Wacky ballpark food options Sports, page 27
I’m not a regular movie, I’m a cool movie ‘Mean Girls’ turns 10 Arts & Life, page 21
Volume #98 | Issue #20 | April 14, 2014 | depauliaonline.com
The power of Relay
Faculty Council recommends fall 2014 provost search By Grant Myatt News Editor
MAGGIE GALLAGHER | depaul university
Cancer survivors, students unite for annual fundraiser By Haley BeMiller Nation & World Editor
When DePaul senior Teresa Marx was 8 years old, her father was diagnosed with cancer. “When I was younger, I was confused by cancer,” she said. “It was like this huge concept to me. I didn’t really understand what it meant.” She also remembers thinking it a rarity, something that was happening only to her father. But as time has passed, she realizes that’s no longer the case. “If you go into a classroom and you say, ‘How many of you are affected by cancer?’ — you know someone, you’ve had it, you’re a caregiver — everyone will raise their hand,” she said. “And to me, that’s so alarming.” That’s why Teresa spent Friday night at Relay For Life, hosted by the DePaul chapter of Colleges Against Cancer (CAC). She joined the organization at the beginning of her junior year and has done Relay ever since. And each time, her father, Joe, has flown out from their New Jersey home to join her. Joe was diagnosed in July 2000 with testicular cancer, and his treatment lasted until October of that year. He feels fortunate because once upon a time, there was only a 50 percent survival rate for that form of the disease. Now, there’s a 98 percent cure rate, and he calls it one of the best success stories in cancer. The treatment is rigorous, he said, but he knew the odds were in his favor. “You know you’re going to have to go through a tough time, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. Joe’s diagnosis taught Teresa several
arthur ortiz | depaul university
TOP: From left, freshmen Courtney Zsitek, Sofia Truzzi, Amanda Smogoski and Evegeniia Kruopite prepare for Relay For Life Friday, April 11. ABOVE: Cancer survivors take part in the survivor’s victory lap Friday evening. life lessons at a young age, one being the importance of optimism and humor. She remembers having a head-shaving party for her father when he lost his hair, and afterward, she drew a picture of him bald saying, “Help, I have no hair.” Joe remembers that picture fondly and recalls hanging it up in his hospital room along with other paintings from his children. To him, it showed how an 8 year old was interpreting their family’s struggle, and the works of art gave him an immense amount of hope and joy. “There wasn’t a better antidote to cancer than to have that stuff from my kids up in my room,” he said. “It was just a beautiful thing.” Teresa joined CAC in part because cancer had such a major impact on her life, but she
also does it for others. She said she’s blessed to still have Joe in her life and realizes that isn’t always true for others who have known loved ones with cancer. In fact, she said, two survivors who came to Relay last year have since passed away. “It’s a very constant reminder of how real and serious cancer is,” she said. Joe also appreciates events like Relay because it proves that cancer isn’t a hopeless situation. “It’s about remembering and paying tribute, but it’s also about what each one of us can do to try to make a difference,” he said. According to Emily Rosen, president of CAC at DePaul, 32 teams participated in
See RELAY, page 5
DePaul Faculty Council representatives agreed that the university should begin the search for a new provost this fall at their meeting Wednesday April 9. Several representatives cited the need for stability at the university and that there was no benefit to putting off the search. Following DePaul President Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider’s announcement of academic leave this fall, he asked faculty council to provide a recommendation on whether to begin the search for a permanent provost in fall of 2014 or 2015. During Fr. Holtschneider’s leave, Patricia O’Donoghue, current interim provost, will take over as interim president and retire upon Holtschneider’s return. David Miller, dean of CDM, will add the position of interim provost until a permanent replacement is selected. “We just need stability,” one faculty council representative said. “We have had an interim (provost) for several years now.” Another representative added that an additional two years with an interim provost would leave too many question marks. However, several representatives raised concern with Miller splitting his time between both positions and said it was a major “conflict of interest.” “The fact that I’ve just heard that David plans to stay as Dean of CDM while being provost is an inherent conflict of interest … we need to do this search as soon as possible,” another representative said. Concern over instability in the leadership of the university, lots of turnover and lack of a consistent provost were also mentioned by a representative. Donald Pope-Davis joined DePaul as provost in July 2013 following a nationwide search, only to resign six months later. With Miller stepping in as interim provost this fall, he will be the third person to hold the position since July 2012. Faculty Council sent their recommendation to Fr. Holtschneider and a decision regarding the provost search is expected to be made later this month.
2 | The DePaulia. April 14, 2014
First Look INSIDE THIS ISSUE The DePaulia is the official student-run newspaper of DePaul University and may not necessarily reflect the views of college administrators, faculty or staff.
News
Sports
DePaul's alumni influence
Bacon? There's a 5K for that
Fighting Spring Fever
How does DePaul rank against other Illinois universities and colleges? See page 6.
The Bacon Chase is the latest weird 5K to join a plethora of unique races, see page 28.
Tips for students to avoid that spring quarter warm-weather desire to procrastinate, see page 14.
Focus
Opinions
Editor-in-Chief | Michael Corio eic@depauliaonline.com MANAGING EDITOR | Courtney Jacquin managing@depauliaonline.com Online Editor | Summer Concepcion online@depauliaonline.com ASST. ONLINE EDITOR | Amanda Driscoll News Editor | Grant Myatt news@depauliaonline.com
DePaul president responds to editorial Rev. Holtschneider, C.M. responds to calls for divestment, boycott proposals, see page 12.
ASSt. News Editor | Nathan Weisman Nation & World Editor | Haley BeMiller nation@depauliaonline.com OPINIONS EDITOR | Kevin Gross opinion@depauliaonline.com
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News. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia | 3
News A WAY OF THE
FUTURE
?
Transit Future Campaign reveals plan to revitalize Chicago's transit system By Nathan Weisman Asst. News Editor
A commute to work on the Lime Line may be the future for some Chicagoans thanks to Transit Future. Transit Future has begun a campaign that aims to revolutionize the transit system in Chicago by expanding the “L” and other systems with more than $20 billion of improvement projects. The plan would be Cook County’s biggest investment in public transit infrastructure since 1947. The Transit Future Campaign is being led by the Active Transportation Alliance and the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT). The two organizations have rallied significant support for the project, both in government and the community. Among those who have shown support for the plan are nine Cook County Commissioners and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “The strength of the Chicago and regional economy depend on a diverse and interconnected transportation network that provides safe, reliable options to Chicagoans in every neighborhood,” Emanuel said at the launch of the Transit Future campaign April 3. Transit Future’s vision of what Chicago and cook county transportation system could include not only extending the Red and Brown lines, but also calling for the creation of several
Photo courtesy of TRANSIT FUTURE
Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks at the launch event for the Transit Future Campaign in support of the project April 3. new lines. The South Lake Front Service line would be built on existing track and would connect the South Side to the Loop. The Lime Line would act as a west side Red Line, connecting the Green, Pink, Blue and Red Lines. In addition to making improvements to the “L,” the plan calls for the creation of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line on Ashland. The BRT would operate like a subway on the street creating new bus lanes and stations, as well as giving buses the ability to change lights to avoid getting stuck in traffic. The BRT would connect to five “L” lines and two commuter rail lines.
Improvements would also include modernizing the Red Line on the North Stide from Lakeview to Evanston. By updating the Red Line, which is almost 100 years old, the plan hopes to make commuting from the far north side faster. Similarly the plan calls for the rebuilding of the Blue Line, which has many slow areas and has many stations that are not wheelchair accessible. The vision calls for more transit service to the suburbs surrounding Chicago in the form of bus service and commuter rail lines. While the busses will not have their own lanes like the BRT, but they will be able to
change lights to jump ahead of traffic at major intersections. “This is not just about investing in transit for transit’s sake, it’s about helping people move around the region — to jobs, to school, to opportunities,” President of Cook County Toni Preckwinkle said at the campaign's launch. According to the campaign, the South Lake Front Service line would help connect Chicagoans with 50,000 jobs in Hyde Park. “Cook County should be a leader in developing transportation systems that drive a modern, sustainable and equitable economy,” Preckwinkle said. Inspiration for the Transit Future campaign came from LA County where they were able to fund $40 billion of new and expanded infrastructure through raising sales tax by a half-cent and accessing federal funds through America Fast Forward. America Fast Forward is a program that allows states, cities and transportation agencies to issue AFF bonds to create private sector jobs by borrowing capital on favorable terms. The program hopes to help create 500,000 engineering and construction jobs. America is far behind Europe and China when it comes to investment in public transit. According to AFF, 2.4 percent of the United States GDP is invested in transportation infrastructure. In comparison, China invests 9 percent of its GDP and Europe has invested 5 percent.
“Building a world-class transit system requires a steady, long-term investment,” Jacky Grimshaw, vice president for policy at CNT and director of Transit Future said. “Creating a local, matching revenue stream can unlock billions in federal and other funding for the kinds of transit projects that can make our region more livable, economically competitive and environmentally sustainable.” For the vision of Transit Future to be realized it would require an investment of $20 billion. In order to gain access to the federal funds Cook County must first create a local revenue stream that would be matched by federal funds. The Transit Future Campaign hopes to convince Cook County to create the revenue stream needed this year. Since the campaign launched on April 3, Transit Futures vision has been shared 13,000 times on Facebook. The link to the same site has been tweeted 576 times. CNT also reported that the site had been viewed over 100,000 times in its first week of publication.
4 | The DePaulia. April 14, 2014
The Real Break takes student trip to Romania By Isabel Corona Contributing Wtiter
Between sprawling green fields and hills, a dirt road plays home to a short stretch of houses. Near the end of the buildings, children run, climb and swing around in the small, aged playground and in the near distance some sheep graze leisurely. The occasional horse-drawn carriage passes by. It may look like a small village, but the Pro Vita orphanage has managed to be its own small community. About 70 miles from Bucharest, the orphanage is about a half hour drive from another village. Every few years they welcome students in the Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) to experience life with the children. Junior Thano Prokos, president of DePaul’s OCF chapter, travelled to Romania over spring as a part of their annual Real Break. The Real Break offers a different trip every week in March, allowing different schools to pick a trip coinciding with their spring break. From Detroit to Guatemala to Alaska and Romania, students can decide which trip to take depending on their spring break. According to the OCF website, the trip helps students become socially informed through fellowship, education, worship and service. Most of these kids grow up without a consistent parent figure,” Prokos said. “We went to the local church for evening prayers and 10 minutes into the service, each one of the girls on our trip had a child climb into their arms.” Sophomore Catherine Tuggle, one of the girls who went, says she enjoyed the children the most. “They were just so eager to see us,” Tuggle said. “And so eager to have our attention and to play and get to know us in any way.” The students spent almost all of their time playing with the kids. Sometimes they would just play on the playground, although other times they would want to be chased and then picked up and spun around, a game they called “avion.” Anything from piggyback rides to rolling them along in wheelbarrows, not much was out of the question. “We saw one of our group members wheeling around three kids in a wheelbarrow,” Prokos said. “So naturally, all the kids we were carrying got off our shoulders and ran to climb in the wheelbarrow.” Having grown up hearing stories of Greece from his mother and grandmother, Prokos appreciated the similarities Pro Vita offered. “It made me feel like I was connecting to my roots,” Prokos said. “I guess being in that kind of semi-isolated environment makes you appreciate where you are. You can’t really escape, so you just soak in what’s around you.” Surprisingly, language caused very little difficulty for the group, despite not knowing Romanian. “Interacting with the kids was so much about body language,” Tuggle said. “If you give them a hug or a smile, that was all that was needed to form a relationship.” Although they learned a few basic phrases and some of the children knew some English too, it didn’t affect the relationships they built. “I learned that a loving gesture says more than words,” Tuggle noted. The voyage comes at a price that may be a bit hefty for college students on a
budget. Set at $2000, many students look to donations and fundraising. “I sent out letters letting people in my church know that I was hoping to do this,” Tuggle said. “And if they couldn’t give money for me, then prayers or things for the kids, but it was amazing how everybody came through for me.” Tuggle managed to raise well over the necessary amount and used the extra money on other expenses for the trip and souvenirs for members in her church as a thank you. Prokos also did a fair share of fundraising though his church. However, the John C. Kulis Charitable Foundation offered to pay half of each student’s trip if they filled out an application. The eight students, four girls and four boys, stayed four nights at Pro Vita and then two days in Bucharest. “Leaving the kids was probably the hardest thing I’ve done in my life. I really feel like I gained a lot of little brother and sisters while I was there,” Tuggle said. The orphanage has over 200 orphans and also helps families in need or children with disabilities. They have their own community, staying in houses along a small dirt road, Prokos says. Pro Vita does not receive any help from the Romanian state. “It’s run by the Romanian Orthodox church,” Prokos said. “And they make it clear that they won’t turn anyone away.” Pro Vita can only house 10 visitors at a time, resulting in the small group made up of students from different universities. Prokos was the only student from DePaul to attend. “I would have liked for more people from DePaul to have experienced the same opportunity that I did,” Prokos said. “Some were working, some were on vacation with their families, another one of our members spent spring break in Ukraine.” At Tuggle’s university, there isn’t even an OCF chapter. After her freshman year at Missouri State University, she transferred to Southwest Baptist University. She attended OCF meetings there. “We just chatted weekly about whatever we wanted to,” Tuggle said. “I definitely feel like it’s something that truly benefitted me last year and I looked forward to meetings every week. I feel like it really helped me get through each week.” Tuggle admits that at her current school it would be difficult to start a new chapter, considering the university’s small size and its Baptist affiliation. DePaul’s Catholic background has not had any conflict with the group. “UMin (University Ministry) and DCM (DePaul Christian Ministries) have been unbelievably supportive of us,” Prokos said. “Especially (Reverend) Diane Dardón who basically bends over backwards to make sure we have a voice on campus.” Rev. Dardón has helped OCF advertise for events and given them chances to participate in other UMin activities, according to Prokos. “Denying students the opportunity to develop themselves is completely antithetical to the concept of college,” Prokos said. “And I’m so thankful to go to a school that doesn‘t feel the need to deny students of experience.” OCF is currently organizing a prayer service and fundraiser for Ukraine for early May. They meet on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. at St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Lincoln Park.
Photo courtesy of CATHERINE TUGGLE
The Pro Vita Orphanage where OCF students stayed during their trip to Romania.
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News. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia | 5
MAGGIE GALLAGHER | THE DEPAULIA
With online and on-site collections, Colleges Against Cancer raised about $33,000 for the American Cancer Society.
ARTHUR ORTIZ | THE DEPAULIA
Participants gather at the Ray Meyer Fitness Center for Relay for Life Friday evening.
RELAY continued from front page Relay this year. Through online donations and on-site collections, the event made approximately $33,000 that will go to the American Cancer Society (ACS). Rosen was on the e-board last year as entertainment chair and became president this year. She joined CAC because like many others at Relay, she’s been personally affected by cancer and lost someone she loved because of it. “It’s my way of giving back and fighting the fight,” she said.
Relay is CAC’s biggest event, and Rosen believes it’s a great way to promote cancer awareness and give back to the ACS. The event, held at the Ray, lasted 12 hours and included food, games and a DJ for entertainment. However, the biggest focus of the night is the walk around the track. For survivors and caregivers, this walk represents a victory, and Rosen said it allows everyone else to join the fight in their own way. “You can walk for these 12 hours when these people have been fighting for 12 days to 12 years,” she said. Going forward, Joe emphasized the importance of continued medical advancements
for cancer treatment. However, he also believes society needs to focus on preventative measures as well. Smoking, diet and exercise play a big role in a person’s health, he said, and people need to work to ensure the environment is safe. This way, society not only can help people when they’re sick, but keep it from happening in the first place. “Our zip code sometimes is more important than our genetic code,” he said. Teresa also offered what she feels are “powerful weapons” against cancer. “Love, education and awareness.”
ARTHUR ORTIZ | THE DEPAULIA
From left to right, senior Carly Carnyski and freshman Helen Gustafson play bags at Relay for Life Friday night.
Social media gone wild International security expert provides internet and social media crash course By Kyle Tyrrell Contributing Wtiter
On Friday in DePaul’s Daley Center in the Loop a crash course in Internet security was held by the Reporters Without Borders group featuring two European International Internet security professionals on their first Chicago tour. “Think nuclear power plants melting down, missile silos launching in concert and bank accounts being drained by ghosts; digital ghosts,” Stephane Koch, international expert of information securities and social media securities from Geneva, said. “But also think of your Facebook account getting hacked and someone uploading every picture you’ve ever taken onto your account. Even the ones you don’t want seen.” Koch, a tall slender man, who tours the world bringing social media danger awareness to users through the Reporters Without Borders organization, lectured in his heavy French accent for four hours on the meticulous art of hacking and how to protect yourself from being a victim. Koch said from a single photograph’s data content, a hacker slides through your network and accesses the location of where the photo was taken, and by the digital footprint of it, finds your home address and anyone else in your contacts. “I’ve worked many years in social media security and I’ve seen people’s lives
ruined by social media hackers,” Koch said. “They can access every photo in your library, even the deleted photos because the data still exists, and put pornography on your Facebook account, alter your emails and text messages. Complete digital warfare.” Adjunct journalism professor Amy Merrick, who works as a freelance reporter for The New Yorker and has past experience at the Wall Street Journal, said she recommended the seminar to her students. “This kind of knowledge is so important now especially in light of the Heartbleed bug that just went viral this week,” Merrick said. “It’s scary because it’s a flaw in the Internet that we previously thought was so secure.” Merrick said she was embarrassed of her lackadaisical Internet usage and went to the seminar to learn how to protect herself, especially as a reporter with the privacy of her sources of utmost importance. “We use the Internet for everything now,” Merrick said. “I always felt paranoid with using the Internet and from what I’ve learned today I feel my paranoia is much more justified.” The Heartbleed bug rampaged this past week by subverting Facebook messenger data and other social media like Twitter and Google + to rip off credit card numbers, passwords and to secretly infiltrate photo libraries.
KYLE TYRRELL | THE DEPAULIA
Students and professors listen at the Reporters Without Borders seminar Friday in the Loop with Stephane Koch, an international security expert. “This kind of Internet threat is especially dangerous to teenagers,” Koch said. “Predators can check all their photos and find out their home address, even the room in the house from which the computer is being used. All in seconds.” “I sit at cafés almost every day, even on campus, and use Wi-Fi and the wwwInternet,” Freshman Rachel Hinton said. “This is a very real threat because I can’t trust all the people sitting around me
to be good people. Once they hack into your database they can do everything— disrupt your whole digital life.” “I don’t want to get you all paranoid and upset,” Koch said to the 25 people in the audience Friday. “But anytime you use the Internet, you are being watched by someone.” “You leave digital footprints,” Koch said. “And they leave a trail that goes right back to you.”
6 | The DePaulia. April 14, 2014
Alumni power
LOYOLA UNIVERISTY
How does DePaul compare?
13.8
DePaul University
30.9
Notable Alumni
Richard M. Daley Pete Wentz Gillian Anderson John C. Reilly By Courtney Jacquin Managing Editor
According to Time, those behind the tool “rounded up the 107,408 living people whose Wikipedia profiles list at least one alma mater in the U.S., and scored each according to the length and breadth of his or her page on the site—the bigger the number, the greater the influence.” Alumni are Using four data points for each alumni’s page — “the number of words in the text, the number of internal links to other Wikipedia pages, the number of external links, and the number of categories to which the page belonged,” according to the site — each alum received a number. These numbers were then added up to give a score to each school.
DePaul has a score of 30.9 with politicians like former Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley and Alderman Ed Burke of Chicago’s 14th Ward topping the list. Pete Wentz, Gillian Anderson and John C. Reilly also make the list. Compared to our neighbors to the north and south, Northwestern and University of Chicago, DePaul falls short. UChicago has a score of 134.3, Northwestern with 111.1. But compared to other schools in Chicago, DePaul comes out on top, outranking Loyola, University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia College and Roosevelt. See how DePaul compares to other Chicago and Illinois schools with the graphic to the right.
134.3
101
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHAMPAGNE/URBANA
UNIVERISTY OF CHICAGO
6.8 20.8
COLUMBIA COLLEGE
SCHOOL of the ART INSTITUTE
30.9
DePAUL UNIVERSITY
6.3
ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY
17.4
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHICAGO
21.5
ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY
111.1
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
NOTABLE ALUMNI UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
UNIVERISTY OF ILLINOIS CHAMPAGNE/URBANA
Nate Silver Philip Glass David Axelrod
Stephen Colbert Rahm Emanuel Julia Louis-Dreyfus
ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY
Michelle Williams (Destiny's Child) Jane Lynch
SCHOOL of the ART INSTITUTE Jeff Koons Hugh Hefner
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHICAGO
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY Bob Newhart
ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY Mike Quigley (U.S. Representative for
COLUMBIA COLLEGE
Jesse Jackson Nick Offerman
Curtis Granderson (NY Mets player) Andy Richter
IL 5th congressional district)
Graphic by MAX KLEINER | THE DEPAULIA
SEE YOUR JOURNEY CLEARLY. REGISTER NOW FOR SUMMER SESSION 2014 You can register for summer session at the same time you register for spring quarter, which means you can register now. Plus, with expanded course offerings, you can lighten your load for the upcoming academic year, move up to advanced courses more quickly or even graduate sooner. The more than 1,000 courses planned for summer include: » Online courses » Sequenced curriculum in science, math and language (finish a year’s worth of study in one summer) » Required liberal studies and core curriculum classes for undergraduates » Sophomore multicultural seminars » Foundational courses and electives for graduate students » Graduate and undergraduate certificate programs
Register online on Campus Connection or learn more at go.depaul.edu/summer.
News. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia | 7
New tool aimed to streamline advising process
BlueStar program will help connect students to academic resources and provide support across colleges By Kristen Onsgard Contributing Wtiter
Desire2Learn (D2L) already received a virtual makeover earlier this year, but come September, students will be introduced to revamped advising features on the university’s other online information hub: Campus Connect. The new program will be called BlueStar, which is licensed by Starfish Retention Services, and will replace the current advising window on Campus Connect, including the Advising Dashboard, Academic Progress Report and the Attendance Verification System. After these functions have been replaced, other academic support offices, including the Dean of Students and the Writing Center, will have the opportunity to join. BlueStar is a part of the university’s Foundations for Success Quality Initiative.
The goal of the initiative is to “improve the conditions for learning at DePaul so that more undergraduate students complete their degrees,” according to the Academic Affairs office. The goal of the new system is to allow students to better connect with academic resources on campus by allowing for more efficient scheduling with advisors and other support systems. Because BlueStar will integrate with Desire2learn, advisors will also be notified of a student who is with low grades or poor attendance. If a faculty member is concerned about a student, they too can raise a “flag” in the system, which Director of the Office for Academic Advising Support Stephanie Halaska hopes will “initiate a conversation between the student and the faculty member about the student’s class performance.” Advisors will also be able to refer students to other campus resources.
“BlueStar also features an ‘early alert’ feature that will allow faculty to easily indicate concern about academic performance,” Halaska said. “Advisors will be able to see when these ‘flags’ are raised, and will be able to easily identify those students and provide additional support and resources.” BlueStar will not replace the current Degree Progress Report function, and students in the College of Computing and Digital Media will still access their degree information through the CDM web portal. Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Caryn Chaden is a member of the implementation team working with Starfish, along with an advisor from each college and representatives from various departments including Academic Affairs, Student Records, Information Systems and Enrollment Management and Marketing. She says that the team
met weekly with representatives from Starfish to determine which aspects of their system would best suit the university’s needs. Chaden says that because the current system stores information in various locations, it was found to be largely inefficient. With many students pursuing majors and minors in different colleges, communicating this information effectively is especially pertinent. “Moreover, when students face multiple issues related to academics (and) financial aid, it has also been difficult to gather all the necessary information in one place,” Chaden said via email. “Now all those advising notes from multiple offices will be stored in the same place, and advisors with appropriate clearance, based on their need to know the information, will have access.” Devin Holly is an interactive and social media major who researched how students interact with aspects of Campus Connect
as a class project. She agrees that the current online advising system is weak and difficult to navigate. Because academic concerns are usually complex, she relies upon in-person meetings with her advisor instead of using online systems. “It would be wonderful to have more resources for advising, and resources that take many factors into account,” Holly said. “For example, if (advising systems) took into account the timeline that a student is trying to graduate by, or what the difference in tuition would be when, say for example, they were considering a double major.” Chaden said the team is currently in the process of developing a plan to notify students of these changes to Campus Connect, including online tutorials, posters and other literature. Academic and faculty advisors will have access to the new system May 1.
Campus crime rEport : April 2 - April 8 Barnes & Noble
LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS
3
LOOP CAMPUS
Richardson Library 9
Corcoran Hall
12
14 E Jackson
8 10 13
14 4
Munroe Hall
Sheffield Square Apartments
6
CDM Building 16
15
DePaul Center
2
McCabe Hall 7
Student Center 11 5
Ray Meyer Fitness Center 1
April 8 11) A criminal trespass to and warning was issued to a person in the Student Center after hours.
LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS April 2 1) A criminal trespass to land report was filed regarding an
5) A theft report was filed regarding unattended property that
12) A theft report was filed regarding an unattended wallet taken in the Richardson Library.
6) A disturbance was reported in the lobby of Munroe Hall,
13) A possession of marijuana report was filed in Corcoran Hall. Chicago Police responded to the scene.
was taken in the Student Center.
regarding a prohibited person attempting to gain entry to the building.
April 4 7)
offender near the Ray Meyer Fitness Center. The offender was cursing at pedestrians as they walked by. Chicago Police responded to the scene and removed the offender.
A liquor law violation report was filed regarding a person found unconscious on the 2300 block of North Racine. The subject was transported to Illinois Masonic Hospital for treatment.
2) A domestic battery report was filed regarding an incident that
April 5
3) A theft report was filed regarding an offender who shoplifted
8) A liquor law violation report was filed regarding an intoxicated student in Corcoran Hall.The student was transported to Illinois Masonic Hospital for treatment.
April 3
9) A disturbance was reported in the Richardson Library. The incident involved two individuals who were separated.
occurred in the lobby of McCabe Hall. Chicago Police responded to the scene. Offender was gone upon arrival.
several items from Barnes & Noble.
4) A report was filed regarding a suspect smell of marijuana at Sheffield Square Apartments.
April 7 10) A domestic battery and theft report was filed regarding an
incident near the entrance of Corcoran Hall. The offender left the scene.
LOOP CAMPUS
April 2 14) A disturbance was reported in the 14 E Jackson building regarding an irate person who was recently terminated by one of the building tenants. 15) A public intoxication report was filed regarding a person in the DePaul Center plaza who appeared to have been drinking. Subject was offered medical assistance, and declined. April 8 16) A criminal damage to property report was filed regarding graffiti on a stairwell wall of the CDM Building.
8 | The DePaulia. April 14, 2014
BEYOND YOUR MAJOR Consider classes that compliment your major, build unique skills By Clare Edlund Contributing Writer
Collectively, DePaul students are all familiar with Campus Connection, DePaul’s main portal, which enables students to check grades, degree progress and pick and choose courses for the quarter. The fouryear program requires students to enroll in “The Common Core” with six distinct learning domains. Along with Chicago Experience, Experiential Learning and seminars — DePaul does a rather decent job at ensuring that their alumni will be versatile after graduation. But with electives still left over, some students wonder about the best courses to take to fulfill their credit completion. While students typically would prefer to get on with their major, graduate and obtain a silver plaque with inscribed proof of graduation (are degrees that fancy?), it might not be a horrific idea to enroll in courses that complement or otherwise polarize a student’s decided major. For example, it might be wise for a computer science major to enroll in a public speaking class to enhance their interpersonal skills if they wish to work at Google. Engaging outside of comfort zones could lead to a substantial discovery that maybe one would prefer to act at“Second City” than crunch numbers in an accounting firm. Or not. But at least they tried, right? Jesse Renteria III, a freshman at DePaul majoring in business administration, picks out his courses wisely — and for justifiable reasons, too. “I took Photoshop workshop last quarter because I am interested in going into marketing,” Renteria said.
“The more I know about graphic design, the more it will open doors for me, knowing that graphic design knowledge.” Had he not taken a course in Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator, Rentiera would not have had the ability to create posters, postcards and banners for the DePaul Residence Counsel, a campus group of which he is a member. “Plus, (Adobe workshop courses) are two-credit classes, so I figure it could boost my GPA,” Renteria said. Junior advertising major Miti Kotak wishes she had known earlier about the two-credit courses offered at DePaul. “We’re already paying for our 18 credit hours, so we might as well take advantage of them,” Kotak said of her enrollment in a two-credit InDesign course. Most DePaul students take four fourcredit courses per quarter to remain on track, though they are allowed to take up to 18 credits. Two-credit classes can be beneficial for students to get a little more ahead; however, the workload of a twocredit class is less than that of a four-credit class so students will not have too much on their plate, but will still be receiving a substantial education. Kotak and Renteria both take advantage of two-credit courses in the graphic design department — though there are more offered in various colleges. Here is a list of recommended two-credit (or four-credit) courses that will both complement and benefit certain majors. GD 150, 151, and 152 – Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign Workshop These three courses offer cut-and-dry lessons on particular Adobe suites. For someone going into marketing or even
business conferences, which often require adept visual presentations, learning graphic design can indeed be helpful for this. (2 credits) SW 361 – Intro to Computer Productivity Communication majors, who are excellent verbal and written communicators sometimes seek out jobs by flopping their resume around like the desperate applicants on “The Wolf of Wall Street.” What’s even more impressive than a resume is a self-designed online portfolio, which presents the works that a communicator has done through classes, clubs and internships. Taking this course will freshen up Microsoft skills, along with learning about web design. Knowing both creative and technical aspects to basic computer skills is what employers would like to see in a tech-savvy Y-generation. (2 credits) For a more in-depth curriculum, try Web Design (4 credits) AI 153 – The Art of Speechmaking The purpose of this course is not for students to shiver at the podium while the rest of the class is camping out on their phones or drooling on their desks. It teaches students imaginative approaches to public speaking. It is a perfect combination of theatre and communication — you are using your voice, body and moving your audience emotionally. This class would be especially great for CDM students who are not required to take courses on interpersonal skills, even though they are every bit as important as deciphering SQL injections. (2 credits) ECE 298 - Child Health, Safety and Nutrition Whether or not you plan on having children, this course has information about common illnesses and how to prevent them. If you do not have a child to take
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care of, you will at least want to take care of yourself when mom, dad or the college clinic is not around anymore. (4 credits) FIN 290 – Finance for Non-Business Majors Whether or not you have actually done your taxes, it might be wise to learn a thing or two about gross income, exclusions, deductions, exemptions and credits — are you still with me? If not, then my point is proven. At any rate, this is one thing you are going to need to know to be on your own two feet. (4 credits) ECO 315 – Introduction to Money and Banking This course explores the systems in banking and how money is regulated. How many of you really know what goes on in our banks? Or how to use a credit score effectively? (4 credits) AI 170 – Creativity and Entrepreneurship A course on entrepreneurship can offer the skills needed to present yourself in applications and interviews in a way no one else would. What are we most trying to sell? Ourselves. So this course can teach student to walk in and present a colorful side to them that will impress employers. (2 credits) LAT 101 – Basic Latin I And lastly, Latin. Why Latin? Why a dead language? Because it is the best possible way to augment your vocabulary. A plethora of words in the English language are rooted in Latin. As a matter of fact, this class would be excellent for any biology students’ vocabulary since most of the prefixes and suffixes in the sciences come from Latin words. This is also excellent for writers. Why cram the entire Webster’s dictionary in your attic when you can ascertain a few Latin roots?
News. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia | 9
PHoto of the week
EMILY BRANDENSTEIN | THE DEPAULIA
Students fill the quad on the Lincoln Park Campus Friday afternoon when temperatures hit 70 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
10 | The DePaulia. April 14, 2014.
Nation &World
The mystery behind MH370
All eyes are on Malaysia as search for missing flight continues By Serena Phillips Contributing Writer
MALAYSIA — Since its independence from Britain in 1957, Malaysia is a country that’s received little attention in the international community. The nation, known mostly for its tourism and strong economic growth within the region, now has the eyes of the entire world watching its every move as the search for missing flight MH370 remains a mystery — eyes that have uncovered political corruption, government distrust and a lack of transparency. Malaysia is run by a democratic political system. In fact, the governing party, the Barisan Nasional Coalition, calls Malaysia “The Best Democracy in the World.” While the government is theoretically a democracy, the Barisan Nasional Coalition has been in power for 57 years. Despite losing the popular vote to the opposition, it retained the most seats in parliament after the latest elections, elections that were laced with allegations of voter fraud and gerrymandering. Transparency International also ranked Malaysia 53rd on its 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index. Because of this, Malaysian locals are now even more suspicious of their government and believe that they are being kept in the dark. “Most Malaysians rely on on foreign press…to get more reports and news,” S. Lou, a private equity investment analyst based out of Kuala Lumpur, said. “The mainstream Malaysian media is filtered by the government and hence would not have much to report. They report what they are told to report.” The Malaysian media is ruled and regulated by the state, with each media outlet given a license that can be revoked by the government at any time. Lou said some Malaysians get their news from Malaysiakini. com, a radical online newspaper that's frowned upon by the government. Seremban local Michelle Cheam says her peers believe that there is much more to what the press is saying, and even more than what they even know to report. “The government won’t disclose to the public, as it will affect the world,” she said, and she believes that the plane’s disappearance is due to a hijacking, “with a secret motive that could not be fulfilled, and therefore, the passengers were sacrificed.” Other theories about the plane's disappearance have included technical issues, a cockpit fire, terrorist hijacking and even the Bermuda Triangle. Pilot and former Boeing 747 engineer D.M.P., as he would like to be referred to, believes that, because it’s difficult to make an aircraft “disappear,” the most valid theory would have to be a hijacking. He said that in order for the plane to disappear, several actions would have had to take place. The first of these would involve the plane's transponder, which “emits altitude, speed, direction of flight and the flight number.” “This electronic unit is easily turned on and turned off as per a simple selecting of an ON/OFF knob, just as simple as turning on or off a light in a house. When the transponder is selected to OFF position, all information ceases transmission to ground radar tracking facility of the sector handling the flight’s progress,” he said. “The flight
Photo courtesy of AP
In this map provided by the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, details are presented in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in the southern Indian Ocean. With no new underwater signals detected, the search for the missing Malaysian passenger jet resumed Saturday in a race against time to find its dying black boxes. on the ground radar control disappears. A hijacker with a modicum of training can be able to easily turn off the transponder.” However, if only the transponder was turned off, the plane still has an Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), which “is designed as a communication device for the pilots to communicate with weather stations and the home base monitoring system and the home base monitoring facility.” This system is not easy to dismantle and can only be powered down through a number of circuit breakers. “That would be very hard to accomplish by a novice hijacker as per the complexity of the circuitry,” D.M.P. said. “A flight deck has hundreds of circuit breakers for many electronic and electrical systems. It would be very hard to imagine a hijacker being able to de-power ACARS.” Because of the complexity of the situation, D.M.P. believes the plane was hijacked by the pilot who acted without the co-pilot. “My conclusion is this: The captain waited until the plane was over the sea and until the co-pilot left the cockpit to (use) the bathroom or something, then, closed and locked the heavily armored door to the cockpit. At the high altitude, the cabin was depressurized manually by the pilot — an easy task to accomplish,” he said. “In doing so, the passengers will have exhausted the supplementary oxygen in the drop down masks and eventually use up all the oxygen to remain conscious and eventually die as they slept. “This could have been a hijacker perpetrating all this so far, but I think not,” he said. “Too much technical knowledge had to take place for this scenario, and during the time that tracking was able and continued, the plane tracked smooth and
Photo courtesy of AP
Buddhist pastors and devotees perform Golden Drink as they offer prayers for passengers onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 at Kechara Forest Retreat in Bentong, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. accurately. That would have been hard for a novice hijacker in the cockpit, at night, in the dark. To even find the cockpit lighting switches would have been a challenge.” D.M.P. added that the aircraft’s pilot was a longtime member of Malaysia’s political opposition and had, that day, attended the prison sentencing of one of the political leaders he admired and knew personally. That being said, D.M.P. said, “The thing I think is most absurd in theory is that no group, no person, has taken responsibility for this missing aircraft mystery.” Singapore Airlines flight attendant Seow Shin Shin, a Malaysia native who currently resides in nearby Singapore, has seen the disappearance of MH370 from both the Malaysian side and from foreigners. Her lack of faith in the competence of the Malaysian government has only heightened
after the plane went missing. “It proved that Malaysia’s government can’t handle or manage this level situation and mostly needed assistance from neighboring countries with better equipment to try to locate the aircraft,” she said. While the world speculates and the families mourn, this tragedy has also brought countries together in unison for the same cause. “The upside in the wake of this incident is seeing the international community and the various government support in the search and rescue, which all I can deduce is that mankind still has an ounce of humanity in them,” Lou said. “This incident has brought to light that nations can still work together in situations like this despite their differences.”
Nation & World. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia |11
Pope criticizes clergy for lavish spending By AJ Karolczak Contributing Writer
Several prominent Catholic leaders have made a name for themselves in recent months for extravagant spending and lavish lifestyles. Last October, the Vatican suspended the duties of one German bishop, proclaimed the “Bishop of Bling.” According to BBC News, the 53-yearold Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst spent approximately $43 million on renovations to his personal residence. Tebartz-van Elst’s spending habits were not only limited to his home; he once flew first class to India on a mission to aid the poor. After a meeting with Pope Francis, Tebartz-van Elst was put on leave of absence, and late last month, the Vatican announced that he was retiring. More recently, the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta has come under fire for purchasing a $2.2 million mansion in the city’s lavish Buckhead neighborhood. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, it sits on property that was bequeathed to the Archdiocese of Atlanta by a family member of “Gone With The Wind” author Margaret Mitchell. The property, and in total $15 million, was meant to be used for charity. Archbishop Wilton Gregory will leave the mansion in May. So far, the Vatican has not commented on Gregory’s home. Such actions from high-ranking officials of the Catholic Church are in stark contrast to the Pope’s advocacy of simple living. Francis, who is known for using public transportation and declining the traditional papal residence, is not taking such instances of extravagant spending lightly. DePaul and the Archdiocese of Chicago are not removed from these stories, either. When asked about simplicity closer to home, Father Ed Udovic, Secretary of the University and Senior Executive for University Mission, said, “For over a century the cardinal archbishop of Chicago has lived in one of the grandest mansions in Chicago, and despite ongoing criticism, the Archbishop of Chicago still lives there.” The property Udovic is referring
Photo courtesy of AP
The new $2.2 million mansion that is the residence of Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory stands in the upscale Buckhead neighborhood in Atlanta. Gregory apologized for his spending and offered to put the home up for sale after Pope Francis permanently removed a German bishop for his lavish spending on a renovation project. to is a mansion located near the south end of Lincoln Park. According to the Archdiocese of Chicago’s website, the three-story mansion features 19 chimneys and two entry facades. Cardinal Francis George has resided in the home since 1997. According to a 2002 New York Times article, George considered selling the home, then estimated at a value of $15 million. He called it “too much house for a humble servant of God,” the Times reported. “When Pope Francis was asked why he chose not to live in the traditional ‘Apostolic Palace’ his response was that the idea of an apostolic ‘palace’ was an oxymoron,” Udovic said regarding the Pope’s approach to lead a simpler lifestyle, for both the clergy and parishioners.
With the Pope stepping in to take action in cases such as that of Tebartz-van Elst’s, many are calling for further action and dialogue from the Vatican. Udovic expressed optimism for the future. “Hopefully the new pope will begin to appoint bishops whose idea of apostolic simplicity and witness is different from much of the present church leadership in the United States and elsewhere,” he said. When prompted with the question of how to view these issues in terms of ethics and morality, DePaul professor Phillip Moulden responded, “To critique leaders of the church is always challenging. I think you could look at the vows that the priest takes to see if there are any guidelines there for them to follow.
“Secondly, you should look to the Bible for guidelines or directives that apply. It seems to me that Divine Command Theory is most applicable in this case. “Third, I think you should delve more deeply into what the Pope has said on this matter”, Moulden said. Given the dialogue and recent action from the Vatican, it would seem that the Pope has been undergoing this very careful examination himself. However, church leaders are not the only ones faced with the dilemma of money and what to do with it. “I think there is always a challenge to all of us who live with financial security to give more to others and less to ourselves due to the scope of poverty in this world,” Moulden said.
States debate discrimination vs. religious freedom By Jose Figueroa Contributing Writer
Lawmakers in Mississippi are the first to approve a bill that allows citizens and businesses to challenge laws that conflict with their religious beliefs, while opponents fear that it would permit discrimination against same-sex couples. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is the most recent governor to sign a religious freedom bill following failed attempts introduced in Arizona and Kansas. Eunice Rho, advocacy and policy counsel with the ACLU, gave the Los Angeles Times an example of healthcare workers who could use the law to defend their decision to deny fertility treatments to a lesbian couple because it would interfere with their religious beliefs. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer recently vetoed the expansion of a religious freedom proposal that would have similarly allowed
business owners to deny services to same-sex couples as long as they assert their religious beliefs. The Anti-Defamation League told MSNBC that the bill could potentially protect businesses that discriminate for “any religious reason whatsoever.” “It was a pragmatic decision and a sign of where we are in raw political terms,” DePaul professor Gary Cestaro said in regard to Brewer’s veto. “We’ve decided as a country, rightly so, that businesses do not have a right to discriminate a whole class of people in the name of religious freedom.” Meanwhile, the stalled bill in Kansas grants public and private employees, on the basis of religious freedom, the right to deny services to same-sex couples including unemployment benefits and foster care. The American Religious Freedom Program
helped craft the bill in Kansas, and their executive director told MSNBC that the bill’s “core purpose is to protect clergy, faith communities, individuals from being compelled by law or government to participate in a wedding ceremony.” According to the Kansas City Star, after the Kansas House approved the bill Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka said, “The Kansas Legislature should never advocate discrimination of any kind based on a perceived notion of religious freedom.” Senate President Susan Wagle also condemned the House's decision and claimed that Senate members “don't condone discrimination,” the Star reported. With fewer than half of 32 Senate Republicans supporting the bill and virtually no support from Democrats, the bill never
Photo courtesy of AP
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a religious freedom bill that some fear will permit discrimination against gay residents. made it to the Senate floor. But according to the Star, a state Senate committee plans to conduct hearings to discuss religious freedom. “If these bills are enacted, the best thing to do is to educate myself and others on businesses that choose to have that policy,” DePaul Residence Director and Kansas resident Travis Whisler said.
Other states including Ohio, Indiana, Georgia, Maine, South Dakota, Tennessee and Idaho had similar bills introduced and defeated recently. Addressing the general rise of these religious freedom bills, DePaul student Ashley Valentin said there needs to be “a better way to address these issues without bipartisanship, especially in regards to human rights.”
12 | The DePaulia. April 14, 2014
Opinions
National debates, university deliberation
Joker 74 | Creative Commons
Indra Jati Prasetiyo | Creative Commons
A Palestinian laborer (left) and a Bangladeshi child worker. Recently, two boycott proposals have been shown to DePaul's administration regarding products from these regions.
By Fr. Dennis Holtschneider President of DePaul
The day-to-day occurrences in the life of a university president sometimes resemble a triage unit. Numerous issues find their way to my office daily. Some require immediate care. Others get transferred to another unit. Some are admitted for long-term evaluation and treatment. These latter are the cases that require thoughtful study, and this past week, two of them landed on my desk. The first was a United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) request to terminate contracts with VF Corporation products, whose products include VF Imagewear and Jansport. The concerns regarded labor conditions for workers in Bangladesh. The second was an Israel divestment campaign, as described by Leila Abdul Razzaq, president of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in last week’s DePaulia.
Both issues are being debated nationally. Both have arrived at DePaul’s doorstep, and I hope we will engage them seriously. Many of the world’s issues that find their way to a university, however, are often less simple and clear-cut than they first appear. Rather than addressing these matters as a prosecutor creating a summation argument, a university is a place for looking at issues from multiple perspectives, assembling all of the relevant facts and coming to a reasoned conclusion. Passionate argument alone, without careful listening and a mutual search for truth, does not always lead to understanding. DePaul has a proud history of protecting the rights and safety of workers around the globe. In the 1990s, in response to anti-sweatshop movements that spread across university campuses, we established strict policies for vendors to maintain fair and safe work environments. In recent years, DePaul
invited representatives of Coca Cola to campus to explain and defend concerns relative to its Dasani water brand. Just this past year, thanks to the efforts of our dedicated students, DePaul recently earned a designation as a Fair Trade University from Fair Trade Campaigns. The Israel divestment campaign has arisen at several universities across the country. Student governing bodies at UCLA, University of New Mexico, University of Michigan, and most recently Loyola University, all initiated referendums asking their universities not to invest in Israeli products or services. All of these student referendums failed to pass. At DePaul, the Fair Business Practices Committee consisting of faculty, staff and students was established in 2000 to study these kinds of matters and make recommendations to the university. The USAS request has already been forwarded to the chair for initial study. Should that
committee be called upon to look at the Israel divestment issue, I know they will carefully consider these issues from all sides, just as they have done with every other matter that has landed on their desk for deliberation and recommendation. First, however, SJP students have exercised their right to attempt to bring a referendum before the student body. This is their right, and I will watch with interest as it plays out. I must explain, however, that I will not be able to honor it one way or the other without first being satisfied that the university community has explored all the matters at issue, and come to a thoughtful, informed recommendation. For now, I encourage passionate and utterly respectful debate, and I have the utmost confidence in the DePaul community to do just that.
Traumatic times shouldn't shield learning opportunities By Mariah Woelfel Contributing Writer
I don’t like orange juice like I once did. Even typing the words brings me back to a time where I would rather not be. It’s what I drank for two years while visiting my once perfectly healthy brother, who, in a split second, transformed to an unfamiliar, mentally and physically debilitated vegetable. A car hit him at 45 miles per hour. It was serious – traumatic enough for my eleven-year-old brain to know that I might not see him again. The beverage, which seemed like the only one that Children’s Memorial Hospital ever had in stock, is a trigger for me. The definition of a trigger is disputed, but it is most commonly referred to as something – an object, smell, word – that sets off a memory from a traumatic event in one’s life. I don’t drink orange juice, but my friends do. I don’t need to be notified when they’re about to do it, either. Something like: “TRIGGER WARNING: coma, death, familial hardship,” is unnecessary. Last week, students at University of California Santa Barbara expressed that these
precautionary measures are necessary in a classroom in order to foster a productive learning environment. Students passed a resolution calling for professors at the university to be required to provide trigger warnings on their syllabi, and excusing students from lectures that may trigger feelings that onset post-traumatic stress disorder. Essentially, students who are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder are permitted to skip lectures or assignments that might trigger negative or uncomfortable feelings associated with their trauma. Discussion about trigger warnings in the classroom ensued after a lecture at UC Santa Barbara aroused uncomfortable feelings within the student spearheading the project, who is a victim of sexual assault. There is no imagining what she might have been feeling at the time her professor showed a video that included a violent depiction of rape, but to assume that trigger warnings can prevent such feelings from being felt is naïve. If trigger warnings are meant to prevent those who have experienced a significantly traumatic experience from encountering something that
might cause a sensory reaction associated with their trauma, I can tell you now that there is only one possible precaution to take: TRIGGER WARNING: If you have experienced something traumatic in your lifetime, walking outside of your house is risky. If the goal is to shield victims from anything that might trigger a memory from a trauma, trigger warnings such as this would have to be placed everywhere. Victims of trauma are entitled to healing in whatever way they feel necessary, but shying away from topics such as sexism, racism or classism in the classroom would disregard a plethora of essential discussions used to understand the past, the present and the future. “I am not for giving out trigger warnings,” Tom Krainz, a DePaul history professor, said. “I think that excusing a student from a topic avoids an opportunity for education.” Krainz teaches Women’s History this quarter, a class that deals with topics of racism, sexism, rape, sexual assault and violence, often in one lecture alone. Along with excusing students from a potentially large number of lectures and assignments,
universities also face the problem of determining the types of trauma victims that should be excused. How can anyone determine the level of severity a trauma holds? It then becomes the difference between someone who can produce a doctor’s note stating that he or she has PTSD and someone who may have experienced a lifetime of traumas and has never once been to a psychologist. “Although it is not a professor’s job to deal with a student’s trauma, I think topics can be discussed at a more general level, to the point where most individuals can look at a controversial topic more objectively and learn from it,” Krainz said. In the past, Krainz has excused students who have addressed him individually about their discomfort with a specific topic or book. He said he has no problem replacing this material for students that feel triggered, but to provide routine triggers warnings would be “presumptuous on the teacher’s part,” as there is no way for professors to determine what topics should or should not be warned against. But even if research could provide a list of all potential triggers for any given topic, the
idea of warning against them ultimately counteracts the main purpose of higher-level learning: to explore diversity in ideas, and challenge the ones that you already hold. The strongest opinions I profess are ones that have been challenged by exterior influences – thought-provoking professors, trying circumstances, or the “devil’s advocate” that we’ve all shared a class with. Every time my convictions are tried, I find new ways to defend them; I discover another reason as to why I formed them in the first place. In many ways, that’s what education is about – having your beliefs threatened, strengthening your connection with them, or realizing that you weren’t so right to begin with. You are in the wrong place if you’re enrolled in a class for constant praise. It is no coincidence that our hardest times tend to be our biggest learning experiences. Shutting out the opportunity to learn from diverse opinions and controversial topics would be to lessen our chances of evolving. If any of these ideas trigger an uncomfortable feeling within you in any way, I’m sorry that I’m not sorry. That’s why I didn’t include a trigger warning in the first place.
Opinions. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia | 13
MAP grants: Our ultimate band-aid Skyrocketing tuition rates, not inadequate student aid, is the problem By Zoe Krey Staff Writer
With Gov. Pat Quinn’s recent college trek across Illinois to share his proposal of a $50 million increase to the Monetary Aid Program (MAP) grant, the somewhat impossible task of financing college tuition seemed to be present on everyone’s minds. For those unfamiliar with the MAP grant, it helps disadvantaged students pay for their higher education; however, it continuously fails to match inflated tuition rates on top of the challenge of an altogether decrease in program funding. Quinn’s bold proposal may succeed in mobilizing young voters to support his re-election efforts in the 2014 Illinois gubernatorial race this November, but comes short of any real solution to the problem of the rising costs of higher education. This is not to say that his MAP grant efforts are pointless – despite questions surrounding the origins of the $50 million – but to suggest that more needs to be done than just the Band-Aid solution known as the MAP grant. Placing the MAP grant at the heart of the solution to the issue of growing tuition rates ignores the root cause of the problem. Currently we are finding ways to obtain more money to offset the costs of higher education; however, it seems more efficient and productive to find ways to lower the cost of higher education in the first place. In order to find these methods, it is first necessary to examine the law of supply and demand to determine why the cost of attending universities is so high and, more importantly, how these universities get away with it. Most are probably familiar with the basic economic laws of supply and demand: As demand increases and supply remains unchanged, a shortage occurs. This shortage translates to a higher equilibrium price. When reviewed in light of colleges, we can assume that as demand for higher education increases
and the amount of universities remains unchanged, somewhat of a shortage may occur. In turn, this shortage means that universities may charge higher rates since university enrollments are coveted amongst potential students. This also suggests that the higher the quality of a university is – which for some amounts to higher rankings on lists such as Forbes or U.S. News – the higher the amount of tuition that university can charge. While the higher education situation cannot exactly be classified as a shortage of universities, the demand of obtaining a degree from an accredited university is very high. In the emergence of a globalized world, it’s important to be competitive in the workforce. Currently, it is very challenging to obtain a job without a degree; the job market is flooded with potential workers searching for employment opportunities that are in line with their obtained degree, leaving little room for those without degrees or impressive resumes. The supply of Ivy League schools and other prestigious universities are very limited, meaning that colleges that fall under the first tier must compete with one another to catch the applicants who were rejected or declined to apply due to their notoriously low acceptance rates. These universities compete with each other through luxurious gyms, resortlike dormitories, modern classrooms, extensive libraries, spirited sports programs and other expanded resources. All of the above attract potential students, or in the eyes of the universities, potential customers. These competitive factors increase the price of tuition to a great degree. The higher education system has gotten out of hand when it comes to the cost of earning a college degree, and there is little that individuals can do to stop this, except to make calls for governmental action regarding funding for higher education. WGEM states that Gov. Quinn’s proposed budget increase will help an
estimated 21,000 more students attend college. Is this a positive action towards helping disadvantaged students attend school? Yes. A monumental change in our system of higher education? No. The truth is that student debt is more than just an inconvenience; it has the potential to limit our generation in tremendous ways. According to U.S. News, “The number of borrowers who defaulted on their student loans two and three years after entering repayment has continued to increase in the last several years.” An exact solution to the institutional problems of higher education is hard to pinpoint, but increasing MAP grant funds isn’t it. Despite lessening the financial burden in many students’ lives, the fight to increase governmental educational funding is an endless carousal of messy budget plans and interest group politics. For now, I propose the strengthening of community colleges. With their comparably lower cost of tuition and lack of over-the-top luxuries, community colleges should be considered as more than just a fallback plan. Strengthening these institutions academically could open many new practical doors for those who
Nate Beeler | MCT CAMPUS
Jamie Moncrief | Depaul university
Gov. Pat Quinn discussing MAP grants at DePaul, April 3, 2014.
are not privileged enough to have the ability to attend an accredited four-year university. For the most part, a degree is a degree, whether it costs $50,000 a year or $3,000 a year. The choice is yours.
Osiris Rising: Egypt, two-and-a-half years after Arab Spring By David Byrnes Contributing Writer
In November of 2011, I stood on a balcony in downtown Cairo with friends as demonstrators marched through the streets below. They chanted, we cheered – and in the wake of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s exodus from office, the whole city seemed swept up in the euphoria of a wide-open future. Now, nearly 30 months later, that ecstasy has soured into disappointment and anger. Yet more clannish violence has rocked the nation – this time in the southern region of Aswan – and you have to wonder if there’s ever going to be an end in sight. Religion, politics, class; every possible synonym for the word “tribe” is conspiring to keep Egypt in its downward spiral of stupid. Not that any of this should come as a surprise, though. This is the way it’s always been. From the Ayyubids to the Mamluks on through the Ottomans and
the British, a vicious tribalism has been perfecting itself here for untold generations. Everyone thought it was erased for a while – but with the common foe gone, the Muslims and Christians and Copts and Arabs and Nubians can all get back to their time-honored tradition of killing each other. And not all the well-meaning Western liberals and apologists in the world can talk it away, not with all the Colonialisms and Imperialisms and whatever other “isms” they can muster. No, if the Egyptians want to navigate themselves out of this mess, there are a whole lot of cultural demons that need exorcising, and only the Egyptian people – not the Egyptian government – can perform the exorcism. Foremost among the spirits that need banishing: the tendency to bury the self beneath the warm body of the group. It’s easy to understand why this tendency exists. Many family oriented, slightly insular cultures, clustered in one space,
Ramy Raoof | Creative Commons
A demonstrator in Tahir Square, Cairo, Egypt There is no one government are pushed into conflict with or military official that can be each other by poverty, war and blamed for that. But there are years of governmental fear plenty of mirrors. mongering. But an explanation Maybe this is too harsh. for the problem does not excuse Maybe this is dismissive, even it. And every time a member of borderline racist. I’m a blonde the Muslim Brotherhood blames Mick/Pollack from Chicago, for a Coptic Christian for the fall Christ’s sake. Every time I buy a of Morsi, or a Copt blames a hot dog it contributes to global Nubian for the failure of his injustice. Every McDonald’s, business or Nubians kill each other over an assumed grievance, every Sears, every homeless person on the street speaks to my that vicious tribalism will only own culture’s demons, and every grow more vicious – and more mirror makes it clear who is to ravenous for blood.
blame. So who the hell am I to comment on Egyptian affairs? Well, I’m someone that fell in love with the better angels of Egyptian nature. Someone who remembers the date juice stands in Talaat Harb. The koshary in Giza. The friends living in Luxor, Cairo and Aswan – the latter of which could very well have been the individuals killed in last week’s fighting. I’m someone who remembers the amazing courage and compassion and charity that the Egyptians – all of them – showed each other only so very recently. And so also someone who’s tired of seeing a people he grew to love self-destruct, and then pass the buck for the bloodshed to whoever happens to be a convenient scapegoat at the time. Sort your s--t out, Egypt. You’re so much better than this. Remember the signs that once dotted Tahrir Square: “Kulna Musri - you are, all of you, Egyptian.” I just hope you remember it before it’s too late.
The opinions in this section do not necessarily reflect those of The DePaulia staff.
14 | The DePaulia. April 14, 2014
Focus
Stump the Spring Quart By Colleen Connolly Focus Editor
In Chicago, spring is a time of overdue and much welcome warmer temperatures — at least most of the time. For students on the quarter system, spring is also a time of procrastination, mostly due to those warmer temperatures. Love it or hate it, DePaul’s quarter system might pay off during those six weeks of winter break bliss, but come springtime, the quarter system can become a burden that is all too real. But just because it’s almost summer doesn’t mean you can adopt a summertime attitude. Spring quarter is one-third of the academic year, assuming you don’t take any summer classes, and your grades matter. Follow these tips to avoid spring fever and finish out the year strong academically. Summer will be that much more satisfying when you know you passed your classes and — hopefully — have a GPA for which you can be proud.
Slow and steady There are eight weeks left in the quarter, which leaves you with ample time to divvy up your coursework. Joseph Ferrari, a psychology professor who has studied procrastination, has some tricks for conquering this task. “Given that there are only 10 weeks in a quarter, break tasks down into five two-week clusters,” Ferrari said. “Do small tasks one by one. Do what you can and remember, a body in motion stays in motion.” More than in Fall and Winter Quarters, it’s important to plan ahead in the spring so you’re not left with final projects in June. If it’s hard to concentrate on homework in April when it may still be snowing, imagine how hard it will be in June when beach weather sets in.
Inside knowledge As evidenced by the first few warm days of the quarter, many students flock to the outdoors, books and laptops in hand, to do their homework in the spring. While the warm weather and sun may brighten your mood and help you get some reading done, the outdoors is also full of distractions. Ferrari says this applies to having class outside, too. “I think taking classes outside on lawns makes it even worse,” he said. “Maybe, those classes taught in air-conditioned, windowless rooms might have an advantage this time.” Leave the outdoors for play time rather than work time, for the most part. You’ll likely be more productive inside and then have even more time to enjoy the outside later.
Give me a break Just because it might be a bad choice to do homework outside doesn’t mean you should avoid the outdoors altogether. Nor do you have to stay inside until you finish every assignment. Taking a break to walk or run outside can boost your mood and freshen your mind when you hit the books again. A study published in The Journal of Attention Disorders in 2008 found that children with attention deficit problems focused better after going on “green” walks than children who did not go on walks. You aren’t a child, and you might not have an attention deficit disorder, but taking advantage of the newly sprouting green spaces in between assignments will likely improve your focus, too.
Don’t go it alone It can be easy to succumb to mounting pressure of your own to-do list, but don’t forget that your peers have to-do lists of their own. If you become infected with spring fever and fall behind in your work, don’t commiserate on your own. Commiserate with your friends. And then form a study group together. There is strength in numbers. And it’s not just your friends who struggle with spring fever. Ferrari says professors feel it, too. “(It’s) even hard for faculty to stay focused, especially after Memorial Day weekend,” he said. “We see others getting off and ending, maybe working summer jobs and here we are still in school.”
Find the positive We all enjoy the six-week winter break and the opportunities for travel, work or just time off. As a trade-off, DePaul students have to endure finals that edge into summer. The quarter system, however, has benefits that, for some, outweigh the spring quarter slump. For one, those classes that are especially challenging or that you just don’t like only last for 10 weeks. That is significantly less than the approximately 16week semesters at other schools. Additionally, the quarter system allows students to take more classes. “I think having three terms gives students greater breadth of knowledge, and that is a good thing,” Ferrari said. The quarter system is to blame for the late spring term, but don’t forget its merits during the rest of the year. You’ll likely appreciate it again when semester schools start classes again in August and we’re still lounging on the beach.
TOP: Sadie Brown, a sophomo Brown, a sophomore hospitalit junior computer science stude health science student, sets up
Focus. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia | 15
How do you avoid spring fever? Hillary Foster Major: Health science, concentration in nursing Year: Sophomore “I’m definitely a morning person, so I like to get up around 8 and come to one of the buildings here on campus and just study. There’s air conditioning, it’s nice, calming, and you’re not around distractions, but you can still see the beauty outside. Then later after class I definitely take advantage of going outside, going to the beach or whatever.”
ter slump
Colleen Connolly | the depaulia
Jenny Ramirez
Colleen Connolly | the depaulia
Major: HR management Year: Senior “In the winter it’s so much easier to just hop on the couch, all warm and comfy, and start reading. In the spring it is harder to concentrate … so I go outside and walk around for a little bit until I get tired. And then I come back with a fresh mind. That helps a little bit.”
Colleen Connolly | the depaulia
Alex Jagla Major: Biology Year: Junior “I think it’s easier (to study in the spring). The weather’s nice, and I’m just tempted to get all my homework done early, so I can enjoy it … It definitely helps (to study outside). With the fresh air, it’s easier to think outside rather than being cooped up inside. I spent all winter inside, so now I go outside and study.”
Colleen Connolly | the depaulia
Colleen Connolly | the depaulia
Eric Alvarez Major: Pre-med Year: Junior
Colleen Connolly | the depaulia
ore hospitality leadership student, studies on the Quad April 11. Sadie ty leadership student, studies on the Quad April 11. MIDDLE: KJ Savio, a ent, studies outside before class April 11. BOTTOM: Amy Potter, a junior p a hammock on nice days for studying between classes.
Colleen Connolly | the depaulia
“I think it’s a little harder (to study in the spring) because the weather’s all nice, and people usually want to do outdoor activities and all that kind of stuff. In the winter it’s easier because there are less distractions and you’re more used to seeing the indoors. I usually try to schedule out my day before I start taking all my classes. Schedule out that time to get stuff done, like homework. It’s just time management.”
16 | The DePaulia. April 14, 2014
Arts & Life
Comedy Night done right
Jokes and pizza — what's not to love about open mic night? By Kyle Tyrell Contributing Writer
In the Brownstone Annex Tuesday night, after the lights dimmed and the stage lit up, amateur comedians ranted on subjects ranging from port-a-potty advertising to the curious lack of denim colors and government conspiracies behind the Kennedy assassination. “Anyone can walk up there and say whatever’s on their mind,” Shannon Daly, who coordinated the event, said. “We tell everyone who signs up to keep it PG-13, but that rarely sticks.” Several times a year, the DePaul Activities Board (DAB) puts on Student Comedy Nights, which emphasize improvisation and theatrical technique, where aspiring comedians and anyone else with something to say can come on and rant for eight minutes. “It’s an intimate setting with usually about 15 to 25 people in the audience,” Daly, the DAB comedy director, said. “It doesn’t seem or feel like a lot of people, but when you get up there it’s a lot more intimidating.” Twenty-four students stayed for the show, which ran little more than an hour. Daly said this event is for students in two ways: one is to come relax for a free show and the other is to inspire you to get up there and perform. “It’s a great venue for comedians to practice and you don’t have to be a DePaul student to come perform,” Daly said. “The philosophy behind this event is theatrics. Stand-up comedy is theatre in the present. It’s an art form.” Six comedians took the stage to perform in front of friends, fellow comedians and passersby shuffling in to stop and see what the hubbub was about. Devin Asperger, a freshman playwriting major, was first to perform. Some of his theatrics included accents and pantomimes. He said he wasn’t nervous. He becomes a performer under the stage name “Devin J.” “It was really interesting to open the night cold like that because I was the first called,” Asperger said. “Eight minutes is a huge spot to fill, usually I prepare for about four minutes, which is around three quick routines. You want a laugh every 15 or 20 seconds.” Asperger said comedy is an intricate science, which might look effortless when performed, but really takes a lot of practice to make look natural. “You put a joke into natural conversation with a friend,” Asperger said. “Then, you try it in a few more conversations. Then you try it on stage. On a night like this (Tuesday night) you showcase your best jokes.” Asperger’s signature routine was a
skewering of the limitations of denim, performed in a rough New Jersey accent. “How about a material that’s not only uncomfortable, but gets too hot in the summer, is surprisingly too cold for winter weather, and fits awfully?” Asperger jokingly asked the audience. “Oh—and only blue. We will cover every shade of blue, but no other colors.” Student Comedy Night attracts comedians outside of the DePaul community too. Mike Shapiro, 25, a DePaul graduate, revisited his alma mater to practice his routine, which started with a reference to the silver terminators in the old Capri-Sun ads from the '90s. He also gave a detailed description of what happens when one eats an entire roll of Bubble Tape—a 6-foot roll up of gum in KYLE TYRELL | THE DEPAULIA a round package. He compared it to childbirth. “You have to go places that are uncomfortable but real,” Shapiro said. “I started commenting on little life things that happened to me and all the sudden I thought, this could be comedy.” Shapiro said after he graduated he started his pursuit of stand-up comedy. He performs every Wednesday night at Bar Forza, 2476 N. Lincoln Ave. at 7 pm. Admission is free. “It’s hard to get up on stage,” Shapiro said. “But you get used to it. It’s rewarding to make people laugh. I love it.” Shapiro said a sober audience is harder to entertain “Drunk people laugh more,” Shapiro said. Shapiro brought his friend, Alex Seligsohn, 25, a fellow comedian, to the event. “There’s no alcohol served at DePaul and that makes a big difference,” Seligsohn said. “It’s also hard to have to watch your swearing when you’re up there performing and getting lost in it. This was a tougher audience.” Shapiro and Seligsohn were on their way to another comedy club to get another set in. They are members of the Chicago Department of Comedy organization, which is a club of comedians. Some bombed, some “killed it,” and most left happy to have indulged in theatre KYLE TYRELL | THE DEPAULIA in the raw. Asperger said he had a successful Top, Devin “Devin J.” Asperger, in his South Jersey voice, complaining about jeans routine. He received positive feedback Tuesday night at Student Comedy Night. Above, students enjoy free pizza at the event. from the crowd. “It was fun but I’m not done tonight,” again. One comedian asked mid-set, “Can I Asperger said. “Off to another club to get Daly was one of the last to leave and swear? I need to swear for this material to another set in. Such is the life of an aspiring said she was happy with the successful work.” comedian.” turnout and the theatrics of the event. The next joke out of his mouth was a Asperger, Shapiro and Seligsohn folded “Anytime anything is live it’s going to vague reference to his morning rituals and up their notes, pocketed them and jetted get a little crazy,” Daly said. “We expect why his right hand was in a bandage. off to other clubs. the best and prepare for the worst. The “That’s open mike night,” Daly said. The Annex cleared out and became a microphone was iffy tonight but the “Anything goes.” place of studying and quiet conversation acoustics were great.”
Arts & Life. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia | 17
Teaching the enduring power of the blues By Michael Corio Editor-in-Chief
The Second City has always been known as a mecca of the blues, a place where many of the genre's legends made their fame. The career birthplace of instrumental musicians from Buddy Guy to Willie Dixon, Chicago is hailed as "The Capitol of the Blues." Although the golden era of South and West Side's roaring music scene has faded away, the city still remains a premier destination for blues lovers from around the world. Michael Roberts, professor of the Chicago Blues Explore Chicago course at DePaul, seeks to explore the role of the genre in contemporary music, from rock and roll to hip hop. "I want students ... to garner a greater appreciation for whatever music they listen to by thinking about how the blues ultimately influenced it in some way, shape or form," Roberts said. I make an attempt to draw out elements of the blues and let them know that it’s really informing their music that they hold dear to their hearts." The blues is largely believed to have originated in the Mississippi Delta and has its roots in adversity. During the 19th century, slaves in the American South would pass the time toiling on plantations with soulful chants and rhythmic stomping, influenced by a rich mélange of African cultures, spirituals and drum beats. It was popularized alongside jazz in New Orleans, and came to Chicago in the '30s and '40s, where the introduction of electric instruments gave it a distinct local flavor that served as
ANDREW MORRELL | THE DEPAULIA
Seated at right, Dean of Students Art Munin performs for Michael Roberts' Explore Chicago Blues class. the foundation for other forms of music, like rock and roll. Dean of Students Art Munin has been visiting the class over the years to play blues songs with Roberts on his acoustic guitar. Aside from his love of the genre itself, he highlights the way in which it has helped him relate to diversity and justice issues. "I hope that (the students) learn how interconnected this work is within the notions of privilege, power and diversity. And just knowing where music
came from. There's so much wonderful music out there when you start digging into the roots of it." Growing up in Mount Greenwood, a working-class South Side neighborhood home to many firefighters and policemen, both Roberts and Munin discovered their love for the blues through the evolution of rock and roll. It also played a role in their understanding of race and the Civil Rights movement. "Some of the surrounding
communities there were definitely other elements of diversity, primarily African American. I was asking myself a number of questions — why is that?" said Roberts. "It relates to many of the social challenges that African Americans experienced — thinking about again the historical aspect of those individuals who were the Muddy Waters, who were the Howling Wolf, the Little Walters." Sharing his love for the blues as he sings and strums his
guitar, Dean Munin also hopes to accomplish another goal: to dispel the stereotypes associated with being a dean of students. "When you watch movies ... it's more the Dean Wormer of Animal House. Sometimes that’s an impediment for students to go to the dean's office for help, and I see this as a way to break this down — like listen, I'm Art Munin, I'm a real life person I genuinely care I want to share other aspects of (my life)."
DePaul SLI hosts 'TED Talk Tuesdays' By Eric Domingo Contributing Writer
During the middle of last fall quarter, DePaul's Student Leadership Institute (SLI) thought of a creative way for students to develop their leadership skills. While brainstorming innovative ways for SLI to interact with their members and the campus at large, Alicia Koch, the group's leadership development coordinator, Fran Rugo, administrative assistant, and several other members thought of ways to make Tuesdays more exciting. The group came up with idea to host #TEDTalkTuesday, a recurring event that allows students to see inspirational, leadership-related TED Talks and discuss the video while incorporating their leadership experiences. “It really started for students to have a conversation about leadership and finding what it means to be a social responsible leader,” Rugo said. “It's for them to have a conversation and hang out.” The Student Leadership Institute wanted to come up with an event that could be open to all students and be a place where they could meet others. Leadership skills are definitely something to be valued, and Aiden Bettine, junior leadership
development coordinator, enjoys the array of stories students share. “I think the value of #TEDTalkTuesday is really that it’s a way for students to engage with leadership in a different way,” Bettine said. “Something I enjoyed about TED Talks Tuesday is the breadth of experiences that people come to the table with.” Last Tuesday students watched “The Power of Introverts” by Susan Cain, author of “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.” In her discussion, she explains how today’s culture glorifies being social and outgoing and the difficulties of being an introvert. She argues that introverts are quite talented and should be encouraged. Her takeaway was: stop the madness for constant group work, go to wilderness and be like Buddha and take a look at what’s inside your suitcase. She explained that it’s great to exchange conversation in a work setting, but individuals need to learn how to work on their own. When Cain suggested that audience members “be like Buddha,” she meant that individuals should learn to unplug. She believes it’s a great way for individuals to get inside their own head, and it’s important
Photo courtesy of PRETTYUNEXPECTED.COM
Writer Susan Cain lectures on "The Power of Introverts" during her TED Talk. for both introverts and extroverts to do. Lastly, she used the phrase “looking inside your suitcase” as a metaphor to inspire the audience members to look inside themselves. She believes introverts and extroverts should show their talents and be proud of who they are. Rugo and Bettine are at most TED Talk Tuesdays and welcome all guests. They’ve both learned a lot from each video and even have some favorites. “The ‘Every City Needs Healthy Honey Bees’ was my favorite TED Talk. It was a little different, and it linked to one of our pillars for being a socially responsible leader, which is ‘contributing to a larger
community,” Bettine said. “What we talk about, most often, we miss that environmental piece.” “I like them all. It’s so hard to pick one because each one has their own story,” Rugo said. “I can’t say there’s one because I learn something new from every one I view.” The next #TEDTalkTuesday event will be held at 4 p.m. at the Lincoln Park Student Center Suite 302. They’re typically 30 minutes long and if you’re unable to make it, check out their hashtag #TEDTalkTuesday to see what the Student Leadership Institute TED Talk of the week is.
18 | The DePaulia. April 14, 2014
Pump up the jams: La Dispute at the Metro By Parker Asmann Staff Writer
The style of music Michiganbased La Dispute had originally crafted together with their freshman release, “Vancouver,” in 2006 is vastly different from the direction that the five-piece has shifted toward with their most recent release, “Rooms of the House”; however, a sold out show Saturday night at the Metro made it clear that fans were adjusting rather well to the new style. A large range of genres made an appearance at the Metro as the opening act, Mansions, brought the most mellow, lighthearted approach with their three-piece arrangement. Contrary to mellow Mansions, the band Pianos Become the Teeth followed up next with the heaviest, most abrasive sound of the three bands while utilizing catchy guitar riffs coupled with a full sounding percussion and bass section. As for the main act, La Dispute has constructed a musically complex, while still heavy, style that greatly relies on each instrument to convey their intended message. To kick things off, Mansions dove right into things with the first song “Climbers” off their newest LP entitled “Doom Loop,” which was just released last year. Although similar to their previous releases, the new LP has shifted away from the angsty, boyish themes evident in songs such as “Blackest Sky” and has ventured toward a more mature approach that accurately reflects the man that frontman Christopher Browder had previously alluded to with his youthful lyricism in his earlier work. Generally mellow, Mansions weaved through a melodic set list that was highlighted by songs such as “City Don’t Care,” a hit from their 2011 full length “Dig Up the Dead.” After a grungy, fuzzy fade out, Browder quickly thanked the crowd for showing up early and plunged into their final track, “The Economist.” With a lo-fi rock-influenced riff to start the song, the crowd suddenly gained a burst of energy, which would prove to be a much needed boost with who was about to step foot on stage. Wasting no time at all, Baltimore-based, post-hardcore band Pianos Become the Teeth started their set with a song that doesn’t typically appear on their set lists. The rumbling drums that begin “Liquid Courage” aroused goosebumps in the crowd while also giving them a brutal insight into the struggles that lead singer Kyle Durfey felt after the death of his father. A motionless audience was almost fitting as “And on Memorial Day, I Started Drinking” rattled from Durfey’s mouth and silenced the crowd until the beginning riffs of “I’ll Be Damned” shook the crowd awake. Almost intentionally, the band left little room for conversation as each song flowed smoothly, well maybe just quickly, into the next. With a new LP in the works that has no set release date, the band showcased an unreleased song,
Photo courtesy of LA DISPUTE
Grand Rapids, Mich. natives La Dispute performed a sold out show at the Metro April 5. “Lesions,” that veered away from their screamo based approach of the past and featured Durfey singing more than before. Before long, the soft, harmonious riff that begins their latest release, “Hiding”, capped off a quick, but emotional set that generated an appropriate atmosphere for La Dispute to enter. One unique aspect of the recent LP from Michigan natives, La Dispute, is the fact that the album is entirely fictional. Sure, the themes that are depicted and played out are every bit as alive and tangible as before in the way that Dreyer chooses to articulate them, but the stories themselves are imaginary narratives. “HUDSONVILLE, MI 1956” continued the emotional evening and placed the audience in the shoes of a woman away from home struggling with the inability to speak to her husband while tornadoes ravaged their hometown. Accompanied with the pinpoint focus displayed on stage was a projector that portrayed various pictures, or to use a phrase from Dreyer, “objects in space”, behind the band members as they carefully weaved through each song. Continuing in order, “First Reactions After Falling Through the Ice” followed next, which brought about the more palpable theme of trust and self-doubt for listeners to connect with as “I will never trust ice, I will never trust a thing,” lingered in the air as the song came to a close. Mostly new songs surfaced on the set list, however, the band took listeners on a trip down memory lane, as “New Storms for Older Lovers” and “Said the King to the River” off their first LP titled “Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair”, roared with conviction and rage.
Although Dreyer nervously conveyed his newfound feelings of their older material and what it meant to him before, the songs still sang spiritedly. It’s hard not to expect a heavily emotional and thought-provoking performance when watching the members of La Dispute and with that comes some disorder. In previous trips to Chicago and the Metro, Dreyer seemed a bit timid and almost used the mic as a lifeline on stage, clinging to it. This time around proved to be a different story as the flickering spotlights silhouetting the band from behind showcased Dreyer and his counterparts shining with confidence and enthusiasm. It was one of the more crisp and on-point shows that the band had performed while traveling through Chicago. Known for their usual abrasive musical artistry, “Rooms of the House” has hit listeners with a much more contemplative and reserved sound than before. Songs such as “Woman (Reading)” and “Extraordinary Dinner Party” don’t quite embrace the sudden tempo changes and spine-splitting riffs from before, but they pack an equally powerful punch in their own right. Guitarists Kevin Whittemore and Chad Sterenberg along with bassist Adam Vass have truly evolved into a team that binds the unique creativity that the three each possess. Not to forget drummer Brad Vander Lugt, though, as he captivated the crowd with the crescendo in “King Park”, which has morphed into the band’s go-to set closer. Although still the same at heart, the youthful hardcore boys from their earlier days were not the same musicians that made up the band today. More refined than ever, the fact that over 1,100 people came to see
this band speaks volumes to the musicianship and impact of the Michigan five-piece. Rumbles of affirmation followed every last
note and made this realization all the more clear.
Photo courtesy of LA DISPUTE
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Arts & Life. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia | 19
Peter Sipla talks breaking out of traditional roles and breaking into Chicago's theater scene By Emma Rubenstein Senior Writer
The world of performance in Chicago is vast and varied. It is comprised of an incredible network of actors, musicians, performers and countless other individuals that serve as its driving force. The story of each performer is distinct and informative; snapshots into their lives and their work provide a wealth of knowledge about the industry and enable us to gain an even broader sense of what makes the city’s brilliant theater scene tick. I had the opportunity to sit down with the talented stage, commercial and voice actor Peter Sipla in order to gain even greater insight into what performance means to him and what others can learn from his experience, as well. The DePaulia: Can you provide a little bit of information about where you are in your acting career right now? Peter Sipla: Right now, I am in the midst of rehearsing “Juno” at The Timeline Theater. They are actually a unique theater because they rehearse at night and they have shows at night, which is awesome for what I do because then it leaves the day completely free for any auditions whether it be theater, or voice-overs or commercials. All of that stuff is generally during the business day, so that I like a lot. I just did “Miss Saigon” at Paramount in November and I really enjoyed working there. It is an awesome theater and they do groundbreaking work. I am a non-union actor, right now, if I were taking points for everything, I would have enough points to be a union actor, but I’m not ready to make that leap yet. If I was just a stage actor, I would totally go union but I
make the bulk of my money to support my living from voice-overs and that is in the city. I am really excited with where I’m at because I am just performing for a living. It’s great. I have a lot of repeat clients for voice-overs, so that is kind of taking care of itself and now I just have to focus on expanding that. I am making nice headway in acting as well, with some of the bigger theaters and some of the medium-sized theaters that I want to work with. DP: When did you discover that you were passionate about theater? Did this occur at the same time you knew you wanted to pursue theater as a career? PS: They actually happened at different times. I was like any other kid that loved playing with action figures and all of that. I have always had a vivid imagination. The first time I was actually “knocked over” by a performance was “Les Misérables” a long time ago. I was 8 or 9, and Brian Lynch was Jean Valjean and he is the father of one of my buddies that I grew up with, and I saw it and I was blown away. My sister had always been a fan of musical theater, so I was always around it and there was always a lot of music in my house but for me it was like, “Oh, that’s so hokey,” you know? But going and seeing this grand, sweeping, epic story was unreal. The spectacle of it, how good the actors were, and how it was real-life drama going on. I loved it. For me, when I decided what I wanted to do for a living, it was probably my sophomore year of college. I actually ended up going to North Central College and doing summer shows with Brian because he left the tour and settled at the college as faculty and he directed community theater productions so me and my sister and my dad did them for like 10 years straight together. So I
Photo courtesy of PETER SIPLA
Top, Peter Sipla and Molly Glynn in a performance of "Maple and Vine" at Next Theatre. Above, Sipla, who has numerous credits in local theatre, as well as for voiceover work.
Photo courtesy of MANNY ORTIZ
ended up going there, even though I didn’t want to stay near home initially because I wanted to major in psychology but I could also do music and theater. I had gotten through all of the curriculum of music and I loved music, I was passionate about it, but I really had much more of a knack for theater. It just fit me. So I thought, “I’m passionate about music, but theater will be my job.” DP: What is the biggest lesson that performance has taught you in your life? PS: The biggest thing I’ve taken from it is that you always need to be learning. As much as things were going on in my head for the last year and a half, they weren’t coming out and they weren’t being shown. I would experience them but I would stifle them because in everyday life, we’re socialized. We’re not supposed to do random, crazy things but in theater you have to do that stuff. In all acting, you have to focus on conflict versus pacifying. In normal life we all want to be likeable and get along but in theater you have to challenge that, whether it just be a look or how we say something. I realized that I was lacking that so I took some more acting classes. It felt good to get back to that. Now I’ve budgeted time every day for making sure I learn more, whether it’s reading a new play or looking at a new theater season, or actually working on my skill set. DP: Are there any specific ways in which your career as an actor evolved over time? PS: It’s really evolved, especially in the last year, to the point where I only audition for things that interest me. When I was first out of the gate I was trying to be known and just have face time with everyone. Now, it’s more learning how to focus my time and be more protective of my time. Especially with acting and theater, you can keep busy all of the time but you have to ask yourself if you’re being fairly compensated for what you’re doing or if this opportunity really fits in line with your goals.
DP: If you could give your younger self one piece of advice knowing all that you know now, what would it be? PS: Two days ago, I probably would have said, “Just go to L.A.” I’ve always been interested in movies. That’s what I was more passionate about than theater. But it’s funny because yesterday I was with a couple of buddies who are all actors and we were watching the game. We were talking about the players and saying, “Well this guy could have been better than that guy,” but there is that “if ” there. You have no idea how that would have played out that way, you know? I’ve learned so much in Chicago and there is still so much to learn. What I’ve been focused on for the last two years is making sure that I’m learning everything I can in this town before being ready to go to either coast. I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve really enjoyed being here and maturing here and soaking in all I can. Whether it be improv or on camera or voice-overs. Anything I can learn, I am into. So I guess if I could tell my younger self one thing it would be, spend even more time on everything. DP: Do you have any advice for aspiring young actors today? PS: The first word of advice is, eliminate the “hard to break into” thing from your vocabulary. There is always something that can be looked at as a hindrance but, again, it’s a strength. I’m a firm believer that you are a type. Who you are, what you look like, it gives you as many opportunities as it keeps you from. Why focus on the opportunities you can’t have? My word of advice for recent graduates or people in college is always be working and always be trying to find what you’re missing and work that twice as hard as what you feel comfortable with. We all tend to focus on what we’re comfortable with and where we feel good but you need to bring up those weaknesses, too, and work them twice as hard.
20 | The DePaulia. April 14, 2014
Gearing up for spring By Robert Martin Contributing Writer
They’re just cookies. DePaul junior Juwan Lockett would remind himself of this simple fact dozens of times; when he was caught in an intense blizzard on Belmont Avenue, after sliding off an icy road for the 10th time in one night, when he stepped into a Lakeview apartment building unable to feel his feet, to name a few examples. An acting major at DePaul, Lockett moonlights as a delivery driver for Insomnia Cookies on Lincoln Avenue, and spent much of Chicago’s coldest winter in history riding his bike. “It creeps up on you as you’re biking,” Lockett said. “You feel a little chilly in your toes, but then it grows and grows and you stop feeling them.” According to the National Weather Service, Chicago’s average temperature from December to March was a mere 22 degrees. This marked the coldest average since 1872, when the city first started taking records of the temperature. Despite the bitter cold, hundreds of bike messengers, delivery drivers and commuters in the city continued to ride all throughout the winter, well aware of the risks that come with the piles of snow and extreme cold. “You have to be a soldier, especially in Chicago,” Lockett said. Wearing a facemask, thermal hoodie, Under Armour leggings, jeans, gloves and
helmet, the 21-year-old still managed to feel the negative wind chills as he made his way through Insomnia’s two-mile delivery radius. With several boxes of freshly baked cookies tucked snug in his carrier bag, Lockett took his time cycling through the ice. The deliveries were important, but his safety came first. After all, they’re just cookies. “The sweet side about harsh weather is that people tip better, because they see that this person has come out in 10-degree weather to bring them warm cookies and ice cream,” Lockett said. A former full time bike messenger for Chicago’s “On-Time Courier,” recent Columbia College graduate Kevin Gebhardt is just glad the season is over. The 22-year-old first came into professional biking when running cookies alongside Lockett at Insomnia. Equipped with a Nextel phone, Gebhardt received pages for pickups and drop-offs throughout the city and would bike as many as 50 miles on some days. Leaving the job shortly before the onset of Chicago’s winter, the diehard cyclist wasn’t forced out in the cold this season, but has the utmost respect for those who were. “It’s a simple living, it’s beautiful,” Gebhardt said. “It’s pretty amazing what some of these guys do.” DePaul senior Matt Lemoine can relate. Living in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, he biked to class at the Lincoln Park campus daily this winter, and
Buffalo Exchange pop up store rolls through Chicago
Photo courtesy of JAREK PELCZYNSKI
Winter poses a unique challenge for bikers and businesses alike. will continue to do so as the snow becomes a distant memory and temperatures steadily reach the 50s and 60s. “Public transportation would take me upwards of an hour, where as it takes me around 15-minutes to [bike] to class,” Lemoine said. The senior also works as a mechanic at the Johnny Sprockets bike shop in Lakeview and knows firsthand the kind of toll this winter has taken on bikers in the city. Lemoine stresses that having the proper gear is vital to biking safely in the cold months. According to Lemoine, business is slow for bike shops during the winter months and Johnny Sprockets is no exception.
Many stores will offer Groupons and other special offers to attract customers during what is referred to as “build out season.” This is when shops make minor improvements and adjustments to both their sales floor and workshop so things run smoothly during a busy summer. Taking his time and riding carefully this winter, Lemoine was able to successfully avoid any major issues related to the weather, but is still more than thankful that spring is finally here. “You have to establish limits, and really know what your limits are, otherwise you get burned out,” Lemoine said. After all, they are just cookies.
EVER SEEN A
SUB FLY?
Photo courtesy of BUFFALO EXCHANGE
The storefront of Buffalo Exchange in Wicker Park at 1478 N. Milwaukee Ave.
By Gabriella Lewis Contributing Writer
Buffalo Exchange is at the forefront of clothing resale. One of the first stores of its kind to buy, sell and trade clothing, the company first opened its doors in Tucson, Ariz. in 1974 and now has 46 stores and three franchises throughout the United States. To celebrate its 40th Anniversary and their customers, Buffalo Exchange will drive to all of its locations in a renovated 1969 Airstream trailer. The trailer will be filled with rare vintage finds and limited edition Buffalo Exchange products like T-shirts, buttons and reusable bags. The trailer will stop in Chicago Saturday, April 19, at the Wicker Park location. Luckily, Buffalo Exchange’s Earth Day $1 Sale is also that Saturday and will be located under the Damen Blue Line stop. The sale will include special items that have been selected and saved throughout the year by staff members. All proceeds
from this sale will be donated to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum to raise awareness for pollination conservation. Kerstin Block, president and co-owner of Buffalo Exchange will be also at the event on Saturday. Wicker Park manager Kelly Wolfe encourages customers to arrive early and bring cash for this event because it will be a busy day. And if you’re not into thrifting, at least stop by to support your local musicians and watch the band Lucky Dutch play an acoustic set in front of the store at 2 p.m. It is hard to ignore the resurgence of resale clothing stores and the rise in popularity of so-called “thrifting.” As a result of the ever-changing economy and retro fashion trends coming onto the scene, buying used or gently worn clothes has become popular. Many choose to buy used clothes to be cost and environmentally friendly. Donating used or out-of-fashion clothes to a resale store also promotes recycling, and it can put a few extra bucks in your pocket.
FREAKY FAST
DELIVERY! ©2013 JIMMY JOHN’S FRANCHISE, LLC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
I don't
Arts & Life. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia | 21
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'Mean Girls' celebrates 10 years as one of our generation's most iconic and quotable films
POPULAR IS BUTTER
WITH
DANNY DEVITO,
MOM'S
I hate you.
I LOVE YOUR WORK
THE LIMIT
DOES NOT
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MADE OUT
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THAT WAS ONE TIME
By Erin Yarnall Contributing Writer
Regina George was dead wrong; “fetch” happened. “Mean Girls” was released 10 years ago and the word Gretchen Weiners attempted to make cool in the film is here to stay. This month marks the 10-year anniversary of the release of “Mean Girls,” which made more than $129 million at the box office, became one of the most quoted movies of all time and nestled into the hearts of fans, where it has stayed for the past decade. The film tells the story of Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan), a junior at North Shore High School, a fictional high school located in Evanston, Illinois, who was previously home schooled in Africa by her zoologist parents. In her first experience in a public school, Cady encounters the Plastics, or the mean girls to which the title refers, in the form of Regina George (Rachel McAdams), Gretchen Weiners (Lacey Chabert) and Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried). The film also explores the friendship that Cady develops with Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese) in their attempt to sabotage the Plastics for revenge. “Mean Girls” maintains a large cult following, with fans ranging in all ages. “I remember seeing the movie when I was 11 in theaters,” DePaul graduate Jacqueline Felker said. Felker is also a graduate of the conservatory at the Second City, where many of the older cast members of the film have also studied. Felker remembers sitting in a packed theater, so much that some people endured sitting on the stairs and two to a seat, just to watch “Mean Girls” the day it came out. “I went with 30 people from my sixth grade class,” Felker said. “We put the arm rests up on the seats so we could fit more of us. In four seats we would have eight people.” The film was written by Tina Fey, which is why some fans believe the movie is still as popular as it is. “Tina Fey is still at the center of what’s funny,” Media and Cinema Studies Professor Dan Bashara said. “You can never give Tina Fey too much credit for what is going on in popular culture.” For Felker, the movie is enjoyable to watch because of the references to Second City Fey has made through the way she wrote the film.
“’Mean Girls’ has such dimensional and developed characters,” Felker said. “That’s what we’re taught to do at Second City, and I know that’s where she learned it from.” Fey also cast her friends from the Second City in the film, including Amy Poehler, Tim Meadows and Neil Flynn, as well as setting it in the Chicago suburbs, paying homage to the city where Fey learned how to master comedy. The Plastics visit Old Orchard Mall, Cady wins gift cards to Walker Bros. Pancake House and Kevin G’s phone number has the area code 847. Bashara also added that the film was such a hit because “it benefitted from our mean-based culture.” The mean-based culture that influenced the film intimidated younger viewers, such as Felker. “I thought the film was really funny,” Felker said, “but I had a question of ‘Is this what high school is like?’” DePaul Junior Jillian Rice saw the movie when it first came out on DVD, and still loves watching it whenever she has a movie night with her friends. “I still think it’s one of the funniest movies out there,” Rice said. “It’s one of those really quotable movies that my friends and I bring into conversation all the time.” Fans not only celebrate the film by watching it, but also wear pink on Wednesdays, a rule the Plastics abide by in the film. Some take to social media on October 3, to commemorate a line from the movie, where Cady is asked what day it is on October 3. Rumors of a reunion have been spreading for years, but they have been circulating more frequently as of the past few months due to the 10-year anniversary. Lindsay Lohan also recently posted pictures with Daniel Franzese and Rajiv Surenda, who play Damian and Kevin G respectively, on her Instagram, leading fans to wonder about a potential reunion. Fey also announced that a “Mean Girls” musical was in the works, but dispelled any rumors about a full on reunion. Although it has been 10 years since the movie was released, it still has an intense fan base who will continue to cherish it. “The fact that it was funny to me as a 10-year-old and still is funny to myself as a 20-year-old says a lot about what it can do,” Rice said. That is so fetch.
ME? YOUR
CHEST
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SHOPPING
DON'T HAVE SEX.
YOU WILL GET
PREGNANT
AND DIE
IT'S LIKE
I HAVE
ESPN OR SOMETHING
22 | The DePaulia. April 14, 2014
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Arts & Life. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia | 23
Finale freakout
Photo courtesy of CBS
By Kelsey Lawson Contributing Writer
March 31 might have been the start of a new quarter for some students, but for others it marked the end of an era. Television shows come and go, but while they are here, they can become a special part of viewers’ lives.
Photo courtesy of FOX TELEVISION
Photo courtesy of AMC
Series finales have evolved into massive spectacles over the years, with shows like "How I Met Your Mother," (left) "Lost" and "Breaking Bad" dominating cultural conversation.
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER 2005-2014
The characters and the relationships they form are a few of the things that encourage people to watch week after week, said Paul Booth, a Media and Cinema Studies professor. He teaches classes related to fan culture, television narrative and media studies. Booth has seen the majority of series over the last 15 years. “They become like friends, like family,” Booth said. “You want to follow their lives.” Last week’s edition of The DePaulia featured a review of the “How I Met Your Mother” finale. “HIMYM” is one of the most recent television shows to fade to black for the last time, joining notable shows like “Breaking Bad,” “Dexter,” “Raising Hope” and “Psych.” The ending created controversy among fans. There were those who were satisfied with the ending and those who felt deceived by it. Junior Torey Lenart is a digital cinematography student who works on shows that film in Chicago and enjoyed the way the show wrapped. “I was really satisfied with how ‘How I Met Your Mother’ ended,” Lenart said. “I thought it tied up loose ends.” The creators of “HIMYM” have known how it would end since season two, when they filmed Ted’s kids’ reactions in 2006, before the actors could look too old. But even with a set plan for how to end the show, the “HIMYM” finale faced some problems. The entire final season, 22 whole episodes, was one big diversion. The question at the center of the show, how Ted met the mother of his children, was there just to distract the audience from what was actually happening. As Emily Boyd, a senior scenic design student and avid television fan, points out, shows have to adhere to the rules they set out in the beginning. “When you stick to them the whole time but then don’t follow through, that’s a problem,” Boyd said. “If the surprise doesn’t follow the rules, it pulls you out.” “HIMYM” ultimately breaks a rule that it created in the pilot episode: Aunt Robin. “(‘HIMYM’) was interesting as an experiment,” Booth said. “They had an ending in sight and were winding our way to it. They picked an ending people didn’t want to see. The fact that people are unhappy about it says more about the people than the show. As an experiment in having an ending in sight it is really interesting.”
LOST
BREAKING BAD
While “HIMYM” got a lot of heat for having a mapped out finale, “Lost” had the opposite problem. “‘Lost’ made everything that came before it seem pointless,” Boyd said. “There were so many questions left. The first three seasons were great because it was somewhat feasible. But then they started time traveling. It was a genre shift. There were rules of the piece that they didn’t adhere to.” Chad Morgan, a senior media and cinema studies major, disagrees. “The end of ‘Lost’ became a beautiful allegory for the viewer about life. It took on a new meaning,” Morgan said. “Instead of being a show that just failed at wrapping on the plot, it was a show that presented you with mysteries and life challenges and baggage, and just like the characters on the show, the viewer had to accept that in order to move on, you don’t need the answers, you just need to drop the baggage.” Morgan, who is currently completing the LA Quarter program through the College of Computing and Digital Media, intends to work in creative programming, while writing and producing TV shows, to ultimately become a showrunner. He admits he did not always feel so positive about the “Lost” finale. When the episode aired, he planned a finale viewing party with his friends involving dressing up as characters and recreating marketing photos. “‘Lost’ was my obsession, and my biggest one to date,” Morgan said. “We all sat down that day and by the time the credits rolled, I remember seeing red and being the angriest, most livid person ever. I wanted to throw away my DVDs and forget I ever gave so much love to the show. I was quick to tell anyone off who said they liked it. But then as a few weeks went by and the initial anger ebbed, I realized the genius.” One of the issues many have with the “Lost” finale is that it did not answer the numerous questions posed over the six-year run. “When I first saw the finale, my fanboy-self needed closure, and I was so angry because at the time, I didn’t sense any closure or point to it,” Morgan said. “I was so angry at first because I couldn’t see narrative closure.” Making sure questions are answered is one vital part of series finales, although Booth is quick to point out that there is no right formula for mapping out the ending of a show. “There isn’t one answer,” Booth said. “Every show is different. Finales that have been successful leave viewers satisfied. Enough of an answer has been given that leaves them feeling that their time was worth it.”
One reason why “Breaking Bad” ended with rave reviews was that every piece of the puzzle fit. All loose ends had been tied up and Walt finally confessed his true feelings, which he had kept hidden throughout the series. The characters the audience cared about were all addressed. “The audience needs to feel like this world still exists,” Booth said. “We want this world to live on.” While “Breaking Bad” gave definitive answers and resolutions, “The Sopranos” had an open-ended finale. “The Sopranos” finale brought in big ratings – 11.9 million – and a big debate. “The controversy was that it didn’t answer the question that people wanted to know, which was whether Tony was going to be killed or not,” Booth said. “The abrupt cutto-black was avant-garde and striking. I know I actually checked my TV to make sure it hadn’t broken and I think others probably did too. And that made it seem even more dramatic. They managed to make a dramatic end to a show that people are still talking about, even without resolving that central enigma at the heart of the show.” Despite having a plan or not, answering central questions or leaving the audience hanging, when the show is over, the biggest variable to whether it will stand the test of time depends on the fans. The audience provide the biggest factor in a television show’s success because they create their own meaning from the text. “They invest time and energy. If a fan doesn’t enjoy it, that’s valid,” Booth said. There will never be an answer to what makes a good series finale or how to properly end a show because each fan’s individual reaction and experience. “An ending that would be satisfying for everyone would be satisfying for no one,” Booth said. "Think of something like ‘Raising Hope.’ Instead of having a huge blowout episode, it had just a nice episode. It felt right. It’s about finding that balance between matching fans expectations and the tone of the show.” But as Boyd points out, it is ultimately outside of the audience’s control. “When you have good writers you have to just trust them,” Boyd said. “They’ve put this much effort into this, trust them. It’s someone else’s work, it’s their job, it’s their baby. At that point, you’re going to watch it anyway. You’re not gonna not watch the last show.” As shows come and go, it is important to keep in mind the ever-changing nature of television and to not judge a show by its finale. “TV is temporal,” Booth said. “It stands time in a way other media don’t. Any one particular moment isn’t indicative of the whole.”
2004-2010
2008-2013
24 | The DePaulia. April 14, 2014
St.Vincent’s
D e JAMZ “Spinning fresh beats since 1581”
Graphic by MAX KLEINER | The DePaulia
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Find this and all of our DeJamz playlists on depauliaonline.com and on our spotify account By Andrew Morrell Arts & Life Editor
DeJamz this week is hereby rechristened "DeJazz." Allow me to take you on a journey through a true American artform, one era at a time, and be sure to check out my jazz show, the Essential Mix on Radio DePaul, Sundays from noon-2 p.m. (Yes, shameless plug). 1. Robert Johnson, "Kindhearted Woman Blues" - If you're embarking on a jazz journey, you have to start at the beginning. Jazz as we know it originated from the blues, a form of music that utilized a loose sense of time and calland-response. The results can be enlivening, haunting or a little of
both. Robert Johnson became the undisputed master of blues guitar after making these recordings in 1938, although his influence stretches back decades before, and lasted even longer. 2. Louis Armstrong, "St. Louis Blues" - Known as "The Jazzman's 'Hamlet,'" "St. Louis Blues" was among the first true jazz songs to gain massive popularity. This version, recorded in 1929 with Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra, is more in the Dixieland style of jazz, which incorporates blaring horns and a lively rhythm that accurately captures the spirit of New Orleans. 3. Benny Goodman, "Sing, Sing, Sing" - The Roaring Twenties catapulted jazz to popularity, but it wasn't until
the '40s that it began to enter the mainstream. During that decade, big band swing was in vogue. Swing music hints at Dixieland in its quick pace, but with a larger band, it became much more intricate and allowed the personalities of individual members to shine through in solos. Even though this is what your grandparents might love, jazz still was not considered a serious art form for much of the swing era. 4. Thelonius Monk Quartet and John Coltrane, "Blue Monk: Live at Carnegie Hall" - It didn't take long for jazz to have an identity crisis. Around the late '40s, musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and others began experimenting
with modal improvisation and unconventional song structures. Jazz purists at the time, including Armstrong and swing's vanguard, mocked the new style, called bebop, as unlistenable and more importantly, un-danceable. The latter is certainly true, but with bebop, jazz musicians began to show off their amazing virtuosity. This live recording captures two legends performing together in their prime, and is widely considered a landmark recording. 5. Herbie Hancock, "Chameleon" - Fast forward through the '60s to 1973, when jazz is almost unrecognizable. Music in general was evolving at an alarming rate, and to keep up with the times, many jazz artists looked to modern influences.
Herbie Hancock's "Head Hunters," which opens with "Chameleon," was a revolutionary album for its time. Incorporating a brand new instrument, the synthesizer, with jazz and funk tendencies, Hancock and company created a whole new genre: jazz fusion. 6. Hiromi Uehara, "Brand New Day" - Today, jazz is considered grandpa music by many, but it is still very much alive and thriving. Modern jazz musicians, like Hiromi, incorporate a wide spectrum of influences in their music to create what is still the cutting edge of sonic perfection. The fact that she is a piano prodigy doesn't hurt either. Come to one of Chicago's many jazz clubs and hear America's soul for yourself.
Crossword ACROSS 1. Not just any 4. Goes bad 8. Bodybuilder's target 12. Basket feature 13. Actor's direction 14. Old money in the banc 15. Eyeball 16. Boardwalk structure 17. Allergy symptom 18. Adjudged 20. Yodeler's perch 22. Like a certain Ranger 23. Bahamas resort 27. Designate 29. CIA counterpart 30. Mangy mutt 31. Make one 32. Links prop 33. Summoned, as the butler 34. Pack animal 35. "___ me?" 36. Talent 37. Consider again
39. Don't need, maybe 40. African antelope 41. Sends to the Hill 44. With competence 47. Revue offering 49. Certain theater, for short 50. Act of faith? 51. Lunar effect 52. Galley mover 53. Course requirement, often 54. Move 55. Smacking of irony DOWN 1. Beat a path 2. Fill an opening 3. Decorate 4. Feel remorse for 5. Nitrous ___ (laughing gas) 6. Cause for overtime 7. Not the norm 8. Spins
9. Blazing 10. Arrow's flight 11. "Humph!" 19. Night light 21. Big dog, familiarly 24. Crop protector 25. Cousin's mom 26. Longing 27. Not shut tight 28. Squander 29. Pivotal 32. Pointed lunges 33. Amble 35. Unhealthy looking 36. Miss a step 38. Suez setting 39. Cover girl Klum 42. It may be shed 43. Active 44. Aviation stat 45. Apiary denizen 46. Hardly harsh 48.Do-it-yourselfer's purchase
Sports. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia | 25
Sports
No 'off ' in off-season for men's soccer By Ben Gartland Asst. Sports Editor
Although the start of the 2014 DePaul men’s soccer season is not for another five months, offseason training is in full swing as the Blue Demons prepare for the upcoming season. The offseason actually started in the winter, following the conclusion of the fall soccer season. According to head coach Craig Blazer, the team tries to take advantage of DePaul’s quarter system. “We try to take advantage of the quarter system as best we can. We have the eleven weeks in the winter and then we have ten weeks in the spring where we try to maximize our hours and develop our new team identity, our new group of leaders and our new group of starters,” Blazer said. “We do it slowly but we see the guys five days a week during the winter and then six days a week during the spring.” These winter workouts include working on strength in the weight room and practicing in the gym due to the winter weather. According to junior forward Art Garza, these gym practices help translate to the outdoor practices that start during the spring quarter. “We get to work on things that are hard to work on in the fall season,” Garza said. “(Practicing inside) really helps us sharpen mentally and technically with the different surface.” Blazer likes the offseason because it allows the coaching staff to teach the players more. “It’s a great opportunity for us to spend so much time with this group because in
abel Beruman | DEPAULIA FILE PHOTO
Jake Rawlings (above) kicks the ball during a game. The new season begins in the fall. the fall, it’s so intense with the two games a week and you don’t get as much time as you want because of the pressure and the demands of games,” Blazer said. “Here we get a more controlled environment and we get to teach more.” “(In the fall) we have games twice a week so we have to adjust accordingly. In the spring, it’s pivotal we improve our fitness,” Garza said. “We have to work on our technical abilities and things like our weaker foot or just the way you see the
game just because the fall is so hectic.” Outside of practices, DePaul also plays in exhibition matches during the spring. They already played against Lindsey Wilson University and Indiana in March, later playing Valparaiso and Western Michigan at the Notre Dame campus. They then competed in the Chicago Cup this past weekend, facing other Chicago schools such as Illinois-Chicago and then a match-up with either Northwestern or Loyola-Chicago.
The exhibition matches help give the team a look at their identity for the upcoming season. “After losing some seniors it helps us get an idea of what we’re looking at for the fall,” Garza said. “Even though our season is in the fall, we treat our winter and spring like it is our fall because once that season comes around we’ll be ready and we’ll be focused.” Part of the challenge of offseason workouts is not having the incoming freshmen on campus. Instead, the incoming freshmen are in contact with the coaches so that they’re ready to step onto the field when they arrive on campus. “They’re going through training and they also understand the physical demands that are going to be expected of them. They communicate with us and our strength and conditioning coach,” Blazer said. “The ones that are in town see our games, we’re still watching them play and we communicate with them regularly.” Garza is having a different offseason than most because he has to adjust this offseason as he moves from a defender to a center forward. He started to make the transition in 2013 and will be on the front line full time in 2014. “If the ball comes into me, I have to be strong, and so a lot of the things that I do are trying to keep my strength up so I can hold off those defenders,” Garza noted. “A lot of it is also looking at our old game film, trying to see positioning on the field so that can beat our opponents not only with our physicality but with our mental awareness as well.”
Softball sweeps Georgetown series By Colin Sallee Contributer Writer
The Blue Demons would bend, but refused to break as they extended their lead in the Big East after sweeping the Georgetown Hoyas on Saturday afternoon. In game one, four players recorded multi-hit games, led by designated player, freshman Nicole Pihl, who nabbed three hits in the contest. DePaul (29-8, 10-0) jumped on the board after a 5-pitch half inning from junior Mary Connolly, with Pihl’s first hit of the day — a single up the middle which scored two. Senior Allie Braden and Freshman Dylan Christensen would continue to do the heavy lifting for the DePaul offense, creating a 5-1 lead heading into the fifth inning. That lead would be short lived after a 2-run blast from Georgetown’s Megan Hyson cut the deficit to two. Things would thicken even more for DePaul with another Hoya homerun, as well as a few defensive miscues in the seventh knotting the score at six. The fireworks wouldn’t last long as DePaul quickly put runners in scoring position
to start the bottom half of the frame. Junior catcher Staci Bonezek would take matters into her own hands, singling home pinch runner freshman Micah Fitzgerald to walk-off with a victory. Pitcher Mary Connolly received a no-decision after hurling six innings, while giving up two earned runs and striking out four. Offensively, Allie Braden stayed hot, making it 15 straight contests that she has reached base safely. Game two of the twin bill would prove be less eventful due to starting pitcher, senior Kirsten Verdun, who threw a complete game shutout. With the shutout, Verdun is now 20-5 on the year, with a sub1.7 earned runner average, among the top 3 in the conference. Connolly showed why she’s the Big East's best hitter when she deposited a fastball over the center field fence for her tenth homerun of the year, giving the blue demons an early 2-0 lead. "I was hitting everything earlier in the day so I wanted to stay aggressive," Connolly said. "I got a pitch I could handle and
tara gresens | the depaulia
DePaul softball celebrates after a 7-6 walk-off win. They swept the series and improved to 29-8 this year. was able to attack it." Three errors throughout the game would prove costly for the Hoyas as their offense staggered throughout game two. Braden would single in the third, extending her on-base-safely streak to 15 games. “We knew this was a big weekend for us," Head Coach Eugene Lenti said. "The Hoyas
have beaten some good teams around the country and we understood what we had to do. Focus was vital for us. I was happy to see the ladies bounce back from a sub-par defensive performance in game one.” The Blue Demons concluded the Georgetown series with a 9-1 win and extended their win streak to 11 games.
Verdun, Connolly and Braden combined for seven hits in eight plate apperances. Georgetown dropped to 19-18 on the year. DePaaul travels to Champaign Wednesday for a one-game trip against Illinois. They then travel on Friday for a three-game series against Creighton.
26 | Sports. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia
Stick up: DePaul club lacrosse winning season continues By Matt Paras Sports Editor
Finding one college student to wake up at seven in the morning voluntarily is impressive. Finding 30 of them signifies commitment. Every Monday and Wednesday DePaul’s club lacrosse team practices from 7:30-9 a.m. at Wish Field. The timeslot is the only time the field is available, which often is used by the school’s Division 1 sports ,such as softball or soccer. “Dealing with the school is not the easiest thing in the world so it’s nice that we do it ourselves,” Peter Augustin, the club’s President and captain, said. “At the same time, it’s a headache. Wherever there’s a patch of grass, we’ll play.” Augustin’s mentality, which he says carries over with the rest of the team, has led to DePaul Lacrosse’s best season since the inception in 2005. The team’s record sits at 7-2 with two games in the regular season remaining, and the team is ranked No. 18 in the nation by the Men’s Club Lacrosse Association Division II coaches’ poll. The team Lacrosse hopes to make another run at nationals this year. “It’s been a huge turnaround
from the team that everyone would schedule on its senior night or to get an easy win to now being a contender for nationals every year,” Augustin, a senior, said. “It’s not really a one person league, but it’s the 30 guys on the team who have all bought into it. “It used to be a beer league for the most part,” he said. “Guys would just come together because they enjoyed each other. This year it’s the same, but there’s a bigger focus on being a developed program. We were tired of being a laughing stock so we decided that we’d be good at lacrosse.” The program’s culture started to shift last season. DePaul finished 9-3 and advanced to nationals for the first time in club history, where they lost in the first round to St. Thomas, 11-3. To get to nationals, the team won its conference playoffs. With a taste of success, the team changed head coaches to provide more organizational structure. Charles Mayne, a 21-year-old transfer student, agreed to coach the team this season and Marcus Dent, who was the head coach last year, was switched to assistant. Mayne transferred from Nazareth College, where he played Division III Lacrosse for two years. He’s using that
Photo courtesy of DEPAUL CLUB LACROSSE
Michael Meyers (right) battles a Sam Houston State defender. DePaul Club Lacrosse is 7-2 this season and 3-0 in their division. experience to help guide the team. “I was told that last year they didn’t run a single play, which I was kind of shocked at since I’ve been coached with set plays,” Mayne said. “One of my goals as an offensive coordinator was to come in and set structured plays so that it’s not just one guy doing his show and everyone is standing around watching.” On the field, it’s translated to wins. In the first four games of the season, Mayne saw that the team had potential. They upset Missouri Valley, 11-10, who were
the assumed conference favorites. Furthermore, most of the team’s roster was on the team last season, allowing room for growth. Mayne and Augustin pointed to the team’s sophomores as really contributing in a big way. Dario Rovito, a sophomore from Naperville, Ill., leads the team in points with 4.4 a game. Another pair of sophomores, Michael Vaughn and Alex Cha also average 2.5 points per game. They have already clinched the Northeast Division in the Great Rivers Lacrosse Conference. "We've been really lucky at
getting good talent in from kids all around the country," Mayne said. "We have kids who take it seriously and want to take it to the next level." Augustin, who leads the team with 23 goals, says that it’s the team’s chemistry that makes them so successful. “We try to be best friends,” Augustin said. “In a lot of ways, it’s a fraternity. But, we all get together for the same reason and that’s to win. We all have a bunch of guys who are good at lacrosse, but they all play together well because they’re friends.”
"Draft Day" a solid pick By Matt Paras Sports Editor
Thanks to the NFL moving back the draft nearly two weeks, the days without football seem even longer. After free agency cools down, there’s a lull all the way to the draft. At that point, it’s still too long to get excited for next season — in part because team’s rosters are mostly set after the draft. This year “Draft Day”, a movie starring Kevin Costner and directed by newcomer Ivan Reitman, aims to fill that void for NFL fans. The movie, as implied in the title, centers on an unconventional topic: the draft. The draft, which has evolved into another tornado-like NFL event of its own, is a surprisingly entertaining kickstarter for this film. The premise of the film succeeds due to a strong cast in a light-hearted drama. Costner plays Sonny Weaver Jr., general manager of the Cleveland Browns, who over 12 hours has to create a splash to turn around the always hopeful, but always terrible Browns and potentially save his job. Weaver deals with the pressures of his staff as well as personal events such as mourning the loss of his father and news that he is expecting a baby with his secret girlfriend Ali (Jennifer Garner), the Browns’ salary-cap expert. In this bizzaro NFL world, the Seattle Seahawks have the No. 1 pick. Events are trigged when Seahawks GM Tom Michaels (Patrick St. Espirt) offers the pick to Weaver in exchange for three firstround draft picks. Weaver accepts it with
Photo courtesy of AP
Kevin Costner (left) and Jennifer Garner (right) work off each other well in "Draft Day." the idea that the Browns will pick can’tmiss quarterback Bo Callahan. If there’s a knock on this movie, it’s that the script tries to establish the stakes too hard, too fast. Coach Penn (Denis Leary) storms into Weaver’s office and sets the months of scouting material the team had on fire. QB Brian Drew (Tom Welling) trashes Weaver’s office after finding out the Browns are likely to pick a quarterback with the No. 1 pick. Both moves would never ever happen and frankly are more ridiculous than entertaining. As the movie starts the settle, Costner shines. His character appears to be the stereotypical hard-knock, no-emotionson-the-job NFL type, but Costner does a good job of conveying how stressful that situation would be. It helps that Costner has experience in other sport films like “Bull Durham” and “Field of Dreams.” Coster and Garner work well off each other and their relationship feels authentic. In the end, “Draft Day” is charming. Seeing Weaver — ahem — weave his way throughout the draft process and venting three of the major draft prospects, “Draft Day” chooses to focus on is an enjoyable process.
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Sports. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia | 27
Digging in to home plate: baseball's new trend Baseball stadiums throughout the country are offering wacky foods to attract new customers By Samantha Rivera Contributing Writer
From three-pound banana split sundaes to funnel cake hot dogs, both major and minor league baseball stadiums continue to add on to their wacky list of food offerings in an attempt to increase their audience numbers. Most recently, Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, has presented a wide range of new concession-stand options to include bacon-on-a-stick, featuring thick-cut Danish bacon with black pepper seasoning. Though the bacon item does Photo courtesy of TWITTER appear appetizing to her, DePaul US Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, is offering a 3-pound banana freshman and avid baseball fan split sundae for $17 in a helmet to try and attract fans to the ballpark. Alexis Rocha sees no real benefit next door outside her shop to forgotten, an optional addition of in the new addition. “I don’t think it’ll attract more find a “make your own nachos” jalapeños may be made. Ray Hunnicutt, a former people at all,” she said. “Food is station and paired it with some minor league player in the already so expensive, imagine the churros. Such ordinary, yet classic Baltimore Orioles organization, prices for these meals.” She notes that it might bring only curious servings seem to make consumers has a different outlook on the matter. attraction at first, but it will very perfectly content as it is. “Most people are content “I don’t think players care quickly die down. “People are there to watch baseball, not eat with a hot dog, why go so fancy?” if people are watching or not,” asks Rocha. Hunnicutt said. “The more people the food.” Believing that the intention who come to the games, whether Former U.S. Cellular of the stadium is not where it for the food or the actual game, Experience employee Christine Lohnstein seconds this notion. necessarily should be, Lohnstein the more the players get paid.” Hunnicutt recognizes that “Most people attend baseball views them as “trying to gain games for the love of sports,” consumers by their taste buds.” food does help attract people, she said. “The unorthodox food She went on to say, “People since “not everyone likes food, choices are bringing in the wrong who attend baseball games are but not everyone likes baseball crowds … Like people who just supposed to be supporting the … It doesn’t necessarily take players, not the food.” away from the game (because) go places to try foods.” Among other unconventional it gives people some type of Lohnstein’s experience at 'The food choices in the baseball world, entertainment when there’s Cell' has made her realize that a Fifth Third Burger is offered by down time.” Agreeing with the hot dogs are indeed a true staple when attending any baseball the White Michigan Whitecaps, stadiums’ intentions to increase a minor league affiliate of the attendance, it helps “when you game. “When I’m attending a game, Detroit Tigers. Described as a have new and special foods, I really only look forward to the five-pound, 5,000-calorie burger, (because) people want to try it.” So go ahead and try that hot dogs because the two go it includes five slices of American hand in hand,” she said. “I don’t cheese, a half cup of chili, three-pound banana split sundae. think diverse foods would change crushed corn chips, tomatoes, Those Sox players won’t mind one my desire to attend games. The lettuce, nacho cheese, five third- bit. Who says you can’t enjoy the experience is enough for me.” She pound burger patties, salsa and game and the food? Who knows, goes on to note that when she was sour cream, all held together with maybe the $17.00 will be worth it tired of the hot dog, she would go two eight-inch buns. Not to be ... And yes, you can thank us later.
3-pound banana split sundae $17
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bacon on a stick $7 Photo courtesy of TWITTER
Bacon on a stick is one of many new items that US Cellular Field is offering this baseball season.
Pulled pork hot dog $7 Photo courtesy of TWITTER
At Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs are now selling pulled pork hot dogs (left) that cost $7 and buffalo blue cheese tater tots (right) for $6.50.
BACON CHASE, continued from back page events usually draw such a large crowd, serious runners tend to avoid them. “I don't find them enjoyable,” Lacy said of these more casual competitions. “For me, the most fun part of races is doing it with friends and cheering one another on. At the really big races it is so hard to even stick together and you hardly see other people.” One Chicago cross country coach agrees that such events are not for the competitive runner. “If people are not doing any training beforehand and are just entering for the shirts and food, then what's the point besides a social activity?” coach said. “It ends up not being about the running.” She acknowledges that novelty events might benefit new runners by encouraging them to train but says the gimmicks seem to be getting out of hand. “A lot of it seems hokey to me and there aren't too many serious runners doing these races. But that's what teams and the professional circuit are for, so ultimately, who cares?” she said. But for others, the mass of runners and
uniqueness is what fuels the excitement. Junior Hannah Vogel is a former student athlete at DePaul who has participated in races like The Color Run. She speculates that these races have become popularized recently because of the increasing public focus on health consciousness, and says that the sense of camaraderie and high morale is what makes them so enjoyable. “I love these themed races because it encourages people who maybe aren't that into running to actually participate,” says Vogel. “I love to run and I love seeing other people develop a love for it.” Vogel said that though she has completed more competitive races, the novelty aspect does not dissuade her from participating. By leveling the proverbial playing field, she said the themed races provide a fun environment to exercise and allow runners of all athletic ability to participate. “Events like Bacon Chase and Warrior Dash have become so successful because of their ability to provide a fun, unique experience for a wide spectrum of runners,” Hudson said. “The atmosphere of these events make them special, giving participants of all athletic abilities an unforgettably fun, active experience with their friends.”
Sports
Sports. April 14, 2014. The DePaulia | 28
Chasing down the bacon By Kirsten Onsgard Contributer Writer
Greasy bits of fried pork isn’t ideal prime nutrition for the health-conscious, long-distance runner. But one event, aptly named Bacon Chase, is looking to change that by allowing bacon hogs to run wild while binging on bits of their favorite fatladen and salty delicacies. Bacon Chase will take place June 7 at Montrose Beach. Participants will have the choice of two courses: a standard 5k run or a 0.05k stretch for the less athletically inclined pork connoisseur. Both options include all-you-can-eat bacon available at “bacon bit refueling stations” both during and after the race, and a celebratory Bloody Mary at the finish line. “Bacon is a America's favorite snack and we saw an opportunity to combine our love of running with our love of bacon in an event that celebrates both,” said event coordinator Tiffany Hudson. Red Frog Events, the Chicago-based production company hosting the event, expects a few thousand runners to participate in the inaugural Bacon Chase. Combining large amounts of sodium consumption and heart-pumping exercise is certainly risky, but Red Frog Events is not about to get caught with their tails tied legally. All participants must sign a waiver acknowledging that the race will be a test of their “physical and mental limits” among other things. The first Bacon Chase took place in Atlanta in March, and since the event’s initial announcement, Red Frog Events has added more than a dozen Bacon Chase runs across the country.
The event company is also the creator of Warrior Dash, an event in which participants navigate through a battleground of obstacles with harrowing names like “Storming Normandy” and “Alcatraz”. After conquering the course, participants celebrate their athletic prowess with Renaissance Faire-style turkey legs and beer. Both Bacon Chase and Warrior Dash are fundraisers for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Red Frog Events has raised $8.4 million dollars for the charity over the past two years. Bacon Chase is just the latest among dozens of food-centric running events that have grown in popularity over the past few years. At its seventh annual race last November, the Hot Chocolate 15/5k drew over 45,000 spectators, runners, and volunteers and was preceded by a Hot Chocolate Runner’s Expo at McCormick Place. As their names imply, these novelty running events place less of an emphasis on speed and achieving a personal best than on fun. Bacon Chase will have no official timed race, and arguably pork bits are not performance-enhancing snacks. The Color Run, during which runners are sprayed with a rainbow of dyed powder, prides itself on being the “Happiest 5k on the Planet”; likewise its neon counterpart Blacklight Run is the brightest. But not everyone is a fan of running while being doused with color or traipsing for sweet treats. Christie Lacy is a member of the Glen Ellyn Running Club who has participated in dozens of 5k’s, marathons and other races. She says that because these
Photo courtesy of HANNAH VOGEL
Picture left to right: Courtney Fane (senior), Dina Allen (alumnae), Hannah Vogel
See BACON CHASE, page 27 (junior), Megan Maines (sophomore) pose before competing in The Color Run.
DePaul Club Football inaugural schedule set By Matt Paras
ePaul Club Football
Sports Editor
The dream for DePaul senior Riley Halligan is coming true. When he set out in spring of 2013, he envisioned students banding together to form a club football team and eventually see action on the field. That action is coming. DePaul Club Football announced Wednesday an eightgame schedule against other club football teams across the Midwest for the fall of 2014. DePaul will officially join the National Club Football Association and play seven other teams. “It’s a really good schedule,” Halligan said. “There’s a lot of tough, competitive teams and we scheduled it that way. We didn’t want to come in to the league and play weak teams. We wanted to play teams that are proven. We’re ready.” DePaul’s season debuts Sept. 27 against Loyola. The year spans through Nov. 22, ending against a team to be announced. The Loyola matchup, however, is what the team is calling “the Redline Rivalry.” Head coach
Fall 2014 Schedule
9/27
@ Loyola
10/4
UW Parkside
10/11
Miami of Ohio BYE
10/18
Photo courtesy of DEPAUL CLUB FOOTBALL
Club Football practices at Ray Meyer Fitness Center, but will be playing eight games outdoor in fall 2014.
Carlos Jones, who was an assistant on Loyola’s club football team before becoming DePaul’s head coach, said he and his team are looking forward to that matchup the most. “With the rivalry of Loyola, it’s going to be huge opening the season,” Jones said. “It should get both schools involved with students being so close. It’s going
to be good. Everyone should start taking notice that it’s for real." Jones added that he expects his team to win. “When we’re a new team in our inaugural season, every team is going to be a tough out,” Jones said. “But with enough work, effort and energy, there’s no reason why we can’t compete right out of the gate.”
With their season scheduled, DePaul Club Football still needs to find a place to call their homefield. Ideally, Halligan said, DePaul wants to secure Wish Field. Halligan was unsure how the fall schedule of Division 1 sports would clash with the team’s schedule. If they aren’t available, the team hopes to schedule games in the suburbs.
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10/25
Robert Morris Peoria
11/1
Loyola
11/8 11/15
@Ohio Tech @ Southern Illinois
11/22
TBA