The Daily Northwestern — April 30, 2015

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sports Football Campbell headlines roster of NFL hopefuls » PAGE 12

arts & entertainment

Waa-Mu team shares experiences » PAGE BLAST show embraces heroes » PAGE 6 Frio Gelato opens new location » PAGE 7

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opinion Cohen Struggling with a burning Baltimore » PAGE 8

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The Daily Northwestern DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Find us online @thedailynu

Khatri known for passion, dedication By paige leskin

daily senior staffer @paigeleskin

Nathan Richards/Daily Senior Staffer

THE WHOLE NINE YARDS NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell answers a question from Medill alumna Christine Brennan at Northwestern on Wednesday evening.

NFL head talks league issues By Tyler Pager and Sophia Bollag daily senior staffers @tylerpager, @sophiabollag

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell visited Northwestern on Wednesday and answered questions from Medill students about issues plaguing the league, including domestic violence and player conduct. Goodell spoke at the McCormick Foundation Center Forum for a Q&A

hosted by USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan (Medill ‘80, ‘81). The event was sponsored by the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications’ new graduate sports journalism program. University President Morton Schapiro said the event was a good opportunity for Medill students to ask Goodell questions. “It’s fitting in our stature as arguably the best journalism school in the world,”

Schapiro told The Daily. “You’d expect nothing less.” The Q&A with Goodell, who is in Chicago for the NFL draft, was closed to the general public but was attended by a limited number of Medill students and guests of Schapiro, who hosted a dinner with Goodell at his home after the event. The draft, which will be held at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, » See GOODELL, page 10

Literary festival comes to city By rachel yang

the daily northwestern @_rachelyang

The first annual Evanston Literary Festival kicks off next month to celebrate the city’s rich literary history and community. The festival, which starts May 11, is a collaboration among Chicago Book Expo, Evanston Public Library, local bookstore Bookends & Beginnings, Northwestern’s Creative Writing Program and Northwestern University Press. There will be around 20 events held during the festival, said John K. Wilson, a co-organizer of the event and the Chicago Book Expo, an annual literary fair. Key events include readings and discussions by local authors, such as Garry Wills, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and NU professor, and Stuart Dybek, a nationally acclaimed writer and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at NU, as well as by Evanston Township High School students. A teen writer’s workshop will also be offered. Wilson and Lynn Haller, another organizer of the festival and the Chicago Book Expo, said they wanted to branch out of Chicago and thought Evanston’s vibrant literary community made it the perfect location. “(Writers) seem to be on every corner and every street,” Wilson said. “It’s an incredible variety of literary activity in Evanston, and we want to try and shine a light on it.” The two also said Evanston was appealing because it is a close-knit community and is more accessible compared

to Chicago, where established and larger events could cause smaller, burgeoning programs to “fall through the cracks.” But the introduction of the festival to a new community doesn’t come without its challenges. Both of the coorganizers and Nina Barrett, the owner of Bookends & Beginnings, said it was difficult to put together the festival in a relatively short amount of time, as most of the planning did not begin until late February. Haller said she wished there had been more time to establish relationships with literary organizations in Evanston, since she and Wilson have not held anything in the city before. However, she said she wanted the festival to occur in May to coincide with NU’s Spring Writers’ Festival, giving the organizers a chance to

work with the university. Wilson said the centerpiece of the festival is NU’s event, hosted annually by the English department. This year, it features a panel with well-known writers such as Roxane Gay. “Northwestern is an important part of (the literary community),” Wilson said. “You have a large number of people who are interested in literary culture … as well as people who choose to live in Evanston … because they like the presence of Northwestern.” Despite these challenges, Barrett said she was impressed with the organizers’ professionalism and ability to plan the festival in such a short time. Overall, the organizers’ goal of the » See literary, page 10

Nathan Richards/Daily Senior Staffer

ready to read The Evanston Public Library is involved in the city’s first literary festival, which starts May 11. The festival is meant to highlight the literary community that exists in the city.

Serving the University and Evanston since 1881

Avantika Khatri was not one to get carried away with small talk. Instead, she preferred to start off with meaningful conversation. Her tendency to ask the deep questions and delve beneath superficiality is what set the Weinberg junior apart from others, SESP junior Maeghan Murphy said. Khatri was passionate about social reform and about helping others even when she was having a tough time herself, Murphy said. Khatri, 21, died Monday afternoon in her off-campus residence. Her cause of death is still pending toxicology results, which could take a couple weeks, Evanston police Cmdr. Joseph Dugan said. There were no signs of foul play. Dean of Students Todd Adams notified the Northwestern community of Khatri’s death Monday night. “The University extends our condolences to Avantika’s family and friends,” Adams wrote in an email. “The loss of any one member of our community affects us all, and it does so in different ways.” Khatri’s friends remembered her for her dedication and her boldness. Medill junior Timothyna Duncan recalled creating a radio show on WNUR with Khatri, who refused to give up on it despite it not going well. “Ava being Ava, she didn’t dwell on that … She told me to stop thinking so much about what happened and inspired me to go on,” Duncan wrote in an email to The Daily. “She had a genuineness that was incredibly refreshing.” Khatri served last year as the co-director of publications for NU’s chapter of Students for Education Reform. She worked as a copy editor at The Daily during Fall Quarter 2012 and as an advertising production staffer at Students Publishing Co., The Daily’s parent organization, from fall

Source: Stephanie Chang

Avantika Khatri

2012 through fall 2013. Khatri had recently transferred from the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications to the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences to study political science, which she was really excited about, Weinberg junior Jane Gross wrote in an email to The Daily. However, while Khatri was pursuing journalism, she showed tremendous skill in reporting and writing, said Jim Robertson, a managing editor at the Columbia Daily Tribune, Khatri’s hometown paper in Missouri where she worked in summer 2011. Even as a high school student, Khatri was already talented and mature, Robertson said. When the paper’s staff learned of her death, Robertson said they were “stunned.” “We were able to just throw her into general assignment stories like we would any other reporter,” he said. “I have no doubt that she was going to succeed in whatever she decided to do. It’s just so surreal when somebody like that, who’s got so much life to live … it doesn’t make sense.” Robertson said the two of them stayed in touch as Khatri debated whether to attend the journalism school at the University of Missouri, close to where she lived in Columbia, Missouri. But Khatri ultimately chose NU, an » See khatri, page 10

City taxes steady as pension rises By Kevin Mathew

daily senior staffer @kevinwmathew

Evanston’s tax rate, with a few exceptions, has stayed relatively stable over the past decade even as Illinois sits with the highest overall tax rate throughout the nation in 2015. Illinois residents also pay the second highest property tax rate in the United States, but Evanston rates have increased only slightly, mainly for the Evanston Public Library and for contributions to the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, a statewide pension pool known as the IMRF. Evanston chief financial officer Marty Lyons said the library tax hike was a result of community requests. The switch five years ago to directly tax residents has stabilized the city’s IMRF funding and has helped Evanston stay ahead of the Illinois pension problem, Lyons said. The rest of the northern suburbs aren’t in as great shape. Due to proposed cuts from Gov. Bruce Rauner, nearby local governments face a 50 percent decrease

in income tax revenue and a two-year property tax freeze, Northwest Municipal Conference executive director Mark Fowler said. But what’s “strangling” most municipalities, he said, is a lack of change to police and fire pension funding. “If a municipality is not making its … required contribution, the pension fund can intercept funds which go to the municipality through (income tax),“ Fowler said. “It leaves towns in a very untenable position.” Most financial issues local governments face stem from state laws that require communities to fund pensions and other services without any state assistance. In Evanston, $14.44 million must be collected this year for the police and fire pension funds. Along with the tax for the IMRF, almost 45 percent of what the city will collect from property taxes in 2015 will go toward pension funding. But Rauner’s two-year property tax freeze doesn’t scare Lyons. He said as long as the economy is growing, the city’s rates can stay low. High overall property values help Evanston rates stay low, he » See property, page 10

INSIDE Around Town 2 | On Campus 3 | Opinion 8 | Classifieds & Puzzles 10 | Sports 12


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