LIAM BARRETT: Last week, The Daily reported on Northwestern faculty and staff reactions to the UnitedHealthcare transition, City Council’s discussion over the future of the city’s newest Tax Increment Financing district, and an alum’s culinary journey and appearance on MasterChef.
From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Liam Barrett. This is The Weekly, a breakdown of the top headlines from the past week.
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LIAM BARRETT: I’m here with Illustrations Editor Lucas Kubovchik to talk about Northwestern switching to UnitedHealthcare for faculty and staff. Could you start by giving me some context: what happened and why was it worth writing an article on?
LUCAS KUBOVCHIK: The Northwestern administration made the decision to switch NU’s third-party healthcare administrator from Blue Cross Blue Shield to UnitedHealthcare, and that basically means that while NU still has the ability to create a specific University plan, Blue Cross Blue Shield and now UnitedHealthcare is the provider for that plan. Having this switch means that some medications might not be as financially available to faculty who had previously been using that same medication under Blue Cross Blue Shield.
I first learned about the issue in a Faculty Senate meeting during Fall Quarter. I considered it a really important article to write because I could see how many faculty and staff were upset by this decision and felt that their voices weren’t represented in NU’s administrative decisions. And so I wrote my first article about this switch in Fall Quarter. I wrote a semi-follow-up by covering the December Faculty Senate meeting. And this story, I suppose, is technically the third edition of my coverage of this issue. The reason I felt this was the proper time to write something more about this issue was because the decision went into effect Jan. 1, 2026, and so I really wanted to see how faculty and staff were reacting now that the switch had actually taken effect.
LIAM BARRETT: And why did they make this decision? What caused it?
LUCAS KUBOVCHIK: Well, that is still up in the air. If you ask the University, it’s going to be because this was the decision that was best for faculty — for the University. It’s largely been argued as a holistic decision. However, faculty and staff have other thoughts, especially after the funding freeze, which may have limited the University’s ability to give as much money in funding this administrator.
LIAM BARRETT: And what have been the effects of the switch? What have been the advantages, the disadvantages?
LUCAS KUBOVCHIK: So, University spokespeople have said that the transition to this new plan has saved the University money. However, for a clinic on campus — the Center for Audiology, Speech, Language, and Learning — this transition has led to delays in figuring out whether or not certain treatments for patients are covered under this plan. That’s been a hindrance for both these clinics on campus, their patients and then faculty and staff as well, who — as you can read in my article — have had issues continuing their specific prescriptions under this plan due to the prices of these prescriptions changing as the third-party health care administrator has switched.
LIAM BARRETT: Who’d you talk to for this article, and why them?
LUCAS KUBOVCHIK: So, for this article, I talked to Julie Bednark and Anna Roth, who are staff members at the University, and I also talked to individuals who were a part of the University’s Center for Audiology, Speech, Language, and Learning. The reason I decided to talk to them in particular was because their stories have been crucial in understanding the impacts that this plan has had. They were amazing and one of the reasons that I included them in this article was because they were courageous enough to speak up about this issue and about the ramifications of the switch. Those individuals over at the Center for Audiology, Speech, Language, and Learning were fantastic as well, and super informative. They were the people who provided me with the perspective of an actual clinic rather than a patient.
LIAM BARRETT: And what’s one thing you learned from reporting this article that you think people should know?
LUCAS KUBOVCHIK: I want people to recognize how hard staff and faculty are fighting for representation in the NU administration. NU is a community and that means — as I’ve heard from faculty and staff — it shouldn’t just be the administration having the final say in these issues, especially when these decisions pertain to everyone. I’d love for readers to maybe sit with that and think about how they could be a little more aware on the current status of faculty and staff representation in NU’s administrative decisions.
LIAM BARRETT: And what’s the future going to look like? Did any of your sources indicate that they had concerns for what would happen soon or what would happen later, and is there any sign the University would consider reversing or changing again?
LUCAS KUBOVCHIK: As of December’s Faculty Senate meeting, I remember hearing the University was going to do check-ins and listen to the feedback of faculty and staff to make sure that this switch is on the right track. As of recently, I haven’t heard any changes in that plan, but, from what I understand, it’s still pretty up in the air as to where this new administrator is going, so because it’s so early, we’re probably just going to have to wait and see.
LIAM BARRETT: All right. Thanks a lot, Lucas.
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LIAM BARRETT: Next, I’m here with Data Visualizations Editor Yong-Yu Huang to talk about the future of Evanston’s Five-Fifths TIF District. Starting off with the basics, what on Earth is a TIF?
YONG-YU HUANG: So, a TIF District is basically a public financing method that captures the growth in property tax revenue within a certain district, and as property values go up in that area, the increase in property taxes above a certain baseline is redirected into the district as funding for infrastructure improvements, workforce development, property revitalization, things like that. It’s really just a method of public financing to improve a community, essentially.
LIAM BARRETT: And why is there uncertainty surrounding the newest district?
YONG-YU HUANG: There hasn’t necessarily been uncertainty surrounding the newest district, but around TIFs in general. There’s been discussion about whether some of these districts should be closed early, and the consensus right now is that the Five-Fifths TIF district is pretty OK for now, just because it’s so new and it really hasn’t had time to mature enough to accomplish its full potential and its goals for the community it’s meant to serve.
LIAM BARRETT: Who did you talk to for this story? Why them?
YONG-YU HUANG: For this story, I talked to Heather Bublick, who is the co-owner of Soul & Smoke, which is a restaurant that received funding from the Five-Fifths TIF district. She’s also now a member of the advisory committee for that, and that advisory committee has existed for just under two years.
I also was able to speak to Prof. (Therese J.) McGuire, who is a Kellogg professor but is also a member of the city’s Finance and Budget Committee. She was able to give me some insight into why this one TIF District is so unique because it’s the only one with a revenue sharing agreement with (Evanston/Skokie School) D65 and (Evanston Township High School) D202, and that’s just kind of come about as the result of an intergovernmental agreement with the school districts back in 2022. That means the money being generated in that TIF is shared with school districts from the get-go.
I was also able to speak to Paul Zalmezak, who is the city’s economic development manager. He was also able to give me a little bit more background and context on what these TIF Districts are doing and what the Five-Fifths has invested in, in particular.
And finally, I was able to talk to Councilmember Bobby Burns, who is the council member for the 5th Ward, which is kind of the area that the Five-Fifths district is mostly in, so that was really a really helpful perspective to get.
LIAM BARRETT: What’s the biggest takeaway from this situation? So, if nothing else, what should listeners know?
YONG-YU HUANG: The biggest takeaway from this situation is that because the Five-Fifths TIF is so new, there is a lot more that people want it to be doing, and there’s a lot more that it hasn’t done that should be done, basically. It’s not really in danger of being shut down early at this point because recently, the Finance and Budget Committee recommended to City Council that it stay open. It has not reached the end of its lifetime. Far from it, in fact, because the lifetime of a TIF district is 23 years according to Illinois law, and the Five-Fifths TIF district has only been around for, I guess since 2021, so, you know, less than 5 years essentially.
LIAM BARRETT: Thanks, Yong-Yu.
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LIAM BARRETT: Lastly, I’m here with A&E Editor Bianca Dishmon to learn a bit about chef, sociologist and Northwestern alum Iman Sediqe. Tell me more about who you were talking to.
BIANCA DISHMON: So Iman Sediqe is a chef and a sociologist. She received both her master’s and doctorate degrees from Northwestern, and while she was going through the educational career recruitment process, the COVID-19 pandemic began. In the interim, she began her food blog, Imanistan, where she shared recipes from her Afghan culture. It blew up, and it’s what led to her getting recruited for MasterChef.
LIAM BARRETT: You reference a connection between sociology and cooking in your Q&A. What did Sediqe have to say about that?
BIANCA DISHMON: So the main bridge between sociology and cooking is the way that food can influence culture. Something that Sediqe said was that cooking has allowed her to travel to different places and explore more cultures without having to physically go anywhere. So, she referenced a lot of restaurants in the Evanston area that help with that, and how interacting with cooking is a way to expose people to culture if they don’t have other means of doing so. As in, if somebody can’t afford to fly to a country and explore the culture in person, they can do so via food. Food helps with the accessibility of culture, which is the central goal of sociology.
LIAM BARRETT: Now, the question that really caught my attention: How did she end up on MasterChef? What did she say it was like?
BIANCA DISHMON: So she received a DM from one of the producers of MasterChef and originally she thought it was a hoax because she wasn’t expecting them to reach out to her via Instagram but after about a week or so she decided to respond to the DM just to see, “Hey, maybe this is true, so I might as well respond,” and it turned out to be true. So she went through the recruitment process, which involved, according to her, over 10,000 applicants and only 40 get selected. She was flown out to Toronto to film for the testing part of the interview in the tester kitchens and then she was selected to be part of the episode, which is really exciting.
She said it was one of the best experiences of her life. She really enjoyed meeting Gordon Ramsay in particular, but what stood out to her the most and was the most impactful was being able to be in a room full of other people who were just as passionate about cooking as she was. She got to meet people from all around the world who cooked a variety of different cuisines, and it was just very interesting for her to get to see all of these different cultures represented. And it kind of goes back to her original point about that intersection between sociology and cooking, because while she is in Toronto filming the show, she’s still learning about so many different cultures via food.
LIAM BARRETT: How can listeners check out her work?
BIANCA DISHMON: So, of course, people can check out her blog, Imanistan, but she also has Instagram, YouTube and TikTok all under the Imanistan handle as well.
LIAM BARRETT: What was the biggest takeaway from the Q&A?
BIANCA DISHMON: For me, it was really enriching to hear about Sediqe’s pursuit of her passions, despite being perceived societally as maybe being later in life in doing so. She made a really interesting point about how people often have this expectation that if you don’t pursue your passions when you’re younger, around the age of 21, that your career is essentially over, and she said that she wanted her appearance on MasterChef to serve as a contradiction to that and indicate that there really is no time limit on when you can achieve your dreams, which I thought was extremely impactful and a very important note to make.
LIAM BARRETT: Thank you so much, Bianca.
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LIAM BARRETT: Here are the other top headlines from the week:
Residents divided as self-driving Waymo vehicles begin Chicago deployment.
Northwestern Lacrosse advances to fourth straight Big Ten Championship with 10-7 win over Michigan.
And from Assistant Opinion Editor Ivy Frater’s weekly column, Joke Walk: Niche Friend Party.
From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Liam Barrett.
Thank you for listening to another episode of The Weekly. This episode was reported and produced by Liam Barrett.
The audio editor is Wallis Rogin. The multimedia managing editors are Ruby Dowling, Isabella Jacob and Matt Wasilewski. The editor in chief is Anavi Prakash.
Follow us on X and Instagram @thedailynu.
Email: [email protected]
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