Since fourth grade, violin professor Brandi Berry Benson knew she wanted a career in music. Read our profile in Arts & Life, pages 16.
DePaulia
Love is a curious thing; we can all feel it, but nobody really understands it. Explore the dynamics of love in Focus, page 13-14.
The
Volume #104 | Issue #14 | Feb. 10, 2020 | depauliaonline.com
Little white lie
On a campus that promotes diversity, faculty demographics say different By Lacey Latch Print Managing Editor
A report released Wednesday indicates a staggering lack of diversity among fulltime faculty at DePaul, despite the university maintaining that it offers students a campus with diversity at all levels. DePaul uses diversity of students, staff and faculty as a recruiting tool to attract prospective students, using its location in Chicago as a way of supporting the claim – yet neither the faculty nor student body
reflect the demographics of the city. According to the Census Bureau, Chicago’s population is 30 percent black and 29 percent Hispanic compared to DePaul’s student body which the university reports is 9.2 percent black and 15.8 percent Hispanic. Of the 870 full-time faculty, black and Hispanic professors only comprise about 6 percent each of the total faculty, according to the Institutional Research and Market Analytics (IRMA) Faculty Database. “Diversity is a core value at DePaul and
has been since our founding … At DePaul we understand that a diverse workforce and educational environment is directly related to our success,” states the mission statement for the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity. The actual data on full-time faculty trends over the past decade indicates a failure to achieve that reality. The combined share of all full-time faculty at DePaul comprised of African American, Hispanic and Asian faculty members has remained unchanged, according to the report.
The report also looked at students and faculty of the same race finding that on average for each white full-time faculty, there are 21 white students, 36 black students per one black faculty, 37 for Asian faculty and a shocking 57 students for every one Hispanic faculty member. According to the report, “an upward trend of students of color per faculty of color ratio makes it increasingly more difficult to attain racial equity.” It concludes that “we are compelled by
Democratic debacle
See FACULTY COUNCIL, page 9
Men’s basketball is a joke Leitao is the punchline By Lawrence Kreymer Sports Editor
Commentary
XAVIER ORTEGA | THE DEPAULIA
Jay Willems, a volunteer at the Mt. Vernon South precinct at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa fuels up for a long night of caucusing Monday Feb. 3, 2020.
A messy Iowa caucus leaves more questions than answers By Bianca Cseke Online Managing Editor
The sounds of basketballs dribbling in the Mount Vernon High School gym fade as people trickle into the nearby cafeteria. The high school is one of Iowa’s 1,678 caucus precincts, at which attendees will help choose which presidential candidates will receive Iowa’s 41 state delegates. The precinct’s results would be made clear when attendees aligned themselves with candidates – or chose to remain uncommitted – and snippets of results from other precincts would pop up on Twitter throughout the night. It would be a long night waiting for results, but everyone would know before the morning. At least, that was the expectation. It took almost 24 hours for the first re-
sults, with 62 percent of precincts reporting, to be released. Final results still weren’t in nearly 48 hours after the caucuses ended; 92 percent of precincts had reported results at that point. The Associated Press eventually announced Feb. 6 that it could not declare a winner because the leading candidates, Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, were so close together. Buttigieg received 13 of the state’s delegates and Sanders 12; both declared themselves the victors, Buttigieg saying so before any results had been reported. Officials blamed the delay on coding issues with a new smartphone app, created by Shadow, Inc., that caused it to report out only partial data even though people were able to enter accurate results. Technology flaws were compounded by user error, as some precinct captains responsible for reporting results to the state party — many
of whom are senior citizens — struggled to navigate the software. As precinct captains abandoned the app to call in results manually, phone lines at the Iowa Democratic Party headquarters overloaded, delaying results further. Calling what had happened “unacceptable,” Troy Price, chair of the Iowa Democratic party, told reporters before the first set of results were announced Feb. 4 that the party “took the necessary steps” to ensure the data was accurate. He said this was done “out of an abundance of caution.” Despite circulating conspiracy theories, there is no concrete evidence the Iowa Democratic Party purposely withheld results, pushed any candidate’s campaign to victory or otherwise encouraged the chaos and uncertainty that followed the Iowa caucuses.
See IOWA, page 5
Albert Einstein is famously credited with coining the phrase, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Welcome to the world of DePaul men’s basketball, where the opponents change, the final scoreline is different, but each performance is a replica of the previous game. And without fail, the season ends in a familiar place: the bottom of the Big East. This season, however, there was real hope that the Blue Demons would escape from the cellar and emerge as a contender for the NCAA Tournament – which they haven’t participated in since 2004. DePaul jumped out to a 12-1 record in their non-conference games, knocking off Texas Tech, Iowa and Minnesota and rose all the way to No. 27 in the AP Poll in late December. The groundwork was laid by the Blue Demons to make a run for an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament, and all they needed to do was channel their non-conference success into conference play. The talent was there for DePaul to compete with the best Big East teams — and it still is. The head coach, however, is not in place for the Blue Demons to make any noise in such a deep conference. We’ve seen enough. Five years of disastrous basketball
See LEITAO, page 27
2 | News. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020
First Look The DePaulia is the official student-run newspaper of DePaul University and may not necessarily reflect the views of college administrators, faculty or staff. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | Shane René eic@depauliaonline.com MANAGING EDITOR | Lacey Latch managing@depauliaonline.com ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR | Bianca Cseke online@depauliaonline.com NEWS EDITOR | Mackenzie Murtaugh news@depauliaonline.com ASST. NEWS EDITOR | Patsy Newitt news@depauliaonline.com NATION & WORLD EDITOR | Cailey Gleeson nation@depauliaonline.com OPINIONS EDITOR | Emma Oxnevad opinion@depauliaonline.com FOCUS EDITOR | Rebecca Meluch focus@depauliaonline.com ARTS & LIFE EDITOR | Ella Lee artslife@depauliaonline.com ASST. ARTS & LIFE EDITOR | Keira Wingate artslife@depauliaonline.com SPORTS EDITOR | Lawrence Kreymer sports@depauliaonline.com ASST. SPORTS EDITOR | Nate Burleyson sports@depauliaonline.com
Interested in writing for The DePaulia? Contact our Editor-in-Chief, Shane Rene, to see your name in print and get real journalistic experience. Email eic@depauliaonline.com to get started.
THIS WEEK
Check out our campus crime database, Crime Watch. This map is updated on a weekly basis with data made available to The DePaulia from the City of Chicago data portal and DePaul’s Office of Crime Prevention.
Want to receive our newsletter? Go to depauliaonline.com to sign up and read our content online.
Monday - 2/10
Tuesday - 2/11
Wednesday - 2/12
Protect Yourself: Self-Defense Class
Collaboration – On the Edge of a New Paradigm?
Stay WoCC: Monthly Breakfast Series
Lewis Center
College of Education
12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Thursday - 2/13
Lewis Center 12 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Saturday - 2/15
Friday - 2/14
An Evening with Hanif Abdurraqib
Bon Appetit - Chinese Cuisine
Valentine’s Day Celebration
Student Center
Big Bowl, 247 E. Ontario St.
Student Center
6 p.m – 7 p.m.
1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
DESIGN EDITORS | Annalisa Baranowski, Gina Ricards design@depauliaonline.com PHOTO CHIEF | Xavier Ortega photo@depauliaonline.com MULTIMEDIA EDITOR | Hannah Mitchell multimedia@depauliaonline.com SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR | Emma Oxnevad social@depauliaonline.com
FOLLOW US:
facebook.com/TheDePaulia
twitter.com/TheDePaulia
thedepaulia
COPY EDITORS | Luke Myers, Ryan Gilroy copydesk@depauliaonline.com BUSINESS MANAGER | Kelsey Horvath business@depauliaonline.com ADVISOR | Marla Krause mkrause1@depaul.edu
RADIO DEPAUL CONTACT US depauliaonline.com
Chicago's College Connection
GENERAL PHONE (773) 325-2285 OFFICE HOURS Thursday: 6-8 p.m. Friday: 10-6 p.m. Sunday: 10-5 p.m.
NEWS TIPS news@depauliaonline.com
ADVERTISING business@depauliaonline.com
Listen in at radio.depaul.edu or on the Radio DePaul App
thedepaulia
News
News. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020 | 3
Big money, small race
PHOTO BY ZBIGNIEW BZDAK | THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Bill Conway, a candidate for Cook County state’s attorney, talks to the press in front of the Cook County Building in Chicago on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020.
State’s Attorney candidate Bill Conway talks wealth, corruption and his game plan By Joshua Kaufman Contributing Writer
According to the Federal Election Commision, 91% of the time the better funded campaign wins their election for public office. It is this reality that makes political campaigns dependent upon donations from individuals, groups, and PACs to effectively get their message to voters. Big money donors have exploited candidates’ need for campaign funding by donating generously, with the underlying assumption of receiving political favors in return if said candidate is elected. A few examples of this “pay to play” phenomenon include the NRA donating 1.2 million to Republican Senator Mitch McConell in return for inaction on any gun reform measures or when Citigroup Bank bundled $755 thousand to Obama’s 2008 campaign. The latter example, proven by a Wikileaks drop, shows the bank submitted a list to the Obama campaign of prefered cabinet appointees under an Obama administration. The list provided by Citigroup corresponds almost exactly to the eventual composition of Barack Obama’s cabinet. For those familiar with campaign financing, this corruptive system is nothing new. Yet, Bill Conway, Democratic candidate for Cook County state’s attorney, argues his billionaire donor bankrolling his campaign is just a father helping out his son. An adjunct professor of finance at DePaul’s business school, Conway announced his run for Cook County State’s Attorney on Aug. 8 — the first to announce a run against current State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. As a prosecutor, Conway made a name for himself by prosecuting high level corruption and financial crime cases, including the Chicago police officers who embezzled $1 million from the Chicago Sergeants Union in 2012.
Conway says his record as a prosecutor coupled with the financial backing of his billionaire father, makes him the only candidate who can enact what he calls a “public corruption reckoning.” “I am not going to owe anybody anything, other than the voters and people of Cook County. We are going to get after public corruption in this town like people have never seen,” said Conway. In my interview with Bill Conway, he reiterated that he would recuse himself from all matters relating to his billionaire father, William Conway, co-founder of The Carlyle Group, a private global investment firm with over $224 billion in assets. While The Carlyle Group themselves do not manufacture weapons nor contract directly with the U.S Department of Defense, companies the investment firm owns have done billions of dollars of business with the Pentagon. Despite Bill Conway’s assurance to recuse himself from all matters relating to his father’s firm, incumbent State’s Attorney Kim Foxx sees the mere appearance of duplicity as unethical. “[Bill Conway] has taken at least $1.7 million (now $4.8 million) from his billionaire father’s arms dealing empire that to this day is contributing to violence we’re seeing around the world,” Foxx told ABC Chicago. In 2016, Kim Foxx campaigned as a reformist and following her election she delivered on her promise to expunge those convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. Yet, many Cook County residents were dismayed by her refusal to prosecute former Empire T.V star, Jussie Smollett, for filing a false police report claiming he was the victim of a hate crime that never happened. Foxx is relying on support from Chicago Democratic insiders such as Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s PAC and union groups like the SEIU. Foxx also has many wealthy individual
“I am not going to owe anybody anything, other than the voters and people of Cook County. We are going to get after public corruption in this town like people have never seen.”
Bill Conway
Candidate for Cook County State’s Attorney and adjunct donors of her own, including her largest donor Fred Eychaner, a prominent Chicago philanthropist and founder of Newsweb Corporation, who so far has contributed $1 million to Foxx’s re-election campaign. Kim Foxx’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment by publication date. The massive influx of money in this race is due in part to a campaign finance regulation which lifts the cap on donations if a candidate self-funds more than $100 thousand (self-funding includes donations from the candidates immediate family). This rule is intended to level the playing field for non-wealthy candidates, who would otherwise be restricted to collecting a mere $5,600 from individual donors while their self-funded opponents could pour unlimited amounts into their own campaign. While Conway argues his family’s wealth makes him immune to the corrupting influence of money, Alisa Caplan, the Policy Director at Reform for Illinois, a nonprofit organization which addresses the role of money in politics, says it is not that simple. Even a well intentioned self-financed candidate “can lead to a fundamentally problematic system for a lot of reasons, in-
cluding that the interests and priorities of the wealthy can diverge from those of other segments of the public,” Caplan said. “But because they have the loudest bullhorn, you’ll still hear the most from them.” Jack Mulhern, a senior at DePaul studying political science, believes the self-financing loophole can be problematic simply from an optics perspective. “Sometimes a candidate who is self-funded is genuine in their politics and does not want to rely on the donations of a few wealthy individuals or groups,” Mulhern said. “There is some merit to this, but on the other hand it looks extremely antidemocratic and it allows for people to effectively buy an election.” With the Democratic primary election on March 17th, Cook County voters are tasked with differentiating between two self proclaimed anti-corruption candidates, both of whom are backrolled by wealthy donors. Kim Foxx by the Chicago establishment and Bill Conway by his billionaire father. With the millions of dollars being spent on this race, voters who are looking for a serious grassroots challenger to lead the nation’s second largest prosecutor’s office will have to wait at least another four years.
4 | News. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020
XAVIER ORTEGA | THE DEPAULIA
Supporters of Joe Biden listen as he speaks in Des Moines. Biden suffered a poor showing in Iowa, describing it a “gut punch” as he finished fourth or fifth in most districts.
Young voters weighed priorities before caucus By Emma Oxnevad & Lacey Latch Opinion Editor & Managing Editor
DES MOINES, IOWA — As voters prepared to caucus for their candidates last Monday night, voters young and old found themselves weighing their priorities, balancing their idea of electability with policy. Entering this election season, conventional wisdom assumed that young voters would align themselves with progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. But now, more moderate candidates have found support within that demographic. While the crowd for Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s “Get Out the Caucus” event on Sunday in Cedar Rapids was predominantly older supporters, there were some younger voters in the audience as well. “Last summer, [I was] volunteering for her and I’ve been keeping my eye on her and I remember sending her letters as a high schooler,” said Marin Dettweiler, a 24-year-old voter. “I’m from Minnesota, she’s the first [female] Senator from Minnesota and she’s been doing a lot of cool things and I just really like seeing her pushing through.” While Sen. Sanders is currently leading the polls leading up to the Iowa caucus, former VP Biden is close behind him, with former Mayor of South Bend, IN, Pete Buttigieg in third place. With a new generation of voters eligible for the election, finding their political voice is of utmost importance in the crowded Democratic race. “I feel like a lot of younger people are starting to get more political and finding their ways because we have the access to things for learning and finding our political views rather than following whatever we’re told online or from your parents or family,” said Ryan Brown, an 18-year-old voter
from Newberry, Ohio. When asked which candidates he was leaning towards, Brown said he was interested in Buttigieg. “[I] went to the Pete rally not too long ago and there’s something about his charisma towards changing what has been done to our country over the past four years that really stuck out to me, more than any other candidate,” he said. When speaking at a campaign event in Des Moines, Biden repeatedly compared himself directly to President Trump, referring to him as “the most callous son of a gun we’ve ever had as president.” While Biden was met with enthusiasm from his supporters, some in the crowd voiced their discontent at his use of funding from fossil fuel companies. While the handful of detractors were quickly drowned out by Biden’s supporters, it goes to show that Iowa voters are not quite unified for Biden. When speaking to young voters, authenticity seems to be at the forefront when considering which candidates to support. “I think a lot of people like how Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have repeatedly shown that they stand for what they say they stand for,” Brown said. “It’s not just a statement … They stand for it, they go out and protest, they try to change things to actually make a difference in what they stand for.” Young voters attending caucus events appeared to be giving electability a back seat to a vision for the future. “I think they’re more concerned with beating Trump than getting someone ideologically similar to them,” said Shannen Holbrook, 18, of Chatham, MA. “I think it’s 50/50. You can’t vote for someone who doesn’t represent you at all but you also can’t vote for a radicalist who will never get elected.”
XAVIER ORTEGA | THE DEPAULIA
Mount Vernon South caucus-goers talk strategy during realignment.
XAVIER ORTEGA | THE DEPAULIA
Uncommitted and Biden supporters at the Mount Vernon South caucus.
News. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020 | 5
Participants reflect on Iowa’s role in nomination process By Brita Hunegs Staff Writer
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA — A stadium packed with supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders hummed with energy on Saturday night in Iowa’s second largest city. It’s just two days before the first ballots for the 2020 election will be cast, and the Sanders team wants to galvanize support for Sanders before the precedent-setting caucuses get underway. The Iowa caucuses are a hotly anticipated show of a nominee’s vitality. Campaigns pour money, time and resources into swelling support in the state to lock in an early win that helps set the stage for the rest of the country’s votes. But Iowa’s population is 90.7% white, compared with the overall country, which is 76.5% white, according to the Census Bureau. This lack of diversity, so disproportionate to the country as a whole, is leading some to question whether it’s appropriate for the state to have so much latitude when it comes to determining the landscape of the presidential race. Taja Carrasco, 18, originally from the Chatham neighborhood in Chicago, is now a student at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. When she first matriculated, Carrasco says she felt like an outsider as a woman of color. Because of this, she doesn’t think Iowa should be so pivotal in the nominee selection process. However, the low saturation of people of color has made her more inclined to partake in this political enterprise. “Being here has pushed me to vote because people like me aren’t represented,” Carrasco said. “I never was supposed to vote because I grew up Jehovah’s Witness, but it pushed me out of that. I had to, to give a voice and to not be walked over by politicians and the government.” Ayan Ali drove 4.5 hours from St. Louis to canvas for Sanders. She’s a wom-
IOWA continued from front “Iowa wouldn’t benefit from fixing [the results],” said Ben Epstein, a professor of political communication at DePaul. That hasn’t stopped discussions about taking away Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status, whether or not the results matter, or faith in elections generally. As the first state in the nation to hold a caucus or primary each presidential election cycle, Iowa has been considered important for candidates’ momentum, endorsements and fundraising, as well as for giving the country its first glimpse into how the candidates will do with voters. Historically, winners of the Iowa caucuses have much higher chances of getting their party’s nomination, Epstein said. The results delay and ensuing chaos may have also helped the leading candidates, Buttigieg and Sanders. “Both have been able to downplay little nuances,” said Nick Kachiroubas, a professor of public service management at DePaul. For example, Sanders won the popular vote even though Buttigieg received more state delegate equivalents, which are similar to members of the electoral college at the national level. On the other hand, Buttigieg won in more counties than Sanders and also had more individuals switch to him in the second alignment than Sanders. However, seeing an election that has been played up as extremely important may have hurt some people’s faith in elections. “Even if you aren’t in Iowa, it causes you to go, ‘Well, if we can’t even get an
FRANCESCA MATHEWES | THE DEPAULIA
David Osterberg, Warren’s precinct captain for Mount Vernon North caucus. an of color and has issues with the process of the Iowa caucuses, but is willing to set them aside and work within the system for her candidate. “There isn’t anything we can do to change the system unless we can get Bernie elected,” she said. “If Bernie wins Iowa, the fact that it is a majority white state isn’t going to take the victory away from me.” Since 1972, Iowa has been the first state to voice their preferences in presidential election cycles. The caucuses are traditionally seen as a barometer for the rest of the primary campaign will turnout. Seven out of ten declared Caucus victors have gone on to score the Democratic party’s nomination. At the Sanders event, indie rock band, Vampire Weekend, played a set for the 3,000 audience members. The crowd cheered for other surrogates that spoke, including Sanders’ wife, Representatives, Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Pramila Jayapal, (D-WA), Mark Pocan election right…,” Kachiroubas said. “It can be enough for them to sit at home.” Many Sanders supporters in particular do not trust the Democratic Party to give their candidate a fair chance. Buttigieg’s campaign paid Shadow, the company that created the app that caused the results chaos, $42,500 for “software rights and subscriptions,” according to Politifact. The campaign had no role in the app used by the Iowa Democratic Party. Joe Biden and Kirsten Gillibrand, who has since dropped out of the race, also gave Shadow money. #MayorCheat, a play on Buttigieg’s nickname, Mayor Pete, began trending on Twitter soon after the caucuses due to the campaign’s ties to Shadow and because Buttigieg claimed victory before any of the results were officially reported. The Shadow app was rushed and wasn’t tested adequately, Epstein said. “Innovations are exciting but not always good or helpful,” he said. “Innovation is not always good for innovation’s sake.” Businesses, political parties and foreign powers all have interests in making sure technology benefits them, he continued. “A paper trail and trusting the results of an election should be the most important consideration,” he said. Nevada, the next state that will hold caucuses this election cycle on Feb. 22, has already abandoned plans to use an app similar to what Iowa had. Instead, the Nevada Democratic Party plans to use what it says “is not an app but should be thought of as a tool” preloaded onto iPads and distributed to precinct chairs, the Nevada Independent reported.
(D-WI) and activist Cornel West. Although the excitement seemed to wane until Sanders took the stage towards the end of the evening. Oyinbamola Oluwatimi, 30, trekked from Indiana to volunteer on behalf of Sanders. He too thinks the lack of diversity in Iowa should be a consideration in whether or not it remains the first to vote. He also believes Sanders is the best choice for black voters. “He is the black vote,” he said. “The policies he proposes will definitely uplift the black community,” Oluwatimi said, as Sanders took the stage for his stump speech. “Medicare for all, free education free public college, cancelling student debt are all things that plague the black community right now.” A day later and 25 miles south of the concert, in Coralville, Iowa, people lined up against rows of lockers in a local high school to enter the gymnasium where they heard Mayor Pete Buttigieg give his pitch for why they should throw their support behind him at the caucuses, and
XAVIER ORTEGA | THE DEPAULIA
Candidate Bernie Sanders. “We had already developed a series of backups and redundant reporting systems, and are currently evaluating the best path forward,” the party said in a statement Feb. 4. There are plenty of Iowa voters who seem fired up enough about the election to participate again in November, despite what happened last week. Many care about the Democratic nominee’s electability when he or she faces Donald Trump, but they also care deeply about issues that affect their lives and about the kind of people their candidates are. Juanita Andersen of Mount Vernon, Iowa, said she went to as many candidates’ events as she could before settling on Tom Steyer as her first-choice candidate. “To me, Tom was the most genuine, the most sincere and he has the credentials to be able to do this,” she said. “Some people say, ‘Yeah but he’s rich and trying to buy his nomination.’ No he isn’t; he’s buying name recognition. Professional politicians who’ve been doing this for a long time, they have that already.” She also said not being too progressive would benefit Steyer’s ability to win.
not resign to any disappointment in the wake of the impending impeachment trial results. “The good news in all of this is that no matter what they do on the floor of the senate, the senate is the jury today but we are the jury tomorrow,” Buttigieg said. The crowd was uproarious when Iowa City Mayor, Bruce Teague, took the stage and announced he is endorsing Buttigieg. Teague, who took office at the beginning of the year, thinks Iowans have the disposition for the consequential task of voting first. “No, it doesn’t, as a state, look like the rest of America.,” Teague said. We have a lot of people that might not be of the minority, but they are definitely looking out for someone that doesn’t look like them. Their votes are more global and not narrow with only their own considerations.” According to a Washington Post-IPSOS poll, Buttigieg has just 2% support from black Americans nationally. A bump from a successful Iowa caucus could propel Buttigieg through a lower ranking in the South Carolina primary on February 29th. The state’s population is 27.1% black and Buttigieg polls at 7% there as of now. Yardley Whaylen, 17, stood as close to the stage as she could, excited to see Buttiegeg address the room. “He is someone who could bring this country together instead of tearing it apart,” he said. Although Whaylen isn’t of age yet, she will be by November and is therefore qualified to caucus. She’s lived in Iowa all her life and enjoys the attention doled out to her state by presidential contenders. But, she acknowledges a change in tradition might be in order. “It’s time to get a more diverse, representative state to go first and really set the stage for the country,” Whaylen said. “This is the first time I’ve ever done this,” Andersen said. “...I am scared to hell for this country.” Josh Lemon, 24, is a Coralville, Iowa resident who said he’s concerned about Trump’s rhetoric and attitude. Because of those concerns, he registered for the Democratic Party to be able to participate in the caucuses; he had always registered as an independent before. “I couldn’t really say anything bad about [Trump’s] policies or anything,” Lemon said at a Buttigieg rally. “It’s just how he’s dividing the country.” Lemon said if Buttigieg does not get the Democratic nomination, he plans to vote for Trump in the general election. Graham Bradbury, 17, who will be 18 by the general election, was one of the few Andrew Yang supporters at the caucus at Mount Vernon High School. “It’s pretty clear [Yang] might not be viable, but it’s important that we’re here for the end goal: who’s going to become president,” he said. “Just choose wisely on who you’re going to caucus for. Don’t necessarily go for who your family goes for or who you think is the leader of the party. We did that in the last election and we lost.” As to what will happen to the Iowa caucuses, that remains to be seen. Epstein predicts officials will simplify and streamline the process but will still keep it as a caucus. For now, all eyes are on what will happen in New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and beyond. “It’s a long ride, but it’s always been interesting to watch,” Kachiroubas said.
6| News. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020
The best of music & theater for only $20 Sign up for $20 student ticket alerts EMAIL TEXT
Sign up at lyricopera.org/next Text NEXTTIX to 51555
Madama Butterfly Feb 6 - Mar 8 lyricopera.org 312.827.5600 Photo: Lynn Lane/Houston Grand Opera
NEXT is supported by Lead Sponsor The Grainger Foundation and cosponsors Mr. and Mrs. Paul F. Anderson, Dr. and Mrs. Arthur J. Atkinson, Jr., The Brinson Foundation, The Ferguson-Yntema Family Charitable Trust, and Elaine S. Frank Fund.
News. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020 | 7
Public safety breaks down coronavirus plan — or lack of By Ella Lee Arts & Life Editor
As coronavirus cases continue to appear globally, including two in Chicago, anxiety is on the rise. For a university integrated into a major city like DePaul, that fear may seem more pressing. What would DePaul do if a student or faculty member was diagnosed with coronavirus? Public Safety’s Cheryl Hover breaks down the university’s plan, which can be summed up in a few words: follow the CDC’s guidelines. Q: Obviously, coronavirus on campus is not a huge concern as of now, based on what the CDC and the city have been telling us. But what are some preventative measures that you’d suggest for students to ensure that this doesn’t get brought to campus? A: So first off, just to be clear, I’m not a medical doctor. I just want to make sure that that is clear. But we very much take our guidance, as we always have, from both the CDC and Chicago Public Health — sometimes the Illinois Department of Public Health, depending on what local organization we want to work with. But they have and certainly are in agreement on the same recommendations for any flu: washing your hands, staying home when you’re sick, practicing just good hygiene, in terms of coughing into your elbow — those kinds of things. So really, the standard practices of flu prevention are the same for Coronavirus that everything that is coming out from the CDC. Q: Anything more specific? A: The CDC also has very specific guidelines on whether or not you should get tested for coronavirus. And that depends
on your travel. (The CDC and Chicago Department of Public Health declined to comment for this story, pointing to their online guides for answers.) Q: So if it did show up on campus, say, in the dorms, what would the plan be? A: We have a couple of different things involved in our plan and it very much depends on the illness. We’re focused on Coronavirus. We don’t have the kind of details on how it’s spread yet. From the CDC, they have some theories that are probably fairly accurate based on some other viruses that are really similar to the Coronavirus that they’ve seen spread. They have ideas on how it’s transmitted, but they haven’t been able to confirm that. But we routinely take guidance from the CDC if it was a local case. We would probably be working with the Chicago Department of Public Health, you know, on a local case. They would give us guidance on exactly what needs to be done, and they would be working directly with the infected individual — student, faculty or staff — in terms of, you know, if they’re in a hospital setting, we want to make sure they are getting care that is appropriate. But then there is the issue of harm. Public health would likely take the lead on working with that person and figuring out what needs to be done from a house standpoint, and then we would look to their guidance. We typically will do extra cleaning; a lot of times that is the guidance. Sometimes we do it immediately, depending on the virus, because
“We take very much of our guidance, as we always have, from both the CDC and Chicago Public Health.”
Cheryl Hover
Assitant director of emergency management it can’t hurt to do the cleaning up. But a lot of times it does involve extra cleaning and housing also has some plans in place. Sometimes, you know, people just need to stay home. If it’s in the residence hall, they might need to stay in the residence hall. If they have roommates, we might need to look to do something where we might have to move students. We don’t like doing that. Of course, housing could talk to you about their specific plans if we wanted to get into more detail. (DePaul’s Department of Housing declined to comment for this story, citing “no statement as far as they can tell” and noting that that statement would come from a “higher administrative power anyway,” according to a representative from the department.) We don’t want to get into that kind of detail, but we do have some things in place that we could do with students in our specific residence halls. A lot of it does involve cleaning, especially if you look at the residence halls with communal bathrooms. Q: So I know that — based on what I’ve read, at least — coronavirus has a more significant impact on people with low immune systems. If a DePaul student who maybe doesn’t have this low immune
KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH | ASSOCIATED PRESS
A woman wears a mask as she walks near China Town in London. system gets coronavirus, would they be encouraged to not go to class or would they still be in the classroom? A: Of course, it depends on what’s going on, if that individual is confirmed. So right now, the CDC is doing all the testing for coronavirus. So if they have come back and said it’s confirmed coronavirus, they would give guidelines on how long that person should not be in contact with other people. I don’t know exactly what their recommendations are; you check with the CDC, how many days, how many weeks they should not be in contact. Likely they would not be going to class.
Q: DePaul is always talking about how the city is our campus, and it’s true that our whole campus is integrated into the city of Chicago. If this became a public health crisis in Chicago and not specifically on DePaul’s campus, what would DePaul do to shield its students from that? A: We would very much rely on the public health department. You know, other issues have come up to really look to their guidance, and right now they have said no masks, so do not. Chicago residents do not need to change their travel habits, you know, in terms of public transportation — those kinds of things. So we are relying very much on the policies.
New campus food pantry open to all students By Maria Garcia Contributing Writer
The DePaul Student Center and Chartwells collaborated to open a new student food pantry on Tuesday, Feb. 3 to provide resources for food insecure students. This pantry is located in Room 316 of the Lincoln Park Student Center and will be open every Tuesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The pantry was originally designed to help food insecure students not currently on a university meal plan. Towards the end of Fall 2018, students were given the opportunity to donate unused swipes on their meal plans. Those donated swipes were transferred into a monetary value and the money was placed in a separate account and used to set up the pantry. The food is available to any DePaul student. The Student Center and Chartwells staff is in charge of maintaining and stocking the pantry, which includes non-perishable items as well as easy to warm frozen meals. The pantry has been in the planning stages since the Fall of 2018. “We felt this was a need for our campus and specifically for DePaul students who might have food insecurities.” said Rick Moreci, director of Housing, Dining and Student Centers at DePaul University. “We wanted to
provide a resource and a means to get food for those students.” The use of rollover meal plans has been helpful in raising necessary funds as well as maintaining internal support. “We have provided these similar donation opportunities at the end of each quarter since and have collected a nice savings,” Moreci said. “That money is now being used to fund the pantry. It can therefore be said that this pantry is for the students and funded by students which is so great.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. The USDA reports that in 2018, an estimated 1 in 9 Americans were food insecure – equating to over 37 million Americans, including more than 11 million children. Additionally, a New Hope Survey has found that many students in two and four-year schools have faced food insecurity within the past 30 days, meaning their ability to get nutritionally adequate and safe food was limited or uncertain. In the same report, the survey had found that 7 percent of two-year students and 5 percent of four-year students said they had skipped eating for a full day because there was not enough money for food. Some believe that this hunger is heightened by the fact that many
MARIA GARCIA | THE DEPAULIA
The food pantry is stocked with non-perishable foods and frozen meals. students are ashamed to admit this insecurity. “We’re raised to believe being middleclass affords us access to the ‘American Dream’ and the ability to satisfy most needs and wants.” said Larry W. Mayo, a professor of anthropology. “If a college kid admits to being insecure about food, it means they are not middle-class, cannot reach the goals in the American Dream.” This identity as middle class has fostered a culture of shame surrounding food insecurity, Mayo thinks.
“In class-conscious American culture, the attitude of some at the top is that those who fail have only themselves to blame – it is on them, and not the structure of society,” he said. “This is the kind of ‘shaming’ most wish to avoid.” While this pantry is still new, the future looks promising as they plan to have it open during all academic quarters during the year. They hope to eventually add nonfood items and start accepting outside donations.
8 | News. The DePaulia. Feb. 3, 2020
CAMPUS CRIME REPORT:
Jan. 29 - Feb. 4, 2020
LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS
Clifton-Fullerton Hall
LOOP CAMPUS
Richardson Library
1
3
Clifton Ave. 2
Munroe Hall 4
10
10
DePaul Center
5
6 2
1
LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS
Assault & Theft
Drug & Alcohol
JAN. 29 FEB. 4 1) A Suspicion of Marijuana report was filed in 5) An Illegal Consumption of Alcohol by a Minor Clifton-Fullerton Hall. No Marijuana was found.
JAN. 30 2) A Battery report was filed for a person who was pushed down while walking on Clifton Ave.
JAN. 31 3) A Robbery
report was filed regarding an incident that occurred on Fullerton near Richardson Library.
4)
A Smell of Marijuana report was filed in Munroe Hall. Marijuana was found in the room.
report was filed in Munroe Hall. Person was transported to Illinois Masonic by Chicago EMS.
Other
LOOP CAMPUS FEB. 4 6) A Criminal Trespass Warning was give to a person in the DePaul Center lobby.
News. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020| 9
Doomsday clock moves to 100 seconds until midnight By Abbas Dahodwala Contributing Writer
The doomsday clock acts as a warning for how close humanity is to destroying the world through our own actions. In the latest update, the clock was marked as 100 seconds till midnight – which Rachel Bronson, the president of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, likened as being within the two minute warning in a football game. “The world has entered into the realm of the two-minute warning, a period when danger is high and the margin for error low,” Bronson said in a statement released on Jan. 23. “Decisions are made with different strategic reference points, and expectations are raised for decisive action.” 2020 is the 75th anniversary of the first doomsday clock. In line with that anniversary, the clock comes the closest to midnight that the Bulletin has ever released. The Bulletin cites the driving issues as dangers of nuclear warfare and the threat of climate change, although cyber warfare has also had a major impact. Daniel Holz is a professor at the University of Chicago in the department of physics, astronomy and astrophysics and a member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist’s science and security board. He discussed the methods behind determining the criteria for the clock. “We study the global situation and then we come to a consensus,” he said. “We ask ourselves, is the world more or less safe than the world last year? We analyze to the best we can what we consider the gravest threats, and then we make a judgment and set the clock accordingly.” Holz said the categories are fluid and change with the times. The threats that the Bulletin considers are always related to what humans do, but are not set in stone.
FACULTY COUNCIL continued from front the evidence to engage collectively in our commitment to diversify our faculty.” “We have to be humble,” said Ruben Parra, chemistry professor and the Interim Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion, who prepared this report and its findings. “It takes a village to fix these problems.” The report acknowledges that “we are far from realizing our mission-driven commitment” outlined in President Gabriel A. Esteban’s 2024 strategic plan for the university promoting a dedication “to recruiting and retaining faculty and staff to reflect the rich, vibrant diversity of our student body.” “I always think there should be equal representation at DePaul because all students should be able to see themselves in someone,” said Joanna Ewida, a junior studying sociology. It also indicates that DePaul does have some practices in place to address campus diversity like using mandatory diversity training to inform recruiting efforts. There are also incentives to attract new hires like the Faculty Recruitment Incentive Program (FRIP), launched during fall quarter, that provides selected tenure-track hires with
“As technology advances, as civilization advances, we end up with more power, and the power to harm ourselves in a catastrophic way,” he said. One of the main issues the Bulletin has looked at over the years is the threat of nuclear war – fitting since the creators of the organization were the scientists involved in the Manhattan Project, Holz said. Unfortunately, progress on limiting the arms has gone backwards over the past few years. “The really depressing thing is that after real progress over a few decades, things are definitely taking a turn for the worst over the last year or two,” he said. “We are abrogating treaties, and the whole regime over which we controlled the spread of nuclear weapons and reduced the threats; all of that is being abandoned.” In their statement, the Bulletin brings up the Iran nuclear deal as one of their main concerns. The recent killing of Iranian general Qassim Soleimani has also exacerbated relations between Iran and the west and weakened the strength of the nuclear deal. The Bulletin said that it would take Iran less than 12 months to build a nuclear weapon if they completely abandon the deal. “Lots of things have gone wrong in the last year,” Holz said. “The fact that we are [backing] away from treaties and threatening a new arms race is a very scary thing for many reasons. “Historically what has put pressure on administrations to try to strike agreements and reduce the number of warheads has been mass movements. People in the street,” he continued. “People worried that we don’t want a nuclear war, let’s step away from the brink.” Climate change has also become a big part of the doomsday clock. It has become a major issue, especially over the past 10 years, according to Holz. “Needless to say, progress on climate change has gone backwards in the last
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS
Former California Governor Jerry Brown (left), former Irish President Mary Robinson (middle), and former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reveal the Doomsday Clock. year in many ways,” he said. The failure of world leaders to act has made the climate situation dire, according to the Bulletin. The Paris Agreement has fallen flat without the commitment of the United States as the countries that have currently committed account for only 11 percent of the world’s total emissions. Holz points out that young people have been the main driver behind climate change activism. For many students, this appears to be the main concern. “Governments need to start believing that the climate emergency is happening, and that we are in it,” Sophia Schinderle a sophomore at DePaul said. “There needs to be more regulation and education on climate change in general. People need to know about global warming and glaciers melting.” Schinderle also said that excessive meat eating also needs to be addressed. “Even though it is a big change for a lot of people if we start to not consume meat as much as we do, it would make a very large difference,” she said. The doomsday clock is used to build awareness of the issues that are
endangering the planet and how people can help to alleviate those issues. “The doomsday clock is a symbol,” he said. “It is supposed to capture people’s attention and to dramatize the fact that we are concerned. As we approach midnight the idea is to dramatize that civilization is getting ever closer to ending itself.” Students also see the clock as an effective tool because of its ability to synthesize large swathes of issues. “It could have a positive effect because it kind of puts everything into perspective like how are all these different world events compounding and what are all the repercussions of that,” said Sonal Soni, a sophomore at DePaul. “Looking at this doomsday clock and watching it count down could really impact the public and how they view these humanitarian issues we are facing.” Bronson concludes that while the clock being so close to midnight is dire, there is still action that can be taken to help alleviate the dangers as has been done in the past when the clock has been close to midnight.
“Diversity is a core value at DePaul and has been since our founding (...) At DePaul, we understand that a diverse workplace and educational environment is directly related to our sucess.”
Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity $10,000 per year for three years to support research and professional development. The first of two of these awards has already been granted to a new hire in the College of Communication, according to the report. The data also revealed that when diverse faculty are hired as associate professors, they aren’t regularly promoted. In 2019, 70 percent of associate professors with tenure stayed at that level for 11 or more years. This is the case for 72 percent of white faculty compared to 85 percent of African American and Asian faculty and 100 percent of Hispanic professors. When these findings were brought up during the faculty council meeting, some in the room pointed to what they believed were institutional barriers to career advancement including a lack of transparency
and clarity regarding criteria for promotion. Several faculty members also talked about the cultural taxation that comes with being one of very few diverse professors at an institution. This includes being asked to sit on diversity committees, increased advising demands or being expected to represent their entire race. “All of these things make it that much harder to get promoted,” a faculty member from LAS noted. This places undue burden on minority professors and limits the time they can spend on the things that would eventually contribute to achieving tenure, they said. Before the presentation of these findings, the faculty council unanimously passed a motion to increase diversity among associate deans that was introduced at last month’s meeting by Valerie Johnson, associate professor
and chair of the political science department. The motion is meant to encourage the recruiting and hiring of more diverse candidates for associate dean positions when they become available. With the hiring in the hands of the Dean themselves, the motion proposes diversity training for all deans university-wide. Associate Deans also often deal directly with students which Johnson says makes diversity in at this level of the university even more important. “They should have some understanding of issues affecting those populations,” Johnson said. Faculty Council President Scott Paeth brought up a past request from students to the faculty council that called for mandatory diversity training for all university faculty. Interim Provost Salma Ghanem acknowledged the proposal was
hard to pass because the provost can’t require faculty to take any training, meaning administration action would be needed. Last year’s IRMA Faculty Climate Survey found that the belief that DePaul has a long-standing commitment to diversity had among the top ten largest decreases in ratings from faculty respondents. Additionally, ratings decreased regarding the perception that the university values the diversity of its employees, actively recruits and hires employees of diverse backgrounds and supports a culture of diversity for employees. In November, the faculty council approved the formation of a committee specifically tasked with addressing diversity, equity and inclusion at DePaul. A task force of faculty members are scheduled to present the committee’s official goals and membership at the faculty council meeting next month. In yet another attempt to assure equity at DePaul, faculty council discussed a proposed Equity Study that would be used to determine possible pay disparities among faculty. Summing all of these conversations up, Ghanem defined the goal of the study as answering one of the most pressing questions on campus today: “Do we have a systemic problem at DePaul?”
Nation &World
10 | Nation & World. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020
Trump delivers third State of the Union address By Jonathan DeCarlo Contributing Writer
The polarization created by President Donald Trump was more apparent than ever as he delivered the annual State of the Union address on Feb. 4. Instead of showing how far the country had come in the year between his last address and this one, it only served to show just how divided the nation is. Before the speech even began in earnest, the tension between Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was palpable, as Trump refused to shake her hand as he stepped onto the dais. Every president since the writing of the Constitution has delivered these addresses. Ben Epstein, political science professor at DePaul University, said that delivering the State of the Union address is a presidential duty that has been mandated by the Constitution. “It’s said in the Constitution that there will be a regular address to Congress by the president checking in, essentially,” Esptein said. “Early on, they were not necessarily big ALEX BRANDON | AP speeches and later they became formal ad- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., tears her copy of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address after he delivered it to a dresses, and in the televised era, they became joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020. often the most watched political event in a non-election year. It’s definitely the one time when all eyes are on the president and they’re omy and the job market. “Thanks to our bold was also at an all-time low under his admin- including immigration, gun control and the technically speaking to congress but they’re regulatory reduction campaign, the United istration. The unemployment rate sits right war in the Middle East. States has become the number one producer now at 3.4 percent, the lowest it has been in 50 Though the speech was over, the impact of really speaking to the American people.” All eyes were on President Trump as he of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world, years. The last time unemployment has been this night wasn’t. Right behind Trump, Pelosi around this low was the late 1960s, according tore up her copy of his speech. Epstein said took to the podium to address Congress. He by far,” Trump said. Trump has had problems with fact-check- to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. that this action will have lasting significance. was greeted by rounds of applause from legisAfter wrapping up comments on the ad“I think that picture of her tearing up that lators as he walked towards the stage. After in- ing before and it appears that this was the case troducing Speaker Pelosi, Vice President Mike again here. According to both CNN and Polit- ministration’s economic accomplishments, speech will be in our textbooks for years to Pence and the First Lady Melania Trump, the ico, the United States became the number one Trump took a moment to recognize a few come,” Epstein said. “You want to know what producer of oil in the world under the Obama distinguished guests in the crowd, including the feeling of the country was? That indicates president began his speech. “I am thrilled to report that our econo- administration, not the Trump administra- Venezuelan President Juan Guaido, the last the feeling of the country and the feeling of surviving Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee politics in the country right now more than my is the best it has ever been,” Trump said. tion. The job market and decrease in unem- and his grandson, Janiyah Davis and con- any words he spoke.” “Our military is completely rebuilt, with its Whether Pelosi did the right thing or not power unmatched anywhere in the world, and ployment then became the focus of Trump’s servative radio host Rush Limbaugh, whom Trump honored with the Presidential Medal by ripping up her copy of the speech, it has it is not even close. Our borders are secure, speech. “We are advancing with unbridled opti- of Freedom. become a talking point for American citizens our families are flourishing, our values are remism and lifting our citizens of every race, Following a brief intermission, Trump about the state of politics. newed, our pride is restored.” Brett Vander Wielen, a graphic design This was one of the first statements that color, religion and creed very high,” Trump then turned his focus to healthcare. “We will protect your Medicare and your student at DePaul, said he had mixed feelings raised questions, especially pertaining to his said. “Since my election, we have created 7 million new jobs, 5 million more than govern- Social Security. Always,” he said. “The Amer- about Pelosi’s actions. claims about the military. “Do I think she should have done it?” said According to Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the ment experts projected during the previous ican patient should never be blindsided by medical bills. That is why I signed an execu- Vander Wielen. “No. But I’m happy that she New York Times, Trump’s statement is a bit administration.” According to CNN, Trump wasn’t bluffing tive order requiring price transparency.” did.” exaggerated. Neff reported that while the milThe executive order Trump referenced Fatima Zaidi, a journalism student, said itary is implementing new vehicles into the with those numbers. In the period between Air Force and Navy, armed forces still use ve- Trump’s election in 2016 and December 2019, was passed last June and forces hospitals to she believes that Pelosi was justified for riphicles and equipment that were in use during there have been 7.3 million jobs created in the disclose their rates with insurers. This means ping up the speech. that patients will be able to know how much “Professionalism lacks in all aspects of the Cold War, and these are in almost constant U.S. economy. “A normal president with these economic of their hospital bills their insurance provid- politics today, and people are honestly getting need of repairs and updates. After his opening statement, Trump went statistics should walk to reelection victory,” ers will cover, rather than being surprised by tired of correcting them,” Zaidi said. “Acting on to cover different aspects of the country Epstein said. “He very well might be reelect- them later. Trump also took a shot at many like Pelosi did, that’s the final straw when your that had apparently improved over the years ed, but it’s not going to be easy given all these democratic candidates’ support for the pro- pleas continuously fall on deaf ears.” other things that are going on around him.” posed Medicare for All plan. since he took office. Trump also noted that unemployment Finally, Trump covered some key points His first stop was oil production, the econ-
Impeachment trial ends with an acquittal for Trump By Cailey Gleeson Nation & World Editor
EVAN VUCCI | AP
President Donald Trump holds up a newspaper that reads “Trump acquitted” during during an event celebrating his impeachment acquittal, in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020, in Washington.
After months of inquiry into President Donald Trump’s suspect activities in Ukraine, the trial came to a close last week as the Senate voted to acquit Trump. The week began with House impeachment managers and Trump’s defense team making their closing arguments. Lead manager for the House, Rep. Adam Schiff (D – CA), gave an especially powerful statement condemning Trump’s actions and pleading senators to take a stand against him. “We must say enough – enough,” Schiff said. ““He has compromised our elections, and he will do so again. You will not change him. You cannot constrain him. He is who he
is. Truth matters little to him. What’s right matters even less, and decency matters not at all.” Sen. Mitt Romney (R – Utah) made history when he announced he would be the sole Republican to vote to convict Trump on Wednesday, making him the first senator in American history to vote to remove a president of their own party from office. “The president asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival,” Romney said. “The president withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so. The president delayed funds for an American ally at war with Russian invaders. The president’s purpose was personal and political. Accordingly, the president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.”
The vote took place hours after Romney’s statement. For each article of impeachment, 67 votes were needed to convict Trump of the charge. Each fell far short of the twothirds majority required to remove Trump from office. Article one – accusing the president of abuse of power – ended with a 48-52 vote. Article two – accusing the president of obstruction of Congress – ended with a 4753 vote. Following the vote, Trump wasted no time getting back at representatives involved with impeachment proceedings. Against the urgings of senators, Trump fired Gordon Sondland and Alexander Vindman, two officials that served as witnesses against him in House impeachment hearings.
Nation & World. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020 | 11
MATT DUNHAM | AP
Anti-Brexit remain in the European Union supporter Steve Bray, second left, protests outside the Houses of Parliament to coincide with the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions at the Houses of Parliament, in London, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020.
Britain’s future uncertain following Brexit Day By Cailey Gleeson Nation & World Editor
Anti-Brexit sentiments became more apparent than ever as Jan 31. marked the United Kingdom officially leaving the European Union – after nearly three and a half years of stalled negotiations following the controversial vote. Even though Brexit Day was ceremoniously hailed as the nation’s exit, Britain is technically in an interim phase until Dec. 31, 2020. Erik Tillman, a DePaul political science professor specializing in European politics, said unresolved issues have slowed the overall progression of the move. “The U.K. is currently in a ‘transitional period’ through the end of this year in which the previous rules from its membership apply while it negotiates a permanent agreement with the EU,” Tillman said. “So we simply don’t know what that final agreement will look like, and thus it is still difficult to say what Brexit will ultimately mean for Britain and its citizens. Among issues slowing negotiations,
one of the most pressing was the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. Mary McCain, director of the Irish Studies program at DePaul, said the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland also slowed Brexit negotiations. “It was very hard for all the relevant groups to agree on what should happen on that border, which has its own difficult story and history over the past 100 years. That issue slowed the whole process down,” McCain said. David Wellman, associate professor and director of DePaul’s Grace School of Applied Diplomacy, said Brexit explores uncharted territory. “Britain will be the first member of the EU to ever leave since the establishment,” Wellman said. “And so in many respects, this pioneers, this blazes a trail that nobody’s ever gone down before.” Though not all of the specific consequences are clear, some immediate changes will occur. U.K. representatives, like Nigel Farage – who has come under fire for his latest speech – will lose their seats in the European Parliament. Participation
in EU meetings will cease and special invitations need to be granted to attend summits. Despite the changes, some things will remain the same during the transitional period, including travel between the U.K. and nations in the EU and European Health Insurance Cards will still be valid for British citizens. Tillman said the nation will have to negotiate its own trade treaties with individual countries. “The assumption is that Boris Johnson’s government will pursue strategies oriented around low taxes and regulations designed to enhance international competitiveness,” Tillman said. “However, his victory in the December 2019 election relied on support from many traditional manufacturing areas in northern England, so it’s unclear if voters in those areas would favor such policies.” Tillman said divisions between British citizens were especially apparent following December elections that appointed Boris Johnson as prime minister – especially in regards to Brexit.
“Generationally, older voters were more in favor of leaving the EU while younger voters favored remaining,” Tillman said. “Residents of big cities like London and Manchester favored remaining in the EU while those in smaller cities and rural areas were more in favor of leaving. And the majority of voters in Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain.” Despite the uncertainty that persists, Wellman said the move may prove beneficial for nations remaining in the European Union. “Perhaps this is an opportunity for the EU to look at what do European nations have in common beyond a common currency?” Wellman said. “And what do people have in common that they can work together on? Like, for example, they have a common environmental reality and looking at climate change and how they can work together. But the U.K. benefited immensely from its membership in the EU and I think they’re going to pay a not insignificant price for leaving.”
China scrambles to feed cities amid virus lockdown By John McDonald Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) — The manager of the Wushang Mart in Wuhan, the locked-down city at the heart of China’s virus outbreak, says its shelves are loaded with 50% more vegetables and other food than usual to reassure jittery customers. Communist leaders are trying to keep food flowing to crowded Chinese cities despite antidisease controls and to quell fears of possible shortages and price spikes following panic buying after most access to Wuhan was cut off Jan. 23. Employees at the Wushang Mart wear masks and protective suits. Customers wash their hands with disinfectant and are checked for the virus’s telltake fever, said the manager, who would give only her surname, Lu. “It is normal for people to worry about supply, but we explain there will be enough,” Lu said by phone. Food stocks in supermarkets ran low shortly after Beijing imposed travel curbs and extended the Lunar New Year
holiday to keep factories, offices and other businesses closed and the public at home in an attempt to prevent the virus from spreading. That also kept trucks off the road, disrupting supplies of food to markets, feed to farmers and poultry to slaughterhouses. As the shutdown of Wuhan expanded to cover cities with a total of 60 million people, villagers set up their own roadblocks to keep outsiders and possible infection away. “These problems are being coordinated and resolved,” Lian Weiliang, deputy chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a Feb. 3 news conference in Beijing. Later that day, state TV announced the ruling Communist Party order local authorities nationwide to “ensure the supply of daily necessities” including vegetables, meat, eggs, milk and grain. The following day, the Agriculture Ministry told officials to unblock transportation and “ensure normal operation” of livestock and feed production.
Unauthorized roadblocks were banned. To reassure the public, state media are filled with photos of boxes stuffed with eggplants, cauliflower and other vegetables being loaded onto trucks for delivery to markets. Party leaders in Shenzhen, a city of 15 million people adjacent to Hong Kong that is a center for finance and technology, sent officials to rural Yunnan province in the southwest to make sure vegetable shipments resumed quickly after the holiday, the Shenzhen News Net reported. China already was struggling with surging food prices due to an outbreak of African swine fever that began in 2018. Millions of pigs died or were destroyed, disrupting supplies of pork, the country’s staple meat. The price of pork doubled in December from a year earlier, pushing up overall food costs by double digits. The government has released pork from stockpiles but industry analysts say prices and the size of Chinese pig herds are unlikely to return to normal until at least next year.
In quarantined areas, trucks with government permits are allowed through roadblocks every day to bring in food. Soldiers from the ruling party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, have taken over delivery of medical supplies. Some trucking companies are shorthanded because drivers who returned to their hometowns for Lunar New Year are stranded there by the suspension of bus and train links in some areas. “We have eight trucks and three of them are operating now,” said an employee of a vegetable delivery company in the eastern city of Nanjing. She would give only her surname, Yao. The Wushang Mart cut its daily opening hours from 13 to seven and put the whole staff to work in one shift, said Lu, the manager. That includes unloading 1,000-kilogram (2,000-pound) truckloads of green beans, spinach, potatoes and other vegetables. “The stock we have now is 50% more than normal,” Lu said. Even getting out to shop is a challenge in some cities that are
under almost total quarantine. Only one member of each household is allowed out each day to shop for food in Hangzhou, an industrial metropolis of 10 million people southwest of Shanghai, and in Huanggang, a city of 1 million near Wuhan. Millions of households are relying instead on online grocery shopping, already a booming Chinese consumer trend. JD.com, the country’s biggest online direct retailer, said its sales of fresh food in Wuhan were up 280% from a year ago in the week ending Feb. 2. Nationwide, it says sales of beef, pork and eggs were up 400%. The company said it sold 1.8 million bottles of disinfectant. In Nanjing, an outlet of the Huarun supermarket chain is stocking more than usual “to make sure people have enough to eat,” said an employee who answered the phone there. He refused to give his name. “There were some people who tried to buy a lot, but they no longer do it after seeing the abundant supply,” said the employee.
12 | Opinions. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020
Opinions Sitting in the conductor’s seat A senator from DePaul’s Student Government Association weighs in on commuter students, Metra fairs and what the university should do. By Marcus Towns Senator for Community and Government Relations, SGA
It’s no secret that DePaul University is a commuter school – over 90 percent of us commute in some form. In fact, I’m sure many other students currently enrolled at DePaul could relate to my first year: commuting to campus from the suburbs three or four times a week to attend class, which costs about $60 per week. We rely on public transportation to attend classes, meetings, or activities at DePaul in hopes of maximizing our chances of success in our professional career. It is our mission to engage in public service in order to better the quality of life for one another. Throughout the course of this school year, a few student senators and I have worked toward finding an affordable route to provide a Metra discount for DePaul University students. The ideal solution should mutually benefit both students and school administrators. As students, we will benefit from a reasonable discount on Metra fares. As administrators, this discount could provide a solution to declining enrollment. This investment by the university would lead to an increase in enrollment if marketed properly. DePaul University has the opportunity to become the first and only school in Chicago to offer this discount, living up to our reputation as a university of innovation. A student Metra discount would both increase enrollment and retention among the student population while effectively reducing DePaul’s carbon footprint. DePaul would be seen as an innovator and an institution that truly values affordable access to education. We are not the only people fighting for this initiative. On January 22, 2020 Rep. Barbara Hernandez of the Illinois 83rd legislative district filed a bill (HB4217) in the Illinois House of Representatives that would effectively provide a Metra discount to all college and university students across the state. Ambitious solutions are what this
GRAPHIC BY GINA RICARDS
“Now is not the time for us to sit complacently and wait. It is a way to legitimize our ongoing campaign to persuade the administration. ” Marcus Towns
Senator for Community and Government Relations, SGA
state needs in order to combat the increasing number of students choosing to leave the state instead of pursuing higher education in Illinois. While this bill sounds enticing, it will be a battle to get the votes needed to pass it. Unfortunately, this bill is unlikely to pass any time soon. The expenses for a statewide student Metra discount would come too quickly after an expensive $45 billion capital bill signed by Gov. Pritzker last year. Now is not the time for us to sit complacently and wait. It is a way to legitimize our ongoing campaign to persuade the administration. The main problem for DePaul students is that the bill gives those who favor the status quo the opportunity to remain idle and wait for the Illinois legislature. Instead, DePaul should work towards our own unique solution, which could be DePaul-centered and capitalize on an opportunity to innovate collectively on an issue which is important to the students. If you are wondering how to get
involved as a student, it starts with engagement. I want to hear your thoughts on this issue. MTowns2@mail.Depaul.edu is the best way to contact me directly if you want to get involved. In addition, SGA will soon be hosting an open forum. This is an opportunity for students to be vocal about issues that are concerning them within the University. The forum will be hosted on Feb. 18 at 6:00 p.m. in the Brownstones Annex. With your support and a high turnout at this event, we can show university administrators where we stand on receiving a student Metra discount. A solution is possible, but we cannot wait for the Illinois legislature. Instead, we need to organize together and demand change. DePaul University is an institution which stands for accessible education. Let’s show the DePaul administrators that we intend to hold them accountable to that standard.
Metra by the numbers -A one-way Metra ticket from downtown Chicago to the closest stop is $4. -A one-way Metra ticket from downtown Chicago to the farthest stop is $9.50. -Based on those prices, a full-time DePaul student would spend between $16 and $38 a week to attend class. -Commuters can avoid paying the daily fees by purchasing a monthly pass, which cost between $116 and $195.75
Note: This piece is an individual opinion and is not meant to speak on behalf of DePaul’s Student Government Association.
Opinions. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020 | 13
Best fearmongers forever
Giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh isn’t trivial. It’s a devestating statement about Trump’s America By Shane René Editor-In-Chief
To be perfectly honest, I’ve become somewhat jaded about President Trump. I just can’t seem to access the outrage. I’ve never been much of an activist for any issue or political persuasion, but it’s not like I’m apathetic about American politics. In fact, I’m one of those rare people who can sit in front of CSPAN for hours without falling asleep. Parliamentary procedure can be delightfully Shakespearean, if you ask me. But when Donald Trump presented conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at his State of the Union address this week, I couldn’t hold it in. For me, Trump has always produced more curiosity than anger. His rhetoric and behavior are quite objectionable — that’s hard to ignore. But before I can get all riled up about some outlandish proposal or bigoted remark, I find myself distracted by the way he talks. His fifth-grade diction never fails to stun me, and I often chuckle at his New York City bravado, which I would admire anywhere outside the Oval Office. Now, three years later, I still can’t wrap my head around how we elected the kid in class who raises his hand just so everyone can hear him fart. Before this dumbfounding celebration of indecency this week, Trump has only done two other things that really spiked my heart rate. Everything else was so predictably deranged I just rolled my eyes. As you read this on a news website, the first may be obvious: a consistent, full-throttle assault on American journalists. The first amendment comes first for a reason and Trump doesn’t seem to care. While I actually do agree that the American media establishment has lost its way at times, Trump’s critique is a dangerous
ART BY ALICIA GOLUSZKA
fabrication of reality. The second, as I discussed in a column last spring, was when Trump presented Tiger Woods with the Presidential Medal of Freedom after his awe-inspiring victory at the 2019 Masters Tournament. Woods is my favorite athlete of all time, but I couldn’t help but feel like that moment was being mocked. It was clear that Woods had received this award because he and Trump, an avid golfer in his own right, are friends. And, of course, because Woods is a “winner.” This week, the president balled my two greatest Trumpian pet peeves into one, and honored Rush Limbaugh, perhaps the most divisive and destructive figure in modern American political discourse. This moment shouldn’t be trivialized. “[The Medal of Freedom] really says a lot about what each president values,” said associate professor of political science at DePaul Ben Epstein. “It’s a way for them to suggest what or who is important and
who should be recognized and why people should be recognized. It’s a way to leave a legacy in terms of, not only in who they select, but what type of person and what type of values the president emphasizes when they are in office.” As Trump dished out most of his Medals of Freedom to former athletes — many of them vocal conservatives like Roger Staubach — it never felt particularly consequential. Annoying, sure, but the medal doesn’t give you any real power or influence. With Limbaugh, however, this value statement is actually meaningful. Limbaugh is a legend of AM radio, and his show quickly became the biggest AM radio show in the country. In many ways Limbaugh laid the foundation for a Trump presidency by professing on his show a far-right ideology that now lives at the heart of the Republican party. If you go back and listen to Trump’s stump speeches from the 2016 campaign, it sounds like an album of Limbaugh’s greatest hits. Limbaugh cultivated and united the
A case for the caucus
By Lacey Latch Managing Editor
Iowa has drawn the ire of the nation over the past week after a spectacular mixup at the Iowa Caucuses led to days of uncertainty as to the identity of the night’s victor. Aside from further muddying an already messy race, the historic snafu has reinvigorated calls for the state to lose its status as first in the nation to caucus amid the chaos. But from my point of view at a smalltown caucus held in a high school lobby in Mount Vernon, a suburb of Cedar Rapids, this heavily-reported chaos was nonexistent. Instead, the environment was one that fostered respectful discussion and encouraged the participation of the community, regardless of which candidate a person plans to support, with a high school basketball practice taking place just beyond the doors. As messy and inherently flawed as they might be, the Iowa caucuses represent what I believe to be the pinnacle of democracy in action: a community gathering to discuss the issues that are most important to them, coming together to decide the best steps forward for everyone. While voting remains a secret, personal act for much of the country, “during a caucus you have to speak out among your friends and family and say who you support,” said Iowa state Sen. Liz Mathis. “It’s a
XAVIER ORTEGA | THE DEPAULIA
Supporters of Amy Klobuchar gather at the Mount Vernon South precinct caucus.
very transparent and very democratic way to do things. It’s in the open.” Every four years candidates spend months, sometimes even whole years, courting voters across the state in personalized gatherings giving a small constituent of supporters a degree of access that is unattainable anywhere else today. As a New Jersey native, the prospect of presidential candidates placing emphasis on my state, taking care to speak with as many voters in person as possible is honestly unimaginable. Jersey’s predictably blue voting record has cemented its position as one of the many states who are overlooked during campaign season, so it's no wonder why Iowans are so desperately holding onto
their caucus standing, which in turn makes their voters some of the most important in the nation. “It's an exciting and interesting democratic experience because you’re hearing from representatives from each campaign, you're talking to one another, you're lobbying each other to kind of move to support different people,” said DePaul political science professor Ben Epstein. “There's a very community aspect to it. The interactivity is exciting and interesting and fairly unique. It's not done that way in many other places.” Voters that spoke with me the weekend leading up to caucus night were incredibly invested in their role in the election process, carefully taking time to consider all of their options. Many residents spent their weekend traveling across the state seeing as many candidates as possible present their policies for a final time, an impossibility for voters in nearly every other state. The caucus model places emphasis on the individual and routinely, Iowans met that responsibility with a commitment to making a truly informed decision, something that can’t be said for nationwide voters as a whole. “It has the potential to suggest that each of our participation in that process, whether it's voting or otherwise, matters and can have an effect,” Epstein said. “And if we feel like our voice is possibly going to be heard, then we're more likely to participate or more likely to be knowledgeable.”
base that Republican leaders now flock to represent; he poured the cement that cast the deplorables’ vote in stone. I must admit, that I’ve always been something of an ironic Rush Limbaugh fan. It’s a lot like the mid-2000s Comedy Central hit “The Colbert Report,” minus the (intentional) satire. And in the same way that SNL writers bow at the altar of Sarah Palin, Limbaugh makes his money on the likes of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by whipping his listeners into a frenzy about the creeping threat of socialism. When Obama was in office, it was the creeping threat of Islam and “black culture.” The timing of this announcement does come from a place of decency. As Trump noted in his announcement, Limbaugh was recently diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. Anybody with a heart, including Limbaugh critics like myself, should wish him a full recovery. I wouldn’t wish a battle with late stage cancer on anyone. But we can’t let that be the basis for earning the nation’s highest civilian honor. Limbaugh is not a journalist, he is not an academic, and he is not, by all indications, interested in saying anything true. Limbaugh was a genius when it came to cultivating loyalty, forcing fans to drink poison as fast as he could make it. His contribution to American civic life is akin to the addition of carbon to the ozone layer. On the surface, this is just another example of Trump rewarding loyalty over reason. But what (not necessarily who) he honored this past Tuesday should be viewed as one of the most meaningful statements this president has made yet. With this medal, Trump established divisiveness, bigotry, and contempt for truth and reason as an All-American value.
Letter to the Editor: Stop Single-Use Styrofoam Sins As an integral institution to the City of Chicago, DePaul University needs to use its influence to become a stronger persuasive force for the cause of public health. DePaul prides itself on its environmental sustainability, but minutes away from campus, foam cups and takeout containers litter the streets. Styrofoam is a major public health issue, and there is absolutely no need for it in Illinois. It is time to put a stop to our overflowing toxic landfills and washed-up trash heaps along the lakeside. If we do not take immediate action, these piles will continue to increase and time will not help us. Instead, the foam will continue to degrade into microplastics, infiltrating our food, our water supply, and our wildlife. Comprehensive legislation is possible. Chicago is currently in the process of passing a single-use plastics ban which would significantly help eliminate this problem in the city. This is a great first step, but it is beyond time to implement this at the statewide level as well. A number of states have already passed these styrofoam bans, and Illinois must quickly follow suit. -Bria Jerome, graduate student
Focus
14 | Focus. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020
The logic
The universal unknown By Alayne Trinko Staff Writer
Common ways we love Romantic – Hot, passionate love.
This is the “intense, consuming, obsessive, delusion, euphoric” love experienced in romantic relationships, said Cole. Romantic love tends to fade after about 3-4 years. This is a normal and natural occurrence in love that partners do not need to fear. It does not mean that there is something wrong in the relationship or that things need to be broken off. In order to breathe life back into our relationships, it’s important to plan different activities that are exciting and adventurous in order to spark those passionate feelings back into the relationship.
Compassionate – Concern for another person. Compassionate love is the desire and wanting to take care of the person you love. It is a nurturing love that involves tending to someone’s needs as well as having and expressing feelings of compassion for them.
Friendship – Solid, genuine love.
The kind of love that is one of the most common next to romance is friendship. Friendship love is solid and genuine, and it requires getting to know someone as a person first before developing love for them.
Love / noun – an intense feeling of deep affection. Love is the common thread that runs through us all. It is that wondrous and magical, yet maddening and confusing feeling that has stumped even the greatest philosophers. When we think about love, we often think of romantic and platonic love, but there is so much more to it than what’s on the surface. Love cannot be simplified. Love cannot be pinned down or bottled up. Love is expansive, deep and infectious. According to DePaul professor of philosophy, Khafiz Kerimov, philosophers like Plato, Empedocles and Vladimir Solovyev all pondered, studied and wrote philosophical texts that question love and its many complexities. “In Plato’s Symposium, philosophers came together drinking wine and singing praises to love,” he said. “The thing that’s a thread that goes through their dialogue is that they all constantly have to resort to myth and fairy tales to describe what love is because it is so difficult to put into words.” Each and every one of us have experienced love in some capacity at one point or another. But what if we could put it into words? What if we take all that we know – or think we know – about love and summarize it in a way that makes it seem a little less daunting? According to DePaul Communication Professor Tim Cole, by understanding the different types of love, we can learn how to identify and
“Love is has their their own ferent sm
communicate our pers and affection. Once we won’t seem as complic Once we have an u number of different ki we can start thinking a needs in love are. “Not everybody ex way or expresses it in t fortable with it in the s In order to experie important to commun those you care about h love, according to Cole more outwardly affecti than others who are no receiving that kind of In my research on ask students around D love and how they exp
Focus. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020 | 15
c of love
n that ties us all together
so many things. Everyone r own trauma. Everyone has n story. But there’s a lot of difmall ways to say, ‘I love you.’”
sonal needs around love e identify our needs, love cated as it had before. understanding of the inds of love that exist, then about what our personal
xperiences [love] the same the same way or is comsame way,” said Cole. ence and express love, it is nicate to your partner or how you prefer to express e. Some people enjoy ionate expressions of love ot as comfortable with affection. love, I took one day to DePaul’s campus to define press it. Some students said
Victoria Barreras
DePaul Student
they were too shy or embarrassed to comment, but some students were open to sharing. Senior Victoria Barreras summed up the idea of love in a way that can resonate with us all: “Love is so many things,” she said. “Everyone has their own trauma. Everyone has their own story. But there’s a lot of different small ways to say, ‘I love you.’ It’s asking if you’re okay or if they got home alright…It’s surrounding yourself with people who support and care about you and giving that love and support back when they need it.” Love is a complex thing. But what it really boils down to is the selfless affection we give to those we care about the most. We may never be able to identify and grasp all of the ins and outs of romance, but we can choose to accept its complexities and find comfort in the universal unknown we call love.
Different ways we love Love 2.0 – Positivity Resonance
Love 2.0 is Barbara Fredrickson’s concept that people share a moment among strangers, friends or someone you know well. That moment is a face to face sharing of mutual concern and positive emotions amongst one another. Cole explained that it produces a host of physiological, cognitive and emotional benefits. “You get something out of connecting positively with someone in the moment and experiencing positive emotions,” Cole said, even if it’s a brief instant in time.
Caregiving – Wanting to take care of someone. Caregiving is one of the more straightforward types of love. Its purpose is in the name. Caregiving love is the desire to take care of someone else, stemming from a genuine and affectionate place.
Sport – Love as a competition.
Some people view love as a game, sport or competition, according to Cole. They often manipulate emotionally as a way to not get close to someone. “If I’m playing with someone’s or multiple people’s emotions, no one can really get close to me,” he said.
Companionship – Warm, durable, stable love. Companionship love, according to Cole, lasts a lifetime. This is the kind of love that is grounded and rooted in the idea of being together forever on the basis of a strong, developed relationship.
ART BY ALICIA GOLUSZKA | THE DEPAULIA
Arts & Life
16 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020
Reinventing the Renaissance DePaul professor aims to engage new generations with classical music
Brandi Berry Benson, a violin professor at DePaul, playing music inpsired by Isabelle d’Este. In this image, she is playing viola at The Newberry Consort.
By Keira Wingate Asst. Arts & Life Editor
In the fourth grade, after a next-door neighbor showed Brandi Berry Benson the violin, she realized her natural musical abilities. Since then, Benson’s passion for classical music has shaped her life. Growing up in Texas, Benson was not surrounded by musical parents. Her grandmother on her mom’s side was the one with a niche for older styles of music. Benson said in the living room of her grandmother’s house, there was a Hammond Organ and an accordion. “It was my grandmother that noticed that I was musical and was the one that really encouraged my parents to get me music lessons and an instrument and I actually started on piano first,” Benson said. After learning piano, her passion further developed and eventually led her to the violin. The summer before her fifth grade year, she was in an enrichment program and that is when the violin became her instrument of choice. Her piano skills faded as her violin skills skyrocketed. “If it has strings and it can sit on your shoulder, then I can play it, in some level of competency,” Benson said humorously. Benson got her bachelor’s degree at the University of North Texas in 2004, where she was mostly playing bluegrass and folk music, which she grew up listening to. In 2008, she received her master’s degree in Baroque violin performance from Indiana University. Since then, she has been teaching Baroque violin at DePaul University. “My first love and always will be, is performing – that’s my greatest passion,” Benson said. “And my teaching is kind of coming out of inspiration of that. So, a lot of what I’m teaching is, of course, like, everything I research.” Benson teaches classical, romantic and
folk music and she thinks there is something about the Renaissance and Baroque periods that really resonate with her. In 2004, Benson met one of her mentors that have hugely impacted her life. David Douglass, who she first met during college, has helped shape the style of music that she plays and it has also impacted her teaching style. Benson learned a lot through him and watching him perform. “David and Ellen [another mentor] taught me a lot for Baroque and especially taught me a lot for renaissance, how to play renaissance music,” she said. “So cause that’s harder, I think that’s not as accessible in colleges, at least where I was. So, I learned pretty much everything I know about renaissance music from the two of them.” The instrument that Benson plays most is the Baroque violin, which differs from the usual violin. Benson says there is quite a big difference between the two. Just by looking at it you can see that the Baroque violin doesn’t have a chin rest, the tailpiece and fingerboard are also different than the usual violin. The bow is shaped outwards unlike the regular. The way that the Baroque violin reacts to your body was a huge perspective change for Benson. “I have mentored a lot of students over my career and Brandi is one of the handful, the few that have came out with just such an amazing innate ability,” said David Douglass, the co-artistic director of the Newberry Consort. “Her artistic sensibilities and her physical techniques. The combination of all of those things just really made her a superior early music musician so I didn’t hesitate to involve her in professional things that I was doing.” Determination and passion radiate off of Benson. She is just as soothing and enchanting as the music she plays. She brings angelic energy in her performances.
“She’s very easy to work with, very nice person,” Douglass said. “I made a commitment to myself on my 40th birthday that I would no longer work with jerks and so, Brandi fits right into that. She’s great.” Benson has been performing with the Newberry Consort since 2009 and has performed with others such as the Kings Noyse, Ars Lyrica Houston, Ensemble Phoenix Munich, as concertmaster of Chicago Arts Orchestra and much more. She is also a 3Arts awardee. On top of that, she has put out two albums. Recently, she performed with the Newberry Consort, Chicago’s Premier Early Music Ensemble, playing the music of the early renaissance era that involved the Marchesa Isabelle d’Este. She is known as “The First Lady of the Renaissance.” Douglass said that she was a great mover and shaker in the arts. Isabelle d’Este court records, making her the first use of the violin family. She purchased violins to play frottole, a kind of dance song. It was pop music back in that era. Renaissance and Baroque music hold a special place in Benson’s heart and she enjoys performing that style of music the most. It helped her during a rough time in her life. “There was one summer that was a sad summer for me, it was the summer I lost my grandmother,” she said. During that summer she performed with two music groups, one being Kings Noyse when it was still going. “We played the seven lachrimae [teares] by Doland and that was one of the most memorable performances because at that point when I was so connected to grief and like here are these seven, essentially different kinds of sadness you know. I think that was a really memorable performance for me,” she said. “I think there are just like points I guess where things kind of inter-
RYAN GILROY | THE DEPAUALIA
sected really brought out things that were happening to me.” Benson lives in Uptown with her husband. He doesn’t play any instruments but he does have an appreciation for Benson’s incredible talent. Due to her living in Chicago, she is able to be apart of the Bach and Beethoven Experience, also known as BBE. Benson is the artistic director. The BBE aims to shatter expectations of classical music concerts. They write and compose new music to go along with stories in Chicago. They play music of all kinds – classical, folk, original music, and beyond – and go for an interactive experience. Benson is striving to further the BBE and she says that they perform at places that are more accessible for the public. One thing they do in particular is Chicago Stories. The BBE reaches out to known Chicagoans and Chicago communities and they create a completely new piece of music to go along with the stories of those they are listening too. They wrote and composed a song based on the Assyrian refugee community in Chicago. “She’s great, she really gets stuff done,” said Leighann Daihl, the BBE development director. “She is very innovative and trying to think out of the box.” Benson has plans to continue breaking down barriers in the concert scene and wants to further the love of classical music to new generations of people. With the BBE, she thinks that can make that happen and with teaching students with her passionate techniques. “I think, you know, anytime that you can take a step back in time and look forward, helps you to appreciate, like what comes next in a way,” she said.
Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020 | 17
The world on one plate Fusion restaurants give traditional meals a twist with unexpected flavor profiles By Elena King Contributing Writer
The Chicago restaurant scene offers unique options that encompass flavors from countries around the world. For foodies, restaurateurs and home-cookers alike, restaurants such as Kimski and Big & Littles offer new and interesting options that excite your taste buds at a modest price. Perfect for a casual night out, their flavors have the potential to satisfy any craving, without requiring those long, painful wait hours or reservations that we try so hard to avoid. These restaurants, though both unique in their flavors and atmosphere, share the term “fusion” as the main description for their cuisine. The word “fusion” is one that has remained fairly controversial throughout the dynamic food culture, especially in a major city like Chicago, where access to cuisines from around the world are a train or bus ride away. The debate over modernized forms of “fusing” foods of different cultures has countless arguments on either side. On one side, the mixing of certain foods has the potential to have historical implications that, to some, represent cultural exploitation, “Americanization” and “white-washing” of certain traditional culinary practices. How the food is prepared and who it is prepared by often play a major role in how consumers make conscious decisions in choosing where to eat and spend their money. The modern practice of meshing foods of different cultures also has the potential to break barriers of tradition and represent multiculturalism in an original way. When cooked thoughtfully, fusion dishes can teach us about a world of flavors that may otherwise never have been used in the same kitchen, let alone the same dish. “Some of the best cuisines have been developed over the years of mixing cultures in experimental dishes,” said foodie and lover of cooking, Jyoti Lazzaro. “I’m just not okay with taking thousand-year-old traditional recipes and completely transforming them to adjust to the American palette.” Kimski, owned by brothers Mike and Ed Marszewski, is a Polish-Korean restaurant in Bridgeport that perfectly blends the traditional dishes of both of their parents’ cultures in a casual, street-food, first come, first served seating type of joint. The uncommon combination of Asian and Eastern-European flavors into dishes like scallion potato pancakes with kimchi and smoked soy sauce or their rice cakes with toppings like sweet and sour chili sauce
ELENA KING | THE DEPAULIA
Big & Little’s offers menu items from burgers with a Greek twist to Hawaiian and Japanese-inspired tacos. and kapusta, are mixtures of flavors that make Kimski so genuine and unique in their concept. Gary Strauss, an owner of Big & Littles restaurant, has watched his business grow rapidly since its opening in 2009. Their menu, described as the outcome of trial and error by Strauss and his business partner, chef Tony D’Alessandro, is a representation of the flavors they enjoy most. “We felt that there was a void in the city where people were looking for good food but weren’t interested in sitting at a table with a white tablecloth,” said Strauss, “We made quality food at a good price but we served it in a red plastic basket with wax paper.” With menu items ranging from burgers with a Greek twist to Hawaiian or Japanese-inspired tacos to foie gras and fries, there is no method to their menu’s madness. “We didn’t just want to be known for one thing, we wanted to make lots of stuff and make it all good,” said Strauss. “What we learned was that people didn’t mind eating foie gras with plastic utensils as long as they felt the price was worth the quality of the food and that they had won in the deal.” Alex Lopez, a Chicago native, grew up cooking traditional Mexican dishes at home with his father. Though he was raised eating foods cooked by his parents and the many generations before them, he sees both the value and the harm in the mixing of foods from around the world. “In the case of fusion restaurants, there is a space for combining flavors, and by extension, cultures,” Lopez said. “I think when a restaurant remains authentic to both cuisines, a delicious dish can be made and enjoyed by any and all clients. However, I think there’s a problem when a restaurant can be disingenuous to the culture by homogenizing certain dishes and displaying it as ‘the culture.’”
ELENA KING | THE DEPAULIA
Kimski’s is a Polish-Korean restaurant that blends street-food and traditional meals.
ELENA KING | THE DEPAULIA
The Bing Bong bowl at Kimski’s includes greens over rice with a sweet & spicy sauce.
18 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020 GRAPHIC BY ANNALISA BARANOWSKI
Movies about love aren’t always love stories By Nate Burleyson Asst. Sports Editor
I think about Wong Kar-Wai’s “Chungking Express” a lot. It’s the only movie I have thought about every day since I watched it. What hits me most about it is that it showcases a kind of love that isn’t often portrayed on screen. A subtle, secretive and oftentimes unreciprocated kind of love that stems from powerful, lyrical loneliness. “Chungking Express” follows two Hong Kong police officers, one after the other, as they attempt to triumph over heartbreak and eradicate themselves from newfound loneliness. The officers never meet – it’s one story after the other. But there is a connection between the two, a woman who works at the same food stand they both frequent. The first officer is known as He Zhiwu or just as Cop 223, his badge number. He finds out that he is being dumped by a long term girlfriend while on the payphone in front of the food stand. The next month, he purchases a can of pineapples every night with the same expiration date, his ex-girl-
friend’s birthday. He moves through the world in a different way after his breakup. He starts talking to stuffed animals and is enamored by a mysterious woman in a blonde wig who he meets at a bar. The woman and him spend a night together where there is no sexual intimacy, just two loners enjoying the melancholic company of one another. Later, he bumps into the woman who works at the food stand, and it bridges the story between him and the other police officer, who is only known as Policeman 663, takes over. Cop 223 is the narrator for the first half of the movie, and his last words came when he bumps into the woman. “At the closest point of our intimacy, we were just one centimeter apart from each other, I knew nothing about her. Six hours later, she fell in love with another man.” The movie hands off one story to another with a great deal of care, and it does this quickly. When thinking about Valentine’s Day-esque movies and films that depict someone in pursuit of love, it seems that they are usually loud and very outgo-
ing about it. That seems to be unrealistic compared to the real human experience. Instead of being quick to jump out and make the huge move to swift someone up off their feet, things are often much more subtle than that. People tend to be quiet about their pursuits of love. It’s about the little things – the things that make us obsess over someone or something. It’s the tiny, hard to describe movements, looks, or angles that keep people in our minds. Often we border on creepiness when looking around and moving through the world. We wake up thinking about people and go to sleep thinking about them. There’s an obsession that is toeing the line between healthy and unhealthy. People love to say that life isn’t like the movies. This is true to an extent. Life isn’t like most movies. We can escape into them and not have to apply our own experiences to them. They can be fun theme parks. Yet each movie has the ability to change your life. Movies that have the ability to change lives generally resonate with a part of life that you can’t communicate clearly, like
loneliness and longing. Seeing the guy “get the girl” is not as powerful as the struggle part of it. There is room for cheesy romcoms starring Adam Sandler and a woman who is probably too attractive for him getting together in a random vacation destination. Those are fun, silly and goofy, which is needed. There are movies that also attack at little parts of your life like how “Chungking Express” does. Of course, I’ve never bought a can of pineapples with an ex’s birthday as the expiration date, but I can empathize with the position of someone who would do so. It isn’t about pitying people in stories, it is about understanding their response to great heartbreak. Valentine’s Day hate is very silly. What is the purpose of standing up and yelling about how it’s a commercial holiday? You really just look like a fool. So what if people try to make money off of it? You can be single and still appreciate the holiday. The holiday is still celebrating the best and most unforgiving human condition, love. Don’t be mad at the world that you are single, just enjoy that love is around and that it exists.
‘To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You’ shows the importance of love beyond romantic love By Keira Wingate Asst. Arts & Life Editor
The long-awaited sequel to “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” “To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You,” carefully balances relationship, friendship and family love in a way that is so well done, you too will be left smiling and clapping in the theater. Of course, the adorable couple LaraJean (Lana Condor) and Peter (Noah Centineo) melt hearts with their infectious smiles and chemistry, picking up where they left off in the first film. They give you high school love vibes, innocent and new, young and scary. The film takes you back to that young age of innocence and juvenile romance, but it does it so tastefully that now a locket and homemade card are going back on my wish list. Lara-Jean and Peter have their obvious high school problems: ex’s, and new love interest. Will it make or break the charming, well-suited pair? It became obvious that it would not, but the movie threw in a few twists to keep viewers on their toes. Lara-Jean says she “doesn’t know how to be a girlfriend,” she is put into a tough situation all because of one last letter that was sent in the first film. While trying to learn the roles of being a girlfriend, here comes John Ambrose (Jordan Fisher), the incredibly cute boy from middle school with a perfect smile. Everyone knows Peter is a looker, but John? Well, let’s just say it’s
easy to see Lara-Jean’s confusion. That confusion takes hold during the entire movie. She begins second-guessing everything that Peter is doing or has done. It makes you cringe at times because it is obvious that just about every person did the exact same thing at that young age of 16. That’s what added to the charm of the film, it was personable in the sense that we’ve all been there. It almost made you want to stop the movie and jump right in to solve it for them. Luckily, Lara-Jean has Stormy (Holland Taylor) to give her advice on young love. For one, seeing Holland Taylor made the film even better, because who doesn’t love Holland Taylor? Secondly, it’s a young and old friendship dynamic that plays an important role in Lara-Jean’s life. John makes Lara-Jean smile, laugh and feel beautiful. She can’t help but wonder if
his sights on the beautiful new dog-loving neighbor Trina (Sarayu Rao). His two daughters Lara-Jean and Kitty (Anna Cathcart) try their best to stay out of it, but they both end up meddling. It was refreshing to see a single dad and his daughters be so close. It was also enjoyable seeing a different level of love. Here you are watching young love in high school, but then they add in single adults just trying to do the same thing, find love. When things start to look good for Dr. Covey, problems arise with Lara and Peter. The sheer fear of getting their hearts broken begins to pull the two apart. Does Peter still love his ex, Gen? Is Lara-Jean too intrigued by John Ambrose to really want to settle for Peter? It makes you smile thinking about how juvenile you were at that age. You feel for them because you start to remember exactly how they are feeling. COURTESY OF IMDB
Peter (left) and Lara-Jean (right) on their first official date as an annouced couple. the wrong letter got to the wrong guy first. It’s made worse when John begins to play piano in what is absolutely the corniest part of the entire film, but oddly enough my high school ex played piano, so I could see how she was swooning. While Lara-Jean and Peter are working through the phases of first love, the movie directs you to love in other ways. LaraJean’s father, Dr. Covey (John Corbett), has
The low self-confidence of Lara-Jean paired with Peter’s overconfidence causes them to think they are better apart than together. Oh, the pain of seeing Peter take the locket off of Lara-Jean’s neck. The entire audience was on the edge of their seats waiting patiently for him to kiss her instead. He did not, hearts were broken. Mine included. You see the stages of heartbreak slowly
seep into Lara-Jean’s regular routine and it brings back the memories you experienced, but only this time you can laugh at how silly it all really was. Lara-Jean begins to realize that she may have made a mistake dumping Peter and it was heartwarming seeing her realize that she needs to love herself more in order to love Peter and that’s exactly what she does. After kissing John, Lara-Jean meets up with her old best friend Gen, also Peter’s ex. When you see that it’s Gen, who Lara texts to talk, you’re left gasping. Gen? Why not Peter? Well, it turns out Lara-Jean needed to make it clear that it was her own issues with Gen that made her upset, not Peter’s. That was the best moment in the movie, not the cute romantic scenes, the scene of two young girls realizing that they miss each other and a boy wrecked that. Lara’s realization of her own self-worth is sweet to see. She learns that she is good enough, she is pretty enough and it may be a teen drama, but that’s a valuable lesson for anyone of any age. It was hard to not smile during this movie. While it is a corny Netflix movie, it really shows that you need love in every aspect of life and not just in a romantic way. It shows friendships of different ages, relationships of different ages and simply put - different ways to love. “To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You,” comes out Feb. 12 on Netflix.
Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020 | 19
Where film is headed next
The DePaulia’s chief film critic went to Sundance. Here are his takeaways. By Michael Brzezinski Chief Film Critic
The start of a new year means that the global festival circuit is officially kicking off in the snowy mountains of Park City, Utah for the world renowned birthplace of indie cinema stardom, the Sundance Film Festival. This year marks the 42nd edition of the festival and it takes on the daunting task of following up last year’s fest where distributors went in on making history
with expensive purchases. Amazon Studios spent $41 million in total on new films, AppleTV+ entered the distribution scene and up-and-coming distributor NEON racked eight films for their filmography including the Oscar-nominated Macedonian epic “Honeyland.” This year was nowhere near as momentous as last year in terms of acquisitions. Most studios and distributors came in prepared with films ready for release. Netflix brought the heat with nine films from their slate including the
buzzy Taylor Swift doc “Miss Americana.” A24 brought big game titles like the Twitter thread-inspired “Zola” and the Grand Jury/Audience Award winner/Future Oscar contender “Minari.” Focus Features also came with the wildly acclaimed female-centric features “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” and “Promising Young Woman.” Just because acquisitions weren’t as prominent at this year’s fest doesn’t mean there weren’t headlines to be made. NEON caused waves again with
Future Classics: “Minari” (Dir. Lee Issac Chung) Winner of the two biggest awards at the festival, Lee Issac Chung’s semi-autobiographical film about a family of Korean immigrants trying to start a farm in Arkansas is crafted with the same level of delightful humor and unconditional love as that of the most acclaimed works of Yasujirō Ozu. It’s complex, profoundly relaxing and filled to the brim with rich empathy. Expect this to dominate on the 2021 awards circuit. “Kajillionaire” (Dir. Miranda July) Miranda July’s third feature film plays like “Ocean’s Eleven” by way of “Punch-Drunk Love.” It’s a hilarious and wildly endearing tale of a totally bizarre family of grifters that is thrown for a loop by the normality of their newest member. It’s a delightful mixture of quirk comedy, high-stakes heist thrills and heartwarming romance. Evan Rachel Wood and Gina Roderiguez turn in some true star-making performances. A24 acquired the film from United Artists/Annapurna for a summer release. “Promising Young Woman” (Dir. Emerald Fennell) One of the most confident and stylish directorial debuts to drop at Sundance this side of Jordan Peele’s “Get Out.” A thorough dismantling of rape culture with a ferocious sense of humour and righteous anger. Carey Mulligan gives the performance of a lifetime in an important and cathartic revenge tale about the simple desire of understanding. Expect this to rock pop culture when it releases on April 17.
COURTESY OF IMDB
“Minari,” directed by Lee Isaac Chung
after their scheming patriarch relocates them to an isolated Victorian castle outside of London. It has the pace and aesthetic of a horror film and a sardonic sense of humor to boot. This is awaiting distribution and one can only hope it gets it soon. “Horse Girl” (Dir. Jeff Baena) No one can deny the ambition of Jeff Baena and Alison Brie’s deeply bizarre and unnerving horror comedy about an emotionally stunted introvert who believes she was abducted by aliens. Brie gives her best and most commanding performance yet and Baena leans into his ‘70s inspirations more than ever before. It was made to be divisive and since Netflix generously dropped it this past week, you can decide and decipher its idiosyncrasies for yourself.
Forgettables:
COURTESY OF IMDB
“The Glorias,” directed by Julie Taymor
Standouts: “Ema” (Dir. Pablo Larrain) This experimental Chilean character study of a reggaeton dancer who loses everything in her life and takes on some unorthodox –and pyrotechnic– strategies to get it all back. It’s bold, it’s punk rock and it’s such a deeply hypnotic ride with an incredible pay off in the end. It lit the fall festival circuit on fire (no pun intended) and is on track to perform similarly when Chicago’s own Music Box Films releases it in the Summer. “The Nest” (Dir. Sean Durkin) Sean Durkin made waves when he showed off his harrowing directorial debut “Martha Marcy May Marlene”
their world record-breaking $22 million acquisition of the Lonely Islands produced rom-com “Palm Springs.” Sundance proved yet again to be a massively exciting indicator of what this year is going to look like cinematically. I was lucky enough to take the trip out to Utah to get a look at some of the fests biggest and best, and unfortunately, some of its worst. And I’m here to let you know which ones you should be on the lookout for and which films are best left on the festival circuit floor.
“Wendy” (Dir. Benh Zeitlin) Benh Zeitlin much anticipated follow-up to his 2012 Best Picture nominee “Beasts of the Southern Wild” is a visually stunning experimental reinterpretation of the classical “Peter Pan” story. For all of its sense of wonderment and powerful musical compositions by Dan Romer, one can’t help but feel that all of its heartfelt gestures feel wildly hollow. “The Glorias” (Dir. Julie Taymor) Gloria Steinem is an incredibly important figure in world history with so many landmark achievements made in different facets of pop culture. Julie Taymor’s woefully generic biopic tires far too hard to squeeze all of the achievements into a very restricting framework. Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander give very winning performances. It’s a shame that they sink along with this film.
Big Yikes:
“Run Sweetheart Run”
COURTESY OF IMDB
“Horse Girl,” directed by Jeff Baena at the 2011 festival. Nine years later he brings his equally skilled and masterful
follow-up about an upper-class family slowly and disturbingly deteriorating
(Dir. Shana Feste) The latest from horror juggernaut Jason Blum is a deeply shallow and stylistically confusing and inconsistent attack on toxic masculinity. It’s a fresh and perfect idea for some bloody low-budget thrills but Shana Feste and her crew get caught up in their own self-importance to make this something even remotely meaningful. Incoherent at best and deeply maddening at worst. Ella Balinska deserves much better than this.
20| Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020
Tough love The age-old argument rises as Valentine’s Day nears: Do we love it or hate it? Celebrating all love for a day By Taylor Johnson Contributing Writer
Valentine’s Day is approaching and I am thrilled. Bring out the chocolates, sweets, cards, flowers and more. This is a holiday to celebrate love through romantic partnerships, friendships and family. Oftentimes we tend to think that this holiday is just for romantic relationships, but that’s not completely true. Valentine’s Day is a day to show your appreciation and admiration to your loved ones. So many times we hear people discuss how they hate this holiday and that we shouldn’t devote one day to showering with gifts and love. I must say, I slightly disagree. Valentine’s Day is no different than a holiday such as Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. Of course, we should express love and appreciation every day, as much as we can, but one specific day to show recognition for that doesn’t hurt. When we were in elementary school, Valentine’s Day was another day to have a class party. We were excited to bring in candy or cupcakes and share them with the class. Sometimes we even wrote little special notes to our classmates. We are taught early on that this holiday is about being kind and loving. “Valentine’s day has always been about all kinds of love since I was a kid,” said DePaul student Genera Fields. “My mom always made cookies with us and we’d have fun. I make it an effort to tell everyone I love them and it’s a lovely day.” With everything else going on in our lives it’s easy to forget small gestures to show thankfulness to the people who support and are there for you. Think of Valentine’s Day as a reminder to stop and do that; to show and tell the people you love, you love them. “Love can be platonic, familial, within self, or romantic, but at its basis, it is always going to serve as a strong, life connection,” said DePaul alumna, Nyah Hoskins. “Valentine’s day is for anyone who wants to share love.” There are so many ways to celebrate this holiday. Whether that’s going out, staying in, making hand crafted art, etc., it’s not about what you give or do, it’s the thought that counts. For people who are in love or dating, this gives you another reason to go out, spend quality time, and share those cute mushy messages. Reassure your partner, and make them feel good, which I’m sure makes you feel good too. Everyone wants to feel valued and loved wholeheartedly. This day correlates with the five love languages: words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, and physical touch. “I will be spending this Valentine’s day with my partner,” Hoskins said. “We are going to attempt to be chefs and make a three course meal together.
The peak of Hallmark holidays
We went on a super fancy restaurant date last year, so we want to try something more lowkey this time around.” Self-love is just as important, and should always be taken into consideration, as it’s common to put others before you. There’s nothing wrong with treating yourself; you also matter and deserve love. You can’t depend on anyone else to make you happy if you aren’t happy within yourself. Taking the time to make sure you’re in the right space physically, mentally and emotionally goes along way. There are so many different places you can explore in Chicago alone, and there are usually several Valentine’s day events you can attend. “I will be spending the day celebrating/practicing self love,” said DePaul student Lameka Hayes. “Regardless of your relationship status, I think everyone else should too.” Valentine’s Day is another day to appreciate your friends and social circles in other cultures too. Valentine’s day in Finland is celebrated as Ystävänpäivä Friend’s Day, where they celebrate friends, family, neighbors, colleagues and sweethearts of course, according to visitfinland.com. Who’s to say you can’t do the same thing here in the United States? Gather your friends, and do something you all may enjoy together. Friends are like family that you are able to choose. Celebrate true friendship, as real friends can be hard to find. These relationships are vital to the person you are and the person you will become. You can even do something with your family, as these are the people who know you best. Valentine’s Day is not the day to feel alone, surround yourself with people who genuinely love you, as I’m sure you’ll feel the love.
By Jonathan DeCarlo Contributing Writer
It’s that time of year again, love is in the air, businesses are decorating their interiors with hearts and anything pink, and new promotions for couples’ deals are flooding Groupon and every other website with ads. My reaction when seeing all this: what a load of malarkey. I’m not a fan of Valentines’ Day at all, but hey, if you like it, good for you. Valentine’s Day has always been one of those holidays that I’ve questioned why we continue to celebrate it. What purpose does it serve to have one day a year to celebrate love and relationships when we really could be doing it yearround? Ever since I was little, I would hate having to participate in class school Valentine’s Day parties. Giving valentines to a few good friends here and there was fun, but spending a chunk of time writing out valentines for every single one of my classmates was downright arduous. I barely even knew some of those people and plainly despised others, so giving them little cards filled with hearts and candy was a hard pill to swallow. Valentine’s Day would always boil down to a popularity contest in my classes. Whoever had the most valentines was considered the most popular person in class, and newsflash: it was never me. While I’ve definitely grown up since then and learned that not all of life is a popularity contest, I still kind of feel the sting of only getting 10 or so valentines while the kid next to me got 25. Looking back, it’s no wonder why I started despising Valentine’s Day. Elementary school kids are mean. My dislike of Valentine’s Day doesn’t just stem from my oh-so traumatic childhood, though it certainly helped. I take issue with the principle of Valentine’s Day as well. I’m all for people celebrating their relationships and the love that they have for their partners, but why do it all on one day? I think love should be celebrated all year-round, and no one day should hold precedence over another, except if it’s celebrating an anniversary or a marriage. Also, Saint Valentine, the guy the holiday is named after, is also the
GRAPHIC BY ANNALISA BARANOWSKI
patron saint of beekeepers, plague and epilepsy as much as he is of love and happy marriages, but I guess we just don’t talk about the first part. Another big issue that I have with Valentine’s Day is the fact that it’s become such a commercial holiday that it really doesn’t have much significance outside of selling things that essentially profit from your love of someone else. It’s just become a marketing ploy so that companies can sell more cards and candy that are “special” because they’re colored in pink, white and red and covered in hearts. “Valentine’s Day for marketers is about selling a product based on a human social relationship,” said Bree McEwan, a communication professor at DePaul. Businesses (looking at you, Hallmark) use this holiday to essentially play with your emotions and get you to buy their products or services. It’s kind of disgusting if you ask me. A final issue that I have with Valentine’s Day is that it’s used as a sort of clout machine, especially now during the height of social media. All these couples post pictures and statuses about their wonderful dates on social media and it really bugs me. Oh, you two are having an expensive date at a lavish restaurant downtown, good for you! I’m eating mac and cheese on my couch and watching Netflix. A problem with our social media-obsessed culture today is that we’re always comparing ourselves to one another, especially on holidays like Valentine’s Day. “Giving a Valentine’s Day gift is between the couple but posting about the gift or going out to dinner, or to an event is an electronic tie-sign,” McEwan said. “Tie signs signal to other people in the network that these two people are in a relationship. There is also the potential for social media to create social comparison, where people might want to try to live up to other’s Valentine’s Day plans.” So, what should you do if you like celebrating Valentine’s Day? Nothing. Go ahead and keep celebrating it, I’m not going to stop you, nor do I want to. I didn’t write this to demonize people who celebrate Valentine’s Day, I just wanted to point out some of the reasons that I personally don’t like it. Clarice Arther, a media and cinema studies student said that she doesn’t really care too much about Valentine’s Day. “I feel like February needed a holiday and there it was,” Arther said. “Like, I have a boyfriend and we celebrate it, but I don’t really care too much about it.” If your significant other doesn’t buy you something fancy or take you out to dinner, that doesn’t mean they don’t love you. Also do me a favor and stop comparing your celebrations to other people, you’re what makes the celebrations special, not what you do.
Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020 | 21
And my heart went *shatter* How a DePaulia writer came to terms with her break-up near Valentine’s Day By Rebecca Meluch Focus Editor
What are your plans for this upcoming Valentine’s day? A romantic dinner, an intimate movie, or a cozy night in? How about crying in your bed, re-reading texts and looking at old pictures of you and your ex, who blatantly broke your heart on the worst possible holiday to dump someone on? When I think of Valentine’s Day, I think of the usual box of chocolates, gift exchanges, cute dinners, but rarely do I ever associate the day with getting dumped – that was, until it happened to me. It was my freshman year in college, my boyfriend and I were going on a year strong, doing the entire “long-distance” relationship thing, but we fumbled back in forth with the idea of breaking up. I held on long to that hope, the unraveling thread that was still supporting our high school relationship. As each day went on, I knew that a breakup was imminent, but I didn’t know that it was going to take place right around Valentine’s Day. It’s all a little blurry for me, but it started with a small fight that led to the words, “I don’t think I want to do this anymore,” and ended with a phone call to sum things up. Goodbye chocolates and roses. On the list of worst days to ever dump someone on, Valentine’s Day has got to be at the top. It’s supposed to be a day about love, why can’t people hold on for 24 more hours to do the damage? February 15th? Go on ahead and rip all of the hearts out you want but on the 14th, it can wait. Valentine’s Day was commemorated as a day of love when Saint Valentine was honored as a saint. Valentine was the saint with a tradition of refined love. Why do people have to disgrace Saint Valentine like that by ending a relationship on his day? Whenever you’re scrolling through your instagram feed filled with sappy Valentine’s Day posts, happy couples, and expensive gifts, remember there is someone on the other side of that realm who just got their heart brutally dumped. It may be hard to believe, but Valentine’s day is widely becoming more popular to break up with someone on. Just type in on Google, “Breaking up on Valentine’s Day” and there are hundreds of threads of people sharing their experiences, giving advice, and even asking how to dump someone,specifically on Valentine’s Day. Although Valentine’s Day is not the best time to go through a breakup, there are reasons for why couples split up during holidays, reasons that Sarah Halpern-Meekin are able to describe, “If breakup rates do vary over the course of the year, this could be because holidays may heighten some people’s expectations of their relationships, meaning there are more opportunities for disappointment,” she said. “Also, holidays can be a time that pushes us to label relationships. For example, the gifts we give on Valentine’s Day supposedly say something our level of interest in and commitment to the other person--do too little, and you’re not caring enough, do too much, and you’re moving too fast.” Halpern-Meekin is an associate professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. If you’re someone that has ever gone
ART BY ALICIA GOLUSZKA
through a similar experience as mine and the hundreds of other people on these threads, there are answers for you as well as ways to learn to accept heartbreak. While buying yourself your own box of chocolates is liberating and definitely one option, there are philosophies behind love that can explain why it makes our hearts hurt. “When a relationship ends, it is painful because we still experience the other person in our life and still experience the love,” said H. Peter Steeves, philosophy professor at DePaul University. “But we now experience these as presently-absent rather than presently-present. It would be very easy if, when someone leaves us, they just disappeared from our consciousness –a simple erasure. But this is not the case. We experience them still all of the time. We experience them as not-here, as not-with-me, as not-returning-my-love, as not hugging me,
as..not.” Steeves emphasizes the ideas of fear and love in his classes. We live in a world filled with fear, and one of the greatest fears in relationships is the fright of being broken up with. When we feel a breakup is imminent, we get scared of when our phone chimes and when we receive a text. It makes your heart race, Steeves said, “not because you have the quality of ‘afraid’ and not because your fear points at something specific, but because you are ‘in the world’ as one who is fearful.” DePaul junior Nikki Callo has her own simple philosophies on Valentine’s Day and dealing with a breakup on the most romantic holiday of the year. “It might feel worse around Valentine’s Day because it’s supposed to be a loving holiday, but that’s a capitalistic holiday
made up so companies can charge your significant other more for everyday items,” she said. “Unexpected breakups are hard but there’s a reason behind everything, even if you don’t see it yet. Block his [or her] number and move on.” It sucks to be broken up with before Valentine’s Day, but we must remember that it’s just a day of commercial construction that attaches itself to a misogynistic view of love.. The philosophy of love is complex, but as Steeves puts it, being broken up with around Valentine’s Day is not. “If someone breaks up with you right before Valentine’s Day that person’s a jerk who didn’t deserve you,” he said. “You don’t need philosophy to make it anything plainer than that.” Although I am now in a new, happy relationship, I sure hope that writing this does not give my boyfriend any ideas.
22 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020
While you let it snow, let us tell you DePaul University Alumns could save on auto insurance with a special discount. Get a quick quote today. Plus, GEICO gives back to the university for every newly completed auto insurance quote.
geico.com | 800-368-2734 Some discounts, coverages, payment plans and features are not available in all states, in all GEICO companies, or in all situations. GEICO contracts with various membership entities and other organizations, but these entities do not underwrite the offered insurance products. Discount amount varies in some states. One group discount applicable per policy. Coverage is individual. In New York a premium reduction may be available. GEICO may not be involved in a formal relationship with each organization; however, you still may qualify for a special discount based on your membership, employment or affiliation with those organizations. GEICO is a registered service mark of Government Employees Insurance Company, Washington, DC 20076; a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary. GEICO Gecko image Š 1999-2019. Š 2019 GEICO 19_223541
Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020 | 23
How we learn (or don’t learn) to love Your parents’ relationship may impact your own more than you think By Elena King Contributing Writer
From 1961 to 1963, Psychologist Albert Bandura conducted the Bobo Doll Experiment, which studied the ways children mimic certain observed behaviors. In the experiment, which serves as support for the complex question of nature vs. nurture, children were separated into three groups: one group was shown an aggressive adult model, another group was shown a non-aggressive model and the control group had no model shown. The group of children exposed to the aggressive model watched as the adult attacked a Bobo doll, both physically and verbally. The children that observed this showed more imitative aggression than those in the non-aggressive and control groups. The Bobo doll experiment is one that has taught us about the process of observational learning, which, when learned at a young age, determines certain behaviors that become increasingly difficult to dismantle in the future. Though the Bobo Doll experiment has been deemed unethical by many of today’s psychologists, it does beg an important question: how do we learn –or not learn– love and affection? Layers of differing experiences throughout every individual make it nearly impossible to find one definitive answer to this question, though external forces are often to thank, or to blame, for the presence, or absence, of affection in our per-
sonal relationships. Similar to the aggression learned in the Bobo doll experiment, affection can be observed and learned in a variety of ways, impacting our patterns of attachment that outline basic behavioral tendencies among individuals in their close connections. “Early relationships with our parents impact our self-perception and patterns of behavior, which may result in unwanted thoughts or feelings,” said Angela Gilroy, a behavioral health intake counselor at Northwest Community Hospital. “Utilizing attachment theory and a trauma-informed approach, experienced therapists can help clients by demonstrating empathy in order to support their development of new beliefs and patterns of behavior.” The methods of parenting we are exposed to as children can contribute to a world of differing social tendencies, which become cyclical when we have children of our own. These tendencies have the potential to be broken or adjusted through communication and new understanding of what affection means. “My parents have never been affectionate, not only to me and my siblings but also towards each other,” said Grace Sampson. “I can’t blame them because that is how their parents were, too. They are the farthest thing from what I think a loving relationship should be.” Sampson notices the ways in which the emotional and physical distance between her parents and herself have impacted how
affectionate she is in her own friendships and romantic relationships. “Giving a friend a hug for longer than two seconds makes me feel uncomfortable,” said Sampson. “My first boyfriend thought I didn’t like him because I wouldn’t want to hold his hand or kiss in public. I felt most myself when the affection was not compromised by the relationship model my parents gave me.” Whether we are born into single-parent households, two-parent or co-parent households, or are children of divorce, outside forces such as friends, teachers, geographical location, celebrity influences, pop culture and video games are just a few of the external stimuli that build on who we become in our personal lives. “I took a class called sex and death and we discussed preconceived notions of what we believe romantic relationships should be and I was curious as to where these ideas stemmed from,” said Emma Punch, a student at the Art Institute of Chicago. “ I realized that a lot of what I expect in romantic relationships came from more than what I observed from my parents, it was based on standards set in movies or the surface level views of unity and love that are fed to us by the media we consume.” Harry Harlow was an American psy-
chologist who studied maternal separation, dependency, and isolation. His theories and experiments, such as his famous monkey experiment which tested maternal dependency in infant monkeys, contributed largely to how we understand the importance of affection and caregiving. According to Harlow, “we begin our lives and learn human connection at home, it is the foundation upon which we build our lives,” he said. “If a [human] doesn’t learn love in infancy, he or she may never learn love at all.”
GRAPHIC BY PIXABAY
MAKE YOUR SUMMER COUNT. GET ONE STEP CLOSER TO GRADUATION. REGISTER FOR SCPS ONLINE CLASSES AT GO.DEPAUL.EDU/SCPSSUMMER.
24 | Arts &Life. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020
St.Vincent’s D e JAMZ “Spinning fresh beats since 1581” By Alayne Trinko Staff Writer
Sometimes there just aren’t enough ways to say, “I love you.” Whether it be to your significant other, your best friend or even your dog, music always seems to be the way to go when we’re at a loss for words. If you need a little extra ‘oomph’ to your “ilysm” text on Valentine’s Day, here are my top five love songs to pair with the message to your special someone. 1. L-O-V-E – Nat King Cole Sometimes you just have spell it out for ‘em. I first heard Nat King Cole’s “L-O-V-E” when I saw the Disney movie “The Parent Trap” when Lindsey Lohan (as Annie and Hallie) tried to bring her parents back together. Ever since then, it’s been my go-to
track for Valentine’s Day (and the reason why I am now a hopeless romantic). 2. My Girl – The Temptations “My Girl” is a classic we all know and love. The Temptations know exactly how to articulate that butterfly-in-the-stomach feeling we all get every now and again: sunshine on a cloudy day. What better way to celebrate that feeling than blasting “My Girl” in your headphones during the morning commute or in your dorm with your best friends? 3. At Last – Etta James “At Last” is the song that makes everyone clutch their chest and throw up their hands in defeat. Etta James’ contralto tugs at your heartstrings and captivates every vulnerable ear. 4. Oh, Pretty Woman – Roy Orbison Switching genres, this is an essential that
Crossword 1
2
3
4
12
13
15
16
18
29
7
22
23
24
31
41
10
11
25
26
27
48
49
32
35
39
42
44
9
20
38
51
8
17
34
37
ACROSS
14
30
33
50
6
19
21
28
5
36
40
43
45
52
46
53
54
every romantic needs up their sleeve. Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman” is like a magic trick. When the drum beat and acoustic guitar in the beginning meet the electric guitar and crescendo into Orbison’s vocals, it’s the musical equivalent of that crazy-in-love madness that’s oh, so infectious. 5. Can’t Take My Eyes off You – Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons I was in the eighth grade when my sister got me hooked on Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. We would blast this in her bedroom, jumping on the bed, dancing around the room and twirling each other like we were in a dance hall. When in doubt on Valentine’s Day, dance it out. You don’t need to be a romantic to celebrate
47
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
1. Champagne qualifier 4. Shakes up 8. Mountaintop offering 12. Active leader? 13. Beneath’s opposite 14. Basic math word 15. Company’s yearly meeting 16. Asymmetry 18. Dynamite creator 20. BBQ treat 21. Slangy assent 24. Post-blizzard equipment 28. Followed 32. Choice in fencing 33. ___ compos mentis 34. Emulates an eagle 36. College major 37. Marine division 39. Argues noisily 41. Calyx part 43. Double 44. Casino area 46. Smoke signals 50. Not fixed 55. Family 56. Circuit component 57. A Carrey persona 58. Bonnet occupant? 59. Midterm, e.g. 60. Some pitches 61. Tool with teeth
Valentine’s Day. You just need yourself, some good music and a bar of chocolate.
DOWN
1. Reach across 2. “Cogito, ___ sum” 3. Currying implement 4. Turnkeys 5. After-hours dispenser 6. Take the wrong way? 7. Boom or mast 8. Practical, as a plan 9. “Canterbury Tales” locale 10. List ender 11. Tribulation 17. Mouth piece 19. Spud bud 22. Declare openly 23. Spirit 25. Australian export 26. Lived 27. Hardens 28. Albatross, symbolically 29. Exemplar of dryness 30. Barbershop sound 31. Attraction 35. SWAT team members 38. Projection from camshaft 40. Serengeti grazer 42. On, as a lamp 45. Farfetched 47. Bits of fiction 48. Boxer’s bane 49. Distort, as numbers 50. Back at sea? 51. Bill stamp 52. Stubborn one 53. High school class, for short 54. CSI facility
Sports
Sports. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020 | 25
2020 Softball preview
STEVE WOLTMANN / BIG EAST
The DePaul softball team holds up the trophy after winning their third straight Big East Tournament title over Villanova, 11-10, on May 11, 2019 in Rosemont, Illinois.
Chasing greatness
ALEXA SANDLER | THE DEPAULIA
The DePaul softball team celebrates at home plate after the game winning run in extra innings. The Blue Demons defeated Illinois State 6-5 on April 16.
By Lawrence Kreymer Sports Editor
The hunters become the hunted. After being predicted to finish fourth in the Big East last season by the coaches, DePaul is going into the 2020 season as the favorites to win their fourth straight conference title. With Tracie Adix-Zins taking over from previous head coach Eugene Lenti, the Blue Demons won 35 games, swept through the Big East Tournament and won a game in the NCAA Tournament. Now in Adix-Zins’ second season at DePaul, the expectation is for the Blue Demons to continue their winning tradition inside the Big East. “You kind of know how the season
unfolds here in the Big East,” Adix-Zins said. “Year two is always the hardest though, for any new stuff, anywhere I’ve been a part of a new staff it’s just kind of that myth of year two is always the hardest because now people know you a little bit more. We added to our roster, but people just know you now. So, you got to kind of evolve and figure out how to make the team better.” DePaul has been off for nearly 10 months, so for Adix-Zins and her team, it’s now about getting out there and playing against someone that isn’t from your own team. “We’re excited, we’re just ready to go,” Adix-Zins said. “I think the whole month of January in the gym, it’s like okay we’re done, we’re ready to go play. So we are excited for it.”
Going into their second season under Adix-Zins, DePaul has added new players to the roster and bolstered their thin pitching staff going into this season. In 2019, the Blue Demons only had two pitchers on staff and had to rotate between them throughout the entire season. This season, however, the Blue Demons have seven pitchers on their active roster and expect to use a wide variety of them throughout the four-month season. “I think our pitchers are very excited about that,” senior outfielder Angela Scalzitti said. “It’s not too many games on their arms. I think this year is more managing now that we know if someone is in trouble on the staff that they can lean on other people and someone can come in for them. And it’s a relief for the pitching staff, I’m happy for them.” While the team has added more players to the roster, it also means there are younger, inexperienced players on the team this season. Luckily for Adix-Zins and her coaching staff, they have many older players that can help guide the freshmen early on and help them get acclimated to a new system. One of those players is Scalzitti, who is now entering her sixth collegiate season. “I’m a sixth-year senior, so I have a lot of experience,” Scalzitti said. “I’m used to being in that role but luckily, even though we have a lot of new kids, we still have a lot of returners who are multi-year starters. So, they have a ton of experience as well. We have probably like three or four kids who are going to crack that starting lineup who are new, but I think everyone is a leader on the field because everyone’s been playing for a while.” For players like Scalzitti and the older players, it’s about showing the younger players the winning tradition at DePaul. The Blue Demons have won the last three Big East Championships, but their mission is to continue their dominance of the conference heading into their last season at DePaul. “Last year we were able to win two games at Regionals and we do want to go further than that this year, so that’s always a goal to make it as far as we can,” senior infielder Erin Andris said. “Especially this is our last year for the seniors, so we want to go out on top.”
KEY RETURNERS Natalie Halvorson Senior, P
Angela Scalzitti Senior, OF
Erin Andris Senior, 2B/SS
Jessica Cothern Senior, C/3B
Gabby O’Riley Sophomore, C/3B
THE RUNDOWN - Won the Big East regular season title last season - Finished 35-15 overall, 11-5 in conference in 2019 - Picked to finish 1st in the Big East in 2020 - Has 4 freshmen
26 | Sports. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020
Frostbike!
Facing the elements of winter, commuters persist By Abbas Dahodwala & Nate Burleyson Contributing Writer and Asst. Sports Editor
It is a chilly morning as a bicyclist speeds toward Jackson and State. The winter weather will never, and has never, been kind to those who wish to brave the elements on their daily commute. As the light turns red, the bicyclist hits the brakes. Naturally, the bike abruptly falls and skids down the street, leaving the noble cyclist in the background. “I went straight down and slid from 50 feet in front of the intersection all the way through the intersection and ended up right outside the door to my job,” said Seth Horning, an academic adviser at DePaul’s College of Communication. “I slid probably like 300 to 400 feet because it was so slick and so icy.” The black ice that caused him to slip also protected him from injury, as he was relatively unscathed other than bruises on the left side of his body. Regardless, questions were raised on whether or not it is all worth it. As the weather in Chicago deteriorates and the snow and ice start to accumulate, bikers will have to become more careful. However, while the weather leads some to opt for different methods of travel, experienced bikers continue to keep to their habits and provide evidence that winter is not a deterrent to biking, and it will never be. Horning has been biking to and from DePaul for the past 11 years from Brighton Park on the Southwest Side of Chicago. He spoke about some of the issues and dangers of biking, which he sadly knows too much about. “It’s not if you get into an accident; it’s just when,” he said. “I’m lucky to have never been hit, but I have had a lot of close calls.” Horning continued, saying that some of the main issues is when cars try to speed past him to take right turns, which is dangerous for bikers since they cannot brake quickly. He also mentioned that it can be dangerous when people open doors. Matt Moy, another Chicagoan who resides in Pilsen and makes routine bike trips to Avondale and the Loop, also discussed some of the dangers of biking. While it can be dangerous to bike regardless of the season, Moy argued that being smart and staying safe can decrease the chance of injury greatly. He also said it can be a better idea to be defensive especially in the cold where the choice disappears. “I sometimes try to bike a little slowly,” he said. “Especially in the cold. Wearing layers helps and just being cautious around other drivers.” “I’ve been biking for a long period of time, so I have a good grasp of the dangers as well as my own ability,” he said. “It’s important if you don’t know about something to be as safe as possible,” he said. “Don’t try to skid on the ice because it might seem fun…until a car runs you over.” Pediatric cardiologist David Theole, an avid biker who routinely bikes from Wrigleyville up to Advocate Lutheran Hospital in Park Ridge, spoke of the false narrative that people shouldn’t bike in the winter. “People have this idea that you can’t
XAVIER ORTEGA | THE DEPAULIA
A biker heads down West Ohio Street in mid Januaray. Just 1.7 percent of Chicagoans bike as their commute, according to move.org. bike in the winter, but it’s not true,” he said. Theole identified a few of the issues that can arise during the winter and certain precautions that bikers can take. “The biggest danger I see is visibility,” he said. “A lot of bicyclists are invisible. I recommend a reflective vest and a brightly colored jacket.” The bright and flashy look may save lives, especially when commuting before sunrise and after the sun sets. One of Theole’s patients, a police officer, told him that when drivers hit bicyclists, the first thing the driver says is that they could not see him. Therefore, Theole stresses reflective gear can be one of the more preventative measures bikers can take. In terms of actual health impacts, Theole once again preached prevention. “Main thing to be cautious for is wind,” he said. “It cools you off faster, making you more susceptible to frost bite. Fingers are the most exposed.” Along with fingers, it is important to cover up ears and exposed parts of your face. In Horning’s experience, lightly covered ears in subzero temperature can lead to frost bite, which he realized during the polar vortex of Jan. 2019, when he biked to campus, sustaining the condition on his ears. Lastly, Theole said at lower temperatures equipment can become faulty, specifically if brakes and gears begin to freeze. He also advised vigilance when icy conditions are present. Although there is some risk to biking in winter, Horning said he will continue to bike regardless. He even said students have no excuse to miss class due to bad weather if he is willing to brave the elements to get to class on time throughout the winter quarter.
DePaul Center 333 South State St. Welcome Back DePaul Students Hand Tossed
Store Hours
Pizza
Mon - Fri 6:30 am – 6:30 pm
From scratch
Breakfast 6:30 am – 10 am
Quick Service of Fresh- Cracked Eggs at breakfast, Homemade Pizza, Slices & Whole Stromboli, Hot Sandwiches, Soup, Salads, and Hearty Pastas
Special: 2 Whole Large Thin Crust Pizzas $ 28 Not to be combined with other discounts
Dine in - Carry out Delivering with Door Dash and Grub Hub Student Discount for in store Purchase w/ Valid ID
Sports. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020 | 27 STONEWALL, continued from back page after the first half. Stonewall scored her 24 points on 10-for-14 shooting. The Blue Demons outrebounded Seton Hall 25-10 in the first half including nine offensive rebounds. Kelly Campbell had eight rebounds for DePaul in the first half. Jackson scored the first five points of the second half to force DePaul head coach Doug Bruno to call a timeout up 50-45. Desiree Elmore cut the game to just 54-53 with five minutes remaining in the third quarter. From there, Seton Hall and DePaul would swap the lead as Campbell scored her first seven points to help keep DePaul up 61-59 with 3:01 left in the quarter. Samuels and Elmore combined for 28 for Seton Hall in the first three quarters. Deja Church and Dee Bekelja would hit back-to-back 3-pointers to extend the DePaul lead to 78-71 with 4:29 left in the fourth quarter. Stonewall would eclipse her career-high with a turnaround jumper that put her at 29 points while giving DePaul a six-point cushion. The Blue Demons would control an 82-76 lead with under a minute left. Morris grabbed a rebound that put Seton Hall in a fouling situation. Kelly Campbell knocked down four free throws that sealed the game. DePaul came out with an 86-76 win.
PLAYOFFS, continued from back page
the regular season while honoring the team’s seniors on senior day: Ryan Hasty, Chris Tran, Jimmy Panos, Connor McNally, Nick Powers and Hanson. The ice broke five minutes into the first period when Jackson Leptich scored the opening goal assisted from Helf and Hasty. The rest of the period remained scoreless but picked up again in the second with two straight goals from the Titans. Later, Leptich scored his second goal of the game on the power play, knotting the score at 2-2 after the second period. Oshkosh couldn’t produce any more goals of their own, as DePaul scored three unanswered goals from Wadsworth, Dace Potas and an empty net goal from McNally, and skated away with a 5-2 victory, and the sweep. “We came out a little slower but we started to pick up some pace there at the end,” Hanson said after the game. “I think we really came together and battled together and I think that’s what took us through to the third period.” Along with Leptich’s two goals, Hasty tallied three assists and Ash and Helf got two assists of their own. Goaltenders Rudy Hodgson and AJ Grzbek split time during the game – Hodgson stopped 21 of 22 shots for a .954 save percentage and Grzbek stopped 24 of 25 shots for a .960 save percentage. With the playoff bracket now finalized, DePaul will travel to the NCHL Championship Tournament next weekend, hosted by Marian University at the Blue
RYAN GILROY | THE DEPAULIA
DePaul hockey player Tyler Hanson attempts a slap shot on Friday against the Oshkosh Titans at Johnny’s Ice House West. The Blue Demons won the game 8-3. Line Family Ice Center in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. They will play the No. 3 Concordia Falcons in a first-round playin game on Friday, Feb. 14 at 7:45 p.m. – winner moves on and loser goes home. In a separate play-in game on Friday, No. 4 Marquette University will play No. 5 Lewis University to determine which two teams moves on to the semifinals. The
finals will take place on Sunday at 1 p.m. to determine the 2019-20 NCHL league champion. “I believe in the guys we have on this team – anyone can win on any given night,” Motew said. “I think we’re about to show a lot of teams that DePaul hockey is legit.”
LEITAO, continued from front page is enough evidence for DePaul to make another head coaching change. DePaul should not wait until the end of the season to let Leitao go, they should fire him immediately and let an interim coach try to salvage something out of this disappointing season. In the very least, fans deserve to see this team play without him at the helm, holding them back. Leitao is now overall 61-93 and 17-65 in the Big East, including a 1-10 record in the conference this season, in the nearly five years since he returned to DePaul in 2015. When Athletics Director Jean Lenti Ponsetto decided to bring Leitao back in the spring of 2015, the decision was met with skepticism because the Massachusetts native was far from a hot commodity at the time. Five years later, that decision has proved to be a colossal error, and the only right decision to make at this point is to fire Leitao right now. When Lenti Ponsetto decided to move on from Oliver Purnell and bring in Leitao, she said the goal was to “win now.” “We don’t see that as a rebuilding project, but an opportunity to take the next step in the process,” Lenti Ponsetto said in 2015. “Our expectation is to win now. We have talent here that needs to be re-engineered. It was clear to our search committee that Dave Leitao was our No. 1 choice.” Well, Leitao failed to win immediately, as his team went 5-31 in the Big East in his first two seasons. But that was somewhat understandable considering the talent was not good enough to compete at a high level in the Big East. In 2020, there is no excuse for the Blue Demons to be 1-10 in the conference and still the premier laughingstock of the Big East — and that falls on the shoulders of the highest paid person at the university, Leitao. Leitao has brought in good and talented players this season to make a push for the NCAA Tournament, with five former fourstar recruits – Charlie Moore, Jalen ColemanLands, Romeo Weems, Markese Jacobs and DJ Williams – and two potential future NBA players, Weems and Paul Reed, on the roster. But those players can only do so much if their coach is not putting them in a position to
ALEXA SANDLER | THE DEPAULIA
DePaul head coach Dave Leitao looks down during the Blue Demons’ 79-66 loss to St. John’s on Saturday at Wintrust Arena. succeed on a game-to-game basis. DePaul’s Big East games have played out similarly this season: compete hard for the first 35 minutes and then crumble when the game gets tight in the final five minutes. But the last two games for the Blue Demons should be the writing on the wall for Lenti Ponsetto to fire Leitao; against Xavier on Feb. 4, DePaul scored a grand total of 16 points in the first half, and then followed that embarrassing performance by choking against an injured Georgetown team on Saturday. The Hoyas entered the game with their leading scorer Mac McClung out, then they lost their center Omer Yurtseven in the second half and then Jamorko Pickett fouled out. Leitao still found a way to lose that game, as his team once again wilted beneath the pressure. That recurring problem starts in once place: their head coach’s inability to call the right plays in the second half. If there was ever an award for the best 35-minute team in the country, DePaul would probably emerge as the winner. But if there was an award for the worst final fiveminute coach in America, Leitao would run away with it. Even some of his players have voiced
their displeasure with Leitao on Twitter after losses. After a loss to St. John’s on Jan. 4, Reed retweeted multiple tweets that criticized Leitao and called him a bad coach before the junior took down those retweets and issued an apology. Jacobs has also liked several tweets in the past month that have called out Leitao’s coaching. In the Big East, Jacobs has only played in six games and is averaging 6.1 minutes per game. The issue down the stretch of games becomes the lack of offensive execution from the Blue Demons. According to KenPom, in conference games, DePaul is now last (10th) in the Big East in 3-point percentage (27.7 percent), 10th in turnover rate (19.8 percent), ninth in overall offensive efficiency and eighth in effective field-goal percentage (44.8 percent). The talent is too good for the Blue Demons to struggle this much on offense. Leitao doesn’t seem to have an answer. DePaul went 7-11 in the Big East last season, finished in last place and lost the first game in the Big East Tournament. That season still provided an opportunity for Leitao to use as momentum for this season. “To be [7-11] and to be in position to have won some other games was progress,
but we don’t feel like we have arrived we still have room to grow and room to get better,” Lenti Ponsetto said in an interview with The DePaulia last year. “It was a really good foundation laid this year for the team moving forward next year.” The 2018-19 season was capped off with a run to the CBI Championship series, which resulted in a game three loss to South Florida. But after the game, according to a source in the locker room that day, Lenti Ponsetto told the team this was a milestone in program history. If you isolate the history of DePaul men’s basketball to her own tenure as athletics director, sadly, she is right. DePaul men’s basketball has been a joke for almost two decades now and Leitao has only strengthened the punchline. After the deflating 67-59 loss to Xavier, Leitao was asked if his players are still as focused as they were to begin the season, he responded with “mh-mmm.” DePaul University, DePaul fans and most importantly, the players, deserve better than a coach who specializes in losing. The Blue Demons have the talent to be successful, they just need to be re-energized with a better head coach.
Sports
Sports. The DePaulia. Feb. 10, 2020 | 28
Playoff bound RYAN GILROY | THE DEPAULIA
Brenton Wadsworth (left), Tyler Hanson (right) and Mike Helf (middle) celebrate after scoring a goal against the Oshkosh Titans on Friday at Johnny’s Ice House West.
Hockey sweeps Oshkosh to qualify for postseason By Ryan Gilroy Copy Editor
The Blue Demons faced off against the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Titans in a do-or-die weekend for both teams. Both teams sat next to each other in the standings during the weekend, as DePaul needed only one win to advance to the playoffs and Oshkosh needed to sweep. Knowing that everything was on the line, the Blue Demons didn’t hold back and swept the Titans out of Johnny’s Ice House West. The tilt began late Friday night when the energy in the locker room was much different compared to other weekends. The Blue Demons came out strong in the first period with the first two goals scored by Josh Dolan
on nearly identical shots. Later, Brock Ash scored one of his own but the Titans were able to net their first goal, bringing the score to 3-1 after the first. Both the Blue Demons and the Titans each scored a goal of their own in the second period but from there, it was all DePaul as they ran away with the game when the third period rolled around. “We had a lot of offensive zone pressure and the boys played really good in front of me,” goaltender Asher Motew said. “We were good in our defensive zone – we had locked down compared to other weekends where we could give up some sloppy plays.” During the 14th minute of the third, two quick goals were scored by Jalen Raya and Tyler Hanson that gave the team an
enormous 6-2 lead. Much of the third period went uncontested but picked up later with four minutes remaining, when Brenton Wadsworth scored a goal of his own. Even though the Titans scored their third goal with two and a half minutes remaining, it was too little too late. Dolan was vigorously grinding away during the final two minutes of the period as his teammates were constantly feeding him the puck to complete the hat trick. His ambition eventually paid off, as he did just that with 15 seconds left in the game, topped off with a bloody cut on the inside of his mouth. “You know, everything comes with a price and if this is mine, I’ll take it,” he said. “You just gotta show that you’re fighting until
the end – everything comes with a price. You gotta send a message, especially when you play them twice in a weekend.” With Friday’s 8-3 win, the Blue Demons secured the sixth and final seed in the Northern Collegiate Hockey League playoffs, achieving their goal of making the tournament and eliminating any chances of Oshkosh getting a berth of their own. Alongside Dolan’s hat trick and an assist, the team was all over the scoresheet. Mike Helf finished with a goal and three assists, Jake Bolger had two assists, Wadsworth had a goal and an assist and Motew stopped 42 of 45 shots for a .933 save percentage. Saturday featured the final home game of
See PLAYOFFS, page 27
Stonewall’s career day lifts women over Seton Hall By Nate Burleyson Asst. Sports Editor
ALEXA SANDLER | THE DEPAULIA
Chante Stonewall looks over her shoulder during a game against Creighton on Jan. 31. Stonewall scored 24 of her career-high 29 points in the first half against Seton Hall.
The No. 14 ranked DePaul women’s basketball team is in the midst of the toughest stretch of their Big East schedule with four of their last six games on the road. After Friday’s triumph over St. John’s, the Blue Demons turned to South Orange, New Jersey to take on Seton Hall. The Blue Demons embraced the fast pace from the Pirates, with Chante Stonewall scoring 24 of her career-high 29 points in the first half en route to an 86-76 win. Early in the first quarter, Seton Hall hit two quick shots to start the game 5-0. Chante Stonewall and Alexia Allesch hit two threes for each side to start the game that was knotted at 15 halfway through the first quarter. DePaul pushed for three forced turnovers and three offensive rebounds early on. Both teams looked to create a disruptive pace, averaging three shots per minute to
start the game. DePaul got a late advantage and forced a scoreless stretch from the Pirates to go up 27-21. Stonewall had 13 points to lead all scorers. In the second quarter, Stonewall got to work early hitting a turnaround jumper and then finding Deja Church for a three to take a quick nine-point lead. Mya Jackson and Lauren Park-Lane of Seton Hall cut the game to 32-28 two minutes later after two forced turnovers that led to layups. Seton Hall had seven steals in the first half to disrupt the Blue Demons. DePaul entered the bonus with 3:04 left in the first half and senior guard Alexis Lewis picked up her fourth foul for Seton Hall at the end of the half. Stonewall scored her 24th point of the first half on a quick steal and layup with a minute left. DePaul rode into the final twenty minutes behind Stonewall, leading 50-40
See STONEWALL, page 27