Olivia Cronk
"Because NEIU holds space for ANYONE, from ANY situation, our university is inclusive and alive in a truly explosive way: we are all linked in amazing webs of interdependence.
Here's what things can look like for a faculty member: I walk from my train stop to the door outside of Pedroso, I can wave to students who are setting up an event for a visiting writer and to students who are stocking canned goods and diapers for mutual aid groups, I can wave at friends in the Honors office—people I will see later in the week at a Student Symposium where my students will read poems and present literary interpretations, I chat with my friend who is an advisor for nontraditional students and we share reactions to the creative writing piece of a recent grad (at age 71!) whose work I posted on a blog I run, I see the News Editor of Independent and we chat about an upcoming legislative event (and I'll see him at the Symposium, too, talking about student protesters), I run into a Dean who tells me about a new independent bookstore and Cubs tickets on sale for students for faculty, I get coffee at the coffee stand and see students who are getting ready for an exam, I turn on our campus/student radio station in my office (WZRD) where I hear my student talking between songs, later that student will interview me and my colleague in the podcast studio, three students I know from last year are walking down the hall and blasting Bad Bunny from a phone, we all talk about where to get a flu shot (in the basement), one of my colleagues in the English Department has made croissants from scratch and left them out for anyone who passes the table in the hall, I walk by a class where several students are productively arguing about poverty in the US, I walk by an office where a student is getting one-on-one help on assignment... I could go on and on."