Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:08 Ly from w and you are news. I'm Maria Humana Aragon. You're listening to the six o'clock news on w and you are 89.3 FMH D one, Evanston, Chicago, it's Wednesday, November 17th, 2021. Tonight the north south campus debate and divide redefining the season of giving and how an experiment is taking over Northwestern, social media, those stories, and more coming up tonight. Thanks for tuning in to WMUR news from early morning, parades to awkward dinner conversations. Thanksgiving is a special time for college students. I sat down with Northwestern students to discuss their holiday plans and how a pandemic has redefined the season of giving Between family recipes and dinner conversations that lay out your entire life's decisions. Thanksgiving looks a bit different for every college student. However, one thing is certain traveling is not the most pleasant part of the journey. AAA predicts more than 53.4 million people are expected to travel this year alone. The highest single year increased since 2005. And as the world returns to its new normal Weinberg, sophomore Victoria Tran decided to stick around in Evanston.
Speaker 2 00:01:22 So me going back home, I live in Southern California and a ticket for that one way is already up to in, in like usual times. Like when I first got here, when I moved in, I was about say $150, and now tickets are double that price. And even more so anywhere ranging from like 300 to 700, which is just not in my budget, even remotely.
Speaker 1 00:01:45 Although the pandemic offered lower fares, demand, staff and fuel shortages are ramping up, making it a costly returned home, such as the case from Madell Jr. Helen Bradshaw.
Speaker 3 00:01:57 Yeah. I would say most years it's like $400 round trip, which is like very expensive as is, but because we can't leave until like, after classes on Wednesday or at least I can't, it's a really popular time for people to go in to visit their families. I think. And the tickets are like a thousand dollars. It's crazy. I've never had to buy a plane ticket that expensive before. So yeah, I definitely questioned like, should I even go because it's like just exorbitant and much more than it is on a regular day.
Speaker 1 00:02:32 This year airlines such as Southwest spirit and American have all had operational meltdowns that forced them to delay and cancel thousands of flights. On top of all that travelers should expect long TSA lines as workers face a November 22nd deadline for being fully vaccinated, however flying. Isn't the only option for Madell senior. Jacob O'Hara Thanksgiving plans have always looked different
Speaker 4 00:02:58 This year. I'm not going home for Thanksgiving because, well, usually I don't go in for Thanksgiving cause I'm from California and it's a very far flight for just like a couple of days. So I'm going to drive up to sturgeon, Wisconsin. And I got an Airbnb with three of my friends and we're just going to cook and hang out and relax.
Speaker 1 00:03:16 But planning is always the hard
Speaker 4 00:03:18 Part. Don't get me started on the planning time. This thing, as anyone who tries to find a trip with their friends who tell you was a real mess to put together, we only finally locked down our Airbnb last night, we started playing this like probably a month and a half ago, but it was like, we don't know we're going to try and find more people to come with us. Everyone would like different price points. Things started selling out. This is like our third option because Airbnb has just kept getting sold.
Speaker 1 00:03:44 58.9% of the United States population, fully vaccinated COVID precautions are still recommended. And for Weinberg sophomore, Adrian Hoffer, the impact of a pandemic is still a parent. Seeing that
Speaker 5 00:03:58 Pandemic has affected us in the last year. And now we're back to in-person classes finally at Northwestern. How was Thanksgiving changed?
Speaker 6 00:04:05 Um, well, last year it was kind of like, it never felt like I was really having a full Thanksgiving cause there was no transition from like school back to home. It was just all at home. So it just felt like kind of another dinner, but now it's like more special because you can like go home and, you know, actually make it feel special and meaningful, but still it's not the same as like meeting up with all my family and like, you know, discussing where I am. Cause like, I mean, everybody like hates it when people ask like, what are you majoring in in college? But you kinda miss it. You know, you kinda miss it.
Speaker 4 00:04:34 I mean, because of the pandemic, I've gotten to spend a lot more time with my family. Um, I was there like for the whole summer in 2020 that I wouldn't have been there for otherwise. I was there for like a month and a half, um, from Thanksgiving to Christmas. So I think it made it a little bit easier to just sort of do my own thing for Thanksgiving this year, considering that I'd seen them for so long. And I'm about to go home and see them for like another month.
Speaker 3 00:04:57 Yeah. This will be the first time that I've seen my family altogether and like, you know, a year and a half, like a lot of people, um, which is really exciting, but also very nerve wracking because obviously I'm in a position where I'm just around a lot of people every day, whether in classes or in my own home, I have like six roommates. So it's just a lot of people around me and it makes me kind of nervous to like expose something to my family. My parents are both, they both got their boosters cause they're immunocompromised. So that's like something reassuring to me. But yeah, I, I am, I'm really thankful to have this opportunity and I think more than full than I would be without, you know, having had to spend this time away from my family. Um, I can really grow to appreciate like how much they mean to me and how much I miss them. Um, when I'm not able to see them for a year and a half, two years.
Speaker 2 00:05:52 I used to think of Thanksgiving as like, oh, well, like it's just another holiday. I think a lot of other people see it as this intermediary holiday between Halloween and Christmas, which are so major in comparison. But I think reflecting on how fall quarter has been, it's a very stressful time for everyone. And because this is my first like real in-person fall quarter and not just through a soup screen, I feel they hits 10 times more because it's just a lot to take in, especially like, even though I'm a sophomore, this is still my first quarter completely in-person and in a way, somehow that makes me miss my family even more. It's definitely given me a more of a reason to be painful, even though that sounds cheesy, but it definitely has given me a reason to be more thankful. Now,
Speaker 1 00:06:48 What are you looking forward to the most free Thanksgiving? Any traditions or any specific dishes?
Speaker 6 00:06:54 Um, well not a big fan of Turkey, you know, maybe the dark meats. Okay. But, uh, that's my parents, they can't really cook very well. They're not very good cooking. So, um, during the,
Speaker 4 00:07:10 I am stoked to cook my own Thanksgiving dinner. That was a big selling point for me because yeah, I mean the other times I just gone to friend's houses. So this is the first Thanksgiving, like I'm a pro at the Turkey. I'm gonna make my stuffing. I get to share like all these Thanksgiving day traditions with my friends, like as far as food and stuff like that. So that's like really exciting to me. And I'm sh here's the thing everyone's got their way of doing things. I'm sure there'll be some conflicting recipes, but we'll figure it out. It'll be a hodgepodge of like everyone's home cooking. And I think it'll be like a really memorable,
Speaker 3 00:07:40 I'm looking forward to probably watching the dog show with my grandpa. That's what we do every year. And he always points out when his dog comes on TV, which I love. He's like it's rider. And I'm like, yeah, it's writer. And we like celebrate because it looks like his dogs on TV. I'm also really looking forward to my mom's sweet potatoes. She does a great job with that. They're so good. And yeah, I think just those like small moments I'm really excited to happen.
Speaker 1 00:08:07 I'm Maria Humana Aragon for w and you are news At some point in your Northwestern career, you'll be asked the question, are you in north or south campus person known as a defining feature between residential and academic life at Northwestern? The real question is where does that divide truly lie? Reporter Connor Caserio has the story.
Speaker 7 00:08:51 The divide between north campus and south campus is often considered as integral. If part of Northwestern as go U Northwestern, which we just heard or Willy the Wildcat.
Speaker 8 00:09:06 I remember seeing this in the fiscal guidance in schools and said, north campus is more, um, uh, socially active and the south campus is more artsy.
Speaker 7 00:09:15 That was my fellow first year, Georgia stay that I am a first year here at Northwestern. And like as Dave a, as I was applying here last year, seemingly everything I read about NYU stressed, the existential divide between north campus and south campus. Now that I'm a quarter until living in Alison on south campus though, I've seen the north south divide in action. My questions about it have only increased to try to understand more about how the divide affects students. I spoke with a <inaudible> who lives up north in Lincoln and another first year Shylan Shogun who lives south. And Alison,
Speaker 9 00:09:57 To be honest, I have not been on north campus that much, but it does seem that the social scene on south campus isn't much. It's like if you go a little bit more north, like towards like foster there's seems to be a little more socialization.
Speaker 7 00:10:09 The main idea expressed by both the choke and a Stevie was one I expected to hear that people on north campus are on the whole more outwardly social than those on south for a stave, a, this perception of more accessible sociability makes north campus more appealing to him.
Speaker 8 00:10:29 I like the look of south campus, especially around the house a lot. I think that's a really cool vibe, but I, you know, I do like being on north campus, I was walking around and seeing people and saying, oh, well, what are you doing
Speaker 7 00:10:38 Choke on the other hand, appreciates that south campus is quieter and says he is still been able to develop solid social connections while living on south campus.
Speaker 9 00:10:49 Some of my friends have north tell me that sometimes it gets loud and I'm like Thursday or Friday nights and they can't sleep or something like that. But, um, south campus is nice, is quieter. I think I made a lot of friends out here
Speaker 7 00:11:01 The first years are in agreement that while each side of campus has its pros and cons, the main problem is that the physical distance between the two sides hinders the overall cohesiveness of the Northwestern community should describe how the distance between north and south prevents him from seeing friends who live up north
Speaker 9 00:11:20 Kind of surprising like that. You don't see like your north campus friends that much, that like that divide does exist. And that if I have any friends up on north campus, I have to like actually make the effort to go talk to them rather than to just like run into them.
Speaker 7 00:11:37 As David agrees, adding that this division seems like an arbitrary by-product of how Northwestern built the campus over the years.
Speaker 8 00:11:47 Is it beneficial to have that divide? I think it's just something that's sort of happened and people are dealing with them. I mean, it's not really one way or another in terms of volume to go. And so that separation of social life, I think, I mean, I think it's, it kind of hinders the, the, the social gathering.
Speaker 7 00:12:07 Interestingly, chug pointed out that there was also an academic dimension of stem versus humanities between north and south and crucially that these social and academic divisions may not entirely overlap.
Speaker 9 00:12:23 That's a really good question because are the people who like live up north because of the academics, the same people who live up north because of this social atmosphere, that's a good question. And I don't think that they do overlap 100%, but I think there definitely is some overlap, but I don't think that overlap is necessarily leave like statistically significant.
Speaker 7 00:12:40 The apparent border between north campus and south campus likely lies somewhere in the space occupied by various academic and non-residential buildings in the middle of campus, which of these non-residential buildings count as north or south is up for debate. <inaudible> pointed out that Garrett evangelical seminary and non Northwestern building as a possible divider.
Speaker 8 00:13:05 I would say the Garrett place, which is the seminary on the west side. That's, that's probably the road I'd say is a dividing line.
Speaker 7 00:13:16 Sure. You use the dividing line more in terms of where he, as a south campus resident ventures on a typical day,
Speaker 9 00:13:24 I've always thought of it as foster, like that road, which seems kind of far south, but at the same time, everything above, that seems kind of out of my range of like places I go to regularly, like I go to foster to pick up packages or something. Um, and then I go to like, Jacob's to get tested. And then I usually don't go past that bubble and less than going to attack. Like, that's kind of the only time I go out of that. So I say, I'd say foster
Speaker 7 00:13:52 So different students may have different ideas of where exactly north campus ends and south campus begins. Ultimately though we are one Northwestern community and as a stave and Shogun noted, the north south divide does limit us somewhat from being a United student body for WMUR news on Connor, have a wonderful Monday.
Speaker 1 00:14:24 Finding a match on campus is tough. So why not let a questionnaire do the work for you? What started out as an undergrad assignment at Stanford now has over 4,000 Northwestern students waiting for an email tonight. Reporter paws bombs sat down with the director of any marriage pact to learn more.
Speaker 10 00:14:43 It's the season of love, or at least the season of coughing and Northwestern students are ready. The marriage pact has taken over campus. The marriage pack uses
Speaker 11 00:14:53 Linear algebra. We use a little bit of computer science, um, but all in all, we're just kind of a questionnaire that seeks to be fine and match, um, different students up with who, uh, Allianz and algorithm and relationships psychology and says with either best match on campus
Speaker 10 00:15:13 That was Northwestern junior, Annie sway, who runs the Northwestern branch of the marriage pact five years ago, a group of Stanford university students created the pact for a school project since then it has expanded to 64 schools resulting in almost 94,000 bats.
Speaker 11 00:15:31 We're seeing around 4,000 students. They, it, this year we had around 3000 ticket last year. Um, and to be honest, I think the product really does speak for itself. I think, uh, college students are definitely, always looking for kind of something to do outside of steadied. And, you know, romance is always kind of half on our minds, half not, it's not our main goal is just something we'd like to have. So with something like the marriage pack comes out, um, it peaks a lot of interests. Um, I think, um, the product itself, the marriage pack, it truly is an algorithm based on research. So, you know, it's quality. It's not just something that's like, oh, who are you most similar to it's who are you most compatible to? So
Speaker 10 00:16:10 Marriage pact ensures compatibility behind. They know that they are asking the right questions after all students don't want just another awkward Tinder conversation.
Speaker 11 00:16:20 So I can't give too much just because, um, that's like kind of like our, a part of our secret sauce, but, um, basically the questions are based on psychological and sociological research into what's actually important when it comes to predicting the long-term success of a relationship. And so each question like when you break it down to its core taps into these categories of values that we have found to be essential to be compatible with your partner. Um, so all of these questions have really gone through kind of a lot of review and like all stem from research, which I think is really cool.
Speaker 10 00:16:56 Another way the marriage pact differentiates itself from dating apps is that there are no photos involved. Danny thinks this is a good idea
Speaker 11 00:17:04 At the end of the day, what makes a relationship compatible and truly successful isn't based necessarily, um, on, uh, on just luck. It's based on a number of different factors. And I think marriage pack kind of, um, kind of narrows down, I guess, um, narrows down your, all your choices and allows you to make the choice for yourself. When you finally, you get your match and you see them and you see, oh, are we, you know, we know according to this algorithm, we're technically compatible, but like when you actually see each other, um, things may change
Speaker 10 00:17:37 Physical component that the marriage pact does consider his race and ethnicity because of their historical significances. Now that we know the details behind the pact, I want it to get into how it is playing out in Northwestern. Students may have seen the desperate pleas in their email inboxes from the marriage pact to convince their street and bisexual male friends to fill out the pact. As of Monday 360 more heterosexual women had filled out the pact than heterosexual or bisexual men. That means that about 360 women will, instead of receiving a romantic match, receive a platonic match from a fellow woman on the waiting list.
Speaker 11 00:18:15 We always have more heterosexual woman take the exam, uh, take the questionnaire, um, more so than heterosexual men. Uh, these numbers are actually pretty good compared to other schools are pretty average. Um, and we want to where we are in a perfect world, we would like really try our best. And we happen to try to target, um, other heterosexual males to take the taxi to these women can get all the matches. Um, but yeah, so that is very common. Yeah.
Speaker 10 00:18:39 This is only the second year of the marriage pact at Northwestern, but participants at other schools have had more time to develop their relationships. Some participants never reached out to their matches, but others take the pact quite literally
Speaker 11 00:18:52 Nationwide. We've actually had one actual marriage, which I think is super cool. And that just speaks to, I think the algorithm, you know, that it takes a law for a marriage to actually happen. And the fact that we've even had them on, um, is really cool.
Speaker 10 00:19:03 The marriage pact might be the future of college dating life. And you might even be lucky enough to be connected with your future spouse, best of luck to honor Western students who received their matches today for w and you are news I'm POS bomb.
Speaker 1 00:19:33 That's all for w in your news at 6:00 PM for more news updates and reports, follow us on Twitter at WMUR news, you can listen to these and other stories of the day on our Spotify, Google podcasts, and SoundCloud. You can also find us on our brand new website, w N U r.news. Our producer today is Nick song and our reporters are Connor Caserio and pause bomb from all of us here at WMUR news. I'm Maria Humana Aragon. Thanks for listening. And we'll see you back here Friday. Same time, same place now, back to scheduled programming.
