Article in yesterday's Sun-times:
DePaul University Lays Off 114 Staff Members:
"The Lincoln Park-based school [i.e. Depaul] said it’s facing financial headwinds due to a significant drop in enrollment among international graduate students, an increased demand for financial aid and the rising costs of benefits."
Chicago Sun-times (12/15/2025)
Wow, I was going through some old blog entries (switching everything over to my new website) when I was reminded of the really nice award I got a couple years ago from library admin at Depaul. It was an acknowledgement of how I handled a rather urgent research question by faculty -- basically tracking down all relevant information during my weekend shift at the library's research desk. Here's the whole entry.
Reasons Why:
Fun(ny) things you can do in this age of digital communication ...
Oy, was scheduled for ChatReference from home -- 'cept the internet connection really sucked (thanx AT&T). So I ran over to the Lincoln Pk campus, setting up shop on one of the tables in the SAC building.
Tuesday evening (10/12) was really really nice. We had a good crowd and it almost seemed like we were back to -- err (rhymes w/'Formal') ...
Instructor contacted us via Chat asking if we had a scanner. I checked just to make sure it was working.
First day back at the RefDesk. It's been a while (after logging in, Google Calendar says 'March 2020'). Brought two friends along -- pillow & teddy bear.
Landline was dead on Tues. & Wed. last week. My shift for Chat Reference is 6p-9p so it was back to the Student Center at Lincoln Park -- at least till 8pm when the Center closed. One more hour to go -- no problem! I simply switched to the Quad with my laptop for the final 60 minutes. 'ChatRef under the Stars'?
So I wake up and look at the clock. Holy sh*t -- it's 6 o'clock! That's the start of my evening shift for chat reference! I rush into my workroom, turn on the computer, hook up to the library web-service page. Whew, that was close! Funny thing is, nobody else is hooked in. Huh? Usually at least someone from the earlier shift hangs around till you get settled. So where is everyone? I check out the time at the bottom of the computer screen. Just a couple minutes past 6 -- that's not bad! Then I notice something else: it's am at the moment -- not pm. Opps!
Update: Same thing happened a couple weeks later (12/1) only this time it was '5 o'clock' when I woke up. 5 o'clock? No problem! Shift doesn't begin till 6pm -- I had an hour! On the radio I was expecting NPR's evening show, 'All Things Considered'. Instead what I got was 'Morning Edition'. Okay, I get it...
First reference session (chat) of the school year! [Note: public access to library not yet possible. Everything done remotely from home.]
Things to do immediately after your library shift (chat reference in my case): Hit the beach!
It’s 8:30pm on a Tuesday evening. Student contacts Reference Desk saying he/she is looking for 'research' articles on effects of poverty on success in education. Instructor wants list of articles from student by class tomorrow.
Student Worker Solution:
Reference Librarian Solution:
Observation : Both responses did in fact answer the student’s question. So what’s the diff?
Tuesday, Nov. 5th, 2019 was an important day -- or rather important evening. It was when WGN-TV broadcast the interview with me [link here] produced by the excellent reporter, Erik Runge. The actual interview took place a few days earlier at the DePaul Library.
The topic was my experience in West Berlin both before and after the Wall came down. The segment also included other witnesses both here and in Berlin. The fact that the reporter included so many other photos of me -- from my days in Paris to a shot of me in lederhosen at 4 years old holding on to Mayor Daley -- made the whole thing seem so much like a personal biography.
That said, I truly appreciate how the reporter let me have the last word. For so long the east side of Berlin was a symbol of oppression while the west side observed tolerance and liberty. It truly was a triumph of democracy -- something I shall never forget.
Update: Erik Runge and the good people at WGN-TV aired a follow-up segment on Thursday evening. The title was, "Lessons from the Fall of the Berlin Wall Still Ring True, 30 Years Later" [link here]. As the title suggests, the piece looks at the lessons from this period together with what people born afterwards think about it. My own comment which they include was to agree that lessons were drawn but that people can forget them -- if only (one hopes) temporarily.
