the daily northwestern — feb. 11, 2015
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The Feb. 11, 2015 issue of The Daily NorthwesternTRANSCRIPT
By OLIVIA EXSTRUMdaily senior staffer @olivesocean
The Black People Making History Committee hosted “Breathe-In,” a teach-in Tuesday focused on the Black Lives Matter movement and blackness in America.
Attendees crowded the McCor-mick Foundation Center Forum for presentations and a panel discussion.
“There’s never been a good or safe time in American history for black populations to protest against violence, racism, oppression,” Afri-can American Studies Prof. Barnor Hesse, who helped organize the com-mittee, said during the event.
The committee is a collabora-tion within the Center for African American History between faculty and students.
Before the presentations, several students silently walked across the stage, holding signs with quotes about breathing. SESP senior Sarah Carthen Watson was last to leave the stage and displayed the repeated phrase, “I can’t breathe” – the last words of Eric Garner, who died in New York City in July 2014 after being put in a police chokehold and whose death has been a fundamen-tal part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
After an introduction from Hesse, African American Studies Prof. Sherwin Bryant talked about the lack of discussion about black history in American schools.
“We actually have curricula in place to actually thread black his-tory through American history in this society,” said Bryant, who is also the director of the Center for African
American History, “and yet teachers often over-look it.”
Bryant a l s o d i s -cussed how the inter-est in black power by prominent leaders of the civil rights movement, like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa
Parks, are often forgotten to fit a certain narrative.
“All too often we’ve allowed the civil rights movement to be torn asunder from black power, as if it belongs to a more respectable black history,” Bryant said, “as if Black History Month had to be respect-able in the first place.”
Audience members then watched
the video of Garner’s last moments.Kashif Powell, a postdoctoral fel-
low in the Department of Perfor-mance Studies, was the first to give a
presentation. During his talk, Powell analyzed the relationship between blackness and death.
“While blackness is an entity that
is overdetermined by experiences of death, from those experiences
CTA to test evening Purple Line Express
The Chicago Transit Authority will test an evening Purple Line Express train in June, Evanston officials said.
The additional express train will encourage those who live and work in Evanston to take advantage of the amenities the city has to offer, said Ylda Capriccioso, Evanston’s intergovernmen-tal affairs coordinator.
The six-week pilot program will take place from June 1 to July 10 and add one extra train that will run from Wilmette to the Loop and back again. The train will leave the Linden stop at 8 p.m., arrive at the Clark/Lake stop at 8:50 p.m. and return back to Linden by 9:52 p.m.
“The business community and people who work in Evanston are always try-ing to rush back home to eat or work out,” Capriccioso said. “This will allow them to meet up with their coworkers after work or take advantage of the social activities in the city.”
Many employees were not sticking around after work because they needed to catch the Purple Line Express, which has its last train leaving the Davis Street stop at 6:37 p.m., said Johanna Nyden, Evanston’s economic development divi-sion manager.
“There is value in spending time and
energy to keep people around,” Nyden said. “It benefits two ends of the spec-trum because it helps not just the people here, but also residents who need to get home from work.”
Nyden emphasized the fact that the later train would be valuable to those who work both traditional 9-to-5 jobs and those with more lenient hours.
“There are two types of people,” she said. “Those who get out at 5 and could go out to drinks or dinner and not have to rush through anymore and those who maybe start work at 10 and don’t leave until 6 or 7. This would benefit both of them.”
The CTA will consider the program a success if an average of 468 people ride the train per night or there are 39 people per car on the six-car train, Nyden said.
Capriccioso said she was unsure if the program will continue after the trial run but hopes it will benefit commuters regardless.
“Our main goals are to increase the livability and sustainability of the city (Evanston),” she said. “We want to make sure we provide all the possible choices people need and want.”
— Tori Latham
The Daily NorthwesternDAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM Find us online @thedailynuWednesday, February 11, 2015
SPORTS Men’s BasketballWildcats surrender in home loss to
Spartans » PAGE 8
University proposes new campus subdivision » PAGE 2
High 35Low 10
OPINION HayesHow to improve higher
education » PAGE 4
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881 INSIDE Around Town 2 | On Campus 3 | Opinion 4 | Classifieds & Puzzles 6 | Sports 8
‘Breathe-In’ supports Black Lives Matter
City schools will proceed with PARCCBy MARISSA PAGEthe daily northwestern @marissahpage
Although some Chicago schools are pushing back against new state-mandated testing, Evanston-area schools will proceed despite administrative uneasiness.
PARCC testing, which stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, is based on Common Core stan-dards, and is required by the Illi-nois State Board of Education. Designed to assess students on a consistent scale from the third through 11th grades, PARCC test-ing is divided into two categories: language arts and math.
PARCC testing was a major talk-ing point at the State of the Schools address, a forum held Jan. 29 by District 202 superintendent Eric Witherspoon and Evanston/Skokie School District 65 superintendent Paul Goren to discuss current sta-tistics and upcoming developments at city schools.
Although both superintendents addressed the topic, Witherspoon was outspoken in his uncertainty about the validity of the exam. The manpower, time and resources spent preparing for and admin-istering these tests at ETHS are “absolutely alarming,” he said at the event.
Despite his doubts in the pro-gram, Witherspoon said Tuesday
that ETHS will implement PARCC testing starting next month.
“We are choosing to follow the rules because we do think it is important that we try to go about changing policy or rules the right way,” Witherspoon told The Daily. “We have been advocating vigor-ously for many months now trying to point out to them all the flaws in trying to do this test and how
question-able the results are going to be in terms of usefulness with so few states even participat-ing.”
Another incentive to com-ply with PARCC
testing comes with the risk of losing federal funding. The state education board has threatened to withhold Title I funds from dis-tricts that do not administer the test, the Chicago Tribune reported last month.
At the State of the Schools address, Goren said District 65 could stand to lose $7 million if it does not go through with the test-ing as directed by the state edu-cation board. Witherspoon said
Nathan Richards/Daily Senior Staffer
‘CAN YOU BREATHE?’ Students silently hold signs displaying quotes during a teach-in hosted by the Black People Making History Committee on Tuesday. The packed event featured discussions about the Black Lives Matter movement.
Person arrested in connection with mailroom thefts
University Police arrested one per-son Tuesday morning in connection with alleged thefts from at least one Northwestern mailroom.
UP Deputy Chief Daniel McA-leer said more information would be available in the next few days, includ-ing what crime the suspect has been charged with.
A message to undergraduate resi-dents from Executive Director of Residential Services Paul Riel asked students to reach out to Detective Lieu-tenant Ron Godby if they suspect they
have had mail stolen since October.McAleer told The Daily the inves-
tigation is ongoing.“At this time we are still seeking
student victims from NU to sign criminal complaints in this matter,” he wrote Tuesday in an email to The Daily.
— Shane McKeon
Daily file photo by Christian Wilson
PURPLE PRIDE Commuters wait for the Purple Line train at the Davis stop. This summer, the CTA will test a new evening Purple Line Express run to provide more options to Evanston and Chicago residents.
» See BREATHE, page 6
» See PARCC, page 6
“We will administer (PARCC), but we will not be quiet about it.Eric Witherspoon,School District 202 superintendent
“There’s never been a good or safe time in American history for black populations to protest against violence, racism, oppression.Prof. Barnor Hesse
Around TownBusinesses who take advantage of Cook County workers should not benefit from Cook County contracts, licenses and property tax incentives.
— Cook County Commissioner Jeffrey Tobolski
“ ” Cook County passes wage theft ordinance Page 5
University proposes new campus subdivisionsBy BEN SCHAEFERthe daily northwestern @BSchaefer27
The Evanston Preservation Commission heard a proposal Tuesday from Northwestern to alter the zoning boundaries of areas of campus east of Sheridan Road.
Paul Weller, the director of facilities planning, and Bonnie Humphrey, the director of design and construction, presented the proposal to the commission Tuesday evening.
Officials discussed two of the lots that make up NU’s campus. Of the two lots in question, the eastern lot is the Lakefill, which contains no land-marks. The western lot, between Sheridan Road and the Lakefill, is considered a historic district although only 12 of its 58 buildings maintain land-mark status. The proposal suggests restricting pro-tected landmark zones to smaller areas that more closely surround the landmark buildings.
The University hopes to expedite bureaucratic roadblocks caused by the large landmark zone that currently exists, Humphrey said. In its current state, the zoning boundaries force the University to meet with the commission to fix something as small as a window in a non-landmark building, she said.
“As a major institution of higher education, it
is the essential character of the University to look forward to the designing of new buildings, not to serve simply as a mirror to the past,” Humphrey said. “The proposed subdivision serves to preserve and protect landmark buildings and provides flex-
ibility to accommodate the organic growth of the University.”
The University and the commission often meet to discuss plans for construction and its impact on the lay-out of campus. In 2012 the commission voted unanimously to deny plans for the construc-tion of a visitors’ center across from Fisk Hall. City Council overrode the commission and approved the plans.
Some members of the commission expressed doubt about the Univer-sity’s motives, calling the
proposal “disingenuous.”“I do not especially want to see any more exam-
ples of NU’s current thinking in architecture,” Evanston resident Bruce Enenbach said, “which in
my humble opinion has been pretty abysmal.”Commission members were concerned with
some of the boundaries proposed, specifically in the proposed lot that contains Lunt Hall and Swift Hall.
The University drew the boundary in anticipa-tion of future plans to move Lunt Hall, which was built at a non-perpendicular angle from Sheridan Road, Humphrey said.
Specifically, the commission was concerned with how redrawn boundaries would allow for the preservation of landmarks in the future.
“You’re preventing buildings like Tech from gaining landmark status in the future,” vice chair of the commission Jack Weiss said. “History does not stand still in preservation.”
Members of the community and commission alike expressed concerns over visibility of the cam-pus landmarks from Sheridan Road.
“These proposals seem to come from the inside of campus looking out, not the outside looking in,” Evanston resident Richard Weiland said.
Commission members expressed many doubts about the viability of certain points of the pro-posal moving forward but did not come to any conclusions.
The commission will vote on the proposal at its next meeting on March 4.
Teen robbed by ETHS students
A group of students who attend Evanston Township High School punched and robbed a 17-year-old Friday, police said.
The teenager, an Evanston resident, was approached by a group of juveniles at 7:45 p.m. Friday in the 1300 block of Darrow Avenue, Evanston police Cmdr. Joseph Dugan said.
One male in the group punched the teen in the right side of the face and took $20 from
his pocket.The boy told police that the group that
attacked him attended ETHS and that they fled into an apartment building in the 1300 block of Darrow Avenue, Dugan said.
Police could neither say how large the group of attackers were, nor whether the teenager attended ETHS.
The resident could only provide the first name of one of the attackers to the police.
— Hal Jin
Ben Schaefer/The Daily Northwestern
PRESERVATION DISCUSSION Bonnie Humphrey, director of design and construction, defends Northwestern’s proposal for re-subdividing the campus. The Evanston Preservation Commission evaluated the plan that would redraw the lines of Northwestern’s landmark status areas.
Setting therecord straight
Due to incorrect information from a source, “ASG to publicize UHAS over-haul” in Tuesday’s print edition misstated when ASG Student Life Vice President Chris Harlow and Dean of Students Todd Adams plan to meet. They have plans to meet soon.
Due to an editing error, the story “National flower donation nonprofit opens in city” in Tuesday’s print edition misstated the number of Random Acts of Flowers branches. The Evanston branch is the fourth branch to open.
The Daily regrets the errors.
Police Blotter
“I do not especially want to see any more examples of NU’s current thinking in architecture, which in my humble opinion has been pretty abysmal.Bruce Enenbach,Evanston resident
2 NEWS | THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015
On CampusWe’re hoping that the survey does show that students would use the opportunity to better their physical and mental health.
— Anna Rennich, ASG academic vice president
“ ” Student-designed survey aims to gauge time management Page 5
By MARIANA ALFAROthe daily northwestern @marianaa_alfaro
Northwestern Divest, a movement started last month advocating for divestment in support of Palestine, should distance itself from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and clarify its agenda, several professors said during a Tuesday panel discussion hosted by Northwestern Coalition for Peace.
Religious studies Prof. Laurie Zoloth, NU School of Law Prof. Steven Lubet and University of Illinois at Chicago professor Samuel Fleischacker spoke to an audience of more than 40 people in Annenberg Hall. Each had the opportunity to answer questions posed by the coalition and audience members.
All three panelists agreed that for NUDivest to be more transparent, it needs to clarify its agenda of peace and distance itself from the Boycott, Divest-ment and Sanctions movement created by Pales-tinian civil society in 2005, because they said some
of the BDS motives oppose co-existence between Israelis and Palestine.
“If NUDivest wants to say, ‘We are not like that,’ then they have to say, ‘We disagree with the national BDS movement call that implies the abolition of the state of Israel,’” Zoloth said. “That’s not made clear at all.”
Weinberg junior Ariella Hoffman-Peterson, orga-nizer of the event, agreed.
“The call to action to me is asking if NUDivest would be willing to add a clause that would oppose academic boycotts or oppose the largest BDS move-ment in a way that would make this a more produc-tive conversation,” she said. “I love the idea of … the two sides coming together.”
Prompted to offer his idea of a viable long-term solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Fleis-chacker, who said that in the past he participated in various boycott and divestment movements, said the best choice would be a two-state solution with a Jewish state and a Palestinian state.
“The ideal would be a confederation between the two,” he said.
The panelists also discussed what needs to be changed in order to achieve peace both in the conflict and at NU.
“I think for peace to be achieved what we can do is strengthen progressive forces in Israel,” Lubet said. “I don’t think we have much import or influence on progressive forces in Palestinian states. We should work to encourage people with progressive views to gain political strength.”
Fleischacker said the biggest obstacle for peace at the moment is Israel’s occupation of Palestine. He said the solution is for Israel to stop the occupation, but the biggest question is how to do it.
“The question here in the U.S. is, what can we do to help?” he said. “What we can do, I think, is use the advantages of our universities and of the fact that here in the U.S., Zionists and anti-Zionists, Jews and Palestinians … can talk to each other relatively peacefully to come up with ideas that might help that are respectful to both sides.”
He said creating safe spaces where people with dif-ferent viewpoints can come together and understand each other better is a way to further conversation between the peaceful sides of the conflict.
Panelists discussed the role of NUDivest on cam-pus, referring to a Letter to the Editor published in The Daily in January.
In the piece, NUDivest organizers said support-ers of NUDivest don’t need to have a “historical background on the conflict, nor do they need to be in support of any particular nation or political solution.” They also said those who support human rights should be in favor of NUDivest.
Zoloth said she understood where this comment from NUDivest was coming from because she advo-cates against oppression. However, she said this is a complicated narrative where the problem needs to be studied better before forming a concrete opinion.
“That statement … is something you wouldn’t say for almost any cause,” Fleischacker said. “As citizens in a democracy and as students at a distinguished university, the last thing (they) should be saying in that situation to other students is you don’t need to know anything.”
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN | NEWS 3
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Coalition panelists discuss NUDivest
Nathan Richards/Daily Senior Staffer
PEACE TALK Prof. Laurie Zoloth and Samuel Fleischacker, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, discuss peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and student divestment movements during a panel hosted Tuesday by Northwestern Coalition for Peace. The event promoted conversation and dialogue about the current situation both in and out of Northwestern.
Measles, a highly contagious and potentially deadly viral infection, is making a spectacu-larly terrifying comeback. An outbreak of measles in Disneyland that began in Decem-ber has spread to more than 100 new cases throughout the country. In Chicago, a total of nine infants at a daycare center contracted measles since last week. Heartbreakingly, all of these children were too young to have received the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vac-cine, which is typically first given to children between the ages of 12 and 15 months. Among children who are unable to be vaccinated, their only protection would be herd immunity, the principle that infants at risk can only be pro-
tected by being sur-rounded by vaccinated individuals, limiting the risk of transmis-sion and infection. But unfortunately, this defense can be worn away by a low vaccina-tion rate.
Importantly, Illinois has been particularly challenged in main-taining effective levels of immunization in children. More than 130 schools in Illinois were below a mini-mum vaccination rate of 90 percent, which is already below the ideal
threshold for proper herd immunity, which is above 95 percent. Interestingly, the state does have the power to enforce vaccination rates in the public school system, as the Illinois Code dictates that the government can withhold funding from schools not meeting standards of vaccination. However, the Board of Educa-tion is unwilling to enforce this policy due to entirely reasonable concerns that less money would likely not translate into more vaccina-tions. However, in the midst of such a measles outbreak, what’s most alarming is not the rise of this disease previously declared eliminated by the Centers for Disease Control and Preven-tion in 2000, but rather that our generation of young adults seems the least concerned with it.
Although the dangers of measles to children are well reported, students attending college have plenty of reasons to be alarmed, as infants are not the only ones vulnerable to measles. In fact, students in college are at a higher risk
for exposure and transmission, and individu-als over the age of 20 are at a higher risk of complications after infection. Concordantly, the Feinberg School of Medicine vaccine researcher Dr. Tina Tan has recommended all adults stay up to date with their vaccinations.
Paradoxically, despite young students hav-ing a higher risk of measles, our demographic is also the most lackadaisical about promoting strong vaccination rates. According to a recent Pew Research poll, only 59 percent of individu-als between the ages of 18-29 agreed vaccina-tion should be required, significantly lower than the overall national average of 68 percent. Even as a baseline, 68 percent is already alarm-ingly low, especially given the robust evidence for both the safety and efficacy of childhood vaccines. I have previously written on the importance of eliminating vaccine opt-outs, but briefly, it is a necessary provision to protect children from improper decision-making on the part of their parents.
But this survey raises another interesting question: Why does the older generation feel so inclined to make vaccinations mandatory? In the same Pew study, 79 percent of those older than 65 supported vaccines, the high-est out of any age group. Perhaps it is simply because they remember a time before the successful eradication of these vaccine-pre-ventable illnesses and saw the ravages of these infections firsthand. Remember, just over 80 years ago, America elected a president unable to walk because of a tragic childhood exposure to polio.
The 20th century was an age of true medical miracles, when citizens could actually witness the diseases of their childhoods be eliminated forever. But with measles returning and vac-cination rates dropping, this older generation may be dreading having to be bystanders as this foundation of medical achievement crum-bles before them.
Conversely, our generation hasn’t witnessed any such medical triumph, and we have forgot-ten our history. We are weary of a troubled health care system, turning to the comfort-ing words of parenting blogs rather than the gloomy forcefulness of pediatricians. Because modern, 21st century medicine, the only kind of medicine we have ever known, is such a complex array of prescriptions, procedures and indecipherable hospital bills, it seems unfath-omable to us that just a few, simple injections could protect against historical epidemics. But if we do not take time to learn about the history of disease and respect the wisdom of our elders, we may be doomed to relive the scourges of centuries past.
Sai Folmsbee is a Feinberg graduate student. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a letter to the editor to [email protected].
Join the online conversation at www.dailynorthwestern.comOPINION
Wednesday, February 11, 2015 PAGE 4
The Daily NorthwesternVolume 135, Issue 73
Editor in ChiefCiara McCarthy
Managing EditorsSophia Bollag Jeanne Kuang
Opinion Editors Bob Hayes Angela Lin
Assistant Opinion EditorNaib Mian
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR may be sent to 1999 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, via fax at 847-491-9905, via e-mail to [email protected] or by dropping a letter in the box outside THE DAILY office. Letters have the following requirements:
class and phone number.
They will be checked for authenticity and may be edited for length, clarity, style and grammar. Letters, columns and cartoons contain the opinion of the authors, not Students Publishing Co. Inc. Submissions signed by more than three people must include at least one and no more than three names designated to represent the group.Editorials reflect the majority opinion of THE DAILYeditorial board and not the opinions of either Northwestern University or Students Publishing Co. Inc.
SAIFOLMSBEEDAILY COLUMNIST
How to improve higher education
To briefly sum up my 18 months at North-western, my college experience has been thoroughly enjoyable and outstandingly valuable to my personal development. I have learned a lot about myself, my relationships, my skills, what I like to do and, quite simply, how life works. Ironically, the only place I feel has been somewhat insufficient in my educational process has been in the class-room, a problem I see rooted in the general collegiate education system — not just at NU.
I have spent some time pondering why I believe I learned more in the classrooms of nearby New Trier High School than I have during my time in Evanston. How does it make sense that I learned more at a public high school than I have at the elite college for which my family pays more than $65,000 per year?
Interestingly, my most influential class at NU so far — my Spring Quarter freshman seminar on “The Goal of Higher Education” — taught me the faults of how we are taught and how higher education is grounded in many preoccupations beyond actual learn-ing. Many people will undoubtedly disagree with my original premise, but everyone can see room for improvement in our educa-tional process.
The initial issue comes down to the philosophy of teaching. Universities pres-sure faculty members to devote their time to researching and writing publications rather than connecting with students. Even the terminology shows how the teaching method changes once college begins. Teach-ers become professors. Each term invokes distinctly different images. Teachers spend time with students and focus on legitimately teaching — transferring knowledge and skills to students. Professors stand at the front of a large lecture hall filled with nameless students and pontificate about what they are currently researching, to the detriment of their students’ learning.
Yes, collegiate education stresses indi-vidual learning, but is the current level of that emphasis the proper level? Schools often make the excuse that professors simply do not have time to pay attention to each student because they are busy with out-of-the-classroom academic activities. Colleges across the nation must incentivize teach-ing over researching for students to gain a proper intellectual education. Currently, the focus on individual learning does more to sort out which students may already have
the most skills than to teach students those skills.
Additionally, the entire collegiate course system is much more rigid than it is in high school. With the exception of Chinese and some economics courses, my classes have had minimal carry-over among quarters. I have little incentive to truly learn anything in, say, a required statistics course because the knowledge will never be necessary again. As soon as we finish a final exam, the course loses all relevancy in our minds because our future courses do not force us to recall that knowledge. In college, we are only as good as our last midterm and we only care about our next midterm.
A former English class — to this day the most challenging and most rewarding course I have ever taken — taught me that we should never try to relate to characters if we are to properly analyze literature. In a more recent English class, the first discussion topic is which character we relate to most. Although people surely have subjective takes on that debate, the inconsistency between the two teaching angles does not allow for much intellectual growth.
Thus, it is vital that colleges offer more continuity among courses, which administra-tors could address with a relatively simple change in the educational process. After a freshman year of essentially shopping dif-ferent courses, schools can offer “course tracks,” with more fluidity among classes. Major “course tracks” would last three years, while minors would last one or two years, with each semester course building from the previous one. Modeled after foreign language courses, this continuity of learning is the best way to sustain knowledge because students will repeatedly recall prior information. Also like foreign language courses, immersion — a temporary internship or working with an expert in the field — could dramatically improve learning and enjoyment. One class slot each semester could be an elective slot, which students could use to take a class that intellectually challenges them but may not relate to their other courses of study.
The result of a “course track” system with more engaged teaching could dramatically increase student interest in classes while also ensuring a more sustainable system of educa-tion. While the onus of learning will always fall on the students, it is vital that university administrators consider what would best fos-ter an environment of profound intellectual stimulation that allows us to grow into the best versions of ourselves..
Bob Hayes is a Weinberg sophomore. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected].
BOBHAYESOPINION EDITOR
Keystone XL Pipeline carries net benefits
The Keystone Pipeline, an oil transport pipeline from Canada to the United States, is not clean. Trying to convince hard core envi-ronmentalists this truth is like trying to explain that my room is spotless to someone who just stepped on a high heel on the floor: It’s beyond obvious. The Keystone Pipeline is, however, the least of several evils in our energy policy. Instead of vetoing the upcoming bill approving the extension of the pipeline, President Barack Obama should use it to rewrite these more drastic evils.
First, the Keystone Pipeline could help the federal government untangle itself from big oil companies. The world spends $550 billion each year subsidizing fossil fuels, with the United States being one of the largest spenders. The Keystone Pipeline is unique in that it includes no direct subsidies to American companies, only accelerated depreciation of refinery capital. Accelerated depreciation refers to the increasing reduction of an asset’s value as it
ages — lessening the value of the asset that can be taxed. While the depreciation is not ideal, it at least reflects activity that the refineries have already carried out, as opposed to paying huge sums to oil companies up front to undergo projects that they probably would have done in the first place. A constant flow of Canadian oil,
plus the jobs that come with it, could cause politicians to work less with the big American fossil-fuel companies. If policymaking is no lon-ger clouted by Ameri-can big oil interests, we may be able to think seriously about reform-ing energy policy in ways that will force us to rethink how we con-sume, such as introduc-ing a carbon tax.
Some environmentalists fear this influx of even more oil will detract from the use of green energy. However, as much as sustainable energy projects should be researched and further devel-oped, they cannot provide what the Keystone XL can. Although renewable projects often have to be conducted in remote areas and cannot
as easily transfer energy, Keystone can ship 830,000 barrels of oil per day. Vetoing Keystone would not move us more toward alternative energy but would instead encourage more dangerous transportation of resources from Canada’s oil sands. Without the pipeline, freight trains would transfer much of our oil imports from Canada. Trains not only have a higher risk of spillage than the Keystone XL but also emit carbon dioxide themselves. Companies will not stop producing oil with a veto from Obama; they would only export via more dangerous means.
Regardless of the environmental impacts, the Keystone XL Pipeline makes economic sense. Although fossil fuel prices are extremely low now, they may not stay that way forever. The depreciation tax credits are more likely to be productively reinvested than the money saved when Congress pays big American oil to do a specific project. The Keystone Pipeline is not the perfect solution to American energy problems. It is, however, the start of a more reasonable path.
Julia Cohen is a SESP sophomore. She can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected].
JULIACOHENDAILY COLUMNIST
Our generation is the biggest challenge to vaccinations
“if we do not take time to learn about the history of disease and respect the wisdom of our elders, we may be doomed to relive the scourges of centuries past.
“Regardless of the environmental impacts, the Keystone XL Pipeline makes economic sense.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN | NEWS 5
Survey to gauge time managementBy JULIA JACOBSthe daily northwestern @juliarebeccaj
An Associated Student Government-sup-ported survey about time management went live Feb. 4 with the intention of determin-ing if a reduced number of required credits to graduate would benefit students’ health and performance, said Weinberg senior Anna Rennich, Associated Student Government academic vice president.
SESP junior Yair Sakols, who is not a mem-ber of ASG, designed the survey in an eco-nomics independent study under the obser-vation of economics Prof. Mark Witte. Sakols spearheaded the project with the idea that a reduced course load could improve the mental and physical health of students, he said.
“We’re seeing issues of … overburdening and incredible stress on students to the point of taking leave or cutting back on social life or falling behind in classes,” Sakols said. “Our hope is this will start a bigger conversation on academics and the course load at North-western and change towards creating balanced student lives.”
The survey will gauge how students would spend their time differently if they were to reduce their class load to three or fewer classes, Witte said. It asks students to estimate
how much time they spent per week in various areas of their lives when taking four or more classes compared with three or fewer.
“By what percentage do we see growth in hours of sleep, community involvement, growth in time talking to people’s mothers?” Witte said.
Sakols said he collaborated on the project with Rennich, who was already exploring
the relation-ship between student stress and academic requirements within ASG after a sur-vey at the end of last quarter dem-onstrated a need to address the issue.
In discussions with administrators this quarter, Sakols said there was concern that a reduction in required credits wouldn’t have a positive effect on students’ lives because that time would be spent on unproductive activities or other commitments that increase stress.
“The faculty are concerned … suppose we reduce the requirement, would this lead to
more slacking?” Witte said. “Would students respond by working a lot less?”
As of now, Rennich expects ASG’s rec-ommendation to be that the graduation requirements for Weinberg students should be reduced from 45 to 42 units, the same amount required at the University of Chi-cago, she said. The goal is to allow students to take only three classes per quarter with more frequency, she added.
“We’re hoping that the survey does show that students would use the opportunity to better their physical and mental health, also to spend more time on the classes they’re in,” Rennich said.
The survey will close about a week from Tuesday, Sakols said. The report on the sur-vey results is expected to be complete by the end of the quarter to be published on the ASG website and presented to relevant administrators.
The survey is one piece of his larger goal to make sure struggling students are repre-sented, Sakols said.
“We want to encourage students to talk to the senators, talk to professors, talk to admin-istrators … about the issues they’re facing academically and really make their voices heard,” he said.
Olivia Exstrum contributed reporting.
Lurie Center starts partnership for personalized oncology
Northwestern’s Robert H. Lurie Comprehen-sive Cancer Center is joining forces with the Northwestern Medicine Developmental Thera-peutics Institute and Northwestern Memorial Hospital for a new research initiative that aims to provide a personalized treatment program for cancer patients by combining oncology and genomics.
The collaboration, dubbed Northwestern Onco-SET (“Sequence, Evaluate, Treat”), will focus at the outset “on patients with any type of cancer that is not responsive to traditional thera-pies,” according to a Lurie Center news release.
Care will be personalized through a process known as genomic profiling, in which each patient’s tumor’s genetic profile is sequenced.
“Northwestern Onco-SET will help establish Chicago as a national and international leader in precision medicine for cancer,” said Dr. Leonidas Platanias, director of the Lurie Center, in a news release. “This is the first time cancer treatment in Chicago will be offered in a comprehensive, multidisciplinary program using molecularly defined genomic targets as a basis for determin-ing treatment options including novel early-phase clinical trials.”
The partnership will also collect patients’ individual genomic data for further pre-clinical research conducted by Northwestern Medicine.
“Onco-SET will provide the environment and infrastructure in which we can deliver personal-ized cancer treatment for patients who currently have very limited options, while accelerating our other research focused on developing novel individually tailored agents,” said Dr. Francis Giles, deputy director of the Lurie Center and director of NMDTI, in the release.
— Joseph Diebold
Cook County announces passage of wage theft ordinance
The Cook County Board of Commissioners passed a new ordinance to address the issue of wage theft, making the county the largest in the nation to do so, the county announced Tuesday.
Cook County Commissioner Jeffrey Tobolski, who represents the 16th district, introduced the legislation, which will affect companies and
individuals found guilty of wage theft. Entities found guilty will not be allowed to obtain Cook County procurement contracts, businesses licenses or property tax incentives for five years.
Cook County Board President Toni Preck-winkle co-sponsored the ordinance, and said the past few years have been especially difficult for low-wage employees.
“Unscrupulous business owners have exploited low-wage workers by refusing to pay overtime, clas-
sifying legal employees as independent con-tractors, paying less than minimum wage, and, in some instances, even refusing to pay wages outright,” Preckwinkle said in a news release. “This is unfair to hard-working employees and their families and it’s unfair to competing busi-nesses which are operating within the confines of the law.”
Tobolski said employers steal millions of dol-lars in wages from their workers every year.
“Businesses who take advantage of Cook County workers should not benefit from Cook County contracts, licenses and property tax incentives,” Tobolski said in the news release.
The legislation was celebrated by Arise Chicago, an organization that works to create relationships between faith communities and employees to fight against workplace injustice.
“For businesses and working people to thrive in Cook County, we need to be morally grounded in our business ethics,” Arise Chicago executive director Rev. C.J. Hawking said in the announcement. “We applaud Commissioner Tobolski and President Preckwinkle for their leadership on this ordinance, which is a building block in making Cook County the most ethical place in the country to do business.”
— Tori Latham
“We’re hoping that the survey does show that students would use the opportunity to better their physical and mental healthAnna Rennich,ASG academic VP
“Businesses who take advantage of Cook County workers should not benefit from Cook County contracts, licenses and property tax incentives.Jeffrey Tobolski,Cook County Commissioner
6 NEWS | THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
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emerge a really powerful imaginative force that has the ability to breathe life,” he said.
Powell ended his presentation with an original poem.
The final presenter, Florence Adibu, spoke about the black expe-rience in America, as well as the importance of women and girls in creating change. At the end of her pre-sentation, she invited audience members to share the names of loved ones, and said, “We speak your name” after each.
“How is it possible to be the cradle of
democracy and the graveyard of millions of people deemed socially dead at the same time?” said Adibu, a third-year graduate student in the Department of African American Studies.
The event then moved into a panel discus-sion, with five graduate students and faculty members speaking and Hesse moderating. Hesse provided questions and took questions from the audience.
In response to a student question about the difficulty of taking care of oneself while work-ing to affect change, panelist Charles Kellom said the former is just as important.
“Black Lives Matter isn’t just about the names we call out, it’s about you taking care of your own life,” said Kellom, who is director for African American Student Affairs. “When you call all these names of the dead, I think about the folks who are alive right now and how we celebrate each other and how we celebrate ourselves.”
Tuesday that ETHS could lose a couple million dollars as well if they refused PARCC.
“The State Board of Education sent us what almost seemed like threatening letters saying, ‘You’ll lose your Title I funding,’” Witherspoon
said. “We don’t like the tone of those letters. We will administer (PARCC), but we will not be quiet about it.”
BreatheFrom page 1
PARCCFrom page 1
Nathan Richards/Daily Senior Staffer
BREATHE IN African American Studies Prof. Sherwin Bryant discusses the portrayal of leaders in the civil rights movement at a teach-in Tuesday. The event was hosted by the Black People Making History Committee in conjunction with the Center for African American History.
Brown will raise tuition, fees 4.4 percent for 2015-16
PROVIDENCE — Undergraduate tuition and fees at Brown University will rise 4.4 percent to help fund a $967.4 million budget for fiscal 2016 proposed by President Christina Paxson, the university’s governing body announced on Sunday.
At its regular winter meeting on Saturday, the Corporation of Brown approved a spending plan that anticipates $964 million in revenues with another $7.5 million in one-time revenues. The university will tap unrestricted reserves to cover a $4.4-million deficit. The financial aid budget will rise 8 percent to $112.5 million.
“The budget approved for fiscal 2016 achieves a careful and important balance between address-ing structural problems and their attendant defi-cits and maintaining the University’s momentum toward important strategic goals,” Paxson said in a statement. “We will continue to make invest-ments in student support, the growth of our research enterprise, educational innovation, and academic excellence as we develop the revenue sources that will eliminate the deficit and sustain the university well into the future.”
In recent years, the university has been chal-lenged by a decline in federal research funds and unexpected growth in financial aid costs. While making structural changes to its budget, Brown intends to draw on reserves through 2018 to eliminate deficits.
The total undergraduate charge for 2015-16 will increase to $62,046. Undergraduate tuition will rise to $48,272; room and board will jump to $12,700; and other fees will go up to $1,074. Tuition for Ph.D. and on-campus master’s stu-dents will rise 4 percent to $48,272. Tuition at the Alpert Medical School will rise 4 percent to $53,416.
The undergraduate student body will increase slightly to 6,270.
— Richard Salit (The Providence Journal, R.I./TNS)
California study finds it cheaper for students to buy insurance than go without
LOS ANGELES — As this year’s deadline for Obamacare fast approaches, California State Uni-versity officials are trying to show students that buying health insurance makes financial sense.
A new analysis from the CSU Health Insurance Education Project found that half the approxi-mately 445,000 students in the CSU system are able to purchase health insurance for less than they would have to pay in fines for remaining uncovered.
Walter Zelman, project director and chairman of the Cal State L.A. Public Health Department, said the numbers challenge the idea that the cost
of health insurance — often cited as the main reason people don’t sign up — is unaffordable.
“It’s pretty striking that half our students, they shouldn’t even be thinking about this. It’s so obvi-ous,” Zelman said. “It’s a no-brainer.”
When Congress approved the Affordable Care Act, lawmakers required almost everyone start-ing in 2014 to have health insurance, or pay a fine.
Sunday is the deadline to sign up for insurance for 2015 through Covered California, the state’s insurance exchange. Although 1.2 million people have either signed up for new policies or renewed existing Covered California plans, the exchange is still thousands away from its goal of enrolling 1.7 million by the end of the sign-up period.
Zelman said he hopes the Cal State data will show that health insurance won’t stretch students’ pocketbooks. Healthy young people have long been a focus of enrollment efforts, with some officials worrying that if not enough signed up, insurance companies would be left with too many sick and expensive customers, which would even-tually cause carriers to raise premiums.
The CSU analysis looked at the cost of the cheapest insurance plan offered through Cov-ered California and found that approximately 50 percent of CSU students can purchase health insurance for less than $325, the fine for the 2015 tax year.
The analysis found that all financially inde-pendent CSU students with annual incomes of $18,000 or less and all four-person families with an income less of $45,000 or less can purchase insurance for less than the fine.
Approximately 75 percent of these students are eligible for Medi-Cal, the state’s free low-income health program that was expanded under the Affordable Care Act. The remainder are eligible for subsidized plans through Covered California.
At the six campuses in the L.A. region — San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Northridge, Pomona, Dominguez Hills and Long Beach — the low-est monthly premium available to a 21-year-old who makes $18,000 annually or less is about $26 a month.
The premiums were much lower at the other CSU campuses across the state; at those 17 cam-puses, that same student can get a plan with a monthly premium of $5 or less.
Last year, Obamacare enrollment among CSU students exceeded expectations, with 60,000 signing up and the numbers of uninsured drop-ping by 60 percent. Roughly 10 percent remained without health insurance at the beginning of this year’s open enrollment.
Zelman said he thinks there’s greater aware-ness about health insurance availability on cam-pus this year, and that demand for enrollment assistance has been increasing as the Sunday deadline approaches.
— Soumya Karlamangla (Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Across Campuses
“How is
it possible to be the cradle of
democracy and the graveyard
of millions of people deemed socially dead at the same time?
Florence Adibu,grad student
Former sailor fights Navy rules on civilian offenses
WASHINGTON—Machinist’s Mate Fire-man Nancy L. Castillo was already in hot water with the Navy when she was busted near Bremerton, Wash., for suspected drunken driving.
What didn’t happen next has now brought Castillo’s case all the way from Washington’s Kitsap County to the nation’s highest military court.
On Wednesday, in a dispute potentially important to myriad service members, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces will consider whether the Navy can require sailors to self-report civilian criminal charges, despite the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination.
“The self-reporting requirement ... pro-vides a real and appreciable danger of legal detriment,” Castillo’s defense attorney, Navy Lt. Carrie E. Theis, argued in a brief, adding that “it is reasonable for a service member to believe that disclosing would lead to incrimi-nating evidence.”
Theis, who declined to comment Tuesday, has some support for her argument, although in the end she may be going against the tide in a court respectful of military discipline.
In a 2009 case also involving an unreported drunken driving charge filed against an East Coast-based Navy enlisted man, a divided U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals concluded a self-reporting require-ment covering alcohol arrests violated the Fifth Amendment.
The Navy-Marine Corps court noted that a self-reporting rule “demands the revela-tion, directly or indirectly, of facts relating a service member to an offense.” The higher-ranked U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces also struck down the rule concerning alcohol offenses, although not on constitu-tional grounds.
The appellate court could also on Wednes-day try to resolve Castillo’s case without dig-ging deep into the Fifth Amendment.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, a former gover-nor of Mississippi, issued new regulations in July 2010. Sailors must now report the basic civilian charges, but not all the factual details.
For doing so, they receive Navy immunity unless military investigators independently obtain evidence.
“Arrest records are not covered by the Fifth Amendment privilege,” Marine Corps Capt. Matthew H. Harris wrote in a brief for the Navy, adding that “the fact that (Castillo) was arrested and charged, by itself, could never form the basis for prosecution against her.”
Harris and Theis will clash Wednesday morning in oral argument before the five civilian judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, who serve 15-year terms and meet in a courthouse about three-quarters of a mile from the Capitol.
The judge’s ultimate decision will shape what the Navy requires of all its sailors, as well as, potentially, the course of Castillo’s own civilian life.
—Michael Doyle (McClatchy Washington Bureau/TNS)
Confusion reigns as Alabama awaits another same-sex marriage ruling
FAIRHOPE, Ala.—Advocates of same-sex marriages were wading through Alabama’s complicated legal problems on Tuesday, hop-ing that a pending motion before a federal judge will bring some clarity to what has become a touchy issue of who can marry whom.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block gay marriages in Alabama, but the state’s top judge over the weekend ordered probate judges not to issue mar-riage licenses to same-sex couples. In some counties, probate judges ignored Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s order but many listened, refusing to allow same-sex marriages as ordered by the federal courts.
According to the Human Rights Cam-paign, a group backing gay marriage, 50 of Alabama’s 67 counties were refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, down from Monday when at least 53 counties were taking that position.
Four couples in Mobile have asked U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. Granade to instruct Probate Judge Don Davis to issue them mar-riage licenses after Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses rather than having to issue ones to same-sex couples.
Granade in January ordered Alabama to
stop enforcing its ban on same-sex marriage, but put a hold on the decision until Monday to allow the state time to prepare. The U.S. Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision on Monday refused the state’s request and said same-sex marriages could take place.
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to deal with the same-sex marriage issue this term after lower federal appeals courts split 4 to 1 in support of gay marriage. Monday’s decision to allow gay marriage in Alabama was widely seen as a signal of how the top U.S. court will deal with the broader issue, and is likely to rule in favor of same-sex marriage across the nation.
“While many same-sex couples in Ala-bama were able to marry, many others were denied that basic freedom,” said Shannon P. Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, one of the groups seek-ing the federal order against probate judges. “We are hopeful that a ruling on this motion will provide clarity regarding the obliga-tions of probate judges across the state and correct the misunderstanding generated by Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who has erroneously instructed those judges not to comply with the requirements of the federal Constitution.”
According to Randall Marshall, legal direc-tor of the ACLU of Alabama, which is also involved in the suit, the recent confusion has created several categories of counties dealing with the conflicting rulings between the U.S. Supreme Court and the order from the state’s top judge.
One group is those counties that are issu-ing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Hundreds of couples have already married since Alabama became the 37th state where gay marriage is legal. Same-sex marriage is also legal in Washington, D.C.
The second category is those counties, including Mobile, that have shut down, and are not issuing marriage licenses to anyone.
The last category is those counties where marriage licenses are being issued to het-erosexual couples, but not to same-sex couples.
It is unclear how many counties fall into each category, Marshall said.
—Michael Muskal and Matthew Teague(Los Angeles Times/TNS)
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN | NEWS 7
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the team’s last road contest, a 6-point victory against Indiana, as a telling sign of how much NU’s camara-derie makes a difference in hostile arenas.
“It was somewhat of a rough environment,” Lyon said. “Just the fans and everything. Indiana made a few runs, but we countered them. We just stayed together as a team. It’s all about just being poised, in the second half especially, and on Big Ten road games.”
With six conference games remaining, the Cats are in a great position to not only make a deep run in the conference tournament, but also possibly make the NCAA tournament.
With the postseason on the horizon, McKeown said he wants the team to stay focused on the task at hand.
“We haven’t gotten a whole lot ahead of ourselves,” McKeown said. “I think we’ve done a really good job of just focusing on the next game. I think that’s been our mentality the last couple of weeks, and I don’t see any reason to change that. So Purdue is next, and that’s really how I want us thinking.”
percent from beyond the arc and had their way against NU with three players reaching double-digit point totals.
“We just weren’t playing hard,” freshman forward Vic Law said.
It’s difficult to say that a result this bad doesn’t mat-ter. Collins still has the benefit of the doubt with a young roster in his second year as coach, but that trust is being eroded by the Cats’ clear regression through this season.
Women’s BasketballFrom page 8
FadingFrom page 8
National Newseven the fight that emboldened the Cats during much of their losing run has temporarily disappeared.
“They had a sense of urgency with a game they had to win, and we didn’t have that,” Collins said of the Spartans. “For the first time I saw (my) guys with heads down that looked a little defeated.”
BlowoutFrom page 8
By JESSE KRAMERdaily senior staffer@Jesse_Kramer
Northwestern (10-14, 1-10 Big Ten) was back at square one Tuesday in a 68-44 defeat to Michigan State (16-8, 7-4).
Th e Wildcats lost in a manner more similar to the three blowouts in coach Chris Collins’ fi rst Big Ten games last January than the heartbreaking string that encompassed much of the past month.
“Obviously it was a very disap-pointing night,” Collins said. “Tonight hasn’t been indicative of how we’ve played in terms of eff ort and fi ght and competitiveness. I can’t explain it. We just didn’t have it tonight.”
NU has now lost 10 straight games. Th e Cats have not won a contest in 2015. Th ey have not won a Big Ten home game since Jan. 21, 2014 against a Purdue team that fi nished last in the conference that year.
Th e Cats looked like a progressing team during a fi ve-loss stretch where they could at least hang their hats on a 3.4-point average margin of defeat.
But their last three losses have come by an average of 18.3 points, with this latest drubbing coming against a Michigan State team that sits on the NCAA Tournament bubble.
“A loss is a loss either way,” fresh-man forward Vic Law said. “No team practices to lose whether it’s by 2 points or by 20. When you lose, it stings all the same.”
NU hung close for 10 minutes, trailing 16-13, when a 3-pointer by Marvin Clark Jr. sparked a 22-point run by Michigan State.
While the Spartans off ense was on fi re, the Cats faced a 14-minute fi eld-goal drought that extended into the second half.
Th e Spartans took a 38-14 lead into halft ime as a consequence of the diverging off enses.
“We might’ve played our best half of basketball,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “I told Chris, they might’ve played their worst half.”
Th is was not the fi rst time NU has allowed a monstrous run.
Purdue opened the second half on a 21-4 run a few games ago. Nebraska had a stretch with 17 unanswered points last week. Wisconsin opened Saturday’s matchup on a 21-4 spurt.
Th e Cats tried out a 2-3 zone, a defense designed to force an off ense into jump shots, against the second-best 3-point shooting team in the Big Ten.
“We just wanted to switch it up and see,” Collins said of using the zone. “You want to throw something dif-ferent at a team, maybe get them out of their rhythm. As long as you’re
identifying shooters, it can still be eff ective against good shooting teams. You need to talk and have energy, and we didn’t have energy tonight.”
When they switched back to man-to-man, NU defenders were caught going under screens, leaving Michigan State shooters wide open.
When the Spartans fed big men Matt Costello and Gavin Schilling, the Cats were quick to double team, which also left shooters open.
“I thought we moved the ball pretty well,” Izzo said. “Th ey do a great job of funneling in. We worked hard on not passing in but kicking out. Our M.O. was to kick it out. We had some good cross-court passes early on.”
Michigan State made 3-pointers no matter what defensive strategy NU tried. Th e Spartans nailed nine triples
in the fi rst half and fi nished 13-of-25 (52 percent) on the night.
Th e Cats found a bit of off ense in the second half, although they could not make much of a dent in the Spar-tans’ lead. A 20-4 run in the fi nal min-utes cut the defi cit as low as 19 points, but it was too late to matter.
Junior guard Tre Demps was the only NU player with any sort of con-sistent off ense, posting 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting.
Law had one of his better games this season with 9 points, seven rebounds and three steals.
“If no one is playing hard, someone has to,” Law said.
A losing streak reaching double digits stings, but at this point it appears
SPORTSWednesday, February 11, 2015 @DailyNU_Sports
ON DECK ON THE RECORDWomen’s BasketballNU at Purdue, 6 p.m. Wednesday
Tonight hasn’t been indicative of how we’ve played in terms of effort and fi ght and competitiveness. — Chris Collins, men’s basketball coach
FEB. 11
Spartans overwhelm NU Cats fading down the stretch
NU lacks punch in blowout
Luke Vogelzang/The Daily Northwestern
ICE COLD Bryant McIntosh attempts to get around a defender at the top of the key. The freshman guard bombed on Tuesday night, going 0-of-5 from the fi eld for just 4 points in a 68-44 loss to Michigan State.
By BOBBY PILLOTEdaily senior staffer@BobbyPillote
A season that wasn’t supposed to be about results increasingly is for North-western, and for all the wrong reasons.
Th e Wildcats (10-14, 1-10 Big Ten) suff ered an abysmal 68-44 loss Tuesday at the hands of Michigan State (16-8, 7-4), a team that NU took to overtime on the road just a month ago. Th e fi nal score belies a trouncing that saw the Spartans lead by as many as 35 points.
Th e early-season narrative for the Cats was of a young, developing team that was just a few bad breaks away from scrap-ping out some close wins. Th e losses hurt, but it was easy enough to chalk them up as “moral victories” for a squad that was
destined for greater things beyond this season.
Aft er three straight double-digit losses in which NU had
no shot at victory, and this most recent shelling, it hardly seems like the team is trying.
Second-year coach Chris Collins employed some counterintuitive strate-gies, like running a 2-3 zone against the second-best 3-point-shooting team in the conference, and debuted some unconven-tional lineups that featured seldom-used freshmen forward Gavin Skelly and guard Johnnie Vassar.
“I looked out there one time and had four true freshmen on the fl oor,” Collins said. “Th at’s what we’re up against.”
It was easy to question what Collins was thinking given the Cats’ box score. In the fi rst half, NU had just four fi eld goals, all from junior guard Tre Demps, and committed an astounding 10 turn-overs against just one assist.
Th ings were no better on the other end of the court, where the Spartans shot 52
Cats on point heading to PurdueBy KHADRICE ROLLINSthe daily northwestern@KhadriceRollins
Northwestern heads back to Indiana on Wednesday for the second time in seven days for a matchup against Purdue.
Th e Wildcats (17-6, 7-5 Big Ten) are taking a three-game winning streak into West Lafayette, Indiana, to face off with the Boilermakers (10-13, 3-9), a squad heading in the opposite direction.
Purdue has been just 2-9 since the cal-endar changed to 2015 and is currently on a four-game losing streak and a four-game home losing streak. Th ough this seems like a great opportunity for NU to keep its momentum going, the Cats have previ-ously faltered on the road against subpar competition in a similar situation.
In January, following a road win against Illinois, the Cats lost to Penn State, a team currently tied for last in the Big Ten. NU played that game without junior forward Lauren Douglas, who was missing her second-straight game due to injury.
Now, coming off a home win against
Illinois, the Cats may have to go without sophomore guard Christen Inman for the second straight contest. Coach Joe McKeown said she is day-to-day with an ankle injury.
Th e similarities to NU’s situation before Penn State are a bit alarming. But if Inman is unable to go Wednesday night, she has a capable replacement in senior guard Karly Roser, who would be making her second start of the season.
Th e guard is third on the team in assists and was a solid presence on the glass, col-lecting fi ve rebounds, with four coming on the off ensive end in her start on Sunday.
“She’s doing great,” McKeown said. “Whether she starts, comes off the bench, she’s done a great job. Playing so hard, playing all kinds of positions and just creating havoc really, for the other team … She’s just doing whatever it takes that she can do to help us win.”
Th e loss to the Nittany Lions does loom for the Cats, but the statistics point against a Purdue upset. Th e Boilermak-ers are one of the Big Ten’s worst off en-sive teams, clocking in at 12th in scoring off ense and last in fi eld goal percentage. NU compounds that problem by boasting a stingy defense that ranks fourth in the conference in scoring against and third in opposing fi eld goal percentage. Pur-due doesn’t make up for its defi ciencies on defense, ranking 11th in opposing fi eld goal percentage.
For NU, though, it is not about num-bers on a sheet, it is about how the peo-ple on the court play together. Th e Cats pointed to their team chemistry as one of the main factors behind their success, particularly when it comes to their 7-3 road record.
“Th e way we get along in preseason, off season and off the court, I think that’s really prepped us for in-season and con-ference play especially,” sophomore guard Ashley Deary said.
Junior guard Maggie Lyon looked at
» See FADING, page 7
Women’s Basketball
Daily fi le photo by Sean Su
CHEMISTRY CLASS Ashley Deary drives to the hole. The sophomore guard said she sees on-court camaraderie as a large factor in explaining the team’s solid road record.» See WOMEN’S BBALL, page 7
Michigan State
68Northwestern
44
“I looked out there one time and had four true freshmen on the fl oor. That’s what we’re up against.Chris Collins,head coach
Northwestern vs. PurdueWest Lafayette, Indiana6 p.m. Wednesday
» See BLOWOUT, page 7