What do we know about the antisemetic vandalism incident on and around Kresge and University Halls last Monday? What is the Department of Energy asking of Northwestern and other research universities? What is new with Envision Evanston? The Daily answers these questions and recaps other top stories from the last week.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: On today’s episode:
Northwestern investigates antisemitic graffiti outside University Hall and Kresge Hall.
The Department of Energy threatens to terminate Northwestern research awards unless a 15% cap on indirect costs is accepted.
And the Land Use Commission debates alterations to Envision Evanston 2045.
From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Dov Weinstein Elul.
RUBY DOWLING: And I’m Ruby Dowling. This is The Weekly, a breakdown of the top headlines from the past week.
[music]
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: First up this week, I spoke to Campus Editor Isaiah Steinberg about a recent incident of antisemitic vandalism on campus.
So you reported on some antisemitic vandalism on and outside Kresge and University Halls early Monday morning, which included red spray print calling for the death of Israel, Intifada now and featured multiple inverted triangles, which are a way to identify Israeli targets for Hamas fighters or a symbol of Palestinian resistance. During World War II, these symbols were also used as a way to identify political prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. This vandalism also came during the Jewish holiday of Passover.
So, why don’t you just start with the basic details? What do we know about this incident?
ISAIAH STEINBERG: Yeah, so we don’t know too much, but we know that it occurred around 4 a.m., early, early Monday morning. That was the second night of Passover, so just entering the third day, but the second night. There was red spray paint on multiple locations, so on the door of University Hall, on the steps of University Hall, down on the ground in front of Kresge Hall and on the doors of Kresge Hall, so all over that area. There was a river and then an arrow to the word “sea,” so from the river to the sea on the doors of Kresge Hall along with some flyers of unidentifiable people. There were inverted red triangles outside Kresge in multiple locations. There was a red spray-painted sign that said “Intifada Now” on the ground in front of the steps to Kresge and outside of Kresge, the sign reading “Kresge Centennial Hall,” the “Kresge Centennial” was crossed out and replaced with “Death to Israel.” And then there were red handprints on the doors of University Hall. So we don’t know too much about it. According to some communication from the University and NUPD, it was multiple individuals. They’re still investigating, and to the best of our knowledge, no suspect has been identified yet.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: So how is the University responding to this? Do we know anything about their investigation, or what other actions are they taking?
ISAIAH STEINBERG: So pretty shortly after the incident during the day, NUPD Chief Bruce Lewis sent out an email disclosing that the University is aware of the hateful graffiti and fliers and is investigating. This is after the graffiti was all power-washed away by Facilities Management in the early hours of the morning. And later that day, University President Michael Schill responded, sending out an email to the campus community saying that the University is analyzing camera footage and forensics and various methods to identify those responsible for the vandalism. And he said if they’re Northwestern students they would be suspended and face disciplinary proceedings as well as criminal charges. So it seems like President Schill and the University are taking this very seriously. Schill decried the action for taking place during Passover, and according to the Evanston Campus Police Blotter, the investigation is still open, so still working to identify suspects in this case.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: How have various student groups on campus responded?
ISAIAH STEINBERG: Yeah, so Hillel talked with The Daily the day of the vandalism, and both Michael Simon, the executive director, as well as Sari Eisen, the president, and they were not happy with the vandalism. They highlighted the extreme nature of some of the things that were spray-painted across those buildings, and they said they would maintain contact with the University, Evanston Police Departments to ensure a safe environment for Jewish students, and they expressed sadness to be seeing these messages on a sacred holiday. Other student groups, such as Jewish Voice for Peace, which is a Jewish organization on campus advocating for a free Palestine, has not issued a statement yet.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: So initially there wasn’t much documentation of what happened. When did photos showing exactly the vandalism that occurred when did those photos surface?
ISAIAH STEINBERG: Yeah, so in the evening, a group called SSI, Students Supporting Israel, at Northwestern, which is not a registered student organization, but does include several Northwestern students, posted a statement on their Instagram page as well as we believe the first group on campus to post the photos, and then shortly after that, a pro-Palestinian group called Unity of Fields posted some photos that showed the vandalism in a more complete light. So that’s how students first sort of learned about the contents of it and from there by the end of the night, the photos had been widely circulated on social media platforms such as Fizz by students and Instagram and all over the place by then.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: How does this fit into a larger theme of antisemitism at Northwestern amid the recent funding cuts related to antisemitism?
ISAIAH STEINBERG: So, the current administration’s rationale for the funding freeze and for many other actions taken against Northwestern and other elite universities is antisemitism.Of course, this specific case of vandalism has been widely regarded as an instance of antisemitism by many groups and many experts and some have questioned whether the administration’s sort of intention behind these investigations has been antisemitism or other factors, but regardless, antisemitism remains a main flashpoint for the administration for student activism, and this case certainly will not help Northwestern’s position in regards to federal investigations in the future.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Isaiah Steinberg, thank you so much.
[music]
RUBY DOWLING: Next, I spoke to The Daily’s Managing Editor Jerry Wu about a recent directive from the Trump Administration aimed at reducing spending at research universities.
Thanks for being here, Jerry. Now, the Department of Energy has asked Northwestern University to lower its indirect research cost rate. Can you explain what indirect research costs actually are, and what might it look like if Northwestern complies in reducing them?
JERRY WU: Yeah, so basically, the Department of Energy, like you mentioned, has threatened to basically bring down the indirect cost rates at Northwestern from 60% to 15%, and basically these indirect costs, they’re basically a reimbursement from these federal agencies, including the Department of Energy in this case, to the university, so in this case, Northwestern. And you know, these costs, they cover a wide range of things, especially related to research. And for Northwestern, these indirect costs cover a range of things all the way from lab spaces, waste removal services and a variety of other things on campus.
And the way that these indirect costs kind of operate have been, basically, they’re cut, in addition to the direct costs that fund research as well, on the University — but it’s an additional percentage of reimbursement from the federal government to universities directly to cover some of the expenses that I mentioned before.
RUBY DOWLING: What are the possible paths forward for Northwestern?
JERRY WU: Yeah, that’s a great question. I mean, so far, according to the email that we obtained — it’s also something that’s now publicly available on the University’s research and federal policy update website. But basically, after the University received communication from the Department of Energy to reduce its indirect cost rates, last week, I believe, on Wednesday, there happened to be a U.S. district judge in Massachusetts who issued a temporary restraining order blocking the department from officially going into effect, so technically right now the University has basically taken this as, you know, official and have instructed all researchers and P.I.s to still follow through and plan their budgets in accordance with the old University and negotiated indirect cost rate which is 60%. So things are still gonna, you know, you know, obviously the University is closely monitoring this decree from the court, but at the same time I think the University is still wanting to maintain their current negotiated indirect cost rate just because of how much, how much money and how much, you know, how much these indirect costs cover all across campus.
RUBY DOWLING: Jerry, you’ve been reporting on relations between the Trump administration and the University for the past few weeks covering funding freezes and stop work orders. How severe is this decision compared to other federal action Northwestern is facing at the moment?
JERRY WU: Yeah, I think this one is pretty major as well. I mean, a couple months ago, we saw that there was a quite similar policy from the NIH that proposed a 15% cap rate on on indirect costs to universities nationwide that was, I believe, permanently blocked by a federal judge, and I mean this recently introduced policy by the Department of Energy pretty much mimics that. And you know, it’s, it’s been temporarily blocked as well, but, frankly, it doesn’t seem as significant compared to the NIH because historically Northwestern, you know, like many other universities, has millions of grants from the NIH in comparison to the Department of Energy, so it is not as drastic if, you know, this indirect cost policy goes into effect. But at the same time, it is another escalation from the Trump administration to axe off federal funding if it really goes into effect. So, you know, it is really a cascading effect from, it’s trickling down from all the way from the federal government.
RUBY DOWLING: And thinking about the legal precedent here, does it seem at the moment like the federal government can mandate the institutions reduce their indirect cost rate?
JERRY WU: Well, I think, you know, with the court decision from the judge in Massachusetts, one would assume this is not not exactly legal, so I would say there really isn’t much historic precedent for what we’re seeing today. So, you know, obviously, we anticipate this policy from the Department of Energy won’t exactly continue, but I think there will still be appeals from the federal government and — and all of that.
RUBY DOWLING: Jerry Wu, thank you so much.
[music]
DOV WEINTSTEIN ELUL: Last up today, I spoke to Assistant City Editor Sophie Baker who attended the Land Use Commission meeting Wednesday where they debated Envision Evanston 2045’s comprehensive plan. This plan, which provides a vision for what Evanston should look like in 20 years through policy and structural changes to the city, has been a major point of debate since it was first proposed by Mayor (Daniel) Biss last year.
DOV WEINTSTEIN ELUL: So you reported on the Land Use Commission’s recent meeting where they debated Envision Evanston. The plan has been slowed and altered since it was first created in February 2024 in response to community feedback. So why don’t you just start us off with what was the Land Use Commission talking about this time?
SOPHIE BAKER: So they’ve received an updated draft of Envision Evanston and staff basically presented them with a document that kind of suggested edits based on the Land Use Commission’s past feedback and resident feedback. And so over the course of the five-hour meeting, they basically did line edits on the document and kind of passed changes that they would like to see in the document in the next version.
DOV WEINTSTEIN ELUL: What did some of these changes look like? What changes did they make?
SOPHIE BAKER: Most of the points that they clarified were basically just making the document a little bit less specific. Commissioners have kind of said for the past few meetings that they want to kind of shift the plan from including specific details to being a more aspirational statement, which they think is more in line with what a comprehensive plan should do.
The main contentious thing that they discussed at length was a shift in the housing section that kind of replaced the directive to increase housing supply and housing choices with one to preserve and Evanston’s diverse housing choices. That was the recommendation from staff, and a lot of commissioners thought that the word “preserve” specifically was kind of coded language from people who were trying to protect single-family only zoning. Ultimately, the commission kind of passed a combination of these two things that included both of the words “increase” and “preserve,” and again, that’s just changes to the document that they want to see in the next step.
DOV WEINTSTEIN ELUL: Can you elaborate a little bit on some of the opposing positions that members of the commission hold?
SOPHIE BAKER: Some people just kind of, they kind of use language that says that they want to maintain Evanston’s character. Some people throw around that word a lot, and some people in council meetings have accused that of kind of being like a nimby, “not in my backyard” position, and that they don’t want change in the city, and others have been saying that increasing housing density will not only allow like more people to live in the city and accommodate population growth, but also lead to more affordable housing.
I think housing is really the main point of contention just because people don’t want to see blanket up-zoning. Which is, I don’t think anybody’s really presented, but the people who are kind of wanting to preserve Evanton’s character are saying that they want kind of neighborhood-based zoning so that areas that they see as more single family right now don’t get just up zoned to the point where they see skyscrapers and huge buildings, which is, I don’t really think that that’s been proposed.
DOV WEINTSTEIN ELUL: Has Biss said anything or been doing anything with Envision Evanston since he was re-elected recently?
SOPHIE BAKER: I don’t think he has said anything directly to my knowledge. People have said, so he chose to not reappoint Commissioner George Halleck on Friday last week. He sent out an email to city staff saying that he wasn’t going to do that, and some people in the community have kind of accused him of doing that for the express purpose that Halleck was kind of against, against some parts of Envision Evanston that Biss kind of pushed, and, he instead chose to appoint Cat Vielma to the commission. And so while he hasn’t said anything expressly, people are kind of accusing him of directing Envision’s agenda through that, whether that be true or not.
DOV WEINTSTEIN ELUL: Sophie Baker, thank you so much.
[music]
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Here are the other top headlines from the week:
Ravyn Lenae announced as first Dillo Day mainstage performer,
Faculty, students rally in support of higher education on Day of Action,
Wafflavor and Paris Baguette soon to serve sweet treats downtown,
And, SNL comedian Devon Walker shares provocative jokes and advice as A&O’s spring speaker.
[music]
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Dov Weinstein Elul.
RUBY DOWLING: And I’m Ruby Dowling.
Thank you for listening to another episode of The Weekly. This episode was reported by Dov Weinstein Elul, Ruby Dowling, Isaiah Steinberg, Jerry Wu, and Sophie Baker and produced by Isabella Jacob, Dov Weinstein Elul and Ruby Dowling.
The Audio Editor is Isabella Jacob. The Multimedia Managing Editors are Anavi Prakash, Misha Manjuran Oberoi, and Danny O’Grady. The Editor in Chief is Lily Ogburn.
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.
Email: [email protected]
X: @dov_w_elul
Email: [email protected]
X: @rubywright0
Bluesky: @rubydowling.bsky.social
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
X: @jerrwu
Email: [email protected]
Related Stories:
— NU investigates reported antisemitic graffiti outside University Hall, Kresge Hall
— Land Use Commission debates alterations to Envision Evanston 2045
