DePaulia
The
Volume #107 | Issue #3 | Sept. 26, 2022 | depauliaonline.com
Systems aligned
ERIN HENZE | THE DEPAULIA
For two weeks every year around the spring and fall equinox, the sunset and sunrise line up perfectly with the east-west streets in the city. Taken on Randolph and Dearborn. See Arts & Life story Page 22.
‘I don’t feel worthy of it’
SAC head custodian Danny Cruz named as one of 125 Faces of DePaul By Kiersten Riedford News Editor
For many new students, walking into the Schmitt Academic Center (SAC) can give them a flashback of walking into middle school on the first day of sixth grade. The halls all look relatively the same. Getting to the right floor of the three buildings can be daunting with the mix of escalators, random staircases and elevators being everywhere, not to mention the challenge of making sure the student is in the appropriate building, whether it be O’Connell, Levan or the SAC. The sound of rattling keys followed by the sight of a man in a blue DePaul jumpsuit with a beaming smile is like a beacon of light for these students. Not only because this is an opportunity for them to ask where they are going, but because this man will ask them first if they are lost. The first time DePaul alum Sameer Khan met Danny Cruz, head custodian of the SAC, Khan said he was lost. It was
the first month of Khan starting as an IT support student worker and he was trying to find a classroom in the SAC. Cruz approached him to see if he needed directions, mainly because of the concerned look Khan gave as he was wandering the halls. Instead of explaining the directions to Khan, Cruz walked Khan to the room while taking the time to ask Khan questions about himself. “[Cruz] is one of those staff members who doesn’t brush [people] off,” Khan said. “I have met many staff members who tend to brush off people and treat their job as homework. He actually goes out of the way to help out students and goes above and beyond.” Alumni like Khan, current students, faculty and staff members think highly of Cruz. He was recently named as one of the 125 Faces of DePaul. In honor of the 125th anniversary of DePaul University, students, alumni, faculty and staff nominated members of the DePaul community to be recognized as the people that best represent DePaul’s values.
See CRUZ, page 9
ERIN HENZE | THE DEPAULIA
SAC head custodian Danny Cruz, to-do list in pocket, walks across DePaul’s Lincoln Park quad.