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NURSES’ STRIKE AVERTED

NOVEMBER 27, 2019 NINTH WEEK VOL. 132, ISSUE 9

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ALEXANDRA NISENOFF

ADRIAN MANDEVILLE

Comp Sci, Econ Majors Earn Top Starting Salaries; Pub Pol, Philosophy Outstrip Physics, Bio

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Megan Thee Stallion Daniel Epstein (J.D. ’15) Makes Progressive Bid in Hotly-Contested IL Brings Hot Girl Summer to Mandel Hall Supreme Court Race PAGE 4

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GREY CITY: Obama Center Community Benefits Agreement: Where Do We Go from Here?

OP-ED: Behold the Bonfires

LETTER: Stop the Sensationalizing

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

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THE CHICAGO MAROON — NOVEMBER 27, 2019

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School Cancels Hong Kong Program Over Security Concerns

By TONY BROOKS News Editor In response to recent political unrest in Hong Kong, the University has canceled its winter 2020 Hong Kong study abroad program. Students who signed up for the program instead have the option of enrolling in a replacement program at the UChicago Center in Paris or being refunded, according to an email sent on Monday from the program’s coordinator.

The program was oriented toward economics and finance.

Participants had until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to confirm whether they would be going to Paris or staying in Hyde Park next quarter and taking a refund. The email offered participants the possibility of financial as-

sistance to cover the potential increase in travel expenses, which would “be evaluated on an individual basis,” according to a University statement to The Maroon.

The statement also said that, despite the relocation, the program in Paris “will continue to offer classroom instruction on experimental economics, banking, and finance, as well as opportunities to engage with international economies.”

UChicago Study Abroad wrote in an email to the program’s participants, “This decision stems from closely monitoring the local situation in partnership with colleagues in Hong Kong, the University’s international security firm, and the U.S. State Department.

“With violence following last week’s protests affecting university campuses—in-

cluding the University of Hong Kong, where our program housing is arranged—local universities have ended their fall semester early.”

Protests began in June and have recently turned toward university campuses. Last week, protestors turned several university campuses into temporary camps, and police blockaded protestors inside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, according to a CNN report. On Sunday and Monday, police armed with tear gas and water cannons clashed with protestors with petrol bombs and arrows, CNN reported.

Several other U.S. universities have also canceled or relocated study abroad programs located in Hong Kong. Georgetown University ended its two study abroad programs in Hong Kong last week due to es-

calations in clashes between police and protestors, according to its student paper, The Hoya, as did Syracuse University, alongside whom Georgetown hosted one of its programs. Fifteen Georgetown students were studying in Hong Kong at the time. Stanford University, on the other hand, canceled its Hong Kong program before the fall term began in late August, In March 2016, the University similarly moved its Istanbul-based Civilizations study abroad program to the Center in Paris after a bombing occurred in a shopping center one week before the program was scheduled to begin.

The email to participants reported that the spring 2020 Hong Kong program has not been affected.

Following Protest, CBA Coalition Secures Meeting With City Officials

By LAURA GERSONY News Reporter The Obama Presidential Center Community Benefits Agreement Coalition held a prayer vigil and protest outside a city meeting on affordable housing at the AKArama building on South Ingleside Avenue this Tuesday, urging City officials to support the CBA Housing Ordinance.

Following the task force meeting, CBA advocates announced that they had secured a meeting with the City’s Department of Housing and Department of Law to discuss concerns with the ordinance.

Members of the CBA Coalition said they hope this meeting will advance the CBA Housing Ordinance, which was introduced in City Council in July and has since been stalled in committee. The proposed ordinance stipulates that 30 percent of housing within a two-mile radius of the OPC remains affordable to low-income residents.

About 40 people attended the protest, including a contingent from UChicago Against Displacement (UCAD), a member organization of the CBA Coalition. According to Laurel Chen, a representative from the student group, UCAD is broadly concerned with issues of displacement resulting from OPC and UChicago developments. The campaign for a CBA is currently

its primary focus.

“As a result of the prayer vigil and ongoing leadership of aldermen Taylor and Hairston, representatives from the Department of Housing agreed to convene a meeting with the City’s Law Department to address outstanding concerns with the ordinance,” Chen said.

“The Coalition has been asking for this meeting since the CBA Housing Ordinance was introduced, and so we view this meeting as significant progress in advancing the ordinance towards passage.”

The ordinance also proposes the creation of an anti-displacement task force, the establishment of a community trust fund for affordable housing, and property tax relief for low- and middle-income residents.

Protestors convened at 5:30 p.m. in front of the AKArama building, where the Department of Housing meeting was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. According to protest organizer Alex Goldenberg, the meeting’s objective was to determine the City’s affordable housing strategy in areas near the Obama Center. The meeting was not open to the press.

Protestors carried signs with messages including, “STOP DISPLACEMENT/ VOTE YES TO CBA HOUSING ORDINANCE” and “PROTECT AFFORDABLE HOUSING.”

Organizers with the CBA Coalition protest. alexis florence At 5:40 p.m., the group assembled on either side of the building’s entrance to hold a prayer. Linda Haywood, representing the organization Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP), was the first to speak.

“Father God, we lift up CBA in the name of Jesus, and we denounce displacement in Jesus’s name,” Haywood said.

Reverend Finley Campbell, leader of the Racial Justice Task Force of the First Unitarian Church of Chicago, also addressed the group.

“Not asking for the world, not asking for anybody to give up any power. We’re asking them to do their duties as the mothers and fathers of this city, to do the right thing.”

The protest disbanded just after 6 p.m., with chants of “CBA” and “We’ll be back.”

The CBA has garnered widespread support from local residents, receiving overwhelming approval from voters in Wards in and around the site of the OPC in a nonbinding April referendum. The CBA CONTINUED ON PG. 3

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“We’re asking them to do their duties...to do the right thing.”

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has also received backing from Aldermen Leslie Hairston (Fifth Ward) and Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward), who introduced the ordinance in City Hall and whose Wards the OPC will most directly affect.

Opponents of the CBA have raised concerns that it may concentrate poverty

in the area and dampen the potential economic stimulus that the OPC could bring.

Former President Obama has come out against the CBA, saying the OPC will be a positive economic stimulus to the South Side. The University of Chicago has also voiced concerns about the CBA, saying in a July statement that they “have concerns

with the ordinance as currently proposed.”

Woods Wiser, a fourth-year in the College and a member of UCAD, told The Maroon that UCAD attended the protest to show solidarity with the CBA Coalition. “The ordinance is supported by the people in the community,” Woods said in reference to the April referendum and al-

dermanic endorsement of the ordinance.

Wiser also expressed his belief that UChicago students have a responsibility to support the push for a CBA “because, as students, it’s our responsibility to do what we can to support affordable housing in an area that we are very much tied to.”

Which Majors Pay Off? New Data Show CS, Econ Most Profitable

By TONY BROOKS News Editor Though received wisdom holds that STEM majors make more than their peers in the humanities and social sciences, it would appear that not all sciences yield the same returns. At UChicago, philosophy majors can expect to earn higher starting salaries than both physics majors and biology majors.

Last Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education released data on the expected earnings and debt of university graduates, categorized by institution, degree type, and degree field. The Maroon parsed through the source data, available at the College Scorecard website, to find out how UChicago compares to its peer institutions.

Previously, College Scorecard, created in 2013 under the Obama administration, only published data by institution. New Trump-administration rules require the inclusion of data by degree field as well.

While the Scorecard data provides an unprecedented granular look at trends in higher education, it represents a mere subset of the overall student population.

Information is only available for students who accepted federal financial aid while attending school, causing a potential sampling bias. The data also does not take into account debt taken on by students’ parents.

The Department of Education notes that its estimates for student debt may be lower than reality.

About 15 percent of all reported programs cite a median debt higher than median earnings one year after graduation, according to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, but The Maroon’s analysis of the source data shows that earnings consistently exceed debt for UChicago grads.

The average debt across undergraduate majors at UChicago is $18,213, but many major

fields at UChicago, including chemistry and anthropology, do not have data on median debt upon graduation.

Two of the most popular undergraduate majors at UChicago, computer science and economics, top the list for earnings one year after graduation, with median incomes of $87,000 and $83,000, respectively.

Some of UChicago’s peer institutions have higher earnings for the same degrees; at Brown University, for instance, the median income for computer science majors is $141,100. At the University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign, computer science majors can expect to make $92,200 one year after graduation, $5,200 more than their UChicago counterparts. At UChicago, graduates with a master’s degree in computer science can expect $85,200, while Urbana–Champaign graduates can expect $123,100.

Median salaries for STEM majors also vary widely by field. Physics majors at UChicago make $38,300, similarly to UIUC graduates, who earn $37,900. MIT physics majors earn almost twice that, at $73,900, while biology majors at UChicago earn only $31,100. Math majors average $70,700, and statistics majors make $72,000 a year after graduation.

Psychology majors earn $39,600, which is comparable with other institutions like Duke University and Cornell University, where psychology graduates earn $39,100 and $43,300, respectively. History majors earn only $32,300 with $19,500 in debt, while their Duke counterparts earn $51,400 with only $10,534 in debt. On average, UChicago philosophy majors earn $39,300.

In a press statement on Wednesday, the Department of Education said the agency released more comprehensive College Scorecard data this year in order to improve transparency and access to information.

Some students say that access to this infor-

mation would have influenced their course of study.

“This really reinforces what I’ve been thinking all year, that I should have been a CS major,” Max Marcussen, a fourth-year double majoring in philosophy and economics with a specialization in data science, told The Maroon.

For master’s degrees, debt averages $54,024. For seven different degree programs, debt is higher than starting salaries, six of which are master’s programs, including the master’s in public policy.

Fourth-year Evelyn Xue, an art history major, is currently applying for master’s programs in the humanities. She told The Maroon that this data will likely have little impact on her decision, since she already understood the finances of master’s programs.

“I am going into [graduate school] knowing that the economic returns aren’t going to be a lot,” she said. She also explained that the data would not have influenced her choice of undergraduate major. “I’m really just interested in doing what I want to do,

and what I wanted to do was art history.”

Of non-master’s graduate students, only medical students consistently owe more than they make upon graduation. Due to the high cost of medical school and the relatively low salaries of internships and residency programs, most medical students’ debt exceeds their earnings during their first year post-graduation. UChicago medical students graduate with $116,791 in debt and with starting salaries of $57,400.

In the United States, only Harvard University medical students earn more than they owe immediately postgraduation, with only $48,654 in debt and $62,920 in earnings.

At the Law School, however, graduates earn $170,500 with $146,806 in debt, one of only seven law schools with available data for which first-year earnings exceeded debt, our analysis revealed.

Booth School grads with MBAs make $152,900 one year out of school, with $79,602 in debt, which is lower in terms of both income and debt than their Wharton counterparts’ average income of $165,700 and $41,000 in debt.

Debt-to-earnings ratios for computer science majors at UChicago and rival schools. tony brooks

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After Long-Stalled Negotiations, Second Nurses’ Strike Averted

By MATTHEW LEE Deputy News Editor National Nurses United (NNU) and the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) reached a tentative contract agreement on Satur-

day, averting a strike that had been planned for Tuesday.

Tuesday’s strike would have had a significant impact on the hospital’s patient care. In preparing for the strike, UCMC closed units, transferred patients and re-scheduled ap-

pointments on Friday, November 22.

The agreement follows eight months of negotiations, after the previous contract expired in March. The bargaining period was marked by a strike in June, which NNU members said was

because of inadequate staffing and safety concerns. Another point of contention during negotiations included the proposed elimination of the patient care support nurse role, which triggered plans for the now-canceled strike on November 26th.

The agreement is expected to be ratified by NNU members at a vote on Tuesday. The union wrote in a press release that full details of the contract will not be made public prior to ratification by its members.

Daniel Epstein (J.D. ’15) Makes Progressive Case for IL Supreme Court

By ADYANT KANAKAMEDALA

News Reporter

In a wide-ranging interview with The Maroon, Daniel Epstein (J.D. ’15), a candidate for a seat on the Illinois Supreme Court, said that he plans to expand the Court’s involvement in determining rules for the state judicial system and enforce higher ethical standards among judges, if elected.

Epstein was born and raised in Evanston and attended the University of Chicago for law school. He is running against incumbent P. Scott Neville, Jr., who was appointed to finish the Justice Charles Freeman’s term after he retired in June.

Epstein frames his campaign as an attempt to use the power of the Court to reform the state’s criminal justice system. The Illinois Supreme Court also writes the Rules of Procedure, the Rules of Evidence, and the Rules of Ethics, in addition to being the state’s highest court. These rules are “the source code for how courts operate,” according to Epstein.

The court’s rulemaking supremacy limits what can be accomplished “through legislature and through City Council, and through the Governor’s office and through the Mayor’s office,” Epstein said. “If we want to change the rules of procedure, evidence of ethics, design, standards, data, technological stuff, truly, there are only seven people who can do a lot of this stuff.”

Trial-court sentencing is

one area of law where rules of ethics are especially important, according to Epstein. Currently, trial judges do not have to provide a statement explaining the reasoning behind a defendant’s sentence.

Without a written explanation for a sentencing, a convicted defendant’s right to appeal is “essentially hollow,” Epstein said. The Court has “seized authority over this process, and in some cases, abandoned responsibility.”

Epstein also wants to change how courts determine judges’ conflicts of interest. Currently, justices and appellate judges in Illinois determine their own conflicts of interest and recuse themselves accordingly.

Epstein proposed using the court’s rulemaking power to create an independent body within the state judiciary to determine conflicts of interest. One model he suggested would make each justice and judge in the state select individuals for a panel that would review cases for potential conflicts.

Epstein also sees the Court’s control over courthouse design standards as an opportunity to make the spaces “more inclusive for trans people” by requiring gender-neutral, single-user bathrooms.

Epstein’s progressive bent has garnered him endorsements from Chicago attorneys, including Kara Ingelhart, a prominent LGBTQ+ civil rights attorney, and Jon Loevy, a partner at local

civil-rights firm Loevy & Loevy.

Epstein said that his endorsements come from “people who are in the trenches doing work, and I think there’s a reason for that, which is that they are intimately familiar with the need for reform.”

Many changes Epstein wants to institute have already been adopted in other states.

“Sanctuary courts” is a term Epstein uses to describe a plan to enable undocumented people to sue wage thieves and abusers.

“They won’t set foot in our state civil courts because they’re afraid that ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is there,” Epstein said. His change would “make it so they can appear in court via phone or via webcam so that they can sue the

people who abused them without setting foot in court.”

Another policy Epstein wants to adopt from Indiana, Iowa, and Florida, is a broader use of depositions in criminal cases.

While working on the defense of an alleged murderer, Epstein said he discovered that the machine that the state’s forensic analyst used to match DNA samples was incorrectly calibrated.

But since Epstein’s client pleaded guilty, the case did not go to trial and he was unable to create a public record of this faulty machine.

That machine was used in many other cases, and may have returned false positives leading to multiple wrongful convictions, Epstein said. “In Illinois, 97.4 percent in 2017 of all felo-

Epstein takes a selfie with a supporter. daniel epstein

ny convictions ended in guilty pleas,” he said. “That’s how pattern misconduct is able to persist.”

By allowing depositions to be taken even in criminal cases that do not reach trial, Epstein said he wants to create a record of information that other attorneys can use to challenge evidence and testimony in future cases. He said, “We’ve turned our system into this kind of conveyor-belt system of justice, where its goal is to produce a resolution, but we’ve lost this other really important function, which is to provide information.”

In addition to Epstein, five judges are also running for the seat. Primary voting will take place on March 17, 2020.

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Off-Off’s @realchoppedliva Talks Twitter Stardom

By GUSTAVO DELGADO Senior News Reporter On August 26, second-year Liva Pierce posted a video on Twitter spoofing musical theater. Within days, her social media following exceeded 30,000 people on Twitter and on other platforms like YouTube and TikTok; the video now counts more than 7 million views.

The video is a sendup of the awkward transitions between spoken dialogue and songs, depicting musicals in pitch-perfect Broadway style. “Hey, you listen here, mister: I’m not gonna be an orphan. I’m gonna get adopted by a rich man!” she sang. At another point: “I’m not just a witch. I’m a witch with HPV, and I’m proud of it.”

Viewers were delighted.

“This is my religion now,” D’Arcy Carden, an actor on NBC’s The Good Place, commented.

“Who’s the person who said girls aren’t funny I just wanna talk,” another Twitter user wrote.

The Maroon spoke with Pierce about her newfound celebrity.

The video that catapulted her to stardom had humble beginnings. “I had noticed some other people who I follow, like comedians, posting these straight-tocamera videos, and I had broken my elbow earlier in the summer, so I was home a lot,” Pierce said.

“That idea came to me since I did a lot of musical theater growing up as a kid, and I like that transition since it’s awkward and forced.”

Pierce’s experience with musical theater and comedy, which inspired her video, continued even after she graduated from high school. “I actually took a gap year before coming here. So, I worked at two theaters here in Chicago, I lived in Chicago, and I took some theater classes at Second City,” Pierce said.

Upon arriving at UChicago, Pierce knew she had to join OffOff Campus, UChicago’s improvisational-theater and -comedy troupe. As a second-year member, she is now involved with sketch production for the troupe’s performances at The Revival, a theater in Hyde Park.

“I did improv during my gap year and high school, so I really wanted to put time into a group like Off-Off,” Pierce said.

Where does Pierce find the inspiration to keep generating viral hits?

“Because I do a lot of improv I have a lot of stupid random jokes about fantasy creatures, random things, and also, I’m gay, so I really like talking about that,” she said.

“When I go about my day, and I see something that appears contrived or off or forced, it’ll stay stuck in my head. Now usually, if I have those thoughts, I’ll write them down, and from there, I’ll think about where it could apply.”

Her other tweets on these subjects have garnered a large amount of attention as well, including a video making fun of people who insist on sharing their unpopular opinions, which has almost 47,000 likes, and a tweet

that reads, “stop saying lesbians dress bad! we brought layering into the world and we can take it out of it have fun wearing one shirt at a time,” which has over 23,000 likes.

“I feel like I’m always filtering things through where it could work, whether it be sketch or tweets or something,” Pierce said.

Pierce is also motivated to produce the content she wants to see in the comedic landscape, which includes more content from LGBTQ+ comedians.

“I don’t see a lot of gay comedians who are doing comedy but not letting that be everything about them,” she said. “Like, it’s either really tokenized or it’s very one-dimensional because they only get to play a sidekick or something. I just want there to be more fully realized, funny gay people, and I think there are starting to be more. A lot of those people are the people who inspire me the most.”

Pierce said that she’s inspired by comedians ranging from Charles Rogers and Sarah Violet Bliss, a writing duo that created the show Search Party on TBS, to Amy Poehler, for her success in bringing more female voices into comedy. “She produced really cool shows by women and about women,” she said.

Pierce’s musical video saw widespread attention from people in the entertainment industry and received replies from celebrities including comedian Thomas Sanders, actor Michael Urie, and director Ava DuVernay.

As of November 24, it has 7.6 mil-

Liva Pierce performs a skit in hit Twitter video. twitter lion views, 89,600 retweets, and 339,300 likes.

With her 65,000–strong Twitter following, Pierce has found new opportunities in professional comedy. “It’s been really weird. It doesn’t seem real. I’ve been on the train and had someone recognize me, and what has been cool is that I’ve gotten offers to do stand-up shows and perform at places

around the city,” she said.

Pierce hopes to focus more on performance, using her newfound audience as a boost to get her act off the ground. “Moving forward, after fall quarter, I am going to try to use that momentum to try to do more [performances] like standup, which is newer [to me], so I’ll have to practice.”

Medical Anthropologist Vinh-Kim Nguyen on War and Epidemics

By RANIA GARDE News Reporter Physician and medical anthropologist at the Graduate Institute Geneva and advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO)

and Doctors Without Borders Dr. Vinh-Kim Nguyen spoke to students as part of the Medicine and its Objects seminar series on Monday.

Nguyen’s seminar began by describing how war is thought to

cause epidemics—the destruction of healthcare, sanitation, clean water sources, and agriculture in war-afflicted areas causes poor hygiene, mass movement of refugees, and outbreaks such as cholera.

However, Nguyen’s observation

of American military hospitals in Syria and Lebanon led him to discover a different causal path linking war and health epidemics.

“We have two events: the American invasion of Iraq and the global rise of antibiotic-resistant

bacteria, and I want to argue that they are linked,” Nguyen said.

The lack of available healthcare due to the war in the Middle East may be the cause of a global bacterial epidemic. In reCONTINUED ON PG. 6

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“If we no longer have effective antibiotics, we could be forced to go back 100 years in medical history.”

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source-poor and overwhelmed American military hospitals across the Middle East, medics and doctors prescribe the strongest forms of antibiotics, which contributes to the rise of multi-drug resistant bacteria.

The most prevalent multi-drug resistant bacteria that has spread throughout the Middle East is Acinetobacter baumannii, nicknamed Iraqibacter. This bacteria was first observed in severely wounded American soldiers. “The typical [wounded] Iraqi serviceman just dies, while the American servicemen get top-notch medical care. So it makes sense that this multi-drug-resistant bacteria arose in the American population,” Nyugen said.

The widespread use of antibiotics is not caused by irresponsible doctors who waywardly prescribe antibiotics, Nyugen argued. In Syria, military hospitals do not always have enough facilities, painkillers, and manpower to treat severe wounds, so strong antibiotics are the only solution.

Nyugen claims that these facilities are under-resourced because enemy forces aim to keep them that way as part of their war strategy. Nyugen said he has seen what he terms the Syrian “Department of Deletions” remove specific items from U.S. medical supply convoys, such as chlorine and gloves, while leaving scalpels and strong antibiot-

ics. This is a strategy to propagate infection and strengthen bacteria in the wounds of soldiers. Other tactics used to specifically wound soldiers and propagate infection include filling bombs with nails and feces.

In military hospitals, only the strongest antibiotics are available. These powerful antibiotics, called carbapenems, may seem like a miracle drug: They can destroy nearly any bacteria. However, carbapenems prompt all kinds of initially treatable bacteria to adapt and acquire antibiotic resistance.

“It’s not the bacteria that are resistant; it’s [that] the bacteria have the genes which confer resistance,” Nguyen said. These resistance genes code for pumps which are able to remove antibiotic medicines from the cell. The result of widespread carbapenem use is strong, drug-resistant bacteria like Iraqibacter.

Nguyen described Iraqibacter as “a reservoir for these genes that it is pumping out into more common pathogens that are infecting humans” and a “model for a broader process that may be of great epidemiological significance.”

The spread of resistance genes leads to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which could have an immense impact on otherwise safe medical procedures in U.S. civilian hospitals. Nguyen warned, “If we no longer have effective antibiotics, we could be

forced to go back 100 years, so to speak, in medical history.”

Iraqibacter outbreaks in the Montreal hospital where Nyugen works have already taken lives. Nyugen, though self-conscious about seeming alarmist, is confident antibiotics will be useless soon and argues there is an urgent need for alternative treatments to combat bacterial infection.

Nyugen then spoke of his more recent work in 2018, in temporary Ebola clinics in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In the wake of the Ebola outbreak, humanitarian aid seemed to generate violence; however, he distinguishes this violence from the healthcare-related war strategies he witnessed in Syria. Humanitarian organizations had to hire armed soldiers to protect healthcare facilities and locals began to take up arms against one another.

“These are attacks on healthcare workers not as a particular tactic in war.... It was something completely different. The attacks were essentially driven by anger over the resources that were coming in and that were not being shared, enormous amounts of money that were paying all the Ebola staff.”

For most citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ebola is far from being the most pressing concern.

In February 2018, two temporary Ebola clinics were burned to the ground, prompt-

ing some humanitarian aid organizations to close down their clinics.

Though Nguyen regards himself as clinician without a background in health policy and systemic issues, the crowd pressed him to talk about system-wide solutions. He pointed to a flawed strategy in infectious disease research, called the “magic-bullet approach.” In this approach, often funded by the Gates Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, disease epidemics are treated as “an engineering problem” to be solved.

“Political will diminishes, the closer you get to the target,” Nyugen said. In the magic bullet approach, a few decades of intensive research yields incremental results until the epidemic has diminished but has not been eradicated, and interest in its research peters out. Ultimately, Nyugen put the responsibility on organizations like the WHO to enact solutions, saying they need to prioritize long-term healthcare and sanitation over surge treatment of sensationalized epidemics. Nyugen also emphasized horizontal programs such as those for literacy and the education of women. People are going to donate for “human reasons” when they read the news about the Ebola epidemic, Nyugen said, and it’s up to organizations to take those funds and use them most effectively.

The Obama Center and a CBA: Where Do We Go From Here?

South Side residents continue pushing for a Community Benefits Agreement despite resistance from fellow community members.

By ALEXIS FLORENCE Grey City Reporter

On a crisp Wednesday evening, just as students were arriving for an after-school program, Pastor Jeffery Campbell, a bornand-raised Woodlawn resident, took me

through the halls and around the wooden pews of Woodlawn Baptist Church. Gleaming with pride he recited the history of the church, which has stood at its 62nd Street location since 1890.

Sitting down in his office, Campbell told me whicg streets he grew up on, where he

raised his children, and his favorite memories of the neighborhood, including shoveling snow as a boy during the blizzard of 1967. “[Woodlawn’s] vibrancy has always amazed me, and I say that having been here when they burned it down,” Campbell said.

Campbell has noticed growing displace-

ment concerns among his parishioners after the announcement of plans to build the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) in Jackson Park, about a mile from the church. Elderly church members have come to Campbell afraid of having to leave a community CONTINUED ON PG. 7

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they have lived in for over 60 years due to rising property taxes. South Side families feel pressure to move so that parents can afford to retire. The church itself has also begun to feel financial pressure.

“Recently my insurance on this building was doubled.… I am not planning on selling it, so now I have got an added expense at a time when my community is under the same financial pressures,” Campbell said.

“I look out my window here at the church and the dynamics have changed as to who I see and I ask myself the question, ‘Is there even going to be room for me here?’ ” The Concerns of Displacement As anticipation of the long-awaited OPC continues to build, residents in communities around the OPC are already feeling the adverse effects of economic development.

A study by the University of Illinois, Chicago, Nathalie P. Vorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement released in August echoed this concern, as it was found that some ommunity members within a two-mile radius of the OPC, an area where 62 percent of residents are renters, may not be able to afford rents and property taxes that are rising faster than the rest of the real-estate market in Chicago.

“Based on current housing costs, most renters earning less than $35,000 and most owners earning less than $50,000 are housing cost burdened (i.e. paying more than 30% of income for rent or their mortgage [and] taxes), and may not be able to afford

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“Is there even going to be room for me here?” additional increases to their housing costs,” the study states.

Bill Eager, who leads the implementation of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative in Woodlawn for Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), a Chicago nonprofit, also expressed his worries about community displacement with the OPC’s impending arrival. When considering all of the economic, government, and social factors that affect housing, Eager explained that the issue is more complex than people might initially think. “[Displacement] is a way more complicated question than you might read about.

I think it’s certainly an issue for any neighborhood that appears to be on the cusp of economic change. Parts of Woodlawn are beginning to see that kind of pressure,” Eager said.

A Proposed Solution Campbell’s Woodlawn Baptist Church is an ally (non-voting) member of the Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition, a group that formed in 2017 in response to the growing displacement anxiety and has continued to push for the implementation of a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA).

The Coalition’s initial goal was to sign a CBA with the Obama Foundation and the University of Chicago. However, after both organizations refused to engage in negotiations with community groups, members turned their attention to city hall.

This past July, 20th Ward Alderman

Pro-CBA activists hold a sign proclaiming “Obama Yes, Displacement No.” alexis florence.

Jeanette Taylor and Fifth Ward Alderman Leslie Hairston introduced the Coalition’s CBA plan as a city ordinance. Taylor, a firsttime alderman, and Hairston, a 20-year City Hall veteran, both used support for a CBA as a central part of their campaigns earlier this year.

“The ultimate goal of the CBA is to make sure that we protect the class of people who currently live in Woodlawn, and that includes renters and home-owners,” Taylor said.

Taylor mentioned that she and Hairston are currently in talks with representatives from the city, including Chicago Housing Department Commissioner Marisa Novara, to discuss the legality of the ordinance and to advance a revised version that Taylor hopes will be passed in January of next year. Taylor is expected to have a meeting with members of the Department of Housing, the City’s Law Department and representatives of the CBA Coalition this week and hopes to have a public meeting with her constituents around the discussion soon.

“We will get something that the majority of the community, with renters and homeowners, can be proud of,” Taylor said.

“There are going to be some gives and takes on both ends.”

UChicago Against Displacement, a group on campus consisting of both graduate and undergraduate students, formerly known as UChicago for a CBA, is a member of the coalition. The group advocates against housing displacement and gentrification in the areas around UChicago’s campus.

The group’s copresident Claudia Yanos, a third-year in the College, explained that the group, a voting member of the coalition, works not only to advocate for the passage of a CBA ordinance but also helps to inform UChicago students about displacement. Yanos wants students to know that “displacement is a very real issue. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers and the statistics, but these are real people, real families, having to leave their homes because they can’t afford it anymore.”

UChicago Against Displacement has helped to write the proposed CBA ordinance, engaged in protests and rallies, and helped build support in a community referendum vote. The February vote on whether to pass some form of a CBA received overwhelming support with about 90 percent of voters in the Fifth and 20th Wards voting

in favor. The group also holds Teach-Ins to which they invite other members of the coalition, housing experts, and community members to speak about why they think the proposed CBA ordinance is necessary.

At the group’s Teach-In this month, Devondrick Jeffers, a housing organizer for Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) and member of the Obama CBA Coalition, spoke to tenets of the proposed CBA ordinance.

Jeffers explained that the ordinance attempts to cement a plan to prevent displacement by mandating that the city allocate 30 percent of development for affordable housing without the option for developers to pay a fee instead of providing affordable housing; a property tax relief for long-time and low-, moderate-, and middle-income residents; the creation of an anti-displacement task force that will produce quarterly studies on their engagement with the issue; the establishment of a community trust fund and the first right to offer, upon sale of a property by a developer, to the tenants of a housing unit.

“I can’t answer for the coalition, but I know, [for] me personally, I wouldn’t want to give on any part of this [ordinance]… because it makes sense,” Jeffers told the audience.

Critics of the Proposal As the proposed CBA ordinance continues to stagnate in City Council, there are still members of the community who feel the ordinance, in its current form, will not be the right step for communities surrounding the OPC. I met with two members of the volunteer organization South Side Neighbors for Hope: Erin Adams, a professor at UChicago and a South Side resident for 14 years who currently lives in South Shore, and Maya Hodari, a Woodlawn native, former 20th Ward alderman candidate and development director for the Chicago Housing Authority.

Along with other community members, Adams and Hodari founded the group to fact-check statements about the OPC and to spread information about what they say the Center will bring to the surrounding neighborhoods, including improved community spaces such as a branch of the Chicago Public Library and a children’s park. continued ON pg. 8

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“It’s time to fight for black families incomes to grow, not putting us in another box.” continued from pg. 7

As a community member, Hodari feels that te proposed CBA ordinance creates too many rigid requirements around housing assistance with no incentive for income growth and does not focus on economically benefitting areas surrounding the OPC. She stated that she disagrees with the current allocation of affordable housing in the ordinance because she feels that it does not incentivize middle-class growth in Woodlawn. Hodari explained that she wants a policy that addresses the roots of issues surrounding income inequality and greater access to opportunity for South Side residents.

“We have been denied opportunity for far too long; [the OPC] is supposed to be the catalyst that is going to create a whole lot of growth. It’s time to fight for black families’ incomes to grow, not putting us in another box,” Hodari said.

Hodari feels the CBA does not consider the possibility of income growth on the South Side; she worries that the current ordinance could eventually lead to displacement as people who rely on affordable housing rise slightly above income thresholds to receive such benefits. Hodari explains that in bettering their economic standing, families will lose housing support and then, once again, find themselves rent-burdened and at risk of displacement.

She hopes for a more comprehensive policy that takes into account family income growth, so that residents can be incentivized to grow their earnings.

Both Adams and Hodari are frustrated with what they feel is a lack of true community input in the writing and modification of the proposed ordinance by members of the Obama CBA Coalition.

Adams expressed unease about the role played by the CBA Coalition, in particular STOP, in shaping the ordinance and be-

lieves there has been insufficient engagement with community members outside the coalition.

“We have had direct conversations with STOP about these very key issues [concerning economic development]. We have given them the feedback in a documented way; nothing has changed.

There has been no outreach since then to have discussions about how the CBA [ordinance] is being modified moving forward. So they talk about—I am so frustrated by this—‘There’s been this open community input about this CBA ordinance’ but it is just not true,” Adams said.

STOP did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Adams and Hodari want to ensure South Side residents feel like they have a stake in their community by ensuring more economic opportunities for working families and promoting homeownership. Both want to make sure that an agreement not only addresses immediate effects of the OPC but looks forward to the economic future in the neighborhoods most likely to be impacted by this surge in development.

Taylor, in response to criticisms about how the ordinance will affect economic development, said that she wants to keep her focus on improvements for 20th Ward residents.

“I want investment to happen but not at the price of displacement.… I was elected to protect all constituents of the 20th Ward and that’s what I am [going to] do and I am really not concerned with all the people who run businesses or who don’t live in Woodlawn to be honest.”

Dr. Byron Brazier, Apostolic Church of God’s pastor, feels the proposed ordinance will stunt economic growth. The church is a major supporter of the Network of Woodlawn (NOW), a nonprofit that describes itself as a “community building collaborative model that aims to help redevelop Wood-

lawn in a way that is beneficial to the community.” According to Brazier, the announcement of the OPC coming to Jackson Park put NOW on an accelerated path to increase their development efforts in the neighborhood.

Despite any differences in opinion on the proposed CBA ordinance, according to Brazier, one point stands firm at the center of this issue: People in neighborhoods around the site of the OPC want to ensure that long-standing community members benefit from this new development.

“There isn’t a community organization or community member that is not for community benefits,” Brazier said. “It comes down to, how do you reconcile differences?”

In his view, the increasing development and gentrification are inevitable because Woodlawn has 150 acres of public and vacant land along with hundreds of empty buildings.

“Woodlawn will gentrify. The reason for that is there must be displacement; displacement must take place before gentrification,” Brazier said to me. “There will always be community growth which will deal with increased rents, increased housing costs and so forth. The question we are dealing with now is, how do we configure Woodlawn to be as affordable as it is today.”

Brazier is confident that, going forward, there is a variety of mechanisms he would like to see discussed with the city and community groups to address rising housing costs, which would allow the neighborhood to grow economically while also offering a place for all people within the community.

Brazier wants to keep in mind what he feels is the role of the CBA ordinance as a policy to delegate city land for affordable housing.

He believes a CBA could inhibit economic development, saying, “…it’s designed to protect not

build. So you have to ask yourself the question, ‘Will the ordinance set-aside provide a catalyst for development or will it be a de-accelerator?’”

Brazier said that in talks he has had with community members, people do not believe the CBA Ordinance, in its current form, will accelerate community development.

Taylor, however, was adamant that community members in her ward have had multiple opportunities to voice their opinion at public meetings that the Obama CBA Coalition has been organizing for three years. Taylor expressed that she is trying to bring everyone together, but that there must be equal effort on both sides.

“I am trying to do that, so the criticisms really ain’t important to me, but I wish people will stop talking shit and not doing any work,” Taylor said.

Moving Forward Community members on all sides of the issue have expressed frustration with the lack of public discussion on the proposed CBA from City Hall.

Hodari wants more dialogue within the community and with the city to address the concerns of those who do not support the current proposed ordinance.

“I have had moments in the last two months where I just wish that we could all come together and build on common ground, but I don’t feel like that is welcome from people with opposing views,” Hodari said. “I would love to come together in the spirit of collaboration and look at the things that we all have in common to decide a path to move forward.”

Brazier wants more discussion on the proposed ordinance’s legality, as he has been told by advisors that parts of the ordinance may be illegal. Furthermore, he wants to explore on the ordinance’s potential economic-development ef-

fects. He also cautions all involved in discussions of an agreement to avoid generalities; especially when talking about housing cost in Woodlawn, Brazier pointed out the vast differences in housing costs in the northern regions of the neighborhood closest to UChicago and in the southern parts of the community.

Campbell wants to see more negotiation with all the involved parties to create an agreement that aids South Side residents in his church who have come to him feeling they are experiencing displacement because of the OPC. Moving forward, Eager, senior vice president of POAH, explained how consequential the decisions made around anti-displacement not only are to current residents but to future decisions about economic development in Chicago.

He advocates that all parties involved need to fully consider their choices in this matter.

“We have the time to plan for a development that doesn’t create the sorts of displacement pressures that people are afraid of; we have time to be thoughtful,” Eager said. “Woodlawn can serve as a model of how to do economic growth without displacement.”

The OPC construction start date is unclear as the center awaits federal review process results concerning a lawsuit filed by Protect Our Parks, an environmental activist group. “We [Obama Foundation] respect the federal review process and will break ground once that is complete,” said an Obama Foundation spokesperson.

Even though more meetings are happening to discuss the proposal with city officials, the proposed CBA ordinance has yet to receive a formal public hearing through City Council and is not on the Committee on Housing and Real Estate’s posted agenda for the remainder of this year.

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VIEWPOINTS Parts of the Bay are Here to Stay Sometimes, UChicago can be similar to the notoriously competitive Bay Area—but at least intellectualism is valued here.

By NOAH TESFAYE Applying to UChicago presented, among many things, the attractive possibility of leaving the Bay Area. Aside from family and friends, the weather, and my favorite restaurants and coffee shops, I could not imagine staying in the Silicon Valley bubble any longer. Every day, I’d hear students exclusively talk about the mediocre A- they got on an English paper, or a disappointing B+ on the latest math test.

Classes were taught for the sole purpose of preparing us for an Advanced Placement exam in May, and goodness if you didn’t get a 5 on an “easy one”—you’d be ridiculed for doing “poorly.”

Parents would repeatedly boast about their child’s accomplishments and pester other students about what extracurriculars they were doing. A parent at a family gathering would not stop being belligerent in asking me about everything I did to get into this

school, disregarding the fact that I even had a close relationship to them or that I had passions. Everything was a competition; your peers would attempt to always one-up even the hobbies you engaged in for fun.

When I arrived at UChicago, I thought that I would be leaving most of this behind, that maybe, just maybe, I could be immersed in learning for the sake of intellectual curiosity, rather than career advancement. Thankfully, many of my hopes have been fulfilled. I’ve met inspiring friends, am taking interesting classes, and have learned more in just my first quarter here than I ever did in high school. Yet, with every single week, I am slowly realizing that my new environment mirrors, in a few key ways, Silicon Valley; just with really difficult weather and a social sciences/ humanities–focused curriculum.

We may be a Division III school, but we should be Division I in the struggle Olympics.

One quarter in, and I’ve already fallen victim to feeling as though I need to let people know just how much work I have to do. The perpetual need to show those around you how overwhelmed or stressed you are exists in much of the same way it did back in high school. “I got X hours of sleep” or “I have Y P-sets due tomorrow” are statements I’ve made too often, not really as a means to share with my friends literally how much I have to work on, but almost as a way to justify why I’m too often preoccupied and not present enough.

For the hundreds of fellow Bay Area students here, the same type of pressure that many of us grew up with unfortunately remains a part of our college lives. There may not be parents around, but climbing club ranks and planning the next step in our education before the first quarter has even ended is an all-too-familiar experience. That same urge to always have to do work is

present here too, along with an eagerness to compare yourself against anyone with remotely similar interests.

Maybe my romantic image of UChicago was just naive, though. Did I genuinely believe that much of these similar trends, going from a competitive public high school to coming to a prestigious, intense university, would just magically disappear?

Was I really just choosing to not pay attention to the fact that a Bay Area–like competitive environment would not produce the same trends in school?

Irrespective of how eerily similar much of this campus is to the Bay, I will not deny to myself how much more fulfilling it is to be here. Going to a school that values the humanities and social sciences with such emphasis is truly a first in my life. Being surrounded by other students who also share my interests and push me to think in truly unconventional ways is also gratifying.

The opportunities to meet my heroes or watch a movie early at Doc Films or read political theory texts I’ve wanted to read for years are opportunities I really could not have anywhere else.

What I do know is that both of these factors can be true. I can acknowledge the very best of attending such an intellectually rigorous, liberal arts institution, but also acknowledge that the high stress academic environment I experienced in high school has followed me to college.

Initially, my first few weeks here made me worried that I may live four more years within the same environment I was trying to avoid. Nonetheless, just like back home, I know I need to learn the ways to find solace and reprieve through the seemingly endless amounts of work. So, whether that is in writing, fueling my coffee problem, or getting back to ice skating, I cannot let this place become the place I felt, at times, that I was fleeing.

Behold the Bonfires The University has limitless opportunities when it comes to spreading holiday cheer.

By SAM JOYCE Recently, bonfires have started popping up around campus. Apparently part of a new University initiative to spread seasonal cheer, these bonfires offer warmth, free hot chocolate, and the exquisite scent of

aromatic firewood. I didn’t expect campus to ever feel like a ski lodge, but it’s a welcome reprieve from the misery of 4:30 p.m. sunsets and looming finals.

One minor disappointment, however, is the lack of sound effects. The fires offer a source of light, the feeling of warmth,

the taste of delicious cocoa, the smell of burning hardwood—everything you could want, really, except noise. They do make a pleasant crackling sound, but nothing too dramatic. Nothing about the fires audibly screams winter.

Fortunately, the administra-

tion has both the power and, as of this quarter, an easy opportunity to remedy this shortcoming. In late September, the Smart Museum launched “The Chicago Sound Show,” an outdoor sound art exhibition running through the end of December. Locations including Cobb

Gate, Botany Pond, and the passageway between Classics and Wieboldt Hall were transformed into an acoustic showcase of “found sound,” with bizarre noises echoing through the once-familiar campus corridors. continued ON pg. 10

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“I didn’t expect campus to ever feel like a ski lodge, but it’s a welcome reprieve.” continued From Pg. 9

Students, by and large, panned the new exhibition.

The Smart described the exhibition at Botany Pond, Katherine Young’s “Resonance, and the Inhibition of,” as “sonically enhancing Botany Pond” through a work that “celebrates female-identifying scientists by extracting fragments of text from their writings, ornamented with hums, whirs, warbles, trills, and tones.” A popular meme in “UChicago Memes for Theoretical Midwest Teens,” meanwhile, described it as “that weird droning noise.”

Another meme described the feeling of unexpectedly encountering Andy Slater’s Unseen Re-heard, exhibited in the archway between Classics and Wieboldt, with a reaction image of a skeleton mariachi doll, captioned “Buenos Días fuckboy.” One “UChicago Secrets”

post even fantasized, “The frequency of the sound installation precisely matches the resonant frequency of my body, killing me instantly.”

Now that the installation has been up for over six weeks, I think I’ve heard enough of this particular track. But when large speakers are dispersed around campus at strategic locations, the opportunities are endless.

One possibility, from another “Secrets” post, offers the perfect complement to the bonfires: nonstop Christmas music for the rest of the quarter.

Imagine: As you walk to your calculus exam, reviewing formulas in your head, you pass through the Classics passageway. Instead of the jarring noises that previously echoed through the space, you are now enveloped by the melodious notes of Michael Bublé’s Juno Award–winning 2011 album

Christmas. “Santa buddy,” Bublé sings, in his aggressively heterosexual cover of Eartha Kitt’s original, “a ’65 convertible too, steel blue, I’ll wait up for you dude.” Bublé’s voice stays with you, reminding you that, after your calc exam, the serenity and peace of winter break awaits.

Your test anxiety melts away, and you ace your exam.

But Bublé isn’t the only option. Imagine the garden between Swift Hall and Bond Chapel echoing with “Hark!

The Herald Angels Sing,” or the grim concrete corridor next to Pick enlivened by Bruce Springsteen’s cover of “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.” And, of course, we’d have to find a place for Mariah Carey. It’d be

the College’s most significant mental health initiative of the year.

It’s time to put up the holly, ring the bells, and fill campus with the spirit of seasonal joy.

All we have to do is switch out “The Chicago Sound Show” for Ariana Grande’s Christmas & Chill. Your move, President Zimmer.

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JESSICA XIA

Stop the Sensationalizing In reporting on the Hong Kong protests, The Maroon’s news team failed to depict the complexities of the situation.

By DAVID LIANG As I slowly made my way out of a jam-packed Reg room last Monday following a heated discussion on the ongoing protests in Hong Kong, I was overwhelmed by a sense of happiness and relief—no disruptions,

no hecklers, only constructive dialogue. The hour-and-a-halflong symposium, in which panelists both debated the University’s response to the protests and engaged questions from the audience, embodied not only civic engagement, but also a triumph of civil discourse.

Events like Monday’s speak to why many of us chose to attend the University of Chicago, where we learn how to engage in constructive discourse and disagree without being disagreeable on complex, urgent, and often sensitive issues. continued ON pg. 11

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“When I first came across The Maroon’s recent headline on this symposium, however, I questioned whether we had indeed attended the same event.” continued from pg. 10

When I first came across The Maroon’s recent headline on this symposium, however, I questioned whether we had indeed attended the same event. “Protestors? ‘Terrorists.’ Carrie Lam? ‘A Sinner for A Thousand Years,” the online title reads. “Beijing, Hong Kong Backers Clash,” reads the headline of the same article in print.

The situation in Hong Kong is incredibly complex and is constantly evolving, which the distinguished panel on Monday well-understood. Emily Lau, a former pan-democratic lawmaker, may have called Carrie Lam, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, “a sinner for a thousand years” for her political inaction, but also criticized the protestors for their lack of leadership and organization.

Henry Ho, a former advisor to the Hong Kong government, may have dubbed protestors

“terrorists” but also stressed the need for governmental de-escalation. Indeed, as much as the speakers disagreed with one another on who should be held responsible for the situation in Hong Kong, both agreed to condemn the use of extreme violence.

In covering the event, however, The Maroon failed to fully depict these complexities. In both online and print publications, the editors of this article grossly simplified the speakers’ nuanced discussions on this multidimensional issue into sensationalist catchphrases that only serve to polarize.

One might defend The Maroon’s editorial freedom to choose whatever headlines it sees fit for its news articles.

One might even claim it makes complete sense to publish titles that intrigue and provoke, given the limited attention span for most casual readers of campus

news. However, at a time of such heightened tension between the mainland-Chinese and Hong Kong students on university campuses across the world, these sensationalist headlines are especially problematic. By labeling protesters as “terrorists” and calling the embattled Hong Kong leader “a sinner for a thousand years,” the headline establishes a false dichotomy between the most extreme positions of pro-government hardliners and pro-protest diehards, leaving no room for discussion, let alone compromise. In reality, both mainland-Chinese and Hong Kong students have mixed feelings about the latest developments in Hong Kong: Some students who favor the heavy-handed approach of the Hong Kong police to restore law and order may have gained sympathy for the protests after the mass arrests of teenagers as young as 12. Conversely, those

who back the pro-democracy protest may have reservations about lending their unequivocal support after protestors set on fire a dissenting man. Indeed, rather than facilitating productive civil discourse, the headlines sow bitter divisions within the already fractured student body.

In July, a fight broke out at the University of Queensland in Australia when mainlandChinese students clashed with their Hong Kong peers at a rally in support of the extradition bill protest. Punches were thrown and police were called to the scene. At many universities in the U.S., students with opposing views on the Hong Kong protests have bullied and threatened both online and in-person for publicly taking a side on the situation. No one wants to see such tension and hatred take shape on our own campus.

I understand The Maroon’s need to write creative titles to generate more clicks for its website. The smartly titled article on the opening of Strings Ramen, for instance, aroused my appetite harmlessly. Adding fuel to a burning pile of wood when a strong wind is already fanning the flame, however, would only cause a forest fire. When reporting on an issue as polarizing as the Hong Kong protest, The Maroon should prioritize objectivity over passion, and neutrality over creativity. Bland as it may be, a descriptive headline such as “Panelists Debates the Future of Hong Kong” would have been far less polarizing than the ones in question. To the news editors who titled the story on the Hong Kong symposium, think before you publish. Stop the dangerous sensationalizing before the forest catches fire.

Introductions Have a Lasting Impact For first-years, it’s important to continually meet new people and find new places for personal growth.

By MAYA ORDONEZ I remember my first day of the humanities core as a firstyear this fall. As I entered the classroom, a small room on the first floor of North, I thought of how the stark white walls and tall windows lent themselves perfectly to my class, Readings in World Literature. Since the course is dedicated to stories, the plainness of the room would allow these tales to unfold without distracting from them.

My professor was Gary Tubb, a man who spoke sagely about

each book we read. On that first day he began his lecture in a very suitable way: by talking about introductions. We went around the room and answered generic questions: What’s your name?

Where are you from? He used this exercise to segue into his main point—how the first few sentences of anything that is read or spoken act like an introduction. Professor Tubb told the class to treat the introduction to a text as if it were a human, to try to understand why it talks to us the way it does and what it lets us know about itself. He told us

to focus on the impact that each work has on the reader. In the past, I had never thought of engaging with a piece of unchanging text in this way. Yet the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Introductions act as a bridge from the unknown to the known. They enable us to understand things that we didn’t know existed. For first-years, the first quarter at UChicago is dominated by introductions—to people, places, and experiences.

These introductions, I’m learning, remain important through our four years on campus. The

same things my Hum professor told my class to focus on when approaching a literary work should be applied when introducing yourself to the unfamiliar.

Arguably, the most influential introductions are the first words exchanged between people; just like those of a book, they are often what leave the longest lasting impact. Personally, some of the best introductions I’ve had over my first quarter here have been spontaneous—realizing I was in the wrong lab section and that the girl sitting next to

me was in the same boat, or running into someone in the hallway of Max Palevsky.

Now, during eighth week, as people settle into their friend groups, it becomes easy to forget about the first, “Where are you from?” that was exchanged. Even with close friends, it is important to think back to those initial interactions and think about how they worked to define a relationship. I did this a few nights ago with some of my closest friends over dinner in Baker. Each of us recounted the first impression continued ON pg. 12

THE CHICAGO MAROON — NOVEMBER 27, 2019

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“Not all introductions are interpersonal ones. Sometimes, we shake hands with our surroundings or experiences.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 11

we had of one another. Some exchanges were quite funny: “You were the most California dude I ever met,” “Why? Because I was wearing a California sweatshirt?” Others were more awkward: “I forgot your name for the first three days after we met.” What all these first introductions had in common was their ability to tie together people of diverse backgrounds and experiences. What I reaped from these funny, awkward introductions is: When you meet a new person,

treat them as if they are a Steinbeck novel. They, too, are a composition of stories waiting to be retold, that in turn have much to do with yourself. Knowing their story allows you to become a part of it.

Not all introductions are interpersonal ones. Sometimes, we shake hands with our surroundings or experiences. Now that the oak-lined paths on the quad have become old scenery, take time to appreciate what it was like before you stepped foot on campus. Comparing your initial impression to how you feel

about campus now allows you to understand how far you’ve come during your time here. Your introduction to campus serves as a bench point for your growth; the trees stay the same as you evolve.

Appreciating your introduction to campus allows you to appreciate how far you’ve come.

When you discover a new place, perhaps a new neighborhood like Old Town or Wicker Park, or a part of campus that you’ve never seen, even if it is just a small archway, remember how important introductions are.

What do the people who amble

up the slate grey sidewalks of Old Town reveal about the personality of the place? When experiencing novelty, focus on the impact that it has on you, the reader.

With time, the unfamiliar slowly fades into the familiar.

Although beneficial in its own right, the familiar can close you off to opportunities and people that could eventually change your perspective. With a well-established friend group, it becomes easier to ignore strangers.

A comfortable routine becomes difficult to break. My advice is to seek out novelty. To fracture

the cyclical routine we often fall into. Start a conversation with someone while waiting in line at the Cathey pasta bar. Find a new place to study, or get off at a new stop on the Red Line.

Try new foods or participate in campus events that include names of things you’ve never heard of. This will enable you to experience new things that may change your values or way of thinking—the most worthwhile aspect of college life. The only thing keeping you from this is an introduction that could be as simple as “hello.”

ARTS Megan Thee Stallion Proves a Promising New Star

By JENNIFER MORSE Arts Reporter In a year full of breakout stars from Billie Eilish to Lizzo, Houston-born rapper Megan Thee Stallion stands out.

The talented artist has risen to prominence since Fever, her first full-length album, received critical and commercial success earlier this year. The enthusiasm for her was evidenced by the palpable excitement among the students coming to her soldout November 16 show at Mandel Hall.

Before Megan’s set began, fourth-year UChicago student Laila Aziem opened up the show with a DJ set, remixing various hit songs of the past few years.

The high-tempo energy of her set kept the audience excited in preparation for Megan Thee Stallion’s set.

Megan is well-known for her confidence, as she often hypes herself up in her lyrics. And her

adrian mandeville

often sexually explicit lyrics encourage fellow women to be freer and have more confidence in themselves. These themes

are clear in her opening track, “Realer,” from Fever, in which she raps about not caring what critics or others throw her way.

Her set continued with songs “Freak Nasty” and “Cocky AF.” Throughout the set, she exhibited the strength of her much-

praised knees, twerking to her songs without losing breath.

One of the best parts of the concert was Megan’s interaction with the audience, as she brought members of the audience on stage to dance to her fourth song, “Simon Says,” and continued to do so for the next few songs. Megan’s liberating charisma and carefree energy allowed her to have fun with the students while continuing to entertain the rest of the audience.

Another highlight of the night was Megan’s performance of “Hot Girl Summer,” her greatest hit of the summer.

The Hot Girl Summer Twitter meme, created by Megan herself, became ubiquitous this summer, and Megan aptly created the song to go along with it. Both the meme and the song highlight the themes of female empowerment that run through Megan’s music, as she encouragCONTINUED ON PG. 13

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“Megan’s liberating charisma and carefree energy allowed her to have fun with the students...”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 12

es women to be confident in themselves and for themselves.

Her final song of the night was “Cash Shit,” another huge hit. After performing this song, Megan closed the concert with more audience interaction by taking

selfies in the pit. All in all, it capped off a great set that demonstrated what makes Megan Thee Stallion such a promising new artist: her confidence and ability to empower others, her boundless energy during performances, and of course her great rapping skills.

Megan Thee Stallion performed at Mandel Hall to an inspired audience. adrian mandeville

Zines and Protest: Exhibition on the Art of the Hong Kong Movement

By LYNN CHONG Associate Arts Editor The protests in Hong Kong are a heated topic of discussion in international news, but why are they important to UChicago students, and how do we join this controversial conversation? These were some of the questions PanAsian Solidarity Coalition posed last Tuesday evening, during the exhibition and complementary panel of THE ART OF PROTEST: Hong Kong Movement Zines 抗議之藝術：香港小冊子. The event organizers and panelists remained anonymous throughout the event due to the sensitivity surrounding the issue.

Zines—or self-published miniature magazines—have been used for political expression and dissemination of alternative ideologies throughout history, and Hong Kong’s zines are fitting additions to this art form’s legacy. The exhibition, located at Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture through December 14, consists of 20 zines made during the recent protests, curated in collaboration with Hong Kong Zine Coop—a grassroots arts collective supporting the use of zines for political expression. While unified in their effort to support the Hong Kong protests, the zines are distinct in their design and intent. Some are educational, providing information on

protocol procedures for protestors in case of arrest. Others are visually symbolic—one zine was a collection of iconographies that have emerged throughout the Hong Kong movement. However, perhaps the most powerful zines are the most minimalist ones, which use animation and poetic captions to encourage camaraderie between protesters in a time of great vulnerability.

Thus, the zines act as a practical source of guidance, but also as a symbol of the collective sentiment and humanity of the protest. “It was really important for me to show the actual material that’s being circulated in Hong Kong beyond the narratives in the news that frame things in a very simple

east/west, communist/democracy binary. It’s doing a disservice to the people in Hong Kong who have been protesting for half a year,” said one of the organizers of the event. “A lot of these zines have been distributed at protests and rallies [....] This kind of firsthand, complex experience is something you can’t get from watching the news,” they added.

Complementing the exhibition opening was a panel about the Hong Kong movement and the history behind its political philosophy. Starting from the founding of Hong Kong as a British colony to its current state as a Chinese special administrative reCONTINUED ON PG. 14

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“...the Hong Kong movement has been a truly sensory explosion.”

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gion, the panelists presented an extensive analysis of Hong Kong’s historical context and how that has shaped its present political situation. The presentation was effectively titled, “A Decades-Old Pressure Cooker­­­— Where is the Release?” and the panelists’ message was clear: Hong Kong was subjected to a debilitating identity crisis from its founding, and protest was inevitable. The Hong Kong movement is a natural consequence of an unnatural history.

In addition to historical analysis, the panel focused on the arts, specifically the different ways in which Hong Kong protesters use the arts for political expression.

With colorful Lennon Walls, flags, iconography, dress code, posters, anthems, and—finally—zines, the Hong Kong movement has been a truly sensory explosion.

Despite their efforts to remain neutral about the issue, it was clear that the panel-

THEMELESS

By JULIA BYRNE

ists held pro-Hong Kong sentiments. While this could have introduced tension during the event, the organizers and panelists successfully restrained hostility by reminding the audience of the event’s neutrality.

During the Q&A session, people asked a wide range of inquisitive questions, breaking out of the binary on the issue and flowing freely in intellectual rigor.

“Seeing the show of support from the audience was incredible; we had over 70 people attend, including the Global Solidarity with Hong Kong Chicago group, an elderly Chinese couple who sat right in the front, and mainland Chinese students,” one panelist said. “The event made me truly appreciative of the work that PanAsia is doing on campus, where our mission of political education comes through in our emphasis on student knowledge, power, and personal relationships.”

Across 1. Copy partner 6. Frog’s friend 10. Mecca pilgrimage 14. Arctic, for one

Zines hang at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, on display through Dec 14th . courtesy of panasia solidarity coalition

15. Hill employee 16. Biblical twin 17. Rid of impurities with heat 18. Placed a foundation beneath 20. Sunny?

22. Northeastern Russian region 23. More than one is ideal 24. Earnest religiosity 27. European songbird 30. Ownership documents 33. Plant stem above and below ground 36. Leopard’s covering 38. Theologian Johann 39. Resident of Tehran 41. Elementary actress 42. Pinch pennies 45. Opalescent gem 48. Oxen couplers 50. Gets the party started 51. What surgeons do to patients 54. Agree to (Abbr.)

57. A robocall from the IRS, for example 58. Catholic beads 62. Rambled 65. Baby food, often

66. Norse troublemaker 67. Singer Simone 68. Wild sheep from central Asia 69. Storm centers 70. The demon barber of Fleet Street 71. June birthstone Down 1. Fancy Spice Girl 2. Peak 3. Horned, walrus-like Pokémon 4. Sri Lankan fan palm 5. Involves 6. Focal prefix 7. Sty sounds 8. Extra item 9. Judged 10. Daughter of 66Across 11. Now! 12. Put in the clink 13. Moody protagonist in a children s book series 19. What the sun also does 21. South American raccoon relatives 25. Strip of weapons 26. Back-to-school mo.

27. Raw metals 28. Boxer Balboa, in film 29. Japanese capital (Alt.) 31. Great melancholy 32. Ado 34. Thai neighbor 35. Whip, in Moscow 37. Brings to court 40. Type of self?

43. Hawaiian site measuring GHGs 44. Grudging replacement for 56Down 46. Grab salsa with a chip 47. Monastic hairstyle 49. Cosine reciprocal 52. 49-Down is one 53. Revise 54. Up to the task 55. Sicken with sweetness 56. Soda in a red can 59. Opera solo 60. Caboose position 61. Hoot and holler 63. Roman power 64. ___ jokes

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In the Absence of Light Examines Blackness from the Inside Out

By TOMÁS MIRITI PACHECO Arts Reporter It is difficult to know how one is meant to witness art that looks inward, yet this paradox has not deterred people from producing or consuming such works. In The Absence of Light: Gesture, Humor, and Resistance in the Black Aesthetic, on view at the Stony Island Arts Bank through December 29, embodies this conflict wholeheartedly. Centering around “artistic practices that…reveal some sense of interiority,” the exhibition contains several works that depict the inner lives of Black people, a focus that seems a response to the lack of nuance that normally characterizes the purely exterior perspectives on Black lives. The collection features over 20 artists from across the diaspora, highlighting the Black aesthetic across various mediums dating from the mid-’60s to 2019.

In one painting, entitled I’m not dangerous, a Black boy holds a rifle against a green background. In Unfinished Commission of the Late Baroness, the titular baroness sits on a desk, her face and hair the only portion colored in. Though the two artists, Henry Taylor and Toyin Ojih Odutola respectively, work in different cities from different backgrounds, they are placed side by side for a reason. Just as Taylor characterizes his art as “landscape paintings” to highlight the connection between his art and the world around him, Odutola explains in a recent PBS interview that making art like “ a topography” or “landscape” helped her combat portrayals of Black life from outsider points of view.

While interiority is the focus of the

works presented, many also take on the concept of distance. Nate Young’s Untitled (Altar No. 12) consists of a sheet of shaded paper with a thin horizontal line ending in two arrows stretching across its middle.

The paper is held within an oak and walnut cabinet, doors open to reveal a semicircle behind each door, divided in half by another line with an arrow at its far end.

Interiority is literally challenged in the work, the sheet of paper contained within a structure which also serves as an extension. The piece is hung in the south gallery, alongside the experimental acrylics of Jack Whitten and Torkwase Dyson and a bombastic portrait by Robert Colescott, whose dramatic colors and silhouettes stand out against the black-and-white palette of nearby works. This tension is also a central part of the exhibit’s curation; opposite forces are constantly at play in each gallery just as they are within each work of art.

A portion of the north gallery is dedicated to Glenn Ligon, a New York–based artist whose work does not center around interiority but fully engenders the exhibition’s theme of gesture. This is most prominent in Ligon’s popular text-based art, in which he fills in stenciled excerpts from Black poets and writers with oil stick.

One such piece on view at the Arts Bank is Study for “Came and Went,” which quotes Richard Pryor’s famous routine on Black funerals. The character of the work is a feature of how it was created: The smears and scratches from Ligon’s hand are clearly visible, nearly obscuring some of the letters.

The messiness of the appropriated text distances it from its origin, pointing towards the way both age and transformed per-

Glenn Ligon is among the over 20 artists whose work is featured in In the Absence of Light. courtesy rebuild foundation

spectives have shaped the words’ meaning since Pryor wrote them in 1978, 30 years before the piece’s creation.

The breadth of work, gathered through the Rebuild Foundation’s collaboration with EXPO CHICAGO, Art in America, and the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, offers a unique perspective on the present and past of Black art by focusing on in-

ternal, gestural works. When the lives of Black people are so often framed in terms of external conditions, to approach them from within is a refreshing, challenging perspective.

In the Absence of Light is on view at the Stony Island Arts Bank through December 29.

“the team exhibited a great deal of talent, grit, and tenacity...”

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within reach. Second-year Ryan Martin provided clutch scoring from the bench, draining a three and a transition bucket as the Maroons scored 12 straight to make the score 70–68. Martin (seven points), along with second-year Brandon Beckman (eight points), led the scoring off the bench, which outperformed the Prairie Wolves bench 23–4.

Chicago and NWU traded buckets but with the score tied at 74 apiece with 2:18

on the clock, the Prairie Wolves regained the lead for the final time with a pair of free throws. In desperate need for offense, the Maroons were held scoreless until Schmitz notched a layup with 23 seconds to go. On the other hand, the Prairie Wolves came up clutch from the line, hitting five free throws in the final minute of regulation to clinch the victory. Baum’s triple at the buzzer made the final score 81–79 in favor of the visitors. Schmitz once again notched 18 points, in addition to grabbing six rebounds.

Baum had 17 points and eight assists.

In a season that has failed to deliver on expectations thus far, the narrow loss to a top-10 opponent must especially sting for the Maroons, now 1–4 for the year. However, the team exhibited a great deal of talent, grit, and tenacity against the Prairie Wolves, despite the disappointing outcome, and will look to build on those positives moving forward. “We took a big step forward today as a unit; now we just need to keep getting better together,” Martin said after the game.

Chicago next takes on Wheaton (3–1).

The Thunder are coming off a Final Four run in the 2018–19 season but lost Division III Player of the Year Aston Francis to graduation. Francis averaged 34.3 points per game, including a 62-point effort in the NCAA quarterfinals, yet Chicago thoroughly defeated Wheaton last year, piling on for a 30-point win. The Maroons will hope to replicate that success and head into Thanksgiving break with a quality victory.

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SPORTS

Women’s Basketball Sweeps with an Undefeated Week

By THOMAS GORDON Sports Editor

This past weekend, Ratner hosted the annual Midway Classic tournament. The women’s basketball team had a tough draw to start off the tournament with No. 11 Trine University in their way. Both teams lit up the scoreboard to start off as the Thunder only missed a single shot in the entire first quarter, and the Maroons were able to stay tight as they hit six three-pointers in the opening quarter.

The offenses did slow down as the game hit the two middle quarters and Trine started to impose their size advantage and dominate the paint. Kelsy Taylor, a center for the Thunder, scored 11 points in the third quarter alone to take an 11-point lead into the fourth quarter. The lead grew to as large as 13 points with nine minutes left

in the game. However, the Maroons would not quit and were able to cut the lead down six points with some slick outside shooting. Eventually, the lead went down to only two points with UChicago having a chance to tie the game on a late possession; however, the Maroons were denied on a drive with six seconds left. It seemed that the last-ditch comeback was all for naught, but the Thunder missed their two free throws and fourth-year guard Mia Farrell drove to the basket and picked up a foul. She was able to do what the Thunder could not, and coolly knocked down both free throws to tie the game and force overtime. With all of the momentum, the Maroons dominated the extra period with a suffocating defense that only allowed two points. Mia Farrell was the star of the night with a season-high 25 points and the vital free throws to force overtime. Fourth-year guard Miranda

Burt hailed her team’s resilience in a possible season-defining win: “Our first game was against Trine, who is always a tough opponent. They came in ready to play with a great game plan of how to beat us. We took some punches, but fought back and refused to lose. Mia played an incredible game, and everyone on our team contributed to us coming back.”

With the win against Trine, UChicago faced Kenyon College with a chance to sweep the Midway Classic. The Maroons took the momentum from their comeback win against Trine and started the game on fire. UChicago ended the first quarter on a 29–14 run and followed it with a 27-point outburst in the second quarter as well.

While Kenyon College did make a run in the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth to cut it down to an eight-point lead, the end result was not in doubt as

Burt made big shot after big shot. She was absolutely on fire from deep, connecting on a school-record eight three-pointers on only 12 attempts to finish with a career-high 26 points. The Maroons ultimately swept the weekend with an 89–74 win. Burt was effusive in her praise for her teammates’ role in her record-breaking performance: “I’m still shocked about the record-breaking performance. I think, especially if you see the highlights, it’s really just a tribute to my teammates getting me open and creating [room] for me. I am fortunate to be part of an amazing team, and I think this record goes to show that I was just the player who happened to be open.” After a disappointing first week of the season, an undefeated second week could be just the spark needed to create lasting momentum for the season.

Men’s Basketball Unable to Close Out in Midway Classic

By ALISON GILL Sports Editor

The UChicago men’s basketball team hosted its annual Midway Classic tournament at Ratner Athletic Center over the weekend and, despite valiant efforts, the Maroons fell to DePauw and No. 8 Nebraska Wesleyan in a tough back-to-back stretch. No. 15 St. Thomas, who beat Nebraska Wesleyan in the first round of the four-team bracket, defeated DePauw on Sunday to claim the tournament championship.

In the first round, the DePauw Tigers beat Chicago after the hosts went cold. A six-point halftime deficit turned into a 75–59 loss when the Maroons struggled from the floor, especially behind the arc, in the second half. The Tigers jumped out to an early lead, 20–8, but Chicago ripped off a 14–5 run, sparked by four three-pointers, that cut it to 25–22. DePauw responded with their own three-point barrage to stretch the lead out 38–32 at the break.

DePauw third-year Nick Felke added two of those threes in the waning minutes of the first half, and he stayed hot in the second

half on his way to a game-high 27 points.

The Maroons were never able to make a significant dent in the scoring margin, hitting 43.4 percent from the field but just 18.5 percent from three, including a brutal second half in which they went 1–13 from behind the arc. Fourth-year Cole Schmitz netted 18 points and seven rebounds to lead the Maroons, while fellow fourth-year Jordan Baum,tallied 11 points and five assists.

It was an efficient game for both teams with only 14 combined turnovers, but the Tigers’ advantage in shooting percentage (51 percent) and five additional points on the boards were too much for the Maroons to overcome.

Without much time to linger on the DePauw loss on Saturday, the Maroons immediately shifted their focus toward the Prairie Wolves. Knowing that the 2017–18 national champions bring depth, experience, and a winning tradition, the Maroons looked to capitalize on a “next-man-up mentality” and “[readiness] to give it our all on a quick turnaround,” in the words of Baum.

The real heartbreak of the weekend came on Sunday for the Maroons, when

they narrowly lost to Nebraska Wesleyan University (NWU), 81–79. Facing off against their toughest non-conference opponent, Chicago nearly pulled off the massive upset behind a strong comeback effort and impressive bench scoring. The home team pushed the visitors all the way to the brink but couldn’t quite close the game in front of a crowd largely pulling for NWU. Playing against NWU’s vaunted zone defense, the Maroons came out hot with Baum and Schmitz consistently connecting from deep. Yet, for each deep triple the Maroons nailed, the Prairie Wolves were ready to answer. NWU led 45–38 at the half with eight three-pointers for the visitors and seven for the hosts. The NWU fourthyear tandem of Jack Hiller (24 points) and Nate Schimonitz (26 points) combined for 50 points and led the offensive charge that began the second half for the visitors. A seven-point halftime deficit had expanded to 12 with the final 10 minutes remaining, and the Prairie Wolves were threatening to put the game away.

Hungry for a win, the Maroons responded with an 8–0 run, spearheaded by Schmitz, Baum, and third-year Dominic

Fourth-year guard Jordan Baum against Nebraska Wesleyan player. uchicago athletics Laravie, and cut the lead to four. A couple of free throws and another triple from Hiller seemed to reclaim the momentum for the visitors, but Chicago once again CONTINUED ON PG. 15