The DePaulia
Ella Lee, Print Managing Editor|March 14, 2021
Alik Schier has trouble viewing his college classes as what they are: school.
“I know I’ve got to do class, but it’s like camera off, mic off, taking notes and then ‘bye!’” the DePaul freshman said, slamming an imaginary laptop.
Schier is just one of 19.6 million American college students who plunged into online schooling last spring when the Covid-19 pandemic began infecting millions, decimating normal everyday life. A year later, the effects that those changes have had on students are becoming apparent.
“Online school is one of the most challenging experiences, especially when starting a completely new format of schooling in general,” said Austin Glass, a freshman at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “I don’t know the expectations other than just get work done, and it’s honestly stressful when that becomes my entire identity at the school. I feel like success has been reduced c
The DePaulia
My clearest memory of the early onset of the pandemic occurred when I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to break the latest update of DePaul’s impending closure on Twitter. My role as Social Media Editor had been relatively tame up until that point, mainly involving posting the week’s content and open positions. While heading home from the Lincoln Park Campus for what proved to be the last time ever, I typed away what felt like my 20th thread of the day and hit send.
-Emma Oxnevad, Online Managing Editor
I was finishing up what would be my final closing shift at Dr. Martens. As I got the email notifying the cancellation of classes and finals, I was ironically complaining to my favorite co-worker about a project since I had come straight to my shift from renting equipment at the Loop campus after a long day of classes. We were both slightly more concerned about the virus, but neither of us thought much of it as we finished cleaning and closed for the night.
The DePaulia
Ella Lee, Print Managing Editor|March 10, 2021
Richard Driehaus, a DePaul alumni whose giving spirit led the university to rename its business school in his honor, died Tuesday at 78, the university confirmed Wednesday.
“Richard was an inspirational member of the DePaul University community who devoted so much of his life’s focus to the university and our students,” DePaul President A. Gabriel Esteban said in a statement. “His was the quintessential DePaul story – a son of the South Side of Chicago who learned the value of work early as a newspaper delivery boy.”
Driehaus was born in Chicago and earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business from DePaul in 1965 and 1970, respectively. Upon graduation, he worked in institutional trading at A.G. Becker before founding Driehaus Capital Management LLC in 1982, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The DePaulia
Ella Lee, Print Managing Editor|March 8, 2021
A class action complaint brought against DePaul claims the university has been illegally collecting, using and disclosing students’ biometric information without their consent via technology used to proctor remote exams.
The tool used by the university to proctor online exams is Respondus Monitor. Described to the Washington Post as akin to “spyware,” proctoring software like Respondus Monitor collects data from facial-recognition and eye monitoring data to keystroke patterns and camera and microphone recordings, according to the lawsuit.
“Through Respondus Monitor, DePaul collects, captures and stores everything from a student’s facial features to their voice through a web portal accessed through the student’s personal device,” the lawsuit reads. “Using the Respondus Monitor tool, DePaul is able to collect and aggregate information on all aspects of a student’s life.”