DePaulia
The
Volume #107 | Issue #2 | Sept. 19, 2022 | depauliaonline.com
KIERSTEN RIEDFORD | THE DEPAULIA
DePaul President Robert L. Manuel sits down with members of The DePaulia staff in his office in Arts & Letters Hall in Lincoln Park on Monday, Sept. 12. Manuel has now been in office for 50 days.
“We have to do everything” DePaul president addresses recent assaults, campus future By Erik Uebelacker & Nadia Carolina Hernandez
Robert L. Manuel has reached 50 days as DePaul University’s president. Those 50 days were filled with shaking hands, making speeches, and acclimating to the DePaul community. Now, the real work has begun. Manuel will release a strategy at the end of fall quarter with his vision for the university. He previously served the helm of the University of Indianapolis since 2012 before his move to DePaul this summer. Now
that Manuel finds himself leading a bigger school in a bigger city, he said he’s not rushing to make sweeping changes before understanding the community. “Every day is a series of getting out, meeting people around the community, talking with students, faculty, staff, alumni, board members, community members, to try to figure out what is really important about DePaul,” Manuel said. “It is learning Chicago, learning DePaul, learning what is really important about DePaul’s people, then trying to craft that into a strategy.” Manuel met with The DePaulia for an in-person interview at his office last week in Arts & Letters Hall in Lincoln Park. He
discussed his blueprint for developing a leadership plan and spoke on several issues pertaining to the DePaul community early into the school year. He said his strategy thus far has been to be as accessible as possible. Manuel attended numerous Welcome Week events, and invited students and staff to give feedback. “It has been an interesting time because we are coming back out of severe isolation,” Manuel said. “There has been a lot of trauma with the last two and a half years of Covid, so the requests are interesting.” Unfortunately, even with Covid-19 restrictions loosening citywide and students returning to in-person learning, this trauma Manuel speaks of can emerge in other ways. The DePaul community was alerted on Sept. 1 of two sex offences that took place on campus on the nights of Aug. 29 and Aug. 31, according to a university-wide email from Public Safety. “We have to do everything,” Manuel said in response to these reported offenses. “The conversation has begun about how to educate everybody about the realities of being in an urban setting, and get support for the folks who were assaulted, as well as a very deep and quick investigation into the person who did them is underway.” Manuel could not directly state whether the Chicago Police Department is investigating these offenses.
President Manuel discusses DePaul future with Faculty Council See page 6 “Sometimes it goes right to CPD because of the nature of the infraction, and sometimes it is a Student Conduct Policy,” he said. Following these on-campus incidents, The DePaulia ran an anonymous op-ed on Sept. 12 from students that criticized the University’s Title IX policies and response to sex offences. Manuel said that he read the op-ed, and plans to address these criticisms within his administration. “We need to make sure that we are active, supportive, quick, and that we’re complete in that process as well,” Manuel said. “I think there is a desire to re-engage the intellectual curiosity, the spirit of curiosity that everybody has, in connected ways. I hear everybody talk about the DePaul they expected, which was a connected community that knew how to engage with people’s aspirations. We have got to design that.” Manuel also released a campus climate survey conducted by IRMA on Aug. 30. Adjunct faculty, full-time faculty and staff were surveyed about feelings toward executive
See MANUEL, page 7
Chicago aldermen collect donations for Texas migrants By Vanessa Lopez Asst. News Editor
With busloads of immigrants being transported from Texas, Chicago officials are seeking volunteers and donations to help the migrants. Mayor Lori Lightfoot stated that the city is coordinating with local organizations, but that they will need help to support the migrants. Chicago has set up a website for those who want to volunteer, help migrants or donate items such as clothing, toiletries and other necessities. “As a welcoming city, we know Chicagoans are ready to show their generosity and are looking for ways to support these individuals,” the city’s website states.
Many Chicagoans have been collecting donations for the migrants. The city has designated some aldermanic offices as drop-off locations for donations. Ald. Michael D. Rodriguez (22nd) has been collecting donations and transferring them to the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and other community organizations. Carlos Gamboa, the 22nd Ward’s chief of staff, said that as soon as they learned that the governor of Texas was sending migrants to Chicago, they needed to act quickly to provide resources to their people.
See MIGRANTS, page 4 To read in Spanish, see page 17
KIERSTEN RIEDFORD | THE DEPAULIA
Donations are being collected at 22nd Ald. Michael D. Rodriguez’s office, 22nd Ward