The DePaulia - DePaul's Student Newspaper

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The DePaulia - DePaul's Student Newspaper

The DePaulia is DePaul University's award-winning student newspaper. The newspaper is entirely student-run and editorially independent from the university.

The newspaper is entirely student-run and editorially independent from the university. The DePaulia is published in print every Monday of the regular academic year and updated throughout the week online and during the summer. Follow:
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01/05/2026

In the quiet Oak Park streets, Abel Berumen sits in his home studio, moving his hands carefully along his half-finished sculpture. Sunlight glistened off his tools, tools he can no longer see but still knows by touch. Once a celebrated photographer, Beruman now creates through texture, memory and sound, finding new ways to see in the dark.

“Everyone I knew, knew me as a photographer, and all of a sudden, the photographer is blind. It’s like a sad joke,” he said.

Amid the height of his artistic endeavors, in 2016, after what seemed like an ordinary night’s sleep, Berumen woke up blind. The cause was a rare hereditary condition called pseudoxanthoma elasticum. The disorder progressively deteriorates eyesight: “It looks like the person I am looking at is under murky water,” he said.

This changed everything for Berumen.

To read more, head to depauliaonline.com or click the link in our bio.
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✍️: Miguel Giebink
📸: Provided by: Abel Berumen

12/15/2025

DePaul laid off 114 staff members in December following budget cuts. Those laid off make up around 7.6% of DePaul’s full- and part-time staff.

“These decisions were extraordinarily difficult, and leaders across the university did not make them lightly. Each person affected contributed to the life of this university in meaningful ways,” DePaul president Rob Manuel, provost Salma Ghanem, and executive vice president and CFO Sherri Sidler said in an email sent to faculty and staff on Monday, Dec. 15.

DePaul said it would also make significant cutbacks in the Loop Library and has eliminated several library positions. According to an email from a former library staff member obtained by The DePaulia, the eventual plan is to close the library.

However in response to The DePaulia’s reporting, DePaul communications staff clarified that the library will remain open for the 2025-26 academic year.

✍️ & .loui

12/12/2025

The lights come up, and I’m transported to 2008, inside of a warm, comforting old-fashioned donut shop in the heart of Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. But … something’s not right. The place looks like it’s been ransacked. Tables are flipped, the window’s smashed in, and the word “PUSSY” is haphazardly spraypainted across the back wall.

Welcome to Superior Donuts, a coffee and pastry joint owned by the quiet and withdrawn Arthur Przybyszewski (Scott Westerman) and frequented by an eclectic band of characters.

The play begins with Max (Reid Coker), the Russian video seller next door, showing the scene to the police in disbelief and anger. When Arthur arrives, he goes on about his day as normal. It seems like the wreckage barely even phases him.

It turns out, Arthur’s former sole employee trashed the place, and now he desperately needs a replacement.

To read more, head to depauliaonline.com or click the link in our bio.
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✍️: Eva Strazek
📸: Joe Mazza, Brave Lux

12/10/2025

I must admit, I used to be a lousy friend. I went through a period where I disconnected from the people around me because I felt overwhelmed by the effort required to maintain relationships. It was easier to say, “I’m not feeling up to it today,” than to admit that I dreaded the thought of making and committing to plans.

Two years later, I’m disappointed with the version of me who selfishly chose herself over friends who cared to be around her. Luckily, they cared enough to rock with me through thick and thin.

This doesn’t mean I didn’t lose some along the way — and maybe I deserved it.

While working on this story, I recently came across a group of friends who were chatting in the Richardson Library. I decided to stop to get their thoughts on the topic of friendship and the so-called “self-care era,” when so many people are prioritizing “protecting their peace” over spending time with friends.

To read more, head to depauliaonline.com or click the link in our bio.
—
✍️: Skylah Martinez
📸:

12/05/2025

Some will argue that nothing beats a Chicago summer. There are a variety of beaches to enjoy Lake Michigan, great restaurants, shops and boats you can hop into on the Chicago Riverwalk to appreciate the downtown architecture.

But even with its piercing cold winds, the winter season still has its great moments and holiday attractions.

Nina Ruetenik, a DePaul sophomore from Iowa, is familiar with Midwest winters.

“I like the snow. I think it’s pretty,” Ruetenik said. She added that she enjoys taking walks and making snow angels, though she is afraid of slipping on icy sidewalks.

To read more, head to depauliaonline.com or click the link in our bio.
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✍️: Skylah Martinez
📸:

12/03/2025

Inside the DePaul women’s basketball locker room there’s a “shrine to toughness,” as Meg Newman, senior guard, described. These pictures represent members of the “charge club,” a testament to the team’s passion and sacrifice for the letters across their chests.

Head coach Jill Pizzotti said the club began five or six years ago as a way to celebrate one of the grittiest and most momentum-changing plays in the game.

“It was just something we created to try to bring some attention to the importance of earning charges,” Pizzotti said. “In the women’s game, a charge is one of the most exciting things. It can be a momentum shifter — at the end of very close games, drawing a charge can be huge to securing a victory.”

In basketball, a charge is a defensive play that occurs when an offensive player runs into a defender who has established a legal guarding position. The defender must be set — both feet on the ground and facing the opponent — and if the referee rules that the defender was stationary and outside the restricted area, the call results in an offensive foul and a turnover.

To read more, head to depauliaonline.com or click the link in our bio.
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✍️:
📸: Preciosa Rios

12/01/2025

DePaul men’s basketball announced today that Rod Strickland’s jersey will be retired, although the date of the ceremony has yet to be announced.

Strickland was informed of the jersey retirement on Tuesday morning, as he was invited by vice president and director of athletics DeWayne Peevy to watch the men’s basketball team practice.

“That’s big time,” Strickland said in a video posted by DePaul men’s basketball in response to the news.

His jersey will be the fifth to hang in the rafters of Wintrust Arena. It will sit alongside Mark Aguirre’s, Terry Cummings’, Dave Corzine’s and George Mikan’s.

To read more, head to depauliaonline.com or click the link in our bio.
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✍️: Ashley Mezewich
📸: AP Photo/Craig Pessman

11/28/2025

As Halloween concludes, temperatures drop and Christmas tree sales rise. Stores across America replay holiday classics and replace Halloween sweets with candy canes. This transition is one we all know too well — but should it come so soon?

While some families are making grocery store runs for Thanksgiving preparation, businesses are quick to start marking up Christmas sales. Dilly Lily, a Lincoln Park floral shop, services event floral arrangements and sells household plants, greeting cards and candles. Eric Phillips, owner of Dilly Lily, said the small business faces pressure in preparing for Christmas because the season is filled with residential and corporate floral decorating.

“In a retail environment, you really have to be months ahead of the next major holiday — otherwise you miss out on those sales,” Phillips said.

Phillips has already stocked up on Christmas cards for retail sales and expects to put up storefront decorations in about a week.

“Once you start seeing those holiday seasonal things going up in those big chain stores, I feel the pressure to do that on my small level as well,” Phillips said. “Because if customers are gonna be shopping at those big stores, I would rather that they shop here.”

To read more, head to depauliaonline.com or click the link in our bio.
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✍️:
📸: Nora Smith

11/25/2025

After President Donald Trump’s reelection, Evelyn Rodriguez, a social worker at a K-8 school on Chicago’s North Side, received a letter from one of her students. That student no longer attends school. No one in the community has seen or heard from this student or their family since.

The letter read: “Estoy triste porque las noticias están diciendo que me van a reportar y deportar a Ecuador.” The student was saddened by news reports about Trump’s deportation threats, and thought they would soon be deported from their Rogers Park neighborhood to Ecuador.

In September, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers began Operation Midway Blitz, in which they detained children and adults presumed to be undocumented immigrants, often with force.

The ongoing detentions prompted local activists to organize to protect their neighbors. Protect Rogers Park, a community group formed in 2017, has led ICE watch training and connects impacted families with aid services.

To read more, head to depauliaonline.com or click the link in our bio.
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✍️: Alana Eve Schacher
📸: Claire Buchheit

11/23/2025

The Chicago Plan Commission approved DePaul University’s plans for a new $42.4 million basketball practice facility.

The news was announced by Block Club Chicago reporter , who reported live on X the Chicago Plan Commission’s meeting on November 20.

One member of the Commission abstained, and two members were away from their table, according to one of Brown-Clark’s posts.

During public comment, five people spoke. Four were against the proposal and one was for. The last speaker, a DePaul alum, said they could not support the building of the facility in the planned location on the Lincoln Park campus, Brown-Clark shared in her posts on X.

The practice facility is planned for the corner of Sheffield Avenue and Belden Avenue, across the street from Sullivan Athletic Center and McGrath-Phillips Arena.

To read more, head to depauliaonline.com or click the link in our bio.
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✍️: Ashley Mezewich
📸: DePaul University

11/22/2025

Hey DePaul! Looking for holiday plans this weekend? 🎄

Coiff Dew will be hosting a Holiday Pop-Up event today and tomorrow at Fariuz Hair Salon, 1617 Sherman Ave.

Space is limited, so make sure to register using the link on our story. You can find more details at https://shop.coiffdew.com

11/20/2025

Chris Holtmann announced roster updates on Wednesday about sophomore Fabián Flores and his eligibility. He also shared that freshmen Jonas Johnson and Isaiah Medina will redshirt the 2025-26 season.

Flores, who was originally expected to redshirt the 2025-26 season, is now eligible to play because he received approval from the NCAA for his eligibility waiver. The waiver approval gives him “immediate eligibility,” and he has three years of eligibility left.

FIBA, in a Q&A guide for international players looking into NCAA collegiate basketball, states that “if you’ve played professionally (such as in FIBA-related domestic leagues), you may need a waiver from the NCAA to confirm your eligibility.”

To read more, head to depauliaonline.com or click the link in our bio.
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✍️: Ashley Mezewich
📸:

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