With a little over two weeks to go until the Cook County State’s Attorney primary election, candidates for the high office are desperately trying to whip the necessary votes. To help you wade through all the claptrap and make an educated decision, here is a preview of the office and the candidates who strive to obtain it.

The State’s Attorney is in charge of prosecuting all misdemeanor and felony crimes committed in Cook County, as well as providing legal advice and representing the county if it is sued. To do this job, the office currently manages over 1,500 employees and a $103 million budget.

Since 2008 the office has been held by Anita Alvarez, but her ability to uphold the law has been questioned by many after she took over 13 months to file charges against the Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke who shot and killed African-American teen Laquan McDonald. Alvarez did so only hours before the court ordered camera footage of the shooting to be released.

“This race is really the microcosm of the race issues that have permeated Chicago,” said Nicholas Kachiroubas, professor in DePaul’s School of Public Service. “So in the last several years it has been exacerbated by the Rahm Emanuel-Chuy Garcia campaign that happened last year, and obviously some of the negative things that have happened with the police, the shootings that have come out in the last year.”

Christina Rivers, a political science professor at DePaul, said that the major issues of the race are transparency and accountability.

“I think for an incoming person, the best that they could do, or claim, or try to do, is be more accountable and to not use the opacity of the process to bend our civil liberties,” Rivers said. Many have lost confidence in Alvarez’s ability to be transparent and accountable, Rivers said, after how she handled the McDonald case.

Alvarez’s hegemony is now being challenged by Democratic candidates Kim Foxx and Donna More, and Republican candidate Christopher Pfannkuche. While Pfannkuche’s nomination is secured as long as he has no competition, Alvarez, who is running for reelection, will duke it out with Foxx and More until the primary. The candidate with the most votes wins the Democratic nomination.

Incumbent Alvarez has spent her 29-year legal career in the State’s Attorney’s office, where she held numerous offices along the totem pole. Her highest-profile cases include the “Girl X” case, when she prosecuted a man for predatorily assaulting a 9-year-old girl, and the Supreme Court case William v. Illinois, where she prosecuted a man over his constitutional rights after raping a young woman.

Alvarez has a distinct set of advantages and disadvantages that affect her chance of winning. Kachiroubas said she has a large treasure chest which she uses to fund television advertisements. Kachiroubas also pointed to her connection with the e law enforcement and legal communities who have thrown their weight behind her.

“Because she’s supported by police officers, people in this campaign are saying, ‘Does she have the guts to actually prosecute police officers if they’ve done wrongdoing?’” Kachiroubas said. “But she’s lost a lot of support in the political community, in the sense of the Democratic leadership in Cook County who may have supported her in the past.” One leader Alvarez did fall out of favor with was Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

“I think her message to voters is ‘I’ve been doing the job, and I want to keep doing the job, and even though there has been a lot of criticism I still chose to indict,’” Kachiroubas said, in reference to Officer Van Dyke.

Rivers said Alvarez’s advantages are that she has experience as the State’s Attorney and she has the establishment behind her, advantages that are not likely to go away any time soon.

“As far as I know, Rahm (Emanuel) hasn’t hung her out to dry. I don’t get the impression the establishment are distancing themselves from her,” Rivers said. “It’s hard to run and win against an incumbent, even when that incumbent is on the ropes, unless the incumbent has really messed up. And so far we don’t have any proof of that.”

Foxx also has a history in the State’s Attorney’s office, where she worked for 12 years. The highest-profile case she prosecuted during that period was when she convicted two women who persuaded teenagers to dump acid on another woman. Foxx was also chief of staff for Preckwinkle, where she managed the office’s $4 billion annual budget and led reform to alter the racial disparities that plagued the criminal justice system.

So far Foxx has obtained a host of endorsements from heavy players, including the Cook County Democratic Party, Preckwinkle, the Chicago Teachers Union, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31.

Rivers said that while Preckwinkle’s office does not have the power and influence it used to have, symbolically Preckwinkle’s backing very well could bolster Foxx’s chance of winning.

“She has risen to a level where you can’t really ignore her endorsement,” Rivers said.

Perhaps due to the nature of her endorsements, Foxx’s message is directed at Alvarez’s own support.

“I think Kim Foxx is saying ‘We can’t have somebody who is supported by the police in the State’s Attorney’s office,’” Kachiroubas said. Foxx, in turn, promises to clean up the office and value issues facing the African-American community.

Like her two competitors, More has experience in the court room. She spent five years in the State’s Attorney’s office, where she worked in the adult felony court and tried more than 100 cases. More then served in the U.S. Attorneys’ office as a federal prosecutor and later as the Illinois Gaming Board’s first legal counsel. Since then, she has been in private practice, mostly representing casinos. However, More hasn’t prosecuted in 25 years.

Kachiroubas said that while More lacks the endorsements that Alvarez and Foxx have, she offers her own brand as an independent voice.

“Deborah More is saying ‘Elect me because I am a prosecutor and I am not a politician,’” Kachiroubas said.

Running from across the aisle for the Republican ticket is Pfannkuche. He has served as a criminal prosecutor for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office for 21 years, where he reviewed felony cases, including police shootings. He has prosecuted more than 2,000 cases during his legal career.

While Cook County has traditionally been under Democratic control, Pfannkuche’s race could pose as a problem for the Democratic candidates.

“They have to beat the Republican, which in Cook County shouldn’t be an issue, but you never know. This race has had a lot of nooks and crannies to it,” Kachiroubas said. “If Anita Alvarez wins the primary, I think the Republican candidate would have a formidable chance.”

According to a January Chicago Tribune poll of about 1,000 registered Cook County Democratic voters, Alvarez received 34 percent of votes, Foxx 27 percent and More 12 percent. The poll also found that seven in 10 voters said they are dissatisfied with Alvarez’s handling of the Laquan McDonald case.

Candidates’ running platforms, important issues and history can be found on their websites.

Voters can cast their ballots for the Democratic and Republican nominations on March 15. The general election will be held on Nov. 8.

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Members of the DePaul College Democrats are either “Feeling the Bern” or proclaiming “I’m with her” as they decide whether to support Sen. Bernie Sanders (I – Vermont) or former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton as their party’s nominee for president. This choice, while clear for some, is proving to be one between the heart and the brain for many.

While the enthusiasm of Sanders is experiencing with young people nationally is certainly reverberating within the group, Clinton has several backers with many more occupying a gray area between the two.

Senior member Tony Carrillo perhaps summed it up best, saying he’s “55 percent Hillary, 45 percent Bernie.”

“There’s a lot of overlap between the two I’d say, which I really do like,” Carrillo said.

Junior Kyla Patterson, the club’s membership director, counts herself as conflicted. At a “political crossroads,” Patterson said she is leaning towards Sanders.

“I support a lot of Hillary’s policies. I think that she is going to get the job done,” Patterson said. “But at the same time, Bernie is promising a revolution and right now, I do think that the American political system is broken. Something needs to be done and it needs to be drastic and that’s what Bernie’s offering.”

Despite the praise for some of Clinton’s proposals, Patterson is turned off by her association with the establishment.

“I think Hillary just kind of represents the establishment right now,” she said. “We’re sick and tired of the establishment as young people.”

Sophomore Thomas Rietz counts himself as a Clinton supporter, but understands the sentiment that is fueling Sanders’ popularity among a more socially-conscious generation, who he believes are simply fed up with the “inability of government to really take care of people.”

“We’re very cynical as millennials; so when someone offers a hope-inspiring message like Bernie Sanders who is an exciting candidate, who is well-liked by his community and the people around him, I can definitely see why there is such a strong following among young people,” Rietz said.

Yet despite his awareness of the feeling on the ground, Rietz is not “feeling the Bern,” but instead an enthusiastic volunteer for Clinton.

“My personal reason is that I used to be in the foster care system and Hillary Clinton has time and time again fought on behalf of American families. She introduced a wide-reaching foster care reform,” Rietz said. “So that issue speaks to me specifically, but I also look at her leadership style, where she came from, where she grew up — she was a Cook County resident, I look at what she cares about, and the way in which she tries to get policy achieved is very pragmatic.”

While Rietz likes Sanders, he was not sold on his ability to get his agenda through a gridlocked Congress.

“He’s a great guy. And I love his campaign message, but I don’t know if he’s going to be able to deliver on some of the wide-reaching reforms he’s trying to support,” Rietz said.

This was the argument most Clinton supporters used and something even Sanders backers acknowledged, that Clinton was the more realistic choice to take on the Republican nominee in the general election.

“The donations she’s taken from (Wall Street) makes people uncomfortable, it makes me uncomfortable. But looking down the road, I still see her as the best candidate to fight off whoever the Republicans (nominate),” Carrillo said. “Because looking at that, looking at the general election, I find that’s way more important to get a Democrat in office instead of picking Bernie because he’s the populist candidate, but then having the problem of him losing to a conservative Republican.”

Yet the trust gap between Clinton and young voters persists, driven by tales of scandals dating back to her husband’s administration, her current email controversy and her ties to Wall Street. Clinton has come under fire for not releasing the transcripts to paid speeches given at large financial institution. For many, she appears too close to the big banks that many blame for the last economic downturn. 

However, her core supporters in the group were not terribly concerned.

“I trust Hillary Clinton. I think that the emphasis that she’s put on working-class families, I think that a lot of the work has been genuine,” Rietz said. “I don’t that she backs policies arbitrarily or because someone handed her a political campaign donation. That just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Junior club member Mike Papanicholas believes Clinton has been subject to criticism that even her former boss, President Barack Obama, was not subject to, pointing to his record of Wall Street reform in spite of campaign contributions coming from there.

“President Obama passed Dodd-Frank, the financial reform package that was widely opposed by Wall Street, and President Obama has taken money from Wall Street,” Papanicholas said. “I don’t think anyone would say that he’s in the tank for Wall Street given the large criticism they’ve directed at him.”

Rietz acknowledges the critiques going his candidate’s way, but still thinks she’s the best person for the job.

“I know that she has a lot of baggage, but I know that she can get a lot done and I know she can do a lot for our country. And with that in mind, I’m willing to accept that she has a history,” Rietz said. And I don’t think her history is bad. I think it shows a resilience to overcome some of the critiques the GOP has been keeping up for the last 30 years.”

A poll released by the Southern Illinois University’s Simon Institute showed Clinton with a commanding 51 to 32 percent lead over Sanders ahead of the March 15 Illinois primary.

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A flood recorded via Snapchat occurred on the first floor of McGowan South Monday morning. (Video courtesy of Peter Kinsella)

DePaul students reported a water main break on the first floor of McGowan South Monday morning. According to a flyer posted outside the building, McGowan South will be closed all day due to the break and all classrooms are currently unavailable.

Bob Janis, vice president of facilities operations, said that a 4-inch water main in the ceiling failed causing water to flow down into the first floor. The flood occurred at 8:30 a.m.

“We are in the process of extracting water and cleaning up, as well as repairing the pipe joint,” Janis said. “We are hoping to re-open the building for evening classes on floors two through four, and looking to re-open the first floor classrooms for morning classes.”

The final decision to open the building will be made within the next several hours, Janis said.

Despite the immediate response, Janis said that further work will need to be done in the upcoming weeks.

“We’ll be completing ceiling and wall repair work over the next week or two,” Janis said. “We’ll do that in time frames that won’t disrupt academic use further.”

Students are urged to contact their instructor for more information about the location of their classes.

Classes being relocated @TheDePaulia pic.twitter.com/loV38zeTAH

— Jessica Villagomez (@JessicaVillag) February 29, 2016

UPDATE:

McGowan South will re-open for evening classes after all, Janis said. The building will be open for evening classes on the second, third and fourth floors.

“The whole building will be available for use in the morning for the regular academic schedule,” Janis said.

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In an email sent to the University community Friday, Information Services warned the community of multiple spear phishing and scam email messages requesting fake fund transfer requests. These requests have been sent to DePaul employees.

“It is clear from these emails that the attackers have made efforts to study the details of DePaul’s structure and identify key individuals for their phishing campaigns.  These attacks are unlikely to stop in the near future so it is important for all DePaul employees to be on the lookout for them,” the email in part said, “In most cases that we have seen, the attacker pretends to be a senior member of DePaul University, and are requesting a staff member to assist with an electronic funds transfer.”

Information Services warned the community to take caution and identify fake requests by looking at the “From” or “Reply-To” address to find out if the email comes from a depaul.edu address. If any individuals doubt an emails legitamacy they are encouraged to validate the requests with the individual on the phone or contact the Information Services Security team.

According to Information Services, there has been an increase in malicious attachment targeting DePaul users. To report any suspicious emails, contact the Information Services Security team at security@depaul.edu.

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DePaul College Republicans, Democrats and Socialists faced off on March 1 for an occasionally raucous three-way debate that revealed the deep political and ideological divides between each group.

The event, dubbed the “Battle on Belden,” was held in a packed second floor room of the Schmitt Academic Center. Political science professor Joseph Mello served as moderator, overseeing several rounds of prepared questions – which included the economy, foreign policy, immigration reform and race – and a collection of audience-submitted topics toward the end of the evening.

Who won the debate? That probably depends on who you’re asking.

It’s a common stereotype, to be sure, that Republicans are a political minority on DePaul’s campus. Whether or not that will ever be statistically proven remains to be seen, but the debate audience seemed to corroborate that sentiment. Snaps and approving hollers from the crowd were reserved solely for the Democrats and Socialists, with the exception of a small corner near the front of the room with several people wearing “Make America Great Again” hats.

When College Republicans President Nicole Been suggested during the immigration portion of the discussion that the U.S. needed to build a wall, the audience responded with boos. They outright laughed when her fellow debater Brendan Newell repeatedly insisted that the American public should stop vilifying bankers.

“Not every banker is bad, okay?” Newell said, but timidly, as if he already knew what people would think.

“It’s time to build a wall,” College Republicans Pres. Nicole Been says to a chorus of boos #BattleonBelden

— Emma Krupp (@EmmaKrupp1) March 2, 2016

Consequently, Republican debaters remained on the defense throughout the night, often fielding snorts of derision and other interjections from the Socialists. Newell asked them to stop interrupting him no less than three times, at one point heatedly asking Mello to tell his fellow debaters “to be respectful on the platform.”  Mello declined his request.

The Socialists, for their part, seemed more than happy to stoke the proverbial fires and incite tensions between both the Republicans and the Democrats. Although the Democrats and the Socialists were overall the two most ideologically aligned groups, the Socialists did not hesitate to call them out for certain sentiments. After the Democrats posed a question to the Republicans about foreign intervention, Socialist debater Hannah Utain-Evans was quick to fire back.

“I feel like the Democrats are trying to set up the Republicans as the insane war-mongers that spout out craziness, in order to paint themselves as the sane war-mongers,” Utain-Evans said. “Their historical record over the past 100 years shows that we’ve been led into more wars under the Democratic Party than we have under the Republican Party.”

Socialist John Kurinsky gesticulated wildly and passionately during his speeches, often invoking the quotes of historian Howard Zinn and Martin Luther King.

The Democrats rode somewhere in the middle of the other two groups, largely espousing crowd-pleasing values like affordable college plans and humanitarianism in foreign policy. This tactic seemed to fit in neatly with their repeated mantra of compromise.

“We can’t dig our heels into the ground and say ‘we’re only going to do this our way or no way,’” said Democratic debater Mikayla Ziegler. “There’s too much at stake for that.”

Comments from each speaker, regardless of political affiliation, were met with a polite round of audience applause.

Perhaps the most stirring moments of the evening came during the discussion of race relations, especially in regards to police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement. Nassir Faulkner, president of College Democrats, relayed how his mother had to teach him how to behave around police and questioned the unfair treatment of minorities by law enforcement.

“When in our country did we decide that committing a crime meant your life was taken away before you were put on trial?” Faulkner asked. “Far too often in this country, you have black men that are targeted.”

DePaul Dems Pres. Nassir Faulkner: “I’m black, I’m going to speak up” #BattleOnBelden

— Emma Krupp (@EmmaKrupp1) March 2, 2016

Newell attempted to relate to Faulker’s general idea, but his execution was not well received.

“The reason why there’s a lot more police brutality and police involving black Americans is the fact that there’s more crime committed by blacks,” Newell said, which was met with audible groans from the crowd. “It’s not because they’re black. It’s because of the fact that African-Americans are more likely to be in impoverished situations and therefore commit crime.”

In spite of individual ideological quarrels, the three groups managed to rally around one singular idea: political involvement.  Whether that be through grassroots community organization or simply getting out to the ballot, they closed urging students – and the American public in general – to take action for tangible political change.

“Whether you vote for a Republican or you vote for a candidate that the Socialists support or you vote for any of the Democratic candidates, it’s important to have your voice heard,” Faulkner said.

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An attempt to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a bill that would have funded the Monetary Award Program (MAP) failed Wednesday afternoon, falling two votes short of the required supermajority in the Illinois House of Representatives.

The bill would have allocated more than $700 million to the program, which gives out thousands of grants every year to low-income and working class students attending public and private universities in Illinois.

The measure passed the state senate earlier in the day, but failed 69-48 in the house. There, it was opposed by all Republicans and a lone Democrat, Rep. Scott Drury (D – Highwood). State Rep. Jack Franks (D – Marengo), who voted no on the original bill, switched over and voted with his party.

Democrats derided Rauner and the Republicans for not supporting the measure. Republicans shot back, however, saying the Democrats are playing politics ahead of the March 15 primary. They contend that the state has no money to fund the program even if it did pass.

The posturing over the MAP grant issue is just one battle in the political war between Rauner and powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan (D – Chicago). Rauner insists upon the consideration of his pro-business, anti-union “Turnaround Agenda” as a pre-cursor to passing a budget. Madigan, however, insists that the budget and finding new revenue must come first.

As a result of the bickering, Illinois is only one of two states in the country still without a budget, seven months into the fiscal year. The crisis has had a severe effect on social service agencies that rely on state aid and has exalted permanent damage on the state’s already dire fiscal condition.

DePaul enrolls more MAP recipients than any private university in the state. After the governor’s veto of MAP funding in mid-February, university President Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, C.M. said DePaul would honor MAP through the next academic year, but urged lawmakers to quickly restore funding.

“DePaul makes this decision with the full expectation that the state of Illinois will ultimately have a budget that funds the MAP program, as it has for decades prior to this year,” Holtschneider said. “DePaul calls on Illinois’ elected officials to put aside political differences for the good of all students in Illinois who use MAP to become productive and employed citizens of our state.”

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Student Government Association met for the last time this quarter on Thursday, March 3, discussing topics including course evaluations and Blue Demon Week 2017 Committee applications.

Guest Speaker

• Dean Gerald Koocher from the College of Science and Health: Koocher spoke on the expansion of the college. It continues to develop five-year masters programs and add new majors. He said that talking to his two SGA Senators, Madeline Bolton and Megan Scoville, helped him push for an EMT program. The college will research incorporating an EMT program as a one-credit course.
• “I would bet that six to seven years down the road, DePaul will have a medical school, without the burden of a hospital. And a pharmacy school, and a therapy school, and so forth,” said Koocher, speaking on developing relationships with Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. He said that Father Dennis Holtschneider has expressed his approval of this venture.
• “I will tell you, I’ve worked in a lot of places. DePaul is the best place I’ve ever worked,” he said. “I have met very few people (here) who aren’t on board with making a difference in the world.”
• He fielded questions from Treasurer Damien Wille, EVP for Academic Affairs Kristina Pouliot, and EVP for Academic Affairs Adriana Kemper.

New Business

• SGA recognized two resignations, one from Clark Fox from his seat as Senator for Fourth and Fifth Year Students, and the other from Jocelyn McGee from her seat as Senator for School of New Learning.
• Junior Jack Piazza applied as Senator for Commuter Students. After deliberation, SGA welcomed him as its newest member.

President’s Report

• Course evaluations: President Vanessa Cadavillo emphasized SGA’s campaign encouraging students to fill out course evaluations. Course evaluations will be due over the next few weeks.
• The SGA president at Northern Illinois University has reached out to over 70 Illinois universities to sign a joint letter to Gov. Rauner in regards to his veto of SB-2043. President Cadavillo will sign her name to this letter and send a letter to Gov. Rauner on behalf of DePaul University.
• Blue Demon Week ’17: Cadavillo announced that Blue Demon Week 2017 Committee Applications are available on Org Sync. Applications are due and interviews will take place before the end of winter quarter.
• Diverse enrollment: Cadavillo met with the Board of Trustees before the SGA meeting. She shared enrollment totals from the meeting. “For winter quarter enrollment, we’re at 22,661 students,” she said. “In terms of diversity in enrollment, this year we’ve had the highest diversity at the university with 8,229 students of color who identified themselves as people of color when they applied for school,” she said. It connects to what Dean Koocher said about DePaul: “we are a University that looks like Chicago.” Diverse students now represent 35 percent of all students at DePaul, what Cadavillo called a “historic high.”

Awards

• Cadavillo distributed end-of-quarter awards to three senators.
• Senators of the Quarter: Michael Mulligan and Michael Greene
• Cabinet Member of the Quarter: Adriana Kemper

Vice President’s Report

• Vice President Ric Popp collected MAP Advocacy postcards from senators. SGA members will address the cards and hand-deliver them in Springfield on April 20^.

EVP Reports

• Book swap: EVP for Academic Affairs Kristina Pouliot shared dates for her library book swap initiative. Students will be able to donate textbooks at the John T. Richardson Library during the first three days of winter quarter finals: March 14 (6 p.m. to 12 a.m.), March 15 (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and March 16 (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.).
• EVP for Operations Adriana Kemper continues to plan an event promoting DePaul Handshake and the ASK Program. The Vinny Van will return from March 13 to March 16. It will be stationed between the SAC and the library.
• EVP for Student Affairs Patrick Pfohl promoted the Admitted Student Days on March 4 and 5. There will be a voter registration table in the LPC Student Center Atrium on Tuesday, March 8 from 11 am to 4 pm.

Senator Reports

• Event: Senator for First Year Student Andrew Willett continues to work with Chartwell’s in planning an event sponsored by Mountain Dew.
• Discount theater tickets: Senator for The Theatre School JD Garrastegui again shared that students can obtain discounts at theaters all across Chicago. Specifically, he mentioned the code “10TIX” which gets $10 tickets at Goodman Theatre.

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DemonTHON, DePaul’s year-long fundraiser for the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, raised more than $48,000 in 24 hours this week.

Thursday night the group announced on their Facebook page that the Miracles ‘Til Midnight fundraiser raised $48,312, beating their $48,000 goal. Last year, they beat their $24,000 goal by raising more than $36,000. Last year overall DemonTHON raised more than $257,000 and since 2011 have raised more than $750,000.

“(Miracles ‘Til Midnight) is designed to draw attention to Demonthon throughout the DePaul community, motivate dancers to fundraise and engage the entire city of Chicago,” DemonTHON Executive Director Ashantis Jones said. It is the second-largest fundraiser of the year, Jones said, and the main source of funding came from dancers contacting donors.

“Our biggest difference from last year was our planning process and the higher goal,” Jones said. “We aimed high and that truly inspired our dancers.”

DemonTHON ends each year at the 24-hour dance marathon, scheduled this year for April 29.

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Students at Loyola University can now protest on campus without the institution’s approval — a right students at DePaul University do not have. 

According to DePaul’s policy, students are granted the right to protest on campus grounds only after the Student Center has approved their request. While protesting, students must allow others to pass freely and to not interfere in university activities such as classes.

These rules also apply to protests off campus, which insist that students cannot abuse and misrepresent the name of the university or disrupt its function as an educational institution.

“What they’re saying is if you’re protesting and all of a sudden you are completely obstructing all the entrances and exits of the Student Center, probably someone from Public Safety is going to intervene and say you can keep protesting, but you can’t specifically block peoples’ ability to get in and out of buildings,” said Amy Mynaugh, director of the Office of Student Involvement, which helps students plan for school-approved demonstrations.

DePaul has its own, at times controversial, history of student protests and demonstrations on campus.

In 2013 a conservative student organization received permission from the university to hang pro-life flags on the Quad to demonstrate the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. A liberal student organization asked permission to demonstrate their pro-choice position, but was denied by the university for reasons unknown. In an act of retribution, students from the liberal group then vandalized the flags and were reprimanded.

This incident led the Huffington Post in 2013 to name DePaul as the fifth worst university for freedom of speech in the country. However, there were other protests over the years that did abide by DePaul policy.

A year later in May 2014, a pro-Palestinian group began protesting DePaul’s investment of tuition dollars in companies who gave money to Israel, claiming the state violated the human rights of Palestinians. Pro-Israeli groups in turn started demonstrating alongside the pro-Palestinian group, arguing that the claims of human rights violations were unfounded.

The latest major demonstration at DePaul was held by the Black Lives Matter movement, which strove to validate black life following several shootings of black men by white police officers in the U.S. The national movement extended to DePaul, where students demonstrated in the Quad earlier this year.

After groups such as Black Lives Matter obtain permission to demonstrate on campus from the Student Center, they have the option to go to the Office of Student Involvement to sketch out a plan.

“We want to be partners with organizations who want to do demonstrations and protests, we can walk you through all these policies so you know what you’re up against,” Mynaugh said.

Since Mynaugh began working at DePaul over a year ago, demonstrations are the most common method used to get a message across, she said.

“Less of protests but more of ‘we’re going to stand here symbolically and in solidarity with people who we identity as part of our community and are going through a struggle,’” Mynaugh said.

Perhaps because these demonstrations are not as rowdy as city-wide protests in years past, Mynaugh said that, to her knowledge, no on-campus protest has been shut down by DePaul.

One group that has had no issues with DePaul policy is the DePaul College Republicans.

“I know that in our experience as an organization at DePaul has been very good,” said Nicole Been, president of the political club. “They’ve been really open to everything we want to put out, like posters and speakers that we’ve wanted to bring.”

However, Been said that the DePaul College Republicans do not organize outdoor protests or demonstrations that consist of students on campus grounds. Instead, the club sets up indoor events headlined by guest speakers.

“If we’re going to events it’s to actually learn and get the other opinion, not to cause a ruckus, because I think that people don’t understand how much time and effort goes into events and speakers,” Been said.

By crudely protesting an event, the atmosphere changes from productive activism to an unproductive spectacle. “That’s not fair to the speaker, that’s not fair to the organization who’s bringing the speaker. That’s not fun to the people who actually want to see the speaker and learn something,” Been said.

Marc Filipino, president of the DePaul Society of Professional Journalists, an organization that supports the right to free speech and ethical journalism, said that protests and demonstrations can be a productive way to voice one’s views.

“As long as they’re not breaking any laws, as long as there is a good civil conversation going on and that there is no violence,” Filipino said. “Protests are a really important part of our democracy, a really great demonstration of our first amendment rights and that they should not be frowned upon. They should be applauded.”

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DePaul will erect a monument celebrating the 200^th anniversary of Vincentians arriving in the U.S. on its Lincoln Park campus. Construction will begin this month on the 11-foot structure, which will stand in front of Arts & Letters Hall.

The monument will include a four-sided granite clock surrounded by limestone benches. It will bear the names of every Vincentian who has served at DePaul, totaling over 200 names and dating back to 1898. A formal dedication open to all members of the university will take place Sept. 27, coinciding with St. Vincent’s Feast Day.

“The roots of DePaul’s foundation in 1898 are found in the bicentennial celebration,” said Rev. Edward Udovic, C.M., senior executive for university mission, to DePaul Newsline. “The Vincentian commitment to higher education in the United States began when the first Vincentian set foot on land at Baltimore’s inner harbor.”

According to City of Chicago data, the project will cost an estimated $400,000. Construction will begin March 14 with the excavation of a six-foot foundation to support the structure, and work will complete in June.

Vice President of Facility Operations Bob Janus said he does not expect street closures or other disruptions due to the construction.

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DePaul has selected internationally-recognized composer Ronald Caltabiano to lead the School of Music as its next dean, effective July 1.

Caltabiano currently serves as dean and professor at the Jordan College of the Arts at Butler University. There, he oversaw the college’s arts programs, led youth outreach efforts and founded the 11-day Butler ArtsFest, which brings national and international artists to work with Butler’s students and faculty.

The announcement comes after DePaul officially began construction on new School of Music facilities late last fall. The university expects construction to be completed by spring 2018, and in the meantime, the school’s 386 students have been using different practice spaces in an Annex building.

At Butler, Caltabiano also oversaw fundraising and managed the completion of 450-seat performance venue.

“Ronald’s experience as dean, including the management of large performance facilities, prepares him well to lead DePaul’s School of Music at a pivotal time as we construct our state-of-the-art music building,” Provost Marten denBoer said in a press release. “DePaul is gaining an accomplished musician and dedicated community leader who will build on the School of Music’s strengths and develop the next generation of world-class musicians.”

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Samantha Rivera never expected to wake up to this.

Wednesday morning, the DePaul junior’s phone was flooded with Twitter notifications and emails from strangers pointing to a fake account that had co-opted her Instagram profile picture. The account, @LATimesJennCarr, featured a fake sports journalist that tweeted about an affair with Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

“I had affair (sic) with @tedcruz when I worked in his office back in 2012-20013 (sic) @realDonaldTrump I was told to stay quiet by his campaign handlers,” the account tweeted.

And with nearly 20,000 followers and an ongoing tabloid conversation about Cruz’s infidelity, people were buying it. It was retweeted more than 600 times.

“At first, I thought maybe it was a joke or something,” Rivera said. “But then, I read through the tweets.”

By that time, the account had already been removed, but Rivera immediately reached out to her parents and her employer, Univision, to alert them that her name and likeness were circulating. But as an aspiring female sports journalist, for her it’s brought up bigger issues of online harassment, especially with women in media.

Rivera’s incident comes just a week after The National Enquirer published a salacious article, alleging Sen. Cruz had affairs with multiple women. CNN political commentator and former Cruz Communications Director Amanda Carpenter was rumored to have been one of those women. Carpenter blamed Trump’s campaign for the story.

“I don’t want to run away from this. I want to address it. But, at the same time, the hardest thing about doing this is defending myself, but not making it worse,” Carpenter told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “That’s the weird conundrum that I found myself in, and so many other women who have to confront these sort of sexist smears.”

The @LATimesJennCarr account also claimed to be a former Cruz staffer turned sports journalist for ESPN and the Los Angeles Times. The paper confirmed that no reporters by the name of Jenn or Jennifer Carr work for them.

Part of the reason why fake information can be spread so rapidly is because it can be difficult to determine the truth on social media, especially when fake accounts present themselves realistically, said School of Design assistant professor Sheena Erete.

“I don’t think people do a lot of vetting,” Erete said. “The fact that people go by really realistic images, people who post photos, you’re more likely to say that this is legitimate.”

Rivera is not sure who is behind the account, nor has anyone come forward. A few users in a pro-Trump Subreddit pointed to an anonymous sports gambling blogger with several aliases, which interacted regularly with @LATimesJennCarr. Some of these accounts have since gone private. The blogger did not respond to requests for an interview.

“That’s the scary part: I don’t know why (they) chose me or how (they) even found me, and what other information (they) even know about me,” Rivera said.

And finding a motive could be difficult. Erete said there’s a number of reasons why people might pose as others or otherwise troll online, ranging from pure pleasure to seeking out easy targets for future crimes, such as identity theft. Rivera also said that some users were mistaking her real account with the fake one, calling her a “witch” and harassing her.

Though journalists are expected to have an active social media presence, it has her rethinking online privacy. The photo was her Instagram profile picture, which could be stolen even though it’s set to private.

“It’s just my profile picture and they used it for something as crazy as this, so I don’t really think there’s anything I can do to keep myself as safe as I want, which is a really sad realization,” she said.

Erete also said that even with additionally privacy protection, everyone with an online presence is vulnerable.

“This could happen to anyone,” Rivera said. “The privacy we think exists – it doesn’t exist. As much as we want to think all of our stuff online is safe, it’s not.”

Editor’s note: Samantha Rivera is a staff writer for The DePaulia

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Winners:

Best all-around non-daily student newspaper: The DePaulia
Best online sports reporting: Matt Paras, Kirsten Onsgard, Mariah Woelfel, “More than a decade of drought: An oral history of the 2003-04 Blue Demons”
Best TV general news reporting: Hannah Hoffman and Ashley Holden, Chicago mayoral election
Best TV in-depth reporting: Jaclyn Driscoll, artificial turf
Best breaking-news photography: Geoff Stellfox, Laquan McDonald prayer vigil
Best sports photography: Josh Leff, DePaul bench mob
Best feature writing: Kirsten Onsgard, “Composing the future”

Finalists:

Online feature writing: Rachel Hinton and Shelley Mesch, “I was raped”
Online news reporting: Brenden Moore, Matt Paras, Mariah Woelfel, Megan Deppen, Dean Koocher coverage
TV general news reporting: Chloe Atkins, “Julia Neary”
TV sports reporting: Sarah Gorden, “Tyler Graham”
Editorial writing: The DePaulia editorial board
In-depth reporting: Brenden Moore, Coverage of Dean Gerald Koocher

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In the midst of the state’s budget crisis, college institutions are not the only ones experiencing scarcity. With job cuts, low enrollment numbers and lack of scholarships, adjunct faculty members are just as frustrated as students and other professors.

“It’s very unfortunate that they are cutting funds for education,” professor Traci Minnick said. “We need to make education a priority.”

Minnick is an adjunct sociology professor who is currently teaching nine classes at four institutions. They are Moraine Valley, Harper, Triton and Oakton colleges. She has been an adjunct all of her teaching career and usually teaches two classes in one day. She has been at Moraine Valley since 2007, and she considers that to be her full-time “real gig” even though she travels around frequently.

“It’s actually really cool. I don’t have that many other friends that love their job as much as I love my job, and that’s why we put in so many hours traveling around the place,” Minnick said. “It’s just so much fun.”

However, if the weather isn’t perfect, she said it’s an unpleasant feeling trying to get to her next institution.

“When I get done here (at Moraine Valley in Palos Hills) I only have one hour to get up to my next class and that’s every Monday and Wednesday,” Minnick said. “So if there’s like one snowflake or a car accident, I’m in a bad place — like I’m hauling to get up there.”

Although she loves her job, Minnick also expressed hardships she and other adjuncts are experiencing with the budget crisis.

“As far as cutting adjuncts, it’s really unfortunate. It happens to all of us every semester,” Minnick said. “If there’s low enrollment, a full-time instructor gets to take a class and then an adjunct is left without a class. That’s like our livelihood.”

Adjuncts depend on their two or three classes a semester, Minnick said. She also said it stinks when they get the boot and their class is given to full-time faculty. For many adjuncts, it’s a guessing game to figure out how many classes they will have.

“I’m supposed to have four classes this summer,” Minnick said. “I might only have two. I might have to get a different job. It’s a waiting game.”

That different job she alluded to is a seasonal job such as at Home Depot, Starbucks or Hobby Lobby. When a class gets canceled, there is a sense of urgency all adjuncts have to find a way to pay their bills, she said.

“We rely only on this like 85 percent even if this is your full-time job. A lot of the different institutions I teach at have different policies like that,” Minnick said. “If there is a class cancellation they try to let it ride out as long as possible, because if things like enrollment are down, they will give you a week before school starts. So the week before you’re supposed to be working, you don’t know if you have a job.”

Despite the uncertainty, Minnick doesn’t regret her decision to teach. She said it comes with the job and adjuncts are fully aware of what they are getting into. Once you become an adjunct, you get stuck, she said. 

“It’s stinks, but it’s a part of life if you want to live this lifestyle. As far as teaching at the adjunct position, I really enjoy it,” Minnick said. “So I’m going to bust and do whatever I have to do and get a crummy job in the summer if I have to, because I really — really like what I’m doing.”

Another aspect of the adjunct lifestyle is adjusting to the academic schedules of different institutions. Midterms, Christmas beaks and spring breaks have always been challenging and stressful, she said. 

“That’s the worst part of it. Everyone asks are you going somewhere for spring break? I’m like — no, I have four different spring breaks,” Minnick said. “So some of them coincide but that’s where it gets a little stressful. It’s just a matter of time management.”

Minnick’s time management skills have developed over time and she knows what college she should be at during the week. And she knows all of her students’ names in each of her nine courses, she said.  As Minnick looks back at her journey, which started as an elementary education major in college, a sabbatical from teaching English in China, she is truly happy and satisfied with being an adjunct.   

“It’s a lot of fun. I enjoy it, it’s rewarding,” Minnick said. “I like to see my kids excited about sociology and education. I feel like I’m doing a good job.”

The post One professor, four schools: How an adjunct makes a living by teaching at different schools appeared first on The DePaulia.

DePaul sold more than $70 million worth of bonds late last month, providing the vast majority of funds necessary to construct the $80 million School of Music building on the Lincoln Park campus.

While borrowing money was always a part of the equation to fund the capital projects greenlighted by the board of trustees, the issuance presented a change of plans, one that could save the university as much half a million dollars per year in interest payments.

University executive vice president Jeff Bethke said the initial plan was to borrow cash to pay for the new basketball arena, a project approved in 2013. But that changed when the School of Music project, which had been on hold for a few years, was approved in November.

“So now, we’re operating in an environment where we have two capital projects that just so happen to be of about the same dollar amount,” Bethke said. “So from a capital structure standpoint, I then went back to the board and said ‘here’s an idea to the finance committee: instead of borrowing taxable for the events center and paying a slightly-higher rate, we now can borrow tax-exempt for the music building and use those monies we set aside for the music building and redesignate them for the events center building.’”

Since DePaul is a non-profit institution, it can issue bonds in tax-exempt markets, which come with a lower interest rate than a taxable issuance of bonds. The important distinction between the two capital projects, according to Bethke, is that DePaul will not own the stadium, which makes it ineligible to issue tax exempt for that project.

“There’s no additional borrowing that’s occurring, but because we’re structuring it this way, we’re borrowing tax-exempt instead of taxable, and therefore we’re saving ourselves a half a percent or three-quarters of a percent on the borrowing cost, which is a relief to the budget in the range of a half a million to $600,000 a year of interest expense that we then don’t have to absorb,” Bethke said.

The School of Music building is expected to cost around $80 million while the university is responsible or $82.5 million of the $165 million price of the events center.

Bethke said for big investments like building a building, there are essentially four ways to pay for it: gift money from donors, tapping into institutional reserves, the use of operating surpluses, and debt.

As The DePaulia reported in January, the university had a massive budget surplus in fiscal year 2015, which was used mainly for capital projects and to shield Monetary Award Program (MAP) recipients from the state’s budget crisis.

While DePaul has taken on debt to fund projects before, including in 2011 to aid in the construction of the Arts and Letters Hall, it is a tool the university tries not to over-rely on.

“You want to be very careful about how you take on debt because it restricts your future flexibility,” Bethke said. “And the future is always uncertain, but regardless of what happens, you’re going to be called upon to make those debt payments, so you have to be careful and make sure you feel very confident that you’re not taking on too much.”

As of September 2015, the university’s total direct debt stood just under $277 million, a number Bethke cited as low to moderate for an institution of DePaul’s size and characteristics.

“There’s no bright line with any of this stuff, but there’s a continuum and they say, ‘alright, for an institution of DePaul’s size, with its endowment and with its operating income and whatnot, it either has good debt capacity or it doesn’t have good debt capacity,’” Bethke said.

Ratings agencies affirmed the university’s bond ratings despite the increased borrowing and all marked the DePaul’s outlook as ‘stable.’

Fitch and Standard and Poor’s have DePaul at an ‘A’ rating while Moody’s Investors deemed it ‘A2’, firmly within investment grade.

According to Fitch, “The ‘A’ rating reflects DePaul’s history of positive operations, sound balance sheet resources for the rating category and active expense management. However, enrollment for graduate, law and undergraduate transfer students has declined in recent years, which is a concern.”

The post DePaul borrows $70 million for new School of Music building appeared first on The DePaulia.

DePaul junior Mario Morrow looked at the list of recommended changes from the President’s Diversity Council and then back at the list of proposed items the Black Student Union (BSU) discussed with DePaul Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, C.M., from their meeting in January.

“There’s point-by-point different ways to combat the issues we addressed,” Morrow, the president of BSU, said. “So that was great.”

Immediate and a longer-term plan of action were put into place to improve the culture on campus for students of color, the university announced Wednesday.

The changes stemmed from earlier discussions on race at DePaul with a meeting between the BSU and Holtschneider being a key component. In that meeting, Morrow and other members of BSU brought up ways to handle issues such as micro-aggressions in the classroom, additional financial aid for students and racial profiling among Public Safety.

“And yet we know DePaul’s noble ideals require humans to bring them to life, and we humans are not always noble or even acutely aware,” Holtschneider said in an email to the student body. “Our motives are mixed; our courage fails; our vision can be myopic. And so, we must constantly encourage one another along the way.

“We’ll need open hearts to listen to the members of our university community, listening attentively rather than defensively to what they are telling us and then thinking together about how we might serve them even better than we did yesterday,” he added later.

As for immediate steps, Public Safety will receive updated cultural competency training on July 14 and 21. Over the course of the next month, financial aid related measures will also be emphasized, such as posting signs at DePaul Central to inform students to meet with a financial aid advisor in private upon request. Staff from DePaul Central and Financial Aid will participate in BSU focus groups “to discuss how services may be improved to meet the needs of African-American students,” according to the PDC memorandum sent to Holtschneider.

Each working group will examine of the following:  student feedback and involvement, education and awareness training, policy and processes, financial aid and scholarship resources, advising and other supports for African-American and underrepresented students, data collection and campus climate survey results, African-American student resource center models and issues regarding faculty staff and diversity.

Shailja Sharma, a member of the President’s Diversity Council an associate dean in the college of liberal arts and sciences, will work on the policy and procedures task force. She said the task force will meet for the first time on April 8.

“We’re taking our lead from (BSU) and saying, ‘okay these are the issues.’ Let’s try to respond to them,” Sharma said. “But also, let’s hear from a wider student body than the BSU to see if there are additional things we need to be looking at.”

The policy and procedures taskforce will explore a possible similar model to processing and investigating Title IX, a federal law that prohibits gender and sex discrimination, and if it can be applied to DePaul. DePaul has revamped that program as well, hiring an independent Title IX coordinator and a Title IX investigator.

The time frame for most groups is to have their research concluded by August. However, the task force for exploring an African-American student resource center models will have until November. The group is responsible for exploring the feasibility of creating a “black center,” similar to what Northwestern and other universities have.

Morrow said he was surprised to see the idea make the list. In general, Morrow said he and other members of BSU were ecstatic in response to seeing the exact time frames for the plan of action.

“There’s direct action and planning that’s in place,” Morrow said. “We can see a lot of time and consideration has been done … I don’t want to say we couldn’t ask for more — of course we can always ask for more — but with everything that’s happened right now, we’re pleased.”

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Members of the DePaul community gathered Thursday to hear Noi Supalai, a former garment worker and union president from Bangkok, Thailand, speak about her experience working for a Thai clothing factory that produced collegiate apparel for Nike.

The visit was hosted by United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), a national student labor organization that advocates for workers’ rights. Supalai visited DePaul as part of a national speaking tour on college campuses that have contracts with Nike, including the University of Michigan, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, Indiana University and DePaul.

“We want to make sure that clothes that we are wearing from our universities are made by workers whose rights were respected,” International campaigns coordinator of USAS Morgan Currier said. Before introducing Supalai, Currier asked the 10 to 12 students in the crowd to name brands sold at DePaul’s bookstore, including Nike, Champion and Under Armour. Students were asked to read each other’s clothing tags to see where the clothing they were wearing was made. China, Thailand, Mexico and Bangladesh were just a few named.

“We’re a small group here and I hear eight or nine countries,” Currier said. “All these brands source all their apparel from around the world.”

Currier said that Nike outsources their clothing production to 680 factories around the world and this subcontracting leads to potential workers’ violations.

Supalai shared her own personal experience working for Thai factory Eagle Speed, one of the 680 factories that Nike out sources its clothing production to.

Accompanied by a translator, Supalai described the working conditions she met while working on orders for Nike. Up until 2008, Supalai said the factory provided workers with sufficient wages.

“The factory was having fewer orders and was losing profits, that’s when Nike took advantage of our factory” she said.

After Nike threatened to pull its orders from Eagle Speed if they failed to complete the order at a lower cost and faster speed, Supalai said workers were met with long hours, dangerous working conditions and wages lower than sufficient.

“We could not produce up to the quantity that Nike requested, so Nike did not pay any money to the factory and the factory did not have any money to pay us the wages.” Supalai said.

Supalai was a member of a group of workers that gathered to protest the working conditions. Signs of protests were met with threats of termination from the factory.

Supalai said that she reached out to the Department of Labor Protection of Thailand but they were told to continue to work in the factory in order to eventually gain their wages.

“I tried to reach out to other organizations and came across the Workers’ Rights Consortium (WRC),” Supalai said. “They asked us about what was happening and we told them all our stories and asked for their advice” she said. Twenty-three workers who were previously held captive including Supalai were released and the factory gave employees the option of either continuing to work with them or resigning with compensation.

Currier said she hopes hearing Supalai’s story will urge students throughout college campuses to advocate for workers’ rights and question apparel production within their universities.

Currier cited Nike’s 2015 decision to ban independent inspectors such as the WRC from monitoring working conditions within its factories, instead opting to monitor its activities from within the company.

“Nike has decided that it no longer wants to allow independent monitoring like the Workers’ Rights Consortium to access its factories to do inspections so that schools like DePaul can know where their university apparel is coming from,” Currier said.

Organizations like USAS find this self-monitoring problematic and fear it could potentially lead to worker abuse.

“Even though Nike says that they’re going to inspect their own factories and they’re going to do their own reports and let universities know conditions in those factories, we can’t trust that because they have a very long history of human rights and labor violations,” Currier said. Currier urged students to take action by advocating for Nike to reverse its policy on independent monitoring, or for DePaul to terminate their contract with Nike.

“DePaul purposely works with the Works Rights Consortium. Scott Kelly who’s from DePaul is on the board of the Workers’ Rights Consortium and yet DePaul is saying, ‘Alright, it’s fine to do business with Nike,’ without their factories being inspected by the WRC,” Currier said. “Nike is trying to tell the university how and by who factories are being inspected when it should be the university demanding that of Nike.”

The post United Students Against Sweatshops stand against Nike, which contracts with DePaul appeared first on The DePaulia.

The university announced enhanced benefits and support for adjuncts a few weeks ago, just months after union organizers were found on campus with support for adjunct unionization growing. And in a separate but related twist, university administrators alerted faculty and staff last week of “unwelcomed union contact with faculty.”

On March 31, an email from administration alerted faculty and staff that reports of union organizers visiting adjunct faculty members both outside of the classrooms and at home “in ways that have made them uncomfortable.”

“Faculty members have also expressed concerns about their privacy, safety, and security,” the email read. “Please know that DePaul did not provide union organizers with any faculty member’s home address, class schedule or any other contact information. We do not know how union organizers acquired this information; only the union can answer that question.”

Union members from the Service Employees Intenrational Union (SEIU) did not return requests for comment.

Provost Marten denBoer said that DePaul’s open campus allows for union solicitation to take place and several faculty members have been approached by union workers. He emphasized the right for faculty to decline any solicitation.

This adds to the ongoing drama surrounding threats of union solicitation at DePaul and other universities across the country. A memo from denBoer to faculty, dated March 7, announced improvements to the adjunct experience at DePaul, which include an update to the course cancellation policy as well as the creation of a task force to measure ways to improve adjunct involvement on campus.

Geography adjunct professor Heather Smith has been teaching at DePaul since 2007, and though she has never been approached by union organizers, she only recently noticed these increased efforts by the university to improve resources for adjuncts.

“I did find it interesting that many of these changes have been put into place since the union started coming around,” Smith said. “I’ve been watching and intrigued by this and the discourse around it.

“Clearly there’s a lot of free speech and freedom to join a union,” Smith added. “At the same time, I sense the administration is leading up to this because they have a lot of adjuncts and there’s a lot at stake with adjuncts joining. I think as commentary, the improvements from administration didn’t start coming until the SEIU started recruiting adjuncts. I don’t necessarily think they’re good. I think the administration has had the right responses. I just think that there’s adequate pressure to help support adjuncts. It’s nothing the administration was doing negatively, but there just wasn’t anything they were doing before union recruiting came about.”

According to the announcement from den Boer, as of July 1, 2016 professors will receive 25 percent of their agreed-upon salary should their course be cancelled at least one month prior to the start date. Currently, adjuncts receive 10 percent if the course is cancelled between a month and a week to the start date and 20 percent if it is within a week.

According to their union contracts, Roosevelt University paid 10 to 20 percent of a course fee in the case of cancellation. Columbia College pays a flat fee of $250 and Northeastern University pays $100 for every class meeting a professor completed before the class was canceled.

DenBoer, who served as provost of Cal Poly Pomona in California before beginning at DePaul in July of last year, mentioned that despite adjuncts at his former university having a union, there were no cancellation fees. In this sense, he believes DePaul is much better than other universities.

Business school professor Tim Smith has taught at DePaul for 13 years and said it has consistently paid more than other universities. Though he has had some classes dropped, he said he was paid appropriately and that overall DePaul has “been good to me.”

Alternatively, Ilan Geva said the course cancellation policy has caused problems in the past.

“It’s like I never know what to expect,” Geva said. “Usually … I have to initiate a phone call to the department to ask ‘Are you counting on me for next semester?’ I never know in advance. It’s happened that classes are canceled because of a minimum number of students. Some classes were canceled a week before the semester began. I never had a class canceled at UChicago.”

Geva has been teaching at DePaul for 10 years and has taught at the University of Chicago for 15 years. He owns his own business and usually only teaches two classes per quarter.

“DePaul is a very sensitive organization. It’s not a place where I can find many faults. They’re very considerate,” Geva said. “But I think it’s very clear that the full-time professors are given priority no matter what. I cannot say anything against it. It’s their job.”

This prioritization of full-time faculty often comes down to shared governance, or how loud the adjunct voice is in governing bodies like Faculty Council.

“The (faculty) handbook is pretty clear that shared governance in terms of governance of curriculum and so on is in the hands of Faculty Council,” denBoer said. “And that is an important principle because it’s the tenure and tenure-track faculty who have the greatest responsibility for the curriculum and the academic programs that we offer.”

Though part-time professors have the opportunity to teach when full-time professors go on sabbatical or do other research, Geva said that is never done in coordination with adjunct professors.

“We are at the end of the process,” Geva said. “We either get feast or famine. I cannot plan my life around that.”

Another aspect of the provost’s plan for adjuncts involved a task force that would determine what kind of committee or structure would best give part-time faculty a voice. 

“That’s a concern that comes up in conversations with part-time faculty far more frequently than any other issue,” den Boer said. “The goals of the Task Force we’re forming is to help see how we can help engage adjunct faculty in the departments they participate in, that they’re not just coming in to teach a class and then disappear, but have some ongoing involvement.”

[Read: More on the adjunct unionization movement at DePaul]

The Task Force will include 10 part-time faculty, one from each college, two representatives appointed by Faculty Council, preferably to include the chair of the Committee on Contingent Faculty, a dean appointed by the provost and the designated associate provost. The committee’s members have been determined, but the provost declined for the time being to release their names.

Heather Smith said her full time job doesn’t allow time to attend any meetings from the department, but she said her relationship with the department has always been friendly and supportive.

“Department chairs always really supportive. I’m on the general email list,” Smith said.  “All (my department chairs) have been super supportive and available for questions over email no matter day or night. I definitely felt like part of community.”

Weighing the pros and cons of unionization at DePaul, Tim Smith said unionization wasn’t something he saw as a practical venture at DePaul. 

“Being an adjunct is not supposed to be a full-time career job … When I compare the adjunct versus full-time professional role, it’s just horrible,” Smith said. “Adjuncts can do anything they want to, which is kind of a nice. It’s a different role. It’s a different career choice with a different level of responsibilities.”

“Because I have access to a research library I was able to write a textbook,” Smith continued. “I couldn’t have done that if I wasn’t at the school with the quality of DePaul. At DePaul I was able to write that textbook because of the access to research material that DePaul provides. It changed my life. That’s what I use my adjunct role for.”

“I think part of it is self-explanatory that if you have a third party between the university and the adjuncts, that conversation is always going to be more difficult,” denBoer said. “You’ve played games I’m sure where a message goes around a circle and it gets very disordered by the time it goes around. And if you have a third-party, unions are very good at making rules that apply to a very particular kind of worker. But, we have such a different range of adjuncts here that I think trying to fit everyone into one straitjacket I think would really constrain what we could do for our adjuncts.”

The provost also added that a permanent structure would still be necessary given the likelihood that not all adjuncts would be represented by a union. As The DePaulia reported, the SEIU has taken an approach of organizing smaller bargaining units by college within a university. This strategy worked in the formation of unions at the University of Chicago and Loyola, but left several adjuncts at each school without representation.

“This is a little speculative on my part, that even if there’s a union in place for some part-time faculty, that it’s not likely that union would represent all adjuncts,” den Boer said. “And so, we’d still want to have some mechanism in place in case those adjuncts who are not in the union would have a voice and be able to do the things we’d like this permanent structure to be able to do.” 

Moving forward, Heather Smith said, “I just think the changes that DePaul is making is a really great step in the right direction and articulating what that support looks like in one central place given that it’s such a large institution. I hope they continue to do that and having the dialogue sessions with adjuncts to really understand what the needs are.”

The post DePaul and unions clash over recent efforts to win adjunct loyalty appeared first on The DePaulia.

Phrases such as “Make DePaul great again,” “Blue Lives Matter”and “Trump Train 2016” were chalked on DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus late Monday night before being removed by the campus grounds crew sometime before mid-morning Tuesday.

The chalkings – which mimicked Republican candidate Donald Trump’s rhetoric, and praised conservative values and candidate Ted Cruz – caused outrage among some students on both sides of the issue. Some took to social media to voice their concerns.

“It’s sad that even at a school as diverse and accepting as DePaul, I still feel attacked,” wrote one student in a DePaul Facebook group. “But I’m staying and am gonna thrive here anyway and maybe this organization will be held responsible for their actions.”

The chalkings were organized by DePaul College Republicans, which posted photos on their Facebook page at 12:48 a.m. Tuesday morning. College Republicans President Nicole Been voiced her concern about free speech on Twitter.

“Thanks @DePaulU for limiting the free speech of all those who disagree with your agenda. Chalk is all washed away by this morning,” she wrote.

Thanks @DePaulU for limiting the free speech of all those who disagree with your agenda. Chalk is all washed away by this morning.

— Nicole Been (@Nicole_been) April 5, 2016

In an email, Been wrote that College Republicans held the chalking “as a new way to promote Republican candidates and conservative ideas just as we would on our promotional tables and posters.”

“I am surprised by the assumptions people are making about our intent and who we are as people is not reflected by what others are calling us,” she wrote. “I can say all assumptions on the pages I’ve seen are false about timing and intent.”

The movement, known widely as #TheChalkening, has occurred at several universities across the country – including the University of Illinois, Emory University, Kansas University and the University of Michigan – sparking outcries from students both about freedom of speech and racism.

In a statement, the university said that campus grounds crews made an independent decision to remove the chalking in part because of its content.

“After some investigation, it turns out this happened for two reasons.  First, the crew regularly cleans up chalk messages on our sidewalks.  This is a part of their duties.  Secondly, some among the crew considered the messages inflammatory. The crew has agreed to consult about such matters in the future.”

“The university has policies on political campaigning activities on campus, free speech and the manner in which we conduct ourselves with respect for all affected by our speech.  In the next few days, we will send a more comprehensive statement reminding the campus community of these policies in this particularly charged political time in the United States.”

Student organizations may use facilities for partisan political movements — as long as it is clear that they do not represent the views of the university — and individuals may post political flyers and slogans in their rooms, as long as it is not posted for public viewing. Chalking is allowed outside the Student Center, though university policy states that “messages may not contain profanity or may not abuse, assail, intimidate, demean, victimize, or have the effect of creating a hostile environment for any person or group of people based on any of the protected characteristics in the University’s Anti-Discriminatory Harassment Policy.”

However, it remains to be seen whether or not College Republicans were in violation of any of these policies. Vice President for Student Affairs Gene Zdziarski said this issue demonstrates that there is some confusion about what political campaigning is allowed.

“We are in the process of addressing this with the student organization responsible for creating, and the staff who removed, the chalkings,” Zdziarski said. “Our next steps will be to work on closing this knowledge gap and clarifying practice soon with a campus communique.  As we move through the campaign season, we ask that all members of the university community become familiar with and abide by the ‘Political Campaign Activity’ policy.”

This tension comes after a year fraught with difficult speech on campus and in DePaul Facebook groups.

“I’m disgusted but not surprised, because these thing happen all the time on campus,” junior Michael Lynch said. Lynch, who also met with fraternity leaders after one of their members wrote racially loaded statements in a DePaul Facebook group,  is involved with Black Student Union, Men of Vision and Empowerment (MOVE) and is a student executive board member of the Steans Center.

While he said he respects free speech and the right to support a candidate, he also said that Trump’s racist comments do not need to be included in the conversation and have no place on campus.

Moving forward, Lynch is hoping to meet with Latino student leaders, College Republicans, Young Americans for Freedom and other members of the DePaul community to end what he sees as an ongoing issue.

“I think it’s important to note that as we are in the midst of an intense political season, we remember that each of us has the right to our own, personal opinion,” Student Government Association President Vanessa Cadavillo said. “However, it is times like this that remind us that as a Vincentian community we must do everything we can to respect one another and take that into consideration in the way that we deliver our beliefs.”

Cadavillo said that SGA, as part of the President’s Diversity Council, is working to collect feedback and implement initiatives to help underrepresented groups on campus. These actions — including cultural competency training and the formation of six task forces — stemmed from a meeting between BSU and DePaul President Fr. Dennis Holtschneider, C.M., earlier this year.

“What happens is that students don’t get reprimanded or disciplined for them, so it happens again, and we have to respond again,” Lynch said. “It happens again and again and again, because no one is looking at the problem as a whole.”

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story said the chalkings were also organized by Young Americans for Freedom. A YAF representative confirmed that some of its members were involved, but College Republicans organized the chalkings. 

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During their Chicago History Museum class last fall, DePaul students Catrien Egbert and Yasmin Mitchel were especially interested in oral histories, the collection of history through interviews.

So when their professor, Peter Alter, asked for interns for an upcoming oral history project of people who have lived in the East Garfield Park neighborhood during the past 40 years, they both wanted to be a part of it. Luckily for them, they were chosen for the internship.

“I enjoy listening to stories and having conversations with people, and this project was giving voice to people who had not had their stories told before,” said Mitchel, a junior and dramaturgy/criticism major.

All three became part of “Forty Blocks: The East Garfield Park Oral History Project,” a collaboration between the Chicago History Museum and the social service provider Breakthrough Urban Ministries, which is based in the neighborhood. Both organizations helped elementary and middle school students from the West Side area interview 23 residents for a documentary, and in doing so capture the history of East Garfield Park.

The project began in the spring of last year when Alter, who is also the director of the museum’s oral history projects, was approached by Breakthrough, which was trying to find resources about East Garfield Park. After searching through the museum’s archives, they found that since 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the neighborhood’s history was hardly documented.

“That was really the first big lightbulb moment that, ‘Hey, we’re really on to something, that it is really significant in terms of the historical documentation of the West Side, specifically East Garfield Park,’” Alter said.

The museum and Breakthrough decided to change that by recording the stories told by residents who experienced the neighborhood during the past 40 years. Besides adding to the documented history of the Chicago neighborhood, the project also strives to empower the people who live there.

“Forty blocks in particular helps all participants by telling the stories of an area that often gets stereotyped, often gets overlooked and often gets misunderstood,” Egbert, a junior history major, said. “It’s hard to talk about a lot of the issues East Garfield Park faces, but what’s interesting is that it’s not hard for the residents.”

“People really want to challenge that, and through our modest project, we were helping them provide a platform to do that,” Alter said.

By the time winter arrived, Breakthrough and the museum were hard at work to accomplish their goals. While Breakthrough found residents who wanted to share their stories, interns Egbert and Mitchel did their part to prepare the team for the upcoming interviews.

As interns, Egbert and Mitchel helped raise over $4,500 through Kickstarter to fund the project, promoted it on social media, carried out research, drafted questions and taught the students how to interview the residents.

While their Chicago History Museum class briefly touched on oral history, Egbert said most of the skills they needed for the internship were learned by “diving straight in.”

“I was surprised by how the lack of preparation helped Yasmin and I to do better, because we had to lean on each other,” Egbert said. Alter would give them the resources and tell them to “go at it.”

“There really is no possible way that it could have happened without their work,” Alter said.

The students also seemed to be enthralled by the oral history project. Some were interested in the filming aspect, some in interviewing and others in history, Egbert said.

“The kids were incredibly bright and dedicated individuals who had a genuine curiosity and passion for their neighborhood,” Egbert said.

Once they were prepared, the students began interviewing the residents in March at the FamilyPlex, Breakthrough’s facility in East Garfield Park. They were split up into three teams of nine students, one led by Mitchel, one by Egbert and one by Carrie Shepard of WBEZ. Each interview lasted about 30 minutes, for a total of about 12 hours of recording.

A variety of people from the community were interviewed, including long-term residents, the elderly, reverends and DePaul alumna Dorothy Gaters, who has been head coach of Marshall High School’s girls basketball team since 1976.

“Whenever we would ask them more about their experiences, they would always be like, ‘Well, how much time do you got? No one has ever asked me this question before,’” Mitchel said.

Mitchel noticed that while the residents told their stories, they seemed to be also reliving them.

“It’s still real to them. You could see the expressions on their faces while they had flashbacks,” Mitchel said. Learning about those different perspectives was one of the most enjoyable parts of the internship, Mitchel said.

Egbert noticed that the residents, in telling their experiences of East Garfield Park, often brought up issues of gentrification, race relations, housing and education.

“It’s a history that lends itself very easily to contemporary issues,” Egbert said. “So you can trace back and see issues that exist today.”

The residents also seemed to take enormous pride in their community organizations, Egbert said, such as the Gold Dome Building, where residents can partake in a variety of educational activities.

Now that the bulk of the interviews are finished, Breakthrough is putting together the 20-minute documentary, which will contain footage from the interviews and premiere in July at the Chicago History Museum.

Meanwhile, the recordings the museum now has are being transcribed and uploaded into its archives. From there, the curious can read the transcripts and listen to the recordings.   

In retrospect, Egbert said oral history is one of the best ways to tell peoples’ stories from communities like East Garfield Park.

“You hear the people, you hear how they stutter, you hear how they pause, you hear how they tell the story in their own words,” Egbert said. “I think that is a very profound and a very useful way to tell history.”

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