In this episode, The Daily reports on hot takes of the week, top Opinion stories of the past two weeks along with other op-ed and contributing pieces that we received. The Daily explores being part of Northwestern’s undocumented and DACA communities under Trump’s current presidency, finding common ground at NU and coming together as a community.
LILY OGBURN: My hot take is that the Northwestern Christmas lights that are all over campus and are left on after Christmas should be warm white instead of cool white. I think that warm white just creates a better atmosphere, and the cool white is just too harsh and makes me sad when I’m returning from The Daily or from a library, so warm white.
KELLEY LU: My hot take is that EDM music kind of sucks because, well, it’s just me personally, EDM is really big, there’s a lot of music that goes under EDM, so I can’t speak for everything, but from what I’ve heard, I just can’t like bump to music with no words. So techno, I can stand there, and it’s really fun for like 15 minutes, but I can’t sit through a two-hour DJ show.
JANELLE MELLA: My hot take is that steak isn’t that great. I have a family with three men in it, and they rave about how good steak is and how they always want to eat it. And, in my opinion, I just don’t think it’s really all that. I think chicken’s better, if anything. Just think steak has a weird texture, and it really just isn’t that good.
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ALEXANDER HERNANDEZ GONZALEZ: You just heard hot takes from Editor in Chief Lily Ogburn, Multimedia Managing Editor Kelley Lu and Development and Recruitment Editor Janelle Mella.
From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez.
ALICE OH: And I’m Alice Oh. This is Who Asked You?, a podcast capturing opinions on the issues that matter to us and you.
ALEXANDER HERNANDEZ GONZALEZ: Welcome back to Episode Two! It’s another week, another episode to talk about opinions not just at The Daily, but how these opinions influence our daily lives! Let’s get it started!
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ALEXANDER HERNANDEZ GONZALEZ: A Letter to the Editor, titled “Support Northwestern’s DACA and Undocumented Students, Workers and their Families” discusses how the university needs to ensure that it remains a safe space for those who can be affected by the Trump administration’s mass deportation plan.
ALICE OH: I actually read an article about how Trump authorized ICE to target schools and churches for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. These areas were actually previously protected areas, so the fact that he issued a statement is pretty crazy.
And here’s a quote from the statement, it says, “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.” So, I don’t know how they’re gonna conduct these deportations and these raids, but I’m expecting some crazy things to happen.
ALEXANDER HERNANDEZ GONZALEZ: Yeah, and even so, within a place like Northwestern University — a private institution — I believe it’s not just their due diligence to protect their underserved communities and those who are very vulnerable to this sort of attack, but also just in general, reinstating that they are the allies of those sort of people who identify within the undocumented and DACA communities because it’s not even just here within the Chicagoland area where these raids are happening. It’s nationwide.
Even so, this past week, there was an incident that happened in Boston where Fox News was. During the ICE raids, they were tagging along with the sort of agents, and they unfortunately did have the collateral arrest that I did mention in my op-ed a few weeks ago. And even though this sort of thing was a quote, unquote “collateral arrest” and was not expected, these sort of issues do need to be addressed, especially by the University, because we just don’t want this sort of targeting to affect students of these communities, and just to be, you know, unfortunately, be victims of this sort of administration and these very xenophobic and very targeted attacks that will affect anyone and everyone within the community at Northwestern.
ALICE OH: Yeah, I feel like as the administration’s policies change, and as atmospheres change, it’s the school’s responsibility to clarify their status on immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, and offer reassurance or offer just a statement that covers all these different areas and people that might be impacted.
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ALICE OH: In my column “NU is desperately in need of common ground,” readers are called to visualize the sprawled-on-greengrass-with-diverse-friends college dream and compare it with NU’s lack of a common space. It cites this campus’ architecture as a significant reason for student isolation and disconnection.
ALEXANDER HERNANDEZ GONZALEZ: So when I was actually reading your column when it got published, I was very intrigued by the idea of Northwestern not even having that sort of common ground space for students. When even trying to analyze and think what we do have at Northwestern, it’s just Deering Meadow, which, with the sort of space and sort of events that Deering has been used for in the past, it’s really not comparable to these other institutions like Harvard’s Yard or, even back home at the University of Denver, they have an actual quad where students can conversate, eat, and, just in general have time with each other.
But it’s just very interesting to me that an institution like Northwestern doesn’t necessarily have that sort of space for students, especially when we have exams, there’s a lot of crazy things going on with classes, and just in general, a place to decompress, besides Lake Michigan would be very beneficial to the community at Northwestern.
ALICE OH: Yeah, I totally agree. And I think I kind of associate Deering Meadow now with, you know, all the Israel-Palestine, the things that went on last year. And so I’m very hesitant, personally, to go and just chill there, because I think definitely in my mind, I’m like, “Oh, that’s not a space that I can go to and just chat and casually be there with my friends.”
So, I think we definitely are in need of a place. And I did mention Norris Pub as being the new kind of gathering area, but I’m really not sure how that’s going to turn out because obviously, half the campus is minors, and it is by the Lakefill. It’s not as big of a space as other college campuses have, like UIUC, like Berkeley, so I’m very curious to see how it expands in the future.
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ALEXANDER HERNANDEZ GONZALEZ: In his contributing piece titled “The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster still haunts us,” Op-ed Contributor Robert Kazel reflects on his point of view nearly 40 years ago as a NU student and former Daily staffer.
ALICE OH: I thought it was super heartwarming. It was interesting to see the differences between, you know, the newsroom in the present day versus the newsroom in, was it 1986? So, super interesting read, and I’m wondering, what moment in the present do we have that could bring the campus together? And are we able to do that in times of trauma or times of difficulty, or is that not really a thing anymore?
ALEXANDER HERNANDEZ GONZALEZ: Yeah, I feel like especially the point that he raises within his contributing piece, that back then, there wasn’t necessarily a lot of tragic events occurring like there is currently, now, in this sort of new generation. Because he does mention how his parents went through World War II, the Vietnam War, and all these sort of, like major factors that did impact their, sort of, livelihoods. And then this sort of experience with the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster was their main point of bonding together.
And then I feel like, even afterwards, like the idea of, unfortunately, like school shootings and also identity-based attacks, just became more rampant within the country. Unfortunately, I feel like for Generation Z and Generation Alpha, they become very desensitized to these sort of attacks and events because they just occur on a daily basis and just very consistently, and you really just can’t catch up with all these sort of events, because if you look too much into it, it just takes some physical and mental toll on you.
And I feel like that’s what a lot of people don’t want to, you know, necessarily contribute to, which is sad, but it’s just a reality, I feel like, that we need to recognize, because there’s just a lot of things going on that are outside of our control, and also things that we don’t even have a say in. It’s very unfortunate. But yeah, if there’s any sort of opportunity to bond, I just feel like it should be, you know, not even just within these sort of accidents or disasters. It should be within our daily lives. It’s something that’s not really instilled within our mindsets currently, but I just feel like it’s something very important. And yes, like the LA fires, and, you know, currently, like Trump’s administration’s targeting of certain policies that have been in place for decades is, I would consider a disaster. It’s not okay, but I just feel like it would be a great opportunity to bond as people, and I feel like people have done that, but it’s just very unfortunate that’s one of the only ways that people actually can connect together is through tragedy.
ALICE OH: That’s a great point. I’m also thinking, you know, with the rise of social media, a lot of bonding and a lot of community building is through those social media platforms, which I think is, you know, definitely good, considering how much it connects like international people, people like globally, and how fast we can communicate about such topics.
But, I do think it lacks a little bit of warmth. I think like reading his op ed, it’s like, oh, like this physical coming together at Alice Millar [Chapel], and just like being able to interact in person with these people who have lived through the same trauma, I think there’s another level of warmth and comfort to that. So, I would definitely love to experience something like that. I mean, obviously not because of tragedy, but just in our Northwestern community in general. It would be really heartwarming to see.
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ALEXANDER HERNANDEZ GONZALEZ: Here are the other opinions from the last two weeks:
Today, I am still shamelessly American by Op-ed Contributor Aidan Klineman
Consolidation will not solve Chicagoland’s transit woes by Op-ed Contributor Aidan Keefe
Immigrants are not enemies, they are the heart of America by Opinion Editor Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez
Why Canada needs a fresh start, not an annexation by Op-ed Contributor Dylan Meretsky
I think I’ve had about enough by Op-ed Contributor Stephen Hackney
Fourth Wall: Why I love opinion writing by Opinion Contributor Aidan Klineman
Best Guess: What Crock-Pots can teach you about life by Opinion Contributor Mika Ellison and
Debí Tirar Más Fotos con mis seres queridos by Opinion Editor Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez.
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ALICE OH: Do you have a hot take? Send it to opinion@dailynorthwestern.com with the subject line “Hot Take” along with your detailed hot take to be featured in the next episode.
ALEXANDER HERNANDEZ GONZALEZ: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez.
ALICE OH: And I’m Alice Oh. Thanks for listening to another episode of Who Asked You?
ALEXANDER HERNANDEZ GONZALEZ: This episode was reported by Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez and Alice Oh and produced by Anavi Prakash.
The Audio Editor is Anavi Prakash. The Multimedia Managing Editors are Kelley Lu and Jillian Moore. The Editor in Chief is Lily Ogburn.
Our theme music is “Thoughts” by KaizanBlu, used under a Creative Commons 4.0 International license and provided by the Free Music Archive.
Follow us on X and Instagram @thedailynu.
Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez is a Medill sophomore. He can be contacted at alexanderhernandez-gonzalez2027@u.northwestern.edu. Alice Oh is a Medill and Bienen sophomore. She can be contacted at aliceoh2027@u.northwestern.edu. If you would like to respond publicly to this opinion episode, send a Letter to the Editor to opinion@dailynorthwestern.com. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.
Related Stories:
— Nunes: America is experiencing ‘immigrant indigestion’
— Kazel: The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster still haunts us
— Hackney: I think I’ve had about enough