What’s happening to the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center? How has the Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility changed? The Daily answers these questions and recaps other top stories from the last week.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: Evanston is moving from the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center to a temporary facility early next year.
Some students remain skeptical about the recusal policy for the Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility.
And Northwestern field hockey won its second national championship in four seasons.
From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Edward Simon Cruz.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: And I’m Dov Weinstein Elul. This is The Weekly, a breakdown of the top headlines from the past week.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: Joining me today for my first segment: We’re running it back with Assistant City Editor Isaiah Steinberg. You’ve been looking at some of the changes surrounding the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center. In January, City Council voted to approve a 15-year lease for a space at 909 Davis St., where there would be a temporary civic center, and the city had plans to move its government operations from the Morton Civic Center to this new space, but there have been some delays with those plans. So why is the city planning to move its services away from the Morton Civic Center, and what has caused the delays in some of those plans?
ISAIAH STEINBERG: Yeah, so the Morton Civic Center is a beautiful historic building, but ultimately it’s also a very old building. It was built in 1901, making it 123 years old. It would require major updates to electrical systems, air conditioning systems. It’s also not currently compliant with the city’s CARP, the Climate Action and Resilience Plan, and it’s also — any major renovation to it would require the building to comply with modern building codes that it didn’t have to comply with when it was constructed. It’s also not (Americans with Disabilities Act)-accessible, and that’s something the city really wants to work on, and the temporary facility at 909 Davis is accessible. They see benefits there in terms of the accessibility, building security, having only one entrance. And they feel that although it’s smaller, they’ll still be able to effectively conduct their operations there.
Now, the reason for the delay — they initially planned to move in September. They planned to end operations at Morton and shift over to the new downtown location. However, the city negotiated a $5.9 million tenants’ agreement with the property manager at 909 Davis that would allow them to spend $5.9 million on upgrades and construction that are necessary to move into the new space. The city had to make some adjustments, however, to (its) initial projections to be able to complete everything (it) needed to complete under that cost. So ultimately, that is why the city still has not moved into 909 Davis, and it will be conducting a phased move to the new facility early next year.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: What’s going to happen with Morton in the meantime?
ISAIAH STEINBERG: Now, in terms of Morton, the city has recently hosted some listening sessions, and (it’s) also conducting a survey to gather community feedback about what residents want the future of Morton to look like — whether the city will move back into Morton after doing extensive renovations or whether the city will sell the building and ultimately move somewhere else and construct a new civic center. So that decision could in fact be made as early as next year, 2025. That’s according to City Engineer Lara Biggs. It all depends on which recommendations city staff end up giving to (the) council based on the results of the survey and these community listening sessions.
So the city is currently facing multiple options, but the crux of the decision is whether the city will return to Morton after 15 years or potentially even seven years, which is when they’re able to exit the lease at 909 Davis if they’d like, or whether the city will vacate Morton and instead build a new civic center elsewhere. Based on the cost estimates, it actually might be cheaper for them to build a new civic center elsewhere or to relocate. However, there are a lot of residents who would like them to stay in Morton due to the historical significance of the building.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: You mentioned the city is holding a series of listening sessions. One of those took place Thursday night, and you’ve talked about concerns that some of the community members have voiced, including concerns tied to Morton’s historical significance. What have been some of the things that those folks are saying?
ISAIAH STEINBERG: There have also been concerns from residents as well as certain councilmembers, most significantly among them being Ald. Clare Kelly (1st), regarding cost. Fully renovating the Morton Civic Center could cost up to $62.7 million, according to a relocation feasibility study contracted by the city with infrastructure consulting firm AECOM.
The 15-year lease will cost the city $37.4 million or $22.8 million if the city chooses to end the lease after seven years. That’s according to a city presentation from the 5th Ward in May. The city is also considering developing an integrated civic center and Police and Fire Headquarters at 906 University Place, or the site of the Evanston Farmers’ Market. That would cost the city $105.4 million, according to AECOM’s report. So now that the city has decided to move out of the Morton Civic Center and sign this 15-year lease, any option the city chooses, whether it be relocation or renovation, would cost the city quite a bit of money. Any way you swing it, it is a concern for taxpayers, especially with the city recently admitting that they will eventually have to raise property taxes to keep the General Fund reserves healthy, so we could see that in the coming years, especially with this huge expense with the civic center.
The final concern is about transparency. So, when City Council in January initially authorized city staff to negotiate a lease on 909 Davis St. for 15 years, they did so in an executive session, meaning it wasn’t open to the public when they made that decision. The State Attorney General’s Office declared that a violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act, and this has been a concern of Kelly’s: that the current listening sessions are not genuine, that the city may have already made a decision on the future of the Morton Civic Center and these listening sessions are more of a show. However, Deputy City Manager Carina Sánchez and City Engineer Lara Biggs are adamant that there has been no decision made on the future of the Morton Civic Center and that these conversations are very much being taken into account — the city might get this before council next year.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: That was Assistant City Editor Isaiah Steinberg on the future of the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center and a planned temporary civic center at 909 Davis St.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Next, I spoke to Nineth Kanieski Koso, one of The Daily’s assistant campus editors this quarter. Over the last month, she has been reporting on Northwestern’s new Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility. As part of a deal since the encampment, the committee has been revamped to allow for students to have more of a voice in terms of the school’s endowments, but it’s come with some interesting new rules. Can you just start by explaining: What is the advisory committee, and what do they do?
NINETH KANIESKI KOSO: The Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility is a body that advises the Board of Trustees on investment concerns. They review proposals on ideas related to investment strategies such as divestment and then determine what to send to the Board to review.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Who does the committee actually consist of?
NINETH KANIESKI KOSO: The committee consists of faculty, students — undergrad and graduate — alumni and staff, including Chief Investment Officer Amy Falls, who will regard ex officio over the committee.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: How do they actually work with the Board of Trustees? Who actually has the power in the situation?
NINETH KANIESKI KOSO: The committee doesn’t actually work with the Board. Rather, they are just in communication whenever they send a recommendation. There is not a representative of the Board on the committee, nor is the Board required to take any recommendation the committee gives to them as, ultimately, the Board of Trustees has all the power in determining how Northwestern invests its endowment funds.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Why is the committee back, and what’s different about it this time?
NINETH KANIESKI KOSO: The committee is back as part of the “Agreement on Deering Meadow” to end the encampment. Applications for the committee are due Nov. 27, and the committee is expected to start work in early January.
Some new things in the reconstituted committee is that previously, in the old version of the committee, the Associated Student Government and also the (Graduate Leadership and Advocacy Council) would nominate the student representatives to (the) committee. However, in this iteration, all nominees for the committee have to be approved by University President Michael Schill, so it is now a non-democratic process of approval.
Also what’s new is Northwestern introduced a recusal policy, which requires members of the committee to recuse themselves from decisions if they have a conflict that comes from their employment, research or also a leadership role in advocacy or affinity groups. It is unclear to what extent “advocacy” or “affinity group” means, and when we asked the University for clarification on how it would be determined when a committee member would have to recuse themselves, the University did not respond, so it’s unclear to what extent this recusal policy will affect the committee.
I also would like to note, this recusal policy — it’s the opposite of what the committee previously kind of stood for, as previously the committee used to hold space for undergrad students who are engaged in advocacy. Now it seems that this policy would require them to recuse themselves from these deliberations. When we asked the University if students involved in Jewish, Muslim or Arab affinity groups, or pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian advocacy groups — whether they would be disqualified from the committee selection, the University told us that a membership in affinity groups would not disqualify an individual’s application. However, it is unclear what would determine when a committee member would have to recuse themselves from a proposal and how this decision would be made.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: What are students and faculty concerned about regarding the committee?
NINETH KANIESKI KOSO: So looking at the history of the committee, many students and faculty are skeptical that the committee will end up influencing Northwestern’s investment strategy at all. Due to the lack of communication between the Board of Trustees and the committee, there (are) concerns that nothing will change with this new, reconstituted committee, as it doesn’t appear too much has changed with how the committee will work and how the recommendations will be proposed to the Board.
And as we’ve previously talked about, the one student recommendation of divesting from fossil fuel companies — the Board of Trustees flat-out rejected it, and many students question whether this will change with this iteration. The other thing that’s a big concern with the committee is — so the committee is on investment responsibility. It’s supposed to advise the Board of Trustees on how to make socially responsible investment decisions. However, when we talk about what is investment responsibility in practice, it often comes down to only divestment, and the Board of Trustees has been very resistant to accept any divestment policies in the history of Northwestern. There are a couple exceptions to this. However, they do fall into the category of extreme examples, as the committee outlined in its Statement on Investment Responsibility from 2019.
The other concern with divestment is that the University is under federal legislation about institutional fund management for higher education institutions. The Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act provides guidance on investment decisions and has rules for how universities are allowed to spend endowment funds. If a university were to divest for any reason that doesn’t go towards the university’s obligation toward its charitable purpose, which is higher education, the university could face a fiduciary liability under this act.
Many student organizations, such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Northwestern’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, have pushed for the University to divest from Israel. On Oct. 9, the Northwestern (University) Graduate Workers union also passed a resolution pushing for the University to divest from Israel. However, University President Schill has reiterated multiple times that he will never recommend divestment to the Board of Trustees.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Nineth Kaneski Koso, thanks so much for talking to me.
NINETH KANIESKI KOSO: Thank you.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: Here are the other top headlines from the week:
Some tenured faculty members protested the school’s new demonstration policies at The Rock on Wednesday.
Evanston/Skokie School District 65 agreed on a new contract with members of the District 65 Educators’ Council.
The multimedia Woven Rhythms exhibit is on display at the Evanston Art Center.
Northwestern field hockey defeated Saint Joseph’s 5-0 to win its second NCAA national championship in Ann Arbor.
And Communication junior Malik Rice was sworn in as the next co-president of Associated Student Government.
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, Dov Weinstein Elul, Isaiah Steinberg and Nineth Kanieski Koso.
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.
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Related Stories:
— City to move operations to 909 Davis St. in early 2025 following high construction costs
— Investment Responsibility Committee’s recusal policy sparks backlash among faculty, students
