Trevor Boehm, a Communication freshman who was last seen on Nov. 5, has died, the university confirmed Monday in a statement. He was 20.

Trevor Boehm.

Boehm’s body was found in Lake Michigan near Montrose Harbor in Chicago on Sunday, and medical examiners pronounced him dead on the scene. A positive identification of Boehm was made known to university officials early Monday evening. University spokesman Al Cubbage has repeatedly said that there has been no sign of foul play.

Boehm was a theater major and was involved with on campus theater production.

“I’ve never known somebody who knew him who didn’t like him,” McCormick sophomore and longtime friend Tyler Boschert said in an interview last week.

“Our hearts go out to Trevor’s family and our thoughts are with them at this time,” said Northwestern University President Henry Bienen in the statement. “The death of one of our students affects the entire Northwestern community. We join the Boehm family in mourning the loss of Trevor.”

A vigil for Boehm has been planned for Monday at Alice Millar Chapel at 8 p.m. Members of Boehm’s family and friends will read prepared statements, and “then there’ll be time for anyone who wants to to stand up and share stories of Trevor or things they want to say,” said SESP sophomore and Boehm acquaintance Amy Pooley, who is helping organize the vigil. The candlelight ceremony will follow.

Staffers of the Northwestern University Counseling and Psychological Services have been notified and are available to students, the university statement said.

Boehm, of Monument, Colo., became the subject of a campuswide search after his parents arrived for Parents’ Weekend but could not locate him. They informally notified the university on Nov. 8, and filed a missing person report with University Police the next day.

Subsequent searches yielded nothing until Thursday morning, when a University Police officer found Boehm’s jacket, keys, cell phone and university ID on the rocks by the Lakefill on North Campus. The jacket was at least partially wet, but officials were unsure whether it had been there the whole time, or had blown there. University Police and the Coast Guard searched that area using submersible cameras on Friday, to no avail.

Boehm’s body was found in Lake Michigan by the North Side of Chicago on Sunday, 11 days after he last used his WildCARD at a dining hall.

The university’s statement is below.

Body Identified As Missing Northwestern Student

Statement by Alan K. Cubbage, Vice President, University Relations, Regarding Missing Northwestern Student
November 17, 2008

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office today (Nov. 17) notified Northwestern University that the body of a man found yesterday in Lake Michigan was that of Northwestern University student Trevor J. Boehm.

Boehm, 20, a first-year student from Monument, Col., had been reported missing last Sunday (Nov. 9). On Thursday (Nov.13), his jacket, which contained Trevor’s Northwestern identification card, keys, and cell phone, was found among the rocks on the shore of Lake Michigan on Northwestern’s Evanston campus.

“Our hearts go out to Trevor’s family and our thoughts are with them at this time,” said Northwestern University President Henry S. Bienen. “The death of one of our students affects the entire Northwestern community. We join the Boehm family in mourning the loss of Trevor.”

Boehm was a student in Northwestern’s School of Communication and involved in theater productions on campus.

Members of the Northwestern University Counseling and Psychological Services staff have been notified and are available to students.

NORTHWESTERN NEWS: www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/

NOTE TO MEDIA: THE FAMILY OF TREVOR BOEHM HAS SAID THAT THEY DO NOT WANT TO SPEAK TO THE MEDIA AND ASK THAT THEIR PRIVACY BE RESPECTED. A VIGIL ON CAMPUS ON MONDAY WILL NOT BE OPEN TO THE MEDIA.

As of 5:13 p.m., the university had still not heard any results from the Cook County medical examiner. “We’ll be there all night,” university spokesman Al Cubbage said.

In an interview early Monday afternoon, Cubbage said that the identification of a body which may be that of missing Northwestern student Trevor Boehm will come “late in the day.”

“My understanding is, we won’t hear anything until probably close to 5 p.m., and maybe even after,” Cubbage said at the time.

An article on the Chicago Tribune’s Web site at 3:10 p.m. has added more details about the examination. The medical examiner’s office would not return repeated calls for comment, so we reproduce that story below.

Officials today were still trying to positively identify a body pulled from Lake Michigan Sunday morning that Northwestern University officials said could be a student from Colorado who was reported missing from campus more than a week ago.

The results of an autopsy performed by the Cook County medical examiner’s office today were that the unidentified white man in his 20s died from drowning, but the manner of the death was unknown, pending a police investigation.

Officials were continuing to work to identify the body today and may have to use dental records, an office spokeswoman said.

The body was spotted in the lake just before 7:30 a.m. Sunday in the 4500 block of North Simonds Drive near Montrose Harbor, police said.

On Thursday, authorities in Evanston along with the U.S. Coast Guard began searching the lake for Northwestern freshman Trevor Boehm, 20, after his jacket and other personal belongings were found along the lakeshore near the school’s Evanston campus. Boehm, of Monument, Colo., was reported missing Nov. 9.

That search was focused on an area about six miles north of where the body was found Sunday.

In a weekend statement, a university spokesman said there has not been a positive identification of the body, but that Northwestern police are assisting Chicago police in the investigation.

“University officials continue to be in contact with Trevor’s family and our thoughts are with them at this time,” university spokesman Alan Cubbage said in the statement.

A body found in Lake Michigan Sunday morning “may be that of a missing Northwestern University student, Trevor J. Boehm, but no positive identification has been made at this time,” the university said in a statement on Sunday.

“Northwestern has been informed that the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office is expected to begin the process of making a formal identification on Monday afternoon,” Vice President for University Relations Al Cubbage said in the press release.

The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times published breaking news posts on Sunday reporting the discovery of the body, and linking it to Boehm’s disappearance.

The university will hold a vigil at the Alice Millar Chapel on Monday night at 8 p.m., where students are encouraged to share stories, music and photos of Trevor.

The vigil was originally scheduled to take place at the Rock, but was moved due to the weather forecast, said University Residential Life Director Mary G. Goldenberg in an e-mail.

Read the statement below:

Statement by Alan K. Cubbage, Vice President, University Relations, Regarding Missing Northwestern Student
November 16, 2008

The Northwestern University Police Department was notified today (Nov. 16) that the body of a man was found early today in Lake Michigan near Montrose Harbor in Chicago. The body may be that of a missing Northwestern University student, Trevor J. Boehm, but no positive identification has been made at this time. Northwestern has been informed that the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office is expected to begin the process of making a formal identification on Monday afternoon.

Northwestern University Police are assisting the Chicago Police Department in the investigation.

Boehm, 20, a first-year student in the School of Communication from Monument, Col., had been reported missing last Sunday (Nov. 9). On Thursday (Nov.13), his jacket, which contained his Northwestern identification card, keys, and cell phone, was found among the rocks on the shore of Lake Michigan on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. A search of the lake was conducted Thursday and Friday by police and Coast Guard officers, but found nothing.

University officials continue to be in contact with Trevor’s family and our thoughts are with them at this time.

Lisa Gartner contributed to this report.

The vigil for missing Northwestern student Trevor Boehm will offer a chance for the Northwestern community to “reflect and respond,” an organizer of the event said Monday.

“We wanted to give students and faculty and anyone who might know Trevor, or even people who don’t know Trevor, a chance to come together to reflect and respond together so that we can comfort each other and be there for each other and sort of send the message that we are paying attention to this,” said SESP sophomore Amy Pooley, who is helping organize the event.

The vigil will be a chance to “send our love to him, and to his family as well,” she added.

The vigil will take place at 8 p.m. tonight at Alice Millar Chapel. Members of Boehm’s family and friends will read prepared statements, and “then there’ll be time for anyone who wants to to stand up and share stories of Trevor or things they want to say,” Pooley said. The candlelight ceremony will follow.

Pooley said that the vigil will take place regardless of the results of an identification of a body that the university has said could be that of Boehm. “The event is definitely happening,” she said.

The exact order of events has not been officially determined, Pooley said. “It’ll be pretty on the spot, in the moment kind of thing.” University Chaplain Tim Stevens is likely to speak, Pooley said.

Pooley said she is one of a number of family members, friends and staff members that have been planning the event. Vice President for University Relations Al Cubbage said he was unaware of the plans for the vigil, aside from time and place.

The family has requested that anyone who has pictures bring them or somehow get them to the family, Pooley said. “They would really appreciate that.”

Cameras will not be allowed at the vigil.

Northwestern President Henry Bienen received twice as much compensation for the 2006-07 school year as the year before, according to a new report from the Chronicle for Higher Education.

Bienen received $1,742,560 for the 06-07 school year, according to the report, making him the third highest-paid president of a private university, behind David J. Sargent of Suffolk University and E. Gordon Gee of Vanderbilt University. Close to one-fourth of his compensation package, however, was deferred to a later date.

Bienen received $814,572 for the 2005-06 school year, according to the report. For the 2004-05 year, he received $774,004.

Bienen’s 06-07 pay does include $590,929 in deferred compensation. His benefits package — which is approximately one-quarter of his total compensation — includes $375,000 in deferred compensation that is subject to forfeiture if Bienen is not under university employment as of August 31, 2009 — his scheduled retirement date.

More to come.

The student and his friend were heading north on Maple Street when a man approached them from behind and tried to take the student’s hat. When the student and his friend turned around, the man asked for money. The student and friend then fled the scene. The friend dropped her coat, which contained her keys and cell phone.

The student and friend said they saw a shiny object in the man’s hand, but could not discern what it was. No one was injured.

The offender was described as an African-American male with a thin build, in his mid-20s, between 5 feet 5 inches tall and 5 feet 10 inches tall, wearing dark clothing. The offender ran north and then west on Simpson Street.

A search of Lake Michigan related to the disappearance of freshman Trevor Boehm yielded no results, a university spokesman said Friday.

The Chicago Police Department joined forces with the Coast Guard on Friday morning, using submersible cameras in searches around the Lakefill are for links to Boehm’s disappearance. Boehm has been missing since November 5.

According to Vice President for University Relations Al Cubbage, “nothing has turned up,” and no further searches around the Lakefill were planned “at this time.”

The search for Boehm’s bicycle, described as a green Schwinn bike, is still going on.

“We continue to hope for a good outcome in difficult times,” Cubbage said.

Contact us to receive instant e-mail updates of any new developments regarding the university’s search. Just write “updates” in the subject line.

First posted, 2:05 p.m. CST, Thursday, Nov. 13
Last updated, 5:03 p.m. CST, Thursday, Nov. 13

Northwestern Police has found a jacket containing the Northwestern ID card, keys and cell phone of missing student Trevor Boehm on the North Campus shore on the rocks near Lake Michigan, the university said Thursday.

Police found the jacket around 11:30 a.m. this morning, after which “they searched for a couple hours, and didn’t find any indication of anything more,” Vice President for University Relations Al Cubbage said.

“There are no leads other than the materials found by the lake,” Cubbage added.

The U.S. Coast Guard is conducting a search of the area.

The jacket was found in the rocky lake shore area on North Campus, just south of the lacrosse field, Cubbage said. The police had previously searched that area, but it was not until this morning when an officer was walking along the rocks that he found the jacket.

“Whether the jacket had been there all the time, or whether it had blown there, or how it got in there, we’re not sure,” Cubbage said.

Cubbage said authorities have been in constant contact with Boehm’s family, who have been in Evanston since this weekend.

“Obviously our thoughts are with his family,” Cubbage said, adding, “We continue to hope for the best.”

Cubbage said he was unaware of any new information regarding Boehm’s green Schwinn bicycle.

Read Northwestern’s statement below:

Statement from Alan K. Cubbage, vice president, University Relations, regarding Trevor J. Boehm

November 13, 2008

At approximately 11:30 a.m. today (Nov. 13), a Northwestern University Police Department officer found a jacket belonging to Trevor J. Boehm, a Northwestern University student who has been missing since late last week. The jacket, which contains Trevor’s Northwestern identification card, keys, cell phone and other personal property, was found among the rocks on the shore of Lake Michigan on Northwestern’s Evanston campus.

The University police contacted the Evanston Police Department, the Evanston Fire Department and the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard currently is conducting a search of the lake in that area.

The University continues to work with Trevor’s family, and our thoughts are with them at this time.

Chloe Benoist contributed to this report.

At 6 p.m., a man grabbed the student from behind and put his hand over her mouth as the student approached the back door of her residence on Hinman Ave., according to the statement. The man ran away into an alley. The student was not injured, nothing was stolen and no weapon was displayed in the attack.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright had offered the audience nothing more than a slight slouch and the occasional grin, but his very presence was enough to garner him two long, roaring standing ovations by the time he walked up to the Cahn Auditorium podium on Friday to deliver his keynote address.

“FMO unashamedly and unapologetically stands in support of Rev. Wright,” For Members Only Coordinator Zachary Parker had told a loudly cheering crowd. Parker was referring to Northwestern’s decision to rescind their offer of an honorary degree to Wright after his sermons made national headlines because of his ties to presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

But once Wright took to the stage and the crowd members found their seats, President-elect Obama’s former pastor delivered the keynote address for the “State of the Black Union” in a markedly softer and more humorous tone than the students who had spoken before him at the event, sponsored by FMO, the black student group.

Donning a brown and black African-pattern vest and carrying a black binder to the podium, Wright offered up “just some points of clarification” about the forces that had thrust him into the national spotlight. His “God damn America” sermon? A white professor at Harvard said a similar thing in 1901. The first ever election of a black President? “Incredibly powerful” and “awesomely inspiring.” Unfair treatment from the media? “Ray Charles can see that.”

Wright moved quickly into a history lecture of sorts, which he gave in a deliberate manner that was a far cry from the raspy intonations of his most infamous sermons. He offered his four decades of work in academia and 36 years as a pastor “in the hood” as qualifications for him to speak about “redeeming and reclaiming our community.”

“I come tonight as an outsider to the Northwestern community,” Wright said but added, “I know a little something about living in and working in the black community.”

Wright attended Howard University, a historically black college. But he cautioned that the need for black students to stand up for their cultural property extended even to historically black universities. He called the Howard University of the 1960s “white on the DL” because, until the students objected, they were taught only European literature in their courses.

“In May of 1968, all of that changed,” Wright said. Students at Howard stood up and demanded classes on African-American studies. Meanwhile, black students on predominantly white campuses had already been taking learning about jazz and the blues and the Harlem Renaissance.

But somewhere along the line, Wright said, blacks had stopped teaching their children about the revolutions they had fought and won, and recently the community suffered a “rupture in generational consciousness,” as “we did not teach the generation behind us about the black liberation struggle.”

“We need to first teach our own students, our own children, our own story and stop depending on somebody else to teach our story for us,” was Wright’s answer to reclaiming the black community.

“It’s only a crisis if you care”

Before Wright took to the podium, two black student leaders heavily criticized Northwestern’s treatment of black students.

“Northwestern doesn’t understand diversity,” said Mark Crain, former coordinator of FMO. Crain enumerated several grievances with the state of diversity on campus and accused the university of “lying to itself.”

“In his annual State of the University address, President Henry Bienen spoke of Northwestern’s phenomenal success in recent years,” Crain said. But Crain saw shortcomings, including Northwestern losing its fourth director of African American Studies in six years and the meager attention paid to the 40 year anniversary of black students taking over the Bursar’s Office in 1968, an event that “should have been celebrated by the entire university.” That the class of 2012 is only 4.2 percent African American was another sign Crain pointed to of the university failing to achieve diversity.

Current FMO coordinator Zachary Parker followed Crain, and asked, “Why is it that the black community is not afforded with the respect and investment that it deserves?”

Parker, who called the number of black freshmen “pathetic” and the university’s financial aid policies “racially insensitive,” said the issue is institutional. “It’s not that the president of the university is racist, per se. But it is the unfortunate enforcing and mandating of racially insensitive policies that were designed for advancing and sustaining white privilege.”

Parker closed his speech promising “a new, vibrant, politically conscious FMO that will no longer stand alone while our community disintegrates around us.”

“Bienen doesn’t know me”

During the question and answer session, after many students in the crowd had filed out, Wright was asked how he felt after Northwestern rescinded his honorary degree.

“It was like the straw on the camel’s back at the end of a very terrible week” in which the media, and “Hannity and Colmes,” kept airing on television the now-famous clips of his sermons.

Wright received a call from President Bienen, who explained to Wright why the degree was being rescinded. Wright asked for the statement in writing.

“That was painful. Because Bienen doesn’t know me from Adam’s house cat,” Wright said.

But Wright said he did take solace in making university history. In “150 years, this university has never rescinded an honorary degree from anybody but me.”

“To hear his perspective”

Before Wright arrived, a throng of people young and old had begun lining up at 5:30 p.m. along Emerson Street, waiting in the frigid air and hoping for extra tickets. Chicago-area reporters, who were not allowed inside Cahn Auditorium, canvassed the area for quotations.

The “historical” nature of the event attracted Weinberg freshman Jill Greene, who stood in line anticipating an unpredictable speech. “It’ll be interesting, for sure,” she said.

Also in line was “curious” University of Chicago junior Matt Barnum, who made the trip north without a ticket. “I don’t really know what to expect. I’m guessing he’ll probably be pretty radical,” he said.

As many students chatted in their seats as the scheduled start time of 7 p.m. approached and passed, the large middle section of seats remained empty and cordoned off. By 7:30 p.m., with the late arrival of Rev. Wright and the attendees of a reception held across the street, the empty seats filled up with people considerably better-dressed than those already seated.

Former Weather Underground radical William Ayers. Jared Miller / NBN.

One of the arrivals was William Ayers, the former Weather Underground radical, whose ties to Sen. Obama also made headlines during the presidential campaign.

A large number of Wright’s former parishioners were there, as evidenced by the loud roar following a mention of “Trinity United Church of Christ.”

Though many students left after Wright’s speech ended, some who stuck around for the question and answer session found the reverend enlightening.

“He’s hilarious,” Fatima Zaheer said. The Weinberg senior said Wright’s message about teaching youth resonated with her, and also said that the FMO students’ speeches “really hit home.”

Zaheer belongs to the Muslim cultural Students Association, and said she hopes to be able to use the event to better “interact” with the university, although she wasn’t yet sure how.

The event as a whole was an important moment in the history of the university, Associate Professor of Political Science Revel Rogers said. “To have black students convene” and speak “truth to power in those speeches” will prove important as the university figures out how to deal with enrollment issues.

Rogers also believed the speech gave attendees a different perspective on Wright. “It certainly humanizes a man beyond the sound bites.”

President-elect Barack Obama’s former pastor, who received national attention during the presidential campaign for saying “God damn America” and other controversial remarks in his sermons, declared that “we need to teach our children” about their heritage in order to properly embrace their communities.

Nearly every seat at the 1,000 capacity auditorium was filled, and a long line of people stretched along Emerson street in the frigid air, waiting for extra available tickets.

Wright called upon university leaders to properly address a decline in black faculty and students at Northwestern. But, he said, “I do not stand before you in this academic setting with some sort of master plan to address the very tough issues with which this university must wrestle from the Board of Trustees level, to the administration level, to the Freshman Activities Board level.”

“I come tonight as an outsider to the Northwestern community,” Wright said, but “I know a little” about the black community.

The diverse crowd featured a large number of students, as well as a legion of members of Trinity United Church of Christ (the South Side church where Wright spoke) and a number of public figures, most notably another person whose ties to Sen. Obama got national attention: former Weather Underground member William Ayers.

Wright struck a soft and humorous tone while criticizing the media for the attention he received during the presidential campaign. He spoke of someone at Fox News who asked him yesterday if he thought the media had treated him unfairly: “Ray Charles can see that,” he said.

But his speech, for the most part, touched on the relationship between higher education and the black community, speaking of how the predominantly black Howard University would not teach its students African-American literature until students protested.

Wright received three standing ovations: when he arrived on stage, when he got up to speak, and when his speech ended.

Wright also praised the “incredibly powerful” election of Sen. Obama. “What a mighty God,” he said.

More to come.

You may have not heard, but it’s Election Day. What are we going to do now?

The anticipation that has been building during months of presidential campaigning ends on Tuesday, and many Northwestern students will surely look for ways to commemorate the occasion. The proximity of Evanston to Barack Obama’s hometown of Chicago gives more options as to what to do on this historic day. Whether you plan on celebrating (or commiserating) downtown or just taking advantage of free food opportunities around Evanston, you’ll definitely be able to find something to do nearby.

Students registered to vote in Evanston can head to the polls on campus. Those living on North Campus can vote at Patten Gym, and South Campus residents can do so in Parkes Hall. Students living off campus can look up the closest polling station on the Cook County Election Department Web site.

And don’t forget to save that “I Voted!” sticker. If you are still in the mood for waiting in long lines after you leave the polls, Starbucks and Ben and Jerry’s are offering free coffee or ice cream all day.

For the Obama supporters who want to be where the action’s at, the CTA is augmenting the frequency of trains all evening, and is planning on offering a rush-hour service after the Obama rally ends. Metra is also extending its outbound late-night service from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. If Grant Park is your final destination, the closest rail stations are the Ogilvie Transportation Center Metra Station and the Lake and Randolph/Wabash El stations.

Students not willing or able to make the trek to Grant Park tomorrow can attend NU Decides’ Election Day Event in Norris, starting at 7 p.m. The television in the Norris Starbucks and the projection screen in the McCormick Auditorium will both broadcast the results of the election.

“It’s our ending event after our ‘Get Out the Vote’ and lecture series, to finish off such a historical race,” said NU Decides coordinator and Weinberg sophomore Dulce Acosta-Licea. “And there will be free giveaways in the raffle and free food, including Ben & Jerry’s and more.”

NU Decides is an umbrella organization of many politically-minded student groups, including Alianza, the College Democrats and Republicans, and the Associated Student Government. Representatives from the Offices of Student Affairs and Multicultural Affairs, which are co-sponsoring the event, will also be present. The College Republicans, who will be at the event, and the College Democrats, who will be going to the Obama rally, are not sponsoring any other events on campus.

“The event ends at 11 p.m. because Norris is kicking us out,” Acosta-Licea said.