The Daily Northwestern — April 15, 2026 by The Daily Northwestern

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Wednesday, April 15, 2026

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Council tables housing plan Monday’s 5-4 vote delays further discussion until May By MAX TURETZKY and CAROLINE GOULD

the daily northwestern

Thomas Hurley/The Daily Northwestern

The second-ever Northwestern Prison Education Program Commencement took place at the Sheridan Correctional Center in Sheridan, Illinois, on Monday.

NPEP graduates second cohort Twenty-two incarcerated honored at commencement ceremony By CARLOTTA ANGIOLILLO

senior staffer

Less than three years after the Northwestern Prison Education Program’s inaugural class

graduated in November 2023, a second cohort of incarcerated students received their bachelor’s degrees from Northwestern on Monday morning. The graduates joined the 2023 cohort as the only people in the

Figure Skating Club lands 13th Team competes at first national competition By LEXI NEWSOM

print managing editor

The Northwestern University Figure Skating Club’s Intercollegiate Freestyle Team stood together on the ice at Salt Lake City Sports Complex, listening to the results of the Low Team Maneuvers event. When it was announced that the NU skaters who competed in Low Team Maneuvers had won, the whole team began cheering and celebrating together. “That was an unbelievable moment,” said Weinberg

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senior and NUFSC President Michelle Lu, who competed in the event. Of the 13 skaters — 12 of whom competed — who attended the National Intercollegiate Final this weekend, three competed for Low Team Maneuvers. In this event, a group of skaters takes turns performing various elements, including jumps, spins and a step sequence, and receives a joint score. The overall team finished 13th at the National Intercollegiate Final, which took place Friday through Sunday in Salt Lake City, Utah. The 16 teams that participated were invited based on their scores from qualifying competitions

» See FIGURE SKATING, page 10

U.S. to receive a top 10 university degree while incarcerated. “There is something uniquely powerful about being second,” NPEP Director Jennifer Lackey said during her remarks. “The first cohort carries the weight of

beginning… but a second cohort carries something different, and in many ways, more demanding. You took what NPEP was and helped it become what it is today.”

» See COMMENCEMENT, page 11

City Council moved to delay the final vote on the Strategic Housing Plan, Evanston’s first comprehensive housing strategy, in a 5-4 vote Monday. Ald. Clare Kelly (1st) motioned to table the plan, nicknamed Housing4All, until May 11. Kelly raised several concerns about the strategy, which she said failed to discuss gentrification and lacked “concrete initiatives” to prevent the displacement of current residents. Kelly was joined by the three other members of the Council’s “opposition bloc” — Alds. Parielle Davis (7th), Matt Rodgers (8th) and Tom Suffredin (6th) — which tends to oppose Mayor Daniel Biss’ agenda and voted against the city’s landmark comprehensive plan in January. “Our duty is first and foremost to our residents who are here now,” Kelly said. Ald. Bobby Burns (5th) also voted in favor of tabling Housing4All. He told The Daily he wanted two readings of the plan before voting on it.

Housing4All would guide policy and funding allocation over the next decade, with the goals of lowering housing costs and addressing the city’s long-standing racial and income inequities. The plan aims to preserve between 500 to 1,000 existing affordable housing units, build between 2,500 to 4,000 new units and protect residents from displacement through stronger tenant protections. City officials have been working on the plan since June 2024, and the Housing Community and Development Act Committee voted to advance it to a full Council vote in February. The several dozen residents who spoke during public comment at Monday’s meeting were split on the housing plan. Supporters leaned younger and included tenants, realtors and affordable housing advocates who were concerned about rising home prices. SESP first-year Hyrum Flores spoke in favor of the plan, citing his experience as a student from a “low-income background” who “wants to live off-campus.” “There are a lot of students in my position who come from very similar backgrounds, who really

» See COUNCIL, page 11

Residents protest nearby waste facility City returns focus to issues posed by Church Street transfer station By ALLISON KUESTER

assistant city editor

As a longtime Evanston resident, Janet Alexander Davis cares for her neighborhood in the 5th Ward — she knows she can always call her neighbors if she’s having a medical emergency. But, throughout her time on Leland Avenue, she has seen and experienced the harmful effects of the nearby Waste Transfer Station. For decades, the waste transfer station on Church Street has loomed large in the residential areas of Evanston’s historically Black communities in the 2nd and 5th Wards. Residents have been protesting the station for upwards of 10 years. Now, as the topic of the station is coming before Evanston’s

committees, there is “more renewed interest,” said 2nd Ward resident Cindy Levitt, who lives next door to the station. In January, City Council unanimously adopted Evanston’s Environmental Equity Investigation final report, a detailed overview of environmental injustice in the city. It included several references to the waste transfer station and the city’s stated goal to “mitigate impacts of the facility.” During a March 23 Administration & Public Works Committee meeting, members of Environmental Justice Evanston and affected residents came together to explain the station’s history and their experience living near it. “The point is that back 40 years ago, we may not have understood that garbage of any kind would be detrimental to a neighborhood,”

Illustration by Xuan Tran

The Waste Transfer Station has been operating for more than half a century.

Davis, the co-chair of EJ Evanston, said. “But we know better now, and that’s my qualm, is that we know better, and yet we allow something to continue to exist.” The station has been operating for decades. Originally owned by Richard and James DeBoer in

1972, it has operated as a place where trucks drive their solid waste before it is moved to a landfill. The DeBoers were known to employ locals largely from the 2nd and 5th Wards.

» See WASTE TRANSFER, page 11