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LOCAL MARKET OPENS IN SOUTH SHORE

JANUARY 8. 2020 FIRST WEEK VOL. 132, ISSUE 9

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ALEXANDRA NISENOFF

UChicago Donors Favor Bernie Sanders

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JEREMY LINDENFELD

University Loses Appeal in Library Union Case

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LETTER: Philosophy Prof Raoul Moati’s Tenure Decision Must Be Reconsidered

NEWS: Chemist Ka Yee Lee Will Serve as Next Provost

ARTS: The Moon Is a Female-Only Zone

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THE CHICAGO MAROON — JANUARY 8, 2020

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UChicago Employees Open Their Wallets for Bernie

By MATT LEE News Editor Bernie Sanders (A.B. ’64) has pulled in 26 percent of all donations to presidential candidates by University of Chicago employees, with Pete Buttigieg at 20 percent and Elizabeth Warren at 15 percent. Former Vice President Joe Biden, also a front runner in the Democratic primaries, lagged behind, drawing just 3 percent of money donated by University affiliates.

As of the November 21, 2019 filing period, University of Chicago affiliates have spent $193,985 on contributions to candidates for the 2020 election cycle as of the last period filing, and $573,345 on candidate contributions during the 2018 election cycle, according to a December report by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), a government watchdog organization that compiled publicly available data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC). We use CRP data below when discussing total sums raised for each candidate and organization.

The Maroon further examined individual donations

by University of Chicago affiliates as listed in public FEC records. Donors to political campaigns are required to disclose their employer and occupation, which allowed The Maroon to see where University of Chicago employees donated.

The Maroon has included donations from all individuals who listed the University of Chicago or one of its constituent affiliate schools as their employer, for example the Law School, in this article. Employees who listed the University of Chicago Medical Center as their employer were excluded, in order to isolate trends specific to the University’s non-clini-

cal divisions and schools.

Bernie Sanders Sanders (A.B. ’64) has so far raised the largest dollar amount from UChicago affiliates, totaling $27,109. Donations to Sanders represent 26 percent of all donations made

by University employees.

The U.S. Senator from Ver-

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews during his 2016 presidential bid and writing a letter in support of Graduate Students United in 2017.

Though Sanders has eschewed corporate donations and other traditional fundraising mechanisms, his campaign has led the field in contributions nationally, raising more

bution.

Pete Buttigieg Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has pitched himself as a moderate alternative to the party’s left flank, centering his campaign on a platform of “intergenerational justice”—attention to the long-term costs and bene-

2020 Presidential Contributions from UChicago affiliates. matthew lee mont, a self-identified democratic socialist, had already earned a reputation as a leftwing firebrand during his years as a UChicago undergraduate, when he joined the youth wing of the Socialist Party of America, participated in a sit-in organized by the Committee on Racial Equality, and was arrested as a College student during a civil rights march in 1963.

Since graduating, Sanders has kept in touch with his alma mater, visiting the Quadrangle Club for an interview with

money than any other campaign so far in the third quarter of this year. According to FEC data, Sanders’ donor base is predominantly working-class: Amazon, Walmart, and U.S. Postal Service employees are among his top donors.

Donations to Sanders from University of Chicago affiliates varied in amount. Though small donations predominated, Sanders’ largest donation came from a graduate student, who gave $4,600 in a single contri-

fits of present-day policies. At $21,512, Buttigieg’s haul makes up 20 percent of the money given to 2020 candidates by UChicago-affiliated donors.

Buttigieg has called for adoption of a public option for health care—a program that would give Americans the option to purchase insurance issued by the government—which he has billed as a more viable alternative to a single-payer system, under which all citizens would have their health

insurance provided by the government.

Buttigieg has credited the Institute of Politics (IOP) at Harvard University, his alma mater, with fueling his interest in politics, and has been a frequent guest at UChicago’s own IOP, visiting in October and February of this year.

Elizabeth Warren Warren raised $16,157 from University of Chicago affiliates, ranking her third among presidential candidates at UChicago with 15 percent of all donations.

Warren, a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts and a Harvard Law professor, has focused her campaign on regulating corporate misconduct, increasing economic equality, and expanding access to health care through a plan that would stop short of eliminating private insurance—at least initially.

Warren’s campaign has the support of Renaissance historian Ada Palmer. “As a historian I feel strongly that the most effective leadership comes from people who really understand a system and how it developed,” Palmer told The Maroon.

“Just as John Boyer’s deep knowledge of the history of our university has helped him set an innovative course for us,” she said, “I see in Warren a presidential candidate whose knowledge of U.S. government and history is so robust that her multi-step plan for addressing climate change’s inequitable impact on communities of color goes all the way back to fixing loopholes in the original New Deal.

“I see someone who can set a well-thought-through and innovative course for the country, and respond to new challenges by using our extant infrastructure with virtuosity, instead CONTINUED ON PG. 3

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“I always try to support my current and former students,” Professor Geoff Stone said of his backing for Amy Klobuchar (J.D. ’85) CONTINUED FROM PG. 2

of struggling with unfamiliar tools.”

John Hickenlooper Fourth most popular is John Hickenlooper, the former governor of Colorado whose $11,350 raised from UChicagoans comprised 11 percent of all contributions. Hickenlooper dropped out of the presidential race in August 2019.

A large portion of these donations came from Martha Nussbaum, a prominent philosopher, legal scholar and ethicist at the University. In an email to The Maroon, Nussbaum praised Hickenlooper’s record as a legislator, saying, “as mayor, he turned Denver from bankruptcy to a thriving city while increasing equality by putting in light rail to give job opportunities to people in rural areas. He did the same in the state as Governor. As a successful small businessman (craft brewer) he knows how to run things, not just to talk about them. And he has a sense of joy and empathy that is rare.”

Since Hickenlooper’s withdrawal from the race, Nussbaum now supports the campaigns of Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, she said.

Amy Klobuchar Klobuchar’s (J.D. ’85) drew 8 percent of 2020 race donations from the University, pulling in $8,298. Klobuchar, a graduate of the Law School, visited her alma mater in 2016 to discuss her memoir.

The Senator from Minnesota has stressed her background as a Midwestern legislator to pitch herself as a candidate who can appeal to moderates.

Klobuchar’s campaign en-

joys strong support from Geoffrey Stone, a prominent First Amendment scholar at the Law School. In a statement to The Maroon, Stone cited Klobuchar’s intelligence, experience, and values as key to his support.

Stone, who has taught at the University of Chicago since 1973, also cited his personal relationship with Klobuchar, who was his student at the Law School, as a reason for his support. “I knew her well in those days and always respected and admired her. And, of course, I always try to support my current and former students,” he said.

Donald Trump Incumbent President Donald Trump’s campaign has thus

far been unpersuasive with University of Chicago affiliated donors, raising just $250—0.24 percent of all donations to presidential candidates. The gift came from a single individual, a commander in the University of Chicago Police Department.

Trump has stressed his firstterm record to make his case to voters, citing a strong economy, his repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate, and appointment of conservative Supreme Court Justices, among others.

University of Chicago affiliates also gave $83,570 to non-presidential candidates, leadership PACs, par ties, 527 committees, and outside-spending groups, mostly to incumbent legislators. Democratic Party affiliates were the

most frequent beneficiaries.

When asked to comment on this trend, University spokesperson Gerald McSwiggan said, “members of the UChicago community are free to donate to or otherwise engage in causes that interest them, in their individual capacities.

The University does not track individuals’ donations, political activities, associations, or other non-employment activities, and does not support or oppose individual candidates, campaigns or political parties.”

The top five non-presidential candidates, leadership PACs, parties, 527 committees, and outside spending groups supported by University affiliates included: $15,537 to the Democratic Congressiona l

Campaign Committee (DNCC), which raises money to create and support Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives; $8,870 to Representative Raja Krishnamurthi (D-IL); $7,409 to the Democratic National Committee; $7,174 to Senator Dick Durbin (D–IL); and $7,064 to Representative Sean Casten (D–IL).

Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who raised $1,000, was the only Republican represented among the University of Chicago’s top 25 contributions to non-presidential candidates, leadership PACs, parties, 527 committees, and outside spending groups.

Graphs on all individual donations are available online at chicagomaroon.com.

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders enters a campaign rally in Chicago with wife Jane Sanders. alexandra nisenoff

THE CHICAGO MAROON — JANUARY 8, 2020

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University Must Collectively Bargain With Student Library Workers

The University of Chicago’s Joseph Regenstein Library. jeremy lindenfeld

By EMMA DYER News Editor The University of Chicago must recognize student library workers’ collective bargaining efforts, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals said in a decision last week, which denied the University’s assertion that student workers are “temporary workers” and should therefore be excluded from collective bargaining rights.

The case was taken to the Seventh Circuit by the University to appeal National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB’s) decision to deny the University a hearing. The University planned to use a hearing to argue that student library workers do not possess collective bargaining rights. The NLRB oversees collective bargaining disputes; however, disputes over the NLRB’s oversight may be taken to federal courts for judicial review.

Student library workers voted to unionize under the Student Library Employees Union (SLEU) in June of 2017, but the University challenged their vote, setting into motion an 18-month legal battle before the NLRB affirmed student workers’ right to unionize. The University disagrees that student workers possess collective bargaining rights and is asking the NLRB to consider students’ status, citing student library

workers as “temporary” in their evidence brought forward to the Board.

The University attempted to initiate a hearing on the status of student workers, but the NLRB refused a hearing after they determined that the University did not present sufficient evidence to substantively defend their position in a hearing on the status of student workers. The University chose to appeal the NLRB’s determination, pushing the case to judicial review in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

The University’s decision to take their case under judicial review came after the NLRB sought to take legal action against the University for failing to follow current law, which recognizes student workers as possessing collective bargaining rights. In May 2017, the Board initiated legal action after the University refused to recognize student library employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union Local No. 743 (Local 743).

In a peculiar legal argument, the University presented the NLRB with evidence that they believed would overturn current Board law as established in a 2016 case with Columbia University, which ruled that “finite tenure alone cannot be a basis on which to deny bargaining rights” and allowed shortterm student employees to form a collec-

tive-bargaining unit.

However, the University’s evidence only repeated a case previously ruled upon, the Board said. The NLRB denied the University’s request for a hearing, due to a lack of new evidence to consider countering an existing law.

The Seventh Circuit’s review only considered the NLRB’s decision to deny the University a hearing, and did not examine whether to appeal the current Board law that came from the Columbia University ruling and grants student workers collective bargaining rights. As such, the Seventh Circuit was unable to review the University’s question as to whether the current law, as established in the Columbia University ruling, should be overturned.

“The fatal flaw in the University’s argument is that under prevailing Board law, short-term student employees may collectively bargain,” the Seventh Circuit said.

“Puzzlingly, although the University’s argument depends on a legal assertion that is irreconcilable with Columbia University, the University does not ask us to override that precedential decision.”

When asked whether the University would seek to appeal the Columbia University ruling, University spokesman Gerald McSwiggan said by email, “The University

is currently reviewing the court’s decision in order to determine next steps.”

Since the 1970s, the NLRB has flipped positions several times between recognizing or not recognizing student workers as possessing collective bargaining rights.

The change in the Board’s position is in large part due to the political nature of the Board, whose members are appointed by the current administration and approved by the Senate. Members on the five-person board serve five-year terms, with one member’s term expiring each year.

The current Board holds three Trump-appointed members, giving the University strong grounds to pursue an appeal of the Columbia case in front of the Board if they secure enough original evidence to convince the Board that a resulting hearing will be substantive.

The political leanings of the Trump-appointed Board members has also been a concern for University of Chicago’s Graduate Students United (GSU), which alongside other graduate student unions withdrew their certificate of recognition from the NLRB to prevent the potential reversal of current laws.

SLEU member and third-year student Cheyenne Wakeland-Hart said that the decision “affirms that our bargaining unit is official and that the University has no grounds for delaying or refusing bargaining with us, like they have in the past.”

Although the possibility of the University presenting a case to overturn the Columbia University ruling has been a consideration for SLEU as they pursue recognition, Wakeland-Hart is confident that this decision will not put the Columbia ruling in jeopardy. However, SLEU must continue to proceed with caution, as a case presented by the University to bring the Columbia University decision under scrutiny could threaten current laws affecting GSU students as well as SLEU students.

“What many people don’t realize is that library workers include people supporting children and families and people working for rent and essentials, ranging from firstyear undergrads to grad students,” Wakeland-Hart said. “We aren’t asking anything ridiculous by just requesting that the University sit and bargain with us or that we be able to express our concerns with the way things are run without fear of being singled out.”

THE CHICAGO MAROON — JANUARY 8, 2020

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Ecofeminism, Oil Refineries, and Yiddish Euphemisms

By LAURA GERSONY Senior Reporter With arguments ranging from the latke’s complicity in environmental destruction to the ecofeminist significance of the hamantash cookie, UChicago professors debated the relative merits of two staples of Jewish cuisine in Hillel’s 73rd Annual Latke-Hamantash Debate.

The theme of this year’s debate was environmentalism, addressing the question, “Which [of the two foods] is better for our biosphere?”

The satirical debate has amused audiences since 1946, featuring several Nobel laureates, MacArthur Grant fellows, and UChicago presidents as past speakers.

Every year, one side argues for the superiority of latkes (potato pancakes fried in oil that are typically enjoyed during Hanukkah) while the other side advocates for the hamantash (a triangular wheat-flour cookie with a fruit, poppy seed, or other sweet or savory filling, eaten to celebrate the spring holiday of Purim). No one has ever won the debate.

Hillel Executive Director and Rabbi Anna Levin Rosen was first to address a packed Mandel Hall. She delivered opening remarks, touching on the deep significance that environmental values have to Judaism. “The commitment to preserve is part of our story…. We have been reading the same book for over 2,000 years,” she said, to roars and applause from the audience.

Rabbi Rosen also stressed the importance of conservation in the Jewish tradition. “If you offer us a new testament, we’ll

say ‘thank you for offering, but we already have a testament. Why bother getting a new one?’”

Professor of philosophy Benjamin Callard, who served as moderator, opened by invoking former president Ronald Reagan, who said in 1966 that “a tree is a tree. How many more do you need to look at?” Callard proceeded to speculate about how philosophers George Berkeley, Jean Paul Sartre, and Socrates might react to Reagan’s sentiment.

Callard then invited each of the three debaters—all dressed in doctoral gowns— up to the podium to present their arguments.

First to speak was professor of psychology Marc Berman, representing Team Hamantash. Berman reminded the audience that potato pancakes are fried in oil to commemorate the central miracle of Hanukkah, in which a quantity of oil that should have lasted for only one day instead lasted for eight.

But Berman’s tone became cautionary as he switched to an ominous photo of an oil refinery captioned “the latke celebrates oil.” He warned the audience that “this stuff has downstream consequences,” and went on to explain how another Hanukkah tradition, the children’s game of dreidel, instills capitalistic values that prioritize profit over environmental well-being.

Next was professor of environmental and urban studies Raymond Lodato, representing Team Latke. In accordance with debate convention, Lodato served as the token gentile onstage.

Lodato lauded the potato’s versatility

Psychology professor Marc Berman onstage at Hillel’s 73rd Annual Latke-Hamantash Debate. uchicago hillel in the kitchen and in nature. “Potatoes are so adaptable that they even consent to live in Idaho,” he said. “They get along with everyone. They are actually the Mr. Rogers of foodstuffs.”

Lodato pointed out that wars have been started over salt, an essential ingredient of latkes, while hamantashen have no similar claim to fame. He did acknowledge, however, that hamantashen can be fine, “if you like overcast skies, or watching your laptop load files.”

The last of the debaters was professor Jessica Kirzane, who lectures on Yiddish in the Department of Germanic Studies.

While her role onstage was the impartial “swing debater,” her speech was decidedly anti-latke.

Kirzane pointed out that the word “hamantash” is also a Yiddish euphemism for a woman’s vulva. Her goal, she explained, was “not to scandalize this esteemed audience with a Yiddish vulgarism,” but instead “to place the hamantash in an ecofeminist context,” suggesting that “we celebrate female anatomy and the power of women as a way of resisting the exploitative dominance between men and nature.”

Following the debate, attendees were given a chance to sample the subjects of the debate for themselves.

When asked whether Hillel would continue the debates, Rosen told The Maroon, smiling, “I think that Hillel will continue these debates for another two or three thousand years.”

Research: “Empowering Bystanders to Intervene”

By RANIA GARDE News Reporter The Trauma Responders Unify to Empower (TRUE) Communities project, founded by Mamta Swaroop, a general surgeon at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, recently released a report on the efficacy of its training. The Trauma Responders Unify to Empower (TRUE) Communities project released a report that declared its bystander train-

ing effective. TRUE Communities arrived at UChicago when Franklin Cosey-Gay, a professor at the School of Social Service Administration, got involved in the analytics to evaluate the training’s efficacy.

The Maroon spoke to both Cosey-Gay and Swaroop.

Swaroop shared a story about a former TRUE Communities student who was shot in the back. The student stayed calm, applied pressure to the wound, and called 911, all on her own.

TRUE Communities is a training course that empowers witnesses of violent crime to act, not only by calling 911, but by applying pressure to a wound and wrapping a makeshift tourniquet for the victim in the critical seconds and minutes after they suffer a gunshot wound. The course begins with a restorative justice circle and also covers the process of moving an injured victim out of an unsafe situation along with education about Chicago trauma centers. Understanding and skills in these areas increased

dramatically after the course.

It teaches community members who are witnesses to violence to be first trauma responders. It began in communities on the South Side of Chicago.

Swaroop says the TRUE Communities initiative was formed as a response to grassroots activism for a South Side trauma center in 2010. Before the UChicago Medicine trauma center opened in 2018, victims of gun violence had to travel sometimes more CONTINUED ON PG. 6

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Only 41.9 percent of participants knew to take a gunshot victim to a Level I trauma center CONTINUED FROM PG. 5

than 30 minutes in an ambulance to the Northwestern Memorial Hospital north of the Loop. Swaroop wanted to counteract the violence she saw after feeling helpless watching countless gunshot wound victims die on the way to the hospital or in her operation room.

Cosey-Gay got involved in the project when he met Swaroop at a community organizing meeting with then Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emmanuel. Bystander empowerment to treat wounds and mitigate trauma is important to Cosey-Gay, a lifelong resident of the South Side.

Cosey-Gay sees a need for TRUE Com-

munities training. 503 participants from Chicago have been trained. Out of those participants, 51.9 percent say they have witnessed “someone shot with a gun” according to the pre-course survey, and 34.7 percent have “seen someone die before they could receive help”. Only 41.9 percent percent knew, before the course, to take a

gunshot victim to the closest Level I trauma center.

In a way, Swaroop sees bringing trauma care to the people as standing up where the emergency response and healthcare system falls short.

A full version is available online.

Local Market Opens: First New Chemist Ka Yee Lee Will Succeed South Shore Grocer in Six Years Diermeier as Next Provost

By ALEXIS FLORENCE Senior Reporter On Wednesday, December 11, South Shore residents welcomed the long-anticipated Local Market, a branch of the Chicagoland-based chainShop&Save,afterdelaysstalledthegrand opening of the neighborhood’s first grocery store in six years. The Shop & Save is located in Jeffery Plaza on East 71st Street and South Jeffery Avenue.

At 7 a.m., longtime South Shore resident Kenneth Smith—bundled in a hat and gloves and with a smile on his face—was the first of 500 people to receive a free bag of groceries to celebrate the store’s opening.

Smith told The Maroon he was very excitedforthestoreandwhatitcouldmeanforthe community.

“It should mean a lot. You won’t have to go too far [for groceries],” Smith said. “It took us a long time getting a store over [here].”

The store was initially planned to open around Thanksgiving, but problems with developers led store owners to buy the entire shopping mall, Fifth Ward Alderman Leslie Hairston explained in a speech at the opening ceremony.

Hairston worked directly with Local Market owners Eva and Cezary Jakubowski and the City of Chicago, using taxpayer dollars to provide $10 million in Tax Increment Financing(TIF)fundsand$12millionintaxcreditsin order to bring the store to South Shore.

“Youmayknowthatmuchofthedelaywasa result of out-of-state owners who didn’t see the grocery store in terms of people, convenience, and quality of life, but as a business. So I asked Eva and Cezary Jakubowksi to buy the entire shopping mall [Jeffery Plaza],” Hairston said at the opening ceremony.

“WeusedTIFmoneyinthewaylateMayor

Harold Washington intended: to reserve local tax dollars for spending in blighted areas,” she added. TIF use in Chicago began in 1984 during Washington’smayorship.“Controloftheentire plaza will allow the community to have input in the types of businesses that will open in the future.”

In her remarks at the opening, Eva Jakubowksistressedthestore’scommitmentto beingaproductivepresenceforthecommunity.

“Local Market is built for this community.

Local Market was created for South Shore….

We have one goal in mind and that is to have a vibrant, thriving community around us and we hope that this store will be part of that expansion,” Jakubowksi said.

Chicago Planning and Development CommissionerMauriceCoxspokeonbehalfofMayor Lightfoot’s office, explaining how the store is an example of the kind of future economic development the City is hoping to roll out this yearintheINVESTSouth/Westinitiative.The initiative is designed to invest in underserved communities on the South and West Sides of Chicago.

“This is exactly the kind of investment that Mayor Lightfoot has been talking about…. This is the first down payment on what we hope will be many, many, many more that will populate our neighborhoods,” Cox said.

Throughoutthemorning,customersmoved around the grocery store with bright red carts filled with a wide selection of fresh fruit and vegetables located by the entrance to the store.

SouthShoreresidentBarbaraHoneycutwas impressed by the selection of food available. A diabetic, Honeycut said she is especially happy to finally see fresh, reasonably priced fruit at a grocer close to her home.

“Weneedthis.Wereallyneedthis.I amhoping it stays…because we need this in this area,” Honeycut told The Maroon.

By ALEXIS FLORENCE Senior Reporter Vice Provost of Research and professor of chemistry Ka Yee Lee will be the next University Provost, President Zimmer announced in an email to the University community. Lee will begin as provost February 1 and outgoing Provost Daniel Diermeier, who will become the chancellor of Vanderbilt University, will remain senior advisor to the president until June 30.

Lee will be the first female provost in the history of the University.

The provost oversees all academic activities and investments at the University.

During his tenure, Diermeier oversaw a budget reorganization that changed the way money is allocated among departments, the endowment of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and the administration’s response to Graduate Students United (GSU) as they ramped up their organizing. Lee’s stance on GSU is not clear.

Lee has been a professor in the Department of Chemistry since 1998, and her research has focused on membrane biophysics.

Lee is a member of the College of Fellows of

Ka Yee Lee. courtesy of lee lab

the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and a fellow of the American Physical Society. She was appointed Vice Provost for Research in 2018.

In his message, President Zimmer praised Lee’s work as Vice Provost.

“Ka Yee brings to her position as provost deep and broad experiences at the University, the ability to bring people of varied disciplines and perspectives together, and a clear understanding of the University’s values of academic excellence and rigorous open inquiry.”

In an interview with UChicago News, Lee said, “The distinctive intellectual environment here is a legacy that we will continue to foster and develop as a community. I am excited to work with colleagues across disciplines to push the frontiers of knowledge, and to ensure that students receive a transformative University of Chicago education.”

According to Zimmer’s message, Lee will meet with faculty throughout the University in the coming months as she transitions into her new role.

A spokesperson for the University did not respond to a request to interview Lee by the time of publication.

the chicago maroon — January 8, 2020

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VIEWPOINTS Philosophy Professor Raoul Moati’s Tenure Decision Must Be Reconsidered Assistant Professor Moati’s Departure Marks a Significant Loss for the Humanities Division letter to the editor In light of the shocking and devastating decision to deny assistant professor Raoul Moati tenure in the philosophy department, the following petition has been created in order to urge the dean of the Division of the Humanities and the provost of the University to reconsider the decision. The petition is still collecting signatures and will be formally submitted to the dean and the provost at a later date. We strongly encourage faculty, students, and alumni of the University of Chicago to show their support for both Professor Moati and intellectual diversity at the University of Chicago by signing this petition.

Petition in Support of Tenure for Professor Raoul Moati and in Support of Continental Philosophy at the University of Chicago Dear Dean Anne Walters Robertson and Provost Daniel Diermeier, We, the undersigned members of the University of Chicago academic community, petition in order to request that assistant professor Raoul Moati be granted tenure.

We were devastated by the news that Professor Moati was denied tenure in the philosophy department. He has made exceptional contributions to research, teaching, to our intellectual community, and in service to the University community in his capacity as assistant professor of philosophy since 2013. He currently serves as a member of the Chicago Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago and as a member of the Centre Emmanuel Levinas of Paris at Université Paris-Sorbonne. He also served on the editorial board of the Complete Works (Les Oeuvres complètes) of Emmanuel Levinas.

Professor Moati has authored five books in French, two of which have been translated into English, and one more of which is currently in the process of being translated. He is also editor of one volume. He has published 27 articles in both journals and

books, with an additional six forthcoming.

He has given over 45 talks and lectures. It is an understatement to say that Professor Moati is an enormously prolific scholar of high repute. While there are currently no systematic studies evaluating the average number of publications philosophers have produced before achieving tenure, according to crowdsourced data, it is clear that Professor Moati’s work far exceeds the standards found therein (crowdsourced data may be found here from Leiter Reports and here from Daily Nous). His rigorous and important scholarship has spanned the divide between continental and analytical philosophy, and he is highly regarded in the field for his anti-idealist position in phenomenology. His scholarship is internationally recognized, and he has been invited to give lectures at prestigious institutions, such as Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Moreover, in 2017, a conference on Professor Moati’s work was organized in Belgium—an achievement almost unheard of for young philosophers prior to tenure.

If Professor Moati leaves the University of Chicago, the University will lose not only a highly innovative and dignified scholar, but also a remarkably talented and exceptionally dedicated instructor. Professor Moati has demonstrated outstanding commitment to the scholarly development of his students, reaching far beyond standard expectations.

His generous commitment to his students is made evident through the intensely detailed materials he designs for his courses, as well as the countless hours he has dedicated to addressing student questions both individually and in leading routine after-class tutorial sessions that often last longer than the class itself. This degree of access to not only a wonderful instructor, but a consummate and accomplished scholar, is truly exceptional. Professor Moati has made it clear that his students’ development as young scholars is close to his heart, and he has proven it by dedicating himself fully to his students and to their growth as philosophers.

As we have emphasized, Professor Moati

is not only a dedicated instructor, but a talented and uniquely qualified one. He is able to situate texts historically while maintaining a magnetic proximity to the text: Each of his courses critically examines the argumentative structure of philosophical works without losing sight of their situatedness in the context of the history of philosophy. Professor Moati’s courses encourage students to question their presuppositions and clarify their thinking, and they inspire new philosophical interests that students pursue both in the classroom and independently. Indeed, Professor Moati’s passion for philosophy is truly infectious: It is difficult to leave one of his classes without genuine excitement for the matters at hand. For all of these reasons, many of the undersigned students consider him to be one of the greatest instructors they have had at the University of Chicago.

He lives with the texts he teaches and encourages his students to live with them, too.

If Professor Moati leaves the department, philosophy at the University of Chicago will suffer a profound loss. Students will lose an instructor they cherish and greatly admire, and our scholarly community will lose the crucial diversity of perspectives that Professor Moati offers as a scholar of continental philosophy who engages with the analytical tradition. We believe that exposure to and interaction with the continental texts that Professor Moati teaches is of critical importance to the scholarly development of philosophy students at the University of Chicago. Working with these texts allows students to think more critically and to draw on a more diverse set of philosophical tools to improve their argumentation. Professor Moati draws these texts into discussion with the analytical tradition in philosophy, allowing students to bridge a historical divide in philosophy, broaden the horizons of their thinking, and gain a new, critical perspective with which to evaluate contemporary scholarship. The materials and perspectives that Professor Moati engages with and inspires students to engage with are not optional reading. Regardless of philosophical orien-

tation, students must have access to these texts and perspectives, and the University of Chicago must be able to instruct them in these texts at the same exceptional level it is able to teach the classics of the analytical tradition and of modern philosophy more broadly. It is unacceptable for an institution dedicated to rigor and diversity of views to deny students the foundational instruction that Professor Moati provides in the continental tradition, instruction that will be lost if he were to leave the department.

The Department of Philosophy currently describes itself as “a full-service department in the Western philosophical tradition, committed to teaching a wide range of courses on the major topics of analytic philosophy, history of philosophy, and continental philosophy.” If Professor Moati leaves, the department will no longer be able to substantiate such a claim. With his courses in phenomenology, existentialism, Heidegger, Sartre, Levinas, and Derrida, Professor Moati grounds much of the philosophy department’s claim to be a full-service department in the Western philosophical tradition, insofar as it concerns continental philosophy. One need simply browse the department’s course catalog archives to observe how substantial a blow Professor Moati’s absence would be for the continental philosophy curriculum.

Indeed, what is particularly alarming about the decision to deny Professor Moati tenure is that it constitutes a refusal to fully represent continental philosophy, and more specifically French continental philosophy, in the UChicago philosophy curriculum.

Such a departure and severe restriction of the intellectual diversity of the department constitutes a great disservice to the department’s students, as well as to the University of Chicago more broadly.

For these reasons, we strongly urge you to reconsider the decision to deny Professor Moati tenure.

More than 100 students have signed the petition which can be found online.

the chicago maroon — January 8, 2020

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UChicago? Is That a State School?

Like It or Not, It Is Worth Investing in UChicago’s Brand Name From a Professional Perspective

By ANDREW FARRY “UChicago? Isn’t that a state school?”

I’m sure we’ve all heard some variation of these words. Despite being one of the most expensive universities in the country, despite being ranked the sixth best university in the country by the U.S. News & World Report, the University of Chicago does not command the name recognition of most of its peer institutions. We seem to have a sort of instinctive disgust for people who care about name recognition: It brings us down from our ivory tower and into the world.

Name recognition, however, isn’t entirely unimportant. Indeed, although we should not strive to make UChicago more well-known for our own ego’s sake, expanding UChicago’s brand name is incredibly important from a professional

perspective.

If you assembled a random collection of Americans and asked them if they had heard of the University of Chicago, many of them would say no. It is pretty clear that Harvard, Yale, and Columbia—or any of the Ivies for that matter—garner more name recognition. These schools have what you might call a strong brand awareness: They have permeated American culture to the extent that most people will have heard of them.

It might seem like I’m going to complain that UChicago isn’t more well-known and that, by God, people better faint with awe when they hear the name of the university I attend. But I’m not going to do that: I think that it’s narcissistic and frankly a little pathetic to derive validation from someone recognizing the name of where you go

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to college. Andy Bernard’s “I went to Cornell, ya ever heard of it?” echoes in my ears whenever someone name-drops their university.

College is first and foremost about learning, about receiving an education that challenges you and broadens your horizons.

However, just because I don’t think that UChicago needs more brand recognition to boost our egos doesn’t mean I don’t think UChicago needs more brand recognition, period. In fact, in today’s Internet Age, where we often resort to making snap judgements in order to sift through masses of information, name recognition is more important than ever. For instance, we spend about 100 milliseconds deciding if someone is trustworthy. It’s hard to imagine that employers don’t exercise a similar kind of snap judgment in deciding if someone’s employable.

Indeed, given that the average recruiter looks at each resume for only 7.4 seconds, it is vital that the “University of Chicago” stand out and have a positive impact in that small timeframe.

While it is true that UChicago is well-known and respected within certain professions in the U.S., such as finance and academia, the same is not necessarily true of fields like engineering, as despite offering computer science and molecular engineering majors, the University lacks an engineering school. Moreover, the University of Chicago is not well known outside the U.S.: in the U.K., where I live, I have never met anyone who has heard of it. This will affect anyone who wants to apply to a job overseas. It’s impossible to pretend that employers will not consider where you went to college, especially if you’re a recent graduate. It’s very possible that UChicago’s lack of name recognition—coupled with its infamous grade deflation—will

hurt your career prospects in certain fields.

Moreover, the University of Chicago will cost about $80,000 a year starting this year. Financial aid exists, but college is still expensive. As much as some universities might pretend otherwise, college is an investment for many people, maybe one of the most valuable investments anyone will make.

That first job you get is important, and with so little information for potential employers to work from, of course the school you attended is going to be a major factor.

The extent to which UChicago students’ career prospects are affected by our school’s lack of name recognition is unclear. It will certainly be harder to get a job that isn’t in the U.S.: Your experience and cover letter will probably have to stand on their own. The same effect will occur to a lesser degree within the U.S., especially for those applying to jobs in fields that relatively few UChicago alumni work in, such as the arts or engineering.

Of course, once you get your first job, your degree matters less and less. Your UChicago degree is most helpful in getting your foot in the door. The effects of UChicago’s lack of name-brand recognition are thus most pernicious for recent graduates who compete against students from very wellknown universities with far less grade deflation.

As tempting as it might be, I don’t believe that you should think of college as some sort of economic equation: Pay an exorbitant fee + Wait 4 years = Get loaded. Instead, college should be about learning and exploring. However, in reality the incredibly high cost of tuition forces students to consider their future earning potential. While seeking validation from someone’s reaction to where you go to college demonstrates a lack of self-esteem,

worrying that your ballooning debt and relatively low GPA will not be at least in some part offset by the name brand of your university is a valid concern.

The University is, I am sure, aware of this. In fact, it has already began to undergo what some have dubbed a “Harvardization” process, marked by decreasing class sizes, the switch to Latin honors, and more, all in an effort to improve UChicago’s rank on U.S. News & World Report. Dean Boyer even said that the University was aiming for a class size similar to Harvard’s.

While this “Harvardization” of this university by the administration is a focus of criticism as it necessitates a “break” from UChicago’s quirky culture, I don’t think increasing name recognition necessarily means that UChicago has to make itself a carbon copy of Harvard. In fact, by trying to attract more international students by sending more admissions reps abroad or by increasing the number of Metcalf internships outside Chicago, UChicago can increase its brand awareness while preserving the cultural elements that make it unique.

While it is true that we shouldn’t seek to build UChicago’s brand name just for a personal ego boost, we should welcome new policies that will increase UChicago’s recognition—whether that is inviting more employers to visit campus or trying to draw more international students—because they will help us get jobs later down the line. Indeed, for those of us who want to become artists or engineers or work overseas, it might very well be that our future jobs depend on it.

Andrew Farry is a second-year in the College.

the chicago maroon — January 8, 2020

9

Improved Sexual Misconduct Discourse Is a Must Recent Sexual Misconduct Data Is Alarming; the Administration Must Increase Dialogue With Students So It Is More Effectively Prevented

By SYLVIA EBENBACH The University of Chicago needs to do more to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct that affects its student body. The presence of sexual misconduct within the UChicago community is why female students have to develop strategies to protect their friends from unwanted attention at parties. It is time for students to loudly demand that the University take an active and consistent role in communicating new methods for addressing sexual misconduct to the student body.

This academic year began with news that women had been roofied with date-rape drugs at two events hosted by a fraternity. Then, data from the Campus Climate Survey, to which 32 percent of the entire University population responded (encouraged by entry into raffles for Amazon gift cards) was released. It revealed that 39.8 percent of students have experienced at least one form of harassing behavior since coming to UChicago. 30.0 percent of undergraduate women and 29.8 percent of TGQN (transgender, gender queer, non-binary) students reported some type of nonconsensual sexual contact. According to the survey, most assaults occur in campus housing, followed by fraternity houses. In an email sent out to the student body, outgoing provost Daniel Diermeier described the results as “deeply troubling” and encouraged students to review the University’s Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, and Sexual Misconduct.

This was followed by a presentation of the results on October 21 by the Title IX office and a town hall on October 30 hosted by Student Government (SG) to dis-

cuss sexual misconduct. While it is certainly a step in the right direction for the Title IX office to host a meeting to discuss the results of the survey, it was held during hours when many students were in class and could not attend. The SG town hall was held to compensate for that, allowing more people to discuss the results and question UChicago administrators.

The Title IX office should prioritize conversation with students about sexual misconduct on campus and promoting safety, and this means facilitating dialogue that is as accessible as possible to everyone who wishes to participate. Furthermore, the office should have followed up the initial meeting and results with more information about how they plan to address the results in order to make UChicago safer.

We may not have a method to effectively compare the prevalence of sexual misconduct at UChicago to that of other schools, but the sheer number of publicly reported instances on our campus is shameful. We cannot grow numb to the weight of sexual misconduct at this school with each new email, regardless of how we compare with other schools.

On November 2, just three days after the SG town hall, a student reported a sexual assault by a male offender at an off-campus fraternity event. The email alerting the student body to this assault failed to mention that it occurred at a fraternity house, instead listing the house’s address.

Language that is purposefully omissive should not be used to alert students to real threats in our community. Furthermore, although a statement was also made to UCPD, the Chicago Po-

lice Department is leading the investigation. The University dismisses Greek life by viewing it as off-campus, but these organizations exist within the context of UChicago, and to ignore this diminishes administrative responsibility.

Skeptics might wonder why the University administration should care about the prevalence of sexual misconduct beyond Title IX requirements. Some argue that the individual actions of students are out of the direct control of the University, an academic institution in which we just happen to live. The truth is that the University of Chicago engages in an ongoing economic relationship with its students. Students pay the University tuition and in return they provide the benefits of top-tier academics and an esteemed reputation. In addition to that cost, there are fees for housing and student life. Now that students are required to live in on-campus housing for at least two years, the importance of safety in dorms is more crucial than ever. UChicago has a duty to care for their students that includes preventing and then responding to sexual assault and harassment in a UChicago context.

The University acknowledges that this responsibility includes adjudication in instances of sexual assault that occur off campus as well. However, the University does not recognize Greek life, despite the fact that a significant portion of the student body is involved in it and even more attend Greek events. Representatives have failed to fully answer why they choose not to officially acknowledge fraternities and sororities. At the SG town hall, Bridget Collier, the associate provost for

Equal Opportunity Programs, was asked about this topic with regard to sexual misconduct.

She responded, “As it relates to sexual misconduct, I do not see evidence that recognizing fraternities would reduce incidents or sexual assault. The residence halls are our number-one space [where assaults occur], and these are regulated spaces.”

Frankly, this response skirts the responsibility this University has to its students. The University has never officially recognized Greek life, so there is no data as to whether this shift would have an effect within the specific context of the UChicago community.

Greek life at UChicago is already distinct from other colleges in that sororities do not have houses and many members of Greek life report not being interested in joining before they arrived at the College. Three of the fraternity houses are located on South University Avenue, and one shares a wall with the Saieh Hall for Economics.

It’s almost comical that the University will discuss fraternities with vocabulary like “off-campus,” given that the houses are often adjacent to academic and administrative buildings.

If the University wants to claim that it is exploring all options, it needs officially recognize Greek life and change the perspective, vocabulary, and actions it takes when addressing sexual misconduct within the setting of Greek life, at least for a trial period to see whether positive change can be made. The emphasis placed on students’ ability to file complaints after the fact distracts from the necessity of greater preventative measures. The fact that more assaults occur in dorms

than in fraternity houses does not diminish the issues at hand in either context.

This is not to say that a blanket statement condemning Greek life is the correct response either.

There are benefits to an organized social structure and the opportunity to make new friends within a large student body. Furthermore, though many people scoff at the philanthropy aspect of Greek life, the fact is that the philanthropic events hosted by Greek organizations at UChicago are successful.

By acknowledging Greek life in its entirety, the University can work to encourage its positive impacts and prevent harm.

As students, we are owed an open and ongoing dialogue with University administrators about sexual misconduct. In the Campus Climate Survey, 18 percent of respondents reported that they perceived University officials as not at all concerned with their well-being. This evidence is an indication that great change in the relationship between the University and its students is needed.

Diermeier wrote in his email, “Every member of our campus community has a role to play in helping to prevent misconduct.

We must be resolute in our commitment to fostering a safe climate where people can participate in the life of the University free of unlawful harassment, discrimination, and sexual misconduct.” In order to ever hope of achieving this vision, UChicago needs to expand and fortify their role.

Sylvia Ebenbach is a second-year in the College.

the chicago maroon — January 8, 2020

10

Altruism for the Chicago Economist In Order to Do Genuine Good, We Must Think and Give Pragmatically By soham mall This Black Friday, I bought a $10 shirt and felt terrible about it. I usually stay away from mega sales—you don’t need to be a psychologist to figure out that they’re designed to make you spend more, not less. I’m not too skeptical of the theory that Jeff Bezos’s wife left him after catching him in bed with last year’s Black Friday profit margins. It was just $10, but in quintessential UChicago fashion, I couldn’t help but look at my new shirt and think of a thought experiment I recently heard about, one that applies not just to the $10 tee but also to every single purchase I’ve made in my life. This thought experiment has led me down a path towards a new kind of altruism, one that I think is well adapted to UChicago’s unique culture.

I heard about the idea while listening to a podcast interview with the philosopher Peter Singer. In the interview, Singer discusses the “drowning child” hypothetical that is at the core of his most popular work. To briefly paraphrase the hypothetical in a UChicago context: You’re walking by Promontory Point when you see a child drowning. You can jump in to save the child, but you realize that jumping in will mean you will be late for your Goldman Sachs interview and that you’ll have to replace your stylish jacket, costing you hundreds of dollars. For most people, this choice is simple. Obviously, you would save the child. The catch is that this situation is not hypothetical. Each time you spend money on something you don’t really need, you’re choosing to let that child drown—you could have spent that money on giving to someone who needed it more, but you didn’t. This is not moral grandstanding—I didn’t either. How do we resolve the fact that although we wish to do good, and have the capacity to, we often choose to act otherwise? The mere desire to give back is insufficient—we need to find outlets that make this desire actionable and find effective ways to make the world a better place.

Making a meaningful impact on the lives of the less fortunate can seem like

a Sisyphean task. You’ve seen the statistics on the millions that die or suffer from disease, climate disaster, starvation—the list is endless. When I volunteered in high school, it was obvious that certain people were only participating in community service to fulfill a requirement or pad their résumé. Now, when I attend one-off community service opportunities as a college student, I can’t help but feel that one day of teaching kids science or volunteering at a shelter is not going to make a profound impact on their lives. That’s not to say that service-focused RSOs are unproductive—organizations such as Alpha Phi Omega, the Emergency Fund, campus branches of the American Civil Liberties Union, Red Cross, and the like continue to do important work both for Chicago and the wider world. I encourage everyone to get involved with these organizations.

However, individual community service needs to be supplemented with more expansive efforts.

One way that people circumvent this issue is by donating to charitable organizations. This runs on the belief that organizations can effectively use the money to make a greater impact than any one individual can—after all, the average person can’t really volunteer to perform heart surgery or travel to war-ravaged areas to provide assistance. Donations are well-intentioned actions, but they don’t always generatethe best outcomes. In a classic example of such ineffectiveness, it takes about $42,000 to train a guide dog to help a blind person. It would theoretically take the same amount of money to fund eye surgeries to restore the sight of 1,344 people in Africa who suffer from trachoma. As UChicago students, we are exposed to a lot of theory in our coursework, including theory about what it is to be human, and why we should be good.

At the same time, competitive finance culture at UChicago means we are also exposed to the econ bro’s mantra of efficiency. I think we can agree that the wish to improve lives, when combined with reason and a pinch of utilitarianism, provides the pursuit of giving much-needed direction. This is the concept of effective

altruism, popularized by Peter Singer. It is the lovechild of philosophy and economics—using evidence to find the most effective ways to benefit others. UChicago’s Effective Altruism club was reinitiated last year. Though they might seem strange bedfellows, efficiency and altruism bridge the pragmatism of UChicago economics and the idealistic bent of the philosophy propagated in Hum and Sosc.

Fortunately, the heavy lifting has already been done for us. Organizations like The Life You Can Save, started by Singer, and GiveWell have done rigorous research to find the charities that do the most good per dollar spent. What’s more, this research is publicly available. Most of the charities researched deal with human diseases and health, but there is no shortage of similar research organizations for issues of animal advocacy and climate change.

We’re in the midst of a heavy gift-shopping season. If you’re buying holiday presents, you might want to consider making

a donation in the recipient’s name instead of getting them a shirt or a PS4 or a Canada Goose. If you’re like me and don’t celebrate Christmas, the next time you’re shopping—whether for a birthday, cultural or religious celebration, or just impulse-shopping after that one promotional email slipped through the UChicago email quarantine system—put some potent, goodness-maximizing, efficient giving in your cart. Pay more than just lip service to making the world a better place—post it on social media, tell your friends and family. Write about it. You might be virtue signaling, but so what?

If that makes more people donate, it is nothing to be ashamed of. Use that brain that has conquered P-sets and essays and the heart that school hasn’t sucked all the life out of yet. Speaking of heart—as much as I denigrate finance bros, your six-figure salaries will give you considerable latitude for generosity. As critical thinkers, we can take our generosity a step further and really make it count.

ALVIN SHI

THE CHICAGO MAROON — JANUARY 8, 2020

11

ARTS The Moon Is a Female-Only Zone

By JAD DAHSHAN Arts Reporter

The idea that gender is a social construct might be trite at this point—at least in some circles. The word “female,” as different people use it, seems to occupy a muddy locus between self-determined ideas of gender identity, anatomically derived ones often employed to discount the former, as well as others. As many UChicago students can testify, Simone de Beauvoir sees in the “endangered reality” that is femininity a “pure alterity,” an absolute condition of otherness set in relation to man, the subject. For Andrea Long Chu, femaleness attains a totally different—but not unrelated—definition.

In Chu’s debut novel, Females (2019), femaleness is defined as an ontological condition in which “the self is sacrificed to make room for the desires of another.”

Published by Verso, the book opens with the incendiary claim that “everyone is female, and everyone hates it.” Chu playfully proposes femaleness as a ubiquitous existential condition characterized by an appropriation and prioritization of the other over the self. Chu spends the following chapters explaining this, the mechanisms of desire, how femaleness applies to different groups, and how it is handled differently, often to disastrous results. Chu humorously elucidates the universality of femaleness with claims like “Shark attacks exclusively target females.”

Accordingly, Chu’s definition of gender is separate, though not severed, from previous biological, social, and performative understandings. Gender is instead the way we cope with our femaleness, which, again, we hate. However, this hatred is not ours, but another’s—we have simply internalized it. “All gender is internalized misogyny,” writes Chu; specifically, it is the act of internalization itself.

She borrows from feminist scholar Catharine MacKinnon to explain that sexuality determines gender. The latter is simply the social expression of another’s sexuality and desires. Echoing de Beauvoir, Chu writes that gender “is always a

process of objectification”; we absorb the other’s desires, fashioning ourselves in a way that renders us the object thereof.

To say that Females is genre-bending might be pedestrian, but few other words can sum up a book that is part memoir, part essay, part coming-out narrative, and part satire. Though spanning a mere 112 pages, the book crosses terrains ranging from Hollywood to Andy Warhol’s Factory to the alt-right manosphere.

Throughout, a central figure to the work is Valerie Solanas, the iconic writer and artist who penned the SCUM Manifesto calling for the eradication of men and who infamously shot Andy Warhol in 1968. Chu delves into Solanas’s witty, irreverent, bombastic ideas throughout Females, often referring to scenes from her 1965 play Up Your Ass, and interlaces them with segues into discussions of gender transition, pickup artists, white supremacy, and pornography.

As a tribute to Solanas, Females is also part manifesto. It functions similarly to the way Chu describes the SCUM Manifesto: not as action, but as a call to and desire for action. In doing so we see Chu employing femaleness as her genre and tone, as Bryony White suggests in a Frieze review of the book. Additionally, though, Females is part Twitter rampage.

In a recent Vogue interview, Chu admits that “there are a couple of places [in the book] that are just tweets. This is just the nature of it. Writers across the board are using Twitter to draft things.” With nearly 26,000 followers, @theorygurl’s tweets may be jokes, but the writer explains in the interview that many have an underlying theoretical concern as well.

Females almost acts as a formalized extrapolation of Chu’s Twitter feed. To the extent that it could be argued that social media provides a platform for us to negate our realities and project a self-image catered to the desires of our followers, the book’s intimate tonal connection to Chu’s Twitter feed further illustrates the femaleness of its genre.

Females makes claims that feel important but otherwise don’t take themselves too seriously. It posits a theory of

Author Andrea Long Chu. courtesy of slate desire, gender, and sexuality that takes to heart the often-discredited writings of Valerie Solanas, turns Freud’s psychoanalysis on its head, and provides a precarious framework to comprehending

human consciousness. But it does so with a “humorlessness that vegetates at the core of all humor,” and a tenderness that makes the book feel—and not just to the author—very personal.

The University of Chicago Law School presents the 2020 Dewey Lecture in Law and Philosophy

The End of the 1951 Refugee Convention?

Seyla Benhabib

Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University

Wednesday, January 15 12:15 p.m.

Lunch will be provided

Classroom II

University of Chicago Law School

This lecture is free and open to the public, but seating may be limited. Please RSVP at www.law.uchicago.edu/dewey2020 For special assistance or needs, please contact the Office of Events at lawevents@law.uchicago.edu.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — JANUARY 8, 2020

12

SPORTS

Maroons Deck the Halls Over Break

By BRINDA RAO Sports Editor

While students returned home for the holidays, many varsity teams continued their competitions and training over the winter break. Varsity swimmers and divers traveled to San Diego for their annual training trip, and varsity wrestlers competed in two meets. Varsity men’s basketball competed in three decisive games with impressive displays from new and old players alike.

Basketball: Varsity men’s basketball started their winter training with a victory against Caltech on December 17. This game saw five Maroons scoring double-digit points, with an exceptional display of talent from first-year Bryce Hopkins.

Following this game, the Maroons lost to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in a tight game. While the final score (67–66) saw the Maroons defeated, their energy and zeal for competition created a dynamic game. Fourth-year Cole Schmitz dominated in the game as the top scorer with

25 points. With a final backdoor reverse layup, the Stags secured victory, leaving the Maroons with a one-point defeat.

However, the Maroons rang in the new year with a win against North Park University on January 4. Winning with a 20-point margin, the Maroons dominated throughout the game. Third-years Dominic Laravie and Brennan McDaniel came away as the Maroons’ top scorers with 17 and 16 points respectively.

The men’s basketball team will continue its season with a game on Saturday, January 11, against Washington University in St. Louis.

Wrestling: Hosting the Chi-Town Invite, the varsity wrestling team performed successfully with multiple titles. The invite took place on December 29 at the Henry Crown Field House, with over 50 wrestlers competing. After a long day of competition, the Maroons came away with six weight class champions of the 10 weight classes. Maroon victors included fourth-year Steve Bonsall, third-year Will Britain, fourth-year Kyle Peisker,

second-year Ben Sarasin, fourth-year Nick Carola, and first-year Cole Fibranz.

Following the Chi-Town Invite, the Maroons competed at the Division III National Challenge in Cleveland.

The team was successful against Alma College and Case Western Reserve University before finally losing to Millikin University.

The Maroons will be back on Wednesday, January 15, to compete against North Central at the Henry Crown Field House.

Swimming: The swimming and diving teams went on their annual training trip over winter break. This year, they were based in San Diego, spending a week undergoing intensive training.

Following winter break, all of the winter varsity teams are gearing up to start or continue their official seasons.

Be sure to turn out at the Myers-McLoraine Pool or Henry Crown Field House to cheer the Maroons on!

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Fourth-year guard Cole Schmitz, one of the five Maroons who scored double-digit points in the victory against Caltech. uchicago athletics