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Thursday, October 5, 2023
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Pressure grows for NU-Evanston CBA haven’t shown any willCommunity calls they ingness, as far as I’ve seen, to for contract amid do that.” NAA is composed of several Ryan Field debate community and campus groups By SELENA KUZNIKOV
daily senior staffer @selenakuznikov
Illustration by Shveta Shah
Students will have the ability to vote Thursday through Sunday on Wildcat Connection.
Students to vote for ASG Senators
Twenty seats up for grabs accross NU’s seven undergraduate schools By JACOB WENDLER
daily senior staffer @jacob_wendler
Associated Student Government elections for the
2023-24 academic year will take place Thursday through Sunday, offering students the opportunity to select who will represent them in ASG’s primary legislative body. Voting opens at 7 p.m. on
Thursday and closes at 7 p.m. on Sunday. All undergraduate students are eligible to vote and can do so through Wildcat Connection. ASG Senate consists of 40 total seats: 20 Senators
who represent the various undergraduate schools at NU — proportional to their enrollment — and 20 who represent student groups.
» See ELECTIONS, page 15
Through several debates over Northwestern’s contentious proposal to rebuild Ryan Field, local activist groups, including the Northwestern Accountability Alliance, have been calling for a community benefits agreement. A CBA is a legally enforceable contract between a party that wants to develop something — in this case, the University — and community groups representing individuals impacted by that development, according to Jackson Paller, a lawyer and member of Reclaim Evanston. He said a CBA is a method to hold NU accountable for the promises it has made to Evanston community members. “Northwestern has made a point of claiming that they’re interested in getting community support,” Paller said. “It costs them nothing to come to the table and talk with the Northwestern Accountability Alliance about the CBA. And
including the Community Alliance for Better Government, the Most Livable City Association, Reclaim Evanston, Northwestern University Graduate Workers, Fossil Free Northwestern and Students Organizing for Labor Rights. Lesley Williams, president of the Community Alliance for Better Government, said NAA is not opposing the stadium project itself, but rather the commercial rezoning of the area surrounding Ryan Field allowing NU to host six for-profit concerts each year. In its statement of principles, NAA outlined possible additions to a CBA such as expanded mental health services for University stakeholders, contributions to Evanston’s reparations program, free childcare facilities at the stadium and a commitment to investing in affordable housing. “The CBA would have to be negotiated by community representatives with Northwestern,” Williams said. “(NAA’s) priority is really to get a good community benefits agreement
» See COMMUNITY, page 15
City rallies against Dance Marathon length cut in half domestic violence 50th annual fundraiser to take place for 15 hours at Welsh-Ryan Arena YWCA and other organizations host programming By OLIVIA MOFUS
the daily northwestern
Sunday marked the beginning of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and several community groups are hosting events and resource fairs in and around Evanston to raise awareness of resources available to survivors and strengthen the city’s understanding of the issue. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence proposed dedicating a month to domestic violence awareness in 1981 to spread awareness of domestic violence and its effects on survivors, families and communities. Since 1987, October has been Domestic Violence Awareness Month, signified by a purple ribbon. YWCA Evanston/North Shore will be holding events all month, including a 40-hour
Recycle Me
domestic violence training event, a community resource fair and a conversation about the intersection between domestic violence and racism. As part of its Every 9 Seconds fundraising campaign, which matches donations up to $50,000, the YWCA will continue to “support our Domestic Violence work — work that touches survivors, their families, youth in the community, and even those who have caused violence and abuse,” according to the organization’s Facebook page. The YWCA will also hold a Clothesline Project on Oct. 11, where survivors of domestic violence will design and hang shirts as a visual statistic of the pervasiveness of violence. In addition to these events, the YWCA provides yearround resources to domestic violence survivors and their families. These resources include emergency shelter and long-term housing, a children’s program, community
» See DV AWARENESS, page 15
By JACOB WENDLER
daily senior staffer @jacob_wendler
Northwestern University Dance Marathon’s annual charity event this spring will change in two major ways: the event will last 15 hours instead of 30 and will take place at Welsh-Ryan Arena instead of outside Norris University Center. The fundraiser, in its 50th year, will run from 8 p.m. on Friday, March 29, to 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 30. NUDM previously hosted its event the weekend before Winter Quarter Reading Period. According to Weinberg senior Grace Dyer, executive director of NUDM, the group had to find a new venue due to construction anticipated this winter and spring on the Norris East Lawn. Dyer said the location change provided leadership an opportunity for NUDM to rethink other aspects of the event. “We wanted to make sure that we were thinking critically about every aspect of Dance
Marathon,” Dyer said. “I feel like we have the tendency to just kind of do the same thing every year because if it’s not broken, why fix it? But since we were already making that one big change, we wanted to be very intentional this year about really thinking through each decision.” She added that NUDM was inspired by the success of A&O Productions’ Blowout, a student-produced concert that takes place in Welsh-Ryan each fall. Dyer also said changes in NUDM were inspired by student feedback: This year’s team structure will feature a stronger emphasis on student organizations and friend groups, she said. Many students shared that they would be more likely to attend if their friends were there. Dyer also said students told NUDM that the event being 30 hours long and brushing up against finals season has deterred them from participating. “We found that many people have some sort of exam or paper due that Monday,
Daily file photo by Katie Chen
making that pre-Reading Week weekend pretty bad for a lot of people when it comes to preparing for finals,” she said. “We’re hoping people shouldn’t have quite as much schoolwork on their plates as a typical Dance Marathon weekend, and hopefully that will make the event more
accessible to more Northwestern students.” NUDM named Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland & Northwest Indiana, which provides housing and support for families with sick children, as its 2024
» See NUDM, page 15
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