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Thursday, October 12, 2023
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Collins, players discuss expectations for season
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I grew up in the same locker rooms as Fitzgerald
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Indigenous Peoples’ Day sparks reflection Mitchell Museum celebration sees record attendance By LILY CAREY
daily senior staffer @lilylcarey
Daily file photo by Angeli Mittal
NU Cheerleaders at Northwestern Football’s game against Penn State University on Sept. 30 at Ryan Field. Former cheerleader Hayden Richardson sued the University for alleged forced labor and sex trafficking in 2021.
NU disputes cheerleading lawsuit Defendants deny forced labor and sex trafficking allegations By JACOB WENDLER
daily senior staffer @jacob_wendler
Content warning: this story contains mentions of physical
harassment and sexual assault. Northwestern and four former employees denied allegations of forced labor and sex trafficking by former cheerleader Hayden Richardson in
separate court filings Tuesday. NU argued that the University “promptly and effectively addressed the concerns Richardson raised in 2019 and in 2020” and claimed that the concerns raised by Richardson in
2019 and 2020 did not specify sexual misconduct to the extent her lawsuit details. Former Spirit Squad Coordinator Pamela Bonnevier, former
» See RICHARDSON II, page 6
Kathleen and Jason Hardy (Medill ‘95) stood beside a touch table at the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, watching their 10-year-old daughter Aislyn play with replicas of artifacts from the Cherokee Nation. The family makes a point to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day every year, they said, to honor Kathleen’s Cherokee heritage. Kathleen Hardy said it hasn’t always been easy to find Indigenous representation and events for the community. Amid the clamor of families exploring the Mitchell Museum on Monday, she said she saw a greater acknowledgement of Indigenous communities. “Since the Standing Rock protest, protecting water rights, a lot of Indigenous people are, I think, experiencing a moment right now … (of) a lot of media exposure, and just elevating their voices and the lives of the people,” Kathleen Hardy said. Kathleen, Jason and Aislyn Hardy were three of over 300
attendees at the Mitchell Museum’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration. For the past several years, the museum has offered free admission and tours of its exhibits on the holiday, inviting Indigenous vendors to sell their goods at the museum. First celebrated in the United States in 1992, Indigenous Peoples’ Day typically falls on the second Monday of October and celebrates the heritage of Indigenous American peoples and their cultures. The holiday falls on the same day as Columbus Day and aims to acknowledge the damage of Christopher Columbus’ colonial legacy to Indigenous communities in the Americas. In 2021, President Joe Biden issued the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Monday’s event at the Mitchell Museum showed record-breaking attendance, according to the museum’s Director of Development, Joseph Gackstetter. “For us, it’s really important to share the awareness of the day, as it kind of stands to show a mirror to our previous celebration of Columbus Day,” Gackstetter said. “I think it encourages people to rethink Columbus’ role in the North and South Americas — the impact that he’s had, as well as the crimes that he’s committed.”
» See MITCHELL MARKET, page 6
Moms fight gun President Schill hosts fi reside chat violence in city Conversations center around affirmative action, hazing scandal Evanston, Skokie and Wilmette, Local group new group Hines co-leads now has around the focuses specifically on Evanston. began in the sum2,000 volunteers merThofe chapter 2022. Hines, the group’s By KATE WALTER
daily senior staffer @katewalter03
Content warning: this story contains mentions of gun violence. After the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two teachers dead, Sara Hines said she started “doom scrolling” — reading news headlines in horror — the same way she had 10 years prior following the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. But, unlike ten years ago, Hines is a parent now. She said she felt like she “just couldn’t stand on the sidelines.” Hines connected with others on Facebook to ask about starting an Evanston chapter of Moms Demand Action, a nationwide volunteer organization advocating for gun control measures. Though there had previously been a group focused on
Recycle Me
co-leader, said the chapter now has around 2,000 volunteers. Erin Fowler said she moved to Evanston around a year ago and got involved with the chapter after realizing that gun violence “affects every community, including this community.” She now serves as the BeSMART lead of the Evanston Moms Demand Action chapter, a role that leads the group’s advocacy efforts for the safe storage of firearms. “Our priorities are handing out gun locks so that people have, you know, sort of the bare minimum in their home to secure their gun if they have one, and normalizing the conversation around asking people if they have guns and how they store them,” Fowler said. As part of these efforts, Moms Demand Action advocated for the passage of a safe storage ordinance in Evanston, which City Council unanimously approved this summer.
» See MOMS, page 6
By JACOB WENDLER
daily senior staffer @jacob_wendler
University President Michael Schill shared priorities and goals for his second year at Northwestern with a group of approximately 100 staff members Tuesday afternoon at Norris University Center. Throughout the hourlong talk, Schill touched on the hazing scandal in the NU Football team this summer, the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action, and staff retention and culture, among other topics raised in questions submitted by community members. The fireside chat was organized by the NU Staff Advisory Council and moderated by Vice President for Human Resources and Chief Human Resources Officer Lorraine Goffe. Schill said the University has focused on inclusion, pipeline programs to recruit students of diverse backgrounds and new admissions essays in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision prohibiting raceconscious admissions. NU rolled out new admissions essays earlier this year that capture how applicants’ identities have
impacted their experiences within the bounds of the legal ruling. “We will use those essay questions to the extent that we can, but I don’t want to sugarcoat it,” Schill said. “I always like to set expectations, because I think my credibility is important to the community, and I think that this is going to be hard — particularly in the early years.” University spokesperson Hilary Hurd Anyaso told The Daily last month that the new essays were crafted to “help applicants learn more about Northwestern in the process of helping us better understand who they are, where they come from, and what matters to them.” Schill said his experience as dean of UCLA Law School after Proposition 209 outlawed the use of race in admissions in California public universities was “a bit of a bloodbath” but that he’s hopeful his experience at NU will be different. Schill also emphasized the importance of working with predominantly nonwhite community colleges to prepare students with diverse backgrounds to transfer to NU. He said he plans to meet with community college chancellors in
Jacob Wendler/The Daily Northwestern
About 100 staff members attended the fireside chat with University President Michael Schill in Norris University Center Tuesday afternoon.
the coming weeks. Goffe also asked Schill about his response to the allegations of hazing in NU’s football program this summer that led Schill to fire head coach Pat Fitzgerald in July. Schill began by acknowledging that the recent months have
been “an extraordinarily difficult time for the University” and that his decisions — such as initially suspending Fitzgerald for just two weeks — were not met with universal approval by the NU
» See FIRESIDE, page 6
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