013015 Chicago Maroon

FRIDAY • JANUARY 30, 2015

CHICAGOMAROON.COM

ISSUE 23 • VOLUME 126

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

Nurses’ union votes to strike if negotiations fail Campus employees take a

stand for workers’ rights Sam Koenig Maroon Contributor University employees detailed their experiences with their jobs at an event Thursday hosted by a student group devoted to fighting for workers’ rights and economic justice.

The event was hosted by Students Organizing United with Labor (SOUL), and featured a panel of speakers that included the University of Chicago Medi-

cal Center (UCMC) staff, graduate student workers, and residence hall staff. The meeting also served as a precursor to the Students in Solidarity with Nurses march, which aimed to show support for National Nurses United (NNU) nurses as they took part in a strike vote at the UCMC. The first speaker was Kristin Liskh, a UCMC nurse who described the relationship between UCMC nurses and the University RIGHTS continued on page 3

New Name, Same Dorm Christine Schmidt News Editor Third-year Kayli Horne rallies a crowd outside the University of Chicago Medical Center during a march to support the nurses voting on unionization last Thursday.

SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Isaac Stein Senior News Staff Nurses employed by the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) overwhelmingly voted on Thursday to authorize a oneday strike after a full day of voting at a van-turned–polling station at the corner of East 57th Street and South Drexel Avenue.

According to Cindy Loudin, the Labor Representative for the National Nurses Union (NNU), approximately 95 percent of voters were in favor of the strike. A date for the strike has not yet been set; Loudin said that negotiations between the two parties are ongoing.

The nurses’ vote to strike comes in the wake of ongoing contractual

disputes between the UCMC and the NNU. “Bargaining continues tomorrow, and I hope that through this vote, management has heard our message loud and clear,” Loudin said.

In an e-mailed statement, UCMC spokesperson Lorna Wong characterized the strike vote as a “premature” move that runs counter to ongoing negotiations.

“We are extremely disappointed with the outcome of this vote, which authorizes the NNU to call a strike at any time and for any length of time—without going back to nurses for a vote. We feel this vote is premature as our nurses have not yet seen the full outcome of negotiations...UCMC does not

want a strike. Unfortunately, the vote has put us in a position where we must prepare for a strike,” Wong wrote in the statement.

When the NNU sets a date for the strike, it will give the UCMC 10 days of advance notice so that it may hire non–NNU nurses to work in the hospital; if negotiations fail and the strike occurs, the hospital will continue to function.

The previous contract between the UCMC and the NNU expired last October, and the two parties have yet to reach a new agreement.

Sticking points include the practice of nurse rotation and nurse-topatient ratios.

Rotation is the practice of calling in day-shift nurses to work nights, NURSE continued on page 2

Univ. not interested in buying more land for Obama library Cairo Lewis & Sarah Manhardt News Staff & News Editor Amid concerns regarding the University’s proposed sites for the Barack Obama presidential library, the University has passed on the opportunity to buy more land in Washington Park.

The University is pursuing two possible sites in its bid for the Obama presidential library near Washington and Jackson Parks. The University originally proposed a third site near the South Shore Cultural Center but dropped it after controversies over its lakefront location.

According to DNAInfo, the University has had the opportunity to purchase four and a half acres of available land in Washington Park but has not pursued that opportunity. The University has said it wants to use at least 20 acres for the Obama presidential library to present a competitive bid, which is why it proposed building on the park land.

Derek Douglas, the Vice President for Civic Engagement at the University, declined to comment for this article, but University spokesperson Jeremy Manier said the University of Chicago does not plan on buying

more land for its bid.

“Other privately held land is not included,” he said. “If the Washington Park site is chosen and the Foundation wishes to use land outside the park, we would be available to work with the Foundation and the local community, including private landowners, to formulate a plan,” Manier said.

Columbia University and the University of Illinois at Chicago’s bids are also under review by the Obama Library Foundation. President Obama and the First Lady will announce their final decision by the end of March.

South Campus Residential Hall will be formally named as Renee Granville-Grossman Residential Commons due to a $44 million bequest from an alumna—the largest such donation in University history.

The University announced the change in an email to residents of College Housing on Thursday morning. The news comes amid the University’s Campaign for Inquiry and Impact, which has currently amassed $2.34 billion, more than halfway towards its record-setting goal of $4.5 billion. The five-year campaign began its public phase last October after launching its “quiet phase” in early 2012, and is the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the University’s history.

Clock ticks closer to Doomsday Sonia Schlesinger Maroon Contributor In response to global hazards ranging from development of nuclear weapons programs to climate change and cyber-attacks, the University of Chicago’s Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists recently moved the minute hand of its “Doomsday Clock” to three minutes to midnight, signaling a global calamity.

The Bulletin, a publication that covers issues surrounding nuclear weapons, was founded in 1945 after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Doomsday Clock was originally intended to signify the imminent

IN VIEWPOINTS

IN ARTS

U (shall not) Pass » Page 4

Decemberists album review

Where fun comes to thrive » Page 4

Renee Granville-Grossman (A.B. ’63) passed away in 2012. According to the email, her mother and her mother’s four siblings also graduated from UChicago. GranvilleGrossman grew up in the South Shore and Kenwood neighborhoods before studying French, Russian, and linguistics at the University. After graduation, she taught at an elementary school, became a stockbroker, and developed an extensive art collection with her husband, real estate developer Leonard Granville-Grossman.

South Campus has housed more than 800 students since it opened in 2009. It and Max Palevsky Residential Commons will be joined by a third mega-dorm when Campus North is completed (it is slated to open in the fall of 2016). The name change will officially take place in a formal ceremony on February 25.

» Page 6

Keepin’ it 100 on The Nightly Show » Page 6

threat of global nuclear war and has continued to measure the impact of rapidly developing technology on the environment.

The Bulletin’s Science and Security Board meets twice a year to discuss such global trends. The board, comprised of prominent scientists from multiple nations, then decides whether to alert the public to major changes in the state of the world by moving the hands of the clock closer or further away from midnight. This distance from midnight indicates how close the scientists believe the world is to global catastrophe.

This time, the board moved the hands in reaction to what they have CLOCK continued on page 3

IN SPORTS

Men’s basketball: Maroons upbeat for Case, Carnegie » Back page Track & Field: Undefeated women take on UW-Whitewater » Page 7

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | January 30, 2015

2

Panel brings Lessons from Ferguson straight to Univ.

Brandon Lee Maroon Contributor Following the wave of civil unrest in areas from Ferguson, MO to New York City, broad principles about police use of force are facing heightened scrutiny. Professors, activists, and a law enforcement officer from Ferguson gathered in a panel discussion at the Law School on Wednesday to discus the general function of police, over-policing, and the disconnect between police officers and the neighborhoods they serve The panel, titled “Lessons from Ferguson,” featured a variety of perspectives on the events surrounding the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, which prompted a national discussion about police brutality, transparency,

and racial profiling. Other deaths of black men at the hands on the police, including Eric Garner of Staten Island, NY and Tamir Rice of Cleveland, OH, have furthered the discussion.

Cathy Cohen, chair of the University of Chicago’s Political Science department, introduced the panelists: Captain Ronald Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and coordinator of law enforcement in Ferguson after Michael Brown’s death; Charlene Carruthers (M.A. `09), a national coordinator of the Black Youth Project; Andrew Papachristos (Ph.D `07), an associate professor of sociology at Yale University; Jamie Kalven, co-founder of the Invisible Institute, a Chicago-based documentary production company; and moderator Steve Edwards,

executive director of the Institute of Politics.

Cohen began the discussion by arguing that poor neighborhoods are underprotected and over-policed.

“Under neoliberalism we have witnessed the disinvestment in poor and urban areas,” she said. “The neoliberal response has been to bracket, isolate, and police those dangerous and devastated areas.”

At the same time, the racial makeup of the police department is the opposite.

“Recruiting minority officers is tough,” Johnson said. “In Ferguson, we’re talking about a department of 53 officers; three of those [are] minorities, and 50 are white. A lot of those don’t live in the community they’re working in for a variety of reasons.”

To address the community-police disconnect, John-

Legal experts Posner and Stone critique human rights law Lorentz Hansen Maroon Contributor Eric Posner, an esteemed professor at the University of Chicago Law School, criticized human rights law as a largely ineffective tool for advancing global human rights in an event moderated by fellow law professor and constitutional law expert Geoffrey Stone on Tuesday evening. The talk was part of International House’s Global Voices Program and promoted Posner’s new book, The Twilight of Human Rights Law. Posner began his talk with a refresher course in human rights history, noting the ever-evolving nature of human rights as a concept since the Enlightenment era.

Quick to emphasize his support for global human rights themselves, Posner purposefully defined his distinction between human rights and human rights law. “[Human rights] reflects the basic idea that people have certain interests that are powerful enough that governments should never be able to violate them,” he said. Human rights law goes further to claim human rights are “so important that they should be embodied in in-

ternational law,” leading to the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and numerous future treaties.

What Posner finds problematic about human rights law is the nature of international treaties, which comprise much of human rights law. “Countries [frequently] tend to enter into treaties because they want another country to do something,” he said. “These treaties aren’t actually enforced…they’re not forced by their own domestic institutions to comply with these treaties. So increasingly it looks like ratification of these treaties for most countries is purely symbolic.”

Posner pointed to torture as an example. Despite condemning torture in international treaties and declarations, countless countries violate these treaties, including the U.S. Studies have shown that even when countries condemn torture in their own constitutions, they don’t actually torture less.

“I don’t think the treaties have had any impact,” Posner said.

As the discussion portion of the talk came to a close, he tried to reassure the audience that

some hope remains in defending human rights. “The state of human rights is better than it was 50 years ago,” he said.

“There’s more political liberty, almost certainly…but there is no causal relationship between the treaty ramifications and this improvement in people’s well being.”

Instead, he suggested measuring progress using specific goals.

“We should judge compliance with human rights by looking at how well countries achieve substantive measurable goals such as poverty reduction.”

Posner said that human rights should not be belittled. Instead, society should work to more accurately comprehend how these rights are effectively instituted because such studies will defend human rights more concretely than international treaties can.

In summarizing Posner’s thesis, Stone said that human rights law “isn’t actually having an impact on the real world…. We’ve all misdirected our attention in all the efforts that have been put into the enterprise of articulating and attempting to generate a body of law with respect to human rights.”

son proposed required community service for officers to assimilate them to their neighborhoods. “The law enforcement in Ferguson do not know their community,” he said. “When you don’t know someone, you have a fear of someone…. People said, ‘Were you afraid?’ I wasn’t afraid because Ferguson is who I am.”

Carruthers framed the issue of policing as a systemic rather than an individual problem, questioning whether police are necessary in society.

“The system itself is rotten at its core,” she said. “I’m less invested in talking about the character of the police, and more invested in talking about the character of the system.” She said that the system is set up to control people and serve capitalist

interests, rather than solely to protect.

Papachristos argued that racial demography and culture are both at stake in policing. “Most police departments in this country look like Ferguson’s,” he said. “In New Haven, almost all of the police officers live outside of New Haven, and they’re actually socialized into understanding where the ghetto is and what life is like from everybody else on the force. So it’s not just structure. There’s also a cultural element.”

Accountability can also be important. According to Kalven, “Failure to hold those who are accountable has immense, immense unacknowledged costs.”

“Police efficacy should no longer be about crime rates, but satisfaction with police,” Papachristos said, likening it

to customer satisfaction. “We know that crime rates and arrest rates don’t always correlate. In fact, we can drive down crime with fewer arrests.”

Panelists proposed a variety of measures to solve these policing issues.

Johnson corroborated Papachristos, arguing that police departments which exist on ticket revenue are incentivized improperly.

Carruthers proposed a requirement for students to engage in critical conversations throughout the curriculum, focused on examining the police state in Chicago. Kalven pushed direct involvement of the University’s Crime Lab and proposed that the lab explore the practices of the University police.

“The conversation does not end tonight,” Cohen said.

Dean Ellison holds fireside chat Alice Xiao News Staff Dean of Students in the College John “Jay” Ellison discussed issues ranging from the accessibility of academic advisers, to last quarter’s Facebook offenses, to the value of a liberal arts education at a Student Government (SG) forum on Thursday.

Ellison came to the University in July, transitioning from his former position as Associate Dean and professor at Harvard University.

The Dean of Students in the College is responsible for academic affairs in the College, including matters of career advising, curriculum, and discipline. He also directly oversees the academic advisers.

Originally from Georgia, Ellison worked as a police officer for four years before moving to Florida for his undergraduate degree.

He moved again to Massachusetts to get his Ph.D at Harvard, where his work involved research in Syria for a year. He is well versed in ancient Middle Eastern languages, and knows over 15 ancient languages and

dialects.

Ellison said his main focus is improving the accessibility of academic advisers and strengthening the relationship between students and their advisers. “Our advisers used to each have up to 270 students to attend to, and that is too many for the students to be getting the individual attention they should be getting,” Ellison said. He explained how he is expanding the number of advisers and introducing initiatives to promote more interaction between students and advisers, such as giving the latter Maroon Dollars to encourage coffee outings.

In light of the federal investigation into the University's potential breach of Title IX, Ellison addressed student concerns about how the University deals with sexual assault cases. “My vision is that everybody, regardless of particulars […], has equal access to every program we have,” he said, adding that the University is working on a more centralized system run by trained professionals to deal with all matters of discipline equally. In addition, he noted

that calls made to the Sexual Assault Dean-On-Call (SADOC) are now confidential, when they previously were not. “This is a huge step for us as an institution, when this availability of confidentiality is still lacking in many institutions,” Ellison said.

Ellison also emphasized the value of a liberal arts education.

“We value the fact that someone can come into the College wanting to study economics and leave the University with a degree in art history because they’ve been exposed to a new area of study that they love,” he said. He added that although he thinks national conversations about success often center on high-paying jobs on Wall Street, these are not the only satisfying careers.

“Very few people do the same job forever,” he said.

“We want students to value their college experience and do things they’re passionate about and want to do. We as an institution will give you options like pre-professional programs, but we’re going to make you read some good books along the way too.”

Strike vote passes by overwhelming majority NURSE continued from front

or vice versa. Under the previous contract, nurses could be rotated twice in a six-week period. Brigitt Manson, a UCMC pediatric nurse and NNU member, said that eliminating rotation altogether is a major NNU goal in the ongoing negotiations, as well as a motivation for the strike vote.

“Our goal is no rotation, because rotating causes sleep deprivation and is fundamentally unsafe. I enjoy my work, I enjoy my job, and I want everything to be safe. By [us] voting to strike, [the UCMC]

will understand that the nurses are working under stress, and that nurse satisfaction equals patient satisfaction,” Manson said.

Manson added that the NNU seeks to establish a limit on nurseto-patient ratios in any new contract; the previous contract did not cover the subject. She also said that the turnout of the strike vote was indicative of the nurses’ unity in cause.

“Today, we had nurses who were off duty come in from Indiana, Palatine [Illinois], and even one nurse who was on maternity leave come

in to vote. That is an expression of solidarity,” she said.

The strike vote was also met with student support. In the evening, a group of 40 student activists converged at the NNU polling van in order to express solidarity with the nurses. The students, who counted members of Students for Health Equity (SHE) and Students Organizing United with Labor (SOUL) among their ranks, emphasized the unity of the nurses’ cause with ongoing activist movements on campus.

Third-year Kayli Horne, a mem-

ber of SHE, said that the strike vote is an outcome of the larger problem of the University acting as a profit-maximizing business.

“We are here because we are outraged that the nurses have been bargaining for months, and their needs have remained unaddressed,” Horne said. “It is clear that Robert Zimmer and Dean Polonsky care about nothing except profits, whether they come from buying up land in Washington Park, not building a trauma center, raising tuition, or not paying the nurses fairly.”

Wong wrote in the statement that the University does care for its nurses, and that this sentiment is part of its objective in the ongoing negotiations.

“We value the work our nurses do every day to care for patients and their families, and UCMC remains committed to a constructive dialogue and good faith negotiations to reach a contract that is in the best interest of our patients and nurses,” Wong wrote.

Negotiations between the UCMC and the NNU are set to resume Friday.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | January 30, 2015

3

According to The Bulletin, the SOUL meeting aims to start dialogue between students and workers people becoming academclock striking midnight signals the RIGHTS continued from front Charmaine Lane, a desk the University.

“We get something called ics, especially people from before leaving to participate clerk in Maclean Hall, spoke in the strike vote that night. about her experiences on Graduate Aid Initiative limited means, and so if the advent of a global catastrophe CLOCK continued from front

deemed insufficient efforts to curb greenhouse gas emission, slowed attempts to limit nuclear weapons among world powers, lack of cyber-security among major companies and governments, and ineffective management of nuclear power and waste systems. The clock was last set to 11:57 p.m. in 1984, at the height of the Cold War. Though the times have changed, technological advances remain at the root of the problem.

“We’re no longer on hair trigger alert to shoot back to the Russians,” said Robert Rosner, a University of Chicago professor of astronomy and astrophysics and member of the board. “But we know that the things we were doing in the Cold War have led us to our climate problems

today. Meanwhile the nuclear issues...have morphed into the spread of nuclear technology unchecked.”

Rosner, noting the board’s concern that the world’s politicians are not focused on these pressing problems, observed that in the United States, “we have a pretty good history of reacting quickly when the public at large realizes we have a problem, but not much happens until something dire occurs.”

Kennette Benedict, executive director of the Bulletin, remains hopeful about the effects that the moving of the hands can have in alerting the world to these issues. “What we do with the clock hand is to push people along to tell leaders we’ve had enough.

And I think people are starting to wake up,” she said.

“Recyle your Maroon!”

She emphasized her belief that the UCMC is more concerned with profits than with medical care.

“The Medical Center consistently makes decisions to protect its hefty bottom line,” she said.

“There are not enough nurses to take care of the amount of patients that are on the unit, or [nurses are] sent to a unit where [they] don’t feel [they] have the knowledge base to take care of that type of person.” She also expressed her belief that a strike would be the only way to force the University to address the nurses’ concerns.

Jan Rodolfo, the Midwest Director of NNU, said the UCMC’s revenues are not adequately distributed.

“They made $1.267 billion in patient care revenue for fiscal year 2012...[the money] is not going to labor costs or to actually staffing the way things need to ...where it’s going is actually towards the building of new buildings on campus.” Rodolfo also said that the University uses the consistent revenue of the UCMC to build its bond rating and allow it to get loans for building projects.

campus. “I’ve been here for 23 [years], and I don’t make over $15 an hour,” she said. “We just had a wage reopener; we won our wage reopener, and I still don’t make $15,” she said, eliciting cries of “that ain’t right” from several members of the audience.

Fabian Arzuaga, a seventh-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science, spoke about the issues facing graduate student instructors at

(GAI), which is a pretty good support for about five years...and then you’re on your own,” he said. He added that the five-year limit slows down their academic progress, as they must spend additional time working to support themselves, he said.

He also described how the financial circumstances facing graduate students at the University limit the pool of potential academics. “This total lack of support...discriminates actively against

pay was actually liveable, I think it would open up the pool for more diverse sorts of candidates to enter academia.”

The goal of the meeting, according to organizer and second-year student Psalm Brown, was “to start and continue dialogue between students and workers. Eventually we hope to mobilize students or at least educate them on the things that are going on on campus,” he added.

Take an Hour to Change your Life peacecorps.gov/openings Apply today.

1.855.855.1961 | chicago@peacecorps.gov

Become a RESIDENT HEAD Final RH Information Session Monday, February 2, 2015 4:00pm Edelstone Hall Atrium, 6030 S. Ellis Ave. For more information about applying visit College Housing at housing.uchicago.edu Attendance at an information session is required for all Resident Head applicants Applications Due Friday, February 6, 2015

VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed JANUARY 30, 2015

U(Shall Not)Pass Student life would be enriched by the unlimited transit pass. But unless the University steps up to subsidize it, the costs will outweigh the benefits The Maroon reported last Friday that College Council will hold a referendum on whether or not to bring U-Pass to the College. U-Pass is a service that would provide students unlimited use of all CTA buses and trains, at a cost of $250 a year per student. The referendum would provide Student Government with a general survey of student opinions on the service and help determine whether or not the College should enroll. Given the financial burden U-Pass would place on students, the Maroon Editorial Board believes that the University should subsidize the program. If the University refuses to do so, we feel compelled to oppose U-Pass.

The central problem with UPass remains the same as it has for years—it would be an extremely useful resource for students, but its cost makes it economically infeasible for much of the student body. U-Pass, unsubsidized, would increase the student life fee from $371 per quarter to roughly $456, a burden which

is excessive for many families and students already struggling to cover astronomical tuition fees. To make U-Pass cost efficient, students would need to take roughly four CTA rides per week, which, given academic responsibilities and the relative inaccessibility of public transit in Hyde Park, seems unrealistic.

U-Pass would be a great resource for students, but unless the University is willing to subsidize some of the costs it seems unreasonable to get students who rarely use the CTA to essentially subsidize the rides of those who use it regularly. For this reason, students should vote against unsubsidized U-Pass. While forcing students to pay for U-Pass could provide an incentive for them to explore the city more often, the fact remains that it is simply unfair to expect students who are already paying sizeable student life fees to pay even more for a service they might not use.

It’s hard to deny that the benefits of U-Pass to the student body

are overwhelming. For students with jobs downtown, U-Pass would make traveling less expensive and more convenient. For many more students, U-Pass would mean that transportation would pose less of a barrier to getting academic-year internships. Perhaps most importantly, U-Pass would encourage students to venture outside of Hyde Park and engage more closely with the city of Chicago—which would mark an important shift in campus culture.

Having to pay for each CTA ride can act as a psychological barrier because it sets off a decision-making process that often results in the choice to stay in Hyde Park in order to save money. The repeated decision by students to not use the CTA further cements the UChicago community as separate from the surrounding community and Chicago as a whole. The prospect of unlimited rides would curb the initial deterrent in using the CTA and encourage students to explore Chicago outside of Hyde Park.

The University should either fully

ALICE XIAO

|

THE CHICAGO MAROON

cover or partially subsidize the costs of U-Pass for enrolled students because access to the city of Chicago should be an essential aspect of students’ experience here. At a school with our stature and endowment, UPass should not be presented as yet another economic burden for which

students need to weigh the costs and benefits. The University professes a commitment to ensuring that students fully experience the city of Chicago and all it has to offer. It’s time they honored it.

might actually be experiencing quite the opposite. Type Two fun might be exhausting, unpleasant, uncomfortable, or scary in the moment. Maybe it’s waiting for the 55 at 2:00 a.m. in the middle of January for what seems like hours; maybe it’s eating, sleeping, and studying in the Reg during finals week. Maybe it’s 20 hours at the Maroon office in the basement of Ida every week. Maybe it’s that mortifyingly awkward date you went on with that guy in your stats class because you couldn’t think of a nice way to turn him down. Maybe it’s the Reg printers malfunctioning right when you have a paper due in three minutes.

Ask any University of Chicago student about their week and you’ll have no shortage of examples of Type Two fun.

But looking back on a Type Two fun experience, you forget about how unpleasant the experience felt while you were having it and associate primarily positive feelings with the event. When you look back, you have fond memories of enjoyment or at least have fun telling the story of your truly awful experience.

In the end, it’s Type Two fun we remember and grow from. Looking back on my past experiences here, the ones that stand out include going on a first date to the Cook County Criminal Court and making the trek from my Stony Island dorm to Logan for Sunday

morning trio rehearsal in the coldest days of winter. These experiences taught me valuable things about my own limits and how I handle situations under pressure. They instilled in me an ability to laugh at my most ridiculous failures.

And no matter how miserable I felt in the moment, I miss those days and the “fun” I had.

There’s also a third type of fun— Type Three fun. Deceptively named, Type Three fun isn’t fun at all. Not in the moment, not after, not ever. We have our fair share of this type of fun, too. Getting a bad grade on a final, getting rejected from that internship you really wanted, or even a more serious problem like a conflict with a peer. No amount of reframing will make these experiences fun in recollection, and that’s okay. Not every moment in life will be a positive one. But mottos like “where fun comes to die” assume that fun’s only iteration is through instantaneous, palpable pleasure.

We do have fun here. Scrap that- I’ve had fun here. All three types of fun, in fact.

And, yes, even in January.

—The Maroon Editorial Board

Where fun comes to thrive The fundamentals of fun

Kiran Misra Show and Tell It’s 4:00 a.m. and I am trudging through harsh winter winds so as to catch the Central shuttle. My frozen thumbs are clamoring at my phone in a comical effort to set a 9:00am wake-up alarm for tomorrow morning. Wait— make that this morning. Sound famil-

iar?

Like countless other University of Chicago students who too and all too often find themselves marching out of the swallows of the reg and into The Chicago Winter, I often rely on the what-if-I-transfer-fantasy to pull me

The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 Emma Broder, Editor-in-Chief Joy Crane, Editor-in-Chief Jonah Rabb, Managing Editor The Maroon Editorial Board consists of Harini Jaganathan, Ankit Jain, Nina Katemauswa, Liam Leddy, Mara McCollom, Kiran Misra, Jake Walerius, and Sarah Zimmerman.

Sindhu Gnanasambandan, Grey City Editor Kristin Lin, Grey City Editor Sarah Manhardt, News Editor Christine Schmidt, News Editor Kiran Misra, Viewpoints Editor James Mackenzie, Arts Editor Tatiana Fields, Sports Editor Marina Fang, Senior News Editor Liam Leddy, Senior Viewpoints Editor Sarah Langs, Senior Sports Editor Jake Walerius, Senior Sports Editor Natalie Friedberg, Deputy News Editor Alec Goodwin, Deputy News Editor Marta Bakula, Associate News Editor Raymond Fang, Associate News Editor Nina Katemauswa, Associate Viewpoints Editor Sarah Zimmerman, Associate Viewpoints Editor Andrew McVea, Associate Arts Editor Evangeline Reid, Associate Arts Editor Ellen Rodnianski, Associate Arts Editor Helen Petersen, Associate Sports Editor Zachary Themer, Associate Sports Editor Peter Tang, Photo Editor Frank Yan, Senior Photo Editor Frank Wang, Associate Photo Editor Annie Cantara, Head Designer Sophie Downes, Head Copy Editor Alan Hassler, Head Copy Editor Sherry He, Head Copy Editor Hannah Rausch, Head Copy Editor Emily Harwell, Social Media Editor Amber Love, Video Editor

Megan Daknis, Copy Editor Jacqueline Feng, Copy Editor Kyra Martin, Copy Editor Katarina Mentzelopoulos, Copy Editor Rebecca Naimon, Copy Editor Morganne Ramsey, Copy Editor Erica Sun, Copy Editor Amy Wang, Copy Editor Katie Bart, Designer Emily Harwell, Designer Stephanie Liu, Designer Wei Yi Ow, Designer Morganne Ramsey, Designer Elle Rathbun, Designer Kaitlyn Shen, Designer Julia Xu, Designer Jen Xue, Designer Andrew Koski, Illustrator Alice Xiao, Illustrator Lenise Lee, Business Manager Nathan Peereboom, Chief Financial Officer Kay Li, Director of Data Analysis Harry Backlund, Distributor

Editor-in-Chief E-mail: editor@ChicagoMaroon.com Newsroom Phone: 773.702.1403 Business Phone: 773.702.9555 Fax: 773.702.3032 Public Editor: PublicEditor@ChicagoMaroon.com For advertising inquiries, please contact Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com The Chicago Maroon is published twice weekly during autumn, winter, and spring quarters.

through.

And yet, once on the shuttle, warm and bed-bound, I snap my head back: there, behind me now, is the Reg shrinking in the distance, with memories of the last year and a half back-paving the journey. And, strange as it may be, all I can remember is…having fun.

Do I have Stockholm syndrome?

Am I just repressing painful memories?

Well, not exactly. In my experience, the popular conception of what constitutes fun is oversimplified; it seems that we, as a student body, may not be as miserable as we think.

While by no means a science, the outdoor adventuring community employs a more textured take on the word “fun” that I think best befits Chicago’s Tundra climate. For these mountaneering types and cross-country trekkers, there’s not just one fun—there’s three.

Type One fun is what is called pure fun. Enjoyable in the moment, it’s the type of fun we readily recognize and seek to experience. Whether it’s going to the beach or cheering on your team at a football game, these are admittedly not the types of fun we experience here at the University of Chicago as often as we’d like, if at all.

Type Two fun is called post-fun.

When we’re having an experience, we might not actually be having fun. We

Kiran Misra is a second-year in the College majoring in public policy and international studies.

SUBMISSIONS The Chicago Maroon welcomes opinions and responses from its readers. Send op-ed submissions and letters to: The Chicago Maroon attn: Viewpoints 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 E-mail: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com

Circulation: 6,800. © 2014 The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637

The editors reserve the right to edit materials for clarity and space. Letters to the editor should be limited to 400 words. Op-ed submissions, 800 words

5

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ADVERTISEMENTS | January 30, 2015

2O14/2O15 CONCERT SERIES

ALBA Consort FRIDAY / JANUARY 30 / 7:30 PM LOGAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS / PERFORMANCE HALL 915 East 60th Street

Earthly Love, Divine Love Medieval and baroque, secular and non-secular love songs from Europe and the Mediterranean, in a time when Christian, Jewish, and Muslim cultures flourished together Tickets: $35 / $5 students “They performed a program that was built of‌ deftly interwoven LQVWUXPHQWDO OLQHV DQG IXOO RI GLVWLQFW FXOWXUDO LQpXHQFHV{ GUHZ WKH audience into what proved to be a fascinating performance.â€? —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Plus! ALBA Consort: A Musical Workshop Featuring Mediterranean Modes and Rhythms Saturday / January 31 / 2:00 – 4:00 PM Oriental Institute, Breasted Hall )HDWXULQJ $QWRQÂľQ 'YRUŠªN V HQJDJLQJ 6\PSKRQ\ 1R LQ * 0DMRU DQG 0DQXHO GH )DOOD V The Three Cornered Hat EDOOHW 862 0XVLF 'LUHFWRU %DUEDUD 6FKXEHUW FRQGXFWV

For tickets call 773.702.ARTS or visit chicagopresents.uchicago.edu

$5

STUDEN

T TICK

music.uchicago.edu | Event Hotline: 773.702.8069 Admission FREE! Donations requested: $10 General, $5 Students

A limited number of FREE tickets are available through the Sponsor-A-Student Program, made possible by University of Chicago Arts Pass. For more information, visit chicagopresents.uchicago.edu/tickets/student-tickets

ETS

ARTS

What is art?

JANUARY 30, 2015

The Decemberists: more of the same but not such a Terrible World Walker King Arts Contributor Theater kids of the world, rejoice! Rejoice, you waifs and naïfs too delicate to be goths and too earnest to be hipsters! Wipe the tears from your Moleskine and shine your vintage oxfords. Rejoice, one and all, for there is a new Decemberists album out.

After six LPs that saw the group move from Neutral Milk Hotel comparisons to Bruce Springsteen ones, it returns with its seventh. What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World is a sometimes beautiful, sometimes frustrating album that works as a career mixtape, jumping around familiar territory and only occasionally pushing forward. The Decemberists have released progmetal epics and barnyard jams, so whether your favorite album by the ’Rists is 2003’s Her Majesty, or 2009’s Hazards of Love, you’re in luck, because there’s something here for you.

Self-conscious as ever, the band sets a retrospective tone right from the start. On “The Singer Addresses His Audience,” perpetually mutton-chopped front man Colin Meloy pledges his allegiance to a fan base that has supported the band through style

shifts and sellouts, claiming “We had to change some, to belong to you” and “we did it all for you.”

Oh, and here’s a conspiracy theory for you: I’m pretty sure that the first chord of this song is the same chord that opened Castaways and Cutouts 12 years ago. Moderately curious, right?

Anyways, the album plunges straight from the fuzzy freak-out that closes “Singer” into the brassy “Cavalry Captain.” Lyrically and musically the song resembles 2005’s “The Engine Driver,” with the tempo bumped up and the jams kicked way out, and “Cavalry Captain” suffers by comparison. The next track “Philomena,” is a jaunty little ditty about performing oral sex. It’s fun enough, but it’s not “Billy Liar,” a jaunty little ditty about masturbating on a pier from 2003. Nor is “The Wrong Year” as heart-rending as ol’ “The Bachelor and the Bride,” nor is “Easy Come, Easy Go,” as brilliantly morbid as “Culling of the Fold.”

OK, OK, this is an enormously unfair little game I’m playing. It’s not like I wanted a Decemberists drill album, and “Culling of the Fold” wasn’t even an official album release, for Christ's sake!

But these Decemberists songs can’t help but sound like their old

ones, just with denser studi o production and more backing vocals.

The tracks range from decent to excellent (I actually really like “The Wrong Year”) but more often than not the band can’t slip the burden of history the same way it always used to.

When the band really tries something new, it produces songs that justify the whole endeavor.

“Lake Song,” is a smoldering sunset jam that keeps twisty Meloyisms like, “Say that you will or will you won’t or you whatever you prevaricate your whole life, don’t you?” gliding over a lush instrumental substrate. Every layer is off-beat, gorgeous and assembled in a way that almost sounds jazzy. “Lake Song” stands as easily the album’s best moment.

It closes strong too! “A Beginning Song,” which opens with the rollicking acoustic guitar sound of 2011’s The King is Dead, then layers on strings, slide guitar, drum kit, backing vocals, piano, more drum, feedback screech, and winds until the song turns into one of the most anthemic songs in the Decemberists catalog. “And the light, bright light, it’s all around me,” sings Meloy as an ocean of noise swirls and crashes.

Look, this isn’t the best Decem-

Arts, Briefly.

Bollywood musicals are known to employ dubbing—lip-syncing to prerecorded music—for most of their soundtracks. This Saturday, you can see the opposite of that: south asian performers singing without any music to back them up. In other words, a cappella. International House and the South Asian Students Association will be hosting two guest college a capella groups: UIUC’s Chai Town A Cappella and Loyola’s Raag. Both groups have massive credentials; Raag was recently invited to participate in Gathe Rao, a national South Asian fusion a cappella concert, and Chai Town has been touring nationally almost since its founding in 2001. So while you may have a little a cappella fatigue from the many groups that routinely populate modern college campuses, these groups should offer a refreshing change of pace.

Saturday, January 31, International House Assembly Hall, 7:30 p.m., $3 with

COURTESY OF CAPITOL RECORDS

berists album (that would be Picaresque) or the best place to start in their catalog (uh…Picaresque, again), but it doesn’t really need to be. After 14 years, people have probably made up their mind about the Decemberists, and it looks like the band is doing a lit-

tle coasting. Still, it’s obvious that the ’Rists can put together songs transcendent enough to rival anything in its extensive oeuvre. For a group that pulled down their first Pitchfork Best New Music the week after the invasion of Iraq, that’s pretty good.

Keepin' it 100 on The Nightly Show

theSketch The University Committee on Creative Writing is bringing in novelist and essayist Eleanor Henderson for a talk this upcoming week. Henderson will be reading and discussing her book Ten Thousand Saints, which was one of the books named in the top 10 books of 2011 by The New York Times and was recently made into a movie that debuted at Sundance this year.

The book, which is set in 1987 New York, follows the coming-of-age of a young man after his friend dies of a drug overdose.

Though Henderson has not written any novels since Ten Thousand Saints, she has recently published a collection of short stories from various women writers called Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today’s Best Women Writers.

Tuesday, February 4, Logan Center for the Arts, Seminar Terrace 801, 6 p.m., free

The Decemberists, an American indie-folk rock band, dropped their seventh studio album last Tuesday to positive reviews.

UCID, $5 Non-UChicago University ID, $7 without ID and at the door As part of an ongoing festival presented by the Spanish Film Club celebrating the new wave of Ibero-American Cinema, there will be a screening of 7 Cajas next Thursday along with a question and answer session with the directors. The story follows a wheelbarrow delivery boy who takes what seems like a simple transport job for $100 on a Friday night but soon finds himself being pursued in the night.

Something inside the seven boxes he’s delivering seems to be highly desired, and the 17-year-old finds himself involved in a crime he knows nothing about. The postfilm discussion will be lead by professor Carolina Sternberg of the Latin American and Latino studies department at DePaul University.

Thursday, February 5, Film Studies Center (Cobb 307), 5 p.m., free The documentary film buffs and aficionados out there will want to know this.

The director Peter Davis will be present at the screening of his 1974 Academy Award –winning documentary film Hearts and Minds. Hosted by the Karla Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture, the event will take place Monday at 6 p.m. in Cochrane-Woods Art Center.

The documentary explores the effects of the Vietnam War on Vietnamese people and features interviews with J. Edgar Hoover and General Westmoreland. While the screening and discussion with the director are presented by the course The Vietnam War in American Culture, the event is free and open to the public.

Monday, February 2, Cochrane-Woods Art Center 157, 6 p.m., free

James MacKenzie Arts Editor It’s something of a cliché to bring up Larry Wilmore’s recently departed predecessor in Comedy Central’s 11:30 time slot and how hard it will be for Wilmore to fill his shoes. It is, by any measure, grossly unfair to compare Wilmore to Stephen Colbert. The Colbert Report was so innovative and culturally significant that it seems almost obligatory to lead any article about Wilmore’s new show with a discussion about just how hard it will be to fill those shoes. Though this article may be hypocritical in that it does just that, the first two weeks of The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore are evidence of a show that will do just fine on its own, thank you very much.

Wilmore is the third Daily Show alum, after Colbert and John Oliver, to head up his own comedic news-based talk show. Like those comics before him, Wilmore faced the challenge of differentiating his program from Jon Stewart’s foundational show. Early on in the pre-show development process, it looked like this show’s calling card would be its “black” perspective on current events. Wilmore had often worked as The Daily Show’s “senior black correspondent,” and he was the executive producer of ABC’s Blackish — a sitcom which dealt very explicitly with issues of race. The Nightly Show was even originally titled The Minority Report, a name suggested by Stewart, but that was nixed after Fox threatened a lawsuit over its upcoming TV revival of Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film Minority Report.

So far, it would be difficult to describe the show’s point of view as explicitly “black” (whatever that means) but the tone is very much of the “give no f*@#s” attitude that Wilmore probably had in mind at the outset.

The second episode opens with coverage of the Bill Cosby rape allegations and Wilmore’s pronouncement that “that motherf*@#er did

it!” It’s all in the course of his goal to “keep it 100” (i.e. 100 percent of one’s unfiltered opinion), which manifests itself most acutely in The Nightly Show’s most distinguishing feature, the guest panel.

Though the panel idea is essentially borrowed from HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Wilmore wisely chooses to focus discussions on specific topics, such as Bill Cosby or the controversy surrounding American Sniper.

Where Maher thrives on chaotic discussion and talking down to his guests, Wilmore is surprisingly adept at managing a coherent and productive discussion among parties who come from wildly different backgrounds. He encourages all his guests to “keep it 100” like him, even if that means openly theorizing about the government using vaccines to kill black people, or alleging deceit on the part of one specific Cosby accuser. Everything is fair game, and while these panels have remained mostly civil thus far, the viewer gets the distinct impression that at some point a discussion is going to go to a decidedly unfunny place.

Wilmore himself is fairly cautious in this respect. Like Stewart, he is not averse to making big and bold-sounding statements, but he has yet to bring up anything that is actually going to upset the majority of his Northeast/ West Coast liberal audience. But perhaps that will come with time. This show has to actually build an audience before it can challenge and offend it. This is uncharted territory for Comedy Central; they haven’t changed the 11–12 time slot in almost a decade.

No one knows just how sustainable the satirical news model is, and the market is starting to become fairly saturated. But Larry Wilmore shouldn’t worry about any of that just yet. He’s put together a fine show and, to keep it 100 for a second, being culturally relevant matters a lot more than hard ratings in this day and age.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | January 30, 2015

In the Chatter’s Box with Sarah Langs

Rolland Lee is a second-year swimmer from San Ramon, CA. We chatted with him to get some insider info on the life of a Maroon athlete.

Squad’s sights set on Pete Wilson Invite Wrestling Eirene Kim Sports Staff

CM: When did you know you were going to swim in college?

RL: It’s something that came naturally. I just have such a passion for the sport that I really couldn’t imagine coming into a new environment and not having that with me.

Chicago Maroon: When did you start swimming?

Rolland Lee: I started swimming when I was six.

CM: And when did you start swimming competitively?

RL: Actually, from the very beginning. I’ve always been a part of competitive swimming.

CM: What were races like when you were six?

RL: The shortest ones possible.

CM: Do six year-olds compete in all of the strokes?

RL: I think I learned all four strokes when I was six, but over the years it has pretty much thinned down to one stroke.

CM: Which is that?

RL: I swim breaststroke.

CM: What do you like about swimming? You started it so young that you may not have chosen it, but why did you stick with it?

RL: It’s just taught me so many different things. I think over the years I’ve just learned…I’ve had different goals and I’ve had new things to swim for, and a lot of great people. For example, here, which is what makes it so easy for me to be a part of the team.

CM: Do you follow any professional swimmers?

RL: Yeah, from time to time.

My friends give me a pretty hard time because I’m on swimming websites so much.

CM: What site?

RL: There’s a blog-like website called SwimSwam.com. It’s something I do when I don’t really have anything to do.

CM: Do you read that more because you aspire to it, or admire the swimmers, or what?

RL: It’s just something inter-

esting to read. I know everybody has hobbies, and I think mine is just reading about things that I would probably understand the most.

CM: What’s it like being a part of the team here, specifically? What do you think that’s brought to your college experience?

RL: Pretty sure that it’s absolutely been the people that have been the best. The coaches and I have good relationships. Everybody’s been so helpful to make this transition to college a smooth one. I’ve made friendships that’ll probably last a lifetime. Just helping each other out. I think I for sure would not be swimming if it were not for the people.

CM: So you guys have UAAs in a couple of weeks. What are your goals for the rest of the season?

RL: Just collectively as a team, I think our goals are just to win UAAs, do the best that we can, and qualify as many people for nationals as possible. You know, people think it is an individual sport, but I think— especially here—I’ve realized that this is a lot more fun when people want to do well collectively as a group.

7

The Maroons look to take momentum from their six-match win streak into this weekend at the Wheaton College Invite.

Chicago comes off a strong win against Elmhurst College at home last weekend to tally its sixth straight match win. The match came down to a nailbiting finish, and now the Maroons feel strong going into this weekend. Despite many injuries throughout the season, Chicago has remained strong and supportive as a team.

“We just came off a great win against Elmhurst, so we’re feeling good about that,” said fourth-year team captain Adam Wyeth.

“The team is pretty confident right now, especially coming off of a huge win against Elmhurst last weekend. We have dealt with many injuries this season but everyone keeps stepping up to help the team succeed,” fourth-year Will Long said .

Chicago prepares for a weekend of big competi-

tion. The Wheaton College Invite has a history of bringing in a lot of good competition. The Maroons expect to see nationally ranked teams at the Invite, including No. 2 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and No. 3 Wabash.

“Wheaton brings in many of the top teams from around the country,” Long said.

“Wheaton’s one of the best DIII tournaments of the year, so everyone there is going to be pretty good…

I can’t comment on this year in particular, but some DII teams also do come,” Wyeth said.

The brackets will not come out until Friday morning after the weighin. Despite not knowing whom they will be playing, the Maroons have been practicing just as they always have.

“We have been practicing with high intensity this week…we just take it one match at a time,” Wyeth said.

A strong performance can help the Maroons as their postseason lurks around the corner. The Wheaton

College Invite will be the last away meet Chicago has until its postseason. After one last match against Augustana at home, Chicago has the UAA Championships and then the NCAA tournament ahead of them.

A huge performance at the Wheaton Invite will help boost the Maroons to a solid mentality going into their postseason.

“We’re just looking to bring everything we have got into Wheaton, while we also keep improving with the end of the season in mind,” Wyeth said.

“This tournament is always a good measuring stick for how well our guys are prepared for UAAs and regionals at the end of the year. A strong performance this weekend will show us how far we have come as a team this season and will help us determine what we need to work on in order to finish the year off strong,” Long said.

First matches start at 11 a.m. on Friday at Wheaton College, followed by semifinals on Saturday and the championship finals on Sunday.

Undefeated women take on UW–Whitewater Track & Field Russell Mendelson Senior Sports Staff This weekend, the Maroons head north to compete among a field of eight schools in the Whitewater Warhawk Invite, hosted by UW–Whitewater.

The Chicago men will compete this evening in the Leonard “Squig” Converse Invitational while the women begin tomorrow morning in the Warhawk Classic Invitational. In last weekend’s meet, the women took first overall at the Illinois Wesleyan University Triangular, while the men placed second.

Both sides of the South Siders’ field made a strong impression, including third-year Ben Clark, who took the top spot in the 200-meter and came in second in the 60-meter.

“It’s just nice to be healthy,” said Clark, who doubles as a running back during the football season.

“Nate Downey and Obi Wamuo are two of the fastest freshmen that we’ve ever had at 400 meters. Having them here has re-energized my career in a lot of ways and brought me back to my ‘long sprint’ roots.”

For the women sprinters, third-year Rebecca AskinsGast led the charge with a first-place finish in the 800-meter.

“I didn’t do anything in particular,” said AskinsGast. “I had my usual pre-meet dinner of two half-dark specials with hot sauce from Harold’s.”

Chicago throwing was in dominant form as thirdyear Nkemdilim Nwaokolo swept both the shot put and weight throw. Her weight throw went further than any of the mens’. Second-year Andrew Maneval also had a commendable showing, taking first in the shot put and second in the weight throw.

“It was the first and only

chance to compete against our conference rival, Wash U, before the Conference Championships in February,” Maneval said. “I was excited to get the first look at some of my competition from another UAA school.”

“I think the big obstacle is the sheer number of good teams at this meet,” he said.

Clark sees this weekend’s elevated level of competition as imperative to the team’s success in the coming month.

“Our focus is on getting better for Chicagolands and UAAs,” said Clark. “If running against good competition allows us to work a little harder and run a little faster, then so be it.”

The Maroon men will begin their test in Whitewater at 5 p.m. this evening, while the women will take an early bus up tomorrow, set to start their day at 11 a.m.

A Cappella en Español 5

$

STUDENT TICKETS UCHICAGO ARTS PASS

SPORTS

IN QUOTES “I think he’s going to be a disciplined young man and stay in there.”

– Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman discussing the possibility of his wife giving birth during the Seahawks’ Super Bowl game Sunday.

Chicago looks to down weekend foe, Coe Men’s Tennis

Maroons upbeat for Case, Carnegie Men’s Basketball Zachary Themer Associate Sports Editor

First-year Peter Leung prepares to return a ball from the opposing player during a meet this past season.

COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS

Helen Petersen Associate Sports Editor After falling to DI DePaul last weekend, the Maroons (0–1) will be looking to show the DIII realm what they have to offer this year in their first divisional match against Coe this Saturday.

The match is the first of the winter season for the Kohawks, who come into the season ranked No. 35 in a preseason poll. With a game under their belt and the cobwebs brushed away, the Maroons will look to capitalize on their slight edge.

“Yes, going up against a good team like DePaul last week definitely represents an advantage for us, as the

first match of the year usually brings out some things to work on and that match was no different,” fourth-year Deepak Sabada said. “We worked on those things during practice this past week and feel good about the upcoming weekend.”

Coe picked an ambitious first-game challenger in Chicago, which comes into the season ranked No. 17. On top of this, the Maroons boast the No. 1–and No. 27–seeded singles players in the country and the No. 4 doubles team.

Sabada, who partners with first-year David Liu to create the No. 4 doubles team in the country, knows these rankings have little impact on

who will come away victorious this weekend.

“David [Liu] and I had great results as a team together in the fall and we are looking forward to continuing that success throughout the winter and the spring,” Sabada said. “We don’t really pay a whole lot of attention to the ranking of the doubles team we are playing as we know that any team that plays the number one spot in doubles for their school is going to be a tough match for us.”

First-year Nicolas Chua, who currently is at the top of the charts in singles play, echoed the need for continuous improvement and maintaining a humble approach to the game, a task that would

be beyond many rookies entering their first season ranked number one in the country.

“For me, preseason couldn’t have gone much better. As a freshman, people didn’t know what to expect when they played me,” Chua said. “Now that most teams know me, it’ll be even tougher to pull out the victories and I know I’ll have to train even harder to maintain my spot.

I like knowing that there’s a target, though, because it serves as good motivation.

I’m not looking to give up the crown any time soon.”

The South Siders travel to Cedar Rapids, IA to compete Saturday. The match begins at 11 a.m.

After ringing off four consecutive wins to start the new year, the Maroons (11–5, 3–2 UAA) hit a bump in the road this past weekend as they dropped matchups on the road against conference rival Brandeis (7–8, 2–2) by a score of 59–58 and No. 23 New York University (12–4, 3–2) by a score 85–68.

However, the Maroons return to Chicago this weekend and the comforts of Gerald Ratner Gymnasium as they take on UAA rivals Case Western Reserve (13–3, 4–1) and Carnegie Mellon (10–6, 1–4).

Chicago will have no time to ease back into rhythm, however, as they will be hitting the floor tonight against Case Western.

The Spartans, much like the Maroons, dropped out of the top 25 rankings last week following a loss to Emory. It was their first loss in UAA play. Unlike Chicago, though, the Spartans were able to bounce back in their second game of the weekend as they dismantled Rochester. The second victory kept the squad at the top of the UAA standings.

“This weekend it’s important to get us back on track and we have a chance to do so against the number one team in our league in Case. They’re at the top and that’s where we want to be, so we are going to want to make a statement with a solid performance and a win,” said third-year guard Scott Herlihy.

After a hard weekend on the road, hosting two games at home could be just the edge the Maroons need to get back on track. The squad has yet to lose a UAA game on its home court

this season.

“As far as playing at home, I know I personally really enjoy our away trips, and you never want to blame your travel schedule for your performance, because at the end of the day you need to be able to play well no matter what,” Herlihy said. “But there is definitely something to be said about the convenience of being at home. Hopefully we can exploit that this weekend.”

The Maroons, who have slipped in and out of the top 25 all season long, will need this win if they have hopes of landing back there next week.

“We’ve been in the top 25 a couple of times now, but each time we haven’t been able to follow up those rankings with wins, which is something we need to get better at as we move forward,” Herlihy said.

Chicago will follow up this match with another two days later against Carnegie Mellon.

The Tartans won their first nine games of the season, only to suffer six losses in their past seven games. However, many of these games, including those against top-ranked teams, were decided by fewer than 10 points.

The Maroons have faced off against and beaten some of the best teams in the country in No. 7 Wash U and No. 12 Emory; after a disappointing weekend on the road, they will be looking to regain that confidence and momentum as they head into the second half of conference play next weekend.

Chicago tips off against Case Western at 8 p.m. tonight. Then the Maroons will face Carnegie Mellon at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Both events will take place at Ratner Athletic Center.

South Siders carry winning streak into UAA matchups Women’s Basketball Ahmad Allaw Sports Staff Riding a recent wave of success, the Maroons (10– 6, 4–1 UAA) will look to further those winning ways this weekend.

“Our goal this weekend is the same as it has been all season,” said first-year guard Elizabeth Nye. “We want to win one game at a time. That’s what we’ve been doing and they’ve really started to add up.”

Their first adversary will be Case Western Reserve (7–9, 1–4). The Spartans, in contrast to Chicago, have experienced recent struggles.

In their past nine games,

they have lost all but two matchups. However, their below .500 record is deceptive as each of their last four losses has come by less than four points. Against Rochester, they lost 55–54.

Against Emory, the final score was 65–62. Against then-undefeated NYU, they fell 60–59. Finally, against Carnegie Mellon, they were defeated 59–58.

When matching up with Chicago, then, they will try to solve their late-game struggles and pull out a vict ory. Teams are always looking for luck to swing their way.

But the Spartans won’t have the luxury of playing an easy opponent. The

Maroons have looked like serious conference contenders. After a slow start to the year, the South Siders have won 9 of their last 11 games.

“Our defense has been the difference maker in the past four games,” said second-year forward Britta Nordstrom. “We’ve been able to force teams out of their comfort zones which definitely fires us up. Then, our defensive intensity carries over to the offensive side, so even when we miss shots, we know that our defense will back us up.”

Their most recent victory handed No. 8 NYU its first loss of the season.

Chicago has begun to rack

up the wins, and against formidable opponents no less. The Maroons seem poised to continue their success streak.

“We’ve learned the value of confidence,” Nye said.

“We went into both games last weekend confident and relaxed and were able to just play. We executed well and played hard for 40 minutes. We also learned how to battle through adversity. We can’t control the refs or the other team but when we control what we can things tend to work out for us.”

Thereafter, Chicago will face off against Carnegie Mellon (11–5, 2–3). The Tartans, too, have had re-

cent hiccups in their play.

After starting the year 8–1, they have lost four of their last seven games.

Tartans’ second-year star Murphy Garners, however, will look to right the ship.

Voted UAA Women’s Basketball Athlete of the week, she will be coming off a two game stretch where she averaged 19.5 points, 11 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks on an efficient 57.1% shooting. She hasn’t failed to reach double-figure point totals in her last eighteen games. To succeed, Chicago will have to slow down the Tartan leader.

Carnegie Mellon will have its hands full trying to stop a resurgent Chicago

offense. The South Siders’ average margin of victory over their past four games has been a whopping 17.7 points.

In their most recent game, the Maroons, for the first time since 2005, shot 60 percent from the field.

All of this has combined for in-conference success.

As of now, the Maroons are locked in a three-way tie atop the UAA. In its next two games, Chicago will try to maintain its lead.

Both of the Maroons’ next two games will be at home. They face off against Case Western at 6:00 p.m. on Friday and against Carnegie Mellon at 2:00 p.m. at Sunday.