The DePaulia 4.17.23

‘They’ve taken this away from me’

Bestselling author, DePaul term faculty Erika L. Sánchez’s contract not renewed

By Jaqueline Cardenas La DePaulia Editor In Chief

Erika L. Sánchez, a New York Times best-selling author and DePaul term faculty, received the news on April 10 that she was among the six term faculty whose contracts would not be renewed for the upcoming school year due to the university’s $56.5-million-dollar budget gap.

“I didn’t see it coming,” Sánchez said about the emailed letter from the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (LAS), informing that her contract would end in June.

Sánchez said it was a “terrible move” by the university because of her positive reputation she has with the Latine community.

Sánchez is the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Chair of the Latin American and Latino Studies program, a recognition given to Latines who make important contributions to Chicago and the United States, according to DePaul.

Previous chairs include Latina writers Ana Castillo, Achy Obejas and Emmy award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa in 2012.

Sánchez said despite her success as an author, poet, essayist and upcoming “I am not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” film,“Brown women were underestimated, always…At what point are we enough? How many accomplishments do they need for me to feel like I’m a valid person to keep? I don’t know what else I can do,” Sanchez said.

The news sparked turmoil among Latine students who say they already lack a sense of representation and belonging at DePaul.

“It made me very angry and very sad,”

said Leslie Camacho, a senior at DePaul.

As a first generation Mexican American student, Camacho said it is “disappointing” that she will never be able to take one of Sánchez’s classes. She said she would have related to her experience navigating the difficulties of being one of the first in her family to pursue higher education.

“I feel like my students really appreciated that about me and how I listened to them and I cared about them,” Sánchez said, referring to her shared experience as a first-generation college graduate.

Flavio Diaz, a student leader in MESA, a Latine centered cultural organization, said that ending Sánchez’s contract despite the university’s efforts to become a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) shows the “hypocrisy” behind the institution’s values rooted in diversity, equity and inclusion.

In 2021, DePaul created a faculty led taskforce that would help the university reach a 25% Hispanic student population in order to apply for Title V federal funds that would qualify the university as an HSI.

HSI status would grant the universi-

What we know so far: DePaul’s budget gap recap

ty funds that can be utilized for academic tutoring, counseling, student support services, faculty development and the purchase of educational materials, among other resources for Latine students.

On March 31, the Center for Latino Research Advisory Board leaders met with President Robert L. Manuel to discuss future plans to push forward the HSI agenda, according to Carolina Sternberg, the Chair

• Student protest leads to meeting with President Manuel

See page 3

• Strategic Resource Allocation Committee, Staff Council look to minimize cuts

See page 4

•Updates about budget, what’s next

See page 7

• Op Ed: SGA president addresses student body

See page 12

• Op Ed: DePaul alum, former SGA member, criticizes ‘lack of foresight’

See page 13

PHOTO BY MIKE HARRINGTON

Erika L. Sánchez is the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Chair of the Latino American and Latino Studies program. DePaul did not renew her contract.

'IT'S NOT VINCENTIAN' Students protest budget cuts, meet with university president

By Jake Cox Opinions Editor

April is usually marked by the mundane ritual of contract renewal for term faculty at DePaul. This year, the situation is much more complex. On Monday April 10, students gathered on the corner of Sheffield Ave. and Belden Ave. near the Msgr. John Egan statue with the inscription reading: “What are you doing for justice?.” The students' response to that question was protesting in support of their faculty against projected budget cuts.

Chalk covered the sidewalks leading up to the Lincoln Park Student Center with pleas that read: “FUND YOUR FACULTY.” As the protest began, nearly 80 people rallied around the corner, with the occasional spotting of faculty — some outspoken, some quiet. On the outskirts stood a few administrators, surveying the demonstration.

The demonstration was partially brought about due to information gathered by The DePaulia revealing the university’s $56.5 million budget gap to the DePaul community. The group first started a petition in opposition to DePaul, titled “Cutting Millions from Staff, Faculty and Student Affairs!,” which has amassed over 1,600 signatures as of April 15.

During the protest, a demonstrator received news that their professor, Erika L. Sánchez, had been informed her contract would not be renewed. Later it was discovered that five other term faculty members received the same announcement on April 10.

The core organizers, consisting mainly of students from DePaul’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (LAS) — the college expected to be hit the hardest — went into the protest with clear demands: What they described as “accountability” in the budget making process and an independent audit.

Students whose academic specialty resides in a department that’s existence hinges on the guidance and management of a few, if not singular, term faculty members began to worry for their future education at DePaul. The faculty handbook denotes the role of term faculty to administer these types of programs, because they have more time than tenure faculty and bring professional, real-world experience.

“DePaul really needs to protect those programs that don't already get the most funding in general before this big change,” said Chase Campbell Lyon, a DePaul student and protester present on Monday. “Those are the programs that are really working their hardest to impact students' lives with the stuff that they have...I feel like that [sends] a message of the values of DePaul.”

Another student, Vanessa Ramon-Ibarra, said she feels like the safe space granted by these programs cannot be lost.

“One of my professors was upset and asked us to mobilize," Ramon-Ibarra said. “I did see other peers that we're mobilizing and then I just showed up. [I’m concerned that] our faculty is going to be cut down and from that, it's going to

result in a lot of students not having the support systems that they had this year.”

A tenured professor echoed the same concerns regarding the future of the university.

“I'm scared that the changes we're trying to make right now are short-sighted," said Joseph Mellow, associate political science professor. “They're not going to help us in the long run. We need to restructure, and we're talking about cutting the most vulnerable people instead. That's ridiculous and it’s not Vincentian.”

Mellow also believes that cuts to faculty are just the first phase of budget reductions.

“Phase one is just you're going to see fewer people. That might be your beloved faculty member who happens to be an adjunct and they're not here anymore,” Mellow said. “Then in the next couple of years, maybe some programs that you like won't be here.”

Protesters also aimed their rhetoric at the athletics department, as an area in which they believe the budget should be reconsidered.

"They need to figure out their finances and give them the resources that are actually making an impact on students' lives,” Ramon-Ibarra said.

Another concern on stakeholders’ minds is the presence of administrative bloat.

President Robert Manuel conceded that DePaul “probably” has administrative bloat to a “certain extent” in a conversation with student media on April 10.

“Why are we looking for change in the couch cushions when the big money's upstairs?” Mellow said.

As the protest came to a head, the group marched to the corner of Sheffield and Fullerton Ave. chanting “Get up, get down, there's a student movement in town.” The core organizers went inside the Public Safety office to meet with top DePaul officials, who the group described t as their “collaborators.”

Those officials included Manuel, Provost Salma Ghanem, Vice President for student affairs Eugene Zdziarski and Chief of Staff Arbin Smith.

While the protest’s core organizers declined comment to The DePaulia, during a speech at the protest, one organizer stated they plan on meeting with administrators again on Thursday, April 13 and are currently in talks with Student Government Association (SGA) president Kevin Holechko but hope to further involve SGA.

“We are going to be approaching SGA about joining in conversations about reallocating budget cuts, obviously away from student affairs and minority professors,” said Megan Galarza in a speech following their meeting with administrators.

Galarza went on to explain this step is in place because of the SGA’s ability to have input on the budget. Currently, SGA’s budgetary input comes in the form of Holechko’s position on the Strategic Resource Allocation Committee.

It was later clarified that while the organizers demanded to meet with administrators on April 13, administration did not schedule this meeting.

On April 15, the core organizers of the protest announced they are planning

on having another meeting on April 19 — as the students of the Peace, Justice and Conflict (PAX) studies called for.

“This next Wednesday (April 19th), at 6 p.m. in the SAC, there's a meeting being called by PAX students regarding the budget cuts,” said an organizer in a message in the “Fight Against Budget Cuts” Discord group on April 15. “Those involved with the meeting with the administration this past Monday will share

the information from that meeting, as Jessica [Patrick] has been drafting a debrief of it the past few days.”

While it is uncertain how much of the information from their meeting with DePaul administrators the organizers will divulge on April 19, the group is intent on continuing their efforts in support of DePaul personnel and collaborating with administration to reallocate the budget cuts from student affairs.

Background photo: Students created sidewalk art to protest the budget cuts.

STOUTENBOROUGH | THE DEPAULIA

AMBER STOUTENBOROUGH | THE DEPAULIA

DePaul student Megan Galarza, one of the core organizers of the protest, speaks to a group outside of the Lincoln Park Student Center on April 10. Students were demanding professors to not be laid off.

AMBER STOUTENBOROUGH | THE DEPAULIA Students wait outside of DePaul's Public Safety office on Sheffield Ave. while protest coordinators attend a meeting with President Robert L. Manuel about their demands regarding the budget cuts.

JACQUELINE CARDENAS | THE DEPAULIA

Signs protesting the budget cuts hang on a garage door on Sheffield Ave. The signs could be seen all around the Lincoln Park campus, including in front of the Student Center.

Budget Vocabulary Guide

Budget Gap

Easily confused and misattributed as a “deficit”, DePaul is currently facing a budget gap. A gap is the difference between expenses the university plans to operate on and the amount of expected revenue. The current budget gap is $56.5 million dollars.

SRAC (Strategic Resource Allocation Committee)

SRAC is a committee composed of DePaul faculty, staff and the current SGA president. The committee’s purpose is to propose a budget that continues to achieve the university's strategic objectives and furthers pursuit of its mission. They discuss broad financial decisions, such as tuition pricing and employee benefits and compensation, and will recommend a comprehensive university budget.

Faculty Council

Faculty council is the primary body through which faculty contribute to shared governance at DePaul, composed of faculty members from each college of the university. The current president of the Faculty Council is Sonia Soltero, a professor in the College of Education.

Term Faculty

Term faculty also referred to as instructors or professional lecturers, are full-time, non-tenured/tenure track faculty. Their contracts are renewed on a yearly basis. Generally, term faculty teach courses that require “real-world” or professional experience, not higher level academic degrees. They also manage programs that would be too time intensive for tenure faculty. Six term faculty members’ contracts were not renewed as of April 10.

Tenured/Tenure track faculty

Tenure faculty, also known as associate professors, assistant professors or simply professors, are academics with terminal degrees, who participate in research and have increased job security until retirement. While under certain conditions they can be terminated, in most circumstances they have indefinite job security.

Budget Deficit

A budget deficit is when the university is already spending more money than they are bringing in or have the money to spend, accruing debt.

Shared Governance

Shared governance is the concept of collaboration between university administrators, faculty, staff and students in the organization and management of DePaul. Individual committees also can support a shared governance model — such as SRAC’s composition of faculty, staff and a SGA representative.

Staff Council

Staff council is the official body through which staff is able to advocate for itself and participate in shared governance of DePaul. As defined in the staff council constitution, staff refers to all employees holding positions below the vice-presidential level, excluding students, members of the faculty and deans. The current staff council president is Victoria Van Kirk, Associate Director of Housing Operations.

Adjunct Faculty

Adjunct faculty are instructors hired on a part-time, term-by-term basis — granting them less job security than term or tenure track faculty. These faculty members are not required to conduct research at the institution.

Voluntary Separation

Sometimes referred to as a “buy-out,” voluntary separation is a lump-sum payment made to eligible employees who separate through resignation, optional retirement or early retirement. Voluntary separation incentive packages were offered to Depaul staff and administration who are at least 55 years old and have served a minimum of 20 years full-time service, at least 62 years old and have served a minimum of 10 years full time service, or the sum of their age and full time service equals at least 75 years.

DePaul leadership, SRAC work to minimize staff layoffs

Staff Council anticipates more cuts

By Samantha Moilanen Asst. News Editor

“What if I don't leave, would I then be someone who could potentially lose my job?”

This is one of many prominent questions Victoria Van Kirk, president of Staff Council and a representative on the Strategic Resource Allocation Committee (SRAC) says is on the minds of current staff members at DePaul in light of the $56.5 million budget gap between university revenue and expenses.

DePaul is a private, tuition-funded institution and currently faces a loss of funding due to the decline in enrollment numbers over the past 10 years among other factors. Since 2018, total enrollment fell 6.8% with even sharper declines in the graduate population.

“In graduate enrollment, for instance, we're not seeing the same numbers we used to see [so] we have to adjust … and that's the uncomfortable part and this is not unique [to DePaul],” Van Kirk said. “This is something many institutions in higher [education] are reckoning with.”

Van Kirk said one of the ways the university is trying to reduce this gap is through decreasing the number of staff and administrative positions at DePaul.

According to Van Kirk, DePaul is operating on a staffing model that worked well in the past when enrollment numbers were up, but the model no longer fits with the current decline in enrollment. She said because DePaul is a tuition-funded university, enrollment greatly impacts the number of staff and faculty positions.

One factor that contributed to the current state of the budget gap, according to Van Kirk, was DePaul’s decision not to lay off employees during the pandemic like many other institutions.

“It was really good at the time, but in a way, that doesn't position us much better right now,” she said.

Of the 4,000 student employees at DePaul, many are also facing repercussions from the budget gap.

A former assistant in Facilities Operations at DePaul who requested anonymity from The DePaulia said she lost her job in December of 2022 and was told it was due to the university’s efforts to reduce the budget gap.

“They got rid of my job [and] combined it with the resident assistant position now, and they’ve cut back on hiring,” she said.

The former employee also said two of her coworkers were laid off, but she is unsure whether that was related to university budget cuts.

Matthew Krause, chair of the Fiscal Planning Advisory Committee and one of the representatives for Staff Council on SRAC, said he believes the methods SRAC identified to decrease the budget gap will have minimal impact on student jobs on both campuses because they identified untouched student employee budgets.

“As professional staffing levels decrease, whether it's part time or full time, some areas may actually have a greater reliance on student employees,” Krause said. “On the other hand, as the level of services and building hours decrease with associated staffing reductions, there may simply be fewer hours available in shifts for students to work.”

According to the anonymous source, she said the entire housing team is being reformed and resident assistants are concerned over uncertainty about how next year will look with these sudden changes.

This is because auxiliary student services are in the process of merging to become the “Department of Housing, Dining and Student Centers,” according to Van Kirk.

On April 4, DePaul President Robert Manuel sent an email to faculty and staff announcing university leadership’s decision to move forward with a Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP) for eligible full-time staff and administration.

This program offers one year of 2022 gross wages that will be paid in a lump sum to all eligible participants, full vacation accrual for 2023 and subsidized medical coverage for those currently enrolled in DePaul medical plans for the remainder of the year.

Non-instructional staff employed full-time by DePaul are those eligible for VSIP. Faculty and others who work at DePaul but are employed by outside organizations are not eligible for VSIP.

On Thursday, April 6, eligible staff and administration received personalized information packets sent to their home addresses.

According to Van Kirk, of the 1,389 full-time staff and administration, just 205 are eligible for VSIP. To be eligible, staff must meet certain criteria including that they are at least 55 years old with a minimum of 20 years full-time service, at least 62 years old with a minimum of 10 years full-time service, or the sum of their age and full-time service equals at least 75.

The deadline for those interested in the VSIP program was Friday, April 14, giving eligible staff and administration slightly over a week to decide whether they will take the university up on the offer for early retirement. DePaul leadership will make a final decision by June 8.

“The goal is to not get to a straight reduction in force,” Van Kirk said. “[VSIP] made it possible for more people to actually make that consideration, that maybe, this is a good time to retire.”

However, Krause said VSIP was not offered to faculty because of the essential role they play in teaching and learning on campus and the uncertainty of who would take the incentive.

“It could have an adverse and unintentional impact,” Krause said.

Six term faculty members learned that their contracts would not be renewed last Monday, according to Manuel in an interview with student media that same day.

Regarding staff at the university, he said the VSIP program was a way to avoid unnecessary termination.

“The mission-based approach here was to say, instead of just terminating people, let's figure out how to make it as less [and] as little concern to folks’ life [so they can] sleep this weekend,” Manuel said. “So, we offered the voluntary separation program, which is a way to say somebody who is very close to retirement, here's a soft landing into retirement. And we will compensate you for that that year, which is different than saying you're terminated, and you have to leave.”

However, when asked how decreases in staff and administration will affect those who do not meet the age and service requirements to be eligible for VSIP, Van Kirk said, “unfortunately, the program has to have parameters [because] they want to make it manageable.”

According to Van Kirk, this is because the university could run the risk of too many taking the incentive for early retirement through VSIP, which could cause a substantial impact to student services going forward.

“It kind of gets us to what we need, but it also won't gut areas,” she said.

While VSIP offered some staff and administration a choice in whether they will prematurely end their employment with DePaul, Van Kirk admits the decision process will be difficult as the university makes changes to combat the budget gap.

“I think staff are feeling the turbulence of this situation, you know, it’s not comfortable,” she said. “We’re trying to avoid scenarios that would be very unhealthy for DePaul, and in doing that, you got to do some things that are uncomfortable, and we need to get ourselves to a size, the whole university needs to get to a size that matches the enrollment we have now [and] the forecasting that we have for enrollment [going] forward.”

While Van Kirk and Krause did not provide the exact number of how many have volunteered for VSIP, they said it is highly unlikely that all 205 positions in the program will be filled.

However, Van Kirk said they need to reach a certain percentage for the program to be successful.

According to Van Kirk, in the past when DePaul has done early retirement programs, they have typically had a 35% take rate.

Krause said for those who take up the offer for early retirement, many of the positions may need to be refilled at a lower salary rate.

“[That] is where the savings come in for next year,” he said.

Another way the university plans to decrease costs is by leaving most vacant positions unfilled, and through the merging of departments where it is deemed necessary.

“It takes money to save money,” Van Kirk said. “There’s a range of emotion about this kind of stuff, but it’s like, it’s not an easy decision for the university either.”

According to Manuel, terminating DePaul employees is a last resort.

“In my office alone, I've held four or five different positions vacant, so that we're not staffing that up to make sure we're not terminating, like people in my positions, and only as a last resort, would that be the case,” Manuel said.

Still, according to Van Kirk, staff are going to be most impacted by the upcoming budget reductions.

“If you look at the percentages of this whole shortfall, and how we need to make up for it … over half of the amount is falling to staff,” she said.

Krause said SRAC’s next steps are to discuss how to look out for staff on the lower pay scale because they are most often marginalized in these types of decisions.

According to data collected by SRAC, DePaul saw a 7% decrease in net tuition revenue over the last 10 years, and comparatively, DePaul’s investment in staff or non-instructional roles has also seen a 7% decrease.

This margin has been consistent over the last 10 years, however, the total investment in faculty salary lines went up 2%.

University administrators will vote on the budget for the 2023-24 academic year next month. Van Kirk and Krause said they will continue to look out for the best interests of staff at DePaul.

“The students change over, but we’re [still] all here,” Van Kirk said.

AMBER STOUTENBOROUGH | THE DEPAULIA

An emotional Jessica Patrick shares her experiences connecting with staff and faculty at DePaul University during the April 10 protest.

SGA members launch campaigns in run up to May election

By Claire Tweedie SGA Beat Writer

The Student Government Association (SGA) elections will open for voting on May 1 after weeks of campaigning and election marketing from aspiring and current SGA members. The upcoming election calls into question the success of SGA’s initiatives to increase voter turnout after past years’ low ratings and participation from candidates.

“This year has been just starting from the ground up again from Covid-19 and social media,” said Magoli Garcia, SGA vice president and junior. “That takes time but it's also about trial and error. I’m excited to see how our initiatives are going to play out during this election season.”

Two positions, senator for first year students, who is elected in the fall quarter, and chief of staff, who is appointed are the only roles not on the voting registry this spring.

A finalized list of candidates will be available in late April on SGA’s election website.

There are two categories SGA positions fall into: executive positions and senator roles. Executive positions include president, vice president, treasurer and all executive vice president (EVP) roles. Senator roles are based on specific colleges and communities on campus, like senator for the College of Education and senator for first-generation students.

“Our main job as EVPs is to help guide and lead senators,” said Adora Alava, SGA EVP for Diversity and Equity and junior. “EVPs have their own committees where senators help promote the initiatives in them. It's all dependent on what community they serve for, so like the senators for first-generation students and the senator for LGBTQ+ students both go in my committee.”

SGA used passive marketing tactics such as flyers, yard signs and sidewalk chalk to increase awareness about the election.

Alava said she expects to see more students running for positions because of the university’s current budget issues and students’ drive to improve DePaul. She also said the competition and awareness will also help increase student voting rates.

“There's more emphasis and need for people to pay attention to who they vote for because we do have the privilege of having individual conversations with administration,” Alava said. “Our only job is to empower and amplify student voices. Representation does matter and I think there will be more communication and transparency with the university if we strengthen that.”

There will be a Meet the Candidates session on May 1 through Zoom for students to hear from their potential representatives. Candidates are encouraged to begin campaigning prior to this via social media and flyers on-campus.

Garcia said her advice for students campaigning is to focus on in-person engagement as much as social media pushes. She said both are great ways to spread information and knowledge about a person’s campaign, but in-person meetings with clubs or organizations can also help foster more meaningful connections.

“It means something when people put a face to a name, but when they’re also able to recognize and understand you as a person, they’re able to support you even more,” Garcia said. “Title isn't everything. It's about the engagement you have with the community that shows your character.”

Garcia will not be running for any SGA position in this election and expects the ballots for president and vice president to be one of the most competitive.

“In a position such as the presidency, which has such a large time requirement, I didn't want to sign up for something that I wasn't going to be able to give 110% to,” Garcia said. “It wasn't an easy decision or one I made overnight. In order to be a great repre-

sentative for students, they deserve someone who can give 110% to advocate for them and their needs.”

Sergio Godinez, SGA EVP for academic affairs and junior, will be running for SGA president in the upcoming election. He will be sharing the ballot with SGA senator for disabled students, Chloe Crosby, as the vice president. Avery Schoenhals, SGA EVP for facility operations and sophomore, and Parveen Mundi, SGA EVP for student affairs and sophomore, announced their campaign for SGA president and SGA vice president respectively through their social media on April 14.

Godinez’s campaign will be based on his goals for increased transparency between the university and the student body.

“In the past, SGA had a bit of trouble engaging and connecting with students,” Godinez said. “I want to make sure SGA is a public-facing institution that students are aware of and feel comfortable reaching out to in times of need. We need to make sure everyone is on the same page with issues about the budget or a host of other issues we could be facing next year.”

The SGA president is the only student with voting power on university committees. This includes the Strategic Resource Allocation Committee, the group of president-appointed members who made decisions regarding the recent budget cuts.

The SGA vice president and SGA chief of staff are the only other students allowed to sit in during these meetings.

“[SGA president is] not a position anyone takes lightly,” Godinez said. “While it's very intimidating, there's a lot of good that can be done in that position when someone really understands the issues facing the student body.”

Voting will be online through campus connect and will close on May 5 at 5 p.m. Students can find candidate and election information on SGA’s DeHub website and on their Instagram @sgadepaul.

“I’m a believer that real change happens on a local level,” Garcia said. “People need to vote because these student representatives are involved in committees and conversations all across the university with administrators. Voting is so crucial for student government. These are students who are advocating for better resources for your education.”

More Open SGA Positions

Senator for Graduate Students

Senator for Transfer Students

Senator for the Theatre School

Senator for the College of Law

Senator for Mission and Ministry

Senator for Sustainability

Senator for First Generation Students

Senator for Community & Government Relations

Senator for International Students

Senator for First Year Students

PHOTO SUBMITTED BY SERGIO GODINEZ

[Left] Chloe Crosby, SGA Senator for Disabled Students, and Sergio Godinez, SGA EVP of Academic Affairs, will run for vice president and president. Their campaign slogan is "leading with transparency."

KIERSTEN RIEDFORD | THE DEPAULIA Avery Schoenhals, Student Government Association (SGA) EVP of Facility Operations and sophomore, is running for SGA president for 2023 to 2024.

KIERSTEN RIEDFORD | THE DEPAULIA Parveen Mundi, SGA EVP of Student Affairs, is running for vice president as Schoenhals' running mate.

PHOTO COURTESY OF AVERY SCHOENHALS' INSTAGRAM

Schoenhals and Mundi announced their campaign on Friday, April 10 via Instagram. The two are planning to release their initiatives soon.

SÀNCHEZ, continued from front page

of the Department of Latin American & Latino Studies (LALS).

According to a fall 2022 Institutional Research & Market Analytics (IRMA) census count, 23% of DePaul’s undergraduate enrollment is Hispanic.

“I think it’s not okay to see these cuts reflected in the very little population of diverse faculty that we already have because most of the diverse professors that they claim we have [are] our adjunct professors,” Diaz said.

A 2020 report shows that of the 870 full-time faculty, Black and Hispanic professors only comprised about 6% each of the total faculty, according to IRMA.

Sánchez said many of her students told her she was the only professor of color they have ever had at DePaul.

Sánchez said the lack of diverse racial representation among faculty is “alarming” and the university’s decision to discontinue her contract is “very symbolic of what they're prioritizing, and it's not students.”

The dean of LAS, Guillermo Vásquez de Velasco, said in a statement to La DePaulia, “The short-term faculty appointment was

an attempt to implement a growth strategy to increase enrollment. Change was necessary to make sure the program has the right components to ensure the continued success of this academic program that is deeply rooted in the university’s mission.”

The statement also mentioned the LAS department plans to welcome a new, fulltime, tenure-track faculty member in fall 2023.

Junior Gianna Aguilar-Valencia said the university should be more transparent in their decision-making process and the way it affects students.

“We pay so much in tuition, we do so many things,” Aguilar-Valencia said. “[We]

A student leader in MESA

bring them [a] kind of reputation and then yet, we don't kind of get the support system that we are trying to build in this community.”

Vásquez de Velasco said he supports the university’s continued efforts to become an HSI in the statement.

It was her love for connecting with students that drew Sánchez into teaching in the first place.

“I never even needed this job. I want to emphasize that it was because I believed in it, I cared about it. I wanted to be a professor, I wanted to reach students,” Sánchez said. “It pains me that they've taken this away from me. They've also taken away

DePaul’s budget gap:

What is known and what remains unclear

By Patrick Sloan-Turner Online Managing Editor

While rumors of impending cuts circulated throughout the university for the past few months, news broke last Monday that DePaul’s budget gap totals more than $56 million. Since then, the community has learned more of a developing situation and new budget decisions have been made.

Term faculty cuts

On Monday, six term faculty members were notified that their contracts would not be renewed. The DePaulia has confirmed the identity of three of these faculty members, the most prominent being Latin American and Latino Studies professor Erika L. Sánchez in DePaul’s college of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (LAS). Sánchez, a New York Times Best-Selling author for “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter,” has garnered much attention for her separation after taking to social media last week.

Sánchez is not the only LAS professor to not receive a contract renewal. American Sign Language program director and term instructor Dana Demeter confirmed to The DePaulia that she too did not have her contract renewed. Demeter has taught at DePaul since 2012.

Carolyn Martineau, a professor of Biological Sciences in DePaul’s College of Science and Health is another term faculty member who did not have her contract renewed in wake of DePaul’s budget crisis. In a comment to an article on The DePaulia’s website, Martineau said that because of the timing of the decision in the academic job cycle, it is “unlikely I can attempt to find another teaching position before fall 2024.”

Timeline remains foggy

A major criticism from groups of faculty continues to be a lack of full transparency from the Strategic Resource Allocation Committee (SRAC) and university officials throughout the fact-findings regarding the budget gap.

“A lot of faculty have... serious ques -

tions about why this was happening so quickly, and why it was so unexpected,” said LAS English professor Marcy Dinius to The DePaulia last week.

Much of faculty frustration lies in the timing in which they gained a full understanding of the dire $56 million figure and the quick turnaround that respective college deans and other leaders were forced to make decisions regarding term faculty. Over the past two weeks, multiple faculty members told the DePaulia that neither SRAC, DePaul’s provost office nor has President Robert Manuel informed faculty of when the extent of the budget gap was known to them.

In an interview last Monday with student media and in follow-up query, Manuel was asked multiple times when he first had an understanding that the budget gap was near $50 million. With each inquiry, the university president gave no specific dates or timeframe as to when he and others close to the situation first knew of the budget gap’s extent.

Though colleges likely knew by January that faculty personnel cuts were probable, the number floated at Faculty Council meetings at that time neared $25 million. It was not until March 27

that experience from students who really felt excited about my classes.”

Sánchez has since publicly criticized the university on her social media platforms.

“DePaul does not care about its students and faculty of color,” she posted on her instagram account with over 22,000 followers.

She was also scheduled to speak at Latinx graduation, an annual gathering of graduating students and to celebrate academic accomplishments.

Vásquez de Velasco did not confirm whether Sánchez will be speaking at the event. “The plans for the event are still in development,” he said in an email statement.

“I don't want any relationship with DePaul at this point,” Sánchez said.

Students have created a petition asking the president and his offices to work with students to protect at-risk professors and programs.

“As a community, we still have a lot to fight for and advocate for our communities,” Diaz said. “At the end of the day, we’re the only ones that's going to do it for ourselves.”

Paulia this correspondence was met with almost unanimous adverse reaction.

In the original proposal, countless subscriptions to academic journals, research papers and other related learning tools would become unavailable. The memo said the reduction to these library collections would, “fundamentally alter not just the library, but all the colleges, departments, and programs supported by the library.”

According to an email acquired by The DePaulia from Manuel to Soltero on April 10, Soltero and her faculty colleagues took much exception to the proposed cuts. In response, Manuel assured the Faculty Council president the cuts would be reconsidered.

“The $1.5 million was an original target, and it is clear this is not a viable option,” Manuel wrote.

What’s next

that faculty would be made aware of the real figure of $56.5 million, more than double from their previous understanding.

This was three days after the March 24 deadline for term faculty reappointment decisions, according to an email to faculty from Faculty Council president Sonia Soltero. Term faculty contract renewal notifications would later go out on April 10.

‘Devastating’ library resource cuts walked back

Another major development regarding the budget is the major cuts recommended to DePaul’s library and related academic resources. Communication circulated throughout faculty two weeks ago highlighting significant cuts to the library system and was met with much backlash.

An internal memo obtained by The DePaulia sent between faculty the week of April 6 outlined the cuts proposed to the library that included cuts nearing “50% of all digital resources and a more than 50% cut in [the library’s] permanent collection.” Sources tell The De -

On Friday, faculty resource reduction considerations from various colleges were due to the university, according to a March 27 email from Soltero to faculty. These possible reductions could include teaching-load restructuring, class schedule reorganization and possible course eliminations, revisions to faculty pay practices and possible elimination of vacant full time faculty lines.

Also due on April 14 were budget restructurings related to part time staff including student positions. Departmental reduction considerations like travel and consulting expenses were also to be due on this date.

Announcements and notifications regarding these deadlines are expected this week.

Last Monday’s student protest in Lincoln Park showed a worry that certain departments and academic units could be cut due to the budget gap. Manuel, Provost Salma Ghanem and Soltero have all told The DePaulia that they are unaware of any likely department cuts or restructuring at this time.

It's highly unlikely that it's going to come [to] programs that are of concern… [being] eliminated or merged,” Manuel said. “That might be a longer conversation about the merging and how they can support each other.”

Manuel was quick to inform that any program restructuring or elimination is a long process that would take several years to complete.

“As a community, we still have a lot to fight for and advocate for our communities. At the end of the day, we’re the only ones that's going to do it for ourselves.”

Flavio Diaz

JACQUELINE CARDENAS | THE DEPAULIA

President Robert L. Manuel said the budget cuts include dismissing 3% of DePaul’s term faculty (non-tenured, full time professors).

DePaul Cities Project hopes to reduce student stress

By Noah Tomko-Jones Contributing Writer

With its art-covered walls, comfortable furniture and white boards filled with visitors’ drawings, DePaul’s Black Cultural Center provided an ideal backdrop for DePaul Clinical Child Psychology doctoral student Brittanie Gage’s presentation on the DePaul Cities Project.

The project is a nonprofit collaboration between DePaul, Loyola, Northwestern, UChicago, UIC and Chicago Public Schools started by DePaul child psychology professor Kathryn Grant in 1996, and it has since helped over 500 Chicago children and young adults manage stress in a healthy way, according to their website.

The focus of Gage’s presentation was to encourage DePaul students to get involved in the Cities Project by taking part in a mentorship study that would help to, in her words, “research and understand how stressful life experiences impact urban youth and how these young people can actually deal with these stressors.

According to Gage, participants in the study would be randomly divided into two groups: a “mentoring group” and a “toolkit group.” Each group would participate in a different aspect of stress management in order to analyze how stress affects both elementary and college-age students.

Gage said the mentoring group would make weekly visits to CPS schools on the South and West Sides of the city, where they would serve as a mentor providing academic and social support to students between sixth and eighth grade.

Gage also emphasized that the attendees at this meeting would provide crucial support to the CPS students they mentor, should they choose to sign up for the research study.

“Students who meet regularly with their mentors are less likely to skip school and less likely to skip class, and also less likely to engage in maladaptive behaviors,” Gage said.

Gage also focused on the the importance of the four attendees' backgrounds to this study. The attendees, all Black DePaul women students, would be working with primarily Black students on the South Side of Chicago.

“A lot of our mentees look for mentors that look like them and have a shared background,” she said. “And research shows that race and ethnic background can play a significant role on how that mentoring relationship plays out.”

The students sorted into the toolkit group will not do any work with CPS students but will instead contribute to the study in a different way.

The toolkit group would receive weekly handouts that “[help] both mentees and mentors figure out how to create measurable goals,” Gage said. “Things that realistically look at undergrad's experience and try to give them some skills.”

The group is expected to use these handouts, which provide tips to manage sleep, health, homework, and social life, to help

manage the stress that comes with being a college student.

“We at DePaul are really interested in how this mentoring program affects your mental health and your emotional health,” Gage said. “We've collaborated with Northwestern, and they are very much interested in the same thing, but in a physiological aspect: How does stress affect us internally in our bodies?”

After each quarter of the 2023-24 school year, both study groups would complete a check-in survey as well as health visits at Northwestern University. Those in the mentor group could also receive Social, Cultural, and Behavioral Inquiry or Experiential Learning credits, and both groups would receive a total financial compensation of $985, including three $60 gift cards for completing the quarterly surveys and payments for the health examinations.

“That's a thousand extra dollars,” Francis pointed out to the interested attendants. “This is a good opportunity.”

The goal of having two groups, according to Gage, is to make sure that mentoring younger students actually creates a noticeable change in their stress levels versus other social supports.

Gage also went on to highlight the benefits of this program for the students who are being mentored. According to her presentation, students who were mentored were “52% less likely to skip a day of school, 37% less likely to skip a class, 46% less likely to start using illegal drugs and 27% less likely to start drinking.”

The ability to earn class credits for the mentorship seemed to put the attendees at ease as well, knowing that they would not have to work with the Cities Project at the same time as their classes.

There was also an undercurrent of wanting to make a difference that was present in the whole group. Prior to Gage’s presentation, the students had talked with her at length about numerous issues they faced with their housing at DePaul and other negative encounters during their time as students.

Gage herself felt drawn to the DePaul Cities Project because of her past experience working with children.

“This has been something that's kind of a value of mine since I was younger, whether it be working in my church nursery, or in high school I was leading summer camp programs, so, it's been like a personal thing,” she said.

To Sabrina Salvador, a former research assistant at the DePaul Cities Project who is now pursuing her master’s in counseling at DePaul, the Cities Project proved to be a logical way of continuing her passion for helping.

“I want to continue supporting marginalized students,” she said. “I worked at the children's hospital, so I did a lot of things with working with kids over time and now I found my groove in supporting college students. But I still like to be in a space where I am supporting Black and brown and other marginalized identities.”

“We've collaborated with Northwestern, and they are very much interested in the same thing, but in a physiological aspect: How does stress affect us internally in our bodies?”

Brittanie Gage

DePaul Clinical Child Psychology doctoral student

Basic Needs Hub lacks funding despite providing essential student services

By Olivia Zimmerman Staff Writer

Despite the fact that 83% of DePaul University students live off campus, the Basic Needs Hub (BNH) receives no set budget, according to a statement from Rick Moreci, associate vice president of Student Auxiliary Services and founder of the BNH.

The BNH provides services for students, acting as a food pantry, and more recently, as a career closet to provide students with business attire. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many students got their food from the Hub because the dining halls were not open.

Experts estimate that between 20%50% of college students in the U.S. are food insecure, where access to healthy food on a regular basis is unreliable. With the increase in inflation since the pandemic, students are even more affected by rising costs.

“After getting through the pandemic and seeing the high levels of use of the food pantry/career closet, we decided to expand our pantry and clothing offerings to also have a location on the Loop Campus,” said Moreci in an email to The DePaulia.

Despite the “high levels of use,” the BNH is funded entirely through donations.

“When the pandemic came to be, we started seeing more and more donations from the DePaul community in the form of current faculty and staff, other students, alumni, parents, etc.,” Moreci said. “We also saw an outpouring of support from the Lincoln Park local community.”

The BNH primarily receives donations in the form of food and supplies, as well as financial donations, according to Moreci.

“The Office of Advancement has assisted us in running several successful campaigns to raise money for the BNH,” Moreci said.“Advancement has also helped us find donors for other items. In addition, our biggest partner with the BNH is Chartwells, our on-campus food provider.”

According to Moreci, Chartwells was the only donor when the BNH first began.

Organizations within the university can also contribute donations for the BNH.

“We hope to build partnerships within the university to increase donations,” said Jen Fox, associate director of Strategy, Assessment & Initiatives. “Athletics chose the Basic Needs Hub as their donation partner for the Big East Food Fight, where we will receive the items below.”

According to Fox, the Big East Food Fight brought in hundreds of donated food items worth $1,809.

While BNH is funded only by donations despite the student need, other DePaul organizations receive substantial funding for activities such as event hosting.

DePaul Department of Housing staff would not say how much each resident advisor gets for events and student needs, and resident advisors at DePaul are not permitted to talk with The DePaulia without approval.

Attendance numbers for these events were not disclosed by DePaul Housing, but based on DeHub registration for ResEd events from winter quarter showed that many events had less than six attendees.

While the BNH does not receive direct funding from the university, they are allocated enough money to employ two student workers at BNH, according to Moreci.

“I believe DePaul is very committed to

Rick Moreci

Associate vice president of Student Auxiliary Services and founder of the Basic Needs Hub

the BNH as evidenced by the high levels of assistance we have received from across the university,”Morceci said. “We also employ two students to work for the BNH

and these positions are paid for through university funds. So, while the BNH does not have a specific budget per se, we do get a lot of university support.”

The amount of monetary support DePaul University gives to BNH was not offered to The DePaulia.

Director of Housing and Residence Life Rod Waters did not respond to multiple attempts for comment.

However, Moreci is hopeful to further build the BNH.

“It has always been my intention to also build a more official university budget, but I have not done that as of yet,” Moreci said. “Keep in mind, as noted in one of my responses I sent yesterday, we do get a lot of financial support from DePaul, just not in the form of an official university budget.”

According to Fox, the BNH Hub will be holding a diaper, formula and wipes donation drive for student parents.

ERIN HENZE | THE DEPAULIA

A DePaul student and resident in University Hall scans into the dorm building. The university allocates only enough money to the Basic Needs Hub to pay for two student employees.

“It has always been my intention to also build a more official university budget but I have not done that as of yet.”

'I haven't been surprised by his shortcomings'

Biden announces he 'plans' to run for re-election, many say he shouldn't

By Kiersten Riedford News Editor

President Joe Biden announced on Monday, April 10 that he plans to run for re-election in 2024.

“But we’re not prepared to announce it yet,” Biden told NBC’s “Today” show during an interview at the White House prior to the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn.

Biden told MSNBC in October that he is not “making a judgment about formally running or not running” because once he makes that judgment, he has to act as a candidate “from that moment on.”

Since then, he has been saying that it is his “intention to run again” but still has yet to release a re-election campaign.

But, even with Biden saying he is planning to run in the 2024 presidential race, many Chicagoans do not want do not want Biden to be on the ballot again.

Nationally, 52% of Americans disapprove of Biden being in office as of March 8, according to Reuters. In the Midwest, Biden’s disapproval rate has reached 56%.

While urban residents and college students have over 50% positive approval rating of Biden, according to Reuters, many Chicagoans, like Quinn Widener, a progressive voter and DePaul sophomore in anthropology, would prefer Biden to not run for re-election.

“He is too moderate,” Widener said. “He tries to walk in the middle and ends up making both sides unhappy, which is why I think his approval rating is so low.”

Widener said Biden has fallen short on his promises many times, especially regarding the student debt relief program Biden proposed to dismiss $10,000 of approved students’ college loans. Widener said apart from pulling the United States troops out of Iraq, he is “not a fan” of Biden.

“I did not expect Biden to pull us out of Iraq,” Widener said. “That was surprising and something I actually appreciated, but I haven't been surprised by his shortcomings.”

Widener dislikes how Biden is a strictly “middle of the road” politician,

but for many Chicagoans like Emma Kate Bretzlaff, a Democratic socialist voter and DePaul sophomore in political science, Biden’s moderate stance makes him a “safe choice.”

“I want Biden to run in 2024 because I think he’s the only democrat who can rally support from independents and moderate Republicans,” Bretzlaff said. “I never liked Biden as a candidate because I think he is too moderate and I’m still upset with how he treated Anita Hill, however I see the value in a safe moderate candidate.”

Bretzlaff said she thinks people have too soon forgotten about how Biden treated Hill, an attorney and educator who accused Clarence Thomas, a U.S. Supreme Court judge, of sexual assault in 1991.

“I think people forgot too soon about how Joe Biden treated Anita Hill,” Bretzlaff said. “It’s hard to respect someone who treated a Black woman so poorly. However, I understand that his moderate values and classic American persona make him electable.”

While the “classic American persona” is appealing to a lot of Americans, Widener said this type of politician is the type to not keep promises.

He said the type of candidate he would prefer to vote for needs to “support policies that will benefit and uplift the working and middle class of this country, as well as Black and brown folks, women, the homeless and immigrants.”

“They need to be pragmatic,” Widener said. “Giving concrete examples that will benefit me and the people around me, rather than fancy buzzwords and shallow promises.”

Bretzlaff said she would also like to see bold changes in the U.S., but ultimately there needs to be more moderate people that come before the people with strongly progressive campaigns.

“I think we need to take baby steps towards repairing this country,” Bretzlaff said. “And Biden is capable of helping with the baby steps we need so that in a few years someone more liberal can come and make real changes.”

Widener said he would prefer to vote for someone who pushes “the conversation towards progressive policies” but usually those candidates are independents, so it is difficult to see those candidates actually make a dent in the election when placed next to a Democrat and Republican.

“I will hesitantly vote for a moderate Democrat in the general election, since they do less harm than a Republican,” Widener said.

Bretzlaff said she is planning to see Biden in office for another four years, mainly because of his moderate stance.

“People need to understand that the incumbent president typically wins if they choose to run again,” Bretzlaff said. “Especially if they aren’t an anomaly like Trump was.”

On Friday, when Biden arrived at Knock Airport in Ireland to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement between the U.S., Ireland and the U.K., he said he would announce it “relatively soon” but did not provide any further details on timing.

NIALL CARSON | PA VIA AP A protester is seen as people gather outside Ulster University in Belfast on April 12.

PATRICK SEMANSKY | AP

President Joe Biden walks to board Air Force One on April 11 with his son Hunter Biden, left, and sister Valerie Biden. Biden is traveling to the United Kingdom and Ireland to celebrate the Good Friday Agreement.

CAROLYN KASTER | AP

President Joe Biden speaks at the Cummins Power Generation Facility in Fridley, Minn., on Monday, April 3. Many say they do not want Biden to run for re-election in 2024.

ALICIA GOLUSZKA | THE DEPAULIA

'Here, We Do' — cut vaulable faculty

By Lucia Preziosi Contributing Writer

Following the developing news of DePaul's budget crisis, university personnel and students are reacting to attempts made in the past week to patch a $56.5 million gap, partially through faculty cuts. Where DePaul is deciding to cut first reveals what is valued by the university, and what is disregarded.

As faculty cuts commence, information is being pieced together by students and personnel in attempts to achieve a sense of transparency in this process which proves to be exceedingly puzzling.

DePaul’s mission statement reads as follows: “...we support faculty and staff to be effective educators regardless of their academic discipline or role...”

With DePaul’s blatant commitment to a diverse community of educators, the cuts that have been seen thus far disprove this mission to the highest degree.

"They're not going to save money from this," said a term faculty professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (LAS), who wished to remain anonymous. "They're going after us as if we haven't accomplished anything or given service to DePaul."

Term faculty at DePaul are instructors who work full-time, on a non-tenured track, while receiving benefits from the institution such as health insurance.

Not only does cursory termination fall short of addressing such a deep budget gap, but it takes away an important part of DePaul student experience, with many who feel supported and seen by their term faculty in a predominantly white institution.

"[Term faculty] are also the

ones teaching intersectional material, that helps attract students who feel they're finally being recognized by the literature," the LAS lecturer said.

General enrollment is still facing a decline, with DePaul's 2020 enrollment summary showing a 0.6% drop.

DePaul should invest more in programs that appeal to an exceedingly progressive and diverse generation of incoming students, with the Pew Research Center concluding that Gen-Z is more racially and ethnically diverse than previous generations.

This commitment would be a crucial step in helping DePaul extensively achieve the Vincentian mission of an inclusive community.

"Depaul’s supposed commitment to equity and inclusion is proven to be a lie when the services intended to provide these values are slashed so that the highest paid individuals at this university face no consequences themselves," said Ryan Toomey, a junior political science student.

Erika Sánchez, an acclaimed author with numerous best-selling titles, took to Instagram on Tuesday following the perplexing news that her contract as a faculty member in the Latin American and Latino studies department would not be renewed.

Ironically, DePaul is attempting to establish itself as a Hispanic serving institution, according to DePaul’s global engagement page.

"This just further proves to me that success won't protect you from white supremacy or capitalism, which are one in the same. I will fight them until I croak," Sánchez wrote.

Students came in herds to support Sánchez, expressing disgust and sadness in losing such a crucial faculty member

who helped them to establish their own identity, while recognizing Sánchez's termination is just a glimpse into the uglier reality of American academia.

"The fact that they ignore our accomplishments makes it easier to fire us," the LAS lecturer said.

In addition to Sánchez's termination, a professor in American Sign Language recently received similar news.

Both the Latino studies program and ASL are integral to upholding the values DePaul advertises. They will flourish with a prioritization of dedicated faculty, which is not the attitude the institution has chosen to adopt.

Other solutions need to be creatively processed besides rapid cuts of successful and meaningful professors.

"We have an administratively heavy

university, and all of those people make in the six digits and have very little touch with what's going on in the classroom," the LAS lecturer said.

"All of us have telephone lines in our offices and none of us use them…that could be some sort of savings," the lecturer said, signaling numerous imaginative ways to address this shortfall rather than resorting to faculty termination.

Students are also calling for alternate solutions, suggesting a reduction in the enormous salaries of administrators.

"Cuts should start from the top... rather than harming the people who provide education- the whole point of the university," Toomey said.

Salma Ghanem, DePaul’s current provost, accumulated a salary of more than $400,000 in 2021, likely raking in a higher salary today. Eugene Zdziarski, Vice President of Student Affairs, received a salary greater than $340,000 in 2020.

DePaul should reconsider its verdict in this crisis, and instead continue to establish and nurture departments that aid students in asserting their identities, uplift marginalized students and in turn, do the same for faculty who dedicate their work to doing so.

"You don't have a university without the people that teach," the LAS lecturer said.

The handling of this crisis raises doubt of how dedicated the institution is to the values they present on the billboards in downtown Chicago and on the CTA buses which travel across the city.

But, DePaul's commitment to a Vincentian mission may just be another opportunity for advertisement and profit.

“We have a administratively heavy university, and all of those people make in the six digits and have very little touch with what's going on in the classroom."

Anonymous College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences lecturer

The DePaulia staff is committed to providing the paper’s readers with information they need to know,

Op-ed: SGA president addresses budget gap

By K evin HoLecHKo Student Government Association President

My fellow students, I would like to address the recent news surrounding the university budget, offer transparency, address misinformation being circulated and hopefully alleviate some of the concerns that have been brought before the Student Government. For the past months, DePaul’s shared governance groups: Student Government, Staff Council, Faculty Council and DePaul administration have been planning the fiscal year (FY)24 budget. Together, representatives from these groups sit on the Strategic Resource Allocation Committee (SRAC). This is a recommending body, not a decision-making body. This committee is charged with recommending a proposed university budget for the next fiscal year based on revenue projections and expenses. The recommendations are shared with the university president who can amend them or leave them as is before sharing with the Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees.

Under President Rob, who is a major advocate of shared governance and transparency, SRAC has been more transparent than ever in the budget cycle. This year President Rob and his team opened the process to include review and comments by all academic and administrative areas. They allowed increased student representation by increasing the student voice from one person to three. Rob and his team worked to ensure colleges/schools and administrative departments had time to offer suggestions and input about the budget decision-making process.

I am one of the SRAC members and I have spent these last six months engaging in complex conversations about how our tuition dollars are best being spent and how to address this budget gap. At my side, I have had two other students who are members of Student Government who have been able to advocate and ensure that budget cuts have the least possible effect on the quality of education and student services at DePaul. I am extremely proud of the work the committee has done and want the student body to be reassured that throughout every conversation, the top priority was always focused on the student experience.

Now I am not going to lie to you and try to paint a picture of rainbows. DePaul is facing some challenges ahead, the projected budget gap – it is not a deficit – that we are facing is due to a number of factors. Lower enrollment in our graduate programs along with federal funding from the early half of the pandemic ending, inflation, higher operational costs and demographic decreases in college-age people. All of these factors have come together and created a substantial projected budget gap. As a result, the university has had to make decisions that may result in reductions of employees among other cost-saving measures. While we are by no means in dire financial stress, the effects of this budget gap will be felt both on the staff, faculty and administration of the university. This is where I want to begin addressing some of the misinformation that students are getting.

First, in an effort to ensure that the

student experience, in particular, your academic experiences here are not affected, the cuts in faculty expenses are being implemented over a two-year period. The units are looking at not filling vacant positions and it is estimated that six term faculty with expectation of renewal, might not be reappointed. By implementing these reductions over a two-year period, it will ensure that the student academic experience is not harmed.

The second rumor I want to address is this idea that class sizes are going up. There is no evidence that I have seen while sitting on SRAC that would suggest class sizes will be increasing. Individual colleges are making decisions at the program levels, and if there are any increases they would likely be small and may not happen at all. If an individual department decided to combine classes next year then yes, perhaps for that one course you could see an increase in class size. However, there is no mandate from the administration requiring class sizes to increase.

The third rumor being spread is that academic programs that serve our most marginalized communities are being directly targeted by the administration and slated to be merged or terminated. This is not accurate, and I have seen no evidence to support this. Terminating programs has to follow the university curricular process which requires faculty participation and review at multiple levels. It is not something that happens at random or during the middle of the academic quarter. When it comes to combining programs, it is only for administrative purposes. Departments may need to reduce the number of chairs or program directors. This would have no impact on the degree program, the courses offered, or the faculty who teach in the program. This would just be a restructuring for administrative cost savings. That said, I strongly encourage students to reach out to their dean and department chairs to share

concerns with them and ask for information on what their college is doing. I want to make clear that there were no requests to terminate any degree programs that came through SRAC.

Another piece of misinformation that I want to address is a rumor that 60% of DePaul’s budget is being cut. That rumor and percentage have no basis in reality, if our budget was in that bad of shape we would be having a very different conversation as a university. The real number is approximately 9.6% of the entire university budget.

Lastly, I wanted to address the conversation regarding the allocation of money and secret accounts being hidden across the institution. There are those who believe that DePaul secretly has reserve money in place. Or that different sectors of the university, like athletics can somehow bail out the institution. The reality is, there is no extra money. There is no wand that can be waived to fix this projected budget gap, not without changes to our spending patterns. Because DePaul’s largest expense is personnel costs, in order to continue to invest in the institution, we are required to make difficult decisions. What we are experiencing at DePaul is not unique.

I know for many students this news comes as a major shock. How could it be that several months ago we were celebrating our 125th year and now suddenly having to address a budget gap? For those who work in higher education though this conversation has been a long time coming. All across the United States, universities and colleges, public and private alike, are experiencing these budget gaps and in many cases gaps much worse than ours. I want to assure the student body that tuition increases were not used as a lever to fix this budget gap. The reality that SRAC had to face was to begin looking at reducing costs in personnel or increase tuition at a rate that would cripple more than half our student body.

I also want to highlight that while our faculty is critically important, so too are our staff members. If there is one area of the institution that will be hit hardest by this projected budget shortfall it will be staff. I encourage the student body to be a little extra supportive of staff and faculty members these next few months. The reduction in staff expenses will take place mainly through vacancies that will not be filled as well as early retirement/voluntary separation programs that are being offered to those who qualify. This will allow those employees to leave DePaul with a little extra money and start the process of searching for another job.

Just like the faculty, the university is hoping that through unfilled positions and the early retirement plan will save enough money that no staff members will need to be laid off. For any staff cuts that do happen, the university will begin targeting non-student service personnel. However again, I am not going to paint the picture as roses or guarantee that early retirement and non-filled positions will be enough. The situation for our staff members is precarious. Many of them are fearful that their jobs are at risk and rightfully so. The protections that are in place for our faculty are much stronger than our staff.

The reality of the situation is that over the course of these next few months, students will have to be willing to not only be patient but also show grace to staff and faculty as we move together through this. DePaul is a resilient place, we have been around for 125 years after all. While we are experiencing these stressful moments, we are also on the verge of greatness. These budget gaps will come to an end and the conversation will change from what we have to cut to what we can grow.

The President's office is hosting Design DePaul sessions, where students, faculty and staff can have a direct say in designing the future of DePaul University. The next student session is at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 20 at the Student Center. I strongly encourage the student body to show up and make your voice heard. If you believe that defending the faculty and staff is a key part of the student experience, come to a design session and let the university know. Let them know that your college experience would not be the same if it was not for that staff member or faculty member who had a major impact on your educational experience. Having worked with President Rob and his team this past year, if there is one thing he has constantly reinforced is the notion that we cannot cut ourselves to greatness.

In order to transform DePaul into the national model for higher education it will require immense work. There will be speed bumps and setbacks along the way, as we all know growth isn’t always linear. What we as a university are facing is indeed a setback and a moment for us to pause and reflect. It is a moment to recommit to our Vincentian values and truly hold one another accountable when one side is not doing their part. We will emerge in a stronger position, better suited to propel us into a generation of greatness and move us one step closer to being the national model in higher education.

KIERSTEN RIEDFORD | THE DEPAULIA

Kevin Holechko is serving as SGA president for the current school year. In the role, he also serves as a representative on the Strategic Resource Allocation Committee (SRAC), a group involved in recommending strategies to DePaul's various colleges to combat the budget gap.

Op-ed: DePaul’s budget crisis — Where is student government?

By WesLey JanicK i DePaul Alumnus & Former SGA Executive Vice President of Operations

This past week, DePaul University’s budget crisis, faculty and staff cuts and student organizing have been the talk of Chicago, reaching even alumni like me.

I have previously voiced here in The DePaulia my belief that the university’s ongoing crises stem from a lack of foresight to properly invest in faculty, staff and resources, particularly for marginalized students, a path that would improve the overall quality of the university.

However, I believe the sudden emergence this past week of grassroots student organizing efforts to combat the announced budget cuts, circumventing established channels of administration-student interaction, brings attention to deeper, more troubling questions about the overall efficacy and relevancy of student government at DePaul.

As enshrined in its own constitution, the DePaul Student Government Association (SGA) serves “as an official voice for... the student body,” entitling it to seats on vital co-governance committees such as the Strategic Resource Allocation Committee (SRAC) and the Tuition Pricing Committee (TPC), which ultimately dictate the university’s budget. Co-governance comprises the main governing bodies at DePaul, Faculty and Staff Councils, SGA, Joint Council, bodies established to allow various stakeholders to contribute to DePaul’s administration. Participation in these co-governance committees grants SGA the information and power that in theory empower it to directly address the two primary demands of Monday’s organizers: accountability and an independent audit of the budget.

Why, then, was SGA largely absent on

Monday from the protest and from the meetings between student organizers and administration? Why did students turn to these newcomer grassroots organizers instead of turning to their “official” voice at SGA?

The answer is clear to me: SGA has become all but useless in this kind of advocacy. While it may be the official channel for students to direct their voices to the university administration, SGA has lost its own transparency, substance and direction. SGA’s response to the budget crisis illustrates these deficiencies, and moreover reflects the growing disconnect between SGA and students and faculty.

SGA President Kevin Holechko patronizingly dismissed the forthcoming cuts to jobs as simply an issue of communication, simply the result of faculty and staff lacking proper understanding of the budgeting process, and insisting that the loss of faculty, certificates and programs will not disrupt students’ academic experience because it is planned to be phased over two years.

Frankly, Holechko’s assertions are both insulting and patently false.

Despite everything the university administration has done to try to keep faculty from organizing such as encouraging faculty not to unionize in favor of keeping a “direct working relationship”, faculty and staff have kept themselves well informed of pending budget cuts and the threat these cuts pose to their jobs. They know about their seat on SRAC, they know how the budget is made and for some, sadly, they know they will be seeking a new job for next fall.

Similarly, phasing budget cuts over two years is nothing but a flaccid attempt by the

administration to soften the blow. How could the loss of one’s certificate program or the departure of beloved faculty members not impact students’ academic experiences, let alone faculty members’ whole lives?

SGA’s sad decline into nothing more than a mouthpiece of the university administration has also previously been highlighted by its past failure to meaningfully address other pressing issues on campus. SGA was largely absent from the struggle of DePaul’s dining workers, leading grassroots student organizers to instead take charge, much like at Monday’s protest.

It was through these students, through the workers themselves, and through those workers’ union, UNITE HERE Local 1— not through SGA—that a new contract was

won. SGA was nowhere to be found, sitting on its hands while its members collected their scholarships for their so-called service at SGA.

This has unfortunately become par for the course for SGA, with voter turnout to its barely contested elections, declining 40% year-over-year from 2021 to 2022, a resounding rebuke of SGA’s stunning lack of relevancy. What even is the point of SGA anymore? This question reverberates even more loudly after Monday’s hastily organized protest earned grassroots student organizers a meeting with key administrators despite a lack of any formal SGA titles to open those doors for them.

What is the place for an organization like SGA, meant to serve as the representatives for students, when administrators choose to meet instead with grassroots student organizers? SGA has the privilege of access, a seat at the table and institutional knowledge, so why does it decide against zealously advocating for students and their academic experience? What claim does this kind of organization have to serve as the official voice of students when its declining voter turnout has reached the depths of less than 2% of the student body?

As a former member of DePaul’s SGA, I assure you that SGA has long lost its claim to any of these. Still, while students may have been abandoned by their “official” voice at SGA, Monday’s protest reminded us all of the strength, resiliency and solidarity of DePaul’s student body.

I doubt we will soon forget the power the student body has when it comes together like this.

“This has unfortunately become par for the course at SGA, with voter turnout to its barely contested elections, declinging 40% yearover-year from 2021 to 2022."

Wesley Janicki DePaul Alumni

Wesley Janicki (‘22) was the SGA Executive Vice President of Operations from 2020 to 2021.

AMBER STOUTENBOROUGH | THE DEPAULIA

Student protestors cover the sidewalk outside the Lincoln Park Student Center, on the corner of Sheffield Ave. and Belden Ave. with phrasres in support of DePaul faculty and staff.

The record ‘Shrine

Miyagi Records opens in the Washington

By Una Cleary Focus Editor

Off the Green Line’s Garfield stop, DJ Nigel Ridgeway organizes records, ranging from Afro Jazz to Chicago house music. Miyagi Records, owned by DJ’s Marco Jacobo and Ridgeway, opened this Friday in Washington Park’s “Art Block.” Miyagi means “shire fortress” in Japanese, an image Ridgeway and Jacobo portray in their record store, protecting the music rooted in the community.

As a “BIPOC”-owned record store, Miyagi serves Washington Park and the larger Southside community, reflected through music endemic to the area, according to Ridgeway. Artists such as Marvin Gaye, Shaggy, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, and Pink Floyd line the shelves and walls of Miyagi. “We saw how the Southside was divested in and wealth was extracted, that’s 100% not our intent,” Ridgeway said. Miyagi is in the Washington Park Art Block, a collection of cultural spaces a part of the Rebuild Foundation.

The Rebuild Foundation’s mission is to create a platform for art, cultural development and neighborhood transformation for the South Side of Chicago. Founded by University of Chicago professor and artist Theaster Gates, it addresses the need for Black spaces in the Washington Park community.

“It’s meant to show the neighborhood that the university isn’t just here for itself,” Ridgeway said.

With longstanding roots in the Hyde Park community, the University of Chicago has received ongoing requests for reparations to South Side neighborhoods. Last year, student group UChicago Against Displacement

and community groups Southside Together Organizing for Power, Not Me WE and the CBA Coalition requested to give more than $70 million per year for affordable housing and education programs as reparations for its role in segregating and gentrifying the South Side, according to Block Club Chicago.

“Arts and public life were meant to sort of address that,” Ridgeway said. “How can universities work better with the community to be more inviting to the community?” For customer Kyle Hodges, Miyagi Records creates space for community members.

“Given the context of where it’s at, it’s a complementary piece of a larger puzzle,” Hodges said.

For Ridgeway, record shops were a place where he always wanted to be, a place to listen to music beyond the local radio stations, before the digital age.

“It’s a creative atmosphere, but it’s also conducive to sharing knowledge,” Ridgeway said. Moving to Chicago in the ‘90s from the Baltimore area, Ridgeway had his best friend and his passion for music here. Much of his career included DJing in the Chicago area, starting before the digital age and records incorporated themselves into his work. “You could use your turntables to control your mp3 like they were records, so that’s how we got into it,” Ridgeway said.

Networking and making his face known in the scene way has always been part of his work as a creative.

At the start of the pandemic, Ridgeway had plans to push his DJ career to a whole new level. But as Covid-19 hit, he saw gig after gig get canceled. His path suddenly redirected itself.

As DJ buddies and former roommates, Ridgeway and Jacobo sold re-

cords out of a storage unit packed to the brim. He advises young creatives to put in the work and the time to perfect the craft.

With the resurgence of records, young people attributed to the increase in vinyl sales. Revenues from physical music formats continued to grow in 2022 as vinyl record sales grew 17% to $1.2 billion according to RIAA. With easy access to digital streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, many young people are looking for something different.

“For your demographic, it’s discovering this whole new way to enjoy music,” Ridgeway said. “That is completely different from what you have been doing.”For customer and artist Mathen, browsing in a record store brings him a sense of nostalgia.

“The activity of going to a record store and searching for a treasure is way different than cruising Spotify,” Mathen said.

Miyagi Records is open Thursday 4 p.m.-9 p.m., Friday noon to 9 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m at 307 E Garfield Blvd.

Co-owner Nigel Ridgeway with his newborn baby

For customer and artist Mathen (right), Miyagi

”We saw how the Southside was divested in and wealth was extracted, that’s 100% not our intent,”

Nigel Ridgeway

Co-owner of Miyagi Records

Miyagi Records is a part of

‘Shrine Fortress’

Washington Park Arts Block

What does Miyagi mean?

Miyagi means ‘shrine fortress’ in Japanese, an image the record store portrays.

What is the Rebuild Foundation?

Led by artist and University of Chicago professor Theaster Gates, the Rebuild Foundation is a series of projects providing free arts programming and creating new cultural amenities on the Southside of Chicago.

What is the Washington Park Arts Block? A series of spaces in the Washington Park neighborhood led by the Rebuild Foundation that provides venues for art, entertainment and education.

Scan

opening of Miyagi Records, located in the Washington Park neighborhood.

La DePaulia

‘Me han arrebatado esto’

By Jacqueline cardenas Jefa de Redacción,

Erika L. Sánchez, reconocida escritora y profesora asociada en la Universidad DePaul, recibió la noticia el 10 de abril de que su nombre estaba entre los de seis profesores cuyos contratos no se renovarán para el próximo año escolar debido a la brecha presupuestaria de $56.5 millones de dólares de la universidad.

“No lo vi venir”, dijo Sánchez sobre el correo electrónico del decano de la Facultad de Artes Liberales y Ciencias Sociales (LAS) en el cual le informaron que su contrato terminaría en junio.

Sánchez dijo que fue una “terrible decisión” de parte de la universidad debido a la reputación positiva que ella tiene con la comunidad latina de DePaul.

Sánchez es la directora Sor Juana

Inés de la Cruz del programa de Estudios Latinoamericanos y Latinos, un reconocimiento otorgado a latines que hacen contribuciones importantes a Chicago y Estados Unidos, según DePaul.

Los presidentes anteriores incluyen a las escritoras latinas Ana Castillo, Achy Obejas y a la periodista ganadora del premio Emmy, María Hinojosa, en el 2012.

A pesar de su éxito como autora, poeta, ensayista y su libro “No Soy Tu Hija Mexicana Perfecta” siendo adaptado a la pantalla grande, Sánchez dijo que las mujeres latinas siempre han sido subestimadas.

“¿En qué punto seremos suficientes?

¿Cuántos logros necesitan para que sientan que soy una persona válida para conservar? No sé qué más puedo hacer”, dijo Sánchez.

La noticia provocó descontento entre los estudiantes latinos que dicen que ya carecen de un sentido de representación y pertenencia en DePaul.

“Me hizo sentir muy enojada y muy triste”, dijo Leslie Camacho, una estudiante de último año de DePaul.

Como estudiante mexicoamericana de primera generación, Camacho expresó que es “decepcionante” que ella nunca podrá tomar una de las clases

de Sánchez. Dijo que se podría haber sentido identificada con su experiencia mientras navegaba las dificultades de ser una de las primeras en su familia en seguir una educación superior.

“Siento que mis alumnos realmente apreciaron eso de mí y cómo los escuché y me preocupé por ellos”, dijo Sánchez, refiriéndose a su experiencia compartida como graduada universitaria de primera generación.

Flavio Díaz, líder estudiantil de MESA, una organización cultural centrada en latines, dijo que terminar el contrato de Sánchez a pesar de los esfuerzos de la universidad para convertirse en una Institución al Servicio de los Hispanos (HSI) muestra la “hipocresía” detrás de los valores de la institución arraigados en la diversidad, la equidad y la inclusión.

En el 2021, DePaul creó un grupo de trabajo liderado por profesores con la meta de ayudar a la universidad a llegar a que un 25% de la población estudiantil sea hispana para poder solicitar fondos federales con el Título V, que calificaría a la universidad como una HSI.

Los fondos obtenidos por la universidad, si fuera reconocida como una HSI, se podrían utilizar para tutorías académicas, asesoramiento, servicios de apoyo a los estudiantes y la compra de materiales educativos, entre otros recursos para estudiantes latinos.

El 31 de marzo, los líderes del Center for Latino Research se reunieron con el presidente de la institución Robert L. Manuel para discutir planes futuros sobre cómo impulsar la agenda de HSI, de acuerdo a Carolina Sternberg, la Presidenta del Departamento de Estudios Latinoamericanos y Latinos (LALS).

De acuerdo a un censo de investigación institucional y análisis de mercado (IRMA), de otoño de 2022, el 23% de los estudiantes de pregrado

aceptados por DePaul son hispanos.

“Creo que no está bien ver estos recortes reflejados en la muy poca población de profesores diversos que ya tenemos porque la mayoría de los profesores diversos que afirman que tenemos [son] nuestros profesores adjuntos”, comentó Díaz.

Un informe de 2020 muestra que de los 870 profesores de tiempo completo, los profesores negros e hispanos solo representaban un 6% del total, de acuerdo a IRMA.

Sánchez dijo que muchos de sus estudiantes le dijeron que ella era la única profesora de color que habían tenido en DePaul.

También mencionó que la falta de representación racial diversa entre los profesores es “alarmante” y la decisión de la universidad de descontinuar su contrato es “muy simbólica de lo que están priorizando, y no es a los estudiantes”.

El decano de LAS, Guillermo Vásquez de Velasco, dijo en una declaración a La DePaulia, que “el nombramiento a corto plazo de la facultad fue un intento de implementar una estrategia de crecimiento para aumentar la inscripción. El cambio era necesario para asegurar que el programa tuviera los componentes correctos para garantizar el éxito continuo de este programa académico que está profundamente arraigado en la misión de la universidad”.

La declaración también mencionó que el departamento de LAS planea dar la bienvenida a un nuevo miembro de la facultad de tiempo completo en el otoño de 2023.

Gianna Aguilar-Valencia, una estudiante de tercer año de DePaul, dijo que la universidad debería ser más transparente en su proceso de toma de decisiones y en la forma en que afecta a los estudiantes.

“Pagamos tanto en matrícula, hacemos tantas cosas”, dijo AguilarValencia. “[Nosotros] les traemos [un] tipo de reputación y, sin embargo, no obtenemos el sistema de apoyo que estamos tratando de construir en esta comunidad”.

Vásquez de Velasco dijo que apoya los continuos esfuerzos de la universidad para convertirse en una HSI en el comunicado.

Fue su amor por conectarse con los estudiantes lo que atrajo a Sánchez a ser profesora desde un principio.

“Nunca necesité este trabajo. Quiero enfatizar que fue porque creía en esto, me importaba. Quería ser una profesora, quería llegarle a los estudiantes”, dijo Sánchez. “Me duele que me hayan arrebatado esto. También les han quitado esa experiencia a los estudiantes que realmente se sintieron entusiasmados con mis clases”.

Sánchez ha criticado públicamente a la universidad en sus plataformas de redes sociales.

“DePaul no se preocupa por sus estudiantes y profesores de color”, publicó en su cuenta de Instagram con más de 22,000 seguidores.

También estaba programada para hablar en Latinx graduation, una reunión anual de estudiantes latinos que se gradúan y celebran sus logros académicos.

Vásquez de Velasco no confirmó si Sánchez hablará en el evento. “Los planes para el evento aún están en desarrollo”, dijo en un comunicado por correo electrónico.

“No quiero ninguna relación con DePaul en este momento”, dijo Sánchez. Los estudiantes han creado una petición dirigida al presidente y su oficina para que trabajen con los estudiantes para proteger a los profesores y programas en riesgo.

“Como comunidad todavía tenemos mucho por lo que luchar y abogar por nuestras comunidades”, dijo Díaz. “Al final del día, somos los únicos que lo haremos por nosotros

DePaul no renueva contrato para reconocida escritora y docente

Erika Sánchez

mismos”.

“ ¿ En que punto seremos suficientes?”

Erika L. Sánchez Escritora y docente

INSTAGRAM | @ERIKALSANCHEZ

Erika L. Sánchez, escritora del libro “No Soy Tu Hija Perfecta Mexicana”, recibió la noticia de que su contrato como profesora no será renovado para el proximo año.

La DePaulia

La Taqueria ‘El Mesón’ muestra la riqueza de cultura mexicana a través de sus murales

Por Alexa Bañuelos Escritora Contribuyente, La DePaulia

Al entrar a la Taquería El Mesón, eres recibido por un ambiente culturalmente enriquecedor con el olor de la gastronomía mexicana y las melodías de cantantes locales. Pero lo más atrayente del restaurante ubicado en el barrio de Cicero está en las paredes coloridas y vibrantes de su patio.

La taquería ha creado un ambiente que refleja sus raíces mexicanas a lo largo de 28 años pero fue el noviembre pasado cuando los dueños incorporaron en su fachada murales inspirados en comunidades indígenas y en tradiciones religiosas.

Angélica Garfias, quien ha trabajado de mesera en la taquería por 15 años, dijo que la intención detrás de la incorporación de los murales es mostrar a la comunidad aspectos distintos de la cultura mexicana.

“Para que se viera algo diferente, algo de nuestra cultura”, dijo Garfias.

Últimamente los murales han llamado la atención dentro y fuera de la comunidad por su estilo estético.

“A mí me gusta porque se ve el contraste de los colores. Muy llamativos”, comentó Garfias.

El artista mexicano quien creó los murales, conocido como Mr.Pintamuro, opera desde el barrio de La Villita. Él se dedica a promocionar solidaridad con las comunidades indígenas y la unificación de la gente por medio del arte. Para pintar los murales en el restaurante, trabajó durante dos meses en colaboración con la organización Little Village Local.

Little Village Local es una organización comunitaria de artistas jóvenes de La Villita dedicada a ofrecer a los adolescentes refugio y una salida creativa de violencia y pandillas dentro de la comunidad.

“Nos esforzamos por crear un ambiente con el que los jóvenes en riesgo puedan conectarse y honrar a nuestros amigos fallecidos al hacerlo”, añadió Carlos Acevedo, un miembro de Little

Village Local.

Ambos, Mr.Pintamuros y Little Village Local, fueron comisionados para crear los murales mezclando los paisajes del estado mexicano de Morelos y otras imágenes que incorporan aspectos espirituales e indígenas de la cultura Mexicana.

“En lugar de una idea superficial, nos inspiramos en elementos significativos de nuestra cultura y los combinamos con los impresionantes paisajes de Morelos, México, de acuerdo con la solicitud del propietario que nos encargó”, dijo Acevedo.

Los aspectos espirituales de los murales incluyen a la Virgen de Guadalupe y el Dios del Maíz.

“Nuestro objetivo fue incorporar tanto elementos de la cultura indígena como la figura icónica de la Virgen de Guadalupe, que tiene un amplio reconocimiento y significado para nuestra gente”, indicó Acevedo.

La profesora de Historia de Arte Latinoamericana, Delia Cosentino, se especializa en la cultura visual de México y reconoce que las representaciones de estas figuras espirituales son muy valiosas.

“Estas cosas tienen el elemento

adicional de ser símbolos divinos y, por lo tanto, tienen la posibilidad de animar a las personas y hacer que se sientan conectadas no solo entre sí, sino también con un poder superior”, explicó Cosentino.

Mediante el uso de estas representaciones, Mr.Pintamuro y Little Village Local anhelan unificar y empoderar las comunidades Mexicanas desatendidas en el área.

“Representar imágenes edificantes y empoderadoras en murales puede traer una luz diferente en la comunidad para trabajar hacia un cambio positivo y promover una sensación de optimismo y resiliencia”, dijo Acevedo.

Además de estos esfuerzos, ambos testifican que las narrativas indígenas frecuentemente son pasadas por alto en las clases de historia. Entonces, Little Village Local sostiene que exponiendo individuos a narrativas indígenas no sólo unifica la gente, sino que también ayuda a incorporar la perspectivas necesarias para combatir desigualdades en las comunidades desatendidas mexicanas.

“Es importante porque el arte tiene el poder de generar conversaciones y

desafiar las estructuras de poder existentes”, dijo Acevedo.

Cosentino enfatizó el valor de incorporar estas perspectivas culturales por medio del arte.

“Aprender sobre las tradiciones artísticas puede humanizar a las personas que son diferentes o distantes de ti y, por lo tanto, aprender sobre su cultura, ya sea arte, comida o sistemas de creencias, puede ayudar a romper los estereotipos”, comentó Cosentino.

Por su parte, miembros de Little Village Local dicen anhelar a constituir esos mismos objetivos. “Esperamos que las personas puedan explorar su patrimonio cultural, recuperar su historia y desarrollar un sentido de orgullo en ellos cuando vean estos murales”, expresó Acevedo.

Los murales están disponibles durante los horarios de servicio de la Taquería El Mesón del lunes al domingo de las ocho de la mañana a la uno de la mañana. Y pueden conectar con Mr.Pintamuro y a Little Village Local en Instagram.

Tenoch Huerta en su visita a Chicago habla sobre la representación étnica en el mundo del entretenimiento

Tenoch Huerta, un actor mexicano conocido por sus actuaciones en películas como ‘Wakanda Forever’, habló sobre la importancia de la representación étnica en la televisión en su visita a Chicago para el Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo o C2E2.

C2E2 es una convención dedicada a los cómics, cultura pop, novelas gráficas, anime, manga, videojuegos, juguetes, películas y televisión; comúnmente referida como el “comic-con de Chicago”.

Aunque la pandemia puso el evento en pausa en el 2020, ha habido tres convenciones de C2E2 en el McCormick Place en los últimos años. Alrededor de 75,000 personas asistieron en esta ocasión.

Durante su visita, Huerta mencionó un momento especial cuando vio a un niño vestido como Namor y cómo deseaba haber podido crecer con actores que se parecían a él en la televisión y en las películas. Namor es un personaje que aparece en los cómics de Marvel, a quien Huerta representó en la película Wakanda Forever.

Ahora que es un actor conocido por la comunidad Latina y Huerta dijo que

siente un gran honor por ser alguien con quien las futuras generaciones puedan identificarse.

“Gracias a ustedes estoy donde estoy ahora, la persona que tiene que agradecerles soy yo, ustedes que me abrieron las puertas, sin ustedes, mis compañeros actores mexicanos y latinoamericanos ni yo estaríamos en este país y por eso mi arduo trabajo es por ustedes y lo menos que puedo hacer es estar a la altura de su

sacrificio”, dijo Huerta, señalando a la audiencia.

El evento también brinda una oportunidad para que los artistas independientes puedan mostrar sus creaciones.

Una artista visual de San Francisco, Jesse Hernández, también conocida como UrbanAztec, asistió a C2E2 por primera vez.

El proceso creativo de UrbanAztec es influenciado por partes de su identidad

étnica.

“Desde el principio, mi arte siempre refleja mi propia herencia, mexicoamericana, chicana y nativa americana”, dijo UrbanAztec.

Otra artista que asistió al evento fue Kayden Phoenix, la creadora de ‘A LA BRAVA’, una serie de libros sobre las historias de súper heroínas latinas.

Phoenix es una escritora y directora que defiende la diversidad étnica, tanto delante como detrás de la cámara. Ella y su equipo debutaron al primer equipo de superhéroes latinos en la historia de los cómics.

“Destacar estas historias [latinas] es sumamente importante por la representación que tenemos que ver para creer y el hecho de que no tenemos un superhéroe latino en la pantalla grande, que por cierto es mi objetivo con las historias que mi equipo crea, las personas necesitan verse a sí mismas como superhéroes, también necesitan verse a sí mismas como princesas”, dijo Phoenix cuando se le preguntó cuán importante es la representación en la cultura pop.

Si quieres saber más sobre C2E2 puedes ir a su sitio web o seguir sus redes sociales.

ALEXA BAÑUELOS | LA DEPAULIA

ERICK QUEZADA| LA DEPAULIA

El Dios de Maíz rodeado por mariposas monarcas y mujeres indígenas pintados en un mural.

Tenoch Huerta platicando durante un panel en C2E2 sobre la representación étnica.

Por Andrea Juárez Hernández Editora de Arte y Vida, La DePaulia

Un mural lleno de símbolos mexicanos como La Virgen de Guadalupe.

ALEXA BAÑUELOS | LA DEPAULIA

Arts & Life

Michelangelo’s ‘David’ insights controversy over parental rights

By LiLLy K eLLer Arts & Life Editor

On Sept. 8, 1504, Italian sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti unveiled his over 12,000-pound marble statue "David," based on the biblical hero who defeated the giant Goliath.

For nearly 400 years, locals and tourists alike marveled at the 17-foot-tall sculptor in Florence, Italy's Piazza della Signoria, before being permanently relocated inside Galleria dell'Accademia.

Although considered by many art historians to be the climax of Renaissance art — a period defined by humanism philosophy and a naturalistic manner — controversy has hounded "David" since its creation.

Yet, before Tallahassee Classical School Principal Hope Carrasquilla resigned after parents deemed a Renaissance art lesson that featured a photograph of the historic statue “pornographic” and before the Vatican launched a campaign to clothe "David," the creation faced a tense political and cultural attitude.

"David was both a religious symbol and political symbol," said DePaul history professor Karen Scott.

"David was the young boy who slayed the giant, and so he represented the underdogs who fight off really aggressive enemies successfully, and the city of Florence thought of itself that way."

Following the Medici family's decadelong exile from Florence to Rome due to a decline in power, an anti-Medici Republican had settled in their absence.

Despite the Medici backing of Michelangelo's early career, "David's" placement — with his gaze facing Rome and arm poised to cast a stone toward the Medician Goliath if required — has been classified as anti-Medici sentiment.

However, the statues’ unabashed nudity has always been its strongest point of contention, garnering backlash from artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci, who suggested it be given a loin cloth, and leaving many Florentines offended by the sculptor's nakedness.

Following the statue's assemblage, the Catholic Church obliged Michelangelo to bind a garland of 28 copper leaves around "David's" waist until the wreath's quiet removal in 1550.

"By the end of the 1500s and by the end of the 16th century, there was really a different atmosphere in Europe," Scott said.

"After the Protestant Reformation and Puritanism developing in Protestant circles, it also developed in Catholic circles, a kind of prudishness that was very different from what had been the case in previous centuries."

Still, in the years since the creation of "David," the West has remained divided on what ideologies and messages to teach in the classroom.

Barney Bishop III, the chair of Tallahassee Classical School, stated that the complication with the Renaissance lesson was not the nudity but the administration's failure to comply with the board's policy.

He said that the school should have notified parents so they could request a different lesson if they felt "David" was

too inappropriate for the sixth-grade class.

"I can understand [parents' reaction] but as a historian, I know why it was made this way and how it is intended to be viewed," Scott said.

"But we today look at art with our own eyes and our own historically conditioned culture today. So indeed, for some people it's going to appear pornographic."

Still, the question of whether or not parental opinions belong in the classroom remains unclear.

"I can understand the choice to reaffirm parental rights," said Isabel Kampfner, DePaul senior and art history and architecture major.

"However, I believe censoring art in schools will create more ignorant people who will then impose their ignorance onto their children, which begs the question, if it begins, will it ever end?"

Adopting the Hillsdale curriculum — which emphasizes ideals of American exceptionalism and patriotism — the charter school says it will continue to show the image.

However, many, like Kampfner, worry about how parents' and states' growing moral constraints will affect the education curriculum.

"As an art history student, I have obviously come into contact with images that contain genitalia and things that are sexual in nature, but it is not a common occurrence and it is not something that is talked about at length or robustly in every class," Kampfner said.

"Instead, we look deeper into historical aspects and how artistic choices are representing the styles and sociocultural trends at the time."

University of Chicago art history professor Niall Atkinson expressed the importance of understanding the anthropological framework that coincides with a piece of art.

"Because these monuments are so normalized into our cultural heritage, we forget the kinds of stories from which they come," Atkinson said.

"You have to contextualize them, to show how art has played a role in the beautification and apology for certain forms of socially sanctioned violence, particularly against women."

The Tallahassee Classic School is not the first in Florida to restrict what materials students can and cannot learn.

In February, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced plans to prevent state colleges from implementing diversity, equity, inclusion and critical race theory programs.

"If we're going to get into issues like censorship, then I think parents should have a lot less to say," Atkinson said.

"I think we should trust libraries in school to know what is valuable and what is not and to err on the side of tolerance."

Following the incident, the Florence Museum housing "David" invited parents and charter school students to visit the statue in person.

Additionally, the city's mayor Dario Nardella tweeted an invitation to Carrasquilla to honor her personally.

PHOTO FROM WIKI

Michelangelo's "David" stands uncensored at Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, Italy. Recently, controversy has befallen the statue in light of parental rights debates.

Using the right side of the brain

Neuro-Zine event promotes Brain Awareness Week with art

By CLaire Tweedie Staff Writer

Tucked away in a McGowan North classroom, students from the DePaul Zine Club and the DePaul Neuroscience Club gather for an afternoon of arts and crafts in a first time collaboration between the two organizations. The table is scattered with loose pieces of paper, scissors and markers while attendees doodle away in their unique zines, taking a break from classes to enjoy a moment of creativity. Doing more than just using their brains to expertly cut and fold their zines though, the clubs have taken it one step further — teaching attendees about their brains while crafting during their annual Brain Awareness Week.

“Zines can come in any form and while they have a rich political history, now they also have a rich social and entertainment value,” said Madison Bosa, Zine Club president and junior. “Because of that, when my friends in the neuroscience club said they needed more creative and laidback events for Brain Awareness Week, of course I said Zine Club could help. Anything to spread the good word of the zine.”

The Neuro-Zine Craft Night on April 12 was part of the Brain Awareness Week, hosted by the DePaul Neuroscience program. The zines, small self-produced booklets meant to hold any type of text or images, were chosen for the event to help students focus on something creative rather than schoolwork. Attendees were encouraged to make neuroscience-themed zines while learning about the brain but were free to be creative with them in any way.

“They were supposed to be small education pamphlets on more niche topics in neuroscience, but we also just wanted people to be creative in that field,” said Sophie Klippel, Neuroscience Club president and junior. “Neuroscience can be creative, but it's also a pretty scientific major, so we wanted to have a place for us to have that freedom.”

Freshman Quyen Cobb is a member of the Zine Club and attended the event to make connections with the Neuroscience Club. While talking with members of

the other club, they made mini-zines filled with drawings they thought of on the spot.

“I came directly from a class where we were talking about violence in media so coming here afterwards to decompress was pretty helpful,” Cobb said. “I was feeling on edge so sitting there, hanging out with other people, and doing crafts was a good way of relaxing. It helped me so I hope it was also helpful to other people.”

Cobb firsted started making zines during the pandemic as a creative outlet to

help their mental health. When they saw the Zine Club booth at an involvement fair, they decided to join to continue the craft in college.

“I was having average high schooler problems with self doubt, and being isolated definitely exacerbated that,” Cobb said. “Getting back into the groove of social stuff is way different after the fact. Using zines as a way to express myself though has been helpful to be more open.”

The international week of awareness is

meant to promote and encourage brain research. This year’s theme is “Invest in Brain Health.” The initiative was founded in 1995 by the Dana Foundation, a private organization aimed to advance neuroscience for the betterment of society. Klippel said the clubs hosting the week’s events chose not to stick with a theme to fit in more appealing events.

Other events hosted during Brain Awareness Week included a virtual reality brain exploration, neuroscience-themed game night and trivia, and a talk with Dr. Igor Koralnik about the mental effects of Covid-19 and brain fog.

“We just wanted to do a general brain week because there were events we wanted that weren’t necessarily in a theme,” Klippel said. “We felt it was just better to engage DePaul in a way that we thought would be the most appealing to students rather than fit into something specific.”

Bosa said having the Neuro-Zine event added a much needed break from the content-heavy aspects of Brain Awareness Week. She said with the Covid-19 discussions, making zines was a way to remind people of the creativity they expressed during isolation.

“In the spirit of what people made during Covid-19, now that everyone is running themselves into the ground being productive, we still need to take a break,” Bosa said. “By sitting down, talking with friends, and drawing some little doodles in a zine, we can get in touch with being a person again rather than a worker or student.”

Klippel hopes the Neuro-Zine event encouraged people to join the Neuroscience Club and help students in the neuroscience department meet people outside their major. The club does not currently have plans to collaborate with other organizations on-campus but hopes to continue teaching students about neuroscience outside of the classroom.

“I want more arts with sciences so students can participate and explore that combination in their own studies,” Klippel said. “You can be creative even in STEM, and we wanted a place for us to express that freedom during [Brain Awareness Week].”

"You can be creative even in STEM, and we wanted a place for us to express that freedom," Sophie Klippel DePaul junior

Maya Holman illustrates a zine, which is a handmade booklet highlighting a niche topic.

ERIN HENZE | THE DEPAULIA

ERIN HENZE | THE DEPAULIA

Ryan Chanthaphone (left), Sophia Petridis (center) and Quyen Cobb attend a collaborative zine-making night in McGowan North dur ing Brain Awarness Week.

Journalists share how to report on diverse communities

By Cary roBBins La DePaulia News Editor

Multimedia reporter Tonia Hill joined the TRiiBE, a digital news publication, because of its mission to reshape the Black communities’ narrative in Chicago.

Hill said the publication offers “a different perspective of one that people might not have necessarily considered.”

The TRiiBE’s community-based efforts to uplift Black voices is what led her to apply for the multimedia editor position.

Throughout her time at the TRiiBE, she has had to report on the experiences of other communities of color unlike her own, raising personal concerns about her ability to accurately tell their stories.

Hill wrote a story in February about Black and Brown individuals' opinions on former mayoral candidate and current U.S. Congressman Jesús ‘Chuy’ García's ability to build a coalition across communities.

relied heavily on other Latine journalists to fill any gaps she may miss as a Black journalist.

“As journalists, [we need to] be more in community with each other so that we're telling stories accurately,” Hill said. “We’re really just stronger when we work together versus separately.”

Another publication that centers community voices is MLK50: Justice Through Journalism – a local nonprofit newsroom based in Memphis, Tennessee.

Andrea Morales, the visuals director for MLK50 and photojournalist, said she has learned there are times a story needs to be passed down to another journalist who can ensure it gets the justice it deserves.

“If you're working as a journalist, you just have to acknowledge that you're always going to come in seeking who the expert is,” Morales said. “You're not the expert.”

Although Morales said she is equipped

and “knowing when to pass the torch to other journalists to tell the stories of their own community” is something with which many journalists still grapple with, Morales said.

“Most of us want the same things,” Martin said. “We want to be heard, to be validated, to be loved, to have a nice home, to be safe.”

Martin said mainstream or “legacy

ANF CHICAGO | THE TRIIBE

TRiiBE Multimedia reporter Tonia Hill interviews an incarcerated person at Stateville Correctional Center.

Portage Park: a community united through collaboration

By Jonah weBer Asst. Arts & Life Editor

On the North West side of the city lies a large, community oriented and tight-knit neighborhood called Portage Park. Within it resides bustling small business, glittering greenspace and noteworthy neighbors.

According to the Portage Park Chamber of Commerce, in the 18th and 19th centuries, Native American Tribes would use what is now Irving Park as a portage between the Des Plaines and Chicago river. A portage is an area of land that folks can carry or drag their canoes along. At the time, the Portage Park area was not good for settlement, but it had an abundance of wildlife. When urban sprawl started in Chicago in the 1860s, the Jefferson Park Township made up what is now Portage Park.

In 1912, the Portage Park District was formed to develop the park itself. It later became the name for the whole neighborhood. John Arena was the 45th Ward Alderman from 2011 to 2019. He was reelected in 2015 for his second term as Alderman. The 45th Ward consists of Portage Park, Gladstone Park, Mayfair, Edgebrook, Forest Glen and Jefferson Park.

“I can’t over impress, like how much just amazing stuff you get,” Arena said. “You get exposed to when you're in a little bit of a third largest city in the country.”

Arena has always been an advocate for community improvement, before, during, and after his time as alderman.

“I mean, we got hooked on improving the place, and there were enough people around us that were wanting the same thing to happen,” Arena said. “And that is what I like. It was all about the neighborhood.

When Arena, his wife, and two kids first moved to Portage, they were the youngest family on their block.

“It was all about how we get to a place where we can do more stuff,” Arena said. “And when you're aldermen, and something needs to get done that you'd normally have to call the city. And you know, yeah, you're like

get in line buddy. The aldermen could make change.”

The community of Portage Park and the park itself are two huge highlights of the neighborhood. As the weather has warmed up, the park is filled with dogs running around, children playing sports and residents enjoying the greenery. Beth Guzman was a resident of the Portage Park neighborhood for over a decade. She lived in an apartment and a bungalow. A bungalow is usually a single story home, sometimes there is a second story, with a sloping roof. Bungalows are a classic piece of Chicago architecture, and Portage Park is full of them.

“Once you pass Western, then it's all the people who you know are born and raised many generations in Chicago and then immigrants, so it's a really really different feeling,” Guzman said.

According to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, Portage Park in 2016 to 2020 was 47% white and 42.5% Hispanic.

Guzman described the neighborhood as very community oriented, with neighbors being very involved with one another and what is happening on their block. For DePaul students moving from small

communities, this may make them feel just at home.

“It's not transient like most neighborhoods,” Guzman said.

Ariel Parrella-Aureli has been a full-time reporter for Block Club Chicago for the past two years, covering stories on the far Northwest Side. While working this beat, Aureli has covered topics such as policing, affordable housing, politics, local businesses and the community. From reporting on this beat in Portage Park, Aureli shared some of her takeaways on the community.

“People seem very willing to work together for the most part to find the solution even though there may be differing opinions,” Aureli said.

The Northwest side is home to many first responders and is often considered one of the safest areas of the city due to this. Although, some citywide disparities of police activity have been noticed based on where a majority of police live.

“People love to support officers and also realize that they

need more support,” Aureli said. “So I think that's something we've heard, and I'm sure that you're aware of that we have heard all over the Northwest Side and even the Southwest Side with more neighborhoods that have more first responders that live there, of course, like the support is stronger, but also that means that people do realize there needs to be more resources available to them.”

Despite differing opinions at times, as Aureli said, the community still often works together. One instance she shared had to do with the development of a butterfly garden.

“This butterfly garden on Beartau in Portage Park that the lady who runs it is just so amazing, and she's retired and so she just has a lot of free time,” Aureli said.

Ruta Lietuvninkas created the Berteau Butterfly Garden. It has become a neighborhood highlight in Portage Park and has brought visitors from all over the city.

“And a lot of neighbors around her banded together to help her with the garden and expand it to her whole block. And I helped give some more press to that because not a lot of people knew that they could start a butterfly garden and like a pollinator garden on their block.” Aureli said.

Portage Park is a classic Chicago neighborhood that is well worth a visit. The park is beautiful and rich with history, and one is bound to run into kind neighbors. The Patio Theater in Portage Park hosts many events, in May you can catch Rico Nasty performing there.

JONAH WEBER | THE DEPAULIA

Portage Park resident, Linda sits with her daughter in front of the community pool.

JONAH WEBER | THE DEPAULIA Portage Park is the 15th largest community by population in Chicago. The 36 acre park anchors the neighborhood on the corner of Irving Park Rd. and N Long Ave.

What’s Fresh

What to listen to: Podcast edition

"You're Wrong About" began in 2018 and has over 189 episodes.

By LiLLy K eLLer & Jonah weBer Arts & Life Editor & Asst. Arts & Life Editor

You can never go wrong with a podcast. Whether your playlist isn’t hitting as hard as it once did, or you’re in the mood for something educational, engaging or entertaining, podcasts are always the right move. No matter where you’re going or what you have on your schedule, we’ve got you covered with our favorite historical podcasts to spice up your routine.

For lovers of history, culture and everything in between, this is the podcast for you.

Host Sarah Marshall’s empathy for reviled public figures from Karen Carpenter to Vanessa Williams creates such a unique listening experience that keeps me coming back for more every week. Marshall, alongside her slew of knowledgeable guests continuously offer unparalleled takes and commentary that is unavailable on other culture centric podcasts. Adopting a narrative format with many tangents in between, the show never feels stagnant or repetitive. You can tell that Marshall is well versed in whatever topic she and her guests are tackling, making you feel intrigued even if the topic isn’t something you would normally choose to immerse yourself in. Overall, I cannot recommend a

"Behind the Bastards"

There have been many bastards in history and this podcast doesn’t leave any of them out. Whether it’s about Saddam Hussein's romantic novel writing career or about how awful Dwight D. Eisenhower was, each episode is a deep dive into historic figures that leave out no details on their odd, malicious or unknown lives. For me, this is the perfect history podcast. Not only is it insightful and somewhat freighting, the host Robert Evans and his rotating guests create a humorous atmosphere. One of my personal favorite

episodes is “MKUltra: When the CIA Tried to Destroy Free Will.” If you like old CIA history, then you’ll love this episode. It is a deep dive into the super freaky CIA project, MKUltra. Robert Evans is joined by supernatural, humorous author Jason Pargin. The host and his guest discuss the experiments in depth and talk about how dystopian and creepy they all are.

Somehow, while discussing these topics the two are able to still keep it light, but not downplay all the atrocities that occurred, which is rare in podcasts nowadays. You can find “Behind the Bastards” wherever you listen to music.

Funnies off Jackson

PHOTO FROM WIKI

PHOTO FROM WIKI

Hosted by Robert Evans, Behind the Bastards highlights history's lesser known wrongdoers. better podcast. You can find “You’re Wrong About” wherever you listen to music.

"You're Wrong About"

St.Vincent’s

D e JAMZ

“Spinning freSh beatS Since 1581”

By LiLLy K eLLer & QuenTin BLais

Arts & Life Editor & Photo Editor

You don’t need to be religious to enjoy the harmonic mysteries of Gregorian chanting.

While the Latin hymns are traditionally sung at Catholic mass, their striking unaccompanied monophonic tone produces a unique sound, which can be appreciated by all, no matter their ability to understand the dead language or cryptic ruminations on faith.

Whether you’re looking for the perfect enigmatic ambiance to do homework or seek religious comfort, this is the DeJamz you have been waiting for.

“Parce Domine” by Stirps lesse & Enrico De Capitani – Lilly Keller

I actually have no recollection of when I started listening to Gregorian chanting. It could have been high school or four months ago, I literally could not

tell you. While I am the least religious person on the planet, there is something so perplexingly delicious about the dramatic atmosphere listening to these chants creates that I cannot stop. “Parce Domine” is one of my all-time favorites and makes me feel like the Second Coming is rapidly approaching.

“Pater Noster” by Moines de Santo Domingo de Silos – Lilly Keller

Translating to “The Lord’s Prayer,” this minute-and-a-half chant echoes something that surpasses what I learned in Sunday school when I was six.

Nevertheless, I find its response and answer pattern to be mesmerizing and easy to complete my homework since I have no clue what is being said. Maybe this is a sign I should start learning Latin on Duolingo.

“Dies Irae” by Schola Antiqua & Schola Gregoriana Hispana - Quentin Blais

Crossword

Sometimes I feel like dying and “Dies Irae” is the perfect backdrop to those days. Translating to the “day of wrath,” “Dies Irae” is a poem that describes the last day of judgment in the perfect seven-minute contemplative chant. I especially recommend listening to this song in a nightgown and by candlelight as it really drives home the “who dares knock on my door at this hour” vibe.

“Sanctus XVIII” by Cantori Gregoriani & Fulvio Rampi - Quentin Blais

Growing up in a Catholic school, the Sanctus was the weekly ambiance to which students passed out from heat exhaustion at all-school mass. You should have a similar reaction when you listen to this song. The repetitive lyrics have been stuck in my head all day since listening to it.

“Anima Christi” by Marco FrisinaBy Lilly Keller and Quentin Blais

Talk about feeling like you’re in a

ACROSS

1) St. PaulA's recess

5) Cliffside debris

10) Chowder morsel

14) It may be furrowed or knitted

15) Capricious ideas

16) Move, in Realtor lingo

17) Low-fat, casually

18) Camel's stopping place

19) "Go back," on a PC

20) Psyche section

21) Spiny-shelled crustacean

23) Roaring success

25) Do penance

26) Wall-covering workers

31) "Me, Myself and _"

(Carrey movie)

32) "Got it"

33) St. PaulA's seating

36) Celestial Seasonings products

37) Big exam

39) Clothier Strauss

40) Hairy Himalayan beast

41) Johnson of "Laugh-In"

42) Minimal amounts

43) Sidestroker's leg movement

46) Modify to fit

49) Ignited anew 50) Where gains are equally balanced by losses ( and a clue to this puzzle's theme)

54) Short-lived craze

57) Lyft alternative

58) Islam branch

59) Dunce cap shape

60) Littlest litter member

61) Unforeseen difficulties

62) Half-inning threesome

63) Cockpit guesses, for short

64) Symbolic ceremonies

65) Arduous journey

movie. This banger makes us feel like our heads are on the chopping block and eternal damnation if calling our names. The definition of soulful music, this chant is one that could quite literally raise us from the dead. Happy late Easter, everybody.

DOWN

1) Fit to serve

2) Prudish sort

3) In a way

4) Lea female

5) Nike's logo

6) Dance with a three-step tum

7) Capitalist's gamble

8) Disney's boy detective

9) Old U.S. gas brand

10) Pie perimeters

11) Slowly, in music

12) Priscilla's John

13) Julianne of "Still Alice"

21) Roast beef order

22) Like Hubbard's cupboard

24) Department store department

26) Be sorry for

27) Neck of the woods

28) Dressed to the _

29) Govt. property

overseer

30) Sniggler's quany

33) Bite-size cake

34) Escape action, briefly

35) "Ring around the collar" brand

37) TGIF part (Abbr.)

38) Common possessive

39) Trickster in Norse myth

41) Gets off the fence

42) Capri or Wight

43) Is wearing

44) Oriole color

45) Shirking one's duties

46) Clear sky color

4

7) Air for the first time

48) Where the action is

51) Cold War initials

52) Bond type, briefly

53) Swarming pest

55) _ up (pay one's share)

56) Blotter's spot

59) Cabin bed

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WIKI

Camara, Mbengue headline DePaul’s early 2023 recruiting class

By Thomas Gorski Sports Editor

DePaul head coach Tony Stubblefield and staff will head back to the drawing board this offseason after a disheartening end to the 2022-23. The team will need a significant overhaul to replace several starters and key pieces from last season’s roster.

“Being from Chicago, it’s tough for DePaul to bring in top-level talent because they can’t lean on their history and tradition to lure top recruits anymore,” Vermont Women’s Basketball Broadcaster Ryan Zimmerman said. “They’ve never built upon that.”

The team will lose Javan Johnson, Umoja Gibson, Eral Penn, Yor Anei and Brendan Favre to graduation as well as Phimon Gebrewhit and Ahamad Bynum to the transfer portal.

“I was honestly surprised,” avid college basketball fan Samuel Blackhurst said. “I thought he would finish out his career at DePaul. Hopefully Stubblefield is able to find someone in the transfer portal to replace him because he was a really good three-point shooter.”

DePaul will have seven players left from last year’s roster, opening up opportunities for Zion Cuz and Caleb Murphy to have expanded roles.

Stubblefield will need to find a way to replace both Johnson and Gibson’s offensive production as they combined for 42% of the team’s point total. Both players were on the court for more than 34 minutes each game and rarely saw the bench last season.

“Hopefully they aren’t on the roster yet,” said the owner of a popular DePaul sports social media account, who requested anonymity. “Caleb [Murphy] and Da’Sean [Nelson] are going to need to step it up offensively if we don’t land some major impact guys in the portal to match what Gibson and Johnson gave us in terms of offensive output last year.”

Stubblefield and staff have already signed three-star center Babacar Mbengue and JUCO Triton junior guard Keyondre Young to letters of intent, while receiving a verbal commitment from four-star guard Dramane ‘Ladji’ Camara from NBA Academy Africa.

Babacar Mbengue is a seven-foot, 225-pound center from Olympus Prep High School in New Jersey. He was ranked as the

No. 20 center in the 2023 class by 247sports. com and is a native of Senegal, where he played with the national team in the 2020 FIBA U18 African Championship.

Mbengue officially signed on Nov. 10 and chose DePaul over USC, Xavier, Utah and Seton Hall among others.

“Babacar [Mbengue] is a really talented young player with an incredible amount of potential,” Stubblefield said. “He has developed a lot over the last year or so and we are looking forward to getting him on campus and continuing his growth. He is a strong physical presence inside and has a desire to keep learning.”

Keyondre Young has bounced around over the last few years, as DePaul will now be his third school in three years after he spent his freshman season at Valparaiso, appearing in just eight games and last season at Triton College.

Stubblefield has shown success with junior college recruits since his arrival on campus. Last season’s roster had three former JUCO players, which include Da’Sean Nelson, Philmon Gebrewhit and K.T. Raimey.

Young appeared in 25 games for the Trojans last season with 16 starts, averaging 10.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game, while shooting 31% from beyond the arc. His best performance of the season was on Feb. 2 against Harry S. Truman College where he scored 25 points and made seven 3-pointers.

Young officially signed on Nov. 10 and chose DePaul over Texas A&M, Tulsa and Missouri.

“We’re really excited to add Keyondre [Young] next season,” Stubblefield said. “Our staff really values the experience junior college players can bring to our roster and Keyondre is no different.”

Dramane Camara is a four-star 6-foot5, 205-pound shooting guard from NBA Academy Africa. He appeared in three games this past season, averaging 5.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game, while shooting 21.7% from the field and 25% from three.

Camara verbally committed on March 13, 2023 and chose DePaul over Xavier, Chattanooga and San Jose State. Stubblefield was not available for comment as Camara’s commitment is still not official until he signs his letter of intent with the school.

According to the NCAA rules, the trans-

fer portal gives players 60 days to enter after the conclusion of the regular season/conference tournaments.

Even though DePaul has received verbal commitments from Wyoming three-star junior forward Jeremiah Oden and Minnesota three-star freshman guard Jaden Henley, the team cannot officially comment at this time until it becomes official.

Jeremiah Oden, a Chicago native and measures at 6-foot-8 and 180-pounds, has an opportunity to fill in the role that Eral Penn played this past season. Oden is projected to be a power forward, but has the ability and length to play the three through five positions.

The Chicago native spent the last three years at Wyoming and this past season, he appeared in 30 games, starting 19 of them. He averaged 9.6 points and 3.6 rebounds per game, while shooting 34.4% from beyond the arc.

Oden’s best performance of the season was on Feb. 27 against Nevada where he scored 28 points and made three 3-pointers, while shooting 9-of-13 from the field.

Jaden Henley stands at 6-foot-7, 190-pounds and has been described as a versatile wing defender that can guard the one through four positions. He averaged 5.3 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game, while shooting 37.8% from beyond the arc

for the Gophers this past season.

Henley’s best game came on Mar. 22 against Maryland where he saw 29 minutes of court action, recording a rebound and assist each, three steals and scored 14 points, all while connecting with two 3-pointers and shooting 71% from the field.

Henley received interest from multiple schools and chose to transfer to DePaul on March 18 over Boston College, Louisville, Loyola Marymount, Santa Clara, UNLV and Washington State.

The offseason is far from over, but the expectation for Stubblefield is high. As he heads into year three as head coach, the pressure is on for him to succeed and find a way to bring in recruits that can elevate the program and take them to the next level and out of the bottom of the Big East conference.

“It’s do or die for Stubbs,” the anonymous social media account owner said. “Injuries and COVID have been used as excuses in the past to justify poor performance in conference play, and those are warranted, except I didn’t see enough when the team actually was healthy that would convince me to keep Stubbs around another year if we’re bottom two in the Big East again.”

Dramane Camara is a four-star 6-foot-5, 205-pound shooting guard from NBA Academy Africa and verbally committed on March 13. He chose DePaul over Xavier, Chattanooga and San Jose State.

@TRAVISBRANHAM | TWITTER

Babacar Mbengue was DePaul’s first 2023 recruit and he officially signed on Nov. 10, 2023.

TRAVISBRANHAM | TWITTER

Peevy launches ‘Under the L’ to support DePaul student athletes

By Tom Gorski Sports Editor

Name, Imagine and Likeness (NIL) has dramatically altered the direction of where college sports are going, specifically the resources that each school has. DePaul has very limited resources, but Athletic Director DeWayne Peevy has found a way to stay ahead of the curve.

“If you look at NIL, we can help our student athletes learn, be educated and be able to be compensated for the use of their name,” Peevy said. “When the state law changed at the end of last May, for the first time we could indirectly or directly assist them with deals, so we built into trying to help them engage even more with marketing themselves to different companies.”

If a school wants to institute NIL for its athletes, they will need to establish a collective, which DePaul has with Athlete Advantage.

“Our new partnership with Athlete Advantage is yet another way we are supporting DePaul’s student-athletes in the NIL era,” said Peevy in a statement on Sept. 1, 2022. “This partnership will allow Athlete Advantage to assist DePaul student-athletes with sourcing NIL business opportunities while remaining fully compliant with all NCAA, State of Illinois, and DePaul university laws, regulations, policies, and guidelines.”

Peevy has helped establish a NIL collective at DePaul called “Under the L.” According to the website, it was created to provide opportunities for all DePaul fans to contribute and engage with the athletes they passionately support through various NIL activities.

The initiative is gaining steam outside of Chicago and throughout the college sports world. Chicago native and current Vermont women’s basketball broadcaster Ryan Zimmerman has caught attention to it.

“I think the collective is a creative idea since I think it accomplishes two goals,” Zimmerman said. “It helps athletes get much needed compensation while they’re in school, but it also helps

fans and alumni feel more connected to the athletic department and their donations matter.”

If fans support student athletes and subscribe monthly, they will be rewarded with various membership levels that are available with tons of perks. Each fan can choose the membership level they want between the Blue, Purple, Yellow, Brown, Green and Red Lines.

The cheapest subscription is the Blue Line, which costs $25 per month and includes a club membership, access to the Under The L (UTL) Club Marketplace, 15% discount on all apparel in the UTL Club Marketplace, exclusive player content, the UTL Club Sticker, two tickets to the UTL Blue-Red Scrimmage and two tickets to a Unique Fan Experience.

“I think it’s rightly priced for now, but could create problems for athletics later,” Zimmerman said of the collective subscription pricing. “Obviously, you want the members that make larger donations to get their money’s worth and provide cool benefits to them, but I think it has potential for DePaul to lose money.”

The most expensive subscription is the Red Line, which costs $1,000 per month includes entries into UTL Golf Outing along with a student-athlete dinner.

“I think the biggest challenge is understanding it,” Peevy said. “A lot of people only know about what they read on social media, and it’s a totally different story to what we’re educating our supporters and people that are close to the program about. The other challenge is the fact it’s not a tax deductible gift at this point given to our collective.”

Peevy and the rest of the athletic department has been promoting the collective on social media, trying to gather interest from fans and donors. The collective is targeted towards donors and is a way for them to help fund athletics to bring in more talent using NIL money.

“I know we’re planning on some more video content that should be going out this month,” Peevy said of their marketing strategy for “Under the L.” “We basically really put all hands on deck focusing on NIL engagement and fundraising in the short term since the season ended.”

The goal has been to find a way to get athletes at DePaul compensated for their NILbut even with them being compensated, not all athletes might be aware of

the financial implications of their deals.

“Potential tax implications are always something for young athletes to keep in mind while they sign these deals,” LaPort accountant Jerald Lyda said of the impact that NIL deals have on athletes. “College athletes need to report any NIL earnings as taxable income, even though they are not employees of the university.”

DePaul athletics over recent years have struggled to secure top-tier talent for men and women’s basketball. As of recently, NIL has played a big role in players departing from programs according to Alabama head coach Nick Saban. Not only has DePaul been affected, but all schools around the country in every sport.

Funding is a crucial point in building a successful athletics program, and without NIL money, it could potentially be difficult to recruit and compete at a high level.

“It doesn’t seem to me that DePaul’s administration supports its athletic programs as well as it used to, while other schools in the Big East put them in great positions to succeed,” Zimmerman said. “And that just creates a better athletic and college experience.”

DePaul’s rival in UConn has had success with the NIL as early as last season when junior forward Adama Sanogo was the No. 7 ranked player in the country based on earnings. Sanogo made $776,000 in NIL money, while the second closest Big East player was No. 22 ranked Villanova freshman forward Cam Whitemore, who made $399,000.

DePaul has aspirations to compete at a high level in the Big East and plan to be creative and find ways to improve their resources to match the rest of their conference rivals. Peevy has the vision and mindset to get there, but it’s ultimately just a matter of putting his and the rest of the athletics department’s plans in motion as they look towards the future.

MAYA OCLASSEN | THE DEPAULIA

Blue Demons outclassed on home turf, swept by Seton Hall

By Tom Gorski & Steve Francis Sports Editor and Contributing Writer

DePaul’s early season woes continue after a mixture of miscommunication and defensive errors result in a sweep by Seton Hall on its home turf this past weekend. The team falls to 12-24 on the season and 4-11 in Big East play.

DePaul dropped its first of a three-game weekend series against Seton Hall by a score of 9-1 on Friday. The Blue Demon loss came after the team committed three defensive errors, followed by the pitching staff struggling to contain the Pirates firepower on offense.

“I think we just need to get over the hump,” sophomore catcher Anna Wohlers said of the team’s performance. “When we make bad plays, I think we just need to focus on the next one and not have it continue. But I think we can bounce back and hopefully get it done.”

DePaul’s offense struggled against Seton Hall junior pitcher Kelsey Carr as she finished the day tossing a complete game, allowing just one run and seven hits, while punching out seven Blue Demons.

“We didn’t make any adjustments,” head coach Tracie Adix-Zins said. “Until we make offensive adjustments at the plate, and they figure out how to put the ball in play to where they’re not, it’s going to keep happening.”

Senior Brenna Smith was given the start for DePaul, but a mixture of miscommunication and a solo homerun resulted in her day in the circle being cut short. She only threw four innings, allowing seven hits and five earned runs without recording a single punch out.

“We just couldn’t play catch and field balls,” Adix-Zins said of the defense letting Smith down on the mound. “So we had two players in different positions. If you’re in a different position, communicate with everybody, but again, we were quiet, so errors happen.”

DePaul’s pitching staff struggled, allowing nine runs on 11 hits, led by Seton Hall connecting with multiple extra base hits and a solo home run by senior Shelby Smith.

Seton Hall struck first after scoring three runs in the top of the second inning after a line drive single skirted past sophomore Addison Talbot in left field, which got away from her and rolled to the wall.

The Pirates offense followed up moments later with an RBI double by junior Lela Allen and then an RBI single up the middle by freshman Andrea Perez to extend its lead 3-0.

The Blue Demons inched its way back in the bottom of the third after Anna Wohlers connected with a solo-blast to deep left center field to bring the team’s deficit down 3-1.

Seton Hall’s offense didn’t take its foot off the gas as they added three runs in the fourth, two runs in the fifth and another run in the sixth inning to secure the mercy rule victory over DePaul.

“They need to compete and figure out a way to compete and not throw in the towel,” Adix-Zins said of what the team needs to improve on moving forward. “To be blatantly honest, they need to figure out how to come together and to just compete. If we lose, we lose, but if you’ve put everything out there and you’ve made adjustments, you can’t be upset about it.”

DePaul’s offense and pitching was able to make the second game of the series more competitive in the early going. Freshman Abbey Pochie took the mound on Saturday looking to capture her second win of the season in her tenth appearance.

Seton Hall struck early with a long two run-home run by Smith in the first inning. The Pirates then added to the lead with an RBI single by junior Hannah Alexander to make it 3-0.

DePaul responded the following half inning with an RBI Single from senior Grace Frazier to cut the lead. Pochie continued the

momentum by pitching three straight scoreless innings with the help of a spectacular 6-43 double play in the top of the third inning.

“I think today we came out more prepared and ready to compete,” Adix-Zins said about their performance in game two. “They scored the two runs early, but we fought back and that is all you can ask for.”

DePaul found a spark in the fifth inning ignited by sophomore Wohlers who hit a bullet home run through a window in McCabe Hall. Sophomore Carly Alvers then added to the total by hitting a sacrifice fly to right field to tie the game.

“I think we came back stronger than yesterday and we really came together as a team today,” Wohlers said about the team’s energy going into Saturday’s game. “We just needed to score the runners on base. We left too many on base today and that was our downfall.”

Seton Hall exploded shortly after with a two run sixth inning and a four run seventh inning, putting the game out of reach for the Blue Demons.

DePaul engaged in a slug fest with Seton Hall in the final game of the series in which they came up short, losing 13-11. The offensive showcase included 27 total hits and four errors which accounted for three of Seton Hall’s runs.

With rain forecasted for the third game of the series, it was in question whether or not the game could even start. After a quick first inning, rain started to pour and the teams were rushed off the field for a rain delay which only lasted ten minutes.

Seton Hall came out of the delay with a vengeance as Alexander opened up the scoring with an RBI single to left center field. Two more runs scored on a fielder’s choice that was the result of an error by the shortstop, junior Baylee Cosgrove. The Pirates then loaded the bases and junior Kelsey Carr hit a grand slam that hit the scoreboard out in right center field.

DePaul had their own opportunity with the bases loaded in the bottom of the second. Seton Hall starting pitcher Sydney Babik walked Alvers home to open up the scoring for The Blue Demons. Talbot then ripped a two-run single into left center field to keep the game within reach.

Seton Hall then responded with four runs in the fifth inning as senior Marisa Pla started the onslaught with an RBI single to left field. Having loaded the bases once again, Carr crushed a bases clearing double into left field that put The Pirates up 11-6.

DePaul fought its way back, but it was too little, too late as they fell short, losing 13-11.

DePaul (12-24, 4-11) will take on The Northern Illinois Huskies (19-19, 9-7) in a non-conference matchup at home on Wednesday afternoon at Cacciatore Stadium with first pitch slated for 2 p.m.

LUCAS PARADES | THE DEPAULIA

Anna Wohlers steps in the batter box and takes a swing during Friday’s 9-1 against Seton Hall.

LUCAS PARADES | THE DEPAULIA

DePaul softball was swept by Seton Hall this weekend, being out-scored 31-16 and fall to 12-24 on the season and 4-11 in Big East play.

Women’s basketball program in turmoil:

Players departing from program raises questions of the future

fer portal, freshmen Tara Daye and Zaria Hurston decided to move closer to home in the east coast, also leaving the program.

By Preston Zbroszczyk Asst. Sports Editor

The total is now up to six players that have announced their transfers from DePaul women’s basketball program. Following sophomore Aneesah Morrow and junior Darrione Rogers’ decision to enter the trans-

Freshman Madison Wardell and junior Kendall Holmes round out the list of players departing from DePaul, but have yet to announce where they will be playing next season.

From Decatur, Georgia, Hurston appeared in 25 games for head coach Doug Bruno giving valuable defensive minutes but was never able to consistently see those minutes increase throughout the season.

She announced on Monday, April 10, through her Instagram that she had committed to play for Coastal Carolina University, in Conway, South Carolina for the upcoming 2023-24 season.

As for Daye, the New Jersey native also elected to head out east and play for head coach Joe Tartamella and the Red Storm of St. John’s.

Daye, similar to Hurston, appeared in 27 games this past season but was involved in a bigger role. With the injuries throughout the season, Daye at times took on the point guard role, using her ability to create

from others and take care of the basketball.

Daye had a career-high in assists with 12 in her debut in the starting lineup on Feb. 4 against Xavier.

“Three of the six transfers are freshmen that we weren’t sure they’re able to earn a lot of playing time,” Bruno said. “That conversation really started immediately after the season was over, and [with our] players you have to be very upfront and I don’t know if they were going to play much this upcoming season.”

Former DePaul player Hannah Purcell who last played for DePaul in 2021-22 for three seasons, said she wanted to see the floor more often.

“I transferred because I wanted more playing time,” Purcell said. “No other reason. While that’s clearly not their reason for transferring, that was my reasoning.”

Team manager, Jonathan Keeton who spent time on and off the court with the team says transferring is sometimes the best move for a player.

“It’s just players feeling like they need a new beginning, and I think that’s the biggest part,” Keeton said. “It’s not just basketball, in general, sometimes people have been at a place for so long that they want to see themselves in a new environment to see how that goes, and build a new chapter for themselves.”

Rogers was also listed in the Athletic. Rogers was ranked the 10th best available player according to ESPN. They had her as the No. 19 best available transfer.

Morrow has heard from over 33 different schools in a little over a week in their at-

tempts to recruit the sophomore, who has two years of eligibility still remaining.

Some of the teams who have reached out to Morrow include South Carolina, Iowa, Notre Dame, USC, LSU and Ole Miss. The list of power five schools continue in their efforts to land Morrow.

The bigger problem with DePaul basketball could be the effect of the minimal amount of NIL opportunities.

Bruno said one of the two players between Morrow and Rogers told him that they felt there was a better opportunity to receive NIL money elsewhere, and that they played and deserved morethan what DePaul had to give.

All 350 division I schools have a system called collections where donors donate to fundraisers and boosters to raise money to pay athletes for a given school.

Players like Caitlin Clark from Iowa and Paige Bueckers from UConn, the bigger named players do not acquire the collective money, because they already make so much on their own with different companies in separate deals.

Bruno said those collectives could also be used to build new facilities around campus for the university, as well as for DePaul athletics, because DePaul always needs new facilities.

“I really think that if our players stay patient, they’re really going to get a better chance to create NIL money in the third largest media market in the country.

Bruno also praised athletic director Dwayne Peevy and his staff for continuously coming up with more opportunities for NIL, like the “Under the L” fundraiser that is going to take place.

With six players from last season remaining, Bruno expects to sign three more but has six available slots to fill with a transfer or new recruit.

Seniors Anaya Peoples and Jorie Allen currently headline and will look to lead the new group for the upcoming season.

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