GETTING AFTER IT
DePaul adjusting to Coach Leitao, page 28
DePaulia
The
JULIO CORTEZ | AP
Pinnacle award winner, No. 1 College Weekly Newspaper
Volume #100 | Issue 10 | Jan. 11, 2016 | depauliaonline.com
DePaul reports $43 million in surplus
THE NEW AGE OF PROTESTING
By Brenden Moore News Editor
DePaul reported more than $43 million in operating income in fiscal year 2014-2015, budget documents reveal. The significant surplus comes as the university projects thin operating margins amid enrollment declines in the years to come. The number resulted from a mix of conservative budgeting, an unexpected increase in tuition revenue, an uptick in gifts from donors and significant savings in operating expenses, per the budget documents. “Generally as a philosophy within the budgeting process, you try to budget conservatively,” said Executive Vice President Jeff Bethke. “So, in the ideal world, you wouldn’t have variances either way, but the real world doesn’t work that way. Generally, you want to build a budget that is more likely to have a positive variance than a negative variance.” The initial budget had called for a much more modest $2 million surplus. Yet on the revenue side, graduate and law school enrollment fueled an unexpected jump in tuition revenue and fees from a budgeted $641.8 million to an actual of $650.8 million. According to DePaul controller Sherri Sidler, these programs are very volatile, which makes them hard to predict. “There’s less market data out there to project those,” Sidler said. “So we’re pretty good on the undergraduate side and we come in really close to that little bit of conservatism that we put in, but the graduate programs were the ones that were volatile and those are the ones that have less data available to plan with.” On the cost side, much of the nearly $22 million in savings on operating and overhead expenses was due to the early retirement program the university offered to faculty and staff in 2014. After
See BUDGET, page 4
KIRSTEN ONSGARD AND GEOFF STELLFOX | THE DEPAULIA
Protesters call for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s resignation Dec. 9 (left and upper right) on Michigan Avenue while Michelle Dodson, Associate Pastor of New Community Covenant Church, (lower right) leads demonstrators in a prayer of lament Dec. 1.
Protesters aim for impact by disrupting profit centers By Kyle Woolsey Contributing Writer
Marching on Michigan Avenue during Black Friday, blocking traffic at major downtown intersections and disrupting restaurants in Lincoln Park and Wicker Park are just some of the tactics being used by protesters trying to draw attention to police brutality and socioeconomic issues in South Side areas of Chicago. Following the release of a video in November that showed a Chicago Police officer shooting Laquand McDonald 16 times, protests have broken out across the
city. While the protests have remained peaceful, many of their tactics have been brought into question. But Valerie Johnson, chair of the political science department who has been active in the protests, said there’s reasoning behind these tactics. “They recognize that in order to really impact the powers that be they’ve got to influence white liberals and white progressives, or be such a nuisance that they will be influential to white people who are pretty wealthy,” she said. Elijah Obasanya, president of DePaul’s MOVE (Men of Vision and Empowerment) organization, said the rationale behind the
protests on Black Friday and marching on high-profit areas like the Magnificent Mile is to attack financial assets of major companies in the city. “If you’re expecting millions of dollars to come into your store and it didn’t, you’re going to be questioning it,” he said. “It’s to wake people up on topics like police brutality and racial inequality. It forces the owners of the companies to take responsibilities as well.” Johnson said disrupting profit centers in the city is important for getting the attention of elected officials.
See PROTESTERS, page 3