Going apartment hunting? The DePaulia has provided tips and suggestions, Pages 14-15.
Cinco De Mayo is just around the corner. Read the true reason for the season, Page 21.
DePaulia
The
Volume #106 | Issue #23 | May 2, 2022 | depauliaonline.com
By Sam Moilanen Staff Writer
Former president of DePaul, Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, along with select students, staff and faculty, developed the university’s first sustainability plan in November 2011. Now, over a decade later, the university is in the process of finalizing a new plan that will be released next fall. The topic of sustainability at DePaul was brought to Holtschneider’s attention after the Sierra Club, an environmental nonprofit, released a report in 2011 comparing the sustainability rankings of 118 universities, in which DePaul ranked 46th, spurring conversations among faculty and staff. In the report, each ranking is determined by scores in 10 categories, in which DePaul ranked fairly low in energy, academics, and financial sustainability. In response to the increasing push for more sustainability efforts at DePaul, a sustainability plan was released on Nov. 6, 2011 by the Sustainability Initiatives Task Force (SITF) created by Holtschneider. The plan focused on five SITF groups:curriculum, operations, administration and planning, research and engagement. Hugh Bartling, the director of the sustainable urban development program at DePaul, is an avid advocate for sustainability and participated in the creation of the plan as part of the research working group. “As a faculty member, I was more focused on things I could do specifically
Decade-long university sustainability efforts coming to fruition like curriculum development, and the sustainable urban development program came out of
those conversations,” Bartling said. In 2017, Bartling and Mark Potosnak, the chair of the environmental studies department, developed a minor in climate change science and policy.
“There have been a lot of things happening on the curricular level, but there still hasn’t been a lot of buy-in in other elements,” Bartling said. “Still, it hasn’t been at the top of the administration’s agenda for a long time.” One byproduct of the first plan in 2011 was the desire to have someone working in administration whose main focus was sustainability, according to Bartling. “We asked the president to create a staff position, and it was never really acted upon,” Bartling said. Now, a decade later, President A. Gabriel Esteban established the new President’s Sustainability Committee in October 2021, with the goal of developing an institutional sustainability plan that aligns with the values outlined in Pope Francis’ book, Laudato Si. In the Laudato Si, the Pope calls on each person to take action to stop the degradation of the planet and partake in environmental sustainability. Last year, Esteban signed an agreement for DePaul to become a Laudato Si university, which influenced his push for sustainability at DePaul, according to DePaul’s Office of Mission and Ministry. The former sustainability plan was not fully developed, according to Rev. Guillermo (Memo) Campuzano, DePaul’s vice president for mission and ministry. He said DePaul is currently rethinking the plan they made in October 2021. DePaul is putting together their first meeting with the stakeholders to assemble a document compiling the committee’s work with the sustainability plan created during the Holtschneider administration.
See SUSTAINABILITY, page 9
ART BY KIERSTEN RIEDFORD
Search for new president continues, no announcment in April By Lawrence Kreymer Editor-in-Chief
DePaul made a promise in March to the university community that the Board of Trustees would meet in late April to review the presidential search and hope to appoint a new president. April has come and gone. But the university has yet to announce the appointment of a new president. President A. Gabriel Esteban is stepping down from his position when the current academic year ends on June 30, which means the new president now has less than two months before they have to assume the role. The DePaulia reached out to the university for a comment on Friday if DePaul was planning to announce the hiring of the new president. And, if not, we asked why there has been a delay in making the hire. The university did not respond for comment in time for publication.
KIERSTEN RIEDFORD | THE DEPAULIA
The office for the president of DePaul is completely empty during a week day in the afternoon. DePaul is currently searching for a new university president. In March, Judy Greffin, chair of the search advisory committee, said that DePaul has selected three finalists for consideration. In her statement, Greffin said that the finalists would get interviewed the week of April 4, and the Board of Trust-
ees would meet in late April to review the search “with the goal of appointing the next president of DePaul University.” DePaul is now down to only three finalists after having a month between February and March to find additional candi-
dates. It is still unclear when the university will decide to make an appointment and when that announcement will come. Throughout the process of finding a new president, DePaul has not been very forthcoming with the progress of its search. It has not revealed the names of any of the candidates and has not provided a progress report since March 17. The university has only provided eight statements in the nine months since it initiated the search after Esteban announced last summer that he will be stepping down after the 2021-22 academic year. In 2017, DePaul announced in February that Esteban — who was coming over from Seton Hall — would be taking over for Rev. Dennis Holtschneider later that year. Loyola University is also currently in the midst of searching for a new president and has not provided an update since March 15.