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The Daily Northwestern Monday, October 12, 2015
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Feinberg seeks to help college health
Feeling Blue
By KELLEY CZAJKA
the daily northwestern @kelleyczajka
See more coverage on page 12 Jacob Swan/Daily Senior Staffer
SHUTDOWN AND SHUTOUT Redshirt freshman quarterback Clayton Thorson is sacked by a Michigan defender. The Cats suffered their first loss of the season in an embarrassing beatdown in the Big House by the Wolverines. NU gave up the most points it has all season while also scoring the fewest points it has all season.
Proposed city budget increase property taxes
Under Evanston’s proposed 2016 budget, city residents would see their property taxes rise 0.4 percent. The city released Friday its proposed budget for the next fiscal year, including a 10 percent growth from the 2015 budget. The proposed Evanston budget of nearly $295 million grew about $27 million from the previous year’s adopted budget to fulfill additional recommended spending on police and fire pensions. Without the instituted changes on pension payments, the budget growth amounts to about 4 percent from last year. The city built into the budget proposal an additional $1.5 million in suggested reductions and revenue adjustments with consideration to potential state funding cuts, city manager Wally Bobkiewicz said Friday. Gov. Bruce Rauner initially proposed a 50 percent decrease in funding to the Local Government Distributive Fund, which would deprive the city of $3.75 million. However, the state has been without a budget since the beginning of its fiscal year on July 1, postponing potential state cuts. Although the proposed city budget assumes Evanston will receive full state funding, it includes recommended reductions for if the state’s passed budget follows through in cutting payments to local governments. The largest suggested reductions include a freeze on some vacant positions in the police and fire departments, a measure that would amount to about $450,000 in savings. Other reductions include the elimination of the position of chief animal warden and a $50,000 decrease in the
city’s contribution to the Evanston Animal Shelter Association, which will become financially independent from the city this month. The proposed reductions would also eliminate stipends to city employees who use their own cell phones for work, a measure that city staff recommended this summer while preparing for potential state slashes. If the budget stalemate continues in Springfield for rest of the year, it is possible that Evanston could avoid the impact of budget cuts in 2015, Bobkiewicz told The Daily last month. However, the state cuts would affect the city in 2016, requiring compensations in the city’s own budget. “The prevailing economic climate has shown signs of improvement during the past year, however, the State remains an area of concern for the City of Evanston,” Bobkiewicz said in a news release Friday. “At time of publication, the State continues to operate without a budget for the past four months, since June 30, 2015. State legislators have passed a monthly budget, but have failed to address comprehensive statewide budget issues which may impact local revenue sources.” The budget also proposes to eliminate one full-time position in the Community Development Department and a part-time position at the Evanston Animal Shelter, Bobkiewicz said. However, City Council will have an option to add up to 1.9 full time equivalent positions, including staff at the Gibbs-Morrison Cultural Center and a special events coordinator. The proposed budget will be presented to City Council at its Oct. 19 meeting. There will also be a public hearing to address the budget on Oct. 24 and further discussion in November.
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
— Julia Jacobs
City police denied federal grant for body cameras
The Evanston Police Department will not receive a federal grant to purchase body-worn cameras that the city applied for last spring. The department discovered within the past week that it was denied the more than $600,000 grant, Evanston police Cmdr. Joseph Dugan said. Although Dugan said the announcement was a disappointment, the department is willing to wait to implement body cameras until technology is cheaper and more efficient. “Body cameras are coming — they are definitely going to be part of policing in the future here,” Dugan said. “But there are some positives as far as taking our time before we jump right into something.” The Bureau of Justice Assistance grants will fund body cameras for departments partnering with researchers to examine the cameras’ effects. Researchers will analyze the process of internal investigations, privacy issues, community relationships and the benefit of the cameras considering their cost. Police departments in Milwaukee, Miami and Phoenix each received about
Prep school staffer charged with child porn possession
A staff member at Evanston’s Roycemore School was charged Friday with possession of child pornography after police found about 6,000 images and videos on his hard drive. Timothy King, a 44-year-old information technology coordinator at the school, was arrested Thursday following a police
The Feinberg School of Medicine launched a study this fall to assess the effectiveness of mobile devices in preventing college students from losing healthy behaviors. The study, called NU You, will track students’ habits using an app, in-person exams and social media. “The college years are a time when people lose between 13 and 20 percent of their long-term health,” said Prof. Bonnie Spring, the project’s principal investigator. When students get stressed, they tend to decrease healthy habits, such as eating right and exercising, and they increase harmful habits such as drinking and smoking, Spring said. Although these may seem innocuous in the short term, they can lead to premature illness and death over time, she said. “They don’t scream, they don’t cry, ‘Pay attention to me!’” Spring said. “They just slowly, over a long time, undermine your health and cause you to die early.” To curb these risk factors, Spring worked with project coordinator $630,000 to start body-camera programs. Aldermen decided to apply for the grant in February, when the city started considering body cameras. Although a new state law passed in August gave explicit permission for the use of body cameras, Evanston police still to harbor concerns over cost, privacy and necessity. A police body camera program in the Evanston is estimated to cost $400,000 for the first year and $200,000 each year afterward, Police Chief Richard Eddington told the Daily last month. Dugan said technology upgrades
Angela Pfammatter and a team of NU alumni to design NU You, which will assess the health of 500 current freshmen over two years. About 260 students have already enrolled, Spring said. Last year, the team conducted several focus groups to evaluate what students value most as well as what factors prevent them from maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A major topic of the conversations with students was the concept of “stress as a badge of honor,” with students competing to see who can go the furthest to do well academically at the expense of their health, Spring said. Spring and Pfammatter said students in the focus groups also expressed a need for help with time management. To address this, the team created a scheduling app for students in the study. The app will be synced with Canvas to track students’ classes, work and other obligations. It will also send reminders to help students track due dates for assignments and even recommend healthy ways to spend free time. “We also built it so that different » See NU YOU, page 9 could reduce some of the biggest costs of implementing body cameras, including purchasing the cameras, storing data and fulfilling Freedom of Information Act requests. Even if the city had received the grant, the department still would have engaged in conversations with the city and community before starting a body camera program, Dugan said. “People are going to want to talk about this,” he said. “It’s definitely going to be a community conversation.” — Julia Jacobs
Daily file photo by Zack Laurence
CAMERAS CANCELED The Evanston Police Department will not receive a more-than $600,000 grant to purchase body cameras for officers.
search of his home, the DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin announced Friday. Judge Richard Russo charged the Wheaton, Illinois, man with seven felony counts and set his bond at $300,000. Roycemore School, 1200 Davis St., is a private college prep school with 235 students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. During ongoing investigations into child pornography on the Internet, the Wheaton Police Department identified a computer they suspected belonged to King. After using a search warrant
Thursday to enter King’s home in Wheaton, they found an external hard drive containing the thousands of photos and videos. “It is alleged that Mr. King possessed a mind-numbing 6,000 images and videos of child pornography,” Berlin said in a news release. “This type of alleged deviant behavior will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” King is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 2. — Julia Jacobs
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