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JANUARY 12, 2022 FIRST WEEK VOL. 134, ISSUE 10

CPD Investigates Recent Woodlawn Fires for Arson

By ERIC FANG | Senior News Reporter The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is currently investigating two recent fires that occurred in Woodlawn Residential Commons at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, December 7, 2021 for aggravated arson. The investigation began the day of the fires and is currently ongoing.

A University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) incident report said that the fires occurred in second- and third-floor community bathrooms in Woodlawn Residential Commons. The report also confirmed that while there was property damage, no injuries were reported. A separate CPD report indicated that no arrest was made in connection with the fires.

According to a December 7 email sent by Heath Rossner, the Interim Executive Direc-

The entrance to Woodlawn Commons. COURTESY OF EMELINE WRIGHT

tor of Housing and Residence Life, to students living in Woodlawn Residential Commons, the University is cooperating with UCPD, CPD, and the Chicago Fire Department (CFD) to investigate the fires.

On the morning of the fires, fire alarms went off at 3:46 a.m., and Woodlawn Residential Commons was evacuated. Residents returned to their dormitories at 4:02 a.m., after CFD and facility services had responded to the alarm and determined the building was safe to enter.

Aggravated arson is typically defined as a fire intentionally set within an occupied building. In Illinois, it is a Class X felony, which is punishable by between six and 30 years in prison.

UChicago Professor Pleads Not Guilty to Federal Charges of Insider Trading

By YIWEN LU | News Editor Daniel Catenacci, an associate professor of medicine in the Biological Sciences Division, was charged with insider trading on Monday, December 20, 2021. The charge alleged that he used confidential information gained through his position at the University to make over $134,000 in illegal profits. He pled not guilty during a remote arraignment hearing on Tuesday, January 4.

Catenacci is an oncologist who served as the director of the gastrointestinal oncology program at the University. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago filed a criminal charge on December 20, 2021, alleging that Catenacci had purchased shares of a biotechnology company with prior knowledge of then-unannounced positive trial results, and had sold the shares shortly after the an-

nouncement.

According to Law 360, the biotechnology company involved was Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. (“Five Prime”), a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, California. Through his role at the University, Catenacci worked as a clinical investigator on Five Prime’s experimental cancer drug, bemarituzumab.

On November 9, 2020, Catenacci received an email from Five Prime’s chief medical officer notifying him that bemarituzamb had passed its Phase 2 clinical trial and that U.S. securities law prohibited him from selling or buying stocks on the basis of this information, according to the charges. The following morning, Catenacci bought 8,743 shares of Five Prime’s stock. Five Prime pub-

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UChicago Medicine. COURTESY OF UCHICAGO MEDICINE licly announced the results of the trial after the market closed that same day.

Five Prime’s stock increased by more

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SPORTS: Meet the B-J residents who trained for Chicago’s half-marathon together.

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Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/chicagomaroon and follow @chicagomaroon on Instagram and Twitter to get the latest updates on campus news.

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results. Catenacci sold his stake shortly after the market opened that day, making $134,142 in profits.

Catenacci was charged with one count of securities fraud, which could land him 20 years in federal prison. On Tuesday, January 4, Catenacci entered a plea of not guilty during a remote arraignment hearing of the criminal charge before U.S. Magistrate

Judge Maria Valdez.

In a statement to The Maroon, Catenacci’s attorney Jake Kahn of Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP said, “Dr. Catenacci is cooperating with the government and has since the beginning of the investigation. This is a complex area of the law. Dr. Catenacci did not intentionally breach any confidence.”

The SEC also filed a civil suit against Catenacci on December 17, 2021, for the same

trade. According to the SEC, Catenacci has agreed on a partial settlement with the agency which would prohibit him from violating the antifraud provisions in the future and pay a fine of an amount to be decided later.

The University told The Maroon that Catenacci is on a leave of absence and is not currently engaged in research or seeing patients. The Biological Sciences Divisions website still lists Catenacci as a faculty mem-

ber.

“The University remains fundamentally committed to research integrity, protecting the rights of patients who participate in clinical trials, and honoring its obligations to government and industry research sponsors,” University spokesperson Gerald McSwiggan wrote in an email to The Maroon.

University Reports Highest Number of COVID-19 Cases Since October 2020 Since Reporting Began

By YIWEN LU | News Editor and ROSHINI BALAN | Senior New Reporter Between December 31, 2021, and January 6, 2022, the University reported 481 new cases of COVID-19, according to a UChicago Forward email sent Friday, January 7. This number is the highest since the University began sending weekly COVID-19 updates in October 2020.

The 481 total cases represent a 109 percent increase from the 230 positive cases during the week before, a trend that aligns with a national surge in COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant. Cases include UChicago students who were not on campus but reported positive test results, in addition to positive cases detected from on-campus testing.

The positivity rate among surveillance tests, which includes symptomatic testing performed at the Walker Museum and the Gleacher Center, is 9.45 percent this week, up from the 0.52 percent reported for the period between December 2 and December 8, just before the end of fall quarter.

As of Friday, 51 students are isolating on-campus and 149 off-campus. While 43

close contacts have been reported so far, the University noted in the email that the “significant increase in cases” affects its capacity to perform contact tracing. Individuals who test positive might receive calls from the University in addition to the email that is normally sent to those who received positive test results or who were exposed to COVID-19.

All students living in University residence halls are required to participate in a mandatory surveillance testing program following their return to campus until further notice. Previously, students were only required to participate in weekly testing until January 20, four days before in-person instruction is scheduled to resume.

In the email, the University reiterated that all students eligible for a COVID-19 booster shot must upload proof of receiving one by January 24. The deadline for eligible employees to do so is January 31. Additionally, the University is encouraging students to wear KN95 or surgical masks instead of single-layer cloth masks within University

buildings.

Housing and Residence Life previously announced that the opening date of residence halls would be delayed until January 20, 2022, as a result of remote instruction during the first two weeks of winter quarter.

However, students approved for early arrival were allowed to move in to residence halls beginning January 1, and those approved for winter break housing did not have to move out.

The University has paused its weekly voluntary surveillance testing program while anticipating longer wait times as a result of the increased demand for symptomatic testing, according to the email. Walk-in tests are not available. Students who wish to receive a test must schedule one at the Walker Museum or Gleacher Center locations through their my.WellnessPortal or by contacting the testing team at C19Testing@uchicago. edu. The University encourages all travelers to Chicago to schedule a supplemental test before returning to campus.

In a statement to The Maroon, Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Executive Vice President for Internal Affairs Allen Abbott said that while the University

has expanded its testing programs to include symptomatic testing for students and staff, the capacity has not risen “to the level of availability at the vast majority of our peer institutions.” He emphasized USG’s collaboration with the University in expanding testing and booster availability, which he said would be essential in navigating the latest wave of COVID-19 cases.

Abbott reiterated USG’s call for further planning and infrastructure from the University. “Given that campus shut down last spring with an outbreak of only 90 cases, it’s disappointing that the University hasn’t announced firm academic accommodations for positive, symptomatic, or exposed students to attend class remotely post-1/24,” he wrote. During April 2021, the University announced a seven-day stay-at-home order after 97 new cases were reported in a single week, which was attributed to a string of onand off-campus parties.

Without flexible accommodations, students could potentially fall behind on work or violate University health policies if all of them are required to return in person on January 24, Abbott noted.

University Adjusts Spring Quarter Exam Schedule As Winter Start Delayed; Convocation Date Unchanged

By YIWEN LU | News Editor The date of the University’s 2022 Convo-

cation will remain Saturday, June 4, 2022,

despite the start of winter quarter 2022 being delayed in response to rising cases of the Omicron variant.

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will happen the week of May 30, 2022, while graduating fourth-years will finish their exams the week before, according to a University-wide email from Provost Ka Yee Lee and Executive Vice President Katie Callow-Wright on Friday, December 31, 2021.

The email follows an announcement on December 23 that winter quarter would start on January 10, 2022, instead of January 3. The first two weeks of classes will take place remotely, and in-person classes are scheduled to resume on January 24.

The decision to delay the winter quarter start date comes as UChicago Medicine has more patients in for COVID-19 than ever before and the Omicron variant has led to a record-high infection rate in Chicago. As of Friday, the current average daily positivity

rate for COVID-19 is 17.2 percent, up from 8.9 percent last week, according to City of Chicago data.

Lee and Callow-Wright wrote that the University community will have passed the peak of the infection wave by January 24, though they expect infection rates to remain high after that date. “We will continue working to maximize in-person instruction while upholding the health and safety of our community and managing the challenges of the COVID-19 surge,” they wrote in the email.

Students who are currently eligible for a booster vaccine must show proof of receiving one by January 24 on their my.WellnessPortal, the day that in-person instruction is scheduled to resume. Those who are ineligible to receive a booster or who have an

approved medical or religious exemption are subject to weekly mandatory testing requirements if they access University facilities, according to another email sent to all students by Lee and Callow-Wright on Thursday, December 30.

The University also emphasized that it is “temporarily expanding” the COVID-19 testing program on campus to include symptomatic and exposure testing. University students and staff who have been exposed to COVID-19 or are experiencing symptoms can schedule tests on my.WellnessPortal.

Two testing sites are available on campus by appointment. At the Hyde Park campus, Suite 309 of the Walker Museum will be open from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. starting Monday, January 3. Chicago

Booth’s downtown Gleacher Center will resume its testing operations on Friday, January 7.

UChicago Medicine patients can schedule a curbside or walk-up test at 901 East 58th Street using MyChart or by calling (773) 702–2800. However, the availability at UChicago Medicine is limited, and students are encouraged to schedule their surveillance tests through Student Wellness.

In addition, Howard Brown Health offers walk-up COVID-19 testing at three locations in Chicago, including its Hyde Park location at 1525 East 55th Street. The clinic operates from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday. It is closed on weekends except for the first Saturday of each month.

“We Are All at Risk of Getting Displaced”: Woodlawn Residents and Local Organizations Host Town Hall to Protest Gentrification

By ERIC FANG | Senior News Reporter Woodlawn residents and the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) coalition jointly organized a town hall at Harris Park on Saturday, December 8 to protest gentrification resulting from the construction of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park.

The coalition demanded that Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot and Department of Housing (DOH) commissioner Marisa Novara set aside 52 vacant city-owned lots for development and housing to compete with luxury developers. Speakers emphasized that 75 percent of the new units should be affordable to Woodlawn residents and that the 52 lots should include the high-density lots on 63rd Street east of Cottage Grove.

“We want to make sure that the mayor is listening to her constituents,” said Autumn Infiniti, a member of the CBA coalition and Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100).

“You are just as valid as the people living on the affluent Gold Coast who are trying to move here. We need your help to make sure that you stay and that the mayor knows that you care.”

Rising Costs in Woodlawn

A 2017 study conducted by the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University designated Woodlawn as a moderate-cost area with emerging displacement pressure.

The designation indicates the presence of vulnerable populations within Woodlawn, rising prices, and high housing costs. According to the study, the community’s proximity to high-speed transit via the Green Line and the construction of the Presidential Center are raising Woodlawn’s previously stable rent prices, exacerbating the risk of current residents being priced out of their own neighborhoods.

“I’m ecstatic about the Presidential Center’s location in Woodlawn, especially since Obama was our first African American president,” said Woodlawn homeowner John Odom in an interview with The Maroon during the town hall. “I just hope he doesn’t unintentionally displace his own African American community and cause an influx of Gold Coast residents. 63rd Street was once a thriving, safe African American community, and I would like to see the Obama library bring back some of that.”

Patricia Tatum, a longtime Woodlawn

homeowner and former nurse at UChicago Medicine, suspects that rising property taxes and pressure from land developers may force residents such as herself to leave the community. She feels that government officials such as Mayor Lightfoot are apathetic to these threats and are willing to displace residents in favor of development.

“We should have a voice in what happens. Our vision isn’t [the mayor’s] vision.

Our vision is to have a diverse community that includes everyone that is here who wants to stay here,” Tatum told The Maroon.

With the development of 52 city-owned lots, the CBA coalition believes the space should be able to accommodate the construction of 1,000 affordable housing units, saving around 3,000 Woodlawn residents from displacement. The CBA coalition emphasized that the developments will, over all, be mixed-income with a diverse range of price points.

Speakers from both Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) and the CBA coalition also outlined steps the groups have already taken to prevent the displacement of Woodlawn residents, such as pressuring the city to pass the CBA ordinance last year.

Community Benefits Agreement The Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance, passed in September 2021, committed $500,000 to the Renew Woodlawn program, which offers down payment assistance to low- and middle-income people purchasing homes within the community. In addition, Woodlawn residents have access to a new Homeowner Repair Grant program, which provides up to $20,000 for homeowners making less than $100,000 per year to use for repairs. The ordinance also grants Woodlawn residents a right of first refusal, which allows renters the opportunity to collectively purchase their building if the owner intends to sell.

“It took our coalition five years to get something passed to protect our residents,” said Woodlawn renter and CBA coalition leader Sharon Payne. “The Woodlawn Housing Preservation ordinance was a win, but it’s nowhere near enough.”

Although recognizing the significant progress the ordinance symbolizes, the CBA coalition stressed that there is still more work to be done. Despite requests that the city set aside 200 vacant lots within Woodlawn for housing and development, the ordinance only granted 52. Further, the CONTINUED ON PG. 4

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city never specified which 52 lots were to be developed, so there has yet to be any progress in creating affordable housing through the ordinance.

Looking Ahead The CBA coalition wants to garner grassroots support for their movement by holding public meetings with residents and

reaching out to them directly.

“A lot of the folks that came to today’s town hall came from us making phone calls to them,” Savannah Brown, a housing organizer with STOP and a member of the CBA coalition, told The Maroon. “We see the benefit of talking to community members, and even though it wasn’t face to face, it was phone to phone. These are real people that we’re reaching out to. So I think more ini-

tiatives that promote communication with other folks like that are good.”

Brown also said that the University should pay reparations to surrounding South Side communities for its history of gentrification by funding affordable housing.

“The University is greatly responsible for displacing folks, and so they should be doing their fair share if they want to live in

the community and receive its benefits. If they’re going to continue to bring in things in the community that further pushes residents at a disadvantage, they need to do something to counter that.”

Since May 2015, UChicago has helped plan and fund the construction of the Obama Presidential Center. Construction on the Center began this past August.

University Forms Council to Assess and Improve Relationship With South Side

By PETER MAHERAS | News Reporter The University has formed the Council on UChicago/Community Relations: Historical, Contemporary, and Future to investigate the relationship between the University and South Side communities, according to an email sent to the University community on Friday by President Paul Alivisatos and Provost Ka Yee Lee. The council will independently explore the historical and current relationship between the University and South Side neighborhoods, assess the effectiveness of recent efforts to strengthen community relations, and identify additional areas for improvement.

Council membership will be split equally between South Side community leaders and members of the University. Eleven

community leaders and nine University faculty and staff have been appointed to serve 18-month inaugural terms.

Future members, with the exception of student members, will be proposed by the council in consultation with the Office of the Provost and the Office of Civic Engagement and serve one-year terms. Final approval of all new non-student appointments will be made by the president and provost.

The council will seek two additional members, an undergraduate and a graduate student, in January 2022 through an open application process. The selection will be overseen by College Council and Graduate Council respectively.

The announcement comes more than

a month after Alivisatos pledged that the University would be “strong partners” with the South Side community in a safety webinar addressing the University’s response to a recent string of violent incidents in Hyde Park.

According to Allen Abbott, Undergraduate Student Government (USG)’s executive vice president for internal affairs, the council is part of a multi-month effort in which USG worked with the provost and the president to “expand proactive student input in University communities and to foster University-community engagement.”

The first meeting is scheduled for March 2022, and the council is expected to conclude its work in June 2025. The council will regularly inform campus and community members of updates on its

work and provide opportunities for input, feedback, and critique.

The group will produce a final report that will include recommendations to “strengthen and promote existing and future mutually beneficial relations between the University and its neighbors,” according to the council’s website.

“Establishing a mechanism to examine the relationship between the University and the South Side community has been discussed for a number of years, and community leaders as well as internal constituencies have long challenged the University to embark on such a process,” Alivisatos and Lee wrote in their statement. “Progress was achieved by collaborating with a range of stakeholders whose thoughtful feedback was essential to helping shape and inform the Council’s structure.”

UChicago Medicine Helps Local High Schoolers Navigate Healthcare Careers for Second Year

By ANUSHREE VASHIST | Senior News Reporter The UChicago Medicine (UCM) Heart and Vascular Center (HVC) mentorship program, which seeks to expand access to opportunities in the healthcare industry for high school students on Chicago’s South Side, is finding success during its second year.

The program was launched virtually in October 2020 in response to the national reckoning regarding racial injustices. Codirector Bryan Smith explained, “What we could do was to help to train the next gen-

eration of physicians, especially those who are underrepresented minorities and don’t have access to a lot of the resources we have at the University of Chicago.”

HVC started recruiting participants from the South Side over the preceding summer. Valluvan Jeevanandam, director of HVC and chief of cardiology at UCM, told The Maroon that they knocked on the doors of local families and called principals of South Side high schools so that more students could learn about the program.

The program accepted 15 students for the first cohort. Although the program is selective, Smith underscored elements of the application process designed to promote equitable admissions: There is no application fee, and program directors look beyond academic indicators such as GPA. “We don’t want students who are just academic superstars—we want students with passion,” he said. “Sometimes all students need is a spark to unleash their passion, so students who may not be doing as well in school as they want to may be right for our program.”

Hands-on activities are a key component of this year’s program, including participatory demonstrations and opportunities for participants to shadow HVC staff members. Smith highlighted the virtual CPR workshops with Abdullah Pratt, an emergency medicine physician whom Smith called an “instrumental mentor,” who taught students how to perform CPR on pillows at home.

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assigned one mentor based on their primary area of interest. Mentors helped students plan and envision their careers, Smith said.

Both Smith and Jeevanandam feel grateful for the close relationships they have developed with students. “I love seeing the students, because as soon as they come into the room and they light up, they just bring so much energy and enthusiasm to everything we do,” Smith said.

“We had a number of students who would shadow me and ask questions about

how we manage patients…and it really just gives me an immediate perspective of my job,” he said. “So as much as we can say that we give to them, I think they give so much back to us as well.”

The learning experience continued over the summer through paid internships. Students interacted with health-care professionals to learn about medicine and other career paths. “Many of the students said it was one of the best summers of their lives, so it’s really rewarding to hear,” Smith said.

After the success of the first cohort, over

100 students attended the interest meeting for the program in 2021.

Jeevanandam said that the long-term goal is to have these students make an impact in healthcare and eventually return to mentor rising students.

“This isn’t going to be an immediate effect, but if you don’t start now, you’re not going to see anything blossoming five to 10 years from now,” he said. “Hopefully, within about six years, we should see some of them back [in] the workforce.”

In the meantime, Smith is hoping to

launch more short-term projects, including research and volunteer projects, even after current students graduate from the program.

As the program continues to grow and evolve, Jeevandandam is sure that the central aspiration will remain: “The mission is the same: to give underrepresented students the maximum opportunity for exposure and mentorship and guide them to their next level of education so they can attain their goals.”

University Has No Plans to Divest, Set Carbon Neutrality Goal, Alivisatos Says

By ADEKEMI KASALI | News Reporter The University has no plans to divest its endowment from fossil fuels or set a deadline for carbon neutrality, President Paul Alivisatos said in a public sustainability town hall hosted by the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) on Wednesday, December 1.

In his first remarks during the town hall, Alivisatos expressed his commitment to campus sustainability.

“The topics of climate, energy, and sustainability are some of the hardest challenges that we will face as global societies,” he said. “It’s one of the issues where we really want to see the impact of the University become stronger.”

Alivisatos announced that he has formed a new faculty group in an effort to tackle issues of sustainability and “to do planning around new academic visions and where we want the University to go.” In the early stages of planning, the faculty group will work closely with a group of students.

A great number of questions were submitted from the audience about fossil fuel divestment, the subject of a new student-led pressure campaign. Commenting publicly on the matter for the first time, Alivisatos said that the University has no plans to divest from fossil fuels.

“Specifically saying that we will set a divestment goal because of climate policy issues is one that won’t be achievable for me or for the University at this time,” he said.

He added that only a “small fraction of the endowment” is currently invested in fossil fuels, “and it continues to decline.”

Alivisatos also said that the University

has no plans to set a deadline to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

“We should be thinking hard if we can do more on the absolute emissions,” Alivisatos said. “We should pay attention first to make sure we believe we can achieve the goal that we have and [from there] understand where we can go further.”

UChicago Student Action, the student activist group organizing the ongoing fossil fuel divestment campaign, said in a statement that they are “greatly disappointed” by the announcement concerning divestment.

“UChicago Student Action is encouraged by the University’s sustainability goals, its commitment to funding student initiatives through the Green Fund, and the overall enthusiasm of students, faculty and administrators towards environmental issues,” the group wrote. “However, we are greatly disappointed by the lack of commitment to divesting the University’s $11.6 billion endowment from the fossil-fuel industry. Many of our peer institutions, including Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, have already announced plans to divest from fossil fuels.”

At the town hall, the 2030 plan was discussed extensively. At present, the University aims to halve emissions by 2030. Adam D’Ambrosio, the senior director of energy management within the University’s facilities services, said that from 2012 to 2020, there was “about a one percent reduction in absolute greenhouse gas emissions.”

D’Ambrosio identified the main goals of the 2030 plan as avoiding new sources of emissions, reducing emissions by mak-

ing existing buildings as energy efficient as possible, and substituting high-carbon fuel sources for low-carbon ones.

D’Ambrosio said that campus expansion must also align with these goals: New buildings should be LEED Silver certified and as energy efficient as possible.

“The cornerstones of our plan are minimizing the impact of campus growth, making our buildings as efficient as possible, and using renewable energy where possible,” D’Ambrosio said. “That’s what’s going to get us there.”

Alivisatos also stated a commitment to greater data transparency.

“Yes, we will do data transparency,” he said. “We will make the data we have available, and we’re interested in hearing ideas for how we can get more data.”

Vice Provost Melina Hale also sat on the panel.

Fourth-year Terra Baer, a member of USG and one of the organizers of the town hall, said that she was satisfied with how the event went. Baer is also the Vice President of the Phoenix Sustainability Initiative, a student advisor to the UChicago Environmental Community (UChicago ECo), and involved in other sustainability groups on campus.

“A significant goal shared by student advocates over the past couple of years has been to bring people working on various aspects of campus environmentalism together to better coordinate and centralize our efforts,” she said. “Content aside, it is my belief that the town hall’s effectiveness in providing a forum for sustainability-minded students to interact with and hear directly from top administrators on issues that students have

dedicated countless hours to addressing is incredibly valuable in and of itself.”

Fourth-year Allen Abbott, USG executive vice president of internal affairs and another organizer of the town hall, agreed that the event was successful. Abbott noted that this was the first time in at least five years that there has been a public town hall with the president of the University.

“There are a lot of trust issues between students and the administration right now, and we are doing our best to make productive movements on a variety of important issues while also making it clear to President Alivisatos and the administration that more needs to be done in order to rebuild some of the trust that has eroded in [the] past ten years,” Abbott said.

Abbott also said that USG will continue to advocate for full data transparency and divestment.

“I think it’s great that this is the first time that we have had a firm answer from the University on any degree of investment or any context on the actual nature of the endowment,” Abbott said. “But we’re going to push, at the very beginning steps, a specific percentage point of fossil fuel investment in the endowment and the exact rate of decline.”

Nonetheless, Abbott sees the direction the University is going in terms of progress toward improvements in key issues like sustainability as positive.

“Generally, we’re seeing a movement toward a more transparent university and a university that is going to be more welcoming to making policy changes in response to student proposals,” he said.

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VIEWPOINTS

THE MAROON Needs to Earn Community Trust MAROON leadership and writers alike must be more thoughtful and sensitive in our reporting in order to repair relationships with communities of color on campus.

By JENNIFER RIVERA When my peers find out I’m a columnist for The Maroon, I’m either met with praise or subjected to a rant about how they absolutely hate the newspaper. When faced with the latter scenario, I don’t engage because I assume that the issue is not with me, but rather with the columnists who wrote the content with which they disagreed, and with the editors for allowing the content to be posted. Consequently, I choose to

separate myself from any form of negative comments made about The Maroon despite writing for it. However, back in April, while in a meeting for a publication for which I was planning on writing, a member called it the only anti-racist student-run publication on campus. I then thought to myself: “Is The Maroon not anti-racist?” As a person of color, how do I reconcile myself with writing for a student newspaper that has been considered to lack racial sensitivity? It goes without

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saying that an extreme distaste for The Maroon exists; and, after some minor digging, I cannot blame these critics. Given The Maroon’s harmful depictions of people of color and multicultural organizations, Maroon leadership and Maroon writers alike must amend relationships with students of color and change the way they represent cultural organizations.

In February 2019, The Maroon published a photo of a Black teenager without his consent. The photo showed the youth being apprehended by a Chicago Police Department officer. A petition calling for the editors-in-chief to take this photo down quickly garnered more than 700 signatures. The petition stated that the publication of the image was “gratuitous, unprofessional, and deeply problematic,” perpetrating “the Myth of Black Criminality and the racist, distorted view of Black youth as less innocent [and] more adult-like and dangerous than their White peers.”

I agree. It was a completely inappropriate photo that The Maroon’s past editors should’ve never allowed to be posted. To make matters worse, section editors were not consulted before the photo was published, and the photographer asked for the photo to be taken down multiple times.

In the aftermath, many section editors penned an open letter to Maroon leadership and refused to work until the editors-in-chief left. This shows that unilateral decisions undertaken by top Maroon leadership deeply devastate not only its surrounding

community but its own team as well. Another case of misrepresentation occurred in February 2020, when UChicago United (UCU), a coalition of multicultural organizations that works to make campus more inclusive for the marginalized, posted a statement on how The Maroon had inaccurately represented it.

In this statement, UCU said that the coalition would be “re-evaluating” the way it interacted with the newspaper after an article misstated its mission objectives and decontextualized the words of its representatives. In another recent case of The Maroon platforming harmful comments about a student organization, a Viewpoints columnist called for the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) to be investigated for ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Not only did this article have Sinophobic undertones, but it also vilified a student organization for having ties to its native country, failing to recognize that people are different from their country’s government. It didn’t take me long to find a few of many possible examples of The Maroon engaging in harmful behavior toward the people of color in its community.

Of course, folks on the The Maroon may not have had any malicious intent when publishing the latter content, but there needs to be more thoughtfulness and sensitivity when discussing racialized issues. This past April, the Maroon Editorial Board published an editorial series titled “How The University of Chicago Can Better Serve the

South Side,” which recognized past harm, announced changes in The Maroon’s reporting standards, and provided a meaningful start to conversations about institutional changes within the University as a whole. This was a step in the right direction because, as a writer of color for The Maroon, it is upsetting to see how The Maroon has wronged students of color and its own writers of color by publishing problematic content in the past. As student journalists, we cannot be detached from what we write because our content does not exist in a vacuum. When we misconstrue vital information, even if we do not intend to do so, we negatively affect the students for whom we are supposed to provide news and content. The Maroon needs to be a space where students of color can feel like they aren’t being demonized, but we have not been particularly successful in this endeavor.

Moving forward, I wonder how The Maroon should best interact with students on campus and the surrounding community. As much as I try to make my columns about on-campus issues, this is not enough; as much as I try to be knowledgeable about issues on campus, I’m not always going to know what’s going on.

For starters, as a columnist, I would like to see ideas flowing in from other students on campus rather than our own little bubble of columnists. Maroon leadership should be focused on making the publication more accessible to multicultural organizations CONTINUED ON PG. 7

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“Viewpoints writers should also think long-term about how to make lasting, transformative change within our community.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 6 so that they can bring up issues they want covered. In addition, before publishing something with a student’s or organization’s name attached to it, we should allow them to see what we’re going to quote so that they can see if it’s correct and not us misconstruing their words—anything we print is public information, after all.

We should be giving these students the space and opportunity

EVA McCORD

to share their goals with us in a manner that is not distorted and is faithful to their overall mission.

While The Maroon is a student-run publication, I find myself wondering how much we actually engage with the Hyde Park community in a constructive manner. I more than understand needing to publish articles consistently on tight deadlines, but the Viewpoints section shouldn’t just be focused on publishing for the

sake of having something to publish. Viewpoints writers should also think long-term about how to make lasting, transformative change within our community; for instance, a columnist recently raised concerns about how the new Lululemon shop on East 53rd Street contributes to an ongoing cycle of gentrification in the Hyde Park area. Articles like these are crucial because they cause students on campus to reflect on

their own actions and can, consequently, serve as mechanisms for instituting change within our community. I believe that our role as writers for a student publication is to advocate for change while also being as accurate as possible in reporting or discussing on-campus issues. When we misrepresent multicultural organizations or people of color in our reporting, there is going to be mistrust. When this happens, we

fail in our mission to be objective and report on the truth. As an individual who believes in the power of journalism to be a seed of change, I believe that Maroon leadership and writers can be more conscientious and considerate when illustrating the communities of which we are a part.

Jennifer Rivera is a third-year in the College.

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THE MAROON Should Mobilize Students Instead of simply covering events and producing opinion pieces, THE MAROON should take a clear political stance and facilitate student demonstrations, rallies, and workshops.

By RAWAN ABBAS Writing—whether through storytelling, journalism, or academia—is about broadcasting people’s lives and advocating change, all with the goal of improving the well-being of the individuals. Precisely for this reason, I decided to write for The Maroon. Journalism gives us a way to protest the oppressive and overbearing conditions under which we live.

However, journalism without activism rarely leads to any change. Journalism has always been part of political activism, and it can’t be extracted from the communities that are covered. Consequently, it can’t be objective—as much as many journalists would like to believe the contrary. It is always biased because the questions of for whom stories are written and from which perspective they are told will always be present.

Some would argue that if a newspaper has a political leaning, then it can’t be truthful to reality. I vehemently disagree on two accounts. First, reality is what we make it. We have been taught all our lives that the oppression we face and the misery we feel is part of reality. However, that is because the people spreading such narratives benefit from those very narratives, which brings me to the second point: All newspapers have a political leaning—from what is published to who is publishing it—no matter how much they frame themselves as objective. I think that being strongly vocal about which side the newspaper supports only makes the newspaper more truthful.

Furthermore, revolution-

ary and liberatory movements across the world have historically had to disseminate and deploy their ideas through newspapers. From Ms., the American feminist magazine, to Fatat al-Sharq, an Arab magazine that supported feminist demands as well as liberation from British occupation, good journalism has inspired people to act, to enact positive social change, to liberate. Just as with any newspaper, it is the responsibility of The Maroon to write the dismantlement and abolition of oppressive systems into reality. Unfortunately, The Maroon sometimes refrains from taking stands when there is an ongoing student mobilization taking place—which is a failure to meet its responsibility as a journalistic voice.

Specifically, The Maroon leans more toward reporting than engaging in actual activism. While media coverage is in a way a branch of activism in itself, in today’s world—where everyone has a phone and can broadcast what’s happening anywhere to anyone—reporting and writing columns is not enough. Engaging in mobilizing and organizing should be one of The Maroon’s main concerns. During the protests in the summer in solidarity with Palestine, a piece titled “Join the Incoming USG in Standing with Palestine” was published.

The student who wrote the piece mobilized the readers of The Maroon to sign a petition in support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. This was activism.

The recent rally that took place on the main quad after Shaoxiong Zheng’s murder

highlighted conflicting opinions among the UChicago community. On the one hand, some demands in the rally acknowledged the systemic racism inherent in the police and the fact that increasing police presence would cause more harm than good. On the other hand, some were calling for more on-campus police and surveillance, which was apparent in some of the displayed signs as well as in the petition signed by more than 300 faculty members.

Some individuals who attended the rally expressed racist sentiments and held anti-Black signs. For instance, some of the signs appropriated Black Lives Matter slogans, such as “student lives matter,” with complete ignorance to the specificity of these slogans to the fight against systemic racism.

In addition, an international student from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who attended the rally said that “The Black kid who killed [Zheng]… was raised in drugs…gun violence…it raised him. It’s about Chicago.”

The Maroon did in fact report on this incident, but only passively; the reporters did not participate. It felt as if The Maroon was an outsider. Nonetheless, I think the rally was a good opportunity for The Maroon to start a conversation between the two groups. It started this conversation by publishing an article by the rally organizers titled “We Want Safety,” but that is not enough; I think there is more to be done. I personally don’t agree with the petition or the proposal to increase on-campus surveillance as they are nothing but reactionary.

I am also an international student, and these recent events made me panic to the point that I wanted to go back home because I couldn’t handle being constantly anxious. I was too scared to leave my room or attend any of my classes.

Moreover, international students—who are mostly nonwhite—don’t occupy positions of high privilege in the United States; in fact, we are subjected to discrimination and racism.

But being subjected to racism doesn’t justify ignoring—and with these demands the consequence of reproducing—other forms of racism that the Black community is facing. When I think about my positionality both as an international student and as an abolitionist, I also think of these international students as potential allies in participating in solutions that reduce gun violence on campus without involving more police or surveillance.

Therefore, The Maroon— since it expresses the ideas of UChicago students—has an obligation to organize students by holding events that aim to open up important conversations about such anti-Black rhetoric and ways to decrease the crime rate in Hyde Park. By doing so, we can bring together possible allies to work for a safer neighborhood—while simultaneously working to abolish racist systems. As The Maroon is not only part of UChicago but also part of the Hyde Park community, such demands—such as increasing the presence of the University of Chicago Police Department and placing surveillance cameras all over campus and the surrounding

streets—hurt both the students on campus and the community where they reside.

Though good journalism requires investigation and research, good journalism also requires taking bold, radical stands. Giving media coverage to UChicago student movements that lead campaigns against oppressive systems is not enough. Instead of only reporting, The Maroon can have a more profound impact by being vocal about where it stands. It should encourage its writers to start their own campaigns through the paper or by reaching out to student movements to help in mobilizing and organizing.

One student movement that does great work is #CareNotCops, which operates under UChicago United. It in fact organized an event on December 2 to discuss with students what a campus without police would look like. I think The Maroon should reach out to interview organizers and attendees of such events, encourage people to participate in and write about those events, and continue from there by cohosting similar events. In the meantime, you can sign a letter addressed to the University’s administration—formulated by UChicago United—rejecting the increase in police presence on campus and demanding the administration to invest in the healing of the community.

Rawan Abbas is a student-atlarge in the College.

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ARTS The Fleeting Eternals Flies Too Close to the Sun A well-intended portrayal of diversity and human imperfection, Eternals winds up deficient in other important storytelling aspects.

By ALINA KIM | Arts Reporter The following review contains spoilers for the movie Eternals.

Eternals urges its audience to reflect, take a step back from the growing convolution that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and, despite devastation and loss, appreciate life on Earth as miraculous. In its essence, the film’s premise challenges Loki’s nihilism and defies an acceptance of our destined demise—in short, humanity is worth saving even if it means betraying fate itself.

Director Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) was the obvious choice for a deep study

of the human character. Her distinctive, contemplative style, which marries her characters to a natural aesthetic, shines with cinematographer Ben Davis (Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy) at the helm. Zhao’s vision walks us through a glorious Babylon, saturated with the deep cerulean hues of the Ishtar Gate, and a brittle present-day Australian desert, beaten down by dry wind and decorated with the disturbing art of mentally volatile Eternal Thena (Angelina Jolie).

Amid the MCU’s recently relentless slew of fast-paced fight sequences and their

accompanying bass-boosted music (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Black Widow), Eternals promised a different approach to the superhero genre, one more intimate in its delivery.

The MCU’s latest film follows the titular Eternals, 10 immortal aliens who each have their own special abilities, most of which are visually enhanced by Marvel Studios’ now-signature golden energy blasts (see: Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Shang-Chi, Vision). They arrive on Earth in 5000 B.C.E. to eradicate bloodthirsty, life-sucking monsters called Deviants, and they succeed by the 16th

The MCU’s latest film follows the titular Eternals, 10 immortal aliens who each have their own special abilities.

COURTESY OF VANITY FAIR

century C.E. In the process, though, they grow attached to humans, teaching them to build shelters, bake the first loaves of bread, and create groundbreaking inventions like the plow and the atomic bomb.

(Yes. You read that right. In a flashback, genius inventor Phastos [Brian Tyree Henry] even sobs uncontrollably about how horrible and betrayed he feels because he has developed weapons of mass destruction. Who knew they could be so deadly?) The Eternals split up over differences in opinion about how they have ignored human atrocities (wars, Spanish colonization, and the like), but CONTINUED ON PG. 10

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“Marvel Studios has become quite masterful at delightfully introducing the ordinary side of extraordinary beings.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 9

they reunite in the present day after cataclysmic events (global warming) bring back the extinct Deviants. Our protagonist Sersi (Gemma Chan), who possesses transmutational powers, learns of the Eternals’ true purpose on Earth from a telepathic connection with the Prime Celestial Arishem (David Kaye), and from there, the plot unfolds.

As countless reviews have alluded to, the cast displays a natural inclusivity and a refreshingly acute awareness of imperfection. Eternals leader Ajak (Salma Hayek) is a healer confronted with the grim truth that she can’t save everyone. Speedster Makkari (Lauren Ridloff) uses her hearing impairment to detect the slightest frequencies but stumbles as she abruptly stops her sprinting.

Richard Madden’s Ikaris, the strongest Eternal in the film, shoots cosmic energy beams but with imprecise aim. And from kindhearted Gilgamesh (Don Lee) to androgynous, fickle illusionist Sprite (Lia McHugh), each character is given individual dreams beyond their main objective of battling a CGI army of sinewy beasts. Marvel Studios has become quite masterful at delightfully introducing the ordinary side of extraordinary beings, and I applaud Eternals for being no exception.

Ironically, this character-driven focus is also where Eternals stumbles: Its cast is simply too large to flesh out fully the potential of each Eternal beyond mere introduction, leaving the movie to glaze over rushed attempts at devel-

oping their friendships, romances, and emotional stakes. We are told over and over that the Eternals view each other as family. Indeed, it is heartwarming to see that Gilgamesh spends centuries caring for his mentally vulnerable friend Thena, the goddess of war whose mind has fragmented from the weight of her painful memories. Mind controller Druig (Barry Keoghan) croons over his love interest, nicknaming her “Beautiful Makkari.” Yet I seldom see this intimacy elsewhere. Sersi is reduced to a mere vessel through which the audience watches the action unfold, and her chemistry with Ikaris is flat at best. Sprite steals glances in Ikaris’s direction, but her romantic pining is demonstrated by two scenes of lackluster whining. Criminally underused powerhouses Jolie and Hayek could have shown us what previous planetary apocalypses looked like, which would in turn explain Thena’s fractured memories and Ajak’s decision to abandon Arishem’s mission. Instead, the audience is treated to Arishem’s tedious info-dumping session to fill in the gaps of our knowledge regarding the Celestials, Deviants, and Eternals.

This brings me to my other criticism: We are bombarded with so much exposition about the aliens that we miss out on scenes of the Eternals’ affection for humanity—supposedly a driving motive for the Eternals. Certainly, we see bouts of genuine compassion, such as Phastos kissing his human husband (Haaz Sleiman), or Bollywood star Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) bickering with his manager

Karun (Harish Patel) as they attempt to vlog an Eternals documentary on multiple cameras, a running joke in the film.

Otherwise, the Eternals’ relationship with humans takes a back seat, mostly featuring nameless figures across the centuries whose paths they temporarily cross. The consequential unsatisfying shallowness left me wondering about the motives particularly of Druig, Thena, Makkari, and Gilgamesh—after isolating themselves from humanity for centuries, what are their stakes? For the majority of the time, Eternals leaves this question unanswered, instead replacing it with the shallow onslaught of mindless monsters, golden superpowers, and quippy humor.

Amid the cacophony, I appreciate Zhao for slotting in themes of ironic disillusionment toward humanity where the story allowed. Druig, in his desperation to stop the Spanish conquest in Mesoamerica, himself becomes a colonizer of Indigenous minds for half a millennium, even teaching them Spanish of all languages. His jaded condition, too, moves him to see Indigenous people as weaponizable bodies through which he could design society as he desired. Kingo, too, treats humanity as pet-like sources of entertainment, whimsically vlogging through a coming apocalypse and shaping the Bollywood scene to boast of the Eternals’ achievements. (The musical he films during his introduction is supposedly the heroic retelling of Ikaris.) These bits and pieces of their disenchantment were intriguing, even disturbing. Per-

haps if this hesitancy toward viewing humans as humans were more prominent, their eventual embrace of Earth would have been more strikingly powerful for both the storyline and their own development as immortal characters.

I suppose I must address the sex scene between two naked characters, hailed as a momentous first for the MCU. Alas, and rather unsurprisingly for the sexually stifled MCU (look no further than Joss Whedon’s questionable Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Banner pairing in Avengers: Age of Ultron), the camera zooms into Madden and Chan’s faces as they assume the missionary position— indeed, how cinematically revolutionary. The sex lasts maybe eight seconds if I stretch my calculation, only bolstering my disappointment with the MCU’s hesitancy to embrace directorial vision beyond the traditional boundaries of a blockbuster studio. Why bother hiring someone as brilliant as Zhao if the producers seem content with such bland treatment of human intimacy? If Marvel Studios dared to look past CGI spectacles of ropey dinosaurs and droid-like gods and moved to prolong moments of emotional vulnerability instead, maybe Ikaris’s distraught agony as he hesitates against Sersi at the movie’s climax would be more palpable and less eyeroll-worthy. If Marvel Studios shed its fixation on the construction of its already chock-full superhero universe, this entry in the new phase would cease falling short on fully realizing its optimistic message of human mortality, sacrifice, and resilience.

Hyde Park Eats: Taco Bell Cantina

By LUKE LAURENCE | Arts Reporter Have you ever wanted to be able to grab an alcoholic Baja Blast and a box of $1.19 tacos in the same place? Well, wait no longer. Hyde Park’s hottest restaurant answers the question you never asked: What if you took Mexican food and took out everything that made it Mexican? And then deep-fried

it and stuffed with molten cheese and your favorite brand of chips? If this fills you with a morbid curiosity, Taco Bell awaits.

Diners with previous Taco Bell experience may be intimidated by the urbane locale. No ordinary Taco Bell, the Cantina is instead upholstered in

ultramodern brushed steel and sleek faux-walnut that is far removed from Taco Bell’s traditional vomit-yellow and puke-green palette. The electronic ordering tablets further contribute to the dystopian sci-fi atmosphere, though not as much as the food itself does.

Surely there is nowhere else where you can get a taco with a shell of fried chicken. While this is probably for the

best, you must try this dish—the Naked Chicken Chalupa—at least once, if only to be able to say you did so. Much like April showers and May flowers, the Naked Chicken Chalupa is only available in the spring, so mark your calendar.

And how could you expect anything less from the visionaries who brought you the Doritos Locos Taco, which, CONTINUED ON PG. 11

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“The restaurant’s steadfast refusal to be associated with health food is admirable, and it puts Taco Bell in the company of peers like Pizza Hut…” CONTINUED FROM PG. 10

upon its 2012 release date, shocked and horrified the American people while simultaneously confirming every negative stereotype the international community held of us but has since become a staple of the American diet? Or the further perversion that was the Doritos Cheesy Gordita Crunch Nacho Cheese, in which the already ungodly abomination that is the Doritos Locos Taco was subsumed into a blasphemous amalgamation of dripping cheese and deep-fried dough?

More recent highlights have included the Quesalupa, an unholy construction that finally answered the eternal question: what if you filled a deep-fried taco shell with cheese? It is fantastic, though as you eat it, you can’t help but feel that you’re taking years off your life with each bite. But this is exactly the ethos that Taco Bell represents, and it makes no qualms about this: Live fast, die young. If you’re eating Taco Bell, you already probably don’t care about your long-term prospects. You might as well enjoy your slide into ruinous depravity.

Much like the Naked Chicken Chalupa, the Quesalupa is a delicacy you have to try at least once. Unlike the chalupa, however, this one’s not to be eaten just for the story—it is an experience. You may regret it five minutes later, but in the moment, it is an epiphany. You find yourself thinking, “Wow, why don’t I eat Taco Bell more often? It’s pretty good.”

It’s only later, as you lie on the bathroom floor, that you find yourself remembering, “Oh. That’s why.”

So too for the Spicy Potato Soft Taco, perhaps the healthiest thing on Taco Bell’s impressively artery-hardening menu. (There may be a salad, but, as nobody has ever ordered it, it will not be counted.) The potatoes are clearly (relatively) healthy, or Taco Bell wouldn’t periodically remove them from the menu for no other reason than to keep health-conscious customers on their toes. The restaurant’s steadfast refusal to be associated with health food is admirable, and it puts Taco Bell in the company of peers like Pizza Hut and KFC. (While beyond the scope of this piece,

KFC’s twin horrors, the Fried Chicken and Doughnut Sandwich and the Double Down fried chicken hamburger, cannot go unnoticed. I implore you to do your own research.) While potential consumers must, as always, be careful—though the seasoned potatoes are uncharacteristically pleasant, the Taco Bell cheese is unmistakably noxious, and it must be avoided at all costs—the taco, ordered without cheese, is a surprising delight.

As it can be purchased for as little as a dollar apiece, this is no small matter.

Students on a budget could presumably live off of a daily handful of potato tacos, at least in the short term. However, the dish does come with one massive caveat: While the potatoes are delicious in the moment, as with McDonald’s fries, the second they become cold, they’re as rubbery and inedible as congealed lard. But this is the ultimate expression of the es-

prit de corps that illuminates Taco Bell: You’re here for a good time, not a long time. Live fast, die young, remember?

Come on, have a Taco Bell Cinnabon Delight. You’re only alive once.

Unlike other Taco Bells, the Cantina also serves alcohol, because eating Taco Bell’s food apparently isn’t self-destructive enough on its own. Overall, a 10/10 restaurant.

Hyde Park’s hottest restaurant answers the question you never asked: What if you took Mexican food and took out everything that made it Mexican? And then deep-fried it and stuffed with molten cheese and your favorite brand of chips? COURTESY OF TACO BELL

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SPORTS Running towards the 2022 Chicago Marathon

By KAYLA RUBENSTEIN | Sports Reporter While some may see running as a last-ditch effort to make it to class on time, some members of Burton-Judson (B-J) Hall have used it as a bonding experience. Beginning during the pandemic, the running group has connected B-J residents both old and new.

As COVID-19 halted extracurriculars, B-J Resident Deans Patricia Jones and Andrew Siegel searched for ways that students could interact safely. Because they needed to be on campus and outdoors, the activities available seemed limited to walking up and down the Midway. Colin Rydell, an avid runner and former B-J Resident Head, introduced the idea of beginning a running group during spring 2020.

With the idea supported by student interest, Jones consulted with Mike Norman, the founder and owner of Chicago Endurance Sports, and Kerl LaJeune, a running coach with the company and the current president of the Chicago Area Runners Association.

The three of them conferred on the best way to safely train a large, mixed-experience group of runners during an era of mask requirements.

“The goal [of the group] is to make [running] accessible so that anybody that wants to run, wants to get into running, will have a group that they feel comfortable and safe with. They don’t have to go up by themselves, and they have someone guiding them and leading

them,” Jones said.

As the year progressed, Jones began searching for ways to diversify running locations. “We had such a great core group of runners that Colin and I discussed doing a race as a group for motivation to keep running during the summer,” Jones said. This race turned out to be the Chicago Half Marathon & 5K, scheduled for September 26, 2021. The races required an application to enter, so Jones contacted Jeremy Weitzman, who organizes corporate and charity groups for the race. The application was approved, and she prepaid for 30 runners, giving the group a bronze-level status that allowed them to reserve a space at the finish line set up with a tent, table, four chairs, and an ice cooler.

The day before the race, Jones and current B-J Resident Head Patrick Fitzgibbon drove drinks, snacks, and supplies to the tent. At 5 a.m. the day of the race, Jones and Siegel finished setting up the tent and waited for the runners.

Race runners from the group included Ally Bartholomew, Chloe Bartholomew, Colin Cooper, Rohan Kapoor, Rohan Kapur, Dannerys Peralta, Jaden Rismay, Maya Shah McDaniel, Grace Wang, and Annie Zhi. Professor Matthew Emerton joined this group for the half-marathon in a spontaneous decision. “I’ve been running on and off all my adult life and for most of my teenage life, but I haven’t

been running long distances for a few years,” Emerton said. “I was in London a week before the half-marathon with my colleague. We ended up running nine miles, so a night before I came back to the U.S., a Friday night, I signed up to join the Burton-Judson team. I ran the half-marathon Sunday morning, and it was great.”

Although Jones was not able to participate in the race due to an injury, she supported the group the entire way. “Be-

ing part of this cheering squad, waiting for our runners to come by, was so fun,” Jones said. “I felt totally involved with the marathon even without running it.”

Looking forward, the group hopes to participate in the 2022 Chicago Marathon. “We are proud of our B-J runners’ dedication and their amazing performance as a group at the race. I cannot emphasize enough how amazing our B-J residents are,” Jones said.

Upcoming Games SPORT

OPPONENT

DATE

LOCATION

Men’s Basketball Women’s Basketball Swim & Dive Track &Field Wrestling Swim & Dive Women’s Basketball Men’s Basketball

Rochester Rochester Lewis North Central Invite Elmhurst Invite Mutliple Emory Emory

Fri. Jan 14 Fri. Jan 14 Fri. Jan 14 Sat. Jan 15 Sat. Jan 15 Sat. Jan 15 Sun. Jan 16 Sun. Jan 16

Away Away Home Away Away Home Away Away

Second-year Dannerys Peralta poses with her medal. COURTESY OF KAYLA RUBENSTEIN