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community members respond to the pandemic

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editors’ note MILES BURTON, EMMA DYER, CAROLINE KUBZANSKY On March 11, the day the previous issue of The Maroon went to print, there were 25 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Illinois. Today there are 13,549 and 380 people in the state have lost their lives in the pandemic. Currently, the United States has more cases of the virus than any other country.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that this pandemic is one of the greatest strains on our civic and political institutions in living memory.

Though the pandemic spans the globe and we are inundated daily with news from around the world, The Maroon is committed to covering its local effects on the University and on the South Side. March 13 marked the first case of COVID-19 at UChicago Medicine, and we learned that the first member of the UChicago community was diagnosed on March 17. In this issue, we’ve collected the stories that document the initial weeks of the pandemic at UChicago and in Hyde Park. Physical isolation cannot diminish journalism's value in documenting this chapter of history. We hope what you find in The Maroon, from print to digital to multimedia, reflects that power.

At The Maroon, as at most media organizations, the pandemic has brought with it many changes to daily operations and an era of remote work. Most pressing is the status of our print product: We will cease our normal print

An Unprecedented Quarter: COVID-19 Empties Campus, Labs, Classrooms publication for the duration of spring quarter 2020. This is not the first time The Maroon’s presses have halted, but it is no less disappointing. As usual, our issues will be made available online, and we will continue to tell the story of the University and the neighborhoods that surround it as

the pandemic runs its course.

Finally, while our normal issues will not go to print, we will produce print copies of the Graduation Issue later this spring. For most members of the Class of 2020, this quarter of “remote learning” will be their last in the College.

The Maroon’s Graduation

Issue typically stands as an account of what has happened in the previous four years. This year’s will do much the same, but we would be remiss not to note the ways this quarter will inflect the Class of 2020’s time at UChicago, and that it was surely not the ending that students anticipated.

This issue of The Maroon represents the collective efforts of our entire staff, compiled remotely under the policy of social distancing. When life on campus starts to return to normal, The Maroon will be there to report on it.

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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Coronavirus Updates from UChicago, Hyde Park, and the City of Chicago

By MAROON STAFF The Maroon has created a live blog to share important updates on UChicago and Hyde Park’s responses to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, as well as updates from the City of Chicago, sourcing from both The Maroon’s own coverage and from other news outlets.

This online live blog, which is running alongside The Maroon’s ongoing news coverage of the pandemic and its effects on the community is starting off with a roundup of news from the first and second weeks of extended spring break. This page will be updated on an ongoing basis during the COVID-19 pandemic, and news reporters will be providing full coverage of many of these updates in the coming days and weeks.

Additional information about the response to the coronavirus can be submitted using The Maroon’s News Tips page or by contacting news@chicagomaroon.com.

Monday, April 6 April 6 marks the first day of the delayed spring quarter and the first formal day of remote learning at the University of Chicago.

In emails to the University community on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning, President Robert Zimmer, Provost Ka Yee Lee, and Dean John Boyer shared their thoughts on UChicago’s shift to remote learning and unusual spring quarter. On our website, read Zimmer’s note, and watch Lee’s message and Boyer’s message.

Sunday, April 5 Charles Thomas was deemed ineligible for bond release at a hearing on Friday, April 3, despite having developed COVID-19 symptoms while incarcerated in Cook County Jail, according to his father, Wendell Thomas.

Inside Illinois jails, the outbreak of COVID-19 has been acute. In Cook County jail, 210 inmates have tested positive as of April 4, according to NBC Chicago. Our website contains The Maroon’s full coverage.

Students in the Class of 2020 will receive a half-tuition, one-year scholarship, courtesy of the College, if they are accepted into one of a large selection of UChicago

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masters degree programs. According to an email by Dean John Boyer sent to the class, those programs will also have an extended application deadline, May 1, and will have “waivers for standardized testing requirements.”

“In these challenging times, the College is investing in you and providing this support in direct response to the COVID pandemic,” Boyer wrote. The full list of UChicago master’s programs covered, which include both liberal arts and professional degrees, can be viewed on our website.

Friday, April 3 The College is expanding the availability of pass/fail grading spring quarter in response to students’ varied distance learning situations as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, according to an email sent today to students by Dean John Boyer and Dean Jay Ellison. The policy is being expanded to cover Core requirements, and departments and programs are being asked

to implement pass/fail policies for major and minor requirements.

Thursday, April 2 UChicago and University-affiliated institutions are joining two new research initiatives combatting COVID-19, the University’s news office announced.

Researchers at the University are among those joining the new N95DECON consortium, which “seeks to review, collate, publish, and disseminate scientific information about N95 [face mask] decontamination to help in decisions about N95 decontamination and reuse,” according to the consortium’s website. N95 masks have been critically needed by hospitals dealing with COVID-19 cases.

Additionally, particle accelerators and supercomputers at Argonne National Laboratory, which is affiliated with the University, will be using X-rays and computing power to continue modeling the virus and possible drug targets.

The University of Chicago Library will be gaining temporary access to the HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access Service program, which will allow patrons to “access to digitized books that are still in copyright if the Library holds a copy in print,” according to an announcement on the library’s website. The library’s physical buildings have been closed indefinitely because of the Illinois stay-at-home order.

Wednesday, April 1 Hyde Park residents—UChicago students among them—began a rent strike April 1 in response to the economic difficulties imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The call for a rent strike is part of movements across the country calling on governments to freeze rent payments.

Tuesday, March 31 Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker announced that Illinois’s stay-at-home order, CONTINUED ON PG. 3

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“The UChicago Medicine staff including doctors and nurses will be able to rest and restore at SOPHY between shifts.”

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which was meant to take effect through April 7, will now be in effect through the entire month of April.

Career Advancement announced by email that their Micro-Metcalf Program, which connects students with remote internships, will now also allow students to take on remote roles similar to some campus roles. These “Campus Projects” include teaching or research assistants, as well as project coordinators for campus operations and roles at the IT Services Virtual Help Desk. Students can apply through a questionnaire and a Handshake listing; those participating will be paid a $2,000 stipend.

Monday, March 30 Starting on March 31 at 5 p.m., academic and administrative buildings on campus “will move from general key card access to secure key card access, whereby only those individuals deemed essential personnel who must be on campus will be able to access the facility,” Provost Ka Yee Lee wrote in an email to the University community.

“Each unit has previously compiled a list of essential personnel whose key cards (University IDs) will now be the only cards that can unlock doors.”

Deans can request that certain instructors be allowed to access academic buildings “on a very limited case-by-case basis and for teaching purposes only.”

The decision, she wrote, is meant to further slow the spread of COVID-19 and reduce the risk of illness for “those who must come to campus, including our front-line healthcare workers.” Read the full message on our website.

Alumni Weekend, originally planned for June 4–7, has been postponed, according to an email sent out by Colin Hennessy, Executive Director of Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving. He emphasized that the weekend will still occur on another, still undetermined date.

Hennessy added that Giving Day, a major fundraising day for the University, will also be postponed; it was originally scheduled for April 7–8.

Saturday, March 28 Law School dean Tom Miles informed

the Law School community that three of its members have tested positive for COVID-19.

The Law School has also indicated that for spring quarter, it plans to keep its “status quo” grading system.

University president Robert Zimmer announced by email that the University is launching three new programs in the coming days to help the South Side community weather the “personal and financial challenges and emergencies from the COVID-19 pandemic.” The programs include a meal service, local business and nonprofit support, and UChicago Medicine response funds.

Friday, March 27 Mayor Lori Lightfoot unveiled the COVID-19 Housing Assistance Grant, which will provide $1,000 to Chicago residents needing assistance with rent, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The Seminary Co-Op, a nonprofit bookstore that has been a staple in the Hyde Park community for decades and is a UChicago textbook seller, began calling for donations to sustain the bookstore.

“While your support of our stores through online purchasing has been tremendously helpful and heartening, it simply isn’t enough to ensure we can meet our immediate expenses, including payroll and publisher bills,” Director Jeff Deutsch wrote in a GoFundMe post. The group had already closed its two stores to the public but continues to sell books online.

Thursday, March 26 The Sophy, a luxury hotel on 53rd and Dorchester, announced that it would be opening up its rooms to staff from the University of Chicago Medical Center free of charge through April 17, according to Block Club Chicago. “The UChicago Medicine staff including doctors and nurses will be able to rest and restore at SOPHY between shifts,” the hotel wrote in an announcement on their website. Block Club reported that current guests will be rerouted to Harper Court’s Hyatt Place.

Famed architect Michael Sorkin (A.B. ’69), who served as director emeritus of the City College of New York’s graduate urban design program, passed away at 71 from

complications due to COVID-19. Sorkin was known for his designs for sustainable cities and had received multiple architecture awards and fellowships. He also edited for The Maroon and founded the paper’s Grey City supplement.

Teaching assistants in the math department who had lost their roles for spring quarter were offered paid roles as “Math Tutors” that they could perform virtually, according to an email sent out by the department.

The University of Chicago Medical Center announced in a press briefing that it was, as of March 27, treating 50 cases of COVID-19. The hospital is requiring all staff members to wear masks and is bringing back furloughed, asymptomatic employees. Read The Maroon’s full coverage online.

UChicago announced that it has joined the C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute, a consortium that will be trying to use AI to solve crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The group is supported by multiple universities, software company C3.ai, and Microsoft.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that the Chicago lakefront, which includes areas near campus that are popular with students and Hyde Park residents alike, will be closed to enforce social distancing. Hyde Park and Kenwood city representatives supported the decision.

Wednesday, March 25 In a joint email to the entire University community, Provost Ka Yee Lee and Kenneth Polonsky, Executive Vice President of the University for Biology and Medicine, wrote that “we are entering a critical next phase in which Chicago is expected to experience significantly higher rates of infection and rising need for medical care.”

They called for remaining at home if possible, helping UChicago Medicine focus its efforts on the “sickest and most vulnerable” who need to be tested and helped, and to use judgment on whether an individual should go to the hospital or not.

Tuesday, March 24 In an email sent to faculty, which was shared on Twitter, Provost Ka Yee Lee announced that tenure-track professors who are facing interruptions to their research

can choose to have another year before they are reviewed for tenure. UChicago’s move is similar to those taken by some other universities.

Monday, March 23 The Student Services Fee, which helps support student activities and wellness, and usually costs $446 per quarter, has been reduced “to a flat $125 rate for the Spring Quarter,” Dean of Students Michele Rasmussen wrote in an email to UChicago students.

Those who are residing over 50 miles from Hyde Park will not be charged at all.

Sunday, March 22 In light of the U.S. State Department’s Level 4 advisory calling for avoiding international travel, the University is calling on students, staff, faculty, and others to try to return to the United States if they are abroad, Provost Ka Yee Lee wrote in an email to the University community. “Especially in light of the new State Department guidance, the University’s ability to provide assistance to travelers who wish to return home is limited,” Lee wrote.

The UChicago Labor Council, a coalition of University-affiliated unions that has been advancing a set of labor demands related to the COVID-19 crisis, wrote on Twitter that they heard “all union employees at the UChicago Medical Center will receive the same time off benefits as staff RNs.” Saturday, March 21 According to an email sent out by Housing and Residence Life to residents of Burton-Judson (B-J) Courts, a resident of B-J tested positive for COVID-19. Residents in close contact with the individual were contacted, but UChicago Medicine experts “determined that other residents of Burton-Judson Courts do not need to take additional precautions, nor do other members of the College community.”

The University of Chicago Medical Center formally began calling for donations of personal protective equipment (PPE), including N95 face masks and disinfectant wipes, for their personnel. On March 23, the hospital made an urgent call and ran a donation drive that day.

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City and State Officials, UC Med Infectious Disease Specialist Outline “Stay-at-home” order effective March 21

By CAROLINE KUBZANSKY Managing Editor Governor J. B. Pritzker announced Friday afternoon that a shelter-in-place order for the state of Illinois will be effective beginning on March 21 and lasting until April 30 in order to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19.

As of March 20, there were 585 cases of COVID-19 in Illinois.

Illinois joins California and New York as the third state to institute a state-wide shelter-in-place order, while municipalities in Colorado, Georgia, Idaho and Maine have set similar policies at a local level.

“To avoid the loss of tens of thousands of lives, we must enact a stay at home order,” Pritzker said, calling the directive an “inescapable conclusion.”

The order mandated that nonessential businesses stop operating at 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 21. Essential industries which will remain open include grocery stores, pharmacies, interstate highways, and gas stations. The governor’s office is also ordering municipalities across the state to halt

evictions as workers find themselves laid off or furloughed.

Pritzker acknowledged the order’s economic costs, but said that a stay-at-home order and other social distancing measures were the only available strategies. In Illinois, all restaurants and bars have been limited to carry-out service or closure to prevent the spread of the virus since Sunday.

“In some cases, I am choosing between saving people’s lives and saving people’s livelihoods,” he said. “But ultimately you can’t have a livelihood if you don’t have your life.”

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, University of Chicago Medicine infectious disease specialist Dr. Emily Landon, and Director of Illinois Department of Public Health Ngozi Ezike also spoke at the press conference.

Lightfoot reinforced Pritzker’s message in a Chicago-specific context.

“We have seen what bold measures have yielded,” the mayor said. “Coronavirus will not go away by happenstance. This is a make or break moment for our city and our state.”

To that end, Lightfoot said, Chicago parks and libraries will close at the beginning of the stay-at-home order. Some will be

repurposed into facilities to help mitigate the spread of the virus.

Lightfoot discouraged panic-buying or hoarding behaviors in the wake of the directive, since Illinois residents will still be able to go to buy groceries, pick up prescriptions, and walk outside.

“This is not a lockdown or martial law.

Chicago’s grocery stores, its clinics, will stay open. There is absolutely no need to change normal purchasing habits,” she said.

Landon, UChicago Medicine’s Executive Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control, has been consulting with Pritzker throughout the crisis, and spoke with visible emotion about why Illinois residents will benefit from a stay-at-home order.

“This virus is unforgiving. It spreads before you even know you’ve caught it,” Landon said. “The real problem is not the 80 percent who will get over this in a week.

It’s the 20 percent of us who are older, maybe immunocompromised, who will need more support.”

She also stressed the importance of social distancing to alleviate pressure on the health-care system. A significant portion of

the projected death toll from the pandemic is projected to be due to lack of hospital space and equipment.

“Our health-care system doesn’t have any slack. We barely even have enough masks for the nurses that we have,” Landon said.

Landon said that if the stay-at-home directive goes to plan and reduces the infection rate, residents will feel that the state was overzealous in its response to COVID-19.

“A successful shelter in place is going to make you feel like it was all for nothing,” she said.

Ezike, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, reiterated the need to conserve scarce resources for those most vulnerable to complications from COVID-19.

“We ask again that everyone do their part so we can reserve testing and medical care for those who need it most, including ICU care,” Ezike said. “If you are a healthy individual with only mild symptoms, we ask that you stay home.”

Former Student Charles Thomas Denied Release Despite Developing COVID-19 Symptoms

By MATTHEW LEE News Editor Charles Thomas was deemed ineligible for bond release at a hearing on Friday, April 3, despite having developed COVID-19 symptoms while incarcerated in Cook County Jail, according to his father, Wendell Thomas.

Charles Thomas, a former University of Chicago student, was shot by a University police officer two years ago during what family and friends identified as a mental health crisis.

Thomas is incarcerated as a result of several felony charges connected to the 2018 incident, including aggravated assault of a police officer and criminal damage of property.

Inside Illinois jails, the outbreak of COVID-19 has been acute. In Cook County

jail, 210 inmates have tested positive as of April 4, according to NBC Chicago.

In an interview on April 3 with The Maroon, Thomas’s father described his condition as consistent with known symptoms of the disease.

“Charles seemed to be sick. The next day, he seemed a little bit better but still lethargic.

I asked questions and he said that he’d lost his senses of taste and smell, and that he couldn’t tell whether or not he had a fever because they didn’t take temperatures that day. He said that a lot of people were getting sick,” Wendell Thomas said.

Activists, such as the student group #CareNotCops, have long campaigned for Charles Thomas’s charges to be dropped.

In a Letter to the Editor submitted to The Maroon, the group called for Thomas to be

released from Cook County Jail.

“Charles’ family is prepared to provide him with support and healthcare upon release, in an undoubtedly safer environment,” the group said in a separate statement to The Maroon.

A recent interview by The Maroon with Wendell Thomas echoes this statement.

“Charles Soji is our only child and has been the greatest joy in our lives. He is not a criminal. He is a kind, intelligent, caring young man who happens to have a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. He needs care, not jail,” he said.

Wendell Thomas fears that his son’s continued incarceration could negatively impact his mental health.

“It’s a 40-man wing that he’s on, and because of coronavirus, they’re dividing them

in groups of 10. They’re only out of their cells two and a half hours per day,” Wendell Thomas said. “The rest of the time, they’re in their cells. For mental health that isn’t a good thing.

Their therapy sessions are also on hold right now.”

Charles Thomas is next requesting an evaluation of his eligibility to be tried in mental health court, as opposed to a criminal court.

“If his case gets transferred to mental health court, he will have a new judge who will decide if Charles is eligible for mental health probation,” Wendell Thomassaid.

On Sunday, April 5, Wendell Thomas said his son was recovering steadily from his symptoms.

“Charles is recovering slowly,” his father said. “He’s mostly just exhausted.”

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As Chicagoans Flock to Lake Michigan’s Shores, Lightfoot Closes Lakefront to Retain Social Distancing

By CAROLINE KUBZANSKY Managing Editor After Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker issued a “stay-at-home” directive last week, many Chicagoans thought to avoid cabin fever by heading outside—to the lakefront trails, Chicago Riverwalk, and other outdoor park spaces—especially as the weather warmed this week.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot responded to the outdoor exodus with a forceful shutdown of the lakefront, Riverwalk, the 606, and all adjacent Chicago parks.

Lightfoot admonished Chicagoans in a press conference Thursday, during which she declared the green space closure, an effort to prevent Chicago’s COVID-19 cases from mounting further and aid in social distancing.

Lightfoot said that upward of 40,000 cases of COVID-19 may require acute care in Illinois, threatening to “break the back of our health-care system.” In

order to prevent this, she said, Chicagoans need to stay at home.

“Most Chicagoans have been doing their part. But many have not, and you know who you are…. Your conduct, yours, is posing a direct threat to our public health.”

Lightfoot implored Chicagoans to take the spread of COVID-19 seriously: “A pandemic means it’s here in our midst every day,” she said.

“Congregating on our lakefront, to be blunt, is going to create a risk that is unacceptable and could lead to death.

That is why we are taking these actions and going back and saying again, ‘Dear God, stay home. Save lives,’” Lightfoot said.

The mayor also stressed the importance of collaboration in slowing the spread of the disease and emphasized that she was willing to call in law enforcement to make sure Chicagoans complied with the closures.

“The numbers indicate that this will affect all of us, or someone that we know,” Lightfoot said. “It’s a problem we all share, but it’s also a problem we can all solve together…. If people don’t take this in a serious way in which they must, I’m not going to hesitate to pull every lever at my disposal to force compliance if necessary.”

“For those of you who refuse to abide by this common-sense directive to help save lives, we will arrest you,” she added.

Pritzker backed Lightfoot’s closure decision. “I think the mayor was right, in reaction to what she saw on a sunny day, on a warmer day—frankly people seem just to not understand what we’ve said over and over again,” Pritzker said.

Most city representatives of the Hyde Park and Kenwood areas have also expressed support for Lightfoot’s actions. Aldermen Leslie Hairston and Sophia King, State Senator Robert

Peters (D), and State Representatives Kambium Buckner (D) and Curtis Tarver (D) all signed a statement endorsing the decision to close those park spaces.

Police have begun to patrol around the lakefront to inform those present that the area is closed, according to the Sun-Times and The Hyde Park Herald.

Many Hyde Parkers have taken to the Good Neighbors Google Group to discuss and express their support for Lightfoot’s order.

“She is as serious as a heart attack about this,” one resident wrote.

Another, who identified herself as a longtime distance runner, said, “I will miss my long lakefront runs but as the Mayor said, ‘we are all in this together.’

As a runner for over 40 years, I support the Mayor 100%.”

Socially-distanced activities like walking, biking, and jogging are still allowed, but “you must do it safely,” Lightfoot said.

University to Provide Rent Relief to Tenants and Meals to South Side Residents

By LAURA GERSONY Senior News Reporter The University is launching three new programs in the coming days to help the South Side community weather the “personal and financial challenges and emergencies from the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to an email sent to members of the University community

by President Robert Zimmer Saturday morning.

The University will provide support on three fronts: a community meal service; support for local businesses and nonprofits in the form of rent relief and bridge grants; and UChicago Medicine response funds.

“We will be using our dining infrastructure to provide, and in partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository to safely deliver, meals for breakfast,

lunch, and dinner through June 12 to residents on the South Side,” said Zimmer. These meals will be distributed at locations in Douglas, Grand Boulevard, Greater Grand Crossing, Hyde Park, Kenwood, Oakland, South Shore, Washington Park, and Woodlawn. “The effort will provide at least 225,000 meals,” Zimmer said. This translates to approximately 3,000 meals per day.

The University will also provide assistance for local businesses and nonprofits “while they wait for public sector and philanthropic assistance to be fully mobilized,” Zimmer said. The Office of Civic Engagement and the University’s Commercial Real Estate Operations department will “provide rent relief for University commercial tenants” and also “direct funding support in the form of small bridge grants” to small businesses and nonprofits on the South Side. Ten-

ants will be able to view their eligibility beginning March 30.

Zimmer also announced that the University’s Polsky Exchange for startups will also develop online workshops for local businesses. These will be made publicly available through the Polsky Exchange website. Work-study students at the University will also have the opportunity to serve as “virtual consultants for clients and nonprofit partners” through the Community Programs Accelerator.

Zimmer also promoted the UChicago Medicine COVID-19 Response Funds.

This is “a campaign to support local UChicago Medicine health care workers on the frontlines of confronting this crisis as well as the patients and families who are affected,” Zimmer said. “UChicago Medicine COVID-19 Response Funds are covering costs for patient and family hardship support, technology to

connect patients and families during visitor restrictions, hospital equipment and supplies, transportation, and other urgent needs.”

This announcement comes at a time when many local businesses face financial hardship and uncertainty. In a follow-up email from Zimmer and Provost Ka Yee Lee, both thanked colleagues and community partners who “have made this important initiative possible.” They also expressed gratitude to the University community’s willingness to support the South Side community.

“We have heard from a number of members of the University community seeking ways to support the University’s South Side efforts during this critical period. As such, we have established a set of opportunities for people to contribute to one or more of the efforts outlined [in Zimmer’s email],” Zimmer and Lee said.

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Contracted Food Service, Janitorial, and Security Staff Will Continue Being Paid Spring Quarter; University Staff to Receive Extra Sick Time

By CAROLINE KUBZANSKY Managing Editor As campus started to shut down due to the mounting urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the University community speculated about what would happen to contracted employees not directly employed through the University such as dining hall workers, janitors, and security personnel. With dining halls, dorms, libraries, and other campus facilities closing, some wondered if these workers would be furloughed or laid off.

On Friday, Ivan Samstein, the University’s Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, confirmed in an email to the University community that contracted food service workers will continue to receive pay for spring quarter.

“During this challenging time, we are making a commitment that through our contracts with the relevant vendors, the food service workers at the University, both full- and part-time, will continue to receive their regular pay for the duration of Spring Quarter,” Samstein wrote.

In a separate email, Casey Cook, Associate Vice President for Human Resources, said that non-contract, temporary and seasonal staff employees, as well as unionized staff members, will receive additional paid time off for use in work disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement to The Maroon, University spokesperson Jeremy Manier said, “The University’s revised sick leave policy for COVID-19 applies to University employees. Staff employed by outside contractors receive the benefits that their company provides.”

Food service workers, who work for the University under a contract with foodservice company Bon Appétit, will continue to be paid through Bon Appétit for the duration of the Spring quarter.

However, as they are not University employees, they will not receive additional sick leave from the University.

Staff members who work for the University directly “will be eligible for up to 6 weeks, based upon regularly scheduled hours, of additional paid time off

that can be used for all reasons related to COVID-19 during the Spring Quarter, including the inability to work remotely, personal illness, and the need to quarantine or provide family care,” Cook wrote.

Beyond this extra time, employees will be expected to use vacation and personal holiday time. However, “if the staff employee exhausts this time, the University will advance an additional 14 days of sick time,” the email said.

According to Samstein’s email, the University is “working with our food service contractors to establish new roles and responsibilities for their employees to meet pressing needs in our community.”

Manier did not know what these roles would be.

Samstein also said that security and janitorial staff members, who are contracted workers, will continue working during Spring quarter and be compensated normally through their contractors. These staffers, also not technically University employees, will not receive the additional six weeks of coronavi-

rus-related sick time.

“Many of our other contractors’ employees, such as security and janitorial, are essential to our continuing operations and will continue to perform their job duties and receive their regular pay through their direct employers throughout the Spring Quarter,” Samstein wrote.

UChicago’s approach differs from some of its peer schools. The University of Pennsylvania has laid off its food service workers. Notably, Penn and Chicago both use Bon Appétit. At Penn, students began circulating a petition calling on the University to pay its laid-off food staff.

Harvard University has laid off “nearly all” of its dining workers, though unionized dining workers serving undergraduates will receive 30 days of pay. This has prompted a similar petition among the Harvard University community. Washington University in St. Louis, on the other hand, has committed to financially supporting its contract workers for the remainder of the term. Washington University also contracts with Bon Appétit.

With 50 Patient Cases of COVID-19, UCM Brings Back Asymptomatic Staff Under “Universal-Masking” Policy

By CAROLINE KUBZANSKY Managing Editor The UChicago Medical Center is, as of March 27, treating 50 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. As part of its ongoing response to the spread of the disease, declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization earlier this month, UChicago Medicine (UCM) is transitioning to a “universal-masking” policy. This policy enables staff members previously placed on temporary leave due to potential exposure to the virus to continue working as long as they are asymptomatic.

Lorna Wong, executive director of

UCM communications, said in a press release that because the pandemic has reached the “community spread” stage, it is no longer effective to try to identify potential vectors based on who has been exposed to others with the virus. “Community spread” refers to the phase of a pandemic in which it is no longer possible to isolate the source of an infection.

“COVID-19 is now in widespread community circulation, and an infection-control furlough policy that had been focused on those who could be traced to a known exposure or another country with high infection rates no longer provides the right level of protection for patients and other staff,” Wong said.

Like other hospitals around the country, UCM is facing a limited supply of masks and other personal protective equipment. In the event of inadequate supplies, staff members will use procedural masks, which are typically used outside of operating room settings.

“If cloth masks are in short supply, employees will be issued a procedural mask and will get a cloth version as soon as UChicago Medicine’s supplies are replenished. Faculty and staff will continue to wear appropriate surgical or N95 masks based on the type of patient care involved,” the press release said.

Staff members working with respiratory patients will continue to use respi-

rators or N95 masks.

The press release included a statement by University Vice President for Medical Affairs Kenneth Polonsky, who said that UCM hopes to increase its patient capacity while protecting its staff by implementing the universal-masking policy.

“We are optimistic that having a universal-masking policy, ending furloughs for asymptomatic employees, and practicing effective social distancing will mean we can protect our workforce from viral spread so that they, in turn, can continue to perform critical services for patients in need and serve the community,” Polonsky said.

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Class of 2020 Offered Reduced Tuition for Masters Programs

By CARL SACKLEN News Reporter Dean of the College John Boyer announced on Sunday in an email to fourthyear students that select master’s programs at the University will extend their deadlines, waive the need for standardized testing, and cover half of the first-year tuition cost for the Class of 2020.

“The College is investing in you and providing this support in direct response to the COVID pandemic,” Boyer wrote.

Currently, many master’s programs at the University offer merit-based scholarships. However, according to advice on the UChicago graduate admissions website, these are very competitive and students are encouraged to apply for external funding. However, any graduating fourth-year student who enrolls in an eligible master’s program at the University will be eligible for the newly announced scholarship.

Deadlines will be extended “to at least May 1,” Boyer wrote. These programs will

also be waiving standardized testing requirements for University of Chicago students. Those that are accepted and enroll will receive a “one-year, half-tuition scholarship” from the College.

Master’s programs eligible for the oneyear scholarship include the computer science program; the Juris Doctor program at the Law School; and the Master of Arts in Public Policy at the Harris School.

These “represent a diverse range of disciplines, and will all give you advanced knowledge and skills that will prepare you for spe-

cialized career opportunities,” Boyer wrote.

Boyer also advertised the University’s Micro-Metcalf Program, which provides paid “micro-internship” projects for undergraduates. Students can apply to work as teaching assistants, research assistants, or in administrative roles during the spring quarter for a $2,000 stipend.

Boyer’s announcement came on the eve of the spring quarter, at a time when University of Chicago students are scattered across the world for a quarter of remote learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As COVID-19 Economic Crisis Deepens, Hyde Park Renters Strike

By ALEXIS FLORENCE Senior News Reporter Hyde Park residents—UChicago students among them—begin a rent strike April 1 in response to the economic difficulties imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to The Hyde Park Herald, 32 tenants have pledged to go on strike.

The call for a rent strike is part of multiple movements across the country calling on governments to freeze rent payments amid job losses and other economic pressures caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

In a letter posted on Facebook, the newly-formed Mac Tenants United laid out their demands for action from Mac Properties, one of the largest property management groups in Hyde Park, in response to the financial pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We will be on rent strike starting April 1st, and will remain on strike until our demands are met,” the letter states. “We are coming together to fight for our common human right to dignified shelter and community; a human right which MAC treats as a commodity to be bought and sold at whim.”

The organizers are calling for Mac Properties to agree to halting evictions and canceling rent for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis as tenants have lost work due to Governor J. B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order, now extended to the end of April. The group also demands that Mac Properties not retaliate against organizing tenants nor attempt to collect any unpaid rent before the resolution of the COVID-19 crisis. Tenants are

further demanding a halt to annual rent increases beyond the local cost of living index.

Lauren Torian, a fourth-year in the College, is an organizer with Mac Tenants United. Torian, an Odyssey scholar, said that while she feels fortunate to have financial support from UChicago, she still encourages participating in the rent strike to stand in solidarity with people unable to pay rent for the foreseeable future due to a loss of income.

“It’s less about my personal finances and more about protecting the people I know will be seriously affected by this…. The reason I want to do a rent strike is not because I, physically, cannot pay rent, but because I know that there are people who are being unfairly charged money when they are physically unable to work due to something that is not their fault,” Torian said.

In response to the growing calls for a rent strike on various social media platforms, Mac Properties sent out an email to residents urging them to pay their rent while stating they will work directly with individual tenants if paying rent poses a financial problem.

Peter Cassel, director of community development for Mac Properties, later told The Maroon that the apartment management group will not negotiate with any collective tenant organizations and will only work with renters on a case-by-case basis following regulations set by the state and local governments.

“We are dealing with each of our customers in the context of the agreements we have with each of our customers,” Cassel told The Maroon.

However, some residents are wary of the individual approach Mac Properties is taking to this situation, calling it “unaccountable.” One fourth-year student in the College organizing with Mac Tenants United, who wishes to remain anonymous, said she wants to see more collective action to hold Mac Properties accountable.

“We don’t want the individual treatment that is completely private and unaccountable. I don’t believe that I have to divulge that I am disabled in order for them to not kick me out,” the student said.

Jonathan Friedman, a fourth-year in the College, wishes to see more communication about the risks and potential consequences of the rent strike. He feels tenants’ organizations have not provided educational resources directed at students who are at risk of putting their credit, and that of their lease co-signers, at jeopardy if they are served with an eviction notice.

Referring to various resources posted

by Tenants United on their Facebook page Friedman said, “It gives the information needed but it doesn’t give the information needed for students, where students oftentimes have more at risk because of these co-signers.”

Torian acknowledges the risks but still feels that with increased numbers of rent strike participants those risks can be mitigated.

“Of course there are inherent risks to a strike like this, but they are minimized the more people who are involved…. For me those are risks that are worth being taken, particularly if we succeed. If we succeed in getting a full rent freeze, then whatever risk

I could have taken would have been worth it for helping people who needed me to help them,” Torian said.

Aaron Krolik, a lawyer who has represented landlords and tenants throughout his 16-year practice, told The Maroon that eviction is a very real possibility for participants of the rent strike.

“It doesn’t work because the landlord has a right to rent while you live there under the Chicago RLTO [Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance], and nobody doesn’t pay rent while you’re living there, absent a court order. Period.” Krolik said.

Krolik also warned that landlords can take legal action for back rent not paid during the strike. “I don’t want people to think that it’s free. This rent strike is not a rent moratorium,” he said.

Cassel did not directly say if Mac Properties will pursue legal action against tenants participating in the rent strike but instead said they encourage tenants to work individually with their employees on a solution to rent troubles.

“We will continue to not file for eviction against residents who are working with us to solve whatever the problems may be. Filing for eviction represents a breakdown in the communication where we’re forced to go to a third party to solve this,” Cassel said.

In any case, evictions will not be processed in Cook County until at least May 18. According to an announcement Timothy Evans, Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, extended the postponement of many non-immediate cases, thus suspending evictions and foreclosures until May.

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University Expands Pass/Fail Grading for Spring Quarter Classes

By JUSTIN SMITH News Editor The College is expanding its pass/fail grading policies spring quarter in response to students’ varied distance learning situations as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, according to an email sent today to students

by Dean John Boyer and Dean Jay Ellison.

As in other quarters, undergraduates are allowed to take elective classes for pass/fail grades. The College is now allowing pass/ fail grading for Core requirements and has asked departments and programs to implement pass/fail policies for major and minor requirements as well.

Students will have the option to apply to take Core courses pass/fail in spring quarter, according to the email. “While the College will maintain its traditional policy requiring that general-education Core courses be taken for a quality grade, students may apply to take Core courses with a pass / fail option.”

The College has requested, but not mandated, that each department, school, and program implement a pass/fail option for

major and minor requirements.

Some parts of the University have already announced adjusted grading policies for spring quarter.

In an email to faculty, the Division of the Humanities said that “for courses taken in fulfillment of requirements of a Major or Minor, departments and programs will implement a P/F option of spring quarter and will inform majors and minors in their units.”

The Division of the Humanities will continue to assign quality grades for M.A., M.F.A., and Ph.D. students; however, prior pass/fail grading policies will remain in place.

In an email to students, Milvia Rodriguez, Program Administrator for Public Policy Studies said that “public policy majors will have the option to take one of their classes that they plan to count toward their major requirements pass/fail this spring quarter.”

According to an update on the physical sciences department’s COVID-19 webpage, “For courses taken to fulfill the requirements of a Major or Minor in the Physical Sciences Division, students in the College may request to take up to two courses pass/

fail with the consent of their instructors.”

In an email, the Environmental and Urban Studies department informed students they may count up to two pass/fail courses toward major requirements, and up to one pass/fail course toward minor requirements.

The history department will allow up to two courses to be taken pass/fail for the major and minor, with the exception of the B.A. Seminar.

This policy follows the lead of multiple other universities that have implemented optional pass/fail and blanket pass/fail policies to replace normal quality grading systems in light of the current pandemic.

Previously, students could opt to take courses pass/fail at the discretion of their instructor. Students were not able to count a pass/fail course toward core requirements, and could not count the course toward major requirements for the majority of majors in the College. As in other quarters, pass/fail courses in which a student earns a passing grade will not be factored into the student’s GPA, while pass/fail courses in which a stu-

dent earns a failing grade will be factored as a 0 into the student’s GPA. Students are divided over the adjustments to the College’s grading policies.

According to Sandro Sharashenidze, a second-year in the College considering attending graduate school, “Employers and grad schools will still know that you had the option of showing a grade on your transcript but chose otherwise. Anybody who chooses to pass/fail will be at a serious disadvantage.”

Others praised the University for allowing pass/fail courses to count toward major requirements. “I think optional pass/fail would allow students negatively impacted

by Coronavirus to still succeed in school this spring quarter. As long as pass/fail major classes are counted toward our majors, this would be quite beneficial,” second-year Anushka Shivaram said.

All students who would like to take a class pass/fail must confirm all requests by ninth week, the week directly preceding finals week due to the spring quarter’s shortened academic schedule.

Medical Center Prepares to Keep Ahead of a Rising Tide

By CAROLINE KUBZANSKY Managing Editor As COVID-19 cases continue to rise nationwide, UChicago Medical Center (UCMC) has re-organized team members, adjusted its service, and made contingency plans to step up its response to the pandemic, according to Dr. Jeffrey Matthews, UCMC’s Chair of Surgery.

As of April 4, Illinois has 10,360 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. There have been 210 deaths so far. But Matthews emphasized that the situation at UCMC is still stable, and expressed confidence in the hospital’s ongoing preparation to handle a further spike in cases.

“We are at the stage where we are planning—Chicago is in an intermediate stage right now.” Matthews said. As of last week, UCM had at least 80 COVID-19 patients, according to Dr. Emily Landon, an infectious disease specialist.

Within the hospital, Matthews said that health-care providers are working according

to social distancing protocols, only entering patients’ rooms one at a time and maintaining six feet of distance between workers, to contain potential spread of the virus.

“We’ve had to rearrange and reorganize where patients are cohorted and all that to be able to make the teams efficient and be able to protect the healthcare workers and the patients who are not infected,” he said.

In Matthews’s department, providers have been split into two rotating teams to maintain staffing levels and prevent virus transmission. UCMC also enacted a “universal masking policy,” under which all personnel in the hospital must have their nose and mouth covered, as cases continued climbing in the hospital. “[Providers] are on for one week and off for one week. There’s always a group that are ready at home to be able to step in if providers get sick,” he said. “We have to plan for the possibility that providers will become infected with the COVID virus and they would be unable to work.” The Sophy hotel on 53rd Street has donated its rooms for UCMC staff use in the event that they have a long

commute or are concerned about exposing loved ones to the virus.

UCMC also canceled all elective surgeries earlier this month, or about 90 percent of the department’s caseload, to limit exposure to the virus. Matthews said the department is still operating on critical or time-sensitive cases.

These plans may soon form a critical part of Illinois’s ongoing response to the virus.

Earlier this week, Governor J. B. Pritzker extended the stay-at-home order until the end of April to slow the rate of infection. Spaces like McCormick Place in Chicago are being converted into temporary medical centers to accommodate the expected rise in cases.

Currently, surgical staffers are still caring for surgical patients, but Matthews said they are prepared to take more active roles caring for COVID-19 patients should the need arise.

“I’ve got a list of volunteer faculty, residents who are interested in stepping up wherever they are needed. We haven’t had to redeploy them yet,” he said.

Matthews was cautiously optimistic

about UCMC’s ability to weather the crisis, and about the capabilities of Chicagoland hospitals overall, attributing this in part to Pritzker’s relatively early response to the virus.

“There’s pretty good coordination at the state level, and more importantly among all the hospitals in the Chicago area. We see daily what each other is dealing with, in terms of ventilator supply, impression on PPEs, that sort of thing. It’s a pretty well coordinated group,” he said.

Ultimately, the goal for UCMC and other area hospitals is to spread out new cases of COVID-19 over a longer period of time to limit stress on staff capacity and equipment supplies. Matthews said that so far, UCMC leadership has managed to keep the hospital’s response ahead of the virus’s advance.

“We feel like we’re one, two, three steps ahead in the planning process,” Matthews said. “Now, if the floodgates really open and we hit New York levels, they say ‘all battle plans change as soon as the enemy is actually sighted,’ but we have not yet been at a stage where we feel like events are overtaking us.”

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Acceptance Rate for Class of 2024 Remains Constant at 6.2 Percent

By JUSTIN SMITH News Editor The acceptance rate for the Class of 2024 was 6.2 percent, Dean of Admissions James Nondorf said on Saturday during an online admitted students reception. According to Nondorf, the University received 34,400 applicants for the Class of 2024, a slight decrease from the 34,648 applications received for the Class of 2023. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2024 was the same as for the Class of 2023.

The University typically does not officially comment on admissions numbers until fall quarter. This is the third year in a row that Nondorf has released admissions statistics during an admitted students reception, following a similar announcement last year.

The average SAT score for the Class of 2024 was 1518, and the average ACT score was 34, according to Nondorf. 99 percent of admitted students were in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

This is the first year since the Class of 2021 that the University has not seen the

admit rate fall. Admission rates have fallen steadily since the Class of 2021 was admitted with a rate of 8.73 percent, up until last year, when 6.2 percent of students were admitted to the Class of 2023.

The University is not alone in seeing rising or constant acceptance rates for the Class of 2024. Five of the seven Ivy League Universities that released admissions statistics for the Class of 2024 saw increases in acceptance rates, which The Wall Street Journal attributed to a variety of factors including the novel coronavirus. “Students considering offers or awaiting decisions later this week from colleges across the selectivity spectrum can expect higher acceptance rates, as colleges take measures to ensure they will still have enough students enrolled come fall.”

Nondorf also referenced the novel coronavirus throughout the event, mentioning digital resources including mock lectures and campus tours available to admitted students throughout April, as a replacement for the University’s annual admitted student overnight events. Nondorf also encouraged students to remain positive amid the virus.

“It’s easy to focus on things you didn’t get to do,” Nondorf said. “Don’t worry. You have plenty of time to [experience campus] over the next four years. Take advantage of the opportunities you do have, appreciate the opportunities you do have.”

Nondorf also praised the Class of 2024 for their diversity. According to Nondorf, 274 admitted students are first-generation college students, and 156 admitted students are from “small towns or little rural areas all around the world.” Half of the admitted students come from six states, with 13 percent of admitted students from California, 11 percent from New York, 10 percent from Illinois, 6 percent from Texas, and 5 percent from both Florida and Massachusetts.

13 percent of the students admitted to the Class of 2024 are international students.

“Over 60 students” were admitted from China and the United Kingdom, and “between 10 and 20” students were admitted from India, Brazil, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Canada.

Nondorf also praised the achievements of several high-achieving students.

“Individually, you guys are so accom-

plished. In your class, we have a quarterfinalist and a finalist on teen Jeopardy!.

I guess we’ll be winning the next college championship with those two in the class.

One of your peers has created two modern operas, and has performed with the Peking Opera all across the world. One of you is Oman’s Woman of the Year, is a swimmer on the Oman national team, and is the first female swimmer on the national team. One of your entrepreneurial peers has a patent pending for an artificial intelligence swim goggle that is being made in conjunction with Olympic swimmers; in your class is a nationally ranked archer, and the No. 2 ranked Scrabble player in the world. And finally, one of you is the first high school student ever to present research at NASA, and they’re actually launching your scientific project into space.”

Despite the stagnating acceptance rate, Nondorf told admitted students the Class of 2024 was “the most selective, most accomplished, and most diverse student body and freshman class in the history of UChicago,” mirroring verbiage used in prior years’ admitted student events.

Sophy Offers Free Hotel Rooms to Health-care Workers As UChicago’s Hospital Battles COVID-19

By CAROLINE KUBZANSKY Mangaging Editor The Sophy Hotel on 53rd Street has suspended its service to the general public and offered accommodations to the staff at the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) as they respond to mounting cases of COVID-19 in Chicago.

Most of the Sophy’s rooms will be available exclusively to UCMC staff through April 17 to help them “rest and restore” between shifts before returning to the hospital.

“SOPHY is part of the tightly knit and supportive Hyde Park community of businesses, institutions and residents. It’s our duty to step up and offer resources to help fight the coronavirus situation in any way that we can,” the hotel’s management wrote in a banner currently on its website.

As of March 27, UCMC was handling

50 cases of COVID-19, according to a press conference with Emily Landon, the hospital’s infectious diseases expert. As of April 1, there have been 5,998 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 100 deaths due to the virus reported in Illinois.

Sophy general manager Anthony Beach told The Maroon that the hotel’s business evaporated as the pandemic unfolded, forcing management to significantly adjust the hotel’s staffing levels and to consider discontinuing operations altogether.

“Our occupancies have dipped below 10 percent; we have had to lay off a number of team members, and we were in peril of having to suspend a lot of operations,” Beach said.

As it became clear that pandemic response was becoming the new normal, Beach said that the management of the Sophy concluded that “this is our opportunity to contribute. Instead of rating [charging

for] our rooms, we decided to just donate them.”

The University is not compensating the Sophy in any way for the space it is offering to UCMC staff, according to Beach.

So far, about 40 UCMC staff members have taken advantage of the Sophy’s offer.

Beach said that he had about 500 “room nights” booked as of Tuesday morning, meaning that the Sophy will have a cumulative 500 rooms occupied over the period from now until April 17.

The hotel has made all non-alcoholic minibar items complementary and expanded its housekeeping hours to further accommodate its guests. To protect Sophy workers from potential exposure to the virus, Beach said that the hotel has implemented several no-contact procedures and cleaning regimens.

For instance, the Sophy has pre­­—­­ checked in guests and set up their keys

ahead of time to minimize contact at the front desk. They are also only administering housekeeping services upon request to limit the potential exposure of employees to the virus.

“Our cleaners are using gloves and smocks. There is definitely minimal interaction with the guests themselves,” Beach said.

Beach said that the Sophy will reevaluate its current setup on April 17 and either continue donating rooms or begin to offer them at a steeply discounted rate.

He emphasized that the Sophy’s involvement in fighting COVID-19 was small compared to the sacrifices of the medical staff they currently serve.

“Everyone’s coming together to support and get ourselves through this as best we can,” he said. “What we’re contributing is actually a small fraction of everything that they’re going through on a daily basis.”

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UChicago Blood Initiative Launches National Campaign to Promote Donating Blood

By BRINDA RAO Sports Editor In March, second-year Max Korsun and third-year Elizabeth Shen, members of the UChicago Blood Initiative student group, founded the national University Blood Initiative to raise awareness about blood shortages nationwide, and to encourage people to volunteer at local blood centers.

The initiative matches universities and colleges to blood centers in their area, facilitating local donations and encouraging universities to set up their own blood initiatives in the long term.

Korsun has been in contact with various blood centers across the U.S. to expand the original, locally focused UChicago Blood Initiative to other universities.

“Some centers are doing well and have a lot of donors; other blood centers are not getting any donations,” he said in an interview with The Maroon. “The national infrastructure for blood delivery is shut down, so it is important for people to get the word out and donate locally.”

Across the nation, hospitals have reported record blood shortages in the

weeks following the COVID-19 outbreak. Third-party organizations such as the American Red Cross have also been forced to shut down mobile blood drives and to stop delivering blood to hospitals. Hospitals across the nation, including the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC), need a constant stream of appointment donors for the duration of the pandemic as they no longer have third-party facilitators.

The UCMC is no exception to the trend of blood shortages and has increased its calls for blood donations. The UChicago Blood Initiative, in response to the blood shortages, has thus begun to locally call for blood donations within the Hyde Park community.

Blood centers across the country have had to change their policies for walk-in blood donations, in order to increase safety and to abide by social distancing guidelines. UCMC’s blood center has cancelled all walk-in blood donations, requiring donors to make appointments online. In addition, the center previously had six beds for donors, but has reduced the number of beds to two, which restricts the number of donors they can get at both at once and

overall.

Both UChicago Blood Initiative and the newly formed University Blood Initiative will be spending the next few months working on an intense publicity campaign.

University Blood Initiative will be partnering with college students across the country to ask for more blood donations, especially to local centers. So far, they’ve paired Boston Children’s Hospital’s blood donation center with students from Boston University and Brandeis University, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s blood center with Hunter College students.

University Blood Initiative is also in the process of connecting students with centers in Florida, California, and Washington.

For UChicago Blood Initiative specifically, this short-term campaign will be built through a heavy social media push, outreach to UChicago faculty and staff, and communication with local Hyde Park businesses which may offer vouchers for discounts to people who have donated blood. In addition, the student group will be working on a guide and rule book, so volunteers nationwide

will have procedures for communicating with blood centers and their local communities. The UChicago Blood Initiative has also been working with UCMC to publicize the need for blood donations.

The UChicago Blood Initiative was originally founded three years ago by Aviva Klein ’19 as the Blood Donor Ambassadors. Klein was approached by a doctor at the UCMC blood center, which was lacking blood donors, to find ways for the center to engage with campus.

The organization has since worked directly with UCMC to publicize the blood center to the campus community and later formed partnerships between the blood center and local restaurants and theaters to give donors meal vouchers and discounts.

Reflecting on what students can do to contribute, Korsun said, “Regardless of if you can donate, or if there is a center near you, spread the word. Post on neighborhood Facebook groups and high school Facebook groups. If you can, donate; please take safety precautions and donate, while spreading the word.”

UChicago Medicine’s blood center is open for appointments scheduled by phone.

How You Can Help COVID-19 Relief and Response Efforts in Chicago

By ALICE CHENG Senior News Reporter While it is easy to become overwhelmed by uncertainty as we navigate life amid a pandemic, there are countless ways to help relief efforts in Hyde Park and Chicago, and to contribute remotely to national initiatives. Below are some of those efforts and how you can get involved.

Greater Chicago Food Depository One impact of the pandemic is food insecurity for Chicagoans who rely on school-based meal services. Volunteer-

ing and packing meals for the Greater Chicago Food Depository is considered an essential service and does not violate Illinois’ stay-at-home order, according to the Depository’s website. Individuals who are between the ages of 18 and 60 can sign up to volunteer in a warehouse.

Those who are unable to volunteer can also support the Depository by donating on their website. The Depository will use the funds to buy food and stock their shelves.

launched a Volunteer From Home initiative. Applicants can sign up for remote volunteering opportunities through their website, including urgently needed positions in regions around the country.

Anyone who has any questions about applying or finding the right opportunity in their region can contact UChicago third-year and National Youth Council member Rodrigo Estrada at rodrigo.estrada2@redcross.org.

lated seniors and to deliver critical resources, such as food and prescription medication, to the elderly in long-term care facilities in Chicago, you can sign up to volunteer from home to make calls with the Millennial Engagement Vote Initiative (MoVE). Volunteers must be willing to commit at least three hours a week of communication through phone calls or through a number of email exchanges, determined on a case by case basis.

American Red Cross Volunteer From Home Initiative The A merican Red Cross has

MoVE in Place: Calling All Generations To help connect with socially iso-

Tenants United Hyde Park’s Community Laundry Mutual Aid CONTINUED ON PG. 11

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National and Local Groups Seek Volunteers to Aid Pandemic Relief CONTINUED FROM PG. 10

This project is looking for volunteers living in Hyde Park, Kenwood, or Woodlawn to aid their effort in offering free laundry services to people with limited access in the Hyde Park area. Volunteers with access to cars and cheap laundry are especially in demand and will be given protective gear and safety instruction as well as funds to offset any cost of laundry. Those who would like to contribute to the effort can fill out a form online.

For more info, interested applicants can contact Brandon Patterson at brandonepatterson@gmail.com.

Donate Blood to UChicago Medical Center The University of Chicago Medical Center is looking for blood donors, as blood donations have severely decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To make an appointment, call 773702-6247. All donors must have an appointment to enter the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine (DCAM) and the Blood Donation Center. The center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday

through Friday.

More information can be found on the UChicago Medical Center’s website.

manded items can be found here.

Contact covid-donations@uchospitals.edu for more information.

NYC Against Coronavirus NYC Against Coronavirus is looking for Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean speakers to translate COVID-19 information that the organization has compiled on a Google Doc and wishes to transform into a website. The Google Doc can be found here.

For more information, contact the project at NYCCoronavirus@gmail. com.

Face Mask & Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Needs

La Rabida Hospital The La Rabida Hospital is looking for volunteers to sew non-clinical masks for patients and non-clinical staff. Volunteers who wish to make masks must follow the criteria below from La Rabida, according to an email sent by the hospital manager of volunteer services.

• Make the masks according to the following directions • Bundle 25 masks in a sealed zip lock bag • Drop off the deliveries at the front desk of the main entrance of La Rabida Children’s Hospital.

• Please put Brian Reiher as attention if mailing. We are located at 6501 S. Promontory Dr., Chicago, IL 60649. Drop off must be arranged by emailing tdaniel@ larabida.org or 773. 256.5985 • Lastly, feel free to share a picture of your sewing making journey!

We want to see how volunteers are remaining active during this

Face Masks for UChicago Labs and Hospitals The UChicago Medicine is looking for face masks and other personal protective equipment. This equipment can be dropped off at the Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery (57th Street and South Drexel Avenue), Room 1220, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday. A more comprehensive list of highly de-

•

time. Please send pictures to tdaniel@larabida.org. We plan to post a few on our social media page.

Before use, masks will be sterilized and inspected to make sure they are safe and appropriate, and health care workers can soon be wearing them.

UChicago Mutual Aid Face Mask Volunteer Initiative UChicago Mutual Aid has opened an application for students interested in sewing together face masks. According to a post in that group, a University alum from Hyde Park is also working with local businesses to cut fabric in bulk for face masks, and would like to assess how many people would be willing to sew once the fabric is cut. Those interested can get in touch by filling out the form online.

Note: The Maroon urges all volunteers to take the necessary safety precautions to protect themselves when physically participating in these activities.

As University Community Scatters From Hyde Park, Local Restaurants’ Business Evaporates

By ATMAN MEHTA Video Editor The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic poses a unique financial threat to local businesses in Hyde Park, because the university population, a majority of its clientele, has disappeared in a matter of days.

At least 10 restaurants in Hyde Park have temporarily closed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to several other local businesses. Although several others are open for carry-out or delivery, their future is also mired with uncertainty, including the prospect of thousands of lost jobs.

On March 15, Governor J. B. Pritzker ordered that all bars and restaurants close for dining-in starting the night of March 16 to curb St. Patrick’s Day crowds around

the state. However, the stay-at-home order issued on March 20, and the subsequent extension this Tuesday, means that restaurants will now have to wait till at least April 30 to reopen dining spaces.

Many Hyde Park restaurants rely on the spring season to make a profit. Following the transition to “distance learning,” the University’s undergraduate population has dwindled, effectively diminishing a majority of restaurants’ customer base.

Several restaurants, such as Nella, The Promontory, and Piccolo Mondo, have resorted to fundraising techniques such as GoFundMe pages to ensure that their employees can be provided for during these weeks, when sales are close to nothing.

At least 1,291 Hyde Park residents work in the “Food and Accommodation” industry, 9 percent of the total workforce of 14,730, ac-

cording to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

Although the third phase of the government stimulus worth over $2 trillion was signed into effect on March 27, local restaurants are concerned with both the sufficiency of federal loans and the timeliness of their disbursement.

“I’m not waiting for the government. I don’t think I’m going to get very much help, just historically, I’ve never seen it,” chef and owner Rashad Moughrabi of The Nile, a restaurant located on 55th Street, told The Maroon.

The Nile The Nile, a Middle Eastern restaurant, was founded in 1991 by Moughrabi’s father, beginning a family-owned operation embedded in the neighbourhood.

Moughrabi said that the restaurant depends on the university population for around 60 percent of its business. The restaurant earns enough to sustain itself through the summer during April, May, and June, the busiest season of the year, until students return in the fall.

“If students aren’t coming back for spring quarter, then we basically have to figure out a way to squeeze by all the way until October,” he said.

Even if the government lifts its order and allows restaurants to reopen their dining spaces, business would be crippled because of the absence of students.

“We would still be making pennies on the dollar, still not bringing in enough business to operate, and I still wouldn’t be able to bring my staff back. So it’s not going to change a whole lot.”

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“Now our worry is how people will react when we open: Will people still be going to eat, or ordering delivery, or will they watch their budget more?”

During the past week, the restaurant made only $500 per day, insufficient to cover even the electricity bills. “Hopefully we can bring in enough businesses in the hours when we are open, to keep the lights on,” he added.

The restaurant has reduced its number of employees to four from a total of 15. It has called on chefs and some other workers on a weekly rotation to help support as many employees as possible, Moughrabi said. The Nile has also cut its open hours significantly: 4 p.m. to 9 p.m . from Sunday toThursday, and 12 p.m. - 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Moughrabi also said that he has been too busy to set up a GoFundMe for his employees, because in the absence of most of his staff, he has had to prepare and cook all the food, in addition to washing the dishes and cleaning the floors himself.

Piccolo Mondo Piccolo Mondo, a 35-year-old Italian restaurant located on 56th Street, has had to temporarily close following the statewide stay-at-home orders, and furloughed most of their employees.

Piccolo Mondo relies on graduation crowds and other large university events for at least 50 percent of their springtime business, according to general manager Oriel Zas. Zas said he was expecting a difficult spring, but thinks that longtime relationships with community members will help the restaurant pull through.

“This year’s going to be very tough, and we’re going to have to depend upon the community that is still here. Fortunately, because we’ve been here for 35 years, we have great relations with the community, and we need them to step up and go out to eat to support the restaurants in Hyde Park until things get back to normal,” he said.

Although Piccolo Mondo’s GoFundMe campaign has exceeded its goal of $15,000, Zas is concerned with the lasting effects the economic downturn may have.

“Now our worry is how people will react when we open: Will people still be going to eat, or ordering delivery, or will they watch their budget more?” Zas asked.

The unexpectedness of this pandemic has made it harder to process emotionally for

Zas. “Most of the times when a business has to close, it’s because you did something bad.

But in this case, it wasn’t any of our fault,” he added.

The Promontory Unable to remain open during these weeks, the Promontory’s GoFundMe campaign has raised less than $5,000 of its $25,000 goal as of March 30.

“It’s very difficult to retain everyone just now. Even at our most robust, we’re operating on an extremely thin margin, so there’s no way we have coffers as back-up,” Jake Austen, venue manager at The Promontory, said, explaining the decision to furlough workers.

“The people working here are also my family, and I’ll miss seeing them, and am very worried about how they’re going to make it out. There’s not much I can do for them, and that’s difficult,” he added.

Medici on 57th Medici on 57th is one of the oldest restaurants in Hyde Park, first founded in 1962. It has seen its sales drop by 80 to 85 percent in the weeks following the University’s decision to move to distance learning, and Pritzker’s orders on March 20, according to general manager Kristen Esterly.

“We have close to 100 people, so we’re concerned about supporting 100 families.

But we’ve had to furlough all our wait and busing staff, and are just trying to pay all the paid off-time they’ve accrued, and trying to honour our commitments to them while keeping things going,” she added. “Honestly, I’m not sure for how long we can keep it up.”

Some employees are now working reduced hours in Medici to cope with the drop in revenues. As one of the oldest restaurants in the neighbourhood, she feels that there’s more at stake than financial survival.

“There are employees at the Medici who have been here for 35 years, so we’re really invested in this business, and we have to think about all the people who have put their lives into making it successful, and how to do right by them,” Esterly said.

“Honestly, it’s hard to look towards the future when we’re struggling every day. So right now we’re just going day by day, and trying to figure out if it makes sense to re-

main open after the coming weeks,” Esterly said.

Nella Nella, an Italian restaurant in Campus North Residential Commons, also faces a grim spring and summer season. Even in the best-case scenario, according to marketing consultant Jim Bloom, sales would only be around half of what they usually are for this period.

Nella had to furlough at least 20 of its employees last week, Bloom added, and is presently trying to remain open for takeout and delivery.

Hourly workers and employees dependent on tips are uniquely vulnerable within the struggling industry, and hence need the most support at this time, Bloom added.

“If you wait on tables, you rely on tips.

When you don’t tip someone well, you’re depriving that person of income. So it’s a pretty dire situation if you’ve no way to make that up, and that’s the situation most of our employees are in,” Bloom said, explaining the necessity of Nella’s fundraiser.

Nella has raised just over half of its $20,000 goal on GoFundMe as of March 30.

Uncertainties Regarding Stimulus Although the federal government has enacted three phases of a stimulus package, including the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act worth over a historic $2 trillion, concerns persist over the sufficiency and timely implementation of the measures undertaken.

The CARES Act provides $349 billion worth of loans guaranteed by the federal government to small businesses like restaurants. These loans may also be later easily forgiven, hence effectively acting as a grant.

However, under its stipulations, each business may avail itslef of a maximum loan amount worth 2.5 times their average monthly payroll, worrying local restaurateurs that the loaned amount may be insufficient, especially given the enormous loss of sales following the exodus of students from the neighbourhood.

“That wouldn’t even cover my rent, so I really don’t know what’s going to happen,” Moughrabi said, responding to loans being capped at 2.5 times the average monthly

payroll.

To incentivize employers to avoid laying off workers, the amount of loans forgiven would be proportional to the number of employees retained, according to the National Restaurant Association. Employees furloughed before the bill passed must be re-hired by June 30 to qualify for loan forgiveness.

This means that if the reduced business due to the absence of students doesn’t permit local restaurants to re-hire all their employees, the double blow of closed dining spaces and the disappearance of most of the student population could be followed by yet another double whammy: an insufficient loan to begin with, and the impossibility of having it later forgiven.

“I don’t expect anything from the government, I’m a realist. It’s still unclear how the support from the government will be administered, or if it will even make sense for us [to avail ourselves of a loan] if we’ll have to pay the full amount back” Esterly said.

Local restaurants also have doubts regarding the timeliness of loans and the means by which they will be disbursed.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) administered loans worth $25 billion in 2019, hence requiring more than a tenfold expansion in operations, raising questions regarding its ability to do so quickly enough.

“That’s the other thing: For how long will we have to wait? Because that determines if it’s a good time to open or not, or whether you can survive. If help doesn’t arrive until May, and you know that you can’t survive more than two weeks in April, you might have to close. So that’s a big question,” Zas said.

Despite being established for nearly 30 years, Moughrabi said he has to apply for at least 10 loans to receive even one from the Small Business Administration (SBA).

If the shelter-in-place lasts longer, The Nile might not be able to continue, Moughrabi said, adding that more was on the line for him. “This restaurant is the source of all our livelihood, but is also my father’s legacy.”

“No one knows how things are going to be, we’re all flying blind,” he said. “I’m just putting my head down and working as hard as possible, praying that I come out the other end.”

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VIEWPOINTS

Under Quarantine, Embrace the “B” Stories As the coronavirus pandemic dominates the news and our minds, we should look to little things for temporary relief.

By JAY GIBBS I saw a seagull peck at some Harold’s Chicken in an empty parking lot, and it was the most exciting thing I had seen in days.

This was my first time leaving the house in a week. I could tell it was a first for several of my fellow customers, too. The shoppers I saw in Hyde Park Produce were cautious; their prying eyes checked for distance while almost closing it with the intensity of their gazes. Somehow, every single person shared an

expression of a peculiar mixture of caution and curiosity. I kept my hands in my pockets; I touched little, especially not my face. I avoided aloof-looking children; I grabbed my cilantro, broccoli, my pecans, and my lettuce. I went about business as usual, and I could only think about that seagull pecking at the chicken in the parking lot.

Normally, we don’t think all that much about the little things that happen on a day-to-day basis. Strange things are common and numerous, and remember-

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ing any given one for a long time isn’t even worth the energy. After all, so much else is going on, and more importantly, there is so much more to come. I don’t focus quite as much on Monday when I know Tuesday is likely to come.

But right now, in a time where the novel coronavirus dominates almost every facet of our lives, it is even more important than usual to treasure the little things that happen each day.

Normally, we focus on the main events. We want to think about the big moments that have come and are to come soon. We think about that test we might fail, those job interviews we desperately hope we make strong impressions in, those dates that hopefully go more pleasantly than poorly. We focus on the exciting or high-impact cores of our personal narratives. A movie director might call these main plotlines “A” stories—something that drives protagonists forward toward action. In most films, the “B” story is almost a faint murmur to the roar of the “A.” Some recognizable examples for our generation are the antics of the squirrel in Ice Age, much of ObiWan Kenobi’s investigations in the Star Wars prequels, or even the hilarious dynamic between Frozone and his wife in The Incredibles.

Usually it offers a break from the excitement or a bit of comic relief. Sometimes though, the “B” story is the only reason the “A” story works. That ostensibly useless interaction off the beaten path ends up being the only reason the main path is clear. That side character you spoke to in a

JESSICA XIA video game ends up being your only point of passage through a dangerous situation. That friend from your house who you haven’t spoken to in years becomes a quarantine confidant, or someone you mostly know from an RSO becomes someone you can exercise with from afar to stay sane.

We rely on the “B” story to make sure our main paths make sense. Without them, we can’t engage in the most important aspects of our lives. Even more, absent embracing those side interactions on a day-to-day basis, we risk becoming so disconnected from the world around us that even an exciting main plot feels formless, or not worth seeing

through. Monotony is poison even when the repeating action is gold.

Right now, the novel coronavirus is the world’s “A” story in a way quite unlike most of the usual “A” stories we experience.

In school, at work, during life, or within our personal relationships, the “A” story is broad, but it’s also flexible. Yes, college is continuous, and class happens weekly, but the classes are different. There is some built-in variety that makes the process less monotonous even if it is constant.

The “B” stories matter a bit less when the “A” story is fresh and exhilarating. The ways in which our side arcs blend into the main CONTINUED ON PG. 14

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ones are obscured by the variability of the main ones in the first place.

This is obviously a very different time. Today’s “A” story, a pandemic, keeps us in our houses, away from people. It leads us to desperately try to recreate the main cores of our lives not lost to us. In the absence of parties with friends, we drink wine over a video call, alone but together.

We text constantly, and some have even taken to creating their favorite campus hangouts in cre-

ative video games like Minecraft or Animal Crossing.

Recently, the highlights of my day have often been the “B” stories that distract me, even for a moment, from the main happenings of the world. I will never truly forget the virus, nor the disaster it has caused, but I am incredibly thankful to have the privilege to distract myself from it and surrender to the strange events that I normally see as disturbances. The five wasted minutes of a work meeting just talking about nonsense

start to amount to some of the most meaningful interactions of a week, and I don’t feel quite as driven to maximize every single moment when there is suddenly much more time available.

It can be quite easy to focus on the main things happening in your life. I won’t lie and say I haven’t fallen prey to the quicksand that is coronavirus news. Under normal circumstances, it is the little pauses in the story that keep us from losing sight of ourselves.

We don’t always notice them, but they are incredibly important.

As we move past the current crisis, or even stay in it, we have to internalize every part of our own narratives. While this isn’t the ideal setting for it, now is the perfect time to recognize and isolate your subplots. It is an incredible opportunity to force yourself to understand what your “B” stories are or need to be.

What’s important now is to find little moments and protect them. Have your annoying conversations. Stand in a backyard (though perhaps not in groups!) and notice the strange smells of

your neighbors attempting to learn to cook. Watch that new show that Netflix insists you have a 98 percent chance of loving.

Stub your toe and laugh about it. Watch a bird eat Harold’s and think about it days later. Break up the massive monotony of the world. Just like in your normal life, your “B” stories will be what makes the “A” work out splendidly. Sometimes, you just have to let them.

Jay Gibbs is a fourth-year in the College.

We Need Transparent Communication about COVID-19 As the University deals with COVID-19, administrators should provide all members of the community with updates about diagnoses—not just those students that they deem most affected.

By MANYA BHARADWAJ At 8:30 a.m. on Friday, March 20, I walked up to Arley D. Cathey Dining Commons, intending to get breakfast before my 23-hour journey back home to India. It was closed. There was no explanation, just a notice that Bartlett and Baker were still open. I didn’t think anything of it; I just went back to my room, got my suitcases, and booked a Lyft to the airport.

At 9:39 a.m., I received an email—not from Provost Lee, like most of the emails regarding COVID-19 updates, but from someone named Kristina Baker.

Cathey was shut down because one of the workers had tested positive for the virus. And unlike most of the emails regarding COVID-19, it wasn’t addressed to all members of the University community. Residents of Renee Granville-Grossman and Burton-Judson, the two residence halls nearest to Cathey, received it. But not all students of the Uni-

versity were informed, despite many being regular visitors of the dining hall. Parents were not informed either.

This highly selective communication from the University is concerning because it prevents the entire community from taking actions that could best protect itself. We cannot allow it to become a pattern. That a person in charge of handling food has had the disease in their system while being on duty affects all students at the University, and I can’t help but draw attention to the fact that the incident has not been handled with enough transparency. Alerting the entire campus for a single diagnosis may seem unnecessary; at the current infection rate, cases of COVID-19 on campus are not unexpected and could incite panic. However, staying true to the UChicago value of independent thinking, the community should be provided with all information regarding the pandemic, rather than only what the administration believes

we will be able to handle. This would better aid us in making informed decisions on how best to protect ourselves.

This selectivity of information has real consequences. A friend of mine received the email because she was a resident of Renee Granville-Grossman. Her sister, who lives off campus but frequently ate at Cathey, was not notified of anything—and had been in proximity to their parents since the news came out. And she was upset. Had the University informed her of the incident as well, she might have known to quarantine herself better to protect her family. Even still, she was fortunate to have been able to stay informed through her sister. Other students living off campus, who have eaten at Cathey, may still be unaware. And if so, they are unaware of the risk they and their families might be at, all because of inconsistent communication from the University.

At around 6:45 p.m. on Friday, March 20, the community

received an email from Provost Lee. Predominantly discussing the Illinois shutdown, it briefly mentioned, “Our campus has experienced additional cases of COVID-19 in recent days” toward its conclusion, but offered no clarifying details. And at 5:26 p.m. on Saturday, March 21, residents of Burton-Judson received an email saying that a resident of the dorm had tested positive for the virus; the University did not inform all members of its community who may have been exposed. The only residents who have been further notified are those that the University knows have had “close contact with the individual,” but similarly to the case of the Cathey worker, this may not guarantee that all at-risk individuals have been informed.

The University has not since provided information about where and when additional cases on campus have developed, and its lack of communication regarding diagnoses is both irresponsible and alarming. These

cases impact all of us because we don’t know to what degree we have been exposed to the virus. We don’t know whether we should have stayed behind and quarantined ourselves instead of returning home and potentially spreading it. We don’t know if our lives are in danger because of our exposure.

Perhaps it would be helpful to consider opening an opt-in channel of communication, formatted similarly to the security alerts delivered by the Department of Safety and Security. This would broadcast all updates related to COVID-19 cases and precautions related to the University as soon as reports are processed. Rather than governing and gatekeeping information, providing the community with access to all information, well-sourced information, and informed suggestions would allow us to make educated decisions. An additional advantage of open broadcasting is that it would avoid panic caused CONTINUED ON PG. 15

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“This rigor permeates the calendar to such an extent that some weeks, such as fourth week and seventh week, have become infamous for their exacting nature”

ALVIN SHI

by unofficial communication: Similarly to the RH, Cathey, and Burton-Judson emails, any selective communication is likely to leak anyway, and it would be more efficient for the University to directly inform the broader community instead.

I would be remiss not to acknowledge that so far, UChicago has been handling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic well, relative to other institutions of higher learning. Unlike Harvard and Syracuse, the University provided students with ample moveout notice. When students petitioned to have resident assistants paid during spring quarter, the

University listened and offered them the opportunity to work remotely. Now, as the global crisis heightens, it is extremely important for UChicago to continue to take care of its community as best as it possibly can. A fundamental value of this institution has always been independent and educated thinking, but by assuming that we cannot handle certain information, the recent selectivity in communication prevents us from making critically-reasoned, educated decisions. We must be able to stay informed if our health is at risk so that we can take precautions to protect ourselves and the ones we love.

Great Job, Bob The University of Chicago is showing other universities how to support their employees during the pandemic.

By SAM JOYCE This is not a column I ever expected to write. During my past four years at the University, I’ve criticized the administration for everything from their inconsistent application of the Kalven Report to their decision to demolish a historic building, and I’ve spent a lot of my time organizing in opposition to their bad-faith dealings with unions representing graduate workers and non-tenure-track faculty.

But I also didn’t anticipate anything that has happened over the last month. So, while it feels a little strange to say, I’m prepared to admit it: The University of Chicago’s administration is doing a really great job, and peer institutions should follow its example.

To be clear, their response got

off to a rocky start. Compared to peer institutions, UChicago students were among the last to know classes would be online in the spring: Stanford moved classes online by March 6, Rice and Duke had moved by March 10, while Washington University and Northwestern followed on March 11. Here, by contrast, students didn’t learn until the late evening of March 11, when The Maroon published an email sent to resident heads. The official announcement didn’t arrive until the next morning.

The day after that, the University announced that it would not be paying resident assistants their spring stipend. A Change.org petition went around, but that happens every time students feel outraged. The administration seemed prepared to continue its disappointing but

now-familiar pattern: Faced with a potential threat to its wealth, be it a union or a pandemic, the University can usually be counted on to protect its financial assets and hang its employees out to dry.

But then something unusual happened. Due in no small part to advocacy by Student Government’s executive slate, the administration reversed course: RAs could now be paid their full stipend. Then, a couple days later, the Student Library Employee Union announced that all student library workers would receive two additional weeks of pay despite the library shutdown.

These encouraging signs were followed by a major win: The University announced that all contracted workers, including food service, janitorial, and se-

curity staff, would receive their regular salaries through the end of spring quarter. All University staff, including non-contract, temporary, and seasonal staff, can receive up to six additional weeks of paid time off for spring.

The University has also reduced the spring student life fee from $414 to $125, expanded options for pass/fail grading, extended the tenure clock for junior faculty, and announced a substantial plan to support South Side residents and businesses: 3,000 meals a day through Greater Chicago Food Depository and $1 million in bridge funds for small businesses and nonprofits.

It’s important to acknowledge that many of these wins would not have happened without the diligent organizing of students and workers on campus,

particularly a letter published by the University of Chicago Labor Council. Some uncertainty remains around funding extensions for graduate students and contract renewals for non-tenure-track faculty, and janitors and medical staff have raised concerns about the supply of personal protective equipment available to them. But, all in all, these measures add up to a university administration that is handling this crisis with an uncharacteristic—and, compared to our peer institutions, unusual—sensitivity to the impacts of this crisis on both students and workers.

It’s hard not to compare the University’s handling of the situation to the approaches taken by peer institutions. At Stanford, for example—an institution with CONTINUED ON PG. 16

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“It may have required a global pandemic to make it happen, but I genuinely feel proud to say that I’m a student at the University of Chicago” CONTINUED FROM PG. 15

an endowment more than three times that of UChicago—hundreds of custodial workers and dozens of food service workers have been laid off, forcing many longtime employees to suddenly fend for themselves at a time of potentially record unemploy-

ment. Northwestern got some good press for promising to pay food-service workers, but the payments haven’t begun, and there’s no guarantee that other staff will receive pay and benefits. Duke has laid off summer instructors and declined to provide benefits to some part-time

workers. At Rice, it’s still unclear whether contracted workers will see their pay continue through the spring.

The University of Chicago, through all of this, has emerged as an example for other institutions. If the University of Chicago—an institution uniquely

exposed to the pressures and uncertainty of the healthcare market—can nevertheless find the resources to treat its workers fairly and support the broader community during this crisis, there is no excuse for other universities not to do the same.

It may have required a global

pandemic to make it happen, but I genuinely feel proud to say that I’m a student at the University of Chicago. That strange feeling I’d been having? I’m starting to think it might be school spirit. And with physical sports on hold for now, we may even have a chance to revive the University’s

When Learning at a Distance, We Should Ditch the Seminar and Run Reading Classes This spring, humanities courses should avoid Zoom seminar sections and busywork discussion posts, and instead let students grapple with great texts independently.

By IAN CAVENY There’s a little-known secret in humanistic studies: The seminar is inessential.

In prior generations, when a graduate student took a seminar course with a professor in the humanities, that professor handed them a list of things to read, some targeted directions on the themes and purposes of the course, and would, perhaps, evaluate an essay written by that student. Seminars were not a core element of such courses—professors might opt to host a regular discussion of the texts where the students could freely discuss the works they were reading, or the students might have gathered on their own, but such discussions were not seen as core curricular institutions. That is to say, regardless of whatever value it holds for teaching and instruction (and it certainly does exist), the seminar is not at the heart of what we do in the humanities.

For centuries (in the German model of the university that UChicago was built upon), grad-

uate students and upper-level undergraduates were expected to read, wrestle with, comprehend, question, and investigate assigned works independently, without much thought to attending class. More crucial were regular check-ins with the professors; these were conducted through a short weekly paper to demonstrate progress, or, more typically, during office hours.

As we prepare to enter a virtual spring quarter at the University of Chicago, can we resuscitate an older model of university education that better suits the rigor and academic standing of our institution rather than follow the course so many others are choosing by relying on virtual education?

Online courses stin k .

There’s no easy way around that. Assuming that the administration’s plans for Zoom courses comes to fruition, technical difficulties will abound.

I’ve heard word of certain older professors who have already cancelled their spring courses in order to avoid working with Zoom. In my prior education, I

took a Zoom-optimized course at a seminary that worked well, but that institution had structured their entire educational model for Zoom and their professors were uniquely trained to handle it as a format of education. Beyond this, there is the tenuousness of schedule and internet access that newly displaced students cannot easily solve. The other typical option, attempting to run seminars online but forgoing conference call platforms like Zoom, is not better. In undergrad, online courses I took with mandatory discussions but no virtual call components sank to the level of pedantry and wastefulness. Assignments designed to make up for lost face-to-face discussion time quickly drifted into the burdensome arena of “busywork,” which has little educational benefit. Such needling nonsense is no better for the instructors: When I taught at a community college using tools like message boards and forums, the prospect of giving students feedback on their writing “exchanges” was overwhelming

and tedious. One thing any online course reveals is that meeting in person is really irreplaceable—paltry digital versions will not replicate the neural processes that take place when we discuss ideas face to face.

Instead, when forced to learn virtually, we must change the model: Match class structure to the online form instead of simulating the in-person seminars we would have held on campus.

To do this, I suggest we revive the old German model and empower students as independent thinkers who can devote themselves to a course of study even without the modern-day accoutrements of the seminar or discussion group.

As such, rather than fall into these twin pitfalls of technologically mediated discussions and pedantic blog seminars rife with busywork, the proposition I urge professors teaching in the humanities (including the Divinity School, humanistic social sciences, etc.) to consider is simple: Teach reading courses in the old style. Forgo attempts to translate seminars to online learning

and instead, just assign a syllabus and assign us papers. To ensure that students stay abreast of the work, consider a short summary paper due weekly or every other week, or perhaps regular, mandatory check-in emails, so students can ask the professors questions that arise during their readings, or some form of office hours (use Zoom for what it does best, rather than what it does poorly). Or maybe just assign one final paper as the culmination of a quarter’s worth of reading. (We graduate students will gladly write you a 20-page research paper if that’s the only thing you ask us to do aside from reading.) But don’t fiddle about trying to figure out Zoom, or message boards, or little niggling assignments. We are, after all, students of the University of Chicago—an essential part of what makes this place known for its intellectual rigor—and we are capable of doing great work for you without needing to worry about making things too complicated.

Ian Caveny is a graduate student in the Divinity School.

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ARTS Chicago’s Hidden Comme des Garçons: PHX Gallery

By MILES FRANKLIN Arts Reporter

Established in 2014 by Joachim and Carly Lapôtre, PHX Gallery undoubtedly stands as one of Chicago’s best-kept secrets, and is a must-see for people whose love of Comme des Garçons reaches deeper than Play t-shirts and Converse collaborations.

Located in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, the gallery sits inside an unpretentious, yet clean and airy, warehouse, which is also home to other small galleries and studios.

A warm, intelligent, and funny Parisian, Joachim led me to an unassuming set of glass double doors, framed with crown molding and a set of venetian blinds that diligently protected the gallery from prying eyes. The moment he opened the door, I was immediately immersed into a world where fringe fashion and furniture are the rule, not the exception. A small, intimate space looking out onto the street and the building across the way, the room is the perfect setting in which to learn about Comme

des Garçons and postmodernist furniture.

Immediately to the left of the doors, a set of Prorok Rattan Armchairs by Borek Sipek for Driade from the late 1980s nestled protectively around a glowing and tactile yellow foam lamp by Masayo Ave for AntonAngeli Illuminazione from the 1990s, which itself was perched upon a miniature white ionic column. In one of the chairs rested a sophisticated leather Boston bag from Comme des Garçons, and this entire scene was backdropped by mid-century ceramic wall crucifixes from Belgium.

After I took in this magnificent scene, Joachim walked me through the multiple racks of vintage Comme des Garçons clothing, which encapsulate almost 40 years of Japanese avant-garde design from Rei Kawakubo and perhaps her most famous disciple and collaborator, Junya Watanabe.

Describing the myriad of ways in which Kawakubo subtly (and not so subtly) defies conventional ideas of gender, form, and design, Joachim’s passion shone brightly and enveloped me further still into the fantastic world of Comme des Garçons. Stopping at

PHX prides itself on displaying “rare and covetable” pieces of design history. courtesy of phx

Detail on garments displayed—and sold—at PHX. courtesy of phx one particular piece, a curious sheer black linen dress by Watanabe for Comme des Garçons from 2014, Joachim encouraged me to try it on, an invitation I accepted without hesitation. The feeling and visual gravity of the garment, alternating from mesh to faux leather circles placed seemingly at random, were incredible.

Another standout that highlighted Kawakubo and Watanabe’s interest in creating seemingly ordinary clothes was an asymmetric “hooded shirt” from 2011.

What seemed from the front to be an ordinary button-down shirt, revealed itself upon closer inspection to be a hoodie, with orange stripes on the front and a red polka-dot pattern on the back. Conversation about avant-garde Japanese clothing could have lasted forever, but we eventually began discussing the equally impressive collection of furniture and objets d’art placed throughout the room.

After being introduced to Memphis Group, Ettore Sottsass, and the postmodernist furniture movement through a 2018 show in New York’s chic SoHo district titled “Raquel’s Dream House” (curated by Raquel Cayre, who runs the fabulous Instagram account @ettoresottsass), I became a veritable fan of postmodernist furniture and objects. To that end, Joachim and I eagerly discussed Memphis Group legends such as the Super Lamp by Martine Bedin and the Carlton bookcase designed by Sottsass himself, all the while immersed in a constellation of postmodernist creations including the Shiva vase prototype from 1973 (which you have to see to believe), several Keith Haring rugs, and a few curious glass and ceramic vases, which were in turn interspersed between a collection of prints

by Memphis veteran Nathalie du Pasquier.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON — APRIL 8, 2020

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“I was immediately immersed into a world where fringe fashion and furniture are the rule, not the exception.”

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collection was the selection of lighting: a Divan 2 pendant by Simon Henningsen for Lyfa hung in one corner, casting striking shadows upon the white walls, while a Murano glass lamp by Angelo Mangiarotti for Pollux Skipper rested on the floor, casting oblong rings of warm, yellow light across the wooden boards. A designer in his own right, Joachim revealed to me several of his own designs, ranging from delicate, glassblown vases to large, geometric, ceramic sake pitchers.

From a visitor’s perspective, perhaps the greatest joy of PHX Gallery is that most things are for sale. After scheduling an appointment to browse all that’s on offer, guests can join the list of PHX’s clients in purchasing rare and covetable pieces of design history. In fact, it seems that the only person in the gallery who cannot take pieces home is Joachim himself, who declared with admirable restraint, “Curators cannot be collectors.”

UChicago Students, Alum Appear in the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival

By MILES FRANKLIN Arts Reporter

UChicago has no theatrical conservatory. There are no B.F.A.s or strictly performance-based majors, and we’re not known for churning out Broadway stars year after year. Even the TAPS major is relatively new.

Yet we still produce a number of high-caliber theatermakers. Curious, I took some time to talk to a few of our thespians who recently performed in the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival: Hope Campbell, a fourth-year majoring in English and TAPS; Zander Galluppi, a Ph.D. student in the Committee on Immunology; and Vicky Snyder, (A.B. ’00) who studied Romance Languages and Literatures. Campbell and Galluppi appeared in Moby Dick: A Musical, and Snyder in Baked! The Musical.

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PHX showcases clothes that combine Kawakubo’s avant-garde spirit with more practical streetwear. all photos courtesy of phx

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“There aren’t that many art forms that allow you to speak to an audience and get them to sympathize with characters and share stories in the same way.”

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Their paths to theater varied widely.

Campbell has acted for years and joined University Theater her first quarter on campus, performing with UT almost every quarter since. Galluppi became interested in theater as a grad student, and has performed with UT and TAPS for three years. Both appeared in Peter and the Starcatcher in fall 2017, Galluppi’s first UT show and Campbell’s fourth.

Snyder, in contrast, performed in one show her first year before transitioning to music. She sang in University Chorus her first year, Motet her second, and Rockefeller Chapel Choir her third and beyond. She attended a couple of theater courses as a student of the College, but generally focused on music, as there was no theater major at

that time. After graduating, she stayed in the Chicago area and continued singing with Motet and the Chapel Choir for the next few years. Though her training was primarily musical, it prepared her well for singing outside of college, and more specifically in musical theater.

All three remarked upon the short rehearsal process for the festival: Each show had about three weeks of preparation time, with Moby Dick having an additional couple music rehearsals in December. Overall, they agreed that the short rehearsal time encouraged them to work hard under a significant amount of pressure. The festival format added extra challenges: Sets had to be put up and taken down in 30 minutes, which encouraged minimalism for the writing to shine through. Moby Dick’s set was

ingeniously designed by Ed Bryan, its writer, to be fully collapsible within that time period. Baked!’s set was simple, consisting solely of a table, a couple of chairs, a sign, and some wooden blocks.

Campbell, Galluppi, and Snyder continue to participate in theater for different reasons. Galluppi loves theater for its creativity, expressivity, and ability to engage different parts of his brain, adding, “doing science all the time, it’s really valuable to get into a creative mindset both for doing science and communicating science, but also just to be a healthy and well rounded person.”

Campbell emphasizes its collaborative nature, remarking, “There aren’t that many art forms that allow you to speak to an audience and get them to sympathize with characters and share

stories in the same way.”

Snyder, not a full-time actor but a working mom living in Bloomington, prizes theatre’s unifying power, saying, “We all understand love, we all understand responsibility. We all understand wanting things. So yeah, theatre excites me because it can bring healing, it unites us.”

Although UChicago is not a traditional theater school, it still creates incredibly capable thespians with promising theatrical futures ahead of them.

Snyder left one last piece of advice for UChicago theater students. “Keep doing what you love and find ways to do it on any level. If it’s a passion of yours, don’t ignore it: go for it and find a way about it.”

SPORTS

Letter from the Editors: Spring Sports 2020 As the coronavirus pandemic halts a worried nation, we face an increasingly uncertain and isolated world. From college campuses to movie theaters, from local parks to major interstates, we see normally busy areas—especially in the early spring weather—unusually devoid of people, (rightfully) abandoned in the name of public health.

Perhaps the abandonment most keenly felt has been in the sports world.

After NBA star Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID -19 on March 11, the sports world has reacted swiftly and decisively. On March 12, the governing body of college sports, the NCAA, canceled all remaining winter and spring sports. The NBA season has been postponed, angling nearer and nearer cancellation with each passing day. The MLB and NHL seasons dangle in similar precariousness. The 2020 Summer Olympics has been pushed to 2021. There will be no Wimbledon, no Open Championship, no “One Shining

Moment.”

While we may bemoan the absence of professional stars, the NCAA decision to cancel collegiate seasons has left a wake of amateur athletes reeling from the loss of their season. We can trust that LeBron James, Mike Trout, and Serena Williams will once again chase titles and accolades; the stars will return. What about the other athletes, the ones with four years of eligibility and limited professional prospects— like those at the University of Chicago?

The news of spring quarter’s move to remote learning heralded the end of the Maroons’ seasons. Days before national meets, winter athletes were informed that the NCAA had cancelled all competition. Seniors seeking national titles saw their dreams cut short in the wake of this news. Moreover, many spring athletes were left devastated with the early end to their seasons.

Most teams were playing in their last games and practices without knowing

their seasons had been terminated.

Under social distancing protocols, the entire University community must find new ways to engage in athleticism.

All on-campus athletic facilities and the Chicago lakefront trail were closed in the weeks following the announcement of remote learning and social distancing measures. Nevertheless, our community’s ability to innovate and prosper in the face of challenge has flourished. Varsity teams are leaning on each other for support in these times, engaging in team challenges to stay in shape. The Department of Athletics and Recreation will be offering remote continuations for intramural leagues. Across the world, students and faculty alike have taken to running, hiking, and walking, spreading our Maroon community globally.

As a section, we are no exception to meeting the challenge of remote learning with novel approaches. We plan to provide a new look for the sports sec-

tion as a new normal. This includes an increase in the number of lifestyle pieces on how athletes and students alike are keeping in shape in this time as well as recommendations for our readers on how they can do the same.

In addition to the lifestyle pieces, we will continue to profile some of our fourth-year athletes this spring. Lastly, due to these changes, we will publish some personal essays from our student athletes who are either graduating, had their spring season cut short, or even their career cut short. While we know that the section may lack in the exciting recaps of sporting events for the time being, we will continue to be innovative with ideas in how to get sports news to you, the reader, in a time of extremely limited sports action.

—Alison Gill, Thomas Gordon, and Brinda Rao

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Flying High: Laura Darcey Profile

By BRINDA RAO Sports Editor

Versatile. Zealous. Driven. These are just a few words to describe Laura Darcey’s dynamic career as a multi-athlete for the women’s track and field team. In her four years of competing, Laura has broken school records, set NCAA Division III historic rankings, and was recently named the USTFCCCA National Women’s Field Athlete of the Year. However, Darcey’s mentality toward the sport is perhaps her greatest attribute. She constantly seeks new challenges and pushes herself toward new horizons.

Hailing from England, Darcey did not have a traditional start to her track and field career. When she was 11, she won a 100-meter dash at her school’s Sports Day. This prompted her initial interest in track, leading Darcey to joining the Kingston Running Club in London. She trained with the club throughout her youth, competing in any event her team needed. Darcey explained, “I meandered around and tried different events. I started off doing anything that my team needed. I sprinted for a while and also ran the 800-meter race. Multievents turned out to be the best fit.”

Darcey’s career continued when she hit her growth spurt at 16 and began to excel in track and field events. Seeking university options that would allow her to continue track, Darcey looked at colleges in the United States, eventually selecting UChicago, Darcey felt an initial sense of welcome and comfort at her recruitment visit to UChicago. Upon meeting the coaches and athletes, she was charmed by the excitement and energy of the team. “I felt that I had a ready family coming onto the campus, which I strongly wanted as I was coming from England to UChicago. This feeling was true and I’ve found track to be a home away from home,” Darcey reflected.

Darcey defines versatility. She competes in multi-events (pentathlons and heptathlons) for both her indoor and outdoor seasons. Her athleticism is boundless as she welcomes any challenge in sprinting, mid-distance, jumping and throwing events. For the indoor season, Darcey competes in five

events in a single day: 60-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump, and the 800-meter dash. For the outdoor season, Darcey competes in the heptathlon, adding the 200-meter sprint, 100-meter hurdles, and javelin throw to her pentathlon events. Her training is time-consuming and multivariate, seeing as Darcey is often the last person to leave the track. She juggles all these events to keep her skills at competition levels. Darcey noted, “My strength is in my versatility. Even if it is harder, I’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge. I need a challenge and it is fun to face it all.”

Although she is a multifaceted athlete, Darcey holds a distinct fondness for jumping. She had an initial gift for high jumping starting in high school, but has worked vigorously to master her long jumping since coming to UChicago. Nationally, she is the fourth-ranked high jumper in Division III, and the seventh-ranked long jumper. Darcey described warmly, “High jumping will always have a special place for me. When it goes right, it feels like the closest I’ll ever come to flying.”

While Darcey is quite familiar with podium placings and high rankings, she ultimately celebrates the little things about track. When asked about favorite experiences, Darcey fondly [EW1] recalled drives to national meets with teammates. She holds the opportunity to really get to know those teammates and sing karaoke renditions of “Africa” and “Circle of Life” on the road as cherished memories. She reminisced about team traditions, speaking warmly about huddles before and after meets with coaches and teammates. “The big things seem to fade away looking back on the last four years,” Darcey revealed.

Despite not identifying with a specific sub-team of track and field, Darcey is one of the most integrated members of the overall team. While she was shy at the start of her career, she was introduced to the other multi-athlete for the women’s team, Olivia Cattau (S.B. ’18), who guided Darcey, introducing her to other teammates. Moreover, as a multi-athlete, Darcey trained with almost every sub-team of track and field, throwing with the throwers, jumping

Senior Laura Darcy was named USTFCCCA National Women’s Field Athlete of the Year. courtesy of uchicago athletics

with the jumpers and running with the mid-distance runners.

Darcey’s dynamism is recognized and praised by her teammates and coaches.

Her primary coach Justin McQuality noted, “I would describe Laura as a rare athlete. She has the ability to impact a team both by her leadership influence and her performance. Her strengths as an athlete are her explosiveness and body awareness. Her strengths as a leader come from her ability to be both very forward and frank, but also compassionate and vulnerable when she needs to be as well.”

Darcey went into her fourth year hungry for a new challenge. Success in previous years did not stop Darcey from dreaming of new horizons. She had aspirations of being the best in the country in her senior year. “I’ve learned that if I

put my heart to something, I can achieve it. This mentality will follow me through the rest of my life,” Darcey explained.

However, the night before nationals she was informed the meet was cancelled and her college track career was cut short due to the growing COVID-19 pandemic.

Although her indoor and spring seasons fell short of her initial goal, Darcey continues to aspire for more. As a dedicated student, studying both public policy and human rights, Darcey has professional plans to attend graduate school in some capacity. She also plans to return to London and compete for a year to see what she can do.

“I have unfinished business,” Darcey concluded, looking to the horizons to once again challenge herself in track and field.