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Wednesday, September 24, 2025

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Ballot seekers take to market the process, party candidates must Candidates collect obtain a certain amount of valid signatures amid signatures from in-district voters for the primary ballot. Saturday shopping to qualify “We are focusing on people havBy MARISA GUERRA ECHEVERRIA

daily senior staffer @marisa_g_ech

Illustration by Siri Reddy

The bias training was first released in an email to students Feb. 20.

Training boycott penalties loom

Potential loss of student status threatens financial aid, housing By NINETH KANIESKI KOSO

daily senior staffer @ninethkk

Students who have not completed Northwestern-mandated bias training may soon face escalating penalties, including the loss of student affiliation, financial aid and access to on-campus housing, according to an email obtained by

The Daily. The email was sent Sept. 16 from the University to undergraduate and graduate students who have yet to complete the training titled “Building a Community of Respect and Breaking Down Bias.” The University stated that students who fail to complete the bias training and attestations will be barred from enrolling in classes needed to complete their degree.

First released in a Feb. 20 email, the training features modules discussing University policies, changes to the Student Code of Conduct, antisemitism and bias against Muslim, Arab and Palestinian communities. The training has been met with a mix of backlash and approval from the NU community and beyond. Over the summer, the University put registration holds on

students who had not completed the training. These students can not add or swap classes until they have completed the training, according to another email sent in August. During the fifth week of each quarter, the University will update academic records and discontinue the academic programs of students

» See TRAINING, page 15

On a bustling Saturday morning, residents wandered the stalls of Evanston Farmers’ Market, perusing freshly-baked bread, handmade jewelry and colorful flower bouquets. Campaign workers and political candidates wove through these crowds and stood at street corners, passing out pamphlets and greeting idle shoppers. They were seeking the elusive signatures required to get their campaigns on the Democratic primary ballot. In one corner of the market, two tables manned by the Democratic Party of Evanston boasted dozens of clipboards, each sporting signatures for candidates at every level of public office, ranging from the Cook County Board of Commissioners to Illinois’ 9th Congressional District. The weekend event was the second iteration of the DPOE’s “Petitions & Produce” campaign. It also marked the organization’s third petition drive to ramp up voter engagement during the petitioning season, which first kicked off on Aug. 5 and ends Nov. 4. During

ing access to the ballot, understanding the ballot, and understanding how important the ballot process is,” DPOE president Kathy Hayes said. According to Hayes, the idea to host farmers’ market petition drives arose in the DPOE to kickstart community engagement and education in the earliest stages of the election process, over a year before the general election in 2026. Hayes also said the drive allows the DPOE to process and notarize the candidates’s signed petitions more quickly, allowing them to add to their official tally before the November deadline. “Now that’s a little in the weeds for the average voter, but timing is everything with elections.” Hayes said. “Getting your signatures in on time may quantify where you are on the ballot.” On average, the DPOE receives around 150 signatures at a Petitions & Produce event, DPOE board member Sebastian Nalls said. Erica Sitkoff (Weinberg ’01), who visited the farmers’ market from Wilmette with her two children, said the event serves as a convenient gathering place for voters to meet representatives from multiple

» See PETITIONS, page 15

Zoning reform group emerges

A look into Bienen’s first presidency

Nonprofit seeks to Evanston. Ward resident Zachexpand housing aryFourth Sanchez-O’Neill said he saw precisely this gap in housing opportunities options when he was searching

By AUDREY PACHUTA

By SIDDARTH SIVARAMAN

daily senior staffer @sidvaraman

Rezoning for a Better Evanston, a new not-for-profit in the city, aims to increase homeownership opportunities for Black and middle income residents by legalizing multi-unit housing, co-founder Roger Williams said. “We’re very much coming at this initially from the perspective of stopping the hemorrhaging of Black residents out of Evanston,” co-founder and 7th Ward resident Frank Hill said. The Black proportion of the city’s population dropped from 22.5% in 2000 to 14.8% in 2024, Hill said. Citing housing policy experts Richard and Leah Rothstein, Williams said the trend exists because most Black residents are in moderate or middle income brackets, a range for which there are few suitable housing options in

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for a home in 2023. Sanchez-O’Neill said he purchased a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house in Kansas for around $125,000 in 2012. When his wife was accepted into a medical residency program in Evanston, he thought his family could afford a similar home in the area, he said. Instead, he said, they now live in a small apartment. “We love our community, and we love our neighborhood. But at this point in our lives, we feel stuck,” Sanchez-O’Neill said. “There’s either a $250,000 apartment, or you wait for a milliondollar house.” Hill said multi-unit zoning is a “first step” toward correcting the issue. Rezoning for a Better Evanston advocates for relaxing zoning laws across Evanston to allow developments with more than four units, Williams said, because duplexes and triplexes

» See ZONING, page 15

Now-interim president saw hunger strike, royal visitor, Qatar expansion daily senior staffer @audreypachuta

When interim University President Henry Bienen relinquished his post as Northwestern’s head honcho in 2009, most current undergraduate students were too young to be in kindergarten. Bienen, who became former President Michael Schill’s temporary replacement Sept. 16, is no stranger to the demands of the job he held for nearly 15 academic years. But if the words he spoke when he was first hired back in June 1994 still ring true, he’d be the first to tell you that inheriting the reins from a contentious predecessor isn’t ideal. “You have to ask yourself, would you rather come to an institution in dire difficulty or follow a guy that’s done a great job and come to a school that’s very strong. I think the obvious answer is the latter,” Bienen told The Daily for a special June 15, 1994 edition announcing his hiring. Back then, Bienen introduced

himself as someone equally concerned with undergraduate education as he was with research. He admitted that, coming from Princeton University, he didn’t know much about Greek life, but was quick to call himself “a bit of a jock” as he fawned over Big Ten athletics. During his decade and a half at the helm, Bienen oversaw some of the University’s largest milestones, including the opening of a new campus in the Middle East and a 1996 Rose Bowl appearance, as well as his fair share of challenges like a student-led hunger strike advocating for an Asian American studies department. Now, at 86 years old, Bienen returns to the fray with an entirely new set of circumstances before him. A new president’s growing pains Bienen commended former NU President Arnold Weber, who came before him and kept the school in “good financial shape,” avoided tuition hikes and remained largely uncontroversial throughout his tenure.

Illustration by Siri Reddy

Henry Bienen took over as interim president Sept. 16.

“I haven’t learned that much is broken, and I don’t expect many, if any, immediate changes,” Bienen said on forming a new staff. Unlike Schill, who resigned, embattled by Washington Republicans’ allegations of antisemitism on campus and with

a $790 million federal funding freeze in tow, Weber retired, leaving few lingering challenges for his successor. The Daily reported that students chanted “four more years, four more years” during Weber’s

» See BIENEN, page 13