NOVEMBER 27, 2018
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
Phi Delt Removes Two Founding Members for Misconduct
VOL. 130, ISSUE 17
Lawyer Likens Harvard Policy to “Racist Taser” By PETE GRIEVE editor-in- chief
The Phi Delt fraternity house will undergo a $1 million-plus renovation. pete grieve
By WILLIAM YEE news reporter
Phi Delta Theta (Phi Delt) returned to the University of Chicago this fall, and the chapter is in the process of growing its membership while the fraternity house, located on 5625 South University Avenue, awaits a million-dollar-plus renovation. Students and representatives of the national organization say the chapter is starting fresh, try-
ing to be an upstanding fraternity. The Phi Delt chapter went dormant for years in 2016 after a hazing incident. On induction night in 2015, pledges were served grain alcohol, then held in a basement room as part of an initiation ceremony. The events resulted in a $250,000 lawsuit in which Dylan Kanaan, a pledge who sustained significant injury, alleged that he was singled out and beaten by fraternity members. A September 11 court document shows that the
lawsuit ended in a settlement, the details of which are confidential. In January 2016, the chapter began the process of “recolonization,” suspending Phi Delt’s presence on campus until all students who were members at the time of the incident have graduated. Following the graduation of the Class of 2018 this past spring, the fraternity began recruiting members for a new colony this fall. But the process of recolonizing has not been so smooth: Phi Delt
has already removed multiple founding members due to reports of alleged sexual misconduct. The Marooon learned that at least two brothers, who previously signed invitations from the organization’s national representatives to become Founding Fathers, had their membership rescinded after Phi Delt representatives became aware of reports that they had committed sexual misconduct, according to multiple continued on pg.
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At Kalven’s Invisible Institute, Telling a City’s Story By ELLIE CITRON news reporter
In an era of “fake news,” Jamie Kalven’s alternative form of honest, thorough journalism runs sharply counter to such currents. Sporting a thick beard, Gregory Peck glasses, and notebook in hand, he sits at Build Coffee, the coffee shop located within the Experimental Station—an incubator for burgeoning nonprofits in the Hyde Park–Woodlawn community. The Invisible Institute, of which he is the executive director, is located just above the coffee shop. Kalven is a Chicago native. His father, Harry Kalven, was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, a constitutional lawyer, leading First Amendment scholar, and the author of the Kalven Report, a controversial guiding document of the University’s involvement in political issues since 1967. One of Jamie Kalven’s earlier projects was completing his father’s unfinished book on the First Amendment and free speech, which took about 10 years. The completion
Immigration Through a Taxi Driver’s Eyes: Yvan Alagbé Discusses His Comic Book By ZOE WILLIAMS
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of the book, A Worthy Tradition: Freedom of Speech in America, introduced Kalven to the world of free expression, and ultimately journalism. Since the 1980s, he has reported on major political and social issues in the city of Chicago, such as matters of public housing, gang violence, and police abuse. In recent years, Kalven was awarded the 2015 Polk Award for Local Reporting, the 2016 Ridenhour Courage Prize, and the 2017 Hillman Prize for Web Journalism. In 2014 he became the focal point of the Kalven v. City of Chicago court decision, which “opened a number of police misconduct records to the public...to secure about 11 years worth of city data through Freedom of Information Act requests and civil rights litigation,” most about the death of 16-year-old Laquan McDonald, according to the Hyde Park Herald. Kalven’s reporting on McDonald’s death was significant in that it led to the conviction of the responsible on-duty Chicago police officer, the first decision of its kind for more than 50 years, according to the
Jamie Kalven. courtesy of indiana public media . RSVP page of Kalven’s upcoming talk at the University. From the press coverage of the decision arose the need for more: a bigger staff, real investors, and a deliberate push to enhance the values. As a journalist, Kalven aims to build a body of work that reflects the
essence of Chicago. He cites David Simon, the creator of The Wire, as he reflected on his initial goals for the show as it neared the end of the final season: “[Simon] said something to the effect that, from the start, he planned continued on pg.
An Outstanding Victory Followed by a Tough Loss By AUDREY MASON page 8
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Law School lecturer Adam Mortara, lead trial counsel representing plaintiffs in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, likened the bias of Harvard University’s admissions office against Asian-American students to an imaginary Taser that kills Black people but only stuns white, Hispanic, and Asian people. He made the analogy at a University of Chicago Federalist Society event on Monday to stress his claim that Harvard knowingly used an admissions process biased against Asian-American applicants. Mortara’s team says that white, Hispanic, and Black applicants averaged higher marks that Asian-American applicants in the “personal rating” component Harvard used to evaluate applications. The plaintiffs Mortara represents allege that Harvard routinely discr iminates aga inst Asian-American applicants by imposing informal quotas to restrict their admissions numbers. Mortara’s presentation to more than a hundred students focused on data that Students for Fair Admissions has used in the lawsuit to argue that Asian-American students are disadvantaged in the personal rating component of application evaluations. Mortara acknowledged in his talk that it’s possible Harvard did not know Asian students were disadvantaged until internal reports showed so in 2013, before the lawsuit began. However, he argues that after the internal reports were produced that year, they knew they were using an unfair system. “One way in which I’ve discussed this with [my] team from time to time is whether it’s possible that Harvard didn’t know that any of this stuff was happening before they got all these reports. Is it possible it was just sort of implicit bias, unconscious bias operating?” he said. In Mortara’s analogy, the person using the Taser is told it kills Black people, but uses it anyway to shoot criminals at night. His point was to emphasize that Harvard knew its system disadvantaged Asian-American students and that Harvard was content with this. “It’s true that we don’t know what Harvard knew about how continued on pg.
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