DePaulia
The
Volume #105 | Issue #9 | May 17, 2021 | depauliaonline.com
SGA election: Watfae Zayed elected president By Rebecca Meluch News Editor
GRADUATION GRIFT Sections of an email from DePaul’s bookstore sent out to DePaul seniors who may be impacted by the security breach.
GINA RICARDS | THE DEPAULIA
Seniors report fraudulent charges after buying regalia By Sonal Soni Asst. News Editor
On May 13, DePaul’s book stores sent an email to graduating seniors informing them that Herff Jones — the vendor that provides DePaul’s graduation regalia — experienced a cyber attack, and as a result, some students’ bank information may be compromised. “I went and checked my account that I had used to buy my regalia and found two separate fraudulent purchases adding up to almost $500 spanning May 11-13,” graduating senior Elizabeth Becker said. “I had a bad feeling when buying my regalia — which I thought it was weird in the first place that we still had to buy our own regalia during a pandemic — because the site seemed really sketchy and not well-made. I’m so lucky that I paid my bills a few days ago because otherwise I’d be completely screwed over on top of everything else.” “...It is so inconvenient as a graduating senior to get locked out of my bank account for a week all because of DePaul and their actions regarding regalia,” Becker added. Becker and other DePaul seniors noticed fraudulent purchases made from their bank accounts after having recently
paid Herff Jones for graduation regalia, with charges ranging from as low as a few dollars to upwards of $500. Prior to the data breach, students expressed concern with the graduation cap and gown vendor and their customer service team. “I initially ordered my regalia around March 15th, including an international stole that was never delivered, though I was charged around $30 for it,” said graduating senior Deyana Atanasova. “I contacted customer service multiple times, was on hold for over 50 minutes, and got an email that it would be resolved over — but it wasn’t since they sent another generic stole, clearly ignoring my explicit requests.” “This was frustrating in itself, but then my roommate mentioned the whole fraud situation on May 7th,” Atanasova added. “I checked my Chase account information and noticed seven fraudulent charges occurring on May 7th and one on May 8th. So, all in all, definitely a stressful experience and I’m truly not expecting any response or redemption from Herff Jones considering my experiences with their customer service.” Many of the affected seniors expressed how stressful the data breach was as some
students already have lower incomes, not to mention upcoming graduation in midst of the ongoing pandemic. DePaul senior Sophie Harriss was paying for groceries when her card declined. “It was also embarrassing… but now it’s mostly just upsetting that it wasn’t something I could have necessarily avoided,” Harriss said. Students also voiced concerns about their personal information being further compromised. Herrf Jones services school’s nationwide, and the data breach has also jeopardized the information of students across the country. Students across the country have reported similar accounts of fraudulent charges after purchasing the company’s graduation regalia. Other Illinois universities also recount instances of payment theft including the University of Illinois. An investigation is currently underway led by a national consumer right law firm. According to the investigation website, students who incurred fraudulent charges may have their personal and banking information sold on the dark web.
Students voted in DePaul junior Watfae Zayed and sophomore Kevin Holechko as President and Vice President of the university’s Student Government Association. SGA’s 2020-2021 election outcomes were released on Friday evening. Zayed and Holechko ran on four key initiatives, according to their official campaign Instagram page: Defunding the DePaul FOP tuition discount Creating a new scholarship to help students purchase/rent their textbooks Increasing communication between university administration & students Free university counseling services after the pandemic. Zayed previously held the position of SGA’s Vice President, and Holechko was previously the senator for the College of Education. The pair ran against Wesley Janicki and Keith Norward, who previously held the roles as Executive Vice President of Facility Operations and the Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs. Zayed and Holechko won by an 18 percent margin; they received 58 percent of votes, while Janicki and Norward received 40 percent. Other unnamed candidates received 12 percent of the total vote. In total, there were 595 voters in the election for President and Vice President. Adora Catherine Alava was elected as Executive Vice President of Diversity and Equity, defeating Magoli Garcia. All other announced positions were uncontested elections. Elected candidates who ran unopposed are as follows: Cindy Rocha was elected Executive Vice President of Student
See CYBER ATTACK, page 6
See SGA, page 4
General Iron win just the beginning for South Side climate justice By Jackson Healy Contributing Writer
For about as long as Reserve Management Group has attempted to move metal-scrapping facility General Iron from Lincoln Park to the Southeast Side, activists and commonfolk near the proposed location have vehemently opposed their efforts. On May 7, after the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “strongly recommended” Mayor Lightfoot halt the permitting process to allow for a thorough analysis on potential health impacts to the community, Light-
foot immediately agreed, indefinitely delaying the permit. “My initial reaction was surprise, because we didn’t expect that kind of involvement from the EPA,” said Peggy Salazar, director of the Southeast Environmental Task Force. “But once you get past that, then you’re wondering, ‘Okay, what’s going on? Is this just an attempt to stall, or to placate the community? Or are they serious about stepping in and making sure that the right thing is done?’” Environmental justice advocates, like Salazar, have highlighted General Iron’s proposed move as a brazen example of environmental racism, noting a pattern of
“They’re revitalizing the North Side. What are they doing on the South Side? The South Side, apparently, was to accommodate the revitalization but not participate in it.”
Peggy Salazar
Director, Southeast Environmental Task Force industrial facilities being moved from whiter, wealthier communities to more impoverished Black and Brown communities. “They’re revitalizing the North Side,” Salazar said. “What are they doing on the South Side?
The South Side, apparently, was to accommodate the revitalization but not participate in it. So, we felt like, how unjust is that? We’re a post-industrial area, and if anybody needs revitalization, it’s our community.”
Mark Potosnak, chair of DePaul’s Department of Environmental Science and Studies, said that because of Chicago’s history as an industrial city, many of these
See GENERAL IRON, page 4