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The Daily Northwestern Wednesday, March 5, 2025

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EVANSTON ELECTION 2025

Marquee matchup reveals Evanston divide Between Biss and Boarini, a rift in visions marks the battle lines of mayoral showdown By SHUN GRAVES

daily senior staffer | @realshungraves

eated just inches away from challenger Jeff Boarini during a Feb. 9 candidate forum, Mayor Daniel Biss scolded his sole opponent for launching a “snide attack” on how he approached his perch atop the city’s government. Though they shared some chuckles and a handshake, moments of bitterness cropped up repeatedly. After the stage cleared, however, Boarini felt some remorse for his attacks. He later apologized to Biss, the political newcomer recalled during a recent sit-down with The Daily.

Photos by Shun Graves/The Daily Northwestern

With less than a month before the April 1 election, a foundational divide between Mayor Daniel Biss, left, and his sole challenger, Jeff Boarini, has teed up a heated battle for the mayoralty.

Rocked by controversy, District 65 EVANSTON could see election shakeup on board DECIDES INSIDE

By AUDREY PACHUTA

daily senior staffer @AudreyPachuta

When Tracy Fulce, a parent from Evanston/Skokie School District 65, took the reins of a Facebook group for fellow district parents and guardians, it felt less like a typical social media

undertaking and more like an extension of her family’s longstanding commitment to community service. A 2nd Ward resident for most of her life, Fulce — whose husband, Lionel Gentle, is running for District 65 school board — has been deeply involved in efforts to improve her neighborhood. She hopes to follow in the

footsteps of her parents’ public service, as her mother was a District 65 teacher and her father was an Evanston police officer. As the mother of a fifth grader at Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies and an older son who graduated from the district, Fulce said she has experienced

A full preview of the candidates, storylines and disputes ahead of the April 1 municipal election. Pages 7-10

» See SCHOOLS, page 10

“I explained that I get a lot of advice from people about how to proceed,” Boarini said. “And not all of it is good advice. Or not all of it — rather than good advice, not all of it is right for me, and I learned a little bit from that. And I was sorry for taking a few cheaper shots at him.” Boarini remembered apologizing to the mayor at the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center. And in many ways, the twoman contest for Evanston’s top job still sees plenty of formative moments like that hallway rendezvous. Yet with less than a month before the April 1 election, a foundational divide between each man’s background and vision for Evanston has teed up a heated battle for the mayoralty. Boarini, a 34-year resident and onetime McDonald’s creative director, stormed into the highly personal world of Evanston politics by challenging Biss, a longtime left-wing organizer. The incumbent came to prominence during his time

representing Evanston in Springfield. After unsuccessfully running for governor in 2018, Biss claimed the mayoralty in a landslide victory in 2021. Boarini hinted that he’s ridden a wave of discontent with the Civic Center, but the incumbent has vowed to enact further reforms on “urgent” issues like affordability and sustainability beyond those he spearheaded during his first term. The two camps have staked out their disparate visions for Evanston. Now, as the final stretch looms, each faces the challenge of winning a race some observers say has surprisingly tightened. Uproar bespeaks rift The battle lines hardened in January, when the uproar over Envision Evanston 2045, the sweeping overhaul of city policy, came to a head. Biss argued strenuously for finalizing the

» See MAYOR, page 10

NU responds to DEI crackdowns

NU’s lobbying hit $1 million in 2024

NU websites change per new Trump policies

By JERRY WU

daily senior staffer @jerrwu

Over the past few weeks, Northwestern, like other universities nationwide, has been complying with the new Trump administration’s hefty diversity, equity and inclusion initiative crackdowns. In President Donald Trump’s first week in office, he issued an executive order to eliminate DEI policies in federally funded programs. At the start of February, only a few NU schools took any initiative to obey the order, scrubbing references to DEI efforts here and there on their websites. But the stakes soon rose again. In a Feb. 14 letter to universities, the Education Department presented colleges nationwide with an ultimatum: eliminate all diversity initiatives in the next two weeks or risk losing federal

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funding. Now that the deadline has passed, the effects at NU have been tangible. The University has erased mentions of DEI in nearly all of its schools and colleges, as well as other department support sites. In a statement to The Daily, a University spokesperson said that “Northwestern is currently reviewing its policies and programs to ensure we meet all federal and state laws and requirements.” The spokesperson added that “equal opportunity for every member of the Northwestern community remains central to our core values and we are committed to ensuring that students, faculty and staff enjoy a community that is welcoming to all.” Here’s what remains on NU’s websites. Feinberg School of Medicine NU’s school of medicine was the first to show signs of falling in line with Trump’s executive orders.

» See DEI WEBSITES, page 14

University lobbying spending balloons amid antisemintism scrutiny daily senior staffer @jerrwu

Northwestern’s lobbying spending swelled to more than $1 million in 2024, the most it’s spent in nearly three decades and a roughly 150% increase from the previous year. It comes as no surprise in a year when NU was embroiled in investigations of campus antisemitism from federal lawmakers and preparing for additional guardrails with President Donald Trump’s then-looming return to the White House. “Like many of our peer institutions, as scrutiny of higher education has increased on Capitol Hill, we have increased our lobbying efforts to address legislative issues that could impact University research and operations,” a University spokesperson said in a statement to The Daily. NU’s lobbying expenditures in the second half of 2024 totaled more than $800,000, significantly more than any of its total annual spendings in the last decade. Out of the eight recorded lobbyists, double the previous year’s

amount, NU appeared to have enlisted a new throng of lobbyists from Harbinger Strategies, composed mostly of former staffers to Republican congressional leadership. NU lobbied on a range of issues, stretching from research funding, endowment tax to patents rights and student-athlete compensation. Many of these issues have already become flashpoints in the new Trump administration. Republican lawmakers have continuously floated the idea of raising universities’ endowment tax. And in the coming months, funding from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation could face further freezes and cuts. In an expense report for $517,000, NU lobbied on bills including the Bipartisan Workforce Pell Act, College Transparency Act and College Cost Reduction Act. There were also contributions to issues related to research securities, artificial Intelligence and the NAIRR program, a pilot program aimed to lay out nationwide infrastructure for AI research. The report also indicates there was lobbying activity for “issues

Daily file photo by Luis Castaneda

NU’s second-half-of-the-year lobbying in 2024 totaled over $800,0000.

pertaining to House Education and Workforce May 23, 2024 hearing ‘Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos.’” Joining several other U.S. colleges, NU appeared to have lobbied on a homeland security bill that would restrict funding to institutions of higher education that had been funded by the Chinese government. In 2024, few other top-ranked

universities in the country recorded as much lobbying as NU — let alone such a drastic increase in spending. Harvard University and Princeton University’s lobbying spending hovered around $620,000 and $460,000, respectively, a slight fluctuation from the previous year.” jerrywu2027@u.northwestern.edu