Grey City

VOL. XXIII • SPRING 2016

GREEK LIFE AS IT STANDS

BREAKING BARRIERS FOR WOMEN IN STEM

WHO’S IN IT AND WHY

FUNDING THE IVORY TOWER

SELF-REGULATION AND ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL PAGE 21

PAGE 4 PAGE 9

A LOOK AT SATELLITE DORM CULTURE PAGE 14

EDITOR’S NOTE Ask any student, teacher, or administrator—the University of Chicago is changing and it’s changing fast. Whether that change is in the housing system or University finances, it can be overwhelming. Long-form journalism offers us the opportunity to slow down and take stock of where we are and where we are headed beyond the seemingly endless stream of events in the daily news cycle.

Wendy Lee’s “The Boys’ Club” takes the Jason Lieb harassment incident as an opportunity to investigate the status of women in STEM disciplines and the efforts being made to increase their representation. Raymond Fang’s “Funding the Ivory Tower” looks at the relationship between money and faculty governance throughout the history of the school and how faculty-admin relations have changed over time. Grace Hauck and Elijah Alperin’s “A Snapshot of UChicago Greek Life” present a portrait of Greek Life informed by an unprecedented number of statistics on the make-up of Greek life at UChicago and discusses potential changes in its regulation.

In “The Satellite Dorms,” Kiran Misra and Robin Ye capture an element of what will be lost to future generations of UChicago students. We hope you enjoy Volume XXIII of Grey City, the CHICAGO MAROON’s supplement for in-depth reporting.

—Natalie Friedberg

STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MANAGING EDITOR COPY EDITORS

DESIGNERS

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

NATALIE FRIEDBERG ANNIE CANTARA SOPHIE DOWNES MORGANNE RAMSEY ERICA SUN MICHELLE ZHAO MAHATHI AYYAGARI JULIA XU STEPHANIE LIU PATRICK QUINN

cover illustration by wei yi ow

“Funrise” at the Point, a Breckinridge tradition CHICAGO MAROON PHOTO ARCHIVE

IN THIS ISSUE 4

THE BOYS’ CLUB

by WENDY LEE A look at the gender inequality in STEM fields at UChicago and how it’s changing now

9

FUNDING THE IVORY TOWER: MONEY, ACADEMIA AND UNIVERSITY FINANCE

by RAYMOND FANG How have increasing levels of private donations affected research decisionmaking at UChicago?

14

THE SATELLITE DORMS: CULTURE, TRADITIONS, AND THE MAKING OF HOME

by KIRAN MISRA & ROBIN YE A look at satellite dorm culture before the move to Campus North

21

A SNAPSHOT OF UCHICAGO GREEK LIFE: DEMOGRAPHICS, GROWTH, AND REGULATION

by ELIJAH ALPERIN & GRACE HAUCK A statistical look at UChicago Greek life and where it’s headed next

the chicago Maroon 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 editor@chicagomaroon.com GREYCITY.CHICAGOMAROON.COM

The Boys’ Club

by Wendy Lee Illustrations by Sarah Komanapalli Graphs by Juliette Hainline “Many STEM disciplines are still a boys’ club, and if people keep pointing to men as examples of success, it’s hard to imagine yourself being in that field. There is definitely still a gender imbalance, but even though that gender imbalance may be conducive to certain biases and behaviours going unchecked, it’s definitely my hope that, in our case, we have lessened this effect to some extent.”

—Borja Sotomayor, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science Last November, the University received reports that Jason Lieb, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Human Genetics, had engaged in “inappropriate behavior” during a private party at an off-campus retreat organized by the Department of Molecular Biosciences (DMB).

According to a University investigation letter obtained by The New York Times, Lieb engaged in sexual activity with a student who was unable to consent because she was incapacitated and under the influence of alcohol.

One of the graduate students at

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the retreat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that there was a coordinated effort at the party to try to help the female graduate students. Various individuals at the party moved in to “help [Lieb’s] targets get away from him” or tried to convince Lieb to leave the party for both his own sake and for the sake of his victims. For her, the incident was a testament to how important it is for faculty members to recognize that they benefit from being in a position of power; or, more importantly, how crucial it is for them to not stand by and perpetuate the status quo.

“Like many of the women [at the party], I got hit on and grabbed at by Jason Lieb. I think that party taught us a lot about what it’s actually like; being in a position where we were vulnerable, inferior graduate students observing something that we could tell was clearly wrong, but kind of being unsure how to approach the situation because someone who had superiority over us was taking advantage of his position of power,” the graduate student said.

After the University’s Title IX Coordinator Sarah Wake was notified, she began to investigate the allegations, and Lieb went on a leave of absence and remained so throughout the entire investigation process. In January, Wake concluded that Lieb had violated the University’s Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, and Sexual Misconduct, and she reported her findings to the Dean of the Biological Sciences Division (BSD), Kenneth Polonsky, and to Provost Eric D. Isaacs, and recommended Lieb’s termination. Both Polonsky and Isaacs agreed with her recommendation, and on January 21, Lieb resigned before the disciplinary process was complete.

In an official statement on February 3, the University condemned Lieb’s behavior, stating that “sexual harassment and sexual misconduct are forms of sex discrimination that

PEGGY MASON

MEG DOWD

SARAH WAKE

BORJA SOTOMAYOR

violate the standards of our community and will not be tolerated by the University of Chicago.” Victoria Prince, Ph.D., dean of graduate affairs, additionally e-mailed students in the DMB to assure them that they “have full access to the support [they] may need, especially at this difficult time.”

In direct response to the incident, the University stated that it plans to provide increased training on “related issues” to faculty members, graduate students, undergraduates, and staff members in an effort to prevent future incidences of sexual misconduct. According to Karen Warren Coleman, vice president for campus life and student services, this “training” is intended to better educate everyone on the University’s Title IX policy. The University has additionally begun interviewing applicants to fill the role of Deputy Title IX Coordinator, who will be responsible for assisting Wake with the implementation of Title IX programs.

The University’s Title IX policy prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities. Sexual harassment of students, which includes acts of sexual violence, is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX. The policy defines harassment as “verbal or physical conduct […] that [has] the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or educational program participation, or that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work or educational environment.” The policy goes on to state that “harassment by a faculty member, instructor, or teaching assistant of a student over whom the individual has authority, or by a supervisor of a subordinate, is particularly serious.”

This year, in another effort to better respond to cases of sexual misconduct, the University launched a site for UMatter, a program that provides individuals with information and re-

sources about gender-based misconduct and about the University’s conflict resolution process. Second-year Meg Dowd, co-leader of Phoenix Survivors Alliance (PSA), spoke favorably of both the new UMatter site and of the University’s response to the Lieb incident, stating that it was good that Wake called for Lieb’s removal. PSA is a student-led organization that works to provide information, advocacy, and peer support to survivors of sexual violence. “[Wake and PSA] seem to be working toward the same goals. The new UMatter site is a helpful resource; however, the amount of publicity

“The new UMatter site is a helpful resource; however, the amount of publicity and exposure that UMatter gets is not enough.” and exposure that UMatter gets is not enough, especially within STEM fields, where women are such a small minority. It’s important to make sure this information is prevalent and out there,” Dowd said.

According to 2015 enrollment data, women made up 45 percent of the BSD’s graduate division and 26 percent of the Physical Sciences Division (PSD)’s graduate division. Peggy Mason, Ph.D., of the Department of Neurobiology, echoed Dowd’s statement, saying that the fact that the University even hired Wake as Title IX Coordinator was an indication that the University was addressing the issue of sex-based discrimination on campus. “[The administration] hired her, empowered her, and took her recommendation. They didn’t hire her out of the blue; they didn’t hire her for show. They made a good hire, and it was a genuine hire. It was complete-

ly sincere,” Mason said.

Wake replaced Belinda Vasquez in February as Title IX Coordinator for the University. During Vasquez’s tenure as Coordinator, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) launched a campus-wide investigation into the University’s potential breach of Title IX after student Olivia Ortiz filed a complaint. Ortiz claimed that the University had mishandled disciplinary procedures after she was sexually assaulted by her then-partner over the course of the 2011–2012 academic year. Two new investigations were launched this year to address other possible mishandlings of sexual violence and harassment complaints.

“Meetings with Vasquez revealed that she had a poor grasp of the law in addition to often times being antagonistic toward students,” Dowd said.

The University has been commended for its handling of the Lieb incident, but criticized for hiring Lieb in the first place. Fourth-year Victoria Norman, co-president of the Society of Women in Physics (SWiP) and vice president of Women in Science (WIS), was disturbed by the fact that the University doesn’t have any explicity universal policies against hiring faculty with a history of sexual misconduct. The University hiring process is highly decentralized, leaving much discretion to individual departments.

Before joining the Department of Human Genetics, faculty members in the molecular biology department received e-mails from an anonymous address stating that Lieb had faced allegations of sexual misconduct at Princeton University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). From 2002 to 2013, Lieb taught at UNC, where a complaint was filed against him for unwanted contact. After a brief stint at Princeton as a professor of molecular biology from 2013 to 2014, Lieb was hired by the University of Chicago follow-

GREY CITY | 5

ing the resignation of two prominent faculty members in the BSD. After failing to find any sexual harassment investigations into Lieb’s conduct while he was at Princeton, a University committee of faculty and administrators unanimously voted to hire Lieb.

In addition to putting the spotlight on sexual assault issues, the Lieb case, and several others like it, has started a conversation about how difficult it is for institutions to penalize individuals for having implicit and unconscious biases, especially considering how hard these biases are to detect, define, and deter. For Borja Sotomayor, Ph.D., of the Department of Computer Science, implicit bias becomes actionable offense the moment someone refuses to acknowledge and learn from their mistake.

“We [those in tech communities who want to create a welcoming environment for women and minorities] shouldn’t go after people if they are willing to consider that they have a set of unconscious biases that are causing a negative effect, and have an open mind to accepting feedback on how those biases could be mitigated,” Sotomayor said.

Institutional Problems Similar to its peer institutions, the University has continually suffered from a gender imbalance in its STEM departments for decades. In 2015, 26 percent of the College’s PSD, which consists of the Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geophysical Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics, was comprised of women.

This is slightly lower than the national average four years ago, which, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, was 29 percent.

In 2015, the American Physical Society (APS) found that, since 1965, the percentage of bachelor’s degrees

6 | Vol. XXIII

earned by women in various math and science fields has steadily increased. This increase is particularly evident in the biological sciences, where, in 2015, there were more women with bachelor’s degrees in biology than men. Women, however, continue to be vastly underrepresented in the disciplines of physics and engineering, and the percentage of bachelor’s degrees earned by the women in these majors has failed to progress at the scale and rapidity of biology, chemistry, and mathematics.

The circumstances surrounding

“Realizing that we all harbor there unconscious biases is the first step towards minimizing and reducing bias.”

Lieb’s recent resignation have also served as a reminder to both faculty members and students of the connection between unconscious biases and actionable offenses of sexual violence. While STEM departments are always eager to hire more female faculty members, increasing the number of women in the field wouldn’t necessarily discourage discriminatory practices or eliminate misogynistic behavior. Sotomayor described the gender disparity issue as a chickenor-the-egg problem: how can you hire more women in STEM disciplines when there aren’t any women to hire in the first place?

“A lot of women and minorities look at the tech industry, and it comes across as a boys’ club, which is something we should theoretically be able to change. It’s easy to say ‘Let’s just hire more women!’, but sometimes, you walk into a group where you’re the only woman in a team comprised entirely of men, and even if they ar-

en’t actively doing anything to you, it can still feel like you’re out of place,” Sotomayor said.

The issue of gender imbalance hits close to home for the Department of Mathematics, which has struggled to recruit female faculty members for decades. When Shmuel Weinberger, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Mathematics, first came to the University in 1984, the department had one female tenured faculty member.

After he left in 1986, the department had no other female tenured faculty until 2005. Weinberger said that it’s difficult to combat, or even measure, the market-based biases against women in STEM fields.

“We are aware of the gender imbalance problem, and we do what we can to encourage people to apply. However, with the way society is structured, it is probably harder for women to stay in the field because tenure is often decided at around the time that people are starting families. In our culture, that responsibility falls substantially on women; thus, it’s a systemic problem. These are enormous social problems that can’t be solved by an individual,” Weinberger said.

The “leaky pipeline” metaphor is used to describe how women drop out of STEM disciplines at all stages of their careers, often due to either overt or implicit discrimination. In order to combat the this phenomenon in their respective fields, Sotomayor and Weinberger have been working to create environments that are more welcoming and accommodating to women and minorities.

One of the ways the Department of Computer Science has been trying to fix the pipeline is by supporting committees and clubs run entirely by women, such as ACM-W, the Association for Computing Machinery Committee on Women, or FEMMES UChicago, a student-led organization that is working to close the technology gender gap by hosting computer

science workshops and coding camps for middle school girls.

While it has been challenging for the Department of Computer Science to get more women involved in computing, Sotomayor said that the numbers speak for themselves. Women comprise twenty eight percent of the department, well above the national average. He said that this number has been increasing steadily.

“There are a lot of small things you can do, such as gender-balanced panels. ACM-W is planning on organizing a hackathon just for women next year, and they aren’t doing it to exclude other people. Rather, they are doing it to enable a group that has traditionally been underrepresented, and even shunned from the field, to explore their potential with the absence of biases and pressures,” Sotomayor said.

The Department of Mathematics sponsors similar events through the Association of Women in Mathematics, an organization that aims to increase the visibility of women in mathematics through speaker events and mentoring programs. While it is difficult to solve some of the systemic challenges associated with the gender imbalance in STEM, Weinberger said he hopes his department promotes an atmosphere of intolerance for harassment and intimidation.

“It feels like things are getting better. There might still be some unconscious biases, or even biases about the nature of the profession that discourage women. However, when we become aware of a bias, we try to combat it. We’re currently a department of 28 tenured faculty with three women, but I imagine that with time, that number will get larger,” Weinberger said.

The University’s swift response to the allegations against Lieb reflects a renewed hardline stance against sexual assault, especially considering Lieb’s reputation as a well-known and academically distinguished fac-

ulty member. According to ResearchGate, Lieb has 221 publications that have been read over 7,000 times and cited 16,000 times. His publications indicate that he is the recipient of around $1.2 million in federal grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH).

The University, however, may still be receiving funds for the projects that Lieb had previously worked on.

Although all NIH-supported investigators, students, fellows, postdocs, and research participants are protected by federal civil rights laws that strictly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, the NIH is not

in the department’s history. Since becoming the department chair in 2012, Olinto has brought in three more female faculty members, a remarkable feat considering the department’s historically disproportionate male-to-female ratio. As she reflected on her career, which spans over three decades, she was relentlessly positive, noting that the very fact that people are even talking about the significant gender disparities in STEM is a huge victory for everyone involved.

“In the ’60s, women were not allowed to use big telescopes, but now, women are the ones building the big-

required to penalize grantees. Even if Lieb was found to have violated federal laws or institutional policies, grant money could continue to support any projects previously affiliated with him because funding awards are made out to institutions and not individuals.

gest telescopes. When I was in graduate school, talking about this issue was not even part of the conversation, but now, everybody talks about it. It’s good that people are trying to fix it as well as they can, but it will take time,” Olinto said.

Olinto said that the Lieb incident presents an opportunity for students and faculty to engage in a meaningful conversation about the environmental factors that contribute to harmful and misogynistic behavior.

“We are ready for more progress, and it can only happen if we use these

The Future for Women in STEM When Angela Olinto, Ph.D., first joined the University’s Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics in 1990, she was the first female hire

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SHMUEL WEINBERGER

ANGELA OLINTO

VICTORIA NORMAN

LESLIE ROGERS

8 | Vol. XXIII

scandals as a way to have a greater conversation. The next generation of men and women should be aware of the positives of having a diverse culture. They should know not to assume that everybody has the same first-order reaction to questions and problems,” Olinto said.

University president Robert Zimmer said that the University’s prompt response to the incident was an indication that it was initiating conversations about taking sexual misconduct more seriously.

“Ultimately, there is a kind of cultural awareness and intention to what is and isn’t acceptable behavior. I think getting that all clarified and [into the] open discourse is an important part of what we’re trying to do,” Zimmer said in a meeting with T he M aroon earlier in the quarter.

Since its conception, the University has placed heavy emphasis on its dedication to academia, open discourse, and the life of the mind.

Discussions about sexual misconduct have arguably not been as simple or transparent. Norman expressed concern over the limitations of such discourse, especially for victims of gender-based discrimination.

“I’ve been informally polling people at WIS and SWiP events, and I found that a majority of people wouldn’t even know who to contact if they experienced gender-based discrimination in labs or classrooms. Yes, you can file an online report at UMatter, but what if you just wanted to talk to someone? What if someone is making women uncomfortable with certain jokes or comments? For women and racial minorities, a lot of these problems get ignored and internalized because they have no outlet,” Norman said.

Leslie Rogers, Ph.D., of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics agreed with this sentiment, adding that minority women are often excluded from conversations about gender disparities and sexual

misconduct.

“The fractional representation of white women in STEM disciplines has improved over time, but underrepresented minorities are vastly underrepresented in my field. Realizing that we all harbor these unconscious biases is the first step towards minimizing and reducing bias,” Rogers said.

While it is often easy to place the blame on the majority—whether it’s the men who voted to hire Lieb, or the men in the STEM industry—both Norman and Rogers said that women have just as much bias as men, and thus, have just as much responsibility in creating change.

“There is a lot of internalized misogyny in the field amongst women. There are unfortunately several female professors who don’t think women have to try as hard anymore because there is now such a push to have more women in STEM. The University needs to actively work to retain more women in STEM disciplines and to give more administrative support to groups like Women in Science,” Norman said.

While there is certainly a long way to go until absolute gender equality, Rogers said she is optimistic about the future for women in the STEM fields at the University because there is so much awareness surrounding the issue.

“Overall, people are becoming more conscious of these subtle biases and becoming less tolerant of explicit sexual harassment in the academic community. I’m certainly inspired by the senior women in my department, and I hope I can help to mentor the next generation of women, as well,” Rogers said.

Norman envisions a future where women have more power to improve their institutions.

“In the physics department, there are just as many professors named ‘David’ as there are female professors. Let’s change that.”

SAIEH HALL

| THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MAGAZINE

Funding the Ivory Tower: Money, Academia, and Faculty Governance

by Raymond Fang Graphs by Juliette Hainline Deep inside Saieh Hall, down the brick hallways, past the glass windows, and nestled underneath the tall ceilings, lies a set of glass doors guarding the entrance to the Becker-Friedman Institute for Research in Economics (BFI). Inside, there are e e rate fi es ere e rooms, and workstations buzzing with research activity from faculty, visiting researchers, staff, and students. Paintings of Milton Friedman and Gary Becker adorn the walls, carefully watching over this hive of activity.

Of course the BFI, in addition to functioning as a center for academic research, is positioned in a complex network of University politics and funding negotiations.

There’s a reason why the original 2007

proposal for the Milton Friedman Institute for Economics and Society (MFI) stated that its creation would serve as a “foundation for continued leadership in shapi fie s th ht as e as e nomic and social policies throughout the world.” The MFI, which merged with the Becker Center in 2011 to form the BFI, was intended to signal the University’s dedication to investing in economics research and to preserving its leadership r e i the fie But why did the University invest millions of dollars in the BFI as opposed to other academic endeavors? Who gets to create academic institutes and programs at the University of Chicago, and who decides which kinds of academic research

count as worthy of funding and institutional support? Moreover, what sorts of logics inform University investments when it comes to research institutes?

These questions are inextricable from issues of money and political economy.

The administration’s academic funding decisions are closely tied both to federal i tre s a t i ersit spe ifi history, and have led to a shift in what kinds of research receive funding priority.

Starting in the 1980s and continuing into the present, declining federal research grants and contracts have driven the University to seek out more private funding. This increase in private donations affects what kinds of research get

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i as r a fi a ia i terests play a greater role in dictating the direction of research. Market logics have, to a ertai e te t i e e a i istrati e decision-making on research funding.

Economic Trends and University History University funding history is inseparable from international economic trends, dating back to Ronald Reagan’s presidency in 1980s. The Reagan administration played a role in the rise of neoliberal ideology across the globe. Neoliberalism is a set of policies and practices centered around limited state intervention, free market ideology, and the extension of economic rationality to explain all aspects of human behavior.

Crucially, nobody was more instrumental in codifying neoliberal thought than UChicago’s very own Milton Friedman.

Friedman was a Nobel Prize–winning professor of economics at the University from 1946 to 1977, and pioneered new theories of monetary policy and deregulation in the ’60s. He also served as an adviser to Reagan and to Margaret Thatcher, both of whom were famous political

leaders and proponents of free market policies in the ’80s.

So, how have these changing policies and ideologies looped back to affect UChicago?

Mel Rothenberg, a retired mathematics professor, said that during Robert Maynard Hutchins’s administration (1929–51) and shortly afterward, the University was “a little more sensitive about who it took money from” because it could rely on a steady stream of federal research grants and contracts. He pointed out that the University rejected money in the 1940s from the Shah of Iran, who wanted to start an institute for Middle Eastern studies.

Rothenberg traced the growing emphasis on the University’s fundraising efforts back to the late ’70s and early ’80s. He attrib te the shi t t ar reater fi a ia i e e i a a e ia t a e rease in government research funds for universities under Reagan, which created a need for private money. “[The University administrators] were encouraged by politicians to go to private sources for donations, and to not look to the government […] If you’re raising money from large corporations, then Private vs. Federal Revenue

10 | Vol. XXIII

when they look at the structure of your University, they’re very concerned about that, so you have to conform to their model of how to use the money, which you didn’t have to do before,” he said.

Federal funding to UChicago has decreased since 1987, the earliest year for which data is available. Private funding has increased during the same time period. In 1987, 13.8 percent of the University’s revenue came from federal grants and contracts, while only 6.6 percent came from private gifts, grants, and contracts. By 2014, private funding had doubled to 12.8 percent, while federal funding had shrunk to 8.27 percent. There is a large jump in percentage of revenue from private and public donations in 2009, i e e t the fi a ia re essi the University’s greatly reduced 2009 endowment meant it had to rely on federal and private funding much more than usual.

Bruce Lincoln is a professor in the Divinity School and is heavily involved in the Council of the University Senate, the faculty governing body. He was a graduate student at the University in the ’70s, left for about 20 years to take a faculty position at a different university, and ret r e i the i s is fi e ate

in Swift Hall, is a humanities professor’s fi e par excellence: the shelves that line the a s are er i ith b s There’s even a stepladder to reach the volumes on the top shelves. The desk is piled impossibly high with manuscripts and papers.

According to Lincoln, national economic changes during the Reagan era were p e b spe ifi ities hi ago’s history. When UChicago was founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1892, it had the third-largest endowment in the nation, and maintained that status until the Hutchins administration in 1929, which saw a shift on focus toward graduate education and research, and Low graduate school tuition rates and the high cost of funding graduate education increased costs and decreased revenue for the University.

“That created a kind of unique, intellectual atmosphere here, and an ethos—a set of values consistent with research at a high level as the primary function of the institution, and the thing we did best. We took a lot of pride in that,” Lincoln said. se e e as that r fi a es suffered, and I think Sonnenschein made this case analytically and then rhetorically successfully.”

The Hugo Sonnenschein administrati as the first i ersit administration headed by a professional economist. Lincoln said Sonnenschein’s training as an economist drew his attention to the University’s shrinking endowment, relative to other universities, and led to an increased emphasis on fundraising. i spe ifi a a e the i ersity of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Stanford, Princeton, Emory, and Northwestern as schools that had surpassed UChicago in endowment by the early ’90s. In response, Sonnenschein decided to take action and dedicate more energy to fundraising.

“What Sonnenschein saw was that the trend was going to continue,” Lincoln said.

“We had been fabulously wealthy at one time, and I think because of certain prinip e e isi s e a e r fi a ia p sition had eroded, and he was determined

to reverse that. And that went beyond just responding to the Reagan cuts.” esear h i t the spe ifi i ersit endowments named by Lincoln partially bears out his analysis. In 1991, two years be re e s hei t fi e the iversity’s endowment was about $800 million. Of the seven universities Lincoln

“I think because of certain principled decisions we made, our fi a ia p siti ha eroded...” listed, the University was ranked third at the time, behind Princeton and Stanford.

In 2014, however, the University’s endowment was around $5.8 billion, which placed it next-to-last among the seven universities, only ahead of Cornell.

University revenues—the sum amount of money brought in by University investments, grants, contracts, and tuition— followed a similar trend. Of the seven universities, UChicago’s 1987 revenue was $680 million, the third highest of the seven (behind UPenn and Stanford).

By 2014, the University’s revenue was around $4 billion, the second-lowest, only ahead of Cornell.

According to this data, there has been a decline over the last 30 years in the University’s wealth, in terms of endowment and revenue, relative to other top American universities. Despite Sonnenschein’s, current University President Robert J. Zimmer’s, and other presidents’ best efforts, an increased emphasis on private funding has not improved the Universit s fi a ia stat s a its peer i stitutions.

Funding, Faculty Governance, and Controversy So what if federal funds have decreased and private donations have increased?

What are the stakes?

Robert Topel is a professor at the Booth School of Business and led a 2012 committee examining the limits of faculty governance at the University. He has been a professor at UChicago for 35 ears is fi e ate i th is a most the opposite of Lincoln’s. It’s large and impeccably clean, with an expansive wooden desk dominated by two iMac computer monitors. Behind is a set of large glass windows offering a fantastic view of Rockefeller Chapel.

Topel discussed the history of the Council of the University Senate, which consists of 51 elected faculty members serving three-year terms. According to Topel, Hutchins attempted certain executive actions regarding degree programs in 1947 that many faculty members disagreed with. In response, the Board of Trustees intervened to create the Council in order to preserve faculty autonomy.

“Ultimate power in the University resides in the trustees, and they delegate authority to various entities. One of the entities they delegate authority to as a result of 1947 is an understanding that the faculty will have authority over educational policy. Traditionally, educational policy has meant creation of degree programs, requirements for degrees, new departments, that sort of thing. Since 1947, that has basically been the way things have been at the University. So if the Business School decides it wants to create a new degree [...] it would in some formal sense go to the Council of the Senate for approval,” Topel said.

However, with shrinking University budgets and endowments relative to other schools and an increase in private donations, decisions about research institute funding become partly geared t ar e s ri fi a ia stabi it his fi a ia i perati e has ire t i p i ations for what kinds of research counts as “valuable.” Faculty governance and research prioritization come to be at stake in these changes.

Contestations over faculty governance center on disagreements over the proper role of faculty in directing University investments. In 2008, there was intense de-

GREY CITY | 11

bate over the creation and naming of the Milton Friedman Institute, which opponents claimed propagated economic policies that have “been negative for much of the world’s population, leading to the weakening of a number of struggling local economies in the service of globalized capital...under the banner of ‘market democracy,’” according to a faculty petition.

In 2011, trustee and faculty interests clashed over the creation of the Grossman Institute. Bud Grossman, a University trustee and economist, initially founded the institute as a quantitative biology research center meant to debunk the assumptions of rational choice theory. Faculty protested that the research doctrines of the institute were not academically sound. Eventually, the word “neuroscience” was added to the name, and actual neuroscientists were hired to run the research, addressing many of the faculty concerns.

Most recently, in 2014, controversy erupted over the Confucius Institute (CI), which was a Chinese government–sponsored language learning and research center. Some faculty claimed the Chinese had undue authority over faculty hiri a firi e isi s a that the institute represented a challenge to faculty governance. Though the University initially ruled to renew its contract with

12 | Vol. XXIII

the CI in June 2014, it reversed its decision in September of the same year due to comments made by Chinese government fi ia s re ar i tra t re e a In these three incidents, the same question recurs. Is the administration, har e ith e s ri the fi a ia stability of the University, responsible for funding decisions for research institutes?

Or does that responsibility lie with the faculty, who is charged with maintaining the University’s status as a world-class research institution?

Lars Peter Hansen is the co-director of the BFI, and was centrally involved in the creation of the controversial MFI back in 2007. He has been a faculty member at the University since 1982.

fi the er ap between what is really good research and what the donor interest is”.”

Hansen pointed out the importance of fi i r bet ee r and faculty interests. a t t fi t the er ap between what is really good research, and what the donor interest is. That’s always the bi ha e e t tr t fi that ri ht

mixture between where the funds are available and what stuff you want to be funding. It’s part of the core mission of the University,” he said. “It’s certainly true that not everything that donors want to contribute to would be remotely appropriate for dictating what research faculty ought to be doing, but Universities do face budget constraints, they do face resource constraints. It’s a delicate balance that requires the good judgment of people to make those decisions.”

Daniel Margoliash is a professor of organismal biology and anatomy, and was one of the key faculty members who pushed for the involvement of neuroscientists in the 2011 Grossman Institute controversy.

He echoed Hansen in calling for a balance between faculty and administrative i terests b t a s te the i e e fi a ia si erati s i e i i which research endeavors get funding and which do not.

“For the University to succeed, it also has t s ee fi a ia a it s t necessarily the case that we’re going to be as successful at that unless we also have strong central administration. The problem is if strong central administration ends up affecting or structuring the efforts of the intellectual efforts of the faculty, that would be wrong. I think, clearly, the central administration understands that and doesn’t want to have that outcome,” Margoliash said. “But it’s a balance. It becomes a balance then, because given where resources go, it’s what research, what scholarly effort becomes supported […] making those decisions has an effect on the success of programs.

And that has an effect, then, on what scholarly efforts tend to be supported on campus and those that aren’t as much supported.”

Bob Kendrick is a professor of music, and has served on the Council of the Uniersit e ate t i e e r 2003, and again from 2010–2013, during the MFI and Grossman Institute debates.

Kendrick emphasized the continued importance of faculty autonomy in University decision-making.

“What the ongoing concerns are for some faculty, myself included, is making sure that we continue to have our autonomy, have our independence, and not just have academic decisions driven by fi a ia iss es b a ts fi a ia ruin for this University, but we have to t ha e fi a ia iss es eter i e i the long run, the kind of institution that we are,” Kendrick said. “What none of us want to see institutionalized is that fi a ia a t rs ri e the e isi s epartments.”

According to these faculty members, beyond just academic and scholarly vale itera fi a ia a e has be e a si ifi a t a t r i the e isi s that are made around research funding. Even though the administration may try its best to balance donor and faculty interests, the very fact that it has to engage in this ess ba a i a t i the first p a e is the product of historical changes in University funding sources and governmental structure.

Looking Ahead Faculty and administrators have reached a state of detente since the University’s contract with the CI was terminated in September 2014, and i t bet ee the t r ps has been much less frequent in the last two years.

Lincoln emphasized the fundamental unity of the faculty and administration in advancing the best interests of the University.

“There are points of disagreement, we don’t see things eye-to-eye. There are members of faculty who wish they would behave in different ways around different issues, but what I’ve come to realize, at least, is they have the best interests of the University at heart, as we all do. They don’t understand them i e ti a heir a es pri i e e finances, they’ve got to balance the budget, they’ve got to bring in money.... Our values don’t match perfectly, but these are honorable, decent people struggling t a i fi t b a s eti es e

have very sharp disagreements about what’s best. But it’s not like we’re at loggerheads,” Lincoln said.

Topel agreed, and pointed out that tensions had eased in the last two years after the CI decision.

“My sense is that the issue has quieted down because, I think even from the perspective of those who thought that the Council should have certain powers, that there was not a full appreciation of the advisory role and advisory function that the faculty have,” Topel said. “I think one of the things we said at the time was that there should be more general dissemination of the fact that the Council of the Senate and faculty generally have this advisory role to play in the governance of the University, quite apart from the authoritative governance that they have in educational policy. There’s a lot less friction then there was before.”

However, the broad trends that cause i t e reasi er e t tracts and grants, and a corresponding increase in private donations—show no signs of abating.

Indeed, the University’s emphasis on private donations is likely to continue into the near future. In May 2014, the University announced a major fund-

raising campaign called “Inquiry and Impact.” Through this campaign, the University hopes to raise $4.5 billion from 125,000 alumni by 2019. This fundraising campaign is the largest in University history, and seeks more money than any previous campaign in the Chicago area. As of May 2016, two years in, the campaign has raised $3 billion from 73,610 alumni.

“President Zimmer has been consistent with the trends that Sonnenschein initiated. And that is an orientation primarily toward the trustees, less toward the faculty,” Lincoln said. “It’s not entirely one-sided; he understands both, but I think in contrast to prior presidents, Sonnenschein and Zimmer really have been concerned with the fi a ia e bei the i stit ti the bottom line, the way money works, and the kinds of things trustees are primarily charged with seeing to.”

So, the next time you walk into the Money Church to do some homework, attend a class, or meet someone over coffee, know that you’re not just entering a beautifully renovated old church.

You’re stepping into a sticky web of fi a ia i terests tr ersia hist ries, and global political economic forces. Tread carefully.

GREY CITY | 13

The Satellite Dorms:

by Kiran Misra and Robin Ye Photos taken by residents of satellite dorms THE ENTRANCE TO MACLEAN ON A SUNNY DAY. FRANK YAN

Kiran: What do you think makes Maclean unique?

Harper: How much time have you got, really? [laughs] Every year, the O-Week staff in Maclean House gets to paint another quote up on the wall, putting a bit of their tradition—and what third-year Larsen Linov describes as, “our own permanent mark”—on the interior walls of their building for generations of students to come. Harper Graf, a second-year in Maclean, added, “we always joke that you navigate by quote here. You see the same ones every day, they kind of just stick in your brain. I’m a big believer in whatever you surround yourself with, it kind of imprints on you. If you surround yourself with funny quotes or great people, which we have in Maclean, you’re pretty much Insert caption here always happy.”

FRANK YAN | THE CHICAGO MAROON The building used to be cooperative

14 | Vol. XXII

Culture, Traditions, and the Making of Home

| THE CHICAGO MAROON

living for older people. It was sponsored by a religious institution, evidenced by the massive cross in the building and the chapel that is now the RH apartment.

One hallway was even used as a “psych ward”– think stone walls, creepy atmosphere, and a murder bathroom with red paint on the walls.

When he enters Maclean, Larsen almost always stops to chat in HQ, one of the ai h se es the first r On his way to the staircase up to his room he’ll peek into the game room to see if someone’s playing ping-pong. Harper describes this pattern as the “Maclean t the areas i terse t he a i t the h se the first thing I do is, you say hi to the front desk lady,[...], go up the stairs, [then I] go into the spa es t r a t pe p e e e p that t he go to North, it’s straight up and down.” his trib tes t the a

atmosphere of the dorm: most students have to walk through at least one of the house lounges to get to their room. Hadi s a ara i a i a ea sai live right off the lounge [...] so it’s always nice to come to your room and after a long day or after a midterm, have everyone there saying, ‘oh, hey, what’s up.’ I love the homecoming feeling.”

The other common spaces include HQ, a cavernous, dimly lit lounge right off the main foyer, incredibly large so as to be conducive to multiple simultaneous activities. Right next to HQ is the dining room, which connects HQ to the gigantic restaurant-sized kitchen, which is lined ith ers r e er st e t a fi e with communal fridges. There is a game r the e r a a s arium—a quiet, library-like study space that is vaguely reminiscent of an astrological observatory.

“If you want to make friends, having

singles essentially forces you to come out of your room and talk to people,” Harper explained. “This building shapes the community in allowing you to just come together in different ways and share whatever you’re doing—studying, cooking, moaning about midterms, whatever it a be arse sai e re efi itely losing the uniqueness of a stand-alone building, it makes us feel like we have our own identity. Melissa Li, the other Maclean RA, added, “we have a lot of nooks and crannies in the hallways, I think there s e the se r e a it the ‘BA Cave.’”

“When we had the satellite study breaks, a lot of Breckies came and, you know, they’re very attached to Breckinridge, but they came here and said, ‘this really feels like home. We can see why you really love it here. Because we wouldn’t give this up for the world.’ And really feel like we shouldn’t and we don’t want to,” Harper said.

Brief History of Housing On April 20, College Housing announced its biggest change to date: the si fi e r s at the e es a pus and Hyde Park, called “satellite” dorms. This represented an unprecedented contraction of campus housing buildings, coinciding with the opening of the University’s largest new dorm, Campus North—an 800-student-capacity megaplex at the former site of Pierce Tower, another dorm that closed at the end of the 2012–13 school year. Beginning in the 2016–17 school year, the dorms of Blackstone, Broadview, and Maclean will be sold to private investors, while New Grad and Breckinridge will be repurposed for other campus uses, with New Grad becoming the new home of the Harris School of Public Policy, opening Fall 2018.

The four-house building in North (the tallest tower, called “Community #1”) will include the former Tufts, Henderson, and Midway, as well as Maclean. The threehouse building, “Community #2,”will house the former Wick, Talbot, and Palmer, in hopes of maintaining the dynamic

that currently exists in Broadview. Blackstone House will enjoy the single-house building. Breckinridge House will move to International House and keep its name.

Prior to the closing of the satellites, the campus underwent consistent but incremental shifts in housing. Throughout the history of the University, a total of 13 dorms have been decommissioned, including Pierce Tower, the Shoreland (closed 2009), Gates-Blake (1960), and Goodspeed (1938).

In Dean Boyer’s 2009 paper titled “The

Julia: There’s a light switch that you’re not technically suppose to touch. But we all flip it off and on. We have strobe light elevator parties, but don’t tell our RH. Ben: I live on the second floor and I took the elevator all the time. It’s just that good.

“It’s a suite, but it’s basically apartments,” explained Alex Warminski, a first ear i the h se here s a itt e kitchenette, a bathroom, and your own room. It’s basically living in an apartment without the duties and responsibilities of

“We always joke that you navigate by quote here [...]

I’m a big believer in whatever you surround yourself with, it kind of imprints on you.”

Kind of University That We Desire to Become,” Boyer outlined goals for University housing that included housing 70 percent of students on campus, increasing the retention of upperclassmen in housing, and constructing two to three new large residence halls. These ambitious goals drive the future of University housing.

All of this is to say, as Dean Boyer put it i he a t fi ht a part is to throw a better party, not to cancel it.

I’ll bet you that the day [North Campus dormitory] opens we’re gonna have thirdand fourth-year kids lined up around the b prett fi e t that i e can build it, they will come.” With a vision and capital soon to back it, the University has set its sights on an undergraduate experience unparalleled in the Midwest.

Blackstone: Housing Options and Building Eccentricity Julia: The elevator is one of the best things in Blackstone. It makes people who don’t live there so uncomfortable and I love it. It jolts a lot.

Alex: It’s an old freight elevator so you have to manually open two doors [one of which is a metal grate]. Sometimes it stops in between floors.

living in an apartment. I think it’s unique that Blackstone is kind of a transition building—it matches the transition we are in as adults.”

Blackstone used to be a boarding house for female nurses. Its compactness is apparent in the small lobby area that doubles as a semi-house lounge. A grand piano is nestled in a nook, and couches with Blackstone and Scav banners make sure everyone knows which house they’re stepping into. Most of the common spaces are the first r i i a spa i s b t mostly empty) kitchen and a cozy and brightly painted game room where students devotedly play Mario Kart.

“I feel sad, when I think of Blackstone moving,” Julia continued, “because when you walk into Blackstone you feel the legacy of all these people before you. There’s all these holes in my bathroom door and I’m like, ‘who put these here?’ but they are reminders of students before me.”

The quirks that come with living in an old building are a source of Blackstone pride. Julia added, “each room is really different—my friend’s room is so cold she has to sleep with a hat and 50 blankets and my room is so hot I can’t do anything in there with clothing on.”

Blackstone, despite its less modern

GREY CITY | 15

construction, provides essential variety t the h si pti s r first ears Alex explains, “private bathrooms are a necessity.” This is especially important for students who value or need privacy, like trans students. Skylar Spear, Halperin RA and former Wick resident, said, “I honestly recognize the need to update dorms; but there is something missing from the policy as it currently stands. I do not feel that it incorporates the legitimate need for equal bathroom access for trans st e ts r es it fi a e e ti e a to afford privacy to people when the single-users are so frequently occupied by people who just use the closest bathroom the a fi Housing options are being limited, whereas housing used to work for a lot of different types of people; now it primarily caters to someone who wants social interaction more of the time, someone who likes to share space and bathrooms. With the move to North, the possibility of a first ear re ei i a si e is rasti a reduced.

What’s in a Name? Tradition and Pride for a House

Adriana: Other houses, not that they should want to be us…

Rohan: They should.

Sydney: They should.

Monica: They should.

Adriana: It’s too bad that not everyone gets to live in Breck.

Adam Sutherland, a Breckinridge fourth-year, reminisces, “we think of ourselves as lucky that we’re the last people who were able to spend all four years within Breck. We’re sad, and we fought the University every step of the way. [chuckles] We mobilized the ‘Save Breck’ movement as early as early 2014. We organized and held weekly meetings before they announced they were going to close

“When you walk into Blackstone you feel the legacy of all these people before you.”

Breck.”

“We feel like we were in a debate with the University as to whether the people or the building makes the house,” Adam

The Blackstone Lounge proudly bears its house crest and other wall art.

16 | Vol. XXII

said. “I think both end up shaping each other.”

Women are at the center of this dorm, in the construction, history, and in the name. The building was built in 1916 for the Eleanor Foundation for Women, which is an organization founded by a UChicago alumnus, like Hull House, “but with a more middle class focus,” in fourthyear Adriana Rizzo’s words. The foundation aimed to get women into the workr e b fi i the a p a e t i e that was “socially acceptable and supportive.”

The dorm’s namesake, Sophonisba re i ri e as the first a t receive a Ph.D. in political science from the i ersit a be a e the first a to graduate from the Law School in 1904.

The University appointed her the Samuel Deutsch Professor of Public Welfare Adi istrati i a i her the first female professor granted a named profess rship he as a s the first a e er chosen to represent the United States at an international conference. Breckinridge even advocated for the racial integration of Kelly Hall—in 1928!

The residents of Blackstone feel similarly attached to their name. “Losing the name is the biggest [loss for us],” explains Julia. “It’s the biggest slap in the face, pouring salt in the wound. The renaming just seems like a huge money grab to me.”

With this loss of name could come a loss of collective memory. “In two to three years, they won’t know that our dorm was 60 year-old home since the 1950s,” Alex said.

Rosemarie Ho, a second-year in Palmer House, noted her frustration at the naming changes and the “politics of campus housing.” “I feel betrayed by College Housing. At least keep the name! House names are suppose to be a celebration of people who contributed to UChicago be-

ing uniquely UChicago.”

After this spring, many of these house namesakes will be lost into the never-ending abyss of important University namesakes who by merit and virtue warranted their campus presence, replaced by the allure of donations. Lost to the annals of University history will be power ladies such as Alice Freeman Palmer (1855– 1902) and Marion Talbot (1858–1948), the first t ea s e at hi ago. Before coming to Chicago, Palmer was a s the first e a e e e presi e t appointed by trustees at the age of 27—the youngest faculty member at Wellesley at the time. She was a promoter of women’s higher education and equality, even resigning her post at UChicago in 1895 in response to the male faculty’s retaliation against the “feminization” of higher education. Palmer’s successor, Marion Talbot, was a long-standing advocate of the view that suitable housing was a critical variable in making women students feel comfortable and safe at the University.

Breckinridge is the only house of the moving satellites that gets to keep its name, and with it a key part of the culture and identity that is so integral to the house. “On Sophie Day every year we have an event where we invite professors to come have drinks and snacks, it’s just really fancy,” said Ellie Porath, an RA in Breckinridge. “After that, in October,

House members compete for intramural sports victories on the Midway.

production quality but it really wasn’t,” Ellie said.

Late into the night in Breck you may hear a declaration of another “Tea Party, Death Party,” a tea-drinking tradition started by a now fourth-year associate named Joyce. In late November Brecksgiving draws legions of “Breckspats” to join the current Breckies for a Thanksgiving feast. Last year, alumni came from as far as Seattle. With a space all to itself, when Breck hosts parties, the house moves all the furniture in their main lounge and has a dance upstairs while using their cavernous kitchen and huge

“We feel like we were in a debate with the University as to whether the people or the building makes the house. I think both end up shaping each other.” we have a huge haunted house, and it’s open to the public,” continued Michael Goodyear, her co-RA. “We had a few hundred people from the community come this year, which was kind of low, usually there’s more.”

This year’s theme was “post-apocalyptic nuclear research facility.”

“Everyone gets blood and gore everywhere and gets super into it and it’s really creepy. I thought that this would be low

basement lounge to serve food. “We’re ap eti a e th siasti first ear Sydney Purdue said.

From the Neighborhood Strategy to Campus Clusters It’s Open House night at Broadview on a cool late April evening. There are volunteer tour guides awaiting lobby guests excited to see the last vestiges of

the 50-year-old dorm. Nestled in the quiet fi es ast e ar r a ie is the easternmost University building currently in use. For most students, Broadview is simply the end of a 171 ride that has never been taken, a place just too far away to be salient. “People think Broadie is i ia a sai first ear a er resident Srikanth (Sri) Krishnan. he e ter r a ie efinitely know that you’re in a former hotel.

There’s a grand ballroom with wooden lower walls and an off-white dim. There’s the original number plates for the hotel room numbers and the “Check out by 3 p.m.” plaque that welcomes you into the hallways. There’s “The Suite,” a communal kitchen and lounge area where residents grab some “Broadview Breakfast”— thi eri a s fi est p i e tar motel continental breakfast—before embarking on the pilgrimage to the Quad or Fortress Regenstein. There’s also the charming carpeted, rickety elevators that are purportedly haunted by the legend of the escort girl who died in the elevator.

“Ah yes, we call her Lola,” second-year Talbot tour guide Margaret Oley calmly explained.

Broadview is home to Wick, Talbot, and Palmer houses, in ascending order. Each house holds about 65 people, with sigifi a t bers pper ass e residents. Sri and Rosemarie characterize the

GREY CITY | 17

Broadview houses in the following way: Wick: “A psychotic three-year-old with too much energy.”

Talbot: “A teenager in way over their head who prefers to be alone.”

Palmer: ”We’re the old man who has lived a content life. We just don’t care.”

Unlike the other four satellites closing, Broadview is home to multiple houses, bonded together since its opening in 1966. The Broadview way of life, much i e that ther sate ites is efi e b being far away and is realized by coming home. “There’s a mimetic quality to being farthest from campus. There’s something prideful about it,” said Hamilton Wilson, a first ear i a er e er r a ie ers be the first t a it that the distance can be quite prohibitive. “The thing about satellites: it’s easier to make r first rie s t s har er t a e r second friends,” Sri said.

When you come back to Broadview, you’re home: you’re no longer on campus.

And once you’re home, you’re probably in for the night. “House culture here is connected to the distance—you spend more time with people in the dorm, you can’t just run to the library whenever. Living far away makes it feel like coming to an actual home, more like family,” explained Delon Lier, a second-year in Wick.

The experience of Broadview is distinctly more Hyde Park and less UChicago campus. Rosemarie Ho of Palmer agrees, “I feel more integrated with Hyde Park. I feel like a greater part of Chicago, not just the UChicago bubble.”

Campus North is designed to be a paradise of convenience and a fusion of all the best-recognized elements of campus housing. Eight houses of roughly 100 students each will be condensed around a three st r e fi e ith st spa es and ample activity space. Apartment suites, restaurants, and shops throughout the building hope to entice upperclassmen to stay in housing. The houses will be connected to a dining hall, a half-block away from the gyms Ratner and Crown, and the 55 bus/U-Pass combo makes for a tempt-

18 | Vol. XXII

ing getaway to Chicago’s many neighborhoods. Campus North will even contain several classrooms, for the lucky few who might have a class in their own dorm. The be efits er a e ities are i ee an easy sell.

The University’s long-sought-after transition from a collection of neighborhood buildings to a centralized campus clus-

“Living far away makes it feel like coming to an actual home, more like family.”

ter comes with drawbacks as well—chief among them distancing students from the neighborhood in which they reside.

Students across satellites would beam a te te the be efits i i i housing, but off-campus. Said Katrina Weinert of Blackstone, “I think you can get into a system where you’re only thinking about the Reg and Bartlett and classes. When you walk by these stores and people living their everyday lives, it’s a powerful reminder that even though you’re in some kind of bubble, it’s not as if you’re never going to leave it.” As Julia from Blackstone said, “because we live on a residential street there’s lots of dogs. We watch the puppies grow up on Blackstone.

It’s so great.”

This “neighborhood strategy,” as Boyer puts it, “was less a consistent strategy than a series of ad hoc attempts to stay ahead of student demand by incrementally purchasing old buildings that had fallen upon hard times and converting them to student use (i.e., the acquisition of Broadview Hall in 1967 and the Shoreland Hall in 1975).

Retention “Houses are traditionally comprised of students from all years in the College, so mentoring begins on day one!” –College

Housing website.

This is much less true in larger dorms than in satellites. For example, in Maclean, most house members return to the dorm for all four years. “We had about 75 percent of our residents staying, not accounting for students graduating,” explained Hadi, Maclean RA. Adriana from Breck agreed, “Breck is pretty good with rete ti hat s s ethi spe ifi a i e tifie as s ethi si a es as its goal and it seems weird that they’re destroying the houses that have the highest retention.” Contrastingly, in houses in Max and South, fewer upperclassmen tend to stay on. For example, in Flint House in Max Palevsky Residence Hall, t thir ears a fi e se ears are returning to the eighty-person house for their fourth and third years, respectively.

This retention is integral to maintaining the sense of house culture that is so central to satellite dorms. “The culture was so strong when we got here, all the upperclassmen would say, ‘let’s all go to Bartlett together, that’s just what we do.’

Having a strong group of people coming back to perpetuate the culture is the number one thing,” Maclean RA Melissa said.

However, this strong group of people is harder to come by with the move. Broadview houses have much lower retention rates than in years past, according to their housing staff and upperclassmen in Palmer, Talbot, and Wick Houses. Palmer RA Shaila Sundram said, “Most of the house is moving off, triggered by the housing move. Many people who would’ve stayed had Broadview remained open are now choosing to move off.” Harper agreed that “some of the sense of community [...] is going to be lost because we’re losing great people. A lot of kids didn’t want to take a double. ” Growing house size with the move to North is a concern. The New Grad and Broadview houses are expanding from a size of 65–80 residents to more than 100.

As Palmer RA Shaila explains, “it’s harder to form those close ties in a house with so many people. Everyone won’t know everyone else in the house, as they do now.”

New Grad Traditions and the Potential Positives of Moving Some students believe that that on the whole the move to Campus North is a thi a per i a first ear i Henderson, said, “to be honest, one reason why people in New Grad may be less sad about the move is because most of us put a r th as r first t h i es A lot of us wanted something more akin to North.” e ers first ear e i i sai his dorm, “New Grad is very conducive to familial living in the way the rooms are in a circle and all of the middle is common area. There’s no dead-end corridors.”

“The way that the house is structured, there’s very long hallways, so every time you leave, you see what everyone’s up to, and because our lounge smells bad because a Northwestern girl puked in our lounge, and is small, everyone hangs out i the ha a s i a first ear i Novaes said.

Hallway parties in “The Shining”–ese ha s e ra s hi hest r are a fundamental social function in Midway, because Midway is the only house on campus to be fully and exclusively housed on e r hir ear i ts i abeth Woo agreed about the structure: “I’m going to miss the lobby culture because ts basi a s the first r b t that’s mostly because our lounge is quite tiny. But moving into North we’ll have a lounge that’s so much bigger. I feel in that sense we’re gaining more organization.”

Some houses were always destined to move—because their “home” was not meant to be a home. A former hotel, New Graduate Hall wasn’t intended to be an undergraduate dorm. Built in 1962 and opened to undergraduates in 2011, New Grad has only hosted College students r fi e ears harb ri the ier e rpha s ts a e ers the first t rs a i a the thir a acknowledged that, for New Grad, the question was never if but when the houses would be moving.

“New Grad is a bastard dorm, it’s runoff from Pierce being torn down, it’s just the

inevitable—they knew something was going to come up like North. Even the name Midway is a placeholder. We don’t have a donor, it was a hotel, a very transient p a e t be i a first ear a iveres said.

Despite the transience of the New Grad houses, many of the well-loved customs from Pierce, plus some new traditions, ha e rishe For example, competition is rampant in New Grad. Chalk it up to Sports Frolic, the annual Olympiad of sports tradition carried over from the Pierce houses, now fought between the houses in I-House and New Grad. Tufts has long held the banner for most wins in Sports Frolic and is number one in humility.

Tufts House derives its house pride mainly from its successes in IM sports and Sports Frolic. Its residents attend their RH’s breadmaking classes and roast their associates at the annual Correspondents’ Dinner—think White House Correspondents’ Dinner but more juvenile. Funding this propensity for activity is Tufts House’s trademark rights to the world famous “Where Fun Comes to Die” T-shirts, the sales of which make Tufts House one of the wealthiest houses on campus.

As a resident who has lived through the full “Tufts in New Grad” iteration of the

house, Elizabeth has positive words about her house. “Tufts is housing culture at its fi est e perie e i ts spea s t what kind of foundation a good house can bring to someone’s life.” As the new RA of Stony Island, Elizabeth will be paid to believe Stony is the best starting in the fall.

Tufts RA Mark Saddler explains that losing the Tufts name will also precipitate the loss of its recognition as a uniquely polarizing force. “We have a house with a name. I’m not sure you get that in any non-satellite dorm [...] When I think of Max houses I say “Max houses,” I say it like that, I don’t name a particular one.

There’s going to be a lot of people who don’t know what living in Tufts means—it meant a lot to have this reputation.”

The setup of New Grad is very conducive to gossip and good cheer. And besides the jawing back and forth between Tufts and its neighbors Henderson and Midway, there is plenty to observe.

Calvin: You can tell how serious relationships are by what set of stairs people take people up by. If someone is bringing someone up by that set of stairs, it’s not that serious/this is a one-time thing.

Brock: Or they want it to be serious and they don’t want the house ruining it.

Danielle: But if they come up those

New Graduate Residence Hall is home to three houses: Tufts, Henderson, and Midway.

GREY CITY | 19

Looking Ahead

The infamous Blackstone elevator is dysfunctional but beloved by residents.

stairs then you know it’s serious.

When Valentine’s Day approaches, things get weird in Midway with the annual game of Secret Stalker. Firstyear Aubrey Christofersen said, ”Secret stalker! It’s during Valentine’s Day and instead of being all mushy gushy, you stalk somebody. If you look right down that wall, I made a blow-up of poster of [fellow resident] Wyatt Bland.”

One thing is indisputably true: Henderson has the most elaborate birthday celebrations on campus. Second-year Danielle Polin said, ”Birthdays are a very complicated ritual.

At the midnight that your birthday begins the entire house begins looking for you to force you into your own shower, fully clothed, and we sing ‘Happy Birthday.’ Once we’re done singing ‘Happy Birthday’ we are usually running from you while you’re fully wet and chasing us. We meet back in the fishbowl, and your roommate gets the honor of pie-ing you while we all sing ‘Happy Birthday’ a second time. “ With over a year to process the move and the pending changes to their house, many residents of Maclean have come to terms with moving to

20 | Vol. XXII

North with the New Grad houses. RA Hadi said, “I think people are pretty stoked even though they’re pretty sad. People like New Grad. They seem to have a strong IM culture, which is what we are trying to maintain because Maclean is really big on IMs.” RA Melissa agreed: “when we had the blueprints for the housing lottery, people were looking at them and go-

“Most of us put Max r th as r first t choices [...] A lot of us wanted something more akin to North.”

ing like, oh, we could do this here, here’s a cool place to have a hangout, and so now that they can kind of picture what we’re going to be going into, it’s easier to be excited.”

Kassim Hussain, a second-year in Henderson, put it succinctly: “By building the mega-dorm we’re just becoming like other schools. And there’s benefits and huge tradeoffs to that.”

Alex: One thing that we do at the end of O-Week, after our long-ass house meeting that we all go through, we get inducted— Julia: Knighted!

Alex: Knighted into the house… with a kitchen spatula.

Alex: Our RH calls us each by name and hands us a black stone with our name on it.

Tom: I was very upset when my name rubbed off…

Julia: My stone is on my windowsill so my name doesn’t rub off.

Alex: After we get our black stone we kneel before [the house president] and he knights us into the culture of the house of Blackstone.

Ben: I liked induction because it let me know straight from the get-go that we’re all awkward but on pretty equal levels.

This spring, the University of Chicago will celebrate its 527th Convocation. Change is inevitable, especially on a college campus. O-Week 2016 will begin a day earlier—on Saturday— now, and seven dorms and 38 houses will welcome incoming students: Campus North, Max Palevsky, Renee Granville-Grossman, Snell-Hitchcock, Stony Island, and International House.

For better or for worse, Campus North is the new reality, and the vision of University housing will continue to shape student experience in profound ways. A whole new class of first-year students will be inducted this coming fall, experiencing the new chapter of Housing’s history firsthand. What they won’t experience is what has been lost.

Visit greycity.chicagomaroon.com for an extended version of this article.

Robin Ye was a resident of Tufts House and Kiran Misra is a resident assistant of Flint House in Max Palevsky Residence Hall.

intramural championship records listed on the walls at Bartlett Dining Hall. GRACE HAUCK | THE CHICAGO MAROON

by Elijah Alperin & Grace Hauck, an affiliated member of a campus sorority

A Snapshot of UChicago Greek Life:

Photos by Grace Hauck Graphs by Juliette Hainline

Demographics, Growth, and Regulation As it stands now, Greek life at UChicago is the subject of contentious debate. Dialogue is often reduced to polarizing viewpoints from outspoken minorities on both sides that pander to an undecided middle. Greek life is simultaneously portrayed as an elitist incubator of “isms” and a powerful community of service and support. It’s hated. It’s loved. And it’s growing.

Ten fraternities are currently active on campus: Alpha Delta Phi (Alpha Delt), Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), Delta The Arts Incubator in Washington Park

Kappa Epsilon (DKE), Delta Upsilon (DU), Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji), Sigma Chi (Sig Chi), Sigma Phi Epsilon (Sig Ep), Zeta Psi, Psi Upsilon (Psi U), and Lambda Phi Epsilon (Lambda).

The undergraduate alumni of the fraternity formerly known as Phi Delta Theta (Phi Delt), whose charter was suspended this year, effectively still operate as an eleventh fraternity.

There are four sororities within the UChicago Panhellenic Council (Panhel): Alpha Omicron Pi (AOII), Delta courtesy of university of chicago arts

Gamma (DG), Kappa Alpha Theta (Theta), and Pi Beta Phi (Pi Phi). Six fraternities and sororities operate within the Multicultural Greek Council (MGC). Of these six, only Lambda and alpha Kappa Delta Phi (aKDPhi) ha e hi a spe ifi hapters he others have city-wide chapters, with only a few UChicago students in each.

Fraternities, sororities, and multicultural Greek groups all abide by different constitutions, as does each organization within those three cat-

+ public life

GREY CITY | 21

egories. In total, however, that’s an fi ia ree r a i ati s ti the er ra ate a i hi e t the st e ts i the e e parti ipate i ree ie i rater ities a ti e e bers i s r rities a i A Year in Review s a e p e i t a p s e s s it s bee a r h ear r hi a ree ie e a assa ts rep rte at a si ra ist e ai s ea e r i a the s spe si hi e t s harter ha e i ate a p s is rse e iss e The Maroon e see t pp site ie p i ts the sa e pa e e a i r the s h it t tr st rater ities t re r the se es a ther r their ab ish e t a t ether ea hi e s r rities a ti t ra r a i ati s ha e trie t a i etti pe i ith their terparts hi e si ta e s r i t he p the i pr e e i itiati es r ha e ha e e er e r i si e a tsi e ree i e r e ts i e ree ie i r t h rater ities a tab e r pr i i p bi a ai ab e base i e se a assa t p i ies a he ba e pri arter i ers ith a p s rater ities a rater it presie ts be a t is ss the reati a re at r i e a i e e pre e ti a s pp rt r ps i e h e i r i rs ia e a es r es r e a i e e re e ti as e as a p s t ra r a i ati s a s et ith s e fraternities. ea hi e rater ities a s r rities ti e t e a e i ser i e a h st phi a thr p e e ts i ra a ther s ess at e ha e tash ebate a i i rep rts raisi er r ari s a ses r i t its it er i e hair i hi raise thr h its a a erb a s ether s r rities

22 | Vol. XXII

raise er thr h their a a e e ts a e be efitti r a iati s i e the ati r e e rater it raise r the e ar e itt e ea e tea hi e a ther s pp rte a e the at h b e arr ri e t s ear that ree i e at hi a as a h e is a i e ba i e ts at rater ities i parti ar p i t t ar the e essit ha e a the first step t ar ha e is tra spare the a tithesis se ret s iet rer t fi re t here ree i e is hea i it s i p rta t t ersta

here it sta s t ta e a prehe si e s apsh t hi a ree i e ite si p h s ree a h this e re it te t s r e s ree i e this s h ear e i the a a e i the spri era st e ts i ree i e pr e i i t parti ipate is si b th e raphi i r ati re tha has e er bee athere be re a shari th hts the rre t ree a i

e t a ti e s r rit e bers rater ities a s r rities ith e er tha e bers i t parti ipate Note: Consider in-group and selection bias, as well as the dangers of self-reporting and sample size when processing these results.

Who’s in Greek life?

Growth and Demographics Surveys he a s r e p ste The Maebsite p e ree a ree st e ts a i e t as e ab t their overall views on the role of a p s ree i e ra i p resp ses sp it e e ae e ae ree st e ts per e t a ree st e ts per e t he spri s r e se ree e bers e si e p i raterit a s r rit e bers separate e raphi i a satis a ti ith ree i e h re br thers a r ss a a p s rater ities roon’s

e ept r i i h se t parti ipate i the spri s r e he er ra ate a i the rater it r er as hi e t a s h se t parti ipate he spri s r e as t e rse b s r rit ati a hea arters a p s s r rit presi e ts r the hi a a he e i i rther re ati a hapter a i istrat rs is ra e s r rit e bers r parti ipati s a res t the s r e as a i istere thr h s ia e ia a pers a et r s e parti ipate a r ss the r a he e i s r rities a a hi era parti ipati rates i the spri s r e a te t per e t rater it e bers per e t parti ipati rater ities a per-

he a i istrati es t eep a ata ree e bership at hi as the tr e per e ta e st e ts has bee a ster espe ia a ter rapi r th i the ast e a e a es r p a t r r p a i ht hear a i e spitba per e t i he e as sse rre t ea t e ts i the i ersit pr ere a re ser ati e fi re r best esti ate is that it s a here r per e t the er ra ate st e t b that s efi ite a esti ate t the e a t ber rre t it s at per e t a r i t ati a hea arters a se rep rte hapter t ta s hat ber is stea i r i er the ast e a e a ber a p s rater ities i i ii si a i ha e see si ifia t r th i hi i e a p s i a eta si i i hi as hartere i i e

GREY CITY | 23

that ear the ber e si i p i e r s r rit r sh has i rease b per e t a r i t a he re r it e t re r s a a Maroon arti e th h the rre t ber ree a fi iate st e ts a ts r e fi th er ra ates the ree prese e a p s has a ispr p rti ate e e t the e e the a s r e per e t th se h i e tifie as ree s a ree r str a ree that ree i e a p s a e te the he spri s r e p e ree s represe ti a r h e e

brea a r ss er ra ate ears the rater ities e bers h parti ipate the a era e br ther rep rte bei a fi iate ith his rater it r a a era e arters hat s ear t ears re tha e h ti e t ear the i s a ts the i stit ti ere s s e hat the rep rte Race: the past e ears raterities ati i e ha e bee ire i a sati s ra ia i se siti it s eti es sa rifi i their harters i resp se t s a a st this ear ra ist e ai s ere re ease r the pri ate e ai ser er the hi a

hapter i his arter a pi i pie e i The Maroon a se rater ities bei e si ar t hite e hi e this a ha e bee the ase i the past the ata i i ates that the rre t a era e rater it eraphi s are a t a s i ht re i erse tha the er ra ate a e st e t b as a h e era the p ra it br thers i e tifie as hite as hi a st e ts i e era b th ar per e t ep rte sia a ifi sa er i e tit as per e t hi her tha the s h s a e p a the ispa i r ati i e tit as r pere t hi her er e ta es i e ra e a a i e ast rth ri a resp e ts es e e r there he i ersit eeps re r s e th se three fi a r ps a r ri a eri a ithi this ater the ar i i ere e bet ee ree a ree per e ta es as ab t e per e t eep i i that the i ersit si ers i ter ati a st e ts their e raphi i the e e s ra e a eth i it brea he s r rit resp e ts t the spri s r e irr re the e raphi a e p the er ra ate b at ar e rse t a rater ities are e a i erse h se ith a parti ar t ra be t i e sia r e ish i terest r ps are re h e s b t perhaps i a a that is re a eptab e t a ibera e e

24 | Vol. XXII

a p ss epti i si here are si rater ities a s r rities er hi a s ti t ra ree i i e a he e i s r rities a rater ities r a i ati s are t ra i terest r ps e passi sia a a ati a i terest r i t e bers these r ps are hi h i ti ate a p a e a reater e phasis the seri eee e t ree i e

ei part a hi has i e e a p a e t rea e bra e herita e i e e re s ti ht it e ha e a i ere t t re r s e the a he e i s r rities i that e er e i r a ti e h se sai se ear essi a ee i e resi e t ter a a hi Sexual orientation: Overall, the ata sh e that ree i e as a h e is prett ra ia heter e s es the sa e h tr e r se a it

r i t the i ersit s i e a p s i ate s r e pere t a e resp ers i e tifie as heter se a this sa e s r e per e t i e tifie as a a pere t as bise a a ther pti s i i ase a eer a e i e to state. the spri p per e t rater it br thers i e tifie as heter se a per e t as h se a a per e t as bise a e br ther i e tifie as ase a a t the per e ta e th se h rep rte h se a it r bise a it as a t a h hi her tha a a p s re e t esti ate ati a a era e r per e t r i t the a p s i ate s re per e t e a e resp ers i e tifie as heter se a pere t as bise a a three per e t as eer e er tha e i e tifie as esbia h e er per e t e se e te tip e pti s the s r rit e bers resp i t the spri p pere t i e tifie as heter se a per e t as bise a a e per e t as h se a era hi e resp -

GREY CITY | 25

e ts t the spri s r e s r rities represe t a esser i ersit se a rie tati s a ar er per e ta e resp e ts i e tifie as bise a tha a p s at ar e Dues: he re ati e hi h s i e i stat s ree e bers is a ther i e rhet ri rater it e bership sts e bt t are a e bers ea th

a t ha rater it resp e ts rep rte bei fi a ia ai r e era r st he si

i t s pp rt this a t ha rater it resp e ts rep rte bei fi a ia ai r e era r st per e t er tha the e e per e ta e er per e t resp e ts rep rte pa i bet ee a i arter es ith a a era e arter r br thers rep rte pa i i es ear per e t resp e ts sai the ha a part ti e b ith ha th se e p e rep rti that the b ere their es hi e s r rities ere t p e es per e t resp e ts i iate that the ha fi a ia ai r r st h the sa e pere ta e s r rit e bers he part ti e bs as i rater it br thers Legacy: the p e e bers parti ipa ts a s pr i e s e i rati e a stat s per e t rater it br thers rep rte bei e a ies t hi a ith per e t rep rti e a t their rater it ere r br thers rep rte bei e a ies t the hi a spe ifi hapter of their fraternity.

Satisfaction: th h the ata i i ate per e t rre t e bers ere efi ite i tereste i i i ree i e i i t e e per e t resp e ts rep rte

26 | Vol. XXII

ata

ee i

re i este it tha s t ree i e br the t i a GPA: r ss a a a rater it

i the hi a parti ipati i thers te that ai rs the a era e e ber as a

r re ere e the ea is a at ra that ithi ea h a r r rities ere t p e Majors: ther a p epti i h p t s r ti

s

ist arie

s perrater-

Post-party mess outside a campus fraternity. GRACE HAUCK | THE CHICAGO MAROON

it br thers a t a be hite b t thi the re a e a rs re t t ar th se p e a h ppi per e t rep rte a ri i e i s hat s ear be the er ra ate a era e pere t a r i t ata p b ishe b the College Registry. hi e e as the bi i er ther a rs ere a s e ahea the a p s brea era pere t i i ate a rs be e t the t p fi e h i es e i s p iti a s ie e p b i p i bi i a s ie es a phi s ph a a a r i ersit that is a st be the sa e t p fi e r pi per e ta e the e ei e era t the sa e ti e rater it e bers rep rte i e a rs he p e t re areer a s there as a s a str tre t ar hite ar pr essi a is ith i terest i fi a e ea i the pa at per e t resp e ts er ha br thers i i ate i terest i e i

fi a e b si ess s ti r hea th he as e ab t the be efits that rater it e bership ha i ter s areer pr spe ts resp e ts rep rte a a era e t here i i ate be efit a i i ate reat be efit a e er ie e i r is a e sh s a i iar the ear ii a h r s at ba fi a ia ser i es tita has i e e er s t the i ersit er the ears e et a r er ea t e ts at the ra ate h si ess a ire t r th eti s as a s a i i as as bi i aire a r er a a hs i e hair a r r tt et a a ea a a t r r tt a b at a a hs ei r re a e his past a st e ts r she i i itti r a hat ith erie is a i te ra part this rite e e e t st e e bee thri e ith pp rt -

it t et t er ra ates s e ha e the a iti a pp rt it t hire i ter s a st i ter s be ie e are hi a athetes here are st e ts h a tt et s e e p s re t the r fia e e i r sai e i r is t the a h a es his ree e e a s r i at the a e ter e t i r ati ab t ea h a s sai first ear ai ab i r er a e ter e p ee at The Maroon i e e be i e ta i p i ts that e se t stri e p a ersati ith the a e the ta i p i ts as a fi iate r a i ati s e era t see a a fi iate r a i ati that as e t ba b t i it as fi e it be r ree i e e rea a fi iate the se es ith a ther b t the ha e a ertai a t pri e that the ere i ree i e ertai a t a i ea ers that ere part ree i e

GREY CITY | 27

a the ee er str a pr te ti e that hat s e iab e sai h er ea the e e he presse hether the s h s rtship ree a i ith eep p ets ha e the a the a i istrati ie s ree ie er as i t reb e a s h a sati e ith a spe ia i terest e a ta e a hi e he sai Problems

st

rse st rater ities are pre pr essi a r a i ati

28 | Vol. XXII

t s

ea

rats thr parties he s pp h the st e t b ith a h as e as a s ia spa e t s e it he spri s r e p e b th ree e a e their pi i s se a assa t pre e ti i the ree it a a st a is that the are satisfie th h rater ities ra e their se a assa t p i ies a the ra e the appr a h ree i e i e era as a ere esp e ts t the s r rit s r e ere e a riti a e a ati rater it se a assa t p i ies as a era ith

ree i e i e era ar i a better at ear there s a is repa i rater it pi i s hat stit tes a e e ti e se a assa t p i ea h r p i es its p i b t is t satisfie ith the ree it s appr a h at ar e his be the res t i r p bias r a be a ise t bet ee rater ities

Regulation a

i e the ata is e era

ree i e at ra ia se

hia

a s i e i a i erse e er a i ersit th h a ree t er the st b is t the st riti e e ie a ai st ree ie sati s that rater ities perpet ate se a i e e ha e i ate the is rse ree i e this past ear his iss e bi e ith ra ia i se siti it era e ri i a e era eba her ha e e ree a ree st e ts a i e t a r s bsta ti e a i e iate ha es i rater it re ati r i t the spri s r e rater it e bers ra e the a i istrati s per epti rater ities as a esp e ts t the s r rit s r e ra e this per epti e e er er h e er as t as riti a ta e e the ree s ta e e a st e t r a iati s ie has a a s bee that t hi s as as pe p e t iate the ri i a a s the state i is t are hat the ts a ree tr a a ree i ersit er sai i e the a i istrati s ha s attit e t ar re ati s e ee that the University is trying to have its a e a eat it t si ree i e as a re r iti t ith t ass i the ris s ea er s e t is i teresti be a se the i pressi that e gotten is that the University has really e ra e rater ities a s r rities t r er the past e ears t et ri the here es t ie reptati sai se ear e ea er e ear ri ber presi e t e e t has hear this the r r s r rit e bers the se es e ta e t a he e i ab t this se era ti es a the a i istrati pr es pi t res as re ere es t ta ab t h a e are i it a h reat a pp rt it this is a pr te it as a ibra t part st e t i e he re t i i t

pr i e i stit ti a s pp rt r s r rities b t the re i i t sh it as a be efi ia part st e t i e ber sai si er the pr spie e perie e sitti thr ha p e sti ati e t res eati a a era e ea i artett a seei hi a stere t pes br e at ar i ht s s e e h r s i the issi s fi e a sees a t pr spe ti e st e ts it is a bi ea t a t pr spe ti e st e ts be a se e ha e a rep tati sti as here

art the reas h e a t a ree t a is be a se b a a ree t reper ssi s

es t ie his ear i h ste pr spies sa that there ere t a s ia e e ts tsi e the p a e issi s e e ts here ere rat parties the pr spie ee e s a it rea a e te pe p e s pi i s hether r t this is here es t ie sa it arp pe p e s perspe ti es the s h sai ass represe tati e a first ear t r i e a er a hi e s r rities a ti t ra r ps hee the i a e a p s is i ersit a is rs a ati a hea arters rater ities are t beh e t a re at r b a p s he a i istrati a a r a laissez faire appr a h b t ber sees a reater ee r re ati he i ersit a t ti e t prete that the re t resp sib e r iab e r hat es i ree i e he are he re resp sib e r a i this a i si e a p s here er st e ts h se t spe their ti e he e re ta i ab t esti s that ra it t i tia e re ta i ph si a sa et the i ersi-

t es it t st e ts t e s re their sa et he sai hir ear er issi er rre t presi e t e t si i ar he i ersit is r at east as at a r ssr a s t ha i e res r es t ree r a i ati s that pe e itse p r a iabi it er b t it as as t rtab e ta i the a t a iabi it ass iate issi er sai hat re ati ta e shape three e e s r the a i istrati r ithi ree i e itse a r st e t r a i ati s tsi e ree life.

Top-down a sh i e ear ier this th ar ar i ersit e i e t ba a st e ts parti ipati i si e e er r a i ati s rater ities s r rities a fi a bs r h i tea apta ies r ea ership r es i re istere st e t r ps he rati a e eas s re a a i iar ith pri i e e p er i ba a es e er is ri i ati a str t ra barriers is a er h e er ass re that there s ar ar ia a i istrati e ra i the h rit hat r e a the a i istrati p a i betteri hi a ree ie is as rea isti ab t the sit ati e a e i there e t fi a thi r irst the eep s tsi e ti the ea e p a e e e t i si e e er b be i s it a tie ri i tea he sai e i e t h e er the basi es a tabi it a rea i pa e ith a there are t a s e as a r p p their re iti r ta e a ti a ai st the r p r re i e e t ha e that abi it be a se the t ha e it i the first p a e e a h i i i a st e ts a tab e b t r r es a s a s t h ea -

GREY CITY | 29

The Fiji House on South University Avenue is currently undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation. GRACE HAUCK | THE CHICAGO MAROON

ers resp sib e r the a ti s the r p e e i it s a re i e r p hether r t the ere there r i e hat p er has bee se is sai e er s e e t that the a i istrati as i t ar re ra re ati he this past ar h the e ter r ea ership a e e t a he its e est i itiati e the t e t a e e t his pre e ts r ps i i ree r a i ati s r si a p s spa es at st stea it re ires the t app r i ea h arter t b a p s spa es a e isi that ispr p rti ate a e te s r rities er rater ities i e s r rities t h ses the re a ess t i ersit spa es r hapter a phi a thr p events. his i ea that the t e t a ee t as s e a tti r p ishi ree etter r a iati s is t a rate at the be efits it the re etti the sa e a ess i the app a ai r it st there s a pr ess r it

30 | Vol. XXII

ee t ha e s e a tabi it i the i a trash the spa e e ee t h the ere a hat the ere i i there as sse sai this se se the t e t a ee t si p tra s parti ipati he bi est iss e rse is t hat happe s i i ersit spa es it s hat happe s a p s i raterit spa es e a assa t is t i ite t ree i e b t rater ities are te r er Self-regulation ith itt e i e iate i ersit i ter e ti a ressi the r e rater ities a p s a he t atters i t its ha s this arter thi s e r ps are a rea ta i steps r e a pe a he is er i i ith rater ities sai r i t this as a e ea t t e ra e re a ti e se re ati the part raterities h t r e t a ari a terati e a e a rater it ersi

Panhel. ter rater it i para e the str t re a he eprese tati es r ea h rater it i e the presi e ts eet re ar t is ss rater it p i ies e ha e i the past b t it as t ta e seri s it as the i s t it as re a she r a i ati tha a thi hi h is hat e re tr i t a i ith this e here are pe p e r a i e re re ati rse es i rse es t ee that s t the e e ee t ta e e ee t i e the rest the st e t p p ati r at east i rease tra spare he it es t se a se siti it a a are ess t sh the that e re a t a a i the es that the a ta are e essar t a e r spa es a sa er p a e thir ear r a presi e t sai e ear a b a i e resi e t i hae e e p ai e h e er that the re at r str t re a he r es t appea t rater ities h se re tha the ai he str t re the ra-

ter it r sh pr ess as parti ar er r i t e at this p i t i the is ssi s a st rater it presi e ts the p te tia ra is a st fi ia t fi ia i the se se that e are t ta i ab t it a re prett fi ia e sai art the reas h e a t a ree t a is be a se b a a ree t reper ssi s a ter ati e appr a h e e p ai e is a strea i e se a assa t p i a e rater ities ai st e a i e e the ite r t ith t the er i b his e t set a e ha sti e ist sta ar s pe t the p b i that ea h rater it be re ire t sign. he rater it presi e ts are sti e iberati b t r a a e pr ise fi ia ha e b the start e t ear r the ti e bei the atter re ati has a e t rassr ts st e t r ps ree a fi iate a p s sa i i i a st e t i itiati es Grassroots ar h rth ear ebe a a s r rit sister i p better i The Maroon a i rt a e r a e ha is tabi it he pr p se a pr ree iei r t hi h r a i e a tra spare t a easi a essib e set e pe tati s r beha i r at rater it parties he pr e t fi ia a he a i e rater it p i ies are rre t p ste ree i ei r t r a ea h i ers s i ht i e the spe ifi re ire e ts ea h raterit s ati a hea arters espite ea h rater it s e rts t ra t these p i ies st s pre e tati e eas res hi e er e e p i it etai the pr e res i ter a a tabi it he p i ies si a sta t as e epti s ab ri t t i e spe ifi ases as e as the bra s ishe a r s pp a e t a e

r s r s ia pr bati a e p si a iti t p sti p i ies ree iei r t has ite ith es r es r e a i e e re e ti hi h has i t r part ere ith a he a pha e t t h st is ssi s ree i e e r ps s h as the hi a ebate iet a the i ersit hi a iti a i ha e tribte t the a p s ersati b h sti pe ebates the a e ree i e ter e bar i the ree ie i r t pr e t bra s a thir ear a e a s r the ther er ree ie i r t ere as e t ser e the e a ssa t areess a re e ti ittee a s bset t ta i ei ht st e ts haire b thir ear s bre ht bra s a a s r a t as i r a iais s bet ee ree iea the ittee Student Government he e a ssa t are ess a re e ti ittee e er e this past a as a pre i i ar ittee h se ithi e e i r i t ber the ittee r s se ith the thes i e r e t h e i r i rs ia e a ree iei r tt a ate its h hi h s e a ssa t are ess th hese rassr ts st e t r ps that are i r ar se a i e e a p s that ee s t be irr re b a iti a sta r fi es i e r a iti a sta t r ith arah a e r it e ri at r a the ti ate ea is r ea er e e a i t at s ethi i e this ber sai t the e the a this is t a iss e this is a i ersit iss e issi er sai he e te t r p rie ith re ar t ree i e is a a a thi rre t a i i

e bers ha e bee re ati e riti a the i ersit s r e i this he a the i ersit is rre t ha i this either s pp rts e bers ree i e r i ests i the res r es e essar t ha e the iss es ass iate ith ree i e Open Comments t the er b tt the spri s re there as a pe e t b esp ses ra the a t b tt parti ar se ti e ts st t e i e r t ea h represe ts a er rea tree i e th these ere ritte b rater it e bers e r te e t t a bar here the e p ees the bar ha be r s pstairs a ere a ti e tr i t e a e i se a beha i r ith their patr s i a i e fi iss e ith that ther sai rater it is the st i p rta t thi i ie a i i it is pr est a hie e e t s s e e h s ere r epressi first ear the si ifi a e a se it rie s this a p s a the res ti at ra s pp rt s ste a t be erstate rater it p ete re erse e e e perie e a has a e it the st e ab e ti e ie h se h ii a rater ities e t ersta that perspe ti e a the a e that ree i e has t er he first e t as ritte b a thir ear he istr a r the se b a rth ear e a r he ie s h e er are t t a e si e he ha e bee ritte b the sa e pers Visit greycity.chicagomaroon.com for an extended version of this article.

Grace Hauck is the Co-Social Chair of the Illinois Kappa Chapter of Pi Beta Phi. Gabe Davis drafted the questions for and helped distribute the re it fall survey.

Vishal Talasani analyzed data from the fall survey.

GREY CITY | 31

THE LONG-FORM JOURNALISM SUPPLEMENT TO THE CHICAGO MAROON.

VOL. XXIII SPRING 2016