DePaulia
The New details emerge about DePaul alum’s role in Russia investigation
Volume #103 | Issue #22 | April 22, 2019 | depauliaonline.com
Student groups demand apology after professor’s ‘Islamophobic’ article
By Benjamin Conboy & Brian Pearlman
By Benjamin Conboy Editor-in-Chief
Editor-in-Chief & Nation & World Editor
New information about how George Papadopoulos, a DePaul alumnus who became the unlikely match that sparked the Russia investigation, has come to light in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, a redacted version of which was made public Thursday morning. The report details how Papadopoulos, who graduated from DePaul in 2009 with a degree in political science, sought to establish connections between the Trump campaign and individuals who said the Russian government had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of hacked emails. Papadopoulos was a foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign from March 2016 to October 2016. He pled guilty to lying to the FBI about the specifics of his meetings with Russia-connected individuals on Oct. 5, 2017. He served 14 days in a federal prison. Papadopoulos is actually the first person mentioned in the Mueller report. His name appears on page one, before even the president’s. Among the revelations in the report is the fact that Pap a d op ou l o s was investigated as being a ALEXANDRIA DETENTION CENTER possible spy George Papadopoulos for the Israeli government. Ultimately, the Special Counsel’s office concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Papadopoulos under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which criminalizes unreported work for foreign governments. The Russia investigation was kicked off when Papadopoulos received an email
See PAPADOPOULOS, page 9
story. “Although I had witnesses of what happened, he simply would not listen,” she said. “When I got upset, he suggested I try counseling to deal with my alcohol and drug use. There was no discussion of any other steps I could take through DePaul, and there were no consequences for the other student involved.” Megan said that the experience was belittling and left the office “bawling [her] eyes out.” “I felt very betrayed and honestly, stupid for even trying to report the assault,” she said. Megan said the office did not inform her of her legal rights under Title IX, and she sought out counseling from a therapist not affiliated with DePaul. She said she never heard from the Title IX coordinator
An ethics professor who is no stranger to controversy has found himself once again in the firing line of upset students following the publication of a recent oped in which he argues that Israel “has the moral right” to annex all of the West Bank and strip Arabs living in Israel of their right to vote. Jason Hill, a professor in the philosophy department and a director of teaching practicum, wrote in the right-wing online magazine The Federalist that Israel can and should annex the West Bank, and made a mistake by not doing so right after the SixDay War in 1967. “The point I wanted to make in the article is that Israel, which has an unequivocal, categorical right to exist, made an altruistic mistake of making the Palestinian people their moral and political problem in the first place,” Hill told The DePaulia. Hill argues under a subheading titled “The Palestinian Authority is a Terrible Government” that “a strong argument can and ought to be made to strip Palestinians of their right to vote—period.” He also writes that “not all cultures are created equally” and that some are “abysmally inferior or regressive.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently won his reelection campaign, has been facing criticism of his policies toward Arabs in Israel in recent weeks. Shortly before the election, he vowed to completely annex the West Bank, an announcement that pleased the Israeli right. Hill and the article began to take flak almost immediately after it was published. A Palestinian DePaul student posted a tweet critical of the article, in which she says the article argues in favor of the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians, which has gathered more than 1,100 retweets by
See TITLE IX, page 4
See HILL, page 6
ANNALISA BARANOWSKI | THE DEPAULIA
The Title IX office is often the first place students who are the victims of sexual assault turn to for help. Some students who have dealt with DePaul’s office say they should be doing more.
Students question Title IX office’s accessibility and conduct By Ella Lee & Emma Oxnevad Focus Editor & Asst. News Editor
Megan, a DePaul sophomore whose name has been changed to protect her identity, emailed the Title IX office in October to report an assault by another student at a DePaul-sponsored event. The office responded fairly quickly, and a man who worked in the Title IX office asked her to set up a time to speak the following week. When she arrived for their meeting, Megan said the Title IX representative informed her that he had already spoken to her attacker. He also told her that because her attacker had addressed decisions from her past and that alcohol had been involved in her assault—on both ends, though her attacker had taken illicit drugs, which she had refused—they could not believe her
Notre Dame should honor its new scars as part of a storied history By Margaret Wolfe Contributing Writer
I’ve only visited Notre Dame once. It was on a rainy spring day in 2016 for the evening service on Good Friday. As many have said, the space is awe-inspiring. The service I saw was so gorgeous it managed to silence the throngs of tourists as they poured in. But I don’t really remember the space as a chronological memory—what I saw, heard and did. Instead, I mostly remember the feeling of warmth and community that enveloped me. Then I heard about the fire. I felt felt the warmth dissipate from my body. We take things for granted because of the thought that they continue to exist in the same way that we
remember them. It’s easy to space can never be lost, and forget that things don’t actually to act upon the awareness and remain perfectly encapsulated change that can come from this moments of history as they do unfortunate situation. As Notre in our minds. But change is Dame is reconstructed, we as a natural. part of the DePaul Everything Students reflect on community and the changes community of the experiences at Notre over time. Dame in wake of fire. world should look There’s to the other places a Japanese See Opinions, page 13 that need help. To art form provide assistance called “Kintsugi” where pottery to places and people who need is repaired with a lacquer that it more than Notre Dame. And looks like gold. Instead of hiding to know that while it is sad that what went wrong, the cracks a piece of history has in part are accentuated to celebrate the been lost, it will never be truly item’s history and use. Instead gone. of mourning the loss of Notre Physical buildings are only Dame, we should want to be able temporary, but spirituality, to use this opportunity to gild it. community and the feelings THIERRY MALLET | AP To celebrate its past, to that reside inside of us and give affirm that the feelings of us warmth never need to fade. Flames and smoke rise off Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Tuesday April. 16 after the centuries old landmark caught fire. warmth and spirituality in that