NEWS: “We Need to Be Prepared”: Augustana Lutheran Church Braces for Immigration Crackdown
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JANUARY 29, 2025
FOURTH WEEK
VOL. 137, ISSUE 8
UCUP Rallies Outside University President’s House
By NATHANIEL RODWELL-SIMON | Deputy News Editor and OLIVER BUNTIN | Senior News Reporter
Approximately 70 protesters associated with UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) marched to University President Paul Alivisatos’s house after rallying on the main quad on January 16. Protesters demanded that the University “reinstate” two students whom the University has placed on an involuntary leave of absence following their arrests by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) in connection with the October 11 UCUP protest.
The rally was part of UCUP’s “Week of Healing,” announced shortly after the Council on University Programming (COUP) canceled Kuvia, an annual UChicago winter tradition, in response to the arrest of COUP co-president,fourth-year Mamayan Jabateh. Jabateh, whom UCUP formerly iden-
tified as “Student B,” was arrested by CPD on December 11 and charged with two felonies in connection with their alleged obstruction of a police officer on October 11. They were subsequently placed on an involuntary leave of absence and removed from on-campus housing, where they served as a resident assistant (RA).
On October 21, the University placed an individual identified by his lawyer as “Student A” on an involuntary leave of absence after CPD arrested him at the October 11 protest.
Jabateh is the second student arrested in connection with the October 11 protest, where Jabateh allegedly intervened to prevent the detainment of a University undergraduate who was ar-
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Undergrad Files Civil Rights Lawsuit Against University
By NATHANIEL RODWELL-SIMON | Deputy News Editor
Fourth-year Manuel Rivera filed a civil rights complaint against the University, Interim Dean of Students in the University Michael Hayes, and two unnamed University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) officers on January 14, according to court documents reviewed by the Maroon. The complaint alleges that the University’s decision to remove Rivera from on-campus housing and place him on an involuntary leave
NEWS: Promontory Point Advocates Unveil Designs to Preserve Historic Limestone
PAGE 2
of absence was a violation of the First Amendment and of Illinois and Chicago housing law.
This is the first lawsuit and second civil rights complaint filed against the University in relation to pro-Palestine activism in the past year. The first complaint, filed by Palestine Legal in August on behalf of UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP), alleged that the University
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NEWS: Nobel Prize Winning–Alum Reflects on the Intersection of AI and Protein Folding
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Longtime Economics Professor Allen Sanderson Dies at 81
By NATHANIEL RODWELL-SIMON | Deputy News Editor
Allen Sanderson (A.M. ’70), a senior instructional professor in the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics and the College, passed away on January 23. He was 81 years old.
In an email sent to economics faculty by Department Chair Azeem Shaikh, Sanderson was remembered as “a beloved instructor,” “an exemplary university citizen,” and a “strong advocate for our undergraduate students,” who wrote thou-
ARTS: The Philosophy of Clothing With Agnes Callard PAGE 10
sands of letters of recommendation, led discussions around the annual “Aims of Education” address, and taught courses in both economics and the Big Problems program.
“Allen’s pedagogical contribution to our department is significant,” Shaikh wrote. “Renowned for his dedication to teaching, he was honored with the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Un-
CONTINUED ON PG. 8
ARTS: Spells, Crystals, and a Bridge from Reality PAGE 13
A UCPD officer stands on the steps of University President Paul Alivisatos’s house while protesters rally outside. nathaniel rodwell-simon
According to the complaint, the University’s actions constitute unlawful retaliation under the First Amendment.
CONTINUED FROM PG. 1
has engaged in “different treatment of Palestinian students and their allies” and “has reinforced [a] hostile anti-Palestinian environment” on campus.
Sheryl Weikal, the attorney representing Rivera, previously filed suit against Illinois State University (ISU) in August on behalf of seven students who received interim suspensions and no-trespass orders from ISU following their participation in a pro-Palestine protest. She declined to comment on the record about Rivera’s case or any of its specifics, citing the pending nature of litigation.
“Although Plaintiff was evicted on October 21, 2024, Defendants falsified their own records to indicate Plaintiff was given until December 9, 2024 to vacate,” the complaint alleges.
The University declined to comment on the complaint or any of its allegations, citing the pending nature of litigation.
Rivera has accused the University, Hayes, and the two unidentified UCPD officers of one count of “Unlawful First Amendment Retaliation” and one count of “Unlawful Eviction in Tort.”
He has also accused the University and Hayes of one count of “Violations of Chicago Municipal Code 5-12-160,” which regulates landlord interference with tenants’ access to dwellings. He has accused the two UCPD officers of one count of “Violations of 42 U.S.C. 1983,” under which he can sue the offi-
cers for participating in the deprivation of his civil rights by carrying out his removal from housing.
Rivera has requested “not less than $50,000 per Plaintiff” for the first three counts, in addition to “costs, attorney fees, and whatever additional relief this Court deems appropriate.” The fourth count requests “not less than $10,000,” plus costs, fees, and any other additional relief deemed appropriate.
Rivera’s complaint states that “on or about October 11, 2024… he observed a group of students peacefully protesting against the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Israeli-Occupied Gaza…. Plaintiff participated in the protest as it was peaceful and occurring in a public place.”
On October 11, UCUP hosted a rally in recognition of the one-year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas War. The rally began on the main quad, after which demonstrators locked Cobb Gate and vandalized University property.
UCPD detained an unknown protester, sparking physical confrontations between police and protesters. Officers used pepper spray and batons on the crowd, while protesters physically engaged with police in an effort to prevent them from making arrests.
Photographs captured by the Maroon during the protest show Rivera kicking a Chicago Police Department (CPD) officer in the back of the leg.
Rivera was charged with the battery of a CPD officer in connection with his
alleged actions during the protest. A Grand Jury has since indicted Rivera on one count of aggravated battery of a peace officer under Illinois state law, according to court documents reviewed by the Maroon
According to the complaint, the University’s actions constitute unlawful retaliation under the First Amendment.
The complaint states that “Plaintiff peacefully and silently engaged in a protest in a public forum, which is First Amendment protected activity” and that any punishments imposed on Rivera were “imposed solely because the Plaintiff was protesting against Israel.”
The complaint also alleges that the University’s actions constitute a violation of Illinois housing law and the Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance (CRLTO). Under CRLTO, “it is unlawful for any landlord or any person acting at his direction knowingly to oust or dispossess or threaten or attempt to oust or dispossess any tenant from a dwelling unit without authority of law.”
“University deans instructed Plaintiff that he was required to vacate his dormitory immediately as he was being placed on involuntary leave due to his participation in the protest of October 11, 2024,” the complaint reads. According to the complaint, deans told Rivera that he should leave campus “voluntar[ily],” but that UCPD officers would arrest him if he did not comply.
“As a direct and proximate result
of Defendants’ actions,” the complaint reads, “Plaintiff was made homeless,” adding that Rivera has since “suffered from hunger and homelessness for months.”
CRLTO provides several exemptions from the ordinance, including for “student housing accommodations wherein a housing agreement or housing contract is entered into between the student and an institution of higher learning” unless “the rental agreement thereof is created to avoid the application of this chapter.”
According to UChicago’s 2024–25 student housing contract, the contract “shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to its choice of law principles, and the parties agree to personal jurisdiction and venue in the state and federal courts located in Cook County, Illinois, in any suit or proceeding arising out of the subject matter of this Contract.”
Jeff Leslie, clinical professor of law and the Paul J. Tierney Director of the Housing Initiative Transactional Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, told the Maroon it is “pretty clear” that the University’s dorms are exempt from CRLTO. According to Leslie, if the University’s dorms are deemed exempt from CRLTO, the University will likely not be liable for the complaint’s third count of violations of Chicago Municipal Code.
Zachary Leiter contributed reporting.
Promontory Point Advocates Unveil Designs to Preserve Historic Limestone
By EVGENIA ANASTASAKOS | Senior News Reporter
At a press conference held at Promontory Point on January 14, the Promontory Point Conservancy released the results of three new engineering and design studies aimed at providing an alternative to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT), and Chicago Park District’s (CPD) plans to replace the Point’s aging limestone with concrete.
“All three reports agree with our
consistent strong message that the limestone revetment has not failed and can be maintained and repaired,” said Jack Spicer, co-founder and president of the Conservancy. “There are multiple preservation design alternatives that meet the Army Corps and the City’s requirements for storm damage
and shoreline protection, while still keeping the fabric of the historic structure in place.”
For a quarter century, the Conservancy has fought against proposals to replace the limestone steps with concrete, which has taken over much of
[T]he Conservancy alleged that the USACE and CDOT plan is set to begin demolition and construction in the spring of 2026 [....].
CONTINUED FROM PG. 2
the city’s shoreline. The group also led efforts to secure the Point’s Chicago Landmark Designation in 2023 and a National Register of Historic Places listing in 2018.
The newly released reports, commissioned by the Conservancy, include a coastal vulnerability analysis, an alternative design study from the McLaren Engineering Group, and a historic structure study from Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. The Conservancy released a study on the condition of the limestone last April, also from McLaren.
The coastal vulnerability analysis concluded that “preserving, repairing and rehabilitating the historic limestone block, step-stone revetment and promenade is a viable option for shore -
line stabilization,” while still meeting the City and USACE’s criteria for shoreline protection. The report says that the revetment and promenade are “resilient and withstand harsh and dynamic lakefront forces,” suggesting that maintenance and rehabilitation can mitigate the limestone’s deterioration.
McLaren’s design study proposes five alternative design concepts for the Point with the goal of “providing adequate and resilient shoreline protection while retaining the historic fabric of the structure to the greatest extent possible.” McLaren also concludes that preservation efforts would be “less or no more expensive than the USACE/ CDOT plan” and that “maintenance of a rehabilitated limestone block revetment and promenade is less or no more
UChicago Scientists Develop Lifelike Bionic Prosthetics
By CELESTE ALCALAY | Senior News Reporter
In two recent studies led by UChicago scientists, users of a bionic hand were able to “feel” sensation in such detail that they could blindly identify a letter of the alphabet by tracing it with a fingertip, and users of a bionic arm could control a steering wheel. The studies represent a significant breakthrough in the development of neuroprosthetics.
“I distinctly remember one of the participants, the first time he felt something, started crying. It was a sweet moment,” UChicago neuroscientist and Research Assistant Professor Charles Greenspon said in an interview with the Maroon. “In some cases, these are people who haven’t felt their hands in years until we implanted them.”
According to Greenspon, the findings of the recently published studies will benefit amputees, people with spinal cord injuries, and other patient populations with sensory loss, including wom-
en who have had mastectomies. In the coming months, Greenspon and fellow researchers plan to implant electrodes in the participants of the Bionic Breast Project, a collaboration with surgeons and obstetricians at UChicago that aims to produce a device which can restore the sense of touch after a mastectomy.
Greenspon described his research as the “brainchild” of two groups.
“There are clinicians who want to help people rehabilitate and have the maximum quality of life after some kind of injury, and neuroscientists, like myself, who want to understand how touch works and apply that information in meaningful ways,” he said.
Many prosthetic limbs don’t provide sensory feedback to their users, making daily tasks, such as lifting a cup or typing, difficult. Without tactile feedback, a prosthetic hand functions more like a
expensive than maintenance and upkeep of the USACE/CDOT plan.”
In the firm’s estimated cost comparison, the five alternative design options range in cost from $13.7 million to $93 million, compared to an estimated cost of $100 million for the USACE and CDOT plan. In a statement to the Hyde Park Herald , Mike Padilla, the USACE project manager for Promontory Point, said that he was unsure where McLaren got the figure of $100 million from, saying that there “is no plan yet.”
In an email sent to community members on January 7, the Conservancy alleged that the USACE and CDOT plan is set to begin demolition and construction in the spring of 2026, closing the Point to the public for five years.
“What the U.S. Army Corps, the City, and the Chicago Park District
want for Promontory Point. It’s not what we want for our jewel on the Chicago Lakefront,” the email read.
“The Conservancy once again invites these agencies to collaborate with the community and their elected officials to develop a solution suited to the interests and needs of all. Listen to the community. Let the community lead,” Spicer told press conference attendees.
Community meetings organized by the Conservancy are set to begin on January 22 and will continue to take place at various neighborhood locations through April 8. Hyde Park residents are invited to attend and voice their concerns, comments, and questions about the future of the Point.
CDOT and USACE did not respond to the Maroon ’s request for comment by the time of publication.
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“At the moment, what we are able to do relatively well is restore the sense of touch.”
CONTINUED FROM PG. 3
grabber tool.
“If you’ve ever gone to the dentist and had your mouth numbed, you will be very acutely aware of how important the sense of touch is to speaking and moving your mouth—your hand is no different,” Greenspon said.
Ten years ago, the research team first obtained approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to implant devices in the brain. What followed was years of collaboration between scientists and engineers at UChicago, University of Pittsburgh, Northwestern University, Case Western Reserve University, and Blackrock Neurotech.
In the first study published in December in Nature Biomedical Engineering, researchers created detailed “maps” of brain areas corresponding to different parts of the hand. They focused on ensuring that stimulating a group of electrodes placed in the brain would reliably trigger the same sensation in
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Addresses Youth Votes, Faith, and Controversies at UChicago IOP Event
By VIVIAN LI | News Reporter
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson discussed youth voter turnout, the role of religion in governance, and a range of pressing city issues at International House on January 9. The event was moderated by Institute of Politics (IOP) Director Heidi Heitkamp and organized jointly by the IOP, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, International House, and UChicago Global.
An audience member asked Johnson to comment on his response to a recent shooting targeting a Jewish community member, which Johnson has received blowback over for not addressing the victim’s religious identity. Johnson said he was committed to reducing antisemitism. “There is tremendous alignment
of my faith as a Christian with the Jewish community. I’m very much aligned through my faith and condemning the attack was something that was important,” Johnson said.
He defended his actions, saying there was a need for a complete investigation into the shooting while reaffirming his administration’s commitment to condemning antisemitism and fostering unity. “As far as repairing and working with the Jewish community, I am open and available, and I’ve extended myself to multiple leaders in the Jewish community,” Johnson said. “They have not taken me up on that offer, quite frankly.”
Johnson reflected on how his Christian faith has shaped his policies. “We
are a gift to one another,” he said. “The greatest gift that we can show is making sure that our treasure and our heart are aligned, as the words of Jesus the Christ, ‘where your treasure is there your heart will be also’… so we should invest in the things we care about. That’s why I focused my energy investing in young people and youth development,” he continued, adding that he has backed initiatives like expanding youth programs, reopening mental health clinics, and increasing affordable housing options.
Discussing the firing of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Pedro Martinez and the transition to a 21-member elected school board, the mayor said he was committed to expanding democracy in Chicago’s public school system. Johnson argued against privatization and school
choice, saying the systems would create inequities.
“Democracy is being curtailed, but in Chicago, we’ve expanded it,” Johnson said. “I am proud to be the first mayor in the history of the city of Chicago to support a fully elected representative school board, and I’m glad that will happen under my leadership, where other administrations have shown a great deal of animus towards democracy.”
Another major focus of the discussion was education funding. Johnson criticized per-pupil funding models, calling them “outdated”. He instead advocated for Evidence-Based Funding, a formula that calculates each neighborhood’s amount of resources and cost of education to determine which schools
Participant operating bionic arm in a driving wheel simulation. courtesy of the university of chicago
“I’m very much aligned through my faith and condemning the attack was something that was important.”
CONTINUED FROM PG. 4
are most in need of financial support. He emphasized his push for $1.1 billion in state funding for CPS.
Responding to questions about his low approval ratings—a 14 percent approval rating and 70 percent disapproval rating—Johnson said that he was “not moved by the polls” as they were only “a snapshot at a point of time.” He claimed that he was “elected to build a better, stronger, safer, Chicago. I will stop at nothing to ensure that happens.” He also cited his administration’s accomplishments, including paid time off for workers and the abolition of subminimum wages, as evidence of progress.
Johnson also argued that the youth
vote plays a critical role in driving transformative change, both in Chicago and nationally. He credited young voters, particularly those aged 18 to 34, for his narrow victory in the 2023 mayoral election
“The youth vote is the nexus between status quo and transformation,” Johnson said. “The youth vote in Chicago and America in general could revolutionize how we do government.”
Johnson pointed to policies he implemented that directly address youth priorities: renewable energy initiatives, the establishment of the Department of the Environment, and expanded mental health services through the Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE)
program. “It’s not so much what I’m doing specifically to go out and tell young
people they should vote for me. It’s about me responding to what they voted for.”
Nobel Prize Winning–Alum Reflects on the Intersection of AI and Protein Folding
By VIVIAN LI | News Reporter
John Jumper (S.M. ’12, Ph.D. ’17) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2024 for his contributions to the development of AlphaFold, an AI model that revolutionized protein structure prediction. He spoke to the Maroon about the journey that led to this historic achievement, the challenges faced, and his broader vision for the future of AI in biology and beyond.
The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Chicago Maroon: What first inspired the development of AlphaFold?
John Jumper : For a long time, people wanted to do this because the protein sequence contains all the information about the protein structure. For me, personally, I kind of came to it indirectly through by chance ending up at this company studying how proteins move and getting very interested in these questions. After leaving that company and coming to UChicago as a grad student, having more or less computer resources and getting very interested
in how we can use AI on this problem. Ultimately, it’s really about how we understand biological systems to make people healthy. How do we understand these proteins that are very important and their structure? Then protein folding, or protein structure prediction, is one of the problems we want to solve, but there are many. It’s a way in.
CM: Would you say that the ability to apply computational skills to biology is one of the main things that an education at UChicago provided you?
JJ: Yes, you could say that. My undergraduate was physics and math. I had come from some time at this company, D.E. Shaw Research, which was doing custom computer chips for studying protein simulation. What I really came to UChicago for was actually a better understanding of wetland biology. I wanted to do a Ph.D., but I also wanted to understand what are the questions people actually really want to answer with these systems. I came to it from the computational side and was looking for
the scientific side.
I kind of learned computation from my own job. I think for multiple years UChicago was the place I learned about biology and biophysics. For me, UChicago was about learning what experimentalists want to do with these systems. How can I design and work together with the experiment to understand the problems? What problems are worth understanding? I gained a lot in the lab, understanding protein structure and protein predictions’ role in the larger experiments of understanding biological systems.
CM : What would you say was the most difficult problem that you had to overcome during the development of AlphaFold?
JJ: There are many hard problems, but for the really fundamental ones, it is that we have relatively little data by AI and machine learning standards. It’s a hard problem. We came up with a bunch of ideas. There’s about 200,000 known protein structures. Each structure takes a year of a Ph.D. student’s time to get. Therefore, you have a very, very
fixed data set. The data set is growing very slowly, about 14,000 new structures per year. It’s very fixed for an AI system. AI systems aren’t like chatbots that get to learn from the entire internet. You have a small amount of data to use, and you have to use it really well.
Then you have to figure out how you put your understanding of biology or geometry or physics into this neural network such that it learns more from each data point, because you don’t really have enough data. You could go crazy and have fun. We tried writing a simulation with this very limited data, but that didn’t produce a predictive model. We had to find this kind of halfway between, in my view, simulation and pure machine learning, and that turned out to be more effective than either extreme.
CM : You are also the first scientist to be awarded a Nobel Prize for AI technology. What first sparked your interest in AI?
JJ: What really actually sparked my interest was when I was working at
From Left: Undergraduates Alyssa Manthi, Alexandria Porter, and Shannon Dye, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson take audience questions during the IOP event. toby chan .
“ So I think AI for science work is going to be about how we do things that humans can’t.”
CONTINUED FROM PG. 5
D.E. Shaw Research. I was working on some data analysis problems related to science. There was this undergraduate that had come in, and he knew a lot more about statistics than I did, and he had some really cool tools of high dimensional statistics. I hadn’t really learned modern statistics as I only learned the statistics of linear regression. But then the modern statistics can tell you a lot about really big, high dimensional systems that you can work with things with millions of variables and thousands of observations.
I started to fall in love with these tools of modern statistics. I started to read everything that I could in statistics and then machine learning. It was really David MacKay’s book about information theory and early AI that made me realize these ideas were really powerful. At the same time, I moved from having these custom computer chips at my job to having whatever computer resources were available to a first-year graduate
student. I now had access to these incredibly powerful computing systems that were 1,000 times faster than anything I had access to before.
I was trying to build back with algorithms and AI what I could no longer do with custom computer chips because I wasn’t [at my previous job] anymore.
That led me to my Ph.D., trying to figure out how all these ideas in AI relate to protein simulation and motion. Then that kind of naturally led to my work in DeepMind about how we are going to use AI to produce an effective system on protein knowledge.
CM : What other areas are you planning to explore with AI, either in or outside biology?
JJ: I think there’s a tremendous amount. There are many problems, and we have no shortage of them. We made a later version of AlphaFold that solves more problems and predicts how proteins bind to DNA. Then there’s the question of how we do drug development with these systems. How do we under -
stand the cell? How when we think about all the things that go on in the cell and even the most perfect alpha form only describes a part of this? How do we use all this data? How do we learn from it? How would we form perspectives on it? I think there’s quite a lot here, but there’s really a huge number of different problems available. The question will really become which has good enough data sources which are kind of favorable to be solved. And we’ll find out.
CM: What do you think is the future of AI? There is a lot of talk about how it could potentially overtake humanity. Do you think that could happen?
JJ: I think the question is really one of time and time scale. It does seem likely that we will make generally intelligent AI systems at some point. But is that 10 years away or 100 or 1000? I don’t think we really know for sure.
I think maybe one distinction to draw is that chatbots are doing the most fundamentally human things that other humans can do. We’re really amazed
that we can teach machines to do these things that previously we didn’t know how to program a computer to do. Then there’s systems like AlphaFold that are doing something that humans can’t. There’s no human that is good at protein structure prediction that they can do experimentally. But as a pure prediction, no one is good at that. So I think AI for science work is going to be about how we do things that humans can’t. Certainly, we’ll see lots more of those systems, maybe not a totally completely general model, but a lot of really important problems that this turns out to be the right tool to solve.
CM : Do you have any advice for aspiring scientists or UChicago students in general?
JJ: One really big advantage of being at a university like UChicago that not enough people take advantage of is that you have world experts in all sorts of things. A lot of people, especially Ph.D. students, will go to their group meetings and seminars for their department. That will be their Ph.D., and they will learn exactly the things that they are expected to learn. But they don’t go to the seminar for other departments, and they don’t go talk to the world’s leading computer scientists. They don’t talk to the world’s leading economists or anything else. They’re missing out on there. There’s a lot that comes from immersing yourself in different disciplines and doing different things. You learn a lot more by joining in with those experts. No one will kick you out. You just sit in the area, and you won’t understand anything the first week before you will. And they don’t even take attendance; you can just stroll in.
My piece of advice is: go find interesting experts and things you don’t know when just sitting in their seminars. Talk to them and then you can get a much broader and more interesting education than from pouring ever more time into exactly this narrow area of the same molecular biology that you’re expected to be learning. You should learn that too but take advantage of being at a university.
John Jumper currently serves as director at Google DeepMind. courtesy of john jumper .
Protesters marched east on the quad toward South University Avenue,
followed by six deans-on-call and several UCPD
CONTINUED FROM PG. 1
rested by CPD and charged with felony battery of a peace officer. The Maroon was unable to confirm whether the undergraduate arrested at the October 11 protest and charged with felony battery is Student A.
Organizers from Fight Back UChicago, #CareNotCops, and the Environmental Justice Task Force—members of the umbrella coalition UCUP—led chants at the January 16 rally.
“We have the power to unite against the University, to win reinstatement for Mamayan and Student A, and to push the University to divest, disclose, and repair,” an organizer said.
Protesters marched east on the quad toward South University Avenue, followed by six deans-on-call and several University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) officers. As they passed parked UCPD vehicles, they chanted, “UCPD, KKK, IOF, they’re all the same.”
Demonstrators gathered outside Alivisatos’s home, where UCPD officers
guarded the door and lined the sidewalks. Inside, organizers said members of the College Council were holding a holiday party. Once there, they continued chanting for 45 minutes before dispersing at around 5:25 p.m. Party attendees, including Dean of Students in the College Philip Venticinque, entered the building through a side gate.
“What exactly are they celebrating at this party? Genocide? Climate destruction? Gentrification and displacement? Deploying police to brutalize your own students?” an organizer asked the crowd, which responded with loud boos.
Organizers also spoke briefly about the provisional agreement reached on Wednesday for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The agreement is currently in limbo as the Israeli cabinet’s Thursday vote on the deal was postponed to Sunday.
“Just this morning, the Israeli government announced that they will not be willing to discuss the ceasefire agreement,” an organizer told the crowd. “The
Israeli government are liars, just [like] how the institution administrators like Paul Alivisatos and Melina Hale are liars.”
Protesters passed out flyers bearing the faces of several University administrators, CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling, and UCPD Chief Kyle Bowman. The front side of the flyers called on the University to “Drop the Charges” and “Reverse the Eviction.” The reverse side shared links to a petition and a fundraiser for Jabateh that has received $2,745 in donations as of Thursday night.
Bystanders stopped to video the rally, among them a member of the Chicago Thinker. Protesters pointed a sign shaped like an arrow that read “Doxxer Alert” at a Thinker member and at Maroon reporters.
The rally was part of UCUP’s “Week of Healing,” which also included a Doc Films movie screening, a Shim Sham dance workshop, and a soup night with Phoenix Farms.
On Wednesday, UCUP hosted a press
officers.
conference on the Midway Plaisance during which Jabateh explained the necessity of a “week of healing.”
“This year, Kuvia can no longer happen,” Jabateh said. “Kuvia was canceled because the University of Chicago has painted me—a Black student, a queer student, an RA, and a community organizer—as a threat.”
UCUP took questions at the end of the press conference, though when a Maroon reporter attempted to ask a question, Jabateh said they would not take any questions from the Maroon
The University declined to comment on the protest, and UCUP did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Since October, UCUP has not responded to repeated requests for comment made by the Maroon through email, social media, in person, and by phone.
Zachary Leiter and Derek Hsu contributed reporting.
“One of the main goals for a lot of groups over the next 10 or 20 years is to restore proprioception.”
CONTINUED FROM PG. 4
the same spot in the hand each time, allowing prosthetic users to develop confidence in their motor control, as they would in their natural limbs.
Greenspon took the lead on the project after UChicago neuroscientist and professor Sliman Bensmaia passed away unexpectedly in 2023.
The software is novel, but the physical hardware of the prosthetics already existed.
“The technology that is currently implanted [in study participants] was developed 30 years ago, but what you can do with the technology grows as you learn more about the brain,” Greenspon said.
Before he passed, Bensmaia and his team laid the groundwork for the recent advances by generating algorithms for
brain-computer interfaces, which allow a person to control a device using brain signals. The model mimics the biological processes underlying how the nervous system communicates signals from the arms and hands to create natural touch sensations.
Giacomo Valle, a former postdoctoral fellow at UChicago who is now continuing his bionics research at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, is the first author of the complementary paper published today in Science. It uses the results of the first study to further refine sensation by focusing on the building blocks of real-life touch, including identifying the edges and boundaries of objects, as well as their textures.
The brain can stitch together mul-
tiple sensory inputs, a feature that the researchers exploited to develop the neuroprosthetics. They first placed clusters of electrodes in the brain corresponding to overlapping touch zones in the hand and arm. Scientists activated these zones by delivering tiny pulses in small, discrete steps, which the brain can interpret as continuous: a gentle gliding touch passing over the fingers, for example.
“It’s not an unexpected phenomenon. If you play three frames of a video really quickly, it just looks like moving. That’s how your brain works,” Greenspon said.
The same is true of touch. “If I have these two things that are a little bit apart, your brain goes, ‘eh, it’s probably one thing,’” he continued.
Neurotech companies such as Precision Biosciences, Paradromics, and Elon Musk’s Neuralink are working to commercialize the technology, according to Greenspon, who said that one of his roles as a researcher is “to build the understanding of the brain such that these companies can do more with their devices.”
Their next challenge is to enable users to handle objects and complete tasks without watching their hands, made possible by proprioception, or the ability to perceive the position of one’s body. “At the moment, what we are able to do relatively well is restore the sense of touch. One of the main goals for a lot of groups over the next 10 or 20 years is to restore proprioception,” Greenspon said.
“ Sanderson was the loving grandfather of the economics department for all of us who have studied this millennia.”
CONTINUED FROM PG. 1
dergraduate Teaching in 1998. Allen holds the extraordinary distinction of having taught more students at the University of Chicago than anyone else in its history.”
In a 2022 interview, Sanderson told the Maroon he had taught over 15,000 students during his time at the University.
After receiving the Quantrell Award in 1998, Sanderson told the University of Chicago Chronicle that former students often send him emails when they’ve applied one of his lessons in real life.
“‘Most of the students in my classes do not concentrate in economics, but they often need a working knowledge of economics when they’re being interviewed for their first job,’ Sanderson said. ‘They’re happy that if asked, they can make an insightful comment about interest rates or recycling, for instance, rather than staring back at an interviewer like a deer looking into headlights,’” the Chronicle article reads.
In honor of Sanderson, the S. Joel Schur Family Economics Prize, which is awarded annually to students for their work in the Principles of Microeconomics and Principles of Macroeconomics introductory courses formerly taught by Sanderson, will be renamed the “Allen R. Sanderson Economics Prizes.”
Sanderson’s research interests included the economics of sports, economic impact analysis, and education and labor markets.
In addition to his work at the University, Sanderson was a frequent contributor to the Chicago Tribune and had a bi-monthly column in Chicago Life Magazine, where he wrote about economics and sports. He served on the editorial board of the Journal of Sports Economics, was a senior researcher at the National Opinion Research Center, and consulted for the Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank known for its skepticism of anthropogenic climate change.
Heartland Institute Vice President Jim Lakely told the Maroon that Sanderson was “a learned and persuasive public advocate for free-market economics, and certainly had a career that UofC legend
Milton Friedman would look upon with admiration. His countless students were lucky to be taught by Allen, and so were we at Heartland. He will be missed.”
The Journal of Sports Economics and Chicago Life Magazine could not be reached for comment.
Sanderson’s first appearance in the Maroon was in a 1986 article discussing University community members’ predictions for Super Bowl XX. Sanderson, then associate provost, predicted that it would “be hard for the [New England] Patriots to score” given the Chicago Bears’ strong defense. He was right: the Bears won 46–10.
A 2014 UChicago News profile of Sanderson described him as an avid collector, with Oscar-winning movies, Supreme Court bobbleheads, magnets, and cat toys adorning the walls and shelves of his apartment.
Sanderson’s time at the University was not without controversy. During a 2015 graduation address, he joked about
a campus climate survey that dealt with, among other things, students’ experiences with rape, sexual assault, and harassment.
He later expressed regret for the joke, calling it “offensive” and apologizing for “marring what should have been a purely celebratory event.”
One of Sanderson’s midterms for Econ 100 went viral on Twitter in 2022 for a question asking what a “real economist” would think about an argument UMass Amherst economist Isabella Weber made in favor of price controls.
Several students who had taken the class, along with Harris School professor Steven Durlauf and Booth School professor Joshua Dean, also raised concerns about what they saw as a “politically driven” reference in the question to Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT, A.B. ‘64).
In response, Sanderson said that “the principles involved [in the question] come directly from a chapter in the text I use and assigned to the students in the
course.” He told critics that they needed to “grow up.”
Benjamin Rowley, a fourth-year economics major at UChicago, told the Maroon that Sanderson was “honest, and spoke as clearly and precisely as any lecturer.”
“Nobody cared more about teaching and learning than he did; Sanderson was the loving grandfather of the economics department for all of us who have studied this millennia,” Rowley said.
The University did not comment by the time of publication.
According to Shaikh, Sanderson is survived by his children, Matthew and Catherine, and his grandchildren, Andrew, Robert, and Caroline Hollander, as well as Jane and Neil Sanderson.
Zachary Leiter contributed reporting.
We ask anyone who has memories they want to share about Professor Sanderson to please contact us at editor@chicagomaroon.com.
Professor Allen Sanderson. courtesy of the chicago maroon archive
“We Need to Be Prepared”: Augustana Lutheran Church Braces for Immigration Crackdown
By EVGENIA ANASTASAKOS | Senior News Reporter
Days after the Wall Street Journal reported the Trump administration’s plans to begin large-scale deportations and immigration raids in Chicago, Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park’s council voted to post two new signs on their doors.
“Churches are places of refuge, where people can set down their burdens and find rest and peace,” one reads, in both English and Spanish. The other states that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents “do not have consent” to enter the church without a “valid judicial warrant.”
According to Pastor Nancy Goede, the atmosphere at Augustana has been tense amid fears of immigration raids. Like
many other churches across Chicago, Augustana opened its doors to the waves of migrants that began arriving in Chicago in 2022, collecting mountains of donated supplies in its nave and recruiting volunteers for the Hyde Park Refugee Project. In October 2023, the church took in a migrant family of seven—a couple in their 30s, their toddler, and other relatives—housing them for over a year.
Although the family has now moved on, Goede says the church is still supporting other migrants.
“We worry about them a lot right now,” she told the Maroon
Since the announcement of post-inauguration raids, community organizations
around Chicago have been at work preparing resources and providing legal support for the city’s migrants. In some neighborhoods, organizers have taken to the streets to distribute “Know Your Rights” information to at-risk communities.
At Augustana, Goede says the congregation is “trying to be as helpful as possible,” by preparing migrants’ legal documents and making plans in case of raids. The church is also working with the Faith Community Initiative, a coalition of faith communities that works to support and resettle asylum seekers.
“You have to be prepared in case something happens,” she said.
Although ICE and Border Patrol policies previously limited the agencies’ ability to carry out arrests in “sensitive” areas
like schools, hospitals, and places of worship, a change announced by the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday reversed that guidance. On January 26, ICE announced that it had begun “enhanced targeted operations” in Chicago, according to the New York Times.
“It’s unfortunate if they just trample this,” Goede said of the policy change. “We’re leaving the signs up because we think that this is a norm worth defending.”
Although the details of potential raids remain uncertain, Goede says the church is “thinking as a congregation about how to respond to different things.”
“We’re waiting to see what happens and what kind of help is needed,” she said. “We don’t know what’s coming up, but I think people are feeling prepared.”
Chicago Forum Appoints Inaugural Student Advisory Board
By ALEX PARKER | News Reporter
The University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression, established in the fall of 2023, appointed its inaugural Student Advisory Board for the 2024-25 academic year.
Composed of an executive committee and more than 100 members from different schools and divisions, the board aims to strengthen student engagement with the Forum’s mission, which, according to its website, is “to promote the understanding, practice, and advancement of free and open discourse, at the University of Chicago and beyond.”
“We have an executive committee that oversees it and then chairs across all schools and divisions,” Talla Mountjoy, the Forum’s director of programs, said in an interview with the Maroon. The Student Advisory Board is led by co-Presidents Syed Ahmad, a professional student in the joint M.P.P. /M.B.A. program, and Elisabeth Snyder, a fourth-year student in the College.
The University has emphasized its commitment to institutional neutrality and free expression through initiatives such as the Chicago Principles, which
have been adopted by more than 100 other universities nationwide, and the Kalven Report, which emphasizes a commitment to institutional neutrality. As stated on its website, the Forum is a continuation of these past initiatives.
The Forum hosted its first launch event in fall 2023, featuring guests such as journalists, professors, and civil liberty advocates from organizations including the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the American Civil Liberties Union.
“I really enjoyed interacting with the different speakers who came,” Snyder, who attended the event, said. “I knew I wanted to be a part of this space to advance the practice of civil discourse.”
Since its launch, the Forum has hosted several events for members of the University community and beyond. These events have ranged from discussions on global political issues to workshops focused on building dialogue skills in an effort to foster an environment where participants can engage with challenging ideas. The Student Advisory Board will play a key role in supporting these efforts moving
forward, according to its page on the Forum’s website.
According to Ahmad, Forum events often explore controversial topics from across the globe. In the past year, for example, several Forum events have explored the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. “We had an event where we had the former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority come speak,” Ahmad said. “The next week, we had a professor from Tel Aviv come speak.”
The Forum aims to create a culture of open dialogue. “The Forum events are sometimes going to be discussing free speech directly, but then a lot of the time the events will be practicing open expression and free discourse [themselves],” Student Advisory Board Treasurer Jack Crovitz said. “The practice part is really important.”
Mountjoy added that the Forum hopes its events will create an environment where students can explore and learn about important topics. “These things have nuance; they involve complex factors,” Mountjoy said. “You need to hear about them in different ways, from different angles, and keep the conversation going. It’s not something we’ll resolve after
just one event.”
Students on the advisory board are encouraged to contribute to the Forum’s mission by taking ownership of events and initiatives. “There are opportunities to implement your own ideas about what free speech looks like,” Ahmad said. “There may be someone interested in AI and its impact on free speech. There may be someone interested in Hong Kong and talking about that in the context of free speech.”
In September, the University announced that it had received an anonymous $100 million donation for the Forum to expand its programming both on and off campus. “Of that hundred million dollars, some will be put to work here at the University,” Ahmad said. He also stated that the specifics of how the donation will be allocated are still being decided, but part of the funding will be used to cover costs for events, including event spaces, food, and other related expenses.
Mountjoy expressed that the Forum encourages all members of the University community to actively engage with its opportunities. “We have an opportunity to show the community across UChicago how they can leverage us because we are at their availability,” Mountjoy said.
ARTS
The Philosophy of Clothing With Agnes Callard
Arts Reporter Shawn Quek discusses the philosophy of fashion with professor Agnes Callard.
By SHAWN QUEK | Arts Reporter
Against the drab backdrop of gray Gothic buildings encircling the quad, a figure adorned in bright colors consistently stands out. Easily recognizable around campus, professor Agnes Callard and her wardrobe are campus celebrities to many. As an associate professor of philosophy with a focus on ethics and ancient philosophy, a public scholar, and communicator, Callard frequently brings philosophical insights to a broad audience through her work in public philosophy. In this interview, the Maroon sits down with Callard to talk about her personal style, social media, and the philosophy of fashion.
The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Chicago Maroon: Professor Callard, thanks for sitting down to talk with me about fashion. How would you describe your personal style?
Agnes Callard: My sister describes it as “giant kindergartener.” A kindergartener, but huge. Honestly, just a lot of bright colors and different patterns. Other people might not think it matches, but in my mind, it matches.
CM: Where do you draw this fashion inspiration?
AC: I do like the style of kindergarteners, I have to say. I think that just what children viscerally gravitate towards, bright colors and patterns, are the things that I viscerally gravitate towards. It may be that I have just a very undeveloped aesthetic sensibility.
I love art supply stores, just for the colors. I will just hang out in our supply stores and look at all their pencils and pens and paints. In a way, patterns are a way to see colors; patterns are the way that colors show up to us. I see patterns as like the serving dish on which color is served up, it all boils down to color at the end.
I think that’s what I’m going for, ways
to apprehend color.
CM: On October 23, in response to a clip from The Devil Wears Prada, you tweeted, “beauty is an important human value, some clothes are beautiful, hence, dressing is an opportunity to add value to your life in the world.”
What, to you, makes some clothes beautiful and not others?
AC: I think a lot of different things can make clothes beautiful.
I’m able to appreciate beautiful clothing that I would not wear. For me, “beautiful” and what I’m attracted to are not
coextensive, though there’s an overlap [in] that I think the clothing that I like is beautiful. I don’t think it’s the only thing that’s beautiful. There are certain kinds of clothing that I will not wear because they cause me too much discomfort, like high heels or anything that’s constricting, basically. I don’t like makeup, but I like it for other people.
I don’t know that I have a general theory, and that’s one of the hard things about beauty, is that it seems very particular. It very much seems to be a case where you sort of know it when you see it. In the case of my own clothing, I guess I do think that largely my judgment of beauty is based on
color and the degree to which the garment brings color to the fore. I think that can even happen with something that’s black and white, because black and white are also colors if the pattern does a sufficient amount of work to bring those colors to the fore, though it’s easier to do with nonblack and white, I think.
In my own case, the subset of beauty that I’m interested in, in terms of my own clothing, tends to be kind of maximizing the color impact of the item. But that’s not a general theory. And I think I just don’t have a theory that generalizes all my fashion appreciations. I often will see fashion models or whatever, people on Twitter, they’re looking very fashionable and attractive. I think they look fashionable and attractive, but if you ask me, “why do you think that looks good?”, I don’t have an account of it. The part of beauty I have an account of is the same part as the [one] that I participate in.
CM: Is monochrome something you see yourself experimenting with, or are you looking more to maximize color impact by combining colors?
AC: It depends. There are times when I do get very into monochrome. This year, for Halloween, I was pink, the color. I wore things that were all different shades of pink. That was like me trying to fully experience pink. I do try to do monochrome sometimes, but the issue is that you really need the same shade, which is very hard to get.
I don’t buy my clothes all in one place. I might buy a shirt that’s a shade of red, and I might buy a pair of pants. It’s a really similar shade of red, but it’s not exactly the same shade of red. Either you have to be kind of doing the thing where you do a bunch of different shades, like I did with pink, but then you’ve really got to wear a lot of pink. I had a pink hair thing, and I had a pink belt too, and pink socks and pink shoes, and I even had a pink bag, all of it. At that point, you’re really commit-
Agnes Callard. shawn quek .
“But for years and years, I’d been buying my clothing from Melbourne and had never been there.”
CONTINUED FROM PG. 10
ting to the bit.
You need a lot of different items. And I often just don’t have that many different items on me. I would say I incline towards the non-monochrome. Though something that I am attracted towards and do quite frequently is, if some fashion brand might be selling a pair of pants with a pattern, and then a shirt with the same pattern, I will buy both. Then I can wear them together. That’s a kind of monochrome, right? It is a monochrome of pattern.
I do think that when you get the same pattern in different places in an outfit or a dress, like this dress, you’d really experience the pattern to a greater degree than, you know, if you just have solid-color leg-
gings like I have on now.
CM: Would you say your personal style is influenced by some of today’s trends?
AC: I think that the way that I dress has actually become more popular over, say, the past, I don’t know, five or 10 years, just because it’s become easier for me to find clothing. I’ve gone in and out of wearing color for clothing over the course of my life. The current bout of it probably started around 2016. At the beginning, I was buying all my clothing from Australia, in Melbourne. I went there eventually, like a pilgrimage. But for years and years, I’d been buying my clothing from Melbourne and had never been there. Melbourne was an all-black city. Everyone wore black. Then, as a kind of a
rebellion against that, one or two fashion companies popped up like, “We’re gonna do bright colors.” There are a couple of companies in Melbourne that are making really brightly colored clothing. I’ve looked online and from different countries such as Australia and Scandinavia. Marimekko is a brand that makes beautiful colorful clothing. Beyond clothes, Marimekko is a company that makes a lot of what you see on the walls of my office. There are some companies in places like Italy and France and stuff, but the women there are just a lot smaller than me, and so I don’t fit into any of their
clothing. Australian women, Scandinavian women, and U.K. women are more my size, so that partly affects where I buy my clothing. In fashion, there’s some tendency to not make clothing in big sizes. I think the company feels that they’re more of a prestige brand if they don’t. That’s changing, which is great. But I can’t just find some beautiful Italian brand and then just be like, “Oh, I’ll just buy extra-extra-extra-large” or whatever, because they won’t have extra-large [sizes], so they’ll just have it up to a certain point. I was once in France in a store, and I
CONTINUED ON PG. 12
A post from Callard’s X account on the argument for why fashion matters.
Callard arguing in an X post that the state of women’s clothing is currently the best it has ever been.
“That is, the more people respect you, the less approachable you seem, and the more approachable you seem, the less they respect you.”
was asking them for size 44 or whatever I was in French sizing, and they said, “That doesn’t exist.” I’m like, “It has to exist. I’m it! It exists!”
Our back-and-forth of “it doesn’t exist, it does exist” was a funny little argument. This was a long time ago. This was in the 1990s, they probably wouldn’t
do that now. Before, I was buying stuff from Australia and Finland… really just Marimekko. So that’s where my clothing was coming from, though often not directly, often through Facebook groups, but the clothing originally came from those places.
Then, over the past few years, I’ve discovered U.S.-, Canada-, and U.K.-
based companies, so I like coming closer to home. Other than Marimekko, some of my other favorites include: Gorman, Obus, Variety Hour, Mokuyobi, Birds of North America, Lucy & Yak, Big Bud Press, Nooworks, and Outsiders Division.
It’s great. The shipping is never that expensive, even from Australia to me. But if it doesn’t fit, sending it back costs a fortune. Whereas, if it’s in the U.S., returning is not bad.
That’s what makes a difference in terms of shopping and figuring out the sizing of women’s clothing, ’cause it’s kind of all over the place. You can’t just be like, “Oh, I’m like a large. I’ll just buy a large.” Because you might be an extra-extra-large in this thing and a small in something else. These are the difficulties.
I’ve just taken that as evidence that my way of dressing has become more popular, given that it’s easier for me to get clothing like this. When I was in high school, I just bought a lot of vintage clothing. Except that I had the same problem. I’ve never been small, and women in the past were smaller. So you go to a used clothing store, and most of the clothing is, from my point of view, tiny. Those are my bits of evidence in terms of the popularity of dressing in this way.
CM: In The Fashion System, Roland Barthes writes, “Fashion is a refusal to inherit a subversion against the oppression of the proceeding.” Dress codes in professional settings often dictate the status quo of fashion. Do you see your subversion of academic fashion’s status quo as an end in and of itself?
AC: I think that it’s definitely not the end in and of itself. Like, when I am in a completely nonacademic context, I dress the same way. That would be evidence. I think that it is relevant in a certain way. There is an effect that I notice that I approve of, which is, I think as an academic, you’re always balancing approachability against respect. That is, the more people respect you, the less approachable you seem, and the more approachable you seem, the less they respect you. In general, I feel like, in terms of where I am on that, I’m very happy to push in the direction of approachability away from
respect. That is, I feel like I have plenty of respect.
I want people to feel like they can talk to me, like they can ask me a question. That they can pursue an inquiry with me, like they can show up to my office hours as somebody just did right before you, a first-year student I’ve never met before, who hasn’t studied philosophy, who wanted to talk to me about free will. I think dressing the way I do is [going to] make that more likely.
Partly, with respect to my students and my job here within the confines of the University, but also more broadly as a public philosopher out in the world, it’s to my benefit if people feel like they can talk to me. That’s a sense of [the] subversive, in the sense that I’m not very concerned to sort of entrench my own respectability. That’s probably just because as an academic, you just get plenty of respect. I could well imagine that I could be in a position in the world where I did need to do that, right? It’s a contingent fact of “you’re a professor, professor comes before your name.” You know when that’s known about you, when you enter into a relationship with people where you’re automatically their teacher, that that’s just already a high respect situation to start out with.
CM: This July, you tweeted, “Airports are a mecca for fashion compliments. I always choose flying outfits with extra care.”
If you had to give our readers advice on how to maximize clothing compliment potential, what would your top pieces of advice be?
AC: Number one really would be about the airports. Dress up for the airport, especially the security people. In security, they are always looking at clothes. I always feel very vindicated when they like my clothes, because the TSA people get to compare clothing all day. A lot of comments and compliments from TSA people.
Also to dress up at the dentist’s office. The dentist appreciates your clothing. They are also people who, like, look at your clothing and will not fail to notice if
Another one of Callard’s X posts, including a photo of her wearing a colorful outfit at the airport.
“It’s really the high-compliment situations that are also the high-hidden-insult situations.”
CONTINUED FROM PG. 12
I like, don’t dress up one time for the dentist. They’ll be like, “Oh, you’re dressed down today,” or something. That’s how close attention they’re paying.
I also think that there [are] pieces of clothing that get more compliments. Like jumpsuits, especially patterned jumpsuits. I would say, like, maybe the number one compliment-getter is going to be patterned jumpsuits. People just love jumpsuits. I’m not sure why it could be.
I think that this is maybe a slightly dark thought. Though I don’t know how dark it is: I think people love it when women wear clothing that’s sort of attractive, but not at all sexy. Women especially like it because it’s like, “You’re not competing with me.”
I feel like there’s something in there, there’s something in that space. In terms of items of clothing, that’s what gets the most compliments.
I follow this jumpsuit brand that I’ve only actually bought one jumpsuit from, they’re called Big Bud Press. They have a store in Chicago. I’ve been to it. It’s very nice. They were actually featured on Wirecutter recently for their jumpsuits.
And then a Facebook group I’m in of fans of this kind of jumpsuit noted that the Facebook page was all like, just super mean. The comments were horribly
mean. Maybe lots of people actually hate jumpsuits, but those people don’t come up to me in real life. It could actually be the case that fashion compliments are just a super high-variance situation. The situations where I’m getting the most compliments are also where I’m, like, offending the most people, where the most people are like, “Oh my god, I can’t believe how she’s dressed,” but they just don’t tell me. Versus, when you go online, one time I posted a kind of spreadsheet photo of a whole bunch of outfits online. Oh, my god, people were so mean.
And I was like, wow, when I wear these outfits out in public, everyone’s like, “You look amazing.” And then when I posted online, everyone’s like, “You’re horrible. You look terrible. You look like a clown,” whatever. I was thinking, “What a disparity.”
It could just be that people aren’t very brave, and so people who think I look terrible in my jumpsuits don’t come up to me and tell me that. It’s really the high-compliment situations that are also the high-hidden-insult situations.
CM: It seems the bolder of a decision you make, the more you appeal to certain people but also steer away from the tastes of others.
AC: Exactly, it’s high variance in that sense. I feel very comfortable posting on-
line, in my Facebook groups, where we’re very supportive of each other in our color choices, but I’ve learned not to post it on Twitter. Occasionally I will, and still, most people are nice. What happened was there was one post that got picked up by some bigger account.
When it’s just in my circles, people are still pretty nice. People will say stuff online that they won’t say in real life. And maybe you wouldn’t have that big of a benefit to you to go out of your way and make me find out. It’s actually the better scenario if they just kept it to themselves and you never knew.
CM: I just wanted to follow up on your comment earlier about how social media and online presence interacts with fashion. What are your thoughts on the onslaught of “fit pics” and “fit checks” that dominate social media nowadays?
AC: Social media is important for me in having clothes, because I buy a lot of my clothes used. I buy my clothes on Facebook groups. I will always try to buy something used rather than buying it new if I can.
I buy some of it on eBay, but a lot on Facebook groups. On those same Facebook groups, they also post photos of their outfits. I think that that’s actually a slightly different world from the “fit check” Instagram world, which I’m not
really active on…. And I suspect that that is a lot like when I was younger, people would look at fashion magazines, and there would just be these women who have bodies very different from your body.
That will very naturally put you in a bad mindset about your whole appearance. So, like, I just had to stay away from that. But that’s really not what Facebook groups are like. The Facebook groups are women like me, both in the sense that many of them are my age or older than me and [that] they don’t have perfect model bodies.
They just have average bodies like anybody else, and they’re just people who are wearing the same kind of clothing that I like. Those are the fashion spaces that I tend to like.
CM: Professor Callard, thank you so much for your time. Is there anything else that you’d like to share with readers regarding fashion?
AC: I will say one thing. If you’re interested in my views about color, I have an essay coming out in Liberties magazine. I think it’s only going to be coming out in the spring, so just keep an eye out for it. If you follow me on Twitter, I’ll tweet about it once it comes out, but my whole philosophy of color is going to be explored in that essay.
Spells, Crystals, and a Bridge From Reality: vanessa german’s Fellowship Exhibition
Exploring collaborative magic at vanessa german’s fellowship exhibition.
By LARA ORLANDI | Arts Reporter
Crystal-encrusted faces, figures, and fantastical objects glinted with a sense of delight, intrigue, and, above all ,magic at vanessa german’s Gray Center fellowship exhibition. Upon entry to her exhibition in Logan Center, a striking rose quartz face stared unwaveringly
at viewers; “Love Song; or The Quelling of that Great Grief of Immortality” was penetrating and monolithic. Just beyond, “THE HEALER—” commanded attention at the center of the space, a smaller-thanlife blazing gold human figure perched atop a second ultramarine-blue body.
Arms spread as though about to take flight, this gilded frame appeared both open and daring, symbolic of german’s vision for her art.
These pieces evolved from a highly collaborative seminar course that german taught in the University of Chicago’s Department of Visual Arts during the winter quarter of 2024. German’s prac-
tice focuses on creativity as a tool to reckon with deeply structural societal issues. She evokes social healing through mixed media installations of human figures inspired by Congolese nkisi sculptures and folk art, but also through passionate activism. Still seeking to offer remedy, she started a local arts initiative on her front
But from the intricate treasures, an overarching message emerges: the potential of community.
CONTINUED FROM PG. 13
porch in Pittsburgh and opened a community art studio.
At UChicago, she aimed to connect with students through a deliberate “open-heartedness,” aspiring to “accept them fully in the equanimity of our being-ness.” A guided meditation opened every studio session to encourage introspection throughout the creative process. Intention was the key word, as explained by co-professor Zachary Cahill in the exhibition handout. Students created their own pieces while german gathered material both physically and ideologically for her exhibition.
Some student works from the seminar were visible in a side room. “THE SOUL IS A LIBRARY I” displayed items that the students deemed to feel magic, ranging from a delicate bouquet of flowers to
roll-on antiperspirant deodorant. “THE SOUL IS A LIBRARY II” (gold objects on black table) presented a careful grid of aureate “clay devices” that had been infused with positive energy by student-produced song and magic. “THE FILM” played from a portal-like horizontal screen, narrating the prayer-making endeavors of the students. Framed on the wall was the paper they were shown marking in the video, except incomplete, due to fragments of it being molded into prayer beads.
Back in the main room, further exploration revealed the counterpart to the mystical installations: a written description of each piece, which abandons rigid precedent by reading like an elusive “spell.” Some are difficult to decipher, words twisted in a spiritual web. An excerpt from the accompaniment to “Heart-Opener (pyramid)” reads, “a
sliver of light caught between the teeth, a heated speculation of the Soul.”
Another description more explicitly aligns with its visual. It is titled, “Altar of Grief and Transformation from the place where I was scammed by humans $700 one night in chicago when I had a mean toothache and the pain had blinded my common senses.” A lapis lazuli human head lies toppled, uncomfortably compressed under a solid piece of quartz that is representative of the “BLUE.pain.”
It was difficult not to be transfixed by the details: the fluent collation of words in the spells and the individual beads, tokens, and gems that make up a whole form. But from the intricate treasures, an overarching message emerges: the potential of community. As you exit, you pass the report that “at the end of reality there is a bridge…take this bridge to get to
the next _______, all of your friends are there.”
Swept Under the Rug: Newest Album Shines on Stage, Falters in Studio
Arts Reporter Adera Craig covers Under the Rug’s 2024 tour and intimate VIP experience at Beat Kitchen.
By ADERA CRAIG | Arts Reporter
Austin-based indie rock band Under the Rug recently wrapped up their 2024 tour with a show at Chicago’s Beat Kitchen. In an electrifying and heartfelt performance, the band’s latest album, happiness is easy =), came to life. Before the show, I was lucky enough to join the VIP experience, which proved to be as intimate as it was unexpected. Since their debut in 2019, Under the Rug has cultivated a devoted community of fans, affectionately called the “Rug Rats.” They’re also part of an exclusive fan club, the “Hideout,” which offers early access to new releases and exclusive content. For dedicated fans, these spaces offer more than just perks; they’re a place to connect with the band and each other. In a small, dimly lit back room, around
25 fans—many of whom knew each other from online interactions or past shows— sat on the floor chatting, sharing stories, and reconnecting with familiar faces, including some members of the band’s touring crew.
The highlight of the VIP event was an acoustic performance of “El Presidente,” a fan favorite that filled the space with raw, unfiltered energy. Leading acoustics was Casey Dayan, the band’s frontwoman and creative force. Much of the conversation in the Q&A focused on Dayan, who has been open about her recent journey of self-discovery as a transgender woman. This journey profoundly shaped the lyrics of happiness is easy =), an album that explores the complexities of self-acceptance. She says the songs capture her
experiences of embracing her identity, with themes of resilience, authenticity, and the unfiltered joy that comes from being unapologetically oneself.
Without the band’s community and Casey Dayan’s personal story, happiness is easy =) might come off as a typical indie rock album—overproduced songs about late-night drives, heartache, the occasional breakdown. Some of the themes and emotions that Dayan explored in the Q&A gave weight to the songs, but if you only listen to the studio album without such explanation, the lyrics come off as repetitive and commercial. Yet the live show gave everything musical an edge and a sense of purpose that’s hard to pin down in a studio setting. Gone was the studio gloss, replaced with an urgent energy that made each track feel personal and immediate. Bassist Brad Williams,
who isn’t even an official band member, delivered one of the standout moments of the night with a solo that was both unexpectedly soulful and technically impressive.
“Raindrop” stood out as the high point, but the encore, “Three-Legged Dog,” was easily the crowd favorite, bringing the show to a fervent close. In person, the band’s chemistry and Dayan’s unfiltered emotion transformed familiar tunes into something unforgettable. At the end, the band hinted at a more acoustic, folk-inspired direction for their next tour. They have announced an album sequel, Happiness Is Easy: Part Two, is on the way, and released a single on January 17. If their live show was any indication, the acoustic tour could bring out something fresh for audiences when they return to Chicago next year.
lara orlandi .
SPORTS
Recent Results
Men’s Basketball has stayed hot, beating No. 2 Emory University (Ga.) 80–70 and University of Rochester (N.Y.) 65–62. They are 13–3 overall.
Women’s Basketball narrowly lost 52–47 to Emory (Ga.) in Atlanta before losing 63–55 against University of Rochester (N.Y.), taking the team to 12–4 overall.
Swimming and Diving had two meets on Jan. 18, with the men’s side losing at UIC (Ill.) but winning on their trip to take on Calvin University (Mich.). The women’s team lost both meets. For the season, the men are 4–3 and the women are 3–4.
Men’s Tennis began their season on Sunday, taking on both Illinois Institute of Technology (Ill.) and Lake Forest College (Ill.), winning both games 7–0.
Track and Field had a strong showing at the Aurora Grand Prix on Saturday, with the men’s and women’s teams both finishing first.
Wrestling hosted Manchester University (Ind.) on Saturday, winning 28–16.
Upcoming Games
Men’s Basketball:
UChicago at New York University (N.Y.), 5:30 p.m. CST Friday, Jan. 31.
UChicago vs. Brandeis University (Mass.), 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2.
UChicago at New York University (N.Y.), 4:30 p.m. CST Friday, Feb. 7.
Women’s Basketball:
UChicago vs. New York University (N.Y.), 7:30 p.m. CST Friday, Jan. 31.
UChicago vs. Brandeis University (Mass.), 12 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2.
UChicago at New York University (N.Y.), 6:30 p.m. CST Friday, Feb. 7.
Swimming and Diving:
UChicago vs. Hope College (Mich.), 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1.
Men’s Tennis:
UChicago vs. Roosevelt University (Ill.), 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1.
UChicago at North Central College (Ill.), 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1.
Women’s Tennis:
UChicago at Holy Cross College (Ind.), 1 p.m. CST Saturday, Feb. 1.
UChicago at Kenyon College (Ohio), in Indianapolis (Ind.), 11 a.m. CST Sunday, Feb. 2.
UChicago vs. Milwaukee (Wis.), 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7.
Track and Field:
Windy City Rumble hosted by UChicago, Saturday, Feb. 1. Lewis Invitational hosted by Lewis University (Ill.), 4:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7.
Wrestling:
Pete Willson-Wheaton Tournament hosted by Wheaton College (Ill.), Friday, Jan. 31–Saturday, Feb. 1.
Students at the Ratner Athletic Center. finn hartnett
CROSSWORDS
84. With a Song in My Heart
By ELI LOWE | Associate Crossword Editor
57 Annual athletic award 58 TV plugs?
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