102720

MORE THAN 15 STUDENTS STRUCK

BY PAINTBALLS

OCTOBER 28, 2020 FIFTH WEEK VOL. 133, ISSUE 6

PAGE 4

Transfer Students Adjust After Academic Credit Delayed for Months MILES BURTON

PAGE 3

Four Years of the University and the Trump Administration PAGE 6

Review: Dick Johnson is [Not Yet] Dead PAGE 12

NEWS: Hyde Park’s Independent Book Stores Face Challenges During Pandemic PAGE 5

MILES BURTON

VIEWPOINTS: Get Back in Touch With Who You Were Before COVID-19 PAGE 8

VIEWPOINTS: UChicago Students Must Understand What’s Happening in Armenia

SPORTS: Athletic Recruiting Goes Virtual

PAGE 9

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

PAGE 12 chicagomaroon.com

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 28, 2020

2

As Classes Resume, Students Around the World Adapt

By ANNIE MEISHAN CHEN News Reporter This fall, as thousands of students, faculty, and members of the University returned to Chicago for the beginning of the year, some have chosen to stay home and conduct the quarter completely remotely. Students cited safety concerns, uncertainties about the quarter, and financial considerations as their motives for not returning to Hyde Park.

Second-year Rohan Kapoor is studying from his home in India due to the fact that COVID–19 “cases in America were genuinely high…and cases in India were a lot lower than cases in America” at the time of the decision.

Second-year Enar Kornelius Leferink is at home in Iceland and also cited Iceland’s lower COVID–19 case count as an incentive for staying home. Unfortunately, when he made the decision, cases were lower in Iceland “at least at that moment. Right now, it’s quite bad—that’s the problem.”

Despite the distance, students are adapting to the remote quarter in creative ways.

First-year cross-country team members Lydia Lo and Evelyn Battleson-Gunkel are living in Utah with several other first-year recruits from around the country. “The altitude is just a lot better here, making it well-suited to cross country training,” Lo noted. Two girls are from New Jersey, one from Texas, one from California, one from New York, and one from Michigan, and they all met for the first time in the house they rented for the quarter.

Students are relying on their own efforts to provide the best semblance of a college cohort for virtual students. According to first-year Grace, who is studying in Rhode Island this quarter, the first-year remote and off-campus cohort have created their own community, affectionately dubbed “The Zoomers:” “We call ourselves the Zoomers

because we’re Gen Z, but like we’re also on Zoom.”

First-year organizers set up a virtual roommate system that simulated housing assignments on campus in order to help students meet friends. Interested students filled out a Google survey and were assigned “doubles” or “apartments” and were matched with “suitemates” or “apartment mates” respectively, based on their preference.

According to third-year Julia Liu, studying from home in Shanghai, “a lot of UChicago students in Shanghai booked Zoom centers so students can study with others.

They booked hotels so people can basically live together like they would live in dorms.”

Some remote students expressed a desire for the University to do more to socially and academically support students who are abroad. “The University just sends out a thousand emails a day saying, ‘in these trying times,’ ‘the Reg is 50 years,’ ‘keep on studying and doing academic scholarships,’” Leferink said. “Stop sending so many emails!” Instead, Leferink suggested better communication to inform students of resources. He also noted that some services are not available at convenient times for students abroad: “I can’t call the Academic Advising Office at 5 a.m.”

Fourth-year Kristen Lam, studying from Hong Kong this quarter, suggested that the University could organize more efforts to connect students to each other via the international centers, “so we still have the UChicago community somehow. There are second-years or first-years here in Hong Kong that I just don’t know because I haven’t met them yet. I think especially in Hong Kong where there are more UChicago students we could have a little, socially distant, gathering.”

Liu said that details regarding winter quarter would be helpful, but she also recognized that “it’s hard for the University to

make that decision now.” Returning to Hyde Park will be especially difficult for some international students. Liu explains, “A lot of people go to Cambodia for 14 days before they can enter the U.S. because China still has a ban on the U.S. My friends who want to go to campus for winter quarter have to leave right after Thanksgiving.”

It’s not all struggles though. “Honestly I wouldn’t trade anything I had right now.

Maybe in the future I will go, but right now I like staying here,” Liu said.

Grace is pretty happy with her setup as well. Most of her current routine involves “being with family, which is really nice.”

Barring the usual Wi-Fi troubles, loneliness, and waking up at 4:30 a.m. for labs, students identified some positive side effects for remote classes. Kapoor said that he enjoys “being able to watch lectures on 2x speed. I’ve been able to learn faster and put in a less amount of effort to get the same results.” Other students praised the increased flexibility remote classes offered as well.

Lam enjoys the fact that “I can skip through some things, like the intro part and not stick around for the tech difficulties.” And for her three-hour lectures, she admitted, “Sometimes I take a nap and come back to finish my lecture.”

Mathematics professor Daniil Rudenko was optimistic about the long-term impact of remote learning. “The system we have in UChicago is generally trying to help students out, so in terms of organization, processes are done for them. But online courses take that away and give students space and the necessity to learn on their own, which might give them a stronger skill set to learn more independently.” He said, “It’s going to be more difficult but for those whom it works, it may be a great experience. Though it’s psychologically more challenging at first, it eventually becomes more beneficial.”

But even with some bright points, all the

students miss interacting with their fellow students on campus. First-year Anjali Pullabhotla, studying from home in Kansas, said, “I’ve been with three people for the past seven months now and it would be nice to have a change of environment.”

Beyond just wanting a break from being in an environment that’s gone stale, students are feeling the emptiness from the lack of fellow UChicago students to commiserate with.

With most of their friends and classmates on campus, in a different city, state, or even continent, students not in Chicago are left to congregate with whatever friends currently share the same hours of sunlight.

Even then, socializing virtually can prove difficult. Kapoor said, “I did grow closer to my two or three Indian friends because we were in the same time zone, but then they left too.”

Pullabhotla also commented, “It is harder to talk to that person and keep a connection going with them because you can’t just knock on someone’s door and be like ‘Hey! Wanna study together?’ You have to plan a Zoom, you have to plan a meeting, versus someone who just lives right next to you or something.”

Lam misses small interactions between friends on campus like bumping into someone and catching up for a few minutes. “I definitely underestimated the power of them,” she said. “You can’t just randomly bump into someone online. Being online, you miss out on the serendipitous everyday ‘Oh, hi!’ and accidental joys.”

Despite the difficulties, students have accepted the reality of their situation this quarter. “It is what it is. It’s not like I’m going to drop out or anything because I’m stuck at home,” Pullabhotla notes. Leferink offers a thankful perspective: “We are some of the luckiest people in the world here being able to do an education like this. And that’s important to keep in mind.”

Maroon Voter Guide: Mail-In Ballots

By GIACOMO CETORELLI News Reporter In the midst of the COVID–19 pandemic, applications for mail-in ballots have surged across the United States. In the state of Illinois, more than two mil-

lion mail-in ballots have been requested, shattering previous records. So how do you actually mail your ballot in?

What is Mail-In Voting?

The push for mail-in voting is an effort to limit unnecessary social interaction

and the spread of COVID–19 on Election Day. However, in the state of Illinois, mail-in voting has completely replaced absentee voting since the 2016 presidential election. According to Matt Dietrich, a representative at the Illinois Board of Elections, mail-in voting has been ex-

tended as a “convenience to all voters” since 2010. “The process itself is not new for this year, the only thing that’s new for this year is that we really emphasized it to give people a way of voting where they don’t have to be exposed to any other peoCONTINUED ON PG. 3

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 28, 2020

3

How to Mail in Your Ballot for the November Election CONTINUED FROM PG. 2

ple if they are concerned about COVID,” Dietrich said What are the steps?

1. Apply for a mail in ballot by October 29, using this application provided by the Chicago Board of Elections.

2. Await notification from the Chicago Board of Elections on your application status, as well as information on when your ballot has been mailed.

3. Carefully follow the directions on the ballot to fill it out.

4. Ship your ballot by November 3 and drop it off at one of the two secure mailboxes in Hyde Park. If you are planning on shipping your ballot within two weeks of November 3, officials recommend that you drop off your ballot at a secure drop off point instead. This will ensure that your vote is counted.

Requesting the Ballot: Anyone registered to vote in Chicago can request a mail-in ballot through this application from the Chicago Board of Elections.

If you have concerns about your ballot not arriving on time, call (312) 269-7967

by October 29 to speak with the Elections Board. If necessary, it is possible to cancel a mail-in ballot and vote in person on November 3. If you wish to vote in person and have not canceled your mail-in ballot, you must bring your mail-in ballot to the polling center on Election Day. If your mail-in ballot has not arrived in time and you wish to vote in person, on Election Day you must sign an affidavit at the polling site stating that the ballot was lost.

Common Mail-In Ballot Mistakes: The most common mistake voters make while filling out a ballot is forget-

ting to sign it. In 2016, 20 percent of rejected ballots were due to the omission of a signature.

Dietrich warned that any so called “naked ballots” will be voided. Each ballot comes with two envelopes, an inner one and an outer “security envelope.”

Forgetting to ship your ballot with both will disqualify your ballot. According to Dietrich, “the open envelope or improperly sealed envelope is probably the biggest reason for a rejection, because those ballots can’t be cured, those ballots have to be rejected because they may have been tampered with.”

Finally, it is necessary to use a black, blue, or felt pen to fill out the ballot. The use of a red pen will invalidate your ballot as it will not be able to be scanned by the machine.

Where can you drop off your ballot in Hyde Park?

If you decide not to send your mail-in ballot through the postal system, you can drop it off at any of the secure ballot drop off points in Chicago. Here are two secure drop off points near the University of Chicago campus where students can turn in their mail-in ballots: Location: Ray Elementary School, 5631 S. Kimbark Ave. Hours: Monday–Friday: 8:30 a.m.–7 p.m.

Saturday–Sunday: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

Election Day, November 3: 6 a.m.–7 p.m.

Location: Fiske Elementary School, 6020 S. Langley Ave. Hours: Monday-Friday: 8:30 a.m.–7 p.m.

Saturday-Sunday: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

Election Day, November 3: 6 a.m.–7 p.m.

Academic Credit for Transfer Students Delayed for Months, Resulting in Uncertainty

By AVI WALDMAN News Reporter 2020’s cohort of transfer students has experienced disorganization and monthslong delays in transferring class credits to UChicago, resulting in students being asked to pre-register with little certainty and with fears of delayed graduation. Met with a lack of assistance or sympathy, some transfers began to feel like the credit delays were indicative of larger patterns of oversight within UChicago’s transfer system.

An unusually large class of transfer students underlies the transfer credit issues.

This year’s transfer class included approximately 75 students, compared to a typical cohort of less than 20 students. With more courses to evaluate, many departments have been slow to complete credit evaluations, with some students even receiving incomplete or missing evaluations.

The College releases transfer admissions decisions in early May, then gives accepted students until June to respond.

Transfers must promptly submit a list of

the courses taken at their previous schools, including all syllabi, so that the University can review the courses for accreditation.

Typically, transfer students accept an admissions offer without knowing how many of their credits will transfer over. However, transfer credit evaluations are usually sent before pre-registration so that they can plan their first quarter of classes at UChicago and craft a graduation plan.

Last year, transfer students received evaluations between late July and August.

This year, the bulk of course evaluations were released in September, leaving some students without any confirmed credits when pre-registration opened.

“They said they would get back in July, and then they said August, and then they said first week of September,” second-year transfer Esha Deokar said.

In an email to The Maroon, University spokesperson Gerald McSwiggan commented on the delays. “The College has worked with departments and the Collegiate divisions to complete the sometimes complex evaluation of transfer credit. Students who

experienced a delay should contact their academic adviser with any questions,” McSwiggan said.

“Every time I’d meet with my advisor there wasn’t really much to do or much to talk about,” Deokar said. “Every single question I asked was always met with ‘We need to get your transfer credit evaluation back before it’s decided, so I can’t tell you anything.’”

The College requires all transfer students to pre-register for a Core humanities course (Hum), typically before their credit evaluations are completed, so that in cases when they need to complete Hum, they will have a spot. However, Deokar ended up receiving credit for Hum from a previous philosophy class she had taken. She then had to drop that class and add a new one after pre-registration had closed, a more difficult ordeal than she expected. Her advisor encouraged her to take core social sciences (Sosc) instead, but at that point very few Sosc classes were available. The two Sosc courses Deokar was interested in taking were full.

“Part of the reason I’m here is that I’m pretty excited for the Core, especially Sosc,”

Deokar said. “I wanted the flexibility and ability to choose which one I was going to take.” Deokar told The Maroon that her academic advisor told her that she was “too picky.”

“I made a four-year plan on my own and I’ve tried to figure out what to put where. I just feel, in general, that my academic advisor is not very helpful when it comes to what I should take when and making sure I don’t miss anything,” Deokar said.

Deokar had hoped to double major in art history and economics but now doubts whether she will be able to complete that course load by her intended graduation date.

“I already have such limited time. I don’t want to accidentally take a course I don’t need,” she said. “I need to make sure everything that I take is perfectly on time, and I feel like it’s been a little bit too disorganized for me to feel secure in that.”

Hannah Maeder, a third-year transfer from Switzerland, had similar concerns since the delay in her credits and worried about her ability to graduate at the time she CONTINUED ON PG. 4

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 28, 2020

4

“I think it points to a disorganization issue.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 3

had planned.

Out of the 26 courses she submitted, Maeder received her first credit evaluation on August 10. She received her next evaluation on September 28, more than two weeks after pre-registration closed. When The Maroon interviewed Maeder at the beginning of October, she was still waiting for her last few credit evaluations.

“It was quite stressful because I couldn’t really plan what I was supposed to take this quarter and next quarter to map out somehow if it all adds up, if I could graduate in two years,” Maeder said. “That was a problem that most of us had.”

Haoran Zhu, a second-year direct enrollment student, had the same concern. “I’m still waiting on a few courses but so far I’m on the edge of whether I need an extra quarter to graduate,” Zhu said.

Finding they had similar experiences, Zhu and Maeder conducted an informal inquiry into the extent of transfer credit delays. Of the roughly 30 students that responded, nearly all reported experiencing

credit delays.

“For me, I don’t care how many transfer students there are. If you accept a certain amount, you have to be able to provide evaluations on time,” Maeder said.

Without specific guidance from the College on when to expect completed evaluations or any leverage over the departments processing them, the two decided to seek the attention of Dean of Students in the College Jay Ellison. Maeder and Zhu co-authored a petition, which received 27 signatures of support from other transfer students. They sent an email to Dean Ellison outlining the delayed timeline and requesting expediency in the evaluation process.

According to Zhu, Ellison “was really supportive and talked to the departments, including math and econ (two departments with the longest delays), and within two weeks they finally got back to us,” he said.

However, once Zhu did receive his course evaluations, he found that they were disappointingly cursory, even rushed. “When the math department got their evaluations done it was very brief. They just wrote, ‘This

course counts as math elective,’ or something like that,” Zhu said. “They weren’t very specific about which courses those were equivalent to at UChicago.”

“Actually, one of the courses I submitted was overlooked. I feel like, at least for some departments [but] not all, it was done very quickly and briefly without thorough evaluation. I think that’s pointing to a disorganization issue,” Zhu said.

Deokar did not sign the petition, as she had already received all her course evaluations. However, she recognized the same patterns of disorganization Zhu described.

One of the greatest complications came from the coding of transfer students as first-years in the College’s online system. This measure is meant to give transfer students priority when registering for Hum and Sosc, but, according to transfer students, it also causes confusion and complications.

“They don’t have a separate coding for transfer students in their online process so I’m technically coded as a first-year. I’m living in the dorms right now [and] even my door says first-year on it,” Deokar said.

“Technically, given the credit evaluation I received, they gave me three years to graduate, not four. So even though I’m coded as a first year I only have three years to graduate.”

Even without delays, “There are a lot of rules or barriers that make it difficult for your courses to fulfill towards your graduation requirement,” Zhu said. Maeder felt the same. “There’s all these rules like you have to have a comparable course at UChicago so that it will transfer,” she said.

“There’s a lot of room for interpretation there, how specifically it has to match, does the level have to be the same, does all the content have to be the same. So, it’s really hard for us in advance to evaluate how it will transfer,” Mader said.

“I think it’s just a lot of disorganization because I think UChicago doesn’t generally have that many transfer students,” Deokar said. “I feel like there’s not that much of a set path for transfer students so the few they do accept they just throw them into the pile and say ‘Make it work.’”

Over a Dozen Students Involved in Paintball Shooting Incidents Around Campus

By MONICA GREIG News Reporter Hyde Park residents have reported a trend of incidents involving pedestrians being shot by paintballs. On October 12, Eric Heath, Associate Vice President for Safety and Security, sent out a campus-wide email regarding eight reported incidents of individuals in vehicles shooting paintball guns at pedestrians.

In an interview, fourth-year student Josephine Demos said she was struck by a paintball on the morning of October 10 while running on the Midway near Logan.

“The car passed, and I heard a loud sound, and then my leg started hurting. [I] figured that the car had run over a bottle or a can and it had deflected and gone onto me, [but it] started really hurting, [I] looked down at my leg and it was all yellow. The experience was super rattling but I knew that I was totally fine, [it was] more like ,‘Why

would you do that to someone.”

A second-year in the College who wished to stay anonymous recounted an incident that occurred in the evening. She had gotten off a bus at Halsted and Garfield around 9 p.m. and was shot by a paintball from someone driving in a vehicle several feet away.

“I was running and turned to the other side of the road to another bus stop where a lady was sitting .... we spoke for two seconds and then the vehicle turned and shot at us again with [a] pink colored paintball.... The lady was also shot and really emotional because it was shot to her face,” she said.

She has now sought counseling from the school regarding the incident.

Chloe, a graduate of the Class of 2020 who also wished to remain anonymous, was hit with a paintball on October 10 while walking west on East 55th Street between Kenwood and Woodlawn. She said she was CONTINUED ON PG. 5

The wound on Demos’ leg caused by a paintball. courtesy of josephine demos

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 28, 2020

5

“The experience was super rattling...”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 4

shot at from a moving vehicle.

Incidents seem not to be isolated in Hyde Park. First-year student Eli Harrell was riding his bike on South Martin Luther King Drive while returning from University of Illinois at Chicago at 10 p.m. on October 8.

“It was very quiet, and I was just going down the street. A car pulls up next to me to go the same speed I’m going on my bike, the window rolls down but he pulls out something and I hear a loud pop and feel a little tink on my jacket, car speeds up and drove away,” Harrell said.

In a statement to The Maroon, University spokesperson Gerald McSwiggan said that, “Since September 17, [17] students have been involved in paintball incidents on and around campus,” and that “no students have reported serious injuries and none sought medical attention.”

It is unclear if the incidents have now stopped. Demos said that UCPD told her that the shooters were “probably warming up for Halloween.” Hyde Park, over past Halloween weekends, has experienced similar incidents.

With Doors Still Closed, Hyde Park Bookstores Struggle Amid Uncertainty

By AMALA KARRI News Reporter When the COVID–19 pandemic hit, Hyde Park’s bookstores were forced to close their doors to the public. Among them were Powell’s Books and the Seminary Co-Op, two independent bookstores dating back to 1970 and 1961, respectively.

In April, representatives from both bookstores spoke to The Maroon about how the pandemic had changed the way they conduct operations, describing a shift to online sales, drops in revenue, and uncertainty about the future.

Since then, the American Booksellers Association has reported that more than one independent bookstore has closed each week since the beginning of the pandemic. This month, City Lit, an independent bookstore in Chicago’s Logan Square, announced that it would shut down at the end of the year.

Fortunately, Powell’s and the Seminary Co-Op both remain in business.

The Maroon caught up with both stores to discuss how they have adapted to the challenges posed by the pandemic, how social distancing has impacted the culture surrounding books, and what they see for the future of bookselling.

Powell’s Books Powell’s Books, located on East 57th Street, has relied on online sales since closing its in-person operations. Online sales increased following the store’s in-person closure and remain higher than they were before the pandemic, but they have dipped in recent weeks.

“Internet sales are not as strong as

they were a little while ago,” Bradley Jonas, the owner of Powell’s, explained. “I don’t know if everyone’s focusing more on the election or something; it just seems a little bit less than they were three or four weeks ago.”

Still, internet sales remain a crucial source of revenue. “From March until three or four weeks ago, [they] were very strong,” said Jonas. “They’re still stronger than they were about a year ago, but they’re not as strong as they were before.”

In addition to delivering online orders, Powell’s has started offering curbside pick-up. Customers can purchase their books online and pick them up outside of the store. They operate curbside pick-up four days a week for a few hours a day.

But without in-person browsing, the bookstore experience has changed substantially. “One of the strengths of a used bookstore is finding something that you weren’t looking for,” Jonas said. “If it’s a new book that you read up a review of, then that’s not so hard. You know what you’re looking for, you go order it. But [one] of the most exciting events that take place at a used bookstore is someone who just came in because they love books, and they find something that they didn’t even know existed.”

Uncertainty about how long social distancing guidelines will last has made it difficult for booksellers like Powell’s to plan their reopening and think about the future of their business. “With the advent of people thinking that they can find what they’re looking for online, I think there is something that’s going to be hurt,” said Jonas. “The [stores that]

survive will weave together both the brick and mortar experience as well as the online experience, have one feeding into the other.”

Until they can let customers browse their shelves again, bookstores like Powell’s will have to try to survive almost entirely online. And while Jonas explained that there are certainly ways to use the internet to learn about new books—through bibliographies, book reviews, and other resources—the experience is not quite the same. “The serendipity of being in a store,” he said.

“Some of it’s lost.”

Seminary Co-Op and 57th Street Books The Seminary Co-Op Bookstores, Inc. has two locations in Hyde Park—the Seminary Co-Op (on South Woodlawn Avenue) and 57th Street Books. Like Powell’s, they turned to internet sales when in-person operations shut down in March.

Jeff Deutsch, director of the Seminary Co-Op Bookstores, told The Maroon that the stores view internet sales as a way to stay afloat financially until they can fully reopen and create the in-person book shopping experience again in the future. “We are not expecting to be a warehouse fulfillment center for the long term,” he said. “We’re seeing it as a bridge to make sure that we can support in-person browsing in the long term.”

The in-person experience is a key part of the Seminary Co-Op’s mission.

In 2019, they became the first not-forprofit bookstores in the U.S. whose mission is bookselling. “We became a not-

for-profit bookstore because our belief is that our value resides in a physical space for books and providing [that space] for the community to engage in,” Deutsch said. “Browsing itself, more than the books, is our product.”

“As far as we’re concerned,” Deutsch continued, “the reason people come to the store is to engage with the books in a specific way, to engage with other readers in that space in a specific way, and frankly, everything is lost if we close the doors.”

Deutsch acknowledges the uncertainty still facing the Seminary Co-Op. “It’s not a foregone conclusion that we’ll make it,” said Deutsch. “Will we still be viable when it’s safe and financially prudent to open? It’s a question that many bookstores are asking themselves right now.”

Still, the Seminary Co-Op is grateful for the relative ease with which they were able to transition online. “We are incredibly lucky to have a robust website and to have had it in place at the beginning of the pandemic,” Deutsch told The Maroon. “There are many great bookstores that don’t have that or didn’t have that, so moving to an online model was relatively easy for us. And by relatively, I mean the infrastructure was there, but obviously there was a tremendous amount of work.”

The Seminary Co-Op also offers curbside pick-up, an option that Deutsch described as wildly popular. “In the spring, early summer,” he said, “there were tremendous delays with the United States Postal Service. Everything took longer, and as soon as we produced CONTINUED ON PG. 6

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 28, 2020

6

“It’s not a foregone conclusion that we’ll make it.” Hyde Park Bookstores Speak on Making it Through the Pandemic CONTINUED FROM PG. 5

curbside pick-up, it was a seismic shift for us.”

Deutsch explained that the bookstore’s proximity to and close relation-

ship with the University helped its situation. “We’re lucky to have a community that supports us as much as our community does,” said Deutsch. “That includes of course the students who have just

been incredible, both for spring quarter and fall quarter. The faculty have been incredible, not just in supporting the bookstores but in ensuring that first-year students who would normally

come into the bookstores at this time are made aware of us. They make sure that students know we exist, we sell coursebooks, we’re a great cultural treasure.

So, we have a lot going for us.”

Looking Back on Four Years of President Trump and the University Administration

By OLIVIA CHILKOTI Senior News Reporter Donald Trump’s first term as president draws to a close. While the policy initiatives of the Trump administration have been the subject of much national discussion, they have also shaped the lives of college students on campuses across the country. Some of the most pressing issues faced by students include immigration, sexual assault, and protests against inequity and racial injustice.

Immigration and DACA As a central policy plank of the Trump administration, changes in immigration policy have been both highly visible and highly controversial. In 2017, Trump announced the ending of Deferred Arrival for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an executive order passed into law by President Barack Obama that would protect the citizenship of undocumented immigrants brought to America as children.

This was challenged in court and eventually appealed to the Supreme Court. In June of 2020 the court ruled 5–4 that termination of DACA was judicially reviewable and had violated administrative procedure. Anyone who had previously held DACA status remained eligible for renewal.

The next month, in July, ICE announced a new rule that international students enrolled in only online classes would not be eligible to stay in the country. The policy was later rescinded after Harvard University and Massa-

chusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) filed lawsuits. UChicago submitted an amicus curiae brief for the Harvard lawsuit, as well as a statement of support for a lawsuit filed by the Illinois attorney general but did not join the suits outright. Returning international students have since been able to maintain their F-1 status even if studying remotely.

The University released a statement on July 8 “to reaffirm, in the strongest terms, our University’s continuing commitment to welcoming and supporting scholars, students, and staff from all parts of the world,” but did not announce any further steps besides ensuring access to remote classes for international students. Student leaders of UChicago Without Borders criticized the University’s response as being lackluster.

After the turbulence of the proposal and rescinding of these changes—a cycle that has happened regularly throughout the past four years—student groups on campus restarted efforts to have the University designate itself as a sanctuary campus. Students and faculty have been pushing for sanctuary status since 2016, when Trump first announced his intention to break with the Obama-era immigration policy.

Title IX and Sexual Assault After being appointed as secretary of education in 2017, Betsy DeVos initiated several changes to Title IX policy.

In November of 2018 it was announced that the Department of Education intended to change several aspects of Title IX with an eye toward bolstering

the rights of the accused. Most notably, students accused of sexual misconduct would have the right to an in-person trial where they may cross-examine their accuser. Additionally, schools would be able to choose between a preponderance of evidence and clear and convincing—50 and 75 percent respectively—for the standard of evidence in sexual harassment cases.

In addition to shifting away from Obama-era regulation, such changes would be in conflict with Illinois state law, which does not allow for the victim and perpetrator to directly cross-examine each other.

The final version of the changes went into effect in May of 2020. They included a withdrawal of the initial cross-examination proposal to live hearings with representatives or legal counsel (rather than the victim and the perpetrator themselves), and limited liability to on-campus incidents, with the exception of fraternity and sorority houses.

Provost Ka Yee Lee addressed the changes in an August 14 email to the student body. “The new policy applies to conduct that occurs within the University’s domestic on- and off-campus education programs or activities…. Under the new regulations, the University will continue to address other forms of harassment, discrimination, and sexual misconduct that do not constitute sexual harassment under Title IX…. This means that hearings related to complaints of sexual misconduct that do not constitute sexual harassment under Title IX will remain largely unchanged for the upcoming academic year and will

not involve live cross-examination.”

The 2019 campus climate survey revealed that 30 percent of undergraduate women and 11.3 percent of undergraduate men reported experiencing some type of nonconsensual sexual contact.

39.8 percent of students indicated that they had experienced at least one type of harassing behavior in their time at the university. This statistical disparity also extended to confidence in the Title IX process: )nly 10.5 percent of undergraduate women felt it “extremely likely” that campus officials would take their report seriously, as compared to 22.3 percent of undergraduate men.

Black Lives Matter Protests In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, Black Lives Matter protests sparked in Minneapolis and spread around the country. As the demonstrations continued into June, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to quell them. After 62 days of protests in Portland, Oregon, the president deployed federal troops, ostensibly to protect federal buildings from being damaged during the protests.

Chicago was no exception with sustained protests throughout the city, including Hyde Park. UChicago students participated in protests and clashed with the Chicago Police Department at East 53rd Street and South Lake Shore Drive. Many reported violent encounters with the police—armed with riot gear and batons—as they attempted to disperse.

CONTINUED ON PG. 7

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 28, 2020

7

Under the Trump Administration, Students at UChicago Faced Questions Regarding Immigration, Sexual Assault, and Protests CONTINUED FROM PG. 6

In response to the protests, the University limited campus access to essential personnel on June 1 and temporari-

ly suspended shuttle services. Lee also addressed the student body via email in regards to the national turmoil, reaffirming the University’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

“The deep alarm expressed by people throughout the country, including in our home of Chicago, reflects many decades of grief and anguish…. The vitality of the South Side is fundamentally

linked with that of the University, and we esteem the deep relationships and partnerships that the residents of the South Side and members of the University community have built together.”

At Annual Humanities Day, Lecturers Analyze History and Talk Present American Democracy

By DIMITRIY LEKSANOV Senior News Reporter The University of Chicago Division of the Humanities held the 40th annual Humanities Day on Saturday, October 17, exploring literature, art, music, philosophy, and other related disciplines. Talks given at the event covered topics such as the role of music in Jewish diasporas, the relationship between Mayan literature and colonialism, the role of women in portrayals of Italian Mafia, and American democracy.

Due to the ongoing COVID–19 pandemic, the event was held entirely over Zoom, consisting of six sessions over the course of the day. This year’s forum was not the first with virtual events, as the 2018 Humanities Day featured virtual, interactive “guided tours” of the South Side Home Movie Project’s digital archive in addition to in-person tours and presentations.

In past years, each session included as many as a dozen events, with each event featuring a single speaker. This year, however, each session featured just one event, and most were led by a group of several presenters. Despite the condensed format, capacity for attendance expanded significantly with the all-virtual format, allowing for a maximum of 10,000 attendees.

There were several presenters who had spoken at past Humanities Day events.

Phil Bohlman, the Ludwig Rosenberger Distinguished Service Professor in Jewish History, Department of Music, gave a talk with Christine Wilkie Bohlman, Lecturer in Piano in the Humanities Collegiate Division on Jewish music like the one he gave two years ago. Similarly, Will Boast, an assistant professor of Practice

in the Arts, gave a talk about UChicago’s creative writing department similar to the ones that he has given during each of the previous three years.

The Humanities Day keynote address was delivered by Martha Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics. An instructor in both the Law School and the Department of Philosophy, Nussbaum has published several works on social justice and civil liberties, including From Disgust to Humanity, which explores LGBTQ+ rights in the United States. Nussbaum was awarded the 2016 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy as well as the 2018 Berggruen Prize.

Nussbaum’s address, Animals: Expanding the Humanities, discussed the capabilities approach, a theoretical framework designed by Nussbaum and economist Amartya Sen, Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, atHarvard University, to help improvegeneral worldwide well-being. She examined how the approach could be used to protect the habitats of animals and improve their general welfare.

Another session, titled Reinventing Democracy for the 21st Century, discussed heightened uncertainty surrounding democracy in the United States and described several proposals intended to strengthen democracy going forward.

The forum featured Tracey Meares, Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law at the Yale University Law School; William Howell, the Sydney Stein professor in American politics at the Harris School of Public Policy; Diane Wood, senior lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School

and circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; and moderator Eric Slauter, deputy dean of the Division of the Humanities.

The discussion focused primarily on a report published by the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, a bipartisan group of scholars, jurists, and writers gathered by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, including Wood, who was appointed to the Seventh Circuit by former president Bill Clinton, and Yuval Levin, the founding editor of National Affairs. The report included 31 recommendations to strengthen American democracy, grouped into six general categories.

Howell, who wrote Presidents, Populism, and the Crisis of Democracy, criticized Donald Trump’s presidential administration and populist rhetoric. “Populism is a profound threat to the health of our democracy and populism is being channeled now through the presidency,” Howell said.

Wood discussed the existing system for campaign financing, which allows individuals and corporate entities to donate significant amounts of money both directly to candidates and to political action committees that promote particular candidates and legislation.

“As I like to put it, we really should have a one-person, one-vote system, not a one-dollar, one-vote system. And I’m afraid we are awfully close to one dollar, one vote right now,” Wood said.

Meanwhile, Meares discussed the report’s extensive focus on action by the federal government, particularly on the topic of police reform. “There’s a lot of focus on federal institutions,” Meares said. “There

is nothing that the president really is going to do, other than make speeches that often make peopleangry but at the end of the day that doesn’t necessarily change how policing is carried out.”

A later event, titled Arts and the Academy, Then and Now, explored the rise of state-sponsored arts and language academies in France during the 1600s. These programs allowed for the French monarchy, led by King Louis XIII, to determine whether certain forms of art would be exhibited. The discussion was led by Larry Norman, Frank L. Sulzberger professor in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, and Richard Neer, director of the Franke Institute for the Humanities.

Norman described the way that Cardinal Richelieu, the First Minister of State under Louis XIII, used these academies to expand French influence during the 17th century. “Richelieu was building the economy of France” while simultaneously “making the French language the official language of Europe,”he said.

Neer, meanwhile, discussed the notion of an “academy” in relation to art, suggesting that many contemporary artists would prefer not to have their art described as being “academic.” Neer also drew a distinction between French art, language academies, and the modern concept of an “academy.”

“It’s easy to think of an academy as something extremely conservative. In the 19th century, that was certainly justified,” he said, before going on to say that this characterization would be less accurate today.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 28, 2020

8

VIEWPOINTS Make Space to Reconnect to Your Pre-Pandemic Self Quarantine has disrupted our lives so much that we may find ourselves detached from our old selves, but we can reconnect if we make space to.

By ELIZABETH WINKLER Our pre-pandemic routines helped give shape to our identities and affirmed basic parts of who we are. For more than six months, though, COVID-19 has significantly disrupted those routines. Things that used to be everyday occurrences, like walking into the Reg, are far enough in the past that sometimes it’s hard for me to remember details of pre-pandemic life.

How tall were the tables in Ex

Lib? Did I pay attention to the ducks on Botany Pond? So much of our day-to-day existence has shifted over the last few months that we’re struggling to hold onto small memories, and I’m worried that forgetting these details is just the tip of the iceberg. In order to adapt to this new lifestyle, we’ve let go of parts of ourselves. I’ve felt it happening to me—a strange feeling of being off-balance, disconnected—and I imagine you’ve felt it, too. To counter-

Miles Burton, Editor-in-Chief Emma Dyer, Editor-in-Chief Caroline Kubzansky, Managing Editor Jessica Xia, Chief Production Officer The Maroon Editorial Board consists of the editors-in-chief and editors of The Maroon.

NEWS

Tony Brooks, editor Matthew Lee, editor Pranathi Posa, editor Justin Smith, editor GREY CITY

Alex Dalton, editor Avi Waldman, editor VIEWPOINTS

Gage Gramlick, editor Ruby Rorty, editor ARTS

Wahid Al Mamun, editor Alina Kim, editor SPORTS

Alison Gill, editor Thomas Gordon, editor Brinda Rao, editor COPY

James Hu, copy chief Cynthia Huang, copy chief Jason Lin, copy chief Ray Davies-Ran Voorhis, copy chief Gabby Meyers, copy chief Charlotte Susser, copy chief

DESIGN

Suha Chang, head of production Matthew Chang, head designer Cait Lozada, design associate Nathalie Lai, design associate Arianne Nguyen, design associate

act this feeling, we must create spaces outside of the buzz of our now-virtual lives and reconnect with the parts of ourselves that have been pushed out by the pandemic, the parts of us that ground us.

If you’re anything like me, quarantine means spending a lot more time in your bed than you usually do. With no commute and no physical place to be, going to sleep in the wee hours and waking up luxuriously late becomes a feasible routine. At first, this felt strange to me: In pre-corona times, my body woke me around 7 a.m. every day, and it was rare for me to turn over and go back to sleep.

I would never have imagined setting an alarm to make sure I was up by 9 a.m. But when I started staying up till all hours of the night just because I could, that alarm became necessary.

And I got used to it. Somehow, it seemed, my adaptation to quarantine meant that I became a night person. I enjoyed spending that time with my

roommates or watching TV or FaceTiming with far-away friends, so, despite having been a morning person for my entire life, I didn’t question the new rhythm my life fell into.

As school started, though, something shifted. My status quo started to make me feel unsettled and off-balance. There was a pressure in the back of my brain, a feeling of being unmoored, drifting a little apart from the friends around me— living parallel to rather than with them. Interrogating this feeling, I realized that, as my routines shifted, I had started neglecting parts of myself.

During pre-pandemic times, I made a point of taking solo trips to explore coffee shops and thrift stores in faraway parts of the city each weekend. I had gotten up early to go to Ratner (sorry, Crown fans) or for a run outside. These rituals were more than just things I did; they were an expression of integral aspects of my personality—the love of being awake before the

BUSINESS

Gianni LaVecchia, chief financial officer Charlie Blampied, director of strategy Trent Carson, director of marketing Yeewin New, director of marketing Victor Doddy, director of development Kenneth Chu, director of operations ONLINE

Firat Ciftci, software engineer Editor-in-Chief: Editor@ChicagoMaroon.com Newsroom Phone: (312) 918-8023 Business Phone: (408) 806-8381 For advertising inquiries, please contact Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com or (408) 806-8381.

Circulation: 2,500. © 2020 The Chicago Maroon Ida Noyes Hall / 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637

“These rituals were more than just things I did; they were an expression of integral aspects of my personality.”

rest of the world and the need to deliberately make space to be alone with myself—that I had been neglecting.

Once I realized what was making me feel disconnected, I decided to make a change: For a week, I would wake up early and watch the sunrise at the point. I do yoga, stretch, and then sit and write as the sky lightens. For me, this ritual has been incredibly centering.

Having a routine outside of school or work is something we can turn to at any stage of our lives to keep ourselves feeling like ourselves. Many of us are overscheduled already, so it’s important to remember that this routine doesn’t have to be time-consuming; it could be something as small as lighting a candle. What’s really important is that you’re making the choice to do something for yourself.

The group of middle-aged folks who pull on their swim caps at 6:40 a.m. every morning know this. The woman who does yoga a few rocks over from me at the very front of the point knows this, too. So if you, like me, have found yourself adapting to the past months in a way that no longer feels right, if you are feeling the strange together-but-apart-ness of socially distanced life and virtual school, I urge you to create space for yourself. Make a routine that returns you to who you know yourself to be.

Elizabeth Winkler is a thirdyear in the College.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 28, 2020

9

Take the Time to Understand What’s Happening in Armenia UChicago community members must learn about the attacks on Armenia in order to support their Armenian colleagues.

By ARAXIE CASS Most UChicago students were beginning this quarter with anxiety about busy schedules, grades, and online learning. Armenian students were waking up to a war. On September 27, Azerbaijan launched a full-scale offensive along the line of contact in Artsakh, as well as the Republic of Armenia’s internationally recognized borders. They have continued attacking since, targeting civilian populations and cultural sites. And they continue, despite a ceasefire on October 10. Armenia and Artsakh, with a combined population of three million, face an existential threat from Azerbaijan, a country of 10 million, aided by Turkey, a country of 82–84 million.

As a diaspora Armenian, the experience has been surreal. My family came to Chicago fleeing the Armenian Genocide of 1915, so, unlike many of my Armenian classmates, I do not have immediate family in Armenia. But in the past few years, I have spent significant time working on a project telling stories of non-violent resistance from Armenia, and I have made friends from around the country, including the regions that are directly under fire. My dreams are full of the places I visited a summer or two ago, some of which are now in rubble. I think of the people I met for a quick conversation or a passing interaction. How many of them are dead?

My last three weeks have been an experience that some call “diaspora paralysis,” a mix of anxiety, grief, frantic action, and survivor’s guilt. In the blur of constantly looking at the news and checking on my friends in Armenia and Artsakh, I always find myself asking questions like: Should I be there on the front lines? Is this a second Armenian Genocide? How can I focus on class when my friends are fearing for their lives? What can I do to make sure my children won’t have to say “2020 Never Again?”

Every Armenian I know is feeling this too. As you see our faces in our Zoom

classes, our hearts are somewhere else.

Most of us are descended from Armenian Genocide survivors, so the existential threat from Azerbaijan and Turkey, the country that committed and continues to deny the Armenian Genocide, feels like déjà vu.

The current attacks are centered on Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh. Artsakh is an independent republic with an ethnically Armenian population that remains unrecognized by the international community. The region has historically been populated by Armenians and shows numerous traces of Armenian culture over 2,000 years old, but it was given to the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan by Josef Stalin in 1923 in an attempt to forge closer ties with Azerbaijan’s ally, Turkey. During the collapse of the USSR, in response to the mass ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Azerbaijan, the citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence. They did so in a series of referendums, which was their right based on the principle of self-determination.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s initial declaration of independence was not recognized and instead was met with attacks by the Azerbaijani armed forces. This started a war that lasted four years, until Artsakh gained its de facto independence.

Since then, Artsakh has functioned as an independent country, participating in democratic self-governance, rebuilding its cities, and going on with ordinary life. But it remains in a constant state of military threat because the international community refuses to recognize its independence.

This frozen conflict is not simply an academic matter. For the citizens of Artsakh, it is deadly. The 1994 ceasefire is often violated with small attacks that kill soldiers, and in 2016 increased attacks were known as the Four-Day War. But the recent attacks are the worst since the ’90s. Artsakh has seen intense military fighting, with over 729 deaths, many of them conscripts as young as 18. Azerbaijan has also carried out intense bombing

of the region’s capital of Stepanakert, targeting schools, churches, and homes, causing major human rights violations.

The international community’s refusal to end this conflict is a matter of geopolitical interest. Azerbaijan is an oil-rich country that has been known to bribe European politicians and carry out money laundering operations involving influential Americans including Donald Trump. Thus, the international community has prioritized Azerbaijan’s claim on the land over the self-determination of the people of Artsakh, giving Azerbaijan justification to carry out deadly attacks on civilians.

The conflict also poses a danger to the region. Azerbaijan has drawn in Turkey, which has taken over control of Azerbaijani air forces. Furthermore, reports from foreign intelligence communities confirm that Turkey has been hiring Syrian mercenaries to fight on the front lines, deceiving many and telling them that they were going to guard military posts. Attacks have spilled over into Armenia, firing on several civilian areas, including near Armenia’s capital of Yerevan. This has the potential to create an even greater threat, as the territorial integrity of Armenia, not just that of Artsakh, has been compromised.

In response to this danger, a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan was called on October 10. The ceasefire was brokered by Russia after talks in Moscow for humanitarian purposes, including an exchange of bodies and prisoners. It was also intended to pave the way for future peace talks, but so far, it has not been respected. Azerbaijan has not only continued to attack Artsakh and Armenia, but has also sent a team of special forces into the civilian region of Hadrut, intending to terrorize civilians, and killing a mother and her disabled son. The continued acts of hostility, despite the ceasefire, show a desire for further aggression on Azerbaijan’s part. Given this, and the history of Azeri and Turkish aggression in the region, there seems to be no end to

the conflict in sight.

But an end to the conflict is possible.

It will likely not come through the negotiations that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has been carrying out for the last 26 years. These negotiations do not recognize Karabakh, denying its people a representative in the process of deciding their own fate. They often view the conflict as a land dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is not the current reality. The facts are this: Artsakh is an unrecognized, but independent, democratically self-governed country; Azerbaijan claims this land; the people of Artsakh want their right to self-determination.

Any negotiations that do not take into account the reality on the ground are not a viable path to peace. Instead, the most realistic way to end this conflict is for the international community to recognize the Republic of Artsakh. The people of Artsakh have a right to self-determination and to live in peace, and this would provide a precedent for resolving other such conflicts and preventing further human rights abuses in the future.

The people I have met in Artsakh want what all of us want: to live in peace, to rebuild their cities, to go to university and pursue careers, to focus on the little struggles of everyday life without worrying that they will be bombed tomorrow.

But as of now, the international community has chosen geopolitical interests over peace. In this dire situation, your Armenian classmates need your support.

We do not have oil money, PR firms, or resources that will gain us geopolitical influence. We rely on the strength of our communities and our dedication to fighting for the truth. We are asking you to do what UChicago students do best: to learn, to critically examine the information you see, to find the truth, and use your voice to advocate for what you know is right.

For us, it is a matter of life and death.

Araxie Cass is a fourth year in the College.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 28, 2020

10

ARTS Humanities Day 2020 Migrates to Zoom, Contemplates Crisis

By JAD DAHSHAN Arts Contributor Since 1980, UChicago has welcomed visitors every October for a full day of events, performances, tours, and lectures presented by faculty in the Division of the Humanities. This October 17, the annual tradition celebrated its 40th anniversary, shifting to the virtual sphere in the face of a global pandemic.

Rather than rushing from one building to the next to catch each presentation, Humanities Day 2020 visitors attended events remotely through Zoom.

Because it was conducted as a single Zoom webinar, this year’s Humanities Day included fewer presentations as different lectures could not be given simultaneously. However, the seven sessions that were scheduled over the course of the day guided viewers through a broad range of topics, including colonialism and crisis, gender dynamics within the Italian Mafia, and the history of the art academy. Additionally, in lieu of the in-person tours often offered by various cultural spaces around campus each year, Humanities Day 2020 compiled links to virtual and video tours made available online by the Smart Museum, the Renaissance Society, the Oriental Institute, and others. What is more, similar to the tours, all of the lectures are now available to watch online.

The day’s events commenced with a lecture about and performance of Viktor Ullmann’s final musical work, “The Chronicle of Love and Death of the Flag Bearer Christoph Rilke.” Based on Rainer Maria Rilke’s prose-poem of the same title, the piece was composed by Ullman in 1944 while in the Theresienstadt Ghetto (Terezín) concentration camp; he was murdered at Auschwitz soon after.

The piece was performed by Humanities Collegiate Division lecturer Christine Wilkie Bohlman and professor of Jewish studies Philip Bohlman, with the former on piano and the latter reciting the poem, after giving their lecture explaining the piece’s history, the

technical challenges of performing it, and its significance today for the themes of exile, diaspora, genocide, and mounting nationalism. As they performed, numerous pieces of visual art were displayed on screen, further animating the performance.

While the second lecture of the day also examined creative work accomplished under conditions of crisis, its scope turned toward another part of the world and of history. In his lecture, assistant professor in the Department of English Language and Literature Edgar Garcia shared the research he conducted around the Popol Vuh, the indigenous K’iche’ Mayan story of creation, while quarantined six months ago. Having just taught a class about the Popol Vuh last winter, Garcia dove into this work under the anxiety of colonialism, setting it in dialogue with the world’s current state of emergency in a forthcoming book of essays.

Garcia studied what the Popol Vuh can teach us about modern-day catastrophes, turning to emergency as a site of socio political and cultural emergence. Originally passed on through oral tradition, the Popol Vuh was transcribed by the Dominican friar Francisco Ximénez in the 18th century, entering a web of archives and purchases entangling it with the colonial powers devastating its authors, who incorporate their context into its narrative. Describing itself as Ilb’al, or an instrument for seeing, the book associates colonization with a cosmic darkness and the light of creation that disturbs it with a return to indigenous and counter-colonial worlds. As such, creation is revealed as innately linked to human creativity, unmarred by colonial obfuscations. Garcia explained how the transfer of power between colonized and colonizer is just one step in the creation of a world that is fundamentally Mayan.

Just as in previous years, Humanities Day 2020 also included a keynote lecture—this time by the philosopher and professor of law and ethics Martha Nussbaum, whose lecture posited an

miles burton

“ethical revolution” in the rights given to and laws legislated around animals.

Nussbaum underscored the limitations of previous philosophical approaches to animal entitlement, including the “so like us” and “least common denominator” approaches. One figure she evoked in her arguments was Steven Wise, who, albeit not a philosopher, was a pioneer in animal law and insisted that the line drawn between humans and animals when it comes to personhood and autonomy was irrational and needed rethinking.

Other ideas Nussbaum challenged in her lecture were that of human superiority to animals and the notion that certain animals are deserving of rights due only to their proximity to humans. As the keynote reached its end, Nussbaum introduced her self-pioneered Capabilities Approach, expanding it to encompass and argue for the value and dignity of sentient beings other than humans.

Generally, Nussbaum stressed the importance of adopting a worldview which emphasizes the importance of wonder and attunement, the fact that we share this planet with other animals, and that this approach is a direction—not a destination—and doesn’t tell us how to address particular areas of conflict.

Later on in the day, professor and the director of the Italian Language

Program Veronica Vegna presented a lecture analyzing the different roles of women within the Italian Mafia and how they are represented in cinema. Citing movies such as Roberta Torre’s Angela (2002) and books-turned-series such as Gomorra, Vegna discussed how cinema and other mass media reflect and shape our fundamental understandings of legality and other sociopolitical and economic issues. Putting side-by-side clips from motley movies and sociological studies and statistics, Vegna explored the ways in which women acted as a “two-headed Janus” in the Mafia, both sustaining its existence and acting as a potential threat, should they choose to betray it. And yet, despite their instrumentality, women have historically been rendered invisible in the Mafia, their labors unacknowledged—as in many other areas of society.

Other Humanities Day lectures included a history of art and academia, a group discussion of 21st-century democracy, and a panel on “Re-Imagined Communities” which involved several writers reading their recent work.

In spite of the resulting Zoom fatigue, Humanities Day 2020 offered a compelling series of lectures, performances, and readings of contemporary creative work.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 28, 2020

By ALINA KIM Arts Editor

11

The Savior’s Sister Needs Salvation

The following review is spoiler-free for The Savior’s Sister, but contains spoilers for The Savior’s Champion.

The Savior’s Sister (TSS ), the companion novel to indie author Jenna Moreci’s debut adult fantasy romance The Savior’s Champion, retells the story of an assassination conspiracy concealed behind a gruesome gladiator tournament, but from the perspective of its female protagonist. In the land of Thessen, a Savior Queen has the power to eliminate disease and bring fertility to the land. When the Savior comes of age at 20 years old, 20 men compete for her hand in marriage. For Leila Tūs Salvatíraas, the current Savior, this is no moment of jubilation: Her father, the second-in-command Sovereign of Thessen and the man in charge of the bloody Tournament, has conspired with his Senators to assassinate her and take her throne as his own. As the tournament drags on, Leila and her adopted sisters frantically attempt to unravel the murderous plan before she is killed by her own government. To do so, Leila disguises herself as a healer to spy on the male competitors in search of her potential assassin, and unintentionally falls in love with the cynical, good-natured artist Tobias.

I picked up The Savior’s Champion two years ago out of intrigue: the premise of the series promises a mash-up between The Bachelorette, Battle Royale, and The Twelve Labours of Heracles.

While I was generally disappointed with the lack of world-building, the tedium of the uncreative Tournament games, and the plot twist I saw coming from light-years away, I ended up devouring the book because of how extensively Moreci f leshed out unique personalities for each character and weaved in a slow-burn, healthy romance. I’m a character-driven reader: give me an average plot but raw, authentic characters, and I will enjoy the story and grant the subsequent books in the series a chance. I wish I hadn’t done so for TSS. Before I delve into my personal issues with TSS, I will list its strengths.

Like I did with The Savior’s Champion, I ripped through this novel. It was fast-paced enough to finish in two sittings between political science readings. Moreci avoids the repetitiveness of the first book by giving us insight into the behind-the-scenes conspiracy extending beyond the Tournament and its competitors, a deep—state—esque mystery with figurehead politics far more fascinating than 20 oiled-up men objectifying women in between dismembering each other. Moreci also tells a compelling narrative underneath the surface-level plot: It is laboriously hard to be a woman struggling for power in a male-dominated world, especially when she teems with intellect and talent.

The women of TSS are crafted with believable, humanizing ambitions and weaknesses. While I wish that neurodivergent Pippa had a greater role in the story, given her close relationship with Leila in The Savior’s Champion, I admire Moreci’s expert dialogue between the Savior and every member of her court. Moreci’s trump card is her expertly created banter: Her characters speak like real people, down to the most banal small talk. There is no pretentious flair, no dry conversation.

In a fantastical world of magic, the rich dialogue encapsulates what it means to be human: awkward, witty, charming, exasperated, overjoyed.

Leila’s speech and actions demonstrate a charismatically pessimistic attitude toward, well, everything, befitting her figurehead status and inability to trust even her closest friends.

Despite her queenly status and magical Savior powers, Leila is susceptible to both emotional and physical breakdowns. As she confronts her father, senator Erebus, and her lover Tobias, her anxiety constantly overpowers her logic. The other standout was Leila’s interactions with her confidante Delphi, a queer woman whose no-nonsense attitude provides comfort for Leila in a time of crisis. Leila rarely shows weakness in front of the Senate or the competitors in the Tournament, so it was refreshing to watch Her Holiness unravel in between scenes of coldhearted scheming.

While I gush over the dialogue and

character development, these elements also became a drawback. Moreci is not entirely at fault for failing to improve upon her previous work: As a companion novel retelling the same story, just from a different perspective, TSS draws much of its dialogue from its predecessor. But even in new scenes, the profanity is overwhelming. I would not be surprised to learn that “cock,” “tits,” or “fuck” appear over 50 times each throughout the book. I love reading swear words, but the excessiveness overshadows the shock factor and works against the authenticity of the adult characters, making them sound like angsty teenagers cursing giddily outside of parental supervision.

Moreover, like in The Savior’s Champion, the realm of Thessen could use better world-building. I’m not entirely what historical time and place inspired Thessen, but my guess from the characters’ names is ancient Greece. While we learn a little about Thessen’s culture from Tobias’s perspective in the first novel, I was hoping that reading a novel from Leila’s perspective would dramatically alter our knowledge. As an isolated queen barred from leaving her palace, all She knows is the walls of the prison/palace and its corrupt politicians—a contrast to the fertile land that Tobias knows. I would have loved for Moreci to delve into Leila’s extremely specific worldview in order to learn more about what happens in the minds of Thessen’s most secretive rulers. With nothing to do except explore her palace, Leila could have shown the reader the architecture of the palace pillars, the art style of the paintings that hang in her room, and, most crucially, how her magical powers work.

Left in the dark about these details, I had to base my assumptions on my limited knowledge of ancient Greece.

Situating Leila in a treacherous, uncertain world automatically leads readers to desire a little bit of certainty about

the limited details they can know, but Moreci provides little to none of that information.

My most significant criticism of TSS is specifically tethered to the plotline running through both The Savior’s Champion and TSS: Leila’s powers are too inconsistent, and often function like “plot armor,” shielding her from near-certain death. She dodges too many attacks on her life. She escapes certain situations by simply teleporting away, then is unable to flee the next assassination attempt. She can sense lies and fears by scrutinizing someone’s colored aura, but fails to detect malice from a secret double agent. She risks pretending to be a servant in the palace, and somehow her father never figures out until the end, although his spies and Senators swarm the Tournament grounds. In sum, Leila stumbles through her journey with the power of sheer chaotic luck. I understand Moreci’s intent to show that not a single moment is peaceful for Leila, but realizing Leila will use her powers to escape every situation dulls this tension halfway through.

TSS is a fun read if you don’t take its premises too seriously, or if you’re just here for a slow-burn romance. If you’re an aspiring author who wants to learn about writing dialogue or unique personalities, Moreci is an excellent source to cite. However, this companion novel struggles to improve upon the ambiguous world-building in The Savior’s Champion, which hurt the character development, and thus my reading experience overall. I would rate this book a 6/10.

The Savior’s Sister is available for purchase on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, Indigo, and Book Depository.

“Fast-paced enough to finish in two sittings between political science readings.”

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 28, 2020

12

Dick Johnson is Dead…and Alive and Dying and Immortal

By ALISON GILL Arts Contributor The titular subject of Dick Johnson is Dead, a new Netflix documentary, is very much alive. Dick Johnson is not dead. Yet. An octogenarian in the early stages of dementia, Dick Johnson is dying. So his daughter and prominent documentarian Kirsten Johnson uses the camera to blur lines between reality and unreality, life and loss, mortality and immortality.

The film moves beyond the scope of record and preservation, the typical aims of documentary film, to achieve a sort of cinematic transcendence. Deeply personal and deeply felt, it follows the relationship between Kirsten and Dick as his memory begins to falter and he moves cross-country from Seattle to live with Kirsten in New York City. Unsurprisingly touching, Kirsten combines a deft cinematic touch with subversively humorous and daring conceits.

The film opens on a scene of Dick playing with his grandchildren in a barn while Kirsten tells us in a voiceover, “I suggested we make a movie about him dying; he said yes.” Kirsten means this literally. As a running gag, she stages increasingly absurd versions of his

(fictionalized) death. First, he is taken out by a falling air conditioner; later, he meets his demise thanks to an errant construction worker; and so on. She has her father climb into a coffin and play dead under the glare of a camera crew and his friends. He ascends to a vibrant Heaven, one with plenty of his beloved triple fudge chocolate cake. None of it is real; all of it will eventually be.

The camera is not intended to mark any notion of objectivity. Kirsten is not purely interested in the process of aging and death, but rather in the discovery of an extended life. The camera lens transforms into her own gaze. With intimate close-ups and warm shots of Dick’s life in all of its minutiae and grandiosity, Kirsten conveys her father with loving tenderness and a genuine warmth that travels throughout Dick’s circle and quickly to the audience itself. We meet Dick. We bear witness to his passions, his confusion, his humor, his faith rooted in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, his heartbreaks, his doctor’s appointments, his lucidity, his demise, and his ascension—by the end of the film’s 90 minute run, we forget to care about discerning between fiction and reality.

Despite the joyous and sublime celebration of her father’s life, Kirsten’s film

is underlain with a sense of regret. Her mother’s story is reduced to snippets: old photographs, uncovered artifacts, just tidbits from her and her father’s memories. Kirsten reveals the lone bit of film footage she has of her mother, a few minutes of the late stages of her battle with Alzheimer’s. The filmmaker seems intent on ensuring that neither Kirsten’s father nor her relationship with him is consigned to a similarly undocumented state. The regret shades the joy on-screen with a certain nuance that might otherwise be lacking and reminds us that while Dick Johnson may not be quite as flawless as portrayed, Kirsten’s memories will inevitably render him so.

The great triumph of this film is that it depicts the story of one father and daughter with startling clarity and specificity yet achieves a universality so often sought after and so rarely found. A particularly wrenching moment occurs when Kirsten informs her father that she has sold his car. His eyes fill with tears, and he is stunned into silence at the loss of the fundamental independence of driving. In this moment, we are reminded of our own painful experiences with aging loved ones. We have all had or will have to watch some central piece of our loved ones’ identity be

stripped away. Or gratefully, regretfully, find ourselves exempted from the task.

The candid conversations about death and gruesome stagings of Dick’s death serve a self-therapeutic purpose for Kirsten and, by extension, the audience. Dick Johnson becomes more than just himself; he becomes all of our fathers, or mothers, or friends. Kirsten, along with the rest of us, believes that we can fortify ourselves by confronting someone’s death while they’re still alive, still there to comfort us. Perhaps the self-preparation will help. Or perhaps it will not, as a pivotal late scene certainly requires some tissues.

Dick Johnson is Dead breaks all the rules of documentaries and of the cinematic experience. A film this powerful is not supposed to be this entertaining. A documentary about death is not intended to be both hilarious and haunting. A movie with such emotional immediacy should not also be timeless. And yet, Kirsten along with the ever-obliging Dick pulled off the remarkable.

Dick Johnson is alive. Dick Johnson is dead. Dick Johnson is dying. Dick Johnson will live forever. Somehow, Kirsten Johnson convinces us that all of these statements can be—and are—true.

SPORTS Coaches Adapt to Recruitment Process in the Age of COVID-19

By FINN HARTNETT Sports Reporter

Sports recruitment at the University of Chicago found itself in an interesting spot this spring, as people started buying face masks in bulk and Zoom calls replaced more facets of life than anyone could have imagined. Recruiting during a global pandemic was not something that could have easily been accomplished 10 years ago, but the athletic department adapted over the summer with the help of digital tools. Different, often laborious ways

of scouting were employed and are still being used as winter sports begin this quarter.

The recruitment process for a sport like football or basketball can be long at the Division III level. It often begins during a candidate’s sophomore or junior year with a recruiting questionnaire. Coaching staff will watch some videotapes of a player’s junior season, and, should they pique interest, come to watch them play at recruitment events around the end of their junior year. The athlete might also visit campus and spend overnights with the

team. Some communication, whether that be over the phone or over email, is used to keep in touch with the prospects and to make sure they are a good “fit” for UChicago.

“We believe recruiting is research, not sales,” head football coach Chris Wilkerson said. “We try to get to know guys.”

Interestingly, the athletic department has no say in whether a player is admitted to UChicago or not. In the DIII world, where no exclusively athletic scholarships are permitted, an exceptionally skilled player does not

have a leg up on a decent player with a great attitude and personality. UChicago sports are made up of, as Wilkerson puts it, “the truest form of student-athletes.”

It’s the scouting at camps and combines that entails the most work for the coaching staff; it’s also what’s been most affected by the pandemic. “I was supposed to be at the University of Penn[sylvania] for five days, I was supposed to be at the New England Elite [Football Clinic] for four days, I was supposed to be at Dartmouth for CONTINUED ON PG. 13

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 28, 2020

13

“We believe recruiting is research, not sales” CONTINUED FROM PG. 12

three days,” said Wilkerson, describing one of his proposed trips this summer.

Head women’s lacrosse coach Kate Robinson discussed how recruiting trips with her assistant go: “We might go hit a tournament in Maryland on Saturday, spend all day…going to different games, then that night…go up to New Jersey, and watch a whole tournament on Sunday…then drive to Philly, hop on a flight back [to Chicago].”

The trips are quick, but they are frequent; together, a staff is able to cover a lot of ground. Last year, players on the football team’s roster came from 33 different states as well as Canada.

The men’s basketball team has a player from Turkey. Wilkerson personally visits the “eastern seaboard,” from Maine to South Florida, while others on his team visit the central areas of the country and the West Coast.

It’s also nice, at least in Robinson’s mind, to keep in touch with coaching colleagues at recruiting events. “You really get to know your network,” she said. Though they’re theoretically recruiting against each other, there is no animosity between coaching staff.

There are often a few different schools spending nights in the same hotel, and Kate mentioned the coaches will often spend the evenings discussing different lacrosse philosophies and types of practice. This summer, UChicago’s recruitment team held a virtual book club with a few other schools.

Of course, no such camps or events took place in the summer of 2020. Being a spring sport, lacrosse got lucky.

“At that time…we had already identified our top group [of current high school seniors]…. Ideally we could have seen more of them but we already had a pretty good idea of who they were,” Robinson put it. For the women’s lacrosse coaches, this summer was spent thinking about the high school Class of 2022, primarily through watching tape. A whole lot of tape.

“Technology is a beautiful thing,” said Wilkerson, and indeed, through sites like Hudl, a decent amount of recruitment can and has already been done online. Hudl is interesting for its emphasis on individuality—every athlete has a profile, and highlights from a soccer match or a basketball game are often uploaded with a virtual circle around the poster to highlight themselves—but there are many other ways to find video of a talent. Many recruitment events were livestreamed late this summer, videos which the recruiting staff pored through. They are hosted on a variety of websites: YouTube Live, Hudl, specialized sites like Lacrosse Sports Network. Athletes also took matters into their own hands during the pandemic, shooting backyard videos to show off their game. “A lot of the kids would start putting some of their individual workout videos on YouTube or on Twitter…making sure the schools they were really interest-

ed in were getting that information,” according to Wilkerson.

You can’t watch everything, though, so the staff must be discerning about what they pay attention to. “You might only be watching three people, or four people, and then you…go watch another stream,” Robinson said. There is an exorbitant amount of footage out there, and when watching hours of video every day all summer, being picky is a good thing.

This all begs the question: will sports recruitment be worse because of the video-only approach? “In swimming, you can tell how good somebody is just by timing them…whereas basketball, it’s such a different skill set. Different coaches like different things, and those are hard to pick up on film,” head men’s basketball coach Mike McGrath said. “There’s just nuances and things that you look for in person that you can’t get over film. How his hands place on the ball…I think it’s possible… that more prospects and more schools will make mistakes.”

Some would argue the mental side of sports is just as important as the physical. Coaches love players who give it their all on and off the field, but it can be hard to get a sense of that over the internet. “What we’re missing, you can’t really get a sense of how they are as a team player…how hard they’re working,” Robinson added.

But UChicago prioritizes communication more than most schools. So

coaching teams talk frequently to high school coaches and the athletes themselves to figure out that ever-important aspect of recruitment: fit. An upside of Zoom is that virtual calls are a lot easier to attend than on-campus visits; in excess of 60,000 students have attended calls in the first few months that the admissions office has been open this year. Compare that to 2019, when over the entire year about 40,000 to 50,000 students visited UChicago inperson.

Even after students have joined their college teams, they are made to attend weekly Zoom calls, with an aim of getting the athletes to know each other.

Wilkerson is more than happy with the football players that have come in this fall, though he’s already thinking of the commitments he’ll begin to make in the spring. Still, there may be some unexpected upsides to that too.

“Some [Division I] coaches were a little bit delayed, maybe they wanted to see somebody in person and weren’t able to,” Wilkerson said. “I feel like there are some more players that might have been gone already that are still available.” The lacrosse and football teams are already in training, while the basketball team will take to the courts on November 2. It’s been an unusual summer for sports recruitment at UChicago, but the future has ended up looking unexpectedly bright. All we can hope for now is that the teams get to play.

UChicago Adds Five Inductees to Its Hall of Fame

By DHEERAJ DEVARAJAN Sports Reporter Five new names now stand amongst the greatest in the sporting annals of the University of Chicago as the Class of 2020 was enshrined in a unique Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Although the novelty and gravitas of a packed University Club was missing at this year’s induction ceremony due to social distancing regulations, the excitement was still palpable when the members of this year’s class were honored by their peers,

family members, friends and the public through an online ceremony.

Headlining this year’s class was the great Brian Baldea, who served as head baseball coach from 1991 to 2014 before assuming his role as associate athletic director at the University. In his 24 years as head coach, Baldea accumulated 411 wins, 14 winning seasons, and nine seasons with over 20 wins, becoming the winningest coach in school history. As associate athletic director, he oversaw several programs, including FitChicago and the strength and conditioning pro-

gram. Baldea was renowned for the integrity and work ethic he showed during his time at the University, qualities which he strived to instil in the players that came through the system under his reign.

Also enshrined was Frank Arado (AB ’92), four-time University Athletic Association (UAA) wrestling champion and two-year team captain. Arado left an indelible mark on the university’s wrestling program, and his 1992 season was one for the history books. He was named the UAA’s Most Outstanding Wrestler,

placed fourth at the NCAA Championships, earned All-American status, won the regional title at his weight class, and led the wrestling team to a 13th-place finish on the NCAA rankings, their highest ever ranking in program history.

Peter Hildebrand (LAB ’63, A.B. ’67, S.M. ’69, Ph.D. ’76) was the Class of 2020’s most senior inductee, enshrined for his contributions to the cross country and track and field programs at the University. He earned All-American honors in 1966 after finishing 12th at the 1966 CONTINUED ON PG. 14

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 28, 2020

14

“...the names of these Maroon legends are now set in stone...”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 13

NCAA Championships, capping off an illustrious collegiate career that also included two previous top-30 finishes at the championships. He also held the school record for the indoor 5,000-meters for close to 15 years, still ranking in the top 10 for that event over 50 years following his departure.

Another track and field star enshrined in this class was two-sport athlete Nofisatu Mojidi-Bayna (A.B. ’08), who was also enshrined for her contributions to the basketball program and is the youngest member of this year’s class.

As a track-and-field athlete, she won five

UAA track titles over the course of her career and held eight school records when she graduated, including the indoor 55 meters, outdoor 100 meters and the indoor and outdoor 200 meters.

Mojidi-Bayna is also one of the greatest players in the history of the University’s women’s basketball program, ranking second in career points, field goals and steals, earning three-time All-UAA honors and two-time first team honors.

She also helped to oversee a surge of excellence within the program as she led a team that won over 70 percent of its games in her four years at the school.

However, her path to the Hall of Fame

might have been more challenging had it not been for Vadis Cothran Mandrell (A.B. ’78), a three-sport star who was also a trailblazer for women’s sport at the University. She played on both the softball and volleyball teams, but her major contributions on the court came as a member of the women’s basketball team.

There, she was a four-year co-captain and MVP while putting up close to 14 and a half points a game, the third-highest scoring average in program history. Off the court, Cothran Mandrell co-founded UChicago’s first women’s soccer club and served as the president for the Women’s Athletic Association for two years,

paving the way for a brighter future for female athletes.

As the University’s athletics program goes from strength to strength, it helps to take a look back at those who have paved the way for today’s stars and honor them appropriately. Although the pomp and circumstance of the Hall of Fame ceremony might have been missing this year, the names of these Maroon legends are now set in stone next to those of Jay Berwanger, Gertrude Dudley, Amos Alonzo Stagg and Derek Reich as members of the University of Chicago’s Athletics Hall of Fame.

Stepping Up: Bryce Millington Profile

By ALI SHEEHY Sports Reporter When first visiting UChicago, Bryce Millington, now a fourth-year captain on the men’s soccer team, recalls a feeling of welcoming and home. “I felt a level of comfort here. Meeting people with amazing aspirations really inspired me.”

Four years later, Millington is the one inspiring those around him with his passion, positivity, and kindness both on and off the soccer field.

During his career, Millington has seen his involvement and impact on the field increase each year due to his hard work and dedication. According to head coach Pat Flinn, “Lots of guys struggle with lack of early playing time or being asked to change positions. Bryce has powered through both of those things and became one of the most important players in the program.”

In his first and second years, the men’s soccer team reached the NCAA Final Four.

Additionally, they won the UAA Championship each year that Millington has been a part of the program. In the 2019–20 season, he led the team in goals, recording six, including the game-winners vs. Elmhurst and Emory.

Although fall competition seasons were canceled due to the COVID–19 pandemic, Millington has still been a leader on the men’s soccer team, even more so off the field. Active on the board of the Order of the “C,” Millington has also

been involved in the Black Letterwinning Athletes Coalition (BLAC). “This summer, when the protests for George Floyd began in Chicago, Bryce stepped forward. He was active in the community, within the athletic department, and led our team’s dialogue,” Flinn said. “He grew as a leader to go along with his other accomplishments and made a really big impact on our team.”

Ironically, the feeling of welcoming and home that made Millington choose UChicago is exactly what he has provided to his teammates, peers, and coaches. It’s the reason that so many of them admire

and respect him.

“Bryce is special. He is loyal, honest, kind, and genuine. Always smiling. He will leave a huge void behind when he graduates,” remarked Flinn.

Looking back on his time at UChicago, Bryce is proud of what he has been able to accomplish both as a student and athlete.

“I will remember the diverse set of classes that I was able to take as well as the academic rigor that has pushed me throughout college.” Athletically, he will remember his first preseason, meeting everyone and being welcomed onto the team. Beating Emory in penalties to go to his first Final

Millington on the field. courtesy of UChicago Athletics.

Four. But most importantly, getting to play with amazing people, whom he can call friends, competing in training, and pushing each other to be better on and off the field.

When asked about what advice he would give to his teammates and peers, Millington wished to say, “Don’t take one moment for granted. Meet as many people as you can, appreciate as much as you can, play as hard as you can. Enjoy every moment because you never know when it’ll come to an end. It’s important to appreciate and be grateful for the opportunity to be a student-athlete at such a great school.”

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 28, 2020

The Return of College Football

By THOMAS GORDON Sports Editor On August 11, the Big Ten made an announcement that sent shockwaves through the college sports landscape: they canceled the fall football season. The Pacific-12 (Pac-12) quickly followed as well in cancelling their football and fall sport seasons. Many people were unsure whether or not the fall season would be postponed across all conferences. However, as time went on, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Southeastern Conference (SEC), and Big 12 showed that college football could occur “safely.” The Big Ten and Pac12 then decided to come back; obviously, the amount of TV revenue that they would lose—$50+ million per school for the Big Across 1. Zero-width fiber 14. Zonal chillers 16. Zoom someone on death’s door into heaven 17. Zapato brand Cole ___ 18. Zone defenses may feature one 19. Zesty chemical 20. Zoned a garden with soft soil 21. Zerg opponent, in Starcraft 22. Zen Buddhism incantations 23. Zambian’s “polony” 25. Zircon is not this, but pumice is 26. Zumba attire 27. Zeroes in on the goal, only to throw it away at the last moment 28. Zero-meaning filler words 31. Zoological duplicates 32. Zero for the Equator or forty-one for Chicago (Abbr.)

34. Zillion-dollar corporations that don’t actually do anything 40. Zoloft and Prozac 41. Zero-purpose stupidity Down 1. Zero or so hrs. around 11 2. Zesty! Joy of Cooking author Rombauer and others 3. Zapping over indirectly, as an email 4. ___ Zacapa (rum brand) 5. Zany, red Japanese ogre 6. Zero-hr. blaze responders

15

Ten—did not play a part in their decision.

Now, one would expect that each conference would have the same guidelines to deal with the COVID–19 pandemic right?

Actually, that would not be the case. Looking at attendance for the games, the SEC, Big 12, and ACC have all allowed fans at the games, which is determined by the school and the individual state’s allowance of such activities. For example, University of Florida head coach Dan Mullen actually wanted to have an increase to the full capacity of 90,000 spectators from the current 17,000 allocation that the university has decided is safe. Although, this idea was hindered by the fact that a few days after these comments, Florida had to postpone their next two games as 21 players tested

7. Zenith of South Asian higher ed.

8. ZTE network conn.

9. Zeppelin-esque in operation 10. Zealous nemesis of Holmes 11. Zeno’s paradox, Ship of Theseus, etc.

12. Zverev, Djokovic, and Federer 13. Zig-zags, for some tires 14. Zat’s da spot!

15. Zero may be the first digit but not seven, eight, or nine (Abbr.)

20. Zealously or not-so- zealously tends (toward) 21. Zillion, minus quite a bit a (Abbr.)

22. Zaps(?) closed, as a wound 23. Z and A, for the alphabet 24. Zodiac Killer was never one, unfortunately 25. Zoom user’s option 26. “Zed” vowel sound 27. Zulu tribal units 28. Zebra foreleg bones 29. Zee French word for “hands” 30. “Zero changes needed” editorial marks 31. Ze will help you fill out a W-4 33. Zygosphenal animal (a.k.a. snake) sound 35. Zero-BS-taken pos.

36. Zimbabwe mining export 37. Zamora’s month 38. “Zounds! One more thing” 39. zrekcah sthgif taht .grO

positive for COVID in two days, as well as Dan Mullen himself. Conversely, the Big Ten is not allowing any fans in their stadiums, with the only possible attendees being family members of players or staff.

Also, the Big Ten will have constant crowd noise pumped in at 70 decibels and 90 decibels when the home team is on defense for a third down to counteract the lack of a home field advantage from fans.

One other major difference between the Big Ten and the other major conferences is the threshold that causes them to cancel a game. There is a 53-player requirement in the SEC, Big 12, and Pac-12, opening November 7, which means that as long as 53 players are able to play, they can play the game (a college football roster

can usually have close to 100 players). In contrast, the Big Ten will cancel a game if “either team’s positivity rate is greater than 5 percent and its population—including coaches and on-field staff—is greater than 7.5 percent, the game will be canceled and considered a no contest” (Chicago Tribune). Additionally, if a Big Ten player tests positive for COVID-19, they would have to miss at the very least 21 days until they could practice or play in a game. The Big Ten kicked off their season this past weekend adhering to these guidelines; while so far it seems successful, it is too early to tell how well the season will go compared to their conference competitors that have already seen games canceled/postponed.

crozzword

By CHRIS JONES & NISH SINHA 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16 18

17 19

20 21 22 23

24

25 26 27

28

31

32

34

35

40 41

36

37

38

39

29

30 33