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Thursday, May 23, 2024

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SPORTS/Lacrosse by the numbers

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Medill alum Jonathan Eig wins Pulitzer Prize

Breaking down No. 1 Northwestern, Florida’s key figures before Final Four

Calling out NU bias against MENA students

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Schill to testify with UCLA and Rutgers leaders on Thursday By BEATRICE VILLAFLOR

daily senior staffer @beatricedvilla

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce, led by chairwoman U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), called University President Michael Schill and the leaders of two other universities to appear for a Thursday hearing about antisemitism on college campuses. The hearing, titled “Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos,” will mark the committee’s third on antisemitism within college campuses since December 2023. It comes after the leaders of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University have testified in front of Foxx’s committee. Testifying alongside Schill are University of California, Los Angeles Chancellor Gene Block and Rutgers University President Jonathan

» See CONGRESS CONTEXT, page 10

Illustration by Shveta Shah

Students have alleged misconduct from Segal shop professional Scott Simpson. But they fear administrators have little desire or ability to hold him accountable. By BEATRICE VILLAFLOR

daily senior staffer @beatricedvilla

Just over a month before she graduated from Northwestern, Emily Song (McCormick ’24) told her professor that Scott Simpson — a professional hired to help students manufacture projects in the Segal Design Institute shop — was “unfit” to work in a learning environment. Song had previously reported Simpson for his “disrespectful”

behavior toward her, referring to several incidents with him during her sophomore year. After another negative interaction with Simpson in February, she lodged a complaint against him again. “I don’t enjoy spending time in the shop anymore,” she wrote in a Feb. 19 email to her professor. “I look over my shoulder, making sure Scott is not around me.” Four days later, she met with Segal administrators to discuss her concerns about Simpson. That same week, seven other students lodged similar complaints against him.

Election slating bill faces preliminary injunction

Legislation could prevent candidates from appearing on ballots By WILLIAM TONG

daily senior staffer @william2tong

A Sangamon County Circuit Court judge granted a preliminary injunction Wednesday against enforcement of a recently passed Illinois law that prohibits election slating. The legislation could prevent four Republicans vying for state office from appearing on general election ballots in November. The candidates filed the lawsuit against the Illinois State Board of Elections and Attorney General Kwame Raoul on May 10. It came a week after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the law, which stops party leaders from adding candidates who didn’t run in partisan primaries to their general election slates. During a Wednesday hearing on the injunction, Circuit Court Judge Gail Noll said the law could violate the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights by disrupting

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their ballot access in the middle of an election cycle. “Here, the public act eliminates one entire route,” she said. Before Noll announced the order, an attorney for the State Board of Elections said for now, the agency was not planning to reject any ballot petitions based on the law. Earlier in the hearing, plaintiffs argued that the law’s application to them specifically restricts the public’s voting rights against the state’s “purported interests” in making the electoral system more fair. Jeffrey Schwab, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said the court should apply strict scrutiny to this dispute — the highest standard of constitutional review that requires government action be narrowly tailored to further a compelling state interest. He said the state failed to meet those stipulations. Democratic officials have said the slating ban prevents political party elites from exercising too

much influence over the electoral process by handpicking candidates and bypassing primary elections. Schwab said he had doubts about that interest. “Why would they only do it for general assembly elections and not others?” Schwab said. He said allowing the plaintiffs to be on the general ballot gives the public more choices during November’s elections, which contributes to Illinois’ goal of protecting voting rights. And, the law was unfair to the candidates themselves — catching them off guard as many had already started obtaining signatures for the slating process, he said. “The legislature changed the rules in the middle of the game,” Schwab said. Attorney Hal Dworkin, who represented the Illinois Attorney General, argued the preliminary injunction could set several negative precedents

» See HEARING, page 10

And, on Feb. 25, Song and four other McCormick seniors launched a petition alleging a “deeply problematic culture” at the shop. The petition calls for new accountability mechanisms and feedback systems in the shop and an immediate investigation into Simpson’s behavior. As of May 21, it has received 114 signatures. Despite several complaints to Segal and University administrators and a temporary absence from his role, Simpson made appearances at the shop following his removal from the shop floor in late February. He

returned to his role on April 23. Even as the University promises to implement safeguards to prevent similar behavior, several students question administrators’ ability and desire to hold Simpson accountable for his conduct. “If students don’t shine a thirdparty spotlight on the behavior and the conditions in the shop, from individuals or the culture itself, there’s nowhere in the administrative chain that will allow for such scrutiny,” Song said.

» See IN FOCUS, page 6

After early blow, Ryan Field foes expand lawsuit claims New claims bring total to seven in lawsuit against Evanston By SHUN GRAVES

the daily northwestern @realshungraves

Residents suing Evanston over Northwestern’s plans for a rebuilt Ryan Field sought to breathe new life into their accusations Monday, doubling down on claims a county judge dismissed in April and detailing how public concerts could “interfere” with their livelihoods. After Judge Pamela McLean Meyerson dismissed three of the four original claims in April, siding with the city and NU, the remaining count seemed poised to enter a pretrial phase. But the Most Livable City Association now seeks to relitigate the claims while introducing some new ones. Shortly after Mayor Daniel Biss broke City Council’s tie in November to approve NU’s plans to host public-facing concerts at a new Ryan Field, Most Livable City and 13 stadium

neighbors sued the city. The group opposing the events wants the court to declare that approval invalid. In the months since, the University has intervened to support the city. With its modified claims detailed in Monday’s filing, Most Livable City asks the court to reconsider its decision. The changes could prolong a case that cuts to the core of a debate that has riven Evanston for the past year. One count includes more detailed claims that the city violated residents’ due process rights by approving the ordinance on a tie-breaking vote, alleging that decades ago, Evanston’s legal counsel declared a higher voting threshold when City Council voted on a zoning change. Another reiterates arguments that the city should have used a map amendment, a more stringent process, rather than a simple text amendment to allow concerts at Ryan Field. And the

last further underscores due process claims over the city’s handling of a Most Livable City written protest last year. The suit’s most lengthy claim, that the city engaged in “secret negotiations” in favor of NU and thus violated residents’ due process rights, has proceeded regardless of the judge’s April ruling — because Evanston and NU had not asked for the court to dismiss it. Monday’s modified complaint separates the claims that Biss and some councilmembers “traded their support for the zoning change for Northwestern’s promise of monetary payments to the City” into a new count. And it introduces two more counts to the suit for seven total. The final two ask the court to prevent the zoning ordinance from taking effect, arguing the public-facing concerts will deleteriously impact private

» See MLCA, page 10