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The Daily Northwestern Monday, November 23, 2015
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Balancing Without a Budget
Football
School officials fear state cuts By MARISSA PAGE
daily senior staffer @marissahpage
Jacob Swan/Daily Senior Staffer
BADGERED Northwestern linebacker Nate Hall contests a Wisconsin pass late in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game. The Wildcats stopped the Badgers short of the end zone to preserve the 13-7 victory.
Defense leads NU to victory No. 20 Northwestern
By BOBBY PILLOTE
daily senior staffer @bobbypillote
13
No. 25 Wisconsin
MADISON, Wis. — Once again, the game came down to the final seconds for Northwestern. The No. 20 Wildcats (9-2, 5-2 Big Ten) weathered a wild one to beat the No. 25 Wisconsin Badgers
7
(8-3, 5-2) 13-7. NU survived two would-be touchdowns that were overturned on replay in the final
minute of the game before forcing an incompletion on the Badgers’ final pass attempt. The improbable victory was the Cats’ first win in Madison since 2000. “One heck of a defensive battle,” coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “We found a way to make one more stop.” Wisconsin’s first potential score » See FOOTBALL, page 7
With the Illinois budget still in limbo, Evanston school officials fear potential solutions to relieve the state’s massive debt could cut millions of dollars from both districts. Gov. Bruce Rauner and the state legislature failed to compromise on a new budget by the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1. Almost five months later, state legislators have yet to determine a budget while officials predict the state’s backlog will grow to $8.5 billion by the end of the year. Although the uncertainty of the state budget has left some local social service organizations underfunded, both Evanston/Skokie School District 65 and District 202, which serves Evanston Township High School, are still receiving the majority of their state subsidies. “Currently we’re some of the few institutions that are getting most of our money,” said Bill Stafford, ETHS’ chief financial officer. “For the most part, we’re getting our dollars as
opposed to some other institutions, like higher ed.” Although no clear solution has been brought to the table, officials from both ETHS and District 65 foresee several situations in which their funding could be cut significantly, such as a property tax freeze in fiscal years 2017 and 2018. Property taxes account for a major amount of both districts’ funding — 67 percent for District 65 and 85 percent for ETHS. “If we had a property tax freeze, that would really be disastrous,” Stafford said. “Since we get most of our money from (property taxes), we would have to make really huge reductions.” In the event of a property tax freeze — which legislators have been discussing for months — property tax rates across the state would be frozen at a set rate for two years while income taxes rose. “If property taxes were frozen at current rates, and it kicked in two years from now, that would be about a $3 to 3.5 million hit on our budget,” District 65 superintendent Paul Goren » See EDUCATION, page 7
NAISA asks NU to remove Evans’ name from buildings By MARIANA ALFARO
daily senior staffer @marianaa_alfaro
Members of the Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance launched a petition Saturday morning asking administrators to remove University founder John Evans’ name from buildings including the John Evans Alumni Center. The student alliance made the announcement at the commemoration of the 151st anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre, held Saturday in Norris University Center’s Dittmar Gallery. The petition also requests the University remove Evans’ name from faculty positions such as the John Evans Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy. SESP senior Forrest Bruce, copresident of NAISA, said there is no
deadline or threshold for the amount of people who sign the petition. “We are just hoping to get a significant amount of people to sign it and we’re hoping that it will sort of gain some steam and get the attention of the administration,” he said. “I’d like to sit down with whoever’s in charge of renaming the center or any other spaces on campus and have a discussion with them.” During the event, Lesley-Ann Brown-Henderson, executive director of Campus Inclusion and Community, announced Jasmine Gurneau, a member of the Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative, will assume the position of assistant director of Multicultural Student Affairs and Admissions, a joint position within the Undergraduate Admissions office and MSA. “She would be helping to recruit, develop and support Native
American students and leading identity engagement initiatives for MSA,” MSA director Charles Kellom told The Daily. Brown-Henderson said Gurneau will begin working at NU in early December. During the commemoration event, Brown-Henderson spoke on the significance of history. “The more that we can acknowledge our history as a university, particularly to marginalized communities, the greater we can be as an institution,” she said. Mark Cleveland (Weinberg ‘87) acknowledged the work by NU community leaders to begin a conversation about changing the names of certain University spaces to make NU a safe space for Native American students. He also recognized NAISA members’ efforts.
Sherry Li/The Daily Northwestern
PETITION FOR CHANGE A white flag flies at the John Evans Alumni Center in commemoration of the 151st anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre Saturday morning.
“I want to thank these young men and women for asking us what the legacy we want to leave behind is and the respectful way that they’ve done
it,” he said. Before the event at Norris » See NAISA, page 7
University says it will increase transparency on investments By TYLER PAGER
daily senior staffer @tylerpager
Northwestern plans to sign the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investing to provide greater transparency on its investments, the University announced Friday. The principles address environmental, social and corporate governance issues for investors to consider. NU becomes only the third U.S. university to sign onto the principles, joining Harvard University
and University of California, Berkeley. “Becoming a signatory to the U.N. Principles provides guidance to the external investment managers with whom we work that these are principles to consider as part of their investment strategy,” William McLean, NU’s vice president and chief investment officer, said in a news release. “It doesn’t tell them what investments they can or can’t own, but that they should take these things into consideration.” As part of the agreement, NU will submit a document that details the University’s organization and investment
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
process. This document, which will be made public, will not include individual investments or external investment managers. The announcement came the same day Fossil Free NU, a student group that lobbies the University to divest from coal companies, protested outside a Board of Trustees meeting. SESP junior Christina Cilento, a spokeswoman for Fossil Free NU, said the University’s decision to sign the principles is a step in the right direction, but she said she is skeptical of what change it will bring.
“It seems like an evasion tactic to say we are committed to environmental sustainability but not actually enact these principles,” she said. “They have stated they are committed to environmentally sustainability, but they have to actually show that. They have to put their money where their mouth is.” Cilento added the principles, which have a social justice component, could be helpful for other divestment campaigns at NU such as Northwestern Divest, which calls for the University to divest from six corporations the group says violate Palestinians’ human rights.
NU Divest did not respond to requests for comment. Former University President Henry Bienen told The Daily in April universities often try to follow U.S. government policies to guide investment decisions. He said donors aim to maximize the investment of their gift. “People who are on your board tend not to like divestment,” he said. “Their preference is to not have politics attached to investment decisions for lots of reasons.” tylerpager2017@u.northwestern.edu
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