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The Daily Northwestern Thursday, April 3, 2014
DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM
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ASG passes SafeRide legislation Senator reopens
NU medical case
By CAT ZAKRZEWSKI
daily senior staffer @Cat_Zakrzewski
Annabel Edwards/Daily Senior Staffer
SENATE TALKS SAFERIDE Medill sophomore Haley Hinkle proposes legislation requesting the University revoke the policy denying students the option to use SafeRide between two off-campus locations. ASG voted on the legislation and passed it immediately Wednesday evening.
By REBECCA SAVRANSKY daily senior staffer @beccasavransky
Associated Student Government discussed and passed legislation at Wednesday night’s Senate meeting requesting the University revoke a new SafeRide policy which prevents students from using the service between two off-campus locations.
The policy, instituted on the first day of Spring Quarter, received student body attention resulting in a Change.org petition, which accumulated more than 450 signatures as of Wednesday night. In the legislation, Senate asked NU show greater transparency and increased communication when making decisions impacting students campus-wide. Senators requested the University reinstate off-campus to off-campus rides until further options are created to give students
alternative means of safe transportation. “It wasn’t communicated with students beforehand, so as soon as we got back from Spring Break, we found out that there were no more off-campus to off-campus SafeRide options,” said Communication senior Anna Kottenstette, ASG vice president for student life. Kottenstette said SafeRide is aiming to address the problem of long wait times » See SENATE, page 7
A U.S. senator is analyzing new documents he requested from Northwestern related to a 2008 controversy over a medical device patients alleged was used before it was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, a spokeswoman told The Daily on Wednesday. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote “several inadequacies” existed in reports NU provided the committee in 2008 and 2009 about an annuloplasty ring implanted at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. In 2007, Dr. Nalini Rajamannan, a former NU professor and cardiologist, accused her colleague Dr. Patrick McCarthy of implanting a ring, formerly called the Myxo ring, that did not yet have FDA approval in patients without consent. “The study should have stopped and informed consent given to patients,” Rajamannan, who once worked on the study with McCarthy, wrote in an email to The Daily. “(I’m) trying to protect the patients and to protect the integrity of Northwestern University from unauthorized human experimentation during open heart surgery.” Rajamannan’s employment was terminated at NU in September 2011. The next month, she told The Daily she thought her tenure was denied due to whistleblowing
in the Myxo ring experiment. At the time, University spokesman Al Cubbage would not comment on the reasons Rajamannan was denied tenure. Grassley’s request for more information from NU came after Rajamannan told the senator NU withheld a series of documents related to the senator’s 2008 and 2009 requests, including a waiver of consent form, according to a letter he addressed to University President Morton Schapiro and Northwestern Memorial Hospital president Richard Gannotta. Rajamannan said she found the waiver in February in Cook County court documents. She said she then submitted the form to the Judiciary Committee, the Northwestern Institutional Review Board and NU’s Board of Trustees. Grassley’s letter also says McCarthy has made “contradictory statements” about the Myxo ring and preexisting devices. He also said it is unclear if patients “received sufficient notice of the safety questions that arose” regarding the ring. McCarthy invented the ring, which was similar to one already cleared for use by the FDA. NMH spokeswoman Holli Salls told The Daily in 2011 the updated ring was commercially available at the time of the procedure and was in turn thought to be approved by the FDA. Salls said the FDA later told the manufacturer the updated ring should have undergone a more rigorous FDA approval process. » See EXPERIMENT, page 7
NU union leaders turn to D.C. City to investigate tricky intersection By ALEX PUTTERMAN
daily senior staffer @AlexPutt02
By JULIAN GEREZ Leaders from the College Athletes Players Association met with legislators in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to explain the Northwestern football unionization movement they’ve spearheaded. Former Wildcats quarterback Kain Colter, CAPA president Ramogi Huma and United Steelworkers political director Tim Waters spoke with various congressional leaders — including Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston), whose district includes NU — about the details of their cause. “The meetings went well, and I think people have a lot better idea of what went on (with the unionization movement),” Waters told The Daily. “A lot of it’s common sense. I think people need to hear it and understand the athletes, they’re not asking for million dollar paychecks here.” Last week, the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board in Chicago ruled that NU football players are University employees, affirming the stance CAPA argued at a hearing in March. The school has announced its intention to appeal the decision to the national NLRB office in Washington. “I am pleased with the NLRB ruling that correctly recognizes Northwestern football players as University employees,” Schakowsky said in a statement after the decision. “These young men dedicate 40-plus hours a week for much of the school year to the football program and
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Source: Jan Schakowsky on Twitter
CAPA IN THE CAPITOL College Athletes Players Association leaders Kain Colter, Ramogi Huma and Tim Waters meet with U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston) in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. The trio spoke to several legislators about the details of their college athletes’ rights movement.
they deserve the right to unionize.” CAPA’s principal goal is to grant players a voice in discussions of their rights. The union hopes to improve medical coverage and increase graduation rates for college athletes. Waters said a union vote is scheduled for April 25 but suggested the university could theoretically ask for a postponement. Still, he said, CAPA’s leadership “expects and welcomes” a vote. On Tuesday night, Huma appeared on “The Colbert Report” to discuss CAPA’s goals. He garnered enthusiastic applause from the studio audience with his retort to Stephen Colbert’s
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(Communication ‘86) assertion that players could simply walk away from football if they feel mistreated. “There are no employees that are forced to go their jobs — it’s all voluntary,” Huma said. “But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a voice in your workplace to make sure you have basic protections.” After Colbert, in character, said Huma doesn’t understand the term “student-athlete,” Huma responded, “They’re students, they’re athletes and they’re employees.” asputt@u.northwestern.edu
City officials are looking to address traffic problems, safety concerns and aesthetic issues at the intersection of Emerson Street, Ridge Avenue and Green Bay Road. About 20 people, including several aldermen, were present at an open forum Wednesday night in the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center, 1655 Foster St., to discuss potential improvements to the intersection, as well as its surrounding areas. Joseph Chiczewski, president of ESI Consultants, said the junction “serves
as a gateway to the downtown area.” Chiczewski’s firm will lead the investigation into the possible upgrades. Homayoon Pirooz, assistant director of public works, said he also thinks the improvements are necessary. “Not only do we have to take care of what we have and maintain that, but we also have to look forward,” he said. Residents voiced concerns about traffic problems, including congestion and the lack of auxiliary lanes for right- and left-hand turns. Others also addressed safety issues, including the lack of emergency » See INTERSECTION, page 7
Chicken Shack
Subway Hecky’s
Wings Over Evanston
Emerson Street
Graphic by Kelsey Ott/Daily Senior Staffer
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