The DePaulia, May 13

We’re honoring our nearly 100-year history by including nameplates from our past. This one is from the 1950s. See page 2.

Volume #103 | Issue #25

May 13, 2019 | depauliaonline.com

Mama’s

house

MAERIED KAHN | THE DEPAULIA

Branko’s sandwich shop owner Anja Branko, known to regular customers as “Mama,” staffs the counter at her sandwich shop across from the DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus quad on Fullerton Avenue.

Branko’s owner serves up home-cooked meals with a mother’s touch

By Ryan Mackinnon

“If you get sad, if you’re away from home for the first time, I want you to know that I have room in this heart for everybody.”

Contributing Writer

While most are hitting the snooze button and clocking out early, Mama is working.

Branko’s owner Andja Branko, known affectionately to her patrons as Mama, clocks in 100 hours a week cooking and emotionally supporting DePaul students and Lincoln Park residents.

On top of this, she takes full-time care of both of her parents, who opened the restaurant up back in 1976.

Mama, 58, moved from the former Yugoslavia at age 15 and has been working in her family’s restaurant for the past 43 years.

She greets everyone with a kindness that can feel unfamiliar, an artifact of a bygone time when local family-owned restaurants were the staples of local communities.

“Pick anything you want, sweetheart,”

Anja “Mama” Branko

MAERIED KAHN | THE DEPAULIA

Mama spends around 100 hours per week working at Branko’s on Fullerton.

she tells her adoring customers. “It’s all homemade.”

Branko’s oozes familial warmth. It has an old-school vibe, with wood paneling and a yellowing backlit menu board — all

Owner of Branko’s Sandwich Shop characteristic of an old-Chicago aesthetic that seems to be disappearing by the day.

“It’s an incredible experience that starts with the service,” DePaul student Abe Levinson said. “Mama treats all of her customers right.”

Branko’s, on the north side of Fullerton Ave. across from the Quad, is a student favorite and a prime example of the American Dream. The Branko family moved to America in hopes of finding a better life opportunity, so they met an uncle who lived in Chicago.

“Back home, we were always business owners for generations,” Mama said. “And we knew what America had to offer, so we left our two businesses.”

Mama’s father originally opened Branko’s after leaving the repressive, communist former Yugoslavia when it was in the throes of an economic crisis. He enjoyed the freedoms in his new country, something they didn’t have much of in his home country.

Despite the hardships he experienced, Mama’s father was a friendly man, a quality she says fueled the restaurant’s longevity.

It’s Mama’s positive strength in the face

See MAMA’S HOUSE, page 6

Discussion at free speech forum falls short of compromise

By Ella Lee Focus Editor

Students, staff and administrative representatives alike expressed frustration and a lack of knowing how to move forward as they discussed freedom of expression at a forum held Tuesday, May 7. The forum led to no lasting solution or compromise.

“I think, initially, I didn’t know how much this [forum] would accomplish, and afterward, it kind of feels the same way— kind of wishy-washy,” said Emma Pieroni, DePaul sophomore. “At least the dialogue is open.”

The event was organized by Acting Provost Salma Ghanem in response to an article by Jason Hill, a DePaul philosophy professor, which sparked controversy and protest on campus.

In the article, Hill argues that Israel has the “moral right” to annex the West Bank, and that they should have done so previously, after the Six Day War in 1967. In doing this, Palestinians living there would lose their right to vote.

Four professors — Scott Hibbard, associate professor of political science; Jason Martin, associate professor of journalism; Scott Paeth, professor of

religious studies; and Shailja Sharma, professor of international studies — spoke as panelists, and Carol Marin, director of the Center for Journalism Integrity and Excellence, moderated the event.

In the audience sat nearly 30 students from different campus groups and related classes, alongside a number of faculty, administrative representatives and security.

Hill declined to attend the forum and could not be reached for comment for this article. He told The Washington Times that he chose not to attend because he was “not going to put [himself] into a situation where [he’s] going to be harassed.”

President A. Gabriel Esteban attended the first half of the forum but left before the floor was opened to questions. Marin said she was told he had left for a meeting.

To begin the forum, each professor gave a brief statement on their personal views regarding the article. Their views were widely the same.

Paeth spoke first, condemning the content as “anti-moral” and claiming that the article was written with “no knowledge of the legal or moral dimensions of thinking about what constitutes a just war.”

He maintained, though, that the article

See FREE SPEECH, page 6

2 | News. The DePaulia. May 13, 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.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | Benjamin Conboy eic@depauliaonline.com MANAGING EDITOR | Shane René managing@depauliaonline.com NEWS EDITOR | Mackenzie Murtaugh news@depauliaonline.com

Interested in writing for The DePaulia?

Contact our Editor-in-Chief, Benjamin Conboy, to see your name in print and get real journalistic experience. Email eic@depauliaonline.com to get started.

ASST. NEWS EDITOR | Emma Oxnevad news@depauliaonline.com NATION & WORLD EDITOR | Brian Pearlman nation@depauliaonline.com OPINIONS EDITOR | Doug Klain opinion@depauliaonline.com FOCUS EDITOR | Ella Lee focus@depauliaonline.com ARTS & LIFE EDITOR | Lacey Latch artslife@depauliaonline.com SPORTS EDITOR | Lawrence Kreymer sports@depauliaonline.com ASST. SPORTS EDITOR | Joshua Gurevich sports@depauliaonline.com DESIGN EDITOR | Annalisa Baranowski design@depauliaonline.com DESIGN EDITOR | Marlee Chlystek design@depauliaonline.com

THIS WEEK Monday - 5/13 Sundaes on Mondays 1 E Jackson Blvd

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The DePaulia honors its rich history with historic nameplates

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The DePaulia has been publishing nonstop since 1923. From that time until now, the paper has evolved in many ways.

When browsing our archives, one evolution stood out to us: the nameplates.

A newspaper's nameplate is the header which makes clear what the name of the newspaper is. They are often designed to have a sense of timelessness, such as the Chicago Tribune's in a gothic font, or the Chicago SunTimes', which evoke's Chicago's history as being a blue collar city.

The DePaulia's nameplate has gone through several iterations, and each one seems to perfectly capture the mood of the era.

So for the remaining issues we will publish this year, we decided to bring a little piece of those old issues back by featuring a different nameplate from our past each week.

So make sure you collect them all, so you too can own a piece of The DePaulia's rich history.

News

News. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019 | 3

Transparency

trouble PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Currently, there is no database for accounts of police misconduct while the database that has information on potential Chicago gang members is used.

By Bianca Cseke Online Editor

Chicago-area police departments — not including those in the suburbs — have had 56 officers decertified for misconduct since 2000, according to records released last month through collaboration between USA Today and the Invisible Institute.

The reasons for decertification include official misconduct, theft, assault and murder, among others.

The records were released after the Invisible Institute, a news organization based in the South Side of Chicago, and USA Today requested data on law enforcement officers who have lost their certification. That information was shared last month and is available in a database that is open to the public.

While some cases of police misconduct make national headlines, the vast majority gets very little to no notice, and there hasn’t been a public database with the information. Even though the data on police misconduct hasn’t been public, police do collect data on gang affiliation in the Citizen and Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting (CLEAR) system.

While some cases of police misconduct make national headlines, the majority gets very little to no notice, and there hasn’t been a public database with the information.

“Before we can come up with a prescription for police reform, we need to know what’s going on,” said Alison Flowers, a journalist at the Invisible Institute.

That means that advocates for police reform now have a tool to use when pushing for changes, said Demetrius Jordan, a DePaul professor with expertise in criminal justice reform and community corrections. He said the need for accountability within police departments is important because law enforcement is trained by others in law

enforcement, with little outside input.

“Bias exists in all of us […] give someone a firearm, and those individual biases will show themselves,” Jordan said.

“We don’t even realize those biases exist, and now we’re giving them a badge and a gun.”

Jordan brought up the Laquan McDonald case as an example, which he said officers would have kept covered up if media hadn’t put the Chicago Police Department under a spotlight.

Though the database includes all officers decertified from the states that provided records, it doesn’t necessarily include all cases of police misconduct.

Flowers said that the database doesn’t necessarily present a full picture because it only includes reported cases.

People may not report issues with police because it can be demoralizing when about 97 percent of cases brought up are ruled in favor of officers, Flowers said.

“There’s a culture of impunity within CPD,” she said. “[…] People know it’s very unlikely that a citizen will be believed over [officers].”

Part of the issue is that officers can have their peers serve as supporting witnesses, Flowers said.

In addition, she said there are a variety of barriers to reporting cases.

For example, in Chicago, individuals must go to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) in West Town to sign an affidavit in-person. Those who live in other neighborhoods would need the time and money for bus fare or gas to get there.

Not everyone believes, however, that the database will do much to improve accountability within police departments.

Joel Shults, a columnist for Police One, a news organization aimed at police departments, said that any issues with the culture of a police department stem from the state and city governments.

“Police culture is not siloed,” Shults said. “We have a state and a city with a history of corruption, then we suddenly

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Chicago police officers look on at the Occupy May Day proest in May 2012.

“Bias exists in all of us […] give someone a firearm, and those individual biases will show themselves. We don’t even realize those biases exist, and now we’re giving them a badge and a gun.”

Demetrius Jordan

Driehaus College of Business Professor expect something different from the police department.”

He also said there’s already “a high degree of accountability” within policing.

“I can’t imagine a profession that has more accountability,” he said.

Others, such as Jordan, want to see more improvements made within departments. Jordan said that what officers learn from their peers isn’t necessarily equal to what happens in real life, leading to officers sometimes automatically looking at individuals as

suspects, not as people.

Jordan pointed to the Laquan McDonald case, in which he said officers were forced to be more accountable after receiving media attention.

“As a lifelong Chicagoan and a son of law enforcement officers, it’s hard to say I see progress,” he said.

Flowers said the partnership with USA Today is ongoing; The goal is to get more records available to the public soon.

4 | News. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019

Duckworth proposes increased funding for on-campus child care to bring babies into its chamber.

The next day, Duckworth’s newborn child became the first baby to be welcomed on the floor of the Senate.

Duckworth’s legislation, the Expanding On-Campus Child Care to Help Parents Succeed Act, would dramatically increase the funding for an existing program. The Department of Education had $33,323,408 in funding for the grant in 2018. Duckworth’s bill would increase its funding to $200 million.

196 colleges nationwide received the grant money to establish on-campus child care facilities, with an average award of $170,017, according to the Department of Education.

XAVIER ORTEGA| THE DEPAULIA Eight colleges in Illinois received the grant money in Sen. Tammy Duckworth spoke about her new proposal to create child care programs at 2018, including the University universities during a press conference at Daley Plazaon Friday, May 10. of Illinois network, Northern Illinois University and Southern Illinois University at "For a university like DePaul that has a larger Edwardsville. Five colleges in the City Colleges network also offer population, they'll be able to get a little more money. child care facilities.

And it'll allow them to provide child care on a sliding Duckworth’s bill is cosponsored by Sens. Dick Durbin, scall, in order of ability to pay."

Bob Casey, Kirsten Gillibrand and Chris Van Hollen.

Cindy San Miguel, the assistant director of the Center Senator of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said the such as Medicaid and WIC, I personally DePaul did not return a request for proposal. appreciate how these policies can have a information about its intentions to apply “As someone who found themselves positive impact on families,” San Miguel for the grant. pregnant in graduate school, with no said. financial support, utilizing services

By Benjamin Conboy Editor-in-Chief

Sen. Tammy Duckworth unveiled her plan to increase a federal grant for colleges to create child care programs for students with children Friday, and spoke directly to DePaul, which does not have child care facilities for students on campus.

DePaul only offers daycare facilities at the Ray Meyer Fitness Center during children’s hours, which are Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to noon, and the parent must stay inside the Ray. “I would personally be happy to speak to any of the officials at the university to explain to them why it is so critical to provide child care,” Duckworth said at a press conference at Daley Plaza. “For a university like DePaul that has a larger population, they’ll be able to get a little more money. And it’ll allow them to provide child care on a sliding scale, in order of ability to pay.

“This is something that is normally the right thing to do, but it is something that would encourage more people who may not enroll, who would say, ‘Now there’s child care, now I can actually manage to do this.’ It’s a good decision, both in terms of the right thing to do for their students, but also will encourage more students to enroll at DePaul.”

Duckworth cited her own experiences being a working mother as the reason for the package of legislation, which also includes provisions which would help families pay for diapers and make workplaces more family-friendly.

On April 18, the Senate unanimously voted to change its rules to allow senators

Tammy Duckworth

CAMPUS CRIME REPORT: May 1, 2019- May 7, 2019 LOOP CAMPUS

LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS

Lincoln/Fullerton 3

Richardson Library

Sanctuary Hall

2

1

DePaul Center 5 2 6 7

LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS MAY 2 1) An armed

robbery report was filed for a person who was robbed in front of Sanctuary Hall. Chicago Police apprehended the offender at an off-campus location.

MAY 3 2) An

armed robbery report was filed for a person who was robbed in front of Richardson Library. A Safety Alert was shared with the campus community regarding the incident.

Assault & Theft

Drug & Alcohol

Other

LOOP CAMPUS

MAY 4 MAY 5 3) A battery report was filed for a person who 4) A graffiti report was filed for markings on the was assaulted on the corner of Lincoln and Fullerton.

Reskin Theatre.

MAY 7 5) An assault report was filed for a person being threatened in the DePaul Center.

6)

A disturbance report was filed for a person yelling in the Barnes and Noble.

4

News. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019 | 5

SGA races go largely uncontested for mission & ministry.

“I think the biggest surprise we had Asst. News Editor was the large amount of interest there was in running for the senator for mission & Winning candidates in this year’s ministry. In past years, we have had two Student Government Association (SGA) people run for the position at most,” election were announced Sunday in a Pierce said. “This year we had three official candidates as well as multiple largely uncontested race.

Many of the candidates this year ran write-ins. Being an organization rooted unopposed. Anna Pierce, SGA’s election in the Vincentian Mission, it was exciting and community engagement coordinator, to see that the student body was eager to said that the lack of competitive races work towards that goal and represent the does not take away from the validity of mission positively.”

Giselle Cervantes and Landon the elections.

Campbell were “In past voted in as president elections, most of and vice president, the positions have respectively, in been bid on by another uncontested returning members race.

Cervantes from student stated that running g o v e r n m e n t ,” unopposed gave the Pierce said. “The pair more time to administration fully commit to their from this past campaign, and they year was filled were always aware with many seniors of the possibility of and students that a write-in candidate intend to study upset. abroad next year, “I think running which resulted in XAVIER ORTEGA| THE DEPAULIA unopposed allowed a lack of returning us to focus on doing members.

This Piper Law, the newly-elected Senator was a major reason for Mission & Ministry. The position was student outreach and listening to for the lack of a previously held by Sidney Snell. student input competitive race.

But this in no way takes away from the in order to develop a strong platform,” elections. Each person that applied to Cervantes said. “We knew there was always the possibility run or submitted a letter of intent to be that someone considered a write-in candidate was could develop more than qualified to take on a a write-in position in the organization. We campaign were really impressed with the for the group of candidates this year.” president Despite the lack of contested a n d positions, Pierce stated there v i c e was an increased number of candidates running for senator

By Emma Oxnevad

“We knew there was always the possibility that someone could develop a writein campaign for the president and vice president ticket, and we still took campaigning very seriously even if there wasn’t another ticket on the ballot.”

Giselle Cervantes

SGA President

president ticket, and we still took campaigning very seriously even if there wasn’t another ticket on the ballot.”

Campbell said that the pair hopes to bring meaningful change to DePaul through their positions and that they hope to increase communication with the student body.

“We are empowered to represent each and every student on our campus,” Campbell said. “We plan on continuing the trend of great work from this year.

It’s a two-way street though. We want the student body to communicate with us so we can know how to help. More student engagement equals more representation.”

Camila Barrientos, the newlyappointed senator for intercultural awareness, felt that her uncontested race took away from the democratic process of voting. “ R u n n i n g unopposed was definitely e a s i e r,” Barrientos said.

There was no

physical person that posed a challenge to me. This was obviously a positive thing for me because I did not have to worry about the position. The negative was that I did not have to work as hard, I did not get to truly participate in democratic processes and I really didn’t have to do any convincing to the voters. Hopefully next year brings out more people; I’d truly like to take part in real campaigning.”

Pierce stated that she hopes the newly-appointed officials will carry the principles of SGA with them as they navigate their new positions.

“We do not take on these positions for self-righteousness,” Pierce said. “We take them on because we genuinely want to make the university a better place and to ensure the well-being and success of each and every student on campus. With that being said, our hopes for the newly elected administration is that they remain true to those sentiments and that they can continually make positive changes in our communities.”

Giselle Cervantes, left, and Landon Campbell, right, will serve as the president and vice president of SGA, respectively.

Landon Campbell Giselle Cervantes

XAVIER ORTEGA | THE DEPAULIA

6| News. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019 MAMA's HOUSE continued from ftont of adversity that makes her the person she is today. She recalled no one showing up to her 12th birthday party and then going to school the next day and saying it was a great party. This is what she wants to teach the students who enter her shop.

A student came in looking down one day, and cried when Mama sat down with them.

“Next time you come in here you’re going to say, ‘I’m super,’ because when you say it you believe it,” Mama said.

She went on to encourage the student to find passion in life. She recommended starting at a retirement home and making meaningful connections with the elderly.

“Bring a coloring book; you color a page then they [the elderly] color a page,” she said. “People need each other.”

Business has never been competitive for the Brankos. They instead view their restaurant as a home and their competitors as neighbors.

“It’s very important to me that we’re all supporters of each other,” Mama said.

This is what earned Andja Branko the affectionate title of Mama. She wants her restaurant to be a safe place where anyone can go to decompress and get the feeling of a home-cooked meal.

“If you get sad, if you’re away from home for the first time, I want you to know that I have room in this heart for everybody,” Mama said.

This home-away-from-home experience has earned Branko’s many repeat, and even lifetime, customers.

FREE SPEECH continued from front to a humanitarian crisis and agreed with Paeth, saying that “what we’re being asked to consider [in the article] is immoral.”

Tying in her personal background, she said the British argued India was not a nation until they gained freedom in 1947, and Hill’s argument echoed many of the arguments the British presented throughout hundreds of years of colonization.

Martin spoke primarily on the First Amendment, and aimed to answer the question, “How is this not punishable?” in regard to Hill’s comments. He explained that in the U.S., there is a hard line between speech and action; if a type of speech does not cross over into physical action and shows no sign of doing so, it must be protected by the First Amendment. This is why the U.S. struggles with creating substantive laws pertaining to hate speech. He said that the most effective way to curb this type of speech while still respecting the First Amendment is to “answer bad speech with more speech.”

Hibbard spoke last, agreeing with the comments of those who spoke before him and adding that he had been rethinking his personal understanding of academic freedom in light of this controversy. He said that Hill’s piece was not a scholarly piece of research — rather, an opinion piece — and that because it was not grounded in facts, he felt the article was not protected by academic freedom. He added that the article’s content, which “demonized a population” and called for “radical containment or expulsion,” was “enormously problematic and unVincentian.”

Then the floor was opened to questions.

One student with DePaul Socialists explained his grievances with Hill’s article and asked why after 3500 signatures, a campus protest and three weeks of action, the university had not done anything. He added to his question,

MAERIED KAHN | THE DEPAULIA

Mama rings up a customer and flashes a smile from her post behind the counter. To keep costs low, Mama does almost everything.

Karen Loiacono, DePaul’s associate athletic director for marketing and licensing, became a Branko’s fan when it first opened in 1976 and can still be found enjoying Mama’s homemade chicken noodle soup even today.

“The food has been good since the beginning,” Loiacono said. “And no other place in the area has stayed open this long.”

Mama works so hard because she doesn’t want to jack the prices for her loyal customers. Between taking care of her parents and running Branko’s by herself, she doesn’t have much free time.

Even though Mama assumes the informal role of many students’ comforting maternal figure, she has her own family to take care of, too.

Her son Angel, 26, works on the business side of the operation while Mama works inside the restaurant and her daughter Marjan, 30, received a degree in mathematics and now works as an accountant.

Her husband is a strong family man who supports the business however he can.

Mama has loved dance her whole life, as it was instilled in her from a young age.

The family bonds over their mutual love

of traditional dance in different European countries’ style.

Whenever she’s not working, she finds time to learn her dance team’s new routines or travels to watch her nationally ranked son dance. She calls dance her true passion. Her dance team, Balkanske Igre, performs around Chicago.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t always have time for her performances because when you’re committed to being everyone’s Mama, there’s not a lot of time for yourself.

directly addressing Esteban — but then directed it to Ghanem once he realized that Esteban had left — and asking whether the university believed the article called for an “ethnic cleansing,” and if so, whether the university upheld those statements.

Ghanem said in response that as a person of Middle Eastern descent, she felt similarly about the article’s content, but she could not condemn Hill for exercising what she and the university perceive to be his academic freedom.

“I read the article, and [it] absolutely disgusted me,” she said. “Did he call for actual ethnic cleansing? That’s debatable. […] It borderlines. The point here is that he did not say this within his classroom.

He said this in a public forum outside of the university. I totally disagree with what he said, but I do uphold — for all the faculty and all the students at DePaul — the importance of academic freedom.”

Many students intended their questions to be directed toward Esteban, and they expressed frustration that he left before they had the chance to address him, given that only he can address the demands: to censure Hill for his comments, provide him with racial sensitivity training and request a public apology from him.

When Ghanem reiterated the university’s position later in the forum, the majority of students in attendance rushed to the front, handed her signs of protest, which read “Selective protection of academic freedom is not acceptable,” and showed images of the Christchurch mosque and Poway synagogue, followed by the statement “Results of hate speech.”

They marched out, chanting “What do we want? Censure. When do we want it? Now.” One student stayed behind to set up a time to meet and reconsider their demands.

“At the forum, we made it clear that this is not about Middle East politics nor academic freedom,” said Rifqa Falaneh, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine. “This is about the call for ethnic cleansing and hate speech of a

professor that has created an extremely unsafe environment at DePaul University for all students. The coalition decided to march out because we were in direct disagreement for the whole forum and had made this clear in the question and answer portion of the event.”

She added that because of Esteban’s absence, she felt their questions were “insufficiently answered.”

both public forums and interpersonal meetings.

“I didn’t think we were going to get to the answers [by the end of this meeting], but I think it’s important to voice these questions and to hear the different points of views,” she said. “I’m going to meet with the students and try to see what it is that they want, and what can we do within the confines of the rules and regulations and processes of the university.”

She added that within those confines, creating support groups to ensure students feel safer on campus might be one example of what the university can do to help.

All agreed that the forum was a good place to start, but certainly not an endgame for conversation surrounding the article and the controversy it caused.

“I think there is an issue of free speech here, but at the same time, the university has an obligation to not only protect its students, but also do what’s right in the name of social justice,” Easton said. “I just think a lot has yet to happen, and everyone has to figure out what needs to happen in order to address this issue in the best way that could be done.”

Other students voiced frustration with Hill’s absence.

“I really would like to know why he didn’t come,” said sophomore Madeleine Easton. “If he is so interested in going on Fox News and speaking to Tucker Carlson and complaining about the university and the students, I don’t know why he would refuse to show up to an event that allows students to voice their opinions and him to voice his opinion.

This was a moment for him to really say his piece, and he neglected to do that, which I really think is a shame.”

Despite students’ aggravation, Ghanem said she felt the meeting was productive nonetheless, and that while the conflict is nuanced, she hopes to continue the conversation with

News. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019 | 7

AMY DO | THE DEPAULIA

A front of the F.O.P’s #7 Lodge. The front of the Lodge was lined with police, with a barrier of bikes and officers standing between protestors and the entrance to the building.

Protest against CPD union in Near West Side ends in 12 arrests Cook Country State Attorney Kim Foxx's decision to drop charges against Jussie Smollett was criticized.

By Emma Oxnevad Asst. News Editor

On Monday, protestors gathered in Union Park to rally against the union of the Chicago Police Department.

Protestors included members of Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), Southsiders Organized for Union and Liberation, Reclaim Chicago, and The People’s Lobby.

The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police recently came under scrutiny for organizing a rally criticizing Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx.

The rally was organzied following Foxx's decision to drop charges against actor Jussie Smollett, who has faced national scrutiny for fabricating a hate crime earlier this year.

The rally was attended by three white nationalist groups, including the Proud Boys, the American Guard and the American Identity Movement.

The Proud Boys have been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The police union stated that they were unaware any white nationalist groups would be in attendance. The groups were permitted to stay at the rally.

Protestors congregated in Union Park, eventually moving to Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #7. Those in attendance eventually blocked the road by sitting in the intersection of Ogden Avenue and Washington Boulevard, making a human chain to signify unity.

Many in the chain were broken up and put into a police wagon.

A total of 12 protesters were arrested.

Those detained were later released.

AMY DO | THE DEPAULIA

Anthony Clark, a teacher at Oak Park and River Forest High School and local activist, speaks at the protest.

AMY DO | THE DEPAULIA Protestors blocking the road by making a human chain were broken apart and carried into a waiting police wagon and detained for a short period before release.

Many of them are faith leaders.

AMY DO | THE DEPAULIA

Protestors chant, “We got your back!” in Union Park, across the divide from where arrest volunteers were blocking the road.

8 | News. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019

Helps prevent leaks

News. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019 | 9

Facebook bans conspiracy theorists from Infowars and Nation of Islam Far-right leaders Alex Jones and Louis Farrakhan violated Facebook's violence and hate speech rules.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Facebook has banned Louis Farrakhan (left), Alex Jones (right) and others from its platform and from Instagram saying they violated its ban against hate and violence.

speech and when that speech is attacking a Contributing Writer certain group of people,” Williams said.

Facebook’s ban on Nation of Islam L.E. Denise, lead leader Minister Louis Farrakhan, Alex barista at DePaul Jones from Infowars, right-wing pundits University’s Brownstones Milo Yiannopoulos and Laura Loomer café, said that the bans on May 2 received mixed reactions could alter the meaning concerning user rights and free speech. and effectiveness of free Facebook stated in a statement speech and expression. about the ban: “We’ve always banned “I think that would be individuals or organizations that promote something that we need or engage in violence and hate, regardless to step up and look into of ideology. The process for evaluating and fight back on just potential violators is extensive and it is because if they limit us what led us to our decision to remove in that respect, then who these accounts today.” knows what else they’re going to do as Maurice Fleshman, a senior majoring far as limiting our speech,” she said. in communications and media, believes Denise said Facebook should be a that if there is going to be any banning, it positive platform for groups to network has to be on a broad scale. and thrive.

“The only thing D e s p i t e I want to say to Mr. Facebook being a Zuckerberg is just private platform keep it one-hundred, with the rights man; you do both, not to de-platform just one or the other. accounts of You can’t just go after choice, some right-wings and say, openly expressed ‘Oh yeah, these guys their disapproval are the only ones’—no, of the bans. leftists do it too. You “In my got to call a spade-toopinion, the spade [sic] and do it Honor abl e to both sides,” he told M i n i s t e r The DePaulia.

Farrakhan has “If you do this, only spoke truth people are going to and only spoke see actual, honest to what’s right journalism. If we as and that scares a a society can crack lot of these major WIKIMEDIA COMMONS down and start c or p or at i ons ,” booting out people Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg actor, rapper, who just want to producer and spread misinformation, we’ll start getting TV host Nick Cannon told news sources more honest news.” about Min. Louis Farrakhan’s Facebook DePaul psychology major Kaitlyn and Instagram being banned.

Williams said Facebook could have taken Rapper and producer Snoop Dogg a less drastic turn. even condemned Facebook for its “I think Facebook should have the decision. “So Facebook and Instagram right to suspend, not completely ban just banned Minister Louis Farrakhan,” users for their posts unless the users he posted on his Instagram account. “I are promoting hate/verbally attacking want to know for what. All he ever do a certain demographic of people and was tell the truth. But y’all going to ban multiple people have reported them,” she him now.” said. “Free speech has a lot to do with it.

Amid the negative reactions, While I do believe people should be able Facebook said that the right decision to speak their words freely and without was made. fear, I also believe that words [can be] “We’ve always banned individuals or hate speech, specifically on a site where organizations that promote or engage speech like that is prohibited or violates in violence and hate, regardless of certain rules.” ideology,” Facebook said in a statement.

“There can definitely be arguments “The process for evaluating made that it’s impeding the first potential violators is extensive and it is amendment, but it is a slippery slope what led us to our decision to remove because if you’re going to say people have these accounts today.” the right to express themselves, then it becomes slippery when that speech is hate

By Tariqah Shakir-Muhammad

"If you do ban [fake news outlets], people are going to see actual, honest journalism. If we as a society can crack down and start booting out people who just want to spread misinformation, we'll start getting more honest news.

Maurice Fleshman

Communications & Media major

10 | Nation & World. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019

Nation &World

GRAPHIC EXCERPTED FROM: "SUMMARY FOR POLICYMAKERS OF THE GLOBAL ASSESSMENT REPORT ON BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES" | UNITED NATIONS/IPBES

UN report warns of dire future for nature

By Ben Conboy Editor-in-Chief

The United Nations released a grim summary of an upcoming 1,500-page report about declining biodiversity on the planet Monday, May 6, finding that human activity has put more than 1 million species at risk of extinction and calling for “transformative change” to prevent further losses.

“Biodiversity” may sound like a jargony scientific term, but the fact is that human economies, lifestyles and livelihoods themselves depend on nature functioning as an interdependent system. When just a single species is lost, it can have a cascading effect on the rest of an ecosystem.

“The way the UN in particular has been thinking about it — and the profession of conservation biology has been assessing biodiversity loss — is not only to think about it in terms of the fate of these species, but to underscore the relationship between the fate of these species in a way that delivers goods and services to humans,” said Liam Heneghan, a professor of environmental science at DePaul.

The report names a number of factors as contributors to the impending loss of biodiversity. Many are familiar, like the effects of global warming. Others are related to unchecked human activity.

Rising use of land for agriculture and the global doubling of urban area “have had the largest negative impact on nature since 1970,” according to the summary.

And when coupled with other factors, like a growing human population and globalization that exacerbates pollution and introduces invasive species, a perfect storm is created for a mass extinction event.

The report also takes a broad look at the human economy and the direct line between free market capitalism and the exploitation of the environment.

“Economic incentives generally have favoured expanding economic activity, and often environmental harm, over

MICHAEL PROBST | AP In this Dec. 4, 2018, file photo, birds fly past a smoking chimney in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Development that s led to loss of habitat, climate change, overfishing, pollution and invasive species is causing a biodiversity crisis, scientists say in a new United Nations science report released May 6, 2019.

conservation or restoration,” the report says.

A famous example of the ripple effect a single species can have on an ecosystem is the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park. The wolf population in the park had been decimated by ranchers who deemed them pests to their cattle.

When scientists reintroduced them in 1995, the unchecked elk population, which fed on willow trees and was the wolves’ primary prey, was culled; the willow population subsequently rebounded.

The rejuvenation of the willows allowed beavers, then a fledgling population in the park, to make use of the willows for dams. The dams changed the hydrological tendencies of the park’s streams, allowing waning species of fish and flowers to thrive.

Similarly, scientists warn the loss of 1 million irreplaceable species will have a profound ripple effect on the global ecosystem.

“Could we have guessed prior that reintroducing [wolves to Yellowstone]

would give life to so many other species?” said Kieran Andreoni, an environmental science student at University of Illinois.

“Not likely. Do we really know how the loss of 1 million species, or even just one more species will affect us? It is likely that any importance we attribute to these at-risk species is a gross underestimation.”

No species group will be immune to the mass extinction, and no part of the Earth, from the poles to the deep sea, will be untouched. But the group that will be hit the hardest are cycads, a family of tropical plants. The report estimates that a little more than 60 percent of cycads are threatened.

About 41 percent of amphibian species, 35 percent of conifers and 31 percent of mammal species are also at risk of extinction.

“We’re on the threshold of a real crisis, a crisis that may undermine our expectations that we can expect sustained delivery of the things we depend upon,” Heneghan said.

While the report was widely circulated

in environmental circles, it was barely covered by the major broadcast and cable networks, according to a report by progressive advocacy group Media Matters. Only three of the 26 primetime broadcast network news shows reported on the summary report May 6, the day it was released.

The UN report states that, given the current trajectory of biodiversity loss, a policy of “transformative change” must be implemented.

Transformative change, as outlined in the summary, would require humans to think about every policy, business and personal decision in the context of how it affects the environment and how any negative effects can be mitigated.

“Am I optimistic we’re going to do very much about it? Honestly, not in my lifetime,” Heneghan said. “I’m not that confident anymore.”

Nation & World. May 13, 2019. The DePaulia | 11

Pentagon report: Sexual assault in U.S. military increased for female service members

By Lacey Latch Arts & Life Editor

A startling trend among the ranks of the U.S. military continues to rise with the most recent results from the Department of Defense's Annual Report on Sexual Assault released last week. The report indicated a 50 percent increase in sexual assaults experienced by women in the military since 2016.

Despite women composing just below 20 percent of the armed forces, they account for 63 percent of military sexual assault victims with young and low-rank women most at risk, according to the survey.

“What [this increase] reflects is the stubbornness, the selfishness of the DoD leadership to seriously address this issue,” said Col. Don Christensen, a retired Air Force JAG and the president of Protect Our Defenders, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending military sexual assault.

“They're refusing to consider any bold reforms and after 30 years of failure, this is on them. They are the ones that are failing and obstructing change and it's time that they're held accountable.”

This year, the military also saw 1 in 3 service members report a sexual assault, a 10 percent increase in reporting overall from two years ago.

Additionally, 21 percent of women experienced what would legally be considered retaliation while even more allege to have endured other forms of backlash. Reported instances range anywhere from extreme social ostracism to the lowering of rank and even a mandatory dishonorable discharge from the service.

Historically, sexual assault within the military has been highly under-reported, drastically skewing statistics.

As a measure to bridge that data gap in 2005, the DoD enacted a biannual anonymous survey to get more accurate results.

Nearly 15 years later, the report appears to indicate the crisis is worsening.

Many survivors indicate that a major hurdle to reporting incidents of sexual assault is that the cases remain within the chain of command, meaning it’s often a survivor’s direct commander who is in charge of following through with the

on sexual assault prevention and response.

According to Christensen, these sessions often amount to little more than a PowerPoint presentation taught by equally inexperienced instructors.

“It's amateurs leading other amateurs,” he said. “You do not become good at understanding and prosecuting sexual

PHOTO COLLAGE VIA C-SPAN ABOVE: Col. Don Christensen (Ret.) of nonprofit group Protect our Defenders at a March Senate hearing on sexual assault in the military; BELOW: Col. Ellen Haring (Ret.) of advocacy group the Service Women's Action Network, at a similar House of Representatives hearing in April.

report. Importantly, this often means that those handling the cases are unqualified for the job.

“I guarantee you the vast majority of the commanders who have this authority have never sat down and talked to a victim,” Christensen said. “They don't know what they go through. They don't understand the complexity of trauma and they're not lawyers.”

The military has put in place training sessions to educate all service members

assault from a slideshow.”

Despite this, some argue the response to reported incidents of sexual assault should come from within the military hierarchy to maintain order and disciplinary control.

Another argument is that removing chain of command would lessen a unit’s ability to function as a whole.

Ellen Haring, a retired Army colonel and the CEO of the Service Women’s Action Network, disagrees.

“Yes, commanders need to be able to

discipline their troops, but there are some behaviors that are bubbling beyond their ability or their qualifications to discipline,” Haring said.

Removing sexual assault cases from the chain of command, Haring said, would send a message that there are things that commanders do not have the capacity to decide.

“And this is one of them, and it's a serious crime,” Haring said. “That's why they’re not able to make these decisions.”

At the same time, it may also be hurting the military’s ability to attract new members.

“We do know that services are struggling now to meet their recruiting goals,” Christensen said. “When they rely on women, and in fact could not perform the mission without women, you would think that they would be more attuned to the impact this could have.”

The continued ineffectiveness of the current process also contributes to a deep distrust of the system amongst victims.

Haring attributes much of this crisis to the current cultural trends both in the military and in America at large.

Specifically she pointed to the Marine Corps, the service branch that saw the highest increase in sexual assaults — a jump of nearly 25 percent. Directly related to that, Haring said, is the fact that the Marines are the only branch that still separates men and women when recruits arrive at boot camp for training.

“There is no industry where you're completely safe,” she said. “Especially if it's one of these industries or professions that have been and continue to be masculine and male dominate. I don't know where women can go to work to be completely safe.”

Beyond Beef IPO shows growing appetite for alternative meat products

By Erica Carbajal Contributing Writer

Plant-based burger patties from brands like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are becoming the gold standard for meat alternatives, entering into partnerships with fast food chains like Carl’s Jr.’s for their “Beyond Burger" and the soon-to-bereleased “Impossible Whopper” for Burger King. Rather than a typical black bean or quinoa veggie burger, these products — the Impossible Burger is made from a soy protein created from genetically modified yeast, and the Beyond Burger uses primarily protein from yellow peas — are created to taste, look, and sizzle like real meat.

Last week, Beyond Meat made its stock market debut at a $25 share price, peaking at $73 the same day — “the biggest opening day rally since the 2008 Financial Crisis,” according to InvestorPlace Media.

Processed meat giant Tyson Foods also recently announced it will be creating its own meat alternatives. The company previously held a 6.5 percent stake in Beyond Meat.

Gustavo Fuentes, stock market analyst and financial advisor, said there’s substantial potential for plant-based “meat” companies.

“The demand and acceptance that these products have will be fundamental to observe a paradigm shift within the food sector,” he said.

In an SEC filing, Beyond Meat estimates the plant-based meat market could grow to $35 billion in the U.S. — about 13 percent of the $270 billion animal meat market.

There's an environmental component,

too: In a study Kate Coley, a published by DePaul junior and "The Lancet" vegetarian who is earlier this transitioning to year, scientists a vegan diet, said warned that the environmental worldwide footprint played m e a t a key factor in consumption, why she chose namely red, to change her should be traditional diet. cut in half in “I think order to avoid climate concerns further damage are a big reason to the planet. for people Kathleen choosing more Kevany, an veggie options. I associate know folks who professor at are cutting out ANNALISA BARANOWSKI | THE DEPAULIA certain meats for Dalhouse University in Nova Scotia who researches this reason, and it’s why I’m reducing my sustainable diets and social change, said dairy and egg intake as much as possible,” the production of animal meat has a large she said. environmental footprint.

Despite the warnings, meat “Whatever humans do for food we consumption isn’t really going down. exact a consequence. But pound for pound, “We’ve heard the same warnings time plant-based foods require less land, less and again … and yet per-capita meat water, and less fossil fuels and less inputs consumption in both the United Stands than do animal products,” she said in an and the world has never been higher,” said email. “The amounts vary from 4-10 less Matt Ball, senior media relations specialist resources needed for equivalent plant- at The Good Food Institute, an advocacy proteins, compared to animal sources.” group for alternative meat products.

Plant-based foods require less land This doesn’t seem to hinder people’s because they don’t require massive interest in meat alternatives, though. amounts of space for grazing, or land for Ball referenced research by Oklahoma growing feed. Kevany said the extensive State University in which found that 68 land clearing that raising animals for food percent of those surveyed said they were requires is a large factor in biodiversity uncomfortable with some of the ways loss. animal agriculture operates. These are “This is a substantial price that is not reachable populations for companies costed in the food,” she said. like Beyond Meat, which explicitly states

in its SEC filing that, rather than selling the Beyond Burger to the tiny vegan and vegetarian market, “we request that the product be sold in the meat case at grocery retailers, where meat-loving consumers are accustomed to shopping for center-of-plate proteins.”

“Companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are offering those 68 percent of people the meat they want without that discomfort," Ball said. "As these products continue to improve in terms of taste, price, and convenience, more and more people will choose them."

Impossible Foods, similarly, told The DePaulia that the majority of demand for its Impossible Burger 2.0 does not come from individuals who follow a strictly plant-based diet.

“Demand is so high that Impossible Foods is massively increasing production as quickly as we can … this certainly correlates with higher demand overall for plant-based meat. The vast majority (more than 70 percent) regularly consume animal meat; only 3 percent of our consumers say they never eat animal-derived foods,” an Impossible Foods representative said in an email.

While better in terms of the environmental footprint, plant-based meat alternatives don’t come totally free of flaws.

“They are processed, often with significant salt and fat added,” Kevany said. “They still replicate the narrative that eating meat is okay. And they are not without their energy and equipment costs, and consequently their prices can be higher."

12 | Opinions. The DePaulia. May 6, 2019

Opinions Socialists in Chicago

As a new City Council prepares to be sworn in, "new progressives" take hold

By Grace Del Vecchio Contributing Writer

Elections in Chicago never fail to be interesting and those in 2019 were no exception. From a mayoral race that began with nearly 20 candidates to the aldermanic incumbents who saw their reigns tested. Amidst the usual electoral battles, came something unexpected: the strong and unapologetic presence of socialism.

Socialism has appeared many times in history, in many different forms, but now, in the U.S. and specifically in Chicago, it has taken on a young and relatable modern face.

On their website, the Democratic Socialists of America state: “Democratic socialists do not want to create an all-powerful government bureaucracy. But we do not want big corporate bureaucracies to control our society either. Rather, we believe that social and economic decisions should be made by those whom they most affect.”

The DSA does not run on an exclusively anti-capitalist platform but instead on a people-powered one, and contrary to popular belief, “people-power” is not communism. In fact, Democratic Socialists have been among the harshest critics of communism since the presence of the USSR. Sarah Hurd has been a member of Chicago’s chapter of the DSA since 2017.

Now, as co-chair of the DSA electoral working group, she works to identify candidates who share the same goals and values as the DSA. “The candidates came to us with different issues on a city level and then on an international level,” said Hurd, the communication liaison for the group.

“We called them in and had an in-person interview to try and get a feel for if they would be a good representative of their ward and us.”

The process of endorsement for the DSA is lengthy and wasn’t made easier in the past election. With the presence of multiple socialist-identifying aldermanic candidates, the DSA was kept busy

fielding possible endorsements.

After the run-off on Feb. 26, the DSA had five endorsees: 35th Ward Aldermanincumbent Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 33rd Ward Alderman-elect Rossana Rodriguez, 40th Ward Alderman-elect Andre Vasquez, 20th Ward Alderman-elect Jeanette Taylor and 25th Ward Aldermanelect Byron Sigcho-Lopez.

1st Ward Alderman-elect Daniel La Spata, a long-standing member of the DSA, was not endorsed but was strongly backed by Reclaim Chicago.

Together, they decided on a unified platform of “Chicago for all,” which included sanctuary for all, housing for all and education for all, achieving this by increasing taxation of the ruling class.

Will Bloom, a workers rights lawyer with the Community Active Law Alliance, serves on the executive committee of the DSA. He spoke to the political structure of Chicago and how he believes the new alderman will impact it.

“Technically, as a matter of structure, Chicago is a weak-mayor city, but Harold Washington is the only one that lived that out,” Bloom said. “We are moving into a period of politics in Chicago where that’s changing, Mayor-elect Lightfoot doesn’t have the same support and won’t have the historical power.”

According to Bloom, this may aid the new aldermen in their fight to pass legislation.

This is something that has been on the mind of 40th Ward Alderman-elect Vasquez since his win on April 2.

Within his first few weeks as alderman-elect, Vasquez reached out to all 49 of his fellow city council members in hopes of initiating productive conversation before inauguration takes place.

Vasquez’s goal is not to create a council where 26 members identify as socialist, nor to have the six DSA alderman sway the other 44. Quite the contrary: To him, city council can be compared to that of a tool box.

“Think about it strategically,” Vasquez said. “We need to have [a] tool box that is filled with more than one tool, such as a

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDRE FOR 40TH

Andre Vasquez, who won 54 percent of 40th ward voters and defeated Mayor Rahm Emanuel's longtime veteran city council floor leader, Alderman Patrick J. O'Connor.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDRE FOR 40TH

Then-candidate Andre Vasquez speaks to a group of voters in his campaign office.

hammer, a screwdriver, a wrench, instead of six hammers.”

City council is not the only place where Vasquez is looking to harness differences to create change. He is looking to do so in his own community of the 40th Ward.

“The way I view it is, being a Democrat or anything, most folk don’t really know what they are. People want to lump into a category; it’s a team aspect,” Vasquez said.

“What’s important is identifying a value set without category on it, that’s why we refer to everyone as a neighbor, we should all be thinking in that manner, not trying to convert and change someone.”

A prominent aspect of the DSA candidates’ campaigns was the camaraderie felt through the campaign process, and this was certainly true with Rodriguez’s campaign in the 33rd.

Chief of Staff and Campaign Manager Chris Poulos highlighted how Rodriguez’s socialist values and community focus drove her campaign from the start. “[Rodriguez] is able to provide both a broad, sweeping political analysis with an intimate feel; it always blows my mind,” Poulos said. “Because of this, we wanted a space with childcare where people can drop off their kids. We wanted to foster a community space where we organized but also offered support.”

Despite this community engagement and camaraderie that has powered the socialist wave in Chicago, many across the country are skeptical of not only the values it is based on, but also its practicality.

Jose Oliva, co-director of Food Chain Workers Alliance, described what socialism looks like in active form.

“Socialism is, in general, a vision where people are included and come first,” Oliva said. “There isn’t this sense of

profits, or the desire to get at profits at whatever cost, even if it means sacrificing individual human rights for it.”

Oliva went on to discuss how socialism has aided his movements with workers’ rights, but he also touched on the analysis that must be made of socialist movements.

“That analysis has to go through race and gender,” Oliva said. “If you want to build power, you need to be able to band together with other co-workers that often don’t look like you. If you can’t build solidarity, you’ll never gain power and you’ll never win.”

In Oliva’s experience, most successful campaigns take place when there is authentic cross-racial and cross-gender solidarity and when the goal is to fight for those who are affected most.

For these socialists, their goal is not to rid Chicago of the free market, nor to impose harmful policy. Rather, it is to create a space where everyone, regardless of background, zip code or circumstance has an equal chance at opportunity and success.

When Bloom was canvassing outside a polling place alongside Rodriguez during the first round of elections on Feb. 26, he overheard a supporter of Katie Sieracki, 33rd Ward aldermanic candidate, say something he found interesting: “Vote for Katie Sieracki, the only true independent candidate!”

To him, Rodriguez’s response embodied the most important values of socialism.

“Independent of what?” Rodriguez asked. “I am dependent of the working people in this ward, and that’s how it should be.”

"Socialism has appeared many times in history, in many different forms, but now, in the U.S. and specifically in Chicago, it has taken on a young and relatable modern face."

The opinions in this section do not necessarily reflect those of The DePaulia staff.

Opinions. The DePaulia. May 6, 2019 | 13

DePaul finally gets it right on free expression

By John Minster Contributing Writer

A few weeks ago, DePaul Professor Jason Hill published an article in The Federalist titled “The Moral Case for Israel Annexing the West Bank—And Beyond” arguing that the state of Israel should extend its sovereignty to the entirety of Judea and Samaria. In wake of the article’s publishing, various student groups led by Students for Justice in Palestine have called for Hill to be censured by the university, committed to racial sensitivity training, and forced to apologize for his views.

A petition was started to bring these claims to bear, which as of this writing has garnered 3,450 signatures. DePaul’s Faculty Council also bizarrely voted to condemn the content of the article while at the same time affirm Hill’s academic freedom. The DePaulia itself endorsed that idea.

It is no secret DePaul has been plagued with a myriad of free speech issues the last few years. The 2016 Milo Yiannopoulos event, which I hosted, uncorked a Pandora’s box of issues, most of which I have had some involvement with. The ban on Gavin McInnes, the ban (and subsequent appearance of) Ben Shapiro, the rejection of “Unborn Lives Matter” posters, the protests at Charles Murray’s appearance last year, the proverbial “Chalkenings” over the years and more have all made the docket of DePaul’s well known free speech problems.

In wake of the Yiannopoulos event and in conjunction with its successors, DePaul has also undergone an overhaul of administrative speech policy; new Guiding Principles on Speech and Expression were introduced, while a separate committee I was a part of

wrote a formal policy for student groups looking to host guest speakers. Protest guidelines have also been issued and, most prominently, a new president has been introduced. But the new approach has led to a positive result in the Hill situation.

Hill’s article inspired particular wrath as his annexation call included Area A, which is governed and largely policed by the Palestinian Authority. These areas, along with much of the West Bank, have generally been considered the foundation for the much-ballyhooed Palestinian State as part of the elusive two state solution.

The crux of the issue — and with free speech generally — is whether one believes Hill’s argument qualifies as legitimate; in other words, whether the content of the article is justifiable in any way whatsoever. Indeed, the rigor of free expression, which is the backbone of a university, requires that we look for any semblance of fair argumentation.

In this case, the answer is clearly yes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself has suggested annexation, while a variety of other parties in Israel beyond the governing Likud have also made the same case for many years. And given the fact that Israel is currently in the throes of rocket fire from Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group which controls the Gaza strip (and whom Palestinians elected to power in 2005 after Israel’s withdrawal), of course there might be some people who subscribe to Hill’s point of view.

Short of a direct call for violence on grounds of racism, sexism or other discriminatory “isms”, Hill and any other person, left or right, must be heard and hopefully challenged. This is the lifeblood of a university and a free society.

This is the exact cycle we at DePaul have been dealing with for years. A student, guest speaker or professor will say

JOSH LEFF | THE DEPAULIA Milo Yiannopoulos (left) and John Minster (right), then the president of DePaul College Republicans, exit the Student Center following the disruption of the 2016 Yiannopoulos event.

something controversial, some students will call for the university’s condemnation and rejection of that person, DePaul will occasionally offer it, and on to the next outrage we go. But the Hill saga has been characterized by one key difference: DePaul’s response to calls for censure has been exemplary.

In an email to the school, Esteban wrote in part that “The university will not censure Professor Hill for making unpopular statements. Our professors and students share academic freedom, guaranteed to them by their membership in the university community. They also share freedom of speech, guaranteed to them by the Bill of Rights. DePaul will ensure that all faculty and students are empowered to exercise these rights, and DePaul will provide an appropriate environment where ideas can be exchanged freely in an atmosphere of safety for all.”

The difference between this response and DePaul’s past shoddiness is stark.

Given the history I have outlined, the Hill situation stands out as perhaps the first time the university has flatly said “no” to those calling for a repression of speech. There was no equivocation, no repudiation and no abrogation. The adults have finally entered the room.

Free speech has historically been an issue which both right and left have failed to uphold because its very nature leaves both sides unhappy. Perceived repugnant opinions always remain. Yet this is how things are supposed to be. It is something we as students have too long been prevented from dealing with and Esteban should be applauded for finally righting the ship.

This is a new position for DePaul to take, so let's hope they stick to it. A vocal minority may not be happy with this, but all of us will be better for it.

True crime flourishes despite ethics questions

By Holyn Thigpen Contributing Writer

There has never been a better time to be a true crime junkie. Today’s media landscape is littered with heart-pounding stories of murder, betrayal and crimes of the heart. From the chart-topping popularity of NPR’s murder investigation podcast, Serial, to the pop culture buzz of the recent Netflix docuseries, The Ted Bundy Tapes, the true crime genre has undergone a rapid renaissance in the last five years.

Why is this? I’m inclined to believe that there must be a link between the growing unease and cynicism of today and the morbid appeal of these real-life stories. The most successful true crime tales restore a sense of normalcy to our lives and grant us the satisfaction of realizing that no matter how downhill things may be, our trials are in no way comparable to the violent, gruesome acts in these stories. In other words, we’re the “lucky ones” in at least one way.

The inherent drama of crime stories is just another quality making them so irresistible.

“People are fascinated with the psychology,” said Maggie Mock, head of true crime programming for Crazy Legs Productions. “TV has gotten to be really about character study, and in true crime, it’s a built-in drama. The stakes are already

right there, and the characters change so much over the course of the story.”

Not to be cliché, but truth really is often stranger than fiction.

The popularity of the true crime genre has not made it immune from heavy controversy and ethical criticism, often regarding misrepresentation of victims and the alleged glorification of perpetrators. Is there some truth in this criticism? Of course. It’s easy to paint killers as glamorous and understate the plights of those affected by their actions.

However, to classify all true crime stories as unethical is unfair to the crime content creators who are working hard to tell these stories properly, giving victims and their loved ones a newfound voice.

Bob Kolker is the author of "Lost Girls", a 2013 book detailing the murders of five young women at the hands of a Long Island serial killer. “I saw this as a way of tackling an issue and also writing about the lives of these women,” he said, describing his approach to the story.

“My mindset was, ‘I’m not going to write about a case; I’m going to write about five families,’” he said.

Mock feels similarly towards her approach to true crime storytelling on television.

“We always try to remember whose story we’re telling,” she said. “Anyone who was killed in a violent crime, that’s their story and this is their chance to

have it told. We try to ground our shows in that perspective, so everything we do cinematically is to really put you in their shoes.”

People often underestimate the amount of time, research, and careful ethical consideration that goes into crafting true crime stories. For Mock’s shows on Investigation Discovery, a team of researchers spends months interpreting and nitpicking the details of police reports and case files, whereas Kolker reached out to sources from all spheres of his subjects’ lives, from former teachers to roommates and social workers. The inherent responsibility of a career in true crime production is to detail touchy subject matters with thoroughness, accuracy, and respect — a responsibility that is not lost on the vast majority of these creators.

Killer glorification is yet another major consideration in all true crime mediums. The question becomes how to capture the raw violence of a cold-blooded criminal but avoid portraying their actions as stylish or giving them undue attention.

“I try to keep the focus on the victim and the crime and not try to make a hero of the killer,” said Richard O. Jones, creator of the podcast "True Crime Historian" and author of multiple crime novels.

“Sometimes an accused person needs a little bit of sympathy, but it’s a very rich

and complex thing. It’s not just about him or her, it’s about their family. The family and community become a very big part of that story. I try to keep the focus on the horror of the crime, though, so we don’t start feeling sympathetic toward people who don’t deserve sympathy.”

Tight deadlines admittedly create the temptation to jump to easy characterizations. “We’re making these shows back to back; it’s just a few months from beginning to end,” Mock said.

However, there’s still a consistent push to produce the most true-to-life, ethical portrayals possible of all those involved in every story. “When you have to guess, you have to always keep in mind the person whose story you’re telling. Use all the details you can get to help you paint a picture of what happened,” Mock said.

The true crime experience is aided by active and critical consumption. It’s only natural to try and separate hard facts from embellishments and, yes, some works of true crime miss the mark. But for the vast majority of true crime creators, ethical considerations and attention to detail are important components of the overall storytelling process. For now, perhaps we can find a healthy balance of evaluation and appreciation for this burgeoning genre.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANNALISA BARANOWSKI | THE DEPAULIA

14 | Focus. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019

Focus

Reading local

Don’t turn the page on independent bookstores.

Here are some of Chicago’s best.

Brita Hunegs Contributing Writer

It was late April but snow was pouring down in Chicago. Undeterred, though, by unseasonal cold weather or gray slush beneath their feet, an influx of Chicago book lovers scoured the city for Chicago’s Independent Bookstore Day. The literary extravaganza, put on by the concerted efforts of 37 independently owned bookstores

in the city, was designed in the vein of the pub crawl, swapping fermentation for fiction. The participants flocked to different neighborhoods, traveling from shop to shop to get a stamp on their “passports” — 10 visits meant 10 stamps and 10 percent off books for an entire year.

Nationally, there’s been a 40 percent increase in independent bookstore numbers since 2009, said Ryan Raffaelli, a Harvard University professor and author of an upcoming study on the

independent bookstore business, in an interview with National Public Radio.

But German author Takis Würger said during a reading for his new novel at DePaul that before buying his own book for a friend at an independent bookstore, he took pause, almost deterred from purchasing it because of the price.

We traveled to independent bookstores across the city to find out why, or if, they are the pulse of Chicagoan readers.

Barbara’s Bookstore Barbara’s was first erected on Wells Street in 1963, and has been owned by Don Barlin and Janet Bailey since 1967. The store has expanded since then, touting six locations in the Chicagoland area and one in Boston’s South Station, but they still adamantly consider themselves an independent store. Instead of being self-contained institutions, all seven locations are housed within another business or space. Scout Slava-Ross, 23, manages the Loop Barbara’s that lives on the ground floor of the Macy’s on State Street. Patrons mill around it— some shop for home goods, others get a bite at the food court kitty-corner to the books. It’s not uncommon to hear people going through the Pedway, their conversations carrying through the walls.

Slava-Ross attributed Barbara’s longevity to its partnerships, insisting they are still able to maintain integrity.

“It is a lot harder for independent bookstores to be the standalone bohemiths that they used to,” Slava-Ross said. “That’s how Barbara’s stuck around: by morphing, but still keeping all that good, independent bookstore mentality and selection of books.”

She said each store has autonomy and that there is not a formula to which they all must adhere.

PHOTO BY BRITA HUNEGS On libraries versus bookstores, Slava-Ross Manager Wayne Giacalone rings up a customer at Roscoe Books. understands the dichotomy more than most. Her mersed in a community,” Salva-Ross said. “You “People would ring up with 10 tabloids. They mother was a librarian who also owned a used don’t always have a lot of time as a college student would proactively apologize and say ‘I don’t usually bookstore, and the family lived in it for a few weeks to read what you want. It’s all the more important read stuff like this, but my son was just diagnosed in between moving houses. Slava-Ross said her to find that good book that’s worth that time.” with incurable cancer. I just need to forget for a few name is eponymous to the “To Kill a Mockingbird” Chris Mahin started working at Barbara’s in minutes.’” protagonist.

1997. For the first couple of years, he presided over Mahin recalled times when someone on one of “There is something special about owning a the Barbara’s in the lobby of Northwestern Memothe top floors of the hospital would call down and book — to be able to lend it to people and have it rial Hospital. It was in that setting that he realized make an order. The bookstore attendants would be a permanent fixture in your life,” she said. “You the vitality-giving power of reading, and the impor- run it up to them, and oftentimes, the patients can build whole communities and relationships tant role the arbiters of reading material have. would try to tip them. He said he would decline over having books.”

“You really have the sense that for people this and think to himself, “No, no this is the best part Slava-Ross said she still believes there’s no com- is really what made the difference,” he said. “In of the job. To be able to give a sick person some parison between online books and the real deal. some cases they didn’t make it. You were selling sort of comfort.”

“Nothing beats browsing a bookstore,” she to or buying for them that were comforting them.

Mahin said even though these situations are said. “There are times I wouldn’t have heard about Or they had a family member didn’t make it, but at unique, they tell a broader truth about independent a book unless I had happened to see it on the shelf. least they had a book to read while they were waitbookstores.

I would have never have thought to search for it ing by the bedside.”

“Even in less extreme cases, it’s nice to be able online, but I’ve come across it now.”

He said people were surprised, and then overto make a connection with a customer, no matter She added that for college students, indepenjoyed, to find a bookstore there. how fleeting,” he said. dent bookstores are the way to go.

“They need something to read while they are “Having a local, dependable independent waiting to find out what happened to their relathat you can visit is a great way to become imtive or while they’re recuperating,” Mahin said.

Focus. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019 | 15

The Book Cellar At The Book Cellar in Lincoln Square, the whistle of steaming milk can be heard as baristas prepare lattes.

Owner Suzy Takacs works through a stack of papers she has at her table. Above her, a liquor license is hung. She decided to open up her bookstore with a name that invokes the thought of a winery.

“Books and wine are two of my favorite things,” she said.

Back in 2003, Takacs was a nurse practitioner at Northwestern Memorial. She saw a bookstore void in North Center and decided she would be the one to fill it. She quit her job and a year later, The Book Cellar was born.

Bill Dalton, a former DePaul English professor, has been frequenting the store for years.

“I introduce myself [as] the mascot,” he said.

“I still read books — actual books — so it’s great to still have these stores around.”

Takacs wanted to have a variety of reasons for people to come in, so she included a small café in the plans. Today, the grilled cheese is their most popular menu item. To keep the space filled,

the store works events nearly every night, hosting events from comedy shows to nonfiction essay readings. They frequently turn into a traveling bookstore, loading up a car and heading off-site to sell at keynote speaker addresses or restaurants, with chef’s cookbooks in tow. Over 10 book clubs meet at The Book Cellar, and the café sees a fair share of first dates.

Takacs said she works with about 10 employees.

PHOTO BY BRITA HUNEGS “Everyone does everything,” she said. “We A customer looks for a book at The Book Cellar.

“There’s several of them that are really good have a mature staff that are avid readers and love to talk about what they’re at specifically recommending something because they know me well now,” he said. “They’ll come reading.”

Dalton said this has made all the difference for up to me with a book and say, ‘You’ve got to read this.’” him.

Roscoe Books Years ago, Erika VanDam saw that the missing piece of her Roscoe Village neighborhood was a bookstore. The result of that observation is Roscoe Books. Manager Wayne Giacalone joined the team a year and a half after it opened. Since he was a kid, he wanted to own his own independent bookstore.

He says working in one has proven to be even better than he expected.

According to Giacalone, the Chicago indie bookstore community is tight. He sees his contemporaries outside of their stores frequently and is friends with many of them.

“We work together to make this city the best literary city it can be,” Giacalone said. “There’s a lot of great readers in Chicago and a lot of interesting things going on. Sometimes New York and LA don’t realize that. We try to get more authors here and have more conversations about what’s going on and what’s being read.”

Giacalone said he prefers hand-held books to digital ones.

“A book is a tactile experience,” he said. “It’s not just the words on a page. It’s being able to flip through them. It’s something you’re spending a lot on time on; you’re not just clicking and having it sent to you. You’re actually getting to see the book ahead of time. It adds to the experience.”

Greg Zimmerman has been working at Roscoe Books since its inception. He said he thinks people have the impression that Amazon is dismantling the independent bookstore industry and argues that is simply not the case.

“It’s encouraging that Amazon didn’t actually kill the IBS even though it’s what they set out to do,” Zimmerman said. “People want a community when they buy books. They don’t want an algorithm to tell them what to read. They want personalized recommendations and to meet other people who are readers.”

Giacalone said that given their smaller space, the store focuses on having a wide variety of genres within well-curated shelves. The most prominent section is their kids nook at the back of the store.

“Kids love to interact with the books,” Giacalone said. “Having their own space where they can have a one-on-one experience with the books helps them develop a lifelong love of reading.”

The children’s section at Roscoe Books.

Amazon opened its first brick-and-wmortar bookstore in Chicago in the summer of 2017.

Located on Southport, Roscoe Books is the closest independent bookstore to the chain. They stand just 1.1 miles apart.

The e-commerce giant moved into the physical storefront sphere in 2015, when they opened their first bookstore in Seattle.

Giacalone said it was scary when they first opened, but that Amazon’s looming presence hasn’t seemed to affect them. Zimmerman agreed.

“If anything, it’s helped us,” he said. “The community rallied around us because they like to see us here. They want us to stay.”

He noted that they offer things that the Amazon store doesn’t, like storytimes for kids and various book clubs.

Giacalone said they offer a more personalized experience in general. Oftentimes, they’ll base the books they order on what they know a specific customer enjoys.

The last decade has seen a revitalization for the industry, according to the American Booksellers

PHOTO BY BRITA HUNEGS

Association. Their research shows that there has been a compound annual growth rate of 5.4 percent over the last five years.

“While not every bookstore or community has seen this growth, the national trends are clear,” Giacalone said.

In March, Amazon announced that it would shut down 87 of its kiosk pop-up shops in order to focus more on Amazon Bookstores. “[We] are instead expanding Amazon Books and Amazon 4-Star, where we provide a more comprehensive customer experience and broader selection,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.

Giacalone said this year’s Independent Bookstore Day was their busiest yet and that he was completely exhausted by the end of the event.

“It’s wonderful,” he said. “A lot of the members of the community came out just to say, ‘We’re really happy you’re here. We want to support you and make sure you stick around.’”

GRAPHICS BY ANNALISA BARANOWSKI

16 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019

Arts & Life

Honey Girls

A deeply personal student production

STACEY SHERIDAN | THE DEPAULIA

Cast members chat during the dress rehearsal for "Honey Girls" at the Theatre School. The show officially opens on May 17 and will end its run on May 26.

By Stacey Sheridan Contributing Writer

Starting in 2004, The Theatre School at DePaul University selects one studentwritten play to be produced, staged and performed for audiences at the end of May. This season of the New Playwright Series, graduating senior Grace Grindell snagged the coveted opportunity with “Honey Girls,” a play she wrote inspired by her own experiences dealing with her mother’s battle with and subsequent death from lung cancer.

At its core, “Honey Girls” is a story about the strength of three women in the face of adversity. Central character Mazie Lancaster, played by Michela Murray, is an academically-driven high school senior with a penchant for baking and a dream of attending Brown University.

Not long into the first act, Mazie finds her world completely shaken after her mother, Marigold, played by Ashlea Woodley, is diagnosed with only six months left to live after her cancer treatments stop working.

“It’s about Mazie recalibrating the way she understands her life, how she will try to imagine a future without her mother in it and how she will try to survive without her,” Grindell explained. A single mother, Marigold is Mazie’s entire world and Mazie is Marigold’s. The other most important person in Marigold’s life is her best friend, Laura, played by Grainne Ortlieb.

She and Mazie help Marigold every step of the way, attending treatments with her, making sure Marigold is exercising and eating according to the keto diet Marigold’s doctor recommended. The three women share a bond so strong it seems even cancer can’t break it, so it’s heart-wrenching watching the severity of Marigold’s illness play out.

“I was interested in telling a story primarily about women and women who don’t have a lot of men in their lives and what that looks like,” Grindell said. The

play has only two male characters in it — Feener, who is Mazie’s English teacher and mentor, and Grant, Mazie’s friend and love interest. Matthew Martinez Hannon and Gregory Fields play Feener and Grant, respectively.

Carlos Murillo, the school’s head of playwriting, directed “Honey Girls.”

Although Murillo isn’t a woman, he is completely aware of the importance and the strength of female relationships play in “Honey Girl,” according to Grindell.

That deep understanding of both the playwriting process and the play’s central theme made it easy for Grindell to trust him completely in his direction of “Honey Girls.”

“Carlos is so wonderful,” she said. “He always runs things by me and checks in with me and makes sure that the play is following the vision I had for it.” The two have been in constant collaboration in every aspect of the play, allowing Grindell the opportunity to speak her mind and respecting her input.

The father of a teenage daughter, Murillo “has a really close understanding of what it would mean to be leaving his children if he was sick." While Grindell wrote the play with the perspective of having been a teenager who lost her mother to cancer, Murillo has the perspective of a parent who won’t be able to see every part of his children’s lives as time goes on. Murillo directs “Honey Girls” with that sensitivity and wisdom.

Having advised Grindell throughout the process of writing the play, he also knows the material very well and is aware of how Grindell’s own mother and the grief of losing her influenced the storyline of the play.

“Carlos said it really well,” Grindell said. “He told me it feels like an homage to my mother.”

Grindell never set out to write a play directly about her experience losing her mother to cancer. In fact, she was hesitant

to even write about the subject at all. “It still felt really, really close,” she said. “But I felt compelled to.” Channeling her grief into writing “Honey Girls” gave her a new understanding of what happened to her family. Though the story she wrote is different from her own experience, the same emotions shape the play. “It’s the feeling of her having cancer and the feeling of her dying,” Grindell said. “All of that is truthful and from my life, but I never sat down and tried to write a memory down.” Her plays, she thinks, will always be personally inspired Though the process of writing “Honey Girls” was hard, Grindell is glad she did it. The process, she said, has been very healing for her, as well as challenging.

“It’s hard to sit in that time that was so tumultuous and tragic when I was in the middle of anticipating that loss,” Grindell said. “It’s hard emotionally to always be back in that place, but I’m still in the grieving process, just in a different phase.”

Grindell wishes her mother could see the play, though she knows it would never have been written if she were still alive. Unlike Mazie, Grindell isn’t an only child. She has a sister, who writes about motherhood for Romper, a division of Bustle. It was actually her sister’s idea to name the play “Honey Girls” because “honey girl” was their mother’s pet name for Grindell.

“We both talk about how some of our best writing is about grief and our mom and we still want to share it with her,” Grindell said. “It feels like she can see it in some way.”

Grindell is so proud of everyone who has been involved with taking “Honey Girls” from the page to the stage. Having sat in on the casting process, Grindell was able to hand-pick the actors for each role. The six-person cast is a mixed bag of graduate and undergraduate students, who each bring vulnerability and grace to their roles, as well as moments of comedy and

light, offering a reprieve from the play’s serious subject matter without coming off as insensitive or unrealistic. “I trust them completely and their generosity is unbelievable,” Grindell said of the actors.

“I feel so, so lucky.”

The sets and costumes, as well as the lighting, gives the play a very authentic feel. “All the designers are doing amazing, amazing work,” Grindell said. “They’re willing to try anything, do anything and be on the journey of the play. It’s a really incredible group of people.”

The set is built to look like a family’s kitchen and living room. The walls are painted a sunny shade of honey-gold, perhaps a nod to the color of the flower with which Marigold shares her name or the play’s name. On the walls hang family photographs and art. A poster of Gloria Gaynor, whose song “I Will Survive” helps Marigold cope with cancer and the difficulties it brings, hangs on the wall not far from a painting that says, “Life is tough, but so are you,” a motto befitting for the three strong women at the center of the play.

Grindell hopes those who see the play will leave with a new feeling of connectedness. “I think everybody in some way has a relationship to cancer. If it hasn’t affected you personally, someone you know or love has been affected by it very closely,” Grindell said. “I hope that people will feel a moment of recognition and a moment of not feeling alone in that experience.”

On the heels of Mother’s Day, “Honey Girls” opens May 15 and runs until May 26 at the Healy Theatre in DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus. Audiences will leave reminded of the beautiful relationship mothers and children share.

“I’ve tried very hard to imbue in the play with the love I have for my mother and the love she had for me and the endurance of that love,” Grindell said. Anyone who sees “Honey Girls” will recognize that.

Arts & Life. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019 | 17

Do we need a Katy Perry comeback?

2011 2017 2019

IMAGES COURTESY OF IMDB, KATY PERRY/INSTAGRAM

Katy Perry over the span of her long career in the spotlight, beginning with her rise to fame in the early 2010s. A decade later, she's fighting her way back to that point.

After the commercial and critical failure of her last album, Perry has tried desperately to get her fans back. A haircut might have done the trick.

By Mackenzie Murtaugh News Editor

Katy Perry uploaded a simple photo to Instagram on April 19 displaying her new hairdo. The mirror selfie shows off her new medium-length, middle-parted blonde hair. Her stylist is fixing the flyaways behind her. At the moment, the photo sits at 2.6 million likes, which is speculated to be her most-liked upload.

All-in-all, it’s a mundane glamor shot to most people. But to her fans in stan culture, it was an image that shook what the public has crafted about Perry in the two years since her 2017 album “Witness” underperformed both commercially and critically.

Since the album came out, her fans berated her online for its lack of depth with songs like “Bon Appetite” featuring rap group Migos, which calls to a lover to devour her because she looks so delicious, and “Swish Swish,” a song featuring rap giant and fellow stan culture pop icon Nicki Minaj which uses basketball as a metaphor for fighting against bullies.

Perry described the album as “purposeful pop” and her most advocate-centric venture yet, but the album failed in both political context and danceable hits.

It was not just the low-quality pop that made fans walk away. When the promotion for the album began, Perry took on a new persona that left her Bettie Page bangs and long locks behind. Her blonde pixie cut debuted and fans reacted negatively. Her signature look was chopped off to distance herself from the sex icon that preceded the new, political Perry.

It’s clear that Perry is attempting to cover her tracks and please her critics after “Witness,” her first album to not

IMAGE COURTESY OF QVC

Perry now has an extensive deal with QVC, the 24-hour shopping network. feature a No. 1 hit. But she is still missing the mark — she began selling her shoe brand Katy Perry Collections on the QVC, the 24-hour commercial struggling in a time when everything can be bought online and without a telephone call.

These aren’t what her superfans, known

as stans, want from her, and they tend to do what they deem necessary to publicly shame a star who falls out of their norm.

It happens in every corner of pop culture — makeup artist and YouTube star James Charles lost over 2 million followers after fellow YouTuber Tati Westbrook posted

a video that exposed some of Charles’ shortcomings. Westbrook did not call for Charles’ downfall, but fans tend to react suddenly and ragefully when a scandal occurs. Although Perry created no real controversy (except trying to encompass all of the world’s issues into one tone-deaf album), she was canceled very similarly to Charles and other celebrities who operate on social media. She went against the image of sex she sold in the previous 10 years of her career, and fans were quick to turn their backs and turn Perry into a laughing stock in pop culture.

Perry wants a comeback and is willing to sacrifice her desire for advocacy and purpose to save her face and her album sales. Pop culture is currently in a turnaround of comebacks with Madonna’s “Medellin” calling back to her “La Isla Bonita” and “Turn Blue” era and Lady Gaga’s upcoming sixth album release after her triumph of an acting career. But Perry fans don’t know if they should stand with their previous on-thenose, neon girl-next-door or let her fizzle out. Her acceptance of a longer haircut brought much of them back on her side, but this fast resurgence displays issues in the stan culture community that seem impenetrable. Fans care about a star’s image more than what the star stands for, perhaps. If a star releases a good album and presents their image as contributing to the gendered image they’re accustomed to, sales will increase and their cultural capital will as well. Perry might be able to make her way back into the hearts of fans with her long, blonde hair and her upcoming album, but it will only help the toxicity of stan culture persist.

18 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019

Camp

The theme that means the most - or nothing at all IMAGE COURTESY CHARLES SYKES/INVISION/AP

Lady Gaga attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the "Camp: Notes on Fashion" exhibition on May 6 in NewYork. the technicolor films of

By Emma Oxnevad Maria Montez, many Asst. News Editor 1980s music videos and Many consider the annual Met Gala Jessie Spano's caffeineto be one of the most important events for pill storyline on “Saved fashion, with the Hollywood elite flaunting by the Bell” are all camp their wealth and status by way of what they to me, but again, your choose to wear. mileage may vary,” Every Met Gala has a theme to match Thimons said. “There is the exhibit being displayed at the museum also intentional camp, for the gala, with guests dressing in costume in which the creators try to match the theme of the evening. While to celebrate the frivolous last year’s “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and and artificial. This is the Catholic Imagination” proved fairly easier to identify: in this straightforward – with guests opting to add category you can put a fashionable flair to Catholic incornrapy things like the 1960s – this year’s “Camp: Notes on Fashion” Batman TV show, the proved more puzzling. films of John Waters, Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on much drag, Cher and “Camp” served as the basis for the evening’s the character of Alexis theme. In the essay, Sontag describes the Carrington on the 1980s core of camp as “its love of the unnatural: TV show “Dynasty,” of artifice and exaggeration.” played by Joan Collins.”

Sontag’s article just scratches the surface Some attendants of camp icons. Musicians like Prince, Cher, exemplified the theme Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj push the expertly, from Co-chair envelope with their bold fashion choices Lady Gaga’s four outfit and array of onstage personas. In addition changes to Billy Porter to musicians, drag queens like RuPaul, as being carried into the well as Dorian Corey, Pepper LaBeija and event by a blockade Venus Xtravaganza – the subjects of the of shirtless men like documentary “Paris is Burning” – are often Cleopatra. However, the thought of as pioneers of the aesthetic. theme was not carried Camp’s basis in unabashed over-the-top out as uniformly by aesthetics appeared to promise an evening guests when compared to IMAGE COURTESY OF CHARLES SYKES/INVISION/AP of bold fashion on a level unprecedented the previous Met Gala.

Harry Styles and Ezra Miller debut their drastically different camp outfits at the Met Gala on May 6. in Met Gala history. Despite the theme Thimons suggested journalism major with an interest in “I associate it most strongly with the precalling for tacky, shameless fashion choices, that an event as extravagant and exclusive fashion, felt that the Met Gala was primarily Stonewall gay community, but it has roots several guests arrived wearing black suits to the rich and famous as the Met Gala a success, appreciating the more subtle that go back centuries.

For example, Susan and evening gowns, looking more well- was not well-suited for a theme like camp, incorporations of camp into the evening.

Sontag, the most famous theorist of camp, suited for the Academy Awards than an which is meant to live on the outside of “I think for most Met Galas, people places its origin in the 18th century.” evening dedicated to bad taste. what is traditionally considered fashionable don’t get the theme, but I think it was While the jury may be out on the Harry Styles, who served as a co-chair or acceptable. a lot better this year.

I think that’s also true meaning of camp and the acceptable for this year’s Met Gala, was recently deemed “...Camp is also a way to build because the whole idea of camp centers way of expressing it, Bashara affirms the the “king of camp” by Vogue. Despite his community on the margins of mainstream around aesthetics and the vibe and just movement’s importance to the LGBTQ+ penchant for bell-bottomed suits straight society – and so it is a sensibility closely out of Austin Powers’ wardrobe, Styles associated with queer consumers of being extravagant,” Shah said. “It doesn’t community and its ultimate power.

“I view camp as a gay, or at least opted instead for a sheer black jumpsuit popular culture-which makes it inherently have to be big to be campy, and I think a lot of people watching the Gala don’t get gay-adjacent, subculture phenomenon; and slight heeled shoe, a relatively muted political, even though Sontag describes it that so they think everyone did a bad job. historically, it’s some gay people’s refusal look for a campy event. as apolitical,” Thimons said. “Because the So I feel like even if someone didn’t know to take seriously the norms of a society Alex Thimons, an adjunct professor of Met Gala is the opposite of ‘on the margins,’ what camp was they could probably pass as that would rather they were not there,” media and cinema studies, described two this political thrust of camp was necessarily campy if they just did something slightly Bashara said.

“That’s the end goal of different fields of camp: intentional and lessened. This is not to deny the politics extra and not what they usually wear. ” camp: to exaggerate and to drive style and unintentional. Unintentional camp is an of seeing queer people of color like Billy Dan Bashara, an adjunct professor of mannerism over the top, not to be silly, instance in which a creator attempts to be Porter and Janelle Monae in this setting, media and cinema studies, argued that but to unmask everything—especially serious and fails. but it is not marginal.” there is no true definition of camp, and gender—as a performance, to take what “Now, it's not really a good idea to Despite its roots in the extravagant society accepts as natural and to reveal it assume a creator's intentions, but having and tacky, some believe that camp can be even its origins are open-ended.

“There’s no agreement on what camp as simply playing a role. Camp just plays its said that, some 1930s MGM musicals, encompassed in a more traditional way. even is, and how you define it determines roles more fabulously.” "social problem" films like Reefer Madness, DePaul sophomore Yusra Shah, a when you think it began,” Bashara said.

Nicking bent coppers

Arts & Life. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019 | 19

IMAGE COURTESY OF IMDB

Martin Compston, Adrian Dunbar and Vicky McClure in the wildly popular BBC cop drama "Line of Duty." The fifth season is available for American viewers on May 13.

The British drama's fifth season is thrilling window into police corruption

By Brian Pearlman Nation & World Editor

Are police officers secretly engaging in complicity with organized crime?

In “Line of Duty,” you can bet they are.

And in the unnamed U.K. city where the show is set, it’s up to Anticorruption Unit 12 to bring in the “bent coppers” who are committing criminal acts while betraying the public they’ve sworn to protect.

What started out as a sleeper hit in 2012 has now grown into the UK’s mostwatched drama series, bolstered in part by the British Broadcasting Corporation’s decision to move it from BBC Two to its flagship BBC One channel upon the show’s fourth-season premiere in 2017. The newest season, along with all previous episodes, premieres in the U.S. on streaming service Acorn TV on Monday, May 13.

The show is known for its rich, complex plots, which chart the main cast’s investigation into one central, allegedly corrupt police officer over the course of five or six episodes; its unique lexicon, filled with acronyms like OCG (“organized crime group”), UCO (“undercover officer”) and SIO (“senior investigating officer”); and a consistent slate of fantastic guest performers — usually playing the cop being investigated — from “Westworld’s” Thandie Newton to “The Walking Dead’s” Lennie James and Keeley Hawes of “The Durrells.”

This season the central figure is Stephen Graham’s Detective Superintendent John Corbett, a fiery undercover police officer with a Scouse accent who at first appears to be the calculating gang leader of an organized criminal group; his number two is Lisa McQueen — (a standout performance by the previously littleknown Rochenda Sandoval. It’s AC-12’s job to investigate whether he’s become more criminal than cop; he hasn’t been in contact with his Covert Operations Manager in months, and his recent activities include raiding a number of police convoys and evidence depots for cash, drugs and guns.

Is there a mole within the force feeding him intel?

As the central duo of DS Steve Arnott (former footballer Martin Compston) and DI Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) look into Corbett’s background and activities, they also have to grapple with whether or not their boss, Superintendent Ted Hastings — the show’s breakout character, played ferociously by Northern Irish actor Adrian Dunbar — is bent himself.

Previous seasons have established a shadowy conspiracy in the upper echelons of the police force, with whispers of a mysterious puppetmaster going by the codename “H.” Is it Hastings, known from previous seasons to be a strict, ruleabiding disciplinarian?

“I don’t care whether it’s one rotten apple or the whole bloody barrel,” he bellows at police lawyer Gill Biggeloe (Polly Walker) in season three. “There’s a line: It’s called ‘right and wrong,’ and I know what side my duty lies.” She’s back in season five, at times defending Hastings from suspicion and at times seeming to torment him.

As events reach a fever pitch in the Corbett investigation, a criminal probe is also launched into Hastings’s own conduct. As fans of the show know, a policeman apparently has the right to be questioned by an officer who is at least one rank superior — a role fulfilled in a powerful performance by Anna Maxwell Martin, portraying the supremely confident DCS Carmichael in the final two episodes.

While the show loses a bit of steam by plot’s end, leaving a number of unanswered questions for a sixth season, season five is still an action-packed, narratively rich thriller from start to finish. From nailbiting cop-versus-cop interview scenes — which blow any dimly lit interrogation in an American cop show out of the water — to cinema-quality heist sequences, to revealing conversations and gun-drawn standoffs, Line of Duty remains a show

that trims away all the fat and gets right to the good stuff.

It’s the best police procedural on television.

20| Arts & Life. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019

'Long Day's Journey Into Night' takes noir to new heights

By Michael Brzezinski Staff Writer

Up-and-coming Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan exploded onto the international film scene in 2015 with his soulful and poetic debut feature “Kaili Blues.” The film made waves with its world premiere at the Locarno International Film Festival, where it won Best First Feature, and Gan went on to win the special prize of Best Emerging Filmmaker. While not a breakout hit of any sorts in the States, Gan solidified a decent enough following to warrant him to comeback swinging for the fences with the ambitious and awe-inspiring followup “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”

Similarly to “Kaili Blues,” “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” proved to be a wildly successful film at the international festival circuits. It held its world premiere at the 71st Cannes Film Festival last year, where it received universal praise for its clearly inspired plot beats and stylistic expressions —including a subtle yet breathtaking 59-minute-long tracking shot in 3D. However, the film didn’t necessarily gain a status in the world until it premiered on New Year’s Eve 2018 in China. Before its release, the film’s distributor marketed the film as a grand romantic epic that will prove to be the perfect way for film fans and lovers to end the year with. The thing is is that “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” is not a commercial romantic epic; it’s a melancholic surrealist art film noir.

Once people discovered this fact in the theater, they flooded the film’s page on the Chinese ticket service Maoyan with horrific reviews — and a 2.8 out of 10 score.

In one week the film grossed a staggering $42 million and then it

vanished from theaters immediately. It’s a sly trick for the distributor to play on their audience, but luckily it gave the film enough agency for it to play in the States courtesy of specialty distributor Kino Lorber in its proper 3D big screen format. Unlike “Kaili Blues,” this has gained traction with a domestic box office cume of over a quarter of a million dollars in less than a month, a pretty impressive figure for a niche experimental foreign release.

So now that the film’s journey has carved its path to the Windy City, the only question IMAGE COURTESY OF IMDB remains is is it worth Wei Tang and Yongzhong Chen in "Long Day's Journey into Night." going out to see and in this writer’s humble opinion, it definitely is. audiences is not all that surprising. Gan magnetism to it that seeps its way into The story of “Long Day’s Journey has made a film that requires a very the psyche of the viewer long after the Into Night” is a tad hard to pin down in peculiar wavelength and sense of patience credits have rolled. It’s very meta in a a straightforward review, but its pure to tap into. But one thing that really cannot sense. Gan makes the point that while our essence can be easily summed up as be refuted is Gan’s insane mastery over his romanticism of nostalgia and the past is “Double Indemnity” by way of Wong Kar- craft. Not a single person in the world has wholly irretrievable, it will forever remain Wai and Andrei Tarkovsky. It’s a subtle, written about this film without gushing unshakable deep within us. slightly abstract and deeply thoughtful over the second half that is made up There’s a strong possibility that “Long meditation on the connection between entirely of a 3D tracking shot paired with Day’s Journey Into Night” might not be past traumas and emotional artistic an stunning Dolby Atmos soundscape. It’s a film for you, but on the off chance it projections. The entire narrative is built a breathtaking and arresting feat that I still is, I believe it is worth taking the deeparound sly clues about our protagonist’s find myself in shock thinking about. dive into the sheer audacity of Bi Gan’s life that are dropped throughout the film, Much like Tarkovsky, Gan finds vision. It’s a singular and purley theatrical making it even more rewarding upon the beauty and reward in the patience experience that will not be replicated in rewatch. of storytelling. There’s a seductive its bizarre cultural impact and cinematic The film’s reception by Chinese achievement.

Spring Awakening: New location, lineup

IMAGE COURTESY OF SPRING AWAKENING MUSIC FESTIVAL / INSTAGRAM

This year's Spring Awakening Music Festival is set to kick off June 7.

By Ashley Sanchez Contributing Writer

With over 90 artists set to perform across five stages including DJ Snake, Martin Garrix, Illenium, Zedd and many more, the largest electronic music festival in the Midwest returns with a bang. Spring Awakening Music Festival is set to rock the Hoffman Estates suburb at the end of spring, moving from their previous Chicago location.

The festival has moved to the Poplar Creek venue in Hoffman Estates, an outdoor park three times the size of the festival’s previous Addams/Medill Park location. Without the convenience of

the city’s short-term rental options or numerous hotels, it was a worry in the back of the minds of the festival attendees, though the festival’s website offers concertgoers accommodation and transit options that include discounted hotel deals and a shuttle from the train station to the grounds each day.

There is no doubt that this festival will only become bigger and better as the years go on, and this year is not one to miss.

The full lineup is now finalized and can be found at the Spring Awakening Music Festival website, and ticket options are available in 3-Day or 1-Day General Admission (18+) and VIP (21+) packages.

★★★

A PLAY FOLLOWED BY A CONCERT

NOT A F★★★ING MUSICAL

★★★

WRITTEN BY JOHN ROSS BOWIE OF THE BIG BANG THEORY

* This play is not endorsed by Phil Spector or the Ramones. It is a fictionalized account inspired by a true-life event. Parental Advisory: Strong Language

Arts & Life. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019 | 21

The 1975 make waves with return to Midwest

IMAGE COURTESY OF THE 1975 / FACEBOOK

The 1975's guitarist Adam Hann on stage during their show in Milwaukee on May 10. This marks the band's first show in the Midwest in nearly three years.

By Cailey Gleeson Staff Writer

Contrary to popular belief, every city isn’t a band’s favorite stop on tour — or at least in The 1975’s case.

But frontman Matty Healy says the “worst hangover of his life” happened in Chicago, so that counts for something, right?

As a part of their “A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships” tour, the Manchesterbased group made their long-awaited return to Chicago at the United Center on Wednesday, May 8, and Milwaukee’s The Rave/Eagles Club on Friday. Solely in the interest of investigative reporting, the DePaulia attended both shows? to see how they stacked up.

The group was joined by close collaborators No Rome and Pale Waves, two acts under their Dirty Hit Label.

No Rome, a relatively new Londonbased Filipino musician, took the stage in both cities first. Despite his brief career, Rome has established quite the name for himself with his chillwave tunes. “Do It Again” started the show but songs from his newest EP “Crying in the Prettiest Places,” including “Cashmoney” and “Pink,” dominated the set.

Next up was Pale Waves, a group also based in London, with a similar sound to The 1975. Beginning with “Television Romance,” red lights pulsated throughout the arena as the grunge-pop group played hit after hit. “The Tide” and “There’s a Honey” tied for best song of the set — in both cities.

After Pale Waves’ set ended, “The Man Who Married A Robot” instrumental played, gradually getting louder throughout the venues as crews prepared for The 1975 to take the stage.

At its loudest point, the lights suddenly began flickering with the venue soon completely blacking out as the newest rendition of “The 1975” began playing.

The giant screen — replacing the iconic rectangles — displayed the lyrics in case anyone forgot amid their tears and/or screams of anticipation.

One by one the band took their places with screams from the audience getting louder. Healy took center stage as “Give Yourself A Try” started off the set with a bang. “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME” followed and only upped the enthusiasm, especially because of Healy’s groovy dance

The 1975 performing at Chicago's United Center on May 8. moves. “She’s American” filled the venue with nostalgia, a feeling that would only be intensified by later tunes.

Healy put on his newly iconic rabbitear hat as the onstage treadmill activated itself (yes, you read that right) for “Sincerity is Scary.” The screen behind the stage transformed into the setting from the song’s music video.

“You’re lucky we just keep getting better,” Healy exclaimed as he began running in place with the group’s dancers — while simultaneously playing guitar for “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You).”

Lighting a cigarette and gently grasping a glass of wine, Healy slowed down the high intensity with “A Change of Heart.”

The tranquility was fleeting, however; his demeanor — and dance moves—once again became erratic for “Love Me,” which mocks the ridiculous, drug-fueled expected lifestyle of rock stars.

“Loving Someone,” a moving anthem for members of the LGBTQ+ community, followed as Healy expressed the groups’ support for everyone within the community. To exemplify this, “I Couldn’t Be More in Love” was right after. No Rome once again took the stage to join the group for “Narcissist.”

The trifecta of “Robbers,” “Fallingforyou,” and “You” followed, with each band member putting their entire heart and souls into delivering the most nostalgic renditions possible. Whether it be personal connections to lyrics or just the feeling that emanated around the venue, some fans were visibly crying as they sang

along, which only exemplifies just how moving these songs are.

Unlike other shows, Healy decided to play “Medicine.” “I Like America and America Likes Me” perfectly juxtaposed the romantic vibe of its predecessor. The high-intensity track hits different live as Healy screams the lyrics just as passionately as he does in its recorded counterpart.

“Somebody Else” and “I Always Wanna Die Sometimes” were equally amazing in their own ways, but what truly stole the show was “Love It If We Made It.” Visuals depicting the volatile aspects of modernity described in the lyrics clashed with colorful flashes of light while fans screamed along with Healy. His passion in this song was unmatched, so much so that he fell while performing and continued to sing his heart out while on the ground. Once he recovered, he once again joined the backup dancers for a routine that complemented the songs’ hopeful sounding-end.

The nostalgia for longtime fans and the band alike was at an all-time high with their breakout songs “Chocolate” and “Sex.” “The Sound” closed out the set and I left with the impression that it was the best show I’ve ever attended, but then Milwaukee happened. This show had a completely different vibe, but in the best way possible.

Ditching the 23,500-capacity arena for the 3,500-capacity Eagles Ballroom, the show featured less extravagant visuals and was much more intimate — reflecting the group’s earlier days. No Rome and Pale Waves once again gave incredible sets,

IMAGE COURTESY OF JORDAN HUGHES

but The 1975 delivered an unforgettable performance.

Donning a fur hat, Healy rushed the stage as “Give Yourself A Try” once again began their set. His hyper stage presence was only emphasized during this performance as he jumped from amp to amp to be as close to the crowd as possible.

Unfortunately, the smaller sized stage did not allow for the “Sincerity is Scary” treadmill, but Healy did not let it deter him as he danced around.

The “Robbers,” “Fallingforyou” and “You” trifecta became a quadfecta as “If I Believe You” was unexpectedly thrown into the mix — to the delight of fans.

Perhaps it’s because of my history of attending this band’s shows, but “Sex” was the best song of the night. The pit seemed to move as a whole as strobe lights illuminated the arena throughout the song’s iconic guitar solos. “Love It If We Made It” was a close second, with Healy taking a knee in protest of the social injustices addressed in the song to close it out.

It may have taken three years, but the group made a beyond triumphant return in this run of shows in the Midwest. Oddly enough, it felt as if no time had passed at all. With the fourth album in the works as they finish up touring, the only question is how they will top these shows in their next run.

The trope of equating shows with spiritual experiences is overused, but there’s just no better way to describe a show from The 1975.

22 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019

Arts & Life. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019 | 23

what’s FRESH on Netflix

Dead to Me

Wine Country

Christina Applegate stars in Netflix’s newest dark comedy as Jen, a woman dealing with grief after her husband is killed suddenly in a hit-and-run. As she attends a grief support group she meets Judy (Linda Cardellini) and the two become unlikely friends considering their opposite personalities and perspectives on loss.

“Wine Country” is the film that would be made if you asked me what an ideal ensemble comedy would look like. It’d feature the majority of the women who made “Saturday Night Live” great and would take place in a landscape composed almost entirely of lush greenery. In short, “Wine Country” is my Met Gala as the 40th anniversary special of SNL was my Super Bowl.

“Dead to Me” thrives on the back of the chemistry between its stars and the comedy and intrigue follow naturally. While dissecting the complexities of death and grief are not new to television, “Dead to Me” takes a unique approach.

Eventually, a dark secret begins to reveal itself, taking the show to completely unexpected places and further relying on the stars to maintain the comedic tone among the heavier subject matter. Luckily, they placed their bets on Applegate and other television veterans to do what they do best.

LACEY LATCH | THE DEPAULIA

The film marks Amy Poehler’s feature directorial debut and brings together Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer, Emily Spivey, Paula Pell and Tina Fey — all veterans of the SNL writer’s room. As they celebrate the 50th birthday of Dratch’s Rebecca, they also must grapple with tensions from the past coming to the service.

Never has a major studio delivered an honest depiction of what it means to be a middle aged woman in America today. Luckily, Poehler and the gang were able to fix that and do it in an endlessly entertaining and funny way.

LACEY LATCH | THE DEPAULIA

In theaters & upcoming films May 3 “The Long Shot" A journalist strikes up an unlikely relationship with the Secretary of State who was once his childhood babysitter.

Stars: Charlize Theron, Seth Rogan

May 17 “John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum" Hitman John Wick is on the run after killing a member of an international assasins guild.

Stars: Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry

May 10 “Pokemon Detective Pikachu" A boy discovers a pokemon who longs to be a detective in a world wherein pokemon are collected for battle.

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith

May 17 “The Sun is Also a Star" Two teens fall in love as they both deal with the looming deportation of the girl's family.

Stars: Yara Shahidi, Charles Melton

May 10 “The Hustle” Two very different con artists team up to take down the men who have wronged them in the past.

Stars: Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson

May 24 “Aladdin” A live-action remake of the classic tale of a boy searching for fortune, crossing paths with a genie along the way.w Stars: Naomi Scott, Will Smith, Billy Magnussen

24 | Arts &Life. The DePaulia. May 13, 2019

St.Vincent’s

D e JAMZ “Spinning fresh beats since 1581”

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Explore Reckless Records for these DeJamz and more

By Lacey Latch Arts & Life Editor

There’s arguably nowhere better to be than comfortably in the middle ground, regardless of the context. In the musical sense, as I combat the dueling desires for sleep and spring weather festivities, I want some music to match my mood. Something not too slow but not too fast. As Goldilocks would say, something “just right.” As such, this week I compiled four songs that reside in this middleground — perfect for really any occasion.

1.

“Vagabond" MisterWives Admittedly, the only reason I ever discovered Misterwives is from MTV when “Vagabond” served as the opening theme for their short-lived drama “Finding Carter.” Luckily it survived just long enough to introduce me to this alternative band from New York City. Nearly all of their songs are packed with infectious beats and endlessly catchy lyrics and “Vagabond” is no different.

Still, it encompasses what they’re able to do so well — alternate between tempos expertly within the confines of a single track.

As such, “Vagabond” is at once relaxing and energizing.

2. “Moment 4 Life" – Nicki Minaj This is early Nicki at her finest — demonstrating her skills as a rapper and as a songwriter, supported with a brief feature from Drake. The entirety of the song plays over a peaceful piano tune fit for a fairy tale, which allows it to blend into a category typically out of reach for Minaj — something that works as a hip-hop and pop. It’s perhaps her strongest hit to date, standing in stark contrast to her usual style that is packed with energy and intensity. If you’re in the mood for Nicki but need something a bit more subdued, look no further than “Moment 4 Life.”

3. “Skinny Love" – Birdy This cover of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love” has remained in my YouTube history for many years for a reason. This cover served as the career breakthrough for British artist Birdy when she was just 14 years old. Since then, she has continued to make music, but this cover always stands out. In addition to the vocalist’s incredible voice, the piano underneath packs a punch — adding an interesting level to a well-known song. In summary, “Skinny Love” is the perfect song to put on to stare longingly out of a rainy window. And who doesn’t love that?

4. “LOVE” - Kendrick Lamar (feat. Zacari) Sure, Kendrick Lamar might be the greatest hip-hop artist making music today, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to work within the restrictions of tradition. In “LOVE,” Zacari lends his voice to the singsongy hook that weaves the song together, interspersed with brilliantly written verses from Lamar. The song is the perfect break in his 2017 album, “DAMN” and excels as a stand alone love song in the years since.

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ACROSS 1. One of the five W's 4. A little lower?

8. Container allowance 12. Jingle 13. Baby bassoon?

14. State with assurance 15. Clock std.

16. Item for a window shopper 17. Commend 18. Cause of many errors 20. Lucky strikes 21. Shuttle site 23. ___ Island, NY 25. Anesthetized 27. Appetite 28. Hardly Mr. Right 31. Tea shop treats 33. Grand tour setting 35. Witch's specialty 36. 50 Cent piece 38. Traffic stopper

39. Clear as a bell 41. Artful or alluring 42. Full to the hatches 45. Bridge authority 47. Checkup, for short 48. Waiter's offering 49. Andiron residue 52. Countertenor 53. Princes, e.g.

54. French way 55. "Giant" star 56. Punkie 57. Archery wood DOWN 1. Jokester 2. Not her 3. Ultraconservative 4. Reality TV program 5. Lessen in intensity 6. Missing people 7. Agent's cut 8. Fiesta fare

9. All fired up 10. Habit 11. Lady bighorns 19. "Absolutely!"

20. "Peanuts" character 21.

Abounding in foliage 22. Auctioneer word 24. Filmmaker Spike 26. Encore showing 28. Kind of artery 29. Pinnacle 30. Say it ain't so 32. Midwest Indian 34. In abundance 37. Easy mark 39. Bar twist 40. Fashion's Karan 42. Pewter component 43. Auto shaft 44. Analyst's need 46. Iron deficiency?

48. "No ___" 50. Go a-courting?

51. Fell in the forest

Sports

Sports. May 13, 2019. The DePaulia | 25

Never-quit mentality inspires comeback for Blue Demons

By Lawrence Kreymer Sports Editor

It takes something special to knock off a defending champion, especially one that is trying to three-peat, and Villanova had something special brewing through the first five innings.

Through the first five innings Villanova was dominating DePaul, the Wildcats had an 9-3 lead, 9-6 hit advantage and had the opportunity to add even more runs as they left eight players stranded on base, but even with them failing to add to their lead they were only six outs away from winning the Big East Tournament title.

Then the bottom of the sixth inning happened.

After freshman Taylor Young struck out to begin the inning, the Blue Demons were down to their final five outs to stage a miracle comeback. The magic began with an RBI double from junior Erin Andris and another RBI double from junior Jessica Cothern, who had four hits on the day.

Even with those two runs Villanova was still in the driver's seat, as they needed just one out to get out of the inning and still had a comfortable 9-5 lead. But then senior Morgan Greenwood stepped up to the plate.

With two players already on base, two outs and a 2-0 count, Greenwood hit a rocket over the fence for a three-run home run, cutting the Wildcats lead to just one run. That special start that Villanova got off to and their commanding six-run lead was evaporated.

All the momentum and confidence that Villanova built through the first five innings was shifted to the Blue Demon dugout.

“When I came up to bat, I looked at the scoreboard and was like wow, one swing could put us just one run away,” Greenwood said. “I was thinking just to pass the bat to my teammates and find a way to just get on base, I was just so excited and it’s amazing to energize your team and find a way to get back and get this win.”

With all the momentum and confidence now on DePaul’s side, freshman Gabby O’Riley drilled a single into the outfield, driving in the tying run. With another two

STEVE WOLTMANN | BIG EAST

The DePaul softball team holds the trophy up after defeating Villanova 11-10 in the Big East Tournament title game on Saturday. runners on base and two outs, senior Brianna Viles came up to bat and drove in two runs to give the Blue Demons an 11-9 advantage.

“Honestly, I think this tops it off being my senior year and being able to help my team contribute like that, that meant a lot,” Viles said after the game on what it meant to drive in the game winning run.

Eventually the Wildcats were able to get out of the inning, but the damage was already done by the Blue Demons. DePaul scored eight runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and now was standing three outs from being crowned Big East Tournament champions for the third season in a row.

With three outs standing between the Blue Demons and another Big East Tournament title, Villanova kept fighting till the very end as they hit a home run to cut the Blue Demons to lead one. But after junior pitcher Natalie Halvorson came into pitch

for junior Krista Dalgarn in the fifth inning, who gave up seven runs in the game, Dalgarn came back into the game and got the final two outs to give DePaul the 11-10 victory.

Halvorson got the win, however, and was named the Most Outstanding Player in the tournament after she pitched a four-hit shutout against Providence in the semifinals on Friday and getting the win in the championship game on Saturday.

“It feels awesome that we can keep the tradition here at DePaul and be the threetime reigning Big East champs,” Halvorson said. “This is definitely a bigger stage than what I have been on before, it is not just me today, those wins are everyone; Krista [Dalgarn] closed the game today, she did great, the hitters hit, so the credit is to them.”

Under first-year head coach Tracie AdixZins, the Blue Demons had a lot that could of gone wrong this season and almost did

LEITAO, continued from back page grow and room to get better,” Lenti Ponsetto said. “It was a really good foundation laid this year for the team moving forward next year.

The progress that she is talking about is still minimal compared to where the team should be in year four since Leitao took control of the program again. Even with a winning record, improved conference record and being one game away from winning the CBI, the Blue Demons still did something they have been accustomed to doing, finishing last place in the Big East.

Since the Big East realigned in 2013 to only 10 teams, the Blue Demons have finished in last place three times; since DePaul joined the conference in 2005, the Blue Demons have finished in last place nine times in 14 seasons.

The “progress” that Lenti Ponsetto is so proud of was still met with an embarrassing last place finish in the conference and getting routed by a mediocre St. John’s team in the first round of the Big East Tournament.

The more embarrassing part of this conference season for the Blue Demons was that they went to the final day in the season with a chance to secure a firstround bye in the Big East Tournament, and maybe even more importantly, finish sixth in the conference, but squandered the

ALEXA SANDLER | THE DEPAULIA

DePaul head coach Dave Leitao paces the sidelines during the Blue Demons game against Georgetown on March 6 in Wintrust Arena. opportunity.

Instead Leitao and his players wilted beneath the pressure, losing to Creighton 91-78 and allowing Bluejays guard Mitch Ballock to explode for 39 points on 12-for14 shooting and 11-for-12 from the 3-point line. Their hopes and dreams of finishing sixth and making the NIT Tournament dissipated into the night’s air.

The Blue Demons, once again, were left behind by their conference counterparts in postseason play, as the other nine

teams made either the NCAA or NIT Tournament, DePaul was left having to pay to get into the CBI. “I don’t think it’s a coaching problem and I don’t think it’s a talent problem, I think it’s a depth problem,” Lenti Ponsetto said last week.

Instead of properly evaluating Leitao by the performances on the court, Lenti Ponsetto chose to make more excuses for her coach on why he can’t find ways to win more games in the conference.

go wrong in the end. With only two pitchers on the roster this season, an injury to one of them could have spelled serious trouble for DePaul. Having only four seniors on the roster and a bunch of new players being added to the mix, plus having a new coaching staff, building that chemistry and being on the same page was another obstacle the team had to overcome.

“It’s a lot, it’s very overwhelming,” AdixZins said. “I think it just shows a lot of how hard [the team] worked. The time we put in over the fall, over the winter and through the spring, it’s a testament to the what we’ve done.”

For DePaul, they now turn to getting ready for the NCAA Tournament and preparing to make another deep run in the tournament.

Lenti Ponsetto should have focused that her program once again struggled to defend as DePaul finished 223rd in the nation last season in adjusted defensive efficiency per KenPom.com and surrendered 76.4 points per game, which was second-worst in the Big East. Leitao, who is supposed to be known for his defensive prowess, has failed to crack the top 100 in adjusted defensive efficiency three out of the four seasons.

"Playing defense is the most controllable asset in sports,” Leito said when he got hired in 2015. “You don't need to jump out of a gym, shoot three-pointers or be super athletic to play defense. It's a mindset, and you can bring it every single night. That's why I love defense.”

Everything that Lenti Ponsetto and Leitao talked about in 2015 has proven to be false. The program is not winning, which Lenti Ponsetto expressed back in 2015 as a goal for the team, and in a league filled with a bunch of men DePaul is the little boy that constantly gets pushed over.

If Leitao can’t deliver next season, with four four-star recruits coming in, a top 30 recruiting class and having Gage, Paul Reed and Jaylen Butz back, Lenti Ponsetto should fire him. Another disappointing season that is filled with minimal or no improvement in the conference, should spell the end for Leitao and his time at DePaul.

26 | Sports. May 13, 2019. The DePaulia

Overcoming adversity leads to success for Dahlman

By Noah Festenstein Contributing Writer

Plagued with injuries through most of her college career; Rebekah Dahlman of DePaul women’s basketball conquered what her doctor thought impossible. Transferring during her senior year from Vanderbilt, Dahlman faced obstacles, and at the end persevered through the DePaul basketball program.

Leading her high school team to multiple class 2-A state championship appearances — winning the title sophomore year — Dahlman achieved many accolades in high school. Being the first player from Minnesota to score over 5,000 career points (5,060). She also became a McDonald’s All-American, and got ranked 16th overall nationally and fourth as a guard by ESPN’s HoopGurlz propelling her to receive a five star rating and an impressive grade of 96.

Then, Dahlman committed to playing basketball and majoring in sociology at Vanderbilt.

“I loved it, loved the atmosphere and loved the coach," she said. "My first season started out phenomenally and then it became Thanksgiving time.”

Dahlman reflects on the day her college basketball career changed.

“I was air balling free-throws, then I couldn’t feel my arm and when I pulled up my armband it was all black and blue," Dahlman said. "I couldn’t even move my arm.

My trainer sent me to the emergency room, and I’ll never forget the doctor saying; 'you probably won’t be able to play basketball for the rest of your life.' I was put into surgery right away because the blood clot was moving from my shoulder toward my heart. At the end of it all there were about six surgeries and I was not playing until I was cleared the beginning of sophomore year.”

Going into her sophomore year at Vanderbilt, Dahlman was relieved, but surprised that she was able to play again.

However, Dahlman once again endured tragedy.

“Sophomore year was a struggle just getting back into the flow of things with basketball," Dahlman said. "But then my boyfriend passed away, and that was mentally tragic. I was sitting out for a while with injuries at Vanderbilt, and I just had a lot of adversity through my college career as a student and player and decided to look at the bigger picture.”

She understood that things needed to change and for that to happen a decision needed to be made. That decision was to transfer and play basketball for DePaul and pursue a degree in marketing.

“I decided to transfer after the first person who called me, Coach Bruno, getting off the phone that’s when I knew this is who I wanted to play for,” Dahlman said. “He made me believe in myself again, and he believed in me. Even though he tried to recruit me in high school, I wanted to take this opportunity.”

Doug Bruno, who has spent 34 years as head coach of the women’s basketball team, saw something unique in Dahlman.

“I think she is one of the most special human beings I have ever coached,” Bruno said. “From a basketball perspective, this is just a really talented young woman that really brings that energy and ability to score. There is contagiousness the way Rebekah plays, and a mojo to her that’s contagious.”

Teammates have benefitted from Dahlman’s contagiousness, most notably sophomore basketball player, Dee Bekelja.

"When I first got here she was one of the first one’s I met, and then we became roommates this year and got really close” Bekelja said. “Every time she comes into the room she has this sort of energy that makes people happy and laugh.”

Approaching her first year as a Blue Demon, Dahlman was mentally prepared to

ALEXA SANDLER | THE DEPAULIA

DePaul senior guard Rebekah Dahlman celebrates in confetti after winning the Big East Tournament on March 12 in Wintrust Arena. start anew. Yet, more adversity struck. In the first game of the DePaul 2017-18 season, she fell on her hand and fractured two bones.

“That was tough,” Dahlman said. “That’s not how I wanted to start off the season and didn’t know if I would get another chance to recover or have another year to play.”

Dahlman's role wasn't just helping the team win games, but also keep the team morale up.

“Something that I look up to her about, is to always be happy for your teammates,” Bekelja said. “If Rebekah is having a bad game or not playing a lot she will still be on the bench cheering for everybody. She will hype everyone up and tell them how they are doing. Even if she was having a good game it would still be the same.”

Dahlman values various things about her time at DePaul. For the brief experience she has had here, the values and lessons learned will be forever ingrained.

“This has not just prepared me in my college career, but for my entire future,” Dahlman said. “This experience has prepared me to evolve and become a stronger leader.

Just a better person overall. I know I can overcome anything because i’ve been through it all with losses of best friends, adversity with injuries, and the very tough process of transferring.”

Yet the most important thing that she values is being a part of a team..

“These girls that I’m around every single day, they are like my sisters,” Dahlman said.

“As much as they look up to me, I look up to them. They bring so much for me, and without them I don’t know where I would be.

Especially for Coach Bruno, not many people can say they played for a legend. It’s not just what is on the court, it is a lot about what is off the court. I’m so thankful to have played for this program because I took so much from it not just as a player but as a person.”

Dahlman has proven an illustrious college career and hopes that her story influences others to fight through adversity.

“I didn’t want to make the wrong decision, but at the same time I didn’t want to look back and regret transferring,” Dahlman said. “It was a scary process and I’m glad it turned out, as did everything turn out coming here to DePaul."

Sports. May 13, 2019 The DePaulia | 27 TITLE, continued from back page “Honestly, it was hard to come back from that. We were down by a lot, we’ve done it so many times so we all had a lot of confidence in our team that we could do it so it was so exciting to see us pull it off this time,” Viles said.

Viles spoke on how this is probably the greatest moment of her career and one that she will cherish forever. Viles, who is a senior, has been apart of two other Big East Tournament championships and was able to contribute by driving in the game winning run.

“I think this tops it off, being able to help my team and contribute like that meant a lot,” Viles said.

Even in victory, Villanova put up a tough test for the Blue Demons and made sure to push them to the brink. The Wildcats came in with the utmost confidence after beating DePaul 10-2 last weekend and defeating No. 1 seed St John’s 6-4 in the semifinal of the tournament on Friday.

Sophomore pitcher Natalie Halvorson came into pitch for DePaul after junior pitcher Krista Dalgarn struggled for most of the game, but Dalgarn came back in the seventh inning to close out the game.

Dalgarn and her DePaul team struggled early on, going down 2-0 to Villanova in the first inning and had trouble stopping the Wildcats offense for the first five innings.

Dalgarn gave up seven runs through five innings, and was taken out for Halvorson in the fifth inning.

In the bottom of the first inning, Jessica Cothern was able to reach on a double to left field and Greenwood made it to first safely on a slow infield dribbler that went to the shortstop. But the Blue Demons were

unable to put any runs on the board.

In the top of the third, Hanna was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a groundout, adding another run for the Wildcats. But Villanova let another possible run slip away, which was starting to become a trend in this game.

In the bottom of the third inning, DePaul was able to tie the game at three with a two-run home run from Madison Fisher and an RBI single from O’Riley.

Villanova, however, responded in the fourth inning and they managed to take back their lead with a two-run home run.

Another two runs were scored for the Wildcats in the fifth and sixth inning, taking their lead up to 9-3. But Villanova let another player stranded on base, costing them an all important run.

After Villanova seemingly did enough to win the game, the Blue Demons dashed the Wildcats hopes with an eight run inning. The Wildcats got one run back in the seventh inning, but couldn’t muster up a second run to tie the game.

Adix-Zins spoke about the legacy of the softball program at DePaul and what she has experienced as a player and now a coach and that the feeling does not sink STEVE WOLTMANN | BIG EAST in right away after playing in and winning Four DePaul softball players pose for a picture together holding the trophy after the such an exhilarating game.

Blue Demons defeated Villanova 11-10 in the Big East Tournament championship game.

“It is very overwhelming but it shows a lot about how hard they have worked, semifinal. me today, those wins are everyone; Krista it is a testament to what we have done,” She also spoke on the tradition of the [Dalgarn] closed the game today, she did Adix-Zins said. “No, not at all [sunk in], university and how everyone has helped great, the hitters hit, so the credit is to tomorrow, either that or probably it won’t her. them.” sink in until you are in a plane or on a or on “It feels awesome that we can keep the The Blue Demons are headed to the NCAA a bus, that’s usually when it sinks in.” tradition here at DePaul and be the three- Tournament and will wait to see who they Halvorson earned the win as well as time reigning Big East champs,” Halvorson will face and where they will travel for the being crowned as the most outstanding said. “This is definitely a bigger stage than first round matchup on May 17. player in the tournament after a dominant what I have been on before It is not just performance against Providence in the

STRUS , continued from back page with the group since. Training includes twohour skill sessions followed by lifting six to seven times per week.

“It’s the perfect fit,” Strus said about Priority Sports and Entertainment. “They’ve done a great job and are a very good agency that does very good work in getting their guys ready to go. I trust them and believe in them to help me get where I want to be.

I think they’re going to be helpful with my NBA career.”

This spring, Strus has worked out for the Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks, and Boston Celtics. After combine week, he’ll schedule more workouts with other teams.

“It means everything to me,” Strus said about the opportunity to play in the NBA. “This is everything that I’ve ever dreamed of and everything I’ve ever wanted in my basketball career.”

With just over a month remaining until draft day on June 20, here’s the book on Strus.

Shooting: Strus’ shooting ability is his most marketable skill in a space-obsessed NBA. “The NBA is about perimeter shooting right now, shooting threes,” Leitao said.

“He’s probably going to be in that very high, top-tier group of guys who you give him the ball and trust that he’s going to make a shot.”

The raw numbers are a tad misleading when it comes to Strus’ shooting. During his first season at DePaul, he shot an underwhelming 33.3 percent from beyond the 3-point line. That number improved last season to 36.3 percent, which was 25th best in the Big East Conference among players who averaged at least two attempts per game.

But a substantive stretch of hot shooting at the end of the season showed just how lethal of a weapon he can be from downtown when locked in. In the Blue Demon’s final 10 conference games, Strus shot 42.4 percent from 3-point land on 8.5 attempts per game.

Strus also averaged almost nine 3-point field

ALEXA SANDLER | THE DEPAULIA

DePaul senior Max Strus attempts a 3-pointer against St. John's in the second half on March 3 in Wintrust Arena. Strus has accepted an invite to the G League Elite Camp. goal attempts per game during the entirety of the season, and 57.7 percent of his shot attempts in college were behind the 3-point stripe.

The issue with his 3-point shooting has been the inconsistency. In 10 games against one of the softest nonconference schedules in the country, he shot a mediocre 35 percent from long range. He also had 17 games this season where he shot below 30 percent from 3-point range.

So, is Strus just a good shooter or is he a great shooter like he showed during those hot streaks? The answer will go a long way toward determining his NBA draft stock.

Couple his shooting with the fact that he’s an athletic 6-foot-6-inches and 215 pounds

and a wildly competitive individual, and Strus has the positional size and versatility to thrive as a wing at the NBA level. "[My game] fits very well in the NBA, I believe,” Strus said. “Everybody is a shooter now, everybody wants to shoot threes. I can do that. A lot of it is spacing and shooting and I can do all that. I think being a threat at the 3-point line will help teams, so I think I can help with that. I can guard one through four, I’ve shown that. So teams with switching and a lot of small lineups a lot of teams are looking for wings, and I fit that role.”

Improvements Areas: Nobody is perfect.

Even when he dropped 43 points against

St. John’s on March 3, Strus missed eight of the 22 shots he attempted. While this is tongue-in-cheek, there are real areas where he can improve ahead of the draft.

“I think pretty much any young wing that’s trying to make the jump from college to the NBA, you have to tighten up the ball handling,” SB Nation draft expert Ricky O’Donnell said.

The Blue Demons relied on him as DePaul’s best player in the last two seasons to be the focal point of their offense. He led the team in field goal attempts per game and usage percentage in each of the last two seasons. O’Donnell doesn’t think creating offense for himself and his teammates is Strus’s strength, although that shouldn’t matter given what his role will become once he begins playing professionally.

“Max Strus’s strength isn’t creating offense one-on-one off the dribble,” O’Donnell said. “He did have to do that at DePaul because he was the most talented player on the team. But in the NBA, he’s going to have somebody creating offense for him. He’s going to be spotting up along the 3-point line with Giannis [Antetokounmpo] creating offense or James Harden [creating offense]. Strus won’t have to worry about that because he’s a guy who will be a role player and slot into a specific role that his team wants from him and that will be an advantage for him.”

Several sources believe Strus is talented enough to make the NBA someday, although they don’t expect him to get drafted and think he’s going to have to take a winding path [playing internationally or in the G League first] en route to the NBA. But hell-bent on making the NBA via any route possible, Strus remains confident he’ll hear his name called on draft night.

“It’s still early in the process, but I think I have a pretty good chance,” Strus said. “Throughout the next month, going through the process will be good for me. I think I’ll be able to surprise a lot of people and hopefully be on the draft board.”

Sports After four years, the time to win is long overdue

Sports. May 13, 2019. The DePaulia | 28

Comeback kids

By Lawrence Kreymer Sports Editor

COMMENTARY DePaul men’s basketball has been irrelevant in Chicago, and certainly in the national landscape, for over a decade now. But after finishing with a winning record for the first time since the 2006-2007 season and making it to the CBI championship series, the Blue Demons believe they are ready to reenter the spotlight.

Four seasons since head coach Dave Leitao came back to DePaul, the Blue Demons are still the laughingstock of the Big East. Another last place finish and getting bounced in the first round of the Big East Tournament once again is yet more evidence that Athletic Director Jean Lenti Ponsetto and Leitao have failed on their promise to bring the program back to prominence.

When Lenti Ponsetto brought Leitao back in 2015, she said that her expectation was to win immediately.

“We don’t see that as a rebuilding project, but an opportunity to take the next step in the process,” Lenti Ponsetto said in 2015. “Our expectation is to win now. We have talent here that needs to be re-engineered. It was clear to our search committee that Dave Leitao was our No. 1 choice.”

Since Leitao has taken over, DePaul is 48-82 overall and 16-56 in the Big East, coupled with three last place finishes in the conference and no wins in the Big East Tournament. But, unlike successful and well-run programs, Lenti Ponsetto keeps backing her failing coach.

In an interview with The DePaulia last week, Lenti Ponsetto expressed that Leitao still doesn’t have enough help to be clearly evaluated.

“I think [considering a coaching change] presumes DePaul has everything in place we need for any Division I program to be successful, and we do not yet,” Lenti Ponsetto said last week. “Wintrust Arena was phase one, phase two really has to be a significant upgrade in the facilities we have here from a practice perspective. Our locker room, our weight room, training room, film room, academic advising space; we have room to grow significantly at DePaul.”

Lenti Ponsetto also believes that the team took a step forward this past season and is moving in the right direction, even though they still finished 8-3 in their weak nonconference schedule, that if a team like Villanova or Marquette played those opponents they would have went either 10-1 or 11-0.

“To be [7-11] and to be in position to have won some other games was progress, but we don’t feel like we have arrived we still have room to See LEITAO, page 25

STEVE WOLTMANN | BIG EAST

DePaul senior Morgan Greenwood celebrates with her teammates after defeating Villanova 11-10 in the Big East title game.

Softball uses eight-run sixth inning to win Big East title game

By Joshua Gurevich Asst. Sports Editor

DePaul had to use every bit of magic they had in order to beat Villanova, and under first-year head coach Tracie AdixZins, the Blue Demons came back from trailing 9-3 to win 11-10 in the Big East Tournament title game.

“I think the fact that we have done it multiple times before this season, they were never going to give up and that’s what we have done all year long,” Adix-Zins said.

“We did not say much to them, we let it roll, we do have a lot of kids returning It really helped all of them pick up our new kids and roll with it.”

DePaul entered the bottom of the sixth inning getting outplayed through the first five innings and were six outs away from

losing the Big East Tournament title game.

Instead, the Blue Demons offense came to life and put up eight runs in the inning to take the lead and eventually the win.

After getting two runs to cut the lead to 9-5, senior Morgan Greenwood stepped up to the plate with two players on base and blasted a three-run home run, getting DePaul within one run of Villanova.

Greenwood spoke after the game on what hitting the three-run home run means to her and how that impacted the game.

“When I came up to bat, I looked at the scoreboard and was like wow, one swing could put us just one run away,” Greenwood said. “I was thinking just to pass the bat to my teammates and find a way to just get on base. I was just so excited and it’s amazing to energize your team and find a way to get back and get this win.”

Greenwood, who is graduating in June, knew that this could be her last at-bat in a DePaul uniform and made sure to make it a special at bat.

“When I hit that home run, I was rounding second and tears came to my eyes. I knew that could have possibly been my last at-bat in my college career, so I wanted to make the most out of it,” Greenwood said.

The Blue Demons eventually tied the game at nine in the inning off an RBI single from freshman Gabby O’Riley. Then with two more players on base, senior Brianna Viles came up to the plate with two outs and a chance to drive in the go-ahead run.

Viles hit a rocket into the outfield and drove in the game winning run.

See TITLE, page 27

Max Strus participates in G League Elite Camp

By Paul Steeno Senior Basketball Writer

There are 80 players expected to attend the NBA G League Elite Camp May 12-14 at Quest Multisport in Chicago.

Press him hard enough, and now former DePaul Blue Demon star Max Strus could probably figure out the other 39 draft-eligible prospects who will join him at the event — the other 40 participants are non-draft eligible G League players. But if he were to name them correctly, it would purely be a guess.

“I don’t even know who’s in [the NBA G League Elite Camp], so I’m just ready to show up and play,” Strus said.

A spot at the NBA Combine is the reward for the top performers at the NBA G League Elite Camp. With that in mind, Strus only focuses on himself as he works through the process of realizing his dream of reaching the NBA ranks.

This focus and discipline, coupled with what DePaul Blue Demon head coach Dave Leitao has dubbed an “insatiable work ethic,” has transformed the kid with just one Division I scholarship offer out of high school into a legitimate NBA prospect after completing a winding path from Division

ALEXA SANDLER | THE DEPAULIA

Max Strus dribbles past St. John’s defender Shamorie Ponds in a game where Strus scored a career-high 43 points on March 3 in Wintrust Arena.

II Lewis University to DePaul.

Following DePaul’s College Basketball Invitational run that extended the season into early April, Strus took a couple of weeks off to allow his body to recover after

playing over 1,300 minutes last season. He signed with Chicago-based Priority Sports and Entertainment and has been training

See STRUS, page 27