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Volume #100 | Issue #14 | Feb. 8, 2016 | depauliaonline.com
CHARLES REX ARBOGAST | AP
DePaul coach Dave Leitao talks to his team during the second half Tuesday against No. 11 Providence at Allstate Arena. DePaul won 77-70. DePaul is 8-15 this season.
D
INCHING CLOSER?
ave Leitao came to DePaul to rebuild the Blue Demons’ culture. At times this season, it was hard to see where that change was taking place. Loss after loss, frustration was building and it seemed like another lost season. But with a win over No. 11 Providence, followed by a blowout loss at Creighton, are the Blue Demons making progress?
STORY BY MATTHEW PARAS Editor-in-Chief Billy Garrett admitted it was “kind of weird.” The DePaul guard watched as his teammates stormed the student section at Allstate Arena Tuesday to celebrate the Blue Demons’ best win of the season, a 77-70 upset over No. 11 Providence. “Usually, you get everyone storming the court, but we went over there,” Garrett said. “We wanted to go over there to show them we appreciated them being there.” DePaul will take what it can get. During the Blue Demons’ first year under head coach Dave Leitao, there haven’t been many moments to celebrate, but it has been an odd mix of CHARLES REX ARBOGAST | AP progress amid frustration in what has been largely DePaul guard Billy Garrett Jr. against Providence. another losing season.
For every step forward, like knocking off Providence, the Blue Demons can be expected to have a setback — and Saturday was no exception in an 88-66 blowout to Creighton. The Blue Demons’ fell to 8-15 (2-9 Big East). So, just who are the Blue Demons under Leitao? “It kind of speaks to the type of team we’ve been this year, which is really inconsistent,” Garrett said. “That’s something we’ve got to fix. We have eight more conference games left. We have to find some consistency in the way we go about our business. I think everything will be all right.” Leitao said that among the group, there has been a positive attitude even in defeat. That attitude hasn’t always helped the Blue Demons in rebounding from
See CLOSER, page 27
Conversation served at the Language Café By Edna Espino Contributing Writer
DePaul graduate Ranran Qi flew from China last September to reach the United States for a better education. The culture shock, however, she experienced made it feel like she had entered another world, often being the
only international student in most of her classes. “My English is not so good,” she said. While she was previously trained in vocabulary and grammar, she considered her Chinese English lessons mechanical. “It’s very boring,” Qi said. “In America I talk more,
speak more. I imitate,” she said making use of her phone translator as needed. Qi is one of the 1,300 international students currently enrolled at DePaul at both the undergraduate and graduate level. But for her to practice her
See CAFÉ, page 17
EDNA ESPINO | THE DEPAULIA
Sr. Margaretha Ada shares a laugh with her new friend Ranran Qi.
2 | The DePaulia. Feb. 8, 2016
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A controversey in a DePaul Facebook group over racially-charged statements has led to various apologies and pledges to work together to better address racial issues on campus.
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The ‘85 Bears were a phenomenon. Even today, 30 years later, they are still reveled in this town. The glory of the ‘85 team was recaptured in ESPN’s 30 for 30, which premeired last week.
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News Starting the dialogue
News. Feb. 8, 2016. The DePaulia | 3
Father Holtschneider meets with Black Student Union to discuss race relations on campus
Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, C.M. attends an on-campus vigil last May for Rekia Boyd, an African-American woman killed by an off-duty police officer.
Editor-in-Chief
When junior Mario Morrow was on break in December, he received two emails — one to his personal account and one to his email as the president of DePaul’s Black Student Union (BSU). The emails were from DePaul president Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, C.M., who expressed his desire to meet sometime during Winter Quarter to discuss race at DePaul. Members of the BSU’s executive board met with Holtschneider and Provost Marten denBoer Jan. 25 in a two-hour meeting that outlined ways to improve the culture on campus for students of color. Topics ranged from micro-aggressions and racial profiling to larger ideas such as a gathering place on campus for students of color. “It was a good two hours,” Morrow said. “It was very successful. (Holtschneider) was very receptive to what we were saying.” Morrow and other BSU members noticed how many notes both Holtschneider and denBoer took throughout. In an email, Holtschneider told The DePaulia that he will be sending his notes from the meeting to the President’s Diversity Council, who will also meet in the future to propose next steps. “The meeting with BSU was one part of a larger listening process we’ve begun here on campus,” Holtschneider said. “You saw the beginning of the process when I invited the entire university community to use MLK Day to reflect on race at DePaul and send forward any reflections. My office received several helpful emails from this.” On Jan. 12, Holtschneider sent out an email to students and faculty to reflect on race and identity, encouraging those to email any concerns and ideas to his office. When the meeting began, Morrow said Holtschneider presented those emails and the discussions evolved from there. One of the central topics of discussion
was micro-aggressions in the classroom, “They approached him. They made him meaning small instances where students leave and checked his ID, his DePaul ID, to of color were targeted because of their skin make sure he was a student. And it was all color. because students felt uncomfortable. “When a student of color feels like “Public Safety does have to answer (they’re) being attacked, for instance, or every call. They should,” she said. “But you singled out to represent in front of the whole also have to take it with a grain of salt and class to give the whole black experience, it you can’t automatically assume the worst. puts us in an awkward position,” junior You can’t enter a perceived notion of what Aja Van Buren, who is on the BSU board the situation is.” and was in the meeting, said. “We are not Sprinkle said that Holtschneider the voice of said there the black are cultural c o m mu n i t y. competency We didn’t come in here with We do not t r a i n i n g just problems and complaints,” pretend to programs Morrow said. “With be. We’re in place for everything that we said, we students. Yes, Public Safety. we’re black Holtschneider had solutions for everything. students and said in his will always email that -Mario Morrow, be black. there was a President of DePaul’s Black Student Union That’s not the sense among problem. students of color that public safety attends “The problem is when you’re addressing their events more frequently than other us and giving us the title (of being the voice students’ events. of the black community).” However, student profiling wasn’t the As for possible solutions, Morrow and only concern communicatedthrough the BSU suggested to implement cultural the meeting. Topics such as financial competency training for students and aid, the needed addition for faculty and faculty. staff of color and the academic success “We didn’t come in here with just rate of black students were all discussed. problems and complaints,” Morrow said. Since 2011, the number of undergraduate “With everything that we said, we had African-American students has decreased solutions for everything. To combat by the beginning of each fall quarter, per (micro-aggressions), we suggested cultural DePaul’s Institutional Research and Market competency training … so that if it does Analytics. happen, there’s really no excuse.” In 2015, DePaul had 2,917 Racial profiling was also brought up. undergraduate African American students, Sophomore Kendall Sprinkle detailed an the lowest since 2008. Total enrollment instance when another member brought throughout DePaul is down about six up an example of where Public Safety percent since 2011. unnecessarily asked an Arab student to Of DePaul’s 915 full-time faculty, 591 leave the Demon Den because other white faculty members are white. Sixty-five female students felt uncomfortable he was faculty members are black, a slight decrease there. from 2013 and 2014, where DePaul had 67 “He was just studying,” Sprinkle said. black full-time faculty in each year.
“
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By Matthew Paras
DEPAULIA FILE PHOTO
Van Buren, a psychology major, said the College of Science and Health lacked faculty of color, sometimes making it harder to approach her professors. “I just changed my major from health sciences. I was taking biology, chemistry classes and there was no professor of color,” Van Buren said. “(They) were predominantely white, which is not a problem. But when you have problems in classes when you know you need an extension, or it may just be harder to approach a professor because he doesn’t feel you’re worth the time of day, that’s a problem.” A long-term fixture for black students to feel more comfortable, Morrow said, was for DePaul to build a “black center,” or a place black students can go for academic and social needs. Morrow pointed out that many other universities, including Northwestern, have one. “(Northwestern) uses it for everything. They have meetings and events, board rooms and offices,” Morrow said. “We used this to combat everything (we suggested).” But for now, Morrow said the conversations that are being held on campus are productive. He said that Holtschneider will meet with the group again for a followup. Sprinkle and Van Buren said it was also encouraging that Holtschneider heard the information first-hand. “You can hear all day long,” Van Buren said. “We’ve been in every paper from here to Mizzou to Michigan since Mizzou happened. You can only hear bits and pieces of what we actually think, what we actually want to say. “Yes, we have our public statement about the Mizzou incident, but then having a conversation with us, you’ll be able to understand that we don’t want a Mizzou here. We want to change these problems before it gets there.”
4| News. Feb. 8, 2016.
YOUTUBE
The outro of DePaul’s new video shows the Lincoln Park campus in relation to downtown. The video is part of a new advertising campaign, “urban educated, world ready.”
Lights, Camera, DePaul
New advertising effort sells university as “urban educated, world ready” By Kyle Woosley Staff Writer
DePaul President Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, C.M’s statement at the beginning of DePaul’s new branding video shows the world what DePaul is about: “We’re not trying to be like every other university. We want to be DePaul.” Diversity, urban education, globalization and social responsibility are highlighted in the video which is titled “DePaul: Urban Education. World Ready.” Despite overall enrollment declining 6 percent since 2011, Vera Donovan, associate vice president of Strategic Marketing and Branding, said the video was not an effort to improve enrollment, but rather to better establish DePaul’s brand. “The goals for this engagement effort are to better clarify what makes DePaul special, increase affinity among the university community and build confidence in our various audiences to share DePaul’s story and their own personal DePaul experiences with others,” she said. The focus of the video is on students expressing their thoughts on living and learning at DePaul and in Chicago. “We intentionally chose an approach that allows the authentic voices of DePaul to articulate our strategy as a way to highlight those personal experiences,” Donovan said. “We invited faculty, staff, students, alumni — many double demons — and employers from all facets of the university community to share their experiences with DePaul.” But Donovan said coming up with this branding strategy did not happen overnight. “This strategy is based on years of talking with our various audiences about what makes DePaul unique,” she said. Vanessa Cadavillo, president of the Student Government Association (SGA), is featured in the video. She said she became involved after previous SGA President Matthew von Nida recommended her. “It was a one-time interview in which I was asked several questions about my experience at DePaul pertaining to the mission, urban campus, academic experience, social experience and so on,”
she said. “I was asked by the folks in Enrollment Management and Marketing, specifically in Strategic Marketing and Branding, to share my DePaul story.” Part of the branding strategy also includes a Twitter hashtag, #DePaulWorldReady, to encourage all members of the DePaul community to share their own stories. Cadavillo said SGA has collaborated with Strategic Marketing and Branding on the project and has taken on the role of pushing out #DePaulWorldReady to the student body. Part of this includes a campaign for students to take a photo of themselves with the caption “I am an urban educated _____________ and ready for the world!” “This allows students to fill in the blank with their major, career aspiration, hobby, pretty much whatever they’d like to identify themselves as and take a photo,” she said. Adriana Kemper, associate vice president of operations for SGA, also appeared in the video and said it accurately represents DePaul’s educational experience. “They specifically mentioned how our social values are integrated within the classroom and students’ personal lives,” she said. “I think it gives an excellent representation of the DePaul student body, how we value diversity, acceptance and post-collegiate opportunities.” Donovan said the concept of “urban education” is really something her department wanted the video to convey to students. “DePaul has always had a very strong connection to Chicago and vice versa,” she said. “Those connections to the people and resources of a world class city translate into real benefits for our students, alumni and employers. We often hear our students and alumni talk about the benefit of being exposed to many different people, cultures and ideas.” Donovan said this kind of exposure has served DePaul graduates well out in their respective career fields. “Those experiences created a richer learning environment for them,” she said. “Employers value hiring professionals who are exposed to and
undaunted by the complex global world we live in.” But Donovan said the thing that makes DePaul stand out the most from other universities in the city is its Vincentian mission. “The respect for others, the eye toward social responsibility and the focus on doing the right thing every time, permeates the lived experience at DePaul,” she said. Donovan said this defining characteristic is what is called “our ethos.” “People feel it, but have a hard time articulating exactly what it is because it creates such an emotional connection to the university,” she said. Kemper said the video gives a message of openness and pride to the DePaul community. “Every post that I read regarding the video explained how DePaul has impacted their life and how proud they were to attend this university,” she said. “We truly go to an innovational university that fosters a community that I don’t think you can find at any other college.” The video has currently been viewed over 3,600 times on Youtube. Donovan said the video has received a positive response from the university community. “The message has really resonated with many people, and they are excited to have DePaul’s amazing story showcased,” she said. “Already, the video series are being incorporated into new employee training, new student orientations, as well as other university events.” Because of the video’s success, Donovan said the department will be launching three follow-up videos later this year. Cadavillo said she’s happy to see the video becoming popular among the extended DePaul community. “I’ve seen this video shared a great amount on social media by alumni and current students and often times the captain describes how proud they are to be a Blue Demon or DePaul student,” she said. “That’s a great thing to see — a video that has such a strong message resonate with so many people who have been associated with DePaul.”
News. Feb. 8, 2016. The DePaulia | 5
Employees stung by Bee & Tea Bankrupt company has yet to pay employees, including two DePaul students By Jackson Danbeck Copy Editor
The Bee & Tea at 818 Fullerton Ave. had been doing well throughout the warmer months since its establishment last March, selling its specialty boba bubble tea and bao buns to DePaul students and others who passed by. But after the first frost, profits began to decline. In December, employees’ paychecks started to arrive late, and often couldn’t be cashed because the company’s bank account was empty. By Jan. 7, the owners declared by email the store closed, two weeks after the closure of Bee & Tea’s Wicker Park location. Fifteen employees at both locations no longer had jobs and had not been paid for their last month’s work. “They were nothing but good to me up until that moment. I was trying to be patient with them, giving them the benefit of the doubt when it was happening. But it was really hard,” said Kristy Courtney, a former employee and DePaul student. Those employees still have yet to be paid. A manager of Bee & Tea, Nancy Calara, said that the company was trying to acquire a $5,000 loan to pay them with, according to DNAinfo. In the meantime, former workers have struggled to swiftly secure their paychecks and have had to tighten belts in preparation for a more austere lifestyle and an uncertain future. These changes are especially true for two DePaul students who used to be employees at the Bea & Tea on Fullerton Avenue. Courtney had been working at Bee & Tea since April, and before being transferred there, at Forever Yogurt in the suburbs, which is part of a franchise created by the owners of Bee & Tea. The trouble for her began in December, when she was told by the manager that her check couldn’t be deposited because there was no money in the company account. She then told management that she was going to put in her two weeks’ notice to quit because she wasn’t getting paid. At about the time when Courtney was due to leave, she received the email about the store closing. “It was kind of baffling to be honest, because something like that could happen to a company that you thought was big and
JACKSON DANBECK | THE DEPAULIA
The Bee & Tee off of Fullerton Avenue in Lincoln Park sits vacant after the company declared bankrupcy. Frustrated employees are still waiting to be paid. financially stable, which obviously they are not,” she said. Courtney then contacted the company to bargain for her paycheck, yet could only secure her tax forms. A few days after the store’s closure, the Bee & Tea account posted on Instagram that it was closing its Chicago locations, and that “we will be missing you! Lol jk we hate you and would steal all of your money in a second.” It would appear a disgruntled employee used the official account to project anger over the failure to pay its employees. Without an income from her job at Bee
& Tea, Courtney was unsure of the future. She said she might fill her free time by doing volunteer work while also continuing her studies in elementary education at DePaul. Luckily she can still afford DePaul tuition, basic necessities and rent, but her frustration of Bee & Tea endures. They still owe her 47 hours’ worth of pay. “It’s really illegal, what they’re doing,” Courtney said. “You’d be surprised how they’re just hoping that nobody notices or reports them.” Julianna Donaher, who is also a DePaul student and technically the last Bee & Tea employee, had similar resentments, she
said. She started working there in May. When the colder months came around, and customers were less likely to desire a cold bubble tea, the store’s income “went deeply in the red,” Donaher said. At one point, the future of the store was so uncertain that, according to Donaher, one employee, thinking she was going to be laid off, broke into the company safe and stole $800. The act was caught on camera, but the burglar was never pressed to give the money back. “And honestly, she made out better than us, because at that point already earnings were turning over into payroll,” Donaher said. “So the next week we didn’t get paid.” When the employees congregated to figure out a solution, Donaher found that Bee & Tea owed its employees over $6,450. Even if the company took out the $5,000 loan, the payroll debt could not be fully paid. Others submitted wage forms to the U.S. Department of Labor, but because requests take a while to process, there has yet to be a response. The owners didn’t know what was going on at the store, Donaher said, and tried to treat it like a corporate branch by not managing it efficiently. She said that at one point the owners moved to Miami and opened two other businesses there. “But in reality it was a small business that still needed its hands held,” Donaher said. By the time the store was due to close, Donaher was owed $471. While that was frustrating, she decided to continue working there — although no one was assigned work hours — because she could manage her busy schedule as a theater major while also working Bee & Tea’s flexible schedule. That might not be the case with a new job. With no income, Donaher has had to make some changes. Although her tuition is secure and her rent is covered by DePaul financial aid, she has had to cut down on groceries, utilities and her lifestyle. Yet her situation is better than most of Bee & Tea’s former employees, who relied on the fulltime job. “They are taking advantage of people who don’t have the time or resources to take serious legal action,” Donaher said. “I think there is a sort of flippancy for people’s lives, and I don’t think it is understood.”
Obama to address state lawmakers By Sara Burnett Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) — President Barack Obama will return to the Illinois Capitol this Wednesday, where the former state senator plans to speak to a deeply divided Legislature about working together to “build a better politics.” Obama will be in Springfield on Feb. 10, according to an advisory Friday from a White House official. His visit will mark the ninth anniversary of when the then-U.S. senator announced he was entering the 2008 presidential race during an event outside the city’s historic Old State Capitol. The president will discuss “what we can do, together, to build a better politics - one that reflects
our better selves,” according to the advisory. The Democrat spoke in his State of the Union speech earlier this month about the need to “fix our politics,” saying growing rancor was one of the few regrets of his presidency and that lawmakers must work to find areas of agreement. Illinois Senate President John Cullerton said his former colleague’s words “struck a chord.” “Clearly, that’s what we need here,” Cullerton said in an emailed statement. His office said the Chicago Democrat sent a letter to Obama former colleague on Jan. 19 — one week after Obama’s address — suggesting it was a good time to pay a visit. It was unclear Friday if that invitation prompted Obama’s trip,
which comes as Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the Legislature are in a months-long stalemate over a state budget and pro-business legislation the governor is pushing. Nearly eight months after the start of the fiscal year, Illinois still has no budget in place, leading to big cuts to higher education, social services and other areas. Rauner said Friday he welcomes Obama’s visit. “Despite our political differences, the President and I share a passion for improving education, especially for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, a belief in the benefits of term limits and redistricting reform for restoring good government, and a strong
SUSAN WALSH | AP
President Barack Obama will come back to Springfield this week, where he announced his historic run for the presidency nine years ago. desire to see more economic opportunity for all Illinoisans,” Rauner said. His office said the governor plans to invite Obama to join him
for a beer at a local brewpub while he’s in town. Obama served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.
6 | The DePaulia. Feb. 8, 2016.
The challenge to give DePaul answers call to fundraise By Emma Krupp Staff Writer
This year the Office of Alumni Engagement and Outreach set its most ambitious goal for the Blue Demon Challenge yet: If 450 people give money to DePaul in just one day, alumnus Jack Cummins would donate $25,000 to various funds across the school. The idea of getting that many people — up 250 from last year’s goal of 200 — to participate was enough to make the event’s organizers nervous, said Jessi Donaldson, the director of annual and special giving for the Division of Advancement in the Office of Alumni Outreach and Engagement. “It’s so scary every year,” Donaldson said. “Our first year, our goal was 100 donors in one day, which for us is a lot. It’s a lot of guesswork, but we have to go up (in participation numbers) every year.” Despite initial fears, the challenge yielded a record turnout. When all was said and done, 672 alumni, staff, students and other members of the DePaul community came together on
KATIE TAMOSIUNAS | THE DEPAULIA
Jan. 28 to raise nearly $27,000. interested in giving, and to show scholarship funds or programs That’s in addition to Cummins’ the collective impact.” that had an impact on their lives $25,000 gift. To raise alumni awareness while they attended DePaul. The Blue Demon Challenge of the one-day fundraising “We wanted to push the idea is an annual event chaired by the event, the Office of Alumni of giving to your fellow students Office of Alumni Outreach and relations campaigned heavily and helping out (a fellow) Blue Engagement in conjunction with on social media and by email Demon,” said Kyla Patterson, the Future Alumni Association. to DePaul graduates. They also president of the Future Alumni It’s been held for the Association. “So there was past three years during a lot of people donating to Blue Demon Week, and “The cost of tuition, believe it or scholarships and programs each year has brought that they had been involved an incrementally higher not, does not cover the entire cost in at DePaul.” donations from alumni – Donors’ interests were of a DePaul education. Which a varied, although Patterson from $5,000, to $10,000, up to this year’s $25,000 said scholarship funds tend lot of people are surprised to find to receive the most money. gift. Cummins, who According to the Office out.” donated this year, is a 1988 of Advancement, “the graduate of the College of majority of alumni chose Liberal Arts and Sciences to direct their gifts to Jessi Donaldson, director of annual and a 1992 graduate of the student scholarship funds” and special giving in the Office of College of Law. during the challenge. Alumni Outreach and Engagement Donaldson said that Another important the chief goal of the event area that donors can is participation, whether give to is the student through a small or large emergency fund, which is donation. Every dollar helps utilized telethon callers, many of a pool of money designed to act make a difference. whom are academic scholarship as a safety net for students who “The cost of tuition, believe it recipients, to personally appeal find themselves in dire financial or not, does not cover the entire to potential donors. need, such as when they are cost of a DePaul education. Donors get to choose where unable to pay for food, toiletries Which a lot of people are their funds are distributed. or make monthly rent. surprised to find out,” Donaldson Oftentimes that means that Even amid an all-around said. “Our goal is to get people they give to certain colleges, impressive turnout, event
organizers were particularly pleased with the amount of current DePaul students that chose to donate this year. Out of the 672 total donors, 112 were students. “It’s very nice for me, as someone who works primarily with alumni, to say ‘look at what our students are doing’ and show them that,” Donaldson said. “That gets them really excited and makes them want to get involved too.” She added that the benefits become cyclical — student participation encourages alumni participation, and the overwhelming outpour of alumni support helps current students see how important it is to give back to the DePaul community after graduation. “I think students matriculate and never really realize how much they benefitted from alumni support,” Donaldson said. “So the more that we can pull back the curtain and show what a caring community the greater DePaul family is, the better.”
Two DePaul grads on Forbes’ 30 under 30 By Marissa Nelson Contributing Writer
Forbes fifth annual “30 under 30” list was recently published, featuring 600 leaders from 20 different business sectors. From game developer Tommaso Checchi, to artist Demi Lovato, to Facebook advisor Dipayan Ghosh, the list is filled with young, successful individuals who are innovators in their respective industries. This year, two DePaul alumnae were listed on Forbes’ prestigious list. Jordan Pierson, 29, named under Marketing and Advertising, graduated from the Driehaus College of Business in 2008 with an e-business degree. After DePaul, Pierson went on to study at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. Following this, she became the manager of eCommerce at Hilton Worldwide. Currently she is a product marketing manager at Google. In Forbes’ article, it is listed that in 2014 Pierson won two Google Marketing Platinum
Awards, along with a Google Marketing Gold Award in 2015. Ashley Ruhl, 28, named under Games, graduated from DePaul’s College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM) in 2010 with a degree in animation. Ruhl is now a cinematic designer at Telltale Games and has contributed to games such as “The Walking Dead” and “Game of Thrones: A Telltale Gamer Series.” While at DePaul, Ruhl was active in DePaul Fundamental Research in Academic Gaming (DeFRAG) and credits the club for “opening her eyes to the blind spots in her education” when introducing her to Game Developer’s Conference (GDC). Ruhl was also a contributor to the CDM’s award winning game, “Tuning Fork.” Ruhl emphasized the importance of finishing projects and creating a reel that is made of more than just classwork in order to show one’s ‘personal investment’ as advice for current CDM students. “Be flexible with your perception of your skills and job description. Don’t get your heart set on the moon and then
get disappointed when you don’t get there right away,” Ruhl said. “Every new experience can be a stepping-stone to your dream job.” Since Forbes’ “30 under 30” article was published, several students said the news pushed them to continue their hard work. “This makes me feel so much more inspired and motivated, knowing that I could be where they are in 10 years. It makes me want to work even harder,” Emma Wallace, a freshman in DePaul’s College of Business said. “It’s not a secret that DePaul, and specifically CDM, have incredible programs. The facilities, the faculty, and the resources we have available even as undergraduates set us up for success in many ways. This just proves that, but (Ruhl’s) success specifically goes a step further,” said senior in the College of Computing and Digital Media, Tori Meschino. “Speaking as a woman in CDM, this is huge and amazing news. We make up
Photo courtesy of JORDAN PIERSON
29-year-old DePaul graduate Jordan Pierson was named on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list.
roughly 25 percent of the population in CDM. It’s hard to retain girls in these programs when we’re so isolated and industry standards reflect that,” Meschino said. “That’s what makes (Ruhl’s) accomplishment that much more special: she is a woman in STEM kicking major butt out there in a male-dominated field and helping pave the way for women like her to follow their dreams.”
News. Feb. 8, 2016. The DePaulia | 7
NEWSbriefs
Water mains under Belden and Seminary avenues to be replaced
DePaul students, faculty and staff should be aware of construction at the corner of Belden and Seminary avenues while underground water mains are being replaced. The Chicago Department of Water Management did not clarify when the construction would be completed. Traffic lanes may be closed while construction workers are present, but drivers can take detours by driving on Kenmore Avenue to Fullerton or Webster avenues. “No Parking” signs will be posted to warn drivers when the roads are closed, which are used as needed from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. When the old main is turned off and the new one turned on, water services in the area will stop. There will be a 24-hour notice beforehand. The water main replacement is part of
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s larger “Building a New Chicago” initiative, which is a $7 billion effort to improve infrastructure in the city. The old water main at the corner of Belden and Seminary avenues was built in 1882, according to Department of Water Management, and is due to be replaced.
McGaw Hall demolition to start this week
Photo courtesy of SAM HOWZIT | FLICKR
Trump International Hotel and Tower is no longer the site of a DePaul law school event.
The construction of the DePaul School of Music will progress this week with the demolition of McGaw Hall set to begin Feb. 8. In an email sent to students from vice president of facilities operations Bob Janis, Janis said the demolition will begin Wednesday. “We will begin the demolition of the structure at the north end,” Janis said. “Nothing too fancy — no explosives, no big crane dropping a big steel ball through
the roof. Just big claw excavators taking the building apart bite by delicious bite!” The School of Music is set to be complete by Spring of 2018.
Law school cancels event at Trump Tower
According to an email sent to students on Tuesday, The College of Law has canceled their annual Barristers’ Ball held at the Trump Tower after students voiced concerns over the venue.
“After discussion throughout the day, the College of Law administration and [Student Bar Association] leadership have decided to cancel the Trump Tower contract and select another venue,” Burns wrote in the email. “It is important to us all that this event be held at a venue that all of our students feel welcome and comfortable at.” Burns also said that the College of Law will pay for any fees related to the venue cancellation. Compiled by JESSICA VILLAGOMEZ & JACKSON DANBECK | THE DEPAULIA
CAMPUS CRIME REPORT : Jan. 27 - Feb. 2, 2016 LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS
LOOP CAMPUS
Clifton Fullerton Hall
Corcoran Hall
11
CDM Building
5
University Hall 3
2
10
4
DePaul Center
12
Munroe Hall 6
14 17 16
Arts and Letters Hall 8
7
10
LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS
Assault & Theft
JAN. 27 1) A stalking report was filled for an individual violating a no
Hall. No drugs were found.
JAN. 28 2) A possession of cannabis report was filed in regards to an
Hall. No drugs were found.
contact order.
individual in University Hall. Person was taken into custody by Chicago Police.
JAN. 29 3) An illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor report was filed
for a person in University Hall. Person was transported to Illinois Masonic by Chicago EMT.
4) A burglary (non forcible) report was filed for items missing
Drug & Alcohol
Other
JAN. 31 7) A smell of marijuana report was filed for a room in Munroe FEB. 1 8) A theft report was filed for a phone missing from Arts and
a person in Corcoran Hall.
JAN. 30 6) A smell of marijuana report was filed for a room in Munroe
JAN. 28 13) A criminal damage to property report was filed for graffiti on the Reskin Theater.
14) A theft report was filed for an unattended bag taken from the DePaul Center.
FEB. 1 15) A smell of marijuana report was filed in a restroom in the
Letters. 9) A stalking report was filed for a person in violation of a no contact order in SAC.
Daley Building. No drugs were found.
10)A possession of cannabis report was filed for a person in
16) A disturbance report was filed for a male subject who was
University Hall. Person was taken into custody by Chicago Police. An illegal possession of alcohol by a minor report was also filed.
from a room in University Hall.
5) An illegal possession of alcohol by a minor report was filed for
LOOP CAMPUS
FEB. 2 11) A burglary report was filed in Clifton-Fullerton Hall regarding a large sum of money that went missing.
12) A possession of drug equipment and smell of marijuana report was filed for a room in University Hall. No drugs were found.
sleeping at a table in the DePaul Center. When the person was awakened he became irate and used profanity. Person was told to leave building by Chicago Police.
FEB. 2 17) A theft report was filed for personal items missing from a restroom in the DePaul Center.
8| The DePaulia. Feb. 8, 2016.
First-generation students OF THE find home at DePaul 2,425 By Rachel Hinton Nation & World Editor
Kelsey Cruz, a sophomore math major, commutes to DePaul from Skokie, driving an hour to and from the Lincoln Park campus on days when she has classes. Though she is part of the large community of commuters, she’s also part of a smaller population — students who are firstgeneration. There have been numerous studies documenting the struggle, as well as the triumphs, of first-generation students at various universities. Some show the hard time many have acclimating to college campuses and culture — dorm life, class schedules and increased work loads — others show the psychological effects, mostly documenting the importance of support groups and networks for students. DePaul presents options for both, and judging by a steady influx of students from CPS and other schools around the city and nation, the plan seems to be working. Last year, the university’s enrollment summary reported that 35 percent of students in the freshman class were first-generation. That percentage has held relatively steady: in the 2014 report, 34 percent of the freshman class was first-generation, in 2013 that number was 33 percent and in 2012 first-generation students represented 31 percent of the overall freshman class. Cruz’s situation is unique because her mother went to school in Colombia, but her degree didn’t transfer over to the U.S. Growing up, higher education was a topic of regular discussion in her house.
“It was never an option to not pursue it because we all agreed on the importance of college and its correlation with opportunity in the U.S,” Cruz said. “I do think you could argue first-generation students have a heightened appreciation for their higher education because they’ve seen firsthand how many doors can be closed without a degree. I don’t think non-first-gen students have the same conversations because they haven’t had the same exposure to the risks of not having a specific degree in the U.S.” Opportunity obtainment is also the focus of the Office of Multicultural Student Success (OMSS), which focuses most of its efforts on first generation students. The main goal is to provide them a sounding board through their time here from becoming accustomed to the university to negotiating a salary with a potential employer. “We try to help them know what to expect during this experience, and that they are not alone. Some students have to reconcile their place in the family and the work or school work they have,” Kimberly Everett, director of the office, said. “All we do is affirm that people should be here. We’re here to help all students, but firstgeneration and low-income students are a main part of our charge as an organization.” OMSS also offers other groups specifically for men and women of color, the EXCEL initiative that promotes academic success, PATHS, which focuses on career opportunities and helping students during their job-hunt and STARS, a peer-to-peer group that allows freshmen first-generation students to connect to
older mentors. DePaul also partners with organizations around the city to recruit first-generation students and help communities. The Cristo Rey Network, comprised of 26 Catholic, college-preparatory schools, is “committed to serving underserved students,” Kenneth Hutchinson, director of college initiatives, said. “There’s a lot of talented students and we serve to help them be on the same playing field as their peers who may come from a higher socio-economic background, or whose family members attended college,” Hutchinson said. “Even once they reach college, we want them to be able to have a voice on the other end of the phone saying ‘stick it out, it’s going to be okay.’” Though DePaul is doing its best for the communities represented at the school, the experience itself can be hard to handle. “I think college can be an overwhelming experience for anyone, but when you’re a first-generation student you’re molding your own path without anything to compare it to. That leads to a certain pride, but also a gear of not being able to maximize your experience because you don’t have specific familial guidance,” Cruz said. “Knowing the value of a degree just goes back to perhaps seeing parents not being able to prosper in certain careers because of that higher education gap. The inability to advance within a working class.”
freshmen who entered DePaul in 2013:
33 PERCENT WERE STUDENTS FROM FIRST-GENERATION FAMILIES. 48 PERCENT OF FIRST- GENERATION STUDENTS COME FROM SUBURBAN CHICAGO.
2014
*The suburban rate from 2013 to 2014 remained the same.
34 PERCENT OF FRESHMEN WERE FIRST-GENERATION.
2015 35 PERCENT OF FRESHMeN WERE FIRST-GENERATION. 45 PERCENT OF FIRST-GENERATION STUDENTS COME FROM SUBURBAN CHICAGO. MICHELLE KRICHEVSKAYA | THE DEPAULIA
Universities respond to racial activism Marcia Chatelain spoke to members of the university community about how to discuss race in the classroom By Aiden Kent Contributing Writer
When the news of the murder of Michael Brown began circulating prior to the beginning of the 2014 fall term and the Ferguson, Missouri school district was considering cancelling classes, the first thought on Dr. Marcia Chatelain’s mind was, “where will these kids go, and how do we explain why they can’t start school today?” In the wake of the delayed school year in Ferguson, Chatelain, an associate professor of history and African American studies at Georgetown University, began the #FergusonSyllabus Twitter campaign for educators to share tactics for discussing race in the classroom. It quickly became a phenomenon as people in and outside of academia crowd-sourced materials for a multidisciplinary syllabus to address race, policing, African American history and civil rights in the United States. “It was my attempt at an intervention” said Chatelain, who gave a pair of talks on Thursday, Feb. 4 on DePaul’s campus addressing her studies regarding the experience of African-American women and girls in the face of systematic oppression and the origins of the #FergusonSyllabus. “I wanted to organize the academic community
to think about how the events in Fer- group of people, concerned students, guson would affect the new students who might not normally come togethcoming in on the first day of school,” er to converse about activism. They especially at the university level. want a voice.” There was a need in the educa“Discussions like this bridge the tional commugap between the nity to answer classroom and what Chate“Our students have to understand the streets,” said lain defines as Farrad DeBarry, that when things around them are who is an office the question of Ferguson: assistant for the difficult, we can use the resource ABD office and “how did we get here, and facilitated Thursof the university to make us better day’s talk. “We how is every disciplinary inspired by at responding to the world’s are perspective icons from studyand every perproblems rather than isolating us” ing activism 60 sonal perspecyears ago, and it’s tive intersectimportant that we Marcia Chatelain, creator of the ing? Because do this with the this is everyscholars, leaders Ferguson Syllabus one’s problem”. and builders of “ T h e s e today.” events have When it been extremely well attended,” said comes to the question of how much Amor Kohli, who is the chair of the universities should encourage students African and Black Diaspora Studies to participate in activism, Jelani New(ABD) department at DePaul and has some-Noble, a junior psychology maorganized three similar talk-backs to jor said that this is an inherent part of create conversation around race and education. “I enjoyed (that) there was social justice. a space (tonight) for a lot of students Nearly 70 people attended the to express their passion and drive for #FergusonSyllabus talk in the John T. social justice,” he said. Richardson Library. As they streamed He said it was comforting that, out, Kohli continued, “Often, it’s a though sitting against a backdrop of
thousands of dusty books, he has access to resources like Chatelain who have done the leg work to conceptualize the complex problems only theorized in classes. “I’m lucky to have had deeper discussions in classes when they’re usually heavily based in theory,” he said. “I’m glad there are people who have dived into all the literature about these topics, because institutional violence is scary to think about and can be a barrier to people wanting to engage in activism.” “Our students have to understand that when things around them are difficult, we can use the resource of the university to make us better at responding to the world’s problems rather than isolating us,” Chatelain said. So are colleges obligated to engage in activism? The answer is tricky on many levels. But for Chatelain and many others, considering this question provides a definition for education. “Colleges have a responsibility to model to students when (the university has) the time and resources to devote to intellectual discovery,” she said. “This isn’t about saying students have to act in the world a specific way, but why are we here if we don’t ensure we can spread thought to a larger world?”
News. Feb. 8, 2016. The DePaulia | 9
FEATURED PHOTO
JOSH LEFF | THE DEPAULIA
Curious onlookers check out the “Wabash Lights” under the ‘L’ at Monroe Street and Wabash Avenue. When completed, lights will span from Madison to Adams streets.
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Nation &World
Millenials support populist platform Young voters still "feeling the bern" despite loss in Iowa By Pat Mullane Staff Writer
It wasn’t until midday Tuesday that television news channels officially declared Hillary Clinton the winner of last week’s Iowa caucus. The head-to-head race between the former Secretary of State and her Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders was harder to call than many expected. As Clinton won with 49.9 percent of delegates, Sanders trickled close behind at 49.6 percent. For many, the first caucus proved that Sanders could essentially become a realistic threat to Clinton in the race for the nominee slot. For DePaul student Mackenzie O’Brien, it was a reminder of how far the campaign has come from its early stages. The first time O’Brien witnessed one of Bernie Sanders’ rallies, the crowd was still quite minimal. It was early last August, as she stood compacted into a tight auditorium in Dubuque, Iowa to watch the Vermont senator introduce himself as the next president of the U.S. Sanders officially announced his run for the presidency in May. Since then he has garnered younger voters with his stances. In early polls released in July, Sanders had a 24 percent favorable rating, compared to Clinton's 43 percent. A recent Gallup poll released Feb. 1, showed Sanders with a 53 percent approval rating among Democrats, a four-point lead over Clinton. Though for O’Brien, and for most attendees at the time, Sanders was far from a familiar face, especially when compared to the popularity of the known Hillary Clinton — who O’Brien supported before reading about Sanders. “His speech was mostly him taking the time and introducing himself and his platforms to the crowd—which definitely didn’t have as many people as some of the other rallies he did around that time,” O’Brien said. “But it was electrifying to see this small group of people passionately cheer as he went further and further down his list.” “It was obvious he was beginning to gain momentum back in the late summer months,” O'Brien added. It was true. As Sanders’ campaign continuously treaded in the following months, his turnouts began reaching more than 20,000 people, breaking records in some states for the largest turnout of any 2016 presidential candidate. Many were millennials. “As a lot people already know, the major reason Sanders has survived so long against a major power like Clinton, is his major appeal towards young voters —
RODRIGUEZ | MCT CAMPUS
Career highlights
OCTOBER 2002 JOHN MINCHILLO | AP
Attendees cheer before the arrival of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont., ahead of a campaign stop at the Claremont Opera House Feb. 2.
Sanders votes against invading Iraq. Warns that it could "result in antiAmericanism, instability and more terrorism.
FEBRUARY 2009 Sanders works with Sen. Chuck Grassley to pass an amendment to an economic recovery bill preventing Wall Street banks that take taxpayer bailouts from replacing laid-off U.S. workers with exploited and poorly-paid foreign workers.
DECEMBER 2010
JOHN MINCHILLO | AP
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont., pauses as attendees cheer during a campaign stop at the Rochester Opera House in New Hamphsire. The New Hampshire primary is Tuesday. college students,” said DePaul political science instructor Zachary Cook. “What you have are a lot of 17 to 29 year olds who are looking for a political revolution, and Sanders knows that. “For Hillary, her message and ideals are all about a cautious change in America, while Sanders is very dramatic on changing the entire political system — the establishment," Cook said. Known for his distaste of super PAC donations, half of Sanders’ presidential campaign funding has come from small donations from individuals — at a record number of donors at this stage in a presidential campaign. DePaul political science student Lincoln Berget donated for the first time to a political campaign as a Sanders supporter. “While you may not agree
with his message, I think he’s undeniably genuine. He’s not receiving millions of dollars through super PACs from large corporations,” Berget said. “His grassroots campaign has surpassed that of Obama in 2008, where millennials were another large reason that he had won. “I was overwhelmingly surprised by how close he got in Iowa, which was due to his young voters turning out," Berget said. "Hopefully he can get more.” Comparisons can, and have definitely been made to the Vermont senator’s growing popularity and Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign — though Obama did go on to win the Iowa caucus only to lose New Hampshire’s to Clinton. Cook said he believes it’s still too early to determine Sanders’ close tie to Clinton in Iowa as an indicator to a critical
threat to Clinton’s nomination. “It’s true that part of the reason Obama’s campaign became a real threat in 2008 was because of young voters. Both his and Sanders’ campaigns’ rely on this message of change,” Cook said. “Though it has to be noted that the other big reason Obama’s campaign grew popular was because of his appeal to AfricanAmericans and minorities. In the caucuses and primaries to come, if Sanders can get a hold of the minority and black vote, he could easily become a realistic threat to Clinton.” “The Iowa caucus was basically what the Des Moines Register predicted it to be, and now it’s looking like Sanders will win New Hampshire," Cook said. "So I’d call him a threat to the caucuses, but not the primaries yet.”
As Republicans and President Barack Obama push a deal that would extend Bushera tax breaks for America's wealthiest families, Sanders gives an eight and a half hour filibuster-like speech on the Senate floor in oposition, citing growing economic indequality and increasing deficits.
APRIL 2013 Sanders introduces legistlation to break up major Wall Street banks so large that the collapse of one could send the overall economy into a downward spiral.
JANUARY 2015 Sanders votes against the Keystone XL pipeline that would allow multinational corporation TransCanada to transport dirty tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
MAY 2015 Sanders declares his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. MICHELLE KRICHEVSKAYA | THE DEPAULIA
Nation & World. Feb. 8. 2016. The DePaulia | 11
Organizations cut programs, funding due to impasse By Rachel Hinton Nation & World Editor
Eight months into a state budget impasse, students and senior citizens are feeling the negative impact of the state government’s inability to come up with a budget that appeases both sides of the aisle. Recently, potential school closures joined the headlines related to the impasse. The list of state-funded schools includes Chicago State University (CSU), Eastern Illinois University and Illinois State University to name a few. Paris Griffin, president of the Student Government Association at CSU, as well as other students, has demonstrated and marched to bring attention to the issue. For Griffin, it goes farther than just ensuring the school remains open. “I’m a senior, I have one year left. I won’t be able to start over — schools don’t usually accept students who are seniors,” Griffin said. “If this school closes, my scholarships are gone. People think this is just a problem at CSU but it’s Eastern, it’s Governor’s State. Some schools have a semester or two and they can wait it out, but they’re in trouble. We’re all in trouble.” Comptroller Leslie Munger said Feb. 2 that Illinois is on track to sink $6.2 billion more in debt while budget negotiations
continue. Gov. Bruce Rauner, as well as the Democrat-led legislature in Springfield, have come up with a few solutions, but since they’re on opposing sides no agreement has been made. Legal and financial maneuvers have kept many institutions, including CSU and Illinois State University, open for the time being, but as the months and deficits accrue, so do anxieties about the future. The same maneuvers have also helped groups like Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, or the LSSI, and member organizations of the Illinois Association of Community Action Associations, or IACCAA, but program and staff cuts have deeply affected the communities they serve, largely elderly and largely working class. Christine Westerlund, director of IACCAA, said that the leaders need to “sit down and be thoughtful (about this), and act as quickly as possible to fix this.” The elderly in largely rural communities, who are served by programs included under the umbrella of IACCAA, are seeing a reduced presence of staff, as well as amenities like meals and time with staff members. Other organizations under that umbrella, which offer child care or support services like it for low income or working families, have also been cut. “We’re doing the best we can,
SETH PERLMAN | AP
Protesters rally in support of lawmakers ending the state budget impasse at the Illinois state capitol in Springfield. The state's financial troubles began in July 2015, when the last budget expired.
but some organizations have had to shut down programs or reduce hours and staff,” Westerlund said. “This isn’t just about (the association). Some people are forced to quit their jobs and that deepens the cycle of poverty.” Program and staff cuts and general malaise with the state government have been widespread. As of January, 85 percent of organizations reported that they made cuts to their clientele for reasons related to the budget, up from 34 percent in July, the start of the gridlock — 84 percent made cuts to staff. Among respondents, programs for adult education were the most cut at 34 percent for this year (it was cut at
a rate of seven percent in July). Examining the flow of money and the impact the lack of a budget led to many decisions and layoffs, but as cash reserves run out, cuts may continue. “It’s been a very challenging and difficult process. The state owes us more than $6 million and we continue to accrue money,” Barb Hailey, media director of LSSI, said. “There’s no way anyone could have foreseen that this would go on as long as it has, and we’ve had to examine the flow of money and the impact this has had.” LSSI, like many others, has had to cut down on the services it provides, which the state is
supposed to reimburse them for. Without that money, the number options for the communities they serve are limited. Even when a budget is announced they may not be able to bring back the programs lost in limbo. For students like Griffin, the demonstrations will continue until those in Springfield come up with a budget that funds not only their school, but others in similar situations. “They’ve gotten college educations without obstacles like these, so I think it’s unfair that they’re creating this mess,” she said. “They’re blocking our futures.”
Without budget, MAP cuts leave students lost By Brittany Kapa Contributing Writer
Recent efforts to save the Monetary Award Program (MAP) failed in the state senate, meaning the future of students' education remains endangered. “(Governor Rauner) told me to my face that day that he would veto (the bill),” Sen. Pat McGuire said, referring to Aug. 19, 2015 when Senate Bill 2043 was passed. Rauner’s threat became a reality soon after. The Democratic senator of the 43rd district has since been trying to appeal to Rauner’s amendments of Senate Bill 2043, which contains the proposed budget for the MAP grant, better known as the MAP grant. The MAP grant program has been in effect since 1967, and is currently providing 128,399 students with funding for college. If the bill can stay in effect that is. McGuire said that this is now “the third time Rauner has either actually vetoed a MAP, or said he would veto a MAP bill.” The grant provides monetary aid to college students who demonstrate financial need. Those who qualify are dependents who have a family incomes of $31,000 or less and independent students (married, or 24 years and older) who make less than $19,000 per year. The maximum award a student can receive is $4,720, and the average award comes in around $2,782. While the Illinois senate continues to try and figure out its budget, thousands of students and universities are using borrowed funds. For the current fiscal year of 2015, MAP grants total more than
OXFORD | MCT CAMPUS State senators have not made much progress on a state budget. Students who depend on statefunded amenities, like the MAP grant, are depending on senators to come up with something soon.
$350 million. “DePaul is currently honoring MAP awards for the 2015-2016 year for students who meet the necessary eligibility requirements of the grant. Of course the coverage of these funds have direct impact on the university budget, but (DePaul) remain(s) hopeful that Illinois will finalize a budget, and reimburse the funds," Karen LeVeque, the director of DePaul Central & Financial Aid, said in an email.
Financial support for students is now more than ever a major concern within Illinois in part related to the rising cost tuition across the state. For the roughly 160,000 who qualify for MAP funding, 5,256 students attend DePaul. Some urge that allocating for MAP grant funds needs to be made a priority within Illinois’s state budget. “(Student Government Association's) role has been huge in making sure that
everyone knows how important, and severe, the state of MAP is this year, and what that means for the future,” SGA president Vanessa Cadavillo said in an email in response to gaining awareness for MAP grant funding. Cadavillo, and others at SGA held a MAP advocacy day Jan. 20 in Lincoln Park to encourage students to sign postcards for MAP advocacy. SGA promised to take the postcards down to Springfield in order to raise awareness about the MAP grant program, and to show DePaul’s support of the program. “SGA specifically has organized the MAP efforts this past fall quarter to advocate for the current year's MAP funding in which we encouraged students to call their state legislator, and Rauner, advocating for the continued funding for the MAP grant," Cadavillo said. “While we are still focusing on the current year, we're simultaneously advocating for next year's grants with our current MAP advocacy days." Upwards of 5,000 students adversely affected by a lack of MAP grant funding in the event that Rauner again vetoes Senate Bill 2043. As it stands there is still currently not enough funding allocated within the bill to cover all who are eligible in the state of Illinois for MAP. For fiscal year 2015 DePaul has covered over $20 million in awarded funds from the MAP grant, McGuire said. DePaul officials seem confidant that Illinois will figure out their budget concern, and that the university will be reimbursed. Until then DePaul is just holding tight.
Opinions
12 | The DePaulia. Feb. 8, 2016
Controversial comments
Safety Discussing sensitive
Problems with discussing issues behind a keyboard
issues on social media allows users to say what they truly believe without having to fear for their safety.
Reach Social networks allow users to reach more people than they could By Fabio De Simone and Rachel Hinton Contributing Writer and Nation & World Editor
On Nov, 9, 2015, University of Missouri president Tim Wolfe resigned as a result of student protesting aimed at his handling, or lack thereof, of numerous instances of racially motivated crimes that kept occurring on campus. Fast-forward three months and grumbling against racial inequality is now being heard right here at DePaul. Last week, students made multiple posts on the DePaul Class of 2017 and Class of 2019 Facebook pages regarding the way that race is treated on campus. More specifically, the posts argued that when non-black students use the n-word, they are continuing the cultural appropriation of African-Americans both at the university and in general. The comment sections of these posts were teeming with responses, from students agreeing to students disagreeing to the inevitable appearances of Internet trolls. These posts, many of which were eventually removed for use of the n-word, have continued the dialogue among students at DePaul that was not there before: a discussion on race and the role it plays in the lives of the student body. The post, in part, talked about the fact that “white people lost the right to use that word when they created it to reinforce oppression. You believing that you can take back the word reinforces the idea of white privilege that many still fail to acknowledge exists.” Another talked about the microaggressions and overt racism that black people — as well as other minorities — deal with every day. Though both posts dealt with privilege, the meaning and manifestations of that privilege are radically different depending on race. Though a black person may grow up in a “nice” area and may have majority white friends, they are still not on an equal playing field with
white people who come from similar backgrounds. The issue of white privilege, which has been challenged recently due to social movements and debates on social media, was challenged in the comments of the post and deserves to continue to be challenged as we continue to have a dialogue on campus and society about race. Though this is an important discussion to be had, it’s also poignant to discuss the medium by which this dialogue was opened: Facebook. Talking about these ideas on Facebook invites lively discussion, even though the content matter and some responses did not consider appropriation or the racist history of the U.S. and how racism is still present today. Twitter, another common medium for social debates, has also seen many similar discussions since the Black Lives Matter movement began. Sentiments regarding whether or not serious debates, such as the one that occurred in DePaul’s Facebook groups, are often very different. Many users approach social media as a means by which they can connect with those close to them while others approach social media as a means to reach masses of people without much trouble. This was seen with the posts on DePaul’s pages as they garnered the attention of hundreds of students without having to use much effort. This reaction not only displays the power of language and open dialogue, but the power that being able to reach thousands of people at the click of a button truly holds. It is also important to question the true openness of the dialogue that can occur on social media and in Facebook posts and comment sections. In the aforementioned posts, many people truly put time into expressing their notions and thoughts whereas many simply left sarcastic or inflammatory comments for their mere amusement.
Such is the nature of the Internet, and though it is important to preserve the freedom to express oneself, in the case of serious posts such as these it can greatly hinder and obstruct the discussion being had. Varying opinions are not necessarily a bad thing because they make for a good discussion. Regardless of these kinds of comments, however, social media remains an important platform to skewer and discuss serious issues such as racism. The reality is, social media offers the only means by which people can reach thousands of other users without any expansive use of resources. Social media is by no means a perfect medium for these discussions, but it is the only real option for the majority of people. In the case of the DePaul student body, their respective class groups are the only means by which another student can reach them as a whole. Within a few hours, hundreds of students were involved in a debate that could not exist anywhere else. If the students that made these initial posts simply organized meetings with the student body, many students would not bother showing up or getting involved. Social media also gives people who may not be as vocal or forthright in a person-to-person dialogue the opportunity to speak up. Though this results in a lot of people “trolling,” it also expands the discussion beyond the people that are already outspoken. With all of this considered, it’s important to question whether or not Facebook was right in ultimately deleting the Facebook posts that created this sensation and opened this dialogue. Is the use of the n-word in a non-hateful way truly a reason to stifle the voices of those in the student body? Though society still has a long way to go in regards to creating a society that is conscious of racism and how it effects minorities, these Facebook discussions, as well as discussions on other social media outlets show us that there is still a long way to go.
in person. In December 2015, Facebook had an average 1.04 billion daily users.
Trolls Urban dictionary defines a troll as one who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.
Hate Speech While trolling aims to cause mischief and turn users against each other, hate speech is communication with the sole purpose of expressing hate for another group. The Internet allows users to post hate speech without fear of repercussions. KAITLIN TAMOSIUNAS| THE DEPAULIA
Opinions. Feb. 8, 2016, The DePaulia | 13
Backlash against CDC misdirected By Danielle Harris Opinions Editor
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) faced unexpected backlash Feb. 2 after recommending that sexually-active American women who are not on birth control should abstain from drinking alcohol. “An estimated 3.3 million women between the ages of 15 and 44 years are at risk of exposing their developing baby to alcohol because they are drinking, sexually active and not using birth control to prevent pregnancy,” according to the CDC. The organization’s research also found that “3 in 4 women who want to get pregnant as soon as possible do not stop drinking alcohol when they stop using birth control.” Drinking while pregnant can expose a developing baby to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). According to the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, FASD is “an umbrella term describing the range of effects that can occur in an individual whose mother drank during pregnancy.” Effects of FASD may include “physical, mental, behavioral and/or learning disabilities with lifelong implications.” CDC principal deputy director Anne Schuchat warned women that drinking while not on birth control can cause serious damage. “Alcohol can permanently harm a developing baby before a woman knows she is pregnant,” Schuchat said. “About half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, and even if planned, most women won’t know they are pregnant for the first month or so, when they might still be drinking. The risk is real why take the chance?” Many women saw the CDC’s recommendation for women not on
Sources: CDC Vital Signs, February 2016. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, November 2015. birth control to abstain from drinking as ludicrous. What right does the government have to tell women what behavior is acceptable in order to protect a child that may not even exist? In a post on the feminist blog Jezebel, writer Jia Tolentino slammed Schuchat and the CDC for what she considered an infringement on women’s rights. “You heard them: f*** your bodily reactions, your desires, your circumstances; forget that the real problem is abortion access and that birth control occasionally fails,” she said. “Women, your body is a ticking time bomb in which the bomb is a fetus, so get on birth control or stop drinking — that’s the way it’s going to be!” Tolentino is completely right that the birth control pill can cause unwanted bodily reactions. According to WebMD, women can suffer from a number of side effects including nausea, weight gain and sore or swollen breasts. However,
the CDC never explicitly said women should be using the birth control pill. There are a number of different contraceptives available including birth control implants, IUDs and the morning after pill. For women not wanting to use a birth control method that affects their hormonal balance, condoms are cheap and, according to Planned Parenthood, effective at preventing pregnancies 92 percent of the time when used properly. Los Angeles Times reporter Jessica Roy also criticized the recommendation, arguing that it “flat-out ignores a large group of sexually active women: the ones who are having sex with other women.” This criticism is far more ridiculous than Tolentino’s. Why would the CDC warn women with no chance of getting pregnant not to drink simply because their bodies are capable of it? Roy’s analysis gets to the core of what is wrong with the outrage facing CDC. They were
KAITLIN TAMOSIUNAS| THE DEPAULIA
not telling women not to drink because they’re capable of getting pregnant. They were recommending women who put themselves at risk of getting pregnant by voluntarily not using birth control to abstain from drinking. Instead of telling women not to drink alcohol if they are not on birth control, the CDC should have encouraged women who drink and are sexually active to use contraceptives. Perhaps some blame should be put on the conservatives in Washington who continue to demonize Planned Parenthood and push for its defunding. According to Planned Parenthood, less than half of states in the U.S. require insurance plans to cover birth control. To better prevent FASD, the government should not tell women to stop drinking, but instead provide better access to basic contraceptives.
Sexist censorship on social media By Madeline Obrzut and Danielle Harris
Contributing Writer and Opinions Editor
We will walk 39 miles for them, spend tens of billions of dollars researching them and even dedicate an entire month to them. But posting naked breasts on social media? Then you’ve crossed a line. The sexualization of breasts in America has caused some serious controversies over the past few years, and inspired Free The Nipple, a self-described “equality movement” with “a mission to empower women across the world.” Although legislation implicitly stating that women have the right to breastfeed in any public or private location exists in 49 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands, the debate over whether women should have the right to be topless in public continues. A much-debated topic for the Free The Nipple movement is whether or not to allow photos of topless women on social media. Artist Nicol Hebran believes censoring women’s nipples on social media is hypocritical and unnecessary, and in June 2014 she began
posting photos of herself topless with Photoshopped male nipples covering her own. But what happens when photos that show female nipples are posted in order to advocate for breast cancer awareness? Last week, Facebook abruptly answered this question. Forty-
next day, Kincaid posted the following: “Facebook notified me that it has automatically taken down my last post down due to nudity rules.” Immediate outrage followed, and rightfully so. Her situation, which supporters of Kincaid have called “Boobgate,” demonstrates
According to Google Trends, in 2015 "Free The Nipple" garnered more interest than phrases such as "gender equality" and "equal pay." year-old Rowena Kincaid has attracted more than 10,000 followers on Facebook, documenting her battle with breast cancer and was the focus of a BBC documentary “Before I Kick the Bucket,” which explores life after her diagnosis. On Jan. 23, Kincaid posted a photo of a rash around her nipple to her Facebook page in order to raise awareness of the lesser-known breast cancer symptom. The
how sexist social media censorship can be. Women can post photos of their entire breast without violating Facebook’s anti-nudity policy, so long as the nipple is covered. Men can freely post photos of themselves shirtless and no one bats an eye. The strangest part of Kincaid’s story is how she was able to later post the same photo with a smiley face over the nipple. What is it about the
female nipple itself, the one part of the breast that serves a biological purpose, that makes people feel the need to shield their childrens’ eyes? Kincaid said she considered it “disgusting” that Facebook “took down a photograph that could potentially save lives.” Kincaid and her supporters believe Facebook’s Community Standards are sexist and encourage further unnecessary sexualization of women’s breasts. The standards ban “images of female breasts if they include the nipple.” This rule is part of a paragraph that also bans postings of “photographs of people displaying genitals or focusing in on fully exposed buttocks” and “images of sexual intercourse.” The ban on photos of female nipples seems even more outrageous when acknowledging that in 2013, Facebook lifted its ban on videos of extreme violence such as beheadings under the notion that that these videos can raise awareness of issues of violence. Yet photos displaying female nipples are considered inappropriate and not a method of combating sexism and the sexualization of breasts. This isn’t exclusively a social media problem, but rather a
societal issue. “Women's bodies are sexualized to the point where nipples, a necessary part of feeding a child, are thought of as inherently provocative,” DePaul freshman Alexis Kleefisch said. So long as Facebook, Instagram and other social media outlets prohibit photos of female nipples, they will continue to help preserve America’s sexist status quo. Freeing the nipple may seem irrelevant when compared to other aspects of the feminist movement, but it has done a tremendous job of bringing attention to its fight. According to Google Trends, in 2015 “Free the Nipple” garnered more interest than phrases such as “gender equality” and “equal pay.” On Feb. 1, Facebook reposted Kincaid’s unedited picture to her page. While this move is definitely a step in the right direction, it will take further extreme instances of discrimination against female breasts, both online and in public, for the Free The Nipple movement to achieve its goal of “equal rights for men and women (and) a more balanced system of censorship.”
The opinions in this section do not necessarily reflect those of The DePaulia staff.
14 | The DePaulia. Feb. 8, 2016
Focus
"Pimped into Poetry
By Piper Schad Contributing Writer
The energy at Young Chicago Authors (YCA) headquarters is contagious. It’s Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB) season, the largest youth poetry festival in the world, which makes the spirit higher than usual. Students and mentors filled the inviting space overlooking Milwaukee Avenue Tuesday night for YCA’s WordPlay workshop. WordPlay is Chicago’s longest running youth open mic night. Each week begins with a writing workshop open to the public, followed by musical and spoken word performances, and finishes with a feature spot from a prominent local artist. The feature artist at Tuesday’s workshop was local rapper Rich Jones. More than a dozen young poets took the stage to share their art and practice their craft through singing, rapping and slam poetry. The friendly crowd was quick to snap, cheer and yell words of encouragement at newcomers and veterans alike. “Pimped into poetry,” as one poet eloquently put it, seems an appropriate description of the talented crew. YCA has safe space rules that forbid any “racist, sexist,
homophobic, ageist, ableist or otherwise derogatory language.” LTAB encourages political activism and creating respectful art. The subject matter Tuesday night ranged anywhere from fatherhood to virginity to the dead. Patricia Franzin, a junior at Brooks College Prep on 11th Street, exuded confidence during her performance. “(After) sharing personal stories with each other so often through poetry, it becomes very easy to become a family,” she said. WordPlay is just one of YCA’s many scheduled programs leading up to the LTAB finals on March 19. Its 16th year running, LTAB provides a platform for young artists to work together in a supportive environment and showcase their talents. While LTAB started in Chicago, it now has a presence in seven other cities, with more on the way. "Many young people feel that they aren't heard, that their stories aren't represented in the dominant culture or popular media. And if they are, they are marginalized, trivialized. We want to change that," cofounder of LTAB Kevin Coval told the Chicago Tribune. Participants can enter the competition as teams or individually as an “indy” poet.
Team performances include individual poems as well as a group project. The festival takes place in several venues over the span of a month, from preliminary bouts to the finals. LTAB hosts over 1,200 students from over 120 Chicago area high schools. This year’s festival will include appearances from Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Chicago’s own Vic Mensa. Preparations often begin months before the main event. Franzin had her poem written by November. She said the challenge now is to choreograph the group piece. “It is stressful, but it's also really fun,” Franzin said. “We start in October and my team
practices once every week on Sunday. I have friends on teams who say they practice four or five times a week from 1 to 6 p.m. It’s pretty extreme for some people.” This will be Franzin’s third year performing at LTAB, and last year her team made it to the finals. She also interned with YCA over the summer and is on the LTAB Captain's Committee. “A lot of kids write poetry because they don’t really have anyone to talk to or they don’t have any friends,” Franzin said. “Everyone is so friendly here and so talkative, and it fosters introverts and helps us make it easier to communicate with people.” Kendall Roberts attends Simeon Career Academy, another high school on Chicago’s South Side. Roberts describes her training process as looking over her best work, adding to
it, editing it, working with her coach and then practicing the performance of her poem. Roberts was nervous last year, but this year she couldn’t be more excited. “It’s like no one is really paying attention to points or that it’s a competition,” Roberts said. “It's not about that. It’s about us, seeing a group of friends every day. And the nervousness of it just goes away because you’re so focused on what they have to say, and how good it is, and you’re ready for it.” Part of a poetry team called Writers Never Die, Roberts discussed the difficulties of writing a collective poem as a group. “It’s kind of hard because you all have different views coming together when you’re writing, and you have to find a middle ground and that string that connects all your parts together,” she said. “We usually get a topic and write individually, and then we come together with the best lines and that starts forming the poem.” Another junior, Sam Ortega, attends Phoenix Military Academy on the West Side. He has performed in Wisconsin at the DuSable Museum and most recently at the Nation of Islam mosque. “It all started the end of my freshman year,” Ortega said. “That’s when I started doing
Photos courtesy of CONNOR O'KEEFE | THE DEPAULIA
Focus. Feb. 8 2016. The DePaulia | 15
y"
Young rappers, singers and poets gear up for the world's largest youth poetry festival
poetry because there was a whole bunch of events that kept knocking me down in society.” Ortega said LTAB has helped him open up and experience new settings. “It’s beneficial for the kids of Chicago because not many of us, the youth here, ever have the chance to have this type of exposure. Growing up in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, all I knew was McDonalds and the park.” Ortega said. Like many other competitors, Ortega has been training for months. “We basically have our individual pieces ready and our group piece ready,” he said. “[For] the individual piece, you first have to develop a first draft and from there it goes through a very complex series of edits. For example, one of my poems that I still haven’t finished editing has gone through a total of 14 edits. So it’s a very long process.” YCA hosts a constant stream of events throughout the year, including a variety of workshops, regional poetry slams and The Come Up, a monthly new music showcase for local acts. Chance The Rapper and Malcolm London, two notable WordPlay alumni, now host their own open mic night for Chicago high school students. Other YCA workshops include “Chicago Beat," which teaches the
mechanics and importance of journalism. “Emcee Wreckshop” is another workshop and open mic that takes place on Saturdays during the school year, tailored more specifically to aspiring rappers. “Check The Method” is another educational program for young writers. The fourth annual LTAB mixtape was released in January with the help of “Fake Shore Drive," Chicago’s premier hiphop blog. The free project is available online and includes 18 songs, featuring local artists involved with LTAB. The festival also inspired a documentary in 2008 that won awards at several film festivals. Roberts hopes to continue working with YCA after she graduates. “I love Louder Than A Bomb,” she said. “It is one of the biggest poetry festivals ever and the culture is amazing. We have so many new groups this year, so it’s cool that the vets get to see what’s happening in the upcoming generations of this and then we get to take over the wider span of it.”
Poets peform their work at WordPlay, an open mic which happens every Tuesday night at Young Chicago Authors.
16 | The DePaulia. Feb. 8, 2016
Arts & Life
Vendetta against vegans ELINA MARK | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Dislike of animal-friendly diet uncalled for COMMENTARY By Lauren Hernandez Contributing Writer
As a kindergartner, your diet was strictly chicken nuggets. Your childhood memories were made at the city zoo. You won’t leave home without your down-feather jacket for onethird of the year. From the beginning of mankind to now, we have been the hunters. Resourceful, but hunters nonetheless. So when a person denies his or herself of that primal instinct, the rest of the tribe responds with a resounding, giant question mark. As a human being, you possess the utmost highest thinking. You have morals and with them, you’re given the freedom to choose to do all of these ordinary, and maybe even nostalgic, things. You have the right to order a bacon cheeseburger. You have the right to cozy up under a down comforter. You have the right to buy a luxury leather bag. You have the right to consider that animals are being stripped of their rights so that you can exercise yours. Fourteen years ago, DePaul senior Shoshanna Muszynski did. “Humans have done many horrible things for a very long time, but this does not mean it’s just and right,” she said. Muszynski has been an animal lover since birth, a vegetarian since 2001 and a vegan since 2013. Since then, she’s been fighting the stigma against the vegan lifestyle. “The stigma around the vegan diet is so different from what most of us actually practice,” Muszynski said. “We aren’t dying, or starving or missing out on the ‘best thing in the world.’” The relationships between humans and animals cannot be completely explained because only one side of that story can be successfully, truthfully narrated. Though humans may not be able to give animals a voice, they can act as agents in offering animals
a choice to live. But the “them versus us” mentality around vegans and those who are not separates them into a category with certain assumptions, often having to do with more than their diets or purchasing power. The minimal concept that there is even a specific word to describe an exclusionary diet is something that Muszynski feels is unnecessary, unwarranted and limiting. She said that labels have only been harmful to her cause. And why wouldn’t she, when places like The White Moose Café in Dublin, Ireland, are blasting vegans on their social media pages? Last week, the café posted a message “barring all vegans” from their establishment. “Any vegans attempting to enter the café will be shot dead at point blank range. While we wouldn’t usually kill any of our customers, as you say yourselves ‘meat is murder,’ so it’s fair game if we murder humans as well as animals. There is clearly no difference. We look forward to never welcoming you vegans to our café ever again,” it read. The message has not been removed and the café has continued to post hateful, poor attempts at satire against vegans. But The White Moose doesn’t even make Muszynski see red. She has to react to these kinds of allegations and comments all the time. “When you know what happens to animals in factory farming and eat meat from large companies like this, I want to ask why people still choose to do so,” she said. “In my position, I find it hard for anyone to see animals abused and suffer and give profits to these businesses.” Christina Pirello, a writer for The Huffington Post’s Healthy Living blog, has a similar concern as a fellow vegan. In June of 2010, she published an analysis that addresses the stigma Muszynski faces. “In macrobiotics, it is said that by living according to the laws of nature, we are choosing to create a bigger life, one steeped in ancient wisdom, compassion and freedom of
choice,” she wrote. “We make a lighter footprint and strive to create harmony in all phases of life. In accordance with macrobiotic thinking, we are all part of one whole, all connected to each other in the web of life and that what happens to one happens to all.” Even underneath the label, the vegan diet and vegetarian choices are sustainable and compassionate ways of life. “Which is why I chose it,” Muszynski said. “I see too much harm to life on earth with a meat-and-dairy lifestyle.” Animal farming causes a lot of environmental damage, both to the animals and the world around them. Two years ago, the same year Muszynski began her vegan lifestyle, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published a study that tested just how big of an impact it has. It found that in places that suffer from a lack of efficiency in farming, cattle accounts for as much as 1,000 kilograms of carbon for every 1 kilogram of protein they produce. Not only does that harm the beef industry in terms of quality and customer satisfaction, but it also absolutely destroys the valuable ozone. Carbon from cows is released in the form of methane, which is a harmful greenhouse gas in high concentrations. Despite having to explain herself every time she scrutinizes ingredient lists, or questions a restaurant manager, or avoid certain places to eat entirely, Muszynski encourages others to remember what it is all for. “I don’t see eating the flesh of an animal as something that is great that humans do. A lot of people call themselves animal-lovers, but I don’t think you can really be one and then contribute to the vast amount of cruelty and pain done to so many animals for each dish people eat,” she said. “I don’t tell people to ‘go vegan,’ but to rather just choose compassion. It’s not about what you eat. Vegan is just being compassionate towards other life.” Graphics by KATIE TAMOSIUNAS | THE DEPAULIA
Arts & Life. Feb. 8, 2016. The DePaulia. | 17 CAFE, continued from front page English in a more conversational tone, Qi attends the Language Café, a place for students like Qi and those who learned English as a second language. “I think it is good for us because I think I can speak more English and make more friends. It helped me alot,” Qi said. “At first I was very not… I speak little English last quarter but now is ok for me to hear and to speak,” she said. The program was founded in 2010 by the Collaborative for Multilingual Writing and Research Center (CMWR) through DePaul’s writing center, CMWR program coordinator Mark Lazio said. “Originally it seemed like we were only working with the ELA, the English Language Academy, which is the intensive English program here at DePaul,” said Lazio. Language Café has seen a lot of expansion since its earlyweekly events, it now has a wider selection including the Language Café, which was implemented by Lazio himself and encourages participants to practice their conversational English. “Some of the people who seem shy or not as well spoken in the beginning towards the end are more comfortable talking in a casual group setting,” said facilitator Alex Anderl. Typically filling a room with 10 to 12 people, the Language Café welcomes all students to practice their conversational English. Facilitators organize a topic for the day and let the attendees take it away.
EDNA ESPINO | THE DEPAULIA
Hannah Lee (right) stays behind after a Conversation and Culture session with one of the attending international students to continue sharing stories. For this week, the topic was social media. Qi disclosed that she had never heard of Facebook or Twitter prior to coming to the U.S., since it is banned in her home country. Not meant to be as structured and corrective as the Writing Center, facilitators are not too picky about the method of speaking. “We like to be like that ‘90s ‘hey cool’ dad,” facilitator Monisa Ahmed said. “Part of what adds on to the CMWR is that we emphasize that our events are supposed to
be very casual and a chance for them to have fun, so we’d be glad to correct English, especially if they ask but we don’t want to make a huge deal out of making sure they’re saying every word correctly,” Ahmed said. “They are supposed to be more fun events, and I feel as so long as you’re able to understand the other person, I think that’s how you know that they’re progressing in their conversational English,” Ahmed said The Language Café is just one of the weekly activities meant to
create a safe space for students who speak English as a second language. The CMWR also hosts a game club, and a conversation and culture night where people share their cultural experiences with one another at the writing center located in the Loop. In addition, they also schedule Walk and Talks, which take students to different neighborhoods to explore the Chicago area. Returning attendee Shikha Kothari said she loves coming to these events. “Everything is available on
Internet, everything is there, but when you talk with people, when you interact with someone it goes directly in your head and you directly understand the thing,” Kothari said. “You have the opportunity to put up a question on that moment but, when you’re searching and reading it’s boring for me. That’s the thing, “I come over” here try to understand things, learn about this culture, try to improve my English, learn some new words.”
Theatre School students make classic plays their own By Ivana Rihter Contributing Writer
Taking classic stage productions and making them their own, undergraduate directors at DePaul are now finding a way to make their artistic voices heard through their unique concepts, casts and plays all hand-selected by the students participating in the Winter Lab Series. Margaret Baughman, a senior theatre arts major with a concentration in directing, wrestled with Shakespearean dialogue, rewrites of her script and feminist issues in her take on Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” The play centers around two couples with notably contrasting dispositions and narratives surrounding love. One couple, Claudio and Hero, are young, stunning and in love from the moment their eyes meet. The other couple, Beatrice and Benedict, are profoundly clever and constantly challenging each other in both intellect and humor. While Beatrice and Benedict are not afraid of some grit and conflict in their reluctant pursuit of each other, Claudio and Hero represent the naive and youthful concept of ‘love at first sight.’ Yet, interestingly enough, their romance is tainted by the workings of the play’s antagonist and comes to its apex as Claudio shames and disgraces Hero on their wedding day for an alleged impure act. This scene is brutal as young Hero gets abused by all the most important men in her life and ends as she faintson stage. “I got really mad about that (scene) for
a minute and then realized I could change it” Baughman said. In Baughman’s play, the basis of the story remains intact out of respect for Shakespeare, but because it is public domain, she took her own approach by giving her adaptation of the play the title “Much Ado By William Shakespeare F*%$**ed Up.” Baughman cut, rearranged, wrote and even choreographed her own take on the complex stories of the two couples. “I’m never going to direct something that doesn’t have feminism as a part of it in some way,” Baughman said. In her adaptation, women do not go silent after marriage, Hero has some unexpected fire behind her naive exterior and there is a huge choreographed masquerade. “There is a part of me that is that cool English teacher screaming ‘But guys, Shakespeare is fun.’” Baughman said. The script has been in constant flux for the past year, which is roughly how long the process of adapting the play has taken her. Caroline Pramas, a theatre management major, will be directing “Play for Germs” by Israel Horovitz. This play features the germ versions of Socrates and Aristotle all set within the confines of a uterus. The play delves into philosophy, women’s issues and a slew of other contemplative struggles. Socrates is Syphilis and Aristotle is Gonorrhea, and they float within a woman’s uterus for the 30 minute duration of the play in constant dialogue.
With experience directing the DePaul Theatre Union show and involvement in the Theatre School, these four years have been impactful for Pramas. “Coming here was the best decision of my life so far,” Pramas said. The play has its challenges as to make the setting of a uterus believable, one would assume significant money would have to be shed. Yet the entire Winter Lab Series is produced, designed and funded by the students themselves. The casts are there as volunteers for the intense four-week rehearsal process and receive no grade or participatory credentials for doing the shows. Outside of funding and the hurried rehearsal process before shows hit the stage, Pramas biggest directorial challenge is unique to her. “I just really need to find a pink inflatable chair. They aren’t as popular as they used to be,” Pramas said. For his directorial debut, DePaul student Adam Elliot chose “The Veldt,” written by Ray Bradbury as a short story originally and then adapted to the stage by Bradbury himself. This play is more serious than the others in tone and concept, centered around the sinister possibilities of technology in a modern world. “The Veldt” is set in an idyllic 1950s household after the exciting addition of a new playroom. Slowly the playroom starts to take over the lives of all members of the family with its seemingly limitless possibilities, a grand metaphor for technologies terrifying capabilities to enrapture and hypnotize.
“This room becomes this family’s life, and starts to take over their entire world, much like how technology runs our lives” Elliot said. Although many directors would struggle at the lack of budget, Elliot welcomed the challenge and its space to explore innovative and artistically unprecedented approaches to the work. “We are going to have a very minimalist set and will be using a lot of shadows and projections to create this sense of a room that you are never actually going to be in,” Elliot said. The essence of the room is that it can take you anywhere you want to go, much like technology has become so much of an escape. The biggest challenge Elliot faces is the gap in time periods, trying to make a play written for a 1950s audience affect the millennials of today. “You do have to alter it to still ring true in 2016 but that really doesn’t take a lot of work because Ray Bradbury was a genius,” Elliot said. All the plays will run in the Theatre School building. Baughman’s adaptation of “Much Ado About Nothing” will run Feb. 19 through Feb. 21 in room 305 at 6:30 p.m. Pramas’ interpretation of “Play for Germs” will run Feb. 12 and Feb. 13 at 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. in room 324. Elliot’s take on “The Velvet” runs Feb. 19 to Feb. 21 at 8:30 p.m. in room 302.
18 | The DePaulia. Feb. 8, 2016
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Arts & Life. Feb. 8, 2016. The DePaulia. | 19
Making the right ‘Choice’ in new film Stars of Nicholas Sparks adaptation talk about dating, making of film By Jesus Montero Staff Writer
Author Nicholas Sparks (“The Notebook,” “A Walk to Remember”) is gearing up yet again to break hearts with the latest adaptation of one of his novels, “The Choice,” starring Benjamin Walker and Teresa Palmer as Travis Shaw and Gabby Holland, respectively. Despite the characters’ differences, they make a series of life-changing choices for a chance at true love. The unlikely couple has an almost immediate irresistible attraction as they try their best to not be in love with one another. Best known for his cult role in “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” to more recently “In the Heart of the Sea,” Walker’s intimate side is rarely seen onscreen, but in “The Choice” he seems like a seasoned veteran of romance films. Palmer is no stranger to romance films, and is possibly most recognized for her role in the zombie love story “Warm Bodies.” The two worked well onscreen as the chemistry seemed real and believable. The biggest takeaway from romance films is the onscreen chemistry between the two leads. The DePaulia recently sat down with the stars of “The Choice” to discuss first date horror stories, to relating to their onscreen characters. The DePaulia: Nicholas Sparks films are a staple of the romance genre, and a lot of first dates are to go to see these films.
In that spirit, can you share your worse first date experiences that went horribly wrong? Teresa Palmer: My first date with my husband was pretty bad, I’m going to say. I don’t know why, we had written each other for 40 days. We started off with small emails and then turned into these long emails about describing our futures and our dreams. We fell in love over emails. The first time face-to-face there was such a hype surrounding it, and I played it really cool. I was like “I got this, we know each other, we’re good.” But then he arrived at my doorstep there was maybe 200 beads of sweat dripping down his face into his mouth and he was just this stuttering mess. It was sort of anticlimactic and the whole rest of the dinner he kept on just being like, “I’m sorry, I’m just so nervous,” and so that was sort of a horrendous first date. But he made up for it the second date. Benjamin Walker: What did he do on the second date? Palmer: He completely apologized for his nerves and he opened his heart to me and told me why he was so nervous. Walker: I went on a date one time, I actually use it on my standup. I have the voicemail that I saved and play it. My date got so cripplingly drunk before the appetizers even came that by the time the entree came I had to just pay and help her get into a cab. Palmer: Oh, how embarrassing. Walker: She threw up all over me and all over the cab. But then the next day she left me a voicemail and said, “I’m sorry I get
JESUS MONTERO | THE DEPAULIA
Teresa Palmer (left) and Benjamin Walker (right) star in “The Choice.” The film is an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name, and is his 11th novel to be adapted into a film. really horrible when I drink and I wanted to know if you wanted to go get a drink tonight?” No. DePaulia: In the film, Travis and Gabby are living contentedly. Travis on his boat with his dog at his side and Gabby is engaged while studying to be a nurse. But when they meet, they almost instantly know they are perfect for each other. Can you relate to that revolution? Walker: I’ve certainly gone through my life such in similar ways to Travis in that he kind of lives under this delusion that he doesn’t need someone else in his life. He has his family, friends and his dog just living happily ever after. I’ve certainly learned in my life how much you need other people. Especially that one person that you devote your life
to, and they do the same so that you can grow together, as scary as it sounds. Palmer: I felt like I could very much relate to Gabby. When we meet Gabby she feels like she’s got it all set and she knows what her life is going to look like. She has her partner and her career with everything all perfectly lined up in a row for her. She’s not truly her authentic self. When she moves in next door to Travis he holds a mirror up to her where she can finally recognize herself for the first time. DePaulia: This is the 11th film book adaptation from Nicholas Sparks. How do you feel about being a part of his film franchise? Walker: I don’t think of it like that. The pleasure of this was getting to tell a beautiful story
and work with amazing actors. Anything that happens outside of that or any connection that has to another movie or another story is for the viewer to make. DePaulia: Onscreen the whole cast seemed in tune. Along with the relationship between the two of you how was it filming with what seemed like a family type of relationship with the rest of cast members? People keep asking this, like, “What was like the hardest day on set?” Both: There wasn’t one! Palmer: No, it was when we wrapped. We were legitimately traumatized when it was over. For me, it reinvigorated my passion in filmmaking. I realized that movies could feel like this all the time.
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20 | The DePaulia. Feb. 8, 2016
Valentine’s viewing
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
By Pat Mullane Staff Writer
Valentine’s Day: for couples, it’s the warm doting day of chocolates, flowers and love; for the rest, it’s the day filled of tender comfort from your couch, a tub of chilled Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and quality Netflix. I would argue most prefer the latter. But Valentine’s Day serves another
purpose as well, a swift but quiet reminder that your life is far from a Nicholas Sparks film — and there are some upsides to that. Because while you may not believe no film characters depict real compassionate love as good as “Twilight’s” Edward and Bella, I’m here to convince you otherwise. Therefore, here are four films to watch and cry, alone in bed, with your cat and dog, on this graceful Valentine’s Day.
500 Days of Summer Photo courtesy of UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Photo courtesy of FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES
Between this and “Knocked Up,” it was hard to choose a recent comedy centered on a love plot that has made me cry from laughing. And as cliché as that saying is, it’s true — these films have made me shed tears. Studded with the Apatow club — Jason Segal, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, Bill Hader — the film holds up on its own cleverly written, but wacky comedic turn on a character attempting to get over their ex.
Most love story films portray a couple that will last together to the end of the film reel. This movie offers something different. Starring the charismatic Joseph Gordon Levitt and “New Girl’s” Zooey Deschanel, “500 Days of Summer” captures and critiques everything rom-coms depict about relationships. It showcases an original perspective on living happily ever after, whether you’re receiving flowers from your loved one, or chocolate chip cookie dough Ben & Jerry’s from ETC.
About Time
Gone Girl Photo courtesy of UNIVERSAL PICTURES
A romantic love story about time traveling? Starring the actor who’s been in every award film of 2015, Domhnall Gleeson leads this unconventional British love story down a hilariously quirky and heartfelt road. Opposite of Gleeson stars Rachel McAdams, the queen of time traveling rom-coms (see: “The Time Traveler’s Wife”), adding to one of the best chemistry-ed couples in recent years.
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Starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike as one of the cutest couples in film of the past decade — kidding — this is probably the last film to watch on Valentine’s Day, though it didn’t stop my mom from seeing it, thinking it was a Nicholas Sparks film.
FACE THE MUSIC
Arts & Life. Feb. 8, 2016. The DePaulia. | 21
‘Cabaret’ opens in Chicago Feb. 9. By Nina Gaulin Staff Writer
For musical lovers out there, the thrilling and historic “Cabaret” will be launching its national tour next week and kicking off with performances in Chicago. As part of their 50th anniversary season, Roundabout Theatre Company will be presenting Sam Mendes (“Skyfall,” “American Beauty”) and Rob Marshall’s (“Into the Woods” and “Chicago”) Tonyaward winning musical through Broadway in Chicago. “Cabaret” is based on a 1939 novel by Christopher Isherwood, with its current revival directed by Roundabout Theatre’s B.T. McNicholl. The musical became a Broadway hit in 1966 — with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb — and is inspiring many adaptations of the production, including the 1972 film of the same name. Taking place in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, Cabaret is centered on the provocative world of the Kit Kat Klub, a colorful nightlife scene intertwined with the world outside on the brink of World War II. The main plot revolves around 19-year-old English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with American writer Cliff Bradshaw. “It’s exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time,” Hillary Ekwall, one of the cast members of “Cabaret,” said in a phone interview with The DePaulia about being in the historic production. “It’s this sense of gratefulness and honor that I get the opportunity to perform in a show with such a long and important history.” Ekwall will take on the role of Rosie, a Kit Kat girl at the club who is part of six lovely ladies that dance with Bowles.
Even with the plot set in 1931 on the brink of a world war, she expresses how much audiences can get from the show to this day. “If you take out the specifics of Nazi Germany, the show is basically about somebody with good intentions who is discriminating against people who are not like him — unfortunately, this still happens in our world today,” Ekwall said. “It’s intimidating to share this story with the hope that the audience will take away this message.” A unique aspect of Cabaret is that many of the cast members (Ekwall included) are also part of the orchestra, who play both in upper level stands above the stage and on stage as part of the performance. This provides an enticing atmosphere where the music and the performers are woven into an enchanting and realistic cabaret experience that takes place almost entirely on the stage. Along with her extensive experience in the world of theater, Ekwall is a professional concert cellist. Among her many musical and athletic achievements, she plays with the 3 Penny Chorus and Orchestra, a group recently featured on America’s Got Talent at Radio City Music Hall. “(Playing instruments) keeps us busy — there’s no down time in the show,” she said. “It can be chaotic at times, but that’s what’s so fun about it. It’s definitely a unique experience for audience members in that respect, usually because the orchestra pit is below the stage. In the show, the cabaret setup is reflective of the time period.” Just like the original Broadway production, the revival of Cabaret
Photo courtesy of JOAN MARCUS
The 2016 National Touring cast of Roundabout Theatre Company’s “Cabaret.” The play opens Feb. 9 in Chicago at the PrivateBank Theatre and runs until Feb. 21. features many elements that shocked 1966 audiences, such as abortion, tensions between Jewish characters and Nazis, and racy dance numbers. Although it is set on a large Chicago stage, Ekwall said that Cabaret aims to achieve its classic charm. “It’s an intimate experience even when it’s in a large theater. They really want you to feel like you’re at a small cabaret performance in 1930s Berlin,” she said. In addition, the content of the show pushes the limits not only for audiences, but for the performers as well. Ekwall described the challenges of taking on such a particular and exuberant role in a time period that differs, in many ways, from our own. “The show is a much different style than most musicals I do,” Ekwall said. “I
usually do a lot of comedy performing. In this show, as a dancer, it’s reflective of the time period. That time was really dark, so it’s a lot different for me. I really like the challenge of being something other than what I am in real life.” As a versatile and seasoned performer across many artistic mediums, Ekwall had some wise words of advice for DePaul Theatre students. “One of the big things I have learned and what I always tell other people is to be persistent and determined. In this business, we hear no all the time. It’s important to have inside this core of determination and belief that what you bring to the table is worthwhile,” she said. “Cabaret” opens Feb. 9 at The PrivateBank Theatre and runs until Feb. 21.
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Arts & Life. Feb. 8, 2016. The DePaulia. | 23
what’sFRESH in MUSIC Sia “This is Acting”
DIIV “Is the Is Are”
Jan. 29
Feb. 5
Sia named her seventh album “This Is Acting” because for her, it is — she sings songs she wrote for other artists. Sia puts her own life into songs intended for but discarded by superstars like Adele and Rihanna. Listeners can almost hear it in “Alive” with its rolling piano lines usually found under Adele’s voice, or “Cheap Thrills,” which sounds like Rihanna’s kind of party. Despite this, Sia takes command of each song, putting force behind each lyric, truly making them her own.
At first glance at the track list, the 17-track, double album seems dense. After a first listen, this proves to be true, but in the best way possible. Cole Smith, front man of DIIV, has found new inspiration after a very public drug bust in 2013. After promising new music for months, Smith has presented a dark, simultaneously angelic, dream pop album packed with post punk influences, vocals lent by Sky Ferreira (the track “Blue Boredom”), and gloomily honest lyrics. Even though Smith has seemingly dragged himself out of addiction, he lets his past motivate a more authentic, memorable sound that beats out their debut album.
MADDY CROZIER | THE DEPAULIA
Elton John “Wonderful Crazy Night”
JAYCEE ROCKHOLD | THE DEPAULIA
Feb. 5
It’s a true shame that “Wonderful Crazy Night” isn’t Elton John’s best album, because it’s by far his greatest album cover of all time. Despite that, the music legend’s 32nd album still manages to slightly recapture the feeling of some of his greatest albums from the ‘70s, especially on songs like the blues-influenced “In the Name of You.” While it’s not extraordinary, “Wonderful Crazy Night” provides a solid addition to Elton’s astounding discography. ERIN YARNALL | THE DEPAULIA
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24 | The DePaulia. Feb. 8, 2016
St.Vincent’s
D e JAMZ
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“Spinning fresh beats since 1581”
ILLUSTRATION | THE DEPAULIA
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Find this and all our DeJamz playlists on depauliaonline.com and on our spotify account By Erin Yarnall Arts & Life Editor
Now that February is upon us, hearts and flowers are everywhere and love is in the air. Although love is not my preferred emotion, there’s no denying the power of a good love song. Here are some of my favorites for you and your boo to blast on Valentine’s Day. 1. Ed Sheeran — “Thinking Out Loud” I would be remiss to not mention that this is design editor Carolyn Duff ’s favorite love song, and with lyrics as angelic as the ones in this song, and a voice as beautiful as Ed Sheeran’s, who can blame her?
Sheeran has become the lyrical genius of popular music in the 2010s, behind numerous songs by One Direction, Taylor Swift and now Justin Bieber, but Sheeran is at his best when he’s writing for himself and expressing his own feelings, as he is in this love ballad. 2. A*Teens — “Can’t Help Falling in Love” When I was nine years old, A*Teens covered the Elvis Presley classic for the film “Lilo & Stitch.” A few months later, I saw the Swedish group along with the Baha Men for my firstever concert. When the group performed this song, I locked eyes with Amit Paul, one of the
Crossword
members of the pop group, and in that moment, during that song, we fell in love. Not really, he must have been about 12 years older than me and made eye contact with everyone in the theater, but for a moment, I knew what true love felt like. 3. Whitney Houston — “I Will Always Love You” As regular DeJamz readers will know, I think love is awful and terrible, but one of the rare things that I actually do love is belting out the chorus to this song. While “The Bodyguard” is an average film at best, and it’s inconceivable to me how anyone could fall in love with Kevin Costner (as Houston’s character
Across 1. Virgil put him through hell 6. Cold War concern 11. Cousin of calypso 14. Mountaineer’s tool 15. Partner of video 16. “___ Gun” (1986) 17. Check cancellation 19. Heavy-metal rock? 20. Time for a break 21. “___ your instructions ...” 23. Worked like a dog 26. Kind of ticket 27. Apportions 28. 1990s Chevy 30. Coin aperture 31. Husbands and wives 32. Roof material, sometimes 35. Lumber mill fixture 36. Barefaced 38. Wine label word 39. “And what have
does in the film), this song will always hold up as one of the best love songs. 4. Beyonce ft. Jay-Z — “Crazy in Love” This was Beyonce’s first single off of her first solo album, and most importantly, her first collaboration with her future husband, Jay-Z. This beautiful collaboration features both the artists at their musical best (although, when it comes to Beyonce, she’s always at her best). 5. Beyonce — “Dangerously in Love 2” The second ‘In Love’ song isn’t as noteworthy as “Crazy in Love” or “Drunk in Love,” but
we here?” 40. “Planet of the Apes” planet 41. Unit of loudness 42. Crunch maker 44. Like Newton’s bodies, sometimes 46. Protective case 48. Builds a fire under 49. Pasta sauce with basil 50. Confrontations 52. Long. companion 53. One-horse town 58. Commotion 59. Staff assistants 60. 100-dinar coins 61. 1/6 of an ounce (Abbr.) 62. Like a doubting Thomas 63. Like people from Mecca Down 1. Prefix with “solve” or “respect” 2. Make a scene? 3. Classic
as it is a song by our Lord and savior Beyonce, it’s still pretty noteworthy. Bey belts out her passion (probably for Jay-Z) in the 2003 song. 6. Beyonce ft. Jay-Z — “Drunk in Love” Completing Beyonce’s “In Love” trio of songs, “Drunk in Love,” her 2013 single off of her self-titled album, is arguably the best of the three. If “Crazy in Love” represents Beyonce and Jay at the happy and giddy start of their relationship, then “Drunk in Love” represents them at the current state — still just as in love, but now as one of the most confident and powerful couples in the world.
introduction? 4. Carrot, e.g. 5. Kind of witness 6. Made a bundle on the farm? 7. Brooklyn Dodgers, affectionately 8. English 101 reading 9. Time piece, briefly 10. Plant scientist 11. Many timers 12. 38th parallel country 13. Clownish miming 18. Bullets, in Vegas 22. Capitol VIP 23. Wonder Woman’s weapon 24. Islam’s deity 25. Hit the ceiling 26. Fortune-teller’s sign 28. Coffee, the milky way 29. Jazz quintet’s home? 31. Soft, crumbly earth 33. Didn’t hit the
snooze button 34. Half-pints 36. The act of conferring an honor 37. Builder’s backing 41. Frederick the Great’s realm 43. “Dig in!” 44. Seed enclosure 45. Copier fluids 46. Sound of a falling egg 47. Coin-toss call 48. Likely to fidget 50. Merry-go-round, e.g. 51. Mouse manipulator 54. Hotfoot it 55. Greek “T” 56. Prehistoric 57. Trident-shaped Greek letter
Sports. Feb. 8, 2016. The DePaulia | 25
Sports
In Providence win, DePaul finally overcomes top team
CHARLES REX ARBOGAST| AP
Providence's Kris Dunn looks down as DePaul beats No. 11 Providence 77-70 for DePaul's second conference win. By Josh Crisswell Contributing Writer
For a DePaul men’s basketball team that had lost 11 of its past 13 games, including eight by double-digits, an upset of the No. 11 Providence Friars seemed highly unlikely. Considering the Blue Demons’ struggles closing out games this season, it appeared even less plausible. But on a night when everything fell into place, DePaul did just that, picking up a signature win that the program desperately needed. The Blue Demons have consistently collapsed down the stretch of games this season, most recently in losses to Creighton, Butler and Xavier.
They found themselves within striking distance during each of these three games, but ended up allowing a close contest to turn into a rout on every occasion. During a 77-70 victory over Providence on Tuesday night, this did not occur. The Blue Demons controlled the tempo of the game from start to finish, and when faced with adversity, responded unlike a team that has made a comfortable home in the cellar of the Big East standings in recent years. “For this year, just trying to persevere and what we’ve been going through, it was a really good win,” DePaul head coach Dave Leitao said after the game. Three major factors played into DePaul’s victory over the
Friars: composure, tremendous post play and, most notably, a stifling defensive performance that forced a potential top-5 NBA Draft pick in Providence guard Kris Dunn into one of the worst performances of his decorated collegiate career. Dunn, the reigning Big East Player of the Year and a legitimate contender to claim the prestigious Wooden Award, honoring the top player in college basketball, hit just 5-of-20 shots against a Blue Demon defense that threw constant pressure at the 6-foot-4 point guard throughout the evening. Although Dunn compiled 14 points during the game, his inefficiency — which included a 13:23 dry spell and a 0-for-6
shooting performance to start the second half — thew the Friars into complete disarray. “You gotta credit their defense,” Providence head coach Ed Cooley said. “They did a really good job. They crowded him. Made him give the ball up. But the shots aren’t always going to go in. I was more disappointed in our effort and our level of concentration.” For one of the first times this season, the Blue Demons did what great teams do regularly. They established an identity. They found a star and allowed him to take over. In this case it was senior forward Myke Henry, who finished the night with a seasonhigh 27 points and 11 rebounds. And when the game was on the
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL , continued from back page
JOSH LEFF | THE DEPAULIA
Junior guard Jessica January leads the team down the court against St. John's.
DePaul went down big early on and it was largely due to the inability to move the ball in the first quarter. Seton Hall pressured January and Jenkins hard and often, which led to numerous mistakes being made. Once they were able to calm down for the remaining three quarters, the passing game picked up, but the team was never able to overcome the deficit. The best game the two had together was on the final day of the month against St. John’s. Before the game tipped off, January was award a commemorative ball to celebrate her scoring her 1,000th point for DePaul against Creighton earlier in the month. She used the motivation to finish the game with a 21 point, 10 rebound, nine assist and three steal performance; while Jenkins followed suit with 10 points, one rebound, 10 assists and two steals. Moving the ball looked so easy for the two guards that day and it led to three other Blue Demons scoring in double digits. “Trusting the next person and your teammate to be able to get to the next spot really (means) a lot to us and it shows in the stat sheet,” Jenkins said. “It’s all about how my teammates play.” For her, the next teammate up is often
line and in danger of slipping out of their hands, they buckled down and showed poise beyond a team that is sitting second-to-last in the Big East standings. “We played hard,” Henry said. “We played together. We hit a little adversity, but we stuck through it and got the win.” When junior guard Darrick Wood threw down a breakaway slam off an outlet pass from freshman Eli Cain to send the Allstate Arena crowd into a frenzy with 10 seconds remaining, it signaled more than just a Top 25 upset. It was the finishing touch to arguably the biggest win for DePaul since joining the Big East more than a decade ago. It was their biggest win since they beat No. 2 Kansas in 2006.
January. Jenkins is the leader on the court having spent five years with the program and head coach Doug Bruno understands the kind of player he’s had for a while now. “Jenkins is just a special, special senior. She’s given so much to this program and she’s just a special young woman,” Bruno said. “It’s one of those situations where you want everything to work out perfectly for the seniors as they come down this stretch of their season, (but) it doesn’t always happen that way, you have to make it happen, you have to work for it.” There’s no question Jenkins is working hard to make exactly that happen. Her hard work is mirrored in the play of her soon-tobe successor, January. “You’re watching and witnessing (January) grow into a real big-time collegiate player. They’re (along with Podkowa) the pillars on which we’ve built this 2016 team (on),” Bruno said. “It’s fun to watch players grow and in college hoops you just don’t get a lot of time; four years is a nanosecond.” “It’s been a blessing to coach them.” With senior night on the horizon next weekend, the spotlight will be solely on Jenkins. But, if the Blue Demons can keep this form up into the Big East Conference Tournament and the NCAA Tournament, the duo will have their chance to shine together on the biggest stage.
26 | Sports. Feb. 8, 2016. The DePaulia
Cain and Gazi find their place By Ben Savage Asst. Sports Editor
Even after the upset of No.11 Providence this Tuesday, DePaul’s men’s basketball team’s season is stuck in the mud with a 2-9 conference record. DePaul preaches staying in the moment, but the moment includes a look into two players leading the future of the program. Head coach Dave Leitao’s prospects of winning this year were always dubious. The rise of young talent like Eli Cain and Erten Gazi signal a bright future for a program in desperate need. “He’s been a rock, which is not something you associate with a freshman,” Leitao said on Cain’s behalf. “He’s growing exponentially within our program.” As only a freshman, Eli Cain has made himself a starter. In 10 conference games, Cain is third on the team in minutes, netting eight points per game. Cain’s success cannot be pinpointed to one aspect of preparation or coaching, although consistently being one of the last players in the gym doesn’t hurt. Neither does playing amateur basketball for AAU alongside Kentucky’s Isaiah Briscoe. The New Jersey product believes a lot of his ability comes from his positional versatility and moxie. “One of the biggest things is that I’m real different” Cain said. “I can play three, even four positions at times.” “I have a lot of confidence in myself.” Confidence in Cain is a mutual feeling among the Blue Demons coaching staff. At just the age of 20, Cain is already DePaul’s
preferred lockdown defender. He’s been tasked with guarding national talents such as Kellen Dunham, D’Vauntes SmithRivera, and most recently, Kris Dunn in the win over Providence. He’s also guarding positions all over the court. “If there’s gonna be a guy that I want to make sure he’s not scoring, I make sure Eli’s gonna guard them,” Leitao said. “That speaks volumes for where he’s at right now.” It hasn’t been all sunshine and lockdown defense for Cain, the pace of the game has been causing him to commit fouls and force turnovers. “Certain passes you could throw in high school where you thread the needle, here it’s turnovers” Cain said. “Everything is faster.” Although he’s not at the level of Eli Cain yet, Cyprus product Erten Gazi is also a contributing underclassmen. The transition to the Big East hasn’t been as easy for Gazi as it has been for Cain. “Here in the U.S. we have more athletic guys,” Gazi said. “Everyone has to be able to guard 1-on-1.” Under Leitao, defense is the most crucial part of the game. As long as Gazi is still adapting to the pace of the Big East game, he won’t see big minutes in big games. Offensively, Gazi started the year tremendously confident. Through the first eight games, Gazi was shooting nearly 50 percent (12-for-26). Conference play hasn’t been as friendly to Gazi, as he averages less that a point per game. Although, flashes of Gazi’s talent still show up in practice and in games that are
OLIVIA JEPSON | THE DEPAULIA
Freshman guard Erten Gazi has seen an increase in minutes.
GEOFF STELLFOX | THE DEPAULIA
Freshman guard Eli Cain has been a starter for most of the season. already out of hand. Gazi said he is ready to elevate his game next year. “I believe next year is going to be absolutely better than this year,” Gazi said. “It’s going to be easier for us to play what
the coach wants from us.” If Gazi continues to develop like Cain already has, the influx of recruits like Devin Gage, Brandon Cyrus and Al Eichelberger could yield the young nucleus Leitao needs.
Sports. Feb. 8, 2016. The DePaulia | 27 CLOSER, continued from front page the moment he took over for former head coach Oliver Purnell, Leitao stressed they needed to change the culture. Part of doing that, he said, is about building trust. “Cohesiveness, particularly on defense, is always about trust,” Leitao said. “Guys in our locker room, and knowing who each other are and their strengths and weaknesses, is about trust. Those things, when you win games, no matter if it’s against a top 15 team or consecutive games, that’s when you build who you are.” The formula for winning games, though, can be complicated. When Leitao had success at DePaul in his first stint from 2002 to 2004, he did it primarily with strong defending and rebounding teams. This season, DePaul has become better in those areas. DePaul’s defense lets up 72.9 points per game compared to 73.6 per game from last season under Purnell. At an adjusted defensive efficiency per 100 possessions, DePaul ranks 154th in the nation compared to 228 last season, according to the advanced statistic website KenPom.com. And for the first time since the 2006-07 season, DePaul also has a positive rebounding margin at +1.9. Yet, DePaul has taken a nosedive offensively. They rank No. 178 in adjusted offense efficiency (103.1 points per 100 possessions) from 111 (104.8 points per 100 possessions) last season. In the pure number of points scored per game, last year’s squad averaged 69.4 to 68.7. The real drop off, however, is in turnovers. The Blue Demons turn the ball over at a staggering 21.3 percent of the time to just 19.8 percent last season. At a 21.3 percent clip, that puts DePaul at No. 326 in the nation out of an eligible 351. “(We) need to make better reads, making better decisions, not trying to force it too much” Garrett said. “That comes with being aggressive. We’ve just got to continue to play and hopefully make more good plays than bad ones.” When DePaul has had success on offense, it’s largely due to Garrett and senior Myke Henry, the two top scorers on the Blue Demons. Coincidentally, those two are the only players on DePaul’s rosters that were thought of as top 100 players while as recruits. Henry, in particular, has been stellar for the Blue Demons. He’s averaging 15 points per game and had a season-high 27 points against Providence. Recruiting top-ranked players has plagued DePaul for years and with every coaching change DePaul has had, the question is, “can DePaul get more talent?” “You need to talent to be really good, but in my opinion, talent is overrated,” Garrett said. “You can see that in college basketball with all the parity. You can see that with a team like Butler. They don’t have top 100 guys, but they do everything the right way.” Doing it the right way circles back to the often mentioned changing of the culture. Although more than midway through his first season, Leitao admitted he’s still learning new aspects about his team. It has led to Leitao throwing out different lineups, including eight different starting lineups. As of late, he’s gone with a preference of four guards and only one big, to some success. “I’m comfortable with personalities and comfortable with the mixture of guys,”
Leitao said. “The thing I’m still learning about them is how well certain guys will fit with other guys, what can and cannot happen as a result of that.” As Leitao searches for the right matchups, inconsistency has still reared its head. There are certainly times when the Blue Demons look like a bad basketball team, a run-of-the-mill experience for about the last 10 years. Only eight wins this season further suggests that they are. But yet there are moments when wins over teams like No. 11 Providence and then No. 20 George Washington display that DePaul is building towards something. This is the first time since the 2006-07 season, the last DePaul team that played consistently at a quality level, that DePaul has beaten two teams ranked in the top 25 during the same season. “The lesson learned (against Providence) is that we stayed locked in for 40 minutes,” Henry said. “We played together for 40 minutes and stayed consistent. If we achieve that, then we’ll keep winning games.” "There’s a difference in the way we go about things every day,” Garrett said. “It’s in the way we compete. There are no moral victories ever, but in the way we’ve competed that’s probably where we’ve felt the primary difference (compared to past seasons). We’re working every day.” Garrett said the most enjoyable aspect of DePaul’s win over Providence was the moment he walked into the locker room and saw his teammates’ faces knowing they got the win. For a player who’s suffered 56 losses as a Blue Demon to 32 wins, Garrett said it hasn’t been easy, especially as he’s learned to become this team’s leader. “I’ve grown as a leader. It’s one of the tougher jobs I’ve had in my basketball career, more so than anything physical,” Garrett said. “Because of the losing, the young guys and trying to change the culture. It’s really difficult, you know? But it’s making me a better basketball player and a better person, a better leader.” Leitao was tasked with improving this season with mostly the same players from last season, outside of a major contributor in freshman Eli Cain. DePaul won six conference games and finished at 12-20 in Purnell’s last year. Even then, DePaul athletic director Jean Lenti Ponsetto said that record underachieved. In the moment, Leitao said his team was fighting in the Big East for opportunities to win and to earn respect. “Winning, though, is not easy, even for the teams that do win a lot,” Leitao said. “We’ve got to not get ahead of ourselves and stay in the moment. We have to do all the things large and small that give us the best chance to win.”
There's a difference in the way we go about things every day. It's in the way we compete.
Billy Garrett Jr.
CHARLES REX ABROGAST | AP
Billy Garrett Jr. (right) is blocked as he tries to drive the baseline.
Sports
Sports. Feb. 8, 2016. The DePaulia | 28
JESSICA
JANUARY
& CHANISE
JENKINS The guard duo is leading the Blue Demons to another successful season as DePaul sits alone atop the Big East
JOSH LEFF | THE DEPAULIA
By Zachary Holden Staff Writer
The DePaul women’s basketball team went 8-2 in the month of January and stand alone atop the Big East. The Blue Demons can thank the guard play of Chanise Jenkins and Jessica January for helping them reach that mark. The fifth-year senior and a junior have been loading the stat-line for DePaul weekly. Only once in the 10-game month of January did both players fail to reach double-digit scoring in the same game.
The all-around play by the two guards has been impressive, to say the least. Jenkins’ per game averages in the month of January were – 13.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.1 steals. January’s numbers were similar – 12.4 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 2.0 steals. The two combined for three doubledoubles and one triple-double, while narrowing missing out on a few more by just a couple rebounds or assists. When the duo clicks, they can really produce some impressive numbers.
But, if you look past the statistical numbers and focus on their on-court play, you can understand why the Blue Demons went 8-2 in January. The two thrive when they are able to move the ball fluidly amongst the other players on the court and dish the ball inside to paint players Megan Podkowa and Jacqui Grant. “With the offense we (run), we have openings in the lane and when we hit the players [they score],” January said. In the two losses, Villanova and Seton Hall, that fluidity wasn’t present throughout the game, which meant little
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to no opportunity for openings in the lane. Against the Wildcats, January and Jenkins were rarely able to get the offense going in the paint and the team had to rely on shooting mid-range to longrange jumpers. While the two combined for 36 points and 12 rebounds, they only managed three assists, which explains the low score of just 60 points for the Blue Demons. In the game against the Pirates,
See WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, page 25