Queer faith leaders discussed LGBTQ+ identity and religion in a virtual panel co-hosted by Northwestern’s Rainbow Alliance and University Christian Ministry on Thursday.
The conversation was moderated by UCM Campus Minister Rev. Julie Windsor Mitchell and featured Rabbi Rachel Weiss from the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, NU’s Associate Director for Religious Life and Chapel Music Eric Budzynski and Juan Pablo Herrera of the Cosmopolitan United Church in Melrose Park. The panel discussed their journeys with their faith and queer identities and answered questions submitted by the audience before and during the event.
For Herrera and Budzynski, who were both raised in religious Christian households, embracing their queerness was a necessary split from the religious paths they were raised on.
After several months of continuous pressure on Northwestern administration to abolish University Police and divest from policing and other militarized entities, NUCNC is continuing their work into the new quarter.
Since their campaign of more than 30 days of consecutive actions, the group has not held any mass protests or demonstrations, but they continue to pressure the University and practice mutual aid a core tenet of prison-industrial complex abolition.
Gonring stationed outside Foster Walker Complex on Sunday, collecting donated winter gear to distribute. (Binah Schatsky/The Daily Northwestern)
“Prisons are the biggest social service we have,” NUCNC member Eliza Gonring said. “So poor people, homeless people, Black people are just getting funneled into prisons and if we want that to stop, if we don’t want people to get preyed upon, we’re going to need to start supporting people.”
Student group NUCNC meets publicly with central administration to address unmet demands and District 219 community members demand reforms to address racism. The Weekly: Week One Recap breaks down The Daily’s top headlines with the reporters and editors who covered those stories.
ALEX CHUN: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Alex Chun.
JORDAN MANGI: And I’m Jordan Mangi. This is The Weekly: a podcast that breaks down our top headlines each week.
ALEX CHUN: Here’s what’s been happening in the headlines. On campus, Northwestern has opened more dorms and on-campus housing this winter quarter.
JORDAN MANGI: With the return of most freshmen and sophomores, the University has also announced that Compass group is rehiring 97 percent of workers laid off last spring.
In their first public interaction with University President Morton Schapiro and other members of the central administration, NU Community Not Cops organizers expressed their disapproval of the University’s response to police abolition demands on Tuesday.
Five members of NUCNC met with Schapiro, Provost Kathleen Hagerty, Vice President of Student Affairs Julie Payne-Kirchmeier, Senior Vice President for Business and Finance Craig Johnson and Community Safety Advisory Board chair Clyde Yancy. The students steered the meeting, asking administration to respond to a series of questions, including several prompts they said they sent to administration in advance.
“We understand that you would like for this meeting to be a dialogue,” organizer Liz Curtis said. “However we would like for all of you to understand that you lost that privilege months ago. You had ample time to reach out to us since we sent our petition letter to you 223 days ago. None of you have done so.”
In late November, a committee within the Northwestern chapter of the American Association of University Professors published a report criticizing the administration’s COVID-19 response, calling several budgetary and academic decisions out of line with the mission of education.
A national nonprofit organization, the AAUP identifies and defines key educational and professional values in order to set standards for higher education and promote academic freedom. The November report, compiled by NU-AAUP committee members, examined the actions of the University against the standards set by the AAUP nationally. While the AAUP tends to focus on scholarship rather than broader administrative actions, the report steps beyond the boundaries of scholarship, approaching budgetary, accreditation and governance concerns.