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Monday, May 15, 2023
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Facilities technician made campus ‘safer’ NU remembers Kevin McLean for lighting initiatives By ZELLA MILFRED
daily senior staffer @ZMilfred
Ziye Wang/The Daily Northwestern
Two dancers from the group Burmese Peacock International. This year’s event featured artists representing various mediums and Asian cultures.
Festival celebrates APIDA month
Third annual Umbrella Arts Festival highlights art, food, performance By CASEY HE
the daily northwestern @caseeey_he
Weekend mornings at Fountain Square are usually quiet, but Saturday was an exception. By 10
a.m., dozens of white tents lined the block from Davis Street to Grove Street with vendors busy setting up their booths for the third annual Umbrella Arts Festival, a celebration of Asian art, performance, food and crafts. Overcast weather did not deter
hundreds of community members from streaming into the event, which was hosted by the Evanston Asian, South Asian Pacific Islander Americans. Melissa Raman Molitor, the founder of Evanston ASPA, said she first organized the festival in
May 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and antiAsian violence across the country. “We recognized that there really wasn’t any structure in place, support (and) services for
» See UMBRELLA, page 6
Growing up in Chicago, Kevin McLean often spent his afternoons tinkering with small creations in his grandfather’s tool shed. His interests in mechanics carried into adulthood, pushing him to become a facilities technician at Northwestern, where he worked for 14 years. “Kevin could have been successful with any career path he wanted to pursue,” said Chris Papastathis, Kevin McLean’s childhood best friend. “But at the end of the day, he chose what he was most passionate about. I really think that’s why he was such a talented, master electrician.” Kevin McLean died on April 28 at the age of 50 due to cancerrelated complications and is survived by his wife and two sons. His work at the University lives on in many of the intricate exterior lighting systems on buildings throughout campus. These include color-changing LED lights in the Rebecca Crown Center Clocktower and on the
outside of Deering Library. Deering glows blue for autism awareness in April and pink for breast cancer awareness in October. It will shine with rainbowcolored lights for Pride Month in June. Supervisor and Chief Electrician John McDonagh said Kevin McLean was the first in the facilities department to advocate for using LED lights, which the U.S. Department of Energy considers to be the most energy-efficient lighting technology. “People didn’t want to put LEDs in buildings because they thought they weren’t going to last or didn’t trust this technology, but he saw the value in it,” McDonagh said. Kevin McLean also pushed to update electrical meters oncampus to track the University’s power quality and usage. Additionally, he’d been the first at NU to advocate for the campus GE Current’s LightGrid, which uses smart controls to dim and brighten outdoor lighting throughout the day. Kevin McLean’s ability to stay up to date with the newest technologies and build relationships with manufacturers and contractors made the above projects possible, McDonagh said. In 2022, Kevin McLean
» See MCLEAN, page 6
Adoption center NU TEDx forum centers synergy nutures city cats Students present talks at conference for first time in event history rooms that allow up to Paws and Claws cat 10 cats to live together, play rescue opens new and be cared for by the volstaff. People can also doors in Evanston unteer come to the center to meet By ASTRY RODRIGUEZ
daily senior staffer @astry_tpwk
More than 150 people gathered for Paws and Claws Cat Rescue’s new cat adoption center’s grand opening in Evanston on Saturday. Visitors toured the space and saw a handful of small kittens housed behind glass walls playing with interactive toys. The center, located at 829 Chicago Ave., is Paws and Claws’ first facility. Executive Director Ashlynn Boyce first founded the nonprofit in 2020 with the mission to rescue cats from local shelters at risk of euthanization. “In Illinois alone, there’s about 6,000 animals euthanized each year,” Boyce said. “That was sort of the driving force.” The facility features four
Recycle Me
and adopt the cats. The center also has a room for ill cats, and will provide an in-house vet and medical equipment for spay and neuter procedures, as well as bigger surgeries like amputations, Boyce said. Prior to opening the center, Boyce said her organization placed more than 400 cats with foster and adoptive families each year, providing them with medical resources and pet supplies. With the new center, the organization might be able to help over 1,000 cats annually, she said. “Our intake is going to increase by three times, and those are cats that are at risk of euthanasia in shelters,” Boyce said. More than 90% of Paws and Claws’ cats come from open admission shelters, which take in the most
» See PAWS, page 6
By SAMANTHA POWERS
the daily northwestern @sqpowers04
The student-run TEDxNorthwesternU club held its annual conference Sunday afternoon, boasting two student speakers for the first time along with NU professors and other experts. The theme of the conference was “Synergy,” which emphasized the power of coming together to achieve something greater than its individual parts. TED Talks spanned topics ranging from AI-generated art to composting with worms. Weinberg junior and co-Executive Director Yoshi D’Souza said he and his team had big shoes to fill after last year’s conference. “A lot of our TED Talks have gone viral in the past, so we were shooting to get a viral TED Talk this year,” D’Souza said. “That’s our big goal.” Weinberg junior and coExecutive Director Bella Gibb said the club created a new TikTok account this year with that goal in mind. The account, which promotes the club and engages
students in their own thought experiments, is part of a broader effort to increase TEDxNorthwesternU’s presence on campus. Because the club faced problems with funding, members came up with creative solutions to their tight budget, D’Souza said. This year, they switched from hiring a professional videography team to contracting RTVF students, which Gibb said was a positive change. They also switched from free admission to $5 tickets. The speakers were all volunteers. Author and leadership consultant Steven Van Cohen gave a talk on building connections in an unfamiliar place. Van Cohen said the conference was as well run as any event he has done as a professional speaker. “Everyone is really committed and excited to do this volunteer work, and it showed,” Van Cohen said. “It makes things easier for speakers when you have community coordinators really wanting to make it special. They weren’t just going through the motions, they really took this to heart.” SESP junior Arthur Lebovitz, who spoke at the event, said the TEDxNorthwesternU
Photo courtesy of TEDxNorthwestern
SESP junior Arthur Lebovitz gave a TED Talk on composting with worms. Lebovitz was one of two student speakers, the first in school conference history.
club members did an “over-thetop, incredible” job. He said after growing up watching TED Talks, he was nervous to speak, but the members helped to guide him through the process. Lebovitz gave a talk on
composting. He spoke about how worms can help generate nutrient-rich soil and combat food waste at the same time. During the pandemic, he said,
» See TEDX, page 6
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