Arts & Culture: “The DUFF” cast talks
15
high school bullying, See pg. 19
Online exclusive video
Chicago-based folk band Sedgewick plays at Uncommon Ground Chicago
Opinions: College should publish public student death notifcation policy, See pg. 35
SPRING 2015
WEEKS LEFT
No. 1 Non-Daily College Newspaper in the Nation MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015
THE OFFICIAL NEWS SOURCE OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO
VOLUME 50, ISSUE 16
P-Fac vote spurs union investigation JACOB WITTICH & KATHERINE DAVIS Campus Editor & Associate Editor AFTER A MONTH of its leadership cam-
paigning for separation, the PartTime Faculty union has voted to disaffiliate from its parent union, the Illinois Education AssociationNational Education Association. P-Fac members voted 232–50 on Jan. 21 in favor of disaffiliation in an election from Dec. 24 through Jan. 21. The election was authorized by a 41–1 vote on Dec. 22 by P-Fac’s departmental representatives. The IEA has declared it intends to investigate the election process on several grounds. Conflicts between P-Fac and the IEA-NEA began when the statewide association proposed that staff members who also teach should be admitted into P-Fac, a move that would allow staff members with higher seniority to take course assignments from adjunct professors, said Diana Vallera, P-Fac president and an adjunct professor in the Photography Department. “There’s been years of not being serviced properly [by the IEA]
and then the conflict that arose between them not honoring our contract,” Vallera said. “That was really the last straw and what prompted the disaffiliation.” Beverly Stewart, chair of the Higher Education Council for the IEA, said complaints from P-Fac members regarding the validity of the election prompted IEA to launch an inves-
tigation on Jan. 21 into the way the election was conducted. Stewart said the concerns include the potential disenfranchisement of some eligible voters, whether enough P-Fac members voted for the constitution to be amended and if equal opportunity was given to those against disaffiliation to communicate with P-Fac members as those who supported the separation. P-Fac members complained that the timing of the election—which
xx SEE P-FAC, PG. 9
Illinois criminalizes ‘revenge porn’
KATHERINE DAVIS Associate Editor
NATALIE CRAIG
TO IMPROVE DAILY commutes for Chi-
xx SEE CTA, PG. 42
Vallera said there was increased participation in the vote compared to previous P-Fac elections, which she said reassured her that nobody was excluded from participating.
Nohemi Rosales THE CHRONICLE Mark Grba, an investigator from Chicago’s Office of Inspector General (left), Jim Nagle, an adjunct professor in the English Department (middle) and Mark Klein, a P-Fac elections committee chairperson and an adjunct faculty member in the Art + Design Department, (right) returned to the 600 S. Michigan Ave. Building with the ballots from the Jan. 21 election.
Track, tech CTA upgrades in 2015
cago residents, the Chicago Transit Authority is continuing a multiyear project geared toward addressing the problems many Chicagoans and commuting students often face. As part of the $5 billion system improvement project announced by the CTA in 2011, 2015 upgrades will include initiatives to remodel rail stations on the Blue and Red lines, a Ventra smartphone application and improved subway wireless access, CTA spokeswoman Ibis Antongiorgi said in a Jan. 19 emailed statement. The Red Line’s 95th Street Terminal, originally built in 1969, will undergo a $240 million construction project to expand and remodel
was held during winter break when many members were on vacation— caused potential disenfranchisement of some eligible voters, Stewart said, adding that when disaffiliation began, many P-Fac members had no prior knowledge of it.
Managing Editor
FORMER GOV. PAT Quinn signed legis-
Kaitlin Hetterscheidt THE CHRONICLE The Wilson Red line stop will be one of several renovated stations, along with other stops on the Blue and Red lines.
CPD veteran helms Safety & Security • PAGE 8
iPhone separation mobilizes anxiety • PAGE 15
lation on Dec. 29, 2014, that criminalizes “revenge porn,” the public posting and sharing of nonconsensual, sexually explicit images to the Internet. The law was created to combat the growing epidemic of cyberbullying, according to a Dec. 29 Illinois Government News Network press release. The distribution of private, sexual content without the consent of the participant will result in a class 4 felony starting June 1, and it is punishable by one to three years in prison and up to $25,000 in fines. Illinois has joined California, New Jersey, Arizona and 13 other states in criminalizing revenge porn, said Mary Anne Franks, as-
Be kind, rewind: cassette tape culture • PAGE 22
sociate professor of law at the University of Miami School of Law and legislative and tech policy director for the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. Franks has worked with legislators in 22 states, including Illinois, for the past year to draft laws against revenge porn. She said the Illinois law is the strongest nonconsensual pornography law to be passed thus far. “What we are trying to do with the laws that we are advocating is to get people to understand just how vicious [revenge porn] is and how it is very much like any other form of sexual abuse,” Franks said. “I have worked with drafters to make sure [the law] is narrow, precise, effective and that they comport with the First Amendment.”
xx SEE PORN, PG. 29
City Council expands profiling ban • PAGE 37 T HE COLUMBIA C HRONICLE