The Daily Northwestern Monday, February 4, 2019
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Students: Conduct training ineffective Negative reactions to mandated sexual misconduct course By CAMERON COOK
daily senior staffer @cam_e_cook
Northwestern students are reacting negatively to the University’s online sexual misconduct training, saying it’s insufficient for teaching students how to combat sexual harassment and violence. The training, rolled out Jan. 23, includes definitions of important terms and links to state laws and University policies and takes students through hypothetical situations. In a January email, the Office of Equity presented the training as new, comprehensive and necessary for combating sexual misconduct and violence on campus. Now, almost two weeks after the training became available, some students are saying it’s not as effective as the University claims. Communication junior Jillian Gilburne thinks online trainings are inadequate for conveying strategies for improving the climate on campus. Students are likely ignoring the message of the training and not reading the policies, she said.
“It says ‘learn about Northwestern policy’ and you click on a link that opens a PDF of the Title IX policy that’s 36 pages long,” Gilburne said. “And I guarantee you that no one’s reading it.” The modules in the training are also easy to skip through, said McCormick sophomore Spencer Colton, which is a function of doing trainings like this online. The audio can be muted, and students can click “next” without having actually read any of the information provided. Students who are already interested in the topics discussed — or have previously experienced sexual misconduct — are likely to actively participate in the training, Colton said, while those who aren’t interested won’t pay attention. But some students aren’t taking the training at all. Because the content of the training could be potentially upsetting for students with personal experience with sexual harassment or violence, the Office of Equity allows students who may feel uncomfortable to opt out by sending an email explaining their circumstances, said Colleen Johnston, the University’s Title IX coordinator. However, this leaves room for students who don’t want to take the time to complete the training » See REACT, page 6
Zoe Malin/The Daily Northwestern
Kellogg student Tammy Hsu is on her seventh session of white light therapy and feels the benefits already. The program was added to Henry Crown Sports Pavilion in October 2018 and aligns with NU Recreation’s goal of addressing the mental health concerns of the NU community.
SPAC offers white light therapy
New Wellness Suite service seeks to make the winter blues bearable By ZOE MALIN
the daily northwestern @zoermalin
There’s no doubt that Midwest winters are brutal, said Nancy Tierney, Northwestern Recreation’s associate director of fitness and wellness. The lack of sunshine and prolonged periods of subzero temperatures are saddening. With this in mind, she and her team at the
Wellness Suite in Henry Crown Sports Pavilion seek to offer services that make the winter a bit more bearable. Tierney said white light therapy, the Wellness Suite’s newest program, is the best one yet. “Everyone can benefit from white light therapy,” she said. “It’s like a bright sunny day after a long spell of darkness, it just makes you feel better.” On an flier Tierney made for clients, she explains that white
light therapy is exposure to fullspectrum light through light boxes. The light emitted is similar in composition to sunlight. When it enters through the eyes indirectly, the light is thought to stimulate the production of brain chemicals. Doctors have recommended the therapy to patients suffering from seasonal affective disorder, sleep and mood disorders, and low energy levels, too, Tierney said. Tierney said the key to feeling
the effects of white light therapy is repeated exposure as well as gradually increasing the amount of time exposed to the light. She recommends users come three to four times a week for maximum benefits. Tierney also suggests users enjoy white light therapy before 3pm, as exposure to the light after this time may interfere with sleep. “We have students come after » See LIGHT, page 6
Laptop loans on campus expanded ETHS students NU Libraries loans laptops to students of all socioeconomic backgrounds By ANDRES CORREA
the daily northwestern @aocorrea1
After three years of providing free laptop loans to first-generation and low-income students, Student Enrichment Services ended its laptop loan program before the start of this school year — but a similar program from Northwestern University Libraries provides laptop loans to students regardless of socioeconomic status. The SES program, which began in the winter of 2015, provided undergraduate students with 15 to 25 laptops for short-term loans to students from low-income and first-generation backgrounds. The program ended for a number of reasons, including limited staffing capacity, structure and management of expensive equipment, SES Director Kourtney Cockrell said in an email. In addition to internal issues, Cockrell said the office noticed an increase of requests for laptop loans from both undergraduate and graduate students who were just above the low-income threshold. “It is important to remember that not only low-income
students need laptops,” Cockrell said. “Many students fall just above the low-income cut-off, and thus have financial need as well.” Despite the removal of the program, NU Libraries began a pilot laptop loan program this past fall. The program came out of awareness for the need of laptops to serve the University community, Clare Roccaforte, the director of marketing and communications for NU Libraries, said in an email. The new program currently provides 10 laptops — available for quarter-long loans and the summer — for graduate students. It also provides all students and faculty seven-day loans for a separate 10 laptops. Unlike the SES laptop loan program that prioritizes laptops for low-income and first generation students, the library’s program operates on a first-come-first-serve basis –– just like all other library loans. While the library’s program and SES serve to provide the same resource, they are separate, Roccaforte said. “Our program developed independently of their work,” Roccaforte said. “It’s possible that the start of our program may have influenced their decision to end
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
seek social justice Youth leaders rally community, create change
By SNEHA DEY
the daily northwestern @snehadey_
Noah Frick-Alofs/The Daily Northwestern
A Dell laptop given out by SES. SES said it terminated its laptop loan program for a number of reasons, including limited staffing capacity, structure and management of expensive equipment.
their program.” While SES will no longer manage the laptop loan program, it will continue to manage the Querrey Laptop Grant Program. The program provides free laptops for low-income and first generation students to keep, even after graduation. In the past two years, the program distributed between 200 and 250 laptops for students in the class of 2021 and 2022, Cockrell said.
“These laptops are their computers to keep forever, and part of the goal of this program is to prevent the need for loaners by giving students laptops as they matriculate to Northwestern,” Cockrell said. Such programs that provide technological assistance to lowincome students are important to those like McCormick sophomore » See LAPTOP, page 6
This story is part of a series of profiles of activist and community groups across Evanston. Liana Wallace, 18, thinks a lot about the future — not just hers, but what she wants the world to look like. That’s why she first sat down with Phoebe Liccardo and Mollie Hartenstein this summer. These three women — all seniors at Evanston Township High School — don’t meet as a club or an organization they can put on a resume, but Wallace said she simply can’t be passive when others are suffering. “Silence, any type of silence, is
a form of violence,” said Wallace. Wallace, Liccardo and Hartenstein are not alone as student activists. Students at ETHS engage with social issues, and they have created ripples of change within Evanston and the broader Chicagoland area. These three women and their work over the past year are representative of a growing drive among young Evanston residents to engage with social justice issues in their communities. ETHS principal Marcus Campbell said this generation is particularly active around social issues, and ETHS students are no different. “Our students are very socially conscious,” Campbell said. “When they feel there is some sort of active injustice… they really take that to heart and do something about it.” Most recently, ETHS students played a role selecting Evanston Police Department’s new police chief, Chief Demitrous Cook. Evanston held a forum where students spoke about what they wanted to see in » See ETHS, page 6
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