The Chicago Maroon

Page 1

MAY 31, 2016

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

History Drops B.A. Requirement BY ISAAC STEIN SENIOR NEWS REPORTER

At present, history is one of a handful of academic departments that require undergraduates to write a B.A. thesis. In conjunction with an upcoming overhaul of the Department’s course offerings, history will soon be leaving the cadre. According to the College and Emilio Kourí, chair of the Depa r tment of Histor y and professor of history and romance languages and literatures, faculty present at the histor y depa r tment ’s annual year-end meeting on May 23 unanimously voted to end the thesis requirement for the 2017–18 academic year. It will be replaced by a “two-track system,” in which writing a thesis is optional but remains a criterion for departmental honors. He said that the policy shift is intended to increase the number of history majors. Currently, the 147 enrolled History majors represent 2.62 percent of undergraduates. “What we decided to do was to try to interest other students, who, for various reasons, while they’re very interested in history and take many of our courses, do not major in history—in part, it seems at least, because the thesis requirement is beyond what they feel they can do, for reasons of time or other commitments,” Kour í said. He added that the history department needs the upcoming academic year to figure out the logistics of the new graduation requirements—including when and how students in the major would be tracked into thesis writing, as well as the type of “culminating experience” that would likely serve as an alternate requirement for non-thesis students. In the meantime, he said, the major “remains completely unchanged.” Current third-years are required to finish their theses; the change will likely affect current second-years. Kourí also characterized the shi ft in g raduation requirements as a way to draw

in students who are not interested in becoming professional historians, as a response to the needs of an undergraduate student body that continues to grow, and as part of a developing curricular overhaul in the undergraduate history program. The broad change, he said, is “a series of new courses that also showcase [a diversity of University of Chicago News Office faculty expertise] better as A rendering of the David M. Rubenstein Forum, to be located at the a way for students to engage southeast corner of Woodlawn Avenue and 60th Street. their interests, and to engage in today’s world...and aims to recognize that more of our energies and more of our efforts ought to be going to the teaching of undergraduates.” While the courses in quesBY GREG ROSS Line. DS+R was also a finalist tion have not yet been develMAROON CONTRIBUTOR to design the Obama Presidenoped, he added that he thinks tial Center. doing so is particularly importT he Un iver sit y h a s r e A wide two-story base will ant, as history is one of the last leased renderings of the Da- be topped by a tower of stacked, bastions of “deep knowledge.” vid M. Rubenstein Forum, the boxy sections. The modular “Historians are people who 11-story conference and events structure will be capped by a have made deep, lifelong com- center to be built on the south- cantilevered top floor. mitments to a place, a topic, to east corner of East 60th Street “We composed the tower as ‘deep knowledge,’ I think is the and South Woodlawn Avenue. a stack of ‘neighborhoods’ with old-fashioned way of calling it. The building was designed meeting and communal spaces I think that we represent a big by Diller Scofidio + Renfro of all sizes—both formal and space in the University where (DS+R), the architecture firm informal, calm and animated, that is maintained, and that is behind New York City’s High Continued on page 2 cherished,” he said. He added his belief that long-run changes in how other disciplines are taught means that it is particularly important for the history department to maximize its accessibility to undergraduates. “Sociology has gone a cerBY EMILY FEIGENBAUM but I’d gotten really involved tain direction, anthropology, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER with the University Communiin particular, has gone in a ty Service Center (UCSC).... I very particular direction, poChicago Maroon (CM ): came from rural North Carolilitical science in several direc- How does the Student Govern- na, [and had] never really been tions, [and] economics at the ment (SG) you first came to in a city before. I’d never even University of Chicago is very know compare to that which been to Chicago before I came abstract. I’m not trying to de- you are leaving behind? to move into UChicago; that value any of those things at Tyler Kissinger (TK): I was my first experience. all, I’m just trying to suggest mean, I think people are aware I did a lot of programs like that if you want to learn about that it exists. When I first ran Chicago Bound, Seeds of Jusplace, if you want to learn for Student Government, which tice, and then Summer Links about time…. Fifty years ago, was the end of my first year, I at the UCSC. That got me reyou could have done that in a actually ran as a write-in can- ally interested in the way that different way in some of these didate —I don’t know if you the school interfaces with comother departments. Now, not know this but if you know this munity and…being someone exclusively, but increasingly, let me know and I can skim by from a rural area that had no history is the place where that this—I didn’t come to school idea how cities work, that was happens. So in a way we feel thinking I’d be involved in Stu- my initial entryway to the Unimore responsible than we did dent Government. I wasn’t in versity of Chicago community. before for making sure that the high school. And so spring of my first value of that gets communicatI wasn’t really that inter- year, I met this guy, Michael ed more broadly.” ested in being publicly political, Continued on page 2

University Releases New Rubenstein Forum Design

Uncommon Interview: Outgoing SG President Tyler Kissinger

UChicago Clothesline Project Gives Voice to the Unheard

A Year in Review: The Maroons of 2015-2016

Page 6

Page 8

“We see the value in art as a form of healing, expression, and community building,” Keisler said.

A Call for Cliteracy Page 5

This year has been full of excitement for Chicago athletics.

CSO Serves Up Program to Satisfy All Palates Page 6

American sex education ignores sexuality and pleasure, making way for the “orgasm gap.”

Which of the two was the main course, however, depends on who you ask.

VOL. 127, ISSUE 52

University Admits Record Low 7.9 Percent to Class of 2020 BY PEYTON ALIE ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

A record 7.9 percent of applicants were admitted to the Class of 2020, a decline from last year’s admission rate of 8.4 percent. This record low is consistent with years of declining admission rates, starting from 40.3 percent in 2005. Since 2011, when 16 percent of applicants were admitted, this rate has been more than halved. Since 2009, the year the College began accepting the Common Application, the admission rate has decreased by 71.8 percent. This year, 31,411 students applied to the College’s Class of 2020, the largest applicant pool in the College’s history, and of them 2,482 were admitted, an increase in both number of applicants and selectivity. There was a 4 percent increase in applications from last year. Since 2005, in which the College received 9,042 applications, there has been a 247.4 percent increase in applications. “The factors that likely affected this year’s rise in applications include expanded financial aid and career development through No Barriers, and new academic opportunities such as the new major in molecular engineering,” Deputy Dean of Admissions Peter Wilson said. Additionally, 12,015 students, 38.3 percent of total applicants, applied Early Action, a 217 percent increase from 2009. The yield rate, which measures the number of students who accept their offers of admission, for the Class of 2020 was 66 percent, up from 61 percent last year and marking a 30 point increase from the yield rate for the Class of 2013. Like University of Chicago, many other colleges reported a decrease in admission rates this year. Stanford (4.69 percent), Harvard (5.20 percent), Columbia (6.04 percent), Yale (6.27 percent), Princeton (6.46 percent), and M.I.T. (7.81 percent) all reported lower admission rates than UChicago, and admission rates to all six colleges declined.

Contributing to The Ma roon

If you want to get involved in The M aroon in any way, please email apply@chicagomaroon.com or visit chicagomaroon.com/apply.

Excerpts from articles and comments published in T he Chicago Maroon may be duplicated and redistributed in other media and non-commercial publications without the prior consent of The Chicago Maroon so long as the redistributed article is not altered from the original without the consent of the Editorial Team. Commercial republication of material in The Chicago Maroon is prohibited without the consent of the Editorial Team or, in the case of reader comments, the author. All rights reserved. © The Chicago Maroon 2016


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.