The DePaulia 2/28/2022

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The

Volume #106 | Issue #16 | Feb. 28, 2022 | depauliaonline.com

DONALD CROCKER | THE DEPAULIA

Attendance for men’s basketball games at Wintrust Arena remains low compared to the previous three years. Fewer than 800 people attended DePaul’s loss to Creighton on Feb. 17.

By Lawrence Kreymer Editor-in-Chief

‘We got to win’

Fans have returned to Wintrust this season, but attendance remains lower than previous years

As the clock expired, DePaul sophomore forward David Jones could not hold back his excitement any longer. He raised his finger to the air, a large smile filled his face and he went to celebrate with his teammates after Blue Demons knocked off No. 20 Seton Hall at Wintrust Arena on Jan. 13.

That victory marked DePaul’s first Big East win under head coach Tony Stubblefield and the program’s first signature win of the year.

It sounds like a bright moment for a struggling program. But there is one problem — only 557 people attended that game, the lowest attendance number for a DePaul men’s basketball game at Wintrust Arena since 2017.

A month later, DePaul recorded an attendance of 777 for its men’s basketball game against Creighton

on Feb. 17, which marked the program’s second-lowest number for a conference game since in 2017.

The low numbers for the games against Seton Hall and Creighton can both be somewhat explained due to the first game being rescheduled for a 4 p.m. start on a Thursday and the second game due to a 9 p.m. start during a snowstorm in Chicago.

Even so, DePaul is averaging the fewest number of fans attending men’s basketball games this season since Wintrust Arena opened five years ago, according to records obtained by The DePaulia that reveal attendance numbers up until the Feb. 17 home game.

“Considering all the mitigating factors of Covid-19 still caring for mask mandates, vaccination requirements or not, not placing any blame or excuses, but every one of those mitigating factors segregated

See WINTRUST, page 26

Masks now optional in most campus buildings

By Amber Stoutenborough Arts & Life Editor

DePaul altered its mask mandate to only permit KN95 or N95 masks on Jan. 13. Six weeks later, DePaul is dropping the mandate to only be in classrooms.

DePaul sent out an announcement Friday evening stating they will continue to keep the mask mandate in classes and labs, but students can choose to mask outside of these spaces, according to an email sent by the president’s office.

“To avoid disruption, DePaul will continue to require masks in classrooms and labs at least until the end of winter quarter, Sunday, March 20,” senior administration wrote in a university-wide email. “Outside of these spaces, beginning Feb. 28, masks will be recommended, but not required.”

Going into the third year of the pandemic, the City of Chicago decided to remove its

mask mandate Monday, following the footsteps of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s guidelines for the rest of Illinois.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said during a press conference that the mask mandate, as well as the city’s vaccine requirement, will end Monday due to a drop in Covid-19 cases.

Spaces such as the university library, residence halls and the student center will now be optional to wear masks.

Freshman Charlie Hartenstein got Covid-19 in January along with his roommates and isolated in a separate building.

Now a month later, Hartenstein worries about how masks won’t be required in the dorms at all.

“I think there are going to be some people who have the same mindset as me, where do we know that things are going to change?” Hartenstein said. “I definitely got some friends who I can’t imagine wearing it after, but I’ve also got some friends who I

“I don’t think a mask mandate should be repealed or even discussed being loosened, or being rid of until we can officially say we are not in a pandemic.”

Amira Hady DePaul junior

can’t imagine not wearing after.”

The guest policy for DePaul dorms still remains the same of only allowing up to two DePaul students or parents/guardians with an ID and vaccination card, but masks will now be optional for everyone — even out-

side personal rooms.

The fear of cases rising among students isn’t just with freshmen. Amira Hady, a DePaul junior and resident advisor, worries

See MANDATES, page 7

2 | News. The DePaulia. Feb 28, 2022

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Jan. 14, 2022 - Feb. 25 2022

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The DePaulia is the official student-run newspaper of DePaul University and may not necessarily reflect the views of college administrators, faculty or staff.

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News. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022 | 3

President Biden nominates first Black woman to Court

DePaul faculty reflect on diversity in law industry

By Nika Schoonover Print Managing Editor

President Joe Biden will nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, he announced Friday. Jackson, if confirmed, would make history as the first Black woman to serve as a justice.

Jackson graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Justice Stephen Breyer during the 1999-2000 Supreme Court term. From 2013 to 2021, she served as a United States District Judge for the District of Columbia and currently serves on the U.S. Supreme Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

From 2005 to 2007, Jackson served as a federal public defender in which she represented defendants on appeal who couldn’t afford a lawyer. If confirmed, she would be the first former public defender to serve on the Supreme Court.

Julie D. Lawton, a tenured professor in DePaul’s College of Law, said that it was important to increase diversity in the Supreme Court and that Jackson is “well qualified for the position.” “[Jackson] has the benefit of a recent Senate confirmation hearing which, presumably, will make her upcoming hearing smoother,” Lawton told The DePaulia.

Lawton is a tenured professor at DePaul’s College of Law. She has been at DePaul for 11 years, is the co-director of the Business Law Clinic and is currently serving as the associate dean for experiential learning in the College of Law. Lawton, in regard to Biden’s initiative to confirm a Black woman to the Court, emphasized the importance of diversity in “making sure that the law that we establish is reflective of all of us.”

In the Court’s 233-year-history, there have only been seven justices who have not been white men; Jackson would become the eighth.

Of the Court’s current justices, and the three women currently serving on the Court, only one — Sonia Sotomayor — is a woman of color.

“I think it’s important for our judiciary to reflect the diversity of our population. And so that’s not at all to suggest that there should be a quota system. That’s not the case at all,” Lawton said. “But we as African Americans have been in the country since almost its founding and the fact that we’ve never had a Black female on the Court, I think it’s telling.”

During a 2020 debate with Bernie Sanders, Biden made his original promise to select a Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

“I committed that, if I am elected president, and have the opportunity to elect someone to the Courts, I’ll appoint the first Black woman to the Court. It’s required that they have representation now, it’s long overdue,” Biden said.

Jennifer L. Rosato Perea, dean in DePaul’s College of Law, told The DePaulia that she is encouraged by Biden’s announcement to nominate Jackson to the Court.

“Although the nomination of a Black woman for a seat on the nation’s highest court is a positive step forward, we need to recognize that more representation and inclusion is needed throughout the pipeline to the legal profession, beginning with prospective law students and continuing throughout the top leadership positions on the courts, in the academy, law firms and corporations,” Perea said.

If Jackson were to be confirmed, it would be the first time that four women would be serving on the Supreme Court at the same

AP PHOTO/JACQUELYN MARTIN

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is a U.S. Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

KIERSTEN RIEDFORD | THE DEPAULIA

Lawton teaches real estate transactions on top of being a tenured professor and associate dean of experiential learning. time. Of those women, three are liberal-leaning with Amy Coney Barrett being the only one that has a conservative leaning. Christina Rivers, a political science professor at DePaul, said that the mix of perspectives by the women on the Court will be beneficial for the judiciary.

“And I actually think it’s good with respect to women that you do have one woman on the Court who’s a conservative because, you know, African American women have suffered a particular role in this country that tends to be ignored,” Rivers said. “And they can understand sort of dual levels of discrimination both by race and by gender.”

Despite this added perspective of being a Black woman, Rivers added, she doesn’t believe that Jackson is “only going to look at the world through the eyes of an African-American woman because that’s not her job.”

“And even though not every minority group has the same particular issues or experiences, the fact that one can live one’s life as a person who can be considered inferior, both based on their race and on their sex is significant, I think it helps to have someone who has lived that experience,” Rivers said. “And right now, we don’t really have that person.”

The field of law, in addition to the Court, continues to lack a level of diversity that is equivalent to the population. According to

a 2021 profile done by the American Bar Association, the legal profession is still overwhelmingly white. As of 2021, 85.4 percent of lawyers are white and 4.7 percent are Black.

In comparison, as of 2019, 60 percent of the U.S. population is white and 13.4 percent is Black. In the past ten years, there has been a slight decline in the percentage of white lawyers (88 percent a decade ago), while the percentage of Black lawyers has remained nearly unchanged.

According to the same report, 37 percent of lawyers are women compared to 33 percent in 2011. The report doesn’t break down the gender demographics by race, but based on these numbers produced by the ABA, roughly 2 percent of lawyers are Black women.

Lawton says that the question of how to make the field of law more diverse is a complicated one because it’s a question of support and of resources.

“Becoming an attorney doesn’t start with, ‘Okay, I’m in college, I view myself as having all of these possibilities. How do I become an attorney?’ It starts much earlier than that,” Lawton said.

When students or their parents come to Lawton to ask for advice about getting into law school, Lawton tells them to pay for a professional Law School Admission Test

(LSAT) prep course.

“And if you have the resources to pay for an LSAT prep class, or if your parents have the resources to pay for an LSAT prep class, then you are increasing your likelihood of scoring higher and thus are able to get into a good law school,” Lawton said. “That’s not a matter of intellect. That’s not even a matter of effort. That’s simply a matter of money.”

Though Lawton notes that current faculty at DePaul has fluctuated recently, both as a result of faculty members leaving DePaul and new hires being brought on, DePaul’s College of Law has very few Black full-time faculty.

Currently, Lawton is the only Black female tenured faculty in the law school.

In a statement, Perea noted that diversity, equity and inclusion are long-standing core values of DePaul’s College of Law and are integral to their social justice mission. Recently, DePaul was named Best Law School for diversity of Black, Latino and Asian students, Perea added.

“We are constantly looking to increase the diversity of our faculty and staff to best meet the needs of our diverse student body,” Perea said.

Lawton added that DePaul has improved its level of diversity in both the student population and in the faculty.

“I think the university has created initiatives to recruit and retain faculty of color and certainly our student body has been quite vocal in their expectations for their professors, the diversity of the professors to reflect the diversity of the student body and we have heard that and we are certainly working to be responsive of that,” Lawton said.

In the field of law, Lawton said diversity is important because of how different backgrounds are treated differently under the law.

“Throughout history, we have seen that the law will treat different people of different races of different genders of different ethnicities and religions differently,” Lawton said.

When it comes to the law, diversity of all categories will make for a greater balance in which decisions are made.

“So I do think and, maybe it’s a hope, that the more diversity that we have, the more balanced we will be in the administration of the law,” Lawton added.

4 | News. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022

Internship at the Ray strengthen job skills for high school students

By Salvador Salazar Contributing Writer

One Chicago Public Schools teacher has helped bridge this experience for his students.

Justin O’Donnell, a diverse learning instructor at Lincoln Park High School (LPHS), began an internship program working with several community agencies and small businesses to easily bridge the workplace from high school for his students with intellectual disabilities.

DePaul’s Ray Meyer Fitness Center is one the internship hosts.

O’Donnell grew up helping around his mother’s own special education classroom and went on to earn his master’s degree in special education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to focus on helping the young adult population.

“I found myself wanting to help everybody and make sure everyone was progressing,” O’Donnell said. “I found myself motivated to learn and have never felt that motivated to learn about anything in my life. And that led me to pursue a masters and hopefully in the future to keep pursuing research in this field.”

After grad school, O’Donnell tried to apply these lessons to LPHS. His goal was to find somewhere nearby to host the program.

“DePaul was the first place we reached out [to], Danielle was right on board and once we got all the paperwork figured out and we got the students to start working there,” O’Donnell said.

The program was put on pause when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in the spring of 2020.

Danielle Arens, the assistant director of fitness at DePaul’s Ray Meyer Fitness Center, said that the internship was able to restart in the fall. “[The students] really seem to love their experience; they are always smiling,” Arens said.

Students who joined in 2020 were able to return.

“We had one student come back who was with us before the pandemic and he was ecstatic, he remembered me and the facility and could not wait to be a part of the Ray again,” Arens said. “They feel a sense of belonging to our team.

“I know that they have not missed one day, I have never gotten a call from their aid saying that they could not make it.They’re always here consistently so that must mean that they’re looking forward to it and we’re doing something right.”

Christy Thai, a Ray staff member who helps the Lincoln Park students with tasks like folding and organizing towels, said that they were able to have extracurricular activities that provide real job experience.

“It gives them an enjoyable experience outside of school just to be doing something else,” Thai said.

O’Donnell said one of the strategies that he and his team take is to train their students in retaining information through repetition of activities that mirror their internship work sites.

“The whole goal is working in an environment with a lot of help and not a lot of distractions and a lot of repetition here at LP and then taking all those skills and seeing again if they can generalize those skills to those real-world settings,” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell has seen the benefits of this experiential learning in one student in particular. . The biggest progression O’Donnell has seen in this student is his communication skills.

“His communication has gotten so much better throughout the time that I have known him,” O’Donnell said. “He has an augmentative and alternative communication device that he carries around.

Before I got here, he did not even have it and now he has mastered it.”

Students can learn social skills at the internship such as greeting people and socializing with guests. “[The student ] is great at greeting people, which is a really great work skill for him, and socializing is something he

PHOTO COURTESY OF DANIELLE ARENS

A Lincoln Park High School student cleans a treadmill during her shift. has really gotten motivated by,” O’Donnell said.

These skills are often used for preliminary job interviews.

“If a student lacks those communication skills, it can be tough for that employer to hire them based on that generic interview process that they tend to do,” O’Donnell said.

Even with the progress they have made, O’Donnell faces other challenges in finding suitable work sites for his students.

O’Donnell strives to ensure that potential internship sites are reliable and play to his students’ strengths.

“We need to know that we are sending our students to a trustworthy site after Lincoln Park, making sure our students

are ready for work,” O’Donnell said. “It can be difficult finding agencies that are best for specific students because some agencies are good for higher functioning students and others for lower functioning students.”

O’Donnell is thankful to DePaul, PAWS Humane Society and a local diner that have all taken in his students allowing them to get work experience.

“Our students are great workers and when given the chance through these internships, perhaps they can get employed through them when that internship is over,” he said.

MAKE YOUR SUMMER COUNT. GET ONE STEP CLOSER TO GRADUATION. REGISTER FOR SCPS ONLINE CLASSES AT GO.DEPAUL.EDU/SCPSSUMMER.

News. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022 | 5

‘To the heroes of Ukraine, Illinois is with you’

Chicagoans

rally in support of Ukrainians amid Russian invasion

By Patrick Sloan-Turner Staff Writer

Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and more than a thousand Chicagoans came together to show support for the Ukrainian people in the Ukrainian Village on Sunday.

“Whether you come from Ukraine, or your family is from anywhere else in the world, today we are all Ukrainian,” Pritzker said.

They gathered to protest recent Russian aggression towards Ukraine at Saints Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic parish church.

Protestors cried chants of “USA help Ukraine” and “stop Russian aggression,” held signs reading “hands off Ukraine” and “Putin war criminal” and waved Ukrainian flags. Many sported blue and yellow clothing, the colors of the Ukranian flag.

Pritzker, who noted his own family ties to Kyiv, was staunch in his criticism of Putin and the actions of the Russian military.

“Screw Vladimir Putin,” Pritzker said. “To the heroes of Ukraine, Illinois is with you.”

Lightfoot echoed Pritzker’s sentiments to the energized crowd, who

PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER | THE DEPAULIA

Gov. J.B. Pritzker addressed a crowd of over a thousand at Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Catholic Church located in Ukrainian Village. stood crammed on sidewalks and streets surrounding the cathedral.

“We stand together today in solidarity with Chicago’s Ukrainian community and the country of Ukraine,” Lightfoot said. “...We must continue to send our thoughts and prayers... but what we must also do is raise our voices,” she said.

Around 50,000 people of Ukrainian descent live in Chicago, according to U.S. Census data.

The event was one of several exam-

ples of Chicago’s support for Ukraine as Russian forces invaded the country.

Also on Sunday, supporters of Ukraine also gathered in front of Buckingham Fountain on Columbus Drive while a convoy of semi-trucks parked together in protest of Russia nearby.

“It’s Ukraine today, but it’ll be another democratic freedom-loving country tomorrow,” Lightfoot said. “We must stop [Putin] in his tracks … right here and now.”

PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER | THE DEPAULIA

Mayor Lightfoot came to Ukrainian Village and spoke of her support to the crowd.

CAMPUS CRIME REPORT: Feb. 16, 2022 - Feb. 22, 2022 LOOP CAMPUS

LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS

990 West Fullerton 4

The Theatre School 6

Sullivan Athletic Center Clifton Parking Garage 1

5

Corcoran Hall

2

3

University Center

4

7

LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS Feb. 16 1) A Smell of Marijuana report was filed in the Clifton Parking Garage.

Assault & Theft

Drug & Alcohol

Feb. 21 4) A Graffiti report was filed for markings on the 990 W. Fullerton exit door.

Feb. 17 2) A Smell of Marijuana report was 5) A Theft report was filed for filed in the Clifton Parking Garage. money taken from the locker room The smoke triggered the smoke at ATC. alarm.

Feb. 22 6) A Graffiti report was filed for Feb. 20 markings on the call box near the 3) An Illegal Consumption of Theatre School.

Alcohol by a Minor report was filed in Corcoran Hall. A person was transported to Illinois Masonic Hospital by Chicago EMS.

Other

LOOP CAMPUS

Feb. 16 7) An Armed Robbery report was filed regarding an incident that occurred in a retail suite of University Center. A Safety Alert was issued regarding the incident.

6 | News. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022

‘I still maintain that we need to have that level of independence’

PAT NABONG/CHICAGO SUN-TIMES VIA AP

Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx maintains that special prosecutors should be brought in for cases involving police officers charged with violent criminal crimes.

Cook County State Attorney continues to push for reforms

By Nika Schoonover Print Managing Editor

When Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx was elected in 2016, she ran on the position that special prosecutors should be involved in deciding whether criminal charges should be brought to police officers accused of crimes involving shootings, particularly homicides.

“And the reason I still maintain that we need to have that level of independence for the public to be assured that we are not working in cahoots with law enforcement on these types of cases,” Foxx told DePaul student media at a press conference.

Foxx added that, logistically, “the law didn’t allow for us to be able to have a special prosecutor without there being an actual conflict.”

“And the courts found that just because prosecutors and police work together didn’t create an actual conflict,” Foxx said.

According to the Chicago Tribune, procedures involving charging decisions in police criminal cases have changed since Foxx took office due to structural changes and Illinois law. When Foxx began her term, prosecutors would have to petition a judge in each individual case and allege a legal conflict of interest if they wanted a special prosecutor. The judge then decided if a special prosecutor could be appointed.

Foxx added that the State Attorney’s office has tried to implement other measures, such as secondary review, to assure the public and law enforcement that they are doing this work transparently.

“What happens is, is that we talk about, you know, the public who feels like these cases aren’t being handled well,” Foxx said. “But we also have a skeptical law enforcement, who says ‘Is she going to charge people for political will, for political gain?’”

For years, Chicago has established review agencies to address failures and instigate reforms within the police department. One such agency, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), was established in 2017 after the 2014

police killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. COPA replaced the Independent Police Review Authority, which replaced the Office of Professional Standards in 2017.

Though COPA does have the ability to review the police department, they have very little power to enact substantial change, said DePaul criminology professor Rhonda DeLong.

“They can make recommendations, but they don’t have a lot of power to make change or to have the recommendations put into play,” she said. “And I think that needs to change.”

DeLong said that when it comes to law enforcement, it’s important to have others look into the police organization rather than “police investigating police.”

“I feel we need to hold them to a much higher standard just because, you know, they have the ability to take our lives in situations,” DeLong said.

Foxx added that she believes that Chicago needs to have an independent panel to look at these cases.

“Not because I don’t believe that we can do it, but because I believe the public in their need for transparency and accountability demands that,” Foxx said.

The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), which has focused on stopping police crimes for the last decadein which their main focus over the past decade has been stopping police crimes, strongly advocates for community control of police.

“Which we felt was a very important reform that would fundamentally change the relationship between the police and the community,” said Ted Pearson, co-chairperson of the CAARPR. In line with their mission to create a proposal for a commission to independently review police crimes, two coalitions — the Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) and Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) — created a joint ordinance to accomplish that goal. This ordinance — the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability — would have the ability to draft and approve policy

for the Chicago Police Department. In addition, it would be able to nominate candidates for superintendent and other positions within the city’s policing infrastructure.

“In addition, it contained a proposal for a referendum which would go to all the people in Chicago in an election and would allow the people to decide whether or not a commission itself should be directly elected by the people and whether or not it should have the power of being able to appoint a superintendent, where the superintendent would be responsible directly to the commission instead of the mayor,” Pearson said of the proposal.

Though the compromise proposal

was passed by the Chicago City Council in July 2021, the referendum proposal has yet to pass.

“And it’ll put Chicago in the most forward position in the country, in terms of real community control of the police, where the police are really accountable to the communities that they’re supposed to serve and protect,” Pearson said.

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News. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022 | 7

Activists urge college students learn about dating violence

By Lilly Keller Staff Writer

February marks the month-long awareness of violence and abuse within young adult relationships. Dating back to 2006, the practice of bringing awareness to abuse within teenage relationships was initially only during the first week of February. In 2010, Congress declared the entire month to be Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, according to Teen Dating Violence.

Teen dating violence is an umbrella term, enveloping numerous all types of aggression from physical and sexual violence to psychological manipulation and stalking, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Over the course of a single year, 1.5 million teenagers will experience physical abuse from a dating partner, according to Love is Respect.

Many college students do not believe they are adequately equipped to handle situations regarding intimate relationship violence, with 57 percent saying it is challenging to identify and 58 percent stating they do not know how to assist someone experiencing abuse, as reported by Love is Respect.

Experiencing violence within a romantic relationship at a young age possesses numerous ramifications for individuals, such as poor performance in school, using unhealthy coping mechanisms like substance use, developing a negative self-image and becoming overly dependent on others, according to Youth.gov.

Sonia Trevino, the community outreach coordinator at Family Rescue, an Illinois domestic violence-related service, believes it is crucial to talk about violence within young adult relationships.

“It’s incredibly important to have conversations regarding intimate partner violence at a young age,” Trevino said. “I would recommend starting the conversation before teenagers and young adults alike experience their first relationship.

The more education and awareness an in-

dividual has, the less likely they will find themselves in a dangerous or unhealthy situation.”

This year’s theme for teen dating violence prevention month is “Talk About It,” calling both adolescents and their support system to initiate conversations regarding healthy relationships and how to understand abusive behavior.

“It is crucial to begin with the concept of a healthy relationship and how it compares with an abusive one,” Trevino said.

Trevino further defines a healthy relationship as a “balance,” a means of negotiating quality time and personal life without guilt or pressure.

“Dating abuse, as with any type of abuse, is often subtler than portrayed in the entertainment industry,” Trevino said.

“It can be classified as anything from excessive guilt and pressure, to always needing something such as money. It’s important to understand that dating abuse has many different layers.”

Sophomore Ashley Cole is in favor of increasing education for young adults regarding the commonality of relationship abuse.

“I think teenagers would have a better understanding of dating violence if it was taught in both middle and high schools,” Cole said. “I also feel more recognition for this form of abuse since it’s not something I have ever heard of before, examples in advertising, celebrity endorsements, and even social media campaigns could truly bring proper awareness to the affected demographic.”

Heather Fleet, a joint founder of Take Back the Halls, a program focused on teen dating violence and community activism, partnered with DePaul. The group allows undergraduates of all majors to facilitate and mentor activities relating to understanding a healthy relationship and how to start the conversation regarding all forms of domestic and dating violence.

“It is crucial to bring awareness to relationship violence during adolescence, many survivors of domestic abuse often encountered this same violence during

teenage relationships, further fueling the cycle of abuse,” Fleet said.

Fleet defined the cycle of abuse as a crucial component to understanding domestic violence and breaking down the victim-blaming mentality.

“Abuse is subtle, morphing into a cycle beginning with tension and then escalating to violence before descending into the honeymoon phase, where an abusive partner may apologize for their behavior and seek reconciliation, causing the cycle to continue onwards,” Fleet said.

One unique aspect of Take Back the Hall’s approach on teen dating violence is their use of the popular education model, a design centric to examining a student’s lived experience to the teacher’s knowledge and new information, allowing patterns and meaning to form, expediting how adolescents perceive their experience with relationships in connection to their learning.

“Education on teenage dating violence is essential, by creating a toolbox of knowledge, individuals are better prepared to understand their own relationships and aid friends in navigating healthy relationships,” Fleet said.

With over 21 percent of college students reporting having experienced abuse by their current partner and 32 percent having endured dating violence at the hands of their previous partner, according to Partnership Against Domestic Violence, it is essential to acknowledge the prevailing epidemic that is relationship violence within higher education. DePaul University offers numerous resources for those currently in, or who know somebody in an abusive relationship. The Office of Health and Wellness offers both confidential and non-confidential guidance to students who are currently experiencing an unsafe relationship.

For more support or resources, visit Sexual & Relationship Violence Prevention, or contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 for free confidential help.

EMILY SOTO | THE DEPAULIA

NADIA HERNANDEZ | THE DEPAULIA

EMILY SOTO | THE DEPAULIA

DePaul updated their mask guidance on Friday, Feb. 25 before it ends Feb. 28.

A mix of masked and unmasked students sit in the Schmitt Academic Center. This will now be a mask optional space.

MANDATES, continued from front page

brief period during summer classes of 2021.

This would be the first time masks would be optional during in-person learning.

Hady is concerned about masks being optional in dorms and around campus.

“This tends to be the time you want to sustain those mandates until things are fully down, so loosening restrictions now only give a chance for a new variant to pop up, and in tandem with governments changing what ‘low’ means relative to Covid, I don’t think it’s the right move at all,” Hady said.

Jordan Stalker, a professor in the College of Communication, hopes DePaul continues to have masks in the classroom for the safety of students.

about repeats of Chicago dropping the mandate and the rise of cases after.

“We should get out in front and be proactive by maintaining masks to prevent that eventual peak,” Hady said. “I don’t think a mask mandate should be repealed or even discussed being loosened or being rid of until we can officially say we are not in a pandemic. I don’t think we can officially say that yet.”

In May 2021, Chicago lifted its mask mandate and cases rose to about 600 cases a day.

DePaul had made it optional for masks for a

“The campus is one less place we’ll have to be overly concerned about, even if the bars and the clubs and restaurants and everywhere else is mask optional,” Stalker said. “At least they know that DePaul has more levels of protection for them.”

Stalker also will continue to wear his mask for the safety of his students and family.

“I do feel that it is a little early for the city and the state to be going mask optional,” he said. “Which, again, is why I would not be bothered and [would] be encouraged if DePaul would continue their mask mandate for a little while longer. And if that’s what it is, as optionalpolicies with DePaul decides, then I’ll do my best to continue to wear my own mask

while teaching to protect myself and my students and those around me.”

Public entities such as the Chicago Transit Authority, health care facilities and individual private businesses will continue to require masks.

Senior administration said DePaul would revisit this policy after spring break.

“There’s so much more going on that is attached to this pandemic that I think folks need to reconcile the realities and the tangible things that they can hold on to in their life and what it means to have that right in that moment,” Hady said.

8 | News. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022

9 | News. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022

KIERSTEN RIEDFORD | THE DEPAULIA

Freshmen Jillian Muncaster (left), Amber Rosegay (middle) and Casey Fong (right) organize their donations. All donations will go to the Grace House located by United Center.

Students organize drive for menstrual, hygiene products

By Nadia Hernandez News Editor

Three freshman students have collected over 370 menstrual and hygiene products to donate towards The Grace House.

Freshmen Jillian Muncaster, Amber Rosegay and Casey Fong partnered with nationwide campaign Her Drive to collect these items. Her Drive is an organization that collects feminine hygiene products and clothing to distribute them amongst local charities.

Muncaster, Rosegay and Fong held their first drive the week of Feb. 14. The group decided to donate all their items collected to the Grace House, located near the United Center.

The Grace House serves formerly incarcerated women, primarily from the South and West Sides. They provide temporary housing, emotional and spiritual support services, according to their website.

Rosegay participated in Her Drive when she was in high school and was first to bring up the idea to the group.

“I was thinking back to my senior year, I participated in a drive for ‘Her Drive’ before,” she said. “I remember how good it made me feel to be able to do that to be able to help other people.”

The group chose Her Drive based on its mission. Her Drive has been able to collect over 160,000 general hygiene products and over 400,000 femine hygiene products nationwide. “[Her Drive] shines a spotlight on the lack of period products, or just in general feminine hygiene products for certain populations,” Fong said. “It goes beyond homeless populations. There’s a large, low income demographic in the U.S. and they don’t have a lot of access to periods just due to financial constraints.”

On average, people spend about $1,700 for tampons and $4,700 for pads annually, according to Pandia Health.

On top of these costs, people have the additional costs of laundry, medicine and personal humiliation.

“Feminine products are so expensive,” Muncaster said. “There are pockets of people here who are greatly suffering. They’re often overlooked. So I think when deciding who we were going to donate our items to, that was a huge

“Our goal is to see more people come out and really talk to us and have conversations about these issues that are present but not talked about enough in our communities”

Casey Fong

DePaul freshman

thing as well.”

Rosegay had called the Grace House and asked what items their community needed. It helped the group prioritize which items to collect. “[The Grace House] said socks are a huge thing that they need,” Muncaster said. “So that would go right to the top of our list. They do need the feminine products like pads and tampons, but equally as important are hygiene items and socks. It’s a center for women and children and so general items as well are needed.”

This could also include the people who needed these items yet did not identify as female.

“It’s supposed to be an inclusive space,” Fong said. “We welcome all kinds of items. So we’re including not only people who have periods, but in general people who really need toothpaste, condoms, underwear and socks.”

The group decided to add a monetary donation option as well. Their first drive collected $473 and they used those funds to buy more priority items which raised their total item count to 1,840.

“The monetary donations [has opened] up so many possibilities because not everyone is able to get goods or have goods or make it all the way to DePaul,” Rosegay said. “Not only was that great, but also we were able to go out and buy more goods.”

KIERSTEN RIEDFORD | THE DEPAULIA

Her Drive also collects gently used clothing such as underwear, bras and socks.

The group could only start to advertise for three days before they started collecting due to a scheduling pushback from DePaul. This cost them time to promote the drive.

“We got this pushback from DePaul to actually set up a stand to have the drop off [donation box],” Muncaster said. “We tried to talk to several people to get it set up and we just kept having to jump through hoops. That was probably the most stressful part of setting everything up.”

Their next drive will start March 4 and run through March 11 in the Lincoln Park Student Center. There is a 24hour drop box under the stairs for people to donate before the drive starts.

“We’re really trying to use all of [the two weeks between first and second drive] so that we can promote it as much as possible,” Rosegay said. “I think with the more time that we have between our next drive is going to help a lot.”

Muncaster, Rosegay and Fong envision holding a drive annually and having more promotion in the future. They also plan to raise more awareness about gender inequity issues.

“Because at the end of the day, DePaul, it’s Vincentian mission is to uplift

KIERSTEN RIEDFORD | THE DEPAULIA

Muncaster and Rosegay previously did service work in high school. the exploited and the underrepresented,” Fong said.

“That is what we’re trying to achieve here. Our goal is to see more people come out and really talk to us and have conversations about these issues that are present but not talked about enough in our communities,” Fong added.

10 | Nation & World. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022

Nation & World

World braces for cyberwar as Russian invasion intensifies

ALICIA GOLUSZKA | THE DEPAULIA

By Jackson Healy Nation & World Editor

As bombs, bullets and bodies fall to Ukrainian streets in the nation’s battle against an ongoing full-scale Russian invasion, cyberattacks between the two nations continue, stoking fears that such attacks may soon extend beyond either country’s borders.

Before Russian boots ever reached Ukrainian soil, Russian code was used to disrupt, intimidate and immobilize both civilian and government activities in Ukraine.

Beginning with the 2014 Maidan Revolution — which saw the pro-Russian President of Ukraine ousted and replaced with one more open to EU ties — cyberattacks against Ukraine grew exceedingly common as relations between the two nations grew increasingly hostile.

“Following that event, Russian trolls and various people capable of cyberattacks took up the task of undermining the new Ukrainian government, which had not yet put a person in power,” said Dick Farkas, a political science professor at DePaul. “So, it was kind of a leaderless, headless system, and particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks.”

Because malware can remain dormant in computer systems once implanted, Farkas suggests there’s no clear way to determine the extent to which Russia has infiltrated Ukrainian systems.

“The extent to which a country like Russia has tapped into important features of Ukraine’s capabilities is unclear and will continue to be unclear,” Farkas said. “This is not like conventional warfare, where somebody attacks, and you see the damage and respond. This is much more sinister, much more subtle.”

Cyberattacks on Ukraine have continued from the 2014 revolution to today. In 2015 and again in 2016, attacks on Ukraine’s power grid resulted in temporary power outages for nearly 230,000 consumers in Ukraine and about one-fifth of the Ukrainian capital’s power consumption, respectively.

In 2017, malware known as “NotPetya” targeted Ukrainian banks, government agencies and electricity firms, causing billions of dollars in damage globally.

In January, around 70 government websites were attacked and replaced with a fore-

“This is not like conventional warfare, where somebody attacks, and you see the damage and respond. This is much more sinister, much more subtle.”

Dick Farkas

Political science professor, DePaul University boding message reading: “Ukrainians! …All information about you has become public.

Be afraid and expect worse. It’s your past, present and future.”

And in February, two separate DDoS attacks temporarily shut down several of the country’s banking and government websites.

Agnes Venema, a researcher at the National Intelligence Academy in Romania, suggests that many of these attacks were likely conducted as attacks on civilian morale.

“If you attack the website of the Ministry of Finance or the national bank, even if such an attack is resolved within a matter of minutes, [you start thinking] ‘When is the next one going to be?’” she said. “‘How long is it going to take for that one to be solved?

And does it mean our money is safe in our banks?’ These are attacks on the psyche of a population that can have some serious onthe-ground effects when it comes to trusting institutions, trusting processes.”

Additionally, Ukrainian civilians recently received mass text messages falsely claiming the country’s ATM services were down.

Sending false or demoralizing text messages to both Ukrainian civilians and soldiers has been an ongoing cyberwar tactic for years as attempts to instill fear and confusion within the populace.

“Once you know something can be fake, you’re going to start regarding pretty much everything as fake, even if it’s true,” Venema said. “So you really start questioning what you see, what you hear and what you read, especially in a conflict zone. What do you do when a text message says that you need to evacuate? What do you do?”

Despite several national intelligence

sources accusing the Kremlin of perpetrating all of the aforementioned cyberattacks, Russia has denied any involvement in all instances. Farkas notes that by digitally concealing a cyberattack’s origin, governments actively engaging in cyberwarfare can often hide behind the notion of plausible deniability.

“If the president [was asked], ‘How certain can you be that this attack came from, say, Russia?’, the honest answer is, the logic seems to support it,” he said. “But the answer is probably, in reality, not more than 80 percent confidence. It leaves 20 percent in the gray area, and that makes it particularly difficult [for the government to respond]. At best, you can only speculate, and speculating is not the firmest ground to platform a public policy, especially one that can damage huge numbers of people.”

As hybrid warfare between Russia and Ukraine continues, NATO members and affiliates have begun raising alarms over the threat of Russian cyberwarfare extending far beyond conventional combat lines.

In both the U.S. and the U.K., government officials have warned their respective country’s private firms to prepare for possible Russian-sponsored cyberattacks. And in Australia, cybersecurity experts warned of possible inadvertent spillover effects from cyberattacks.

Maria Robson Morrow, program coordinator of The Intelligence Project at Harvard University, notes how the 2021 ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline serves as a stark example of the cybersecurity vulnerabilities in both U.S. corporations and infrastructure.

“While that attack was conducted by

non-state actors for financial gain, national states have surely taken note, or had already identified this type of attack as a good way to destabilize or retaliate against other states,” she said.

On Wednesday, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (DVa.) took these concerns a step further, raising the possibility that Russian cyberattacks in the near future could risk pulling NATO countries — including the United States — into war by triggering the alliance’s Article 5 collective defense principle.

Article 5 commits each NATO member state to consider an attack on one member as an attack on all members, requiring members to assist the attacked party by taking any action deemed necessary. It has only been invoked once, after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

In a 2021 press release, NATO affirmed that the alliance could theoretically trigger Article 5 over a cyberattack and that such a decision would be made “on a case-bycase basis.” Furthermore, the communique asserts that any NATO response to a cyberattack “need not be restricted to the cyber domain.”

Warner indicated two ways digital attacks could rope NATO countries into war with Russia. For one, the Kremlin could directly target infrastructure within NATO member states as retaliation for harsh economic sanctions imposed in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Perhaps more worrisome though is the threat of Russian cyber weapons launched in Ukraine inadvertently spilling across NATO borders. Such an event has happened before — while about 80 percent of the 2017 NotPetya attack’s infections were in Ukraine, malware extended to U.S., German, British and French computer systems, among others.

Warner suggested possible justification of invoking Article 5 if an attack on Ukraine’s power grid were to spill into a neighboring NATO member state, impacting hospitals or causing car accidents due to disruptions in traffic signals.

“The risks are not limited to Ukraine,” Morrow said. “We should be very concerned.”

Nation & World. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022 | 11

Boosted by climate change, U.S. Southwest faces driest period in 1,200 years

By Lucas Madlangbayan Contributing Writer

The American Southwest faces a wide range of issues: dried up lake beds, drained reservoirs and blazing wildfires.

Sacramento resident and DePaul sociology student Lillian O’Gara reflected on the California wildfires when she arrived in Chicago after winter break.

“When I got to Chicago and it started snowing, me and this other kid from California, we were saying the flurries look like when there’s the ash flying in the sky,” O’Gara said.

The American Southwest has been severely impacted by drought conditions, contributing to forest fires and impacting the agricultural industry. These drought conditions made headlines as a recent study found that the area is experiencing its driest period in at least 1,200 years.

The study, published in the journal “Nature Climate Change,” used data collected from tree rings to measure and compare periods of drought.

“We can estimate when the drought started, up through present day, and it’s continued up to the present day,” said Jason E. Smerdon, a climate research professor at Columbia University and one of the authors of the study.

Using data collected from tree rings, the team was able to estimate soil moisture levels in the past. “We can compare that to all of the tree ring-estimated soil moisture conditions back in time, and there’s no other 22 year period that is as dry as the last 22 years in the American Southwest.”

While there still would be a drought in the Southwest without human intervention, Smerdon notes that human-caused climate change has made the megadrought “42 percent more severe.”

“It’s more uniformly widespread than we

JOSH EDELSON | ASSOCIATED PRESS VIA FILE

Water drips from a faucet on dry land at Folsom Lake in Folsom, Calif., on May 22, 2022. see in these past megadroughts, like no individual place out west is necessarily ranked that highly,” he said. “The degree to which it is spatially widespread in the West seems to be a unique characteristic of this drought relative to droughts in the past. They were still widespread, but this is very uniform in a way that suggests a temperature component, whereas precipitation can be more localized.”

Human-caused climate change didn’t just make the ongoing drought more severe, though — it also made it longer. According to the study, the drought would have otherwise stopped in the mid-2000’s and started up again at a later time.

“The human fingerprint kind of smoothed over that and has made it more of a continuous event,” Smerdon said. “This drought, by our measure, would have actually been shorter if humans weren’t involved.”

Students like O’Gara have lived with the

drought for most of their lives. Her first memories of the drought begin in the third grade.

“When stuff got more severe, there was this whole campaign to stop watering your grass because it was a waste of water and your grass wasn’t essential,” O’Gara said. “So there were signs like ‘go brown,’ and everyone’s grass died, and there were different rules of when you could water your grass, like times a day and limitations on it.”

The megadrought conditions are part of an ongoing trend. In an interview with NPR, Park Williams, the study’s lead author, compared the Southwest’s precipitation patterns to playing with a yo-yo while going down an escalator.

“We’re gonna have ups and downs,” Smerdon said, “but the drying, particularly due to the increased temperatures, and the year to year increasing demand of the atmosphere as it fold, more and more moisture is going to

mean that the the whole mainstay is going to decrease and aridify with time.”

“This isn’t going to be a discrete event that just ends. We are going to have to figure out how to live in the west with less water,” Smerdon added.

In response to the drought, local governments and organizations are attempting to find ways to conserve water.

“Ultimately, you would need federal, state and local government pushing regulations,” said Barbara Willard, an environmental communications professor at DePaul. “At this level, where you have an extreme drought, and drought emergencies, and Governor Newsom, the governor of California making three emergency declarations based on this drought, you need federal and state regulations put into place.”

In October 2021, Newsom issued an executive order urging Californians to voluntarily reduce their water use by 15 percent.

“I thought that was incredibly short sighted, because I just feel like you need water restriction at this point, not voluntary water reduction, but water restriction,” Willard said.

California’s Central Valley, which produces 40 percent of the nation’s fruits, nuts and other foods, has been particularly impacted by the drought. Willard encourages buyers to be aware of the products originating from the Central Valley that are more water-intensive, like almonds.

Additionally, Willard suggests fighting for more climate change policies.

“That would be something I would really say is how we could affect change — even here in Illinois= — that could help with the problems of how climate change is going to affect people throughout our country,” she said, “because it’s always going to be different in different spots. In the Southwest, and on the western coast, there’s going to be wildfires and drought.”

Sanctions swing toward Putin himself as Ukraine anger grows

By Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — With Russian President Vladimir Putin the latest target of sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, diplomatic appeals came second Saturday to imposing financial and military pain on Moscow as global condemnation grew.

The Biden administration said it was sending Ukraine up to $350 million in arms and other defensive supplies from U.S. Department of Defense stockpiles, with another $250 million possible. The Czech Republic and Slovakia said they were sending arms, and Slovakia’s defense minister said up to 1,200 foreign troops from other NATO members could be deployed in his country to reassure member countries on the alliance’s eastern flank.

In cities around the world, people spilled into the streets to protest the invasion and the potential for further upheaval. “This war will last, and all the crises that go with it will have durable consequences,” French President Emmanuel Macron warned.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday said the U.S. was preparing individual sanctions on Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, likely to include travel bans. The announcement came after the European Union announced it intended to freeze Putin’s assets, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told NATO leaders his country would sanction Putin and Lavrov.

Canada said it would do the same.

Psaki said President Joe Biden hadn’t planned any more direct diplomatic overtures toward Putin, but “it does not mean we have ruled out diplomacy forever.” She said the U.S. would also newly sanction the

Russian Direct Investment Fund, which functions as a sovereign wealth fund meant to draw capital into the Russian economy.

The U.S. measures block Putin and Lavrov from access to any assets within reach of U.S. officials, and bar anyone in the United States from doing business with them.

Members of Russia’s security council also were sanctioned.

In response on Saturday, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said sanctions could offer Moscow a pretext for a review of its ties with the West, suggesting that Russia could cut them altogether. “We may look at each other in binoculars and gunsights,” he said. He also suggested that Russia could opt out of the New START nuclear arms control treaty that limits U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals.

The U.S. and European allies earlier announced sweeping asset freezes and other penalties against Russia’s banks, stateowned enterprises and elites. On Saturday, triggered by the sanctions, French Marines patrolling the English Channel area intercepted a cargo ship sailing under the Russian flag for an investigation, the Maritime Prefecture said. Spokeswoman Veronique Magnin said it appeared to be the first such action in the Channel.

EU ministers have said further sanctions are possible, including kicking Russia out of SWIFT, the dominant system for global financial transactions. Separately, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada supports the removal of Russia from the SWIFT system.

Countries in Asia and the Pacific have joined the U.S., the EU and others in sanctioning Russian banks and leading companies and setting up export controls aimed at

ALEXEI NIKOLSKY | SPUTNIK, KREMLIN POOL PHOTO VIA AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin talks via videoconference on Monday, Feb. 21, 2022. starving Russia’s industries and military of semiconductors and other high-tech products.

Australia on Saturday said it is imposing sanctions against all 339 members of the Russian parliament as well as eight Russian oligarchs close to Putin and is considering sanctions against Putin and Lavrov.

Japan and South Korea on Saturday said their foreign ministers had spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. But Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi declined to say whether Japan plans to impose sanctions on Putin or Lavrov.

South Korea’s foreign ministry said Blinken thanked South Korea over its willingness to participate in international sanctions against Russia, without details.

China, the only friend that might help

Russia blunt the impact of sanctions, has continued to denounce sanctions and blamed the U.S. and its allies for provoking Moscow. Beijing, worried about American power in Asia, has increasingly aligned its foreign policy with Russia to challenge the West.

Russian chess legend and opposition politician Garry Kasparov described sanctions that don’t directly hit Putin as merely symbolic.

“As long as he controls hundreds of billions of dollars and looks invincible for his cronies in Russia, I don’t think that any protest on Russian streets will change anything,” Kasparov added in an interview with Sky News.

12 | Opinions. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022

Opinions

Ukraine may be far away, but the war hits home

By Erik Uebelacker Opinions Editor

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine Wednesday night after weeks of heightened tension between the two nations.

Since then, videos have surfaced on social media detailing the horrors of what is being called the largest ground war in Europe since World War II. It can be easy to ignore these international incidents — even of this magnitude — when we are so far removed from the conflict. We’re two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, and Americans are as politically polarized as ever. The news has been downright depressing to follow for the last few years, making it an appealing option to tune it out in a time of yet another crisis.

But we need to fight the urge to do so. We need to pay attention to what is happening in Ukraine. It’s historic, it’s horrifying and it could have implications that spread beyond Eastern Europe.

“Just from a human standpoint, the death and the physical destruction is momentous,” DePaul journalism professor Rick Brown told The DePaulia.

“It’s changed the world order that’s been in place since World War II… There’s always the concern that Putin could embolden if he’s not stopped here and go further.”

The scenes of the invasion have been alarming. Air sirens blared across Kyiv as civilians attempted to flee the city. Explosions from Russian bombers and fighter jets were seen and heard throughout Ukraine. Many Ukrainians are taking shelter in subway stations to avoid surface blasts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged civilians to help defend the nation.

“We will give weapons to anyone who wants to defend the country,” Zelensky tweeted. “Be ready to support Ukraine in the squares of our cities.”

So far, the United States has strongly condemned Putin’s invasion and imposed sanctions on Russia’s economy.

The sanctions will affect the American economy as well, with gas and food prices expected to rise.

President Joe Biden said on Thursday that the U.S. will not be sending American troops to fight on behalf of Ukraine. But they may have to get involved if fighting spills over to the several NATO countries bordering Ukraine.

Russia’s capture of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and Putin’s threats of nuclear war serve as reminders of potential consequences, should outside forces intervene.

The ongoing anti-war protests in Russian cities show this is an invasion

by Putin and the Kremlin. Thousands of protestors have already been arrested

by Russian police in an effort to silence them. As much as Putin may try to downplay this, much of his country is not behind the conflict and his actions surrounding it.

EMILIO MORENATTI | AP NEWSROOM

Natali Sevriukova reacts next to her house following a rocket attack the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022.

It’s a scary, complicated situation that is difficult for me to wrap my head around. Even as I sit here reading article after article, it’s leaving me with more questions than answers.

DePaul political science student Hugh Villasana finds himself in a similar predicament. Despite being a frequent follower of the news, Villasana says that coverage from many major outlets has made this situation difficult to follow.

“I don’t really even understand why Russia is invading,” he said. “I feel like the media focuses more on the conflict and soundbites. It doesn’t inform me as much as I’d like it to.”

He still doesn’t see this as an excuse to ignore the conflict, altogether.

“I think it’s important for everyone to be politically educated as best they can,” Villasana said.

The prominence of social media as a news sharing source has made this even more complicated. Since the invasion started on Wednesday, fake and/or old videos and photos have made rounds on platforms like TikTok and Twitter.

The amount of actual conflict happening in Ukraine right now makes it harder to determine what is actually happening, versus what is fake. Brown has his own thoughts on staying informed.

“Don’t take any old junk that’s circulating on social media,” Brown said.

“You’ve got to go to reputable news organizations who care about getting it right and have incredible standards in their reporting. You don’t want to go to something that may have its own agen-

EMILIO MORENATTI | AP NEWSROOM

People lie in the Kyiv subway, using it as a bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 24.

da, or its own political point of view that is promoted there. It’s more important than ever to go to reputable, trustworthy news outlets.”

In the op-ed I wrote last week, I acknowledged that even the most reputable news outlets have writers with their own agendas, many of whom have financial ties to the defense industry.

That’s why it’s important to not only pay attention to who is publishing stories about this conflict, but who is writing them, too.

It’s not easy to follow all this. But we need to try our best. We owe it to the people of Ukraine, to ourselves and to democracy.

“You can’t take democracy for granted,” he said. “So when you see something like this happen, when a country like Ukraine that wasn’t threatening anybody, gets attacked by an authoritarian state like Russia, it could be just one more little [vulnerability] that could eventually weaken our democracy.”

The war in Ukraine has already been devastating for those who live there. We may be far removed from the conflict geographically, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect us. It’s important for us to stay informed, as the global implications of the Russian invasion are dire.

The opinions in this section do not necessarially reflect those of The DePaulia staff.

13 | Opinions. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022

Column: DePaul should end its mask mandates in classrooms

By Dace Potas Contributing Writer

DePaul University has announced that they will roll back Covid-19 mandates for masking on campus. This decision comes just days after the City of Chicago lifted its own citywide mask and vaccine mandates.

In an update to Campus Covid-19 guidance, DePaul officials said that “To avoid disruption, DePaul will continue to require masks in classrooms and labs at least until the end of winter quarter, Sunday, March 20. Outside of these spaces, beginning Feb. 28, masks will be recommended, but not required.”

For too long the choice of whether or not to get vaccinated, wear a mask or attend class in person has been shifted from students to the administration. I praise DePaul for finally returning the choice of how to best protect yourself back to the students, and hope that they will take the next step in removing mask mandates from the classroom for next term.

City of Chicago data shows the seven-day rolling averages for new Covid-19 cases, positivity rate and hospitalizations are all at their lowest since last summer. For Chicagoans between the ages of 18 and 29, which is representative of the vast majority of our student body, there has only been one hospitalization and there have been no deaths in the past week.

This is no longer an emergency, and certainly not one for college students.

Omicron, and Covid-19 in general, never posed a threat to our student population in the first place. The risk of death and serious illness is almost non-existent in the age range that encapsulates nearly all of DePaul’s student body. The severity of the omicron variant, with regards to both hospitalization and deaths, is far lower than previous waves across the board.

Throughout the pandemic, DePaul has

frequently cited public health guidance coming from the City of Chicago as the justification for them to impose new restrictions on students. To not lift those same restrictions in accordance with the new public health guidance would be an illogical misstep.

Maybe surprising to some, I actually fully understand the decision to delay the unmasking within classrooms until the end of this term. Students who signed up under the impression that others would be masked should not suddenly have to reassess their situation and determine whether or not they want to learn in person or online. Individuals should be given the opportunity to make an informed decision about their health at the end of the term.

What I am calling for is not a ban on students wearing masks. If students wish to continue to wear KN95s to protect themselves from contracting Covid-19, they are more than welcome to do so. My plea is that students who do not want to wear a mask in class are no longer required to.

The rebuttal I will receive to this argument is that masks protect others, not just yourself. People who are concerned with the risk of catching Covid-19, long-term effects or serious illness all have the freedom to not attend class in person. Staying at home and learning via Zoom will ensure you do not contract Covid-19 on campus. I am exhausted of individuals expecting others to mask in order to protect you. The default position for normalcy is for us to be maskless; it is time for individuals who are so held up on continuing pandemic fear to be the ones who bear the consequences.

The only person responsible for making decisions about your health is you. If you are still scared of the minuscule chance that you will have a serious case of Covid-19, you are more than welcome to pursue an online

EMILY SOTO | THE DEPAULIA

DePaul stands walk out of the elevator in the Daley building in the Loop camous.

degree.

Even more frustrating is the continued implementation of vaccine mandates. Due to our vaccines’ ability to reduce symptomatic cases they do have an indirect effect on reducing transmission, but not enough of one to justify a community interest in the vaccination statuses of others. In the midst of the delta wave, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said that “with regard to severe illness and death — [vaccines] prevent it. But what they can’t do anymore is prevent transmission.” There is no justification for vaccine mandates now that we understand they do not stop the spread — it is simply an encroachment on personal medical autonomy by our university.

After over two years of masks being

commonplace in the city and on our campus, I urge DePaul to finally return to our normal way of life. Some people seem to have become complacent with masking as a part of life. I, personally, miss seeing the faces of my professors and fellow students in class. Every step we have taken throughout the pandemic should have been done with the goal of returning to normal, and now is the time to take that final step.

The continued masking and forced vaccination of our students are outdated relics of a time in which we lacked a true understanding of Covid-19 and how to live with it. Now that we as a nation are taking an endemic approach to Covid-19, it is time that we rid ourselves of policies that limit individual choice.

The DePaulia’s Hot Takes

By DePaulia Staff

It’s been awhile since the staff at The DePaulia blessed you all with our lukewarm opinions. We hope you enjoy these objectively correct views from our editors.

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Iced coffee works all year round.

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-Lawrence K., Managin g Editor

14 | Focus. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022

Focus

MISSING

DEPAUL’S LACK OF FACULTY DIVERSITY AFFECTS ST HISTORICAL BLACK ROLE IDA B. WELLS Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a journalist, activist and researcher in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In her lifetime she battled sexism, racism and violence by using her writing to shed light on the conditions of African Americans throughout the South.

ANNA DEVERE SMITH Anna Deavere Smith is an actress, playwright, teacher, and author. Her recent original work, Notes from the Field, looks at the vulnerability of youth, the criminal justice system, and contemporary activism.

NATIONAL WOMEN’S HISTORY MUSEUM | SOURCE

By Salvador Salazar Contributing Writer

Self-love, perseverance and encouragement: these are the qualities many female Black students at DePaul learned through their Black role models.

These characteristics were taught in several ways. Some were learned directly from a parent’s words or actions, while others were taught by the influence of celebrities, adults and older friends.

For junior Vilencia Franklin, her role model is her mother.

“She is hardworking, strong, and did not let being a teen mom or even having a rare disease stop her from obtaining her education and career goals,” Franklin said. “I find that very inspiring.”

Franklin said her mother had exemplary resilience, especially when she was raising Franklin and her two siblings.

“Having three kids in her early 20s was not easy,” Franklin said. “[My mother] managed to raise [me and] my brothers while getting her education and pursuing a job in her desired career path.

Black attorneys are rare, but my mom did not let that stop her. She has been a senior paralegal for some time, but now, at 36 years old, she has decided it is not too late to pursue the career she wanted.”

Franklin’s signature role model is television writer, director and actor Issa Rae who, according to Franklin, normalized a formerly unseen aspect of the Black female experience through her characters’ speech and through how they navigate their emotional journeys.

“Issa Rae shows the normalization of finding yourself and being able to make mistakes,” Franklin said. “[She is] humanizing herself and Black women,

KIERSTEN RIEDFORD | THE DEPAULIA

A picture of freshman Gylani Oliver and her mother sits on Oliver’s desk with a book titled “Women, Race and Class” by Angela Davis.

I have had professors that made me doubt my intellect. [They] gave me no chance to show them my capabilities as a student, and in most of those cases, being the only Black student, I felt the lack of support and belief in me was racially motivated.

Junior Vilencia Franklin which happens very rarely, especially in the media.”

Franklin said she hopes to continue to use her role models’ examples in her career as a teacher. She said teaching can help her instill goals of global citizenship to her future students. Eventually, she hopes to work as either a school administrator or member of a district school board.

Franklin is not alone in seeing her mother as a role model. Freshman Gylani Oliver said her mother has been a profound influence in her life as well.

“She is a strong and determined woman that maintains her kindness and understanding,” Oliver said. “She got through college while still raising me, she hustled and worked to ensure me and my sister have a good life. I love my mom.”

Oliver also looks to African American political activist Angela Davis and African American educator and journalist Ida B. Wells as role models in her life.

For Oliver, all three women have given her confidence and appreciation for her intersecting identity.

“I am both a woman and a Black person, and I should not be ashamed of either,” Oliver said.

Oliver said she believes it is important to learn from the lessons taught by previous generations.

“You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink,” Oliver said.

“All [of] these women have so many life lessons that we can ‘drink’ but we the ‘horses’ cannot be forced to learn the lessons. It is up to the person to learn it and absorb it.”

Sophomore Gina Montalvo said she admires the crafts from her role models. She said she looks up to jazz icon Billie Holiday, playwright and actor Anna Deavere Smith and her friend Kennedy Freeman, a sophomore at American Academy of Art, who produced her own coloring book.

Montalvo said the work of people like Deavere Smith shows how Black people can give an entirely new point of view to different media like film and plays.

“Her work through documentary-style theater, specifically ‘Twilight: Los

Freshman Gylani Oliver sits in her room reading Angeles,’ is breathtaking,” Montalvo said. “[Deavere Smith’s] work not only tells another person’s real story, but also embodies the people she interviews in a way that provides perspective and empathy.”

Montalvo said she recognizes someone’s ability to empower others, as Deavere Smith does, as a valuable attribute to her own identity and her personal calling in life.

“Many of my Black role models have done incredible things with their lives,” Montalvo said. “Coming from poverty and dealing with colorism, two things I have never faced. It is a reminder to use my resources and not only work on my dreams, but to help others work towards theirs.”

Focus. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022 | 15

MODELS

TUDENTS OF COLOR LOOKING FOR ROLE MODELS FULL-TIME FACULTY

10

total multiracial fulltime faculty members.

54

total Asian full-time faculty members.

58

total Hispanic fulltime faculty members.

59

total African American full-time faculty members.

61

total nonresident fulltime faculty members.

KIERSTEN RIEDFORD | THE DEPAULIA

g the book “Women, Race and Class” by Angela Davis, who is one of Oliver’s role models.

Though these role models have been recognized, there is no denying that these students have had to go through either being taught history involving these role models or search within their own households to find them.

Christina Steed, a Black adjunct professor and communications expert at DePaul, tells a story of representation in her first agency internship when she saw herself reflected in a Black female supervisor.

“We often think people must be celebrities to be worthy of our admiration, but we have people in our families and in our communities who are doing important things to be modeled,” Steed said.

But, the desire to find role models in the

DePaul community comes with the challenge of finding professors and faculty who are able to be looked up to. Franklin mentioned she wants to have a connection to Black professors at DePaul, but said she has not had any professors who are people of color. So, this begs the question: is DePaul doing everything in its power to give students like Franklin, Oliver and Montalvo support and mentorship?

According to Franklin, the answer is no.

“I have had professors that made me doubt my intellect,” Franklin said. “[They] gave me no chance to show them my capabilities as a student, and in most of those cases, being the only Black student, I felt the lack of support and belief in me was racially motivated. So, it is im-

portant that the educators are educated in not putting us in a box and doubting us or our work.”

Though Franklin said she hopes this will someday change she said she has not been able to build many close relationships with Black faculty members. She said this could be because there are not many Black professors at DePaul.

“I have not had any connections with faculty who are [people of color at DePaul] so I cannot say I have met any influential faculty members of color since my being here at DePaul,” Franklin said.

“But I hope that will change before I graduate.”

Kiersten Riedford contributed to this story.

98

total unknown fulltime faculty members.

520

total white full-time faculty members.

DEPAUL INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH & MARKET ANALYTICS | SOURCE

16 | La DePaulia. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022

LaMes DePaulia de la Historia Afroamericana

Afrolatinas destacan la complejidad de sus raíces

By Jacqueline Cardenas Escritora, La DePaulia

La primera vez que Ariana Collazo, una estudiante de tercer año en la Universidad DePaul, escuchó hablar de una persona afrolatina en la escuela fue el año pasado, durante su clase afrocaribeña, cuando la novelista haitiano-estadounidense Edwidge Danticat vino a hablar a su clase.

“Escuchar su historia fue realmente inspirador y nunca la olvidaré”, dijo Collazo.

Collazo dijo que se sintió conectada con la experiencia de la autora de ser condenada a esconderse y la forma en que sus compañeros de clase la trataban de manera diferente al descubrir su entorno puertorriqueño y afroamericano.

Collazo dijo que recuerda que los niños de la escuela primaria se burlaban de ella cuando descubrieron que su madre era afroamericana.

“Por supuesto, al no hablar español, siempre decían ‘¿Cómo es que eres puertorriqueña de verdad si ni siquiera puedes hablar español y tu madre es afroamericana?’ dijo Collazo.

Aunque en los Estados Unidos el cinco por ciento de la población se identifica como afrolatina, según 2019 Pew Research. Hay alrededor de 150 millones de afrolatinos en la población total de 540 millones de América Latina según un Informe SRC. Las historias de las afrolatinas se han borrado en gran medida de los discursos educativos, dejando que las personas aprendan por sí mismas y se enfrenten a las repercusiones de no verse representadas.

La invisibilidad de los afrolatinos en el discurso popular y los medios, lleva a muchos jóvenes a luchar con la validez de su identidad étnica.

La Dra. Jacqueline Lazú, decana asociada y profesora de la Universidad Depaul, dijo: “No tener tus narrativas centradas en ninguna tradición histórica, tradición cultural a la que perteneces te hace sentir excluida. Te hace sentir que no eres digna, te hace sentir que tu experiencia,

tu historia y quién eres no importa”.

La comunidad también tiene ideas racistas que hacen que los afrolatinos sientan que deben favorecer sus raíces latinas en lugar de sus raíces negras para evitar prejuicios, algo común si tienen la piel más clara.

Michelle Bueno Vásquez, candidata a doctorado en la Universidad Northwestern, que estudia ciencias políticas y la diáspora afrolatina transnacional, dijo: “para algunas personas, eso es algo difícil de tener en cuenta, se exponen al daño racista, inconscientemente algunas personas simplemente no quieren ir allí, prefieren no identificarse con sus raíces negras”.

Según un estudio de la Universidad Estatal de Nueva York en Albany, los latinos que se identifican con sus raíces negras tienen ingresos más bajos, tasas de desempleo más altas, tasas de pobreza más altas, menos educación y menos oportunidades que aquellos que se identifican como “blancos” u “otros”.

Bueno Vásquez dijo que la movilización de las organizaciones políticas latinas ha alentado a muchos afrolatinos a identificarse con latinos en vez de con sus raíces negras para obtener más fondos del gobierno.

Este comportamiento táctico conduce a la esencialización del movimiento minoritario, cuando los movimientos minoritarios establecen características culturales o biológicas que comparten todos los miembros para crear una categoría unificada que beneficia a la mayoría dentro de la minoría.

“Deja a personas como yo, afro-latinos o latinos indígenas, o latinos que no hablan español como brasileños, haitianos y no proporciona nuestra seguridad, nuestra inclusión y nuestros beneficios, y utiliza fondos que esencialmente les ayudamos a obtener”, dijo Bueno Vásquez.

Los afrolatinos niegan su raíces negras: “también significa que tienes que negar partes de ti misma y probablemente encuentres muchas microagresiones por estar en esos espacios”, dijo Bueno Vásquez.

Además, Bueno Vásquez y Collazo

FOTO CORTESIA DE ARIANA COLLAZO

Ariana Collazo frente a secundaria Lane Tech.

GRÁFICO JOCELYN DIAZ | LA DEPAULIA

entre encontraban se las muchas mujeres afrolatinas que experimentaron baja autoestima en su juventud.

Bueno Vásquez recuerda que alrededor de los nueve o diez años: “le rezaba a Dios para que me despertara más liviana y con el pelo más lacio y los ojos verdes”, mientras que Collazo dijo que recuerda haber pensado que era fea.

Bueno Vásquez dijo que educar a las niñas sobre historias afrolatinas y verlas en los medios de comunicación a una edad temprana puede ser beneficioso porque puede ayudar a superar el período de autodesprecio y modestia por el que pasan muchas.

Bueno Vásquez aconseja a la gente a reconocer el racismo interiorizado que todos tenemos en cuanto a la apariencia propia y de los demás.

Ella preguntó por qué uno puede encontrar ciertas cualidades atractivas pues

“cuando pensamos en la atracción o el gusto sexual, muchas veces es la reproducción de jerarquías racistas aprendidas y cosas que creemos que otorgan privilegios”.

Lazú dijo que el problema radica en los estándares de belleza occidentalizados dominantes que América Latina y Estados Unidos han construido para proyectar deliberadamente una imagen negativa de las personas de piel oscura.

Lazú dijo que las afrolatinas deben estar “dispuestas a comprender y cambiar las formas en que podemos ser cómplices, incluso sin darnos cuenta, de reforzar esos estándares de belleza y sistemas de opresión. Deberíamos exigir representación y abogar por la inclusión de mujeres negras e indígenas en los espacios que nos faltan”.

Para obtener más información sobre cómo promover la visibilidad de la cultura afrolatina, visite el sitio web de Foro Afro Latino en línea.

FOTO CORTESIA DE MICHELLE BUENO VASQUEZ

Michelle Bueno Vasquez en Las Terrenas, República Dominicana.

La DePaulia. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022 | 17

Nueva organización estudiantil, MESA, espera brindar un espacio inclusivo para los estudiantes latinos de DePaul

By Erika Pérez Gerente Editorial, La DePaulia

La organización estudiantil, Movimiento Estudiantil de Solidaridad y Apoyo (MESA), realizó su primer evento del año el viernes por la tarde en el Centro Cultural Latinx.

Los estudiantes jugaron un par de rondas de lotería mientras aprendían sobre el trabajo de MESA. La misión de MESA es “responder al llamado de lo que se debe hacer no solo dentro de la comunidad Latinx de DePaul sino también en el área metropolitana de Chicago”.

Al facilitar eventos a lo largo del año escolar, esperan brindar recursos sociales, académicos profesionales y de salud mental al mismo tiempo que enfatizan sus lazos culturales.

Emily Vallejo, presidenta de MESA, dijo que como presidenta estaba un poco nerviosa por su primer evento oficial.

“Realmente quería que tuviéramos una buena primera impresión”, dijo Vallejo.

La asistencia al primer evento de MESA fue de unos 20 estudiantes. Era más de lo que esperaban.

“Fue realmente gratificante ver a todos comunicarse entre sí, ese era el objetivo del evento”, dijo María Martínez, presidenta del Comité Social y Académico de MESA. La junta directiva de MESA está conformada por nueve miembros. Vallejo está impulsando el trabajo de justicia social en MESA y otros miembros de la junta también tienen otras ideas en mente. Algunas incluyen alcance profesional y académico

FOTO CORTESIA DE ERIKA PÉREZ | LA DEPAULIA

Mesa, conocido como el Movimiento Estudiantil de Solidaridad y Apoyo, tuvieron su primera reunión el 25 de febrero. para estudiantes latinos en DePaul.

Los miembros de la junta cuentan con el apoyo de Mariela Aranda, quien es la asesora de la facultad de MESA. La idea de MESA surgió cuando Vallejo y Evelyn Barrios, copresidenta, se reunieron y conversaron con otros estudiantes sobre crear un espacio para estudiantes latinos en DePaul.

“Nuestra primera sesión fue genial, intercambiamos las ideas de los demás.

La conversación realmente nos impulsó a continuar con la planificación de MESA”, dijo Martínez.

Francisco Patiño, presidente del Comité de Cultura y Comunidad de MESA, dice que el club “nació del deseo de estar juntos”.

“Nosotros [los estudiantes latinos] nos vemos en clase pero no nos vemos fuera de clase. Uno, porque no hay espacio para nosotros, ¿adónde vamos?”, dijo Patiño.

“Creamos este espacio para que pudiéramos

estar juntos y compartirlo con otros estudiantes”.

Vallejo dice que el Centro Cultural Latinx ya se ha creado para colaborar. Otros eventos futuros incluyen hacer actividades con la comunidad, como ser voluntario o tener una noche de cine.

“Estamos pensando en enviar encuestas para tener una idea de lo que le gustaría a la gente”, dijo Vallejo.

Hasta entonces, los estudiantes que estuvieron presentes se divirtieron mucho en el primer evento de MESA. Están emocionados por lo que está por venir.

“Estoy emocionada de ver el potencial de la organización porque sé que a veces uno se puede sentir aislado en las clases, especialmente en DePaul en general”, dijo Lila Nambo, estudiante de segundo año en DePaul. “Realmente lo aprecio”.

Fiorella O’Connor, estudiante de primer año en DePaul, sintió que MESA creó un espacio “muy inclusivo y acogedor”.

“Es realmente genial encontrar personas que se identifiquen contigo y hayan pasado por las experiencias que tuviste”, dijo O’Connor.

Para otros estudiantes como Annette Macias, estudiante de primer año en DePaul, MESA les brinda la oportunidad de conectarse con sus raíces y hacer nuevos amigos.

“He estado buscando una organización que involucre a la comunidad latinx porque no he visto muchas organizaciones sobre la comunidad latinx”, dijo Macias. “Me apasiona mucho participar en mi comunidad”.

Grafitero de La Villita utiliza su arte para promover positividad en su comunidad

FOTO CORTESÍA DE FERNANDO RUIZ

Obra de arte diseñada por Clue.

By Andrea Juarez Hernandez Escritora, La DePaulia

Emmanuel Gomez, más conocido como Clue, ha estado creando arte desde una edad pequeña. Él ha vivido en el vecindario de La Villita la mayor parte de su vida. Su misión y objetivo es traer algo positivo a una comunidad que a menudo sufre con la violencia de armas y es vista como peligrosa.

FOTO CORTESÍA DE CLUE

Él artista Emmanuel Gomez, más conocido como Clue, posa con una obra de arte.

“Lo que me inspiró a seguir adelante [con mi arte] es todo lo que veo a mi alrededor, las dificultades de la gente, la violencia que me rodea, y siempre me he preguntado: ¿por qué?”

Esas preguntas y experiencias son lo que lo inclinó para crear arte.

Emmanuel comenzó a pintar graffiti a la edad de quince años. Continuó hasta la edad de diecisiete años cuando tomó su pasión en serio y decidió crear el personaje por lo que es conocido: Clue — Pista en Español.

La creación de Clue por parte de Emmanuel fue establecida en el programa Yollocalli — una iniciativa juvenil parte del Museo Nacional de Arte Mexicana. Él se unió a una clase de artistas callejeros y tenía a Sentrock como instructor — un artista muy reconocido en la ciudad de Chicago.

Clue admiraba la forma de arte de Sentrock y quería tener su propia imagen e identidad artística distinta.

“Cuando estaba haciendo graffiti, estaba etiquetando la palabra ‘Clue’ junto

con un signo de interrogación,” él dijo.

“Quería incorporar el símbolo en algún lugar de mi personaje. Fue entonces cuando decidí idear Clue y hacer que el signo de interrogación sea la característica única en su ojos.”

El arte de Clue es único y se puede encontrar en diferentes partes de la ciudad de Chicago. Si desea apoyar su arte, considere seguirlo por las redes sociales con su nombre de usuario @clue.chicago.

18 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022

Arts & Life

AMBER STOUTENBOROUGH | THE DEPAULIA

Located at 3155 N Halsted Street, Chicago IL, 2D has it's grand opening on Tuesday, February 22nd at 2:22pm. The first 222 people got a free rainbow mochi donut.

Art-centric 2D grand opening on 2'sday

By Amber Stoutenborough Arts and Life Editor

A long line forms down the street counting down the seconds to hit 2:22 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 2. The new restaurant, rightly named 2D after its interior design style, is aligned to look right out of a black-and-white comic book.

The website describes the unique establishment as “The first hand-drawn monochrome 2-dimensional illusionary restaurant in USA.” The first 222 people waiting received a free Rainbow Pon de Ring donut in anticipation of the experience inside.

Belmont locals Julia Dillhoff and Kaleigh Brauns already visited 2D for the soft opening and stop by when randomly open in the beginning of Feb for their coffee break.

“We live like a block away so when it opened we saw it on TikTok and had to go,” Dillhoff said. “I love going to new local coffee shops around us and this is my new favorite.”

Brauns loves the coffee but she says the donuts are the main reason she comes back.

“It’s all mochi donuts and they are so delicious,” Brauns said. “They’re super moist and I get the creme brulee and strawberry latte.”

Dillhoff and Brauns described the inside as perfect for tourists and locals.

“It's super pretty, [and] feels like an art museum,” Brauns said. “We saw this girl doing a whole photo shoot, which it would be super cool for.”

In the pouring rain, the loyal customers still stand as they wait their turn to for a peek into Parisian drawings hand painted on the walls.

Among the crowd, Julie Zigman balances herself as she switches out of her loafers to a pair of platform pink stilettos

AMBER STOUTENBOROUGH | THE DEPAULIA

Julie Zigman, an instagram influencer @julie.zigman posing in the 2D bathtub. to match her extravagant outfit.

“You don’t wait in a line this long and not dress cute for photos,” Zigman said.

“I dressed all bright and colorful, contrasting the walls.”

Zigman plans and designs her own photos as a content creator for fashion and also was introduced to this new cafe on TikTok. With over 2,000 followers, she loves trying new places and showing her fans.

As the crowd makes their way in, the art begins before you even walk through the door, with designs of classic paintings comic styled into eating donuts and a full map of the interior inside describing how you order your food.

The menu is filled with an array of donuts each with fun names and wild flavors as well as a multitude of coffees for both the hot coffee lovers and the iced coffee fanatics.

The owners, married for seven years, Vanessa Thanh Vu and Kevin Yu, crafted the mochi donuts specifically to resem-

ble the beloved Japanese rice cake. Made with glutinous rice and tapioca starch to give it a bouncy texture, Mochi donuts are rising with popularity in the U.S. Greeting every customer as they walk in, the couple goes over the background of the store and the story behind the illusive drawings. After taking a step back from his previous job during the beginning of the pandemic, Kevin had the opportunity to start 2D. “The time gave us the opportunity to create something new and that's when we created the 2D Restaurant Group and Vanessa is really the heart and the brain behind the whole concept,” Kevin Yu said. “She's the one who thought of the whole thing and designed every single wall. She's really the soul and the heart, I'm just the pretty face.”

Kevin jokes, looking over at his wife, thanking customers as they enter.

“Vanessa is an interior designer,” he said.” She does a lot of sketches for hotels, restaurants and resorts and during the pandemic she mentioned to me about

creating a hand-drawn cafe. So she incorporated my love for comics and her sketches and we created the idea of 2D.” On top of the idea of hand-drawn sketches, they also wanted to include the idea of traveling for those unable to in the past year.

“We're wanting to bring our guests [on] a journey through Paris,” Kevin Yu said. “The architecture is built to size and the story of you at the balcony in Paris.

Then we have different tourist hotspots, like I said it took a little over four months for us to hand paint the entire space.”

The 2D restaurant is also partnering with Brave Space Alliance, the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ+ center located on the South Side of Chicago. They are donating their first-day profits to the organization in addition to accepting donations to the 222 donuts giveaway.

“Today, we're donating all of our proceeds to them, we're thankful we're also able to use this platform to bring awareness to them,” Vanessa Yu said. “They've done a lot of tremendous work through Covid supporting the community and we're just doing our part to support.”

The room bubbles with joy as people take photos next to the 2D bathtub filled with plastic bubbles.

Employees hustle around handing out the hand crafted donuts, and made-toorder Phin-style coffees. The crowd sings happy birthday as a girl receives a free donut in celebration.

“Everyone has the opportunity to find their inner child, and we're just grateful to be able to offer a space for that transformation experience,” Kevin said. “Overall, I just want everyone to come in and not worry about anything, forget about the past two years. In this comical world the only thing you need to worry about is how many photos you have to take.”

Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022 | 19

Love under neon lights

KIERSTEN RIEFORD | THE DEPAULIA

DePaul's Student Goverment Association(SGA) and Office of Student Involvment (OSI) worked together to put on Queer prom Friday Night at the Student Center.

Student Government Association hosts Queer Prom

By K iersten Rieford Focus Editor

In close quarters and glitter on nearly everyone’s eyelids, several couples dance against each other as single people form dance circles. Everyone starts to scream at the top of their lungs in excitement as a Nicki Minaj song starts to play. Soon enough, many students have their eyes closed, throwing their hands in the air to dance under the neon lights. They sing out the lyrics to every song while standing intensely close to their friends, strangers and lovers, smiling behind their masks.

DePaul’s Student Government Association (SGA) and Office of Student Involvement (OSI) worked together to put on Queer Prom Friday night. The event was open to the entire student body, with an emphasis on creating a safe space for those in the LGBTQ+ community.

The event brought in many people, creating a vastly diverse space. Riley Reed, senator for the LGBTQ+ community for SGA and senior, said there were more people and more diversity at the event than she anticipated, and she was glad to see everyone coming together.

“I think the amount of diversity we had in the room [and] the number of people that we had here for an event that’s still during Covid times was really great,” Reed said. “I think the most beautiful thing I noticed was how many different types of people were here and how people could just let loose and have fun, especially with a lot of the different laws we’ve seen being passed in Florida and Texas.

I think that was just really motivating to see all these amazing queer people coming out and celebrating themselves.”

Seniors Grace Golembiewski and Maddie Shooter said despite the diversity, there was no tension, everyone seemed to be having fun and enjoying the thrill of the night.

“It’s nice that we can all have an inclusive event that we can hang out at and feel safe at,” Shooter said. “I went to a public school [and] we had a really big prom.

People were everywhere and on top of me so it was nice to have a really safe and

inclusive space so we can all hang out together.”

Reed and Courtney James, director of student involvement and SGA advisor, coordinated the event. Reed said she wanted to host this event as she was pressured to not attend her high school prom because she wanted to go with someone of the same sex as her. “[There are] people who don’t have a space and don’t have a prom and don’t feel comfortable going to prom and I don’t want anyone to feel the way that I felt or other people have felt in the past so I really wanted to throw this so that people could enjoy it,” Reed said, “And people who are sophomores and freshmen were telling me they didn’t get a prom period because of Covid. So this is a great way to have prom and also have a safe space for queer people to celebrate prom.”

James said hosting an event like Queer Prom is not only important to make students know that they are important and matter, but to inform them that they are also accepted at DePaul despite it being a religious school.

“Supporting students is what we do, but, more importantly, queer prom is an important concept because it’s part of our students’ identity,” James said. “Especially at a place like DePaul that’s the nation’s largest Catholic school, one of my favorite things about our university is that when you walk into the Student Center, yes we have Father Egan on one side that says ‘What are you doing for justice?’ but when you walk through the other entrance you see our Catholic Campus Ministry office and then the [Office of Multicultural Student Success] with a pride flag and a Black Lives Matter sign. I think that’s really powerful,” Reed said she would like this event to become annual. She said she would like whoever takes her place as the senator for the LGBTQ+ community to continue this event to reinforce that DePaul is a safe place for students in the community.

KIERSTEN RIEFORD | THE DEPAULIA

Students set up ring light for selfies and group photos during the Queer Prom.

KIERSTEN RIEFORD | THE DEPAULIA

Dancing during the Queer prom, a student is shown happpily jumping around.

KIERSTEN RIEFORD | THE DEPAULIA

Posing in the classic prom photo, two students smile while taking a picture.

20 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022

'Arthur' memorable moments of the past 25 years

By Stephania Rodriguez Contributing Writer

The PBS Kids Series “Arthur” bid farewell to television last week with its 25th and final season, comprising of four episodes. The longest-running children’s television series, “Arthur” has been airing new episodes since 1996.

This show about an aardvark with glasses and his friends raised quite possibly the bulk of millennials and Gen Z-ers. Based on Marc Brown’s “Arthur Adventure” books, the animated education series is full of positive lessons aiming to teach viewers about learning to work with others despite coming from different backgrounds.

“Every day when you're walking down the street Everybody that you meet Has an original point of view.”

The “Arthur” theme song starts out with such simple lyrics, and yet no opening song can take millennials and Gen Z-ers through a time machine quite like it can. From the introductory drumroll that leads straight into a chill reggae beat to Ziggy Marley’s warm and inviting vocals, the theme song will remain locked in the hearts of many for years to come.

Am I the only one that did not know Bob Marley’s son was the voice behind this wonderful song, by the way?

The great news is that “Arthur” is not saying goodbye forever, just goodbye to television. Brown himself told Variety that the production team would like to explore the new avenues available today with advanced technology.

“Podcasts, and new games that we can invent; we want to continue doing

public service spots on PBS, maybe specials,” Brown said. “The door is open to us to try new things with PBS. It’s fun to solve new puzzles!”

It warms my heart that “Arthur” will still be around to positively impact more generations. With that being said, here are my top five most memorable episodes of “Arthur”: Season 3, Episode 11: Arthur’s Almost Live Not Real Music Festival To this day, I cannot walk into a library without the tune of “Having Fun isn’t Hard (When You’ve Got a Library Card)” creeping into my mind. Whether I’m browsing through the aisles of the history section, or sitting peacefully in a bean bag chair with my laptop, I realize Arthur and his friends were right. Also, did you know February is National Library Lovers Month?

Season 2, Episode 1: Arthur Meets Mister Rogers The cutest part of this special guest episode was the “A Word From Us Kids” intermission. Fred Rogers asks kids how they think “Arthur” animators were able to turn him into an animated character.

Answers included: Season 4, Episode 5: The Rat Who Came to Dinner Mr. Ratburn’s roof needs to be repaired after it collapses due to the weight of the snow. Arthur’s mother offers him a room to stay while it gets fixed. How would you feel if your third-grade teacher came to stay in your home? Best part: D.W. finds out teachers don’t live in school. “The world seemed so simple before this moment.”

Season 4, Episode 1: Arthur’s Big Hit

GRACESON KENNEDY | THE DEPAULIA

Of course this had to be included. In this episode, Arthur loses his cool and punches his little sister D.W. after she breaks his model plane. This episode bred one of the most viral memes of all time with a simple close-up of Arthur’s fist.

Season 8, Episode 10: Bleep Children’s shows with bleeped-out swear words can always stir up a good laugh. Yes, “Arthur” even touched the subject of swearing, we get the lesson at

the end that it’s bad, kids. The funniest part of this episode is the opening scenes with Arthur explaining bleeps in television shows behind the scenes in “The Altos” (parody show in Arthur universe for “The Sopranos”) Francine cursing out Arthur on the baseball field.

Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022 | 21

PHOTO FROM EMERSON STRING QUARTET WEBSITE

Pictured here: Paul Watkins, Eugene Drucker, Philip Setzer, and Lawrence Dutton. The ensemble played Chicago for the last time this week, as the group is set to retire in 2023.

Emerson String Quartet demonstrates artistic mastery

By Patrick Sloan-Turner Staff Writer

Witnessing true greatness in any art form is a rare experience. For some, bucket-list concerts might include The Rolling Stones at the Hollywood Bowl, Jay-Z playing Madison Square Garden or Lady Gaga at the Greek. But for fans of classical chamber music, a rare opportunity to see one of the supreme stringed ensembles of the past century occurred in Chicago on Friday.

For the final time, the Emerson String Quartet traveled to Chicago last week to play a concert at DePaul's Holtschneider Performance Center. Last year, the ensemble announced that they would be hanging it up in 2023 after a 46-year career.

Because of this, a rare air and feeling of historical importance filled the 505seat Mary Patricia Gannon Hall as the

Emerson Quartet played to Chicagoans and members of the DePaul community.

The group, which some critics have called "classical music's fab four," began with Mendelssohn String Quartet No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 12. A piece both palatable and entrancing for even the more casual consumer of the genre. Immediately, the quartet flexed its muscles and showed range.

Within the first few minutes, attendees understood they were in the same room as perhaps one of Earth's greatest living string quartets.

The Emerson String Quartet has won nine Grammy awards since its inception at Julliard in 1976. It was easy to understand why critics have shown nothing but acclaim for the group on Friday evening.

After hearty applause for the 23-minute concert opener, the quartet moved onto the playful and engaging Shostakovich String Quartet No. 9 in E-flat Major,

Op. 117. The piece's Moderato con moto effortlessly put the audience through a range of emotional consumption, striking feelings of suspense and heartbreak in this listener. Later, the piece's high-energy and pulsating Allegro sent the audience to intermission with a thrill.

Violinists and founding members Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer formed the group together at Julliard, and violist Lawrence Dutton joined a year later. The three have been playing together ever since, and the lineup has remained unchanged since 2013 when Paul Watkins replaced the group’s last cellist.

Even to the casual listener, it’s apparent how cohesive the musicians were as the four men played as though they’re one being, all existing on the same wavelength.

What would a classical string quartet concert be without Beethoven?

The concert concluded with Bee-

thoven's 45-minute String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132. As the quartet skillfully played the ranging and familiar piece, it became obvious why it was chosen for the closer, especially in the piece's Allegro appassionato finale. The swaying melodies interceded by syncopated rhythmic bounces from all four performers were awe-inspiring of both Beethoven's composition and the musicians' performance. After its conclusion, the audience met the performers with an overwhelming ovation as the event came to a close.

Concertgoers in attendance Friday indeed felt fortunate to get a chance to see the quartet in person. It was a display of artistic mastery and excellence that the DePaul community is lucky to have witnessed, especially as the Emerson String Quartet embarks on retirement next year.

Diving Techniques by Alicia Goluszka

22 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022

Instagram accidentally revealed the future of targeted advertising

By Jackson Coates Contributing Writer

It lasted for a fraction of a second. Most people probably never noticed. Who could blame them? But after clicking on the picture I had just posted on Instagram, a white screen with black text appeared for a fraction of a second. The text, unreadable at first, could only be deciphered by screen recording the website. Then, by going frame by frame, the text became readable.

“Photo by Jackson Coates on December 02, 2021. May be an image of Maltese and indoor.” This text is a product of a highly expensive and sophisticated algorithm. It’s known as an object recognition algorithm.

And it’s something Instagram doesn’t want you to know about.

Ian Gram, a sophomore at DePaul, was initially unaware of Instagram’s object recognition algorithm. In general, the idea of Instagram compiling personal information for monetary gain is something that frightens a majority of younger consumers. “But I think a lot of people my age who know what’s happening are really afraid of it,” Gram said. “To know that our information is being bought and sold and in some ways working against us.”

It first launched in 2015, but it wasn’t until 2018 that we saw a significant increase in sophistication in the algorithm.

On top of identifying figures in a photo, the software could now also analyze different objects and locations. Although it has been operating and storing user information since 2015, it wasn’t until Nov. 28, 2018 that Instagram publicly acknowledged the algorithm. However, the route that Instagram used to present their new software was the most interesting part of the press release.

“With more than 285 million people in the world with visual impairments, we know there are many people who could benefit from a more accessible Instagram,” an Instagram spokesperson said. “This feature uses object recognition technology to generate a description of photos for screen readers so you can hear a list of items that photos may contain as you browse the app.”

After releasing this information, Instagram was met with a warm response. Publications released articles describing the new

effort from Instagram as inclusive and progressive.

However, many believe this is not the true motivating factor for the object recognition algorithm. If anything, the inclusion of this is more of a benevolent byproduct rather than what the software was designed for.

“I really doubt that Instagram would spend the resources on that just to help the visually impaired,” Gram said. “As great as that is, there’s definitely other money making opportunities behind it that they see.”

Although Instagram may market this tool as a way to appear more inclusive to a marginalized community, nothing could be from further the case. Instagram wouldn’t put this much money and time into something they couldn’t monetize. And they know this. The key factor from the genesis of this algorithm has always been its potential on the future of targeted advertising.

Targeted advertising is more or less a gray area in marketing. Many consumers feel uncomfortable with having their information being sold to outside corporations. However, with social media sites there are very little profit opportunities outside of advertising. “In 2019, more than 98 percent of all Facebook revenue came from advertising,” said Ellen Simon, a journalist at Investopedia. Instagram similarly generated “$20 billion in advertising revenue.”

It is clear that both tech giants know the future of their company lies inside advertising. Even if consumers are wary about their information being sold, there is very little they can do about it. In today’s day and age, digital absence is something that

can seriously affect the individual. “There’s definitely a really scary part to it for me personally,” Gram said. “And the

tough thing is that not using social isn’t media really an option if you want to be social or even have a career sometimes.”

In just 6 years, the program has evolved from a rudimentary software to a highly complex and accurate system. With Instagram’s attention focused on the future of this program, it is no leap of the imagination to picture how complicated this

software will be in the next decade. Not only could the company know your basic information (race, age, ethnicity), but also it may know more specific details about the user. Do you have a dog? A mother?

A father? Are you healthy? Are you sick?

Although this should be a scary thought to the majority of Instagram users publicly uploading the details of their life to a conglomerate’s user index, it doesn’t seem as if this dissuades any potential user. DePaul communications professor Daniel Bashara recognizes this dynamic in the modern user.

“I don’t think the average user thinks about [their information being sold] often, if at all,” Bashara said. “We've shown time after time that we'll give up just about anything precious for free and convenient entertainment, and that's exactly why these companies are able to do this in the first place. I don't think we'll ever get social media companies to act differently while still allowing us to have the same experience; data collection is built into the model, and it's the entire reason the model exists.

It's on us to just stop using them, and that's hard for me to imagine happening.”

As much as people complain about the idea of corporations selling their information, it still doesn’t seem like it deters many users from the site in the first place. People often throw around the idea of corporations listening in on intimate conversations. But Instagram isn’t listening; it’s compiling.

Compiling all the information that you feed it.

And as your digital presence becomes necessary in the modern age, the idea of a company knowing everything about you is a very close reality. Whether this technology will be weaponized is left up to Instagram. But as it stands, it could possibly be the most lucrative digital development of modern advertising.

AMBER STOUTENBOROUGH | THE DEPAULIA

MAKE YOUR SUMMER COUNT. GET ONE STEP CLOSER TO GRADUATION. REGISTER FOR SCPS ONLINE CLASSES AT GO.DEPAUL.EDU/SCPSSUMMER.

What’s Fresh

“Uncharted”: Poor video game adaptation, exciting adventure-film

Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022 | 23

"Cyrano" : A sweeping and ambitious musical

PHOTO BY IMDB

PHOTO BY IMDB

Pictured here, Tom Holland as Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as Victor Sullivan.

By Sam Moilanen Staff Writer

For a treasure-hunting action film adapted from a video game, “Uncharted” is the perfect film for a casual moviegoer looking for their next Marvel obsession, but fans of the video game will be severely disappointed.

“Uncharted” successfully engrosses the viewer in an action-packed adventure film where you don’t have to be familiar with the video game to be invested in Tom Holland’s performance as lead character Nathan Drake. Although the film focuses entirely on the cinematic and complex stunts to bring the video game to life, the narrative aspects of the film are severely lacking as the audience is repeatedly subjected to watching Drake and treasure hunter, Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) engage in juvenile bickering before entering another fight scene.

One of the biggest issues with the film is its lack of character development.

In most action movies, the viewer learns why the villain is a villain, and why the hero is a hero, but in “Uncharted,” the only character that has a clear background story is Drake. The plot is centered on Drake and Sullivan’s race to beat corrupt billionaire Santiago Moncado and his hired mercenary, Jo Braddock, to the Magellan treasure, but throughout the film, the viewer never learns of Moncado or Braddock’s motives to find the gold other than the inferred answer — greed.

Particularly disappointing, Sullivan’s portrayal in the movie adaptation simply fell flat. As a lead character and pivotal part of the plot, Sullivan lacked growth and an identifiable backstory. In the video games, Sullivan takes Drake under his wing becoming a father figure, and teaches him how to be a proficient thief, contributing to Drake’s growth as an adventurer. Whereas, in the film, Drake actually teaches Sullivan how to be a better man, specifically seen when Drake says, “You told me money changes people. Makes them greedy and selfish.

But I think that’s just who you are.” Then, in the last scene, Sullivan chooses to save

Drake over the gold, ostensibly showing his growth. But, throughout the film, all we really learn about him is that he is a greedy, ambitious man who chose wealth over people repeatedly throughout his life.

The character development in a successful film franchise is imperative to developing a plot that evokes emotion, interest and viewer engagement with the storyline. But without developing the villain's background story, the viewer is left with less appreciation for the hero or a complete understanding of the plot.

When the audience is able to sympathize with the villain, they are much more likely to appreciate the hero. In “Uncharted,” Moncado is introduced as the obvious primary villain, but the viewer never learns why he is after the treasure or why he has an unsteady relationship with his father, who he then has killed over a disagreement. Then, if you thought that was random, his hired mercenary Braddock kills Moncado on his plane so she can take the treasure for herself.

Aside from having an obvious, bland storyline, the film had poor action scenes and unrealistic visuals for a movie with a $120 million budget. Unlike the video game, this film had fewer fight scenes and focused entirely on the chase for the fabled treasure from the Magellan expedition. Even when the characters did engage in hand-to-hand combat, the choreography was poor and relied on Holland’s stunting abilities to captivate the audience. Although the film successfully adapts the “Uncharted” games to the big screen by ensuring the storyline does not interfere with the stunt scenes, it was only mildly entertaining and disappointing to viewers looking for a thought-provoking experience.

The film is the ideal franchise to receive the blockbuster treatment, with its beloved lead actor, cinematic stunts and dramatic storyline, but there is nothing that differentiates it from adaptations “Indiana Jones” or “National Treasure.”

Overall, I found the film provided mind-numbing entertainment, but it wasn’t thought-provoking and was easily forgettable once you leave the theater.

Starring Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett and Kevin Harrison Jr., Cyrano is based on a screenwrite.

By Lauren Coates Contributing Writer

In an awards season chock full of musical-to-movie adaptations like “Dear Evan Hansen”, “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie”, and “Tick, Tick… Boom!”, Hollywood’s latest movie-musical “Cyrano”, stands apart from the crowd with its ambitious scope, swashbuckling theatrics, and grandiose atmosphere. While the film’s structure does lose focus (especially in the film’s final act) and some of the characters are frustratingly onenote, Peter Dinklage’s turn as the eponymous Cyrano makes Joe Wright’s film worth the watch, even if it’s not the strongest musical of the year.

Starring Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, and Kelvin Harrison Jr., “Cyrano” is based on screenwriter Erica Schmidt’s stage musical of the same name, which in turn was based on the classic 1897 play “Cyrano de Bergerac”. The film follows the titular hero Cyrano (Dinklage), a talented duelist in the french army with a remarkable gift for poetry.

Though unflinching and confident with both a sword and a pen, Cyrano’s physical deformities (in the original play, a large nose, but substituted here with Dinklage’s dwarfism) prevent him from chasing the one thing in life he truly wants - romance with his childhood best friend Roxanne (Bennett).

Just as Cyrano is building up the courage to confess his feelings to Roxanne, the situation is complicated when she falls head over heels for Christian de Neuvillette (Harrison Jr.), a new recruit under Cyrano’s command.

Though Christian undeniably handsome, he lacks the verbosity to properly woo Roxanne, so Cyrano agrees to pen romantic letters as Christian for Roxanne to read. Soon, she’s fallen in love with his words and wants to marry Christian, entirely unaware that the man she’s actually fallen for is her oldest friend.

“Cyrano” boasts a classically-inspired romantic narrative that feels almost fairytale-esque in its premise and structure: maybe it’s the decadence of the production design and costumes, but there’s an old-fashioned air to the film that gives it a levity and charm not usually inherent in so many of Hollywood’s recent musical adaptions. From its opening moments, “Cyrano” feels like a film that stands on its own integrity and not simply a

retelling of an already successful narrative which is ironic, considering its source material is perhaps the most frequently told and re-told of any movie-musical this year.

However, despite the initially strong concept of Roxanne falling in love with letters from Christian that are actually penned by Cyrano, the film struggles to manage its time properly and resolves their romantic entanglements rather quickly, after taking nearly an hour to establish all the players in the first place. What results is a strong first and, a jilted second act, and a finale that feels lost and meandering, unsure of how to resolve the narrative now that the main draw has been handled and wrapped up so quickly.

To the film’s credit, it goes against the mold in not simply allowing Cyrano to get the girl and for he and Roxanne to have a happily ever after - instead, both he and Christian are sent to the front at the behest of Roxanne’s villainous, uber-rich suitor De Guiche (Ben Mendhelson). There, they battle the harshness of the elements and the horrors of war, and the film’s last 20 minutes are a tragic, dreary recounting of the trauma they endured and how it stuck with all of the characters even years later.

Dinklage is without question the film’s greatest asset - his natural charm and charisma serve him well, and it’s easy to buy that his Cyrano is a mischievous and well-loved hero of the people, even if both he and some of the more close-minded. While his singing voice may not win him any Grammys, the sincerity with which he sings his numbers, coupled with his pitch-perfect dialogue delivery, make him a magnetic onscreen presence that injects unmistakable life into the film.

Outside of Dinklage’s turn, though, the rest of “Cyrano”’s cast struggles to keep pace with such a dazzling lead - Bennett’s Roxanne is a frustratingly dull and shallow heroine who’s difficult to root for at best and flat out unlikable at most.

Still, despite the shortcomings of the film’s pacing, the somewhat half-baked characters, and the disconnect between the quality of the dialogue. “Cyrano” still works as an ambitious, sweeping musical with a compelling lead and a decadent sense of aesthetics. Though not always as sharply written as it could be, Peter Dinklage’s performance makes this musical love triangle worth the price of admission.

24 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022

St.Vincent’s

D e JAMZ

“Spinning fresh beats since 1581”

By Amber Stoutenborough Arts and Life Editor

A two part DEJAMZ since there are so many good break up songs. The first week is focused primarily on the female rage after breakup. This includes some of my favorite Black artists for the last day of Black History Month. Female rage is usually considered a negative thing, but I want to display the importance of anger for women and the release it brings after a breakup.

I hate u -SZA One of my favorite artists in general but SZA embodies female rage. While there so many of her songs to pick from, her most recent single felt that it fit perfectly with DeJamz. “If you wonder if I hate you, I do.” never sounded better.

Ain’t shit - Doja Cat. This was an obvious pick for multiple reasons but specifically because of the chorus everyone shouts. “That’s not cheating if I wasn’t with your ass.” A guilty pleasure of mine even when completely single and have no reason to say it.

Truth hurts - Lizzo This was on repeat my freshman year when it came out. There wasn't a single college girl that didn’t have the whole song memorized and for good reason.

Even to this day I think it’s one of Lizzo’s best songs. “I just took a DNA test turns out I’m 100 percent that Bitch.”

Independent women pt. 1 - Destiny’s Child The classic of all the classic empowering women songs. Destiny’s child created the anthem of the century about

Crossword

Stay Sharp \ by Alejandro Arakelian

not needing any man. I remember my older sister always blasting this in the car and I’m sure this song shaped me to who I am today.

Lost ones - Ms. Lauryn Hill.

While not exactly about breakups, this song I feel is a strong example of female rage and the importance of knowing your worth no matter who you are with. Lauryn Hill really broke the world with this song and even as a 90’s throwback this song still holds against new breakup jams.

ACROSS 1 You can live and die by it?

6 "Working for the ___": Lead single from Mitski's latest album 11 Squabble 12 Neckwear for a dog 13 2008 Pixar robot 14 Less than obvious 16 Sneak a look 17 QB's scores 18 Cape Town's country: Abbr.

19 ____ a close: Finished 21 Cinco times dos 22 Big name in camping gear 23 Spanish "but" 24 SoCal cop force 28 Minecraft explosive 30 The Beatles' "Back in the ___" 31 Competent 32 Average Joes? 34 Thailand, formerly 35 Thighbones 38 Big name in ice cream 39 City council member: abbr. 40 Cats and dogs 42 Relationship warning sign 44 Virus that caused a scare in 2014 46 Valuable sports card 47 Dance version of a song, maybe 48 Gather wool from 49 Piece of grass

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WIKI

DOWN 1 Spotted 2 Tortilla sandwich 3 Stared at 4 Measuring stick 5 More profound 6 Organizing guru Marie 7 MLB semifinal 8 Not well 9 Devilish sprites of ancient folklore 10 Whiteboard wipers 12 State-of-the-art, or a hint for this puzzle's border answers.

15 Scooter brand 20 What water is, according to some 21 First part of a DePaul based IG account's username 24 Pointer a cat chases 25 Rule followers 26 Fun to play with not to eat!

27 Rep.'s opponent 29 Director Burton 33 Better than brilliant 35 Pizzazz 36 Insurgent 37 Leaf pore 39 ___-Seltzer 41 Lost traction 43 Friend's opposite 45 Body spray brand

Sports

Sports. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022 | 25

Competitive, driven: Doug Bruno’s career has him heading to Hall of Fame

By Lawrence Kreymer Editor-in-Chief

The outcome wasn’t in doubt. The final scoreline was going to show a dominating display from DePaul. There was little to play for in the fourth quarter.

Yet, DePaul women’s basketball head coach Doug Bruno is still imploring his team to play with the same intensity and efficiency that it did in the first half, when the score was still close.

Why? “There is no such thing as garbage time, there’s only getting better time,” Bruno said.

This isn’t about one specific game or one fourth quarter. This is how Doug Bruno coaches — all the time. It does not matter if his team is up by one point or up by 20 points in the fourth quarter. He doesn’t allow his team to take their foot of the gas.

It is a big reason why he has compiled nearly 800 victories, six Big East regular season crowns, five conference tournament championships and 24 NCAA Tournament appearances.

And in a couple of months, Bruno will get inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame alongside seven other people.

“I’m humbled, honored and appreciative,” he said. “But none of this would have happened without great bosses through the years, great assistant coaches and great players.”

Developing that level of competitiveness didn’t just come from nowhere. He credits his parents for instilling that into him.

“My mother was a marine and she was in World War II and was not allowed to fight, that created a really feisty woman to be around my whole life,” Bruno said.

“My dad was in World War II and was a very competitive athlete, as well as a track athlete in high school… but he also played minor league baseball after World War II. So, there’s great competitiveness on both sides of my parents.”

DePaul runs through Bruno’s blood.

He played for legendary men’s basketball head coach Ray Meyer in the ‘70s. He led the team in assists in 1971-72 and was a two-year starter. Combined with his parents’ and Meyer’s push for greatness, it helped Bruno become the women’s basketball head coach in 1976.

To get to this point and build a program that once had a streak of 17 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances requires a few intangibles: competitive, driven and striving for greatness.

All of those can be used to describe DePaul’s head coach.

It’s who Bruno is, though. His competitiveness doesn’t just come out during basketball games, it showcases itself also on the golf course.

“Off the court, Doug loves life,” Jill Pizzotti said. “When he can find the time, which this profession makes it tough, he enjoys golfing. Because Doug is very important, he takes that out in the golf course, too. His competitiveness doesn’t just stop at 94-by-50 on the basketball court.”

Pizzotti is in her 11th season as one of DePaul’s assistant coaches. But she first met Bruno when she was 12 years old during one of the Doug Bruno Basketball Camps.

“He was a big name in women’s basketball when I was at a real impres-

DONALD CROCKER | THE DEPAULIA

Doug Bruno was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame on Feb. 14. He has coached the Blue Demons for 36 years.

NATE BURLEYSON | THE DEPAULIA

Bruno pumps his first during DePaul’s exhibition game against Lewis in November. The Blue Demons won the game 104-65. sionable age and really loving the sport,” she said. “He’s always been a mentor for me.”

The basketball camp has seen over 80,000 athletes come through it and even some later playing for Bruno at DePaul, including current Chicago Sky guard Allie Quigley.

Growing the game of women’s basketball has always been vital for Bruno, which is why he spent decades coaching the camps himself.

DePaul guard Deja Church transferred to DePaul in 2019 from Michigan, but the connection between the program and Church started when she was still in high school.

“I’m pretty sure DePaul was like one of the top schools who were really on

me and although I didn’t choose to come here the first time, I did come the second time,” she said. “... But I think like the first time I stepped on campus, we all seeing each other for the first time, we just started laughing.”

But there is also a reason why DePaul plays a certain brand of basketball — a style that doesn’t fit the mold of how teams usually play.

The Blue Demons try to play with an up-tempo offense, space the floor, get out in transition and take as many open 3-pointers as possible — also known as “DePaulBall.” That style of play has helped DePaul rack up wins every season, but Bruno also hopes that it helps get more people to attend his team’s games.

This season, DePaul leads the nation

in points per game (88.3) and total assists (571).

The women’s basketball program is still trying to grow attendance as the team is in its first full year playing all home games at Wintrust Arena. DePaul is averaging 531 in real attendance at home games this year.

Winning is important and style of play is also important. Dee Bekelja is the longest-tenured DePaul player this season. As someone who has spent five years learning and playing in Bruno’s system, Bekelja is a fan of the freedom that he gives his players on the offensive end.

“He kind of tailors himself specifically to each team that there is that year,” she said. “There’s some years where the team needs more of a hands-on coach and there are some years where you can let the players kind of coach for you. I think he does a good job of balancing when he needs to be hands-on and when he can let the captions and elders of the team to kind of take control.”

As much as Bruno’s teams have won in his time at DePaul, there are still a few things this program has yet to accomplish: becoming a perennial top-10 team, making it to the Final Four and getting that elusive win over UConn.

In the short term, however, the Blue Demons are still fighting to make the NCAA Tournament after missing out last year. As of Sunday afternoon, DePaul is projected as one of the “First Four” teams out for the tournament, according to ESPN. “What motivates you to come work every day is the development of your players is No. 1,” he said. “But once you know you are working constructively and correctly to develop your athletes both on the court, in the classroom and as human beings, then the inner-competitive drive to take the program to its next level, that’s absolutely what we are trying to do.”

26 | Sports. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022 WINTRUST, continued from front page some level of the population that did like it or didn’t like it,” DePaul athletic director DeWayne Peevy said.

Real attendance, which is determined by the amount of tickets that were scanned at the arena, has hit a four-year low. This season, DePaul is averaging 1,804 in real attendance per game for men’s basketball games, which does not include the Blue Demons’ game against St. John’s on Sunday.

In the last three years when fans have been allowed into Wintrust Arena — with last season’s home games played behind closed doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic — the previous low for real attendance was at 2,045 per game during the 2018-19 season.

DePaul’s non-conference game against Loyola in December was the highest reported real attendance this year, with 5,352 tickets scanned at Wintrust Arena. No conference game this year has reported over 4,000 scanned in tickets.

Paid attendance, which is calculated through the amount of tickets printed, sold and distributed, is also lower this season — but there is a caveat. Unlike previous years where DePaul included the entire student section — 1500 tickets — into the calculation for paid attendance, the athletic department is no longer doing that this season.

This season, however, DePaul is only including the number of student tickets that were reserved, which draws the number of paid attendance down from previous years.

DePaul is averaging a little bit more than 3,000 in paid attendance this season, which is significantly lower than the 2018-19 season — 4,490.

DePaul averages the fewest number for paid attendance in the Big East this season, with several teams in the conference drawing more than 10,000 fans per game.

“I won’t say it’s frustrating, but it’s something that I always keep in my mind,” DePaul senior guard Javon Freeman-Liberty said. “We are struggling right now, but I feel like once we get over this hump we will be good. We have the supporters we always have there, plus new ones.”

Winning plays a vital role in drawing more fans to games. DePaul is 14-14 overall and 5-13 in the Big East. Since moving to Wintrust Arena, the Blue Demons are 10-25 in home games where fans have been allowed to attend.

“At the end of the day, the name of

NATE BURLEYSON | THE DEPAULIA

“The more you win, the more people come out. So, we got to put a winning product out on the floor.”

Tony Stubblefield

DePaul men’s basketball head coach the game is you got to win basketball games,” Stubblefield said. “The more you win, the more people come out. So, we got to put a winning product out on the floor. We got to win.

“If you win, people in Chicago will come out and support you.”

The pandemic has also not helped with attendance this year. In particular, group sales are down this season due to some tickets having to be refunded when the omicron variant started to surge in December.

Peevy also said that 54 percent of the people who bought or reserved a ticket ended up going to Wintrust Arena and having their ticket scanned this season.

The previous high was at 58 percent during the 2019-20 season, per Peevy.

“My goal is to get that to 70 [percent] to start working for that area,” Peevy said. “So, I’m not pleased with 54 [percent], but considering everything that’s been this year, when [2019-20] was

probably the most exciting season we’ve had in Wintrust because of the 12-1 stat, it makes me feel a little better about the percentage.”

Peevy also mentioned that DePaul had an 84 percent renewal rate for season tickets going back to the 2019-20 season.

The women’s basketball team is in its first full year playing at Wintrust Arena with fans in the stands. Before this year, the program split its home games between the McGrath-Phillips Arena and Wintrust Arena.

Doug Bruno’s team is averaging 537 in real attendance this season, according to numbers obtained by The DePaulia.

Logan Simois is a season-ticket holder and has been attending men’s basketball games since he was 5 years old. He says he wants to see DePaul continue to improve how Wintrust Arena looks and build up the atmosphere.

But the ultimate indicator for him to

improve attendance is simple: winning.

“They are going to have to do what we have always talked about — is the commitment there to go after Big Easttype players and win,” he said. “They have to compete for the top three spots [in the Big East] and they have to be in the NCAA Tournament.”

Patrick Sperry is also a lifelong DePaul fan and has graduated from the university two times. Besides putting out a winning product, he also remains disappointed in the parking and concessions at Wintrust Arena.

“The parking situation is too expensive,” he said. “The concessions are horrendously slow… but even in those situations where there is a sparse crowd, it’s sometimes really long to get food or drinks.”

As DePaul enters the final week of the regular season, Peevy is looking forward to growing attendance for next season. He mentioned that the athletic department only had a full marketing staff for men’s and women’s basketball since February due to departures a couple of months ago.

“I do think there’s things we can do to get into a point of trying to fill that lower bowl every night,” he said. “But to get to a point where you max out Wintrust, you got to play well.”

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Sports. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022 | 27 TRACK AND FIELD, continued from back page women’s 800-meter trials with a time of 2:10.37. It was a tight race, and Cashdollar’s endurance obtained her seventh place.

In the 200-meter dash, freshman Jetta Mays hit a PR with a massive push getting her a 24.82 time and sixth place. As for Walker, she reached second place with a PR of 24.12 seconds, leaving a massive gap between her and the rest of the athletes in her heat as she ran.

She was excited about her times in these trial races, but for her it’s bittersweet. She shared what doing track has taught her since her freshman year of high school.

“Making sure that you’re sticking to what your coaches tell you to do and making sure that you’re holding yourself accountable as student-athletes in general,” Walker said. “Make sure that you have that balance and stay focused.”

The men’s 200-meter dash trial was stacked with credible sprinters. It was a tight race, with Stanley placing fifth with a PR of 21.95, and Cole placing sixth with a PR of 22.01. The top three were Georgetown’s Joshua Paige and Butler’s Isaac Kane and Jacob Uhl. Rounding out the running events were the women’s and men’s Distance Medley Relays (DMR). The women’s team placed second with 11:27.76 time. While the men’s team placed sixth, it was with a time of 9:56.59 and placed a seed for that DMR men’s A team.

Day two was electrifying as DePaul started the meter events strong. With two top-five finishes, Armstrong completed a third-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.63, while Ingram finished fifth with a time of 8.76.

The men’s team had multiple top finishes within the same event. Colaire led DePaul to a second-place finish with a 7.92 time. His two teammates, freshman Darius Brown and sophomore Myles Marshall, rounded out the top five, with Brown finishing second (8.00) and Marshall finishing fifth (8.20).

Walker shined in her events, finishing third overall in the 400-meter dash with a 54.59 time and finishing second overall with a 23.73 time in the 200-meter dash.

Terry dominated in the 400-meter dash, finishing second with a 47.06 time, and Carroll won the 60-meter dash with a 7.52 time.

DePaul continued their dominance with the 60-meter dash thanks to Attucks winning the event with a 6.88 time while Marshall finished second with a time of 6.93 and Cole finished fourth with a 6.98 time.

In the field events, junior Jason Montano finished second with a 15.97 meter throw and Mulvey finished second in the same event for the women with a 14.23 meter throw for shot put. Senior Ben Litwin finished fourth with a 14.85 meter throw.

Representing the triple jump, junior Alicia Jones rounded out the top 10 with a 11.21 me-

MEN’S BASKETBALL, continued from back page while Jones assisted with 11 points of his own.

DePaul started the second half a little sloppy and St. John’s started to heat up. Within the first four minutes of the half, St. John’s made five of their last seven field goals, including four straight field goals. But DePaul responded by hitting four of their last five field goals prior to the 12-minute mark of the half.

Freeman-Liberty and Jones took over the second half. Jones continued to apply pressure, driving to the lane to finish around the basket and draw fouls to gain advantages at the free throw line. DePaul struggled to score in the later part of the second half, with only hitting one of their last eight field goals in the two-minute mark of the half. But Freeman-Liberty kept the team afloat, scoring timely baskets while graduate forward Brandon Johnson hit key free throws to seal the victory.

DePaul finished the game shooting 56 percent from the field and 38 percent from the 3-point line.

DONALD CROCKER | THE DEPAULIA

Kiersten Walker placed second in the 200m dash and third in the 400m dash.

DONALD CROCKER | THE DEPAULIA

The DePaul women’s track and field team placed third in the Big East Indoor Championships this past weekened in Chicago. ter jump.

Bernstein, freshman Tom Goggin and Litwin rounded out the top 10 in the weight throw with Bernstein leading the way, finishing second with a 18.33 meter throw.

In the distance events, junior Olivia Borowiak finished in the top 10 with a time of 9:36:77 for the 3000-meter run. Cashdollar finished fifth overall in the 800 meter with a time of 2:09:89.

DePaul saw the most success in the dash and relay events. In the 200-meter dash, Cole finished third overall with a 21.69 time.

The women championed the 4x400 meter relay with a 3:43:48 time. The group included Jade Pope, Cashdollar, Sonja Nagle and Walk“I thought the guys were locked in and focused,” head coach Tony Stubblefied said.

“They did a good job sharing the basketball.”

Stubblefield admitted to making changes at halftime because the team was giving up too many second chance points. However, the team held through defensively with 10 steals. The key to the team’s win occurred at the free throw line. Shooting 68 percent from the free-throw line, a lot of the key free throws were put together between Freeman-Liberty, Jones and Johnson in the final minutes of the game. “[Making free throws] is very important,” Freeman-Liberty said. “A lot of these past games came down to free throws that we missed. That’s all we’ve been focusing on in practice. Coming down this stretch, we made them.”

Freeman-Liberty scored 26 of his 39 points in the second half. He credits the team for his big performance.

“My teams and coaching staff trust me with the ball in my hands and to make plays, just be that senior leader out there,” Freeman-Liberty said. “I can’t thank them enough for having this great performance today.”

er.

Brown, Stanley, graduate Grant Fuller and Terry took home the silver with a 3:13:80 time in the same event. Sophomore Joe Knanishu, sophomore Damian Rodriguez, senior Michael Parry and senior Shane Knanishu took home the bronze in the 4x800 meter relay with a time of 7:26:46.

“Hosting the meet in Chicago and bringing the Big East championships here was a big deal,” head coach Dave Dopek said. “We wanted to have it in the Midwest for a while so that we can show that we can put on this caliber of a meet. For the team to show up on both days of the meet and the type of success that we had is a big deal, a sign of what is to come.”

Cole’s individual accolades became a testament to his journey to success.

“Preparation [for the events] was a long road,” Cole said. “I had three or four injuries in the offseason, so mentally trying to get over that, and physically just trying to get into top form for today. Everything came together and I’m glad about that.”

Walker finished her final indoor track season strong. She celebrated her finale with a bang, reflecting about her success.

“I have bittersweet feelings,” Walker said.

“I’m happy, I’m sad, but I ended on a great note. I am looking forward to outdoor [season]. I am so excited and happy. It is just the beginning and it means a lot.”

As Walker prepares for the outdoor season, she acknowledges the goals she wants to achieve to finish out her collegiate career.

“I want to make regionals, nationals and a 54 [second flat time] in the 400-meter run,” Walker said. “They are obtainable and I’m not worried. I’ve never been to nationals so this year I’m looking forward to that.”

For Dopek, the Big East Indoor Championships was the preparation they needed for the outdoor season.

“Our team is built for the outdoor season,” Dopek said. “It’s not built for indoors, but indoor is what we do to get us to where we ultimately need to be. We just got to put in the work and when we branch out to do the other events that are outdoor specific events, I have a strong feeling that this will springboard us into it.”

BEN ZEBROWSKI | THE DEPAULIA

Guard Javon Freeman-Liberty scored 39 points in their win over St. John’s on Feb. 27.

Sports

Sports. The DePaulia. Feb. 28, 2022 | 28

Track and field finish top-3 at Big East Indoor Championships Medal winners w Men -Cameron Attucks, 60m dash, 6.88 -Alex Bernstein, weight throw, 18.33m -Ashton Colaire, 60m hurdles, 7.92 -Myles Marshall, 60m dash, 6.93 -Jason Montano, shot put, 15.97m -Jarel Terry, 400m, 47.06 -4x400m, 3:13.80

BEN ZEBROWSKI | THE DEPAULIA

Cameron Attucks (right) placed first in the 60m dash with a time of 6.88 while Dominic Cole (left) placed fourth with a time of 6.96.

By Joshua M. Hicks and Jillian Muncaster Asst. Sports Editor and Contributing Writer

DePaul’s men’s track and field team finished second while the women finished third in their respective outings at the conference Indoor Championships on Friday and Saturday in Chicago.

In a stunning show of resilience and camaraderie, the DePaul Blue Demons took day one of the Big East Indoor Conference Championships by storm. It’s notorious that the high energy and intense nature of conference provokes personal records (PR), and DePaul University Track and Field athletes proved that true.

The women’s weight throw kicked off the events. Both sophomore Billie Martin and freshman Casey Mulvey reached the finals, ending in fifth and seventh place, respectively.

Mulvey PR’d with 16.83 meters. While she exhibited a 5-meter PR, this particular event was not her expertise.

“Today was just kind of like ‘go for it, have

fun’ because when I take things too seriously I overthink it, especially when it’s not my event,” Mulvey said.

She has been participating in the shotput and discus events since she was 8 years old, with this being her second meet ever throwing weight; in Ireland, they didn’t have weight or hammer throw.

Freshman Alex Bernstein placed second for weight throw for the men. Not only did he win silver, he achieved a PR with 18.33 meters.

Moving along with field events, junior Tori Carroll placed second in women’s long jump with a PR of 6.10 meters.

Along with the other preliminary trials, those who placed in the 60-meter hurdles advanced to day two of the indoor finals for the event on Saturday.

For the women’s hurdlers, that meant senior Dylan Armstrong in first with a PR and senior Isabel Ingram in third. Their times were 8.62 and 8.72 seconds, respectively. For the men’s, senior Ashton Colaire came in second, with a time 8.08 seconds.

The women’s 400-meter trials were a dazzling win for graduate student Kiersten Walk-

er. She placed third, with a PR time of 55.38 seconds.

“I get to the line, and I know exactly what I have to do,” Walker said. “I have to get out of my head and just execute my race and trust that my training is what brought me here.”

The men’s 400-meter trials proved just as fruitful, with junior Jarel Terry pushing up against the lead of his heat to place third in the event with a time of 48.27 seconds. Graduate student Michael Stanley reached a PR of 49.45 seconds.

Carroll was ready to dominate the 60-meter dash trials, coming in as the top seed in her heat. She placed third in the event, keeping a high 60-meter dash ranking within the Big East.

The men swept the 60-meter dash trials, with sophomore Cameron Attucks and freshman Dominic Cole placing second and third.

Attucks had an explosive push that got him a time of 6.91 seconds; Cole, not too far behind in time, dashed a 6.93.

Senior Lorie Cashdollar PR’d during the

See TRACK AND FIELD, page 27

-Darius Brown, 60m hurdles, 8.00 -Dominic Cole, 200m, 21.69 -4x800m, 7:26.46

Women -Tori Carroll, 60m, 7.52 -Women’s 4x400m, 3:43.48 -Tori Carroll, long jumo, 6.10m -Casey Mulvey, shot put, 14.23m -Kiersten Walker, 200m, 23.73 -DMR, 11:27.76 -Dylan Armstrong, 60m hurdles, 8.63 -Kiersten Walker, 400m, 54.59 DARCY WASKIEWICZ | THE DEPAULIA

Freeman-Liberty’s 39-point outburst surges DePaul to victory over St. John’s

By Joshua M. Hicks Asst. Sports Editor

Senior guard Javon Freeman-Liberty’s 39-point performance helped move the DePaul men’s basketball team forward after gaining a big conference win against St. John’s 99-94. The win brings the team to an even 14-14 record overall and a 5-13 conference record with two games left in the regular season.

DePaul started the game off strong.

Defensively, they played sound defense that led to transition baskets, creating less pressure on the half court game. Offensively, behind the early scoring of senior guard Javon Freeman-Liberty and sophomore forward David Jones (who returned from injury), they were able to match St. John’s fast-paced offense, while also handling their full-court pressure. At one point, DePaul hit six of eight field goals and four straight to mainatin their single digit lead.

DePaul continued putting the pressure on St. John’s on both ends of the

floor throughout the first half. The Redstorm struggled shooting from the field, being held to 40 percent from the field. They were also going through a two-minute scoring drought and only making one of their last eight field goals, with zero field goals being made over a three-minute stretch prior to the end of the half.

St. John’s struggled to guard DePaul offensively, especially when it came to senior forward Yor Anei. Anei stepped up for the Blue Demons, bringing energy on both ends of the floor through timely scoring and helpside defensive efforts.

The Blue Demons finished the half by hitting their last three field goals, adding to their already surging first half shooting and giving the team a six point lead heading into halftime. The team shot 57 percent from the field and 27 percent from the 3-point line. 26 of their 47 points came from the paint. Freeman-Liberty led the way with 13 points,

See MEN’S BASKETBALL, page 27

BEN ZEBROWSKI | THE DEPAULIA

DePaul senior guard Javon Freeman-Liberty scored a game-high 39 points in the team’s 99-94 win over St. John’s on Sunday at Wintrust Arena.