Ryland Pietras

An editor and reporter who studied solutions journalism at Northeastern Illinois University. My interests as a reporter are in environmentalism and social justice.

SouthSide Weekly •

Final Mayoral Forums Tackle Environmental Racism and Police – South Side Weekly

In a final effort for voters and mayoral candidates to engage each other directly, two public forums were held on the South Side last week that focused on environmental racism and addressed police and campaign finances.

Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson, who are facing off in the April 4 runoff election, spoke at a Pilsen event titled “The People’s Dialogue on the Environment” on March 27 and then debated at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics on March 30.
NEIU Independent •

Building Bridges in Selma

Normally, students use spring break as a time to recharge and regroup for the remainder of the semester. During the week of March 13-20, three groups of students went to three different cities for NEIU’s alternative spring break.

The difference being that an alternative spring break focuses on volunteer work in the places they travel to.

Each group consisted of ten students and two leaders who traveled by plane or car to either Miami, New Orleans or Selma, AL. Here we will focus on the group t
NEIU Independent •

Prairie Burn on Campus

On the morning of Dec. 9, a group of volunteers, made up of faculty, staff and students of NEIU conducted a prescribed burn on the swamp white oak savannah areas near NEIU’s physical education complex.

An oak savannah is a lightly forested grassland wherein fire plays an important role. Before the settlement of Europeans in the region, fires set by lightning or Native Americans would ensure that the prairies to the west of the Mississippi wouldn’t turn into forests, like in the east.

Due to we
NEIU Independent •

Is It Safe to Drink the Water Coming from Your Tap?

Water, like the sun and air, is crucial to our existence. By some accounts it is recommended that we drink half of our body weight in ounces per day. We are all fortunate to live in a city that has some of the cleanest drinking water in the country.

But just because the water that comes from the Jardine—the giant purification plant at the edge of Lake Michigan— is safe to drink, it does not mean that it will still be that way by the time it reaches our taps.

The Jardine, which opened in 1968,
NEIU Independent •

Interdisciplinary Climate Change Stories

Spring not only brings life back to all of those who have laid dormant over the winter, but it also brings revitalization back to the NEIU campus and its community. It is only fitting then that Earth Week occurs right in the middle of it.

This year, NEIU held six Earth Week related events throughout the week that began on April 19. The Independent was only able to cover one of the events—the Interdisciplinary Climate Change Stories held that same evening.

Students presented different cases for