Getting paid to play
Ride On
Professional gaming grows at DePaul page 16
On-campus cyclists and commuters increase page 14
Volume #99 | Issue #5 | Oct. 13, 2014 | depauliaonline.com
By Parker Asmann Copy Editor
Students left out of bounds with no access to Wish Field
Luscious green fields that stretch as far as the eyes can see, where students can laugh and throw a Frisbee or just relax and catch up with friends — everyone has imagined this picturesque image at one time or another. Most college students have even been involved in these activities. Yet DePaul students have come down with a case of the landlocked blues, as the urban environment the campus embraces doesn’t quite provide the space needed to recreationally accompany more than 20,000 students and faculty. Each year, students turn to Wish Field and the Ray Meyer Fitness Center to fill their need of a space to go to escape the
concrete jungle surrounding them. From recreational and intramural sports to official DePaul athletics, students have utilized both consistently. But this year with the newly replaced field turf, DePaul’s lack of space has been further exposed as students have been turned away from Wish Field for reasons unknown to them. It’s left students to wonder whether or not they are authorized to use the new turf. “There were a few occasions this summer and earlier this year after the turf was installed where we were asked to leave Wish Field, even though we were just playing soccer like we had done in the past,” Pablo Zayas, a senior marketing
See TURF, page 27 PARKER ASMANN | THE DEPAULIA
U of I professor denied job offer speaks at DePaul
Durbin, Warren talk student loans ahead of Nov. election
By Christian Ianniello Contributing Writer
By Brenden Moore Campus News Editor
U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) fired up Chicago college students in a joint appearance last week hoping to drive that constituency to the polls in November’s elections about the issue of student loans. The hour-long event on behalf of Durbin’s re-election bid was hosted in a small theater in Harold Washington Library. Students from DePaul, University of Chicago, Loyola University Chicago and Northwestern University were among those in attendance. Warren, a champion of progressive causes and a favorite of many liberals, spoke passionately about what she sees as a lack of investment compared to previous generations. “We are not investing in your generation the way we invested in generations before,” Warren said. “We are not making those investments today. And the best place to see that is with student loans.” Student loans have become a hot issue over the past few years as Republicans and Democrats have fought on how to handle them. The GOP prefers to tie interest rates
she said. “But if you’re not, and you’re somebody who’s got to go out there and work for it, the cost of college is higher, you have to go out and a borrow a little money, and there’s an extra tax put on you.” Warren began by speaking about her childhood, and about how government assistance, including low-interest loans, helped her and many others like her to make it. She said, however, that is not the case any more. “They not only have figured out how much you’re going to produce in profits, they built it right into the budget,” she said. “So your money has already been spent.” Warren and Durbin have co-sponsored
Controversial professor Steven Salaita spoke at DePaul last week regarding the issues of academic freedom of speech as well as his views on the conflict between Israel and Palestine, on the final leg of his Chicagoland college speaking tour. The controversy surrounding Salaita regards the tweets he posted during summer that focused on Israel’s policy in Gaza. Some people took them as being anti-Semitic, and it ultimately led to his job offer in the American Indian studies department at University of Illinois being revoked. Students, activists, and people of all ages interested or affected by the conflict in the Middle East, as well as academic freedom, packed the small room in O’Connell Hall. Many in the overflow crowd had to sit on the ground given the lack of available seats. A DePaul Students for Justice in Palestine member appropriately started off Salaita’s introduction with a disclaimer from the university stating, “We welcome open exchange of ideas with this program, but we also have expectations that such exchanges will be conducted appropriately and finally the views expressed here are not necessarily the views expressed by DePaul University,”
See DURBIN, page 8
See SALAITA, page 8
BRENDEN MOORE | THE DEPAULIA
Sen. Dick Durbin speaks to college students about student loans at Harold Washington Library Oct. 10 in an event with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). to the market, while Democrats typically prefer a fixed rate. Last year, the parties came to a compromise that will lock in the interest rate for each loan for the life of it, but it will allow for the interest rate on new loans to fluctuate each year depending on the markets. Most predict that the rate will go up, though it is capped at 10 percent. “After you account for the bad debts and the administrative costs, the loans from 2007 to 2012, are on target to produce $66 billion in profits for the United States government. That is obscene,” Warren said. “So the United States government instead of saying that we’re going to invest in your generation is saying, ‘Hey listen, if you’re clever enough to be born to a rich family, you’ve got every opportunity,”