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NEWS: Four Unions Rally On Quad Amid Contract Renegotiations

NOVEMBER 16, 2023 EIGHTH WEEK VOL. 136, ISSUE 5

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UChicago Professor Sounds Alarm Over Troubling University Finances

By ERIC FANG | News Editor UChicago Classics professor Clifford Ando blew the whistle on the University’s troubling financial state during a discussion with UChicago history professor Jonathan Levy organized by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory on November 3.

Ando began the talk by speaking about his motivation for writing a paper circulated prior to the event titled “West Virginia Chicago Is Happening to You: The Fight for the Modern University.” In the paper, Ando “uses public financial data to lay bare the risks to which university leadership exposed the community in a

rush of leveraged investments over the last 15+ years,” per the discussion’s online description.

“My ambition is not to take issue with any given discipline or endeavor, nor, frankly, to complain about the subsidizing of particular units. What the University should be in the business of doing is making sure that many fields flourish, but we have gone far down the road in which research and teaching are assessed according to their susceptibility to be instrumentalized in pursuit of narrow economic and possessive, individualist things,” Ando CONTINUED ON PG. 2

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UCPD Arrests Protesters Engaged in Admissions Office Sit-In and Faculty Members

By NIKHIL JAISWAL | Editor-In-Chief SOLANA ADEDOKUN | Editor-In-Chief MICHAEL McCLURE | Managing Editor and FINN HARTNETT | Senior News Reporter

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NEWS: Paul Alivisatos Talks Student Safety, Free Expression, and Hyde Park Relations PAGE 4

NEWS: Bill Barr Discusses Free Expression, Political Division, and Democracy at IOP Event PAGE 14

At 6:15 p.m. on November 9th, University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) officers began to arrest demonstrators engaged in a sit-in inside Rosenwald Hall. In addition to student demonstrators, two faculty members were also arrested. The arrested individuals were processed inside adjacent Walker Museum as protesters surrounded all exits. They were charged with “criminal trespass to real property,” a Class B misdemeanor under Illinois state law.

Protesters from UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) have been engaged in

a sit-in in the building since 11:30 a.m.

Protesters outside, who had been present on the quad since an 11 a.m. protest at Levi Hall, began to gather and chant around the entrance of Rosenwald at 5:10 p.m. About 250 were on hand to protest and to witness the eventual removal.

During the protest, UCUP asked for a legal observer to be present if allowed into Rosenwald—a request that the UChicago dean-on-call denied.

“Let them stay!” protesters chanted with increasing intensity as police

VIEWPOINTS: Supporting Palestinians Doesn’t Need to Be Anti-Israel

VIEWPOINTS: From your Public Safety Liaison: Where is the Peace in Arresting Peaceful Protestors?

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

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“Does this accord with the promises we make, even implicitly, to undergraduates?”

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said during the talk.

“I think we’ve gone far down the road in which the only fields that matter are ones that are essentially isomorphic with particular occupations.”

Levy commented about the diversity of UChicago community members present at the talk and about how important the discussion is for all parties.

“Looking out at the room, I see undergraduates, I see some master’s students, I see some Ph.D. students, I see some postdocs, I see faculty, I see emeritus faculty, I see staff, I see every member of the University here to have a conversation that we need to have.”

According to Ando’s paper, the University’s debt grew from $2.236 billion in 2006 to $5.809 billion in 2022, which represents an increase of 260 percent.

High levels of debt present a financial problem for the University because of rising interest payments. The University paid $45.7 million in interest payments in 2006. Ando claimed that payments averaged $200 million in 2021 and 2022.

Assuming that the University nets $60,000 in revenue from each undergraduate, Ando calculated that the tuition of more than 3,300 undergraduates—nearly half the number in the College—would be needed to just service debt every year.

“Any tuition-paying parent at the University of Chicago should ask themselves ‘Am I one of those parents whose tuition is going to pay for my child’s education? Or am I one of those parents whose tuition is just paying for debt?’ Maybe that will change our admissions,” Ando said during the talk.

The University’s financial problem is further compounded by the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes, which increase the cost of new debt. With $900 million in loans due over the next five years, the University is unlikely to secure generous terms when it seeks to borrow to pay off loans that are due. At the talk, Ando placed blame for the University’s poor finances both on the University’s trustees and on President Paul Alivisatos.

“If I had to single out some responsibility, the trustees have failed in something like their most basic function of guiding the University’s corporation so that it is in a position to flourish as an academic enterprise. Talking about the leadership of the University of Chicago, I think the inability of the presidential leadership of the University of Chicago, of all places, to articulate and defend the meaning of the university is impressive,” Ando said during the talk.

In the face of these troubling finances, Ando points out that the base compensation for the University’s president has increased by 285 percent from 2006 to 2022.

He believes that the University’s nonprofit organizational structure may lead to an unhealthy level of risk-taking on behalf of the administration and uncommonly large compensation packages for University leadership.

“But university leadership—perhaps partly because universities are nonprofit and their efficiencies are hard to assess— is rewarded even more than corporate titans for socializing the costs of their own risk-taking or, you might say, for inflicting harm on their own organizations,” Ando writes. “The base compensation of the

University of Chicago’s president therefore grew even in years when assets were sold, mass layoffs were made, and ‘merit’ compensation for many faculty was 0 percent.”

In response to financial shortfalls, Ando alleges that the University set limits on research spending, implemented a staff hiring freeze, and “cut budgets across the board.” These alleged cuts come as the University is supposedly spending more than $3 million to renovate President Alivisatos’s private residence. Ando claims that $3 million is “greater than the aggregate research allowances of all 250 plus faculty in the Divinity School and Division of the Humanities.”

Further, according to Ando, given that the Humanities Division spends just under 95 percent of its budget on salary and benefits, cutting budgets necessarily equates to either cutting staff or utilizing a greater proportion of instructional staff as opposed to more expensive research faculty.

“The effects of this change are also visible in the undergraduate College, whose own censuses of instruction—the so-called annual Johnson Reports—reveal that research faculty account for less and less of the instruction of undergraduates (from ’06 to ’20, the decline is 45 percent to 38 percent of undergraduate instruction by tenure-stream faculty) while nontenure-stream instructors account for more and more (over the same period, an increase from 22% to 38%),” Ando writes.

“Does this accord with the promises we make, even implicitly, to undergraduates?

Is this in keeping with some of the highest tuition in the land?”

Ando believes that the cost-cutting measures employed by the University reflects a nation-wide “revolution in the notion of the University from ideal to instrument and of knowledge from end to means” and equate to an “assault on the liberal arts.”

“Where Chicago is concerned, the degradation of the Humanities and Social Science Divisions is short-sighted even on narrowly strategic grounds. Historically, they are the only units in the arts and sciences to score highly in international rankings. Treating one’s best and cheapest units as an ATM is an unforced error of such magnitude that it must be deliberate, the result not simply of error or despite, but of a fundamentally different view of what the university should be.”

Ando concluded his paper by cautioning the University against advancing professional schools at the expense of core Humanities and Social Science Divisions.

“The goal at Chicago appears to be the transformation of the university into a gleaming network of professional schools with a dispreferred and somewhat shabby teaching unit at its heart, the abandonment, in other words, of the idea of the research university that was current at its foundation and which Chicago itself did so much to cement in the national consciousness. That universities are moving in large numbers in the same dismal direction reflects the ideologically constrained worldviews that propel university leaders, presidents and trustees alike, to the choices they are making. Financial difficulty is the context and not the cause of this transformation. We should dissent from this vision and this process,” Ando concludes.

UChicago Board of Trustees Accused of Violating Illinois Law With Fossil Fuel Investments

By ARJUN MAZUMDAR | Senior News Reporter On a Zoom webinar held Tuesday, October 30, the UChicago Environmental Justice Task Force (EJTF) filed a divest-

ment complaint against the UChicago Board of Trustees for their investment in fossil fuel enterprises.

The complaint, filed with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, alleges that the Board violated Illinois law by ignoring its “fiduciary duty to invest with consideration for the University’s

charitable purposes.” More than 50 faculty members and 51 organizations have signed the complaint in support.

The complaint asserts that Attorney CONTINUED ON PG. 3

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“We will not take silence for an answer, just as we will not take complicity in the climate emergency as an answer. ” CONTINUED FROM PG. 2

General Kwame Raoul is “responsible for ensuring that charitable assets are allocated appropriately and for investigating charitable manager’s violations of fiduciary duties.” EJTF requested that the Attorney General investigate the grievances outlined in its complaint and take legal action against the Board if they are found in violation of Illinois law.

This action aligns with a growing trend of climate-focused criticism directed at universities. Last spring, the Fossil Free 5—a coalition of student groups at

group’s legal complaints mirror those filed by the Fossil Free 5, which cited the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA). Every state in the U.S. has enacted some iteration of UPMIFA except Pennsylvania, which has a similar regulation named the Pennsylvania Prudent Investor Rule.

According to Illinois’s version of UPMIFA, charitable institutions like the University must manage their funds based on their organization’s mission and “act in good faith, with the care that an ordinarily prudent person in a like

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Vanderbilt University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Yale University, and Princeton University—filed legal complaints with their respective states’ attorneys general accusing their institutions of violating state laws governing how endowments are invested.

EJTF is a member of the Solidarity Six, a group composed of peer organizations at Pennsylvania State University, Pomona College, Tufts University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Washington University in St. Louis. The

position would exercise under similar circumstances.”

The Board of Trustees, a charitable corporation founded in 1890, acts as the governing body of the University of Chicago. Per its charter, it is responsible “for the proper management of the educational, fiscal, and other affairs of said corporation, and for the care and investment of all moneys and property belonging to it, or given or intrusted to the said corporation for educational or other purposes.”

The complaint filed by EJTF argues that the Board’s fossil fuel investments

directly oppose the University’s core values, thus violating UPMIFA. “The current and future effects of climate change jeopardize the physical integrity of Chicago area infrastructure and the safety of UChicago students, faculty, and staff, undermining the Trustees’ charitable purposes. By investing in companies disproportionately responsible for the climate crisis, the Trustees expose the UChicago community to severe injury, thus failing to act in UChicago’s best interests and violating the duty of loyalty.”

The Board has a history of rebuffing or ignoring claims made by campus environmental activist groups, beginning with the University of Chicago Action Network (UCAN) in 2010. Despite student referendums, climate strikes, and investigative reporting, then University president Robert J. Zimmer announced in 2015 that “the board [was] unlikely to want to [divest].”

UCAN’s divestment campaign ended in 2017, and there were no major pushes for divestment until EJTF launched its own effort in 2021. That same year, President Paul Alivisatos reaffirmed the University’s position and said it had no plans to divest from fossil fuels.

The complaint also frames the University’s decision to invest in fossil fuels as a risky financial decision unsuited for an endowment. “The Board has violated its duty of care by investing the University’s endowment in financial risk and volatile fossil fuel stocks, which have underperformed the broader market for a ten-year period and face a decidedly negative long-term outlook,” according to the report.

Since the University has never publicly confirmed the total value of its holdings in fossil fuel companies, EJTF looked to peer institutions to create a benchmark estimate. “Using the low end of the ranges from Harvard and Rutgers, two percent of UChicago’s $10.3 billion endowment invested in fossil fuels puts the conservative estimate at 206 million dollars. The real value may be much higher.”

EJTF also alleges that several trust-

ees are in dereliction of their duty to remain impartial on decisions and are in violation of the Board’s conflict of interest rules because of their professional ties to fossil fuels. The complaint names 18 members of the Board, including Chairman of the Board David M. Rubenstein, and highlights their respective involvements.

The majority of highlighted board members are not directly tied to the fossil fuel industry. Instead, they are flagged for investments companies they oversee have made in the industry or for their respective companies’ relationships with the industry.

Despite the University’s reluctance to address its fossil fuel investments, several of its peer institutions have made commitments to create sustainable investing portfolios. These include Harvard University’s total divestment, Princeton University’s vote to dissociate from 90 fossil fuel companies, and Columbia University’s formal disclosure of having no direct oil or gas investments. Similar commitments have been made by Dartmouth College, Brown University, Boston University, Cornell University, and Georgetown University.

Divesting from fossil fuels is not the only area in which UChicago’s investment practices have drawn criticism. In April, the University scored zero points out of 40 in an Amnesty International report grading institutional endowments’ compliance with the United Nations’s Guiding Principles of Human Rights.

Recently, a group of students supporting Palestine has called on the University to divest from Israeli companies and arms manufacturers.

“The UChicago administration’s silence on this issue shows that their sole line of defense—abiding by ‘legal investment practices’—has crumbled, and that they are afraid. We will not take silence for an answer, just as we will not take complicity in the climate emergency as an answer. EJTF will continue to put pressure on admin to end their silence and commit to divestment and transparency,” read a statement from EJTF to The Maroon.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — NOVEMBER 16, 2023

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GSU and University Make Progress But Still Far From Contract

By NIKHIL JAISWAL | Editor-In-Chief Since May 31, Graduate Students United–United Electrical (GSU-UE) and the University have been negotiating a union contract that has the potential to redefine the relationship between graduate students and the University.

The two sides have reached tentative agreements on nearly all of the non-economic terms of their first union contract.

However, GSU-UE and the University have yet to agree on a single economic proposal or settle the specifics regarding non-discrimination policies, according to the Union’s bargaining tracker and members involved in negotiations.

Representing graduate students is lead negotiator Kimberly Lawson from United Electrical (UE), the national union with which GSU-UE is affiliated, and members of GSU-UE’s bargaining committee. The bargaining committee is composed of 25 members elected by each academic division.

Lawson is also leading negotiations with Northwestern University on behalf of the Northwestern University Graduate Workers, which is also affiliated with UE. Negotiating on behalf of the University is Anna Wermuth, a vice chair in the Labor & Employment practice at law firm Cozen O’Connor, and a group of senior University administrators. This group includes Vice Provost for Academic Appointments and Graduate Education Jason Merchant, Assistant Vice President of Human Resources Brett Leibsker, and Assistant Provost & Executive Director of UChicagoGRAD Administration and Policy Beth Niestat.

Wermuth has extensive experience in negotiations between universities and labor groups. She led the campaigns in response to unionization drives among

non-tenure track faculty at a number of universities, including UChicago. She also represented Northwestern in its fight against a unionization effort among football players.

After 11 meetings, the latest of which was on November 2, GSU-UE and the University remain deadlocked on significant aspects of the contract. When union contracts are being negotiated, the terms of the contract are classified as either economic or language proposals.

Language proposals refer to terms in union contracts that define all non-monetary terms. They include conditions on severability, workload, discipline, and health and safety. GSU-UE has secured significant concessions from the University on language proposals.

Among the concessions was a commitment by the University to not use the academic discipline system for employment-related issues.

“One of the issues that hurt our members a lot is that the University and supervisors were using academic probation as a tool to fire or discipline workers when the issue may have been employment-related and not academic-related. We have secured a clause that says that academic probation may only be used for academic matters,” said Valay Agarawal, a member of GSU-UE’s bargaining committee, in an interview with The Maroon.

One of the biggest wins for GSU-UE was a union shop clause, which requires all current and future graduate students to become due-paying members of the union or pay an agency fee to GSU-UE. According to Agarawal, annual turnover in the bargaining unit is consistently around 20 percent as graduate students complete their

programs and new students matriculate.

Without a union shop clause, GSU-UE would have needed to ensure that all new graduate student employees signed union cards, which would have been a major endeavor.

As of the most recent negotiating sessions, there is no tentative agreement on the equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination section of the contract.

GSU-UE is seeking to add socioeconomic status, political affiliation or belief, family status, immigration status, citizenship status, and medical condition as specified protected classes but has faced pushback from the University.

Another issue of contention within the section is the definition of abuse of authority. GSU-UE is seeking to codify a specific definition while the University wants to continue using the definition in the University Grievance Policy for Graduate Students, which the University may amend unilaterally.

“If [the University says] that the abuse of authority definition can change, it would basically render any process worthless as they can change a policy on a whim,” Agarawal said.

Despite progress on the language proposals, negotiations have been slow regarding economic proposals.

Economic proposals are elements of the contract that would directly cost the University money. They include proposals on compensation, health benefits, and retirement plans. Among GSU-UE’s demands, which it presented on October 17, are an increase in the minimum Ph.D. stipend from $37,000 to $45,000, a 6 percent annual raise for the duration of the contract, dental and vision coverage, and a dependent care stipend.

“They rejected two articles and many sections of other articles. Whatever they passed us back was status quo, or worse than status quo on all of the articles that they returned to us, which was extremely insulting and seems like stalling behavior,” Agarawal said.

However, the University views the progress made so far in a very different light. In a statement to The Maroon, the University commended the progress made so far and expressed optimism. “[The headway made] represents encouraging progress in a relatively short amount of time in the context of other union negotiations. In recent weeks, the GSU-UE team submitted its first set of economic proposals. We are grateful for the GSU-UE team’s engagement, and look forward to negotiation on the economic proposals to reach a contract.”

GSU-UE is also pushing for “community wellness” terms in its contract. Those include a demand that the University match the union’s donations to the Hyde Park and Kenwood Hunger Programs run by the Hyde Park Union Church and that the University publicly disclose a breakdown of its Operating and Capital Budget every year, including sources of funds, partnerships, investments, and department allocations.

When asked whether GSU-UE had plans to strike, Agarawal said it was not up to union leadership.

“Bosses are the best organizers. The fact that we go or do not go on a strike actually just depends on the University. If they want to come to the bargaining table with serious proposals, maybe a strike won’t happen.” He went on to add, “If the boss is organizing our members enough that they are willing to go on strike, the strike will happen.”

Paul Alivisatos Talks Student Safety, Free Expression, and Hyde Park Relations

By NAINA PURUSHOTHAMAN | Senior News Reporter In his third year as president of the University, Paul Alivisatos has become the anchor of an administrative cabinet

that has seen substantial turnover in the past year.

In an exclusive interview, The Ma-

roon Editors-in-Chief Solana Adedokun and Nikhil Jaiswal and Senior News Reporter Naina Purushothaman spoke to Alivisatos about the Hong Kong campus, safety and security, free expression, and

the University’s relationship with the Hyde Park community.

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“Free expression and inclusion—we should be viewing those as reinforcing each other, not being in tension.”

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Kong, what is the status of the Hong Kong campus?

Paul Alivisatos: It was quiet during the pandemic. So, as you may know, in China and in Hong Kong as well, the restrictions on travel were very intense. All the remote work and so on were there.

So actually, the campus ended up being closed for three years, and during that period, we ended up hosting one set of our activities in Singapore for one year. But in June of this past year, we did essentially reopen there, and there are some programs running there now.

As you point out, it’s a complicated environment. There’s been a lot of changes.

What’s the national security law with the overall global environment there? I say right now, there are faculty teaching there; there are some programs. Those programs seem to be going well. And within the classrooms, we’re going to see how things go. But it seems to me like what I’m hearing is that faculty are feeling that they’re able to have the kinds of substantive Chicago-like classes that they would like to see.

Let me share a perspective on this. I do think it’s true that there’s a lot of forces pulling. There’s a real set of geopolitical forces that are pulling apart. And it’s also an interesting question: Are there some areas of creation of new knowledge which might create the kinds of connection points which over time…will be the pieces that still connect these different societies which are so large, which are so impactful on the world, where there may be many topics where research together [and] teaching together might benefit the world?

So I think we should be careful and thoughtful. We have a campus there. It’s being used right now. It can serve functions of connection points even in a world that’s pulling apart. Let’s be thoughtful and careful and see how the campus goes over time.

CM: The University has lowered the number of monthly Lyft rides around campus. What went behind that decision, and do you anticipate that that will change in light of the recent safety concerns on campus?

PA: Let me say, I do think that the first thing that was described a little bit yesterday, in the [safety] webinar actually, the Lyft ride emerged originally as something that students proposed that we adopted, not so much in the context of security. But in the end, it turns out that it makes a lot of sense. I do believe that having a point-topoint transportation option that students can use when needed is a really good thing to do, and also, having a healthy shuttle service is a good thing to do.

And I will say that the initial version, you know, we started with a certain number and tried it out, there was some reasonable data that showed that there were a number of Lyft rides that were being used, essentially, in times and places that were substitutional to the shuttle services.

And so that’s an example of having a harm to the public good because the shuttles are important because they provide a way that’s appropriate for getting people around that doesn’t use [individual cars] and it doesn’t clog the street. They’re just a better way of doing things at some level.

So certainly one of the factors in our mind was that making it so that you have to ration it just a little bit more would help to make sure that the balance between the common service of the shuttles versus the point-to-point choice—that one wasn’t harming the other—was part of the logic that went into making the shift.

We’ve only had this seven [Lyft rides] in place for a short time. I’d like to see what the data looks like for a little bit. And then we’re also going to look carefully at if there are other options. We’re going to look at those things, too. And I think getting the feedback is always helpful. One thing I do want to say about the [safety] webinar is that there was a lot of feedback that came to us, and we’ll continue to go through all the comments and just reflect on them and try to see other things from that that we should pull out.

CM: Have the safety concerns begun to harm the University’s ability to attract undergraduates, graduates, or faculty?

PA: Not that I’ve seen. In fact, the early numbers all look very encouraging to us in terms of all the factors that we would look at in terms of applications and how they

come in and so on. But this was a terrible, terrible set of incidents that really affects the community.

I do want to also reiterate a little bit of what I said yesterday in the webinar. We’ve been making a series of investments that we’re continuing over time. I do want to note that, because of the investments we made in the cameras, the license plate readers, especially also in the creation of [the] Strategic Operations Center, which is a group within the UCPD that’s looking at all of that data and helping us to deploy our forces in response to what’s happening, we were able to actually make the arrest that we made. And I think that’s important. But it’s very concerning.

One other thing I do want to say is there’s the shuttles, there’s the Lyfts, there’s ways to request a walk, there’s a number of things that people can do that help them manage the safety situation. It’s a very difficult thing to do, and I urge students and families to look together at all of those tools which are available. We do want people to experience the wonderful parts of the city, of which there’s so many, so I think it’s important to try to really have a conversation about approaches to the safety situation. But you’re also thinking about how to have the joy of the city as well as to manage to the best comfort level and decisions about how to use the various tools to manage it as safely as possible. I think that was Dean Rasmussen’s message, which I liked a lot.

CM: Another issue has been maintaining an inclusive campus versus fostering free speech. We wanted to ask, in light of the protests on campus, have any donors or trustees pushed the University to bar or disband SJP? PA: Let me just [say] a couple of things here. So first is no to that question. Let’s talk about what it is that leads to a university that fulfills its highest aspirations, which is to be a place of truth seeking. The original statement of inclusion versus free speech is kind of not the way I would view it. I think that actually, in the best version of free expression, free expression is happening in an environment where students and where community members are learning to respectfully listen to others, to have

compassion towards human beings, to be wanting to learn from others what their ideas are and so on.

And the best version of free expression is by hearing somebody else’s viewpoint who maybe has had different experiences.

That’s the potential of a moment of truly learning and sharing with others. So I think those two—free expression and inclusion—we should be viewing those as reinforcing each other, not being in tension.

Now, I will say obviously that’s an example that I’m giving where free expression is working in the best way. If students want to read something on free expression that I thought was quite beautiful, it would be professor Gabriel Lear of the 2017 Aims of Education address, which talks about how to [engage] in free expression in the University in a virtuous way. He’s not worried, and I love that.

But obviously, we know that when there are important, deep, difficult topics going on, not every interaction is one that’s as respectful or as compassionate as what I’m describing. I would urge students or others who are reading The Maroon just to take a step back and reflect on that.

I mean, going back to [Core classes] and thinking, what did this course teach us about how to be human in this world? Let’s go back and not lose those things.

So there’s a lot to talk about around the topic of free expression right now. It’s a very, very, very difficult time. There’s a lot of very difficult things happening in the world. Horrible things. So I just want to go back to that, and we could talk about all the specifics, but at some level, we each are in this world as part of a community, and we do things to make it better or worse. And so each person, I hope, will reflect on that.

CM: Going off of that, do you think the Kalven Report needs to be updated to address an individual’s ability to direct supporters, especially online, to harass those whom they disagree with?

PA: The Kalven Report is struggling with the issue of whether the University takes positions in the world for issues that are not inside the University. The report specifically says—I think more or less correctly—that because as a university, CONTINUED ON PG. 6

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“The Kalven Report is struggling with the issue of whether the University takes positions in the world for issues that are not inside the University.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 5

we believe that evidence and reason and logic and rigor…should be the [approaches] that guide us as opposed to authority or tradition or dogma.

The report says, I think relatively correctly, if, for example, the institution, possibly in the person of the president…starts to take positions and does so over and over again, then that is in the sense of authority, saying to people in the University, this is how you should think. And so the Kalven Report says: Future presidents, don’t do that. So that’s what the Kalven Report says.

Now, your topic, your question about the online components, has to do with whether there can be various ways in which individuals inside the University may potentially thwart the free expression of others. And then we have various ways of handling that, disciplinary and otherwise. This particular topic that you raise is a very complicated one. Certainly, it’s true that if a person specifically directs in that way, that that probably would run afoul of some of the existing disciplinary policies, but it can be quite complicated because [there are] specifics that can go into a situation like that that have to be looked at carefully.

It’s a very difficult situation right now because these online tools can create environments where people do feel like their

expression is being thwarted but where in some sense, there hasn’t been a direct action that leads to that, so it’s complicated.

I will say this: If somebody is experiencing people harassing them online, we have a lot of tools for supporting people in that situation. And last year, actually, we spent a lot of time looking at those and enhancing them. So I do want to say out front that we do have a lot of support for such a situation and that if there is a situation where somebody appears to have used those online tools to thwart another person, certainly, if we receive a complaint, we have disciplinary policies that let us look at those situations. It’s just they’re not always going to work in a simple way. They have to fit within certain criteria. I hope that’s enough to be clear. It’s complicated.

CM: We also wanted to talk a little bit about Hyde Park and the University’s relations with Hyde Park. How often do you speak with community leaders in Hyde Park?

PA: I do end up meeting quite a lot because I’m out and about, and I meet them at different events and so on. But let me say that the partnership of the University with nearby communities, Hyde Park and also Woodlawn, Washington Park, and so on, those matter a lot to the University, to being a good partner together, to trying to think about things in interesting ways.

I want to give you an example from my very recent one. So [at] the cancer center groundbreaking [ceremony], I just found one of the most moving things because there was a large contingent of people from the community who were celebrating with us what this would mean for people all across the South Side who are now going to have, ultimately, a set of cancer-related programs that will help save lives. It will also be really in partnership with the community.

If you get a chance, you could go and see a little bit of the video of the statements.

It’s about one hour. You know, there’s some beautiful choir singing, there’s some wonderful statements. The attorney general, Kwame [Raoul], spoke with one of the most powerful stories I’ve ever heard about how the University played a role in his family’s life. So that, to me, feels like that’s like the best of the University and the community working together, and we do things like that in Hyde Park and in Hyde Park Labs.

It’s going up now. I think it’s going to be huge. We partner around all kinds of issues that are of interest to Hyde Parkers but also many communities nearby. And we should be really open and working hard to help our various communities nearby to thrive.

CM: Are there any kinds of plans or thoughts to open centers related to other

priorities, such as mental health or violence prevention?

PA: So I don’t know about whether a center is being planned, but I will say there’s a tremendous amount of activity in both of those areas. That’s very important.

That’s going on at the University and inside the medical center both. So we work on them, but I will say the trauma center is very, very important. And I’m really glad that the University has saved a lot of lives.

One last thing, just a factoid to your point about violence prevention. If you look at the individuals who have been treated in the trauma center and whether they’re involved subsequently in another violent event, and you compare it to any other trauma center—because day zero, there are violence interruption teams working with the individual and the family over an extended period of time—the incidences of a second violence event in that person’s life [are] about one-fifth of the percentage that is observed. One-fifth, which in this kind of business, there’s nothing else like it. But it’s an extraordinary impact compared to others, and I think that it’s not just the technical care to save the life, but it’s participation with those people to have a life that doesn’t bring them into violence again. That, I think, we should be very proud of.

Four Unions Rally on Quad Amid Contract Renegotiations

By TIFFANY LI | News Reporter Hundreds gathered in the center of the quad on Wednesday in a rally organized by four major unions, together representing more than 6,500 workers.

Nurses at UChicago Medicine (UCMed) are represented by National Nurses United (NNU). Facility service workers on campus and at UCMed are a part of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73. These groups have been major labor presences on campus for decades. Nurses, facility services workers on campus, and hospital service employees are all negotiating contracts with the

University.

Graduate Students United-United Electrical (GSU-UE), which represents UChicago graduate student employees, is bargaining for its first contract with the University after winning a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election in March of this year.

Non-tenure-track and instructional faculty represented by Faculty Forward (FF) are set to enter bargaining later this year. At the rally, it was announced that members of the Writing Faculty Union, which represented Sosc writing advisors,

writing and research advisors, lectors, and writing specialists, voted in a NLRB election to join FF, which is also a part of SEIU Local 73.

Members from each union gave speeches to the crowd, calling for increased wages, improved working conditions, and better healthcare coverage from the University.

Charles, a member of SEIU Local 73 who has worked as an engineer at UCMed for 18 years, spoke to the workers gathered at the rally. “Throughout the pandemic, we came to work every day to help ensure that the hospital was able to treat seriously ill people,” he said. “We

risked our lives to care for them. All we ask is that the hospital works with us to ensure we are fully staffed, well trained, and fully equipped with the safety equipment that we need at the hospital.”

Stephanie Graham, a registered nurse at UCMed who is on the bargaining team for NNU, called attention to the challenges nurses are facing with a significant loss of nursing staff and inadequate training.

“We feel very unsupported by the hospital. We try to follow the policies and procedures set forth by the hospital only for them to break their own policies and CONTINUED ON PG. 7

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“The University has made safety a bargaining item. It is not a bargaining item. It is a necessity.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 6

procedures,” she said. “I would like the hospital to look at the nurses as if they are human beings and not their property and to look at the patients and care for the patients as much as we care for the patients.”

“It’s tremendously frustrating to know the level of care that you want to provide, that somebody deserves, and that what you’re actually able to provide is so far from that,” said Scott Mechanic, who works as a nurse in the emergency department and is also a member of the NNU bargaining team. “What people are getting instead is poor care in a crowded hallway.”

Joe Pruim, a member of SEIU Local 73 for almost six years who has worked at the University for 18 years, also spoke to the crowd. “The University has made safety a bargaining item,” he said, noting that workers needed to negotiate for equipment like safety glasses. “It is not a bargaining item. It is a necessity.”

In addition to workplace safety, SEIU is also calling for increased wages. “We’re not valued at the fair market value that we should be,” Prium said. “There’s a lot of turnover, and it never used to be like

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nathaniel rodwell-simon.

that.”

Prium said that if his wages could not increase with the rate of inflation, it might become infeasible for him to continue working at UChicago. “If inflation keeps rising the way it is, I am going to have to look for somewhere else, and it would be an unfortunate thing because I do like working for a university.”

FF member Dmitry Kondrashov, a se-

nior lecturer in the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division, spoke to the crowd calling for increased pay for teaching faculty. “​​Inflation has eroded our real pay while the cost of housing, childcare, and many other necessities has skyrocketed,” he said. Kondrashov criticized the pay gap between the University’s executives and workers in the unions. “It’s these executives who made decisions to load the University with debt by spending billions on shiny buildings and then declare the need for hiring freezes, budgetary restraints, and cost cutting on the backs of the workers.”

Reiterating a sentiment conveyed by other speakers at the rally, Kondrashov expressed solidarity between all of the unions present and the workers they represented. “We have each other’s backs, and we won’t let them take away the satisfaction and joy and power of workers standing together in solidarity forever,” he said.

Renée Fonseca, a fourth year Ph.D. candidate in the Biological Sciences Division Department of Human Genetics and member of the GSU-UE’s bargaining committee, expressed dissatisfaction with the University’s current treatment of graduate students on issues including discrimination, lack of dental and vision insurance, and low wages.

“We all have, as grad workers, come to see that the system in place is not working in our best interest. It’s not a system that really cares for our outcomes as future workers and as people,” she said.

“We want to be the best educators and the best researchers that we can be.

And it’s really hard to do that when we don’t have the material resources to live comfortably,” GSU-UE’s communication secretary said. “I have friends who have at least one cavity for every year of employment at UChicago because we simply do not make enough to afford dental and vision coverage.”

Despite the frustration that union members expressed, many of them were also hopeful for good outcomes from their contract negotiations with the University.

Michael Stablein, Jr., a GSU-UE member and fifth year joint-Ph.D. candidate in English language and literature and Theater and Performance Studies, connected the union action at UChicago with a broader nationwide movement. “We’re seeing a labor movement nationwide that’s really putting wind in the sails of unions across the country,” he said.

Stablein said he was incredibly optimistic. “We’ve been able to secure real wins for our members before we even ratify a contract. The time now is just to bring it across the finish line.”

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By 7:58 p.m., 13 demonstrators had been arrested, processed and released.

CONTINUED FROM PG. 1

milled around the front entrance to the building. They also chanted “Shame on you!” at police and University officials alike.

“Deans-on-call are cops too!” they yelled. “Fuck UCPD! Fuck UChicago!”

Police shuffled around the front entrance, looking out at the protesters. Every so often, one emerged from inside the building and joined the group standing outside.

“Take out your phones and record everything,” an organizer shouted into a megaphone. “If they stop free speech, we’ve got to let them know. Because what

are they doing?” “Sitting!” the audience replied.

At 5:59 p.m., a man was let into the Rosenwald front entrance, followed by three University security guards. Soon after, the UCUP protesters outside split up to cover each exit where sit-in participants might be led out. One group moved to the south exits of Rosenwald near Harper Library, one group went to the Walker Library entrance to the east, and one remained by the front entrance.

At 6:05 p.m., a protester warned that those inside Rosenwald were given five minutes to leave the building before they would be issued a citation.

At 6:15 p.m. at the south entrance, a protester announced that arrests were being made. “This is fucking atrocious,” an organizer shouted. Soon, it became known that arrested students were being processed inside Walker Library.

Around 6:40 p.m., a Palestinian student who had been arrested and handcuffed by UCPD was released. He was given a citation for trespassing.

By 7:58 p.m., 13 demonstrators had been arrested, processed and released.

Those remaining inside were still engaged in the sit-in inside the admissions office.

UCPD officers took protestors from

the admissions office to the financial aid office inside Walker Museum, which is connected to Rosenwald Hall. There, they were ticketed and given a court date, then handcuffed, escorted to the exit of Walker, and released.

According to a member of UCUP inside Rosenwald, by 8:00 p.m., only eight protestors, all women, remained inside the admissions office along with two faculty members.

By 8:50 p.m., all of the protestors who engaged in the sit-in and both faculty members were processed and released.

Nearly 100 protestors continued rallying outside Walker Museum.

Cook County Board of Commissioners President Talks Time at UChicago, Politics, and South Side Issues

By OLIVER BUNTIN | News Reporter Toni Preckwinkle currently serves as the Cook County Board of Commissioners president, where she manages the financial affairs of the county and has championed a variety of projects. But before that, she came to Chicago to study the social sciences at UChicago. In an interview with The Maroon, Preckwinkle discussed her time at the University and subsequent career in politics.

Preckwinkle has served as president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners since 2010. She describes her primary duties as being “responsible for the budget and ensuring that we have the revenues to implement the programs that we’ve outlined.”

A native of Saint Paul, Minnesota, Preckwinkle studied social sciences at the University of Chicago from 1965 to 1969.

“I went to a public high school where I could get good grades without working very hard, which is not good preparation for the University of Chicago,” Preckwinkle said of the academic challenges she faced at the College. “I was a terrible student in my first couple of years, although by the time I graduated, I was doing pretty well.”

She added, “In lots of ways, it was a challenging place. There were virtually

no Latino students and there were very few Black students and a lot of very privileged people, so it was…a challenging place for me.”

She also said that her time at the University, between 1965 and 1969, was a “tumultuous time,” noting that there were many “anti-war rallies, a lot of ferment on campuses around…the war [and] racial justice and social justice issues.”

After graduation, Preckwinkle went on to graduate school to become a teacher. She taught social studies at Englewood and South Shore neighborhood high schools.

Preckwinkle became involved in politics through the Hyde Park neighborhood club, doing development work, before taking a job at the city’s Department of Economic Development and Chicago Jobs Council, where she worked with community-based organizations on employment training.

She then decided to run for office and, after two failed attempts, in 1991 was narrowly elected as alderman of the fourth ward by 109 votes out of a total of 10, 865 votes cast.

Preckwinkle went on to spend 19 years representing the fourth ward, which encompasses parts of the Ken-

wood, Oakland, Douglas, and Hyde Park neighborhoods. She described the work as fulfilling: “You’re the mayor of a small town…and that means people come to you for not just, you know, potholes and streetlights, but they want to get their kids in a good school, [or] if they want housing, if they want a job,” she said, “You can help people in lots of ways.”

She described her decision to run as an opportunity, saying “I looked around for other things I might do and I decided to run for president of the County Board because Todd Stroger, the incumbent, clearly wasn’t gonna win.” Stroger went on to finish fourth in the Democratic primary after a tenure clouded by allegations of nepotism and mismanagement, as well as a sales tax increase.

Preckwinkle also said, “I thought somebody who cared about the big issues [of] public health and public safety ought to try.”

Preckwinkle said that “getting the finances [of the county] in order” was a “tremendous challenge” but touted her work reducing liabilities and upgrading the county’s bond rating, saying “We’ve, with the help of really good people, gotten the finances in order.” According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Cook County currently faces a $170 million deficit, and, as of the treasurer’s 2021 disclosure, has

$72.5 billion in unfunded pension liabilities.

Preckwinkle also noted her work with UChicago to analyze the impact of Cook County’s medical debt forgiveness and guaranteed income programs, which have seen thousands of residents receive recurring monthly unrestricted payments.

She said, “We’re working with academic institutions like the University of Chicago to figure out what impact our guaranteed income pilot is having.”

Finally, she discussed her efforts to improve transit access on the South Side, citing a project to extend the Red Line to 130th Street and the Fair Transit South Cook Project, which subsidized reduced fares on the Rock Island and Metra electric lines as well as increased Pace bus service on the heavily utilized Halstead route.

However, she noted that the CTA was uncooperative with respect to calls to increase service on their South Michigan bus route. She also noted that attempts to get the CTA, Metra, and Pace to accept the same payment method have faced difficulties due to governance conflicts.

Reflecting on initiatives such as these, and her career in politics more broadly, Preckwinkle said, “If you work at it, you can really make a difference in the communities you serve.”

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Community Relations Council Tries to Tackle Public Safety and Displacement

By GABRIEL KRAEMER | News Reporter Almost two years ago, President Paul Alivisatos and Provost Ka Yee Lee announced the creation of the Council on UChicago/Community Relations, an independent body intended to reevaluate how the University interacts with the surrounding South Side community.

“One of the University of Chicago’s most fundamental and critical relationships is with Chicago’s South Side,” Alivisatos and Lee wrote in a letter to the University community in December 2021.

“This independent council will undertake the critically important work of exploring and addressing the University’s historical relationship with its surrounding neighborhoods, examining progress made in our partnership, and identifying ways in which the University and community can strengthen this partnership for the future.”

Since then, nearly half of the Council’s allotted timeline has passed, and co-chair professor Adam Green said it has been harder for the group to make progress than he had hoped. “Over the past two years, we have planned, we’ve worked with partners, we’ve identified priorities, we’ve done organizational work internally,” he said in an interview with The Maroon. “But we are not as far along in terms of the research as we would like to be.”

Green outlined three primary issues the Council hopes to investigate: residential displacement, public safety, and protests in the 2010s in favor of establishing a trauma center at the University.

“Residential displacement is a really important historical question, and for many people, continues to be an important question in the present day because of the likely impact of opening the [Obama] Presidential Center on the prices placed on real estate and new buildings and developments in Woodlawn and surrounding communities,” Green said.

Green added that public safety is a concern that South Side residents and the campus community share, emphasizing identifying and mitigating the root causes of violence to improve public safety.

“Depending on what parts of the South Side you’re looking at, people in these neighborhoods speak about maintain[ing] a sense of security often as much as people within the campus community,” he said. “But until you address root causes, you’re not really going to be able to address the question of public safety adequately and comprehensively, in a way that is sustainable.”

Green also shared that investigating those root causes affecting safety in the South Side is a highly relevant point of inquiry for the Council. “We’re trying to find ways to get strong data and also qualitative testimony coming from community members,” Green said. “What are the availability of youth services? How do we talk about employment in relation to young people on the South Side? Are the plans that the University or the city or other entities have to try to attract employers likely to address that constituency?”

Green noted that there is a gap in the University’s capacity when it comes to the issue. “There are offices that deal with public safety, of course, within the University,” he said. “What doesn’t exist at this point is a way to step back and say, ‘Are we actually getting at the conditions that exist on the South Side that potentially make it difficult to change those dynamics where … we’re trying to police our way out of problems that relate to social disparities, divestment from communities, [and lack of] resources?”

Green sees building up that capacity, and the University’s capacity to investigate other issues, as part of the Council’s role. “The thinking of the Council is more toward, in essence, [that] we’re kind of a pilot project that would recommend, nudge maybe, the University to continue this kind of review work on its own, over a longer period of time,” he said.

A third area of focus for the Council, according to Green, will be examining high-profile protests from 2010 to 2015 advocating for the establishment of an adult trauma center at the University’s Medical Center. Green described the demonstrations as an “immediate in-

stance of thinking about University–community relations.”

The Council, which has both University-affiliated and South Side community members, is supposed to complete its work and submit a final report by 2025, a deadline Green said it still tentatively hopes to meet. Its website appears not to have been updated since April 2022, when it says the group’s first formal meeting was held. Multiple people listed on the site as members told The Maroon that they were no longer involved with the group.

Green said the Council is working with the Office of Civic Engagement to fill faculty vacancies, adding that the body was “interested in hearing suggestions or considering self-nominations” for a new student member.

The website also said the Council “will actively engage the campus and South Side communities with its work and will develop a work plan for such engagement, including convening public forums and organizing programs open to the public,” but the group has not released any information about its progress or held any public events since its creation.

Green said the Council was not yet prepared to engage meaningfully with the public, but that outreach could begin soon. “We need to be more advanced in relation to what it is that we have uncovered in [our] inquiries before we can really start to do that,” he said, adding that a “public update” about the Council’s plans could come as soon as this quarter, and public programs will likely begin after winter break.

Green highlighted the challenges of working with the community when many people in the area distrust the University—a result of the historically fraught relationship UChicago has had with the South Side that was a primary reason the Council was created.

“One of the things that was very important for the Council to do was establish that it was independent from the University, and autonomous,” Green said. “The more that this was seen as a representative of University operations, and perhaps implicitly or explicitly University interests and priorities, the more skeptical

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and suspicious people who are outside in the general community would be about whether or not this was trying to address community needs.”

Green also said that the Council has to keep questions of autonomy in mind as it considers how to “scale up” its research.

“We’re going to reach the point where we’re going to have to decide, do we do this by going to the University and asking for additional funding…or do we try to find ways to create other sorts of partnerships that can enable us to increase our footprint?”

Green added that these questions may have unnecessarily delayed the Council’s work. “That was something that in retrospect, we probably should have thought through more extensively as we were launching in order to be able to hit the ground and run and immediately launch the investigations and inquiries that we had,” he said.

Green also pointed to “discontinuities in University leadership” as a challenge, noting that the University’s president, the provost, and the vice president for civic engagement—whom he said were the “principal people we were engaged with”—all transitioned in or out of their roles around the time that the Council was launched.

“There’s a lot of work that happens on the part of the University in terms of engaging [the] community,” Green said.

“But whether it’s the right work, always, and whether it gets at the root cause, is really the charge that we have as a council.”

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Pastry Shop Strugglebeard Bakery Opens in Harper Court

By DEREK HSU | News Reporter Strugglebeard Bakery, a new pastry shop located in Harper Court, hosted its soft opening on October 14. Located at the intersection of East 53rd Street and Harper Avenue, the bakery boasts a menu with over 10 cookie options and other bakery classics, including cupcakes, muffins, and coffee.

Founder and owner of Strugglebeard Bakery Quinton McNair first began baking during quarantine. His passion soon turned into a business model. “When I started this journey, I would share my process and use #strugglebeardbakery online. It was my way of reaching out to the world during quarantine,” he said in an interview with The Maroon. The hashtag #strugglebeardbakery originates from his difficulty of growing out a full beard.

McNair would bake as often as five days a week and consistently recorded his improvement to his viewers. “Once I perfected the recipes, I started making my own,” he said. Within 18 months, McNair was shipping all over the country and had enough interest to open a store.

Prior to his culinary pursuits, McNair served in the military for 24 years.

Through the various responsibilities of an artilleryman, helicopter mechanic, and drill sergeant, he honed skills applicable to owning a business. “The same attention to detail, hand-eye coordination, and almost obsession for perfection that served me as a helicopter mechanic and technical inspector serves me for build-

ing this place out and baking,” he said.

McNair also managed the sexual assault and sexual harassment program for a big company unit for four to five years.

As a “child of Chicago” who wished he had had more adult guidance, McNair hopes to give back by facilitating conversations about healthy relationships and consent.

He plans to implement the program Be A King Everyday (BAKE), which focuses on uplifting young Black men. Through baking with participants, McNair aspires to destigmatize feminine things like baking with being less of a man.

“I’d like to be a healthy member of Hyde Park [by] bringing business and providing jobs to support the community itself,” McNair said.

As he narrowed his search for a storefront, McNair found Hyde Park to be the perfect neighborhood. The bakery’s interior aligns with the artistic identity of Hyde Park, with local art decorating the walls. “This is the type of bakery where I want you to come in, sit down, use the free Wi-Fi, have student meetings, make TikToks, and enjoy the baked goods,” McNair said.

Inside, baked goods decorate the display cases. Cookies are the highlight of the menu, featuring unique flavors and names such as Charles Anthony Pecan and Chocolate Chunk, Redder Fox Red Velvet, and James “Tod” Miles Limoncello. The bakery also offers vegan cookies such as The Hipster Oatmeal Raisin.

Second-year Connor McNamee was

one of Strugglebeard’s first customers.

He bought the B3 (Big Belly & Beardless) Peanut Butter and Chocolate cookie.

Described as the “cookie your parents warned you about,” this peanut butter dessert is infused with chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, peanut butter cups, and chocolate liquor.

“Compared to other bakeries, it’s worth the walk from campus,” McNamee said. “I’d purchase the Big Belly cookie again.”

Second-year Sahil Agrawal shared similar sentiments about the bakery’s cookies. Agrawal purchased the Chief Bartley Salted Caramel Oatmeal cookie, a flurry of sea salt, salted caramel whiskey, and oatmeal. “Nearly every cookie can be made hot and gooey, but only Strugglebeard has been able to cap-

ture the oatmeal and sea salt together,” Agrawal said.

Both Agarwal and McNamee plan to taste the other cookie flavors throughout the remainder of the quarter.

In the future, McNair plans to build on the momentum of the soft opening of his bakery and have themed nights, such as an event for anime lovers. Ultimately, McNair hopes that Strugglebeard Bakery is a place that people have to visit when they come to Hyde Park.

Strugglebeard Bakery is currently hiring people 18 and older for assistant baker and front-house positions. They can be found via their website and also have accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok. They are open 7–5 p.m. on Tuesdays-Fridays, 10–6 p.m. on weekends, and closed on Mondays.

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The Center for Effective Government Wants to Fix Democracy

By AVA IWASKO | News Reporter Growing up, Sadia Sindhu wanted to serve her country, attending the Georgetown School of Foreign Service with an eye towards serving in the United States Government. But as a first-generation Muslim-American daughter of immigrants, Sindhu wishes that she had access to resources in college that could have helped her better understand how she could create a space for herself in an environment where almost no one looked

like her.

Now, as the Executive Director of the University’s Center for Effective Government (CEG), Sindhu has made her dream a reality for students in her past position.

William Howell, Director of the Harris School of Public Policy, and Sindhu founded CEG in 2019. He says the center was created with an eye towards lifting up institutional reforms that might be constructive in building a more effective

government and thereby safeguarding democracy.

To focus their mission, Sindhu thought about the role the University could play in democracy reform. This entails assisting institutions with redesigning and reimagining themselves to function as they ought to, so as to more effectively advance policies that actually deliver for constituents.

“It felt like such a natural fit for the resources at the University of Chicago which are so focused on scholarship and

a non-partisan approach,” Sindhu said.

“I think [Howell and I] both have a really good sense of what we want from the center, which is that we want to be a robust research center, while also being engaged with civic practitioners and active within the larger democracy reform ecosystem.”

While CEG and the University’s Institute of Politics (IOP) may sound like they have similar goals, Sindhu says they are two very different organizations. According to Sindhu, they differ in that CEG is CONTINUED ON PG. 11

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“We’ve been wanting to find a clear connection between scholarship and practice, particularly as it relates to effective government.”

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first and foremost a research center that is specifically focused on institutional reform and how to make democracy more effective, while the IOP has a broader mission of political engagement.

The IOP also focuses on providing career opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students, while CEG provides programs and events geared more towards faculty members and civic practitioners.

However, CEG does, independently and in partnership with the IOP, student groups, the Harris Career Office, and university graduates, provide activities and events for students. Sindhu believes getting exposure to the fellows and resources that CEG has to offer is a great opportunity for university students.

For some undergraduate and graduate students, CEG has been an integral part of their education. Anna Selbrede (A.B. ’22) worked for the center from the summer of 2020 until she graduated. She is now a 1L at Yale Law School.

Selbrede sees important differences between CEG and other groups on campus, and hopes the center becomes more well-known to undergraduate students so they have more opportunities to engage with it.

“I think that we spend a lot of time on campus learning about politics and getting opportunities to engage in politics, but it’s important for people to also see this side of academic analysis and then also practitioners doing effective government and democracy more at its core,” Selbrede said.

While working at the center over the summer, Selbrede researched similar organizations and proposed a plan for how the center should position itself in that space. She also researched different social media tone options and crafted a social communication plan.

During the school year, Selbrede ran an internal news and social media monitoring project, creating weekly reports on institutional reform news to help CEG stay informed. She also helped advertise, set up for, and run CEG’s various events throughout the year.

“I joined CEG because I was really interested in the world and institutional reform and systemic reform, and I thought that I wanted to do it from a policy perspective,” Selbrede said.

Selbrede says her work with CEG led to her interest in the legal side of politics and inspired her to apply to law school.

She knew she was interested in public policy but was able to find legal organizations that paired law with institutional and election reform through the center.

Santiago Ginebra Campillo, a second-year graduate student at the Harris School of Public Policy and graduate assistant at CEG, sees the center’s work as an opportunity to create a more effective government for the people.

Ginebra Campillo also recognized CEG as an opportunity to learn about the planning that goes on underneath the veneer of politics. He sees CEG as a great combination of politics and public policy.

“It’s the perfect spot in which those two things interact,” Ginebra Campillo said. “You have the ideas, a spectrum of research and, in that research, you decide what’s the perfect way to address a public problem.”

CEG divides its work into three key areas: scholarship, education, and engagement. For scholarship, the center provides funding to University professors to conduct research and write papers and helps organize the Annual American Politics Conference. Sindhu says CEG has a focus on building a new, more diverse generation of scholars.

The center also frequently partners with the IOP to organize events catered towards undergraduate and graduate students, including the Chicago Treks program and the Harris Mentor Program, which facilitate discussion between students and public service practitioners surrounding political issues.

One of the educational programs Sindhu and Howell are proudest of is the Civic Leadership Academy, which brings together 30 civic leaders from across Chicago to engage with faculty and each other, with the goal of building civic infrastructure in Chicago. Current and former fellows span a variety of philan-

thropic and government agencies across the city.

Sindhu says the academy was designed to create a space where practitioners who are often on opposite sides of discussions can talk about their differences and experiences.

“We’ve been wanting to find a clear connection between scholarship and practice, particularly as it relates to effective government,” Sindhu said. “I think for me, a lot of that has to do with what I have experienced through the Civic Leadership Academy and through seeing our fellows and the challenges that they face which are often very much at the institutional level.”

Sindhu says the engagement piece largely manifests in CEG’s media partnerships. CEG also produces Not Another Politics Podcast with the Harris School to uplift faculty research.

Currently, CEG is also working with Chicago Public Media, WBEZ, and the Chicago Sun Times on the Democracy Solutions Project, an 18-month long venture that looks to increase solutions-based journalism, especially as the 2024 presidential election approaches and conversations about the state of American democracy escalate. “[The Democracy Solutions Project has] been very meaningful for us because we recognize that it’s an opportunity to reach a larger audience and help shape the conversation in the public sphere,” Sindhu said.

Additionally, the center chooses four to five leaders who are civic practitioners and committed to democracy and institutional reform to participate in an annual non-residential fellowship called the Democracy Fellows Program. The 2023 fellow cohort marks CEG’s third year running the program.

In choosing the right fellows, both Howell and Sindhu see immense value in diversity in work experience, political ideology, and personal identity.

“We don’t want to bring out facsimiles of ourselves and have them just repeat back to us that which we say,” Howell said. “That’s not the point. The point is to say, we believe deeply in the need for

institutional reform and building more effective government, but we don’t presume to have the precise answers about what’s needed, where, and for whom.”

The fellows engage in various activities and conversations with community members on campus, including office hours with individual students.

Throughout the year, fellows may host a series of seminars, provide guest lectures or classes, or speak in panels.

“Each fellow’s work on campus depends on their own personal interests and what they want to do with their position,” Howell said. “The goal is simply to try to foster exchange between students, faculty, and the fellows.”

Sindhu hopes students find value in meeting people who had to put in the work to get where they are today.

“They are very keen on meeting students,” Sindhu said. “Almost every single fellow I’ve talked to, when we’re discussing their fellowship, has an example of someone who mentored them, so that piece is really important to them.”

Sindhu hopes the broader University community knows that CEG is an active research center that deeply cares about institutional reform and creating a more effective democracy.

“I want people to know that there are a host of activities that we do that serve faculty, that serve civic practitioners, that serve students, and that lift up work out of the university through our media partnerships, which I think really just differentiate us from a lot of other research centers,” Sindhu said. “We’re very focused on making sure that the work that we do is shared out into the world.”

Howell is proud of the work CEG has done in the past four years and hopes the center continues to grow in the coming years.

“Our democracy is under threat,” Howell said. “Universities shouldn’t be just sanctuaries for people who are trying to find refuge from those fights. They should be actively engaged in the work of trying to understand the weaknesses and failures of democracy and to think creatively and expansively about what might be done to address those challenges.”

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“We Feel Like Explorers”: Krishnan Lab Shares New Findings in Organelle Chemistry

By ANUSHKA BANSAL | News Reporter Potato chips, electrolytes after a workout, the taste of our tears: How do the compartments of our cells work when there’s salt around?

Recent research by the Krishnan Group, published in Nature Biotechnology, has unveiled the previously unknown intricacies of sodium and potassium ion movements within cellular compartments, or organelles, elevating our understanding of how cells grapple with salt stress. The Krishnan Group is an organic chemistry lab led by Yamuna Krishnan, professor of chemistry at UChicago.

In an interview with The Maroon, Krishnan said, “All of biology, and I would argue, all of life—plants, us, everything— revolves around maintaining the sodium and potassium levels across the cell membrane; otherwise, cells won’t survive.”

Junyi Zou, the post-doc in Krishnan’s lab responsible for the investigation of sodium ions within cell organelles, said, “My work really makes an advance that now we can look at an organelle-specific sodium protein, the function of it, and

combine it with our existing knowledge about this protein.”

Zou’s research revolved around the development of a DNA-based fluorescent sensor that is pH-independent, enabling the mapping of sodium concentrations within live cells and organisms. “Science is a marathon, but it really requires tenacity, perseverance, and passion,” Zou said.

Anees Palapuravan, another postdoc in Krishnan’s lab, tackled the challenge of creating a DNA-based potassium sensor specific to intracellular organelles. “By focusing on the key players regulating ionic concentration on the plasma membrane, we recognized the need to delve deeper into the potassium levels inside these organelles,” he said.

His study revealed that the membrane proteins responsible for transporting specific ions within the organelles are active. Palapuravan expects his discovery to pique the interest of researchers seeking opportunities for the development of new drugs.

Zou and Palapuravan’s efforts have laid the groundwork for the development of novel treatments and interventions.

“Our technology can be used to identify the function of membrane proteins, better understand the biology of cell organelles, and help us design new drugs and drug targets for certain diseases which we couldn’t identify previously,” Palapuravan said, underscoring the future potential of their research.

“This is like inner space; there are certain regions of the cell that we still hadn’t conquered, and now we have a way to get there. We feel like explorers,” Krishnan said.

This newfound understanding of sodium and potassium in organelles also leads to a series of exciting possibilities.

“We know that a high salt diet is harmful for you; are there mechanisms inside our organelles that you can somehow toggle that will somehow help us handle high salt better? Can we help reduce hypertension or blood pressure or the cell not being able to handle normal levels of salt outside?” Krishnan said. “If we can see the activity of an ion channel

in an organelle, can we use that to manipulate and get the right amount of ion channels on the cell surface so that you can regularize your heartbeat?”

This research not only signifies a big step forward in our understanding of organelle chemistry but also highlights the power of interdisciplinary collaboration. Krishnan’s lab exemplifies this very synergy, with a team comprising not only chemists but also immunologists, computational neuroscientists, and physicists, among others.

For Krishnan, the interpenetrating structure of the University eliminates silos that often impede breakthroughs. She believes that science is never restricted to one discipline or barrier, something she finds distinctly embodied at the University of Chicago and is the reason that led her to come here.

“What does it feel like to be the first person to know something that nobody else in the world knows?” Krishnan said.

“For some of us, it’s a passion, and you never question the benefits of a passion.

It’s what makes you human, this need to know.”

Uncommon Interview: Entrepreneur and Investor Dr. Risa Stack (Ph.D., ’96)

By LAUREN LUCY CADDELL | News Reporter Over the course of her 35-year career, UChicago Medicine alum Dr. Risa Stack (Ph.D., ’96) has delved into a combination of fields that seemingly have little relation to one other: medicine, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and trading.

Stack earned her bachelor of science degree in Genetics and Development from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She then went on to attend the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine and earned a Ph.D. in immunology in 1996.

Stack credits UChicago for teaching her how to think and tackle scientific problems. “The most wonderful thing

about the University of Chicago was the strong scientific training I received,” Stack said in an interview with The Maroon. “I really love learning, and much of my time as I studied for my Ph.D. was spent learning how to approach and tackle a scientific problem.”

“I also had time to pursue the experiments I wanted and had a lot of freedom within my studies, which enables me to do my job well now because I often have to think about how to conduct experiments and consider whether the results are enough to build a business,” she added.

Stack’s exposure to finance began while she was studying at UChicago Med-

icine through a position trading derivatives on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. Even early on, she knew she didn’t want to limit herself to the strict dimensions of medicine and healthcare.

“At the time, I liked the risk taking aspect of trading, and I wanted to figure out a way that I could pursue science while also taking risks,” she explained.

Stack explains that her transition from healthcare to finance was initially difficult, but her love of learning motivated her to continue down this new path.

“When I started my first job, I had to look at profit-loss statements and balance sheets, and I had no idea how to do that,” she said. “I took classes at night to get some basic business training, and al-

though it was hard at the time it’s now just another part of my job.”

Stack has been a venture capitalist for 25 years and has been a partner at the Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm The Production Board since 2022.

Stack defines her investment strategy as focusing on the early stage of businesses to help them develop new tools. She feels she has an ability to spot early potential and develop ideas into concrete business products.

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“The University taught me how to handle a scientific problem in terms of specific observation, while I also had the freedom to pursue whatever I wanted.”

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more popular now.”

Because she has experience founding successful companies such as Veracyte (Nasdaq: VCYT) and Menlo Micro, Stack understands the components needed to build a business: marketing, consumer relations, and talent attraction.

“When you’re a venture capitalist, you’re always trying to figure out the next problem you can solve,” Stack explained. “And then you’re trying to figure out whether that problem is big enough to build a business around.”

Stack gravitated toward entrepreneurship very early in her career. The companies she has helped hit the ground running operate mostly within diagnostics, or the process of determining the nature of a disease. Often, these companies aim to

offer easily accessible technologies to patients suffering from long-term illnesses.

For instance, a company that Stack has invested in, Genomic Health, focuses on developing molecular diagnostics for breast cancer and has been successful.

“Other venture capitalists have also started to use gene expression as a method to develop diagnostics for cancer and similar diseases,” Stack said.

Stack’s business strategy with new ventures involves input from both doctors and patients, as well as keeping up to date on the latest technological developments.

Before Stack allocates meaningful time and money into a business, she first surveys physicians about what problems they have that could be solved by a diagnostic.

She also asks prospective consumers directly what products would help them.

“That way, I don’t have to guess what will suit them,” Stack explained.

Following consultation with experts, Stack then develops new diagnostic products and researches the potential market for the products. However, not every idea comes to fruition, and Dr. Stack acknowledged the uncertainty regarding each venture.

“I never know what the future will look like, and I make a lot of high-risk bets,” she said. To mitigate this risk, she spends a lot of time with cutting-edge researchers figuring out how to apply technology to new diagnostics. “A lot of the stuff I do fails, but some of the companies are very successful and help a lot of people,” Stack said.

When asked about the impact that a UChicago medical education had on her career, Stack emphasized the flexibility of

being able to pursue her interests while also staying on track with her degree.

“The University taught me how to handle a scientific problem in terms of specific observation, while I also had the freedom to pursue whatever I wanted,” she said.

In some ways, her time at UChicago provided the foundation for her career as a venture capitalist and entrepreneur.

The openness of her degree enabled her to think outside the boundaries of the medical field and consider the ways she could broaden her sphere of interest.

For undergraduates who may wish to pursue a similar path, Stack heavily emphasizes the importance of handson experience. “Many interns are much more energized when they realize what you can do with a medical background,” Stack said.

UChicago Education Lab’s Research Seeks to Reshape Classroom Culture

By VERNON LI | News Reporter In the realm of education, few tasks are as difficult as classroom management and discipline. The University of Chicago Education Lab’s recent National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, “From Retributive to Restorative: An Alternative Approach to Justice,” quantifies the impact of restorative practices on Chicago’s schools, offering a viable alternative to more traditional disciplinary policies like school suspension or expulsion.

“Restorative practices” (RP) is a conflict resolution philosophy borrowed from the criminal justice system advocating for repairing harm, emphasizing student accountability, and rebuilding relationships. The study, co-authored

by Anjali Adukia, Benjamin Feigenberg, and Fatemeh Momeni, found an 18 percent decrease in out-of-school suspensions and a 19 percent reduction in child arrests among Chicago public schools that have implemented an RP

coaching program.

Over the past decade, restorative practices have garnered attention from researchers and policy makers alike.

In 2014, the Obama administration released guidelines seeking to reduce the use of exclusionary discipline practices in schools. Around the same time, school districts in Dallas and Chicago began to pilot restorative practice programs in their neighborhoods.

Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Social and Emotional Learning (OSEL) led the charge, using a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to help with their rollout of RP programming. A crucial aspect to this journey was the provision of intensive coaching for teachers, going beyond surface-level adoption. “RP Coaches” met with teachers and administrators two to three times each week to provide educators with practical techniques to implement programming.

The authors studied the period from 2009 to 2019, comparing differences in student outcomes in schools where these practices were implemented versus not.

The results are statistically significant: Alongside the decrease in arrests and out-of-school suspensions, there were improvements in perceptions of school climate and increased trust between students and teachers, as measured by Chicago Public Schools’ annual student surveys.

“Days that students are at school are more likely to be better days,” Adukia said in an interview with The Maroon.

Critics of restorative practices often raise concerns about its impact on class-wide academic outcomes, suggesting that keeping disruptive students in classrooms might hinder the learning experience for their peers. However, this paper challenges those fears. After the implementation of RP, the authors observed that students which might have faced suspension were present in the classroom more frequently. Encour-

agingly, they found no significant drops in average test scores, challenging the notion that alternatives to expulsion or suspension inevitably hamper academic achievement for the broader student body.

Another concern is the viability of a broader roll-out of RP in American schools. The paper cites that after DOJ funding ended in 2016, CPS reduced the number of RP vendors, scaled down coach engagement to one day a week, and limited the rollout of RP to fewer schools. The question then remains as to whether a broader implementation of RP programming can be effective and economically feasible.

In an interview with The Maroon, Momeni suggests that a follow-up cost-benefit analysis of the program is important, considering the potential cost savings of suspending students less frequently.

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incarceration on society as a whole, and this reduction in arrests could potentially be cost saving in the long run,” she said.

Moreover, Momeni stresses that the study’s implications extend beyond cost savings. “After we released the paper,” she said, “we received a lot of emails from people who were really excited by this new research because they had

faced challenges in their communities trying to convince parents and educators that this is an alternative and viable approach to classroom management.”

The study opens the door to various opportunities for further research.

The authors mentioned that they are interested in exploring the long-term outcomes related to student decisions and graduation rates. Additionally, they are working with the CPS system to ob-

tain additional data to understand the mechanisms behind the reduction in suspensions and arrests. “We hope to see the extent to which the documented impacts stem from actual student behavior, as opposed to changes in mindset of teachers and staff,” Adukia said.

In a world where traditional punitive measures have dominated the educational landscape, this research presents a transformative opportunity. It’s a

chance to reshape the way we approach discipline, foster healthier school environments, and ultimately build a more inclusive and supportive educational system. “We recognize restorative practices is not a panacea, but it does present an opportunity for policymakers and practitioners to look at the promise of this work,” Adukia said.

Bill Barr Discusses Free Expression, Political Division, and Democracy at IOP Event

By STUTI SHELAT | News Reporter Former Attorney General Bill Barr spoke about free expression, his tenure as attorney general under the Trump administration, and the January 6 attack on the Capitol, during an Institute of Politics (IOP) speaker series event at Ida Noyes Hall on October 26. The event was moderated by CBS News Chief Legal Correspondent and UChicago Law graduate Jan Crawford.

Barr served as the United States attorney general for President George H. W. Bush’s administration from 1991 to 1993 and again for President Donald Trump’s administration from 2019 to 2020.

“The most clear and present danger to democracy is the undermining of our First Amendment values,” Barr said.

“It’s critical for our society to have open and robust debate, and that’s what IOP stands for, so I was happy to attend.”

Turning the attention to his memoir, One Damn Thing After Another, Crawford asked Barr to explain the book’s title. He told the story of a conversation between Reagan-era Attorney General William French Smith and Edward Levi, a previous Republican attorney general, during which Levi described the job of the attorney general with the phrase “one damn thing after another.”

“I thought it was an excellent descrip-

tion of my tenure as attorney general,” Barr said. “It’s hard for me to believe that there were more trying circumstances, at least in recent history, than trying to serve in this administration, given the political climate.”

Barr had also been warned against working with Trump by colleagues.

“I was under no illusions; I knew it was going to be tough duty. I didn’t know him personally, but I’d worked up in New York…I had been on some boards with people who knew Trump very well, including people who had worked in the Trump Organization. And all along, they were saying ‘this guy is bad news,’ ‘don’t go near him,’ and so forth and so on. I learned a lot about him that way,” he said.

Barr explained that he chose to serve as the Trump administration’s attorney general because he was a lifelong Republican and was “very comfortable with Trump’s policies.” His decision was also influenced by his belief that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were “critical institutions.”

“I thought his administration was potentially being sabotaged, and there was an effort to essentially run him out of office with this bogus ‘Russiagate’ thing,” Barr added. “Also, I was very upset by what was happening at the Department

[of Justice], it was in turmoil. It was being attacked from both sides, both Republicans from the Hill, Democrats, and so forth. It was dysfunctional…I know the Department pretty well, and I felt, someone has to come in there and deal with this, who understands the Department.”

Although working alongside Trump was often difficult, Barr said that “[Trump is] not the devil incarnate,” describing him as having “some good characteristics. He can be charming and pleasant and friendly, and so forth.”

“But he’s a very manipulative person,” he added. “I quickly recognized that as long as he thinks he’s getting his way, he’s fine, but if you’re not giving him the advice he wants…he will try to figure out ways of getting around it, and you won’t necessarily know what’s happening.”

Barr provided examples of this aspect of Trump’s leadership, including the events of January 6. Since Trump “wasn’t getting the answers he wanted from the people in the government,” he contended, “he created this little ad hoc Keystone Cops operation, which led to January 6.”

Regarding the events that led to his resignation, Barr stated that on December 1, 2020, he told the Associated Press that the DOJ had “not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”

Barr described a particularly heated

discussion on election fraud with Trump in the Oval Office in which he explained that the examples the former president cited did not demonstrate fraud. Trump abruptly accepted Barr’s resignation but later, two lawyers, including the White House counsel, persuaded Barr to stay so long as he did not blindside them.

About two weeks later, on December 14, the day that the states sent the certified votes to the Congress, Barr felt that “there could be no more mischief” and decided to write a letter of resignation.

“Up until the election, I didn’t have any major problem with Trump. We got along okay, and I was fine with the policies, and we defended the policies, and we won,” Barr clarified. He rejected the notion that the Trump administration was “lawless.”

During the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building, Barr remembered turning on the television and seeing the “sickening spectacle,” specifically pointing to “the attacks on the police.”

“One of the things I wondered is, ‘was this actually coordinated?’...I wondered, ‘were people actually involved in orchestrating this thing in order to delay the vote?’ I think that’s a legitimate question to ask,” Barr told the audience.

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a choice between those two individuals.”

“It’d be a tight race, probably. But Biden is making it much easier for [Trump] to win if he’s the nominee, with the incompetence of his administration, in my opinion.”

Crawford then asked Barr why Trump’s actions on January 6 are not disqualifying to his voter base.

Barr responded, “I am stunned by it.

But what’s happening is that a lot of the voters, conservative voters, a lot of working-class voters, who have recently come into the Republican Party, are very angry…and I think this is reflected in their attitude, which is sort of, ‘The hell with you all! We need someone to really shake up the system!’”

Asked by Crawford if he believed

Trump was “losing it” based on his recent comments praising Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, Barr said, “His verbal skills are limited. If you get him away from ‘very, very, very,’ the adjectives…are unfamiliar to him, they sort of spill out, and he goes too far,” referring to Trump’s frequent use of the intensifier “very.”

President Trump has since criticized these remarks by Barr on his social media platform, Truth Social.

Crawford then asked about what she sees as growing political polarization on college campuses and how Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign could exacerbate these divisions.

“It’s not all about Trump. Trump is a symptom, I think, rather than the cause.

And I think the decisive development in

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our society over the past couple of decades has been the decisive move of the Democratic Party to the left, and the left wing of the Democratic Party to the far, far left,” Barr said, adding, “and there’s a level of condescension and elitism, condescension to the average American, that started this anger.”

Barr expanded on this latter point, saying that many Republicans had also lost touch with the lives of ordinary Americans.

“I’ve always been comfortable with the idea of some element of…populism in the Republican Party,” he said. “I think what’s happened is that we’ve had leaders who have essentially used that to gain power on both the left and the right, used that anger on the left and the right and inflamed it, and you know, we’ve been

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getting more polarized.”

“I would put the blame squarely on the left for getting the ball rolling here,” he continued.

“The threat to free speech didn’t come from the right,” he argued. “It came, in my opinion, from the left, and was manifested in universities, in all the usual ways, by taking things off the table.”

“People couldn’t get jobs. If people said, ‘there are two genders,’ all of a sudden, they’re fired. That’s a threat to the First Amendment, and that kind of thing…really got under the skin of a lot of average Americans. They thought it was crazy,” Barr said. “That’s how someone like Trump got into the picture, and he certainly made the most of it.”

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One Evening...It Disappeared Former Maroon reporter Jake Bittle tells stories of climate migrations and inequity in his first book, The Great Displacement.

By SOFIA CASTRO | Grey City Reporter “The town had been there for a century and a half. Then one evening, in the summer of 2021, it disappeared.”

In his first book, The Great Displacement, Jake Bittle, A.B. ’17, tells stories of disappearing towns and coastal communities in the United States. In each chapter, readers meet climate migrants whose homes were taken by scorching fires; rising waters; devastating droughts; and other once-shocking, now-ubiquitous climate disasters. With these stories, Bittle demonstrates how government disaster policy and the private housing market combine to push people away from danger zones but, by doing so, create a “churning vortex of instability and displacement.”

The book reflects Bittle’s longstanding interest in reporting about environments that humans build for themselves, which he terms “built-in environments.”

As an undergraduate at UChicago, Bittle majored in English language and literature and wrote articles for The Maroon that ranged from critiquing fraternity culture to arguing for a shutdown of the Institute of Politics. Now, he’s a staff writer for Grist, an environmental magazine, and has contributed pieces to The New York Times and The Guardian, among others.

In an interview with The Maroon this past spring, Bittle talked about how the impetus for The Great Displacement came out of his reporting on the significant costs of human urbanization to the natural environment. He had already investigated the topic for stories on the federal government’s role in buying and demolishing houses prone

to flooding in Houston. Soon, his work caught an agent’s interest. The smallscale displacements he had reported on were amounting to something more significant: a theory of great displacement that expanded his concepts into a larger book.

Bittle’s plan for writing the book was to travel across the country to collect the raw stories of people at the front lines of climate disasters. (The Cleveland Review of Books describes Bittle as “the Virgil to our wandering Dante, guiding us through the many circles of the terrestrial hell wrought by climatic disaster.”)

Bittle takes us to meet descendants of 19th-century French-Native intermarriages who have retreated from their homes due to coastal erosion, as well as California millionaires whose homes have been burnt to a crisp. Although these figures were indiscriminately affected by the shifting climate , their ability to recover varied drastically based on their economic or social status.

As Bittle writes, “The burden of this shift will not fall on everyone equally— indeed, displacement will create new cleaves between the rich and poor, the privileged and the marginalized.” Bittle unearths these aftereffect disparities by demonstrating how government agencies and private industries disproportionately respond to climate disasters or facilitate the encroachment into vulnerable lands. Those who have the means to prevent displacement or recover fast can often return to their normal lives, but those who have less economic or political leverage enter into an ongoing cycle of displacement and lose touch

The Great Displacement by Jake Bittle. courtesy of simon and schuster. with their homes and cultures.

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To illustrate this point, Bittle recounts the tale of a powerful fire that destroyed more than 5,000 homes in Santa Rosa, California.

Jake Bittle, A.B. ‘17, is the author of The Great Displacement. courtesy of jasmine clarke.

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room for the stories of those affected.

Ultimately, however, this focus on the facts to supplement the personal narratives at the heart of Bittle’s book felt

necessary in demonstrating how climate change—with its disproportionate effects on Americans depending on economic status—functions on a broad, national level.

A cycle of instability for some Bittle partially attributes development in lands vulnerable to natural disaster—despite common sense saying

otherwise—to the economic principle known as the “growth machine,” which thrives on increased construction.

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developers. More people living on the waterfront means more tax revenues for governments. Higher tax revenues for public services attract more people, bringing more demand for construction, creating a vicious cycle in some of the country’s most susceptible regions.

Despite the abundant risks associated with developing in these lands, government agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) underwrote the threats posed by potential climate disasters.

“The federal government served as the de facto protector of this growth machine,” Bittle writes. These programs provided a safety net with which to rebuild after disasters or for structures such as levees or artificial beaches for protection. With this support, developers moved freely into floodplains, real estate tycoons sold houses on beachfronts and barrier islands, and engineers drained rivers and swamps for construction.

When disasters came, the original plan for these agencies was to rebuild the stricken areas. But this “remain-inplace” policy backfired with underestimated insurance rates and when projects to raise houses and roads were too costly. Alternatively, “government-sponsored withdrawal” aligned more with the magnitude of the infrastructural challenges that came with fighting angry fires and engulfing waters.

This gradual shift towards relocating rather than remaining began in the 1960s with the National Flood Insurance Program, issued by Congress, which made flooding insurance mandatory for most homes located in flood zones.

The goal was to discourage people from living in disaster-prone areas while protecting them from financial ruin should they have to cover the losses from a disaster. But the program underestimated their insurance costs, realtors didn’t disclose flood insurance to potential buyers, and program officials had little jurisdiction to enforce floodplain construction requirements to developers. In

short, the switch from a remain-in-place policy to a withdrawal policy placed the burden of flood projects on buyers who had to incur the cost that came from living in land prone to flooding should their patchy insurance policies not cover it.

To illustrate this point, Bittle recounts the tale of a powerful fire that destroyed more than 5,000 homes in Santa Rosa, California. After this event, Henry, a project manager at a flooring company, saw himself completely shut out of the California housing market and his dreams of buying a house were squashed . Meanwhile, those who had the means to rebuild began to look to the flooring company for jobs in their new homes.

In one of these jobs, a homeowner in a ritzy neighborhood admitted to Henry that he was glad the fire had happened because it got rid of trees that blocked his driveway. This job exposed Henry to the diverging fates of individuals with different economic statuses after the fire. While some could no longer afford buying a house, others had leveraged the fire as a means for landscaping.

In the long term, building in vulnerable areas backfired on government agencies who originally promised safety. Their shift from a remain-in-place policy to an organized retreat was inefficient, placing the burden of relocation on the inhabitants and widening the gap in socioeconomic status between those who could and couldn’t afford to stay.

Culture taken by storms To demonstrate the effects that climate catastrophes and inadequate government planning have on vulnerable communities, Bittle takes us to Lincoln City, a community in Kinston, North Carolina. Lincoln City was founded a few decades after the Civil War when a Black preacher’s son bought the land from an entrepreneur who could not find another buyer. Although the land was swampy and unkempt, to a dozen freedmen, this was heaven.

In their prime, the residents of Lincoln City were a self-sustained community with their own elementary school, community college, auto repair shop,

graveyard, and grocery store. Bittle writes that “nobody locked their doors.

If you went hungry in Lincoln City, it was by choice; on the other hand, if you acted out at a friend’s house, your mother would know about it before you even got home.” As the community grew, though, so did its risk of flooding from storms.

In the 1960s, the USACE planned to build two dams along the Neuse River— one to protect the teeming city of Raleigh and the second to protect smaller cities such as Kinston. The first dam was finished in the early ’80s, but funding for the second dam fell through, and the project was never completed. Without federal support, Kinston lacked the funds to build its own levee or the political leverage to gain the Army Corps’ attention.

Fast forward to 1999, when Hurricane Floyd brought floods throughout eastern North Carolina. Without a levee to protect them, Lincoln City drowned beneath almost five feet of water. Many homes were flooded beyond repair. This disaster ushered in one of the federal government’s first attempts at a coordinated climate migration. FEMA offered to buy homes in Lincoln City, giving each owner the means to vacate the floodprone city. The program was technically voluntary, but the money wasn’t enough to rebuild or protect their old homes from future floods. Many residents saw the buyout as the only way forward.

The lives of the citizens from Lincoln City were uprooted from their historic homes and scattered across the U.S. The sense of community and family that categorized Lincoln City became nothing more than a distant memory obscured by a treacherous storm. Nature had decided for them, and the government backed it up.

Bittle recounts a similar story in the bayou of Pointe-aux-Chênes, Louisiana.

Many of the residents of this bayou are descendants of 18th- and 19th-century French-Native intermarriages, and their culture blossomed into an independent but federally unrecognized tribe.

Over time, oil and gas giants like Texaco encroached on the bayou, digging

canals and leaving it at risk of coastal erosion. While the USACE finished a system of levees that would protect the bayou from future floods, it might have been too late since coastal erosion had already jump-started the tribe’s relocation process. Additionally, by the time USACE built the levees, the parish school board had closed the PointeAux-Chênes Elementary School because there were too many empty desks. Not only did this decision speed up the ongoing depopulation and decay of the bayou, it also posed a threat to its ancestral traditions. The school once had the largest Native American population in the state, and teachers made it a goal to educate its students on their culture.

In Bittle’s telling, the ongoing collapse of the bayou communities and the dispersal of Kinston City residents exhibits how climate-based migration erases cultures and histories, not just homes. Even with government intervention, Bittle argues that saving every community from the ravages of a flood or fire will be near impossible. Coastal towns will get washed away, and paradises will meet the embers of unquenchable fires.

Currently, communities that provide greater economic benefit, such as Raleigh, are prioritized over places like Kinston City, which provide less economic benefit . “The most vulnerable land was also the least valuable, thanks to decades of discriminatory housing practices,” Bittle writes. Communities left without sufficient aid are erased by unrelenting storms or scorching fires, increasing the social and economic rift that exists due to class and race.

Bittle treats this book as the first in a saga that follows the climate-based displacement and upheaval currently sweeping the United States. Whether or not it has a happy ending will depend on revising our broken system into one that ensures people uprooted by climate change can rediscover stability and community in every corner of the country.

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VIEWPOINTS

Supporting Palestinians Doesn’t Need to Be Anti-Israel

By ANONYMOUS TW: Mentions of antisemitism On October 20, an article in The Maroon ran titled, “Emotions Run High on Quad as UChicago Jewish Student Groups and SJP Stage Opposing Protests.”

This portrayal is wrong, and it’s this type of reporting that pushes forward the myth that the ongoing conflict is a matter of Israel versus Palestine.

The UChicago Jewish community planned a gathering—not a protest—in support of Israel on October 19. They reserved the main quad circle through student services and had no intention of telling SJP to leave the space it has been occupying every day in the center quad. Instead, they informed SJP of a peaceful gathering at noon and were given assurance that SJP wouldn’t interfere with the event. The Jewish organizers also reached out to the Director of Student Centers to ensure that the reservation would be enforced, given the possibility of SJP trying to demonstrate in the same space.

Even so, SJP led a protest within the reserved space, chant-

ing so loud that we struggled to hear our own speakers. Regardless of how you feel about what’s happening in the Middle East, that is wrong. To undermine a peaceful gathering is wrong. If any other group did this on campus, University policy would be enforced. Instead, we were told by the Deans-on-Call that the University couldn’t enforce their own reservation policy. That is wrong, not to mention entirely irresponsible to let these two groups be so close to each other.

You don’t have to take a side to see any of that.

Now, the harder point to accept is that just because there are two groups on the quad does not mean each is going against the other. You can support Palestinians and support Israel.

That’s what Jewish speakers were saying—if you were able to hear them.

However, following a trend of Free Palestine movements at elite universities, that’s not what SJP is saying. They don’t want Israel to exist. On UChicago’s campus, the message is loud and clear. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” means to wipe Israel off the map and

potentially remove its Jewish population. It’s a slogan used by anti-Israel terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

SJP is not asking for peace.

The national Students for Justice in Palestine called the attack on October 7 “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance: across land, air, and sea, our people have broken down the artificial barriers of the Zionist entity.” In guidance to campus chapters, they wrote, “This is what it means to Free Palestine: not just slogans and rallies, but armed confrontation with the oppressors.”

I’m not intending to imply that everyone who attends an SJP rally thinks like this or hates Jews. I don’t believe that. But calling a terrorist attack a “historic win” doesn’t look very good.

Chanting for the destruction of Israel to disrupt a group of Jewish students coming together after a terrorist attack doesn’t look very good. Using slogans invented or taken up by terrorist organizations doesn’t look very good.

Jewish people and Israel cannot be uncoupled from one another.

Saying Israel’s existence is the problem is saying that Jewish people are the problem.

Your Jewish classmates have to listen to this every day. It’s isolating. Israel was attacked, and then instead of rallying against a terrorist group that is hurting both Israelis and Palestinians, some of you have decided to blame Israel. No Jewish person I know is saying that Palestine shouldn’t exist. They know everyone deserves to exist, but we’re witnessing groups that don’t feel that way about us.

To Jewish people, it looks like people are cheering, celebrating, and asking for more. That is wrong, regardless of how you feel or what you think you know about the history of occupation.

I went to the SJP table and asked why they haven’t condemned Hamas. They told me not condemning Hamas wasn’t the same thing as supporting them. I was also told that Hamas does a “lot of good.”

“They aren’t just a terrorist organization,” one girl told me.

This is an organization whose original charter says, “O Muslim, O servant of God, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”

No matter what you think about the history of occupation, Hamas is a terrorist organization. There

is no rationalization for what they do.

I understand a lot of people are trying to decide what side to take and find a place to land. But don’t let one group tell you the only option is Israel versus Palestine. Jewish students haven’t been calling for violence against Palestinians or protesting their right to exit. Most of us think Palestine should be independent.

We want Hamas gone for everyone’s sake, and we know Hamas doesn’t represent Palestinians in the region.

You are not supporting Palestinians in Gaza when you support Hamas. You are not supporting Palestinians in Gaza when you undermine Jewish students gathering after a terrorist attack.

Nothing is perfectly revelatory, but if you are in the middle and you don’t know where to go, if you want to support Palestine and support Israel, and support a solution, placing terrorism in a gray area and calling for the destruction of Israel is not the way to do it. Just know what you’re really supporting when you hold up a sign.

From your Public Safety Liaison: Where is the Peace in Arresting Peaceful Protestors?

By MÓNICA RUIZ HOUSE In May of last year, the University announced to little fanfare that it was establishing its inaugural Public Safety Advisory Council. Composed of decorated academics, passionate communi-

ty members, and students (myself included), it was intended to create a forum for assessing campus security. Part of our charter includes working alongside the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) to promote “[...] awareness and un-

derstanding of the University’s safety and security services.”

This announcement came after a particularly difficult year for Hyde Park that was marked by the shootings and the resulting deaths of two graduate students.

Six months later, and you

probably still haven’t heard of us. Aside from a campus-wide survey that we are outsourcing to a private research firm, and a handful of forums (and canceled forums) that you probably didn’t attend, the real purpose of this council lies in its symbolism and

ability to deflect criticism.

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important—perhaps even placated—once our work has been ordained by an institution like the University of Chicago.

Then there is the legitimizing function of our existence: “Yes, the system works! We have assembled a brilliant group of people working to ensure public safety! With their help, our police will be more effective at preventing crime!”

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Just last week, student organizers from UChicago United for Palestine were arrested for a peaceful sit-in. After weeks of asking for a public meeting discussing the University’s investment in Israel to no response, they occupied Rosenwald Hall.

Organizers were subsequently arrested, then charged with Class B misdemeanors—and denied a legal observer in the process.

If you were there watching

this, you would have noticed ten cop cars parked in front of the quad. Nearly a dozen officers.

This was an eerie requiem of body-cam footage I’ve assessed on official police review boards.

So many cops, and for what? To intimidate student-organizers with nothing but their voices, signs, and banners?

Even when organizers do not stage sit-ins, they are subject to similar treatment. On November 6, numerous police officers were present for a peaceful blockade of Levi Hall. Deans-on-Call asked students for identification. An unidentified university employee even threatened that it was “time to get them [the organizers] arrested. ” This harsh response from our university naturally raises the question: Are these organizers really a threat to student safety?

If not them, then who is?

This situation is but the most recent example that perhaps

our police force is the real danger here. In 2010, UCPD officers arrested fourth-year Mauriece Dawson for “making too much noise” in the A-Level of Regenstein Library. He was put in a chokehold, spent a night in jail, and was charged with criminal trespass and resisting arrest.

Recall that this is the A-Level that has hosted fraternity brothers performing embarrassingly-public pledging tasks, acapella serenades, and impassioned discussions about the distinction between soups and cereals. Perhaps you were even a part of the late-night disruption.

But Dawson is Black, and UCPD has a history of racial profiling. Long-time Black residents recount being stopped or followed by officers for no apparent reason. Some—like Jamel Triggs—recall being handcuffed and pushed against the curb.

Anecdotal accounts like these are supported by data. The Chi-

cago Reporter, a periodical devoted to investigating racial and economic inequality, found that “African Americans make up approximately 59 percent of the population in UCPD’s patrol area but 93 percent of UCPD’s field interviews.”

Other incidents come to mind as well. In 2013, UCPD officers went undercover to “infiltrate” a rally for the now-established Trauma Center at UChicago medicine. During this same string of rallies, UCPD officers arrested multiple protesters and shoved others to the ground.

Ph.D. student Toussaint Losier was also, allegedly, choked with a baton. In 2018, biracial fourthyear Charles Thomas was shot by a UCPD officer during a mental-health episode. To this day, he still has a bullet lodged in his shoulder.

In the fall of 2022, I recall walking home from the library and passing a stationed UCPD

patrol car. The officer rolled his window down real slow, grinning: “I like your hairstyle, baby.”

I stammered something unintelligible in response. Maybe it was a ‘thank you?’ I’m uncertain. I awkwardly laughed it off with friends. But later that night, I took my hair out of its bun.

And now we are in 2023.

UCPD is still arresting protesters, making students of color feel unsafe, and perhaps even catcalling women. Thus, the question persists: UCPD, who are you actually protecting? It sure as hell ain’t us.

Mónica Ruiz House is a fourthyear at the College, where she majors in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Spanish, Sociology, and Law, Letters, and Society. She has previously served on UCPD’s independent review committee assessing reports of police misconduct and worked on DefundCPD’s 20th ward referendum.

Revisiting our Rankings The University stands out against many of its peer institutions for its storied, albeit eccentric, traditions, but now its stands out for another reason: its fall in rankings. Should UChicago continue moving forward as is or pause and reflect on the situation?

By MAROON EDITORIAL BOARD The University of Chicago prides itself on being different; if it were a member of Gen Z, it’d probably say it’s not like other girls. The quarter system, the theory-over-practice academics, the nontraditional majors, the nerdy culture; UChicago has cultivated an image distinct from the other Ivy Pluses.

But saying and doing are two different things. The University of Chicago is losing its distinctive identity. For several years, UChicago could use its thirdplace ranking by U.S. News & World Report to justify—and to hide—the gradual shift in its values. Its gradual fall to 12th place—a lofty ranking, to be sure, but a distinctly unglamorous one—has elicited dialogue surrounding the prowess of the

University. Some say this is just a number, but when this number quantifies our prestige and status among the upper echelons of academia, having two digits instead of one makes us seem ordinary. In as much as one can argue that UChicago’s poor performance on key new metrics has contributed to its fall from grace, those are inseparable from its recent identity crisis. Without cen-

tering its longstanding unique traits, UChicago will continue to hurtle towards numerical and academic mediocrity—or so the doomsdayers want you to believe.

As the University faces a crossroads, it should revisit its decision to “not alter how it operates” in light of the new rankings. However, rather than exclusively conforming to standards set by U.S. News

and other ranking institutions, UChicago should embrace this opportunity to understand and implement overlaps between U.S. News guidelines and student and faculty suggestions.

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for first-generation students and the erosion of its distinct culture as the impetus it needs to embrace a healthier and more inclusive version of its unique life-of-the-mind identity.

Over the past 20 years, UChicago has made big changes to align itself more with other Ivy League and Ivy Plus schools.

During that time, the College has nearly doubled in size, ballooning from 3,966 undergraduates in 2000 to 7,512 in 2022— an increase of 89 percent. In a 2018 meeting with the Maroon Key Society, then-Dean of the College John Boyer said, “Over time, the size of the college will end up about the same size as Harvard. The class size for each incoming class will be moving towards 1,700, and that’s where we will plateau for each class to create a population of 7,000 undergraduates.”

This dramatic increase in class sizes and UChicago’s explicit interest in becoming more like other Ivy Plus schools put the school’s unique life-ofthe-mind ideals at risk. On one hand, UChicago seems determined to maintain its foundation of academic curiosity through long-held traditions such as the Core Curriculum.

On the other hand, UChicago is also taking steps to conform to the outside influences of other institutions, such as shifting to a more preprofessional culture and to larger class sizes.

This zeitgeist of preprofessional culture is relatively new in the history of the University.

UChicago’s Career Advancement program’s “Careers in...” first began in 2005, almost a century after the creation of the Core, helping students reach their professional goals post-graduation, as well as sig-

naling a departure from the “Life of the Mind” values the Core symbolized. Though The Maroon Editorial Board has spoken at length on its issues with the Core, the existence is evidence of what makes our school unique: our voracious academic curiosity and learning for learning’s sake. It is present in our traditions, like Scav or the Latke–Hamantash Debate, getting stronger each passing year. UChicago should draw on the strength of its past, not the insecurities of its present.

Additionally, UChicago is facing supply and demand issues for courses in its quintessential preprofessional academic program, the economics major’s highly popular business economics track. The increase in the size of each incoming class without corresponding increases in faculty and course offerings has caused class sizes to skyrocket, to the detriment of students who came to UChicago because of its emphasis on small classes.

UChicago’s major drop in ranking can be attributed, in large part, to the addition of factors measuring first-generation students’ graduation rates and graduation rate performance, each of which were weighted at 2.5 percent of a school’s total ranking.

Adjusting to college life as a first-generation student comes with additional challenges regardless of institution, but UChicago exacerbates it with a culture that espouses the life of the mind in theory but prizes the life of the grind in practice.

Students will inevitably get lost and fall down in college; it’s up to the school and fellow students to help them find their way and get back up again in-

stead of leaving them helpless on the carpet of the fifth-floor stacks.

On a superficial level, the University was able to meet this student demand by shifting educational priorities to conform to the standards of other Ivy Plus universities. UChicago is influenced by outside schools, especially other Ivy Plus institutions, which leads students to prioritize a preprofessional education over one grounded in research. However, this approach does not support the overall education of students, because it doesn’t meet student demand for a holistic education that comprises preprofessional and intellectual elements. The University may be superficially meeting student demand on the preprofessional front, but it is not meeting student demand on the financial accessibility front.

This is alarming, considering that UChicago is one of the only schools that has fallen behind its peers in its dedication to supporting First-Generation, Low-Income (FGLI) students, and especially in light of the end of race-based affirmative action: Since 2011, there has been a one-percentage-point decrease in the share of firstyears enrolled in the College who receive Pell grants, subsidies the federal government provides to low-income college students. This decrease is especially notable given that every school in the Ivy League, with the exception of Brown, has experienced an increase in the share of first-years who receive Pell Grants. Looking on Career Advancement’s website for Post-College Outcomes, we see how it doesn’t necessarily collect outcomes on marginalized students (e.g. FGLI, students of color). Having these outcomes

illustrated in certain statistics would demonstrate where we need to improve.

While we don’t want UChicago to succumb to every influence by outside institutions, we believe the University should take inspiration from peer institutions when it comes to improving financial accessibility.

So where does UChicago go from here? To reiterate, UChicago’s rankings faltered based on the U.S. News & World Report’s new first-generation factors, which primarily revolve around the post-graduation outcomes of UChicago’s underrepresented students, namely those hailing from first-generation or low-income backgrounds. To turn a blind eye to this aspect of the ranking process would be to turn a blind eye to some of UChicago’s most vulnerable students—those who are independently capable of succeeding, but often lack the advantages of college-educated parents, prior experience with professional networking, and so on. UChicago needs to implement more ways to hear and address the long-term concerns of not just underrepresented students, but students of all identities, such that students’ long-term outcomes can actually improve. For example, UChicago should introduce regular, Q&A-style town hall meetings to which students can come and express their concerns about how UChicago is (or isn’t) supporting their long-term success.

Additionally, another clear step for the University is to make the move from focusing its attention outward to inward with its own students. Though rankings and outside perceptions do have an impact and influence on UChicago, taking the steps forward to build a

community that lives up to the ideals the University espouses is key, and no one knows better how to make these moves than the people who keep UChicago alive: its own community.

It is often said that honesty is the best policy, and UChicago hasn’t been very honest with us. Its lack of transparency on specific student outcomes, especially for marginalized students (e.g. FGLI, students of color), can’t help us move forward. In other words, if our outcomes in certain statistics are less than stellar, the administration does not need to be ashamed of showing that information. Showing these statistics demonstrates where we need to improve, leading to determine how we can improve where our flaws are.

UChicago’s faltering in the rankings may be a blow to our pride, but it also constitutes an important wake-up call for our administration and community. First and foremost, it’s a clear indicator that UChicago needs to do more to support its FGLI students: For all the University’s pointing to the U.S. News decision to discount class size, first-generation factors are the metrics that account for most of the slip. At the same time, the rankings also shine a light on UChicago’s growing preprofessional culture and an associated imbalance between supply and demand for certain courses. Since its founding in 1891, distinctive academics and diversity of thought, buttressed by its adherence to the Kalven Report, have dictated how the university has shaped its image. Now, UChicago must determine how to best preserve this identity while continuing to meet the needs of students in a changing world.

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ARTS Dala Nasser Reimagines the Myth of Adonis Multimedia artist Nasser reinterprets mythology to recreate a world of grief and rituals.

Dala Nasser’s exhibition Adonis River, exploring rituals and ceremonial objects in mourning, is now on display at the Renaissance Society. feifei mei.

By FEIFEI MEI | Arts Reporter Across civilizations, rivers—the Greek Styx, the Chinese River of Oblivion, and the Sumerian Hubur—have

always been closely associated with death. Dala Nasser’s exhibition Adonis River, exploring rituals and ceremonial

objects in mourning, is now on display at the Renaissance Society.

The motifs of Greek mythology and ritual are immediately evident as one steps into the Renaissance Society’s

spacious gallery. To the left stands a column of wooden pillars and an L-shaped wooden lattice structure with dyed fabrics draped over them; to the right is a CONTINUED ON PG. 23

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Adonis, one of the paragons of male beauty in classical antiquity, was the mortal lover of Aphrodite.

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dome-like structure covered by fabric on top and at its sides. The column and lattice form the outline of a temple, while the dome is reminiscent of the cave in which Adonis and Aphrodite spent the night before his tragic death.

Nasser’s exhibition is grounded in the rich mythology of Adonis. Adonis, one of the paragons of male beauty in classical antiquity, was the mortal lover of Aphrodite. The grieving Aphrodite created the Adonia Festival to commemorate his death, and the annual ritual brought together the grieving women of ancient Athens. Even today, the Adonis River—now known as the Abraham River—is culturally significant as local people hang out the ill’s clothes as a prayer for their recovery.

Nasser painted the fabrics on-site at the Abraham River, mixing the iron-oxide-rich local clay with ash to produce subdued, layered hues, before washing the fabrics in the river water to produce flowing strokes. The pebbles and bits of clay scattered over the fabrics, adding variation to their texture. The fabric’s earthy redness simultaneously evokes Adonis’s blood flowing into the river waters and the clay-rich soil of the valley that feeds the river and its tributaries. Blue-gray tones recall the shrouds displayed during mourning rituals like Ashura, a Muslim day of commemoration that Nasser has referenced in her previous works.

One is continually reminded that this is a space for mourning through the consistent references to Adonis, and the sheer height of the exhibition, taking full advantage of the Renaissance Society’s expansive space, imposes a sense of somberness unto the viewer. This atmosphere of solemnity is heightened by the sound piece that accompanies the installation: In collaboration with artist Mhamad Safa, Nasser recorded mourning prayers and slowed them down by 40 times, and the composition is played on loop in the exhibition space. It starts off so soft that one hardly notices it—you get a small surprise when it crescendos, and then it becomes impossible for you to not

To the left stands a column of wooden pillars and an L-shaped wooden lattice structure with dyed fabrics draped over them; to the right is a dome-like structure covered by fabric on top and at its sides. feifei mei. notice it.

The prayers are slowed down by so much that you cannot make out what is being said, but as they echo around the room, you become completely immersed in this ritual of mourning that transcends time and space: It manifests in different forms, it is performed by different people, but its essence—an act of remembrance—endures. Thousands of years ago, people commemorated the death of a mythological figure at a river in Lebanon; Nasser invites her audience to step into an abstraction of that same world, here and now.

Adonis River is on display at the Renaissance Society through November 26, 2023.

The column and lattice form the outline of a temple, while the dome is reminiscent of the cave in which Adonis and Aphrodite spent the night before his tragic death. feifei mei.

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SZA in the Sea Your favorite Arts Reporter duo, Lainey and Sofia, cover SZA’s underwater adventure at United Center.

By LAINEY GREGORY | Arts Reporter and SOFIA HRYCYSZYN | Senior Arts Reporter Suddenly, the screens scattered around Chicago’s United Center stage, which was lit up with puffy clouds. A giant screen lifted to reveal SZA perched on the edge of a diving board, in reference to the cover of her newest album, SOS. The chart-topping artist, whose music combines contemporary R&B, hip-hop, and neo-soul, was dressed in an oversized blue hockey jersey as she stared pensively into the distance. She opened with “PSA,” a short track originally released as a teaser to SOS. The screen lowered, obscuring SZA and replacing her with an image of her shadow sitting on the diving board.

With the final note of “PSA,” SZA’s shadow tossed the microphone into the water and jumped after it.

An hour before, the rising artist d4vd had made his own mark on the stage.

Just 18 years old, d4vd has catapulted into the heart of the indie-pop and R&B scene following the relese of his 2023 EP Petals to Thorns. Hands thrown back and chest open wide, he paced the stage in an oversized black hoodie and loose blackand-white pants. He closed his set with the hit “Romantic Homicide,” which features a melancholy guitar beat and moody vocals. The artist d4vd was calm and captivating on stage; he only stands to grow in influence and popularity.

After SZA hit the water, the crowd cheered in anticipation as the lights dimmed. They clicked back a moment later, and SZA emerged, sitting on the deck of a run-down fishing boat. She shimmered in a silver top and loose shorts, the most beautiful deckhand in history. Flanked by four battered-looking dancers whose

SZA sits at the edge of a suspended platform at her United Center performance. bill smith.

black crew-wear was disheveled and ripped, she moved into “Seek & Destroy.”

Starting slow, “Seek & Destroy” features a steady electric key baseline that builds into an energetic hip-hop beat, which transferred nicely into “Notice Me,” a piece centered around SZA’s vocals. In all of her songs, but especially “Notice Me,” SZA transitions seamlessly between calm mumble rap and airy vocals, which adds depth of sound and complexity to her work. In addition to combining rap and lyrical vocals, SZA often creates variety in her music by collaborating with other artists. For instance, in “Used,” SZA masterfully combines her vocal stylistic range with that of rapper Don Toliver, making for a conversational exchange in not just lyrics but also style and texture.

SZA’s artistry was evident in the delightful incorporation of storytelling into the stage design. The set’s imagery was most definitely a callback to her al-

bum cover, which pictures SZA sitting atop a diving board in the middle of the ocean. As the show progressed, the set and props depicted the singer’s journey to the bottom of the ocean. She started her performance atop a boat, which led to SZA floating above the crowd in an orange life raft suspended from the ceiling. The life raft inched slowly toward a lighthouse at the back of the stadium but suddenly slipped back toward the sea-stage.

As she climbed onto the raft, she noted, “I woke up sad this morning, and this song about my ex-fiancé doesn’t help.”

Perhaps her ocean-themed staging was alluding to a near miss in her love life, almost making it back to land before being pulled to the bottom of the sea. But, she remarked, despite waking up sad, “y’all lifting my spirits.” She seemed to truly appreciate the energy her fans provided her, and her sensitive and caring personality was demonstrated through her engagement with the crowd. After the show ended, she invited several fans backstage to get to know them on a personal level, and to, as she explained, help overcome the isolation and shyness she sometimes feels onstage. Calling to her assistants on the ground by name, she decided on one fan because she remembered making eye contact and singing with them as their enthusiasm for her work fed hers.

While no one else in the audience could tell exactly whom she was looking at and singing with, SZA remembers those who are particularly engaged with her music, and she rewards them.

With her stunning vocal range, it is obvious why SZA is a successful artist.

Her melismatic high notes coupled with raspy, low notes make for an intoxicating sound. However, at this particular show, it seemed as though she was holding back on some of her higher notes as she occasionally pointed the microphone toward the crowd, signaling us to sing for her.

Admittedly, we were a little disappointed; it felt like we were missing out on some of her most legendary high notes.

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It is obvious why SZA is a successful artist. Her melismatic high notes coupled with raspy, low notes make for an intoxicating sound.

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backstage to thank everyone for coming to the show to support her. In the middle of her many thanks to the audience, she

mentioned that she was dealing with a bad case of bronchitis. With this in mind, her inability to hit her high notes made perfect sense. Barring two or three notes

throughout the show, her ability to sing as well as she did while simultaneously performing challenging choreography made me respect her immensely as an artist.

With her range of music, spellbinding stage presence, and sweet personality, it’s easy to see why so many of her fans were eager to follow SZA out to sea.

Stars Collide at Tourzilla with Last Dinosaurs and Vacations Arts reporter Emily Zhang covers the Last Dinosaurs concert with Vacations at Chicago’s House of Blues.

By EMILY ZHANG | Arts Reporter Sixty-five million years after they roamed the earth, the Last Dinosaurs have burst back onto the scene, guitars blazing. Last September, the Australian indie rock band kicked off their special-edition double-feature U.S. tour, Tourzilla, with fellow Aussie band Vacations. Chicago’s very own House of Blues was the fifth stop on their trek, occurring earlier this month.

Dual-career woman Eliza McLamb, both a singer-songwriter and Binchtopia podcast host, opened the show. Segueing from the heart-wrenching “Doing Fine” to the heart-wrenching “Mythologize Me,” McLamb set the stage with a nostalgic and wishful sound. The pensiveness following her departure was almost immediately crushed by the onset of a neon DVD logo, bouncing within the confines of the stage’s LED backdrop.

When the logo finally landed snuggly into the top left corner, the Vacations emerged to wild cheering. Their “woozy guitar pop” style, as they described themselves on their site, hit home with their song “Midwest,” released this past June. The dreamy melodies aptly brought to mind memories of sweet and warm summers. Yet lead singer Campbell Burns’s more airy timbre, as well as the signature longing embedded into the band’s lyrics, provided a cool depth in their contrast. For the listener looking for a nostalgic, reflective sound, Vacations strikes the mark right on.

With a collective pause for breath during the interlude, Last Dinosaurs finally appeared. Clad in their signa-

ture suits, the members took up their instruments in a shower of indigo and white LED stars. Breaking into “Afterlife,” their first single of 2023 to feature the return of lead singer Sean Caskey as the band’s main songwriter, Last Dinosaurs showed off their classic, upbeat groove and guitar savviness. They followed closely with “Sense” off Yumeno Garden. Elevating their already energetic and joyful sound, the band members created an intimate and easygoing atmosphere with their casual interactions with the audience. The Caskey brothers took turns approaching the very edge of the stage during their respective guitar solos, coming close enough to bridge the gap between artist and listener. At the precipice of these interactions was a sense of wonder at the band’s rawness, both in their music and demeanor.

“Hanson Ghost,” the title track of From Mexico With Love, highlighted Lachlan Caskey’s ability as a singer-songwriter. The first lines, “Point in time/ It feels crazy to describe/ When all the stars align/ But the world just feels beautiful,” reflect Lachlan’s post-pandemic introspection and hopefulness.

His airier voice, underscored with whole-hearted earnestness, coupled with their lighter guitar playing offered a fresh, funky sound to Last Dinosaurs’s repertoire.

But perhaps most striking of the night was their performance of “Apollo” from Wellness. Their clever guitar riffs, energetic drumbeats, and melodic vocals seemed to lift the venue into the

Last Dinosaurs perform, guitars blazing, at Chicago’s House of Blues. emily zhang. clouds. With lyricism that evoked feelings of both self-escapism and discovery, “Apollo” encouraged the listener to be unapologetically free. It was impossible not to dance and sing along in the wash of colors shining from the stage. Following a passionate performance of “Zoom” from In A Million Years, the members said their goodnights to raucous cheering and whistling. Steadily growing calls for an encore from the audience brought Last Dinosaurs back mere moments later, with Lachlan smiling and declaring, “Anything for you, Chicago.”

Closing out with “Andy,” also from In A Million Years, bassist Michael Sloane and touring drummer Jasper Gunder-

son’s prowess on their respective instruments shone. The song’s incredible bassline and dynamic percussion highlighted Sean’s vocals beautifully. Magnified by the night’s sense of togetherness between artist and listener, the song’s simple yet compelling message of living in the now perfectly encapsulated their show. From Wellness to From Mexico With Love, their uniquely defined yet continuously evolving indie rock sound makes Last Dinosaurs, now more than ever, the ones to watch.

Tourzilla continues through November.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — NOVEMBER 16, 2023

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SPORTS In Pursuit of Excellence: An Interview with New Men’s Soccer Coach Phillip Kroft

By VICTOR ROBERTS | Sports Reporter I believe the way you treat others is telling of the person you are. While in the early stages of writing this piece, I cold-emailed Phillip Kroft, the recently-hired coach of the men’s soccer team, in hopes that he would sit down with me. To my surprise, he took time out of his busy schedule to meet, and I had the pleasure of interviewing coach Kroft.

In July, Kroft took the reins of what has been a very successful UChicago team for the past couple of years. Since 2017, the men’s soccer program has made four NCAA semifinal appearances, winning their UAA conference each time. Last season, they won the NCAA championship for the first time in the program’s history, boasting an undefeated record for the season. However, despite the team’s daunting reputation, Kroft does not waver in his confidence in his tactics and coaching ability.

Part of Kroft’s confidence comes from his own playing days, when he played Division I soccer at Mount St. Mary’s University as a left-back, following in the footsteps of his older brother. In this way, Kroft learned the coaching craft from a player’s perspective. Kroft’s soccer mentors also left lasting impacts on the way he coaches. One of these mentors was UChicago’s own Mike Babst, who is second in all-time wins for the UChicago men’s soccer team. When commenting on his coaching path, he remarked on the office he once shared with his fellow coaches, saying, “Our office was like a broom closet, we were sharing ideas like this close,” as he gestured to his face and right in front of him.

Coach Kroft is a player’s coach, and, because of his experience working in a multitude of programs and divisions, he understands the priorities that student-athletes have in Hyde Park. The University of Chicago has a strong

athletic program, but at the heart of its philosophy is the thirst for knowledge and academics. Pursuing a professional career—and, in general, soccer itself—may not always be the number one priority on players’ minds, and Kroft understands this perfectly. Kroft talked about his love for DIII athletics and how he feels he can take care of his players more due to the holistic nature of DIII programs. We joked about how many of his players have already reached out to discuss their plans to study abroad during the school year, a popular decision for many UChicago students, yet a choice that would be unheard of in Division I programs.

Kroft is not only unafraid of this new challenge but is also excited about the opportunity to maintain the Maroons’ storied culture. This is not to say that this year will be without its fair share of challenges. The loss of Academic All-Americans Griffin Wada and Richard Gillespie, two pillars of a dominant backline that only allowed 0.48 goals per game in 2022, will no doubt sting. However, Kroft does not seem too worried about their departure. We discussed the biggest problem that the men’s team has: too much talent. There is a lot of depth on the roster, and Kroft is excited at how hungry the players are to compete. “They’re used to doing so well and competing at such a high level in every aspect of their life. These guys are always pursuing excellence,” he said. Another reason for the lack of worry is the philosophy that Kroft practices when he coaches.

He emphasizes players being in sync and confident in their own system. “If everyone is bought into how we want to play—that’s what’s going to make [us] successful,” he said.

Kroft plans to bring a little bit of his own personality to the already dominant Maroons’ playing style. When

asked about the parts of the game that he puts an emphasis on, Kroft says he plans to “make the opposing back line as uncomfortable as possible.” He is not afraid of his players making mistakes or trying new things, as long as they keep the pressure away from the team’s defenders. Modeled after many successful professional teams, Kroft wants his team to “win the ball back within three seconds.”

Kroft is an outstanding person and coach. During our interview, I got to learn a little about him outside of his professional life. He is a very family-oriented man. Kroft is originally from the Virginia Beach area, travel-

Phillip Kroft. courtesy of uchicago athletics. ing to New York often because he has family there. He said he “loves city life” and it seems like Chicago will be a great fit for him. Not only were there countless references to his parents and older brother during our conversation, but he also has a wife and daughter with whom he is looking forward to exploring Chicago’s “food, music, sports and culture.”

What is glaringly obvious from the first moment you speak with Kroft is how much he loves soccer and his players. Hearing him geek out about Brighton’s style of play or the professional coaches he looks up to the most was like watching a cook talk about his love of food; the passion was so palpable in our conversation that I couldn’t help but get excited along with him.

When I asked him what he likes to do in his free time, he looked at me as if the concept of free time was a foreign concept. Whatever spare time Kroft has, he puts back into soccer, whether that be coming up with new strategies, planning games, or recruiting new players. “I absolutely love coaching, it is 100 percent my passion, my calling.

I am the guy that when my wife goes to bed, I stay up and watch soccer videos or find recruits. I love it.”

My final question to Kroft was one that I find to be the most telling as to what type of competitor one is: Do you love to win, or do you hate to lose?

Without hesitation, he said he “loves to win.” While I personally hate losing, even in the most mundane things, such as board games or bowling, I can’t help but have immense respect for the rationale behind Kroft’s answer. Kroft discussed how big of a difference telling your players “We’re going out there to win” is compared to “We’re trying not to lose.” The former, he said, instills much more confidence in your players than the latter. Until the final moment of the interview, Kroft always had his players’ best interests in mind, a quality that should make for a very successful tenure here at the University of Chicago. At the time of this article being written, the Maroons are 6-2-4.

Best of luck to Kroft and the men’s soccer team this upcoming season; I look forward to watching them every step of the way.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — NOVEMBER 16, 2023

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Recent Results

Upcoming Games

Volleyball finished fourth at the UAA championship at Emory University last weekend. The team beat Carnegie Mellon 3–1, lost 3–0 to Emory and 3–2 to Case Western Reserve University.

Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving: Phoenix Fall Classic, 10 a.m. Friday–Sunday, November 17–19

Men’s and Women’s Cross Country hit the ground running at NCAA XC Regionals on November 11.

The men’s team finished sixth, as graduate student Jack Begley crossed the finish line first and earned an All-Region designation. The women’s team placed second overall, with fourth-year Evelyn Battleson-Gunkel being a top finisher.

Men’s Soccer advanced in the NCAA tournament following two games last weekend. The first against Ill. Wesleyan saw the team win 3–1. The Maroons then beat Ohio Wesleyan 2–1.

Men’s Soccer: Chicago vs. Calvin University, 12 p.m. Friday, November 17 Wrestling: Chicago @ CUW Open, 9 a.m. Saturday, November 18

Football scraped a 15–14 win against Lake Forest on November 11 in their regular season finale.

Men’s Cross Country: NCAA Championship, 11 a.m. Saturday, November 18

Women’s Basketball swept Pomona-Pitzer and Denison with two 16-point leads in the Midway Classic last weekend.

Women’s Cross Country: NCAA Championship, 12 p.m. Saturday, November 18

Men’s Basketball also did well in the Midway Classic, beating Caltech 88–48 in game one and Illinois Tech 80–71 in game two.

Women’s Basketball: Chicago @ Carthage College, 2 p.m. Saturday, November 18

Women’s Soccer moved onto the second round of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2021 after beating North Central (Ill.) in penalty kicks. The team could not keep up the momentum, however, and left the tournament after a loss to Loras in double overtime.

Men’s Basketball: Chicago @ Lake Forest College, 2 p.m. Saturday, November 18

THE CHICAGO MAROON — NOVEMBER 16, 2023

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CROSSWORDS 67. “AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!”

By HENRY JOSEPHSON | Head Crossword Editor

ACROSS 1 Mg. or tbsp., e.g.

4 German megacorp. that’s the world’s largest chemical producer 8 Times out 13 City that’s home to, like, a Brazillion people 15 Sites for some shipwrecks 16 Pet cat, sometimes 17 It’s right in front of you!

18 James in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 19 Ones being held 21 Words said while looking over one’s shoulder, perhaps 23 Like a liquid that might 9-Down 24 4G letters 26 Sheathe 28 It might come before long 29 Eminem song with a verse that ends, “your biggest fan, this is ___” 30 Evil Spanish figure that’s an anagram of the start of a “White Album” title 32 Fictional Michael 33 “AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” 37 Result of a leadoff single 38 H.S. squad for those who aren’t quite ready for the next level 39 One improvising shoddy excuses, for short 40 Author of “The Masque of the Red Death” 41 Disney character who says, “Ohana means family” 45 South of France 46 Mayhem 48 Emulated Rickey Henderson 49 “Promise me you’ll ___” 52 What integrals calculate 53 When curfews might kick in 54 It might keep you turning all night 56 Asks one’s interlocutor if they’re from Tennessee, perhaps 57 Tending to leave things out 58 Leave uninterrupted For more puzzles, visit chicagomaroon.com/crosswords.

59 “You’re better than this!”

60. Father of Rod and Todd, and widower of Maude, in a long-running cartoon 25 Leaflock and Skinbark, to name two 27 Canal zone?

DOWN thing with or without its first letter 29 Curved swords 1 Evaluate 9 Seep 31 “Ah!” 2 Company behind “He-Man and the 10 “You did it!”

32 They may be under your mattress Masters of the Universe” 11 Brand with a line of “Mayhem” 33 Holds up 3 On the money commercials 34 Right in front of you 4 Swinger’s club 12 Darwin-to-Adelaide dir.

35 Had to have something 5 Word in a seasonal song 14 Begged on one’s knees 36 In medias ___ 6 Quick 15 Cabinet member 40 Van Cortlandt and Jackie Robinson, 7 “How could you do this?!”

20 Ventilate in New York City 8 Word that can mean the same 22 Charles de Gaulle sight?

42 Entered with 46-Down

43 44 46 47 50 51 53 55

Verb that’s famously its own antonym Hot follower Something to make when you’re running late?

Hochul’s predecessor Stem “Sir” follower Former sports org. or a former labor org.

“Fall back” abbreviation