphosis” will remain open for viewing in Di mar until March .0, o ering commentary on the intersection of life and art.

clarekirwan2028@u.northwestern.edu

‘Mickey 17’ falls victim to convoluted narrative between gags

By DJ HARRISON

the da&l( )*rth,e-ter) @dj_bb./

Content warning: is article contains spoilers. “What’s it feel like to die?” Only Mickey can answer this question as the lone “expendable” on a ship dri ing through space.

Coming o of his Oscar-winning lm “Parasite,” Director Bong Joon-ho contributes even more to his past explorations of labor and economic power structures in “Mickey .7.” e brand new movie reads as a comedic yet tired commentary on the future of America and the dystopian reality

that might be in store if there is not a change in trajectory.

Set 50 years into the future, “Mickey .7” follows a man named Mickey (Robert Pa inson), who works as an “expendable” on a spaceship headed to colonize a planet infested with animals the characters call “creepers.” As an “expendable,” Mickey must die to be reprinted using futuristic human cloning technology. Everything goes well until Mickey’s life is saved by “creepers” a er being reprinted, illegally leaving two living Mickeys. Many hilarious moments are dispersed across the rst third of the lm, including a montage showing how past Mickeys have died. All of these scenarios had the audience cackling, but especially

during a scene in which a member of the ship explained in a deadpanned way to Mickey that he was exposed to an exorbitant amount of radiation.

But “Mickey .7” lacks a clear direction between the laughs and gags of its best moments. I had trouble pinning down a clear thematic purpose of the lm and was le with a few threads of brilliance that never connected. A confused a empt to tackle key American issues, the lm falls short due to its inability to focus on one of its many pieces of commentary.

Where “Mickey .7” begins to run into issues is in its convoluted a empt to address as many of this country’s current social issues as possible. First, Bong uses the idea of the “expendable” to satirize how far an organization will push its workers to achieve a pro t or gain. If it was possible to increase productivity through death, those in power would kill you, he argues.

He also addresses imperialism through the lengths Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ru alo), the dictator of the spaceship, will go to rid the newfound planet of its natural inhabitants, the “creepers.” e character seems to allude to President Trump through singular mannerisms and callous inclinations, addressing the lack of awareness o en exhibited by politicians.

While these concepts are certainly interesting topics for projects of their own, they feel incomplete and shortsighted when packed into one lm. What’s more, past movies have already done an outstanding job of telling these stories.

For a story that tackles imperialism and resistance to invasion by violent forces, look no further than the “Avatar” lms. For an a ack on unfair corporate labor, watch “Sorry to Bother You.” And for a Trump impression, just watch “Saturday Night Live.” All of these previous works do what “Mickey

.7” a empts to do but more e ectively. So if “Mickey .7” is just a mess of overdone themes and unconnected ideas, why should you see it? Well, as I said earlier, “Mickey .7” is not all bad. e idea of an “expendable” is unique, and the way Bong uses the two simultaneous Mickey characters can be quite clever, depicting them engulfed in hijinks including blackmail, sacri ce and even a love triangle. All of these moments lead to plenty of laughs, but, unfortunately, only for a small fraction of the lm. “Mickey .7” can be shrugged o as a narratively tangled misstep in the director’s spotless lmography, but may still be worth your time. djharrison2028@u.northwestern.edu

Illustration by Siri Reddy

“Mickey 17” loses a clear direction between the laughs and gags of its best moments.

Clare Kirwan/The Daily Northwestern Artist Richard Gessert created three lenticular prints which shi in imagery as the viewer moves from side to side.

Get ready for the best time to be a sports fan on campus – and the Spring Sports Preview

This past weekend was one for the books. Saturday, I was at Ryan Fieldhouse, covering Northwestern Lacrosse’s national title rematch with Boston College. Sunday, I shifted gears to Welsh-Ryan Arena to see the men’s basketball team host Nebraska. In between, I squeezed in a phone call with players and coaches from the softball team, who were busy playing five games down in Louisiana while I navigated my hectic

weekend in Evanston.

As I look back on what’s been my busiest week as sports editor, I can’t help but realize it’s also been the most rewarding. There’s a special time each year when Northwestern’s winter and spring sports overlap, and I consider it a privilege to cover this chaotic, exciting period. It’s been a true joy to write, edit and read the incredible stories our talented team at the sports desk brings to life as we dive into the

programs that define this university.

I’m excited to present our Spring Sports Preview, where you’ll get a sneak peek at how Northwestern’s lacrosse and softball teams are looking to make another postseason run, how baseball is hoping to build on its first season-opening series victory since 2008 and how both the men’s and women’s tennis teams continue to push forward in what’s already shaping up to be successful

seasons. There’s so much more to discover about these teams, but I hope our preview gives you a taste of what’s ahead for the ’Cats this spring. Thank you to our wonderful team of reporters, photographers, editors and designers who made this preview possible. We couldn’t have done it without you.

— Audrey Pachuta, Sports Editor

SOFTBALL EYES POSTSEASON RETURN

By AUDREY PACHUTA daily senior staffer @audreypachuta

When Northwestern found itself placed in the same NCAA Regional as No. 1 Texas last season, the draw seemed less like an opportunity and more like a death sentence — a reckoning for a program still reeling from the departure of its legendary ace, Danielle Williams, the winningest pitcher in school history.

again from the ashes, poised to challenge the giants of the sport in an expanded Big Ten field. Here are three things to watch out for as NU swings into a new season:

1 . Changes in the rotation

Prior to graduating last spring, Ashley Miller bore the brunt of responsibilities in the circle, delivering wins in the conference slate with

Boyd returns to the fold after missing last season due to injury. Boyd, who posted a careerbest 2 24 ERA in 2023 , made key contributions that included nine strikeouts in just 3 2 innings against Miami (Ohio) in regional play and holding perennial powerhouse Alabama to one run at the Tuscaloosa Super Regional.

The 2024 campaign, initially billed as a rebuilding year, quickly defied expectations.

The Wildcats, navigating the void left by several graduated stars that had taken NU to three super regional appearances, surged through the early season with the kind of dominance that left even the most formidable conference rivals in their wake. Their third consecutive Big Ten regular season title seemed more a testament to their resilience than to any perceived weakness.

After three seasons at Michigan State, Miller broke out in her lone year wearing purple, earning Big Ten Pitcher of the Year honors and posting a conference-best 1 58 ERA.

So far this season, Boyd has made four starts and delivered a complete-game victory over No. 8 Duke — NU’s only win over a ranked opponent to date. However, against other top25 foes like then-No. 18 Virginia Tech and No. 7 LSU, Boyd has struggled to contain their highpowered offenses as she works to shake off the rust from her time away.

like that add to the culture, but how everyone steps up when it’s their turn,” Nieto said. Despite the emergence of new and returning contributors, NU has faced major hiccups at the plate so far this year. The team’s 62 strikeouts is a Big Ten-worst and the group’s . 246 team average is 16 th in the conference. Still, Drohan remains measured in her assessment, attributing her group’s early struggles to the caliber of pitching the team has faced. With six games against ranked opponents already under their belts, she said the ’Cats’ early offensive woes are largely a product of facing some of the best arms in the country.

But when the stakes were highest, the

Yet their journey was marred by lateseason setbacks.

A pair of thrashings at the hands of Indiana — one shattering what had been the longest active home win streak in Division 1 softball, and the other sending them packing on day two of the Big Ten Tournament — tarnished what had been a promising season.

In the final regular-season series, walks in just 10 innings pitched, and her only frame in the Big Ten Tournament unraveled with a walk, a hit by pitch and a throwing error. By the time the ’Cats reached the NCAA Regionals, Miller was unable to regain the form that had propelled her all season. What had once been a dominant campaign was marred by control issues. It was in those fraught moments Drohan turned to her young pitchers — thenfreshmen Renae Cunningham and Riley Grudzielanek — who saw critical playing time on the sport’s grandest stages. Their performances under pressure served as invaluable experience, setting the stage for what will likely be more prominent roles this season.

“I think we have a pitching staff where everyone’s ready to go at any given time,” Grudzielanek said. “That kinda takes the pressure off because you know that everyone’s gonna have your back.”

2 . Lineup questions remain

NU’s starting lineup has Hannah Cady- and Angela Zedak-sized holes in it.

While the ’Cats graduated just two mainstays from last year’s batting order, replacing the third and fourth spots — traditionally home to the most powerful bats in the lineup — has proven to be a tall task.

Throughout the entirety of the conference slate and postseason last year, junior infielder Kansas Robinson led off and junior outfielder Kelsey Nader batted second, creating a one-two punch that jumpstarted the offense.

“As a hitter, you have to strike a balance between taking those lessons learned — ways that we learn about our swing decisions and ways we understand adjustments we can make — and also keeping confidence up,” Drohan said. “But I think it will only help us in the long run.”

3 . Big Ten weapons

Three losses on their recent trip to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, saw the ’Cats drop out of the top 25 , but to write off their postseason potential would be an overreaction.

NU’s early schedule has been nothing short of a gauntlet, with the team facing some of the stiffest competition in the country. According to Drohan, that level of play has already tested them in ways that will pay off down the stretch.

For a team on the cusp of greatness, these defeats underscored a harsh reality: redemption would not come easily.

Now, nine months removed from a season-ending the Longhorns, coach Kate Drohan’s squad stands poised at the precipice of a new chapter. With a roster chock-full of returning stalwarts and newly minted talent, the ’Cats are primed to flip the script.

As the group navigated a tough opening 10 games of its paign, the season continues to hold the promise of revival — one that could see them rise once

Cunningham and Grudzielanek saw near-equal playing time and comparable results last season, with Cunningham posting a 3 39 ERA in innings and Grudzielanek regERA in 60 2 innings. Cunningham was often called upon in relief — particularly late in the season — while Grudzielanek starts, second only to

“I think Kelsey and I both just have a lot of confidence in ourselves and in each other,” Robinson said ahead of last year’s Big Ten tournament. “I just feel a lot more comfortable with her behind me because I know when I’m getting on, she’s gonna move me.”

By the end of NU’s second weekend of its young season, though, Drohan opted for a different look. Nader moved to the leadoff spot, Robinson shifted to the third hole and freshman infielder Kaylie Avvisato was wedged between the two.

Avvisato — ranked the ninth-best recruit in the nation ahead of this year by Extra Innings Softball — has wasted no time in justifying the shift. In her first 16 collegiate at-bats, she registered nine hits, including three against a dominant then-No. 15 Missouri squad, as the rest of her teammates were held hitless.

The stakes are only going to rise as Big Ten play looms, especially with a now-expanded field that includes No. 4 UCLA, one of college softball’s most storied programs, and a No. 15 Nebraska squad that’s bolstered by significant offseason upgrades.

Fresh off a Women’s College World Series berth, the Bruins added Softball America’s topranked recruiting class to a roster that already boasts serious talent. They’ve dropped just one of their first 10 games — a narrow walk-off loss to Virginia this past Sunday — and will likely pose the ’Cats’ most difficult conference series as they close their regular season with a trip to Los Angeles in May.

Two weeks before then, NU will host Nebraska, which has welcomed back senior pitcher Jordy Bahl.

This season, Grudzielanek has emerged as the primary workhorse of the staff, starting four games and earning two wins in her 23 innings pitched. The Oak Creek, Wisconsin native said that her primary focus in the offseason was tightening her changeup spin.

“My main goal is to keep hitters guessing about what speed is gonna come,” Grudzielanek said.

She continues to lead NU’s offense over its first 10 games with a . 455 average in 33 at-bats, including four extra-base hits.

“I’ve just been doing everything in my power to just try to be on time with the ball and learn from other people’s at-bats,” Avvisato said.

In addition to the freshman’s rapid ascent, senior infielder Grace Nieto has proven to be a valuable asset after returning from an injury that sidelined her for 2024

Bahl, who suffered a season-ending ACL injury during 2024 ’s opening weekend after transferring from Oklahoma, is one of the most dominant two-way players in college softball, sporting a 1 00 career ERA and a . 424 batting average.

As the 2025 season heats up, the ’Cats have their sights firmly set on a deep postseason run. But for now, they’re staying focused on the day-to-day grind.

Alongside her, graduate student Lauren

Nieto, who has nine hits in her first 10 games back, is already proving why she was missed last season as she steps into a larger leadership role.

“It’s not necessarily the additions that I really

“We’re taking it one game at a time and one pitch at a time,” Nieto said. “We’re trying not to look too much ahead or get distracted by future goals.”

audreypachuta2027@u.northwestern.edu

DROHAN’S TEAM SPLITS OPENING WEEKENDS

By AUDREY PACHUTA daily senior staffer @audreypachuta

Trough the frst 10 games of the 2025 season, Northwestern has posted a 5-5 record, securing just one win in six contests against ranked opponents. With high hopes entering the season, the Wildcats have faced early adversity, marked by inconsistent ofense and a tough schedule.

During its opening weekend at the NFCA Classic in Clearwater, Florida, coach Kate Drohan’s squad welcomed back graduate student pitcher Lauren Boyd and senior infelder Grace Nieto afer both missed last season due to injuries. Teir returns highlighted the potential for new additions to strengthen last year’s rotation and lineup.

In addition to Boyd and Nieto, freshman infelder Kaylie Avvisato — ranked as the ninthbest recruit by Extra Innings Sofball entering the season — sloted into the third spot in the lineup for the fnal three games of the weekend. She led the ’Cats with nine hits in 16 at-bats, including three extra-base hits.

Boyd started on the mound in NU’s season opener against Kennesaw State, pitching 5 2 innings in her frst appearance in 623 days. Te Owls struck frst in that contest, scoring two runs on three hits in the botom of the frst to put the ’Cats in an early hole.

Entering the seventh inning, the game was tied at seven, as Avvisato recorded her frst career hit and advanced on a throwing error, allowing sophomore pinch-runner Hannah Cushing to score from

second base. NU secured the win in the botom of the inning afer sophomore pitcher Renae Cunningham recorded the save.

Later that day, coach Kate Drohan’s group fell 3-0 to then-No. 15 Missouri, recording just three hits in the loss, with Avvisato collecting all three. Freshman pitcher Riley Grudzielanek tossed the entire contest, conceding two earned runs over six innings.

Te ’Cats’ lone ranked win came in a 4-1 victory over then-No. 8 Duke, in which Boyd pitched all seven innings. Avvisato led NU’s ofense again with three hits, including a double and a triple.

Following that win, the ’Cats were overpowered 12-1 by then-No. 5 Tennessee. Cunningham, Grudzielanek and freshman pitcher Emma Blea — making her frst career appearance — split time in the circle.

Drohan’s group wrapped up the weekend with a 2-1 win over Southern Mississippi. Grudzielanek pitched the entire game, giving up just two hits. Senior outfelder Ayana Lindsey hit her frst home run since the 2023 season in the victory.

Te following week, then-No. 21 NU took the feld Friday at LSU’s Purple & Gold Challenge. Against then-No. 18 Virginia Tech, NU seemed poised to dominate afer a sharp defensive start. But NU’s early momentum evaporated as Robinson and junior outfelder Kelsey Nader were dispatched on strikeouts.

It was a foreboding sign of what would come as Hokies pitcher Emma Lemley continued to roll, recording 16 strikeouts and her second consecutive perfect game, handing the ’Cats a 3-0 loss.

“You can’t change what happened, you can only

learn,” senior infelder Grace Nieto said of starting the weekend with a hitless opener. “What we tried to do was use it as an opportunity to get beter for the next couple of games.”

Following their opening loss to Virginia Tech, the ’Cats’ road grew tougher as they braced for a showdown with perennial juggernaut then-No. 7 LSU.

NU managed an early advantage afer Nader and Robinson — fip-fopped in the lineup for the frst time since last year’s nonconference slate — walked to open the contest and Nader scored on a sacrifce fy by sophomore catcher Emma Raye.

Sophomore pitcher Riley Grudzielanek held the Tigers to a scoreless frst inning but ultimately surrendered seven runs on eight hits and four walks — compounded by two defensive errors from her teammates.

Grudzielanek led the team with two hits in the 7-1 loss, working her way into the cleanup slot of the lineup by the end of the weekend.

“I think it’s very important to separate the two,” Grudzielanek said. “You don’t take ofense into defense and don’t take defense into ofense.”

Redshirt freshman pitcher Signe Dohse made her frst career appearance in relief for Grudzielanek, entering the game in the fourth inning and conceding zero runs.

In NU’s 6-1 victory over UT Arlington the following day, Dohse earned the start and picked up the win. Despite the Mavericks establishing an early lead, the ’Cats didn’t allow another run for the rest of the game.

Nieto led the team with three hits in that game, driving in two runs on RBI singles.

But NU couldn’t carry that winning momentum into a rematch with LSU Saturday, dropping its second game of the day in an 8-0 run-rule result as Nader and Avvisato were the only players to record hits.

Graduate student pitcher Lauren Boyd and sophomore pitcher Renae Cunningham shared the pitching responsibilities, as Boyd gave up six runs on six hits in just 1 1 innings in the circle.

Drohan’s group ended the weekend on a high note, though, defeating UT Arlington in an 11-3 mercy rule win of its own Sunday.

Following a slow ofensive start to her season, Robinson racked up a team-high four hits — including two doubles and two RBIs — in the win. Avvisato recorded three hits Sunday, continuing the dominant start to her collegiate career. She now leads the team in bating average and sits 12th in the Big Ten.

“I try to hunt the strikes early,” Avvisato said. “I try not to get behind in counts because that’s when the pitchers throw their [best] stuf.”

Te ’Cats’ ofense exploded in the ffh inning, scoring seven of their 11 runs. Freshman outf elder Avery Garden blasted her f rst career homer — a three-run shot — while sophomore infelder Ainsley Muno added a home run to seal the win.

Following a challenging start to their 2025 campaign to the year, the ’Cats will prepare to travel to California for four games at the Mary Nuter Collegiate Classic.

audreypachuta2027@u.northwestern.edu

Miller.

NU LAX READIES FOR POST-SCANE LIFE

By JAKE EPSTEIN daily senior staffer @jakeepste1n

Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias” chronicles a once-omnipotent kingdom’s descent to desolation. The ruinous mark of a mighty monarch, buried in the desert sand, provides the sole indication of his formerly vast empire.

It’s a cautionary tale for dynasties amid changing tides: adapt to a new era or risk an epic fall from grace. For coach Kelly Amonte Hiller it’s a fate she has continuously eluded.

Northwestern’s 11 -year national title drought was a story of a dormant power reborn from the ashes in zero in the national championship game a year later, two vast white tents with unopened champagne bottles stood motionless less than 100 tator entrance.

Saturday’s lege struck down a formidable figure forged by last season’s departing senior class. A home win streak dating back to March shattered in the Wildcats’ climate-controlled palace beside Lake Michigan.

The four-goal margin of defeat perhaps flattered the hosts, who appeared helpless to stymie the Eagles’ seven-deep attack. On the offensive end, junior attacker Madison Taylor tallied a game-high six points, but the team’s collective scoring threat fell flat.

While the result marked the end of a dominant home era that spanned the length of four-year defensive stars Kendall Halpern and Carleigh Mahoney’s standout careers, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Boston College rightfully stands atop the collegiate lacrosse landscape — and will do so until a challenger knocks coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein’s squad off its perch.

… She’s a generational player.”

In oracle-esque fashion, Rooney nailed every prediction she laid out for the Wantagh, New York, native. Taylor entered her junior season having garnered IWLCA first-team AllAmerican honors, a Tewaaraton Award finalist nod and a U 20 World Championship gold medal with an Amonte Hiller-led Team USA.

After competing in fall camp with the senior national team, Taylor has once again taken the NCAA by storm. In her first three games, the lefty attacker recorded 14 goals, seven assists and 10 draw controls.

Unlike previous seasons, the attack runs through Taylor’s stick. If she can guide the ’Cats to a deep postseason run, Taylor’s name may be called at June’s Tewaaraton Ceremony as the winner of college lacrosse’s most prestigious honor.

Now, as she has done throughout her decades-long coaching career, Amonte Hiller must guide NU into its next program-defining phase. In May, the ’Cats bid farewell to a legion of college legends, such as Izzy Scane and Erin Coykendall.

A dropoff, like many teams around the country are experiencing, was inevitable. But NU is no ordinary dynasty, and the ’Cats have now felt the sobering low of defeat on their home turf for the first time in bet that Amonte Hiller’s group will use Saturday’s loss as fuel moving forward.

As the nonconference schedule ramps up, here are some key NU lacrosse storylines to monitor.

Taylor grapples with Tewaaraton hype

Just over two months into Taylor’s freshman season in 2023 , former Wantagh High School lacrosse coach Robyn Rooney heaped astonishing praise in her former two-way midfielder’s direction.

NU searches for consistent attack-

2023

seasons, the ’Cats possessed an unparalleled attacking arsenal. With Scane

“She’s going to be an All-American and a Tewaaraton finalist, if not a Tewaaraton winner,” Rooney told The Daily in April 2023 “She’ll be playing for Team USA.

team’s total production. Scane and Coykendall headline that figure with respectively.

The major losses, especially on the attack-

ing end, caused Amonte Hiller’s staff to hit the portal for its largest-ever transfer class.

The staff brought in six transfers — gradudan services for her final season of eligibility.

ate student attackers Riley Campbell and Niki Miles, graduate student defender Grace Fujinaga, graduate student goalkeeper Delaney Sweitzer, senior attacker JorMiles and redshirt sophomore midfielder Jaylen Rosga.

alded yet pivotal scoring threat, pitched in with the program. Her sacrificial cuts didn’t show up on the scoreboard, but they opened windows for teammates to exploit.

This offseason, NU lost uation. That accounts for nearly

Scott Hiller told USA Lacrosse Magazine that Niki Miles

defensive departures, frst-year made a rapid staf — freshman impresdefender It didn’t mat-

marked “the key” to the ’Cats’ 2024 recruiting class, and the staff expected her to make an instant impact.

practices.

both intrasquad scrimmages and fall ball afforded her the opportunity to start the season opener against Notre Dame on Feb. the lineup made Carroll the first freshman defender to start a season opener since now-senior defender Sammy White did so during the season.

Alongside Carroll, Fujinaga has carved out a consistent starting role in her lone year with the ’Cats. The former AllIvy League defender at Penn has linked up with White and graduate student defender Jane Hansen, all of whom are playing in their final collegiate seasons. Amonte Hiller has also utilized Rosga as a defensive mid Te former f ferred from Maryland in the summer and appears to occupy a bevy of roles for NU. When the ’Cats match up with a fast-paced, clinical ack like Boston College, expect Rosga’s minutes’ share to increase.

While the elder Miles sister recorded six points in her first two games, she failed to tally a point against Boston Coland her shooting centage dipped following

Michigan fell 12-6 to

Although Campbell and senior mid elder Emerson Bohlig have provided NU with speed nesse on the a end, Amonte Hiller continues to search for more consistent production from depth pieces.

Goalkeeping future hangs in the

When news broke of Sweitzer’s high-profile transfer on an early December morning, the ’Cats seemed to have found a short-term solution to their goalkeeping controversy. The move filled the empty position left in two-year starter Molly Laliberty’s stead.

While Inside Lacrosse reported that Sweitzer was unavailable for the season opener as she was “sorting through eligibility issues,” the former Syracuse star made her debut Saturday against the Eagles.

The position is now almost certainly Sweitzer’s to lose, marking the third consecutive season with a transfer starting between the pipes. Madison Doucette was the most recent high school goalkeeper recruit to start more than two games in any season for NU.

Doucette was recruited in the and developed under former goalkeeper coach Tim McCormack, the current Johns Hopkins head coach, as a freshman in 2019

Although redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Francesca Argentieri may be the starter in waiting with an additional two seasons of eligibility, Amonte Hiller has found viable options in the transfer portal in what is now two of the last three years.

Eagles soar into enemy territory and plant their proverbial

Look no further than Drexel goalkeeper Jenika Cuocco, who entered the portal this past

It’s difficult to forecast a potential Big Ten winner, especially with the typical topthree squads faltering in such a fashion. That said, the tion for

the ’Cats remains contention for a Big Ten title and a lengthy postseason run to boot. Is NU a national championship-caliber team at this juncture? No. But the beauty of the collegiate lacrosse season is that it spans well beyond February. While the ’Cats may currently be several steps behind Boston College North Carolina, NU is not a program that merely sinks into desert sand. jacobepstein2026@u.northwestern.edu

Henry Frieman/The Daily Northwestern Junior attacker Madison Taylor sprints down the field during last season’s semifinal victory over Florida.

BASEBALL READY TO FORGET LAST YEAR

By ANNA WATSON daily senior staffer @adub_sports

After a woeful 2024 season that saw just four conference wins, Northwestern is back on the diamond and already charting a new course.

This weekend, the Wildcats won their first season-opening series win since 2008 , defeating Long Beach State 2 - 1

In coach Ben Greenspan’s second year at the helm, the ’Cats will look to bounce back from back-to-back years in the Big Ten’s basement, bolstered by key new additions — particularly in the pitching staff.

NU’s rotation posted a league-worst 6 95 ERA last year as it struggled to keep up with the big bats of its Big Ten foes. But hope is on the horizon with new faces joining the roster.

The ’Cats picked up graduate transfers Sam Hliboki and Crawford Wade this offseason. Both have NCAA Tournament experience. Hliboki hails from Vanderbilt, where he tossed 107 innings in four seasons, posting a 4 79 ERA. In his first few months in Evanston, he’s already become an outspoken leader on the team.

“At our very first team meeting (he was) speaking up, taking a leadership role and doing it in a way that players didn’t look at him like, ‘Why you? You haven’t been here. Why are you acting like that?’” Greenspan said. “It was a genuine, authentic leadership role.”

Hliboki appeared twice this weekend, picking up two saves. The graduate student pitched a total of four shutout innings, striking out four batters and only allowing one hit.

Wade’s 58 1 innings and 4 47 ERA during his four years at Wake Forest will also buttress Greenspan’s options on the mound. Wade did not have the start he hoped for on Opening Day, only throwing 2 2 innings and allowing six

earned runs, but he will continue to be an important part of the staff moving forward.

NU’s most important returner to the rotation though, is sophomore right-hander Garrett Shearer.

Shearer was a large part of the pitching staff last season, appearing a team-high Though he threw hard, he sometimes struggled with his command, finishing last season with a 6 22 ERA and averaging 4 74 walks per nine innings. But he has worked on refining his delivery in the offseason.

the hard work that I’ve put in, and just play the game to the best of my ability

“Garrett, I think, cleaned up some things in his delivery that will allow him to command the fastball a little bit better and probably avoid some of the bigger misses with his slider that puts him in a better position to start,” Greenspan said. “Delivery changes will set him up to be a little bit more consistent this year.”

By ELI KRONENBERG and CHARLIE SPUNGIN daily senior staffers @elikronenberg / @charliespungin

With Northwestern men’s and women’s tennis teams nearing Big Ten play, Te Daily’s tennis beat reporters Eli Kronenberg and Charlie Spungin handed out early-season accolades and provided insights for the competition to come.

Women’s Tennis (6-4, 0-0 Big Ten):

Player of the season so far:

Spungin: Sydney Prat

In the season-opening match against Butler, Prat won 6-1, 6-1 in singles. Alongside freshman Erica Jessel in doubles, the senior won 6-0 Tis match foreshadowed what was to come.

In nine matches this season, Prat has not dropped a singles set, including triumphs over her opponents at No. 4 Stanford 6-4, 6-3 and Illinois 6-2, 7-5. While the matches went unfnished, she led No. 1 Georgia’s Guillermina Grant, the country’s 90th ranked player, 6-3, 3-4, as well as her opponent at No. 15 Pepperdine 6-2, 5-5 In doubles, she and Jessel are 7-2. Five of these wins came while dropping two or fewer games. Te veteran has exemplifed pure dominance in her fnal campaign in Evanston.

Kronenberg: Britany Lau

While Prat’s exploits are undeniable, Lau has been an equally important contributor to NU’s success. Lau’s 3-1 singles record at No. 3 doesn’t remotely do her season justice.

In addition to a match-clinching win over Georgia Tech’s Given Roach, Lau played a series of competitive matches against elite-caliber opponents that were lef unfnished.

She was set to serve for the match at 5-4 in the third set against 111th-ranked Violeta Martinez of Illinois, led 6-4, 4-4 against No. 1 Georgia’s Mell Reasco and led 1-6, 7-6(5), 2-1 against Pepperdine’s 80th-ranked Vivian Yang when each of those matches were called of Te sixth-year graduate student has found her best tennis, and is showing no signs of slowing down.

Breakout player of the season so far:

Spungin: Neena Feldman Feldman has been in the doubles lineup each match this season, recently fnding form with senior Kiley Rabjohns. Afer a close 7-5 loss to No. 1 Georgia, the pair has won four straight matches — 7-5 against No. 4 Stanford, 6-1 versus No. 15 Pepperdine, 6-1 against UIC and 6-0 versus Milwaukee.

see where it goes from hard for my McElfatrick said.

Sophomore outfielder Jackson Freeman will also

season. En

Greenspan said. “He’s so competitive. He’s so team-first that when your leader acts that way, I think guys fall in line.”

Even after the injury, Ganus is off to a hot start to the season. Ganus batted a team-high 545 this weekend, going 6 -for- 11 at the plate and racking up a team-high five RBI.

Three more new faces will be important to look out for in the field this season. The ’Cats recruited two sophomore infielders in Ryan Kucherak and Jack Counsell, who came to NU from LSU and Michigan, respectively. Kucherak’s Wildcat debut was one to remember. Kucherak started all three games for the ’Cats at shortstop this weekend and batted . 364 with a home run.

Saturday night, Shearer proved his coach right. The right-hander threw six big innings, only allowing three hits and two runs en route to the ’Cats’ first win of the season.

NU had another new name come up big this weekend. Freshman right-hander Matthew Kouser picked up the win in the Sunday rubber match against the Dirtbags. Kouser pitched six innings for the ’Cats, allowing one run on two hits. For his efforts, the right-hander was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week.

On the offensive side, NU will see continuity.

Five of the team’s top hitters return, led by senior catcher Bennett Markinson, who batted . 337 and smashed six home runs last season. Markinson, who was recently named to D 1 Baseball’s Top 50 Catchers list, is one of Greenspan’s most reliable contributors.

Junior infielder Owen McElfatrick will also be a key part of the offensive equation. Trailing only Markinson with a . 290 batting average, NU’s success will hinge on his continued production.

“I just want to go out there and show all

Feldman hasn’t solidifed herself as a mainstay in coach Claire Pollard’s singles lineup early in the dual season. But when she’s been on the court, she’s dominated, posting an unblemished 5-0 record. She earned one of NU’s two points at Illinois with her 6-3, 6(2)-7, 6-4 victory, capped of by a forehand winner.

Other than that match, the sophomore has not dropped a set. Her results read: 6-1, 6-1; 6-2, 6-1; 6-3, 6-3; 6-0, 6-1. One of those came against national powerhouse Pepperdine.

Kronenberg: Autumn Rabjohns

Afer siting out last year’s dual season, it wasn’t clear whether Rabjohns would be in the picture for this campaign. Yet, Rabjohns’ form in the preseason Quad Invite, in which she went 3-0 in singles, was impossible for Pollard to ignore.

Pollard said she decided that Rabjohns would exclusively slice on the forehand side in December to help expel her struggles with confdence on the topspin forehand.

Tat move has paid dividends, as Rabjohns has been a stalwart in the singles lineup, posting a 4-4 singles record that includes a crucial win over Georgia Tech at No. 6 which helped the ’Cats secure victory.

X-factor quality:

Spungin: Mika Dagan Fruchtman staying healthy

Before the dual season, Dagan Fruchtman was fghting a sprained ligament in her lef foot. Against Georgia Tech in early February, she injured her right foot and had the trainer atend to her. Against No. 1 Georgia, she pulled her hamstring while still nursing her foot injuries.

Tis past weekend, Dagan Fruchtman sat out of matches against UIC and Milwaukee.

Te star freshman has exemplifed her all-court style of play and strong groundstrokes throughout her time at NU. Te priority now is to stay healthy to give NU productive No. 1 singles play.

Kronenberg: Erica Jessel fnding consistency

Tere is so much to like about Jessel’s game. Her booming serve and efortlessly powerful ball-striking stand out immediately, and her ability to close at the net has shone in doubles.

When she executes over the course of a full match — as she was on course to do against Stanford’s 18thranked Connie Ma before the match was lef unfnished early in the third set — she had the potential to be one of the best players in college tennis.

Jessel fnding consistency, both within points and over the course of a match, will be key to NU’s trajectory.

Biggest coaching dilemma:

Spungin & Kronenberg: Botom of the singles lineup

nod, Freeman started all 52 games, notching a

Seeking new additions beyond the transfer portal, Greenspan looked no further than Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium. The team announced on Jan. 13 that Jack Lausch —- who started 10 games as NU Football’s quarterback —- will join the baseball team ahead of this season. A former top- 250 MLB prospect, the junior outfielder has a chance to make a big impact for this team, and Greenspan said he will play a “prominent role.”

Gradu-

ate student utility player Tyler Ganus was on a tear for NU early in 2024 before he was forced to take a medical redshirt.

“If you look at our season last year, we were a different team with and without him,”

When Pollard sat down with Te Daily afer the fall season concluded, she raved about her team’s depth, saying this year’s squad may be the deepest she’s ever coached.

She doesn’t appear to be wrong. While there are evident locks for Pollard’s lineup, fguring out who to start at the No. 5 and No. 6 singles spots presents itself as a major question mark.

Te Rabjohns sisters each initially got the nod in the frst three matches when the whole team was ft, but Feldman’s fne form may make her undroppable. In the end, Pollard said she will have to decide on a match-by-match basis.

“We need to see what the style of play is of our opposition, and maybe we need to be strategic in who plays,” Pollard said Sunday.

Record prediction:

Spungin: 18-7, 10-3 Big Ten

Kronenberg: 17-8, 9-4 Big Ten

Men’s Tennis (4-5, 0-0 Big Ten):

Player of the season so far:

Spungin & Kronenberg: Felix Nordby

Tere’s no doubt about this one. Nordby was already one of the team’s best performers last season and has now taken his game to new levels.

Playing at the No. 2 and No. 3 singles spots, Nordby has posted a 6-1 record. Te other NU players in the top half of the singles lineup have posted an aggregate 8-9 record. Nordby’s lone loss came in three sets at Louisville.

Notably, Nordby grinded out a 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 win against No. 24 Harvard. He quickly dispatched his opponents Saturday with 6-1, 7-5 and 6-1, 6-1 wins against Illinois State and IU Indianapolis, respectively.

Te Norwegian senior has made a habit of pummeling forehand winners, and it may be only a mater of time before coach Arvid Swan gives him a look at the top spot.

“He’s playing at a very high level,” Swan said afer Nordby’s wins over Illinois State and IU Indianapolis on Saturday. “He can play at any spot in the lineup.”

Breakout player of the season so far:

Spungin: Greyson Casey

Afer going 3-11 in singles play at the No. 5 and No. 6 singles slots last season, Casey has already exceeded his number of wins last season by posting a 4-4 record at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions this season.

Casey started the season as NU’s No. 1 and recorded two wins in the doubleheader against Saint Joseph’s and UIC that kicked of the season. Tis past weekend, he picked up another pair of wins, both in straight sets.

His powerful serve and seeming ability to hit a

Lausch started in center field for all three of NU’s games against Long Beach State. The outfielder hit . 300 this weekend with one double and one RBI.

According to Greenspan, the combination of veteran returners, promising newcomers and a coaching staff that is growing together is poised to provide a solid foundation for the team’s success.

“The biggest benefit, I think, is those guys have been in the dugout with me, and our coaches have all been in the dugout with me, and we’ve gone through it together,” Greenspan said. “I’m excited to get into year two with these guys.”

annawatson2027@u.northwestern.edu

KRONENBERG, SPUNGIN TALK ’CATS TENNIS

winner from nearly anywhere on the court make him a force to be reckoned with when he fnds his rhythm.

Kronenberg: Max Bengtsson

Te senior bided his time early in his NU career, playing just three dual-season singles matches over his frst two years. However, since entering the lineup in April last season, Bengtsson has been a formidable force.

His rock-solid consistency from the baseline has propelled him to a 4-3 singles record at the No. 4 and No. 5 spots. Bengtsson was a rare bright spot during the ’Cats’ fve-match losing streak, winning at Louisville, losing in tight third sets against Harvard and Vanderbilt and leading 6-2, 3-3 in an unfnished match at Clemson.

When he returned to Evanston, Bengtsson secured his second career double bagel against Illinois State.

X-factor quality:

Spungin: Greyson Casey’s return game

Against No. 24 Harvard in doubles alongside Nordby, Casey’s match went unfnished. Te sophomore won all 12 points in his service games. Troughout the season, his powerful serve has been an instrument of mass success.

His return games, however, aren’t quite at the same level as his service game. On his service games, he has the ability to tally up aces and execute lethal serve-plus ones. On his return games, he doesn’t get this same opportunity.

As a player that Swan says has “huge upside,” Casey’s serve will be crucial to prove this prophecy.

Kronenberg: Saiprakash Goli’s aggression

As the team’s longest-tenured player, Goli has the stamina and mental toughness to compete at a high level through the rigorous demands of a college tennis season. Afer posting a 9-13 singles record in his frst season as a regular starter — mostly at the No. 3 spot — Goli has moved up as high as No. 1 this season.

His electrifying athleticism allows him to drag technically superior players to dark places — yet, against the very best opponents, the graduate student will need to fnd a way to take maters into his own hands more ofen.

“One of my strengths is I’m prety quick,” Goli said. “But I’m trying to use that speed to play more aggressive, trying to fnish points a litle bit quicker.”

Record prediction: Spungin: 12-16, 5-8 Big Ten Kronenberg: 15-13, 6-7 Big Ten

elikronenberg2027@u.northwestern.edu charliespungin2027@u.northwestern.edu

Political student groups host Oligarchy discussion

By MAYA IKENBERRY

daily se(i)r sta,,er

Northwestern College Democrats and conservative student group NU Young America’s Foundation co-hosted a debate on the presence of oligarchy in the United States Tuesday evening.

College Democrats Co-President Adam Durr and YAF President Caleb Nunes both said they were hoping for a productive discussion with agreement on issues across the party line. The presidents and their vice presidents moderated the debate.

“We’re hoping there’s going to be some crossover between Republicans and Democrats on both sides,” Durr said.

The debate started with a reminder of the rules: be respectful, speak one at a time, follow the moderators’ directions and feel free to change your mind.

Moderators projected prompts on the screen of the classroom and asked participants to go to one side of the room if they agreed with the statement and the other side if they disagreed. If they didn’t know how they felt, they were told to stand in the middle. Then, moderators called on students on either side to speak.

The first prompt asked students if they thought corporate donors have too much influence over elected representatives. Everyone in the room agreed they did.

The second prompt asked if Elon Musk has too much influence over the executive branch. Again, everyone agreed he does, but Nunes offered nuance to the conversation.

“I do think that a lot of the fears about (Musk) are overblown about whether the administration itself is overstepping its authority,” Nunes said.

Another prompt asked participants if they thought there was a concerning amount of waste in federal spending. There were an equal number of people who agreed and who were unsure about their beliefs.

The question ignited debate on how to define “wasteful” spending, the efficacy of U.S. foreign aid and conversations on defense and welfare spending.

“The majority of our money goes to the military, how much of that money is actually being used effectively?” McCormick junior Emilie Tueting asked.

As the audience debated welfare spending, the moderators performed a fact check and provided clarity with welfare statistics and beneficiaries of U.S. aid.

The final prompt asked students if they were concerned about a lack of accountability in the executive branch. Only three students said they were not concerned.

The discussion continued for a full hour. Durr said this was the first forum for open debate that College Democrats and YAF have co-hosted this year, and he is hoping for more in the future.

mayaikenberry2026@u.northwestern.edu

Members of both clubs debated whether the question was targeting Trump and brought up the question of whether he should serve jail time. Some members of College Democrats argued that the issue of accountability goes beyond Trump himself and is instead embedded in his administration.

Maya Ikenberry/The Daily Northwestern

The presidents of College Democrats and YAF said they expected a lot of agreement between their clubs.

OPINION

Hernandez Gonzalez: It will always be the ‘Gulf of Mexico’

When President Donald Trump won the 2024 U.S. presidential election, one of his priorities was to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” This ridiculous promise seems like a snippet from an episode of “The Simpsons,” right? Well, this is what the American people wanted, so I hope you’re happy with this outcome.

This international body of water is officially recognized as the Gulf of Mexico by the International Hydrographic Organization and the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, amongst other groups. Not only is the history of this gulf important, but it is vital to watch as the Trump administration executes a modern-day act of imperialism.

Ancient Mexica, specifically the Aztecs and Mayans, used the gulf as a major trade route and associated it with Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl, the deity of the seas.

When the name “Gulf of Mexico” appeared on a world map in 1550 , it was common knowledge that you needed to cross the Gulf to reach your desired location. Therefore, the Europeans named the Gulf after México — the most common name for it since the 17 th century, until now.

On the first day of his second term, Trump signed the executive order titled “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness,” which required the U.S. government to ignore centuries of history and adopt the patriotic yet obnoxious name “Gulf of America.”

The reasoning for this change was because Trump believes the U.S. does “most of the work” on the Gulf, and it should bear the American name “because it’s ours.” So, all of the history that involves the shaping of the Gulf doesn’t matter anymore, right?

Surprisingly, this name change already had support way before it was signed, notably from avid Trump supporter and U.S. Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). On Jan. 9 ,

Not only is the history of this gulf important, but it is vital to watch as the Trump administration executes a modern-day act of imperialism.

- ALEXANDER HERNANDEZ-GONZALEZ , opinion editor

she introduced legislation proposing a name change to Congress, but Trump already had this plan set in stone.

“Our U.S. armed forces protect the area from any military threats from foreign countries,” she boldly stated then. “It’s our Gulf. The rightful name is the Gulf of America and it’s what the entire world should refer to it as.”

This order did not sit well with the American people, especially as serious pressing issues were put on the back burner. In fact, a Marquette University poll revealed that 71% of Americans opposed the renaming of the Gulf, while 29% favored it.

On Feb. 7 , SO 3423 , issued by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum,

ordered the Geographic Names Information System and the GEOnet Names Server to rename “the feature currently known as the Gulf of Mexico” to the nationalistic title that Trump championed during his campaign.

America,” said Leavitt. “I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that, but that is what it is.”

OPINION EDITOR TOBIAS KHABIE

On Feb. 9 , Trump visited the Gulf after its renaming and proclaimed that it was the first ever “Gulf of America Day.” He stated that it “is fitting and appropriate for our great Nation to come together and commemorate this momentous occasion and the renaming of the Gulf of America.”

On Feb. 12 , White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated during a normal briefing that the Trump administration will hold media outlets accountable if they are pushing “lies” in their stories, referring to Associated Press when they used “Gulf of Mexico” rather than the administration’s new name.

“And it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of

Te reasoning for this change was because Trump believes the U.S. does “most of the work” on the Gulf, and it should bear the American name “because it’s ours.” So, all of the history that involves the shaping of the Gulf doesn’t mater anymore, right?

- ALEXANDER HERNANDEZ-GONZALEZ , opinion editor

OP -ED CONTRIBUTOR

Content warning: This article contains mention of war and death

1 , 200 Israelis were murdered and 240 civilians were taken hostage in the most deadly attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

As I processed the gravity of what had just occurred, I wondered how the world would respond. Antisemitism had been on the rise in years prior, but I rightfully assumed such a barbaric act against the Jewish people would surely face widespread condemnation.

Google, Apple and a slew of oil companies have embraced the name change, showing the power that Trump has over some of the largest American corporations. Even the National Weather Service changed the name Tuesday morning and Google has blocked reviews for the Gulf of Mexico.

Yet, in the journalism world, this sudden name change and the punishment of barring AP reporters from the White House raises alarms about press freedom violations.

The White House Correspondents’ Association, The New York Times and Encycolepædia Britannica, to name a few, are refusing to adapt to this change. The fact that the Gulf has a rich history, this change is only in America and these outlets cater to an international audience are some of the reasons for this decision.

We simply cannot ignore history and the importance that the Gulf of Mexico holds on an international scale. Over 400 years of existence has enough merit to remain unaltered by an administration that simply wants to slap the American name on anything they deem to be “ours.” That is simply not a part of the patriotic values that many in this country hold.

Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez is a Medill sophomore. He can be contacted at alexanderhernandez-gonzalez 2027 @u.northwestern. edu. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to opinion@ dailynorthwestern.com. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.

Khabie: Do not fail us, show up for your Jewish peers

rhetoric.

Tobias Khabie is a Medill junior. To register for the film or to contact the contributor, he can be reached at tobiaskhabie 2026 @u.northwestern. edu. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to opinion@ dailynorthwestern.com. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern. ALEXANDER

I woke up the morning of Oct. 7 at around 8 a.m. to a flurry of alerts on my phone coming from a WhatsApp group chat with my family in Israel, mixed in with a chorus of notifications from various news apps. I quickly gathered that there was some sort of attack in Israel.

I was undoubtedly alarmed, but I thought it was just another one of several flare-ups in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. At the time, I had an unshakeable confidence in Israel’s elite intelligence and military units to keep my family, along with the greater population of Israel, relatively safe from these attacks.

Then I made one of the most regrettable decisions of my life, and I opened my social media apps.

I was confronted with images that I will never unsee: the brutal and deliberate killing, kidnapping and torture of innocent Israelis. The terrorists flooded social media with horrific documentation of their despicable acts, from a man being decapitated with a garden

Ten I made one of the most regretable decisions of my life, and I opened my social media apps.

- TOBIAS KHABIE , op-ed contributor

tool to a young woman, with blood stains on her pants near her genitals, being thrown into the back of a van.

I began to comprehend the scope of what was morbidly unfolding. Israel had always been the one safe haven for Jews around the world, the one place we can go where we have guaranteed protection, security and safety. For the first time in my life, this sentiment became seriously challenged. That day, over

I was very, very wrong.

Two days later, on Oct. 9 , a sukkah was vandalized on a college campus in California. On Oct. 10 , a man in Fresno, California threw rocks through the windows of a synagogue and a cafe, with a note on one of the rocks reading, “All Jewish businesses will be targeted.” On Oct. 11 , a woman tearing down posters of kidnapped Israelis at Columbia University assaulted an Israeli man after he confronted her.

The despicable trend of desecrating posters with the faces of kidnapped victims spread across the country, including our campus. It was gut-wrenching to see these posters desecrated with razor cuts and tears across the paper.

On social media, people whom I once considered friends were posting antisemitic content and messages such as “Globalize the Intifada.” The intifadas were two periods of unrest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, resulting in over 1000 Israelis murdered. And now my peers said they wanted to globalize it. Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) became breeding grounds for antisemitism, and outside of the Jewish community, no one seemed to care. We were alone.

On the morning of Oct. 25 , I walked into my calculus class to find newspaper covers, deceptively mimicking The Daily’s design, scattered all over the desks. The fake newspapers were filled with abhorrent antisemitic rhetoric, namely comparing the hostages to OZZI to-go food containers. I heard from my Jewish peers that hundreds of these propaganda-filled leaflets were distributed all across our campus’s dining and lecture halls. Once again, besides the Jewish community, no one cared. Some even praised the act.

Jews across the country sensed the same level of apathy. According to the AntiDefamation League, between Oct. 7 and the end of 2023 , there were over 5 , 000 incidents of antisemitism — more than all of the recorded incidents in 2022 . Recently, the

American Jewish Committee reported that 56% of American Jews changed their behaviors to hide their Judaism in response to the dramatic rise in antisemitism, and 77% say they feel less safe as Jews. Antisemitic rhetoric embedded itself in many pro-Palestine movements and demonstrations. In Evanston, a man brought a Hamas flag to a Nov. 2023 rally. During the encampment on Deering Meadow last spring, a sign of a crossed-out Jewish star was displayed on the fence, as well as a caricature of University President Michael Schill, who is Jewish, with horns and blood on his face. It was textbook antisemitism, and once again, few individuals outside the community spoke up on our behalf.

It very soon became clear to me, and to the Jewish community, that no one else understood our concern. People failed to understand why Jews were making such a big fuss. Within the Jewish community, we recognized this. As ridiculous of a burden as it was, we needed to find a way to reach out and attempt to instill even a fraction of the urgency we felt in the general public.

It very soon became clear to me, and to the Jewish community, that no one else understood our concern.

- TOBIAS KHABIE , op-ed contributor

Cue, October H 8 TE. Directed by Medill alum and former The Daily writer Wendy Levine Sachs, the film chronicles the dramatic spike in antisemitism after Oct. 7 , and is designed to help those outside the Jewish community understand precisely why we were and continue to be in such a state of distress. On Feb. 24 , this critical documentary is coming to Northwestern.

I implore every student, faculty member and NU community member to see this film. The Jewish community is small, with only 15 million people in the world identifying as Jews. For perspective, rapper (and early frontrunner for antisemite of the year) Kanye West has over 30 million followers on social media, where he spews absurdly antisemitic

We cannot fight this battle alone. Now more than ever, the Jewish community needs allies. We need our non-Jewish counterparts to understand our cause for concern, and fight with us and for us.

The Daily Northwestern Volume 148, Issue 6

Editor in Chief Lily Ogburn

Opinion Editor Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez

Assistant

Opinion Editor Alice Oh Managing Editors Henry Frieman Lexi Goldstein Betsy Lecy Emily Lichty Kelley Lu Jillian Moore

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR may be sent to 1999 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, via fax at 847-491-9905, via e-mail to opinion@ dailynorthwestern.com or by dropping a letter in the box outside THE DAILY office.

Letters have the following requirements:

• Should be typed and double-spaced

• Should include the author’s name, signature, school, class and phone number.

• Should be fewer than 300 words They will be checked for authenticity and may be edited for length, clarity, style and grammar.

Letters, columns and cartoons contain the opinion of the authors, not Students Publishing Co. Inc. Submissions signed by more than three people must include at least one and no more than three names designated to represent the group.

Editorials reflect the majority opinion of THE DAILY’s student editorial board and not the opinions of either Northwestern University or Students Publishing Co. Inc.

From page 1

organization that focuses on gun violence prevention related programs, among many others, in the Great Lakes region.

Before Illinois, the Foundation funded similar dashboards in Minnesota and Michigan. However, the Illinois dashboard is the frst to include data on nonfatal frearm injuries, according to Tim Daly, director of the Foundation’s gun violence prevention and justice reform program.

Tat was a huge diference in the Illinois dashboard, and we think that is a critical innovation because you need to know both to really understand policy and prevention strategies,” Daly said.

The Violent Deaths Dashboard displays data from 2015 to 2022, allowing users to explore total death counts and rates. It classifes deaths by various

ISSUES

get picked up, she’s the one I turn to, and she makes things happen.”

He said Kelly promoted a documentary about his restaurant and supported the Legacy Business Program, which aims to support shops older than 20 years.

Kelly is running against retired lawyer Stephen Hackney.

Glat also emails with Mayor Daniel Biss. He said he appreciates Biss responding within 12 hours, even if he disagrees with the mayor on issues like commercializing the new Ryan Field and relocating the Civic Center.

ADVOCACY

From page 1

caregivers, said Megan McClung, managing atorney and school-based civil legal clinic at the Moran Center.

“If we can support the parents, then we’re supporting the children, and directly because there’s so much evidence out there that kids face traumatic experiences when their parents are undergoing something like an eviction or a job loss, and they’re denied unemployment benefts,” McClung said.

Currently, the Moran Center is expanding and adapting services available to immigrants. Last year, McClung said the center saw a 400% increase in requests for immigration legal services.

McClung said the shif in policies under the Trump administration changes how the Moran Center aids

The Daily Northwestern

demographics, including sex, race, ethnicity and age range. Users can also flter data by the manner of death. Separate tabs provide focused insights on suicide, homicide, frearm-related deaths, intimate partner problem related deaths and child deaths.

Te Firearm Injury Rates Dashboard, on the other hand, is a singular tab that allows users to flter data according to the patient’s residence, sex, race/ethnicity and age range.

Feinberg Prof. Maryann Mason, who helped work on the dashboard, said data like this is a form of prevention and thus foundational to any public health approach.

“In order to understand a public health problem, we need the data to understand the prevalence of it, what the risk and protective factors are, to come up with interventions and evaluate them and scale it up so that preventions can reach people most at risk,” Mason said.

Te dashboard revealed several key takeaways,

Robert Piron, co-owner of Belgian Chocolatier Piron on Main Street, said some city initiatives undermine retail development.

Small businesses in close proximity rely on each other to promote products, Piron said. Customers might come to Evanston for one store and visit another due to its proximity. More retailers increase cross-marketing opportunities.

Piron said the city’s plans to build more condominiums and rental units undermine this system by reducing space for potential shops.

“We have a lot of interesting, unique stores that are being slowly rubbed out,” Piron said. “Everybody’s yielding to the big developers and the big money because they want the taxes.”

Tese new building developments also do not

immigrants. For example, last year the center helped immigrants obtain temporary protected status, which afords immigrants from countries where it is unsafe for them to return to the ability to live and work in the United States. But with the new administration rolling back temporary protected status for Venezuelans, the center must change how they support certain immigrant groups, McClung noted.

For the most part, McClung said the Moran Center ofers indirect services to meet immigrant needs like answering questions from schools, social workers, local agencies and homeless shelters who are looking for guidance as more families reach out seeking help. Te Moran Center has also posted easy-to-access information online in multiple languages, Solomon added.

“We’ve been serving immigrant families the entire time. Tis is our community,” Solomon said. “We’ve

including that homicide rates are highest among Black or African Americans, who account for 73 5% of homicide deaths in Illinois. Additionally, the City of Chicago had the highest rate of non-fatal frearm injuries, with more than 350 cases reported for every 100,000 emergency department visits.

Dr. Sarah Patrick of the IDPH said a major concern for the department has been the rising suicide rates in Illinois, as refected in the dashboard. She stated that the IDPH received a “comprehensive suicide prevention” grant from the CDC and is currently working on disseminating related data on suicide, hospitalizations and emergency department visits.

“We have more that we’re working on and trying to validate these data to make sure that they are actually pointing the compass in the right way,” Patrick said. “We’re just very excited to get people using it, seeing it and having them give us additional feedback on what would be useful to them.”

mandate enough parking spots, he said. Cars overfow onto streets with limited space.

He said the city’s atempt to increase biking does not account for most people opting to drive in cold weather.

Sew on Central founder Karen Graham said Evanston’s parking prices and broken meters cost stores customers. People opt to shop in neighboring cities where they can park for free.

Graham is one of 10 business owners on the Central Street Board of Directors. She said when the group informed city ofcials of the parking issue, the response was “radio silence.”

Like Murphy, Graham said she wants the newly elected council to recognize businesses’ needs more.

“I hope they realize that we contribute a lot to

really wanted to make sure that resources are extra accessible to those who need them right now.”

Keenan-Devlin noted that the increased demand for immigration legal services predates Trump’s second inauguration. Te Moran Center had plans to expand immigration resources to fulfll the community’s unmet needs. Trump’s inauguration has just strengthened commitment to these goals, he said.

McClung said she remains hopeful that the laws are strong enough to “protect against the stirring up of unfounded fear.” She and Keenan-Devlin both said that immigrant communities can beter combat these eforts if they are informed of their rights.

Keenan-Devlin said he recently spoke with executive director of the National Immigrant Justice Center Mary Meg McCarthy who reported that ICE deported signifcantly fewer immigrants than they planned in the

WEEKLY CROSSWORD

By Francesco Thorik-Saboia

Daly echoed this sentiment, adding that he’s hopeful that insights provided by the dashboard will help policymakers target their policies and interventions more narrowly.

He noted that since its launch, several policymakers and stakeholders have responded positively to the data, particularly in highlighting gun violence across the state — not just in Chicago.

“Te biggest surprise we’ve heard as we’ve talked to partners has been them understanding how gun violence is present outside of Chicago, what the volume of frearm suicides are for example, and where and whom,” Daly said. “I think it’s changing people’s perspectives as to the full scope of the gun violence problem that we have in the state.”

mishaoberoi2027@u.northwestern.edu

Evanston,” Graham said. “Without our litle downtown area, our Main Street area, our central street area and our Dempster area, we would just be another suburb. Our shopping areas and our restaurants give us more character.”

Although many residents shop local, Graham said City Council makes Evanston “unfriendly” for store owners.

Piron said ofcials’ lack of communication results in sweeping policies at the expense of businesses’ everyday necessities.

“Slow down, take a look and maybe actually talk to the retailers,” Piron said. “Find out what we think instead of making us come down to City Hall.”

desireeluo2028@u.northwestern.edu

frst weekend following Trump’s inauguration.

“ICE enforcement admitedly shared that they were constrained by individuals knowing their rights, and by knowing their rights they really failed — in their at least initial eforts — to round up immigrants for deportation purposes,” Keenan-Devlin said.

Keenan-Devlin said he is confdent that federal laws, state laws and precedent will uphold against the Trump administration’s eforts to roll back the U.S. Department of Education and LGBTQ+ rights.

“Te Moran Center has and always will afrm the humanity of the young people that we serve and afrm the dignity of the young people and families that we serve, no mater how they identify or where they come from,” Solomon said.

laurahorne2027@u.northwestern.edu

Mark Your Calendars

By: Max Sullivan

Evanston photographer Yokota wanders near and far

By YONG-YU HUANG daily senior staffer @yong_yuhuang

Junko Yokota is legally blind in one eye. At frst, her parents thought she was just a clumsy child who occasionally bumped into things.

Yokota said it wasn’t common to test children’s eyesight in the 1950s and 1960s, so nobody thought much of it until she had to read in school. Her doctors patched her stronger eye, hoping that the bad eye would eventually grow to compensate, but it never developed.

“I see the world two-dimensionally most of the time,” she said. “So I think I’ve always been fascinated by that aspect of wanting to see and appreciating seeing.”

Now, the Evanston-based academic and creative spends her days in pursuit of photography, capturing streets, people and vistas across the world.

Yokota bought her frst DSLR camera to document a 2013 trip to the Galapagos Islands with her late husband, education Prof. William Teale of the University of Illinois-Chicago, and some friends. She set the camera setings to automatic and began snapping away.

However, her artistic journey started much earlier. Yokota has donned many hats throughout her lifetime — a university academic studying children’s literature, an elementary classroom teacher and a librarian — but she has long harbored a passion for visual storytelling.

When Yokota was 10 years old, her father gifed her an Olympus Pen-EE. With the SLR camera, she took pictures of family and friends, vacations and whatever was in front of her. Since the camera was half-frame, she could ft twice as many photographs into a standard roll of flm.

“I wouldn’t say they were particularly artistic,” Yokota said of her frst pictures, “but I think I’ve always been keenly atracted to the visual world.”

In the frst year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yokota never lef the confnes of her home. Instead, she spent the year taking pictures of the wildlife that frequented her backyard.

During that time, John Liberty, the owner of Gracie’s, a local women’s clothing and jewelry shop, delivered some orders for Yokota.

20th century, moved his family to Shanghai in the 1920s.

Just a few years later, Yokota’s photographs adorned the walls of Gracie’s.

Born in Tokyo to a family of diplomats and educators, Yokota grew up on an American military base in Okinawa, where her father worked as a civilian employee for the Foreign Broadcast Information Service. Tere, Yokota atended English-language schools run by the U.S. Department of Defense. Both sides of her family were “very international in outlook,” Yokota said. She pointed toward her maternal grandfather who, as a banker involved in internationalizing Asian banking systems in the early

“As things loosened up with COVID, we met on that porch with masks, and I would drop things of, but we would chat a litle bit, and she happened to mention that she was taking photographs of birds in her yard,” Liberty said.

Yokota’s grandfather worked with Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China, to help organize funding for the 1911 Revolution, which ended China’s last dynasty.

When the Communists won the Chinese Civil War, her mother’s family was forced to move back to Japan.

Afer high school, Yokota moved to the United States on her own. Originally, she planned on atending George Washington University, where she had accepted a scholarship.

However, when the University found out Yokota was a woman, it rescinded her scholarship. At that time, Yokota’s father had also recently passed away, prompting her family to move back to Tokyo.

“We were suddenly fnding ourselves returning

to Tokyo with no money, no house, no furniture,” Yokota said, “I decided that a guaranteed college four-year term was my ideal, so I went to Baylor.” Yokota graduated from Baylor University in 1979 with a degree in elementary education. She said she stayed in the United States because Japan in the 1970s and 80s provided few opportunities for women to combine a “fully developed life as a career woman” and a family.

She received a master’s degree in literacy education in 1980, again from Baylor, before completing a PhD in the same feld from the University of North Texas in 1988

Yokota knew early on that she wanted to work with children. Both of her grandfathers were college professors afer their careers in diplomacy. Her grandmother ran a kindergarten, and her uncle is a professor of international law in Japan.

Photo courtesy of Junko Yokota

A photograph from one of Yokota’s trips, titled “Train Through Hanoi.”

“I was very interested in the lives of children. I babysat every opportunity I could,” she said. “I was interested in how children’s minds develop, what childhood meant, and all of that.”

From 1979 to 1980, Yokota worked as an elementary school teacher in Waco, Texas, before moving to Arlington to work from 1980 to 1989. During her last two years in Arlington, she was a school librarian.

In 1989, Yokota accepted a position as a literacy professor at the University of Northern Iowa, where she taught for ve years before nally moving to Chicago’s National Louis University.

Now, Yokota is a professor emeritus of reading and language at NLU, where she directs the Center for Teaching through Children’s Books. roughout her academic career, Yokota has spoken at conferences worldwide, served on the Caldeco( and Newbery Award commi(ees and was the president of the U.S. National Section of the International Board on Books for Young People.

A)er her trip to the Galapagos, Yokota poured signi cant time into her passion for photography, joining online communities and challenges to selfstudy the cra)

Her rst real commitment was 36, Project, an online platform where members commit to taking a picture a day for a year. Yokota missed only two days the rst year she participated and considers this her rst artistic community.

“My photography community has expanded to where I now have friends from many di-erent walks of life, but we’re all keenly interested in guring out how to capture the beauty of the world around us,” Yokota said.

Yokota has met more than .0 people from the platform in person, arranging meet-ups in cities as far as Sydney and Berlin. She said photography has allowed her to bond with friends that she would not have met within her professional community, such as company executives and police detectives.

Yokota believes Evanston Made, an Evanston non-pro t that provides programming in the local creative community, to be the nexus for artists located near the shores of Lake Michigan.

“I think that what they do on behalf of the artists in Evanston is really a work of dedicated commitment and love and community building,” Yokota said.

Since .0.., Yokota has served on the board of FreshLens Chicago, a non-pro t that provides free photography courses for under-resourced Chicago students.

FreshLens founder and executive director Shirley Nannini met Yokota in .0.1. She said Yokota’s aesthetic was advanced from the beginning, given that she spent her academic career working with imagery.

“Photography is an interesting medium, right?” Nannini said. “It’s an expression without words. And so I really feel like her imagery really transports you to where she’s taken it.”

Prof. Emeritus Miriam Martinez from the University of Texas at San Antonio has been a collaborator and friend of Yokota since the 1990s. ey worked together to write two textbooks on children’s literature.

Martinez said Yokota was one of the rst to examine picture books and illustrations for their role in storytelling, as opposed to the multimodal analysis other researchers were focused on.

“She really picked up on it and thought about what that means for teachers (and we service teachers), and what they need to know if they’re going to engage children in picture books,” Martinez said.

In her academic career, Yokota has held several fellowships, including being a Fulbright Scholar in Poland and undertaking research fellowships in Munich and Berlin. However, she wanted to pursue artistic fellowships to grow her cra) as well.

With no o cial photography credentials and no formal art schooling to apply for these opportunities, she looked to demonstrate her abilities and interest in other ways.

“ ose kinds of opportunities enrich your life, because you step outside of your everydayness and immerse yourself totally into that world, and you grow in ways that are exponential,” Yokota said.

Two years ago, Yokota began exhibiting her work to build a photography CV. Most recently, Yokota had a solo exhibition titled “ in Spaces” at Gracie’s in December .0.4

During a recent trip to Cuba, Yokota photographed the Cuban National Ballet alongside a married couple of photographers. e husband works with street photography, and the wife is a photographer for the National Ballet.

Yokota picked 10 shots from the hour they spent photographing the ballerinas for her friends to review.

“( e couple) got into a discussion — quite heated, I might say — about the fact that he was looking at it from an artistic feedback point of view.

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And she wanted the ballet positions that I was photographing to be correct,” Yokota said. “He was looking to evoke something that was dynamic and had a mood.”

Yokota was just looking for a visually interesting pose. e fact that all three photographers aimed to capture something di-erent in a single scene struck Yokota.

“As artists, you see and you create and you respond by what your personal goals are, and I think I’m still developing what that might mean for me,” Yokota said. “I’m very new at looking at all this from a position of being a creator instead of a consumer and analyzer.”

At Yokota’s rst professional photography review, she walked out of the critique session, feeling frustrated by the reviewer’s repeated response: “I don’t get the point of your work.”

at experience pushed her to rethink what she was doing and be(er express the heart of her creative outlets. In that moment, Yokota didn’t have a response ready.

A)erward, she wrote the reviewer a thank you note.

In .01., Yokota retired from teaching on a University package that included two more salaried years. During that period, she kept busy with international speaking and consulting commitments and originally planned to apply for another professorship.

However, her husband prompted her to reconsider whether she really wanted to return to academia. In the end, Yokota chose to continue juggling her photography and commitments outside of teaching.

Although she retired from university work over a decade ago, she is still involved in the children’s literature world, serving on panels, speaking at conferences and conducting research.

Yokota has traveled all over the world, visiting more than ,0 countries. She has taken photography trips to Namibia, Vietnam and Patagonia, among other places.

On trips to Argentina and Mexico that Martinez took alongside Yokota and her late husband, Martinez took note of Yokota’s “obvious interest in photography” and the production of local art.

“Travel is a key component of what I do, but what I’m trying to do more is less of, ‘Oh, beautiful building, but rather, how does it feel for me to be somewhere?’” Yokota said.

In her spare time, Yokota volunteers at the

Japanese program at Evanston Township High School, where she has helped organize and chaperone trips to Japan for the past .0 years.

Recently, Yokota was invited to participate in “Reservoir,” a project with the Los Angeles Center of Photography, exploring “the global crisis of loneliness.” She will work with a cohort under George Nobechi, a bilingual and bicultural photographer.

“He’s having us explore concepts that are Japanese as well as international,” Yokota said. “And all of these are going to be things that are both a part of my Japanese identity as well as our identity as humans.”

Over the coming months, she plans to immerse herself in this new exploration. Already, Yokota’s friends have begun sharing books, poetry, music and articles that they associate with loneliness. According to Yokota, “Reservoir” will be on exhibition in the rst few months of .0.6

In the meantime, Yokota is scheduled to serve as a jury member for the Bratislava International Book Festival and speak in Japan. A)er this year, she plans to cut back on her academic commitments so she can dedicate more time to her photography.

“I want to explore the world by being fascinated by what I see,” Yokota said. “I don’t like to do tours and things like that when I travel, because I don’t want someone else to tell me what’s interesting. I want to discover on my own.”

yong-yuhuang@u.northwestern.edu

Se ing the record straight

An article published in last week’s paper titled “Jesus Christ Superstar dazzles with a musical cruci xion” was printed with the wrong headline. e correct headline is “Wirtz Center’s ‘Museum’ shows the range of humanity.”

An article published in last week’s paper titled “Student scripts to be shown at Vertigo Winter Reading Series” misspelled Zakyra Ashby’s name.

e Daily regrets these errors.

Students Publishing Company, Inc. manages and guides the long-range planning of The Daily Northwestern and the Syllabus Yearbook. We have two–three student board member positions beginning Spring ‘25. Undergraduate and graduate students are encouraged to apply. The Board meets approximately two times per quarter.

For an application, contact Stacia at s-campbell@northwestern.edu.

Monday, Feb. 24, 2025

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QB-turned-CF Lausch gears up for baseball season

By ANNA WATSON daily senior staffer @adub_sports

Less than a month after being hired, Northwestern baseball coach Ben Greenspan almost got his truck towed when he parked illegally while hosting a recruit during a Wildcat football game.

After somebody alerted him of the threat to his truck, Greenspan sprinted out and pleaded with the tow truck driver, saying he had just gotten to campus and couldn’t afford to lose face in front of his potential new player.

As the exchange went down, someone across the street rolled down his window and asked, “Hey, are you Ben Greenspan?”

It was John Lausch, Jack Lausch’s father.

The conversation that unfolded wasn’t just small talk. Greenspan learned how Jack Lausch had navigated his path to campus, the ins and outs of his recruitment and the conversations that had taken place with then-football coach Pat Fitzgerald.

Less than two years later, that conversation would have lasting significance, as Jack Lausch made his debut on Northwestern’s baseball team last weekend.

For the past three years, Lausch, now a junior, put all his energy into football and left baseball on the back burner –– just as he did coming out of high school.

At Brother Rice High School, Lausch was a three-sport standout, playing football, baseball and basketball. He was most highly touted, though, for his skills on the diamond.

If it weren’t for the COVID- 19 pandemic, Lausch would’ve been a four-year varsity player. Though he

played his freshman year, it was the summer following his canceled sophomore season that put him on the map, as he found a home in center field on his club team.

When NU came calling with a football scholarship opportunity in December of that year, though, he decided to become a Wildcat.

year. Coach Lujan, coming in, new offense, new scheme,” Lausch said. “I just felt like I needed to put all my time into football last spring.”

think the more gameplay, the more comfortable he gets, the more you’re going to see what kind of a high-level player he is.”

“He’s super athletic. He can really move, very twitchy, bat speed,” Lausch’s high school baseball coach

“I think he’d be the first to tell you his first true love was always football,” McBride said. “I knew that as his base-

His gamble paid off.

Just two weeks into NU’s football season, Lausch was named the starter.

Sean McBride said. “Jack was just very coachable. He always kind of took what you said and did it.”

Lausch’s standout moment came when he hit a walk-off home run as a senior to beat IMG Academy, the No. 1 team in the nation at the time.

It’s the day after, however, that stands out to McBride the most.

Brother Rice was playing at a complex with four fields. The team was taking batting practice.

The outfielders are supposed to communicate when they’re getting their defensive reps during batting practice, but Lausch was by far the loudest player on the field.

“I remember scouts coming over to our field being like, ‘Wait a minute, that’s the guy with the home run yesterday, and he’s the loudest guy calling for baseballs in the outfield,’” McBride said.

Lausch’s accolades piled up during his senior year. That season, he was voted the 2022 Chicago Catholic League Baseball Player of the Year. He hit . 386 with five home runs and RBI. Lausch was the No. 1 in Illinois and the No. 23 in the country according to Perfect Game. On top of that, Baseball America named him a top- 250 prospect in the 2022 MLB Draft.

Despite all the attention, Lausch chose football over baseball.

***

In June of 2021, Lausch committed to Notre Dame to play baseball and was granted a preferred walk-on spot for football.

Though the ’Cats finished with a 3 - 7 record with him in the pocket, Lausch yards and seven

When the season ended, Lausch had time to recharge — and that’s when baseball came back into focus. By the time winter rolled around, he was ready to return to the diamond.

“When (Lausch) called in December, he said, ‘You know, I really miss it, and I want to give it a shot,”

Greenspan said. “Coach Braun is first class, and he said, ‘You know, if there’s one person that I think can do this and do it at a high level, it’s Jack, and I trust you to get your

Lausch’s decision to return to baseball hinged on a mix of

“I’m happy about (the time I put into football last spring). It paid off,” Lausch said. “I obviously wanted to play baseball, and so this year, it wasn’t an opportunity I was gonna let go by

Though it’s been a few years since Lausch focused his attention on baseball, Greenspan said he saw flashes of his talent

“There are times where it’s like oh my gosh, that is an incredible play, or what a swing. Then there are times where like, yeah, still there,” said. “I

For Lausch, it’s all about having a mindset geared towards consistent improvement and enjoying the ride.

Division I dual-sport athletes are few and far between.

Lausch is the first NU player to play both football and baseball for the school since Dan Kubiuk in 2015 - 16 The rarity of the experience is not lost on the outfielder.

“I think the coolest part about doing both is just the teammate aspect of it. You have two sets of teammates, which is pretty cool, and that’s just more relationships and more bonds to make,” Lausch said. “As a competitor, it’s awesome. I’m on the go all the time, and I love that.”

Despite still having some rust to shake off, Greenspan expects Lausch to play a “prominent role” as he continues to get better throughout the season.

In NU’s opening weekend series victory against Long Beach State, Lausch started all three games for the ’Cats in center field and batted . 300 with one RBI and a double.

McBride is confident that Lausch will hit his stride quickly in his return to the sport.

“The talent doesn’t leave you, and the mindset never leaves you. Just because he hasn’t been playing baseball regularly over the last few years, he’s older, he’s more confident, he’s been through more as an athlete and as a human being,” McBride said. “I have no doubt that when he hits his stride, he’s going to be the Jack Lausch that we all saw when he was a prep star in baseball.”

annawatson2027@u.northwestern.edu

Photos: Northwestern blows 20-point lead to Nebraska

Henry Frieman/The Daily Northwestern