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DAVID AXELROD TO STEP DOWN AS IOP DIRECTOR IN 2023

FEBRUARY 16, 2022 SIXTH WEEK VOL. 134, ISSUE 15

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#CareNotCops Holds Rally To Protest Recent UCPD Shooting of Rhysheen Wilson

PAGE 2 Protesters march down East 59th Street on Friday, February 4, as part of a rally organized by #CareNotCops. COURTESY OF ERIC FANG

UCMed Announces Plans for Standalone Cancer Hospital PAGE 2 VIEWPOINTS: What we talk about when we talk about food. .

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University of Chicago Medicine. COURTESY OF LEE HARRIS

GREY CITY: An organizer reflects on a controversial demonstration.

ARTS: God, y’all love each other—a love ghostwriter tells a love lesson.

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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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“[UCPD] responds to every situation with the same heavy-handed, violent approach, leaving behind the people that need our help the most.”

By ERIC FANG | Senior News Reporter #CareNotCops (CNC), a student group dedicated to the abolition of the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) in favor of investing in South Side communities and mental health services, gathered on the main quad in front of Levi Hall at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, February 4, to protest the recent shooting of community member Rhysheen Wilson by a UCPD officer.

Fourth-year CNC organizer Alicia Hurtado began the rally by giving a speech calling for the abolition of UCPD. They asserted that far too many UCPD encounters with community members result in “escalation, violence, and criminalization.”

Hurtado spoke out against the increased patrols and surveillance that the University instituted in response to 24-year-old recent UChicago graduate Shaoxiong “Dennis” Zheng being shot and killed during an attempted robbery at 956 East 54th Place on November 9.

“When the University announced their expansion of their private armed

police force, I knew that it only had one predictable outcome,” Hurtado said.

“That outcome was not safety or an answer to gun violence.”

Next, Hopie Melton, a third-year CNC member, read a statement on behalf of Students for Disability Justice (SDJ), an advocacy organization that promotes disability activism and discussion within the University community and Chicagoland. The organization said that UCPD and emergency dispatchers are not properly trained to handle mental health crises and unnecessarily escalate many confrontations as a result.

SDJ also demanded that the University further invest in mental health services. “[UCPD] responds to every situation with the same heavy-handed, violent approach, leaving behind the people that need our help the most,” Melton read aloud. “Our Black neighbors are under constant surveillance. Our mad and neurodivergent neighbors are judged and have been pathologized for their differences. Our disabled neighbors are un-

der constant threat, and UChicago acts as a further disabling force.”

A fter the speeches, protesters marched on South Ellis Avenue, East 57th Street, South University Ave, and East 59th Street before ending back on the main quad.

Wilson was shot by UCPD officer Nicolas Twardak on the morning of January 18. According to a statement by the Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy, Wilson was experiencing a mental health episode on the day of the shooting. Wilson’s condition as of last week is “serious, but stable,” according to a University spokesperson. Twardak has since been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.

In 2018, Twardak also shot then– UChicago student Charles “Soji” Thomas, who was breaking the windows of buildings and cars in an alleyway with a metal pole during what his parents believe to have been a psychiatric episode.

Thomas was charged with three felony counts of aggravated assault of a police officer and five felony counts of criminal damage of property.

CNC was formed following Thomas’s shooting as a branch of UChicago United, a group of students of color “committed to racial justice at the University of Chicago and [in] the surrounding Chicago area.” CNC campaigned to drop the charges against Thomas, and they were ultimately dropped in May 2021 after Thomas completed a diversion program for first-time felony offenders.

“It’s so devastating and frustrating how similar this situation is to the one we had four years ago, and how we only just got the charges dropped against Soji Thomas last year,” CNC organizer Kelly Hui, a second-year who also serves as a Viewpoints editor for The Maroon, said in an interview after the rally. “It’s the same struggle. It’s the same organizing we’re doing, but it’s important.”

CNC is holding a general interest meeting for students to learn more about the organization and the history of UCPD on Thursday, February 10, at 6 p.m.

“We want to design a place that brings back the human side of healthcare”

By NIKHIL JAISWAL | News Editor On Thursday, University of Chicago Medicine (UCM) officials announced plans for a new standalone cancer hospital to be built on the UCM campus in Hyde Park.

Pending regulatory approval, the University plans to break ground on the $633 million facilty in 2023 and open it by 2026. Once in operation, the new hospital is expected to see around 200,000 outpatient visits and 5,000 inpatient admissions every year. The new hospital will open with 128 beds, 100 exam rooms, stem cell treatment and processing facilities, imaging facilities, chemotherapy and radiation services, genetic testing and counseling options, and spaces for clinical trials and research.

According to a University press release, one of the main goals of the new facility is to help address health inequities that have plagued the South Side.

“Cancer death rates on the South Side are almost twice the national average, and cancer is the second leading cause of deaths for residents in the area,” according to Kunle Odunsi, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCM. He was further quoted in the press release, saying, “Social determinants of health are not only linked to adverse environmental exposures but also to a lack of resources, including access to disease prevention, early detection, and high-quality cancer care.”

In the press release, the University said that about 56 percent of South Side

cancer patients leave the area for care.

With the new center, officials hope to improve the patient experience by putting all of the services they need in one building. They also hope the space will free up beds for patients with non-cancer ailments in the current medical center.

“We want to design a place that brings back the human side of healthcare, one that really thinks of people as individuals and not as a breast cancer patient or a colorectal cancer patient,” UCM President Tom Jackiewicz said.

“They will be seen as an individual and as families coming to us for the best cancer care available.”

Currently, UCM holds a “comprehensive” designation from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), making it one of only two facilities in Illinois to hold

what is considered the NCI’s “gold standard.” In the press release, the University described itself as “uniquely positioned to reimagine cancer care for the community and the City of Chicago.”

University officials submitted a Certificate of Need (CON) request to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board earlier this week. The initial request seeks approval to spend money on planning and designing the new facility in order to inform a later CON request planned for the fall which will seek approval for the construction of the facility. If all goes according to plan, the University claims that the construction process will generate more than 500 construction jobs, with at least 41 percent of contract dollars going to minority- and women-owned firms.

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UChicago Forward Announces Changes To Exposure Notifications, Resumes Voluntary Testing, Enacts Limited Isolation-in-Place

By BEN WEINER | Senior News Reporter UChicago Forward reported 178 new cases of COVID-19 and 394 close contacts identified this week, according to an email sent to the University community on Friday, February 11. Sixty-one students are in on-campus isolation housing, with 32 isolating off campus.

Surveillance testing results from February 3 to February 9 reported 93 cases and a 2.46 percent positivity rate. The email also announced that symptomatic testing would no longer be administered at Stuart Hall because of reduced demand

and increased testing capacity at other locations. Additionally, the University has transitioned its COVID-19 surveillance testing to a self-collection model in University residence halls following a successful pilot last week. Instructions were sent on Wednesday to on-campus residents.

The email also noted that despite Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker’s announcement on February 9 that the state will no longer require masks in most indoor settings after February 28, the University

must abide by the City of Chicago mask mandate, which remains in effect for now.

Per the email, the Chicago Department of Public Health plans to lift some mitigation measures, such as the mask mandate, if COVID-19 indicators continue to improve. Chicago’s seven-day case positivity rate declined to 2.7 percent this week, down from 4.1 percent last week.

Beginning this week, the University’s contact tracing program will focus on notifying individuals who had known contact with someone who had tested positive for COVID-19 rather than notifying all students in a particular class-

room, which is done when an individual who tests positive does not know who was seated less than six feet away from them.

According to the email, no case clusters have been traced to classroom spread.

The email also noted that isolation-in-place procedures in residence halls would be used on a limited basis to conserve space in Stony Island Hall, which is being used as an isolation housing facility. Per the email, the isolation-in-place procedures are in accordance with CDC guidance and the input of UChicago Medicine experts, and matches the guidance given to students isolating off-campus.

After 10 Years, David Axelrod to Step Down as IOP Director and Become Chairman of Advisory Board

By NOAH GLASGOW | News Reporter David Axelrod, former chief strategist and senior advisor to former president Barack Obama, announced Tuesday morning that he will be stepping down from his position as director of the Institute of Politics (IOP), which he helped found in 2013.

“I believe strongly that change and renewal are necessary and important.…

Next year, the IOP will benefit additionally from the fresh energy and perspective a new director will bring,” Axelrod wrote in an announcement on the IOP’s website.

Despite his decision to step down, Axelrod assured students that he would remain engaged in the IOP’s programming.

“In January [2023], I will become the chairman of the IOP’s Board of Advisors and will assume a new post as a Senior Fellow, returning for events, mentoring and any other mission for which I am called.”

Axelrod rose to prominence as the chief architect of both of Obama’s presidential campaigns. He was also a senior advisor to the president from 2009–11.

Before his time in national politics, he

received an B.A. in political science from UChicago in 1976.

“We’ll be making the University of Chicago a top destination for newsmakers, political actors, people in the public arena,” Axelrod said in 2012 of his decision to found the IOP. In his announcement on Tuesday, he said that the IOP has provided UChicago with “a vital center to challenge, encourage and inspire young people to play an active role in our democracy and the world around them.”

The IOP is the University’s nonpartisan political institute, offering internships, fellowships, and career advising to

those interested in political studies or a career in politics. Its popular speaker series frequently draws prominent state and local representatives, jurists, and political thinkers.

Axelrod will become chairman of the IOP’s board of advisors in January 2023.

In a letter to the IOP’s student leadership, Axelrod thanked members of the IOP for maintaining a rich and robust program.

“In dispiriting times, you’ve given me the greatest gift, and that is hope in the future. I cannot count how many times you’ve made me smile, tear up, and most importantly—think!”

Gage Gramlick, Yiwen Lu Elected to Lead THE CHICAGO MAROON in 2022–23

By MICHAEL MCCLURE | Deputy News Editor Gage Gramlick will become editor-in-chief of The Chicago Maroon and Yiwen Lu will become managing editor be-

ginning spring quarter 2022, per election results finalized Saturday, February 5, for The Maroon’s executive slate. Gramlick

will succeed Co-Editors-in-Chief Matthew Lee and Ruby Rorty, and Lu will succeed Adyant Kanakamedala.

Gramlick, a third-year global studies and Spanish major, joined The Maroon as

a columnist in fall 2019, becoming an associate Viewpoints editor in February 2020 and head Viewpoints editor in September 2020. He has authored columns on loneliCONTINUED ON PG. 4

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“[Gramlick and Lu] are two people who see journalism as public service” CONTINUED FROM PG. 3

ness, Core classes, and complaining and has served as a member of The Maroon’s editorial board and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) working group.

“Yiwen and I believe that we need to reevaluate what our mission as a newspaper is,” Gramlick said in his election speech. “From investigating scrupulously every action the University makes…to capturing to the best of our ability the realities of people living around us, we know that The Maroon has the potential to make a meaningful difference in the ecosystem of communities we’re connected to.”

Lu, a third-year economics and political science major, joined The Maroon as a news reporter in winter 2020, becoming a deputy news editor in October 2020 and a full news editor in January 2021. Lu has covered many breaking stories over the past year, including the referendum to split Student Government; rallies held in the wake of Shaoxiong Zheng’s murder on November 9, 2021; and a lawsuit filed January 9 that ac-

cused the University of violating antitrust laws. She has also served on The Maroon’s DEI working group and editorial board.

“Many of those stories are surprising, to say the least, and sometimes heartbreaking, and I can’t put into words how much I appreciate the people—the people in this room and beyond the Maroon team—who volunteered their time and effort in covering the most important news that matters to the UChicago community and beyond,” Lu said in her speech.

Current Head of Production Matthew Chang, a third-year, will succeed Suha Chang as chief production officer, while Director of Marketing Astrid Weinberg and Director of Operations Dylan Zhang, both second-years, will become co–chief financial officers of The Maroon, succeeding Charlie Blampied.

In her closing remarks, Rorty reflected on her year as co-editor-in-chief and her hopes for the future. “It’s been a truly positive year, as I think everyone in this room can attest to,” she said. “[Gramlick and Lu]

are two people who see journalism as public service and who tirelessly work to hold [the University administration] accountable but

also to uplift voices that are often spoken over at UChicago and beyond. I can’t think of two better people to lead the paper.”

Yiwen Lu and Gage Gramlick will become managing editor and editor-in-chief respectively beginning spring quarter 2022. COURTESY OF ERIC FANG

Ambassador to Albania Reflects on Career in Foreign Service

By SABRINA CHANG | News Reporter On Saturday, January 29, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Albania Yuri Kim spoke to students at the Taiwanese American Student Association’s virtual speaker series event. Kim reflected on her past experiences, offering advice on finding one’s path after college and navigating the challenges of being a minority figure in the workplace.

Kim is the first Korean-American woman and the first person from Guam to represent the United States as an Ambassador. Prior to this position, Kim held many other high-profile offices in the State Department and worked on key foreign policy and national security issues across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Kim attained a B.A. in political science at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and hoped to pursue a career in law. However, after failing to get into her desired law school, she found herself at the University of Cambridge, where she earned her M.Phil. in political theory. “The best success often comes from failure,” Kim said.

After her time at Cambridge, Kim returned to UPenn to find a job that would let her see the world. “I was waiting to speak to my counselor, and while I was in the waiting room, something caught my eye,” she said. “There was a brochure that was kind of colorful, and it turned out to be the brochure for the foreign services exam.”

Kim began her career in foreign policy in Beijing taking Chinese language courses, then served as a political-military officer in Tokyo. She then returned to Washington D.C., and served as a special assistant to the Secretary of State, Colin Powell. “I learned a lot. Part of it was seeing the places, but a greater part of it was meeting people in these countries and other members of the State Department,” Kim said.

From there, Kim served as a political officer in Korea, then a member of the American delegation to the six-party talks focused on denuclearizing North Korea.

She traveled to North Korea several times, sometimes even alone. Kim said, “I knew Korea through the eyes of a Korean child,

so to be going back there as an American diplomat and being able to see Korea from another angle was truly eye-opening.”

However, Kim did not want to be known as the “Asian who just did [East] Asia.” She signed up to travel to Iraq to serve as the political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. “For one year, I lived in a place where bombs were going off on a regular basis, and I was calling home to my family to keep them calm,” Kim said. “When we got a warning that a mortar was coming in, we would climb under the bed or go into the bathtub to maximize the chances of survival.”

Kim’s frequent travels made her realize the value of observing different cultures.

“Being a diplomat is all about learning the language, both figuratively and literally,” Kim said. “And my background as an immigrant had a huge influence on how I relate to the world and how I relate to other people.”

After her time in Baghdad, Kim worked in Turkey for three years as the political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara.

From there, she took on her current job as

ambassador of Albania, a personal representative of the president.

“The most rewarding part is getting to represent the country I love so much,” Kim said. “It feels amazing to be the person who gets to sit in front of the American flag.”

As an Asian-American woman, Kim is usually outnumbered in a room, but she does not let that drown out her voice. “Assert your rights and don’t accept injustice as culture,” Kim said. “If you are artificially suppressing half your population based on sex, you are denying yourself talent, labor, and ambition.” She also stressed the importance of having allies in these situations. “A lot of times when you are trying to change the situation, it is really important to have people stand up for you, but you also have to be able to stand up for others,” Kim said.

While speaking about her assignments and travels, Kim continuously emphasized the value of seeking out new perspectives.

“Life is full of surprises, and if you’re open to those new experiences, they can be wonderful,” Kim said. “As you go from experience to experience, try to build a story.”

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Advanced Photon Source at Argonne Helps Pfizer Develop COVID-19 Pill

By ANUSHREE VASHIST | Senior News Reporter With the help of Argonne National Laboratory’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) facility, scientists at pharmaceutical company Pfizer developed the Paxlovid pill, the first oral antiviral given emergency use authorization by the FDA to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19.

Paxlovid was found to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by 88 percent when administered within five days of COVID-19 symptom onset. The FDA authorized the pill for emergency use in high-risk adults and children.

Argonne National Laboratory, located in a suburb of Chicago, is a research center that originally stemmed from the University of Chicago’s efforts on the Manhattan Project. APS is a user facility at Argonne with a circular X-ray

ring that allows scientists to determine the three-dimensional structure of potential drugs and their targets. Pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer use this knowledge to decide what changes need to be made to their drug candidates so that they can be most effective.

The APS ring is divided into 34 sectors, including the Industrial Macromolecular Crystallography Association Collaborative Access Team (IMCA-CAT), an association of pharmaceutical companies using macromolecular crystallography for drug discovery and product development. IMCA-CAT’s work was at the forefront of the development of Paxlovid. Lisa Keefe, the executive director of IMCA-CAT, said that her team’s modeling of a drug and its

target is important for creating precise medications.

Using an analogy of a lock and a key, she explained that in order to create a key, one must know not only the shape of the key hole but also the structure of the inside of the lock. The same is true of drugs and their targets.

“We need to know how a potential drug is really interacting with the target and causing it to either change its shape or inhibit its action or whatever it is you’re trying to achieve,” Keefe said. Understanding the drug’s interaction with its target allows developers to make drugs more precise, ensuring they do not bind with unintended targets.

Keefe stressed that this technique is not a new one, but rather one her team have used with various pharmaceutical companies for 20 years, ultimately lead-

ing them to work on a plethora of therapeutics for many diseases.

“We can do the experiments so much faster at the advanced photon source than the companies or any research lab can do internally. We can collect a set of data in 10 seconds, whereas it might take a couple of hours in the lab. Our throughput is exceedingly high,” said Keefe.

Pfizer’s access to such a high-caliber facility allowed for a breakthrough like Paxlovid. “I would emphasize how valid the resource is [and] how important it is for the Department of Energy to support Argonne National Laboratory and the Advanced Photon Source; as a user facility for academic research and industrial research, it is truly invaluable,” Keefe said.

New Master of Science Program Announced in Partnership With Institute for Population and Precision Health

By GUSTAVO DELGADO | Senior News Reporter The University of Chicago’s Institute for Population and Precision Health has introduced a new program, Master of Science in Precision Health (MsPH).

This program will look at broader population health through a combination of new cutting-edge technology and innovative research methods.

This program consists of 10 courses, six of which are a predetermined core, three of which differ based on the concentration, and one that focuses on a summer capstone project, which concludes the program. The MsPH has concentrations available in data science, clinical research, and entrepreneurship.

The preexisting departments responsible for the coursework of this program include the statistics department, the biological sciences department, and the

Polsky Center. The courses that make up the foundation of precision health include epidemiology, bioinformatics, population health, biostatistics, and inclusion and equity in precision health.

The summer capstone project will act as an overview of the material covered and can either be research-based or applied. Students will receive the guidance of a faculty mentor to determine the best path for students to take based on their interests, and a final presentation will be given during the summer quarter.

Dr. Habibul Ahsan, director of the Institute for Population and Precision Health, will serve as the dean for this program within the Biological Sciences Division. Ahsan told The Maroon that the motivation behind this program is that nothing like this has existed thus far

for the field of precision medicine, which is still up and coming.

“You can use information to make public health intervention more effective by targeting those where the impact would be greatest and what the needs are,” Ahsan said. Precision health “draws upon expertise and knowledge from multiple domains, traditional classical medicine, molecular genetics, genomics, data science, and quantitative research methods, all of those you need to integrate together to really understand and apply.”

The program website highlights that, after one year, students will become qualified for positions like healthcare administrators, healthcare research consultants, healthcare data analysts, pharmaceutical company scientists, and academic clinician-scientists.

“They want to do something beyond

their undergraduate degree. They want to do a one-more-year investment in upgrading their skill and knowledge in a specific health-related field,” Ahsan said. “And then they can go to the workforce right after that, and it could be in the working in the pharmaceutical industry.”

Ahsan encourages applicants who are later in their graduate education to apply to the MsPH, as it could expand their thinking in improving personalized care and assist in reorienting their career path.

Ahsan also said that, although the program currently exists only for fulltime students, he is hoping it will be adapted into a two-year part-time program. The program is currently accepting applications until March 15 and does not require the GRE to apply.

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“We Want Safety”: An Organizer Reflects on November’s Controversial Demonstration Reeling from a student death, students tried to organize an “apolitical” rally.

But calls for increased policing and surveillance surfaced anyway—along with instances of anti-Black rhetoric—drawing widespread criticism on campus.

By ESHAN DOSANI | Grey City Reporter Content warning: This article contains descriptions of gun violence and anti-Black rhetoric.

On November 9, 2021, recent University of Chicago graduate Shaoxiong “Dennis” Zheng was shot and killed during an armed robbery not far from campus.

Within hours, a group of international students had started a WeChat group to discuss safety on campus. A week later, they had drafted formal demands, created a website to display their message, and put into action a plan to get their proposals attention from the University. They were going to host a rally.

“First, we started a discussion about what kinds of demands we wanted to send to the University. We set up a Google Doc to collect everyone’s opinions,” said Hongding Zhu, a first-year student in the Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS) and one of the rally’s organizers. According to Zhu, the group chat had grown to 500 members—the limit for how large a WeChat group can be—within a few days of the shooting.

About 20 students volunteered to filter submitted proposals into a set of demands that could be presented to the University. “Everyone could speak, and everyone could talk,” Zhu said. The volunteers sorted feedback from the Google Doc into 36 categories. They eventually narrowed these down to a list of seven demands: extended free Lyft pass hours; extended shuttle routes; real-time alerts

for crimes in Hyde Park; increased safety training for students, faculty, and staff; life insurance for all University members; “off-campus protection”; and increased police accountability.

Within a week, all the pieces had fallen into place: The Dean-on-Call waived the permit requirement that would

usually be required for an event of this size—citing time constraints, organizers said—and University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) officers were in place to direct traffic. On November 16, hundreds of students marched from the quad to Regenstein Library, demanding changes to how the University addresses student safety.

That rally, attended by over 300 peo-

Students demonstrate on the quad in November 2021. COURTESY OF MAROON STAFF

ple, has since ignited a controversy surrounding student safety, policing, and the relationship between the University and the communities that surround it.

As students grappled with three fatal shootings of University affiliates last year, several student groups, community organizations, and faculty members began to call on the University to make changes CONTINUED ON PG. 7

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“There are very diverse opinions among the Chinese students... we just tried to find a non-political middle ground.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 6

to its policies, offering differing—and often competing—visions of neighborhood safety.

While the organizers’ website does not include direct demands for increased policing or surveillance, certain individual speakers at the rally did express support for such measures. “It needs to be better than this,” said one speaker at the rally’s open mic. “We need to stop the politics…it’s so preventable…. Supporting UCPD will save lives in the future.” Another speaker framed discussions around systemic causes of crime as distractions from immediate action, saying, “invoking arbitrary deep-rooted social problems, this is just intellectual hypocrisy.”

Other speakers, however, urged that attention should be given to the needs of surrounding communities as well. “The fact that we are unsafe is important and it is serious,” said another speaker. “But

people on the South Side and the surrounding communities feel unsafe on a daily basis.”

Some organizations on campus and in the community have condemned the pro-police sentiments at the rally, accusing the rally of platforming harmful rhetoric. UChicago Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP) tweeted that the group “condemns the rally on the quad today which advocated for more intense policing & surveillance under the guise of improving campus safety.” The student activist groups #CareNotCops (CNC) and UChicago Student Action retweeted the message. SJP went on to write in the thread that “SJP UChicago supports the complete abolition of prisons and policing as essential for racial equality.”

Zhu objected to the idea that the rally was in favor of either increased policing or more surveillance, and he claimed that he and the other organizers attempted

to sideline such messages at the event.

According to Zhu, organizers requested that those displaying explicitly political, pro-police messages move to the margins of the rally. “Those who carried explicitly pro-cop, anti-defunding, or for more cameras, or racist slogans, we, at the beginning of the rally, asked to exclude them from the center of the rally,” Zhu said.

Zhu claims that the presence of these individuals at the rally’s periphery contributed to the belief that the rally was advocating for increased policing, as they ended up being the most visible. “We excluded them to the outer circle of the rally and did not allow them to enter. But that is exactly why people saw them outside our rally and think this is all about our rally.”

Organizers emphasized that measures were taken to keep the rally as open and fair as possible while still remaining “apolitical”—that is, not weighing in on

Attendees’ signs drew criticism for appropriating racial justice slogans. COURTESY OF MAROON STAFF

the question of policing or taking an explicit stance on any policies outside their seven demands.

“Pro-cop was never the official stance of the rally,” said Zhu, who himself is skeptical that increased policing would serve to decrease gun violence. According to Zhu, the organizers decided not to address policing directly, both to be respectful to the deceased and his family and because such an approach would be better for fostering conversation. According to Zhu, the best approach was one that allowed the speeches after the main rally to reflect the conversations happening around safety, as opposed to one that only permitted certain viewpoints to be expressed.

“There are very diverse opinions among the Chinese students, and also other international students, and even the local student groups,” Zhu said. “Why we just tried to find a non-political middle ground is that we think an echo chamber or several echo chambers is actually worse than an open platform where everyone can have a conversation.”

According to Zhu, the backlash against the rally was a missed opportunity to allow more students to enter the conversation. “I think I must criticize them,” Zhu said of the rally’s critics. “They think that everyone in the University should already know well about their cause. So if you do not directly say ‘defund the police,’ or if you allow someone who is pro-cop into a rally, then [they assume] you are against them,” he said.

According to Zhu, accusations that the rally was racist could potentially antagonize students who might otherwise be sympathetic to activists’ goals. “It has a direct negative impact on whether people in our community want further conversation,” Zhu said.

Yet some have argued that this open approach allowed harmful speech to surface.

“It was a space that let a lot of really racist speech, even posters, sort of have a platform,” said second-year and head Viewpoints editor Kelly Hui, a spokesperson for CNC. CONTINUED ON PG. 8

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“It was a space that let a lot of really racist speech, even posters, have a platform.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 7

Instances at the rally that have drawn accusations of racism, including one speaker telling the crowd, “The Black kid who killed [Zheng]…was raised in drugs…gun violence…it raised him. It’s about Chicago.”

Hui objected that the rally provided a platform to these speakers. “I think for a Black student passing through or community members passing through, that creates very active harm. It’s a bit naive to believe that you can hold a rally on safety and not have it be political,” Hui said.

In the days after the rally, the Organization of Black Students (OBS) released a statement condemning the “racialized paranoia and anti-Black rhetoric” expressed by UChicago students. “The University community must reject and denounce this rhetoric both in person and online. Such rhetoric is harmful, unproductive, and unnecessary to an actual conversation on safety.”

In an op-ed published last month in The Maroon, Zhaorui Wang, a graduate student in the Division of Social Sciences, argued that the sentiments voiced at the

rally were the result of deeper cultural rifts. “The conscious and subconscious rejection of the ‘only two sides’ view explains why the rally participants were not aware of the potential risk and harm when holding slogans like ‘student lives matter’—not recognizing the cultural and racialized significance of the Black Lives Matter movement—and also why when observers conclude that the Chinese international students are calling for more police violence when they call for more police presence, they are far away from the original intent.”

Wang argued that labeling the rally as categorically pro-police was reductive. “A large number of Chinese international students, if not most, are willing to simultaneously hold two truths: that racialized police violence is a problem, and that basic safety is also a problem. It seems like the critics can only see the former.”

Other groups have also called on the University to enact changes in how it approaches student safety. Shortly before the rally, a public letter signed by more than 300 UChicago faculty members called on the University administration

Organizers attempted to keep the rally’s focus “apolitical.” COURTESY OF MAROON STAFF

to take measures meant to increase safety on campus. Demands included enlarging the borders of UCPD’s jurisdiction, increasing camera surveillance in Hyde Park, and increasing the number of security guards off campus.

Several community organizations and faculty members spoke out against the sentiments expressed in the letter.

Julie Orlemanski, an associate professor in the English department, publicly criticized the letter on Twitter. “I’m a faculty member, & these student deaths are heart-sickening, just a blighting waste.

But so are the other 784 Chicago homicides in the last 12 months, in a city with the 2nd highest per capita police budget. More police is NOT IT,” Orlemanski tweeted.

In an email to The Maroon, Orlemanski added that “[t]he University has a long history of trying to make itself a sealed enclave on the South Side, through its management of real estate, the built environment, medicine, transportation, and policing. That strategy just doesn’t work.”

Hui echoed these sentiments. “It’s important that we take this moment where everyone’s starting to think like, ‘oh my gosh, like, are we not safe on campus?’

Take this moment where people are reevaluating, reimagining safety to turn toward non-carceral, non-police, community-centered conceptions of safety….

We want true safety for everyone affected by violence in our communities, not necessarily just the students.”

Many of the measures demanded in the faculty letter, including increased camera surveillance around Hyde Park, increased police patrols, and changes to intelligence sharing between University and City police, have since been implemented by the UCPD and Chicago Police Department (CPD). The demand for extended Lyft pass hours—which was advocated for at the time by both the Undergraduate Student Government and the rally organizers—was also implemented.

But several student and community groups condemned some of these changes. A petition circulated by CNC, which has so far gained more than 800 signa-

tures from students, faculty, alumni, and residents of Hyde Park, called on the University to reverse expansions of policing and surveillance and invest in the surrounding community.

Zhu stated that these changes were not in line with what the rally on the quad was trying to achieve. “These measures, I believe, none of them were in response to our rally. Because our rally never asked for them.”

In her email, Orlemanski urged the University to embrace alternative solutions to violence in Hyde Park. “I would love to see the University rushing to support true anti-violence programs like READI [Rapid Employment and Development Initiative] Chicago, Chicago CRED [Create Real Economic Destiny], Communities Partnering for Peace, and Cure Violence; advocating for the Peace Book Ordinance and Community Restoration Ordinance,” she wrote, listing other racial justice activist groups such as GoodKidsMadCity and Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

Zhu remains optimistic about the possibility of finding common ground. The various community campaigns for safety, according to Zhu, mark “a chance of finding potential allies and absorbing more people into the conversation, instead of creating more misunderstanding.”

When asked about the differing proposed approaches to student safety, Hui echoed the call for recognizing the shared interests of the student body. “I feel like a more productive thing to do is recognize that at the end of the day, we all just want to feel safe.” Hui said. “We should be working together to demand better of the University, to invest in actual solutions that will create safety for everyone.”

With the pain of loss still fresh, disagreements—both real and perceived— add tension to a student body already reeling from tragedy. And, though their approaches vary, organizers’ statements belie their shared emotional experiences of sadness, of pain, and of hope.

“At the end of the day, that’s all we want, right?” said Hui. “Safety, community, care.”

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VIEWPOINTS One More Bite College populations like UChicago’s are at a higher risk for creating and sustaining unhealthy relationships with food because of the lack of discourse surrounding them.

By RACHEL ONG Content warning: This article contains references to disordered eating.

The holiday season has always left me feeling uneasy.

Returning home can often be tense, so I decided that this year, I would make winter break stress-free by focusing solely on baking and listening to “All I Want For Christmas Is You” on repeat. But something changed once the holidays went into full swing. It was normal, at first: my extended family gathered around the dinner table, discussions weaving delicately around contentious topics as we settled into the familiar grooves of COVID-19 holiday gatherings. After months spent apart—whether because of travel restrictions or out of caution—conversation flowed readily. But as I looked down at my plate, gently shuffling around food with my fork, I was reminded of why the holidays weren’t always as colorful as the Christmas songs I listened to year-round.

Food has always played a tricky role in my life, particularly when it came to reconciling contradictory cultural expectations. Food—perhaps more so than anything else— provides both social and corporeal sustenance, and a meal is just as much a catalyst for community as it is a functional necessity. The local Asian grocery

stores and dim sum restaurants of my youth were predominantly immigrant enclaves where I found myself most at peace.

These spaces act as an anchoring force for diasporic communities: It’s a space to reconnect when we celebrate, to heal us when we mourn. For me, these spaces have often been a place of familiarity and comfort.

Discussions surrounding eating, however, have occasionally felt like a battlefield. The act of casually commenting on weight or eating habits is something that has been embedded into my upbringing, as natural as saying hello. I remember the first time I was worried about being too thin and the first time I worried about not being thin enough, all while recalling vivid memories of relatives clucking their tongues and letting their gaze fall onto someone’s midsection.

In college, I thought I’d found an escape from the pressures of food. I never expected them to follow me around.

While college can transport us from stressful home environments, the eating culture at UChicago can be equally difficult to navigate. The promise of fierce independence that comes with being a college student allows us to create and sustain unhealthy relationships with food. When a university like UChicago prides itself on its pressure-cooker culture, it often leaves little room to confront these truths. Rather

than neglecting conversations around eating, we should approach the subject in a more careful and conscious way.

As a first-year, I learned that eating was a solitary activity. This particular chapter of my life was defined by to-go boxes and empty dining halls: The act of getting a meal consisted of leaving my dorm room, going to the dining hall, and heading back inside. As I became comfortable with this routine, meals turned into less of a priority. Three meals a day

JANICE CHO

became two, and in some cases, two meals became one. At first, I convinced myself that I was too busy with schoolwork to eat.

I would swap dinner for a packet of instant ramen I brought from home or an apple I picked up the day before. Conflicting thoughts about my weight hung over me like a low-grade fever.

Gradually, I became anxious at the mere thought of even entering a dining hall, regardless of whether I was alone or not.

I noticed the frequent comments I made about how little

food I ate and the guilt that festered whenever I had three meals a day. Despite worrying constantly about contracting COVID-19 and taking substantial precautions to look after my health, there was irony in the fact that I didn’t care if I stripped my body of nutrients.

My warped understanding of food taught me that eating less meant I would look healthier.

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ally matter what time it was or what kind of food I ate. The excitement of food-centered social activities—fourth meal, dinners hosted by Resident Heads, surprise dorm trips to Chinatown—waned as I struggled to navigate my relationship with eating. I lost sight of eating meals as something that I looked forward to; instead, it was just something I needed to do occasionally to get through the day.

During these first months of my on-campus experience, I observed a facet of college culture that not many people spoke about: the art of casually mentioning diets, studying through

mealtimes, staying inside when you didn’t have people to go with for Saturday Night Meal Swipes. I would linger a little longer at the food stations in Baker, questioning whether I really needed a second helping of food. I would spend more time picking myself apart in the mirror, anxious about gaining the freshman 15. On my flights back home, I’d wonder whether or not my family would notice— or worse, mention—any changes in my physical appearance.

What college is, when it comes down to it, is a place for you to arrive at classrooms, meet deadlines, and adhere to a schedule. Go in, go out: It’s entirely transitory. But the rest of

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your college experience is up to you: friend groups, recognized student organizations, downtime. We’re left in these liminal spaces where the structure of college dissolves, where getting food isn’t a deadline or an expectation but a choice. Being a college student is often about having a sense of self-control, something that is heightened by living within the incubator environment of our campuses.

My struggle with eating, however, didn’t fit into the narrative of a quick-fix solution—its roots were much deeper than I was willing to admit. When I lost the structure of the college experience, my will to maintain healthy habits crumbled with it.

It’s no doubt that this topic can certainly be uncomfortable to confront, both by yourself and when in social settings. Eating also looks different for everyone: Anxieties regarding accessibility to food, dietary restrictions, and disordered eating are lived realities across many campuses. Leaning on our community can be

instrumental in dismantling these structural stigmas. The dialogue surrounding food is shaped by students: Being vocal about these experiences offers opportunities for support and education. It can be cathartic to unearth these internal struggles and allow them to evolve into something new or to untangle our thoughts by simply starting a conversation.

Student Wellness is another resource to contact regarding eating concerns; they offer individualized recommendations to students who may want to reach out for support.

The picture of health and contentment that I sought wasn’t rooted in an actual desire to be healthier, as much as I wanted it to be. In the rare moments where I was honest with myself, I knew that it wasn’t about gaining strength or boosting endorphins: Instead, I thought about being skinnier, prettier. I imagined my body as a fictional object, a prototype to promote thin waists and a visible collarbone. Beneath

my veneer of composure was a paralyzing fear of losing control. It’s what I thought about each time I skipped a meal and weighed myself on a scale; it’s what I thought about when New Year’s Day arrived, and the first thing I saw on my phone that morning was an advertisement for a glossy new weight-loss program.

It’s not easy to change this mindset, but I’m going into this year trying to reshape my relationship with food in a way that empowers rather than destructs. We should hold each other more accountable to check in on our friends, peers, and people we don’t even know to make sure that our community can thrive in a space where health is a priority. Taking this first step is necessary.

Rachel Ong is a second-year in the College.

A Community-Led Approach to Reparations at UChicago To take steps towards reparative justice for the South Side, the University must support the Community Benefits Agreement Coalition.

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By UCHICAGO AGAINST DISPLACEMENT Last April, The Maroon Editorial Board wrote a series titled How the University Can

Better Serve the South Side.

One editorial in particular, “To Repair Historic Harm, the University Must Endow South Siders With Capital and Control,” suggests that the Uni-

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“We at UChicago Against Displacement (UCAD), too, believe that the South Side is owed reparations.”

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Justice that would give funds from UChicago to a coalition of South Side organizers to serve their communities how they see fit.

We at UChicago Against Displacement (UCAD), too, believe that the South Side is owed reparations. The University exists as a legacy of chattel slavery. Moreover, it has been an active participant in segregation, redlining, and supporting developments that work to isolate the University from its neighbors and put Southsiders at risk of displacement from their homes.

University President Paul Alivisatos began his first day in office with a statement about his intentions to the University community, one of which is to strengthen ties to South Side communities and understand how the University can be a better partner in community initiatives. On December 17, he and Provost Ka Yee Lee announced the formation of a community council, which is made up of a number of faculty members, staff, students, and community members charged with doing just that.

While many groups are weighing in on the actions they would like to see the University take in the name of reparative justice, UCAD proposes a list of demands that we have formed under the advisement of leaders in the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) Coalition, a community organization that seeks to protect South Siders from displacement.

1. Provide a $20 million annual fund for rental assistance and local schools

2. Reaffirm agreements not to expand into Woodlawn and Washington Park 3. Expand employer-assisted housing for low-income and working-class employees 4. Provide $1 billion over 20 years ($50 million annually) in grant funding for long-term true affordable housing 5. Pursue accountability around UChicago-owned land in Black communities and around the Obama Presidential Library and Center 6. Engage with local schools to support STEM programs UCAD’s relationship with the CBA Coalition began with the five-year campaign to establish UChicago Medicine’s trauma center, during which activists from various South Side community organizations such as Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization and Southside Together Organizing for Power worked tirelessly to advocate for a trauma center after the only Level I trauma treatment location in the South Side closed its doors in 1991.

Several of those involved with the campaign have since moved on to participate in the CBA Coalition to push for tenant and homeowner protections, job opportunities, and truly affordable housing developments.

Currently, the City has only approved some protections and lots for affordable housing developments for residents in Woodlawn. South Shore, despite having the highest eviction rates in Chicago, is still fighting to have their demands met by the city. Meanwhile, construction of the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) is already underway.

Clearly, the University has enormously influential power in the South Side. Our school led the effort to bring the OPC to the South Side, winning the bid over the University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia University, and the University of Hawaii. The CBA Coalition exists because of this bid. If the University of Chicago really cares to strengthen ties to the South Side, it would be well advised to support the CBA Coalition and the demands they have made.

UCAD and leaders from the CBA Coalition are partnering with the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture to host a virtual round-table event with community members and organizers from the South Side on February 9 at 6 p.m. to discuss the University’s history of displacement in the area and the South Side’s entitlement to reparations from the University. We encourage readers to attend the event and learn more about the CBA coalition, housing, and reparations.

Register for the event here and follow our Instagram @ uchicago_ against _displacement. If you’re interested in getting involved with the campaign, email uc.againstdisplacement@ gmail.com.

UChicago Against Displacement is an on-campus student organization that works with community members and organizations to stop the University’s active displacement of South Side residents, as well as demand specific reparations from the University.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — FEBRUARY 16, 2022

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ARTS What I Learned Ghostwriting Your Love

God, y’all love each other. COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES

By EVAN WILLIAMS | Arts Reporter Over the course of the last three years, I’ve written dozens of poems for other people’s partners on Valentine’s Day. No, this isn’t the plot of a romantic comedy (though Her comes close), and yes, they paid me. January has seen me working feverishly like some sort of cupidic North Pole employee. I love love. Who doesn’t?

What began during 2019 as a relatively generic rhyming couplet format became intimate, fast. Here’s how it worked: First, tell me, who am I writing for?

Who is the apple of my mediating eye? My customer base typically split into a few categories. There were those who wanted a simple expression of affection for their significant other. There were those who wanted an ode to their cat, their lizard, their long-lost dog. There were those who wanted a poem of self-love written from their own perspective, about them.

Great, now what? Tell me the most significant thing about your partner, your pet, yourself. Tell me what I need to know to dip past the superficial and

dive into the personal. Give me inside jokes, give me relationship history, give me prominent dates, moments when you looked at your partner and thought there could never be anyone who made you as you as you were in that moment. Tell me your struggles, what you wish you could say sorry for, how you’ve fallen short in your relationship. And be specific. Specificity makes for a better poem, which makes for a better Valentine’s Day gift.

And you, you want a good Valentine’s Day gift. You’re not like other partners, you’re not like other pet owners, not like other friends.

Wonderful. Now I’ll write your love out of you and hand it over on a piece of paper.

I tried really hard not to think about the intimacy afforded to me in this process. I wrote a lot of poems for friends, but more for half-acquaintances, adults in my life, and folks I didn’t know who’d seen my posts about CUSTOMIZED VALENTINE’S DAY POEMS on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. The more

I wrote, and the more I refined my process—which, by the way, only became more probing as the years went on because it made the writing easier and the results better—the more I came to reflect on just how much trust it must take to let me, a mostly-stranger, into your most cherished relationships. I’ve thought about this around Valentine’s Day every year since I began, and this year is no different. Here are some things I’ll hold with me: 1. The rules to the game of cribbage are incomprehensible. Cribbage is not a game so much as it is a mental exercise designed to keep the minds of the aging sharp. It is as intelligible as the game “Whack-Bat,” featured in Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. Muggins? Canadian doubles? Single and/or double skunked?

C’mon. As a metaphor for a sustained relationship, however, it works quite well.

Find yourself someone who’ll devote the same energy to you that it takes to learn the game of cribbage.

2. Hallmark has absolutely swindled us all! Their holiday movies aren’t camp, they’re just bad! Love in rhyme

schemes isn’t sweet, it’s a cop-out and you deserve better! And for the love of all things sweet, heart-shaped, and sugary—Violets! Are! Not! Blue!

3. God, y’all love each other. Don’t take this lightly, and please don’t forget it.

It isn’t just Valentine’s Day sappiness, either. I believe that you love the people I’ve written about for you. I don’t know how many of you are still with your person, how many of your pets are still meowing/woofing/lizard-style lamp bathing, or how many of your first-year friends stuck around. What I do know is that when you reached out to tell me about your loved one, your speech quickened, music played, and it was so loud even I could hear its thrum. Try to take that with you. Keep it somewhere Hallmark can’t find.

I’ve taken Valentine’s Day off this year for other poetic purposes, but will take orders again next year. And hey, in the meantime, if you love someone so much you have to tell them in verse, or if you just want a weird poem to keep for yourself, yell from the rooftops (or send an email) to let me know.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — FEBRUARY 16, 2022

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“Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’’’ to Go See Broadway’s Touring Production of Oklahoma!

By BELLE NAHOOM | Arts Reporter Many thespians would agree that Oklahoma! is, quite frankly, an outdated musical. Though at its birth, Oklahoma! was deemed artistically revolutionary as the first modern musical, it is clear that the work has evolved in the ever-changing theater world. Fortunately, through the vision of director Daniel Fish, Oklahoma! has expanded its commentary from an off-putting love story to a social statement on gun violence and the role of the villain in our stories.

For those who have never had the opportunity to see Oklahoma!, the storyline follows the “enemies to lovers” trope between Laurey, the sassy young woman of our story, and Curly, the cocky cowboy who believes “everything’s going [his] way.” Our villain, the farmhand Jud Fry, is depicted as a violent porn addict who dreams of marrying Laurey. Jud and Curly’s feud unfolds during the night of an auction and eventually, Laurey falls for Curly, angering Jud to the point of vi-

olence. Throughout the show we are also introduced to a secondary plotline: We meet Ado Annie, a spontaneous and impulsive young woman who must choose her lover. Does she decide to marry the always-moving swindler, who himself has been swindled into a relationship with Annie, or does she choose the lovesick but half-witted Will Parker? The secondary plot brings an exciting and rambunctious tone to the musical, one that I personally found more entertaining than the main storyline.

A large complaint of mine about the original production of Oklahoma! is that Jud is painted as this creepy, evil figure when he is, in fact, a human with needs and wants, just like every other character in the plot. His desire to marry Laurey is not unfounded; why do we allow the “handsome” Curly to creep on Laurey, yet view Jud as a villain when he does exactly the same thing? In this revival of the musical, there is a clear separation be-

tween the personas and actions of Curly and Jud. In critical points between Jud, Curly, and Laurey, Jud is displayed as creepy through a number of theatrical elements: The lights dim to a near pitchblack, Jud and the other characters of the scene whisper their arguments, pushing the audience to the edge of their seats in uneasiness, and on some occasions, a camera gets very close to Jud and displays his off-putting facial expressions. Fish’s vision of Jud’s ominous essence brings the production to another level. Jud is no longer a character whose values are different from that of the rest of the cast, but rather truly a menace to society. In a way, Fish uses the outdated role of Jud in the original production to envision a far more understandable conflict to follow. He also poses the question: Is Curly a villain to some degree? Curly seems to care very little about Laurey’s traumatic experiences towards the end of the show.

His hatred towards Jud overcomes his concern for Laurey, and he came off as an extremely unlikeable character in this re-

vival. Curly’s controlling nature towards Laurey makes it difficult to support him as the protagonist.

Fish made interesting choices in his evolved production. I enjoyed the use of colored lighting to categorize certain scenes. Romantic scenes were characterized by bright pink lights overtaking the room, intimate moments between two individuals were expressed by a bright green light in which actors looked like black shadows, and truly off-putting and creepy scenes were completely pitch black. Furthermore, the use of gunshot noises was a surprise. In light of recent events, many musicals have opted out of using guns and instead have used other types of weapons that are perhaps less triggering. Oklahoma! does quite the opposite. Guns were used far more in this production than any other that I have seen. In fact, 114 guns are mounted across the stage throughout the production, and as shots are fired during the production itself, the sound is amplified. With this

Sasha Hutchings and Sean Grandillo perform as Laurey and Curley in Oklahoma!. COURTESY OF MATTHEW MURPHY AND EVAN ZIMMERMAN FOR MURPHYMADE

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“Oklahoma! has expanded its commentary from an off-putting love story to a social statement on gun violence and the role of the villain in our stories.”

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deliberate action, Fish makes a statement concerning the role of guns in contemporary society. Fish has previously claimed that, in its early years, Oklahoma! was meant to represent the America of its time, so with that in mind, he wanted to reflect upon problems in America today.

This was truly an awe-inspiring decision.

Actor-wise, the choreography and the renditions of the classic music of Oklahoma! were wonderful. I found myself fawning over Curly’s (played by actor Sean Grandillo) hypnotic tone and his incredible skill with live guitar playing.

Ado Annie (portrayed by the incredible Sis) had magnificent energy and gave the audience a break from many of the serious moments of the show. Of course, it

is difficult to review Oklahoma! without at least mentioning the famous dream ballet sequence. Personally, I have never been a fan of contemporary dance and its relation to plots, but in this particular instance, I found myself incredibly impressed by the scene. It was vibrant, interesting, and, though perhaps a bit too long, completed the director’s vision of a modern Oklahoma!.

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed by this revival of Oklahoma! and found myself replaying moments of the musical in my head for days after the showing.

Director Fish’s take on the classic Oklahoma! is a reminder that musicals are not grounded in the era of their creation but rather can be modernized to fit current societal issues and circumstances.

The cast of Daniel Fish’s Chicago production of Oklahoma!.

COURTESY OF MATTHEW MURPHY AND EVAN ZIMMERMAN FOR MURPHYMADE

Showtime’s Yellowjackets Captures the Thrilling, Yet Traumatizing, Trials and Tribulations of Girlhood Adolesence

By ALLISON GILL | Arts Reporter

Ella Purnell in Yellowjackets. COURTESY OF KAILEY SCHWERMAN / SHOWTIME

Yellowjackets wastes no time in thrusting its audience into the thrilling, grisly, traumatic, and compulsively watchable world in which its characters reside. The drama from Showtime, which concluded its 10-episode first season in mid-January, opens with an unidentified girl running away from a pack of hunters, her teammates clad in ceremonial beast-hides. Who are these girls? How long have they been in the woods? What—or who—has led them to this frenzied state? And why can’t I stop watching?

Created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, the series is bifurcated into two primary timelines. One timeline, set in 1996, tracks a desperate attempt for survival when a plane carrying the Yellowjackets High School girls’ soccer team crashes in the Canadian wilderness. The other, set in 2021, follows four of the middle-aged survivors, navigating the reverberating trauma that their teenage selves both witnessed and partook in

as they attempt to hide the truth of what really happened. In less able hands, the separate timelines could be dismissed as a gimmick, but here, they are necessary and complementary, allowing for a deeper dissection of the subjects.

Ritualistic cannibalism is certainly a hell of a hook, but the true feat of the series is the depth of its character development and exploration, supported by an outstanding ensemble cast. The four protagonists—Shauna, Taissa, Natalie, and Misty—are portrayed by eight actors, with one adult and one adolescent actor for each character. This set-up allows for the characters to both mirror each other and themselves, an ingenious framework for examining the effects of trauma.

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and betrayals, while teenaged Taissa is a driven problem-solver, versed in secrecy. In 2021, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) is a stay-at-home mother, stuck in the monotony of New Jersey suburbia, and Taissa is a state senate candidate, considered to be “the queer Kamala.” Yet these public personas do little to persuade the audience of their supposed normalcy.

The disquieting ease with which Shauna captures, skins, and butchers a garden rabbit dispenses of any pretense that the demure image she projects is authentic.

In a similar vein, Taissa is haunted on the campaign trail and in her home life by hallucinations and possibly supernatural beings, including the recurring appearance of a man with no eyes. Yet despite—or perhaps, because of—their divergent paths, they continue to confide in and protect the other woman.

Natalie and Misty reside on the other end of the spectrum, serving as foils.

Their younger selves are both outcasts: Natalie, the defiant rebel with a violent

home life and a burgeoning alcohol dependence, and Misty, the dorky team equipment manager striving to fit in. In the wilderness, though, both girls discover purpose and earn the admiration of their teammates due to their evident wilderness aptitudes. The effect of their newly-asserted social worth throws the girls into sharp relief. A practiced hunter, young Natalie provides wild game for the group and forms a romance with the head coach’s eldest son, Travis, sharpening her natural protective instincts and stripping away the vulnerabilities she previously hid behind juvenile rebellion.

Misty quickly acclimates to the wilderness, exhibiting triage skills and an unwavering, frightening comfort with the grisly that makes her invaluable to the rest of her team—a feeling she savors and wields with menace.

Their present-day storylines reinforce both the similarity of their status and the critical differences in their response. While Shauna and Taissa have ostensibly moved on, the other pair seem

stuck in the same rut. Natalie (Juliette Lewis) is bouncing in and out of rehab, still totting a shotgun around with her, and Misty, played with an unnerving (and unblinking) charm by Christina Ricci, is a full-time nurse frequently indulging in the torment of her patients and a part-time “citizen detective.”

When a blackmailing subplot forces the women into an uncertain coupling, it becomes clear the plane crash and ensuing time spent in the wilderness created a haven for Natalie to escape the troubles that plagued her, while causing Misty to both realize and embolden her worst impulses.

The ensemble, headlined by former child stars of the 1990s (Lynskey, Lewis, Ricci), are deeply realized and supported by strong screenwriting and a killer soundtrack full of hits of the time period. While minimalist and simple, the directing and cinematography cast an uncertain pale over the past and present happenings—the creeping camera and shadowy sets contribute to a pervasive

Yellowjackets follows a Canadian high school soccer team after their plane crashes in the wilderness. COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK TIMES

sense of foreboding, confounding audience and character alike as to the true source of their torment. The ultimate triumph of the show is the writing that grounds a narrative threatening to tip into the absurd. The mystery that defines the first five minutes—the identity of the girl being hunted—retreats to the background, replaced with the more urgent questions that characterize their realities. Where will their next meal come from? Who is sleeping with whose boyfriend? Who is blackmailing them and what do they know? Will they be rescued and when?

The show takes pains, occasionally overly so, to juxtapose the terrors of primitive survivalism against those associated with adolescent girlhood; for instance, one standout episode does a nimble job balancing the motif of bloodshed, weaving together menstruation and deer carcasses hung to dry. Their antagonists are not purely environmental or external but, frequently, fellow survivors. The viciousness and cruelty of high school girls remain intact even in the Canadian wilderness, although social hierarchies are upended and inverted. Team captain and queen bee Jackie finds herself increasingly isolated, while Lottie, initially shown to be a wealthy yet lonely child, ascends to the throne of tribal leadership. The series aptly juggles and unravels the difference between the horrors we are forced to inflict because we have to and the ones we inflict because we want to.

Yet, despite its focus on dark subject matter, the series succeeds in presenting us with fully formed protagonists. There are moments of genuine levity, typically found in the past: roughhousing and swimming in the nearby lake, a group of girls giggling during an attic séance, a choreographed dance to Montell Jordan’s “This is How We Do It”, the exhilaration of nascent romance. Because in the end, regardless of location or circumstance, Yellowjackets shows girlhood adolescence to be an experience equally traumatizing and thrilling.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — FEBRUARY 16, 2022

16

SPORTS Pitching in New Baseball Head Coach Kevin Tyrrell

By KAYLA RUBENSTEIN | Sports Reporter Ahead of the 2022 season, UChicago baseball welcomed a new head coach in Kevin Tyrrell. After serving as an assistant coach for three years, Tyrrell has stepped into the role that former head coach John Fitzgerald vacated.

Tyrrell grew up with sports, playing basketball, football, and baseball.

While in high school, Tyrrell received a recruitment offer and scholarship from Lewis University, where he played second base and shortstop. Upon graduating in 2007, Tyrrell worked at a consulting firm and coached a summer travel team based in the south suburbs of Chicago, the Upper Deck Cougars, for three years.

Before joining UChicago, Tyrrell worked as the head coach at College of

DuPage for seven years, after receiving a recommendation from his college coach. As a coach at a community college, Tyrrell would often send his graduating players to North Central College, where John Fitzgerald served as the head coach at the time. When Fitzgerald transitioned to UChicago, he convinced Tyrrell to join him as an assistant.

Now, Tyrrell’s responsibilities as head coach include recruiting players, scheduling games, and running practices. Due to COVID-19, recruiting so far has come in the form of conducting online research and video conferencing with prospective players. This summer, however, Tyrrell plans to travel for five and a half weeks to showcases across the country.

“After the season’s over, I can dedicate most of my time to recruiting, making sure that we continue to build off the momentum that [ex-coach Brian Baldea] set in motion years ago and bringing in high character, high-quality young men who are outstanding athletes,” Tyrrell said.

To get a full picture of candidates, Tyrrell reaches out to their coaches and teachers. “One of the most difficult things about baseball is the amount of times you’re going to fail. Even the best players in the world fail seven out of 10 times as a hitter,” the head coach said.

“You need to know how to respond to adversity, because without it you can’t be a success. It’s a nine-inning game, a 45-game season, and at any given point you can be terrible and still win a championship.”

During the season, Tyrrell gathers his players’ schedules, compiles them into a spreadsheet, and determines optimal practice times. “This is an academic school,” Tyrrell said. “Sports should not conflict with academic schedules.”

This season, Tyrrell’s individual and team goals intertwine. As a team, Tyrrell hopes to win the team’s first Midwest Conference Championship.

By winning this, the team would receive an automatic bid to go to regionals. “We need to win the conference. It’s in everyone’s mind from day one. The players talk about it on a consistent basis,” Tyrrell said.

Making it to regionals would give the team the opportunity to compete in the national championship.

On an individual basis, Tyrrell seeks to have three players named All-Americans. The selection process for this award relies on statistics alone, drawing data on the success of the team as a whole, including their win-loss record.

In addition to this, Tyrrell plans to continue last year’s legacy of having the entire team of 36 players selected as Academic All-Conference award recipients.

When asked about the best part of coaching, Tyrrell said he enjoys the relationships he forms with his team.

“Watching them transform from a recruit who just stepped on campus to a graduate of the University of Chicago is just a really mind-blowing experience,” Tyrrell said. “I’m so fortunate to be a part of it. It’s easily the best part, all the time we get to spend together, working on becoming better, and bringing out the best in each other.”

Upcoming Games

UChicago baseball will be led by Kevin Tyrell. COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS

DATE

SPORT

OPPONENT

LOCATION

Feb 18–Feb 19 Feb 18–Feb 19 Feb 18 Feb 18 Feb 19 Feb 19 Feb 19 Feb 19 Feb 20 Feb 20 Feb 20 Feb 24 Feb 25–Feb 26 Feb 25–Feb 26 Feb 25–Feb 26

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

Midwest Invite Midwest Invite Brandeis Brandeis Margaret Bradley Invite Margaret Bradley Invite Lewis Lewis NYU NYU Cardinal Stritch Wash U NCAA Regional NCAA Diving Regional NCAA Diving Regional

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