Some students checked their watches in line, anxious to get to their next class. Others felt uncomfortable from the side effects after receiving their vaccine. But most had no strong feelings about the vaccine or the process of receiving it, and said the whole experience was routine.

According to Dr. Donald Misch, Executive Director of University Health Services, roughly 1,750 people were vaccinated on Tuesday. The longest wait was 1 hour 50 minutes at Norris and negligible at Patten, he said.

A few students fainted, which Misch said is not an unusual side effect of the vaccine. An ambulance and fire truck pulled up outside Norris today at around 11:30, according to observers, and Vice President for University Relations Al Cubbage said that they may have been related to the vaccinations, but that he was not sure.

After standing in lines in Norris and Patten, students and others were directed to several tables where they first signed a waiver and then received a vaccine. The vaccines came in two forms: an injection of an inactivated vaccine or a live attenuated intranasal vaccine, a nasal spray that came with more health restrictions than the injection.

Students and others just vaccinated were required to sit in a chair for 15 minutes to ensure no major side effects ensued.

“I hadn’t really heard about the vaccinations,” said Medill junior Bradley Akubuiro, “I just followed a friend to Norris when she was walking here. I feel like getting the vaccine today will not deter me from getting the swine flu.”

Kara McKenzie, a McCormick senior, felt similarly about the vaccine. “I wasn’t planning on getting it, but because of the availability and the apparent high risk factors of H1N1 among young people, I decided to come.”

Despite busy schedules and the reluctance of some students, Cubbage deemed Tuesday successful. “There was a good turnout from students, and we hope that they will continue to get vaccinated until Thursday.”

Updated 11/18: The photo of the vaccination line has been taken down in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Thanks to commenter Concerned for making us aware.

Photo by Katherine Tang / North by Northwestern.

Donald Kohn, the vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, discussed the factors that led to the current financial crisis and the role of the Fed in promoting financial stability in front of a few hundred people in Leverone Auditorium on Monday.

In his speech, which was also attended by Northwestern President Morton Schapiro and the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Charles Evans, Kohn focused on the role of monetary policy in maintaining financial stability but also pointed to other factors that contributed to the current financial crisis, including “inadequate risk assessment and management.” Citing the tightening policies in 1999 during the dot-com bubble and in 2004 during the housing bubble, Kohn said that the evidence is not encouraging for using monetary policy to ensure financial stability. Instead, he expressed “strong preference” for financial regulation and supervision.

The administration released a preliminary framework on Nov. 7, outlining goals and strategies, and proposing questions about priority areas for the university in the next decade. In an e-mailed statement, Provost Daniel Linzer encouraged the Northwestern community to give feedback to the draft, which the university expects to finalize by the beginning of 2011.

“We want input from everyone on this. We’re a family, all working together,” Linzer said. “The more you can involve the members of the community and listen to their ideas, the more informed you are about the choices that you’re making.”

The framework, which was discussed during the Associated Student Government meeting on Wednesday, emphasizes academic excellence and the improvement of the intellectual, civic and social experience outside the classroom for students, faculty and staff. It also highlights the continuing internationalization of Northwestern, as well as extending its affluence and influence across the world.

In these goals, the future strategic plan will build upon the legacy of its predecessor, the Highest Order of Excellence, which was in operation in 1996-2005, and was later revised and extended through 2010.

Under the plan, the university created International Studies and Global Health programs, Linzer said. He also pointed to energy and sustainability initiatives that make Northwestern a more progressive, forward-reaching institution.

The fellowships office was also created under the existing plan to encourage students to “tackle big international problems,” Linzer added. He attributed the boom in Northwestern Fulbright scholars in large to the university’s commitment to globalizing students’ experiences.

The next strategic plan will also seek to take full advantage of Northwestern’s location by offering students resources from major institutions and companies in the Chicago area. In the past 10 years, Northwestern has added free shuttles to Chicago and developed partnerships with the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Field Museum and the Art Institute, among others, to offer classes and work opportunities for students.

Marilyn McCoy, the university’s vice president for administration and planning, emphasized the importance of public feedback for creating an effective strategy.

“We did not have as open of a process last time around,” she said. “Basically, last time, a very high-level, largely faculty committee was put together that worked to come up with the Highest Order of Excellence.”

Moreover, according to Linzer, having a written plan is much more convincing to potential investors than just telling them the direction in which the university would like to go.

“We can’t achieve new initiatives without new resources,” he added. “In some cases, something may have just died out and we can redirect the resources, but that’s very hard, because there are still people working in that area.”

“It definitely is a more challenging environment this time,” said McCoy, who looks for funds from donors and investors as part of her job as a strategic planner. “But strategic planning is about working with the role you’re in, so you have to be very focused on the most important developments and what opportunities are created.”

The administrative team will meet with ASG on Friday to get a better understanding of how the student leaders and the student body in general envision the university’s future development. The administration will also meet with alumni groups, the Board of Trustees and the General Faculty Committee next month to discuss their personal and collective views for the school.

Meanwhile, in the most recent ASG Executive meeting on Wednesday, committee members made suggestions for the seven umbrella topics within the framework: Technology, Beyond the Classroom, Globalization, Diversity and Inclusion, Strategic Partnerships, Communication, and Purple Sky. Among the issues discussed were residential college experience, faculty diversity and the creation of more student centers on campus.

Lorraine K. Lee contributed reporting.

The Northwestern team of five undergraduates led by Mark Witte, team faculty adviser and distinguished senior lecturer in economics, beat contenders from 17 Midwestern universities to represent the Chicago Federal Reserve district at the national round for the sixth year in a row. The university has won the national competition three times so far.

The Northwestern team comprises Weinberg juniors Daniel Wolf, captain, and Lucas Zalduendo, Weinberg senior William Thompson, McCormick and Weinberg senior Ravi Umarji, and Weinberg sophomore Brian Levin. Witte described the group as a “nice mix of talent.”

“They’re competitive young people,” he said. “They like going at it and showing other people they’re smarter and better formed, and more driven.”

During the national competition on Dec. 1-2, the students will be challenged to apply macroeconomics and monetary policy theories to real-life economic situations. During the first round, teams propose solutions to the economic problems of today, such as unemployment, in front of a panel of judges from the Fed’s own economists.

The Northwestern group displays its data in a power point presentation and analyzes the Fed’s policy and functions. The Northwestern team simulates a Fed open market committee meeting during which economists debate what the U.S. monetary policy should be. Research assistants at Northwestern have helped put together the presentation, Witte said.

The second part of the contest is a question and answer session with the judges.

“We don’t know what questions will be,” said Brian Levin, who plays Donald Cohn, Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors. “You have to be spot on in order to win.”

Levin is the only sophomore in the group. With a strong incumbency advantage, openings on the team are rare. When there is an open spot, Witte said, it is advertised on listservs and people interview for it.

Northwestern’s participation in the Fed Challenge began six years ago, when Joshua Plabner, a student of Mark Witte’s, suggested that the university participate in a new national competition.

“We did, we won, we’ve been doing it ever since,” Witte said.

In the past five years at the national Fed Challenge, Northwestern has won three times and Harvard has won twice.

“We’re looking forward to beating Harvard this year,” Levin said.

The winning team shares a $50,000 scholarship sponsored by the Moody Foundation.

Rapper Lupe Fiasco and actor Michael Ealy (Barbershop) may have attracted students with their celebrity to come to Leverone Auditorium Wednesday night. The two were part of an event promoting the upcoming History Channel documentary The People Speak.

But when it came to the material they were discussing, the performers tried to let the words speak for themselves.

Reading a letter to Sarah Logue and a statement from Muhammad Ali about the Vietnam War to kick off the event, Ealy said, “I try to get out of the way of the words. I’ll perform a bit, but the words are key.”

Hosted by Nancy MacLean, professor of History and African American Studies at Northwestern, the event featured live readings, excerpts of the film and in-depth discussion between the panel and the audience. The film was produced by a team including Matt Damon and Howard Zinn; it is based on Zinn’s books that reveal history from the perspective of American people. The panel, featuring Ealy, Fiasco and the film’s co-executive producer and co-director Anthony Arnove, discussed the influence of grassroots history and the power of raw voices to expose common humanity.

The film excerpts gave the audience an idea of what to expect from the documentary.

“The film is driven by remarkable performers, artists and musicians giving voice to these stories,” Arnove said.

The evening concluded with a moderated discussion centered on the event’s tagline, “Democracy is not a spectator sport.” Ealy and Fiasco shared their reasons for getting involved with the documentary and what they have taken away from it — and what they hope college students will, too.

Ealy said the film’s idea of using contemporary voices to read history gave him a new way to connect with the past.

Professor Nancy MacLean. Photo by the author.

“There’s a certain version of history we’re taught, but another version we can learn,” he said. “Hearing the actual words makes you want to learn more. I feel like I can relate [better].”

Fiasco said the project rejuvenated his capacity to feel the “American spirit.” He classified both his parents as very radical, remarking that he was raised with a certain distance from the title of being “American.”

“[Being American] represented all the ills — imperialism, capitalism and overconsumption,” he said. “The film shows another side of what [that] means. After watching it, I came out feeling proud to be an American. We are a nation of struggles.”

Fiasco said he was able to identify most with the story of a homosexual. “After stripping away all the lifestyle choices, we’re left with humanity — a common factor,” he said. “To see that and how it resonates with you is really going to shock you.”

The decision to bring the film to colleges campuses first was consistent with the film’s philosophy that change is most possible in close and diverse communities, like those at colleges.

“It only takes two people to start a movement,” Ealy said. “If we can access you guys, you can spread the word like nobody’s business.”

Students said they learned from the event, whether or not they had a prior interest in history.

“I love the History Channel, so I knew it was going to be something educational and inspiring, but I didn’t know what,” said Weinberg freshman Monique Brown.

“I came for Lupe,” said Weinberg freshman Harsh Shah. “But the thing is, because of him, we paid attention the entire time.”

“His answers weren’t the bullshit scripted answers you expect celebs to have,” Shah said. “It’s not like he was just there for the name — he knew what he was talking about. And that’s why I loved it.”

Fiasco hoped The People Speak would be a catalyst for students to draw inspiration from history itself.

“You go out there, and you do something,” he said. “If someone’s yard is dirty, rake it, son!”

Northwestern, one of 12 institutions to receive a grant from the NCI, will focus its efforts on the specific goal of advancing understanding of the role of gene expression in cancer. But the grant also calls specifically for an interdisciplinary style of research in order to reach this goal, a type of research uniquely suited to Northwestern because of the its breadth and variety of undergraduate and graduate science studies. The university will call on professors, students and researchers in Weinberg, McCormick, Feinberg and several other programs to approach the research with their own unique lenses and to collaborate with people in other disciplines.

The center will especially aim to bring the methods and perspectives of physical science to the study of cancer.

“Building on stunning progress in the molecular sciences and advanced technologies, we envision the development of new fields of study based on the application of physical sciences approaches to address major questions and barriers in cancer research,” a statement on the NCI Web site.

Two research programs already in place, the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Institute will administer the PS-OC. But applied mathematicians, oncologists, physical scientists, molecular biologists, and even professors and students will all contribute.

The McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences currently has eight professors participating in research for the PS-OC. William Kath, a professor of engineering sciences and applied mathematics, will be investigating different states of gene expression in DNA.

Thomas O’Halloran, a professor of chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology, and cell biology in the Weinberg School of Arts and Sciences, will be conducting research about how normal cells condense chromatin in cell division, and how that affects cancer.

“It’s very cross-disciplinary. [...] In the long run, we may even be collaborating with people in the School of Education [and Social Policy],” said O’Halloran, also Associate Director for Basic Sciences at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center and director of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute.

The PS-OC will take the inclusion of disciplines and schools to a new level with an education and outreach program. Summer boot camps and workshops will bring medical students from Feinberg to the Evanston campus and graduate students and post-docs affiliated with the physical sciences to the medical campus.

“The education program focuses on exchanging tool sets and paradigms between oncologists, biologists and physical scientists so that they can learn from each other and encourage the next generation of researchers,” said Sheila Judge, the director of Operation and Outreach at the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute.

Northwestern’s ability to do cross-disciplinary research lies mostly in the variety of resources and programs already in place, Licht said.

“Northwestern has so many strengths in so many physical and biological sciences under one institution. Many other PS-OC institutions are collaborations, like Princeton and the California Institute of Technology, but ours is fully contained in Northwestern.”

But the drop in payment may be deceiving because Bienen’s salary from the previous fiscal year, 2007, was inflated by payments that he had deferred from previous years, according to an e-mail from Bienen.

Bienen’s base pay in the 2007 fiscal year was $903,760, a decrease from the 2006 figure of $1,342,595. Benefits also decreased from $399,965 to $26,330, bringing his total compensation down to $930,090 from $1,742,560 in 2006-07. The comparative size of the fiscal year 2007 salary, though, is due not to a decrease from that year’s salary to the next year’s, but rather to payments tacked on to it that had been deferred from previous years.

“My pay stayed somewhat the same [from fiscal year '07 to fiscal year '08],” Bienen wrote. “It was bigger the year before because I took a significant deferred payment. You need to be very careful with these figures because often presidents have deferred compensation and that compensation triggers in according to preset timing.”

Bienen did institute other measures to cut costs during fiscal year ‘08, though, and said he was conscious not to increase his salary during tough fiscal times.

“I would not have wanted to take big pay increases during this difficult time,” Bienen added.

Vice President of University Relations Al Cubbage said that according to documents submitted to the IRS, a deferred payment of $375,000 was agreed upon on in 2006. The payment was contingent upon Bienen working for the university at least through August 31, 2008.

The bonuses and deferred payments serve as encouragements for Presidents to stay at universities. The board of trustees sets the compensation and bonus figures of the President based on performance and pays at other peer institutions, Cubbage said.

The bonuses that were deferred will again result in a significant increase in compensation for the fiscal year 2009.

“Next year my pay will look like it goes up because once again deferred payments were made,” Bienen said. “But my actual pay stays nearly the same.”

The state’s attorney office filed a new motion on Tuesday suggesting a private investigator working with the Medill Innocence Project may have paid off a witness to provide exculpatory evidence for McKinney’s case, who was convicted in 1978 of killing a security guard in the Chicago suburb of Harvey.

But the hearing to decide whether the school will be forced to submit the grades and course documents of students was postponed until January 11, 2010.

Medill Innocence Project professor David Protess outside of the Cook County Courthouse. / Photo by the author.

University attorney Dick O’Brien was given a postponement because he said he was not prepared to respond with oral argument or written response to the state’s brief. O’Brien said the state had said it would file the brief before the hearing to give his team time to prepare a response. Instead, prosecutors filed the motion 15 minutes into the scheduled hearing, attributing the delay to computer problems.

“As it turned out, events were such that it was not filed until today which, given the fact that it was 30 pages, made an oral argument today impractical,” said O’Brien, whom Cook County Judge Diane Cannon criticized at the beginning of the hearing for a formatting issue in his documents and for submitting a reply brief that was “dripping with sarcasm” and which Cannon characterized as editorial.

The state’s motion alleges that questions of credibility in the Project’s witness accounts bolster their case to have the court review students’ grades, notes, unpublished recordings of witness interviews, course syllabus, and e-mail exchanges between David Protess and his investigative journalism class on the Innocence Project case to check for signs of bias towards McKinney that might have skewed the evidence they “created.” Specifically, the motion claims that the way the students conducted their investigations and the fact that there were not any newspaper stories about their findings until two years later proves that they are not journalists, and therefore their materials are not protected by the Illinois Reporter’s Privilege.

Anthony Drakes, one of the Project’s witnesses and alternative suspects in McKinney’s case, was taped in an interview saying he was present during the murder and that McKinney is innocent. Drakes said to the camera at the end of the interview that he was not given any sort of compensation for making the statement. The state’s motion said Drakes claimed he asked the students for compensation before the interview and they denied his request, but one student “flashed a wad of cash toward” him.

Drakes recanted this video statement during an interview with the prosecutors and the new motion cites Drakes as saying a detective gave extra cash to the cab driver to give to Drakes, who told the state he bought crack with the money.

“In light of this record,” the motion states, “the State has a duty to determine whether the money given to the cab driver and then to Tony Drakes was given in exchange for Drakes’ affidavit.”

Protess and former student on the McKinney case, Evan Benn — who said he paid the cab driver to send Drake back to his home before curfew — described the motion’s claims as “absolutely false.”

The motion also contained an interview with Francis Drakes — nephew of Tony. In the interviews, Francis Drakes recanted an affidavit he had given to Medill students and signed in 2006 in which he stated that his uncle Tony and a friend Michael Lane came home on the night of the shooting and admitted their involvement. He was only eight at the time of the murder. Francis also claimed that the female Medill students who recorded his affidavit “flirted with him and flattered him,” and that “he made up the story for the female students from the school.”

“Basically I’m characterizing this brief as nothing more that the continuation of the state’s smear campaign against my student journalists, who work so hard on this case, with their only goal being to find the truth,” Protess said outside the courtroom.

But the state’s attorney office denies the presence of such motive, highlighting in the motion past cooperation with the Innocence Project on wrongful conviction in the post-conviction petition of Thaddeus Jimenez, who was exonerated in May.

Similar subpoenas have bugged the Innocence Institute at Point Park University in Pittsburgh. According to its director Bill Moushey, the judges in his cases have predominantly ruled the documents subpoenaed to be irrelevant to the cases.

“In all innocence projects, we have been the subject of situations where the government also has tried to attack the messenger,” Moushey said.

According to the report, a male subject began to speak with the woman, and when she walked away the man grabbed her by the arm and below the waist. The woman then screamed and the man ran away. She was not hurt and refused medical attention.

The suspect was described as a 25-year-old, clean-shaven black male with shoulder-length braids, standing at about 5 feet 8 inches tall with a thin to medium build. He reportedly was wearing an oversized white T-shirt.

University Police was then contacted and officers searched the building and its surroundings without success.

If you have any information that might assist University Police, call them at 847-491-3456.

Northwestern has embarked on a new strategic planning process for the next 10 years with a framework that identifies priority areas of focus for the university. The outline, which is open for feedback by the Northwestern community, emphasizes strengthening Northwestern as a global leader in academia and improving intellectual, civic and social life, University Provost Daniel Linzer said in an e-mailed statement on Nov. 7.

The outline was drafted after meetings over the summer among the provost, school deans and vice presidents, and further refined by a group of senior leaders from across the university in October. Over the next year, workgroups will meet to complete the framework for the plan that will be launched in 2011.

In drafting the next 10-year strategy, the university has been guided by the planning frameworks in The Highest Order of Excellence (1997-2003), the prior strategic plan, and its companion piece for 2005-2010. The Highest Order of Excellence is the product of university-wide planning committees and, Linzer said, “outlined strategies for Northwestern to strengthen its interdisciplinary culture” and “also provided a vision for supporting faculty work and student learning through innovative programs and policies, and by creating a more robust institutional infrastructure.”

The newest draft of the next strategic plans to:

• Bring Northwestern to the forefront as a leading institute for scholarship, research and creative work by attracting and retaining the best faculty and students from across the world;
• Continue to improve the learning environment and teaching methods, and identify ways to assess their effectiveness
• Improve the intellectual, civic and social experience outside the classroom for students, faculty and staff
• Have a clear strategy to build relationships with other countries or universities abroad
• Recruit and retain diverse and talented students, faculty and staff and create an environment to nurture diversity
• More effectively communicate Northwestern’s identity and wide range of strengths to audiences.

Associated Student Government President Mike McGee called the plan “a chance for Northwestern to reevaluate what it’s been doing and look at the areas where we need work.” He believes students should have a role in the drafting of the framework, and said ASG plans to meet soon with Linzer to discuss it and offer feedback geared toward Northwestern students.

The provost encouraged students and faculty to review the framework (available at stratplan.northwestern.edu) and submit comments and suggestions to stratplan@northwestern.edu by Dec. 1.

Correction: The original version of this article stated that the “university has unveiled a new strategic plan for the next 20 years.” In fact, the university has embarked on a new planning process, and the document available for review at stratplan.northwestern.edu is still only a structure that outlines priority areas of focus. North by Northwestern regrets the error.