LINCOLN LAND
Blue Demon Week is met with lukewarm enthusiasm News, page 14
DePaulia
The
Abe’s lasting legacy in Chicago Focus, page 14
Pinnacle award winner, No. 1 College Weekly Newspaper
Volume #100 | Issue #13 | Feb. 1, 2016 | depauliaonline.com
One-third of DePaul students low income By Mariah Woelfel Multimedia Editor
On the 17th floor of 55 E. Jackson Blvd., in a corner office enclosed by windows that look out onto the Chicago skyline, Division of Enrollment Management and Marketing Vice President David Kalsbeek keeps his head down, working to develop strategies to improve academic profiles of students, increase socioeconomic diversity and increase student retention rates. On the ground, DePaul senior Abdus Saleem works not only to finish his degree, but to pay for it. His school day starts at 6 a.m., ends at 10:30 p.m., with a commute, class, homework, an hour at the gym and online job searches in between, Twitter if he’s not too tired. The rest of his week is dedicated to working 40 hours at an IT company where he hopes to be hired after graduation. This heavy workload is a tradeoff Saleem has accepted to avoid the burden of student debt. Instead of taking on loans, Saleem relies on federal and state grants — money that doesn’t need to be paid back — to offset the rising costs of a college degree. He’s not alone. Saleem is part of 34 percent of DePaul’s student body that is eligible for and receives the federal Pell Grant, and is therefore considered by the Department of Education to be lowincome. When compared to other private, four-year research institutions, this 34 percent is somewhat high. Out of 101 universities in that same category, with the No.1 university enrolling 70.8 percent low-income students, DePaul holds its spot at number 20. But when Pell Grants were instituted in 1965 to help low-income students pay for college, the average cost of four-year university tuition, room and board was around $2,000. Today, tuition skyrockets past $30,000 at private universities, and even with federal and state grants and scholarships, United States college tuition still far exceeds that of universities abroad, and that which students, specifically low-income students, can afford. And when there is a balance still owed after Pell Grants and other scholarship awards go through, many DePaul students have to make tough decisions about how they will earn or borrow the money they still owe. While Saleem found a way to balance a full-time job in order to pay
See PELL GRANTS, page 9
CLOSE QUARTERS
REVAN LOWE-WATKINS | THE DEPAULIA
Taylor Truskowski sits in the floor of her dorm in Clifton-Fullerton, which is meant for two but currently houses three people.
Students face overcrowding in dorms By Revan Lowe-Watkins Contributing Writer
Freshman Jolie Mills came to DePaul from Michigan excited for the experience of living away from home. Like many firstyear students, Mills looked forward to having a roommate and was eager to move into Clifton-Fullerton. Hoping for a spacious room, Mills was soon notified she would be one of three roommates living in a space originally meant for two. She didn’t anticipate the tight living conditions. “We always knew there was going to be a third person in the room, but we didn’t necessarily ask to be in a three-person room,” Mills said. “It was hard to get
situated at first, because it’s a smaller room, with more people and more stuff.” Like Mills, many other students are placed in housing that isn’t designed for the number of residents who are actually living in it. According to a 2015 Housing Occupancy Report, many of DePaul’s dorms on the Lincoln Park and Loop campuses are over capacity. The Clifton-Fullerton Hall by design can hold up to 333 residents. The report shows that the residential hall is holding 378 students at the moment. This brings Clifton-Fullerton in at a 114 percent occupancy rate, with 45 expanded spaces (number of occupied spaces over capacity), which add beds and appliances to the dorm rooms.
“I wouldn’t really suggest like putting three people in a room that’s the size of a double,” Mills said. “They say it’s bigger, but it’s only a little bigger.” When Mills and her roommates first arrived at their room, there was barely any space for their belongings. “The room was a mess when we first got here,” Mills said. The three roommates ended up having to rearrange the entire room to create as much space as they could. Even with the rearrangements, they still struggled with space creating enough space. Mills and one of her roommates share a bunk bed a few steps away from the entrance door. Mills sleeps on the bottom
See DORMS, page 8
A BARK TO ACTION: DePaul
dog group promotes advocacy By Kirsten Onsgard Digital Managing Editor
It started as a joke: Wouldn’t it be funny to create a Facebook group for DePaul students, devoted to posting pictures of dogs? But by word of mouth and a love of dogs, DePaul Dogspotting blew up to the point where it came full circle for some of its original members. “It got way past just us — there’s a ton of people I don’t know in the group,” said freshman Pedro Escobar, one of the admins and original members of the group. “I had people come up to me and tell me, ‘hey, do
you know about this DePaul Dogspotting page? It’s so cool, you should join.’” DePaul Dogspotting now boasts nearly 700 dog lovers, who pore over photos of their favorite local pets. And the once tongue-in-cheek notion has spun off into its own animal rights student group, Animal Advocates of DePaul. The group was founded one day on a whim, when freshmen Simon Handmaker and Emily Dunn invited a few of their friends — like Escobar, who shared a discover class with Handmaker — to join and become admins. But then, it
Photo courtesy of NATHALY SHAMMO
See DOGS, page 19 Lola, a popular dog, on DePaul Dogspotting, a Facebook group.