What happened to Jewish Voice for Peace’s attempts to set up a sukkah on campus? What will happen to the historic Harley Clarke Mansion? The Daily answers these questions and recaps other top stories from the last week.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: Northwestern administrators took down a second sukkah set up by Jewish Voice for Peace.
Evanston is moving forward with a proposal for the vacant Harley Clarke Mansion.
And a truck moved through campus with a billboard criticizing a Kellogg professor.
From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Edward Simon Cruz. This is The Weekly, a breakdown of our top headlines from the past week.
Our first guest today is Campus Editor Jerry Wu. Jerry, twice this week, you were at various events involving Jewish Voice for Peace as they attempted to set up a “Gaza Solidarity Sukkah.” One happened on Wednesday night at Deering Meadow, and the other happened on Friday afternoon at The Rock.
This all comes in the middle of Sukkot, an eight-day celebration that runs from Oct. 16-23 marking the fall harvest, honoring the 40 years Israelites spent wandering the desert after fleeing slavery in Egypt. And a sukkah is a temporary structure built during that holiday to commemorate the impermanent shelters the Israelites lived in while they were wandering the desert.
Can you walk us through your experience reporting on the first sukkah as it was set up and eventually taken down at Deering Meadow?
JERRY WU: Well, I was the one who was delegated to go to the meadow to cover it when the sukkah was first erected on the meadow. And I arrived there at about 6:30 (p.m.). JVP members were already there, and they were in the process of erecting the sukkah. And, you know, I was sort of just patrolling the area and seeing how things would pan out because, you know, obviously with the new rollout of demonstration policies, part of me knew that there would probably be administration presence on the meadow in the near future, but, you know, I spent the first half an hour patrolling and talking with a few students to see what their plans were. They did tell me that they were planning to stay there for the entire eight days of the holiday.
But yeah, after a few hours, after, you know, patrolling and kind of observing, eventually we were notified that some of the administrators had pulled up. There was (Dean of Students) Mona Dugo as well as (Vice President for Student Affairs) Susan Davis, both top-brass administrators at Northwestern. I saw from afar that they first had a few conversations with a few of the JVP members. There was also police presence at the time.
I think it was about nine o’clock — you know, I wasn’t able to hear the entire conversation, but afterwards, I was informed by a few of the members that the sukkah on the meadow (was) in violation of the display policy. There were two main infractions with the structure on Wednesday, I was told by one of the university spokespersons. One of them was that in advance, JVP had requested the University’s permission for the event, but that was denied because according to the University, the group is not recognized as a student organization. And the number two factor was because, according to the University, the structure violated the University’s display policy.
So knowing that, I believe it was around nine o’clock, after the university administrators had spoken with a few of the JVP members and informed them of the infractions of the structure, they would eventually, shortly after, sent in a band of police and University employees who disassembled the sukkah on the meadow. And you know, there was a procession of students on the side chanting and calling out the University for their actions that evening.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: And then there was another sukkah that was set up on Friday at The Rock. What happened there?
JERRY WU: It was about four o’clock when I arrived at the scene. Some of the JVP members — most of them arrived at The Rock to set up the second sukkah. So this time, I think it was made out of different materials, but regardless, in a few — you know, 10 to 20 minutes, they were able to construct (the sukkah). There were a few prayers going around. The original plan was also to, you know, have them be there for, I believe, five days, for the remaining time of the holiday.
Later on, again, a University administrator arrived at the scene to talk with a few of the JVP members. And from what I was able to later gather on, administrators were saying again that the sukkah by The Rock was in violation of the University’s display policy once again. A different reason, though — there were two infractions, I believe. One was the fact that one tent is allowed by The Rock per campus tradition. But according to University administrators, the sukkah wouldn’t be able to constitute as a tent in the first place. And if it were, it would be too big to constitute as a tent, either. And University administrations also alluded to the fact that some of the signs that were attached to the side of the sukkah were also inflammatory. Those are some of the reasons that they cited this time to warrant them to remove the sukkah.
But eventually, same procedures — police and University employees arrived. This time, as opposed to dissembling the sukkah, they loaded up the entire sukkah into the back of a truck. And after they loaded the sukkah into the truck, they started to drive across campus with the procession of students following. Eventually, the truck sped away with the sukkah, and speaking to just a few of the students that night, a lot of them were very emotional and called out the University for their actions.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: That was campus editor Jerry Wu, talking about two efforts from Jewish Voice for Peace at Northwestern to construct a “Gaza Solidarity Sukkah” at Deering Meadow and at The Rock earlier this week.
Our next guest today is Isaiah Steinberg. He’s an assistant city editor who was with me at the Evanston City Council’s meeting on Monday, where they discussed among other things, proposals about the future of the Harley Clarke Mansion. That’s a historic building. It’s located along Sheridan Road by the Grosse Pointe Lighthouse and Lighthouse Beach. And the building has been vacant since the Evanston Art Center left it in 2015. Walk us through what’s happened since then.
ISAIAH STEINBERG: Since the Evanston Art Center moved out in 2015, the city has attempted to get proposals from multiple groups to reoccupy and lease that mansion. The first one was in 2017, when the city issued a request for proposals (and) received a response from Evanston (Community) Lakehouse and Gardens. Council approved city staff to negotiate a lease with Evanston (Community) Lakehouse and Gardens. However, when it came time to approve the actual lease, the city council chose to vote against that lease.
And then in 2018, there was an organization called Evanston Lighthouse Dunes that wanted to demolish the mansion, citing rising maintenance costs, that being the reason that Evanston Art Center could no longer pay for the lease, and that the cost would be too high. They wanted to restore the mansion back to its natural sand dunes and just have no building there. Ultimately, that resolution actually passed City Council, but the Evanston Preservation Commission voted unanimously to deny the certificate that would allow the city to actually demolish it.
Following that, there was a group of people called Save Harley Clarke. They introduced a ballot measure, and in November of that year, about 80% of Evanston residents voted not to demolish the mansion. That was purely advisory, but it seems like the city took that to heart.
Then in 2019, just a few months after, there was another request for proposals. The city received a response from the Artists Book House, and ultimately, they were not able to raise the necessary funds to do all the maintenance for the mansion. They withdrew from that lease in 2023, and a few months later, the city released another request for proposals, and that is the one that saw the two proposals from Celadon and Evanston (Community) Lakehouse and Gardens that were discussed at the meeting on Monday.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: So you mentioned those two proposals. Walk us through the key differences from the proposal from Celadon and then the proposal from Evanston Community Lakehouse and Gardens.
ISAIAH STEINBERG: So the Celadon proposal is the one that ultimately the city ended up adopting. That proposal would turn the mansion into a hotel with 10 hotel rooms. It would also have a restaurant, it would have a bar in the basement and it would have an ice cream shop, actually. And it would also be an event space for things like weddings, so they wanted to have about two weddings per week. That was one of their proposals.
And then the other proposal was from Evanston Community Lakehouse and Gardens. That proposal would have established an event venue, a cafe, museum spaces and art galleries for the community.
The crucial difference between these two proposals, as the council saw it and as (Evanston) Community Lakehouse and Gardens and its advocates during public comment, the way they saw it, is that the Celadon proposal would, in a sense, limit public access due to the weddings and the hotel rooms. So their main concern was that that proposal would limit some public access to the mansion, which the (Evanston) Community Lakehouse and Gardens proposal would solve for.
Their argument was that the 2018 ballot measure — that was the referendum for Evanston residents — residents made it very clear that they wanted public access to the mansion to be preserved. And so the community lake house and gardens advocates feel that this Celadon proposal goes against the will of most Evanston residents in the sense that it might limit some public access.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: What led to (the) council eventually adopting the proposal from Celadon nonetheless?
ISAIAH STEINBERG: Prior to the meeting, City Council had already proposed a resolution that would authorize the city to negotiate a lease with Celadon. So city staff had already assessed these two proposals based on several factors and had determined that based on their criteria, the Celadon proposal would be much more financially viable and more likely to succeed long-term. They felt that, although it was more expensive in the short term, it would ultimately bring in more revenue for the city in the long term. And given Celadon’s past experience with historic preservation, they felt that the company could do a very good job. It would be able to preserve some of the architecture of the mansion while also being able to afford the maintenance and ultimately would succeed in the long term at bringing in revenue for the city, hence the 99-year lease period.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: The council voted 6-0 at the meeting to authorize city staff to create a lease with Celadon. What’s next?
ISAIAH STEINBERG: Councilmembers will have time to receive input from their constituents on what the terms of the lease should be to best prioritize public access and things like that. That was a pretty prominent concern that was brought up in the meeting. Councilmember Clare Kelly, from the 1st Ward, was suggesting that the city table this resolution to the Oct. 28 meeting. Ultimately, that didn’t happen, and she herself voted in favor of authorizing city staff to negotiate the lease. Mayor Daniel Biss brought up the point that residents will be able to provide feedback on lease terms to City Manager Luke Stowe and other city staff to make sure that the terms of the lease are in the best interest of Evanston residents going forward.
Once that lease is negotiated between city staff and Celadon, the City Council meeting after that — (the) council will vote on whether to actually approve the lease, and then following that, Celadon, according to the proposal, hopes to open the renovated Harley Clarke Mansion at some point in 2026.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: That was Isaiah Steinberg discussing a proposal from Celadon for the future of the Harley Clarke mansion on Sheridan Road.
Here are the other top headlines from the week:
A billboard truck spotted on the Evanston campus called for the University to cut ties with Kellogg Prof. Julia Vander Ploeg. Since April 2023, Vander Ploeg has served on the supervisory board of the food retail conglomerate Ahold Delhaize. The Center for Responsible Food Business says the company practices animal cruelty by selling eggs from caged hens.
The Mitchell Museum of the American Indian held its first-ever Indigenous Peoples’ Day Powwow with Evanston Township High School.
Sabrina Carpente took her Short n’ Sweet tour to a sold-out United Center.
NU field hockey is having its best start to the season ever. The ’Cats are now 15-0.
And the president of the American Association of University Professors sent a letter to NU President Michael Schill expressing concern about an ongoing investigation of Medill Prof. Steven Thrasher.
From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Edward Simon Cruz. Thanks for listening to another episode of The Weekly. This episode was reported and produced by me, Jerry Wu and Isaiah Steinberg.
The audio editor of The Daily Northwestern is me, Edward Simon Cruz. The digital managing editors are Carlotta Angiolillo and Sasha Draeger-Mazer. The editor in chief is Jacob Wendler.
Our theme music is “Night Owl” by Broke for Free, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License and provided by the Free Music Archive.
Follow us on X and Instagram @thedailynu. We’ll be back next Monday with another episode of The Weekly.
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Related Stories:
— JVP sets up second Gaza Solidarity Sukkah at The Rock
— City to negotiate a lease to rehabilitate Harley Clarke Mansion
— Calls for NU to cut ties with Kellogg Prof. Julia Vander Ploeg roll through campus
