Students talk about the pros and cons of Greek life at DePaul; see Focus, page 14.
DePaulia
The
Volume #104 | Issue #3 | Sept. 30, 2019 | depauliaonline.com
Homegrown haymaker
NATE BURLEYSON | THE DEPAULIA
Summer Lynn takes notes from her coach Rick Ramos at Body Shop Boxing Club in Pilsen, where Lynn has been training since she started boxing.
DePaul student prepares for pro debut at Wintrust Arena By Nate Burleyson Asst. Sports Editor
Getting hit was never a problem for Summer Lynn. The DePaul freshman has been preparing for this moment for most of her life. With years of martial arts and combat sports experience under her belt, Lynn is no stranger to high-level competition, and said she’s ready for her professional career to begin at Wintrust Arena on Oct. 12. Lynn has trained at Body Shot Boxing Club in the Pilsen neighborhood since she started boxing five years ago. Growing up in the neighborhoods around Midway Airport, Lynn has competed in Jiu-Jitsu and Judo since she was 7. Participating in those martial arts gave her a set of skills and a mindset that provided a base for boxing – a base that has led to two junior national championships. The switch from martial arts to boxing was one based on personal needs – in a sense, a need for speed. Fast-paced and heavy, boxing was a tantalizing idea for
Treat yourself to some unpopular opinions from The DePaulia staff; see Opinions, page 13.
“You have to show your feminine side, look pretty and sell yourself. Boys don’t really have to show anything like that.”
Summer Lynn
DePaul freshman
Lynn. “I’ve always done contact sports, and when I was around 12, I decided I wanted something a little more fast-paced,” Lynn said. “I felt like [boxing] gave me that adrenaline.” One of Lynn’s first big victories was at the 2017 Junior Olympics in Charles-
ton, West Virginia. There, Lynn won the 145-pound division, taking home the top prize. Earlier this year, she won a second national title in Reno, Nevada. Those victories are not just a product of Lynn’s own skill, but also a little bit of the relationship she has with coach Rick Ramos and other members of her gym. Ramos, owner and coach at Body Shot Boxing Club, has been running a gym for 13 years, the past six of which have been in Pilsen. His gym’s walls are covered in photos of him and other boxing icons around the country, as well as paintings of older boxers in the middle of heated bouts. It gives off a welcoming, familial vibe, but the constant banging of fists into bags, bells during sparring sessions and the blaring hype music coming from a speaker lets you know it is all about training and competition. The bond between a coach and a fighter is built on mutual trust and confidence. That bond is part of what has gotten them
See LYNN, page 27
Advising model to change for LAS students By Ella Lee Arts & Life Editor
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ advising team at DePaul is in the process of changing how advising works within the college. The new model, which combines similar disciplines under a common adviser, is less about the number of departments advisers have and more about the number of advisees, as many smaller disciplines are being combined. “The model we had for many years was due to how large [the college was] in the early 2000s,” said Tania Rodriguez, director of advising for the Liberal Arts and Sciences Undergraduate College Office. “It used to be all one college, with Science and Health and Communications in LAS. [Those colleges] were set up, but we never changed the model, which is still a model of a largest system. Now, we are changing it to fit better to size.” The current model functions by having the largest departments, like English, with advising staff and three decentralized advisers in her office that were general advisers, who split the rest of the departments’ advising. Now, they’re shifting to what Rodriguez called a “collaborative model.” Rodriguez explained that what LAS is changing to is not widely different than what’s done in other colleges, like the College of Communication, but, instead of assigning students to advisers by last name, they’re doing it by department. “I could see how students may be freaked out [when seeing all those majors combined under one adviser], but each department varies,” she said. “There are maybe only 35 people in African diaspora studies, for example, so each adviser may still average from 225 to 260 advisees.” Students will still be assigned a faculty adviser in addition to a staff professional adviser. “All students should be assigned a department major field adviser,” she
See ADVISING, page 6
Sanders rallies Chicago Teachers Union, demands change in national priorities By Brita Hunegs Staff Writer
Autumn has arrived in Chicago. Michigan Avenue is patterned with fallen leaves. The temperature has begun to fall. And disputes over labor rights are in full swing. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) announced on Thursday that 94 percent of its 25,000 members voted in favor of authorizing a strike. The vote followed weeks of contract bargaining with the city. Two days before, CTU hosted a rally at their headquarters, where Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders addressed teachers and staff of the third largest public school district in the country. The sea of union members in red shirts parted for Sanders to take his spot at the podium.
“I want you to know that you are doing some of the most important work that can possibly be done in our country,” Sanders said, addressing the crowd. “You are demanding and I am demanding a change in national priorities.” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that the contract the city offered at the end of August, which would include a 16 percent increase in teacher pay over the next five years, is “robust.” But teachers at the rally made it clear that higher wages are just the tip of the pencil. The official demands of the Union include smaller classroom sizes, fully-staffed schools and justice for students and families. “We all want our paychecks, but if cer-
See SANDERS, page 4
ASHLEE REZIN GARCIA | AP
Presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at Chicago Teachers Union rally.
2 | News. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 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 | Shane René eic@depauliaonline.com MANAGING EDITOR | Lacey Latch managing@depauliaonline.com ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR | Bianca Cseke online@depauliaonline.com NEWS EDITOR | Mackenzie Murtaugh news@depauliaonline.com ASST. NEWS EDITOR | Patsy Newitt news@depauliaonline.com NATION & WORLD EDITOR | Brian Pearlman nation@depauliaonline.com OPINIONS EDITOR | Emma Oxnevad opinion@depauliaonline.com FOCUS EDITOR | Cailey Gleeson focus@depauliaonline.com ARTS & LIFE EDITOR | Ella Lee artslife@depauliaonline.com ASST. ARTS & LIFE EDITOR | Keira Wingate artslife@depauliaonline.com SPORTS EDITOR | Lawrence Kreymer sports@depauliaonline.com ASST. SPORTS EDITOR | Nate Burleyson sports@depauliaonline.com
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News. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019 | 3
Cordless no longer means paying less
Eliminating net neutrality could let Internet service providers increase streaming prices By Keira Wingate Asst. Arts & Life Editor
It’s a cord-cutting world – or at least that’s what everyone thought. With the number of streaming services there are today, the “cut cord” is seemingly being glued back together – but with streaming instead of cable. Netflix and Hulu are only two out of the 300 streaming services in the U.S., according to Deloitte Sights, a “Big Four” accounting organization. Each network and media conglomeration wants its own streaming service. What started at only $10 a month for Netflix, has turned into almost $100 a month for only several out of those 300 streaming services. To give some numbers, HBO NOW costs $14.99 per month, YouTube Premium - $12, Hulu - $11.99, CBS All Access - $9.99, Amazon Prime $8.99, Netflix – $8.99, STARZ - $8.99, Disney+ - $6.99 and Apple TV+ - $4.99. As mentioned earlier, these are several out of 300. In total – not including tax – the cost each month for all listed above would be $87.92. Doesn’t seem much cheaper than cable, does it? Xfinity Basic Service is a cheaper package they offer starting at $18.40 per month for Limited Basic, according to cabletv.com, a cable TV finder. Their Expanded Basic package offers 140+ channels for $49.99 per month. So much for cutting the cord. There have been many streaming services around for years, but it was
“I don’t think this is the kind of market that will thrive on lots of options. Callen Brandstatter Senior
not until recent years that every single network wanted their own. Net neutrality has played a big part in the massive growth we’ve seen in streaming. The site Public Knowledge, a nonprofit public interest group dedicated to promoting an open internet, shared the definition of net neutrality: “Net neutrality is the principle that individuals should be free to access all content and applications equally, regardless of the source, without Internet Service Providers discriminating against specific online services or websites. In other words, it is the principle that the company that connects you to the internet does not get to control what you do on the internet.” On Dec. 14, 2017, the FCC voted to repeal the strict net neutrality rules that were preserving an open, fair and competitive internet for everyone. With net neutrality gone, internet service providers (ISPs) can charge higher rates
depending on a user’s data usage. ISPs can also charge different prices for speed. When net neutrality was in place, all sites would load at the same speed and users were all charged the same rates. Nathan DeWitt, a professor at DePaul, offered his take on the subject. “ISPs are going to offer different data packages that allow users access to different streaming sites,” DeWitt said. “Users will have to budget for their streaming site subscription fees and increased costs of data usage.” There are a few classes at DePaul that require students to watch specific episodes of TV shows or movies for assignments. DePaul does offer ColTube for student usage. ColTube will need to be able to keep up with the streaming services because $87.92 is a hefty bill for college students, even though some streaming services may offer discounted rates with a .edu email address. “For classes, fair use and educational copyright laws are not changing, so
professors can ‘rip’ episodes off DVD, for example, and make them available on the university’s streaming site ColTube for student usage,” DeWitt said. “I’ll have to do this for my TV class, for example, as the cost of five to seven streaming service subscriptions feels cost-prohibitive to students.” Many students don’t know about the reasoning behind this increase in streaming services, with some saying that had no clue net neutrality played a role in at all. “I live under a rock and I don’t know what that is,” said Meg Jones, a junior at DePaul. Even with streaming services reaching cable level prices, students are still leaning more toward streaming, but some believe having so many will be a downfall. “They all have different movies/ shows and it can be hard to only pick one streaming service,” said Callen Brandstatter, a senior at DePaul. “The shows usually don’t overlap on multiple services, making users pick and choose which service they would get more value from. I don’t think this is the kind of market that will thrive on lots of options.” If ISPs decide to raise prices on data packages that give access to streaming sites, there could be a decrease in subscriptions. DeWitt said we will definitely see an uptick in piracy. Essentially, with net neutrality repealed and streaming services on the rise, viewers will be paying more for the content they want.
4 | News. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019
ASHLEE REZIN GARCIA | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Supporters cheer as presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a rally at the Chicago Teachers Union headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, in Chicago.
“I want you to know that you are doing some of the most important work that can possibly be done in our country. You are demanding, and I am demanding a change in national priorities.” Bernie Sanders
2020 Democratic presidential candidate SANDERS continued from front -tain things are not in place we have to fight for justice and what we need for our students to be successful,” said Mark Wiley, a civics teacher at Gage Park High School. “Every year, we’ve had no math teacher or no English teacher. How can students get a competitive education? It’s a travesty.” In his speech, Sanders echoed the specific concerns of the union, as well as reiterating the tropes of his candidacy’s platform, like Medicare for all and wiping out student loan debt. He contrasted his distaste for tax cuts for the wealthy with a need to invest in kids and schools, “We’re going to put people to work rebuilding schools all over this country. That is what our children and our educators deserve.” DePaul sophomore and Jefferson Park native, Lenin Plazas stood in line with the teachers for four hours to see his favorite candidate up close in his hometown. “Bernie cares about equality and equity for all, and that’s what the
Teachers’ Union has been fighting for,” he said. Lenin also thinks more DePaul students should invest energy into helping with local issues like these. “It’s important to be active in your communities, so if you’re a DePaul student, you should care about what happens in the city because it will affect you and you should be part of it,” he said. 35th Ward Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa thinks that after Sanders’ show of support, the mayor has “got to listen now,” because the other candidates in the Democratic primary are now trying to stay in pace with Sanders. “Elizabeth Warren plagiarized Bernie, we had Joe Biden plagiarize off of Bernie... so that means the entire Democratic field is calling on this Democratic mayor to do the right thing and support the teachers,” Ramirez-Rosa said. “She can’t ignore that.” Even if the Mayor and CPS didn’t listen to Sanders’ calls for action,
ASHLEE REZIN GARCIA | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Supporters at a rally at the Chicago Teachers Union headquarters Sept. 24.
his message was certainly internalized by the protesters. Bilingual 7th grade math instructor, Norma Noriega was also a speaker at the rally. In an interview with the DePaulia, she said she felt emboldened by Sanders’ words, “He’s highlighted the true narrative, where we’re overworked we’re underpaid and taken advantage of. Insidious things are happening behind closed doors that the public doesn’t see and we’re just out here trying to fight for a better education. It felt so genuine.” Marquitta Criswell-Ellington said that over her 30-year tenure as a teacher with Chicago Public Schools, she’s seen a decline in support from the city. “I’ve seen my neighborhood school close, I’ve seen two schools that I worked at be turned over to Rahm Emanuel’s banking friends,” Criswell-Ellington said. “I’ve seen us go from ordering textbooks to
now where they say, ‘Oh, you get your own materials yourself.” Criswell-Ellington is still holding out hope that the new mayor will turn things around, though that hope is beginning to wane as she sees her push for agendas Criswell-Ellington thinks are too similar to Lightfoot’s predecessors. “Bernie Sanders coming will give us some nationwide and worldwide attention to what’s going on here,” she said. “Maybe that will prompt the mayor, and her unelected school board, to do what’s right for the people.” The CTU members were joined by other unionized workers, like those of SEIU Local 73, which represents much of the non-teacher staff in CPS schools. On Friday, SEIU took to the streets of the Loop to protest for their own set of requests.
News. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019 | 5
Tipped workers battle over wage increase By Brian Gilbert Contributing Writer
Many restaurant workers support a proposed ordinance that would increase their hourly wage to $15 by 2021, although some have mixed feelings and fear that if that happens, their tips could decrease over time. The legislation being contemplated by the city of Chicago focuses on combating the unpredictability and inconsistency of tips in the restaurant industry and other tipped industries. The ordinance would remove the subminimum wage that allows employers to count workers’ tips toward their base pay. Employers who pay tipped workers as low as $6.40 an hour would have to pay them the regular minimum wage. The ordinance, introduced in June, also wants to raise Chicago’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021. Chicago’s current minimum wage is $13 an hour. Many students who go to DePaul work in the restaurant industry, like Ariana Underwood and Lucia Chavez, agree that it’s time to increase tipped workers’ wages. “I most definitely would support raising the wage of tipped workers to a minimum wage of $15,” said Underwood, who works at Punch Bowl Social in the West Loop and majors in political science at DePaul. Underwood is a senior and has worked in restaurants since she was 16 and has been a server for six years now. Chavez agrees with Underwood that restaurant workers deserve to be paid more. “Not knowing if your next paycheck
is going to be enough to pay your bills or even just not enough for the effort and exhaustion endured during your shifts can be very stressful,” said Chavez, who is a busser at Fogo de Chao and a senior at DePaul majoring in business administration. “I am behind the idea of raising minimum wage to $15 an hour, also for the fact that nowadays many millennials find it difficult to even tip well due to their own financial struggle.” While the ordinance does not discourage tipping, the effect could be that tips decline. A Census Bureau report found that the increase in wages paid by the employer were matched by a decrease in tips. Although Underwood supports the ordinance, she also fears that if her hourly wage were to increase that tipping could decline among customers. “I believe, in a sense, it would discourage the idea of tipping,” Underwood said. “However, the truth is most people already do not tip well and when you do have a really poor tip on a very good tab, considering most restaurants and places also tip out other employees helping, you can end up basically paying for a customer’s meal if they leave little to no tip.” “A large percentage of the population believes servers are making more than they are and have no idea the actual pay grade of servers,” Underwood said. “I’d argue it would affect customers tipping abilities but not as much as it would positively affect servers by having a livable wage, instead of us expecting tips to make up the extra $7 an hour to make a livable wage.” The average hourly wage of servers in
the Chicago, including reported tips, was $11.23 in 2018, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Raising minimum wage could spark fear in some tipped workers just because if customers begin to tip significantly less, we would be back to square one and that is not earning enough money for the job we do,” Chavez said. “Hopefully this change would eventually lead to all of us being paid appropriately by the hour and kick tipping out the door for good. Tipping is only customary because it is not only a social norm, but because we all know we have only tips to rely on to be able to live a financially stable life.” Chris Roberts, director of hospitality graduate programs at DePaul, also supports a living wage for all employees in the hospitality and restaurant industry, but said if the ordinance goes through it would be difficult for a business to be sustainable overtime. “It could eliminate jobs because a lot of companies are moving towards automation to make their food or clean their sheets,” Roberts said. “Businesses will need to figure out a way to cover the costs by utilizing technology which could possibly mean less jobs in the hospitality industry. “The awareness of them (tipped employees) making less money absolutely adds to the fact the people tip more because they feel sympathetic,” he continued. “If they were to make $15 an hour, I believe the thought process for people would change and they would tip less overtime.” The standard for tipping can range anywhere from 15 to 20 percent, but many customers tip below 15 percent
and there’s no control over a slow week or month. Tipped workers and servers at high-end restaurants can make a decent living on tips when it’s busy, but many tipped workers at small or inexpensive restaurants have a difficult time supporting themselves if it’s slow. Ruben Villegas, a server at Michael’s Original Pizzeria & Tavern, a small, inexpensive single-location restaurant, said he would only support the ordinance if he is able to make the same money in tips that he does now. “I’m a single father of two young daughters and one of them just started college, so I’m the only one bringing an income to my house,” Villegas said. “If it’s a slow week, I make maybe $10 an hour including tips, but if it’s a busy week then I’ll make $25 an hour. If I’m going to make $15 an hour but not get the same amount in tips then I disagree entirely with it.” Villegas’ co-worker and cousin, Serafin Villegas, also agreed with Ruben. “It would definitely be in the back of my mind that I could get less tips if this goes through,” Serafin said. “I have mixed feelings about it.” Serafin has worked in the restaurant industry for over 25 years and said tips are everything to restaurant workers because the base pay is so low. Lawmakers in Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Alaska, Montana and California have already mandated employers to pay their employees the same minimum base wage, regardless of tips, and it looks like Chicago might be heading that way.
Upcoming marijuana legalization won’t affect university By Madison Bradley Contributing Writer
To be blunt, it’s high time we figure out what’s really going on with legal weed in Illinois. Recreational marijuana will be legal in Illinois as of January 2020, per a bill signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on June 25. Illinois will be the 11th state in the US to legalize recreational marijuana. Consumption of the plant will be legal for all citizens in the state, or at least most. There are a few exceptions to this newfound freedom. For starters, you probably can’t smoke. Although it will be a whole lot easier, and legal, to purchase marijuana in Illinois as of Jan. 1, DePaul has some rules that students need to be aware of. “The new law will not change the fact that DePaul is a smoke-free and drug-free campus,” said DePaul spokesperson Carol Hughes. Students, as well as all faculty and staff, will be held to the same rules as always when it comes to marijuana. Because the school receives federal funds, DePaul is required to uphold laws, such as the Safe and Drug
Free Schools and Communities Act and the Drug Free Workplace Act. These laws will continue to prohibit cannabis in the workplace and on campus, Hughes said. Basically, not much is going to change at DePaul when it comes to marijuana. The rest of the state, however, is about to get a whole lot louder. An anonymous freshman at DePaul, 18, is very excited about the new legislation. “I’ve been smoking since 15 or 16; I started my summer going into sophomore year,” he said. “I probably smoke everyday.” While he is aware he can’t legally smoke until he is 21, and even then needs to take his plant off campus, he is excited for the societal change this law will bring about. “They say they’re going to let more people out who got convicted for petty crimes,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot less people getting finessed for petty stuff because they can just go to the dispensary.” One of the biggest components of this law is the second chance it gives to those arrested on non-violent charges relating to marijuana. Arrests for marijuana
possession under 30 grams will be automatically expunged, and individuals with arrests for possession of up to 500 grams can take their cases to court to seek expungement. Pritzker has called this legislature “an important and overdue change.” He continued, “It’s the right thing to do.” He claims this bill will give hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been affected by a marijuanna arrest a chance at a better life, including a chance to gain jobs and housing. There are a few more restrictions on the future legality of marijuana that should be noted. For starters, those with a medical marijuana license will be the only citizens allowed to grow their own weed. Second, lighting up in public will stay a big no-no. Those of legal smoking age will only be allowed to smoke in private residences and in some dispensaries if the local jurisdiction allows. The sale of marijuana will start through existing dispensaries, with new licences being processed beginning in March and issued in May 2020. “All I know,” the DePaul student said, “is it’s about to get a lot more chill.”
6| News. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019
Terrorism charge against man who drove through mall
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN J. KIM/CHICAGO TRIBUNE VIA AP
A state police officer stands outside of a Woodfield Mall entrance after a man drove an SUV into a Sears store in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, Ill., on Friday, Sept. 20, 2019.
By Associated Press A man accused of driving an SUV through a suburban Chicago shopping mall was charged Sunday with a state terrorism and ordered held without bond. Police in Schaumburg said the Cook County state’s attorney had authorized the charge against Javier Garcia, 22, of Palatine, Illinois. Garcia also was charged with felony criminal damage to property. Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Annalee McGlone said during the bond hearing that on Sept. 20, Garcia drove his SUV through a Sears entrance into the common area of Woodfield Mall,
ADVISING continued from front said. “I’m not an expert in their field, so I can’t help with internships; faculty are. I rely on them for that expertise, but sometimes faculty aren’t comfortable helping with a four-year plan for a kid or working with someone on financial aid.” The conversation began when an international studies adviser resigned from the university to pursue other professional opportunities in November 2018, and LAS was presented with the opportunity to begin modeling advising differently, Rodriguez said, prompting the college to combine international studies advising with other departments. When a sociology adviser resigned for the same reasons in June, they condensed sociology and history together, she said. Economics and geography have been compressed as well. As advising shifts and they continue to break down these departments, Rodriguez has taken over as the interim adviser for African and black diaspora studies, American studies, Islamic world studies, Latin American and Latino studies, modern languages, peace and social justice studies and sociology. The information was first shared with students within these disciplines in an email from Rodriguez sent Sept. 25. In the email, Rodriguez said that the college is “looking to hire a dedicated adviser that will be shared by some of these major
weaving in and out of kiosks as shoppers ran for cover. No one was struck by the vehicle. “Chaos ensued among the patrons of the mall. Hysterical patrons were running and jumping in attempts to evade the vehicle’s path. Stores were locking their gates and sheltering people in the rear of stores for safety purposes,” McGlone said. Under Illinois law, the Class X felony of terrorism can apply if the suspect is believed to have caused more than $100,000 in damage to any building containing five or more businesses, according to a statement issued by Schaumburg Police Sgt. Karen McCarthy.
No federal charges have been brought against Garcia. Investigators said in a statement that they “believe Garcia acted alone, no motive has been determined.” He was released to police custody on Friday from the AMITA Health Behavioral Institute. Defense attorney Amil Alkass said Garcia has no criminal history. He also noted his client takes psychiatric medications and is being treated for bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia. “He’s definitely not a terrorist,” Alkass told the Chicago Sun-Times. “There was nobody targeted.” Javier Garcia, 22.
field programs” in the coming months. When the news first broke, students said that the shift made them nervous — but mostly for Rodriguez. “I am a bit concerned with only one person being in charge of advising for all of those studies, but I am optimistic that the university will find more advisers to narrow down the huge responsibility that Tania has inherited,” said Robbie Merkel, a double major in political science and Latino studies. “I was definitely a bit surprised by all the changes,” said Hope Rozeveld, a peace and justice studies major. “But I think most of those programs are fairly small, so hopefully the adviser isn’t too overwhelmed.” Rodriguez said that it will certainly be a change, but one with which she is comfortable. Despite being LAS’ advising director, where she has historically worked with a small number of students, she has always worked with students in some capacity. “I am a very hands-on director that gets involved with orientation and walking advising,” she said, adding that anytime a student has made a connection with her and requests her as their adviser, she has taken them on. The groundwork for these shifts began in Summer 2018, she said, so she’s had some time to adjust to the workload as it has increased over time. She has managed it by using Blue Star for her
appointments, offering phone or Skype appointments if no in-office times are available for students and providing as much information as possible via email, she said. “I get they might be nervous about some of these changes, but they’re always
welcome to come into the office and stop at the front desk or call us,” Rodriguez said. “[…] We will always have an adviser to see students, regardless of their assigned one. There’s always someone there.”
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News. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019 | 7
Students attend anti-gun rally in D.C. By Kelly Garcia Contributing Writer
An impromptu 12-hour bus ride isn’t generally considered an ideal weekend activity. But with the U.S. reaching 312 mass shootings in 2019 as of Sept. 29, according the the Gun Violence Archive, many considered this 12-hour bus ride a necessity. Six hundred people, including 50 DePaul students, left on 12 buses this past Tuesday from Saint Sabina’s Church in Chicago to attend a gun violence rally in D.C. sponsored by over 50 organizations. The group traveled under the guidance of Fr. Michael Pfleger, senior pastor of The Faith Community of Saint Sabina. In a press release sent out on Sept. 11, Saint Sabina announced that Americans from across the country would unite on the West Lawn of the Capitol to pressure Congress to pass gun safety bills, ban assault weapons, demand universal background checks and titling guns like cars. The rally also served as a way to commemorate the National Remembrance Day for Murdered Victims. “I attended the rally because much of my education and outside work revolves around nonviolence and restorative justice,” said Catherine Ryan, a senior at DePaul and a site coordinator for the DePaul Community Service Association. She was also one of the 50 students who signed up to join the caravan from Chicago to D.C. The students were told about the rally only a few days prior from staff members in the Division of Mission and Ministry, but were nevertheless eager to make arrangements so they could join the group. “This all goes back to the question of, ‘What Must Be Done?” said Arlette Cortes, senior at DePaul who also
PHOTO COURTESY OF SAINT SABINA’S CHURCH
Fr. Michael Pfleger speaks at the anti-gun rally in Washington D.C. He is an activist for anti-gun violence and harsher policy. attended the event. “Chicago experiences so much gun violence. It is in our own backyard and there will be little change if we don’t act on making that change.” The rally started at 1 p.m. Wednesday, shortly after the first House Judiciary Committee hearing on “Protecting Americans from Assault Weapons.” The bill, also known as HR 1296, is going through its first stages of the legislative process. It’s the first time in 25 years that a bill is being introduced in Congress to ban assault weapons. “I was in that hearing today and Republicans failed to show up,” said Fred Guttenberg, father of one of the Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School shooting victims and founder of Orange Ribbons for Gun Safety. He was one of many people invited to share their story during the rally after the hearing. Speakers, including Congressman John Lewis, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, rapper Common and Lauren Hogg from March for Our lives, echoed concerns regarding gun violence and demanded that Congress pass legislation on gun reform. “We need gun reform now and we don’t plan on changing our message,” Pfleger said. “The urgency that fueled everyone to get on a 12-hour-long bus
CAMPUS CRIME REPORT:
ride from Chicago to D.C., is the same urgency that our Congress leaders should have when it comes to gun reform.” Pfleger has been one of many people on the forefront of fighting against gun violence in Chicago. He was one of the organizers, alongside Chicago Strong, who led a protest on the Dan Ryan Expressway in July 2018. “To me, going to Washington, D.C. and letting Congress hear our voices about ending gun violence, was something that had to be done,” Cortes said. “Like Fr. Pfleger said, ‘Faith without action is not faith.’”
Sept. 18, 2019- Sept. 24, 2019
LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS
LOOP CAMPUS
1150 W. Fullerton 990 W. Fullerton
1
8
7
Richardson Library 5
Corcoran Hall
3
Sheffield Garage O”Connell Hall
6
10 11
2
DePaul Center
4
9
Lewis Center 12
2 10
LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS
Assault & Theft
Drug & Alcohol
Other
LOOP CAMPUS
SEPT. 18 4) A Possession of Cannabis report was filed for SEPT. 24 SEPT. 19 1) A Criminal Damage to Vehicle report was filed a person with marijuana outside the O’Connell 7) A Criminal Damage to Vehicle report was filed 9) A Theft report was filed for a backpack taken for a vehicle hit in the 1150 W. Fullerton parking lot. 2) A Criminal Damage to Vehicle report was filed for a vehicle hit in the Sheffield Garage.
building. 5) A Theft from Building report was filed for a backpack stolen from the Richardson Library.
SEPT. 19 3) A Theft report was filed for a cell phone taken
Sexual Assault report was filed regarding an incident that occurred in the Student Center on Sept. 17 in Corcoran Hall.
on the Lincoln Park Campus. Offender was taken into custody by the Chicago Police.
SEPT. 23 6) A Criminal
at 1050 W. Fullerton 8) A Criminal Trespass Warning was issued to a subject on 990 W Fullerton.
from the DePaul Center
SEPT. 23 10) A Theft report was filed for a backpack taken
from the Lewis Center. 11) A Robbery & Battery was reported by Jackson and State. A Safety Alert was posted regarding the incident. 12) A Sex Offense & Battery was reported at Jackson and Wabash. Subject was placed under arrest by Chicago Police.
8 | News. The DePaulia. Sept. 30. 2019
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News. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019 | 9
50 years later, Young Lords still remembered
XAVIER ORTEGA | THE DEPAULIA
Community members, Young Lord activists, and plenty others join one another at Holy Covenant Methodist Church near the Diversey Brown Line station for a Peace March that followed a call to worship at Holy Covenant.
By Jonathan Aguilar Asst. Photo Editor
Young Lords activist and members of the Holy Covenant Methodist Church met on Sunday morning to host a memorial service for the fallen Young Lords and Pastor Bruce and Eugenia Johnson. The memorial was held on the fiftieth anniversary of the slaying of the Johnson’s who were found dead in their parsonage by their young children.
Bruce Johnson was stabbed 19 times and his wife Eugenia was stabbed 14 times, the case has never been solved. The Johnson’s hosted the Young Lords, the former gang turned activist group, at their church before they were slain in 1969. Jose Cha-Cha Jimenez, the founder of the Young Lords spoke about how the Johnson’s opened their church doors for the group when they so easily could have kept them closed like so many others did.
JONATHAN AGUILAR | THE DEPAULIA
Dr. Jacqueline Lazu, an associate professor at DePaul University, speaks about the history of the Young Lords at a memorial service.
JONATHAN AGUILAR | THE DEPAULIA
Jose Cha-Cha’ Jimenez the founder of the Young Lords speaks to a crowd at Holy Covenant United Methodist Church.
10 | Nation & World. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019
Nation &World
CLOWCKWISE FROM LEFT: EVAN VUCCI | AP; JASON DECROW | AP; CHARLES REX ARBOGAST | AP CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: President Donald Trump listens during the the U.N. Climate Action Summit on Monday, Sept. 23, 2019; Environmental activist Greta Thunberg, of Sweden, addresses the Climate Action Summit; Protesters rally on the Federal Plaza inside the Loop during a global climate change march Friday, Sept. 20, 2019, in Chicago.
Young people take center stage at UN climate summit By Cailey Gleeson Focus Editor
Coming off the heels of global protests Sept. 20, world leaders from more than 70 countries gathered in New York this past Monday to discuss stricter climate policy at the U.N. Climate Summit. Autumn Peltier, Greta Thunberg, Mari Copeny and Xiye Bastida were among 15 youth activists who filed a complaint to the U.N., citing violations to children’s rights under the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child. The complaint said under the Committee, leaders should be taking action to protect future generations from the devastating impact of climate change. Swedish teen activist Thunberg gave an impassioned speech criticizing leaders for their inaction on the crisis before the summit began. “People are suffering,” she said. “People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!” During the summit, leaders from around the world gave three- to four-minute speeches pledging their goals for fighting climate change, though the United States was notably absent. U.N. officials reported that the United States did not request to speak at the summit. The White House pool reported that President Donald Trump made a 14-minute appearance — listening to Angela Merkle’s speech — and left without speaking. Tyler Barron, policy fellow at the Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC), a Midwest-based public interest environmental legal advocacy group, said while this reflects the government’s “step back from progress and towards progressive polluting policies,” it should not discourage citizens. Referencing the United States leaving the Paris Climate Accord in 2017, Barron
said the move “violated the will of the people” who want to take action against the crisis. “Many cities that had made commitments in that accord to drastically reduce their carbon consumption stepped up and said, ‘We’re going to keep these commitments,” Barron said. 137 cities have already committed to transitioning to 100 percent clean and renewable energy as part of the Sierra’s Club “Ready for 100” campaign. Joshua Sarnoff, a DePaul law professor, said the summit addressed inadequacies of current global policies to combat the crisis. “The Climate Summit clearly demonstrated increasing recognition by most of the countries of the world of the inadequacy of existing legal commitments to greenhouse gas emission reductions and to financing the needed changes to energy production, distribution and utilization that will help us to avoid what will obviously be increasingly catastrophic effects of climate change,” Sarnoff said. One of the most striking claims of the summit came from Chilean President Sebastian Pinera Echenique, who said 66 countries have pledged to be more ambitious with climate policy goals — with 30 swearing to be carbon neutral by midcentury. Although it may seem like an idealistic promise, Barron said reducing carbon emissions is achievable if world governments take action now. “There’s no question at all that they can do it right now,” Barron said. “The technology is there, pricing is there, all of that is doable. I think the problem with it is that those 60 countries only make up something like 17 percent of the total carbon emissions, but I think where the value lies is that these countries can now serve as a benchmark to smaller communities within larger polluting nations to take action.” (According to a New York Times analysis of data from the Global Carbon Project, the 66 countries only account for 11 percent of
global carbon emissions.) Hailey Halcomb, a DePaul junior, said the right systems are not being criticized for their role in the current crisis. “Our conversations about the climate crisis must include an analysis of capitalism, colonialism and the acknowledgement and justice for indigenous communities who are disproportionately affected by climate change despite protecting 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity,” Halcomb said. Samantha Arechiga, a DePaul junior and representative for the Chicago chapter of the International Indigenous Youth Council, said systemic change is necessary to combat climate change. “Those are the systems that are perpetuating climate change because these systems rely on us neglecting our relationship with the Earth and viewing it as something that is a resource and can be exploited,” Arechiga said. Arechiga, who gave a speech on behalf of her organization at the Chicago strike Sept. 20, came away frustrated by her experience. She said she noticed a “co-opting”— almost “whitewashing”— of the movement amongst those in attendance and was irritated by the idea that voting is a viable solution to the crisis. “You’re putting a band-aid on a bullet wound whenever you want to say that voting is going to fix climate change,” Arechiga said. “That’s not going to fix climate change. What’s going to fix climate change is literally the rewiring of the way that society is functioning right now.” Georgiana Stacy Quintana, a DePaul junior studying political science and Latin American and Latino studies, said the media also fails to effectively address underlying causes. “Since the media corresponds directly with capitalistic states and wants to sell their papers, there is a lack of accountability,” Quintana said. “People want to believe that they could save Madre Tierra with metal straws while drinking out of plastic cups. This is merely a distraction and an
opportunity for companies to market.” The ELPC’s Barron said the “fatalistic” approach to most climate reporting contributes to a lack of public understanding of the true causes of climate change. “It’s very easy to write about climate change, or carbon consumption in this very ‘sky is falling’ way,” he said. “You should never write about the negative aspects or the amount of the possible side effects without proposing effective solutions in the same breath.” Barron said the trend has been noticeable since the start of “new wave climate activism” in 2006 with former vice president Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” which, in his view, was not comprehensive enough. “I think where he really failed in a lot of ways was to prioritize human consumption as the way to reduce carbon consumption,” he said. “So, adjusting personal behavior rather than pressuring corporations and governments to act on a large scale.” According to a 2017 study from the U.K.-based Carbon Disclosure Project, 100 energy companies are responsible for 71 percent of all industrial emissions. “You could do that for your entire life,” he said, referencing stereotypical ways to reduce one’s carbon footprint. “And it would not make a single drop in the overall emissions of companies like Amazon, Google and these palm oil companies—places like those.” Barron said that ahead of the next U.N. conference on climate change, scheduled for Dec. 2-13 in Santiago, Chile, the youth activists present a compelling message. “They’re not asking for anyone to listen to them,” Barron said. “They’re asking for everyone to listen to the science. I think that’s why their message is really effective because they’re not up there grandstanding for themselves, right? They’re up there grandstanding and pointing the finger at the people who should be responsible for creating these solutions.”
Nation & World. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019 | 11
Scrutiny mounts over Trump’s Ukraine phone call By Brian Pearlman Nation & World Editor
The fallout continued over the weekend from a phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelenskiy, which led Democrats to launched an impeachment inquiry into the president Wednesday. On Friday three different house committees subpoenead Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for documents related to Ukraine. Also, special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker was confirmed to have resigned by the student newspaper of Arizona State University; Volker was named in a whistleblower complaint as having met with Ukrainian officials a day after the call to give “advice to the Ukranian leadership about how to ‘navigate’ the demands that the president had made of Mr. Zelenskiy.” The July 25 phone call led to the whistleblower complaint, filed Aug. 12 by an unnamed individual later reported by the New York Times to be a CIA officer. The complaint was deemed credible by the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, Michael Atkinson. A partially declassified copy of the whistleblower complaint was released by the House Intel Committee Thursday morning. In it, the whistleblower cites conversations with “more than half a dozen U.S. officials” suggesting “the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.” The whistleblower says that they were not directly present during the incidents cited in the complaint. A key allegation from the complaint is that senior White House officials stored records related to the call in a “separate electronic system that is otherwise used to store and handle classifed information of an especially sensitive nature.” “This set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call,” the whistleblower wrote in the compaint. In the call, Trump congratulates Zelenskiy on his election victory and asks Zelenskiy to look into American cybersecurity film Crowdstrike — which investigated Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on behalf of the Democratic National Committee — and former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, who was on the board of directors for Ukraine-based energy company Burisma Holdings. Burisma is the subject of a corruption investigation by Ukrainian authorities, though the Ukrainian government’s anti-corruption agency said the scope of their investigation involved a period of time before Biden joined the company. Ukraine relies heavily on U.S. military aid. Trump ordered a planned $400 million military aid package to be held off about a week before the call with Zelenskiy, which Democrats say could be evidence of quid pro quo. “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great,” Trump told Zelenskiy, according to the unclassified memo of the phone conversation released by the White House Wednesday. “Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.” The memo of the conversation is
EVAN VUCCI | AP President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during the U.N. General Assembly, Sept. 25, 2019, in New York.
not a verbatim transcript of the call, only a summary based on staff “assigned to listen and memorialize the conversation in written form as the conversation takes place,” according to a note included in the memo. In the call, Trump also told Zelenskiy to speak about the matter with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr. “The president’s personal lawyer ... is a central figure in this effort,” the complaint states. “Attorney General Barr appears to be involved as well.” Democrats are calling the phone call a “shakedown,” while most Republicans argue there is no evidence of quid pro quo. At the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Zelenskiy shared the stage with Trump and said he didn’t want to be involved in the U.S. presidential race. “We had, I think, a good phone call,” he told reporters. “It was normal, we spoke about many things … I think, and you read it, that nobody pushed me.” “In other words,” Trump added as cameras snapped away, “no pressure.” Zelenskiy, for whom fighting political corruption was a key platform of his presidential campaign, faces only a “minor risk” of having his reputation tarnished, according to Jordan Gans-Morse, an associate professor of political science at Northwestern University who has studied political corruption in the former Soviet Union. “It’s unfortunate that Zelenskiy appears in the transcripts to agree to pursuing the investigations Trump requests,” he said. “It’s also unfortunate that he felt compelled to emphasize that he previously had stayed in Trump hotels. But a reasonable person could assume that Zelenskiy was working off a well-known playbook that many foreign leaders have found to be effective with Trump: flatter as much as possible, avoid arguments whenever possible.” On Capitol Hill Thursday, Zelenskiy was no longer the primary focus, as Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testified before the House Intelligence Committee. During the more than three-hour hearing, Chairman Adam Schiff, D-CA,
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE | AP
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., talks to reporters about the transcript of a call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskiy at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019. and other Democrats accused Maguire of keeping the contents of the whistleblower complaint from Congress; Maguire repeatedly responded that the complaint was “unprecedented” because to his knowledge, no other complaint had ever dealt with a phone call between a president and a foreign leader, making it subject to executive privilege. He said that, in his efforts to follow the law, he consulted with the White House Counsel’s office and the DOJ’s Office of Special Counsel before forwarding the complaint to the House and Senate intelligence committees, which the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act says should be done within seven days of receiving it. Republicans largely cast doubt on the veracity of the whistleblower complaint and accused Democrats of trying to assail the honor of Maguire, a 36-year Navy veteran. Trump has repeatedly attacked the credibility of the whistleblower, calling them “highly partisan” on Twitter. Behind closed doors Thursday, Trump stood before members of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and said whoever gave the whistleblower information is “a spy.”
“You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right?” he asked. “We used to handle it a little differently than we do now.” Audio of Trump’s comments was obtained by the Los Angeles Times, and Bloomberg News later published video. DePaul student Jairus Castenada said in terms of the Democrats’ decision to open an impeachment inquiry, “The government is two steps behind the public consensus, but at least they’re listening.” In Millenium Park, Carlos Gomez said he agreed with the Democrats’ decision to open an impeachment inquiry, and he believes the government has lost credibility. “It’s about time that they actually go through with this impeachment,” he said. Nationally, a poll conducted by NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist on Sept. 25 found that only six percent of Republicans approved of the House of Represenetatives formally starting an impeachment inqury into President Trump, while 88 percent of Democrats approved. It’s unclear if Democrats would be able to secure the two-thirds majority they would need in the Senate to oust the president, assuming the House moves forward with Articles of Impeachment.
12 | Opinions. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019
Opinions The climate crisis cannot be solved by individual actions. In order to save the planet, systemic change needs to occur. ANNALISA BARANOWSKI | THE DEPAULIA
By Cassidy Delahunty Contributing Writer
In 2015, Greenpeace estimated that we had until 2020 before the planet reached the point of no return on climate change – not an apocalypse, but a point beyond which consequences would be unavoidable and irreversible. According to the opening press release for the UN 2019 Climate Action Summit, “The world would need to increase its efforts between three- and five-fold to contain climate change to the levels dictated by science – a 1.5°C rise at most – and avoid escalating climate damage already taking place around the world.” That unavoidable, irreversible date is now only a few months away. So what can we do? According to an article from the BBC, up to one-third of greenhouse gas emissions come from the food production industry. If the world became vegan, that amount would fall by about 70 percent. Mark Potosnak, associate professor and chair of the environmental science department at DePaul, said that much of this greenhouse gas comes from over-fertilization. “The nitrogen in the soil, there’s so much of it, yeah some of it goes into the plants, but some actually goes back out into the atmosphere and is a greenhouse gas called nitrous oxide,” Potosnak said. “A lot of the corn and soy, we don’t actually consume directly, we grow them and then they’re consumed by cattle, chickens, pigs and then we eat the cattle, chickens, pigs.” So, there appears to be a simple solution: If you want to help the environment, go vegan. If we stop consuming animal products, corporations that produce those products would go out of business, and the energy from plants we eat would be used more efficiently. However, it’s not that simple; the hypothetical world where everyone goes vegan just can't happen. Being able to make your diet sustainable is a privilege. Frankly, it’s expensive and labor-intensive to maintain a vegan diet. I can get a cheeseburger meal from
CHARLES REX ARBOGAST| ASSOCIATED PRESS
Protesters march in the Chicago climate strike in Grant Park on Sept. 20.
"There's personal steps, but they can only go so far. We need that commitment at the government level, but the government level of commitment won't happen if we're only taking these personal steps.”
Mark Potosnak
Associate professor, Chair of Environmental Science Department McDonald’s, over 1,000 calories, for $6. However, at a nearby vegetarian and vegan restaurant, Native Foods Cafe, the cheapest meal costs $10, and has a lot less calories. Low-income households are already at a disadvantage when it comes to eating healthy, let alone eating sustainably. Being poor is expensive, and not having the money to make strategic purchases limits your ability to make better choices for the long run. You need to be lucky in a lot of ways to sustain a vegan diet. You need to be able to afford it, have the time to plan it and live in an area that allows access to a variety of foods. If you have an allergy like nuts or soy, many vegan and vege-
tarian foods aren’t edible. If meat holds great significance in your culture, you would have to give that up. According to sophomore Tommy Virgl, the stigma and inaccessibility surrounding the diet are barriers to maintaining veganism. Virgl was briefly vegan a few years ago, but was unable to continue after the effort became unrealistic. “Every restaurant has a vegetarian option, but it’s rare that there’s a select vegan option, so it would kind of make me uncomfortable in social settings,” Virgl said. “My family was not supportive of [veganism] at all, so whenever I was with them they would make me meat and stuff ... and I was like, ‘Well, I
have nothing to eat now.’” This isn’t to say that going vegan doesn’t work; if we don’t become vegan globally, but still have more people do so, we will still reap some benefits, such as decreased demand for meat products and a more health-conscious ideology. But, in the same way we can’t expect everyone to install solar panels on their roofs, we can’t move forward saying that, if only more people were vegan, we would be saved. Like everything, veganism has its downsides. “I don’t think it’s good to make all these vegan products that are coming from all parts of the world and say that that's better than chicken that’s grown right outside your door,” said Rachel Elfant, climate justice organizer and administrator for the activist group Chicago Area Peace Action. According to Elfant, there’s a lot more we need to consider in discussing our climate crisis. “We need to be talking about the system in which we live in,” Elfant said. “I think we’re stuck in a one dimensional thought process of economics...and we’re not thinking in terms of pollution, in terms of the environmental expenses, the social expenses. System change, not climate change.” The only way to make that system change in today’s landscape is to engage on a political level. Fight for regulation on corporations, fight for energy research, for economic equality, fight to give more people the ability to make change. “There’s personal steps, they can only go so far,” Potosnak said. “We need that commitment at the government level, but the government level of commitment won’t happen if we’re only taking these personal steps. It’s a hand-in-hand thing.” As much as we like to think that one person can change the world, our strength is in numbers. We can’t keep putting the responsibility on others as an excuse to not do more ourselves. Being able to make change in your own life is a privilege few have, and we need to use that privilege to change more lives than our own.
Opinions. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019 | 13
The diversity debacle
Despite its eclectic urban campus, DePaul is lacking in meaningful representation. By Nicholas Moreano Contributing Writer
Like many students who go to DePaul University, my commute to class every Monday and Wednesday involves a train ride and roughly, depending on speed, a 25 minute walk. Although I take the same route, on the same day, at the same time, twice a week , every commute is different. That is because of the different people I pass by every time I make my way to the Richard M. and Maggie C. Daley Building. From the different cultures to the variety of food to the many ethnicities, this is what makes Chicago a microcosm of the entire United States. It’s unfortunate, though, that the same diversity which the city embodies is not represented at DePaul. DePaul has been lauded for its diversity, being ranked 22nd in Diversity MBA Magazine’s 2018 Best Companies for Women and Diverse Managers and a Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award in 2015 from Insight into Diversity Magazine. However, that doesn’t tell the full story. According to DePaul’s University Marketing and Communication website, 22,437 students enrolled at DePaul this fall and only 8,750 are students of color, which happens to be the highest in the university’s history. Still, students of color only accounted for 39 percent of the students that enrolled this fall. “When I first got here, I expected they [DePaul] advertise diversity and all that, but what I’m seeing here is that it really
isn’t as diverse in my perspective,” said freshman Jonathan Noel. “I’m typically still one of the only black students in most of my classes.” This lack of diversity that Noel is experiencing in the classroom has also been expressed by other black students in the past. According to an Institutional Research and Market Analytics survey conducted by DePaul in 2016, among undergraduate White, Latino, Asian and Black students, it was Black students who were least satisfied with the race and ethnic diversity of the student body. It isn’t just certain groups of students that feel DePaul lacks diversity but so do specific departments of the school. Amber Settle, a professor in the
ANNALISA BARANOWSKI | THE DEPAULIA
School of Computing, has been a fulltime faculty member at DePaul since 1996. Despite Settle having 23 years of experience at DePaul, she hasn’t seen much growth in the variety of students that are a part of the School of Computing. “In the 80s is when things, particularly with gender, started to take a turn down,” Settle said. “That is when a lot of women seemed to leave computing. It actually has not rebounded, and it is a very persistent problem.” With Asian and Caucasian males making up the majority of students at the School of Computing, Settle has grown accustomed over the years to being the only female in the room.
She does think, however, that it’s more difficulty being a newcomer at the school. “I think what is more discouraging is for people who are new, for example, my students,” Settle said. “It is really difficult for a female student, or for an African-American student, or a Latino or Latina student sitting in my class and looks around and doesn’t see anyone else who looks like themselves. That would be much harder.” This is just one specific example that reflects the disparities faced by minorities at DePaul. It’s also likely not the only group on campus that is struggling to see diversity among its students. A way to reach a more diverse group of potential incoming freshmen during recruiting season would be to narrow the focus to high schools that have a large number of minority students. This would raise the likelihood of students of color from these specific high schools to apply at DePaul. Additionally, DePaul should integrate more technology in the recruiting process. Whether that means using social media more effectively or creating virtual campus tours, both could increase the interest of future students of color. There is still work that can be done to make everyone feel like they are welcomed at DePaul. So, until that happens, those that feel left out should take the same approach as Noel. “It pushes me to do better,” Noel said. “I’m representing some of the black community because I’m the only person that is actually going through this.”
Unpopular opinions: DePaulia edition GRAPHICS BY ANNALISA BARANOWSKI
By DePaulia Staff
Having your parents pay all of your bills isn’t cute, get a job!
-Keira Wingate, Asst. Arts & Life Editor
Chunky Filas represent the same threat to society as anti-vaxxers. -Lacey Latch, Managing Editor
If my Juul kills me, at least I’ll die at the hands of science and not the Marlboro Man. The Bible was the first fanfiction.
Shane René, Editor-in-Chief
-Mackenize Murtaugh, News Editor
Having a nicotine addiction isn’t a personality trait. -Cailey Gleeson, Focus Editor
Quentin Tarantino's massive ego worsens all of his movies. -Emma Oxnevad, Opinions Editor
Peak Mariah Carey is better than Beyoncé. -Nate Burleyson, Asst. Sports Editor
The ‘90s was a great decade for comic books — it wasn’t all oversized Leifeldian guns, muscles and explosions.
-Brian Pearlman, Nation & World Editor
14 | Focus. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019
Focus
Go Gre or
Students talk pros and cons of De By HANNAH MITCHELL AND REBECCA MELUCH Multimedia Editor and Contributing Wrtier As the new school year unfolds, many students look forward to making new friends, participating in service events and joining new organizations–while fraternities and sororities are looking forward to recruiting new brothers and sisters for the same reasons. DePaul’s first week back to school welcomed a new class of students rushing for sororities and fraternities. Pre-recruitment events allowed students interested in joining one of the campus’ Greek organizations to find the best fit through getting to know potential sisters and brothers. As of graduation last year, DePaul has eight Panhellenic sororities with about 700 women involved, while having eight Interfraternity chapters with around 300 men. Eryk Soltys, president of the Interfraternity Council (IFC) at DePaul, said DePaul welcomed Pi Kappa Alpha into its IFC this year. Prospective members gathered for pre-recruitment information sessions in the Student Center conference room during the first week of classes. Compared to other universities, the location proved unconventional, but Katelyn Schreck, vice president of membership recruitment [whose sorority name could not be given during dissociation period] said it doesn’t stop them from throwing numerous events year-round. These gatherings range from formals to “pie-ing people in the face” and are primarily held in the Student Center or in the Quad, since DePaul lacks typical “Greek Row” houses found at other universities. DePaul’s Division of Student Affairs reports that nearly 90 percent of the student body either commute or live off campus. Annamarie Pas, president of Alpha Xi Delta, believes that the commuting aspect of DePaul brings diversity to its Greek Life. “In general, my chapter specifically is a very diverse pool of women,” Pas said. “We have women who live all the way out in the suburbs and they are true commuter students, and then we have women who live in the far North Side or the far South Side. We range everywhere.” For students looking to rush, not having a sorority or
fraternity home does not seem to matter. For freshmen Millie Adams and Olivia Crowley, making friends is at the top of the list of reasons to rush. Adams said she hopes this experience will introduce her to “lifelong friends and make a difference in [her] community.” Crowley said she hopes for something similar. “What I’m looking forward to most in a sorority is the sisterhood,” Crowley said. Schreck said she believes she got just that. “It changed my life,” Schreck said. “I made a lot of great friends and I have had a lot of great advantages from it.” DePaul’s large student body of commuters is not the only unique aspect of its Greek life. Evan Sellas, president of Pi Kappa Phi, highlighted some of DePaul’s Greek characteristics, while also explaining common stereotypes students often make on campus. “Here at DePaul we don’t have frat houses and we don’t have parties every other day,” Sellas said. “We’re actually going out to different philanthropy events on campus; we try to be as active as possible.” Similarly to Schreck, Sellas said joining Greek life has had a positive influence on his college experience. He mentioned that philanthropies and different types of campus involvement taught him a lot about human relationship skills. Not everyone feels the same way, though, as Schreck and Sellas do about their Greek life experiences. Lillian Neubel originally joined a sorority at her last school in Virginia for the same reason many others do: friends. She said she was “disappointed” with her experience. Neubel said she found the time commitment overwhelming and her sorority sisters couldn’t understand why she had to miss events for work. “I had three good friends in my sorority and what
“There w of cattine could not work to a things lik day parti other eve
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Focus. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019 | 15
eek r go home
ePaul Greek life amidst recruitment separated us was finances,” Neubel said. “There was a lot of cattiness if I could not leave work to attend things like birthday parties or other events.” Similar to Neubel’s experience, an anonymous source said she experienced disappointment when she decided to rush a DePaul sorority her freshman year. Since she is an out-of-state student at DePaul, she decided to rush in hopes of gaining friends who would “supposedly” have the same morals. Instead, she said, she experienced an overwhelming and time-consuming encounter while involved with her sorority. “The people in charge were very rude,” she said. “They basically threatened girls by telling them if they didn’t skip class or something, they would get dropped from their top sorority.” The anonymous source also said that she experienced some traumatizing situations in her personal life while she was involved with her sorority. Although she said was very communicative during the time, her sorority would not understand, but instead wanted to charge her for missing chapter meetings. Those involved with fraternities DePaul Student at DePaul have also experienced conflict. Early in 2017, DePaul’s Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter had many members placed on suspension for an incident. The fraternity involved itself in an issue involving several members being waterboarded– an interrogation technique simulating a drowning experience–by upperclassmen brothers. The incident later circulated through a group text between the fraternity and eventually made its way around the DePaul community and the National Board of Directors for Sigma Phi Epsilon. Colin Kieny, the current president, said the situation was an isolated incident. “It had nothing to do with new members at the time,” Kieny said. “The older guys were kind of just doing their
was a lot ess if I t leave attend ke birthies or ents.”
Lillian Neubel
own thing. As far as I know, it was voluntary and it was stupid, obviously. I guess that’s just like the nature of guys and [some] girls. But I guess it’s more of a guy thing to be competitive.” Kieny said that immediately after the incident, DePaul notified the National Board. An interview process ensued that implied if a member didn’t show up, they were removed from the fraternity, or if their interview did not seem valuable to the standards of the fraternity, they would also be suspended until further notice. Kieny said that only about six or seven members were left of the fraternity after the interviews. Two years after the incident, Kieny said that he and Sigma Phi Epsilon have been working on rebuilding their fraternity and preventing another incident from taking place again. Although the waterboarding incident may seem rare here at DePaul, the incident is not isolated among sororities and fraternities on a national scale. BBC News reports there have been at least 70 deaths related to fraternity and sorority hazing since 2000. Early in 2017, Tom Piazza, a Beta Theta Pi pledge at Penn State University died due to a hazing-related incident. Time reported that Piazza died by drinking a toxic amount of alcohol during a “so-called” hazing ritual involving pledges drinking out of a gauntlet. By the time fraternity members thought to seek medical aid for Piazza, he was already suffering injuries to his brain and spleen and died in the intensive-care unit. To many critics of Greek life, the history of recent deaths, hazing incidents and misconduct raises a debate about the presence of Greek life on college campuses. Sororities and fraternities often have a bad reputation for treating members unfairly – sometimes even violently. For each DePaul student who decides to rush, there is a diverse reason for choosing Greek life and there is an even wider range of reasons for why they choose to leave or stay. With mounting criticism, one can wonder if DePaul should continue expanding its Greek life on campus.
GRAPHICS BY ANNALISA BARANOWSKI | THE DEPAULIA
Arts & Life
16 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019
Netflix lands global streaming rights to
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
How Seinfeld stayed relevant to a new generation of viewers By Brian Gilbert Contributing Writer
The show about nothing will have something to say on Netflix beginning in 2021. After losing the streaming rights to two of its most popular series, “Friends” and “The Office,” Netflix reportedly paid over $500 million to acquire the global streaming rights for “Seinfeld” in order to keep up in the digital streaming war of popular sitcoms. As part of a deal with Sony Pictures Television, which controls the distribution of the iconic show, Netflix will offer all 180 episodes of “Seinfeld” in the U.S. and to its 151 million subscribers throughout the world when the five-year contract takes effect in 2021, the companies both announced last Monday. Shows like “Seinfeld” are still popular to this day, mainly due to nostalgia and familiarity. “People feel comfortable with shows they know, and they want the ease of putting it on and letting it play without having to do anything,” said Paul Booth, a professor of media and cinema studies at DePaul. “I also think there’s a quality element – ‘Seinfeld’ is largely considered a quality television show. It’s very funny, it’s been culturally relevant for a long time and therefore people will continue to watch it even decades after it ended.” “‘Seinfeld’ is the television comedy that all television comedy is measured against,” said Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos in a statement. It is as fresh and funny as ever and will be available to the world in 4K for the first time. We can’t wait to welcome Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer to their new global home on Netflix.” The fact that more people subscribe to Netflix over any other streaming service means that it will reach a wider audience. Jeff Armstrong, a photojournalist and lifelong “Seinfeld” fan, said he’s excited about the show coming to Netflix. “I grew up watching the show with my dad when I was a teen so there’s definitely some nostalgia in there, but it’s also just hilarious and one of my favorite shows,”
Armstrong said. “I still watch the occasional episode on cable from time to time, but now that it’s coming to Netflix, I can binge anytime I want.” Netflix will not only provide familiar fans with their favorite episodes, but will also attract new viewers from a new generation. Miguel Angel-Venegas, a 24-yearold nursing student at Malcolm X, said that he has never seen an episode of “Seinfeld” in his life, but because he has a Netflix account, he will most likely watch the show. “I’ve never watched the show, but I’ll watch anything on Netflix if it’s on there,” Venegas said. “I’ve heard of it and heard it’s funny so if it pops up in the trending section, I’ll most likely check it out.” “Seinfeld” was created by comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David and just celebrated its 30th anniversary this summer. The first episode aired on July 5, 1989 under the show name, “The Seinfeld Chronicles.” The show at the time failed to find a following in its early seasons, though it was beloved by television critics. As one of NBC’s marquee shows, “Seinfeld” was consistently among the mostwatched programs of the week, and twice finished the broadcast year as the No. 1 rated program on TV. When the show ended its nine-season run in 1998, almost 80 million people tuned in to watch the series finale. Even 20 years after “Seinfeld” left NBC, the show’s episode repeats remain a popular attraction on local TV stations like FOX and cable network TBS. Not only did “Seinfeld” produce iconic characters in Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer, but it also had some of the funniest supporting characters, like Elaine’s boyfriend David Puddy, Jerry’s neighbor Newman and Uncle Leo. It also created one-liners and catchphrases that are repeated and used to this day, like “yada-yada-yada,” “no soup for you” and “shrinkage.” Lastly, it gave us some of the most memorable and irreverent episodes in television history with “The Contest”, “The Subway” and “The Puffy Shirt.”
PHOTO FROM IMDB
“The Chinese Restaurant,” Season 2
PHOTO FROM IMDB
“The Bizarro Jerry,” Season 8
PHOTO FROM IMDB
“The Switch,” Season 6
Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019 | 17
GRAPHIC BY ANNALISA BARANOWSKI
Breaking down the best episode in each season By Brian Gilbert Contributing Writer
Here is the best episode from each of the nine seasons, according to IMDB ratings and critic reviews: “The Stakeout,” Season 1 In this episode, the second episode of the series and the first featuring Elaine, Elaine drags Jerry to a birthday dinner for one of her friends, where he meets an attractive woman. He forgets her name and refuses to ask Elaine who she is because Jerry and Elaine used to date but are now just friends. Jerry’s dad suggests he stake out the lobby where the woman works. George tags along with Jerry and pretends to be Art Vandelay, an architect who works in the building, and an alias that George will continue to use throughout the series. The plot of this episode is based on a real-life experience of “Seinfeld” creator Larry David. The names of the people in the law firm that the woman works at are named after friends David met in college. “The Chinese Restaurant,” Season 2 The entire episode takes place at a Chinese restaurant, where Elaine, George and Jerry have been told it’ll be about five or 10 minutes for a table. They observe that people arriving after them are being seated ahead of them and get confused. Jerry also sees someone who he can’t remember where from or her name and uses Elaine to introduce herself to figure out her name. George, meanwhile, is desperate to call his girlfriend and gets upset when others in the restaurant lobby hog the payphone. The whole episode plays out in real time and on one set. NBC executives were against this idea, but the episode went ahead and became a fan and critical favorite. “The Boyfriend,” Season 3 In the first hour-long episode of the series, Jerry meets Keith Hernandez (a famous New York Mets baseball player at
the time) at the gym and the two become friends. Keith eventually meets Elaine and becomes attracted to her, and Jerry becomes jealous of both Elaine and Keith. George tries to keep his unemployment money coming in when he tells the unemployment officer that he got a job with “Vandelay Industries,” a company that manufactures latex. Kramer and Newman recall an incident in which Keith allegedly spit on them after they heckled him for having a bad game. In 1997, the TV Guide ranked this episode No. 4 on its “100 Greatest Episodes of All Time” list. Honorable mentions: “The Parking Garage,” Season 3, and “The Subway,” Season 3 “The Contest,” Season 4 In arguably the most famous and iconic episode of the series, Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer stage a contest to see who can last the longest without any sexual gratification. Temptation quickly sets in for everyone. Kramer can’t keep his eyes off a naked neighbor across the way. George visits his mother in the hospital and notices her attractive roommate through the curtain getting a bath from an attractive nurse. Elaine signs up for a fitness class that John F. Kennedy, Jr. is enrolled in, who she finds attractive. Lastly, Jerry’s new girlfriend, Marla, decides it’s time to lose her virginity, but Jerry must explain the contest to her. This episode was based on a real-life “contest” that Larry David won against his friends, which lasted several months. Honorable mentions: “The Bubble Boy,” Season 4, and “The Junior Mint,” Season 4 “The Opposite,” Season 5 One of the best seasons of the entire series featuring a handful of memorable episodes, including “The Opposite,” which is considered one of the best of the series. In this episode, George realizes his every instinct is wrong and decides to try the opposite, which lands him a girlfriend, a job
offer with the New York Yankees and an apartment. At the same time, Elaine finds her life turning upside down when she gets kicked out of her apartment, breaks up with her boyfriend and eventually gets fired from her job. This is the first episode in which Larry David voices the character George Steinbrenner, the owner of the New York Yankees and George’s boss. Lee Bear provided the body of Steinbrenner while David did the voice. Honorable mentions: “The Marine Biologist,” Season 5, and “The Hamptons,” Season 5 “The Switch,” Season 6 In this episode, Jerry’s girlfriend never smiles or laughs at his jokes, but her roommate laughs at everything he says, so he contemplates the switch, meaning dating the other roommate. George says it’s never successfully been done and comes up with an idea as to how he might get away with it. George’s girlfriend, a model, eats like a horse but never puts on weight, so Kramer suggests she might be bulimic, which turns out to not be true. The gang also learns Kramer’s first name, which is Cosmo, thanks to his mom. The idea of Kramer’s first name came from Larry David, who had a neighbor named Cosmo while living in New York. The original title of this episode was “The Bulimic” but was changed to focus more on Jerry’s switch storyline. Honorable mentions: “The Race,” Season 6, and “The Fusilli Jerry,” Season 6 “The Soup Nazi,” Season 7 One of the most iconic characters came from this episode and just so happens to be based on a real-life soup vendor. In this episode, the gang hears about this new soup stand that’s the best in the city – so good it makes your knees buckle. Unfortunately, the owner of the soup stand wants his customers to order in a very particular manner and if you don’t, you get yelled at and thrown out. The Soup Nazi is based on
the actual owner, Al Yeganeh, of a take-out soup business in Manhattan on West 55th Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue. Just like in the show, his soups were known for their excellent quality, but Yeganeh was also famous for the unusual way he treated his customers. Honorable mention: “The Rye,” Season 7 “The Bizarro Jerry,” Season 8 Arguably the second-strongest season of the series features some of the funniest episodes, including “The Bizarro Jerry.” In this episode, Elaine has a new friend named Kevin, whom she used to date, but is now just friends with, like with Jerry. She meets his friends, Gene and Feldman, who are eerily similar to George and Kramer in looks but opposite in behavior. She jokes and feels like she’s in the bizarro world where everything is the same yet different. Just as Jerry has a statue of Superman in his apartment, Kevin, the bizarro Jerry, has a statue of Bizarro Superman in his apartment. Honorable mentions: “The Summer of George,” Season 8, and “The Little Kicks,” Season 8 “The Merv Griffin Show,” Season 9 In this episode, Kramer rescues the set of the old Merv Griffin show from a dumpster and sets it up in his apartment, where he interviews anyone who happens to drop by. Also, Jerry has a new girlfriend who inherited a huge, rare collection of classic toys, but won’t let Jerry touch them or play with them, but he soon finds a way around that. Jerry Seinfeld actually appeared on The Merv Griffin Show in 1986 in an episode dated Jan. 4. When Kramer says, “We have to reformat” in the episode, this is a reference to The Jerry Springer Show, which needed to reformat for higher ratings in 1991. Honorable mentions: “The Serenity Now,” Season 9, and “The Betrayal,” Season 9.
18 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019
‘Joker’ faces controversy amidst national gun violence debate By Luke Murphy Contributing Writer
It all started with a Twitter post. Heather Antos, a comics editor at Valiant & Image, logged onto the site Sept. 5 and wrote, “Why the Joker movie is problematic. Rachel Miller nails it.” The tweet has already been liked 55.1K times and retweeted 16.6K times. “I don’t want to be shown what a poor, unfortunate underdog this man was who was sadly forced by circumstances and that nasty Batman to take up a life of crime,” an excerpt from the screen shot of Miller’s take on the upcoming Oct. 3 film release of “Joker,” read. “I don’t want to have sympathy for a man best known for his robbery, murder and arguable rape shoved down my throat for two hours. I don’t want this to be sold as a relatable story that can happen to anyone with a bad enough day, and I don’t want to be around any of the lonely white boys who relate to it.” The tweet went semi-viral, inspiring think pieces from popular websites like Vox, Dailywire and more. Then, this past week, the story underwent a major development, making national news. Seven years removed from the July 20, 2012 mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado, where James Eagan Holmes tear gassed and shot up a midnight premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises,” killing 12 people and injuring 70, Sandy Phillips, the mother of 24-year-old shooting victim Jessica Ghawi spearheaded the writing of a letter to Warner Bros expressing concern over the release of “Joker.” The debate picked up with questions, such as what is okay to show on the big screen. Is it possible for a movie to be responsible for inspiring a heinous act like a mass shooting? What could be at stake if we limit what is allowed to be shown? However, as the public awaits the films’ wide release, many questions remain unanswered. For DePaul film teacher Fatou Samba, the issue remains far from black and white. “I think there are a lot of gray areas here,” Samba said. “I understand one point of view where it is like, you don’t want to entice people that are maybe troubled to do something like this. On the other hand, it can be a slippery slope. I mean, how much do you limit artistic expression to avoid violence in the world? So you can argue, if this movie inspires one person to commit heinous acts should this movie maybe not be made? Then, on the other hand, you can say anything can be triggering, so where do you draw the line? Do you not show rape? Do you not show murder? Do you not show violence? So where do you draw the line on that?” “I think there are certainly merits to what people are saying,” Samba continued. “I am not a victim of violence, so I can’t really say you’re not entitled to your opinion. I 100 percent understand where they’re coming from, especially now with mass shootings happening what seems like everyday. But I don’t think that necessarily attacking art and movies is where you begin, in my opinion.” Samba went on stress the importance of intention and nuance in stories like “Joker.” She talked about how films about violent individuals should strive to “provide meaningful commentary on the state of the world and the people in it,” while making sure they’re not glorifying violence and those that perpetuate it.
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In discussing the story with students, most understood where Miller and Phillips were coming from, while simultaneously stressing that censoring films like “Joker” is not the answer. Senior film student Vanessa Arce heard
the concerns of those in opposing “Joker,” but did not believe it would be responsible for inspiring any acts of violence. Arce also spoke to the fear that many people are filled with on a daily basis, as mass shootings have become common across the country.
“I understand where people are coming from with this argument,” Arce said. “That is fair because it is true. There are a lot of problems going on, especially with people being bullied and becoming these types of people and causing these mass murders. I mean, it makes sense, [Miller’s] opinion, and the way that they feel is totally fair. “I just think a lot of people are just scared and that’s their own trauma as well,” Arce continued. “Where they just don’t want that to happen again, which is fair. But, I mean if you’re just pinpointing [“Joker”], there’s a bunch of films that could cause someone to do the same thing. You can’t just point a finger at a certain film. There are other films that could trigger people, too. I don’t think this one film, the ‘Joker’ is going to trigger something. You can’t just pinpoint one. There are violent movies everywhere that are based around murder, rape, everything. So there should be trigger warnings for it, but I don’t think that one film [‘Joker’] will cause any violence.” Amongst students that the DePaulia spoke to, perhaps none landed as emphatically on the side of anti-censorship as Werner Reineke, a graduate student from Paderborn, Germany majoring in cyber security. Reineke, who listed “The Dark Knight” as one of his favorite movies of all time, empathized with the aforementioned concerns while raising a different idea: that perhaps a movie like “Joker” could inspire people to not pick on or isolate somebody just because they’re different. “I think censorship is bad,” Reineke said. “There is no way you can say censorship is a good idea. Even if it is something horrible that somebody wrote, you have to read it and you have to understand what the person who made it thought. “I understand the logic behind it [critiques over ‘The Joker’],” Reineke continued. “It makes sense that showing someone being degraded by being pummeled or some sort of kind of social isolation and destruction, that he can go mad. But still, showing it in an art piece doesn’t mean you are lifting it [lashing back at society] up on a pedestal and saying, ‘O, this is okay.’ I mean, it is a story, maybe it could also open people’s eyes to think, ‘Don’t isolate the kid at the end of the room,’ right? It could be a good thing, too. I don’t see why you should see it as something negative, or not make the movie at all.” The consensus from those interviewed was that with a problem as serious and nuanced as mass shootings, there are countless things we as a country have to look at before violent movies. Out of all the students that voiced their opinions on the issue either formally or informally, none called for the film to be banned or shelved. While everybody expressed concern over the widespread violence of our time, the shared feeling was that movies were not to blame. “I think that what needs to be dealt with is white male privilege, white male fragility, toxic masculinity,” Samba said. “I think those are issues that are at the root of these violent and extreme acts and hateful people are going to commit acts like this, with movies or without movies, and so this is a nuanced sort of conversation. You can’t just say limit all violent movies either, but it is definitely a conversation that’s worth having.”
Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019 | 19
Students pick classes based on By Keira Wingate Asst. Arts & Life Editor
Every term, students are asked to do professor evaluations for every class taken. These evaluations are not made public to DePaul students; they are only shown to the professors themselves and their superiors. With these evaluations kept private from students, “Rate My Professor” lends a helping hand in picking the right professor. “Rate My Professor” launched in May 1999 and has grown to become a trusted site among students all over the country. It has become the largest online destination for professor ratings, according to the site. There are over 19 million ratings, 1.7 million professors and over 7,500 schools on the site. DePaul’s professor evaluations give students a chance to rate their professors on many subjects, such as if they were following the syllabus, how easy it is to get help on assignments if they were organized and more. Toward the end, students can actually type in improvements they would like professors to make. Seth Horning, an academic adviser in the College of Communication, doesn’t necessarily think students would stop using the site even if teacher evaluations were public. “The evaluations are a bit denser and more difficult to read,” he said. “You have to spend more time on the evaluations, and they don’t really give the same context and
discussion that “Rate My Professor” does with the user comments. I think students would still gravitate toward the simplicity and ease of use the website offers overall.” Being able to choose the best courses and professors is something on top of every student’s list when that email hits their inbox, saying it’s time to pick classes. “I use ‘Rate My Professors’ every time I’m deciding what classes to sign up for,” said Madi Garci, a sophomore at DePaul. “Before I put a class in my planner, I check the professor’s rating on the site to see how past students have liked them.” Students rely heavily on the site to help make sure their class experience will be top-notch. But not every rating is as accurate as it seems. Horning thinks students should use the site with caution. “For one of my first classes freshman year here at DePaul, I took WRD103,” Garci said. “The professor had a solid 4 on the ‘Rate My Professors’ site, so I trusted that it would be a good class. However, after a few class sessions, I began to dread the class because the professor had no idea what they were doing. Class time was constantly wasted, and I learned absolutely nothing from the class the whole quarter. The reason the professor had such great reviews was because the class was so easy, and they gave out an A to everyone who showed up for class.” As with most review sites, some people just make reviews to make reviews, with no real substance behind it. Some students who didn’t try may leave a review out of an-
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ger or maybe even not liking a professor’s learning style. “When there is only one choice available, I think it is more harmful than helpful,” Horning said. “A student may get a bad impression of a professor and make assumptions about that professor that only serves to cause unnecessary anxiety about the class. The student may find that the class goes perfectly well and was worried for no reason based on feedback from a few disgruntled students.” Students overall have had great success in using the site, saying it has been pretty accurate. With so much success, the site has expanded to Canada and the United
Kingdom. Galen Deats, a sophomore at DePaul, said the site has been most helpful and gave him a great starting point when beginning his college career. “The ratings on ‘Rate My Professors’ are by and largely accurate,” Deats said. “So far in my college career, I have managed to largely avoid subpar teachers except in situations where I had no other choice, and I credit this largely to ‘Rate My Professor.’” With new groups of students entering college, the site’s success will continue with every year passing. Students will continue to rely on evaluations made by them and for them.
Avoiding cosmetic reactions By Jenna Ranieri Contributing Writer
Red and blotchy skin, acne breakouts, hormone imbalances potentially leading to infertility or even death are all side effects of the products you use every day. Octinoxate, Tocopherol, Dimethicone and other chemicals are found on the backs of products you use every day. Severe side effects of these chemicals are often covered by the media when events occur, people use them every day, so they can’t be that bad, right? Tocopherol is a common additive to not only makeup but also food, as it is vitamin E. Cosmeticsinfo.org states Tocopherol is on the Food and Drug Administration’s list of “Generally Recognized As Safe” list. However, people should be aware that vitamins are chemicals too, and the same can be said about minerals. “Natural” or “mineral makeup” is thought of as the alternative to chemically polluted products. But even these products have potentially dangerous chemicals. “There isn’t any regulation that defines when a cosmetic brand can call their product ‘mineral; makeup,” according to Goodonyou.eco. “So basically, if it contains a mineral as a base ingredient, it can be labeled as mineral makeup.” Octinoxate is an active ingredient found in many cosmetic products. It is added as a way to protect skin from UV rays. EWS Skin Deep Cosmetics Database ranks it as a “Moderate Overall Hazard,” saying it “is shown to have hormone-mim-
icking effects.” In addition to these effects, Safecosmetics.org said Octinoxate can exhibit behaviors “linked to harmful effects on reproductive organ development.” Dimethicone is a “silicon-based polymer” used to lubricate and condition skin according to EWS Skin Deep Cosmetics Database. While the database cites the chemical as low to moderate overall hazard, it also notes it is “classified as expected to be toxic or harmful” to non-reproductive organs. Dimethicone is also known to trap all “bacteria, sebum and impurities” under it, according to Bewell.com. The article also notes that this coating chemical prevents the skin from its normal activities, such as “sweating, temperature regulating, sloughing off dead skin cells, etc.,” which can cause serious problems if not handled with proper skin care techniques. There are many more chemicals within makeup and other skincare or hygiene products. The ones listed above are common chemicals found in cosmetic products. The questions then become, “Are these products safe?” and, “Should you be concerned about what’s in the products you use?” Dr. Phillip Funk, associate dean for health of programs and initiatives at DePaul, said, “Yes.” He acknowledged that companies want business so they will go through a testing process to make sure their products are safe in a number of ways. “But that’s certainly not a safety guarantee on an individual basis,” he said. “Different people will develop allergies to things, and we don’t have a good han-
dle on what makes one person develops an allergic reaction,” Funk said. “Some people will develop what is called ‘delayed-type hypersensitivity,’ which is kind of like an allergy.” Delayed-type hypersensitivity is understood to be a reaction to an inflammatory agent somewhere between six and 72 hours after exposure, according to Science Direct. These reactions can be caused by anything new: a new cream, a new mascara or even a new piece of jewelry. It is unclear what will cause a reaction in a specific individual. It is up to the individual to know what is best for their skin and buy what works best for them. “Majority of what I use is Glo-Minerals,” DePaul student Amber Trifanovaite said. “It doesn’t cause breakouts, which for me is an issue sometimes.” To Trifanovaite, quality is the most important part of her makeup purchasing decisions. But she is also conscious of which brands test on animals or have harmful chemicals in their products. “The price is more expensive, but for the quality, I think it’s worth it,” Trifanovaite said. DePaul student and Maybelline Brand Ambassador Jordan Dockery approaches makeup differently. Dockery receives free PR boxes from Maybelline as part of her Collage Ambassadorship. She tries the makeup and promotes it on her Instagram and at live events. She had the opportunity to travel with Maybelline to New York Fashion Week as an ambassador, attending events and promoting the brand.
Dockery used to pay attention to products that are cruelty-free and actively read what was on the back of cosmetic products. She knew her skin reacted to SPF chemicals and avoided those and other chemicals she knew would give her a bad reaction. “I phased out of that when my skin cleared up, which is awful,” Dockery said. “If I’m receiving free makeup, I’m going to use that free makeup.” Dockery still pays attention to what her brands are up to. She has the opportunity to work with the PR team at Maybelline and knows they follow rules from across the world regarding choosing ingredients and proper testing. But that doesn’t make products transparent. “I know when it comes to distribution and deciding the products, a lot of that is done outside of the US,” Dockery said. “So, sketchier, change some perspectives.” Both Trifanovaite and Dockery recognize what their skin needs and choose accordingly. They may not seek products the same way, but they do care about the condition of their skin. These are personal decisions; everyone chooses makeup for different reasons. There are no right answers here. But Funk does have some advice for staying safe. “Really start paying attention to your own body,” Funk said. “If you’re trying something new and you think, ‘My face feels a little itchy,’ then maybe stop using what you’re using and think about your time of exposure.”
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20| Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019
Phora thanks Chicago
The California-based band performed at Subterranean Hall for their ‘day-one’ fans The crowd for Phora’s show at Subterranean filled the room on Sept. 22 and held their iPhones up high, recording while cheering for the lead singer, Marco Anthony Archer.
Photos and story by Jack Dombro Hip-hop and R&B artist Phora came to Subterranean Sept. 22 to close out his Bury Me With Dead Roses tour, determined to put on a memorable show for Chicago. The bit of rain didn’t stop a few hundred fans from lining up and wrapping around the corner past the Subterranean property. When the doors finally opened, the audience flooded in and was welcomed with an opening set. Phora
quickly made his way down the infamous steps to center stage, and fans packed tight to see the California-based artist perform. While Phora ran through some of the notable tracks from “Bury Me With Dead Roses,” such as “On My Way” and “Blame on Me,” fans quickly understood that it’d be a very interactive concert. Phora fed off the crowd’s energy, and the intimate venue made it a memorable night. Phora repeatedly acknowledged that he had plenty of day-one fans in Chicago, and those day-ones were sure to appreciate this impressive night of music.
Fans stood in awe when the band walked out to center stage and interacted with their fans up close.
Archer thanks his fans for supporting him from the start.
Archer throws up a peace sign, encouraging the audience to do the same, while singing one of his songs.
The plight of VSC G RLS By Emma Oxnevad Opinion Editor
Living in the digital age, trends come to life — and die just as quickly — right before our eyes on social media. If you’ve spent any time online in the last month or so—particularly on TikTok— you may have noticed a new Generation Z subculture emerging to the forefront called “VSCO Girls.” The name comes from the popular photo editing app VSCO, which adds dreamy filters to smartphone pictures. VSCO Girls are defined as “the Tumblr girls of 2019” by Urban Dictionary; Tumblr girls were a trend of the mid2010s, characterized by a grungy, artistic aesthetic and an affinity for activities not considered mainstream. A current distant cousin of the VSCO Girl is the E-girl, who are often found wearing goth-adjacent clothes and over-the-top makeup. The aesthetic of the VSCO Girl matches the breezy nature of the app; you’ll often find her in an oversized T-shirt with a scrunchie—or several— readily available on her wrist. Additional aesthetic signifiers include a Hydro Flask water bottle adorned with stickers, Fjällräven backpacks, puka shell necklaces and
Birkenstocks. The look conveys ease and a free-spirited sensibility, all while including expensive products. After they made their mark on social media, VSCO Girls quickly became the subject of mockery, with people taking to Twitter and TikTok to mock the aesthetic and slang of the trend. “I think social media does allow for an immense following of trends, whether or not it’s poking fun at something or highlighting something, making something more meaningful,” said Paul Booth, a professor in the College of Communication with expertise in social media. This is not the first time a trend catered toward teenage girls has been the subject of widespread ridicule. Ten years ago, the coolest thing to do online was making memes criticizing the “Twilight Saga,” a series of novels and films with a massive female following. When Justin Bieber first broke out as a pop star, he was routinely mocked for his perceived feminity and continuously accused of being gay and ruining music altogether. His primary fan demographic was, and remains, teenage girls. “There is actually a really long history of that – women’s, and especially girls’, popular culture in the industrial age has been routinely mocked,” Booth said.
Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019 | 21
“You know, 10 years ago, it was ‘Twilight,’ 50 years ago it was Beatlemania. 100 years ago, it was matinee idols at the theater. So there’s an incredi- bly long history of mocking things that girls like.” VSCO Girls being made fun of online are not the most pressing issue facing young women today. However, the willingness to incessantly mock teenage girls online simply for their personal aesthetic speaks volumes on how femininity is perceived in American culture. “I think it really speaks to a kind of patriarchal dominance in our culture where girls’ opinions are not as valued as things that cater to them,” Booth said. “We see that today in kind of the mainstreaming of male hobbies like sports and the kind of vanish attributes of a female-centric hobby. But in addition to the patriarchy and the patriarchal aspects of our culture, you know, I think girls’ media and girls’ pop culture tends to be very based on emotion. Things like love, things like passion like this, or liking something to a point where mainstream culture thinks that it’s too much. And that’s a devaluation of emotion.” In addition to the incessant ridicule young women face simply for enjoying media catered to them, the devaluation
of female pop culture undermines the power it holds. “Teenagers really set the tone for most pop culture and this is something that I’m sure we’ll all look back on and laugh at, but for now it’s fun to be a part of,” said Sloan Jones, a 2019 DePaul graduate. “The whole mockery is really uncalled for. People love to make fun of teenage girls and young women even though they literally set a lot of trends in culture [and] pop culture. Remember when White Claws were a dumb girl drink and now everyone is drinking them?” While VSCO Girls are the latest trend catered toward young women to be the butt of the joke, they are not likely to be the last. As long as teenage girls are perceived as superfluous on the basis of being feminine, their pop culture will continue to be labeled as such. “I think teenage girls are easy to pin what are seen as stupid trends on,” said Paige Fullman, a sophomore sociology major. “They’re also an easy target to tap into. The more people make fun of them for the things they like, the more companies make and sell more scrunchies, hydro flasks, Birkenstocks, etc. In short, girls are an easy target for stereotypes.” GRAPHICS BY ANNALISA BARANOWSKI
American Horror Story: 1984 By Brian Gilbert
An ode to slasher films
Contributing Writer
For those obsessed with the horror genre and the 1980s, season nine of “American Horror Story” (AHS) already perfectly captures the mood, music and atmosphere of the 80s only two episodes in. The last two seasons of “AHS” were both intriguing and bold, commenting on politics and religion, but fans and critics agreed that it was losing its sinister touch and needed to return to its horror roots. Creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk decided to go back to the era when the slasher was born, referencing classic films such as “Friday the 13th” and “Halloween.” The first two episodes are packed with gore, corny lines, awkward editing, killer POV (point of view) and questionable decisions all cleverly mocking the 80s slasher film. The first episode begins in 1970, throwing viewers back into an environment eerily similar to Camp Crystal Lake, the infamous summer camp in the “Friday the 13th” series. While the young campers sleep soundly, three camp counselors begin engaging in a threesome – any horror fan already knows that if you engage in any type of sexual activity, you most likely die. Within a matter of minutes, the three camp counselors and the young sleeping campers are all brutally killed by a serial killer named Mr. Jingles (John Carroll Lynch), leaving only one survivor unbeknownst to the killer (more on that later). Before you can fully process what just happened, the opening credits start to roll with the familiar “AHS” theme music playing,
only this time there’s a Stalker” Richard synthesizer beat mixed Ramirez (Zach with it. The images Villa), a real-life that go along with the serial killer who music vary from aerthreatened citiobics workout videos zens in Los Anto Ronald Reagan to geles back in the cassette players, all 1980s and was hypnotizing about the eventually condecade we are about victed of 13 counts to be immersed in. of murder in 1989. Following the opening Terrified to be credits, we’re thrust alone in her own into an aerobics class home, she decides in 1984 Los Angeles, to join the crew at where all the main Camp Redwood. characters are introAs they arrive duced. We’re first inat the camp, the troduced to Brooke group meets the (Emma Roberts), who camp’s director, is new to Los AnMargaret (Leslie geles and hoping to Grossman,) who make friends through was the lone surthe class. Montana vivor of the mas(Billie Lourd) noticsacre that hapPHOTO FROM IMDB es Brooke’s interest Emma Roberts in a promotional poster. pened at the camp in one of the males in in 1970. She also the class, who happens to be in her crew. explains to the group that Mr. Jingles was Brooke meets Montana’s other friends arrested after the massacre and eventually Chet (Gus Kenworthy), Ray (DeRon Hor- committed to a mental institution after she ton) and Xavier (Cody Fern) and joins was the star witness at his trial. The group the crew. Xavier invites Brooke and the also meets the camp’s laid-back activigroup to join him as camp counselors at ties director, Trevor (Matthew Morrison), the reopening of Camp Redwood to es- and Rita (Angelica Ross), the camp nurse. cape the traffic and chaos of Los Angeles As the episode concludes, we see that as the 1984 Olympics are about to start. Mr. Jingles has escaped the mental inBrooke refuses to go to the camp with the stitution and is heading back to Camp group because she wants to stay home. Un- Redwood to get his revenge on Margaret til one night she awakens to “The Night and the campers. We also see that “The
Night Stalker” has followed Brooke to Camp Redwood, meaning there are two serial killers descending on the camp. The second episode features a couple of character backstories, including more about “The Night Stalker,” Richard Ramirez. There’s also a glimpse into Brooke’s past set to Billy Idol’s “White Wedding,” which shows she survived a massacre on her wedding day committed by the man she was supposed to marry. Driven by jealousy and paranoia, he shot his best man, Brooke’s father, and himself while standing at the altar after accusing her of cheating on him without any real evidence of that. Margaret learns that Mr. Jingles has escaped the institution and is coming to Camp Redwood, but refuses to shut down the camp. She also has a run-in with “The Night Stalker” and has an odd, religious conversation with him about his backstory and tries to convince him to go after Mr. Jingles instead of Brooke. The counselors discover a dead body and try to flee from the camp, only to crash their van when Rita runs out in front of them. In the last moments before the credits roll, some of the counselors are locked inside the infirmary while the others are locked in Trevor’s cabin as someone, either “The Night Stalker” or Mr. Jingles, is loudly banging on their doors. The first two episodes of “AHS 1984” are packed with gore, satire and classic horror tropes while featuring a stellar cast. If the first two episodes are any indication of where the series is headed, fans of the horror genre and the 1980s are in for a treat with this ambitious season.
22 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019
Finding self in space
James Gray’s ‘Ad Astra’ explores the nuance of the human psyche By Michael Brzezinski Staff Writer
Films set in space lend the perfect backdrop to allow filmmakers to explore the deepest desires and most unkempt aspects of the human psyche. Kubrick did it. Speilberg did it. Cuaron did it. Nolan did it. Chazelle did it. And just earlier this year, Claire Denis scared the hell out of all of us when she did it with her sublime “High Life.” Now one of Hollywood’s most consistently outstanding and underrated auteurs, James Gray follows up his wildly ambitious and masterful “Lost City of Z” with his try at the existential space drama, “Ad Astra.” Something even more ambitious and more masterful than he’s ever made. “Ad Astra” stars Brad Pitt as Major Roy McBride, an astronaut living in the shadow of his revered and believed dead father Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones). After a catastrophic power surge begins to threaten the further existence of humans in the solar system, the government has reasonable cause to believe that maybe Clifford is alive and the cause of these surges. Roy sets out on an intergalactic quest across moons and planets to not only save the human race but also find something deeper within himself through his father. It plays out like “Interstellar” by way of “Apocalypse Now,” fully intact with serene expressive imagery and poetic soliloquy voice-overs and a cast of tremendous
character actors (Donald Sutherland, Ruth Negga, John Ortiz, etc.) being day-players in what is really an intimate character piece placed on an awe-inspiringly huge scale. Gray makes a real sensory experience with his cosmic setting thanks to Hoyte Van Hoytema’s serene cinematography and Max Richter’s riveting compositions. I found it next to impossible to be bored by such a film that is so unafraid to be experimental with its sights and sounds. It deeply entrances you while you watch, but the thing that makes “Ad Astra” so resonant and so powerful that it rings deep within your soul for days and possibly even weeks after you watch it, is the pure and mighty beating heart that lies within it. That beating heart comes in the shape of Pitt’s sensitive, vulnerable and subversive portrayal of Roy, a man who on the outside seems like the perfect All-American intergalactic hero. On the inside, he carries the profound burden of that image and the emptiness that comes from searching for meaning outside of ourselves. On top of this, Gray makes this a bit of a spiritual successor to “Lost City of Z” as well also digging deep into the basic human need to explore and the longing to be something more than what you are. Gray bites off a lot with this film and right when one may think he can’t chew it all, the heart and the scope and the story all culminate into a cathartic and sensational climax. The truly great thing about “Ad As-
PHOTO FROM IMDB
Brad Pitt, who plays Roy McBride, leads the audience on a self-reflective journey. tra” is that for all of its grand brush strokes and defining idiosyncrasies, it still ends up in a bubble of being a personal self-reflexive journey for Gray, Pitt and the audience. One about the journey from simply just being to coming into your own as a person. It’s a deep plunge into the unknown, but instead of being about what exists beyond ourselves in the universe, it evolves into understanding what grounds us to our own link in the world. What first poses itself as an epic space
journey ends up as a soft contemplative and empathetic film about the lengths and the need to express emotion and care for one another. It’s reasons like these that I feel forever fortunate that we have people like James Gray inside Hollywood managing to get risky films like this, “The Lost City of Z” and “We Own the Night” made in the studio system. For what it’s worth to them, “Ad Astra” is his biggest and best achievement yet.
MGM’s ‘Candyman’ will look at Cabrini-Green, then and now Joe Roman Jr. Contributing Writer
We continue to live in a world where everything is being remade or, in some cases, “rebooted.” From video games to movies, there seems to be no stopping Hollywood from grinding out another remake no one wanted or saw coming. But that can’t be said about this project. Set to be released next June, MGM is planning a remake of the cult classic “Candyman.” While other classic horror films have fallen short on their remakes like “A Nightmare on Elm Street” or “Child’s Play,” “Candyman” is pulling out all the stops to be just as good as the original. The film is being directed Nia DaCosta coming off her critically acclaimed film “Little Woods,” which scored a 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The biggest takeaway, however, is Academy Award winner Jordan Peele co-wrote the script and is one of the producers of the film, too. Reported from John Squires from bloodydisgusting.com, Peele describes this new movie as a “spiritual sequel” and not a remake. Production is currently taking place in the North Park area in Chicago. I spoke with Tanner Morin, who lives in the area to ask him if he’s noticed anything different in his neighborhood. Although he has not heard of the original film, he is a fan of Jordan
Peele’s work. “I did enjoy “Get Out” and “US,” so I’m all in for his next project,” he said. When asked if he had seen any film crews around the area, Morin said, “I have not, but my girlfriend said she saw something happening on Broadway last week.” The production seems to be very lowkey and secretive, as the working title being used is, “Say My Name.” Another interesting takeaway for this new film is that production will return to the site of the old Cabrini-Green projects on the city’s North Side. The Cabrini-Green projects were the main setting for the original film back in 1990. “I saw the original ‘Candyman,’ which was shot in Cabrini Green, which were considered very dangerous to enter at that time,” DePaul professor Robert Puccinelli said about what he remembers about the old Cabrini-Green projects. “The projects were at Halsted and Division, very close to downtown. Because they were so close to the center of the city, as the fancier and wealthier parts of the city grew, they spread west and the land of Cabrini Green became more valuable.” The new film will return to Cabrini-Green, as this film will be shot entirely in Chicago, according to Block Club Chicago. Part of the backstory to the new movie will be the gentrification of
the Cabrini-Green area. I decided to walk around Cabrini-Green. What was once described as a city slum has been remodeled and given some improvements. There are still scars from the past with abandoned lots and an abandoned city farm. The biggest takeaways were
signs of gentrification, as there is a two-level Target on the corner of Division and Larrabee streets and some chain restaurants. Nina Chehade, a student at DePaul, strongly dislikes the concept of gentrification. “I hate it,” she said. “It’s dis-
gusting, racist and classist.” It’ll be interesting to see in this new film if “Candyman” becomes an “anti-hero” to defend those witnessing the gentrification, or if no one will be safe from his wraith. We will have to wait until next summer when the film is released.
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‘Beyond what we wear’
Models show off Mexican-Contemporary designs at a Latinx Fashion Show MACKENZIE MURTAUGH | THE DEPAULIA
A model struts down the runway at a Latinx Fashion Show titled ‘Beyond What We Wear’ and hosted by J.L.L. on Sept. 24. The designs feature Mexican-Contemporary design.
By Hillary Flores Social Media Editor
Beauty is a six-letter word that takes on various meanings. But, is this word only skin-deep? This was the topic of conversation in the Latinx Fashion Show, “Beyond What We Wear,” on Sept. 24, hosted by JLL. The fashion show welcomed Mexican-Contemporary designers Lydia Lavin and her daughter, Monserrat Messeguer. They design clothing memorializing Mexican culture and textiles with a modern twist. For this event, their Mexican-Contemporary designs were used for a purpose. The goal: to send Chicagoans the message that beauty extends beyond superficiality. Before models of all sizes and different ethnicities were able to walk the runway, Luci Lene Coelho, guest speaker for “Beyond What We Wear,” opened the show with a message and was wearing a piece by designer Lydia Lavin. She told the audience that the show was meant to empower women and show them that they should be proud of who they are, contrary to what media tell them. “When you think about fashion and body, the media is forcing people, especially women, to be something and someone they are not,” Coelho said. “We have to recognize that beauty goes beyond what we wear.” As Coelho finished speaking to the audience, models began walking the runway with embroidered clothing made by Mexico’s Indigenous Artisans. Lisa Vollmer, one of the models at the show, said that modeling for Lavin was a unique experience. “It was tons of fun,” Vollmer said. “It felt very empowering to think [about] where the clothing came from and wear it through the runway.” Not only was the audience given a glimpse of Lavin’s designs with a message, but the fashion show also held a pop-up store used as a benefit for Chicago Women Veterans – 20 percent of the proceeds from sales were going to local group Chicago
MACKENZIE MURTAUGH | THE DEPAULIA
The different designs in ‘Beyond What We Wear’ are intended to show all Chicagoans that beauty extends beyond superficiality. Women Veterans United. Sharon Stokes-Parry, Board of Directors co-chair for the group, said she appreciated the help this event was able to bring. “I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for our organization to continue to do the deeds that we do to assist military women veterans,” Parry said. “We not only assist women who have transferred from the service, but also those who are on current duty.” As attendees benefited Chicago Women Veterans by shopping for Lavin’s pieces, they were able to share thoughts about the event. Sheila Villagrana, an attendee of the event, said it was interesting to see how Latinx culture was demonstrated through fashion. “I loved it; I thought it was really interesting,” Villagrana said. “It proves that there’s so much more to fashion.”
MACKENZIE MURTAUGH | THE DEPAULIA
A crowd of over 100 people admired the looks, taking pictures of the models in the show.
24 | Arts &Life. The DePaulia. Sept. 30, 2019
St.Vincent’s D e JAMZ “Spinning fresh beats since 1581” By Cailey Gleeson Focus Editor
Emo’s not dead—and not just the early 2000s songs from My Chemical Romance and Panic! At The Disco. Plenty of modern groups have some seriously sick tunes that will satisfy all your edgy needs. Here are some songs that always make their way onto my playlists one way or another: 1. “Apartment” by Modern Baseball This one’s a classic. Arguably one of MoBo’s best songs, “Apartment” has all of the angst that you could hope for. Honestly, all of the tracks on “You’re Gonna Miss It All” are masterpieces, so you could just put the album on shuffle and call it a day. If only they’d come off their “indefinite hiatus” and release new music.
2. “Palm Trees” by SWMRS Easily my favorite song by the Oaklandbased band, “Palm Trees” has an infectious beat— especially at the end. This song is able to pick me up no matter what kind of mood I’m in. It makes you want to drive around with the people you love most while screaming the lyrics at the top of your lungs. If you’ve seen “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” this would definitely be my tunnel song. 3. “Cheap Beer” by FIDLAR Even though I’m a relatively new FIDLAR fan, I can’t stop listening to “Cheap Beer”—one of their classics—on repeat. It makes sense why everyone I’ve told I listen to SWMRS recommended this band to me. It’s the perfect amount of angry and catchy all wrapped into one.
Crossword
4. “Keep This Up” by The Story So Far Listening to “Keep This Up” makes me want to open up a pit wherever I happen to be at the moment—which can be a good or bad thing. Even though it’s actually a really serious song, as it details Parker James Cannon’s revelations about his addictions, it’s quite the tune. I’m so bummed I missed their set at Riot Fest because I heard this hits different live— probably because of the pit it opens up. 5. “Passing Through A Screen Door” by The Wonder Years The Wonder Years is truly in a league of their own. “The Greatest Generation” is probably their greatest album, too. It slows down and picks up just the right amount throughout. Plus, the line, “I was kind of hoping you’d stay” hits hard if you’re going through heartbreak—take my word for it.
Across 1. North Pole assistant 4. Father of Leah and Rachel 9. Certain down 14. Keanu in “The Matrix” 15. Draw forth 16. Loan shark’s interest 17. Road sealant 18. Eternally 20. Momentous occasion 22. Change the motif of 23. Return, as feelings 26. Sucker deal 30. Oust from office 32. Some barbershop quartet members 34. Luxurious retreat 36. Golden Horde member 38. Caspian Sea feeder 39. Sagan or Reiner 41. Divided country
43. Turnpike rumbler 44. Car, for short 45. House of Lords member 47. Stage construction 48. Laundry additive 51. Guinea pig, in a way 53. Military organizations 55. Small picture holders 58. Awestruck 60. Constant beater 61. Homeowner’s nightmare 67. Purchase 68. Bland or trite 69. Building leveler 70. “He Got Game” director 71. Very angry 72. Sand, on the links 73. Non-PC suffix Down 1. Big keyboard key 2. Make an exit
3. Front half of a side of meat 4. Political liberal 5. “Much ___ About Nothing” 6. Hitchhiking seed (var.) 7. Super server 8. Not even once 9. Alps locale 10. Suffix with “hero” 11. Group of two performers 12. Be incorrect 13. Type of whiskey or bread 19. Change a manuscript 21. Abbess, e.g. 24. Boat-deck wood 25. “Midnight Express” wrestler Bobby 27. Burden or responsibility 28. Adjective with “future” 29. Falsely incriminate 31. Card for a
fortune-teller 33. Thin cut 34. Cut covering 35. Singer Abdul 37. Non-conformist 40. Good soil 42. “Besides that ...” 46. Some glass artists 49. Common shape 50. Effectively treat 52. ___ out (just manage) 54. Falconry or baseball 56. Aligns 57. Eyelid afflictions 59. Bygone Russian despot 61. Crime-fighting agcy. 62. Boathouse tool 63. Genetic matter, briefly 64. Savor supper 65. “Anytown, ___” 66. One curl in the gym
Sports
Sports. Sept. 30, 2019. The DePaulia | 25
Volleyball libero brings leadership, composure to team By Josh Gurevich Staff Writer
Isabelle Banez embodies the spirit of the entire women’s volleyball team at DePaul. Her buzzing attitude and leadership bring a great element to the team. The whole team calls her by the nickname “Belle” and it is used as a term of endearment because everyone adores her. She is even a hometown hero on the team. “I have been in Chicago my whole life,” Banez said. “I think it is one of the best cities in the world and I wanted to stay in touch with my roots.” Banez also felt a connection to DePaul’s ideas. “I felt really welcome when I came to DePaul and I liked their mission,” Banez said. Her family has always been a pillar of her success. “My parents are my biggest supporters and can come see me play and they are able to see me play easily,” Banez said. Although Banez found her skills in volleyball, it wasn’t her first love. The first sport she really got into was basketball. “I really fell in love with that, but my sister and both my parents played volleyball so I got into that really quickly and I fell in love with the game even more than basketball,” Banez said. Her volleyball skills blossomed and her family support was huge. “They were able to give me the opportunity to play on travel teams,” she said. “I was able to learn a lot from them, and they pushed me to be the best player I could be at every aspect of the game.” Her volleyball resume, stacked with leadership, grew as she got older. Banez was a three-time captain of her Northside College Preparatory High School team. There, she made numerous all-tournament teams as well as Most Valuable Player awards. She also won the Northside Volleyball Senior Leadership Award. “I didn’t expect to grow into a leadership role as a sophomore in high school,” she said. “It was difficult gaining the respect of older players, but with the role that I had, I quickly grew into it and got into my comfort zone.” Banez has continued to advance her game every year at DePaul. She was second on the team in digs during her freshman year. Last year, in her sophomore season,
WEEKEND, continued from back page opportunity because you have to play a totally different style. “As a coaching staff we are doing a really good job absorbing the load from them right now, they are not walking through this by themselves and we are with them every part of the way,” Zidek explained when asked what the process was to get ready for a new opponent so quickly. “I am out in front believing in them 100 percent, we just have to keep reminding them that we are so close, teams are having to play really good volleyball to beat us and we will hit our tipping point. We just have to stay the course and stay eager.” In the first set against Seton Hall, the Blue Demons struggled to stay close to the Pirates. The Blue Demons led 1-0, but would not come close after that. The Pirates built their lead through the first set and ended up winning that set by 12 points. The second set was a role reversal from the first as DePaul led after the first
she was first on the team in digs and fourth in the conference. She was also named to the Big East All-Academic Team during her freshman year. Her experience as captain allows her to bring a nuanced and professional approach to leadership. “I was able to reach out to players in other ways, because everyone needs something different,” she said. “That’s one of the biggest things that I took from being a captain in high school and putting the team’s best interest over anything else.” This season, she received more accolades – she was named to the all-tournament team in both tournaments that DePaul won and took home tournament MVP in the Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational. Even with her experience, college volleyball was an adjustment. “When I first came to DePaul, the speed of the game was a lot different,” she said. “I was intimidated as a freshman, but over time those experiences allowed me to be comfortable and adjust.” Banez also said that her best friend on the team is Isabell De La Rosa. “It’s funny, she came in really open, she made me feel really comfortable,” De La Rosa said. “She is my roommate as well.” The two also had similarities off the court. “We had the same major starting out and being able to experience that with a teammate of mine and a friend was really special,” De La Rosa said. When De La Rosa was asked about their friendship, she described it as a connection. “Sometimes we don’t have words to say and we are so close because we have matching names,” De La Rosa said. “Volleyball made us really close and [Banez] is very focused. She knows what she wants and works really hard to be good on the court.” Earlier this year, Banez won three-straight Big East Defensive Player of the Week awards and was a huge part of the Blue Demons 8-1 start to the season. Finding her spot on the court wasn’t smooth at first. “I started out in the front row as a hitter, but I quickly realized that I was not going to get taller, so staying in the back row was probably the best move for me,” Belle said. Banez has continued to excel regardless of her role on the team, and has done everything she can to fill the holes as they have come. five points and never relinquished that lead. Their biggest lead was eight, and they won the second by that scoreline, 25-17. In the third, DePaul trailed Seton Hall until a 5-0 run gave them a two-point lead. The set stayed within that margin until the Blue Demons claimed the final point and took the set, 25-22. The teams went back and forth in the fourth set until DePaul took a 16-11 lead. Seton Hall went on a 5-1 run to cause a timeout from the Blue Demons. The Pirates eventually took a one-point lead before DePaul had their own 5-1 run and won the match with that spurt. “This was a big win for this team; we showed tremendous resiliency and effort to fight for our style of play,” Zidek said after the win. “They are learning to embrace pressurized points down the stretch. I’m excited.” After a nine-game stretch at home, the Blue Demons will depart for a road test against the Butler Bulldogs midweek, then return home the following weekend for two matches.
JONATHAN AGUILAR | THE DEPAULIA
DePaul libero Isabelle Banez goes for a pass against Xavier on Wednesday at McGrath-Phillips Arena. The Blue Demons lost the match in five sets. “She is one of the unique athletes that comes in to practice every day with a hardworking attitude,” coach Marie Zidek said of Banez. “She works hard, she’s always focused, she never has a bad day and you need athletes and people like that on your team that are stable, and she expects a lot of herself.” Banez’s leadership brings a great element
to the team. “She prides herself the most on working hard to make every play,” Zidek said. “Whenever she has the ball, she values making everything as perfect as possible to help the team.”
RYAN GILROY | THE DEPAULIA
DePaul senior Brittany Maxwell goes up for a hit against Seton Hall on Saturday at McGrath-Phillips Arena. The Blue Demons won the match in four sets.
26 | Sports. Sept. 30, 2019. The DePaulia SCHEDULE continued from back page Blue Demons at Wintrust Arena last season – Iowa and Minnesota. “It gives us an opportunity before Big East play to understand adversity a lot more than just the comfort level of being at home,” Leitao said. “So, we will be able to do that. Grow from it, learn from it and see how guys react to specific situations [in front] of a raucous crowd and the referees, all that kind of stuff that goes into adversity and that will help us.” From a fan’s perspective, this year’s schedule looks more appealing because there are more recognizable teams on the schedule. A massive difference from last year compared to this upcoming season is how many weekend home games the Blue Demons have. Last season, DePaul only had one nonconference home game on the weekend which was against Boston College. In 2019, the Blue Demons will play four weekend home games before conference play. “The amount of home games at Wintrust in the schedule is way better this season; no offense to those schools, but our only bad games this season are Alcorn State, Cleveland State and then we play Division III University of Chicago,” said Joe Breslin, a DePaul men’s basketball season ticket holder. “Every other game is way better. Last season at Wintrust, we had one nonconference weekend home game against Boston College. This upcoming year we have UIC, Cornell, Northwestern, Buffalo and we also have a home game
RICHARD BODEE | THE DEPAULIA
DePaul senior guard Jalen Coleman-Lands pulls up for a jump shot against UIC on Dec. 14, 2018 at Wintrust Arena. The two teams will meet this season on Dec. 14 at Wintrust. against Texas Tech. It’s just a much better schedule.” Leitao also agreed that for the fans this season’s nonconference schedule is more appealing and, because of teams like Texas Tech and Northwestern coming to Wintrust, that will also bring their fans to the stadium and create a better atmosphere during those games. In previous years, the question that constantly got asked about DePaul was if
their roster was good enough to compete against stronger opponents. This season, the roster – on paper – seems to be the deepest and most talented the Blue Demons have had in a long time. So, with the roster not being a question mark anymore, DePaul now has to answer one more question if they are to return to their former glory days: Can Leitao get the best out of his team where they will be able to compete with the country’s elite teams?
Nov. 5 vs Alcorn State Nov. 6 vs University of Chicago Nov. 8 vs Farleigh Dickinson Nov. 11 @ Iowa Nov. 16 vs Cornell Nov. 23 @ Boston College Nov. 26 vs Central Michigan Nov. 29 @ Minnesota Dec. 4 vs Texas Tech Dec. 8 vs Buffalo Dec. 14 vs UIC Dec. 18 @ Cleveland State Dec. 21 vs Northwestern Dec. 30 vs Seton Hall Jan. 4 vs Providence Jan. 11 @ St. John’s Jan. 14 @ Villanova Jan. 18 vs Butler Jan. 22 vs Creighton Jan. 25 vs St. John’s Jan. 29 @ Seton Hall Feb. 1 @ Marquette Feb. 4 vs Xavier Feb. 8 @ Georgetown Feb. 15 @ Creighton Feb. 19 vs Villanova Feb. 22 vs Georgetown Feb. 25 @ Xavier Feb. 29 @ Butler Mar. 3 vs Marquette Mar. 7 @ Providence
Wanna have a say @ the
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Sports. Sept. 30, 2019 The DePaulia | 27 LYNN, continued from front page to this point. “Coach told me one day that I was going to the Junior Olympics and win more tournaments, after the fact that all that came true it was the deciding moment,” Lynn said. “He told me eventually one day I would turn pro, which I am.” For Ramos, the time he gets to spend at his gym is always a positive. Training young fighters and representing them as they get older is what he finds to be one of the best parts. His faith in his boxers’ abilities means he is confident in preparing them for their professional fights early on. “Even when the kids are amateurs, I try to promote them there,” Ramos said. “When they go to the national tournaments, I try to keep the social media following involved. My fighters are always in the mix, whether it’s training kids or keeping up their following.” Body Shot has always been the main boxing gym for Lynn; it has even felt like another home. Among Ramos, Lynn says the rest of the fighters and staff at the gym have made it a remarkable experience. “What I love about this gym is the people in it,” Lynn said. “I have the best coach ever and he tells me things that I don’t even believe, but somehow they always work out.” Lynn has always had to face questions regarding the sport she loves. Teachers, neighbors and doctors have questioned her participation in a sport that, for outsiders, is seen as too violent. “I’ve had a lot of backlash and negativity for being a woman in boxing,” Lynn said. While at Marist High School, Lynn was competing in national level events and winning. Although she wasn’t representing her school in the fights, she still got no recognition from the community. “They never even asked me for an interview,” Lynn said. Yet there are hurdles in the boxing community as well based around her identity. As an upcoming professional, Lynn has to market herself in a way that many male boxers don’t have to. “You have to show your feminine side, look pretty and sell yourself,” Lynn said. “Boys don’t really have to show anything like that.” One of the fighters Lynn trains with is Jessica McCaskill. The current World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association super-lightweight champion, McCaskill has been involved in Lynn’s growth as a fighter and as a woman. “We sparred countless times and I remember the shift from [Lynn] being this younger girl and [sparring] being easy for me, to her coming into her woman’s strength and me having to actually defend myself,” McCaskill said. “She was getting faster, stronger and wiser.” Having a boxer as accomplished as McCaskill to look up to is crucial for Lynn, and having another woman boxer is just a bonus. Women’s boxing, long overshadowed or downright banned, boomed in the 1990s. Being a woman in combat sports is often overlooked by the mainstream. There is a disparity in the pay, fame and reputation compared to men’s combat sports. The welcoming nature of Body Shot Boxing Club wouldn’t make you think of any of that. Having the connection with McCaskill, along with the other Body Shot fighters and coaches, is impossible to overlook. McCaskill is an important voice in Lynn’s career. As Lynn prepares for her
NATE BURLEYSON | THE DEPAULIA
Summer Lynn and coach Rick Ramos work out in preparation for Lynn’s professional debut on Oct. 12 at Wintrust Arena.
NATE BURLEYSON | THE DEPAULIA
Summer Lynn delivers a strike during a sparring session on Tuesday at Body Shot Boxing Club. first professional fight, McCaskill will also be on the fight card, defending her title. McCaskill can also give advice on how to mentally prepare for a professional fight and deal with the circus of it all. “I try to keep myself open to any questions and as much advice as she wants, but I also don’t want to ground her in all of this stuff,” McCaskill said. “There are a lot of things that are going to happen and life lessons that she needs to learn on her own.” Lynn has a lot of respect for McCaskill, and her influence on her career goes further than winning fights. “I look up to [McCaskill] and I want to also make an impact for women in boxing, especially in Chicago,” Lynn said. Readying up for a professional fighting match is tough enough, but balancing a college education on top of that gets excessive. The time schedule is
NATE BURLEYSON | THE DEPAULIA
Summer Lynn works on her form, practicing on the bag during a training session at Body Shot Boxing Club in the Pilsen neighborhood.
rigorous, but it can be managed. “There is definitely a struggle with it,” Lynn said. “But you just need a time schedule on when you train, when you do homework or when you go out. It is definitely hard to juggle it all, but it is something I have been doing so long that I have the hang of it.” Lynn graduated from Marist High School in the southwest side of Chicago. The catholic school rigor helped her become better-focused and more equipped to balance everything. “They were a little bit harder on us than most public schools tend to be,” Lynn said. Boxing tends to be a sport that people see as extremely blue-collar and one that is carved out for specific people from specific walks of life. “She’s a good kid who comes from a good family, she’s educated and she
doesn’t have to do this,” Ramos said. “She has been in the combat world since she was 7 years old, so I think she is comfortable getting hit and hitting people.” Now, Lynn is reaching the next milestone. Coming into a professional fight is a huge step in a boxer’s career. Lynn has proven herself in fights across the country, but the family-like bond between her, her gym and Ramos has given her all the support a pro needs. As for the fight on Oct. 12, Wintrust Arena should feel a lot less intimidating than it could be for most fighters. . “The emotions and preparation are entirely different,” she said. “It’s going to be in front of thousands of people; it is a different atmosphere, but fighting is all the same.”
Sports
Sports. Sept. 30, 2019. The DePaulia | 28
Blue Demons ready for tougher schedule By Lawrence Kreymer Sports Editor
DePaul men’s basketball is about to enter their most pivotal season since head coach Dave Leitao returned in 2015. With the best collection of talent that Leitao has had since his first stint with the Blue Demons, the expectations are that the program produces back-toback winning seasons and threatening to finish in the top five in the Big East. With all that being said, one key element that can’t be overlooked heading into a critical season is the strength of the schedule, particularly the nonconference schedule that will firmly test how good this Blue Demons squad is compared to other years. Last season, DePaul finished with their first winning record in over a decade, at 19-17. While on paper that seems like Leitao has the program moving in an upward trajectory, there’s also examples from last year to at least slow down that momentum, one of those reasons being that the Blue Demons played one of the weakest nonconference schedules in the entire country. Out of 353 college basketball teams, DePaul’s nonconference schedule ranked 342nd, according to KenPom. Rankings. In addition, the Blue Demons didn’t play a single team last season in their nonconference slate of games who made the NCAA Tournament the season before. DePaul only played four games against Power 5 schools in their 11 nonconference games, going 1-3 in those matches. The rest of the schedule featured teams like Bethune-Cookman and Incarnate Wood, who the Blue Demons were able to beat handly and went 8-0 against, but those types of teams don’t provide a great test heading into Big East play. A season later, DePaul’s nonconference schedule looks tougher than a year before as it features five teams who played in the NCAA Tournament last season, including tournament runner-up Texas Tech on Dec. 4 at Wintrust Arena. “In the inside, coaches and schedulemakers look at it different from the general public,” Leitao said. “After
ALEXA SANDLER | THE DEPAULIA
DePaul sophomore guard Flynn Cameron drives past St. John’s junior forward LJ Figueroa on March 3 at Wintrust Arena. The Blue Demons defeated the Red Storm in both of their meetings last season. The two teams will meet on Jan. 11 and Jan 25, 2020. recruiting, the schedule is the most important thing we do. So, there’s a lot that goes into it and when you schedule teams sometimes three years in advance, you don’t know how powerful they may or may not be. “That being said we wanted to make sure and I think the league wanted to make sure that we are as competitive as we can possibly be. I think we wanted to challenge this group, more than any group we’ve ever had with our schedule. So, when you have a Big Ten challenge and a Big 12 challenge against a national champion runner-up, it creates a buzz. There are other parts that are really
challenging as well, [such as] Buffalo, who is a tournament team. Local rivalries, Northwestern always is a great game for us, UIC always a great game for us. So, we feel like we are putting ourselves in a better position, so that when we get to March there’s a conversation about where we need to be and where we will be based on our strength of schedule.” Every March, when the college basketball season enters its most important month of the season, the loudest and most heated debates on live sports radio and national sports shows are about which teams should and shouldn’t make the NCAA Tournament. One of the
strongest deciders on who gets picked by the committee to play in the tournament is strength of schedule. In years past, the Blue Demons’ nonconference schedule was ranked so low that any chance they had to make the NCAA or NIT Tournament was thrown out the window before the season even started. This upcoming season, however, not only is DePaul going to take on some of the country’s best and well-known teams, but they are also more willing to face those teams on the road. Those teams are Boston College – who beat the
See SCHEDULE, page 26
Volleyball splits pair of Big East games over weekend By Josh Gurevich Staff Writer
Coming into their clash against St. John’s University on Friday evening, DePaul volleyball was having issues with their execution. This led to the Blue Demons dropping all three matches of the Chicago Cup last weekend at McGrathPhillips Arena and the first match of the Big East conference season to Xavier on Wednesday. On the first point of the match against St. John’s, Brittany Maxwell served an ace and Avarie Evans-Allen later had backto-back kills to give DePaul a 15-12 lead before St. John’s took their first timeout. The Red Storm roared back after that with multiple kills and won the set on a service error by Maxwell. For set No. 2, the teams split the first 16 points before DePaul took five of the next six to lead 13-9. St. John’s would
RYAN GILROY | THE DEPAULIA
DePaul junior middle-hitter Avarie Evans-Allen goes up for a spike against St. John’s on Friday at McGrath-Phillips Arena. The Blue Demons lost the match in four sets. take 11 of the next 16 points to trigger a DePaul timeout. The score would be tied at 25 before Evans-Allen recorded two
kills in a row to give each team a set. In the third set, the teams were neck and neck and neither team could pull
away entirely. Unfortunately for the Blue Demons, the biggest lead of three points belonged to the Red Storm and St. John’s took the set by that same three-point scoreline, 25-22. The fourth set started The Red Storm taking the first three points, with DePaul responding and taking the next three. The early start energized St. John’s and they took a five-point lead to trigger DePaul coach Marie Zidek to take a timeout. The closest the Blue Demons would come in the later stages of the set was within two, but that was not enough as the Red Storm took the last two points and won the final set, 25-21. “We did a really good job correcting what beat us in the Xavier match [on Wednesday] ; unfortunately, we didn’t pass as well as we needed to to win that match,” coach Zidek said after the loss. “That being said, you get another
See WEEKEND, page 25