The DePaulia 10/14

Columbus Day is still a point of contention, as activist seek an Indigenous Peoples’ Day; see Nation & World, page 11.

DePaulia

The

Former Student Center employee became one of many victims of gun violence last year. See Focus, pages 14-15.

Volume #104 | Issue #5 | Oct. 14, 2019 | depauliaonline.com

ALAYNE TRINKO | THE DEPAULIA

Close quarters

Kassidy Kascht sits in her bunk doing homework in her converted housing unit in Clifton-Fullerton Hall. Kascht’s room was designed to house two students, but currently houses three freshmen.

Freshmen frustrated with over-booked dorms as capacity exceeds 100%

By Alayne Trinko Staff Writer

Students at DePaul have spent over one month now in their assigned on-campus residences, and freshmen like Kassidy Kascht, who was placed in converted housing, expressed their concerns about condensed dorm space and the social challenges that arise from living in converted units.

When Kascht and her requested roommate learned they were assigned a converted triple, Kascht said she felt “frustrated” and “upset” initially knowing that she would have to share a room with two additional roommates in a space designed for only two people.

Due to limited space for student hous-

ing and a high demand from one of the largest incoming class of freshmen in recent memory, DePaul places students into converted housing in order to accommodate more incoming students on campus.

Converted housing units are supposed to be larger rooms designed to fit between three and four residents, according to the Department of Housing website. There are currently 258 students living in dorms that were not designed to house them, excluding incomplete data from University Hall.

Some converted units are “supposed to be bigger, but compared to other rooms, it’s the same size,” Kascht said. “Being in a cramped space with nowhere to really go is hard when you have three girls living in

here.”

Each converted housing unit is furnished so that students who may not have their own closet can have enough space for their belongings, but this cumbersome furniture that cannot be removed from the room becomes a daily obstacle for residents to contend with.

“Getting out of bed is probably my hardest challenge just because the wardrobe is right there,” Kascht said. “I’ve gotten a big bruise on my back from running into it before.”

Kascht said that she and her roommates currently “make due” with their room assignment and are trying to “make it work.”

When Kascht was helping one of her

roommates request a room change, their resident adviser explained that it could be difficult to receive exact dorm preferences because of the already full housing units on campus.

According to Director of Housing and Student Centers Rick Moreci, on-campus housing between Lincoln Park and Loop residences is completely full at just under 102 percent capacity as of September 2019.

The converted and temporary housing residents push the maximum capacity and make up the approximate 2 percent difference. For example, by design, Clifton-Fullerton hall can house 333 residents. As of late September, Clifton housed 405 resi-

See HOUSING, page 6

Summer Lynn wins professional debut with unanimous decision

By Nate Burleyson Asst. Sports Editor

Everything had come down to the day ahead. It felt like a normal fight day even when the stakes were raised. When the first bell rang at Wintrust Arena, Summer Lynn was in her comfort zone.

Lynn, a DePaul freshman, made her professional debut Saturday at Wintrust Arena on the undercard of Oleksander Usyk vs Chazz Witherspoon. Lynn fought Jenna Johlin Thompson, a fighter out of Toledo who went into the fight with a pro-record of 1-2.

The fight was the kickoff for a long

night of 10 bouts. It was a four-round fight that Lynn controlled throughout. After four rounds against Thompson, Lynn won by unanimous decision, making her 1-0-0 in her brand new career.

Round one was a feeling-out round for Lynn as she fought close with Thompson, dodging blows and getting into a rhythm.

In the second, there was a turning moment for Lynn in her debut. She had figured something out and was able to start striking. A big left hook got the early crowd into the fight and impressed the judges.

The big hits continued into the third round, when Lynn was able to keep herself

See LYNN, page 27

NATE BURLEYSON | THE DEPAULIA

Summer Lynn (red) lands a punch on Jenna Thompson in the second round of her debut fight.

2 | News. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019

First Look The DePaulia is the official student-run newspaper of DePaul University and may not necessarily reflect the views of college administrators, faculty or staff.

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News. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019 | 3

Dabbling in diversity

Diversity ratings show inclusion efforts fall short of real progress

By Patsy Newitt Asst. News Editor

At President A. Gabriel Esteban’s State of the University address last Thursday, faculty and staff raised questions about DePaul’s addressing of diversity, specifically with regard to the recently released results of a climate survey that showed declining ratings of diversity by faculty and staff.

The survey showed that between 2009 and 2019, DePaul saw a 12.04 percent decrease in mean ratings of diversity amongst faculty and and an 8.51 percent decrease amongst staff, according to a PowerPoint by the vice president and interim provost.

These climate surveys, issued by the Office of Institutional Research and Marketing Analysis, are issued biennially, with this survey taken last February.

The survey saw a 60 percent response rate for full-time faculty, 53 percent among operations sector staff and over 60 percent for non-college based staff in Academic Affairs, according to university spokeswoman Carol Hughes.

The survey is designed using a fivepoint agreement scale, with five being the most agreement. Diversity-specific mean ratings were indexed from at least 10 questions – issues like DePaul’s rates of recruiting and hiring employees from diverse backgrounds, how DePaul values diversity, accommodations for disabilities and scheduling for religious holidays – making it difficult to deduce specified places DePaul needs to change.

“It’s a bit difficult to tell, is it an issue of wanting more diverse faculty? Is it an issue of retention of faculty?” Interim Provost Salma Ghanem said. “We have to remember that with survey questions, they cover a lot of things. It all depends which aspect of diversity you’re talking about.”

This decline in diversity rating is in contrast with the diversifying student population, with students of color making up 44 percent of the new freshman class and 40 percent of the student population, as previously reported by The DePaulia.

And, according to DePaul’s diversity report, from Fall 2013 to Fall 2017, nonwhite professors increased from 22 to 28 percent, compared to national trends, where nonwhite professors increased from 22.5 to 23.8 percent between 2015 and 2017, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

But how does this increased diversity translate into faculty and staff ’s perception of diversity within the institution? Many faculty believe it doesn’t.

“Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are not working well at DePaul University,” associate professor and chair of the political science department.

Valerie Johnson said in a PowerPoint presented to Faculty Council in April.

“It leaves members of diverse groups

“We here at DePaul are not immune to the problems associated with living in a racialized society. There’s no need for us to act like we are.”

Valerie Johnson

Associate Professor and Chair of Political Science Dept.

feeling very lonely, devalued and misunderstood… It replicates rather than resolves conflict.”

Johnson added that it’s also defensive, vilifying vocal critics and provoking tension.

“We here at DePaul are not immune to the problems associated with living in a racialized society,” she said. “There’s no need for us to act as if we are.”

DePaul is working to abate this with

actions like the appointment of two Presidential Fellows, faculty members to look at diversity issues with Esteban, Ghanem said, as well as splitting the role of the dean of diversity and research into two positions — one looking into diversity and the other into research.

Ghanem also cited Esteban’s diversity committee and diversity advocates in each one of the colleges —a key person in every college that provides support

for diverse faculty and acts as a point of connection between deans and faculty.

“We are trying to, even before the survey came out, to make sure that we are paying more and more attention to this issue,” Ghanem said. “It’s a very important issue.”

Some of DePaul’s faculty and staff feel these solutions are merely emblematic, not actually addressing issues at hand.

“From my experience, it’s a dawning recognition that the kinds of policies that were supposed to address diversity issues are lip-service initiatives,” said Dr. Maureen Sioh, an associate professor of geography. “They put in place, say, someone who is supposed to address these issues, and it’s almost as if they just check the box. There’s no follow-up on that.”

Johnson agrees that actionable strategies to address diversity are limited.

Diversity Equity and Inclusion at DePaul is symbolic, she said in the PowerPoint, focusing on events and programs rather than fully addressing structural issues.

Administration points to the structure of hiring as a means to increase diversity amongst faculty and staff. As previously reported by The DePaulia, Esteban answered diversity questions at the State of the University address by explaining the faculty hiring process.

Ghanem echoed Esteban’s explanation.

“Faculty hiring is a faculty-driven process,” she said. “When there’s a faculty search, there’s a faculty who makes the recommendation on who should be hired. It’s not that an administrator says, ‘We are going to hire this faculty.’ Where administration comes in is to train the faculty in terms of diversity training.”

Despite the administration’s lack of control over hiring, many faculty believe that’s not the only way for diversifying.

Johnson emphasized the “equity and inclusion” part of diversity, ensuring that not only the numbers are reached, but faculty and staff of color are actively integrated.

“In order to resolve the problem, we must face the problem,” Johnson said.

Sioh looks to a solidified timeline to set change in motion.

“They need to appoint a [diversity] committee made up of faculty, because they’re faculty and they’re accountable to each other instead of being accountable to their immediate superior and employer,” she said. “And there has to be a university commitment to whatever the faculty puts forward as a plan of action, there will be a time-table for when this happens.”

But as it stands for some, DePaul’s diversity efforts fall short.

“I think people have become disillusioned, really,” Sioh said. “I know I personally will not fill out those surveys anymore. It doesn’t go anywhere.”

4 | News. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019

Krupa: ‘Your time is up’

Student and former aldermanic cadidate criticizes Madigan, Quinn over corruption, harassment of voters

By Mackenzie Murtaugh News Editor

When Ald. Marty Quinn of the 13th ward was reelected in February, David Krupa, sophomore and former competitor of Quinn for alderman, felt that something was off.

The numbers didn’t add up, and Krupa knew he had to do something to continue his fight to work against the pattern of corruption in Illinois politics that has lasted for too long.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Krupa submitted 1,729 voter signatures in his run for office. The controversy came when Quinn’s team reported 2,796 affidavits of withdrawals from Krupa’s camp, surmounting 1,067 voter signatures that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Not only were signatures unaccounted for, but last week’s Tribune investigation into Quinn’s February campaign found that the Quinn camp repeatedly harassed and intimidated voters into not supporting Krupa.

“It turned into a whole scandal, really,” Krupa said.

“What came from it was an FBI investigation, tons and tons of media exposing the corrupt activities that have probably been going on for decades. I’m not the first to witness this kind of harassment. Neither are the voters here in the 13th ward.”

Krupa is currently involved in a lawsuit against Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, who allegedly handpicked Quinn as alderman for his home ward. Krupa believes that Madigan and Quinn worked together to get his

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID KRUPA

name off the ballot, which would violate his civil right to run for office. According to the Tribune, the lawsuit alleges that Madigan and Quinn’s team ordered “pairs of large male operatives” to follow Krupa as he gathered signatures to get on the ballot.

“What we’re really hoping is that in this federal lawsuit is that we set a precedent that things like this are not okay, you can’t harass voters or force them to commit perjury,” Krupa said. “I’m trying my best to get the public to see the corruption for what it really is.”

Krupa is hopeful that the investigation will bring light

to the corruption that has been ongoing in Illinois politics for a long time. The investigation can also uplift the residents of the 13th ward to stand their ground when harassed by political powerhouses. Krupa’s lack of experience might be seen as an easy target for Madigan and his machine, but Krupa said that experience is not what makes an honest politician.

“I think the most important thing in any politician is honesty, integrity and the will to do what’s right for your people even if it isn’t always the easiest thing to do, and I believe I have those things, and I don’t believe Mike Madigan and Marty Quinn do.”

Krupa’s main campaign promise was to expose corruption in his ward, but Madigan and Quinn saw something different in his claims. In an interview with the Tribune, Madigan said that Krupa is “distracting voters with ludicrous claims” and that this tactic is “pulled directly from the ultra-right-wing playbook.”

Krupa referred to himself as a “day-one Trump supporter” in an interview with the Chicago Reader in 2016, but he has since distanced himself from that statement.

Krupa stands by his allegations against Madigan and Quinn and plans to continue efforts to expose more of their corruption.

“The most important takeaway that I would like [Madigan and Quinn] to know is that, ‘Your time is up,’” Krupa said. “People are getting frustrated, and we’re not going to sit here and take this abuse anymore.”

News. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019 | 5

Meet the senators

SGA event introduces candidates for various senate seats to talk platforms, campus issues ANNALISA BARANOWSKI | THE DEPAULIA

Gisselle Cervantes (left) and Landon Campbell (right) at last year’s Meet the Candidates event.

By Emma Oxnevad & Mackenzie Murtaugh Opinion Editor & News Editor

The Student Government Association (SGA) held their annual Meet the Candidates event to facilitate a discussion between the seven candidates for their upcoming senate election. The election comes after last spring’s largely uncontested race.

The event was hosted by Landon Campbell, SGA’s president. Last year, Campbell and his running mate Gisselle Cervantes were voted in as president and vice president. They ran on the platform of a better ability to communicate with the student body and to let their voices be heard. So far, SGA has invited students to open discussions of issues on campus, and, in a historic move, their initiative to provide free menstrual products in every women’s and gender-neutral restroom on campus was approved by the university last week and will begin in winter quarter.

“We’ve seen clear improvement this year,” Campbell said. “Of course there is always more work to be done, but we’re really showing students, this year specifically, our improvement with our huge accomplishments with many, many more to come.

Students actually see that, and that really paints a picture of our organization.”

The overarching theme across all candidates is school spirit and campus inclusion.

“It’s really getting to the nitty-gritty work initially executed and having those conversations around how we want to see it done that creates that gap, but we announced it because we for sure know that it’s happening,” Cervantes said.

Amira Hady is a freshman who is running for the position of senator for firstyear students. Hady calls safety “a right, not a privilege.” Her main goal is to help implement safety courses and tactics into students’ schedules.

Along with Hady, freshman Peyton Raleigh is also a candidate for first-year student senator. Raleigh worries that the DePaul community is lacking in its sense of direct communication with each other.

“We’ve seen clear improvement this year.

Of course, there is always more work to be done, but we’re really showing students, this year specifically, our improvements with our huge accomplishments with many, many more to come.

Landon Campbell

SGA President

She hopes to organize events that will allow freshmen to meet and socialize with other freshman. She spoke no word on how this will affect off-campus and commuter students. She also wants to open up space for freshman to celebrate their accomplishments by organizing an end of the year event to showcase the work freshman have done.

Freshman Deyni Venta is the final candidate for first-year students. She emphasizes the importance of social justice and mental health awareness on campus. She also plans to help students in Corcoran by having air conditioning units installed in the dorm hall. She did not comment on how this will be organized.

Sophomore Keith Norward is a candidate for second-year students and is running uncontested. Norward also commented on the lack of school spirit at DePaul.

To increase excitement around basketball games, he plans to organize events that would get more students to attend. Even with the big move from Allstate Arena to Wintrust in the South Loop, students still are not flooding the stands at games. With bigger and better events surrounding the games, students might be more interested in them.

Emmanuel Flores, one of two candidates for senator of the College of Communications, hopes to engage communications students in many avenues of student

government. Flores, a freshman, wants to mobilize communications students to really communicate with each other. He sees a lack of community within the school and

this does not aide to the benefits of a seemingly close-knit college. He also hopes to promote SGA activities and events with the help of communications students. He promises to get volunteers from the college to hand out fliers and spread the word on SGA’s current events.

Ben Jacinto is also running for College of Communications senator as a freshman.

Jacinto commented on the Esteban’s statement on lack of inclusion at DePaul at the State of the University address last week.

Jacinto hopes to create more events on the Loop campus in an effort to engage students who spend more time in the Loop.

Jacinto believes that there is some disparity between the campuses that aides to the lack of inclusion of students who do not go to the Lincoln Park campus often. He did not comment on Esteban’s comments on the diversity gap.

Voting dates and times for the senators have yet to be announced.

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6| News. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019 HOUSING continued from front dents. Belden-Racine Hall is designed to house 254 students, but it is currently holding 318 residents.

When DePaul President A. Gabriel Esteban spoke to faculty and staff at the annual State of the University address earlier this month, he stressed the importance of improving enrollment.

Assuming that at least part of future enrollment growth will include larger freshman classes, new student housing options may become necessary.

“There are currently no plans to build additional residence halls on campus,” Moreci said. “However, I can tell you that if the university does grow, and especially within the freshman class, I am certain there would be conversations at many levels around the university about how to accommodate this growth. I have confidence that if DePaul begins to grow via new academic initiatives, it will do so responsibly and will therefore consider how to best manage said growth.”

Some residence halls on campus have not been impacted by the converted and temporary housing additions. For example, University Center — which DePaul shares with other local colleges like Roosevelt, Robert Morris and Columbia College — houses 390 by design and is currently holding that many residents. Courtside Apartments is designed to hold 12 residents and is currently housing 12 residents.

“I don’t think it’s fair to see people with single rooms when there are people in a converted housing [room] that’s not supposed to be for three people, but they fit three people in there,” Kascht said. “I get people who have single rooms might have accommodations where they do need it, and for that I do understand, but if they could make converted rooms that are actually made for three people, that could be really helpful.”

For other freshmen, like Mariam Qudeimat, there is plenty of space in the converted housing unit, but the converted living situation presents social challenges.

When Qudeimat received her housing assignment letter, she said she was crying on the phone with her requested roommate because they learned they would be separated from each other and placed into converted housing.

Qudeimat’s converted housing unit is two separate spaces fitting a total of six people. Her room holds four people and the room next door houses two people. The six students share a detached bathroom that’s adjacent to their rooms.

When asked how the social aspect of converted housing has impacted her, Qudeimat described her new converted roommates as the “Regina Georges” of college.

“I don’t need to be best friends with them, but we’re not even close to being friends…We don’t have anything in common at all,” Qudeimat said. “The past 22 days since I’ve gotten here could not have been farther from what I was expecting. I went home this weekend, and that was the highlight of my time here, which is not how it’s supposed to be.”

As soon as the room change request forms became available, Quidemat submitted a form to the Department of Housing in hopes of changing her situation.

In response to being asked about using campus support services to address the roommate issues in the meantime, Quidemat said, “I don’t really expect anything from them at this point. I’d rather just be by myself and have my own

ALAYNE TRINKO | THE DEPAULIA

The student section at a DePaul Men’s Soccer game on Friday Sept. 20. With school spirit at an all-time low, administrators have room. That’s what I put in my room change request form, but I haven’t heard back yet.”

According to the Department of Housing, room assignment preferences and changes will be considered but cannot be guaranteed. However, according to Moreci, students in converted housing are given priority once a permanent space becomes available.

For freshmen like Maya Franco, converted housing was an adjustment to make, but she has learned to “make it work” without having to submit a room change request.

“Converted housing so far hasn’t affected my day-today life,” Franco said. “It’s just another person in the room.

So far, I have no complaints. I’d obviously rather be in a regular double, but I’m making the best out of my situation. I haven’t had any horror stories yet, but maybe talk to me at the end of the year.”

Students seeking to change their living situation can submit a room change request to the Department of Housing at any point in the school year.

The room change request form is available on the department’s website under assignments > room changes.

Moreci assured students who make room change requests that the department “will get them moved.”

“The art of assigning and reassigning students is a puzzle with many pieces,” Moreci said. “Our goal, our hope, is to get most or all of the students that want to move, moved in the fall quarter. We are always accepting room changes at any point, and we will work to get those accomplished as quickly as we can.”

ANNALISA BARANOWSKI | THE DEPAULIA

News. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019 | 7

Critical Language winner ­goes from U-Hall to Jordan

By Patsy Newitt Asst. News Editor

Finish finals early. Move out of U-Hall. Go to Jordan.

This was Clare VanSpeybroeck’s presummer checklist last June after winning the Critical Language Scholarship, CLS, a summer-intensive program targeting critical languages — non-Western European languages with critical demand, but limited access. With the scholarship, she travelled to Amman, Jordan for eight weeks, where she studied Arabic.

The CLS program is an overseas language program of the U.S. Department of State for students enrolled at American universities. The program is focused on full immersion into critical language and culture and is completely free.

There are 15 critical languages that are part of the program, including Chinese, Portuguese, Turkish, Urdu, Hindi, Japanese and Korean. According to the program’s website, the languages are “critical to national security and economic prosperity… preparing students for the 21st century’s globalized workforce.”

VanSpeybroeck, a sophomore Arabic and international studies major, started learning Arabic through English Second Language, ESL, classes in her hometown, the Quad Cities. There, she met women from Morocco, Sudan and Iraq.

“They were all able to speak Arabic together and I had never realized the regional diversity of the language,” she said. “That’s why I chose it — it’s a

language that held so much potential for communication.”

Arabic is spoken in more than 25 countries with 420 million native speakers, according to World Atlas. It’s also the fastest growing language in the U.S. — Arabic speakers over the age of five increased by 29 percent between 2010 and 2014, according to Pew Research data.

Though access to learning Arabic is limited, with only 161 high school programs offered nationally as of March 2017, it is increasing. Arabic enrollment in higher education increased by 51.5 percent between fall 2013 and 2016, according to a report by the Modern Language Association.

“In the early 1980s, it was primarily only the larger research universities, public and private, that offered Arabic language courses,” said history professor Warren Schultz. “That began to change soon thereafter, and by the mid to late 90s more and more universities began to teach it.”

VanSpeybroeck also has access to Arabic language here in Chicago. 2013 census data showed that 12,811 Chicago citizens speak Arabic as their first language, and many CPS schools offer Arabic classes.

“It all feels so unlocked to me now that I know the language,” she said. “I love to go to restaurants and order in Arabic.

Shout out to Mr. Falafel on Devon and California.”

In Jordan, VanSpeybroeck’s day-today was centered around learning the

PHOTO COURTESY OF VARYA BAZALEV

Clare VanSpeybroeck

language. She, alongside the rest of her cohort, spent an hour each morning learning media-Arabic – Arabic specific to news – an hour learning the Jordanian dialect and then two hours of Modern Standard Arabic, the standard Arabic spoken throughout the world, she said.

Learning the Jordanian-specific dialect was specifically helpful, she said, because DePaul only teaches MSA. “MSA is kind of like speaking Old English — you wouldn’t actually go around saying, ‘Where art thou,’” she said.

Outside of language learning, VanSpeybroeck’s time was spent cafehopping and salsa dancing. On the weekends with her Jordanian language partners, she would go to Wastal-Balad, downtown Amman, visiting museums and restaurants and salsa dancing at an old hotel.

Her host mother was a single woman in her 40s who spoke no English.

“It was awesome for our proficiency because we wouldn’t be able to speak with her unless we were speaking Arabic,” she said. “She was also unbelievably kind and made great food.”

Through the CLS program, VanSpeybroeck reached mid-to-high intermediacy, allowing her to build relationships with her host mother and Jordanian students without the binds of a language gap.

VanSpeybroeck often felt that receiving the scholarship was an honor she hadn’t earned, being the youngest in her cohort.

“One of the members of my cohort fought in Syria against ISIS last year,” she said. “And I’m just a sophomore at DePaul studying Arabic.’”

But with her continued work in Arabic education, VanSpeybroeck proves the scholarship was well-deserved. She now volunteers at MIRA, the Middle Eastern Immigration and Refugee Alliance, where she runs the front desk with an employee population made up of 90 percent refugees, she said. She also teaches weekly ESL classes to Arabic native speakers.

Looking forward, VanSpeybroeck hopes to work in the foreign service, and plans to eventually make her way back to Amman.

“Once you feel completely comfortable, is when you’re getting ready to leave,” she said. “So I’ll be going back.”

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8 | News. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019

Taking ‘what must be done’ global XAVIER ORTEGA | THE DEPAULIA

Fr. Guillermo Campuzano, the Vincentians’ representative at the UN, speaks at Cortelyou Commons on Thursday about charity, political advocacy and systemic change.

Alumnus speaks on the Vincentian mission in relation to poverty

By Nikki Ramos & Kelly Garcia Contributing Writers

Most DePaul students are more than familiar with St. Vincent de Paul’s central question: What must be done? But Father Guillermo Campuzano dedicates his life to expanding the reach of this question by taking it up to the UN. Campuzano spoke Thursday at Cortelyou Commons at the inaugural lecture in a series of discussions about applying Vincentian values worldwide, titled “Poverty: Vincentian Responses Around the World.” Campuzano is a DePaul alumnus and former DePaul professor of eight years and a minister.

Now, he serves as the representative of the Congregation of the Mission, what students know as the Vincentians, at the UN, and the chair of the NGO Working Group to End Homelessness, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that advocates for the world’s poor at the UN. Since leaving DePaul, his involvement in political advocacy has made significant strides for Vincentian causes and left many politicians reflecting St. Vincent’s most poignant question: What must be done to help the world’s poor?

As of 2016, an estimated 830 million people are living in extreme poverty around the world. Most of them are earning less than $1.90 a day with no shelter, no food, and barely any clothes.

They lack access to education and health care. More often than not, they’re susceptible to natural disasters and climate change.

In attempting to reach a global audience, Vincentians began internally, reaching back to the essential values that established the Congregation of the Mission.

“We went back to our foundation,

“We went back to our foundation, found our spirit and we began talking about we being a family. We feel, we sense, that all of you are a part of this mission.”

Fr. Guillermo Campuzano

UN Representative of the Congregation of the Mission found our spirit and we began talking about we being a family,” Fr. Campuzano said. “We feel, we sense, that all of you are apart of this mission.”

Through discussions at the UN, he helped create 17 sustainable development goals that encompass the idea that the audience are responsible to provide essential elements of life to all humans.

During his lecture, Campuzano requested that we read each of these goals aloud with him, emphasizing his message that these duties to the dignity of humanity are our problem.

“The crisis of humanity is the crisis of the house where we live,” Campuzano said, and many attendees agreed. Wesley Janicki, a DePaul student involved in Model UN, echoed Campuzano’s message with a question.

“How should we treat the world’s poor? It’s not an issue for just one person,” he said. “I’m in Model UN. to learn about parts of the world I honestly wouldn’t know about.”

Campuzano’s conversation focused less on how Vincentians reach a global context, and more so on why, saturating his lecture with striking statistics about global violence, starvation and poverty and raising intrusive questions about our

own, personal comforts.

“I’m excited to be back at DePaul,” said Campuzano. “It’s important to talk to students about what political advocacy and service looks like in our changing world.” As the Vincentian representative for the UN, Campuzano works extensively to discuss the connection between charity, political advocacy and systemic change — what he calls the “Vincentian triad of justice”. He takes the question of “What must be done?” to a global level.

“It’s important to bridge the connection between those with opportunities and those in need,” he said. “But the problem is we’re not treating the issue of poverty as an urgent one. When is it going to be unacceptable for a human being to starve?”

“When is it going to be unacceptable that a human being starves?” Campuzano asked. “There are people who wonder every day whether they are going to eat, yet we have time to wonder of the meaning of life.”

Campuzano drew a large crowd of students, professors, families and ministers from other churches, many of whom traveled across the city hear him speak. Among them was Jacob Lang, a political science student from Loyola who

spent the evening at the event because it represents a vital step in social progress: awareness.

“In general, the first step in addressing something like global poverty is realization,” he said. “I’m interested because I need to know how processes work, but you don’t need to understand the processes to speak up about something.”

Lang hopes to make significant changes to both how people treat the urgency of global issues and the actions politicians take in solving them, but acknowledges that necessary legislation begins at a local level.

“We recognize the value of talking about poverty,” he said, “but recognizing it in an international context, like through the UN, is harder.”

Lang emphasized that starting locally, even just attending lectures like this one, is the best way to begin.

The event was the first opening talk of the Lecture Series that serves as a way for different members of the global Vincentian family to share the ways they are serving and encountering the poor and God in their part of the world.

“So many of us strive to promote social change and political advocacy at DePaul,” said Karen Kraft, the communications and editorial assistant for the department of Catholic studies. She helped organize the event. “I knew Fr. Memo when he used to work here and for him to come back and share all the wisdom he’s gained from working at the UN is empowering.

It really drives home the mission of the Vincentian community.”

The next lecture for the series is set to take place at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24 with native Haitian and DePaul alum Yasmine Cajuste who will touch on the work she does with the FamVin Homeless Alliance.

News. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019 | 9

‘It’s necessary to speak more than one language’

Event highlights the benefits of bilingualism, hardships speakers experience

By Hillary Flores Social Media Editor

‘Here in America we speak English’– a statement that is often heard by those who speak another language in public.

For a panel of DePaul students and staff at the event, “Bilingualism Unpacked,” this statement touches close to home as they shared experiences of being bilingual in Serbian, Spanish and Italian on Wednesday, Oct. 9.

For Mexican-American Karina Campos, being bilingual in Spanish and English was both a blessing and a curse throughout her life.

Campos said that many times she was tattle-taled on by other students for speaking Spanish at her school.

“I went to a Catholic middle school and it was [during] eighth-grade where the Spanish-speakers at the school were just trying to dive into the language as a whole,” said Campos, a junior at DePaul.

“One of our classmates told our principal that we were speaking a different language and [that] she felt left-out.”

After the incident, Campos said she was prohibited from speaking Spanish by her principal, but hopes that more people can understand the importance of being bilingual.

“We live in a society that’s diverse, and it’s necessary to speak more than one language,” Campos said.

These same thoughts were supported and shared by others at the event.

Stephanie Berryhill, an academic adviser at DePaul, said that most bilingual students tend to exceed monolingual students in school.

“If you look at test scores between someone who is bilingual and monolingual, a lot of the time test scores in their early childhood range show that bilingual students fall behind,” Berryhill said. “But, by third grade and up they are

XAVIER ORTEGA | THE DEPAULIA

(From left to right) Yamel Rivera, psychology major, Jamie Gonzalez, a senior political science and Latin American and Latino studies with a minor in Spanish, Stephanie Berryhill, an academic advisor in the College of Education, Karina Campos, a junior health and sciences major and minor in Spanish, and Anja Bencun, a junior human resource management major, all speak during the panel. surpassing their monolingual peers.”

As some DePaul staff and students shared their take on the importance of bilingualism, others shared what bilingualism means to them.

Senior Jaime Gonzalez said that bilingualism is a topic that goes simply beyond being able to speak more than one language.

“Bilingualism to me means culture, it means jokes, music and being able to combat barriers,” Gonzalez said.

These language barriers are not always as easy to combat.

For junior Yamel Rivera, becoming confident in speaking both languages fluently was said to be a difficult task.

“I know what it’s like to go to another country and not know how to communicate,” Rivera said. “I’m [still]

practicing and it has helped me to communicate with my family and when I’m traveling to Mexico.”

Rivera said that she felt better about the fact that now she can respond and carry a Spanish conversation better with her family and friends.

As students closed off with their final thoughts on bilingualism, a potluck took place with food–Spanish rice, refried beans, and salsa– that demonstrated Latino culture.

During the potluck, Jessica Gibbs, DePaul junior and the director of the event, shared her thoughts on leading a bilingualism panel for the first time.

“I had a great time directing it,” Gibbs said. “I [enjoyed] listening to everybody’s insight and what they had to share–it stuck with me personally.”

CAMPUS CRIME REPORT:

Gibbs said that some bilingualism stories were relatable to the experiences that she had to face being MexicanAmerican.

“You learn some things later in life during the process of becoming a better [bilingual] speaker,” Gibbs said. “Like not knowing how to entirely know the proper way of saying things.”

For all of these students, everyday is said to be a learning process and a lesson to the importance of being bilingual and how to continue embracing their culture and roots.

“I was impressed by the diversity of answers we got and all of their perspectives,” Gibbs said. “Everything added so much richness to the conversation.”

Oct. 02, 2019- Oct. 08, 2019

LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS

LOOP CAMPUS

Sanctuary Hall 3

Daley Building

Belden-Racine Hall

11

10

4 2

CDM Building

DePaul Center 8 2

9

Student Center 1

LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS

5

10

Assault & Theft

Drug & Alcohol

Other

LOOP CAMPUS

OCT. 04 OCT. 06 OCT. 07 OCT. 03 1) A Theft report was filed for an iPhone taken 4) An Illegal Consumption of Alcohol by a Minor 6) A Theft report was filed for a bicycle taken 8) A Theft Report was filed for a wallet taken from the Student Center.

OCT. 05 2) An Illegal Consumption of Alcohol by a Minor

report was filed in Belden-Racine Hall. Person was transported to Illinois Masonic by Chicago EMS. 3) A Suspicion of Marijuana report was filed for a room in Sanctuary Hall. No drugs were found.

report was filed in Belden-Racine Hall. Person was transported to Illinois Masonic by Chicago EMS. 5) A Theft report was filed for money taken from an ATM in the Student Center.

from the rack in the Quad.

7) A Suspicion of Marijuana report was filed for a room in Corcoran Hall. No drugs were found.

from the DePaul Center.

9) A Theft Report was filed for a duffle bag taken from the DePaul Center.

OCT. 04 10) A Theft Report was filed for a wallet taken from the DePaul Center.

OCT. 08 11) A Graffiti report was filed for markings on the CDM Building.

10 | Nation & World. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019

Nation &World

Turkish offensive launched in northern Syria

By Brian Pearlman Nation & World Editor

A Turkish assault on northern Syria entered its fifth day Sunday in the wake of the U.S.’s drawdown of operations in the region.

Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan announced Saturday, Oct. 5 that military operations against the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) would begin, a day before President Donald Trump announced that U.S. forces, which had been supporting Kurdish-led forces, would withdraw from Syria. There are roughly 1,000 U.S. troops in Syria, mostly in efforts to combat the remnants of the Islamic State (IS) militant group.

“Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement on Sunday, Oct. 6. “The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial ‘Caliphate,’ will no longer be in the immediate area.”

The decision to withdraw American forces from Syria was met with widespread criticism from world leaders and U.S. lawmakers across the political spectrum.

Trump ally Lindsay Graham, R-SC, said the move “will be the biggest mistake of his presidency” calling it “a disaster in the making.” Critics largely cited the need to prevent a resurgence of IS, a key reason for U.S. support of Kurdish-led forces, while expressing concern that Turkey may not be able to contain the remnants of the terror group.

Trump similarly announced a withdrawal of U.S. forces in Syria in December, which also received widespread backlash within Washington and resulted in the resignations of then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and U.S. envoy Brett McGurk.

According to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 54 civilians have so far been killed in the Turkish ground and air offensive. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said as many as 300,000 people could be displaced as a result of the military strikes.

As the military offensive, termed “Operation Peace Spring,” began Wednesday, Turkey launched airstrikes and heavy artillery at Kurdish military targets. A ground offensive began later in the day. The IRC estimated that over 64,000 fled their homes in northeast Syria between Wednesday and Thursday.

SDF officials claimed they successfully repelled an attack on Tal Abayad, a town on the Syria-Turkey border Thursday. The town of Akcakale on the Turkish side of the border was hit by mortar fire, killing two and injuring 46 people, according to Turkish officials.

On Friday, Turkish artillery fire struck an area near a U.S. operating base in the city of Kobani. No soldiers were injured, and a Department of Defense statement warned Turkey to “avoid actions that could result in immediate defensive action.”

Over the weekend, thousands of pro-Kurdish protesters took to the streets across Europe to protest the Turkish military offensive. There were also protests in Washington, D.C. Syrian state-run SANA news agency posted photos of hundreds of people in the

LEFTERIS PITARAKIS | AP People standing on a rooftop in Akcakale, Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey, at the border with Syria, watch as in the background smoke billows from fires caused by Turkish bombardment in Tal Abyad, Syria, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2019.

northeastern Syrian towns of Qamashli, Hasaka and Deir Ezzor said to be protesting “in rejection of the Turkish aggression and U.S. presence on Syrian territory.”

The bloody Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011, has primarily been fought between anti-government rebels and government forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But the war, which has resulted in what the United Nations’ Refugee Agency calls “the largest refugee crisis in the world,” has also become a proxy conflict for other actors with strategic interests in the region, including Iran-backed militias and Russian forces that support the Syrian government.

Tens of thousands of militants loyal to IS also traveled to fight in Syria; the group’s efforts to create its own “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria reached its height in 2014, when IS controlled key swathes of both countries.

Today, IS has little territory and the Syrian government controls most of the country, though analysts warn IS is still a threat — particularly in prison camps maintained by Kurdish-led forces, where they could escape amid the current fighting.

Among the Kurdish forces maintaining such camps are the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which make up the majority of the U.S.-backed opposition forces. Ankara views them as terrorists with close ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it has been at war with since 1978. The YPG is an arm of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which controls a de-facto autonomous Kurdish region called Rojava near the Syrian border with Turkey.

“At the end of the day, Turkish leadership believes that undercutting the YPG/ PYD in northern Syria is the main and existential policy goal,” said Sibel Oktay, an assistant professor of political science and global studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “Turkey considers this group as the offshoot of PKK in Turkey, so the country’s priority is to eliminate terrorism from that border region.”

The SDF maintains prison camps for captured IS militants and their families, including thousands of women and children

at the notorious al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria. Many of the detainees are foreigners, and Kurdish officials have repeatedly asked the international community for assistance in repatriating the prisoners so they can be tried in their country of origin.

“The Syrian Kurdish forces, who were instrumental in the fight against ISIS, are exposed to Turkey in the north,” Oktay said. “Assuming that there are still ISIS sleeper cells in the region, US withdrawal exposes Kurds to those units as well. … I’m concerned that we might see some prison breaks in the next weeks and months, which would be deleterious for the fight against ISIS.” Talks had been ongoing between Washington and Ankara over a 30 km deep, 120 km wide “safe zone” along the Turkey-Syria border to protect hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in advance of a Turkish assault on Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Syria. But Turkish officials complained that the process of creating the safe zone was moving too slowly, and U.S. officials were unsatisfied with the terms.

“I think the intent was always to end up in a conflict with the SDF, it was just a matter of getting the U.S. out of the way,” said Derek Davison, an international affairs analyst and editor of online foreign policy publication LobeLog. “From the U.S. perspective, I think Turkey’s demands were too great in terms of the size of the zone and the number of refugees they want to resettle there, which will inevitably change the demographics of the region even though Turkey denies that it wants to do that. Everybody’s seen what they did in northwestern Syria, displacing Kurdish residents in favor of returning Arab refugees, and that’s presumably what they’re planning now for the northeast.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday that Trump would sign an executive order authorizing sanctions on Turkey if needed. Mnuchin said the president’s concerns include targeted attacks on civilians, ethnic and religious minorities and the potential for detained IS fighters to

go free.

Members of the Trump administration have sought to dispel the notion that by pulling U.S. forces out of northern Syria they are abandoning America’s longtime Kurdish allies; in an interview Wednesday with the PBS Newshour, for example, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denied giving Turkey “a green light” to launch its offensive. But Trump himself has made comments appearing to justify the move, saying on Twitter Monday, Oct. 7 that “The Kurds fought with us, but were paid massive amounts of money and equipment to do so,” while on Wednesday citing an article he had read in saying, “They [the Kurds] didn’t help us in the Second World War, they didn’t help us with Normandy.”

The Pentagon finally responded Friday, with Defense Secretary Mark Esper telling reporters, “We have not abandoned the Kurds. Let me be clear about that. We have not abandoned them.

“Nobody green-lighted this operation

by Turkey — just the opposite. We pushed back very hard at all levels for the Turks not to commence this operation. But Lord knows they have opposed this relationship between the United States and the YPG since its infancy in 2014. The Turks have opposed it all along the way, and so we should not be surprised that they’ve finally acted this way.”

Oktay said Trump’s decision to withdraw troops now may be tied to both the ongoing impeachment inquiry against him led by House Democrats and the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign.

“Academic research tells us that leaders who are hard-pressed at home use this kind of diversionary foreign policy frequently,” she said. “Second and relatedly, he may be after scoring some points at home in the run up to 2020. Bringing troops back home is a strong move that could capture the hearts and minds of voters, after all.”

Nation & World. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019 | 11

More cities pushing to replace Columbus Day

ELAINE THOMPSON | AP In this Monday, Oct. 10, 2011 file photo, Ferntree, of Duncan, British Columbia, a member of the Cowichan Tribes, holds her hand up as a prayer is given during a Native American protest against Columbus Day in Seattle.

By Rebecca Meluch Contributing Writer

Almost 530 years after Christopher Columbus made landfall in the Bahamas, the debate over whether to replace the national holiday created in his honor with one that celebrates the native peoples of America is still open.

As of the beginning of October, at least eight states and 130 cities in the U.S. had passed legislation to replace the federal holiday of Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, but Chicago’s celebration still remains intact.

Columbus Day is celebrated in many parts of the Americas and in 25 U.S. states as an official legal holiday. It was declared a federal holiday in 1934, and since 1970 has been observed on the second Monday of October.

While Columbus’ fleet made landfall on one of the Bahamian Islands — likely San Salvador — in 1492, he wasn’t actually the first explorer to set foot in America. Some historians believe that an Irish Monk, Saint Brendan, sailed to North America in the sixth century. And other historians have concluded that Vikings from Greenland, led by Leif Erikson, sailed to a place he called “Vinland” — now believed to be the modern day’s Canandian province of Newfoundland — around 1000 A.D. And since a 1970 United Nations conference on discrimination against

indigenous peoples, there has been a push to recognize that millions of people were already living in the Americas. Critics of Columbus Day argue the conventional historical narrative of discovery is actually one of conquest and colonial settlement, in which Columbus enslaved, colonized and killed thousands of indigenous people in the Americas upon arrival.

“Most Americans probably don’t think much about Columbus Day, except perhaps that it’s a federal holiday and an excuse to get a day off from work or school,” said Laura Kina, director of Critical Ethnic Studies at DePaul and member of the Ryukuyaun indigenous community. “It is not appropriate to celebrate Christopher Columbus Day, as his history is a part of an ongoing violent settler colonialism of the Americas. Native peoples and indigenous folks continue today to resist being disposed of their sacred lands.”

Many cities and states in the country have been successful in replacing the holiday.

Last Tuesday, Washington, D.C. passed legislation to rename the federal holiday to Indigenous Peoples Day. The council pushing this legislation, declared it to be an emergency to rename the holiday in time for Oct. 14.

Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order last Tuesday mandating the change of the holiday.

With more than 100 cities and eight

states that have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, some aldermen want Chicago to be among them.

In August, legislation seeking to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day was introduced by 33rd Ward Alderman Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez and supported by members of advocacy group Chi-Nations Youth Council.

The current draft of the ordinance says the celebration of Columbus Day in Chicago “perpetuates violence against the Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized communities through the promotion of American Exceptionalism, which continues to be grounded in the ideologies of white supremacy.”

“The abolishment of Columbus Day promotes a more equitable and inclusive city for all Chicagoans,” it says.

A similar piece of legislation was introduced by Alderman Carlos RamirezRosa, D-35th, and Ameya Pawar, D-47th, in September 2016; it failed to pass City Council in May. Ramirez-Rosa is also a co-sponsor of the new ordinance, which is currently sitting in the Health and Human Services Committee.

Fawn Pochel, education coordinator of Chicago’s American Indian Center, said that the bill, if it passes, would shed light on marginalized indigenous voices.

“It’s to push towards disproving this myth of discovery and help reconcile the indigenous identity that was taken away

Pence said he would release transcripts of his phone calls with Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskiy; former South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy joined Trump legal’s team.

THURSDAY, Oct. 10 — Two associates of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were indicted in New York along with businessmen David Correia and Andrey Kukushkin.

All were charged with conspiracy and financial fraud related to both Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and efforts to get Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The indictment also said an unnamed congressman helped to oust former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch; the AP and other outlets named the congressman as former

Texas Republican Rep. Pete Sessions based on campaign finance records.

FRIDAY, Oct. 11 — Yovanovitch, under subpoena, testified behind closed doors in front of three House committees leading the impeachment probe. In prepared remarks that were obtained by the media, she denied having ever pressured anyone to “refrain from investigating or prosecuting actual corruption.” She also said thenDeputy Secretary of State John Sullivan told her there had been “a concerted campaign against me” within the White House since summer 2018. She said Sullivan told her she “had done nothing wrong.”

SUNDAY, Oct. 13 — Hunter Biden stepped down from his role as an unpaid board member of Chinese investment company BHR.

Impeachment Inquiry week in review

By Brian Pearlman Nation & World Editor

MONDAY, Oct. 7 — Three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry subpoenaed documents from the Pentagon and the Office of Management and Budget.

TUESDAY, Oct. 8 — The White House said it would not cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry, with White House Counsel Pat Cipollone writing in a letter to Democratic House leaders that the inquiry is “constitutionally invalid.”

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 9 — Former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said at a New Hampshire campaign rally that Trump must be impeached. Vice President Mike

from a lot of folks, and to develop a sense of solidarity and accurate portrayals of history from more perspectives of just white men,” she said.

Proponents of Columbus Day, meanwhile, argue that replacing Columbus Day would eliminate a day of ethnic pride for Italian Americans and could be considered culturally insensitive as well.

The National Italian American Foundation, for example, said in a statement on its website that it “opposes public campaigns that advocate for [Columbus Day’s] elimination as a federal holiday.”

Joseph Cullen, a spokesperson for Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus, told The DePaulia that the organization is not at all opposed to the celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day and that it is not a “neither, nor” situation.

“Why not [have] both?” he said.

Cullen said Indigenous Peoples Day should not be celebrated at the expense of Columbus Day, suggesting instead that each could be celebrated on different days.

In the absence of an official holiday commemorating indigenous people, a number of Chicago and Illinois institutions have held land acknowledgement ceremonies to recognize the traditional stewardship by indigenous residents of the land on which now sit the Field Museum, Northwestern University, UIC and more.

The American Indian Center’s Pochel said that while these acknowledgements are a first step toward reconciliation, they don’t go far enough.

Lisa Poirier, an associate professor of religious studies at Depaul who focuses on Native American religion, said many Americans haven’t yet reckoned with the history of colonialism, and in some cases they don’t want to.

“I think that changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day would force people to take a look at the history of colonialism in North America and to perhaps take a look at what Christopher Columbus was like as a human being,” she said. “I don’t think that non-Natives are necessarily excited about doing that because its difficult and painful and it is a shameful history — people like to celebrate an imagined and sort of mythic understanding of what they think America is.”

Yolibeth Sandoval, DePaul senior and chapter representative for Chicago’s International Indigenous Youth Council, said listening to indigenous voices is the first step in being recognized.

“I think for what’s helped me to find some healing in everything that has happened here in the city of Chicago is acknowledgement,” she said.

“Acknowledgement is the first thing — being listened to, no matter who you are and where you’re at.”

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE | AP Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, arrives Capitol Hill, Oct. 11, 2019.

12 | Opinions. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019

Opinions

The NCAA needs to pay up

Lack of federal Fair Pay legislation could result in unfair advantage for some schools

ANNALISA BARANOWSKI | THE DEPAULIA

By Brian Gilbert Contributing Writer

It’s absolutely time for college athletes to get paid.

It’s also time for the NCAA and the federal government to come together and cooperate on creating a federal Fair Pay to Play bill that would allow college athletes across the nation to make money off their name, image or likeness.

Some states, like California, Illinois and Florida, have already signed or proposed their own state laws that will and could go into effect as early as next year.

It may seem progressive for states to act quickly, but California’s law could give schools in that state a strong recruiting advantage, making it unfair to other states without the law.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Fair Pay to Play Act on Monday, Sept. 30 and while the law does not force schools to pay athletes, it allows college athletes to hire agents who can acquire business and sponsorship deals.

The law will not go into effect until Jan. 1, 2023. Several representatives from other states have filed bills like California’s. Emanuel Welch, from Illinois, filed a bill on Sept. 30 that would allow Illinois college athletes to make money from endorsement deals. If passed and signed into law, it would take effect in 2023.

Kionne McGhee, from Florida, also filed a bill on Sept. 30 aimed at preventing the NCAA from blocking college athletes from receiving compensation for the use of their likeness or name. If passed and signed into law, it would take effect as early as July 1, 2020.

However, not all representatives believe that states should legislate this.

Anthony Gonzalez, a representative

“The NCAA needs to take charge because if this law keeps going state by state, it could take other smaller states longer to catch up, recruiting wise, and their programs could lose funding.”

Dane Wiley

Former college volleyball player from Ohio, believes the California law and other state laws could bring potential problems, like unfair recruiting, and wants the federal government to act quickly. Gonzalez said he is planning to propose a new national law to give college athletes the opportunity to make endorsement money, he told ESPN. Dan Azzaro, a public relations and advertising professor at DePaul specializing in sports marketing, does not necessarily agree with Gonzalez that the government needs to act quickly and thinks it’s the role of the NCAA to come up with a national plan.

“There will have to be some sort of overriding guidance to this, and perhaps this is where the NCAA can step in and lead the discussion,” Azzaro said. “There are several issues here, including everything from smaller sports to women’s sports to the role of transfers to existing school sponsors.”

Daniel A. Carpio, a lawyer from California and partner at Dunn, Carpio & Turner, also said that there is no immediate need for the federal government to act on this.

“No one really knows exactly how

the California law will play out, how it will impact recruitment and to what extent,” Carpio said. “The federal government is better off letting states legislate this, watch what happens and then engage in legislative actions where it sees fit and as appropriate.”

“I’d say the most likely scenario is that the federal government will have to step in, not to even the recruitment playing field, but when confronted with any jurisdictions that are still denying players their rights to profit from their likeness,” Carpio said. “Given the delay in enactment, there is ample time for states to develop their own framework, and then open the door to possible federal regulation.”

If states continue to move forward with their own legislation, it could give them an unfair recruiting advantage and smaller schools in those states could lose recruits and money overtime.

“The bigger issue will be the big [schools] getting bigger, and the mid majors perhaps falling to a lower level of competition,” Azzaro said.

Dane Wiley, a former college volleyball player who now coaches younger

kids, said it’s long overdue for the NCAA to figure this out.

“California, Florida and some other states already have an advantage when it comes to recruiting because of their weather, location and powerhouse programs,” Wiley said. “The NCAA needs to take charge because if this law keeps going state by state, it could take other smaller states longer to catch up, recruiting wise, and their programs could lose funding.”

One of the goals and arguments of proposing a federal Fair Pay law is that it could possibly eliminate recruiting violations and illegal payments. Azzaro is optimistic that a federal law could deter these illegal financial transactions and violations in the future.

“What this may be is start to eliminate the ‘payments’ being done under the table, if endorsement money comes in, there may not be a role for the friends of the program helping out,” Azzaro said.

Carpio agreed and said that any law that allows an underground system to come to light and operate in a regulated market is generally preferable.

In order to avoid unfair recruiting advantages and possibly reduce illegal payments, the NCAA and the federal government need to collaborate and come up with a national plan sooner rather than later. It’s time for athletes to get paid and make money off their likeness and image, but it needs to be on a national level for it to be fair across the playing field. There is no legal argument that should prevent the NCAA from doing this, it’s simply righting an archaic business model that should have been deemed illegal a long time ago.

Opinions. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019 | 13

Post-grad peril

Is the resume boost of graduate school worth the financial strain?

By Keira Wingate Asst. Arts & Life Editor

Senior year has finally come and the fear for my future has come along with it.

Finally, being in my last year of college, the completely unknown world I face after making it across the stage has begun to consume my mind.

With the thoughts of the unknown roaming my mind regularly, I began to see graduate school in my future. Keep in mind; I had previously said I did not want to go to graduate school anytime soon.

Should I go? Will I benefit from it?

Can I afford it? These questions have not left my thoughts since this journey into my “what if?” future began. I feel as though I have been in a constant state of anxiety and overtaken with the “I am not good enough” rhetoric.

In this day and age, getting an undergraduate degree is almost too costly to happen. It makes you wonder if, after paying for a bachelor’s degree, going back for a master’s degree is worth it. Only 12 percent of adults in the United States have a master’s degree, according to the Urban Institute.

I have struggled to try to pay for my undergraduate degree, which I am beginning to feel is not enough to secure me a job in seven months. I don’t think going to get my masters will benefit me as much as I hope, but at the same time, I am scared I will lack necessary skills in my field without it.

I think grad school is something people do when they can’t find a job in the field in which they got their undergraduate degree

ANNALISA BARANOWSKI | THE DEPAULIA

in. Hey, some people like school, but in today’s world, the cost to continue is too much for some to bear.

“If I had gotten a job before grad school, I probably wouldn’t have decided to enroll at this time,” said Eric Henry, a graduate student at DePaul. “But maybe I would’ve later. I like school and I like learning, and there are many things that interest me. But I felt dependent on going to grad school this time around.”

For students, I think that with being in school for so many years and then graduating without a job offer in sight, a lot of negative thoughts can begin to impact judgment.

Students are so used to being in school and when nothing is coming from the millions of LinkedIn applications they’ve submitted, getting back into a school routine

seems right, so why not go back to school?

Rick Brown, a journalism professor at DePaul, said getting a master’s degree is only a must for those who didn’t get what they needed as an undergraduate student, specifically in journalism.

“For whatever reason as undergraduates, they didn’t take the courses they needed to really do what they now decided they want to do for a career,” Brown said.

“But if your undergraduate program was really good, do you really need to go to grad school?”

That is a question I have continued to ask myself regularly. Sometimes I think I am only doing it as a way to see more places — applying to schools in areas I haven’t been — ­ or I genuinely think I am so unbelievably bad at what I want to do that the only thing that’ll help me succeed after

the school year is up, is grad school.

The cost alone is a terrifying thought, but maybe it will pay off in the long run.

Brown said getting a master’s degree will not hurt you – besides the student debt, of course.

DePaul grad student Sean McNealy used grad school as a clutch during a difficult time.

“I felt grad school was a way for me to climb out of that terrible slump and prove to myself I could complete a goal,” he said.

“It was a motivational and I felt like it gave me a purpose.”

Despite giving him purpose, McNealy still believes graduate school is not necessary to be a journalist, which is his area of study in grad school.

I think McNealy is right. I wholeheartedly don’t think grad school is necessary, or at least it shouldn’t be.

Will I apply to grad school? Yes. Will I actually go? Who knows.

Us stressed seniors who are missing the confusion of freshman year and a meal plan are holding tightly onto hope. I hope that the hard work we just put in for four – or however many – years will be enough to land us a job that provides a sense of stability that will be lost.

I keep thinking back to what Brown said about how getting a masters won’t hurt you. I like the thought of saying I have a masters, but do I like it enough to shell out another 40 thousand to say it? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

No shot, no score

Despite presenting a progressive image, the NBA folded as soon as earnings were threatened

By Nate Burleyson Asst. Sports Editor

A commissioner of a global game had to have seen this coming.

Like David Stern before him, National Basketball Association (NBA) commissioner Adam Silver advocates for basketball’s ability to transcend international boundaries. As of right now, that is exactly what separates the league from the other major sports leagues in the United States. Yet now Silver and other NBA personalities are in defense mode.

Houston Rockets general manager Darryl Morey tweeted on Oct. 4 in support of Hong Kong’s independence protests. The tweet, now deleted, garnered a backlash from Chinese TV executives, NBA/China ambassadors and a sizeable amount of the hundreds of millions of Chinese fans.

What brewed from Morey’s tweet was an international discussion about a sports league’s pseudo-wokeness, the fragility of a billion-dollar partnership, freedom of speech, human rights and a clash of cultures. Politicians, journalists and American fans took shots at the NBA for its refusal to call out China for human rights violations.

However, one has to wonder, why were people expecting any different from the league?

David Stern was always concerned about the game’s status in China. He’s seen the birth of the relationship between the league and China. From when the NBA was

sending game tapes to Chinese TV for free in the ‘90s to the billion-dollar entanglement of today, politics have always been put to the side in favor of paychecks.

The NBA’s philosophy and the image have long been about inclusion, player individuality and front office and player freedoms to speak out.

“The NBA, beginning with David Stern and now with Adam Silver have meticulously created and shaped their image on certain issues,” DePaul professional lecturer Dan Azarro said.

Of course, it isn’t always perfect in practice.

Come 2004, the NBA had an image problem. The infamous Malice at the Palace brawl tainted the reputation of the league.

In response to growing concerns from sponsors, the league introduced a dress code. Among the list of the banned artifacts were jerseys, hats, jeans, durags, t-shirts and large jewelry.

Opposers to the dress code saw the targeting of hip-hop and African American culture by league officials as a problem.

Yet, in the past decade, the NBA has been progressive. In 2014, TMZ released audio of LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling making racist and offensive comments about his assistant. Silver had the defining moment of his short career as NBA commissioner when he held a press conference banning Sterling for life.

In 2016, the NBA refused to hold its

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NBA fans react to a preseason game in Shanghai, China. all-star game in Charlotte, North Carolina after the state passed the HB2 bill restricting transgender people from using their preferred bathroom.

Now, Silver is being blasted for his reluctance to stand up to China. There was believed to be precedent set by Silver and the NBA itself for human rights and activism. Yet, this China situation is on a scale that Silver and the league have never seen, and they’re folding.

The Sterling and Charlotte decisions were almost unanimously supported by NBA fans, players and personnel.

Yet now the NBA could lose billions of dollars if China decides to pull advertising, sponsorship and support. The timing of all of this is one of the biggest points of interest.

“China is the largest group where you can have [a brand] and they love American Basketball,” Azzaro said. “It’s coming at a bad time where you have a trade war going on and it just adds into it.”

The NBA isn’t built for this. In those

other situations, they could have lost money if they didn’t act. Here, they will lose money if they do act. Why are we now expecting the NBA to say something and take a historical stance? This could very well be swept under the rug after the season begins.

“The Morey incident, unfortunately, dragged the NBA into a dilemma,” said Li Jin, director of DePaul’s Chinese Studies Program. “But I think not all of the NBA’s Chinese fans genuinely think that is a big issue despite the overwhelming critical voices from China you read in the western media reports. I believe the NBA will survive this incident unscathed.”

Stern knew about this possibility before Twitter was even a thing. Now, Silver has choices to make. These are choices where his personal feelings toward the issue don’t matter. With immense pressure coming from China, the owners he works for and the fans, it’s no surprise that he is ducking the issue. Now, it’s time to see if this will be as historic as one might think.

14 | Focus. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019

Focus

Devastated by a mother seeks

Freddrica Nicholas purchased the lot next to her home and dedicated it to the memory of her daughter Destiny, who was killed in a shooting in April in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood. Destiny worked for over

By Lacey Latch Managing Editor

JAMES NELSON | THE DEPAULIA

Destiny left behind a young daughter when she was murdered in April. Her mother created pins to wear at protests and rallies in her memory and recently wore them at the gun violence rally in Washington D.C.

On a quiet street on Chicago’s South Side, Freddrica Nicholas sits at the kitchen table of her home that also functions as a daycare. Kids of all ages can be heard playing in another room, a mix of her own foster children and neighborhood kids she looks after during the day. Family photos cover every available inch of the walls — smiling children as they grew through the years.

Mementos from preschool picture day hang next to high school graduation photos, documenting the many lives that were forged and fostered in this home.

Nicholas is beautiful, with her every feature meticulously accounted for. Her eyelashes are full and long, and her nails are bright and eye catching. She gives off the aura of a natural caretaker, offering food and drinks to anyone who walks through her door with a smile on her face and her arms open for a hug. A mother in her element.

Nicholas always knew she wanted a life surrounded by kids, but foster care was never her plan. Until Destiny entered her world. When a woman she knew who was suffering from a drug addiction and who already had several kids in the foster system told her she was pregnant and planned to abort the fetus, Nicholas volunteered to take the baby – a baby she eventually named Destiny.

This one decision launched a lifelong journey of child care that Nicholas attributes directly to her daughter, Destiny. Nicholas now has six foster children who are only the newest to call her Freddrica Nicholas with her daughte house their home, all made possible due to fosterfallen victim to Chicago ing Destiny over two decades ago.

Her photos line the wall Described as her perfect child with a singing voice large framed montage o like no other, Destiny grew up to be smart, kind and phone and social media compassionate. She worked hard, eventually crossing of Destiny with angel wi paths with DePaul as an employee at Brownstones Café.

Following in the footsteps of her own mother, she became of the empty lot next do Destiny” and she’s comm a doting mother to her own daughter, Emari, a spitting and enchanting as her d image of Destiny as a child.

In the middle of the Yet, Destiny isn’t in the house with her mom today. as Destiny and a friend Nor is she just down the street at the home she and Emari gas station, shots rang o shared.

She had just gotten off w Instead, the Nicholas family remains in limbo as their simply running errands Destiny joined the long list of young people who have

Focus. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019 | 15

y gun violence, justice after loss JAMES NELSON | THE DEPAULIA

r a year at Brownstones Café in the DePaul Student Center and was currently working at Midway Airport.

at 23, her life was bookended. On that day, Destiny joined the 2,141 other people who have been shot in Chicago so far this year, according to data collected by the Chicago Tribune.

“I love God, really so much,” Nicholas said.

“But it is still so hard to associate her death with gunshots. It’s just so hard to believe she was involved in gunshots.”

The university never released an official statement regarding her death, and her coworkers at Chartwells remember her fondly.

“She was a great mom,” said Jennie Tiberio, assistant director of dining services and Destiny’s boss. “It was clear she was devoted to her daughter, always showing off photos at work and talking about all the things they did together.”

At the time of her death, a few people at Brownstones also said they were not given the day off of work to attend her funeral. Mark Little, resident district manager of dining services, could not speak to the announcement policies at DePaul, but said that he’s “not aware of any requests that were submitted and then denied to attend Ms. Nicholas’ funeral services,” but that “current bereavement policy includes leave for family members.”

Nicholas tries to look on the bright side for Emari’s sake. She never lets her children see her cry and refuses to let Destiny’s brightness fade from memory. She makes a point to bring her up often, as she remains an integral member in the lives of the Nicholas family. She is the reason they’re all together and she’ll be the reason they make it through their grief.

Just last week, Nicholas’ foster license was up PHOTO COURTESY OF FREDDRICA NICHOLAS for renewal. For the first time in nearly 20 years, er Destiny, her first of many foster children. she will not be renewing. o’s gun violence this past spring.

“I started with Destiny and I’m ending with ls of Nicholas’ home, including a Destiny,” she said. of recent photos pulled from her Unbeknownst to Destiny, her friend had gang affila after her death. A large banner iations and her mother believes her death was likely a ings hangs on the fence in front byproduct of retaliation. Today, like so many other gun oor. She’s named it “Garden of violence victims in the city, her killer remains free. Even mitted to making it as beautiful worse, Nicholas said she knows exactly who did it. But daughter was. as the families sharing their pain have come to know e afternoon on Saturday, April 13, too well, there’s a difference between knowing guilt and were vacuuming out her car at a proving guilt. out and she was fatally wounded.

Now, she waits. Waits for news, waits for justice, waits work at Midway Airport and was for some semblance of peace — should any ever come. s on her way home. Just like that,

PHOTO COURTESY OF FREDDRICA NICHOLAS

Emari Nicholas places flowers at her mother’s grave.

JAMES NELSON | THE DEPAULIA

Destiny Nicholas at her high school graduation. She was murdered at the age of 23.

Arts & Life

16 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019

A sip of fall

Here’s a look at the best seasonal coffee drinks around Chicago Caffe Streets’ Apple Pie Latte is a great choice for anti-pumpkin coffee consumers, offering a sweet yet tart taste that will make your mouth water.

By Charlie Bevins Contributing Writer

While the warm, sunny Chicago fall days slowly creep toward the bite of winter, coffee shops around the city are treating people to specialty coffees that say “fall” with every sip.

“I just haven’t had a pumpkin spice latte or many pumpkin-flavored products, just because I haven’t gotten around to it.” said Nick Seda, a sophomore at DePaul University. “It’s not like I don’t want to, or I want to. If it comes up I’ll indulge, but I’m not going to go out of my way for one.”

Whether you can’t stand pumpkin spice, love it or are like Nick and simply haven’t gotten on the bandwagon yet, Chicago has something for everybody to get into the fall spirit.

Five local coffee shops, lots of sugar and a couple resulting headaches later, here are some coffee shops to try a taste of fall from.

1. Ipsento Coffee at 2035 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60647: Pumpkin Patch Latte Ipsento, just a few blocks from the Western Blue Line station, is home to the Pumpkin Patch Latte, a specialty fall drink that may sound reminiscent of the famous pumpkin spice latte that can be found ubiquitously at chains Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks. This comparison, however, is a little hard to make after trying Ipsento’s.

“The Pumpkin Patch is made with real pumpkin puree,” said Sofia Fey, a barista at Ipsento. “And then we get our syrups from a company called Joe’s Snow. We get locally and they’re crafted. They’re really good and we use some of that in there, and then we use real spices, real ground sugar.”

A typical complaint of the average pumpkin spice latte is the sweetness. Often, it doesn’t even taste like coffee. The Pumpkin Patch latte is well-balanced, giving the flavor of actual pumpkin while still carrying a nice bitterness from the espresso.

“We do try to make all our drinks really balanced,” Fey said.

Ipsento roasts their own beans only a block or so away, and they emphasize using local products as opposed to importing something like the commonly used Monin syrup, according to Fey. Treating yourself to the Pumpkin Patch latte will perk you up without weighing you down, and doing so

EVAN DYE | THE DEPAULIA

supports a local business that supports other local businesses.

2. Colectivo at 2530 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60614: Piccadilly hot chocolate Not a coffee drinker? Colectivo has you covered with the Piccadilly hot chocolate, recommended by Jared Zaitz, a barista at the coffee shop.

“My favorite item this fall is the Piccadilly hot chocolate,” Zaitz said. “The Piccadilly hot chocolate is made using our Piccadilly Earl Grey tea, which is steeped in sugar to make a lovely syrup. It’s fragrant, floral and not too sweet.”

The use of Piccadilly, Colectivo’s Earl Grey tea in hot chocolate may sound like an odd pairing, but Zaitz’s advice was sound.

The Piccadilly hot chocolate was creamy with some chocolatey bitterness, as is to be expected from a good hot chocolate. But the Piccadilly introduced a whole new floral-tasting dimension that paired well with the creamy hot chocolate.

“I like drinks that are more heavy on the taste of the espresso and the Picadilly doesn’t cover the coffee’s natural flavors,” Zaitz said.

The Piccadilly definitely lets other flaMACKENZIE MURTAUGH | THE DEPAULIA vors exist without overpowering them, Colectivo spiced up its hot chocolate with the ‘Piccadilly,’ a cinnamon take on the drink. and it pairs very well with Colectivo’s hot chocolate to warm up once the giving the latte a nice taste of pumpkin apple flavor that makes the mouth salivate. days get colder. spice without it tasting syrupy or too sweet.

Consider dropping by Cafe Streets for 3. The Bagelers Coffeehouse at 2461 N The latte itself is foamy and very creamy, the apple pie latte if in Wicker Park; it’s only Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60614: Pumpbut not overpowering. The pumpkin spice a couple blocks away from the Blue Line kin Pie Latte cuts through the foamy and creamy rich- Division stop.

A few blocks from DePaul, The Bagel- ness, making for a nice balance of pumpkin 5. Sol Café at 1615 Howard St, Chicago, ers Coffeehouse serves house-made bagels flavor. It is a great choice for the infrequent IL 60626: Oh My Gourd Latte and croissants, as well as an array of coffee. coffee drinker who wants to enjoy a warm It takes some time to get to Sol Cafe Their fall specialty drink? The Pumpkin Pie pumpkin drink for the fall. from DePaul, but the Oh My Gourd makes Latte.

4. Caffè Streets at 1750 W Division St, the travel worth it.

“It’s very different from other lattes speChicago, IL 60622- Apple Pie Latte Located in Rogers Park, Sol Cafe’s Oh cifically because a lot of other places sell Caffe Streets in Wicker Park has lots of My Gourd is made with pumpkin purée, pumpkin spice lattes,” said Carlos Vilchis, room for visitors and a welcoming, laid- coconut milk and curry spice. It’s a pumpgeneral manager of The Bagelers Coffee- back atmosphere. kin drink unlike any other on this list, as the house. “So essentially what that is, is it’s just Another great choice for the spice leaves a pleasant burn in the throat. literally pumpkin and they add the all spice non-pumpkin latte drinker, the apple pie The spice is warming and takes the seasoning to it. latte from Cafe Streets does not have any pumpkin-coffee combination to a different “We add actual pumpkin pie puree to it, overpowering flavors, tasting like a regu- level, while the use of coconut milk makes so you get the taste of pumpkin pie, but still lar latte with a sweetness that doesn’t drag it feel light. getting that taste of what a pumpkin spice down the drinker.

Venturing up north to Sol Cafe will is,” he continued. “So we kind of enhance it The flavoring is more on the pie side bring coffee drinkers a whole new experia bit more using pumpkin pie concentrate.” of apple pie, but not in a negative way. Too ence with the Oh My Gourd. For the adThe pumpkin pie is made in a nearby much apple can be an off-putting combina- venturous palate, this is a must-try. bakery and is made with pumpkin spices, tion with coffee, but there is a slight tart,

Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019 | 17

Oh, to be young again

Adult cartoons like Netflix’s ‘Big Mouth’ see life from a child-like perspective

By Ella Lee Arts & Life Editor

Raging hormones, entirely unrequited crushes and the pressures of 7th grade: As if surviving puberty wasn’t bad enough the first time around, Netflix’s “Big Mouth” invites its audience to relive the nightmare of middle school all over again.

The show, created by comedians Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett and first released in 2017, follows a group of gangly, awkward preteens as they navigate growing up, touching on topics from sexuality and sexism to divorced parents and drugs.

“It’s the TV show we all needed in middle school,” said Haley Beube, 21.

Amidst the influx of crime dramas and

sitcoms are adult cartoons, a genre which many enjoy, but most will vehemently deny they do. Adult cartoons have seen great growth since popular TV shows like “Futurama” and “The Simpsons” took off, providing teenagers and adults alike with an escape from reality.

“There’s so much pressure on people to work every second or to always be social, and cartoons provide just a different way to laugh,” said Tatum Hansen, 19.

The cartoons are often lauded as an escape from the real world, but the reason for their continued success may be as simple as an opportunity to feel like a kid again.

“We all grew up watching cartoons, and there’s something about the form that is very, very familiar and reminiscent of a time in our lives when we didn’t have a lot

to worry about,” said Nathan DeWitt, an adjunct faculty member in CDM whose research lies primarily in TV. “The thing you get in adult cartoons is this juxtaposition of this innocent childlike form that then explores these really interesting and complicated and big themes. They’ll look at stuff that’s really complicated or stuff that’s really cerebral or might be difficult to watch in live action.”

The animated form of cartoons leaves room for artistic and comedic decisions that would never fly in a live-action TV show. “The Simpsons” illustrates this point well, DeWitt said: In the show, there are several situations where Homer Simpson grabs his son, Bart, by the neck and shakes him, choking him to prove he’s angry. Now imagine if they were real people.

“The show would be cancelled right there; they’d be monsters,” he said. “Because they’re cartoons, we can stomach that type of violence.There’s this disconnect you get in the form of animation in terms of violence or emotional things.”

“I think what ‘Big Mouth’ is doing is showing you the reality of puberty and the realities of sexual awkwardness in the form of the cartoon, but they can be so honest because of that desensitization and because it’s not a real person,” DeWitt added.

“The Simpsons” is widely credited with the success of the other mature cartoons

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that have followed it. With its heavy topics and witty writing — “Harvard sensibility,” as DeWitt called it — it paved the way for young viewers and fans to grow up and make their own version of the show, like “South Park,” “Beavis and Butt-head” and “American Dad,” to name a few.

But the future of adult cartoons could be more than the typical animated show.

The lines between what is real and not real has been blurred by the rise of digital production, and as technology continues to advance, the term “adult cartoon” may soon come to encapsulate more than comedic shows.

“I’m going to say a thought I’ve literally never had before: ‘Game of Thrones’ could be considered an adult cartoon,” DeWitt said. “It’s a ton of digital effects, and it’s a world where the rules of physics don’t necessarily apply in the same way they do here, specifically like the idea of mortality.”

For shows like “Big Mouth,” DeWitt said he thinks there will always be room for them on TV — it’s just a matter of how their messages are relayed and received.

“I think you’ll always have room for that,” he said. “I’m curious to see now children’s cartoons like ‘Adventure Time’ taking on serious issues. So I’m wondering how serious, or bleak or honest — authentic even — these types of programs can grow to become.”

IMDB

‘Audiences want to laugh’

DePaul alumnus commits to career in comedy

By Aaron Somo Contributing Writer

The faintly illuminated bar room allowed just enough light to see your drink and the smiles stretching across each person’s face as the laughs rolled all night at Revolution Brewing on Wednesday Oct. 9.

Highly touted for its tap selection, the popular Milwaukee Avenue brewery was testing out a night of stand-up comedy.

The roaring laughter made no one happier than the birthday boy and DePaul alumni Andre Hashem. A year and a half into his comedy career, newly 35-year-old Hashem has successfully led the organization of a brand new comedy night at one of Chicago’s most popular breweries.

“Everyone here listens to Andre,” fellow comic Marcus Banks said. “He’s the one that really shows the motivation to organize a night like this.”

That motivation stems from a love for comedy that lights up every dimly lit barroom. Banks recalled all the work poured into organizing the night, saying that the group’s skill set fits like a puzzle piece.

“It took something from all of us to put this together and we all looked to Andre on how to make it work,” he said.

Hashem studied journalism at DePaul and spent a lot of time finding his true passion. Seven years ago, he performed at his first open mic. He spent the next several years utilizing comedy as a hobby until he realized it was the career he wanted to pur-

sue.

“It felt like comedy was just right there, you know? I had to go and take it,” Hashem said.

As satisfying as a successful night or set is, not every night can go as planned.

“Trust me you know when you’re bombing,” Hashem said. “And when you are you just have to live in the bomb. Acknowledge it.”

He chuckled as he continued to say that every comic experience the same thing, especially in the early years. Comedian colleagues Chris Grieco and Banks mirrored the sentiment, reminiscing on times where they had to accept the feelings that come with an unfavorable reaction from the audience.

“You can feel the difference between ‘I don’t like this’ and ‘this isn’t for me,’,” Grieco said. “It feels worse when they just don’t like it, but every comic has to go through that.”

The three comics shared a look as they recalled some of the times their set did not go as planned. Banks explained that many comics seek connection with the audience and that laughter confirms that connection.

He said that comedy is inherently communal, but it can feel lonely when you don’t break through.

“It’s important to remember that audiences want to laugh,” Hashem said. “Comedy is like an antidepressant. Maybe not as strong but it breathes levity into the moment, whatever people may be experienc-

ing.”

It takes those unsuccessful nights to improve. Eventually, every comic wants to move on to bigger things, something beyond open mics and breweries.

“Comics come to Chicago to get a start and cut their teeth while they plan to take their shot in L.A. or New York,” Grieco said. He praised the comedy culture in Chicago, especially Second City, which he recognized as a beacon for up-and-coming comics.

Hashem tried a stand-up class at Second City and an improv class at Annoyance, but admitted to dropping both after three sessions.

“I had done a few mics already, so it felt really weird to be in a lit classroom setting, having my material dissected by people I didn’t find funny,” he said. Instead, Hashem was motivated to sharpen his skills through relentless writing and performance.

As his own writing evolves, Hashem gravitates toward different comics.

“I’ve been listening to a lot of Maria Bamford recently,” he said. “Her jokes are so playful and relatable, I don’t think the audience realizes she’s dark.”

He has clearly brought shades of those elements to his own act, which exudes a somehow lighthearted cynicism and hypocrisy, along with a witty penchant for pop culture references.

A challenging approach in a time when political correctness is of utmost importance.

XAVIER ORTEGA | THE DEPAULIA

Hashem commanded the stage Wednesday.

“No one wants to be the one to say that everything is too P.C., but I’ve always looked at comedy as a conversation starter,” Banks said.

He continued to say that people too often treat it as the end of a conversation instead.

But, for a comic, the heart of the work lies in one goal. In the words of Andre Hashem, “Really, I’m just still trying to get laughs.”

18 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019

Sex,

Money,

Revenge

‘Hustlers’ emphasizes the power of female friendship

By Keira Wingate Asst. Arts & Life Editor

Six-inch platform heels, a top-notch cast that screams sex appeal and an intriguing true-life story, “Hustlers” exceeded expectations on its opening weekend, making $33.2 million across 3,250 theaters.

In 2014, a criminal ring of women who drugged men and stole their money came to light, being on the front page of tabloids for months. The movie is based on a 2015 New York magazine story about the women.

“Hustlers” brings career highs for both leading ladies, Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu. Lopez has been in the business for years, but “Hustlers” has been her best live-action opening ever, beating out her previous record-holding movie, “MonsterIn-Law.” Wu’s biggest opening weekend was “Crazy Rich Asians,” but “Hustlers” earned $7 million more.

Lopez plays Ramona, a veteran stripper who dips into a little crime to hustle rich, sleazy Wall Street men. Ramona takes Destiny (Constance Wu) under her fur coat and becomes a kind of mentor to her, improving her dancing skills in order to help her make more money. After the 2008 financial crisis, the women are hit hard with the loss of their highest-paying customers. A couple years later, after showing the financial struggle they’re going through, the women reunite along with Annabelle (Lili Reinhart) and Mercedes (Keke Palmer), with a plan to get money a different way, drug-filled way.

An interesting aspect of the film was the emphasis on love and f r i e n d s h i p.

For a movie that had very little romantic ties, there was a lot of love to be felt throughout. The

GRAPHIC BY ANNALISA BARANOWSKI

relationship between Ramona and Destiny intensified throughout the film, bringing them closer together. One could assume they only became such good friends because of the crimes committed together, but it got much deeper than that. Through every up and down in their lives, you could see the bond that was created.

Director Lorene Scafaria does well by showing a true friendship even in difficult circumstances. Who would have thought that in spite of drugging and robbing men, a real friendship would arise? Scafaria used big storylines from the real-life characters to ensure view-

ers knew how great an impact Ramona and Destiny had on one another’s lives, such as the death of Destiny’s grandmother and the end scene, where Ramona pulls out a childhood photo of Destiny. That scene takes the audience by surprise because, years after the initial arrest of the women involved, Ramona still carries around a photo in her wallet.

“If only we had known each other back then, you know?” Ramona’s character says. “Maybe we could’ve looked out for another, maybe our lives could have been different.”

She goes on to say,

“I like to keep her with me.” It is an emotional scene that makes the viewer look back at the development of the two women from the first few minutes of the film.

Ramona brings women together using a mother like persona. She comes off as caring and endearing, which turns out to be who she really is. She brought Annabelle and Mercedes into the drug-filled scheme because she actually did care for them. It is obvious she wants her money, but it is still easy to tell that despite that, they all do care for one another.

Scafaria showed these women as powerful and independent, and she did it so well it is easy to forget about the illegal acts they commit. The cast makes you feel empowered in a way. You know they shouldn’t be drugging men, but following the struggles they go through and gaining a better perspective on their personalities, it is easy to see that they’re not bad people.

It makes you think of the American Dream – to pull yourself up when things fall apart, try to earn a living and become successful and how it doesn’t exist. There are people that throw the money and those who dance.

It seems as if they were trying to be the ones throwing money.

In the end, it leaves you questioning if their actions are justified. Should they really be punished for drugging sleazy men who are just as guilty as they are? Were they doing the same thing those men did that led to the recession?

You’ll have to answer those questions yourself. But, it was still entertaining to see women take matters into their own hands and try to change the circumstances that were given to them. Maybe revenge really is the best medicine.

Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019 | 19

Rhapsody in Blue

Blue Man Group Chicago tests new instruments, material PHOTO BY ERIC KLEIN

The Blue Man Group in Chicago introduced new content, including interactive experiences for attendees, for their show on Oct. 10 at the Briar Street Theatre off Belmont.

By Lauren Coates Contributing Writer

Just one Red Line stop away from the Lincoln Park campus, the unassuming Briar Street Theatre sits nestled between nail salons and specialty restaurants. Although the building itself may be small, the spectacle it houses is a tried and true staple of both the Chicago theater scene and the entertainment industry as a whole. The Blue Man Group has been drumming, staring and prodding their way into the hearts of Chicagoans for almost 25 years now, but this season’s most recent additions include a decidedly modern twist on the tried and true formula that has made Blue Man Group so successful.

As always, the experience is immersive from the second you enter the theatre – part of what makes a Blue Man Group show so different from a musical or play is the constant reliance on audience reactions to fuel the comedy and narrative of each individual show’s performance.

According to Jeff Quay, the show’s associate musical director and drummer, each Blue Man Group show is unique to the energy of its audience – a Blue Man Group show in Berlin has a much different energy as opposed to a show performed in Chicago, not only because of the content of the performance, but also because of the cultural differences in what parts of the world find entertaining and funny.

However, one thing that stays consistent between all Blue Man Group shows is the core intent and message at each performance’s heart. Quay was eager to explain how he thinks of the performance as a sort of “healing experience,” referring to himself and his fellow band members as “electric shaman.” Quay feels that being part of the audience of the bizarre, absurdist performance helps audiences forget about the troubles of their daily lives, and simply get lost in the sights and sounds of every colorful performance.

However, just because Quay interprets the show as catharsis from reality, doesn’t

mean that the performance doesn’t touch on modern issues or themes. Technology, in particular, was a recurring theme in the newer additions to the show – aside from tried and true routines that are included in every Blue Man Group show across the country, the Chicago performances feature a new piece fondly referred to by Quay as “light horns,” and other skits that incorporated elements of virtual reality and massive digital screens.

Although the performances themselves are certainly one-of-a-kind, there’s just as much intrigue about what goes on behindthe-scenes as what’s being shown on stage.

There are currently six full-time actors who interchangeably perform as the three titular blue men, and, after removing the blue greasepaint, Tom Galassi was happy to discuss the ins and outs of how such a bizarre show comes together. Galassi explained how prospective blue men endure an intensive eight-week program before joining a regional or touring production, during which they learn the wide variety of skills necessary to perform in such a physically demanding show as often as four times a day. However, as long as the hours can be, both Galassi and Quay made it very clear how fulfilling being part of such a unique performance can be.

“If I were touring with a rock band, I would miss getting to meet and greet with the audience with the show every night,” Quay said. “It sounds cliche, but if I can make one person’s day, my job is worthwhile.”

If the audience’s reactions during the performance were any indication, his job is more than worth the long hours. The show, which was filled to the brim with futuristic, drum-based music and silent comedy, more than lived up to the reputation that Blue Man Group has established for itself.

Whether you’re a long-time fan or you’ve never seen one of their performances, consider taking a trip to the Briar Street Theatre to catch the newest additions to Blue Man Group’s spectacular show.

PHOTO BY DANIEL BOCZARSKI

New connections are made between the Blue Man group and the audience.

PHOTO BY DANIEL BOCZARSKI

New instruments including the ‘Spinulum’ were introduced throughout the show.

20| Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019

Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019 | 21

King in the North George R. R. Martin gives a candid look at what informs his craft

PHOTO BY DAVID T. KINDLER

George R.R. Martin (left), the author of the books which inspired HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones,’ is interviewed by Eve L. Ewing (right), a University of Chicago professor.

By Sam Rahman Staff Writer

The stage was dark and quiet as both dry ice fog and the iconic “Game of Thrones” opening credits song slowly worked themselves up from a slow churn to powerful waves of nostalgia. The music coming from this Chicago Humanities Festival event at Symphony Center on Friday night was produced by special guests Spektral Quartet, the ensemble-in-residence at the University of Chicago. As the iconic

score continued, famed “Game of Thrones” writer George R.R. Martin and U of C professor Eve L. Ewing ascended from below the stage and took their seats at a welladorned table worthy of a royal feast. The night of conversation and interviewing had only just begun.

It was immediately apparent that the fact that Martin writes the ”Song of Ice and Fire” series is the least interesting part of him. The magic of Martin lies before his relatively new celebrity status, as his writing did not hit No. 1 on the New York

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Times bestseller list until the series’ fourth book, ”A Feast for Crows,” in 2005. But before the “Game of Thrones” TV show, before the books, before his other writing for television and the collection of other fabulous series he authored, and before his education at Northwestern, there were comics.

Martin’s first published piece was a letter he sent to Marvel comics commenting on ”Fantastic 4” #17 and published in ”Fantastic 4” #20 in 1961.

“Move over Shakespeare, Stan Lee has arrived,” read a portion of the letter.

The comic that solidified Stan Lee as Martin’s most influential writer was “Avengers” #9, published in 1963. As the author recalled, Wonder Man, a spy “playing a hero” sent to end the Avengers joined the team. In the comic, Wonder Man “became friendly [with the team], wouldn’t destroy the Avengers and was killed.”

“All my writing is ‘Avengers’ #9,” Martin said.

From Marvel Comics and Stan Lee, he learned to “[introduce] great characters that aren’t what they seem and then kill them.” All readers and watchers of his works know this plot technique all too well, from the untimely deaths of Eddard and Rob Stark, to Robert and Joffrey Baratheon.

Martin declared his goal as a writer: that readers “not just read the book but live the book . . . be scared to turn the page.”

This is where his love for Marvel over D.C. comics begins. A D.C. comic, to Martin, was “circular, [ending] right where it began.” Furthermore, you could “read in any order” because whatever chaos happened throughout the comic, all would be back to normal by the last page.

“Nothing ever happened in D.C.,” Martin said.

Conversely, due to Marvel’s style of long, multiple-issue story arcs that permanently changed aspects of the story, Martin saw characters’ lives changing just as he did.

“I went to high school with Peter Parker,” he said. “I went to college with Peter Parker.”

Martin delved deeper into the philosophy of seemingly spontaneous murder,

citing another favorite of the fantasy genre, J. R. R. Tolkien’s famed ”Lord of the Rings” series. Recalling the demise of a powerful wizard, the author expressed his confounded disbelief.

“What the hell,” he said.” Gandalf dies?

The others seem like kids compared to him.”

Martin enjoyed the use of Gandalf ’s death in the story because it was “raising the stakes.” If Gandalf can die, no one is safe.

“Who are we going to kill next? We have several extra hobbits. . . they can go,” he teased.

Continuing on ”Lord of the Rings,” Ewing asked Martin to elaborate, saying, “You have become famous for writing renditions of the ’Scouring of the Shire,’” referring to the final chapter of the series when, instead of celebrations of their bravery and victory, our heroes find their villages ransacked.

Martin replied that he strives for the same type of realism and unhappy endings.

The days of anxiousness, grieving, and preparation before an army goes into battle, the multi-dimensional characters and the complex storylines each told from different characters’ perspectives are all ways Martin strives toward realism.

By the time Martin and Ewing descended into the stage and the ominous opening credits score began to play once more, everyone present truly understood one thing: Martin deeply cares about his writing and his readers. There is nothing disingenuous about the author because, if he was anything less than the methodical writer dedicated to crafting an amazing story, readers would have the last two books of the “Song of Ice and Fire” series already. Nevertheless, audiences will continue to wait for ”The Winds of Winter,” await which has now surpassed more than eight years.

Readers can check out the Chicago Humanities Festival website to learn more about the other speeches, interviews, conversations and performances taking place over the next couple weeks, such as Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and legendary comedian Julia Louis Dreyfuss.

22 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019 GRAPHIC BY ANNALISA BARANOWSKI

‘Mamma mia!’

‘Mario Kart Tour’ app falls short of the finish line

By Nicholas Moreano Contributing Writer

Imagine being able to use green shells and red mushrooms on rainbow roads from the palm of your hands – sounds enticing, doesn’t it? Well, when Nintendo released “Mario Kart Tour,” the first-ever mobile version of the popular racing game, on Sept. 25 for iOS and Android, that imagination became reality.

It didn’t take long for the much-anticipated game to break records. A week after the game was released, “Mario Kart Tour” was downloaded 90 million times (53.5 million by Android and 36.5 million by iOS), which is Nintendo’s biggest mobile launch in its history, according to Digital Trends.

Of course, “Mario Kart” isn’t new. In fact, there has been a Mario Kart game on every single Nintendo console since the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the early 90s. “Super Mario Kart,” the first of the “Mario Kart” series, was released in 1992 and sold over 8.7 million copies worldwide, which ranks fourth in all-time sales for the SNES, according to The Gamer.

And over the years, “Mario Kart” games have continued to be some of Nintendo’s top-selling games. According to Business Insider, as of Dec. 31, 2018, the top-selling game for the Nintendo Switch, the company’s newest console, is “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe,” with over 15 million games sold.

“Mario Kart Tour,” the latest install-

ment in the series, currently features 34 playable characters, 18 courses and daily rewards and challenges, so there are plenty of reasons for users to continue logging into the application each time they pick up their phone.

Paul Booth, a DePaul professor of media and cinema studies in the College of Communication, said that technology plays a prominent factor in something becoming popular.

“Having mobile technology and social media on your phone has allowed people to really see what is popular at the moment,” Booth said. “That is exactly what helps things spread and what helps things become viral.”

Another factor that influences trends such as “Mario Kart Tour” to become widely known has to do with the people that are in your social circle.

“The more your close social circle is talking about something or focusing on something the more likely you are to share it,” Booth said. “I think [trends] are also tempered by the social networks we are a part of.”

There is no question that “Mario Kart World Tour” has the numbers to back up its popularity, but there is one feature about the game that could result in plenty of users to play it less overtime or to delete the app altogether: a $4.99 monthly subscription.

Once the two-week free trial is over, first-time subscribers will automatically be charged for The Gold Pass. This pass will give subscribers access to gold gifts, special

i n g a m e badges and it will unlock 200cc, which is a more difficult setting.

“A monthly subscription seems stupid, especially since it’s $5 dollars a month,” junior Alex Rodriguez said. “The gameplay itself is good, but the pay to play factor is not.”

Rodriguez went on to say that the subscription would factor into whether or not he continues to play the game moving forward. He also said he would rather just pay one time and have access to all the features the game has to offer.

Recent DePaul graduate Luciana Mendez also isn’t a fan of having to pay to get a higher difficulty setting.

“I feel like it [‘Mario Kart Tour’] is too easy,” Mendez said. “It feels easier than the console version, and I don’t know if this is

worth having to pay for it.”

Mendez also didn’t like that the game revolves around acquiring Rubies, which is how players can obtain new characters and items.

There is only a certain amount of Rubies that can be earned per day, so that increases the incentive to have users purchase this in-game currency with their own money.

Another drawback is that the game currently has no multiplayer mode. “Mario Kart Tour” does allow the player to link their Facebook and Twitter accounts to search for friends, but there is no way to play with them. For a franchise that is known for its multiplayer component, Rodriguez said that it was an interesting decision to not have that be a part of the game.

“I feel like that is the heart of Mario Kart, just beating your friends,” Rodriguez said. “That was kind of a disappointment.”

“Mario Kart Tour” may have started off hot, but it seems to be at a crossroads with its fans. Last Wednesday, Oct 9, marked two weeks since the game was released, meaning subscribers who downloaded the free trial will automatically be charged for the month. Only time will tell if the game is still able to keep its popularity.

Ta-Nehisi Coates celebrates release of ‘Water Dancer’

By Luke Murphy Contributing Writer

Speaking to a full auditorium of nearly 1,500 people at Evanston High School this past Friday, Oct. 4, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ohio-born poet Hanif Abdurraqib engaged in a dialogue that covered a wide array of topics ranging from rap music to the Civil War, to Coates’ writing process and more. The occasion prompting Coates visit to Evanston, his second FAN (Family Action Network) event at ETHS, was the release of Coates’ new book “The Water Dancer,” released Sept. 24.

Coates, born in Baltimore in 1975, rose to prominence following the release of his 2015 book “Between the World and Me,” winning the National Book Award for nonfiction. The book, written as a letter to his future teenage son, dealt with the realities of being African-American in America. The author also gained wide acclaim for his work with The Atlantic, publishing pieces of journalism that have routinely garnered millions of views, with his bestknown piece, “The Case for Reparations,” becoming a monumental piece of 21st-century nonfiction journalism. Coates also published nonfiction books “The Beautiful Struggle” in 2008 and “We Were Eight Years in Power” in 2017.

For Lonnie Stonitsch, executive director for the Family Action Network, hav-

ing Coates back for a FAN event was a no-brainer after the success they had pairing up in 2017.

“He asked if he could come back to FAN to do an event when the new book was published,” Stonitsch said. “We had hosted him two years ago for the publication of his book ‘We Were Eight Years In Power,’ and he said to us at the time it was the best event of his tour. A clip from the Q&A session went hugely viral with tens of millions of views and he just really liked how we ran the event; he liked the vibe.”

The talk, often poignant, often funny and consistently engaging, judging by the reaction of those in attendance, began with Coates standing at a podium and speaking before transitioning into his conversation with Abdurraqib and an audience Q&A session.

“My goal coming into this was to make this as interesting as possible because I know we’ve both probably sat through a lot these that are not that,” Abdurraquib said at the beginning of his dialogue, which was met with knowing laughs.

Perhaps the most powerful moment of the night happened just a few minutes into the evening as Coates discussed the Amber Guyger trial that had just wrapped up in Dallas, where Guyger, sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of Botham Jean, was given a hug and a bible from

Texas judge Tammy Kemp and Botham’s brother Brandt Jean after being convicted.

“One of the reasons why I wrote ‘The Water Dancer’ is because I thought, even in the literature of enslavement, I am not convinced we always come off as human beings,” Coates said with a purposeful pause. “And that inability to come off as human beings has consequences even today. It is the reason why you can walk into somebody’s apartment and you can shoot them down while they’re eating a bowl of ice cream.”

“The legal system can claim that you have ‘castle doctrine’,” Coates continued with regard to the Guyger case. “As a buddy of mine said, everywhere white people go is their castle. And then, when you’re convicted, people give you hugs and they LUKE MURPHY | THE DEPAULIA give you bibles. Now listen, [with a] family member grieving, they can process howev- Ta-Nehisi Coates (left) with Hanif er they want, but when you see officers of Abdurraqib (right). the court doing that, stroking your hair.” a country that is so eager to forget its own Ultimately the night was about Coates’ history. new book, with a highlight coming when For Coates, the roughly 80-minute conCoates was asked by Abdurraqib, in refer- versation was the sixth stop on his tour. In ence to the main character of “The Water the next month, the author will make trips Dancer” having an ability to remember to a total of 14 cities, including Los Angeeverything except his mother, “How you les, Atlanta, Houston, New York and Miarrived at not just magic, but that particu- ami. However, when the press tour winds lar magic, and the idea of memory? … Of down and Coates is back home, he made having a character who in some ways has one thing clear: He can’t wait to get back on a superpower of memory, and you live in his laptop and do it all again.

Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019 | 23

what’s FRESH on Netflix

Schitt’s Creek, Season 5

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie

The fifth season of the Canadian comedy from creators Eugene and Dan Levy has finally landed on Netflix and, luckily for all of us, it’s one whole episode longer than the previous four seasons. The show continues to follow the Rose family as they rebuild their lives in the small town of Schitt’s Creek after losing all their money through some nefarious business practices on the part of their finance manager.

Picking up where the “Breaking Bad” finale left off six years ago, “El Camino” follows Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) as he runs from law enforcement as a fugitive following the events of the dramatic final episode. From here, Jesse must face the demons from his past and come to terms with what he’s done in order to form some semblance of normalcy in the future.

This season, Johnny and Stevie have established themselves as promising motel operators and Moira prepares for the release of her movie “The Crows Have Eyes III: The Crowening.” Meanwhile, David and Alexis both find themselves in serious committed relationships for the first time since arriving in the town four years earlier.

Aaron Paul revives his career-making role as the fast-talking, well-meaning former drug kingpin Jesse in a much darker space than we’re used to seeing. After being held captive and forced to cook meth for Uncle Jack and his gang of Nazis, Jesse is forced to readapt to both the outside world, the life he created for himself and all the problems that come with it.

“Schitt’s Creek” has developed a dedicated and vocal following during its time on air and it is only growing as we approach the show’s sixth and final season, which is set to premiere at the start of the new year. So ahead of midterms, join me and the rest of the “Schitt”-heads out there in bingewatching every episode until we’re blessed with new ones.

If you’ve been rewatching “Breaking Bad” over and over for the past halfdecade like I have, “El Camino” serves as the perfect way to fill that meth rock-sized hole in your heart.

LACEY LATCH | THE DEPAULIA

LACEY LATCH | THE DEPAULIA

In theaters & upcoming films Oct. 15

“Jay and Silent Bob Root” Jay and Silent Bob embark on a cross-country mission to stop Hollywood from filming a reboot based on them.

Stars: Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes

Nov. 1

“Arctic Dogs” Swifty the fox discovers a devious plan by Otto Von Walrus to drill beneath the Arctic surface to unleash enough gas to melt the ice. Swifty and his gang of animal friends try to foil Otto’s plot and save the day.

Stars: Jeremy Renner and James Franco

Oct. 18

“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” Angelina Jolie returns to her role as “Maleficent” in “Mistress of Evil.”

Maleficent and Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning) must face new allies and enemies to protect the magical lands they share.

Stars: Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning

Nov. 8

“Doctor Sleep” Dan Torrance, the original little boy from “The Shining,” has now grown up in the new movie “Doctor Sleep” played by Ewan McGregor. He is still traumatized by the sinister events that occurred at the Overlook Hotel.

Stars: Ewan McGregor

Nov. 1

“Terminator: Dark Fate” Sarah Conner comes back to the big screen in the brand-new “Terminator” movie. A young girl must be protected from a newly modified liquid Terminator from the future.

Stars: Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger

Nov. 8

“Last Christmas” After a near-death experience, Kate (Emilia Clarke) accepts a job as an elf during the holidays, where she ends up meeting Tom (Henry Golding), causing her life to take a turn.

Stars: Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding

24 | Arts &Life. The DePaulia. Oct. 14, 2019

St.Vincent’s D e JAMZ “Spinning fresh beats since 1581”

By Emma Oxnevad Opinions Editor

We are fully in the swing of autumn, or #SadGirlAutumn, as Twitter calls it. Gone are the days of fun summer jams and the season of moody songs to listen to while looking wistfully outside a CTA window.

Here are my picks for moody fall bops.

1. Norman F******g Rockwell Lana Del Rey

Despite being released in late August, Lana Del Rey’s titular track off of her latest LP has all the trappings of a moody autumn night. Her quiet roast of a pretentious, immature “goddamn manchild” is full of lush orchestration and a subdued vibe. Lana is the undisputed queen of moody Millenials, never disappointing in setting a mood.

2. Green Light Lorde

Lorde is known for her moody alto and her biting aloofness in picking apart people or trends she finds superficial. “Green Light” turns her typical conventions up to an 11, setting heartbreak and anger to a dance beat. “Green Light” is an anthem to allowing yourself to try and enjoy life despite the turmoil surrounding you and is often queued up on my playlist.

3. Light’s Up Harry Styles

Where were you when Harry Styles released his first single in two years? I, for one, was about to go to bed but stayed awake for another three minutes to listen to his newest release. Styles told Rolling Stone that his latest album is “all about having sex and feeling sad.” The first release captures the vibe to a T and I’m eagerly awaiting what comes next.

Crossword

4. Cold Little Heart Michael Kiwanuka

This song is a journey. The track begins with an angelic choir and progresses into self-deprecating lyrics and a raucous guitar solo. This a perfect song for pensively looking out the window during a rainstorm, which also happens to be my favorite activity.

5. A Little Bit Longer The Jonas Brothers

As our managing editor, Lacey Latch, put it, “Nick Jonas invented diabetes in 2007.” While undeniably a serious ailment, Jonas lays on the illness very thick, convincing a 7-year-old me that he had an incurable tumor of sorts. All the melodrama aside, this song is a fun throwback and an insight into the minds of Disney’s golden boys.

Across 1. Groundwork 6. Churchill’s symbol of triumph 11. Chesapeake in Maryland 14. Without substance 15. Place for the highborn?

16. Finished food 17. Financing 19. Words starting many park signs 20. Pauline’s woes 21. Stew server 23. Like fillets 26. Aquamarines and emeralds 27. Makes joyful 28. Bygone Toyota model 30. Charged atoms 31. Lapwing 32. Mentalist’s claim 35. Luxury hotel feature 36. Small upright pianos 38. Sticky stuff 39. Royal flush

necessity 40. Elbow to the ribs, perhaps 41. Fever and shivers 42. If everything goes right 44. Most congenial 46. Mix of two songs into one 48. Noisy insects 49. Printing press part 50. Produced, as a play 52. What one dots?

53. Ostracisms 58. “Fat ___ and Little Boy” (1989) 59. Not for minors 60. Like some Pennsylvania buggy drivers 61. “__ no use” 62. To the manor born 63. Maiden of mythology Down 1. Lobster-house

wear 2. Collected sayings 3. Diego’s start 4. Calligrapher’s containers 5. Composed 6. Sound, as reasoning 7. Successfully pitch 8. Eye part containing the pupil 9. Martini component 10. Overlooks 11. Curving outward at the knees 12. Ring-shaped reef 13. Some invitation replies 18. Smelters’ raw materials 22. Art, today 23. Believer of a sort 24. Become one on the run?

25. Slippery peels 26. Londoner 28. Guiding principle 29. Fancy washstand vessel 31. Sloppy critters

33. Big name in marches 34. Erato is their Muse 36. Beyond the city limits 37. Type of school 41. West Point or Annapolis 43. Fill in ___ blank 44. Near in time or place 45. Pat of an O’Neill title 46. Florida city 47. Small Highland village 48. Society division 50. Give the cold shoulder 51. Cashier’s responsibility 54. Ruckus 55. Mathstickremoving game 56. One-sixth of a fl. oz.

57. Finger-to-lips sound

Sports

Sports. Oct. 14, 2019. The DePaulia | 25

First and worst: Big East opposites For another year, the men and women are on different ends of the spectrum

By Lawrence Kreymer & Nate Burleyson Sports Editor & Asst. Sports Editor

Before the start of every college basketball season, coaches and players from the Big East meet in New York for Media Day. Just like that has become a tradition, so has the DePaul men’s basketball team getting picked to finish last, while the women’s basketball team was picked to finish first.

All 10 schools met at Madison Square Garden on Thursday for the annual Big East Media Day, they released the Big East Coaches’ Preseason Poll, with Seton Hall being pegged as the men’s favorite and the Blue Demons languishing at the bottom once again.

Since the Big East realignment in 2013, the Blue Demons have been picked to finish last five times, and in those six years they have ended up finishing last four times.

While the coaches around the conference don’t have much confidence in DePaul this season, junior forward Jaylen Butz said the Blue Demons will use this poll as motivation to prove their doubters wrong this season.

“Honestly, it’s something we don’t look to,” Butz said on Big East Shootaround. “It’s a ranking and that’s what people see as us, but I don’t think that takes anything away from us. If anything, it motivates us more, seeing that it makes us go even harder. So, I feel like it doesn’t really take anything away from what we’ve done so far, it’s just [what] someone sees. Again, I feel like it’s motivation – motivation for us to do better.”

With Butz saying the Blue Demons will use this as movativon to drive them this season, his fellow junior forward Paul Reed finds his motivation away from the noise.

“Just a new program we have and us two [Reed and Butz] coming back being more experienced, being more ready for this moment,” Reed said. “The new team we have with all the other assets on the team we have [and] all the more talent we have. And I just know.”

While the Blue Demons aren’t getting the overall respect they would like, one player who’s getting a lot of praise from the rest of the conference is Reed, who was picked for the Preseason All-Conference Second Team.

On the other hand, the DePaul women’s basketball team is the talk of the conference as the Big East coaches unanimously voted Doug Bruno’s squad to finish at the top of the conference.

This is the third time in the past four years that the team has been named to be at the top. Yet, this season, there aren’t any questions about it.

With the expectations comes a large target on the backs of the Blue Demons. Even though the coaches voted DePaul as the best team in the conference for the third time in four years, it’s no lock that they will walk their way through the conference.

“This is just a great league,” Bruno said. “The Big East is absolutely one of the best leagues in the country. It’s made great by these great players. It’s also made great by these coaches.”

A big part of their success from last season was down to their two seniors, Chante Stonewall and Kelly Campbell, who helped drive the team to another Big East Tournament championship.

Going into this season, they will still be a problem for the rest of the conference, as they were voted to the All-Big East Preseason Team.

“Chante’s [Stonewall] worked very well to make herself a better player every year,” Bruno said. “That’s why I’m excited about this season. Chante is returning as a senior and Kelly Campbell returning as a senior. And they are not just another couple of seniors; they are very mature seniors. I’m impressed with their maturity and their leadership.”

In order to stay on top of the rising competition, the two have taken steps to improve even further this season. With the loss of four seniors, Campbell and Stonewall will be asked to take on a larger role within the team, as they are the only returning seniors.

“Kelly is one of the leading assists to turnover players in the country,” Bruno said. “Chante is a versatile player, so her game is expanding all the time because she has the ability to play a face to basket position and she has the ability to play with her back to the basket. She’s got the ability to play with guard skills so her game’s expanding and they just get better at what they do every day.”

The two will have to step up, along with the rest of the roster, to continue the tradition of success that has made the program a staple of the Big East.

Big East Preseason Coaches’ Poll Men’s

Women’s

1.

77

81

2.

76

70

3.

52

58

4.

50

50

5.

50

6.

49

44

7.

45

43

8.

21

23

9.

19

19

10.

11

18

2019-2020 preseason rank by points earned

44

26 | Sports. Oct. 14, 2019. The DePaulia

JONATHAN AGUILAR | THE DEPAULIA

DePaul freshman defender Dan Iscra dribbles past a Vermont defender during a match on Sep. 1 at Wish Field. The Blue Demons lost the game 1-0.

MAIREAD KAHN | THE DEPAULIA

DePaul junior defender Timmy Iscra is about the receive the ball against Northern Illinois’ Miguel Maynez Jr. during a 2-1 victory for the Blue Demons on Aug. 30.

Brotherhood helps solidify Blue Demons’ defense

By Nate Burleyson Asst. Sports Editor

Oftentimes, a team loves to advertise its brotherhood. Their closeness on and off the field is instrumental to any success they want to have. Now, an actual, biological brotherhood? That tends to be rarefied air at the collegiate level. The men’s soccer team has exactly that.

Timmy and Dan Iscra are running a two man punch for the Blue Demons. Despite never playing together in high school at Glenbrook North in their hometown of Northbrook, Illinois, the two bring great chemistry to the team. Timmy, a junior, has been able to show his freshman brother the reigns. Dan has been able to provide a familiar face, and both are able to keep each other in check.

“Their competitiveness and their drive plus the personality is awesome to have on the team,” Blue Demons head coach Mark Plotkin said of the brothers.

The two grew up playing soccer, but due to the age gap, they never really played

RECRUITING, continued from back page just continue to take it person-by-person, recruit-by-recruit and see if we can build off it.”

Jacobs, who attended Uplift on the North Side of Chicago, partially tore his ACL during his senior year. Even though that was a major setback, Jacobs is nearing the end of his recovery and is targeting a return for the start of the season.

“My recovery has actually been pretty good, it’s going way better than I thought,” Jacobs said. “It started off pretty slow because I was dealing with some problems, but finding the right physical therapist person to get comfortable, to just focus on getting stronger, just focus on my body. So, it started off pretty slow, so we had to pretty much hit it harder than we expected. But now we’ve been getting positive outcomes. I’ve been on the court lately, and I’ve been showing a lot

on the same team. That didn’t stop the two from plenty of backyard training and support through each other’s youth careers.

“We push each other to become better whether it’s in the backyard or out on the field,” Dan Iscra said. “We always just use each other to base how good we are off of each other.”

Now together at DePaul, they are reaping the benefits.

“I feel like we have a different connection from everyone else on the field from playing with each other for so many years,” Timmy said. Both players start and have played all 10 games of this season together. Timmy plays midfielder and forward and Dan is a defender.

The two have wanted to play together and never got the chance before DePaul.

“Since he’s two years younger than me, we haven’t played on the same team together,” Timmy said. “But we’ve always dreamed about playing together, so it’s definitely a great experience.”

Coming in as the younger brother, Dan has had a unique experience for a freshman

joining a team. For something that can feel daunting or mysterious, the help that having an older brother in the program brings can’t be understated.

“He’s just been a role model for me all my life,” Dan said. “My bigger brother has been someone to learn from every day.”

There is a level of ease that comes with the insight Dan can receive from his older brother, Timmy. And it has shown in his play and his demeanor, leaving an impression on the rest of his team and his coach.

“I think it’s helped Danny come along and feel a lot more comfortable,” Plotkin said.

During his college search and when he committed during his senior year of high school, Dan kept up constant communication with his older brother. Timmy was able to keep him up to date with the happenings of the team.

“Coming in, I knew a lot more about the team and the environment just because I always had a reference to talk to,” Dan said.

“Throughout the year I was committed, I would always ask him what was going on and it was definitely a step up for my confidence

of progress.”

Even though Jacobs still isn’t fully ready for the start of the season, according to Leitao, Jacobs has his eyes set on a huge freshman season.

“My individual goal is to most likely be [the] Big East freshman of the year and goals to achieve with the team is to make the [NCAA] Tournament, that’s our No. 1 goal,” Jacobs said.

While Jacobs has experienced hardship through an injury, his fellow DePaul teammate Charlie Moore is trying to get his college career back on track after an unsuccessful stint at Kansas.

Moore, who was named Mr. Basketball in Illinois in 2015-16, played at California in his freshman year. While at California, Moore led the team with 120 assists while averaging 12.2 points per game in 34 starts.

But because of personal issues, Moore choose to transfer to Kansas so he could be closer to home.

After sitting out the 2017-2018 season due to NCAA transfer guidelines, the former four-star recruit struggled in his limited time with the Jayhawks.

In May, Moore announced that he was leaving Kansas and coming to DePaul to be closer to his family.

“It was a decision for me and my family being more comfortable, having my parents be more comfortable as well and the support I have here in Chicago is just a great feeling,” Moore said.

While Moore knew where he wanted to play basketball in his junior year, he still had to wait six months to hear back from the NCAA regarding his eligibility status for the 2019-2020 season. On Oct. 4, however, the NCAA granted Moore a waiver to play in the upcoming season.

“I was extremely excited, took a little while for me to get the news sometimes it would come in mind, but I tried to attack it everyday like a normal day like I was already

knowing what was coming and what to expect.”

Their choice to come to DePaul is a lot about the camaraderie of a big program while being close to home.

“A former coach had recruited [Timmy] and he wanted to stay local,” Glenbrook North High School soccer coach Paul Vignocchi said. “He really just wanted to stay local and play for a nationally recognized division one program.”

After Timmy committed to DePaul, Dan followed. Both remember a time at a DePaul camp during Dan’s recruitment that their connection really shined.

“One moment comes to mind right away,” Timmy said. “At the camp here, we had a really special play. I was playing forward and he was playing center back, I checked down and he hit one over the top. And we had a goal and that was kinda the thing that got him going to DePaul.”

Now with both brothers playing for the Blue Demons, there are endless possibilities.

And the two are looking to leave an impact on the program together. eligible,” Moore said. “Playing hard, trying to be a leader on the court, so I feel great about the news.”

For Leitao, on the other hand, the news was exactly what he needed heading into a crucial season.

“It’s been a long time since he transferred, for him not to know, for his family to not know and obviously as a basketball team for us not to know, it gives us clarity that’s first and foremost, “Leitao said. “But then understanding he adds a lot to our basketball team, as a point guard, as an older player and especially as a talented player.”

With the start of the season just around the corner, both Jacobs and Moore provide the Blue Demons with instant help on the court — especially in the backcourt, however, the impact of having two of Chicago’s most elite high school prospects on the same roster has the potential to change DePaul recruiting for years to come.

Sports. Oct. 14, 2019 The DePaulia | 27 MARATHON, continued from back page

we were volunteering, and she said to me, ‘Next year we’re doing it’ and we were kind of like, ‘Ha-ha we’re going to do it’ and then we ended up applying and taking it really seriously.”

She and her two older sisters are taking on the marathon together, which Witzcak is excited about, though she has not been on as serious of a training plan as her sisters.

“I haven’t really been following a training program,” she said. “I am just kind of doing my own thing, running four to five days a week. Um, typically, a normal run would be about eight to 10 miles, but it’s been good. I enjoy running in the city.”

Even though Witczak isn’t in a sport on campus, she gets to work with the women’s soccer team. She may not be helping the women on the field, but the work she does for them off the field is just as important.

“Without Ivy working with our team, we would be pretty lost,” said Avery Hay, a captain on DePaul’s women’s soccer team.

“Not only does she handle laundry, gear, hydration and other things with our crazy schedule, she makes coming to practice every day a little bit easier. She supports us at every home game, makes sure we have everything we need and is always there cheering us on.”

Witczak enjoys working for the women’s soccer team. She would love to continue working for the team during her senior year, as well.

“It’s fun, the team is really fun,” she said.

“And the staff is so nice, so it makes it 10 times more enjoyable.”

Her family has played an essential role in Witczak’s life choices, including where to go to college. Her parents and one of her sisters all graduated from DePaul, making the decision to go here an easy one.

“I love DePaul,” she said. “It’s so close to home, too, so I get to see my family pretty often. Plus, I have access to everything in the city.”

Witczak loves helping people and working with children. From a very young age, she has had a desire to help others.

Growing up, she was a student at the same elementary school her mother worked at.

Seeing her mother work with children every day made Witczak realize that she wanted to do the same thing.

Majoring in elementary education with a minor in English as a second language, Witczak wants to teach 2nd or 3rd grade after graduating. She would love to stay

JONATHAN AGUILAR | THE DEPAULIA

Chicago Marathon participant runs by the Chicago Theatre on N State street on Sunday during the 42nd edition of the Marathon. in Chicago and work for Chicago Public Schools. Witczak’s favorite subject is math and she is most excited to teach elementary school math.

On top of teaching students, she would enjoy coaching basketball or cross country as well. Keeping athletics in her life is important, especially basketball.

“I grew up going to all of the women’s basketball games with my parents [at DePaul],” she said. “I always grew up playing basketball.”

Witczak is a sweet person with a calming demeanor. When talking to her, you can tell how welcoming she is. Witczak wears her passion for sports and helping others on her sleeve. With a big heart, her goals are not far out of reach.

“The two things I believe Ivy is most passionate about is being an elementary school teacher and running,” Suvanto said. “I always knew Ivy was going to be a teacher one day because she encompasses all the qualities that great teachers have and has always been

Lynn, continued from front page defended and get a couple of combinations in. Speed was a big contrast between her and 35-year-old Thompson. Come the final round, Lynn kept her might and stamina to finish out the fight. The judges named her the winner by unanimous decision.

“In the first round I was really just trying to figure out everything,” Lynn said. “I needed to see how [Thompson’s] power was and how she was going on to see what I needed to adjust. The second round, I was like, ok, I know how her power is so I can go at it.”

Although it was still very early into the night, Lynn had a great crowd of supporters to watch her debut. She had her own crowd of about 40 people in an assortment of family and friends at Wintrust.

“The crowd does help with fighting a lot so if you do have a good shot or whatever and the crowd goes wild, it makes the judges and everybody else think, ‘Oh, she got the bigger hit,’” Lynn said.

And she did get the hits. As she went deeper and deeper into the fight, her skill and preparation showed. She was able to get a win in her first professional fight on a card that not many people get to start on.

To do it in her hometown is a whole different side.

“There are so many emotions,” Lynn said. “I’m very excited. It was meant to be.

This is my hometown. This is my home

ALEXA SANDLER | THE DEPAULIA

Summer Lynn’s hand is raised after she was declared the winner by unanimous decision on Saturday, Oct. 12 at Wintrust Arena in her professional debut. arena like this is DePaul’s.”

Coach Rick Ramos and the rest of Lynn’s team were by her side throughout the whole day. Although Saturday was something new in terms of camaraderie, the mindset was no different.

“Before I got here, it was like any other fight – very chill and very relaxed,” Lynn said. “Me and my team are very nonchalant and [in] light spirits. And when it’s go-time,

we flip the switch.”

‘Team Summer’ shirts to support her in the fight, and the hype from that created the professional environment. Her parents were there just like any other sporting event a kid’s parents go to, but naturally, it all felt different.

“I’ve never been scared for any of Summer’s fights when she’s been through jiu-jitsu, judo or wrestling, and then any of

passionate about helping others. I also knew Ivy was very passionate about running since the day she joined our cross country team senior year.”

Witczak is determined to make it to every finish line, whether that be a marathon, graduating or getting her dream teaching job.

She will make it across every one, with her close-knit family and friends cheering her on along the way.

her amateur fights,” Summer’s father, Ron Lynn, said. “But when we got the notification that she was turning pro, it was like my heart dropped. It was the first time I had ever been scared to watch her fight.”

The fright that comes from that new level is countered by the trust and belief they have in their daughter. It’s a faith not only in Summer herself, but also her team.

“The whole team supports her,” Ron Lynn said. “She has Jessica McCaskill, Kim Carlson, she has Rick [Ramos] that believes in her so much. It’s more like a family than a team even though they are both in one.”

Her team was with her as she fought, supporting her throughout the fight. McCaskill and Ramos would be back in the ring later in the night as Ramos coached McCaskill in her WBC and WBA junior welterweight title defense in a rematch she won against Erica Farias. It was a big night for Ramos and Body Shot Boxing Club, which represents both McCaskill and Lynn.

Summer’s jump to the professional level could not have gone better on Saturday. The hometown atmosphere and the bigger stage proved to be well-handled. And friends and family got to support her through the day.

“She went from amateur fighting with kids and skipped the middle and made a big jump to pros,” Lynn’s mother Charlene Lynn said. “I’m very proud of her and I felt in my heart that she would do good at this level.”

Sports

Sports. Oct. 14, 2019. The DePaulia | 28

Reaching the

finish line Ivy Witczak, a DePaul junior, took on the 42nd edition of the Chicago Marathon for her first race ever.

JONATHAN AGUILAR | THE DEPAULIA

DePaul junior Ivy Witczak runs the 42nd edition of the Chicago Marathon on Sunday. Witczak, a Norwood Park, Chicago native, ran the Marathon in a time of 03:55:12.

By Keira Wingate Asst. Arts & Life

Growing up in an athletic family in Norwood Park, Chicago, Ivy Witczak has played basketball, cross country and track. Now, training for the Chicago Marathon, Witczak is using her past athletic skills to compete in her very first marathon.

Witczak is a junior at DePaul and has been a part of sports in one way or

another her whole life. She is currently training for her first – but not last – Chicago Marathon, which she said has been pretty easy.

Besides being a full-time student, she has also worked at the Sullivan Athletic Center in Lincoln Park since her freshman year and for the women’s soccer team. She said both have brought her friendships and useful connections.

Witczak was an award-winning athlete in high school and remains in

prime shape today. Her athletic ability is diverse, and she has excelled in every sport. She won MVP for cross country and co-MVP for basketball during her senior year of high school.

“Ivy’s athletic abilities are very admirable and widespread,” said Nicole Suvanto, Witczak’s best friend since 8th grade. “Her abilities are widespread because she does not only excel in one particular sport, but every sport she plays.”

She has not yet run the 26 miles, but has gotten to 20 miles during her training. Witczak said she feels confident she can make it the entire way. Even though Witczak has not run it before, she’s been involved in the marathon the past four years.

“For the past four years, I volunteered with my oldest sister, every year at the marathon,” Witczak said. “Then last year

See MARATHON, page 27

Chicago recruiting on the uptick for Blue Demons

By Lawrence Kreymer Sports Editor

For years DePaul’s recruiting in Chicago has been lackluster, letting top tier players either go to rival schools within the city or allowing programs from the outside to come into Chicago and steal those recruits. For the first time in a long time, the Blue Demons were able to land two of the best Chicago players: freshman Markese Jacobs and junior transfer Charlie Moore.

In the first four years of head coach Dave Leitao’s tenure, DePaul had a combined 16 players on their roster who were from Chicago — and eight of those 16 players were at DePaul during Leitao’s first season back. Since the 2015-2016 season, the Blue Demons and Leitao have only been able to land eight Chicago players.

Going into this season, however, DePaul will have five Chicago players on its roster with two of them being four-star recruits:

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARKESE JACOBS’ TWITTER

DePaul freshman Markese Jacobs goes up for a dunk during one of the Blue Demons’ practice. Jacobs is still recovering from a paritally torn ACL. Jacobs and Moore.

“I chose DePaul because I felt, No. 1 coach Dave Leitao had my best interest at heart and that’s what I was pretty much looking for

throughout my whole recruitment, my head coach having my best interest at heart, my head coach being able to trust me, my head coaching allowing me to make mistakes and

with me being from here it would be more comfortable for me to perform,” Jacobs said.

“And I really want to put my city back on the map.”

When Jacobs decided to decommit from Kansas, a perennial NCAA Tournament team each season, and then choosing to go to DePaul instead of other schools in Chicago that was a huge step forward for the Blue Demons’ program. Leitao also recognizes that being able to land a player like Jacobs helps to change the narrative about DePaul basketball.

“I think he made a major step forward when he decided to decommit from Kansas and I want to stay home,” Leitao said. “Obviously, its long been talked about what that means for the talent in the city and focusing on DePaul, different than people have in the past. He’s there, Charlie adds to it as well and then we will

See RECRUITING, page 26