“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” T.S. Eliot
May 28, 2019
DePAUL UNIVERSITY, CHICAGO
VOLUME CIII
Altering perceptions: One student's path to housing security By Mackenzie Murtaugh News Editor
It was getting to class every day that made it so hard for Dom. He would leave the shelter, get to the train and make sure the attendant wasn’t looking so he could hop the turnstile and run. The fare wasn’t an expense Dom cared to pay, and the more he jumped the turnstile, the easier it became. When Dominique Coronel — he goes
by Dom — a 22-year-old political science student, waited on the platform, thoughts raced in his head about a fatal jump that would take him from the world that did him wrong. The never-ending exhaustion, hunger and anxieties of failing his classes took hold. Academia wasn’t for the poor, homeless or people whose families weren’t in the picture. It was for people who got lucky. Dom agreed to enroll in college when he knew he was housing insecure. He spent his first year at DePaul initially staying
with a friend, then couch-surfing. Once his friends graduated and left the city, Dom found himself lost yet again. After taking some time off to work on the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016, he came back to school and found himself in the same cycle he knew all too well. He stretched his scholarships, student loans and financial aid as far as they would take him, and he took refuge in a shelter on the outskirts of the city. Going from the shelter to campus proved difficult because he was constantly
Cheap
beats JOEY PUSATERI | THE DEPAULIA
Junior Ian Nix sits on a friend's shoulders to pop up above the mosh pit during Lil Yachty's performance at FEST in the Lincoln Park Quad on May 24.
By all accounts, FEST 2019 was well worth the $10 cover By Lacey Latch Arts & Life Editor
Last year I dove into the center of FEST to try to convey an authentic experience of what the pit has in store for students. Spoiler: it was exactly as you’d expect. To switch things up this year I adopted the position of a stone-cold sober fly on the wall. Well, more like a person standing next to some bushes a safe distance from my inebriated peers but you get the point. For a $10 concert at 7 p.m. on a patch of grass in a residential neighborhood, FEST 2019 was impressive. Emilie Hanson, Nathan Hile, and Lucia Rodriguez-Nelson are all freshman theatre students who decided last-minute to attend the show. While they had few expectations heading in, they were told FEST was overall a good time. Importantly, they saw this as an opportunity for the different factions within DePaul to come together. “I never get to meet people in general DePaul,” Rodriguez-Nelson said, noting the separation between
the Theatre School and the rest of the student population. “Now we got to be not even an inch away from general DePaul,” Hile added jokingly. If, like me, you were basing your expectations for what the members of 3OH!3 looked like on the posters plastered across campus, you were undoubtedly surprised to not find a Thor look-alike in Sean Forman, one half of the duo. Instead, his short, gray hair stuck out against his flamingo-patterned shirt. It seems the passage of time since their 2008 hit “DONTTRUSTME” topped the charts has benefited us both — Foreman has achieved silver fox status and I got my braces off and cleared up my skin. For the most part. Foreman and Nathaniel Motte, the other half of the duo, spent almost half of their time onstage interacting with the crowd. They bonded with the students so much that a dedicated fan named Cameron donated $2 to the group. Sure, you might be thinking, “That’s
See FEST, page 16-17
JOEY PUSATERI | THE DEPAULIA
Lil Yachty headlines Fest in the Lincoln Park quad Friday, May 24. Fest 2019 also featured a performance from 3OH!3
on edge. People could find out he was homeless, someone could have seen him coming out of the shelter and expose him or one day, he might get caught and arrested for sneaking onto the train. But no one really knew, Dom said. The isolation he felt from his classmates didn’t transcend himself, as his classmates were more involved in campus activities and the parties they would attend that weekend. His housing insecurity did not become a topic
See DAX, page 8
Tenure process seeks student involvement By Brita Hunegs Contributing Writer
At the end of Fall Quarter 2018, like clockwork, junior Halle Wagner’s email inbox lit up with a notification, one that all DePaul students get painfully used to seeing. The email from DePaul reads: “Dear Student, It is time to complete online evaluations for your current DePaul courses.” Unlike the past when, at the culmination of the term, Wagner would hurry through the evaluations of her instructors so that she would stop being inundated with emails reminding her to fill them out, Wagner takes her time to write out her sincere criticism and praise. Wagner hadn’t suddenly become any more thoughtful or reflective than she had been in the past. What changed was her experience of being on a student review committee to help inform and contribute to the process of faculty going up for tenure. Student volunteers make up a review committee to create a comprehensive evaluation of the professors up for tenure in their home college or department, which they complete during a single academic year. The review is two-fold. In one part, the students look over every Online Teacher Evaluation (OTE) filled out on behalf of the professor in question during the period of review. The other part is to send out a survey to every student the professor has worked with during the review period. That includes either in the classroom or as a supervisor in research or independent study. Latrina West-Shields has been the business coordinator for the College of Communication for 10 years. Over the last year, she has taken up the role of coordinating the student review committee. She reaches out to specific, high-performing students that the directors of the program choose, inviting them to be part of the committee. “I basically persuade students to give up their time to come and look through a professor’s documents,” she said. The tenure process at DePaul has had its fair share of attention, including disputes over diversity and academic freedom. One
See TENURE, page 6