Issuu

Serving the Northwestern and Evanston communities since 1881

The Daily Northwestern Thursday, May 25, 2023

DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM

Find us online @thedailynu

160 Years of Evanston South Asian coalition creates community

see page 5

club’s broader mission. Jasmine Collective ofIn the conversations with nontalks about caste South Asian friends, they an interest in learning and Islamophobia saw about topics like caste and By JOANNA HOU

daily senior staffer @joannah_11

Weinberg sophomores Abhi Nimmagadda and Sanjana Rajesh, a former Daily staffer, have found various undergraduate clubs at Northwestern offering affinity spaces and political discourse, but none that merged the two while also centering South Asian students. This gap led the two to found The Jasmine Collective, a student group committed to creating a South Asian American community and coalition. The club, which started in Spring Quarter, has plans to hold identity-based events, guest speakers and educational discussions. “It’s meant to be a healing space just as much as it is meant to be a space from which to organize,” Nimmagadda said. Though the affinity-specific spaces in the club are geared toward South Asian students, the two said they also want to pursue education as part

Islamophobia in South Asian communities. Caste is a social stratification in India and some other parts of South Asia, according to anthropology and Asian American studies Prof. Shalini Shankar. People born into lower rungs of the caste system, as well as ones born outside it entirely, experience “all kinds of social segregation as well as ongoing discrimination,” said Shankar, who advises TJC. Rajesh said broader community outreach helps lay the groundwork for effective organizing. TJC held its first teach-in on May 17, where the members discussed dismantling South Asian fascism in the U.S. Rajesh said it was “very exciting” to see the diversity of attendees. “A thing that happens at teach-ins is that you learn with other people, and it’s really motivating when you see other people are interested in this,” Rajesh said. “When you see that other people care, that also makes you want to do

» See TJC, page 10

Kimberly Espinosa/Daily Senior Staffer

Mayor Daniel Biss delivered his second State of the City address at Evanston SPACE on Tuesday.

Biss calls to improve sustainability

Mayor details downtown revitalization plans in State of the City By CASEY HE

the daily northwestern @caseeey_he

About 100 Evanston community members filled the

auditorium at Evanston SPACE for Mayor Daniel Biss’ second annual State of the City address Tuesday. This year’s event, which was free and open to all Evanston residents for the first time,

was a departure from previous addresses held at the Evanston Chamber of Commerce. Biss said he wanted to make the address more intimate and accessible. Mayor Daniel Biss speaks with Northwestern University

President Michael Schill. Several local leaders, including Northwestern University President Michael Schill, attended the event. In his address, Biss said he

» See STATE OF THE CITY, page 10

Medill works to diversify faculty Teacher honored Dean Whitaker says hiring representative professors, staff a top priority By SAMANTHA POWERS

the daily northwestern @sqpowers04

Every freshman at the Medill School of Journalism learns the importance of diversity in the industry when they take the course Journalism 202: Journalism Values, Practice and Trends. Members of Medill’s leadership team say they work to hire faculty that will reflect the growing diversity in the field. Medill has one of the most racially diverse faculty cohorts at Northwestern. The University reported Medill’s tenureline faculty was 54.2% white in the 2020-2021 academic year — the smallest percentage across all of NU’s schools. Medill Dean Charles Whitaker said hiring a diverse faculty is one of his top priorities. In his research on the hiring of women and minorities in the magazine industry, he said he has found that people involved in hiring tend to turn to their own network. “If your network is just people who look like you and who come from the exact same

Recycle Me

background as you, then the likelihood that you will get much diversity is kind of slim to none,” Whitaker said. To counter this trend, he said, Medill leadership works closely with search committees to prioritize diversity in hiring. When Medill leadership worked to hire the inaugural George R.R. Martin Chair in Storytelling, Whitaker said he was happy to see the four finalists were “amazing” writers of color. This, he said, is a testament to what can happen when those involved with hiring “cast a wide net.” Whitaker said when he began his tenure as dean in 2019, the faculty he worked with wasn’t particularly diverse. According to the University’s diversity and inclusion report, Medill’s tenure-line faculty was 71.4% white during the 20182019 academic year. He said those numbers are the result of institutional barriers within both academia and the journalism industry. Medill’s tenured faculty tends to be less diverse because tenure is a lifelong position, Whitaker said. As time goes on,

with street name Geraldine Pace, who ‘practically raised’ Evanston, lauded By KATE WALTER

daily senior staffer @katewalter03

Illustration by Lily Ogburn

Rob Brown, Medill’s director of diversity, equity, inclusion and outreach, works with search committees to help center inclusive hiring. He has search committee members take an implicit bias test.

however, he said he hopes the work he and other Medill leadership are doing will become more apparent to students and result in a more diverse tenured faculty. In 2021, Rob Brown joined Medill as its director of diversity, equity, inclusion and outreach. Brown, who works with search committees to help center inclusive hiring, said he has committee members take an implicit bias test. Brown also hosts semi-regular

“lunch and learn” sessions with faculty, where he invites speakers to discuss topics including microaggressions in the classroom and how to make transgender and non-binary students feel included. Brown said these strategies present their own challenges. The sessions are largely opt-in, which means not all professors benefit from the instruction. Still, he said, it’s important to

» See MEDILL POC PROFS, page 10

After 48 years teaching at the Infant Welfare Society of Evanston, Geraldine “Geri” Pace will be honored with a street sign. City Council voted May 8 to designate a section of Main Street between Pitner Avenue and Grey Avenue as “Geraldine Pace Way.” The segment will honor her decades of work in Evanston with early childhood education. IWSE operates two full-day facilities in the community: the Baby Toddler Nursery and Teen Baby Nursery, both of which offer child care and early education programs. Established in 1996, the Honorary Street Name Sign program gives Evanston residents the opportunity to honor individuals for their service to the community. At IWSE, Pace worked with toddlers for most of her career before

moving into the baby room. Both of her own daughters attended the IWSE nursery. One of the most rewarding parts of her job is receiving visits from her former students, Pace said. She said she recently ran into a former student, now an adult, from her toddler class. “It’s one thing for a child to remember you, but a grown man? That just made my day,” Pace said. “He came out of the car and hugged me, and he said, ‘I’ll never forget you.’” She added that her “calm, laidback” personality has served her well as a children’s teacher. Her only regret, Pace said, is not writing down what former students have said to her in the classroom. “You always have to have patience, and you treat them with respect, all children,” Pace said. “I treat my own children and classroom children with love, respect, kindness, hugging and high fives.” Pamela Staples — the site director at IWSE’s Baby Toddler Nursery, the oldest operating infant toddler child care center in the state — said she started working

» See GERALDINE, page 10