Starbucks rewards, commencement speakers and mail-in voting
plus the digitized print version of our Fashion Issue
Welcome back to ‘In the Loop’! It’s your newsletter team — Kate, Lauren, Faith, Chinyere, Cary, Citlali, Monique and Bridget — here with your Monday night news.
Last week, we published our fashion issue. While we may be an online magazine, we can’t stay away from a beautifully designed magazine page. 14 East’s art and design team used Risograph printing to fashion the cover art for this issue and then created a digitized print version.
Scan the QR code or click this link to view the Fashion Issue.
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Today, we’re breaking down the new value of a Starbucks Star, introducing the newest members of DePaul’s Board of Trustees and giving you a new TV show recommendation.
As prices inflate, so does the Starbucks Star
By Lauren Sheperd
The value of the Starbucks Rewards star went down today for customers enrolled in their rewards program.
According to Starbucks, the stars needed for all items increased. It will now take 100 stars to receive a free hot or iced coffee or tea, baked good or packaged snack rather than 50. To get a free frappuccino, latte or hot breakfast item, customers will now need 200 stars instead of 150. Finally, salads, sandwiches and protein boxes will increase from 200 stars to 300.
Despite the rewards program growing by 16% in the last quarter alone to 28.7 million users, Starbucks continued to go through with the raise.
DePaul sophomore Cydney Rand goes to Starbucks four to five times a week and was shocked when she heard about the star devaluation. “The amount of stars you need to use for something free is already insane,” Rand said.
There was additional frustration regarding how Starbucks alerted customers about the increase. “Starbucks Rewards is updating the Terms of Use for Reward redemption starting in February,” an email to customers in the rewards program read.
Customers had to click on the link in the email to learn the exact changes.
Rand, like many others, never read the email. She heard from a friend.
The lack of transparency from the company has also drawn concern that unknowing customers will take out their frustrations on workers. “Starbucks green-aproned employees will be on the firing line to explain the changes on that inauspicious day,” market researcher Pamela N. Danziger wrote in Forbes.
Danziger wrote that everyday Starbucks employees are already under pressure, even without the surprise change for customers.
Lauren Kolasinski is a student at DePaul and also works at a Starbucks close to campus. She said she’s a bit less worried about bad customer reactions because most of the customers at this location are college students. “Most people – while they may care – they’re not going to take it out on the employees,” Kolasinski said. However, she said it could differ from store to store.
Starbucks isn’t the only popular chain to make their rewards program more costly in the last year, however. Dunkin was dragged last year for increasing the amount of money it takes to receive free items.
According to some economists, companies might be weakening their rewards programs due to the economic state right now. “If profit margins narrow and times get tougher, businesses may pull back,” Lending Tree’s chief credit analyst Matt Schulz told the Washington Post. “I’d expect to see that more in the near future until the economy improves and inflation wanes.”
Luckily for customers, Starbucks did not take away the free birthday drink.
DePaul News
By Faith Hennig
Apply to be a student speaker at commencement
Within a few months, thousands of students will be graduating, and with that one special student (per ceremony) will be able to speak at the June commencement ceremonies. Students have until 12 p.m. on March 12, to send in their applications to try and have their voice heard at graduation. Students must be eligible for graduation and be in good academic and disciplinary standing. More can be found on the application process here.
Solidarity with the victims of Turkey-Syria earthquake
The news of the devastating earthquake affecting Turkey and Syria has traveled the world, with the number of casualties still being accounted for. DePaul, among many universities, has offered its solidarity with the people of Turkey and Syria, letting it be known there will always be communal solitude in the DePaul community. The university also offers resources to help during this tragedy.
New DePaul Trustees
Recently, the university’s board of trustees welcomed three new leaders to the board of Trustees. The board elected Michael Canning, owner of The Glenview House restaurant, Kevin Keeley, president of Keeley Teton Advisors LLC and Malik Murray who is the senior vice president and head of business development at Ariel Investments. More can be found on the newly elected trustees here.
Lastly, here is your weekend sports update (Feb. 11-12)
The women’s basketball team lost to St. John’s on Saturday 77-61.
Chicago Headlines
By Chinyere Ibeh
The option of vote-by-mail ballots may push voter turnout past 40 percent — The Chicago Board of Elections announced the high turnout as early voting sites opened in all 50 wards. “We’re having a lot more of these [mail-in] ballots returned swifter than we’ve had in previous municipal elections,” spokesperson Max Bever said. With only a couple weeks until the election, 37,890 vote-by-mail ballots have been returned. According to Bever, this compares to 1,837 vote-by-mail ballots cast in the mayoral election in 2019. Read more into the record high voter turnout in David Struett’s story for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Plans to move migrants into a vacant Kmart put on pause by officials — The Illinois Department of Human Services is preparing to move 658 migrants to an empty Kmart sitting on 7050 S. Pulaski Road. The migrants were originally set to move in on February 9, but the plans were stalled, according to a letter sent out by State Representative Angie Guerrero. She asked state agencies to pause the project until the site is deemed safe for the families to live in. Kayleigh Padar has the full story for Block Club Chicago.
The Brookfield Zoo lost Ben the Bornean Orangutan, one of its longest-tenured residents — Ben was 44 years-old when he was euthanized with his animal care staff by his side. The Chicago Zoological Society said that the orangutan dealt with heart disease, arthritis, and spinal degeneration over the past decade. Though medication helped his condition for some time, his condition deteriorated to point that surgery was no longer an option. Eli Ong and Ben Bradley report on the story for WGN TV.
National Headlines
By Cary Robbins
The U.S. shoots down three more objects and China is disputing U.S. claims of surveillance — On Monday, the White House announced that it had shot down three more unidentified objects and defended their decisions after explaining that they had no indication that the objects were intended for surveillance. They claimed they wanted to protect citizens after the suspected spy balloon, which was shot down last week. The White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby said that the three objects were traveling at low-altitude, which posed a risk to civilian air traffic. China is claiming that the U.S. has flown over 10 high-altitude balloons over their airspace throughout the past year without China’s permission. Kirby has denied these claims. Read more about this in an AP article written by Eric Tucker.
Peace talks between Colombian government and the National Liberation Army —The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), which is the “largest remaining rebel group in the South American country,” are holding peace talks in Mexico City. President Gustavo Petro’s administration is optimistic about the renewed negotiations this peace talk may bring. However, on New Year’s Eve, the Colombian government claimed that they had made a truce with the ELN, but the ELN denied that an agreement had ever been made. People are wondering if the government will be able to end “decades of armed conflict in Colombia.” Read more about the context of these peace talks in an article written in Al Jazeera by Joshua Collins.
Updates on the earthquakes devastating people in Syria and Turkey — People continue to be rescued from rubble in Turkey and Syria after the earthquakes that happened last week. As of Monday, at least 31,643 people in Turkey and 4,614 people in Syria have been killed since the earthquakes first happened. The UN Aid chiefs are saying that rescue efforts will end soon, but people in northwest Syria are feeling abandoned. The UN claims that up to 5.3 million people in Syria will be homeless after the earthquakes and that about 900,000 people need hot food in Syria and Turkey urgently. Al Jazeera gave live updates about the crisis happening in Syria and Turkey on Monday after the earthquakes devastated tens of thousands of people. You can read those live updates here.
Rihanna shows off her belly bump during her Super Bowl 57 halftime show —Speculations were flying around on social media last night that Rihanna was pregnant with her second child. After her performance, Rihanna’s representative revealed that she is pregnant with her second child. She wore a red jumpsuit and a rubbery garb underneath. Her outfit did not change throughout the entire 13 minute show, and it sparked pregnancy rumors from many people on social media. The Super Bowl ended with the Kansas City Chiefs beating the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35. Read more about Rihanna’s performance in this AP article written by Andrew Dalton.
Hey, Check This Out!
With Community Engagement Editor Citlali Perez
Poker Face, starring my all-time favorite Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale, is a Peacock original series that came out in January this year. It is written and directed by Rian Johnson, who is also behind the movie Knives Out and its sequel Glass Onion which follows detective Benoit Blanc. So if you enjoyed these movies and Johnson’s unique way of storytelling then I recommend – I urge that you watch Poker Face. Aside from that, the fact that the show stars Natasha Lyonne should be reason enough to watch – in my opinion. Lyonne is one of those actresses that simply plays herself in each role she takes.
Charlie is introduced as “a human lie detector.” She can tell when someone is lying 100% of time; this is what led to her being “stuck” working as a waitress in a casino, and it is what led her to be on the run from some vengeful casino people (all in the first episode). She spends the rest of the series (so far) on the run, meeting new people in different towns, working different jobs, and encountering murders that she solves using her skills. Each episode introduces a new murder to be solved. The episode is structured similar to the Knives Out series; it starts off with the murder and how it all played out and then takes the viewers back to the beginning this time introducing Charlie who had been there all along (usually doing some odd job). Despite the murderer’s efforts to cover it up Charlie is able to sniff out the truth with one minor lie.
Unlike Benoit Blanc, Charlie has no detective credentials. She is motivated to unveil the truth and find justice for the victims who she sometimes ends up befriending at the beginning of the episode. Because she is on the run and trying to remain under the radar she gets rid of her phone in the first episode. The absence of the internet at her disposal helps highlight the use of her lie-detecting gift for murder-solving and adds an old school feel to the show. Her situation also complicates her ability to bring the truth to light. However, she gets better at tying loose ends with each episode. One thing is for certain, Charlie can’t run forever, so it will be interesting to see how it all unravels. Peacock releases a new episode every Thursday.
Resources
Need resources regarding cooling centers, rental assistance, abortion access, COVID-19 testing and vaccines or mental health? Check out our complete list here.
That’s it for today! See you next Monday.
The 14 East Newsletter Team