ALUM LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN FOR IOWA HOUSE
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Ph.D. Students Will No Longer Be Required to Pay Student Services Fee Across Six Divisions and Schools By KATE MABUS | News Editor
Graduate students and supporters protest against the student services fee at a rally on October 19, 2021, in front of Levi Hall. COURTESY OF ANDREW GOLDBLATT
Starting next autumn quarter, graduate students will no longer be required to pay the student services fee. The Tuesday announcement came after a year of organizing by Graduate Students United (GSU) for reducing the fee. The student services fee is a quarterly payment not included in tuition that goes toward supporting Campus and Student Life’s services, such as UChicago Student Wellness, Student Disability Services, the Office of International Affairs, and UChicago HELP. It also funds recognized student organizations through the Undergraduate Student Government and Graduate Council. The Division of the Humanities; Social Sciences Division; the Crown School of
Social Work, Policy, and Practice; and the Divinity School have agreed to cover the fee for Ph.D. students who do not already have a waiver. The Physical and Biological Sciences Divisions began incorporating the student service fees into their funding model for Ph.D. candidates in autumn quarter 2021. “We know that without a doubt, this is a result of our organizing over the past year,” GSU communications secretary Laura Colaneri told The Maroon. “We're really happy that we've been able to put what amounts to a really material increase in money in our members’ pockets.” Colaneri pointed out that graduate students will annually save between $1,200 CONTINUED ON PG. 2
Alivisatos and Community Leaders Address Violence Prevention at Virtual Roundtable By AUSTIN ZEGLIS | Senior News Reporter UChicago will start a multi-year fund aimed at fostering relationships between the University and community-based organizations, University President Paul Alivisatos announced at a virtual roundtable discussion on Tuesday evening. At the roundtable, Alivisatos and experts from community organizations discussed UChicago’s plans to address the “root causes of violence” following a recent rise in shootings around Hyde Park.
In his introductory remarks, Alivisatos said that the fund will be aimed at “supporting and encouraging partnerships between University units and community-based entities that advance research and improve community-based outcomes.” The University’s current goal is to offer the fund’s first grants early this summer. More details on the process and exact timeline will follow soon, Alivisatos
NEWS: Cryptocurrency club seeks recognition as RSO.
ARTS: Barbara Kruger’s Art Institute exhibit is a study in hypocrisy.
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Hyde Park. COURTESY OF MARCO VERCH
VIEWPOINTS: As we return to in-person learning, Chicago should be on the syllabus.
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and $1,600 now that the fee isn’t being subtracted from their stipends. The announcement was made the day before the student services fee for winter quarter was due. Colaneri was not surprised by the timing of the announcement given that GSU members who have boycotted the fee now collectively owe close to $100,000. “I think it's not surprising that they decided to announce this right now, when
we're really getting into gear for, frankly, making the administration not look very good,” she said. Last February, GSU organized a boycott of the student services fee in which nearly 500 graduate students pledged to participate. GSU demanded that the University reduce the fee from $416 per quarter to no more than $125 per quarter—a change that the University had implemented only for spring quarter 2020 as a result of remote instruction—and
release information about how the funds from the fee are allocated across University services. According to the bursar’s office, “The Student Services Fee is assessed quarterly to support the many services dedicated to enhancing the quality of student life and campus activities.” “Each academic year, we are charged over $1,200 for an ill-defined and unchosen bundle of services. This fee is significantly higher than those paid at compara-
ble universities,” GSU wrote in a letter to fellow graduate student workers. GSU members felt that the fee was particularly onerous during the COVID-19 pandemic, when services and facilities were either closed or operating at restricted capacity. “The student services fee…effectively taxes a financially and medically precarious graduate student body for services it cannot fully and safely provide,” GSU wrote.
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said. After his remarks, Alivisatos introduced Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, who spoke briefly about the State of Illinois’s efforts to help curb violent crime in Chicago. She mentioned her work with Governor J. B. Pritzker in creating the Reimagine Public Safety Act (RPSA) this past summer. The RPSA is “a four-year comprehensive plan that is investing $250 million to address gun violence.” Stratton said that the state is using “data-driven and holistic strategies to approach this problem like the public health crisis that it is.” The event then transitioned to a panel, moderated by Vice President of Communications Paul Rand, that included UChicago
professors, administrators, and alumni. Dean of the Crown School Deborah Gorman-Smith said that neighborhoods experiencing high violent crime have “for decades suffered from disinvestment, unemployment, poverty, inequity in education, and decreased access to social, medical, and mental health services.” Brenda Battle, senior vice president for community health transformation at UChicago Medicine (UCM), then spoke about UCM’s Violence Recovery Program, which was created in 2019. The program is aimed at helping those affected by violent crime “heal holistically,” according to Battle. It features partnerships between UCM and community organizations like Chicago Create Real Economic Destiny
(CRED). “You have to [work] with community partners that are already embedded in the community and that are assets to your community,’’ Battle said. Part of UCM’s Violence Recovery program is a system of reinjury risk assessments performed by violence recovery specialists. “We want to know if there is a risk for retaliation. If there is that risk, we can activate our relationships with community organizations,” Battle said. Jalon Arthur, the director of strategic initiatives at Chicago CRED, spoke about the holistic approaches that Chicago CRED takes to its work. “CRED is doing policy work. So that part of it is really about significantly increasing the amount of public funding investments,” he said.
Vice President for Civic Engagement and External Affairs Derek Douglas also spoke on the panel. He talked about the University’s goals to “take its assets, partner with community stakeholders, and then direct those at a problem or challenge.” Douglas also emphasized the importance of capacity building in the University’s efforts to help strengthen nearby communities. “Capacity building is working with nonprofit organizations to help them become stronger, more sustainable organizations in delivering on their mission,” Douglas said. “It might be helping them start a fundraiser, create a strategic plan, or put a board together.”
UChicago Alum Adam Zabner Running to Represent Iowa’s 90th House District By GUSTAVO DELGADO | Senior News Reporter Shortly after graduating from the University of Chicago in fall 2021, Adam Zabner announced his campaign for state representative in Iowa’s 90th House District. If elected, he will be the first-ever Latino-American representative serving as a Democrat in Iowa. He aims to expand opportunities in Iowa and address structural inequalities.
“I got in this race because I believe that Iowa can lead on big issues like climate change, like health care. You know, we’re number two in the country on wind energy,” Zabner said in an interview with The Maroon. Zabner, who majored in neuroscience and contributed to The Maroon, grew up in Iowa City after his parents
immigrated there from Venezuela. He discovered his love for political campaigning while working as an organizer for Pete Buttigieg during the 2020 presidential election. Zabner then worked as an organizing director for the Iowa Democratic Party and a volunteer coordinator for Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA). “The things that have taught me what I need to know in this job are rooted in the activism and political work
that I’ve done: getting out there, talking to voters, working in the most conservative parts of Iowa,” Zabner said. “[It’s about discovering] where it is that our state party is lacking in terms of messaging, in terms of folks not knowing exactly what we stand for, in terms of struggling to find that connection with people and break through some of the partisan noise.” CONTINUED ON PG. 3
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Based on his experiences as a resident and organizer in Iowa, Zabner believes that many of the issues facing Iowa are rooted in the exodus of young people from the state. “If you graduate from college, you’re 40 to 50 thousand dollars in debt, and you’re offered a job in Chicago that may pay 20,000 dollars more than what you make here in Iowa—As much as you want to stay, it’s a really hard choice to make,” Zabner said. “In order to retain those people, we need to make our health-care system strong. We should say that if you commit to staying in the state after graduation, we will pay your tuition at a state university or community college. We’re going to make this a state that is a place you want to live, that’s leading our nation of the future.” Similar programs already exist in more than 20 states, including New York, California, and Tennessee. In New York, the Excelsior Scholarship provides students with financial aid on top of any preexisting programs as long as that person does not exceed $125,000 in salary and completes 30 credits per year. Zabner also hopes that providing incentives for college graduates will improve the health-care system in Iowa. He attributes the stability of hospitals in the state to the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare in 2014. “That’s really been one of the things that has kept those last rural hospitals going, because you can see in other rural states that they’ve really had their rural health-care systems gutted out in the last 10 years. But it’s still a struggle,” Zabner said. “I mean, pay for health care workers, especially nurses here in Iowa, is lower than in our neighboring states.” Zabner would also address the socioeconomic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, Zabner has experienced firsthand the disproportionate effects the pandemic had on Latino communities in Iowa and hopes that he will be able to improve the state’s response to the pandemic. “There is a meatpacking town called Columbus Junction. It’s a majority Latino town, and the first couple of weeks, my dad and the other Latino doctors at
Adam Zabner with supporter Sue Bryant, a volunteer with the Iowa City Eastside Democrats. COURTESY OF ADAM ZABNER the University [of Iowa] would spend all night after they got off their shifts calling family members of the workers who were in the ICU,” Zabner said. “They needed someone who could explain what was happening in Spanish, and people weren’t able to come visit their family members due to the pandemic.”
Ahead of the primary election on June 7, Zabner hopes that his campaign will inspire young people in Iowa and effect progressive change. “They need that push. They need that type of hope and excitement that maybe our state party is missing right now. So that’s what I hope to bring. I know that
even if I win, it’s hard to know how long it’ll be until Democrats have a majority in the Iowa State House again. Right now, we’re down almost 20 seats,” Zabner said. “But that type of work…is what it takes to get to the place where we need to be.”
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University Reports 307 New COVID-19 Cases After Resumption of In-Person Classes, Reiterates Booster Requirement
Mansueto Library. COURTESY OF MEGHAN HENDRIX
By AUSTIN ZEGLIS | Senior News Reporter The University reported 307 new COVID-19 cases and a 1.73 percent positivity rate in surveillance tests this week, according to a UChicago Forward email sent Friday afternoon. Fifty-six of the 307 positive cases came from the University’s surveillance testing program. The rest are from symptomatic testing and self-reported cases of off-campus students. As of Friday, 28 students are in on-campus isolation housing, while 66 students are isolating off campus. Last week, Housing and Residence Life (HRL) reimposed restrictions on inter-dorm visitors that were in place last academic year. According to the email, further updates on the policy will be provided February 4.
The University will also release information on the new requirement that instructors and students keep their masks on while speaking in classrooms. The University is currently working with experts from UChicago Medicine “to see when conditions will allow some additional precautions to be rolled back.” The email reiterated that all students must comply with the University’s COVID-19 booster shot requirement by January 31. Students who are currently eligible to get a booster shot must either upload proof of receiving a booster shot to the my.WellnessPortal or apply for an exemption.
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Second-Year Student Founds New Cryptocurrency Club By NATALIE HOGE | News Reporter This fall, second-year Eric Liu founded an organization dedicated to cryptocurrency. “Crypto Club,” as it is affectionately known by its 30-odd members, has been running since the beginning of the year and is seeking official status as a recognized student organization (RSO). Cryptocurrency, a digital currency that operates in a decentralized, online market, is a passion of Liu’s. After talking with fellow students, he realized he was not the only one who was interested in emerging technology. “Crypto is, you know, a passion of mine. It’s something that I’ve been looking a lot into on the side, and I also found a similar passion in a lot of the other students on campus,” Liu said. “[There were] the right ingredients for a club to form.” Liu believes that it is important for students to understand cryptocurrency because it is an emerging and complex part of the economic landscape. “It’s also one of those buzzwords…that you hear everywhere, but no one actually knows what’s behind, you know, the hype,” he said. “So I think it’s important for people to understand the technicals to some
extent. Like, for example, what is an NFT [non-fungible token]? People hear that word everywhere, but, you know, people don’t necessarily know why it’s so significant, right? So I think creating this club would enable people to better get an understanding of all the different terms flying around out there, and also, you know, find out if they’re actually interested in pursuing a career in this field because it is growing really fast.” Second-year Tannus Vollmer wrote the club’s bylaws and spoke about how the club’s education curriculum allows students to learn even if they do not know much about crypto to begin with. “If someone is interested in learning about crypto, this is the club to do it in,” Vollmer said. “The PowerPoints are designed [by] people who know about crypto and also people who don’t know about it…so we have kind of a test to make sure that it’s something that someone who maybe isn’t so knowledgeable about the subject could understand.” He also shared that although much of the discussion about cryptocurrency focuses on finance, Crypto Club wants to focus
Bitcoin. COURTESY OF NEWS18 on studying blockchain as a technology too. “It’s not necessarily a club for people who just want to make money,” Vollmer said. In addition to the curriculum, Crypto Club also wants to attract speakers. They are looking for professors interested in cryptocurrency, blockchain, or people working at relevant companies to speak to members of the club. They plan on hosting a speaker series in early February. Liu hopes to have the series in person but fears
it may be pushed to Zoom. Two professors, professor Robert Fefferman of the math department and professor David Cash of the computer science department, have already agreed to give lectures as a part of the series. Liu spoke about the value of creating a club as he reflected on one he started in high school. “It’s fun making something, and once you leave and you see it’s still there, that part’s incredible,” Liu said. “It’s like you left your mark on the place where you were.”
Former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown Reflects Upon His Career and Family at IOP Event By BEN WIENER | Senior News Reporter David Axelrod spoke with former United Kingdom prime minister Gordon Brown about his passion for politics and the importance of global cooperation in policy-making at a virtual Institute of Politics event on Wednesday. Brown began the talk by explaining how his childhood shaped his passion for politics. Growing up in Scotland, he knew that he wanted to change the environment around him. “I felt the poverty that I saw around me because this was a time of huge change—the mining industry was falling,” he said. “I remember one company just a few yards from where I lived had a factory, and 500 people were made redundant in one week. And that really had an influence on me. I thought, ‘You
got to be able to do something about this.’” Brown also explained his continuing motivation for working in politics. “Public service can make a difference. Politics is not a game; it’s about changing things. Politics is about hope. It’s about giving people hope that things can change,” he said. Brown then emphasized the need to foster global cooperation and fight rising nationalist sentiment among individual countries. “We’ve almost been oblivious to the fact that we’ve got a global economy. It’s an open global economy,” he said. “You’ve got to have coordinated policies with other countries if you’re going to make things happen. We’ve seen that during the pandemic. We know exactly that’s the problem on cli-
mate change. That one country can’t solve that problem alone.” To solve global issues such as climate change and COVID-19, he argued for greater cooperation. Specifically speaking about global COVID-19 vaccination, Brown called the current effort “a moral failure of huge proportions.” “We’ve got the vaccines. We could get them to Africa, but there’s not the money and there’s not been the pressure, sufficiently strong, so that we actually suffer because the virus comes back in a new form,” he said. However, Brown noted the importance of mitigating globalization. He said, “You’ve got to manage globalization. Otherwise, you get the results that we’ve now got, which is massive inequality.” Axelrod also asked Brown about losses in
his personal life and how they affected him. He shared that the night before his father had died, he had cut short a phone call with his father because he had been busy with work. “It is something that I will always regret,” Brown said. He then reflected on the impact of his daughter’s death 11 days after her birth. “When my daughter died, that also made me think that family is really important. These things touch you, and the time you give to your children is really important,” he said. Brown ruminated on the balance between work life and personal life: “[Witnessing family death] does bring home that there’s something more to life than work, but it also drives you on to do some of the things that you think are important.”
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VIEWPOINTS
Need-Buried Aid: Cartel 568’s Ruined Racket
ANNABELLE CHAN
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The Not-So-New Normal The University should prioritize in-person instruction By EMMA WEBER On December 23, UChicago students opened their emails to an early Christmas present—or a lump of coal, depending on whom you ask. Instead of Saint Nick, however, it was Ka Yee Lee and Katie Callow-Wright, who announced the surprise of an extra week of winter break followed by at least two weeks of Zoom University, all wrapped up neatly under a catchall subject line: “Delayed Start of Winter Quarter.” These measures, a response to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 that is ravaging the country, were met with mixed reactions. Some celebrated the remote weeks as extended vacation time, but
many, like me, dreaded the return to online learning, something we thought we had left behind in 2021. The shift back to Zoom would supposedly reduce, per the email, “case counts in the on-campus populations” and “disruptions to instruction,” yet given the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and the infectiousness of the Omicron strain, it was more likely that the University was delaying the inevitable: an outbreak on campus. The toll remote learning takes on academics and mental health was worse than the result of such an outbreak, which would be the risk of mild sickness for students thanks to the vaccine mandate UChicago has in place. I therefore believe that the two-
week delay to in-person instruction was illogical and that any further delays would have been damaging to the already fragile well-being of students. As we shift from pandemic to endemic, the University should instead seek to adapt its current policies to maintain a safe and fulfilling in-person college experience for students. The changes to the winter quarter were twofold: a later start date and a two-week return to online school. The former policy I agree with. Though I think the delay in announcing such a major change was imprudent, the additional week gave students who contracted COVID-19 over the holiday period a chance to recover and those who didn’t time to take
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precautions and get tested before classes started. This policy would have been especially fitting were the quarter in person. A two-week return to online school marked a return to the burnout and Zoom fatigue that characterized the last academic year, the effects of which some students are still recovering from. Even worse, starting the quarter online opened the door to the entire quarter going remote. The mid-January projected peak of Omicron was just that: a projection. It would have been contradictory, given the reasons stated for reverting to Zoom in the first place, for the University to begin in-person classes on the 24th if the case count in Hyde Park
were higher than it is currently. It would also be poor optics to resume in-person instruction only for there to be a major outbreak anyway, which is almost inevitable given how contagious the Omicron variant is. While two weeks of online classes doesn’t sound too bad, another quarter of them would be devastating for many. Having in-person instruction this fall made me realize how much easier it is to concentrate when your lecturer is sitting in front of you, how much easier it is to study with others keeping you accountable, and how much easier it is to take care of yourself when your bedroom is not also your workspace. The toll an online CONTINUED ON PG. 8
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quarter would take on student well-being and the quality of both learning and instruction would be far greater than the worst-case scenario of a large portion of the student body getting mildly sick. The University should therefore have made a commitment to offering this high-quality learning environment for its students by resuming in-person instruction from day one of winter quarter. While Lee and Callow-Wright’s email states that the University “greatly values in-person instruction” and is “committed to returning to it as soon as conditions allow,” it is not clear why conditions did not allow us to take classes on campus. Though case counts were at record levels, the social nature of campus life means that outbreaks will occur even if we wait for them to wane slightly—it takes
just one student with the virus for everyone to be at risk. The email even acknowledges the inevitability of an outbreak, saying that “there will still be high numbers of positive cases of COVID-19 among our students and employees once we resume in person on January 24.” What, then, were we waiting for? Increased pressure on the University’s medical and other COVID-related services will occur no matter when we return to campus. Given that UChicago students were mandated to be fully vaccinated this past fall and to receive the booster before returning to campus this winter, the effects of an outbreak were largely muted, and the benefits students could garner from in-person interactions and learning in a classroom setting justified taking on such a risk. Certain schools agree. North-
eastern University, which is also located in a major U.S. city, has chosen to stick with in-person instruction, stating, “As we move into this endemic phase of the pandemic, our job is to continue to control COVID effectively, not let COVID control us.” We are moving from COVID-19 being a novel disease to it being a fact of life. This means that it is time to stop putting “normal” life on hold and to adapt instead. The US government is already taking such measures toward normality by reducing isolation periods for those infected with or exposed to COVID-19. Our university can, and should, take further measures to make the in-person student experience as seamless as possible during the endemic era. These should focus on creating a flexible learning experience. For sick students, previously recorded lec-
tures should be made available, or even better, livestreaming in-person lectures should become the norm. Accommodations should be made when it comes to deadlines and exam times. To ensure efficacy and consistency, these changes should be made clear on a University-wide and departmental level. This is not to say that we should give in to COVID-19 but rather that the procedures we use to combat it should not define the student experience in the way that online learning does. The vaccine mandate and testing schemes the University already has in place are great examples of this. UChicago should also educate students on the reasoning behind specific measures put in place for their safety. This will make measures feel less arbitrary, leading, in turn, to more students complying and holding each other accountable.
When COVID-19 was taking its baby steps around the globe, the University extended spring break by a week before shifting to remote learning. Sound familiar? Almost two years have passed, during which enormous breakthroughs have ensured that most of us could be fully vaccinated and boosted, yet from the approach that our university and many others are taking to Omicron, it would seem as if we were still in March 2020. In order to fulfill the goal of providing the best quality of education to their students, these institutions should be using lessons from the pandemic years to adapt their campuses to the endemic we are facing. The first step is logging off of Zoom. Emma Weber is a third-year in the College.
Immersion At Home Before we study abroad, we should study in Chicago By SYLVIA EBENBACH Two years ago, I wrote about why study abroad should be accessible to more students at UChicago. This past fall, I was fortunate enough to enroll in the European Civilizations Program in Paris. Needless to say, I ate a lot of pain au chocolats, dusted off my French, and thoroughly reveled in Parisian culture. However, at the very tail end of my program, the COVID-19 Omicron variant became a threat and soon after quickly spread across the world. I had the chance to benefit from studying abroad in my final year of college, but it still bothers me
that students may have a more difficult time accessing programs like mine in the future, given the state of the world and the demands of academics in general. Although there is obviously huge appeal to living in a completely new place for a quarter, one of the best parts about the study abroad experience could be implemented at home in Hyde Park: immersion into the surrounding environment. Many classes, particularly in the social sciences, situate their material within the context of Chicago, but these courses rarely interact directly with the city. Depending on the study abroad program, there are excursions
within and outside of the city at least once a week. These trips relate the content from class to real places, exhibits, and artistic works. In France, the excursions ranged from tours of the Palace of Versailles to a day trip to World War I battlefields in Verdun. This does not just apply to the history courses; even the neuroscience program related psychological and anatomical phenomena to museum exhibits in Paris. In Chicago, the classes I’ve taken which have involved excursions to museums and locales around the city have been the most memorable. For instance, in the first quarter of my Sosc sequence, Self, Culture, and
Society, we visited the National Museum of Mexican Art when discussing Jose Vasconcelos’s “Mestizaje” and Hegel’s Philosophy of World History. In another class about the history of theater, we went to see Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton to discuss the staging and features of the performance. Taking education out of the confines of the classroom and making use of the rich culture and history in Chicago enhances the student learning experience. The logistics of building excursions into a rigorous curriculum may seem daunting, but there is already a framework for it in UChicago classes. Ac-
ademic rigor and the devotion of resources to excursions can go hand in hand. Experiential learning will create more well-rounded students than theoretical readings and PowerPoint slides can alone. In fact, UChicago already acknowledges the benefits of experiential learning and has addressed ways to make it doable, even during the pandemic. With Zoom burnout, students and faculty crave in-person learning even more than before. Part of this transition back to in-person classes could include rethinking the physical places in which learning takes place. Students could CONTINUED ON PG. 9
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also take greater advantage of the programs that exist to encourage Chicago-centric learning, such as the Chicago Studies department. There is much to gain from exploring the environment around us in all fields. Furthermore, a mindset that seeks to center the University’s place in its surrounding area has the potential to improve UChicago’s relationship with the South Side and shed further light on the complicated history of our school. Building excursions into the curriculum will allow students to actually interact with the area and help to break damaging patterns which further divide the campus from the surrounding community. Education related to the South Side and to the broader city of Chicago provides context and designates significance to the physical place where we spend our college years. Perhaps the solution to concerns about the UChicago bubble is to make sure students engage with the surrounding place itself, and not exclusively in social science fields. While there are huge benefits to studying in another country and culture, we cannot forget the equally huge opportunity for enrichment and engagement that the city of Chicago presents right here at home. By integrating excursions into the UChicago curriculum, we can further enhance the educational experience of students. Before traveling across the world to enrich our education through experiential learning, students must embrace the same opportunities right here in Chicago. Sylvia Ebenbach is a fourthyear in the College.
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ARTS Untitled (Barbara Kruger Is a Parody of Herself) By NOOR ZALT | Arts Reporter It’s difficult to imagine a 75-yearold playing with animation software, manipulating the mouth of a largerthan-life gray cat so that it appears to be speaking the words of Noam Chomsky, and yet, supposedly, here we are. If you have been existing in Chicago for the past few weeks, Barbara Kruger’s exhibit Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. won’t be news to you, even if you’ve never heard the name Barbara Kruger. In fact, Kruger’s white-on-red lettering is so integral to popular culture that odds are you have interacted with it as “a style” rather than the signature of a specific artist. This explains the tedious familiarity I felt as I made my way through the Regenstein Hall of the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC). Kruger’s collages of black-and-white photographs with red-and-white captions hung six feet tall, each loaded with trigger words and recognizable cultural and political imagery, and yet, I found myself thinking, “How…uninspired.” At closer inspection, I realized the irony of my thoughts: Each of Kruger’s collages had references to her appropriation—an exposé on how ripping Kruger off is not just normalized but, from a marketing perspective, encouraged. Kruger’s art is not about the art itself but rather the consumer’s reaction to the art; the exhibition is in the internal and external response of the viewer. My knee-jerk reaction to blame Kruger for her (seemingly) unrevolutionary creation, rather than investigating the true intellectual proprietor of this aesthetic, is exactly the tendency of modern human nature Kruger wants us to pick up on. In the early ’60s, lost for purpose after her father’s death, Kruger discovered her passion for poetry: Her love of short-form, compelling literature is not just evident, but fundamental, in her modern work. In the latter half of the decade, Kruger found employment at Condé Nast, a job she emerged from
not only as head designer of the publication but also with an idea for a solo venture (her iconic collages) that would launch her into stardom. Kruger’s work in mass media circulation undoubtedly informed her artistic style—many of her pieces are amalgamations of magazine clippings—and I wonder if her first-hand involvement in the mass media industry validates or dissolves the legitimacy of her art and its message. My friend described Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. as a parody of itself: “It can’t possibly be serious; it’s doing everything that it’s criticizing,” he said. Indeed, each major thematic commentary made by Kruger’s art could be ricocheted back onto the exhibit or Kruger herself. For example, Kruger’s condemnation of consumerist culture—note her iconic slogan “I shop, therefore I am”—and the dehumanization it elicits seem weightless once you realize her critical art is being printed on tote bags and T-shirts in the AIC gift shop. If Kruger is so concerned with our becoming a “plastic society”—a society where the individual is defined by their reservoir of material objects, which is in turn defined by the individual’s rank in the capitalist hierarchy—then why is she contributing to mass production culture? Kruger also criticizes the contradictory and haphazard use of language in mass media circulation. Her exhibit features endless walls of text, language in such an overwhelming volume that, despite the violent nature of the vocabulary choices, the words come to mean nothing at all. The museum-goer leaves the exhibit exhausted and disoriented from the abundance (and yet somehow lack) of information, a wonderful simulation of the fast and free communication systems that define the modern world. The issue lies in the fact that Kruger herself is a perpetuator of those systems. Kruger spearheaded design for one of the largest global media conglomerates in the world and, since 1990,
dedicating her career to commissioned work for similar institutions. If Kruger is so aware of the dangers of modern media outlets and the lack of consideration and responsibility they take with their content, then why is she making herself disposable for their success? If Kruger is an anti-narcissist, “a
time that serves as a vehicle for efficient and concentrated message articulation, is antithetical to a gallery walk of everything from Kruger’s early analogs to her digital modernity. Kruger’s work is most effective when its shock value is fully intact: the Kruger experience is driving along the freeway and locking eyes
Kruger’s Untitled (I shop therefore I am). COURTESY OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO deeply private person” who is repulsed by “contemporary standards of self-exposure,” then why is she the subject of a retrospective gallery exhibit? The deepest irony of Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. stems from the fact that the exhibit isn’t a celebration of Kruger’s work, but a celebration of Kruger herself. The context in which Kruger’s pieces can flourish, the space and
with a porous Donald Trump stamped with the word “loser.” The double take is what prompts critical thought; the power of Kruger lies in her direct, arrow-like messaging service. Going to an exhibit specifically to see Kruger already dampens the effect of her work in that it inevitably fosters expectation and standards: The viewer CONTINUED ON PG. 11
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“Kruger’s art is not about the art itself but rather the consumer’s reaction to the art; the exhibition is in the internal and external response of the viewer.” CONTINUED FROM PG. 10
goes in looking for certain things, thereby inhibiting them from being hit by intention. Beyond the preconceived expectations, Kruger’s work has an aesthetic cohesion which means, in lining her art up one after another, any degree of surprise stored within the work deflates. Pieces that, in the correct external structure, would have caused one to be mentally and physically taken aback, are camouflaged in the homogeneity. As such, they act no more influential than wallpaper. Filling all 18,000 square feet of Regenstein Hall with Kruger memo-
rabilia is not the infrastructure for her artistic success; it’s an opportunity to revive Kruger’s name after twenty-some years of only historical relevance. The animation art made specifically for Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. supports my theory that the exhibit prioritizes flash over substance. A cat speaking the words of Noam Chomsky is a viral moment, a means of putting Kruger’s name back, even briefly, into mass circulation; but virality rarely has residual impact and even more seldom leads to change. Subway cards with probing questions that cause eyebrows to furrow
on long train rides are masterful vehicles for Kruger’s analytics—one of many of her innovative installations—meaning Kruger is entirely aware of what her art requires to thrive and is intentionally not providing it. The hypocrisy of Kruger’s anti-narcissist elitism as she deceptively sells tickets to the Barbara Kruger show under the disguise of Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. is entirely consistent with the parodic quality of the exhibit. So where does this leave us? Is Kruger an artistic phony doing the sociological equivalent of performative activism,
or is her entire life one tremendous meta-exhibition? I sense it’s the former, though I also acknowledge the significant role she has played and continues to play in the contemporary art scene. Is it unfair of me to expect modern artists to live according to their anthropomorphic findings? Is their responsibility just to expose, analyze, and critique for public consumption? Regardless, here I am engaging in yet another argument about whether Barbara Kruger deserves the time of day, all the while giving her nothing but energy and a platform, so who is the real hypocrite?
ICYMI: Two Gems from Last Year By LIVIU MEGHEREA | Arts Reporter Snail Mail, Valentine (released November 5, 2021, Matador Records) Snail Mail, the indie rock project of Lindsey Jordan, released their debut album Lush in 2018, showing great promise among contemporaries like Mitski, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers. While Lush is a mosaic of feelings and youthful longing, Jordan’s long-anticipated sophomore release Valentine marks a shift toward more diverse instrumentation and, given the album’s title, seductive cover art, and Jordan calling out to a lover on the lead single “Valentine,” more obviously presents itself as an album about love. Lindsey Jordan is no doubt a talented vocalist and songwriter. On the title track, she presents an almost hushed declaration that anticipates the themes of the rest of the record: “Let’s go be alone where no one can see us, honey,” she says over engulfing synth tones. Once the track explodes with percussion and driving guitars, Jordan raises her volume to deliver an impassioned, bold, and catchy hook. These impressive vocal performances are a hallmark of the record, and Jordan’s heartwarming lyrics communicate passion and desire. With a sweet and airy tone, Jordan sings on “Light Blue,” “Wanna wake up early ev-
ery day/ Just to be awake/ In the same world as you” over a plucky acoustic guitar before her repeated mantras of “Nothing’s gonna stop me now” and “I’m not going back” ring out — less a declaration of love and more an affirmation of commitment. Jordan sings with a great sense of confidence, creating satisfying hooks that exude warmth. Her voice rises and falls on “Madonna” as she sings “I don’t need absolution, it just hurts.” The performance is stunning, contrasting well with the sharp instrumentation and showing great range over the album’s tight 31-minute runtime. The biggest flaw of Valentine, however, is that it lacks a clear sonic direction and character. The guitar plucks and bubbly synths on the title track quickly transition to driving bass and electronic flourishes on “Ben Franklin” before giving way to nearly entirely acoustic cuts like “c. et al.” Strings and pianos dot tracks here and there, but the sudden presence and absence of particular instrumental motifs causes a somewhat disjointed listening experience, and Jordan’s vocals feel a bit disconnected from the rest of the band as a result. Rather than seamlessly integrating with the CONTINUED ON PG. 12
Valentine is the sophomore album of Lindsey Jordan’s indie rock project Snail Mail. COURTESY OF MATADOR RECORDS
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instrumentals, she seems to float over them. Valentine contains catchy songs with lovely vocal performances and a personal yet distinctly relatable feel, but as an uninterrupted listening experience, it is difficult to ignore the lack of consistent character in the instrumentals, no matter how well-crafted they are. That said, Valentine is one of the most heartfelt and easily enjoyable pieces of indie rock to come out of 2021. 7/10 SeeYouSpaceCowboy…, The Romance of Affliction (released November 5, 2021, Pure Noise Records) Metalcore has been a genre marked by aggression. Landmark albums like Converge’s Jane Doe and Botch’s We Are the Romans open with piercing roars and pulsating guitars, yet there lies a certain tenderness underneath it all; you’d hardly know it by listening to Jacob Bannon’s piercing screeches on Jane Doe, but they communicate fragmented, poetic lyrics about losing touch with a former lover. Such emotional potency took shape in the early 2000s with post-hardcore bands like Dropdead, The Gorgeous, and Alexisonfire, which tapped into emo aesthetics to deliver distinct vocal and instrumental styles that became synonymous with Myspace and hair dye. Nearly two decades later in late 2019, SeeYouSpaceCowboy… emerged with their debut album The Correlation Between Entrance and Exit Wounds among a metalcore scene that has largely lost its emotional lean, instead opting for inyour-face death metal—inspired aggression with albums like Knocked Loose’s A Different Shade of Blue — the record is described by Alternative Press as “a declaration of war against the metal status quo.” Frontwoman Connie Sgarbossa’s roaring vocals take up much of the album, yet there is room to breathe with slow, acoustic cuts like “A Space Marked ‘Escape’” and cleaner, quieter vocals, setting the band apart with its understated tenderness nestled between cutting, frenetic guitars.
The title of the band’s latest sophomore effort, The Romance of Affliction, clues us into Sgarbossa’s ongoing struggles with depression and drug abuse. “The record is about how we romanticize the negative and the darkness in our lives so much,” she says in an interview with Kerrang. The lead single “Misinterpreting Constellations” makes this clear as Sgarbossa pierces stuttering guitars with a roaring, “All our failures are stars/ All precious and/ always known/ You’ll still try to/ stomp out the brightest/ But something’s/ gotta give.” Her whiny vocals are perfectly juxtaposed with the screams, as if she lets out a breath as she sings, “All the guilt/ Inside us/ Every touch and/ Every kiss/ I’m still singing your praise in the end.” It is no surprise that The Romance of Affliction conjures nostalgia; the new addition of clean vocals from bassist Taylor Allen and guitarist Ethan Sgarbossa coupled with Connie’s screams allude to classic early 2000’s emo. It reeks of hair dye and sounds like a Myspace profile, yet the record never relies on the established norms of its predecessors; in fact, SeeYouSpaceCowboy… reinterprets and reinvents these sounds to create an entirely unique listening experience and to tell a story that is wholly theirs. The album begins just as the classic metalcore albums of the early 2000s did — with a bloodcurdling scream interlaced with Sgarbossa’s signature sassy vocals over angular guitar sections. A couple of verses from Every Time I Die’s Keith Buckley and a turbulent breakdown let the listener know that SeeYouSpaceCowboy… is a force to reckon with. Between the following tracks “Misinterpreting Constellations” and “The End to a Brief Moment of Lasting Intimacy,” the band firmly establishes that their aggressive disposition cannot shine without equal parts of tenderness. The latter, which comes with a stunning music video, sees Allen singing on the hook: “Take my hand/ Like it’s the only thing worth reaching for.” While these lines are easy to make
out, Sgarbossa’s screams of “The songs we sang, now they’re gone” are not as easy to decipher without a lyrics sheet. Herein lies the beauty of The Romance of Affliction: in its understated pain. Through the instrumentals and the screams, we feel loud, aggressive, and maybe angry. Through the clean hooks, we feel longing and desire. Underneath all this, however, is a tender pain that sometimes washes to the surface before being drowned out by defiant screams, resulting in an album that is both sonically and lyrically both “romance” and “affliction.” The Romance of Affliction is not a perfect album. Some features, like Shaolin G on “Sharpen What You Can,” feel
out of place and somewhat contrived, and the record can do with a more compelling flow. But these complaints are minor compared to the immense focus and precision with which The Romance of Affliction is constructed, and which flow out of every facet of the instrumentation and vocals. From the dazzling piano interlude “The Peace in Disillusion” to the grimy vocal inflections and sharp riffs on “Ouroboros as an Overused Metaphor,” SeeYouSpaceCowboy… has created a piece that is simultaneously entirely unique and that holds true to its roots in order to communicate its beautiful statement about love, loss, and pain. 9/10
SeeYouSpaceCowboy...’s The Romance Affliction is one of the latest albums to emerge onto the metalcore scene. COURTESY OF PURE NOISE RECORDS