The Daily Northwestern — April 21, 2016

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Alumnus re-releases photography book » PAGE 5 arts & Bienen prof conducts with ties to memory » PAGE 6 entertainment ShakespeaRevel festival honors playwright » PAGE 7

SPORTS Women’s Golf Wildcats ready to defend Big Ten Tournament title » PAGE 12

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The Daily Northwestern Thursday, April 21, 2016

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Unprecedented Meeting

Sophie Mann/Daily Senior Staffer

Daniel Tian/Daily Senior Staffer

UNCHARTED TERRITORY Speaker of the Senate Nehaarika Mulukutla (left) leads Wednesday’s meeting. Senate voted to approve the Rules Committee’s recommendations to punish Christina Cilento and Macs Vinson. Cilento (far right), Associated Student Government president, addresses Senate as Vinson, the executive vice president, looks on.

Senate conducts impeachment trial By ERICA SNOW

the daily northwestern @ericasnoww

There was no precedent for Wednesday’s Senate meeting. “Our code is extremely outdated,” said Speaker of the Senate Nehaarika Mulukutla, a Weinberg sophomore. So, Senate broke new ground: It considered and then affirmed rules to govern an impeachment trial for a sitting president and executive vice president, then it voted to approve punishments for student government’s highest officials. The lengthy session often dealt in parliamentary procedure, as obscure bylaws, such as a “motion to read

papers” to introduce unreleased evidence of voting data, came into play as Senate took up unprecedented proceedings. The impeachment hearing allowed senators to decide whether or not to punish ASG president Christina Cilento and executive vice president Macs Vinson as the Rules Committee recommended. The committee recommended, and the Senate approved, the two publicly apologize, and that Cilento do 10 hours of community service. Impeachment hearings occur when the Rules Committee finds that an accused party committed a violation, and it does not necessarily lead to removal from office or a » See SENATE, page 10

Punishments approved

Cilento, Vinson must make public apologies By TYLER PAGER

daily senior staffer @tylerpager

Associated Student Government Senate approved Wednesday night the Rules Committee’s recommendation for president Christina Cilento and executive vice president Macs Vinson to give public apologies as punishment for their election violation. The punishment requires Cilento to give a written and verbal apology on behalf of herself and perform 10 hours of community service before the end of the quarter. Vinson, on behalf of the campaign, must also give a written and verbal apology. The Rules Committee recommended different punishments for the two leaders because of Cilento’s

more direct involvement in receiving the leaks and her initial omission of the second leak in conversations with the election commission and The Daily. ASG’s election commission ruled Cilento and Vinson’s campaign violated election guidelines by failing to disclose they had received information about the voting margin while polls were still open in this year’s presidential election. The election commission ruled the campaign’s use of the leaks and decision not to come forward about them constituted SESP sophomore Kevin Corkran, the commission member who leaked the information, as “working on behalf of ” Cilento and Vinson’s campaign. Cilento, a SESP junior, and Vinson, a McCormick junior, narrowly defeated Weinberg junior Joji Syed and Weinberg sophomore Archit Baskaran by 81 votes

out of the 4,060 votes cast. Part of the evidence presented at the Rules Committee hearing included a graph of voting data created by economics Prof. Mark Witte, one of ASG’s advisers. Witte said the graph was not conclusive as to whether the leak impacted the outcome of the election. The graph was not released publicly as a vote to do so failed in Senate. “You see significant closing of the margin before the second leak,” Witte told The Daily about the graph without providing it. “It could be whatever Christina was doing was a strong finish strategy whereas whatever Joji did was a strong opening strategy.” A copy of the graph, obtained by The » See PUNISHMENT, page 10

NU covers $2.4 million of tuition grants owed by state By RISHIKA DUGYALA

the daily northwestern @rdugyala822

Northwestern is covering about $2.4 million in grants for low- and middle-income students on campus, funds Illinois has not provided since January due to the ongoing state budget deadlock. The University is currently making up for the lapse in funding for about 500 students. But University spokesman Al Cubbage said administrators haven’t decided whether or not to cover the lapse next year if the budget crisis persists. “We don’t really know what next year is going to bring,” Cubbage said. “That’s a matter of concern.” The Monetary Award Program offers tuition grants for low- and middle-income Illinois students that

attend public or private two- and fouryear colleges, universities, hospital schools and other degree-granting institutions within the state. Weinberg junior Cheron Mims said she is relieved she doesn’t have to worry about replacing the MAP funds on her own for the rest of this academic year. “In terms of just where my family is financially currently, I definitely would not be here next year if NU didn’t cover the costs,” Mims said. “I’ve already taken out loans, so at this point I’ve already exhausted that amount.” In January, the Illinois House and Senate passed a bill that would award about $712 million for MAP grants and community college programs. Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed the bill, claiming there wasn’t enough state money to pay for it. The University agreed to essentially “forgive” the tuition that would have

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been covered by its students’ MAP grants for Winter and Spring Quarters by stretching its own budget, Cubbage said. The MAP students will receive funds in the form of additional scholarship money from NU, and no other students’ financial aid will be affected due to the University’s rebudgeting, he said. “In the middle of the year, the last thing an undergraduate student needs is to all of a sudden be hit with another $2,000 bill or $4,000 bill, or whatever the amount may be,” Cubbage said. “So the University kind of just stepped up and said, ‘Okay, we’ll take care of it in order to ease the concern on the part of our students.’” However, Cubbage said $2.4 million is a lot of money, even for a financially well-endowed university such as NU. He said administrators hope the budget impasse is resolved before the next academic year. If it isn’t, he said, the

University hasn’t decided whether or not to cover the lapsed grants again. Administrators hope the state budget is resolved for the fiscal year 2016 and the MAP grant is funded at levels similar to last year, so the University can be reimbursed for the grants that it covered for its MAP students, said Dave Davis, director for state and local government relations at NU. Cubbage said NU is one of the lucky ones: Many smaller colleges within Illinois and state universities are being hit much harder by the budget crisis, he said. Chicago State University is operating with only about two-thirds of its budget, and CSU administrators announced it may lay off hundreds of employees. “I spend a lot of time speaking to our legislative leaders in Springfield,” Davis said. “You’d be surprised at how many of them had no idea that we have MAP recipients here at Northwestern.

And that number is going to increase because the University is doing outreach to try to get more very talented, low income freshmen.” Mims said to pay for her last year of school, she looked for outside scholarships and applied to become a Resident Assistant, a job that ensures free room and board as well as a stipend. She said she also has visited Springfield to tell state lawmakers how much MAP affects her life, and recently accompanied Davis to a pro-MAP rally in downtown Chicago last quarter. “It was very exhilarating to see a lot of students being proactive and being very passionate about things that really matter to them and other students, even if they weren’t MAP recipients,” Mims said. “It was one of the first times I felt … like I was able to represent an identity within Northwestern.” rishikadugyala2019@u.northwestern.edu

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