DePaulia
The EXCLUSIVE
Volume #105 | Issue #10 | May 24, 2021 | depauliaonline.com
Norman Finkelstein: ‘I want an apology’
By Sonal Soni Asst. News Editor
By Rebecca Meluch News Editor
In 2007, former DePaul political science professor Norman Finkelstein was denied tenure. The decision initiated a national controversy about personal feuds in academic settings, violations of academic freedoms and outside interference in tenure processes. This past weekend, Finkelstein told The DePaulia in an exclusive interview that for the first time since the incident, he is ready to revisit history and demand an apology from the university. “After the DePaul debacle I was never able to teach again,” Finkelstein said. “I never had another job because my name had been so blackened. And because of DePaul, I was destroyed and I want an apology. I want an apology for what they put me through.” The New York Times reported in 2007 that Finkelstein was awarded tenure by DePaul’s political science department, but the University Board on Promotion and Tenure rejected his bid. Finkelstein told The DePaulia he hasn’t spoken with any media about his fallout with DePaul since it all happened 14 years ago. “I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to return to it,” he said. “But now that I’m writing [a] book, I felt I needed to revisit it and to write an account of what happened.” Finkelstein is currently writing a new book about cancel culture and academic freedom, which touches on his experience at DePaul, he told The DePaulia. He has written over 10 books and the next will be titled “Cancel Culture, Academic Freedom, and
See FINKELSTEIN, page 6
University statement on Palestine criticized
ART BY ALICIA GOLUSZKA
DePaul establishes Native land acknowledgment By Lacey Latch Editor-in-Chief
What was once vast miles of largely untouched marshland surrounding a river lined with cattails has since become a booming metropolis home to nearly 3 million people. Back then, the land was occupied by the indigenous tribes around the Great Lakes who maintained deep connections with this land where they lived, worked and worshiped. Today, the city of Chicago sits on the ancestral lands of more than ten native tribes and is home to one of the largest urban native communities in the United States,
with more than 65,000 Natives from over 175 different tribes recorded in 2018. Over 200 years after white settlers first occupied this area and forced Native Americans to relocate, DePaul is now taking steps to acknowledge the complex history, present-day and future of the land it calls home. “It’s an important first step to acknowledge where we are located and who was here before us and what kind of relationship that we as a university can have with the land that we occupied and with the people who occupied it before we did,” said Lisa Poirier, a DePaul religious studies pro-
fessor with an expertise in Native American religions. “I think it’s important, if you’re a settler, to come to terms with the history of the land that you occupy and to realize that you’re already in a relationship not just with that land, but with the indigenous people who have lived on that land for centuries before you arrived.” DePaul’s new Land Acknowledgement Statement from the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity (OIDE), crafted by a group of university members including Native faculty, staff and students, aims to highlight the whole truth of the settlement and
See LAND, page 4
On May 17, Rev. Guillermo Campuzano, vice president of DePaul Mission and Ministry, published a statement on Newsline titled, “A statement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the ideal of peace and non-violence.” “As I write this message, I feel the grief and anxiety that comes from observing the growing number of victims of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict in the Middle East, the new escalating violence, and the heartbreaking suffering of so many in the past days,” Campuzano wrote. “Our pressure to act and to not stay quiet comes especially from our students and alumni affected personally with family and friends living in fear, affected directly by the bombing, suffering and dying.” The Newsline statement was published amid contiuning violence, specifically following recent attacks on Sheikh Jarrah — a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. “Neutrality is not a safe place today,” the statement reads. “Taking a stand is not a safe place either, and we understand that... In the Vincentian Spirit in which DePaul University is grounded, we stand by the victims. We stand by the victims of injustice and the victims of violence. We stand against the perpetrators of violence and systemic injustice that extinguish lives.” The statement goes on to mention support for both Israelis and Palestinians. “Following the words of Cardinal Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, we reaffirm the Palestinians’ right to statehood,
See STATEMENT, page 4
Budget approved for next two fiscal years, $13 million in expense cuts expected By Ella Lee
Print Managing Editor
After a financially turbulent year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, DePaul’s budget for the next two fiscal years have been approved — and big cuts are coming. According to a Newsline post by President A. Gabriel Esteban, Provost Salma Ghanem and Executive Vice President Sherri Sidler published May 13, the university aims to cut $13 million in expenses during the 2022 fiscal year. While the university claims workforce reductions will occur “only as a last resort,” $3 million of that figure will come from a “planned reduction in force amount,” according to the budget memorandum. That reduction will
come from filled and unfilled positions, according to Newsline. “Universities across the country are grappling with the same challenges DePaul is facing,” the post reads. “That fact does not make this news any easier to share.” In addition to cuts, tuition will be raised for most students by 2 percent each of the two fiscal years. The university is projected to make roughly an additional $11 million in 2022 and $13 million in 2023 with these increases, according to the proposed operating budget. DePaul expects that fewer students will enroll or continue enrollment at the university in fall 2021 and 2022, according to the budget memorandum. The enrollment budget for those years are 21,657 and
21,991 students, respectively — a slight decline from fall 2020’s enrollment of 22,041 students. “The enrollment projections are influenced by increased competition and declining numbers of college-going students,” the Newsline post reads. “Record-breaking new first-year student enrollment has been offset by declines in continuing undergraduate and transfer enrollments. Challenging days remain ahead.” The university’s operating margin — a measurement of profitability — took a hit in 2021, dropping to -3.1 percent from 2020’s 2.9 percent, according to rolling financial results. It’s the lowest operating margin on record since at least 2014. With cuts and revenue increases, De-
Paul projects its operating margin could reach 1.9 percent in 2022 and 2 percent in 2023. But it’s not all bad news. The budget for institutional financial aid will increase by 4 percent in 2022 to $274.5 million and 3 more percent in 2023 to $282.6 million — a decision made to “honor commitments to continuing undergraduate students and to support new scholarship strategies for transfer and graduate students,” according to the budget memorandum. DePaul’s 403(b) match — a benefit expense which was slashed from 10 to 5 percent to address pandemic finances — will also be partially restored to 7.5 percent in the 2022
See BUDGET, page 6