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97 NEW COVID-19 CASES REPORTED THIS WEEK

APRIL 14, 2021 THIRD WEEK VOL. 133, ISSUE 22

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University Announces Stay-at-Home Order, Halts In-Person Classes Following Spike in COVID-19 Cases

By MATTHEW LEE, LAURA GERSONY, & FINN HARTNETT Editor-in-Chief, News Editor & Senior News

College administrators announced new restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19, including a temporary cessation of in-person instruction and a stay-at-home order in dormitories, after more than 50 positive cases were detected in the student body between April 5 and 7. The announcement sent to students in the College on April 7 noted that “many of these cases may have been connected to one or more parties held by off-campus fraternities over the last week.”

Students in residence halls must complete a weeklong stay-at-home period and can only leave their dorms for food, medical appointments, or brief walks. The stay-athome period will last until April 15, although the email states that it could be extended if COVID-19 cases on campus have not subsided by then.

All classes and “non-curricular” programming will become fully remote for at least seven days beginning April 8, and meals

from the dining halls will only be available on a takeout basis. Residence hall lounges, music practice rooms, and courtyard spaces remain closed.

The email further urged students who have recently attended a party or “unmasked gathering” to be tested for COVID-19 immediately and to cooperate with the University’s Contact Tracing Team should they be contacted. University officials wrote that they suspect that the new cases may involve the B.1.1.7. variant, commonly known as the “U.K. variant,” which is more contagious and more deadly than the original strain of the virus.

There have been 918 reported cases of COVID-19 among the University community from September 18, 2020, through last week. University administrators added that additional steps, such as “placing further restrictions on in-person activities for spring quarter or scaling back planned College Convocation events,” may be necessary should the spread of cases continue.

Bond Chapel. courtesy of lee harris

College Council Condemns Fraternities, Suggests Revoking Partygoers’ Pre-Reg Privileges

By ADYANT KANAKAMEDALA & YIWEN LU Managing Editor & News Editor On April 8, College Council (CC) drafted a resolution that called on the

University to bar students from reserving seats in courses via pre-registration if they are found to have seriously violated the University of Chicago Health Pact, such as by attending recent parties or other unmasked gatherings.

VIEWPOINTS: Greek life abolition is a false start in efforts to hold frats accountable

GREY CITY: Illinois foster parents face challenges during the pandemic

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The resolution follows the University’s decision to pause in-person instruction and institute a stay-at-home order among students in on-campus housing after a large spike in cases of COVID-19 that administrators believe

may be linked to fraternity parties. It also comes after an announcement CC made Thursday morning which argued that students who “egregiously violated the Health Pact,” such as by attending CONTINUED ON PG. 3

ARTS: A reimagined MODA magazing creates opportunities for local high school students

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97 New COVID Cases Identified Amidst Recent Spike

By LUKIAN KLING Senior News Reporter Ninety-seven new cases of COVID-19 were reported last week, according to a UChicago Forward email sent to the University community on April 9. In the email, Dean Rasmussen attributed the marked rise in cases to a string of on- and off-campus parties held this past weekend.

The recent outbreak marks a substantial increase from the 52 cases reported last week.

The influx brings the positivity rate

on campus to 0.98 percent, the highest it has been this academic year. Fifty-nine students are in isolation housing on campus while 26 are isolating off-campus. A further 112 close contacts have been identified.

UCAIR, the University’s anonymous reporting system, received 23 reports this week.

In response to the outbreak, the University announced a seven day stay-athome order to remain in effect until Thursday, April 15. On-campus students will not be allowed to perform in-person research,

do in-person work, or engage in in-person team athletic activities during this time.

Off-campus students will be permitted to participate in these activities, but only if they have no symptoms of COVID-19, have not been identified as a close contact this past week, and have not attended any unmasked gatherings or parties.

The news comes a week after Chicago rolled out Phase 1c of the vaccination distribution plan. More than 3,400 eligible members of the University community have received the vaccine through the plan.

It is projected that Chicago will enter Phase

2 on April 19, allowing all Chicagoans aged 16 and older to be eligible for the vaccine.

According to the email, UChicago Forward “encourage[s] all eligible members of the University community to be vaccinated at their earliest opportunity, whether through our vaccine clinic or through other providers.”

Since Wednesday, the outbreak of cases has received statewide media attention and the attention of the College Council, which drafted a resolution calling for fraternity leadership and their partygoers to be held accountable for the spread.

Marshall Sahlins, Cultural Anthropologist, Dies at 90

By BASIL EGLI Senior News Reporter Marshall Sahlins, best known for his extensive anthropological work on the Pacific islands as well as his contributions to the anti-war movement, died onMonday, April 5 at his home in Hyde Park, Chicago. He was 90.

Born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents in 1930, Sahlins was a Chicagoan through and through. Sahlins grew up in Chicago before attending college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he received his A.B. and A.M. in anthropology in 1951.

Sahlins then went to New York City, completing a Ph.D. in anthropology at Columbia University in 1954, where he then stayed as a lecturer before a long stint as a professor at the University of Michigan starting in 1957. After moving to the University of Chicago in 1973, Sahlins taught and wrote until retiring in 1997 as the Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and of Social Sciences in the College.

As an anthropologist, Sahlins worked mainly on Pacific ethnography, focusing on Fiji and Hawaii. He wrote dozens of books and articles on anthropology, even after his retirement, including Social Stratification in Polynesia (1958), Moala: Culture and Nature on a Fijian Island (1962), Islands of History (1985), and Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture and Vice

Versa (2004).

His best-known work, however, was his 1972 book Stone Age Economics, in which he both challenged the idea of the hunter-gatherer society as primitive and on the verge of starvation andquestioned the logic of trying to understand hunter-gatherer societies through the lens of the Western economic system.

Furthermore, he developed several important anthropological theories that are still debated to this day, including the concepts of the “Stranger King” and the “original affluent society.” The former idea refers to the acceptance of foreign influence by indigenous peoples as a way to gain an advantage over rivals, and the latter idea is Sahlins’s attempt to express how “leisure” figured into the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

Outside of academia, Sahlins was a giant in the anti-war movement who spoke out against government propaganda and the military-industrial complex, especially during the Vietnam War. He was credited in 1965 with inventing the “teach-in,” a form of protest in which a sometimes indefinite series of lectures, debates, and discussions are held to raise awareness about a certain issue. In 1967, he would start a two-year stay in Paris, witnessing the civil unrest of May 1968 and coming into contact with the inf luential anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, who would influence Sahlins in his future research career.

Sahlins is survived by his wife Bar-

Renowned anthropologist Marshall Sahlins. courtesy of Wikimedia Commons bara, son Peter, daughters Julie and Elaine, and three grandchildren. His brother Bernard, a University of Chicago alum(A.B. ’43), was famous in his own right for founding the renowned improv comedy groups The Second City (1959) and Off-Off Campus (1986). He died in

2013.

During his lifetime, Sahlins was named a member of the National Academy of Sciences (from which he rarely resigned in protest at the 2013 appointment of controversial colleague NapoCONTINUED ON PG. 3

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Sahlin’s Final Work Will be Published Post-Humously by Princeton University Press in 2022 CONTINUED FROM PG. 2

leon Chagnon); a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the British Academy, and of the Guggenheim Foundation; and a Chevalier

de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. He received honorary doctorates from several institutions, including the University of Michigan and the London School of

Economics, and he gave many lectures across the world, including the Ryerson Lecture at the University of Chicago and the Marc Bloch Lecture at the Sorbonne. His final work, The New Science

of the Enchanted Universe, was intended to be the first of a three-volume series and will be published posthumously by Princeton University Press in 2022.

“They’re still going to have those parties and they’re still going to be as dangerous.”

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a party, should be sanctioned, possibly by imposing a pre-registration hold and halting housing lottery placement priority.

CC sought input from students on the resolution and provided a forum for students to comment on the role fraternities played in the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases at a Thursday night event titled “Greek Life & the Campus Closure.” There, students discussed the propriety of punitive measures against COVID-19 restriction violators and Greek life recognition.

First-year Evan Cholerton said that taking disciplinary action against individuals would not reduce partying among students. “It’s our instinct to punish,” he said. “But I worry that if we do that and focus all our energy on

punishing, they’re still going to have those parties and they’re still going to be as dangerous.”

CC Representative Summer Long wrote in a comment to The Maroon that any punitive measures should also further efforts to address longer-standing problems surrounding fraternities.

“I am 100% in favor of punitive measures, as long as they are also used in tandem with looking to recognize Greek Life,” she wrote.

CC members met with Dean of Students Michelle Rasmussen and Assistant Vice President for Student Life Mike Hayes in February to discuss the possibility of a “soft recognition” of Greek life that could be used to justify University interventions. According to Alex Levi, vice president for administration of the SG Executive Slate,

they were informed that the Board of Trustees would vote on the decision of whether to regulate UChicago’s fraternities.

“What we heard at the meeting confirmed our beliefs regarding actions that we can take: We need to advocate to the administration an urgent need to respond immediately to the present crisis while also pushing forward on the more systemic issues pertaining to Greek life,” CC representative Allen Abbott said.

In addition to its punitive measures, CC’s resolution would commit CC to working with Students for Disability Justice in order to establish a vaccination accessibility fund that could reimburse University community members for “any expenses incurred from traveling to and from a vaccination site

that is within 500 miles of one’s current address.”

According to Abbott, CC will communicate with the University administration on the issue about Greek life on Friday. CC members also planned to discuss the resolution among themselves later that evening.

CC’s actions on Thursday followed the Wednesday night release of a rebuke of students who violated COVID protocol by attending parties. “We condemn the students who attended these parties, knowing full well the risks and dangers of doing so,” SG wrote in a statement issued on Wednesday, citing “multiple fraternity and other student parties that have occurred this year, particularly those hosted just this past weekend.”

UChicago Researchers Show Delayed Gratification in Cuttlefish

By RACHEL WAN Deputy News Editor UChicago researchers have found that cuttlefish can delay gratification by resisting readily available snacks in exchange for better ones later on. The research, published on March 3 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, marks the first time a link between self-control and intelligence has been found in an animal other than humans and

chimpanzees. The research was conducted at the UChicago-affiliated Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. To test self-control, researchers repeatedly presented the cuttlefish with a small meal, followed by a second, larger meal. Over time, the cuttlefish began abstaining from the first meal and opting instead for the second meal, exhibiting a phenomenon known as delayed gratification. To test learning per-

formance, a reversal learning task was used, in which cuttlefish were required to learn to associate reward with stimuli and then learn to associate the reward with an alternative stimulus.

“We used an adapted version of the Stanford marshmallow test, where children were given a choice of taking an immediate reward [of one marshmallow] or waiting to earn a delayed but better reward [of two marshmallows],” lead author Alexandra Schnell said. “Cuttlefish

in the present study were all able to wait for the better reward…which is comparable to what we see in large-brained vertebrates such as chimpanzees, crows, and parrots.”

Results show that cuttlefish learned to tolerate delays in obtaining food for periods comparable to large-brained vertebrates, which led to better learning performance.

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“Cuttlefish can optimize foraging by waiting to choose better quality food.”

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trol and intelligence in a species outside of the primate lineage is an example of convergent evolution, in which different evolutionary histories have led to the same cognitive feature. In humans, studies have linked self-control with cognitive performance, in that individuals who delay gratification for longer

achieve higher scores in a range of academic tasks. Researchers have found the same association among other highly social species, particularly chimpanzees.

Cuttlefish, however, are not social species, and therefore their capacity to evolve for self-control is more surprising. Delayed gratification in humans is thought to benefit the species as a

whole—for instance, waiting for a partner in order to eat dinner together is considered to strengthen social bonds.

It may also function in other social animals who need to wait to hunt for prey.

As cuttlefish are not social species and do not hunt for prey, the authors of the study suggested that delayed gratification may be a byproduct of the cuttle-

fish’s need to camouflage to survive.

“Cuttlefish spend most of their time camouf laging, sitting and waiting, punctuated by brief periods of foraging,” Schnell said. “We speculate that delayed gratification may have evolved as a byproduct of this, so the cuttlefish can optimize foraging by waiting to choose better quality food.”

After A Year of Remote Learning, International Students Continue to Struggle With Taking Classes Overnight

By JINNA LEE & DANYA WANG Deputy News Editor & Senior News Reporter Between time zone differences keeping students awake until 3 a.m., confusion with class attendance policies during enrollment, and feelings of isolation from the student body, online learning has presented unique challenges to international students taking classes from home.

When the pandemic hit in March of last year, many international students returned home along with their peers for various reasons—some students wanted to stay closer to their families in countries with lower coronavirus numbers, while others wanted to avoid becoming the target of anti-Asian hate crimes in the U.S. In July, concerns about going back to campus were exacerbated when Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that international students taking classes entirely online were not allowed to return to the U.S. in the fall. Moreover, students already residing in the country would either need to leave or transfer to a school offering in-person classes. Although this policy was later rolled back, many international students still grappled with questions about their student status in the U.S. For some, the difficulties of remote learning halfway around the globe last spring caused them to make plans to head back to the U.S. for the fall. In December, Provost Ka Yee Lee acknowledged the challenge that online class presented to

students and faculty living abroad, saying that some were “waking up at 2 a.m. to participate in a synchronous class session.”

“Your dedication has allowed the University not only to persevere but to continue flourishing. We should all be proud of this accomplishment, and I am deeply grateful to you for it,” Lee wrote. However, while the Law School has allowed students to petition to waive synchronous attendance for classes between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. in their local time zone since last spring, attendance policies at the College have continued to be at the discretion of professors, several of whom international students say have not been accommodating.

Christopher Cheung, a second-year, has been taking classes from Hong Kong, which is 13 or 14 hours ahead of Chicago depending on the time of year. For Cheung, rescheduling classes taking place late at night in his time zone has been a difficult process, as professors have tended to gear their classes towards students within a few hours of central time.

“As an international student, it’s impossible to go to office hours due to the time difference,” he said. “While professors may be open to [changing office hours, the] process is democratic, so it always ends up [during the day] in U.S. time.”

Last fall, when Cheung asked his professor whether office hours could be moved to a more convenient time, he received an email saying “5 a.m. on Friday for you…is not exactly the middle of the night.”

Other international students have cho-

sen not to attend office hours altogether, instead forming study groups with classmates in similar time zones. Don Assamongkol, a second-year taking classes from Thailand, goes over homework questions with other students in Asia. “I’m in a study group with some people in the Asian time [zones] and we all do problem sets individually and come together. But most of the learning is by yourself.”

Challenges posed by time zone differences have also impacted many international students’ productivity and academic performance. During winter quarter, Bingyang Huang, a second-year currently living in Shenzhen, China, took four synchronous classes, one of which ran from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. in her local time zone. “A lot of deadlines for assignments are midnight CT which is noon for us, so I have to do assignment on that day, so I have to stay up all night until noon, so it’s already daytime for us,” said Huang.

Inflexible deadlines and exams taking place at midnight have left Huang feeling constantly tired, which has detracted from her performance on exams. “[Not having] a regular routine affects my performance in classes—in some classes I fall asleep.” As a result, Huang had to rewatch one of her Friday lectures every week.

Similarly, second-year Zachary Lee, a Singaporean citizen, has found the demands of balancing his university obligations so difficult that, in fall quarter, he switched to living entirely in Chicago time, sleeping at 4 p.m. and waking up at 1 a.m. in

Singapore time.

“Your body isn’t used to sleeping during the day. I did night shift in the Singaporean army for two years, sleeping during the day, and it’s still bad. Obviously, sunlight has a big impact on mood, at least for me, and I try to make it a point to go out in the morning so I can see the sun. Otherwise, it’s really depressing.”

Sleeping for most of the day has also caused Lee to miss meals with his family. “In terms of my family, my parents are working, so I sometimes attend family dinner, but whenever I do that, it screws up my sleep schedule really badly.”

Fortunately, Lee has found his professors to be flexible toward his situation. “All my professors are quite accommodating with exams, and you just have to manage your schedule for problem sets,” Lee said.

“My Sosc professor…and my math professor were really nice. You can arrange office hours with my math [professor] outside the normal time. He’s really going as far as he can to help facilitate [this virtual format].

He also changed the exams to a take-home [exam] with conceptual questions. I thought that was really nice also. It just makes you feel less [like] garbage.”

Beyond the classroom, time zone differences have complicated international students’ ability to pursue extracurricular activities.

Most registered student organizations schedule their activities around Chicago time, making it difficult for some internaCONTINUED ON PG. 5

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“I try to make it a point to go out in the morning so I can see the sun.

Otherwise, it’s really depressing.”

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tional students to participate. “We comprise such a small proportion of the student body [that] it doesn’t make much sense to cater to us specifically,” Lee said.

Virtual schooling has also limited course options for international students.

Some students point to evening classes as

a potential solution.

Sophia Koock, a Korean American who has been studying in Seoul, South Korea, since the beginning of the pandemic, has adopted the strategy of reaching out to professors in advance to ask if she can take their classes asynchronously. Last quarter, she emailed six professors before winter

pre-registration because information about time flexibility was not widely disseminated. “It can be really disappointing because there are classes I really wanted to take, but when it’s at 3 a.m., it’s hard,” she said.

Ahead of spring quarter, Koock hoped that more courses would be offered that meet in the evening in Chicago. Her Sosc

class was offered late in the day in Chicago and was also attended by students in the western U.S. two hours behind as well as

by Chicago students who preferred evening courses. “It can’t be fun [for the professor] to teach until 9 p.m., but I really appreciate having a more normal class experience,” Koock said.

Losing Faith in the Child Welfare System: Illinois Parents and Foster Caregivers Struggle During the COVID-19 Shutdowns During the pandemic, parents looked for outside support. They struggled to find it.

By CLAIRE POTTER Grey City Reporter

In March 2020, Melissa Martinez was about to reunite with her one-year-old son, Ryan, after eight months apart. She had lost custody of him to the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) in July 2019. Since then, she had been staying at a treatment facility while she navigated family court hearings and job searches. She worked hard to get her life back on track so that she could take care of her son again.

The reunification hearing was scheduled for March 23, 2020, but COVID-19 forced all family court hearings to be indefinitely delayed. DCFS terminated all in-person visits between parents and children in state custody. Martinez would not hold her son again for another four months. “[COVID-19] just threw everything in the air,” Martinez said. “And for my son, it was overwhelming and confusing because he’s two—he doesn’t understand why he can’t see me like he was. All of a sudden, everything just stopped.”

The Illinois child welfare system has scrambled to shift its programming online and keep the children in its care safe.

Children, parents, foster parents, and caseworkers have had to improvise through an unpredictable year full of separation and frustration. Meanwhile, the pandemic has brought attention to fault lines in the system and undermined parents’ trust. Martinez expected DCFS to help her as she worked to build a stable life for her son. Recent reforms at DCFS would make it seem that her expectations were well-founded, and Martinez asked for assistance as she worked to get Ryan back. With time, though, she lost hope that DCFS would help her.

When Martinez first lost Ryan, she was not allowed to see him at all. By March 2020, though, he was staying overnight at her residential treatment center every week. Ryan’s foster mother, Kelly Curry, described how hard it was for her to separate them every time she went to pick him up. “He is so bonded with his mom. When I would come pick him up, every time, he would just give me the stink eye.”

During the lockdown, Martinez could only talk to him over video chat. She called every night. “She would say goodnight to him,” Curry said. “She was so afraid he would forget about her.”

Martinez spent most of her own childhood in foster care. All too often, time in foster care initiates a vicious, intergenerational cycle, as youth who graduate from foster care are more likely to struggle with childhood trauma and financial instability. At the age of 18, for example, foster care youth are between two and four times more likely to suffer with mental illness and addiction than the general population. Martinez said that her own experience in foster care “opened my eyes to [what] exactly my son is feeling and going through.”

Still, she was thankful that her son’s experience in foster care was much easier than her own. After four months, Martinez was able to see him once a week. DCFS was still not facilitating visits in June, so Curry had to drive downtown to pick Martinez up from her treatment center and then drive her back to her house to spend two hours

with Ryan. If Curry had not been willing to do the legwork, Martinez would have gone even longer without seeing Ryan.

“The one thing I’ve learned,” Curry said, “[is] that you love your kids no matter what.

No matter what drove you to do whatever you did to your kids, this is all really hard.”

By August, Martinez was able to see her son in person. She held him for the first time in months. Still, the pandemic threatened to prolong her son’s time in foster care: Her treatment facility’s lockdown was so strict that she could not go into work. She could not even leave to get a legal photo ID. Without photo ID, finding a stable home or employment was much harder.

She was only able to remain employed because her boss was sympathetic. If she had lost her job, the courts may not have approved her reunification with Ryan. What’s more, the complex web of legal requirements bewildered Martinez; she depended on public defenders to help her navigate the court’s requirements, but they only called her when a hearing was approaching.

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“She not only cares about my kid, but I know she cared about me and [Ryan’s] dad as well.”

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“I don’t know very much about the legal system or DCFS. I’ve never had to deal with it before,” she said. “I don’t know what my rights are, really. Nobody tells me.”

Family courts resumed hearings remotely on July 6. In August, Martinez and her son finally had a virtual reunification hearing. In all, he had spent more than five months in foster care after she had completed all that the courts had required of her.

Until 2018, DCFS services focused on the child. Since the federal Family First Prevention Services Act became law in 2018, states have been under pressure to restructure their family welfare services to prevent the separation of children from their natural parents. To receive federal funding, DCFS has to show that it has a plan to provide preventative services that help families stay together. DCFS should help families meet their basic needs and assist parents with addiction and other mental illnesses for which people in poverty struggle to afford treatment. However, broad, community-wide services are a hefty, expensive undertaking. Meanwhile, the pandemic has put increased pressure on parents in those same low-income communities.

Family First spells the beginning of nationwide reform, but it is still in its early stages of implementation. On March 31, the Acting Director of DCFS, Marc Smith, tes-

tified before Illinois state lawmakers about the challenges and progress DCFS has seen during the pandemic. “We submitted our Family First plan to the federal government last year, but we have already moved to adopt and implement our plan and start operating under its guidance in providing evidence-based prevention services,” Smith said.

DCFS has not done much to help Martinez since she and Ryan reunited. “Everybody’s told me that they’re there to assist you, they’re going to help you [get everything] you need to get your life back in order and have your child and have a stable life and—oh well, sometimes you got to do things yourself,” she said.

As DCFS kept falling short on its promises, Martinez lost hope. Her caseworker assured her that DCFS would help her pay for child care so that she could work. Then, she told Martinez that DCFS could provide no more than $600, enough for only two weeks of daycare. Martinez turned down the offer because she needed a more stable source of child care in order to get a job. Her caseworker promised to help her find affordable housing. Earlier in the pandemic, she told Martinez that she was waiting to submit the application because she did not want it to go through before Martinez and Ryan’s reunification. Now, she is telling Martinez that the pandemic has created a backlog and that she will have to wait.

Melissa Martinez and her son. courtesy of kelly curry

Martinez does not know how much the pandemic is to blame. “They usually just say, ‘Oh, the pandemic, the pandemic is to blame for this, this, and this,’ but I couldn’t tell you. I don’t know,” she said.

Martinez has left her treatment facility and now lives with friends. The pandemic has made it that much more difficult for her to rebuild her life. Ryan’s father died in February 2020, so Martinez is now a single mother. As of this February, she was struggling to find a job. She had applied to a steady stream of positions through Google until she realized that most of the listings did not reflect businesses’ reduced capacity due to COVID-19. She had finally found a temp agency that offered her an interview.

Martinez has given up hope that DCFS will help her. “I really don’t know if it’s going to work, but my plan is to take the tax return money that I’m going to get for this year’s taxes and try to get myself an apartment, just without anybody’s help.”

She and Curry, though, have remained close, and Curry takes care of Ryan when Martinez needs child care. “She not only cares about my kid, but I know she cared about me and [Ryan’s] dad as well and she always tried to help us,” Martinez said. “I don’t think I’ll ever not talk to her.”

The Pain of Separation Melissa and Ryan were not the only mother and child to struggle with indefinite separation during the early stage of the pandemic. Kelly Veronda, a DCFS caseworker, explained that many younger children struggled to engage with their parents over video calls. At first, they were excited; talking to their siblings or parents through a phone felt like playing with a new toy. “But a lot of the kids struggled,” Veronda said. “After a few times, it’s not meeting that need of seeing them and touching them and interacting with them.”

Interrupting the bond between a parent and a child within the first few years of life can have lifelong consequences, including withdrawal, chronic anxiety, and aggressive behavior.

DCFS began to facilitate visits again on July 15, but Veronda explained that they are still difficult to coordinate. Video calls are still the only safe option for many children who have preexisting conditions, and even healthy parents and children cannot count on seeing each other in person regularly.

“Obviously, if anyone has been exposed, then we can’t do a visit,” she said. “So we’re constantly having to change, maybe [go] back and forth with some families from video visits [to] in-person visits.”

Nichole Robinson-Anyaso administers a privately run foster care agency at Ada S. McKinley Community Services in Chicago.

She said that coordinating visits has been one of the pandemic’s biggest challenges. With libraries and other public spaces closed, finding a place where parents and children can meet has been a constant challenge. Although outdoor visits are safest, icy temperatures make them unfeasible during the winter. She explained that while DCFS offers its offices for visitations, appointments are limited because the space has to be thoroughly cleaned after each family leaves.

More than 11,000 parents in Illinois went months without seeing their children.

Last May, the public defender’s office sued DCFS on behalf of four mothers trying to pressure the agency to facilitate visits, but a judge dismissed the case. Meanwhile, the Shriver Poverty Law Center led the “Black Families Matter” campaign to persuade DCFS to allow parents to see their children. More than 70 percent of the families in the child welfare system in Cook County are Black, a demographic which comprises only 23 percent of the county’s population.

In a statement published in June 2020, the Center said, “It is high time for DCFS to address the disparate impact of its policies on Black families and lift the ban on in-person, supervised visits.”

Visitations also pose an additional infection risk for both biological and foster parents. One foster caregiver, who fosters a two-year-old boy, gave birth to a baby girl during quarantine. “We were a little bit concerned about [visitations], just still having a younger baby in the home, obviously, and not wanting anyone to contract anything.”

She and her husband did not know how careful the biological mother was being, and the mother did not know how careful they were being. Visitations opened all of them to unknown risk.

“We just had to have a lot of conversations with the caseworker who was still supervising at that point in time and [make] sure that masks were being worn by the adults,” she said. “We knew social distancCONTINUED ON PG. 7

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“A lot of our providers are doing things by phone, and that’s just not really meeting [the childrens’] needs.”

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ing wasn’t going to be easy when [the biological mother] hadn’t seen her son in so long.”

The reunification of children with their natural parents is one way to permanently end the pain of separation. The pandemic created a backlog in the court system that delayed many reunifications, but delayed hearings and slow-moving cases were already a problem before the pandemic. Another foster caregiver expressed frustration with the court system and DCFS bureaucracy. Since the fall, she has been fostering a baby girl. Within the first two months that a child is in DCFS’s care, there should be a “child and family team meeting” that brings together the foster caregivers, the parents, the caseworker, and any other people involved in a child’s case. The meeting should have been scheduled within 40 days after she picked up her foster daughter from the hospital where she was born. That was long before the March shutdowns, but DCFS took eight months to schedule the meeting. By the time the meeting finally happened, COVID-19 was old news.

“A lot of it is COVID,” she said, “[but] a lot of it is blamed on COVID even when it isn’t COVID.”

She explained that the delay in her foster daughter’s case would postpone her daughter’s chance at living in a stable home. The initial court hearings have yet to be held, which will push back all of the subsequent stages in her case. She said that DCFS has the contact information for the girl’s grandmother, who is caring for her other grandchild, but has not notified her that the baby has been born and is in foster care. “Obviously, family is best,” she said. “And it would be ideal if a family member could take her and give her what she needs.”

If no family member could take care of her, she could eventually be adopted. For children in foster care, the possibility of being moved to another family can keep them from trusting that the relationships they have built will last. Adoption is one way to end that uncertainty. The constant delays in her foster daughter’s case make both reunification and adoption distant possibilities for her foster daughter.

The mother who fosters a two-year-old has also been frustrated with how slowly her foster son’s case has progressed. “He’s been with us for 15 months,” she said in late January. “They still haven’t gone through the initial stage, that initial adjudication— well, they still haven’t had the trial.” His case has been held up because DCFS is trying to find the biological fathers of children who were in the same home as him, even though they are not his siblings. The cases are only tethered because of a bureaucratic technicality that keeps together cases from the same home.

Veronda, the DCFS caseworker, was also worried that the pandemic would keep more children in unpredictable living situations. Every case worker works towards either fully reuniting a child with their birth family or helping them find a new adoptive family. Veronda explained that some counties in Illinois, not including Cook, do not allow reunification without an in-person hearing, stranding children in foster care indefinitely. She said that the larger problem has been a backup in the court system. Some judges are giving parents extra time to fulfill the court-ordered services that they need to complete to regain custody of their children.

“Some [parents] have really taken advantage of being able to do stuff by phone and work on services faster,” Veronda said. “Then I have others that just don’t follow through with anything, and they use [the pandemic] as an excuse.”

Veronda explained that the court delays create a buildup of active cases, which in turn means fewer placements for children entering DCFS’s care.

Once a child is adopted, their foster family is able to take in more children. DCFS limits the number of foster children staying with one family but does not count adopted children towards that number. With court cases stalled, there have been fewer adoptions.

The backup exacerbates the state’s chronic lack of placements with licensed foster families at a time when the need is higher than ever. As reported in the first article in this series, children have been staying for weeks and months in temporary shelters, psychiatric wards, and out-of-state placements because DCFS has not recruited enough foster families.

However, the pandemic has also brought some welcome changes. One foster mother told The Maroon that she has benefitted from the increased accessibility of online court. She used to have to take a bus and a train to attend her foster son’s court dates.

“With everything being on Zoom, I don’t have to take a day off of work,” she said. “I don’t have to try and figure out how I’m going to get to the courthouse, because I work downtown.… It’s actually made it a lot easier for me to be able to attend the court cases and then really try and understand what’s happening in this case and understand what the next steps are.”

Foster Parents Take on More More than anything, Veronda is worried about how the pandemic has affected the services available to children in foster care. Normally, a child might have in-person counseling, physical therapy, tutoring, and other support to help them and their foster parents. “My personal opinion,” she said, “is that the services that are by phone or video are just not very effective and are

rachel ong

not what the children need.”

Veronda works with 16 youth whose ages range from just a few months to 20 years old.

Three of them are “specialized” cases, which means that they need intensive support because of extreme behavioral or medical issues.

“A lot of our providers are doing things by phone, and that’s just not really meeting their needs,” she said. “At the beginning, things just kind of stopped for a while, and then if their provider happens to get exposed or is sick then there’s no provider for the week that they need to recover.”

Veronda works with children across the state, and each county’s public schools have handled the pandemic differently. “I definitely feel like education has not been effective for the ones that are working remotely,” she said. “So, we really unfortunately have been relying on foster parents to pick that up. And that’s an added stressor for them as well…I’ve definitely seen that be more of a stress—it adds more emotional instability for the kids that I’m working with.”

The Maroon spoke to a foster mother who described how hard it has been to take on the work of teachers, caseworkers, and therapists during the pandemic. She and her mother foster four children, ages one, seven, 10, and 11. Three of her foster children have asthma, so they have had to be especially careful to avoid exposure to COVID-19. She decided to enroll them in a charter school in part because it committed to remote learning for the academic year.

She has experience in therapy and early childhood development, and her mother is able to parent full-time, so they are able to CONTINUED ON PG. 8

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“Years of underfunding the department and neglecting the development of resources the most vulnerable children in Illinois needed can’t be reversed overnight.”

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take in children who need extra support.

“We’re really their last place before they either get rehospitalized or hospitalized or go into a group home,” she explained.

“We’re the supplemental force. We fill in a lot of the gaps.”

Her youngest foster child’s speech and motor skills had been delayed when she first joined her family. “She’s caught up really fast,” she said. “But it’s been really hard, too, to feel that extra pressure of catching those milestones when normally there would be in-person visits where [therapists] would get to be able to actually see them walking or get to work with her on their talking more.”

Her seven-year-old foster son has a wide array of services which now take place over video calls. He spends hours on Zoom during the school day and then has calls with counselors and tutors. “He doesn’t ever participate, really,” she said. “He struggles to be in class and just acts out more.”

The heavy Zoom schedule made her son so frustrated that he punched a window. “It’s just that frustration and that buildup and not being able to get to go see your therapist or get to go run in the park regularly.”

Her 10-year-old foster son is in fourth grade, but he cannot read. Before he joined her family, he had never been in the same school for a full year. She is advocating for him to get more academic support, but she has struggled. “He’s really behind and hasn’t been able to get diagnosed with the help that he needs,” she said. “I still would have teachers be like, ‘Well, okay, get him to do his assignment, get him to do his homework.’… They have no clue what we’re dealing with at all.… I’m just trying to get him to have some basic hygiene and care for himself and [develop] reading skills.”

Every child is different, though, and her oldest foster son has thrived in the remote learning environment. “He’s got social anxiety,” she said. “He’s enjoying school now, and his grades are going up.”

He is only 11, but he is already talking about doing college online. However, she is worried that the isolation is reinforcing his antisocial behaviors.

She actually took in her two younger foster children during the pandemic. She knew that her older son needed social in-

teraction to work through his anxiety, and her 10-year-old was lonely. Both of them are separated from their younger biological sisters and have struggled by being unable to see them. She is urging family court to relocate one of the sisters to her home, but progress is slow. “So I took in more kids, and it was something that I knew there was a need for, as well as it was going to be better for all the kids in the house.”

During the pandemic, she moved. She had hoped that her new apartment would have a backyard where her foster children could play outside, but the yard is dangerous. “There’s just like broken glass and all this stuff, and they charge us some regular cleaning fee,” she said.

Finding an apartment with enough space for her family and within commuting distance from the library where she works has been challenging. She never expected her DCFS stipend to cover her costs, but her pay was delayed when she was sick with what her doctor believes was COVID-19.

DCFS is aware that the pandemic has put extra stress on foster parents’ finances, so it gave parents an extra $400 over the summer. “That was nice for the time being,” she said. “But [it’s] not like everything is always affordable when it comes to the kids in care and what they need to adjust.”

In remarks to Illinois state legislators, Smith outlined how DCFS is working to address its systemic issues and improve the services it offers to children, parents, and caregivers. He described how DCFS has struggled to attract and retain qualified staff. Smith said that the work can be “demanding and overwhelming.” Without enough staff, the job is even more taxing.

He explained that DCFS has focused on building relationships with universities, improving its training, and adopting a more competitive, private sector approach to hiring.

He emphasized that progress is on its way: “In just the last three months, we added 163 new staff and now have the highest on-board headcount in over 10 years.”

Smith described other measures that DCFS is taking to improve the care it offers youth and their families. He pointed to Family Advocacy Centers that offer mentoring, parenting education, after school, financial literacy training, and other ser-

vices to families involved with DCFS. DCFS also supports the Extended Family Support Program which helps caregivers who are taking care of their relatives’ children.

Near the end of his statement, he wrote: “The challenges we face at DCFS are longstanding. Years of underfunding the department and neglecting the development of resources the most vulnerable children in Illinois needed, can’t be reversed overnight.”

Many of the problems that foster caregivers and parents have faced during the

pandemic have their roots in larger systemic problems related to underfunding. Lawmakers are aware that the system needs reform, and there are signs of progress.

DCFS has requested an additional $100 million for its 2022 budget, and Governor J. B. Pritzker has included the increase in his proposed budget for the 2022 fiscal year.

If it is approved, DCFS would have another $17 million to spend on helping families like Martinez’s. The budget for foster homes would receive a 37 percent increase, which could lighten the load on parents.

Melissa Martinez and her son. courtesy of kelly curry

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VIEWPOINTS Don’t Waste Your Time with Abolition: Hold Frats Accountable Abolition of fraternities is a waste of time; instead, students must report frat leaders to the Disciplinary System for Disruptive Conduct.

By MATTHEW PINNA It is absolutely right to be furious right now, enraged and upset at how the careless actions of a selfish fraction of our university have stripped the whole of its freedoms. Because of “parties held by off-campus fraternities,” on-campus students must quarantine, confined to their rooms just as the breeze warms and spring flowers finally begin to bloom. And now, under the banner of a new

tragedy, the student body has already begun to perform the exact same theater that has left us stuck in place and at the mercy of the exact same guilty parties: calling for the abolition of Greek life at the University of Chicago.

“Abolishing” Greek life is so popular because it seems like common sense to want to strike a problem right at its core; no more frats means no more fraternity parties and all the sexual assault, discrimination, and COVID superspreading

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that come with them. But true common sense points out the obvious obstacle of such a prescription: how, despite all those issues, the University still refuses to take the necessary first step towards abolition by recognizing fraternities and clearly does not take the prospect of any sort of abolition seriously.

In pursuing unrealistic ends, advocates neglect what can be done in the present, with the potential to achieve, pragmatically, the same results. By utilizing a little-known University judiciary mechanism, advocates can rightfully pursue party hosts, fraternity or otherwise, under the University’s own policies on disruptive conduct.

Abolition is often the beginning and the end of the discussion of what must be done about Greek Life at the University of Chicago. This is, in part, because cooperation with fraternities has (rightfully) long been seen as a failure. In 2017, The Maroon Editorial Board called “Fraternities Committed to Safety,” a pledge organized by the Phoenix Survivors Alliance (PSA) to keep fraternities in line, “a hollow solution,” bound to become “a toothless publicity exercise.” Two years later, PSA itself admitted, in a student government endorsement, that they had given up on working with frats. Though the PSA focuses on sexual violence, the message they delivered was clear: simply put, following the advice of the PSA, looking for a solution that cooperates with fraternities would not be an

“effective use of our time.”

The other reason for the support of Greek abolition—and solely abolition—comes from a UChicago obsession with radical performatism, the manifestation of which I have written about as it appears on both the Right and the Left. People pay lip service to the idea of abolition because it requires no real commitment or effort. After all, when it comes to abolishing Greek life, it’s not the students who have to do anything, but the administration. If no action is taken, then the student can simply absolve themselves of any sort of agency by resting all of the responsibility at the feet of the administration. They can go to Bar Night with a clear conscience, convinced that they did all they could to fight against fraternities. Caught up in the theater of the word “abolition,” the Greek “abolitionist” forgets that a radical word is meaningless unless cached in radical action.

Proposing sit-ins—where non-Greek community members occupy Greek houses—is an unwitting continuation of this radical performativity, in that the radical nature of the activity blinds the supporter to UChicago’s unique Greek context. The only time a sit-in was “successful” in removing Greek life happened at Swarthmore College, solely because the administration had already been taking steps to curtail it. A year prior, Swarthmore convened a committee that recommended that the school no longer lease

on-campus houses to Greek organizations, a policy that would have effectively killed fraternities on its own. It was able to make this recommendation for two reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, the school both recognized and played an active role in fostering fraternity activity by directly leasing houses to the groups. Secondly, Greek life at Swarthmore was already on its last legs. Most coverage of the sit-in neglects to mention that, in the moments before the administration made the “bold” move to ban Greek life, the school only had two fraternities. Sit-ins didn’t kill Greek life at Swarthmore; the withering effects of time on Greek membership and an administration already set on limiting Greek life did. Suggesting sitins, then, isn’t radical as much as it is neglectful of UChicago’s Greek context, which is almost a direct opposite.

The fatalism that comes with failed cooperation and radical performativity combine to create a situation in which the student body is needlessly dependent on the administration.

It has half as much motivation to generate a successful solution. What’s the use in trying to solve a problem that the troublemakers seem to have no motivation in fixing? What can be done if it is thought that having the administration’s support through recognition is the only way forward? The Disciplinary System for Disruptive Conduct, it would appear, is the answer CONTINUED ON PG. 10

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What’s the use in trying to solve a problem that the troublemakers seem to have no motivation in fixing?

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to both of those questions.

There is no need to work with the troublemakers if, through a disciplinary system, they can actually be punished for causing superspreader events. There is also no need for the University to take the step that it likely never will if our path of regulating Greek life is already built into its infrastructure.

The Disciplinary System for Disruptive Conduct is relatively new, introduced in 2017 in light of the University’s then-burgeoning principles of free expression. When, as was reported by The Maroon, the system was initially debated by students and faculty, concerns were raised that it would jeopardize the expression of marginalized protestors. Now, however, it is clear that the Disciplinary System for Disruptive Conduct can actually help students in obtaining righteous recourse that had not been thought of as possible.

According to the system’s page in the Student Manual, it is designed to punish instances of unprotected “expressive conduct” by a member of the University community, which, importantly and relevantly, includes types of expression that lead to the “disruption of ordi-

nary University activities.” Also included are provisions against expression that “substantially obstructs, impairs, or interferes with…the rights and privileges of other members of the University community.” It’s also not difficult to make a complaint. So long as the evidence is compiled and specific names and actions are provided, “anyone” can submit a complaint to the associate dean of students in the University for disciplinary affairs.

I’m no lawyer, but it seems to me that a gathering organized by certain members of the University community would certainly count as a form of expression. As it happens, that expression, by shutting down in-person classes and forcing students into lockdown, would most definitely fall under the disruption of ordinary University activities. All that’s needed, then, to complete a complaint under the Disciplinary System for Disruptive Conduct, would be names and descriptions of activity, such as taking on a leadership role in organizing the event.

Though the Disciplinary System for Disruptive Conduct most relates to the fraternity COVID superspreader through its protection of “the rights and privileges of other members of

the University community,” its effect, if properly utilized, could be expansive. An example of protected rights and privileges is protection against the “use or threatened use of force against any member of the University community or his or her family that substantially and directly bears upon the member’s functions within the University.”

Not every complaint will be successful, of course, but the knowledge that University members have a way of securing justice might be enough to scare organizers into putting more effort into ensuring the safety of the community. Effort must also be taken on behalf of the community, though. Infractions can be reported to COVID trackers and through the disruptive conduct system, but people have to be present to witness the infractions in the first place. It would be a large commitment, but, when the campus returns to normalcy in the fall and parties come with it, perhaps it would be best for a dedicated group of third-party observers to keep a watchful eye.

Greek or g a n i z a t i on s , through their dues, infrastructure, and institutionalized secrecy, are inherently better equipped to foster the conditions that cause broad problems

darya foroohar

for the University community.

By not losing sight of what can be done in the now, however, the community might be able to, for a change, actually fight back.

Proving that actions have con-

sequences goes a long way for those with an unearned sense of invincibility.

After COVID: Advice From a Long-Hauler The University’s support system needs to account for the fact that, for some, the effects of COVID-19 last far more than two weeks.

By IBRAHIM RASHID My name is Ibrahim Rashid, and I’m a master’s student at the Harris School of Public

Policy. I’m 24, and I contracted COVID six months ago. I had no preexisting conditions, did my annual check-up, and am an avid skateboarder, martial art-

ist, and guitarist who loves life.

COVID sent me to the emergency room, damaged my heart, and forced me to study part-time to focus on healing

this quarter. I am a long-hauler whose symptoms include brain fog, intense fatigue, sleepless nights, difficulty breathing, and poor decision-making.

The University does an excellent job of supporting you when you have COVID. They send you care packages, have CONTINUED ON PG. 11

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After 14 days, you just wake up and stop getting calls from the administration and are left to figure out how to resume normal life on your own.

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nurses contact you every day, set aside student housing, etc.

There is no guidance, however, for recovery after your quarantine is done. After 14 days, you just wake up and stop getting calls from the administration, left to figure out how to resume normal life on your own.

In the face of the largest COVID-19 cluster seen on campus, spurred possibly by the B.1.1.7 variant, the University must be proactive in ensuring that students receive the aftercare that they need. This can be achieved through three steps: 1) Fully fund a COVID support group at Behavioral Health through the Student Services Fee. UChicago Med once ran a grief support group during the start of the pandemic that is now inactive.

2) Require contact tracers and nurses to inform COVID-patients of the possibility of long-haul COVID. At the end of quarantine, the contact tracer/nurse should provide a guide that outlines what long-haul COVID could look like and the resources and strategies available to students. They can borrow from the advice I share below. Special emphasis should be given to seeking disability accommodations, managing energy, getting rest, refraining from cardio exercise, utilizing Student Wellness’s mindfulness or counseling resources, and UChicago Medicine’s postCOVID clinic.

3) Educate academic advisors and faculty about longhaul COVID. Faculty and advisors already know when their students contract the virus. They need to be told that

the symptoms can take a long time to abate so that faculty can be receptive to requests for accommodations and advisors can be empowered to holistically support their students.

By following these steps, our University community can overcome this cluster, prepare to heal, and put this virus behind us. Until then, I’ve produced a non-exhaustive list of what I’ve learned about rebuilding amidst longhaul COVID that I hope can be a guide to anyone struggling: 1) Always ask yourself, are your needs being met? We are conditioned to never define our needs. The book Speak Peace in a World of Pain helped me understand how my unmet needs were causing pain. I learned that I needed rest, love, meaningful work, and joy and accordingly decided to study part-time, live with my sister in California, spend my days skateboarding, and start a new job with a community bank.

2) Let go of people who don’t meet your needs. My recovery is my priority and I have had to let go of several friendships as a result. I either told them that I never wanted to talk to them again or that they wouldn’t be a part of my recovery and won’t hear from me for a while. Friendship is a choice.

And I had to choose to let go of those who weren’t meeting my needs.

3) Surround yourself with love and joy. In understanding my needs, I had to ask myself, What do I need to feel joy and feel whole again? I’ve since reconnected with old friends, told them that I want to reenergize our friendship,

and scheduled monthly calls. I got my first tattoo. I bought a bunch of lightsabers that I love swinging around. I have made a conscious effort to always tell people that I love them. To get love, you must give it.

4) Get help! I have weekly check-ins with my academic advisor, who helps me plan my calendar and advocate for me to get extensions on my assignments. My friends help me catch up on the many problem sets and lectures I’ve missed and make me laugh. My therapist at Behavioral Health helps me find strength and clarity in my pain. Student Disability Services helped me get the accommodations needed to manage my coursework (their intake form has a specific section for COVID­related disabilities). The facilities staff at the Keller Center have consistently shown me warmth and given me a space where I can rest and get my best work done. You do not have to suffer alone. Get help. Without these people, I would have dropped out of grad school.

5) Love and forgive yourself. I missed a month of school during fall and winter quarter.

I hated myself for having to cram a month’s worth of school during finals and barely doing any of my readings. I hated myself for spiraling, for only eating McDonald’s for a week out of self-pity. This self-hatred was destroying me and prolonging my recovery. I had to accept what had happened, forgive myself, and move on.

6) Do what is essential and replenishing. Since contracting COVID, for every hour of work, I’ve needed two hours of rest.

I am no longer wedded to the

volume of my to-do list. Instead, I work based on whether it advances my professional goals and replenishes me. This has meant prioritizing my job search and consulting work and being okay just passing my courses. The “Law of Fuck Yes or No” was designed for dating but it applies to choosing what to spend time on as well.

7) Listen to your body and act fast. I experience “crashes,” in which my lungs give out, I can’t breathe, my head starts hurting, and I need to sleep for several hours. Through a lot of painful trial and error, I now have some clarity on what triggers these crashes. This has resulted in me leaving stressful situations, rescheduling interviews, and informing clients during presentations that I need to talk slow to manage my breath. Listen to your body.

Do not tough out a situation.

Do not people-please. Do what you need to do to manage your energy.

8) Understand your suffering. I’m a minority studying policy, trying to create a better world. People like me are fueled and defined by our pain. Getting COVID, watching people die, and seeing the world burn lit a fire in me to rebuild it better. However, without realizing it, my sickness was pushing me beyond my limits, fueling an inner darkness that was overpowering my light, and destroying me. I don’t believe in letting go of pain, because we need to know suffering to know love and have a reason to live, but I’m trying to find balance so that my inner light isn’t overpowered by my darkness.

The Tao Te Ching and Man’s Search for Meaning have helped me hold my darkness at bay.

9) Remember, you are not your thoughts. You are the observer of your thoughts rather than your thoughts being you. You, the Self, choose what thoughts to give meaning to.

Whenever I have a destructive thought spurred by pain, I pause, let the thought enter, feel the emotions, honor it, and then choose whether to let it pass. I define my thoughts rather than my thoughts defining me. The Untethered Soul explores this concept in depth.

10) Finally, get vaccinated!

There is some early evidence that the vaccine can help with long-haul symptoms. Ever since I got my first shot of the Pfizer vaccine, I have started to feel better.

I’ve gained a lot of strength through this process, and I hope my experience can be a guide to others, but I wish I didn’t have to figure it out on my own. As of April 6, 2021, 918 members of the University community have gotten the virus. For those of you struggling to rebuild, I see you, and I am here for you. Please reach out.

The University is currently making plans for resuming in-person instruction in the fall. They must include COVID survivors and long-haulers in that conversation so that no student falls through the cracks and everyone has the tools and support needed to reach their full potential.

Ibrahim Rashid is a firstyear master’s student at the Harris School of Public Policy.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — APRIL 14, 2021

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ARTS MODA Makes Moves: After a Major Reimagining, MODA Continues to Uphold its Commitment to Creativity, Accessibility, and Diversity in Most Recent Issue

By NATALIE MANLEY Arts Reporter If MODA Magazine reinvented itself during fall quarter, it certainly continued to do so this winter. In addition to releasing yet another 70-plus page issue, complete with even more illustrations, experimental photography, and thoughtful and introspective articles than the last issue, the magazine also wrote a constitution and social contract, developed a high school fellowship program, and transitioned leadership, as MODA’s editor-in-chief Louis Levin served his last quarter with the magazine.

“This quarter really felt to me like we’ve started to find our identity as a magazine,” Levin told The Maroon. “We really had an opportunity to pause, to slow down, to see where we’d been and we’re going, and to kind of think about what changes we wanted to keep and what changes we wanted to ditch.”

In particular, the magazine wanted to lean into its commitment to creativity, accessibility, and diversity that was established during fall quarter. These values are at the center of MODA Magazine’s new social contract and constitution, which also touches upon the exclusivity of the fashion industry and the magazine’s plans to deepen community engagement with South Side residents and business owners.

“I really wanted to make sure that the changes we’re going through now are kind of cemented in stone and the way that I felt we could do that is by having a more formal constitution,” Levin explained. He added, “I was worried that it would feel like a lot of talk and not much walk. I think that’s always the risk with that kind of stuff around diversity, especially because it’s written text, but [assistant writing editor] Chiara Theophile and I felt like what we had to do was create a common ground that everyone had explicitly signed up for and planted themselves on.”

Rest assured, MODA is walking the walk. The social contract is now displayed prominently on the magazine’s website and will be included as part of future MODA staff applications. All current staff members are in the process of signing it. Additionally, MODA is upholding its commitment to increasing engagement with the South Side through its newly developed high school fellowship program.

The fellowship program, which will begin next fall with the University of Chicago Lab School and the Woodlawn Charter School, is intended to give local high school students who otherwise may not have the opportunity to pursue their interest in fashion a chance to shadow UChicago students in any of the MODA branches (Blog, Board, Designer Bootcamp, or Magazine). The fellowships will be held virtually for one quarter to start, but they will eventually be held in person and may be extended for more quarters on a case-by-case basis. In the future, MODA hopes to bring the program to Chicago Public Schools as well.

“The benefit [of the program] for the students is one, I think they’d learn a lot, two, it’s obviously always useful to be able to get some experience at a college, and three, the goal is for this to be for kids who wouldn’t traditionally be able to explore fashion,” Levin told The Maroon. “It’s seen as such an exclusive industry and that’s really true in a lot of ways, so what we’d love to do is try and open that up and give people who would never really have been able to explore that passion the space to do that, the money to do that, and the freedom to do that.”

Looking forward to next year, MODA also hopes to continue to expand its artistry and creativity as a fashion magazine. The challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic have already forced the magazine’s stylists, photographers, artists, writers, and designers to get creative with their photoshoots and strive for more cohesive issues design-wise.

“Next year is going to be very exciting in the ways we’re going to be able to lean into our creativity,” Levin said. “Part of what’s gone on behind the scenes is that we can’t rely on stores for clothing, which is what we normally do, because of COVID. So we’re pulling from our own wardrobes. And what that means is that the shoots are no longer just about the clothes but a lot about the styl-

izing of it all and [pairing our photos] with illustrations, thinking about figure drawing, fashion sketching, etc.”

Although MODAhas achieved a lot, Levin acknowledges that there is still a lot of room for improvement looking towards the spring and next year. “I think this [winter 2021] magazine was our most cohesive CONTINUED ON PG. 13

“First Love/Late Spring.” Photographed by Natalia Rodriguez. courtesy of moda

THE CHICAGO MAROON — APRIL 14, 2021

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“I’ve come to realize that it all never stops; our growth is ongoing.”

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ever,” Levin remarked. “A lot of that is because of little things of color scheme and being really strict about that, as well as using the illustrations as a kind of connector for it all and being more thoughtful about the theme and how it relates to our articles, but I can see us trying to actively tie things together much more in the future.”

Unfortunately, Levin will not be around to see MODA’s future improvements. As of spring quarter, MODA Magazine’s newly elected editors-in-chief Ella Anderson and Cheryl Hao will be taking over. Although Levin expressed his full confidence in Anderson and Hao’s abilities to lead MODA and continue to facilitate change and growth within the organization, he admitted that he is sad to go.

In his winter “Letter from the Editor,” Levin explained that the question of whether “change really means growth” had been

gnawing at him all quarter, and it ultimately became the guiding question of his final issue with MODA. The organization has been making so many changes, but Levin wonders if it has truly grown as well. In the end, he decided it has and hopefully will continue to do so.

“It is a heartbreaking moment to step away from the magazine,” Levin wrote in his letter. “I want to be able to understand the big picture—to see the outcome of [the changes we’ve made] and feel certain that we are really growing. But I’ve come to realize that it all never stops; our growth is ongoing.” He later told The Maroon, “MODA has grown and changed the last few years that I’ve been a part of it, but I, and everyone in it, have grown and changed as much if not more, and that for me is such a credit to the organization, and I just want that to keep happening.”

Chiara Theophile models in one of MODA’s earlier issues. courtesy of moda.

“An Iliad”: All’s Fair In Theatre and War

By ANNA KURYLA Arts Reporter

An Iliad, a Court Theatre production originally performed in March 2020 and made available this spring for virtual viewing, takes advantage of its unique setting in the galleries of the Oriental Institute for a modern retelling of Homer’s epic story. Drawing in even those usually put off by traditional translations of ancient epics, An Iliad allows the viewer to grieve for those long dead by placing them into a modern context.

Additionally, humor brings the story of the Iliad to life and into modernity. The story’s retelling by the Poet (Timothy Edward Kane) is updated with modern language, yet the emotional connection to the ancient epic is never lost.

Kane delivers a stunning performance as the Poet: He recounts the story naturally, with the modern and ancient language feeling equally at home in his interpretation. His performance stands on the brink of insanity, driven mad by the tale of death and destruction he has to recount time and time again.

His movements, both subtle and sweeping, make good use of the institute and

Timothy Edward Kane in Court Theatre’s staging of An Iliad. courtesy of liz lauren of the audience members around him.

Kane dances his way around ancient artifacts and audience members, even running through the institute at several points in the play, beckoning the audience members to join him. At the same time, Kane gives a nuanced, emo-

tional performance that, while surely more captivating in person, stands out on camera regardless. He takes on each character with grace—he becomes Achilles, Agamemnon, Hector, Patroclus, and even the gods, bringing them to life while adding touches of the Poet’s

erratic personality throughout.

The production design of An Iliad is minimalist yet powerful. The set design is minimal, inviting the audience to take in the museum’s artifacts and sculptures instead. The music, when used, CONTINUED ON PG. 14

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“Above all, An Iliad is a story of love, death and grief.”

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is subtle, adding a sense of foreboding in a tragic tale. The lighting of the play, too, adds much to the production. In the light, the Poet changes form—at different points in the play, he looks inviting, personable, and foreboding. The light cast onto the actor portrays grief, anger, and fire, and as it changes angle and color, looming shadows are cast on the ancient objects of the museum. Everything about the production is dynamic and continually moving, bringing an ancient story and the artifacts in the institute to life.

In some ways, the virtual format of

the play adds to the performance—of course, the play is now more widely accessible, and captions are available, unlike in a traditional performance. Instead of sitting in the museum during the production, the viewer instead has to interpret the play through the camera, which becomes a kind of audience member itself. The virtual audience misses none of the dynamism of the play—the camera becomes a part of the performance, following the Poet around the room and changing angles to match the mood of the story.

As for the staging of the play, the ancient artifacts of the Oriental Insti-

tute stand as a reminder of the weight of the story. As Kane describes in the production program, “To be surrounded by what’s left of those once mighty civilizations puts in perspective the timelessness of the enduring qualities of humans.” Above all, An Iliad is a story of love, death, and grief. Not only a poignant interpretation of an ancient tale, the play also becomes a commentary on society that is expertly extended to all of human history, well into the modern day. In one of the most powerful scenes of the play, the Poet lists wars throughout history up to the point the play was produced by Court Theatre last year

and calls to mind the destructive power of war over the centuries, whether it be to Troy, to Hiroshima, or to Aleppo.

As Kane comments, “Those beautifully curated displays also represent vanity, jealousy, and a hunger for power.

Homer was telling this story when all those things were shiny and new, yet here we are struggling with the same questions.”

An Iliad was created by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare and directed by Charles Newell.

NEW YEAR’S ROCKIN’ EVE

By THE MAROON CROSSWORD SECTION Across 1. Settle down 6. Vatican VIP 10. Bother 14. P.E. game 15. Parts of a 2000 cal. diet 16. Fifth letter of the NATO alphabet 17. They see stars 19. Cinderella setting 20. Baller’s suffix 21. Enjoy 22. Sun and sand locales 23. Care for, as a 33-Across 25. Arcade game with flippers 26. Baby Cobra star Wong 27. Becomes exhausted 29. 44-Across, for one 33. A moth’s love?

35. More slippery 38. Employ 39. Mathematical quantity (Abbr.)

40. With 69-Across, flub... or how to enter eight words in this grid 42. ‘90s slimy Nickelodeon toy 43. Royal flush card 44. ___ Wagner, namesake of an uber- expensive baseball card

45. Teapot part 47. Hoops 49. YouTuber’s go-to apology app 51. “I don’t think so” 52. To use it, you blow it up 53. Bass, for example 56. Headquartered 59. Like an Imperfect Produce fruit (Abbr.)

61. Filmmaker DuVernay 62. Frosty sort of fight 63. Marriage Story heartthrob 65. Prefix with -crine 66. Actress Ward of CSI: NY 67. Alternative to fountain or gel 68. Like Beethoven after his 30s 69. See 40-Across 70. Quarrels Down 1. Fess up to 2. Legendary frontiersman 3. Tie breakers on the court 4. Lead-in to Fri. 5. Measures of shoe width 6. Supply (with) 7. Old Greek theater 8. Incredible alter ego

9. Curvy shape 10. Prince of ___: Jake Gyllenhaal movie 11. Maj. that studies food webs 12. Item that’s one foot long?

13. Holland and Hiddleston 18. Big reaction 22. “Count me out” 24. Lightly lit 26. HS class about the Hundred Years War 28. Ed Sheeran, for example 30. One time socialist republic 31. Biblical twin 32. Pwned, gamer- slangily 33. Bane of a crossfitter’s existence 34. “Livin’ La Vida ___” 36. Main computer part (Abbr.)

37. Response to a worrier’s question 41. Divergent author 46. Pushup musc.

48. Was familiar with 50. Existing in x, but not y or z 52. Some ___ 54. Occurrence

55. Cuts the cheese 56. Submitted gibberish, say 57. Name of two of Henry’s

wives 60. Assocs.

58. NaHCO3 is the baking- 63. HS government org. type 64. Axelrod-led UChi org.

59. A lightbulb represents it